Prologue

Avengers (2012) - 11-years-old

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - 13-years-old

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - 14-years-old

Captain America: Civil War (2016) - 15-years-old

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - 17-years-old

Avengers: Endgame (2023) - ??

          Hi, I'm Katie! As far as I've been told, I don't have a last name. I'm just Katie. In the year 2000, the S.H.I.E.L.D council came to a decision to attempt to make or create an agent with special abilities. S.H.I.E.L.D agent 242, Cassie, volunteered to be the surrogate mother of a fertilized egg that S.H.I.E.L.D scientists had created. They used a special serum that they had concocted to enhance the egg cell provided by an unknown source, and as a result, I was born in 2001. Sadly, my surrogate mother died in childbirth, leaving me with no parents at all. Nicholas J. Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., disapproved of what had been done. He had said that it was wrong to create and use a child for the sole benefit of S.H.I.E.L.D. So he took me in and became my uncle. Fury had tried to adopt me (many times), but the council would not allow it. I eventually became an agent-in-training and was educated and raised as such. I was born with force field powers and superhuman strength from whatever the scientists used. Nick Fury and Maria Hill became my close family, and Phil Coulson became an uncle over time. Later, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton became a part of that family, too. Even with the family that I have now, all I've ever wanted was to have a mom and dad. I never knew who my true parents were, if there even were any, and I always had a feeling that I would never know. No one ever talked about it. When I asked, each person would change the subject. Despite not knowing about my parents, I loved and appreciated my life very much.

In 2011, Uncle Nick let me accompany him to meet with Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man. Uncle Nick thought it would be a good time for me to gain some experience as a 10-year-old training to be an agent:

My black suit was similar to Aunt Natasha's, while my medium-length, brown hair was in a single braid at the back of my head with a few baby hairs out at the front. Uncle Nick wore his usual uniform, and together, we walked over to Randy's Donuts and looked up to see the one and only Iron Man sitting on the roof in the doughnut sign with his Iron Man suit and a pair of sunglasses. Uncle Nick called out,

"Sir! I'm going to have to ask you to exit the doughnut!"

I stood behind my uncle, who had his hands on his hips, and waited patiently. I knew Mr Stark had been having issues lately, but this seemed worse than what I had expected. Mr Stark pulled his sunglasses lower down on the bridge of his nose and glanced down at us. Uncle Nick gave him a knowing look and began walking inside while I turned to walk toward where my Aunt Natasha was standing with her curly, red hair.

"Orders, Ma'am?" I asked, looking up at her with a smile.

"While we secure the perimeter, stay close to me."

"Yes, Ma'am."

She gave me a small smile, and we did our job. Once we were finished, Aunt Nat and I walked inside toward where Uncle Nick and Mr Stark were sitting in a booth across from each other. Mr Stark replied to something Nick had said while taking a sip of his coffee. Nat and I arrived at the table, and the two men turned to look at us.

"We've secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer," Aunt Nat said, giving a nod to Uncle Nick. I took a seat next to Nick as Nat spoke, and Mr Stark turned to her,

"Huh, you're fired."

Uncle Nick and I looked at one another and smiled at his reaction to Nat.

"That's not up to you," Nat replied with a slight, smug smirk and sat down beside me. Uncle Nick began to speak again, putting his arm around the both of us,

"Tony, I want you to meet Agent-in-Training Katie."

I nodded and smiled at him,

"Nice to meet you!"

"And Agent Romanoff."

"I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D shadow. Once we knew you were sick, I was tasked to you by Director Fury," Nat explained to Mr Stark.

"I suggest you apologize," Mr Stark said.

"You have been very busy. You made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff, you let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better-" Uncle Nick tried to say before Mr Stark interrupted,

"You don't know better, I didn't give it to him, he took it."

I raised an eyebrow at Mr Stark, not convinced by his response.

"Woah, Woah, Woah. He took it? You're Iron Man, and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass, and just took your suit? Is that possible?" Uncle Nick looked to Aunt Nat for an answer.

"Well, according to Mr Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage."

I held back a smirk when I heard that. Uncle Nick turned back towards Mr Stark, with his elbows on the table and his hands in a questioning position. Mr Stark continued to stare at Aunt Nat with a soft glare, then gave us a quick, frustrated smile,

"What do you want from me?"

"What do we want from you? Nuh-uh, what do you want from me?"

Aunt Nat stood up as Uncle Nick continued talking, "You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the centre of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with."

Mr Stark repeated small replies with his hand on his forehead. Aunt Nat walked back over to the table next to Mr Stark, and Uncle Nick told her to hit him. She then injected lithium dioxide into Mr Stark's neck. Mr Stark was shocked,

"Oh god, you're going to steal my kidney and sell it." He continued to talk while Aunt Nat turned his head. "Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds."

I watched as the marks on Mr Stark's neck began to fade and smiled at Uncle Nick. Mr Stark turned to Uncle Nick again and asked, "What'd she just do to me?"

"What did we just do for you. That's lithium dioxide, it's going to take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work."

"Alright, give me a couple of boxes of that, and I'll be right as rain."

"It's not a cure," I told him with an apologetic smile, "It just abates the symptoms."

"Doesn't look like it's going to be an easy fix," Uncle Nick stated about Mr Stark's condition.

"Trust me, I know. I'm good at this stuff. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I have tried every combination, every permutation of every known element."

"Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all."

My first assignment had gone well. Even though I hadn't done much, I was still excited about the fact that I had gone and that I got to meet Tony Stark. I will keep training until the next thing comes up. Then I'll be even more ready.

What came next wasn't anything I could have prepared for...