Everyone watched as my mother's coffin was lowered into the ground. She had asked to be buried in a cemetery in her hometown; Remagen, Germany. Apparently she had been born here, then raised in New Jersey. Who ever knew I had German heritage? The Avengers were all here. As were all the S.H.I.E.L.D agents who could make it. All were dressed in black. Even Thor and Loki had traded their Asgardian armor for black suits. Normally ma's body would have been kept, for scientific purposes. But I guess Fury figured he should cut me a break. She was being treated as a family member, not as an enemy. And for one day, one merciful day, we all forgot what she had done to us, and mourned properly. The cemetery was beautiful; ancient-looking, with trees shading us and vines growing over some of the older gravestones. Some of the markers were hundreds of years old.

"I'm sorry." Bruce said when the ceremony was finally over. He'd stayed by my side the entire day. Everyone had consolations to offer. And why not? Basically everyone in the Avengers had lost someone in the past. Steve lost his girl. Tony lost his dad. Wade lost both his parents. Pete lost his uncle. They understood. But this was different, right? I shouldn't feel bad about this. I had only known the woman for the first six years of my life, after all, and she had turned out to be a perfect psychopath. But I couldn't help but wonder what things would have been like if she had stuck around to raise me, got herself together. Dammit… I swore I wouldn't cry at this thing. I hid my face, discreetly wiping my tears away. Bruce noticed, but he didn't say anything. He knew how I hated to look weak.

"Definitely necromancy." Loki had said after he'd examined the body. "It's discreet. No stitches, no rotten bits. But definitely no soul. Not a proper one, anyhow." To be honest, it made me feel a bit better. At least I could convince myself it had been a mercy killing. But Loki wasn't done. "This is impressive work. Truly one-in-a-million. And work like this doesn't just surface once and then disappear. It could be that our fight's only just begun." I had barely heard him, looking at my mother's body there on the cold, hard, metal table, trying my best to forget that I had put her there.

I walked down the path to the cars we were taking out of the cemetery. Fury had had our pilots land the helicopters we took down a few miles away from the cemetery, and rightly so. I hesitated before I touched the handle on the car door. Bruce saw, and opened it for me. As we were settling in, my hand brushed against his, and he jolted.

"Sorry." I said. He just gave me a little smile, and took my hand, flinching a bit, but not letting go. I couldn't help but smile back. We rode the entire way back to the helicarrier largely in silence. We didn't really need to say anything. As I looked out the window at the scenery, I reached absentmindedly for my collar, and was saddened to find that it wasn't there. Of course it wasn't; it didn't have any real effect anymore, after all. Is it weird that I missed it?

"Alright, kids." Fury said when Bruce and I arrived at his office a day later. We had been given a brief mourning period, and now it was back to business. He had decided to put me under a scanner to see what was going on with my newfound… abilities? Honestly, I wanted to know what was going on too. But when I got to the lab…

"What the hell is that?" I said. I was staring at an uncomfortable-looking metal table underneath what looked like a giant copy-machine.

"This is the H.I.P.S, or High Intensity Penetrative Scanner."

"That doesn't sound good. At all."

"Don't worry, it's perfectly harmless as long as you're wearing a lead jacket."

"Will I be?"

"No, those're for us." I scowled. "I'm joking, Trescott. You'll be fine; climb on."

"You'll be okay, I promise." Bruce said. He kissed my hand as I lay down on the table, and he and Fury took up station at a computer screen a few feet away.

"Why are you even here, Fury?" I asked. It didn't seem like something he'd want to waste his time on.

"I'm the only one in this place who knows how to use this thing. Only one I trust, anyway. Here we go."He pressed a few keys, and the scanner-thingy started moving slowly down my body, shining a blue light as it went.

"Are you sure this won't give me, like, radiation poisoning?" I said as it went. Something occurred to me; "I won't turn green, will I?" Bruce chuckled a bit.

"This machine doesn't use radiation at all, Wendy." He said. "From what the Director here has told me, it's a technology that S.H.I.E.L.D has been developing for years to be a safe, effective alternative to X-ray. We'll be able to see literally everything that makes you tick." Soon the machine was done, and it shut itself off with a beep. An image came up on the huge screen on the wall. It was my figure, all right, but it was blue, and skeletal. Different areas were different colors, some red, some yellow, some green. I presumed that meant something.

"I thought so." Fury said.

"What? What is it?"

"Wendy; you are now officially powered by electricity."

"I'm what?"

"She's what?" Bruce questioned at the same time.

"You're basically one big conductor. When you shocked Charlotte, something must have happened to cause the electricity to integrate with your body rather than shut it down."

"So… I'm living electricity?"

"Not quite. You can conduct it, and possibly even generate it to an extent, but you aren't electricity itself. What I can't figure out is how it happened."

"Oh no." Bruce said. I turned to see him with his head in his hands, looking guilty as hell.

"Bruce?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know what this is?" I said it firmly but gently, trying to coax him out.

"Do you remember the super-conductive fluid I asked you to apply?"

"Yeah?" I was pretty sure I knew where he was going with this.

"Remember I said it wouldn't affect organic matter?" I nodded. "I was wrong." I sighed.

"Well, will it wear off?"

"It's meant to last the lifetime of the appliance…" I threw up my hands.

"Great, so I'm an appliance now!"

"I am so, so sorry!" He said frantically, hands clasped and eyes begging for forgiveness.

"It's okay, it's okay." I said. "I don't really mind, to be honest."

"Really?" He said as I hugged him.

"Of course not! Now I'm an official superhero!"

"So you're a hero, now?" He smirked. I smiled back.

"Dammit, you got me." I said.

"Wait…" He looked like he'd just realized something.

"What is it?"

"You didn't shock me this time."

"Of course she didn't." Fury said. "Excuse the analogy, but the buzz has worn off."

"What do you mean?"

"Unless I'm wrong, which I'm not, when Wendy blacked out earlier it was because she needed a charge." Bruce's face lit up, suddenly understanding.

"That means when the lights went in the hospital, it was her draining the power!"

"Exactly." Bruce was on a roll now.

"So in the beginning, immediately after the recharge, she was basically a live, unprotected wire. But as her levels return to what we can assume is the normal, her state gets closer to "insulated"!"

"Um, boys?" I crossed my arms. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about me like I'm a science project."

"But this is fascinating!" Bruce was smiling from ear to ear. "You're a human being powered by electricity, Wendy! I've never dealt with anything like this before!"

"Well, fascinating or not, I've got better things to do. Good luck, you two." Fury said as he walked out the door. "Oh, and; congratulations."

"Congratulations?" I said. "What, about my powers?" Bruce didn't answer. He was too busy staring at the screen. "Bruce?" I waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Bruce? What do you see?"

He swallowed nervously, then turned to me.

"Wendy… you're pregnant."

Author's Note: I know, I know, short chapter. But the epic cliffhanger more than makes up for it, am I right? You hate me right about now, huh? Well, worry not; for chapter twenty will come soon!