Jane's Training Cave
Maddie faced Jane across the cave. A glass of water stood next to them.
"You go first," said Maddie "Show me your earth powers."
Jane closed her eyes and put her hands out over the ground. A large boulder rose to Jane's chest level and then flew towards Maddie. Before it reached her, it turned to dust and fell to the ground.
"I can't maintain it enough to hit anything," said Jane "It's a useless power."
"Not necessarily," said Maddie "You can't hit anything with a rock that big, but you can do just as much damage with smaller rocks in large numbers, here, I'll give you a target."
Maddie pointed her hand at the glass of water. A small ball of water came out of the water and floated in front of Maddie. It then split into four smaller droplets of water and these droplets expanded until they were the size of Maddie's arm. The four ice crystals floated apart from each other and varied their distance from Jane.
"All right," said Maddie "I'm ready, try to hit the icicles."
Jane concentrated and brought up four smaller rocks, then aimed with one, while having the other three rocks circling her wrist. The first rock hit the far left-most icicle, causing it to spin in its place in the air.
"Good," said Maddie "Next one."
Jane lined up her second rock and fired. Again, the crystal was hit and again, it was pushed away from her. Jane lined up her third rock, then fired at the third crystal. The rock hit the crystal so hard, that it shattered, and then changed direction, hitting the other crystal too. It also shattered. Maddie was so shocked that the other two crystals she was still holding up dropped. They almost smashed on the cave floor, but Maddie regained her composure and stopped them.
"You see," said Maddie "You don't need to concentrate on making a giant rock and throwing it, you wouldn't be able to concentrate on keeping them together long enough to hit, if you want to use that large rock, use it as a shield, not a sword."
"What do you mean?" asked Jane
"For example, If I threw an icicle at you, it wouldn't be able to go through a big rock," said Maddie "It could be really helpful against Avengers like Wasp and Iron Man, Wasp's blast wouldn't even dent it, Iron Man's would shatter it, but the discharge would mean you wouldn't get hit by it, I think it could even be used as a shield against Hulk for a time, the only things you might have to worry about are Captain America's shield and Black Panther's vibranium weapons, they'd probably be able to cut through it, just don't try to throw it at them and you'll be fine to combat the Avengers, and that's not even factoring in your light power, adding that in, you should be able to hold your own against them no problem."
"Thanks Maddie," said Jane "It means a lot the faith you have in my abilities."
"You need to have confidence in your abilities, Jane," said Maddie "If you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything you put your mind to."
"You know," said Jane "You'd be a fantastic super hero strategist."
"I just think about how your particular powers might be used to fight the foe I think we'll be fighting," said Maddie "I hope it doesn't come down to a fight between us and the Avengers, but if it comes to it, we'll need to come up with a way to beat them."
"We'll keep running, Maddie," said Jane "We won't hand you over to them, and fighting them will only slow us down."
"You're probably right," said Maddie "We can never be too prepared, though."
"Yeah," said Jane "You're right too, shall we keep training?"
Jane's Training Cave (A few hours later)
Jane waited in the cave. Her brother was due to return soon and she was eager to tell him about her newfound control of her powers. She also wished to know how his spying on the Avengers had turned out.
Soon, she heard the echo of approaching footsteps. Jack had returned and he had someone with him. The man with her brother was slightly taller than him and was wearing a black outfit with yellow eye sockets. She recognised him as the Black Panther, one of the Avengers.
"You brought one of the Avengers here?" she asked "Are you insane?"
"It's all right," said Jack "They just want to talk, Black Panther is a honourable man, and he has left all of his weapons with the rest of the Avengers, Iron Man detected radiation from the mind control blast fired at Wasp, and he's using an interference wave over the Avengers radios to make sure they aren't taken over too, I staged a fight with Black Panther, who had noticed my presence, and took him here."
"If you believe he can be trusted," said Jane "I believe you, but until I find out why he's here, he's not getting to see Maddie."
"Well, Panther?" asked Jack "Tell us what's been happening."
"Jarvis detected a disturbance at a school in Florida," said Black Panther "The disturbance was caused by the Grim Reaper, a famous AIM operative, he told us AIM was looking for Maddie to brainwash into working for them, I suspect that as you are running from us, that there was a little manipulation of Maddie before she left to believe that the Avengers weren't the good guys they seemed."
"Who could have done something like this?" asked Jack "It seems like a lot of trouble to gain one person."
"We don't think that was AIM's intention," said Panther "They know roughly where your bases are, they know you have powers, so I'd guess they want you two on their side too."
"Again," said Jane "Who could be behind this?"
"Iron Man's computer, Jarvis is working on narrowing down the enemies we've fought before, we should have the answer soon," said Panther "Iron Man knows everything I'm telling you, I know I can trust him."
"Thank you for your honesty, Black Panther," said Jack "Leave by the same way you came in, get back to your team, tell them where we are, knock out Wasp and come here, myself, Jane and Maddie will meet you, I'm tired of running, it's time to stand and fight."
"I'm glad you no longer see us as your real enemies," said Black Panther, then held out three com links "Here, these com links will connect you to all the Avengers but the Wasp, and run the same interference that the rest do to stop the mind control of whoever is controlling Wasp, we'll find the real enemy together, and we'll take them out."
"I guess we're allies for the moment," said Jane, putting on her com link "I'm glad, Jack, let's go back up to the cave."
The two siblings left up to the cave as Black Panther left the way he had come in. He was happy with how that went, now the Avengers and the three runners would work together to take out their true foe.
Unknown Location
"What do you mean gone?" asked the shadowy figure in the throne "I want those three kids found and under my control."
"Yes, sir," said a man, his hands shaking as he fiddled with the controls in front of him. The figure in the throne stood up and went to the window, looking at the Earth below them. The Earth turned and the sun illuminated the ten rings on the figures hands. His scheme was failing or perhaps already failed, but with his powers, he could still crush the Avengers and their new allies.
The Mandarin smiled as he contemplated the Avengers fate and the pleasure he would get from using one of their own to destroy them.