3A/N Well hello again, dear readers! Welcome to the second chapter! You'll be meeting our other main character today, so get ready for that!
Also, I forgot the disclaimer last chapter, but I'm pretty sure I'd be a teensy bit richer than I am right now if I owned The Avengers.
And now on with the story.
"Agent Doyle! What have you done this time?"
Persephone Doyle, 18-year-old SHIELD agent, looked up from her laptop computer and sighed.
"Believe it or not, Tom, not everything I do is a mistake."
Tom, her commanding officer, strode up to her.
"How many times do I have to tell you that you are underage and unqualified? You are here because your uncle wants you to be involved, not because he wants you to play!"
Percy sighed. "It was just a prank, Tom," she said.
"That's COMMANDER Tom to you, young lady! And thanks to you, three of our best agents are in the hospital wing, covered in garlic mashed potatoes!"
Percy hid a smile behind her hand.
"How you even managed to make the loudspeaker spray food at everyone who passed is completely beyond me. I have no idea how anyone could maintain such disorderly conduct in a-"
Percy stood up abruptly, patted Tom on his head, and walked out of the control room, her blonde ponytail bouncing behind her.
She stepped out into the warm air of the Florida station. All it had taken was a bit of eyelash-batting and her uncle - Agent Phil Coulson - had stationed her here pronto.
She smiled. Having Phil as an uncle was almost enough to make her feel like she had a family again. Ever since her parents had been killed in Nepal on a SHIELD mission, Phil had willingly taken care of her.
"You have your father's looks," Phil would always tell her. "But your mother's spunk!" He would laugh, remembering times growing up with Rachel Doyle, née Coulson.
Percy was jolted from her thoughts by a buzzing from her pocket. She pulled out her iPhone and glanced at the caller ID.
Speak of the devil, she thought. She picked up.
"Yo, Phil," she said casually.
The tense voice of her uncle replied.
"Persephone... There's been a problem at the upstate New York headquarters."
Percy froze. No, not there. Not him.
"What happened?" she asked, trying to contain her fear. "Is it the Tesseract?"
"Yes, there's- wait, you aren't supposed to know about the Tesseract!"
Percy winced, remembering that fact a bit too late.
"There's no time for punishment right now, though," Phil said.
"Lucky me," said Percy, knowing perfectly well that Phil was far too much of a softie to punish her.
"The more important thing is that we talk in person. You'll need to be down at the helipad in 5 minutes. Video-call me from there and I'll fill you in then. Got that?"
"On it, boss!" With that, Percy hung up and dashed to pack her bags.
Percy made it to the helipad in 3 minutes flat. She shielded her eyes as she watched the helicopter descend and nodded to the guys in ear things as she jumped on.
"Hello there, mate. Off to New York, then?" She smiled widely at the helicopter pilot, who stared back, bemused.
"Grumpy old meaner," she said to herself as she buckled herself into her seat.
Once the helicopter was safely in the air, she dialed her uncle's number. He picked up on the second ring.
"Ah, Persephone. Glad you weren't late this time," said Phil.
"Psh, I'm never late... Okay, that's an exaggeration."
"Actually, it's just plain untrue," said Phil, eliciting a playful scowl from Percy in response.
"But now down to business. So, you already know about the Tesseract, even though you're not supposed to." He paused to give her a disapproving look before he continued. "That actually saves me a bit of time. Long story short, it's been stolen."
"Yep, got that part," said Percy. "But who could steal it? Isn't it awfully powerful?"
"Not too powerful for a god," said Phil.
"Oh, so this has something to do with Thor!" exclaimed Percy.
"What- Persephone- you're not supposed to know about that, either!"
"Yeah, about that..." said Percy.
Phil gave her another disapproving look. "Anyway, you're actually not quite right. It has to do with his brother, Loki, the god of mischief. He's arrived back on Earth and stolen the Tesseract, and he seems to be a lot more powerful this time around. He has this sort of mind-control stick thing."
"Mind-control stick thing? How very threatening."
"Well, it's a lot worse than I'm making it out to be. Basically, he touches your heart with it, and it kinda sucks out your soul and replaces it with evil... stuff."
Percy frowned at her uncle's face.
"Well, don't just sit there, tell me who he zapped!"
Phil winced, but continued. "Erik Selvig. Another SHIELD agent. And... well..."
Percy took a deep breath. Please don't be him, she thought. Not him.
"And Clint Barton."
Percy felt slightly like a cave in her chest had opened up, and all her insides were being sucked in by it. No, please no, not him.
"We don't know if the effects are permanent or not, so-"
Percy tuned out his words. Why did it have to be Clint? Of all the agents, why did that bastard Loki have to choose the one who was kind to her? The only man (besides her uncle) that she felt like she could really trust was now gone.
She knew it was ridiculous to have a crush on him. He was eight years her senior, and totally not interested in her. That fact didn't stop her heart from pounding every time he smiled at her, though.
She sighed and put her fingers to her temples. "What were you saying, Phil?"
"I was saying that Nick Fury is getting ready to take action. He's going to start something called the Avengers initiative."
"Oh, the Avengers!" said Percy without thinking, raising her head from her hand. "Yeah, I read about them."
"Read about them where exactly?" asked Phil, raising one eyebrow.
"Nick Fury's private papers. I mean- The Avengers? What's that?" she asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.
"Dear lord, Persephone. What else did you find out about?"
"Um, the fact that you want to retrain Captain America, tame the Hulk, I found all of the blueprints for that really cool boat-slash-plane... oh, and did you know that Nick Fury's allergic to cat hair?"
Phil sighed and placed his head in his hands. "What am I going to do with you?"