The Love, Life, Lies, and Secrets of Angelina Cortex

Prolouge

Nick Fury and Clint Barton walked into the room. Chairs were turned over, windows were smashed, and, on the wall, a simple letter had been written. Who knew that the single letter could inspire so much fear. It was a very ornate S; three feet tall, one foot wide, and written in ink, it must have taken at least an hour to create, if not more. Barton broke the silence. "So, it's official now. The Shifter is behind this?"

"Yes," answered Fury, "But something doesn't add up. The guards say that there wasn't a disturbance until a hour ago, yet the signature has been here at least an one-and-a-half hours."

"Maybe the assassin was here long before that and chose to alert the guards after their work was done?"

"No, the guy who was watching the cameras said that he saw a shadow in the hallway outside the victim's office. Then the cameras went all weird for a second or two and everything was normal. It stayed that way until the explosion."

"Speaking of which, has the body been removed?"

"Yes, the public has been kept away for the time being."

"Good. What do you think happened?" Fury looked around at the ruined office. The door was still locked despite being blown off it's hinges, therefore they hadn't entered that way. The air duct cover hadn't been removed recently, so the assassin hadn't come through there. He now looked to the windows. All of them had been shattered by the force of the explosion. Something caught Fury's eye; one of the windows was open. It had to have been opened before the explosion. "There," Nick said, pointing at the window, "that's where they entered."

"Good eye Director, he-he, good eye," replied Barton with his usual attitude.

"This is no time for your jokes Agent. We need to figure out how she got in without triggering the alarms."

"The cameras acting weird, they probably were able to hack the system and disable the alarms from the inside. That was the assassin sneaking in to hack the systems so they could climb in through the window without being detected."

"Yes Barton, that's what I was thinking too. Though, about the explosion. There are signs of a burst gas line."

"Yeah, I saw that too. Maybe they shot it to cover their tracks?"

"No, not her style. Probably a stray bullet. Maybe she had the victim unconscious so she could leave her signature and planned to kill him after. He might have woken up and tried to fight back."

"Wait, she? What makes you think our assassin is a girl?"

"I've experience in the matter." Barton laughed nervously and looked at the ground, obviously thinking of Natasha. "Have they found signs of trauma?" continued Fury.

"No, he's too badly burned. What do you think went wrong?"

"I don't know Barton, I don't know. Have you ordered the police to stand down?"

"Yes, can they come in now?" Fury nodded. Barton pulled out his walkie-talkie to let them in.

"Oh, and Barton?"

"Yes sir?"

"Tell them to look for forced entry on the ground floor." Now Barton nodded.

Back on the heli-carrier a day later:

Fury paced the briefing room while turning over the evidence in his head. Finally, Special Agents Barton and Romanoff came in. "Sorry we're late Director," apologized Natasha, "Clint was telling me about the crime scene."

"It's fine," replied Fury, "Now I have a mission for you."

"What kind off mission?" asked Barton.

"Lately," Fury began, "The city of New York has been struck with an abnormal amount of assassinations. Most of which have been done by who the press has named "The Shifting Shadow". The only clue we have are the short clips from security cameras that caught the shadow of our assassin on tape. Now watch this." He showed them the clip from just last night as well as some of the more recent ones.

"We have narrowed down the suspect to be a woman and a young one too. I want you to investigate. Use any means necessary to find her and bring her to justice. I don't care if you have to question every thug, common criminal, or mercenary in this city in order to find this assassin. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," both agents replied.

"Good, now get to work." They now stood and left. Fury put his clenched fists down on the table and looked down. This assassin had to be brought in now. It might not be too late to convince her to stop this madness and save her from a terrible fate.