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eleven

   Smoke and rubble covers us as I cough and use my powers to move most of the larger pieces out of our way as we climb out of the hole Steve had thrown us all into to avoid the missile that hit.

   "Hurry up. Stay quiet. Follow me." His phrases are short and quick, so I do as he says without any question.

• • •

   "Hey, man." Sam Wilson opens the door, greeting Steve, Nat, and I.

"Sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." Steve apologizes. Natasha nods in a agreement, "Everyone we know is trying to kill us." The underlying tone of joking is present, but barely.

Sam gives a small smile, opening the door wider to let us in. "Not everybody."

We all go inside as Sam closes the blinds some more and lets us all get cleaned up. After I'm done, I meet with him in the living room and decide to talk to him some. I haven't really gotten to know the guy that is letting us into his home when we're basically all fugitives.

"Hey, Sam. Uh, thanks for letting us stay here. I know it's not exactly ideal to have three fugitives using your house as a hideout, but thank you." I pat his shoulder, giving a smile and pushing my wet hair back out of my face.

"It's no problem, really. I've been in worse situations than this, they turned out okay. This one will, too." Sam stands up from his seat. "I'm gonna go make breakfast."

"I'll help, but I gotta warn you, I've never been the best at cooking." I follow him into the kitchen and help him cook where I can, which means I set the table and put the food on the plates, earning a chuckle here and there from Sam.

   "So, what's your story? I know you fought in New York and your an Avenger, but what about before that?" Sam asks, flipping a few things over in a frying pan as I stand next to him.

   I chuckle. "I'm not sure you want to know, it's pretty damn messy. Sometimes I wish even I didn't know. Maybe it would make things a bit easier."

   "I'm fairly good at following a plot line, so spill it." He nudges my shoulder, making me shrug.

   "Alright, I"ll give you a simpler version." I give in. "My mother and father were Asgardians, but they had me out of wedlock, which was very frowned upon. So they decided to bring me here to Earth and give me up for adoption. I was adopted, everything went fine for a while, but I started developing my powers, my parents got scared so they took me for testing and one day they didn't come to get me after an appointment. I don't know what happened to them, don't really care."

   I think for a moment before continuing. "I was basically raised by this organization which I found out to be HYDRA, they messed with my head, experimented on me, and eventually, weaponized me and I worked for them. After a while, I got tired of it all. So when they brought me in for another round, I took advantage of the situation, killed them all and ran. Went into hiding for a few years, then Bruce Banner found me in Havana, brought me in for the Avengers Initiative and New York."

Sam nodded along as I explained, the words falling out of my mouth quickly, but still in a manner that he could understand. His eyebrows knitted together. "Okay . . . I think I got it."

"Good, 'cause that was a lot of talking. It was either that or letting me into your head to share my memories."

"You can do that?" Sam turns to me.

I wink. "Perk of getting taught by some of the best sorcerers on Asgard."

• • •