"Come out!" Crystal groaned as she fell backwards onto the floor.
She was lying in front of one of the chamber doors with her legs straight up in the air and leaning against the door as she stared up at them. She knew her sister was in there with Rowan, and it was making her anxious as to what was going on with the two of them. Who wouldn't be anxious if their sister, whome they haven't seen in a long time, was with a player in a locked room?
"You know shouting at the door won't help anything,"
Crystal tilted her head back, seeing an upside down Hawkeye standing a couple feet away with his arms crossed and a raised eyebrow as he looked down at her with a sigh.
"When are they going to come out?" Crystal whined, kicking her feet against the door impatiently.
"When their training is done." He chuckled, grabbing her wrists and pulling her away from the door.
"Noooooooooooooooooo~" She jokingly whined as she flailed her legs.
It had already been a week since Crystal and Hawkeye came out of the mechanical, isolated, room.. Crystal had been anxiously awaiting for anyone else to come out, but it seemed like it was going to take them a little more time (obviously). Boredom was getting to her as she paced the hallway. She's desperately been trying to keep away from the adults and their relationship pestering about the two.
"Come out!" She yelled again, slamming her back against the door and letting out a groan.
"Let them be," He said, striding over to her quickly, putting his arm around her waist and lifting her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She wrapped her arms around his waist and grabbed onto his belt loops to keep herself from falling completely out of his hold and to the floor.
"Stop!" She squealed surprised and angry, but a smile betrayed her as a giggle escaped her lips and she buried her face into the small of his back.
Hawkeye turned his head hearing her laugh and smiled, an idea popping into his head mischievously.
He hooked a thumb into her belt loop and gripped her thigh tighter beforre pioting on his toes quickly, spinning her around on his shoulder with his own body.
"I'm gonna fall! I'm gonna fall!" She screamed gripping his belt loops tighter, hugging her body to his back.
"What are you two doing?" A small voice asked them.
"They're getting in the mood." Another chuckled in answer, teasing the two who stopped immediately, causing their vision to continue to spin and disorient them.
Crystal shook her head trying to see who was speaking to them. Her smile grew wider as she spotted Sierra standing there with a raised eyebrow. She kicked her legs wildly, making Hawkeye put her down on the floor gently, and let her go, letting her run to her sister with a giant hug.
"Are you okay? Did he do anything to you? Do I need to beat him up?" She asked, searching over her sister, and when she was satisfied she was alright, she turned a glare on Rowan and hugged her sister close to her chest. "You better not have done anything to her."
Rowan held his hands up, but gave her a playful smirk, making Crystal's jaw drop. She pulled her sister away from her and looked at her with shock.
"Nothing happened!" Her sister said, punching Rowan in the arm as her face exploded into a red cherry. "Don't tell her things that didn't happen!"
"Nothing?" Crystal asked, her lip pushed out into a puppy dog pout.
"Other than learning how the other lives and fights, no." Sierra agreed, pointing out all they did.
Crystal deflated in relief as she hung onto her sister in defeat. "Thank god."
"How long have you two been out?" Rowan asked, turning his attention from Crystal to Hawkeye.
"About a week before you two." He answered, shaking his head at the over protective older sister Crystal was.
Rowan raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his face once again. "Oh? And how did you too get out so fast?" When both Crystal and Hawkeye froze his smirk turned into a knowing smile. "No wonder you're wondering if we did anything."
Crystal turned her face away from Rowan, but saw the shocked look her sister was giving her. She let go and gave an innocent smile. "I don't know what he's talking about! He's making stories again!"
"He's not," Sierra said, making Crystal freeze with guilt.
"How do you know?" She said, keeping a calm face as she looked at the two of them.
"Because when you're lying you automatically start scratching your cheek." Sierra answered her bluntly, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at her sister.
Crystal looked to her hand that truly was on her cheek, scratching it with her index finger. She dropped it quickly and held it behind her back, cursing her hand for betraying her lie. "It's not what you think."
"We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later." Rowan answered, shrugging his shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal. "I mean come on, it's not like you two went as far as having sex."
"Yeah!" She laughed, but stopped as Sierra and Rowan looked at the two of them with wide eyes. Once again her hand had betrayed her and was scratching her cheek.
"No way!" Rowan laughed, running his hand through his hair, pushing it away from his face. "You two...Woah! Didn't expect that to happen so fast!"
"I'm not that surprised," Sierra said with a small laugh. "I mean when I got here, you two were already really close. I thought you two were a couple already."
"Do the adults know?" Rowan asked, a worried eyebrow raising up.
"Yeah, they kinda guessed it the second we came out." Hawkeye answered, patting Crystal's head as she had buried it into his shoulder because of her reddening face.
"You were probably scratching your cheek." Sierra sighed as she shook her head.
"She was," Hawkeye chuckled, making Crystal pinch his side and making him wince while laughing. "At least now I know how to tell she's lying."
He gave her a sly smile, teasing her about knowing another secret. She pinched his arm and looked away from him acting as if it didn't bother her; in truth there were things she was still scared he was going to find out about her. As she looked up from her wandering thoughts she saw her sister looking at her with a knowing look. She knew everything about Crystal, and knew how hard it was to keep her dark past behind her without affecting her present life. So many things happened that she couldn't take back; awful things that were pushed upon her and her sister, things they were forced to do to other people, and what their power could truly do if they combined both of them together. She never wanted him to find out about that side of her.
"Let's go tell them we made it out," Sierra said, bringing Crystal out of the dark gloom that ws setting over her.
She looked up quickly, a smile setting on her face out of habit, but it was enough that the others didn't catch it.
"Oh! You're finally out!" Pepper said, spotting her son walking along the group.
She walked over to him and gave a quick check over, satisfied that Tony didn't take it too far again.
"Mom!" Rowan exclaimed, embarrasee by his mom's worry.
"Hush!" She told him with a small smack to his arm. She bit her lips, worry overcoming her again. "Let me look over you one more time."
Pepper began to look carefully over his arms, face, and even started to lift up his shirt to check undr there for any hidden injuries.
"MOM!" Rowan shouted, tyring to pull his shirt back down over his body. His ears were pinkening in embarrassment, and they pinkened even more when Sierra and Crystal began giggling over his ridicule. "Mom! Stop it!"
"Leave the boy alone," Tony said, standing up and pulling her away from Rowan, who gave his dad a thankful look. "It's not like I made anything hard enough to kill them."
"But what if Sierra beat the poor boy up? He doesn't fight girls and will just give up." Pepper whined, not realizing how embarrassed she just made Rowan.
"Mom~" Rowan groaned, tugging on his shirt back on.
"I wouldn't beat him up," Sierra said, patting his arm as she linked hers with his. "Well, not too badly at least!"
Rowan gave up as everyone started laughing. Covering his face with his hand was the best he could do to get away from it all,ithoout breaking his hold with Sierra; to him that was the only good part, he finally got Sierra to hang onto him.
Pepper smiled and put her hands up, seeing the slight smile on his face, but truly seeing the smile in his eyes that were brightly lite. She knew well enough how her son looked when he liked someone. "Fine, fine!"
"So you two know each other now?" Hank asked, looking at the two with a prideful smile.
"It's pretty easy for me to learn anothers life." Sierra said with a nod. "Getting him to learn mine was a bit more difficult."
"Not my fault I don't want to live like a girl." Rowan argued, holding up his free hand in a slight shrug.
"Afriad you're going to turn gay if you do?" Crystal teased, watching his face pink with slight embarrassment.
"So no one else has come out yet?" Sierra asked, getting out of Rowan's hold an walking over to her sister.
"Not yet." Crystal shook her head. "I wouldn't be surprised if Lily was murdering TJ right about now."
"He's probably been trying to make some moves on her," Sierra sighed, shaking her head. "He's robably already found out her scary side."
"Scary side?" Bruce asked, slight concern perking for his son.
"Yeah, when Lily feels pressured it's like she turns into another person," Crystal laughs, "She's not dangerous exactly, but she can hold her own, especially against TJ."
Bruce let out a deep sigh as he relaxed knowing this tid bit of information.
"Though I'm pretty sure with TJ's strength, she won't be able to do much against him." Sierra pointed out, making the girl's tense in realization.
"You don't think he'd use his strength against her do you?" Crystal asked her sister, but when neither girl answered, both took off running towards their door.
Hawkeye grabbed Crystal around the waist, and Rowan grabbed Sierra's arm, spinning her into his body.
"I'm sure they're fine," Rowan side trying to relieve the girl's of their worry.
"If he does do something, I'm sure you have the right to beat the crap out of him." Hawkeye told her, and chuckled as he saw the gleam in her eye's at the thought of taking him down.
"Okay, I like that idea," She answered, putting a finger playfully to her chin in thought about what she could do.
Weeks passed by as each team was slwoly coming out of their rooms, accomplishing their goal to get in sync and learn one another's fighting ways and life. Crystal was relieved to find out that Lily had actually shown her scary side and beat the crap out of TJ when he tried to do something to her. A month had passed until everyone was out of the training. The last ones to come out were Pym and Bridget because they said they had too much fun fighting one another that they didn't actually learn how the other fought.
"It was really fun!" Pym said, him and Bridget running around with one another excitedly.
"Yeah! And there was so much to do that they considered 'training'," She said the last word really low and with finger quotations to prove how boring training usually was to her.
"Please don't tell me were doing it again with someone else." James sighed, not wanting to go through it again.
"Yeah, I mean it's not like we can use the same ways to learn another person as we did our partner," Azari said, showing his point.
Crystal and Hawkeye tensed, realizing the fault in that with how they became in sync. Crystal's ear's reddened as she diverted her attention from the conversation at hand.
"Though I'm sure we would all love to do whatever Crystal and Francis did to get out so fast!" Rowan blared intentionally, catching everyone's attentions.
The adults all smirked and let out small laughs as the young Avengers pressed on in curiousity. Crystal's face reddened quickly as she put up her hands and shook her head, desperately begging them not to ask how they did.
"How did you guys get out so fast?" JJ asked with a raised eyebrow, her twin brother sidling up next to her and giving the same look.
"We just knew each other really well already," Crystal told them. Not a lie, but also not the truth.
Rowan began coughing into his hand loudly. "Bullshit!" He coughed loudly, causing greater suspicion in the others.
The adults burst out laughing, not able to control their emotions as they knew about the secret their children did not.
"What?" Bridget asked excitedly. "Did you two kiss?" She asked in heaven at the thought.
"Oh, yeah, and much more." Sierra pushed on, loving how her sister was the one to be teased at the moment.
"Oooooooooooooooooh!" Bridget said, romantic scenes going in her head. "You two had a mini date Oh or you two made out!" She stopped thinking of what can also happen. Her face darkened making Hawkeye and Crystal stare with wide eyes. "You two were cuddling weren't you."
Crystal couldn't help her hand as it picked up and her finger began to scratch her cheek in the tell-tell sign. "Yep! You caught us!"
Bridget's jaw dropped as she stared at Crystal. "You're lying!"
"What?" Crystal said, dropping her hand in confusion.
"You scratch your cheek when you lie!" Bridget said, pointing an accusing finger at her hand that hovered by her shoulder.
"Oh! Come on! Does everyone know that?" She shouted, placing her hands on her hips in irritation.
"Pretty much," Toruun said with a smirk.
"Yeah, and when you get nervous." James pointed out.
"But you're eyes move diagonal when you're lying." Azari said proudly for knowing in on the secret.
Crystal looked up at Hawkeye with wide eyes, wondering if she were truly so easy to read. He shrugged his shoulders, but his smirk on his face said the opposite, making Crystal puff her cheeks out in a pout.
"Okay, so I learned about scratching the cheek when you lie today. I knew you did it when you were nervous. But I did know you look diagonal when you lie." He explained, telling her how he didn't know it all.
"So basically I can't lie very well." She said, crossing her arms over herself.
"No, you probably hide a lot more stuff than we know," Rowan joked, but gave Crystal a flicker of knowledge in his eyes.
A shiver crept up her spine, but smiled never-the-less at Rowan and gave a laugh, pressing her hand down to her side. "Oh yeah, a whole 'nother secret life. Like James Bond!" She joked, hoping the others wouldn't catch on to it.
"So how far did you two go exactly?" TJ asked with a crooked smile.
"Obviously you guys 'cuddled'" TJ joined in with him.
"You two slept together didn't you?" Lily said with a gasp, realizing the hidden meaning in their thoughts between the 'cuddling'.
The room went silent as they all stared at them with wide eyes and dropped jaws. Bridget's eyes all but glowed in romanticism as she looked at the two Young Avengers she was growing attached to. She squealed loudly before Peter grabbed her by her collar and picked her up like a small dog.
"That's enough for now." He told his daughter with a shake of his head and a sigh.
"I think we should all get something to eat!" Janet said, ushering her son towards the dining room.
Crystal grabbed Rowan's arm tightly as he tried to walk past her. She gripped it in her fingers with a death grip, fear gripping her heart with it's cold fingers.
"How much do you know?" Crystal hissed in his ear.
"Everything." Rowan said, turning towards her and smirking. "You and Sierra are quite the interesting pair."
"How did you find out?" Crystal asked him, trying to get to the bottom of this.
"I'm Pepper and Tony's son. Of course I found out." He snided back at her.
"There is no way you can find everything out through records and information online." She told him, knowing if he truly knew everything he had to have heard it from someone.
"I told him," A small voice chided in, stopping their little death glare match.
Crystal looked over and saw her sister looking at the floor guiltily and shuffling her feet. Rowan let out a small snort as he leaned forward even closer to Crystal, next to her ear he whispered.
"Don't be too hard on her, she was just worried about you."
"What's going on?" Hawkeye asked, standing a few feet away with his hands in his pockets. He watched the two of them with careful eyes, wondering how he should interpret the scene with Crystal hanging onto Rowan's arm and him leaning towards her face while Sierra shuffled her feet behind them and looked at the ground, looking sorrowful.
Rowan stood up straight and sighed, looking at Hawkeye as if he just ruined the fun. Crystal held up her fist and slammed it into his cheek, sending him to the floor and making Hawkeye's and Sierra's eyes widen.
"You keep acting like your father and no one is going to like you." Crystal said, waving her hand in pain. "Oh, and I warned you about hurting my sister. You made her feel guilty for telling you and get that kind of look on her face."
"What the hell?" Rowan asked, rubbing his cheek in pain.
"It's not his fault. I told him and I shouldn't have." Sierra said apologetically.
"It's not your fault, you knew what happened too." Crystal said, patting her head and bringing it into her shoulder.
"I don't see why you don't tell anyone." Rowan said with a shrug. "It's not like they're going to sentence you to death because of it."
"Shut up Rowan," Sierra snapped at him, already mad at herself for telling such secrets.
"What? I like to learn about new things. Learning about your life was something different." Rowan sighed.
"You're past?" Hawkeye asked, looking from Rowan to Crystal as if she had betrayed him.
He didn't mean to look that way to her, but he couldn't help but feel angry that Rowan of all people knew more about her past then he did.
"Oh, little Hawk doesn't even know?" Rowan asked, somehow proud he knew. "Don't I feel special."
"Shut up," Crystal and Sierra both snapped at him, making him clamp his mouth shut.
"Just tell him. I mean you trust him don't you?" Rowan asked, curious about it himself.
"You don't understand." Sierra argued with him angrily.
"What? I think it's just because you're scared he'll leave you." Rowan pointed out.
Crystal froze stiff as Sierra gripped her arm. Sierra let go and walked over to Rowan, grabbing the collar of his shirt and shaking him back and forth.
"For once would you just shut you're mouth?!" She screamed at him, angry at him for saying such things.
"He's right," Crystal said, shuffling her feet this time. "I don't want him to know. Because there's a chance that he won't want to be around me if he knows."
She looked up and saw Hawkeye still looking at her with those sad eyes that said she betrayed him. She turned on her heel and put her back to him, unable to keep looking at him.
"Sorry," She apologized, hugging herself close.
She could hear footsteps behind her making her tense in anticipationi at what he would do. She felt arms go around her own as a broad chest pressed to her back in comfort.
"I'm not going to force you to tell me." He said reassuringly. "It's something for you to tell me when you want."
"But you don't understand." She told him stubbornly.
"Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't." he shrugged his shoulders against her, moving her own shoulders from the proximity.
"We should leave," Sierra said, draggin Rowan up with her and walking to the door as some of the others watched carefully. Sierra got Lily to help usher them away and to leave Crystal and Hawkeye by themselves.
Crystal stood in the silence with Hawkeye, not really sure what to do, but she couldn't help but want to escape into the warmth of his arms and body. She clenched her jaw and shut her eyes, not able to hold it in. She turned around in his arms and wrapped her arms around his back, burying her face into his chest.
"I don't want you to leave me," She said, gripping the jacket tightly, as if it would keep him with her forcefully.
She felt his hands slide along her back and down to her hips, pushing her from him slightly. He trailed them up her sides, shoulders, and neck, cupping her face so he could make her face him.
"Do you have such little faith in me?" He asked sadly, wondering if she didn't truly trust him.
"I do trust you," She said, gripping the shirt on his chest now. "But everyone who finds out leaves me. I don't...I don't want you to leave me too."
"Trust me," He whispered, lips mearly inches from hers, sending her into a hazy fog.
"But," She whispered, mind hardly able to argue.
His lips locked with her's sweetly, coaxing her to tell him her secret. "Tell me," He breathed, dipping down once more when she shook her head. This time his kiss was more passionate, seizing her lips forcefully, burning everywhere he touched as he pulled her under into his coaxing.
"Tell me," He coaxed again, fingers locked in her hair as they pulled her face closer to his, unable to get away.
"I'm...I'm..." She stopped, tongue blocking her throat in what she had to say. She swallowed hard, closing her eyes, and gathering her courage for what she needed to tell him. "I'm the destroyer of the world."
He stopped, looking at her with confused eyes as he pulled back from her. "What do you mean?"
She swallowed again, catching her breath as the fog started to leave her mind and let her think clearly. She opened her eyes and looked at him, seeing he didn't understand what she meant.
"I'm the destroyer of the world," She confessed again, as if it would suddenly flip a switch as to what she meant. "There is an old story called the 'Angel of Light'"
A child of light will be born into a family of darkness. A family that was once good, but then turned evil by the powers of the dark. The child will be betrayed, hurt, batter, exiled, and have many other hardships thrown at it, but it will not fear what it is against because it also has those who are good, caring, warm, truthful, respectful, brave, and protective on its side, and willing to help it. The child, as it grows up, will experience help of all kinds in all aspects, but as soon as the child gets comfortable in its life, it will lose everything it has. The family of darkness will not let the child become good and get what it wants, so they will destroy all the child has, to try and make it go to their side. The effect will become the opposite as the child is pushed against them with this final act and will swear to destroy them so they will not and cannot harm another person dear to it. It will need to feel both the good and the bad, see the good and the bad, hear the good and the bad, and understand the good and the bad to truly know what it is up against on both sides. A strong power beyond any other will be given to the child, one that it may not be able to control and handle in its condition, but it will still fight to control it. This power can be used to both destroy and create new life, to make or end an era with ease. The child will grow and soon become a young adult worthy of others affections and help, they will soon see the young adult as not a child of dark, but as that of a person of light. The parents of the darkness will once again seethe against the young adult as it nears it's eighteenth birthday and will reach its maximum strength and power, and what it has obtained in its life, they sought after taking it all away from it once again. The young adult will then have a new mission of destroying the two and making the suffering and torture they beseech onto others end. Yet in the battle, they will soon come close to losing, the young adult made of light will need to make a decision between dark or light, as those it holds most dearest to it may perish. The child of light can either destroy the world with it's power, or create a better one for others to live on. It solely lives on what the young adult is feeling as it's awakening happens. If the child chooses darkness, it will destroy the world and create a living hell in all it's wicked ways. But if the child shall choose the path of light it will use the last of its strength, power, and energy to give up its life and fight against the darkness. The child will die and its life will leave, but as the others mourn and give up hope, the child will have shown how much it is made out of light and will become the Angel of Light. Becoming the angel the child will be able to destroy the darkness and restore all to how it once was before it affected anything at all, turning those back to how they were, healing those who were hurt, and giving solace to those who have lost another. But the child of light will not live long; when the darkness is gone and all is good once again, the child's mission is over, and the child's life will still have been lost.
"What does that have to do with anything?" He asked, disbelief on his face.
"It is my story Francis," She told him, knowing he understood full well. "On my eighteenth birthday my powers will reach it's peak, and when that happens a I will either awaken to the darkness or the light."
"But in the story, either way you lose your life." He said, eyebrows scrunching.
"Yes, that is the part I hope doesn't come true." She said sadly, dropping her face.
