"What's this about, Stark?" Steve folded his arms with a slight scoff, probably annoyed that Tony had called them so urgently. He had called the whole team to the Avengers tower the following morning, claiming he had something urgent.
"I have single handily made one of the greatest discoveries of our time." Tony spoke with the same grin you would see on a child who was dying to share a secret.
"Single-handed?" Pietro narrowed his eyes harshly at the billionaire.
"Okay, maybe an extra hand or two, but that's beside the point." The twins scoffed together, rolling their eyes at Tony. "It seems that our fearless leader, Nick Fury, has some secrets of his own."
"What are you talking about, Stark?" Natasha's face clenched, glaring down Tony as he paraded around the office with a drink in his hand.
"Calm down, Nat. It's nothing life-threatening." Tony rolled his eyes playfully. "FRIDAY, pull up Fury's file on the wide screen."
A few seconds later, a video of Pietro and the girl fighting came on the flat-screen. The Avengers watched intensively as the small girl and the speedster went head to head, punching and thrashing out at each other.
On the side, a small profile of the girl was displayed. The girl looked as if she were in her early 20′s. Her dark brown skin was bruised pretty well, and she had dark curly locks that fell to her shoulders. Her dark brown eyes stared straight ahead as if she were taking a mug shot. "This is Nick Fury's daughter."
Clint let out a long whistle, earning a nudge from Nat and a few chuckles from Thor.
"Fury has a daughter?" Banner replied softly, examining the video and picture thoroughly.
"Looks like she's whooping your ass there, Pietro." Clint mocked Pietro, happy to see him getting the short end of the stick or once.
"I wasn't expecting for her to be so violent. She looked like a kid." Pietro clarified while Clint just laughed, turning his attention back to Tony.
Tony nodded. "Actually, she's not much younger than you. Her name is Erika. Erika Fury. She's-"
"Not a topic of discussion, as of now." Fury's booming voice erupted through the room. All heads turned to the angry former SHIELD director.
"Stark, what are you doing with this?" Fury raged to the billionaire. Stark shrugged his shoulders.
"Research." Tony replied non-nonchalantly. Fury practically growled in his direction.
"It's only fair since you know all of our secrets; we should know some of yours." Tony argued with that same arrogant attitude he brought with him everywhere.
"All our secrets?" Thor questioned with a sincere frown.
"Yes, Thor. All." Tony grimaced at an enraged Fury. "Why so secretive, Fury? Are you embarrassed by us?"
"My daughter is no concern of yours." Fury growled through his teeth, turning the large screen off.
"She beat up three men twice her size, stole my truck filled with important equipment, somehow managed to land a few hits on the fastest guy here, and just so happens to be your daughter. I think I at least deserve some answers."
Fury opened his mouth, ready to unleash hell on Mr. Stark, but was interrupted.
"Cool it, dad. I think the Avengers are pretty trustworthy." A voice muttered from behind, walking out from Helen Cho's office. There she stood, Erika Fury. She was still pretty banged up. A few bandages on her face, and a large icepack placed on her head due to Wanda's handiwork.
"I'm surprised it took you this long to figure out who I was. I expected more from the great Tony Stark." She grinned at the group, rendering everyone speechless. You could tell just by the way she talked; she had that same sarcastic sense of humor like Fury.
She looked up to the screen, watching herself mid-fight with Pietro. "Sure did a number on you last night, now didn't I?" Erika teased, grinning at Pietro with a smug smile. Anger swelling throughout him, Pietro growled at her lunging towards her, but was stopped by Wanda, who muttered something in her native tongue to Pietro, calming him down slightly.
Tony focused the conversation back to him. "Why were you breaking into my truck last night?"
"I saw those thugs messing with a truck labeled Stark Industries. Any idiot could have seen they weren't your usual SHIELD agents."
"That doesn't explain you trying to make off with my truck."
She shrugged her shoulders, taking a seat, propping her feet up on the table in front of her. "Just wanted to have some fun. That was until speedy over here decided to interrupt me."
"You call stealing tech that's worth millions of dollars, fun?"
"Everyone has their own interests. Mine are more, thrilling, so to speak." She sneered, sharpening one of her blades on her double swords.
"What were you planning on doing with my tech?"
"Well, there is only so much you can do with 'chemically-enhanced nanites'." She grinned. "What are you using those for Stark? I would hope something useful this time."
The group looked stunned. "How did you know that?" Bruce stuttered. "This is an extremely rare and complex piece of tech."
Erika opened her mouth to a reply, but was stopped by Fury. "Alright Tony, you've had your interrogation. Erika, we're leaving."
She shrugged, shifting in her seat. "Well, it was nice meeting you all, but I have to go back to being a mystery."
"Wait a second," Clint paused. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?" He asked, pointing to the video that continued to play on the large screen.
"I've been training since I could hold a knife." She pulled out one of her pocket knives and began to twirl it in-between her fingers. "You really think the world leader of intelligence is going to let his daughter be defenseless?"
"Skills like that could be useful." Natasha commented. "Not many SHIELD agents could even lay a finger on a single one of us."
"Are you trying to recruit me?" She questioned with a slight chuckle. "Have fun getting that past Eyepatch over there."
Tony snickered lightly to himself, earning a look of confusion from Banner. "What? She called him eyepatch. That's funny." Banner just rolled his eyes at him, focusing his attention back on the conversation.
"Agent Romanoff, I'd advise you to be careful about what you say next." Fury cautioned.
"No one is making any promises here, Fury. I'm just saying that someone with her skills would make a great agent."
"She's too young to join you all. She's in college, focusing on her life. It's not going to involve running around with superheroes."
"Actually, I turn 21 in a couple months." Erika chimed in. "And isn't this my decision?"
"No, it's mine. You're not joining the Avengers." Most of the Avengers team were used to Fury's combative and assertive attitude, but this was different. Like an angry father refusing his daughter to go out with her friends.
"Come on, Dad. I could have fun with the big boys and girls." She replied with a sarcastic grin.
Steve grumbled, pushing Erika's feet off the table. "What we do, isn't 'fun' young lady. It's protecting –"
Erika rolled her eyes and let out a small laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I know, Captain America. You're the 'world's mightiest heroes.' Fighting to protect our world and what not."
"No one's forcing anyone to join the Avengers. Just training. She could work as a SHIELD agent, alongside us." Clint added in. "That's just how Natasha and I got our start."
"I've worked too long and hard to keep her out of sight. I'm not going to have that ruined by seeing her face plastered on the 10 o' clock news."
"Fury, she's in the best hands possible. Who better to protect her than us?" Tony
Steve interrupted the whole group. "It isn't our decision to make, neither is it yours, Fury. It's hers." All heads turned to Erika, who was casually sat down, continuing to sharpen her swords.
"Erika, I want you to have a normal life." Fury pleaded eagerly to his daughter, who seemed to pay him no mind.
"What part of my life now is normal?" She laughed, standing up from her seat. "My dad is the leader of an international intelligence agency, working with super hero's every day. I leave my house every night to fight bad guys on the street, and almost no one knew I existed till a few hours ago."
"But what about college-"
"It doesn't start until the fall. I was already looking for a summer job, and it seems that I'm on the Avengers radar anyway. If anything, I could teach these 'superheroes' a thing or two about fighting." She glanced back at the speedster with a smug smile. Pietro rolled his eyes as his sister giggled lightly next to him.
"Fine." Fury let out a sigh of defeat. "Then you'll be staying here, training with Natasha and being of service to Tony as an apology for stealing his truck."
"Wait, does this mean I'm in charge of her?" A small grin placed on Tony's face, which couldn't mean anything good.
"Yes, but it also means I'll be watching even closer now, Stark." Fury growled. Stark just let out a satisfied sigh.
"Twins, why don't you show Erika around the tower? There should be a spare room near yours that she can live in, Wanda." Wanda nodded, holding out her hand to Erika, greeting her warmly as they made their way down the hall. Pietro trailed slowly behind, clearly not wanting to be there. Fury discussed the new situation with Tony, then left minutes later in a rush for a mission.
Steve then hustled after Tony. "I don't understand, Tony. You barely opened your house for the twins. Now you're just letting Fury's daughter trail in without even an argument?"
"I have a play here, Cap. Something's up with that girl, Fury too. I just don't know what."
"So what, you're keeping her here to spy on here?"
"Think about it, Rogers." Tony pulled up Erika's profile once again, looking at her record. "The girl is barely 21, she knew information about my bio-tech that no one else other than Bruce and I should know, is an extremely talented swordsman, and just happens to be Fury's daughter. There's something that either one of them is hiding. If someone's going to be keeping an eye on her, it should be us."
Steve paused, mulling it over. "Keep it discrete, between us only."
"Actually," Tony added, glancing over at the Maximoff twins with a grin. "I think we may need some help."