BONDS GROW STRONGER...
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 LuckyGo, NicoleR85 Angel1D98. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING. THIS CHAPTER IS QUITE A BIT SHORTER THAN THE LAST ONE BUT I HOPE YOU LIKE IT! ADMITTEDLY, THE FIGHT SCENE IS WEAK, SO THERE'S NO NEED TO LET ME KNOW.
From her place on the Quinjet, Tess slammed her head back against the wall of the jet. Steve was beside her in an instant.
"Tess! Tess, are you okay!?"
Tess groaned, her blue-eyes flashing, "Extinction. Wanda has seen Ultron's plan." The younger girl looked up at her brother, a look of pure determination on her face, "The Maximoffs will fight with us. And if they still don't, even after what they just found out…I'll kick their asses."
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Steve hopped over the railing onto the roof of the genetic research lab, his shield attached to his back. Tess appeared beside her brother, landing in a crouch from her portal and she brushed some dirt off her shoulder.
The Rogers man rolled his eyes at his sister's antics before he looked out from the building, "Two minutes. Stay close."
Clasping Steve's hand in hers, Tess teleported into the lab and Steve immediately saw Helen Cho, bleeding on the ground, "Dr Cho!"
The captain pressed a rag against the wound, only to be nudged aside by his sister, who took over and began to heal the doctor.
"He's uploading himself into the body," Cho told the pair and Tess' eyes widened in horror.
"Where?"
The doctor shook her head, unknowing of where the Cradle was. Tess extended a hand, tracking through space to find the Cradle but the scepter blocked their signal. Tess shook her head and Steve began to move but Helen grabbed his arm.
"The real power is inside the Cradle. The gem…" Helen breathed heavily, "Its power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Stark."
Tess pursed her lips as Steve told the woman, "First we have to find it."
"Go," Cho instructed and Tess finished healing the woman as best she could and the two left the lab.
"Did you guys copy that?"
"We did." Clint told Steve.
Natasha's voice filtered over the comms, "I got a private jet taking off, across town, no manifest. That could be him."
Clint seemed to notice something and relayed it onto the Rogers siblings, "There. It's the truck from the lab. Right above you, Cap, Tess. On the loop by the bridge. It's them. I got three with the Cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the driver."
"Negative!" Tess called, trying to conserve as much of her power and had instead climbed the ladder attached to the roof, Steve right behind her. "Nothing else can blow up in our faces today!"
"If that truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron," Steve continued and promptly jumped off the loop and onto the roof of the truck. Tess followed quickly, landing a lot more gracefully than her brother. Steve clambered down to the truck door as it was blasted open by Ultron. Tess opened a portal on top of the truck, peering in.
The doors were blasted open completely and trailed down along the road, "Well, he's definitely unhappy! I'm gonna try and keep him that way."
"You're not a match for him, Cap."
Tess scowled and levitated a robot out of the portal in the roof, before she roughly threw the robot over the side of the road. "Oh my God, Clint! Thanks for the vote of confidence!"
Steve huffed, still hanging onto the door, "Thanks, Barton."
Captain America tried to enter the truck, but was blasted back again, flying backwards onto a car. Steve managed to get back onto the roof of the truck as Tess desperately tried to fight off the remaining robot in the truck.
"You know what's in that Cradle?" Tess heard Ultron ask Steve, "The power to make real change and that terrifies you."
Getting tired of the robot, Tess floated out of another portal in the roof and landed beside Steve. The two smirked at each other, before replying in unison, "I wouldn't call it a comfort."
The blonde captain threw his shield at Ultron and Tess blasted an orb of Tesseract-blue energy. Blast and shield throws were exchanged before Steve's shield became lodged in Ultron's chest.
"Stop it!" Ultron snarled, throwing Steve's shield aside and blasting both of the Rogers siblings back. Steve rolled backwards, managing to stop himself from falling off the truck completely. Tess, unfortunately, flew backwards, past Ultron and got slammed into the road, barely missing a car speeding at her.
"Are you serious!?" Tess sneered, before she rolled over and fell through a portal. She promptly appeared in midair a far distance away, falling again, before she used her energy to catch herself.
"I'm always picking up after you boys," Tess heard Natasha say, and turned in midair to see the Black Widow riding through alleys, holding Steve's shield. Tess opened a portal—one that was directly in front of the assassin—and Natasha rode out, beside Steve on the truck. Nat threw the shield up to Steve. Tess appeared through a swirling mass of electric-blue energy and landed on the truck beside her brother.
"Steve!" Tess called, catching her brother with her powers as he tumbled off the truck, but he still landed on a car. Tess conjured up a shield of energy as Ultron blasted beams at her. She retaliated, firing back with just as much attitude.
The eldest avenger jumped back onto the truck, calling, "Come on!"
Managing to miss a punch from Ultron, Tess didn't miss the blast that singed the bright-blue tips of her hair. Clint hovered the Quinjet behind them, shooting at Ultron and drawing the one remaining Iron Legion out of the truck.
Steve and Tess continued fighting Ultron and Tess let out a scream of pain, receiving a point-blank shot of energy to the chest. The girl only redoubled her efforts and a shot of her own energy sent Ultron spiraling into a pillar. The robot flew back at Steve, the two slamming into a train.
"Shit! You fu—"
Tess was shut up by Natasha's call of, 'Language!'
"They're heading back to you. So whatever you're doing, do it now."
Steve threw his shield, facing off against Ultron by himself as Tess began to teleport citizens off the train, her brow furrowed in concentration and pain at the exertion. She hadn't used that much energy in a while and it was draining her.
"I'm going in. Cap, Tess, can you keep him occupied?" Natasha asked and Tess' eyes widened in disbelief.
Steve huffed, "What do you think I've been doing?"
Tess slammed her hands into the bottom of the truck, opening portals under all the occupants of the train and one-by-one, people began to fall through, landing outside gently beside the still moving train.
"Tess!" Steve shouted to his sister, who was shaking and screaming in pain. The energy was leaking out of her at an alarming rate and Steve tried to continue dodging Ultron's fists and watch out for his little sister as well. A flash off silver pushed Ultron off Steve, and railing covered in red energy blocked Ultron.
"Please," Ultron pleaded, "Don't do this."
Tess fell to her side, panting, as the last of the passengers were out of the train. She was dedicated to being a hero and she wasn't about to let a single innocent to be harmed by Ultron's psycho vendetta.
"What choice do we have?" Wanda asked, standing in front of Tess to protect her. The girl was like her—damaged and powerful. Ultron blasted a hole through the front of the train, barely missing Pietro. His heart tightened in fear as the beam moved past him—slow motion at his speed.
Tess gasped in pain, feeling an overwhelming surge of panic and fear and a burning sensation in her chest and both girls looked down to see a glowing outline on top of her corset. The outline pulsed as they watched and Tess realised with a start…the energy was outlining her heart as it beat in her chest.
"Pietro…" Wanda murmured, and the boy looked down to see an outline around his own heart. As he calmed, Tess blinked quickly and felt the fear recede and was taken over by a feeling of wonder—and absolute terror.
"I lost him! He's heading your way!" Steve called through the comms to Clint, running to the front of the train. It was absolutely ruined, shorting out and the driver was slumped over in the seat, dead.
Tess struggled to her feet, clutching a hand to her forehead, which was pounding. Her heart was still glowing, and she planned to think about it later, but right now, they had an out-of-control train to stop.
"Steve, we need to stop the train!" Tess called, her eyes and hands beginning to glow.
"Nat!" Clint cried and he frantically asked, "Cap, Tess, you see Nat?"
Tess' eyes widened in horror, "Ultron has Natasha!?"
"If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go!" Steve instructed and Tess frantically shook her head.
"No! We can't leave her with him!"
"Do you have eyes on Nat?" Clint retorted, and Steve merely told him, 'Go!'
Tess saw the Quinjet take off and she swore in German, punching a glowing fist into the side of the train. The metal melted, warping around her fist and then shot out to grip one of the wheels of the train.
Steve turned to Pietro, "Civilians in our path."
Pietro sped off without a word and Steve turned to look at Tess and Wanda, "Can you stop this thing?"
Tess nodded immediately. No one would die on her watch - that was the one thing she always stood by. The remnants of what she used to be seemed to disappear when she saved lives. "Just give us some time."
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"You're too nice."
"There is no such thing, Natalia."
Natasha rolled her eyes at the other woman's formal use of her old name. They were in the SHIELD gym, Natasha just having gotten her ass handed to her by Tess and now the blue-eyed woman was bandaging Natasha's injured wrist with tenderness. "There is if it gets you killed, Tess."
"Perhaps I deserve to die," Tess offered. She was very much at her lowest point and self-hatred was a regular occurrence with her. But today, there was just acceptance—that one day she would die and it would not necessarily be on her own terms. Not in their line of work, anyway. "Perhaps we both do, Natalia. But tell me this: if I was not 'too nice,' as you put it, would you still be alive? Would I have let you live during and after our first meeting if I was not as 'gentle' as I am."
The Black Widow fell silent. Their first meeting was not the kindest and Natasha had walked away almost beaten to death and Tess' eyes glowing with a vengeance as she was wheeled away on a gurney, paralyzed by the agent in Natasha's 'widow bites.' She had almost died and her only option was to play dirty.
"I…" The redhead cleared her throat, "I guess not." She didn't add that maybe being nice wasn't a weakness—her words would've meant nothing because she didn't believe them. Natasha doubted she ever would, she had not been raised to see the gentle, kind things in life as a strength.
Tess nodded slowly, "Then, thank the gods that I am 'nice.' You were not my enemy back then but you were certainly not my friend. Think about how it would be if you were my mark—if you were truly my enemy. I would not have held back."
The Romanoff woman watched as the blue-haired girl walked away. There was a strength, a power, to even the way she moved. Sly and deadly with that amount of grace that would've made the Red Room greedy to train her. The Russian assassin would never admit that Tess reminded her of someone—someone deadly and seductive, someone who could kill a man twice her size and still walk away like she owned the place. Someone who was desperate to keep herself from caring, to keep herself from loving someone. Someone desperate to avoid having a reason to die for another.
"I know you wouldn't have."
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Ooh, something odd is going on between Pietro and Tess. The next chapter will delve deeper into their newfound connection and Tess will do some kickass superpowering. I hope you like the last part, just an insight on the bond Tess has with Natasha. Natasha respects Tess for her talents and abilities but she also sees a bit of herself in her too.
Please review and tell me what you think!
~ Raven