The Mission

Chapter One

“Exactly how many martial arts do you know?” Steve asked, incredulously.

“I dunno,” Evelynn shrugs. “I had a lot of time on my hands while I tried to figure out my life. I’m a fast learner, too, which helps—it was for self-defense really. I used to be a target for mugging and bullies in the streets of a big city, had to figure out a way to make them stop…” she paused, only about half of it was a lie, “and running isn’t the answer. ‘Cause…”

“Once you start running, they don’t let you stop.” Rogers finished her thought.

Evelynn forced a smile. She was lost in his eyes for a moment, perhaps a moment too long. She finally caught herself staring and cleared her throat. “So, um, Stark Towers, huh?”

“Stark Towers.” Steve concluded.

“And Captain America, a soldier out of time.” She pointed. Steve nodded.

“And you’re the new recruit for SHIELD?”

Again she shrugs. “I guess so. I don’t think they’d let me live in the Stark Towers with “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” if I wasn’t assigned to some department in SHIELD.”

“You have an assignment already?” Steve shifted uneasily. The notion of a beautiful dame having an assignment wasn’t what bothered him; rather, he had been talking to her for almost an hour and he hadn’t made a fool of himself yet.

Evelynn winked. “Classified.”
***

Tony Stark entered the communal kitchen with all of his playboy billionaire swagger as usual. “Ah, Ms. Evelynn, so glad you could join us for some fun. I was reading up on your profile,” he swiped his hand across the StarkPad and projected her SHIELD file onto the glass windows around the room.

“How is at Mr. Xavier’s School for ‘gifted youngsters’?”

“Professor Charles Xavier was an amazing, intelligent man who has helped many students in my position. I am grateful for all that he did for me.”

“He has a funny definition of gifted.”

Evelynn tensed up. She wasn’t ready to have this conversation with her newfound friends. Besides, Fury didn’t want her revealing it until they had more information about them. Carefully she countered, “How do you mean?”

“He didn’t think I was gifted.”

A wave of relief washed over her. If Tony Stark knew her secret, he wasn’t about to spill it, at least not yet. “Of course, everything has to be about you.”

Tony Stark smirked. “But of course.” Waving his hands in the air, he continued to scroll through Evelynn’s file projected on the windows. Evelynn dropped her gaze, acutely aware of Steve’s eyes on her. He wasn’t staring, per se, but calculating. “Hmm, what’s this?” Evelynn’s head shot up and panic coursed through her. “Who are the X-men?”

Luckily, she had been briefed by Fury about this and had a perfect series of responses so as not to give away her position. Fury didn’t 100% trust her or her kind and she was under strict orders to not blow her own cover. “A response team similar to the Avengers. But not as…diverse shall we say. More like with Natasha’s skillset.” It was a blatant lie, but it got him off her back.

“So Mr. Xavier…”

“Professor,” she corrected, heatedly. She didn’t like where this conversation was going and she had no way to change the subject without seeming suspicious.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Tony dismissed her correction and continued to sweep through her file. “He had a school to create an army of super soldiers?”

That got Steve’s attention. Evelynn crossed her arms defensively. “No. I can’t tell you more. It’s classified.”

“Hmm, nothing is classified in SHIELD,” he hummed to himself, which confused Evelynn immensely.

“Tony means that he can break into every bit of information SHIELD has,” Steve explained.

“My, my,” Tony spread his hand to zoom in. “What is a mutant?”

“Mutation is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. The process is slow, and normally takes thousands and thousands of years. But every few millennia, evolution leaps forwards.” And that’s why we have this school to foster our own kind and protect humanity, Evelynn finished the speech that she heard so many times from her mentor.

“Did you rehearse that with Fury?” Tony smirks.

“No, it was something that I…read….while at school with Charles,” Evelynn lied.

“So basically, Charles Xavier took a bunch of circus freaks and turned them into a super team of assassins.”

“We weren’t assassins. We were fighting the good fight. Professor X believed in a better world.”

“So did HYDRA,” Tony countered. “Sound likes to me that he was no better than Schmidt.”

Evelynn jumped to her feet. “That’s not true. You can’t make accusations about a man you never knew. Charles Xavier was a great man, far better than you could ever hope to be.”

My god. Don’t shoot. Evelynn hears Pepper’s sporadic and panicked thoughts. She was immediately aware of the guns pointed at Tony Stark. The Iron Man suit, sans the man inside, was aiming its hand guns at Tony’s chest. “JARVIS, shut down the suit.”

“I’m sorry, sir, my systems have been over-ridden.”

“By whom?”

“Ms. Evelynn,” the robotic voice responded.

Another gun was loaded, but this one was pointed directly at Evelynn. “Listen, Miss,” Steve’s soft demeanor had immediately changed into his Captain-in-command voice. “Drop the weapons…and stop,” he fumbled, clearly not used to dealing with this particular situation. And, of course, how could he be? Mutants were few and far between in his era and those that were alive, were in hiding. “Stop over-riding JARVIS.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. Evelyn repeated, “Professor X was an extraordinary man.”
Subconsciously, she cocked the gun. “You would have been lucky to have met him. He was betrayed by a friend and killed. He died believing in a better world.”

“Miss, I’ll ask you again. Put the gun down.”

“Director Fury is going to be so angry with me,” she concluded softly and the hum of the Iron Man suit subsided. The gun floated across the room into the hand of Captain America. Evelynn raised her hands into the air in a lazy surrender. Her instincts kicked in, instincts she had under control since she was a teenager, almost a decade prior. Without warning, Captain America’s shield was in her hand and she bolted for her rented room.

Pepper stalled Steve Rogers. “No, don’t. She’s scared.” Pepper didn’t want to explain that she had heard Evelynn’s voice in her head. “She won’t steal your shield for good.” Pepper assured him.
Steve turned his attention onto Tony. “Is everything a joke to you?” He checked that the gun was loaded. “JARVIS, a location on Ms. Evelynn please.”

“Ms. Evelynn is in her room. Your shield is outside of her door.” Steve nodded and headed towards the room. When he arrived outside of Evelynn’s room, he stopped dead in his tracks. His shield was actually floating outside of the door. Hesitantly, he leaned against the door, gun at the ready. He pressed his ear against the door to hear the young woman sobbing. He lowered his weapon and knocked tentatively on the door.

“Miss, it’s Captain Rogers. May I come in?”

“I’m so sorry.” Evelynn appeared at the door, her eyes puffy from crying. “Your shield. I was scared. I haven’t lost control of my mutation like that since I was a teenager.” She eyed his gun. “Please don’t shoot. I won’t hurt you, I promise.” Steve tentatively holstered his gun and walked into the small room. Behind him his shield followed and landed softly near his feet.

“Tony can be a jerk sometimes,” Steve said cautiously.

“I shouldn’t have pulled his own super-suit on him.”
Steve smirked. “Nah, he had that one coming.” Evelynn raised her green eyes to him and giggled softly. “So…”

“I’m here because you and I have much in common. I have nobody. You have nobody. I’m lost, you’re lost. Fury thought that we would help each other.” Evelynn blurted out so quickly that Steve could barely make out all of the words. She lowered her eyes. “And the last time I was lost like this, I was on SHIELD’s radar in a bad way. I think he doesn’t want that again.”

Steve listened. Talking to women was hard enough without them being like her. He didn’t know what to say to her. Luckily for him, she felt as though she needed to explain further. “Tony struck a chord. When I first found out about my mutation, my family disowned me. They donated me, for lack of better words, to an institution for scientific research. Long story short, I ended up on the run for 3 years before Charles and his X-men took me in. He was like a father to me and he was genuinely one of the most honorable men I knew.”

“Mutation?”

“I’m a telepath. I can control things with my mind. I read minds too. If I get drunk I have a hard time controlling myself and tend to invade other’s privacy. I actually read Pepper’s mind, which was how I discovered that I had pointed the guns at Mr. Stark because people think really loudly when they’re scared or angry.” Evelynn paused for a moment. “I won’t read your mind unless you want me to.”

“So are all of the “gifted youngsters” like you?” Evelynn could tell he was uneasy about the topic, and why shouldn’t he be?

“With mutations, you mean? Yes. As telepaths? No. I know a girl who can walk through walls, a boy who controls ice, and I used to know a man who could regenerated his cells faster than any human being. He, like me, was experimented on and has adamantium claws because he’s basically indestructible. Actually, he’s quite out of time, just like yourself.”

“How do you….um…?

“Become a mutant?” Evelynn supplied for him. “You can’t catch it, don’t worry. It’s genetic, passed down from the father’s genes onto the children. Most mutations don’t appear until early teens. Some families are more receiving than mine was.”

“I’m sorry.”

She was grateful that he didn’t pry further about why she was on SHIELD’s radar or her mission. There was a long silence. Steve stared at her intensely, and it was driving her crazy not knowing what he was thinking. It was so tempting to read his mind. Finally he spoke, “I know what it’s like to lose everyone you love. It’s hard, miss, but it makes us stronger for it.”

Spoken like a true leader. And without warning, she broke down. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her body shook violently. Steve panicked. Hesitantly he reached out to hug her into his arms. She nuzzled her head into his chest, her sobs starting to subdue. Steve rubbed his hand on her back, the warmth radiating through her clothes.

Before Steve could offer any words of comfort or she could explain further, JARVIS’s voice echoed through the room. “Captain Rogers, the director is outside of the room requesting entry.”

“Send him in.” Director Fury, entered the room to see Evelynn and Rogers standing in each other’s arms.

“I’m sorry. Am I interrupting something?” His monotone voice reflected no real apology. “You were under strict orders to not allow them to know about your mutation.”

“Tony found her out.” Captain Rogers defended.

“Silence, soldier.”

Evelynn wiped her eyes and twisted in Steve’s arms to face her new director. I thought you said this would be an easy mission. You didn’t tell me that Tony Stark was such an ass.

“Captain Rogers, you are dismissed. Go to your room and you will be briefed momentarily by Agent Hill,” Much to her dismay, Steve relinquished his protective hold on her and walked to his room on the next floor. Once he was gone, Director Fury walked over to the desk and sat backwards on the wooden chair, propping his elbows on its back and eying Evelynn carefully. “You and I both know why this mission is so important. You said I could trust you.”

“You can,” Evelynn protested. “I lost control. I wasn’t prepared for Tony Stark’s jabs. And he was searching through my file. I didn’t know how much you had in there. I thought nothing of it at first because you said it was classified and then Steve—er—Captain Rogers stated that Tony could hack into your system. I panicked. Won’t happen again. I won’t jeopardize the mission.”

“The more elusive and classified details are safely filed under a different name,” Fury stated lowly.

“There is no mention of your other name, shall we stay, under the X-men. Tony may be a genius, but he needs all of the variables to figure out a puzzle.”

“So what now?”

“We will brief the Avenger’s on your mutation and your mission.”

“The real one?” Director Fury shot her a glare. Sometimes she thought that his glares were even more menacing since he was missing an eye. “Oh I guess that wouldn’t make sense. But if….” Evelynn chose her next words carefully, knowing that JARVIS could be listening and reporting to Tony. “…they do attack, wouldn’t it make more sense for the Avenger’s to know?”

“That is not for you to decide.” Your secrets have secrets, Evelynn thought, no wonder nobody trusts you.

“Since my cover is blown…”

“We stick to the original plan.”
***
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I cannot figure out how to get italics on this site. :P Anyway hope you enjoy. I have several more chapters but I haven't edited them for grammar and continuity yet.