Daughter of the Shield

Chapter 3

"Coulson had these in his jacket pocket, guess he never did get you to sign them" Fury tossed the bloody trading cards onto the table. Jo got up and immediately left the room.

She stood there starring at the blood stain on the wall. She froze. How!?! She was trained for situations like that, hell, even Hydra had made sure she had been prepared for anything. She had failed her only friend, her only family. Jo looked up as Tony walked in.

"It wasn't your fault"

"Shut up"

"Just thought someone should tell you"

"Don't act like you aren't blaming yourself too" Jo looked Tony in the eye as she spoke. Tony and Jo had never been friends. She had too many secrets and he was too full of himself.

"Do you remember that time I spilled his coffee"

"I thought he was going to kill you for sure!" Jo laughed.

"You two knew Coulson well?" Jo fell silent and turned to see Steve.

"I still think he was Jo's father"

"Out of all your theories about my origin story that one was actually the least ridicules" Tony just rolled his eyes in response.

"Coulson was an idiot though"

"Why? For believing?"

"For thinking, he could take on Loki alone"

"He was doing his job" Steve argued.

"He was out of his league! He should have waited"

"Sometimes there is no way out" Steve stepped into Tony's path, preventing him from walking away.

"Right, like I haven't heard that before"

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"We are not soldiers!" Tony exclaimed. "I'm not marching in for Fury's fight"

"Neither am I, he's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we need to push that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, we can put together a list- "

"He made it personal" Tony muttered.

"That's not the point"

"But that is the point, that's Loki's point!" Jo exclaimed, she could see where Tony was going with this. "He hit us all right where we live, why?"

"To tear us apart"

"Yeah, to divide and conquer us but he knows he has to take us all out to win, right? He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it"

"He wants an audience" Jo added. "Everything we've seen has just been previews, this is opening night!"

"Right! And Loki, he's a full tale diva! He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants monuments built in the skies with his name- "Tony stopped for a moment. "Son of a bitch!"

Jo quickly suits up. Slipping on an outfit similar to Natasha's though not as tight and it was sleeveless. Plus, Jo had more knives than guns. She arrived at the quinjet just as Tony took off in his suit.

"I'm surprised you came, thought teams weren't really your thing"

"Well, I heard Legolas over there was coming and thought how could I pass this up?" Barton laughed as they started to take off. Jo sat down and strapped herself in, Steve sat next to her before she could protest.

"Do you usually go on missions alone?"

"Easier that way"

"How so?"