A Job Offer

Director Fury and Agent Hill watched the girl wake up through the surveillance cameras in the room. Hill ventured to ask, "Sir, who is she?"

"We don't know"

"Why is she here?"

"She blew up a prison. Ran away. S.H.I.E.L.D. caught her."

"No offense, but this isn't the kind of case S.H.I.E.L.D usually takes."

"That's the thing. Our radar didn't detect an explosion. All it detected was a huge amount of extremely dense sound waves."

...

As Zoe woke up, she could hear classical music playing in the room. A room she didn't recognize. Another holding cell. At least this time they knew she needed music, but what else did they know? Zoe had tried so hard to keep her abilities a secret. She would hate for the police to let the whole world know about her, and didn't want to have to deal with all the chaos that would follow. Her thoughts wandered back to the previous night. As she finally remembered the whole scenario after receiving the memory in bits and pieces, she worried about the people in the jail and tried to remember anything about this S.H.I.E.L.D. that the man who shot her said he was taking her to.

Before she had enough time to get her story straight, the same man walked into the cell and sat down on one side of a table in the middle of the room. He gestured for Zoe to do the same, and she complied.

"My name is Director Fury. Care to share your name?"

Zoe remained silent and stared right at Fury, challenging him to continue.

"Not very talkative are you?"

Zoe just kept the silence. She felt that if she didn't talk they would eventually just give up and let her go. She was wrong.

"What if I turn off the music? Will that make you want to talk a little more?"

This made Zoe weigh her options. She knew she could call his bluff and say that it wouldn't affect her, but she would have to give in 40 hours later anyways, and Zoe was tired. Tired of running away. Tired of her little silent fight against Fury. If Fury handed her over to the police, her secret would be dumped on some sort of online public record, but at least the running would be over. Still there was a little part in Zoe that hoped. That held on to the tiny little chance that S.H.I.E.L.D. was different. She had seen on the news that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been compromised by Hydra, and that they were slowly trying to build themselves back up again, and she knew she could be a part of that rebuilding. But she pushed those thoughts down as soon as they came up. Experience had taught her not to trust anyone, and she wasn't going to hope for something impossible. She would settle for a jail cell. At least in prison she wouldn't have to face the world knowing about her. "My name is Zoe Welera. Please don't turn the music off. I'll answer your questions."

"Ok. We talked to the guard in the building. He said you asked for music and then freaked out later on. Care to tell us why?"

Relief flooded through Zoe as she learned that the guard was OK. She hesitated for a moment before revealing her secret, but she knew she was going to go through with her decision. "During the Battle of New York, me and my parents were visiting the City like we do every year, and we saw the portal open when the jitari started coming. At first we just stared at the sky like complete idiots, but when people around us started to be attacked, we hurried to shelter in the nearest building, which was a music store. For awhile we thought we would be safe inside, but then the entire building started to collapse. We tried to leave but the door was blocked by the rubble. Just when the floors above should have crushed me, just when I should have died, something weird happened. Everything went into slow motion. And all of the instruments played by themselves. They all played the same note and played as loud as they could. The combined sound blasted my ears open and stabbed its way up into my head. It was the most painful thing I've ever felt. But that wasn't all. All of a sudden I could hear every single thing that was going on in that city. I heard the aliens each time they came through the portal. I heard the screams of their victims. I heard people dying. I heard the scared cries of all the little children clinging on to their parents who were just as scared. I heard Captain America as he shouted orders to the police and the Avengers. But that was nothing. I could hear everyone's blood flowing. I could hear everyone's heart beating. I could hear everyone's every breath and everything else that was going on inside of them. The instruments kept playing and I felt like my head was going to explode from all the noise. I wanted it to end. It was all I could think about. I wanted it to end. Finally, I blacked out from the pain and woke up normal again lying outside the rubble that was once a building. The battle had ended, with the Avengers obviously victorious, but as I ran to the fallen building I saw the lifeless bodies of my parents crushed beneath the debris. I buried them myself. It didn't take me long to realize that something was different. I could almost feel the vibrations of sound floating through the air. So I got curious and tried to control those vibrations. Turn them into something whole. One day when nobody was looking I consenrated on the vibrations. I could feel them slowly binding together, so I forced them together in one blast. It's kind of like I turned the sound waves into a solid substance. I practiced this and got better and better at it. Now I have almost complete control. Except for when I don't hear music, like the guard was saying. At first, I'm still in control, but I'm in extreme pain. The sound of every function in my body is magnified and drives me slowly insane. It puts me back in time to the Battle of New York, and my head can't handle all the noise. And then it gets to a certain point where I loose control. I let out a huge burst of solidified sound energy and keep doing so until I can find music. It usually doesn't take long. I want it to end so badly I don't stop moving until I hear music. After I listen to it for awhile I go back to normal. If I don't manipulate sound waves I can go for 40 hours without music before I start to feel the pain and 48 hours before I lose control. If I do use my ability I can only go for 20 hours before I feel the pain and 24 before I lose control."

As soon as she finished Zoe felt relieved. It was as if she had been yearning to get her whole story out all at once but was never given the chance. She knew the questions were coming, but she didn't know what else Fury wanted to know. She had tried to be very thorough in her explanation.

"How many times have you lost control?"

"3"

"When?"

"Once a few weeks after the incident, once a few months ago, and you know about the last one."

"Do you have any idea if someone was involved in the incident?"

"No"

"Do you have any idea why the incident occurred?"

"Not at all"

"Do you know how to fight?"

"Excuse me?"

This struck Zoe by surprise. The question was completely off topic, and she didn't see why Fury needed to know. Fury asked again: "Do you know how to fight?"

"I was never trained to fight, but I've been on the run for awhile and have had to keep in shape if that's what you mean."

"Anything else we should know?"

"Not that I can think of. Are you going to hand me over to the police?"

"No. I'd like to give you a job offer."

"A job offer for what?"

"Have you heard about the Avengers?"

"Ya. They're all over the news and I was there during the Battle of New York."

"I want you to join them."

Zoe burst out laughing. The Avengers? Earth's mightiest heroes? She couldn't even fight.

"I don't exactly think I'm the most qualified person for that team."

"It's either that or jail."

"Count me in."