Chapter Four
In Which Sonya Is Far Too Popular
Sonya isn't sure how the picture got up on the Avengers' Instagram page, but it has far too many likes already. It's a photo of the Steve and Bucky engaged in a furious battle of ping-pong, which isn't bad… The thing she has a problem with is that she's in it, laughing hysterically at Bucky's concentrating face. And there are far too many comments speculating on who she is.
Maybe she's dating the Winter Soldier? One of the comments wonders. Sonya splutters indignantly, storming out of her room.
"WHO POSTED THIS PICTURE?!" She screeches. Darcy pokes her head around a doorway.
"I did!" The brunette grins at Sonya's outraged face. "What? It's cute!"
"People are shipping me!" The healer exclaims. "With Bucky!"
"I could actually see that happening."
"Darcy! He's like, 90 years older than me!"
"I'm actually 72 years older than you." Bucky chimes in, looking up from a book he's reading.
"Probably more like 76." Steve adds. "Sonya's only 19."
"People are having shipping wars." Darcy grins.
"What?!" Sonya snatches the brunette's phone and glowers. "This is insane! Who in the world ships real people?!"
It only gets worse when Darcy posts a video of Sonya and the twins engaged in a furiously intense game of Jenga, where Sonya is cracking up while Pietro argues that using powers to win the game must be breaking some sort of rule.
The tabloids are much too full of her face by the time Steve drags her out on her first mission.
"You won't be doing any fighting." He assures her. "You just have to stand back and watch."
"I didn't sign up for this." She complains, but Nat just laughs at her indignation and Clint ruffles her hair. It's the whole crew going, and it's supposed to be a simple mission, too, just subdue a gang that they suspect may be involved with the buying and selling of several types of illegal explosives.
It's going fine (or as fine as a dangerous fight with wanted criminals can go) when an SUV manages to give them the slip.
"Pietro! You and—…" Steve pauses, looking around for someone to accompany the speedster. There's only Sonya, who's using her healing powers to fix a cut in the speedster's calf. "Sonya! After that SUV!"
She barely has time to react before Pietro jumps up, gives an elaborate salute to Cap, scoops her up bridal style, and takes off.
"You can't just run into that full-tilt!" Sonya berates Pietro. He scoffs.
"Sure I can!"
"You're gonna break your face, you idiot!" She howls, throwing her hands up and forming a force field around the two of them. She does it just in time, too, because they hit the back bumper and ricochet off it into a building.
They aren't hurt, thanks to Sonya, only a little jarred, when they land in a heap in the road.
"That was bizarre." Pietro says.
"You can't just run into things!" Sonya snaps. "One of these days, you'll just be pancaked!"
He isn't paying her any mind, just grinning at the vehicle they managed to crash. "Well, it worked!"
The SUV has skidded sideways in to a divider on the road, and the gang members are spilling out of it. "Get them." She tells her friend. "I'm going to commandeer any explosives." He nods and takes off, while she follows at a significantly slower speed. The gang members are surprisingly tough, and there are quite a few in the van, but Sonya just puts a bubble around herself and plows through them, giggling softly at the way they bounce off.
One of the guys whirls and lobs a grenade at a crowd of onlookers. She swerves, releasing her shield and throwing herself towards the explosive, arms out stretched. Her bubble captures it the moment before it goes off, and she grabs it in her arms, curling her body around it. She lands in the fetal position, skidding to a halt as the grenade explodes. But her bubble contains it. She feels nothing more than a jarring in her stomach. Not taking any chances, she throws it straight in the air as hard as she can before releasing the bubble.
She doesn't even register the cheers and cameras flashing as she whirls around to intercept the man still making his way towards her and the civilians. Sonya throws herself at him, legs first, kicking him hard in the jaw with one rubber-soled heel. He tumbles back, allowing her to elbow him in the temple for good measure, to assure he stays down. She's panting, wound up with adrenaline, when a yell from her left indicates another thug is running at her. She turns, ready to deliver an ass-whupping, but he goes flying with a streak of blue. Pietro skids to a stop next to her.
"You are okay?" He asks, grinning when she nods an affirmative.
"Is anyone hurt?" She turns to the onlookers. "I'm a healer, I can he-!" She's cut off as a woman screams, and she and Pietro whirl around.
One of the gang members, a man with a blaze of flames tattooed across his menacing face, is holding a five-year-old girl up by the back of her overalls, and another has his arm locked around the throat of a woman who must be the child's mother.
Pietro makes a move to run to save them, but the first man cocks a gun and presses the muzzle to the little girl's temple.
"One move out of you, speedy," He snarls, "And the girl gets it."
Quicksilver freezes, and the hand Sonya places on his arm with isn't really needed.
"I'm glad you pathetic heroes have at least a little common sense." Fire-face chuckles. "Your concern about the lives of others will always be your downfall." He rambles on, but the two Avengers aren't listening.
"How fast can you go carrying me?" Sonya asks her friend.
"Pretty fast."
"Fast enough to drop me by the thug with the girl's mom and for you to grab the girl."
"Probably."
"I don't wanna know probably! I want to know if you can!"
"Yeah. I can."
"Good. 'cuz that's the only plan I've got."
The thugs don't even register Pietro and Sonya have vanished, before the healer is kicking the thug #2 in the face, shoving the mother out of the way, and the speedster has snatched the little girl out of Fire-face's grip. By the time they move to start fighting, Pietro has deposited the girl in her mother's arms, and Sonya has thrown a shield up around them all.
That's when Sam and Clint show up and attack the gang members.
"Are you hurt?" Sonya turns around and crouches down next to the mother and her child.
"I-I… n-no. No." The mother says, but Sonya shakes her head and places a hand to the woman's shoulder.
"You've gotten scraped up." She says. "I'm sorry for tackling you like that."
"Oh, no! It's fine! It really is! You saved my life, and, more importantly, you saved Grace!"
Sonya smiles. "I'm glad to help!" She ruffles the little girl's head. "You escaped without a scratch!" She tells her. "How very brave!" The little girl grins.
"What's your name?" She asks.
"Call me Remedy."
The picture of Sonya crouching in front of the mother and her child, her hands still glowing slightly, face scratched and bloodied, purple hair falling out of her bun and sticking to her forehead, is on the front page of the paper the next morning, and emblazoned on every tabloid. The headline on the Times reads "Her Name is Remedy!". The news is also full of her face, and videos of her healing onlookers, and Sonya finds in overwhelmingly embarrassing, especially when she and Wanda go to the grocery store and are mobbed in the cereal aisle.
"Good thing you practiced signing your name as Remedy." Wanda chuckles, scrawling 'Scarlet Witch' on a teenaged girl's receipt.
Sonya just blushes furiously and shyly signs a little boy's baseball cap, blushing harder when he shoots her a gap-toothed grin and tells her she's amazing.
"The video of you healing the man with the bullet wound has reached the number one spot on YouTube." Vision informs her.
"You're on the cover of People again." Tony says in passing. "Apparently, you and Sam are deeply in love."
("How'd they figure that?" Sam asks, peering over his shoulder. Tony shows him a picture of Sonya hugging the Falcon immediately after she had healed him. "Fascinating.")
"We're dating." Wanda says, "According to the internet." She shows Sonya a picture of the two of them out on their weekly coffee date.
"You're also my long-lost sister." Clint adds.
("How would that work?" Sonya splutters. "I'm black.")
There is soon a cork board filled with the most bizarre fan theories they can find, and slowly, she gets used to how odd it is to be famous.
A/N: I've decided to make this Sonya/Pietro… What do you guys think? Review please! They really keep me going!