"Althea!"
I whirl around, searching for the voice that had just called my voice. I couldn't see anyone around me in this encasing darkness.
But quickly my surroundings changed. My house, normal as could be. No lava in the driveway.
And out runs Marissa, good as new. Her hair bounces against her shoulders, her eyes sparkling. "Althea!"
"Maris!" I run, slamming against her in a tight hug. She laughs and hus me back for a second before pulling away.
Marissa studies my face, her smile fading as she takes in my miserable face. "Ally? What's the matter?"
I look down at my hands. Normal hands. Tanned skin, a nick on the thumbpad from a kayaking accident… "I-"
Her attention is pulled away to something behind me, and I turn to look down the driveway.
A black form stands at the edge of the pavement, gazing at us through dark eyes. I turn quickly back to Marissa, but she's frozen. Unmoving. Her mouth open, she stares without looking at the figure. I rotate back the form, who was slowly drifting up the driveway. Its eyes focused on Marissa, and I stood protectively in front of her, snarling at the silhouette.
It just stood there, peering at Marissa.
"You don't go near her," I hiss. I can instinctively sense that this is part of the thing that killed her… and made me what I am.
A low rumbling escapes from the form, cracking the pavement. As the ground starts to split into chunks, the figure reaches form Marissa's stilled arm. I roar, and snatch it away. As my normal hand touches the shadowy arm, everything goes dark, the last sound my own roar.
"Hrgh."
I open my eyes, and look out at the gathering around me. I access that Bruce, Natasha, Tony, and Wanda are all still here, before I register their faces. Shock, all directed at my hands. I look.
My obsidian hands glow, flames coursing down the rivlets and gathering in a small bonfire in the center of each palm. Hesitantly, I put my hands together, and pull them apart. The fire stretches from one palm to the other, flickering blue at the orange. I look up at the group again, focusing on their faces.
Tony has a look of pride on his face, pleased that he was able to activate my flames. Bruce looks shocked- he probably wasn't expecting this. Or rather- in this proportion. I wasn't either. I thought I could make some little sparks, then poof- but no, instead I get this little orbs of bonfire. Lucky me!
Natasha looks resigned, her mouth curled in a 'yep, that's almost exactly what I saw'. And Wanda looks horrified- practically disgusted. I furrow my eyebrows and concentrate, lessening the rage flowing through my veins- and the fire distinguishes.
"What was that for?!" Tony whines, unclamping my hands and frowning. "It was just getting good!"
"I don't know," I say, looking at Wanda again. She's breathing softly, watching my blackened hands. "I just… was super angry."
"That's the point." Bruce says. "Take it from me- your power comes from anger."
I raise an eyebrow, but don't get any further explanation.
"What did you see?" Natasha asks, helping me sit up.
"I saw…" I throw a look over to Tony, who looks slightly sheepish. "You knew!"
Tony scuffs the tip of his shoe against the ground. "I just needed to find a painful memory and manipulate it so it feels like a new reality. It was pretty obvious what the memory was from what Natasha told us, so i just used your sister. Even though you would be happy, the longing would spark rage."
"I wasn't happy," I spit. "Nothing about that mysterious cloud dude freezing my sister was happy, thank you very much."
"Cloud dude?" Bruce interrupts, holding up a finger to Tony and walking closer. "What cloud dude?"
I stutter, unsure if I'd said something wrong. "The… the dark figure. He came up the driveway and practically paralyzed my sister before trying to take her from me."
Tony looks at Bruce. "I didn't do anything with a dark figure."
"Me neither."
"So what you're saying-" Wanda says, speaking up as a confident and analyzing sheen spreads over her face, "is that something hijacked the serum."
"Something in her," Bruce says.
"My name is Althea," I say, but they ignore me.
"The lava…" Natasha trails off, something dawning on her.
"I knew it wasn't normal lava!" Tony cheers, fist-pumping.
"So what you're saying," I say, holding up a hand so they'll look at me. "Is that whatever in the lava gave me these-" I hold up my hands, the left one slightly smoking and the right one spilling ash. "Also implanted something in my brain to create the figure."
"The figure must be the one that caused the eruption," Wanda says. "Don't you see?"
"Of course!" Bruce exclaims. "Yes!"
"And we also discovered a shortcut," Tony says smugly. "She got angry much faster than I calculated, so…" he opens my hands and held them in the air. "Althea, think of the cloud dude."
I close my eyes and picture the shadowy silhouette, drifting closer and closer to my sister. It's dark eyes loom, stretching and stretching and-
I open my eyes. My hands are ablaze, crackling like a campfire.
"Yes!" Tony shouts, clapping. "I told you! Short cut! The figure short circuits her nerve endings and fills her with pure rage! Genius!" He presses a button on his wrist, and a red and yellow metal glove encases his right hand. He high fives my burning palm before deactivating the glove.
"Perfect," Bruce says, smiling a little. Even Natasha nods with approval. Tony leads us into the hallway, but Wanda pulls me aside.
"Althea," she says, glancing towards the other three's backs. "I don't like this. The figure is getting to you."
I nod. "Yeah." I bite my lip. "I want to know who it is."
She sighs. "Me too."
We look at each other for a moment, before following the others.
"It worked," Tony says, grinning.
Steve nods sagely. Sam cracks a smile. The rest settle for "Good job" or "Congratulations" or the like.
Good job for what? Watching my sister almost be taken? Congratulations for being helpless to a cloud?
I smile back.
"Can she show us?" Clint asks, leaning into an armchair and pushing that Spiderboy Peter out of it.
Natasha glances at me with a small smile, and I focus on the cloud. Closer-closer-close-
My hand flares, and I hold it up so everyone can see. Their faces range from approval to mildly impressed… except for one.
"Bravo!" A man roars. I'm pretty sure his name is Thor, but nothing about this person is normal. He has long blond hair and a cape, clutching a hammer tightly in his right fist. "That is most impressive!"
"Thank… you?"
"It's a compliment," Bruce says.
"So we agree?" Tony asks. "She's an Avenger?"
Steve shrugs. "Seems okay. Natasha will need to train her…"
"We have room."
"And time."
"Work with Peter…"
"Help Peter."
"Hey!"
"Wait," I say. "When can I go home?"
Wanda bites her lip. Rhody winces.
"You can't," Natasha says, clearly deciding to avoid beating around the bush. "This is your home now."
"What?!"
"Your legal guardian is d- has passed away," she corrects herself. "We would be your new guardians- or rather, Tony and Pepper would be."
"I don't want a teenage daughter!"
"You're getting one!" Natasha shoots back, before returning to me in her previous soft tone. "So… it's like a new family. We could use one of those, right?"
"Not with a teenage daughter, I don't," Tony mumbles.
"I'll be talking with Pepper," Natasha warns, and Tony shuts up.
"Okay." I look at my feet, slightly embarrassed that this is happening in front of so many people. I feel like a child being shifted around. "So.. you guys are my new family?"
"Yeah!" Tony says, trying to compensate now. "T'Challa's your dad, Steve's your mom-"
"What?!"
"Bucky's your other dad," Tony continues. "Clint's your uncle, Natasha's your aunt, Scott's your baby brother-"
"Baby?!"
"Peter's your cousin…" Peter blushes. "Wanda's your sister, Bruce is your grandpa, Vision's your grandma. Rhody's that like third cousin four times removed, Thor's your 'fun uncle', and… I'm your uncle too." He nods. "So can't she be T'Challa, Steve, and Bucky's kid?"
"Legal adoption processes are very different in Wakanda," T'Challa replies.
"Oh-kay. Steve?"
"You and Pepper are adopting her, Tony," Wanda says, examining her fingers.
"Damn it!"
Steve stands up and reaches a hand for me to shake. "I'm on board. Welcome to the Avengers, Althea."
***A/N***
I'm looking for a beta reader for my new PJO fic! Will feature Dark Percy in Tartarus. Please send a message if interested!
