"Get up!" a sharp female voice pulled Steve from his sleep. Slowly he sat up in bed and his sights fell onto a woman that was standing at his door turning the lights on and off. "Get out of bed. We need to go. Come on hurry up." He finally recognised the voice once his mind began to work properly.
"Natasha!" he exclaimed, sitting up and pulling the covers up to his chin.
She stopped flicking the light switch and leaned against the doorframe, looking at him in amusement. Clearly she found his reaction, to a woman being in his room uninvited while he lay in bed, funny. Without warning he got pelted in the face with a white shirt as Natasha threw the piece of clothing at him unexpectedly.
"Get dressed," she didn't seem so amused now and moved into serious mode. "Fury's called us in. We need to be at SHIELD in 15 minutes."
"Ok," he took in the information and nodded. "Let me just put some clothes on and I'll be with you in a minute. Could you please close the door?"
As he kicked back his covers and got out of bed Steve watched Natasha close the door. She however still stood in his room watching him expectantly with her arms folded. He watched her for a minute before he realised that she wasn't going to budge.
"Um, are you just going to stand there?" he asked her.
Natasha cocked her head to the side and smirked. "Shy." She spoke like she was stating a fact rather than asking a question.
Steve knew from his personal experience in the training room with Natasha that there was no hope of winning an argument with her or convincing her to change her mind about any decision she made. She was a stubborn woman and strong-willed. He liked that though, she kind of reminded him of Peggy in an odd way.
"I'm not exactly comfortable taking off all my clothes in front of a woman," Steve admitted as he picked up a pair of pants.
"Do you want me to look the other way?" Natasha asked sarcastically.
He knew he wasn't going to be winning any battles with her today, so he grudgingly began to get dressed in front of her. It ended up being him that faced the other way because he would only get embarrassed if he saw Natasha watching him. Somehow he could just tell she was trying not to make any sly comments.
Once he was done Natasha walked out of the room, clearly she wanted Steve to follow her and he caught up to her quick enough. She walked inside the lift and pressed the button for the garage. "You got a car?" Steve asked. "I don't think you'd be comfortable on my bike."
Natasha gave him an annoyed look and he immediately began to quietly freak out because obviously he'd said something wrong without realising it again. "I can handle myself on a motorbike quite well thank you very much and no, I don't have a car with me at the moment. But," she fished something out of her pocket and held up the object for Steve to see. "I do know where Tony hides his keys."
Silence enclosed around her as she sat through the impenetrable mental darkness that engulfed her vision. She liked the darkness though, in the metaphoric and literally sense, it was the only thing that had always been there for her. Darkness was her friend, darkness kept her safe. The only thing she believed in more was her Master.
It was time for the darkness to end when a voice called her out. She opened her eyes and her vision went fuzzy, before clearing as her pupil's adjusted their size to the amount of light in the room. There was a man in uniform, saying something to her. She didn't pay much notice to him. An irritating disruption to her silence was all he resembled.
It was time for some fun though, and his timing was near perfect to her desires.
He advanced on her, holding some form of clear liquid in a small syringe. It was easy for her to recognise the sedative fluid swirling around in the needle. So their great big plan was to drug her, how impressively dim-witted. Honestly the only reason these people ever achieve anything is because of an odd combination of bad luck and enemies with typical, easy to manipulate, weaknesses.
The man came closer and she moved, to test his reaction. As expected he hesitated before continuing to advance. No doubt, they knew all about her antics. Only now were they learning not to underestimate her. They were kills too late, but at least they finally warped their simple minds around the concept.
The tip of needle was about ten inches from her skin and she could tell the man that was supposed to deliver the shot was growing nervous. His hands shook and he moved slowly. She kept her eyes straight until she noticed that he leaned in further and the needle was much closer to her skin.
So he was going to do it after all. How remarkable that a jellyfish could grow a spine. Practically a miracle, but she would have to make it short lived.
Just as he was about to touch the syringe to her skin she turned her head sharply and snapped her teeth at him like a dog threatening to bite. The man threw the needle to the side and jumped backwards, crawling and dragging his miserable worthless hide to the door.
Phoenix laughed.
"Before you go in there we need to brief you," Fury stood in front of Natasha and Steve as they sat at the table. It was a basic SHIELD meeting room with no windows and a dark interior. The table was made of glass and Natasha rapped on it impatiently with her knuckles. She wanted to get in there and talk to Phoenix.
"We captured Phoenix last night as she broke in through one of our top floors and slaughtered 36 men and women. Counting the two agents she killed on the island and the 49 at Navy Pier, Phoenix has so far killed 87 people in the space of six days. Not exactly as impressive as some of our previous counterparts but I'd say it's still pretty damn bad," Fury put his hands on the table and looked Natasha directly in the eye. "I'm taking my previously assigned team off the case. Phoenix is your responsibility now."
Triumph flooded through Natasha. Finally she had her chance.
"Sir why exactly am I here?" Steve asked. "I would've thought Agent Barton would be a better person to bring in on this."
Fury took note of Captain America's comment and sat down at the table. The pictures he placed in front of Natasha were easily recognisable. They were pages from Doctor Blake's log book that she had taken from his mansion. It had been immediately snatched from her by forensics when she brought it back to SHIELD. She was wondering how long it would take them to document it.
"The people originally following this case were asked to research this log book. The scientific team discovered some rather interesting things while reading it," he placed a document in front the two agents. "Doctor Blake basically uses this book to document his experiments. However there are no scientific formulas in here or anything pertaining to how he managed to create his own super soldier serum."
At the words super soldier serum Steve and Natasha's heads both snapped up. Now it was all starting to make sense to her. Natasha remembered word for word what she read at the start of the log book when she first discovered it. He had been talking about unlocking superficial abilities through treatment. He had also said beyond what they could comprehend fifty years ago. Obviously he was talking about Steve and the Strategic Scientific Reserve. By the laws of basic addition he had begun his experiments twenty years ago, fifty years after Steve had supposedly died.
But why children?
"Captain Rogers you were brought in because you have had first hand experience with Dr Abraham Erskine's original formula," Fury then directed his attention to Natasha. "Agent Romanoff, since you are showing that it is in your best interests to be involved with this, you will be heading this investigation."
Natasha nodded in understanding and Steve followed suite.
"If anyone can interrogate Phoenix it's you two," Fury nodded and dismissed them. With her hand already on the door, Fury called the Natasha's attention back to him. "If you can't get anything from here than her fate will be left to the Council. So I would advise you to make sure you use whatever means necessary to make her talk. Or otherwise her future will not be a pleasant one."
It wasn't exactly normal for prisoners of SHIELD to sit cross legged on top of a silver table. Phoenix was quiet pleased with herself though because she had gotten up there with her hands cuffed behind her back. Thankfully they had at least been smart enough to give her heat proof handcuffs. The door and walls were most likely fire resistant as well. They were beginning to learn.
Phoenix turned her head to the right and looked at the mirror, staring past her own reflection to the SHIELD agents hiding behind the façade. After a minute of staring she turned back to facing the wall, she focused on her breathing while her thoughts turned themselves over in her head. She didn't want to plot ahead too far so instead she focused on the basics. How was she going to get that precious reaction out of whomever they sent in to perform the interrogation? Find the weak spot and exploit it, that was how it worked, that was what he had taught her, and his teachings were everything.
The lock on the door clicked and Phoenix slowly turned to face it. Who would be her interrogator? She so desperately wanted it to be Fury, the great leader of SHIELD. Oh, how she wanted to make him flinch. Maybe, if she was lucky enough, one of the Avengers. It would be just as good to see the mighty fall. It would please her Master.
Two people entered the room and Phoenix knew who they were immediately. It was hard to mistake them for anyone else.
This was both good and bad. The man would be easy to break, but the woman. She would be much more difficult. She was confusing thought. Back in the basement she had shown sympathy. Something Phoenix never would've expected from a woman of her reputation. Still, Phoenix had fooled her once. She could do it again.
The woman was the first to speak.
"What exactly are you doing on the table?"
Natasha had seen some pretty strange behaviour with prisoners. Usually they just paced up and down the room or sat there quietly. She had never seen any of them sit on top of a table with their legs crossed like they were meditating. She was unsure on how to approach the situation so she simply decided to ask the question outright.
Phoenix was watching the both of them with a careful eye. It was evident that she was going to remain stoic so Natasha stood behind one of the chairs at the table and stared Phoenix down. It was unnerving to look down on her when she could snap at any moment. Natasha and Steve had been reassured that the handcuffs Phoenix was stopped her from any hand movement at all, which would stop her from moving her hands to light things on fire.
"Sit down," Natasha pointed at Phoenix and then a chair on the other side of the table.
Phoenix looked her in the eye and smirked. "Aren't I already sitting down?" She sounded different from when Natasha first heard her in the basement. Her voice was less high pitched and not so shaky. There was an American edge to her voice but she seemed not to have an accent at all. Her voice was basic and her words simple.
Natasha titled her head to the side as Phoenix challenged her to lose her temper. This girl was a very good actress. Obviously her reaction in the basement was well rehearsed. Natasha finally got to see the real Phoenix, it was much worse than what she had encountered in the basement. Not afraid to challenge Natasha, and not afraid to push her luck too far. This was a bad sign.
"Get off the table," Natasha remained calm.
Phoenix smirked again and shuffled backwards, using her lower body to move across the table and drop into the seat. She landed with a small thud and swung her legs off the table. Phoenix didn't seem to convey much emotion but Natasha could tell just from her body language that she was smug.
Natasha sat down at the table, never breaking eye contact with Phoenix. "Do you know how many innocents have died by your hand?" being blunt seemed to be the quickest way for Natasha to get any progress on the matter of Phoenix. Phoenix's response was a predicted, she did not budge. So Natasha decided to continue with her bold move. "87 people have died in the last week because of you."
Natasha felt a bitter taste in her mouth as she spoke the words. What she was saying officially labelled Phoenix as a killer. There was no turning back from the fact now, but Natasha herself had a kill number that was triple Phoenix's track record.
Phoenix leaned forward and looked Natasha in the eye with a smirk on her face that made Natasha feel sick to her stomach. "I don't care," Phoenix's voice was practically a sly hiss that you might expect from a confident and aggressive snake. "They all deserved to die."
Natasha felt Steve tense next to him and his reaction instantly piqued Phoenix's interest. Her smirk widened and she turned onto him with a cocky and eerily playful expression. Natasha had seen the look before, Phoenix wanted to mess with his head. Natasha sat up straight and made quick eye contact with Phoenix, warning her to back off.
Phoenix brought it on herself by ignoring Natasha's warning.
"I've heard stories of you," Phoenix was grinning. Natasha wondered just how much this girl knew about things that she shouldn't. It was ominous to think that she knew too much because it meant that Doctor Blake knew too much as well. "Captain America, the Great War hero that fought for the freedom of the United States. My Master has told me all about how unique you are, your gifts are world known and an inspiration for many. My Master tells me that you and I are alike."
Natasha cocked a head to the side as she walked over Phoenix's words again. She kept mentioning her Master, obviously she meant Doctor Blake. All of this indicated that Doctor Blake was a lot more manic then they originally thought. This didn't necessarily make him more dangerous but it made Natasha more suspicious and cautious on the matter.
"How exactly are we alike?" Natasha was almost proud of Steve for keeping a straight face as he asked the question.
"We're both special Captain," Phoenix's behaviour changed as she became more into the conversation with unusual excitement. The words seemed rehearsed and her facial expression carefully practised. "My Master has said that since we are both different, they see us different. With you, they see you as a hero, a force for good. The bad people out there hate me because I'm different. That's our only difference Captain, how people see us defines our individuality."
"No," Steve shook his head. "I don't kill innocents."
"Neither do I," Phoenix returned the head shake gesture. "The people I kill are not innocent. No one is innocent."
Steve put his hands on the desk and leaned forward, looking Phoenix in the eye to show her that he wasn't scared of her act. Natasha was almost surprised that the super soldier was stepping up to the challenge so boldly. Natasha did note however that nothing so far seemed to threaten Phoenix at all and she didn't back away from anything.
"Why are you doing this?" Steve asked. "What possible reason could you have for killing so many people?"
Phoenix saw his determination and if it where Natasha asking the question she knew that she wouldn't show her emotions that easily but Steve didn't have her training, so he was exposed.
Phoenix leaned forward and bore a hard cold gaze into the super soldier.
"I obey My Master."