Natasha Stark: SHIELD

Chapter 27:

Tasha: The next day Steve was released from the hospital. He got a call instantly.

"Fury's house burned down," Hill said, "We have reason to believe he was inside. YOu know the drill."

"Thanks," Steve said.

"Memorial's in a day, you know if you want," Hill said.

the next day we were in a cemetery. We had decided to come after the memorial.

We stood looking at the stone.

"So you've experienced this type of thing before," a familiar voice said coming up behind us. I was surprised when I saw Fury, but instead of an eyepatch he wore sunglasses, and a hood. I had to say it was a good look.

"You get used to it," Steve said, smiling.

"We've been data mining Hydra's files. Looks like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship. I'm headed to New York tonight," Nick said, "I wanted to ask if you'd come."

Steve looked down, sort of sadly.

"There's something I've got to do first," he said.

"How about you Wilson. We could use a man with your abilities," Fury offered.

"I'm more of a soldier than a spy," Sam admitted. Fury nodded.

"Tasha?" Fury asked, "Should I send your dad an Affidavit?"

"I've had enough crazy for a few days. I think I'll rest up a little first," I said. Fury shook his head.

"Alright then," he said, looking down at his grave one more time before putting his hand out for Wilson to shake. When he got to Steve, he said, "If anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me, right here," he nodded his head towards the grave. Steve nodded. I shook Fury's hand.

"You should be honored. That's about as close as he gets to saying thank you," Romanoff said, coming up behind us. She was dressed very professionally, and I had to admit, she looked good when she wasn't in a cat suit. Not that she didn't look good in a cat suit.

"You not going with him?" Steve asked.

"No," she said with a small laugh.

"Not staying here?" Steve asked.

"No," Tasha said quietly, "I blew all my covers I've got to go find a new one."

"Might take a while," Steve said.

"I'm planning on it," Romanoff said. She looked down, "That thing you asked for. Called in a few favors from the Kieve. She handed Steve a file with Russian writing on it. Steve looked down at it grimmly.

Then she smiled, "Well now what, I can't find you a girl anymore."

"I guess you'll have to focus on something else," Steve said. Tasha smiled. She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. I started digging my toe into the dirt.

"Sorry," she said to me, "Take care of him, he's going to need it."

Then she started walking away, "Be careful Steve," she said, "You might not want to pull on that thread."

She nodded towards the file, which Steve opened. I saw a picture of Bucky a blue Cryo freeze chamber, along with a picture of him in a 1940s military uniform.

"You're going after him," Sam said.

"You don't have to come with me," Steve said.

"I know," Sam said, "When do we start?"

"ASAP," Steve said, closing the file.

I started walking away.

"You coming?" Sam asked.

"I have a lecture to give at MIT," I said, "I might catch up with you later."

A few moments later I landed on the MIT campus. I smiled at some of the students who stared in awe as my suit went back into my back. I made my way to the East lecture hall. There I was met by the Dean. "Miss Stark-Pells, may I say what an honor it is to have you here to lecture today. And I also want to mention, my kids are huge fans of you. Especially my daughter. She bought the action figure the day it came out in stores."

There's action figures? I thought to myself. "Thank you very much sir, " I said, pulling a black hologram projector out of my backpack.

"Connected," AVIS said.

People started coming in a few moments later. They all watched me with wide eyes. I started.

"Hi, I'm Natasha Stark-Pells and I'm an Engineer," I said, laughing to myself ," Welcome to Engineering Anonymous."

The crowd laughed at my joke. I felt pleased. "Thank you guys so much for coming to my lecture, it's great to be able to be here and talk to you about Engineering. Something very near and dear to my heart.

"But if there was anything you could say about who I am, what would you say?" I looked out at the crowd.

"You're a superhero!" someone shouted from the back.

"Exactly," I said, "I'm a superhero. And today I'm here to talk to you all about one thing." AVIS changed the slide, "Superhero Durability."

The crowd leaned forward in their seats, ready to take notes. "If there is anything I have learned from these first few months as a superhero, it would be expect the unexpected. I didn't expect to automatically rank so high within SHIELD. I didn't expect the military to be turned against us in a single sentence, and I certainly never expected my AI to be shot out of my skull by a Hydra agent." I switched slides to show the damage to AVIS. "But all of that has happened. Today I come with a mission for you. Expect the unexpected in your designs. You wouldn't expect someone to use their phones to text in the shower, but there are multiple companies out there that now print that in the handbook due to people being idiots. But idiots are not they will always get what they want. You wouldn't expect anything like a supermodel putting a ¼ inch circumference heel through an Iphone but its happened. Just because you don't expect it to happen doesn't mean it won't. That is the beginning of where Stark has been going for the past, expecting the unexpected to happen, to the US, or to the world. Maybe its time the rest of you, caught up with us."