S.H.I.E.L.D. demanded the most of a person, no matter the assignment. The second a person became a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent they'd essentially signed their life away for the betterment and protection of humanity. It was a noble cause- and its members lived it every day.

Star was no exception.

"Ugh, when are you gonna let me out!" She slammed her fists down on the metal table in front of her, emphasizing her desperation. "I've been locked up for decades now! At the Raft babysitting bad guys, keeping the base safe while S.H.I.E.L.D.'s other agents go out and have fun. Agent Barton is literally just a guy with a bow and he gets to join the Avengers! I could protect way more people than he could," she crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes as she spoke. She held no animosity towards Hawkeye or any other agent, she just wished she'd get the opportunity to explore the world around her with her own eyes.

"Star, you know that's not fair." Dark suits and ties, her handlers were the stereotypical men in black of Hollywood. They were part of a special division of S.H.I.E.L.D. A small, specialized unit created to train superpowered individuals like herself to become agents and heroes. Agent Doyle was quiet and reserved, his tie complementing his olive skin. Agent Kimball was more passionate with her job, curly hair up in a bun as she raised an eyebrow at her charge's outburst.

"I know… I just… I'm reaching my limit here guys. You finally let me out to go catch this Jack guy and I failed. I… give me a second chance, please!" She looked at Kimball first, then Doyle, hoping to see any emotion behind their dark shades. Unfortunately, they were very good agents. "I don't want to be locked away for another two years of training while you decide if I'm even worth having in the field. Let me prove it."

"You know your deployment has risks-"

"Yes, I know! I'm a walking, talking radioactive dragon. I'm gonna scare the public, my powers can hurt people, everyone's afraid I might turn into a nuke, yadda yadda. Guys, no one was hurt on my last mission. Well, like, besides Jack, but I didn't do that. I didn't even hurt that Price asshole when he tried to escape the Raft, or that gross gamma dude- what was his name, Flush-"

"Flux!" Agent Kimball had heard MonStar tell the joke too many times to let her get away with it again.

"Exactly! I didn't even hurt him and he made it really damn hard," she explained, raspy voice begging to be considered.

"You reported that the fight was easier than we predicted it would be for you," Agent Doyle reminded her, a small smirk forming behind his steepled hands.

"The point is that I'm ready, guys! You've gotta give me a chance. I swear if you don't I'll egg Director Fury's car or something." The two handlers stared at each other for a long time, somehow able to read each other's expression beneath the shades that obscured their eyes.

"Star… if we allow this, you'll be even more heavily monitored-"

"That's fine! You guys have monitored me my whole life anyway, it's not like you're gonna lock me up like you did when I hit puberty." She locked eyes with one agent and then the other, knowing that they still felt some regret for what they'd had to do to help control her rather violent introduction into womanhood.

"Please don't make this conversation more uncomfortable than it has to be," Doyle requested.

"Whatever. Just say yes. Come on, I know you two want me to succeed just as much as I do," she begged, razor sharp fangs gleaming as she smiled as wide as she could.

"We wouldn't be able to station you to New York. The situation there is way too volatile." Kimball explained, doing her best not to catch her partner's eye.

"Ugh! Fine, I don't care! Keep me in Philly! There're no heroes here and a huge increase in crime." It'd been her dream to start in NYC, but getting stationed at all was more important to her now than sticking it to all the vigilante heroes in the Big Apple.

"There are those two enhanced females you've already had run-ins with," Doyle reminded her, a lot more supportive of this plan than she'd thought he'd be.

"They're not heroes. I watched one use the symbiote she stole from the Raft and put her arm through Jack's chest. The guy's a piece of garbage but he didn't deserve that. No one does." The memory of what she'd witnessed made her scales heat up in anger, glowing a soft green. She just didn't understand it. The duo had been helpful at first and she'd even considered they could be allies. Now they were proving exactly why these unregistered and unregulated vigilantes were so dangerous- they were unpredictable.

"Are you saying you'll bring them in," Kimball asked interestedly. The proposition was all but impossible in NYC. There were so many heroes and they often defended each other, trying to capture one would result in a half dozen of their friends barging into every base in the area. But here, where these two upstarts were the only two of their kind, they might be able to bring them in as potential Thunderbolt recruits.

"They both broke into the Raft and freed the symbiote. That's a big enough crime to get locked in the Raft. If they get in my way, they're finished." She'd studied the symbiote's specs- she was confident she'd be able to take it down regardless of who was using it. The pink ghost woman was more of a problem. She definitely wasn't physically enhanced, but whatever powers she did have included teleportation and barriers. She'd proven difficult to restrain for long… but not impossible.

"Okay. We'll have to get this cleared with- whoa!" Doyle yelped as superhumanly strong arms wrapped around him and his partner, catching them both in a bear hug. Despite being a foot shorter than them both, MonStar easily held them in the air.

"Thank you, thank you! I knew you guys trusted me! Thank you guys so much, I swear I won't let you down," she promised excitedly.

"P-please… please let us down," Kimball gasped, feeling her back crack in her charge's hold.

"Oh, right, right. Sorry." The reptilian woman set her handlers down as softly as she could.

"Look, Star-"

"MonStar, come on, it's too cool of a name not to use now that I'm a hero," she said confidently through a wide, toothy grin.

"Star… you're gonna have the public eye on you as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent now. You're not the first agent to go the hero route but you're the first-"

"Dragon," she interjected. She knew she wasn't actually a dragon, but no one else had to know that, nor would they care if they were on the receiving end of her claws or fire breath.

"Sure. Everything you do out there will reflect on us." Kimball explained. It was true, she wanted the young woman to succeed, but there was a steep learning curve and any mistakes would have her pulled from duty.

"I know. But I've wanted to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent my whole life- it's what you've been training me for! I'll make you all proud." MonStar saluted excitedly, bouncing on her toes as the realization of what was finally happening flooded through her.

"Alright. Go check on the prisoners. I'm sure they'll miss seeing you now that you're no longer their guard," Doyle nodded, dismissing her to the rest of her duties.

"Haha! You guys are great. Seriously, thank you both!" She ran off to go watch over the prisoners for what would be her final shift of guard duty. After a few dozen breakouts, S.H.I.E.L.D. had learned it was best to not put too many bad guys in one place- even if they weren't superpowered. Instead they created hundreds of smaller outposts to separate and lock away most of their less notable prisoners, most of which were grunt level workers for any of the numerous groups of bad guys around the globe. They currently housed three mid ranking AIM scientists who were playing a game of cards; a member of the Hand who was on constant suicide watch, immobilized in a specialized full body straightjacket; and Bulldozer of the Wrecking Crew, kept suspended in zero gravity and kept tethered to the exact center of the room by a few energy beams, unable to reach any of the surfaces of his cell to even try to bust out.

MonStar made sure they were all stable and secure and performed the necessary checks on Camp's cell before making her way to the infirmary. Her sharp claws clicked against the linoleum as she walked, her long, powerful legs reminiscent of a raptor's. There was only one prisoner there, a relatively frail man hooked up to several methods of life support. He'd likely never regain consciousness, but he was still potentially too dangerous to leave in a regular hospital should he gain any mobility. So he was here, under S.H.I.E.L.D. protection, where he'd be kept under watch until he either got out of that bed or died in it.

"You murdered a ton of people, Jack. You're lucky I hadn't caught you. I wouldn't have missed your heart." MonStar huffed angrily, smoke pouring from her nostrils as she spoke. His eyes didn't even flutter, his chest rising and falling weakly as he took shallow, sharp breaths through his respirator. She walked away from his broken body, relief washing over her as she recognized that Philadelphia's biggest threat was finally neutralized.

"You've gotta be ███████ kidding me!" Gwen shouted angrily as she released the previous dozen pages of the comic issue at once, letting them snap back into position in a full page spread of reality warping weirdness.

"Did you find out what-"

"You missed his ███████ heart," she shouted, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned back in the large, wooden chair.

"I what?!" The large, white eyes of Mania's mask widened as Andi struggled to believe what she'd heard.

"You missed his heart, Andi!"

"My whole hand was in his chest," Andi countered. Even if she had missed his heart she'd punched clean into and out of his body! She couldn't believe that Jack was still alive.

"He's alive, Andi. And now ███████ S.H.I.E.L.D. is protecting him now," she groaned, rolling her eyes as her mind raced through the possible ways this storyline would be able to be resolved as quickly as possible. She wanted a new story arc! Preferably one that didn't involve killing someone. The longer this went on the harder it'd be to start trying to be real heroes again.

"Gwen, sweetie? How are you making that sound," Sarah asked worriedly, placing a hand on Gwen's shoulder.

"What? ████?"

"This means we're going to have to attack a S.H.I.E.L.D. base," Mania said softly.

"Yeah," Gwen confirmed.

"████."

"████."

"You've got to register just like all the other heroes, MonStar," Agent Kimball chuckled, sitting in front of the exasperated woman. They'd prepared the proper forms and had already filled out most of the paperwork on their end. Recommendations, danger assessments, background checks. All that was left was Star's part.

"If you guys don't know what my powers are then no one does," MonStar chuckled, leaning back in her seat. Doyle arched an eyebrow at her, tapping his pen against his clipboard as he waited for her to begin. "Fine, fine. I'm a radiation induced human mutant. I eat radioactive material and get my powers by reacting it inside me. I've got some shapeshifting abilities, but that's dependent on what I eat and how fast it's reacting- I can't control the shift, my body just finds the best form for whatever I'm doing. Speaking of which, check out the new form! Two parts uranium, one part polonium, and two parts cesium!" MonStar excitedly showed off her current body. She was covered in slightly larger blue scales than she had been before. Sharp claws capped the ends of each of her fingers- all four plus her thumbs!- something she was worried she might not have been able to keep. Where humans had hair, the top of her head was covered in thousands of fine, soft feathers, sporting a short, asymmetrical cut. Her green eyes were slitted vertically like a cat's and glowed in the dim light of the office.

"I couldn't keep my fangs though- look, only sharp teeth," she explained remorsefully, her long, narrow tongue hanging out of her mouth as she showed off.

"That might be for the best," Kimball said with a smirk.

"And my tail is all short and stumpy. But at least this form is super stable, even with the polonium! I'm not melting or giving off any unintended radiation or anything." She spoke quickly and excitedly, more than happy to give her handlers the full rundown.

"And you're going to do your best to stay consistent with this mix, correct? People aren't going to warm up to you if you change shape every Tuesday," Doyle reminded her.

"Yes, mom, I already told the docs to keep the recipe in the system for me," she said, rolling her eyes. It was difficult enough for S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep her fed, let alone test different kinds of radioactive material. She'd been working on this mix for the past three years, and had been waiting to be officially deployed before committing to the recipe.

"Well, keep going. Tell us all the ways you're better than Agent Barton," Kimball teased.

"Ugh! You're not gonna tell him I said that, are you," she asked worriedly. The last thing she wanted was to piss off one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s highest ranking agents.

"We might if you ever go rogue. We'll send him to bring you in," Doyle said flatly. Kimball and MonStar both turned to him, unsure if it was meant to be a joke.

"Anyway, um… I can breathe fire! I'm pretty fast and super strong and I've got sharper senses. I'm pretty sure this form is still bulletproof- anytime I eat cesium that's pretty much guaranteed- my skin can get super hot, I'm mostly resistant to psychic manipulation, and uh… that's it I think," she trailed off, her chair leaning on its back legs as she leaned her weight back even further.

"What feats can you be expected to perform in the field," Doyle asked, pen already scribbling in the next section of the form without even waiting for her reply.

"Hey, no fair! Make me sound super tough," MonStar growled. She couldn't be too upset- her handlers knew her more than anyone else. She'd fudge the numbers to make herself seem stronger than she actually was, increasing the likelihood of being sent into the field against more powerful foes. Bringing in Bulldozer and Flux had been difficult, but she wouldn't have gotten the chance had she not been overconfident in her ability to get the job done. She just loved a good fight but S.H.I.E.L.D. cared way more about making sure a fight would be won as quickly and efficiently as possible. "Make sure you write down that time I held up the entire science department from falling into a sinkhole for like three hours," she reminded him, tapping the form with a claw.

"The sinkhole you created playing with Agent Johnson's toys," Kimball asked pointedly.

"Alright, alright. Jeez, I said I was sorry."

"Any negative effects or risks of your powers to yourself or the people around you," Doyle asked, looking over the rim of his shades at her. She didn't want to respond, but he kept his gaze on her, waiting for an answer.

"Ugh, fine. Um, I've never been able to metabolize faster than twenty percent capacity. I'm not pyrokinetic so I can't control the fire I've made, and if I burn all my fuel in action then I-"

"More importantly," Kimball said, placing a hand on MonStar's.

"Ugh. I'm as dangerous as the radioactive material I've eaten. And if I'm killed during a fight I might turn into a nuke. But it's not like I'm planning on dying anytime soon," she said defensively, unsure why she even had to explain this part. No one could be certain if that worst case scenario was even likely. It was just one possibility of many.

"If you do die, I promise I'll find whatever way these heroes find to resurrect themselves and kick your ass," Kimball said playfully. Doyle smirked and put his clipboard down, finally done filling out the form.

"Star," he said, removing his shades and setting them down on the table.

"Yeah?"

"I'm so damn proud of you." Both women turned to him, watching his normally blank face betray emotion for the first time in a long time. "You've worked so hard all this time for a shot at this that we could never guarantee you. Now we're signing release forms. I know you're going to do some real good on those streets and I can't wait to see you out there. Good luck." Star fought to keep the lump in her throat from cracking her voice and the tears threatening to well up in her eyes from falling.

"Th- thanks, D." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and stared at the ceiling for a few moments, trying to compose herself.

"That said, we have a present for you." He reached down underneath the table and pulled out a large briefcase. MonStar had seen these kinds of briefcases before, but the last time she'd seen one it'd held a very familiar shield that she absolutely had not been allowed to touch.

"Okay, I know you said 'we' to be nice, but I'm completely clueless," Kimball admitted.

"It was supposed to be classified heavily enough that Star couldn't find out about it. We all know how tough that is," Doyle said pointedly.

"Don't look at me! You guys emphasized how important computer training was. I didn't even want to learn all that stuff. If there's ever a computer in my way I'll just smash it," she said with a toothy smirk. She fell silent as Agent Doyle popped the briefcase open.

"Every one of these heroes has a costume or uniform of some kind. Luckily for you, Star, you get something straight out of Dr. Richard's and Stark's labs." The briefcase held a suit of jet black armor, something MonStar hadn't even thought about. "Most of this is made out of tungsten alloys and heavily treated leather to keep it from warping and melting against your scales. You can get as hot as you need without worrying about your clothes." Doyle decided to spare her the long winded speech Dr. Richards had given him about just how much work had gone into making a suit durable enough and heat resistant enough for the specifications he'd given.

"Aw. I'll miss being naked after a good fight," she said playfully.

"They designed it to expand when necessary so you've got about twelve inches to play around with if you ever need to metabolize faster and get bigger," he explained, pointing out the dozens of thin seams in the armor. "Try to use that as minimally as possible."

"Aw, now I really have no reason to be naked," she joked, running her clawed fingertips along the sturdy metal.

"Most importantly, it's functional. There's a well of liquid nitrogen running through hundreds of small channels in the armor. Most of the nitrogen will be focused around your throat, underarms, groin and wrists to-"

"To cool me down! So I can burn hotter without hurting myself! We talked about this forever ago, I can't believe you actually got someone to make it! Oh, this is amazing," MonStar said excitedly, quickly ripping her shirt off and taking the armor out of the briefcase.

"Star!" Doyle hissed, turning away to look at the wall behind him.

"Oh, hush! I'm a lizard," she teased, shimmying out of her pants and sliding into the armor. Kimball stood behind her and helped her adjust the fit until it was snug against her scales. It fit like a bodysuit, thick leather form-fitting tight against her to provide maximum flexibility. There was even a hole in the pants for her tail to slide through, for which she was grateful. Meanwhile the armored parts around her chest and shoulders that held most of the liquid nitrogen already felt ice cold. Finally a metal belt wrapped around her waist that she could only assume held even more liquid nitrogen. From its high collar that stopped just short of her jaw, to its legs that cut off right before her knees, it was sleek and already seemed fun to wear.

"The channels go all through the leather and are concentrated where you release the most heat. You'll feel the full effect when you turn it on. The button is on the inside of your collar," Doyle explained. MonStar tucked a finger into the collar and felt around before finding the tiny button and giving it a tap. The armor whirred to life, a bright blue light shining from the chest in the shape of a-

"My symbol!" Star shouted excitedly, tears finally falling freely as she recognized the sleeping dragon in the shape of a star she'd used to sign her name ever since she was a child.

"All those heroes have some fancy design or whatever. A big spider or weird serpent dragon or something. Thought it might help the public recognize you over- whoa!" Doyle yelped as she grabbed him into another crushing hug. She couldn't speak, couldn't even thank him for the thoughtfulness of the gift. She set him down after a few moments and wiped the tears from her eyes. "They predicted you'd be able to metabolize at around forty-five percent before you experience the usual adverse effects. That might put you in the fifty ton range you were in while battling Flux. The suit is temperature sensitive so it'll use more nitrogen the hotter you get. It should last you about six hours in between refills, but if you burn too hot for too long you'll cut that time down. There's an indicator on your wrist that'll read you your levels but it's probably best if you get out there and experience what the suit can do for yourself. I know you don't follow manuals well," he said with a smile. After a moment he slipped his shades back on his face, candid time over.

"It's definitely better than the costume I'd thought up," she finally said with a laugh. It'd fallen to the floor during all the commotion, and she quickly picked it up and dusted it off.

"Why do you need a mask," Kimball asked curiously as MonStar affixed the black domino mask to her face.

"To get back at all those vigilantes who wear them. They use it to hide their faces. I use it to accentuate mine. I'm not hiding from anyone," she said toughly, punching her open hand in a powerful display. Kimball and Doyle traded looks for a moment, wordlessly communicating something Star couldn't even guess at.

"We need a picture for the form," Doyle said, standing up.

"Is this gonna be like all the prom movies I watched growing up where the parents take tons of pics of their daughter in her new dress," she joked, having always wanted a prom of her own.

"If you call me 'dad' I'm shutting this down," he warned, snapping a few photos.

"This doesn't mean you skip out on any of your schoolwork either. You've gotta maintain that GPA for-"

"Yes, Kimball, I know! I'm gonna go now! I don't wanna be one of those 'nighttime only' heroes. Thanks for everything!" MonStar jogged out of the office, doing her best to maintain human speeds as she threw open the glass doors of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building and breathed in fresh Philadelphia air. "I'm finally a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent!"

"Yeah, so she's gonna be tough," Gwen explained, slipping into the panel from her vantage point in the Gutter. She was really hoping the writers would stop focusing on their new enemy- it made her nervous about their odds of winning.

"But you got the info on her," Andi asked worriedly. She'd been sitting not too patiently in her bed, waiting for Gwen to come back.

"Some, not a lot. The writers were doing a lot of exposition stuff for her. She's definitely a new character made just for this comic so she's gonna be a wild card just for us. They didn't have her explain too much though, I guess the writers knew I'd try this trick again and made the scene as vague as possible," she explained, slipping her mask off her face and shimmying out of her costume.

"So what did you get," Andi pressed, the symbiote practically squirming against her skin as it sensed her anxiety.

"She's got a lot of powers. They flip between calling her a lizard and a dragon. I don't see why, lizards don't breathe fire. They're probably trying to distinguish her from The Lizard," Gwen rambled, grabbing a new outfit for herself.

"Is there a way to beat her? You said every hero has a weakness," Andi reminded her, trying to keep her focused.

"Yeah um, she probably does but I don't know anything about radioactivity. That's why we gotta go to the library," Gwen mentioned casually, slipping her shirt on.

"She's radioactive?" Andi was suddenly incredibly concerned about the amount of time she'd spent next to the dragon woman.

"Yeah, she eats the stuff and it powers her. She was saying something about running out before she got cut off."

"She can run out? What does that mean?"

"I don't know! Maybe she powers down? Runs out of fire or something? I told you they were vague," Gwen responded defensively.

"Gwen, we need a way to beat her." Andi was doing her best to keep her emotions in check, but she felt trapped. Trapped by the Hell-Mark and trapped by this radioactive dragon woman that was trying so hard to keep her from her goal.

"I know Andi, I think I've got something. They're letting her do field work now. She's gonna be a new hero here in Philadelphia," Gwen explained, finally dressed and ready to head to the campus library.

"Okay?" That didn't sound like good news at all.

"We don't need to fight her. You just need to kill Jack," Gwen reminded her, a smirk on her face as she explained the loophole she'd thought up.

"So we wait until she's distracted with some bad guy," Andi asked curiously. Super crime wasn't too common in Philadelphia and she wasn't willing to wait weeks for her chance.

"Or I distract her. While you go and…" Gwen drew her thumb across her throat.

"Gwen… I don't like this plan, you just said she has a ton of powers. How are you going to fight her alone?" The woman had beaten her the last time they'd met, and she wasn't entirely sure of her odds of winning a fair and square fight against the woman. Gwen in the fight alone seemed like suicide.

"Andi, you're not the top here. You don't need to protect me," Gwen responded with a roll of her eyes.

"What?!"

"My point is, you don't have to look out for me. I've got this. I wouldn't be in this comic if I couldn't handle this." Gwen shrugged, arms crossed over her chest as she waited for Andi to join her to head to the library.

"Okay, Gwen… I just… we've always done this kinda stuff together. I'm infiltrating a S.H.I.E.L.D. base, you're fighting the bad guy alone…"

"Aw, worried you'll miss me," she teased as Andi finally hopped off her bed and slipped into her boots.

"Never mind. Good plan."

"That's the spirit," Gwen teased, nudging her with an elbow.