I stared at my father, my mouth agape.

He gave me a soft smile, glancing at the costume clasped in my fist. "Ah, you've found that old thing," He chuckled lightly.

I rubbed the material between my fingers and stared at him.

He looked different from the pictures I'd seen. He had bags under his blue eyes and his face was furry with stubble, as if he hadn't had the time or the care to shave it. His cheeks were hollowed out with shadows and he took an airy breath before letting out a strangled cough into the crook of his elbow. He mustered up a faint smile and said, "You've gotten a lot taller since—"

"—Six years ago?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He tilted his head to the side, meeting my gaze. "Has it been that long?" He asked. His voice was deep and jagged, as if he were suffering from a pretty severe cold.

"Yeah. It has," I replied, turning around in a circle to look at the cabinets full of weird bottles or vials. "So, what's all that stuff?" I asked, gesturing to the cabinets.

"Experiments," He told me. "The blue is for hydrokinesis. The dirt is a type of geokinesis that is still in progress. The vials are full of living shadows causing erebokinesis and the plasma balls are for electrokinesis. The orange bottles are for pyroism, which is a completely different thing next to pyrokinesis."

I stared at him blankly. "Okay, that pretty much made no sense."

He sighed heavily before going into a coughing fit. "It's not supposed to make sense," He mumbled under his breath. "You don't get it. Nobody does."

I watched him carefully. "Maybe it makes some sense," I inquired. "I mean, I have pyroism. I've been through its effects. You're making people have powers, right?"

He nodded slowly.

"But, it backfired. You got infected. I got infected. People who didn't have the good enough conscience were made worse. Good people at heart were made better. Sorta like the serum Captain America took," I explained, furrowing my eyebrows slightly.

A smile crept onto his lips. "Exactly."

I paused, a thought nagging at my mind. "Why did you leave? Where were you when I needed you?" I asked quietly.

My father pursed his lips together. "I didn't leave voluntarily. I had to get you away from harm; away from me."

I let that sink in. "What's so bad about you?"

"The fact that I have as many enemies as allies. The fact that everyone wanted to know of my experiments and how they were progressing. They never once suspected that my own son was my greatest invention and my drive to succeed," He said, pride shimmering in his eyes.

It sounded incredibly cliché but I had a feeling he was telling the truth.

"So, um, Dad," The word sounded weird on my tongue. "I was wondering … I could really use an alter-ego and a costume …"

His eyes brightened and he gave me a gigantic grin.

I grabbed a few old electronic scraps, connecting wires and melting copper and silver fixings. I created two metal forearm braces, with buttons that, when pressed, turned into a black circular shield and shot multiple gas bombs.

I grinned, stepping back from the forearm braces on the inventing table in the corner of the room. My father had given me little tips on what to do and how to make the braces more effective. I pulled a pair of reflective goggles from over my eyes and slid them up, resting them on my forehead, flaring my hair back.

I picked up the right arm brace and strapped it on, stretching my fingers and turning my wrist. The brace clicked and buckled and I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. My left pointer finger burst into flame and I held it over the brace, melting a few of the buckles and wires down. I stretched my hand again and smirked when it didn't buckle like last time.

I did the same to the left brace after I'd strapped it on over my forearm. I flexed my arms and clicked the button for the shield.

I braced my right arm to my chest as I whirled around, hearing a thwip as the shield leapt from the brace. A transparent lightweight black shield grew in size in a matter of seconds, as I crouched down and held it in front of me as if the room were erupting into flame and destruction.

I opened an eye and looked through the shield to my father atop the half-cylinder. He smiled and clapped his hands together.

I walked out of my old home, the costume and braces in my arms as I stepped onto the stoop.

I inspected the bushes down the street and found my jetpack, slightly barbequed. I opened the secret compartment to find the papers I'd thrown in there. They were slightly browned but they were still solid.

I slid the costume into the compartment, locking it. I fastened the braces on underneath my jacket. I slid the jetpack over my arms and thought for a second.

Where was the team? Why hadn't I received a call when I've been missing from action for an entire day?

I clicked the video communicator on my right brace.

My eyebrows furrowed as the screen showed the entire team, from someone's watch, running around the room in a form of training combat.

I could hear someone shout, "Okay! Break time!"

Peter ripped his mask away from his face, running his hand over his face. Ava pulled her mask up and caught the water bottle Danny threw at her. Sam hovered over and landed, grinning widely as he said, "I kicked all of your asses."

Luke—who I'd called—laughed. "Bull crap, Sam."

Sam grinned cheekily as Ava walked over with Peter and Danny.

"Where's Andy?" Peter asked.

Everyone shrugged.

Ava sighed. "He never shows up anymore. Why would he now?"

Peter glanced her way. "Cut him some slack, Ava. We don't know what he's going through."

"Yeah, we don't. Because he never tells any of us," Ava replied, looking everyone in the team in the eye. "Has he told any of you how he's coping with being a target?"

"No," Sam muttered, "but you can tell it's bothering him. He's been pretty irritable lately…"

Me? Irritable? Never.

"And overly dramatic," Ava added with an eye roll.

I am not overly dramatic.

"Maybe we should stop this. It's not wise to talk behind his back when he's our friend and part of our team," Danny advised.

"He's barely a part of our team," Ava snapped at him. "He hasn't shown up for practices, for fights, for life-or-death situations when we needed him!"

I felt my teeth grind together. Fine. They wanted me to show up?

I'll gladly come.

The Helicarrier was currently under the ocean, so the new training area was basically the rooftops of New York.

Up in the air, I could already see them in their bright costumes.

I landed a few roofs away so that I could put my new costume on. I wadded up my regular clothes and placed them in the tiny compartment.

I checked out my butt in the tight costume. That would take some getting used to considering how there was barely any air back there.

I let out an airy sigh and pulled my goggles down over my eyes.

It was go-time.

I hid behind a pipe of the water tower atop the building they fought on before I darted out. It was dark but the goggles I wore had night vision (which is freaking awesome, by the way).

I ran into Danny first. He was taken by surprise and didn't have the time to boot up his fist before I sent a flurry of punches to his gut and threw my leg out to trip him. He groaned in pain and that was when the rest of the team realized what had happened.

"What...?" Luke started, turning around.

I grinned as I took off running at him and hit him square in the chest with my head. He let out a strangled bit of breath before I slammed his head into the water tower.

I heard quick footsteps behind me and whirled around, grabbing Ava's foot in my fist before it could take purchase on my face. I twisted my wrist, sending her into a spinning vortex.

My back felt slightly warm as I turned my attention to Sam, who was shooting a white-hot beam of heat at me. I smirked, clicking my shield on and throwing it in front of me, sending the beam of heat right back at him.

No hard feelings, man, I thought.

A torrent of webs hit me in face and I groaned internally. How could I forget Web-Head?

I ripped the webs away, but not quick enough. Peter planted his feet square into my chest, pushing me back. He kicked, backflipping away from me as I flailed backward. As Peter landed, I threw a few drops of liquid fire at the tar of the building, leaving his feet glued to the roof.

I lifted myself off the ground, ignoring the friction burns that most likely painted my back a dark red, and looked over my groaning team. I slid my goggles up my forehead, letting it flare my hair back. I smiled as they all looked up at me in shock as I said, "I think I just kicked all of your asses, hands down."

I drew a picture of Andy in his costume and HE LOOKS AMAZING OKAY I'M BEYOND PROUD OF IT

I DON'T REALLY HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY

READ From A Witch's Perspective OKAY DO IT NOW ONE OF MY AMAZING FRIENDS ON FF IS WRITING IT (the wonderful NoNameX) SO GO OUT THERE AND DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR LIFE AND READ IT YES PLEASE YOU'RE ALL AMAZING AND I LOVE YOU

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