A/N: Hey guys, to those of you who are just joining this train, welcome! To the previous readers of my story, I redid this chapter because, looking over how it was, I realized that it Natasha was super OC and this chapter kinda sucked. I know I said in chapter 5 that you prob wouldn't have to re-read this but I highly recommend doing so. I changed Natasha's scene and reaction to the School a lot, giving it more depth (I hope at least) and I added more detail to the School scene afterwards. Let me know if this was an improvement or not!

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or the Avengers

Natasha POV

I sat down on the bed of the hotel I was staying in and let all my muscles relax. My walls and masks fell as I basked in the knowledge that I was alone and no one could see me. The routine of mission after mission had worn on me a long time ago. I'd seen it all: people trying to make a quick buck by robbing, men cheating on their wives, people killing other people, all the sins of humanity. By now I could just put on a mask of indifference, detach myself from the emotions of the situation, and play the role I needed to. But sometimes the missions just hit a little too close to home. Like this one for example. Seeing the children in dog cages, living in the fear of what was coming next reminded me too much of my time in the Red Room. While we believed we were becoming something better and these kids have no idea what is going to happen, the thing that connects them to us is the tests. The tests are the same: mazes with obstacles at each end, treadmills that only stop when you have no strength left to crawl, brutal guards that remind us of the enemy we face, and the tests that push you to the edge of insanity.

The other thing that connects us to them is the fact that what we go through will change our lives forever. I was pushed into the world of assassins and the lonely life they lead. Never again will I experience the bliss of a normal life where I can relax and not have to worry about when I will be sent to possibly die all in order to rid the world of another evil idiot. While being alone is good in moderations, after a while the loneliness gets to you and you begin to wonder where everyone went. As an assassin you can't let many people get to know you because that person could suddenly turn on you and kill you. The same goes for them. I had seen how distrusting that Leopard Girl was. When I had begun to fix up her arm she was disbelieving, as if she was just waiting for Natasha to start hurting her. Even when they get out, their appearances will set them apart from everyone else, which is another thing I'd have to talk to Director Fury about when he called. As if sensing my thoughts, my phone began to ring. I took a breath and put back up my masks and walls before answering the video on the second ring.

"Hey Ginger Snaps how was the super scary mission?" Stark answered before Director Fury could speak. The Avengers (minus Thor) and Director Fury were in one of the conference rooms aboard the Helicarrier. From what she could see, Tony had his feet up on the table while Steve, Clint, and Dr. Banner were sitting normally. Fury was standing as usual and seemed more stressed than usual, though that probably because Stark was there.

"Agent Romanoff what do you have to report?" Director Fury asked after sending Stark a glare.

"The rumors were true, the facility is being used as a lab and the test subjects are children. There are about 50 kids, the ages ranging from 2 to 16. The scientists have mixed their DNA with the DNA of an animal and in the best case scenario that results in heightened senses and functioning parts of the animal. In the worst case scenarios the result is deformed features and what I can assume is immense pain. The first experiment that I led was a leopard human hybrid. Upon asking she said she is fifteen years old and has been there since she was four. She has the eyes, ears, tail, fangs, and pattern of a leopard. The living conditions are terrible. All the experiments are kept in dog crates and are malnourished and injured. They are subjected to numerous tests that test their durability, senses, and pain tolerance. As you can imagine that leads to many injuries that are then left unattended. After a maze test, the Leopard Girl came out with her right arm looking like it went through a cheese grater. I attended to her arm and while I was doing so she was looking as if she couldn't believe that I was helping her not hurting her." I reported, my mind flashing back to both the Red Room and the girl as I told them.

The avengers at the other end of the line wore varying expressions of shock, anger, and disgust as I finished. Steve and Tony for once were on the same page, looking like they were ready to break into the facility and tear apart any scientist they met met. Bruce was taking deep breaths to calm himself. Clint's emotions were masked but I could see rage and shock hidden beneath. Director Fury had begun to pace as well.

"We need to get them out" Steve said, stating the obvious.

"You said there's around 50 kids there? Where will they go once they're out? They can't exactly go to child services." Fury said.

"If you won't help I'm getting them out myself. " I stated, emotion heating my words to emphasize the challenge and threat beneath the words. SHIELD would lose a valuable agent if they refused to do something immediately. Everyone on the other end of the call looked at me surprised. I was known for my detachment of emotions during a mission so the fact that what I had seen would cause me to leave SHIELD was shocking.

"We can bring a few of them to my tower or to my house in Malibu until we figure out exactly what we're gonna do with the rest" Tony said in all sincerity. I shot him a surprised and grateful look.

"We'll bring those few in first and learn what we can from them about the scientists and the other experiments. They'd probably know more about any dangers and the security there as well." Steve added, building off of Tony's idea. Natasha nodded in agreement, her mind immediately going to the Leopard girl as well as to the guards she had seen. Looking over at Fury, he looked as if he knew he'd been defeated.

"Alright, we'll get a few of them out for now and bring them to Stark's place in Malibu. It's the closest and probably best for them. If they've been in there for as long as you say they have it may be best to get them used to society slowly." Fury said. "We'll send Dr. Banner in first undercover as a scientist so he can determine who is strong enough to go this round. After we'll send in Captain Rogers to help you collect them."

"What about me?" Stark asked.

"We'll need a distraction when we're getting out. Start blowing things up on the opposite side of the compound. Also get Jarvis to disable the security cameras that are along our way." I told him and he grinned.

"You're making it too easy Red" he said.

"Clint I'll need you to take one of the helicopters to get us out of there quick." I told him and he nodded.

"We'll get Banner over there in two days. Then Rogers will come after you've determined who's coming" Fury summed up.

"I'll give you another update if I receive more information tomorrow" I said and hung up. Leopard girl wouldn't have to spend another week in that hellhole.

FTFTFTFTFT

*in the School two days later*

I woke with a start, gasping for breath. Seeing that I was in my cage, I let out a sigh of relief. I hated when I dreamed about tests. Last night's had been particularly brutal. I re-lived the maze test I had done a few days ago when I first met Natasha except instead of helping me, Natasha had started beating me, tearing at me with a knife. Shaking my head to clear my mind of the dream, I looked at the other cages to see who was awake.

Next to me, I saw that Will was up and looking at me curiously. He has dark brown hair and pale skin. He seems to be about my age, maybe a bit older. He's mixed with bird DNA I could see a pair of dark brown wings folded lightly on his back.

"Nightmares," I told him and he nodded in understanding.

"They happen to the best of us…I guess that means that everyone here is the best." He told me and I gave him a half smile. For being relatively new, he'd quickly become my best friend. We told each other everything. Yesterday I told him about Natasha. He didn't believe me until she escorted him to an experiment later in the day. Then he agreed that she's too nice for a whitecoat. There's something going on with her and I want to find out what it is.

"Amber?" a small voice called out. Will and I had chosen names after realizing they'd be necessary if we ever got out. Will had suggested the name to me saying that it was the color of my eyes. I had given him that name because of his will to survive.

"Yes Reilly?" I called back. Reilly was a little girl that I had raised for her first year here. Reilly's mixed with raccoon, giving her bushy dark gray, almost black hair, the famous black raccoon mask around her eyes, a bushy tail, and raccoon ears. The whitecoats had placed her in my cage. She was only a few months old then and I was around 10. They gave me some food to give to her and I raised her as if she were my own kitten, even though I was a kit myself. My own experiments never ceased, and her presence helped take my mind off of my own pain. I looked for more escape routes in that time when I was heading back from experiments, not wanting her to face the same pain that I did. I failed though. When she was about 2 and a half, they took her from me and started experiments on her. For me, that was more painful than any other experiments they'd done to me. I wanted to be able to stop them from doing experiments and tests on her so badly. I had defended her as a wild leopard would with her own kit, placing myself between her and the whitecoats. One of the whitecoats shot me with a tranquilizer dart and took her when I was out. I didn't see her for a long time after that. It was only last week that they brought her back and put her in a cage a few down from mine. We recognized each other instantly but I haven't been able to hold her in my arms or even touch her in that time.

"My arms hurt. My tail too." She told me softly.

"I know sweetie. It'll go away. My arm and tail hurt too. But it's getting better every minute." I comforted her.

"I'm scared." She said even quieter. Those two words broke my heart. I wanted to go to her and hold her and never let anything hurt her so she wouldn't have to be scared. My pain filled eyes met Will's. I didn't know what to tell her. I wanted more than anything to tell her that she shouldn't be scared because everything was going to all right. But that would mean I would be lying to her. Because I knew she should be scared of what the whitecoats would do next and I didn't know if things were going to be all right.

"It's okay if you're scared. I am too, but things are going to be okay in the end." Will told her. I sent him a grateful glance.

The door opened and everyone scrambled back in his or her cage. I sighed in relief as I saw Natasha coming in. The other experiments that knew her sighed in relief with me. At least getting to the test wouldn't be painful. Then the door opened again and a man came in. I had never seen him before. He was definitely older than Natasha. His black hair was graying and he had tanned skin. The strangest part was that he was gazing at us in surprise and barely concealed horror. It was like when Natasha had first seen me come out of the maze. I shared a confused glance with Will.

"Who is this guy?" I whispered to him. He shrugged.

They walked around side by side, Natasha occasionally saying stuff about a certain experiment. As they reached our side of the row of cages, they stopped in front of my cage.

"Is this Leopard Girl?" the unknown whitecoat asked.

"It's Amber." Will said, his voice hard and untrusting.

"Is this Amber?" he said, correcting himself.

"Yes." Natasha said. She unlatched my cage.

"Come on out. It's not a test today." She told me. Will shot me a warning glance, silently telling me to not listen to her.

"If there's no test then why do I need to go out?" I asked her, suspicious.

"We just want to talk to you. We need to ask you some questions where the other people can't see or hear us." The other whitecoat said.

The door to the room opened and an Eraser walked in followed by another whitecoat. They stopped in front of Will's cage and I looked at him fearfully.

"Is she not cooperating? I'll get her out." The Eraser asked and he picked up my cage and turned it upside down so that I fell out and landed in a heap on the floor. I stood up quickly and hissed at him, baring my teeth. He growled back at me.

"Enough." The whitecoat that had come in with him said. The whitecoat opened up Will's cage and I watched as he came out slowly, his limbs stiff. He was about a head taller than me. Looking up at him and seeing the barely concealed fear in his eyes, I reached out and grabbed his hand and gave it a small squeeze before letting go. He smiled slightly. Natasha grabbed me gently around the neck and the tail and led me towards the door. Before we left though, I heard the Eraser say,

"Aww does birdie have a crush on kitty? Too bad she might not survive what we have planned for her." A loud smack and a howl of pain followed after that.

I whirled around. From what I saw, it looked like Will had punched the Eraser in the nose who now had a stream of blood coming from his nose. The Eraser grinned evilly and transformed into its more wolf-like form. I heard Natasha and the other whitecoat gasp. The Eraser rushed at Will and slashed him across the leg. Will fell to the ground, clutching his leg. I broke free from Natasha and rushed at the Eraser and kicked him in the face, resulting in a loud crack and a howl of pain from the Eraser. I had broken his nose.

He quickly recovered and I jumped back as he shot his hand out. But I wasn't quick enough when his other hand flashed toward me and raked across my waist. I screamed and fell to the floor. The Eraser came over to me and was going to step on my neck when the whitecoat that had come in with him decided to intervene.

"Enough!" he shouted and the Eraser stopped and went over to him. He and the whitecoat picked up Will and they left. Natasha and the other whitecoat ran over to me. Natasha looked panicked and the other whitecoat was taking deep breaths as he examined my wound. I was thinking how strange that there are two whitecoats that seemed to care.