A/N Got my train tracks today. Tip: if you're getting them, don't eat Toblerone within 24 hours of getting them OR (my solution) cut it up!

Also, I'm really sorry but I might take a break from this for a couple of weeks. I'm hitting a motivational block with this, and want to focus on Fire and Ice. It might be a case that a plot bunny bites me in a week and I update like normal.

Sorry

Chapter 6: Cloaks and Lies

Over the next couple of days we fought everyone including our team mates. I beat nearly everyone. I deliberately lost my fights against a few people, including the Skye's friend from Society and one of Luke's friends. I did that deliberately to rub salt in the wound in, because it was one of Luke's closest friends. Lee, I think the guys name was. I couldn't remember half on the names which wasn't the best idea; you have to know your enemy. A group meeting was called to announce the ranking in the battle stimulations, which would be the first time Bucky, Skye and I would actually have time to talk because all our fights had been scheduled at different times. From what I'd seen, Steve had been supervising Bucky's fights and Tony had been watching Skye's. I knew they wouldn't get hurt; Steve especially wouldn't let that happen.

I was getting ready when my ear piece buzzed again. I cursed and pressed the button.

"Pierce is going to try and threaten you at the meeting tonight." Natalie said; voice hushed as if she wasn't meant to be talking.

"Is he catching on? What should I say to him?" I grabbed my hairbrush and started brushing my hair. I'd just washed it to so I needed to prevent it tangling.

"He's not, but Luke complained to him that it was being fixed. The Central kids think this is a betting game, and that there's lots of money at stake, which in a way there is."

"That mentula! Can't he just be noble for once and admit defeat? Being a sore loser is not going to get him anywhere." I ranted while using this contraption called a hairdryer to, well dry my hair.

"He's a Central. Think of Tony. Now when Pierce asks you what's going on, you're going to have to distract him." Over the ear piece, I heard someone ask a question, which Natalie answered. She sounded like she'd been listening the whole time, which she probably has been.

"How the orcae do I do that? Punch him between the legs or what?"

"Use your body. The dress code tonight is formal as the main funders, and Director Fury are going to be there. Show off as much skin as you can, and play the innocent girl. You know nothing, okay. I've got to go." Static crackled.

I was going to have to use myself. I had an alright figure because I exercised quite a lot, but I didn't like showing it off because I wanted to be taken for who I was, not what I had. I sighed and had a look through the wardrobe. There was various dresses, but they were either too conservative or to wrong colour for me. I looked through multiple times, hoping I'd missed one that would be suitable. I was about to begin on my hair when Skye knocked on the door. I called for her to come in and she poked her head round, a strand of hair falling out of her braid into her face.

"A maid just dropped off our outfits. Natalie picked them out I think." She passed me a bag which had the dress on it. I laid it on the bed but when I when I went to thank her, she'd gone. I turned back to the bag, unzipped it and pulled out the dress. It was quite low cut, dipping down into my chest, and was made of a red silk. It had a high slit up my left thigh and was held up by a halter neck. It had a slight shimmer to it due to the splattering of sequins which sparkled in the light. I turned it round and saw it had no back. I had another quick look in the wardrobe and found the perfect pair of shoes. They were made of suede with around a 6 inch heel, and were extremely strappy. If this doesn't distract him, I thought, what will?

I began to strip off my fighting gear and struggled into the dress. It was really tight fitting and I couldn't breathe properly, and that was before I zipped it up. I tried to reach round to pull the zipper up but I couldn't.

"Skye? Bucky? Can someone help me please?" I called out and a totter of heels can to my aid in the form of Skye. She burst through the door and stopped. "Skye, what's wrong?"

"You... you look amazing Alexis." I blushed furiously.

"Thank Skye, you look good too." She really did. It was turquoise, with a square front and puff sleeves. "Can you zip it up please? I think it's a size too small."

I sucked my stomach in and Skye just about managed to get the zip up after a bit of yanking. Just to make sure it stayed up, I got her to discreetly put a safety pin at the top to hold it up. I sank onto the bed and put my shoes on then stood up.

"Wait, I have the perfect necklace. Don't look in the mirror!" Skye said excitedly, tottering out of the room. I sat back down and wondered how tonight was actually going to go. If I messed up, there was a possibility my father could die. Skye tootled back in, holding a black velour box.

"Here!" she said, passing me the box. I opened it and inside it was a beautiful choker which looked like it had been made out of silver leaves, with tiny garnet flowers.

"Skye I can't. It's beautiful; you should be wearing it." I closed the box and handed it back to her. She shook her head and stepped back, hands raised. "I'm going to wear the same one, but with turquoise instead of garnet. I insist on you wearing it." She turned and walked out. She called out to Bucky, and he faintly responded. I got the choker out and placed it round my neck, then looked in the mirror.

The red contrasted with my hair and eyes, and the tightness of the dress gave me a curvaceous figure. As it was low cut, it made it look like I had more cleavage than I actually did. The slit showed off most of my leg, which the heels made look longer. My hair cascaded down my shoulders in black waves, and I grabbed some red lipstick and put that on.

I went out to the lounge, where Skye and Bucky were waiting. When Skye heard me she jumped up, pulling Bucky with her.

"See Bucky, I told you she was jaw dropping." Bucky's eyes became glued to my chest which made me feel really uncomfortable.

"I'm not so sure about this. Maybe I should go change." I spun round and headed back to my room, but Skye grabbed my hand and stopped me.

"Alexis, you look fine. Come on, otherwise we're gonna be late." She grabbed Bucky with her other hand and dragged us to the elevator.

We were the last group down there. Everyone else had already claimed tables, and Natasha frowned at us as we rushed in. We sat down at the table in the corner of the room, which had Natasha and a black man with one eye covered on it.

"This is Bucky, Skye and Alexis. Everyone, this is Director Fury, head of Shield Inc. and your overall boss. He's here to make a judgement on whether he thinks you would be a suitable candidate for a permanent job. Please don't be intimidated by him, but I asked that you treat him with the same level of respect for him as you would me."

Bucky asked him a question which he began to answer. I raised an eyebrow to ask her if he was with us, and she nodded slightly. Then, the sound of someone tapping on a microphone reverberated round the room. Pierce was standing at a podium.

"Good evening everyone and welcome. I hope you find your food satisfactory, but first I have some announcements to make. In a moment, the rankings for the battle round will appear on the screen. These have been decided on your fighting skills, your wins, and your strategy. They will go from worst to best. Your ranking determines whether you get any power ups within the games, and how good they are. Displayed are the name, status, mentor and score:

15. Richard, Society, Tony

14. Peter, Fringe, Clint

13. Flash, Fringe, Thor

12. Hank, Central, Tony

11. Lee, Central, Steve

10. Jonathan, Fringe, Steve

9. Daniel, Central, Thor

8. Charles, Fringe, Tony

7. Gambit, Society, Steve

6. Adrienne, Society, Clint

5. Daniel, Society, Thor

4. Skye, Society, Natalie

3. Luke, Central, Clint

2. James, Central, Natalie

1. Alexis, Fringe, Natalie

As the results came up everyone fell silent. I looked down to find my name and saw I was 1st. Even with me giving up my fights, I'd made it to the top, and beat Luke. I looked over at his table and he was scowling. Peter put his thumbs up to me and I gave him a small smile.

"Well done everyone. There was tough competition, but massive congratulations to Natalie and her team, who are all within the top 5." There was a polite clap, although Steve was clapping a bit enthusiastically for Bucky, who blushed furiously.

"Throughout the night I will take each of you to the side and explain your power ups to you." Me and Natalie looked at each other and raised our eyebrows. That would be when he would confront me. "For now, eat drink and be merry, feel free to socialize and may the games be ever in your favour." Pierce stepped down from the podium and a loud chatter filled the room.

For what felt like hours I mingled, talking to the investors and mentors, and at one point Fury. He stated he was interested in employing me on a permanent basis after I was done on this project; he'd heard about my computer skills and wanted me working in his personal team. From the other side of the room, Tony gave me the thumbs up from where he was talking to a strawberry blond woman in heels and a white suit. Eventually Pierce tapped me on the shoulder and I followed him into a large side room with a large hologram in the middle.

"Now Alexis, before we talk about your bonus, I need to talk to you about a pressing concern that one of your co-workers has."

I decided playing dumb would be my best bet. "Concerns, sir? What would they be?" I twiddled with a piece of my hair, like I'd seen the girls at school who used their body to get stuff.

"It's probably nothing but Luke has submitted a complaint that you had been fixing your fights, deliberately losing them. Is that true? This is very serious business Alexis." He walked up to me, and I backed up against the wall. He invaded my personal space and got too close for my liking. I pushed my chest out, hoping to distract him."

"Why would I do that sir? He's just upset that I beat him and made a fool of him." I giggled like a stupid dumb girl.

Pierce nodded. "I thought so." He backed off and leant against the table. "Now let's get down to business. As you ranked highest, you get first pick of the power ups. You can choose one weapon, one survival and one accessory. Feel free to look through the option. I will return in 5 minutes for your choice." He pulled up the options and walked back into the other room. As soon as he left, I turned on my ear piece. Luckily Natalie picked up.

"He let it go. Is there anything specific power up I should pick?" I scrolled though the weapons. Bows, guns, knives, maces….

"Can you shoot a bow or a gun?" Natalie asked.

"Both. I can throw knives too." I'd persuaded one of the older students at school to teach me one summer in exchange for computer lessons.

"Get whichever one you're best at them. It doesn't matter what kind of thing they put you into, you need to work with your abilities. Knives would be useful because they have more than one use, but so would a bow and arrow set. I have to go, Pierce is coming."

In the end I chose the bow and arrows, a bottle of water and a knife. The knife was counted as an accessory. I informed Pierce of my choice and walked back out to find Natalie. She was taking to Thor and a tall, lanky black haired man.

"My congratulations Alexis!" boomed Thor, who slapped me on the shoulder. I'm pretty sure it would bruise.

Natalie leaned over and whispered "What did you choose?" I leaned back and answered "Bow water knife". She nodded in agreement.

"Alexis, this is Loki. He's Thor's brother and he's in charge of making sure everything stays up during the trials." Natalie told me, and gave me a slight nod, meaning he could be trusted.

"It's nice to meet you Loki." I offered my hand, which he just glared at. Thor sighed.

"I apologize for my brother. He isn't very social. He finds better company with the computers than his own kind." He apologized.

"It's okay Thor, I'm the same. I'm not exactly the most outgoing of people either."

Loki stopped glaring at the floor for a moment and actually looked at me. "Yet you're dressed like a tart and act like you own the place."

Thor looked as if he was going to punch Loki. "Alexis I'm so sor-" but I interrupted him.

"Don't worry, we can trust he right?" I looked from Natalie to Thor, and they both nodded. "Right, well I'm dressed like a slut because we needed to distract Pierce, and thankfully it worked. I'm acting like I own the place because otherwise people will think I am just a piece of meat, and I have enough problems with that anyway when I have all my skin covered." Loki nodded. I made my excuses to leave and went to find Tony because I needed to laugh. Luke stopped me halfway through the room.

"Finally you've accepted what you are, my little meretrix." I just walked round him, but he grabbed my waist and pulled me to his body.

"I know everything." He whispered in my ear then bit my neck. He let me go and walked off. I stood there staring at his back, unsure what to do. Skye spotted me and came over.

"Is something wrong Alexis?" She asked, concerned.

I shook my head. "Nothing Skye, nothing."