Candi flung herself onto the couch, burying her face in a mass of curls and cushions. "I hate this," she groaned. Kyle raised an eyebrow from his curious perch at the top of the couch next to her, sketchbook in hand.
"Hate what?" She rolled herself onto the floor in that dramatically graceful way she always seemed to do things. She didn't respond for a while, and Kyle went back to his drawings.
"This! Everything. None of my dad's coworkers will fucking talk to me!" Even though her name was Candi, and she was as cute as a button, she could still cuss like a sailor.
Kyle snorted. "Coworkers? Did you just dub the Avengers, the most powerful people on the planet, you dad's coworkers?" She only flipped him off from her position on the floor, and he laughed in response.
Lanie soon walked in, hearing Kyle all the way across the floor.
They all had advanced senses, after confiding to each other about their past experiences. It was comforting, really, to know that you weren't the only one who could hear the girl throwing up in the bathroom all the way in math class.
"What's Kyle being a dick about now?" She asked as she walked in, a pile of sheet music in her hand. People always assumed that, him being the artist out of the group, that he was the most comforting, and the most kind. That was complete bullshit. Kyle was a jerk most of the time, and there was no way around it. Especially when he got with his friend Peter, who worked at the same newspaper that he did.
"When aren't I being a dick?" He was also very much self aware of his personality problems.
"True."
"The Avengers aren't talking to me and it's driving me insane." Lanie sat down next to Candi, crossing her legs. Candi immediately put her head in Lanie's lap. The other girl threaded her long, spindly fingers in Candi's hair, playing with the curls. It was a normal ritual, Candi feeling a deep bond with the girl. If she didn't know any better, she would think they were sisters.
"How have you tried to talk to them?"
"Well, I'll pass one of them in the hallway and say hi but none of them will even speak back! It's so annoying. That's not the only thing, but it's just little shit like that that's driving me up the wall."
Lanie bit at her lip a bit, a trait that presented itself when she was thinking. After a while, she spoke again. "How about you divide and conquer?"
Candi, confused, turned her head to look up. "Huh?"
"Well, I mean, yeah you've been saying hi to them and all that, but how about you approach them in their comfort zones? They'll be all relaxed and shit, the perfect time to make friends." Kyle elaborated, understanding what she meant.
Candi's brow furrowed, thinking. "That's a great idea, guys! But, who do I start out with?"
It turns out, the answer was Steve. He was large, twice the size of her, and he had a heart to match. He was an enigma, though, his personality vague under the guise of Captain America. Once you took that off, who was he?
Steve's back and chest were drenched in sweat, uncomfortably so, as he pounded at the thick, sand filled bag. He punched harder and faster, trying to drown out the sound of Red Skull's voice and the sound of Bucky's laugh and Peggy asking for that dance-
His racing thoughts were cut off by the sound of the bag smashing to the floor, sand spilling everywhere. He scrubbed a tired hand over his face, and walked over to the corner of the gym to get another.
"Care for a fight?" He turned, startled, and came face to face with Stark's daughter. She didn't look like him, not at all, with her caramel skin and big, curly hair, but they were similar in personality in every which way. She was tiny, coming up only to the bottom of his chest, hair included. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Ma'am, you probably couldn't put up much of a fight, even if you wanted to." She smirked at this, walking over to the boxing ring at the center of the gym. "Care to test that theory out?"
Clint was joker at his core. Growing up in a circus, the hardships of not living a normal life had forced him to come up with a way to compartmentalize the feelings of loneliness, worry, and fear he constantly had. He was always up for a good prank, and a good time.
So, when one day he was in the shooting range with his bow, and suddenly, the arrow he shot disappeared into a purple haze right before it hit his target, he was more surprised than fearful.
A paper plane floated down to him, landing gently in his outstretched hand.
Care for a game? It read.
He smirked, always up for a game.
"You're not dangerous, you know." The good doctor jumped slightly, the slide he was examining falling out of his hand. The curly hair girl caught it, and handed it back to him.
"Nice reflexes," he noted. He pushed his hair out of his face with a shaky hand, nervous around the small girl. He was one of the shortest on the team, yet she still wasn't anywhere close to his height.
She smiled slightly, and looked up at him with round eyes.
"Purple," he blurted. She furrowed her eyebrows, looking confused and lost.
"Excuse me?" He blushed slightly, but explained.
"Your eyes, they're purple. Are those contacts?"
"No, contacts dissolve in my eyes. I tried to get colored contacts to cover them up, but they only lasted for thirty minutes before they succumbed to whatever is in my eyes." The scientist in him lit up, and a smile graced upon his face.
"Can I run some tests on you? Just from listening, it sounds like the molecular structure of the saline in your eyes isn't the only thing that's different about you. Your blood seems to be different as well."
This was the first time she saw him smile, and she had to admit, happiness suited him well.
She laughed and stuck out her arm. "Do whatever you need to, Doc."
To be honest, she was terrified of the Black Widow. A chill in her bones ran through her every time she thought about the woman, and knots formed in her stomach.
The Widow was scary.
So when Candi saw her sitting on the couch in the common room reading a book, she squeaked and ran back around the corner.
A quiet sigh came from the direction of the woman, and her book snapped shut, placed on the table in front of her.
"Get in here, I know you're there." Guilty, Candi slowly walked towards the woman, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. The bottoms of her fingertips were slowly turning purple, a natural reaction when she was scared, but she forced herself to reverse the process. Still though, all of the magic in her body was on alert mode, ready to defend herself if necessary.
"You're afraid of me." Candi blushed, her cheeks taking on a purple hue, and babbled, trying to defend herself.
"I mean, you're so-no! I'm not, maybe a little-"
"So that's a yes." She blushed harder, feeling a bit ashamed.
The Widow paused for a moment, thinking. "Sit down." Candi quickly obliged, sitting in the arm chair next to the couch.
"You remind me of myself, at that age."
"I thought you were in the Red Room, at my age." Candi sometimes spoke without thinking, and sometimes she revealed that she knew things that she wasn't supposed to.
"How do you know that?" The woman leaned back, seeming relaxed in her loose stance. But Candi could smell the crisp stench of metal emitting from her pocket, the direction her hand seemed to be drifting towards.
"I've studied your fighting and I've also studied the graduates of the Red Room's style. Yours has a distinct Russian style to it. And you and I both know that that blade won't do anything."
Her hand curled into a tight fist before relaxing again, laying itself on her thigh, away from the blade.
"Yes, you remind me almost exactly of myself."
"Is that a good thing?"
The woman stared at the girl for a second, her false bravado, her rigid posture, and her strong will.
"It can be."
Tony soon stumbled out of the workshop after 96 hours, 10 of which were spent asleep on the lumpy couch Candi forced him to buy, knowing his habit of shutting himself out to the world.
"You're an irresponsible father." Tony was blindsided by the sudden appearance of Natasha in front of him.
"Excuse me? I've taken care of-"
"You left her to her own devices for 4 days-"
"I've left her alone longer before-"
"You know, as amusing as this is, it's okay. You can get off of his case, Natasha." Candi appeared and rested a hand on the woman's shoulder, causing her to pausing in her interrogation.
"You're lucky your daughter is much less annoying than you are." She stalked off, her red hair swishing behind her.
He turned to face Candi, who had a soft smile on her face. "Have you turned all of them against me in just four days?"
She smiled and shrugged. "Wasn't that hard."
The Avengers had gone six weeks without a massive call to action, the summer heat seeming to beat back the villains who actually wanted to take over, and not just the small missions that only required one or two of them to come in.
But when they did get a call, it was gruesome.
Hydra was back.
Steve had always been considered a pillar of strength among the team, strong and never breaking.
But when he heard that Hydra was back, he could feel the ice covering his skin and the water seeping into his uniform and-
He woke up several hours later in a dark room, with the curtains drawn. When he pulled them back, he was met with an awful sight.
Realistically, everyone could already tell that this mission would be a tizzy, the absence of their good Captain making everyone nervous, even the pair of assassins. He was the only one with the most knowledge of Hydra, yet he was the only one gone. They were going in blind, only knowing that they were going up against about one thousand foot soldiers, four tanks, and 3 helicopters with rpg's mounted to them. They didn't know what weapons the soldiers had, or what they were planning to do. All they knew is that an army had just stormed Manhattan, and that they were tasked with saving it.
"We need to help them." Candi was standing next to the floor to ceiling windows in her room, Lanie and Kyle sitting on the floor and the bed, watching her.
"We can't reveal ourselves-"
"But we can't let them get killed! You see that army out there, there's only four of them."
"What happened to the Captain?"
"He collapsed. He had a panic attack, so they ruled him a liability in the field, and put him somewhere else."
Lanie sighed, knowing what they had to do.
"I always wondered if we would ever use those stupid uniforms you got us. I guess we have to, huh?"
They were outnumbered. They were beyond outnumbered, the amount of people they saw scaring even the Widow. They were down two members, and even though they had the Hulk, their prospects were slim.
"Hello, boys and girls!" They turned away from the approaching soldiers to view the arrival of three teenagers. One girl had pale purple kin, the other had green skin, and the only boy had red skin.
They all immediately went to fighting stances, Banner's skin taking a green hue. "Who are you," demanded the Widow. The purple girl laughed, seeming to be the leader.
"Relax, relax! We are friends, not foe. We are here to help; we have noticed your predicament and decided to lend a hand. I am Lavender, and this is Sage," she pointed to the green girl, "and Rose," as she pointed to the boy.
Clint snorted. "Rose? That's not a very manly name-"He was cut off by a knife to his throat, a red hand holding it.
"You mess with the Rose; you get the thorns, Hawkeye." Lavender said this with a smile on her face, but her voice was sharp and her posture rigid.
Hawkeye nodded slowly, realizing that these people were much more dangerous than they seemed.
Lavender's voice then dropped lower, taking on a more commanding pitch. "Rose, you work on creating soldiers to combat the ones you see here, with different types of weapons just in case. Enchant some of them to resupply, if need be. Also, create tanks and such to combat theirs.
"Sage, get to the top of a building close to the army and bust out your guitar. Try a Sleeper Hold, and if that doesn't work, try a Berserker. Either one should work. You guys got your coms on, right?" They both nodded, and leapt into action. Sage ran up to a building and started to quickly climb up it, while Rose pulled out an easel and a charcoal pencil and started to draw. His arm started to glow red, and as he drew, the soldiers that Lavender was talking about slowly coming to life, jumping off of the page, their voices the sounds of pencils scratching. They started to charge the enemy soldiers, reproducing themselves in droves.
The Avengers looked in fascination, confused and awed. "What do you want us to do?"
Lavender seemed surprised they wanted her to lead them, but she quickly regained her balance. "I need you guys to start evacuating the civilians. They're in danger, but we don't know how much right now. Honestly I don't want to find out, either." All of them nodded and started to evacuate everyone.
It was a few hours later, and the army had been all but cleared. SHIELD soon came in to take in all of the soldiers for questioning, and all of citizens had been successfully evacuated. Lavender sat perched on the edge of a roof. She was about to jump down when she heard a quiet shuffling behind her, causing her to jump down, her hands glowing purple. "Who's there?"
A girl her age stepped out of the shadows, dressed in all black, a black mask on her face, and her right arm made of metal, a whip crackling with electricity encased the silver hand.
"Who the hell are you?" The girl, green eyes seeming familiar, opened her mouth to talk.
"I am Lady Solstice." She didn't seem up for talking, cracking her wrist towards Lavender, causing the whip to lash her in the chest. It singed the thick fabric, but didn't cut it. Lavender still felt the sting, and got angry.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Lavender sent out a blast of purple energy towards Lady Solstice, and this seemed to surprise her.
"You are a stronger opponent than I anticipated." Before Lavender could respond, Lady Solstice rushed forward and pushed her off of the ledge, catching her off guard. A petrified scream followed her down.
Everyone looked up as Lavender shot down the side of the building. Before any of them could react, she landed, creating a crater in the concrete of the abandoned street.
"Oh fuck this!" She stood up, covered in dust and dirt. Her shirt was ripped, her stomach peaking through.
"What the hell is going on?" Rose ran forward, and helped her out of the crater.
"Shit, that's what." She turned her body towards the top of the roof, and yelled.
"Hey Lady Whatever-Your-Name-Is, I'm not dead, damnit!" She ran to the middle of the street, away from the rest of them. Neither Rose or Sage followed her, so neither did the Avengers.
Soon, a loud thump alerted them to the arrival of a girl dressed in all black, and from the look on Lavender's face, it was who pushed her off of the roof. A whip crackled in her hand, and her masked face seemed menacing.
She flicked the whip forward, and Lavender dodged it, light on her feet. She got closer, ducking the whip over and over, knowing that it was useless at close range. Soon she got close enough to land a hit, and she tornado kicked the girl in the face, knocking off her mask. She froze though, and felt her fists fall to her sides limply.
"Annabelle?"
She was promptly punched in the face by a metal hand.
Steve slid down the wall, shock running through his frame.
"Sir would you like me to-"
"JARVIS, just don't, son."
"Annabelle? That Annabelle?"
"Candi, you're insane-"
"Candi?!" The purple skinned girl turned brown, and took the tinted glasses off of her eyes.
"Sorry, Dad."
"You're damn right you're sorry! Get your ass over-"
"No can do. Nice try, though." She shot forward, propelling herself forward by a burst of purple energy flowing through her, picking up Annabelle and flying away.
Bruce shook his head, and turned to Lanie and Kyle, confused. "Who are you guys?"
"They're kids who live in the Tower that are about to get into a whole bunch of trouble."
"Aw, c'mon Tony, lighten up a bit-"
"Lighten up? Really? You guys let my daughter-"
"You know damn well that we have no control over-"
"Alright, I think that it's high time that all calmed down," interjected Natasha. She then turned to the kids. "I think it's fair that we get answers from you guys, don't you think?" The kids nodded. "Alright, first things first, who is that girl that Candi's fighting?"
Both of the children looked nervous until Kyle nudged Lanie forward, the taller girl sighing. "Annabelle…she and Candi were friends before Tony even adopted her. They were the best of friends, because Annabelle was different, just like Candi.
"But Candi fell in love with Annabelle-"
"I adopted Candi when she was nine, you both know that. How in the world would someone younger than that fall in love?" Lanie sighed and answered Tony's question.
"By her eighth birthday, Candi had reached peak emotional maturity. The way she acts with you? That's an act. She acts a helluva lot more innocent around you, because she knows how much you enjoy watching her grow up. But she hasn't been growing up since then. She's just gotten bigger. Honestly, she's mentally an adult.
"Anyway, she fell in love with Annabelle, and Annabelle fell in love with Candi. But Annabelle's dad was extremely abusive, and knew that Annabelle was a mutant-"
"What the hell is a-"
"Tony shut up." Natasha fixed him with a glare, and he quieted down.
"He knew that Annabelle could turn invisible, and he hated her for it. So one day, while Candi and Annabelle were at a school function, he came in, drunk out of his mind. He had a gun in his hand, and he was looking for Annabelle. She turned herself over so he would hurt everyone and he forced her to reveal to everyone what she was-"
"A freak?"
"Shut the hell up, Tony!" Kyle turned to the man, tears in his eyes. Everyone was silent.
"Continue, please," came the soft utter from Clint, one of the first words he had spoken all day. He looked at Kyle and nodded, understand the boy on a level that no one else did.
"He was going to shoot her, but she started to get away. He shot her in the ankle and-"Lanie cut herself off, and looked away.
"What? What happened?"
"Candi killed him. She was so angry; she described it as 'losing complete control'. She bashed his head in until there wasn't really anything to punch anymore."
Everyone was in shock, except for the two kids.
"And then Candi moved, presumably to Tony's house."
Annabelle threw her off of her onto the roof of a low building, landing next to her. She punched at the girl but Candi grabbed her arm and pulled it back behind the other girl. "You know, when we were kids, Annie, you were never this feisty."
"Who the hell is Annie? I am Lady Solstice, I am a mindless killing machine," the girl recited. Candi grew angry and shoved the girl into a nearby wall.
"That is something that I will never, ever believe. You were never mindless, and you never will be." She got thrown back, and Annabelle walked over to her.
"Annie, you need to come back to me." She got slapped across the face again, the girl's face angry.
"Stop calling me Annie!" The girl was growing more and more unstable, grabbing at her red hair and shaking it back and forth. Candi saw that she was getting through whatever mind control she was under, and tried harder.
"Do you remember that time you refused to watch Doctor Who until the season went off, and then we stayed up 36 hours watching almost two seasons straight of your box set?" Annabelle threw Candi through a wall, screaming at her.
"Who are you?! What are you doing to me?!"
"Remember when my mom painted you to look like tree, and you jumped out and scared people that entire weekend. It took-"
"Stop!" Annabelle threw her off of the building at this point, causing her to land with a large thud.
The silence was broken by the broken pants of Steve running up to them.
"Steve! What are you-"
THUD
"What the hell was that?" They looked over to see Candi on the ground again, Annabelle jumping after her.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
Candi landed on her back, causing a crater in the ground again. Annabelle jumped after her, straddling her stomach. She started to punch at Candi, but the other girl only held up her hands to block the punches so she could continue speaking.
"Remember you last words to me? You said 'allez-vous rester mon monstre mariée', remember that? I searched up what that meant. The answer is yes. The answer will always be yes."
Annabelle's face grew red with anger, almost matching the burning shade of her hair. "Stop talking!" She wrapped her hands around Candi's neck, and pressed.
"Sir, my sensors indicate that Madam is losing oxygen to her brain. I believe that she is being choked."
"Fuck this, I'm going after her." Tony fired up the thrusters, but two shots of red energy overloaded them.
"The hell you are. Candi needs to deal with this on her own."
"Stop talking!" Candi soon had to choke out her words.
"R-remember when you said th-that I was yours? Does th-that still ap-ply?"
"Yes-I mean, shut up!" Annabelle's eyes were glazed over now, her internal battle taking over.
Candi could feel more than see the blackness seeping into her vision, and smiled at Annabelle. She lifted up a weak arm, and stroked Annabelle's face.
"I l-love you. I alw-ways have. N-no matter what." Her arm limply dropped, and her eyes closed.
Just then, the Lady Solstice had lost to Annabelle, and the girl had realized what she had done.
"Candi?" She cradled the girl in her arms, and started to cry.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"
"You can you after her now, y'know." Tony lifted his head up, but he knew he'd be useless. He still had probably five minutes before the thrusters came on, and his heart wouldn't appreciate him running 5 blocks. He looked to his right. "Hey Steve?"
The soldier nodded. "On it." He shot forward, leaping over rubble and overturned cars.
Annabelle had never cried so hard in her life.
Steve soon reached the girls, and saw brokenness in Annabelle that caused him to pause.
"Arrest me, do whatever you need to. Just bring her back, please!" Her voice broke on the last syllable, and so did his heart.
He tried to touch Candi, but he could, his hand burnt by a light purple film the covered her entire body. Annabelle seemed unaffected by the film, but he didn't say anything.
"I don't really understand magic that well, but if you bring her over there-"he was cut off by the girl speeding off at an alarming rate with Candi in her arms. He set off after them, astounded.
The girl ran towards them, Candi in her arms. She set her down gently, but before she could say anything, Widow had her in a choke hold with a knife pressed to her neck.
"Who are you and what to you want?" Annabelle gulped before answering.
"My name is Annabelle and I love this girl with all of my heart."