I rushed into Tony's suite upstairs and panicked, "Why the urgent message?" He had sent a text message a few minutes ago in all caps saying I needed to get upstairs pronto.

"Aw, you rushed up here for me? That's sweet," he joked as he took a sip from his alcoholic drink. He motioned for me to sit next to him.

The dark marble flooring reflected the sunlight coming in from the giant windows that made up the whole front wall. The cream colored walls off balanced the dark flooring and it matched the big bar in the corner. Two sleek black couches were positioned in front of a television and next to a fireplace, the perfect place for him and Pepper to have Saturday night dates. The air smelled of a mixture of pine and alcohol, which tickled my nose. I sat down on the couch and eyed him. "You said it was urgent."

"I said you need to get here quickly, not that it was urgent," he pointed out.

He had a point. Tony always had a point.

I huffed as he stood up in front of me. His fingers tapped against his tablet before he blew up the screen out into the air, making whatever was on the screen project before our eyes. He minimized some tabs and zoomed in on profiles, key words, documents, and more. "Jarvis finished the hacking of the account you gave us." He pushed away some of the files on screen to make room for the important things. He crossed his arms and shifted his weight to one of his feet. "Jarvis, can you copy everything?"

I skimmed over a lot of the information as it as being downloaded. I saw key words, like "super soldier," "blood," "tests," "invincibility," and more. Why doesn't Hydra just give up on the super soldier idea? It's never going to work. I scrunched up my nose, "Do you really think they can do this?"

Tony knit his eyebrows together. His brown eyes glanced over the files and asked, "What? Invincible super soldiers?" He chuckled. "There's no way that the scientists there are that smart. I mean, they're just looking to make them invincible. Everyone has a weakness, even you, cupcake," he smiled at me.

"Don't call me that," I stated in a serious tone. If he wanted to give me a nickname, it could have been way better than cupcake. I ran my fingers through my hair. If Hydra were to finish this project, they could single handedly take out everyone on the planet in days. Now that was stress inducing. "Why do they need it?"

Banner spoke up from the corner of the room. He was reading the newspaper and drank the coffee next to him. "For making their soldiers invincible."

Tony rolled his eyes and shot him a glare. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. Which army, exactly?"

I scratched my head and got up to get a closer look at the files. I leaned over the table and used my hands to hold me up. "Red Skull only has Hydra. He mentioned that someone else wanted to take over the world, but didn't specify who..."

"Wait, hold on," Bruce put up his hands to stop me. He raised his eyebrows and scrunched his forehead. "I thought Red Skull was gone."

I nodded and declared, "He was. Now, he's back. I don't know how. I don't know when. All I know is that he assumed his position as director of Hydra." My stomach churned at the thought of it. He's going to kill all of us...He's going to pick the weakest ones off first, then make his way up to Rogers... I thought in despair. I winced and looked away from the screen.

"Wait, all you're concerned about is that Red Skull is back? Not that some other villain, which literally could be anyone out to get us, is going to try to destroy everything in their path?" Tony questioned Bruce. He fully turned his body to him and cocked his head. "That's very selective hearing, Bruce, especially from you."

"Coming from the man who has the most selective hearing of the whole human race," Banner shot back with a playful grin.

I rubbed my hands against my temples in frustration. I hadn't fully slept in days. I would take thirty minute naps, but other than that, my entire being depended on coffee and sugar to get me through the day. With everything happening and what could potentially happen in the future, I had to keep my eyes open. "What army?" I brought the conversation back up. I didn't want them to get too off track.

"I'm sure they have one. They could use the agents. Or another party joined their act of mischief." He set the paper down and stood up. He walked over to Tony and pointed out a few things in the files. "Look. They aren't trying to use the whole super soldier serum. They just need to find the key for the invincibility creation. After they figure out what they need, the serum is useless." Bruce took off his glasses and hung them on his purple shirt. "Which is why I say that they already have an army that's highly trained."

"Sir," Jarvis cut into the conversation, "I can locate where the lab they're testing the substance in, if you want."

Tony nodded in approval. "Go ahead, Jarvis. You don't need my permission." He noticed me leaving to the elevator and pondered, "Where are you going?"

"To tell the others," I answered simply.

After informing the others, Steve shot up from his seat. His anger meter shot through the roof in an instant. "That is the first thing you should have told us!"

I glared at him. Of course he was angry. He hasn't liked me from the start. "You know what? You two," I pointed at him and Barton, "were being hostile. How was I supposed to tell you yesterday when you were trying to get me kicked out?" I waited for them to give me a response, but they just stared at me blank-faced. "Exactly. You have no reason to be angry with me right now."

Barton was about to say something when Steve stopped him. It looked like it took all of the energy in the world to do so, for he wanted to argue along with him, but didn't. "She's right. We don't have a reason. She told us what we wanted to know yesterday. It was a lot of information to absorb, and her leaving right after gave us time to let it sink in." Steve's blue eyes met hers in an almost caring manner, "Next time, just tell us."

"Steve Rogers actually listened to me for once?" I looked around the room in shock. Everyone was staring at us in an uncomfortable fashion, just itching to break up a fight. "That's nice of you, Rogers," I acknowledged.

"Don't get used to it," he warned and sat back down. Barton left the room and Natasha followed his lead. Tony and Bruce went back to Tony's place for a couple drinks and some studying on whatever they were going to work on together. Which left Peter, Steve and I. "I still don't trust you," Steve stated blatantly.

My mind raced with thoughts. He actually defended me. The guy that hates my guts defended me. I grinned from ear-to-ear and sat down next to Steve. My heart thumped against my chest as I turned to look at him. "Am I growing on you, Rogers?" I asked sweetly. I twirled my hair on my finger in amusement.

A blush rose on Steve's cheeks. "Definitely not." He fidgeted with his hands and peered around the room. His body tensed up, which made his muscles bulge just a bit. Now that view from where I was sitting made my night.

"Is...is Steve Rogers blushing?" Peter questioned in near shock. He perched himself on top of the arm of a chair and almost laughed at Steve's agitated state. Peter's eyes looked at me as he made hinted gestures.

I almost burst out laughing. I shook my head wildly and said, "No. That's impossible." I had just met the guy. Hell, I knew about him for years, but he doesn't know anything about me. And Peter is trying to hook us up? Yeah right. That's the funniest thing on the planet. I ruffled Steve's blonde hair a bit and couldn't wipe the grin from my face. "You know, you're slightly adorable when you're in denial."

Steve pushed my hand away and stood up. He pointed his finger at me as he locked his jaw in place in anger. His ocean eyes pierced right through my soul. "You're worse than Stark and Parker combined. You have no boundaries, no manners, and apparently, no common sense." He turned his head slightly like he wanted to walk away, but he forced himself to stay.

I raised an eyebrow. With the way the light shined through my glasses, it appeared that Steve was glowing. I folded my arms and crossed my legs in an attempt to stay cool. I could handle him. "I have boundaries. I just tend to cross them from time to time to set new ones. No manners? Have you seen Stark? Romanov? Barton? None of them have manners. Peter hardly has any manners, yet you still don't call him out on it."

"Hey!" Peter exclaimed in defense. He thought about it for a second and then shrugged. "You're right."

My hazel eyes flickered back to Steve. I licked the front of my teeth and clicked my tongue before answering him again. "Oh, and common sense. I've got loads of it. It's usually my gut instinct. And you know what my gut is telling me right now?"

Steve could sense he was going to regret asking. It was written all over his face. He declared in a dead tone, "And what is that, exactly?"

I pondered for a second. Should I tell him? Or should I let the suspense kill him? Will it even bother him? Gah! I checked him out once over and stood up. I didn't meet his height. He had a few inches over me, which wasn't all that bad. I pushed my finger onto his hard chest. "You're just intimidated by me." I paused, waited for a reaction, but never got one. "The funny part is, is that you like being intimidated."

Steve gave me a hard, cold stone expression. His eyes lit up not only in anger, but in sheer excitement. "Intimidated by you? Don't be so narcissistic."

"The only one who's really narcissistic here is Tony. I think you know that," I shot back. By this time, I stopped breathing because of how close I was. I had never been that close to a guy I hadn't considered doing later that night. It seemed almost awkward to be right there, breathing the sweet smell of his fragrance. Fresh air, a meadow of flowers, the lake on a dewy morning, the whole mixture ironically would be like freedom, if that had a smell.

Something in his eyes softened at that moment and his jaw relaxed. "Of course I do...because I don't know you enough to say that." He took one last look at me and walked out of the room.

I exhaled the breath I was holding and sat down. A thick silence filled the room. I closed my eyes for a few seconds to calm my breathing and my rapid heart rate; then, I focused on Peter. He messed up his short brown hair to distract himself from the silence and he huffed. "Don't let him bother you. He has his freedom in a knot sometimes."

"That is the lamest joke I have ever heard," I snorted and threw a small couch pillow at him. He deflected it and made it fly into the table lamp. It fell and crashed on the ground. Our eyes widened at the same time, and, within seconds, we sprinted out of the room and left.