5Thor was checking and double checking the buckles strapped across her chest; tightening the straps until she felt like she would pop from the pressure. It didn't matter that Mia was nearly invincible – just as invincible as he was, in fact. It also didn't matter how many times she reminded him of this. He just continued to fiddle with her weapons, tighten the straps fastening her to the seat on the aircraft, and pace.
To Mia's dismay, Thor wasn't the only member of the team that was nervous, though they weren't as outwardly obvious as Thor. Tony kept glancing sideways at her as if she couldn't see him, and Steve had already positioned himself in a defensive stance near her, prepared for anything. She knew Bruce was just terrified that she would be terrified at the sight of him once he…changed. If it even came to that. She still hadn't seen the other guy, as he so gingerly liked to refer to his Hulk form. She had laughed and told him she'd love him no matter what. He blushed.
Natasha and Clint sat up front, flying the aircraft expertly over the still sea below. Their drop zone was coming up quick; Mia could feel everyone's anxiety bubbling up to the surface.
Their mission was simple: glean what information they could about the new facility the Chinese had built for their human experiments and get out. The facility was nearly done and still completely unoccupied, save for a couple of guards on the night shift. It was only supposed to be her, Tony and Steve for any necessary backup. This wasn't a search and destroy mission. Fury thought he'd ease her into field work by sending her out on a mission for intel, rather than hand to hand combat.
In a short message just before takeoff, Fury had demanded no destruction of property. Mia had poorly suppressed a laugh. She had seen the news, like everyone else. Destruction of property was kinda their thing, second only to extreme structural damage.
"Sixty seconds," Natasha yelled from the cockpit.
"Can I unbuckle now?" Mia asked, smiling mischievously up at Thor who stood over her with his huge arms crossed against his chest.
"You may," he answered and Mia whipped her buckles off before he was even finished, standing triumphantly. She had been squished in that seat for nearly an hour while everyone else got to roam around the cabin.
The loading door slowly started to lower, a red flashing light and a low-pitched beeping alerted them to it. The wind kicked up, yanking at Mia's tightly fastened ponytail.
"Thirty seconds!" Natasha called over the rush of cold air. "We'll circle around and meet you on the east beach in thirty minutes! Wheels up at 0200!"
Tony walked to the edge of the plane and looked back at Mia. "Ready?" he asked, smiling excitedly. She nodded and before she could take a step toward him, Thor grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. She felt so little, so delicate underneath his hands.
"Be careful. Do not underestimate your surroundings. Remember your training," he told her, emphasizing every word to be sure she heard him. She pulled her goggles over her eyes and placed a black-gloved hand over the hand he held on her shoulder and nodded.
"I will be careful. I promise," she said and he straightened hesitantly. "Besides, I'm sure Captain America and Ironman would never let anything happen to little old Mia," she joked.
"We should get you a codename. 'Little Old Mia' doesn't really inspire the masses," Tony quipped and his helmet snapped into place. "Pony up, lady, let's go!" he called as he shot into the night sky. Steve was beside her in the next instant and she could tell by the look on his face that he wanted to check on the security of her parachute buckles. But he had seen Thor put it on her, and then tug at the straps over and over again, so he knew there was nothing to worry about. Not that he wasn't worrying because he was.
"Okay, ready?" he asked Mia and she nodded, taking a deep, steadying breath. She had never jumped out of an airplane before. At least she could take solace in the fact that the fall couldn't kill her anyway. It would just hurt. Really, really badly.
They both walked up to the edge and gripped the sides of the plane.
"Open your parachute as soon as I do!" Steve called over the howling wind. From the corner of her eye, Mia could see Thor standing stiff as a board; the only thing moving was his golden hair whipping against his face.
"Roger that!" Mia joked lightly and Steve smiled.
"One…two…three!" he counted and before Mia knew it, she was free falling through the velvety black sky. The urge to scream was just barely suppressed in her throat – if only because the force of the wind against her face was taking her breath away. For the first time since she had arrived in the company of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Mia felt fear trickle into her bloodstream. Her fingers and toes tingled and she couldn't tell if it was because she was hurtling toward the ground or because she was terrified.
Steve was just to the right of her, ripping through the air like a red, white and blue torpedo, and she, a black bullet right beside him. In the distance, she could make out the light from Tony's suit. Thanks to her enhanced eyesight, Mia was able to sift through the inky darkness of the night and find the ground. She saw the compound they were aiming for, gleaming like a beacon the size of a quarter in the light of the moon. Tony wasn't heading straight for it. Instead, he maneuvered his landing just to the left, under the cover of what looked like a small smattering of trees.
"Pull!" She heard Steve yell at her over the wind. His voice sounded so far away, though he was just feet from her. Seconds later, Mia heard him pull the ripcord and deploy his parachute. Her right hand shot for her chest, right where she knew the cord was and finally, after fumbling around for the pull for what seemed like forever, she yanked down hard. All the breath was knocked out of her as she shot back, pulled by the strength of the chute opening. In one instant, she went from hurling through the air at break-neck speeds, to gently falling, supported by what felt like the hands of a benevolent god tugging at her shoulders. When she was able, she breathed a sigh of relief and nimbly navigated her way toward the little clearing in the wood she saw Steve heading for.
Steve landed gracefully for such a large man, his boots barely making a sound as they connected with the foliage on the forest floor. Mia, on the other hand, knew she was in for a crash landing the moment the ground was within spitting distance. She pulled on one of her cords sharply and was yanked backward and to the left, barley suppressing a yelp of surprise. Steve and Tony watched with both amusement and mild panic as her heels connected with the earth and dragged back, back, back by the force of her opened parachute.
Finally, she reached up and yanked the release cord, whipping backward as the parachute detached from her pack and drifted softly away to the ground a couple feet from Mia. She grunted as she fully connected with the ground, but a quick inventory of her body revealed she was completely unhurt. The only thing that stung was her pride and her red-hot cheeks as Steve and Tony sauntered toward her. Tony was barely containing a giggle and she shot him a warning glance as if to say, "don't."
"You know, for your first time, it really wasn't so bad," Steve offered, reaching a hand down to help her up. She rolled her eyes at him and grasped his hand. In the next instant she was on her feet, pulled upward completely by a twitch of Steve's wrist.
"You do have a little forest in your hair though," Tony interjected, head cocking to the side as he counted the number of twigs and autumn leaves Mia's hair had acquired during her barrel roll across the ground.
She narrowed her eyes at him, but raised her hand to her hair to inspect. She heard the crunch of leaves and felt the dirt trickle to her shoulders at the touch and she heard Tony chuckle before turning and walking toward the cover of the trees.
Her and Steve fell into step with Tony a moment later, after Mia had vigorously shaken out her hair as best she could. The night air was still warm around them, though fall was creeping in and the smell of dead leaves clung to the forest like a perfume. In another couple of weeks, the trees wouldn't have provided much cover at all without leaves. All was quiet, save for the familiar sounds of the crickets and the soft croaking of toads nearby. In the distance, Mia heard an owl call out to the darkness, a solemn, somber note.
Though the trees, once they had sifted their way through the densest part of the forest, Mia could see the lights of the facility winking at her as if to taunt. She could see slices of the stark white walls as they drew nearer and nearer, until Steve rounded on both of them, crouching into a squat and motioning them to follow suit.
"Alright, we've got our orders. We're to just gain as much actionable intelligence as we can." He turned to Tony. "And we don't touch anything," he finished, raising his eyebrows. Tony pressed his metal hand to his breastplate in mock offense.
"I would never," he vowed. Steve rolled his eyes.
"We can be in and out in under ten minutes. Mia, take inventory of what you see and stay on my right, always. Tony, try to see what kind of tech we're up against here. We've got approximately 25 minutes to meet the team on the west side of the property for extraction," he said and tapped his earpiece, activating the line which was open to the entire team. "Coms up," he said softly and Mia heard him both in front of her and inside her head. She nodded and Tony snapped his helmet into place.
With that, they set off, closer and closer to the white walls of the facility, close enough that Mia felt exposed while still under the cover of the trees. When the breached the very edge of the forest, Steve paused, running his eyes over the long stretch of white and flicking his fingers toward it, a silent command to move forward.
Mia was like a shadow on his right, close enough to feel the warmth from his body, but separated enough to be able to move easily. Tony silently took to the sky as Steve and Mia nimbly made their way toward that impregnable wall of white. Once upon it, they both pressed their backs to the wall, waiting for the signal from Tony on the direction of their entrance.
"Loading dock just around the corner. Two guards at the entrance but dock is open. Looks like they're expecting a shipment to come though tonight," Mia heard Tony say in her earpiece.
"Roger that," Steve answered, and this time, there was no playfulness in his tone. Mia felt nervousness twist in her gut. She had only really sparred with Natasha up until this point, but the Russian was confident in her. She had told her over and over again. And Fury must be too if he had sent her out on this mission.
She didn't have time to think anymore as Steve shoved off the wall and started moving parallel to it, slightly crouched, ready to spring at any moment. She tracked him and they moved in tandem. She focused her energy on following Steve, step after step, positioning herself in the exact same way he was. Their steps were whispers against the cement, their breaths making no sound at all. They approached the corner and paused as a unit.
Three beats of silence went by.
Again, Mia heard Tony in her head.
"Go."