Right – training. I've been meaning to reveal Eureka's powers in an awesome way but I just came up with training. Genius! Then I'll just have to make it an epic training with the Avengers.
Also, there's an upcoming Young Avengers fanfic by me! Just wait for it – it'll come sooner or later. Anyways, enjoy!
Chapter 4 – Oil the joints, to loosen up
"It's been a while since I've exercised so..." Eureka said while braiding her hair, bored to death. She gave a deep sigh, "When are they coming?"
"They should be here any moment now," Tony said, checking the time on the wall clock, "Cap and Bruce went to get some of them. I bet they're sneaking away right now."
Tony had arranged a training session to see Eureka's abilities and limits. Eureka hadn't thought about moving around too much for the past weeks, and the only time she's used her powers was when catching robbers or beating thugs into a pulp without getting noticed. The girl unravelled the braid she made and fiddled with the ends of her dark brown hair.
She has never been a fan of waiting and would avoid doing it, but when she had no choice, she would fiddle around with something to entertain herself or just put on a poker face. She had tried to convince Armada to come to the training session but he had declined the offer, claiming to have "business" to do and accusing her of belittling him in front of the Avengers as soon as he arrives. Truthfully, it was kind of true – she just loves making the ones she held dear suffer but wouldn't let others treat them like mercilessly.
While waiting, Tony was checking up on work and his Iron Man suit. He had his eyes fixed on the hologram screen, oblivious to the fact that Eureka was also looking at his blueprints and documents. Luckily for him, Eureka found this uninteresting and was soon back to playing with threads of silky material (A.K.A.: her hair).
Not long after, she found fiddling with her hair was worse than being idle. She looked around the vast training ground, punching bags dangling from chains and the spare sand bags stacked at the farthest wall. There was a rack full of practice weapons; blunt spears, bo staffs, wooden swords and shields, as well as a few pair of nunchaku and other things in between. The sandy coloured wooden floor and the cream coloured walls gave off a warm feeling, giving encouragement to those who trained, thought Eureka.
At the farthest shelf of equipments, she noticed something that seemed to be entirely out of place: a Rubik's Cube. Curious, she approached the shelf to take a look at the alienated object. The colours were mixed up and the sides weren't lined up neatly, meaning that someone might've tried to solve it but decided to give up.
Taking up the challenge, she twisted and turned the rows of colours, her brain working automatically.
She had played with the Rubik's Cube many times before during her childhood and had become accustomed to it, achieving a record of solving it in a duration of one minute. She had to do it faster but the time she spent on the cube grew less as her father's debt kept on coming from every places known, ranging from Kenya to Russia, and even the Middle East.
Though she resented her father for leaving her and her mother, she couldn't possibly hate him, as he was still her father. Even if she had to give up her life as a teenage girl, taking care of her mentally-ill mother and paying off debts, she could cope with it somehow. There were friends who supported her, friends like Ginger, Tao – Armada's adoptive brother – and his foster family... and Loki, of course.
As soon as she finished solving the cube, she looked at it with pride, smiling at her effort. "Nice one you got there."
Eureka turned to look at Tony, who seemed to have been observing her all this time. "You solved that thing in less than a minute. You have a gift!"
Eureka laughed at the idea, "Nah, I'm no genius like you; I have to study hard to maintain my scholarship. I know how to solve this thing because I've been playing it my whole childhood."
"What kind of kid would be interested in Rubik's Cube so much?"
Eureka shrugged, "Dunno. A mad scientist's daughter, I guess."
"Which reminds me," Tony said, "The name 'Sia' sounds somehow familiar. Care to tell who it might be?"
"Ernst Sia," Eureka said absently. Tony's head found something. "Sounds familiar?"
"That's your dad?" Tony's face was full of admiration, "Seriously? That guy's amazing! He founded the Sia Project where they made super humans and stuff. You must be proud to have someone like him as your father."
"Sure I am," Eureka replied, sarcasm clear in her voice, "He only cares about his work and dare to leave us for some other woman and blame all his faults on us. Even after he's gone, he still leaves trails of borrowed money and who's going to pay them off? Me, who else? Day after day, mum's getting sicker and sicker, and the authorities had to take her away, but I still see her often. Surprisingly, he favoured the new woman and her child more than he had favoured my mum and I. School is the worst; everyone calls me the 'Murderer's Daughter' or a 'Witch' and would badmouth my family. Sometimes, they even pull pranks and –"
She stopped, realising that she had just blurted out everything. "Please don't tell me that I've just said something unnecessary."
"No, not at all. Sometimes it's good to talk about it with someone rather than keeping the feelings pent up." Tony closed his hologram screen and looked elsewhere, "But it could be troubling to have lots of audience to listen to your ranting."
Realising what this meant, Eureka looked at the entrance to find the Avengers gathered, ready for action. The dark haired girl felt herself blush. She went over to grab a spear, changing the subject. "Who's ready?" she said in a rush, long bangs hiding her emerald green eyes.
"I am," Thor stepped forward, bulky figure standing tall and proud.
"Anyone else?" Eureka asked, turning to the others.
"Do not run away, Eureka Sia," Thor boomed, "Spare with me fair and square."
"Seriously? You're trying to kill me first thing in the morning?"
"Prepare yourself, child," Thor ignored Eureka's comment, readying to strike, a practice sword in one hand.
Eureka sighed, blowing her bangs upwards. The audience positioned themselves as far away as possible, fully aware of Thor's fighting habits. Clint and Tony had signalled a "We're betting on you" and "We've got your back" signs – that obviously didn't help at all.
The girl shifted her attention to the thunder god. "When you're ready," she offered.
Instantly, she saw a flash of lightning and found Thor charging towards her, eyes full of battle passion. Eureka avoided the charge just barely and blocked a strike with her spear.
Soon, she attacked the blond with strong spear thrusts and other skilful techniques. Although it had been a while, she still got the hang of it. The two danced around the room, engrossed in attacking and blocking, not dodging – even though Eureka was trained by Loki, she still followed some of her own laws, and number one was to fight like a warrior, like what Thor's doing.
Moments later, Thor snapped the spear in half, leaving Eureka unarmed. Instead of grabbing another weapon, she resolved on fighting hand-to-hand, surprising everyone. In Eureka's opinion, using weapons was riskier than using a large amount of magic.
Thor was open so she proceeded on landing a punch upon him. Unfortunately, he redirected her fist, which met the floor instead, breaking the wooden planks and forming a crater. Splinters flew in all direction but Eureka ignored them; she threw a falling-axe kick at Thor which missed a few good inches from his face and formed another crater on the ground. The round-house kick which followed after hit him on the side, which sent him flying towards the audience. Fortunately, he was a few feet away, leaving the others unharmed.
The others watched open mouthed, at Thor, Eureka and the two craters. Was it impossible for a body as slender as hers to contain immense strength? Moreover, she managed to knock Thor down unarmed! She must be insane!
"What was that? Super strength?" Bruce asked eyes wide with shock.
Eureka smirked, "Nope; it's magic."
"Sorry, I got carried away," Eureka apologised as she handed Thor a bottle of water. The training room was damaged and so they moved to another one, bigger than the previous. Tony had to take all the blame for the damage and Eureka had apologised – and thanked – the man in gratitude, no sign of guilt. Tony had dropped his annoyed mask as soon as Eureka apologised and thanked him, saying that he was the one who suggested training, anyway.
While the others spar each other, Thor and Eureka stayed outside, getting a fair amount of rest. Thor accepted the bottle and smiled at the girl. "Thank you," Thor said. He took a mouthful of water and gulped it down within seconds. Eureka went and sat next to Thor, resting her head on the wall and stretched her legs across the floor.
There was a silence before Thor broke it, voice booming, "How did you do it?"
Eureka turned to look at Thor, "Do what?"
"That punch. You said it was magic, but how?"
"Oh," Eureka exclaimed, "Well, you put a good amount of magic to your fists and feet before striking. Then, you release it at the right moment to boost your kicks and punches. It has to be at the right time, though; otherwise it'll go really badly."
"Impressive," the blond praised, "Did Loki taught you that?"
"Yeah," Eureka replied, starting to fiddle with her hair, "And the spear techniques, too. But he didn't teach me the hand-to-hand tactics – a friend of mine did. He also taught me how to do the same with other objects, not just with my body."
"Is magic your only specialty?"
"No. I can use psychic powers, teleportation and generating electricity."
"Electricity? How?"
"Dunno," Eureka held up her hands. Blue sparks danced along her elegant fingers, leaping from one finger to another, "My dad said that it's the brain activity or something. You're the god of thunder, right? How do you control them?"
Thor leaned back against the wall, relaxing a lot more, "Well, it is a wonder of gods. I cannot explain very clearly."
"Oh, ok."
Eureka took her time before finally asking a question she had always thought about ever since meeting Thor, "Hey, Thor."
Thor turned to her, "Yes?"
"What's your hammer's name again?"
"Mjolnir."
"Myew-what?" Eureka tried to pronounce the name but to no avail.
"Mjolnir." Thor repeated.
"Myownee?"
"It's Mjolnir."
"Myol-neer?"
"More or less, yes."
"Oh, okay. Nice hair, by the way."
Not sure of how to respond, Thor a quick glance before resting his head back again. "Thanks, I guess."
Eureka then spent the rest of her time in the corridors chanting Mjolnir's name over and over again. "Myol-neer, Myol-neer, Myol-neer..."
At the Stark Tower, after the training, Eureka had made herself a nice warm cup of tea to ease her mind. She stirred the tea with telekinesis, moving the spoon mentally, while she read a collection of Brothers Grimm fairy tales. She had read the book over and over again – she started reading the stories from an early age. Her kindergarten teachers had told her the dreamy stories of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and other pleasant tales. What she didn't know was the true origin and plotline of the tales, so her father bought her the book as a present for her fifth birthday.
The book was written in simple English so Eureka could understand it. "Don't listen to those false stories," her father had said, "They're just tricking you. The things written in the book is what's really happened in the story..."
It's true that the fairy tales weren't as sparkly as children had heard of and that made Eureka realise that people conceal the truth to make people believe in something they want them to believe in. As far as she could remember, Eureka hated being controlled. But she could never say a word against her father or mother; they were the only she cared about, though the real reason she listened to her father was because she was afraid of him.
"Hey," Tony greeted, sitting at the chair opposite of Eureka.
Eureka looked up and gave a small smile before going back to her book.
Tony tried to peek at the contents of the book, "What are you reading?"
"Brothers Grimm fairy tales," she replied.
"What's it like?"
"Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and other things."
"I don't see how that's interesting."
"Have you heard of Sleeping Beauty?"
"Well yeah," Tony was confused, "It's this princess who sleeps for ages and finally wakes up when the prince kissed her."
Eureka put her book down, stopped stirring and looked at Tony, "okay, I've had this book for twelve years now and there's no such thing as 'woken up by Prince Charming's kiss'. Actually, this is what happened –"
Eureka whispered the whole story into Tony's ear. He was somehow horrified at the true story, and the fact that Eureka knew this ever since she was a kid. "You're twisted," he finally said.
"I get that a lot," she admitted.
"Anyhow," Tony changed the subject, trying to get the horrifying story out of his head, "When you were out there ambushing thugs and stuff, do you go by a codename?"
"No, why?" Eureka took a sip from her cup of tea. Tony was surprised to know that she had brought her own pack of dried tea leaves.
"Well, every superhero has a codename, like Iron Man."
"Thor doesn't," Eureka pointed out.
"That's because it already sounds epic."
"Well, should I get one?"
"It'll be cooler if you did."
Eureka thought about it for a moment before returning a smile full of ideas. "Awesome. It'll do that."
Tony grinned in return, "So what's on your mind?"
Eureka looked at the pool of red tea, remembering the school play she was currently in.
Wicked.
Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.
Her mind was then set on her character's name. "Elphaba," she smiled wickedly, "The Wicked Witch."