*intense screaming*

it's all coming together guysssssssss

this chapter may or may not seem a little slow (depends on the person really) but it's super important. the next chapter is going to be freaking AWESOMEEE

Also, if you haven't watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before, the term 'oh-eight-four' (0-8-4) stands for object of unidentified origin.

Given that Ashley still wasn't in control of her powers yet, she decided to opt for a more normal route than what the captain had chosen. Yes, she had mentally given herself crap for it, and yes, she really wanted to heroically jump out of the plane as Steve did, but completing the mission safely was her number one priority.

    "Let's head out Rumlow," Ashley instructed, nodding to her team and Natasha before jumping out the back of the Quinjet. The icy-haired girl headed towards the area that the Captain had landed near, whereas the others made their way to their specific landing zones.

    Cold, misty air rushed past her as she observed the nearing deck. After mentally counting down from 20 to five, she pulled the cord on her parachute and used her powers to finish guiding herself towards a certain star-spangled Captain. She grinned to herself as she noticed that he was in a bit of a tight spot: one of the pirates had managed to catch him off-guard and aim a firearm at him.

    "Bouge pas! Bouge pas."

    (Don't move! Don't move.)

    Using her powers to call one of her guns that was equipped with a silencer, Ashley landed as quiet as a mouse and angled her gun towards the back of the pirate's head. Before either of the two people could realize that she was there, Ashley shot the unsuspecting pirate and slightly grinned.

    "Thanks," Steve breathed, relaxing from the tension that had built up and turning around to face Ashley.

    "Yeah," Ashley smirked, detaching her parachute. "You seemed pretty helpless without me."

    Natasha and a couple of other S.T.R.I.K.E. agents landed behind Ashley gracefully, battle-ready and determined. Ashley began picking off a few remaining pirates that had begun to make their way towards the area they were occupying as the Captain returned his shield to his back and began walking away with Natasha.

    "What about the nurse that lives across the hall from you? She seems pretty nice."

    "Secure the engine room, then find me a date," Steve grunted.

    "I'm multitasking!" Natasha playfully shot back as she jumped over a guardrail and towards a lower level.

    "No, you're just flirting," Ashley chuckled to herself. While Natasha went to secure the engine room and Steve went to listen in on Batroc's conversation, Ashley looked down at the tracking device on her wrist.

    "Rumlow, you think you have everything in control?" The girl asked as she started making her way towards the direction indicated on her watch.

    "I've got it covered, Agent Tanner. We're acquiring targets right now."

    "Roger that. Keep 'em in line, I've got some loose ends to tie."

    Before her comrade could argue about putting him in charge, she turned off the connection between her and Rumlow and started running towards a stairwell that led towards lower levels of the vessel. She frowned for a moment as she realized that the path indicated on her watch didn't require her going down yet. It was directed to her left.

    With a shrug, Ashley took off at a sprint, occasionally using her powers to enhance a leap or increase her speed. Finally, after landing a strong, seven-foot-high jump over some railing, Ashley hung a sharp left and ducked into an enclosed, office-like room. It was lined from top to bottom with countertops, shelves, and computers, yet there was no sight of the oh-eight-four Fury was talking about.

    Sighing, the icy-haired girl figured she was going to have to take a closer look. Since nobody was really depending on her at the moment, she figured it wouldn't hurt if she went ahead and turned off her comms and just listen to music while she searched. After all, it did help her focus.

    With a playful smirk, she began playing a song by Queens and hummed along. Not long after the beat began thumping through her earpieces, the hairs on her forearms rose. In a moments time, she had withdrawn her handgun and spun around quickly. Nearly 10 pirates had managed to sneak up on her. With a sigh, she shifted her weight and awaited one of them to make the first move.

"Alors c'est ce que SHIELD envoie, hein? Une petite fille?"

(So this is what SHIELD sends, huh? A little girl?)

    Ashley gritted her teeth in anger, but her finger still remained frozen in place over the trigger. "It'll hurt none the less when I kick your a**," she hissed, slowly beginning to tap her foot to the tune of the song playing. Yeah, Fury would kill her if he knew she was allowing herself to be distracted by something as puny as music.

"Alors la poupée de porcelaine parle? Attention, elle se casse facilement "(So the porcelain doll speaks? Careful, she breaks easily), one of the bolder pirates sneered to his friends. That was the breaking point for the icy-haired teen. With a growl so low-pitched that it sent shivers down everyone's spine that was in the vicinity, she sent off the first bullet. It sailed cleanly into one pirates' chest, but made way to a shower of bullets that began pouring towards her. Starting with sideways-aerial and moving into a series of front walkovers and such, Ashley began dodging them the best she could. Then, before they could start their third round, she decided she had enough playing for today and swept into an offensive position.

    "Another one bites the dust!"

    Ashley flicked a knife out of her boots and took turns aiming them at incoming attackers. One nailed a pirate right between the eyes, which, believe me, was not a sight Ashley wished to remember, and the other blade sunk itself into the cavity of the chest that held the heart.

    "And another one gone, and another one gone..."

    She coiled herself up and then sprung towards cover, using the time she was sliding across the smooth surface of the ground to readjust her grip on her handgun and pick off another. However, right before she made it to cover, a bullet that had slipped past her senses managed to graze her hand. She hissed in pain, dropping the gun to the ground and clutching her fingers close. Thankfully the bullet had missed any major arteries, but it didn't change the fact that it was bleeding a dang river of blood and hurt like a b*tch.

    "Alright, new plan," Ashley whispered to herself as she noted that the hand that had been shot was her dominant one. Her fighting technique was going to need some upgrades real quick. "C'mon, you're a smart kid, figure this out," the teenager mocked herself as she ran from her previous position and hid behind a large shelve filled with files.

    "E sis pas timid," (Don't be shy) one of the pirates darkly taunted. Ashley could feel her eyes widen in fear and her breath increase rapidly. Hard, hollow footsteps echoed out in the silence as the men stalked closer.

    C'mon, think think. She wasn't accurate enough with her left hand to use a firearm, and there was no way she was about to just fight with a knife. As the common rule says, never bring a knife to a gunfight.

    Even though she still had no idea of what to do, Ashley knew she was running out of time. To make the most of the essence of surprise, she jumped out at her position at full speed and performed an aerial flip. Using the heel of her boot, she kicked one of the men's guns out of his hand and landed on her feet. Her powers warned her of incoming bullets, so she dropped to the ground and rolled forward. She popped up, grabbed a different man's wrist with her left hand and twisted it until cracked loudly. In a cry of pain, he dropped his gun and tried attacking her with his other arm. Ashley panicked as she realized that there were two others that were swinging, so she performed an enhanced jump and pushed herself away from them. She took off sprinting, occasionally dodging the bullets that were being fired her way.

    With about six of the mercenaries on her tail, she hung a sharp left and made her way towards the engine room. Hopefully she could get there fast enough to catch Natasha and have the assassin help her out.

    Normally the teenager would easily be able to outrun people like this, but the tremendous amount of blood loss was starting to wear on her. Glancing down at her hand now and noticing the steady trail of blood she was leaving behind, Ashley couldn't help but wonder if she had been hit in an artery after all. A wave of dizziness overtook her, but she had no choice to grit her teeth and shake it off. Fainting right now would not be the most ideal.

    "Nat? Nat, you there?" Ashley yelled into her comms as she narrowly avoided getting nailed in the head by a flying bullet.

    "Ash, I've been trying to get in contact with you for the last five minutes! What are you doing? Just listening to music or something?" A very frustrated voice snapped.

    "Well, the music part isn't wrong," the teenager huffed into the speaker, then took a daring move to jump over a railing and the deep drop that ensued, grab a metal bar that was hanging above her head with her good hand, then use it to swing up and over the rest of the gap. She landed with just enough time to roll away from the next round of bullets that were fired. "But I've got a lot more pressing matters. You still in the engine room? I kinda need to swing by and drop these guys off. They don't seem to be too happy," Ashley darted her gaze back at the pirates that were following her, all of which adorned with a scowl and glare.

    "No, I left that position ages ago," Natasha responded, her tone seeming as though she expected Ashley to already know that. The icy-haired girl quickly spewed off a slew of choice words, then turned her focus back to the problem on hand.

    "Where are you now?" Ashley asked, worry laced into her voice.

    "I'm in the middle of the data center. You'll be long gone before you reach me."

    "The hell are you doing in a data center? You're supposed to be rescuing the hostages!" She hissed.

    "I could ask the same about you, Ash. Don't think I didn't notice you slinking away from your duties with the S.T.R.I.K.E. team. But hey, if Fury has you on a separate mission too, then it's not of my business."

    Ashley frowned at this statement. What was Natasha sent to do then? The hostages were taken care of by S.T.R.I.K.E and the captain– that is– unless he had a different agenda as well, and the oh-eight-four was being dealt with by her. So what is Natasha doing in the data.... oh.

    She was sent to retrieve S.H.I.E.L.D. files.

    With a roll of her eyes, Ashley snarled into the comms.

    "Well, that still doesn't change the fact that I'm being chased by pirates while my dominate hand is unusable and I'm about to pass out."

    "YOU'RE WHAT?"

    "Things happen, you know how it is," Ashley groaned.

    "You better have a good story to tell when this is all over."

    "If I live to tell it," the teenager noted, pausing the conversation momentarily to drop down and slide underneath a bar. Her breath was beginning to grow jagged from the exercise. She knew she wouldn't be able to run much longer.

    "Meet me on the east deck. I'll try and get out there as soon as I can."

    Hissing in frustration, Ashley turned her comms off and darted her gaze around. She was about to have to start using her head instead of her agility, due to the fact that her lungs were on fire and her legs felt like noodles.

    "I"m not going to have time," she whispered to herself. All the doors around her appeared to be locked, and her entire right arm was beginning to feel numb.

    Acting on nothing but pure adrenaline, Ashley spun on her heel and faced the men head-on. Using her powers, she made a swiping motion with her unharmed hand and caused several of the pirates to be knocked off their feet. Then, grabbing a bar of metal that had been lying in a bundle near her, she charged towards the remaining. They all seemed speechless... perhaps at the fact that a girl that they had just been chasing had all of the sudden turned to a madman... but that was altered quickly as they all received a harsh blow to the head. The ones that didn't immediately pass out tried to fight back, but they were quickly silenced by the heel of Ashley's boot.

    "And that was for the bullet," she hissed through gritted teeth as she stomped on one's shin. She turned to another that was struggling to get up, raised the bar, and swung it down upon his chest. "And that was for the lost blood." One managed to sneak up behind her and grab her ankle, but she growled in frustration and pivoted, using her free foot to dig the toe of her boot into his forearm. He yelped in pain, but it was silenced when he was kicked once again, this time in the forehead. "And that was for making me actually exercise. Still salty 'bout dat."

    A couple of erratic kicks and swings later, Ashley stood in the middle of a pile of limp bodies. With an impressed nod, she surveyed her work before carefully making her way out of it. It wasn't until then that she noticed the dangerous shade of white that her right arm was turning.

    "Yeah, um, that may or may not be a lot of lost blood," she noted grimly. "It's alright, we're almost done with this mission anyway."

    The teenager gingerly raised her arm up and tried to look at the tracking device on her wrist. It appeared to have missed any damage from the bullet, but it was absolutely soaked in her blood. Using her left sleeve, she tried to somewhat wipe off the majority of the liquid. It ended up just smearing more, but whatever. Looking closely, she realized that the beacon was telling her to go almost directly down.

    Ashley grimly took note of how weak her powers really were as she traveled down a staircase. Like seriously? That was the best she could do? Knock a couple of guys off their feet? For God's sake, she had freaking telekineses! Well, some form of it at least. Even her martial arts had sucked. Perhaps the next time she practiced with Natasha she'd have to tie her hands behind her back or something. A freaking hand injury shouldn't have to affect her this much.

    The girl was brought out of her thoughts as the tracker on her wrist began to beep aggressively. Looking down, she noticed that it the faint green signal had started to turn orange in color. She used her left hand to support her weak arm, then kept a close watch on the beacon as she progressed down the stairs. The further she went, the more warm the shade turned.

    "Alright, so that means we're close, right?"

    Her question was answered alright.

    A faint hum entered her mind, drawing her down. She paused momentarily, very hesitant at following the addictive pull, but she eventually gave in. Almost in a trance-like state, she slowly strode down the stairs until she reached a metal door. She honestly expected it to be locked, but it yielded easily to her touch.

    "That's strange," she warily mumbled to herself. "Something's off... I know it is. Finding this oh-eight-four shouldn't be this easy."

    Come... child.

    "Yeah nope frick this crap I'm outta here," Ashely half-shouted, spinning on her heel to run back up to the surface of the boat. She froze in her tracks when she realized she couldn't do that. This was her assigned mission, whether she liked it or not.

    "Try anything funny and you're getting dropped into the Indian Ocean," Ashley threatened as she returned to the room, making a visual sweep for whatever she was retrieving. Her eyes landed on a briefcase of sorts. Surely that was it. Almost every mysterious item ever was always transported in a briefcase.

    Her assumptions were verified by not only the hastened speed of the beeping from her watch, but the stamped S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the top of the handle of the case. Ashley bent down to pick the container up, but flinched as her fingers were centimeters away. No, she didn't trust whatever was in there. She disdainfully stood back up and splayed the fingers in her left hand out, using her invisible powers to pick up the case and make it hover beside her.

    "Status, everyone?" Ashley asked into her comms, eyeing the briefcase that floated beside her. With a shake of her head, she stepped out of the room and began to make her way up the stairs.

    "Hostages were taken care of a long time ago," Steve snarled through the radio.

    "Yikes, someone's not in a good mood," the teenager joked.

     "Finding out that your mission partner has a separate agenda definitely didn't help," the captain growled in return. Ashley winced at his remark. So Natasha had been found out. "Speaking of which, where on bloody Earth are you Tanner? It's like you just disappeared."

    "Believe me, I would've gladly chosen to join the party over being chased by some pirates with a shot hand. However, luck is running a tad dry for me today."

    "Are you alright now?" This time Steve's voice sounded a bit softer and more concerned.

    "Well, I'm alive, so I'd assume so," she dryly joked, looking up and noticing that she had nearly reached the top of the staircase. She glanced back down at the oh-eight-four, but found it to still be acting obedient.

    Don't think that I trust you yet, Ashley thought to herself, sending a small glare to the briefcase before turning her attention back to the stairs.

————————————

    "So let me get this straight. You abandoned your mission of ensuring that the hostages were safe to go collect data?" Steve asked in disbelief, then turned to Ashley. The teenager winced as she waited for her scolding. "And you?! For what? Some stupid briefcase?"

    "I didn't make the mission," she shrugged. "I'm only carrying it out. Believe me, I would gladly prefer to leave whatever demon spawn is in this thing back on that ship." Ashley gestured to the oh-eight-four.

    Steve muttered a couple words under his breath before turning on his heel and walking to the other side of the ship. Ashley sighed. This really wasn't how she wanted her first interaction with the famous Captain America to go. Now he probably thought she was an annoying little teenager.

"Don't worry about him, he's still a little touchy from his last couple of meetings with Fury," Natasha comforted Ashley. "So, what's in the box?"

    "Beats me," the teenager shrugged. "Don't really care to find out either. It scared the Jesus outta me earlier."

    Natasha snorted at this. "It's got to tell me its secrets then. I love a good prank."

    Ashley playfully turned to the briefcase and raised a finger to her lips. "Sh, don't give her anything."

    A comfortable silence fell between the two of them as they settled into their seats. Natasha allowed her head to rest against the wall of the Quinjet before falling into a much-needed sleep. Ashley considered following suit, but she wasn't feeling very tired.

    Come closer, child. I won't hurt you.

    Ashley looked up in alarm, trying to find the source of the voice, but nobody was around. Then something clicked and she accusingly stared down at the briefcase that had somehow inched closer to her.

    "Get back," Ashley hissed, somewhat baring her teeth, but there wasn't much venom behind her words. Somehow there was an instinct in the back of her mind telling her that she should believe this voice.

    You know that you want to see what lies inside. Don't be frightened— take a look.

    The icy-haired girl tried restraining herself as best as she could, but it seemed like she wasn't in control of her own body. Ashley reached her left hand out and called for the container to come to her. Somehow, if it was possible, the briefcase seemed to be almost excited. Within a moment's time, it was rested in her lap.

    "No, I shouldn't be doing this," Ashley whispered to herself, but her eyes never left the oh-eight-four. Instead, her undamaged hand rose from her side and began tracing itself along the smooth edges of the case. She hovered over the lock for a moment, unsure of how to open it, but it began to slowly move on its own. Her eyes were wide in amazement as she watched the padlock spin back and forth, stopping only once it was finished. Ashley tentatively grabbed a hold of the lock, gave it a slight tug, and marveled as it softly clicked open. The lock fell away as the briefcase swung open, revealing something in a small sphere.

    Another case? Really? How dangerous could this thing be-

    Her thought stopped abruptly as the spherical case fell apart. There, hovering above the broken halves, was an impossibly beautiful crystal. It was transparent, with a slight tint of yellow, and it glowed brilliantly. Her lips parted in amazement. Even though it was inanimate, it still displayed such grace- such intelligence. It was almost as though it was living... in its own special way.

    "How could I be afraid of this?" Ashley whispered to herself, though she knew quite well. Somehow, laced into its beauty, were hints of danger. It seemed to be teasing her, daring her to take it into her hands.

    You're lost child. Take me into your hands... I will guide you.

    Ashley lost all sense of rationality at this point. Intrigued, mesmerized, and somehow controlled, she heeded its words and inched the tips of her fingers closer. Even though it sent shocks of pain through her entire arm, she slowly lifted her injured hand and brought in near as well. Using her powers, she took hold of the crystal and guided it towards her. Now it was hovering between both of her hands, awaiting her next move.

    Her index finger slowly crept towards it. She tilted her head in curiosity as her fingertip began to warm from the heat radiating off of the crystal. She took her previous statement back. It wasn't "almost" living- it was most definitely alive.

     Almost there...

    The second her finger grazed against the surface of the stone, her world went black.

I'm curious. What do you guys think the crystal is?