Chapter 26

So sorry it took me awhile to update! Busy break! Thanks for the reviews everyone! I know everyone has requests and I'm glad some of you appreciate that! :) I'll try my best to fulfill them best I can! Enjoy the chap! Oh! - Also, just a little note. So, I live in a- well, pretty much a dead zone. I don't get good connection and it can take up to 24 hours (or more!) for me to receive some of your reviews or PM's. /: Sooooo, yeah. Sorry if it was a little inconvenient for you at the time, just wanted to let you all know. :)

I picked up a file; fumbling through it quickly. We've been searching for three hours or so now and found nothing. Absolutely nothing. The people that were here just-… disappeared when we got back up to the third floor. They probably got what they wanted, dammit.

I slammed the folder down on the table before slamming my fist down on the desk in annoyance. God dammit! There's absolutely nothing left here of value! Those bastards got what they wanted.

"We'll find it ok?" Steve says from the other side of the room.

"How are you so sure?" I snap; looking over at him. Ok, that was a little uncalled for; probably could have said it a little nicer. He lets out a breath and a small shrug.

"I just am." He says plainly. I huff; clenching my jaw.

"Easy for you to say. You don't know what it feels like; being told your parents were killed from unknown causes then finding out that there are people that want you because of your relation to them." I mumble.

"Hey-" he walks over; putting a hand on my shoulder. "I might not have gone what you're going through, but I know how you feel." He says. I make a face; not convinced. "Look, I know what it's like to be scared. Believe me." He chuckles; cracking a small smile.

"Really?" I mumble; more sarcastically than serious. He nods with a chuckle.

"I know that we don't understand what happened with you parents, and it's ok to be afraid of the truth. Everyone feels fear, Kate." He says.

"Even the mighty Avengers?" I scrunch my nose in question. He smirks; rolling his eyes, and pulls me into a hug.

"Yes, Kate. Even the mighty avengers." He repeats; amused. I hug him around the waist before we hear someone clear there throat from the door.

"Hate to break up your little bonding moment guys, but Nat's got something." Clint says; leaning against the door frame. I roll my eyes, and then follow him out.

We walked into a room when Natasha was reading a file. She looked up; nodding us over.

"I found this in the desk. It's some kind of diagram." She sets it down on the table. There was a picture a body and several red dots on it in certain places.

"Why are there dots on this paper?" Clint asked. We shrug.

"Maybe there places where they injected something?" I suggest. "Or maybe it's some kind of…" I trail off. Well, honestly I'm no scientist. "Yeeeaaaaahh… I don't really know." I admit; walking around the room. I pick up a book; opening it up and flipping through the pages before setting it back down. I pick up another book and flip through it. Something fell out and hit the floor. I furrow my eyebrows before picking it up. It was a letter.

Because of the recent mishap in our work, I am calling for Project R to be canceled. Our experiments have proven fatal towards subjects and only one has survived. The enhancer proves to cause subjects to have feelings of anger and distress. It brings out the darkest feelings and memories of the subject; causing hallucinations, fever, disorientation, which is followed by coma and even death due to no known treatment.

Certain subjects would have allergic reactions, heart attacks, and immediate mood changes; seconds after receiving a dose of the enhancement.

It has come to my attention that no human can survive the transaction and therefor I advise for this Project to be terminated.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mike Sanders and Dr. Miranda Sanders

I stared at the letter for a few minutes; reading it over a few more times before swallowing and blinking a few times. Those were my parents.

"What's that?" I heard Steve from behind me and handed him the letter. I turned to face everyone; seeing him reading the letter and Natasha and Clint began to read it over his shoulder.

"That's me there referring to." I spoke up.

"But you never received the enhancement." Steve says; looking over at me while Natasha and Clint continued to read. I furrowed my eyebrows. "There was an accident in the lab and you were caught in the blast. That's how you got your ability." He says. I feel my eyes trail to the ground.

"So… the actual enhancement didn't work…. But the accident did." I give a sarcastic laugh.

"I managed to dig up some details, and they were working with several different animals that day and they had several millions lines of DNA strands from different animals." Natasha says; finishing reading. I looked at her. "This could be how you got your shifting ability." She says. I nod.

"But I don't want to know how I got to be how I am now. I want to know how my parents were killed. Someone did this." I start to walk back for the door.

~0~

A SHIELD team cleaned up the bodies in the lab so I could go down there without breaking down. I walked around the counter and began to look through some of the equipment. Most of it was falling apart.

"Hey I think I got something." Clint says from the corner of the room. We all walked over; seeing him holding some kind of box. I walked closer.

"It's a camera." I state. "We could find out who did this."

"It may not have been anyone Kate. They're could have been a malfunction of some kind of another mishap in their work." Steve reminds me. I huff; looking back at the camera.

"We can have some agents clean it up and look it over. But that's probably all we can do today." Natasha says. I feel a stab of disappointment but nod. We began to walk back to the door.

~0~

A few hours later on the Helicarrier….

"We managed to get a little of the footage, but not much." One of the agents says. We gave a nod and he pushed play.

I could see my parents working with another scientist behind the counter. My dad had a flask in hand and my mom was working on some device next to him. Suddenly another guy dressed in a lab coat ran into the room; holding a small box about the size of his hand.

I furrow my eyebrows; looking closely. "Is that a detonator?" I ask nervously.

"Yes. This individual managed to set up bombs in the room at some point." The agent said. I swallow and nod; trying to hold it together.

The guy began to yell and my dad held up his hands; trying to calm the man down. The sound was gone but you could tell what was happening. He yelled at them again and my parents and the other scientist looked down at a small flask of some kind of blue liquid. He picked it up and tossed it to the man. But before he caught it the other scientist ran around the counter at the man and he pushed to button. The screen went black.

I blinked out of my thoughts and a tear went down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away; hiding away any emotion on my face.

"So someone threatened them for the enhancement. One of the scientists didn't want him to get away with it and…" He nods; everyone knowing where his statement was going.

"Ok, let's go." I say; walking out the door; leaving Steve, Clint, and Natasha to follow. My parent's didn't deserve that. I'm going to find who was behind this.

Ok. So you all know what happened now, and now Kate feels the need to do a little avenging. *grins* so check in for the next chapter, please review! :)