Chapter 2

"What did they do to them?" Tony asked, his voice low and quiet for once as he peered through the glass window. The children, on the other side, could not see him but odds are, more than one knew they were there.

"Considering who the mother was, I'd say a hell of a lot." Clint muttered, watching as Bruce and two other doctors (One was a healer, his mind corrected, magical doctor) made their way through the room, passing two little plastic cups full of water and pills to each child. Most of whom were handcuffed.

"We read the files but . . . they don't even look scared." remarked Tony after a minute. Inside, Bruce passed two cups to a little girl with brown pigtail braids. She had wide eyes and a pale face. Only the younger ones seemed bother for not even three feet over was a boy with brown, messy hair, face blank and eyes cold.

"Being scared gets you killed." A voice said from behind the two Avengers and they turned their bodies to look at Natasha. Her face was just as emotionless as the boys, only you could see in her eyes how bothered she was. Clint placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"How ya doing, Nat?"

She gave a dainty shrug. "It's just a mission." Neither of her two companions bought it but they allowed her to continue on. She wouldn't want to focus on it anyway. The past needed to stay where it was but this mission was bringing it awfully close.

"You read the files Fury gave us, both of you did." She continued, her eyes now trained on the children before them as well. "They couldn't afford to be scared. It only ever ended in death. Fear is a weakness, one that must either be eliminated or ignored. If you can't do that, then you have no place here."

They only nodded, each of them lost in their own thoughts, for it was true. They had read the files after all. Even Tony.

30 Hours Ago: 5:00 pm. Saturday.

"Do I really have to be here? Because I found this really nice-"

"Sit down, Stark." Fury interrupted, sounding (and looking) tired. Tony must have noticed this as well for he did indeed sit with no complaint.

In front of Fury was a semi-round table, a table that had each of the Avengers sitting at it. Starting from his left was Barton, who was leaning back in his chair, arrow in hand and feet propped on the table. Fury secretly hoped he fell. Barton had a somewhat bored expression but if one looked closely enough, and he did, then they could see a glint of curiosity. It wasn't often that they were called in for something as a team, especially with no idea as to what that could be. Beside Barton was Romanoff. She was sitting with her back straight and hands folded on top of the table, face empty of absolutely everything. Besides her was Banner, who seemed to be attempting to disappear in his own chair. He was dressed in loose clothes that were many sizes too big on him but looked, nonetheless, quite comfortable. His satchel was on the table and he looked distinctly unnerved to be here. Fury couldn't fault him on that, all things considered. Then came Rogers, who was sitting at attention, eyes sharp and glued to him. His face was relaxed but empty, the perfect image of a soldier. Fury had hoped that spending time with Stark would lessen that look but alas it seems not. The kid deserved to live a little, perhaps he'd tell Stark to up his game, maybe order Rogers to have a drink or something. He wouldn't ignore a direct order, right? After Rogers came Thor, who he was still somewhat surprised to see. The Asgardian wasn't often here on Earth, or Midgard as the blonde liked to call it, and while he was informed that the man had showed up 72 hours ago, he was still a little shocked. Didn't he have alien things to do? Like help rule a society of other aliens? And last, but definitely not least, was Stark. Stark who wasn't even sitting in his chair anymore but rather grabbing a bowl of candy (which Hill had placed in there 10 minutes ago precisely for this man). Thankfully, after unwrapping one and giving a childish squeak of happiness, Stark returned to the table, where he slouched in his chair and peered at Fury with open curiosity.

"Sir?" Rogers spoke, still looking at him closely. He nodded and began to pass out the files that were in front of him in a stack, sliding one of each to each of them.

"In these files are your new assignment. Today, you will be taking down one of the most secure and dangerous places on this earth. But first, are any of you familiar with the Black Widow program, besides Romanoff obviously?"

He gained each of their attention here as they all straightened up, some looking to their fellow teammate in worry, and stopped fiddling with paper.

"The Black Widow Program? What does that have to do with this?" Barton asked sharply, peering over the table at him as if he were a criminal, as if he was intentionally bringing up "no-no" subjects. Fury sighed.

"As I'm going to assume you all know enough about the Program for me to continue on, I must now tell you of something else. However, what I am about to say is not allowed to leave this room. It is very confidential information, so confidential that there are very few people in the whole world who are aware of it." After getting nods of heads, agreeing to remain silent, he continued. "Many years ago, when SHIELD was still in its prime we had a mission. A mission that involved tracking down three men, all of whom were killers. They had targeted individuals of our government you see and America wanted revenge. We were sent in, to test our usefulness. Imagine our surprise when we tracked them back to England only to find five others also after them. Five others who claimed to also be a government agency, one that had jurisdiction here. When SHIELD returned to the States and informed our commander at the time of these people, we were told the truth.

You see, we are not alone on this planet. We are not all simply ordinary humans, with the few exceptions," he pointedly looked at Steve and Banner here. "Hidden amongst us, clouded in secrecy and illusions, are magic wielders. Wizards. Whole communities of them are spread out across the globe."
"Wizards." Stark deadpanned. "You mean to tell me magic is real. Anyone else believe this?" He spun around in his chair and looked at the others.

"I know it's true." Rogers spoke, looking at his hands. "We worked with a few when taking down Hydra bases. They were immensely powerful."

"Nat and I worked with some over the years on various cases." Barton shrugged. "Happens often when you work for the government actually."

"Asgard does not have many who wield magic and while I was unaware of the ones here on Midgard, I cannot call myself surprised." spoke Thor, voice as loud as ever.

"Banner?" Stark asked, looking surprised that he seemed to be the only one unaware for a change. Banner held up his hands in the universal sign of innocence, surrender.

"Don't look at me, I was as clueless as you. Though, let's be honest, considering all that we've faced, is it really that surprising?" Here, they all broke out into a mixture of quiet mutters and general signs of agreement.

"So, " Stark began again. "Wizards. What about them?"
"Well, as with all societies, they have faced their own problems, fought their own wars. One, for example, was fought at the same time as our World War II." He nodded at Rogers. "Their latest conflict though was shortly after, in the 70's and early 80's. It was the bloodiest, most gruesome war that any wizarding society has faced and the countries involved were entirely unprepared, as they were still healing over the last war. Because of this, in 1979, the then Minister of Magic approved what is known as the Dragonfly Project, in other words The Arachne Program." Here, he gestured back to their folders. They all looked back down into the contents, reading and flipping pages as he continued to speak.

"The Dragonfly Project was it's codename, the title that was to be used when speaking of it around people not in the known, which, considering only three known government officials knew about it, was many people. The Arachne Program was essentially a way for the Ministry to have a ready team of fighters at their disposal. It was head by Doctor Alyona Chelinstov, the granddaughter of the same man who created the Black Widow Program. Chelinstov, like her grandfather, had plans for using orphaned magical children and to train them into being super-soldiers. They were to go through several levels of the program, training them in espionage, seduction, assassination, combat, both magical and mundane, hacking, torture, and interrogation. They were given a serum to enhance their abilities, should they survive it, once they completed their seventh level of training. They would also be given a set of potions for a similar reason after completing levels nine and ten respectively. Upon completion of the program, they are sterilized and given their new codenames along with their first major assignment. As of now there are 41 people in this program. 19 of whom are graduates, 2 are supervisors of the program, including Chelinstov, 5 instructors, the 3 government officials in the know, 7 children within their first five years of the program, and 5 who are due to receive the serum and potions. You're job is to infiltrate the facility, which is located beneath the British Ministry of Magic, and rescue and detain as many of them as you can, with the exceptions of the names we have provided for you in the other files. They have special instructions. You will be meeting up with a magical task force in Britain upon arrival. They will be there to assist with the magic, therefore it is your job to establish a plan for when you get inside. The layout plans of the structure are in your files. Good luck." Finished, Fury left the room with his coat flourishing behind him. In his wake, were the Avengers, looking down at their files with mixed faces.

"This isn't going to be good. Is it?" Steve spoke quietly, closing the file in front of him and sliding it over to open up the next one, which was Dr. Chelinstov's file.

"No." Natasha said, speaking for the first time since they had all arrived. "No, it's not."

Tony, Clint, and Natasha all turned their heads to face the door, which was opening to allow the doctors to leave. First came out the SHIELD doctor, who was talking quietly with the healer, and then came Bruce, who closed the door behind him softly. He looked tired as he ran a hand over his face.

"How bad is it?" Natasha asked, her face falling for the first time to reveal the nervousness and worry she felt about the whole situation.

Bruce shook his head. "Not good. We gave them all the antibiotics we could to ease the pain but they burned through it so quickly that it was like nothing had been given in the first place. A lot of them had bruises and cuts all over their bodies, I don't know how many wounds I wrapped today. Lots of stab wounds. The younger children had burns and were worse off physically. The older ones had less wounds but physiologically? I'm not sure if we can reach them." He admitted, look down at his feet once he finished. Natasha nodded.

"I thought so. They haven't been given the serum yet, or the potions. None of them have been sterilized. We can play on that, chances are they didn't even know that was a part of the program. Not really anyway. They still have a chance."

"Have any of you seen the others? The doctor and Mikhaev that is. And that boy. What's his name?" Tony asked, looking at all of them as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Potter. Harry Potter. Subject Number 1." Clint reminded him.

"Right, him." nodded Tony, turning his back to look at the kids again. "He was

one tough nut to catch."

"Well of course he was," Clint snarked. "He was their first victim. That kid was literally raised there. He knows nothing but that lifestyle. Probably doesn't even know what normal is. We have no chance of cracking him. He won't defect."

"I don't know about that, " Natasha argued, running a finger over her lips as her hand was lifted to her face. "Sometimes, when that's all you know, you crave something different. Besides, there's more to him than Arachne. That much was obvious."

The others nodded and fell back into silence, turning over her words and watching the children that were locked up inside the other room before them.

A/N: All of these chapters will be somewhat short as this fic is merely an introduction to this. They're like snapshots. I'm going to post the File that the Avengers got on Arachne as the next chapter for you guys. Well if you want it. So please review if you want it. I was going to post it in this chapter but somehow that didn't happen. Anyway, we learn a bit more about the start of the program and the invasion "next" chapter and the chapter after that is where we get our first real glimpse of Harry. So stay tuned in for that and thanks so far to everyone that's followed/favorited/reviewed.

Please review.