Sam Silverman's POV

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. - Nelson Mandela

WHOO! I've got the journal back. I'm actually starting to enjoy this writing thing.

Hmm, so, where to start? I woke up the next morning, feeling . . . exhausted. Like, seriously – every muscle in my body was aching painfully. And my bones were hurting, too. Everything hurt.

There was a banging on the door – it was the noise that had woken me up. I sighed, flinging the door open to reveal Steve, standing there in his Captain America suit.

He looked astounded and, well, violated when he saw me standing there in my pajamas. Well, sort-of pajamas. No one on this damn ship had bothered to buy me clothing of any kind, so I had been living in my grey long-sleeved shirt and pants for the past few days. It had been dirty and unhygienic, but no one would bring me anything else. Yesterday I had demanded some pajamas – after sweating my shirt past the point of washable while training with Steve, I had finally convinced Fury to scrounge up something decent.

It wasn't much, though. The agents on the Helicarrier didn't exactly wear much other than black bodysuits. I had only found a white tank-top (it was actually some woman's undershirt, but I honestly didn't see the difference), a plaid pink cotton pajama top with buttons down the front, and a large pair of men's boxers. You know – underwear. But they were so big they came down to my knees, and thus I was fine with it.

Steve, though, apparently wasn't. He grimaced when he saw me in the shorts, tank top and unbuttoned pajama shirt, scrunching up his eyes.

"You could at least have put on something decent," he said, covering his eyes with his hand.

"Are you really that uncomfortable with seeing me in my sleepwear?"

He nodded silently.

I frowned, a thought suddenly occurring to me. "Is it because you were brought up in an age where seeing a girl like this was, uh . . . scandalous?"

There was a pause, and then Steve nodded silently again.

"Um. Oh," I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay," he hastily said. "Is that . . . acceptable . . . attire nowadays?"

"Pretty much," I blushed sheepishly. Steve slowly took his hand away from his eyes, but he was blushing quite profusely and wouldn't look at me.

"Uh, there's a meeting in the lab in five minutes," he said. "Fury says you have to be there."

"Fineeeee," I drew out the "e", slightly annoyed. But it was hard to be pissed off when Steve was blushing so adorably. Yes, I'll admit it – he looked really cute when he blushed as red as a tomato, because he was embarrassed. I should parade around in my underwear more often, I thought cheekily.

"Um . . ." he trailed off awkwardly. "I'll just be – I'll be – uh, I'll be going now," he randomly pointed down the hall, and then quickly turned on his heel and left.

I shook my head at his behavior, smiling to myself as I pulled the boxers up higher on my hips. After shutting the door I headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth, have my morning constitutional (sorry, I couldn't help it – my mom used to say that to me), and run a brush through my knotted blonde hair. My stomach grumbled hungrily as I stared back at my reflection. There were no more traces of my training with Steve, save for the swelling and bruising on my cheek where I had held the rifle.

Yesterday with the Captain had actually been kind of . . . fun. At first, I had sensed that he didn't really like me. But we chatted while we worked, sharing stories and laughing at each other's jokes. Eventually, I began to trust him – we were becoming friends. Slowly, but surely. He was a nice guy once you got past all the regulation soldier stuff.

I washed my face, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Back in my room, I came to the horrifying conclusion that I didn't have anything to wear again. I was going to have to show up in an official S.H.I.E.L.D meeting in my pajamas. Jeez, that screamed "mature". At least I can make Steve blush again, the evil part of me thought.

And so, slamming my bedroom door shut, I headed out of my room towards Banner's lab. I admittedly did get lost twice, but still arrived on time.

Doctor Banner, Tony, Fury and Steve were all in the room when I got there. Banner, it seemed, to do his "Tesseract" thing – but the others, for this mysterious "meeting".

My insides squirmed when Steve saw me again, and immediately he blushed a deep red, looking away quickly. Both Tony and Fury had no reaction though; they simply acted as if it was a normal thing for a teenage girl to interrupt a superhero meeting.

"Silverman," Fury greeted me, holding out a tray of breakfast foods. I grabbed it greedily, wolfing down every last morsel of disgusting cafeteria food – I hadn't touched my dinner last night, which had been a bowl of gruel.

"So," I asked, chewing on a croissant with my mouth open, "What's up?"

Fury cut straight to the chase. "As you have probably guessed, we're training you to become a superhero so can fight alongside the others."

"Noooooooo, I had no idea," I said sarcastically, taking another bite out of my croissant.

Fury ignored my comment. "We haven't been entirely truthful with you, Silverman. I called you in now-"

"Kidnapped, not called. You make it sound like I wanted to come here."

"-because there is a hostile force at work. His name is Loki, and he is the brother of Thor. Loki is currently locked in a room on the Helicarrier, but he's got scientists working on an object called the Tesseract. It's a cosmic cube of self-sustaining, never-ending energy, and we think he wants to open a portal with it – a portal through which he will lead an army."

"That sounds really fun," I finished off my croissant, leaning my elbows on the counter heavily, "but I think I'm going to sit this one out."

"You don't have a choice, Miss Silverman. I brought you here because we need all the help we can get. Loki's made me very desperate."

"Look, buddy. I understand," I started (although I actually didn't understand at all). "But I'm a measly seventeen-year-old with no experience and hardly any control over her weak powers whatsoever. Why do you need me when you've already got Tin Can Man, Captain Six-Pack, an over-muscled chick masquerading as a god, an assassin, and – and a Doctor?" I waved my hand at Banner, not entirely sure what his superpower was, unless just being really smart counted.

"Masquerading!" Tony suddenly snapped his fingers, and then got up and left the room. I stared after him in confusion, but made no comment.

"The world needs superheroes, Silverman," Fury said, glaring at me with his eye.

"But I don't want to be a superhero! I want to be a normal teenager with a normal life!" I stomped my foot.

"It's too late for that. You can control the elements – that's not normal, and it's never going to be normal."

Tears sprung to my eyes. "But I honestly don't want to be here. You should be leaving this to the professionals, not a young girl. I didn't ask for this life; I don't want to be a hero! It's fine for the others; they have training, and hearts practically made of gold and rainbows. I'm a useless piece of crap compared to the others, and I don't want to fight in some stupid battle."

Fury gazed at me evenly, trying to judge my angry expression. Steve still wasn't looking at me, but he wasn't blushing anymore, either.

Thankfully Tony burst in then, breaking the tension. There was a bundle of black and purple fabric in his arms, with a few stitches of silver. I looked at the thing fearfully, running a hand through my hair.

"It's your superhero costume," he said proudly, plopping it down on the table in front of me. "I helped design it. Made sure the fabric was flexible enough to move in."

I groaned, leaning down and banging my head on the table. "How can I possibly be a superhero even if I've never even saved anyone?" I drawled, closing my eyes.

"At least look at the costume," Tony sounded annoyed.

I stood up and grabbed the fabric, holding it up to the light. The suit was a full black body suit with a purple belt and knee-high purple boots. There were horizontal purple stripes on the legs, too, and a purple cross on the chest, ranging from shoulder to shoulder.

Well, not really. There was only one sleeve – the left one. On the right, the shoulder and arm had been cut off diagonally, although I did had gloves for both hands.

"Picking the colors was hard," Tony said, standing back to see my reaction. "We couldn't do green, red or blue, because those colors represent earth, fire and water respectively. We had to pick a color in between all that, to show that you manipulated all the elements, not just one. So I came up with purple," Tony grinned. "The shoulder and arm were cut off to make it more original; more unique and memorable."

"I hate it," I stated plainly, but Tony didn't look the least bit offended.

"Fantastic! Now why don't you try it on?"

"She'll need a superhero name," Fury interrupted.

"I've already got one all picked out," Tony said smugly. I slapped my hand to my forehead, dreading whatever was coming next.

But he just grinned at me as he set something down on the table. "Masquerade."

I glanced at the object on the table. It was a beautiful and finely crafted Venetian masquerade mask decorated with purple and silver, and there was a collection of purple feathers on one side. The delicate mask just covered the eyes and the nose – enough to "keep my identity hidden" while still leaving enough skin showing so that people would actually be able to see me talk. It was similar to Steve's mask, actually, although his was a helmet.

"God, Tony, I hate you," I banged my head on the table again, knowing that no matter how many times I could try and refuse, the name "Masquerade" was going to stick.

I had to admit, though, that Tony had been clever. Although the name had nothing to do with my powers, it was still a good superhero name. Mysterious and not giving away my identity. I think I would punched him if he had suggested "Silver-something", since my last name was Silverman. But obviously Tony had thought about the tattoo on my wrist – and said tattoo had condemned me to the name "Masquerade".

"Can I see the mask?" Steve asked, awkwardly reaching over me. He picked it up by one of the purple ribbons that would inevitably tie the mask to my head.

What happened next was completely unexpected and so sudden that I almost wanted to throw up. One minute I was watching Steve pick up the delicate mask with care, and the next, I was being thrown off my feet. I went flying through the air before landing back on the floor, skidding and bumping into Steve, who was already struggling to his feet. Debris was raining from the ceiling and dust and heat filled the air – something had exploded.

I swore, scrambling to my feet. Something in the air made me feel unsafe, and I wanted to be next to my two superhero buddies while shit went down. But they were already running out the door together, leaving me behind. My reaction, of course, was to chase after them . . . leaving the mask and costume behind.

I was lost within a matter of moments. As I wandered down a staircase onto a lower deck, I heard shouting and screaming from above. Something big was going on, and I wanted nothing to do with it.

There was a groaning noise from somewhere nearby, and I headed towards it. I caught a glimpse of Doctor Banner, lying on the ground. He had been thrown out of the window of the lab when the explosion happened, and was now curled up on a metal grate, making strange growling sounds.

"Uh . . . Doctor? Are you okay?" I asked, stepping closer. That was when I saw the ginger lady – Romanoff, or something – lying on the ground behind him. Her leg was caught under a heavy metal pipe that had probably fallen from the ceiling during the explosion.

She spotted me and her eyes widened. "Go!" she mouthed, waving at me to run off, but I stayed stationary.

"What's going in?" I asked, peering at her through the dust and smoke.

"Get out of here!" she shot back, looking panicked. I turned towards the Doctor again – he was turning an unhealthy shade of green, as if he was going to throw up or something.

"Is he okay?" I asked, pointing at Banner.

"Just run!" Romanoff yelled at me.

"But I can help . . . your leg . . ." I trailed off.

"No! Leave!"

"Well jeez, if you want Banner to yourself all that badly, then just say so," I rolled my eyes, stepping forward. With a quick movement of my hand, I conjured up a gust of wind strong enough to remove the pipe from Romanoff's leg.

She scrambled up faster than I had ever seen anyone move, her movements jerky and panicky. It was then that Banner let out a roar so inhuman, I began to truly fear for my life.

"Run!" Romanoff screamed, grabbing my hand and dragging me off towards a staircase. My feet felt leaden, though, as I watched Banner – quiet, passive Banner – transform into a huge, green, terrifying monster.

I screamed, and not only did the sound of my cry break the frozen spell over me . . . it also caught the monster's attention. It swiveled its great big green head around, turning to glare and snort as I started sprinting after Agent Romanoff. This unruly, angry monster made me think of the tale of Jekyll and Hyde – the way Jekyll had been such a nice guy (not unlike Banner), and Hyde had been, well . . . like this thing.

The Hulk.

I grabbed Romanoff's hand, and together we ran through the basement level, fearing for our lives as the Hulk came tearing after us. I screamed, squeezing Romanoff's hand tightly to make sure I didn't lose her.

In the end, that was exactly what happened. We tried to climb up a staircase, but the Hulk – who was right on our tail – ripped the staircase away. Romanoff, using those super-amazing-Russian-spy skills of hers, flipped herself up onto the landing. Me?

Well, as I had pointed out to Fury, I was just a clumsy teenager. I wasn't cut out for the superhero stuff. So when the Hulk ripped the staircase away, I went right down with it. But to my luck, he continued chasing after Romanoff, and forgot about me.

I lay crumpled under the staircase for a few minutes, my chest heaving as the Hulk's roars got further and further away. Eventually, I mustered up enough strength to crawl out from underneath the metal stairs, although I did have to use a bit of wind to push it off.

Picking myself up, I ran down the hallway, steeling my resolve to find Iron Man or the Captain – they could protect me. Or at least, if I was near them, I'd be safer.

Suddenly, the Helicarrier banked to the side. I was thrown to the floor and sent sliding down an embankment as the ship groaned, tilting precariously. I stopped sliding when I hit a railing, and stood up sorely. God, everything just hurt.

In front of me I found another goddamn staircase, and in front of that, a big circular glass room. To my surprise, there was a person in the room. He had long, greasy black hair and pale skin, along with a funny green robe and an even stranger reindeer helmet.

"Ah, it seems I can finally meet the newest addition to Fury's freak group," he said, staring at a control panel a few feet away. I glanced around, thinking there was someone else he might be talking to – but I was the only person in the general area.

Leaning heavily on the railing, I walked up the stairs towards him. "And who might you be?" I asked, scrunching up my nose.

"Loki, the future ruler of your world. You will bow before me one day, mortal."

I snorted and then burst into outright laughter, unable to hold it in as I pulled my boxers up higher on my hips. "Oh, please. No one's going to bow down to you – you dress like a reindeer."

"Well, you don't look much better," he finally turned towards me, examining my pajamas. "Is that Fury's new uniform for all his officers?"

I frowned. "So you're the guy causing all the fuss, huh?" He just smiled proudly.

I stared back at him for a second, but then shrugged. Turning, I walked away.

"Hey – wait!" his voice suddenly became panicked and confused. "You can't just leave me like that! Aren't we supposed to have some sort of long conversation where you try and set me on the path for good and I insult you?" I just kept walking. "You can't just ask me a question and then walk away!" he bellowed again, but I didn't even give him the satisfaction of a shrug as I turned a corner and escaped from his view.

Sometimes my bad habit could come in handy, don't you think?

Maybe walking out before people could answer me wasn't always a bad thing.


A/N: Hey, I gotta make this quick. I'm in a bit of a rush. Just like this chapter :P LOL sorry, I'm just trying to get things moving quickly. As I've stated countless times, the REAL character development will be in the sequel.

IMPORTANT: I made a website, and it has pictures of all the Avengers - and Sam! Also, I just uploaded a picture of her costume, since my description sucks XD Please check it out and tell me what you think. Or don't, it doesn't really matter - I just hope you'll take a look to see what "Masquerade" looks like (although I haven't got her mask up yet, because of some technical difficulties at my end :/) The website is: lexiblazefanfiction . webs . com (remove the spaces)

As per usual, updates will be every second day, or every even-numbered day of this month (June). Thanks to ILoveReadingAndWriting, booklover1498, GoForTehGig, A Contradiction, YoursTruly13, comiccrazygothgirl, Tbonechick2011, LaughingLadybug and WhatTheF-HaveUDoneLately-Cross for your wonderful reviews! They mean so much to me, and I love you all :)

Please review this chapter, and tell me what you think! I love hearing from you guys :) READERS ASSEMBLE!

- Lexi Blaze