A knock rapped on the door to the woman's room, interrupting her thoughts as she stared at the screen in front of her. It was a picture of the girl that had escaped from her lab a couple of weeks ago. The girls hair was cut short, in order to make surgeries and testing go easier and her eyes were closed, in the picture she looked about thirteen or fourteen but the woman knew that years had passed since the picture had been taken. The knock came again, followed by a voice, "Excuse me sir, we have some new intel."

The woman sighed and looked up, "Come in then."

The dark wooden door opened and a man in his mid-thirties, dressed in a long white lab coat that covered the tan slacks and neatly pressed shirt underneath. His hair was trimmed neat and the signs of a lack of shaving showed on his chin, the black rimmed glasses that sat on his face began sliding down his thin nose, the man pushed them back before setting down a file on the woman's desk.

"Thank you Ted." The woman nodded curtly, Ted was one of her best doctors and her most loyal one too. He had been at her side since the beginning, helping her explore the human mind and the unknown, he was basically the reason that she was where she was today.

Ted sat down in front of her, "Are you sure you want to risk this entire operation for a single girl?"

The woman used her long red-painted nails to flip through the file, Ted shivered, the color reminded him of blood, he continued speaking, "I mean we have others, subject 023 is showing signs of improvement and subject 041 is ready to begin testing."

The woman stopped reading and looked up at the scientist, "Doctor I don't care what happens to the others, I just want her. Don't you see Ted? She's the key to everything! She's the key to unlocking the human mind. No other child has shown that much success!"

"If we go after her, our whole operation could be discovered and shut down, we aren't exactly a legal operation." The doctor argued.

The woman waved her clawed hands, "Ted, Ted, Ted, you worry too much. I have a plan to get her back. Maybe even the boy as well."

The man looked at the woman, meeting her dark brown eyes, her dark-red lips that were perfectly shaped, and her hair which reached just below her shoulders. She continued talking, "A few days ago I received word that Kelsey is staying with a group called the Avengers in New York, now they are coming here, to find other survivors."

Ted cringed at the work survivors, he knew there were none. There were eight others that had tried to escape and managed to get as far as Kelsey and Artie had gotten before being gunned down by the barbarians they hired as guards. While the woman had referred to the massacre as a cleanse, "getting rid of the failed ones" Ted had mourned for them, the children that had become his projects, the work he had put into them, the research he had lost. His glasses slid down his face again, he placed them back on the ridge of his nose, "What are you going to do?"

The woman smiled, an evil glint shone in her eye, "They're going to save me and take me back to their base. There I will find Kelsey and her friend. A group will follow me so when I do find them, they can break in and get us all out."

Ted went cold, if she found the girl, and even if she managed to get them out, how long would it take before Kelsey's new friends would find them and kill them all?

"Are you sure that's a good plan?" Ted asked quietly, not wanting to upset his boss.

The woman smiled again, "Ted, I have to get them back, they are both family. A good mother never leaves her children behind."

*********

Kelsey wrapped her 'I Love New York' sweatshirt tighter to her chest, winter was definitely on the way. Peter and Kelsey had just walked around Times Square going in and out of the giant stores for hours, there was no way to fit everything in all day. Kelsey could've just sat at a table by one of the cafes for hours just watching everyone. She had never seen so many people before.

Kelsey scooped the last of her raspberry and coconut gelato from her bowl and into her mouth, "I've literally never tasted anything so good in my life!"

Peter chuckled, and took her empty bowl and tossed into the garbage can next to him, "Yeah well, wait till you try New York pizza."

"Yum, I can't wait! We never had any food this good at HIDE, we were lucky if we got fed at all!" Kelsey said, looking around her, still amazed at where she was. Granted because there were so many people around her Kelsey had trouble keeping out all the noise that swam around in her head, but as the afternoon went on she found it getting easier to keep the thoughts out of her head.

"Alright, so it is 7:00 right now, tomorrow we can continue the tour after training. Beginning with the Statue of Liberty and a slice of New York pizza for lunch. But as of now, I have a surprise for you." Peter said, glancing down at his phone. He grabbed Kelsey's wrist and dragged her through the bustling streets until they reached the tallest building Kels had ever laid eyes upon.

"Welcome to the Empire State Building, the last stop of our tour today." Peter said, "First we have to find tickets."

Finding tickets was easy enough, there were people every five feet attempting to sell them, once they duo had tickets secured in their hands they made their way to the lobby of the building. It was as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside, the walls were a beautiful marble and the lights shone gold. Kelsey squealed, "I can't believe this! I'm never going back inside."

"Yeah well wait till we get to the top." Peter smiled.

"The top? We can go to the top of this thing?" Kelsey asked, jumping up and down, "I wish Artie were here! He would've loved this."

Artie had decided that he was going to go with Tony, Clint, and Bruce in the morning and had to help the trio with packing and preparing. Kesley on the other hand did not want to go anywhere near that place again and decided to stay here and right now she was glad she did.

"When he gets back we can take him." Peter replied, stepping forwards as the line slowly inched up.

An hour or so later the duo finally made it to the elevator that would lead them to the top of the tower. Kelsey hesitated at the elevator, flashing back to the elevator that was in HIDE, the one that lead her to the white room, the one they used for experimentation. Peter saw her hesitation and squeezed her hand, "It's alright Kels."

Kelsey nodded, her excitement overpowering her fear and she squeezed into the elevator with Peter and 20 other strangers. In a matter of seconds, Peter and Kelsey had reached the top of the building. The two hopped out of the elevator and maneuvered their way to the edge of the building. The air was freezing and whipped at their faces but at that moment Kelsey didn't care.

Below her the lights of the other building twinkled against the black sky, off a couple streets away was Stark tower, almost as tall as tall as the one she was on now. A two nights ago when she had climbed up onto Stark's roof she hadn't had the chance to look out at the world below her, she had been too busy staring at the sky.

"Peter it's beautiful up here!" Kelsey exclaimed, clutching onto the metal bars that prevented anyone from falling over the edge. Soon enough though, the cold drove them back into the lobby area that was on the roof, blocking them from the wind. Kelsey laughed in amazement, "That was amazing Peter! I can't believe that you live here! I can't believe that I was stuck in that place for so much of my life, missing this!"

"Well now you're here so I guess we just have to cram as many experiences as we can into one day to catch you up." Peter laughed. Though Peter had only know for a few days, Peter knew that they would become close friends, he couldn't believe that she had been trapped inside a cell for her entire life, experimented on and torn away from her family. In that moment he made a promise to himself that he would always be there for his new friend, and protect her from HIDE.

"Come on let's get back to Stark Tower, it's almost 10." Peter said walking back towards the elevator. Kelsey didn't follow. Peter looked back at her, her eyes were glossed over and she was staring at nothing, "Kelsey? Kelsey are you ok?"

Kelsey shook her head, and blinked a few times, "Huh, oh uh yeah, let's go."

She clutched her sweatshirt closer to her body and moved closer to Peter, "Are you ok?" He asked.

She nodded quickly, "Ah yeah, I'm fine. Let's just go."

Peter lead the way back down the elevator and into a cab that would take them back to the tower, the entire way there Kelsey didn't say a word. Protecting her from HIDE could be easy, but protecting her from her mind would be another challenge.

****A/N: Hello my fellow amazing and beautiful readers! Thank you so much for being so patient with this chapter upload. I've had a busy few weeks and was finally able to write this chapter. I hope you enjoy it, I really enjoyed writing it! The next chapter will much more exciting as more of the characters begin to interact with one another. No promises about when the next upload will be but please remember to keep commenting and voting for my story!! Thank you so much!! Love you all!!