Let The Sparks Fly
Summary:
Quinn Masters has been elected to act as the mutant correspondent between the X-Men and the Avengers. Full of snarky comebacks, blunt opinions and taking every day as though it is her last, she definitely stirs up trouble for the members of the Avengers.
Of course, not all is what it seems when it comes to the Mistress of Electricity.
And Tony Stark is dead set on learning all of her secrets.
He just never expected her own past to be as twisted and dark as his own.
Author's Note:
I know I've spotted a story in this fandom that has an OC with the ability to control Electricity, but I assure you, this plot is all of my own creation. This is a slight cross-over with the X-Men and the Avengers, as some familiar faces from Xavier's will appear in future chapters. This story is going to be full of humor, laughter, excitement, drama, tragedy, romance, friendship and action. I can't stand when I read stories that have nothing but drama and torment for the characters, and while my OC does have a harsh past, she does not let it affect her on a daily basis.
I do want to point out, that this will most likely be a Tony/OC fic, and this has nothing to do with a dislike for Pepper, because I think she is awesome. I just have this plot bunny running through my head and need an outlet. Pepper will appear in the story as a close friend/surrogate sister to Tony, but nothing more. This will NOT just focus on a romance, and said romance will NOT just start from the first few chapters of the story. I want to build friendships between my OC and the team, and from there the friendships will grow.
I do take ideas, thoughts and opinions from my readers, but I will not take well to flames. If you do not like the story, don't read it. I love input from my readers, and if you want to see something occur between the entire team, let me know. I like my stories to be interactive with the readers, while still remaining on plot.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please review/subscribe/fav! Also note, each chapter will have a quote that is used in the story, and any music/lyrics/movies/movie quotes used in this story will be disclaimed at the end of the chapters. Each chapter will have a quip from one of the characters that will in fact be a question for my readers to answer. Reader that answers it correctly first, will get a cameo part in the next chapter. If I notice a reader, that answers all of them correctly (and I hope you guys don't resort to looking it up), I will private message you and have you come up with an OC that will make reoccurring appearances...maybe even become a main OC character.
Chapter One
'I can manipulate photonic electromagnetism reactions on a subatomic level.'
If there was one thing Anthony 'Iron Man' Stark didn't like, it was having to meet people he could care less about. The fact that Fury had demanded that the team assemble in the conference room set up in the Avengers' Tower and said that they would be meeting their newest addition to the team grated on his nerves. Fury never spoke of bringing on another team member and the last thing this team needs is another personality to come in and threaten the already fragile bonds between the team members.
So there he sits, drumming his fingers on the table restlessly, his eyes dull with boredom as the rest of the team spoke in hush tones, wondering who would be joining them. Tony certainly hopes it isn't another soldier, because the Cap is more than enough of military-bred annoyance. He sure hopes it isn't another mercenary either, because between Agents Barton and Ramonov, he didn't take pleasure in knowing these people were able to creep around the halls without ever making a sound. Of course, he wouldn't mind if this person held the same intelligence as Bruce, because it would be nice to have yet another person able to speak proper English.
Tony's thoughts freeze and fade into the back of his mind as Director Nick Fury enters the room. The young woman following after Fury could be no older than Pepper Potts. Her shoulder length ebony hair drapes from her scalp in a delicate, layered style, but the tips looked to be frayed in some manner. Even from his spot, Tony could see the odd shine decorating bright moss-green eyes. A pair of black skinny jeans clung to her hips and her lean, but relatively short legs. A black t-shirt depicting the graphics from the 'Master of Puppets' album cover draped over her torso in a lean-fitted style. Everything about her seemed petite, from her stance at five-four, to her dainty hands covered in a pair of black finger-less gloves.
"Ms. Masters, this is Captain Steve Rogers," Of course the good Captain greets the young woman with a warm, welcoming smile, "Agent Clint Barton," Clint flashes a wide grin and waves obnoxiously, causing a small flicker of amusement to flash in the woman's gaze, "Agent Natasha Ramonov," the red-headed assassin nods curtly, her own eyes looking over the new addition with an assessing gaze, "Doctor Bruce Banner," Of course Bruce shoots her a nervous smile, and apparently, this woman was able to pick up on his anxiety issues, because she gives a small, soft smile, "and this is Anthony Stark." Tony flashes her a smirk and winks out of habit, only to get an amused grin and a quirk of an eyebrow in return, "Team, this is Quinn Masters and she will be acting as an ambassador, or correspondent, between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the X-Men," Tony can't stop the small quirk in his own eyebrows at the thought that this woman was in fact a mutant, "I hope that you all can show her respect, as Professor Xavier is trusting us with the care of one of his own."
"Welcome, Ms. Masters. I hope that your travels went well," Steve greets, holding out a hand for her to shake.
She blatantly looks away from the hand, giving him a slight bow in return, "Yes, they went well. I apologize before hand, but I am not a big fan of touching people, so do not take offense."
"It's no problem, Ma'am," Steve responds.
The young woman winces, "Please, just call me Quinn. I'm not a fan of formalities."
Steve seems pleased with her response as she takes the empty seat beside Director Fury and Clint, who looks her over briefly, "So, you're a mutant?" The girl nods curtly, causing Clint to continue, "What exactly does your mutation do?"
"I can manipulate photonic electromagnetism reactions on a subatomic scale," she quips, and both Tony and Bruce straighten up at the words, but Quinn obviously notices the slight confusion on the faces of the others, "I can manipulate any type of electrically based charge, anywhere from the electrical currents wired through this entire building, to lightning, all the way to manipulating the photonic particles of electromagnetic radiation," Once again, she notes the confusion at her last words, "Light."
"That's quite an impressive ability," Natasha remarks from her lounged position.
Quinn smiles softly, nodding in return, "Yes, but it also causes me to shock people on a daily basis due to static charges caused by friction."
"So, no handshakes?" Tony questions, quirking an eyebrow, "I don't see why a little static shock would be harmful."
"Not harmful, just annoying. I tend to avoid handshakes until the people I have met are aware of my abilities," she replies with ease.
Bruce slowly comes out of his shell, "So, when you say you can manipulate light, what do you mean?"
"I can't manipulate it so much as see in various areas of the light spectrum, even to the point that I can manuever my way through complete darkness based on inferred light spectrum," she states.
"Can you show us?" Clint pleads, pouting playfully, "Just something small."
She nods curtly before slapping her palms together. Rubbing the palms of her hands, she continues for a minute before her palms pulled apart. The two inches of space between her fingertips fills with a visible electric charge. She holds it between her hands for a few moments before slapping her palms back together.
"Incredible," Bruce exclaims with obvious awe.
Quinn flashes the Doctor a wide grin, "Thanks."
Tony pouts inwardly at the sight of this new girl getting Bruce to forget his anxiety. Fury stands from the round table and shakes the girl's hand.
"Ms. Masters, I, on the behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D., can't thank you enough for offering your support. Team, I expect you will show Ms. Masters around the Tower. I'm afraid I must return to headquarters," Fury states, earning a curt nod from Quinn, before he turns on heel and leaves the room.
As the team shows Quinn around the different levels, Tony also takes the time to begrudgingly introduce her to J.A.R.V.I.S. After showing her to her room on the fifth level, which is the domestic housing level for all team members, Tony bids her a good-bye and leaves her be. Making his way down to his workshop, Tony immediately addresses J.A.R.V.I.S.
"J.A.R.V.I.S. can you please accumulate all information on Quinn Masters," Tony requests.
A few minutes later, Tony stares at the projected screen as the information appears on the screen.
Name: Quinn Olivia Masters
Current Age: 22
Date of Birth: October 31, 1990
Hair color: Black
Eye Color: Green
Mother: Unkown
Father: Deceased (year 2006)
Siblings: None
Background Info: Grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Home schooled until the age twelve, and then attended local middle school. Top ranking scores in all her classes, though records state Quinn to have a low-level of social interactions with anyone other than Christopher Hart, another student who attended classes with Miss Masters. Disappeared from Cincinnati a week after her father died, when she was sixteen. Wasn't seen in the area for a year and a half, in which she returned to pay a visit to Mr. Hart. Stayed in the area for approximately two weeks before taking off, and hasn't been seen in the Cincinnati area since.
Tony flips the basic file aside and found a file from the Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters.
Name: Quinn Olivia Masters
Date of Birth: October 31, 1990
Hair color: Black
Eye Color: Silver
Mother: Unknown (Having left a week after the child was born)
Father: Deceased (Year 2006, when a group of anti-mutant activists attacked her home)
Siblings: None
Abilities: Miss Masters has the ability to manipulate any type of electric-based element or radiation. This gives her the ability not only to control electricity in everyday house-hold objects, but also to see in different areas of the light spectrum. Miss Masters has also expressed a brilliant mind and a photographic memory. She can levitate using electromagnetic waves.
Background Info: Miss Masters came to us after the death of her father. She expressed that before the incident she had unknowingly attacked four other students after they had shoved her in a locker for the majority of the school day.
Additional Info: Miss Masters has been inducted into the X-Men team after graduating from the Institute with top marks in every class. Miss Masters has shown an aptitude for Debating, Infiltration (Topped only by our own Gambit), and her photographic memory makes her excel as retaining information for missions.
Tony hums gently at the thought. So, the girl was quite the informant. A brilliant mind mixed with a power that seems to be sporadic at best, and not completely under her control. He ponders over the newest addition to the team. Why would Fury bring someone into the Avengers that could in fact endanger the team at any given moment? The thought of someone able to manipulate electromagnetic waves, causes Tony to place a hand over his arc reactor. She could literally shut him off if she wanted, and to be honest, he wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea.
Quinn Masters sighs as she looks around her room. After hours of unpacking her things, she was finally done. Her once barren room now looked as though someone lived in it. Her electric and her acoustic guitars were both set in the far corner of the room, an amplifier set just a foot off to the side of the electric guitar. Her stereo system with the hook up needed to play music from her Ipod was placed on the top of her dresser. Her once white-sheeted bed was now covered in a deep purple duvet.
Glancing up at the clock on her wall, she groans as she reads the time. Two in the morning, and she still couldn't seem to wind down. It comes with being someone that can manipulate electricity. She always feels juiced up and energized. She almost misses the Danger Room sessions with Sir Stabs-A-Lot.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.?" she calls out, not familiar with talking to an AI program.
"Yes, Ms. Masters?"
"I heard someone earlier mention a training room, or a workout area. Could you possibly point me in the right direction?" She inquires.
"Of course, Ms. Masters. Now, after you step out of your room you are going to-"
Changing into a pair of yoga pants and a long-sleeved tight-fitted t-shirt, she follows the AI's directions to the elevator, down two floors and down another hall until she was standing in front of the door that led to the workout room. Stepping inside, she immediately glances around all of the exercise equipment before shrugging to herself. Stepping onto the floor mat, she exhales before taking a running start. In the matter of minutes, Quinn feels a small smile form on her lips as she flips, cartwheels, hand springs and various other movements without a pause in her routine. While it wasn't her favorite idea of a workout, doing floor gymnastics helped keep her mind off of heavy thoughts and her energy was burning up faster.
She continues the routine for minutes, until minutes turned to an hour, and an hour turned into two. Before long, Quinn laid sprawled across the floor mat, her hair sticking to her neck, drenched with sweat, and her chest heaves with deep breaths as she stares at the ceiling. She didn't want to be here, but she knew it wasn't the best idea to return to Xavier's anytime soon. She didn't want to face the fearful gazes and the distrust. Only four people continued to stand behind her in all of her decisions, and it was the main reason behind her accepting this mission.
Closing her eyes, she inhales deeply.
'You think these...Avengers are going to trust you, where as most of those X-Men don't.'
"Ms. Masters?" a familiar voice calls out.
Opening her eyes, she stares at the upside-down figure of Steve Rogers. Rolling over onto her stomach, she pushes herself to her feet and flashes him a wide grin. She wasn't a big fan of the military, hell, she wasn't a big fan of the government period, but something about Rogers leads her to believe he'd go against orders if they are to endanger innocent people.
"I thought I told you to call me Quinn, Captain Rogers," she quips in return, causing a sheepish grin to appear on her face, "What are you doing awake?"
"Sleeping for seventy years makes it difficult to go back to sleep for even a few hours," Steve responds.
Quinn quirks an eyebrow, but says nothing. These...Avengers sure are strange, but who is she to judge. Besides, it isn't like he was really asleep for seventy years.
"How come you are not sleeping?"
Quinn shrugs, grinning slightly, "I'm constantly juiced with everlasting energy. It's rare that I get any sleep, unless I'm unconscious or it's drug induced. Ninety-percent of the time, I suffer from insomnia."
"That must be awful," Steve replies, motioning to the open doorway.
"Meh," she shrugs nonchalantly, "I'm not the only one. I have a friend that can manipulate potential kinetic energy and charge it up and make it...boom!" She mimics an explosion with her hands, "He rarely gets anymore sleep than I do, because he has to constantly remain in check so he doesn't accidentally charge something."
"Your friend must be quite impressive in a fight," Steve replies as he leads her back to the housing level.
Quinn giggles slightly, "Oh, whenever we were on missions, our leaders often had us grouped apart in battle in fear that between the two of us, we'd blow up everything in sight. We always had a...competition of sorts to see who can knock off more bad guys."
Quinn doesn't even pause as they enter the common area on the housing level, and immediately moves to the balcony, "Sorry, but I haven't had a smoke since I arrived in New York City, and I could really use one."
"Smoking is bad for your health," Steve remarks as he follows her onto the balcony, watching as she uses her index finger to spark the end of her cigarette.
"Meh," she shrugs indifferently, "I figure I'm going to die in a handful of ways. One, I'm going to end up blowing myself up. Two, I going to die by the hands of the bad guys. Three, I'm going to become some lab rat. Or four, I'm going to piss off the wrong person. Either way, in no way do I see myself dying from smoking a cigarette."
Steve shifts in discomfort as he watches the girl pull herself up onto the guard rail and his eyes widen as she begins to walk along it on the tip of her toes, "I don't think you should be walking up there, Ms. Masters. I wouldn't want you to fall."
Quinn giggles again, "Aw. It's sweet that you care, Captain, but I promise that I won't fall. I've walked across tight ropes before."
"Circus?" Steven questions playfully.
"It was an undercover mission a few of my companions and I went on," she shrugs, "I can tell you, it was either walking the tight rope, or playing the part of a clown. I'm not a big fan of them, to be honest."
"You're scared of clowns?"
Quinn nods, her face pulled in a serious look, "I blame it on Tim Curry," She pauses when she notes the confused look on Steve's face, "Nevermind. So, what do you like to do for fun?"
"I draw in my free time."
Quinn quirks an eyebrow in surprise, before grinning, "Cool. Can you show me some of your work?"
Tony makes his way into the kitchen, mumbling calculations and passing ideas through his mind. The sight of Steve and the newest addition sitting at the table, both with coffee mugs in front of them, causes Tony to pause slightly.
"Wow. You're really good. Like...as good as Piotr," Tony sees a curious glint flicker in Steve's eyes, which Quinn catches, "He's a member of the X-Men. Not really close to him, but he's too nice to hold any dislike toward. He's always drawing people and it makes me oober jealous."
Oober? Tony shakes his head. Who says that? Tony clears his throat, causing both of them to look up.
"Morning, Tony," Steve greets, while the young woman nods in return, "How are the upgrades coming along?"
"I hit a bit of a snag. Ms. Masters," Tony prompts.
Her gleaming green eyes brighten with amusement, "Mr. Stark."
Tony inwardly winces, always associating that address with his father, but he shakes the thoughts from his head, "I was doing some background work for you, as I do with every member of this team, and it's come to my attention that one file says your eyes are one color, while the other states a different one."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot I had the damn thing on," Quinn murmurs aloud, before pressing a button on her wristwatch. An odd sensation travels up Tony's spine as silver eyes stare back at them. Not just silver. Like...molten mercury. Or the color of the moon at night. "Sorry. When I'm in public, around humans, it is essential that I use the holographic image inducer as to not stir up trouble with any anti-mutant activists."
"Why would you hide them? They...might be a bit different, but they are not frightening," Steve asks.
"I wouldn't hide them if it wasn't for the safety of other mutants and innocent humans. Until humans and mutant kind can come together and peace can settle over us, I can't really go outside looking like this. Trust me, I have it better than some people."
Tony leans forward slightly, "That is quite an impressive piece of technology. How did you come up with it?"
"I didn't. There's a mutant, Forge, who is pretty much a technopath. He's always creating new gadgets and stuff just for the fun of it. You should see what he did to the Danger Room," Quinn replies, but seeing the curious looks, she sighs.
This was going to be a long day.
Thanks for reading. If anyone can guess what Quinn was referencing to Tim Curry for, give your answer...it should be pretty easy, but maybe that's just me. I'm trying to keep the canon-characters in character. Tell me who you think Quinn should befriend first. Yes, I know I left Thor out of it, but this story is set only a few months after the Avengers movie and Thor has yet to return from Asgard. I promise, Quinn isn't Mary-Sue, and she definitely doesn't have COMPLETE control over her abilities. As this is only the first chapter, she is trying to come off as an approachable person, while Tony has already read in her file that she is actually socially-distant around people. Her real personality traits will start to come out as time progresses, arguments will occur and I'm sure that a few things will get blown up in the process.