Shattered

S.H.I.E.L.D. Airbase, 2012

You awoke to a red haired woman sitting by your side, watching your movements intently. When she saw your eyes flutter open, she stood up hastily.

"Stark! Banner!" She shouted, and two more men quickly entered your room.

You groaned, and did your best to prop yourself up into a sitting position. "What the hell happened?" You asked groggily. You felt like you had just been run over by a bus. And then backed over again. And then ran over again.

And then, all at once, your memories came flooding back. "Who are you?" You asked, your voice shaking a bit. You quickly glanced around the room, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. However, even if you found something, you doubted that you could put up much of a fight in your weak state.

"What do you remember?" One of the men who had entered asked gingerly. He was wearing a white lab coat and round glasses."You were in a pretty bad explosion."

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock," you grumbled as you continued to adjust to your surroundings. This earned a small snicker from the other man who had entered.

"Cap's gonna love you," he said, his grin only getting larger as he sees the confusion flicker across your face. "Ah, speak of the devil." Two more men enter the room, and the one you recognized immediately.

"Captain America?" You asked, not quite believing your eyes.

"You can call me Steve Rogers, ma'am," he looked at you with a smile. You nodded slightly, and took another look around the room you were in.

It was decently sized, with creme colored walls and a white tiled floor. There was no furniture, except for a few chairs next to your bed. You then turned your attention to yourself. You were hooked up to a few machines, monitoring your vitals. The bloodstained and tattered clothes you had worn while held captive at HYDRA were gone, replaced instead by a simple white hospital gown. HYDRA! You remembered now, the memories coming flooding back all at once.

"Who are you people?" You asked, immediately back on guard.

"Well, we go by the name of the Avengers," Steve answered.

"Earth's mightiest heroes." You could sense the sarcasm in the other man's voice, but didn't question it.

"That's Natasha," Steve said, pointing to the woman who was by your side when you woke up. "The man in the lab coat is Dr. Banner." He looked up at you and gave you a small smile.

"You can just call me Bruce."

"Right," Steve continues. "The guy in the overly expensive suit is Tony Stark," he motioned towards the man who had entered with Dr. Banner. This comment by Steve earned a glare towards him, but he continued, ignoring Stark's death glare. "And lastly, this is-"

"HELLO LADY Y/N! I AM THOR OF ASGARD, GOD OF THUNDER. IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU!" The large man bellowed.

"Thor!" Steve scolded. "We talked about this. Inside voices."

You rubbed your temples, trying to process all of this new information. The group of so-called 'heroes' just watched you with deep interest, trying to size up the girl who had just managed to escape HYDRA. Finally, you speak again.

"That.. that man who was at HYDRA? Fury?" You started. "He kept mentioning something called S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

A wave of emotion crept up Tony's face. It was small; no one else noticed it, but you picked up on the small display of disdain. Before you had a chance to question it further, a commotion from outside the door gets your attention.

"Let go of me," a cold voice hissed. The 5 heroes exchanged glances with each other, quickly rushing out of the room, Bruce mouthing to you, 'stay here' before quickly following behind everyone else.

"I am a god." The man continued speaking, but he was quickly dragged out of earshot.

Well, you were always notorious as a kid for never listening to instructions. And six months of captivity wasn't about to change that.

Without thinking twice, you ripped your I.V. out and swing your legs over the side of your hospital bed, grimacing at the effort and physical toll it took on your body. However, you didn't let this stop you. Using the side of the bed to prop yourself up, you shakily tried to stand up. Your knees buckled, your eyes closing as you expected the cold impact of the floor. But it never came.

Slowly, you opened up your eyes again. Small, thin strands of dark purple particles shimmered around you, helping balance you and keep you standing.

HYDRA. You knew that while in your captivity they had experimented on you, injecting you with various serums and subjecting you to all sorts of tests. But this was new.

The particles begun to fade away, but not before leaving you with a bit of newfound strength. You would have time to figure out what this was later. For now, you wanted to see where the rest of the team had hurried off to in such a rush.

Exiting your room, you heard footsteps receding down the hallway to your left. Your curiosity getting the best of you, you quickly followed along behind, careful to remain quiet and maintain a safe distance behind them.

You followed the group down several twisting hallways, making sure to hug the walls to remain unseen. Finally, they stopped outside of a large room.

You watched as the man, a prisoner you assume, is forced into a circular glass cage. You spotted some sort of machine just to your left that you quickly dashed to hide behind, getting a better look at the man in the process.

He was dressed in green, gold, and black battle armor, with his jet black hair slicked back out of his face. You noted his facial features, his strong jawline and slightly upturned lips. He grinned mischievously, as if he knew a secret that no one else in the world could dare fathom. Your gaze finally settled upon his eyes. They were emerald green, with a mischievous glint reflecting that of his smile.

But as you looked closer, somewhere deeper in his eyes, you could sense a bit of desperation. Fear. As your mind spun, trying to come up with answers to the neverending list of questions forming in your brain, a familiar voice spoke up.

"In case it's unclear, if you try to escape , if you so much as scratch that glass, it's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap." Fury. Finally, someone you recognized, even if it was someone you had only met once before. "You get how that works?"

Fury's gaze moved swiftly across the room, glancing right towards your hiding spot. You sucked in a bit of air, not daring to move. As his eye settled upon the machine you were crouched behind, you could have sworn you saw him wink before turning back to the prisoner.

"Ant. Boot."

"It's an impressive cage," the prisoner finally spoke up. You inched slowly out of your spot, trying to get a better view of him as he slowly backs up, for dramatic effect, no doubt. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury shots back, venom dripping from him voice.

"Oh, I've heard," the man said, slowly turning to face a security camera. He focused all of his attention towards that, talking to the people who he knows are sat at the other side watching. You knew that the Avengers were sat somewhere else, probably fuming at the trickster's smug demeanor.

"How desperate are you that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" His words sent a chill down your spine, but still, you continued listening.

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and kill because it's fun," Fury was getting angry now, but he remained still. "You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close," he said smugly. "To have the Tesseract, to have the power. Unlimited power."

Tesseract? Power? What was this man talking about?

"And for what?" He continued on, grinning arrogantly. "A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what real power is." He shot daggers into Fury's eyes, but Fury only smiled before turning away.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."

And with those words, Fury begun to make his way back to where he had arrived. Back to where you were hiding. Before you could formulate any kind of plan to hide, Fury spoke again, but not to the prisoner this time.

"You too, Y/N." He smiled before walking by you, nodding his head as a signal to follow him.

You sighed. Clearly, stealth was not your strong suit. You slowly emerged from your hiding spot, making eye contact with the prisoner as you stood up. Your eyes widened slightly at the unexpected eye contact, but other than that, you stood strong. You'd faced enough bullies as a kid to know to not show any fear.

You smirked at the man, his gaze clouded and unreadable.

"Is 'real power' a shampoo brand? Because if it is, I can see why you're so concerned about achieving it."

His face instantly flooded with rage, but you turned on your heel and quickly followed behind Fury before he could say anything else.