{CHAPTER NINETEEN}
"You're allowed to do that?"
Amazement, by dictionary definition, is the feeling of great surprise and wonder.
Better known as a feeling Harlow was one hundred percent experiencing. At first she was just feeling slightly uncomfortable as Natasha led them through the intricate hallways of the Helicarrier. Harlow was walking a little bit behind the trio, getting distracted and casting her eyes around the mass amounts of places and room they passed.
But it was not the hallways and individual rooms that impressed her. No it was the main control room. As soon as Harlow stepped foot inside her jaw dropped. Her eyes took in all the amazing and marvellous technology. Equipment she had never laid her eyes on or seen before. It almost made her giddy how advanced everything was.
She watched in awe as everyone moved as a team and followed the orders directed to them by their commanding officers, and the people in charge of them. From the corner of her eye she could see Steve hand Fury money, something she wasn't sure as to why. She could hear in the background as Nick greeted the newcomers with a simple, "Gentlemen."
Nick paused as he realised there was a missing member. He turned to Natasha with an expectant look. Natasha gestured with her head over to where Harlow was standing, staring at one of the high tech screens. It was almost like Natasha had read his mind, but she just knew him well enough to read him.
"Isn't she a little bit too young to be involved in all of this?" Steve asked from Fury's side. He watched carefully as Harlow glanced to her side before moving and interacting with the screen. Steve couldn't help the small smile that twisted onto his lips as he observed the girl that thought she was being sneaky.
"You'll understand why soon." Nick replied vaguely and moved himself over to the large table at the back of the room. "Harlow." Nick called out to her as he was walking over to the table.
Harlow was quickly snapped out of her own realm of excitement as she forced herself to leave the incredible screens behind. Just as she approached the back of the room she could overhear Nick talking to Bruce as they had their brief introductions.
"So, how long am I staying?" Bruce questioned as he stood to the side hesitantly, shrinking on on himself a bit. It was rather sad to watch how unsure he was feeling.
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind."
"Is that when I'll be leaving two?" Harlow queried, catching the attention of the two men. She was shifting on the ball of her feet and couldn't stand in the same spot for more than thirty seconds. There was two reasons for this, one she was filled with way too much joy from seeing some of the coolest computers ever and two her mind was incredibly unbalanced and muddled.
"Kid, I'll be getting you back to school as soon as possible." Nick offered as a response, which once again was a rather ambiguous answer. To Harlow, it seemed the man could never give a straight forward reply.
"Where are you with the cube?" Bruce butted in, steering the topic back to his job in the hope that he would get to leave sooner rather than later.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. if it's connected to a satellite, it's eye and ears for us."
Harlow gasped loudly, "You're allowed to do that?"
Natasha, who was now crouched down in front of a screen with the image of a man whose file read Clint Barton, rolled her eyes at the girls supposed outrage. "That's still not gonna find them in time." She sighed heavily and shook her head.
"You have to narrow your field." Harlow and Bruce suggested at the same time. Bruce looked over to Harlow, finding himself to be pretty curious of the additional kid. When reading the file and being updated no one once mentioned that a teenager would be helping them out.
"How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce continued and felt himself grow more comfortable in the Helicarrier. After all, being a genius scientist is what he does best.
"How many are there?" Fury asked as he crossed his arms.
Bruce nodded his head in response and took off his jacket. "Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition." Bruce made his directions clear, "At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Romanoff, could you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory please." Nick noted aloud and waited for the two of them to make their way out of the control room. "Agent Hill, would you please escort Harlow to training room A, I will be there shortly."
"Right." Harlow muttered under her breath to herself, "Guess I'm just being kept in the dark and passed around." She snarked quietly and bit the inside of her cheek while she was waiting for whoever the hell Agent Hill is.
"Come on then Harlow." A tall brunette woman, who goes by the name Agent Hill, spoke as she passed by Harlow. She gestured with her head for Harlow to follow after he which she did.
Harlow raced to walk beside Agent Hill, she didn't want to be trailing after people all day. "Do you know what I'm doing here?" Harlow asked, breaking the silence, as they continued on their journey through the corridors.
"No, that information has not been disclosed to me." Agent Hill replied a slight bitterness to her voice, not at all aimed at Harlow. The agent paused and turned to face the gir;. "I'm Agent Maria Hill, it's nice to meet you."
Harlow's hand lagged as she moved it forward to shake Maria's hand. In the time that the agent had stopped, it gave Harlow enough time to see her face. And to her it was a very distracting face to look at. "I'm Harlow, but you know that. Still it's lovely to meet you." She mumbled as her voice faltered slightly. Harlow forced out a short laugh and could feel her mind crumbling when Maria sent her a smile.
"Now come one." Maria uttered as they started to move again. This time their pace was much faster, in an attempt to catch up for the time they spent introducing themselves.
They cam to a harsh halt outside of a door one that Maria pushed open and directed Harlow inside with her hand. Once inside the room Harlow was quick to realise it was a very basic changing room. It was completely empty apart from a box that was left on one of the benches.
"Everything you need will be in that box, there's a change of more suitable clothing." Maria explained as she stood with her back against the opened door, "Once you're ready, just go through that door, and it'll take you to the training room where Fury will meet you." She added and pointed over to the only other door in the room.
Harlow followed where her hand was pointing to with her eyes and nodded her head in understanding. She looked back to where Maria was previously standing and saw no one there, leaving her for the first time in a while all alone. Harlow moved hesitantly over to the box and slowly opened it, half expecting something to jump out at her or kill her.
But it only revealed a black fighting suit, one similar to the one Natasha was carrying with her. The material on this one was a lot thicker than Natasha's and physically heavy. Harlow studied it's design as she pulled it fully out of the box.
"Oh Nick, what do you want from me?" Harlow murmured to herself as her mind filled with dread. After all, there is one very obvious reason as to why she would need a fighting suit.
Sighing reluctantly Harlow started to change, removing her white suit from the ball and pulling on her new suit. It didn't in anyway remind her of what she wore before when she went on missions. Her previous fighting clothes were separate articles unlike the one in her hands. Her old suit was still tight but not nearly as form fitting. Harlow wasn't opposed to the change and welcomed it.
She did have to admit that the new suit was a little difficult to get into, purely because of the material that refused to budge an inch to get into it. Once Harlow finally got the suit on she froze. It was a perfect fit, meaning Nick knew her size.
Harlow's hands flew to her head as she tried to ground herself. She went through the process of letting out deep breaths to attempt to stop the overwhelming feeling. It was just getting to her. To be completely honest it was freaking her out. He knew so much and she knew nothing, a circumstance she was adamant on avoiding after being kept in the dark for three years.
Once she felt more stable, Harlow returned her hands to the box and took out the remaining items. There was a pair of shoes suitable for fighting and a pair of black gloves. Harlow's eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the gloves, she wasn't entirely sure of their purpose, but never the less she still put them on along with the shoes.
Going through to the training room, Harlow was once again mesmerised. There were millions of weapons in their correct holders and piles of equipment for training. It was heavenly. A place she would be recreating with the room of requirement when she goes back to school.
"There you are." Nick called out to her, "You suit was specially made with what should be fire-proof materials." He informed her as he strolled up to her at the side of the room.
"Thank you for it. Wasn't at all hard to get into to." Harlow muttered with a slight attitude and ran her hands down the side of her suit, yup it was definitely form fitting. "But I'm guessing my role isn't just as simple as locating the Tesseract." She remarked as she came face to face with Nick.
"The situation isn't seeming to be as simple and easy as we once believed it to be." Nick admitted, "A dangerous god has the cube, were taking all the precautions necessary. And your abilities will be very helpful if a fight breaks out."
Harlow's eyes dropped to her feet, "I haven't used them since... before I turned eleven." Harlow revealed as her hand clenched and unclenched at her side.
"And that is why you're training." Nick explained, "First I want to teach you the basics of physical fights but then you can experiment with your powers until they're needed."
Harlow let out a puff of air, "Yup that doesn't sound like a problem." She spoke with a hint of amusement in her tone. "Wait, and the gloves?"
"Fireproof." Nick answered before gesturing a boy over. He was tall with black hair. They way that he walked aired confidence, in that way he reminded her of Sirius. "This is Finnic Lewis, a young agent in training." Nick stated as he lowered his cross hands to stay behind his back.
"Hello." Finnic greeted her with a warm smile. "Fury wants me to teach you a few important moves."
"I know most of the basics." Harlow replied and looked over to Nick. "I think I'll be able to get straight into sparring." Harlow claimed confidently, cracking her knuckles as she spoke.
Nick was about to reply but Finnic answered first. "If you insist." He spoke with a smug grin on his face. Finnic brought his hands up to their correct position and waited for Harlow to do the same.
Underestimation. A great advantage. An advantage Harlow had on her side regularly.
Harlow followed his actions and raised her hands, very aware of Nick's watching eyes. She clenched her fists tightly and tightened her jaw. She waited for Finnic to strike first like she usually did. She needed enough time to figure out his fighting patterns so she could beat him. Her plan was to just dodge until she could easily beat him. Find out his weaknesses and use them against him.
Finnic launched himself forward and aimed his first fist to connect with her nose. Harlow blocked the fist flying at her face with her forearm causing barely any pain to her arm. Finnic attempted to strike her once again and used a combined sequence to punch her in the face as well as the chest. Harlow was able to block the first punch but the second one landed and hit the top of her chest.
Harlow glanced down at her chest and back up at Finnic in a split second. A massive cocky smirk coated his features which sent Harlow into a vengeful spiral.
Harlow waited for him to make his next move which was yet another punch. Harlow grabbed his fist and aggressively launched her own right into his neck. Finnic started coughing uncontrollably as he stumbled back and tried to get air back into his throat.
"I thought you said she was a beginner?" Finnic let out in a wheeze, his throat burning, as his eyes connected with Nick's eye. Nick had a small smirk on his face, it grew when he noticed the distress of Finnic.
"I guess Harlow was trained as she grew up." Nick theorised, "Nice hit Harlow." He complimented before a beeping sound caught his attention. Nick's head dropped to a device in his hand. "Keep training." He muttered as he left, walking with a certain urgency.
JUST WANTED TO REMIND PEOPLE THAT THERE WILL BE ADDED PARTS TO THE STORY SO IT WONT BE COMPLETELY ACCURATE TO THE MOVIES AND COMICS. ALSO THE TIMELINE OF EVENTS WONT GO AS QUICKLY SO THERES MORE TIME FOR INTERACTIONS AND BONDS TO BE BUILT BETWEEN CHARACTERS
Thank you for reading and interacting x
Tagged people for notification: randomperson1689