Err... I know it's been a while... I had a lot of stuff to do. Sorry!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers or anything related to them. Just my O.C.s

Chapter 5: Secrets Part 2

Director Fury frowned. "Do you know these people, Agent Barton?"

Ana gulped. "Yes sir. They go to my school," was all that she offered as an explanation.

When Erica heard this, she stood up. "Really, Ana? 'They go to my school'? After everything we have gone through together, I could have sworn we deserved more recognition."

Ana tried to interrupt Erica, but there was no stopping Erica's rant now that she was on a role. "But NOOOO, despite the fact that Lily and I have been there for you all these years, despite the fact that we have probably told you most of our secrets over the years, despite the fact we are your FRIENDS, you never even considered, never even entertained the idea of telling us about this."

Timothy started to interject, "Uh, Erica, maybe…"

Bad idea. "And YOU," she screamed at Tim, "Did it ever occur to you that you could tell us about your past? You know, since we're you're FRIENDS!"

Timothy looked crestfallen at the reminder.

Erica turned back to continue yelling at Anastasia, but the recently exposed S.H.I.E.L.D. agent didn't let her. "You think I didn't want to tell you? Trust me, I would have loved to. There have even been moments when I wished that this part of my life didn't exist and I could just hang out, get some burgers, and work on homework without having to worry about who wants to kill me, which country I'm going to spend next weekend running across, or what my next excuse is going to have to be to you guys! Believe me; I don't enjoy this situation any more than you!" Ana shouted.

The room became silent for a few minutes. Erica started to realize that they were waiting for her reaction to this new development. She was about to say something, when Director Fury piped up, "I see Ana has followed her orders concerning keeping her involvement in S.H.I.E.L.D. activities unknown to her peers.

"Wait, orders?" asked Lily.

"Great job, Uncle Fury," Ana muttered.

"Hold on. He's your Uncle?" Phil pointed Director Fury.

"Well, technically, no." Ana took a deep breath and began to explain. "My Mom and Dad were both S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. As a matter of fact, the way I heard it, the first time they met was when Dad was sent to kill Mom and ended up recruiting her instead. Anyway, as a result of both their careers being basically super-spies, I grew up on the S.H.I.E.L.D. hellicarrier, surrounded by their co-workers and other associates. Uncle Fury," she indicated the Director, "started taking care of me whenever my parents were gone on missions. He, along with my parents and Agent Hill, started giving me S.H.I.E.L.D. training as soon as I could walk and talk. Everything was fine for several years. The training was more "life skills" than actual recruitment; nobody really wanted to force the life of a spy on me. But when I was 11, my parents went on a top-secret mission and didn't come back. I went to Uncle Fury and demanded that he read me into their last mission, so I could find or avenge them. He told me that in order for him to do that, I would have to be an agent of the highest security clearance. I signed up to become an official agent and have been doing missions to improve my ranking and security clearance ever since."

Erica was stunned. No wonder Ana had always been secretive. Her entire life was probably classified! And losing her parents… Erica didn't know what she would do if she didn't have her mom. She also understood the "wanting to know what happened to them" bit. Erica had never known her dad. From what little information about him she had managed to wrangle from her mother, she guessed that he was an M.I.A. soldier overseas. Unfortunately, she didn't even have a name to Google search. Her mom always uses her maiden name, and the only times her mother would mention him; it would be as "Thor", like the god of thunder. Erica had always assumed that must be a nickname; no one is actually named "Thor".

Ana sighed. "Well, that's everything. By the way, what are you guys doing here anyway?"

"This genius," James nudged Timmy, "decided that it would be a smart idea to hack into the super-spy agency to help us find you."

"Well, we did find her, didn't we?" asked Tim. "In my book, this is a win! Just, not the type of win we expected."

"Yea, great. Tim's a genius. We found Ana. Can we go now?" asked Phil.

Erica turned to get a good look at Phil. If he had looked nervous before, then the guy was having a total Psychotic breakdown. The poor guy was sweating all over and had shaking hands. His eyes where darting every which way like he was afraid something was about to attack him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pill container. He started fiddling with the cap, trying to open it. Suddenly, Ana reached across the table and grabbed the container out of his hands and read the label.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, "It isn't labeled! Please tell me you aren't an addict, Phil."

"No, they're not that kind of drugs," Phil replied. "If you must know, their experimental emotional relaxers. My mom makes them for me."

"Still sounds like drugs to me," Lily said.

Phil closed his eyes and breathed for a few minutes. The way he was breathing, Erica got the feeling that he was about to start meditating. After he finished his mini-meditation, Phil told them, "You guys don't want to see me really angry."

Director Fury frowned. "What's your name, kid?"

"Phillip Ross, sir. Now, can I get my pills back?"

Fury turned to Ana. "Give him his pills" Ana grudgingly handed Phil his pills, at which point Phil dry-swallowed two of them.

Fury looked legitimately worried, as though Phil was reminding him of a less than pleasant memory. Finally, he asked, "You wouldn't happen to be related to General Ross?"

Phil scowled. "Yeah, he's my grandpa. Not that he really even really knows I exist. Apparently, he never liked my dad and so my mom cut off contacts with Grandpa when she ran off to be with dad."

Fury looked even more worried. "And your dad would be…"

Phil sighed. "Bruce Banner."

Tim gasped. "Dr. Bruce Banner? He's your dad? The genius in Gama radiation?"

Phil rolled his eyes. "Of course you would recognize his name."

Tim looked embarrassed. "Well, yeah. But Dude. I mean, Dude. If he's your dad, then.."

Phil interrupted him. "Let's just say I've inherited some of my dad's problems and leave it at that."

"Ok, sure. You're right, we really don't want to see you get angry."

"Any chance you'd be willing to explain?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, we're sorta lost here." Erica added.

"Honestly, I'd prefer not to tell you guys if I don't have to." Phil said.

"Just one question," Fury asked Phil. "Are you responsible for that incident in Utah a year ago?"

Phil nodded. "I didn't mean to. Normally, I can keep it under control through psychotherapy and the pills, but that day a bunch of guys decided to bully me and I had just run out of pills… well, you know the rest."

Erica's mind started spinning. The Utah incident… Erica figured that had to do with Phil's old school. The newspaper had said it was a bomb, but there was no reason for someone to bomb the school. Not to mention the destruction seemed to follow a path rather than being centered around one particular point… Also, how did Tim recognize the name Dr. Bruce Banner? Tim did know a few random science facts, but most of his seemingly unrelated and unnecessary information had some kind of connection to the Avengers… Where had she heard of Gama radiation, at least in relation to the Avengers? When Erica finally remembered, it all made sense. And she wished that she hadn't thought so hard.

Erica turned to Phil and asked, "Are you the Hulk?"

Still didn't flow as well as I would like... I think the problem is I have more stuff that has to get done in this chapter, and it still didn't do all the things I wanted. Oh Well

By the way, i recently remembered that I am eventually going to have to write a prequel to this story. I probably will wait till after Thor: the Dark World comes out so I have a better idea of how to begin the story. If I feel like I'm going through this story to fast and need to publish it so things that pop up don't appear to come out of nowhere. Right now, I have it planned that the prequel won't be needed till the end of the 2nd book (with references throughout the whole 2nd book) so I should be able to wait until at least I get a good look at the trailer.

Reviews make me happy and more likely to update! :)