I'm back! And damn, will you guys be thrown around in the next few chapters. bombshells, unsolved mysteries... and FORESHADOWING! Not to mention... lots of emotional fallout from Amy lying and hacking SHIELD. Please review!

The avengers mostly clad in nightwear, had assembled in the kitchen, looking across their steaming mugs of coffee at Nick Fury. He'd had the call sent out, of course, knowing he'd need to break the news to them gently.

Truthfully, he was more if a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy. But this situation was rather delicate. If he handled this the wring way, he'd have six rogue operatives on his hands.

Nobody had touched their drinks, he noted drily, despite the early hour. Even Stark seemed relatively serious, which was slightly concerning in itself. Had he... known? Out her up to stealing from SHEILD?

No- that'd be ridiculous. Stark had CREATED their entire interface, from scratch. Any files he wanted he could've gotten to with minimal effort on his part. He definitely didn't need a child to do his dirt work. Unless... maybe there was more to Stark than he thought.

Steve cleared his throat, growing slightly impatient in the silence. "So... what's the situation?"

"We had a data breech recently."

Tony's brow furrowed, then, he looked clearly surprised. "The system would've notified me..."

"Would've. The hacker knew what they were doing- were logged on for less than five minutes. Got in, took what they wanted, and left."

Bruce looked at the ground, clearly uncomfortable. He wasn't really good at these... delicate missions. He was good at smashing. And right now, he didn't see a need ti smash. Unless Fury wanted him here for another reason...

"Do you have any leads?" he asked quietly.

Fury nodded calmly. "We confirmed the identity from the footage..."

Natasha looked confused, then. "Then... why call us? Just send out a hit in the hacker and take care if it. Simple."

"I wish." Nick muttered drily, sliding a small projector across the table.

"Stark- watch that."

Tony blinked, slightly confused as to why he was being asked specifically to watch it, but wrote it off to the face that he was the techno-wizard if the group. Until the hologram started playing the footage. His heart leaped to his throat, then, as he saw her quietly disable the locks to Agent Hill's office and step inside, looking nervous before working her way through his defenses, slipping onto the computer... He watched her flash through the screens, stare in wonderment, before taking what she needed and backing out, darting out of the office and back into the hall.

The tape ended, and the holograph disappeared. The room sat still, struck dumb fir a moment by what they'd just witnessed...

"Lies!" Thor pounded a fist on the counter, then, cracks spider-webbing out into the stone from underneath his fist. "The child of Stark would do no such thing..."

"She did. You just saw her. Stark- any comments?" Fury's voice was humorless, and Tony had paled, and was resting a white-knuckled grip on the edge if the counter. He looked up, brown eyes serious. "What did she take?" he asked quietly.

It was an omission they all couldn't believe, then, if Tony was asking what she'd taken... she'd done it.

"We don't know yet..."

"Amy!" Before Fury had even finished speaking, Tony had erupted, disappearing down the hall.

He emerged a moment later, dragging a stumbling Amy, who looked alarmed and half-asleep, by the sleeve of her t-shirt.

Her bleary green eyes wide with surprise, chestnut hair flyaway and draped over half of her face, and as soon as she saw everyone in the room only one emotion cut through her obvious exhaustion- fear.

That surprised everyone for a moment. She'd never shown fear before, unless- she'd really done something wrong. Tony pulled out a high-backed barstool from the breakfast bar, firmly nudging her into it.

"What did you take." Tony demanded, sinking inti a chair and staring at her seriously.

"I... what..."

Tony grabbed the projector from the table, fairly slamming the play button. The next three minutes were spent in silence as she watched the footage of herself from less than 24 hours ago.

Fury watched her face as she saw the footage- going from barely awake to on edge, body language taking on a nervous edge... He looked over at Stark to see him watching her with the same intensity and seriousness, gauging her expressions.

It reinforced his belief Stark hadn't had any idea what she was doing. Either that, or he was an incredibly good actor. But he severely doubted the latter...

The tape ended.

One beat of silence, two...

"What did you take?" Tony asked, voice firm. His expression wasn't one of anger, but one of business as he met her eyes across the table. Her gaze shifted away nervously, she couldn't meet his eyes...

"Amy. I need to know. Now." Tony put a bit more urgency and a bit more demand into his voice, and she looked up.

"Just... files. Something about the Soviets and the Berlin Wall, it was cool, and I just... I never meant to hurt anyone." I never meant to get caught. She thought quietly. Her eyes, nervous, might give her away, but Tony ignored the, for the moment. He'd be nervous too, he figured, if he was woken up at three in the morning and confronted, accused of espionage.

She wanted to tell him. She really did. The lies burned, like truth time she spoke them she touched her lips to red-hot metal. She could feel the words now, already forming in her lungs, rising in her throat, about to burst past her lips... She swallowed them back at her father's voice, ringing through her ears.

People will die. His sharp tone rang in her mind, commanding every scrap of loyalty within her. A flash of anger like a blade of the knife, a reminder- she wasn't the only one lying. Tony knew- the one she'd trusted the most- knew who's killed her mother. He'd kept it from her. Guilt melted away beneath the tide of emotion. She shouldn't feel any guilt, any remorse. She wasn't the only one lying.

They all watched the slight spark of... was that anger... in her eyes?

Tony stared, slightly surprised at the display. "Amy?"

She snapped back to reality in that instant, the anger or... whatever it'd been in her eyes disappeared, and she was back to the normal girl he knew, the one he'd been raising.

"Yeah.. Dad?"

Had she just... hesitated... to call him Dad? Tony's brows crinkled with confusion for a moment. She'd never done that before. But it was three in the morning, he reminded himself, he had questions that needed answers.

"Why'd you do it?"

"I... I wanted to see if I could." she was improvising here, pulling together her story as she went. "Just... it was like a test. See if I could do it, break into an organization as well protected as SHEILD... I figure you'd be impressed."

She looked up, eyes searching Tony's face. He'd buy this, he'd have to buy this...

Tony broke into a small smile, eyes still serious. Truthfully- he was relieved. It'd been a stunt, she'd just wanted his approval. "Yeah. Impressive. I want to know exactly what you did, how you did it- and I want what you took. Now-"

Fury was on his feet, then, hand cupping his ear. His one eye widened, staring at nothing, alarmed...

Natasha, despite being clad only in Clint's T-shirt and a pair of drawstring sweatpants, was on her feet as well, position authoritative despite her attire. "What's happening?" she demanded.

Nick blinked for a moment, before looking at her. "An explosion. Lab 49, just outside Jersey..."

"What?" Steve sounded surprised. He knew the facility, he'd visited, it was huge, on the outskirts of Jersey City, for a place that massive and well-run to suffer an explosion was highly unlikely...

"Let's go, then!" Clint was already on his feet, power-walking towards the elevator.

Bruce looked alarmed, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "Can't the fire j handle it?"

Tony shook his head, eyes vague. "A facility like that will have chemical spills and explosions within minutes..."

At that exact moment, the wall to their right exploded in a shower of cement and plaster dust, and when it cleared a moment oater, Thor held Mjölnir in his fist.

"Shall we go?"

It was too far gone. Even within the five minutes Tony and Thor had gotten there, it'd been a lost cause.

They did what they could to neutralize the chemical explosions, before just waiting for it to burn itself out. It took two hours before it' d died down to become less of an inferno, and they were able to dump copious amounts of base-substances over the ashes in the hopes of obliterating any dangerous acids that remained.

Tony landed, dropping the large tank of what'd been Sodium Bicarbonate to the ground, staring at the ashes. The mask of his suit went up, revealing the sweat pouring down his face. While the suit had some cooling measures, it was still hot.

Steve stared into the rubble, something catching his eye. He wordlessly sifted his hands through the still-warm ash, squinting and wiping the soot off the old identification card and looking to the right.

He recognized the smell of charred flesh, and suddenly he was back in Europe...

"Steve?" Natasha had noticed the color drain from his face and stepped forward, quiet voice pulling him from the flashback.

"I... yeah." he swallowed thickly, standing and wiping the sweat from his brow, glad the heat gave him an excuse. He handed the card ti Natasha, who frowned.

"Agent Murrow..." she read off, brow furrowed.

Steve nodded quietly towards the charred remains. "Right there, I'm guessing..."

Natasha's nose wrinkled at the sight, before she looked up at Steve.

"Agent Murrow was stationed in California."

The silence was her only companion as she sat alone, in the kitchen. She let out a nervous breath, resting her cheek on the cool stone island. They'd bought it.

It was at that exact moment the elevator doors opened, and two men clad in military wear- combat boots, heavy kevlar vests, everything- stepped out, rifles raised.

She was instantly on her feet, unsure wether to be anxious or excited...

One of them put his hand to his ear, speaking calmly inti his bluetooth as he lowered his rifle. "We found her. No clear and present danger..."

"My Dad?" she asked, daring to hope, then.

The man who wasn't on his earpiece nodded, stepping forward. "We're here to extract you. You did well..."

She'd been busy studying the man's face, solemn but earnest, and hadn't noticed he'd been reaching towards her arm. She saw the needle sticking between his fingers, the syringe concealed in his palm, a second or two before it'd been plunged into her skin, felt her flesh tear as she turned, desperate to get away...

But the icy liquid flooded her veins, her arm was... gone. She couldn't feel it. She took two staggering steps before she was on the ground.

The last thing she felt were her lips, tingling and stabbing with thousands if tiny pinpricks.

She blinked, eyelids falling over her view like heavy, clack curtains. Boots. She was staring at his leather combat boots, could hear voices in the distance, like they were in a tunnel.

"...Secure. Moving out..."

And she was out cold.

MAILBAG

Nightcorelover297

wow... that was one heck of a chapter...I wonder if Tony will tell I think that Amy's dad is Working for AIM, not sheild

Hehehe. Honestly- things are about to take a very surprising twist.

Pebblepaw

Ughhhhh fury I don't like u!

Yeah.. I kinda did write Fury as a hardass. But bear in mind, he's looking out for the security of the nation and world interests, as well as keeping peace between nations. So, considering, I don't think I've done him too unrealistically.

He's definitely taken an interest in Amy, though- her rendering aid during thr drine strikes and replicating an ionizing glove at such a young age has caught his attention. But he knows she's untouchable- she has Tony for a father, for one thing. He definitely shows that by speaking to Tony, instead of just dragging her out and interrogating her like he would've had she been someone without her... connections.

So yeah. As of now- Fury is keeping his distance but at the same time, watching to see what Amy may do.

Thanks so much for all your support, and please review!