Turn

1 - Erin Mathis

I hate this basement...

SHIELD has me down here to study UFO and E.T's, and whatever else they don't have time for...

I had a run in with some...confidential information, thanks to an unintentional flash drive switch with some rogue SHIELD agent threatening to sell it on the black market, and that's why I'm down here. Since I was never actually a part of the information piracy--and it was proven so--SHIELD decided to let me work for them.

In a crummy basement.

Basically, SHIELD's way of saying "Oh, you didn't want a babysitter? You wanted to live a free and happy life--well, too bad!"

Freedom under constant surveillance is what I like to call it...

Come on Erin, you're just paranoid! You have a great job!

Oh, yeah? I found camera's in my house...SHIELD certified cameras; yes, I checked.

Easy to assume they don't trust me, but coming out and saying it would only raise suspicion.

Breaking my train of thought, I stripped off my blue, latex-free gloves and pulled my goggles over my head, placing them on the fluorescent white work table in front of me, next to the microscope I had been working at all afternoon. I needed out of this dark, dingy shoe box before I exploded like one of SHIELD's Tesseract bombs--

Whoops...not supposed to know about those...

Yeah, now I see why they don't trust me. I'm a walking vault of SHIELD secrets. What ever happened to memory erasing? I'd be perfectly happy with half of my memory erased, and no SHIELD in my life. Tesseract is old news anyway. Not like they'll care if I slip up around SHIELD ops anyway...

After clocking out, I headed upstairs, running my fingers through my long, softly curled, bright red hair. My hair wasn't naturally red, but I love gingers, so why not be one?

Fixing my bangs, I noticed the blue lights that ran up and down the wall trimming as I climbed the mountainous steps. They were blue now because danger wasn't afoot--or a-sky?--but if chaos were ever to ensue, the lights would flash red and all of the doors would lock shut until an administrating op. unlocked them. It rarely ever happens, but, you know:

SHIELD.

The corridor seemed cold as the blue lights glowed only enough for one to be able to see which step was next along the path. I reached for the keypad stationed on the right wall, programmed to open the door, but only with the right pass code. As I worked on typing in the 10 digit pass code, the door flew open, even before I had finished. I raised an eyebrow as a new light streamed into the dim corridor. It was a few seconds before I realized just who's way I was standing in.

"Oh, um..." I fixed my thick plastic rimmed glasses back onto the bridge of my nose and glanced awkwardly to the side, letting my hip sway out a bit. "Hey...Mr. Stark..."

"Tony, please," Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, gave the slightest lopsided grin and extended his hand as if he were wanting to shake mine. His attire consisted of nothing fancy, just a black T-shirt and black jeans. His charcoal hair was swept to the right.

"Sure thing, boss..." I pushed past Billion Dollar Stark, completely rejecting the handshake. Tony Stark was in no way, my "boss", but he sure liked to act like one, and I have no problem with dealing on my own. Hence: "Boss".

"Stark," I spun back around to face him. He seemed to hear me, acknowledging me with a profile view. "What business do you have down there, anyway...?"

"Chill out, E.T. Chic; I'm authorized." He made his way down the stairs, a hand in one pocket while the other was held in a lazy wave from behind. The door slid shut behind him.

I rolled my eyes. He could be such a pain sometimes, but, he was tolerable. My patience level was easily manageable, and I hardly ever threw a fit. Most of my rage was done on the inside, unlike--

Well, speak of the Hulk...

Dr. Banner sat in a hi-tech office, messing around with some of Stark's touch-tech for who knows what reason. I understood that Stark respected Banner for his brains and visa versa, but one of the things I didn't understand was why Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, was screwing around with Tony's Iron Man suit.

I decided to walk straight past the office, but my curiosity got the better of me. I trailed back, glancing into the room with more awareness of everything on the inside. I probably wasn't supposed to even be watching--but this is SHIELD, so even being aware of this room in the first place is probably a crime--but if they wanted to keep me out, why wasn't there a door?

Yeah...SHIELD is right not to trust me all too much...

I knocked on the wall before entering, alerting the two of my presence. "Knock, knock."

Cap was the first to look up, completely losing focus on tinkering with the Iron Man suit.

"Oh, Ms. Mathis," Dr. Banner greeted--hastily?--closing a few files on the screen and walking toward me from where he had been standing, but not right up to me. He seemed to be keeping his distance for some reason, and I didn't understand why. He shoved his hands in his pants pockets shrugging slightly as if in an awkward situation. "May I help you with anything?"

"Hmm?" I rested my arm on the door way--where, there was no door--and smiled a little awkwardly. "No, no...nothing really. Anything I could do for you, Dr. Banner?"

"Oh, um," Banner turned to look at Steve Rogers, who looked a little lost. Steve shrugged slightly, then Dr. Banner turned back to face me. "Uh, no, no, no. We're all fine here..." I nodded. He added quickly. "But, thank you."

I nodded again and turned to leave, holding the door post--still, no door!--before letting go as I walked off down the next corridor.

SHIELD wasn't only invasive when it came to privacy matters, but when you counted on it most to be exciting, it would let you down and be boring as heck...

And I hate being bored...
***
HEY GUYS! Guess who~!

That's right Chan-Fans it's the one and only Ani-Chan with a new collab with Queen Immortal Elvin Princess--I think. I don't know...?--JORDIE!!!

That is correct! jordieblob16 and I are starting this Avengers Fan fiction and will be having sort of a schedule for updates. We'll post more about it on our accounts and this one and let you know what's going on!

Thanks! And hope you enjoy!

~Ani-Chan

*This chapter was written by Animalsandadjectives

*Go check out jordieblob16 and Animalsandadjectives for more stories and updates!

Tchao! (Oh, that's French for "see ya!")