Previously on "Dangerous Games"...
"Another, um..., person like us?" Adeline stammered through her question as she walked into the room.
"Meta-human," Adam corrected as he went through the file. "Alice Belova," he read aloud so Adeline and J.P could have some insight on who their new potential teammate and roommate was going to be. "16 years old and a high school student all the way from Russia, considered to be the Black Widow match up."
"Agent Carter," says the woman who Adam assumes is Alice's mother listed in the files as, Yelena Belova, says finally in a Russian accent much more understandable than Alice's. The next thing Adam notices is that this woman called Sharon by her maiden name. That meant History and it was a bit unsettling with Sharon's unusual silence.
"Miss Belova," Sharon greets with the same hidden bitterness as Yelena graced them with, but neither Adam nor Alice failed to see it.
"Мама whole reason for keeping me here is because she does not think I can handle myself. If I prove that I can that I can, she will have to let me come, or else say she does not trust me and reveal that," Alice explains and Adam shakes his head, laughing slowly in bemusement and amazement.
"Назад прочь, вор!" Alice yells back at him and Adam wants to face palm just from confusion. What in god's name are they saying?!
Although it doesn't matter all too much because what happens next sends them both into shock. The man bends back and he's completely morphed into a puff of black smoke. He flies through, knocking Alice down on the way to the other side of the garage.
"What the hell?!" Adam shouts, not really expecting tonight to be a meta-human brawl.
"I'm sorry," Adam says into the cellphone speaker, which is currently pressed between his shoulder and the side of his head so he can use his hands to get ready for the day even though he feels like a zombie after being out all night. "What exactly happened?"
"Okay," Adeline said over the speaker, breathing out heavily, "point is, I can't get things to stop floating around me! What should I do?!" Adam cringed and the phone nearly fell onto the floor.
"First off just try and calm down... Second, um, try not to let your mind wander, try to stay focused on a few different things through out the day, er, alright?" Adam says leaving the hotel bathroom. He moves to open the curtains of the large window and silently scowls when he see's all of that damned snow.
"Alright... thanks."
"No problem. Call if anything changes," Adam says before he hangs up. He turns up the heat in the room, not caring about running up a bill for it. S.H.I.E.L.D would just pay for it all anyways, so why bother stressing about it?
"You're, uh, actually pretty good with those kids, ya know," Sharon says as she walks back into the room with some breakfast.
"I've kinda had to be lately. Sink or swim, right?"
"Right," Sharon agree's before the two agent's are thrown back into an awkward silence. Things were not at all like yesterday.
"What happened to you yesterday, Miss Rogers?" Sharon did't answer right away. She stayed still staring ahead. Adam supposed that hotel must have been pretty interesting then. About a minute later Sharon pulled out her plexi-glass phone and pulled up a file, she turned the phone for Adam to see.
"Yelena Belova. Expert Mercenary, Assassin and former adversary for both Hydra and certain Soviet espionage known as the Red Room."
"I take it that's something bad then," Adam says as Sharon hands him the phone and he takes it, scrolling through the virtual files. Sharon nods and crosses her arms.
"Some of the worst. Members of the 107th back in WWII, the Howling Commando's, were leveled by one ten year old girl from the Red Room back in 1948," Sharon explains. Adam taps his finger against his chin, thinking about all of this.
"You and Miss Belova were on opposing sides before, weren't you?" Adam says and it's hardly a question and more of a statement or string of words. Sharon's sighs.
"She was one of the Red Room's very best. And I do mean that when I saw she was lethal, one woman army, slaughtered people. Some people under governmental protection back when S.H.I.E.L.D still was involved with politics ... She came to S.H.I.E.L.D HQ one day. Gave the biggest tip of information S.H.I.E.L.D had ever seen and so the Director granted her amnesty."
"Amnesty? With charges in mass murder and various assassinations? That must have been some damn good information," Adam mused, watching Sharon for any clues since he was pretty sure she was here when this particular event took place.
"I think they may have taken pity on her in all honesty... She was on the run and hurt and pregnant so they let her go." Adam says nothing after this. He just waits. Sharon sighs again, deflating a little and she sits down on a bed. "I know I could have tried harder to get Belova on board, gotten Alice. That girls has nothing to do with what her Mother did and I know that. I just wish I would have knew that then."
"Well, we're not done yet," Adam says as he hands Sharon back her phone and pulls out his own. "You think you can help me I.D a ghost? A black Vapory ghost?" Sharon expression fills with utter confusion as she takes the phone and stares at the picture and images.
"Dimitri Akim," Adam says softly and quietly to Alice as he slips her the paper file. She takes it and stains grease on the manila folder. "Convicted 9 years ago for tampering with American transportation equipment. Using it to kill dozens of people. The files don't go into detail, but I doubt we'd want to read that anyways." Alice shuffles the different papers about, reading the little that's there.
"What about his powers?" She asks, her accent seeming even thicker to Adam today from the exhaustion.
"Whatever device he used explode, collapsing in on itself and S.H.I.E.L.D scientist's speculate one of these things must have been a chain reaction to cause them. He becomes a shaded, dark matter based vapor, only seen morphing for short periods of time." Alice nods and closes the folder, handing the grease stained pages back to Adam and she moves her goggles back on correctly and off her forehead.
"If he is shaded then we may counter him," Alice adds as she picks up a drill.
"Agreed," says Adam, slipping the folder back into his bag.
"белый свет," Alice breathes softly.
"Come again?" Adam says, so annoyed with this. He already tried looking up spells in his Asgardian Grimoire on comprehension on other languages and there was nothing on Russian!
"White light," Alice said, translating herself and giving Adam a small grin, seeing the frustration in his eyes. "Who really ventures to Russia and knows no Russian?" She says out loud, her grin changing to a smirk. Adam huffs, mildly annoyed and Alice snickers.
"Just meet back here tonight, okay?"
"Да," Alice says, smirking to herself again, just imagining the frustrated and annoyed look on Adam's face without moving her eyes away from the car she was working on.
"мама, мы собираемся идти?" Alice asked as she came back to her and her mother's small house.
"Where were you last night?" Yelena asks, changing the languages on Alice. Making her harder for deception when you're speaking language you only half-know.
"Я был просто-"
"Humor me, dear," Yelena cuts in, holding her hand up. English was like the truthful language between them which Yelena though was ironic since America was practically built on deception and greed, or at least that was her current understanding of it.
"At the shop," Alice answers. Not a lie, but certainly not the whole truth. Yelena crosses her arms and leans sideways against the wall.
"Were you out with that man?" No answer. "Alice Natalia Belova." Awe crap, middle name, Alice says mentally.
"No," is all Alice says. Just plain and simple. Lies. Yelena walks forward towards Alice, her arms uncrossed and her expression upset and disappointing. She swiftly slaps Alice across the face. Alice's own pale hand flies to her cheek and stares up at her mother with wide blue eyes.
"Do you lie to me?" She says, more upset than angry. "Why did you go to see him?" Alice says nothing.
"Does it even matter, мама? Are you angry because I lied or did not tell you? Would you have let me go?-"
"What did you say to him?" Yelena presses on, slightly more bitter now. "If S.H.I.E.L.D already has suspicions on what you can do it's bad news. But if you told him or showed him anything they will never leave you alone again. And they will hunt you and follow you forever. You will be a puppet and I will lose you!" Yelena informs/yells at her daughter. Alice forces her expression to stay neutral. Fear is a weakness; her mother always said. "I will ask again. What did you say to him."
"That I was sorry," Alice says as she straitens her shoulders and puts her hands on her hips, hoping to display some confidence, "I told him that I was sorry that I could not come with him."
"That is all?" Yelena asks and Alice hopes that she can't see through her facade again. Alice breathes in deep.
"...Yes." Yelena nods and the way she seems to buy it releases so much of the tension in the house and between them. Yelena slowly wraps her arms around Alice.
Adam waits for Alice late that night around the back of the garage, their agreed upon meeting spot. It was cold a windy outside and Alice was way late which didn't make Adam at all happy. Of course he had no idea that Alice was practically on house arrest.
Alice sat at her desk, writing down an email to explain to her coach why she wasn't at her gymnastic's meet today. Of course, it was a completely false explanation. Her coach didn't need to know about her and her mother's argument at least not the finer details of said argument. She taps the screen with her mouse to send the email and just after her screen goes fuzzy.
"Черт сигнал," Alice mutters as she moves the mouse around only to find that the entire PC is frozen. She grumbles, closing the laptop and pushing herself back in her chair. She leans back, tired from that day and the night before. Next the light bulb in Alice's desk lamp goes out, she sighs as she's left in the darkness. She got up from her wooden chair and she puts her hand inside the lamp to grab the light bulb before remember that it's still burning hot. Alice whips her hand back and shakes it.
"Ожог," a familiar yet unwelcome voice speaks into the darkness, "но так мало, так раздражает, да?"
"Dimitri Akim," Alice says and she see's shadowed feet right under the crack of her door.
"да," he confirms which makes Alice very nervous, "но я предпочитаю черный пар." Then black vapor starts to worm it's way through the crack in Alice's door. Moving fast. Alice throws open her window and jumps out without any hesitation. She lands on the concrete and tears open the fabric at her knee's of her pajama pants. She get's up quickly as the vapor floats and falls out her bedroom window after her. Alice could definitely hold her own. That was for sure, but how can you fight something you can't touch? That's what Alice had to find out and fast. She makes a dash for the garage, moving there so quick it should be nearly impossible. The vapor pours in through the vent and as soon ad Alice is pretty sure it's all there, she flicks on a UV light they have off to the side for examining parts. Dimitri howls in his shadowed form. He jolts up and breaks the light then bolts forward at Alice. Alice flips backwards over a car and flips the hood up to blow some of the vapor to the left of her before running out of the garage. The lights outside are all turned out except for one very far away so Alice is left in darkness and can't see where she's going. She cuts herself on a stray piece of metal out around back and falls, slicing a part of her leg leaving a sizable cut. The vapor moves outside, closing in on Alice and just as it's very nearly right on top of her it's forced back by, and Alice could still hardly believe it, a bolt of white lightning. The vapor howls again and reels back only to be thrown again by another bolt of lightning, soon it surrounds him. Adam walks into the light that the energy bolts give off. His hands are held out in front of him, but low. His palms are open wide and lightning surrounds them, coursing about them like an endless loop and in turn it seems lightning pours out of the sky, trapping Dimitri Akim. Dimitri yells angrily and morphs back to his regular form, weakened. Adam highers his hands and forces them back down with one swift movement and the lightning crashes in on itself, collapsing on the man. Turning him to black smoldering ash and smoke. Adam leans against the outside garage wall, breathing pretty hard.
"Are you alright?" Alice asks and she pushes herself up onto her feet.
"I think I should be asking you that question," Adam says back, marginally out of breath. Alice crosses her arms, starring Adam down, concerned. "I haven't really used my powers like that in a long time..." he paused to catch his breath again, "it's... it's been a while." The ginger nods and looks down at her feet.
"So..." Alice says after a long silence, "I guess that's what you meant when before. You're powers aren't really indoor friendly, huh?" Adam laughs airily and shrugs.
"I guess you could say that."
"Can we go now?" Alice asks after, shivering since she'd left her house in nothing but silky light pajama's that were now torn. She examines the cut on her lower left leg.
"да," Adam says and nods once. Alice quirks an eyebrow, grinning amused. "What?" Adam says with a wink, "I'm learning."
"So that's how Belova reacted?" Sharon asks the next morning as her and Adam are once again packed up and are readying the S.H.I.E.L.D quin-jet. Adam nodded and sighs.
"She viewed it as putting Alice in more danger than helping and who knows, maybe she's right." Sharon pauses from where she was uncovering one of the rotor's.
"Don't say that," Sharon says as she pulls that large vinyl cover off, "you stopped a thief and mass murdered."
"Let's hope he's enjoying his lovely new cell in the fridge," Adam says with a small smirk. Dimitri reformed pretty fast, but didn't have enough energy or will after his fight with Alice and Adam to dare go up against them again. Alice... Adam frowned. He wasn't able to get Yelena to let Alice go with them despite all his efforts it just wasn't enough.
"All set up," Sharon says as the back hatch to the quin-jet swings down, "let's get a move on-"
"Подождите!" A frantic, female voice calls out from behind the two agent's.
"Alice?" Sharon asks, surprised as the girl runs up to them quicker that seemingly possible with a bag in hand. "What are you doing here?"
"мама changed her mind last minute. She said I could travel with you New York city," Alice says happily, not even at all short of breath from her long run. Sharon and Adam look at each other, Adam's grinning wide.
"Welcome to the team, kid," Adam says as he escorts Alice inside the high tech jet, "let's get moving." Sharon moves to the front of the jet to pilot the thing. Alice and Adam sit down in the back.
"This is amazing," Alice breathes, taking in everything as her blue eyes dart around everywhere. Adam smiles and leans back.
"Ya like it?" Alice nods and continues to look about. Adam closes his eyes, finally ready for some rest... that's when his S.H.I.E.L.D phones goes off. Adam grumbles as it may as well be a pager. He whips the thing out from his back pocket, annoyed, and opens up the message.
"Another one answered the call out," Adam says quickly as he opens the file, "Canary Morse..." he muttered and Alice looks back to Adam, her interest peaked. "You up for another adventure, kid?"
"Do you have to ask?" Alice says with a small smirk. Adam responds with a smirk of his own.
"Agent Rogers!" Adam calls forward. Sharon glances back at him. "Set a course for Salem Oregon!" Alice smiles and tense slightly in excitement as the quin-jet speed increases x10 and jets off.
Yelena knocks on Alice's closed door. No answer, not even a sound. Yelena opens the door only to find the closet wide open; emptied. No lap top and the dresser had been cleaned out. Yelena gasps and she feels the cold wind from the wind open window. She yells angrily as she swipes the lamp onto the floor, shattering it in her rage. "You stupid, stupid little girl."
