AN: Hi everyone, so I haven't posted in a while. I am so sorry with everything thats going on I was hoping I could keep up but no. And With this whole Matthew situation it makes it ten times worse. was lucky to evacuate myself back home before it was manadatory for my school down in Savannah. I JUST WANNA SAY I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE OKAY, THE BEST THING IS THAT YOU ARE ALIVE AND HERE NOW. Okay so with that out of the way I hope you uys enjoy this!
PS: I will also try to continue my stories, thanks so much for your patience you guys. I am trying to continue Surviving Winter to where it can fit in the Civil War storyline and hopefully beyond...
Again really sorry.
Please R&R
Love you guys!
CHAPTER 1: NORMALCY
What the fuck is normal?
All I've ever known of normal was a holeless, souless Spongebob scaring the shit out of Squidward. Working in a cubicle all day surrounded by shades upon shades of greys. An ombre of greys, no color; simply bland, boring, dull.
If that's normal, then fuck normal.
I repeat the mantra to myself day in and day out, and even then I still wonder why am I longing to be normal? Why do I want to be apart of this large regime and their tolerance to their hypocracy. They worship these enhnced people, to which some are actual gods, and others ideological historical figures; but when you sneeze and a small blue flame comes out of your nostrils everyone treats you like a ticking time bomb.
And by that I mean getting pummeled by police batons from cops who can't keep their anger management in their pants, nor their doughnuts.
Still I would give anything to be normal. Just for one day, not have to worry about anyone, or anything setting my off. Cause god forbid if I bring hell to this godforsaken Earth.
I stand before the large Llama of Manhattan, clad with a giant STARK brand across the jaw of the steel structure. Hands shoved in my pockets, hood atop my short head of hair; I stare into the penthouse of the gods. The worshiped, The Avengers tower. Olympus itself; and as much as I would love to climb the mountain and sock the enhanced onwer in the face just to say I did: I am firmly panted in the sidewalk.
I guess some of the 'HYDRA education system' hasn't completely left my head just yet.
Even if they welcome me with pen arms, even if I somehow become a god among the enhanced people of this planet. They would eventually find out. They all find out. Even goddamned Baskin Robbins finds out. Always.
I could never risk that. I could never have a home where I would never worry about my education system. I will always be a paranoid twenty-eight year old that is always looking over her shoulder, in case the teacher comes by for an unexpected visit.
Always on the look out, for him.
As I stand there, I watch as someone begins to walk out, and a crowd of people gather round. I guess I could always sock the onwer of Enhanced Llama looking Olympus at the foot of his peak.
Girl can dream.
I watch as people bombard into each other just to get a glimpse of the man of Iron. He takes in the attention as if his life depends on it. He's taking pictures with people, talking to children whom their mothers launched in front of him. All the while a smile is plastered on his face.
But I can see the beyind it all, his face is painted like fresco, and the plaster beneath it is beginning to crack. I share a small fleeting glance with the god. He seems to be caught by why I am so far back in the mob of people. I guess to him I must look suspicious, hood over my head and hands shoved in my jacket pockets like I have something to hide.
My bright golden eyes boring straight at him.
For that one millisencond of eye contact, it seems like everything was said. At least on my end. Even I don't know what I was trying to say, but I knew one thing.
I wasn't a beleiver in this false god; and what is a god to a non-beleiver?
I turned heel to leave, easily weaving back into the mass mob of people trveling about the massive melting pot of a city. I fixed the straps of my backpack, making sure they wouldn't dig into my heavily, and sparatically, bruised flesh. I walked in silence as millions of people were practically screaming into their personal rectangles that have somehow replaced their brains. I weaved in and out of this plague of human beings traveling in different directions. Eventually the plague begins to thin out. Soon enouh I'm back at the run down apartment complexes near my home, for now.
I pass by the yelling and shouting of rival gangs who just so happen to be across the street of one another. Neither dare to step into the street no matter how hard they pester each other. Orphans run rampant, trying to pickpocket anyone who appears to have money.
There is still significant damage to some of the buildings from the Incident. The very same Incident that turned those mortals, (plus a demi-god) into false Pariahs.
As I reach the steps of my run down building, there is a nudge on my back pack strap. I turn around to find a small boy, his eyes as wide as the streets, pleading with his brown eyes. He holds out his hands in a cup like form.
I roll my eyes.
"Goddamit kid." I rummaged within my pockets, pulling out two dollars. Two dollars I could probably use for more essential things, none of which I can think of because this little bastard is being so damn cute. He pobably knows it too. I hand him the two dollars and he scurries down the stairs of my building.
"Are you a sith?" I hear him ask. I turn around to find him staring at me inquisitively, his head slightly tilted to the side.
"Am I a what?" I shoot back.
"A sith, like star wars."
"What's a Star Wars?"
He looks at me like I spontaneously grew three heads.
"You don't know what Star Wars is?!" he asks with mouth agape.
"No."
He rushes up the steps and grabs my wrist, dragging me along with where ever the hell he was going.
"What are you doing?!" I aks, trying to pry from his tiny grip without breaking him.
"We are gonna watch Star Wars tonight," he leads me to the orphanage.
Just as we begin to cross the street, gunshots ring out. Everyone screams and begins to scatter. I grab the small child, to which I have yet to learn the name of, shielding him from any harm.
"What's your name?" I shout as I carry him back to my building.
"Juama." he says back. I set him just inside he rundown building.
"Okay Juama, I need you to stay here and guard this for me. Can you do that?" I hand him my backpack, and drape my jacket over him. He nods at me with terrified eyes.
"Okay good-" Just then an explosion shakes the earth.
"Stay here." I tell him before I rush outside. A car had been caught in the gunfire between the two gangs, and had driven directly into the orphanage before bursting into flame.
"Somebody call the cops!" The matron shouted, trying her best to escort the children to safety.
"There are still kids in there!" Another woman shouted as she clutched her child.
'Dammit.' I thought to myself as I raced toward the burning building. I ran past the groups of panicked bystanders. I easily grabbed a spare brick and chucked it at a window, shattering the plate glass into tiny shards.
"Kid what are you doing?" I heard someone shout behnd me. I didn't bother to answer as I began to feel the heat within me. I took a deep breath, making sure I wouldn't make the situation worse by spontaneously bursting into flame.
That was the last thing I needed.
Once I was firmly in the windowsil; I began to try and douse the flames. Out stretching my hands in order to gain more control over the large burning flames blocking my path. The dancing orange lights slowly began to disipate as I drew further into the building, scattering out of existence like rats from light. As the flames began to subside to my will, I started to find children scattered around the cluttered orphanage.
I picked up a small child, a girl with curly dark hair. Another latched onto my shirt as I continued to dim the flames. I led the two back to the window where people were ready to carry them out and away from the burning building. I repeated this tactic up to the numerous levels of the building. Just as the fire department arrived I managed to procure the last child to safety, and the fire had been completely drained of life without a single drop of water.
My nose was beginning to bleed out. Mainly because I never thought I could consume that much of an amount of flames. If that was even what I did. I wiped the blood from my skin, feeling it smeer like oil on the back of my hand. I could barely stand at this point, forcing myself to not so casually lean upon the gate of the fence in front of the now unburnt building.
I looked around to see the crowd of people hand since multiplied exponentially. A least a few hundred people were now gathered behind the police road block signs. I spotted Juama among the large group, as he was still clutching my backpack and wearing my jacket. As soon as we made eye contact he smiled and waved at me. I gave a small wave back, watching him jump up and down. I limped over to where he stood among the large group of onlookers.
"I kept it safe!" His smile looked like it could have split his face in two. He held out my backpack, yet still kept my only burgundy hoodie.
"Thanks Juama, I knew you could do it." I gratefully took the backpack, not caring if my muscles were so sore they could probably fall off at any given moment.
"Excuse me, Miss. Are you the one who put out the flame?" A newswoman and her camera carrying intern shoved through the crowd, almost trampling over Juama's eight year old body. He quickly dodged the newswoman wearing heels too high for her balance ratio, which was probably zero; and crawled under the police stand and hid behind me.
"I, uh-"
"There has been a recent number of posts where bystanders have seen you walk into the burning building behind you and control it to the point of where it was put out. Was that you?" she shoved the microphone in my face. I had to tuck my chin in order to avoid the damn thing hitting me in the face.
"Look, Iron Man!" someone in the crowd shouted.
Thank god; I was saved by the (Iron Man) bell. Still hve no idea why people say that.
I watched as the man suited in an extravagent ketchup and mustard suit that is powered by something equivilent to a nuclear reactor; land just threet feet away from me and Juanma within the confines of the police barrier and the fire truck that still has no idea what they were supposed to do now that I had done their own fucking job for them. I instinctively hid Juanma behind me as the walking tank strutted over in my direction.
"Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark! Do you agree with the fact that Captain Rogers has been labeled a criminal by the Sokovian Accords and Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross?" The woman persisted as the billionaire false god approached.
"There was a burning building full of children rescued and your asking me about something that happened a month ago?" He clearly wasn't happy with her. Neither was I, I guess that was one thing I could agree with the false pariah.
"Look sweetheart; I'm here to help survey the damage through the accords. Thank you." He waved off the reporter, ushering me and Juama away from the police barricade.
"So, pyrokenisis huh?" he slung his robotic arm over my shoulder. I swatted the robotic limb off two seconds later.
"Why are you here?" I deadpanned, hiding Juanma behind me.
"With this event, you need to be registered as an enhanced; that's what the accords are hopefully going for once this new ratification in underway. I was sent my the Secretary of State to ask where you stand."
"How do you know anything about me?"
"We have been gathering up intel on you as you've travelling cross country. I admit I was rather impressed with the whole discreetly setting the date-rape guy's dick on fire when you saw him put a roofie in a girl's drink."
"That was one time-"
"Oh! And when you attemted to fly in and abandonded warehouse, I can probably help you with that in my newly updated training modules-"
"Modules?-"
"Trust me kid, you're gonna love the place, I can probably make a suit for you that's fire-proof, but what will we call you? That's the fun part!"
"What are you saying?" I stopped walking, forgetting there was an eight year old behind me.
"Ow!"
"Sorry buddy." I patted the small child's head.
"Well technically I'm offering you a place to stay. Where you can learn to control your abilities." Tpny shrugged.
"But you don't know anything about me." My brows furrowed; "And wouldn't I be living in someone else's room?"
"Hey, we have guest bedrooms on the compound."
"What compound?" I took a tentative step backward.
"Relax its basically the Four Seasons upstate."
"Dude, all I heard was a compound and I don't do well with those." I kept walking backward.
"Listen, if I take you, and the kid, to Stark tower I can better explain it there."
"Can we go! Please!" Juama bounded in place happily.
"So he's with you then?"
"What? No- I just met him and hour ago!"
"Juanma!" the matron called to the child.
"Hey when I get back I'll tell you all about it okay, and I'll make sure you and your friends visit. That sound good?" I carried the child toward the matron.
"Okay!" he smiled as I handed him to the safe arms of the woman in charge of the orphanage. I walked back toward the man of Iron, (don't know why I sound like I'm from Asgard); dreading the words about to come out of my mouth.
"Alright, I'll go to the tower, so we can talk about this, privately."
"Great! Hang on okay?"
"What?" I asked as he grabbed hold of my waist and rocketed toward the sky.
Halfway there I most definitely puked.
FOUR MONTHS LATER: AVENGER COMPOUND
UNDERGROUND TRAINING UNIT
"Alrighty Pyro; just like we practiced," Tony spoke through the loudspeaker, whilst he sat comfortably behind at least a foot of cement and bullet prook tinted glass; "Save the civilians by disabling the bad guys, in this case they happen to be a few from the Iron Legion."
"I don't see how this is a step up."
"Think of it like Assassin's Creed."
"But I'm terrible at that!"
"Just don't let the templars knock you out." He said, as if the whole situation was me simply eating a thanksgiving turkey; as the seven robots began to circle me.
"You never said where the civilians were Tony!" I called as I readied my stance. I took deep slow breaths; feeling the heat that was once almost uncontrolable begin to pool within the confines of my lungs.
"And BEGIN!"
I can do this. I can do this. I can do this... If I were fighting Neanderthals I could do this.
The first robot rocketed toward me, forcing me to duck for cover. I continued to dodge all seven, though not very well.
"C'mon kid like we practiced! Break their footing!" I heard Tony shout throuh the loudspeaker.
"Easy for you! You get to eat popcorn like this is a movie!" I sturggled to blast the ankles of the flying robots, hoping and praying that it would overheat the coolant of their jet propulsions.
One robot side tackled me, and adding it's jet propulsion system, sent the both of us flying into the metal wall.
At that moment, the force of the whiplash felt like I was transported back to Syberia.
"Again!" the Colenol ordered as I picked myself up from the ground.
I stood before my tutor, whom pf which remained silent as he towered before my fourteen year old self.
"Again!"
"Get. OFF!" I slammed my fist into the robot's face plate, the heat emitting off of it instantly metled the metal. I grabbed hold of the many wires allowing the machine to function, melting the copper wires, as well as their rubber coatings. The machine instantly short circuited, making the two of us fall to the ground.
With a deep breath I felt both fists now became engulfed in, what for me felt like a spreading of the same heat that resided in my lungs. My chest heaved as the blue flames began to illuminate brighter and brighter.
"Now you pissed me off." I muttered before shooting small slices of the flames toward their intended trgets. With each slice, the flames began to form what looked to be a wip within each of my hands.
"Pyro.." I didn't care to notice that Tony was trying to get my attention, I was far to pissed off to care.
I pummeled the nearest bot, picturing the infernal Russian Colenol who had tortured me out of a childhood. With each punch to any of the iron legion taining bots I began to chip away at the floor beneath.
"Kid. Kid! KID!" I felt a gentle touch from a gloved hand. Instinctively, I elbowed the figure behind me, readying for another fight.
I whirlerd around to find a figure in a fire suit, which is meant for the study of volcanos rather than to approach me.
"Tony?" I quirked a brow. The man in question took off the large helmet covering his head and shoulders, revealing it to be the unarmored Iron Man.
"You weren't responding, to me or to FRIDAY" he explained; "And I think you destroyed the training bots." I looked around the training unit to find only melted piles of iron and wires.
"Tony, I-" I began.
"It's fine kid; I make more, besides; it gives me something to do." He said with a wry smirk.
"I'm guessing the lesson is over?" I raised a brow, my lips forming a thin apologetic line.
"Yeah; go ahead and hit the showers kid; but we have a bfreifing in an hour, and Ross wants you there." Tony gave me a pat on the back, allowing me to take my leave. I quickly retreated to my room, rapidly trying to get in the shower before I would implode from yet another panick attack.
As the cold water practically evaportated as it came milimeters to my skin. I quickly washed off any sweat and grime I had accumulated during the session. Within at least ten minutes I had gotten out of the shower and got dressed. I pulled the black compression shirt over my tattered torso. My forearms were riddled with the initial burns of the serum's effects. As those began to subside, scars upon scars traveled up my arms and collarbone. Seven distinct elongated marks marred the sided of my ribs and stomach, from days which I could barely remember, nor chose to.
I walked out of my room and into the kitchen where Rhodey sat eating something that I didn't care to find out.
"Morning kid." He said without looking up from his newspaper.
"I've been up longer than you." I deadpanned, grabbing a portien pack from the fridge, those things I had become addicted to in recent weeks. Or at least since I discovered them while grocery shopping with Vision.
"Really? Damn." The man chuckled as I popped a roasted almond into my mouth.
"'Fraid so."
"How was the training session?"
My face instantly fell.
"That bad huh? You see; that's why I should be teaching you Instead of Tony." The man stuffed the food into his mout.
"Nah, I kinda melted stuff."
"The arrows?" he inquired.
"More like seven of the Iron Legion..." I cringed at the reaction of the former War Machine.
"Wow, he must've really pissed you off."
"It wasn't Tony."
"You had an episode."
"Don't tell anyone."
"Hey, at least you are telling somebody, I wouldn't care if it was me or not. Talking about it helps; believe me. It too me years to get that through Tony's suit, skull, and ego."
I laughed at the comment; "Just that, you're the only one who knows about my history the most."
"I'm sure Vision does, but he hasn't said anything yet."
"He still miss her?"
"Guess he suffers separation anxiety. Didn't know a robot could do that."
"We should probably get to the meetng hall, the briefing gonna start in a bit." I walked over to the man, allowing him to place a hand on my shoulder as a support in order for him to walk with little restraint.
"The UN has issued a new mission for you four." Secretary Ross spoke as he presented a powerpoint, which was probably giving Tony an anuerism; "We need you to investigate along the Wakandan and Somolian border for illegal trafficking of Vibranium. We beleive the Ulysses Claus has gone back in buisness and we need him arrested as soon as possible."
"Aren't we still at odds with Wakanda after the whole UN bombing?" I asked.
"We have been granted stay in the border city, but only two are allowed to stay there until this is completed. We came to the decision that Iron man and yourself be the ones to stay in the Wakandan regions while War Machine and Vision correspond on the other side."
"So thats a 'no' then?" I muttered to myself.
"I will debrief you all further when you reach your designated launch points." With that the Secretary left.
"Really, you guys don't have questions for like, contingincy plans?" I looked at the three.
"We don't need any." Tony stood from his seat stretching.
"That's very arrogant of you to say?"
"Relax kid. This is an easy mission to ease you into the business; you'll get used to it." Tony patted me on the back.
"There is an understanding of concern. Just recently Secretary Ross would barey allow us out of the compound after the chaos we had insued at the airport in Germany." Vision spoke; "There must be underlying reasons for Clauss to be a sudden priority."
"Just what kind of reasons we need to figure out." Rhodey added.
"Maybe Romanoff was right about all this."
"What's a Romanoff?" I asked confused.
"Tell you on the plane ride kid."
"Oh great, planes."
"I'll make sure I pack barf bags this time okay?!"
AGROS: BORDERING CITY WITHIN WAKANDA
"I hope that these will be up to par. As I understand you are quite accostamed to this kind of technology at your disposal." The King himself, T'Challa escorted us through the facility where Tony and I would be staying.
"There are two bedrooms for your conveinience. I hope to correspond with the two of you personally."
"What, so no cat suit? You're actually going to sit this one out?" Tony furrowed his brow accusingly.
"I am afraid the duties of a king outweight the duties of the Black Panther; however; if you are in need of me do not hesitate to ask for assitance." the king gave a small smile, which in turn, cause Tony's frown to deepen.
"We will take into consideration; thank you." I spoke before Stark could spew something snarky and impolite.
"Then this is where I take my leave." The man left with a small smile on his face. Leaving me with a fuming Stark.
"So;" said awkwardly; "Uh, which room do you wanna take?"
He simply groaned and entered the one on his right, slamming the door behind him.
"Okay, I get the one on the left then..." I said to myself as I opened the door. I found everything almost pristine. From the spotless walls, desk, and bedsheets; all the way to the carpet and pisturesque view of the rivered border between the two countries. Bewteen the river anf myself was a large jungle covered area. Peaking over the tops of the trees was a large statue of the county's fabled creature; A Black Panther. I however noticed that it was facing the statue was facing me rather than a logical sense of facing the border.
A soft rapping knock sounded at my door.
"Hey, kid; I think we should canvas the border area for any possible trade off sites tomrrow; what do you think?" Tony sounded groggy.
"Kid?"
"Hmm?" I refused to remove my stare from the large cat staute in the jungle.
"You haven't unpacked yet? It's been three hours."
"What?" I turned to face the billionaire, only to see a smile across his face.
"You asshole." I hit him lightly across his arm.
"I'm aware of that." he shrugged.
"I'm fine with the canvassing thing Tony; as long as I don't have to fly."
"Fair enough."
"Ross doesn't like me does he?" I asked solemly.
"Don't know what's not to like about you though?"
"You didn't anwser me Tony."
"No; he doesn't."
"It's because of the HYDRA thing isn't it?"
"Most likely. Even though he read the file of how you were taken from your family and experimented on as a child. I believe, and I'm quoting a friend of mine here; 'He elected to ignore it.'"
"He wants me to testify."
"Against who?"
"You know who."
"Oh. Well why wouldn't you?"
"It's not that I'm afraid of him; Tony."
"Right because the vibes you're giving off don't look like fear at all." He said dryly.
"No, I've seen what they did to him. They did it to me too. The thing I'm afraid is if he ends up being found and convicted; will they turn to me next."
"Well from what you've voluntarily told us; you haven't done the things he did; so we can't porsecute you. And I won't let them okay?"
"You can't promise that Stark."
"I know. Just trying to help."
"Thanks though. You've givien me someting close to a dysunctional family."
"Well, we do love dysfunctionality. Now, let's go see if they have anything good to eat."
I looked out one last time at the jungle before me, wondering if anyone was looking back.
Turns out; there was.
I love you guys. I wanna know what you think. I will be heading back to Savannah for school tomorrow morning so I will not be posting immeadiately for my other stories this coming week; but I hope I will sometime soon!
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