(Attendance please…)
….
The Joint Counter Terrorist Centre in Berlin, Germany, was a what its name suggested. It was now the absolute epicenter of the manhunt following the incident at the United Nations assembly. The building was supposed to oversee the entirety of the investigation regarding the attempted assassination of the world leaders, specifically the King of Wakanda.
If that sniper's bullet had actually found its mark and pierced his head, the sheer explosive payload packed into the casing would have detonated with enough force to wipe out the room. Anyone lucky enough not to be killed instantly would have been left permanently crippled.
Natasha and Gojo bypassed the first layer of security without much hassle. Once they handed over their clearance passes, the guards recognized Natasha immediately as an Avenger. They recognized Gojo too, though not from any official roster. His face had simply been plastered all over the news broadcasts from the blast site.
Tony had relocated the entire operational headquarters to Berlin almost immediately. Captain America was busy elsewhere on personal leave and unable to attend, and Wanda remained back at the Avengers Compound. Without the full roster available, Tony had decided to set up shop right where the local authorities were already running the investigation.
They passed through several more heavy doors, each requiring a fresh ID scan and visual clearance, before finally stepping into an elevator bound for Tony's floor.
Gojo glanced sideways at Natasha. She stood rigid, her posture stiff and her expression dead serious. Given the circumstances, it would have been a much bigger problem if she looked relaxed, but the heavy atmosphere didn't seem to affect him in the slightest.
They were here to give Tony a firsthand account. They were the ones who had actually been in the room, the ones who had almost been blown to bits in what would have been one of the darkest days in modern history, with so many world representatives dying in a single strike. Almost.
The elevator doors chimed and parted. Natasha and Gojo stepped out, walking down a wide corridor toward the center of the building where Tony had established his command post.
The floor was crawling with agents. Men and women in sharp suits hurried in and out of side rooms, while armed security guards stood at strict, regular intervals along the hallway. They looked stiff, highly alert, and very focused on the two new arrivals walking past them.
"I think they want to talk to me but can't," Gojo remarked casually. "Probably a shy problem."
Natasha looked to the side. The guards were indeed watching them, but they were scanning everyone who moved through the corridor. It was quite literally their job.
"What makes you say that?" Natasha asked. She didn't even know why she engaged. She already knew what his answer was going to be.
"They are stealing glances at me," Gojo said, adjusting his dark glasses. "I mean, can't blame them. I would have been too."
There it was. Natasha had known it was coming, and yet she had walked right into it anyway. She only did it because ignoring him was usually worse. If she didn't respond, he would just keep poking her, demanding to know if she was ignoring him like a child who required twenty-four hours of attention a day, even while asleep.
"Is there a limit to your now developing narcissism, or did you get this from Tony?"
"Narcissism? Me?" Gojo put a hand against his chest, looking genuinely offended for about half a second while still trailing just behind her. "You are being way too direct now. That's a pretty harsh way to describe having an accurate understanding of my own abilities, body, and surroundings."
He didn't bother denying it. He just paused for a second to think it over.
"But to answer your question? There's definitely a limit." A wide grin spread across his face. "I just haven't found it yet."
Natasha didn't turn her head to look at him, but she recognized the exact tone he was using. It was the exact same absolute certainty she had heard from another specific person. The person they were walking to meet right now.
They reached the center of the floor. Heavy automatic gates parted with a mechanical hiss, allowing them to step inside the main hub.
Unlike the hallways, there were no men holding guns in here. It looked strictly like a research and command center. The atmosphere was just as intense, only on a much larger scale. Analysts carried folders tucked beneath their arms, while others typed rapidly on tablets or phones. A few agents spoke quietly into earpieces as they crossed the floor. Nobody was wandering. Everyone had a destination, a task, or someone waiting on them for an update.
The walls were constructed of reinforced glass and dark metal, separating the central walkway from various offices and meeting rooms. Through the glass, Natasha could see teams gathered around large tables scattered with documents, crime scene photographs, and digital screens analyzing the attack.
Massive monitors were mounted along the primary walls. Some displayed detailed maps of Berlin and its surrounding grid. Others looped security camera footage from a dozen different angles.
The largest screen in the room was rendering a 3D reconstruction of the assassination attempt. A digital model of the UN building sat in the center, and a bright line marked the estimated trajectory of the projectile, tracing all the way back to the attacker's suspected vantage point.
They had already found the location. But finding the identity of the shooter was another matter entirely. The 3D model highlighted the exact angle, the extreme distance between the buildings, and the precise physical position the sniper had to take to make the shot.
They had moved incredibly fast to calculate the origin point from that far away, but the culprit had completely evaded the cameras. Multiple recordings from the surrounding blocks were playing on a loop as analysts hunted for any suspicious person, any minor clue, or a single viable lead.
"By this speed, we will get our culprit by the end of the day, or maybe morning," Gojo said, surveying the massive digital maps through his pitch-dark glasses.
Right on cue, the man of the hour appeared.
Tony Stark was pacing near the front of the room, holding a holographic mobile phone projection in his hand. He was deep in an argument with someone on the other end, gesturing sharply before catching sight of Natasha and Gojo. He waved them over while finishing his call.
"Yes, yes, yes, we are doing that," Tony snapped into the projection. "What do you mean 'other things'? I'm already into that. Jarvis is doing what he can too, but—oh, well, surprise! He can't bring up something that isn't seen by anyone or any digital footprint or any footage at all and generate a suspect out of thin air now, can he?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "The culprit knew all the blind spots and even made his escape without stopping anywhere. The location is already secured, and further things are already going. Yes, I will send you the report. Yeah, yeah. Okay."
Tony cut the connection and lowered the holographic phone. He rubbed the side of his forehead as if the brief conversation had drilled a physical headache into his skull.
"You won't believe what I'm going through here, Natasha," Tony groaned.
Natasha stopped right in front of him. Gojo just tilted his head slightly, taking in the stressed billionaire.
"Well, whatever you are going through is something that happened when it didn't succeed," Gojo pointed out cheerfully. "So maybe a little grateful for that."
"That I am," Tony admitted, dropping his hand. "You guys stopped what could have been a massive fallout regarding these whole Accords, and much more. It would have been one of the worst days for us if it had been successful. The signing of the Accords, as one would expect, has been delayed indefinitely for now. Or at least until the culprit is found."
Natasha ignored the small talk entirely. "What do we have?"
Tony's expression changed instantly. The casual, bureaucratic frustration vanished, replaced by the grim, focused look he wore whenever things were genuinely serious, which was rapidly becoming an everyday occurrence.
"Not enough."
He gestured toward the glowing screens surrounding them. "We found the firing position."
Natasha turned her attention to the largest display. The three-dimensional reconstruction was still rotating slowly on its axis. The digital model of the UN building sat in the center of the grid, while a thin red line stretched across the virtual cityscape, originating from a building an absurd distance away.
"That's the building?" Natasha asked, evaluating the sheer range of the shot.
"Yeah," Tony said. "Any idea of who it could be to make not only a shot at the King of Wakanda, but from that much distance?"
"No. I don't."
Tony let out another heavy sigh, having lost count of how many times he had done so today. "Well, doesn't matter. It is just a matter of time now. All we need is a single clue and that's all."
He pinched his forehead again and dropped into one of the nearby desk chairs.
The Accords were technically a dead issue for the moment. They couldn't move forward as long as the shooter remained at large. Once the dust settled, they would face the bureaucratic nightmare of deciding a new date, wrangling all the world leaders to return, and figuring out if some would even be willing to show up after today.
It wasn't entirely bad news. The delay meant they could still technically operate as Avengers, even if under somewhat restrictive terms for now. At the very least, it gave those who were hesitant about signing more time to make up their minds or be convinced to join Tony's side.
"Where is Captain and bird?" Gojo asked. He hadn't seen Steve since their last major talk, and he certainly hadn't seen the bird guy around.
"Was on personal leave," Tony said, leaning back in the chair. "Already called him about this whole mess. As for Falcon, he is with him. There was no need for the whole team to come to something that is being worked on already, and let's be honest, he wouldn't be much of a help here. So they will be at the Avengers Compound with Wanda and Jarvis."
Gojo nodded. For all of Steve's leadership skills and super-soldier strength, he wasn't exactly a tech guy who could sift through satellite data.
"Though I think they have got more time to think over this," Tony finished, sounding slightly relieved by that silver lining. "So well, there is that too."
"Well, you will get through this too," Gojo offered, looking around the high-tech setup. "It's probably not on Ultron or invasion level, so think from that perspective."
Natasha looked at him. "Is this your way of saying it will all be good?"
"…" Gojo eyed her, his expression going completely flat behind his dark glasses. He deadpanned, "Yeah."
(Picture)
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A/N: :) :) going to finish this arc quickly in the next few chapters i'm already writing.
Discord: discord.gg/5Y7uZ2kN2Y