"Hello Dr. Banner, Director Fury wanted to see you," Black Widow said, leaning against a wall.

Bruce groaned and set down the stack of papers he was looking through. "I showed up didn't I? Couldn't this have waited, I was counting on more time before I was summoned again. Actually I was in the middle of doing research on—," he began.

Black Widow raised an eyebrow and held up a hand. "We need you again. Oh, and before you go in, I should tell you that Fury wanted to know if there was anyone you thought would be of use to you. I'm not fooled into believing you have total control over yourself, now or ever."

He answered despite himself, "Yes, but I don't think she'd be interesting in joining."

"Then you can tell Director Fury to ask nicely," she said, opening the door and directing him through it. Bruce ambled into Fury's office, nervously adjusting his glasses.

"You people never ask nicely," he retorted.

Black Widow allowed the barest hint of a smirk to cross her features as she closed the door behind him.

Fury stood at the other side of the desk with his arms crossed, waiting. The room was like the rest of the offices of S.H.E.I.L.D's base, modern, mostly bare, and filled with monitors blazing with whatever information the user had been perusing.

Already regretting his slip up in announcing there was a person who be useful to S.H.E.I.L.D., he knew the oppressing feeling was about to get worse. "Are you familiar with Reverie?" he asked, hoping for once that a master spy would have no idea who he was talking about.

S.H.E.I.L.D's director looked surprised, and quickly pulled up a new set of files. Three pictures of three very different girls appeared on a screen, followed by what seemed to be very little information. "An illusionist, you want me to make someone who fills people's heads with crazy * part of the Avengers? Not to mention a former X-man? I only call on them when—," he began.

"Usually when it has something to do with stopping the Hulk, yes I remember Wolverine, or the other guy does. I'm not asking you to blackmail him again. You asked me if there was anyone I thought would be useful and I told you, Reverie."

Fury raised the eyebrow over his eye-patch and scowled impressively. "You trust her?"

"More than I trust you," he answered smartly. "And these pictures you have on file, not one of them are right." This was partially a lie. The pictures on the screen were masks of illusion she probably used frequently, one of which he recognized, but S.H.E.I.L.D seemed to have failed to get a real image of her.

"We can find her without her real face," Fury said harshly. He picked up a device that resembled a phone and spoke into it. "Send a team to collect the mutant Reverie. If she's in Xavier's Mansion wait for her to leave and travel a fair distance away before you approach."

Bruce Banner smiled to himself. S.H.E.I.L.D was going to have an interesting time with the illusionist.

I was not hiding, for once. The city I was living in was full of hiding places and people like me. There were even underground meetings for group discussions that reminded me of therapy. I'd had enough of that garbage and never went, but I knew where to find one and when as a back-up hiding spot.

Okay, yes, I may have been partially hiding, but I always was. Because of this I classified not having at least three escape plans beforehand when I was out and about as 'not hiding'.

Tonight I was going out with a human friend who would probably be offended if I ran off halfway through the date, but I was optimistic that my pursuers had at least taken a break in searching for me.

Steven, my date, was unremarkable and human, which is not to say I had anything against him, but I was mostly humoring him. I was also playing with him a fair bit. He knew me as one of my more attractive masks, which I had amplified for his benefit.

Doing things like this was what had caused tension with a group of mutants I had joined who believed everyone was equal and attracted the attention of mutants who believed the opposite. So like the rest of a series of completely escape-able problems, I up and left with more than my fair share of guilt.

I belonged to nobody.

Steven seemed to be getting the opposite of that idea and was drinking more wine than he should have been. He was most likely gathering the courage to invite me back to his home. As lucky as he was that I had given him a helping hand in his dating reputation, he was not going to get that lucky. I had an entirely different schedule for the evening and nothing was going to ruin it.

Dinner, walk me to my apartment, maybe a peck on the cheek, back to the protection of my safe house, I listed off. Perfect, no chaos, no mess. Safe.

Predictably, chaos struck three seconds after my mental reiteration of the plan.

An arrow sliced past my face and embedded itself into the wall behind me. It spread a net which missed me but snagged one of my ankles, breaking my focus and shattering the illusion I had plastered over my features. Ignoring the faces of the surprised humans, I tore my foot free of the trap and ran.

More of the net-arrows followed me as I fled to the escape route I had planned in advance while half-listening to my date fumble his words as he tried keep his eyes on my face. It was only after I ran into the four armored men that I realized I should have been looking ahead to make sure the ambushers were not being clever. Infiltrating the senses of those around me, I realized every escape option was covered by more of the uniform clad men.

Any defensive measure I could have possibly thought of in advance wouldn't have worked. I was a mouse already in their talons, the only method of escape was to wriggle and let myself fall.

Using my favorite fail-safe, I infiltrated their sight and made myself appear to be a young girl. "Hello? What are you doing?" I asked innocently, making them hear a sweet fairy-like voice. The men holstered their guns, which had previously been pointing at me and stared calmly.

They did not move aside and were looking beyond me, waiting for something. I turned around to make my way to the other exit I had examined and was surprised to see another of the strange arrows stuck in the ground at my feet. I dove aside, expecting another net, but found myself crashing into a fifth armored man who did not hesitate to hit me in the neck. Something pricked through my skin and I felt a small dart.

Furious, I cut off every single one of the man's senses, rendering him blind, deaf, and trapped in a suspended feeling of nothingness. Frightened, he lashed out, meaning to hit me but catching one of his companions and bringing them to the floor also. He was sent into his own personal bubble of oblivion and the two began wrestling. I saw them still panicking as fuzzy blackness crashed over me.

The evening was sufficiently ruined.

Drat.