AN: This is an F story, not an A story (this is a shared account between F and A, which is why I'm clarifying). I don't own the Avengers. Please leave a review, or follow/favorite, I really love that! Thanks for reading my story.
~Marina Stark~
I was in my workshop, tinkering the way I was every day. I was trying to increase the power of the thrusters in the boots of my suit, so that I could fly higher in the atmo without icing.
My name is Marina Stark, and I'm sixteen. My mom's name is Pepper Potts. My father's name is-well, you've probably guessed. He's Ironman. Or he was, before he retired a few years ago, when I was fifteen. I had always wanted to be a hero, to be just like him, so when he retired from the heroing business, I begged SHIELD to let me take his spot on the team. They said yes.
But I had made a few changes in the last two years. The suit was dark blue, and the parts that had once been gold were now silver. It was made on the same designs as dad's suit had been, so it was the same in all other ways, except I had changed it to fit me better.
And the name wasn't Ironman anymore-it was Irongirl. I hadn't liked the girl part, but it was that or have people think of me as a guy and I wouldn't have that.
"Miss Stark, I believe there is an incoming transmission from director Fury. Should I put it on the screen?" JARVIS had taken several upgrades through the years, but he still had a british accent. He was like Alfred Pennyworth, but instead of being the Wayne's butler he was the Stark's… I don't even know.
"Sure, J. Just ruin my day, why don't you."
"Is that a yes, Miss Stark, or-"
"Put him on the screen." I sighed.
The largest screen on the wall of my workshop turned on, and director Fury's scowling eye-patched face came on. He was twenty years older then he had been when the Chitauri had attacked New York, but the only sign of age was a few gray hairs and creases around his eyes. And he was still a grump.
"Stark!" He bellowed, making me bang my elbow on the edge of the table.
"Jesus, Pirate Cap'n, what's up your ass?" Fury's voice opened, but I was still annoyed. "Never mind, I don't want an answer to that question."
"Stark, shut up and listen." Fury growled, and that surprised me a little. I had seen him mad before, but not like this. It took me a minute to recognize the tinge on his voice. It was almost… fear? But that couldn't be. Whatever it was, I ought to listen.
I leaned against my work table to frown at Fury. "This is my listenin' face, old man."
"There is a disturbance, and I want the Avengers at hq right away." The screen shut off.
I scowled. "What, I put on my listening face for that?"
"Will you be departing, Miss Stark? Mrs. Stark has requested that I inform her whenever you leave on a mission."
"Yeah, I'm going. This must be big, whatever the heck it is." I reattached the rocket boosters to my suit, and then snapped it on. I love that suit-it's beautiful and powerful, and it's a symbol of who I am. Like a family heirloom that shoots lasers and flies.
I shot out of the workshop and into the sky, the silver and blue metal of my suit flashing in the sunlight. It only took about twenty minutes to fly to hq, but I took a solid forty just to bother the other Avengers. I landed easily on the roof, and knew the others must be here. I'm fashionably late, or just plain late if I want to be honest. Which I usually don't.
I stroll casually into the conference room with my helmet under my arm for affect. As I thought, the others are already here. Fury is standing at the end of the table in all his eye-patched glory.
"You miss me?" I grin to the whole room, and I spot a few eyerolls, which I'm fine with.
"And just when I was beginning to hope you wouldn't show up at all." Lily sighed from her seat at the table. She had a funny accent-kind of new york, but mostly that weird asgardian-sounding voice she had inherited from her father, Thor. She had also inherited his role as an Avenger. Her mom was some astrophysicist, I think… maybe her name was Jane.
Lily had big brown eyes like her mom and short blond hair, the same color as her dads. She wore dull black armor and matching boots and gauntlets. Slung over her back was an iron battle axe with a leather grip. She had a pretty face with sharp features, and sat straight in her chair. She and I didn't exactly get along.
Sitting next to her was Thomas Maximoff, tapping his foot impatiently. His mother was Scarlet Witch, but he inherited his uncle Quicksilver's powers. His dark-brown-with-blond-highlights hair stuck up at the front from wind when he ran, and he wore black skinny jeans, converse, a leather jacket spray-painted silver with a smiley face on the back in black, and a black t-shirt that read SPEEDSTER on it. That's his name. He's majorly hyper-he tapped his foot, ran a hand through his hair, tilted his chair back on two legs, and scowled at Lily all at the same time. It's pretty impressive.
Sandy-haired and hazel-eyed, Jean Rogers slouched across the table from Lily. Of all of us, Jean was the only one that didn't want to be an Avenger. She had been extremely against the idea, actually. She was sketching in her notebook, and waved at me with her free hand without looking up. She wanted to go to art school, but the Avengers recruited her instead. Sometimes Fury can be a jerk. Jean's code name is Ms. America, which I've had a lot of teasing fun with. She wore a short white denim jacket, a red t-shirt with the shield symbol on the front, and skinny jeans. Jean has her dad's shield and she boxes, but she has no real powers.
Max Banner sat next to Jean, frowning at me. He's the only one of us who's a child of two Avengers-the Hulk and Black Widow. His shaggy black hair hung almost underneath his ears, and he wore a shield sports jacket, a green t-shirt, and jeans. He's not as trained as his mom, but he has the strength and endurance of his dad when he's the Hulk.
We're the Avengers. Irongirl, Lily, Speedster, Ms. America, and Tank. And none of us is older then seventeen.
I swaggered to my chair at the end of the table and plopped down in it, putting my feet up and pressing a button on the wrist of my suit. The suit started folding itself down until it was all in the glove, which I left on.
"What's the problem, Eyepatch?" I said, motioning my hand to tell him to start talking.
"We would have known twenty minutes ago if you had bothered being on time." Max muttered, but his voice was quiet, as always. I think he might just have been grumpy because we were still missing two-his best friend Jonna Barton, and Hawk, Falcon's son. I didn't know where they were.
"Well, I thought you guys deserved a break." I laughed. "I mean, without me, you'd be screwed."
"If we could get down to business." Fury said, and he wasn't asking. "Lily has brought us important new from Asgard."
"Shouldn't we wait for Hawk and Katniss?" I ask. "You waited for me."
"Which is why we cannot wait any longer." Lily snapped. "The worlds are in grave danger, not just Midguard. My own realm is in danger if we don't handle this quickly and correctly."
"Then what's the problem already?" Thomas asked impatiently. He always has to do things fast.
"The time streams are getting crossed." Lily explained. "Something powerful is tampering with the original Avengers, and if we don't stop it it will tear a hole in reality itself."
"I'm guessing that's bad?" Jean asked without looking up from her drawings. "Cause it sounds bad to me."
"Yeah, badness abounds." I agreed. "So what are we supposed to-oh. Idea."
"Idea? Hopefully a good one?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
"One of dad's old-I mean I never tested it, but-I mean I checked the files and the data was good, so it could probably-"
"You mean it's a time machine?" Thomas asked excitedly. "Cool!"
"I was hoping you would have something like that, Marina." Lily gave me a grudging nod. I grinned and hopped up. I pressed the button on the back of my glove and it extended into the full suit again.
"C'mon, it's back at the tower. In the Stark family tech vault!"
~At the Avengers Tower~
I led the other Avengers down the stairs to the basement of the tower. It was built right between two subway tunnels, so we heard the rumble as the cars went past. I flicked the light switch a few times, but nothing happened-I didn't come down here a lot, so the bulbs must have blown out a while ago.
I hopped off the bottom step. It was easier to move around with my suit off. Instead I wore a blue mini skirt, black leggings, a black t-shirt, and a blue hoodie.
"A little light, Ms. America?" I asked. She held up her cell phone, and the glow from the screen let me see the tech the was stuffed into the room.
The walls to the left and right were lined with shelves and had dozens of machines stacked on them. Stands stood against the back wall, full of rolled-up blueprints, and piles of notebooks and papers were scattered on the floor. Resting in the middle of the room was a largish wooden crate.
"Damn, I didn't think it would be that big. I'll have to get the suit to carry it." I groaned, but Max strode forward.
"Let me." Max said, leaning down and picking up the crate easily. He carried it under his arm, not looking even the slightest bit strained with the heavy load. "Back up to where there's light, guys."
In my workshop he plopped the crate down on the ground and pulled the top off without even breaking a sweat. Inside, surrounded with crumpled-up newspapers and packing peanuts, was a large sleek machine. Max lifted it out and set it carefully on my work table.
"Thanks, green bean." I said, pulling out my tools and popping the casing off of the back of the time machine. A piece of paper, folded as small as it could be, fluttered out. Someone had wedged it in with the circuits and machinery. Was it dad?
"What's that?" Thomas asked, and in a flash he had the paper in his hand and was unfolding it. He quickly scanned the first few lines, then looked up at us, grinning. "Have I ever told you that "Back to the future" is my favorite movie?"
"Give me that." Lily snatched it away from him, and politely read it out loud. "It says; Wassup, jerkbags? This's from the coolio herself." Lily looked up to raise an eyebrow at me, then glanced back down at the paper. "And stop giving future me that look, o mighty thordaughter or whatever the hell I'm sposed call you."
Thomas, Jean, and I all cracked up. Lily looked like she wanted to punch me, but didn't.
"Anyway, just leaving this note to tell you that the machine works. All you have to do is…" Lily ran her eyes down the paper. "Most of the rest of it if techie stuff, but there's a bit more at the bottom. Good luck and remember: when in doubt, be as awesome as I am. Later, little ones. The master has to go. Because you're not full of yourself at all?" She rolled her eyes at me.
"Here, give me that. I'll fix up the machine and then we can time travel." I took the note from Lily. It was all I could do to resist a happy little dance-we were going to time travel! Yes!
~The next day~
"I'm sure it'll work." I grinned, wiping the engine grease on my hands off on a rag. "I had to make a few adjustments, but it can detect the time anomaly and should take us to the right time, but the same place. Might have to do some searching to figure out what exactly we're lookin' for."
"Wow, Marina." Jean was looking impressed. "You built a time machine. I can honestly say I'm impressed."
"Oh, stop." I said, pretending to blush. "Now I'm not sure exactly how this is supposed to work, so everybody just… I dunno, put a hand on it, and-"
"Shouldn't you get your suit first?" Lily said, shaking her head.
"Yeah. Everybody got everything?" I asked, picking up the gauntlet from another table and pulling it on. I tapped the button, and it extended into the full blue-and-silver suit. Jean slung her shield over her back and Lily tightened the strap of her axe. "Okay. Everybody put a hand on it." We crowded around the table so that all of us had a firm grip on the machine.
"Where do you think it is? Victorian era?" Jean asked hopefully.
"Psh, I want the fifties. They got cool hats back then." Thomas laughed.
"Fingers crossed for Camelot." Max grinned. I flipped the switch on the side of the machine, and immediately felt awful.
My ears popped painfully, like I had shot twenty thousand feet into the sky in a moment. My vision blurred and turned white. I felt like there was an anvil on my chest, so heavy that I could barely breath, constricting my lungs and my throat and making me unable even to scream. I tightened my grip on the machine because it was the only movement I could manage. I felt like I had just stuck a fork in a light socket. Then suddenly the tightness faded, my ears stopped popping, and I could see again.
We weren't in my workshop anymore. We were at least three floors higher, in the main living area.
In my time, I lived there by myself and mom and dad lived in Malibu. The floors of this area had glass floors, large windows, plush furniture, and a stainless steel kitchen. In my time, rock band posters and goth paintings from not-well-known artists hung on the wall. There were books and papers on the floor. Magazines scattered on the kitchen counter with chip bags and cupcake wrappers, and the TV was always on the disney channel.
Now everything was different. The few paintings on the walls were that of famous painters that everyone's heard of. The area was shining, clean, and uncluttered. The TV was off and all my things were gone. Some of the furniture was moved around, and everything looked a lot less… slobbish. Outside the windows, the buildings were different, though a few were familiar. But they were destroyed, singled, in rubble, smashed, and shot. Windows were smashed and people were crowded in the streets. Something had attacked New York.
"This is not what I was expecting." Lily said, frowning out the window.
Then there was a noise behind us. I turned around. Ironman, Bruce Banner, Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Widow, and Thor were standing there, staring at us like the strangest things they'd ever seen. Which we might just be.
"Oh." Max said. "Hi."
AN: thanks for reading! Please leave a review or follow/favorite.