Stark Tower: Living Room

"I'm bionic."

Steve had never heard that word in his entire life. Truth to be told, he hadn't heard a lot of words before. The modern colloquial expressions he was trying to catch up on still dazzled him. For once, however, he wasn't the only one who didn't understand.

"What does that mean?" Pepper asked, staggering to her feet and snatching the glass off the floor, as if she was afraid it would fly out of her grasp again.

Kennedelia's smile grew. "It means I can do this."

She crooked a finger, and Steve's heart slid out of place in his ribcage. T-the couch was… moving! It glided smoothly across the ground, not making a single squeal against marble.

The teenaged spy uncurled the rest of the fingers and gave a flick of the wrist. Steve's heart leapt into his throat. (A part of him dimly wondered if she could control the movement of his sporadically beating heart.) The couch lifted cleanly off the ground.

She drew her hand down into her lap and the couch dipped to meet the ground, mimicking her actions. So did his heart, which slammed back into place, overwhelming him with a keen sense of vertigo.

"And this." She hopped off the couch and promptly winked out of existence.

Steve whirled around. Where'd she go?

"Over here!" A voice called out.

He turned, only to see the petite figure of Coulson's progeny crouching on the top of a tall wooden closet, dangerously close to the edge.

He sucked in a deep breath. She needed to back away from the edge. She could fall and—

She did.

Kennedelia straightened up on the top of the closet and took a step forward into the air. A muffled gasp of warning rose into the air and went ignored as she put her other foot forward, pushing herself off the edge of the closet and letting herself plummet to the ground.

Collectively, everyone held their breaths as they watched the girl dive to the ground, her arms spread out as though jumping off tall closets was a regular teenager's hobby. (Then again, Steve wouldn't know. Modern teenagers were, for a lack of better word, weird.)

Inches from the ground, the teenaged SHIELD agent vanished into thin air again.

The team whipped their heads around, trying to figure out where the girl had gone this time. Steve closed his eyes and murmured a fervent prayer that they wouldn't find her leaping off the side of Stark Tower in an attempt to showcase her talents.

"Hello," a voice, inches away from his face.

His eyes snapped open to meet cerulean eyes staring right at him. Kennedelia had emerged right before him, all in one piece.

And Steve found that he could breathe again.

But she wasn't done. She reached out, clasping his hand in hers. "And this."

Steve glanced up at her in alarm, his lips parting to ask, yell, or say something, (he truly didn't know), but it was too late. Jolts ran through his body, tingling where they spread and touched.

He heaved a sigh of relief. That was uncomfortable, but at least he'd live.

He took that back when mild discomfort segued into pain. His muscles started to contract in his body, tightening in agony. The light tingling he'd dismissed as nothing turned into a blaze, smoldering through his veins. He couldn't see, he couldn't breathe; he couldn't do anything but tremble in time to the jolts tearing through his system.

And suddenly, the pressure in his chest lifted. The pain faded away. His vision cleared, and he found himself writhing on the floor, the girl kneeling by his side.

"That should have killed you," she announced cheerily.

By now, the other members of the team had gotten over their shock. Ha, pun.

"What?" Tony's tone was one of outrage. "You beep beep should have beeeeeeep."

"Tony!" Pepper chided, waving a hand in front of her as if to dispel his words. "Steve, are you all right?"

Steve forced the slurred words out from between numb lips. "Codd'vebenbett'r."

"He's fine." A dismissive hand wave.

Incredulous gazes snapped in the bionic girl's direction. Was she kidding? She just tried to electrocute a super soldier! The image of Steve thrashing on the ground, his splayed limbs jerking to a silent odd beat was still fresh in the forefront of their minds.

Natasha pulled herself up and out of the couch so swiftly, it was as if the couch had suddenly been infected with the plague and she didn't want to catch the disease. Her eyes had hardened during the events that led up to the present, frigid green orbs that unveiled an aura of danger bubbling beneath the smooth recalcitrant surface of her blank expression.

Even though her anger wasn't directed at them, the others shrank back in their seats and gulped. This wasn't Natasha Romanoff, the girl they lived with and whom they occasionally got away with teasing. This was Black Widow, whose teammate was just physically threatened. And she had enough.

Tony watched, wide-eyed, as the older spy marched over to Kennedelia. He almost felt sorry for her. Almost. Because then, he remembered what she'd done to Steve, and wished he could be by Natasha's side, teaching this girl a lesson. And he would have been too, if he hadn't just witnessed the girl give Steve an electric shock.

Natasha leaned over the girl and said something no one else could hear.

Kennedelia straightened abruptly, all emotions melting off her face and disintegrating into the Great Unknown. She didn't answer, but for a split second, Tony could have sworn he saw fear darting across her blue eyes. He blinked and it was gone, leaving no evidence of its presence.

Natasha swept out of the room without another word.

Silence.

Tony's lips parted on its own accord. "Well that was rather anti-climatic."

"Tony." Pepper, as always, exasperated.

"It was," he insisted. "Look kid I don't know what good ol' Nat said to you, but you can't come waltzing into my tower and electrocuting my friends. Because oh look around you, you're under my roof and I can kick—"

"Tony!" Pepper shot him a reproving look. "She's just a kid!"

"No it's fine," the teenaged spy interrupted. "He's right. I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Remorse. Tony nodded to himself, satisfied. See? He could do this training of the next Avengers team thing without having to blast them with his repulsors.

If only he'd been listening more carefully, he'd have realized that it wasn't remorse that was weaving its way through her words. It was loneliness, it was neglect and it was pain.

They had more in common than they realized.

Kennedelia: Memories

Kennedelia could count on one hand the number of times she'd met her dad. The first time was on her eighth birthday. See, she'd always been different. When she played hide and seek with the other kids, they could never find her. The minute they thought they got her, she was gone, vanished without a trace. Soon, everyone just got tired of trying to look for her.

When she played tag, other kids would cry when she touched them, because her small little hand "really really hurts". And then of course there was the way she seemed to be able to move things without having to physically touch them.

Parents called her a freak. They said her parents must be witches, and she was an abomination. They whisked their children away, told them never to play with her again. Some even called the police.

But the police could never find her either.

What they didn't know was that Kennedelia didn't have parents. Not anymore. When she was six, her mommy and daddy, the one who read her bed time stories and tucked her into bed, took her out to the playground one day, a basket of food for a picnic in one hand.

They said, stay here, they had some errands to run, and would be back in a couple of hours. She hadn't ever been to this playground before, so she was rather excited when she got there. She made hurried promises to be good, and half-hearted goodbye kisses. All she wanted to do was get to the fun; after all, she could talk and hug her parents tonight at bedtime right?

They never came back for her.

For two years, Kennedelia had to fend for herself. Hunger, loneliness and tears were her best friends. But she never gave up. Maybe if she was good, mommy and daddy would come back for her?

And so she hoped, and she dreamt, and one day, a man showed up, offering her a slice of chocolate cake. He reminded her that it was her birthday, and she was eight years old now, a big girl. He said he was here to take her home.

Now Kennedelia wasn't stupid. Many men had tried to bribe her with candy and an invitation to their warm, loving homes. Thankfully, she remembered her parents' warnings of not following strange old men home, and she wasn't going to make that same mistake now.

But there was something different about this man. He had her blue eyes: kindly, blue eyes that sparkled with something that bordered on affection and made her feel all warm and tingly inside. He knew her name. Her full name, the one her parents used only when she was in trouble. And he knew about her powers.

In the end, she agreed to go with him. He took her to this large, large building, the kind that her parents worked at, only bigger. SHIELD, it was called, and it was where she was to be staying.

He taught her about her powers, told her she was unique, she was engineered for a purpose, and that purpose was to help people. He said the people at SHIELD were going to help her learn to help people, was she okay with that?

She was. She loved helping people. Why wouldn't she help people?

And then he dropped the last bombshell.

He told her he was her real daddy.

Review Responses

Lupinica Friggasdoiter- Hahahaha I'm sorry, I honestly didn't notice until you pointed it out. If it makes you feel any better, I even googled the name to make sure. Cameo? Sure! But I've gotta wait till Thor makes an appearance. I'm assuming that you want the role of Thor's shape-shifting twin?

D3STINY- Hi! I hope she's not a Mary Sue either but I really can't judge. Yeah sometimes I get lazy too so I understand how you feel LOL. About 'bionic', hope you understand it now! Feel free to ask me if you don't! :D

Thanks to everyone that followed and favorited! :)