Okay whooooo new story! Yay. Part of An Icy Blaise series. Sequel to the one shot A Blaise Set Free. Would highly recommend reading before this.
Lone Ranger
Blaise sat perfectly still as the wind whipped her hair and the world zipped by her in a blur. The train jostled beneath her, but it did not shake her. She had grown accustomed to traveling this way. It was easy enough to sneak aboard. She would just drop on top of a train car and fly away before it reached the station. It was hard to fly in secrecy. She had told S.H.I.E.L.D. to leave her alone, but she knew they were looking for her. They did not let their assets simply choose to leave. Even Banner, who had thought he was alone, was secretly being followed.
That was the reason why she had been constantly moving around for the past four months. Spring had ended. Summer had begun, but the seasons did not mean much to the girl. She traveled mostly at night and always with her hood up. Her only contact was the occasional call on a disposable cell phone to Tony Stark so that he could transfer her funds to another fake account and supply her with another fake id. She had considered visiting Steve, but had decided that it would be too difficult. She readjusted her black hood to conceal her hair and tightened her grip on the new id that Tony had dropped her a few minutes before as she prepared to dive into the woods that surrounded the train tracks. As the train went around a turn she spread her wings and dove off the train. As soon as she got close to the ground she folded her wings, dropped to her feet, and started walking. She did not know where she was going. Typically she looked for a small rural town or woodland cabins so that she would have privacy to fly and practice throwing ice in the woods. She hiked her black back pack further up onto her shoulders and started walking through the dark woods.
After a few hours she reached a clearing and decided to take a break. She laid her backpack on the ground and took a deep breath. Her ice had been growing increasingly out of control the past four months. She seemed to hit everything but the one object she was aiming for. She had diagnosed the problem a few days after it had first occurred and was able to compensate for it, but now it had gotten to the point where it was impossible. She sent blast at the tree, but the blast immediately stretched into a large donut-shaped ring with a hole in the center. Blaise frowned in annoyance. The hole was easily large enough for her to walk through and it dissipated before it even reached the tree. She scowled and tried again, but got the same results. Finally she let out a scream of frustration and in her anger a ring of ice shattered a tall oak across the clearing. Blaise sighed and slung her back pack over her shoulders again. She hiked through the woods as she tried to figure out how to fix the problem. Her mind kept circling back to one idea, but her common sense kept shooting it down. Finally the sun started to rise as Blaise spotted a small town in the distance. She spotted a small motel outside the town. As she got closer, the motel started to look less and less appealing so Blaise decided that she would be spending as little time as possible there. The red arrow flickered once as the sun rose before going out. The girl took a deep breath and lowered her hood before walking into a small building labelled "check in."
"Hello!" A small man with large eyes excitedly greeted her the second she walked in the door. Blaise carefully masked her surprise with a kind smile and walked over to the check in desk.
"What can I do ya for?" He enthusiastically asked her as he fixed his large glasses that only made his eyes appear bigger.
"I'd like a room." Blaise told him.
"Oh of course!" He exclaimed and quickly ducked below the desk. Blaise glanced around the room while he was shuffling papers behind the desk. It appeared fairly clean which was more than what she could say about most of the places she had stayed during the past four months.
"Just give me a second, it's buried here somewhere!" He called up to her. Blaise winced at the way her pronounced the 'u' in buried, but figured that it was just part of the area's accent.
"Of course, take your time, Mr….." She trailed off.
"Mr. Myers." He told her as he finally popped back above the desk with a key. Blaise held out her hand to take it, but he had already migrated over to a different desk.
"Just come over here so I can ring ya up!" He waved at her. Blaise warmly grinned at him, even though his enthusiasm set her on edge.
"Of course, Mr. Myers."
"Ya know, I don't get many visitors out here." He told her as he eagerly punched numbers into his cash register.
"Really? I can't imagine why." Blaise mused.
"I know why. It's the dern interstate." The man muttered.
"Oh I'm sorry." Blaise told him, anxious to get her card and leave.
"It's not your fault. Your total is forty dollars and I'm going to need to see an id." He told her. Blaise pulled out two twenties and laid them down on the counter along with her freshly printed "driver's license". The man snatched the twenties and put them in his register, but stopped for a moment to examine her id.
"Robyn Hood?" He skeptically asked.
"My parents had a rather unfortunate sense of humor." She laughed and the man chuckled along with her, but she made a mental note to kill Tony the next time she saw him.
"You can't choose your kin." He replied as he pushed his glasses further up his slightly crooked nose and handed her the id and key.
"No, I suppose not." Blaise smiled at him, anxious to leave and go sleep.
"They must be pretty trusting to let a young girl like you travel all the way from New York." He replied.
"I'm taking the summer before college to hike the Appalachian Trail." She lied.
"Aw, dern, that's quite an accomplishment." He complimented her.
"I take it a day at a time." Blaise flippantly replied.
"So what's your trail name?" He asked.
"Trail name?"
"Ya know, the name that thru-hikers make up for themselves while they hike the trail." He prompted.
"Ice Angel." Blaise smiled at him knowing that only she understood the joke. He opened his mouth to ask another question but before he could, Blaise quickly yawned,
"Oh excuse me. I've been hiking all night. I can barely stand. It was nice talking to you." She waved at him as she walked out of the room. As soon as she walked out of the office, she took a deep breath and finally looked for her room number on her key. Room five. She scanned the numbers posted outside the rooms until she found room number five. She opened the wooden door and walked inside the small room. There was not much space, a small green bed took up most of the room and a small nightstand filled the rest. The lack of room did not bother Blaise; she just needed a spot to place her backpack and a shower. She slowly shut the door behind her and dumped her bag on the floor. She grabbed a change of clothes and walked through a door in the corner of the room that led to the bathroom. She turned on the cold water before stripping and climbing in the shower. She ran her hands through her hair and watched the mud from the woods turn the water brown as she contemplated whether or not what she was about to do was a good idea. Who was she kidding? Blaise knew that it was a bad idea, but she was getting desperate and he said he had answers. She glanced down at the water and noticed that it was once again crystal clear. The girl quickly turned off the water and grabbed a towel before stepping out of the shower and got changed into an old red cut off and a pair of black shorts. She ran her hand through her wet hair and stared at herself in the mirror; once again she was wrestling over whether or not to go through with her plan. Finally she sighed,
"Screw it." She scowled as she threw her towel onto the ground in anger.
"I can do this." She firmly reassured herself before storming out of the bathroom. She jumped onto the bed and closed her eyes. She was prepared to fall asleep, but her wildly pounding heart was keeping her awake. Blaise took deep slow breaths until she drifted off to sleep, knowing that when she opened them again her world would be changed forever.
That's a wrap for this chapter! I'll try to update soon, but in the mean time leave a review. Seriously the button is right there and reviews motivate me to write. So in both of our best interest leave a review.