𝐅𝐔𝐑𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐃 across the conference room half-a-dozen times during the entirety of Romanoff and Barton's debriefing. It was an odd sight to see the director lose his composure, one that Tony was frankly uncomfortable watching.

"Alright." Fury broke the silence as he turned to face the pair of spies. "Let me get this straight. You left Wilson and Rogers behind?"

"We followed protocol," Natasha replied, crossing her arms from her seated position. "We assumed Wilson would head straight for the helicarrier since his tech was operational at the moment."

"I see..." Per usual, it was impossible to tell from Fury's tone whether he was displeased or furious. "Have we received any attempts at contact?"

Clint shook his head. "Soon as we took off, the tracking and communications were scrambled."

"And our mystery symbol?" Fury asked, finally turning to look in Tony's direction. It was the one moment he hadn't felt the need to be the center of attention; however, he cleared his throat and commanded the room.

"Not a clue." Tony stood and joined Fury in pacing across the room, but for him, it was a way to keep his brain active when he didn't have his tech to distract him. "If I were back at the lab, I'd have an answer for you within seconds, but I can't work with anything in this shithole."

"How about our muscle?"

"Banner and the Asgardian?" Agent Pierce asked from the back of the room, alerting the others to his presence along with Agent Hill's. "We've had no success reaching either of them."

Fury paused and nodded his head. His eye was trained on the floor as he placed his hands on his hips, throwing back the ends of his leather coat. He slowly looked up and directed his next thought specifically to Hill and Pierce.  "I think it's about time to put Project Celestial in the field."

"Project Celestial?" Tony wrinkled his nose as he repeated the title. "What are you hiding now, Fury?"

"Remember that bluff you called?" Fury vaguely asked as a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"You'll have to be more specific," Tony charismatically sighed as he again took his seat and leaned back in the chair. "We've talked a lot of business over the years, Fury. I don't remember all the bullshit I've called."

"It's called the Crusader Initiative," Fury explained. "A reserve team of heroes that could step up if the Avengers were ever unable to answer the call."

"Anyone else concerned about a universe where we wouldn't 'answer the call'?" Barton asked, repeating Fury's statement with air quotes.

Tony scoffed in agreement. "Hilarious, you think we're replaceable."

"Sir, I have to object." Maria Hill crossed her arms with a look of disapproval. "It's too premature to play around with one of your chess pieces."

"I have to agree with Hill." A pained expression crossed Pierce's face as he sided with Hill. From the purposeful chair placed between them, there was a strong implication that they didn't work well together. "This could have major setbacks further down the line."

"Then give me another option!" Fury demanded, slamming his fists down on the table, startling everyone in the room. "We have no contact with Dr. Banner, Reed Richards is on his honeymoon and didn't leave a number to call, Dr. Selvig is in New Mexico, and both of you know we won't be getting ahold of Hank Pym anytime soon. So, explain to me what other option is there?"

"We send in a specialized unit," Pierce insisted, throwing his hands in the air with frustration. "I haven't had time to create a new S.T.R.I.K.E. unit, but give me five minutes and I'll do it now."

"Our technology isn't operational, Pierce," Fury reminded him. "It was a miracle that Barton and Romanoff made it back aboard the helicarrier before the quinjet's engine gave out."

"But Project Celestial—"

"Does not have the same restrictions," Fury interrupted Hill with a glare. Pierce sighed and stood from his seat. He shook his head, but realized that there was no arguing with Fury once his mind had been made up.

The second that Pierce left the room, Natasha leaned across the table and posed a question of her own. "When were you going to tell us about our replacements?"

"Successors," Fury corrected. "And once I had filled the rest of the available slots. I had intended for them to be personally trained by the Avengers."

"As if we weren't busy enough saving the world." Tony scoffed. "Starting to seem like this dream team of yours really was a bluff."

Fury rolled his eye, but didn't bite at Tony's comment. Instead, he turned on the television bolted to the wall. The maze-like symbol slowly appeared, just as it had with every other screen aboard the helicarrier, signaling that the hacker's virus was still in play.

"How come you haven't taken care of this yet?" Fury asked with a pointed look toward Tony as he gestured to the emblem on the screen.

Tony was quick to defend his own honor. "It's not like this thing was made by an amateur." He held his own personal cell phone up into the air to show that even J.A.R.V.I.S. was glitching. "It's craftsmanship can almost compare to my own."

"The world must really be ending because I swear I just heard the Tony Stark admit someone else could make quality technology." Natasha's retort was smug, and Tony immediately regretted his choice of wording.

He shook his head and held up a single finger to contradict her statement. "I said almost."

The tension of the argument brewing ceased at the appearance of a pair of armored guards. They stepped aside to reveal a thin, pale teenage girl. Tony's brow furrowed in confusion as he looked over at Fury, wondering if this was some big joke. It was not.

The girl marched into the room as if trying to command the presence before she took a seat at the end of the table closest to the screen. She leaned back in the chair and released a nonchalant yawn before her gray eyes focused on Fury.

She slowly crossed her arms and the standardized S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform jacket creased with the motion. Her eyes narrowed and the corners of her mouth turned down into a frown. "I was wondering how long it would be before someone let me out of my room."

"That's a child."

The girl's head snapped to look at Tony and her eyes narrowed further. Fury whistled and called for her attention, silently telling her to dial back the attitude with a single look. He then crossed the room to briefly speak with Pierce in a tone too low to overhear.

Tony's eyes remained focused on the girl, and she refused to break away from his contact as if afraid to show weakness. Once Fury was no longer focused on her, she lifted her hand out from under her arm and flipped him off. She hid the action just as quickly when Fury turned back around and cleared his throat.

"I believe a debriefing is in order—"

"Right." Tony clasped his hands, rubbing them together with a sense of eagerness and false sincerity. "How about we start with introductions? You got a name, kid?"

"Crystal." She snapped so quickly it was like she was trying to bite someone's hand.

Fury sighed but conceded with a nod of his head. "This is Crystal, known as Project Celestial around here though. Crystal, meet the Avengers."

Crystal looked around the room unimpressed, taking a calculated second longer to look Tony up and down from his seated position. "They look taller on tv."

"Be nice," Pierce chastised from the back of the room. It was clear from the way that she listened, he was her handler, the one in charge of ensuring that she wasn't a liability to the organization.

"As I was saying..." Fury directed the room's attention to the screen in the center of the room. Tony had heard the speech minutes ago, he really didn't need a recap; besides, he was more interested in the girl that Fury had insisted was vital to Cap's extraction. However, she kept her back turned as if trying to avoid the symbol emblazoned on the screen. It dawned on him that she hadn't looked in that direction once with the exception of when she'd first entered the room. Even then there'd been a brief second of panic evident in her eyes.

"... You'll track down Rogers, extract him from the compromised area, and rendezvous at the predetermined location." Tony focused on the conversation just in time to hear Fury summarize the girl's mission.

She offered a silent nod of her head then stood, leaving without an additional word. Pierce and the guards followed after her as if they didn't trust her to be alone on the helicarrier for a split-second.

Natasha looked annoyed, which meant she'd drawn the same conclusion as he did about the girl: very little which amounted to absolutely nothing useful.

"So, what's our job?" Tony broke the awkward silence, standing from his seat. "You want us to tail her and provide back-up?"

"What I want is the antidote to this virus," Fury snapped, pointing back toward the screen that tainted them with the foreign symbol.

"I'm heading to the linguistics department," Clint abruptly announced and stood from his seat. "I want to see if I can decipher that coded message."

Natasha opened her mouth to question if he even remembered what had been said, but dismissed the thought as the archer left the room. It wasn't worth the effort to follow after him. She turned toward Fury and spoke in a low tone. "Why the girl?"

"She's a survivor," Fury replied, only hesitating for a second to think. "She'll do what's necessary to succeed and has natural instincts that a S.T.R.I.K.E. team doesn't."

"She's just a kid," Natasha said quietly.

"So were you when you were called into this life," Fury reminded her. "She can handle it though. She's not just a kid... she has potential."

"Just bring the rest of the team in safe," Natasha replied, almost like a warning. "Now's not the time to test new pieces to add to your board."

"I have this under control, Romanoff," Fury insisted, his voice growing testy as if daring her to question his decision again.

Natasha was silent for a moment. She looked up with a final genuine question. "Does she know what she's getting herself into?"

"She understands more than she lets on." Fury paused, turning off the lights to the room with Stark and Romanoff still inside. "It's in my best interest to keep a close eye on her."

"Well that wasn't ominous at all," Tony retorted in the dark. He could practically feel the spy roll her eyes before storming out of the room. Once alone, he pursed his lips in thought and sat in the darkness before making up his mind on where to head first. The solution resulted in the hangar.

He had simply planned to check on the status of his suits, but when he noticed the kid, that plan changed. "Hey, kid. A moment."

"Crystal." She corrected as she turned and added an even harsher tone of annoyance as she asked, "Do you need something? I'm trying to prepare for a mission here."

"This won't take more than a minute," Tony insisted as he stepped closer. "I've just got a few questions that Fury won't answer."

She turned her back as if trying to ignore him while rummaging through the tattered backpack on the ground beside her. She glanced over her shoulder to see he was still standing there, waiting. "And what makes you think that I will?"

"You're a kid." Tony scoffed with a chuckle. "Kids love talking about themselves."

She frowned, finally facing him as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "You haven't grown up much then."

"Touché." He paused. Seeing that he already had her attention, he took that as the a-okay to ask his questions. "So what ditch did Fury pull you from that convinced you to voluntarily join S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Both sides receive benefits."

Tony raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "Now what benefits could S.H.I.E.L.D. possibly offer aside from a lifetime of secrecy, kid."

"It's Crystal," she corrected. The unamused expression remained on her face as she added, "and I prefer to keep my secrets hidden, so the arrangement's working just fine, thank you very much."

After her comment, she turned and entered the next room over to grab a few final pieces of equipment. It looked like she had assumed the conversation was over, so the look of annoyance that flashed across her face as Tony followed was more hostile than before. She did her best to ignore him as she snapped a utility belt around her waist, but Tony refused to leave the matter alone.

"So what's special about you, kid?" Tony asked nonchalantly, leaning up against a wall of displayed rifles. "Why's Fury so interested in putting you on his reserve team? You got some index level powers or something?"

"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" She snapped as she faced him. "Alright. Fine. Yeah, Fury thinks I'm special. You prove yourself to be a little smarter and stronger than the rest and suddenly you light up on one of his screens like Christmas in July. Something rare that he needs to add to his collection. He has this grand idea about preserving the world, but it's better than being pulled apart in a lab hidden under some other secret government. At least here, I'm only in a lab for an hour or two twice a week. So yeah, both sides receive benefits."

Suddenly, Stark's phone rang alerting him to the operational status of his technology. An elated smile formed as he swiped through the status of his suits and other units to see that everything was functioning at maximum levels. It seemed that the antivirus he'd been concocting worked, not that he had any doubts. However, as he looked up, the girl was nowhere to be seen. She must have run off while he was preoccupied. No matter, he'd catch up later. No head start could outrun the Iron Man.

It only took a matter of seconds for him to suit up and disembark. The electronic hum was music to his ears. "You awake yet, J.A.R.V.I.S."

"Just a moment of shut-eye, Sir," the AI replied while bringing the rest of the system back online. "It seems I caught a nasty bug."

"We'll have to make sure your vaccines are up to date," Tony agreed as he pulled up a few tracking specs.

He was greeted by three blinking lights: one represented Cap, another Wilson, and the final light was the position of Fury's pet project. While conversing, Tony had slipped a prototype of a nano-tech tracker on the fancy watch that the girl had around her wrist. It was still in the testing phase of assimilating the infected tech to the control of his armor, but simply knowing her location was enough for now. He was surprised to see how quick she moved. He assumed she had taken a quinjet or something, but all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s tech was still down. He'd solve that puzzle later though since there were bigger priorities that needed to be fixed first.