BeachHead and Lifeline both stared with their mouths hanging open at Scarlett. Her entire body was glowing, with what looked like lightning rippling through her body every few seconds. It finally registered to BeachHead that he heard their backup vehicle arrive a moment before a figure in black rushed past him, "Snake Eyes!! Be careful, We don't know..." but his words went unheard as Snake Eyes, heedless of the unknown, picked Scarlett's glowing body up in his arms and raced towards the vehicle to get her back to the medic.

An hour or so later Hawk walked into MedBay, to meet the eyes of Lifeline and BeachHead. "How is she?"

Lifeline grimaced, "As far as I can tell she's okay."

Hawk looked at him, "What do you mean, 'As far as you can tell?'

Lifeline gestured at the electronic instruments behind him, cardiac monitoring equipment, etc, burned out, some still sparking. "Every electronic device I put on her shorted out and burned immediately. I had to go old school." He said holding up an old blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. "Her vitals are okay, other than that I have no clue."

"I may be able to shed some light on the situation." A voice came from behind them and they spun to see an African American man enter the room. Tall, a commanding figure, dressed in a long black leather trench coat, bald headed with a patch over one eye, Hawk startled and slackly smirked. "I'll be damned, Nick Fury. How the Hell are you?"

Fury grinned, and grasped Hawk's hand. How you doing Tomohawk?'

Hawk clapped him on the back and immediately got serious, "So what does S.H.I.E.L.D. have to do with all this? What the Hell happened to my soldier?!"

Nick looked at the glowing figure in the bed, now slowly waking up and sighed. "It's called the Tesseract, an alien power source of incredible strength. Powered by an Infinity Stone. When the explosion happened, instead of destroying her, the Tesseract instead infused it's power into her, effectively making her an Infinity stone herself."

Hawk opened his mouth to reply but saw Scarlett now sitting up in the MedBay bed, staring in horrified fascination at her glowing hands.

"Fury, give me a minute to talk to her."

Hawk opened the door and closed it behind himself slowly. Scarlett didn't even turn to look at him, just stared at her glowing hands as she moved them back and forth, "What the Hell happened to me out there Hawk?"

Hawk opened his mouth to speak but Nick Fury beat him to it as he entered the room behind Hawk. "The power source is called the Tesseract. Powered by an infinity stone. Mar-Vel was an alien operative in charge of the project. When you shot the engine, the Tesseract released a blast wave of power that should have killed you...but instead it infused you with it's power."

Scarlett closed her glowing hand into a fist and looked at Nick Fury square in the eye, "So what does that mean for me?"

"When that blast wave hit you, it should have killed you...frankly it should have destroyed you completely. Instead, the moment that blast hit you, you became something more."

"More?"

"You became meta human...or 'super human' to keep it simple."

"Super human...like the Avengers?"

Fury inclined his head in acknowledgment, "Like the Avengers, in fact, I'm here to make you an offer. We can help you learn to work with your new abilities, discover the exact scope of your powers."

She blinked owlishly at him before glancing at Hawk, "I may be good at training soldiers, but Meta humans are a bit out of my wheelhouse. As far as the military is concerned, you can be in extended special forces training."

Fury looked at the hesitation on her face and turned to the door, "I'll let you think about it for a few minutes." Then he left.

Scarlett was looking at her hands again, her face unreadable. "The Joes are all I've ever known Hawk. My entire adult life has been here."

"You have been given an opportunity to be more. I have to think the Tesseract didn't destroy you for a reason. I'm not just saying this as your CO, but as your friend. I think you would make a damn good Avenger."

She smiled gently at him, "You really think so?"

"I'll send Jaye and Cover girl to help you pack."

She took a deep breath and nodded, "Okay, I can do this."

--

About an hour and a half later, three women sat on the small sofa and looked at the suitcases piled by the door and let out matching breaths. Courtney broke the silence first, looking at Scarlett with a wry smile. "Super Hero huh? Nice gig if you can get it."

Jaye laughed, "Seriously she gets to work with that Captain America, lucky bitch!"

Courtney shrugged, "Thor is way hotter."

Jaye chucked a pillow at her, "No way! That star spangled ass is irresistible."

Scarlett was full on belly laughing at this point and grabbed them both in a hug. "God I'm going to miss you two, always keeping the priorities in sight!"

They hugged her back and Jaye whispered, "You are going to be an amazing super hero."