AN: thank you everybody who reviewed. I don't own the avengers. And without further ado-
Agatha's POV
The familiar icy tingling sensation spread through my hands, the ice escaping my hands and solidifying in front of me, white and shiny and cold. The ice spread upward and formed itself into the shape I held in my mind. A spear as tall as I was fell into my waiting hands.
"Awesome." Cecily beamed at me. "We're totally gonna win this." Cecily was the only one who sort of understood. The others whispered amongst themselves why I never spoke. But I can't talk, not even if I wanted too, and I don't. I've tried a few times, but no noise comes out.
"What're you two waiting for?" Adana asked, landing next to us and folding her wings neatly on her back. "The games about to start. I just hid our flag, and Natasha signaled their ready. Hurry up." We were going to play capture the flag in the middle of Central Park, the Sirens on one team, the Avengers on the other.
"Coming." Cecily said. I said the same, but only in my head. Ceci scooped up the tiny sphere shaped cacti she had been growing to throw at the other team.
"You two remember the rules, right?" Adana asked, pulling her long overcoat on over her wings and buttoning up the front.
"We can use powers to prepare but not in the game, we know, lets go!" We ran down the path to where Hulk had dug a trench as the dividing line. Sam was already there, and she and Carmen had clearly been arguing.
My heart sank. I hated that they fought now, not only because we would lose if they didn't have their heads in the game. The thing was, they never used to fight, and now they were at it almost constantly, arguing and shouting. It hadn't come to blows since that first time, but I wasn't sure Sam wouldn't fly off the handle one of these days.
I hoisted the ice spear, and strode over to them. Carmen broke off whatever she was saying at the sight of me approaching.
"Ready?" Sam asked, popping another jolly rancher in her own mouth and turning her back on Carmen. I just nodded, brandishing the spear. Cecily showed her the grocery bag full of caci grenades.
"WERE READY!" Carmen shouted at the trees on the Avengers side of the playing area. "LETS DO THIS!" They emerged from the trees, and Carmen grinned. "Now then. Lets start. What took you so long anyways?"
"Busy getting ready to beat you punks." Cap called across the trench, but he was smiling. He had left his shield and helmet at the tower, Natasha had no knives hidden on her person, and Stark had left his armor off. Dr. Banner looked only mildly interested as he trailed along behind the others.
"Ready, set, go!" Sam yelled, and all hell broke loose. Sam and Carmen ran, perfectly in sync, and leaped the trench in harmony. I could tell right away that they were going to compete, and not care about which team won, but who got the flag. They both wanted to best the other.
At the same time, Romanoff did the same, passing them mid-air on her way over the gap. Stark turned and sped into the trees, pursued by Carmen, while Banner led Sam off the other way, faking them both out. Ceci, laughing like a maniac, threw a volley of cacti at the cap, who nimbly dodged all but one, that left three needles in his arm.
Romanoff was heading towards where Cecily and me had pretended to hide the flag, right where I had prepared an ice slick in her path. I rushed to the place where a clear layer of ice spread over the path. Romanoff sped around the corner, and went flying on the slick. I quickly leveled my spear at her chest.
"Fine. You got me, kid." Romanoff rose and I led her to the edge of the tiny pond that was serving as my team's 'jail'. On my way back to the trench, the cap went barreling past me towards the trench, and he was carrying our flag. With a mad (though silent) war cry, I tackled him, and the flag went flying into the pond.
With the flag missing in action, it was a standoff, so neither team won. The two slightly depressed teams headed back to the tower. In the car, Carmen and Sam started arguing again. It was in whispers, so that the rest of the car wouldn't overhear, but I knew they were fighting.
Nobody else had heard. They hadn't noticed that I had heard them. I leaned towards them, to catch their conversation.
"That dosen't mean-"
"You can't blame-"
"-I just-"
"How could you-"
"Forgive me?" That last one hung in the air between them like fog. I could tell it had been Carmen.
"I can try." Sam sighed, giving up. "But those wounds go deep. You have to give me time." Carmen nodded. They both stopped talking now, and I went over the tidbits I had heard in my head.
Sam was forgiving Carmen? I thought she never would. It was about time. the Avengers were actually really nice, especially Tony Stark. He let me have coffee yesterday, but then Adana came in and yelled at him, so he had to pour it down the sink. But then when she was gone he made more.
In the backseat of the car, with a tiny smile on my face, I fell asleep.
As usual, I dreamed of the orphanage where I had lived for two years, after my parents had been killed in the car crash. I don't remember the crash. A flash of light - a roaring sound- and then waking up in the ambulance.
The doctors told me later that it was a miracle I was alive. I should have died. An anonymous bystander had pulled me out before the car exploded. Cecily had been thrown into some bushes.
Then we had gone to the funeral. I didn't say anything. I never did again. My carefree sister changed too. She became upset when I left for too long, so I rarely did. We had been taken to 'The Orphanage' as I called it. The name had been painted on a sign, but I had never bothered to read it. It was an orphanage. That was all I needed to know.
It was then that it really hit me. We were orphans.
There we met Sam, Adana, and Carmen. New family, in a way.
And then we had found out about our powers. I remembered that day like it was yesterday.
Cecily and I had been walking to school from the orphanage, when we were ambushed by the school bully, Jessica Brown. She had stringy, greasy black hair and a permanent scowl that made her look like a vulture.
She shoved me into an alley, where she could beat me up without honest citizens seeing. Cecily tried to help, but Jessica shoved her backward against the wall.
"Get out of it, punk." She growled, and Cecily ran out of the alley. I got ready to fight. I had to protect myself from Jessica by myself. "Gimme your lunch money, punk." She snarled.
I shook my head. She advanced, cornering me. She raised a meaty fist, and I instinctively threw my hands up in front of me. An odd tingling spread through my hands, and…. nothing happened. I couldn't hear Jessica, so I lowered my hands to see what had happened.
She was covered in ice, frozen in place.
I screamed, I ran, I didn't want to know how that had happened, I just wanted to be gone, as far away as I could be. I ran straight into Cecily, who had Sam, Carmen, and Adana with her.
"Oh, here she is." Cecily said, helping me up from where I had fallen. "Are you okay?"
I shook my head, tears on my face. I grabbed Sam's hand, and tried to drag her back towards the alley. She and the older girl's could solve this.
"You want to show us something?" Sam asked. They all followed me into the alley, where Jessica Brown was still a block of ice.
I think that seeing my powers made theirs reveal themselves.
Sam managed to melt jessica.
Carmen won five bets in an hour.
Adana woke up one morning with wings.
Cecily accidentally made the patch of bushes and grass outside of the orphanage grow into more of a jungle.
When we realized about our powers, we realized we didn't need to stay at the orphanage, so we left. It was Carmen's idea originally. One night, when Carmen, Adana, and Sam had snuck into our room to check on us, like they usually did, she had suggested it.
"We can do it!" She whispered, with a nervous glance at the door. "We have powers, now! We'd almost be better off on our own."
"Are you crazy? We wouldn't last a day on our own!"
"I agree. We should run away. I hate it here."
I nodded and pointed at Carmen.
"Final votes on you, Sam."
"Totally! Lets blow this popsicle stand." I had smiled to myself. We were going to be free.
….
"Agatha, wake up, we're here." Cecily was shaking me. "Wake up."
I swatted at Cecily and sat up blearily. We were at the tower. "We're here, Ceci. We're home." She was right. This is my home now.