…12 years later…
12-year old Pym raced through the forest, his tiny form visible by the green light he radiated. As he sped past the waterfall and through their little home, he failed to notice the pair of golden eyes peering through the gloom of a bush. It leapt through the trees in pursuit of the young boy.
As the miniature hero sped through a clearing, a sudden burst of lightning forced him to the ground. Before he could recover his wits, a pair of hands clasped him tightly.
They belonged to the 15-year old Azari. He wore a sleeveless black spandex uniform with elbow length gloves to show off the tattoos that covered his body. Across his waist was his collapsible Bo staff, which doubled as his belt.
He opened his hands to reveal a very unhappy Pym. "Tag, Pym!" He said smugly.
"No fair, Azari!" replied the younger boy as he grew in size. He now had a military buzz cut and a yellow metal plate suit over a full-body black jumpsuit. In the center of his chest was a small green circle and his legs had black paint crisscrossing with the yellow to look like a bee. "You didn't give me enough of a head start!"
"No fair?" Azari rebuked, "Aren't you the one who called no powers and then shrunk and flew away?"
"Ya, well, I meant no powers for you!" Replied the boy, embarrassed.
"Of course," replied Azari. "Guess what Pym, you're it!"
With that, he leapt into the trees.
"Hey!" Called the boy after him, "Not so fast, and no powers!"
He stared after him for a moment before shrinking down and flying away.
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Tony stared at them from the monitors.
"Jocasta," he called, "adjust environmental controls in the hanger plus two therms, radar ray-7 needs realigning, and let's get lunch started, shall we?"
"Commands in progress," replied a feminine robotic voice.
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17-year old Toruun sat in front of her father's monument at the fountain. She still held part of her hair in a ponytail on the side of her face by a red scrunchy, while the rest of it flowed free along her back. Tony had built her light grey Asgardian modeled armor with golden boots. Her magical sword was plunged into the ground behind her.
"I dreamt of Asgard again, father," she said aloud, "The Bifrost Bridge stretched out before me, and I could see the glow of the realm eternal. I know thee to be real, father. And I hope that one day soon you will come for your daughter."
Near the fountain, at the edge of the tree line, 16-year old Raven sat crisscrossed on a rock, meditating. Her straight black hung over her shoulders and down her back. She wore a black skintight suit with dark grey tiger stripes and no sleeves, fingerless gloves, and black combat boots. Her healing factor made any need for armor rather unnecessary.
A miniature Pym raced over to her, hoping to catch her off her guard. As he approached, he found himself at the point of a metal claw.
"Tag me at your own risk, Henry," she said without opening her eyes.
No one was entirely sure why, but somehow when mutant gene activated, she gained an ultra-light biologically made metal not too dissimilar to adimantium that covered her entire skeleton along with the rest of her powers.
Pym gave a little gulp before turning and heading over to Toruun. He grew in size and snuck up behind her, over to her sword. He then proceeded to try and lift said sword and failed miserably. However, his struggles did alert her to his presence.
"And father," she said loudly, "lastly I beseech thee: give me the power to smite Pym, once and for all!"
"WHAT!" He exclaimed fearfully.
He turned, shrunk, and flew away as fast as possible. Toruun just stepped forward, gripped her sword, pulled it out of the ground in one hand, and threw it at the younger boy, who found his way blocked by a rock. He saw the approaching sword just in time to duck and avoid decapitation, the blade lodged in the rock just above him. That was when something sticky was shot at Toruun's feet, gluing her in place. She looked up to see 15-year old Liz hanging on a high stone. Her hair was shoulder length, hanging around her head as she stared at them. Her outfit was similar to Azari's, but it was shoulder less, and crimson red with black web designs. In the center of her chest was a black spider. He flew up and hid behind Liz and Azari, who was now sitting next to Liz.
"That's not how tag works, Toruun," the Wakandan glared, "You're supposed to run from Pym, not attack us!"
"And why didn't you do anything?!" asked Liz to the mutant.
"Pym needed to learn how to get out of his messes on his own," she calmly replied, without even opening her eyes, "We will not always be there to help. He was lucky Toruun missed her mark."
"An Asgardian warrior never misses, mortal!" Replied Toruun as she made her way towards the rock.
"So you're not an Asgardian? Or do you people just not make good on your threats?" Liz asked.
Toruun turned toward her, fire in her eyes. Liz put her hands out in an "I surrender" position.
"Break it up you two," called Azari in exasperation, "Whenever you two fight, I have to clean up the blood!"
Toruun shot one last glare at Liz before turning back to Azari.
"Running away a human rule," she said as she removed her sword from the rock, "An immortal Asgardian warrior runs from no one! You, Pym, Liz, Raven, and James are about to taste my sword's wrath!"
While Pym cowered a little more, Liz and Azari looked utterly unimpressed. Raven ignored her completely.
"Hey," the Viking girl realized, "I mean, forsooth! Where's James?"
"At this time?" replied Liz, "I'd give ya three guesses, but your blonde so you'd probably need more."
Everyone snickered except for Toruun who just scowled and Raven who warned, "Liz, your excessive teasing and jokes will be the death of you."
000
Four figures stood inside the messy bungalow. They stared as the mess on the bed began to move, revealing a pair of tanned legs, clothed in brown pajama bottoms. Even though they were there almost daily, they were still shocked by the state of disarray the room was in.
"Does he get the sword, the web, the spark, or the sting today?" Asked Toruun, "Or should we go to Raven and ask her to do the 'honors?'"
Pym and Liz glanced at each other mischievously and grinned.
"It's his royal highnesses turn," they replied in unison.
"I hate you both," was all he said before moving forward.
The rest of them only smiled smugly, each having been on the wrong side of what they knew was about to occur. His body glowed as electricity began to emit from his body. He brought his finger forward and when it was about an inch away a bolt of lightning jumped onto the sleeping form's foot.
With a shout of pain, and reflexes only an elf or Raven would have, James leapt up, turned on his shield, and slammed it into Azari. The other boy felt a stab of pain in his gut before his was launched through open air and into the mud outside.
The 17-year old James stepped out onto the balcony. He still wore his light brown pajama and his energy shield was active on the red glove on his left hand. It was egg shaped with a circular projector on the front. He rubbed his head and opened his eyes to see who it was he had hit.
He turned off his shield when he saw Liz helping Azari out of the mud. "If you dorks are all done bothering me, I'm going back to bed."
"Who are you calling a dork, Red?" gawked Liz as she got her web shooter ready to fire.
James sighed. "That would be you, Web-head."
She jumped forward with her leg out through the air. He simply stepped back and grabbed her leg. He pulled her around in a 180 degree angle and then threw her through the air and into the mud beside Azari.
"Now can I sleep?" He asked lazily.
"But you're missing the game!" Cried Pym, completely ignoring the outburst like it was daily occurrence, which it was.
"What is your problem, James?!" Shouted Azari from below, "You've been sleeping all day, missing training, blowing off your chores…
"Which I have to do by the way," Liz added.
"And generally being a real pain!" the dark-skinned boy concluded.
"Who cares?" Replied the red head, "What am I gonna miss, laundry day? So what if we don't do the chores and train?"
With that he back flipped off the edge of the balcony and landed behind the others, even though he hadn't practiced in days.
They all felt a pang of jealousy. Besides Raven and to an extent Liz, his natural abilities, combined with his inherited physique had given his the physical skills that they others trained endlessly for naturally. Whereas the others constantly trained to maintain good physical condition, James was naturally athletic. Whoever had said that fitness was a lame power was totally wrong.
"For what?" he continued, "Seriously, nothing's ever gonna happen in this place! You can act like a king, Pym can play superhero, Raven can meditate and say stupid junk like she's a monk, Liz can run around climbing all the walls she wants, and Toruun can live in fantasy land, saying 'aye' and 'verily' 'til she's blue in the face! What's the point?!"
"The point is, to not be such a jerk!" Shouted the Asgardian from the balcony.
His attitude hurt her more than the others because they had been so close growing up. There had been a time when she thought that maybe...
"Oh right, there's no point for us cause our parents are dead," said the boy, breaking into her thoughts. "Your dad just abandoned you, so there's still hope."
That did it. She gripped her sword and launched down at him. He blocked it with his shield. They pressed against each other, trying to push the other one back. It was here that James's lack of practice finally began to show.
"Do you think Asgardians really say jerk?" Pym wondered aloud.
The others only shrugged before turning back to the fighting pair.
"Anyone have some popcorn?" Liz asked the two boys.
"Your magic sword doesn't scare me, Toruun!" Said the boy.
"Then allow me to put the fear of it into thee!" She replied as thunder rumbled menacingly from somewhere.
Toruun pulled the sword up and swung it down again, intending to break that infernal shield. Suddenly, four metallic claws, two in each hand, blocked both the sword and the shield.
"Enough," Raven demanded, "This bickering is pointless."
"'Bickering' she calls it," Liz observed, "I wonder what she would call 'attempted murder'."
"Raven's right, that's enough!" Commanded another voice.
Everyone froze before turning to see who had spoken. They looked at an old man with long white hair, a white beard, and blue eyes. He wore dark brown pants and a black shirt with red sleeves.
"Tony!" cried Azari, "I was about to tell them to break it up!"
"Ya, we wouldn't have let it get serious!" agreed Liz.
"James, Toruun! Go to your bungalows and cool off!" Said Tony, ignoring the pair.
As they walked away, Pym gave a little laugh while Liz smirked. "You and the others too, Pym."
"Awww!" Complained the boy before they all began to move out.
Then turning to Raven, he instructed, "Thank you for stopping them, but next time you hear a commotion, come directly to me."
"Yes sir," she replied.
The old man watched them all begin to leave.
"James, wait," he said to the boy as he walked away, "I know you feel trapped here with just the seven of us, but try not to take it out on your brothers and sisters. Especially Toruun and Raven. If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me."
"I'll apologize to them. Later," he replied.
"Your father was never very good at doing nothing either," Tony continued, "You know you can always come talk to me, James."
But it's not the same, is it?" the boy asked quietly, "Like you say, you're not my dad."
With that, he walked up the stairs.
Tony sighed before turning away sadly. In so many ways James and Steve were alike, but in many others they were different. He would have expected the boy to be throwing himself into training, unable to sleep. But here he was, doing the exact opposite. It was just another reminder of what he had lost.
Suddenly, an alarm began sounding. A horn blared while red lights flashed. Tony gasped before turning to James who had frozen and was looking back at him.
"James, go to your room!" He commanded.
"Tony?" Toruun called, uncertain as she and the others arrived.
"Sir, what's going on?" Asked Raven.
"What are these lights, and that noise?" Continued Pym.
"Everyone, inside James's bungalow until I give the all clear!" Was the old man's only reply.
"Can we please wait in Raven's room," Liz begged, "It's scary clean but at least…"
"Now!" Tony ordered.
At once, they all ran inside the room, Tony sprinting down the beach the other way. James took one last moment to stare after him, trying to ignore the feeling that was the last real conversation they'd have for a while.