DISCLAIMER: I sadly do not own anything Marvel related or its characters or its plots. I only own my Character, Annora Stark and any other characters i create.
Scintilla of Aberrant
Chapter 1The wind felt nice on Annora skin. It was surprisingly breezy today in Queens, New York. She was on the ledge on the roof of a building she bought only five months ago. A couple of months prior to that was full of reconstruction and refurbishing since the building was built in the 1970s. When she picked it out the poor building looked like it was falling apart right where it stood. It cost a hefty price for all the rebuilding and new levels she inputted but money wasn't a problem with her.
Annora sighed in content and leaned back on her hands. Her long legs were off the building's roof dangling in the cool open air. This was nice, just her and the constantly noisy city morning. Her golden bronze hair was left down in its natural spiral curls and was flowing with the wind current. She took this leisurely moment to just be tranquil, and reflect on her new home. Annora wasn't legally of age to be out by herself but with her father she knew she could pull a few strings... or even cables. The building was only just finished now. All that was left was to make it homelier. Her building was like a smaller version of an edifice. It was her individual residence made entirely so that she could do what she usually does every day but still be in the building. It was four stories high and now was modernized.
Annora trailed her fingers along the ledge and lazily gazed down at the new and improved building. The once white bricked building was now supported by steel walls and undistinguishable bulletproof windows. The inside looked nothing like the outside. The entrance was comparable to a living room and the elevators went to the second and third floor only. On the second floor was recreational. The third was her personal gym, pool and a built in training Holoroom. To get to the fourth floor she had to take the passage through the bookcase from the library and there were to ways from there to get to her room, kitchen and guest rooms. The first was the spiral staircase or the more fun way was to free-climb there by rock climbing. Her room was by far the best. Her bed was stationed on the ceiling on the back right corner, from coming into the room, held up by two walls from the corner and a platform for her bed. She had to climb the ladder installed into the wall beside it to go up there. Down below was a living room, her desk with her laptop, her bathroom and walk-in closet, and the rest of the available walls had bookcases with books. She held quite the collection of books and her library couldn't hold all of them so she took her favorites to her room. There was a long rectangular window showing the city only seen from the small platform that held more bookcases and a walkway to reach the platform.
A bird's trill woke Annora from her thoughts. She stared longingly at the birds flying away. She slowly stood from the edge, walked to the door leading to her room, and locked it once she was inside. She was honestly surprised when her father agreed to let her live by herself here at such a ripe age of seventeen, but considering her circumstances, he allowed it. This was safer the way. He was type of father that worried but miserably fails to hide it from others. Annora loved her father dearly and sometimes her love for him went to great lengths. The feeling was mutual to her father as well. As his only child it was always second nature for him to check up on her. She didn't have much of his looks except the slight darker skin from her grandmothers' Italian heritage and his intelligence. All her looks came from her mother. From her hair, eyes, all to her five' seven stature. Annora's name came from her mother too. It was an unusual name that stood out along with her eyes.
Everything about Annora screamed strange, and she was not ashamed of it. In fact she saw it as a gift—to stand out amount the average human. And by gods did she know she wasn't normal, far from it actually. Annora didn't have any other hobbies other than painting, musical instruments, staying fit and flexible, and anything to do with engineering or science. Well she did find a fascination with walking around the city or watching people do their daily lives from above her building or any building. She enjoyed high heights and when the glittering diamond like stars shone in the sky. Alas, here in New York there was little stars scattered in the sky because of pollution. The only reason she like New York was because of the many things you could find here in stores and shopping. That was the way of Annora, fun, shopping, being lazy and building stuff. Annora wasn't as go with the flow like her father. She didn't even have a word or words to put herself into. When she could Annora would visit the Famous New York zoo to volunteer as a helper. Other than that Annora stayed in her new home idling around.
Then that awful day came and her father visited her about her slothfulness and literally blurted that he enrolled her into high school. She was furious at his announcement and demanded to know why which resulted on him saying that at least it was a science school. That made her a bit more complying with it, and if she was to be honest, she really didn't mind going to a normal public school because then she could try out the semi-normal life of a regular teenager. She would immediately go to school next Monday and today was Saturday. At precisely twelve o'clock her father's girlfriend was going to pick her up to take her shopping for all things involved with school. Her father's girlfriend was another person she held dear to her and liked immensely because here helped take care of her when she was little. Since her mother died when she was born Annora's father grieved in the wrong way and took solace in drinking, partying and woman at night. He wasn't the best fatherly figure but that changed over a while after a certain incident when she was ten and then as her father was kidnapped for two weeks and became iron man it was like he was a new man.
Annora went into her closet. She gazed at her impressive shoe collection and picked out her worn out grey converse. She slid out of her night outfit and pushed her legs into her grey skinny jeans and threw on a white tank top over a thin black spaghetti shirt. She went into her restroom and fluffed up her hair until it was nice and voluminous. Just as she had went into her kitchen and finished eating a sandwich, she heard a ring. Seeing as her home was a large building in the city, she had made sure to set up a damn good security system since this was New York where crimes were always happening. Along with that she put a ringer that told her that someone was knocking at the door. Annora quickly put any remaining debris into the trashcan and ran down the stairs from her kitchen to the first floor. Okay so maybe she did have other the ways to come up the fourth floor but she will always take the fun way. Annora swiftly put on her black leather jacket and grabbed her keys and wallet. She opened the door and hugged the auburn haired woman.
"Pepper!" Annora said as she released the surprised woman from her clutches. Pepper was a very attractive woman and that was no doubt. Her auburn hair—for once—was straight down to her shoulders instead of her customary pin-up. Annora regularly saw Pepper in casual clothes, since she was always in professional attire. Pepper wore comfy jean shorts and a red tee with black flats. The slightly tanned woman's blue eyes glimmered with happiness. Pepper smiled warmly at the teen and took in her appearance. She was stunned that Annora hugged her so openly after what transpired a year ago. She was happy the teen was finally coming out of her depression.
"Annora you hipster! Your tank top's cute."
Annora gave Pepper a pearly smile in thanks as she locked the door and all entrances into her building with a tap to her phone's screen. She followed Pepper down the steps to her...father's car. Annora got in the passenger's seat with a smirk. "Taking daddy dearest's car? Why Pepper, fore shame! You know he doesn't like others touching his stuff."
Pepper gave the teen a sly look and turned the ignition making the car purr so softly Annora gave an exhale of pure delight. Oh, she valued fast cars. "Well apparently we are your father's stuff as he claimed, so he didn't say that his stuff couldn't touch other stuff."
Annora paused in thought, then she wrinkled her nose afterwards. "For some reason that sounded gross."
Pepper laughed as she drove them to the nearest mall available. Which would be Queens Center about one mile away from her building. Annora's building was at the edge of the city where the neighborhood small homes met the city. What she also o had learned was she was at walking distance from her school. As Pepper parked in one of the many parking space at the shopping center Annora took in a deep breath and exhaled. She stepped out of the car along with Pepper and then they were off to the stores. The first one they went to was banana republic because both of them loved that store. Annora liked the rocker style mixed with a bit of trendy and professional clothing. She and Pepper both gravitated towards the pencil skirts. As Annora raked through the skirts Pepper's phone rang to the sound of familiar lyrics called Back in Time from ACDC. She rolled her eyes instantly knowing who was calling.
Pepper took one of the skirts off the rack and held it near her hips while she rummaged through her purse and answered her phone. She gave Annora the 'What-about-this-one?' look. Annora shook her head and pulled out another one for Pepper to see. Peppers eyes approved of the skirt and she took it into her hands.
"Hello?" Whatever her father was saying on the other side of the phone line must have been amusing to Pepper making her smile. "Well hello to you...No...I'm taking your daughter shopping for school which starts this Monday. Yes, yes we won't. She is being careful and we're safe. Okay...bye Tony...okay Bye...Tony hang up the phone...fine, okay I tell her." Pepper gave Annora the look she always does when her father was being a imp. "Your father says he loves you."
"Hm, I guess I love him too."
Pepper groaned. "No Tony she was kidding...Stark! No I won't give her the phone... I know that you two together is like a paradox...I love you too bye." Pepper put her phone back into her purse and playfully glared at Annora.
"Do you see what I put up with? Two Starks together is bad. I don't think I get paid enough." Annora rolled her eyes at Pepper and got into the checkout line.
"Pepper you don't get paid at all. You're the new owner of Stark Co. You get all the money, well, sort of."
"Half, I own half. You own the other half." Annora blinked at Pepper.
Pepper smiled at the younger Stark and paid for her own clothes as Annora waited. "Your father thought you should have a half of the business since the things that happened these past years." Pepper had to drag her out of the store with their bags because Annora's limbs couldn't seem to function. "You were very mature and strong, literally strong too." That seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was in.
"That's because I'm my mother's daughter."
"Oh you are Zaria's daughter all right. Especially with your looks. Though I don't know which one you got your stubbornness from...or maybe you got both of theirs." Annora swatted at Pepper in amusement. She scoffed. She might as well say yes because she was extra stubborn.
"Am not."
The rest of the day went fine and Pepper made Annora buy a stock load of clothes. Once in a while Annora would pause and figure where exactly she wanted to go and then taking off the other direction. She was surprised that all those bags could fit in the Sport scar. Annora bought all kinds of shoes, clothes, jackets, and school supplies was easy to buy. All she bought was a brown leather backpack, mechanical pencils, lead, wide ruled paper, and journals. It was hard to bring all of Annora's bags up to the forth room and Pepper complained about it. Then Annora begrudgingly used the elevator to go to the fourth floor, but this elevator was from the first floor in one of the emergency elevators that went into her closet. Annora dropped off the last of her bags into her room and sat down on the floor with a sigh. She didn't tire easily but carrying loads of poufy shopping bags made it hard to walk straight in the small stairs. Pepper frowned at her. "I thought you couldn't get exhausted so easily." Pepper puffed breathlessly, the stairs giving her a little work out. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, her fingers working quickly with rubber tie.
"I'm lazy." She laughed at Annora's short answer, because she was. It didn't mean she was untidy just...lazy. She knew it was going to be a problem with waking up early for school.
"So school huh? How-how do you feel about that?" Annora's head popped up to look at Pepper. She shifted on the floor. She wasn't comfortable with sharing her feelings. It was something she inherited from her father though now she was slowly letting little things flow out. She already knew what Pepper was going to say.
"Um, it's...fine, yeah."
"Annora Sierra Stark, your taking this slowly alright, so don't lie." Pepper reprimanded her.
"I'm nervous okay? I-I don't know anything about going to a regular school. Heck, all I know is the stereotypical parts of a high school. I mean I've never been to a high school since I graduated MIT at fifteen like my father." She really couldn't comprehend normal other people's lives were because she never had normal. It just didn't work with having an intelligent billionaire father who was now known as the self-proclaimed Iron Man from the Avengers. Now just add her problems to the mix and you get a nuclear bomb. "If I mess up and someone finds out where I am…" She trailed off leaving the answer for Pepper to solve by herself.
Pepper sat next to Annora with her legs crossed. The older woman grabbed Annora's hands in hers and patted them. Pepper's eyes searched hers looking for anything to give her some insight. Peppers voice lowered. "This school thing...it'll help keep you busy. I know—"
"No you don't." Annora hissed fervidly. Her eyes flashed silver. Pepper flinched back with a gasp. Annora felt her body hum and her arms shaking. Annora released a gust of air. Her eyes returned normal and she visibly sagged into the wall trying to become invisible. She sighed, gripping her hands together and away from Pepper. She didn't mean to snap at Pepper—much less scare here. Annora tried to push people away because she thought it was much easier to do so than them getting hurt. After the Manhattan attack she learned the hard way to let people in before she lost them. Phil Coulson was an example of that. He managed to help and became some she could talk to without him judging her. He was her S.O., her friend, her advisor, and when he died in her arms, she couldn't think or feel. She went frantic and had therapy for months before they let her back on duty. "...I'm dead remember?" Annora mumbled.
Pepper didn't hold it against Annora for her temper. She predicted that would happen but she did get startled when her eyes flashed. That was a presage of her ire. She was getting better at keeping a composed attitude. She reached her hand out and pushed Annora's bangs out of the way of her face. She wouldn't look Pepper in the eyes. It was one of the only ways anyone could know she was nervous, angry, sad, or even guilty. "Your father wants you safe, and since you kept some things from him, he took matter into his own hands. You're lucky he let you even go out shopping today with me, and you don't have a disguise either."
"But I had to grow my hair out and have bangs to cover my eyes most of the time." Annora told her as she twirled one of her curls. She then said softly, "And how is going to school out in the open going to protect me? I'm already using an alias. He even knows I can take care of myself. I know and you know."
"Everyone needs some to protect them from things that they cannot. Physically or emotionally."
"When did you get so perceptive? What happened to my business woman?" Annora joked. Peppers phone then rang, ending their doleful talking. Pepper gave a little laugh.
"And she returns now." Pepper stood up, bring Annora with her. She hugged Annora one last time. "I have to go do business stuff now, goodnight Nori." Annora hugged her tightly before releasing her reluctantly. She couldn't keep Pepper here too long anyways. She gave a small smile back to her.
"You know the way out, yeah?"
Pepper was finished slipping on her flats and grabbed at her purse. "Yes, I do thankfully." She turned back around before she left the closet and gave the young Stark a sad smile. "Annora?"
The teen picked her head up from staring at the floor and laid her eyes on Pepper. Pepper sighed. "When you go to school...don't shut everyone out okay? Make some friends—find good ones and maybe a boyfriend. It'll help. And if you happen to find the right one, you'll know what to do." With that being said Pepper left the Annora to her thoughts and drove back to the tower.
Annora thought what Pepper told her was a good ideas but did she really want to bring someone into her life and put them in danger? She wouldn't be able to protect them all or if she had a boyfriend, what would she tell him when she went out on the job and came back a couple days later or late? Annora bit her lip and banged her head against the wall hard, cracks and a dent were left on the wall from her head. She sighed, she'll have to fix that later. Annora stay in that position on the wall and looked up at the ceiling. With her eyesight she saw the ceiling more defined and she could see the white paint and the dust particles in the air. They just floated and rode on the air currents. Annora blinked and then see couldn't see the dust or ceiling as well now.
She sat there for a while, just amplifying her eyesight then decreasing it. She used to like doing nothing sometimes and just stare up at the ceiling, but now all she can do is just think. She thinks about what if her mother was alive and she could finally have all the answers to her questions. That was so grand that Annora could had indefinite intelligence like her father but not have answers to simple questions like why didn't her mother tell her father anything, why was she like she was, did her mother have these gifts too, or who exactly was her mother? Annora knows her mother's name, she knows what her mother looks like, she knows how old she was, but she remembered her father confessing that when he asked her about her linage she would close up like a clam and stay that way until the danger was gone. Annora wanted to know what her mother was hiding. How could she do that if her mother doesn't even have documents or registries on property or anything? There wasn't even a trace of her yet. How could anyone find out about some who was gone with not even a clue? Annora liked to think that her mother was an impossibly unbreakable enigma. As if someone were to discover her mysteries it would bring in the end of the universe. She specifically remembered how worn out her father was when he tried to find anything on her. What difference would it make if Annora tried to investigate on her mother past and ancestors?
Annora pressed her lips together and laid on the white carpeted floor. Maybe she should just take a break from those thoughts on her mother and center it on school. School…what was her father thinking anyways? She was supposed to be laying low and now bringing any attention to her. At least until the threat was gone. She wasn't as per se dead but to the world she was missing. She wanted to be kept at missing just in case they were no longer a problem. Hopefully she wouldn't have to go through the dramatics of her faking being in kidnap or lost. She would snap if she had to do something so lame and unneeded like that. Life sucked.
Oh yeah my life is never bland but now it feels like it,Annora grumbled to herself in thought.
It really did and now she was only seeing the precautions of her work. If it wasn't one thing it was the other. She swore sometimes that if anyone ever made a show on her like or a reality TV show, she would be the most watched television show because of her abnormal life. There was not a single day in her life that was boring but as of now it was. School wasn't going to help her at all. It would bring more drama and that was the last thing she needed. Though she probably would have fun teasing the teacher about their capabilities in teaching or significant basics in their class. Oh that was another thing she would dread…having to fake her grades. If she were to have all perfect scores she would bring a lot more attention to herself. Annora didn't get to do so much of her job now since this stupid problem came up.
Annora felt that if she were to stay in this damn building any longer throughout these months she would break. That was kind of the reason she wanted this building built this way because with so many thing to do in here, she wouldn't get bored, but now she felt lonely. She had been by herself before doing her job but this was different because now she doesn't have anyone to joke around with or talk science to. Annora sighed, maybe school wouldn't be a bad thing. At least she would get to do school work even if it was too easy for her. Annora looked around the big closet and bit her lip. She was only looking forward to leaving the building now. Annora felt herself relax and her mind drifted in tranquility. Her thoughts went fuzzy and she only focused on her deep breathing and exhaling. Her limbs went limp and she closed her eyes. Even when she relaxed her body she still managed to say one sentence to say.
"Well it's not like anything bad can happen, right?" Annora laughed slightly distressingly. Damn…she really shouldn't have said that.