Marvel RP Archive

The last few days had been…off somehow for Janet van Dyne. She couldn’t put her finger on what, but she couldn’t shake that feeling that she had something important to do that she was forgetting. Quite annoying really. Well, whatever it was it couldn’t possibly be that important if she couldn’t remember it.

Her secretary had set up a meeting for her with a business man named Nick Fury. She wasn’t sure exactly what sort of business he ran but it never hurt to network and listen to what sort of proposal he had for her and her company.

Jan’s heels clicked as she strode down the hallway and into the lounge where the meeting had been arranged and glanced around. She didn’t know what this Nick Fury looked like but taking a chance on the man with the nicest suit in the room she walked over and offered her hand.

“Pleasure to meet you, I’m Janet van Dyne.”

Standing up from his seat, Fury greeted her with a warm smile. “The pleasure is mine, Ms. van Dyne. I’m Nick Fury, owner of Fury Enterprises and I’m happy you would see me on such short notice.”

He pulled out her seat as he was sort of desperate to get on her good side, he was going to do anything to come off and be seen as a trustworthy, kind and respectable man. He knew those qualities were what women often enjoyed seeing with partners according to what he had just read up on the way to the lounge.

Something no one else knew was that his business was currently being extorted and he needed a buy out or merge to help him keep his good name, so under that kind exterior he was sweating like a sinner in church underneath.

“I was wondering if you’d like to eat first before we discuss details?”

Jan returned the smile and took the chair he had pulled out for her gladly. A good first impression certainly.

“How gentlemanly of you. There aren’t enough men around who know how to treat a lady anymore,” she replied with a playful wink. “Hmm, a little food certainly wouldn’t hurt. I didn’t manage to squeeze in breakfast this morning before heading out to the office.”

He kept the facade of the warm and friendly as he internally despised just how wrong it felt to be deceiving her but it wasn’t a lie to say that both their businesses could mutually grow from this deal. So kept the gentle look and hoped it doesn’t bother her.

“A woman in the fashion industry that eats?,” he gave an overly emphasized gasp and then grinned afterwards, “sounds like my kind of woman.”

Jan laughed as well. He had a sense of humor it seemed, always a good thing. She hated businessmen who were too stuffy and uptight.

“I’m a designer, not a model, Mr. Fury,” she replied. “Though I do like to watch my figure. I believe in exercise to keep fit though… and I love dessert waaay too much to give up food.”

It was about that time that the waiter came over to take their orders and afterward she turned back to her companion. “So Mr. Fury, while we’re waiting for our food, might I inquire as to your business? I’m curious to hear what it is you specialize in.”

He was glad she took it as a joke and laughed, it helped ease him up a bit and he humbly smiled back at her. “You may be a designer but I’ve met quite a few who were about as thin as their models.” He chortled, “I’m glad to see your work ethic, it’s nice that people know that exercise is a key part of keeping fit rather than a short walk down to the elevator or subway.”

When she returned her attention back at him, he sat up straight. Taking out a business card out of his business card clip located in his inner blazer pocket, the card clearly stated Nick Fury to be the Director of some organization or company called S.H.I.E.L.D. “Nick, please call me Nick, Ms. van Dyne. My business specializes in the non-clothing specific business, we will strive to dominate the makeup, hair products and bathing products industry. No one really deems hair and bathing products as a part of beauty, but in my opinion, it’s the most key to have your hair and body looking and feeling as good as possible. Wouldn’t you say so?”

He gave a very subtle wink, it’s not really all too obvious if he winks due to the fact one of his eyes sports an eye patch but he did indeed wink at her.

Jan took the card and listened to his description of his company’s focus. A solid concept and she agreed with what he had said. The clothes weren’t the only aspects of true fashion. She nodded and flashed him a smile.

“I admit I haven’t heard of the company before, but it does sound intriguing and I agree with your statement. It’s definitely an integral part in achieving a great look. I’ll have to get my hands on some samples of your products and give them a test. I always experiment with fashion, but I admit I tend to stick to my favorite hair and make up products.”

Nick looked a little intimidating at first, but he seemed to be quite charismatic and fairly charming to boot. Certainly a good first impression.

He was beginning to calm down and ease up as it seemed quite possible to have gotten her to accept the merge, he’ll invite her to his office where she can sample the products and then sign the necessary paperwork that had been presented to her lawyers prior to this luncheon.

Must be.

But she was getting worried, and tired, because every time he moved to get up or snapped awake, she’d wake up slowly beside him and wouldn’t fall asleep until he calmed down enough to, but Peggy had no serum to support her. Regardless, she toughed through it, waking up on time every day and going through her daily chores.

Which she was just about to do, if Steve hadn’t practically bolted out of bed and out the room the moment the alarm went off. She sat up, blinking, before she got up, got dressed and followed after her fiancee. Finding him in the kitchen. She smiled to herself, at least something hadn’t changed.

Nearby Jefferson bounded in, heading straight for Steve and sitting patiently next to him, waiting for any bit of food to fall on the floor. Peggy just smiled wider before walking to the cabinets, grabbing plates, “Bacon this morning love?”

It was a usual sight, that’s for sure, to meander into the kitchen and find a super soldier head first into the refriderator. At least he had the decency to not drink the milk from the carton, and the fact he wasn’t hard to please when it came to food, and wouldn’t stand with the door open for ten minutes trying to decide what he wanted to eat. And of course, it was usually bacon. Today was no different in that aspect. What -was- different however, when Peggy rounded the corner, he was standing there eating the pinkish, marbled meat straight from the package. Raw. And he wasn’t even batting a lash.

However, it must have taken her a moment to register, as she didn’t mention it off hand. But this didn’t phase Steve at all. He wasn’t doing -anything- out of the ordinary, after all.

Except when the dog skittered in, bouncing and wagging his nub of a tail. That stopped short the moment the boxer caught sight of his master. Their gazes locked. Steve’s upper lip curled in an involuntary snarl. Jefferson’s nub stop wagging, and tucked, his overall demeanor becoming incredibly submissive.

Perfectly normal.

Until Steve growled at the dog, and she realized he was eating the bacon raw. There was a split second pause, Jefferson standing submissive under Steve before Peggy spoke, “Steven Grant Rogers. Did you just growl at your dog?” She sounded confused, and then also reprimanding, because…well Steve just growled at his dog, “And _what_ are you doing with that uncooked bacon?” She asked, now this was strange, and she felt that this was probably the time to start asking questions and stop trusting Steve to have everything under control.

Because he was eating raw bacon.

And growling at his dog.

And Peggy was really starting to think that he didn’t have everything under control.

She sighed then, plates still on the counter, “Let me have the bacon and let me cook it before you eat it for goodness sake, and…why on _earth_ did you _growl_ at Jefferson?” The dog perked up at his name, but stayed in a submissive position, his eyes questioning his master.

It was the gentle chirping and whisper of wind through the trees that roused Jen from her light slumber. For a few moments she was disoriented, confused as to why she was asleep beneath a tree. What she found to be more disconcerting was the fact that at some point she had shifted to her alternate form, ruining what clothes she had. She never lost control. Never.

Frantically the woman willed her human form back to her, tearing through her memories with some sick sense of hope that she would be able to figure out what happened and why her limbs were covered with a multitude of tiny scratches. But no memories welcomed her, only a dark emptiness and a feeling of unease. Something was wrong but she couldn’t tell what.

Ashamed of her current state, the young woman gathered the remains of her tattered clothes and tried to cover her body with what was left. It served no purpose other than to provide her with a sliver of comfort as she stumbled away from the trees.

Keen eyes spotted the rise of the mansion not too far in the distance and the woman started off at a brisk jog; the asphalt cut into her bare feet with each step, leaving a number of tiny cuts from which blood seeped.

Fortunately the journey up to the mansion was rather short, mostly due to her quickened pace. The slightly winded woman fought to calm her pounding heart before frantically rapping on the door, knuckles turning an angry red from the abuse.

The moment Peggy reprimanded him, Steve’s gaze shot to her. The expression that crossed his face went from something akin to a deer in the headlights, followed by his brows furrowing in confusion. “I didn’t growl at the dog, Peggy,” his tone was more of a scoff than he’d meant it to be. He gave the back of his neck a scratch, averting his eyes in an apologetic manner. “And I’m n-” He stopped short, staring at the strip of raw meat in his hands. …Well damn. He -was- eating raw bacon.

There was a flicker of disgust across his face as he set the package on the counter. A heavy sigh left his mouth, and he rubbed the back of his neck once more. Well that was awkward. Maybe the lack of sleep was effecting him more than he though. He handed the half eaten strip to the dog at his side, and Jefferson took it albeit cautiously.

Slowly, Steve straightened, and cleared his throat, as if attempting to erase the fact the situation had ever happened. Though it was JARVIS who ended up breaking the awkward silence, alerting there was a presence at the door.

“Capitaine Rogers, Il y a quelqu’un à l’entrée.”

…Aaaand the AI system was still in French. Either Tony was too lazy/busy/drunk to fix it, or he managed to learn French within the past few months and decided to leave it.

“Merci, JARVIS.” Steve replied, switching languages more out of habit than anything else. He pushed away from the counter, and with a sheepish glance toward his fiancee, he left the kitchen to answer the door.

However, he wasn’t quite expecting to find what he did. The shock was a little more than obvious on his face for a fleeting moment. “Oh.” It managed to escape before he could stop it. His mouth hadn’t quit caught up to his brain yet. Then again, it’s not every day that half naked, and rather ragged looking young women appeared on the front doorstep. Usually they were already inside the mansion whining about why Stark wasn’t there, and Steve or one of the other residents were left to show them out. He gave a quick glance to either side, before ushering the girl inside.

Peggy looked concerned. She wondered if all this stress was just finally getting to Steve, work, the wedding, more work, Steve was only human after all, there had to be a point where everything just weighed on him…but then again…growling at the dog? Eating raw bacon? Something was wrong. She frowned at Steve, sighing softly, “I’ll cook all right? Something good…just go wait in the room, breakfast in bed today.” She smiled softly, though her words were covered by JARVIS announcing the presence of someone at the door. She went quiet then, salvaging the rest of the bacon and gathering more from the fridge, along with some eggs. She wasn’t looking up when Steven sent her a glance. Peggy smiled down at Jefferson, who watched Steve leave before moving to sit next to Peggy, leaning against her legs while she cooked. “I’m sure Steven is all right. He’s just…stressed. Let’s lighten his worry load shall we?” She smiled at Jefferson who wagged his tail, “We’ll worry about the wedding and handle it, give Steven something less to worry about.” She reached down, patting Jefferson on the head before whisking an egg and putting the bowl down in front of Jefferson. She continued cooking regardless, the smell of frying bacon wafting through the air of the house, oblivious to the woman who had just entered the house.

The woman’s eyes widened slightly at the sudden opening of the door, she honestly hadn’t expected someone to answer the door even though she was able to detect faint noises from within. She looked up at Steve with an almost fearful expression and her mouth opened in an attempt to speak but only a low whimper came out. Almost immediately thereafter her hands clapped over her mouth and her brows knitted together in confusion. A whimper was definitely not what she had intended to come out.

Jen glanced about, concerned if any of the other inhabitants had heard the small sound. Judging from the sudden onslaught of sounds and scents that her brain was rapidly sorting through, it wasn’t likely. The smell of cooking bacon nearly overpowered the rest of the scents but eventually she was able to separate them.

There was a woman in the kitchen, cooking. She knew that from the smell and gentle sizzling of bacon. Her nose also picked up on the strong smell of dog and more notably, the smell of another wolf.

Once more her brows drew together in confusion, no that wasn’t right, she thought. Her eyes darted to Steve, identifying him as the source of the familiar scent but still something seemed off.

Now that she was inside she was suddenly hyper-aware of her appearance and her hands moved to grab the remains of her clothing to draw them closer, if only to provide comfort. A light blush crept over her cheeks as she uttered a low “sorry”. But instead, it came out as another soft whine.

The young woman’s sounds of distress only made things more alarming. He could tell she was shaken, as it was, if only by the look in her eyes which was similar to that of a lost, kicked puppy. Not to mention, it had to be somewhat traumatic, if not embarrassing to show up on some strange doorstep, your clothes in tatters, and after spending the night in the bushes, from the looks of it.

Steve was hesitant to touch her, in any sort of way, feeling it would make him more threatening than comforting. Finally, he settled for placing his hands as reassuringly as possible on her shoulders. His eyes rested on hers, and dared not go any lower. “Hey, it’s alright. You’re safe now.” His tone was as even as possible. But he found it strangely hard to focus.

There was a myriad of smells playing with his senses. But there were two that were incredibly overpowering. First was the more than obvious aroma of sizzling bacon. Had it ever been that strong before? True, Steve could usually tell when it was being fried up from 500 yards away. It was like he a had a sixth bacon sense. But it was unusually strong. Not to mention the subtle hints of Peggy’s perfume… still lingering from the day before? Odd… She was in the other room. But the other scent… he couldn’t put his finger on it. However, it was so familiar, in a way. And it was strong.

Steve’s brow furrowed a bit deeper. “What’s your name?” He asked, pulling his own focus back to the woman in front of him. “C’mon. Let’s… get you cleaned up… and some clothes. Then we’ll figure out what happened…”

And heaven help him, when he did. There were quite a few potential scenarios running through his head, and none of them were pretty. And all of them left him with an urge to get his hands pretty dirty with the perpetrator.

“Peggy?” He called, voice echoing through the foyer. “Peggy, can you come here a minute?”

Peggy sighed, still standing in front of the stove, cooking the bacon before plating it and setting in another batch. She paused however, after the last bit of bacon slipped out of her fingers and into the pan. Had Steve called her? She frowned before removing the pan from the stove, setting on another burner that wasn’t on and turning the fire off. She wiped her hands on her apron before walking out of the kitchen, “Steven? Yes? What is—-“ Oh. Well. That would be what was wrong. Peggy blinked, looking confused before looking concerned, “Oh…oh you poor thing…what on earth happened?” She asked, looking at Steve questioning. She didn’t say anything though before moving to the girl, crouching next to her and smiling, though she didn’t touch her, “Don’t worry all right? You’re safe now and in good hands.” She smiled reassuringly, “Now then, lets get you some clothes and get you cleaned up, shall we?” She said lightly, offering a hand to the girl, but waiting for her to make the first move. She didn’t want to frighten her, and had dealt with enough people fresh out of taxing situations to know what to do.

Jen’s eyes were fixed on those of the man, her gaze never breaking. Once though, it threatened to waver as her body involuntarily stiffened moments before the man had gently placed his hands on her shoulders. After a few moments later the woman’s posture relaxed slightly when she realized that the man meant no harm and the breath that she had been unknowingly holding came out in a light huff. Her mouth opened and closed slightly as if she had full intentions of speaking but then decided against it and chose instead to give a slight nod, avoiding the name question for fear of what noise she would make this time.

Her head snapped to the side when she heard Peggy enter the room and she instinctively drew closer to Steve, nearly mashing herself up against him. The young woman viewed Steve as something akin to her guardian now. Her body had tensed up once again and the animalistic nature of her mind was threatening to take control.

A few awkward moments passed before she extended her hand out to meet that of the woman, a timid smile appearing on her face. Jen gave a slight nod that was accompanied with another light huff in agreement and slowly detached herself from Steve. Still, she made no attempts to speak for fear of her whimpering or whining again.

Steve felt Jen relax against him. That was a good sign, at least. Instinctively, his arm wrapped around her shoulders as she pressed herself to him. It was a comforting and protective gesture. However, when Peggy reached for her, Steve released the young woman. It was a moment or so before Jen released him too. He let her hold on as long as she felt comfortable. He wasn’t going to force her. 

And the barrage of questions he’d save for later. Now was clearly not the time, especially when all she could muster was a few helpless whimpers. Perhaps she was still in a state of shock. She wasn’t very injured, aside from a few scratches, and being, well, half naked. It left things to the imagination, and none of it was particularly nice.

Steve let out a deep breath as he watched Peggy usher the younger woman down the hallway. There were too many questions running through his mind. First off, how could something like that happen practically under their noses? She couldn’t have been too far away, especially to have chosen this doorstep in particular to fall on.

But most importantly, why did he feel so inexplicably drawn to her? And why could he… smell her? That was the word for it, right? It seemed so rude, but he couldn’t think of any other way of phrasing it.

Helping the woman to her feet, Peggy smiled comfortingly, taking on the role of a mother figure as best as she could, she had practice in being a mother hen after all. Though, as she walked down the hall, her eyes glanced at Steve, questioning, before she just smiled again and focused on what she was doing, “Don’t worry, you’re in good hands here, no one is going to hurt you.” She said softly, gently patting the girl’s hand with her own, leading her down the hall to her and Steve’s room.

Once there, she lead the other in, and closed the door. She smiled before letting go of the girl’s hand for a moment and searching through a nearby cupboard for towels, “First things first, lets get you cleaned up shall we?” Another reassuring smile before suddenly Jen was in the bathroom, and the water was running, filling the bathroom with steam. Peggy reached into a cabinet, pulling out a small bottle and pouring only a tablespoon into the water, but soon the smell of lavender filled the room, added with the warm steam, it was quite relaxing. At least it was to Peggy.

Standing carefully, wincing ever so slightly at a small pop in her knees when she did, Peggy went to Jen again, “Would you like me to leave while you clean yourself up?” She asked softly, “I understand that it would be a tad bit awkward for me to help, you are grown after all, but I would like to help any way I can considering that you must have had a rather rough night.” She offered gently.

The smell of lavender was quite calming to Jen, if anything it was a tad strong to her sensitive nose. She let out three short sneezes in response before a sheepish grin worked its way onto her face. A contemplative huff was heard as the woman stared at the water.

She knew that it was more than likely that she wold need assistance in cleaning some of her injuries, especially the ones on her back. With a strange sense of calm, the woman grasped the frayed ends of her tattered shirt and tugged it over her head.

The action was not free of pain however, parts of the shirt had been glued to the cuts and the surrounding skin by dried blood. She gave another tug and the parts of her shirt that were stuck came free, pulling the hastily formed scabs with it. A loud, inhuman snarl accompanied this action but it began to drop off as the white hot pain began to fade, replaced by the warm oozing of blood down her back.

Her free hand balled up into a fist and was quick to move and strike the wall in aggravation. A dull thump was the wall’s response to her hand. She meant no harm to anyone but it was such a spontaneous action that she couldn’t reign it in.

Her eyes pleadingly turned to Peggy for help as pain began to etch itself into her features.

Steve found himself back in the kitchen, if only to tend to the sizzling parts of a meal Peggy had left behind. He couldn’t let the unattended stove burn down the better part of the mansion. Tony would have his hide to add to his collection. Of course, it would possibly cause the value of said collection to rise exponentially, especially on the black market. But it wasn’t an addition he’d planned on making any time soon. 

While he slouched over the pans of eggs and bacon, he tried to at least give some sort of order to the questions that were rolling about in his mind. They were more about Jen’s situation than they were about the curious changes he’d found himself undergoing. After all, there was no way they could be connected. And at this moment, she was a little more important.

And the fact it happened practically in his backyard. Steve was perhaps beating himself up the most for that one. Sure, he couldn’t protect everyone,  but at least he gave it the effort.

After making a few more servings, Steve finished breakfast, and set the table in the corner of the kitchen for three. It’d be ready when the girls were done.

Peggy didn’t leave the bathroom, instead choosing to busy herself folding towels and digging around for some first aid kit or something. It didn’t seem like the woman wanted Peggy to leave, so she made no move to. Besides, she might want some company right now, Peggy told herself, folding another towel and placing a bottle of shampoo on the sink…now where on earth did Tony hide the first aid kit? She sighed, rummaging more through the cabinet and searching for the familiar white box before she heard the snarl. Peggy jumped ever so slightly before lifting her head, watching Jenn and frowning, “Oh…” was all she muttered before she was at Jenn’s side in a heartbeat, gently holding her upper arm while she wiped clean the blood on the other’s back with a wet towel.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you cleaned up and get you something to eat as well…just bear with me, I know this will hurt.” She said softly, finishing off cleaning the blood before stepping away to the cabinet again, finding a bottle of alcohol and some medical wipes. She soaked with gauze in the alcohol before gently wiping the gashes on the other’s back, her hand on Jenn’s shoulder again, just in case. She knew it stung, but it was a necessary evil to get the gashes clean.

“Lets just hope you don’t need stitches…” She muttered softly before continuing. She quietly cleaned Jenn’s back before pulling away again, gently patting the other’s shoulder, “All finished, now then, into the bath with you.” She said, nudging the other gently, “Give me a moment as well, I need to find you some clothes to wear. Something airy I think, so you don’t irritate your gashes.” She explained before smiling and leaving the bathroom. She brushed her skirt off gently before digging through her closet, finding a nice, comfortable sundress for Jenn to wear. 

She was back in the bathroom in only a few minutes, hanging the dress on the back of the door before sitting on the edge of the bathtub, “Need any help?” She asked softly, still smiling reassuringly. 

A low growl reverberated in her chest in response as she felt the sting of the alcohol but this time she restrained her actions. It was a necessary pain; she understood that all too well. Fortunately the cleansing process didn’t seem to take quite long and before she knew it, Jen was being nudged towards the warm bath.

She glanced around the bathroom as the woman flitted about before returning with the sundress. Jen’s lips tugged upwards into a faint smile, she hadn’t had the opportunity to wear a nice dress in quite some time and there was always something freeing about feeling the air rush against her legs. Her eyes darted back to Peggy before giving a slight shake of her head.

The woman gathered the shampoo and towel up in her arms and promptly placed them closer to the tub, hardly caring that Peggy was still present as she turned her back and removed the final pieces of her clothes before slipping into the warm bath. The warm water lapped gently against her skin, working gently to relax any aches and pains. With quick hands she scrubbed the dirt from her body, thankful that her back was already clean. Next her hands worked their way up to her scalp, massaging in a small amount of the shampoo. 

Jen relished the feeling of cleanliness as she rinsed the shampoo from her locks and quickly gave her body one last rinse before grabbing for the towel. She wasn’t one to take long showers or baths, especially not when her stomach was rumbling angrily.

Peggy waited patiently, though she moved outside of the bathroom when Jen stepped out. She continued waiting however, half wondering if Steve had eaten all of the food she had cooked, seeing as she hadn’t finished cooking yet. She really needed to learn to cook way ahead of time as it seemed like something always interrupted either their eating or cooking. She sighed at that thought, at the rate they were going, the wedding wouldn’t be until December.

She was knocked out of her thoughts however, still waiting for Jen to come out of the bathroom, though she knocked on the wall gently, “No rush sweetie, but I was curious if you were all right with bacon.” Seeing as that’s really the only thing I make in the mornings. She giggled to herself softly, “I made some eggs too, but I just wanted to be sure in case I need to go back into the kitchen and keep cooking…assuming Steven hasn’t eaten everything in sight.” 

The woman rapidly dried off, barely savoring the feeling of the soft towel against her skin. Right now, it was all about using her time effectively. She froze, however, at the mention of bacon and her stomach let out a rumble of anticipation. Jen let out a soft laugh at Peggy’s last remark, pleased that her vocal chords hadn’t betrayed her with that noise.

She worked to pull the airy dress on and twirled in place for a moment, fascinated at how the fabric flowed and felt cool against her skin. Content with her current appearance -despite the angry red lines the swathed the visible pats of her skin and her dark hair plastered to her skin- Jen made her way out of the bathroom, beaming happily at the thought of bacon.

One had to give Steve an award for his patience. He hadn’t touched anything in the interim, aside from moving the food from the stove to the table. And that’s where he rested, reclined in one of the chairs with his hands behind his head, feet propped in the adjacent chair closest to the window. He peered out of that window, staring at nothing in particular, and more or less trying to organize his thoughts and ignore the tantalizing smell of food.

He knew they were on their way back down stairs before they managed to cross the hallway. He could hear their footsteps against the floor and could nearly pinpoint their location. And he was sure his ear actually twitched. It was an awkward movement, and instinctively, Steve reached up to press the palm of his hand to it. The gesture quickly became his habitual nervous scratching of the back of his neck, and he shook his head. Now he was imagining things. Ridiculous. The soldier gave a heavy exhale, his hand falling to his side. At least the young woman was okay now. He’d go scouting for answers after breakfast. Or something.

No rest for the weary, it would seem. It came with the territory, unfortunately.

The moment Peggy and Jen rounded into the kitchen, Steve craned his neck to gaze at them, his smile rather lopsided. “Better?”

Peggy looped her arm with Jen’s, smiling as she did and lead her down to the kitchen, still smiling, “Now then, you’re welcome to stay as long as you need, understand? We have more than enough room here for you.” She said brightly, smiling, “And all the food you need, though you’ll have to compete with Steven and Bruce and Thor if you do decide to stay.” Peggy laughed softly at that, it was true though, they had to go grocery shopping at LEAST twice a day to keep up with how much Bruce, Steve, and Thor ate, not to mention that they still needed to feed the others in the house.

She laughed softly to herself again before making it to the kitchen, stepping in and smiling, “Oh…Steven, you set the table.” She smiled brightly, leading Jen to the table, “Now then, you sit and I’ll make us all some tea, you two go ahead and eat.” She said walking to Steve and kissing his cheek softly before heading to the stove, grabbing the tea pot and filling it with water, humming to herself while she set up three cups with tea strainers and loose leaf earl gray. Nothing like a nice cup of tea to calm you down right?

Jen nodded slowly as she was tugged along gently, the wheels of her mind already rapidly spinning to process the information. She had already figured out who Steve was but she wasn’t sure about Bruce or Thor. Granted, those names did sound familiar but she just didn’t know why.

Observant eyes darted about the kitchen, taking in every aspect of the room as she gave a slight nod in response to Steve’s question. It was cozy but not so ridiculously comfortable that it wasn’t able to function well. She half smiled, mentally commending the person who had designed the room. Her eyes wandered down to land on Steve and a light blush crept into her cheeks again as she remembered her rather disheveled and slightly inappropriate appearance from earlier.

Her hands gripped the back of the chair closest to her and gently tugged it out just far enough so that she could slip into place. Even the seats were nice, she mused silently. The corners of her lips tipped upwards once more as she shyly glanced at the man once more.

Since she was unsure of their table etiquette, Jen continued to sit with her hands folded in her lap. To her it seemed only proper that Steve should make the first move, after all, this was his house… Sort of.

Steve shifted. He moved his feet to the floor, and faced the table properly, before swiveling the rest of the way around to stand. It was habit, along with common courtesy that he pulled the chairs on either side of the table out enough to make it easy enough to slide in. However, Jen beat him to the punch when it came to the seat she claimed. His hand drew back, and his gaze locked on hers.

He noted the blush, and in that instant, he heard her thoughts as if she’d said them aloud. His reply came before he gave it a second thought, “Don’t be sorry. I won’t hold it as your first impression.” A soft smile crossed his lips, and he moved to sit, but froze mid-motion. It hit him with the force of a high speed brick that she didn’t actually… say anything.

First sleepless nights, hearing a pin drop from yards away, eating raw bacon, and now he was reading people’s thoughts. Dear god, he was going insane, wasn’t he? Quickly, Steve sat fully in his chair once more, and shook his head. He pulled the plate of eggs and toast toward him without hesitation, as if he were trying to divert the fact anything had even happened. Not that it made anything less awkward.

Within moments, Kurt teleported a few times towards the source of the high pitched screams he had heard, each time leaving behind the burning smell of brimstone and dark smoke as he quickly left the vicinity to try again closer. Hiding inside a tree, he carefully watches the area and see a couple of gun men, holding captive a group of what seemed to be the upper class elites having a fundraiser of some sort.

He teleported amongst the trees and tried to make sure he had noted everyone that was worth noting to take down. Within seconds he teleported and took one of the gunmen, teleporting and placing him into a tree after he knocked him. The other gunman that had been in front of the hostile, Kurt took had smelled the burning brimstone and turned around to see his buddy was now missing. 

To make his point he shot upwards into the air, taking one of the hostages and holding them against the hot muzzle from which the bullets had just exited. Yelling at whomever that took his friend, he warned that he would shoot the elderly woman if he didn’t bring him back safely. 

Kurt was now in a predicament, he had made the wrong move and could possible have cost some of these hostages their lives.

As excited as he was for the delicious brown liquid, he was a hero above all. His head perked toward the direction of the high pitch scream and immediately took off to it. Once he arrived at the scene, he scowled at the gunman as he frantically shouted at the sky and pointing his gun to the woman.

“Unhand the lovely lady, you vile, thief!” Thor demanded with a booming voice. His God like exterior somehow made him bigger. Something had already happened and he sense that someone had already beaten him here. He wasn’t sure who, but it surely wasn’t one of the Avengers.

Kurt had noticed the Asgardian, a tall and large blond man with a booming voice and spoke ye olde English. He was still hiding in the tree when he decided to take this opportunity to free the hostage that was in the arms of the gunman. He teleported quickly behind the man and quickly grabbed the hostage before bamf and they were a block away.

Dee’s brow shot up in mild amusement. Yes, it seemed that things weren’t going well for this young lady and the fact that she was hitting everything but her obvious target left her in wonder. Mags sent me out here to scope her out, see her abilities. Everythin’ I feel says that she is one of us but… She shook her head. What abilities could this girl possibly have? Obviously the ability to miss her target, Dee thought with a harsh snort.

She was just about fed up with this surveillance and swung one of her legs over the branch, forcing herself up from her comfortable reclining position. Both of her hands curled around the limb before giving herself the gentle shove that was necessary for her to drop to the ground with a soft thud. Dee moved to turn away from the field and to begin walking back home but something kept her rooted to the spot. Maybe if I just stay a tiny bit longer, maybe then I’ll be able to see what her deal is.

Kate sighed heavily again, still holding her bow before she folded it up, and shoved it into her bag. She grit her teeth, running her hands through her hair. Something was up, something HAD to be up. She couldn’t have just up and lost her ability to shoot overnight. That was impossible…right? She needed to figure this out…maybe Tony knew something, or hell, maybe she should just call Clint or….

She paused, looking around her before her eyes stopped on the woman standing nearby. She raised an eyebrow before sighing, “Having fun watching me miss, ma’am?” She asked a little harsher than she meant to. She was frustrated to say the least. This was what she did, she was a perfect shot, this is what gave her life purpose, and here she was, missing a freaking target not even 20 yards from where she was standing.

Dee folded her arms over her chest, one brow still raised in amusement. “I wouldn’t call it fun but more of a, ah.. form of amusement.” Her grin was close to mocking, a near perfect match for her tone of voice. “So tell me lil’ lady, how long did it take ya to perfect the art of missin’ your target?” It was closer to a sneer now as moved to approach the woman, every step screaming of her confidence.

“Now I’mma be quite honest wit’cha. I thought the whole purpose of a target was to hit it y’know, not to hit everythin’ around it. So pray tell, how do you do it? You must teach me your ways!” Oh yes, she was openly mocking now but she felt no remorse. Dee figured the girl’s attitude towards her as well as the sheer ridiculousness of this mission combined gave her plenty of reason to act this way.

Kate didn’t say anything at first, just watching the woman walk towards her before she just started packing up her gear, “If you seriously consider this a personal past time, then I’ll let you find someone else to mock.” She snapped, shoving her things into her duffel bag. She needed to calm down, to get some sleep, maybe even relax in a bath or something. Anything to try to figure this out or fix it. Maybe someone knew this was happening, and maybe that meant they knew how to fix it.

For all intents and purposes though, Kate figured she might need to learn how to aim without aiming at what she wanted to hit. Then maybe she’d ACTUALLY hit something.

A grin worked its way onto Dee’s face. “Ya got attitude. I like that. Now tell ya what. I’ll make you an offer an’ before you go off runin’ and refusin’ hear me out, deal?” She half figured hat her proposal would go unheeded but she decided to try and give it a shot anyway.

She dropped all attempts of subtlety and instead just decided to state the facts, hoping that would keep the girl around just long enough to become interested. “You’re special, ya got somethin’ special about you. AN’ I don’t mean you amazing ability to miss, I mean somethin’ else, yea? You got a talent stored away inside ya, I can feel it. Cause ya see, that’s my talent. I can feel when other folks got gifts, ya hear?”

Kate rolled her eyes, still packing up her things before looking at this strange woman, looking unamused. Normally, Kate was much more personable, a skill she learned through years and years of boarding school, public appearances with her father, and…well…being a Young Avenger, but right now? Kate was pissed. Unbelievably pissed and frustrated and all around upset. But she was still packing, so why not let this girl talk?

Only she was talking about gifts, gifts Kate had once had, less than 12 hours ago. She raised an eyebrow, looking at the woman, “…Excuse me?” She asked softly before narrowing her eyes, looking a little suspicious, “Who are you exactly?” She asked, her voice taking on a slightly demanding tone, “And what the hell are you talking about?”

The corners of her mouth pulled up even higher. So the girl was going to stop and listen- good. Dee let out a hearty laugh and clapped her hands together gleefully. “I figured tha’d get’cha attention. Good.” Seconds later her face was serious, not a trace of the smile or laughter could be seen anywhere.

  “I’mma rather…talented individual if you will. Much like yourself jus’ a different set of skills really. ‘s quite curious how a different twist in th’ right spot of someone’s genetic code can produce different results. Different people, different spots an’ ya get different ‘mutations’.” She placed finger quotes around the word mutations. Dee wasn’t fond of the word, it was ugly and left a foul taste in her mouth. The woman couldn’t help but half smile and wink at the girl, “ya catchin’ my drift?”

Kate stared at the woman, only partially listening. What the hell was she talking about? Skills? Talented? Genetic code? Muta—-oh

OH.

Kate blinked at the woman, an eyebrow raised before she laughed, “Wait wait wait…you think I’m a mutant?” She asked faintly, honestly, she wasn’t exactly fond of the word, it sounded so…terrible. But “genetically evolved individual” just took too long. Kate slung her duffel bag over her shoulder, putting her hands up defensively, “No no, I’m not—-I’m not a mutant. I think you have the wrong girl, ma’am.” She said lightly, shrugging, “No powers. Never had any…I _used_ to have skill, lots of it, but no powers.” She muttered lightly. Honestly, it bothered her sometimes, that she was the only human on her team, especially now that Eli was gone, but at least she had her skills to keep her on par with the others.

At least, she USED to have skills. But she’d get to the bottom of this, figure out what the hell was going on and get her skills back. Because she needed them, not just for being a superhero, but for…herself. Her skills, her name as Hawkeye, they were her life.

She watched as realization dawned on the girl’s face. “Oh good, so ya did catch my drift. Had me goin’ for a moment there…” Dee inhaled sharply, as if the word mutant had inflicted physical pain. “Ah, I wouldn’t say mutant, ‘s such an ugly word. I think gift is more ‘propriate an’ it sounds far nicer.” The woman’s brows rose as the girl denied her having any powers, or skill for that matter.

“Skills or powers, sometimes a person can’t tell the difference. Tha’s why I’m here. I can tell the difference between skill and not.” She tapped her skull with a finger, “I know things. I can feel things. An’ the feelin’ that I’m gettin’ right now says that you’re gifted. Not just skilled.” It was true, to Dee it felt like her skin was crawling; it was the telltale sign that she was near another mutant and the closer in proximity she got, the stronger it became.

“Trust me on this, yea?”

“No I don’t think you get it miss, I’m not…gifted. Not like you think.” Kate shook her head again, “I’ve _checked_, trust me. No powers, no skills, just a regular human…I mean, I’ve GONE up to that school upstate and even the professor up there didn’t feel anything, so I mean, I’m 100% not-gifted, not how you think I am anyway.” Kate was confused, who the hell was this girl, and why was she telling Kate she was a mutant? Last Kate checked she was still the human girl on a team of super humans and nothing else.

Right?

But here was this woman, INSISTING that Kate was something more than just human, but when it all boiled down to it, Kate trusted Tony and Professor Xavier _a lot_ more than some random woman telling her that she was a mutant, “I think you have the wrong girl, ma’am. I’m not gifted. At all.” My genes are 100% mutation free thanks.

The woman shook her head sadly. “Ya see, that’s where you’re wrong. Maybe he was lyin’ to you or didn’t wanna tell you but no. You are gifted.” She emphasized the word gifted with a simple gesture. “Trust me on this, yea? I’m a tracker. I find others like you an’ me an’ lemme tell ya. The same crawly feelin’ I get when I’m around other gifted folks, I’m gettin’ it right now. And it sure as hell ain’t from me so the only other explanation is you.”

Dee let out a sigh, hoping the girl would understand her point and where she was coming from.

Kate was getting frustrated. This girl just didn’t get it. Kate was human! She wasn’t a mutant or a super human or a meta-human or whatever. She was human, what the hell was this girl talking about?

“Look lady, I am _not_ a mutant. There is SOMETHING wrong with your powers or something and—-“

Kate paused. She hadn’t been able to make a proper shot since yesterday…and this girl was claiming that her power was locating mutants, and she was locating…well Kate. Who was a human. Maybe it had something to do with each other? 

“…We’re…going to try something…I’m not a mutant okay? I’m _not_. I’m _human_. Maybe…maybe whatever messed with my abilities, messed with yours?”

She was slightly taken aback at the young woman’s snappish attitude and her brows furrowed slightly at her vague suggestion. Dee wasn’t really in the mood to put her life on the line, or anywhere near it, for that matter. But still, she conceded. 

Dee inhaled sharply before letting out a heavy sigh. “Okay. Y’know normally I don’t do shit like this at all. But if this plane’ of ours,” she emphasized the word plan with finger quotes before continuing. “Will help put both of us at east, then fine. We can give it a shot.”

Kate didn’t know what else she could try besides finding a person she KNEW was a mutant and having this woman…well…track them more or less. But who could she find? She knew people on the Avengers, sure, but most of them were accidents or experiments or geniuses…then again, she could always find Wanda, or Pietro…or even Magneto, who, after that event with Wanda and Dr. Doom, Kate wasn’t too afraid of any more. 

She looked at the woman, sighing heavily, “First things first. My name is Kate Bishop, and I think…we need to find a person we know is a mutant, and see if you still get that tingling sensation…or if you’re seriously just locating humans. Any suggestions?”

Dee smiled slightly at Kate. “Call me D’eva. Or Dee. Whichever suits your fancy. I ain’t too picky about that stuff right now,” she paused just long enough to rub her temples slightly. “I’ll be honest wit’cha Kate, I don’t see why I’d be tracking humans but… Okay. I don’ really know who we’d go to because the normal lot I’m with, well, lets just say they’re a wee bit busy right now, yeah?” Her eyes narrowed slightly in thought.

“I guess I’ll have ta roll with your punches on this one.” 

“Well, nice to meet you Dee…” Kate said softly before sighing, “I think…dammit I think Wanda and Pietro are both busy…Tommy too.” She rubbed her forehead, “There’s literally _no one_ you can think of to go test this out at? I mean, did you talk to anyone this morning? Did they give you that tingling feeling or…?” Kate was grabbing at strings at this point, not really knowing how to properly prove this. Then again, it was a little hard to prove, but everything pointed to it…right?

Because Kate wasn’t a mutant, and her abilities were on haywire and this girl claimed she was a mutant tracker, but was tracking Kate who wasn’t a mutant and so HER abilities must be on haywire and—-ugh. As if her day wasn’t confusing enough.

Kate rubbed her temple again, thinking, “What about Magneto?” She asked softly, “I’m thinking neither of us are on really good terms with Scott’s team, but…Magneto is…okay with us? Right?” I mean, after Kate helped with Wanda and Billy…maybe she was at least on Magneto’s not-going-to-smite-you list?

Dee gave a slight shrug, “when I’m out on jobs I usually stay in the place with the cheapest beds. Try to avoid too many questions and prying eyes. Some things don’t need to see the light of day, not yet.” She wasn’t exactly lying, she did try to keep away from prying eyes for the most part but that was simply because she didn’t want to be bothered by lowly individuals.

He was about to fly out of New York to visit his Grandmother on the Rez. He was excited about it, since he haven’t seen her in quite some times. He had been busy training at the school and managed to be roped into some business with S.H.I.E.L.D. some where a long the way. It had been hard and stressful, so this was his vacation. Except never in a million years, would  he ever expect to run into the number one person on both the X-men and  the Avenger’s hit list.

Molly sat on a chair in the terminal of the airport, her legs pulled up to her chest and her chin resting on her knees as she waited for Victor to come back. They’d flown into New York for a little trip, one that Molly theorized as a reason to visit their friends, the Young Avengers, and before they were going to leave Vic said he needed to stop and use the bathroom. So now she was stuck waiting, a little impatiently, for him to come back.

As she waited she stared at the people passing by she decided to come up with stories for each of them. 

The lady with the crazy pink hat and polka-dot dress clearly owned a candy store, the man with the gray beard was the distant brother of Santa, the little girl with the dolls in he hands was really a midget fashion designer-

Molly’s thoughts paused as a nicely dressed, very tall man walked up to the payphones.

Hmmm…he’s a fancy animal trainer with a cool accent that’s here for a competition that he’s determined to win.

Molly nodded to herself as she watched him, but all thoughts of animal training left her mind as she saw the man, who now was clearly not focused on his phone-call, flick his wrist. Chaos erupted a little distance away and Molly watched a guard, who looked like he’d been watching the nicely-dressed dude, ran off to investigate.

Magneto had caught a glimpse of the small child and even the Mohawk boy, it wasn’t terribly hard to miss either due to their unusual circumstances. The Mohawk boy had sported a unique ‘punk’ or was it ‘dubstep’-esque cut, and the little girl was sitting all by herself which was highly unseen in an overly crowded place such as an airport.

He was grinning due to having lost the man so easily, he went over to where Molly was sitting and sat down across from her. He pulled down his duckbill cap just a hair to better shade his face. He placed his bag beside him and removed the newspaper he kept inside. Crossing his right ankle over his left knee, he then opened the newspaper and pretended to read it. He was waiting for his ride to arrive, however long that will take.

It wasn’t too long until lights began to flickr inside the airport which was extremely strange but something Magneto wasn’t afraid of or not used to. His pickup team may have ended up meeting some trouble and could possibly be in the midst of a battle. He folded his newspaper and began to walk amongst the panicking people. As people began to grow louder, the lights began to react to their panic, and soon turned off completely.

Magneto had turned on his electromagnetic sight, causing his eyes to glow an electric blue as he focused and concentrated on his eyes to find his brothers, the first ‘mutant’ like aura he saw was of the little girl’s, the one he had sat across from and began to feel some sort of sympathy. He walked over to her, turning off his powers and spoke softly to calm her down. “It’ll be alright, I’m just like you.”

He motioned for her to take his hand when he once again turned on the vision, looked around and found the Mohawk and then what seemed to be swarms of metallic bugs flying into their terminal. Yelling, “duck,” he crouched down onto of Molly to protect the young mutant and enabled a magnetic shield, not knowing the nanobots were perfectly capable of penetrating through them and got them both.

They met eyes with each other and Sparrow wasn’t exactly sure if he knew who he was. He averted his gaze and pretended to be interested in something else where to avoid suspicion. When the man was on the move again, he pursued him, wondering what evil scheme he had planning. 

He watched him through is gray eyes, observing him as he sat across the little girl in the terminal. When the lights began to flicker, he looked up and bit his lips knowing that things were about to get a lot more dangerous. The mass of people began to panicked as the lights went out completely, submerging the airport in darkness. The Mohawk boy turned back to where the little girl and Magneto were and saw the faint glow around them. They met eyes again and he immediately started  to run toward him as the swarm of something very loud buzzed passed him. He then crouched down on the ground and covered his head as he used  the newspaper flying everywhere and notebook in his backpack to created a wall of harden paper shield around him. But to his horror, he can here the things chipping and eating away at it, sliding past the fiber of the pages and finally reaching him.

Molly couldn’t help the worry that gripped her as people began to panic. She could hear screams and shouts, and the sound of people running as they fled. The lights began to flicker as people started to run past, and she wasn’t sure what to do. Victor was still gone and the people looked like they were in trouble, but from what she couldn’t tell. She wanted to help, but she didn’t know what they were running from, and she couldn’t see in the dark as the lights went out in the terminal. She curled tighter in on herself and her hands slid up to press against her ears to muffle the screams that filled the semi-darkness. She didn’t like watching the dark masses, the people, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but before she closed her eyes the nicely-dressed man got up from his spot and walked toward her.

“You are too?” Molly asked, realizing he meant he was a mutant, and she took his hand, squeezing it tightly as she tried to calm down. She ducked as he told her to, wondering why he was telling her to duck, and why he was shielding her as if they were under attack. 

She couldn’t see anything, and as she crouched she began to forget why she was here, and what was going on. She pressed closer to the man above her, having the vague notion that he was related to her… someone important.

The fact that he was protecting her had caused him to believe that she was his child or possibly a grandchild of his due to the nanobots personality and memory altering abilities. He no longer knew of his villainous past, he no longer remembered Magda, Anya or even the twins Wanda and Pietro. All he knew was that the girl he had been covering was his precious blood and loved one.

Having forgotten about his abilities even, the man’s face was no longer the stoic and hardened face that the ‘evil’ doer Magneto would often hold. No, instead, it seemed to have softened, his face was calm, collected and even gentle. He stood up and helped the young girl up as he glanced around seeing the broken glass and passengers slowly get up as well, acting as though nothing had happened almost. As if the glass was nothing more than just an accident and people would begin continuing as if nothing had ever happened.

Clint waited to hear the people inside coughing before sneaking inside the bank for a moment and hiding behind a desk, using some infrared googles to scope out the hostiles and hostages. He made his way to the teller counter, taking down two hostiles and disarming them as he controlled his breathing.

Willy gagged from the gas, the stress finally reached in impasse. He fell to his knees disregarding everything that was going on in the background. His only focus was his rapid heartbeat and the difficulty breathing. Eyesight gone he mentally kicked himself for being this weak. ‘Damn it Riley there’s no time for sadness.’ Willy smiled at the friendly but serious tone of that voice inside his head, the voice of his best friend.

“Damn it.” Willy opened his eyes as he surveyed the area. He was at the bank and now instead of insurgents and his squad-mates, he saw unconscious gunmen with relieved hostages. He noticed a man equipped with a bow and arrow. ‘Is that even legal to carry? Was he the one that saved us? How the hell did I survive?’ Willy was still kneeling and staring at the man like a fool.

“Uh…..” ‘No! Don’t attract attention to yourself you IDIOT’ Willy grimaced at how stupid he sounded.

After having taken down all of the hostiles, Clint made his way to the man with the gun located on the other side of the bank. He could just be a decoy and actually be the one that was behind this criminal act or he could actually be a helpful and heroic citizen. Either way, he needed to be checked out before tying up the hostiles he took down, otherwise, Clint could be in trouble and end up having a bullet to the brain or knife in the back.

Approaching the position of Willy’s ‘uh’ Clint was armed and showed Willy he wouldn’t mind taking him out as well if need to. “Who are you? And why do you have a gun with you?” With his weapons in arm and maintaining a good distance to be able to watch the hostiles he had taken out and Willy, he wanted to know answers and needed to know them fast.

“Were you or were you not helping them rob the bank?,” he demanded from Willy.

Willy bowed his head at the accusing tone in the man’s question. All he could really remember was seeing his best friend being held hostage by an insurgent. ‘In Afghanistan…oh dear god not again.’ Willy looked in the man’s eyes.

“I wasn’t helping them, I just. To tell you the truth, I sorta went into soldier mode when one of them pointed a gun at me…uh. Hi, the name is Willy and what is your name super hero? Don’t tell me you are really a super hero because really…I just.” Willy fidgeted at the man’s attention and wanted to just hide under a rock. ‘The commander will probably laugh his ass off if this goes public. I can already see it now, U.S Army soldier a damsel in distress saved by a handsome archer.’ Willy wanted to die right there and then, he kept his face from showing the emotional upheavel that was occuring inside his mind, atleast he hoped he didn’t show.

Clint’s eyes could tell just how worried the man was and didn’t see no ill intentions so he lowered his bow and thanked the man with a simple, “I’d like to thank you for your service. You did a good job here, other than one injured teller, the bank is safe.”

He then quickly made his way back to the slightly conscience hostiles, zip tying their arms and then leading them outside to the police. He had realized it’d probably be best to give the credit to the soldier inside so while briefing the police officers on what had happened, he introduced himself as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and told them that the situation had been taken care of long before he managed to get inside the bank. He also IDed the private to the cops so he gets the appropriate amount of publicity.

After a few minutes, he made his way back to the semi-frightened Willy. “I told them that you took care of the hostiles before I got here,” Clint flashed his S.H.I.E.L.D. id quickly before properly introducing himself. “I am S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Clint Barton, what is your name, soldier?”

 ’What? Why would he do that?’ Willy nervously stood up. He had heard some stories about S.H.I.E.L.D. He never wanted to get on the bad side of that organization that’s for sure.

“Uh, yeah it’s Private William Riley but everyone just calls me Willy.” Willy held out his hand. ‘I should ask him about that bow and the arrows. ‘I never knew arrows could go through that thick of glass.’ Curiosity made Willy forget he was staring at Clint rather fan boyishly.

“It’s nice to meet you, Private Riley.” Clint despite being more lax than S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, namely Cap, preferred, he didn’t want to disrespect the soldier. He took Riley’s hand and firmly shoot it.

He could tell that the soldier was nervous at first but was now staring at him strangely. “Do I have something on my face?” Clint asked as his brow rose behind his purple sunglasses. Even on his day off, Clint didn’t stay away from his toys and his favorite color. After a moment, he grinned and took out a pen, “do you need me to sign anything, Private?” He was becoming familiar with that look even though most of the time it’s not addressed towards him unlike other more influential Avengers like Cap or Tony.

“Heh thanks…” Willy gave a big smile. ‘I…I never heard of this guy.’ He didn’t want to embarass both of them so he felt around his cargo pants’ pockets looking for something to write on. He took out a piece of paper.

“Oh, HAHAHAHAHA.” Willy bursted out laughing at the very reason for even coming to the bank. ‘Dang so much has happened I forgot I even had my paycheck…not that the bank would be doing business anytime soon,’ Willy groaned in sudden defeat, ‘Then I won’t be able to get my medication.’ He stood there, check in hand, looking rather dejected. ‘What am I going to do?’

Realizing Riley wasn’t exactly wanting an autograph, he hands Riley back the piece of paper with his S.H.I.E.L.D. number. “In case you happened to be caught up in something like this again, give me a call. I’ll cover your back, Willy.”

Extending his hand once more, things seemed normal. It wasn’t until a sudden screeching overhead where a couple of very low flying bombers (military aircraft specifically made for dropping bombs on targets below) soared nearly at the height of the skyscrapers. Clint ran outside to have a good look of the very loud and low aircrafts and tried to comm S.H.I.E.L.D. to find out exactly what’s going on.

That’s when one of the bomber’s dropped something, Clint immediately called for everyone to run inside the building as he tried to find something he could use to overshoot the “bomb“‘s trajectory to hit the bay rather than the street below but failed to figure something out by the time the bomb seemed to burst. Clint watched in horror as he was helpless to do anything against.

Within seconds the bomb turned into hundreds of millions of nanobots. Each finding a target and latching onto them, taking over their mind and causing them to drop like flies for minutes as it reprogrammed their mind. Clint had been in the middle of the street when he slowly begins to wake up.

Willy woke up dazed and confused but as flashes of memories returned he remembered about Clint. ‘The bombers…oh my god CLINT’ Willy quickly got up and ran out of the bank, jumping over unconscious civilians. Willy ran out and soon spotted Clint. ‘Thank god he is still intact.’

“Clint, how you feeling?” Willy helped Clint sit up. He looked Clint over, trying to spot any wounds, he found none.

Clint slowly regained consciousness, the nanobots had caused him to forget about the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D., all of those happy times with friends had been replaced with memories of Afghanistan with Riley. As his ‘best friend’ was checking up on him, he looked at his bow. “Did I get them, Willy? Or are we gonna lose our check?”

After they had come back from Afghanistan, Clint had wanted to make life easier for them. So he signed themselves to be mercenaries, getting paid to do people’s dirty work or to become hitmen. So far the job wasn’t all too bad with Clint’s precision shooting and hawk like vision, Willy seemed to be doing well as well with the heavier machinery such as pistols and machine guns. Even in the military, Clint couldn’t give up his bows and arrows. It actually saved their lives for relying on such ‘archaic’ weaponry when captured by insurgents.

He stood up and took a look around, grinning when he realized the bank situation was clear.

“We’re gonna eat well tonight Clint.” Willy came up and patted Clint’s shoulder.

“Hey Clint…did we do all this damage?” Willy looked around and he honestly couldn’t believe those arrows could produce a wave to drop so many people. They weren’t hurt not that he cared.

“We better go Clint, those cops are waking up.” Willy waited for Clint.

When told that they’ll be eating well tonight, Clint’s grin grew. There’s nothing to argue with when your meal has been promised to you.

Clint looked around, observing the damage and just the entire street knocked out and looked at it all with extreme disbelief, “I don’t know what the hell happened, here but we should leave before we’re put to blame.” He moved along the cars as he was taught as a soldier when entering a new premises and/or about to attack someone, he wasn’t sure who had done all of this but was sure they must still be around if that were the case and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

He lead Willy to his apartment, “let’s recap on what happened. All I remember is helping you take down those robbers, that’s about it.”

Willy closed his eyes and concentrated on what happened after that. ‘I don’t…wait.’

“There were these bombers…why’d you go out to the street Clint? Thought you would remember the sound of incoming bombers hahaha. It hasn’t been that long since Afghanistan has it? Remember the damn Airforce tried to puff out their chest by bringing in those bombers and then they just left those to gather sand and shit.” ‘Stupid Airforce thinking they are all that.’ Willy was in a bad mood from the thoughts that raced through his mind.

“Other than hearing the bombers, I don’t remember either Clint.” Willy gave an apologetic look as he went to grab them something to drink.

“Listen, Willy. As a Green Beret, I’ve known exactly what it was but think about it, how could the United States not know about hostile planes coming to attack New York City?” He took his purple sunglasses off and set them on the table, “oh man, Will, what if all of this is some sort of terrorist attack, instead of dropping a bomb on us, they were that low to drop some sort of gas?”

Realizing just how possible it is, he looked shocked at his friend. “What’re we going to do? Being out on the street, I thought I could use a foam arrow to eliminate the threat of the bomb they’d drop but the bomb disappeared, Will. It just fucking disappeared into thin air!”

He was outraged that the government didn’t shoot down the bombers before flying over US soil, but he was also shocked when he recalled looking at the bomber to find it’s country of origin. Instead of a recognizable flag, it had some sort of upside pyramid. “Shit, what’s the pyramid and ‘all seeing eye’ associated with?” His thoughts stumbled upon different terrorist organizations he could think of, overlooking the thought of it being the Illuminati.

Giving Clint a bottle of water Willy sat down and tried to think of possible terrorist groups. ‘I got nothing…’ Willy leaned to the side of the couch and let out a groan of anger. ‘Sure we are mercs now but…I at least still care for my country but the Army wouldn’t mind putting the two of us in prison. We can’t get involved in this…I hope Clint doesn’t start trying to be a hero.’ Willy turned to Clint with a questioning look.

“What’s on your mind Clint?”

Clint paced back and forth as he took a few chugs of the water. Stopping against the  living room wall, he pounded his fist against it. There was something going on and the city of New York had just been hit, they were blind and didn’t know what the situation was. You’d think there would have been some kind of evacuation attempt when hostile planes flew across the Atlantic or American soil.

So there he was, with absolutely no idea of what to do next other than see if any of their other Green Beret buddies would be able to give them a heads up of what type of shit is going on in New York City.

“I get it, you’re worried about getting a record despite how much we’ve done for this country but we’re not the threat here. We can actually help and if that gas or whatever it was the bomber dropped on us is deadly, we might as well die heroes!” He had his pride on the line and he couldn’t help having this gut feeling that things were wrong. He reached into his pants pocket and removed his phone, “I’m gonna find out what the pyramid means, in the meantime see if you can get Sargent Wallace on the line.”

“You’d think that after a while, you’d get used to his little disappearing act but really, you don’t.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose for a moment, hesitating to break eye contact for fear of not catching any words. “Well hey, maybe we could look for him together? Two sets of eyes is always better than one,” she offered hopefully. I swear to god when I find this man I’m gonna have to kick his ass in sparring. Repeatedly.

Blaze grinned.  The woman looked just as exasperated as she was.  ”Seriously.  Ya’d think…well, I dunno.  Ya’d think he’d be easy t’ spot, wouldn’t ya?”  She chuckled a bit.  ”Lookin’ together seems like a great idea.  Maybe we’d have better luck, at least.  Couldn’ hurt.”  She smiled and extended a hand.  ”Th’ name’s Blaze.  It’s good t’ meetcha; friend of Clint’s is a friend o’ mine, an’ all.  Though I’m gonna have t’ give ‘im a good punch if we find him.”  And maybe a kick for good measure.

“It’s like he’s learned how to hide even while wearing such…” She had full intentions to say ‘obnoxious colors’ but decided to tone it down a tad, “…noticeable colors.” Maya grinned at Blaze, grasping her hand and giving it a good shake. “Please call me Maya.” Her brow rose slightly, “though I must say, Blaze is an interesting name. After we find that knucklehead you’ll have to tell me how you got it.” The woman paused and laughed. “I think when we find him, we may have to wait in line to give him a good one-two.”

Blaze chuckled a little as they shook hands.  ”Maya, nice t’ meetcha.  That’s a nice name.  Mine…yeah, I guess it is kinda interestin’, if ya ain’t used t’ it.”  She shrugged and smiled when she called Clint a knucklehead.  ”I’ll let ya have firs’ knock at ‘im, how’s that?  Ya look like ya need it more’n me.  Got somethin’ important t’ tell ‘im?”  She cocked her head to the side slightly, inquisitive.  She wondered if Maya was a part of S.H.I.E.L.D., like Clint was.

She smiled kindly, “I think it’s a nice change from the average-joe names. Makes you more unique, y’know?” A small laugh escaped Maya’s lips at Blaze’s comment. “That’s sweet of you, but I think I could just take it out on him when we spar…” She couldn’t help but smile at the thought of their sparring time, it was something she found to be incredibly enjoyable plus it helped keep her skills in shape.

Maya gave a nonchalant shrug, “it was nothing too important really. Which is good I guess- seeing as how he’s nowhere to be found.”

“I guess so.  Be worse if he wasn’ aroun’ an’ it was somethin’ like, I dunno, a meteor hittin’ Midga— ehm, Earth.”  Blaze silently cursed Loki in her mind; his way of speaking was starting to rub off on her.  She’d already gotten a lot of strange looks because normal people had no clue what things like “Midgard” referred to, leading to a lot of strange and embarrassed conversations.  

She perked up a bit at the mention of sparring.  "Oh, so are you sparrin’ partners, then?  You one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s?”  She’d had a gut feeling that this woman was a fighter of some sort, and now she had confirmation.  "Please tell me ya’ve managed t’ knock ‘im on his ass at least once,” she asked with a grin.

Her brow rose at Blaze’s curious name for the planet but she chose not to question it. We all have our quirks and if she wants to call Earth by another name, well, good for her.

She couldn’t resist the smile that appeared on her face at the girl’s questions. “Oh yea, we spar quite often. It keeps us both in shape and helps to keep him in-line on occasions.” Maya paused for a moment, “I don’t work for S.H.I.E.L.D. but I may or may not have bumped into a few of their folks on occasion.” The smile quickly turned into a grin accompanied b a laugh. “Oh don’t you worry, I’ve managed to do that quite a few times. But that’s not to say he’s a bad fighter or anything, I just happened to get the upper hand, you know?”  She wasn’t going to brag about the times she had bested Clint in sparring; it just wasn’t in her nature to do so.

“Tha’s good.  He can get a little outta hand sometimes, can’t he?  I don’ think I’ve known ‘im quite as long as you, but I can tell,” she laughed.  ”An’ I know what ya mean, even th’ best lose sometimes.  I like it that way.  Not sayin’ I’m th’ best, by far, but what’s the fun if ya win all th’ time?”  Blaze grinned cheerfully.  Even just talking about fighting was enough to lift her spirits.

“Say, wanna go get a snack ‘r somethin’?  Doesn’ look like he’s gonna show up anytime soon an’ I’m gettin’ hungry besides.  Might as well take a break an’ start lookin’ again with fresh eyes, eh?”

Maya gave a nod in acknowledgement, “out of hand is definitely a good way to describe it. And don’t worry that you haven’t known him as long, the years will pass by faster than you might think.” She paused, curious as to just how much fighting Blaze had done. She spoke as if she knew exactly what she was talking about. “Maybe we could spar one time. It’d spice things up a bit,” she added with a laugh.

Her stomach let out a soft rumble at the mention of food. Have I really been that distracted again? I need to remember to eat more often… “A snack sounds amazing right now really. It’ll give us a chance to sit and think too!”

“Ahh, I guess so.  I’m not th’ best at thinkin’ too far ahead.  Even thinkin’ ‘bout how next week’s gonna go’s a bit of a stretch.”  She chuckled a bit, running a hand through her hair sheepishly.  ”An’ yeah, I’d love t’ spar sometime.  It’d be a lotta fun, fer sure.  Maybe you could teach me some things.”

Blaze giggled at Maya’s rumbling stomach.  "C’mon then, let’s go find somethin’.”

“I’m sure I could teach you a few ways to kick Clint’s butt. It’d definitely be funny to see.”

Her eyes scoured the area looking for anything that might be interesting. She didn’t want to weigh herself down with a heavy meal, especially is she had to keep her eyes open looking for the archer. “Hey, how’s some ice cream sound? I hear this place is pretty good…” She motioned towards a very small ice cream parlor with a gentle flick of her fingers.

Blaze punched her hand gleefully, cracking her knuckles in anticipation.  ”That sounds more’n OK.  I always enjoy knockin’ a guy on his ass; they always look so surprised t’ be beat by a girl.”  She chuckled dryly as she walked along with Maya.

Ohhh, ice cream.  That sounds really good, actually.  "Ice cream!  Ice cream,” said Blaze excitedly, bouncing in spite of herself.  "I’m gonna get three scoops.  Three big scoops.  What kind of ice cream d’ya like best, Maya?”  Blaze was vaguely aware that she sounded like a child, but then again, ice cream tended to do that to people.  She rushed inside, nearly barrelling into a trio of small children exiting the establishment, and scanned the list of flavours contemplatively.

Maya couldn’t help but laugh in response at the younger woman’s enthusiasm. She would be lying if she said that she didn’t miss the days of her childhood. Her brows furrowed at the sudden influx of memories and she mentally battled them back into the corner of her mind- where they belonged.

“Three scoops? You sure you can handle that?” She teased Blaze with a grin on her face before glancing at the list. “Oh uh, I like…” Maya paused, clicking her tongue slightly in thought. When was the last time you had ice cream, anyway? “I think I might have to go with chocolate. Though I doubt I can handle three scoops.”

Blaze grinned as she pulled out her wallet.  ”I can eat a lot more’n that, trus’ me.  ’M pretty much a bottomless pit.”  She went up to the counter and pointed authoritatively at the menu as she ordered.  ”Two scoops of coconut, one scoop of mango, please.  Big scoops.  An’ put the mango in between the coconut scoops.  An’ a cup, not a cone.”  Blaze knew she was being overly fussy about her ice cream (if the slighly irritated look on the ice cream man’s face was any indication), but she didn’t care.  There wasn’t much she was particular about, so she felt justified in having this one thing that needed to be perfect.

“Chocolate’s always good.  I can never choose whether I like chocolate or vanilla best, though.  It depends on my mood, I guess.”  She grinned at Maya companionably as she paid for her ice cream, scooping up the change and putting it all in the tip jar to compensate for her nitpicking.

Her brows rose slightly in surprise at Blaze’s order. She had never thought of combining such odd flavors before, but she assumed that it must be good. As Blaze finished ordering and paying for her own ice cream, Maya fished out a few dollars of her own and smoothed out the crinkled edges.

As she approached the counter she let her eyes quickly wander over the list once more. “One scoop of chocolate please. Oh, and can you put it in a cup please?” She pushed the crinkled bills over the counter as the man slid the cup to her. Not wanting to carry a pocketful of change, she too dumped it into the tip jar.

“That makes sense. There are times where chocolate just doesn’t feel right.”

Blaze got them a good table near the window and brushed a few errant sprinkles off the top before sitting down.  ”Exactly,” she replied cheerfully.  ”That’s why I like that one ice cream that’s three flavours in one — strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla.  Then ya don’ have to choose.”  She laughed and scooped up a big spoonful of the cold treat, humming contentedly as it hit her tongue.  Almost immediately, dull ache started up between her eyes, and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Gah, brain freeze,” she said with a weak chuckle.  "Gotta remember t’ slow down when I eat cold stuff.”  She shook her head and dug into her ice cream again, going a bit slower this time.

Maya nodded knowingly, “it certainly makes things easier, that’s for sure.” She propped her elbows up on the table and one hand cradled the cup as she gingerly scraped off some ice cream, biting back a laugh as Blaze got the classic brain freeze.

“So, how’d you come about meeting Clint anyway?” She was genuinely curious to the answer as she shoved the spoon into her mouth. The sudden cold bite surprised her and brought a slight ache to her teeth but she disregarded it with ease.

Blaze tapped the plastic spoon against her lips as she thought.  ”Well, I didn’ make the best impression, I guess,” she chuckled wryly.  ”I got in a fight with some people I used t’ know, an’ got pretty badly hurt.  Knifed,” she added, holding out her left arm.  The long, thin, shiny-white scar tissue was clearly visible on her upper arm.  

“I went t’ Stark Tower t’ try t’ fix myself up, y’know, cuz it was close, an’ as luck would have it, I crashed a party.  Clint found me, patched me up, an’ took me to a hospital.  Managed t’ put th’ fear of God in the assholes who got me, too, if I ain’t mistaken.”  She giggled a bit.  ”Kinda panicked at th’ hospital, though.  But he made me feel safe, took care of me.  So that was good of him.”  She took another thoughtful bite of ice cream.  ”It’s embarrassin’, him seein’ me at m’ weakest on our first meetin’.  I try not t’ think ‘bout it.”  She turned a little red and laughed nervously.  ”But he’s a good guy, an’ he doesn’ seem t’ think too badly of me.  I like ‘im a lot.”

Blaze coughed and cleared her throat, a little self-conscious about her babbling.  ”So, uh, how d’you know ‘im, then?”

Her brows furrowed together in concern as she saw the scar and read the tale that came along with it. “I’m sorry to hear about the fight. But I’m sure you managed to get them pretty well too.”

Throughout Blaze’s retelling of events she had been carefully scooping small bits of the ice cream into her mouth, etting it melt on her tongue. “I wouldn’t be worried about him seeing you at your worst. If anything it takes away the fear of them ever seeing you at your worst. Sorta makes things easier from the get go.” She shrugged slightly, trying to ignore her memories from when she was Ronin.

“It’s uh, a long story I suppose. Short version is him and a few others helped me out when I needed it most.” She ran a hand through her hair, unwilling to touch upon those memories. They were hard to bear at times and she didn’t want to push them on the younger girl.

Blaze grinned.  ”Oh yeah, I definitely let ‘em have it.  Dislocated jaw, th’ works.  They probably woulda gotten off easier if they hadn’ tried t’ fight dirty.”  She still felt a little sore at those two; if she ever saw them again, she was definitely going for a bit of revenge.  She chuckled into her ice cream.

“I s’pose it would make it easier,” she mused, twirling her spoon.  ”Yer prolly right ‘bout that.  Don’t mean it’s any less mortifyin’, though.  But he was good ‘bout it.  So I guess that’s lucky.”  She rested her chin in her hand and listened to Maya’s substantially shorter and less specific story.  ”Ya know, you c’n talk t’ me if ya want.  I’ve heard some pretty fucked up shit in m’ life — no offense ‘r anything.  But hey, seems like Clint’s got good timin’, huh?”  She smiled gently at the other woman.

Maya nodded approvingly, “dislocated jaw huh? Not bad. I highly doubt he was a happy camper for a while after that.” She felt a strange sense of pride with the girl. The corner’s of her lips twitched upwards, “yeah, that’s the nice thing about Clint, he’s pretty good about things like that.”

Her expression darkened slightly. What kind of life has she lived to be able to claim that she’s seen some bad shit? Not that I doubt her claim but… She let out a weak laugh. “Yeah, it was really good timing.” She glanced around slightly and for a moment her eyes took on a faraway look. However, the look left as quick as it came. Maya let out an uneasy half-sigh and ran her hand through her hair.

“Have you ever heard about Ronin?”

“Bet not.  Serves ‘im right.”  Blaze caught the slightly perturbed look in Maya’s eye, but decided to let it go.  It probably wasn’t anything too important; it seemed like the other woman let herself get lost in her thoughts quite a bit.  Blaze waited patiently for Maya to collect her thoughts.

“Ronin?”  Blaze wracked her brain, trying to remember.  ”Can’t say I have, sorry.  ’M assumin’ this Ronin is an important part o’ yer story though, huh?”

She gave a slight nod. “Ronin was very important part of my life to say the least. I lived a double life sort of. I wouldn’t exactly say ‘normal’ during the day but at night, oh, that was a different world.” Her face split into a warm grin as she pulled out the memories. “I even flew the Quinnjet once.” Maya paused and gave a slight laugh with the shake of her head, “it’s a shame I don’t have the armor anymore but I’m sure Clint would be delighted to tell you the entire story, especially since I don’t remember all of it.” Yes you do.

Her spoon captured the remaining bits of the chocolate ice cream before depositing them into her mouth. She happily waited for it to melt a tad more before swallowing, not desiring a brain freeze. The plastic spoon dropped into the cup with a slight clatter as her face took on the most curious expression mixed with confusion. Watchful eyes narrowed as she studied Blaze, suddenly confused.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

Blaze nodded.  ”Huh, I see.  So you’re a hero, then,” she said with a smile.  ”An’ flyin’ th’ Quinjet, really?!  Tha’ sounds so cool.  Maybe I’ll do that too one day.”  She seriously doubted she’d ever do so, but it was nice to daydream about one day.  ”I’ll be sure t’ corner ‘im abou’ it soon enough.”  She pushed her empty ice cream cup to the side, wondering just how long she’d have to wait to hear the story from Clint.  It really had been a while since they’d last seen each other…

She started at Maya’s question, brows furrowed in confusion and concern for a brief moment before smoothing over; obviously the other woman was joking. “Wha…?  Maya, what’re ya talkin’ ‘bout?  Blaze, remember?  C’mon, yer memory ain’t that bad.”  She chuckled.

Maya blinked rapidly and she could feel the panic rising in her throat. She took a few moments to quickly assess her situation. Fingers and toes were all in working order and the same went with the rest of her body. The woman struggled in vain to control her breathing. Just play it cool. She’s already given you your name, just play it cool, act it off.

Maya let out a nervous laugh and half grinned. “I-I know. I’m just messing with you.” Just keep it cool, she’s already given you information. You can do this. Breathe. My name is Maya… My name is Maya… She struggled at the thought, trying to forced the rest of her name out but nothing was showing. Her brows furrowed in concern for a moment before she quickly made her face neutral once more. Her eyes studied Blaze’s face, and an intense look of curiosity came upon her own. 

Blaze looked familiar, like something from a dream. It was like she knew, somewhere deep down, who this person was but she couldn’t place her finger on it. It was the ultimate tip-of-the-tongue experience but with her mind instead.

“No offense, but you’re kinda bad at jokes,” she chuckled, shaking her head and leaning back in her chair.  Maya still looked a bit weird, though, and Blaze wondered just what was up.  Then again, she didn’t really know this woman, so it was entirely possible that this was just some strange nervous tic of hers or something.

A sudden sharp pain exploded between her eyes and she groaned, immediately pinching the bridge of her nose in an effort to relieve it.  Just as quickly as it came, however, it was gone; but Blaze was left feeling…strange.  There wasn’t any other way to describe it, until she looked up and saw Maya staring at her curiously.

For some reason, something inside her snapped.

“I got somethin’ on my face?  The fuck you lookin’ at me like that for, huh?” she bit out, leaning forward slightly.  She wanted to hit the other woman, for no reason other than to cause harm.  Part of her was stopping her from doing so, however; her hand was shaking slightly from the effort of not lashing out at Maya.

Maya’s eyes shot open in surprise at the girl’s sudden change in attitude. Though she had no recollection of how the girl acted previously, the sudden switch startled her. “Whoa, hey, easy there. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. I’ll just..get going then.”

She gently scooted her chair back, all the while holding up one hand as if that would stay the younger woman with the sudden temper. Maya worried that even the slightest movement towards the girl would set off a cataclysmic reaction of events and did her best not to make any sudden movements. By now she had sufficiently backed the chair far enough that she could stand without getting her head or other appendages anywhere near the girl. “Easy now, I’m just gonna go my way and you go yours, okay?” Part of her wanted to glance around to see how the other customers were taking the scene but she could feel that their eyes were glued to them.

Blaze couldn’t care less about the other customers in the shop; in fact, she was probably gonna pummel them next.  She watched Maya stand slowly, a cruel smirk forming on her face at the woman’s obvious unease.

“What’sa matter?” she inquired, in false-friendly tones.  Her chair scraped violently on the linoleum as she stood, movements somehow both jerky and entirely too fluid all at once.  ”Afraid of me?  A scrawny kid like me?”  She let out ashort bark of laughter and advanced upon Maya, golden eyes glinting menacingly.  ”Runnin’ away from a fight?  Gonna turn tail like a fuckin’ coward?  An’ here I thought ya might be worth somethin’.  C’mon, fight me.  Fight me!”  Blaze’s fingers twitched, eager to release fire, eager to curl into a fist, anything destructive.

Her eyes narrowed at the girl’s remark. “I’m not looking for a fight and I’m sure these people aren’t looking for one either.” Her hand motioned towards the other people in the ice cream parlor. “But I won’t sit and watch you hurt other people.” It came out almost as a low growl and the threat was obvious. She wasn’t going to be the one to throw the first punch but she wouldn’t stand for hurting the innocents.

Maya’s knuckles turned white as one hand curled over the top of the chair. She had tested its weight when she scooted away. It was solid but not overly heavy, the woman had confidence in her ability to use it as a weapon if it came down to it.

“Perhaps some fresh air will help you clear your mind?” She offered hopefully, giving the girl one last chance to back down.

“Oh?  So ya won’ fight unless I threaten one o’ these useless things?” she asked, smirking over her shoulder at the obviously frightened customers.  ”I’ll do it, I’ll hurt ‘em, why not.  Ya know how easy it’ll be?  Like snappin’ a twig.  Or lightin’ a match.”  A ball of flame appeared in her palm, eliciting shouts of surprise.  ”Shut your goddamn mouths!” Blaze yelled, the fire jumping higher in her anger.  She turned back to Maya, arrogant smile curling at the corners of her mouth.

“So?  Ya gonna throw that chair?  Soon as ya do, those people turn int’ charcoal, mind.  Ya ever smelled burnt flesh?  Ain’t pleasant.”  Her head lolled to the side as she chuckled softly.  ”So what’s it gonna be?”

She scowled. “You lay a hand on these people…” Her voice trailed off as she hesitated. “You may have seen bad things yes but just remember, I have seen far worse.” Liar, you can’t even remember your name. How can you be sure that you have seen worse?! Her grip on the chair didn’t relax and her eyes never wavered from the girl. “You wish to fight, then come. We shall fight. But not in here.” Her hand twitched, fingers grasping the chair even tighter as the muscles in her arm contracted, lifting the object with relative ease.

The sound of shattering glass caused many people to flinch and shy away from the now destroyed window. The chair that Maya had been holding was now somewhere on the sidewalk outside of the ice cream parlor along with a large quantity of broken glass. A quick hand darted out to grab one of the long shards of glass and her fingers curled around the edges, drawing blood. She wasn’t about to go into a fight with a pyro barehanded, not that the glass would be much help anyway.

“Ya think?  Why don’cha tell me whatcha’ve seen, maybe we can compare?  Rack up some points, the winner gets a free toaster?”  Her hand twitched when Maya picked up the chair, but when it sailed through the window instead of at her she relaxed a bit more.  She watched as Maya picked up a long shard as a weapon and giggled crazily.

“Tha’s adorable,” she said with a grin, walking leisurely over to the broken window to inspect the damage.  ”Oh, no, your poor hand is hurt.  What a shame.  Maybe you should put it down.”  Blaze stepped casually out of the window, glass crunching under her shoes.  ”Comin’?” she inquired.  ”Hurry up, afore I burn the whole buildin’ down.”

The behavior of the girl was incredibly unnerving to Maya, especially now that she had been caught in her lie. Her lip curled slightly as her hand tightened around the shard of glass, the sharp edges bringing no pain. She watched as the girl left through the window that now served as a door before quickly addressing the occupants of the building. “All of you. Out. Now. And don’t go near us.” Brown eyes never left Blaze for fear of her turning and attacking at a moment of distraction.

Maya carefully stepped through the window, avoiding the random shards of glass that remained attached to the building. Her other hand reached out to one of these shards and snapped it from its base. Two pieces of glass. Oh you’re a smart one, what’re you gonna do with that. You get close enough to use them and you are toast. The woman let out a muted sigh and a slight shrug. Here goes nothing.

She pulled her arm back and then flung it forward, her fingers releasing their grip on the piece of glass. It shot through the air towards Blaze and she could only hope that her aim was true. Maya had no intentions of death but only wanted to dissuade the girl from attacking.

Blaze watched the customers file out quickly and fearfully from the shop with amusement.  She wanted to send a fireball their way, cause some screams and panic and maybe a few nasty burns, but decided against it. She’d have time.  Right now, Maya was a much more interesting target.

She wasn’t expecting the shard of glass to be hurled towards her all of the sudden and couldn’t move completely out of the way in time; it flashed by her, tearing a deep gash in her cheek and making her shout sharply in pain.  She put a hand to her face and her fingers came away bloody.  The girl looked from her hand to Maya, still clutching her second shard of glass and looking at her with a slightly fearful expression, and back to her hand.

And for some reason, she laughed.  Her body weaved to and fro, almost drunkenly, before settling into stance and facing Maya.

“Congrats, ya drew firs’ blood!” she yelled, almost happily, and charged at Maya, shooting two small balls of flame towards her to distract her before aiming a punch at her stomach.

Maya was confused as to how the hell she had managed to hit Blaze.Was I some sort of marksman? She shook her head rapidly to try and clear her mind of the distracting thoughts only to flinch when the balls of fire came zipping her direction. The woman doubled over when she felt the fist collide with her stomach, nearly winding her as she felt most of the air being forcefully shoved from her lungs.

Almost instinctively her grip grip on the glass changed, flipping the piece so that the point was facing backwards as her arm swung around to hook the blade into her opponent’s side. 

The fluidity of these motions almost startled the memory-less woman but she wasn’t one to question the sudden fighting skills. After all, she would need every ounce of them to try and win the fight against the pyro.

Blaze hissed in pain as the glass was driven into her side; she grabbed Maya by the throat and squeezed while wrenching the woman’s arm away, the glass pulling out of her body with a slightsquelch.  She tightened her grip on the other woman’s wrist, forcing Maya to drop the glass shard.  Blood dripped sluggishly from both her wounds, but the crazed spark never left her eyes.

“You’re good, Maya,” she said.  ”Real good.  Fuck, I haven’ had a fight like this in ages.  I don’ know why ya can’t remember shit all of a sudden, but at least ya know how t’ fight.  An’ ya better pray ya don’ forget anytime soon, cuz I ain’t holdin’ nothin’ back.  I been holdin’ back too fuckin’ long.”  The hand grasping Maya’s wrist began to heat up quickly, leaving painful red welts on the woman’s flesh and sending the slight smell of burning skin into the air.

The smell of burnt flesh and hair assaulted the woman’s nose and caused her to gag slightly. She twisted her hand away, cringing as waves of pain shot through her arm. But still, she could feel the tightening grip on her throat that was threatening to quickly cut off her supply of oxygen. Maya brought her leg up and slammed her heel into Blaze’s knee; she could feel the limb give beneath her foot.

Her relatively uninjured hand shot up and her fingers curled into the girl’s hair as she yanked her hand downwards. The woman was too focused on what her next moves would be to try and counter the girl’s verbal assault. Already she had slipped into some sort of zen, despite the chaos that was revolving around her.

Blaze buckled and pain shot through her kneecap from Maya’s blow; her grip on the woman’s throat weakened and was pulled away immediately when her hair was yanked sharply downwards.  She landed painfully on her knees but instantly launched a counterstrike, grabbing Maya’s arm and pulling her down to the ground with her.  She grappled with the other woman a bit, but it looked like she might lose.

Her face broke out in a grin, though, when an idea struck her.  She opened her mouth and sucked in a big breath of air, allowing the fire collecting at the back of her throat to be clearly visible to Maya.  She didn’t want to kill her necessarily; if Maya was dead then she would never get a chance to fight her again.  But she wanted to see the fear in Maya’s eyes, the fear at the possibility of having her head burned clean off her shoulders.

And fear is what shone through in Maya’s eyes. She was already pressing her luck trying to win this fight, what is the point of me winning? Would it make a difference in anything?, and really would rather remain alive. She gracelessly scrambled backwards on her hands and feet, trying to put as much distance between her and potential firestorm that was far too close for comfort.

Her burned wrist cried out in pain, angry at her actions that caused the tugging on the skin. “Okay, okay, okay!” She shouted breathlessly. “You win. I give in.” For some reason it pained her to speak those words but even without her memories, the woman knew that she should back down before a hospital couldn’t tend to her injuries.

Blaze swallowed the flames when Maya scrambled backwards, and she got shakily to her feet, the knee that the other woman had kicked protesting loudly.  She cocked her head to the side, slightly put out that Maya was giving up so easily.  Then again, people did tend to fear fire quite a lot.  Maybe threatening to burn her face off had been a bit much, but it hadbeen fun.

“Laaaaaaame,” she drawled, sounding every bit a whiny teenager.  ”An’ here I thought ya’d gimme a good fight.  Well, it was good while it lasted.  But runnin’ scared jus’ cuz of a little fire?  Weak.”  She advanced on Maya threateningly.  ”Whatcha gonna do now, then?  Gimme a reason I should let you go instead of pummellin’ ya into th’ ground.”

The woman pulled herself to her feet, one hand clamped over the burns. As long as she kept heavy pressure on them, they didn’t hurt but that meant she also was left in a very vulnerable position. Maya hoped that the girl wouldn’t attack but she remained wary.

“Fire is fire. You’ve no reason to fear it but for anyone else? We have every reason to fear it.” She sighed, “honestly, I was just going to make my way off into the sunset and find something to take care of these. Maybe figure out who I am. You know, nothing important.” She tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice and was only mildly successful. “If you let me go then you can go harass other innocent bystanders. Maybe someone else will come and fight you and put up a better fight than me.” Maya shrugged slightly and tightened the grip on her burns.

“Hmph.”  Blaze twirled a tongue of flame between her fingers disinterestedly.  She considered just torching Maya, but there was no fun in that.  It was funny how gung-ho Maya had been about protecting the innocents in the ice-cream shop, and now she was practically throwing them at her in an attempt to save herself.  Then again, she had to give the woman credit.  Fighting anyone, let alone a pyro, when you had no sense of self, who you are or might be, couldn’t be the easiest thing.  She shrugged.