My heart plummeted and Tony's face paled. We looked at each other and I could tell we shared a mutual feeling of dread. Immediately, we rushed out of the training facility and up to the conference room. The rest of the team was there, seated around the large table. A tall man with graying black hair stood in front of the table, the room deadly silent. When we entered and closed the doors behind us, he turned and looked at us. I couldn't help  but notice that his mustache made him bear an uncanny resemblance to Tom Selleck.

"Mr. Stark, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," he said and stuck out his hand. "Andrew Reid."

I folded my arms as Tony shook it and Reid turned to me.

"I can't say I recognize you," he squinted at me and moved his hand over to me. "You're another team member?"

"Cara Stark," I said, but didn't shake his hand. I walked around him and dropped into the empty chair between Bucky and Steve.

Reid sighed and turned back to Tony. "Sister?"

Tony nodded.

"How...pleasant."

"Thank you," I called loudly.

Bucky snickered and covered his mouth with his hand. Steve gave both of us a disapproving look and Bucky's face fell. Tony glared at me as he sat across from Steve and I folded my arms angrily. I don't like the President's cabinet. The president himself is a lovely man, really, so is his entire family. But the cabinet, especially the secretaries of defense and homeland security, are massive pains in SHIELD's ass. They wanted to control everything we did, but we denied them that.

"I've come here today to discuss some...pressing issues."

"Discuss away, secretary," Tony sighed.

Reid picked up the remote for one of the screens and pressed a button. A video showing news coverage from over a week ago popped up. A tall woman with brown hair was speaking rapidly in German in front of what I recognized as Hotel Schön. My German isn't as good as it used to be, but I got the gist of her broadcast. She was telling the camera about an attack that occurred in the hotel earlier that day. 'Suspected terrorism,' she called it. He stopped the video and tossed the remote back onto the table.

"There have been dozens more of those reports all over Germany since that one. Am I correct in saying that this attack was carried out by your people?" He asked.

"I would hardly call it an attack, sir," Steve said respectfully. "Two of our members went into the hotel in order to retrieve another. Things escalated when a third party turned up and threatened the operation. Our agents did what they needed to do to protect everyone else in the restaurant and themselves. From what I understand, there was no collateral damage."

"None physically. But this has stirred up a media frenzy. And may I ask, who were those two agents?"

"Cara and buc- James," Steve responded. "They're very good at what they do, sir."

"I'm sure they are," he smiled patronizingly at us. "Well, let's cut to the chase. This little operation had been running with too little government supervision for too long. It's getting more and more difficult for us to cover for all of you, especially when we don't know who half of your agents are. Some call you superheroes," he paused, "others prefer vigilantes."

"So what are you proposing?" Tony asked slowly.

Reid reached into a briefcase and pulled out a large file. "The Superhero Registration Act. Under this, any persons with...special abilities and or training would be required to register with the United States government. If they do not, they would face severe repercussions and be treated as a criminal. Additionally, we would like to impose a greater governmental presence with your team."

"That's ridiculous!" I cried. "The fact that you're even suggesting that is completely ludicrous!"

"Cara," Tony warned.

I ignored him. "By forcing people to do that, you are taking away any chance they may ever have for a normal life! How can they be expected to settle down and have a family if the entire world knows what they can do?!"

"I assure you, Miss Stark, this is for the best," Reid told me.

"You can't stand the fact that we're doing things you can't," I said, gritting my teeth. "We can understand things you wish didn't exist, and that terrifies you."

"Cara!"

"Shut up, Tony, I'm not done!"

"All these things you understand only exist because of you," Reid hissed. "If we had more control over you, they wouldn't exist."

"That's bullshit!" I snarled. "What happens when there's another attack like New York or Sokovia?"

"We will use the recourses that we acquire from your team," Reid insisted.

I laughed loudly. "It took us months to get an Asgardian to work with us cooperatively, I'd like to see you try to get him to follow your orders."

"Where is our big alien friend, by the way? Didn't feel like joining us?"

"He's home," I replied quickly. "He had to sort out some family stuff."

This was a lie, sort of. We all knew Thor was on Asgard, but he wouldn't tell anyone why. Whenever he communicated with us, it was very brief and mostly about us. But we didn't ask questions, we just gave him his space and let him do his thing

"Ahh, I see," he nodded. "Miss Stark, the Superhero Registration Act is meant to add structure to your unstructured program. Without structure, it's only a matter of time until disaster."

"I've met a lot of slimy politicians, Secretary Reid, but I've never met one who is as big of a prick as you," I snapped.

"Cara, that's enough," Tony said sternly.

"This'll never go through," I continued. "I promise you, secretary, the only time I'll work for this team under you and that goddamn act is when I'm dead."

"Cara! I said that's enough from you!" Tony yelled and slammed his fist onto the table.

I gritted my teeth together and backed away from the table before shoving the chair back towards it.

"I think you should go, Cara," Steve said.

I started to say something, but Bucky cut me off.

"Cara," he muttered. "He's right."

I turned around and rushed out of the room, slamming the door behind me. I stormed down the hallway and into the kitchen, where I began pacing. My entire being felt like it was going to explode from anger, and I needed an outlet. With a loud cry, I swung my fist at the closest thing to me. It hit the refrigerator door, and I felt my fingers crumple against the cool metal.

"Motherfucker!" I screamed and pulled my hand back.

I turned the sink on and ran my now bloodied knuckles under the water, grimacing slightly. I took a paper towel and held it to my hand gently, and as I headed to throw it away, Tony stormed into the kitchen.

"What the fuck was that, Cara?" He roared.

I didn't look him in the eye and kept trying to stop the bleeding.

"When you pull shit like that you make all of us look bad. Do you want us to get shut down?"

"Oh come on, they can't shut us down," I scoffed.

"They can arrest us and put us in federal prison!" He yelled. "I get that you don't like this, none of us do, but we need to pretend that we do until it goes away."

I looked at the ground and thought for a moment. "Fine," I muttered finally and shoved past him to leave the kitchen.

As I walked, I passed Steve, Bucky, and Bruce, who all looked stressed. Bucky put his hand on my elbow and tried to say something, but I pulled away and kept walking. He and Steve called after me, but I ignored them. Before I knew it, I was back by the conference room. Reid stood in front of it, talking to one of Pepper's assistants. When he saw me coming, he ushered her away and turned to face me.

"You remind me of your father, Miss Stark," he said and I stopped in my tracks. "You aren't afraid of confrontation."

"You knew my father?"

He nodded, "Yes. He was a pretty big pain in my ass for the last few months before he, uh, passed. He was like you and your brother. Didn't like people telling him how to run his company."

"Guess it runs in the family," I said sharply and kept walking.

"I'm going to win this, Miss Stark," he called.

I stopped again and turned. "We're very hard to persuade, Secretary."

He chuckled to himself and put his hands in his pockets. "Yes, well, we'll see about that I'm sure."

And with that, he turned and walked away.