· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎L A D Y   T I G R E S S   ▎
THREE   ━━   zero-sum.
࿔·ﾟ*ೃ࿐ ࿔*  accidents will happen

"𝓗ow the hell did it get so dark? It's been like five minutes!"

The three of them were now just outside of the building, Nat was raising her phone in the air to find the exact location of where to go while Kaileena made her eyes glow orange to see better in the dark, perks of being half-Tiger.

"This camp is where I was trained." Steve told them, looking around the place.

"Changed much?" Asked the former Russian spy.

Steve stopped walking and stared at a flag pole that had no flag, "A little." He was quiet for a while which made Kaileena look back at him. He seemed to be in a trance, or he was going crazy and started hallucinating, both could be a possibility.

Nat's voice broke Steve from his hallucinating, "This is a dead-end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio." She told the two, placing her phone back in her pocket before looking at another field. "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."

"Or you just suck at locating," Kaileena added. Nat looked at her and gestured for the Stark to try and look for it, Kaileena rolled her eyes and started looking around the place, scanning it with the advantage of her glowing orange eyes.

Her sight stopped at a shed- or whatever it was, she smirked when she realized that it was what they were looking for. "Found it." She voiced, pointing at it.

Nat and Steve looked to where she pointed at and started walking towards it, "Well done, Lena." Steve complimented the Stark which got a smile out of her. Nat just nodded in agreement, a little bit jealous that Kaileena could find it but not her.

When they reached it, Steve got his shield and hit the lock with it making it break. Steve opened the door and went inside first followed by Kaileena and Nat. The three of them went down a few stairs before finally reaching the floor, Steve went to the big electric switch as the lights all turned on.

On the wall infront of them was a big SHIELD logo, the walls were white and blue and there were desks and work chairs everywhere. "This is SHIELD..." Nat stated the obvious, all of them were looking around the place.

"Maybe where it started."

Kaileena went towards a door to another room, possibly an office, and opened the door slowly with Steve and Nat right behind her. It, infact, wasn't an office but it was a storage room or whatever it was.

Kaileena quietly gasped when she looked infront of her, there were three frames up on the wall. On the right was Peggy Carter, she didn't know who the man on the left was, and the one in the middle was someone she knew all too well. Her father, Howard Stark.

"And there's Tony and Elena's father," Nat stated, glancing at the girl beside her who was staring at her father's picture.

Howard Stark was Tony and Elena's father, he died in December 1991 along with their mother, Maria Stark. Kaileena remembers how she cried non-stop for weeks after their deaths, Tony had to comfort her every time.

Kaileena stepped closer to her father's frame and whispered, "Dad . . ."

"Howard." That's right! Steve was friends with her father. Howard would always brag to his kids that he was friends with Captain America, it annoyed Tony a lot that he started growing hatred towards the American hero.

Nat looked at Steve, "Who's the girl?" She asked him but he didn't answer. Instead, he looked away from the pictures and walked away. Nat turned her attention to the Stark but Kaileena just shrugged, she knew who it was but if Steve didn't want to tell Nat then maybe she shouldn't. It wasn't her question to answer, it was Steve's.

Nat looked at the pictures one more time before going towards Steve, Kaileena stayed there for a bit but then soon followed after Nat. Steve noticed something odd with a wall of shelves, "If you're already working in a secret office," He paused, placing his hand between a crack that was on the shelf and pulled on it, it opened and revealed a set of doors that were to an elevator. "why do you need to hide the elevator?"

Kaileena stood beside Steve, "Wow, Steven. You finally used your brain for once, I'm proud of you!" She said to him smiling as she placed her hand on his shoulder. Nat giggled from behind them and Steve just formed his lips in a thin line and nodded.

Nat scanned the buttons in the elevator to understand the numbers since it was faded, after it finished scanning she pressed a few buttons, and then they were off.

The elevator doors opened and all they saw was a dark room. The three of them glanced at eachother, it was clear that all of them were reluctant about going in the dark, not knowing what was inside. Nonetheless, the three of them got out of the elevator and walked into what may be their deaths.

The more they walked, the lights started to turn on which creeped Kaileena out. There were screens and computers all around them, there were radio tapes and a single chair that was placed infront of the largest screen in the room.

"This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient." Nat stated, walking around and looking at the screens in amazement.

"Ancient . . . kind of like you, Steve." Kaileena joked, looking at Steve.

Steve, being the rude bitch that he is, completely ignored her and walked towards the girl he kissed a few hours ago on an escalator. Kaileena scoffed, clearly offended, and decided to look around more.

Nat saw something on the table and walked towards it, she took out the USB drive and placed it on one of the plenty vacant spaces. As soon as she plugged it, more lights turned on and the machine started working.

An electronic voice that spoke made all their heads snap to one of the screens that had green glowing text being written. "Initiate system?" Kaileena stepped closer to the screen and placed her fingers on the keyboard, she typed in 'yes' and then pressed enter.

It powered up which got Nat a little excited, "Shall we play a game?" Nat asked smirking. She looked back at Steve and started to explain thinking that he didn't know what she was talking about since he was frozen for about 70 years. "It's from a movie that was really-"

"I know. I saw it." Steve cut her off, nodding his head. The computer started to beep as green glowing lines formed into a man with round glasses. The camera on top of the computer pointed to Steve and started talking,

"Rogers, Steven, born 1918." Then it moved to Kaileena, "Stark, Kaileena Maria, born 1970." Then it pointed at Nat who gave it her side profile but it still recognized her, "Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born 1984."

All of them looked at it weirdly, "It's some kind of recording." Nat stated but it seemed more of a question than a statement. Kaileena shook her head, it couldn't be a recording.

"I don't think it is, why would this . . . robot guy know who we are?" Kaileena opposed with an uneasy voice, this was very creepy.

"The Stark is correct. I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945. But I am . . ." The voice trailed off, then a picture on another screen beside the one they were looking at showed a picture of an old-looking man, probably in his 50's. Steve seemed to recognize him by the look on his face which made both Nat and Kaileena look at him curiously. [Translation: Young lady]

"You know this thing?"

Steve sighed and started to walk away from the two girls, "Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." By now, Steve was behind the desk thing where the screens they were just looking at were placed.

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive." Doctor Zola corrected, before he could say anything else Kaileena spoke up.

"You're literally a robot dude, I don't see how that fact makes you more "alive" . . ." Kaileena spoke with a judgemental look on her face as she practically just dissed a dead man. Nat had to bite her lip to stop herself from bursting out laughing, Kaileena always made the mood better even in the worst times.

"Ah . . . a Stark, who else would have such a wicked tongue like you Stark's. Tell me, how is your father? Howard?" At the mention of her father, she felt anger fill her veins. Her eyes glowed orange and she started to charge at the computer screen but Nat grabbed her arm before she could try and kill a literal screen.

Doctor Zola chuckled evilly, "In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving, on 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain." By now, Steve was back beside Kaileena who was glaring at the screen.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked and Doctor Zola replied rather quickly.

"Invited." His response made Kaileena confused, who in their right mind would invite this psycho? If he were here with them, in the flesh, she would get rid of him in a second, this old man would already be dead before he even got the chance to speak to her.

Kaileena looked at Nat who was quiet all of this time until she decided to speak up on her realization. "It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve said, refusing to believe whatever Doctor Zola was saying.

The screen changed from Doctor Zola to the HYDRA symbol, "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." And then it went back to Doctor Zola's stupid figure. The quote he just said was HYDRA's motto, it literally made no sense to Kaileena but apparently, it only made sense to the crazy ones AKA people that were in HYDRA.

Kaileena got tired of Steve and spoke up before he could, "Prove it, then."

"Accessing archive." The three of them looked at a screen on their left that started playing videos while Doctor Zola narrated.

"HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

It was all very dramatic, yeah yeah.

By the end of it, Kaileena was yawning quite loudly which caught the attention of both Steve and Nat. "That was so boring. I thought SHIELD was smarter than HYDRA, whoever actually hired you was definitely on crack." Kaileena stated, placing her hand on her hip and popping it out.

Nat couldn't hold it anymore as she burst out laughing while Steve just smiled to refrain from being in the same condition as the redhead. Nat took a deep breath and became serious again, "That's impossible. SHIELD would have stopped you."

Then the screen showed a picture of Howard Stark and newspapers that was all about Howard and Maria Stark's deaths which made Kaileena grab Steve's arm in shock. Kaileena refused to look at newspapers for the rest of her life after her parents' death so this was her first time seeing those newspapers.

"Accidents will happen." Kaileena held her breath when Nick Fury's file came up and said a large "DECEASED" was stamped across his pictures. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once a purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise."

The three of them looked at the computer screen in horror, "We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero-sum." Right when Doctor Zolo finished talking, Steve took his fist and punched the screen in anger and frustration making it break.

Unfortunately for them, Doctor Zolo wasn't quite done yet. Kaileena heard another computer beep and the annoying voice came back, all of their heads turned to another computer screen when his voice started coming from it.

"As I was saying . . ." He started but got cut off by Steve.

"What's on this drive?" Steve asked in a demanding voice.

"Project Insight requires insight." Doctor Zolo replied.

Kaileena was sure that this man was speaking another language because she did not know shit about what he was on about. "Dude, speak English."

"So, I wrote an algorithm." He continued, completely ignoring the Stark. What the hell was this, ignore Kaileena day?

Nat stepped forward from behind Steve to stand closer to the screen, "What kind of algorithm? What does it do?"

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Un-" He said but got cut off by an annoyed Kaileena.

Kaileena groaned and rolled her eyes, "Oh my God, just say it!"

Ignoring Kaileena, once again, he continued, "Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

Just as he said those words, the elevator doors started closing which made all of them turn around. Steve threw his shield towards the elevator but he was too late as it already closed leaving them stuck there.

Kaileena lifted her arms up and placed them down, "Oh come on, man!" She groaned.

Nat's phone started beeping which made Kaileena look at her, "Guys, we got a bogey. Short-range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." She told them.

Steve looked back at her, "Who fired it?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D."

Oh, shit.

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it." Nat took the USB drive off of the plug and gave it to Kaileena who placed it in her pocket then made it invisible. "It's better this way." Steve looked around the room to try and find a way to escape, he ran to a sewer cage thing that was on the floor and ripped it off, throwing it away to the side with his super-strength. "out of time."

"Shut up, you bitch!" Screamed Kaileena, she was sick and tired of his voice. It was more annoying than Tony's and not a lot of people are that high on her 'Most Annoying Voices' list.

Kaileena and Nat got to Steve in time as a bomb hit the building they were in, Steve grabbed both of them and quickly went to the part under the sewer floor thing he ripped off and used his shield to protect them from getting hit by the rocks. They were all just huddled up together with Steve's shield being the only thing keeping them from being crushed by the rocks that were falling on them.

Steve started grunting as he struggled to keep the shield up, Kaileena saw that if one more large rock hit it then they would be crushed so she did what she hasn't done in months.

Kaileena closed her eyes and called upon her Tigress side, not even a second later Steve and Nat opened their eyes to see a large Tiger standing over them. Both of them gasped in surprise, they never saw her in her Tiger form so this was probably the worst time to finally see it for the first time.

Kaileena's Tiger form was twice the size of a regular average Tiger so she was pretty big and definitely stronger and faster than an average Tiger. Shape-shifting drained her energy quite a lot so she doesn't do it as much as she did before.

The rocks were getting heavier and harder to manage, Kaileena roared loudly then everything went black.

𝓚aileena Stark opened her eyes to see herself in her living room in her Mansion that was in New Jersey. She furrowed her eyebrows, why the hell was she in her house?

The last thing she remembered was that she was with Steve and Nat and that she transformed into her Tiger form, then she passed out.

They probably dropped me off at my house after both of them woke up but not me, she thought. She didn't really care much, to be honest. Atleast she was alive.

She shrugged and started walking to her room, when she reached it she opened her door and was about to turn on the lights when she saw a figure sitting on the edge of her bed. She immediately took her claws out to protect herself.

The figure turned its head to look at her and she gasped when the only thing she saw was a familiar pair of cold dark blue eyes that she knew all too well.

James.

Before she could say anything, she heard someone call out to her but it came out like an echo. "Kaileena! Elena, wake up! Wake up!" A voice said but she couldn't quite tell who it was.

"KAILEENA!"

Kaileena's eyes shot open as she gasped for breath, she sat up and looked around. She wasn't in her house, definitely not. She looked to her left when someone grabbed her arm and pulled her up, it was Steve.

"Steve? Wha- what happened?" Her voice was dry, she sounded dead. Steve picked up a barely conscious Natasha and gestured for Kaileena to follow him.

"You turned into a Tiger and passed out."

Kaileena let out an 'Oh' before following him, her body was sore but with her supernatural healing abilities, she would heal in no time.

Steve quickly took a hold of her arm and started running, Kaileena looked back to see a jet and people looking for them. Steve, Kaileena, and Natasha all made it out without getting caught.

She started thinking of her dream, it was a very weird dream. Do people get dreams when they're unconscious? Kaileena didn't think so.

Then it hit her, it was one of her visions. Ever since her parent's death, she started getting visions of the future, sometimes it would mean nothing and sometimes it would mean something. It was usually the former one so she placed the vision memory at the back of her mind and focused on what was happening.

She looked at Steve, "Where are we gonna go?" She asked.

Steve looked at her before replying, "I know someone." Kaileena just nodded and followed his lead.

   𝓢am Wilson opened his fridge and took out a bottle of orange juice, panting. He had just come back from his daily runs and boy, was he exhausted.

Sam opened the bottle cap and was about to drink it but the sound of someone knocking on his door stopped him, he put down the orange juice and went towards his door. He opened the door blinds to see a very dusty and very exhausted Steve Rogers, Kaileena Stark, and Natasha Romanoff.

He opened his door and looked directly at Steve, "Hey, man." Sam greeted.

"I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." Steve said to which Kaileena nodded. Kaileena looked the worst out of the three of them, she did not look okay. Unlike the other two, she was the only one bleeding.

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Nat added, looking at Sam with a pleading face. Sam just looked at Natasha for a while before turning his attention to the Stark.

Kaileena noticed him looking at her and took a deep breath, "If you help us, I'll buy you anything you want. It can cost a million dollars, I really don't care." She breathed out. Sam gave a small smile and then looked back at Steve.

"Not everyone." He said before moving his body aside to let them in, all of them rushed inside while Sam looked around to see if anybody witnessed what just happened.

Kaileena looked at Sam when he turned back around to face them and pointed her finger at him, "That offer is still up, it wasn't a joke."

"I helped you escape, does that mean you'll buy me something?"

"Shut the fuck up, Steve."

word count: 3471

kara speaking . . .
   third chapter, done! this has more words than the last chapter, wow. this is the chapter where she got her bucky vision, the chapter after the next one they'll finally meet (chapter 5) !

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© -𝙶𝙾𝙳𝙳𝙴𝚂𝚂𝙾𝙵𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷