10 Words

Nick Fury prided himself on knowing just about everything that was worthwhile knowing in the world- and if he didn't know it, he knew the people who did.

It was with great displeasure then, that Fury was informed by the council that another person had been sourced for the Avengers- but that he did not have clearance to know their history or abilities. He was told that the 'addition' was part of a secret society and had skills enough to be a team member of his Avengers.

Fury's one good eye twitched in irritation and he called the team in with a barked command.

"Avengers' report to the Helicarrier ASAP." His temper was very clear in his message and within two hours all Avengers were assembles in battle armour, clearly expecting a serious reason behind their calling.

Nick strode into the briefing room, coat billowing behind him. The group quieted expectantly and Fury crossed his arms before speaking.

"The esteemed council," Tony coughed,

"Nuclear bomb, cough, Manhattan" and Fury glared but continued.

"The esteemed council has seen fit to give us an addition to the Avenger's initiative." Murmurs of surprise broke out and Fury continued once more, "Unfortunately all I can tell you is this person, male or female will be arriving at Stark tower tomorrow at 9:00 am."

"What?" exclaimed Tony; "you want me to just let some random that the 'council' chose into my tower? Just like that?"

"Yes Stark. Even I don't have high enough clearance to know the details about this person."

"How do we know they will fit in?" Natasha asked,

"The council told me this 'person' is British, part of some secret-society and that they are well equipped to be an Avenger. We. Do. Not. Have. A. Choice." Fury bit out when Tony kept grumbling.

"You will all be at Stark tower to greet this person tomorrow and you do not have clearance to know anything. If you they answer your questions- fine but that is all we have to go on."

The Avengers looked at each other, clearly all surprised. Bruce was the most accepting, knowing all about having to hide details about who you were and your background from the people you worked with.

That evening the team gathered at the tower and discussed their ideas- or in Tony's case outlandish ideas. At any rate, no one had any idea what to expect until the next morning.

Uncharacteristically the whole team was up and dressed by 8:30. They gathered in the main room- at the top of the tower and put the video feed of the front doors on display. They sat around with various hot beverages, watching each person walk past trying to guess whom it would be.

At 8:55 a very beautiful black haired female that none of them recognized approached the doors. She was talking animatedly on the phone and the whole team was surprised by her appearance.

Tony got JARVIS to give them sound as well as video as she waited for the lift. The woman, their new teammate, had long cascading curls, full of volume, which tumbled freely to her lower back. Her eyes, even on camera were revealed to be like shining gems, a gorgeous green that sparkled with happiness. Her skin was perfectly clear, pale and unblemished. She wore a form-fitting emerald dress, accentuating her lithe figure and full breasts. There was no other way to describe her than utterly gorgeous.

"Wow, just wow. And I get to work with her." Tony said.

"Hey you have Pepper." Steve said affronted.

"Yeah but there's no harm in appreciating good looks is there?"

And she was on the phone. Being the shameless spies they were- they all listened. Bruce admittedly feeling a bit guilty.

"I know right? I told Ron that having 3 kids was a bad idea. Even numbers or 7 is the only way to go. But did he listen? No! And now he's stuck with those horrors who always compete." She was silent for a short time,

"mmmm… yep.. yep…Oh look.. oh yer.. duh you can't see it. Oops. Well I'm in this lift in some town going to like level 80. The view is AHMAZING! I can see all of New York… yep I can see some great shops…. Mmm.. New York? oh didn't I tell you? Sorry. You know how it is- too many phone calls, not enough time. Yer, well, get this, I've been recruited into some super-secret alien fighting taskforce. Apparently this tall tower is where they live…. Of course it doesn't matter if I tell you… goodness! You're family George, what good is having family is you can't break the rules!... mmm.. yep… yep… mmm. Merlin shut up already! I'm nearly there, havta make a good first impression. Righto.. love ya.. and tell your great-great-great granny I'll buy her a new scarf to go with that dress she got for Christmas.. okay… Ooroo!"

The team listened to half of the conversation is bemusement and watched as the put her phone into a side pocket of her handbag and turned around just as the lift doors slid open. She stepped into the room and stopped near the entry way.

As one the Avengers stood and Tony was the first to step forward to greet her,

"Hi, you must be the unnamed, undescribed, secret-society member, secret agent who's supped to be joining the Avengers?"

"Oh really? And here I was thinking I was just delivering pizza, sorry I must have the wrong tower." The woman's tone was warm and friendly, taking any insult out of her words. "I'm Harriet Potter, but please call me Harri.

"Tony Stark, a pleasure to meet you." She smiled, shook his hand and Tony realized just how short she was, not even up to his nose, in heels no less. She turned to the others to be introduced and Steve ever the gentleman stepped forward.

"Steve Rogers ma'am."

"Dr. Bruce Banner"

"I am Thor, son of Odin. Well met fair maiden." While Harri had simply shaken the hands of the others she raised her left eyebrow slightly and then greeted him without skipping a beat,

"I am Harriet, daughter of James and Lily. Well met thunder god."

Several eyebrows were raised at her greeting and Natasha stepped forward.

"I'm Natasha Romanov, I hope we work together well. The two women shared an assessing glance and then relaxed, not feeling threatened.

"I'm Clint Barton"

"Righto… so that's introductions done, is this everyone?" Harri asked.

"Nearly miss, I am JARVIS, may I offer you a hot beverage?" Harri to everyone's further surprise didn't even look around but instead replied,

"A mocha chino with two sugars and cream would hit the spot wonderfully right now, thank you." Tony was surprised, as the rest of the team had all nearly suffered heart attacks, and she looked like she expected it.

The coffee machine pinged and JARVIS sounded again,

"If you move to the bar area you drink is sitting on the bench." Harri put her handbag down on a couch and then went to get her coffee.

"Okay, it could just be me, but I'm a genius and even this is a bit weird. How are you not freaked out by JARVIS?" Tony demanded curiously, "Is you secret society like super advanced in technology or something?" Harri laughed a little awkwardly,

"Uh no, I just assumed Jarvis was a servant I didn't see. He is… um.. technology?" She sounded both surprised and slightly apologetic. Tony was quick to catch onto the hint and spoke quickly.

"So no on the technology front but you have servants in your society?"

"Haha, Mr. Stark, I believe I was told that I am not at liberty to divulge information about me explicit background and abilities until such time as my abilities are needed. So please, forgive me if I don't answer your assumptions."

Harri sipped her mocha and sighed, "Oh sweet sugary goodness, I've missed you." That faintly ridiculous statement achieved its intended effect and broke the remaining ice. Natasha ordered a coffee and joined her at the bar while the other slowly left off for their daily activities.

Natasha and Bruce stayed with Harri for the whole day and the most prominent thing they noticed was that she took many phone calls. 27 of them were very nearly identical. The boppy ringtone would go off, Harri would answer with a cheerful, "Potter here, what's your situation?" she would then listen to something for about 2 minutes before saying yes or no. She'd then hang up and continue chatting like nothing had happened.

It was a very odd thing to do and Bruce couldn't stop himself from blurting out after the 1th call,

"Who keeps calling you?" Harri looked at him, smiling gently.

"Work. Unfortunately I have to juggle several jobs at once. I only get called for important decisions, but unluckily I run a very important…. Business."

Tony entered the room in time to hear the last few exchanges and asked, ever attempting to interrogate,

"What is your business? Have we done business before?" Harri looked amused,

"Yes actually, 3 times." But then she changed the topic and refused to say any more.

"Whoa.. Just stop" said Steve, and Harri realized the Avengers were once again all in the room. "How are we supposed to work together as a team? We know nothing about you-"

"Nor I about you" Harri interjected dryly.

"Yes true, but today has just been really weirs. I need to be able to trust the entire team and I can't trust an unknown." Steve said with finality.

Harri sighed and sat up straighter,

"I hoped we wouldn't have this problem. How about this? Think of 10 words."

"10 words?"

"Yes, 10 words about you. Tell me the 10 most important words to you, that best reflect your life, represent you, whatever. Just choose 10 words. If we all do it then we all get to know each other with some safe information."

"Great idea Harri, I'll go first."

"Of course you will Stark, your ego couldn't handle it otherwise." Natasha teased.

"Hm.. righto…" Stark was silent for a short while, "ha, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Steve coughed in amusement and the other Avenger's shared grins. "Afghanistan, Ironman, Pepper, technology, JARVIS and inventions."

Harri nodded thoughtfully, as did some others who didn't expect Pepper to be on the list.

"I shall be next to partake of this venture." Thor. "Asgard, family, duty, honour, Jane, Mjolnir, battle, ale, Migard and…." He fished around for a final one, "teammates"

"I'll go," was Steve's offered suggestion, "Soldier, duty, hero, ice, nuclear, world war 2, pain, transition, Peggy and Bucky." Harri's eyes were kind as she understood and correctly read the pain in some of those words."

They were interrupted here by another mysterious phone call, this one being an annoyed yes. Natasha went after,

"Widow, hunt, death, Clint, SHIELD, Strawberry lollipops, assassin, beauty and acting."

"Huh, lethal mix," was all that Harri had to say.

"My turn," said Clint, "Hawkeye, marksmanship, control, circus, arrows, Natasha, duty, assassin, SHIELD and chocolate chip cookies."

"Then I guess it's my turn." There was an unspoken agreement that Harri would go last, so Bruce spoke.

"Green, monster, rage, helplessness, anger, doctor, science, gamma, hulk and meditation."

Harri blinked at this, which the others took as a sign of surprise. The most she had shown all day.

"Righto… oh it's my turn now isn't it." She laughed awkwardly. "You know when someone asks you what your favourite movie is and you immediately forget every single one you've ever watched?" Tony raised an eyebrow in skepticism.

"Hmm…" she leant forward on her hands for a brief period of time before saying,

"Old." Considering she looked about 25 max, Tony voiced his opinion that this was an odd opening word.

"Young," followed after, making slightly more sense.

"Death" a tad morbid,

"Life" was she deliberately speaking in opposing pairs?

"Friends" Well that's slightly more positive

"Enemies" and there's the opposite.

"Judgment" a little disturbing for a word,

"Mercy" and there was the opposite, again.

"Phone calls," as if we hadn't figured that one out.

"Memories," not really an opposite. Weird.

Each of her words was followed by input from Tony, but it was Bruce who spoke first.

"How are those words supposed to tell us anything about you? Life and death are very general concepts. They are practically useless."

Harri scoffed. "Like you can talk. What am I supposed to get from your words? That you are a scientist who turns into a green rage monster called hulk when you get angry?"

Silence.

"Um yes actually."

"You're kidding me?" Harri dropped her hands and stared at Bruce as if he had an extra head. Bruce shifted uncomfortably, at last she relaxed and said,

"Well I honestly wasn't expecting that. My words are very truthful about me, and maybe over time you will begin to understand that. Until then, I think I shall retire to my room. Goodnight."

The other Avengers slowly disappeared after this, all thinking over the words and their possible meanings. But each certain, about one thing. Life around the tower just got a lot more interesting.