Chapter One

Before we start let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Jess, I'm twenty-four years old, British and quite honestly a bit of a nerd. My weeks are spent covering my friends shifts at the cafe I work at and my weekends lazing about. A very average life, so I bet you're wondering why on earth I'm writing about it. The answer is in the summary. Since I'm certain you've read that I won't waste anymore time.

The day in question where it happened was a Sunday, and after a quick jog across the seafront I returned home to collapse on my bed. My head sinking nicely into the soft pillows and bringing comfort to my muscles as I let out a sigh. Strands of my black hair curtained across my face, I brushed them away without a thought and reached for my laptop which sat perched on the bedside table waiting forlornly to be used again. The lid opened with a quiet click, the screen lighting up almost immediately after pressing the button. My phone buzzed from inside my jeans. I pulled it out without much interest. As I suspected it was from one of my friends- the one who always gets dumped around a certain time. I didn't feel up to playing the comforter this time around and placed it on the table, picking it up again on second thoughts and switching it off.

The next hour or so I spent surfing the net, answering my emails and catching up on my shows. Only when the lunchtime hour came around did I think it was time to get up again. A quick shower and a new change of clothes later and I was ready. A quick check in the mirror, then back over to the table to pick up my phone and a barrage of messages as I turned it on again. Guilt churned in my stomach for a moment. I dismissed it though after seeing most of the messages were from my phone network and sent one of my own to Tonya. I hadn't seen her in a while since she'd been on holiday in the Swiss Alps (Or so she said) and I thought it would be could to catch lunch with her.

It was around about here that it happened.

A movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head sharply, freezing as I spotted the hovering ball of blue light-stuff that was... Well, hovering there. In the time it took my mind the formulate a response, the ball began expanding. Parts it reached out, recoiled and others would reach out and recoil. As it grew larger and larger, forming a large circular shape that shimmered and flickered almost hypnotically as it did so. The centre began to retreat back, pulling towards the furthermost edges and revealing a view that was most definitely not my wall.

It opened into a large-ish room my addled brain struggled to associate with conference rooms. A long table filled the view surrounded my chairs that were made of the same steely grey material everything else was. The image on the wall was what caught my attention though, a black eagle with wings outspread and the acronym underneath that I knew meant something to me. But the shock of it all made it hard for me to formulate any ideas and all I could do was stare in was no movement from the other side.

It took a few minutes, but eventually I felt I could move. Slowly,ever so cautiously I approached and tried to make sense of what had just hand raise slightly in front of me I shuffled closer and closer. There was still no movement from the other side. I stood centimetres away from this...whatever it was. It looks like the Tesseract portal from Avengers Assemble. The thought was dismissed as soon as it formed. I mean why on earth would there be a Tesseracts portal in my room?! Why would there be one at all?

Cautiously I raised my hand, reaching out to it and flinching back as a tendril lashed out and licked over my hand- like a miniature blue solar flare. A sharp tingling sensation spread across my skin, but there was no pain or sudden disintegration of my hand. Feeling a little braver I put my hand a little closer. More tendrils snaked across my hand, seeping into my skin and making me glow from the inside.

"That's creepy," I muttered to myself as for a moment the bones of my hand became visible to me. "That's very creepy."

But I felt no fear. Even as the energy continued to spread up my arm I stayed calm. Bizarrely it was a calming experience, a part of me knew to trust this energy and not to fear it. Even as it began to pull me into it, as my heart began to beat faster and the rest of me screamed to get away now. I tried as hard as I could, but the energy could have been as a solid as diamond for all it mattered.

A stream of curse words escaped my lips as I twisted around, pulling away from it only to feel my other arm become entangled in the energy. My feet just dragged along the carpet, another tendril sneaking around my waist to stop me from falling. I struggled and struggled until I was red in the face, swearing continuously even as sweat rolled down my face and my body was engulfed in the energy.

For a few moments it felt as though I was surrounded by nothing but this energy. A sense of being alone in a large ocean of nothingness that chilled me to the core,and then it was over. I was standing in the room I had previously been looking at through the portal, and my bedroom was the image on the other side. At least it was for the few seconds it took for the portal to begin to close in on itself again. A single tear trailer down my face as the last remanents of my room vanished from view. I was alone again.

I turned around so I could get a better sense of where I was,and the last thing I saw was a flash of red and black. Then nothing.

When consciousness found me again, it was accompanied with a sharp, steady pounding in my skull and the faintest sensation of swaying. I felt the softness of a mattress underneath me, sunlight shining through my eyelids and warming the skin it kissed. For a few moments I was content to lay there, relaxing and allowing my headache to pass away by itself. For a few moments I felt at peace... Then I remembered. My eyes flew open, sitting upright with a suddenness that left my head spinning. I leant against my hand, allowing the sensation to pass before I cautiously began to take in my surroundings.

It was a small room, with nothing but the bed I lay on inside,with everything either a shade of grey or white. The same logo I had seen in the other room was plastered on the wall opposite as if to remind its occupant of who was in charge of it. S.H.I.E.L.D., this has got to be some sort of crazy dream... But my dreams had never been this realistic, I could see the very dust particles filtering through the sunlight and smell the very metal the room appeared to be made of. I shifted back around to the smallish window to my right and peered out of it, a pit of dread forming in my abdomen. There was nothing but blue seas and sky. I fancied I saw the vague shadowy outline of land off in the distance, but it was just as likely my mind was imagining it. Just as I'm imagining this?

I wasn't though, the same part that had told me to trust the portal told me that now. I really had gone through a portal and ended up here, wherever here was. Well, with giant symbol on the wall and an ocean view it could really only be one place. A mixture of excitement and fear rose up in me and I unconsciously gripped the sheets of the bed tightly in my fists. However I didn't freak out, I didn't panic and that part of me made sure of it. 'Now is no time to lose your head' it seemed to say, brushing all of those nasty emotions away.

I disagreed strongly with that part if me, but appreciated the thought nonetheless. I shifted around yet again, swinging my legs from out of the bed and setting them down on the ground. My hands were placed either side of me to push me up when Is good, but I made no move to stand and simply stared down at my feet. So many questions were swarming around my head it was almost impossible to tell them apart. But the sinking feeling they left inside my gave no doubts about there contents. After all if you were snatched away from everything you knew what would you ask yourself?

I didn't realise I was crying until I could taste saltiness in my mouth. I rubbed at my face,forcing myself to remain calm and just relax. It was a good thing too I realised as the door slid opened with a quiet hiss and my attention was taken by the man who now walked into the room. He stood a few steps inside,a calm smile on his face and with the appearance of a school teacher. I recognised him immediately, even if I didn't want to.

"I'm going to need you to come with me," said Agent Phil Could on,his hands clasped together in front of him and a friendly tone in his voice. It was often hard to think of this man as being a super tough secret agent in the films and even now as I watched him with wariness he remained so tame. I had no idea what to make of it and I found I could do nothing but mentally as myself over and over if I was going crazy. "Is there a problem,miss?"

I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. In the same movement I pushed myself to my feet. "There's no problem," I replied, my own voice a contrast to his. He nodded once, making an 'after you' gesture as he stepped back to let me pass. I looked out of the room to the two armed agents who stood outside and half a considered refusing. It was a move that would most likely end me in a load of trouble and so I decided against it, obediently walking out into the hallway and waiting for Coulson so he could lead the way.

Not a word was spoken as we went down the corridor. It was simultaneously relaxing and worrying, so I set my attention to my surroundings. For most of the part it was a long corridor occasionaly embellished with the same logo which adorned my new rooms wall, the doors that occupied it giving no view into the rooms beyond them and I wondered if this was a prison block. We walked on until we came to a door that looked no different from any other and the two guards who had accompanied us took post on either side of it. Coulson once again made that gesture and I approached the door as though it might suddenly attack. It opened onto an empty room, with the same colour scheme as everything else with the added bonus of a small table with a chair on each side and what I assumed was a two-way mirror.

The door slid shut behind me, leaving me alone with only silence for company. For a few heartbeats I waited for the door on the oppositeside to swing open, when it didn't I took a seat and folded my arms across my chest as I continued to watch the door. What felt like hours passed before it finally did swing open and when it did I sorely wished that it hadn't. It had been a joke of me and my friends that Samuel L. Jackson was the top level of badassery available. Having his version of the director opposite reminded me of how pitifully short we fell on that mark.

The very moment he set foot into the room it was as if someone had turned up the intensity of the moment. His piercing glare almost had me quivering in my boots and if I had been a lesser person I may have burst out crying underneath that gaze. Imagine that moment just before your parents or headmaster prepares to grill you about your actions, imagine your actions were some of the worst you had ever taken a and then imagine that a thousand times more intense. He was a terrifying person and I wanted to get out of that room as fast as possible- no,even faster.

He stood in the doorway for a few moments, studying me over before taking the seat opposite me and fixing me with that glare once again before he finally decided to speak.

"My name is Nick Fury, I'm the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. In case you don't realise, that stands for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." He paused for a moment and I urged my self not to move from my crossarmed position- although I wasn't sure I could if I wanted to. "Now please tell me, who are you and what the hell are you doing on my ship?"

"My name," I began after a few beats, amazed at how calm my voice seemed to be. "Is Jessica Attwater and quite honestly I have no idea why I'm on your ship."

His eye narrowed slightly and his lips tightened. Evidently it hadn't been the correct thing to say, and to be honest I couldn't have cared less.

"Who do you work for?" His tone was more forceful now.

"I work for Wild Thyme Cafe," I snapped, my nerves fraying, the urge to flee growing stronger and only the fact I felt frozen under his glare was keeping me there. "And as much as I want to sit here and play 'good cop, bad cop' I'd much rather you called your portal back up and send me home."

"Our portal?" He repeated, almost in disbelief.

"Well I sure as hell didn't open it." I was almost baring my teeth in frustration by the end of the sentence. He surely couldn't believe that I had the expertise of knowhow to open up a portal to another dimension.

"Perhaps then I should be asking you why we have no record of your existence until up to now?" Fury's voice had begun to raise slightly as well as he became frustrated with what would seem to him like a lack of cooperation on my part. He leant onto the desk with what appeared to Bea mixture of falsified interest and an urge to leap across the table and forcibly remove the information.

"Maybe because none of this is real!" I hissed before I could stop myself. "Or at least that's the way it should be."

That made him pause, he sat back once again and his head tilted slightly, almost quizzically as he studied me again.

"What the hell are you going on about?"

"How about the fact that where I come from you are nothing but a fictional character." I forced out, flushing slightly as he laughed.

"Do you really expect !e to believe that?" I didn't answer and he switched back to being serious. "If you are going to refuse to cooperate then you can expect to be locked up for a very long time."

Without a further word he got to his feet and left. I still didn't move, even as I realised my body was literally shaking with rage and frustration. When I found the strength to move, Coulson steppedint the room in a perfectly timed moment and I followed him back to my cell without another word. I was going to be here for a very long time after all, and as I was once again shut into the room I already began to formulate plans in my head.

There was no way I was going to sit back and play the damsel in distress.