Hello all! It's me again! Thank all of you for the lovely reviews! They made me smile!=D Anyway, I thought now would be a good time to explain some things. The Lighthouse will be explained later on, and I don't want to give away any spoilers! The reason this is rated T is to be safe and not sorry. And finally, I have a very busy schedule and I might not be able to update some weeks, but that doesn't mean I have forgotten about you guys! It just means that I am working extra hard on your next chapter =D So please read and review! Tell me what you guys think!
Disclaimer: Once again I only own Ashley and the story itself. I don't own the helicarrier(even though I wish I did) or any of the characters from Marvel. I don't own Marvel either. I only own my own creations.
When I came to, I was in an unfamiliar place, with a couple of familiar faces, and some I had never seen in my life. I could tell that I was being held up by someone, and I could also tell that there was some kind of argument going on. I decided to fake sleep so I could hear what was going on without interrupting.
"Are you nuts, Stark?! We don't know anything about her! Neither do you! For all we know, she's an enemy spy. Why else would she run from you?" a man yelled that sounded like he was large and in charge.
"Fury, she's not a spy at all. If she was, she would have found a way to escape from us. It was almost like, I don't know, maybe she wanted to be saved somehow, and she didn't subconsciously know it." Steve said.
"That's a nice sentiment Captain, but there really isn't anyway to know for sure no is there?" Fury asked.
"What are you suggesting?" Tony asked. He must have been the one that was holding me, because his voice was very close.
"That we drop her back off in the middle of Chad and let her find her own life again."
"Now you're the one who's sounding nuts, Director." Tony said in a low menacing tone.
"And picking up a random little girl in the middle of Africa during an assignment isn't?" he growled back.
"Fury, she needed our help. She didn't have anywhere else to go. Her home just burned to the ground with her family in it. And truthfully, she looked like she had been through more than enough pain. I have seen my fair share of people like her. Usually I wouldn't give a second glance. But this time it was different. I wasn't just about to let her become another person in the background. If she needs our help, we'll give it to her." the woman, Natasha argued.
"Regardless, I don't want her on this boat. If she isn't gone within the next half hour, I'll deal with her myself."
"Then I guess I'll be going with her. I'm tired of following all of your orders Fury. We've done everything you asked us to do without complaint. But now, when there is a little girl who needs our help, you ignore her and pretend like she doesn't have a soul. Well let me tell you this, Director, if she's leaving, count me out as well." Tony finished. I could almost feel his body shaking with anger. That speech made everyone silent.
"Stark, I swear on a bible, if she messes one thing up, or we do figure out that she's a spy, you'll wish you never even brought her aboard. Understood?" Fury barked.
"Yes sir." Tony mocked. I heard a swish of doors opening and closing, and I realized he left.
Did I really caused all of that? Had I just gotten these kind people in trouble, all because of my stupid weaknesses? I started to shake in fear, realizing that Fury's threat was very realistic, even though I wasn't a spy. I doubted they wanted to help me now after what I had caused. Maybe I was meant to have died in that fire. It probably would have been a less painful fate than what they had in store for me now anyway.
I popped my eyes open and struggled to get out of Tony's grasp. "Well look who's awake?" I heard Clint say.
"What's wrong Ashley?" Tony asked, setting me down carefully on what looked like a medical bed.
They arranged in a semi-circle around me. I looked at all of them before taking a deep breath and answering. "I heard your conversation. Maybe not all of it but enough of it to understand what's going on here. That Fury guy? Yeah, he sounded like he was going to rip off all of our heads. He's right. You should just drop me back off in Chad. It would save all of you guys a bunch of pain and stress. I'm sorry I got you all in trouble. You seem very nice and generous. I'll get out of your hair just as soon as I can." I rambled while trying to inch off of the table. Bruce walked up to me and softly pushed me back on the table.
"Ashley, listen to me and trust me when I say this. I've known Fury for quite some years. His threats may be real, but with all of us here, he won't be able to get anywhere near you. You're not a nuisance, truthfully. We want to help you as best you can. After we get you back to normal health, S.H.I.E.L.D. will drop you off wherever you want to go, even if that's back in Chad." Natasha said while walking over to me on the table.
Before I could even utter out a question, a man who looked to be middle aged walked in. He wore a suit and black glasses. "Coulson." the whole group responded at once.
"Bruce, Fury wants a full rundown done on her by tonight." Full rundown? What was that supposed to mean?
"I can do that." The good doctor responded, helpful as ever. It didn't seem fitting in the slightest that this man was the Hulk. It seemed as if they were polar opposites.
"He also wants our own medical team to do the procedure." Coulson added.
"Absolutely not. Whatever your agents can do, Bruce can do." Tony fired out.
"You didn't let me finish, Stark. I never consented for them do it. As long as you do it correctly and don't hide anything, there isn't any reason that you can't do it Banner." Coulson said handing Bruce a file. "I'm with you guys on this one. She," he said looking at me, "definitely needs our help. I'm here to assist you in any way I can. Only one request; don't tell Fury." with a small smile he exited.
Needless to say, I was hopelessly confused. "We'll explain later." Steve said, seeing my very confused look.
"One small question Doctor, what is the 'rundown'?" He flipped through the file quickly and turned to get some supplies.
"Practically a medical exam." he answered easily while setting up some equipment.
"S.H.I.E.L.D style!" Tony added. I laughed, half nervously, half out of humor.
"Can I ask you guys some questions while you're doing this?" I asked.
"Of course friend! We would be obliged to answer!" Thor said happily as ever. He didn't seem like his superhero double either. Always cheerful and slightly clueless, unlike the powerful-no-joking-around Thor.
When I opened my mouth, Tony cut me off. "I get to ask a question first however." he declared. "Where are you from, really?"
Even Bruce stopped filling out one of the sheets of his file to hear my answer. I shifted nervously. That was the one question I didn't want him to ask. "Where I was born? The United States of America, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I've moved around a couple times since then, but it's where I'm from." I said looking at my feet, not wanting to answer any more questions about my past or where I had been for the past few years. I then cleared my throat and started.
"Where am I?" I asked while Bruce started checking my blood pressure and my temperature.
"I guess that's a fair question. Technically, we are over the Atlantic Ocean heading back to the U.S. You are sitting in a thing we call a helicarrier. It's a boat, and it's also an aircraft. Flying is much more efficient than boating in this case, so we're flying." Clint explained. I nodded while being poked and prodded.
"The last thing I remembered was seeing the fire almost right behind us. How did we escape before it reached us?"
"Let's just say, when two of S.H.I.E.L.D's top agents are about to be burned to death, their priorities change." Tony scoffed, rolling his eyes at Natasha's comment.
"More like top spies" After a glare from Natasha, I implored. "Top agents?"
"Nat and I work for S.H.I.E.L.D. for many years. We were paired up a while ago, and it never changed." Clint responded. Some pieces of the puzzle were finally falling into place for me.
"What about my bleeding to death? How did that just magically stop?"
"It didn't. You were in surgery for a couple of hours." Bruce responded. I looked down at my leg and saw it tightly wrapped and bandaged. My knee was in some sort of brace device. No wonder he didn't want me to put any weight on my leg. "You should start to feel some pain sometime soon. Tell me when it starts and I'll give you something for it."
Again, I nodded, still confused about more things than I could process at once. Then came the most difficult question. "What are you guys, exactly?" That earned small smiles from everyone in the room. "I mean, it's kind of obvious that you aren't just a normal group of people." Steve decided to start off the conversation.
"How long has it been since you've been in America?" he asked.
"I don't know, about nine years probably, why?" I questioned as Bruce instructed me to lie on my back.
"So you must know at least a little bit about Tony, right?"
"A little bit, I guess."
"Sure, I heard that he fought his way out with some kind of machine."
"Actually," Tony cut in, "it was a metal suit. It was big and clumpy and I could hardly move in it. But it got the job done. Why was I in Afghanistan in the first place you ask? Well, I was going there for a weapons demonstration. It was done, and on the way back to my airplane, we were attacked by a group called the Ten Rings. Basically this big terrorist organization that wanted me as their prisoner. Instead, I was almost hit with one of my own missiles that I had created. Don't get yourself wrong. It still almost killed me. Shrapnel flew into my chest, almost reaching into my heart. See this?" he asked, tapping at the strange blue light that was coming out of his chest. I nodded. "It's an electromagnet, specificity called the arc reactor. It keeps the shrapnel from coming into my heart. Long story short, I met a man there that helped me design the reactor. He also helped me escape. Once I got back, I grew kind of attached to the suit. I stopped making weapons and started making suits. I fly around now, helping people, doing as much good as I can." I faintly remembered reports people made of a flying metal man.
"You're that Iron Man person?" I said in disbelief. "The very same." "So you're like..." "Yes I'm a "superhero"" Very suddenly realization hit me.
"So you guys are all…superhero people?" I was shocked to say the very least.
"We call ourselves The Avengers, but yes, we are." Tony responded.
"Wait, then what do all of you guys do?" I asked. Each of them explained themselves. Clint and Natasha were master assassins, and their Avenger names were Hawkeye and Black Widow. Steve was a 70 year old super soldier, and his name was Captain America. Tony was Iron Man, Bruce was the Hulk (who I had heard about) and Thor actually was a God. Go figure.
There was silence in the air for a few minutes, and then Clint spoke. "So, what about you?"
"What?" I asked.
"I mean, tell us about you." Clint repeated.
I froze for a moment. I could lie. Tell them all of the important points, and twist the rest. But that could result in a meeting with Fury... I would just tell them what they wanted to hear, I suppose.
"Well, my name is Ashley Martine, and, as I said, I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I'm fourteen, almost fifteen. Um, I don't know what else really."
"What's your favorite thing to do?" Steve asked. "Either ride horses or climb. I like to climb."
"So you like heights." Natasha finished.
"Not exactly. I like to climb up in the air and look down at things. I guess it makes me feel safer than I would on the ground. I don't really know why. I like to see things from a while away sometimes. It gives me a different point of view on things, literally." I shrugged.
"Now her, I like." Clint said with a wink. I laughed and smiled shyly.
"Where were you before we found you?"
"Chad." I answered quickly trying to avoid the questions about this as much as possible.
Tony laughed. "You don't say? Who was taking care of you, giving you a place to live?"
The room became silent again, with all the attention on me. I quickly twisted the truth my way. "Um, and orphanage sort of place. I don't know what happened to my parents. All I do know is that I haven't seen them in years."
Lie. I knew exactly what happened. I was there. I saw the whole thing right in front of my eyes. I turned down my head, letting the group know that I wasn't open for any more questions for the moment.
Bruce announced that all he had left was a blood test, which was easy enough. Except for one little small fact. I was deathly afraid of needles. I knew that the needle itself hardly hurt at all, but the things inside of them could and, from my experience, did mean bad things. In the Lighthouse, they used them all the time for their "tests." We were never told what they contained or what it would do to us. They just strapped us down to a chair and buckled a leather mask over our eyes so we couldn't see what was about to happen to us. My adrenaline started working tirelessly as soon as I saw the needle. What should I do? I couldn't really run, and I couldn't fight all of them off. There wasn't really an option. I thought of something very quickly.
"Um, Bruce, I think the pain medications have worn off now." I tried to distract him from the needle.
"That's normal. As soon as we get the blood test done, I'll get you squared away."
I inwardly growled. Plan B. Except for the fact that I didn't have a plan B.
"Hey, um Tony." I said. He turned to look at me. "Do you have any jokes?" I mentally face palmed myself after the words escaped my mouth. How dumb was I?
"What?" he asked looking at me, bemused. I mentally kicked myself.
"A joke. They still have those in America don't they?" I said, keeping my attention off of the needle that was coming ever closer.
"Why?" he asked. As if Tony Stark would need a reason to tell a joke. He was doing it constantly anyway.
"Eh, I don't know, just for something to do." I tried to act nonchalant.
He looked at me quizzically, but went anyway. "Why can't a blonde dial 911?"
"Why?" almost everyone asked at once.
"Because she can't find the eleven!"
That sent me into laughter, along with almost all the rest of the team. I hoped I wouldn't feel the needle enter my body, but I did. Hopefully no one noticed me flinch and my body go stiff and guarded. After having it done so many times however, I was able to pull myself together fairly quickly.
"What did the mother buffalo say to her son when he left for college?"
"What?" we all asked simultaneously.
"Bye-son! Like bison?" He didn't even have to explain. We were all laughing at his cheesy joke. Before I even knew what was happening, he was pulling the needle out and I was done.
"You're finally done, Ashley. You can go and do whatever you want now, just be mindful of your injuries. Your shoulder was tweaked a little, but nothing to serious. Make sure to use the crutches or I will make you use the wheelchair." he threatened jokingly. Or maybe not so jokingly.
I laughed anyway. "Okay!" He handed me the crutches. "Trust me, I've used these things before." I said when Tony asked if I knew how to use them.
It was true. When I was four, I broke my leg and my mom had to get me crutches. They were fun to swing on until I fell off of them. It had been a while though, and I was a bit wobbly at first. After a couple of runs across the room, however, I had it down.
"Food, anyone?" Clint asked. Of course everyone said yes, and they slowly left the room.
Tony stayed behind. "You hungry?" he implored.
I looked at him for a moment before telling that he was a great reader. He could tell if someone, anyone really, was lying or fibbing just by a brief glance into their eyes. Not that that was a necessarily bad thing, it probably helped him countless times before, but I had a feeling that he knew that there was more than I was telling them. He wanted to know what I was hiding. As much as I liked Tony, there wasn't any way on the planet that I could ever tell him. I shifted my eyes down. "No not really. What about you?"
"I already ate while you were in surgery. I'm good." The silence only lasted for a few seconds. "So why don't I show you around a little bit? Just to the major places." he said.
"Sure, sounds good." I replied, still doing my best to avoid his gaze.
He then proceeded to give me my pain medication that Bruce left me. We walked out of the medical doors and down the hallways. He slowed his pace for me and pointed out some things I would need to know while I was staying here. He showed me where to get food and how to go to the workout room. And the jungle gym.
Turns out he remembered what I had said earlier about climbing. "But if Bruce finds you in there, I didn't tell you where it was." I laughed and agreed to his request.
At the end of the tour, he showed me where we all of us would be sleeping. He showed me where each of them slept in case I needed anything at night, including more pain meds. "And this is where I am. I'm usually up pretty late working on my latest suit, so don't hesitate to come get me. And if you can't get out of bed because your crutches fell or something, just yell Tony really loud. They'll think you were just mad at me, not needing help." he said as he grinned and looked at me. "And right across is you." he said, opening my door for me.
I turned around. "Thanks a bunch for everything Tony. You're great!" It wasn't a lie either. He really was an amazing person, I could already tell. No matter what the press said about him, what others thought of him, he was a good person, and I was positive if anyone actually took the time to know him, they'd agree, no matter how snarky, sarcastic, or annoying he could be.
"No problem. Have a good night." he said and he turned to go into his own room.
As soon as my door was closed, I ditched the crutches that were supposed to be helping me. Right now they were just getting in the way. I limped to the bathroom and took care of everything I had to do, including brushing my teeth and combing my hair. The room was surprisingly well stocked. I then staggered out to the closet and found a tank top and short shorts. I took everything off and put that on and flung myself on the soft bed. Before I knew it, I was sound asleep.
Again a big thank you to everyone who reviewed! Sorry if this chapter was a bit slower. It had to be done! Anyway, I have an idea for the next chapter but I would love some input! You might just help me make my story a lot better!=D Also, what do you guys think of a Halloween story (long after this one takes place) with Ashley in or possibly not in it? Let me know what you think! And also, no offense to any blondes out there. I know plenty of blondes and most of them are smarter than I am! It was the only other joke I could think of! Please leave a review and get ready for the next chapter!