"Oomph!"

Danielle let out a strained groan as her backside hit the hard-matter floor of the Compound training room for what felt like the fiftieth time. She writhed and wriggled on the floor, trying to regain the feeling in her numb joints and limbs to giver her the strength to pull herself up slightly to look up at her attacker. "How predictable was I this time?" The teenager asked.

Standing above her with both hands on her hips was none other than Natasha Romanoff. The ex-assassin shook her head and smirked slightly. "Not as much as you were when you first started," the redhead explained, reaching her hand out for the girl to grab.

Danielle took Natasha's gloved-hand in her own and staggered to her feet. When she was up, it took Danielle a moment to catch her breath and let the pain wash away. As she stretched out her back to prepare for the next round of fighting, Danielle winced and groaned, immediately scrunching her body back down to it's normal position.

While Natasha was drinking some of her water a few feet away, the teenage girl slowly lifted up her muscle tee she wore to reveal the slowly yellowing brusies she still hsd from the apartment fire a few days prior. Most of the bruises were already gone, but the ones she had gotten from falling through floors or getting hit with burning pieces of debris tended to take longer to completely heal.

"Alright," Natasha spoke up, Danielle quickly lowering her tee to cover her bruises once again. "One more round?"

Danielle turned to look at the digital clock on the wall — 12:45 pm. She had to be back at school by 12:55 before advisory started and lunch ended. For the past few days now, Danielle had been ditching lunch time to teleport to the Compound and train with Natasha. She came up with the idea when she realized that a few days on the weekend wasn't going to be enough for her or the rest of the team that worried about her safety. So, it seems like her lunch was going to get a whole lot more action packed than just some school-yard fights and gossip sessions.

The brunette turned back to the ex-assassin and nodded. "Sure," she answered before they walked back out into the center of the mat.

Natasha stood at ready stance while Danielle eyed her wearily. When Dani had first started training with Nat, she was terrified Natasha would absolutely murder her. But after a few sparring rounds, Danielle was happy the fear sub-sided somewhat to Natasha possibly just giving her a concussion or sprained limb at the least.

Once Natasha nodded, the sparring session began. The redhead was the first to attack – she attempted to try and make it easier on Danielle by making a combination of the same few moves each time they fought. Natasha's fist flew and Danielle ducked back quickly before it could hit her cheek. But before Danielle was even able to bring herself back to ready stance, Natasha was already throwing a roundhouse kick. Danielle managed to jump out of the way just in time. If there was one thing she was learning from sparring with Natasha, it was that she was extremely fast, and to always stay on her feet and to be on alert for any oncoming attacks Natasha would undoubtedly spring on her.

After three more punches, Natasha gave Danielle an opening – intentionally – and the teen took it. Each time Danielle tried to attack Natasha this way, she always ended up on the ground, but just as Danielle was about to throw a punch to the redhead's abdomen, an idea popped into her head.

Natashasaw the attack coming from a mile away. Danielle was decent at fighting, but her attacks weren't fast enough, making it a bit too easy for Natasha to predict what she was going to do next. Just when it looked like this spar would end the same as any other, something happened. Natasha was moving to block the punc Danielle was about to make when she abruptly vanished.

Natasha panicked for a split second, but ddidn't have time to react in anyway because of a sudden force knocking into her back causing her to stumble forward. The Black Widow caught her footing easily and spun on her heel to see who had launched the attack from behind. She was dumbfounded when she saw Danielle standing with her fists at ready still and a smile playing at her lips. "How predictable was I then?" She asked.

Natasha stood straight and shook her head. "Nice move. Don't get used to landing ones on me, though," the redhead exclaimed as she stalked off the mats back to her belongings lying on the ground nearby. "And wipe that smirk off your face, Harper, and get to school!" She added as she left the gym.

Danielle chuckled to herself, pride swelling in her chest as she quickly grabbed her gym duffel and ran to the locker room nearby to change. Once she was dressed and presentable (and also soaked in body spray and deodorant), Danielle teleported back to school, vanishing from the Compound gym and reappearing at the Midtown gym locker room.

Danielle had been doing this for a few days now, and as she walked into the lunch room where all of her fellow classmates were just now leaving to go to their next class period, she was reminded of the reason why.

Across the cafeteria was Peter walking beside Ned with Michelle falling far behind them – a book in her hand as usual. And to make matters worse, Cindy, Liz, and Sally were walking just a few yards away from where Danielle stood.

Taking a deep breath, the brunette bowed her head and walked int the cafeteria towards the main hallway. It was like she could feel their eyes on her as she walked, hear their troubling thoughts, know that they were thinking about her and all she'd done wrong by them. It made the guilt in Danielle's chest triple in size, suffocating her from within and making her want to do nothing more than to curl up in a ball and disappear.

After what seemed like an eternity, Danielle finally made it to her class in time, but she carried on the rest of the school day with the feeling of eyes on the back of her neck and guilt in the core of her stomach. But it was only the beginning for her because after the final bell rang, Decathlon practice began.

As soon as she walked into the library, she could already tell it was going to be a rough meeting.

"Hey, if it isn't the soccer champ!" Flash shouted to her from where he sat at the far corner of the small table the rest of the team was seated at, including Liz, Sally, Cindy, Michelle, Ned, Abraham, Charles, Peter, and Mr. Harrington.

"Welcome, Miss West," Mr Harrington greeted her. "Glad you could make it after a long soccer season." Everyone looked up at Danielle's entrance prompting her to immediately bow her head in fear of eye contact.

She awkwardly pulled at the ends of her denim blue flannel button up as she mumbled a reply, "Yeah, me too." Hardly anyone could hear her, but they continued on, Danielle talki a seat at the end beside Michelle just across from Peter... Great.

"Alright, Liz," Harrington began by turning to the older teen by his side. "Mind calling this meeting to order?"

Liz smiled brightly before nodding and knocking her knuckles onto the wood of the table. "Okay, guys, I now call this Midtown High Academic Decathlon Team meeting to order," she exclaimed as she fixed her posture and turned towards the rest of the group. Danielle peeked at her from underneath her eyelashes and through her hair as she spoke indirectly to everyone. "So, we all know why we're here today, right?"

"Because we're finally getting an end of the year club trip?" Charles asked excitedly.

Liz gave him a pointed look. "No," she answered, Charles immediately deflating and frowning at the disappointing news. "We are here because the State Competiton is coming up this Saturday in Albany."

"Still doesn't explain why we're here," Flash spoke up once again. "We're all smart as hell and can totally kick anyone's ass that tries to face us!"

"That's, uh, great spirit, Flash," Mr. Harrington stated awkwardly. "But, uh, this is about brains not brawns and it doesn't exactly work with just self-confidence. If success did work that way, my wife wouldn't be settling for a divorce..." Mr. Harrington bowed his head and pursed his lips, his blunt confession making everyone at the table awkwardly sit in silence for a few moments before Liz broke the silence.

"Anyway," she began, changing the subject. "Mr. Harrington is right – we can't just win without practice. And since this is State Competition, we need to bring our all. Which means no distractions, and no slacking." Danielle felt as though the statements were directed towards her despite the fact that Liz had been staring at the group collectively. ...But she was pretty sure it was directed at her.

"I brought a few cards with questions compiled from the last few State Competitions, so we know what we're up against," Liz exclaimed as she pulled out a large pack index cards from her backpack. "Abe, the bells, please."

As Abraham began to hand out the small bells, everyone got into their small teams on each side of the table. Mr. Harrington sat at the edge of the table while everyone else say along the sides with someone in front of them. Liz was going againat Cindy, Flash was going against Sally, Abe was going against Charles, Michelle was going against Ned, and Danielle was forced to go head-to-head with Peter... If this didn't spell 'disaster', Danielle wasn't sure what did.

"Okay, let's begin," Mr. Harrington cleared his throat before reading off the first index card. "Liz you're up against Cindy. You ready?" Both girls exchanged glances before nodding, both of their hands were hovering over each of the bells set in front of them. "A change in the allele frequencies in population is called..."

Liz rang her bell first before answering immediately, "Evolution."

"Correct," Mr. Harrington praised her before moving on to the next pair; Flash and Sally. "Next question: what are the official Winter sports of Canada?"

Flash immediately rang his bell. "Ice skating and snowboarding," he answered with confidence.

Mr. Harrington frowned as he glanced at his card. "Incorrect. Sally?"

Sally pursed her lips as she thought hard. It was a few moments before she answered, "Hockey and lacrosse?"

"That is correct. Great job, Sally." Veryone around the table clapped while Flash could only pout in displeasure as Mr. Harrington brought out the next card to move on. "Alright, Abe, Charles... Which U.S. President declared Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November?"

Charles quickly rang his bell. "George Washington was the first President of the United States," he exclaimed with a smile before grimacing. "That wasn't the question..."

Abe quickly followed up by ringing the bell and answering, "Abraham Lincoln."

"Correct. Great job, guys," Mr. Harrington said before moving on. "Michelle, Ned... What do you call a word that is spelled the same forward and backwards?"

Ned squinted as he thought in concentration, mumbling under his breath, "Taco cat spelt backwards is taco cat..." While across from him, Michelle looked at him with a dull expression before ringing her bell and answering, "A Palindrome." Danielle smirked and laughed slightly at her friends' antics. Michelle always did love her fancy English words, and Danielle had no doubt in her mind that she probably got every question she was asked correct. She was smart, she just didn't like to show it off too much.

Mr. Harrington nodded, "Good job, Michelle." Danielle straightened slightly when she finally realized it was her and Peter's turn. "Alright, Danielle, Peter, you ready?"

Danielle looked up from behind her bangs that dangled down in front of her face to meet Peter's eyes. He looked a bit awkward, but she could see a twinge of hurt in his eyes. As soon as their eyes met, she looked back to Mr. Harrington and nodded.

"Okay," Mr. Harrington began, not acknowledging the odd tension between the pair of students at the end of the table as he picked up his next card. "How many bones are in the human body?"

At the exact same time, both Danielle and Peter rang their bells and answered, "206."

Mr. Harrington – along with everyone else around the table – looked up in awe and intrigue. "It looks like we may have a tie. Let's try another one," he exclaimed, taking out a second card. "What does 'HDMI' stand for?"

Just like the last time, Danielle and Peter rang their bells at the same time and blurted out the answer, "High-Definition Multimedia Interface." The pair exchanged odd looks with each other, both displaying their confusion and awe at their knowledge. Guess all those days studying on the bleachers with each other really had benefited each other.

"Face off!" Abe cheered.

"Come on, Danielle, kick his ass," Flash chimed in while everyone else began to grow more hyped up for this 'face off' between Danielle and Peter.

Mr. Harrington pulled out his next card. "What colors are on the Ireland flag?"

Once again, Danielle and Peter rang and answered, "Green, white, and orange."

"Who was the King of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War?"

Both Peter and Danielle rang and answered at the same time, "King George the Third."

"Who composed the piano suite Clair De Lune?"

This time, only one bell rang and only one person of the pair answered. "Claude Debussy composed Clair De Lune, otherwise known as the third movement of the Suite Bergamasque," Danielle had exclaimed. But once she had answered, she realized that Peter hadn't. She looked up at him and was shocked to find he was smiling back at her. Given, it looked like he was trying to hide it, but it was still there. This didn't mean he had forgiven her – she didn't blame him if he hadn't – but it showed that there was a small chance of her getting her old friend back.

Everyone at the table around her all slightly gaped at her knowledge.

Danielle blushed under the attention and shrugged. "I play... Piano, that is," she explained vaguely in a barely-whisper.

"Well, great job, nonetheless. You both did great," Mr. Harrington told the pair at the end of the tale before continuing back down to Liz and Cindy. The rest of the meeting went on this way, with Mr. Harrington asking practice questions and the team answering. Peter and Danielle would sometimes go through face-offs again, but for the most part they answered an equal amount of questions through out the rests the afternoon.

By the end of the meeting, everyone was in a less-awkward funk and back to the way everything used to be without drama or acting as though they were walking around egg-shells. And not just Peter and Danielle, but Cindy, Sally, and Liz as well. Danielle could feel the tension being released from her body with each laugh and each smile and each praise she gave and got from her fellow teammates and friends.

Everything was going well until Danielle's phone suddenly buzzed.

She glanced down and read the message:

From: Mr. Electric Man, Jack-san

To: Dani Radcliffe

Jack... What was her brother doing texting her when he knew she was at school? Maybe it was an emergency. Then again, if it were, he would be calling her, and he wouldn't be the only one. Either way, Danielle quickly checked what he had to say.

Thought you might wanna see this.

Danielle continued to scroll through the message until she came upon the attached photo Jack had also sent her. While Liz was giving the 'end of meeting' pep-talk speech, Danielle felt the air in her throat catch. Down in the screen of her phone was a picture of a breaking news article with a familiar name. A name that was forever seared into her brain and would be for the rest of her life. A name that had been scribbled into her journal Sam had her keep. And a name that haunted her in her sleep at night because the despicable things that person had done to her and her family.

The news article detailed an assault by a man in heavy armored gear named 'Crossbones' that led an attack on a large police station in Lima, Peru. It also noted in the article that 'Crossbones' was otherwise known as Brock Rumlow, former SHIELD agent and HYDRA operative involved with the Triskelion Incident. This had been the second attack after a few months ago when Danielle had watched the team after the Regional Competition. But, why now? Why was he back?

Danielle's ears began to ring and her fists were clenched as the hole within her began to light her body on fire. The gaping hole inside her returning after it's months long rest, the wound she had covered up was reopenning, and the scar she thought she'd sewn up was coming undone. It was all falling to pieces and all Danielle could think about was that man and what he had done to her, her family, her friends, her LIFE-

"Danielle?" A voice snapped her out of the chaos inside her mind for a moment. She glanced up and saw Peter looking down at her as he stood from the table, his backpack and phone in hand as he pushed his chair in. He had a worried look on his face as he tried to study her. "You... You okay?"

Was she okay? No, she wasn't. She was far from it — had been for a long time. But Peter, her first friend that hadn't been talking to her for days, was here, asking about her well being. God, how could she had been so blind? It was never about Danielle's distraction with Eris, or the Avengers, or even what happened with her mom. It was always just her and her ignorance. Sure, there were problems in her life, and yes, they were a bit more severe than what most kids her age had to deal with, but she had something that they didn't as well: people who cared for her.

Her mother and father and HYDRA destroyed Danielle. But it was people like Jack, Wanda, Pietro, Steve, Sharon, Sam, Natasha, Vision, Rhodey, Tony, and her friends – Michelle, Liz, Sally, Cindy, Betty, Amber, Ashley, Magge, Ned, and Peter that built her back from the ground up. Danielle was still stuck on the past when she was ignoring everything good about her present.

So why pursue Rumlow? He gave her nightmares, he ruined her life, but he was the past. The past that was holding her back, the past that was dictating her life from moving forward. Killing him wouldn't bring her justice.

Slowly, Danielle's fists unclenched and the hole inside of her faded away as she nodded. "Y-yeah. I am," she replied with the most confidence she could muster. "Thank you."

Peter could only nod before walking off. It was when the rest of the team started to do the same that Danielle realized it was time to go. She packed up all her belongings and quickly started to the bleachers outside. The minute she knew she was out of view, she vanished, reappearing back at her apartment with Sharon. Sharon must've been out, but Danielle decided to leave her a sticky note on the coffee table in the living room that told her where she'd be and what time she'd be back before vanishing once more.

Sure enough, when Sharon got home, she caught sight of the bright green sticky note on the coffee table beside all her work piles. It was by chance that Sharon had even seen it as she was setting down her things, and when she read the small note, a spark of panic soared inside of her chest. But before she could go into full-CIA mode and call up Steve, she read the rest of the note and began to calm down.

I'll be back later

Went to sort some things out.

-Dani

p.s.: don't worry, I'M SAFE :)

Danielle wasn't lying about the 'safe' part. She doubted anything dangerous ever happened in the small suburban neighborhood in Newport, Rhode Island. She would know after all that the only exciting thing to happen in this place was the rare occasions the sun peeked out from the never ending grey sky. Shockingly however, when she arrived at her and her mother's old house, the sun was out and shining down on her as she made her way up the path to the porch. It was almost as if the weather knew it was never meant to be for Danielle's short life of normality with her mother. If only she had seen the signs before...

As she walked up the porch steps, she wondered if anyone ever even bought the house after her, Wanda, and Jack had cleaned it out. Well, mostly just Jack and Wanda; Danielle hadn't exactly been in the mood to revisit those memories. But, now seemed as good a time as any to just put it all to rest once and for all. To try and find anything she could on Rumlow so she could finally have her closure.

Danielle approached the door and unlocked it by pressing the palm of her hand to knob and twisting it with her powers. It slowly creaked open and the teen peeked inside to reveal the empty interior.

She slowly stepped inside, taking in all the old memories of the days she would come home this way. She remembered where the couch was, the TV, the dining table. She remembered calling out that she was home from practice or school and would find her mom either in her office or in the kitchen, reading a book or sipping on a glass of white wine. Danielle hadn't realized how much detail she remembered, but it seemed like even without realizing it, she had paid so much attention to time spent with her mom. Yet another sign that it was never meant to last.

Pushing the pain and memories aside, Danielle made a B-line straight for the door she was looking for – the reason she was here: the basement.

The brunette opened the door and slowly made her way down the stairs. Flashes of doing these exact movements in this exact place caused Danielle to falter before she reached the bottom stair and flicked on the light. Sure enough, everything that was once in the room was gone. Bare and empty after the team had come and cleared it out of all the things her mother had collected on them.

Danielle glanced around the empty room, trying to search for something, anything that could lead to some answers or even some insight on what Rumlow was capable of and how dangerous he is.

It was then that one tiny detail caught Danielle's eye from across the small basement room – a slightly crooked plank of wood on the hardwood floor was slitly more damaged than the rest of the planks. It was an insignificant detail anyone could've overlooked, but there was something about this tiny block of wood that made Danielle's mouth go dry. It was the possibility it entailed. If there was something under this small clue, then it meant Danielle's mother knew something like this was going to happen. It meant that Alisson Harper planned past her death and meant for Danielle or Jack to find this place. It meant that Alisson had no hope of ever coming out of killing Steve alive and that this was her lasting legacy. Whatever was underneath this wood was what she left behind. The only thing keeping Danielle from lifting it was that one question that was rattling in her brain: did she want to know?

She did. She had to.

Without a second thought, Danielle dropped to her knees and slowly placed her hands on either side of the plank of wood. She took a deep breath in, let it out, and lifted. Her breathing stopped momentarily when her eyes settled upon what was beneath the secret compartment in the floor. Inside was a single USB drive.

Danielle set aside the plank of wood and pulled out the small, navy blue and silver USB drive and held it up. What could possibly be inside this little drive her mother tried to hide?

Danielle wasted little time in leaving the basement, and that house as a whole, to go back to her apartment in Queens. She vanished from Newport and reappeared in her room. The first thing she did with the USB still in the palm of her hand was rush to her closet and drop to her knees, scavenging through boxes of old things until she found the old laptop her mother had gotten her for Christmas. Danielle set it down in her lap and ran a hand over it, dust coming off and leaving a mark on the laptop. It felt like eons ago that she even touched the thing, and she never thought she ever would again, but if all that her mother really left behind was USB drive, then it was no coincidence that she had also given her daughter a laptop a few weeks prior to her death.

A few moments of reflection passed before the brunette finally put aside her mixed emotions and jumbled thoughts and opened up the laptop. She hit the power button and put the USB into the port on the side. She watched as the monitor flickered on and a notification appeared on the side with the USB symbol on it. She dragged the mouse over to the icon and clicked it open.

The moment she clicked it open, there was no turning back.

The icon popped open to reveal a large array of files. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Each one had a label Danielle noticed were alphabatized. As she skimmed through them she realized that this was her mother's legacy. Everything she had collected on anything she ever knew about HYDRA, about the government, about her missions, her assignments, her victims, her dealers, her bosses, her superiors, a person, a place, a time, a project, HYDRA, SHIELD, AIM, the Avengers, Stark Industries, Pym Technologies. Anything to do with international espionage, enhanced beings, assassination, or political injustice rested inside of this USB drive.

Most parents left behind money, a car, a house, or even just a small momento for their kids after they died. But Danielle's mother left behind something far more sick and twisted: a drive full of the World's most valuable and wanted information. The teenage girl wasn't sure whether to hate her mother more, or thank her from beyond the grave. But Danielle knew one thing, she had information on the one person that could tie up those loose ends.

The teenager scrolled through the files until she reached the 'R' section and clicked on the subsection of 'people'. "Romanov, Romanoff, Rushman..." Danielle read. These must've been all of Natasha's aliases. Danielle shook her head, trying not to think about how her mom must have gotten them as she continued. "Rollins... Rumlow," she breathed, clicking on the file. It was huge, nearly forty pages long and most of it Danielle could barely understand due to the fact that it was partially encrypted.

The teenage girl ignored all the surgeries Rumlow had gotten done after the few pages about his time at both SHIELD and HYDRA. She ignored his early life synopsis and rather detailed 'Anger Management' psych evaluation. She ignored anything personal about him, because to her it didn't matter. Why should she care? He didn't care when he stole away her and Jack's mother and turned her into a murderer, why should she care about all the problems he had?

Danielle continued on through his file until she stopped on the most recently updated file labeled 'Plans'. She clicked on it and found what looked like a map with locations and names scribbled out in someone's handwriting. It was a blueprint for whatever they were planning apparently. The map itself was one of the world with tiny 'X's and 'O's marked across the planet. The 'X's were in red. One was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, another was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, one was in Lima, Peru, and the last one was in Lagos, Nigeria.

The 'O's were in blue and scribbled out in other locations. One in Harlem, New York, another in Jordan, Egypt, one in Rio De Janero, Brazil, and one more in what looked like a rural area in Siberia.

Underneath the map and cities names were prices and names. The names in Harlem had a price of $5mil, the price in Jordan was $4mil, Rio — $5.2mil, and in Siberia, $7.3mil. Danielle suddenly realized that the 'X's were the places Rumlow was robbing and the 'O's were the locations of the people he was selling his product to.

Danielle continued to scroll to see if she could find anything else, and sure enough, typed on the bottom of the screen were dates in red. The last two attacks had been months ago, the most recent in Peru. But now, Nigeria was next, and it was... HOLY CRAP, it was tomorrow. But this one was different. Instead of a police station – like the rest of them were labeled – this one was the Center For Infectious Diseases that was housed in Lagos. It then dawned on Danielle that nobody else knew about this... Oh, God...

Danielle suddenly jumped up from where she sat and shut off the computer, taking out the USB and rushing out of her room (nearly tripping over her own feet in the process). She needed to get this to her brother and the team.

Completely ignoring Sharon calling after her from the kitchen, Danielle vanished from the apartment and reappeared at the Compound. She quickly did the math in her head, if it was coming up around seven in New York, it meant that it was two o' clock in the morning in Lagos (hopefully), meaning she had very little time to warn anyone. And even if she did, would they listen? Would they let her come along? Would she be in time?

She had to set all those questions aside for a moment as she ran up to the living quarters of the Compound. It was then that she found Vision and Rhodey both sitting on the couch watching what looked like a... baseball game?

"I'm still not sure why a camera dictates human affection for the public eye," Vision remarked to the Colonel seated beside him.

Rhodey chuckled and shook his head. "Dude, it's a 'Kiss Cam', it doesn't dictate who you kiss, it's just a tradition that when you're on it, you kiss your significant other."

"But, both Wanda and Captain Rogers state that Public Displays of Affection are inappropriate and-"

"Guys?" Danielle finally spoke up.

Both men spun around to find her standing in the middle of the room out of breath and a bit out of wits. "Danielle?" Rhodey asked, worried from her state of panic. "What are you doing here? It's Thursday, you don't come here until Saturday after your competition... Hey, are you alright?"

Danielle ignored his questions as she frantically looked around for everyone else. Where was Jack? Where was Steve? Where was Wanda? "W-where is everyone?" She asked.

Rhodey and Vision exchanged weary glances as they both stood up. "They're out on a mission in Africa. They asked us to stay behind and keep an eye on the Compound in case of a retaliation attack," Rhodey explained. "Why? What's wrong?"

Danielle spun to face him with wide eyes. "They're in Nigeria?" They both nodded, still hilt confused by her antics.

"Danielle, what's going on?" Rhodey asked again.

Danielle ran a hand through her hair and shook her head, the USB still clutched in her palm. She had to help them, she had to warn them.

Danielle's breathing began to grow erratic as she tried to think straight. Rhodey quickly ran to her side and grasped her shoulders to steady her, she hadn't even realized she was falling until her legs began to feel like jelly and all her weight was being set on Rhodey's arms as he held her up.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah. Take it easy," he told her. "What's going on?"

"I need to... I need to..." She attempted to speak, but the words kept getting caught in her throat. Oh, God, it was happening again. Just like when she had discovered what her mother had been doing when she was trapped in the basement. She had tried to wane them, but it was like she was helpless, useless. Oh, that feeling of being so vulnerable and open and weak like when she had been tortured all those months ago.

The memories, the scars, the cuts, the bruises were all coming back to her like a flood and she felt like she was drowning in her own blood and screams. Her head was pounding and her entire body was shaking. Make it stop, oh, God, please somebody make it stop. She had to help them, she had to do something.

"Danielle!" Rhodey shouted her name, attempting to pull her from the abyss she was falling in.

Her mind quickly snapped back from what she had just experienced and she gasped, tears coming down her face as she looked around. "The police station," she hiccuped. "He's not hitting... the police station. I need to... warn them," she hiccuped again.

"Who's not hitting the police station, Danielle?" Rhodey pressed on.

"R-Rumlow," she half-sobbed. "I need to warn them."

Without another second of hesitation, Danielle pushed away from Rhodey and vanished from the Compound, reappearing back in her room, the USB drive still in hand. She wasn't going to be weak, not again. She wasn't going to let happen to the team after she found out her mother's plan happen again with Rumlow.

She made this promise to herself as she crammed her Eris suit into a small brown bag and pulled on her navy blue hoodie, shoving her phone into her back pocket along with her USB drive and a wallet full of cards Tony had given her back when he had first set her up with the 'normal life' gig with Sharon and Midtown. She never thought she'd see the day she would use it, but now seemed as fitting of a time as ever.

After hastily packing, Danielle teleported from her apartment again to JFK a few miles away. It was so crowded and jam packed, no one noticed the petite teenager that suddenly appeared from thin air in the midst of the chaos as she ducked her head and snuck her way through the crowds until she found where the tickets were being sold and the flights were being booked.

Danielle's eyes scanned the International Flighrs for anything even remotely close to Nigeria, or Africa in general. Finally, her eyes landed on a flight to Accra, the Capital of Ghana – which, if Danielle remembered correctly, was only a couple of miles down the coastline from Lagos.

When it was her turn to buy her ticket, she pulled out Tony's card and handed it to the nicely dressed (and completely oblivious) flight attendant/receptionist behind the counter who happily handed Danielle her ticket back. Within half an hour of purchasing the ticket, Danielle found herself boarding her first actual commercial plane.

It was weird. It wasn't like the Quinjet where she could prop her feet up on the seats beside her or like Tony's private jet that was open and free, but it was crowded and packed with the seats crammed together full of strangers and people she didn't know. As the plane filled with more and more people, she couldn't help but wonder if there was a weight limit for planes... God, she hoped not.

As that small flicker of panic began to grow in her chest, Danielle tried to calm herself. She quickly pulled out her phone and absent-mindedly began to scroll through her gallery of photos. If there was one thing Danielle enjoyed a bit more than piano, it was taking photos. Some of the recent were of her friends from school. A selfie with Betty here, a side-long photo of Michelle flicking her off there. And then one of Peter.

As she looked at the picture, Danielle could feel her chest shrivel up slightly out of guilt. Peter... He probably still hated her, and it was all her fault. She was vanishing day after day, but little did she keep in mind that she had people back at school counting on her too. She tried her hardest to stay focused in academics and school, but now this? It was like she could never get a break from this superhero lifestyle. Maybe one day he would understand. Maybe one day she could tell Peter about her and her powers. But maybe he didn't want to know... After all, they weren't friends anymore. She wasn't 'Elle', now it was just 'Danielle'.

The rest of the flight was spent with Danielle reminiscing about her old memories at school and with her friends, but the real danger still lurked in the back of her mind and each time she was reminded of it, she clutched harder onto the USB drive in her pocket and payed she would make it in time... She had to.

A/N: *crawls out from under a rock* ...oh, hey guys. ;)

As you all noticed, your girl took a long hiatus. I did so for multiple reasons. 1. I got sick and literally could barely breath let alone be productive. 2. I was fangirling over the 1975's new album: An Inquiry Into Online Relationships (GO. FUCKING. LISTEN) and also the new A4 trailerrrr ahhhhh. 3. I had homework and actual work. And finally 4. I needed to write all of Civil War or at least get a decent amount written so I can update maybe twice every week (don't get your hopes up, I'm not too sure about that yet).

Anyway, regarding this chapter and answers for questions I feel like people may have:

1. yes, that USB is important and will make appearances later.

2. Why didn't Danielle just teleport from NY to Lagos. Well, because, as we have become aware, she cant travel that far with that. Not to mention, it kind of works like the Nightcrawler from X-Men in the sense that if she can't see where she's going, it won't work. So, yeah

3. where did I get those practice Decathlon Questions? Well, fun fact, my friend was on the Decathlon team back in high school for a solid semester for the extra credit and told me that most of the questions were sorted like answering hard questions with easy answers and sometimes like college-level trivia. So, I just looked up college level tricks and went off of that. SO, yeah.

And 4. Why did Alisson leave behind that USB and if Wanda and Jack cleaned out the house, how did they not find THAT? There is a reason I haven't gone into detail about the mindset of Alisson Harper, that is because I'm planning later on to give her her own story arc that gives insight into who she was, which was basically a genius, in her own sense. One of the things she does is plan, like REALLY plan, and a theme I'm going to explore in her arc is what she doesn't plan for and how she makes it work. The USB being so conveniently placed and found by Danielle is one of those things she planned thoroughly because she knew that there was only one person she wanted to find it and one way she could do it. And that is by making it so obvious Wanda and Jack wouldn't think to look there, but so obvious to the point that Danielle (having sent so much time with her) would be able to catch.

Chapter Song: Voices by Against the Current, I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes) by The 1975, and Watch Your Back by Sam Tinnesz.

Reviews:

Guest: No one has asked me 'what gives' since I was like seven. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, lol. But back to the question — I have made Danielle less powerful than she was in the beginning of the story for many reasons. The main one being that she's out of touch. She only ever uses the teleporting but since she's been back from normality with her mom and just focusing on school, her powers haven't really come in handy for combat anytime soon. So, it's normal for her to struggle when using them to fight crime, I guess. Another reason is because she was super powerful back in AoU mostly because she was fresh out of HYDRA. I'm going to go into detail later on into the story just how much those four years with HYDRA had affected her and how that they also affect her fluctuation when it comes to how much she was pushed to we her powers. I also didn't want her going int crime fighting being all big, bouncing, and badass so little steps a time. Badass powerful Danielle will return in CW, but we get a better read on her powers and her relationship with them as well. Sorry for the rambling, I just think a lot about these thins and appreciate when people question it so I can clarify these things. Hope this helped and thanks for liking this story and asking. :)

Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:

[Wanda and Jack playing Hangman]

Wanda: Nope, there's no 'Q'. You lose.

Jack: Dude, are you kidding me? You can still add something.

Wanda: I added a belt, four earrings, and an extra arm! YOU LOSE!