SOFIA WAS RUNNING. She was running as fast as she could with the notorious Black Cat right beside her. Together, the two of them jumped from roof to roof trying to get away from the cops.  They had the advantage of the high ground while the police were all on the ground attempting to shoot at them, but they missed each time. 

She was running so fast that she believes wind burn might make a mark on her face. 

This was her first time out doing against-the-law activities, and she would be lying if she said she hated it. It was exhilarating, but it couldn't happen ever again.

"Did you see their faces?!" Black Cat laughed. She put her arms on her legs trying to catch her breath. It was pitch black outside but the lights from the city aluminated them. 

For the moment, they were in the clear. The police had lost them...for now.

Sofia's face remained serious. Not even a smile broke through her walls. 

It was a rare thing now; Sofia's smile. She used to do it all the time, but now it never happens.  She was cold and selfish now, but that's what trauma does to someone, whether she acknowledges it or not.

Sure, seeing your parents die right in front of you and your childhood home burn to the ground can seem pretty traumatizing blah blah blah, but not to Sofia. Throughout the years, she's just learned to cope with it, even turn it into a joke. 

Somehow, Sofia survived the fire. She didn't know how, or why, but she just did. It could have also been her strong determination to end the soldier's life...whatever his name was. 

Sofia's learned to block out all emotion, sort of like those vampires on a tv show she watched recently. It was like a switch that she flipped. Now, she doesn't feel anything besides anger. 

When the police and firemen had asked her what happened that night, they laughed in her face after hearing the truth. They did not believe that a man with a metal arm shot and killed her parents and then set the house on fire, and honestly, she couldn't blame them. It did sound ridiculous. 

Sofia didn't speak for another three years. She hopped around foster homes until the family got sick of her silentness. It took years of therapy for her to even mumble a word. At the age of thirteen was when she finally spoke again. 

But something else happened that night. When Sofia's body was lit on fire, she felt no pain. No, the fire felt welcoming. It felt like a strange comfort. The extreme heat activated something strange inside her, and ever since then, she's been able to create and manipulate fire.

She first found out about it at her first foster home. She accidentally lit one of the other girls on fire which then led her to be kicked out. The parents of the house didn't report it to the police though since Sofia had amazing acting skills. She claimed it was just an accident when really the girl was getting on Sofia's nerves. She had gotten very annoyed, so she lit her on fire.

She immediately went back into the system for months without end until she found a home for about three months. It was a record. Her last home only lasted three weeks. But each time she got kicked out for different reasons, not because of her abilities. She managed to keep those hidden. 

Since Sofia flipped her switch, her more recent adoptive parents got fearful of her psychotic tendencies. They would sometimes enter the kitchen to see her holding a match to her arm, just to feel something. 

The match reminded her of that night and it fueled her anger to keep going. She was going to find that man, even if it was the last thing she'd do. 

So she got kicked out...once more. But on her way back to child protective services, she made a decision and escaped. Sofia promised herself she wouldn't go back there ever again. 

So she made her way to New York, aka the city of chaos. It was the main headquarters for the Avengers so that meant it's most likely the place she'd find entertaining things to do.

She also does not go by Alurez anymore since it would give people a lot of information about her past. Instead, she just goes by whatever foster family name she decides to use that day. Right now, she was using Cerroza. Sofia Cerroza was her identity for the day. She's even managed to forge multiple fake ids...just in case.

She thought about changing her first name too, but she wanted her parents' killer to know the name of the girl who ended his life. Well, who will end his life. She's having trouble locating him at the moment. 

However, she has a lead. 

Since she doesn't have the weight of her foster family always making sure she's okay, Sofia has much more liberty to do whatever she wants now. For example, her fake parents didn't like her hanging out with a girl she met at the park once. They said she carried "too much baggage." 

Obviously, they weren't told of Sofia's past in full detail it seemed. 

The girl introduced herself as Felicia Hardy. She had pitch-black hair with beautiful bangs. Felicia was about Sofia's height and the two of them had both mommy and daddy issues. That's probably why they got along so well.  

But Sofia took a liking to the girl and soon the two of them became close friends. Each night in the foster home, she'd sneak out to meet up with Felicia and plot ways to snuff the killer out of hiding. 

But each night, they were getting nowhere.

That was until 2014 when all of HYDRA and SHIELD's secrets were poured out into the internet for anyone to see. Sofia remembers meeting up at Felicia's house and hearing a lot of excited screaming. At first, Sofia thought Felicia was with someone and doing....something, but it turned out to be much better.

They not only learned the soldier's alias but his entire name as well. 

The Winter Soldier, aka James Buchanan Barnes. 

Things could not get better than this.

Sofia studied everything there was to know about James and learned that he fought in the second world war. So that also meant he carried a lot of PTSD...which she could use against him. Sofia needed to know everything that triggered him so he could suffer as much as she did all those years ago. 

 Two years later, there was still no news about the Winter Soldier. The rumor going around was that he was retired but Sofia called it bullshit. She had even gone to his old house in Brooklyn and set up security measures that would alert her if anyone entered, yet no one has.

But Sofia never became impatient. No, she didn't even know what the feeling felt like. She just sat and waited for him to return, and she did it with a chilling smile on her face.

"Alright, I think I've finally got the material all ready. Can you test it out?" Felicia walked into the room carrying a supposedly fireproof cloth. She has been constantly bugging Sofia about going out into the field with her. Felicia makes her living as the Black Cat. Since her father is in jail, she has to fend for herself. As the criminal mastermind, she makes people fall in love with her, breaks their hearts, takes advantage of them, and repeats. 

Last night Sofia simply wore an all-black outfit which Felicia hated wholeheartedly. It wasn't even fireproof!

Felicia is great at making disguises. She created a black and silver suit for herself with a blonde wig that looks too good to be true. She even wears heels out during her activities. Now she wants to create an entire persona for Sofia. They could be cat burglars together!

But like Sofia, Felicia is in this business for the same exact reason: revenge. 

Because of a man named Kingpin, Felicia has the ability to induce bad luck on her enemies, plus she has enhanced agility and strength. But she hates him. He ran tests on her which gave her the abilities, but he manipulated her to get what he wanted, and for that, Felicia wants him gone.

So, Felicia is helping Sofia with her revenge and Sofia is helping Felicia with hers.

"I told you, I'm not even sure I want to go out into the field. I'm going to draw too much attention to myself." Sofia replied, staring at the computer screen for any updates. "Besides, last night was just a one-time thing. It was a mistake."

"Exactly. Now, we need to think of a cool name for yourself," Felicia continued, ignoring Sofia's words. "But just for now, can you please just try this and make sure you won't burn alive."

Sofia glared at her.

Felicia intentionally makes jokes about fires or burning and knows it ticks Sofia off, but she enjoys it way too much to stop. "Too soon?"

Sofia rolled her eyes and roughly grabbed the so-called fireproof fabric from her hands. Holding it in her palms, she created a small fire. When she saw that nothing was happening to the cloth, she made the fire both stronger and hotter. 

It remained the same. It didn't even heat up very much. Sofia was impressed. 

"Alright Fel, if you can make me a suit that doesn't look like Mr. Captain Ass over at Avengers' Tower, then I'll consider going out into the field with you." Sofia dropped the fabric on the counter and got back to her laptop. 

After years of thinking of plans, she still hasn't come up with a single full-proof one. Sure there's the occasional hunt down the remaining members of his family and kill them as he watches, but being under HYDRA's wing probably means he has no emotional connection with them. She needs something that will tear him apart from the inside out. 

And now that HYDRA is gone, it's not like she can enact her revenge on something that doesn't exist anymore, so she'll have to make this extra painful for him. 

Sofia turned on her newly stolen phone and browsed through the internet. Every day there was news of something "tragic" happening out in the world, but she didn't much care. No one cares about missing kids or amber alerts, or even murders. It's not like the person reading it will stop everything they're doing and go searching for the missing people. 

That's the thing with society recently. No one cares.

Just as no one cared for her on May 11th, 2010. 

She quickly shook the thought out of her mind. That night was irrelevant to her now. Almost irrelevant. 

"You know what, I'm going to the grocery store. Is there anything specific you want?" Sofia hastily shot out of her chair and stuffed her phone into her pocket. Staring at screens all day waiting for something to happen was driving her more insane. 

"Hm, fruit roll-ups," Felicia replied as she took the ring pop out of her mouth. She has a huge sweet tooth and Sofia's surprised she hasn't had a heart attack yet, or something.

"Alright," she opened their apartment door just before stopping, "and be careful tonight, okay?"

A smirk grew on Felicia. Sofia knew that by the time she got back from shopping, Felicia would already be out in the streets, enjoying herself. "Is that emotion coming from Sofia Alurez?"

A scowl appeared on her face when Felicia used her real last name. "No. I'd just hate to lose the only person helping me rid the world from James Barnes." Sofia scoffed. And at this very moment, it was the whole truth. Sofia didn't see Felicia as anything more than a co-worker with a mutual interest in revenge. 

Even though Felicia knew Sofia was telling the truth, she couldn't help but see Sofia as her one and only friend. Sofia had come into her life at a very hard time and ever since then, the two of them have been a great duo. Felicia dreads the day that all disappears.

But the both of them had a job to do and emotions could not get in the way. Without another word, Sofia left the apartment and made her way out of the building. 

Today, she was carrying just one of her fake ids. If she were to get caught doing something illegal and the police had to question her, it wouldn't look great if she had multiple ids, each saying a different name.

Sofia is always the one to do errands because the police know the Black Cat's true identity. If Felicia were to go out in public, she'd surely get caught and possibly arrested. It all depends on her mood if Sofia's being honest. Felicia could easily get herself out of that situation if she's in the right mindset. 

While walking down the streets, Sofia saw a crowd forming itself with their phones pointed up at the sky. Deciding to see what all the commotion was about, Sofia got closer to the crowd.

It was hard to see at first, but then it was as clear as day.

It was a man dressed in ugly pajamas sticking to the side of a building. He had blue sweatpants with red socks all the way up to his knee. On his red sweatshirt was the symbol of a small spider. He was wearing the ugliest goggles Sofia has ever seen on his eyes as well.

Great, Sofia mentally sighed, another superhuman.

People were cheering for him as he stopped a speeding bus. Now he just hung to the side of the building taking in all their love. 

That's the thing with heroes. They don't care about the people, they only care about themselves. They feed on the love people give them. They rely on their good reputations and hope that everyone will support them. 

It's ridiculous.

She barely gave him a second thought before continuing to the supermarket.