A/N: Here's chapter two! Please review, fave, and follow!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Katherine!
It had been a little over a year since Logan had come to Charles' school and he always almost fully capable of remembering Katherine. Some other things were still a blur but every day he spent with her, she was becoming more and more clear. She was extremely happy about that. That day, she was teaching a Danger Room session, Logan by her side, both in their X-Men suits. Logan's had orange trim and was a full body suit. Katherine's was lined in silver and was a black vest that exposed her midriff and a pair of pants with knee high boots and a pair of mid-bicep fingerless gloves. Her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail so it didn't get in her way. She clapped her hands, gaining the attention of the students in the room.
"You all lasted longer than I expected so good job on that." Logan chuckled by her side, arms crossed over his chest as he watched her. "You have to work as a team. There can't be one cowboy on a mission like this. You have to keep up with each other and watch each other's backs. You never know what'll happen on a mission like this so be ready for anything." The Danger Room door opened and Charles came through, a man beside him that she'd never seen before but he was dressed formally.
"Alright guys. Class dismissed and I'll see you back here tomorrow. Allerdyce!" She called to the blonde fire-wielder. "You did good today, just try to wait for the others okay." She smiled at him, causing him to smile back. He looked up at Katherine as a mother and she often felt like he was her own son. He came to her with anything and everything.
"Thanks." He said before grabbing his bag and leaving the room.
"Problems?" Charles asked her as he and the man came closer, smiling at her.
"Nope, just a lapse in teamwork. Nothing we can't fix." She smiled at Charles before turning her attention to the man next to Charles.
"Hi, I'm Agent Coulson. I'm here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D." Agent Coulson said as he held his hand out to the woman. She glanced at it before reaching forward and shaking it.
"Katherine Howlett but I'm sure you already knew that if you're here at the lower levels. This is Logan." Katherine said, nudging her head towards her brother.
"The brother, it's nice to meet you." Coulson held his hand out to Logan but the man just watched him. Coulson retracted his hand before handing her a file. "We need your help. S.H.I.E.L.D is putting together a team and we need the best of the best." He said. Katherine thought back to the last time she was on a team… it hadn't ended so well. Almost everyone from that team was killed by her wayward brother, Victor Creed. "It's nothing like what General Stryker had done. We're going to save the world." Katherine watched the man, he was telling the truth.
"What would I have to do?" She asked. He placed the file in her hands.
"Read that and come help us." He said with a small smile. "My card is in there if you need to ask anything." He said before nodding to the two siblings. "Thank you for your time Professor Xavier." Charles smiled.
"It wasn't a problem Agent Coulson." Charles said as he rolled out of the room, Coulson following behind him. Once the door was shut, Katherine looked down at the file in her hands.
"You're not seriously considering it!" Logan said as he watched the thoughtful expression on her face.
"What if I don't and this is serious? Like they actually need my help…" She asked, glancing at the file again.
"Then they can find someone else." He said, heading to the locker room to change.
"They wouldn't have come to me if they had someone else." She said to him, watching as he stopped and turned to her. "If this is about me leaving I promise that I'll be extremely careful and back in no time." He sighed and turned to her.
"I just got you back and I don't want to lose you again." He said, looking away from her. She smiled, closing the distance between them, and laid a hand on his arm.
"Like I said, I promise I'll be back in no time. Let me go see what this all about." She said, happy that Logan was accepting that she needed to go. Together, they grabbed their bags and walked down the halls to the elevators. They exited the elevator, nodding to Charles as he waited for them.
"I'll see you before you go." Logan said as he turned down the hall towards his room.
"Alright." Katherine said before making her way to her room.
"Katherine, have you decided what you're going to do?" Charles asked her as he followed her to her room.
"I have professor. Logan and I talked about it and it's been decided that I'll be going to see what this is all about." Charles nodded his head as she grabbed a new outfit and walked into the bathroom to change. She took a quick shower before drying off and changing. When she came out, she was in a dark green tank top; a black leather jacket over it, a pair of dark blue skinny jeans tucked into black knee high boots. She stuffed her costume into the bag before putting more clothes on top of it. She talked to the professor a little while longer before they made their way to the garage. She smiled when she saw Ororo, Scott, Jean, Hank, and Logan waiting for her. "You guys didn't have to do this." She said, hugging Ororo first.
"Yes we did. We'll miss you and just wanted to let you know that." Ororo said as she pulled away from the hug. Katherine smiled before she hugged Scott.
"Be safe and don't do anything I wouldn't do." They pulled away and Katherine pouted.
"Well, that would make it a boring trip." She said, chuckling when Scott rolled his eyes. She could tell even behind the ruby glasses. She hugged Jean. "Keep these boys in line." She said, smiling at Scott, Hank, and Logan. Jean chuckled.
"I will." Katherine then moved over to Hank.
"I'm sorry we can't spend more time together but I guess this is important." She said, hugging the blue furred man. He chuckled softly.
"That's alright Katherine. We'll see each other more when you get back." She smiled and nodded her head.
"That's right." She then moved to her brother, hugging him close to her. "I'll miss you Jimmy." He hugged her back just as tightly.
"I'll miss you too Kat. Please be careful." He said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She nodded her head, burying it deeper in his chest for a moment before pulling away.
"I will. Keep an eye on John for me." Logan chuckled at the request.
"I will." He said causing her to smile. She then turned her attention to Charles, smiling at him before leaning down to hug him.
"Thanks again Charles, for everything you've done." He hugged her back, patting her back lightly.
"It was the least I could do." He said, smiling at the woman as she pulled away and stood up straight.
"I best be going." She said, moving towards her car of choice, a black Mustang GT. "I'll make sure to keep in touch." She said before getting into the driver's seat and taking off. She glanced in the rearview mirror, watching as they all waved at her. She pursed her lips before grabbing Coulson's card out of the file, which was sitting in the passenger seat, and quickly typed his number in her phone. She hit the little green button and waited for an answer.
"Katherine. What have you decided?" He said when he answered the phone.
"I'm on my way. Where am I going?" She asked, turning onto the highway.
"You're going to Brooklyn first. There is someone else I need you to pick up."
"I didn't agree to that."
"It'll be easy. Just hand him the file and tell him what I told you. If you need any help, call me and I'll explain it to him." Katherine pursed her lips again. She didn't agree to that but she wanted to know if this was going to be an important mission… she guessed she was going to Brooklyn.
"Fine. Send me the address." She said before hanging up. A few seconds later, her phone buzzed, letting her know that she had a text. She glanced at the address before turning off at the next exit.
She walked inside the gym, it was very old-fashioned. There was a boxing ring as well as a few other things. She also happened to notice that is was empty… although it was almost ten o'clock at night. Her attention was drawn to the man punching at the punching bag. He was THE Captain America she had heard so much about during World War II. She tilted her head; he was in peek physical form for a man that had been frozen for the last seventy years. She watched him punch, the angrier he got the more powerful his hits became. Katherine was a little surprised when he punched it so hard that it broke the hook from the ceiling, sending the bag flying across the floor. He stopped for a moment, looking at the bag before walking over to the line of them he had laying on the floor. He grabbed a new one before hanging it up, he did it all with one hand… he really was something else. He steadied it before he resumed punching. She took in a deep breath.
"Having trouble sleeping?" She asked from her place by the door. She slid her hands into the pockets of her jeans as the man looked at her.
"I slept for seventy years ma'am. I think I've had my fill." He said as he turned back to the bag, punching a few more times. He didn't even ask who she was. Katherine decided that it was safe to come in further. She began taking slow steps into the gym.
"Well then, you should be out and celebrating. Seeing the world." He stopped and looked at her again. Now she was close enough to see his dirty blonde hair falling into his blue eyes. He was handsome; there was no doubt in Katherine's mind about that fact. He had a thin layer of sweat on the skin that Katherine could see and he was panting slightly from the punching. He turned his back to her, walking over to the bench where his stuff was. He was un-wrapping his hands as he went. She slowly and silently followed him, keeping a small distance between them.
"When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." He said as he paid more attention to his hands than her.
"I know." She said softly and it caused him to look up at her. "You aren't the only one who has seen war. I spent a large majority of my life in them." She said, flexing her fingers in her pockets, causing her arms to tense briefly before she relaxed them again.
"What do you mean?" He asked. She sucked on her teeth for a moment before deciding to tell him.
"My brothers and I have a power that lets us heal at a supernatural rate. That power has allowed us to live for quite a long time." He was watching her closely. "I was in World War II when I heard about Captain America and how you were going to be the key for defeating the Germans. They were right." He turned away from her, looking at something supposedly more interesting for a moment. "I've been in both World Wars as well as the Korean War, which you weren't here for. I know America's made a fair share of mistakes." He turned back to her, watching her for a moment before pushing his wraps into his bag.
"Steve Rodgers." He said turning to her and holding out his hand for her to shake.
"Katherine Howlett." She shook his hand firmly, a small smile on her face.
"As you know I'm Captain America. What do they call you?" He asked with a small smile as he sat on the bench.
"I'm not really a hero like you but I'm called Mother Nature. Not only to I have that healing factor I told you about but I can control multiple elements, the weather, and as my name suggests nature such as trees." There was a pause that could have been described as slightly awkward.
"Not to sound rude ma'am but why are you here?" He asked, his expression losing its surprised factor.
"I have a mission from S.H.I.E.L.D. I got drug into it and was asked to come bring this to you on my way there." She opened the file, handing it to Steve. He looked at it for a moment before taking it from her hands.
"HYRDRA's secret weapon." Steve said as he looked over the file.
"From what I've gathered, after you went into the ocean with it Howard Stark fished it out while looking for you." Steve looked up at her. "He, as well as much as S.H.I.E.L.D, thinks the Tesseract could be a source of unlimited sustainable energy." Steve flipped through the file before handing it back to Katherine. She took it, watching his expression.
"You wouldn't happen to know who took it from them…" She shook her head at his open ended question.
"I haven't been in contact with S.H.I.E.L.D long enough to really tell you. I have a number here that you can call with these questions though." She said, pulling Fury's card out of the file (it had been hidden in the back in case of emergency). Steve took the card from her, reading over the name, immediately recognizing it. "I'm not asking you to join. I don't even know why I did but the world is much stranger than the time we came from."
"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." Steve said, finally looking away from her as he got up to collect his stuff.
"Ten bucks says you're wrong." She said with a smirk in place on her face. Steve glanced up at her before standing to gather his things before grabbing one of the punching bags and holding it on his shoulder with ease. Katherine glanced down at her watch and groaned. "Now I have to find a hotel around here…" Steve stopped and glanced over his shoulder at the woman.
"There aren't any good hotels around here. You can come back to my place if you would like." He said, not believing that he'd just offered to have a woman he didn't know to stay at his apartment. Katherine looked to be thinking the same thing.
"I don't want to intrude." She said, slipping her free hand into her pocket while the other hand held the file.
"No, it's alright." He said, giving her a small smile. She gave him one back before pointing out the door she'd just came from.
"My car is that way, I'll follow you." She said before turning and walking down the hall to her car.
"I don't have a car." He said, stopping her. She turned back to him and smiled slightly.
"Then come on. I'll give you a lift. I would feel bad if I drove and you walked." Steve watched her for a moment before following her to the car. She was going to Captain America's apartment and riding with him there… things were getting interesting.
