The rain pelted the back of the girl's hoodie as she walked. They could see the trace outline of where she'd stuffed her hands neatly inside her pocket at the front. Since they'd started watching her, her trips had become infrequent. She'd gone out less. Moved less. The girl had been trying her best to drop off the map. It was obvious that she knew she was being watched, so she was either not concerned, or she wanted the attention. Coulson was waiting for the girl to make her move. On Tony's mark they would have her blocked and locked down. He stood just at the end of the alley she was walking in, beyond the reach of a street light, hidden deep within the shadows watching. As she neared, he heard her sniffle from the cold night air. She raised her hand up to her nose as if to scratch it just as she passed him.

There was a high pitched buzzing noise. Coulson saw two light blue glowing orbs covering her ears.

"I'm really sorry sir. I'm not ready yet." She said nearing him. He felt his body go tight, draw upright before he lost control. He slumped back against the brick wall behind him as she put her hands around her shoulders trying to help him from hitting his head. Coulson recognized the device she had in her hand, the trigger, as one of Stark's earlier inventions that cause small bursts of paralysis. He could do nothing but watch as she moved back away from him. She slipped the device back inside her pocket and took the small earbuds out.

"I can't get too much into what I'm doing. I'm just trying to tell you…" she whispered biting her lip. There was a certain level of determined desperation in her wild amber eyes.

"S.H.I.E.L.D has to back down." She whispered. "Give me time. I'm not going to hurt anyone." She scraped back wet soggy red curls from the side of her freckled cheeks, trying to stuff them back into the hood she wore.

"Just give me time. I'll return what I took." She helped him to the ground and smiled softly, hesitantly, as if afraid someone would hear her.

"When you see me again, my answer will be yes." She smoothed out his suit jacket where she'd sat him down. He could tell something was off about her. The movements of her eyes were darting and quick. She was expecting something or someone to be following her other than him. This kid was something else. It vaguely reminded Coulson of himself when he'd been younger, except this girl had more options available to her than he did at the time.

The sheer fact that she'd been able to infiltrate Stark Industries and work for Tony for almost two years before any real red flags had gone up were pretty much all he needed to know. Tony had actually been her saving grace. S.H.I.E.L.D had discovered multiple boxes of various Stark assembly products that had gone missing over a long period of time, almost matching up exactly to the girl's employment dates. Coulson and Fury had obliged to move in tandem to track the girl and take her into custody during the course of a twenty four hour period. It had been almost instant. There was no missing around since Ultron. There probably never would be again; the world didn't have time for that. The Avenger's didn't have time to deal with communal bullshit. Those who posed any kind of threat to mankind needed to be in custody.

"I'll be able to help if you just give me some time." She said standing up looking down at Coulson.

"Just…time. I need…time." She backed away from him glancing around. As she dissipated into the shadows Coulson thought about the bracelet that had been hanging around her wrist.

It had been a small silver chain link band with a military nametag attached.

The name on the band wasn't hidden so at least they had something to go on now:

Howlett,

Lucy, X. **

_a few weeks after_

Coulson stood over the computer screen from which Natasha had pulled up old files pertaining to Logan. It had been a while since Coulson had gone digging around in these kinds of files, after agreeing to leave most well enough alone for the mutants to handle by themselves unless needed, he hadn't looked into their business much. However, the name Howlett had been on that young girl's bracelet. They needed to understand why. Natasha was typing away at the keys like the furious deadly woman she was as Coulson set the cup of coffee down for her. She felt around for the edge of the handle as he scooted it closer to her in time for her fingers to clasp it instead of thin air. She side glanced up at him smirking. It was good to have Coulson back, even if it was temporary and only once when the planets were in alignment, which was a gross exaggerated statement. The problem was, that to the world, Fury and Coulson were dead. For a select few of the Avenger's they were trusted and alive but hard to reach. Coulson had come out of hiding to bring the information about this young lady to light because he and Fury had feared the worst from Stark's weapons…again.

"Anything significant to detail about this girl?" He asked yawning from the night before. He'd spent seventeen hours straight trying to evade a world eruption of mass nukes between three countries.

"Well, I can tell you she's not Logan's kid." Natasha shrugged. She took a long drag from her coffee cup. "She's not related to him at all. Nothing in her files, which by the way are mostly destroyed or encrypted, mention any relation to Logan at all."

"Then there has to be something else." Coulson sighed. "She wouldn't have that name without a reason…" he trailed off looking over a file Natasha had pulled up from a military base computer in Texas.

"What?" Natasha asked watching the way the gears were turning inside the man's brain.

"X…Howlett and X." he stated as if that made sense.

"What about it?" she asked.

"We need to get ahold of Professor Xavier." Coulson said reaching for his cell phone.