We Are Only Human
Summary (Volume 2): After rescuing the young woman, they have found that her powers are more than they once were. More threats arise and the Avengers need to train their newest members before it is too late.
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or the characters therein. I do however own my OCs Avril, Jessica, Tommy, and Rayne (and various others that occur). The characters are creations of pure fiction, although some are based on conglomerations of personalities from my friends, family, and editors.
Chapter Thirty Seven
February 27, 2016. 2200 Hours
Avril threw her head back roaring with laughter as she shakily held the shot glass in her hand. As her hand slowly put the glass down, she noticed someone was grabbing hold of her wrist. Looking up she smiled lazily at the blonde haired man standing above her.
"What are you doing Av?" Steve asked as he took her shot glass from her.
Avril shrugged before reaching for the glass. When he pulled it further out of her reach, she glared at him half-heartedly. "Steve, what are you doing?" She slurred while narrowing her eyes further.
"I think you've had enough."
"Oh come on, I'm not even buzzed! My telepathy just finally shut off."
"Av, please stop."
She sensed from the tone of his voice said that he had something important to say. "Steve?"
"I have orders to pack up and move to D.C."
Her heart dropped. Her friend was leaving her. "But…"
"Natasha, Barton, and Stark have their orders to finish training you."
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Let me help you pack."
"Tomorrow. Av, you need to sleep this off."
Gathering her wits together as best as possible, she tried to think of something to say. "Steve…why?"
"It's my orders…I wouldn't if Fury hadn't order me to."
…
February 28, 2016. 1000 Hours
Avril sat watching Captain Rogers packing the last of this things into his duffle bag. The furniture was staying but his books, records, clothes, and other things were going to D.C. with him. He was leaving them, he was leaving her. She understood why, he was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and needed to be closer to the base. However, that didn't make the pain any less. "It's not going to be the same around here." She muttered in a wistful tone.
"You'll have Rayne and the others. You might even get to help watch the prisoner." Steve slowly pulled out a small box from his dresser. "I wanted to wait until later, but I have to leave here shortly."
Avril blinked a few times before opening the box. Inside was a hard bound sketchbook, similar to the one she had given him for Christmas. As she opened it, her eyes began to water. Donnie was smiling on the first page. "Steve…"
"I thought about framing that one for you, but I started filling in the book and decided to give you the whole book instead."
Avril flipped through the pages to find several of herself and the other Avengers during their day-to-day lives. The last sketch astonished her. it was of a little girl standing in front of an older version of herself. They were both wearing the same summer dress and their hair was styled with the same ringlet curls. In the girl's hands was a bouquet of asters, bachelor buttons, crocuses, daisies, white lilies, and white carnations. In the woman's hands was a bouquet of azaleas, eucharis lilies, forget-me-not's, lilies of the valley, maidenhair ferns, spider flowers, stock flowers, and white heathers.
"Steve, I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything." He gave her an awkward grin before hefting the duffle bag onto his shoulder. "I'm going to go see Peggy in a few months, if you want to come."
Avril tensed. The last time she had seen Peggy was right before Avril was captured and experimented on. The pain of seeing a good friend like that was almost too great and there was nothing Avril could do to help her. "I will think about it."
Steve had seen her reaction. He had known about Peggy's failing mental health but he had forgotten about Avril's telepathy. He should have thought about what kind of effect being around Peggy would have on Avril. "Avril I—
"Steve, you didn't know. I don't expect you to know about everything. I want to go see her but I don't want to hurt her either." Avril put a hand on his shoulder then smiled. "It'll all work out in the end."
…
Rayne stood by watching everything unfold. Her gut told her something bad was going to happen and soon. "Is this the calm before the storm?" She mused to herself. "If it is, we must be extra cautious."
"You are correct Tigress." Tommy said while walking up to her. "Events are unfolding to the point where I am blind to everything but moments ahead of time."
"Someone is clouding your vision Oracle?" Rayne had been guilty of trying to find a way to do just that, but had never actually blinded her future sight.
"Correct, and I believe it is all connected. Coulson's team's encounters with the Clairvoyant, Avril's capture and experimentation, even my blindness to the future, it is all connected." Tommy shook her head with a sigh. "Loki is the only cog that does not fit into this."
"That is for once a good thing."
"Maybe. The board is set, the pieces are moving. We must be ready for war."
"War?" Rayne looked out the window with a feral grin. Her eyes looked at Steve and Avril saying their goodbyes. "War I can handle."
"But Avril cannot. Take her and run."
"No, my place is at Nick's side. We have fought together and we will fight together once more."
"Then be prepared…be prepared for pain."
Tommy turned and walked away.
Rayne never understood the precognitive mutant. Her mind pondered to the possibilities of what Tommy meant. Fury, Steve, Avril, or even Coulson could die. She had come to like Coulson like a son, so the pain from that again would be as bad as any of the others.
"My dear heart, you need only think of what your father must feel. He must watch everyone he cares about grow old and die. He will watch his comrades die in battle time and time again, but he will always be the way he is now." She remembered her mother saying. Osha (Prophetic-Dew-Eagle-Savior), or as she was commonly called, She-Who-Flies-With-Eagles, her mother and the one person that she always turned to when she was a child. Her mother had been a member of a tribe in Quebec Canada as well as their medicine woman. It pained her that she had been the cause of her mother's death so long ago. It was also strange that the memory of her mother had surfaced after so long.
"But mommy, why does daddy stick around? If it hurts him so much why does he not leave?"
"He stays because he wishes to brave the pain. He wishes to be a good father to you." Her mother had replied. "He wishes to be a good husband as well."
"I want a man like daddy."
Her mother had laughed at that remark.
Tears fell from Rayne's eyes as she walked to her apartment. The only person who had known her tribal name had been Bucky, and he was long gone. Logan had no memory so he would never know it now. She was unaware if her uncle knew it, but he was so far out of his mind that she doubted it anymore.
"She-Who-Runs-With-Lynx." Rayne mused before looking at her reflection in her bathroom mirror. "Onatah, Orneda, Victoria, Rayne, Tigress…who am I?"