Chapter Text
Aliens.
The constant state of the unknown, the fear of Earth being defenceless against the unidentified. How many times? How many times before Earth becomes the futile party. Failing to protect humankind?
Rose Tyler had asked herself that question many times, more times that she could count. They didn’t have the Doctor here any more. It was just her. All alone, trying to collate every piece of knowledge she had. Trying to do what the Doctor would.
In a Universe where the Doctor didn’t exist, she had to step forward. She had to think like both of them, scavenging off previous alien encounters and gaining data on their weapons, figuring out how to translate their languages, finding their weak spots.
Expect now, she had been told that Torchwood was no more. That all the worldwide agencies had to come together (finally, although Torchwood were never exactly known to be the ones making friends and sharing their knowledge).
But with everyone gone, her father, her mother, the team had diminished. A curse of her living too long. Something the Doctor had been looking in to before his own inevitable death.
She walked through the shiny corridors, a new facility that she had been brought over to. Torchwood wasn’t like this, at least her department never was. It was always chaotic, people talking over one another, figuring out what they were going to deal with first. Being on the front line most of the time (doing her best to avoid the paperwork).
But this was different, it was high tech. It wasn’t scraps of alien tech they had put together and hoped for the best. It was sleek and shiny, it was modern.
It was SHIELD.
Somewhere she had heard about before, the place that Earth’s greatest defenders worked. And now she was on the list. Granted, it was mainly for her alien knowledge, but part of her sensed that Nick Fury knew more about her than he was letting on. He seemed to know she didn’t age, that everyone around her had died of old age long ago. But did he know the reason why? Surely, he couldn’t. It was years ago, she had kept ‘The Wolf’ under wraps for years. Only after losing the Doctor did it haunt her.
She knew all about the ‘Avengers’, everyone did. She couldn’t help but think it was a pretentious name. They were only starting to become a team, their ego’s clashing in to one another every chance they got. The entire place reeked of testosterone, the constant battle of who was right. Who was going to fight, and who was going to take the high road and work things out peacefully.
She couldn’t help but feel the yes burning into her as she walked in, using her shiny new pass. Rose wanted to say that this was where she wanted to be. But it wasn’t, and part of her sensed that was how everyone in this team felt to start with. As though they had been pulled in without really wanting to be.
“Now – team.” Fury introduced, the governance of the Avengers (though Rose was already sensing it was more like wrangling school children). “We’ve brought in reinforcements. Someone who not only had combat training, but who knows the world to ET better than anyone on the planet.” He started though none of the team seemed to be listening. They were already having some sort of preconceived ideas of her. She had never met them before, other than Romanoff and Barton. They had taught her how to freshen up on her combat skills, which had often been ignored when she worked for Torchwood but even Rose couldn’t deny that they would have come in handy from time to time.
“And why do we need help in that department exactly?” Tony chipped in, always had to have the first and last word. And most of the words in between. “We’re not fighting aliens –”
“I think you’ll find they technically are.” Bruce intercepted, they were trying to retrieve Loki’s sceptor. Which was now in the hands of Hydra, they needed all the help they could get. And although SHIELD were good, they weren’t quite Torchwood. She knew all about Hydra, their name had floated around Torchwood’s database every now and again. Though they never had inside intel.
“We know the plan, we go into Hydra’s little unit, and we get the sceptor.” Tony insisted, his arms folded defensively, as though standing his ground, making a point that he was the leading voice.
“You guys go in blindfolded.” Rose spoke up with a small sigh escaping her lips. “You had no idea how much alien tech they have in there.” She explained, Hydra were dangerous. They were armed to the max, everyone knew that without having to do any research.
“Agent Tyler has the technology that we don’t have, an ability to go in as quickly as possible without being seen – for the most part.” Fury insisted, the room of the eyes staring her up and down once more.
“Then why aren’t we using it?” Steve jumped in, Rose rolled her eyes slightly. Of course they needed to have all these introductions and the back and forth first. But it would have been a lot easier if she had gone in on their own. But the dimension canon was something she couldn’t have just gotten on a commercial flight with. That and it had needed a few tweaks here and there, it wasn’t the same dimension canon she had used all those years ago. But it worked well as a teleport and getting through security systems.
“We are using it.” Fury glared as Cap, clearly irritated at having been interrupted. “Tyler is going to go in to the base, but she needs one other person to go with her. To cover her back. Now you’ve spoken up Captain, we thought you would be the perfect person. We want to go in there unnoticed, no guns blazing. You okay with that, Captain?” He questioned, receiving a nod of confirmation. He was the least guns blazing and hot headed of them all.
“Fine by me. So what’s the plan?”
----------------------------------------------
Rose and Steve walked down alongside Fury to where the dimension canon was being kept. It was her technology, it worked with only certain people’s fingerprints. Something she had needed to do in order to make sure it didn’t get in to the wrong hands. This kind of technology wasn’t 21st century Earth. The ability to be teleported somewhere, it was the dream that criminals longed for.
“It has a perception filter on it.” She explained to Steve as they got ready to go. “Which means we’re not invisible, but people shouldn’t notice us. We’re like something you see out of the corner of your eye.”
“If no one will see you, then why do you need back up?” Steve asked, sensing there was more to the story than it seemed. But he had to admit, he liked the idea of not going somewhere that was a risk of casualties.
“Perception filters work on most people, to the average person in the street. But some people, they’re trained specifically against these. To make sure that no one can use this against them. I don’t know about Hydra, I don’t know how much people know about perception filters. But its always best to have back up. I’ve learnt that the hard way.” She said with a saddened tone to her voice. They were both armed, Captain with his Shield as always, handing him the dimension canon.
“So Captain, are you ready for an adventure?” She smirked before they both teleported out of SHIELD.