Will you protect them?
The cafe buzzed with chatter, the bell at the door occasionally jingling. Sweet aromas of baked goods filled the air, adding to the warm atmosphere. Here, she would forget anything and delve into her work.
"I'd like a slice of that mango cheesecake. To go, please," said a customer.
"Of course," replied the woman behind the counter. She reached over for a box and found none.
"Sorry, looks like we ran out of boxes-I'll be back in a second."
She headed to storage and spotted them. She sighed. Somebody had put them on a high shelf. Looking around and finding nobody else nearby, she flicked her wrist in complicated motions. She smiled with satisfaction as what she wanted smoothly slid out of the shelf.
The cardboard box seemed to be supported by nothing as it descended into her ready arms. With it, she went back to the front.
She quickly packaged the cake and tapped at the register. "Okay, that will be-"
Screams resonated from outside the cafe, accompanied by screeches of something not human. The serenity of the cafe diminished as everyone panicked.
"Corinne!" A woman with flour smeared on her face came out of the kitchen in alarm. "What's happening? Holy shi-"
Corinne gasped as she saw aliens outside, shooting blue energy at people and buildings. One turned and aimed towards them. The people in the bakery exclaimed in horror.
Instinctively, Corinne's hands moved behind the counter, and the shot was deflected from the cafe. Everyone in the muttered in confusion, but the woman looked at Corinne knowingly.
The woman turned to Corinne. "Did you?"
"Yeah, " replied Corinne, her mind going back to the call she had gotten this morning.
"Hello?"
"Corinne Lin. I'm Director Fury from SHIELD."
She almost dropped her textbook when she recognized the voice. "What do you want?"
"I noticed you're in New York." A pause. "I'm calling in a favour."
Her gaze hardened as aliens shot down everyone they saw. Any doubts she has had since the phone call were gone. Nobody was getting hurt on her watch. Her voice was steely with resolve. "Beth, I need to go outside."
Beth shook her head, her voice dropping into a whisper. "It's too dangerous. And what happened to your paranoia of being discovered?"
Corinne stilled at the mention of her greatest fear, but shoved the panic away. "Nobody will remember me in a mess like this. I'll leave this shield up to protect everyone in here. But Beth, people are dying outside."
Her coworker stared at her for a moment before squaring her shoulders. "People, move into the kitchen, away from the windows!" She shouted over the chaos. The customers followed her instructions.
"You better come back in one piece. No matter how hard I train a newbie, I can't find another you." She said to Corinne.
Corinne laughed and waved at Beth. "See you later."
And she ran into the chaos.
When the hero in stars and stripes first saw her, he had to take a second to look again.
Steve Rogers was fighting against the Chitauri, attempting to push them back away from the civilians trying to flee. Police, special ops, and others were helping everywhere, but the figure in bright yellow caught his eye. Whoever it was, she was a civilian, and he would have ignored the young woman except she wasn't leaving for a safer place.
"Hey," he shouted over the noise of the fighting, "you need to get out of here!"
Corinne turned to him and shook her head. "I can't."
Her eyes flashed to his left, and Steve turned his gaze to where she was looking to see an alien crashing against something invisible right in front of him, and falling back. The captain incapacitated the invader, and looked back to her.
Her hands were not touching the overturned car, but the car lifted and flipped back to its wheels...by itself? The passengers in the car were helped out by her, and they ran in a hurry after giving her their thanks. She nodded then ran off.
Captain America blinked in bewilderment but had to return to fighting the Chitauri as they attacked him, thinking he was distracted. He filed whatever he had witnessed to the back of his mind, focusing on the present battle.
Meanwhile, the woman ran off to find other people to help. She was scared out of her mind, but she couldn't make another mistake.
This time, I'm going to do something.
Aliens were zapping their weapons everywhere, and so she kept a defense over her head while she sought out struggling civilians. Occasionally, she would gesture out towards people to give them her shield for protection against falling debris, or the blasts from the alien invaders. She didn't want to deplete her strength too quickly with two simultaneous shields, so she was cautious when she was not protected.
No one had stopped to question her yet, and her desire to defend her fellow humans was stronger than her fear of being discovered. Only one person had paid her any mind, and it was the man dressed in bright blue, white, and red. Otherwise, she was safe, for now.
Something zoomed overhead, and she moved her defense over her head. She gazed up only to see the self-proclaimed hero Iron Man fly past.
Corinne breathed out a relieved sigh. The aliens had been flying around, having an unfair advantage in the air.
"Miss!"
Corinne settled her gaze on another woman in a police uniform. She seemed to have been guiding a group of people to safety.
"Yeah?" She replied.
"It would be best if you evacuate-" The police officer paused, hearing something crumble loudly.
Corinne heard it too, and instantly detected the source. A building was being grazed by a large, flying, whale-like alien.
She immediately expanded the area of her shield, and put it on the side of the building. Widening her stance, her arms trembled as she strained to keep the heavy tower from falling on them.
A group of people recently evacuated from a nearby bus scurried past where the tower would have fallen, only a few giving her a glance.
She didn't blame them, as she, too, was scared for her life.
The police officer stared at her, surprised. "How did you?…"
She shook her head and gritted her teeth. The building was too heavy. She had never trained herself with such weight, and her lifted arms shook under the burden. "Could you please move out of the way?"
The other moved out of the way just as a streak of gold and red sped towards the floating creature.
She watched as Iron Man shot at the creature. A couple seconds later, she heard a roar that made her hair rise. Her heart thudded in her chest just as loudly as the thundering stomping and destruction she heard next. Whatever was making the noise was not far, and seemed to be coming towards her.
A huge, green but humanoid thing appeared right next to collapsing building. She froze in fear when it fixed its gaze on her. The Hulk. She remembered hearing about him in the news years ago.
Hulk regarded her for a moment, and then to the falling building she was holding up. His giant hand reached out to lay flat against the building, and to her disbelief, pushed it back upright. He glanced back at her, grinned, then ran off. She could hear him smashing the alien whales and wreaking havoc everywhere. It was a good thing he was on their side.
With the threat of the crashing building gone, she let the giant shield drop. While her arms had been raised, it was only to help her direct her powers. Her shields were really formed mentally, and while her body was tired from running about with her arms up, her mind was even more exhausted. She blinked her eyes as she felt herself feeling lethargic.
Her vision was starting to get unfocused, but she fought to stay awake. Her mind was telling her to sleep and restore her energy. But she couldn't, not while she could still help. The woman jogged down the streets of New York, determined.
When it first happened, she was only a child. Her father was driving her home from school like any other day. One moment she talking about what she did in class, and then she heard the petrifying screech of tires.
She looked to the source of the noise to see a car coming right at them with no sign of stopping. The girl threw up her arms instinctually to protect herself.
The car had crashed right into their car, turning it into a mess of wrecked metal and shattered glass-except for where she sat. A small area surrounding her looked the same as it had been seconds before. She was physically unharmed, because the perimeter around her was not affected by the collision.
Her father, who had sat in the driver's seat, was severely injured. She and any witnesses did not take notice of her lack of injury in the panicked chaos that followed. It was only when the situation had settled down did she give it some more thought. The young girl figured it out to an extent.
And felt guilty.
The next time it happened, it was also subconscious. It occurred a few years later during a not so life threatening game of dodgeball. The sponge ball had been aimed at her head, and she wasn't fast enough to dodge or block it.
Some force had appeared and deflected the ball away again. It hit someone else, and she looked around to see if anyone had seen what happened.
Nobody did in the excitement of the game.
She did it another time when somebody tripped over their feet and was about to fall down the school's many steps. An invisible barrier had appeared underneath the classmate, bouncing them back upright. He shrugged it off as managing to get themselves balanced at the last second, but she knew.
Over the course of several years, she began to research. She read fictional stories, theories, and such about such abilities. Her ability was best identified by the term force field: a barrier made up of energy. She tested her limits and pushed them further.
At first, it was just small force shields not bigger than a piece of paper. She made it exist by imagining the energy force-how it would look and every particle that made it up. It took all of her concentration and stamina the first time.
She varied the size and shape of the force, and tried moving it around. It worked eventually, and it resulted in many objects being knocked off shelves in the beginning. In the privacy of her bedroom, she honed her powers and made her aim more precise. She wanted to be prepared for the next crisis.
And that time was now.
She continued randomly lending her force shield to people throughout the city. An alien aircraft flew way too close to her head, and she regarded it more closely.
It flew unsteadily, a figure in black seemed to be struggling with gaining control of it. She watched as the figure figured it out and rose up onto the rooftop of a tower.
She would have dismissed it, if she had not noticed another alien aircraft was still following. As well, a beam of light shot from the tower, and it seemed to be where the aliens were coming from.
Corinne had a moment of hesitation, but she decided to follow.
She focused on the grey pavement as she created a force shield on it. Carefully, she stepped on top of the transparent surface. She kept her entire mind working to maintain the force shield, and to raise it. As the force shield rose, so did she. To an outsider, it looked like Corinne was levitating all by herself.
Of course, she had warranted some attention. The sharp eyes of an archer caught sight of her form.
"Can everyone see what I'm seeing? There's somebody flying." Hawkeye said into his com, after shooting Loki down.
"Pretty sure it's just me, Legolas," Tony said back. "I don't see anybody flying."
"To your right. Should I shoot her?" The agent pulled back an arrow. "She looks human, but so does Loki."
"Do not shoot," Thor replied from his position at the top of a skyscraper. He had paused in his lightning strikes to inspect the seemingly floating person. "She is neither Chitauri nor Asgardian, but Midgardian."
Tony, too, looked at her. "Most humans can't do that, but I don't detect any tech..."
"Is there any way we can subdue her?" Steve jumped in, sounding breathless. "We are dealing with a lot right now."
"She's heading towards Natasha!" Clint exclaimed.
"Tash-"
Black Widow stopped talking to Dr. Selvik. "I see her," she responded calmly. She was several meters away, but clearly going to where she was.
"Whoever it is, they're not the only one heading my way though." Natasha eyed the Chitauri who had followed her after Loki went down.
Hawkeye shot a couple of the oncoming aliens down. "So, should I shoot?"
"I've got it." She said, already raising her gun.
The ascending person landed on the rooftop. She identified the blur of black she had seen with surprise. The blur was a redheaded woman she recognized, aiming a gun at her. On the ground was an elderly man, sitting beside a machine that was the source of the hole in the sky.
"Who are you?" The woman demanded.
She opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by a blast of blue that nearly hit the spy. Quickly, she opened up a dome shaped shield to block them from the attacks that followed.
Black Widow watched in suspicion and disguised curiosity as blue blasts were stopped by an invisible wall. The person who had been flying seemed human, but her abilities were anything but.
Arrows out of nowhere got rid of the remaining aliens, and the newcomer dropped her shield. "It's kind of complicated but I'm…backup. Nick Fury sent me." Said the woman, not quite willing to part with her name.
"Are you SHIELD?" The assassin asked, not recognizing the other woman's face or hearing of someone like her in SHIELD's arsenal.
"Uh, not really. I'm here because I owe Fury a favour." The woman was more calm than one would expect, being held at gunpoint by the Black Widow.
Of course, the spy deduced, she most likely had a shield right in front of her. Any bullets shot would be defected.
"I will be gone as soon as this is over, Agent Romanoff."
The rest of the Avengers were listening intently as Natasha stiffened. Natasha didn't relax from her prepared stance while observing the other woman's face. Her sharp gaze hadn't detected any dishonesty so far. "How do you know my name?"
"Fury cleared me and sent me the files. Avengers Initiative?"
Nobody outside of SHIELD or the Avengers themselves would have known of this so soon. The only way she could have known was if Fury had told her. The eyes of the super powered woman were not the vibrant blue that came with being under the command of Loki and his Tesseract. Her eyes were a dark brown.
Dr. Selvig shifted from where he was, bringing a fraction of Black Widow's attention to him. She slowly lowered her gun from her target. There was a more urgent matter, and she wouldn't be able to harm her if she wanted anyway.
Not wasting a moment, she tapped her com to Director Fury. "Director?"
"Agent Romanoff," his agitated voice replied, "make this quick, I have a meeting in a minute."
"There's a woman here with defensive powers claiming to have been sent by you."
He smirked on the other end. "She showed up, good. Yes, I sent her. Is that all?"
"Yes, sir." Her com beeped, signalling Fury ending the conversation.
Natasha turned to the other woman, "We need to close the portal now, but don't think I won't hesitate."
Natasha didn't say what, but Corinne understood.
Without turning her back, the assassin went back to the machine. The mysterious woman realized that her current spot was a good vantage point, and began materializing force fields for civilians and Avengers.
She made a couple of small shields to block some alien blasts from two Avengers on the ground. Thor glanced up to where she was and have her a brief nod in thanks. From her position, she could see everything. However, it took a lot more energy on her part due to the larger difference. But tired as she was, she kept on going.
"Stark, can you hear me?" Nick Fury quickly told Tony of the nuclear bomb heading their way, and the billionaire immediately went after it.
The director then called Black Widow. "Tell her to create a shield around the nuke if Stark doesn't reach it in time." He said, and the agent relayed it to the other woman.
The woman paused in her defence of people underneath her. "I can try, but it might be too fast for me. And containing a nuclear explosion…"
"Tell her she better figure it out soon. She's backup." Fury closed the line.
Black Widow and Corinne watched as Tony grabbed the bomb and blasted himself up towards the portal.
Corinne, thinking fast, raised her arms. She swung them in a circular direction, creating something the assassin couldn't quite see. Looking closer, she noticed a spherical disturbance in the sky.
"A dome shield against the portal to act as...something like a plug," Corinne explained.
But they both looked on as Iron Man sent the nuke into the portal, going with it.
"Come on, Stark…" Natasha muttered.
The other woman didn't say anything, but she had dropped the dome, hoping he would come back. She had a regular human sized shield ready to catch him.
The Avengers and their backup lost hope soon enough, with Captain America telling Black Widow to shut the portal. She did.
As it began to close, they could make out a figure descending through it. Relief filled everyone, but he wasn't slowing down. Thor got ready to fly, the woman readied her shield, but Hulk managed to grab the man.
Everyone, even the backup, made their way down to the ground where Tony was. He woke up at Hulk's roar, breathing hard. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."
All of the people surrounding him smiled. The woman smiled too, feeling an overwhelming feeling of elation.
"Hey, aren't you that flying person?" Tony asked. The others' attention were on her too, all of them recognizing her.
She stilled, surprised at being addressed so quickly. "Yeah."
"Cool. Okay. Awesome, we won. Anyone want shawarma?"
Corinne slipped away as soon as their backs were turned. The two SHIELD agents glanced back, but let her go. They sensed her need to be gone, and she was grateful. Her job had been done anyway.
Running back to the cafe, she couldn't help but feel like this isn't the last time she'll see them.
Beth was there when she got back, and her eyes blurred at the sight. She dropped the shield outside the bakery and rushed inside. Any shields she had put up were now down, and she was tired.
The two women hugged each other tightly.
"I'm glad I don't have to hire anyone to replace you," Beth muttered into her shoulder.
Corinne gave a breathless laugh. "Me too." A thought struck her then. "Did you check on the others yet?"
They were quite close to the people working in the two shops beside them. She had extended her shield to cover as many shops on their street as she could, but she was still worried.
"I got a text from Danny over at the salon, but I couldn't get to Sam."
Corinne hummed, then caught sight of the customers who were still in the kitchen. "Oh, they're still-"
"I'll figure it out from here," Beth gave a look to Corinne, "you go check on Sam and you're off the clock for the day. You look dead on your feet."
Corinne mockingly saluted to her. "Yes ma'am."
She went outside again and sighed at the destruction of the city. It was going to take a while for them to recover, but she knew the people were strong.
Corinne turned on her heel to the shawarma place where Sam worked at.
The restaurant was unscathed, thankfully. Corinne cheerfully swung the door open, "Still alive, Sa-"
She gaped at the group of superheroes chomping on shawarma.
So much for that escape.
Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think in a review?
03.06.15.
Edited 05.27.18.