A New Hope

Chapter 3

"I'm going for a jog if all of the excitement is over now" Steve said, leaving the room. He looked stressed. I couldn't blame him. I was stressed too.

"Well, Bruce and I have to get back to the lab. See you around, mini Rogers. Oh, and I left some clothes on your bed that Natasha thought might fit" Tony stated, dragging Bruce back to the lab. He was an odd man, but I figured that I would learn to trust him and his weird ways.

"Why did he call me mini Rogers?" I inquired. I was going to be very confused for at least another few days.

"Tony thinks that you and Steve are like the exact same person. You both got your powers in a lab, you both have increased strength, speed, and agility. Not to mention you have the same colored eyes and hair. And you're both from Brooklyn" Nat explained. This confused me even more.

"Really?" I asked "I don't even know the color of my eyes".

"Did you not have a mirror?" her expression filled with sympathy. I wasn't sure if I could trust her yet, but I was slowly getting there.

"No. They never let me see my reflection" I replied, staring down at my hands. I didn't know my own face. I only knew my tangled hair and scarred skin.

"You seem to be in need of some new clothes. I'll show you to your room. Tony already laid out some clothes, and then we can take Tony's credit card and do a little thing that girls call shopping. I don't do it much myself, but I can make an exception" explained Nat "come on, Clint".

"Do I have to go?" he whined. I couldn't blame him for not wanting to leave. Even I didn't want to leave the relative safety of the tower.

"No, you need to distract Tony while I grab his credit card" Nat clarified. She dragged me off to my new room while Clint headed down to the lab to distract Tony.

"Here, put these on" Nat said tossing me a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt with a logo that read Black Sabbath, and a hoodie.

"I think the shirt was Tony's, but it should fit you pretty well considering nothing else here will fit you. The hoodie and jeans are mine, but you can keep them" she stated before showing me to a bathroom where I could change. While I was changing, Nat ran and stole Tony's credit card.

"Okay, let's go" Nat said, waltzing into the room carrying a plastic card and some keys. For a woman that seemed to hate normal people things, she seemed eager to get me into the world. We walked to the garage and got into Nat's black SUV.

"What is this place?" I asked when we got to a large building. It was full of people and stuff that no one really needed. I was amazed by it all.

"It's called a mall" Nat stated "wow, they taught you nothing in that lab did they?"

"No. They didn't want me to know about the outside world, but I know some stuff" I shrugged in reply. We went into that building, and Nat dragged me into many different stores. She, or I should say Tony, wound up buying me some pairs of jeans, a hoodie, and several plain shirts. It seemed a bit excessive considering I had worn the same pair of rags as clothes since I was nine.

"Can we go now?" I asked. This was all very overwhelming for me, and I just wanted to rest a little more. People truly were exhausting even when they weren't hurting me.

"Sure. I know it can be a little overwhelming to be in the outside world after being locked away for your whole life. I went through that back in Russia with the Red Room and their Black Widow program, but enough about that. I can explain that to you later. Let's get out of here" Nat explained quietly as we headed back to the vehicle. I decided that I could trust her since she was more like me than I had originally thought.

Manhattan was a big place, and I marveled at the buildings as we drove back to the tower. We arrived at the tower about twenty minutes after leaving the shopping center.