"𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐈𝐃𝐍'𝐓 say she could fly!" Tony threw his hands into the air with frustration before gesturing toward the recorded feed.

"Calm down, Stark." Fury stood with his arms crossed at the head of the table within the debriefing room.

"No, no, no." Tony shook his head and wagged his finger in Fury's face. "You don't get a freebie on this one, Fury. I'm tired of flying blind."

"You've got to admit, it's pretty impressive," Clint noted as he watched the screen that replayed the event from Stark's perspective. The girl's thirteen foot wingspan unfolded and she gracefully swooped from her fall before completely disappearing from view. "I mean you don't see something like that everyday."

"That doesn't excuse the secrecy, Clint." Natasha rolled her eyes. "You can't expect us to solve this issue without knowing everything happening behind the scenes, Fury."

Fury remained unapologetic as his eyes glanced over the group. "So the kid has a few powers, what difference does it make to earth's mightiest heroes?"

"A few powers?" Romanoff raised an eyebrow. "How much does that entail?"

"Aside from the wings." Fury paused thinking over the collection of files concealed in his mind. "We've determined that she's stronger, smarter, and faster than the average person. The extent of which remains unknown."

Clint raised an eyebrow. "You mean you didn't test her limits?"

"Her mission was the test," Fury stated matter-of-factly.

Natasha frowned. "So you thought a test run was more important than bringing Steve in safe... and how's that working out for you now?"

Tony interrupted, unsatisfied with Fury's previous answers. "And what about her whole disappearing act? What's next, pulling a never ending handkerchief from my ear? A rabbit from a hat? For all we know, your little Houdini has already sawed Steve in half."

"We didn't have any reason to believe that the girl would rebel against her orders—"

"She's a teenager, Fury!" Clint interjected as if the answer should have been obvious.

Fury looked unimpressed that incorrect assumptions were being made. He slowly uncrossed his arms and leaned across the table. "We both know she's no ordinary teenager, Barton."

"Excuse me." Tony drew the attention back to himself. "Still waiting for my question to be answered."

"According to my sources," Fury finally answered the question, "Project Celestial has been experimenting with ways to reconfigure the atomic structure to change the external appearance of things."

Natasha scoffed. "And you didn't think she was a threat?"

"I never said she wasn't a threat," Fury contradicted, "I said she'd been compliant."

Tony lifted a finger and opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated. His interaction with the girl in the hangar, when they were just dealing with the anonymous hacker, had apparently been his first exposure to the girl's tech. He knew something didn't feel right about how she just vanished. He'd only looked away for a second... alright, he'd bite. But if she was capable of what Fury said, that would mean she wasn't just smarter than the average kid. She was smarter than the average genius. Judging by experience and knowledge as one of the smartest scientists of his generation, intelligence was not something to be taken lightly. He'd fear a genius over a brute almost any day.

"Now." Fury cleared his throat. "Are there any other questions before we try and find a solution to the problem at hand?"

Mocking the idea of the classroom setting, Tony raised his hand. When Fury originally ignored him, he began to impatiently act like a child that wanted to be called on. He smirked when Fury finally gave into his antics with a sigh. While pinching the bridge of his nose, Fury motioned with his free hand that Tony had permission to speak.

"Thank you," Tony said with a false sincerity before asking his question, "Where might our own pair of wings be at the moment?"

Fury lifted his head from his palm and looked around the room. Romanoff and Barton immediately looked at one another as they too realized that more than one individual from their team had been missing. Tony looked at the spies in disbelief. How could he have been the only one to note that they were missing more than one soldier?

"Seriously?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "Was I the only one to notice that Wilson isn't here?"

———

"I thought you said the bus came every fifteen minutes?" Sam impatiently asked the lady sitting on the bench beside him. She remained absolutely silent and simply smiled at him.

He sighed and placed his head into the palm of his hands. He'd spent the night hiding out in an alley, waiting for HYDRA to finally stop their search. Unfortunately, he'd had to discard his wing pack once he realized that HYDRA was capable of tracking him. Hours passed and the sun had risen before he finally felt safe enough to leave the secluded space of the alley. He was lost and alone, meaning he'd have to devise a plan to rendezvous with the helicarrier on his own... or at least figure out a way to contact S.H.I.E.L.D. Which explained how he found himself sitting at the bus stop. However, as he looked down the empty street, he came to the realization that the bus wasn't coming.

"I'm heading to Florida," the old lady sitting beside him proclaimed loudly as if he had the same trouble hearing that she did.

Her reply only verified his reasoning. Frowning, Sam stood and dusted himself off before deciding he'd try once more to figure out where the hell he was. He walked down the sidewalk in the general direction he assumed the quinjet was once parked. He hoped that Romanoff or Barton might have come back for him. And if that failed, he couldn't at least try to rendezvous with Steve, assuming he hadn't been extracted already.

However, he froze in his tracks as a loud crash in the nearby alley drew his attention. Any normal person would have quickened their pace to avoid whatever waited within; however, Sam was already on high alert and prepared to jump into action if need be. Assuming that nothing could go worse in his day, he proceeded toward the sound to appease his curiosity.

"Hello?" he asked as he entered the alley.

As expected no one replied. It had probably just been a cat jumping down onto the metal trash bin that occupied the alley; his assumption was immediately proven wrong. A small figure, too large to be a cat, covered in the shadows of the dark, stood among the trash bags and dusted itself off. It only took a moment for the figure to notice Sam, but perhaps that was because he had yelled out in fright when she suddenly popped up out of nowhere like a jack in the box. She slowly moved toward him and within moments the two were staring at each other just outside the alley. After a minute of silence and staring, she pulled her hood off her head and allowed her blonde locks to sit in the sun.

Sam's brows knit together in confusion. "Are you alright, kid?"

She immediately frowned. "I'm fine. I just fell climbing over the fence."

Sam discreetly checked the alley and noted that there was no fence, but she'd certainly fallen from somewhere looking at the bumps and bruises that coated her knees that were visible through the holes in her jeans. "You're bleeding. Do you need help?"

She quickly shook her head and protested while crossing her arms. "I can take care of myself."

Sam glanced around once more, back into the alley then the empty street. Something didn't sit right with him as he faced the scrawny teen. "Are your parents somewhere around here?"

"Sure."

"I could walk you home if you'd like?" Although he didn't believe a single word that she had said, Sam still offered assistance.

"You some sort of eagle scout?" she asked sarcastically, but took a step back. "Or do you offer to walk all little girls home?"

"It's not safe for a kid like you to be out here all alone," Sam tried to defend his offer.

"I'm not alone." The girl took another step back. Her eyes burned with defiance. "Take one step closer and I'll scream."

Sam frowned at the threat. He understood with the way that the conversation was turning, things weren't going to end well if he kept going. He raised his hands defensively, to show he was unarmed, then took a step back. "I can see you're fine. I'll leave you be."

"Thank you." She mock-saluted, but the frown remained on her face.

He shook his head and turned to walk away with an expression that certainly revealed how confused he was by the encounter. There wasn't anything else he could do. He'd offered help and she'd turned it down, so it was back to setting his mind on the previous task. He tried to back track the way he'd come, but found himself only further lost in the big city. Perhaps he should have left a breadcrumb trail or something to lead him back to the last place he had seen the rest of his teammates. He subconsciously slipped his hands into his pockets as he walked, but immediately stopped at the realization that something was missing. That snarky little kid had taken his wallet. So that's how the day was gonna go.

———

"Schmuck," Crystal chuckled under her breath as she walked away, wallet in hand.

She continued walking until she was certain that the guy wasn't returning for his stolen property. She then slid into the shadows of a nearby alley to stop, catch her breath, and collect her thoughts. However, those thoughts were interrupted by muffled shouts as she was reminded that she wasn't alone in her endeavors.

"Sorry," she apologized as she unzipped her bag. She paused in thought as she added, "You know... you're quite lucky."

Steve looked at her unconvinced as he crawled out of the backpack. "I can't say that I agree, but go on."

"Well if not for my heightened senses, I probably wouldn't be able to see or hear you without technological support," Crystal explained. "Not that creating the tech would be too difficult, but I probably wouldn't have found you to begin with.

"Speaking of which," Steve noted, "I thought you said you didn't have any powers."

"No." She shook her head. "I said turning invisible wasn't one of my powers. I use technology to do that."

Steve slowly nodded his head before he looked around at his surroundings. "Well, what now?"

"We find a safehouse so I can get started on creating a reversal formula," Crystal explained. "From there it's just a matter of collecting the supplies and discovering the right equation."

Steve sighed. "Walking or flying?"

"Actually, I just planned to take the bus," Crystal stated as she lowered her hand to allow the captain to climb onto her shoulder.

After zipping up her bag and slinging it over her available shoulder, Crystal stepped out of the alley and walked a bit further down the sidewalk. Once she reached the bus stop, she took a seat on the metal green bench beside the little old lady already waiting.

"Do you know when the bus will be here?" Crystal asked cautiously.

"I'm heading to Florida." The little old lady said contented and offered a warm smile. She took a breath as if the action of talking was even tiring. "A bus usually shows up about every fifteen minutes, but I think they're running a bit behind today, sugar."

As if on cue, a bus rolled around the corner and pulled up to the bus stop. The elderly lady stood from the bench and hobbled up the steps onto the bus. Crystal then stood and made her way over to the entrance of the bus. As she walked up the steps, Steve suddenly grew curious. "Don't you need a bus pass?"

"I've got it taken care of," Crystal muttered under her breath, so it didn't appear like she was talking to herself as she pulled the wallet out of her pocket.

A displeased look crossed Steve's face, "Where did you get that?"

Crystal ignored the question and proceeded to pull out a bus pass. She scanned the pass, greeted the driver, and casually made her way to the back of the bus. She took a seat closest to the aisle and lowered Steve down from her shoulder into the seat beside her. It was clear that the captain didn't appreciate being manhandled as he crossed his arms and looked at her unamused.

"What?" she asked with a false innocence.

"Look, Crystal." Steve tried to appear authoritative. "We need to set some ground rules before we continue."

Crystal held back a laugh and nodded her head. "Alright, like what?"

"Well, you can't just steal things from people," Steve started listing his terms, "Second, I need to be kept in the loop. I'd like to know exactly what's going on. You can't just just toss me into your backpack like one of your toys and forget about me."

Before he could continue, Crys interrupted, "Alright. No promises on the first few requests, but I'll see what I can do about that last one. Whether you like it or not, we're stuck together. It's just you and me. But since I'm the one who can walk around without worrying about being stepped on, we're doing this my way."

The bus rolled to a stop and the driver called out the station name for any passengers who wished to get off. Several other passengers boarded the bus and the crowd level grew. After just a few stops, the bus had reached maximum capacity. The elderly lady who'd been planning to visit Florida had moved to sit beside Crystal. That meant the captain was once again stuck riding in the backseat, in other words the backpack, as the girl moved over and took his seat beside the window to provide space for the elderly woman. Crystal quietly laughed under her breath as the captain complained for the first few minutes, but relaxed as the bus finally drove out of the city and away from all the chaos of mystery symbols, search parties, and secrets of the past. Crystal leaned her head against the window and allowed her eyes to droop. Within a matter of moments, she had fallen asleep for what felt like the first time in days.

———

The sky was dark, but the sky was always dark in her memories. Crystal inched further back into the shadows, clutching her wings around herself. Their usual white color was hidden beneath layers of grime, mud, and blood creating a rustic hue.

She shuddered as the pair of buildings at her sides failed to provide protection from the chill winds of winter. Her wings did nothing to provide warmth and she had little to no muscle on her body either. She was past the point of starving as her ribs peaked through the shirt that was both too small and too large at the same time.

She vividly remembered the moment. She was ten year old, living alone on the streets. She escaped the foster care system last year and as much as she wished to deny the facts, she was struggling to survive.

It was then that a light shined down on her from above. She slowly peered between the tainted feathers of her wings, but recoiled as a large hand reached out to her. She tried to escape, but there was nowhere left to his in the alley. The skies weren't an option either as she'd recently been shot, explaining the blood.

She'd thought the farm was safe from prying eyes, but the farmer didn't share her sentiment. His double-barrel rifle served as a reminder that the world was a dangerous place for delicate creatures. She'd made it to the city and crashed in that very alley before her wings gave out. The pool of blood at her feet had already frozen and failed to keep her warm any longer.

The hand reached out again, slower this time, acting like an ally rather than an enemy. It was the first time that she'd met Fury, and she'd mistaken the wonderful look in his eyes as one that cared. She was too young to realize that the cage she voluntarily entered was disguised by warmth and food.

When the first needle was injected in her arm, she was brought back to the memories of the scared little girl that had experienced much worse from birth to the age of six. Crystal pulled her arm away and snapped at the scientist as if trying to bite him. It worked as the scientist jumped back in alarm. She rapidly ripped the IV from her arm and bolted for the door; however, the anesthesia had already entered her system. Her mind went numb as her limbs turned to jelly, failing to support her. She collapsed and blacked out; however, she simply fell deeper down the hole of memories.

Her eyes flashed open with panic. She tried to turn her head, but it was bolted to the steel table beneath her. Her wrist and ankles were similarly bolted which prevented her from squirming and fighting the torment of the scalpel tearing through her flesh. However, the scientist working on her was far crueler than any of the others. He leaned across the table to look her in the eye and smiled down at her with a sickening grin.

"Hello." He practically purred as he whispered in her ear. "You will be the crown jewel, the crystal of my achievement."

She recoiled and shrunk inside herself, not because his breath was rank, but because his demeanor was toxic.

"Everyone assumes that diamonds are the most desireable, or gold," he continued his explanation as he lifted the blood-stained scalpel and twisted it in the light. Admiration shone from his eyes as his line of sight followed the knife as he set it back down on the table. "But I've always preferred crystals. The gem is transparent and never hides what it truly is."

The girl closed her eyes, too young to understand that just because she couldn't see her problems didn't mean they disappeared. She was taught this lesson the second a syringe was injected into her bruised, twig-like arms.

"Unfortunately, they want me to disguise the demon within you, my little crystal." The scientist clicked his tongue as if chastising some unseen force. "So, I offer them a devil in disguise by way of your angelic evolution... You're so much stronger than the others, which is why you're the key. The next step in my evolution."

———

It only felt like she'd been asleep for a few seconds as she was nudged awake. She was disoriented at first, but quickly became alert and tense. She only relaxed when the elderly lady sitting beside her gently touched her shoulder and tried to explain why she had woken her up.

"I'm sorry, dear," she apologized. "You just seemed to be having the most dreadful nightmare. I didn't want to wake you, but you were twisting in your sleep as if in pain."

Crystal nodded her head, still shaken. "Thank you."

"That's quite alright, dear." The elderly lady smiled. "Do you have a name, sugar?"

Crystal was hesitant at first but saw no harm in answering the question. "Crystal."

"That's a lovely name." The elderly lady smiled then introduced herself. "I'm Moria."

Crystal nodded and allowed herself to smile ever-so-slightly at the little old lady's kindness. Despite her plan to remain silent for the rest of the bus ride, Crystal found herself creating a bit of small talk with the elderly woman. She didn't usually like opening up, but there was something calming about the elderly woman. She was drawn to her as if compelled to speak. They conversed over a few meaningless topics and she mostly listened as the woman spoke about how she and her daughter had separated some time ago. Moria explained that she planned to fix things when she visited her, which perhaps explained why she was on her way to Florida.

As Crystal listened, she didn't really care what they talked about. Either way it provided a distraction from everything she had been through over the course of the past few hours. Noticing that she was a bit roughed up, the elderly woman offered Crystal a few bandages and disinfectant to clean herself up. By the time the bus reached her stop, the girl had become pleasantly comfortable sitting in the presence of the elderly woman.

"Last call for Pittsburgh!" the driver called out.

Seeing that the sun floated overhead in the midday sky, Crystal grabbed her bag and shuffled past the elderly lady to walk toward the front of the bus. She'd decided that she'd been on the road long enough and desperately needed to stretch her legs. She silently thanked the driver and stepped off into the busy city waiting outside.

Despite how much she hated the city, she found it the best place to merge with large crowds and escape prying eyes. It was much harder to find someone when they were smack dab in the center of hundreds of other people. First thing first, she needed to change her look and then find a place to stay. She kept her head low and clutched the shoulder strap of her backpack tightly as she waded through the crowd trying to go unnoticed.

However, as the bus doors closed and the vehicle began to drive away, the little old lady silently grinned as she watched the blonde girl make her way through the crowd. Her eyes briefly glowed a purple hue before she pulled a cell phone out of her small purse. She flipped open the device and dialed the first number found in the contacts.

"Hello, Darling." The rasp of her voice melted and grew more sophisticated. Her appearance similarly changed as he white hair darkened to an ebony black while her wrinkles faded to flawless pale skin. " I have some information that you just might find valuable, but I'm afraid we'll need to change the terms of our agreement if you'd like to hear what I have to say."

———

Natasha pulled the car up to the curb and slowly rolled down the window. Her expression remained smug as she asked, "Fall from your nest, little bird?"

"Very funny, Nat." Sam rolled his eyes before climbing into the car. "But seriously, what took so long?"

"Well it's not like you have a GPS tracker on you," Natasha replied. "Or really anything else that we could use to track you down."

"I couldn't give HYDRA the same likelihood of finding me," Sam explained with a shrug.

"I thought they were after Steve?" Natasha raised an eyebrow in confusion,

Sam nodded his head. "That's what I thought too, but I guess they're assuming he's still with me."

"Ah." Natasha nodded her head. "So they're clueless that you lost him."

"I didn't lose him," Sam protested, "we split up."

"You were supposed to bring him straight back to the helicarrier," Natasha retorted.

"My tech shorted out halfway there," Sam replied defensively, "Not to mention that the helicarrier may not have been the safest place for him to be anyway."

Natasha raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"HYDRA infiltrated you once before," Sam explained, pointedly, "Recently in fact. Who's to say that they haven't done it again or that they were even gone in the first place."

"We may still call it S.H.I.E.L.D.," Natasha stated, "But it's the farthest thing from what it once was."

Sam shrugged, as if he'd statement really didn't make a difference in his opinion. "I really wouldn't know the difference."

Natasha briefly looked over at him. "I would."

Sam slowly nodded his head and changed the topic of discussion slightly. "Any news on Steve's whereabouts?"

Natasha shook her head. "We thought that we'd found a safehouse that the kid used, but it turned out to be a dead end. We learned that she'd been there, but all traces of the trail went cold after that."

"Kid?" Sam raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What kid?"

"Right." Natasha nodded her head, remembering that he hadn't been debriefed yet. "You were busy touring the city when the new teamplayer was introduced."

Sam only grew more confused. "You do plan to actually explain, right?"

"It turns out that Fury has a group of kids waiting to replace us," Natasha explained. "He brought one of his pet projects out to play. We thought she was doing a pretty decent job too until she went rogue and disappeared with Cap."

"Is this kid a wallet-thief?" Sam scoffed as he released a bitter chuckle, almost like sharing an inside joke that no one but himself would actually understand.

Natasha raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Not to my knowledge. Are you implying something?"

Sam shook his head, "Nothing really. My wallet was just stolen by some kid on the streets earlier."

"I'd suggest canceling your cards then," Natasha said as she turned the car down another side street. "A thief's not gonna hesitate to start making charges."

"I'll do that once I have a phone," Sam agreed.

Natasha chuckled as Sam hinted at his city experience. "The kid steal that too?"

He shook his head. "It broke my fall earlier."

"You're just having a great day, aren't you?" Natasha asked rhetorically in a playful tone.

"The best." Sam rolled his eyes, sarcastically agreeing. "So what's next?"

"We'll regroup at one of the hidden ground locations that S.H.I.E.L.D. still has access to," Natasha explained.

"What good will that do?" Sam asked, "Shouldn't we be out searching for him?"

"Stark thinks that he's got a general location on the kid," Natasha replied. "Besides, you're gonna want some new gear before you head back out into the field again."

"I didn't think that Stark would need air support," Sam retorted, amused.

"Let's just say you're not the only one with wings anymore," Natasha replied vaguely as she pulled off the main road and drove through a hidden tunnel. Within moments, she'd parked in a garage that had just seemed to appear out of thin air. The cloaking technology flickered as the last remnants of its presence shut off, revealing the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house in all of its decaying glory. She smirked slightly at the sight of Wilson's poorly concealed impressed expression.

Sam raised an eyebrow as he glanced over at the driver. "I thought most of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources were depleted?"

Natasha chuckled. "We've still got a few tricks up our sleeve."

Natasha watched as Sam slowly entered the dimly lit room before following a few feet behind. Several heads turned to face them as they approached the cold steel table at the end of the room. It wasn't until after they took a seat that Stark decided to speak up with a smug expression. "Glad you finally decided to show up."

"I'm really not in the mood, Stark," Sam retorted.

Tony raised his hands defensively and muttered under his breath, "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Sam rolled his eyes and directed his focus toward Fury with a gesture of his hand. "Can we move this along?"

Fury nodded his head. "I'm sure you're all aware now that I've been gathering intel on individuals that could prove useful in a future where the Avengers may not be around."

"I think I speak for the whole team when I say we're concerned about a future where we might not be around," Stark interrupted but paused as he looked around the room. "Just me? Great. Glad we cleared that up."

Fury cleared his throat. "As a worst case scenario, I thought it best to have a reserve team. Despite how useful the rogue may have once been, I'll be shutting down the program until the problem has been dealt with and removed from the system."

"That problem is just a kid, Fury." Barton crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes as if a nerve had been hit. "Not a weapon."

"Still just as dangerous." Fury warned with a frown. A slide projector was turned on by Agent Pierce in the back of the room.

"How old is this safe room?" Stark asked as he too noted the ancient tech and wires displayed on the walls around the room.

Fury ignored Stark and Agent Hill stepped to the front of the room. "Project Celestial. Recovered at the age of ten, we've tried just about every possible known way to man solving the mystery of what this kid is. And to be frank... we still don't know. What we do know is that she's dangerous and has the potential to work her way up to the higher spectrum of the Index scale."

Sam swore under his breath as he checked the notification that had just come across the phone that Natasha had let him borrow for the time being.

"Am I distracting you from something, Wilson?" Hill raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry." He put the phone back into his pocket. "My wallet was stolen by some kid this morning and now I find out she's made some massive charges on my card somewhere in Pittsburgh."

Stark's eyes quickly lifted from the hole they'd been staring into the table. "Pittsburgh?"

Sam nodded his head. "That's what I said."

Tony impatiently gestured for him to explain. "What'd this kid look like, Wilson?"

Sam's brow slowly furrowed. "Why are you so invested now?"

"Just answer the question."

"I didn't exactly get a close look at her," Sam retorted. "Skinny, probably underfed. Looked like she'd been out on the streets awhile."

"If you ever saw her again, would you recognize her?" Tony asked, taking another approach.

"Probably." Sam shrugged. "I don't know."

"What's this about, Stark?" Fury crossed his arms.

Stark faced Barton. "Remember that tracking device?"

"It's stopped in Pittsburgh, hasn't it," Barton stated rather than asked.

"About an hour ago." Stark nodded his head in agreement. "Have you got any pictures of Project Celestial, Fury?"

"You mean like this?" Pierce asked and changed the slide to reveal a few images from Tony's previous recorded feed of the girl diving from the helicarrier.

"That's her!" Sam exclaimed, but paused. He tilted his head as if something about the image wasn't right. "Minus the wings..."

"Yeah, she tends to hide those bad boys." Stark shrugged. "Now my tech stopped moving in... I think that's a Macy's. Does that line up with the last charge on your card?"

Sam shook his head and seethed. "No, the last charge was at some upscale resort."

"Looks like she ditched the tracker," Stark noted, mostly to himself, and nodded his head. "Let's go then."

"We haven't finished," Fury interjected.

"I think we have," Stark contradicted. He continued to stand and walk toward where his armor was parked along the far wall. "We don't know how much longer she'll be making charges on that card. You said it yourself, she's a smart kid. We've likely got just one more shot at this before she completely disappears. Do you really want us wasting time listening to your lackeys drone on about all the things you don't know about this kid?"

Fury sighed, but ceded. "At least tell me you have a plan."

"I have a plan." It was difficult to tell whether Stark was lying or telling the truth, as his tone was equally haughty either way.

Fury silently gave a curt nod of his head and Stark stood. He gestured for the others to follow him from the room. Sam raised an eyebrow and sped up the pace of his walk to catch up with Stark. "What's the plan?"

Tony glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. "I'm bringing in the muscle."