A/N: Very sorry for the short delay, but this chapter was even harder to write than the one before it. That being said, I'm sorry if it seems a little sub standard (though I'm apparently worrying over nothing). : )

Also, just a little warning that chapters might be a little slower during this part (and a little further along, now that I thing about it). The reason for this is because I've having some difficulty putting this part of the story into words, but I still want to make sure that want I eventually cough up at least has some logic behind it rather than being a mangled mess of words.

I really do hope that this chapter wasn't a mangled mess of words and punctuation for you...

Please leave a review when you're finished reading the chapter, and I don't just mean this for the special feeling of popularity it gives us writers. If anything is wrong with this chapter, then I'd appreciate being told about it so that I can make this story as good as I possibly can (even this far into it). If you have nothing bad to say, then I would still appreciate any good comments you might have for my story, or any ideas you might have for the future (like what the hell I can do with all these new characters I just had to throw in there in the spur of the moment *facepalm*). : )

Chapter 24

The Man From Texas (?)

I wake up to the sound of gunfire not too far away from the main door. With a quick glance I see that not only is the scientist still asleep, but the door is also sealed shut.

Hopefully, whoever's on the other side won't care enough to try and pry that door open.

With a drawn out yawn, I glance over to the clock that hangs peacefully ticking on the wall adjacent to me. I'd only been asleep for about three hours. No wonder I have half the mind to tear that door down and give the arseholes on the other side a gift wrapped fist in the face.

To be honest, I'm not very sure why I'm even scared of them to begin with. After all, those cowardly bastards ain't got nothing on Loki! I'm sure the second they wander inside this lab and find an injured scientist and an unarmed woman, they'll just-

A loud crash rings rough the lab as a heavy object impacts the metal door from the other side.

Crap!

I leap to my feet and stare in shocked horror at the door. Quickly snapping out of my panicked daze, I scan the room for the best possible hiding spot. My eyes zero in on the cupboard door towards the back of the room.

Another bang echoes through the room, pressuring me to run for the door.

But wait! I quickly turn to the scientist after having nearly forgotten about him. However, I don't know how long it would take for the people on the other side to come swarming in, and the old man seems like he'd be a burden.

Yet another bang punches through the room.

Damn it! I wasn't born to be a hero!

But my feet still hesitantly step towards the unconscious scientist. I'm only a few steps away from the cupboard door, but I'm sure I could drag him over quick enough. He doesn't look too heavy, and the door looks pretty well sealed...

With a loud bang, I look towards the door, and find it looking incredibly bent out of place. There's one more explosive roar from the door, before it comes flying into the lab with a smokey trail.

Oh, fuck that! I think as I swiftly turn towards the cupboard.

Everyone man and woman for themselves! I quickly cover the few steps separating me from the cupboard door, and close it as quickly and quietly as I can once inside of it.

From inside the lab, I hear some muffled footsteps as the people who blew down the door make their way into the room.

"You," I hear a deep masculine voice say commandingly, followed by some muffled footsteps. "Start searching there. You, start over there."

Well, that's rude. I'm sure his friends wouldn't very much like him calling them by 'you.' What kind of boss is he that he doesn't even know their names? Unless...

Are these some kind of superpowered bad guys that has such a huge following that this bloke has too many people following his orders to be able to keep track and remember all his followers' names?

I hear the sound of doors opening and slamming shut throughout the lab. They're obviously searching for something, which must be why they're inside this science lab. Are they looking for that slightly pathetic miracle cure I gave the old man? Or maybe some other thing that I haven't yet found inside of this top secret state of the art laboratory?

"Take the scientist back to the boss," the leader says again, his voice thick with a heavy American accent (Texan, maybe?).

"But he's sleeping and injured," one of the underlings argues softly. Even I raise an eyebrow at that weak argument, as the old man is obviously either unconscious or dead. Not sleeping.

There is a short moment of silence from the lab as I anticipate the grand explosion to come.

"The boss wants all of the scientists brought to her," is the reply that meets my ears instead. "No exceptions, and no excuses."

The sounds of cupboard doors being opened and closed is now starting to sound uncomfortably close. I quickly look around in the hopes of finding a good hiding place, but all I can see is a basic desk (that's basically a table with a computer on top) and draws filled with all sorts of dodgy stuff lining the walls.

I frown thoughtfully at the only other table in the room, as it's slightly covered by a lab coat in just the right sort of way that I might just be able to get away with hiding underneath it, when an idea comes storming to my mind.

As quietly as I can, I hurry over to the table and grab the discarded lab coat with extreme care.

"We need to hurry this up, or she'd be pretty pissed with you guys," the main guy says darkly from the other side of the door. The sound of doors quickly opening and being slammed shut immediately increases as they draw even closer to where I nervously stand in what I hope is the least most obvious part of the room.

Maybe I should try crawling under that desk...

"I'm sorry, Sir, but the scientist is just too heavy for me," whines the voice that had earlier diagnosed the scientist to be sleeping.

"Then drag him for all I care," comes the cold response from the main dude.

What an arsehole! You know, I wonder if the bastard even knows how to-

Slam!

The moment has arrived. I watch in fear as a man who's armed with a pretty big gun saunters into the room.

"Found another one," he calls to his boss as he steps into the room.

This is the moment to act. I could run for the hills and hope for the best, but chances are that they'll just shoot me down for my efforts.

I could also act like a good little hostage and do everything that they tell me to, but I couldn't even do that whilst being threatened by an all powerful god. I don't think them having guns would make me act any more submissive, either...

I could always act like a scientist and see where things go. I've got the coat on, and a couple or so months of college for back up.

They obviously need the scientists, so I don't even have to act like a good little hostage victim, because they aren't allowed to kill me.

Perfect!

"Hey! What the fu-?!" I start to yell in alarm as he roughly grabs my arm and tries to drag me towards the door.

"I could be rougher if you want," he says in an insultingly bored tone.

Ooooh, you've asked for it, now!

"Well, you can go shove a Bunsen Burner up your arse and stick it on, you dickhead!" I shout at his face, considering it a good enough alternative to fighting for now. He looks at me in surprise as we steps through the door and into the laboratory.

"What was that?" he asks softly- either shocked or angry at my shouting.

"You heard me, you wanker!" I stubbornly shout back with a weak pull against his grip to accentuate my anger at being yanked about the place like a misbehaving dog.

"Go drink a beaker full of Sodium Hydroxide, you bastard! You'd probably think it was a refreshing glass of water, you're such a dumb fuck!" I snap with a defiant glare. He frowns menacingly as his grip on my arm tightens painfully.

"You little bitch," he growls softly, just as an unusually deep sound penetrates the silence. The face of the man gripping my arm twitches alarmingly as the noise increases.

Turning in bewilderment towards the sound, I see a sight that I honestly wasn't expecting at all.

Standing near the entrance of the room is a man dressed in a neat navy coloured suit. His dark brown hair is perfectly combed away from his face, and his clear blue eyes shine as he, of all things, laughs cheerfully at me.

"Don't ignore me," the man holding me arm growls warningly under his breath, successfully drawing my attention back to him.

"You're the scum of the Earth for all I care, you fucking prick," I snap back at him. "You damned pervert, touching a lady without her permission. Pricks like you sicken me." I tilt my head up so I can sneer disgustedly down my nose at him, even though he's about a head taller than me.

As the man's expression darkens even further, his boss laughs even louder as he walks towards us.

"I've got to say," the leader says between chuckles once he's standing in front of me. "You're actually the first scientist I've encountered to have fought back like this."

"Yeah, I'm just a Hell of a scientist, I guess," I say with a casual shrug.

Shana White-Friar: master spy!

"I kinda like you," the boss says appreciatively with a bright grin on his face that's surprisingly only slightly creepy. "You've got more balls than any of the men I've got with me."

"Wait, they're men?" I ask with false shock. He releases another loud laugh and begins to pull me away from the other guy, who reluctantly lets go of my captive arm with his newly freed hand twitching as he honestly looks close to strangling me.

"If I weren't already married, I'd be falling head over heels for you!" the handsome leader declares as he leads me towards the main door, where the two other members of his gang stand with the unconscious scientist held between them.

Well, at least he's already married, I think as we walk past the two somewhat bewildered looking young men.

Granted that it's not exactly a great improvement on the situation, (not to mention the fact that I've now lost a very vital weapon in my womanly arsenal), but at least I don't have to worry about getting jumped by these freaks, now.

-BREAK-

The small group of armoured testosterone slowly leads me through corridor after corridor, presumably escorting me towards the centre of the ship. Every time I ask them where we're going, I'm either given a secretive smirk by the boss (who still has his arm wrapped firmly around me), or told to shut up by the irrate man who earlier attempted to crush my arm with his bare hand.

I've got to wonder, what is it with my luck with men? It doesn't necessarily end up going badly, per se.

No, more like...

...Weird...

I sneak a glance at the surprisingly dashing criminal walking beside me, supposedly just as he was sneaking a glance towards me. He grins widely at me just as we reach the end of the corridor.

"Please tell me we're there now," I say as I break eye contact to examine the smooth steel doors now in front of us.

Doors that I honestly don't remember from my tour of the base.

"I'm tired from all this walking," I whimper theatrically. "My feet hurt, I'm hungry, my head aches a little, and I really need a-" I break off from talking with a long, loud yawn.

Looks like three hours of sleep wasn't nearly enough time for a human sloth like me, as that yawn was actually the one genuine thing from the list of complaints.

"Well, it's a good thing we're here," the tall man standing beside me says cheerfully as he nods to the one worker not currently carrying someone.

"Damned whiney little bitch," I just about hear the grumpy man grumble as he quickly types a code into the device by the door to open it for the rest of us.

"You know, I'm kinda surprised at the small amount of English scientists there are on this floating heap of scrap," the group's leader says as we walk into yet another pristine looking lab.

Except, what makes this lab completely different from the other one we left behind us is that it's completely filled with what seems to be the entire ship's supply of scientists, all scurrying around doing what appeared to be separate projects.

My eyes flick from one white lab coat to the next- one middle aged woman in a lab coat and goggles shakily mixes some kind of clear liquid in a beaker whilst pouring in what looks like some sort of disgusting yellow slime. Next to her stands a man who appears to be tinkering with a similar device to what I healed the old scientist with.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the room, I can see several of them crowding around a loud noisy machine that kind of looks and sounds like it's moments away from self destructing.

But aside from the bewildering variety of experiments going on in the lab, the strangest thing that immediately grabs my attention is the near total lack of conversation in this laboratory full of people.

"Why's it so quiet?" I ask the man in the suit during a pause in his somewhat insulting barrage of theories on the lack of English scientists encountered on the ship. It's obviously because S.H.I.E.L.D is an American agency that the vast majority of their workers also happen to be American- not because us Brits are an inbred bunch of superstitious nutjobs!

... Though, that might have a little bit to do with it...

"Well, I'd say it's so quiet because these smart people don't want to go pissing off the big boss," he explains simply.

"The big boss being the woman you mentioned earlier, I'm guessing?" I ask him with the philosophy that bluntness wins the day.

"Someone has a big pair of ears on them," he says approvingly.

This man is kind of confusing me. I get the feeling that he shouldn't be nearly this appreciative of my personality or my questions. Do I really have some weird kind of luck with the opposite gender, or am I just some kind of freak magnet?

"I take it she's some whole new level of freaky shit, then?" I ask him, admittedly a little excited to see this ultimate boss lady.

Yes, I know I'm a little unhinged, but there's something a girl's got to admire in a woman that can have a whole legion of men (and scientists) quivering in terror at the mere mention of them.

"No, not nearly that bad," the man beside me says with a slight chuckle. I begin to relax just slightly (though that arm that's now tightly rested around my waist is really unnerving me).

"She doesn't bite as deeply as she lets on," he explains as we continue walking through the room without pause towards yet another damned metal door. "All she'd actually do is maybe rip a limb off at the worst, and pull some clumps of your hair out at best," we reach the door; it opens welcomingly.

"Wait, what?" I squeak just as the door closes behind our little group.

"Evan," a soft feminine voice says from deeper in this new room we're now in.

"I see you found more of them. Maybe these ones would actually know how to create it."

A/N: In case you were wondering (and if I forget to mention it later), the man from Texas isn't actually from Texas- Shana's just ignorant to accents. XD

I'm thinking maybe New York, but that might be too easy a choice, no?

Also, no offence was meant to my fellow Brits with the comments of us being inbred, nutty and superstitious, but...

... Well...

In my family, we are a little inbred...

... And we are all superstitious and/or extremely eccentric...

... Yeah... But for everyone who's family isn't one, two or all three of the things mentioned above, please accept my apologies for stereotyping.