Chapter 1

Adelina Charlie Wilson, a girl born and raised in Brooklyn, was getting tired of the helpless feelings that were overcoming her. It wasn't because she was weak, or stupid, it was quite the opposite, Adelina, or Charlie as she prefers wants to be able to go to war. She hates that she is stuck in America while all the able bodied men are shipped off to Europe to stop Hitler. And they were soon going to run out of men.

Every day hundreds of men died. But they were set in the ways of no women going to fight. They are to weak and they should do their womanly job of staying home and looking after the children until their husbands get back. That is what the government said, more or less, and Charlie was tired of it. Besides, she had no husband nor any children. Charlie didn't even have a family.

She was an orphan, and a poor one at that. She lived in a rat infested apartment in the slums of Brooklyn. It was a rough place to live, in her spare time between her job at the corner store and paying her landlord, Charlie learned how to hold a knife and eventually how to use it against someone. She always carried a knife with her. She had been mugged to many times not to.

Charlie had a moderately boring life. Living by herself in her cramped apartment, going to her tedious job at the corner store, and then going back to her apartment. Charlie had no friends to go out with, nor any money she could spare to pay for anything fun.

Charlie had only really had one true friend. Her name was Lily, she had lived at the orphanage with Charlie. She had been three years older than Lily, but that hadn't stopped her from befriending the shy girl. Lily had taught Charlie what there was to be happy for in life, to be gentel and kind to everyone, and Charlie owed Lily who she was right now. Without Lily, Charlie would still be the angry, unhappy child she had been when she was ten. The two girls were practically inseparable, Lily teaching Charlie what it was like to constantly be happy.

But not two years into their friendship, Lily died of scarlet fever. Charlie hadn't been allowed to go near the other girl for the last two weeks of her life, she could only watch threw a window as her friend withered away, only to be snatched up by death at the end. To this day, 9 years later, it still pained Charlie. The death of her friend had hit her hard. She dropped out of high school and run away, not being able to stand the orphanage without her friend. Some people thought she was being dramatic, but you don't easily forget people like Lily. The little rays of light that guide you out of the darkness are very hard to live without.

Charlie had managed to find a job, working for a crotchety old man, who was getting to old to take care of his corner store. He hired her on very minimal pay, and she had slept in the corner store for her first two years there, the man never even knowing that she was there or that she was actually sixteen not twenty one. Charlie still worked at the corner store, though now she has an apartment, if you can even call it that, all to herself.

It is only one room, a small toilet, sink and shower in one corner, a stove in one and a bed that took up the rest of the place. The only decoration she had was a picture Lily had drawn of them as stick figures. It was in pencil, no colour, but Charlie could still picture Lily's flaming red hair and sparkling blue eyes in her mind. Charlie brought it with her wherever she went.

Charlie would normally lock up shop and go home, but tonight was different, in the main part of town there was a new show going on, One presented by Howard Stark himself (A brilliant scientist and engineer, head of STARK industries). It was called World Exposition of Tomorrow, where Mr. Stark would be showcasing all his new and fantastic inventions. A large part of Brooklyn was going, the only people who weren't going seemed to be the ones that couldn't afford it.

So Charlie swiped a bit of beef jerky from the store for her supper and made her way over, feeling adventurous for the first time in a while. The walk was about an hour and she couldn't even come close to paying for a ticket. She figured she rushed she'd be able to watch the very end of the show from outside the gates.. She was was about 50 minutes into her walk towards the center of Brooklyn, when she heard some jeering and laughing from down an alley, along with a cry of pain. Charlie, being the person she was, couldn't let the evil sounding laughter be uninspected. Lily taught her better than to ignore an obvious sign of someone else's pain.

She ran towards the sound, old shoes hitting the pavement and trench coat flapping behind her, her long blonde hair along with it. She turned around a corner and skidded to a halt as not to collide with a rather large boy.

There were two boys. Each looking to be in their late teens. Both rather large, height and width wise. They had been in the process of bullying another young boy, holding him against the wall, he looked to be much younger than them, probably by about five years.

"Hey!" Charlie yelled. "Leave him alone!" The three boys looked towards her, the youngest with a startled look, his face covered in blood from a cut on his forehead. He looked almost hopeful at seeing someone come to his rescue, but once he saw her size, the hope left. Charlie was hopelessly out matched against the two bullies, but at least she could get the smaller one away from the boys.

"What are you gonna do about it, Bird?" The boy standing closest to Charlie asked with a sneer. The other boy leering at her, still holding the kid.

"I'm going to fight you." Charlie said, slowly raising her fists, looking unsure of herself. Hopefully they would take the bait, she had made herself look like an easy target, and Charlie was pretty sure they'd rather beat her up more than the kid they'd already probably beat up many times. Charlie was fresh meat to them.

The boy holding the kid up dropped him and they both advanced on her. The little boy looked at her, fear in his eyes, yet he didn't know whether to run or stay.

Go! She mouthed, before looking back at the boys advancing on her. The boy took of sprinting down the alley as fast as his feet could take him. Charlie smiled to herself, good he got away.

One boy brought his hand up and back handed Charlie before she had anytime to react. She flew to the side, hitting the wall with a boney thud! Charlie tried to sit up, but her head was spinning and she could already feel a bump forming on her head from where she hit the wall. She heard the boys laugh at her as she tried to scramble up, but her knees buckled and she fell down onto her elbows, where she spat out blood. A boy picked her up and punched her hard in the face. And again, under the chin sending her backwards onto her elbows again.

One of the boys, she couldn't tell which, took a hard kick and hit her square in her stomach, sending her flying farther into the alley, where she landed on her back, her vision was starting to blacken, Charlie'd never been able to take many hits before she blacked out, and she hadn't figured out if that was a good thing or not yet.

She could hear the boys jeering at her, when all of a sudden they stopped and their voices were replaced with that of an angry German man. Charlie turned her head. There was an older, balding man, wearing a brown suite and circular wire rimmed glasses. Behind the man's legs stood the boy that had been beaten up earlier.

The German man yelled at them once more, but all the boys did was laugh, not seeming to listen to the man at all. The man pulled out a gun. He pointed into the air and shot it.

Bang! The boys' eyes widened when they saw the gun, now aimed at them. They pushed on each other, trying to gain momentum so they could get out of that alley as fast as possible. As soon as they were gone the old man, followed by the little boy, rushed towards her.

The man knelt beside her, propping her head up on his lap. Charlie hissed in pain at being moved.

"I think you have broken some of your ribs." The man said.

"Sure feels like it." She said with a rattly laugh that hurt her lungs. She started to cough, pain hitting her like a sac of bricks. She cried out, squeezing her eyes shut, feeling tears stream down her face.

"May I suggezt a quvick drive to ze Hozpital?" The man asked.

"No." Charlie breathed, "Can't.. Afford it." The man took a quick look over her dirty jacket and hole filled shoes and realized that the woman definitely could not afford any sort of Hospital bill, especially not with the damage she had.

"Alvright. I vill see vhat I can do." He said.

"What?" Charlie asked confused. What was he going to do?

"I am Doctor Abraham Erskine, and I zink zhat zhat means I'm quvalified to help you." The man, Dr Erskine, said. Charlie would normally have refused a stranger's help, not wanting to go with someone she didn't know and use up their time and energy if they actually had good intentions, but Charlie knew she would definitely need help with this one. So Charlie allowed Erskine to help her up and slowly walk her towards what appeared to be a taxi. Before getting in, Charlie addressed the kid who had cautiously followed them.

"Kid, do you live 'round here?" Charlie asked, bleary eyes looking him. It was then that she saw his condition. The boy was very thin, thinner than herself, if that was even possible. His face was covered in dirt and his clothes full of holes, not unlike her own. His sandy blond hair lay unbrushed and from his yellow teeth she doubted that he owned a tooth brush.

The boy nodded, peeping a small yes. He started to turn around, before Charlie stopped her.

"You look hungry." Charlie stated. The boy looked at her, eyes big and round as if to say that yes he was very hungry.

"Reach into my pocket." She instructed. The boy looked at her coat pocket hesitantly.

"Don't worry, I don't bite." Charlie said, giving him a gentile smile, though Charlie didn't realize that she had blood on her teeth and that made her smile look slightly sinister.

The boy walked towards her, looking curiously at Charlie's pocket. He put his hand in and pulled it out quickly, when he grabbed a little plastic bag. It was the bag of beef jerky that Charlie was going to eat later.

"I can't take your food." The boy said, trying to give it back to her. Charlie put up her hand to stop him, wincing at the movement.

"Take it." She said, "You need it more than I do."

The boy looked down at the food in his hands, his stomach growled. He looked up at Charlie, who was getting weaker by the second.

"Thank you." The boy said before scampering off. Dr. Erskine had watched them, a small smile on his face. He had begun to despair that he'd never find the perfect woman for his project, but if he was lucky, maybe this kind hearted woman would be good for the job. He'd have to see when he got her patched up, because for now that's what Charlie really needed.

Sooooo.. thoughts? Please leave a review!