Steel Hearts

- 18 -

In the midst of my search for Barnes, Brock Rumlow had started to complete acts of terrorism in too many countries to count. Two and a half years ago I wouldn't have thought he had it in him to do so, but now that we knew that he and the rest of the S.T.R.I.K.E. team were HYDRA it doesn't surprise me one bit. Unfortunately, the path between acts of heroism and terrorism seemed to become greyer and less starkly black and white with each passing day. The lines blurred.

Not any one of the Avengers were forced to become a part of the team. We had all decided to become a part of the team because we all believed that we were the most qualified to fight for the things we believed in.

Peace. Freedom. Justice. Humanity.

Every one of us had something or someone to fight for. We all had a purpose and were working toward bettering ourselves as a team every single day. All of us have unique abilities that we used for the good of the world and we weren't about to shy away from being able to end the threats to not only ourselves but to the innocent people who couldn't fight for themselves.

After accidentally hurting a boy in my class at the age of fourteen, my father forced me inside for over a year and I quickly learned to keep my powers to myself. Teaching myself how to use them in the privacy of my room while I hid from my father or if I were locked in. For years I felt like I had to hide and I carried that with me through into college. Never once allowing myself to truly become friends with anyone, rarely did I become romantically involved with anyone.

Following the lawsuit against my father, ending in his arrest, I finally felt some semblance of peace. Working three jobs, I had to put myself through school and work hard to keep my full-ride scholarships in order to keep at least some pocket change. During the second to last semester of my doctoral program was when I had gotten a job with the F.B.I. I was only a little over twenty-six years old and held down that job for barely over a year before Nick Fury had approached me about joining S.H.I.E.L.D. It didn't take me long to become the new S.T.R.I.K.E. team leader after the previous one had resigned.

Doing so had shown me that I could use my abilities to help people in ways that the average person couldn't. Not once did I ever think that I would've been a hero. But here I was able to give guidance and aid to people who needed it. That was something I never had. I now got to be the person that I had needed growing up. And to say that Rumlow wasn't happy with Fury about my being appointed the successor to lead the team instead of him would be an understatement.

Sam and I had spent a little over two years searching for Barnes, but we also kept Rumlow on our radar. He had adopted the alias Crossbones after he had been saved from the wreckage in the Potomac River. His vengeance for Nat, Steve, Sam, and I seemingly got more and more violent as the days passed. On the days where we didn't have much luck with Barnes, I analyzed Rumlow's patterns in an attempt to get ahead of him so that we could get him behind bars before he hurt anyone else.

I spent months chewing on pens and tearing apart notepads and building up a large file on him; the file slowly grew in size each week as new photos and articles mentioning him circulated the internet. In early May all of the surveillance footage, maps, and news articles finally clicked. It made sense. He was trying to lure us out. He wanted revenge for HYDRA's downfall and was willing to do anything it took to get it.

His most recent hit was in Africa. Though, news sources weren't particularly clear about what all was stolen. It couldn't be anything used for good when it came to him.

Placing my laptop and file folder on the nightstand, I roll over in bed and gently shake Steve's shoulder as I whisper to wake him up, "Steve... Steve, wake up!"

Groaning, he rolled over onto his back to look up at me before glancing at the digital clock on his nightstand, "Is everything okay? It's nearly three in the morning."