Chapter 1

Steve

Steve ran out of the elevator through the halls of S.H.I.L.E.D. headquarters, clenching a note in his hand.

"We will break into SHIELD and hold a knife to Director Fury's throat inform of the Avengers."

The note dated the day of the assassination. That day was today. Steve ran through the floor, searching for Tony. Steve felt angrier about this threat against them since it felt more… like a game. It was true a letter was left on the kitchen table in the Avenger Mansion, along with post-it notes in each of the Avenger Bathrooms and one in Tony's lab. Steve crumpled the note and tossed it in a trashcan he passed.

Steve recalled how Tony took his post-it note more personal than the others. Tony could not figure out how the culprits entered the mansion and left all the notes without leaving a trace, especially in his lab. All Steve could think about is Tony defending his AI system, Jarvis.

The system cannot be hacked. I made it, it is perfect! There must be some magic or something else supernatural involved!

Steve turned the corner seeing Tony in his sight. Tony looked to be yelling at yet another one of the interns Pepper hired for Stark Industries. Steve heard the conversation as he approached.

"Mr. Stark, Pepper told me you needed to get all of this completed today or…"

"I don't care what Pepper said. Do you not see what is going on around you? Let me give you a hint, it involves assassins and Nick Fury. I think that is a little more to worry about than some papers brought to me by an intern that Pepper needs me to sign."

"Mr. Stark, she said this happens a lot… and that you need to get this done. She asked for it last month, and she can't wait for it any…"

"Clearly you didn't hear me, that or you work too much you lost your damn mind. I would tell you to take a paid vacation, but sadly we pay you with experience. You want to get yourself killed kid then fine. Stay out of our way and make sure to take cover. We have assassins coming in, and I can't worry about you and Fury. When this is over and if you live, I will sign the papers, Deal?"

The intern just nodded his head at Tony. He saw Steve approaching and took a step back so Steve could speak to Tony.

"Are you always this mean to the interns working for you?"

"Only the ones Pepper hires. I am nice to the scientist interns working in my lab. They have the right sense to stay out of trouble when everyone else around them is in a panic." Tony glared at the intern. The intern just looked down at the floor, avoiding Tony's gaze as he fumbled with the papers.

"You are only nice to the scientist interns cause they remind you of yourself. Not everyone can be Tony Stark." Steve said as he rolled his eyes at Tony's reaction to the intern.

Tony just looked at Steve with a smile, "Come on Cap, not everyone can be Tony Stark. And the world would be a beautiful place if everyone did aspire to be more like me."

Steve sighed at Tony's comment.

"Did Jarvis find anything on these assassins? We don't have much to go on."

"The only thing Jarvis could find is that these two used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. I would put my money on Fury pissing them off somehow, and they want to get back at them. Could we really blame them for seeking justice against Nick Fury?"

Steve's brow went into a furrow. "Yes we can, he needs our protection, and for some reason, these two assassins are targeting him. Least we know how many to expect. We got the numbers on our side even without Hulk here."

Steve and Tony walked, planning their defense against the assassins. The intern followed, weary of Tony's reaction to him if he followed too closely.

"We have Hawkeye stationed outside on the roofs looking for anything suspicious. If a bird seems odd, he will tell us."

Tony just laughed at that comment. Steve felt Tony was going to make a comment about Hawkeye and birds, but instead of allowing Tony to do so, Steve continued.

"Black widow is inside looking at all the entrances and patrolling them. She continues to check-in with stationed guards, and if anything tries to come in, she will let us know."

"And Thor?" Tony asked "what task do we have the mighty thunder god doing? Sweeping the streets?"

"Actually," Steve said "that's exactly what I have him doing. He can get anywhere on ground level quickly enough, and with Hawkeye watching, Thor will knock out those assassins before they even step foot inside S.H.I.E.L.D. What about security? Do you have everything on watch?"

Tony looked worried for a moment. "I have Jarvis checking the system continuously for any hacks. I worked remotely at the terminal as well in the communications room. We both can ensure no one would hack the system. I know you wanted me on the inside but…" Tony held up his hands "I brought my gauntlets just in case I need to repulse someone in the face. Hopefully, they don't get in for that to happen."

Steve felt better about the plan. The team was down one person since Bruce went into hiding after not being able to control going hulk in a residential neighborhood. Luckily no one was killed, but Bruce said he needed to leave to learn to manage the Hulk on his own. No one knows exactly where he went. Steve wished Bruce didn't leave. They could use the Hulks muscle right now.

Steve did not know what to expect from these former S.H.I.E.L.D. assassins. The only thing they knew was there were two of them. Tony explained it looked like someone erased their existence in S.H.I.E.L.D. but Jarvis recovered something in the archives.

Steve and Tony arrived at the Director's office. "Sir, everyone is in position. We will stop the assassins."

Nick Fury looked up at Steve. "I would hope The Avengers can take down two little assassins. I do not plan on dying today, Captain."

Tony glared at Nick Fury, He never did like that man. Although Tony would not admit it, Steve knew Tony is doing all he can to ensure the safety of the director.

Steve reached up to his communicator, "Check-in everyone. Notice anything?"

"I see none of the heathens who wish to do harm to the one-eyed leader." Said Thor

Natasha went next. "I have all doors secure on the upper level. None of the soldiers notices any activity while up here. I am about to do another sweep."

"I see nothing but pedestrians up here and a few birds. No sign of the bastards but they will be sorry once they cross my path." Clint boasted.

"Ok..." said Steve "Iron Man and I are here to the Director's office. Iron Man will continue to check the security feed for anything. Check back in 10 minutes."

"Roger" everyone replied

Then a static charge went through the communicators. Steve looked at Tony not sure what the static means.

"I just heard static on the coms. Anyone know what it is?"

An unknown female voice answered "Yeah…that would be me. Sorry about that. I didn't know the communicator would react to the electrical pulse I put through your friend."

Steve froze after hearing the female voice. "Check-in Avengers, who is down."

"Oh I can answer that one," said the female. "I am afraid Hawkeye is taking a little break. Clint is his real name, right? Cute guy. Getting around him to knock him out was tough. Luckily he was watching the birds when he was walking to you, so I took the opportunity."

Tony just shook his head at the irony of the situation, and they heard a female laugh over the communicator.

"I just realized the irony of his name and what happened. Sorry, that was rude. No worries, though, he's only knocked out. He isn't the target, so no reason to harm… well, some reason to harm, but not kill. Guess I will see you guys inside. And to keep it fun I will leave the communicator with Clint. Whenever he wakes up, he should know you guys failed. See ya soon."

Steve heard the communicator go quietly. He did not expect the assassins to enter through the roof. Being S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, he figured mid-level or ground level would be the choices. Steve turned to Tony, "Iron Man watch the surveillance, we need to know where this woman is, all we know is she is entering the building."

Steve reached up to his communicator, "Black Widow let us know when she comes through any of the doors or windows. I will meet you, and we can take her out. Thor secure the perimeter. We know where one is, but we still do not know where or when the other will appear."

"I will find this vixen's comrade and slay him in battle for Hawkeye!" Shouted Thor.

"I see nothing yet at the entrances. Iron Man let me see if you see anything on the cameras," Natasha confirmed.

Steve looked at Tony. Tony looked worried checking his handheld device and making sure Jarvis had everything handled. Finally, Tony let out a sigh, "This is too tough to do on something this small. You there, intern guy. You did bring my laptop with you right?"

Steve looked to see the intern still in the room. He was shocked he did not notice him with the commotion occurring. He saw the intern white in the face barely able to reply to Tony.

"Ye… Ye…Yes Mr. Stark I have it here with me."

"Well make yourself useful for once in your life and bring it here. I need to use it to make sure the security network is working fine."

The intern brought the pile of papers he had to the desk. He pulled a thin laptop out from the bottom. Steve did not even notice the laptop in the intern's hands. This may have been why the intern struggled with the papers. Steve felt sorry for the intern on his first few weeks on the job; he is witnessing an assassination attempt along with dealing with Tony's stress.

"Here you go Mr. Stark."

"Thanks. And you might want to wait in the corner. It is the safest place for someone who can't actually defend himself, and I don't want you getting hurt by being in the middle."

The intern nodded and went to the corner like an obedient child. Steve smiled at this. Tony did worry about other's well-being even though he did not always show it.

"Avengers I want 5 min check-ins. We need to stay on top of these assassins."

"Roger," said Thor and Natasha.

Steve did not know what to expect from the second assassin. The first one caught Clint off guard. He felt relieved knowing Clint was only stunned but he would believe it when he sees Clint again. He did not know if these assassins would tell the truth.

"We have a breach" Natasha stated "East wing stair access to the roof. Looks like the soldiers were knocked out. From what I can figure out, I would guess a gas bomb and what looks like stun marks on the few who avoided the gas. I am heading down tracking her. She is heading in your direction, Captain."

"Roger that Black Widow, I will try and see if I can head her off on this floor. Be careful she took out Hawkeye remember."

"I will gladly repay her for that" replied Natasha.

Steve made his way out the door. "Iron Man stay here, protect Fury, and..." Steve looked at the intern who was looked as though he did not know what was going on "...him as well."

"Roger that Cap. But this is weird I see nothing on the security feed other than the soldiers still standing. No alarms tripped or anything."

Steve walked over curious to see the security feed on the laptop. Tony told the truth. The image still showed the soldiers protecting the east side entrance.

"Black widow are you sure the female assassin entered through the east side stairs? Iron Man and I are looking at the security feed, and we can still see the soldiers stationed there at their post," Steve asked.

"Confirmed and she is moving down the stairs quickly. I am going down the East Stairwell now, and she put up a lot of traps. Now I can't get by, but she is getting to you guys fast."

Tony began to type quickly on the laptop. "There is no way she hacked into the system without me knowing," Tony said as he worked quickly. Then the Screen went black. Tony and Steve just stared at the blank screen until an image popped up. The image was of a cartoon penguin waving a sign. The sign read: You've been hacked. The penguin waved the sign and then turned around to shake its tail at the two superheroes with the phrase, "Sorry bout it," appearing at the bottom. Tony let out multiple curse words at once and threw the laptop across the room, smashing it against the wall.

The intercom system began to go on, "I see you found my message. I thought the penguin was cute," the female assassin voice sounded over the intercom, squeaking at the end of the sentence.

"Also, you might want to check the third floor, my friend has been bored and waiting for someone to notice him, but he asked for me to let you know what's going on. I am not sure if he is still there, but worth a shot right," The assassin informed Steve and Tony.

Steve did not know how to take in this information. The female assassin just gave away her partners location. The third floor was nowhere near where the director's office was, but who knows what they had planned. Steve also did not know if it was a trap.

"Do you guarantee it is your friend on the third floor?" Steve shouted hoping the female would respond.

"I mean… I consider that to be my friend. Your call, on what you do. I can't make the choices for you. I do consider what is on the third floor to be my friend. Hope that clarifies things for you."

Steve had no choice in the matter, even if it was a trap. They needed to take the chance.

"Thor we might have the second assassin on the third floor. I don't know if he got by you or if he came through after Hawkeye was taken out. Go see what you can find."

"I will hunt down whatever is there, Captain. Mjölnir and I will claim victory."

"Black Widow, any luck locating the female assassin?"

"Yeah I think I am hot on her trail. I cleared out most of the traps. She is good, but I am better."

"What's your location?"

"I am two floors above you guys. I would figure she is on the floor above you. She might try to go through the ceiling," said Natasha.

"Roger that," said Steve. Steve needed to regroup and figure out a new plan. He needed to confirm with Tony their plan of attack. When he looked over to Tony, he just saw the man staring at the broken laptop, anger burning in his eyes. "How did she hack S.H.I.E.L.D. and MY system. S.H.I.E.L.D. I get hacking S.H.I.E.L.D., but my security system is flawless. There is no way she did this. I claim supernatural powers or something extraterrestrial helping her!"

Steve made his way to Tony and placed his hand on his friend's shoulder. "We can figure out that later, right now, we have Black Widow chasing down the female assassin and Thor looking to the third floor for the male assassin."

"Oh…you thought my friend on the third floor was my partner? No, sorry that is my bad for bad communication," the voice sounded through the intercom.

Steve looked up, he didn't need to shout for the female to her him, but he still did. "You said your friend was on the third floor!"

"I told you I consider what is on the third floor a friend. It is actually one of my favorite robots I made. Simple design, but it does shoot darts coated with a serum which causes sleepy time. The robot scares easily so might not be good for someone to go near it."

"Thor avoid the third floor," shouted Steve.

"Captain I arrived at the third floor, but I see no foe. No one is present." Steve then heard a shot on the communicator and what sounded like a thunder god hitting the floor.

"I think Thor met my friend. My apologies if he was mean Thor. Like I said, he scares easily."

Steve felt like this was a game to the assassins. They took out two Avengers, and they still didn't know where the other assassin would be. Steve thought for a moment, and he realized no one monitored the outside. "Iron Man can you get footage of the outside? Our look-outs are knocked out, and this could be the opening the other assassin looked for."

Tony looked up and with an expression like a light bulb went off. "You might be right Cap. Natasha is chasing the female assassin, and the real threat could be the male."

"I would say you are right, friend," the female voice said.

"We don't need to hear any more from you! We will go on through this without any of your 'help.'" Steve shouted at the intercom.

"Rude…well, I tried. But you are right about the real threat."

Natasha came running in through the door. "The traps led to this floor. Do we know if she is here?" Tony and Steve looked at Natasha had cuts and bruises from the traps. "That bitch decided to leave very tricky trap at the end, but I got through it."

"Well since you guys are all gathered at the office, I will join you! See you when I get to the Director's office." The female voice said.

Steve, Natasha, and Tony took position around the door. They had no time to assess the outside for the second assassin; they were going to take out the female assassin here and now. Steve readied his shield, Natasha had a knife in her hand, and Tony aimed his gauntlets out of the door preparing to repulse blast anything coming through. Director Fury remained standing behind his desk ready to move, not knowing what to expect. He had been silent during this whole situation which scared Steve. The intern remained in the corner hiding away from the window in case something would come through. Steve thought that was smart since he and the others were guarding the door.

They could see her enter the floor. She was a shorter female, wavy black hair. She dressed in jeans and a tank top shirt showing her black bra. She was fit and looked as though she could take down any soldier. She was not dressed as any typical assassin would be. Was this really the woman who took down so many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and two Avengers? What scared Steve is she did not show any fear. She walked calmly over to the office wearing a smile on her face. The female assassin even waved when she was able to see all three of them.

"Hello! We finally meet. Hope this has been as fun for you as it has for me. I told you earlier though I am not the real threat. So you might not want to waste your weapons on me. I am more of the tech support of the team."

Steve did not respond with words. Instead, he threw his shield. The female assassin pulled out two stun sticks. She deflected Steve's shield with no issue, only bracing the impact with one leg. Steve waited for the shield to return but it did not magnetize to his suit. Instead, it hit him in the stomach knocking the wind out of him.

"Sorry about that. Electrical stunners. I magnetized your shield so you couldn't catch it. Hope it didn't hurt you too bad."

Steve was stunned by the impact of his shield but recovered, Natasha decided to run out and fight hand to hand with the female. Before Natasha could close the distance between them, she saw the female assassin pulling out a remote.

"So… I would not have stopped if I were ya. I mean if you want to live." The female assassin said.

Natasha looked up and behind her seeing a bomb, armed and ready to explode. "We have a bomb" she shouted and ran for cover.

Tony and Steve did not have time to react. The bomb went off. The major part of the explosion appeared to be in the hallway and not in the office. Steve felt dazed from the bomb and could still hear the ringing in his ears. He looked up to see Tony getting up from the other side of the office. Steve looked at the back and saw Fury rising from behind his desk assessing the damage. Steve looked around and could see the intern near Fury. It looked as though he was hurt badly. Blood showed on his arm and head. They will need to get medical attention soon.

"Black widow, what's your status?" Steve said on the communicator.

"Somehow I am still breathing" Steve heard in response. "I don't think that bomb was meant to harm...AHHH."

Steve heard Natasha scream and the same static on the communicator. Steve looked at Tony. "We got to block her from Fury."

Steve and Tony both got up and went to the hole which was once a door, ready for the female assassin.

They saw her walking toward them as the dust began to settle. "Why is it the pretty ones need to be so deadly smart?" Tony asked Steve. The female assassin smiled to that question. She walked over to both Tony and Steve, stopping a few feet short of them.

"I told you both I am not the real threat here. I am just the tech support." The female said with a smile.

"If you are not the real threat then, who is? And NO GAMES!" Steve asked as he shouted to the female assassin. The female assassin looked at him than between Tony and Steve pointing a finger. "He is of course."

Steve and Tony followed the female assassin's finger. Behind them, they saw Fury standing there with a man behind him holding a knife. It was the intern who was bleeding on the floor. The intern began to remove a mask revealing a man with brown hair and dark brown eye which was not a college intern for Stark Industries. The male held the knife to Nick Fury's neck and stated, "You tell them."

Steve and Tony did not know what the male meant. Before they could process the information, the female assassin walked past both Steve and Tony, over to Fury's desk, and sat right on the desk. "So are you gonna tell them?" she said.

Nick Fury took a deep breath and sighed. "Alright…I will tell them. Stark. Rogers. Welcome, the two new members of the Avengers."

With that, the knife evaporated into this air, and the male joined his female friend on the desk, both looking at Tony and Steve smiling.

Steve turned to Tony with his mouth still open. Tony returned the same facial expression and said: "New… members?"