Heartbeat (Danny Rand)

Fifteen

 I sit on the floor of the cell, nervously braiding and unbraiding my hair for what feels like an eternity.

After around two hours I finally hear a pair of heavy footsteps gradually growing louder. They're sure and steady, and I have no doubt in my mind that they belong to Nick Fury.

I scramble to my feet and stand at the front of the cell, clenching and unclenching my shaking hands. I've never felt this nervous before, not even when I was running away from cops.

"Aria Green," A commanding voice calls, and my heart rate increases as I shift nervously on my feet.

"I have an offer for you," he continues, finally coming into view. "I want you to join SHIELD."

"What?" I gasp, staring at him with wide eyes. I imagined a lot of different ways this could've played out, and that was definitely not one of them.

"You're talented, you're young, and you got off to a bad start. I think you could make a positive impact on the world if you have the chance, so what do you say?" He asks, and my hands stop shaking.

"Okay," I answer, not knowing what else to say. He quite literally just offered me a get out of jail free card, I'm not going to turn it down. Especially when that offer comes with the potential to make up for the bad things I've done.

Fury nods and, without another word, hits a panel on the wall and the bars of my cell dematerialize. He motions for me to follow him and I do, walking quickly to keep up with his fast pace.

"Peter can show you around and tell you a little bit about the team, and then if I'm not mistaken we have a villain to catch," Fury says, leaving me alone with Peter.

"Thank you," I whisper, wrapping my arms around him. He laughs and hugs me back.

"Of course. You're my best friend, I'd do anything for you. Now, on with the tour!" He exclaims, linking his arm in mine and dragging me around.

"Over there is the main important SHIELD person area," He says, motioning toward what looks like the ship's helm. There are a bunch of control panels with blinking buttons, along with several desks agents are sitting at. The front part of the helm is covered in glass, and I can see the sunlit clouds pass by.

"Moving on, down this hallway is Doc Connor's lab. He's the big technology person here and he's pretty cool. You'll like him," Pete says, leading me down a long hallway covered in grey linoleum. "There's a security code you'll need to enter, but you pretty much just have to make a smiley face on the keypad so it's not too hard to remember."

Pete punches in a combination and the wall we were standing in front of splits in two, opening into one of the coolest rooms I've ever seen.

I eagerly start looking around, completely nerding out over the high tech bikes and supped-up weapons all over the lab. Peter laughs at me, before pointing me over to the stuff Doc. Connors made to him, bragging about how impressed he was with Pete's original web shooters.

"They were very impressive, Mr. Parker," a voice chuckles from somewhere in the lab and I spin around to see a young man, maybe in his late 20s, wearing a bleach white lab coat.

"And from what I've heard about you, Ms. Green, you've got an impressive set of skills too. I look forward to working with you," he says, and my heart skips a beat.

"You mean I get to work in here? With all of these awesome inventions?" I ask excitedly, suddenly realizing that Fury never told me what I would be doing for SHIELD before I agreed to join. I could end up being a janitor for all I know.

"Of course not. You'll probably be making your own," Doc Connors replies, and a giant grin spreads across my face.

"That sounds awesome!" I cheer, then slap a hand over my mouth a few seconds later, my cheeks turning a rosy shade of pink. "Sorry, I'm really excited."

"Don't worry about it, I had the exact same reaction when Fury offered me a job here. It gets even cooler the longer you work here," he replies, a kind smile on his face. I can already tell I'm going to have a lot of fun here.

"Anyway, we should continue our tour. I promise you'll have time to nerd out later, Ari," Pete teases and I stick my tongue out at him but reluctantly follow him out of the lab anyway.

"So down here is the armory, just in case there's a break in and you need a laser shooter gun thing. I've never really used one so I can't help you there, but I'm pretty sure you just pull the back part and then press the trigger," Pete says, and I gaze around the room. It has what looks like quadruple reinforced steel walls, as well as a ridiculously long entrance code that I'm never going to remember. I wouldn't be able to get into this room, even if I needed to.

It makes sense that it's so heavily protected though since there are more high-tech weapons and armor lining the walls than I've ever seen in my entire life, although I haven't seen many. There are a ton of weapons though, enough that if I wanted I could probably singlehandedly take over Russia.

"This is pretty cool," I say, and Peter nods in agreement.

"You haven't seen the best part yet," he adds, grabbing my arm and dragging me in a different direction.

"Over here is the training area, where we all learn how to work together as a team and use the new gadgets Doc Connors makes for us," Peter gushes, and I have to stifle a laugh.

"You really like working for SHIELD, huh?" I ask, looking around the white room and taking note of the metallic, human-like robots around the edge.

"Yeah, it's awesome. This room can be changed to simulate training in all sorts of different environments, and those robots can be changed into pretty much anyone we want. They even have their powers. We fought a bunch of Doctor Dooms once... they kicked our butts" Peter excitedly rambles.

"I wish you could train with us, that would be so awesome," he adds, and I shrug.

"I don't know, I would probably be a pretty bad hero. You've seen how weak I am, not to mention the fact that a slug could beat me in a race," I reply, but he shakes his head.

"I think you could be a great hero. Anyway, I have a lot more to show you, and then we have to figure out how to catch Taskmaster. Come on."