A/N: So we kick off Age of Ultron, there's been a bit of a time skip since the last chapter so everyone is going to be much more chill around each other than they were before. Also, this chapter doesn't include as much content in it as I wanted it to but I realised that if I did write in the party in this chapter it would be way too long.
Besides that, school is starting soon and exam season is just around the corner. Not to mention I still haven't started my art project that I had two months to do. Whoops. Either way, updates may be coming out a little slower than they were. That or they'll keep coming at the same rate, my sleep schedule will just end up being as bad as Adara's oops!
I probably shouldn't be writing this but I want this chapter OUT NOW and I am HAULING MY FUCKING ASS.
Guacamole lover: Thanks for the review! The eye exam didn't end up going great. Turns out I don't need a prescription, my eye muscles are just weak and they can't focus properly on stuff far away and they apparently can't do much to fix it. It's probably because I spend all day writing on my computer in the dark so whoops. Anyway, now I have to do 'eye exercises' to fix the problem :|
Thanks to: Snapplecrackles, EzriaStydiaTrash, tessagclaryf, TheRavenSlayer13, lizlil, Summerlitez, guacamole lover, TreeQueen, Hikiro Hikaru, Lucy Jacob, UltimateFan-girl15 and Amis55 for either leaving a review or following/favouriting on the last chapter! Lots of love to you all!
PART TWO: DREAMS
"Now here I go again I see a crystal vision
I keep my visions to myself
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness"
April 28th, 2015
"Stop tapping," said Peter quietly through gritted teeth, "this is a test."
It was a Tuesday afternoon and Adara had been on edge all day. Despite the fact she was in the middle of a Spanish exam, she was growing more and more anxious by the minute. She, of course, had asked Natasha if she could stay at the tower and wait for them to get back from their mission in Sokovia but she and Steve had firmly told her that, unless she was dying, she would go to school. She had spent most of the day on edge, waiting for a text to give her bad news. Nothing yet.
"Dara," Peter hissed and she jumped.
"What?" She snapped back before checking the teacher hadn't noticed.
"Your test," he said, "you've been staring into space and tapping your pen for the last fifteen minutes and you haven't even finished your first paragraph yet. You have ten minutes left."
"Merde," she cursed under her breath before smiling at him, "it's fine. Spanish is like a second or third or fourth language to me. I'll have it done in five minutes."
He glared, "yeah, I get it, you're a linguistic genius. Now are you gonna finish it or what?"
She just rolled her eyes and quickly got back to work, writing down the most complex Spanish sentences she could think of. The exam was to write five paragraphs about your family and friends, easy to make something up for, not like Adara had any real family anyway. By the time ten minutes was up, she had rushed her last four paragraphs but, despite this, she knew that it was practically impossible for her to fail anything in languages.
The bell rang at the teacher looked up. "Hand me your sheets on the way out," she ordered, "in a single file line! And no pushing. Make sure your name is written on the top."
Even though she sat at the very back of the classroom, Adara was the first to hand in her test paper and leave. It took her only a minute to charge through the crowd to get to her locker, which was basically on the other side of the school, to grab her coat.
That's when she heard heavy breathing beside her.
"What is it, Peter?" She asked.
He blinked, she only called him 'Peter' when she was annoyed at him or just in a bad mood in general. Most of the time it was 'Pete' or, if she was teasing him, 'Parker.'
"I was just wondering if you wanted to do something after school today," he asked, "like go grab lunch or something."
For the first time, she relaxed slightly, "are you asking me out on a date, Parker?"
He glared, "we literally do this every week, plus Ned will be coming too. Don't make this weird, Dara."
She laughed a little before flashing her usual, stunning smile at him. "Sorry, Pete, I can't. I need to go straight home."
The two began to walk out of school together.
"Is this about whatever's had you in such a weird mood all day?" He dared to ask.
"I have not been in a weird mood."
"Okay, why do you have to go home some quickly then?"
"None of your business, Peter," she told him, hurrying ahead, "you go grab lunch with Ned. I'll see you tomorrow unless I die overnight. Bye!"
He stopped, letting her race ahead. "Yeah," he sighed, "bye."
The moment Adara got into Happy's car, the man answered the question she had had on her lips all day before it even left her mouth.
"No, we don't know anything yet. No, they're not back yet. No, none of them are dead. And, no, they don't have the sceptre."
She slumped back on the seat, "this has been killing me all day! What time did they leave?"
"Around half one."
"Half one!" She exclaimed, "I thought they said they were going to leave earlier this morning."
"Well, they didn't," replied the man, pulling away from the school, "Maria Hill will know more about the whole situation when you get back. You can ask her."
And she did that, the moment she reached the top floors, she sprinted into the main room.
"Maria!" She yelled at the woman who was sitting on a sofa only a few feet away.
She looked at the teenager with an unamused look on her face, "what do you want, teen?"
Adara threw he bag to the floor and jumped onto the sofa neighbouring the one Maria was sitting on, "how's the mission going?"
"They made it into Sokovia and found the base but managed to alert the perimeter guards," the woman's face turned grim, "it's a code green."
"Code green?" Adara frowned, "so, Banner is…?"
"That's all I've got so far," Maria sighed, "we're just gonna have to see what happens. What do you remember of the base in Sokovia?"
She narrowed her eyes, remembering. "It wasn't as well guarded as the bank in DC, it also wasn't as well isolated as the one in Siberia either. Strucker and List were based there most of the time, doing their weird experiments. That's the place where they re-injected me with the chameleon particle to enhance my powers before moving me back to Siberia."
"What about the sceptre?" She asked, "anything you know about that?"
"Nothing. They never mentioned it. At least, not directly. Now that I'm thinking about it, I do remember Luka talking about Strucker experimenting with something new."
"The man did lots of experiments with that thing," Maria sighed, "I don't think we know the full extent of it all. You know Strucker well then?"
Adara shrugged, "not really. I only really remember him and Dr List observing me on the few days after they re-injected me. Though, I would be very pleased to see both men get what they deserve."
"Which is?"
"Prison or death," came her morbid reply, "either one is fine by me."
Maria just raised an eyebrow, "I guess, we'll just see how this mission goes first..."
...
SOKOVIA
"Baron Strucker," said Steve, "Hydra's number one thug."
"Technically I'm a thug for SHIELD," he pointed out.
"Well then technically you're unemployed," Steve joked lightly before turning serious, "Where's Loki's sceptre?"
The man, apparently intimidated, gave the super-soldier a slight smirk, "don't worry, I know when I'm beaten. You'll mention how I cooperated, I hope."
"Yeah," said he nodded, tone bitter, "I'll put it right under illegal human experimentation."
"You mean your little teenager," asked Strucker, looking smug at the venomous glare on Steve's face, "yes, we know that you have her in your tower. You let her attend school, do homework, hang out with friends," there was a sneer on his face, "you waste her powers. She could do so much more."
The blonde Avenger shook his head, "she's a human, not a piece of meat. She deserves a normal life."
"No," Strucker shook his head, "Hydra will take her back."
"Yeah? With what's left of your organisation," he snorted in contempt, "how many others have you experimented on?"
Suddenly, he noticed a presence beside him and turned around at the last minute to see a girl hit him with a red blast of energy, sending him tumbling down the stairs. Without giving himself a second to recover, he jumped back to his feet and ran up the stairs towards her but, as quick as she came, the girl vanished behind a pair of heavy, metal doors, slamming them shut.
He slowed down a little. "We have a second enhanced," he informed the others, "female. Do not engage." He turned to fix Strucker with a look.
"You'll have to be faster than-" but was cut off as Steve slammed his foot down on his shield, sending it flying upwards towards the Baron's face. In a split second, he was thrown against the wall and knocked out cold.
He turned away from him, "guys, I got Strucker," and he addressed the last part mainly towards Natasha, "and I think Hydra might know a little bit more about Adara than we'd like."
...
"Adara," whispered a voice, causing her to stir, "are you awake?"
"I wasn't," muttered the teenager, "I was actually asleep."
Natasha stood up straight, looking down on the sleepy Adara who was sprawled across a couch, "I told you not to stay up waiting for us. Have you taken your sleeping pills?"
"Don't need to," she shrugged, "I haven't had a nightmare in like two weeks."
"And when was the last time you took the pills?"
"Um…" she thought about it for a second, "last Thursday, I think."
"And you've been sleeping fine without them?"
"Yes, Natasha, I have," Adara sighed as though the redhead was the most annoying person in the world, "now, are you done interviewing me or can I go back to sleep?"
She raised an eyebrow and sat on the sofa beside Adara's head, "Maria told me that you spent all afternoon pestering her about the mission and now when we finally get back, you're tired."
"Yeah, well, pestering Maria is a weary task. Did you get the sceptre?"
"We did."
"Bon, c'est un problème de moins," (good, that's one less problem) she nodded, "and the lullaby, did it work?"
"Like a dream," Natasha nodded, "or, at least better than last time. What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Adara rolled her eyes, "oh… ce n'est rien," (it's nothing) she shrugged, "now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go back to sleep."
"Not on the sofa," she said sternly, "you can sleep in your own bed."
"But it's too much effort to move," Adara grinned, "either I stay here, or…"
"No, you're a teenager," Natasha firmly shook her head, "I'm not gonna let Steve carry you to your room for the third time this month because you can't be bothered. Now, go to sleep in your own bedroom or I'll drag you there by your ear."
"I love these conversations of ours," she heaved herself upwards, "what time is it?"
"Around eleven at night, maybe just after."
"And where are the others?" Adara asked, "scattered around the globe as per usual."
"Actually, for once I think they'll be sticking around. At least until the party on Sunday. Even Thor and Helen are staying, I think. Helen's working on Barton, he took a hit."
"Is he hurt badly?"
"Nothing Dr Cho can't fix," Natasha assured her, "anyway, you've still got a week left. So go to bed now, or you'll regret it at school tomorrow."
"Alright, alright," Adara rolled her eyes, "you sound like you could be my mother with all your pestering."
"Bed."
"Okay, going."
...
"Dr Cho," greeted Adara as she sat down at the table the next morning, "I haven't seen you since I first came to the tower and you healed me."
"There's no need to be so formal," the woman smiled over her mug of coffee, "just Helen is fine. It seems you're a full-time resident of this place now."
Adara shrugged, "guess I am. Morning, Steve," she added the last part as the blonde super-soldier sat down behind her, "you look tired."
He hummed, agreeing with her observation. "They put up more than a fight than I thought they would at the Sokovia base. I never thought we'd have to call out a code green either. How's Clint?"
"He's fine," answered the doctor, "I should probably go check on him now, considering I've finished breakfast." And she quickly got up an hurried towards the lab.
"What happened to him?" Adara enquired, still not fully knowledgeable about last night's events.
"There were a couple of enhanced on the fields," answered Steve, "two twins, heard of them?"
"Twins…" she pursed her lips, "I remember some Hydra soldiers mentioning something about 'Maximoff' twins but that is about it."
"You're not wrong," nodded Steve, "a couple of Strucker's experiments. Wanda and Pietro, they were orphaned at ten when a shell was dropped on their apartment," he took a sip of his coffee, "Sokovia has never been the best country."
"So I've heard," she nodded, "what are their abilities?"
"He can run really fast," he explained, "and she's just weird, she's got a vast array of powers. Not someone I'd like to go up against in a fight. Best guess is that their powers came from the sceptre. They volunteered to be experimented on, or so I'm told."
Adara, always the one to lighten the mood, pulled a disgusted face. "Who would ever want to willingly have to look at Strucker's ugly mug. Not to mention work for Hydra as a whole," she sighed, swilling her cornflakes around with her spoon, "at least I never volunteered, not like I had the choice. Anyway, what happened to Strucker? Still breathing?"
"NATO got him," he told her, "you won't be seeing him around for a long time. Dr List is dead too."
"Good," she pursed her lips, "now all we've got left is Rumlow and Luka," she said the latter's name as though it were poison on her tongue, "and hopefully he'll be gone sooner rather than later."
"We couldn't find anything on either of them back in Sokovia," Steve told her lightly, "Rumlow, I think, has gone rogue and is doing his own thing in an attempt to get back at me. As for Luka, he's still posing as a high-ranking military general."
"And no one expects a thing," she muttered grumpily, spoon in her mouth before her eyes widened, "shit!"
"Steve doesn't like to hear those kinds of words," said Natasha jokingly as she walked through the kitchen.
Adara looked a little bewildered as Steve groaned, "I guess that's still sticking around. What's wrong?"
"I forgot to do my English homework," she frowned, "and it's due in first period."
Steve looked at her sternly as Natasha sat across from them at the table. "You should've done it yesterday."
"I'm sure it's fine," argued the redhead, "it's only English. Just write a really quick, crappy essay about a book or whatever it is on the way to school."
This didn't seem to solve the problem. "All my English work is crappy, even when I do try."
"Well, it's not like we're expecting you to do swimmingly in English," Steve assured her, "it's not your first language."
"Russian's my first language," Natasha said, biting into an apple, "and I'm better at English than you are."
"Wow, comforting," remarked the teenager, "I should probably get going anyway. Happy's too busy to drive me to school today so I'm left with the other driver and she's a massive chienne."
"Don't curse!" Said Natasha, laughing to herself, "no matter what language."
Steve glared.
Adara glanced at the two as she stood up, "right. I'll see you when I get back from school."
"Don't do anything stupid," said Natasha.
"And don't get another detention," added Steve, "or get into another fight."
"I'll do my best," she grabbed her bag, "Bye!"
"Bye," the two chorused creepily at the same time and the teenager rushed away.
...
"Yeah, and Hulk was there and everything!" Exclaimed Ned, "I bet it was totally awesome. I would give anything just to spend a day with the Avengers."
Peter, who had spent the entirety of the morning googling information on the most recent sighting in Sokovia of the world famous superhero time, nodded in agreement. "I bet they throw great parties. Better than the one Flash throws."
"What is Flash throwing?" Asked Adara who had suddenly appeared behind him.
Peter jumped, "where did you come from?"
"Fourth-period History," she said flatly before repeating her question, "what is Flash throwing?"
"Oh," Ned shrugged as she took a seat beside Peter, "we were just talking about how the Avengers probably throw better parties than Flash does."
She snorted contemptuously, "I would hope that Avengers, who have Tony Stark on their team, would be able to throw better parties than some fourteen-year-old kid in his last year of middle-school," she glanced between the two, "why are we talking about this anyway?"
"Didn't you hear the news?" Asked Ned, exasperated, "about the Avengers in Sokovia."
She shook her head though Peter could tell that she found something funny.
"No," she shrugged, "I was too busy this morning to watch the news. Why were they in Sokovia of all places?"
"Uh- to kickass," stated Ned as though it were nothing more than that.
"I don't think the media knows," Peter answered the question properly, "I guess we'll find out in a bit."
"Unless the world ends," added Adara.
"Always looking on the positive side," remarked Ned, "anyway, coming back to Flash. He is actually throwing a party."
"I know," said Adara who was no eating an apple.
The two looked at her. "How?" Asked Peter, "you didn't even know the Avengers were in Sokovia."
"He invited me to the party," she said through a mouthful of the red fruit, "I said no, obviously. Then told him to clear off before I throw a chair at him. He doesn't give up though, does he? The loser could hardly stick to the deal we made in the fight for more than a week."
"He invited you?" Peter was slowly comprehending this.
There was a snort from down the table, the two boys looked over to see Michelle reading a book whilst simultaneously shaking her head in mock disappointment.
"He would obviously invite Adara," she told them.
"Why?" Asked Ned.
Michelle was dumbfounded, "I thought you two were smart! Isn't it obvious? Flash Thompson has been crushing on Adara and her sexy French accent since she first got here. Hell, I think her putting him into a headlock during that fight probably got him hard."
Peter wrinkled his nose, "that gross." But Adara just laughed and took another bite of her apple. He looked at her, "did you know about this? His crush on you?"
"There's no need to angsty about it, Parker," she said, "not even Ned cares," he looked over to see his friend give him a casual shrug. "And, to answer your question, I know he has a crush on me. I mean, who wouldn't? Everyone's crushing on me," she smiled, teasing in her tone, "Michelle, are you crushing on me?"
"Yes, Adara," the girl said without looking up from her book, "I love you."
"Point proven," she shook her head when she saw the look on Peter's face, "try not to get too worked up about it. Flash is an idiot. It's not like I'm actually ever gonna go to one of his weird parties. I think I more likely to become a vigilante, masked killer than a girl who drinks beer from red, plastic cups and makes out with Flash Thompson."
"I'm not worked up about it," Peter denied hotly, "I just don't like Flash is all. You should hear the stuff he says in the locker room sometimes, it's creepy."
Ned nodded in agreement.
"I'd rather not know," Adara smirked, "but, Flash Thompson with always be Flash Thompson. If you want me to, Pete, I can just beat him up again."
"No more fights," he practically begged, "you've already had three since you started here, not including the one with Flash."
She smiled her usual, bright and beautiful smile. The one that made Peter feel weird.
"And I've only got caught once," she said.
"You got off easy for that," added Ned, "I bet it's because the principal just thought you were just some weak, innocent, little girl."
"Oh, but, Ned," she stood back up, jokingly patting him on the head, "I am just some weak, innocent, little girl. I need to go to the library. See you later!"
Peter watched her walk away and sigh. Adara was equally one of the strangest, funniest and frustrating people he'd ever met, and that was saying something considering the type of school he went to. But, he was suspicious too. There had always been something not quite right about Adara, something that he could never figure out.