My bad...
I'm really sorry for taking so long to update! A lot of stuff happened, and I went to a concert last night... Shoddy excuses but it's the best that I've got.
So... I have a poll for you guys! And since the polling system on my profile doesn't work, here it is:
Vote 1 or 2.
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Enjoy this (very late) chapter!
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Stephanie began making her way out of the room, only to pause as Agent Coulson tapped her shoulder. "Follow me," he said.
Stephanie did so, wondering why he wasn't leading her to her room.
"When you didn't return after a year, we figured you wouldn't fit into your old uniforms," Coulson explained over his shoulder as she caught up to him. "The others have other agents escorting them to their suits. We kept them in a vault, on one of the lower levels, but with your return we put them into fitting rooms to make sure you fit into them."
Stephanie nodded. "That makes sense," she said casually. "So, is this just a bigger version of my old costume...?"
"Well, we didn't have your old costumes to go off of-"
"What?! Why?!"
"They vanished with you. Only a few sets of your clothes were left behind. As I was saying, we figured out measurements according to the sizes of the clothes you left behind and scaled them up a bit. And no, it doesn't look much like your old uniform," Coulson explained, and left her to wonder as he opened the door.
Her first thoughts were "Oh my gosh- they got rid of the skirt."
Indeed, her skirt had vanished. Instead, she had a suit much more similar to her original's outfit, with the same inverted colors. She walked forward, silently noting the fingerless gloves and knee-high boots. Both were so blue they were almost black.
The mannequin spun at the push of a button. Stephanie began to smile.
"Can I try it on?" she asked.
"What's the point of clothes if you can't wear them?" Coulson asked dryly. "Go ahead. I'll be outside."
She waited until he was outside to lock the doors and switch outfits. Her new suit was slightly skintight, and she adjusted the sleeves a bit, trying to make the seams itch less. The back zipper stuck about halfway up, and Stephanie caught her breath. She sucked her stomach all the way in and finished pulling the zipper tag up, breathing a soft sigh of relief as she did so.
Stephanie unlocked the door. "Did you design this?" she asked cautiously as Coulson stepped back inside.
"I had a hand in it. What do you think?" he asked anxiously.
"It looks..." She hesitated. "More mature. In a good way. It's just a little... skintight."
"We can adjust it later," he said hastily. "The others are getting impatient, though."
She spun around, slightly missing her old uniform's skirt. "One thing, Coulson?" she asked.
"Hm?"
"Can I get a small knife- right here?" she asked, pointing to her wrist.
Coulson hesitated.
"It's just- I'm not my father. I've seen some bad things that could've been averted if someone had permanently taken down a threat." Stephanie shifted uncomfortably.
Coulson seemed to consider her request, before finally saying slowly, "I'll look into it. It might take a few days to build. It'd have to be springloaded, with a way of springing it on someone..." He trailed off and nodded. "I'll get some researchers on it."
"Thank you," Stephanie said warmly, and hugged him quickly. "I appreciate it."
"What will your father think?" Coulson asked.
Stephanie paused. "Um. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she finally said. "They're getting impatient...?"
"Follow me."
Stephanie picked up her shield and settled it on her arm. "Ready."
They retraced their steps, running into Claire as they walked. She wolf-whistled quietly upon seeing Stephanie's outfit.
"Shut up!" she said, blushing cherry red. "Because yours is oh-so-much better."
Claire's uniform was also skintight, clinging to her wiry frame. Her quiver looked interwoven into the back of the black tank-top. The tank-top had an asymmetric design on the front, with the deep purple cutting a wide swath from her right shoulder to her left hip. The black of her shirt bled into her black skinny-jean-pant-things. Her shoes were sensible black and purple tennis shoes, laced up to her calves.
Claire smiled coldly. "Not that I have anyone I need to show off to."
Stephanie winced at the reminder of the shattered relationship. She still had no clue what had gone wrong between the two.
They almost literally ran into Brenda, who had the same outfit- lavender tank-top and dark khaki pants- that she usually wore when Hulk'd out. "Lookin' good!" she complimented the two girls.
"I feel like EVERYTHING IS SHOWING," Stephanie muttered to her.
"Because it kinda is," she said, completely calm, ignoring Stephanie's sputtering.
Lena, Nathan, Lori, and Tasha were waiting outside of a quinjet, talking among themselves. Tasha was the first to spot them and grinned.
"Hey, you three! Trying to show us up?" she hollered.
"Whatever could you mean?" Claire asked dryly, doing her best to ignore Nathan.
"Besides the fact that all of the young recruits were staring at your a***s as you came over here? Nothing."
"WHAT?!" Stephanie practically screamed, and whipped around to catch at LEAST three young 20-somethings hurriedly turning away.
Lori started laughing and walked over to hug her friend. "Oh, you. Never, ever, ever change," she told Stephanie.
"If I could lose the skin-tight suit, maybe I could stay the same," she muttered. A sudden idea struck her and she slid both arms around her back, using her shield to hide her backside.
"I think you just disappointed some of the noobs," Tasha said, eyes dancing merrily.
"Let them be disappointed! I am NOT a piece of meat to eye!" Stephanie snapped angrily.
"Whoa there! No need to get so upset!" Tasha said, holding her hands up in the universal "whoa bro" sign.
Stephanie sighed and looked around at the others. Tasha had an "Iron Maiden" tee-shirt on- fitting, seeing as that was her chosen superhero name. She assumed that Tasha would be picking up a suit at the Tower, perhaps one of Tony's- she guessed they were about the same height.
Nathan had a black leather jacket zipped up to his chin with sharp studs all over it. He had black pants as well, and his red hair was buzz-cut to almost nothing. Normally it stuck up everywhere, with curls abounding.
Lena had a red cape trailing in the breeze behind her, fastened at the shoulders with small silver lightning bolts. Her armor was all silver, looking almost like a fishnet stocking covering her arms. She had kept the decorative circles, six in all, spread over her torso, and had a navy blue tee-shirt and leggings on under the armor.
Lori wore essentially a dress version of Loki's armor. It was a green and black dress, that reached just above the knee. Long armored black and grey tights trailed down to black boots. The dress was armored with thick black leather crisscrossing around her waist. Green fabric covered her shoulders, connecting together at the neck with a gold band. A small portion of skin was revealed just under her neck and ended above the chest, where the armor started. From the waist down, green, black, and gold fabric was layered, and a belt that looked similar to Loki's shoulderguard was wrapped loosely on her waist. And to complete the look, she held a thin staff in her right hand, which was covered by a thick armguard.
"When are we departing?" Lena asked impatiently. "I wish to rescue my father!"
"You're leaving now," a cool voice said. They turned to see two SHIELD agents, accompanied by Maria Hill, staring at them.
"You didn't tell us we were flying the Young Avengers!" one protested.
"Get over your hero worship and get them to Puente Antiguo, New Mexico," Maria said, giving the seven a sharp nod, which they returned.
"Yes ma'am," one said quickly, saluting as she turned and walked away.
The agents turned and slid past the Young Avengers as they walked in and sat down on the seats, quickly strapping themselves in. "We need to do a pitstop at Stark Tower," Tasha called to them as they took off.
"Stark Tower? You mean Avenger's Tower?" one asked.
"Yeah. We need to swing by and grab a few things."
"Yes ma'am. Settle in, we'll be there in 30 minutes," the other agent said, and off they went.
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The quinjet landed with a gentle *thump* on the deck of Avenger's Tower. The Young Avengers offloaded quickly and were met by a familiar- if slightly older- face.
"Pepper!" Tasha shouted, running towards Tony's secretary. Pepper smiled wanly and caught Tasha, hugging her tightly as the other Young Avengers crowded around.
She gently kissed Tasha's forehead and exchanged hugs and handshakes with the others. "I'm so glad to see you all, safe and sound," she said, feeling filling her voice. "If anyone can save Tony and the others, it's you."
Lena briefly smiled at Pepper and walked into the main lounge. "Jarvis!" she called loudly. "Where is my father's hammer?"
"It is currently on the next floor up, Miss Odinson. If you wish to step outside, I shall open a window so that you can summon it," the crisp British butler said.
Lena nodded and stepped back out onto the deck. She focused solely on the feeling in her gut that she connected to lightning and extended her right hand.
A window on the second floor opened suddenly, and a very familiar hammer shot out of the opening. A slow grin spread across Lena's face and she wrapped her hand tightly around the hilt.
Immediately, she felt a huge shock run through her veins, jolting the sleeping power in her to life. Lena raised Mjolnir to the skies and gathered lightning in the clouds overhead.
"Get back!" someone shouted and she grinned silently.
A supercharged bolt of lightning struck the hammer, and Lena channeled the power into her core. Age had strengthened and expanded her well of lightning, she found, because two years ago, she would have shorted out long ago. Lightning hummed through her veins and she abruptly cut the lightning off, dispersing the clouds with a wave of her free hand.
"That... was awesome," Tasha said delicately, in the silence that followed her light show.
Pepper smiled wearily, brushing strands of red hair out of her eyes. "Tasha, Tony made you a suit," she told the young woman. "He kept it in his workshop. It should still be there."
Tasha nodded and gave Pepper another hug. "I'll call you the second we rescue Tony," she said. "I'll call you straight away."
Pepper smiled again. "Thank you. Jarvis, send up Tasha's suit."
"Might I suggest she put on the bracelets that you wear?" the AI asked delicately.
Her eyes widened. "So that's what these are?!" she gasped, pulling the silver bracelets off and examining them more closely. "Why did Tony never tell me?"
"He wanted to keep them out of enemy hands?" Tasha said, a slight frown on her face. "I'll ask when we find him." She accepted the bracelets and clipped them onto her wrists.
"Jarvis, send up the suit, please."
They only waited for about five seconds before the window flew open again and a hot-rod red and gold suit shot out of the opening. Tasha grinned and extended her arms, at a ninety degree angle to her body as the suit clamped onto her back and wrapped around her body. Within seconds, the helmet formed around her face and Tasha had to hide a tear as a familiar HUD display popped up in front of her eyes.
"It's good to be home," she sighed.
"Now let us be off!" Lena cried, raising Mjolnir to the skies.
With a quick hug to Pepper- little more than a gentle pat on the shoulder, seeing as Tasha now had her armor on- they reboarded the quinjet and took off.