Chapter One: Nightmares and Second Chances

She found herself walking down a dark corridor towards a grand door. She knew not what was behind it. There was a warm, soft glow emitting from the cracks. She noticed that everything was made of stone, but something wasn't right. The longer she stared at a single point, the more she noticed that everything was moving. It seemed to be a substance that mimicked lava and tar. Yet it was wet and deathly cold. A morbid hiss in the air. Her curiosity slowly become fright. She quickened her pace.

"We're running a few experiments with something very special." The booming voice shook the whole structure.

"Why me?" She yelled out.

"You are unique. And I have a good feeling about you." The voice chilled her to the bone.

"What if your wrong?" She was running as fast as she could towards the door, hoping it would lead to her escape.

The voice chuckled "Then we will have to dispose of you."

She felt a dark presence behind her. She stopped dead in her tracks, unable to move, shaking in horror. She tried screaming as loud as she could. There was nothing but silence. She couldn't even hear her own heart beat, yet it was pounding at 100 miles per hour. She felt like someone was standing right next to her, right outside her ear.

"We will make you the ultimate weapon." The voice hissed directly in her ear. She could feel its cold breath on her neck.

She screamed and jolted for the door. It was becoming harder for her to run. She could barely pick her feet up. She pushed and pushed, but it seemed the floor was consuming her with each step she took.

"There's no use running away Norah. You can't escape me!" The voice said with a power so strong it nearly knocked her down. Norah was almost to the door. The light that was once warm and gold had turned into a chilling blue light. She rocketed through the door, driven by her fear. There was a blinding light. She couldn't see anything. She could hear screams, gunfire, and the booming voice laughing and yelling. She was overcome by pain. It felt like a thousand electrified needles entered ever inch of her body. Her screams were drowned out by the others. The terror grew louder and louder until there was nothing but a high pitched ringing. She was writhing on the ground, trying her best to crawl away. The blinding light was slowly fading as she could make out the dark shapes of other beings. It was like walking through a thick white mist. The pain she was experiencing faded. She climbed to her feet and ran to what seemed to be a women. As she ran closer, she started to make out a face.

"Help me!" the woman screamed.

Norah ran toward her, reaching out to grab her hand. As soon as their fingertips touched the woman let out a deafening scream before disintegrating into a explosion of violet light.

Norah fell down attempting to shield herself from the blast, got up and ran the opposite way. Another figure emerged, a man this time.

"Help me!" He yelled. Norah reached out to him. Once she touched him he disintegrated just like the woman. Norah screamed, not knowing what was going on. She didn't know which way to run, but she ran anyway. She was soon surrounded by figures. Men, women, children, all yelling and screaming. But they weren't saying "Help me" they were yelling "Kill her!"

Norah ran around trying to find a way out of the crowd without touching anyone. The light was becoming brighter again. She could barely see the figures anymore. She stopped and collapsed on the ground sobbing. As she brought up her hands to burry her face, Norah noticed something odd. Her arms and hands were consumed in the violet light that killed that man and woman. She shot up to her feet in attempt to escape. But the light was covering her inch by inch. Soon she was shrouded in the violet light that was dancing around her like liquid fire. The voices were growing louder, the figures moving closer, panic taking over.

"No no no no!" Norah yelled as she ran her fists into her head. "Leave me alone! I don't want to hurt you!"

The figures didn't listen. They kept walking towards her "Monster! Witch! Satan spawn!" Those were only a few words she could make out.

Norah dropped to her knees, hugged herself and started rocking back and forth, sobbing hysterically. The pain of electrified needles came back. It was too much, it broke her and drove her over the edge. With one final blood curdling scream, she exploded with the light that eliminated everything in it's path like a nuclear bomb.

Norah fell out of her bed in a cold sweat. She couldn't tell if she was shaking or shivering. Her skin was glowing, but it quickly faded. She hung her head and quietly cried on the cold floor. This was the third time this week she had a night terror like this. She hated that she was becoming used to it. They were becoming more vivid and she didn't know why. She swallowed her feelings and took a deep breath. She made her her way to the bathroom and turned on the water. Once the water was warm she undressed and climbed into the shower. The hot water vanished her chills and had a calming effect. Her phone went off in the other room, but she ignored it.

Once the hot water ran out, she exited the shower, dried off and got dressed. She went about her morning routine in silence. She wish she had someone to talk to about her dreams. But she didn't have many friends. She kept to herself for fear of causing pain. The day went by without anything exciting happening. For Norah, this was a blessing. She sat at her desk working on her research. An alarm went off on her phone, it was 7pm. It disturbed her how quickly days went by for her. She got her notes together, put on her white leather jacket on and started to visualize the lab where she worked. She closed her eyes and focused on a hallway that wasn't traveled often. And with a sharp and swift whoosh, she teleported herself their.

Norah looked around to see if anyone had seen her. The coast was clear. She made her way to her lab so she could start her work. She didn't have much contact with any of the other researchers and scientists there. They all found her odd. Brilliant, but odd. She approached the door, entered the required code and stepped inside. Her lab assistant was already there.

"Hi there Dr. Adleman!" she said in a peppy voice.

"How many times do we have to go over this Cas? Just call me Norah." Cas was one of the few people Norah could tolerate day after day. She was the best lab assistant she ever had. Cas always seemed to brighten her day, though Norah would never tell her this. Norah had always been self-possessed and reserved, but people were quick to write her off as cold and distant. She knew this was a contributing factor of why she didn't have many friends. She was glad that Cas was able to see past all that and accept her for what she was.

"Are we going to try again today?" Cas asked, becoming very serious.

Norah thought for a moment and replied "No, not today. It's not a good time."

"Nightmares again?" Cas asked concerned.

Norah was quiet as she fiddled with her papers. "Yeah..."

"Are you okay?"

"I guess. They're getting worse. More vivid..." Norah was becoming unsettled "...I don't really want to talk about it."

"Okay, sorry." Cas said quietly.

"Let's just focus on setting up all this new equipment and importing the data" Norah said as she sat down at her computer. It was provided by Stark Industries so needless to say it was the best you could get. Luckily for Norah her boss had a thing for her, so she received a bonus for equipment every time there was extra money in the budget. It also helped that a someone that wished to remain anonymous invested in her research. Even though she was extremely grateful, Norah couldn't help being a little suspicious since mostly everyone thought that half her ideas were crazy and impossible and the other half were classified and only 3 people had clearance besides herself. Cas, her boss Neil, and someone who she didn't know the identity of. That was something Norah was planning on changing soon. Since her research involved her abilities, she wanted to keep tabs on everyone who knew for two reasons: One, the fewer amount of people who knew about her the better. And the second reason was something Norah had a hard time accepting. If herself or someone that she knew was put into danger, she would have to take care of the threat.

Ten o'clock rolled around, there were footsteps in the hallway. It brought Norah to attention. Not a lot of people came around at this hour, and these were footsteps she didn't recognize. The doors to the lab opened and a man in a clean cut suit stepped in.

"Miss Norah Adelman?" He looked at her dead in the eye. His expression was serious, but pleasant.

"Yes? How can I help you..." Norah reached out to shake his hand.

"Agent Phil Coulson of the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division." He said shaking her hand with a firm grip.

"Wow, what a mouthful." Norah said eying him inquisitively.

"You can call us S.H.I.E.L.D." Agent Coulson smiled.

She recognized the name. She had done some freelance work for them retrieving information a few years before. It was a successful mission, but she did have to take a few people out. She became uneasy.

"Okay, um, what is all this about?" Norah asked.

"There's been an incident at our base of operations..." Agent Coulson opened up the tablet he was holding and handed it to Norah. "This should clear a few things up."

Norah took the tablet and proceeded to grow through the information.

"What's this?" Norah asked looking at a picture of the Tesseract.

"That's the Tesseract. It was stolen from us earlier this evening."

It looked familiar to Norah, but she had no idea where or how she could've seen it.

"I'm sorry Agent Coulson, but how does all of this concern me?" Norah asked wanting to get to the point.

"We've been keeping an eye on you Ms. Adelman. We are in desperate need of someone with your..." he paused and took a deep breath. "...unique abilities."

Cas inhaled sharply, shot out of her chair, and looked at Norah.

Norah became very tense. "How do you know about that?" She asked.

"We're S.H.I.E.L.D. It's our business to know everything." Coulson replied. "And trust me when I say that we're not only approaching you because of you gift."

Norah scoffed

"We believe you will be able to help us in these next few weeks." Coulson continued.

Norah found herself believing him. "So you're here to ask me for my research?" She asked, still not quite clear of what was expected of her.

"I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative."