*waiting for Chris Evans to do the Ice Bucket Challenge*

Hey all! So, this is my longest chapter yet and my favorite so far. I hope you like it and let me know what you think!

Chapter 10 - Avengers Part 5

May 2nd, 2011

It takes a few seconds before I dare to look at Bruce. He is thinking hard about something, probably what I just told him; I could tell by the look in his eyes. The look of awe and wonder is one that I remember too well. I received that look when it was first discovered that I could control people.

"Wait, wait so, just a few minutes ago, with Tony, right before you came in-"

I nod twice. "That was me."

"Wow,"

"That's not the worst response I've gotten." I slide down to the floor and pick up the tablet. "What I can do, doesn't make me who I am. But with these... powers, I'm too dangerous. I need your help to find a way to get rid of them."

"Kate, take a breath for a minute. What you're saying likely can't be done." Bruce starts in a haste. "I've tried to get rid of the Other Guy, and things didn't end well for a lot of people."

"Bruce, if people, the wrong people, found out what I'm capable of, what I can do, I'll be hunted and turned into a weapon." I don't tell him that I am being hunted and that I am a weapon. I can't. "I need to get rid of it so it doesn't end up in the wrong hands. Will you help me?"

Before he can answer, Tony walks back into the lab with a small pack of blueberries. Bruce raises an eyebrow at me but, thankfully, doesn't say anything and gets back to his work. I mentally thank him when he slides the tablet and my drive out of sight.

"As I was saying, top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, its candy land."

"Thanks, but last time I was in New York, I kinda broke Harlem."

Tony plays with something in his hand as he walks about Banner. "Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises," then he stabs the item into Banner's side and the familiar sound of electricity sounded.

"Ow!"

"Nothing?"

"Hey!" I look over my shoulder as Steve enters the lab. "Are you nuts?"

"Wow, you've really got a tight lid on it don't you. What's your secret? Bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are."

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, Doc."

Bruce brushed the moment off. "It's all right. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"Stark, would you just focus?" I say with a deep sigh. I didn't know anything about Tony Stark but the more I'm around him the more I want to make him walk off the edge of the Hellica-

"You think I'm not? Why'd Fury call us all in, why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us?"

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asks.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's "the" spy. His secrets have secrets." Stark stuffs his mouth with more fruit. "Its bugging him too. Isn't it?"

"Uhh,"

I glance at Banner. "Bruce?"

"A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab to Fury about the Cube."

"I remember."

"Well, I think that was meant for you." he points to Stark. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"What tower?" I look at the three men, waiting for someone to fill me in. It was starting to become rather sad about how much I didn't know.

"The Stark Tower is a big, ugly," Tony gives Steve a look. "building located in New York."

"Okay. What does that have to do with the Cube?"

"Its powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustained energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"That's just a prototype. I'm kinda the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

Bruce continues, "So, why did SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

As Tony rounds the table, I notice him remove some kind of device from his pocket. "I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into SHIELDs secure files."

"I'm sorry. Did you say-"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret Fury's tried to hide."

Well, this isn't good.

My first thought is to find Fury and make him tell me all of what SHIELD had on me and Project: Alpha. With Stark hacking into those files, he'd soon discover what I was trying to keep hidden. Everyone who didn't all ready know would and I would be seen not as someone who was brought in to help save the world, but as someone who is a threat to destroy it.

This really isn't good.

"Following isn't really my style."

"And your all about style, aren't you?"

"Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, B, not of use, or C, a GI Jane who clearly isn't old enough to drink?"

"Stark-" I'm about to make a remark when Bruce beats me to it.

"Steve, Kate, tell me none of this smells a little funky to either of you?"

Captain Rogers looks between the three of us, then sighs. "Just find the Cube."

"GI Jane? Really?" the sound of Steve's boots leaving the room reaches my ears as I stand in front of Tony. "And I'm 23."

I jog to catch up with Rogers. He hadn't gotten as far as I had thought, or maybe I was moving faster than I realized. Regardless, as I evened my stride to match his, I replayed the conversation we just had.

"You're right about Loki. He's smart; he wants us off our game." I glance at him. His eyes are set straight ahead but I can tell that he's listening. "But Tony is right, too. SHIELD bringing us together like this feels wrong somehow. I don't know what it is."

He still doesn't say anything. So I do, "Where are we going?"

"To get answers."

"About what?"

He looks at me. "We'll know it when we see it."

As Steve and I walked the halls of the Hellicarrier I kept an eye on the agents and guards we passed. They all seemed to be pretty occupied with other matters, leaving the Captain and I to continue undetected.

They really need to work on their security on this ship.

The further we walked, the less of SHIELD personal we came across. The lights weren't as bright and I felt that we were getting closer to something SHIELD wanted kept hidden.

"This could be something," I say going up to the first door I came across.

I ran my fingers over the keypad to room 10-C, thinking of how I wanted to proceed. It would take me longer to hack the keypad, and since it needed a numeric code the possibilities were endless.

My second option would be to pry the door open with those... powers. Get in-between the locking mechanisms, disengaging them from the inside so the door itself will slide open. For a second I think about physically pulling it open but quickly tossed the thought. I couldn't do either of those ideas with Steve here.

Guess that leaves hacking it. "This might take a few minutes, Cap. I should be able to get through this without-"

I'm cut off as I watch in awe while Steve slides it open with next to no effort. "Um, that will work, too."

He steps aside slightly and motions to me. "Ladies first."

I give him a quick nod and break the threshold of the door frame. The room is dimly lit with lights hit above us. I can see different levels lined with boxes of some sort. I needed to see what was inside of them.

Backing up a few steps, I got a running start towards the nearest wall and pushed off of it easily, aiming for a the second level. I grabbed onto the railing and flipped myself over, landing silently on the grated flooring. Steve joins me a few seconds later.

"Where'd you learn that?" he asks as I being walking.

I shrug. "Ever hear of parkour?"

Not waiting for a reply I go back to the matter at hand. I come up on a wall lined with steel boxes and thankfully they aren't locked. It's when I lift the lid and peer inside that the flashes come at me full force.

I'm sitting across from my primary doctor, the one overseeing the medical side of Project: Alpha. I know it's summer time in Russia but I'm freezing. I know I just came back from testing in the Cryo tube. What they were testing me for this time, they didn't bother to tell me. I just can't get warm.

I'm answering random questions when a guard comes in suddenly speaking quickly in Russian, no, German. Why German?

I know I'm not suppose to listen in, I will be punished if I'm caught, and while my German isn't great, I do.

They discuss weapons, older weapons, that haven't been used in decades. They want to know if any more exist and where to find them. How to activate them. I catch a quick glimpse of a photograph before I'm told to leave.

The weapon in that photo is the same one I'm looking right now. I'm sure of it.

The weapon in the box is old, but well kept. Along with it is a mask and a few other items I ignore. Suddenly things begin to come together.

"I know what SHIELD is doing. We need to go." I say to Steve who has a hard look on his face. I can tell that he recognizes the weapons, how or from what, he doesn't say. Finally he nods and, with the weapon in hand, follows me back to the lab.

While walking back, I hear Agent Romanoff's voice come through my comm. I bring my hand up to my ear as she says, "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab; send Thor as well."

Oh, shit.

"What is Phase 2?"

I clench and unclench my hands as I replay the reason why SHIELD was in possession of German weapons. Old, deadly, German weapons. I don't even care how they came across them or how got them. The fact that something this dangerous was just lying around, waiting to be powered up again, unhinged me.

That was problem number one.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD using the cube to make weapons." Steve sets the gun down with a clang on a table in the lab. "Sorry. Computers were moving a little slow for us."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that-"

"I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?" Tony spins a computer screen to face us. I narrow my eyes as I look at plans for a new weapon.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit."

"Were you ever going to tell me that you were in possession of these weapons?" I take a step closer to Fury.

Agent Romanoff and Thor walk in a moment later and Bruce asks if the SHIELD assassin knew anything about Phase 2.

I tune out what the rest of the group was saying, instead wanting to get Fury to talk. "Do you know how dangerous those weapons are? Or could still be? Why didn't you tell me about them up front? I didn't sign up to be a piece in your secret games!"

"I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction!"

"Because of him." Fury points to Thor.

"Me?"

Fury goes on a lot rant about how Earth isn't prepared for outsiders. How the world is filling up with people who can't be matched or controlled. He looks at me, his good eye narrowing intently. I hold his gaze before he turns away.

"So, you just plan on beating them to the punch? By building something big and strong enough to wipe them all out before things get out of control? You're control?" I shake my head.

"Like you controlled the cube?"

"Your work on the Tesseract is what drew Loki and his allies to Earth. It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?"

I pinch the bridge of my nose as the pounding behind my eyes becomes unbearable. Everyone is yelling to be heard over someone else. I can feel something rising up inside me, something I can't control or keep inside.

That's problem number two.

I clench my hands, count to ten in Russian, then slowly unclench them.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos."

"That's his MO, isn't it?" I see Bruce with his arms folded across his chest. "I mean, what are we? A team? No, we're a chemical mixture that creates chaos. We're a time bomb."

I couldn't agree more. "I don't know why you thought bringing us together would work, Fury. Clearly this plan of yours isn't going to work."

"You need to step away." Fury turns from Banner to me. "Don't make me do something that I'll regret, Kate." I know what he's referring to but I ignore it.

"Something you'll regret?" I laugh halfheartedly. "Are you serious-?"

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" to my right Tony clasps Steve on the shoulder, who doesn't take kindly to the action.

"You know damn well why. Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

Steve snickers at Tony's comment. "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you fight for is yourself." Steve stares Tony down and continues. "Your not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

Tony closes the distance between him and Steve. "A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

It was Tony's comment about Rogers when things clicked.

The way Steve acted, held himself, him opening that door like it was nothing, hell even the way he dressed...

"It was during World War II that a young man was injected with this serum and turned in to a super soldier." That's what Agent Coulson told me back in my flat a few weeks ago. He said that the serum I was injected with was an attempt at recreating that lost formula.

I know I lack a lot in my American history but I now know this much: Steve Rogers is that super soldier. Even though I never got to read his file, and even though I don't know how he looks so young despite having to be over 90, at the very least, it makes sense now.

"Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds."

"You people are so petty, and tiny."

"Yeah, we're really acting like a team." the pain in my head is still growing, but I continue to push it aside. I brush my hair away from my face. "This was a bust from the beginning, Fury. You know it."

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner to his-"

"Where? You rented my room?"

"That was just in case we needed-"

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know, I've tried." that comment from Banner was unexpected.

"Bruce," I sigh but he goes on.

"I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the Other Guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk."

I tense, more than I already was, when Banner reached behind himself and grabbed Loki's spear. Purely out of instinct, not because I wanted to hurt Bruce, I placed my left hand on the gun in my thigh holster. I was ready for whatever came my way. Because that's how I was trained.

"You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?" he picks up the spear.

The room goes silent.

"Doctor Banner?" I hear Steve say but I don't bother looking his way. My eyes are focused on Bruce. "Put down the scepter."

He looks down at the weapon like he didn't ever realize he was holding it. I wait a beat to see what happens when a computer behind be starts beeping. Bruce sets the spear down on the table.

"Got it."

"Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You've located the Tesseract?"

"I could get there fastest." says Tony.

I arch a brow. "Are you sure about that?"

"You aren't going alone." Rogers grabs Stark's arms; Tony slaps it away.

"You're gonna stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit."

I work my way in between the two bickering men, pressing my hands against their chests and pushing back. "While you two children fight it out, I'll go get the cube. That way I can get out of this hell hole and on with my life." I declare, looking from Tony to Steve.

"This isn't a place for a little girl." I stumble back from Tony pushing me out of the way at the same time I hear Banner say, "Oh, my god."

Before I can question anything, a forceful blast knocks me back into the wall, glass rains down on top of me and the pounding in my head becomes too much.

That is problem number three.

Chapter 11: I stop fighting whats inside me; I give into the power. In seconds, before he knows what happened, the Director of SHIELD is hovering a foot off the ground, an invisible noose tight around his neck.

I bought The Winter Soldier on digital download on the 19th, so I can begin to outline how "Kate" will play into that. I already have her real name and how she'll find out more about her past so I hope you stay for the long haul.

There is only a few more chapters left in the Avengers arc of Clandestine but the journey is far from being over.

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