Part 22

Michelle Jones makes a choice.

Michelle Jones was a bit apprehensive. When the new kid, who also happened to be a celebrity, a British Lord, and a Sophomore to her Freshman, sat next to her during Lunch she was surprised, suspecting an ulterior motive as she always did, priding herself on being a realist. She was right, in a way. He wasn't looking for an ordinary girl arm-candy to boost his reputation as not believing himself to be above others. Instead, he had no problem with publicity, playing the public's opinion to perfection, while also escaping the overzealous fangirls. But he did have an ulterior motive, he had somehow sensed her biggest secret. Since she was little, she had always known she was different, but then again, didn't everyone? But when she was nine, she had discovered what was different about her. When she was nine years old, and her mom said she couldn't go to her cousin birthday party because it was not worth flying across the country for a party, she had somehow wished, although she hated using the term, a birthday card for her cousin into existence, right on top of her cousin's pile of presents. She had told her mom, absolutely confused as to what had happened. Her mom had thought she had just sent a card and forgotten about it. The next time something happened, it was on purpose. Since the card incident, she had been convinced she could do some cool things, so a month later she had managed to teleport into existence right behind her mom. Her mom had stifled a shriek of surprise. But she had accepted that her daughter was different, and Michelle was thankful. When she found out about many people's reactions to their children being mutants, for that was the easiest term to describe her, she was equally horrified that people would do that to family and grateful her mother hadn't.

Since then, her mother had trudged through their entire library's worth of fantasy, going to find some shred of useful information. They had both quickly realized that these kinds of things ahd to stay secret. It was cliche, but since Michellee had no ambitions of living in a comic book, she would have no problem keeping her mutation a secret. In the end, through detailed experiments, her mother being a researcher for Stark Industries thereefore havgina solid basis to discover these things, they had discovered a few facts about Michelle's condition. First, it came from within her and did not depend on any factors such as where she was, the climate, the region, the people surrounding her, etc. Second, she could control it, which was a huge relief. Third, it was like a very large and well spread out muscle that seemed to reside inside her mind, but had connections flowing parallel to her veins, hence why it was easiest to use her hands to control it. Third, once she did something with her ability, it was permanent. She didn't make illusions, she actually changed the world around her.

They had, upon finding out it was something like a muscle, beggan training it. What use was a gift like this if she could not do anything with it? But to Michelle's disappointment, she progressed quite well until precisely her eleventh birthday. But after that, her progress slowed. Since then, she had only been able to do limited things. She could teleport seamlessly anywhere, which was useful when a chitauri leviathan fell on top of her classroom. She had managed to think on the spot, and yelled out that her mother had some experimental Stark tech, everyone knew she had a mother who worked at Stark Industries and no technology from there surprised people anymore. Panicking, they didn't think clearly, and though everyone knew experimental technology could just as well kill them as save them, it gave them a better chance than being crushed. So she had teleported three classmates and a teacher who had not managed to run away, four blocks away, where they ran to safety. After that, she teleported to her apartment, grabbed her mom, and both teleported to her late grandparent's house upstate.

After that, Michelle vowed to do her best so nobody found her out, watching the news. She knew there was more to it, but the official story that a mutant who named himself after Thor's brother Loki, had stolen an alien artifact in SHIELD's possession and used it to summon an alien army, speeding up the aliens attempted invasion of Earth, which the Avengers fended off, but with higher casualties due to the sped up timeline. The mutant who had named himself after the real Loki (Thor's adopted brother) had been killed by the Avengers in order to stop his plans, the stolen artifact secured by Thor as a favor for SHIELD, gaining his home world of Asgard (and one he was first in line to inherit) as an official ally to SHIELD and any countries that allow SHIELD to operate in their lands. All of the countries had promptly given their permission except England, Switzerland, and Wakanda. Since then, mutants had been even more frowned upon. The only exceptions were the X-Men, a team of mutants that had been officially classified as a subteam of the Avengers. That team was the only way for mutants to be safe from mob justice, and Michelle had no desire to become one of them, especially considering the act that would make mutants just as much a legal minority group as various ethinic or gender groups had yet to pass.

But she had broken her own principles when Edward Lupin Black, Teddy, had come to sit at her table at lunch, something that should not have been socially possible, yet he had. And she had broken her first rule, she had shown him what she could do. She instantly knew she was outclassed, but she also knew that if she went with Teddy, learned to control her ability with him, she could do so much more. Considering his position and his talent at maneuvering to always stay in positive public opinion, she could also tell she now had three options. She could do nothing and continue hiding her power, and do the bare minimum to be considered supernaturally gifted. That would likely get her on SHIELD's radar in, at maximum, two years. Her second option would be to attempt to show off what she could do, and hope to be picked up by the X-men or Avengers before SHIELD or someone more nefarious, such as criminals or a discontented mob did so first. And her new third option. Learn with Teddy, not have to put her life on the line for unthankful strangers, keep her current decent life expectancy, and be under his protection. Because there had to be some of that involved, he had to somehow keep himself and his teachers, at least, protected from various people and organizations that would want to control or eliminate them for their abilities.

It wasn't even really a choice. Teddy it was.