I had way too much fun writing this chapter, I'm bouncing with glee in my seat in anticipation of everyone's reactions to this chapter. I really hope you all love it as much as I do!

Dedicated to Kyla: who, like me, believes that women are just as capable, if not more, or kicking ass and saving themselves rather than wait for their white knight to come along and rescue them.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Loki stood up, "You dare challenge me? After all I did for you?" He slammed his cane down again, "I got you out of that godforsaken hovel they had trapped you in, I found you in the woods when you had no one. I treated you like a queen, dressed you like a queen, and now you're defending THAT!" Loki spat out, his voice growing more menacing and angry by the second.

The next words out of Loki's mouth were easily predicted by both Sharon and Clint, "If I can't have you, nobody can." With that he swiftly pointed his scepter at the both of them and shot another beam of light.

Predicting this, Sharon grabbed a picture from the wall and used it to take the force of the shot. She threw the remains of the destroyed piece away and grabbed Clint's bow from his hand.

She swiftly moved to Loki and slammed the bow across his face heavily. He stumbled back a few steps before swinging his scepter around to her side. She blocked it using her arm, barely feeling the hit. Looks like I stole a hell of a lot of strength and indestructability from someone she thought as she grinned and grabbed the scepter.

She tugged him forward and wrapped an arm around his neck, holding on there for a moment before strongly spinning him around roughly and throwing him into mid air. Then she jumped up, grabbed the back of his robe, and slammed him into the ground hard.

Loki went still on the ground; Sharon went over to Clint quickly to check to see if he could move. He was staring at her with a wonderstruck expression on his face, she couldn't help the smirk that crossed her face, "I'm not so helpless as you seem to believe." She stated, feeling a little proud of herself and relieved to have gotten to use some of the power that had been building up. She flexed her knuckles a bit and cracked her neck, the tremors were now gone and she felt better than ever.

Clint stared at her a moment more, "I just won three grand from Coulson."

Sharon looked at him with a confused expression, "Because I beat up Loki?"

"No, because I finally found someone who could give Natasha a run for her money."

While this exchange occurred, Loki slowly stood up and quietly grabbed his scepter. He aimed it at Sharon knowing that the blast should incapacitate her long enough to take out Barton and make his escape with her and keep her locked up until she could be controlled.

Loki made the shot, but the blast seemed to only go through Sharon rather than hit her. Loki was confused; it should have knocked her right off her feet. Then her image started to flicker before disappearing entirely. Loki was completely frozen and shocked; the scepter was out of his hand before he could know it and aimed at the base of his skull.

"Didn't know I could do that, could you?" Sharon's voice whispered in his ear. Suddenly, a dozen or so copies of Sharon appeared before his eyes; all of them smiling snarkily with scepters aimed at him. He hadn't realized that by kissing her and touching her so often he'd been letting himself get absorbed by her so that she could use his duplication ability against him.

Clint wondered if both the hits he had taken were starting to affect his vision as he saw the small army of Sharons surround Loki. All of them suddenly let out a laugh before disappearing again, leaving only the one behind Loki with his scepter.

"Thought that just because you're a god I couldn't absorb you? What is with all you men and underestimating me? This is just insulting now." With that she smacked his head with enough force to knock him unconscious.

*.*.*.*.*.

Angel was waiting anxiously on the bridge for Sharon's arrival. She'd heard briefly what had occurred in Germany but was so overwhelmed with relief that Sharon was returning she didn't care about anything else. She was so consumed in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Steve's entrance into the room.

Fury entered the room then and approached Angel, "Their plane has just landed, and guards are now escorting Loki to his cell."

"I'll go find Sharon." Angel made a move to leave the room but nick stopped her.

"She's being quarantined right now, you're going to have to wait a bit before you can go see her."

"Since when does SHEILD quarantine their personnel? I've never seen anyone do so after being in contact with Thor who is also an Asgardian." Angel was confused; something must have happened that she hadn't heard about.

"When we arrived to the scene it was obvious that Sharon was suffering from an unhealthy buildup of power within her. Apparently Loki had made her absorb several different abilities. It seems that it has overwhelmed her and she needs to be kept in an isolated area without human contact in order to let out some of that build up without absorbing anymore abilities. Now because neither of you let us examine your abilities, we have to wait to find out what exactly happened to her from her when she is better." Nick said, sending Angel a pointed stare warning her not to attempt to get close to Sharon, "You should be able to safely see her by tomorrow evening."

Angel nodded, but she felt fury rush through her veins, "Thank you sir." She said stiffly before swiftly exiting the room. Loki will be in his cell by now, that gives me about fifteen minutes of alone time with him before Fury has a chance to go see him Angel thought as she rapidly made her way that direction.

She was walking at a steady pace when an arm shot out and grabbed her bicep. Angel let out a squeak before a hand covered her mouth and pulled her into an empty room. She manipulated the person to drop their hold on her then moved swiftly to roundhouse kick them in the face.

"ARGH!" Steve cried as Angel's foot came in contact with the side of his head, "It's just me!" He cried, moving to close the door while rubbing the sore spot on his head, "Jesus you pack a solid smack."

"Steve what the hell do you think you're doing! You scared the shit out of me!" Angel yelled, a small part of her feeling guilty for having hit him but not enough to feel sorry for it.

"Stopping you from doing something really stupid!" He yelled right back, glaring at her while still rubbing his head.

"Oh yeah, and what's that?"

"You were heading to see Loki weren't you?" Angel's silence was all the answer he needed, "Leave it to SHEILD."

"After Fury so easily told Natasha our secrets which made Sharon run away in the first place? I don't think so, SHEILD has done enough for us. It's my job to fix what they screwed up," Angel said fiercely.

"It's not their fault Sharon ran away scared. Maybe if you had been honest from the beginning about yourselves maybe we wouldn't be having this problem."

"Sharon and I can't afford to be honest about ourselves, not when so many look at us like we're atrocities." Angel felt her throat tightened, this was the first time her and Steve had really talked since she'd revealed herself to him. It was clear to her that thought of her the same way so many others did: she was a monster.

"Get over yourself Angel, you think that just because you're different that makes you worse off than everyone else? Look at Banner, any time his pulse gets up he morphs into a raging machine. Your own brother has an electronic device imbedded in his chest to keep him alive!" Steve's voice was getting louder with each point he made, "For god sake! I was a nobody before I got shot up with super soldier serum and then got incased in ice for seventy years! SEVENTY YEARS ANGEL!"

Steve went quiet, he shook his head, "Everyone I know is dead, I don't belong in this time and yet here I am. You think you're so different from all of us? Open your eyes and look around, you're not the only one who feels that way." With that Steve left the room, heading towards the boxing room next to the weapons area to let off some steam.

Angel stood in that room for a long while, tears sliding down her cheeks rapidly but no sobs or cries escaped from her. After a long while she took a breath and wiped away the tears and left the room. She went to the medical area and approached a staffer.

"Is there anyway I can just look at Sharon? I just need to see that she's here, for my own peace of mind."

The staffer noticed the forlorn expression on the girl's face and nodded sympathetically at her, she guided Angel down the hall to a room that had a window that overlooked Sharon's room.

Sharon was asleep on her bed, hooked up to a few monitors that beeped and whirred every so often. Angel stood at that window and stared at her friend, wishing more than anything she could go in and climb into bed with her.

Instead she just stayed at that window and waited, refusing to move and vowing to manipulate anyone who so chose to try and take her away from there.

Feedback is always appreciated!

Alasiel