The sound of jingling keys echoed through the small Washington apartment. A few moments later the doorknob rattled and a tall man entered the darkened apartment. Not bothering to flick on the lights, he threw his keys into the small ceramic bowl on his kitchen table and began heading toward his room. He stopped when he felt the odd sensation that someone was watching him. He heard the sound of two leather cushions squeaking as someone shifted on his couch. Slowly releasing his grip on the doorknob to his room, he turned. In his joyful stupor, he had failed to notice that someone was already in his apartment.

In one swift movement, he barrel-rolled and grabbed his shield. Preparing to launch the famous stripped weapon at the perpetrator, he halted when the light by his couch flickered on. In the illumination, it was revealed that the man on the couch was none other than the former Shield Director, Nick Fury himself.

He was no longer in his famous leather trench coat and eye patch, but instead opting for a hoodie and some dark sunglasses, even in this dark hour. The corner of his mouth quirked up. "It shouldn't be so easy to sneak up on a super soldier." He paused and draped an arm over the back of the couch. "It seems you're off your game, Captain."

Steve slowly lowered his weapon and stood up. "Why are you here?" He asked.

Fury rose from his seat and approached the soldier. "It seems you've made a new friend," he said as he slid a picture out of the file in his hands and pushed it towards Steve. The picture was of Steve and Rebecca at the gala only a few hours ago.

"Shouldn't you be keeping a low profile?" He asked.

Steve's jaw tightened and a moment passed before he countered with, "shouldn't you be in hiding?" A dry chuckle left Fury's mouth and he nodded slowly.

"That's true, but I think this time it's an exception." His voice turned serious and his forehead creased. "It seems you've gotten in bed with someone you don't know anything about."

Steve's grip on his shield tightened and Fury quickly added, "metaphorically, of course." The former SHIELD director paced in the small amount of space between the Captain and the couch before turning back around. "You probably already know that Miss West' parents were SHIELD agents, but that's not the whole picture. There's more you need to know." Steve's face hardened.

Fury handed Steve the file that had been held tightly between his hands. Steve looked down at the file, his mouth set in a hard line as he read the title stamped in red on the front. "FILE: THUNDERSTORM." Slowly, he opened the folder and began reading its contents. After a few moments, he looked up.

"You think she's a speedster?" He asked, but Fury shook his head.

"We don't think. We know. But she's not a mutant, she's not an enhanced, not an Inhuman. She's something totally different. But we don't know what. All we know is that she has this thing in her that will allow her to travel at inhuman speeds."

Steve shook his head and looked back down at the file. It came as a surprise to him, but the more he thought about it, the more possible it sounded.

She loved roller coasters and motorcycle rides, she loved to run and ran at almost superhuman speeds that could even compete with the Captain's. And she healed quickly after that scrape with the bikes before.

"But how has she not shown stronger abilities?" He asked, closing the file and looking up at Fury. "As of now, she's a perfect human, just with a love of speed and a talent for running." Fury quirked his head, and a guilty smile drifted across his face. Steve's eyes narrowed and his shoulders stiffened. "What did you do?" He asked accusingly.

"When we found out about her… abilities we began to administer bimonthly shots, and medications as a… precautionary measure."

Steve's jaw tightened.

"But after SHIELD fell it became harder to procure the ingredients for the medications and now is impossible to administer them anyway, since Miss West has decided to stay away from anything Shield related since her parents died," Fury said, but Steve remained disbelieving at the new information. There was no way Rebecca had powers. He knew her and Rebecca West was not… whatever it was that she was.

"Have you not noticed how quickly she healed from that scrape from the bike riding?" Fury asked. Steve's eyes widened as he took a menacing step toward Fury.

"You've been keeping an eye on us?"

Fury chuckled. "Of course I have. SHIELD may not be as big as it was, but we still have eyes everywhere, protecting who and what we need to for the public safety."

"The public safety?" Steve asked sardonically, his grip tightening around his shield. "Rebecca is not a threat," he growled.

"You sure about that Rogers?" Fury asked, wrapping his hands around the hand Steve had on the front of his hoodie. Steve's expression softened and his hand dropped from Fury's jacket.

"She's an unknown case, something we've never encountered before and before we can understand it we have to take every measure possible to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone." Fury turned and sat back down on the couch. He propped his feet up on the coffee table.

"Drop the shield Captain and sit down. I've got a story to tell."

A helicopter roared over the Pacific Ocean, its blades spinning at maximum to fight against the storm. Lightning clashed over head. "You sure you don't want to turn back?" The pilot said, not bothering to take his eyes off of the raging storm in front of him. The SHIELD agent looked away from the window to look hard at the pilot. "I'm sure," she deadpanned. Her grip tightened around her husband's hand before she turned back to look out the window.

The storm raged on around them. Gray waves crashed against each other as bullets of rain hit against the window. Monster clouds covered the sky and lightning fought against lightning. A large strike of lightning hit too close to the helicopter's engine and the sky lit up. The helicopter dove to the side as thunder sounded. The two agents braced themselves against the seats of the helicopter before the pilot was able to jerk back over to the side, righting the chopper once again.

What was SHIELD pulling them into?

To be continued…