ROMANOGERS: PAST TO PRESENT

Chapter Six

Steve's POV

"Because I'm next."

As the words were said it felt like a bomb had just exploded. The whole room was stunned into silence. Natasha opened her mouth to speak when a new voice roared from the sound system.

"What do you think you're doing?"

" I- I was just looking something up, I swear!" The girl rushed out in a single breath.

"Get up!" The voice yelled angrily causing Nat to pull the headset away from her ears a few inches.

"Y-yes m-ma'm." The girl spoke timidly and her voice grew harder to hear. She had stepped away from whatever she had been talking into. There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

"Can you track the call?" I whispered to Tony.

"I'm trying." He replied. Nodding I turned my attention back to the talking.

"Liar!" The other person cried.

"N-no I promise....please no! Don't!" The little girl's words were followed by a loud smack and a heart breaking whimper. I closed my eyes taking deep breaths to quell the anger that was slowly growing in intensity. That girl was hit. No girl or child should be hit.

"Out!" The voice shrieked. Receding footsteps were the last things we heard when all of the monitors came back on line. Everyone remained frozen not knowing what to do.

"Tony did you trace the call?" Fury asked being the first to make a move.

"I tried but by the time I was close to a trace the conversation ended." He said closing different tabs on his watch.

"Damn it! I should have stalled." Natasha breathed leaning back in her chair and pulling off her headset in frustration.

"If you had said anything the girl would have been in more trouble. Don't beat yourself up." Tony replied in the most relaxed tone I think I had ever heard from him.

"What is it that we do now?" Thor asked.

"That's for you to decide not me, but if I follow the feeling I have in my gut, it's that a few of you might know where to start." Fury said before turning and striding out of the room in the direction of his office. Slowly everyone started to clear out leaving us and Maria alone.

"I think we should have a meeting. Just because Fury won't help you doesn't mean I won't." Maria said crossing her arms and looking at each of us in turn.

"All right, let's go." I said following her out of the room with the others close behind.

Once we were all comfortable and sitting in our respective seats Maria strode in with her arms full of folders and other objects. She had taken a moment to visit Fury's office and managed to weasle her way into getting a few resources.

Tossing the objects in her arms onto the table I noticed the blue box amongst the folders. Glancing sideways I noticed Nat flinch, her skin taking a paler tone at the sight of it. Scarlett must have seen this too, seeing as how she quickly snatched it off the table and rested it in her lap so that it was out of sight.

"Where do you want to start?" Maria asked taking her seat towards the center so everyone could see her clearly.

"Well how about, how on earth did that kid get past my security?" Tony called still frustrated that he was outsmarted by a young adolescent girl.

" She was obviously trained if she was able to do that kind of work." Clint said swiveling a full circle in his chair which he had been spinning in for a few minutes, obviously bored.