AN: Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but as I have mentioned before, I do have other stories to work on besides this one, including the recently completed Kingdom Hearts: Dual Keys. Check it out if you're a Kingdom Hearts fan and you haven't already, or if you have read Keyblades of Future Past and would like to see the first story that comes from the new timeline that was created as a result.
Spidey: Hey, speaking of that, I've gotta ask, are you going to go back and change a few things around in Keyblades of Future Past after seeing the newest trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3?
AN: You know, I've actually gotten that question a couple of times now from a few different people, and I just might do that, but it may take a little while. That's an entire chapter that I would have to rewrite, along with a number of other scenes and moments as well, and as I said before, I have other stories to update and work on, including how I'm hoping to start the next story of the Keyblades Unleashed series sometime before the end of the summer, at least. Add in the stuff I have to take care of IRL, and...well, you get the idea.
Falcon: Just tell me that you're going to try and have an update for one of your Captain America stories ready for when the Fourth of July comes around, cause you know that you can't let that holiday pass without posting something in one of those.
AN: I certainly intend to do my best in that regard, so keep your eyes open for that. Anyways, let's answer a couple of questions that our reviewers asked before we get into things.
First off, one or two people have asked about whether or not Peter would get the symbiote suit later on down the line, and the answer is yes, since we can't have Venom, or any of the varieties of Venom without Spidey getting the symbiote first.
Wasp: I'm pretty sure that the Venom movie coming out later this year would disagree with you on that.
AN: Don't care. As interesting as that may look, I stand by what I say and believe. Anyways, regarding the feelings that everyone expressed about Jess's backstory here, I just want to point out that this is not a cannon thing for Spider-Woman in the comics, as far as I know. There's not really a lot for me to go off of in regards to Jessica Drew's history before she became a spider-powered person, so I decided to get a little creative with that. To be quite honest, I did not enjoy writing about most of that, and it made me feel pretty sick afterwards, but I felt that it added to the story, so...yeah.
Jess: I'm not okay with any of that.
AN: I know, but if it works for the story, what can I say? Is there anything else we can say before we start today?
Spidey: Not that I can tell. Anything else that we could answer would be explained in the actual story of the chapter or is something you just want to cover in the ending author's note.
AN: Alrighty then, let's not keep everyone waiting. Off to class everyone!
I do not own anything from the Marvel franchise or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Chapter 8: Sets of Two
Despite being willingly accepted into the academy, Jessica's integration into the routine was actually something of a slow burn. It was not a matter of whether or not they trusted her, but given that she did used to be involved with HYDRA, willingly or not, and how her first meeting with them had gone, Jess could not really blame any of them for feeling weary of her, at least. Sure, they had all said that everything that had happened was forgiven, but actually putting such things into practice was a little more difficult than they probably realized. Then again, she was not really making too many efforts to go out of her way to show that she could be trusted now, but that was only because Jessica did not want to push her luck on anything right now, just in case her efforts ended up backfiring on her in spectacular fashion. It was actually close to a week or two before any of her classmates made an attempt to really open up to her on a level that was more than necessary, and to be honest, she was a little surprised by who it was that did so.
She had partially expected Sam to be the one to come and talk with her first, mainly because he seemed to still be willing to get close to her despite what she did to him, but in reality, it was actually Peter who made the first move. While that had probably earned her a few jealous looks from Janet, Jessica was too happy about the fact that someone here was trying be friends with her now to care all that much, so she did not shy away from Peter's attempts at being a friend to her. Eventually, seeing Peter talk with her more often than they had to convinced the others to come around as well and in no time at all, it was like Jessica had been part of this little circle of friends from the start. That did not mean that she was saved from the jealous looks that Wasp would throw at her whenever she saw Spider-Woman sitting alone with Peter for whatever reason.
One such time was actually taking place on a Friday night almost a week after Jessica had started opening up to them all, and while she could not hear what the two were saying, given the smile on each of their faces, Janet was quickly assuming that they were not just exchanging friendly conversation. "What're they laughing about over there," the Wasp grumbled as she practically glared holes into Jessica's head. "I mean really, Peter's funny, but there's no way she thinks he's that funny."
"Neither one of them are laughing, Jan. They're just smiling at each other," Sam pointed out to her as he attempted to enjoy his dinner. It was pizza night, and it was a little hard to enjoy pizza night when one of his best friends was acting like a jealous girlfriend.
"Well they look like they are," Janet huffed in response.
"Come on, Jan. Jess already told you that she's not interested in Peter, anyway. Besides, they probably just found out they have something in common like a favorite TV series or something and are reminiscing about their favorite moments from the show," Carol tried to reason with her. It was a little hard for her to do at the moment, since part of her was secretly glad that Jessica was not trying to flirt with Sam at the moment for reasons she did not understand, or just did not want to acknowledge.
"Yeah, right. More like she's still got some kind of weird spider-voodoo in her that's making them attracted to one another," Janet grumbled.
"Uh, wasn't your godfather one of the people who helped make sure that all of that was out of her system? I mean, don't you have faith in his abilities," Luke questioned as he sat down, having just returned from getting a third helping of at least three or four slices of pizza. A guy his size tended to eat a lot more than most people would think after all. He was actually tied with Peter when it comes to who among the students eat the most.
"Well, maybe it's something on Peter's end then. No one's ever thought about that, have they," Janet questioned.
"Or maybe your just jealous and are making up wild theories in a sad attempt to hide it," Carol teased.
"I-I am not! That'd be…That'd be crazy," Janet insisted, but her bright red face easily betrayed her. When her friends just grinned at her, knowingly, she turned away from them after taking an angry bite out of her slice of pizza, which she had only just now touched, and resumed glaring at the two spiders. "I'll bet she's probably trying some kind of line on him right now just to see how he'd react."
"…And once you've redistributed those factors, the rest of the solution should just fall right into place," Peter finished as he indicated a few points on the paper that Jessica had filled up with chemistry homework. In truth, that was all that they were really doing at the moment, since Jessica had insisted on getting Peter to tutor her for some of their classes. Running away from home when she was really little did mean that she unfortunately missed out on a lot of regular schooling, so she was understandably behind. She was just glad that Peter was able to simplify things for her much better than Pym or Stark could.
"I think I've got it," Jessica nodded as she did as her fellow spider instructed. After slowly working her way through what was left, she turned to Peter so that he could see her work, and asked, "Is this about right?"
Peter studied the page for a minute glancing between the work and Jessica while keeping silent, just for dramatic effect, and when he saw that Jess starting to appear nervous, he finally smiled and said, "Perfect. You see, you're a natural at this."
"Well I certainly hope so. Understanding chemistry a little better might help me to get a better handle on my pheromone powers, at least according to Doctor Pym," Jessica revealed with a sigh of relief. "It'd be nice to not have to worry about making every guy around me go crazy every time I get stressed out, unless I want them to."
"Yeah, I can only imagine," Peter grinned in response. "But can you really tell me that you don't enjoy living every girl's dream to have boys falling at your feet everywhere you go sometimes?"
A few weeks ago, Jessica probably would have groaned in disgust at that remark, since she had hated her pheromone abilities so much, but now, she could tell that Peter was joking a little when he said that, and had no problem letting out a small giggle at said remark. The two were about to move on to the next problem on Jess's homework, when Fury's voice suddenly rang out over the intercom, requesting the students to report to the Main Assembly Hall. After scarffing down their food and packing away any work that they had on them, the six academy students all raced over to said room as quickly as they could, knowing that this was probably going to be important since they would most likely be called into the Main Assembly Hall when it was not a school night for some big announcement. After all, the last time this had happened was when Spider-Man had joined Avengers Academy, and that was a pretty big announcement on its own.
Unlike the day when Spidey joined the academy though, the students did not have to wait long before they found out why they were called in, because Cap and Fury soon stepped into the room with a pair of teens almost two minutes after they had all gotten seated. The teens in question were a young man with blonde hair and a girl with shoulder-length dark hair. The girl's attire was rather basic, in that it was an all-black suit that seemed very similar to the uniforms that SHIELD agents wore, but it also had the added addition of a pair of silver gauntlets on her arms, along with a similarly colored belt. The boy on the other hand went with something that was much more casual in appearance, consisting of a red shirt, a brown coat, and blue jeans. Simply put, these two were very unassuming in appearance, but they had to figure that probably meant that they were going for that so that they could hide how much power they were really packing.
"Kids, meet your new classmates: Daisy Johnson and Lincoln Campbell," Fury introduced to the seated kids.
"Just so you guys know, you can call me Quake when we're in the field," Daisy informed them with a cocky smirk. "We're still trying to come up with something catchy for my boyfriend here. Mainly because he refuses to go by Sparky."
"Because it's a sidekick name, and I'm not a sidekick," Lincoln grumbled.
"Well duh. You're at Avengers Academy now, so no one's a sidekick," Wasp cheered as she flew down to the front of the room, albeit with a much more sedated pace than the one she used when Spidey was introduced. "Anyways, I'm Janet, and that's Sam, Carol, Luke, Jessica, and…uh…"
"Peter," the web-head finished for Janet, knowing why she was hesitating on his introduction. "But I prefer Spidey."
"Spidey? Like as in the Spider," Daisy asked, with a tone of excitement in her voice that sounded suspiciously a lot like Wasp's when she first met Peter.
"Why does everyone always…," Peter started to ask, before he took a deep breath to calm down before he completely lost it. "First off, it's Spider-Man, not the Spider. Second, yeah, that's me."
"Okay, this school just got a lot cooler," Daisy grinned as she speed-walked over to Peter so she could shake his hand. "I've followed a lot of your exploits via the videos and photos that were posted on the web, and even found a few things about your actions that others had missed while I was poking around in other places that most people don't think to look. You're really good at the hero thing. Kinda surprised that you're a student here though."
"Well what can I say? There's always room for improvement, and Iron Man and Captain America gave some pretty convincing arguments," Spidey shrugged after he got his hand back from the new girl. "So…what can you guys do? I mean, do you have powers, or are you guys like Sam in that you're normal people with some fancy tech?"
"We both have powers," Daisy easily replied. "I can control vibrations and release them so that they can produce an effect similar to earthquakes or vibrational-based blasts, and Lincoln has electric powers."
"Kinda like Thor," Sam asked as he came down from where he was sitting.
"Not really. I don't need to channel the lightning through an object or anything, I really just point and blast," Lincoln corrected. "It's really more like that one Xavier kid…I think his name's Berserker. Thankfully we didn't run across them first, otherwise we'd have to explain that we're Inhumans and not mutants."
"Huh," was the collective question that followed that last detail.
"Oh, right. You guys probably don't know about the Inhumans, do you," Lincoln realized, his tone steadily growing sheepish as he spoke.
"We're basically people who have slightly altered DNA because of some experiments that an alien race performed on our ancestors years ago. Unlike mutants, are powers don't become active unless we're exposed to a process called Terrigenesis," Daisy explained.
"And how often does that happen? Like, is there some kind of food that we should be having people avoid or…" Luke asked, thinking that it would be good to know this information. If people were already getting worked up over mutants, he did not want to think about how they would react to Inhumans.
"Relax. Terrigenesis isn't something that can happen anywhere to just anyone," Lincoln reassured the indestructible teen. "It does involve a certain type of crystals, but they're really hard to come by. Most of the time, you can't even find a crystal without already knowing about the existence of Inhumans, or knowing someone who knows about them."
"We were actually looking for a way to link up with some other Inhumans, since we've heard a few rumors about some safe havens for us, but then Iron Man showed up with Agent Coulson, offered us a place here, and now…here we are," Daisy finished. "Probably for the best. A lot of those rumors were way too far-fetched to be real."
"Why's that," Carol asked.
"Because most of them were about a hidden city for Inhumans up on the moon," Daisy revealed. "I mean, how could that be true, right?"
"Well considering I got my powers from an alien energy blast, while Spidey got his from a radioactive spider bite, there's could be a chance it is real," Carol pointed out.
"Yeah right. There's no way someone could have kept an entire civilization hidden up on the moon, especially not from all the exploration missions that astronauts have sent up there," Sam scoffed in disagreement.
It looked like Sam and Carol were about to go at it again at that point, when Iron Man suddenly rushed into the room, already wearing most of his armor, save for the helmet, and with a slightly worried look on his face. "Sorry to interrupt, Old Man and One-Eye, but those potential recruits we were tracking in Sokovia…yeah, I think we might want to consider bringing them in ASAP."
"What happened," Fury immediately demanded, his tone a clear indication that he had gone into full SHIELD agent mode. Seeing that, the students knew that this was probably serious, even if they did not really understand what was going on.
"Hard to say, but Widow reported that a lot of people suddenly started freaking out over something that wasn't there, while all the food and valuables were suddenly whisked away seconds after they had left. FRIDAY has already scanned the area and found out that our little brother and sister duo were the only ones who didn't rush out of the city in a panic, and given what we learned about them, the cause of the whole thing seems pretty likely," Tony explained.
"Still, last I checked neither SHIELD or the Avengers are too welcome in Sokovia, especially given what happened during the last time we were there. It would be too risky to send the team in," Captain America pointed out.
"Maybe in the case of your team, Rogers, but unless I'm remembering wrong…it's not a school night," Fury reminded the super soldier, glancing over at the students when he finished.
The two Avengers were quick to figure out what Fury meant by that, and they were not very fond of it. "No, that's too risky," Steve argued. "They're not ready for that kind of mission."
"Besides, two of them just joined up, and I don't remember Hawkeye or Widow saying that they had run them through any team building exercises lately since we added Spider-Girl over there," Tony pointed out.
"Spider-Woman," Jessica retorted, showing that she had heard that. She was mostly ignored though, as the adults in the room just kept on talking.
"If I recall, Rogers, you were the one who argued for bringing Spider-Man in because he had experience that the other kids didn't. Not only that, but at the risk of sounding like one of those teenagers, they can't get that experience if they're not allowed to go when the chance comes up," Fury argued in their favor.
"Um, don't we get a say in this," Spider-Man asked, hoping that his question would remind the three that all the students were currently still in the room. "Cause if there's a way any of us can help out, then I'm more than happy to lend a hand."
"Yeah, same here," Luke agreed, with the rest of the students all giving various confirmations of the same fact moments later.
The three adults looked over the students, until Fury gave the two leaders of the Avengers a look that practically screamed that he was winning this argument. Seeing as they were beaten in this round, Steve just sighed and looked to the kids as he started explaining the situation. "All right, you're in. This isn't anything too fancy though; just another recruitment mission for the academy. The only difference being that it may very well be more high-risk than any of the others from before, which is another good reason why you're all going on it. Black Widow, She-Hulk, and I will be leading this assignment, so you'll follow our lead. Just keep in mind, these two may be a bit more hostile towards us, so you will have to approach with caution. With what we know of their mindsets, they could prove to be a danger to both others and themselves. One is a young woman by the name of Wanda Maximoff, and the other is her twin brother Pietro. We'll send an image of them to your student ID cards once you all are ready to roll, along with information about their abilities."
"Question, why would they be hostile towards us? I mean, you guys are the Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes. I can't really see anyone not liking you guys without being supervillains," Janet asked.
"Or if they're certain military/government leaders," Carol muttered under her breath, her mind immediately going to individuals like General Ross of the Hulkbuster Unit.
"It's really more of a dislike due to the fact that the Avengers are typically associated with SHIELD or similar organizations," Daisy explained, unintentionally cutting off Cap before he could. "The nation's been plagued by several wars over the years, and most of that is because of big organizations or powers like the US Armed Forces, SHIELD, HYDRA, or even Latveria. Add in the fact that a lot of the weapons that have normally hit Sokovia, unintentionally or not, were made by Stark Industries, and it's probably a better question as to why they wouldn't hate the Avengers."
Everyone was silent after hearing that, staring at the new girl in surprise, until Tony finally asked the question they were all wondering. "How do you know all of that?"
Daisy's expression became a little more sheepish before she finally admitted, "I used to be a bit of a hacktivist. I was part of a group called the Rising Tide before I got my powers and met Lincoln, so hacking into various places and learning things that certain groups don't want the public to know about is something of a cake-walk for me. I even hacked into SHIELD once or twice."
"Hence another reason why we're recruiting her into the academy," Fury added on. "Better to have someone that skilled with us than against us."
No one could argue with that, and they were all a little more impressed with Daisy now. It was not easy to hack into SHIELD without being as smart as Tony, or having access to special equipment, so the fact that she was able to do so really showed that the girl had talent beyond just her powers. That was of mild concern right now though, because they still had a pair of twins to deal with. "Any other questions," Steve asked. When he received only silence, he closed out the impromptu briefing by saying, "All right, then grab what you need, suit up, and meet down at the Campus Hangar. Wheels up in ten. We've got a speedster and a possible telekinetic with limited telepathy to track down."
If you thought that things were going to be simple for the Avengers and their students in regards to this little recruitment mission, then you clearly have not been paying attention to how things have gone so far. The only difference here is that HYDRA was taking much more active measures to prevent the heroes from getting the brother and sister, and it all started when a HYDRA ship landed on the outskirts of the town that the two were currently hiding out in. After the ship had activated its cloaking field, Madame Hydra herself stepped into a car that had been waiting for her, and leveled the most fearsome glare she could muster on the terrorist group's Sokovia agent. He did not seem too perturbed by it though, because he continued to hold the same confident stance that he had when he saw the aircraft land.
"Welcome to Sokovia, Madame Hydra," greeted one Baron Strucker, his smug smile not faltering even slightly under the gaze of his fellow commander. "I trust your flight was without incident."
"Spare me the hollow pleasantries, Strucker. I'm not here for games," Viper growled. "What. Happened? I had left the two here in what I thought was your excellent supervision and care, so how did they escape from you?"
"It was during a SHIELD raid. Somehow, the girl had used her powers to cause one of the guards to collapse from an overdose of fear and anxiety. I had already dealt with the issue, but by then, the boy had already whisked them both away. We'd been tracking them for some time, but since they had not made any moves to draw attention, we saw no reason to bother with bringing them back. As I recall, it was the Skull's orders to not give them reason to distrust or hate us."
"And yet leaving them alone has now allowed this to happen. One little riot against an outsider from the Americas, and the two are exposed to everyone, giving them the idea that's now perfectly fine to use their abilities like they don't have a care in the world," Viper growled, clearly not any happier after hearing that explanation. She then leveled a much more fierce glare on Strucker than before as she grounded out, "You will help me to ensure that this is brought under control, and that the two are brought back into our hands, otherwise, if the Skull doesn't have your head, I most certainly will."
"Rest assured, I fully intended to bring them in right after they had been exposed, but given the limited resources we have here, it was proving much more difficult than you can probably imagine," Strucker defended, waving his hand out like he could showcase an example of his division's resource problem from in their car. Viper's expression did not change though, and Strucker ended up having to wave it off in place of giving her some additional bad news. "You do know that the Avengers will be coming as well right? No doubt Stark and SHIELD have already seen what happened recently and will be sending their people."
"Of course I know that," Madame Hydra snapped. Her expression then changed into a very devious smirk as she finished, "Which is why we're going to make sure that the twins will coming running back to us, while simultaneously learning to either fear or hate the Avengers with every fiber of their being."
"I doubt that it will be very difficult for them to hate the Avengers, given that they have already shown to have a significant distaste for Stark," Strucker commented.
"Well after today, it will go from significant distaste to pure and utter hatred. I can guarantee you that," Viper promised, and soon enough, both HYDRA commanders were sharing the same devious smirk.
The flight over to Sokovia was relatively uneventful, aside from Spider-Man's attempts to make sure he did not have a panic attack, and the students and staff members of Avengers Academy had soon arrived in the small country, just outside the borders of the city that their potential recruits had been spotted in. Really, the only other point of significance for the trip was that Black Widow actually allowed Carol to fly the Quinjet, mainly on the grounds that they were not expecting to be in an aerial fight, and when the blonde managed a smooth take-off, flight, and landing, no one could argue when Cap said that Carol was likely going to be made a pilot in no time. Said blonde beamed with pride at that praise, but she did not let it distract her from her flying, a fact that everyone was very thankful for. They all knew just how much Carol wanted to become a pilot, both before and after getting her powers, so hearing something like that from Captain America was likely grounds for her to start cheering like a giddy little school girl on her birthday.
After they had landed, Black Widow made sure to activate the Quinjet's cloaking systems so that no curious passerby would be able to find it and damage the systems, intentionally or otherwise, and the group immediately started making their way into town. Right when they were within visual range of the area, Captain America decided that it was a good time for them to split up, with one Avenger being in charge of each team. Daisy, Lincoln, and Falcon assigned to Black Widow, Ms. Marvel and Power Man were with She-Hulk, and finally, Wasp and the two spider-powered teens were with Cap himself, much to the insect-themed heroine's slight displeasure. She was still feeling a little edgy around Jess after what she had seen earlier, but right now was not the time or place. With their teams decided, and after making sure they were all well-aware of what to do should they see their potential recruits, the Avengers set out into the town, each trying to either blend in or keep out of sight as best as they could.
Of course, it was harder for some of them to blend in than others, considering that they had all come out here in their full gear, and even if they had not, they still seemed to be getting looks from everyone they passed, and none of them seemed very welcoming or even kind, to put it mildly. Every single person who noticed them had given them a very harsh glare, and if any of the Avengers were sighted, the glares seemed even more hateful. Sure, they had been told to expect a less than warm reception from the people of Sokovia, but the actual thing was much different for the students. While most of them were bothered by it, others were not all that worked up about it. Daisy and Lincoln did not even seem to so much as bat an eye at the heated looks, and Jess was apparently shrugging them off like they were nothing more than raindrops for the most part. When the former two were questioned on the matter, they explained that they had to deal with a lot of similar looks after they got their powers, or when they were forced to reveal their powers to others and left it at that. Apparently, Inhumans were just as hated and feared as mutants were, despite being fewer in number, but what really had Janet hung up was how easily Spider-Woman seemed to be handling these heated glares.
"How are you handling this so easily," Janet whispered as they navigated through the rather rundown streets, gesturing to all the glaring people that were currently around them.
"When you've lived the life I have led up until now, you soon become numb to people giving you that kind of look," Jess replied, keeping it simple as she possibly could while trying to keep all emotion out of the acknowledgement. She did not entirely succeed, as there was still a strong hint of sadness forming in her eyes.
Janet noticed it almost right away and quickly realized what the spider-powered girl was talking about. "You mean your time with HYDRA?"
"That and my time on the streets," Jess admitted. "Despite what you may think, a lot of people don't really look at homeless little girls with very much pity all that often."
Even if she could have thought of something, Janet still felt like she could not say anything to dispute that. After all, despite losing her parents, she had still lived a rather decent life growing up under the care of Hank Pym. Sure, he spent a lot of time with his science experiments and his work as Ant-Man and later Giant-Man, but Hank did still make time to be there for Janet when she really needed a father figure. That was all the more reason why Janet still felt a little hesitant about trying to really talk with Jess that much; the two were pretty much polar opposites of one another, going off of their life-styles up until now alone. Still, that did not mean that she was not going to at least try and connect with her, even if she did feel like Jess was trying to snatch Peter away for herself, despite her claims to the contrary.
"Just because you're numb to it, doesn't mean that it doesn't freak you out a little though. I mean, if something's bothering you, don't you think you should say something," Wasp told the girl.
Surprisingly, Jess just smirked in response and retorted, "Aren't you being a little hypocritical?"
"Excuse me?"
"Come on, Janet. I've seen the way you've been glaring at me whenever you saw me hanging out with Peter," Jess revealed. Her expression quickly became a bit downtrodden as she added, "If you're still upset with me over what I did when we all first met, I get it, but…"
"It's not that," Janet interrupted in reassurance. "It's just…well, how come you two have been hanging out so much lately? There's no way that you can tell me it's just your way of trying to make things up with him over what had happened, because you two have seemed way too cozy with each other for that."
Jess looked at the size-changer in disbelief, until it finally clicked for her as to what Janet was talking about. When it did, she could not help but laugh a little, much to Janet's confusion, and explained, "I'm not trying to 'get cozy' with Peter, Jan. He's just been tutoring me. I did run away from home when I was really little, and they don't really offer much schooling on the streets aside from the stuff you learn on your own like how to run, hide, and steal when you need to. Sure, I have a basic level education, but High School math and science…Yikes. Stark had taken notice of that and assigned Peter to help fix that as best as he could."
"Oh," Janet replied, too stunned to really say anything else. Stunned and a little ashamed. After all, she had just jumped right to the conclusion that Jess was trying to flirt with Peter after the brunette had assured her that she had no interest in the boy, so you would be hard pressed to not feel a little silly after that.
"Keep the gossip down back there, ladies. We've still got a mission to focus on," Captain America suddenly called back from where he was walking just ahead of them. When the girls had returned their attention to what they were doing, Cap tapped a comm. device in his ear and asked, "Spider-Man, you seeing anything from the rooftops?"
"No, not yet," Spider-Man reported as he jumped from the top of one building to the next as stealthily as he could, occasionally scaling up walls with his powers when he had to. "Then again, it's not like the descriptions we have to go off of are all that significant. I mean, girls with dark hair and fair complexions are not really all that uncommon. The boy's probably a little more noticeable than his sister given that he has white hair."
"I think it's really more like a silvery blonde," Janet argued as she glanced at the reference photo on her ID card of the super powered siblings.
"Either way, we need to find them before someone else does. Keep looking," Captain America ordered, with a quick chorus of affirmative replies coming soon after. "Natasha, what's your status?"
"Nothing to report as of yet, Steve," Widow replied. "Falcon's scanning the skies for us, but he hasn't had much better luck than your boy has. Quake and Voltage are asking around, but everyone they've talked to either insists that they don't know anything, or they just tell them to get lost once they realize that they're from out of town. They're helping sweep the areas the two were spotted in for any clues that could tell us where to find them."
"And how come you're not doing any of the asking," Jess questioned.
Somehow, they could all see the smirk on Black Widow's face when she next replied. "Who says I haven't been? Not only are they not talking, but I'm pretty sure that if I were to push any harder…well, we all know what that would result in if I resorted to any of my usual interrogation methods."
Cap did not say anything in response to that, and just moved on to check in with his other fellow Avenger. "Jen, how are things for you and the rest of the heavy hitters?"
"About the same as they are for you and Nat, Steve," She-Hulk replied. "But unlike Widow, none of us are all that skilled as detectives, so we're just stuck with trying to get people to at least give us the time of day."
"Just because you're not as good at picking up on hard-to-find clues as Nat is, doesn't mean you can't still find something that could help, Jen," Steve disputed.
"I know that, but let's be honest, do you really think I have the patience for that," Jen questioned.
"Well you are one of the team's resident lawyers," Steve pointed out. "That can be a pretty stressful job at times."
"Fair enough," She-Hulk granted. "We'll let you know if we have any luck."
"Copy that," Steve replied, and with that, they all returned to their respective searches.
But not without Spider-Man getting in a quick comment. "So, should we assume that 'Voltage' is now Lincoln's official codename, or is it just a place-holder for until we find something better?"
While the girls both giggled a little in response, Steve kept his emotions in check for the most part, going no further than a small smile. Despite the relatively calm atmosphere though, not one of them could possibly know of the danger that would await them when they did finally find the two they were searching for.
It was far from perfect, the life that they were currently leading. Hiding out in a rundown church with little living comforts beyond what they could manage to find or steal, when necessary, barely edible food that they had swiped from the markets when the older of the two had not rushed away to some place with something that was actually good, and usually nothing but the clothes on their backs to keep them warm at night. Sure, it was better than being locked up in some underground cell by whatever faceless group had planted these new abilities of theirs into them, but Wanda and Pietro would still have preferred something much nicer than this dump to call their home, temporary or otherwise. Still, they were not too concerned about living conditions when they had first escaped from that dreadful place. No, what they were more concerned with was getting out before they were taken in for more experiments and tests that seemed to serve no purpose other than trying to break them somehow, physically and mentally.
On the upside, the experiments did make Pietro faster than any normal man alive, while Wanda was now able to do some pretty impressive things with nothing more than her mind or the strange energy that she seemed to now radiate with on an on-again off-again basis, and unfortunately for whoever had been holding them in that place, it was those very same abilities that had facilitated their escape from that place. It was a simple matter for Wanda to use her new powers to implant a very terrifying vision into the heads of their cell guards, and once the doors were opened, Pietro had easily rushed them both away and back to their home in Sokovia. Not that they really had an actual home to go back to now, considering it had been demolished by the weapons that were created by that bastard, Tony Stark, but this city was still where they had been born and spent much of their childhood, so there was no real reason why they would not feel safe coming here. They just had to keep under the radar as much as possible, not cause trouble for anyone, and they figured that all of their problems would be a thing of the past.
That was only true for the most part in Pietro's eyes, because the one thing he wanted more than anything else, was to help his sister see the rest of the world in all of its glory. They had already seen enough of the ugly side of it just from their childhood in Sokovia, and that was without the strange lab that they had escaped from or Stark's weapons. Now, he wanted to help her see the beauty of it. Such a thing was not entirely possible right now though, with the way things currently were, because he feared that people would not be very accommodating to them when they saw what he and his sister could do. So, with no other options available, they hid out here in an abandoned church, living like helpless beggars when they had the power to live like kings, or queens in Wanda's case. Needless to say, it did not sit well with the fast-moving boy, and despite her assurances to the contrary, he knew that did indeed still wish for more as well. At the very least, they did still have some semblance of peace for the moment.
That peace was quickly shattered when a barrage of gunshots suddenly rained down on them from above, and Pietro was quickly racing to pull Wanda to safety. "What…what was that," Wanda gasped in a panic, her powers flaring a little in response to her stressed state.
"I'm not sure," Pietro admitted, scanning the area above them for the shooter. He did not need to look long though, as the perpetrator dropped down in front of them, revealing themselves to be a stunning woman with red hair, clad in a skin-tight black suit with glowing blue lines running through it, and a pair of handguns in either hand, while her belt buckle had an hourglass emblem on it. "Who are you and what do you want," Pietro demanded.
"Call me the Black Widow, and what I want, boy, is you and your little sister," the redhead replied in a Russian accent, and just before she finished, she had immediately charged the two, shooting at them as she went until she launched a leaping kick. Thankfully, the twins managed to evade her shots and her aerial attack, but from the glare she was throwing at them, this Black Widow was not going to let them escape easily. "You can run all you want, but it won't matter. Not when you're dealing with the Avengers."
"Avengers," Wanda gasped in confusion, having heard people muttering that name a few times while they were out and about. "You mean…Stark's people?"
"No, I mean Doctor Doom's. How many other Avengers do you know of, kid," Widow retorted as she slowly started to advance on them. She did not get too close before Pietro scooped up Wanda and raced out of the room, and likely to the building's exit. Widow smirked before her appearance melted away to reveal that the only part of her that had been close to the real Black Widow was her red hair, and even that was a few shades lighter than the real thing. In reality, she also had blue skin and yellow eyes, and seemed to be clad in a black outfit that left her arms and midriff bare, with a matching colored skirt and boots. She tapped quickly pulled out a comm. device from her belt, and reported, "All right, I've set things in motion for you. They think that the Avengers are now hunting them."
"An attack from one single Avenger guarantees nothing, Mystique. They need to see as many of them targeting them as possible, and if you can, try to mix in some of their students as well," Madame Viper replied to the mutant shapeshifter.
"Understood," Mystique nodded. She then pocketed the device and changed her form into that of Captain America as she commented in a perfect imitation of the super soldier's voice, "Though impersonating the students may be a little more difficult since I've never really gotten too good of a look at them, but a few small pushes should still send you kids running right into HYDRA's arms, and a nice paycheck into mine."
While that little communication was taking place, Pietro had just gotten both himself and Wanda outside the church, and they were now running at a more normal pace, hoping to get away before that woman with Stark caught them. At least, that was one of their main objectives. The other was making sure that Wanda stayed calm, because Pietro knew that if his sister got too freaked out, something bad was likely going to happen, and right now, she looked like she was starting to really freak out. He would have held her close and whispered soothing words into her ear to help her calm down, but right now was definitely not the time or the place. That was proven further true when he looked back and saw Captain America drop down from the window of the room that they had been in a moment ago.
"Come on, Wanda! Just hold it together a little longer," Pietro encouraged as he rushed his sister forward. He could have just scooped her up and ran off again at super speed, but with in the face of such hectic circumstances, it was a little hard to really think about things that obvious.
"You can hold on as long as you want, but in the end, you're just one more of Stark's messes that we'll be cleaning up," Captain America shouted as he lobbed a grenade right at the two.
Wanda caught sight of the explosive as it came flying towards them, and out of instinct, she immediately raised her hand and caught it in a few tendrils of the red energy that she could now control. Another wave of her hand sent the explosive flying back to where it had come from, and the two siblings then watched as the super soldier was hit with his own bomb. Even though she did not like the idea of hurting people needlessly like this, Wanda could not start herself from smiling a little deviously at the fact that she had likely just taken out someone who worked for Tony Stark. It actually felt really good to do so. The only problem was that the good feeling did not last, as She-Hulk suddenly burst out from the smoke clearly intending to land on them when she came down. The jade giantess did not quite make it though, because someone suddenly hit her in the side with an explosive of their own.
Turning to the person who just saved their skins, the twins were surprised to see a man in an all-black outfit with long hair and a metal arm, holding the bazooka that had no doubt just fired the explosive that She-Hulk was hit with. The man then turned his attention to them and slowly started walking over to them, causing both siblings to tense up. They were not sure if they were getting ready to fight or start running again, but at the moment, it did not really matter either way. All they knew was that this dangerous looking guy had just blasted an Avenger like it was nothing, and was now coming towards them. What they did not expect was for him to lower his weapon and give them what he must have thought was a reassuring smirk. Too bad it still seemed far too cold to be anything that had a snowball's chance in hell of comforting someone.
"Relax. I'm on your side," the pale man said, his voice, while cold, quickly revealing that he was at least close to their age.
"Somehow I doubt that," Pietro retorted with a distrusting glare that Wanda silently matched.
"Hey, I did just save you from one of the Avengers. I think I deserve some credit here," the man pointed out. "My name's Winter Soldier. I'm one of the few people who were smart enough to not be fooled by Stark and his little freak-club's claims of being heroes. The group I work for are the same way, and they sent me to find you guys."
"Why," Wanda probed, feeling a little off-put that she could not hear his thoughts. Ever since they had gotten these strange new powers, she found that she could hear nearly everyone's thoughts, especially if they were close by, but with this guy…it was almost like his mind was completely empty of any thought at all, and that gave her quite a few chills.
"Is that a serious question," Winter Soldier asked. "We want to keep you safe from those guys before they can reign you into Stark's little performance, at best."
"And our abilities have nothing to do with that, I'm sure," Pietro scoffed.
"Well, that is a small bonus," Winter Soldier admitted. "You could easily pound any of them, or at least most of them into paste before they could even blink, while your pretty sister here could tear the Avengers and their little kiddies apart from the inside. Why wouldn't we want someone like you to help us out and show the world the truth about the Avengers and Stark?"
The twins just stared at this Winter Soldier in uncertainty. Could they really trust him and what he was saying? Sure, he did just save them from one of the Avengers, but growing up on the streets, especially in a place like Sokovia had taught them that they could not take anything at face value. Still, it did seem like a better idea than trying to outrun the Avengers on their own, since it would likely be hard to escape them even with Pietro's incredible speed, but before they could question him further, Wanda picked up on the minds of a few other people quickly approaching them. When she turned to see where they were coming from, she immediately paled due to recognizing the woman who was leading them. "Pietro! It's her! It's that Widow woman again!"
Pietro immediately looked to see that Black Widow was indeed rushing towards them, with two others he did not know following her, and a third kid flying through the air with a jetpack of some kind. The last of them seemed to glare at Winter Soldier a little before swinging one of his wings and unleashing a series of sharp, metal quills at the metal-armed man. Winter Soldier easily avoided the attacks before raising his weapon again and preparing to fire it on the winged hero, only to get blasted back by some sort of shockwave, courtesy of the new girl. The shockwave was then followed by a lightning blast from the blonde boy, and like that, Winter Soldier was forced to take cover while Black Widow and Falcon made to try and chase after the twins, who had slipped away in the confusion.
Once he felt that he had sufficiently cursed to himself enough, Winter Soldier tapped his comm. device and said, "I almost had the twins, but Black Widow and some of the Junior Avengers showed up and they took off."
"Then go after them," Viper snarled from the other end.
"I can't. I'm pinned down by a couple of new kids. A boy with lightning powers and a girl that can shoot out shockwaves like that idiot that Spider-Man tends to take down a lot."
He heard Viper let loose a German curse before she said, "Deal with them as quickly as possible. We'll just have to see if Mystique's performance worked well enough, and then hope that she's still able to give a few more pushes."
Winter Soldier gave his affirmative reply, and then popped up to fire on the girl, who blasted into the air with a steady shockwave to avoid it and allow the lightning kid to try frying him again. He knew that this was likely going to be a small black spot on his previously flawless record of success, but he fully intended to correct it quickly enough by either taking these two out or getting as much intel on them as possible for later. After all, it was always good to know everything you can about the soldiers in an enemy camp.
Widow was not too eager to leave the two rookies to deal with Winter Soldier on their own, but right now, the mission took higher priority, and as far as she knew, Falcon was faster than the super powered couple. What she was more concerned about though was how the twins reacted when they saw her group approaching. She had expected them to be weary of them, like many people in Sokovia were, but judging by the look on the girl's face, they were more afraid than anything else. To be more accurate, it looked like they were afraid of her specifically for some reason. She would have figured that it was probably because of something they had heard while out on the streets from some locals, but the fear that was in their eyes was not something that came from just hearing a scary story. That mystery would have to wait, because the backup she had signaled for after seeing the twins with Winter Soldier just arrived, and it came crashing down in front of the two at near supersonic speed.
When the twins had skidded to a stop, they had done so just in time to see Ms. Marvel stand up to her full height and gaze at them evenly as she spoke. "Easy you two. We're not looking for trouble. We just want to talk to you."
"Right. Just like your redheaded friend did when she attacked us," Pietro scoffed as he and Wanda prepared to either fight or run again.
Carol merely quirked an eyebrow in confusion, not knowing what to make of that, but before she could think of anything to say, Wanda jumped in and said, "Either leave us alone or tell Stark that if he wants to kill us, he should be a man and come do it himself."
"Why the hell would Tony want to kill you two," Ms. Marvel asked, hardly believing what she was just hearing. Before she could get an answer, Widow and Falcon had finally caught up, and Luke and She-Hulk had arrived soon after, effectively helping to surround the twins without them noticing. Or so she thought.
Wanda had picked up on the others' movements as they had gotten close the moment they were close enough for her to notice them with her psychic powers, and she was now glaring very harshly at the blonde heroine in training. "Perhaps you could ask one of your teammates who are surrounding us in an attempt to either capture or kill us like animals," the Sokovian woman retorted, her powers flaring in flashes of scarlet energy. "Now just leave us alone, and go away."
The two Avengers could tell that they were losing control of this situation and fast, so they simply jumped in to act before Carol could make any more attempts at calming the two down. "We can't do that, you two. You might be in real danger, and we just want to help keep you safe," She-Hulk attempted to reassure them as she and Natasha approached.
"So the woman who tried to flatten us moments ago after her friend failed to kill us herself," Pietro retorted.
Widow did not say anything in reply to that, but she did file it away as something to think on at a later date, and simply prepared to fire her stingers at one of the two. Apparently, she had not been subtle enough, because Wanda had quickly taken notice and suddenly blasted her with her powers, much to the heroes' shock. A quick wave of Wanda's hand a later, and Black Widow had dropped to the ground with a dazed look on her face, prompting the others to decide that the time for talking was now over, and they immediately engaged the two. Falcon had quickly taken to the air, but could not really attack since Wanda was telekinetically throwing various large objects at him whenever she was not blasting him with energy, and Carol was not doing much better in that regard herself. Sure, the blonde may be really durable and could absorb energy, but she was a little hesitant to attack these two after everything they had just heard.
Luke and She-Hulk were not having much better luck in trying to grab Pietro, because he kept giving them the slip by running around and dashing away every few seconds or so. Pietro stuck to mostly dodging, but he did try his luck at landing a few hits on the two heavy hitters, for what good it did. After all, hitting someone with unbreakable or gamma irradiated skin tended to hurt the person who was throwing the punch more than said individuals that they were punching. That did not stop Pietro for long, as he quickly raced around the two a lot more than before, building up his speed as he did, until he finally charged Luke and slammed a powerful blow into Power Man that sent the large teen flying through the wall of a nearby building. This same process was repeated, only with much more speed this time around, and She-Hulk was soon in the same boat as Luke.
When Luke started to stand up again, he glanced over to see Pietro had gone back to moving at normal speed near him, and the silver haired boy merely smirked down at him as he arrogantly asked, "You didn't see that coming?"
The Sokovian boy raced away before Luke could reply, and before Falcon or Ms. Marvel knew what was happening, Wanda had disappeared as well, bringing their fight to an end. Thankfully, Carol was able to catch a glimpse of where the twins were heading, and was about to fly after them when Sam quickly brought something to her attention. "Ms. M, Black Widow's still down."
The two flyers were immediately racing to where Romanoff was, and they were eventually joined by Luke and She-Hulk as Sam checked the superspy over to figure out what was wrong. She-Hulk quickly took notice of the fact that there was a faint red glow in Widow's unfocused eyes, and given what had just happened, she quickly figured out what might be wrong, and she knew that the others would need to know about this right away. "She-Hulk to Captain America. We found the twins, but they were not too happy to see us and attacked. Widow's down, and it looks like she's been placed into some kind of trance or something by the girl."
"Understood, She-Hulk. Do you still have the twins," Cap asked.
"No. The boy somehow managed to knock out Power Man and She-Hulk before taking off with his sister, but from what I could see, it looked like they were heading into the forest just north of the city," Carol reported. She then quickly added on, "Cap, there's something else. They seemed really freaked out at the sight of us, and they mentioned being attacked by Widow and She-Hulk before now."
"But weren't they both with you guys the whole time," Wasp asked.
"They were," Luke confirmed. "And get this, we saw our old buddy Winter Soldier with the twins when we finally found them."
"Oh great. Just what I needed today," Jessica moaned in misery.
"We'll keep our guard up. If Winter Soldier is involved, then that means that HYDRA must be playing a very elaborate game in order to get the twins on their side," Captain America replied, and with that, the communication came to an end.
It was right at that moment that Daisy and Lincoln finally rejoined them, having been blindsided by Winter Soldier so that the teenage HYDRA agent could make his escape, and after they got an explanation as to what had happened, She-Hulk decided that it would be best if she took the two new kids with her so that they could meet up with Cap's group while the other got Widow back to the Quinjet. No one was willing to argue, not that they really had the time to do so anyway, and the group immediately split up from there. As they were heading back, Falcon looked down at the superspy in his arms, and could not help but think about something.
"I wonder what she's seeing," Falcon finally commented aloud.
Carol glanced over to see Widow was muttering something under her breath, and from the look on her otherwise blank face, it was probably not something good, because for one of the first times since she had met the redhead, Carol could tell that Black Widow seemed very shaken up. "Whatever it is, I don't think we want to know," the blonde finally commented. "If it's something that can make her look that freaked out, I'd rather just leave it as a mystery."
Sam and Luke both had to agree with that sentiment and spent the rest of the return trip to the Quinjet in silence. All the while, they had no idea that Widow was both seeing and reliving some of the horrors she had been through during her time with the Red Room, all reminding her of why she had so much red in her ledger to wipe away.
Mystique was not happy, to say the least. Sure, she knew that agreeing to take a job from HYDRA was likely to come with risks, but no one had told her that those risks included getting blasted by some of the people who had hired her, and with a grenade, no less. A freaking grenade! She was just lucky that she took on a bit more durability whenever she changed into someone, and especially so when it was someone as durable as a Hulk. It may not have been to the same extent, but it was just enough for her to survive and slowly heal. After that, she had been hoping that she could call it quits, take her money, and go back to the rest of her comrades in Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, but apparently, her employers had other plans. The two twins had managed to slip away from the HYDRA agent, and not long after, they had an encounter with some of the real Avengers and their little students. Sure, it had yielded results that they had been hoping for, but apparently, just mild anger that only provoked a fight-or-flight reaction was not good enough for Madame Viper, so she needed the blue-skinned mutant to give a few more nudges. She just needed to find the two, which was exactly why she was out here in this godforsaken forest, trying to locate the two brats.
"Honestly, even recruiting some of the Brotherhood's younger members was never this difficult," Mystique grumbled as she moved through the forest, having disguised herself as a hiker just in case she was spotted before she found her targets.
When Mystique finally did find the two, she was quite pleased to see that Wanda and Pietro were alone and very tired, while not a single Avenger was anywhere in sight. A small grin stretched across the shapeshifter's face as she prepared to make her move, only to pause when the solitude that the two had gained for themselves was disturbed by someone else, and not one of the people she was currently with. Still, that did not mean that there would not be a way for to take advantage of the situation, if things played out in just the right way, and Mystique was nothing if not patient. Working for Magneto and before that, alongside Xavier was certainly a huge help with that.
The twins on the other hand were freaking out beyond belief. Not only did they encounter more people like them, but they had been attacked by Stark's little gang of super powered hunters or whatever these Avengers were after them, saved by a kid with a metal arm who appeared to be about as cold as a winter night in Sokovian, and then had not only fought against, but actually beat some of the Avengers. Okay, so that last one was probably not so bad, from a certain standpoint, but the fact that they had to do that at all was the thing that was really worrying for them. Add in the fact that Wanda was not even sure what she had done to that Black Widow woman, and you could understand why they would be more than a little concerned. After all, she had never used her telepathic abilities on anyone but the people who had used them like lab rats and some random people that they needed to steal some food from when they finally got hungry enough. This was something else entirely though, since she had willingly attacked someone that a larger part of the world apparently thought of as a hero. There was just no telling how that would come back to bite them later on, and Wanda was not sure she wanted to know what would happen when it did. Pietro was of the same mind, but even though he had managed to knock down the green woman and that really big kid, he was more concerned about Wanda than he was himself. After all, the people at that place had made it very clear that they were more interested in her and what potential she had than him, so he did not want to think about what Stark's people would do to her if they got their hands on Wanda.
The two would have continued lamenting on their situation and how out of control it had now become, when they suddenly heard a twig snap, and they immediately turned towards the sound with guarded stances. "Whoa, hey! Easy. I come in peace," was the startled cry of a teenage girl close to the twins' age with brown hair, fair skin, and dressed in a yellow shirt, white pants, long black boots, black fingerless gloves, and a black jacket with yellow highlights. "My name's Wasp, but you guys can call me Janet."
"What do you want with us," Pietro demanded, making sure he was standing in between Janet and his sister, just in case when he did.
"Nothing really," Janet insisted, raising her hands to show that she meant no harm. "I'm just here to talk to you guys."
"About what," Wanda asked.
"Oh you know, joining the school my friends and I attend, making some new friends, starting with me if you'd like, and you know, training to help save the world someday as the next generation of Earth's mightiest heroes," Janet easily rattled off like she was talking about the
Unfortunately, if she had been hoping to get a good reaction from the two, she quickly received just the opposite after that last comment. "You mean you're with Stark's little Avengers," Wanda glowered, her eyes already flashing with a light flare of scarlet energy.
"No! No, I'm not an Avenger," Janet immediately insisted, only to pause and think for a minute on what else she could say after that. "Well…I'm not an Avenger yet, but I am learning to be one, and you guys can too. I heard about how you guys handled against some of my teammates and a couple of our teachers, and if you guys can do something like that against them, think of what you could do if you were to use your abilities to help people."
"We're already helping people, and we have no interest in joining Stark's vanity project," Pietro snarled, ready to race away again, no matter how tired he was.
Janet could see that she was not going to be getting through to them like this, so it was time to change tactics. Luckily, she had an idea on how to start. "Look, I know that you're probably not the biggest fans of the Avengers or Tony Stark, but they really do want to help people like you two and me to become something really great. Something that can give the world hope while keeping it safe from those that would do it harm."
"And you really think we're supposed to believe that Stark really wants to build a better future? All he knows is how to destroy things," Wanda retorted. Her face became a little more sullen as she added, "Just like how he destroyed our lives."
Janet was not sure what to think about that, but she could tell that they were not budging on this opinion they had of Tony Stark, and given what the others had reported earlier after their encounter with the twins, she had a feeling the chances of getting them to believe anything like that was going to be too easy today. "Hey, I'm not asking you to just put aside the past and act like things never happened," the size-changer reassured them, as she reached into her pocket for something. "But I do want you guys to at least have a chance to use your new abilities to help people. It'd be even better to get a couple of new friends too, so if you do want to talk, you can easily reach me with this communicator."
She slowly approached the two, holding out the device in question for them to see. Pietro was not too willing to take anything from her, but Wanda could sense that this girl's intentions were pure, so she slowly accepted the offered gift from her. After holding the communicator in her hand for a moment and studying it, noting how it looked like an odd smartphone, Wanda could not help but smirk a little as she commented, "The latest model, I take it?"
"You kids would probably know better than I would," a new voice suddenly seemed to joke, and the three turned to see Spider-Woman, Spider-Man, and Captain America approaching them. What none of the Avengers Academy group noticed though, was that the moment the super soldier had spoken up, the twins' faces had paled a little, but they quickly took notice of it when they suddenly backed away as quickly as they could, clearly on the verge of freaking out.
"No! Not you again," Pietro gasped, already charging off into the woods with Wanda following after him.
"Just…just stay away from us," Wanda cried in a panic before she disappeared
"No, wait! Come back," Janet shouted, but the twins were already gone. Janet could not help but groan in annoyance now. "I don't get it! I thought I was doing everything right and making a connection."
"You were, Jan. You got them to listen and at least trust you a little for a minute," Peter reassured her.
"But what I want to know is why they freaked out when they saw Cap? I mean, I thought the only people who normally did that were Nazis or HYDRA goons," Jessica joked, earning small smiles from her classmates.
"Not sure, but at least now we know that it would be best if I tried to keep my distance from them when we catch up," Steve commanded. "Spread out and try to find them. Even if that boy carried them away at super speed, they couldn't have gotten far."
The three nodded in response and immediately scattered into the woods in their own various ways, Jessica by scaling up a tree and then leaping from branches to glide through the air, Spidey via web-swinging, Janet through the use of her wings. Steve could only smirk a bit at the three's unique ways of personal travel, feeling a small bit of jealousy for a minute since he had to stick to moving around on foot, but it quickly passed as he rushed off into the forest himself. All the time, none of them ever noticed how a hiker had suddenly changed into a raven and flown off after the twins with a devious plan already cooking up in her head.
Just like Captain America had said, Wanda and Pietro did not get very far before they stopped again. They had been running and fighting almost nonstop for who-knew-how-long now, so it would make sense that they would need to stop and catch their breath shortly after getting away from the heroic group. Too bad Wanda was not able to rest for long, as she was soon met with company again, this time in the form of the red and blue clad masked teen that was with Janet's group earlier. Even without the spider-logo on the front of his jacket, she and her brother had been sure that it was a safe bet to say that this was the infamous Spider-Man from New York that the news had been reporting rumors of, but given what they had heard, she had figured he would have been a little nicer. Clearly that was not the case if he was aligned with Stark, and if his next words were anything to go by.
"'Come into my parlor,' said the spider to the witch," Spider-Man started off, his menacing tone causing his clever line to not sound nearly the least bit funny at all. "No one escapes the Avengers that easily, Madame Voodoo. Not unless they end up becoming a corpse. I wonder which one you and your brother will be when this is finally over."
That was enough for Wanda to get moving again, as she turned to run from the web-swinger, just as he had lunged at her with a leaping-kick. The web-head's blow seemed to do quite a bit of damage to the tree that had previously been behind Wanda, but she paid it little mind, since she was more concerned with putting some distance between them. That turned out to be harder than she thought, as she ran right into Spider-Man again just seconds later. Before the web-head could even make a small quip, Wanda had immediately blasted him away from her, and since she did so at near point-blank range, Spidey's Spider-Sense was not fast enough to warn him of the attack before he was sent flying across the forest. Peter slowly started to stand, only to get knocked back down again when Pietro knocked him aside at super speed, making him drop to the ground once more. The speedster would have likely continued to do so had Jess not suddenly dropped down from above, just in time to clothesline him.
"Thanks Jess," Peter nodded, rubbing his jaw a little in an attempt to assuage the pain that Pietro's hit had caused.
"No problem, counterpart," Jessica smirked in response before she turned a venom blast on Pietro, hoping to hit him before he got too far. She did not, but she was sure she at least got him with the very edge of her attack.
"'Counterpart,'" Spider-Man questioned, wondering where that had come from.
"Hey, we're both spiders, we seem to have similar yet still different personalities, and I'm a girl while you're a guy. Consider that my new nickname for you," Jess explained as she turned her attention to Wanda, who was already preparing to blast them for their attack on her brother.
Just when Wanda was about to unleash her attack though, Cap's shield came sailing through the air and into her back, knocking her off her feet, and throwing her blast off into the air. The shield would have returned to Cap's waiting hand very easily had Pietro not rushed over to smack Cap in the head at super speed, but the super soldier of World War II was nothing if not resourceful, and after a quick show of skill in avoiding the speedster's attacks, he was able to spin, flip, and roll over to retrieve his shield in no time at all. He was not going to get a chance to use it again though, as Wanda suddenly came up from behind him and hit him with the same illusionary blast that she had Black Widow, and Cap was soon trapped in a nightmare-like vision of his own, one where he was seeing all of his old comrades and loved ones from the Forties celebrating the end of the war, but looking very injured and bloodied.
Wanda had not wanted to use that ability more than she had to, especially after doing so out of reflex just a few seconds ago, but she did not want to keep going in this fight any longer than they had to. She looked to the silver blur that was Pietro, and hoped that he would stop running around and messing with these guys so they could get out of there soon, but he ended up getting tripped by, much to her surprise, Wasp, who was looking far from happy like she did a moment ago. In fact, she almost looked downright murderous, which was a very drastic change in comparison to how she seemed earlier.
"I tried. I really did try, but some people just refuse to accept their fate and go out quietly," Wasp growled, her hand already rising up in preparation to fire one of her stinger blasts at Pietro. The size-changer probably would have too had Wanda not blasted her away just in time.
As she checked on her brother, Wanda could not help but worry over what had just happened. Was that really the same Janet that they had met just a little while ago? And if it was, did that mean her whole offer for being friends was just an act? What would have happened if they had actually stayed and accepted her offer to join them? It just did not make any sense, and it was driving Wanda crazy, something that Pietro quickly noticed, much to his concern. That concern quickly turned to horror when he saw scarlet energy building up around his sister, and he immediately went to try and calm Wanda down, but it did not seem like his words were getting through to her, despite his best efforts.
When he saw the three heroes-in-training approaching, he reacted on instinct and waved for them to stay back. He was not sure why he was trying to warn them after all that had happened between them, but he did feel that no one should get caught up in a blast like that from Wanda. "Get back! Hurry, get away! Wanda's about to lose control!"
The three kids did not really get what he meant by that anymore than the shapeshifter who had just changed from looking like Wasp into Iron Man, ready to drive her act home by hitting them at the very core of their hatred, but from the way that Pietro was waving them away in a panic, they did not really need to understand to know that whatever was about to happen was likely going to be bad. For the most part, they all took the smart option of listening to Pietro and getting away, but Wasp decided that she was going to try and get Wanda to snap out of it. Her decision was what had lead her right into the blast wave of scarlet energy that had erupted moments later as Wanda let out an agonized scream, and the next thing anyone knew, the Wasp was sent flying back, dropping to the ground moments later, appearing unconscious, much to Spider-Man and Spider-Woman's horror.
The two spiders were both racing over to the still small-sized girl's side to see if they could help her somehow, but from what they could tell, she was either out cold or in the same state that Captain America was currently in, and a quick glance over to Wanda told them that she was very much afraid of what she had just done. Whether or not she was more afraid of how they would retaliate, they could not tell you, mainly because they soon received another interruption when a rain of gunfire suddenly came down on them, followed by a massive boulder. Spidey had quickly scooped Janet up into his hands in an effort to avoid the incoming projectiles, and while Jess tried to figure out where the attacks were coming from as she shouted a request for backup into her comm. device, Peter put his focus on trying to rouse his tiny friend.
"Janet. Jan! Jan, can you hear me," Peter pleaded, hoping against hope that she was okay despite her unconscious state. He knew that she was alive, a fact that he was grateful for, but there was no way of knowing what was going on with her beyond that.
Janet was not sure what had happened. One minute she was charging Wanda, thinking that she could stop her outburst if she zapped her with enough energy to stun the brunette, and the next minute, she was the one getting hit by an energy blast. Janet barely registered someone shouting her name before everything had gone black, and then there was nothing to hear but a faint whine or ringing in her ears. When Janet finally awoke, she was not entirely sure she was fully awake yet, because everything was still black, and it seemed like all the sounds were muffled. It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust, but she quickly realized that what she was seeing was definitely not normal, because everything was far too blurry to be real, even if she was still half asleep. She just wished she could tell what it was she was seeing.
Her wish was soon granted, because the blurs around her finally started to clear up and solidify into an actual image, slowly but surely, until finally, she saw something she had not been expecting to see. There, a few feet away from her, and looking a lot bigger than she was used to seeing him as at her normal size (at least she assumed she was at her normal size), was none other than Hank Pym, decked out in his usual lab work attire. Along with him was another man in similar attire, looking rather annoyed and giving Janet an uneasy vibe, but the last person that was in the room was probably the biggest shock of all for her. It was a person that she had not seen in years, and to be honest, she had started to think that she had forgotten what he looked like altogether. Thankfully, she did still recognize him, because no child could ever truly forget their parent.
"Daddy," Janet gasped in barely more than a whisper. She tried calling out to him, but he did not seem to hear her, and while the voices of the older men were clearly supposed to be loud, since they looked like they were yelling at each other, Janet could barely hear that much of anything they were saying. If anything, it was just a few snippets here and there, and even those barely made much sense. Or it could have been the weird echo that accompanied their voices when she could hear them clearly
"This is…Hank. We've may have…goal that others only dreamed of…change the world," Janet heard her father say, excitedly, as this was where the scene started before the yelling began.
"None of this would…you, Vernon. I can't…enough," Dream-Hank replied with a grateful smile. "Maybe now…save so many…"
"Do you two not realize…at our fingertips," the unknown man suddenly asked, sounding a bit irritated. "This could do more…simple drug store tablet. Think of what it could…We could make millions with the…"
"That's not…no deals with the military…" Janet's father seemed to argue, and from the look on his face, Janet could not help but think that this was an argument that they have had many times before.
"But Doctor van Dyne…set for life. Think about…" the mystery man continued to argue.
"My decision is final. We're not repurposing something that's created for…weapons and warfare. If you keep…will be cut out," Vernon warned, his tone taking an edge to it that was typical of an angry principle dealing with a student that was constantly causing trouble and never learning.
"…making a mistake, Vernon. Think of…hate for anything to happen…" the mystery man said, and even without hearing everything he said, Janet still got a very large number of nervous chills. It was pretty clear the man had just made a threat against her father, and that idea was better enforced when Hank stepped in between the two, clearly intending to guard her father, or hold the two back from one another should they start getting a little more physical in their hostility.
"Just calm down, Darren. Let's not…regret later," Hank tried to calmly insist, only to end up falling flat. Janet was not sure what else was said after that, because it all became a blur soon after, and they were all clearly fighting.
The mystery man, Darren eventually did something to one of the instruments in the lab, and the next thing Janet knew, she could hear the faint sounds of an alarm going off. She then saw her father and Hank, who was now fully suited up as Ant-Man, working quickly at a pair of computers, clearly trying to fix something as fast as possible, but for some reason she did not understand, she was seeing all of this like she was looking in through a door that was cracked open. When she tried to get a better look, she realized that she was looking in through a door, because it slowly opened up a little more, and the two adult men turned to look directly at her, Ant-Man with concern, and her father with both that and fear.
"Hank, take Janet and go! I'll try to get this under control," Janet heard her father shout.
"No, I can't just leave you behind! We need to stop this before it's too late," Hank tried to argue.
"There is no stopping it now, Hank. At the very least, all we can manage is containing the blast within this floor of the building if not the room," Vernon protested. "Just get my daughter to safety. Please."
Hank did not say anything after that, but instead, he turned towards Janet, and suddenly, the girl felt herself being lifted up into Hank's arms, much to her confusion. "Hank, what are you doing," Janet asked, not understanding what was going on, or even why her voice sounded much more high-pitched than usual when she spoke. "Let go! I have to help my dad! Daddy!"
Vernon just smiled sadly at Janet, and said, "Be a good girl, Janet. I love you, sweetie, and I hope that you'll be able to fix this whole mess."
The next thing that Janet knew, there was a loud explosion, and she completely lost all sight of her father, but that did not stop her from screaming out for him in terror until she just suddenly stopped right when everything went black. When things cleared up again, she noticed that she seemed to be in a hospital bed, and Hank was sitting next to her. The size-changing scientist looked terrible, like he had not slept and spent several days crying, and when he suddenly moved to wrap her in his arms, whispering "I'm sorry" to her over and over again, Janet realized that this was the day when she found out her father was gone, and just like the first time, Janet immediately burst into tears as she cried for her daddy to come back, right until everything went white.
The next time Janet woke up, she did so with a start and a short gasp of horror, like something had just scared her crazy. She was immediately scanning her surroundings in a frantic frenzy, until she felt a hand on her shoulder, making her turn to see Jessica standing over her with a concerned look on her face. "Easy, Jan. You're okay now," the Spider-Woman reassured.
"What happened? Where did…" Janet gasped as she tried to take in her surroundings, noticing that they were in the Quinjet's medbay.
"You got blasted by the energy explosion Scarlet Witch had conjured up, and it must have knocked you into the same state as Cap and Widow, because we couldn't wake you up, and you seemed like you were having a really bad dream or something," Jess explained. "Spidey and I tried to keep you safe and keep the twins from bolting again, but between their efforts to either avoid us or just plain beat us up, and the fact that someone decided to start shooting at us while throwing boulders and tress at our heads, it wasn't exactly going smoothly. The fact that we had to keep Cap out of the line of fire didn't help either."
"But what about She-Hulk's team? Weren't they supposed to be coming to back us up," Janet inquired.
"We were, but we were still too far out when Jessica called asking for us to hurry up and get there," She-Hulk suddenly said, announcing her presence to the girls. "Seeing as we were two Avengers down and you had gotten hit, along with the fact that someone was obviously attacking Spidey and Jess, I told them to grab you and Cap, and then retreat to the Quinjet. The whole situation had turned bad, and at that point, one of you would've ended up a lot worse than you already were."
"Does that mean that Wanda and Pietro got away," Janet asked in dismay.
"Afraid so, kid," Black Widow suddenly said, making the other three turn to see the redheaded superspy sitting up on another medical bed, now much better than she had been after Carol, Sam, and Luke had gotten her back to the jet. When she saw the girls lower their heads in shame, she knew that they were going to need some kind of pep talk to raise their spirits, and since Cap was still out, she had a feeling she was going to have to be the one to give it. "I know this sucks, but you need to accept that not every mission you undertake is going to be a complete success, if you can call it a success at all. What's important is that you all made it back alive, and you can now take what happened here as a way to improve for the next time."
While it was probably not as inspirational as one of Captain America's speeches, Widow's pep talk did at least get a couple of small smiles from the girls, and she was going to count that as a victory. Still, that left a few matters unaddressed, and they were likely going to be talked about quite a bit today. "Any ideas on where Violet and Dash Incredible went," Janet asked.
"Afraid not. Once your group got back, Falcon, Carol, Quake, and Voltage all went back to the forest to see if they could pick up a trail, but they were unable to find even a single hair that could have led them in the right direction. We might be able to find them with SHIELD or Stark's satellite network, but that will take a bit of time, and we can't get easy access from out here, so we decided to just fly back home," She-Hulk revealed.
"I guess Fury's not going to be too happy, is he," Janet sighed.
"Maybe not, but I think he'll be able to settle for the fact that we all came back relatively unscathed," Widow reassured her. "More importantly, how are you doing, Janet? Since you were the last person to get zapped, I figured it would be a few more hours before you woke up again, and yet, Cap's still out of it while you're now wide awake."
Janet was about to say that she was feeling fine, when she suddenly found herself overcome with a wave of dizziness, and at that point, the memory of what she saw quickly came back to her. Janet was not sure what to think about that, but she knew that she was not going to get any answers about it from anyone here. The only person she could get those answers from was Hank, and she intended to get them as soon as possible. That did not mean she was going to mention it just yet though, and decided to just keep her response focused on her physical condition for now.
"I feel a little dizzy, and a bit drowsy, but other than that I feel fine," Janet finally said after taking another minute to assess her condition.
"And that's all? You didn't…see anything while you were unconscious? No strange visions," Widow questioned, but from the sound of her voice, it almost sounded more like a statement than a question.
Janet hesitated for only a few seconds before she replied, "I don't remember. It all happened so fast, and…"
Despite her words, Widow knew that the kid was not really being entirely truthful in her answer, but she could see that whatever it was that kept Janet from telling her did seem to be bothering the young girl a little, so Widow just let it slide for now with a nod. Besides, Janet did just wake up after being unconscious for several hours, which included the time from the moment when her group had started rushing back to the jet, the time spent on their last ditch efforts to locate the twins, and their actual departure, so Widow was willing to wait until she was in better condition to tell them more. With that done, Romanoff just nodded and began moving up to the cockpit, determined to fly the jet the rest of the way home, or at least ride copilot to Carol, leaving the other three girls to their own devices for now.
After Widow left the room, Wasp turned to see, much to her surprise, that Peter was actually hunched over and fast asleep next to her current bed. When Jess realized that the size-changer had taken notice, she easily explained, "He's been sitting there ever since we brought you in, and didn't leave your side for even a second. I think he fell asleep shortly after we hit the point of being halfway home."
Janet nodded in reply, but did not really register much else of what anyone was saying after that, because she was just too busy admiring Peter's sleeping form. She was really touched knowing that Peter had cared about her so much, and it showed in the small smile that slowly formed on her face as she gently slipped her hand over into Peter's as a sign of thanks. All the same, despite how touching this moment was, only one thing was really running through Janet's mind, and it refused to keep quiet for even a second of the flight back to the academy. 'What have you been hiding from me, Hank?'
After the Avengers had finally been chased off, Wanda and Pietro found themselves getting picked up by a couple of guys who called themselves Absorbing Man and Crossbones. They were a bit hesitant to accept any more offers of help from anyone that day, until Winter Soldier suddenly showed up and revealed that the newest arrivals were with him. Considering he was the only one that they had encountered today who had been consistent in his apparent character, the two saw no reason to not go with him, and before they knew it, they had been flown up to some kind of massive fortress that was hovering high in the sky. The two had to wonder how no one knew about this giant thing, until Winter Soldier explained that the ship had special cloaking technology to keep SHIELD and Stark from noticing it without actually seeing it with their own eyes.
When they stepped off the transport, they were quickly greeted by none other than Madame Viper, and the green haired woman eagerly welcomed them in with open arms, promising that her organization would do everything in its power to make sure their stay was both comfortable and safe. Afterwards, she allowed Winter Soldier and Absorbing Man to escort the twins to their new rooms, leaving her free to openly discuss the success of their mission with Crossbones and the ship pilot that had flown them all here.
"Well, I think it's safe to say that went pretty well, all things considered," Crossbones remarked.
"Yes. The twins are now fully secure in their distrust of the Avengers, and are quite happy to join our cause," Viper remarked. She then looked over to the ship pilot and then asked, "I trust you did not endure too much harm carrying out your part of this arrangement, Mystique?"
In an instant, the pilot's appearance morphed into that of the blue skinned mutant, who had a rather noticeable scowl on her face as she glared at the green haired woman. "No, of course not. I'm sure anyone can endure being blasted and blown up by both heroes and the errand boys of their own employers."
"You will be compensated I assure you," Viper reassured the blue skinned mutant. "But, just to be sure we are clear, you will speak with Magneto and ask that he consider our offer for an alliance, should it become necessary in the near future?"
Mystique glared at the HYDRA leader for a few minutes, obviously not willing to let go of the fact that Winter Soldier had fired on her so easily, but still managed to keep some form of professionalism about her as she replied, "I will pass along the message, but I make no guarantees that he will accept anything from you or your leader."
"So long as he either helps us or stays out of our way, that is all we really ask of you," Viper replied. She then turned to gaze after where the kids had disappeared to and asked, "You're sure that they have not taken up too much stock in their encounters with the real Avengers and their students?"
"Positive," Crossbones nodded, honestly feeling like they had nothing to worry about in that regard.
That was good enough for Viper, so she simply left with Mystique so that they could attend to the mutant's payment for her services. Unknown to anyone though, after she had been shown to her room and left alone, Wanda reached into her pocket and pulled out the communication device that Wasp had given her. She was not sure why she had kept the device, and after everything that had happened, she wanted to get rid of it. In her eyes, it was a reminder of how she and Pietro were nearly tricked into falling for that trap the Avengers had set for them, but for some reason, she just could not bring herself to do it. Maybe it had something to do with the odd feeling of foreboding that this place gave her, or maybe it was some other reason, but whatever the case, it did not matter, because ultimately, Wanda did keep it on her, just in case something changed in the near future.
AN: Well now, that was quite the chapter. We not only saw the addition of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, but also Daisy Johnson and Lincoln Campbell, the Inhuman power couple from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. making a debut in the story. Guess you guys all figured that Spider-Man and Wasp would be Avengers Academy's first couple, but I'll bet no one figured that anyone who joined up at the academy would already be in a relationship, now did they? Yeah, in this story, Daisy and Lincoln had known each other for a long time, and were never found by SHIELD or Coulson, and they spent a lot of time on their own, learning about Inhumans and their powers. Yeah, I basically added them in so that they could bring the Inhumans to light in a small way, but to be honest, I was hoping that they would have more of an impact of the main story for this chapter.
Carol: Speaking of which, anyone else notice how this all seems a little familiar?
AN: Well it should. This chapter was based off the season 1 episode entitled "Rogue Recruit" from X-Men Evolution. I'm sure you can all see the similarities if you've seen the series without looking too hard, but to be honest, this really served as the best plot line for Wanda and Pietro to undergo this time around. They're basically Rogue in this story, Wanda especially so, in the sense that they're not entirely trusting of our heroes but they're not quite full-time bad guys either, even though Viper and Mystique were trying to get them to be that way. Don't worry, the truth will come out soon enough, but for now, they're playing for the villain team, so it may be a while before they jump ship to the winning team.
Janet: You know, I seem to remember someone asking for some more details regarding Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in this story. Any chance you could summarize for us?
AN: Sure thing. Appearance-wise, they have their stylings from Avengers: Age of Ultron, and they got their powers from a similar process to what we saw in the MCU. They have no relationship with Magneto as of this moment, and I'm not really planning on changing that any time soon. Maybe that will change later on down the line, but for now, we've got the MCU version of the twins here. That is actually a big part of the reason as to why this chapter took place in Sokovia this time, because if you've seen any of the recent movies from that timeline, then you're likely well aware of the fact that Wanda and Pietro are in fact from Sokovia in that continuity, and of how big a deal that particular location was in Avengers: Age of Ultron, along with the impact the events that took place there have had since said movie.
Spidey: Hey, I've got a question. How come you only showed the vision that Janet had after getting blasted by Wanda's little mind whammy?
AN: Well for one thing, Cap and Widow's visions were basically the same as the ones that they had in Age of Ultron, so there was not really a point in showing what had happened there. Whereas Janet's vision has a bit more of a real impact on the main story. And boy what an impact it seems like it's having, huh? Looks like Doctor Pym knows something about Janet's dad that he hasn't shared just yet. Oooh, you can already tell that might come back to bite him when Janet does learn the truth, can't you? If you want more clues, well, there are a few there in the actual vision, and there's also the ones you'll find when you move Onto the Preview!...
Janet's vision continues to bother her, but at the same time, she's hesitant to chase after the answers she seeks. A small word of encouragement from her friends eventually helps her get over her doubts, but what she learns is far from pleasant news. Not only does she discover the true fate that had befallen her father, but the man responsible is still out there and is about to break a major deal using work he had stolen from both Janet's father and Hank. Janet's not going to just sit back let this man pervert her father's work into something horrible, but are the others really going to be willing to help the Wasp take on a quest for revenge? Maybe Hank's successor to the mantle of Ant-Man can be of some help here, assuming he can keep himself from stealing anything from anyone. The Wasp's story takes a bit of a dark turn next time, as the adventure at Avengers Academy continues!
Yeah, that's right, Scott Lang, AKA Ant-Man is coming to the Academy next time. But for now, I've got some other stories to update, along numerous other things, so while I'm doing all of that...
Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time, fellow true believers!
