EMILY

"Good morning, Emily."

I'm jolted out of my sleep by Jarvis."Why did you wake me up?" I ask, sounding really annoyed.

"Your father wants me to inform you he has a press conference this afternoon, and you need to come with him."

"Why didn't he tell me this hisself?"

"He doesn't wish to leave the workshop at this time."

"Why are you telling me this at seven in the morning?"

"I... Don't really know."

I roll over in my queen-sized bed. "I swear to God, one day, I WILL figure out how to dismantle you."

Jarvis doesn't reply. I think he's finally figured out that I'm dead serious about that.

I wonder what Dad's working on now. Probably some sorta edition to his latest Iron Man suit. Oh. Right. I kinda forgot to mention that part. My dad is Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man.

My true mother is Tony Stark's sister, but she died 13 years ago only a few hours after I was born, and my true dad did some awful stuff after she died, leaving him stuck in prison for the rest of his life. Tony Stark adopted me, because he was my only relative still alive. I call him Dad now, even though he's technically my uncle, but who cares? Dad has always tried to give me a low profile, so I can have the chance to live a somewhat normal life, which is sorta hard to do.

Deciding I probably won't be able to go to sleep again, I get out of my white Pottery Barn bed and pull on orange Nike shorts and a navy t-shirt I got from doing track and field at my school, the Los Angeles Private school, a huge elementary, junior high, and high school just outside of downtown Los Angeles, which has recently been voted the number one school in America. Summer break began two weeks ago, which was when Ivan Vanko stepped into our lives. His father apparently used to work for Dad's father. Something happened between them, and ever since then, Ivan's dad has sworn his revenge on the Starks. After his dad died, Ivan was sent to do the dirty work. He sabotaged Stark Expo, and tried to kill Dad about two weeks ago, which didn't exactly work. In the end, Ivan blew himself up, and everyone lived happily ever after.

"Jarvis," I re-awaken the AI.

"Yes, Miss Emily?" Jarvis replies as a blue computer screen appears in front of my window giving me a full weather forecast for today. He's obviously trying to kiss up to me now.

"I'm going outside. Don't tell Dad. I want to work on my sketches."

"What if your father begins to search all of Los Angeles again in the Mark VI like what he did last Tuesday?"

Facepalm. "What do you think you should do?"

"Tell him?"

Facepalm. Again. "Duh. Now go back into sleep mode."

After combing my shoulder-length dark brown hair into a ponytail, I push open my bedroom door open quietly. I creep downstairs to the glass side door that leads to the jungle of palm and Magnolia trees in our side yard. We managed to get the house re-done pretty quickly after Dad and Rhodey fought in it and practically destroyed the place. Once outside, I'm immediately greeted by morning birdsong and the sound of waves crashing against the rocks below our cliffside mansion. I head for my favorite climbing tree, the old Magnolia towards the center of the small forest, and clamber up the branches until I find the branch near the top of the tree I usually sit on. As I'm getting situated, I notice the first rays of the sun as it slowly begins to appear on the horizon. It continues to slip above the Pacific Ocean, changing colors from purple, to pink, to red, then finally to a bright, burning orange as it fully rises in all its glory. I quickly reach into the hollow tree branch above the branch I'm sitting on, and grab the notebook and box of colored pencils I keep hidden in it, then quickly begin to sketch what I remember of the rising sun before it slips away from my memory.

I put the finishing touches on the clouds, then start to work on the waves among the ocean. After a few minutes, my eyelids slowly begin to grow heavy, and I soon fall into a deep, blissfully dreamless slumber.

LIA

Things I like-summer break. Things I don't really like-having to shut down a terrorist group on an empty stomach.

"There's a couple escapees heading in your direction!"

"I'm on it," I sigh into the Bluetooth as I dust off my black tank top and rock on the heels of my dark combat boots.

Turning invisible, I rush down the alley I was hiding in while I was waiting for orders. I nearly run right into the small group of muscular men who escapedMom, Clint, and Sara, but manage to steer clear of their panicked stampede. Using my telekinesis, I lift up a parked truck on the side of the street and drop it right in the men's path. They turn around fast, looks of terror on their faces. I become visible. "Hello, boys," I say in a calm tone, hoping to creep them out more.

The men hastily pull guns out of their pockets, aiming them at me. "It won't be that simple," I taunt them as I turn invisible again and use my telekinesis to take the guns out of their hands. "I think I've got them cornered," I whisper into the Bluetooth.

"Ok, we'll be there in a second. Keep them occupied."

"Gladly." I feel a smile curl up in my invisible face. I love Budapest.

To be extra sure the men don't plan on going anywhere, I use a couple of cars from a nearby parking garage to completely block the part of the street we're standing in. I become visible, then plop down on the street, pulling my iPhone out of a pocket in my black cargo pants. The men have given up, knowing trying to escape would be hopeless. Soon, I begin to hear police sirens and the roar of a jet engine in the distance. I pause the Angry Birds level I was on as the Quinjet makes a graceful landing in the car corral. "Great job," Mom says to me as she walks out of the back of the jet, "but do you mind moving one of the cars so the police can get in?"

"Oh! Right. I guess that's kinda important." I move an SUV back to the parking garage as the police cars come revving in, surrounding the remaining men of the terrorist group.

Mom and the police chief have a conversation in Hungarian. Out of all the languages I know how to speak, Hungarian sadly isn't one of them. When they finish talking, I follow Mom back into the Quinjet. Sara is sitting in the back doing something to her prosthetic leg. Clint is sitting in the pilot's chair. I sink into the hard metal chair next to Sara, exhausted now that my adrenaline rush has passed. Mom goes to the co-pilot's chair, and before I know it, we're in the air, on our way to the helicarrier.

I am an agent for SHIELD. Most of the world knows me as The Mindbender. Agent Natasha Romanoff, my mom, also known as the Black Widow, adopted me from Taiwan when I was a baby. Her boyfriend, Barton, is Hawkeye. I was going to be the first test subject of SHEILD's recreated Super-soldier Serum, originally used on Steve Rogers (Captain America) during World War II. It worked perfectly, giving me the powers of invisibility and telekinesis, but after the government found out they tested the serum on a little kid, they shut down the operation, leaving me the only person ever to have received Super-soldier Serum Phase 11. There's been rumors going around that the government is looking into the serum again. That will probably get interesting.

"When are you going back to Los Angeles?" Aiden jolts me out of my thoughts.

"I'm stuck on the helicarrier for the rest of the week," I sigh. "Both Mom and want to find more information on these terrorist groups. They're convinced the groups are somehow all connected. I'm just ready to go home and spend my summer vacation like every other normal thirteen year old."

"Easy for you to say," grumbles Aiden. "That ship is my house!"

"You should come down and visit sometime. I imagine you'd look very good with a tan."

"I'll have to ask Father. Knowing him though, he'll say no. He has a problem of being extremely overprotective."

That makes sense, though. Aiden's (adopted) dad is the current director of SHIELD, making him paranoid that some sorta crime/terrorist ring is out to kidnap Aiden. Even if he is ever captured, he'll be fine. When he was three years old, his original parents were killed in a fire from a gas explosion in their house. Aiden lived, but doctors needed to amputate his right leg because it was so severely burned. He also has a wicked burn scar going across his face. After he was moved to an orphanage, he was soon adopted by Nick Fury after he noticed Aiden had the makings of a proper genius.

He was right about the whole genius thing. Aiden has been homeschooled to the college level, even though he's only 15 years old (he never lets me forget he's 2 years older than I). He has even created a robotic prosthetic leg for her left leg that, after undergoing surgery to get it installed, responds to all of his brain's commands, just like a real leg! The leg even has a built-in rocket booster, so he can fly. He's also a weapons and hand-to-hand combat expert, which helped him earn the code name "Metal Fist".

I see the helicarrier in the distance, growing larger as we approach it. The flying aircraft carrier glows in the afternoon sunlight. We soon make a graceful landing on the tarmac. Mom and look really worried about something as they rush out of the quinjet and into the helicarrier. I look at Aiden, who shrugs. We walk out into the blinding sunlight. "Welcome back, Lillia," greets me. "How was the mission?"

"Fine," I reply. "Mom and are convinced the terror groups are somehow connected. I don't think they are. I mean, sure; it's not exactly normal to end up shutting down eight terrorist rings in two weeks, but what if crime rates are just higher in the summer?"

shakes her head. "Deny it all you want, but these groups are definitely somehow associated. Their names are all related to one another."

"Say what you want about your 'suspicions', but if you ask me, everyone on this ship is paranoid and seriously need some time off. I think you're just bored now that you've helped saved Tony Stark and gotten him interested in the Avengers Initiative. Oh! And by the way, how many times do I need to remind you to call me Lia until you remember?!"

With that said, I spin on my heels, careful to keep my long light brown ponytail from whipping against my face, and march inside with Aiden following me. "That wasn't really necessary," he says quietly.

I sigh, trying to compose myself. "Yeah, I guess it wasn't. I'm just hungry, and annoyed, and tired, and homesick, and..."

"Ok, ok. I get the idea," Aiden cuts me off, as he runs a hand through his neatly trimmed black hair like what he always does when he's annoyed. "Let's get something to eat now before you lose it even more."