"Ow!" Yelled Cassia as a lime green tennis ball viciously smacked her in the face. Her dull grey eyes opened to glare daggers at the individual who had done that unforgivable deed. "What was that for?" She yelled across the room at her tormentor, one Tony Stark. His deep brown eyes stared back into hers.
He shrugged nonchalantly as he turned back to a literal drawing board. "Just seeing if you could see it coming." The problem was, she had seen it coming. But she forced herself to stand still and willing let the fuzzy ball hit her. It was surprisingly hard to not move when hurtful smack-age was imminent.
"Of course I saw it coming, you idiot! It hit me in the eye socket." I'll do more than hit him in the eye socket, she thought bitterly. Shove it where the sun didn't shine is more like it.
Tony said nothing as he turned around, staring intently at her, or rather, a point just beyond her. What was he going to do this time to make her react? Pop a balloon behind her ear?
"So, genius, what's next on the list that SHIELD hasn't thought of already?" The question barely left her lips before her senses were screaming at her. The threat wasn't behind her, it was above her. Not able to resist her natural instincts this time, her violently pink converse squeaked on the floor as she moved suddenly. Her eyes darted behind her to her previous location and saw a massive tarantula milling around the floor in filthy arachnid fashion, where it had presumably fallen from the metal grate in the ceiling.
"What the actual fuck?" She screeched, stepping gingerly around the eight legged monstrosity.
"How did you know to step out of the way?" Tony asked intently.
"Because you were looking behind my shoulder." She lied and quickly changed the subject, all the while inching away from the spider. Tony Stark was a raving lunatic! Who on earth would drop a spider on someone?
"Look, can you tell me why I'm here, with YOU," she said with thinly veiled disgust, "rather than a cell. Because I get it, I did wrong. I did wrong in the name of money." A loooot of money.
"Ordinarily, you would be. But you messed with a certain corporation, which got Fury's attention. Mistake number one. And then, you managed to stay nearly hidden for six months. Mistake number two. That really got those paper pushers interested." She wouldn't call what she did hiding. Every once in a while, she was hit with the urgent feeling to leave. But six months earlier, she was shocked by the pounding in her chest that had caused her to leave her luxurious apartment to find refuge with a rather unsavory sort and disappearing into the wind.
"And let me tell you, if SHIELD is looking for you, and they don't find you, that's a feat all in itself." The infamous SHIELD, led by an even more infamous director Fury. She'd heard about them through the grapevine for a few years, but she never once thought she would get tangled into their web.
"On top of that," he continued, "when Fury's people found your name, it started popping up everywhere. And so of course, they got a bit curious. And it happens, you've been really lucky. Everything from lucky investments to narrowly missing concrete slabs falling from buildings when the buildings were being destroyed by aliens. Not a single scratch." Luck had nothing to do with it. But if that's what he and those at SHIELD believed? Then she would let them believe it.
"So, here we are. Fury was gonna put you in here with a bunch of his goons to get answers, but then he decided that I would be better, mainly because I use less threats to get what I want, and more boyish charm." He said with a dazzling smile that made Cassia want to slam her head into the concrete floor. Not noticing her internal struggle, he continued speaking, "And I have to admit, I was a bit curious. Which was mistake number three."
"No, instead of threats, you throw spiders on me." She hissed indignantly.
"I didn't say I was perfect for the job, just that I wanted to do it." He was met with silence, and took that as his cue to continue. "For starters, you're not evil. Not that bad, anyways. I mean you have done some reeealllly questionable things in the name of greed-"
"Haven't we all?" She interrupted.
"Fair point." He had started to speak again when she once again interrupted.
"Are you seriously trying to get me to agree to joining a shadow organization with no oversight?" Not waiting for an answer, she turned to the steel door. Is everything metal in this place? She thought to herself as the door made a hiss as the door swung open to reveal none other than Director Fury.
"Join would be an overstatement." He said briskly, his one eye staring deeply into her own. She flinched. He'd been listening. Creepy.
"You poorly saved a city being destroyed by aliens who had a bunch of flying mechanical whales by using force, and you honestly think that I would be good at that?" She'd end up killing more people than she could save. Or manage to find a donut. It could really go either way.
"Well, it would be kinda useful to have an ally to predict every move of the enemy."
She scoffed. "Dude. You caught me only because I was suspected of insider trading for manipulating the stock market. How does that translate into me stopping bad guys to you?" She'd do better when she escaped. No more stock markets or high profile investment firms. Just anonymous online poker from now on.
"Because if you don't, you get thrown into prison. And it'll be a prison operated by SHIELD. So not exactly a cushy apartment in Manhattan." He said, referring to her previous abode before.
"And of course, the fact that you took out twenty agents and nearly escaped." Tony sounded from behind her. Cassia cocked her head to one side, thinking about the previous day. She hadn't exactly taken out any agents. It was more like she had avoided them to the point they knocked themselves out on various hard surfaces.
"Yeah, nearly." She scoffed, looking back at the genius billionaire. "And I can't predict shit. Otherwise, I would have seen you all coming."
"You did the first, oh, I don't know," the mischievous genius held up seven fingers, "seven times. Before WE got lucky for once. You were shot with a tranqdart, that barely hit you."
"Dumb luck."
"Was it dumb luck that you didn't have a scrap from sparring with a couple dozen trained agents?" He leaned back against a stainless steel counter. "I saw the video. You anticipated every move before it happened." He held up his fingers. "You were this close to avoiding that dart." He chuckled. "When tall dark and quiet sent me the video last night, I had to cancel date night with Pepper. So it's actually your fault she's mad at me right now." Cassia rolled her eyes. It wasn't her fault he'd done that. How stupid could this genius be?
"I barely avoided anything." She said, in a much smaller, less antagonistic voice. Cassia knew exactly what Stark was talking about. But admitting the truth would make it all the much more real.
"Poor Agent Romanov still has a headache." He shook his head. "She'll give you hell for that later, Cassie." Cassia's nose flared at the repugnant nickname.
"And what's more, they couldn't find any abnormalities on your CAT scans or MRI." Her eyes met his quickly.
"You did what to me?"
"Look kid, it was either that or a lobotomy. Which someone did suggest, by the way." Her fingers ran through her hair nervously.
"Couldn't you just have asked me questions?"
"Well, they did try that first, but you know what happened."
She tongue clicked in annoyance and slowly turned to face Fury once more. "So if I chose to go to prison, would I ever see the outside of a cell again?"
"Probably, but it would only be to see the inside of our medical facility while we figure out just what makes you tick." She gulped involuntarily as he spoke. "Or, we can monitor you, figure out what makes you tick, and consider you a valuable asset."
Cassia Quinn weighed her options carefully. But who was she kidding? She had no options! Either be poked and prodded inside a medical box for the rest of her life, or be poked and prodded from a position of more relative comfort? Decisions, decisions. Without thinking very much, she chose the decision that wouldn't involve breathing sterile air for a relative eternity.
"How do I become a valuable asset?" She sighed. It would be impossible for her to beat them, so she had to join them.
"We've already done every possible noninvasive cognitive test that can be done for the time being while you were unconscious. So what's next is a field test." She sensed a but.
"But," she was right!, "I don't trust you. As soon as I let you outside, your ass is gonna make a run for it, and we might not be able to catch up." That was fair. She would try to disappear before they even knew she was missing, and she would probably be successful.
"And you know what? I would understand it. You're scared, confused. Most people would be." He was right. Fear was fluttering in her stomach, just waiting to burst out and make her lose all reason. "But if we don't get you, there are others who would be just as eager. And they aren't as nice."
Nice. Oh yeah, they were totally nice. They stabbed her with a dart and ran medical tests on her while she was unconscious! But Cassia stayed silent, because she knew, deep down, that the Director was right about there being less savory organizations who would find her very interesting. Why couldn't she just have stayed low and stayed off their radar!
"So, we're gonna have a field test of sorts. It's gonna be isolated. Really isolated. So if you run, and we don't catch you? You'll probably die." They wouldn't send her to a desert, would they?
"Granted, even if you don't run, you might die. But whatever it is that you do, would be extremely useful down there." Her heart dropped.
"Down... Down where?" Did they find the entrance to hell? Did that mean hell was real? I'm screwed. Royally screwed.
"You'll see." Was all he said as he briskly turned on his heel before she had chance to ask him what he meant. She whirled around to look at Stark, who was still leaning on the counter. He just gave her a concerned shrug. What the hell did she just get herself into?
Trying for a new story! This is definitely going to be AU. There are certain characters I don't want dead and events that I don't like. This is OC oriented if you hadn't guessed. If you'd like, please give me your opinions and comments, and if you happen to like it follow and favorite. And if you have any ideas, send me a PM. I'd be interested know how I can improve.