Hello all! This is a rewrite of a fanfic I once began writing called "Stars and Stripes" that was shortly published on before I put it down again. This is also my very first, real Marvel fanfiction, so I'm really excited! :) I really hope you'll enjoy!

This fic will be based on Captain America: The First Avenger

Here's a link to a playlist for the franchise - songs may be added along the way: youtube dot com slash playlist?list=PLJKPr4nzBppfH6ES5yaLDlRap-l5MGJ07

Disclaimer: I owe nothing but my own characters and creative freedom in some cases. Everything you recognize belongs to Marvel.

General Warning: There will be in some chapters be mentioned and visualized situations of child experimentation, abuse and torture. So if this triggers someone, please thread carefully. Thank you.

Storm Warning: The First Avengers

Prologue:

"Lapsus Memoriae" – latin, ' a slip of the memory'

November 20th, 1940 – New York City

"What are we going to do with her?" Howard Stark voiced concernedly as he watched the little girl turning and thrashing in the bed in the interrogation room they had turned into a make-shift bedroom. He'd like to admit that he never had been particularly good with children, but the sight before him was unnerving and made the brilliant inventor uncomfortable, instantly feeling sympathy towards the child and hatred towards the bastards who had done this to her.

"Oh, I don't know, Stark. Maybe we ought to help her." Colonel Chester Phillips retorted sarcastically at the younger man. The Colonel too frowned uncomfortably at the sight before him. He was a tough, no-nonsense man, but he felt empathy towards the little girl in the bed and what she had endured. Most men he knew wouldn't have made it before having gone mad. But this girl wasn't a normal girl either. Her family history suggested that there ran a mysterious mutation in their blood. This girl was the last of them. At the table before him, four files were open; two males, two females.

The girl looked like her mother with most facial features, but she had her father's jaw and hair color while the older brother looked like their father the most. Colonel Phillips hissed quietly to himself when he saw the brother's DoD: June 20th 1934. The girl before him had been a captive of HYDRA for six years of her life. She was born in 1929. Her brother was killed and she was abducted on June 20th 1934 – five years old.

"It won't be easy." Dr. Abraham Erskine commented, watching the girl with concern, a thoughtful frown appearing on his face. "Not one bit."

The doctor looked thoughtfully down at the files in front of the Colonel. The reports from the medical personnel told him that she was beyond reach mentally for her age, and she was unstable. The older man closed his eyes regretfully, anger slowly welling up in him. He had seen what they had done to that little girl. He had seen the innocent light slowly being drained out of her eyes. In the end, she had stopped screaming or fighting against them when they experimented on her. She lay there numbly, letting them do what they wanted. Her home for the past six years had been dark cells below the surface of the earth and her only company had been him for periods of time until the SSR and Agent Carter had found and rescued them.

"What are you thinking, Doctor?" questioned Agent Peggy Carter politely. The young British woman had impressed him remarkably. She was strong and independent. He too knew of her heartbreak of losing her older brother to the war shortly before she joined the special British forces, only to be loaned to the Americans a month before her rescue mission of him and the girl.

The Doctor frowned as he came up with a quite special solution in his head. He had never tried it before, but neither had he with the Super Soldier Serum before Johann Schmidt, the head of HYDRA, forced him to test it on the young girl before he was forced to test it on Schmidt himself. The young girl's transformation had been painful but successful – Schmidt's not so much. He didn't know if it had ultimately been because of the girl's mutation that it had succeeded, or if it was because of her mindset as innocent and good that had done the trick. Schmidt had become disfigured at the transformation and had become even more terrifying and wicked. Nonetheless, it had worked and perhaps this could work too.

"It's risky," he spoke admittedly, "But I believe it could be possible to erase some of her memories."

"Is that possible?" Howard asked, obviously surprised.

"It is possible." Dr. Erskine repeated. "But again, risky."

"Would you do it?" Colonel Phillips asked with a raised eyebrow.

Dr. Erskine looked determinedly at the American Colonel. "I saw what they did to that poor girl. I would do anything to erase those horrifying memories from her mind. No one should have to go through such torture."

"But would it be something she would wish for in the long run?" Agent Carter questioned softly.

"She could become an important asset for the Allies in this war if she can control whatever's going on inside, Agent Carter." Colonel Phillips commented. "Besides, the memory slip would be permanent, right Doctor?"

The Doctor shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid a permanent procedure is not possible to create with the resources we have. But a temporary memory slip would let her grow at least some years, before she must confront her past once again. It would give her the time to grow and mature. Help her become stronger."

"How long do you need?" Colonel Phillips questioned.

"Give me a week." Dr. Erskine nodded.

Colonel Phillips nodded acceptingly, before he looked around at everyone present in the room.

"And we all agree that this is the way to do it?" He questioned, looking thoroughly at all of them. Doctor Erskine and Howard nodded quickly while Agent Carter hesitated, looking at the girl before her, biting her lip thoughtfully.

"Peggy?" Howard questioned softly.

The agent's eyes narrowed to Doctor Erskine. She sent him a nod and stated, "If this is what Doctor Erskine thinks would be best for her, then I'm in."

Doctor Erskine nodded. "Excellent. I believe it would be good to have someone try to connect with her meanwhile also. It would make the transition and the process so much easier that there will be a familiar face once she wakes up from the procedure."

The doctor and the Colonel's eyes immediately looked to Peggy and Howard. The latter's mouth opened in shock as he comprehended the doctor's suggestion.

"I—I'm not good with kids, children." Howard stuttered.

"He really isn't." Agent Carter agreed, directing a side-ways smirk at the inventor.

"Nonsense." Doctor Erskine denied with a smile. "You clearly show empathy for the girl, Mr. Stark. The rest comes with time. The same goes for you, Agent Carter."

"So," Howard started, slowly pointing between him and Peggy, a boyish and suggestive smirk slowly appearing on his face. "The both of us? Like a family?"

"Goodness, no." Peggy snorted, sending him a look.

Doctor Erskine smiled at the inventor's flirting manner. "I don't believe that should be necessary, Mr. Stark. I believe the dear girl merely needs someone she can go to, people who'll make her feel safe."

At Howard's slight disappointed look, Colonel Phillips then cleared his throat and slowly began to lead the doctor out of the door, declaring. "Now where that's settled, I'd suggest we'd leave the two guardians alone for a while. Don't you agree, Doctor?"

Erskine didn't get to agree before Colonel Phillips had closed the door behind him again.

Silence fell upon the two remaining persons in the viewing room. Peggy managed to sneak glances at Howard, who had turned his attention back to the girl behind the glass. Her thrashing had ceased, but had instead been replaced by soft, heartbreaking whimpers.

Peggy frowned and swiftly turned the red button in front of her, silencing the whimpering by turning off the sound.

"You've gone awfully quiet, Howard." She commented softly.

"I wonder what would go through a person's head when they put a kid through something like that. It's always awful when you hear of people being tortured, but it becomes worse when it's kids." Howard stated, his gaze not leaving the ten-year-old's figure.

"Is that Howard Stark going soft I hear?" Peggy teased lightly though she couldn't help but agree with him.

"Of course not," Howard snorted, straightening himself into his full height. "It's merely me stating the facts."

Peggy chuckled softly at the inventor's fluster, seeing straight through his lie. Sending him a smirk as she made to open the door, she spoke. "If that's what you want to call it, then fine. But I know that this girl has moved something in you despite the short amount of time I have known you. And you can't run from it like you do with the other young ladies."

The British agent then too left the room, leaving Howard Stark stand flabbergasted by the British woman's declaration. He would of course never admit it out loud, but she could be right. The sight of the deeply troubled girl had moved something in him, but he wasn't sure what to call it yet. He was nervous about the whole guardianship as Colonel Phillips had called it, but he thought that he at least owed it to the girl to give it a try, and he wasn't alone. Peggy, a woman who seemed to surprise him for every time they crossed paths which had been a lot lately, would be with him on this. And she was a woman. A British agent of a woman, but nonetheless still a woman. And Howard had read somewhere that every woman except for a few had maternal instincts. He could get through this – with a little help. He just prayed that he wouldn't ruin the kid further with his persona in the process.