A few hours previous, with Natasha...
She was having a rather crappy day. First they had trouble getting into Russia because the Ministry was on the lookout for her, then she was forced to book a hotel with cameras, and finally an agent from the known UN organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. had shown up, helped deal with the idiots sent to kill her, and ended up recruiting her in the process.
She was tired of running, and this had been too close for her tastes.
"Where are you going?" asked Hawkeye, the man who had helped her.
"I have someone I need to pick up. I'm not leaving this city without them," she said simply.
"It's too dangerous for you to be outside. Where is this person?"
She gave him both the coordinates, hoping that he wouldn't need to use the back-up site.
She wasn't that lucky. Adrian had to use one of his Widow's Kiss tablets to deal with mafia thugs who had come into the room, and had made a quick escape with his snake and bird. Hawkeye was giving her son odd looks, mostly because of the black eye he was now sporting. She stayed close to her son, if only to protect him from the agents on board.
"So...who's the kid?"
"His name is Andy. He's... someone I can rely on no matter what," she said simply.
"Fights like a devil," said Hawkeye, giving the kid a look. She wondered if he recognized her moves or not. Probably not, since it had been dark.
Natasha was interrogated, given her options, and agreed to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. For now. She went to where they were holding Adrian, and the second he saw her he blew the people in the room out of the water in shock.
"Mom!" he cried racing outside to hug her in relief. Verde slithered on his pants and rested around his neck while Kara took her spot on his shoulder.
Hawkeye, no Clint, choked in disbelief.
"Mom?" he repeated in shock.
Adrian asked her what was going on in Russian, a language they were unlikely to understand.
"Mom, what the hell happened?"
"I had a too close call, and they didn't give me a lot of options. I'll be working with these people for a while. I won't let anyone take you."
Adrian hugged her tighter.
"Who the hell is this?" asked Fury in actual confusion.
Then again, Natasha was very thorough when she protected her son from her alter ego. No one, no one knew she had a son.
"My son," she said simply.
"I wasn't aware you had one," said Fury calculating.
"Mom's good. I don't help on her jobs and she always makes sure I'm able to handle anything that tracks me down. The last idiot who figured out I was close to her got hung by his balls and his throat cut open," said Adrian simply.
"Does this kid have a name?" asked Clint, eyes twitching.
"Adrian. Though when we're in public he goes by Andy."
Adrian was the talk of the base. Everyone was in shock that the Black Widow, infamous super spy and assassin, had a son who took after her. The fact that she had legally adopted him under one of her many assumed named was a moot point. He was her son in every way that anyone cared.
Clint, however, was giving Adrian an evil eye because of the black eye he had given him.
That vanished the first time Adrian pulled a prank on the agents in the base...and managed to get his mother's new handler covered in maple syrup. (His name was Phil.)
An unholy alliance was born.
Adrian couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"What do you mean I have to go to school?" he whined. Yes whined.
He was a thirteen year old and he hated being around normal people for too long. It had been nearly two years since his mother was recruited by Clint (who was officially the most awesome person in Adrian's mind) and he had become a common sight among S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and was considered the go-to hacker if they needed information in a hurry.
"I'm going to be on a three month watchman's duty with some rookie. I will not stand for you to be stuck in one of the bases the entire time. Did you know Phil's threatened to have you scrub the entire helicarrier if he gets caught by your pranks again?" said Natasha firmly.
Adrian winced.
"But school is so damn boring! Besides, everyone else is slower than me and you know I hate doing monotonous assignments that don't mean anything!" complained Adrian.
Natasha counted to ten. Her sudden calm sparked an idea.
"Are you still in contact with Xavier?"
"The Prof? Yeah, why?"
"Didn't you mention he ran a school for gifted children?" she said.
Adrian perked up. Xavier, when he learned of his actual age, had given him an invitation to his school if he had ever been in the area. And there was a headquarters in the same town, under an assumed name of course.
"So are we agreed? You'll go to school with kids your own age while I'm on assignment and I'll come to see you once it's over?"
Adrian thought long and hard about it. He always worried when she went on assignment. Then he looked at Kara.
"I'll do it. But only if you take Kara with you," he said finally.
Kara squawked in disapproval. She didn't want to leave Adrian.
"Please Kara? I would feel better if mom had a bird as smart as you as her back-up," he pleaded.
Natasha and Adrian knew Kara wasn't an ordinary bird, but a mortal shell for something else.
Kara cawed, before she started to make a racket. Natasha and Adrian were both surprised when a second crow flew in, a little smaller than Kara was. It looked at Kara, who spoke in the odd language of the crows and pointed at Natasha with a single wing. The newer crow looked at Natasha before sitting calmly on her shoulder. Adrian noted it was the opposite one Kara usually perched on.
"So does this new crow have a name?" asked Natasha to Kara.
Kara turned her head twice which they knew meant 'no'. She tended to bob when she meant 'yes'.
"How about Su?" asked Adrian.
"Kara and Su?" said Natasha in amusement.
"The new bird's a girl too," said Adrian defensively.
"Is it just Su or is her name Karasu as well?"
"Just Su. Kara doesn't answer to her full name anymore remember?"
"So are you willing to go to school now that I have an 'escort'?" asked Natasha.
Adrian nodded. He felt better knowing she had something to watch her back.
"Welcome Andy. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person," said Xavier. Andy shook his hand firmly. And ignored the fact his chat buddy was in a wheelchair.
"Can I leave him in your care until I return to the States?" she asked the man seriously.
"Andy is perfectly fine here. I have it on good authority that Clint Barton was recently put in the base twenty miles down the road just in case," said Xavier.
Andy had been surprised to learn that Xavier knew Fury, and that some of his students had helped out with S.H.I.E.L.D. before. Explained the base nearby though.
Natasha nodded and left Adrian in the capable hands of Charles Xavier.
Adrian was given a room with another boy, Bobby, who he suspected was an ice elemental or something.
He went to explore the mansion and accidentally found himself in the infirmary.
"Can I help you?"
"Sorry, was exploring the place a bit. I'm new here," said Adrian.
The man smiled.
"Adrian Romanov I presume?"
"Andy in public," he said automatically.
"Hank McCoy, resident doctor," he said holding out his hand.
"Like Star Trek?"
Hank gave a long suffering sigh.
"My expertise is quite different from the character," he said tiredly.
Adrian was about to say something when Verde hissed.
He blinked.
"What do you mean you smell a large amount of fur?" he asked the snake.
"You can understand snakes?" asked McCoy, mildly surprised.
"Parselmouth. It's an offshoot of a specific branch of green magic, specifically the beast's tongue. I have some limited ability towards wolf-tongue and I can understand basic crow, but for some reason snake tongue comes easier than the others...probably because I always have Verde on or around me," said Adrian.
"Verde?"
Adrian lifted his snake in explanation.
"Here comes Kara," said Adrian.
The crow landed on his shoulder, satisfied by the bugs in the nearby garden.
"I get the feeling you'll fit in just fine Andy," said Hank.
"So...what did Verde mean by fur?" he asked.
Hank removed his image inducer, to see how the boy would react.
"That's it?" he said.
"You're not afraid of me? I am clearly a known mutant," he said calmly.
"Dude, you're just a huge blue cat thing. Fury scares me a hell of a lot more after he finds out I've pranked his computers again."
Hank chuckled.
Adrian found himself a novelty in Xavier's school. Mostly because he wasn't a mutant and yet the professor was letting him in the same classes as kids who had obvious mutations like one girl who had a cat's tail.
Once it became clear within the first few days that 'Andy' didn't give a damn about whether they were mutants or not, he found himself surrounded by others his own age who wanted to talk to him. Apparently the idea of talking to a kid who A) wasn't a mutant in any way shape or form and B) wasn't freaking out over their powers was enough to give him a rather large fan base.
Finding a regular human who wasn't afraid or wanted to exploit them or their powers was something they desperately wanted to learn about.
Of course he did get quite a few odd looks when, after he was tired of being gawked at, he informed his roommate that his mother was a known super spy and international assassin.
When Bobby tried to call him on it, only to learn he wasn't actually joking, well...oddly enough his popularity only grew.
As a consequence, Adrian spent large amounts of his time with Hank McCoy learning how to be a better medic. He had been Natasha's main source of first aid for the areas she couldn't reach easily or would have trouble tying off properly. He had become tolerably good at it, and that only increased thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new recruit orientation.
He had spent some of his time in the various bases learning simple medical techniques that some of the new recruits went through.
He was a qualified battlefield medic and he had been certified...to a point. It was hard to believe a twelve year old was a qualified nurse.
Hank got along with him fine once he understood that Andy was only there because he couldn't stand normal schools and because he was a friend of Charles to a point.
For some reason Adrian could only talk to people three times his age because of his natural genius-level IQ. Hank was just glad he wasn't condescending about it unless he was tired and in a bad mood.
He had been shocked the first time Andy's alter ego, a snarky and rather cruel side that he called 'Loki' for some reason, had shown up. Not nearly as shocked as Scott was when he had told Andy to butt out because he had thought the boy wasn't able to handle Jean's broken arm. The fact he had been the only one in the infirmary able to treat it and Scott had woken him up from a much needed nap hadn't helped. (Hank had been dealing with someone else at the time.)
Charles Xavier was having a staring contest with a crow.
Adrian had been curious who Kara was connected to, and since Charles was rightly concerned for his students, he had offered to see if he could find out.
Which lead to a now fifteen-minute staring contest.
Suddenly Charles blinked.
"That was most disconcerting," he said, trying to water his eyes.
"So?"
"It seems that Kara is one of Hel's messengers. And by that I mean Loki's daughter, not the area sinners go in certain religions," he said.
"Hel? Why would she be interested in me?" asked Adrian.
"She said that you were one of Loki's special chosen, and that he had asked her to watch over you for him as a favor. However you've apparently gained her favor all on your own by treating her familiar as one of your own," explained Charles.
"So...why hasn't she said anything before now?"
"Something about Odin having issues with a certain experiment Loki keeps trying to complete and destroying the test subjects before they have a chance to grow up. She couldn't say more than that without drawing someone's attention to you."
"Darn. I was hoping she could explain a few things."
"She said that if you were lucky you might be able to catch Loki on the rare trips he makes to Midgard to ask him what was going on," offered Charles.
"So how's school?" asked Natasha.
"It's great. Hank's teaching me to be a qualified doctor and he said that if it wasn't for my age I might be able to do stuff like surgery."
"That's great..."
"By the way, I finally found out who Kara and possibly Su belong to," said Adrian.
"Who?"
"Hel, Loki's daughter in Norse mythology. Apparently he's taken an interest in me for some reason and the crows are her messengers."
Natasha blinked.
"Loki's real?" she said.
"So is Asgard, but they're not really gods, just really long lived."
"Adrian, it looks like they might extend my mission by another month. Think you can handle that long?" she asked.
"I'm fine mom," said Adrian.
"Love you Andy," she said.
"Love you too mom," said Adrian before she hung up.
