The characters in Mission Impossible are teenagers except for the directors and senior agents. I am going to bring other series or fandoms into this story and the characters are going to be the same, but ages and genders might switch to go along with the storyline. I own the story and a few original characters.
Ethan Hunt- 15
Luther Stickell- 16
Benji Dunn- 14
William Brandt- 15
Morana Maria Barnes- 12
3 Years Ago in an IMF Facility (Location: New York, New York)
"I don't know what is going on with Director Hunley, but someone needs to pull that stick out of his ass." William Brandt comments.
Luther snorts, "I heard Ethan went on a mission and brought back one of the super soldiers Hydra created. Apparently, their tactics to get her to give them info aren't working and get this she's just a 12-year-old girl. Hunley's probably got his elbows deep in paperwork and stress."
"She's only 12? Damn, she's just a kid." Benji Dunn adds.
Morana sits down at the table with such light footsteps that no one notices she has arrived.
"Yeah, such a travesty right. Making such young kids assassins and soldiers, who do they think they are?" Morena says with a condescending tone and deadpanned face. A smirk slowly appears after looking at their startled faces.
The whole room is tense. Luther's hand goes down to his gun and William makes his way to a concealed knife. Morena notices the slight movements and tilts her head waiting for the first move.
"Who are you?" Benji tries to demand in his slightly quivering voice. 'No one ever makes it into one of these rooms without someone noticing. God dammit Benji you're a spy, get the quiver out of your tone.' Benji thinks worried.
"The names Barnes, Maria Barnes," Morena gives an icy smile and a cold stare. "Oh, and you might know me as the Silver Phoenix. You know that one 12 years old you were just talking about."
"What are you doing outside of the interrogation room?" Luther questions while William slowly sneaks toward her.
Morana quickly turns her head to Brandt and answers with a smile, "It just got so boring in there. I just want some space to stretch my legs, they get cramped after sitting in a chair all day."
Morana's eyes flash a few different emotions and the trio finally takes in the appearance of the girl. She is overly lean with muscles and at the same time too skinny. Her extra long midnight black hair was caked with blood, they would later learn that that was not her real hair color or eye color or skin color but all of its dye, contacts, and make-up. Her face had a few cuts and bruises that suggested that interrogation was something more; her smile had blood in it, and that was just her face. Her clothes were torn apart with whip marks and her body was littered with bruises that were halfway through healing. Her eyes were cold, they held pain and secrets that made the whole trio think 'Did we do this or Hydra?' They were so deep in analyzing her they didn't notice the footsteps coming down the hallway.
"Guys do you know where …" Ethan trails off.
Everyone snaps their head to Ethan.
"Agent Hunt, what a pleasure to see you again." Morana giving him a formal yet slightly warm tone.
"Ria, what did I tell you about wandering around?" Ethan reprimands.
"They were talking about me, I deserved to know. Besides since when do I listen to you." She gives Ethan a look.
Ethan emits a sigh and then gives her a good look, "What the hell happened to you? I know not all of that was there when I left you."
She purses her lips, "Your director didn't think I was of sound mind when I didn't give him the answers to the questions he asked and thought I was in soldier mode and decided that it would be best if he tortured it out of me. His reasoning was that if I was still mentally with the bad guys and if I'm the "bad guy", then I can get the "bad guy" treatment."
The trio winces and looks at Ethan. 'If Ethan has any attachment to this girl then he's going to kick Hunley's ass.' Luther muses.
Luther watches Ethan exhale slowly, "Come on, we're going back to my place."
They arrive at Ethan's place and Ethan ushers everyone in; by then most of Ria's cuts and bruises have faded
Ethan looks at Ria questioningly, "Why didn't they disappear faster?"
"I haven't eaten in a few days and that slows down my body's reaction time," Ria responds.
Ethan's eyes narrow, "I'm assuming that's on our part right."
"Yup," Ria quirks an eyebrow.
"Well," Ethan says with a sigh, "let's get you fed and washed off."
*20 Minutes of awkward chewing*
"The shower is down the hall on the left. Is there anything you need?" Ethan asks.
"Hair color remover and scissors, along with the other basic necessities should be fine, thank you," she responds.
"Alright, I'll be back in 15. There is a Sally's down the block I can go to." Ethan gives the team a smirk and a look saying if you mess this up, I'm going to kill you and shuts the door.
"So… Maria is it? Where are you from?" Benji asks awkwardly.
Will hits him on the back of his head. "You idiot she's from Hydra, she probably doesn't know where she's from," he hisses.
Ria smiles,"It's okay, I don't know if it's because they had me from day 1 and didn't have to break me, or if I'm more in tune with the soldier part of me, or because I have a photographic memory and hyperthymesia (a rare condition that causes people to remember just about everything that happens in their life), but I remember I was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia."
"Yeah, um, the soldier part of you is stable, right?" Benji asks fidgeting nervously.
Something flashes in Ria's eyes and suddenly it's like they aren't looking at the same person, she flashes them a sly smile, and starts to walk towards Benji while saying, "Why does it bother you that I might become … unhinged every once and a while. Do I make you feel unsafe? Do you think I'm going to attack you?" Ria gives a small scoff in Benji's face noticing the other 2 in the room are extremely tense, she gives Benji's shirt a little brush, pretending to brush off dust. She smiles and takes a step back, suddenly serious, and says the next words slowly and strongly to make sure everyone gets what she was about to say. "I am a result of the tortures Hydra did to …Mor... Ria." She fixes her wording last minute, "I want nothing to do with Hydra. Maria created me, so I could deal with all of the killings and she can deal with the fear and remorse of what we have done. We are 1 person and we work together. We found out recently that leaving 1 half for some emotions and another half for the other emotions is unhealthy, so when we fight and kill people let it be known it is not only me." She pauses and whispers these 4 words. "We are both monsters." She continues, "I have no problem with you as long as you are not Hydra. I will not stab you in the back if you don't stab me in the back. Kapesh?"
"Kapesh." Luther sighs in relief. 'That could have gotten really ugly, really fast.'
"Now, do you mind giving introductions because I gave you my name and you didn't say yours back," Ria says back to her normal self.
"Um, I'm Benji Dunn," he says giving a little hand wave.
"William Brandt," he says giving a 2 finger salute.
"Luther Stickell," he says giving a nod.
She eyes all of them with careful precision. The trio thinks she's trying to get a read on them, but really she has a feeling (it's really a power, but she doesn't know it yet, btw some of you might guess where I am going with her in the next couple of lines) that lets her see someone's soul and their true intentions toward her and other people as a whole. Sometimes she gets a different feeling of focus and can see into their mind to hear their thoughts and see their past (different power than the one before, of course, she doesn't know this because she has been at Hydra her whole life). She makes the decision to tell them her full name. She wasn't going to tell them before in case she needed to escape and create a new name. ``Oh well, we can't start a relationship on lies,' she thinks to herself.
"My full real name is Morana Maria Barnes aka the Silver Phoenix as you heard before," she reveals.
The front door opens and shuts loudly. All of them grab their weapons. The trio watches in awe as Morana brings out a flat paper thin piece of steel shaped like a gun expand and form into a small handgun. They slowly make their way to the front hallway with the door.
"Guys, it's just me," Ethan says with his hands up.
"Excuse me. Can I borrow a match?" Morana says.
"What?" "Ethan" says.
"Can I borrow a match?" Morana demands.
A gunshot rang out and "Ethan" falls to the ground revealing Ethan behind him.
"I use a lighter," Ethan says.
"Better still," Morana responds.
"Until they go wrong," he replies.
Morana puts down her gun and the other follows suit after her.
"Did you guys really just quote James Bond?" Benji asks astounded.
"Hey! He's a solid guy." Ethan says, "Anyway I got your stuff."
*Flashforward to Ethan's Place 2019*
(This is a day after their mission in Bangladesh. The public does not know that Bucky is alive and Morana has spent a lot of time looking for Bucky, but after he disappeared she claimed him as dead in her mind. She has no clue he is alive and thinks no one besides the people she told know about her past because she killed everyone else. Bucky escaped 1 year before Morana. It took him 1 year to be found by Steve, 1 year to go to therapy, 1 year to use BARF, 1 year to make sure he is stable, 1 more year to catch up with now society before releasing to the public that he is alive.)
Ethan Hunt- 18
Luther Stickell- 19
Benji Dunn- 17
William Brandt- 18
Morana Maria Barnes- 15
"You okay, Ria?" Ethan asks.
"Yeah, just thinking," she replies.
"What about?" He asks again.
"About how stupid Hunley was to think that that place was empty. Hydra never fully abandons their bases." Morana snarks.
"Tru… M are you okay?" Ethan watches her with intrigue.
"Someone's looking for us in Bangladesh." - Morana
"What do you mean?" - Ethan
"I can feel someone hacking the database. They aren't looking for you guys, they're looking for me." - Morana
"M…" - Ethan
"I have so many enemies, but I have never made one with Tony Stark. What does he want with me? He didn't even look for my alias. He knows who I really am! How does he know me?" Morana slams her hand onto a nearby table.
"Listen, does anyone from your past have a chance of knowing or remembering who you are?" William grabs onto her shoulders and gives her a hard look.
"No, there was only 1 person and he died a few years ago. I mean it's Tony Stark I guess he found me on a mission. I mean you know how thorough he is." Morana says trying to reassure herself.
"Whatever you say, what are you going to do?" Luther says coming back from the kitchen and popping open a beer. (I know he's not 21 yet, but they're the world's top spies. I think they manage to get alcohol when they want it.)
"My brain has been racking the internet and apparently he's looking for a personal assistant, open to teenagers and up." - Morana
"Teenagers and up?" Ethan quirks an eyebrow.
"Ever since he hired Peter Parker as an intern everything has been teenager and up," Morana responds. "I'm going to go in looking like myself, but my name will be Athena Até Mercia."
"You're going as you? Didn't Stark look you up?" - Benji
"He never saw any pictures." - Morana
"What do you even have to do?" - William
"The job description says I will be Tony Stark's personal assistant. You know the normal stuff, but with highly classified information and a more extensive background check. I already created a profile and you know my profiles are perfect. Even if we are worried about my looks, it's not like I ever go around looking naturally anyway. It'll be fun. I go through an interview with all of the Avengers after I have one with Ms. Potts. The interviews start tomorrow and I already sent headquarters notice that I will be using safe house 27." She says with a grin.
"I really hate when you do that. It makes us seem stupid and so far behind." Benji sighs.
"It's not my fault that I got injected with Extremis. This is the only feature that I get to use constantly, it's fun to test my brain limits. I can't just go around burning things and glowing 72,000 degrees Fahrenheit (39982.222 Celcius)." - Morana
Ethan smirks and gives a little shake of his head, "Anyway, we all wish you luck with those boring interviews."
"Yeah, but how are you living by yourself, you're not even 16 yet." - Benji
Morana gives a sly grin and says, "A friend owes me a favor."
Morana picks up posters, pictures, books, pillows, blankets, and trinkets to make the apartment look lived in. She then goes to get a new wardrobe and hair color remover. She picks up her legal documents and resume, sets up and transfers bank accounts, and then notifies the agencies she works with that she is going on "vacation".
She finally arrives at the apartment and immediately begins to check for bugs and weapon hiding places. After she sets up her room, she goes to the master bedroom and makes things look homier when she feels a presence behind her.
"I'm pretty sure this is my room, Ria."
"I'm also pretty sure that spies aren't supposed to sneak up on other spies if they want to live, Bond." -Morana
James flashes a smile, "You wouldn't kill me."
"You know a lot of people say that in movies and in the end that one character always gets killed by that one character they thought wouldn't kill them." - Morana
"Anyway, I was surprised to finally get a text from you after all this time to say you wanted me to play your dad." - Bond
"You owe me," Morana says deadpanned.
"I know, but your dad? Why not a fun and loving Uncle? Or devastatingly handsome older brother." - Bond
"In order for that to work, our parents would have to have had you when they were five. Besides, I already made the profile and they probably already checked it which would make it weird for you to all of a sudden be my Uncle or delusionally be my brother." - Morana
"Yeah, well, delusional? Are you calling me old?" Bond asks incredulously.
Morana just smiles, "I trust you studied every aspect of your character."
"Yeah, Apollo Mercia," Bond gives her a look, "Why the obsession with these gods all of a sudden?"
"It gives us details. Everyone goes generic with names and that's great you blend in, but a more believable lie has details that stick out instead of a general overview. It gives us a story," Morana explains, "I'm gonna go change take a shower, change my look, and go to bed. Goodnight Dad." She leaves the room.
It's the next day and she gets on her outfit and fixes her hair. You see the thing about Morana is that she is beautiful and … different? … Unique? … Most would say she looks like a freak. She has hair that goes past her butt and depending on the day she has curly, wavy, or straight hair. Her hair starts as snow white then throughout the layers turns darker and the bottom is jet black with a range of sunset orange to blood red highlights throughout her hair. The tips of her hair are an electric blue. Today, her hair is in a high ponytail with her curls cascading down with her curly layers bangs framing her face. Each of her eyes displayed a different color, today, her left is light blue and her right is hazel brown meaning that she is nervous. Her eye color changes based on her mood; they both change at the same time, never at the same time are they the same color. Her long thick eyelashes are white with the very tips of them a baby blue. She wears no make-up except for the wine red lipstick, many chestnut-colored freckles scattered all over tan skin (mostly her face). She wears a black long sleeved v-neck with a white and black plaid pencil skirt and black 6-inch stilettos, after all, she needs to look taller she is only 4' 11''. She tops it all off with a pair of black glasses and a newly manicured nails.
She leaves her room to see that Bond left her a note saying he went to work and he wishes he luck with the interviews. 'Guess that means I'm getting breakfast alone.' She mentally sighs realizing she would have to go out looking like this all alone. 'Here goes nothing.'
She gets food at a nearby cafe and after a lot of weird looks ends up leaving to eat at the park on the way to Stark Tower. After she finishes eating she starts walking to the tower which is about 5 blocks from where she is. As she reaches a corner she gets knocked into by this brown haired, brown eyed (angel no not an angel she doesn't date people) who also knocked her coffee on the floor.
"Whoa, I'm so sorry. I'm late for work and I still have to pick up a few things. I also think you're very pretty and very grateful that I didn't spill coffee on you and now I'm rambling and ..."
I cut him off, "It's fine, your late and you have stuff to do if I were you I would get going."
"Oh, right, have a nice day!" He waves happily and starts running.
I finally arrive at Stark Tower and make my way through the lobby glaring at anyone who gives me a weird look when I finally arrive at the secretary's desk, "How may I help you?" she says after I give a slight cough while not looking up.
"I'm here for an interview for Tony Stark's P.A," I respond.
"Okay, and you are…" She finally looks up to see me and she trails off after seeing my appearance.
"I'm Athena Até Mercia."
"Okay, here's your temporary badge. If you step into the elevator on the right Jarvis will take you up to the 16th floor." She gives a shaky smile.
On the 16th floor there were 30 people; guys, girls, old, young, tall, short, nice, and mean. She sits down on a seat near the exit and waits for someone to arrive. She doesn't have to wait long because a woman named Darcy Lewis her brain informs her and the teenager from earlier? Her brain is now informing her that his name is Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Their eyes meet across the room and Morana tilts her head and quirks a smile. Peter's smile gets bigger.
"Okay, everybody I am Peter and this is Darcy. You guys are the finalists and we will be eliminating you per 5 people by the interviewer, so each interviewer will be eliminating 5 people each round." Peter announces.
"Remember if you get eliminated you are good just not good enough for Tony Stark." Darcy gets hit on the head by Peter.
The finalists get interviewed 1 by 1 and come back into the room to sit, most of the interviewees look confused. Eventually, Peter calls my name and I follow him to the room.
"So your name is Athena Até Mercia." - Peter
"Peter Parker," She throws back.
"The goddess of wisdom and mischief, do have any wisdom or tricks for me today?" Peter says looking up with a smirk.
"Turn on an alarm so you aren't late for work and give your enemies Oreos with toothpaste in them but a surrounding layer of the normal ice cream, so they can't smell the toothpaste," Morana smirks back.
"You two know each other," Darcy infers.
"Peter ran into me, literally, so he was late for work I'm assuming." Morana smiles condescendingly.
"Um, yeah, so we are going to ask you 5 questions and you are going to answer them to the best of your ability," Darcy looks at both of them smirking.
"So each of the interviewers are going to have their own set of questions. Me and Darcy are going with the personality route. The first question is what is your favorite color?" -Peter
"Darcy and I is the proper grammar and I don't have a favorite color, they change based on my mood and the thing." -Morana
"Sherlock the movie or the show?" -Darcy
"Both, they both are good representations and show different sides of Sherlock and equally funny."
"Democrat or Republican?" -Peter
"Both and Neither, I like the family and environment values of Democrats and I like the independence of Republicans." -Morana (2020 elections soon)
"What music do you like?" -Peter
"I range from 1900s-2010 all genres and from now I listen to Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, Imagine Dragons and some pop." -Morana
"What is your opinion on Spider-Man?" -Darcy
Morana looks at Peter dead in the eyes when she says the next words, "I think he's a guy who's trying his best and succeeding. From what it looks like he's looking out for the little guy and he's also taking on the big guys. He's doing good protecting the city."
Darcy's mouth quirks, "Thank you, you may go back to your seat now."
Once Morana leaves the room Peter looks at Darcy with a worried look and Darcy waves him off, "You'll be fine. I like her, you should ask her out."
Peter turns his head to her quickly, "What?!"
"Come on we have to go show Pepper who we want for the second round."
Morana steps into a conference room on the 27th floor and immediately notices Ms. Potts and mentally figures out which of the 5 people got sent home.
"Alright everybody, I'm Pepper Potts and if your in this room, you made it to the next round." Pepper notices me and looks slightly surprised and quickly schools her features. "It will go like last round I'm going to call you in 1 by 1 based on your last name."
The interviews are longer than last round, eventually, Morana gets called in.
"Nice to meet you, Athena." -Pepper
"It's nice to meet you, too Ms. Potts." Morana flashes a smile.
"Ok, for qualifications it says here that you were a P.A. for Justin Hammer and eventually a P.A. for Tiberius Stone. My first question for you is why did you quit those jobs?" -Pepper
"I understand the concern. You see I understand when people are jokingly flirting, I mean I'll even jokingly flirt back, but when joking becomes harassment and threats. I go the other way or to the higher authority, but since they were the higher authority I just quit." -Morana
"Understandable, what is your dream environment to work in?" -Pepper
"I don't have an ideal environment working alone or with people, inside or outside it all depends on the task." -Morana
"Tell me how would you think other people would describe you." -Pepper
"I think people would say that what you see is what you get. If I say I will do something, I do it. If I say I will help, I help. I'm not sure that everyone likes me, but they all know they can count on what I say and how hard I work." -Morana
"What hobbies do you have outside of work?" -Pepper
"My father works with the Peace Corps and is a Missionary on his downtime and he took a break from his job to travel around the world for a year. We helped people in Africa and the Carribean Islands. I also take time to learn about other cultures and languages. I am fluent in every language including every language in sign language." -Morana
"What makes you different from the other candidates?" -Pepper
"Well the languages help, but I also study in my free time engineering and technology. People are here to organize his life, but if he ever needs another head to throw ideas at I can always help." -Morana
"Well, this was a great talk you can tell the others to leave for a lunch break and we'll text you if you made it to the next round." -Pepper
Morana's eating lunch in the park again when she receives the text saying she made it to the next round and makes her way back to the tower. She gets let off on the 29th floor this time and goes straight into an office.
"Different tactic than the others." -Morana
"I try to throw curveballs. Hi, I'm Rhodey." -Rhodey
"Athena," -Morana
"Have a seat and we'll get started." -Rhodey
"What does your father do for a living?" -Rhodey
"Wow, straight to the questions. He is on the bomb squad and does a lot of volunteer work in other countries after he was in the U.S. Army. He still does work for the Army." -Morana
"What does your mother do?" -Rhodey
"I don't have one," Morana says bluntly.
Rhodey leans back and looks at her. "I like you, don't hurt Tony and we will be fine. Congrats you made it to the next round."
Morana gets on the elevator and it makes its way to the 90th floor. She steps off and sees the Black Widow.
"Congrats you made it to the last 5. From now on you won't really be getting asked questions, but given tests." -Natasha
"Okay," -Morana
Natasha starts walking around her, analyzing her for the next 30 minutes, completely silent. Morana doesn't move an inch. After that Natasha gives her a little nod and tells her to walk down the hall to the left to the next room. On her way down the hall, she hears a little whimper and she stills. She follows the voice to an open room and a little girl crying on the floor.
"Sweetheart, are you okay?" Morana asks sweetly.
"I hit my head on the shelf trying to get my doll," Cassie sniffs.
Morana looks around and finds the doll and gives it to the girl.
"Here you go sweetie, what's your name? Mines Athena by the way." -Athena
"I'm Cassie." -Cassie
"Well Cassie, do you know where your family is?" -Morana
"I can show you." Cassie makes the up-up motion and Morana picks her up. They make their way down the hall to the room that she was originally supposed to go to. Morana sees 2 men.
"Hi, I'm Scott her dad. This is Sam and you just passed the test, not many did." -Scott
"Go to the next floor up and you will see your second to last test," -Sam
She makes her way to the second floor and realizes it's a lab and comes to meet a guy named Bruce Banner.
"Hello, my name is Bruce Banner." -Bruce
"I know I read your paper about gamma radiation." -Morana
"My test for you is to finish this solution and fix this code," Bruce makes a motion towards a vial and a computer.
"Got it," Morana works quickly and finds out that the solution was missing Thimerosal and finds the virus in the code. She finishes them in a span of 5 minutes and ends with a "Done."
Bruce looks at her astounded, "You fixed it perfectly. How did you?"
Morana gives a secretive smile, "Should I go to the next room or?" She grins cheekily.
"Go onto the next room." -Bruce
Morana walks down the hall and passes a little kitchen area with a water cooler and steps into the next room to see a woman in her mid-thirties sitting perfectly still. She had black hair in a long bob, heavy make-up, and a dress that was way too tight and showed way too much. The woman finally looks up and sees Morana and looks surprised.
"So, I see you made it to the final round. I thought you would have gotten kicked out for looking like a freak." -Sunset Bain
"Ah, yes because a grown woman needs to knock down a 15 year because she needs to feel more confident about herself." -Morana
Meanwhile, Tony is watching the encounter with amusement in his office. He suddenly gets a call from Bucky and picks it up.
"Hey, Buck." -Tony
"Hey Tony, all the leads on her are a dead end. We have 2 left and we'll be back in about a week." -Buck
"Sorry, Buck I'll start looking into her more, but whenever I try to it takes me back to the beginning. I don't understand. I was undetectable and somehow I was detected!" Tony exclaims. "Anyway I've gotta go I have an interview to commence. Bye and good luck Barnes."
Back with Morana and Sunset, Sunset and Morana are both sitting in their chair tense waiting to be called in.
"How did you get the little girl to calm down?" -Morana
"What little girl?" -Sunset
"Nevermind," Morana smirks back at her.
"Sunset Bain, Mr. Stark will see you now," -Jarvis
Morana waits 5 minutes before she hears yelling and she suddenly hears a slam of a door. She then sees Sunset angrily stomping out of the office.
"Mr. Stark will see you now, Ms. Mercia" -Jarvis
Morana walks into the office. 'Large bags under his eyes, slouched shoulders and a pink tint edging of his eyes. He hasn't slept in at least a few days and hasn't eaten in a while.' Her brain informs her.
"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Stark." -Morana
"And I you Ms. Mercia. Your results are perfect. I just have 1 question… " Stark gets cut off from Morana, "It's all natural. My hair and my eye colors are all natural."
"I was wondering that, but that wasn't my question. I was going to ask when can you start?" -Tony
"We can start now. I have a bar in my bag. The front portion is a burger, the middle is fries and the end is apple pie. The bar has all the nutrients and calories to make up for the past couple of days and will give you energy for the rest of the day. It's a special design that I made for my friends when they're busy. However, it only lasts till the end of the so I expect you to get a full night of sleep tonight." Morana shoves the bar into hands, "I'll be right back."
Morana makes her way down the hall back to the kitchen where she saw the water cooler and is surprised by the sight she sees.
"You're the new P.A.!" Darcy exclaims.
"Yeah, can we hold that thought. Mr. Stark needs water, he hasn't eaten in a while and the bar I gave him needs water because it's a full meal." Morana grabs a cup of water and brings it back to Tony.
The Avengers look at each other and laugh. "Looks like we chose the right person to handle Tony." -Rhodey