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~Lily Foster~
The mall was surprisingly full of people. I guess the end of the world really makes people think, Hey! I should shop!. I pushed through the crowd with the others, and as always felt different.
Imagine standing in a line with a thousand people and knowing that you're not like them and never will be. That's what it's like to be me. The other future Avengers embrace that, in their own ways. They like being heroes, but for me it's not just that-I'm half Asgardian. I'm not even human. I'm nothing like other people, and sometimes that feels odd. Like I'm detached.
Marina strode through the crowd proudly, and people parted for her. She shot people a bleach-blond boy a dazzling grin, and he stared after her in a daze once she had passed. Sometimes it's annoying that Marina stopped caring about what people think of her a long time ago.
Thomas had no trouble with the crowds, he just ran around them. The future Avengers were mobbed with fans, and I felt like pointing out to Dad that if he hadn't worn a red cape he would draw less attention. Except I was carrying an axe and dressed in full body armor, so I couldn't really talk.
Marina noticed the fans and found a store on the end of the mall that was almost empty of people. It was a bunch of stuff for superheroes, TV shows, books, and movies. She went straight to a rack of Ironman bobbleheads.
"What do you think? Good fathers day present?" She laughed. "I'm used to seeing my face on the shelves in stores like this-kind of nice for the change."
"I know what you mean." Thomas said, pointing to a poster of Scarlet Witch. "But I kind of like having my own merchandise."
"You would." I mumbled, raising an eyebrow at tiny mjolnir erasers. I wandered away from the others, looking at posters and trivia books. Dad followed.
"Why do you not like your teammates?" He asked quietly.
"What makes you think I don't?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You are not kind to them. You must not like them."
"I like them alright… I just don't think they're the best heroes to be protecting the world in our time. Marina's in all the tabloids for crazy stunts. Thomas is hyper 24-7. Jean doesn't even want to be an Avenger in the first place. Max is the only other one who takes it seriously, but he's smart and strong. Not into fighting." I scowled at a rack of Captain America t-shirts. "We're just not a good team. We never were. Sometimes I think earth might actually be safer if the Avengers Initiative had ended with you guys."
Dad frowned. "I think that you underestimate them. They are probably stronger then you give them credit for."
"You don't know them as well as I do. They're just not into it. And I don't blame them-we're sixteen, we shouldn't be superheroes. But we are."
"What do you think?" Suddenly Marina was at my shoulder. She held up a t-shirt that said, "It's not easy being green". "Good present for Banner?"
Thor grinned, and I cracked a smile. "He'll love it, right?" Thomas whooshed over to stand in front of us.
We bought the shirt and left the store again. The mob of fans seemed to have forgotten about us, so we moved from store to store. Marina managed to chain Thomas to a chair in the hair salon long enough for him to get his hair cut.
We didn't know how long we'd have to stay in this time, and we hadn't brought clothes with us, so we had to go shopping for all the future Avengers. Which took almost three hours. By the time we had things for everybody, I wanted to pass out.
I'll say one good thing for her-Marina Stark rules the mall. Over the course of the day, she dragged us from one end of the mall to the other three times, stopped in fifteen stores, and was carrying six shopping bags by the time she was done.
"Okay." I groaned. "I need a food court." Everyone agreed. We found it at the other end of the large mall, and everybody bought food from a different store. I got a cheeseburger, Marina had Italian (or the crappy food court version), Thomas found sushi, Natasha and Wanda had starbucks, Clint got tacos, and Dad found subway.
Once we all had food, we looked for a table where all of us could sit, but the biggest tables were already filled. So the future Avengers and the past Avengers split to two tables a few rows away from each other. Thomas, Marina, and I collapsed at our table.
Only Marina had the energy to talk.
"I think this was a good days work." She said approvingly. "There's enough clothes for us future Avengers to stick around as long as we have to, and I got Bruce a present." She pulled out the It's not easy being green t-shirt.
Everything pointed to us going the whole day without something going wrong. I had been expecting somebody to screw this up, and I was just starting to get my hopes up, when everything went down the tube.
It started with a couple of teenage guys hanging out in the foodcourt noticing Marina and I. Oh crap, I thought as they elbowed each other and then walked towards us. Not now.
"Hey beautiful," A guy with blond hair said, leaning against the table and eyeing Marina. "What's your name?"
"Get lost, loser." Marina said, rolling her eyes and taking a sip of soda. These guys couldn't take a hint.
"Feisty, I like it." He said, with what obviously was meant as a charming smile. Marina rolled her eyes.
"Did it hurt?" A brown-haired guy around my age said, grinning at me. "When you fell from heaven."
"No…" I said, glaring at him. "But it will hurt when my fist meets your face."
"I'd listen to them, boys." Thomas said, shaking his head sagely. "They are fully prepared to kick your asses."
"What do you say we ditch this loser and go have some real fun?" Blond guy said to Marina, grinning and jerking his head towards Thomas.
Over at the other table, our parents had noticed what was going on, but I didn't want their help. And neither did Thomas and Marina.
"Say that again," Marina glared, eyes flashing with anger. "Go ahead, say it."
The past Avengers were walking towards us.
Blond guy clearly had no idea where Marina was going with this. He dumbly repeated his words. "What do you say we ditch this loser and have some real fun?"
Marina nodded to Thomas, and suddenly Thomas's sushi rolls were smeared all over Blond guy's face. Thomas was already back in his seat. Blond guy stumbled back, wiping the rice out of his eyes.
"You did that, didn't you you little-" Blond guy growled at Thomas, who shrugged but was clearly trying not to grin. "You did!" Blond guy reached behind him and grabbed a plate of spaghetti from the table behind him. He chucked it at Thomas, but Maximoff sped out of the way and appeared sitting next to me, and the spaghetti hit one of his friends.
"What's the big idea, man?" His friend shouted.
Marina picked up a piece of her four cheese and pepperoni pizza, and shook her head. "It's sad that such an innocent piece of pizza had to come to such a sad end. Oh, well." She smacked Blond guy in the face with it.
I threw my french fries at the brown-haired guy and splattered his hair with ketchup. He yelled and threw onion rings at me. All around us, other teens were joining in with the fight. Marina climbed onto the table, holding a rolled-up paper french fry wrapper to her mouth.
"Food fight!" She yelled, and the entire food court erupted into chaos. Burritos and enchiladas hit people in the head, hamburgers and ketchup littered the floor, soda was dumped on people's clothes, and everything was pandemonium. Marina stood on the table, throwing pizza at any guy who got close to her, cheering and laughing.
A few tables away, someone climbed up onto their table and held a lighter up to a sprinkler, surrounded by cheering kids. The sprinklers turned on, and everyone was soaked. We were surrounded by shouting and food flying through the air, and now we were wet.
The past Avengers ran up to us. "What did you do?" Romanoff shouted.
"Don't look at me!" Thomas shouted to be heard in the chaos. "Those guys started it! They wouldn't leave Marina and Lil's alone! They had it coming!"
"We could've handled them without you starting a foodfight!" I yelled.
"Actually, I think he did great! But now might be the time to run before security arrives!"
Blond guy appeared next to her. "C'mon, babe, let's go somewhere we can be alone." Damn, this guy is an idiot.
Marina punched him in the face. Thomas cheered. "Call me babe again and you'll sing soprano for a week!" Marina yelled, and I laughed at the look on the guy's face from where he sat on his ass on the floor. I couldn't blame him-Marina looked dangerous, even when soaking wet and covered in food.
Someone grabbed my arm and dragged me away. It was Dad. Romanoff was pulling Marina down, and Wanda was dragging Thomas. Clint grabbed our soaking wet shopping bags and followed the rest of us. We were marched out of the chaotic food court, and out of the mall to the car. Clint drove, and the other Avengers glared at us as we pulled out of the parking lot.
"That was awesome!" Thomas cheered. "But I wanted to be the one to punch him!"
"I did it first!" Marina cackled. "Oh my gods, that was the greatest."
"You are all so immature!" Wanda snapped. "That was awful! I thought you were supposed to be superheroes."
"We are." Marina insisted. "But those guys were asking for it. We didn't know it would go all-out."
"That was irresponsible." Dad snapped.
"Can I say something?" I interrupted. They all gave me looks like, well go ahead, then. "That was irresponsible, but those guys had it coming. They were really being awful. So admittedly we could've handled it better… but once you know Marina and Thomas as well as I do, you'll understand that that could've gone a lot worse. For them this was self-control."
Marina and Thomas both shot me a glare.
"That's really helping, Lils." Marina snapped. "Thanks a lot."
"You have to admit, though…" Thomas said slowly. "That was kind of fun."
To my surprise, it was Clint who spoke up for us. "I'm pretty impressed. Those guys had it coming. And we got away before security came, didn't we? No permanent problem?"
"He's right," Romanoff nodded. I was really surprised that they were sticking up for us, but I was grateful.
We spent the rest of the drive to the tower in quiet. Thomas, Marina, and I were busy staring out the windows at the partly destroyed city. It was strange to see rubble and shattered glass everywhere. There were scorch marks on the road and overturned cars piled in alleys. I couldn't believe how different it looked.
We finally parked at the Avengers tower and carried our bags inside. Jean and Max were talking casually with Stark, Bruce, and Steve. When they saw us, they all stared. Except for Stark, who burst into laughter.
I guess we must've looked pretty terrible-we were soaking wet and splattered with food.
"Have fun, huh?" Jean asked, staring at us.
"They started a riot." Dad said, maybe still a little angry.
"Hey, we did not start that fight." Marina said, then grimaced. "Well, we kinda did, but those guys were asking for it! And it wasn't a riot, it was a food fight. There's a difference."
Now most of the ones who had stayed at the tower were laughing. Max used one hand to cover his grin and took a bag out of Marina's hands. "Come on, you're digging your own grave."
All of us had to shower and change. I was glad to be in street clothes instead of my armor-a blue tank top, converse, and shorts. Marina found jeans, a white Stark Industries t-shirt, hoodie, and jeans. Thomas put on jeans and a black Speed Demon: Hot Rod Shop t-shirt.
We regrouped in the living area-the same one with glass floors and attached to the kitchen.
It was around then that Pepper Potts got home.
The future Avengers were lounging on the couches, flipping along the channels on the TV. Jean was drawing, Max was changing parts of his equation, Thomas was on his back with his legs over the back of the couch looking at the TV upside down, and Marina was chugging a soda.
The past Avengers were scattered around the building, but a few of them were there. Then the door of the elevator opened, and Pepper walked in. She had straight strawberry blond hair in a ponytail, bright blue eyes, a freckled and beautiful face, and wore a suit and skirt.
"Tony?" She called when she saw the five strange teenagers in her living room. "Tony, what's going on?"
"Oh, Pepper." Tony said, jogging in. "So, these guys are the Avengers twenty years in the future. And, there's someone that I want you to meet."
Marina stood up and walked over. When she stood by her parents, I could see how she had her dad's hair and her mom's eyes and face. Pepper stared at her. "Hi, mom." She said nervously. "I'm your daughter Marina Stark, from the future. I'm Irongirl."
Pepper fainted.
Tony caught her. "That went well!"
