This is my first fanfiction that I've decided to publish. I'm hoping that if I publish a story then it might help me carry on with one.
Katie rover was sat on the chair of her small apartment. Her feet were crossed onto the wooden coffee table and one empty bottle of Irish whiskey and another half empty bottle sat next to them. Nothing littered the laminate flooring; there were no dishes in the sink, no photos on the walls, and no clothes in the wardrobe, no television on the stand and no books on the shelves. Everything was empty. She had lived in the apartment for almost two weeks and she would probably move out within the next three days.
She never spent long anywhere.
Katie grabbed the whiskey and took a long gulp straight from the bottle. She leant her head back on the chair and tried to concentrate on the temporary feeling the alcohol provided. It was because of her advancements that the alcohol only affected her for a few seconds.
After cleaning up everything she possibly could, Katie turned to the alcohol . . . again. She wasn't legal to drink. Not even close. She was legal in Ireland, but she hadn't been back there in 6 years.
She looked down to the small bandage around her hand. She sighed and lifted the bottle to her lips. The intoxicated feeling filled her for a few seconds before it dispersed and left her feeling slightly down. She put her head back again and closed her eyes.
Katie was trying to stay calm and chilled but it was still hard. It had gotten easier but the horrible feeling was still there.
She opened her eyes once more ad looked at the battered red Converse on her feet.
There was a loud knock at the door and Katie looked confusedly down at the time on the watch strapped to the inside of her watch. It was 6 in the evening which wasn't exactly late but the fact that nobody ever visited her made this knock highly unexpected.
Nevertheless, Katie placed the alcohol behind the chair to hide it and then somewhat cautiously answered the door.
As the lousy wooden door was cracked open, the air was knocked out of Katie. She opened the door fully to stare Director Nick Fury straight in the face. Fury standing at her door could only mean one thing. Her advancements were needed. She moved to the side and the director invaded her nice safe apartment with his official unsafe business.
The director, clad in black, sat in the armchair opposite Katie. He sat with a perfectly straight back while Katie sat with her elbows propped on her knees and her fingers knitted together.
They had been sat in silence for a few minutes. "I never thought we would be having this conversation." Katie said without looking up to Fury whose gaze was burning into her skull.
"Believe me, neither did I."
"So why are you here?"
"The situation has become a cause for concern."
"What situation? So much of a concern that you have to call me in?" she finally looked up.
"Don't act stupid Katie; I know that you know which situation. You must have got too used to acting in your four years out of training."
"I'm not acting stupid, not with you. I'm humouring myself. Trying to see how much you've forgotten."
"Trust me. I haven't forgotten anything."
Katie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Ok, well. Tell me director; have you forgotten why I needed training in the first place?"
"It's hard to forget why you needed training. It's hard to forget the state you were in when the agents bought you in."
That sentence seemed to prick something inside Katie. "Yeah, well that part of me is gone now, for good."
"Is it Katie? Is it really gone?"
Katie didn't want to answer. She couldn't say it to herself. But she kept her eyes locked on Fury's. "You've been drinking." Fury accused as he looked down at the whiskey bottles. "Is that your new way of coping?"
"You could call it that." Katie said quietly and finally broke her eyes from the Directors. She looked down to her knees.
"Well I hate to inform you but the legal drinking age is 21."
"I'll be fine as long as no one tells on Me." she looked back up and smiled slightly.
There was quiet for a minute until Fury spoke up. "I know that you know about it."
"About what? The Avengers Initiative?" Fury nodded. "Of course I know about it. I know everything."
"You aren't that good."
"Lots of things change in 6 years." She said somewhat solemnly. "Is that why you're calling me in? You're getting the avengers together again?"
Fury took an intake of breathe as he thought of how to explain it. "After the Chitauri invasion, there was controversy about my team. A certain extremist group has taken it one step farther. Death threats have been found. They are getting worryingly close to finding us. I think that since you aren't known about then maybe it will make the group think twice about following them."
"Ok," Katie said slowly as she processed the information. "Your group might be being followed and you think that a new girl would throw these extremists off of the scent?"
"Exactly."
"Is there anything else?"
"Yeah," Fury said hesitantly. "You and the others are just young enough to go to the last year of high school."
Katie's face turned blank. "You're going to have to give me a minute to get my head around this one." She said after a minute. "I haven't been to school since I was 12, and you know the reason that I dropped out, and now you want me to go to an American high school?"
"Yeah." Fury was speaking like he expected her to turn him down.
Katie sighed. "Ah well," she smiled. "It'll be an adventure."
Fury stood up and smiled, quickly mirrored by Katie. "It's nice doing business with you miss Rover."
"Looking forward to it." they shook hands and then Fury walked to leave the apartment.
"I'm not going to pretend that you don't know where you're going."
"Of course I know where I'm going. I've known where you've been based for years."
"Good, I expect you to be at the SHIELD HQ by 10 tonight. That gives you just under 4 hours to get there."
"Yes sir."
Without another word, Fury left the apartment with a simple nod.
Katie waited for a minute until she heard the car drive off. She walked back into the middle of the apartment and frantically dug in her pockets. She pulled out the keys to her apartment and 2 dog tags on a necklace. She took a few deep breaths as she felt the cold metal and gently fingered the pressed letters.
KATIE
ROVER
14/6/95
RANK- A
RANGER
She took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." she said quietly to herself before she looked the necklace over her head. There was no turning back now. She was in and there was no running away this time.
Katie sniffed and pulled her van keys off of the apartment keys. She picked up the whiskey and downed it. She threw the bottles in the bin and then left the apartment. She stared at the door before she locked it and pulled a 20 dollar bill out of her wallet.
On the way out of the building she posted the keys and the money through the landlords' door.
Katie sighed and jumped into the white van. She kept her whole life in that van. There were her clothes and all the basics and then there was her motorbike, her BMX, her skateboard and her skates.
She started the ban and pushed it into gear before she started the 2 and a half hour journey to SHIELD HQ.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Katie had cruised to SHIELD, she couldn't be bothered to rush, and it was dark when she arrived. She parked up and walked inside.
"Excuse me miss. You can't be in here." An agent rushed over to her. Katie simply flashed the dog tag at him. The agent was taken aback and a look of shock and slight respect appeared on his face. Katie walked on.
Agent Phil Coulson stepped out of his formal stance and joined her in walking through the main hall. "Miss Rover," he addressed. "Director Fury told me that we would be expecting you."
"I'm sure he did." Katie said without breaking pace.
"You're wanted in meeting room 5. Here's a small brief and a map of the new HQ." Phil handed her the file and sheet of paper. Katie took them, looked quickly at each page and then handed them back. Phil looked at her with a confused look. Katie smiled. "Your 4 years o f training taught me quite a few lessons Phil." She said and he smiled slightly triumphantly.
"I used to wonder if my hard work was actually worth it. And now I know." He said and took the papers. "anyway, meeting room five is just on your left."
"Thanks Phil, it's been nice talking to you again."
"You too Katie." He said and they shook hands and Katie walked away
After a minute, she stopped and smiled. "I know you're there widow." She said in a just audible tone. She turned around and Natasha Romanoff landed softly in front of her.
They smiled at each other and then embraced each other in a tight hug. Katie liked Natasha's hugs. There was no denying that Natasha was deadly, and yet her hugs were so soft. Since they hadn't seen one other in 4 years, that particular hug was just what Katie needed.
"Ouch!" she pulled back suddenly as she felt the jab in her arm. She looked over to Natasha who was holding a vile of blood. "I hate you so much!" she said sarcastically. "If you'd asked, then I would have just let you."
"But this way was more fun."
Katie rolled her eyes. "Clint, you can come down too." She shouted and there was a small 'whoosh' of wind as Hawkeye landed next to Natasha. They went to hug but Katie stopped. "Needles?" she asked.
"No, of course not."
Katie was happy about this and they finally hugged.
They pulled away and Katie discretely eyed up how close the two agents were standing. "Has Fury called you in for a meeting?" she asked.
"Yeah," Clint said. "Meeting room 5."
Katie smiled and laughed slightly. "That'll be because of me." the agents looked at her, confused. "I'm an avenger." She informed them.
"What!?" they both said in unison.
"Yup." She pulled out her dog tags and showed them the 'RANK- A'. They took out their own tags and compared them. "I don't believe it." Natasha said. "How come you weren't helping with the Chitauri?" she asked.
"I didn't want anything to do with SHIELD after I left. But this one was urgent, Fury will explain."
"Ok." Natasha said and the three walked down into the meeting room.
Inside sat Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner and Thor. "Well, here are 3 of them." Fury exclaimed as they walked in.
"Um," Steve said as he looked at Katie. "Who's this?"
"This is Katie Rover, I'd explain more but we're missing one other person as per usual." Fury said somewhat angrily.
Katie ignored the Director. "It's nice to meet you." She said as she shook hands with Steve. Her accent coming out clearly.
"Irish?"
"Yeah."
"Nice,"
Katie shook hands with Bruce and Thor and then took a seat next to Steve and Natasha.
The door opened and Tony Stark strolled in. "look who decided to show up." Fury said.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Tony said, not really paying attention or meaning it.
"Sit down Stark!" fury ordered and Tony did so but without being phased by Fury's tone. He pulled out his phone. "Can we get started?" Fury said, not really asking permission.
Tony looked up and realised that the Director was talking to him. "Yeah, sure. Go ahead."
"Thank you, now, the rest of you have met her. But this is Katie Rover. She's the new addition to the Avengers team." He gestured to Katie "none of you will have heard of her before, SHIELD made sure of that. She's originally from Ireland as Steve observed. If you want to know about her powers then you'll have to ask her yourself. And you'll have plenty of time to do so because Katie's going to be living with you in Stark tower."
Tony finally decided to acknowledge the new girls presence. The girl was pretty so he decided not to make a fuss about her living with them.
If he was completely honest with himself, 'pretty' was an understatement. She had wavy, ebony black hair and big blue eyes which stood out from her flawless pale skin. She looked quite tall and thin and had classic Irish looks, with high cheeks, a straight nose and slightly sunken eyes.
Tony looked to his phone and typed her name into the search bar. The circular progress signal popped up and stayed there for several seconds before it disappeared. There were no results. That was strange. Tony's tech could hack anything and ye there were still no results about this girl. He sighed and sent a message to JARVIS to get a room ready.
"Can you get that sorted Stark?"
"In progress." He put his phone away and reached over Bruce. "I'm Tony Stark." he said with his usual
"Nice to meet you." She said, her accent clearly coming out.
"Now that you've all met," Fury said. "I can get onto the reason that you're all here in the first place."
There was quite for a minute as the Avengers waited for Fury to think of how to phrase it.
"After the Chitauri invasion, many people didn't want teenage superheroes looking out for them. One group has taken it farther than the rest. They call themselves the 'Unforgiven' and they have been posting on several websites and expressing their hatred. However, within the last week the posts have started saying they want you dead and they are finding increasing support and they claim that they know who you are.
"But what if they're lying?" Steve asked.
"I'm definitely not willing to take that chance."
"So what does that have to do with Katie?" Natasha said.
"Well, if we add another person into your group then it may confuse the group if they actually are watching you."
The Avengers were silent. Then Clint asked a question. "Wait, but how are they going to see her?"
"This is where it could get difficult." The group didn't move. "We're sending you all to high school."
Everyone looked at Fury like they had misheard what he said. Bruce was the first to speak. "I'm not bothered about going back to school but what I am bothered about is the fact that you want me to spend 6 hours a day, 5 days a week in a rather small building with hundreds of temperamental teenagers."
"we've looked over all the factors and calculated that chances of the other guy making an appearance while you don't want to hurt anyone because you're in a school of teenagers are much lower than we thought."
Bruce seemed temporarily satisfied with this answer.
"Bruce may not have a problem with this," Tony said. "But I do. If we go parading ourselves around then aren't we putting ourselves in more danger?"
There was quiet for a moment. Katie had been staring at the floor for the whole time of this discussion, she was deep in thought. Listening to people's tones and the speed they spoke at. She was making profiles in her head. "Hide things in plain sight." Everyone was quite shocked that Katie had even spoke up, even Natasha and Clint. "We'd be so obvious that nobody would think to suspect." Everyone was trying to think of how that would work. "Oh, come on. Please don't tell me nobody's heard of 'it's so overt, it's covert.'" She said.
"Katie's right." Fury spoke. "Hide something in plain sight and it's rarely found."
Tony went slightly bitter once he found out that Katie was right but he tried not to show it.
"So you want us to go back to school?" Steve asked. "But it's almost half way through the year."
Fury took an exasperated sigh. "You're all already enlisted, it doesn't matter what you say, and you're all going."
Everyone groaned quietly. After a moment, Clint sighed and shrugged. "When do we start?" he said in an oh well tone.
"Tomorrow morning." Fury said.
"Tomorrow morning!?" Natasha shouted. Everyone else was just gawking.
"Why are we only being told about this now?" Tony asked.
"Because it took us this long to find Katie." Fury looked over to her. "I must admit Miss Rover, you're hard to find."
"I'll take that as a compliment." She said.
"You should do," Bruce butted in. "I thought I was hiding for years and yet they always knew where I was. Anyone who can knowingly hide from SHIELD must be pretty good."
Katie looked over to him. "thanks." She smiled genuinely.
Bruce smiled back.
"That's it then." Fury clapped his hands once to gain everyone's attention. "You all start school tomorrow." Fury said to the Avengers. "Oh, and you might want to take a trip to the nearest 24 hour store to get supplies. Meeting dismissed."
Ok, so this is the first chapter of my first published FanFic. Please don't give abuse. I need confidence if I am to keep writing. However, I'm open to 'constructive criticism' just please don't give me grief. Please review. XD