"If this is your definition of humble Phil I'd like to buy you a dictionary... and then slap you with it."

Phil Coulson stepped into the elevator of the new Stark Tower with Miriam Morales. She'd been off the private plane for all of twenty minutes and already was immersed in the SHIELD world once more.

The agent beside her merely smirked softly at her comment, "did you talk to Natasha?"

"She's got Banner, miraculously," Miriam nodded and took notice of the expensive look to the elevator. This certainly did not mean humble. "Is he expecting us?"

"Not exactly," he answered. He began to type away on the phone, "he knows though."

"Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocol's are being overwritten." A computerized voice from above cut in then.

"Courtesy of Maria Hill I'm assuming," Miriam commented and watched as Phil pulled out a phone.

He tapped on it, demonstrating the wide screen and clicked on the number to Tony Stark who answered within seconds. "Stark, we need to talk."

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message." His monotone voice was a coy to get them to go away.

Unfortunately it was not going to work, Phil briefly glanced to the brunette who shifted on her feet with annoyance. "This is urgent."

"Then leave it urgently." He annoyingly stated, hanging up. Unfortunately the Agents had already reached the top of the sky scraper. Phil stepped out rather quickly, leaving Miriam to linger behind in a slow pace as she observed that he was not alone. A red head was standing near him, both holding a tall glass of champagne. Tony turned in their direction, pulling a face and then looking back towards the women beside him. "Security breach. That's on you."

"Mr. Stark." Phil acknowledged the man professionally.

"Phil! Come in." The women states very happily, walking their way.

"Ms. Potts, this is my associate Agent Miriam Morales." Phil introduced the two women who nodded at one another.

Tony Stark stepped up, intrigued by the conversation now. His eyes passed from either agent, particularly narrowing at the brunette women who's lips were a brilliant natural red and poised in a disinterested manner. She caught him looking, brown eyes suddenly very volatile which had to have been a first for him. Tony snapped back into the conversation when a hint of intimidation suddenly struck him. "Phil?"

"We can't stay." Phil commented to Pepper.

"—Uh... his first name is Agent. And I didn't catch her name." Tony pointed between the two in his confident manner.

"Come on in, we're celebrating." Pepper was welcoming as she waved them both further into the space.

"Which is why they can't stay." Iron Man muttered to her although both agents heard. Coulson and Morales looked at one another and although neither of their expressions shifted they could just tell this was already becoming more of a hassle then necessary.

Miriam exhaled rather loudly, forcing all eyes on her as she crossed her arms and took the lead. "I assure you, Coulson and I would much rather be anywhere then attempting to compete with your ego but unfortunately we've been assigned to do this. We just need you to take a look at this."

Phil held out the black device with all the information Tony would want. Said man took one look at the thing and shook his head. "I don't like being handed things."

Pepper didn't miss a beat as she took the it instead and traded Phil with the glass. "That's alright, cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade." Once Phil was holding the glass she turned towards Tony and took his own, handing him the information instead. "Thank you."

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday." Tony remarked rather obnoxiously to both agents.

"This isn't a consultation." Coulson retorted.

"This is Fury asking you to pay up from the time he saved you from the palladium poisoning... well Fury and Natasha." Miriam added on, looking around.

"Is this about The Avengers?" Pepper spoke up and when everyone looked at her pointedly she backtracked. "Which I...I know nothing about."

Tony walked to a table far off towards a table with an assortment of technology. "The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify."

"I didn't know that either." Pepper chimed in.

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self obsessed, don't play well with others."

"That I did know." The red head nodded, pointing her finger in agreement.

"Look, take it from me; reading Nat's profile on you and judging you from the tv I would not be here unless it was absolutely necessary but this isn't about personality profiles anymore." Miriam stated.

"Tony, what is all this?" Pepper walked towards the bearded man, hand touching his hunched should as he looked through the digital files at his disposal.

"This is uh..." Tony did something to the iPad, quickly flicking his fingers from the surface of the screen to the open air.

All at once the open air in front of them was filled with the videos from within the folders. There was the well known documents; like Hulk, Iron man, Thor, and Captain America but the lesser known were there too. She could see Natasha and Clint off to the side, arrows and bullets flying from where they had taken cover and then security camera catching the black widow herself taken down a plethora of men with ease.

Tony doesn't seem fazed by any of these, eyes just widening a fraction as he takes in what he had already discovered it isn't until he comes to the bottom left screen that he whistles lowly. He turns, pointing with a marker to the screen and side stepping so everyone can witness.

It's Miriam and she shifts uncomfortably on her feet as she recalls what goes down.

The video is old, by a decade at least and it's on a deserted street somewhere in Brazil. Her hairs much longer then the shoulder length she's got it in now and it's almost alive as she flips and twists her body away from the horde after her. The men all shoot their weapons at her, loud enough to make the person holding the camera curse and jump with fear but not her. She dodges the bullets with ease, using their allies as shields and then snapping necks as easily as possible. Soon she's got only 3 left and despite the many hits she's taken it doesn't at all faze her as she stabs the third one with his own knife in the throat and dumps his body to the ground. Before she can turn to take down the other two, they send a wave of bullets her way. The automatics all send her to the ground and just when it seemed that the blood meant her death she stood up with a roar as the bullets leap out of her body. She turned covered in a black haze and walked to her assailants.

They were frozen in fear, even when she stepped forward and grasped their necks with her hands. The fog sucked back into her small space between their necks and her palm, draining their faces of all color and leaving their skin a grey tone.

Pepper swallowed thickly, "oh my..."

Tony whistled lowly, "well isn't that impressive Agent Morales."

"I'm taking the jet to D.C. Tony you have a lot of homework." Pepper muttered, still eyeing the entire recordings.

Stark made a noise of protest but didn't at all oppose as she set the glass of champagne down and walked in the agents direction. "Any chance you two are headed towards La Guardia?"

Phil nodded, smiling at the red head as they began to make small talk over his personal life. Miriam was frowning, distaste in her mind as she thought over Tony's taunt.

She most certainly did not like him knowing her past, of all people.

"Miriam." Coulson called out to her, motioning towards the elevator.

"You go ahead, I'll catch up." She muttered and when he raised his eyebrows she sighed. "I have to make sure he comes or Fury won't ever let me leave New York again."

Satisfied yet not at all believing Miriam he seemed to agree and turned to walk out with Pepper.

The elevator dinged as the doors closed behind them.

"So tell me Agent Morales, what is it that makes you special." Tony turned, leaning against the table.

"I'm not." She retorted.

"Really cause that replay," he pointed back towards where she was yet again taking bullets like it was nothing, "says different."

She exhaled loudly with an eye roll, he wasn't entirely wrong. "I'm here just as a courtesy to Fury, I'm not here to join the Avengers... like the rest of you."

"Then why are you in the profile." He countered.

"Well it's pretty obvious isn't it?" She remarked, snorting softly at the obvious answer.

Tony eyes her awkwardly, finding sarcasm from another person refreshing. "I know that... I mean I saw that but what caused it. We all had some weird accident."

"I don't think that's gonna be productive," she muttered, quickly realizing that Tony was trying to distract her. "Are you coming?"

"Are you gonna let me see? I've got shrapnel in my body only a handful of people have been able to see up close." Tony quickly retorted. "Come on... I know you want too."

"This is not gonna turn into a game of I'll show you mine if you show me yours." She scoffed, dryly replying as her feet came closer and she finally took the time to look over the videos. For a long time she felt like it was just her in the world, a curse it seemed, but Nick Fury showed her that she could be different. "So why are you thinking it over?"

"I thought that would make you happy, wouldn't want to annoy you with my arrogance right?"

"You answer questions with a lot of questions, now that is a nuisance." She muttered, lifting her hand to grab the bottle of champagne and taking a chug from the half full bottle. Her face lifted with disgust for a moment and she remembered why she hated the life of the rich. "But to yet again answer one of your many endless questions; I'd set aside my aversion to you for Fury and to get back faster—"

"Back—" Tony yet again went to ask another question when her glared at him. He shut his mouth, licking his lips and remembering the black smoke. There was just so much about her he wanted to know because truly she was an unexpected surprise into his life and a genius like him couldn't help but question. "I don't know if I can do it."

"Is Tony Stark seriously questioning his own capabilities right now? I know we've known one another for 5 minutes but that's gotta be a first... in your entire life." Miriam followed her words with a pointed finger in his way.

"I'm not questioning me, I'm questioning this team or the theory of it exactly." Tony responded after he'd belted out a low laugh. "How are we as a group going to work."

"Well we aren't, you and the rest of them though... I think you underestimate the good in people." She corrected him, eyes wondering out the window as she remembered who had said those words to her once more. "Besides, you like living right?"

Tony didn't seem to laugh at her last joke, "you're not joining?"

"My exact orders were to help Phil coax you into joining, I'm under no obligation to join you all. I'm just here to get you to go." She answered back nonchalantly.

"How can you try to convince me to join when you won't even give it a go then."

She shrugged her shoulders, "I never said that. Frankly, I'm not sure if this is my fight and I just paid up my debt to him."

"You're thinking about it too aren't you." Tony found her looking at the clip once more. "For what it's worth you deserve to be on the team just as much as anyone else."

Miriam smiled softly at him, walking away from the table as the conversation began to get to personal. She didn't talk to anyone like this, much less Tony Stark and besides he didn't know her well enough to make that assumption. "Do these windows open?"

"Yeah, but there's an elevator and unless you've got on one of my suits I don't think that's a viable option for you." Tony countered, walking over as she began to climb the steps.

"Yeah well I don't like elevators and besides you've been a very nice host so I think I'll show you my party trick." Unintentionally she found herself winking at him.

"Dear god please don't be lying to me otherwise I will have a lot of explaining to do." He gulped but nonetheless called out, "Jarvis, open the doors."

"Yes sir."

Miriam stepped out, handing the bottle of champagne to Tony. "See you soon Stark."

And she jumped off the ledge. Tony rushed over, remembering the last thing was her carefree smile as the cold wind blew in her face before she fell.

Just as Tony felt his heart drop to his stomach at the thought of letting a women commit suicide she flew up.

Miriam Morales could fucking fly.

"God that feels good to do again." She muttered slowly, pulling fine hairs from her face and then kicking off.

Tony was left to only mutter, "that's one hell of a women."

|•|•|•|•|

It wasn't hard to spot Steve Rogers, or Captain America as he was more commonly known. In a pair of slacks more fitted for a man pushing sixty and not in his late twenties, a vintage brown leather jacket and checkered shirt she swore she'd seen on the old man who was eating breakfast in the lobby of her hotel, Steve was looking around the sidewalk cluelessly.

She walked up to him, pushing away the black aviators that concealed her face from the sun and also blocked any debris from her line of vision during her fly over, Miriam walked casually up to him.

The pictures didn't lie, the blue eyed blonde man who stood in front of her was every bit as tall and handsome as she'd seen. He wasn't paying attention to her, eyes on the sky scrapers around him as he had yet to adjust to the generation he had woken up in.

She cleared her throat, craning her neck upwards to meet his eyes, "Captain."

"Ma'am," he responded with a curt nod to the head. "Miriam Morales? I'm right aren't I? I hope I'm pronouncing it right."

Yet again she flashed to the old man in the lobby, remembering how kindly he'd spoke to one of servers. It was in the same tone Steve had just spoken to her, she couldn't help but smile at the innocence. "You're right, and you've also read the reports."

"I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't, ma'am." He answered.

She nodded her head, "well let's get to it then, you don't mind walking right?"

Steve nodded, subconsciously slipping sides as he positioned himself nearest the street, leaving Miriam to walk alongside the buildings. "It was an interesting read..."

"Yes well, Fury is very thorough." She answered him, both meeting eyes as they realized they knew more about one another then they led on. "Steve you know I can protect myself right?"

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and then when she nodded her head to where he walked Steve suddenly realized what he'd done. "Sorry, force of habit."

They both laughed, Miriam shrugging her shoulders. "Yes, well I'll forgive you this time if you call me Miriam instead of ma'am and let me take you out shopping after this because I have half a mind to help you cross the street."

Steve laughed, suddenly finding the women walking beside him different to the rest of the agents he'd met. She wasn't at all like the file suggested, Miriam was better. "Alright then, Miriam." He emphasized her name, "you'll have to buy though. I doubt the money I have saved would buy me a a wardrobe in this era."

"Well I guess the governments checks will finally pay off in other ways besides Netflix and hair cuts." She agreed.

The landing strip was scheduled to be somewhere ordinary so naturally SHIELD had decided this place to be one of the closed off boardwalks in Brooklyn.

They arrived just after walking across the street and found a very giddy Agent Coulson waiting for them. "Agent Morales, Captain Rogers."

Steve and Phil shook hands while Miriam nodded at her fellow Agent who she'd seen earlier in the morning as their hotel rooms were right beside one another. They stepped into the advanced jet, the trio seemed to be the only passengers because as soon as they were on board the gate was closed and they took off.

"Fury asked me to hand you this, a visual of those you'll soon be meeting." Coulson spoke to Rogers, handing him a wireless screen.

Steve tapped one of the videos, taking the time to read the bars on the side and to memorize the faces as well as names. Miriam noted how the video was that of the Hulk, or Bruce Banner.

"So this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?"

"A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gammer radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula." Phil detailed for him while Miriam sat beside the super soldier.

"Didn't really go his way, did it?" This seemed to be more of a comment then a question as Steve said it under his way with a pitying tone.

"Not so much." Miriam answered him, reflecting on the mess that had gone down. She hadn't been part of the agency in those years but still, everyone had heard of it.

"Well he's got that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking." Coulson added on, Steve didn't seem to catch the reference as he pulled a funny face at the man. Understanding then the Agent reiterated. "He's like a smart person. I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping."

When Steve met him with silence and a slightly startled expression Miriam shook her head in amusement. "I told you not to say that, Norman Bates."

Coulson backtracked, "I mean, I was...I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a...just a huge honor to have you on board."

Steve stood, feeling rather awkward as the pressure suddenly began to build up. "Well, I hope I'm the man for the job."

Coulson nodded without a doubt. "Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh...we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

"The uniform?" Steve turned, eyeing Miriam who confirmed he heard right. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little...old fashioned?"

"Everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned." Coulson explained to him.

Miriam stood, suddenly very aware of the doubt an second guessing everyone was having. Maybe Tony wasn't wrong, could they all work together?

|•|•|•|•|

More will be revealed about her power soon!