Ok folks here we go on my newest attempt at an Avenger fic. I have a few more ideas but they don't really have a plot. This at least has a descent idea. It's rough but I'll take the critics on. Wish me luck! PS I will have more of my other stuff soon this is just exam stress relief. -Radioactive
Avenger story / attempt
Universal Reversal
It burned her. This feeling of utter worthlessness. The feeling that she was not good enough and a failure courses through her from her wall that usually blocked the repeated words from her mind. Hidden behind innocent white lies, she bore the mirror mask that the people around her expected her to become. Even though it hurt her so. She thought she had been doing better. She had stopped lying about her feelings. She was growing into who she wanted to be. She had fought her demons and rebuilt her glass world. She felt better and more confident each day. Even happy. Her true wish. That was before this night.
In the past she had taken the talking her parents gave her when they mocked her interests with a shrug of her shoulders once she realized that they meant no harm. Mom simply wanted her to succeed in life and dad wanted her to see more of the world that was not from a book, comic, or anime. Her sister Megan was blunt and honest to a painful point and just wanted to give her a real world experience. And she loved her family for it. As odd it may seem, she needed that adversary to grow. She disliked how they went about it and she cried five too many times over it but it gave her strength to stand up for herself. It made her treasured readings, manga characters, and love of differing art styles grow. She knew they just could not see the love felt for her treasures and how they shaped her view of the world. She was open to life with an understanding of the harsher things the world birthed. It gave her a perspective that allowed her to analyze different view points. It allowed her soft heart to gain armor for she was a push over until the lesson her elders taught began to set in. Though the fact that she is a cry baby was unfixable. Don't get this story wrong. This is just some background as to why she reacted as such. If anyone tried to bad mouth her sister or family for that matter she would fight tooth and nail for them. She held precious memories of her childhood. Laughing to tears with Megan, sci-fi adventures in the backyard with her brothers and cousins-many times with her as leader- and it solidified family to her. Which was why the past months were so hard and why that night cut so deep as it did. She was backed into a corner and someone was poking her with a cattle prod.
The dinning room set the stage for war. Her parents and sister versus her distant aunt and part of the aunt's family. This was her mother's youngest sister. The one her mom prayed for and the one aunt she hated. It took a lot to make her hated something for more than five minutes. Her aunt though. She pushed every button, every weak point, and she hit them without mercy. Normally Aunt Lizbeth stayed as far from her home state as possible. Unfortunately that night was one of her visit due to the family situation. The family situation: Connor had cancer. It was not terminal but it was not cheap either. It was the main drive that led her to job hunt that day.
She arrived home with the sun setting upon her back. Dressed smartly in crisp clean blue jeans, a silky blue button-up, a skin tone came under the shirt and decent black shoes she had spent the day interviewing jobs to pitch in the payment of house bills. Her frizzy but straight cocoa brown shoulder length hair bursted from clips and her ears. Simple sterling silver emerald ear-rings were complemented by an emerald sterling silver matching ring upon her right pointer finger. An eighteenth birthday gift. The ring was bent slightly on the underside and the sides dull from scratches and daily abuse. She wore it everyday. Her lanky built slouched in the wake of a long and fruitless day. Her heart heavy at the lack of improvement her latest attempt brought. She had to find a job. There was no other options and the mortgage needed to be paid soon too. It was a horrified shock for her to walk into the house and enter a war zone.
None of the gathered family noticed her entrance and she was surprised to see her aunt-she loathed giving that women such an honorable title- in the house though the battle of words she was having with her mom was the norm. The longest her mom and aunt had stayed within each other's company so far had been two hours before they started a row. Tonight though, the whole family was in on it. Pointing blame of financial troubles and bad mouthing everyone who looked at them odd. Her family being divide was not the cause of the pain that laced her soul. No, somehow her 'aunt' had it in mind that her college dreams and other aspirations were the problem. Lizbeth shouted every fear, every anxiety trigger, every word the demons in her head had whispered in her ears during the darkest nights keeping her afraid to dream wake to a false reality. It made the walls break. Thankfully no one blamed Connor and she had made sure her little brother knew they LOVED him and he held no faults but that did not stop anyone from finding fault in her. She knew she was a contributor to the mess. Her college bills, insurance, added expenses and overall cost of living added up. She was nineteen going on twenty and she had no job to help ease the burden. Instead of fighting her aunt on this or reinstating her importance as a human being, the weight of the past months fell upon her. Crushing the air in her lungs. The nonsensical fears that gripped her caused her to do the one thing she never before had the strength to do. She ran away.
This happened every time Lizbeth came over. She berated her for every little detail and she took it. She would sneak back upstairs and take mild comfort in the arms of her cousins and siblings. She loved kids and was a natural caregiver which made her dream to teach science so strong. Not tonight. Tonight she had to cry and she could not cry in front of the kids. They would not be able to face tomorrow if they saw her cry tonight. She was supposed to protect them from the harsher ways of life. From the greed that breed the world. But not tonight. She couldn't. So she ran. Never had she ever imagine she would make it out the gates of the yard before she talked herself back inside to go to bed. This time she did not stop. Tears blurred her vision and her chest ached with each breath. Her mask of the good kid who followed the rules was breaking. Leaving the scared, hurt kid she was still healing from. She had to get away.
She was shocked to find when she could no longer see from the tears that she had ended up in the park. Which was odd for the nearest park was miles away from her home. Her normally quick mind stuttered and moved on. Exhausted from the run, she sat down upon an old, slightly rotten, wooden and metal bench. She dropped her backpack next to her and curled up into a ball on the seat. For a tall girl like who stood at about 5'10 she could curl up into a very ting ball. Her face was blotchy and Red from her tears that streamed down from her puffy eyes. The deep blue grey that usually shined with hidden life were glazed and hazy, full of pain from her faults. That thought sparked her to her feet in a rush of emotion. Her lips parted as she gasped for breath.
"Why God?" She croaked, sniffling. She was not very religious. She respected all beliefs and learned about them as best she could. Each one has their faults and good points. She was very open about stuff like that and had been lectured many times by her father on to take care with it for he feared someone would take advantage over her.
"I know I am soft." She started. "I know I'm fucking overly emotional and cry a lot. That's who I am and I'm not kidding myself anymore. They take as a bad thing. They keep mocking me for my faults when they should be helping me through them. It hurts. God, it hurts so much that I can't be me around my own family. I was getting better! I was starting to let them in and now-she sobbed- I can't. I've been their puppet for so long. I don't want to anymore. I can't change or help my family if I can't even get a damn job!" She flopped down onto the bench and took out a copy of her resume. She smiled ruefully at the paper that was the deciding factor of her life and started picking it apart.
"Communications" she scoffed. "I can't even hear or talk properly so that's a lie. Who'd want to listen to a freak?" She spat out. Freak, a name spoke to her by peers, family, and herself. She did have a minor hearing loss and speech impediment but it didn't really negatively affect her. She is a smart kid but she lacked some social skills but was gaining them from her college adventures. So what if she growled or stayed intuned with her surroundings more than she did communicating with others. They barely listened to her anyway. Always interrupting and being rude. She was finally honing her confidence and becoming stronger than the shy, scared, nervous wreck of a girl she had been. She continued,
"Computer skills, yeah grandparents love me and I can input data like a wizard, totally screams hire me! Childcare provider, worked nursery at church but none of the jobs are hiring a would be science teacher." She was pacing now, leaving the paper on the bench."And it goes on. I have zero experience so no sorry honey we need someone who can do this before even if your smile can charm the socks off anyone. Yeah no grams, they won't take me for that." Emma huffed and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.
"Excellent pity rant." A smooth almost snarky male voice broke her path causing her to pin around and face him. Her wide eyes took stock of him. He was taller than her by a few inches with dark brown clean cut hair spiked in a careless fashion with a professional beard mustache combo. A dark grey blazer covered an ACDC graphic t-shirt, jeans, and dress shoes. His brown eyes and smirk gave way to his mischievous aura. For some reason he didn't set off any warning bells but Emma still chided herself for her lack of observation. That is how people get hurt.
"H-how much did you hear, sir?" She nervously asked with a sniffle. Her cheeks heated in embarrassment. He gave her an easy smirk.
"Enough to know that this isn't your night. Wanna talk to a stranger?" He offered taking a seat on the bench. Seems like it was happening no matter what she said.
"Sure. I already ran from home, why not break another pre-installed rule of life?" She quipped as she sat next to the laughed. It was an easy laugh that Emma took a quick liking to.
"Let's start easy." He began and held out his hand. "I'm Tony." He smiled
"I really want to make an alcoholics anonymous joke." Emma confided as she took his calloused hand with hers as he snickered. "I'm Emma." She gave him a sweet mischievous smile. The pain from early distracted by this laughing man.
"So that's the smile that charms anyone's socks off?" Tony teased with a waggle of his eyebrow that made her chuckle.
"Yeah, pretty great right?" She retorted but her voice fell and her eyes stayed on the ground as she thought about it.
"Alright, come on. Talk. Why is that a cutie like you is out here in the middle of the night?" Tony probed.
"I could ask that same about you." Emma jested with a grin.
"I'm handsome not cute, kiddo." Tony countered easily. This reminded Emma of her banters with close ones. She felt safe.
"Coulda fooled me but I seriously spent the whole day from five in the morning to only an hour ago job hunting. Only to come back to a house divided ready for world war numbah three. We-we we are having money troubles. My brother had cancer. Bills grew. So I decided to find a job. Put off college. My family meant more. Great time for the aunt from hell to visit. A fight always breaks out due to her for some stupid reason. Usually I can handle her yelling and blaming shit on me but tonight-tonight was too much. Because she was right. Without my college bills we wouldn't be so bad. A lot of it is my fault so when I walked in and they were all yelling. I just. I- I ran. It hurt so much. I had to get away. So here I am." She ended. She cleared her throat and rubbed the tears away.
"Wow. That sucks." Tony deadpanned causing Emma to laugh. Like throw her head back and laugh. "I'm hiding from work. Nothing real big. You seem like a good kid." He continued standing up to face her with his easy, mischievous grin. "I like you too so don't worry too much. It'll be alright in the end." He said and it as easy as that made things seem okay for her and she smiled a real smile that he returned. "Get home safe, kid." He called out from over his shoulder as he walked away from her before breaking into a run as a mob of people chased after him shouting like the seagulls from Finding Nemo.
Emma sat stunned watching the scene before she noticed he had taken her resume. She could not bring herself to care as she gathered her things and began her way home. All the way she wondered just who she talked too. After all, what would a celebrity be doing in a small town in Michigan anyway?
No one noticed her return. She simply climbed up the stairs and went to bed. She continued on her life as if the fight had not happened and ignored the looks of concern or doubt sent by her family. That was until a few weeks later when the phone rang.