Divine intervention

Date: June 29th 2014

Location: Avengers Tower, New York

Cleo was sat quietly on the ceiling watching Robin. Said cousin was sat on the edge of the couch in their lounge, the girls had been moved to guest accommodation as word had been sent that the Avenger whose room they had used was about to return, and was attempting her anti-smash exercises. Today they involved Robin gently lifting an egg out of an egg box and then placing it into the empty carton beside it without scrambling them. The majority of the exercise had been quite entertaining for Cleo as, hard as she tried, Robin had yet to transfer an egg from one box to the other without crushing it in her fingers. She could tell that Robin was getting more and more frustrated every time the shell shattered and liquid goop landed on her already spoiled lap.

Though she attempted to suppress the snicker with her hands the sound escaped her lips until she dropped all pretence and laughed at her cousin in earnest. The sharp look she earned only served as fuel on the fire of her amusement, as she giggled she lost purchase on the ceiling and began to spin aimlessly in the air. As she span she realised that Robin had snatched an unbroken egg up and held it back preparing to throw it at the glowing target Cleo had become. She managed to stifle her laughter as she attempted to move out of the line of fire before she heard the unmistakable crunch of eggshell in her cousin's too strong grip causing more chortles to fall from Cleo's lips. Then she felt the gloopy splatter hit her on the shoulder causing her to spin in the air a little faster than she would have liked. Robin managed to hit her twice more before Cleo was able to stop herself spinning in mid-air.

As Cleo span she floated higher into the air unknowingly, in her fits of laughter, that she was about to collide with the hanging lights on the ceiling. A mere fraction away from the light fixture Cleo seemed to notice and stretched her hands out in order to stop herself from wrecking another of Tony's modern, yet pretty, chandeliers. As her skin made the briefest whisper of contact with one of the illuminated bulbs the glass suddenly shattered and a clear, sharp stream of electrical energy hot from the still hot filament to her bare out stretched hands. As the energy flowed into her Cleo's glow intensified sharply before every other bulb on the fixture shattered and the flow of electricity halted. The room was silent for a split second before an unexpected and odd spell wafted past Cleo's nose.

"Fried… eggs?" she questioned almost in auditable before she twisted to look at her shoulder and back, the places Robin had managed to hit her with bits of raw egg, only to see the intensity of the energy that was flowing through her was literally frying the egg on her clothes. "…Ew…" She deadpanned.

A booming laugh stopped both girls in their tracks then, in unison, they turned to see who had walked in to witness their silliness. Stood in the doorway, literally taking up the whole opening, was a tall, very well-muscled, Adonis complete with silky blonde tresses. His blue eyes shone with amusement at their antics before he stepped further into the room and was followed by Dr Banner. Robin seemed to be more than a little embarrassed that her mentor had caught her failing the exercise he had set. The Doctor shook his head as he pulled off his glasses to shine them on a cloth from his pocket.

"Robin, Cleo, this is Thor. Thor, this is Robin and Cleo." He introduced simply, pointing to each with his glasses before he returned them to their perch on his nose. Robin shot to standing in her embarrassment and was soon followed by the found of gloopy yolk and shattered shell falling from her lap to the once clean carpet. The motion quickly caused another bout of laughter from Cleo as she watched in amusement from where she floated.

It was at this point that Thor strode forwards with purpose, stopping a small distance between the girls, he looked at them both for a time before he held his hand out towards Robin. She stared at it for several minutes unsure what he expected her to do as she had yet to form any real control of her strength. She turned to look over at Bruce for some kind of clarification but all she received was a shallow nod.

"Though short, I have spent time in your country of origin. All the humans I encountered in England would clasp my hand upon introduction, you are familiar with this?" He asked her in his attempt of a soft tone, but for one who often spoke loud enough for all to hear it didn't quite work.

"N-no, it's not that… I just- I can't-" Robin stammered nervously as she rang her hands together, absently she noted how her fingers were sticky with glair, yolk and eggshell. More importantly she had no intention of touching anyone, at least until she had some measure of control over her strength. With this in mind she took a hesitant step backwards until the backs of her legs pressed gently against the coffee table behind her. Immediately she stopped moving, wary of breaking the table and of the large man in front of her. Said man only laughed at her movements unintentionally making her feel more self-conscious than she already was.

"Have no fear little mortal, you cannot harm me." He spoke with absolute confidence but Robin still had her doubts. She had only been practicing for a couple of weeks and had yet to pass the eggshell test, which in itself made her feel even more useless. Her gaze instinctively flicked over to Cleo who had been rather quiet since Thor's arrival, but it turned out that her cousin was a little too distracted admiring the god's backside and was completely unconcerned with the little bits of burnt egg dropping from her clothes to the floor. With an irritated sigh Robin changed to looking over at Bruce who seemed a little too amused at the situation.

"It's alright Robin, he can take it." The Doctor assured her, making Robin only feel slightly better and Cleo re-tuned into the conversation to realise what was going to happen. The glowing girl was unsure whether she should feel intrigued or annoyed at the stupidity of what they wanted Robin to do. Cleo knew that if Robin caused him damaged she would not deal with it well.

Robin looked doubtfully at her mentor before she returned her focus to the hand still extended towards her. Slowly, hesitantly, she lifted her hand from her side. As she moved closer her hand trembled anxiously before it slid gently into his much larger hand. She remained absolutely still attempting not to apply any pressure to his skin but then he clasped her hand and she instinctually reciprocated. She stared at their hands gripped together but she had not crushed bone, squished muscle, as she had feared. Then she heard a grunt of discomfort and looked up to see the strain on his face, causing her to immediately release his hand and retract her own close to her chest.

"You are indeed strong little one," Thor smiled at Robin before he turned to Bruce "When you told me of their power I had not expected them to be so-"

"Ultimate? Cosmic? Itty bitty- well I don't skimp on the living space." Tony chimed as he strutted into the lounge having watched the whole thing from the entrance. "How's the hand buddy? Still good for swinging the hammer?" The mechanic asked and Cleo was unsure whether or not he was actually euphemising or not.

"I am fine." Thor responded after regaining the feeling in his fingers and flexed them just to be sure they were still in alignment. "I do not, however, understand how mortals could possess such abilities." The god of thunder gestured at the girls as he spoke, Cleo was reclined in mid-air and Robin looked to be rather upset as she sifted from one foot to the other.

"Actually we were hoping you might have some answers to that." Dr Banner said as he walked over to Robin and gently lifted her arm. She gave no resistance and was as still as possible as he pulled up her sleeve to reveal to Thor the source of their powers, the mysterious golden cuffs.

Immediately Thor stepped forward but paused just before her could make contact. "If I may?" He asked Robin to whom she nodded silently as he gently took her arm to examine the manacle.

The golden metal shone with its own internal light, beginning at the base of her wrist and stretched two and a half inches down her arm, the metal itself was incredibly thin and flexible and almost definitely melded to her skin. Almost reverently Thor examined her wrist all the way around, noticing the seamless way it had bound itself to Robin. His eyes flicked up towards Cleo and found an identical golden band on her wrist. His focus returned to the closer cuff a momently before he gently brushed his hand over the oddly cool metal. The gold shimmered and rippled in response and a moment later strange symbols rose up from the metal, just making impressions on the surface before disappearing once again. Thor knew those symbols.

And he knew what the artefacts were.

Date: March 19th 2013

Location: CLASSIFIED

Dr Colfer paced in her office overlooking the test subject's cells. Her teams had uncovered mass amounts of data from the experiments performed but it never seemed to be enough. Every time she sent off her findings to the higher ups she was told to push harder, be more invasive, find the limits and move beyond. It was becoming more and more difficult to please her bosses. The first few months of testing had been so abundantly fruitful that it was inevitable that their progress would begin to slow.

Turning sharply from her pacing Dr Colfer stared down at the myriad of workers below her. All the resources she had at her finger tips, the compound was always alive with activity, but it was not enough. She was restrained by the meagre technology at her disposal. It was all top of the line, only moments behind Stark tech, but even the famous cutting edge technology the 'genius' Avenger designed was laughably inferior to what she needed.

Her sharp rouged lips frowned severely at the thought. What she really needed was to get her hands on more advanced technology. How she wished there was a way for Hydra to get access to the doubtless incredible tech the Asguardians had at their disposal. Alas the infernal race was beyond even their reach. It was infuriating.

What made things worse was that she knew for a fact that Hydra had some advanced technology at their disposal, discovered from various 0-8-4's over the decades, but every time she put in a formal request she was denied.

A sharp bleeping distracted her from her internal tirade. With quick purposeful steps Dr Colfer pressed the blinking button on her desk.

"Yes." She said sharply.

"Gamma team have subject 2319 ready for experiment 108." The tinny voice replied from a small speaker imbedded in her desk.

"Very good. I'll be there momentarily." Dr Colfer clicked off the button before she could receive a reply. Taking a moment to smooth out her grey dress suit she took a deep calming breath. No matter the limitations she would do whatever it takes. She would unlock the secrets of the golden cuffs.

Straightening her posture Dr Colder swiftly strode from her office and down to the energy lab.

Date: June 29th 2014

Location: Avengers Tower, New York

Robin and Cleo had never been to this part of the Avengers Tower before.

The girls sat inside a large domed room, covered in shiny silver plating from floor to ceiling, computers of varying sizes lined the room, each screen lit up performing some unknown task, several high security doors lead in and out of the room but the majority of them lead to other unknown parts of the tower. The centrepiece of the room was a large round glass table, the one that they were currently sat in front of, and though the glass looked completely mundane Robin was certain that with everything she had seen with the building already, there had to be something special about it to be in such a secure area of the building. Dotted around the table were several familiar faces and one or two that were recognised but certainly less familiar. The majority of the time the girls had spent in the tower they knew that more often than not the Avengers were out in the world trying to eradicate an evil spy organisation known as Hydra, the very same people that had held and experimented upon the girls for over two years.

On one of the larger computer screens a world map was illuminated and on that map was a hell of a lot of little red Hydra symbols dotted all over the globe. It made Robin feel sick that Cleo and she were in no way the only people that had been taken by these monsters. She managed to settle the bout of nausea by focusing on the little symbols that had large black crosses stamped over them, one for each base the Avengers had taken out, she simply had to ignore the fact that the eradicated bases were in the marginal.

With a physical shiver Robin ripped her attention away from the map and refocused it upon what she had been thinking about before she had noticed that particular screen, The Avengers. Obviously the ones she and Cleo were most at ease with were Dr Banner, who sat to her right while Cleo sat on her left physically strapped into her seat, and Tony Stark, who was swaggering around the room talking to JARVIS and occasionally inputting data to various computers. These two men had been around the girls the most, Banner helping Robin with control and Tony examining Cleo's cuff while simultaneously thinking of ways to get her feet firmly back on the ground.

While both men had also been assisting with the Hydra extermination when they could, the other Avengers seemed to be running at the Hydra threat incessantly. Almost as if it were personal. Of course Robin knew that Captain America, who was sat opposite her with a military rigidity, had a history with Hydra and boy was it actual history between them. Robin had worked at a museum for years and had heard the gossip and legends about the WWII era, though her passions were the ancient cultures and her scholarly co-workers looked down at her for being the frivolous artsy type without a proper qualification to her name, she still had some basic knowledge.

As her mind wandered into her past Robin felt a pang of sadness jolt through her. She missed her old life, her museum, she missed sketching and designing. Everything that had been taken away from her the moment the damn cuff had latched onto her. In that split second her sadness roiled into anger and she felt the metal chair arm beneath her fingers squeeze and shape like clay, before the groaning steel caught her cousin's attention. A gentle glowing hand rested calmly on her shoulder. Russet met electric blue when Robin looked up at her cousin and was once again distracted from her train of thought when she realised that Cleo's eye colour, once sharp steel, had almost literally been electrified to a brighter, more intense shade. The alarm must have been obvious as Cleo's brow wrinkled in confusion before she gave Robin a questioning look.

"I-it's nothing. Don't worry about it." Robin mumbled, her cousin gave her a quick once over before deciding to drop it. She knew Cleo wouldn't bring it up until they were alone again, being one who valued privacy, only then would she poke and prod Robin into telling her what was troubling her. While Cleo believed whole heartedly in privacy she also believed there should be no secrets among family. Meaning Robin would not get out of explaining herself later.

In an attempt to distract herself again Robin focuses on the two remaining Avengers. Clint was sat beside Natasha dinging something on what looked like his phone. Robin knew they were former SHIELD and that as a spy he was probably doing something terribly classified. Luckily for him he had his phone on mute as she would have been a little disappointed to find out he was actually on Angry Birds and the little smirk on his face was not because he had hacked into some top level encryption but because he had gotten a perfect score once again.

Beside his was Natasha with her shapely legs propped on the table as she reclined in her chair and spoke quietly to Steve who was sat on her other side. Again Robin wasn't sure what they were talking about but she couldn't help the small smile when Steve obviously told her to put her feet down. It seemed to be a private joke between the two. Robin leaned back in her chair a little disappointed. The two made a lovely couple and she refused to identify or focus upon why it bothered her.

Opposite Robin Captain America and Black Widow were in the middle of an all too familiar conversation.

"So you didn't call her then." Natasha smirked as she took her feet off the table.

"I just don't think she's my type." Steve told his friend/constant matchmaker as he waited impatiently to find out why they had been gathered. Another three Hydra bases had been discovered and they were all sat around for some meeting. Every moment wasted was another lead on Bucky going cold.

"Ugh. Maybe you should get Tony to make you a Buffybot, I'm sure he could pull it off." She crossed her arms over and looked at Steve completely frustrated. Why was he so reluctant to date? All her efforts seemed to be wasted on the man.

"A what?" The soldier asked her, confusion clear on his handsome features.

"You didn't watch any of the DVDs I leant you." The spy rolled her eyes as she shifted in her seat.

"There were a lot and I've been busy." He defended.

"Couldn't work the DVD player, huh?" She smirked before a door on the opposite side of the room opened revealing the Avenger they had been waiting on.

Robin turned in her seat and watched as Thor strode into the room. The god spoke to Tony for a moment before patting him good naturedly on the shoulder, quite hard judging by the mechanic's face, and turned towards those gathered around the table. Tony rubbed his shoulder discreetly as he turned from the group and input something into one of the computers. Suddenly a holographic representation of the gold cuffs floated above the glass table.

"Take it away maestro." Tony uttered before he took his seat next to Dr Banner. Thor nodded grinning at Ironman before he greeted the comrades he had not seen for some time. Once the pleasantries were over seriousness overcame the god's expression.

"Robin and Cleo, you must know that though I know what it is that has imbued you with such power, my knowledge hails from tales and whispers. I know not how to unburden them from you. Do you understand?" His deep voice rumbled over the words that slowly sunk in. The girls glanced at each other before nodding the affirmative to the god. Even if he couldn't remove them maybe he knew enough for them to understand and maybe even control their powers.

"So, then, what do you know?" Bruce asked gently as he plucked his glasses from his face and cleaned them with a cloth from his pocket.

"Not as much as I would have hoped." Thor replied a little disappointed at his own lack of knowledge. "But I know enough.

"They are called the Nega-Bands. Weapons of great power created by the leader of a race named the Kree. The Supreme Intelligence. They were gifted to one of their greatest warriors named Mar-Vell. But he was lost long ago, even we Asguardians knew not where he was, and to think, he must have perished on Midguard for them to be in your possession now." He paused for a moment to allow the knowledge to sink in before he continued. "The metal man tells me that these weapons bonded with you when the portal opened over New York. The invading force were the Chitauri, creatures that are so similar to the Skrull race, the bands sensed their presence on Earth-"

"Why?" Robin couldn't help but squeak, even she seemed surprised that she had voiced her question aloud.

"The Kree and Skrull have warred for ages beyond count." The god of thunder explained as he crossed his large arms over his chest. "Their attachment does not bode well for you," Her continued as he eyes the almost innocently gleaming bands "These weapons were forged for the warriors of the Kree. They serve to augment their power. It would seem, from what I have witnessed, that the weapons have attempted to compensate for the difference in race. I believe the imbalance and intensification of the Nega-Bands, shared between human mortals, is why you lack control."

"Not just him, the three of us" Tony gestured to Bruce, Thor and himself "came up with the theory. Thor just added in the historical notes and really excels at projecting his voice. Seriously, you should consider public speaking." He cut in, just about to meander off topic.

"So, what does this mean? Because they aren't this type of alien they can't control their power." Steve asked attempting to understand what this meant for the girls they had only just rescued.

"Nay, on Asgard we have a way of suppressing power to control dangerous beings."

"Like your psycho brother." Tony piped in almost instinctively.

"…Aye." Thor deadpanned, clearly trying to contain his impatience. "I have the basic design so that your mortal mind can comprehend its complexity and build it for them." He stated nonchalantly handing Tony a shining scroll with fluctuating diagrams, the mechanic was preparing a retort before he was interrupted.

"Are you saying you can get rid of them?" Cleo chimed in. "The gloating and the floating."

"Not quite, little aurora. They will suppress, but are not potent enough to dispel your powers completely." The Asguardian told her gently as her face fell in disappointment.

"According to these very simple, and kinda trippy, designs there are levels of suppression. So you can dial it down and once you figure out how to not suck at superpowers ramp it up a notch and so on until you got it all down." Stark spoke aloud but it seemed more like he was talking it over to himself and how he could implement the plans presented.

"Almost normal." Robin whispered to herself as a small smile crept across her lips before she looked up at her cousin and said a little louder. "Almost normal is good."