1| Silver & Gold [Pietro M.] ✔

1. The Avengers

The flight into Sokovia, a small city in Europe, was shockingly calm. I'm not usually one for flying in giant tin cans that can drop out of the sky in a blink of the eye, but I can admit when a flight is smooth and uncomplicated.

I reach into my back pocket and provide my passport upon reaching the small airport's security check-in. With a hint of a smile, I slide the worn blue book under the small opening in the glass where the security guard sits. He looks at the photo on the inside cover before checking to ensure I am who I say I am -- Vanessa Blake in this instance. He nods and slaps a stamp on an empty page before returning it to me. "Welcome to Sokovia, enjoy your stay." He drones as if he's said the same phrase over a hundred times already.

I push past the guard station and through the crowd of people waiting on loved ones and pull my dull gray baseball cap further down over my face as I carefully avoid the airport security cameras. This intel on the Avengers chasing their own lead better be good. I've been late to the party on too many times already. I don't particularly want to miss out on seeing the band in action again.

Once exiting the airport, I hail a cab and instruct the driver to bring me to the western border of the city. I don't have to tell him twice. We're headed straight through the heart of the small city in a matter of moments. And for the first time since landing, I sit back and let out a long breath. I have no idea what exactly it is I'm looking for. Maybe it's validation that just because I'm powered doesn't mean I'm inherently evil in nature. Even due to the circumstances surrounding my creation. Or perhaps I'm trying to find out if being a hero is something I could be. I shut my eyes and take a moment to relax. My fingers drum against my thighs as I watch the cobble and brick buildings pass by my window.

What am I doing?

I was trained to fight. I should just join the ranks of a military somewhere. Try to be normal. Try to live a life like anybody else. I never did ask for these abilities. I just want to be a regular Joe. What I'm looking to find doesn't fit into that. However, my entire existence has been manipulated to the point that sometimes I struggle with what it is I truly desire. That's probably why I dropped out of college two years ago, leaving with a fair amount of knowledge in technology and computers.

I hate to admit it, but maybe I'm not cut out for a normal life. It's not exactly easy to live a normal life with extraordinary abilities and a past so damaged that not even duct tape can fix it. Although, living in rural Kentucky surrounded by horse pastures for two short years while attempting to get a technology degree did help get myself centered. It helped me get to a point that I could at least act like a regular human.

Kentucky definitely helped with my anger issues and the unhinged rage I felt toward HYDRA. An anger I've since let go. I'm by no means okay with what happened, but I've since decided trying to live a normal life does not include trying to hunt down the very organization that created me.

Besides, going for a technology degree with a mischievous personality wasn't my brightest moment. I quickly found myself on the brink of being discovered after an illegal passion of hacking developed. I guess digging around in classified SHIELD files wasn't the best use of my time. However, it did ignite my insatiable desire to know more about the Avengers. Then when the DC attack occurred and all those files were leaked onto the internet, I remember being holed up in my apartment in Tennessee. For days I found myself reading up on any bit of information I could about the notorious group of superheroes. I may have been a college drop out at that point, but I still knew how to filter through redacted files with ease. The DC file leak was also how I got a list of contacts for various things I figured would be helpful in the future. One of such contacts was the one to give me this lead.