34Hello, everyone. I hope you enjoy the new update! I do not own neither Maximum Ride nor the Avengers. If I did, I would not be writing this story. Also Dylan would never have existed.
(Previously)
"What the hell was that?"
And there it was.
"How the hell do you know the prisoner? What do you mean you haven't 'gone by Nudge since you were 13'?" The director demanded.
Nudge leaned forward, her elbows on the table, fingers rubbing circles on her temples. "It's a long story director."
"Well, we have plenty of time."
"You may want to sit down. This will take a while."
The director looked at her for a minute to decide if she was serious or not before taking her advice. "Fine, what is your birth name?"
"I think its Monique, but… I don't know."
"Birth date?"
"No clue."
"Parent's names?"
"No clue."
"Where were you born?"
"No clue."
The director sighed irritably. "Is anything on your file real?"
Nudge thought for a moment before saying, "I am actually African-American."
Fury stared at her for a moment before sighing again, this time exasperatedly. "I'll be back. I can't deal with this."
He left her sitting there while he went to call for reinforcements, or so she guessed.
***Outside in a meeting room an hour later***
"What are we doing here Fury? I have stuff to do. As a billionaire I have several important things to do at each and every time of day. So, the new official consulting hours are…"
"Not today Stark. You and Agent Romanoff are going to interview a SHIELD agent who managed to so completely make up a new identity that we never knew. She says she knows nothing of her birth name, date or parents, and I don't want to go through everything with her to find out how."
"Someone managed to hack well enough to pull one over SHIELD?" Tony asked.
"What is more disturbing is that she claims to have done it when she was 13," Fury grumbled.
"I now actually want to me this agent. This skill you would have to possess…" He was interrupted by Natasha.
"What do you want us to do director?" She asked.
"I want you to find out who she is, where she came from, and how she knows our prisoner currently in interrogation." The director ordered." She seems to be willing to talk, and apparently the story was very long."
"Yes sir." Was Natasha's answer while Tony gave a sarcastic salute.
*********Back in the Interrogation room*********
Nudge was waiting patiently in the interrogation room, slowly drumming her fingers on the black, reflective surface.
Finally the door opened. Natasha was the first one in.
"Tasha, I didn't know you were back from the nut house, sorry, Avengers Tower." Nudge stood to give her old friend a hug.
"Monique, you're the agent I've been sent to interrogate? The one with the completely falsified records?"
"Yes, but you don't have to interrogate me. Fury was just annoyed that I got one over SHIELD. I'll tell you whatever you want to know."
"So I can leave right?" Another voice asked.
Nudge looked up. "Mr. Stark I presume. I assume Fury wants you to find out how I managed to so completely falsify my records."
He nodded. "That's right. So can we hurry? I really want to get back to Pepper. Also, how is it you and Red here know each other."
Nudge sighed. "Stark, Nat and I met when I first joined SHIELD. I was assigned to shadow her for a day to learn about the goings on within SHIELD. She'd sent every other newbie assigned to her running and she was so impressed when I didn't run away screaming that we've stayed in contact. Also, you two may want to sit down. I'll try to be brief, but, this story… my story…it's not a short one."
The two Avengers sat themselves across the table from her, both feeling slightly apprehensive.
"First off, anyone got a pen?" she asked.
Tony quirked an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
Nudge rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to prove a point."
Natasha silently produced a pen and put it in front of her. Nudge stood and walked to the corner of the room. She raised an arm and an open hand to the table.
"Seriously, what…" was all Tony said before the pen flew from the table to Nudge in the corner.
"In case you missed the point I was trying to make, I'm not 100% normal." Nudge said lightly as she returned to her chair. "I can do that to any metal so far that I've found. The heavier it is, the harder it is to move."
"You're a mutant?" Natasha asked. "That's your big secret?"
Nudge shook her head. "I don't have the X Gene. About 25 years ago, there was a group of scientists. They were all experts on DNA of all types, animals and humans. They conducted hundreds of experiments on animals, combining the most random DNA sequences they could just to see what would happen. Cat and mouse, fly and birds, any and every combination they could think of. But they got bored. And they were curious about the possibility of a different type of combination. They wanted to see what happened when you combined animal and human …" she choked slightly. "animal and human DNA. They experimented on dozens of kids. Always kids. Most didn't live long. A few days. A few weeks. But then, they struck gold. Two different combinations succeeded. One more so than the other. The lesser success was the combination of human and lupine DNA. They were named Erasers and worked solely for the scientists. They never lived longer than four years, some much less. The other successful exper" Nudge choked again and had to take a deep, steadying breath, "experiment was a combination of human and avian DNA. They had 6 test subjects of various ages; 3 were the same age, the youngest two were brother and sister. The golden ratio was 98% human, 2% avian. 6 bird kids stuck in this hell on earth for years at the mercy of these morally and ethically screwed monsters, whose only concern was studying these kids, running insane experiment after experiment. Year after year of nonstop torture." Her voice trailed off. She looked up to see what effect her words had on the renowned inventor and spy/assassin.
Stark's face was pale. Natasha was attempting to burn a hole in the wall, her blue eyes narrowed in hate.
"There are a few noticeable side effects to being a bird kid." She said quietly. She had focused her attention on the table, her eyes not rising to meet the others again.
"Monique…"Natasha said quietly.
Nudge flinched. "That's not my name. I don't even know what my freakin' name is. When I was first brought to the lab, I was only a few days old, a few weeks at the most. Max always said that I would nudge her whenever I wanted food. To the flock I was always Nudge after that. Well, that or Motormouth. Iggy joked one time that my name was actually Shut-up because that was what the flock always said to me. But I knew what I was doing. They needed a distraction from life, from what was going on. So I talked. And talked. I would talk about anything and everything to distract them from what was going on around us.
Natasha slowly raised a hand and placed it over Nudge's hand. "Would you like to be called Nudge again?"
Slowly Nudge nodded. "I haven't been called Nudge in years, but I think I would like to be called that again."
Stark spoke, quietly for once. "You said something about side effects? Anything detrimental to your health?"
Nudge studied him for a minute. "I don't trust scientists. After what I went through, it's nearly impossible for me to. But… there's something about you that I can't help but trust."
Stark gave her a half grin. "Maybe because I'm not too serious, like you had to be to raise the atmosphere for your group? Or maybe because I'm also an inventor? Or it could be because you find me attractive, a lot of people do."
Nudge gave a watery laugh. "I think the first one is the most likely. But back to your question. I can't think of anything bad except for I have an extremely fast metabolism. I have to eat… a lot. But I don't gain any weight, which, I guess is a good thing."
"Anything else?" Tony asked. "If only so if you get injured the doctors know what to do."
"My bones are lighter, more like a birds'. I heal really fast. Anytime a doctor would tell Max that someone needed a week of rest she would automatically translate it as three days. Also, if I need a blood transfusion, I am SOL. The cells are different, I'm not sure how, but whenever one us was injured enough to need a hospital, usually Fang, one of us would always give the transfusion."
"Is that all that's different about you?" Natasha asked quietly.
Nudge thought for a moment before slapping herself upside the head. "I didn't tell you guys the biggest and most obvious two."
"Which are?" Tony asked impatiently.
"Well the first one is the lesser secret. One of my… abilities… is the ability to touch something, and I can feel… echoes of people who touched it before. I can touch a computer, and I can feel what passwords were entered. Downside is I can feel a backlash, for lack of a better word, of emotions from the stuff I touch. I made the mistake of touching the Vietnam memorial in Washington D.C. once. I nearly threw up then and there. It was…bad. Really bad."
"Is that how you fooled SHIELD?" Natasha asked.
"Yes. I snuck my way into the offices of the people who could legally do things that show up on a file, Birth certificates, social security number, all people who could make these things and it would look entirely authentic and legal. Everything else, well, I'm a good hacker."
"What's the second thing?" Tony asked.
"I need a little help. Nat could you come help me unzip the uniform? And no," She addressed Tony whose eyes had lit up, "You are not getting a free peep show."
With Natasha's help she unzipped the top part of her SHIELD uniform. She extracted her arms from the sleeves and pushed the top of her uniform down to reveal a black tank top underneath.
She turned quickly before either could see her back. "The biggest change the Avian DNA gave us was, well…" She released her wings. They extended a good 17 feet in wingspan, the feathers fading from a light tan to a dark chocolate brown.
Stark's eyes were the size of dinner plates and Natasha let out a small "Oh."
"I haven't told SHIELD for a few reasons. One, I refused to be used. When we were on the run, the military tried to get us to work with them, turn us into weapons, and maybe figure out how to make more. But we had no intention of volunteering ourselves to hell when we had already escaped from it. Second, I haven't flown in years. Not since… not since the flock disappeared. That's why I reacted so badly to Borchy in the other room."
Natasha arched an eyebrow elegantly, apparently over her shock. "Borchy?"
"Doctor," She spat the title. "Roland Ter-Borcht. The director asked me to accompany him to an interrogation and I lost my temper. Ter-Borcht was the leading mind behind the experiments. He was originally imprisoned for violating the Hippocratic Oath and committing lesser experiments years ago. However he escaped, I still don't know how, and he joined in with the wack-job group. His experiments escalated until they ended up with us. Bet he regrets that now."
Tony and Natasha exchanged glances. "I think the only question," Tony said seriously, "is what happens now."
Thank you all for reading! Please drop me a review on your way out. And if anyone does have an idea for how Nudge came to be at SHIELD, send me a PM.
Thank you!
-tgbooklover