Chapter One:
Aphrodite Wants a Hamburger
She angrily looked through the glass panels of the cell as she paced in it wildly. She was fuming with anger that she had been caught, and that it was her own stupidity that made her land in the prison cell. If she hadn't gotten carried away by her destruction she would have been in her secret lab right now, but no she just had to try her strength against her enemies. I've got start setting limits for myself! She angrily thought. If I had never played with that experiment years ago, heck I would be normal right now! She stopped her pacing and crossed her arms across her chest. From this day on I swear I'm going to start stetting limits for myself. Hearing the outer door unlock loudly she slightly turned to look at who was coming. It was David, just an average agent man with brown hair and eyes who had been chasing her for many years with no luck until now. All because of that little mistake I made...she squinted her eyes at him and then turned her head, ignoring him.
"How is your day going?"
She snapped at him. "Its going rather better than I thought. By now I surely thought you'd have me connected to all the computers in the world."
"Oh we will, we just haven't finished collecting them all." He replied, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
She squinted at him again. Still keeping her arms crossed on her chest, she slowly shuffled closer to the glass panel. She inspected it for a few moments and then knocked on it loudly. "New technology?"
"Yes, actually, designed to hold something much stronger than you."
She smirked at him and gave another couple of knocks on the glass. "Last time I read your data base, a similar cell was designed to hold the hulk. It never proved against the hulk, but you guys did lock a god inside it and somehow it managed to escape and cause chaos in New York. Is a god suppose to be stronger than me?"
"That's, a different story," he replied sharply at her.
"I don't see how it is."
"He is a god of mischievous, he clearly could've corrupted the cell."
She removed her hand from the glass panel and gave him a chopped laugh saying, "He was still a god and he still got out, with corruption or no corruption. I think, this cell is only functional for certain beings, human beings, if I am to be exact." She could see that her response had struck a nerve on the man. Smiling at him, she folded her hands in front of her and without looking at him asked, "Are you really still collecting computers?"
David cleared his throat and walked closer to the cell. Upon closer inspection she could see pure tiredness in his face with large bags under his eyes, but she cold care less about the man. "No. One of our men has already begun in the creation of the computer that we will need to...test you." He replied to her as best as he could without alarming her. It didn't work.
"You hesitated to say test; is that a code for terminating me?" She didn't spare him a glance as she asked him. She already knew they were going to kill her. But the thought of dying turned her into a coward.
He stopped five feet away from cell and stood there mute, staring at her. And after a while, "We don't know yet. But what we do know is that your a threat to all of us."
She gazed at the man from the corner of her eye with a small grin on her face and said rather quickly, "A threat to all of you, who would that be? Humans? Top scientists? Military? You slimy, secretive, manipulative people?" She knew that when she turned like a coward before death they too turned into a coward of everything, not just death like her.
"Everyone!" He was growing impatient with her. For the last week it has been nothing but hell to him. He estimated that out of the week he probably only got two days of sleep. She constantly needed monitoring by him, afraid she'll escape his grasp again like so many other times before. And as he tried to interrogate her about her in the week, she answered nothing in a straight way and it was starting to kill him. At this rate he'll get nothing before she is terminated from the world.
She removed her eye from him. "As long as you're going to keep me locked in here, how about you bring me some real food? I would love to eat a hamburger with fries!"
David snorted at her and smiled, "I'll tell someone to bring you something." That's it, he gave up for the day. It seemed he was not going to get anything again but her bossy demands.
Again, she gazed at the man from the corner of her eye as he left the room. She slowly turned and walked over to grey metal bench and laid on it on her back. She crossed one leg over the other and let her arms dangle off the sides. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, thinking how she could get out of this situation. Closing her eyes, she flexed her hands, thinking. She had to get out, one way or another. If she was going to die she'd rather die unknowingly than to know when she was going to die. Death was her greatest fear...
Nearly six hours passed since agent David had paid her a visit and requested her the food. She was now sitting on the bench, cross-legged, hands folded on her lap and thinking. She already knew what she was going to do to get out of the cell, but it wouldn't be easy. Well, it could be easy but she already noticed that when she wants to take the easy way everything goes wrong for her. She let out an irritated sigh, not knowing what to do. She the heard the door unlock again but she was too agitated at the moment to deal with the agent. She would ignore him, unless he brought her food.
"Unless you brought me my hamburger and fries, you can gladly go away." She said grouchily.
"I brought you something much better instead."
She unfolded her hands and turned her head to look. Once David had fully walked in seconds later a group had walked in as well. She couldn't help the smile that spread on her face when her eyes landed on the Avengers. She had hacked into the database of S.H.I.E.L.D. a long time ago, even before they were assembled. She had all the information that is needed to know on every single Avenger. As her eyes roamed on the special group, she noticed the god that David and her were recently discussing about and his brother. She wondered why they were here when she knew they had gone back to Asgard.
"How are they better? I know I am very hostile but that doesn't make me a cannibal." She replied to David, disappointed that she had not gotten her hamburger and fries.
"They are not for eating," he said sternly and impatiently, "they here to keep an eye on you."
She laughed and said, "In other words, the Avengers are here to babysit me? Is this a joke?"
"Yeah is it? Fury said we'd look after a menacing threat to the world! She's nothing but a human!" Tony practically said with the same humor that was also found in the voice of the young woman behind the glass cell.
"A woman with bad manners at that," Captain commented. He too thought this was a joke. She seemed like an ordinary bad-mannered young woman.
"I know she seems harmless," David said turning to the group, "but don't let her fool you. She's one hell of a good deceiver." He knew he could trust this team to look after her. He himself kept en eye on her before, one person. But now there were five special people eyeing her and two gods. He felt as ease knowing he could take a nap now, which he so desperately needed to keep his patience with the young woman.
Turning her whole body to face her company outside the cell she said rather cheeky, "Thank you for your compliment agent."
David turned to give her a quick look and then turned back to the Avengers, "Keep a close eye on her and don't fall for anything." As he passed Tony he said to him, "She's brilliant, even more brilliant than you Mr. Stark." He said it on purpose so Tony would keep an even closer eye on the young woman, and with that he retreated to get her dinner.
Tony looked at the woman and said, "Oh it's on now. I'd like to see you design my iron suit inside that little cell of yours."
"Mr. Stark," she lowly said. She was in a bad mood, hungry, and a bit scared from knowing her fate and she was not going to start something with the billionaire at the moment.
"Mhm?" He replied with a smug smile.
"You don't want to mess with me right now." She simply warned him coldly. But if she had to start something she wouldn't mind. It would remove some of boredom that surrounded her.
By now Clint and Natasha had taken a seat with Steve where a small table was. Bruce was walking around the cell inspecting it and the two god brothers sat together on a bench beside Natasha. Tony was still standing in front of the cell, clearly mocking the woman inside.
"So all we do is babysit her?" Clint asked bored. He also took out a deck of cards from his pockets, which he was glad he brought with him sensing earlier that this mission was nothing but crap.
"I thought we fought to protect our world." Natasha also said bored. She was readying herself to beat anyone in the card game.
"What's your name?" Tony asked her. If he was going to babysit a beautiful grown woman he might as well know her name.
She stood up from the bench and walked towards Tony. She really didn't like him at all already, so she wouldn't answer him. Instead she said, "You really don't have to stay here, none of you. Like you said agent Romanoff, go save the world." She was clearly trying to get them to go away. After all they did ruin her plans of escape now. It would take a lot of her to battle five special beings and especially two gods. Loki may had tried to rule her world, but at the moment he seemed to oblige to his older god brother.
"Why are you even here anyway? I mean, if you don't mind me asking." Bruce said as he stood next to Tony. He really wanted to know why an ordinary human was locked in the cell that could contain the 'other guy'.
"If she won't give us her name why do you think she will tell you why she's here?" Tony jabbed his elbow into Bruce's arm. He thought he knew her so well. Turns out he didn't.
"I'm here because I'm not human anymore."
Tony gave a blanked stare at her. "You answer him but not me?" He was offended.
"I don't like you Mr. Stark. I don't like people who think they are better than me." She replied at him, taking in satisfaction from his offended look.
"Damn," Clint mumbled, "her ego's more inflamed than Tony's." He was shuffling the deck of cards now.
"How are you not a human?" Thor asked from the bench, clearly interested. He did not understand how a human could not be a human anymore.
Her complexion was starting to get irritated and angered. She walked over to the glass panel that was closest to Thor and said, "Years ago I messed with an experiment I shouldn't have. Now I'm paying the price for it."
"But what makes you not human?" Thor asked again.
She smiled at him and replied, "You'll find out soon." She was too annoyed to boastfully talk about herself at the moment.
"It must be something big," Tony said, "they didn't lock up reindeer games in a similar cell for nothing." Loki glared at the man with that comment. Tony simply threw a look at Loki that practically said 'it's true.'
All of sudden the woman screamed. This made everyone in the room jump to their feet. Twisting her body around, she ripped a dart away from her waist. She knew it was a tranquilizer but what she didn't know was from where it came from. This mad her fume with anger.
"It's nap time for you," Tony said chuckling at her.
She sneered at him and threw the dart at the glass, shattering the dart instead of the glass. "You idiot, tranquilizers don't work on me..." suddenly feeling dizzy she crashed into the side glass and slumped down, "that's some new stuff..." she said breathlessly. But she wasn't knocked out, only disorientated. David entered the room again and activated the doors to the cell to open. Once open he simply threw a box inside that he held and quickly closed the doors. By then she had regained herself fully. Standing up slowly she walked over box and picked it up. Opening she found the same packaged food like before, not her hamburger and fries like she had ordered.
"Enjoy." David said.
"This is crap," she said straight out. They didn't even, at least, change the packaged food. It was the same stuff over and over.
"How has she been acting?" David asked the others. He was ready to go to sleep but first he needed to know how things were going with her.
"OK, she just doesn't want to tell us her name." Tony replied.
"Aphrodite." David replied to him and walked out.
"So how's your food Aphrodite?" Tony asked with a smirk. Her name fit her quite well, Tony thought to himself.
"Aph," she replied closing her eyes in anger and throwing the box of food far away from her, "call me Aph." She was now truly aggravated for the rest of the night.
"You really don't look like an Aphrodite to me," Tony began to say. He wanted to see how far he can push her for now.
Bruce stared at Tony warningly. "We are to look after her, not to start a fight."
"Oh come on, I'm just trying to have some fun. We are going to be stuck here doing nothing for a long time!" Tony defended himself.
"It's not proper to fight with a woman, Tony." Captain also said sternly. He agreed they were going to be bored, but that did not mean to start disrespecting a lady.
"You will do well to ignore her," Thor said too, as he noticed how aggravated she had gotten all of a sudden.
"Fine then, I will!" Tony practically yelled. He ran over to the cell and knocked on it. "Hey, what did you want to eat originally?" He didn't ask because he was being nice, he asked because he had other plans.
Aph opened her eyes and looked at him. "A hamburger with fries." Was he really going to bring her some real food? Looking at him, she gave herself twenty percent chance he was going to bring her real food.
Tony smiled at the others and began to walk out. "I'm going to make up to all of you by getting the food she wants, alright?"
Aph glared at Tony as he left, she didn't get a good feeling about this. Walking over to her bench she sat on it. For a while she watched Clint, Natasha, and Steve play their card game. Thor and his brother Loki were chatting, but the younger god seemed like he didn't want to talk at all.. Bruce had brought with him a book and was scribbling in it. More time passed, Thor joining the card game and leaving his brother behind on the bench. Loki seemed a bit glad now that his brother was away from him. Bruce was still busy scribbling in his book. Then as Aph was about to lie down Tony burst into the room with two big bags in each hand. Aph happily observed as Tony called everyone together and simply dumped the bags of food on top the card game. He started distributing the food, throwing little looks at Aph. Aph then grinned, not one bit moved by what he had done to her. This is why she only gave herself a bit of high hopes. And surprisingly Loki was the only one who seemed to know what had happen.
"Stark, everyone has their food portion except Miss Aphrodite," Loki said. He was not the one to care for others, but the woman seemed different to him.
"Oh yeah," Tony replied gaining everyone's attention now, "I seemed to have forgotten her order!" He was laughing inside his mind at his own little joke.
"Tony!" Natasha yelled disbelieving at what he had done.
"Hey, if she's smarter than me I'd like to see her get her own food." He replied and out of the bag he pulled out his burger and fries. "Come on everyone, lets eat!" Tony said and everyone became hesitant to eat. They looked at Aph who in return simply smiled at them, not a hint of anger of hurt in her face. Slowly everyone took their seat to eat. Tony had started unwrapping his burger and when he grabbed a french fry to eat, his burger and fries whooshed away across his eyes along with the fry he held between his fingers. Everyone watched aghast as the food flew across the room and then somehow passed through the glass wall. The food daintily landing beside her on the bench. Tony's chair screeched as he quickly stood from it.
"How did you do that?" He demanded. How did she do that!?
"You're not smart enough to comprehend of what I did, Mr. Stark." She replied stuffing a French fry in her mouth, smiling at him. If she had to start something she wouldn't mind, and indeed she didn't mind the scowl look on Tony's face at all. It actually pleased her.
He laughed and pointed at her, "Good one, I'll give you that one. What am I going to eat now though?" He stuck to his word, that she could have food if she could somehow get it.
She grinned at him as the box of packaged food she had thrown earlier, swooshed out of the glass cell through the glass wall and landed on the table where Tony's hamburger had previously been. "Enjoy," she said and took a big bite out of her hamburger and chewing with delight.
