Avery arrived back in Avengers Tower the next day, glad to be back in her usual attire of sneakers, jeans, and a black hoodie. After not finding Tony in the lab, she made her way to the Avenger's common floor, where Steve and Clint were watching the news. They looked up as she entered. "Oh, hey Avery," said Clint.
"Hey Clint."
"Good morning," said Steve.
"Hi Steve… Have either of you seen Tony?"
Clint snorted. "Yeah. Pepper sent him to take a shower."
Steve elaborated when Avery gave a confused look. "Apparently Tony was in the lab all night and got covered in grease and oil." Steve sighed before turning his attention back to the screen. Staying up all night had long been a source of contention between he and Tony.
"Okay, thanks Steve," said Avery. She turned, about to go back down to the lab to wait for Tony, when she noticed the story on TV.
"In what must have been a rather strange occurrence, four men were found unconscious in an alleyway by the NYPD. Later, these same men were discovered to have criminal rap sheets and when others in the area were questioned about what may have occurred, two individuals reported seeing a hooded figure attacking the men. But here, ladies and gentlemen, is the cincher… Both of these residents reported that the attacker lifted the men into the air by use of an unknown force. The question we are all asking now...does this mystery person possess superpowers and if so... whose side are they on?" Avery was frozen, rooted to the spot as the news anchor went on to describe some of the crimes the men were guilty of.
Clint laughed. "Just what we need! Another superpowered freak loose on the streets!"
Steve frowned. "How do we know they're against us?"
Clint snorted. "Steve, even after being an Avenger for just over a year, it's pretty generally known that whenever a freak with powers turns up we have a new supervillain of the week."
"Why would a villain go after muggers?"
Clint shrugged. "Who says he's going after them? Maybe they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Steve didn't look convinced. "I don't know, Clint. It seems like kind of a long leap to make."
"Hey, after a year of fighting a new supervillain pretty much twice every week, no leap is too long." Steve considered this point, then nodded.
At this, Avery finally managed to move her feet and entered the elevator. "Take me to the lab, please, Jarvis."
"Of course, Miss Valiant."
When the elevator came to a stop at level 70, Avery walked out and just stood in the middle of the lab trying to control her breathing. I was seen! People saw me! It's all over the news...even the Avengers know! ...Oh God! The Avengers know! What if they go looking for me! I won't be able to keep it a secret! But suddenly other thoughts began making themselves heard. The Avengers only deal with threats. So far I've only been a threat to those muggers. No way are the Avengers gonna come after me for taking out four muggers! And another part of her was proud of what she'd accomplished. You stopped those men from mugging and possibly injuring innocent people. Think of what else you could do!
Avery shook her head, trying to rid her mind of the thought. If I continue to do this, eventually the Avengers will take notice. And why would they go after someone who's helping take down bad guys? You could practice honing your power even further...absolute control. Avery still had no idea how far her powers could go. But she had seen Chronicle last weekend and - overlooking the disconcerting similarities between her and the main character - she was fascinated to see if she could do as much with her powers as the characters in the movie had done. She was especially interested in whether or not she could actually fly. (She figured she could, with enough practice).
But the point remained...she could be helping a lot more. Why though? she thought, Why should I become a vigilante? Because you could help so many more people, a voice in her head answered, If there had been someone to help you when your father was conducting his experiments on you, wouldn't you want them to? Avery sighed. That was true. Throughout that period, she had hoped every day that someone would discover what her father was doing to her. And now that she had the ability to help people, it would be her fault if she didn't use it. Avery couldn't bear to think of other people suffering as she had because she was too selfish to use her gifts for the greater good.
She nodded. Her mind was made up...but...she had to prevent people from seeing her face. The only option available was a full face mask like the one on the Iron Man armor. But there was no way she was going to make a themed costume thank you very much. She needed something simple but efficient. All of a sudden, she knew what she wanted. She had a black zip up hoodie with a deep hood that would serve well to hide most of her face. If she needed, she could add in a black half mask. The most difficult part would be concealing her voice. She knew that people's voices were one of the most accurate ways to identify them, and even though anyone she went after (hopefully) wouldn't know her, she couldn't risk anyone she did know overhearing her through a recording or otherwise.
She hummed to herself. The voice changer would take about a day to complete if she used materials from Tony's lab. She groaned. She couldn't have it stuck to her face or over her mouth. The only way would be to make a small chip to attach to her throat a la Mission Impossible. She groaned again. Maybe this was more trouble than it was worth.
The next day Avery was in the lab carefully soldering the chip together. She had come to the conclusion that her own soldering iron wasn't precise enough for the job. Luckily, due to the abundance of advanced tech Tony liked to surround himself with, the chip would be finished sooner than she could've hoped. In fact, as soon as she finished soldering, it would be ready for use. However Tony chose this exact moment to barge in. "Hey kid, whatcha working on?" he asked curiously, walking over.
Avery thought quickly. "Uh...prototype of a new thing I thought up. A...Wifi chip. You know, small enough to take with you anywhere?"
"Awesome! Be sure to tell me when it's finished. This is something we could market!"
Avery winced inwardly, feeling a bit guilty for lying to him. Note to self: invent Wifi chip. "Uh, sure thing Tony."
Tony nodded. "Well, I'll leave you to it, then," he said, "Got some upgrades I wanna make to the Mark IX."
Avery sighed in relief when Tony left and continued her soldering. She knew Jarvis could probably scan the chip and instantly tell it wasn't what she said it was, but she also knew he wouldn't do that without cause. A few minutes later, the chip was complete. Avery turned off the soldering iron and admired her creation for a second before putting it in her pocket. "Hey, Jarvis, what time is it?"
The AI responded instantly. "The time is 8:15 Post Meridiem."
"Yikes, I should really get going. Could you tell Tony that I've gone home for the day?"
"Certainly, Miss Valiant. I shall inform him at once."
"Thanks Jarvis."
When Avery got home, she finally put on her voice changer chip and activated it. Then she had no idea what to say. "Uh...this is a test?" To her satisfaction, her voice came out like a deeper version of Tony's Iron Man voice. She was extremely pleased with the result. She grabbed her hoodie off the back of the sofa and put it on. Then she flipped up the hood and went into the bathroom to see the results. The hood did a good job of hiding her face Assassin's Creed style, but she noticed a problem almost immediately.
How am I supposed to keep the hood on if I have to do any parkour or even just running? After dismissing several solutions such as wearing a beanie and velcroing the hood to it, she finally came to a conclusion that gave her the least hassle. About an hour later, Avery had finished lining the hood with aluminum wire and weighing it down at the front. After she did this, she tested it by doing some basic parkour in her apartment. To her relief, the hood stayed in place, even after she had done several flips. Now her only remaining problem was the mask. She powered on her laptop and logged in to Amazon. She typed in 'black half mask' to the search bar. Instantly she was given nearly 20,000 results. With a sigh, she began scrolling through.
After about forty-five minutes, Avery finally found a promising mask. It was the typical 'mask' shape and was built out of sturdier materials than typically seen in masks, most of which were plastic and broke instantly. What's more, this specific mask was said to require no string, instead molding to the face of the wearer. That may be why the price was listed at $679. After checking the reviews and seeing most of them at 5 stars, Avery decided to order the mask. As she was maintaining a steady income from working at Stark Industries, Avery had been able to purchase things like new furniture, clothes, and an Amazon Prime membership. She decided to use said membership to order the mask, giving her free shipping and a guaranteed delivery of the next day.
After she typed in her shipping and billing information, Avery closed her laptop with a sigh. It seemed she was really going through with the whole 'vigilante' thing. She wondered for a second if she was crazy before reminding herself that she would have the chance to do good and help people that the cops couldn't help.
A/N: Here's a fun fact for you guys: velcroing a hood to a beanie is how they kept Stephen Amell's hood on in Arrow during all the action scenes. Aside from that, big thank you to nobodyreallyimportant and SjKaiser for following/favoriting. Your support of this story means a lot! :D
Until next time!
- TheWolfParadox
