Author's Notes
Sorry for taking so long, but it's finally here, thank you for the review mysterious guest, I'll try to update as quickly as I can. Enjoy the chapter.
I do not own the right to Marvel's characteers, they obviously belong to Marvel.
Chapter 2 - Wake Up
For a lot of time, she couldn't see or hear anything, she thought she was dead until a familiar memory displayed. Stevie was sitting on a branch of a fairly tall tree she climbed at Franklin Square, the girl remembered that day. She was twelve, it had been two weeks since she started studying on Blackstone School, her first school, and she could not stand it anymore. She felt trapped in that classroom, bored out of her mind, that and the fact that she couldn't make any friends. Who needs those jerks anyway? I'm much better out here. She thought to herself, if her mother found out that she was skipping class, she would have the girl's hide, but she didn't care, she looked on her cellphone she got her last birthday, 8:26 AM. She got up from the branch and got a hold of the trunk and slowly, but surely, climbed down the tree, when she got to a safe height, she dropped from it, landing on her two feet.
"So let's see, sucessfully escape class, check, spend an hour listening to music and watching the streets like a loner, check, what should I do now?". She thought for a second, she got an idea of what to do, Stevie ran across the street. The day was beautiful, it was one of the waning days of summer and fall was starting to kick in, the trees were still green, but the wind was getting more chilly, and people started using clothes that were best suited for that time of the year, Victorian style buildings addorned the not so crowded, but yet noisy, streets, her black wavy hair along with her clothes and the oak trees swayed with the wind that came from the sea. She ran until she saw a Gothic structure standing in front of her, the buiding was very tall, no matter from which direction you looked there was always a lot of windows, making the place much more beatiful, the girl approached the front doors, there was a big rose window above it, one day she would climb the big tower that stood on the right side of the main entrance, so she could see the entire South End, its Victorian buildings, the cars, the parks, she would feel like she was the queen, ruling from high above, or a superhero, watching over the good people of Boston and all that righteous stuff. She liked playing around with that thought, sometimes she would dream that she was soaring above the city, kicking bad guys' butts and then people would wave for her, thank her for making the city a better place, and then her mother would scold her for doing these dangerous stuff. Stevie entered the holy place, she stopped running, she wasn't the brightest person around, but she was sure that it wouldn't look good if she ran around inside the place.
"Hi Stevieh, hah wah ya?". Asked an elderly woman with brown eyes.
"Hi Mrs. Brown, I'm fine, have you seen Father Pyotr around?". Stevie noticed that only older people had this thicker accent. The effects of globalization?. She wondered.
"Shure, he's havihn breakfast at the kitchehn, I think ya know yoh weih around, righ'?".
"Yup, thanks Mrs. Brown". Stevie started walking further into the cathedral
"Oh, Yo're welcome deah". The elderly woman responded, the place was fairly empty. Not so many people praying these days. She thought, Stevie was walking in the middle lane admiring the white pillers, the stained glasses, the effects of the light that painted the place, giving it the holy ambience. She wasn't religious, she wasn't even sure if she believed in God or not, a weird thing to say given that she lived in a world where a nordic god, a man in a flying suit, a giant green monster and others anormalities, protected society against a nazi paranormal organization, purple aliens and other crazy nordic gods. In a place like this, people definetly kept their minds open. As she casually walked on the middle lane, an old lady was giving her a weird look, insulted by the disrespect the girl demonstrated in front of the holy cross, Stevie noticed the lady and quickly made the sign of the cross, so she wouldn't look too rude, it got the lady to stop looking at her. She turned right and opened a wooden door to her left which led to a beige kitchen, people were having breakfast, most of them were the kind and gentle nuns. The place smelled like coffe and fresh cake, Stevie spotted the old man she was looking for leaned against a wall and wearing a black, ankle-length cassock, he had white hair with some gray strands, a characteristic, big russian nose, and a fairly large white beard that would make some people jealous, he kind of reminded her of Santa Claus, with the exception that he wasn't fat.
"Good morning Father Pyotr!". The girl cheerfully chanted with a bright smile on her face, the priest took a sip of his coffe and also greeted her with the same smile.
"Good morning to you too Stevie, we have lemon cake, it is still fresh, do you want some?". He replied with his funny accent, the black-haired girl nodded, the lemon cake that was normally served on the breakfast, was one of her favorites, she nodded. "Sister Jude, could you please get a plate for Ms. Hansen".
"Sure, should I get one for you too Father Pyotr?". The nun gently asked.
"No thanks, a man should not eat more than he needs to". He replied, they sat next to each other on the big oval table, most of the people there started leaving to do their daily routine. The nun brought a plate, a fork and a knife to the girl, than left with a tender smile.
"Enjoy the cake Stevie". She said.
"Thanks Sister Jude". The girl answered as she cut a generous slice of the lemon pound cake and put on her plate
"So, how is my little tsvetok, climbing a lot of trees?". Tsvetok meant flower, is how the old man usually called Stevie, she learned the meaning of the word from him, if someone else called her flower she might have felt a little bit awkward, people who actually knew her would call her anything but flower. Naughty, rebel, crazy, climbing-monkey, it's what people usually called her, she didn't try to deny it, she was all of that, but with Pyotr was different, it seemed just natural, besides, she liked the sound of the russian word, it sounded fierce, strong, powerful.
"Oh you know, last week climbed two floors outside my building, no big deal". She said with a smug look on her face and took a bite of her cake, the old Russian chuckled.
"Yes, you told me that already, you told everyone on South End that already, you know, it's sinful to be full of pride, speaking of sin, aren't you supposed to be on school right now?". That got her by surprise, she was trying to think of an excuse.
"Ummmm". The old man tried to hold another chuckle.
"You are not really thinking about lying to a priest, are you?".
"What?! No". She lied.
Her surroundings started changing, the ceiling turned into the blue sky with some clouds, the beige walls and the windows disappeared, replaced by a park with green trees, and the silence of the previous room turned into the tweets of the birds. They were walking, Father Pyotr was by her side talking to her. This was moments after she finished the cake.
"And how is your mother? I haven't seen her on the masses lately". He asked her.
"She is working on a new project, and she says it takes a lot of time, she's out almost the entire day, that's why I'm on school now, it sucks". She answered, feeling a little bit down.
"I understand what you are going through, when I was a boy-". And here he goes again. She thought, it was commom to see Father Pyotr talking about his past when he lived in Russia, Stevie cut him off and tried to be funny.
"Back in Soviet Russia". She said copying his accent.
"Hey! I don't talk like that". He tried to disguise his accent, unfortunately, he miserably failed, that only made the girl laugh even harder.
"Hmph, you're impossible". He sighed.
"Father, can I ask you something?". She innocently spoke.
"Anything". He responded.
"Why did you become a priest?". The man pondered for a moment, he then finally gave her an answer.
"It's a long story, but the main reason is that, I simply just wanted to make my world a better place".
"By being a priest?". She asked, a little confused.
"We all find different ways to do it, be it by spreading His word and telling people what to do or by saving people on a falling building, it makes no difference, what matters is their intention". They stopped walking, he then assumed a very serious look. "You know you are dreaming, right?".
"Wait! He wasn't supposed to say that, right? I remember this day!". The girl was shocked, she tried to say something about that bizarre situation, but she couldn't move her lips to speak, it was as if her body didn't belong to her.
"You must wake up, the world needs you to make it a better place". She wasn't on her body anymore, she was seeing herself and Father Pyootr as if she was another person, not even that, she didn't have a body, she was just a POV, he then stopped looking at the twelve year old Stevie and looked to her actual direction, he walked up to her and placed his hands on the shoulders she didn't knew she had.
"Do what's right Stevie, show them, wake up".
"Father". She managed to say with her own voice.
"WAKE UP!". She blinked and saw herself on a dark room, her room, she was laying on her bed as if she had just woke up. What the hell?. She touched her face and felt a small piece of gauze on her left cheekbone, she immediately remembered where she was, or rather when. She was fourteen and it was just one day after she accidentaly slipped on the sewers and cut her face, or at least that's what she told her mother, she actually got that small cut on a fistfight she may had started with some jackholes back on school. If her city exploring got her mother on her nerves, imagine what she would've done if she heard that her daughter got in a fight. She got up from her bed and headed to the kitchen to have breakfast, she walked down the small corridor that separated her room from the kitchen. She had lived on that apartment her whole life, it wasn't big or fancy, but it was cozy, and what use would be a big house if she mostly wanted to spend her time outside anyway? She noticed a sleepy brown-haired woman sitting on the table drinking coffe from a mug, she was almost falling over because of how tired she looked.
"Hey mom, are you okay?". The girl asked while she grabbed a bowl and her cereal.
"Oh, hi sweetie, good morning to you too!". The woman jolted awake and spoke like she had the best night of sleep of her life.
"O-kay". Stevie awkwardly answered. "How's the project going?".
"Well, we've been making, how should I put this? Some striking progress".
"That's good to know, once you finish it, we can finally go on that roadtrip". The girl said with some hope on her voice.
"Umm, you see, it's more complicated than that". The scientist answered with one of her usual sentences.
"Oh no, don't you dare give me that sentence! C'mon mom, you've been working on this thing since I was fuc-". She stopped mid-sentence before she could say the word that would get her in one of her mother's infamous scoldings. "Since I was freaking born, you gotta take some time off from it, we don't need that much money". The scientist let out a chuckle.
"Oh sweetie, if I worked for the money I would've studied economy instead of biological engineering".
"Then what is it?". The girl asked, Maya sighed, thinking of a simple way to answer the girl.
"It's, umm, it's to make my world a better place, to ease the suffering of other people". She said, hoping her daughter would understand, some moments of silence passed between them, the expression on Stevie's face gave away that she understood. She was very sympathetic to people who had that resolve, she learned to admire that from Father Pyotr, but she wouldn't let her mother get away so easily.
"If this answer was any cheesier, it would be called Cheesecake Factory". She joked, her mother laughed. Stevie's sense of humour was one of her best qualities, she was told that she got that from her father.
"How's the cut?". Maya asked, trying to get a better look on the girl's cheekbone.
"Meh, fine". She tried to act tough, so her mother wouldn't worry, in Stevie's mind, the brown-haired woman had enough things to worry about.
"Good, I don't want to hear about you doing this kind of stuff anymore, okay?". The girl raised her right hand like she was pleadging a vow.
"Yes ma'am". She was, of course, lying. The girl blinked, and all of a sudden, she wasn't on the kitchen eating her daily bowl of cereal anymore, intead she was on her building's rooftop, the wind was howling in her ears.
"Oh Yeah". She smiled to herself.
It was her first time leaping to another building's roof, the adrenaline mixed with the cold fall wind was giving her goosebumps, she remembered how good she was feeling. On this one she could not mess it up, one failed move and she could end up on a wheelchair, or a grave. She was ready to do her stunt, she'd finally built the courage to do it.
"Ready, set, YOLO!". She started running, the wind was against her, telling how bad of an idea that was, but she didn't care, her left foot boosted her forward, towards the edge of the other building, she was mid-air, her arms on a position that looked like she was a lioness about to catch her pray, everything seemed to be in slow motion. The silence was so overwhelming, the wind, howling moments before, was now whispering on her ears, the cars and even the birds didn't make any noise, it was like the whole city, no, the entire world stopped to see the moment of truth, or maybe it was just the adrenaline that made her feel that way. She was above the other building, she'd made it. She landed with style, doing a roll like on of those spy movies, she couldn't believe that she'd done it, the adrenaline was still flowing through her body like an electrical current, she screamed to let it all out, she felt amazing, like a rockstar. Suddenly, she spotted a dark figure behind a corner, spying on her, she had control of her body and decided to check that out.
When she turned the corner she was no longer on a rooftop, she wasn't even walking, she was instead riding a bycicle at full speed in the middle of St. Stephen street, no breaks, she was fifteen, not one of her best moments in life. Stevie dropped out of highschool to become a bike courier, mostly just to piss off her mom, but also, after three years of studying on a school she couldn't stand it anymore. Being locked away on a boring room, with boring people she didn't like, listening to boring classes about pointless subjects drove her nuts, she felt like everything she did there was worthless, like she couldn't become more than just an annoying highschool student. Her mother was very angry, but after a big fight, Maya decided to let the girl go on with her projects. Even though everything seemed alright, Stevie could feel that her mom was disappointed. She also got more paranoid with things, she often mumbled things to herself about if something was right or wrong, she would spend less time with her daughter on her home and more time God-knows-where working on that project. Stevie hated that, she wanted to show her that she made the right choice, but how? The girl thought that if she made more money out of her work, she would then prove to her mother that, in some way, she was doing something good to the world. So, she decided to take all her jobs seriously, she would always go full speed on her Giant Escape 1 2014, it was the cheapest bike she could find, but it got the job done. When she bought it, she immediatly took the brakes off, she wouldn't be needing that, she also 'improved' the chain so it would let her go faster. But her trick had a minor flaw, if she went too long on a high speed without slowing down the chain would come out, get tangled on the wheel, and get her launched across the street, just a minor flaw.
But back to the action, that day Stevie got a package worth a lot of money, it was very important to her to get that money since they were facing some financial problems. Many couriers got jealous they didn't get a job paying that much, she was leaving that package to be her last delivery, she'd just finished one delivery and was talking to the old man who got the package, when then, another bike courier swooped, grabbing her backpack with the valuable package inside.
"HEY COME BACK HERE!". She screamed, getting on her bike to chase him. You're not going to get away with this you bastard!. She was going full speed after him, they were on the middle of St Stephen St, a truck was coming on their direction, both bikers dodged it, Stevie almost hit on one of the parked cars, but that didn't make her slow down, she was not losing that package. The thief turned left. He's going to cross Huntington Ave?! Idiot thinks I don't have the balls to ride along, huh? . She thought, at the end of the street there were a lot of cars going along the avenue, they were getting closer and closer, the biker didn't hit the breaks, he crossed, Stevie was right behind him, one cab furiously beeped and cursed the reckless girl that he almost hit, the biker quickly looked behind him to see if the girl was still chasing him, damn right she was, his expression showed some annoyance, he looked to be around her age. Alright then, which way you gonna turn? Left or right jackass?. She was calculating his moves, she saw that he couldn't turn right without slowing down, she preemptively turned left to get some advantage on him, the thief tried to mislead her by doing a faint turn to the right, but she already made her decision, she knew that he couldn't go that way, the results were him almost getting hit by her. They were on the sidewalk, pedestrians were getting out of the way of the two bikers who apparently lost their minds. The guy turned right on a narrow entrance to an alley, she followed him, they were dodging construction material, Stevie almost messed up and hit a pile of bricks, they were going up a ramp, she was getting tired, but she was not letting go of that package, she would prove to her mother that she didn't screw up. He looked back again to see if she would still chase him, yup, still there. Where are we now? Is this St Botolph St or Greenleaf St? Who cares Stevie?! Just go get him!. She started pedalling harder, she was on the sidewalk and was ready to hit the back wheel of the thief, they were getting closer to a crossroad. Almost there!. She then heard a clink coming from her back wheel, a clink that the girl was used to hear.
"Oh no". Was all she could menage to say before the chain of her bycicle got tangled on the wheel, the bike stopped, she was launched forward, her right shoulder was the first thing to hit the ground, the momentum caused her to violently roll over, grazing her skin a little bit. She looked up, the biker looking back at her, a smile on his lips caused by his victory over her, there was some tears forming on the corner of her eyes.
"Don't worry Stevie, just wait a little bit". She tried to say to the 15 year old version of herself, the biker continued to look at her and was about to cross Gainsborough St, a truck honked, asking the biker to get out of the way, it was too late. He was hit by the massive vehicle, the backpacks he was carrying were sent flying across the street, everyone stopped to see what happened. A part of the 15 year old was cheering the guy's disgrace, and another felt bad for what happened. She got up and walked over to where her backpack landed, no one was noticing her, they were all focused on the boy, she started to walk away when she saw his backpack lying there too, for a moment she thought about getting it for herself, stealing all his jobs and money, give him a taste of what it felt like, but then, she thought about her mom and Father Pyotr. What the hell am I thinking?. Doing this wasn't her style, she already got what she came for. She grabbed the backpack and walked over to a middle-aged lady who was part of the crowd surrounding the boy, she tapped her shoulder and said.
"Hey lady, here, I think that's his". She handed her the backpack, this was all eerie to her, her voice sounded like it had no emotion, because she didn't know what emotion should come out.
"Oh, doan worry, I'll make sure the paramehdics get it". The woman said with a very slight Bostonian accent. "Always a piteh when things like that happen, you be careful tehre".
"Yeah". She said a little dumbfounded by what just happened, moments ago the light-blue-eyed girl wanted the biker to suffer for what he did, and now that she'd got what she wanted, she wasn't sure what to think, a part of her felt guilty for what happened. She walked over to her bike that was laying on the ground away from the crowd, she untagled the chain from her wheel and hooked it back to its place, it was good as new now. She raised her bike from the ground, a dark figure was standing in front of her, the same figure that she followed on the rooftop.
"What the hell?". There was still sunlight, she didn't know how that was possible, that shadowy figure was definetly not part of her memory.
"Look at what we have here, Stevie Hansen saving the day". His voice sounded calm and deep, like an middle-aged man, he had no accent and nothing remarkable, Stevie didn't know whom that voice belonged to, as far as she knows, it could belong to any middle-aged man.
"Who are you?". She asked the dark figure.
"Me? Well can't you see? I'm no one, just a fruit of your imagination". He responded.
"A fruit of my imagination huh? In that case...". She pictured the dark figure turning into a bunny, she wasn't sure if it was going to work, but it did, he shrinked in size, instead of being a dark shadow he now had white fur and cute bunny ears, the girl laughed. The bunny grew back in size and instead of having cute fur and ears now had the dark color from before.
"Ha ha, very funny". He spoke unamused.
"What do you want?".
"I want to make my world a better place". Her expression was of shock when she heard his words. "Yes, you're quite fond of saying that aren't you? But what have you actually done to make this world better?". He provoked, she was left unsettled by the comment.
"You don't know shit". She took her things and started to walk away.
"But I do, I know you Stevie, I know you better than you know yourself, I know that you fear being a failure". She didn't like him at all, because what he was saying was true, she lately felt like a burden that can't do nothing, couldn't go well on school so she dropped out, the money she brought wasn't that much, she felt like she was letting everyone down, she told herself that she was doing something right, that she was onto something good, but deep inside she knew it all. "You mostly screw up your entire life, but now I'm here to help you with your resolve, in order to do that you only need to wake up". She was about to say something to that idiot who thought that he was above her, but then it was too late, he was no longer there, in fact, she was no longer there, she was back on her home packing some things. That was recent, she was going to stay with Mrs Hughes for a while. Her mom told her the night before. Stevie noticed something very strange on Maya's behaviour, she was nervous and erratic like she was trying to run away from the police or something. She said something about meeting her dad in LA, Stevie rarely wondered about her mysterious father, her mother didn't mention him. Why? she was asking herself, after all these years did her mother start doing this?. Has she finally gone nuts after working on that project of hers? I hope not. She thought, she was fiddling with a necklace, the pendant was a silver cross, it was a gift from Father Pyotr. She then heard a knock on the door.
"Hey Stevih, you theah?". A lady called her.
"Coming Mrs Hughes". She answered, when she opened the door and stepped ou she wasn't in her building's corridor, instead she was in an airport. Wait. She said mentally, the dark figure was accompanying her. "What do you want now?!". She asked him annoyed.
"I'm here to watch the show". He pointed at a girl who was sitting on a bench playing with a metallic sphere, it was her, Stevie knew what was going to happen next, she ran at the girl trying to stop what was about to come.
"Hey you Sto-". Too late, the same blinding light appeared again, the explosion went off, people screaming, being burned alive, the building coming down on their heads. This was the soundtrack of that moment, that horrible moment. Everything turned black but she could still hear the screams of other people. The voice of the dark figure spoke.
"The box opened and it's never going to close again, war is coming... with all its glory... and all its pain... time for you to wake up, be decisive, make no mistake".
