HELL HATH NO FURY...
Disclaimer: I own no part of the Avengers (I wish I did). All rights belong to Marvel. I only own the character Tess Rogers / Tesseract / Amalia Schmidt and her plot and dialogue.
THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO Angel1D98, NicoleR85 AND LuckyGoFOR SUPPORTING THE REWRITE OF THIS STORY. ENJOY!
Tess Rogers repeatedly threw kicks and punches at the bag, hitting the stubborn material until it went flying off the hook, landing in a heap on the ground on the far side of the wall. There was a smoking hole in the bag, that went straight through and blue energy danced around the tear. Tess glanced down at her fist, which was glowing an intense blue and she grimaced.
For one day – for a single day – she wished she could pretend she was normal. That she wasn't created by one of the most powerful objects in the universe and wasn't one of very few Super Soldiers in existence.
Even being in the Avengers Tower, where Tess was the most accepted, she knew she was too different – too unruly. What if she lost control of her emotions, even for a moment? She could kill everyone in the Tower and she wouldn't be able to stop herself.
Tess felt indebted to her adoptive brother, Steve Rogers and that was the reasoning in why she stayed with the Avengers. Seventy years ago, Tess had joined the Americans and fought against the Nazis and specifically, against HYDRA, becoming like a sister to Steve Rogers. And when Steve was frozen in the ice, his sister lay beside him, loyal to the end.
Tess was awoken, fifty years after being in the ice, and lived for twenty years without Steve alone in a new world. Instead of hiding – instead of cowering in fear – Tess embraced her new life. She had always been a versatile creature, able to adapt exceptionally well to different environments and a temporary life without her older brother was simply a small hurdle in the scheme of her life.
Due to her powers, Tess didn't age a single year in the twenty years she was free and she remained the same youthful twenty-five year old she was. Steve woke up after seventy years in a modern world and they kept fighting against HYDRA, even when they didn't want to. They understood that it was their duty to fight against HYDRA and the Rogers siblings (though Tess wasn't really a 'Rogers') would never back down when they were about to face a challenge.
Tess was strong, physically and mentally, she had a range of powers, one in particular that was destructive enough to destroy a complete civilization, reducing it to ash in seconds. Tess had never been clear on what had actually happened to her when she was a child but in less than two years after the experiment, the five-year-old had been made into a genius, twenty-year-old Super Soldier.
She could disintegrate a group of HYDRA agents with a flick of her wrist.
She could worm her way into the minds of just about everyone, with the exception of extremely powerful telepaths.
She could teleport around the globe in under three seconds and she could project her thoughts into objects she could hold and use to her advantage.
And that was only a small amount of what the powerful woman could do. Even though she had been an infant, Tess had a photographic memory and could remember every test performed on her after the initial procedure. The burning sensation of the liquid in her veins, the cold edge of the knife digging into her stomach and worst of all; she could remember the scream of the woman who birthed her when Red Skull got tired of the woman.
Tess was told when she was 'twenty' that she could control a rare ability; chaos magic.
She became more dangerous over time, learning how to stop time and warp reality. But with all her powers, Tess could not forget what she heard or seen the day her mother was killed. Just as the Red Skull's malevolent nature became more prominent, Tess also had a change after being injected with a slightly more developed version of the Super-Soldier serum; her anger became her fatal flaw.
Tess zoned out, not realising when objects began to float and warp around her – metal beginning to twist into strange shapes, and the sand began to melt out of the bag. She continued to punch the bag, without hearing or seeing.
And still, she had been given no reprieve, much like the world's so-called mightiest heroes. The tests had only gotten harder and the stakes were even higher.
"Tess! Tess!" Steve's eyes were wide as he looked at the young woman he called his sister, her eyes unfocused and her face expressionless.
Steve's eyes widened considerably and he quickly grabbed her arms, placing her palms against his chest. The only way to stop Tess when she lost control was to either use the safe-word that would hurt her or to remind Tess where she was, that life was around her. Tess felt the steady beating of a heart under her hands and she shook her head, confused until she saw Steve.
Tess' eyes widened when she glimpsed the room she had partially destroyed. Shame colored her cheeks, "I am so sorry, Steve."
Steve wrapped her in his arms, "Hey, hey, it's okay. No one got hurt, it's fine." Steve smoothed down her hair and Tess sighed, "Come on, suit up. We think that Loki's scepter might be in the HYDRA base in Sokovia. It's the last base, meaning our last chance to get it."
Tess nodded, pursing her lips for a moment. "Give me a minute and I'll meet you all near the Quinjet."
Tess teleported quickly to her room and threw on her suit. Black leather pants, an old fashioned 'battle' corset and black, fingerless, buckled gloves that reached up to her elbows. Tess adjusted the three silver throwing knives at her waist and buckled the knee-high heeled leather boots she wore. The reflection of her bright blue eyes flashed at her in the mirror and in the next blink, Tess was in the Quinjet, ready to go to Sokovia.
Tess was more than happy to take down as many HYDRA soldiers as possible along the way on their mission to get back Loki's scepter.
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Tess mentally cursed the snow that stuck to her suit. It was cold and mushy and honestly served no purpose.
Tess couldn't physically get cold – a side-effect of her powers – but she could still be annoyed by it. Sokovia had an unfortunately large amount of snow and the entire country was entirely blanketed in white. Tess ran quickly, ducking behind a tree and then teleporting behind an unsuspecting HYDRA soldier.
"I hate HYDRA. They always pick really stupid places to set up shop…" Tess muttered and threw a psionic blast at another soldier. The man flew back and hit a tree with a satisfying crack. He struggled to sit up, only to be pushed back down as one of his friends flew into him. "I mean, how hard would it be to pick a deserted island in the tropics?"
"Shit!" Tony yelled as he flew into a barrier, Tess biting her tongue to stop her from laughing as her brother retorted, "Language."
"JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?" Steve inquired and Tess zoned out JARVIS's answer as she concentrated her power to disintegrate a tank. The tank exploded, some stray shrapnel flying at Tess, who flicked her wrist with a bored expression.
A shield appeared over the young woman and she lifted a brow. "Sure don't make HYDRA tanks like they used to."
Thor spoke up, "Strucker's technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base we have taken."
Tess nodded, agreeing as she threw blasts, "Loki's scepter must be here. Only explanation why this place is worse than Fort Knox."
"Yeah, I think we lost the element of surprise," Clint stated as he saw more HYDRA soldiers coming out of the building.
"Wait a second," Tony interrupted, "No one else is gonna deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'?"
"I know." Steve sighed as he threw his bike, "It just slipped out."
Tess called, "So not the time, Stark!"
In her brief lapse in concentration, Tess was roughly thrown into a tree by a HYDRA agent and Steve called out, "Tess! Are you okay?"
Tess groaned, but teleported the soldier into Natasha's path and stood, "I'm perfectly fine kicking HYDRA's ass, Stevie. No need to have a heart-attack."
Steve mumbled something under his breath as Tess ran closer to Clint. They stood near each other as Tess projected a psionic blast at four soldiers. Tess turned back to Clint and opened her mouth but both of them were thrown to the ground. Tess' head bounced slightly on the ground and she groaned, glaring at what knocked her over. A young man with silvery hair stood in front of them.
"You didn't see that coming?" The man's accent was deep, Sokovian and in the next second he was gone, leaving a trail of blue dust.
"Obviously not." Tess snarled speaking to empty air, her lip curling up from her teeth and her eyes flashed, "If I had, I wouldn't be on my ass in the freakin' snow." Tess quickly turned to Clint, "You okay here?"
Clint nodded and Tess stepped into a portal quickly, stepping out in front of the fast young man in a haze of vibrant blue energy and kicked out her leg, hitting him directly in the chest with the sharp heel of her boot. The young man landed in the snow and Tess moved closer, her eyes – dubbed 'Tesseract Blue' – narrowed on the man and her boot heel was dangerously close to crushing his throat. Ropes of blue energy wrapped around him, holding him in place. He seemed transfixed by her, his eyes darting to her eyes, her hair, her suit; and she turned her head, eyes flashing as she obviously sensed something was wrong.
She tapped her earpiece. "Two Enhanced in the field. Do not engage. I've got one here but I sense the other one is near you, Stark." Tess frowned at the lack of response. "Tony? Steve?"
The earpiece gave a pathetic buzz in response, completely shorted out and Tess couldn't even get a lock on her brother before a HYDRA soldier was firing at her. The blue-eyed woman shot a blast at the soldier, missing him by a mere centimeter. Her powers shot a rather large hole into a tree and Tess rolled her eyes. "Stay still, would you?"
Her second blast trapped the HYDRA agent against the tree trunk and she dropped the silver-haired man beside him without a second glance. Tess let out a huff of breath and stepped back into a bright blue portal, moving into the building in search of Stark.
The Enhanced man lay on the ground long after the ropes of energy dissolved. A look of amazement crossed over his face and he stood to touch the remaining energy on the tree. The contact caused the glowing blue energy to shoot out, latching onto him and allowing the soldier to drop to the ground with a grunt of pain.
It was an accident, but by touching the energy, the Enhanced man created a bond between himself and the hero named Tesseract. The man quickly dashed off to the building, to find his sister, neither him nor Tess realising what had happened.
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Tess walked out of the portal directly next to Tony, landing next to him. He looked apprehensive about touching the scepter and she gently alerted him of her presence, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Shellhead." Tony didn't even make a comment about the nickname and Tess frowned in worry. "I tried to use the comms but it didn't work. Are you alright? Did you come close to the other Enhanced?"
Tony shook his head, a cocky smile replacing the apprehensive look, "I'm okay, Glow-Stick. The other Enhanced didn't come near me, I think she beat up Capsicle."
"She better not have."
The Stark man rolled his eyes at Tess' protective nature. "I'll meet you at the Quinjet. Don't take too long, grandma."
"I might be seventy years old and look like this—" she gestured to her young face "—but I'm still your elder. Respect me, Anthony Edward Stark," Tess' tone was joking, but the use of his full name made Tess' heart hurt.
She missed Peggy Carter and Howard Stark so much.
Tony smirked, but the look didn't have the same spark as it usually did. Tess' eyes narrowed and she lifted a brow, watching silently as Tony walked out to collect his suit.
The man walked back over to Tess, saluted and flew out through the hole in the roof. She was going to use her mental manipulation to get him to tell her what was wrong but Tess knew that invading the personal space of her teammates was a big 'no-no.' A tiny voice whispered in the back of her mind, 'Howard did name you Tony's godmother.'
Sighing, Tess turned around and grabbed the scepter, without the use of an armor-clad hand. A spark of blue energy shot from the scepter and into Tess and she stumbled slightly, holding a hand to her chest.
Tess let out a cough, "Uh, ouch." She outstretched her arm, allowing her powers to hover the scepter in the air away from her. She eyed the scepter, a flash of something appearing in her mind's eye.
A small yellow stone, floating in space amidst others. It was right beside the Tesseract—
"Stop it," Tess instructed the scepter aloud. "No mind tricks for you, little scepter." She paused, "And now I'm speaking to an inanimate object. I need some serious help."
The young woman disappeared into a blue portal that consumed her form with a shake of her head. She really didn't need to have a mental break right as they were finally getting a step ahead of the evils in the world.
Especially now that there were Enhanced on the field.
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Tell me if this chapter is any better. I thought the kickass Tess last scene was good but way too unrealistic. So I changed it up to allow her more of a connection to Vision.
Please review!
~ Raven