The first chapter of my first public story! I hope you guys like it. Nothing too saucy in this chapter, but there will be in future, wink wink. Let me know what you guys think :)
CHAPTER ONE
It was a fairly quiet day for the Avengers. After the whole Tesseract and Loki thing everyone had gone their separate ways for a while. Tony worked on rebuilding the Stark Tower, and Bruce helped him. Natasha and Clint went back to working as agents for S.H.I.E.L.D. Thor had gone back to Asguard with Loki in tow. Steve, well, he went back to his normal life (if you could count being in the wrong century as normal) which meant being at the gym for most of the day, rekindling his love for art and fighting with electronics. He was still trying to adjust to being in the twenty-first century. After a while though the Avengers had started to miss each other. They'd become good friends fighting side by side. They started meeting weekly (everyone except for Thor, who was a little bit unreachable in Asguard), whether it was for lunch, or combat training, or just hanging out.
Tony decided that it would be best for everyone if the Avengers became a permanent thing. After all, Thor had told them that the Tesseract had let the rest of the universe know that they were ready for a higher level of war, so they never knew when another invasion like Loki's would happen. So Tony had the Avenger Mansion built. Located just outside of New York City the mansion became Avengers HQ. Bruce and Steve moved into the mansion, along with Tony's J.A.R.V.I.S. system, a small army of maids and a couple of live-in chefs. Every now and then Nick Fury would call on the help of the Avengers and they would always be there to save the day from monsters and robots created by mad scientists, or rouge mutants, or anything else that threatened lives. But today there were no threats.
Tony and Bruce were in the mansion's large laboratory, as usual. They had never stopped studying the Tesseract. Though they no longer physically had it, they had plenty of data on it from its time in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession. Clint and Natasha were cuddled up on a sofa in the mansion's biggest living room. They'd become a 'thing' since the Loki situation. Clint was still pretty messed up from Loki's mind control, but being around Natasha seemed to help. Steve was in one of the mansion's bedrooms that he'd converted into a sort of art studio, working away at an oil painting of hilly landscape.
At that moment the door bell ringing was heard across the mansion.
Tony called for J.A.V.I.S.
"Jarvis, who is it?"
"It is Director Fury, sir, accompanied by a young woman." replied the artificially intelligent computer system.
"Let him in" said Tony, worried by the Director's visit. He glanced over at Bruce, who looked equally troubled. Usually Nick just called if there was a mission. What could be so important that he needed to be here in person? As for the woman, he assumed she must be his assistant.
"Sir, the Director is requesting the presence of the Avengers in the main foyer." added Jarvis.
"Call them in then. Bruce and I will be there in a minute."
"Very good, sir"
Perplexed and curious, the two geniuses made their way to the lobby.
In the living room Clint and Natasha were still cuddled together. Natasha was trying to watch the movie playing on the far-to-big television, but was having difficulty hearing it over the snoring of Clint, who had fallen asleep about forty minutes ago. She wouldn't have to try for much longer though because Jarvis interrupted.
"Pardon me Miss Romanov and Master Barton, but your presence is required in the lobby immediately"
"What for?" replied a disgruntled Natasha.
"Director Fury is here, Mam"
"Right, we'll be there right away"
Confused by this Natasha made her way out of sleeping Clint's hold and shook him gently.
"Clint, get up"
He groaned and sat up slowly.
"What, what's wrong? Is there a mission?" he yawned.
"I don't know. Fury is here, he wants to see us all in the Lobby" claimed Natasha.
"What? Fury is here?"
"Yes, so we'd better get going"
"Right" Clint agreed. He got up and stretched out his arms before following Natasha to the lobby.
Over in Steve's make-shift art studio Jarvis also interrupted. Annoyed by the disturbance, Steve hurriedly put down his paint palette and left his brush bristles-down in a cup of water. He disliked leaving his art supplies in this state and hoped that his brush wouldn't be ruined when he got back.
The others were already in the lobby as Steve made his way down the stairs. They stood looking confused, glancing from one another to the always-stern looking Fury to the mysterious girl who stood by him. As the sound of Steve's footsteps on the mahogany staircase echoed around the otherwise quiet room they turned to look at him. He made his way to where they were standing.
"What's going on, Director?" asked Steve.
"Nothing hostile. I just have somebody I'd like you all to meet." the Director informed him. "Now just hear me out guys. I know some of you," he glanced slyly at Tony, "have reputations for being a bit... stubborn. But I've been reading some of the reports from your latest missions and I'm going to admit that I'm a little worried. It seems to me that without Thor you lack some of the power you had as a complete team. Now I'm not saying you guys are weak without him, I'm just saying that... I think you could do with an extra pair of hands"
The Avengers looked irritated by this but the Director had a dependability for always being right, so they decided to keep quiet about their opinions. After a short silence Tony was the first to speak up.
"Okay, so when do we meet them?"
"Right now. This is Miss Elaine Davis." Fury indicated to the woman who stood next to him.
Not his assistant then. Tony thought.
Before now Steve hadn't really taken a good look at the girl, but now that he did, well, she took his breath away. She was the most beautiful woman he had seen since Peggy. She was pale, but not so pale as to look sickly. She was the average height for a woman her age, which looked to be about twenty-five, and she had a very petite and healthy looking figure. Her hair was chocolate brown, and it fell in waves to just above her breasts. She stood shyly, looking at the ground. As Steve watched her she pushed aside her fringe and glanced up quickly, looking by coincidence right at him. Her eyes were a dazzling, deep shade of blue, and Steve could see that she wore very little makeup, just a little eyeliner and a touch of red on her lips, but it was obvious she didn't require any makeup.
The glance had lasted just a few seconds, but it made Steve's heart race. In his mind he thought that this is what Snow White must look like. The fairest in the land. His daydreaming was broken by Tony speaking again.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you Elaine, but... well no offence, but you don't really look like the fighting type." For some reason Steve had the sudden urge to punch Tony. He shook the feeling off.
"Just one of the many qualities that you could use to your advantage." the Director defended. "Along with her very practical martial art skills and her excellent gun skills, she possesses an ability that is very unique, which I believe could be quite useful."
"And that would be?" snorted Tony, unimpressed.
Fury turned to Elaine, who looked questioningly at him. "Go ahead, show them." he said.
Steve was having enough difficulty managing her immense beauty, but he swears that what happened next nearly killed him from lack of heartbeat and breathing.
Thanks for reading guys. Let me know what you thought. Be on the lookout for more chapters soon :)
