111   

The helicopter picks you up as soon as you get there, dropping an evacuation ladder and taking off before you’re even halfway up it (you look down, knock a Hydra agent off the second-to-last rung with your boot, and understand why the pilot’s not waiting around). When you both make it into the belly of the chopper, strapping yourselves into the seats, you find Bruce already sitting on the other side, de-Hulked and shivering in a too-large S.H.I.E.L.D. flight jacket, Thor next to him with a hand on his shoulder.

Technically, this mission was a success. You achieved your objective, you rescued the prisoner contingent, and you even managed to get out of there alive. This is the kind of mission where you’re normally happy with the way things turned out. You even file your mission reports on time.

Except that this time, you’re going back without Tony, and that means that regardless of mission objective status, regardless of prisoners, regardless of the fact that you’re alive, this is not a mission success at all.

THE END