I don't own anything
A/N: I'M SORRY :( I went on a road trip and I didn't get a chance to write. I started to wonder if the only people who read this story are the ones who submitted the characters...le sigh. CHAPTER 6! Yay. Enjoy, if you have any suggestions tell me in a review or something. Follow Favorite and Review please :)
The next month went mostly like this. Wake up, train, school, eat, school, train, free time, sleep and today wasn't any different. Annie sat at the kitchen table, goosebumps covered her body the steel of the floor was cold as ice. "Morning Adam." she said smiling at the older boy who walked into the room
"Good morning Annie." Adam said back "Blue today?" he was referring to her hair. Annie nodded her head, she always liked to change her appearance, it was like a fresh start. And she wished she had one. Her hair was a long, dark blue, something that she had never had before.
"Hello people!" Cassie shouted as she walked into the room she pulled up a chair and kicked her feet up on Max's chair "What are we doing on this fine morning? School, Training, Eating," She made a hand gun and pretended to fire it at her head "Joy."
"Life isn't that bad, is it?" Max asked walking into the room "Oh wait, I'm working for a secret organization who recruited me for a job that I don't do anything for, yes it is." Max groaned and hit his head on the table as Alanna walked quietly into the room and sat down.
"Alert, Alert. Attention all agents in Operation Magenta report to the hanger now. This is not a drill." Agent Hill's voice rang through the speaker. Adam was the first up, he grabbed two swords from the table. Annie had seen him fight with them in training, he was as skilled with his mutant powers as he was with them. He had said that she couldn't rely on her powers for everything.
Cassie was next to go, she followed Adam out of the room. Max was the next, then Alanna, then her. The team raced down to the hanger while Fury was waiting for them, his hands were clasped behind his back and a stern look was plastered into his face. "Alright team, this is your first test. We've got an attack in New York from MUF, Mutant United Freedom, I want you to infiltrate and terminating the threat. Minimal city damage is in mind. Now GO, your plane is ready."
When Annie got out of the jet she didn't know what she expected, but it wasn't this. People dressed in Black suits with white marking on it were firing at buildings and moving stands with nothing but their minds.
"We're screwed." Max said, "Can we just go home now, we're going to die."
"You're optimistic." Cassie snapped
"Okay, um, Max can you take the north side. Alanna and Annie, take central and Cassie you and I can take the south side." Adam said trying to get the two wild teenagers under control and then ducking from an incoming rock chunk "Um good luck and don't get killed." Cassie jumped into action first, firing blasts of fire and lighting at the offenders. Annie winced, she hated fighting. Alanna looked around and looked to Annie.
"We're in way over our heads." she muttered. Annie looked around and felt something hit the back of her head, hard. She stumbled a bit, when Annie turned around she saw a boy standing not far from where she had fallen. He had his hands raised and was focusing on something to the right. The boy's hands dropped fast, and a good sized rock fell close to Annie, to close for her liking.
The boy cursed to himself while Annie was stuck in fear, 'GO!' she told herself 'Run, get out as fast as you can!' but her limps wouldn't move. She was stuck, the boy tried again squeezing his eyes shut as the rock lifted slightly and added a little more every moment.
"Move!" Alanna shouted pushing Annie out from under the rock just as it fell down "Now's not the time for day dreaming Annie!" Annie stood shocked and nodded numbly.
"And here they are, the disappointments." said one of the people in a suit, it was black with this time with yellow designs instead of white "Why are you fighting for those weirdos? They'll never accept us, so why do you fight for them?"
Annie blinked a few times, "We're no different than they are." she said bravely. Annie's appearance was shifting again, her hair was back to pink and it was in a ponytail this time.
The boy who almost hit her with a rock scoffed, "Oh really? Tell them that."
"Tell who?"
"Everyone. The 'normal' people. Or more to the point, not us!" Annie ducked again backing up against a building, "Fighting for SHIELD will only dig you a deeper hole. You're digging your own grave! MUF has had enough and we will get what we deserve soon enough and we won't let anyone get in our way!"
Annie was cornered against the wall, she was scared. She had never been this scared before in her life, never. The people in the cat suits had a rock raised and were about to crush it down on her. Something grabbed onto Annie's arm and tugged her to the left.
Annie tumbled to the ground, "You have to be more careful, we don't know what we're dealing with here." she heard Alanna say, Annie's vision was blurry and her knees ached along with almost every bone in her body.
"I'm sorry, I-I don't know what I did." Annie confessed, Alanna looked like she was about to say something, but a loud explosion cut her off. Large chunks of rock and metal fell down from the sky.
"Run!" Alanna shouted picking Annie up quickly, Annie's legs were like jello as she ran.
"What are we even fighting?!" She shouted to Alanna as they ran in terror.
"MUF!" Alanna shouted back "Mutant United Freedom, they're a group of mutants who want more rights and not to be treated as either a hero or a villain. From what I've read on the files, they'll do anything to get there." Annie looked at Alanna, her eyes were wide and wild and she looked like she was going to fall over any minute. She always sat alone at lunch and school, no one bothered her and she didn't bother anyone. Maybe Annie could change that.
"What the hell did you do out there!" Fury shouted at the team as they arrived back at the SHIELD base beaten and bruised, he hit the button on a video. It showed the city burning and falling down, wild winds passed around everywhere and shadows crept up on everyone.
'The city is in chaos, mutants have attacked our city and caused half the building to collapse or fall in flames."
Fury muted the video "Is that what you call terminating the threat?" he hissed causing Annie to flinch.
"We tried out best sir," Adam said
"You need to be better! I'm trying to save the world, and you can't even control your own powers?" Fury shouted "I want you all to work on your powers, control them, put yourself in a real life situation and test yourself! You are dismissed"
Alanna stared at her director, she had never see him this angry. Angry to the point where his brown eyes were fire and you could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. "Now!" Fury snapped causing Annie to scramble up along with Max as well as Alanna herself. Cassie slowly stood up and walked coolly out of the room, Adam sighed and stood up with intentions to leave as well but Fury stopped him at the door, "I would like to speak to you Agent Slater."
Adam's palms were sweating as he sat down with Director Fury, he knew that if he made the wrong move he'd never be able to fix it. "Adam Slater," Fury said to the seventeen year old boy.
"Yes sir?" Adam asked, Fury sighed.
"You are the leader of this team, yes?" he asked Adam. He opened his mouth yet Fury didn't give him a chance to respond "Did I make the right call? Grouping together a bunch of teenagers to fight for the world? What if I made the wrong call?"
Adam thought for a minute, he shifted himself and clenched and unclenched his hands trying to find the right words to say, "Well Sir, not all of us have to control yet. Annie's to timid to fight, Alanna wants to help, but doesn't know how to, Max is to hot-headed and arrogant, and Cassie lacks the understanding of orders." Fury nodded.
"Spend time training with each of them." Fury said "I want you continue your regular training with Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton."
"Yes sir."
Annie bounced into the cafeteria, she soon spotted Alanna sitting by her own at a small table. Annie stared at the girl and then walked over. She sat down next to her, "Hi Alanna." she said.
Alanna looked up at the pink haired girl, "Hello Annie." she said surprised "What are you doing here?" she said slowly.
"Eating lunch."
"At...this table?"
"Yep."
"Oh." Alanna said looking back down.
"Why are you so quiet?" Annie asked suddenly. Alanna shrugged and looked down. "You can tell me." Annie pushed
"My mom mostly. She was never happy with who I was. She always told me that I should just be quiet since when ever I opened my mouth something freakish came out of it." Alanna admitted "So I just stay quiet. Old habits die-hard."
Annie shook her head furiously, when she stopped her hair color had changed again, this time a sunflower blonde. "I didn't get along with my parents either." Annie said smiling weakly.
"Really?" Alanna asked smiling too.
"They tied me up and experimented on me." Annie said "But it's all fine. Really, I'm fine."
Alanna stared at Annie, "You're very weird."
"Thank you." Annie said
"Friends?"
"Best friends."
"Okay, so um let's just start off with what your powers are." Adam said to Cassie as they stood in the training bunker.
"Fire, storms, lighting." Cassie listed off on her fingers. Adam wet his lips.
"So now just use fire to knock out that dummy." Adam said pointing at the training dummy down at the end of the bunker.
Cassie looked at Adam skeptically, "You've never done this before have you?" she asked him smirking
"No, no I haven't." Adam said smiling "Go on." he stood back as Cassie raised her hands. A sea of red-hot flames shot out completely burned the half end of the bunker. Adam flinched back in suprise, his eyes were wide and mouth slightly agape.
"That turned out better than I expected." Cassie said "I thought it was going to consume the entire place." she turned around to look at Adam "I'm a hopeless case," she shrugged smiling "Give up now and save yourself."
Adam pressed a button on the wall that cleared the fire, "Come on, nothing's hopeless. Try again, this time try and focus on your target. I think you're letting your mind wonder, that's what causing the fire to spread."
"Whats the point of this?" Max whinnied
"To help control yourself. Remember, you're not the best out there. You're not better than anyone else." Adam said as Max sat staring at the candle again. Adam was trying to help him understand.
"Am I done now?" Max asked again after another antagonizing three minutes. Adam sighed and rubbed his temples.
"Fine. Try and form the shadows into an animal." Max stared at the shadows and held out his hands as if he was forming clay, Max's faces screwed up as the shadows formed a loose, blurry shape for a moment before vanosing. Max let out a breath and leaned on his knees.
"I can't." he said
"You will."
"This time Annie, focus on what you want to look like." Adam said to the young girl. They were working on being able to alter her entire appearance not just her hair. Adam pushed a picture of Maria Hill over to Annie. "Come on, you can do it."
Annie stared at the picture nervously, "Okay." she said shakily. Annie stared at the picture, her face slowly morphed. The skin tone matched, as did the hair, but the height, frame and neck down differed.
"Nice first try." Adam said as supportive as he could. Annie sighed and shifted back to her normal form "Let's try again."
"You have to focus all your energy, you can't be distracted by anything." Adam told Alanna as she tried to form a force field, it flickered for a moment then disappeared. Alanna groaned in frustration and sat down on the cold floor.
"I can't do it." she said, "I'm not that strong."
Adam sighed and leaned down to her level. "You can't be afraid Alanna," Adam told her. "We'll always have your back."
"So if I screw up horribly you'll be there to save me?" Alanna asked drily. Adam stiffened straight as soon as she said this, something passed through his eyes. Alanna's eyebrows furrowed, she bit her lip, Should I? she thought. She entered his mind, she was telepathic. No one knew but her and Fury. One name crossed his mind Jenny. Alanna shook it off, she never knew someone by that name.
"I win." Clint said again having pinned his friend, Adam weaseled his way out of Clint's grip and glared at him causing Clint to laugh.
"Why do you always beat me?" Adam asked getting up and wiping the sweat of his forehead.
"I'm older and wiser." Clint said grabbing his training bag. Adam scoffed and Clint rolled his eyes at him. The two had been friends ever since Adam came into SHIELD. "Good luck with that team of yours." Clint said "You're gonna need it."
Adam sighed "I know. We're pretty bad aren't we?"
"Being a team," Adam said in front of everyone "Is having each others back. You make up for their weaknesses and they cover yours. You never turn your back on a teammate. Never. It could mean the death of everyone here."
Annie's eyes widened at that. "A team is a group of people willing to risk their lives for one another. A team is a group of people who work together for the same reason. That's where we need to get."
