Revised Chapter posted 11/20/16


Fury walked into the training room three days later and spotted Tony taking a break from sparring with Steve. He briskly walked over to him and waited for him to finish chugging down his water.

"Drink that too fast and you'll make yourself sick."

Tony wiped his mouth with his hand, "Nah. I got an iron stomach." He smirked, "No pun intended."

"How goes assimilation?"

"Assimil- why do you have to talk like that? Can't you just ask how Stella's doing?"

"You mean Operation: Starlight?"

Steve looked over now. "Her name is Stella. She's not a science experiment anymore," he said firmly. Tony nodded in agreement.

"Don't get too attached," Fury warned. "She's not part of this team."

Tony narrowed his eyes, "Then why did you tell me to gain her trust? She's been with us every waking hour for three days. Kind of hard to remain unattached when she is literally attached to the back of your shirt most of the time. What's your plan anyway?"

"What are you using her for?" Steve added to the demands. He didn't like when Fury kept secrets, especially after the incident with the Hydra weapons.

"We're not using her for anything," Fury said pointedly. "But she's not human and she's dangerous. It's best to not get too close."

"She is human. And I think it's a little too late for that," Steve growled before tossing his water bottle down and throwing his gloves to the ground. He stalked over to the treadmills and powered one up. Tony looked back to Fury with an angry expression.

"She may be naive and foreign, but don't you dare use her as some lab rat experiment," Tony said while taking off his gloves as well. "She doesn't have anybody else. We can handle your S.H.I.E.L.D bullshit but she can't."

Fury watched him go over to the weights where Thor was lifting the entire rack of dumbbells. He sighed to himself before scanning the huge gym in search of the pink haired woman that everyone had apparently started to affectionately call 'Stella'. Name or no name, she hadn't been cleared yet and Fury wondered to himself if tasking the Avengers with her insertion into society was the best course of action after all. He'd have to make a few changes. He spotted her over with Agent Barton near the firing range.

She was watching him shoot arrow after arrow into the bullseye. He switched between fancy moves, under the leg, backwards, upside down, and moves for agility like ducking behind objects or firing while sprinting and catapulting into the air. She was amazed at his finesse and the ease with which he and the bow worked together. She stared down at her hands and sighed.

Fury watched her from afar and caught Bruce's eye. He was sitting off to the side, reading over one of the Operation: Starlight files. The scientist nodded to the director without a smile. He knew that Fury knew more than he let on about Stella. He didn't know what it was, but if he was hiding it then it probably wasn't good. Fury's eye assessed Stella one more time before he left the gym.

Tony plopped himself down next to Bruce a moment later, "Find anything good?"

Bruce handed him the file, "I think I figured out why she sleeps in the bathtub."

Tony took the file and flipped through the documents. They were hastily thrown together, some of the last papers ever drawn up on Stella. They detailed her launch into space and the termination of the human growth project. A photograph was paper-clipped to the inside of the folder. It was old and grainy but a cryogenic holding cell could be seen being loaded into the small shuttle that would be sent out into space.

"That's where she spent all of her time these past years," Tony said to himself. Then to Bruce, "She feels safe in there."

"No pain came to her when she was inside," Bruce added softly.

"Cryogenics," Tony stated abruptly. "They didn't really kick off until 1966 after the war had long since ended. She had to have been one of the first living test subjects. Fury said she was sent up in 1960, didn't he?"

"They found a way to freeze her blood," Bruce nodded and indicated a specific text with his finger, "so that they could preserve her and knock her out for a few hundred years."

"They found a way to freeze a star," Tony said, astonished. "Whoever did this was...was-"

"A genius?" Bruce supplied.

"I was going to say a god among men, but yeah that's close. I mean look at me- us, I mean, look at us. Hey, did we ever figure out what that marking was that she drew?"

"No idea still. None of the photos I've seen have shown anything too revealing about where she was," Bruce shook his head, remembering her eyes, "But she was really scared. Whatever she remembered could not have been pleasant."

"Well how she came to be was probably not filled with nice feelings and hugs and rainbows."

"There's also no record of any files being sent out into space with her like Fury said."

"Huh," Tony huffed, thinking over all of this to himself.

"What did Fury say to you?"

Tony's jaw set as he laid the file down on his lap and turned his attention back to Bruce, "That we shouldn't get too attached. That she isn't human and isn't part of the team."

"A little too late for that," Bruce echoed Steve's words from earlier, nodding his head over to where Stella was clapping as Clint sunk another shot into the bullseye. The archer smiled over at her and bowed. Natasha had no doubt shown her how to react to something she liked. In the past three days Stella had learned a fair amount of things and could speak a little better, but she still had a long way to go.

"Yeah," Tony nodded. "She grows on you. Literally. I can't go anywhere without her holding onto the back of my shirt."

Bruce smiled and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, "I don't think she'll hurt us."

"Me either," Tony agreed, swishing the water around in his bottle as they both watched the pink haired woman smile.

The sound of several beeps going off sounded around the room. Stella shot up from her seat and her hands started glowing. Clint immediately held his hands up and shook his head, signaling that nothing was wrong. The glow faded and Clint gently pushed her arms back down to her sides.

The Avengers all rushed to their communicators and read the message.

Molecule Man spotted by Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Avengers Assemble.

They all began to rush out of the gym as Natasha grabbed Stella's hand and placed it on her back. The pink haired woman gripped the assassins shirt and ran out with the rest of the team. When they all had gathered in the debriefing room Stella sat down next to Bruce. The scientist looked over at her and gave her a small smile. She returned it warmly.

"Avengers," Fury greeted as he walked in. He looked to Stella and sighed, "Stella."

"Don't sound so tortured," Tony said. "You're calling her by her name not selling a kidney."

"Kidney?" Stella asked Bruce quietly.

"They're organs. Here," he pointed to his upper torso on either side. "You have two of them as well," he explained and then added as an afterthought, "At least I think you do."

She nodded and focused in on what was being discussed.

"We need you all to go down there and see what he's up to," Fury said. "That includes you, Banner. Agent Hill will keep an eye on Stella."

Stella rolled her eyes – something she picked up from Tony and Natasha – and said quietly, "Not a child."

"Of course you're not, doll," Tony said from her other side. "He's just cranky."

"I am cranky because a dangerous man is looking at a bridge right now, Stark. Now you best all be getting your asses down there now."

They all got up and Tony ruffled Stella's hair. She grumbled and tried to fix it while looking around for the person who would be 'keeping an eye' on her. A woman with dark hair pulled back expertly into a bun walked in just as the Avengers exited. She stood tall, hands clasped behind her back.

"Stella," she greeted without emotion. "If you'd come with me. I'm Agent Hill."

Stella looked to Fury and he gave her a slight nod. She got up and reached for Agent Hill's back. The S.H.I.E.L.D agent furrowed her brow but allowed her to hold onto her shirt anyway. She escorted the strange woman out of the room and over to another massive room with agents behind computers. Monitors covered the walls and chatter floated about mingled with the sounds of busy fingers typing away on keyboards.

Agent Hill led Stella over to a big desk surrounded by four, large monitors. From their vantage point they could look out across the room and see every agent at his or her respective station. The four screens in front of them were currently blank, the only thing on them being the S.H.I.E.L.D emblem. Maria pointed to a chair in front of one of the four monitors.

"You can sit there."

Stella took a seat and watched as Agent Hill tapped a track pad and the screens came to life. All four screens immediately filled with information. One held everything known about Owen Reece and Acme Atomics Corporation, one held tracking data and facial recognition scans that had pinpointed Owen's location, and the two closest to Stella showed New York City, more specifically Staten Island and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Stella was in awe of the technology. This was even more magnificent than Tony's cell phone, as she had come to learn it was called.

She tentatively reached out a hand and Agent Hill snapped, "Don't touch that!"

"I am sorry," Stella quickly apologized as she pulled back her hand.

Agent Hill sighed, "It's alright. You didn't know."

Stella watched the screens for a few minutes before quickly becoming bored. She turned to the woman next to her with a slightly puzzled expression, "Your name is...Agent?"

The woman let a small smile grace her pretty face as she shook her head and typed something into the computer, "No, my name is Maria. 'Agent' is just my status in S.H.I.E.L.D."

Maria knew that Stella didn't understand the whole of what she was saying, but she looked like she got the gist of it. The pink haired woman nodded to herself and fiddled with her fingers, something Maria noticed Bruce did a lot.

"S.H.I.E.L.D," Stella said softly and furrowed her eyebrows, deep in thought.

"You seem to be getting along well with the team," Maria remarked after watching Stella for several minutes.

Stella licked her lips and nodded, her eyes cast downward, "I am safe."

Maria figured that Stella meant that she felt safe while with the Avengers and the agent couldn't help but smile a little bigger. Here was a woman who knew nothing of this world, had no clue where she was or who she was, and she had found a place among the world's mightiest heroes. Fury seemed to think the discovery of Stella was a bad omen, but Maria was starting to believe differently.

The screen to the far right started to show some movement and both women turned to view the scene projected to them. They watched a man emerge from the bank below the bridge. Horrible scars covered his face, painful looking lightning bolts that stretched across his skin, red and angry. He wore a green suit with a purple tie in the shape of a lightning bolt, matching his scars and the crazed, electric look in his eyes. A sleek black dress shirt peeked out from underneath his suit jacket. His hair was wild, as if it had been electrocuted. A strange look passed over his face that Maria couldn't quite place. She'd nearly missed it, but her eyes were quick, well trained to catch the smallest of things. To her, it was as if his heart wasn't fully in his cause, or himself, perhaps.

"That's what he spent the money on?" She mused to herself as she surveyed his suit. "He looks like Barney."

Stella looked over at her, "Barney?"

"He's a big green and purple dinosaur," Maria quickly explained while waving her hand dismissively. She was staring at the screen intently and didn't notice when Stella's eyes widened in confusion at the answer given. Eventually, she turned her own eyes to the screens and let out a small gasp.

"Tony!" She said as she sprung up from her seat and leaned in towards the screen. She frantically turned towards Maria, "He's small! Help him!"

"No no no, he's not in the screen. This is footage," Maria held her hands up to represent a camera, "from a video camera. It's fed to our monitors," she explained slowly. Stella sat back down, her eyes still slightly wide.

"Steve!" She shouted excitedly as she pointed at Captain America. "And Bruce!"

"They're all there," Maria nodded at the screens. "They're going to fight him," she pointed to Owen.

"Molecule Man," Stella said slowly, piecing everything together.


Tony landed softly on the ground and set Bruce down as well. The scientist looked about ready to puke but he was trying to keep it together. Steve and Thor touched down next to them and the Asgardian settled his hammer at his side.

"Fastest way to travel, buddy," Tony said while clapping an iron hand against Bruce's back. Bruce lurched forward and almost heaved at the force. "Sorry."

"Barton and Romanov should be here soon," Steve said to them. "Fury said that Owen was-"

"Right here."

Steve felt the wind being knocked out of him as he was forced back and into a nearby tree, all before he could even turn to face the voice. Tony spun his body around to locate Owen just in time for a tree to swing around and bat him off like a baseball. Bruce ducked and the tree just narrowly missed him. He rolled over onto the ground, dust flying up all around him, and watched as Thor readied his hammer.

"I do not know how you have managed to defeat us but you will not succeed this time, strange man of molecules!"

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth did the god fly towards Owen, a fierce battle cry accompanying him. Owen held up his hand just as Thor brought down Mjolnir and a wave of energy cut across the area. Owen had managed to match Mjolnir's enchanted power somehow. Bruce noticed the bridge give a shutter.

"Midgardian! How are you making such feats?!" Thor demanded as he went to strike again.

The newly declared Molecule Man smirked, "I am simply stronger."

Bruce watched Thor fly backwards and land on Steve just as he had managed to catch his breath. Steve wheezed and fell back down, struggling under the weight of the god. Tony blasted the tree off of him and fired a barrage of pulses at Owen. The area erupted into light and Bruce shielded his eyes. When the smoke had cleared Owen remained standing, his hand raised in the air. The remnants of a force field faded away and the Avengers looked at him, stunned.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

There was a beat of silence.

"We're fucked," Tony said before being blasted into the air again.


A/N: I personally think that if Marvel Studios was allowed to forego censorship rules, Tony would have a terrible pottymouth. Clint too, obviously. That man is always 100% done with everyone's crap. God, I love him.

Poor Bruce, watching Molecule Man treat his friends like bowling pins. Stay tuned for the next chapter! xx