A/N: You know that legal studies assignment I mentioned last week, well I had to rush to finish it yesterday, which is why this chapter is being uploaded a day late. I'm sorry. Anyway chapter 14 is here, next chapter is the dance when it all comes down to Phoenix's flirtation skills. With the release of the new Age of Ultron trailer, you may seem some progressive changes through the story. I'm trying to keep this series as canon as possible, which is difficult but I'm doing it anyway. Hope you like this chapter and don't forget to read, review and enjoy.

Phoenix concentrated hard as she stared at the fire in the crucible. She furiously willed it to grow hotter, unaware of the two sets of eyes watching her. She could feel heat radiating off it, even from a distance, it's centre began to glow blue/white and Phoenix allowed herself a triumphant grin.

Tony carefully lowered the thermometer towards the tip of the flame, but pulled it back quickly when he saw the mercury rise to its limit within several centimetres of the actual flame. Hurriedly, he searched his desk for a device. Once he had found it, he placed it near the flame and read out the temperature displayed on the screen.

"Woah!" Tony exclaimed. "330 degrees Fahrenheit."

Bruce took a step backwards, away from the flame, where he could frown at it uneasily from a safer distance. Phoenix, caught up in the joy of having improved since her previous test, didn't notice Bruce's discomfort until she eventually turned to him. Upon seeing his expression, she quickly snuffed the flame.

"Sorry," she apologised.

"Don't apologise on behalf of me getting a little worried Phoenix," Bruce waved her concern away. He thought to himself for a minute, shaking his head. "You really can't feel it?" He asked.

"I can feel the heat," Phoenix answered. Holding up her right arm for them to see, she ignited a fire, covering her forearm and hand. "But for some reason, the heat doesn't affect my body temperature. The fire doesn't burn me either, in fact, I can barely feel it."

"Amazing," Tony clicked his tongue as he spoke. "You really are something special."

Phoenix smiled proudly and caught the screwdriver, thrown to her by Tony. Phoenix absently twirled the screwdriver in her hand, while she looked over the shoulders of the two men, curious to see the plans they were designing on the holographic screen.

"Are those the building plans for the school?" Phoenix enquired.

Bruce nodded. "Nothing gets by you," he commented. "We're scoping out the buildings, trying to look at how it works out with our plan."

Phoenix went around Bruce and stood beside him. She put her hands on either end of the holographic image and dragged it forward, zooming in on the largest building, the hall. She inspected it for a few seconds, before tilting the image to look at the hall from a 3D perspective.

"Interesting," she murmured to herself.

"Want to share with the class?" Tony asked

Phoenix frowned and shook her head. "It's not a major issue. It's just, there are two main entrances here and here," she pointed to places on the blueprint as she spoke. "It might be difficult to watch both of them. I would recommend security cameras on both doors, and one on the emergency exit behind the stage. We can't afford any surprises."

Bruce nodded. "We were planning on covering most of the hall in cameras to keep an eye on what's going on. Agent Romanoff will be watching the entire building from the school's monitoring systems. Tony and I will be focusing on the hall itself, Steve is trying to keep our presence at a low level."

"So that way, the majority of the mission is left in my hands," Phoenix sighed, finishing Bruce's sentence for him. She rubbed her hands together as she walked over to one of the desks, head hung low in thought. She looked back up after a moment as she placed the screwdriver on the table. "Natasha thinks I can do it but," Phoenix shook her head. "I'm not too sure."

Bruce looked at Tony, who was watching Phoenix in consideration. Tony nodded to Bruce after a second, prompting Bruce to walk over to Phoenix. He stood beside her and considered what he was going to say for a minute before he opened his mouth.

He didn't need to, Phoenix spoke first. "For the past two days Natasha has been teaching me how to flirt with teenage boys," Phoenix chuckled lightly. "I have to make myself appeal to a random stranger I've never met before. It's not the sort of thing that I was trained for."

Bruce laughed. "From what I understand, you can't exactly train yourself for that sort of thing," Bruce turned around and leaned against the desk behind him. "I'm sure that Agent Romanoff is perfectly capable of reaching you as much as she can. From what I understand, this kind of subterfuge is her forte."

Phoenix smiled and bit back a laugh. "That's not exactly what I meant," she turned around to face the desk that Bruce leant against, shielding herself from his direct gaze. She leaned forward across the desk, hands clasped together. "Portraying a character, pretending to be someone else, I don't think I can do it. This isn't the type of thing I learned in training."

Bruce's curiosity got the better of him in that moment. "What were you taught in training?" He questioned, turning around so he could look at Phoenix properly. "What kind of stuff did you have to go through?"

Phoenix shrugged. "I was designed to be a weapon, so that's what I trained to be," she answered, her voice falling quiet as she spoke in a solemn tone. "I was trained to obey whatever orders were given to me, never ask questions, and never show emotion. I wasn't allowed to think for myself or have an opinion. Looking back at it now, I don't even think I was a real person."

Bruce thought about what she said, and recalled the tone of voice she had used earlier when speaking about the mission. "You don't seem too happy about this Phoenix," he observed. "If you want to drop out of the mission I'm sure Agent Romanoff will understand."

"No!" Phoenix exclaimed, surprising even herself with the volume of her voice. "I'm doing the mission, I have to. It's the only chance I have to prove myself. If I can't do this, then what can I do?" She ran a hand through her hair, and frowned in almost the exact same manner Bruce had observed Clint frowning.

Bruce wanted to argue with Phoenix, but was interrupted when Steve entered the room. Clearly he was looking for Phoenix, because when he saw her, he looked relieved and immediately walked over to her. Bruce stepped away to let the two of them have a conversation and took up a position standing beside Tony.

"What does Captain Spandex want with her this time?" Tony asked in a low murmur, leaning closer to Bruce to minimise the chances of being overheard.

"No idea," Bruce responded, keeping his voice low.

Tony peered over his shoulder to get a brief glimpse before turning back. "I don't like them using her like this. They didn't even ask her whether or not she wants to do it, it's demeaning," Tony leaned in closer until Bruce could feel the air from his breath. "She's becoming a mindless drone again, just under someone else's orders."

"I asked her, she said she wants to do it," Bruce informed him. "She's trying to prove something, but I'm not sure what."

"She shouldn't have any of that pressure on her," Tony hissed, raising his voice as much as possible without being heard by Steve. "Those six months she spent in whatever godforsaken training camp in the middle of nowhere, she didn't have any breakdowns at all."

"I hardly think you can present that as evidence for anything, we don't know what happened to her while she was at that camp," Bruce reminded him.

Tony scoffed. "They never tell us anything," he began counting things off on his finger. "How did SHIELD know enough about Phoenix to give her a level ten threat assessment before the Navy Pier incident? Why did SHIELD never give the order to kill even after she destroyed Navy Pier and infiltrated SHIELD HQ?"

Tony raised several valid points that Bruce had long since forgot about. With all the chaos that ensured during and after Phoenix's capture, no one seemed to have thought back to the mysteries that had been hanging over them while they had tried to stop Phoenix. Tony was right, at the time, SHIELD seemed to know more about Phoenix then they were willing to share.

Bruce folded his arms and looking down his left side, he thought about something else. Phoenix had attacked SHIELD HQ the first time to free Doctor Blake, which she succeeded in doing. However, Phoenix had managed to make her way into a secure server room and download information into a data chip, which she then smuggled out of the building, when she escaped two days later.

"Remember she stole information from SHIELD," Bruce reminded him. "They never told us what she actually stole. It could've been anything."

Tony nodded. "I bet Fury knew something.

Their conversation ended there, with a glance over his shoulder, Bruce saw that Phoenix and Steve had more or less finished their discussion. Phoenix looked brighter than she had been earlier, whatever Steve had said to her had cheered her up.

This didn't last long, as Tony couldn't leave the situation alone. Her practically demanded that everyone look at him, as he loudly sat down on the edge of one of his desks, banging the table purposely to create a greater disturbance. It worked, as everyone in the room focused their attention on him.

"You were level 8 clearance, when you were the cleaning boy for SHIELD, isn't that right Rogers?" Tony questioned him, not even bothering to hide the edge in his voice, which made it clear his question had another meaning.

Steve easily picked up on the tone in his voice and narrowed his eyes. "Yes," Steve answered cautiously, dragging the Y for longer than necessary as he spoke.

"Huh," Tony made a noise of mock surprise. "So then you know why SHIELD never gave the order to capture, and not kill, Phoenix."

"What?" Phoenix questioned, her voice a quiet murmur of shock.

Steve did not hear her, too focused on Tony's words, words that sounded an awful lot like he was threatening him. Steve took a step forward, head titled to the left, his face masked by a challenging expression. "Stark this isn't the thing we need to be discussing right now. SHIELD is gone."

"So you don't know?" Tony asked mockingly. "You didn't bother to find out whatever secrets SHIELD was hiding about Phoenix. You knew that something wasn't right even before Natasha saved her, so why didn't you check it out? Do you even give a damn about her?"

"This is not the time," Bruce warned, directing his words at Tony, whilst keeping his eyes on Phoenix, he saw that she was shaking her head and looking fearful.

Neither Tony nor Steve had heard him talk, too wrapped up in their budding argument, Steve took another step forward as Tony slid off the desk, and his casual demeanour slipped away as well. Tony was no longer looking attempting to mock, the real fight was about to begin.

"Don't you dare accuse me of things you know nothing about," Steve growled. "You think I don't care about Phoenix? You're the one questioning why SHIELD never gave the kill order, why is that Stark? Did you want them to kill her?"

"Please stop," Phoenix begged, but she spoke too quietly. Stuck in the middle of the confrontation, Phoenix retreated backwards,

"I never wanted that for her," Tony hissed, his voice increasing in volume, until he was practically shouting. "I wanted to save her like the rest of you, but what have we done to her? We're using her as a means to an end! You specifically designed the mission so you'd be able to use her! We haven't saved her, we're just acting as her new controllers! She might as well be following Doctor Blake's orders all over again!"

"Stop," Phoenix's voice had increased slightly in volume, but so had the voices of the two men currently caught up in their argument. She couldn't be heard over the noise.

"No one's forcing her to do anything Stark!" Steve spat back, his voice matching Tony's in volume. "Don't take the moral high ground here, you're the one using her as a lab rat. Testing her powers and God knows what else. Phoenix has decided to take part in the mission. She made that decision of her own free will."

"Did she?" Tony questioned, his voice became softer as his rage reached its peak. "Because I never heard anyone give her a choice."

"You think you know everything don't you," Steve snapped, refusing to back down. Bruce knew where the climax was heading, and shook his head and he buried his face into his hands. "I'm not looking for a fight Stark but if you want one I'd be more than happy to give it to you."

"Bring it on Stars & Stripes," Tony threatened

"Stop!" Phoenix screamed. A plume of fire erupted in front of Tony and Steve, they jumped backwards in shock and turned their heads slowly to Phoenix, reeling in surprise. The fire died down and they saw Phoenix standing there, her face a mask of pure agony.

The realisation of what they had said in front of Phoenix, hit the men like a slap in the face. Both of their faces transitioned into expressions of what could only be described as the realisation of their own stupidity. Steve took a step forward in the direction of Phoenix, his mouth open like there were words on the tip of his tongue that he could not release.

Phoenix countered his movements and took a step backwards. She couldn't meet the eye of either men, but looked down at her feet instead. Bruce distantly recalled a statement made by Natasha, that if Phoenix felt emotionally stressed, she needed to be removed from the environment.

Bruce did just that, he moved towards Phoenix and gently placed his hands on her shoulder, turning her away from Steve and Tony slowly. She came out of her brief state of catatonia and turned away and quickly exited the room, slipping out of Bruce's grip.

"Good job," Bruce praised Steve and Tony sarcastically before he quickly followed after Phoenix.

As he moved into the hallway, he saw her ahead of him, slowly walking towards the elevator, her head hung low. Bruce jogged to catch up to her and slowed down once he managed to reach her side. Thankfully, she didn't appear to be on the brink of any sort of breakdown, but she did appear crestfallen.

"Do you need me to get Natasha?" Bruce asked her softly.

Phoenix stopped walking and responded to Bruce with a small nod. Bruce immediately gave JARVIS the order to send Natasha upstairs to them and they waited in silence for several minutes. Surprisingly, Phoenix managed to keep herself in one piece, though Bruce did wonder whether or not it was an act.

Natasha arrived and immediately ran to Phoenix when she saw her. "What happened?" she asked trying to meet Phoenix's eye. "Are you alright milaya moya?"

Phoenix mumbled a response in Russian, surprising both Bruce and Natasha. Bruce wasn't sure if Phoenix had told her what happened, but since Natasha wasn't growing angry, he assumed that she hadn't. "Tony picked a fight with The Captain over Phoenix's involvement in the mission," Bruce informed her.

Natasha swore in Russian. "Idiots!" she exclaimed, reverting back to English.

She took a step forward, moving as if she were going to charge into the lab. Bruce reached out a hand and grabbed her bicep, stopping her in her tracks. She tensed at his touch and looked up at him, a small amount of anger fading away.

"Lecturing them isn't going to do anything," he told her.

"Who said I was going to lecture them," Natasha looked up at him as she spoke. Bruce laughed, allowing himself to smile slightly. Natasha kept her eye on him for several seconds before finally speaking up. "You can let go of me now Dr Banner."

Bruce remembered that his arm still gripped Natasha's arm and immediately let go and took a step back. Natasha bit the inside of her cheek to stop a smile, and pivoted on her heel. "Come on Phoenix," she called her along as she strutted away.

Phoenix had broken out of her depressed state, and was now looking up at Bruce, a small grin on her face that looked very much like an expression Clint would pull. After a second she followed after Natasha. Bruce shook his head at his own idiocy before turning back towards the lab.

With the afternoon's confusion still lingering on her mind, Natasha wanted to make the most of every opportunity when Clint walked into her bedroom that evening. She rose to her feet and grabbed his wrists, pulling him towards her. Their lips met, and Natasha traced her mouth up his cheek.

"Training room equipment locker, 5 minutes, a shirt is optional," she whispered into his ear, before dashing out of the door.

Clint bit his lip before pulling his shirt over his head and throwing it onto Natasha's bed. He quickly looked himself over in the mirror and nodded in approval before following Natasha. He slipped out of the door, and quickly moved down the hallway. Deciding to work up a sweat first, Clint jogged down the stairs rather than taking the elevator.

He entered the training room and slunk through the darkness until he reached the door of the equipment locker. He slowly pushed it open, revealing Natasha stood there in nothing but underwear. He moved forward quickly and swept her up into his arms.

The second that Clint's lips met hers Natasha's heart deflated. The spark that had always been there had vanished, Natasha's heart no longer raced at every touch, instead what she was feeling was dull, like it was just another lifeless activity.

Natasha thought of a possible reprieve, but she knew it had all come crashing down on her. The whirlwind feeling of a romance with no-strings-attached had run out of fuel yet again. For Clint and Natasha, the fireworks had gone off too soon.

What was she thinking in the first place? She did love Clint, she always had, but how had she allowed herself to look beyond those boundaries of friendship to whatever it was that they had turned their relationship into. As she looked into his eyes, Natasha saw that he was thinking the exact same thing.

Natasha pushed him off her, just at the same moment they heard voices outside the equipment locker doors. Natasha's head snapped around to the source of the sound and she quickly jumped to her feet, off the training mat the two of them had so graciously laid themselves down on, and moved to the door, opening it slightly to look out into the training room.

Phoenix and Mark walked into the training room side by side, Phoenix laughing at something Mark had said. Phoenix carried a duffle bag that she laid on the ground and from it, retrieved two pairs of boxing gloves. She tossed one to Mark, and placed the other pair on her own hands.

Phoenix quickly said something to his and demonstrated several techniques before they began sparring. As they went along, Phoenix would stop him at times and correct his movements and techniques. Occasionally, Mark would make a joke or say something that made Phoenix laugh.

Natasha watched their exchange in wonderment, but made no sound or attempted to disrupt them. She closed the door as she ceased watching them and turned to Clint, her mood having significantly brightened, she grinned at him.

"I did wonder why Mark was improving so quickly in training," she mused, turning back to the door very briefly before looking back at Clint. "I knew something was going on, Mark has always been less afraid of Phoenix than the others, and he's even stood up to Heather before. I had no idea that Phoenix was training him though."

"Look at them," Clint murmured in a quiet voice as he opened the door by a crack to get a clearer look for himself. "Mark is being friendly towards her, quite obviously he doesn't see her like the rest of them do. My question is why hasn't he stood up for her, or at least acted friendly towards her, outside of their private training sessions?"

"It's because he doesn't want to be treated like Phoenix," Natasha answered his question easily. "He wants to fit in more than he feels the need to treat Phoenix with any sense of decency. However, if one of The Experiments has changed their minds, it won't be long before the others do as well. They're already starting to question Heather."

"I get the feeling that none of them like Heather regardless," Clint rolled his eyes. "They probably just think of her as a better option over Phoenix."

"Have faith Barton," Natasha chided him. "Soon enough, I think you'll find The Experiments warming up to Phoenix. We just have to wait for Heather to finish digging herself a hole, and The Experiments will realise what her real motivations are."