Fic: Requiring Assistance - BtVS/Avengers
Title: Requiring Assistance
Fandom: BtVS/(Avengers (movie)
Word Count: 1872
Prompt: #356 Drusy Quartz
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, settings, or fandoms. They are the property of their respective creators and companies.
Summary: It's possible the Coulson could be stalking her across the country, but trying to find a single crystal in the middle of Seattle could be impossible without him.
Follows A New Possibility
Buffy frowned at the image on her laptop screen. It was definitely not the usual type of crystal that was featured in apocalypses but it was rather pretty. It was a fairly large gem with the surface covered in what looked like more crystals resembling the geodes she had once studied in science class.
According to Willow all of the facets magnified the crystals power when used in conjunction with the dimensional spell that the local demons were trying to complete. They had already started the process if all the craziness in the city was any indication. At least Willow had narrowed down the cause to the crystal and the spell, now she only had to find it and destroy it. A needle in a haystack.
Her phone vibrated on the table next to her laptop and she answered it without looking at the caller ID. “Willow, please tell me you've got more info.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not Miss Rosenberg,” came the calm voice over the line.
“Agent Coulson,” Buffy said with a sigh, sitting back in her chair. “I'm starting to think you're stalking me. This is the third time in three months you've called me.”
“I'm merely letting you know that our offer still stands and that we have not forgotten about you,” he said, and not for the first time. She had heard a version of that statement every time he had contacted her. “How is Seattle today?”
She frowned. “You are tracking me. Did you put a bug on me when I wasn't looking? Have you managed to hack into our files to -”
“You used a credit card to pay for your hotel two weeks ago. I was concerned because this is the longest you have stayed in any one area for the past year and a half.”
“You have been tracking me in order to know about how long I stay anywhere?”
“Credit cards only,” he assured her. “I looked up your history when we first thought of approaching you. Just to pick up patterns.”
She felt slightly mollified by his response, but only slightly. Really the thought of the credit cards had never occurred to her and he was a super secret spy. “Seattle is lovely. A nice balmy 76 degrees and no rain to speak of. Did you just call me for a weather report?”
He chuckled softly before replying, “No. I was wondering if you would like assistance in your mission there.”
“And how do you know there's a mission?” She asked hotly. “I could be here for shopping. Or a vacation.”
“You vacation in Rome, not Seattle,” he said, seemingly unruffled. “And we can follow the signs almost as well as you can. We were going to send a team there ourselves to investigate until I saw you were there already. I didn't want to step on your toes, so to speak. And it's an offer only, if you wish -”
“No wishing!” She interrupted him shortly. “Wishing is bad and only leads to badness. Nothing good comes from wishing. Never, ever use that word.”
There was an honest to goodness pause on the other end of the line, one she had never experienced with Coulson before. He had always been able to keep up with her quips and readily shot back answers to any question she asked. It seemed, for once, she had truly been able to take him by surprise.
“So noted,” he finally responded. “Do you require assistance or would you like for us to remain out of your way?”
Buffy bit back her immediate negative response and truly thought the idea over. Seattle was rather large and trying to find a single stone in time by herself was an enormous task that she wasn't positive she would be able to handle on her own. If she accepted his offer she would get to see how SHIELD operated which would give her a better understanding of them and whether or not she wanted to take Coulson up on his offer to join the Avengers Initiative.
Admittedly the concept behind the group was a good one, but anything military, or military based made her pause. They were stuck with strict rules and regulations on how to handle things, and there was so much out there that just couldn't be handled by those means, especially in her world. Allowing herself to join would mean subjecting herself to that environment and she already knew that she didn't fit in.
“What kind of help are we talking about?” She asked.
“That depends on what you would want from us,” he responded easily and she could almost hear the satisfied smile in his voice.
“I don't want you guys descending on the city like a swarm of locusts. Keep it small and contained. And make sure they can handle the weird, cause this one is liable to get weird.”
“Understood. A small team will be at your hotel in two hours.”
“That fast?” She asked, rather surprised.
“Miss Summers, this is SHIELD,” he simply replied, and then ended the call.
XXXXXXXXXX
Almost two hours later on the dot, there was a soft knock on her hotel room door. She opened it to reveal Coulson standing calmly on the other side holding a large briefcase. “Miss Summers,” he said with a nod of his head before entering the room uninvited. She sighed at the name, but it seemed no matter how many times she asked him to call her Buffy, he resorted to the more formal moniker.
“Agent Coulson,” she replied and looked at the other man with him. He grinned rakishly at her before entering as well. She stuck her head into the hallway to look both ways only to pull her head back into the room and frown at the two men. “Just the two of you?”
“You said to keep the team small,” Coulson pointed out.
She shut the door and took a step towards them. “Yes, but I meant an actual team. Not a duo, pair, duet, twosome, couple -”
“Whoa, not a couple,” the other guy protested. “No offense, sir.”
“None taken,” Coulson replied without looking at him.
“Either way, I thought there'd be more.. men in black,” she said lamely.
“We can handle it, don't worry,” the other guy said with a wide open smile. He took a few steps forward and offered his hand. “Agent Clint Barton.”
She stared at it for only a moment before taking the last step forward to take his hand. His grasp was firm and he didn't try to soften it because she was a girl. At least he seemed to have potential. “Buffy Summers,” she offered back.
“Why don't we begin with what you already know,” Coulson suggested as he set the briefcase on the table and opened it. He set up his own equipment as Buffy laid out what she knew of the spell, the weirdness that was running rampant through the streets, and the crystal that they needed to find to put a stop to it all.
“I do have a question about the crystal,” Clint said, a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth as he processed everything she had told them. “If the extra surface of the crystal is because it's a...”
“Drusy quartz,” Coulson said, as he typed on his laptop.
“A Drusy quartz, and that extra surface is especially good at multiplying the spell, wouldn't smashing the crystal just create more surface area and increase the potency of the spell?”
Coulson stopped typing and looked up at Buffy. “Has Miss Rosenberg considered the possibility?”
Buffy nodded. “I had asked the same question. Willow said the crystal loses it ability to magnify the spell if it's not whole. That even just a crack can disrupt the energies and prevent it from working.”
“Very well,” Coulson said with a nod and returned his focus to the computer.
“And her magic isn't able to get a fix on the crystal itself which is really why you need us,” Clint said with a knowing grin as Coulson worked. “I mean, I've heard about you from Coulson. You don't really need us for the demons you're fighting do you? You just want to assess us in action.”
The tiny blonde took a good look at the agent who had accompanied Coulson. At first glance he seemed to be solidly built and she had noticed him checking out the layout of the room. More than likely he had also done an assessment of the building itself from the outside. To his credit he didn't even blink at the talk of magic and demons, but continued on as if it was a normal mission.
“You're one of Coulson's people with a, how did he put it, 'highly-specialized skill set who can think outside of the box' aren't you?” She shrewdly asked.
A rich, throaty laugh erupted from him. “Not a dumb blonde are you? I like that.”
“I think I may have a location,” Coulson said, interrupting their conversation. He waited until Buffy and Clint stood behind him before continuing. “I accessed police records and strange sitings reports over the past two weeks.”
He pointed to an area on the map of Seattle that was lit up with blue dots. “This area is displaying the most unusual activity.” He pointed to an area surrounding it in a mix of red and blue dots. “Radiating out from it are the violent crimes mixed with unusual activity. Your drusy quartz is most likely somewhere in the center of the circle.”
Buffy was impressed with how easily he was able to obtain the information. It would have taken her weeks to compile this much information let alone put it in an easy visual mode like he had. “Can you zoom in on the center?”
Coulson nodded and did as she asked. She leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. Her eyes quickly roamed over the buildings and picked out the three most probable ones. “You have just made my life infinitely easier.”
“What's our next move?” Coulson asked.
She straightened back up. “What if I said, thanks for your help but I've got it from here?”
“Then we'll stand aside and let you complete your mission. I was being genuine when I said we didn't want to step on your toes,” he replied calmly. His face was serene and betrayed no desire to push her to accept their help.
Buffy looked to Clint to receive the same look from him. Perhaps Coulson truly was on the level, despite his tendency to stalk her all over the country. She looked back down at him. “And if I say I'm calling the shots when we go in?”
“Then we will follow your lead,” he said. His lips didn't twitch into a smile, but she swore she saw the corners of his eyes crinkle a little.
“Well, let's introduce you to the demon side of the world. Literally.”
Fandom: BtVS/(Avengers (movie)
Word Count: 1872
Prompt: #356 Drusy Quartz
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, settings, or fandoms. They are the property of their respective creators and companies.
Summary: It's possible the Coulson could be stalking her across the country, but trying to find a single crystal in the middle of Seattle could be impossible without him.
Follows A New Possibility
Buffy frowned at the image on her laptop screen. It was definitely not the usual type of crystal that was featured in apocalypses but it was rather pretty. It was a fairly large gem with the surface covered in what looked like more crystals resembling the geodes she had once studied in science class.
According to Willow all of the facets magnified the crystals power when used in conjunction with the dimensional spell that the local demons were trying to complete. They had already started the process if all the craziness in the city was any indication. At least Willow had narrowed down the cause to the crystal and the spell, now she only had to find it and destroy it. A needle in a haystack.
Her phone vibrated on the table next to her laptop and she answered it without looking at the caller ID. “Willow, please tell me you've got more info.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not Miss Rosenberg,” came the calm voice over the line.
“Agent Coulson,” Buffy said with a sigh, sitting back in her chair. “I'm starting to think you're stalking me. This is the third time in three months you've called me.”
“I'm merely letting you know that our offer still stands and that we have not forgotten about you,” he said, and not for the first time. She had heard a version of that statement every time he had contacted her. “How is Seattle today?”
She frowned. “You are tracking me. Did you put a bug on me when I wasn't looking? Have you managed to hack into our files to -”
“You used a credit card to pay for your hotel two weeks ago. I was concerned because this is the longest you have stayed in any one area for the past year and a half.”
“You have been tracking me in order to know about how long I stay anywhere?”
“Credit cards only,” he assured her. “I looked up your history when we first thought of approaching you. Just to pick up patterns.”
She felt slightly mollified by his response, but only slightly. Really the thought of the credit cards had never occurred to her and he was a super secret spy. “Seattle is lovely. A nice balmy 76 degrees and no rain to speak of. Did you just call me for a weather report?”
He chuckled softly before replying, “No. I was wondering if you would like assistance in your mission there.”
“And how do you know there's a mission?” She asked hotly. “I could be here for shopping. Or a vacation.”
“You vacation in Rome, not Seattle,” he said, seemingly unruffled. “And we can follow the signs almost as well as you can. We were going to send a team there ourselves to investigate until I saw you were there already. I didn't want to step on your toes, so to speak. And it's an offer only, if you wish -”
“No wishing!” She interrupted him shortly. “Wishing is bad and only leads to badness. Nothing good comes from wishing. Never, ever use that word.”
There was an honest to goodness pause on the other end of the line, one she had never experienced with Coulson before. He had always been able to keep up with her quips and readily shot back answers to any question she asked. It seemed, for once, she had truly been able to take him by surprise.
“So noted,” he finally responded. “Do you require assistance or would you like for us to remain out of your way?”
Buffy bit back her immediate negative response and truly thought the idea over. Seattle was rather large and trying to find a single stone in time by herself was an enormous task that she wasn't positive she would be able to handle on her own. If she accepted his offer she would get to see how SHIELD operated which would give her a better understanding of them and whether or not she wanted to take Coulson up on his offer to join the Avengers Initiative.
Admittedly the concept behind the group was a good one, but anything military, or military based made her pause. They were stuck with strict rules and regulations on how to handle things, and there was so much out there that just couldn't be handled by those means, especially in her world. Allowing herself to join would mean subjecting herself to that environment and she already knew that she didn't fit in.
“What kind of help are we talking about?” She asked.
“That depends on what you would want from us,” he responded easily and she could almost hear the satisfied smile in his voice.
“I don't want you guys descending on the city like a swarm of locusts. Keep it small and contained. And make sure they can handle the weird, cause this one is liable to get weird.”
“Understood. A small team will be at your hotel in two hours.”
“That fast?” She asked, rather surprised.
“Miss Summers, this is SHIELD,” he simply replied, and then ended the call.
XXXXXXXXXX
Almost two hours later on the dot, there was a soft knock on her hotel room door. She opened it to reveal Coulson standing calmly on the other side holding a large briefcase. “Miss Summers,” he said with a nod of his head before entering the room uninvited. She sighed at the name, but it seemed no matter how many times she asked him to call her Buffy, he resorted to the more formal moniker.
“Agent Coulson,” she replied and looked at the other man with him. He grinned rakishly at her before entering as well. She stuck her head into the hallway to look both ways only to pull her head back into the room and frown at the two men. “Just the two of you?”
“You said to keep the team small,” Coulson pointed out.
She shut the door and took a step towards them. “Yes, but I meant an actual team. Not a duo, pair, duet, twosome, couple -”
“Whoa, not a couple,” the other guy protested. “No offense, sir.”
“None taken,” Coulson replied without looking at him.
“Either way, I thought there'd be more.. men in black,” she said lamely.
“We can handle it, don't worry,” the other guy said with a wide open smile. He took a few steps forward and offered his hand. “Agent Clint Barton.”
She stared at it for only a moment before taking the last step forward to take his hand. His grasp was firm and he didn't try to soften it because she was a girl. At least he seemed to have potential. “Buffy Summers,” she offered back.
“Why don't we begin with what you already know,” Coulson suggested as he set the briefcase on the table and opened it. He set up his own equipment as Buffy laid out what she knew of the spell, the weirdness that was running rampant through the streets, and the crystal that they needed to find to put a stop to it all.
“I do have a question about the crystal,” Clint said, a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth as he processed everything she had told them. “If the extra surface of the crystal is because it's a...”
“Drusy quartz,” Coulson said, as he typed on his laptop.
“A Drusy quartz, and that extra surface is especially good at multiplying the spell, wouldn't smashing the crystal just create more surface area and increase the potency of the spell?”
Coulson stopped typing and looked up at Buffy. “Has Miss Rosenberg considered the possibility?”
Buffy nodded. “I had asked the same question. Willow said the crystal loses it ability to magnify the spell if it's not whole. That even just a crack can disrupt the energies and prevent it from working.”
“Very well,” Coulson said with a nod and returned his focus to the computer.
“And her magic isn't able to get a fix on the crystal itself which is really why you need us,” Clint said with a knowing grin as Coulson worked. “I mean, I've heard about you from Coulson. You don't really need us for the demons you're fighting do you? You just want to assess us in action.”
The tiny blonde took a good look at the agent who had accompanied Coulson. At first glance he seemed to be solidly built and she had noticed him checking out the layout of the room. More than likely he had also done an assessment of the building itself from the outside. To his credit he didn't even blink at the talk of magic and demons, but continued on as if it was a normal mission.
“You're one of Coulson's people with a, how did he put it, 'highly-specialized skill set who can think outside of the box' aren't you?” She shrewdly asked.
A rich, throaty laugh erupted from him. “Not a dumb blonde are you? I like that.”
“I think I may have a location,” Coulson said, interrupting their conversation. He waited until Buffy and Clint stood behind him before continuing. “I accessed police records and strange sitings reports over the past two weeks.”
He pointed to an area on the map of Seattle that was lit up with blue dots. “This area is displaying the most unusual activity.” He pointed to an area surrounding it in a mix of red and blue dots. “Radiating out from it are the violent crimes mixed with unusual activity. Your drusy quartz is most likely somewhere in the center of the circle.”
Buffy was impressed with how easily he was able to obtain the information. It would have taken her weeks to compile this much information let alone put it in an easy visual mode like he had. “Can you zoom in on the center?”
Coulson nodded and did as she asked. She leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. Her eyes quickly roamed over the buildings and picked out the three most probable ones. “You have just made my life infinitely easier.”
“What's our next move?” Coulson asked.
She straightened back up. “What if I said, thanks for your help but I've got it from here?”
“Then we'll stand aside and let you complete your mission. I was being genuine when I said we didn't want to step on your toes,” he replied calmly. His face was serene and betrayed no desire to push her to accept their help.
Buffy looked to Clint to receive the same look from him. Perhaps Coulson truly was on the level, despite his tendency to stalk her all over the country. She looked back down at him. “And if I say I'm calling the shots when we go in?”
“Then we will follow your lead,” he said. His lips didn't twitch into a smile, but she swore she saw the corners of his eyes crinkle a little.
“Well, let's introduce you to the demon side of the world. Literally.”