SHE DIDN'T KNOW HOW MUCH TIME HAD PASSED WHEN SHE WAS CALLED. It could have been a few hours or a few months, but time had passed, as she was awoken with an alert, the injection irrelevant to her as the enclosure opened, allowing her to step out and onto the floor. She saw a form waiting for her by the door, which meant she was going to be escorted to the bathing area.

"How're you doing?" the person said as she stepped out into the hallway, and she vaguely filed away the information that they were one of the newer employees, as only the new employees ever spoke, though she didn't know how many of them there were, as she always forgot after she filed them away.

"I don't know," she said, because she didn't, but she had to respond, though part of her tried to shout, demanding to know what the consequences would be if she hadn't.

Silence descended upon them as they made their way to the bathing area, her escort having no reason to speak to her and her never having words to say. She quite liked the solitude of the bathing area, finally having a reason to take off the clothes she was changed into every night; she never felt them, but it was an interesting concept, being fully exposed yet having no true perception as to who she was exposed to; when she was in the facility, there was no reason to be aware.

She stepped into the pressurized chamber, watching as it filled with water, encasing her yet keeping her from floating to the ceiling, the water swirling about. Along the glass were warning markers, flashing to let her know when her hair would be washed and when the water would rise to rinse out the shampoo in her hair, submerging her fully.

She liked it when she was fully submerged in the water, her breath caught and her short hair floating above her. There was something serene and freeing about being in the water, grounded but not controlled. Her mind was free in the moment, not empty like it always was, but calm.

When her sanctioned bath was over, the water drained out, the chamber turned into a large dryer, blowing out all the water and leaving her warm and ready to be changed into her mission clothes.

Climbing out, she put on the form fitting suit, dark brown and covering of all areas of her body without being constricting, breathable despite first impressions. She also had a bandana, allowing her to see but keeping others from identifying her, though she was never seen nor caught.

As she followed her handler to the debriefing area to meet with her masters one last time before at most a week, though she would hope less, she felt a sharp pain in her side, sending her sprawling and screaming in agony, her entire body feeling as though it were engulfed in flames.

She was vaguely aware of her handler shouting for someone to help, but they sounded muffled, faraway and distant and she wondered if, possibly, she was dying and, even more so, she wondered if that was at all a bad thing.

But the feeling fled as quickly as it had arrived and in a few moments she was back on her feet, albeit unsteady and shaking, and her handler could do nothing but lead her to the debriefing room and explain to her masters what happened.

"Oh, you'll be fine," one of her masters said, just as she felt a slight jab of pain in the back of her neck as she was injected with her compliance, "Are you ready?"

"Yes," she replied, feeling her senses begin to clear, looking towards her masters who slid over a file filled with all the information she would need.

"Then get going."

º º º

She didn't understand how they expected her to make it into the tower on such minimal knowledge. There were no patterns to be understood, no defenses and weaknesses covered, nothing except an understood entrance and exit point and the instructions to be inside by nightfall that day.

"That isn't how I work," she said, and her masters glared at her, giving her a warning sound that had her going rigid.

"That is how you will work," one of her masters said, "We sent our newest project out into the field to collect the information, you will utilize it and do as you're told."

The compliance kept her from arguing. Kept her from shouting that if they had so much time to accomplish their mission, they shouldn't expect her to make it into the tower in one day. That if they had so much time, they should have expected the new project to collect more data. That they should have just let her go out herself, because she was being wasted and forced into a situation she could never win.

Forget the even deeper part of her that had long since tired of watching, of desperately trying to break free. Forget that part of her entirely.

She planned on getting the job done regardless, as she had no way of retaliating. She tried to plan with what little she had, preparing herself to think on the spot, dealing with highly powered individuals that she would be able to take down, but she could have had the advantage if only her masters had sent her out beforehand.

As she neared the tower, she paused, looking about at the people around her, the mixture of drugs and her mutation making it so they blended into a mass, her mind focused on the task and those that would be beneficial and detrimental.

She chose to strike at midday, as she had been told most were either out of the tower itself or sleeping, Tony Stark often staying up through the night only to give way in the afternoon to his exhaustion. She used the people outside of the tower as a safety, taking in the protestors and the supporters and the people dressed in strange, elaborate garments.

She hardly knew anything of the people she was supposedly apart of.

Shaking her head, she made her way around the tower, biting her lip as she waited. The city was never truly empty and there would never be a time when she couldn't be caught, but if the information she had been given was accurate, she wouldn't be seen for very long.

As stated, there were cleaners sanctioned to do a deep cleaning of the tower, not only its windows but the ledges around it as well. If she made her way onto one of the pulley systems, she would be able to make her way up to one of the higher levels that turned from business into living areas, and according to her debriefing, for some odd reason, the ventilation shafts were large enough to fit a grown man, rather than the tight space most had been designed for.

When questioned, she was given no clear response as to why the ventilation had been expanded. All she was told was she needed to make her way up onto the penthouse landing in order to reach the only available entrance from the outside. According to her masters and her associates, she would be given a ten second grace period so as to go unseen by the cameras when she reached the landing, but there was no verification of their accuracy.

According to them, Tony Stark was a genius with tech more advanced than theirs, yet they assumed to outsmart his tech.

Too focused on her mission to truly think of the implications of her masters being so reckless, she made her way towards the unmanned landings, dressed in the uniform of the company over her suit, reaching out towards the ropes and pulling.

She looked towards the glass which were completely tinted, clearly one-way so as to keep the public separate without sacrificing the view for the inhabitants inside. She schooled her features, unsure of whether any people were watching her, focused on not getting caught.

Vaulting onto the penthouse landing a few minutes later, she looked towards the now-clear glass into empty room, narrowing her eyes as she peered inside, mind whirring as she wondered why the room was deserted. Breaking out of her calculating, she pulled out the signal, pressing the button, pretending to go and clean the glass so as to the trick the surveillance.

When the button turned green, she raced towards the wall, her foot scraping against the wall as she reached up towards the vent, hanging on by her fingertips, reaching into her pocket with one to grab the device she was meant to unscrew the cover with.

Prying it free, she climbed inside, surprised to find that it was, in fact, wide enough to comfortably fit her. Frowning in concentration, she continued inside, figuring that she would just hide and lay in wait, scoping out to see exactly who was in the tower and when, checking their patterns and finding their weaknesses.

The way she was meant to. 

Steeling herself, she continued along the way, raising her eyebrow when she saw scratch marks into the metal with crude words and phrases, cursing out various individuals such as 'Legolas' and 'Katniss' and 'Barton.' She wondered about the traffic within the shaft, planning in the event another person climbed inside for reasons still unknown to her.

She travelled around for some time, pausing at openings to listen in, confused as to why she could only find silence in most, sliding down and climbing up depending on which floor she was traversing through. Whatever the case, she found solace within the vents, strangely enough, and reveled in the silence despite her concerns.

She took the moment of calm to go over all the information she had garnered, which was still minimal at best. She knew of the inhabitants, and she knew of their abilities, yet she knew not of their patterns nor the true layout of the tower, though that she would gather. She did, however, come to the conclusion that they were out at the moment, and could only hope they would return soon for her to begin scouting.

She only had a week before her masters required her return, and she would be punished; though, as they had three months, hopefully it wouldn't be severe.

As she continued to crawl, she felt a stabbing pain in her back, sending her sprawling and crying out in pain, her entire body writhing, nearly passing out from the pain, unable to stop herself from screaming as everything hurt too greatly.

When the pain finally subsided—it lasted for much longer than beforehand, bordering on three minutes—she was left a panting mess, clutching at her head in agony, shivering and sobbing in ways she hadn't in so many years; the last time she had cried was during the last leg of experimentations when she was still a child.

Pushing herself up on shaky arms, she leaned back against the wall, struggling to catch her breath and compose herself; she had a mission to accomplish, now was not the time for something as trivial as pain, yet she couldn't help but panic, wondering just what was happening to her.

As she crawled her way towards another opening, she heard the sound of something closing behind her. Turning around, she caught sight of a metal sheet from where she had just been, blocking the way, then another sliding into place from where she was facing, blocking her on both sides.

'Initiating Busybody Protocol.'

º º º

She woke with a start, her heart racing as she tried to stand, only to find her arms and legs restrained. Looking around, her eyes focused, only to find herself in a clear container with no clear means of escape, looking out into a large laboratory.

"To whom it may concern," a snarky voice spoke out into the room, shocking her into attention, chills falling throughout her body, "Congratulations on 'sneaking into my tower.' Yeah, like that would ever happen. I don't know how far you made it, as this is just me recording in the event this happened because, if this recording is playing, all but one of us is out of the Tower, which means it has been set on a lockdown until we return. So have fun, and think about what you just did."

The recording cut off, leaving her in complete silence. She let out a slight sob, staring at the floor, utterly mortified. For the first time in her entire life, she had been caught.

And she didn't know what to do.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Stuff is finally happening ya'll I am very excited like I know this has been the slowest thing in the entire world, but it'll get a lost faster especially with what happens next chapter.

Also, I know her sneaking into the tower is utter bullshit but I couldn't come up with anything better because in my mind, the upper levels are accessed through facial recognition among other things or through specific invitation by someone with clearance so there's no feasible way for her to make it into the upper levels, and then she wouldn't have been caught as a result, so I pulled a bullshit reason of Tony having fun with Clint sneaking around in the vents as a reason. It's stupid, but it kinda worked.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!