The van doors cracked open and sunlight streamed in, blinding the occupant inside. She grimaced and turned away, raising metal encased arms to her face.

"Come on Miss Hurst."

She glared then slowly stood and trudged to the end of the van and stepped out onto concrete. Ahead of her was a huge building, all new and sleek but she wasn't interested in that, instead she was watching the slim woman walk towards her, dressed in a tight fitting uniform and holding a walkie-talkie.

"Miss Hurst. You have been allocated on the lower floor. My name is Maria Hill and I will be escorting you down."

"Down to where?"

"You will find out." Maria Hill turned and begrudgingly Helen Hurst followed, along with a group of military men clutching guns just in case.

They entered the building and walked for an age, passing corridors, compounds, laboratories, more soldiers and army vehicles.

"What is this place?" Helen asked kind of wishing she wasn't so nosy.

"S.H.I.E.L.D's technological facility."

That didn't explain much at all and Helen expected she wouldn't get much else either, however she did keep an eye on what corridors they walked down and what doors they walked through. From what Helen had gathered; S.H.I.E.L.D was a secret organisation that specialised in like, everything.

Maria Hill stopped outside of a huge elevator and the door opened with a hush when she used her key-card.

"Where am I exactly?"

"In S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters."

"I know that, I mean where on the planet am I? I'm guessing not middle earth." Helen stepped into the elevator and turned around like Maria had and only 2 gunmen came in with them.

"I cannot disclose that information."

Helen frowned; well this woman was a bunch of laughs. The elevator descended and the LED lights changed from one number to the next, sinking lower and lower into the earth. She wasn't going to admit it but Helen was slightly nervous, she had no idea where she was being taken but apparently it had something to do with her power. Something that she wasn't too fond of anyway.

The elevator stopped and when the doors opened a coldness washed over them but then something else did.

Helen shuddered and rolled her head, it was strange. She couldn't quite explain what that feeling was, that sensation. It was like something had touched her skin but all at once.

Maria Hill stared at her, fingers twitching to the gun at her side but then Helen shook herself and walked forward, jaw set but eyes wavering uncertainly. The small group of them walked through a passageway and emerged into a massive chamber, filled with computers, wires, cables, people and metal devices.

In the centre of the room was a metal clasp, clutching some sort of bright blue square that looked electrical and smoky at the same time and ahead of it was a large runway up to a higher platform.

"Doctor." Maria called, walking towards the machinery and Helen followed however she couldn't quite take her eyes off of the blue square.

It was strange. Beautiful. Mesmerising. And also quite frightening.

"Doctor Selvig this is Helen Hurst." Maria introduced.

An older man walked forward, wiping his hands on his trousers, "Miss Hurst a pleasure," He went to shake her hand but stopped upon seeing the thick metal bands, "I've heard a lot about you."

"That's good." Helen said shortly, "Everyone else seems to have done."

"Your powers are exceptional. I've been sent some of the test results and they are strongly related to the Tesseract." Doctor Selvig drew her towards some computer screens and pointed to two different charts with sharp lines that apparently made sense.

"What's a Tesseract when it's at home?"

"That." Selvig pointed to the cube and she looked at it.

Again that strange sensation touched at her skin. It was like someone had put a blanket over her but it contained no warmth or heat.

"So that thing has the same powers that I do?"

"Oh no," Selvig shook his head then paused, "Well yes. It's just yours is a weaker form probably because it's channelling through your body. I want to run some tests, would you mind?"

Helen glanced at Maria. "Do I have a choice?"