Chapter 107: Son of Jormungand(3/6)
Their little group walked into the central command deck of the helicarrier. From wall to wall were computer screens, and SHIELD agents doing their jobs. Though every single one of them stopped for a moment to watch them come in. Darcy shrunk under their stares, and Lash being the Asgardian Warrior stepped up to shield her from their eyes. Darcy grinned and winked at Jane who rolled her eyes. Thor stepped forward and greeted them all.
“Hello warriors of SHIELD! I am Thor Odinson, and this is Lash Jormungandson. We are here to help!” Thor said in a booming voice and award winning smile. Nearly all of the women including Agent Hill blushed just a bit. Along with a few men.
“My god! He's just a living idol of wet dreams isn't he?” A man said from across a table in the central operations deck.
Anthony aka Tony Stark 'Iron Man' sat at the table with a business casual black suit jacket on. A NIN t-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. He currently had his legs up on the table, with his hands crossed behind his head. Tony was approximately 6'1” maybe taller if he stood up straight. With short styled black hair, and a pair of blue eyes that despite the smirk on his face held a bone fire of intelligence. He had a firm athletic figure. Showing that he trained regularly, but no so much to be a body builder.
“Welcome aboard.” Director Fury said as he walked over to the table looking at them. Darcy went quiet, and Jane swallowed audibly.
Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury, Jr. Director of Shield stood approximately at 6'3” with chocolate brown skin, a firm athletic rectangular figure. With a bit of broad shoulders. His left eye was damaged and hidden behind a leather eye patch. Despite the injury he made it work for him. He wore all black shoes, pants, shirt, with a leather trench coat. He just oozed confidence, and secrecy. To his left was Agent Phil Coulson.
“Son of Cole!” Thor said with a smile and walked over to clap the man on the back and to shake his hand.
Agent Phillip J. "Phil" Coulson aka Son of Cole stood at approximately 6' even with slim but sturdy figure. He had calm blue eyes, and short brown hair that looked like it was receding gradually. He wore a tailored SHIELD suit. Black on black, with a very nice tied clip with gold calligraphy. A present perhaps from someone? Phil had a smile on his face when he met with Thor.
“Come Son of Cole meet my friend and ally! Lash Jormungandson.” Thor said, and turned to Lash who walked over with a smile. He gripped Phil's forearm in a warriors hand shake and clapped the man on the back. Phil stumbled just a bit but smiled all the same.
“Pleasure.” Phil said.
“A privilege.” Lash said, and smiled at him. Someone cleared their throat and three more people awaited introduction.
Steven "Steve" Rogers aka Captain America sat at the table wearing a blue under armor shirt from his standard uniform. Looked like he had just taken it off. He was about 6'2” with an inverted triangle figure, hard dense muscles that could even match Thor in size. He had short on the sides, and three inch long blond hair. Piercing blue eyes that told a sad story. He sat in a relaxed posture in his chair, but the way his muscles tensed at every movement told Lash he was ready to jump out of the chair any time.
Standing off to the side was Dr. Bruce Banner aka The Hulk! He was about 5'10” with short curly brown hair that was gray at the edges of his side burns. He wore gray slacks, brown shoes, and a purple buttoned up shirt? Little on the nose there. For a brief moment when Lash looked at Banner his brown eyes turned neon green. Lash felt more than heard a growl of challenge from the Hulk lurking in Banners subconscious. Banner seem to notice something amiss and took a few steps back. That was when a woman stepped in front of him staring Lash down.
Agent Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanoff aka Black Widow! She was about 5'7” with short above the shoulders red hair that curled naturally along the edges. Her blue eyes contained a hidden sorrow that Lash could practically taste! Sherogoth's Blessing showed almost hellish sin taint on her. But Lash could also see that she was trying to balance her karmic scales and was doing a good job at it. She wore a black leather SHIELD shadow ops jump suit, with electrified gloves. Her zipped was pulled down from her collar to about mid sternum showing a bit of cleavage. She was staring daggers at Lash.
“Apologies, I didn't mean to offend. I was surprised to see another Monster on the ship. I thought I would be the only one.” Lash said to Banner, and Natasha. Everyone in the room looked at Lash, then at Banner who looked just as confused as they were.
“Ah yes! Forgive me, Lash Jormungandson is the God of Monsters on Asgard. He has a natural affinity for them.” Thor said, not entirely sure what the situation was but a jovial smile on his face seem to sooth the tension in the room.
“So that means you are best palls with Godzilla then?” Tony said with a bit of snark. Lash turned to him in confusion not understanding the reference.
“Where is Loki? Perhaps we can convince him to give up the Tesseract.” Lash asked the Director who looked at him for a moment.
“Yes we must return to Asgard with the Tesseract, and Loki. As soon as possible, the nine realms are in grave peril.” Thor said to the room, his smiled slowly wilted when they all looked at him like he was crazy.
“We are not giving up the Tesseract.” Fury said to him, Thor turned him in confusion and starting signs of anger.
“The Tesseract is of Asgard. We must return it to the proper place with in Odin's treasure vault. It will help us repair the rainbow bridge.” Thor said, as he took a step towards Fury who was doing his damn best to stare Thor down. It appeared to be working.
“Woah, Woah! Calm down! Why don't you tell us why you need the Tesseract?” Rogers asked, he was up and out of his seat and coming around with his hands up but he froze because Lash stepped between him and Thor. Tension was growing rapidly.
“OK! Just stop with the dick measuring contest! Thor, what is wrong with you!?” Jane called out across the control room. Thor was startled and looked at her in surprise as she started to walk over to him.
“I... I'm sorry Jane. But it's important...” Thor began.
“Ya I get that! But starting a fight on a flying brick is a bad idea!” Jane said, and stabbed her finger into his chest. Each time she did Thor flinched and got smaller, and smaller. Shrinking into himself
“Oooo! Ooooo! I like her! Can we keep her!?” Tony asked, a huge grin on his face. A smirk grew across Natasha's face.
“Why don't we all sit down and share our stories in a peaceful manner. Agreed?” Lash asked the room, and they all agreed.
So they all took their seats. Banner taking the furthest seat from Lash as possible. Each time Lash glanced at him, Banner's eyes would turn neon green for a brief moment. That was going to be a problem. But they laid it all out. The situation, why they needed the Tesseract. Who Loki was, the situation with him. Along with the Chitauri an army seen through Frigga's scrying. Loki will give up the Tesseract as payment for an army that will help him conquer the Earth.
“The Tesseract can not stay on Midgard for the simple reason that its very existence invites war to your realm. Any, and every time you use it. It sends a signal across the universe, and dimensions alike calling to those with power to obtain it.” Lash said to the room after they had ended their discussion.
“Won't it do the same on Asgard?” Rogers asked, not that he wanted the Tesseract on Midgard anymore than they did. But he being who he was worried for Asgard. Lash smiled at him.
“Asgard is more than capable of protecting itself from invasion. But let me ask you this. All of you. You claim you want to use the Tesseract as an energy source. But is not the Vibranium core in Stark's chest a viable solution to that?” Lash asked, pointing at Stark who looked up at him in surprise.
“Wait! Hold on, you know what this is?” Stark asked, pointing at his relatively new V-core.
“Of course! It is a synthetic version of Vibranium. One of the nations on Midgard has a mountain full of it.” Lash said simply then paused briefly.
How the hell did he know that? He had tried several times during the Rift to say certain things and the 4th wall engine stopped him. Almost as if responding to his question Dawn linked the black ground Lore WP he purchased. Oh! Of course that would make sense that Asgard kept a record of Wakanda's advancement. After Lash pointed it out he started to point out design flaws in Stark's rig. Which made the man flippant, but also interested. They went on for almost twenty minutes before Fury dragged them back on topic.
“So you don't need the Tesseract for your energy project. Unless you plan to make weapons of mass destruction what other use do you have for it?” Lash asked, turning towards Fury. Director of SHIELD held his ground. But apparently what he had said hit the nail on the head.
An epiphany seem to click into place across the table. Rogers looked incredibly pissed off. This had been everything he had fought against. He had practically given his whole life to prevent this very thing in this previous war. But before they could get into it! A soft alarm went off. Banner jumped from his seat and took out his phone.
“Oh! They found it! The program we were running found it!” Banner took off down the hallway to the lab.
“We are not finished with this, not by a long shot!” Rogers said to Fury. Rogers got to his feet and followed after Banner. Tony looked smug, as he knew all along and left as well.
“If SHIELD is in need of defenses I am more than willing to stay on Midgard and help you develop.” Lash said to Fury who froze in his seat, but slowly turned to look at him. Hill chose this time to lean in and whisper to Fury about the FTL engine.
“Maybe we can come to an agreement about the Tesseract then. But lets go see where it is first.” Fury said and got to his feet. Thor winked at Lash and followed Fury down the hall.
“Come on! Lets go!” Darcy said, practically bouncing. She had been really well behaved during the whole discussion. That and she had been playing some kind of game on her phone.
Lash left to follow the group. Jane was behind Thor, but Natasha had stayed to escort Lash, and Darcy to the labs. While Hill, and Phil stayed on the control deck. Natasha eventually stepped up ahead of them and lead them towards the labs. She would glance back at Lash from time to time. Each time she did Lash would look at her. She would size him up, and have a little smirk on her face. Darcy leaned in and whispered.
“She is checking you out dude!” She said with a smirk.
“Yes, as a warrior it is part of her skill set to assess a proper threat. Her smile is meant to put me off guard. Most men would find her incredibly alluring and attempt to show off. By doing so she would have me eating out of the palm in no time.” Lash replied to Darcy who looked at him in confusion. Natasha looked back, a look of surprise and bit of mischief on her face.
They reached the R&D level of the helicarrier and they heard shouts, and angry ranting. Natasha looked back at them and Lash gestured for her to continue on with out them. She took off at a jog. While Darcy and Lash took their time....BOOM! The entire helicarrier rocked back and forth and started to list to one side. A red alert sounded off. One of the engines sub-sections had exploded. They were loosing altitude.
“Holy Shit!” Darcy screamed in surprise, but Darcy being Darcy started to film the whole scene on her phone to uploaded later. Lash rolled his eyes at her and helped her to her feet.
“ROOOOOOOAR!” A monstrous shout echoed through the whole helicarrier and everyone aboard with in sigh range froze. Lash felt a huge bloom of energy from his Domain of Monsters. Lash reached out and snagged a SHIELD agent.
“Get her someplace safe, please!” Lash said, pointing at Darcy while he sprinted towards the roar.
Rogers, and Tony were scrambling out of the lab followed by Fury, and Jane. But no sign of Natasha, Thor, or Banner of course! Lash moved into Jane's side and she pointed at the hole in the lab. Who puts glass as the floor in a lab inside a flying object!? That is just stupid design right there! Lash snagged another SHIELD agent to escort Jane to the safe location. Then Lash jumped down into the pit to find Thor waiting for him.
“Ready to fight an ogre my friend?” Thor asked, with a grin.
“I am, but remember he is just a man inside. If we can calm him down all the better.” Lash replied, and Thor nodded in agreement.
Another shout of pure rage rang out through the helicarriers bowels. Lash, and Thor took off through the ship each taking a different path. Lash came across SHIELD personal and he told them to clear the deck as fast as possible. Lash concentrated on helping to clear the deck. Then saw Thor fly through the air and leave a sizable divet in the concrete and metal of the deck. Thor stood up and brought his hand to his nose and came away with blood. He smiled and held up his hand calling his hammer to him. However, unlike in the movies Hulk got to him just a bit quicker.
“ROAAAR!” Lash let out an Intimidating Shout and used Transformation in a blink of an eye went from his Asgardian form to the 8 foot tall grim reaper reptile. Hulk stopped mid strike of Thor and glared at Lash. Just in time for Thor to bash his head to the side with his hammer!
Hulk was catapulted across the deck and collided into a aircraft fighter jet. He roared in defiance and tore the wing off the fighter and flung it at them. Lash reached out with his Telekinesis and shot it right back at him. Hulk looked slightly surprised to see the thing fly back at him for no apparent reason. BAM! Hulk to the wing to his chest and roared in anger as he took a moment to pummel the wing for no logical reason. Thor came up from behind and used his hammer like a choke hold.
“Banner! We are not your enemy! Try to think!” Thor called out.
“NO BANNER! ONLY HULK!” Hulk roared and jumped up ripping through the deck into the next one, and the next one.
“Well that's not good!” Lash said as he scampered up into the hole.
Lash jumped up onto the next deck and worked with Thor to try and beat some sense into the Hulk. Which if anyone read the comics knows that is stupidly impossible. So Lash used Calm Emotions on the Hulk. His energy reserves took a nose dive! He went from 98% to 3% in two seconds flat! But for a brief moment Hulk seem to stop and think. Then he punched Thor and screamed in rage when he couldn't lift Thor's hammer. Lash dropped to his knees and tried to stop the room from spinning.
Congratulations User! Minor Calm Emotions has evolved into Basic Calm Emotions.
Effect: Increase in power level, decrease in power energy consumption.
Effect: Works on a wider range of people, creatures, and beings.
Effect: Greater casting range, and time limit.
Effect: Decrease in side effects (Raw Emotions)
“Yay....” Lash said weakly as he tried his best to get to his feet. His energy levels jumped a pit when Healing Aura popped. Lash was thankful for it but quickly deactivated it so it wouldn't consume his energy. Lash focused for a brief moment and used Reality Armor and infused his gear.
Lash jogged towards the fighting dynamic duo and found Hulk beating Thor's face in. Lash used Telekinesis and lifted Hulk. Or he tried to! Fuck the man was heavy! For a brief moment Hulk was floating in the air. He swung his arms, and hands around in confusion. Then he looked over at Lash and roared. He opened his arms wide and slammed them together creating a thundering shock wave! Every glass window..Again with the glass! Along with all sorts of lose debris went flying! Lash stuck to the ground with Gravity Stride. Then Thor kicked Hulk in the balls!
“Gaaaah!” Hulk said in a almost in audible squeak and collapsed to his knees. Ah, some weak points are universal it seems.
Lash sprinted across the deck and tackled Hulk from the side. They catapulted through several walls! Thankfully no one was in the rooms. Hulk screamed in rage and punched Lash. Lash blinked and found himself several hundred feet through metal, and concrete. Then he saw the skyline, that couldn't be good! He thankfully stopped flying after that point and bounced across the tarmac. Then out came Hulk to bash his brains in...Great!
Lash activated Personal Time just as Hulk entered his sphere of influence. The world came to a stuttering stop. What was incredible! Was that Hulk seem to be fighting the time freeze. Wow! Lash took up a position, spread his feet apart and prepared to twist using his hips. Then he unfroze time and used his new and improved spike tail to base ball swing Hulk. BAM! When his tail connected Lash used a Telekinesis burst to shoot him off the helicarrier.
“GRAAAAAAAH!” Hulk screamed in pure rage as he flew off the helicarrier and into the distant land below.
“I hope he doesn't hurt anyone....” Lash said as he plopped down on the deck of the ship. Thor jumped up and looked around in confusion.
“Thor! This wasn't an accident! Go check on Loki!” Lash called out, and Thor came to the same conclusion. He summoned his hammer and raced off towards the detention block. Lash groaned in displeasure and slowly stood up maki...Why was the world tilting?
“Ah crap!” Lash called out as the whole helicarrier was tilting completely to one side. Two of the engines had shut down. One was broken, and one was offline.
Lash raced across the deck towards the offline engine. He jumped over cargo containers, and quin-jets that were flying off deck. He snagged a few SHIELD techs that were about to fly off with out a parachute. He threw them! (softly) towards the hatch. They landed and secured themselves to the safety lines secured there. Lash at last reached the offline engine and looked to the down the helicarrier to see Tony in his suit attempting to jump start the broken engine.
Lash reached out with his Technomancy Domain and used Connectivity, and Repair. As his barely above 30% energy reserves started to dive again he obtained a splitting headache for his troubles. As the engine turbine kicked back on ever so slowly. Lash could feel a malware program fighting against him. He sent one his Virtual Intelligence tech-spirits to deal with it. With in a minute the program was removed. The engine started up again. Just in time for Stark's. Good timing! The ship started to level out. Lash climbed back up to the main deck and saw a quin-jet that hadn't fallen off the carrier. A SHIELD SWAT officer was escorting....
“LOKI!” Lash called out across the deck. Despite the fierce howling winds across the flight deck Loki stopped and turned towards Lash. The God of mischief froze, and a look of conflict settled across his face.
“PLEASE, COME HOME! I'LL PROTECT YOU LIKE YOU DID FOR ME!” Lash yelled out across the flight deck.
“IT WAS NEVER MY HOME!” Loki called out, and stepped onto the quin-jet. Lash sprinted across the flight deck and Loki went wide eyed. He yelled to the pilot and the quin-jet took off into the horizon.
“HEIMDALL! LOKI IS TRAVELING NORTH EAST! TRACK HIM!” Lash called out to the skies above.
I see him! I... I....I am sorry Lash, his magic distorts my vision. He is lost to us. I will keep trying. -Heimdall called across space, and dimensions. Lash roared in pure anger and bashed his hands into the reinforced concrete of the helicarrier leaving deep impact craters.
Lash pulled his Transformation off and returned to his Asgardian default form. He tried his best to keep his anger to himself but it must have still shown as anyone he encountered got out of his way quickly. It was so bad that he cast Calm Emotions on himself. He felt the cool sensation of his emotions leveling out. It would be a bitch to deal with the side effects later on. Hopefully he'll have something to hit by then. He snagged a passing SHIELD agent.
“Where is your medical deck?” Lash asked the agent who looked at him in surprise.
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About twenty minutes after Lash arrived in the medical bay he was being escorted to the morgue at his request. Why? Well there was no one left to heal in the medical bay. The doctors were beside themselves as was Jane, and Darcy at the sight of bones snapping back into place. Bullets popping out by themselves, and even old scars being repaired. When he asked about the morgue he simply said death does not mean the same thing to an Asgardian.
The morgue sad to say was filled with more bodies than the medical bay had been with the injured. There was still over a hundred crew members MIA. Lash was happy to learn that it was standard operation for anyone on the flight deck to wear a parachute while the helicarrier was in the air. Hopefully there was some SHIELD techs waiting for pick up on the ground below. Maybe they could find Dr. Banner?
“What do you think?” Jane asked, she had followed him into the morgue. A morbid fascination driving her on. Despite the circumstances Jane was focused on the situation. She had recently used her new communication talisman and spoke to Thor. It worked!
“I can save a few, others not so much.” Lash replied. He pointed at several bodies that still had their soul tethers in place. Including but not limited to an Agent Phil Coulson.
The doctors, and nurses rushed to move the selected bodies out of their bags and onto the tables. Lash used Corpse Repair and the bodies mended themselves back into working order. Then he used Sooth, Nature's Supplement, Nature's Kiss, Regrowth, and flipped his Healing Aura back on. Doing a wide area of effect casting. All of the bodies looked healthy and waiting. Then one by one because it took a great deal of energy. Kiss of the Grave.
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Darkness...Silence.... He was so tired. He wanted so desperately to sleep. Phil curled up in the nothingness and tried to sleep. But something nagged at him from behind the darkness. He saw a light, a beautiful amazing light in the distance. Calling him, like a siren calling a sailor to crash on the rocks. Phil felt that if he listened he would not be coming back. Back? Back to where? He had something he was suppose to do, a duty to fulfill.
“Hello Phil, son of Cole.” A voice said to him. That voice was rough and hard on the ears. But it held a sweet, and bitter promise. If Phil listened to it he felt he could go back. Back to a life of pain, and hardship. But also a life of joy, and accomplishment.
“I won't force your return, son of Cole. But I believe you have a woman you love waiting for you here.” The voice called out.
“AUDREY!” Phil yelled out at the top of his lungs and sat up right on the cold metal examination table in the morgue.
“HOLY FUCK!” Darcy screamed in surprise as she jumped back. “Zombies! Living dead!” Darcy screamed, and held up her fingers in a poor attempt at a cross.
“Calm your self Lady Lewis!” Lash said to her, then settled a hand on Phil's back.
Phil jumped at the contact but felt a sense of calm, and renewal wash over him. He looked around the room there were several agents of SHIELD talking to doctors, and nurses. Phil looked down and saw blood on his white buttoned shirt. What? Wait!? Hadn't he been stabbed!? Didn't he die!? He looked at Lash with an expression of pure confusion and fear.
“Welcome back Phil son of Cole. I'm afraid to say the living are not finished with you yet.” Lash said with a grim smile.
“What?” Phil said in complete shock.
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Lash spent the next few minutes running through a long list of things that the recently dead needed to do towards the doctors on staff. The feelings of being hollow, not comfortable in their own skin, phantom pain in the area's of death, etc. All normal feelings, and the estimated time it would take to get over them. All of them needed intense R&R and a evaluation before they could go back on duty. A few more dead bodies showed up while he was talking and he noticed their tethers were in tact so he did it again in front of the SHIELD agents so they could see the whole process.
“You just reattached that guys leg! Is this normal on Asgard!” One of the doctors asked, completely overwhelmed with scientific curiosity.
“Yes and no. Some of us have a unique ability to heal. Much like you and your other peers do. You have a talent for healing. As do I.” Lash said with a smile, as he finished repairing the damaged tissue and cast another Kiss of the Grave.
Congratulations User! Kiss of the Grave has evolved into Minor Kiss of the Grave.
Effect: Increase in spell power, decrease in spell energy consumption.
Effect: Slight decrease in target side effects.
Lash excused himself and went to the damaged turbine that was barely holding on. He helped the work crews start repairs. Then eventually they all stepped aside and watched him in fascination as the he created materials, and seamlessly merged them into the super structure. Then repaired the broken pieces. What normally would have taken weeks in dry dock Lash was accomplishing in hours. All the while his three tech-spirits were using Repair on the helicarriers systems.
One by one the carriers systems started to turn back on. He was half way done with the repairs when Rogers came up to find him. He was in full uniform, including his helmet. A bright blue armored fit with a star dead center in the chest. Along red, and white stripes along his midsection. His vibranium shield at his side. Lash looked at him in curiosity, and Captain stared at him in return as geometric patterns took shape, materials made of light became solid and a ruined catwalk came into being.
“Lord Rogers? Everything alright?” Lash asked, and Rogers was startled for a moment then nodded.
“We found it, you coming?” Rogers asked, Lash didn't need him to explain what he meant.
“Yes, please lead the way.” Lash said and excused himself from the repair crews who got out his way.
Rogers led him down to the under carriage flight deck. There they met up with Natasha, and a new face. Agent Clinton "Clint" Barton aka Hawkeye. Who stood at 6'3” with high and tight blond hair, and blue eyes. (Lots of blue eyes!). He had an inverted triangle build. Wide shoulders, and very dense muscles on his arms. He wore a leather carbon polymer suit, with a quiver of tech arrows, and a specialized mechanical bow. He looked focused, and intent on the mission ahead. But even still he still looked at Lash and gave him a nod.
After a slight dramatic moment where Rogers all but kicked a SHIELD tech out of the quin-jet. They took off, following in the wake of the Iron Man suit. As soon as they left the bay the SHIELD helicarrier hailed them. Natasha flipped it to audio only and a voice came over that made Natasha pull on the controls in surprise.
“Agent Romanoff, Agent Barton, Captain. May we assume you found the Tesseract?” Phil asked over the radio.
“PHIL!? Wha...What!? Furry said you were dead!” Natasha shouted over the line, Captain came to the receiver in confusion.
“He was...For about an hour.” Lash said very nonchalantly to them. Rogers turned on his heel to look at Lash. Barton who was flying the quin-jet couldn't turn but Natasha was looking at Lash hard enough for both of them.
“Asgardian medical science is far more advanced than Midgardian's. An hour dead is only a little dead.” Lash said with a small smile. “Phil, Son of Cole. I left clear instructions for you to be off duty for the next foreseeable future!” Lash shouted across the quin-jet at him.
“Well ummm.... You see...” Phil said with a bit of nervous energy.
“Yes, we found the Tesseract. It is at Stark tower in New York. Tony figured it out, Loki plans to use the arch reactor to activate the cube.” Barton said across the line, a small smile growing on his face.
“Copy that! We'll send all the help we can your way! Good luck!” Phil said across the radio and turned it off before Lash could growl at him. Speaking of communication, Lash gave himself a mental facepalm and sent a communication to Darcy's phone to tell her and Jane where he was headed.
“So you can bring the dead back to life?” Captain asked, clearly skeptical. But his body language spelled optimistic.
“Midgardian medical science says that the brain can go 15 minutes or more with out oxygen before brain damage sets in. I respectfully disagree. It is more around 1-3 hours.” Lash said with a smile, that Captain mirrored.
“Good to know!” Barton said from the front seat. Natasha looked back at Lash and she mouthed the words, 'thank you.' Lash bowed his head then stood up in the back.
“Captain come here a moment I need to update your gear a bit.” Lash said with a smile.
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