Hi! I'm so happy to have started this new story. I've had a few ideas for Captain America stories and I just randomly started writing this one day when I got bored. I hope you guys like it! Definitely let me know what you think. Don't be shy. I love hearing from you guys. Sorry for any spelling/grammar errors. It's late and I want to get this up but I promise to go back and check it out in the morning. Anyways, on we go...

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Marvel.

Chapter One: Captured

Undisclosed Location

22:00 hours

July 6, 2014

Most people never expect to be thrown into a life-or-death situation when they wake up in the morning. They wake up tired and groggy, down a few cups of coffee to stay awake, and head off to work like every other day of the week – or that, at least, was what Rory Storms had been expecting of her day.

Now, chained to a desk in a cold interrogation room somewhere far away from home, she sat waiting to find out whether she would live or die. Her head still reeled from the blow she received trying to evade her captors a few hours before. The cool metal of the desk eased the throbbing in her forearms where they had grabbed her and held on tightly so she couldn't run.

At the moment she was trying to figure out exactly why she had been taken hostage by these people. Had she done something to anger them? Did they want to force money out of her father because he had just been elected senator? She knew for sure that this wasn't a random kidnapping. They wanted her for something or they would have killed her right off the bat.

Heated voices could be heard from outside the room. Rory's heart stopped beating and her body went rigid with fear. Suddenly the door to the room burst open and a man dressed in all black came stomping inside. He wore dark-shaded Aviator sunglasses with his jet black hair slicked back and a scar running down the left side of his face from his brow ridge to his jawline.

"Hello, Ms. Storms," he greeted. "My name is Mr. Rathmore and you have made my boss a very angry man."

"I haven't done anything," she whispered, averting her eyes.

Mr. Rathmore sighed and dropped a folder on the table in front of her. Stamped on the front in bright red ink was the word 'CAPTURED'. Underneath it was the symbol she had grown familiar with over the past six months – a black skull with six tentacles curled below it. HYDRA.

"In that folder is every story you have written for the New York Post regarding my employer's business. There is information in those that is not common knowledge to a lot of people. The fact that you made it common knowledge is why you are here," he explained.

"I just wrote what I was assigned. I'm new there and don't have much say," she stammered. "My father's the only reason I got the job. People with my experience start out writing obituaries, not hard news stories."

The man began pacing back and forth in front of Rory causing her to become more anxious. He stopped off to the left of her and asked, "Where did you get the information to back the stories? You had to of had sources in high places."

"I don't know where it came from. There would just be folders full of information at my door when I got home at night. I used what was inside to write my articles. I never talked to a single person for information."

"You expect me to believe that a magical folder with all the right stuff planted itself on your doorstep? How stupid do you think I am? You journalists always have a hidden agenda when it comes to hardcore shit like this. You have no idea the kind of fucked up stuff you've stumbled upon but, honey, you're in over your head," he laughed.

She tried to hide the panic that she felt when he started getting angry. Her hands were growing sweaty and the bundle of nerves in her stomach were about to make her throw up.

"We may have been beaten in D.C. but S.H.E.I.L.D. fell as well. Cut off one head and two more shall take its place. No one will be coming to save you, Ms. Storms. Not even your rich father," he stated before rising and walking out of the room.

Xxx

S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters

13:00 hours

July 7, 2014

"You wanted to see me, Sir."

Director Fury stayed where he was glancing out the window of his office at the miles and miles of treetops surrounding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new headquarters. With a job as stressful as his the view of the forest calmed him and made him feel safer than he usually did. The location of the new headquarters building was far more appealing than the Triskelion's. Fury would take secluded over metropolitan any day.

"I have a job for you," he explained as he turned to face Agent Clint Barton. "You and only you. I wanted it to be simple – get in and right back out."

Clint nodded. "What exactly do you want me to do?"

Fury picked up a folder on his desk and handed it to the agent. "Extraction. HYDRA snagged a journalist I had been feeding information to about what happened in D.C. Just enough so the world could see it wasn't entirely our fault for all the destruction. HYDRA didn't like what she was writing so they kidnapped her yesterday from her apartment in New York City. I want her back."

"Seems easy enough. Says here you think she's being held in Belize. The country might be small but I'm going to need a little more specific than that," Clint inquired.

"I've had Agent Swanson on it all night. He tells me an unmarked aircraft landed in Punta Gorda around 9 a.m. this morning. It only had three passengers onboard. Sounds a little suspicious if you ask me," the director responded.

Folding his hands behind his back and nodding, Clint asked, "When do I leave?"

"You have one hour to collect what you'll need and be on the tarmac for takeoff."

The archer turned and made his way to the door. Just as his hand rested on the door handle, Fury spoke:

"Oh, and Agent Barton, I need her alive. Preferably uninjured as well."

He nodded one final time before exiting the office and heading for the armory to pack for his approaching mission.

Xxx

Punta Gorda, Belize

5:00 hours

July 8, 2014

The rumble of an explosion rocking her cell woke Rory from her fitful sleep. She sat up straight in the metal chair and stretched her aching limbs. There were no signs of damage in her room but she could hear shouting outside. She dared to hope that it was someone coming to rescue her causing the chaos beyond the door.

"Hello?" she called out and waited a moment for a response. Another, closer explosion shook the room. "Hello! I'm still in here!"

She shook her head to refocus and listen after the deafening boom left her dazed and deaf. Gunfire is the first distinct thing she recognized. In between the bouts of the shooting Rory could once again hear shouting.

A guard burst into her room and she jumped up in surprise: the chair she was sitting in clattering to the floor.

"Come with me," he ordered her in a thick Hispanic accent. "Now!"

Rory stumbled her way to him, still kind of out of it from the earlier explosion. He grabbed her arm to pull her along with him. They passed the threshold of her cell and stepped into chaos. Men were running around with automatic rifles held tightly against their chests. Orders were being yelled out to her right and guards were shooting down the hall to her left.

"I have the writer," the guard said while pressing his free hand to his earpiece. "Heading north towards Rendezvous A. Be ready for immediate evacuation when we arrive."

He tugged her arm harder to try and pick up the pace but she refused to move any faster. They made a sudden left and the guard froze without warning. Before she had time to see what caused them to stop she was whipped in front of the guard like a human shield and a pistol was pressed against her temple.

At the other end of the hallway stood a single man holding a bow. He was dressed in all black with a gray bird symbol on his armband. He smiled at them, lifted the bow, slowly pulled an arrow from his quiver, and nocked it.

"Why don't you be a champ and put down that gun?" the archer requested.

The guard squeezed the arm he had around Rory tighter and replied, "You know I cannot do that."

"You got a death wish or something, buddy?"

"I would gladly give my life for HYDRA, but I doubt you would risk killing the girl. If I die it would not matter." The archer locked eyes with her and winked. "Cut off one head, two more shall take—."

The bowman released the arrow and Rory slammed her eyes shut not wanting to know if it would hit its mark or miss. A whoosh of air blew past her face and she found herself freed from the guard's tight hold. Her eyes snapped open and she turned to see the guard dead on the floor behind her with an arrow protruding from his right eye.

"Let's go!" the guy called from his place down the hall.

She took another second gaping at the dead guard, committing it all to memory, before hurrying to meet the man who saved her life.

Xxx

S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters

16:00 hours

July 8, 2014

"How is she?" Fury asked when Agent Barton was called to his office following his physical examination, shower and debriefing.

Clint shrugged. "Seemed to be fine on the way home. Quiet and a little shocked, but that's to be expected. Doc says she has a mild concussion from a blow to the back of the head and some cuts and bruises, too. Nothing that won't heal soon."

Fury nodded and leaned back in his chair. He waited a moment before pressing a finger against his glass table and speaking:

"Swanson, bring her in."

Rory entered, looking better than she did when Clint first saw her at the compound in Belize. Her dark auburn hair was wet and hung in loose curls down past her chest. She wore a plain white t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans that were a couple sizes too big on her small frame. Her blue eyes faced the ground and didn't look up even as Director Fury told her to take a seat.

"Ms. Storms I am Nicolas Fury, director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. Or S.H.I.E.L.D.," he informed her. "I believe you've already met Agent Clint Barton when he rescued you."

Her eyes flittered to the man, Clint, sitting next to her and then back to her lap where her hands were clasped together.

"Do you know why HYDRA kidnapped you?" Fury questioned hoping to get something out of the introverted girl.

"M-my articles," she answered, raising her eyes to meet Fury's. "I wrote some articles on HYDRA and it made them angry. At least that's what the man told me."

"What man?"

"He said his name was Mr. Rathmore."

Fury pushed something on his holographic desk and said, "Swanson, get me everything you can on a 'Mr. Rathmore' in connection to HYDRA."

"Did he say anything else?" Fury asked.

"Just that my articles made his employer angry and that he didn't believe I was being fed the information from some unknown source," she told him.

Fury nodded and smiled. "So they don't know who's been sending you the folders. That's good news. Means we can keep working on getting information about them out to the public."

"You-You're the one who was sending me the folders? You're the reason they took me?" Rory shouted.

She bolted up out of the chair outraged by the new discovery.

"Who do you think put the idea of you working at the Post in your father's head? I needed someone to get the information to the public without S.H.I.E.L.D. being dragged into it. Why do you think we saved you? We weren't just going in to save some helpless little journalist for no reason," the director explained.

"My father was in on this?" she shrieked and started pacing the floor in between the archer and Fury.

"From the very beginning. He knew there was a chance you would be taken but I reassured him that we would retrieve you if the need arouse. And we did."

She ceased pacing and stood there facing Fury with her mouth wide open and a heated glare. Rory Storms was beyond pissed. How could her own father put her in harm's way just because some hotshot guy with an eyepatch and long, black coat said to?

Rory huffed and resumed pacing.

"Be mad all you want but it's in the past. We need to worry about what's going on now. You're still a target for HYDRA and they won't stop coming at you until they've squashed you like a bug," he added.

"So what are you gonna do? Lock me up in a box somewhere until it's safe to come out?" she joked.

"Not a box, exactly; a cabin," he clarified. "Swanson, get Dr. Banner on the line. I need to have a word with him. Barton, will you escort Ms. Storms to her room while I make arrangements."

He nodded and walked past Rory to the door. She decided going with him was better than staying here with Director Rude.

They were almost out the door when the director called for the archer.

"Barton, one more thing: when you've dropped Ms. Storms off at her room I need you to bring someone in."

"Who, Sir?" the agent asked.

"Captain Rogers."

So that's it. Let me know what you think and I'll start working on the next chapter. :D -KAITi