Tony: Finally! More story!
ASC: Sorry Mr. Tin Can! Having writers block is hard and try unseeing Frog Thor is hard enough!
Thor: What?
Clint: (Holding in laughter)...
Natasha: The Ultimate Spiderman TV series...getting some ideas ASC?
ASC: Oh yes...(Smiles)
Bruce: There she goes again...
Loki: Oh my, what could it be this time?
ASC: Not in this chapter though! But soon! Mmmm...who wants to do the intro disclaimer thingy?
Natasha: ASC does not own the Avengers, she owns Skyler and her friend owns Rowena.
ASC: But I wish I did so I can make every fandom come true!
"I swear, you're even crazier now." Tony said as he tried to rub off the permanent marker. His face was turning red from rubbing a towel on his face with hot water.
"Tony, use some rubbing alcohol." Bruce said, handing Tony a bottle.
Grimacing, Tony went to the bathroom in his private suite.
Skyler was hiding behind Thor, the thunder god not minding his nieces' actions. In fact, Thor was smiling because he was never able to officially meet one of Loki's children. Odin cast the four of Loki's children out because they did not appear like Asgardians, the bodies of monsters the ruler of Asgard had said. But, Skyler, despite her small stature, looked human. Surely, her mother was beautiful woman.
"Skyler, seriously…" Rowena was trying to hide a laugh.
"Hey, Fury said he wants to test your abilities girls, so find some training clothes and we'll head to the gym." Clint said.
"Rowena, I should have some yoga pants and a shirt that may fit you." Natasha stood and began to lead Rowena to her room.
"Aw, do I have to?" Skyler pouted.
"Unless you remember years of lessons." Loki answered.
Glancing off to the side, Skyler realized that she barely remembered the lessons from her dad and how to control her magic. A few minutes ago, she didn't even know she was using magic. Even the time when she fell through the balcony, her magic might have reacted to her fear and blocked off those who didn't trust her. Though, Rowena was able to get through easily. Rowena was new to her powers, and would be hard to tell limitations and if the powers she has are permanent or temporary.
Loki saw the worried expression on his daughter's face and put an arm around his small child. Thor, off to the side was smiling.
OooOooO
The gym was in the lowest parts of the tower and had regular exercise equipment, but there was also shooting range and in an area, there was a boxing ring. Beyond, was a blank area with a plush mat. Tony explained that the area was an obstacle course and the walls will change into the desired field. In all, the entire gym was the size of three football fields placed side by side. Rowena and Skyler looked around, amazed by the size and the equipment.
"Alright, let's begin by stretching." Natasha said.
Only Clint, Thor, Loki, and Natasha came down to the gym for the new recruit's training, Tony was called away for the incident in Miami with the lab explosion. Bruce, however, was ready in case one of them got hurt, mostly in case Skyler has a panic attack again and injures her or the others. Loki was apparently sore from his punishment on Asgard; no one asked what had happened. Even Clint was unstable with Loki here.
Rowena pulled down the red tank top and blushed at the tight yoga black pants, thankful that Tony was called away to deal with the lab in Miami. Skyler was wearing a light green tank top with spandex knee-length shorts. Tying her hair into a pony tail, Rowena sighed and stretched her arms over her head.
Natasha began leading the two other women with simple stretches; Skyler was more flexible despite years of being away from the circus and out of practice with acrobatics. Rowena wasn't bad, but she wasn't as flexible as Skyler. Finally, their muscles loosened enough to begin training. Clint said it would be good for today to test physical abilities and Natasha agreed.
Thus, Bruce came down and attached wires to Rowena and Skyler to record data. It was hardly surprising that Skyler was able to run longer, but Rowena was a close second. The total was fifteen miles (twenty for Skyler), which surprised everyone. Looking at the data, Bruce paused at the body temperatures; Rowena was burning while Skyler was just slightly warmer than the normal body temperature.
"Ah, I know of this reason." Loki said, looking over Bruce's results. "Skyler is part frost giant, and that part of her cools the entire body down so she will not overheat. However, when it is extremely cold, then Skyler will become a frost giant to protect her mortal body."
After a few more tests, it was shown that Skyler was physically stronger than Rowena, but Rowena showed she was stronger than an average human. With the results from the basic endurance tests, Bruce had put together a simulator to test Rowena and Skyler's reflexes. There would be targets and harmless lasers coming out of the walls as well as the floor. The goal was to reach the button on the wall to stop the time. Rowena was actually nervous about starting, but Skyler volunteered to go first.
"Is this dangerous?" Thor asked, worried for his niece.
"No, probably a couple of bruises, but it all depends on how Skyler will do with the simulator. The movements are random and won't be the same, but I think Skyler will be fine." Clint answered. "Though, I am putting money on Skyler getting through the obstacles easily."
"Rowena might surprise us. Skyler is a bit unstable, probably because she hasn't been practicing her acrobatics, but she does have a keen eye." Natasha smiled.
Standing on a line, Skyler listened as Clint gave a countdown and dashed forward when the countdown finished. A laser shot forward and Skyler barely dodged it, doing a side roll that was eventually launched by a trap from the floor. Momentarily off balance, Skyler arched her back when a laser shot from the wall and managed to get her body to curve around the laser, landing on a post then dashing forward where she leapt over two lasers, one barely touching her leg. Despite the many more leaps and dodges, it seemed Skyler was getting no closer to the button. There was a clock and Skyler could see that it was already thirty seconds gone. With a huff, Skyler found her rhythm, humming a fast paced song, seething that there was a sort of pattern within the obstacles and lasers. Finally, Skyler flipped onto one of the posts and used her arms to propel her forward, arching and dancing around the lasers while also jumping and flipping over and onto the various moving and nonmoving obstacles. Then, with her foot, Skyler flexed around a laser and hit the button, stopping the clock at fifty-five seconds. Not bad, but Skyler knew she could do better.
"Not bad, Skyler. Rowena, you're next." Natasha said.
Rowena swallowed. She saw that Skyler was having problems until she found her rhythm and Rowena feared that she may not be able to make it. Despite her training with her uncle, Rowena had spent years in the labs and her muscles were limited to her arms from carrying reports. Going up to the starting point, Rowena felt her heart grow heavy with nerves.
"Ready?" Natasha asked.
"Yes." Rowena nodded.
Clint pushed the start button and Rowena dashed forward when the clock beeped. The obstacles were fast and Rowena found herself often tossed around. Even the lasers were hard to dodge and Rowena remembered how Skyler was able to use acrobatics to move about the course. Taking another deep breath, Rowena jumped when a laser almost cut across her feet. When three targets flew right at Rowena at the same time as a laser, Rowena's eyes widened and she felt a charge go through her.
It was like a giant explosion ripped through the building above and there was a power outage, stopping the targets and lasers. Rowena felt her heart stop before sliding to the floor. Had she done this?
"Rowena, are you okay?!" Bruce called.
"Yeah, but what happened?" Rowena moved out from the target's frozen positions.
"Besides the power outage, not sure." Natasha answered.
"Skyler! Calm yourself." Loki said, coming to the aid of his daughter.
Skyler was crouched and her hands covering her head, shaking. She peeked at Loki and threw her arms around his chest, feeling gentle hands run down her short hair. Loki kept whispering comforting words to Skyler until she stopped shaking.
Thor was trying the doors, finding them sealed shut. "The doors do not open."
"The doors are powered by the arc reactor, which means that there must be something wrong with Stark's reactor for the entire tower." Clint said. "Probably some technical issues."
"Not likely. I've actually helped with this arc reactor and the only way a problem could occur is from within the reactor itself. Tony and Pepper are the only ones with the authority to enter the room and to hack to the arc reactor, then they have to go through Tony's firewall and Jarvis would have sent an alarm if the person even got into the system." Rowena said.
"Must be an attack." Natasha walked to the door and tried to get in through the access panel. "You have to be kidding! Did Tony build this room as a nuclear fallout shelter?" She kicked the metal door.
"Maybe." Clint looked around the room. "There are some air ducts I could crawl through."
"Rowena, did you help Tony with the building of this tower?" Natasha asked.
"No, but I memorized the tech." Rowena came forward and opened the access panel. "It seems the doors are electromagnetic, but connected to Jarvis' mainframe. If the power goes out, the doors will remain locked and service would be cut out until power came on. If only I had my tool kit or actually know how to control my freaky powers."
Loki stepped forward. "Powers? What can you do exactly?"
"Well…I can control electricity and Tony's Iron Man armor as well as listen in on phone calls, that's how I found out about Loki staying at the tower unless the Council had agreed to leave Loki here than in a monitored cell." Rowena pushed aside some wires. "There doesn't seem to be a problem with the wiring."
"Miss. Rowena, close your eyes." Loki said. "You should feel a spark, a presence within yourself. Once you grasp it, that energy is yours to control. With your abilities, you should be able to find any problems and solve them, Miss. Rowena."
Rowena followed the instructions, closing her violet eyes and taking deep breaths. She did feel a presence within her and was able to grasp it, then pushing it forward into the wires. There was a slight pulse coming from the arc reactor and Rowena inched closer, sensing it was a bug that had somehow blocked all electricity. With a spark, Rowena disconnected the bug and short-circuited the device. Smiling, Rowena opened her eyes and put both hands on the wires and sent a shock through them to open the doors.
"There." Rowena turned around. "Thank you Loki."
Loki inclined his head.
The doors opened and the group went up through the hallways, finding many Stark employees looking around in question. Tony and Steve came running down the hallway and glanced everyone over. Loki was helping Skyler walk, despite the uneasy movements.
"What happened? Why did the arc reactor have a bug?" Rowena asked.
"A bug? I didn't find anything." Tony said.
"Skyler needs to sleep, she almost had a panic attack." Clint said.
"Rowena, can you find the bug again?" Asked Natasha. "We should get it looked at.
"Yeah." Rowena nodded.
"Come on Skyler, let's get you to your room." Steve gently picked up the trembling woman and carried her to the elevator with Clint, Loki, and Thor following.
Rowena led the way to the arc reactor floor and Tony entered the passcode. Three metal doors opened and the small group stepped in, Rowena leading the way. The arc reactor bathed the room in a light blue color and looked much like a large cylindrical tube with wires going up and down. On the walkway, there was a tiny silver bug that was completely fried. Natasha picked it up, looking closely at it.
"It's Hydra." The spy said, in complete surprise.
"No way." Tony looked over at the small bug. "Hydra? They're still around?"
"Wait until Steve hears this, he'll flip." Rowena said.
"Who said Steve will hear about this?" Tony looked over at the two.
"Tony, Steve needs to know." Bruce said.
"Alright, we'll tell him when I make double sure that this is Hydra and not just someone using their technology." Natasha suggested. "I'll send this to SHIELD and have them examine it."
"I can examine it now." Rowena added. "I found it, so I might be able to scan it."
"You sure?" Natasha raised her eyebrow.
"Yeah." Rowena was given the bug. With her power, she could see the certain connections that seemed to web outwards and spread further than the tower. "There are lines; some are thicker than others, which means there are groups connected to this thing. But it seemed that there was no information taken from the arc reactor, it just blocked the power coming from it." She turned it over.
Suddenly there was a spark coming from the bug and it moved, leaping up Rowena's arm and to the back of her neck. She shouted in pain as something within her neck caused a shockwave throughout her body. Darkness surrounded her and she fell, Tony catching Rowena before her body hit the ground.
"Rowena!" Bruce ran forward and checked the bug that had somehow disappeared. "Get her to the medical bay."
Tony lifted Rowena up into his arms and carried her to the elevator and up the floors with Natasha and Bruce following behind. Worry was on each of their minds and knew that there would be problems if Rowena's powers activated something within the bug.
So school is going by easier but I need to keep doing good in all my classes...I barely passed my western civilization class with a C...and I was lucky to get that C! I didn't want a B or an A I wanted that C so I wouldn't have to take that class again!
Bruce: Thankfully ASC has been getting enough sleep.
ASC: And I learned to never drink hot chocolate before going to bed...gives me weird dreams...
Clint: Like what?
ASC: Like walking through Wonderland drunk and high at the same time...
Tony: That...is weird...
Loki: Sounds like the inside of her mind...
ASC: Hey! It's just regular Wonderland, not drunk and high!
Thor: What is this...land of wonder?
Clint: Easy big guy. We'll watch the movie later.
Steve: Movie? I read the book.
Tony: Nope, we're watching the movie...and I might watch it drunk.
Bruce: (Sigh)
Natasha: Don't forget to comment or favorite.
ASC: Now...who do you want to see shirtless, pranked, or as a kitty...it can be more than one person...it's tempting...
Everyone: Hide!
