I do not own t he Avengers or any Marvel characters, Charlotte East is an original character by me, including several other characters within the fic.
School was boring, as usual. I already knew the things they taught, no matter how advanced the classes they had me take were. That's why I was in college. It was my last year of it. I had started classes when I was twelve years old, earning my G.E.D. when I was ten. I spent a year doing my own studies, which was essentially just spending my entire time at the library, just reading books and absorbing information. I have a certain skill. Psychologists say it is more powerful than a photographic memory. Scientists and doctors that have looked at my brain scans and the activity within my brain observed that my brain is more active than a normal person. Basically, I have more access to the full potential of my brain. Of course, they don't even know all of it. I keep it to myself of course. Everyone just thinks that I am smart. Of course, I also can read and control minds, move anything just by pure will, and sometimes-though it takes a lot of energy and gives me one hell of a headache-change my appearance. I wanted to graduate college early, but my school insisted that I go through all four years. Teachers even gave me more homework and tests. I did it easily. Essays I could have done in minutes and would get full credit for. I finished my entire thesis in a day of work. I took more classes than I was supposed during the school year and even more classes in the summer. I would be graduating soon.
School had been entirely free for me. I earned a lot of scholarships, in addition to not having any parents-so there was this huge fundraiser for me to go to college. Before I could even get a job. People found it very impressive.
I find it rather lonely.
I know all the school librarians and my professors well. I don't have a lot of friends. What college student in their right mind would ever want to hang out with a twelve year old? It didn't get better over time. Even now, as a sixteen year old, nothing has changed. I spend most of my time consulting with experts in fields. The only time college students talk to me is for help with their homework. I charge for writing essays. It's good to make some money on the side.
That night. I had recently gotten my license and somehow that made me popular. My side money had allowed me to have enough money to buy a used car. Now people were asking me to be their designated drivers. At least they were being responsible. People eventually had been asking me to go into parties and have me fish them out of there, pulling them and their drunken friends out and into my car. That paid for the car insurance.
It was a girl named Theresa Jackson. Twenty-two years old. Her and two friends wanted me to pick them up. I entered the house where the party was being held. The music was loud and there were at least four hundred people here. I pushed through, stretching my neck to look over the heads of everyone.
"Theresa!" I yelled out. A couple of heads swerved my way, but most only for a moment. Most.
I kept moving around, yelling for Theresa and her friends. I could feel eyes on my back, but I ignored it. I figured soon enough I would be out of there and driving away, delivering Theresa and her friends to her dorm.
Instead, I was grabbed by the arm and whirled around. A boy, probably in his freshmen or sophomore year of college.
"You're that kid genius, right?" He asked. He was definitely intoxicated.
"Well, I'm not a child prodigy, seeming as I'm not within the realm that would classify me as a child prodigy or genius, age wise, which means-"
"Yeah, yeah-what's your name again?"
"Charlotte. Listen, have you seen Theresa Jackson?"
"Uhh...yeah. I think I saw her go upstairs."
I shouldn't have gone upstairs with that boy. The next morning I woke up in the hospital with police officers outside my door and many doctors filtering in and out. Days spent in the hospital, being tested. I've always gotten away with not spending time at the doctors' office for them to find out about me. By that, I mean my wings. thirty-six foot wingspan of brown feathers. Of course I never would have made it sixteen years just simply having them against my back. No, they form into my skin. Painful, but necessary. It wasn't like it was easy camouflage, while they were hidden, all the skin on my back would look bruised and burned. Scar-like and not pretty at all.
The boy attacked me. His friends were waiting in the room for him to bring up a girl for all of them to have a go at. The moment I walked in the room, someone came at me with a pot and...my wings just sort of whipped out. I scared the shit out of those boys. I ended up jumping out the window trying to escape, and got about seventy shards of glass in my skin. Then I crashed into a tree and slammed into the ground.
I would go in and out of sleep, waking up not knowing what day it was. Then one day, I woke up non-groggy. I was wide awake. I didn't have any medicine filtering into my system, which was good. My body works faster than a normal person's, so they would have to give me about four times the normal dosage twice as fast as they would for a normal person. Today there was absolutely nothing-not even a needle in my arm. I sat up. My back ached. Instantly I feared they had cut off my wings. A quick and painful movement underneath my back proved that they were still there.
I slipped out of underneath the covers, placing my feet onto the ground. It was freezing. I got out of the bed, standing on legs I clearly hadn't walked on in a few days. I looked around in the cupboards, trying to find any clothes. Zilcho.
I left the room, still in my hospital gown. I was seriously thanking the gods that I still had underwear and a sports bra on. I walked down the hall, trying to blend in with all the other patients taking a walk around the floor. I kept walking until I found the jackpot. A locker room for employees. I slipped in and rummaged through lockers until I found some clothes to wear.
Right as I pulled on a hoodie, people began walking into the locker room. I panicked and tugged on the hood and lowered my head. I walked past them quickly. They all had looked at me as I had done so, probably knowing full-well I wasn't a hospital employee, but decided to ignore me anyway. I moved through the halls. Nobody was paying attention to me, but for some reason I was still scared that someone would identify me as a patient. I pressed the button at the elevator, tapping my foot lightly.
I hate hospitals. Once I was almost discovered. The only reason that I got away with accidently opening my wings was that the doctor who was in there was a mutant herself. She had the ability to heal, which was why she became a doctor. She had to cover it up with an immense knowledge of medicine. She said even some of the doctors she worked with knew and covered for her. She lived an extraordinary life.
The elevator doors opened and I quickly hopped in, joining three others. I pressed the button for the ground floor several times.
"Pressing the button doesn't make it go any faster." Someone grumbled. I didn't know who said it so I just turned around and glared at all of them. Though, the woman in there glanced to the man standing next to her. I stared at him for a little longer than the other two, but quickly returned to looking in front of me. The elevator stopped five times, letting the three people off and gaining four people. I reached the ground floor and practically ran out of the elevator. The lobby of the hospital seemed rather hectic. There were a lot of people milling around, sitting in chairs, and trying to get places-then there were doctors and nurses quickly zipping through not making contact with anyone. As I walked through it, the phone at the service desk rang.
I stopped, not even understanding as to why I was so nervous. I returned to walking, exiting the building right as I heard the receptionist say "Shit, there's a patient missing."
I broke into a sprint once I left the building, dodging people on the sidewalk. I tried to read signs as I ran past them. I was in Boston. I ran down the road, clearly irritating some pedestrians, but I didn't care.
Especially when I realized I was being followed. A car trailed along beside me and I could feel the eyes on my back. Then a car pulled right in front of the street I was about to go down. People erupted from a police car and grabbed me. I screamed. That brought a lot of attention. I would whip out my wings, but that would rip off my hoodie and I was not wearing anything under it, since there wasn't anything in the locker. I tried to break free from their grip. Nobody around me seemed to know what to do. Since the people came from a police car, it probably looked like I was a criminal. All I did was leave a hospital and that's not too bad of a crime. Definitely not one bad enough for them to just grab me instead of talking.
Handcuffs were snapped onto my wrists, and no matter how hard I fought, I ended up in the back of the police car. It's sirens turned on and we began to move. There was someone sitting next to me. A man probably in his twenties, very muscular...very familiar. There were two people in the front seat, two police officers. I took deep breaths as I tried to look at every possible thing in this car. It was a standard police car, a sort of gate was separating the front and back seats. The only thing I could use as a weapon back here was this man next to me. He didn't even look that alarmed to be sitting next to me. I stared at him long enough for him to notice and return the gaze. Once he did, I recognized him immediately.
"So, what on earth is Captain America doing in the back of a police car?" I asked. He chuckled. Dear lord this man is gorgeous. I thought.
He wasn't answering me. "Are you going to tell me where we're going?" I asked.
"New York." He said, looking forward.
"Why?" I squinted my eyes, staring at him intently.
"Ms. East, I believe you know why."
"Well, I figured something like this would happen eventually, but I always thought it would be the X-Men coming for me, not the Avengers." I said. "Since I'm a mutant and all."
"Well, actually, we've created a sort of center. Charles likes to send over those who he thinks are promising."
"Shouldn't I be going with Charles then?"
"If we find stragglers, most of the time we just take them to the center, rather than giving them to Charles first."
I looked at the police officers in the front, then back to the captain. He was saying an awful lot right in front of them. For all he knew, they couldn't be trusted.
"Oh, don't worry about them." He said, as if reading my mind. I certainly did not like that. "That's Maeve and Connor O'Sullivan."
The one in the passenger seat turned around. I was face to face with a boy covered in freckles and a huge amount of bright orange hair on his head. "Hello. I'm Connor. Maeve's my sister."
He was probably in his late teens and he was cute. Looking in the mirror at his sister, I could tell she was just as cute. They were about as identical as a brother and sister could get.
"We're also mutants," Connor said. "We have 'incredible eyes'" He said, using finger quotes around 'incredible eyes'. "Any type of vision you can think of, we have it: night, death, microscopic, x-ray, heat, whatever."
"Oh." I said.
"Don't worry Ms. East, I'd have to turn on the ability for it to work. Right now, it's just very good eyesight." He smiled and turned around.
"Um, you can just call me Charlie." I mumbled.
"What's that?" The captain asked.
"You guys keep calling me Ms. East, you can call me Charlie."
All of them nodded.
"Um, if we're driving to New York, could I get out of these handcuffs?" I asked.
"Oh we're not driving. We're on our way to the airport now." Maeve said.
We arrived at Logan Airport in about ten minutes, pulling right next to a small plane. I got out of the car and Connor took off my handcuffs. Captain America walked right to the plane and jogged up the steps, to be met by a redheaded woman.
Oh my god. My hero. It was Black Widow. I nearly shat my pants then and there. My jaw dropped. She quickly chatted with the captain, then looked to me. I shut my mouth instantly and Maeve nudged me forward. I stumbled towards the plane. As I walked up the steps, the captain walked into the plane, Black Widow simply stepped back a little as Maeve and Connor walked by her with a quick hello. I finally reached her and felt as if I couldn't speak.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Charlotte. I'm Natasha Romanoff." She held out her hand and I very cautiously took it. I very much wanted to profess my love for her, but I figured that would be weird, especially for the first time I met her. I smiled and shook her hand. She looked into the plane. "I'm going to give you two options, one of which Steve probably won't enjoy." She said. Oh yeah. That was the name of Captain America. I had forgotten it before. Steve Rogers.
"Alright, what are they?" I asked.
"One, you can come in the plane and ride with us to New York or two, you can fly with this wristband. It'll give you directions." She said. I haven't flown since the party and that was for about four seconds, and before that it was a month. In other words, I want to fly.
"Do you have a knife?" I asked. She gave me a strange look, but nodded. She pulled one out of her knee high boot and held it out to me. Instead, I turned around and began pulling up my hair. She quickly understood and cut slits into my sweatshirt. Very carefully, I pulled my wings out of my back, guiding them through the holes in the sweatshirt before releasing them at their full size. Natasha quickly helped me but on a wristband with a sort of gps screen on it. I backed out the plane and jogged down the steps until I was on the ground. Natasha gave me a smirk as the door closed. I saw her walk into the cabin and Steve rush to a window to look out at me. Maeve and Connor looked out, but burst out laughing.
The plane began to move, heading towards the runway. I didn't bother joining the plane on it, instead just pounding my wings down and lifting myself into the air. I was hundreds of feet into the sky within seconds. I waited for the plane to take off to start heading towards the center. I kept up with the plane, just staying with it rather than paying attention to what the GPS was saying. I flew all over the place, flipping and twirling around the wings of the plane, peeking in the windows and scaring the crap out of the twins.
It only took about two and a half hours to reach the center in upstate New York. The building was sleek and there were a shit ton of people just milling around, a lot of who made no effort to hide their stares towards me and my thirty six foot wingspan landing right as the plane with Black Widow and Captain America did.
Great.