Hi guys!

Firstly, a massive thanks to April Woods, Snoweylily, 08bdovea, soccerstar0198, Science Queen and Cassandra-Luna-Bellatrix-Snape for all following Unforgivable!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Here's Chapter 3, enjoy!

(P. S. Remember the name Alex, who is briefly mentioned in this chapter, as she will be returning in a later chapter, and is based on one of my best friends ever, "Alex". She is quite very awesome. And if you're reading, "Alex", hope you enjoy!)

"Five dollars and sixty-seven cents please when you're ready, sir, "I said to my final customer of the day. The little old man fumbled with his cash before passing ten dollars over the counter. "Get a little something for yourself, sweetheart," he said, winking at me. I hurried to get him his change, but he was already gone. I smiled to myself as I dropped the note into the cash register. I already had enough money than I knew what to do with. I hung up my Starbucks apron and cap, before turning the sign from "Hi, we're open" to "Sorry, we're closed".

"Hey Mel?" I called out. Mel, the manager and owner of our branch of Starbucks, appeared from the kitchen. "I'm going home," I said to her, tossing her the keys.

"Have a good one, honey," she called as I opened the door to go. I waved, before walking onto the unusually not busy footpath. I walked to my apartment, thinking to myself.

Life had been good since I had moved to Manhattan six months ago. I was still in touch with Alex, whose parents had adopted me all those years ago in Vancouver, when I was looking for my dad's friend there when I was nine. Unfortunately, I didn't anticipate how painful walking all day would be with a punctured lung and a cracked rib would be, and I was sitting on a bench, gasping for breath and trying to stem the bleeding in my leg from my freshly reopened bullet wound when they found me and took me home. Alex and I have been like sisters ever since and legally we actually are sisters, I guess, since her parents adopted me and all.

I turned a corner, heading to my apartment block. Most people back home in Vancouver thought I was mad to move to Manhattan, after the so-called "alien attack" in which case the Avengers "saved the world."

This is why I don't watch the news anymore.

I suddenly became aware of headlights behind me. Any other night, this would have not have been strange, on one of the busiest roads in all of New York. But tonight, the road was just as non busy as the footpath, and it was eerily quiet. Also, these headlights never passed me out. I stopped and glanced over my shoulder. A white van with headlights still on was pulled in on the sidewalk. I looked straight ahead again, took a deep breath, and ran like hell to my apartment. I heard shouting and doors slamming and I ran faster. I was nearly there, so nearly there, when I felt my pursuers gaining on me. I felt a sharp pain hit the back of my head, and I fell forward. I felt someone catch my shoulders before my face smashed into the concrete. With a start, I remembered the last time someone had done that, over 15 years ago now. I tried to look at the person who had caught me, but black dots clouded my vision. I saw the outline of a hooded face, and then nothing.

-x-

"Dude, I'm telling you, this was a bad idea."

"Relax Clint, she'll be fine. You heard what Fury said, we did the right thing."

"I'm telling you Tony, this was a bad idea. What if we threw the brick too hard and she doesn't wake up? What happens if she does wake up? What do we tell her then? What-"

"Clint, shut up, go and play with your arrows or something and stop freaking me out. She'll be fine, she'll just-"

I groggily opened my eyes and shook my head, becoming aware of a shooting pain at the back of my head. I groaned.

All talking stopped. I blinked my eyes hard and everything became sharper. I gave a yell when I realised who was in the room with me. I had my back against the wall, and pulled my arms are my knees protectively. I was on a bed, and a big room with little furniture. One wall was made entirely of mirror. Three men dress completely in black were staring at me. One still had his balaclava on, but the other two had pulled theirs off, leaving their faces exposed. Though I hadn't seen any of them in over 15 years, I had no problem identifying them.

My tormentors from middle school hell had come back to haunt me.

I gave a bloodcurdling shriek, before Clint rushed over and clamped his hand over my mouth. "Hey," he said casually, though there was a hint of panic in his voice. "kinda, keep it down, will you?"

I bit his finger and he yelped.

"Clint, she can scream as loud as she wants, no one will hear her down here." Tony sat down in one of the few chairs.

"What do you want?" I hissed, glaring at him.

He didn't answer immediately. I could see him choosing his words carefully. "Your silence."

"You stalk me, knock me out, take me to God knows where, just to ask me. For. My. Silence?"

"...yes." Tony answered simply. I gave a full on British glare and he shrank back. My head throbbed. "What did you knock me out with anyway?"

"A brick." Now that I wasn't screaming anymore, Clint left my side, calmly walking over to join Tony. I could still see him nursing the finger I bit, and I would have smiled, if his words hadn't shocked me so much. I gripped my knees tighter.

The third man took off his balaclava as all of this was going on and I wasn't surprised to see a much older Bruce Banner. He looked shattered.

"I don't remember agreeing to that," he said quietly. "I mean, you presume, of course, when a man with an IQ equivalent to Einstein and a master assassin decide to kidnap someone, you would think they would have more creative ways of doing it than flinging a brick at that said someone that they just happened to pick up while passing a construction site."

"Quite true, my dear Bruce, but, then again, I was never a predictable kind of person." Tony replied, grinning at Bruce.

"So when can I go home?" I said, looking at Bruce while I spoke, he being the least hated out of the three men that were in the room with me.

Bruce looked down. "You're not going home."

"What?!" I yelled at him.

He looked at me again, eyes full of sorrow and regret. My mind flashed back to the last time he had looked at me like that, when I had been coughing blood all over the school floor, a lifetime ago now. He opened his mouth to speak, but just then a door that I had not yet noticed opened, and a woman with short red hair came into the room. I recognised her as one of the Avengers; I had seen her in the paper once when Mel had left it on the counter when I was on my break.

"What's going on here?" she asked, addressing Tony and Clint sharply.

Tony and Clint both hissed under their breath at the same time, but I still caught it.

"Oh shit."

That's the end of Chapter 3, guys!

I won't be publishing Chapter 4 until Monday maybe, not sure yet!

Hope you enjoyed!

BYE!

-kates the firework