A/N: There is some strong language in this chapter but I hope you enjoy it.
ps; in this story, Steve is married to OC Katrina, and Tony's going out with OC Ella.
Seemingly, it had all began about a month back.
They, that is to say, Katrina, Rogers, Ella, Stark, Thor & Banner, had been dispatched by Fury to a small island off the coast of eastern Australia, to try and infiltrate what was believed to be an underwater bunker of Loki's.
The island itself was small, rocky and mountainous. There was a small SHIELD facility for them to stay in, but apart from that, the island was largely vacant.
The plan was for the two strongest swimmers, aka Katrina and Ella to snorkel down and see what they could find in the abyss that was the ocean.
They were suited up with their gear in next to no time, when Steve pulled Katrina in to an uncharacteristically public romantic kiss.
Tony pouted at Ella but she rolled her eyes and gave him a quick hug, which he quickly turned in to more.
"Be careful Rogers, I need a husband to come back to," said Katrina, only half joking.
Steve, who had a fear of water, simply hugged her and wished her luck.
Without further ado, the two women covered their faces with breathing apparatus and took smooth dives in to the waters below.
Katrina gave Ella a thumbs up, which she quickly returned, indicating they were good to move on.
If they saw anything interesting or out of the ordinary, there was cameras on their helmets.
Today, they were to do no more than film, for it was still the recon stage.
They weren't really seeing anything, apart from several schools of brightly coloured fish, and some sharp reef, which Katrina sliced her finger on, so that it bled lightly.
Suddenly, Ella noticed a change in her friend's demeanour; she'd went from perfectly okay, to frozen with fear, except for a finger which she pointed to the distance, and a hand clasped protectively around her middle.
Then suddenly it came to her. Steve's kiss. Needing a husband to come back to. The hand around her stomach.
"You're pregnant!" Ella yelled, so that Katrina heard her over the intercom system. "You stupid bitch, you shouldn't be out here!"
All Katrina did was continue to point.
And that's when Ella saw a pair of yellow eyes from a long, long time ago.
The blazing sun rose over the Mexican city of Palenque. Tony Stark and his girlfriend were already arguing. With it being Sunday, and their last day here, you'd have thought they'd given it a rest.
"Come on babe you'll love it." he said coaxingly.
"The wild jungle with crazy ass animals, really my style." she snapped sarcastically.
Tony bit back a remark Captain America had once said to him.
"Please?" he said, sticking out his bottom lip, knowing she couldn't resist him like this.
She rolled her eyes and mumbled her consent.
He grinned and together they started the trek into the wilderness.
Half an hour later, they were in a secluded clearing, eating some local fruit Tony insist they try.
"Isn't this fantastic," he said. "So romantic and alone, and feeling at one with nature-"
"You have a Blackberry with Happy on speed dial," Ella interrupted.
He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. She was the only one who knew how to twist his tongue, in more ways than one.
"Well, I'm gonna go get some wood, and smoke up a fire," he said, standing up.
"Okay macho man," she said, lying down to bask in some rays.
She was almost asleep, when she heard a rustling in the trees.
"Couldn't find any wood?" she teased, but did not receive a reply.
Furrowing her brow, she sat up and came face to face with a pair of yellow eyes with black ovals for pupils. She was too shocked to even scream, as the sleek black fur made its way closer to her.
"Shit," she whispered, cautiously edging back. She would fucking /end/ Tony if anything happened to her.
Without warning, the puma launched a paw at her and she instantly threw her arm up to block her face, immediately feeling a searing pain, coursing through her, and falling to the ground. Seemingly satisfied with its work, the puma retreated back into the jungle while Ella clutched her arm and writhed around in pain. Coherency was beyond reach by now.
The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the concerned face of her boyfriend.
A few days later, she woke up in her and Tony's room in Stark Tower. She inspected her arm and was pleased that there was only 3 small scars. Tony came in with some water on a tray and sat beside her, stroking her hair.
"You had me worried," he confessed quietly.
"I had myself worried."
"It's all my fault, I'm so-" he began, but she silenced him.
"No it's not. Don't do that to yourself. Things happen," she said, pulling him in for a hug. "What time is it?" she asked.
"J?" said Tony, too lazy to look at his watch.
"Precisely 11.14pm Sir," Jarvis responded.
"I think you should sleep," said Tony. "Come on, lie down,"
She began to protest, but he shushed her. "I'm not asking,"
She lay down, and he snaked his arms around her waist, pulling her close to him. Eventually she drifted off, although he stayed awake, watching her.
The puma clawed at her face again, and again. She tried to throw it off her, but it was no use. Bruised and bloodied, she tried to use force and throw a punch, but this only spurred the large cat on. She screamed Tony's name, but the cat kept scratching, and scratching...
She was shaken awake by a terrified looking Tony.
"Wh-what?" she said.
"You were screaming and twisting and turning and..." he gestured to the bedclothes, which had been torn into shreds.
"I-I did that?" she whispered.
He nodded slowly.
"I'm going to sleep downstairs," she said, and ran out of the room without a word.
She went to the nearest bathroom and locked the door, not bothering with the light. It was pitch black for a few seconds until in the mirror and saw two yellow eyes. Thinking it was an illusion, she moved away only to see the eyes move with her. She immediately yanked the light switch and looked fearfully back at the mirror.
Who was she?
Her eyes gradually returned to their hazel hue, retaining a slight yellow shade.
There came a soft knock at the door. "Babe?"
She was about to reach for the lock when it undid itself, making her jump.
She wrenched it open. "If that was your fucking idea of a joke Stark, it wasn't fucking funny,"
"What?" he said, looking genuinely confused.
"Making the fucking door unlock itself,"
"I swear I didn't,"
She turned around and glanced at the lock.
Had she-? No, she couldn't have. Heroes didn't exist, and if they did she wouldn't be one of them.
But it had opened, and the thought process in her brain was to obviously open it.
"Honey, what is it?" said Tony.
She said nothing, but looked over at an empty glass on the worktop. As she was thinking about moving it, it moved of its own accord, and she was so surprised, it threw her out of her train of thought, and the glass smashed.
"You've been saving the party trick..." said Tony.
"That puma. It did something to me." she replied.
"I know," he said simply, sitting cross legged on the floor, staring out over the New York skyline, lit only by the moon.
"You know?" she questioned, sitting beside him.
He absentmindedly played with her fingers. "Well a normal person couldn't rip up sheets like that. Unless I had something to do with it."
She smiled at the careless innuendo.
"Which I didn't, so I'm assuming it gave you something. But you have to harness it, don't let it control you," he said, tapping the arc reactor.
"I won't," she said, resting her head on his chest.
It was just something she supposed she'd have to live with. She had always got on with things, this was just another to add to the list.
"We'll call you Midnight Puma," he said, kissing her head.
She laughed, and thanked the heavens she had him.
A puma.
Not just any old puma, a supernatural puma.
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
How the hell could that be? Pumas couldn't swim.
Unless.
Was it a puma?
Or designed to look like one.
Ella was still pondering this question, when the answer was given by Katrina only just knocking her out of the path of a row of sharp white teeth.
A shark puma?
Ella regained her composure, focusing for long enough to shout to Katrina, commanding her to swim. There was a large buoy above them, probably for the coastguard or sewage, but they'd be a lot safer out of water than in it.
Then, the puma shark was suddenly back, but swimming erratically, waving its pectoral fin.
Ella racked her brains for everything she knew about sharks, which admittedly wasn't much.
If they attack, hit their gills or eyes.
She wasn't going to deliberately endanger her life, just to get it to back off.
Turn them upside down, they'll go unconscious.
Yeah, because she could force an animal three times her size on its back.
It can smell blood from 5 miles away.
That wasn't a problem because-
Wait.
It came back to her.
Bright fish. Reef. Sharp reef. Katrina's finger.
The shark had smelt the blood and was coming back to get them.
Without hesitation, Ella grabbed a panicked Katrina under the arm and kicked for the surface as hard as she could.
The shark creature swam past again, getting dangerously close, so that the yellows of its eyes were visible.
This was enough to rouse Ella.
Puma.
Powers.
Move.
Katrina.
Baby.
There was no time to tell her friend her plan, so Ella simply gripped her with an iron fist, prayed it would work and telekinetically made them ascend up and out of the water, on top of the buoy, where she ripped off their masks, unleashing a torrent of profanities on her friend.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!? YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! YOU'RE PREGNANT!"
"Calm down! I knew what I was doing," shrugged Katrina.
"You didn't know what you were-" Hannah was stopped mid flow by the sound of a fin slapping the water.
"Come on then," she said loudly, not knowing the shark puma actually understood language. So it did.
It launched itself out of the water, and launched its teeth in to Katrina's finger, surprisingly delicately biting off the tip of her index finger.
"Shit. I didn't know it actually would. Here," said Ella, going to get a bandage from her pack, an action she never got to complete, for the shark came back, and clamped its jaws around her side, causing her to scream and then black out.
Katrina looked down in disbelief, but the shark seemed satisfied and swam back down.
She fearfully turned her eyes on her friend to assess the damage.
Apart from a few puncture marks, which bled freely, she was fine.
No chunk of skin torn out, no maimed body.
Which begged the question; what the hell was that thing?
And more importantly, how was a pregnant woman like herself going to transport an unconscious woman 4 miles in shark puma infested waters?
"Fuck." she said, to no one in particular.
