Chapter 4
-Avengers Tower, 1 day after the Attack on New York-
Steve Rodgers paced on the floor of the main meeting room in Stark tower in the early morning. After Loki and Thor returned to Asgard, the team had dispersed and left the tower empty.
They hadn't planned on using Stark tower. After all, Shield had plenty of space, but the Newley banded and disbanded group of heroes thought having the tower would help with future... endeavors.
Of course Steve had left like the rest of the team(him on his bike) to his own separate corner of the world(and universe). However, once he realized the itch at the back of his mind wasn't going away - he turned around his bike and hightailed it back to what Tony liked to call "Avengers HQ".
All he could think about was that young girl he had seen in front of the coffee shop. He had only seen her for a short second, and even then, she had a presence about her that instantly made him remember her face. There was a quiet intensity there that he had only seen in few people, people like Nick fury.
What captured his thoughts even more was the fact that she had sat not 15 feet from the cops, and they hadn't even noticed her- even Steve himself hadn't noticed her until she had grabbed a hold of some metal poles that she had used to take out one of the invaders sneaking up behind him.
Many people wouldn't have noticed what those poles were, but from Steve's time during the war in hospitals, he was pretty sure they were forearm crutches. This fact just added to his intrigue.
All of these questions of the strange girl combined had led him to where he was now, in front of technology way too complicated for him to understand but easy enough for someone like him to use.
"Jarvis, show me all police cam footage from yesterday. Tell me if you see anything with 'historians coffee' in the background."
"I am right on it, Mr. Steve Rogers, please wait a moment while I take a look."
Realistically, Steve knew that he probably wouldn't find her. Tony's tech could find a lot of people, but it was usually people with less than stellar track records. The type of people to sell illegal weapons and kill, not some random teenager that probably had powers.
Well at least he hoped she hadn't killed anyone.
Steve flashed back to when his shield had formed into a spear and rammed itself through the katari's head. It had been followed by two other metal spears that had then returned to the girls side as crutches. He remembered their short eye contact, her brown eyes had met his only for a moment, and she hadn't shone any regret at all. The eyes almost had an excited glow about them, she had wanted to kill those creatures and she had no regrets.
Hopefully no murders, he thought, you never know kids these days. All those video games and twitters must have had some effect on the youths.
Based on the events of the day prior he knew that the avengers had to expand. Finding this girl was important. The fight with the katari had been disastrous, and had almost resulted in Tony's death. If there were threats out there worse than what Loki had brought upon them?
Well, let's just say he knew the girl had helped him AND Newyork, so if she had some legal... miss-comings, Steve was willing to let them slide in exchange for her joining their small team.
"Mr. Rogers" Jarvis said, breaking cap out of his thoughts.
"I think I may have found something of use. Around 10am yesterday, cop car #2507 picked up this logo on one of the shops entrances"
As Steve looked to the screen he saw a storefront with a large logo on the main window, with a giant coffee cup sitting on the front of a book. The view wasn’t perfect, but In the corner it looked like there was a small iron door with a girl sitting down.
That was it. That was her.
"Jarvis, run a quick face scan on that girl right there. Give me everything you know."
"Sure thing Mr. Rogers, running facial recognition scan now."
The screen seemed to bring up and close hundreds of documents, and faces of several hundred people flashed by as well. It seemed to take a minute, but, the screen stopped on an older photo of a man with crazy blue eyes and brown hair. Next to him was a photo of a girl with brown eyes and brown hair- who looked to have been put through a tornado.
One thing was sure, they were definitely related- the look in their eyes different yet the same.
"this right here is Jordan Donald." Jarvis spoke out.
"In 2010, about 2 years ago she was in a lab mishap with her father. He went missing shortly after the accident, and despite Jordan being paralyzed from the waist down, she was the main suspect in the incident."
Steve shook his head, "main suspect? This photo tells me otherwise." In Jordan's headshot she had several cuts all over herself and a black eye- like he thought earlier, it looked like she had gone through a tornado.
"It seems young Donald refused to talk about the accident, this created a controversy around what happened. Eventually the authorities let her go, realizing she was just 12 at the time, but suspicion followed her. Unfortunately, the cops do not know where she is now."
"Well obviously she is in New York" Steve replied, "Jarvis, can you tell me a overview of this man right here?" He waved his hand over to the man who looked to be of relation to Jordan.
"That Right there is Greg Donald, father of Jordan, and former head scientist of the Windy City laboratories in Chicago. His main unit was Gamma radiation."
Son of a gun, Steve thought, that had to be it. His father must of somehow been experimenting with the substance and it had somehow affected Jordan. Luckily they didn't have a second hulk on their hands, that would have been crazy, but the fact that she had taken out 3 alien warriors in the blink of an eye? He was shocked that a 14 year old could do something like that.
He needed to find her and grab her for the good guys, before others could recruit her.
"Jarvis, any ideas of where we could find her? Any known addresses?"
"I am sorry Mr. Rogers, but Jordan has not been on the grid for some time now." As Jarvis said this Steve's shoulders dropped, but then he got some hope.
"However, we do have her grandparents address here in New York, and as records show, they are her only living relatives."
Well that solves it, Rogers thought as he put on his leather jacket. Saying thanks to Jarvis on his way out the door.
Time to visit some grandparents.
-The Donald residence-
"Jordan, no ifs, ands, or buts! I will NOT allow you to take any part in any dangerous activities until you are old enough!"
Once again Jordan was getting scolded by her grandma.
Apparently she was still angry about the state jordan had gotten home in. It seemed exssevive to Jordan, But to give grandma Donald some credit she had looked pretty rough.
"Gran, I get it okay? JESUS, just let me live."
Her grandma turned red in the face, while her grandpa just shook his head.
"You can't live if your dead Jordan, that's the point! That's why we are angry! Until you are 16 or have someone to teach you, you can't be doing things like you did yesterday!"
Jordan sighed, the argument wasn't worth it. She wouldn't get anywhere arguing with her family.
"Fine" Jordan gritted her teeth together, " I'm leaving. I have school." And Jordan stormed out the door.
The two grandparents looked at each other.
It wasn't very often that They got angry at Jordan. After all, they loved her a lot, but sometimes they had to remind Jordan that she couldn't take on everything by herself. She may have had powers that were beyond comprehension for people like grandma and grandpa Donald, but she still was only 14.
She was just a kid and sometimes jordan didn't realize that.
Once Jordan had left, her grandparents; Pam and Jim Donald, had a long conversation about what they expected from her.
Mostly it was just pam being overprotective and motherly, and Jim being to lenient on rules for Jordan, but they had agreed on one thing.
Jordan's wasn't to put herself into danger and use her powers freely until she was 16, or she had a mentor. The mentor thing was mostly just Pam letting Jim have some say- he had wanted to let her use her powers freely, but they had agreed on her training with a mentor as the one and only caveat to the no extreme power use until 16 year rule.
As the two went on, talking about how to deal with Jordan, they heard a knock on the door.
" Greg? Are you expecting anybody?" Pam looked surprised at her husband.
Greg furrowed his eyes and looked towards the door, " no I am not, honey".
As a little moment of confusion passed through the two of them, another knock sounded on the door.
Pam shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe Jordan forgot her keys?"
"You might be right" Jim replied as he got out of his chair to answer the door.
Opening the door expecting his granddaughter, Jim gasped, as he saw non-other than Captain America open the door.
He wasn't in his typical hero suit, so most people wouldn't have recognized him. They probably would have just recognized him as a typical gym rat, but Jim knew who he was.
This was the guy that his son had obsessed over in his youth. This was the guy who had been the sole inspiration of his madness. This was the guy who had inspired his son to hurt his granddaughter.
Jim scowled.
"Yes?" He grounded out to the man who towered over him. "Why are you here?"
Steve did not expect this response from the old man. Awkwardly, he ran his hand through his hair and put his sun glasses into his pocket.
"I was wondering if we could talk about your granddaughter for a moment?"
At this Pam looked around the door and saw Steve as well, her disposition looking similar to her husband.
"And why would that be Mr. America?" She responded curtly.
Steve rubbed the back of his neck, they had to know about her powers if they were being this cautious with him. Especially because they knew who he was right away.
Normally Steve would get smiles from people who recognized him, only the people who were hiding something didn't want to see him.
Guess it was time to let the cat out of the bag
"I… saw Jordan yesterday during the attack on New York, she is a very strong and gifted with abilities. I'm assuming you know this?"
At the complement Jim had softened up, but Pam was still stone cold.
"We are aware." Was all she said in response.
"Then you know with great power comes great responsibility?" Steve started,
"And combining her powers with my team would provide her with better access to the world, and a whole team of mentors".
Jim looked over to Pam with a smug smile, making her look go from cautious to angry.
"Are you saying you want our 14 year old daughter to be an avenger?" She had said incredulously.
"It seems so hunny." Jim beamed, all thought of him blaming Captain America for Jordan's accident gone.
His granddaughter was going to be a super hero!
Pam looked at the smile on her husbands face, and then to the calm look on the face of the man who Jordan had been molded after.
He had no idea that the idea of him had lead to Jordan's accident, before she was to accept anything, he had to know.
She cleared her throat, "she's paralyzed you know. Her father tried to make her like you, and while she looks like she can walk just fine, she relies completely on her powers to walk."
She teared up, looking to her husband for support.
He continued her speech, "Jordan's father... our son. He... He experimented on her, he wanted her to be the next Captain America."
Once again Jim's face went hard, " I will not let you try to do the same thing. If you are to teach Jordan, you are to teach her like an individual. She is still a kid, and I refuse for her to be treated like she is the next best hero when she is only 14. Teach her limits and push her, but let her make her own choices on who she wants to be. Make her realize the commitment hero’s make BEFORE she can no longer back out."
The room fell silent and Steve dropped his eyes from the couple. Knowing that she was the way she was because of him unsettled him, but it had also lit a fire in himself to be better.
He wanted to help her, and their requests were completely reasonable. He looked at the older couple, holding hands and looking at him with the same determined eyes he had seen In their granddaughter.
Steve nodded his head, "agreed".