AN: So far Steve Rodgers is winning the poll.
Nick Fury had made it his business to know exactly what Howard Stark's offspring did—though when he first started keeping an eye out, it was only for the known and acknowledged son, Tony. It would only be later when the first photos of Nate Howard on the arm of Tony Stark that he realised that Howard had another child.
A daughter he had kept hidden from everyone, and who his son was still keeping hidden and protecting her from everyone.
The official story had all the proper paper-trails needed for reporters sniffing around for dirt to be happy with. But Nick was a spy, and his partner had been Timothy 'Dum-Dum' Dugan, who had been a long-time friend of Howard Stark's.
Natasha 'Nate' Howard had Howard Stark's eyes. The same shape and deep dark brown colour. Tony Stark hadn't fully inherited his father's eyes, there was flecks of golden from Maria Stark's eyes mixed into the dark brown. But Nate had had an exact copy of Howard's eyes.
Her face had vague traces of Howard and Tony, though Nick was certain that she inherited most of her looks from whoever her mother was. Her pert small nose certainly didn't come from the Stark men though she shared the shape of their lips—the few photos of her smirking made her look like more like the Stark men, he was almost disappointed though not surprised that none of the so-called observant reporters had recognised that smirk.
Though he kept an eye on her, she didn't really hold his interest like her older brother did. Her genius seemed to be in her art-work that was shown in galleries around the world, though she was finished with school by the time she turned fourteen—unlike her brother, she didn't go to any college—and that was impressive.
It was Tony that had inherited Howard's vision, had carried on the weapon legacy that Howard left behind.
The turn of the century brought his attention back to her though, because that was when she began hacking into secure government systems and began doing a secret online defence of Stark Industries—though Nick suspected that it was only because Tony—under the name of Valkyrie.
That sparked his interest.
When he got images of both Nate Howard and Tony Stark's robotic suits from their little stunt out east—well it seemed that Tony wasn't the only sibling that he was going to invite into the Avengers programme.
Nick really should have known that Stark was going to pull 'I am Ironman.'
He also had to admit that his A.I system was impressive and he was having trouble hacking into it. He wasn't too involved to miss Nate Howard walking across the road towards him with a Yorkshire terrier tight to her heels.
It seemed that her dog-bot had been upgraded again—this time to look like a real dog.
He rolled down his window before she knocked on it and evenly looked at her while she levelled a totally unimpressed look at him.
The bandages that hid the stitches along the right side of her head stood out starkly against her choppily-cut short dark hair.
"Please stop trying to hack Jarvis." Her words were polite, her tone was annoyed. "If you want to enter someone's house, than its best not to assault a member of their family trying to get in."
"It's an A.I." He deadpanned.
"He's still family." She shot back.
He pursed his lips but closed his laptop which made her give him a pleased smile.
"Thank you."
He could tell the smile was mostly fake.
"Can I come in?" He asked, she tilted her head and considering.
"Fine, saves you breaking in." She finally said before she turned on her heel towards her home.
Nick was close behind her.
"Nanny, we have a guest." Nate called when they entered the house.
Nick watched as a maid-styled bot rolled into the living room.
"Nanny, this is Colonel Fury." Nate introduced as she flopped down on the couch with Howie curled up next to her. "Colonel, this is Nanny."
Nick shot Nate with an assessing look, she had done her research well—he was impressed.
"Welcome Colonel." Nanny greeted. "Would you like a drink?"
"No thank you." He answered.
"I'll get you a drink Miss Nattie." Nanny said after she nodded in response to Nick's answer, before spinning back to the kitchen.
"You can take a seat." Nate said. "It's tiring watching you stand."
Nick took a seat with a smirk. That sounded like Stark.
They watched each other silently for a moment before Nanny came, gave Nate a glass of orange-juice and back to the kitchen after informing Nate that she would be making a lasagne for dinner.
"You've done your research." Nick commented.
She gave him a smile, a glint of calculation cooling her dark eyes.
"You run a secret government division that's interested in recruited my brother into a merry-group of superheroes." She told him. "Of course I did my research."
"And I want to recruit you."
That didn't seem to bother her.
"I can count the number of humans I care about on one hand with fingers left over." She informed him. "I'm not a hero, I could watch the world burn happily as long as they stayed safe."
"The world burning would harm them. You would fight for them." Nick returned. "You don't have to be a hero, all you have to do is fight for them."
"I don't like secrets." Nate took a sip of her juice. "Your division is filled with them. I would be constantly digging through your mainframe to find those secrets."
"I know." He said simply. "You'll remember all of what you will read, and if the mainframe is ever destroyed than you'll be able write it all out."
"You may overestimate my memory."
"I'm not though."
They watched each other for a few beats of silence.
"Your brother has had a change of heart, he'll fight for this world." Nick said. "And that means you'll follow him into battle. He'll fight to keep this world safe, and you will fight to keep him safe."
She nodded her head in agreement.
"You'll need to back off him, strong arming him will not work." Nate told him, making him tilt his head in agreement.
"If you join S.H.I.E.L.D, we'll back off for now."
They had come to an understanding.