Just to clarify, the timeline is pretty mixed up. Age of Ultron had not yet occurred, but the Agents of SHIELD finale has occurred. Therefore, Connor will not be a part of the Season 2 finale. She will be a part of AOU however. Bear in mind she is now eighteen, and she's matured a lot from the beginning of WTWC. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with this story since then, you guys are awesome! Fun fact: I had UMA THURMAN by FALL OUT BOY on repeat while I wrote this chapter. Has nothing to do with the chapter, but good song. This is a lighter chapter than the previous ones, and is set a few weeks after the previous one.
It took longer than Connor liked to admit to become able to fully trust her team. She knew why they had done what they had done, removing the implant chip basically saved her life and she was back to her almost normal self.
The nightmares had stopped, and her reactions and moods were back to normal. She was a lot more collected now, her temper now being easier to keep in check.
It took her much longer to stop the automatic flinch every time one of her team would touch her on the shoulder without her expecting it. It took her longer to get over the fact she had almost lost control again.
It was her own fault partially. She hadn't shifted in weeks, not since she had met Clint's sister-in-law and her family. It always had been harder to control without shifting frequently. Her fur was back to black, any grey from the past few months now being fully gone.
She knew it was because of the chip, but it although she thought it would feel like she was losing her family all over again, it felt much better. It was like a weight off her shoulders and Connor was much happier knowing she wouldn't have to continue the family legacy – especially when it's true colours had been revealed to Connor recently with the HYDRA revelation.
There was a healing process for the teenager, where Tony had suggested she open up to a therapist if she wasn't going to open up to any of them. She obviously did not choose the therapist route.
Although it was hard at first as she didn't trust the woman, she opened up to Natasha. Connor would spend her Thursday nights on Natasha's floor of the tower, with Pepper and Maria joining them. The four would put on a random film while they shared food and gossip.
Connor would let off whatever was in her mind, and everyone would discuss it in a friend to friend way before the topic would be moved on to lighter stories (and Connor's favourite ones were the stories from missions that went weird – especially the one where Clint had been asked to get a cat out of a tree instead of catching the leader of the crime team they were trying to catch).
In their spare time, Natasha and Connor would go shopping – especially as when Connor trained with Natasha when shifted, she was ripping the agent's clothes to pieces – and would occasionally meet up with other friends such as Pepper, Maria, Jane and Connor was yet to meet up with May and the team but she knew she would have to make a visit soon.
Pepper had also helped Connor set up a public presence again. She hadn't done any interviews or anything, but she had started a school programme. Connor would visit high schools and join in on lessons for a laugh, while also helping to show teenagers that even the hardest of things were easy to overcome.
And that was where Connor was currently. She hadn't really had a proper education beyond freshman year, and it showed. She was in a biology class, joking around with the teacher and the pupils before there was a pop quiz on the human body, leaving Connor hopeless. After the whole class got a kick out of Connor's nice percentage of 12%, the teacher revealed another friendly pop quiz but on the anatomy of a wolf. The class got an even bigger laugh when Connor cheered, and managed to get 100%.
It was strange for the teenager being around teenagers that were a year or so younger than her (some were eighteen too) especially as they had a life that was so different than hers. She was constantly taking selfies with the teenagers who would tell her that they were going to upload them to twitter and Instagram. She knew what social media sites were but she hadn't thought much about them but the excitement around them made her want to try it.
After leaving the biology class, she headed straight to the football field outside, knowing that she was going to enjoy the physical parts of the school tour. There was a football practice going on, she could also see a few other teams for various sports out training such as soccer, lacrosse and she was approaching the cheerleading squad.
She introduced herself to the coach who beamed as Connor told her that the routine was looking good – although Connor had no clue if it was a good routine or not, she wasn't sure what a good routine actually looked like but it impressed her so she presumed it was good. Connor was surprised when she was invited to learn the routine with the cheerleaders who loved having her there, and she surprisingly was able to actually do it.
Having been trained with intense flexibility attacks by Natasha, Connor found it easy to do the flips across the ground with little ease, and the whole squad cheered her on. She took more selfies and group photos with the cheerleaders before the coach of the soccer team was leading her away and telling her about the progress of the team.
Connor was exhausted by the time she got back to the tower. She had joined in on training sessions with the teams, and had taken a group photo with the senior class of the school she had visited. It was their last few weeks of school ever and she had decided to finally use some of the money that Tony was constantly adding to an account for her to use so she had decided to pay completely for the school's prom. It wasn't anything big to her but the student body and faculty were ecstatic.
The teenager collapsed on to the couch, turning on her STARK laptop and smiling as the rest of the team laughed at her. She rolled her eyes and continued typing away on the laptop as Tony turned on the news, all of the Avengers laughing as it showed Connor visiting the school and her training with the different teams.
Connor eventually stopped typing and shut her laptop with a deep grin before picking it up and sauntering off to her room, smirking to herself as she went. Clint was the only one out of the team who actually noticed and he was freaking out slightly.
"She's planning something evil!" He screeched once she was up a few floors and in her room. The rest of the team burst out laughing at his paranoia but Clint wasn't accepting their denial. "Whittmore is doing something evil!" He continued but no one paid his theories any attention.
She appeared back in the room ten minutes later, with no laptop and her STARK phone plastered into her hands. Clint perched on the edge of the couch, watching her out of the corner of his eye as he was expecting a bucket of custard or something to come crashing down on him any second.
Connor grinned at him, quirking an eyebrow and moving round to the bar, pouring herself a coke. Clint pointed to her frantically and the team rolled their eyes. They still hadn't seen her planning expressions.
The teenager typed something on her phone before giving it a final tap and locking it, smirking as Tony's phone beeped with a notification. He picked it up, his eyes scanning the screen and he spluttered out the water he was drinking, coughing as he stared down at the phone.
'connorwhittmore: squad goals'.
It was a tweet, with a picture attached and the team were shocked that Connor had actually made a twitter without them actually noticing. Clint squinted at the picture and rolled his eyes, not believing he actually had missed her taking the photo.
Everyone was sitting around the table, Thor's hammer and Cap's shield on full display on the table because they had been demonstrating that maybe Thor wasn't worthy enough for everything. Somehow Steve's SHIELD had been brought up (despite the fact anyone could pick it up). Clint was perched on the side of a chair, while Natasha and Steve were laughing over something. Thor was in a discussion with Bruce and Tony.
The whole team looked at her with narrowed eyes, Connor laughing as she sat the finished glass of cola into the washer. She noticed their narrowed eyes and gulped slightly, her laughter dying down before she darted towards the door, the team hot on her heels.
Connor laughed as they chased her throughout the tower, with Tony and Bruce eventually stopping to catch breath, and Thor stopping to go talk to Jane. The second Jarvis mentioned the scientist was calling, Thor had literally sprinted in the opposite direction.
The teenager apologized to staff as she rushed past them, the three ex-SHIELD members hot on her heels. She scoffed and shifted, her pace increasing dramatically. Connor barked over her shoulder, knowing they wouldn't be able to keep up with her now.
She hadn't expected Tony and his suit to fly towards her, swooping her up and carrying her away. She probably should have seen it coming.
After a long chat about sharing embarrassing photos of Clint on the internet, Connor was given free-reign of the social media. She didn't use it apart from the occasional update of her school programme. Pepper (who was already in charge of Tony's social media accounts) eventually would take the accounts away from the girl after one too many complaints from Clint.
It was fun for a day, but she was an Avenger and there were still battles for her to fight.
Natasha passed Connor the small shot glass full of the purple liquid. The teenager grimaced before downing it in one, feeling the effects immediately.
Tony and Bruce had been spending a lot of time together in the lab recently, Tony having made hundreds of mini suits to use for crowd control when they went on missions. Bruce had also been working on a serum that Connor could use while training to stimulate what it would be like without her powers.
Natasha, Steve and Clint were helping her to improve her hand to hand combat, making sure that she was going to be much safer now that they had almost lost her multiple times. Connor didn't mind the fuss they were all making of her; it meant she got to spend more time with them all.
She wasn't going to lie though; one of her favourite parts of the new training regime was the training when she was allowed her powers. Tony had designed advanced training obstacle courses for her to try, and the rest of the team would time her to see if she was improving.
The wolf was faster on her feet than ever, and the girl was too. She had been working on the half-shift, where her claws would flick out and her eyes would glow. It didn't take them long to figure she ran faster than the average person (which annoyed Sam to no end).
Her new meditation techniques were helping her tempter to simmer, and she was a lot more relaxed around strangers. The team welcomed the new change, knowing it was better for Connor. There was something about the way she carried herself when she walked that was interesting for everyone to watch, and it ended up with Tony and Bruce running a few small tests using members of the public and staff.
It had been a joke made by Nat that every time Connor walked into a room with strangers, the whole room would come to an almost halt and everyone would stare at her in awe. Connor had laughed it off but after constant social experiments, Bruce and Tony were actually able to prove this was an actual thing that occurred around strangers.
Of course, that made it easier for Rhodey to convince the President she was not a threat but a great asset to the United States. It also somehow made it easier for Connor to be assigned as the President's personal body guard for his current speech.
And there she was, standing beside the President as he stood outside the white house, Connor dressed in all black with two guns strapped to her thigh holsters and one in the back of her bullet proof vest. Connor was pretty sure it was the highest honour she was ever going to receive.
