Chapter 20

"Meet the new team."

Well they certainly seemed to find replacements pretty fast. I stared at the new members with what I hoped was a neutral expression. I actually knew everyone except for one guy. The new additions to the team were War Machine, Wanda, Pietro, Vision and a guy named Falcon. I have never seen Falcon before today but I had heard of him and I was informed that he would be here today. I was a little wary of the new team since I wasn't too happy about the change. I was comfortable fighting next to the previous members. I knew their strengths and weaknesses while fighting. I didn't know much about some of the new members like War Machine, Vision and Falcon.

"All of us are going to start training together tomorrow. I expect everyone to be here. No excuses. Get to know each other until then." Steve ordered strictly. He didn't even spare me a glance as he walked out of the room with Natasha. I'm seriously getting tired of his bullshit. I am going to have a talk with him whether he is happy about it or not…. sometime in the near future. I wasn't really looking forward to it. It's definitely not going to be a pleasant conversation. I'm just going to have to suck it up and do whats right.

"Adrianna!" I heard someone call. I glanced up to see Wanda walking up to me with a small smile on her face. It was annoyingly quiet in the room. Vision left a while ago probably thinking this was stupid. Everyone turned to look at me. "Hey." I grinned back. It's been a while since I've normally talked to Wanda. I genuinely missed her. "Are you feeling better?" Wanda asked lightheartedly. Behind her, Pietro started walking towards us with a smirk followed by War Machine. Falcon reluctantly came towards me too. I guess I wasn't the only one uncomfortable with the notion of meeting new people.

"Peachy." I remarked sarcastically. Rhodey (War Machine) lightly chuckled at my answer but when a look of confusion spread over Wanda's face, I realized that English was not her first language and she probably didn't understand my answer. "I'm fine." I quickly corrected. She looked pleased with my answer. The room quickly lapsed into an awkward silence once again. I really needed to break the thick layer of tension in here before I collapsed under the weight of it. It was suffocating. I fidgeted uncomfortably racking my brain for something to say. My brain stops functioning at the most inconvenient of times.

Before I got to open my mouth and most likely say something embarrassing, Falcon spoke. "Well I guess I'll start off the introductions. I'm Sam Wilson." he stated. I let out a sigh of relief. "I'm Adrianna." I introduced myself with a friendly smile mainly directed at Sam since he was the only I haven't met at least once before. Everyone introduced themselves one by one. "So what are your abilities? I don't know much about you guys. I have this thing called exo-falcon that lets me fly." Sam said pointing at his back. There was a device that looked like a backpack where he was pointing. I took a step closer to get a good look at it.

Whoosh! I jumped back with a sharp yelp right into Rhodey, nearly knocking him over and stepping on his foot in the process. "Whoa!" he exclaimed with his arms raised up in defense. I stared at the wings that seemingly popped out of the backpack with a hand placed over my heart. "Warn me if you're going to sprout wings next time!" I exclaimed pathetically. Gee I'm going to have to give myself a pat on the back for first impressions. I looked ridiculous. I could tell from the way Pietro was snickering to himself beside me. I gave him a sharp jab to the ribs before smiling sweetly at him. He glared at me in response.

"I'll keep that in mind." Sam joked.

"My turn." Pietro announced with a huge smirk on his face. Uh-oh. I knew I was in for it judging by the mischievous glint in his eye. Before I could even try to move I was picked up by Pietro and thrown over his shoulder in one quick movement. The world became a blur of colors as he ran around in what I assumed were circles. I couldn't really tell in my state. I put a hand over my mouth trying not to puke and closed my eyes. I groaned as I felt Pietro come to an abrupt halt. He put me down and I staggered as I clutched my head. Everything was spinning. To say I was disoriented was an understatement.

"What? You didn't see that coming?"

I scowled at his trademark remark. Wanda gasped before slapping his shoulder lightly. Everyone else had knowing smiles on their faces to my dismay. After a moment of silence in which I was silently fuming, Rhodey stepped forward. "I'm pretty sure my suit here is self-explanatory." he commented while gesturing at his iron suit. Yes it is. "So you're Iron Man 2.0?" Sam asked. I snorted. "You could say that." Rhodey answered with a proud grin on his face. He shot a laser out of the palm of his suit at a wall behind Sam as if to prove his statement. Sam turned around to find a smoking black hole in the wall. He whistled and looked genuinely impressed.

"And you?" he asked looking at Wanda. I froze in place as I saw memories flash before my eyes. I shook my head quickly to get rid of them and tried to shove them back deep in my mind. Pietro cast a worried worried glance in my direction before putting a comforting arm over my shoulder. I smiled gratefully at him and leaned into his side. I thought I saw him smile in satisfaction out of the corner of my eye but when I looked his face was back to normal. I didn't want Wanda to feel bad so I put on a neutral expression. What she did was not her fault and I will not blame her for it. So when Wanda looked back at me I smiled reassuringly at her. She smiled back and demonstrated her abilities to Sam. "Thank you for doing that." Pietro muttered under his breath to me.

"I already know what you do. Steve told me. He said that you aren't supposed to use your powers so he told me to make sure of that." Sam apologized looking at me. I was absolutely livid! How dare he! I can't believe Steve thought I needed a babysitter! I was capable of taking care of myself! I angrily stomped out of the door after I threw Pietro's arm off of me. I felt a pang of guilt for taking my anger out on him but the resentment I had for Steve in that moment consumed me and I couldn't think properly. I ground my teeth and my hands balled into fists as I stomped in no apparent direction. I was acting irrationally but I didn't care. I was too furious in that moment to care about anything.

"STEVE!" I bellowed.

He was just going around a corner when he looked back with wide eyes. When he saw me his eyes hardened to a steely gaze. He stood his ground with his arms crossed. "I am not a little baby! I can make my own decisions and take care of myself! So stop breathing down my neck! You are not my dad!" I fumed. I'm pretty sure my face was red from my rant. Steve was staring at me with a serious expression on his face. At this point everything he was doing was pissing me off. All he had to do was breathe and I felt like throwing something. I breathed in and out deeply as I tried to calm myself. I closed my eyes and counted to ten before opening them again. I finally felt a little better. Steve just stood there waiting for me to calm myself down.

"Done?" he asked after patiently waiting for some time. I glared at him for his nonchalant attitude. I come stomping all the way from the training room screaming and all he does is stand there listening to me like this was a daily occurrence. Like it was something normal. It was pretty annoying to see him so placid. I needed to see some type of reaction before I went insane. "I know I'm not your dad. I never will be. I also know you are not a baby. I'm not trying to make you feel like one. But I am the one that found you a year ago when you were vulnerable. I still can't forget how scared and hopeless you looked in that cell; bloody and beaten. That's why I feel the need to protect you. I can't see you like that a second time." he argued.

I sighed after hearing his argument. I couldn't help but feel bad about that.

"Fine. I get where you're coming from. I'm sorry for yelling and almost killing myself. I wasn't thinking straight."

"And I'm sorry for being mad at you, not hearing you out and ignoring you. I don't blame you for risking your life. It was a respectable thing but I just wish you found a better way."

"So are we good?"

"Yeah."

Hey guys! I'm sorry about the late update!
It was my birthday yesterday and I had been so stressed about it for the past week... I wasn't really in the mood to write so I apologize for that.
Anyway I hope you like this chapter. I'm sorry if it isn't that great. I've had a lot on my mind.
Have a great day and keep reviewing so I can improve my writing!
Thanks for reading!
;)