"We should get you some clothes" Natasha said, eying the clothes I had been wearing for three days straight.
"I don't have-" she cut me off.
"Don't worry about the money, Stark has more than enough. We can go now, there's no time like the present". I nodded and followed her.
"What about me!" called Clint Barton running after us. Natasha raised an eyebrow at me, clearly letting me decide if I wanted to allow the over-enthusiastic archer to come.
"If Mr. Barton wants to come he can" I said stiffly. Clint frowned at me.
"It's just Clint". He broke into a grin. "Come on girls, let's go shopping!" he started skipping down the hallway into the elevator.
I turned to Natasha. "Is he always-"
"Yes, he is" she sighed. I had made a big mistake allowing him to tag along.
It was clear that Clint Barton was not happy with my sense of style. Going down the aisles, I pulled out random sweaters and jeans and gave them to Natasha.
"Shouldn't you try them on?" Clint asked.
"Don't want to." I said. He gave a look to Natasha who's expression was completely unfathomable.
After doing this for a while he finally asked me.
"Mavis, it's like 40 degrees and it's summer. Don't you want some t-shirts or shorts?" I studied his expression. Did he think I was going to die of heatstroke or something? Finally I smiled.
"Yes that's a good idea!" He smiled at this, looking relieved. "I might get cold if I don't have anything underneath my sweaters!" I picked out a few t-shirts and gave them to Natasha. I almost laughed at his exasperated expression. But I didn't. I pretended not to notice when he placed a few pairs of shorts in the stack of clothes in Natasha's arms. We brought back a lot of bags back to the tower.
When we got to the elevator I turned around and looked the two assassins straight in the eye.
"Ms. Romanov, Mr. Barton, thank you for accompanying me". I said this as honestly as possible. I sincerely appreciated them joining me, it almost made me feel like a normal 12 year old girl, shopping for clothes. Almost. But almost was the closest I had ever gotten.
"It's just Clint"
"It's just Natasha" she said at the same time. I shrugged.
Clint Barton was still convinced that I was going to evaporate underneath all my layers of clothing. I tried to explain to him, I didn't like the cold and I didn't get easily. He refused to hear ir.
He started by slowly adding pairs of shorts and t-shirts into my closet. I completely ignored this and continued wearing the jeans and sweaters that I felt comfortable in.
Getting frustrated, he started to take the jeans and sweaters that I had been wearing. This was crossing the line. So, as a silent protest, I wore the same sweater and jeans for three weeks. I made sure to hang around Tony, when he was in the workshop as much as possible, when I wasn't, I was with Clint, who was wincing because of the smell of Tony' sweat and car oil on me. Barton hated the smell of car oil.
Finally he cracked and came to my room with a stack of clothes in his arms.
"Truce"
I smiled at him brightly, before going to go take a shower.
"I like this one" I heard Natasha I say.
I was very nervous, Nick Fury had called to say that he wanted an assessment on my skills before training me. The others had looked at me with pitying expressions, this was not encouraging.
The morning before I had to leave, I was sitting at the kitchen table, halfheartedly eating a bowl of cereal.
"Nervous?" asked Bruce Banner, he was the only there, the others were sleeping: it was 3 in the morning
"A little" I admitted. I hesitated. "Dr. Banner?"
He looked up from the omelet that he was carefully eating. "You can call me Bruce"
"How did your skills assessment go?" He looked at me, with a thousand emotions on his face. He looked at his watch.
"We should get going, you don't want to be late." Not good I gathered.
"Dr. Banner, thank you for walking to HQ" I said when we had arrived at our destination.
"There's no need to thank me. Call be Bruce" He smiled at me.
"And Mavis", he said, before leaving. "I'm sure you'll do fine"
That makes one of us.
Taking a deep breath, I entered the building.
If you were to ask me what had happened, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I only remember entering a dark room and exiting it. I was standing in a dimly lit hallway, looking for where I was supposed to go to get the results. There was one man, this immediately put me on alert; the hallways were always filled with people.
I took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. After this I was beyond his eyes, in his mind. This was the reason SHIELD had kept tabs on me for so long. They knew I had this ability, they said it made me 'special'. The only thing they didn't know was how I had gotten it. This was the reason they kept hunting me down; no matter how much I ran, they would always find me.
The agent's thoughts weren't very clear, like a phone call with bad reception. I could only get one clear thought 'Hail Hydra'.
Staying calm, I kept walking down the hallway, until we were right beside each other. Springing into the action, I kicked him where the sun don't shine. One kick and he was down. I held his head forcefully in my hand before asking clearly.
"Your mission, what is it?"
He refused to talk, muttering nonsense about dragons and multiplying heads. His thoughts were unclear, like he was thinking of nonsense so I couldn't read him. But I could see what the plan was. They wanted to take out the leader, Fury.
Out of the blue, and agent came and shot a bullet in his head. A searing pain came across me, like I was being struck by lightning. I could see the man's mind shutting down. I groaned before passing out.
When I awoke, there were a billion machines hooked up to me. Fury was at my side, talking to a doctor. He noticed that I was awake.
"Sorry about that, we had to study how your power worked" my eyes widened. That was part of the test too?
"You son of bitch" he frowned at this muttering under his breath something that sounded suspiciously like "just like her brother".
Did I pass?" I asked. He nodded.
"There's just one problem" he said gravely. "Your powers aren't completely bonded with your DNA" he broke off into scientific gobbely gook. But I understood what he was saying.
My power would be the cause of my destruction, they were killing me every time I used them.