Plagued [COMPLETE]

Chapter 1

[A/N: This book is complete, I will be posting the chapters a few a week, editing as I go]

ALEKSANDRA
2014

Dodge right, swing left, flip, take down, dodge, kick, pin, and he's down. I thought through each move as I made it with ease, quickly beating my opponent to the ground without breaking a sweat. As the whistle was called, I reached my hand down, pulling up my opponent who people called Dragon.

He and I shook hands civilly as all good street fights end. "Good fight, Plague." He said to me bitterly.

"As to you, Dragon." My voice came out staticky and mechanical as it does when my mask is on, the built in modulator disguising my tone.

As the crowd around us broke up into groups, people collecting bets or just finding their way home, I walked up to get my prize money. A small two hundred dollars, but worth it. While I was counting the money I felt an urgent tapping on my shoulder.

"Leksa, we have to go!" I looked down at my brother, his hands were wet with paint and his forehead was covered in sweat. He was pulling my arm in a panic.

"What are you doing here, Jude? You aren't supposed to come to my fights." I slipped my mask and goggles on top of my head as he led me away from the crowd and back towards the street corner where he should have been set up, creating and selling his beautiful artwork. I had to jog to keep up with his pace, the cool evening air causing my ratty hair to fly behind me.

"I know but when I went inside to grab more paint someone was in our house and I didn't know what to do so I just ran to find you." He continued gasping for breath until we reached our home four blocks down. I shouldn't say our home, we just squatted there while it was for sale. I know it was wrong but we didn't have anywhere else close to the city to stay. And to be fair, it had been on the market for years with no buyers.

As we reached the building I looked around, confused. Jude's spray paint table was still set up, but the house showed no signs of entry.

"Jude are you sure?" I questioned Jude as he arrived at my side.

"Yes, Leksa! I wouldn't lie! Someone's in our house!"

"Well it's not our house." I mumbled under my breath, thinking it could be the actual owners of the place, but I pulled my mask back over my face and headed for the door anyway. "Stay out here, Jude. I'll be back in a minute."

I creaked open the door to the dark entry hall of the house, immediately feeling the presence of a man in the adjacent room. I walked into the room as the man stood. My eyes were still adjusting, but he appeared tall and dressed in dark colors. An eyepatch covered one of his eyes.

"Good fighting you did today." He greeted me casually as if it was perfectly normal for him to be sitting in my house with the lights out.

"If you want an autograph, wait by the crowd." I spit back, keeping my body tense in preparation. I circled my way deeper into the room and opened a curtain for some moon light. The man had a gun in his belt but he didn't seem ready to use it. He had a slight smile on his face and his body position was relaxed.

"Sit down Aleksandra, we have much to speak about." He sat back down on my couch and nodded to the chair across from him.

I sat hesitantly and removed my mask, but kept my eyes carefully trained on him. "You know my name and you have seen me fight, but I know nothing about you. Why the hell should I listen to anything you have to say?"

He chuckled without humor, "My name is Nick Fury. I'm sure you have heard of SHIELD? We have been watching you for quite some time Miss Baran, and we're impressed."

"Thank you, but that doesn't explain why you are here. In my house." I gestured to the fact that he was trespassing, but he still didn't seem to care.

"This was my easiest way to contact you. Miss Baran, or Plague as people seem to call you, we want you to join SHIELD. With a bit of training you could be a very useful agent." He paused slightly in his speech, but I didn't respond, keeping my expression neutral, "We have a place set up for you to stay in the Triskelion, closer to our headquarters and-"

Finally I cut him off, "No."

I saw his eye twitch in slight annoyance but he stayed calm. I continued, "I have no interest in being one of your agents. I'm good how I am."

To be perfectly honest I was interested in being a SHIELD agent. When I was sixteen and still somewhat new to the street fighting game, I saw Natasha Romanoff for the first time on one of her early missions. She was impressive and I wanted to be that. I wanted to inspire the way she did and fight how she could. But I only have one person to look after and I can't do that if I'm overseas in battle.

"Your brother can come stay with you." I ignored the fact he knew about Jude and shook my head.

"That's even worse. Thank you, really, for the offer. But I'm no SHIELD agent. The life's not for me." With that I got up and walked to my door, sure that Fury was following. I opened it wide and waited for him to walk out before I followed him.

"When you reconsider," Fury yelled back from a couple steps down the street where he was getting into a black car, "I will be around."

He drove off and I watched his car leave until I felt Jude's presence beside me. I threw my arm over his boney shoulders and pulled him to my side.

"That was Nick Fury! What happened? Are you going to be an Avenger?" For a fourteen year old, Jude had a childish mind. Not in a bad way, just in the way that a little kid sees their father as a superhero. He was obsessed with the Avengers and, although he'd never admit it, I think he loved that I took after them with my career.

"No, kid, I'm not. You're stuck with me for now." I smiled down at him and led him back into the house, helping to bring in the folding table and canvases he had been working on earlier.

Jude pouted slightly at my answer, "You should be. You'd be the best at it. The others would be so impressed by your skill, and Hydra's shitty agents would be begging on their knees for you to let them go."

"Hey, watch your language, Jude!" He rolled his eyes at me.

"What it's not like you never say it," he mutters, "I hope you didn't turn down being a SHIELD agent, Leksa. You'd make a difference."

I watched him walk over to the couch that Fury had been sitting on minutes ago and pull his blanket over him. Their was only one bed in the small house so he slept on the couch most nights. I could tell he was in deep thought so I didn't bother offering him dinner, he knew where to get food.

I, too, went off to bed, although it was still quite early into the night. I stared at my ceiling, thinking. Was I really helping Jude? Would he not be better off in a real home with good food? I drifted off, wondering if I should have said yes to Nick Fury.

[A/N: First chapter! This is the story of my Avengers OC integrated into the Avengers timeline. This book will be mainly setting up her life for a second book that will have an original storyline that comes after Civil War (even if Infinity War comes out I'm going to ignore it). The second book will also be more of a Bucky fic]