I Am Static

25

Emma wakes up in her bed at the cabin. She had returned back home literally after leaving Sam and his family. She planned on returning to the city, but she needed to slow down for a minute. She needed to catch her breathe.

She woke up to a text message from Peter.

'Ned is asking if I knew about you being Static,'

She kind of expected that. Ned knew Peter's secret, so he is probably freaking out knowing he knows another superhero personally.

Emma smiles and tells him in the reply that Peter can tell Ned that you knew. She doesn't care anymore. The whole world knows her identity.

There was no way in changing that, and she can live with that.

She crawled out of her bed.

She grabbed a Stark Industries sweater, black skinny jeans, and slipped on her black flats. She pulled her hair into a messy bun. She grabbed her glasses as she heads to the door.

She paused and looked at a family photo on her night stand.

She smiles.

"Love you, dad." Emma says.

.

..

...

Despite the longing of normality and a break from craziness, Emma finds herself away from the cabin near where she used to train by herself.

She had targets up hanging in a tree.

She knelt down to where she had her knives laying on a black blanket. She grabbed two and tossed them in the air, only the catch them by their handles.

She inhaled and then exhaled coolly.

She looks at the target.

She charges her blades with her white electricity.

Without a second thought, she threw the one in her right hand and then the one in her left hand. They hit the target seconds apart, but they hit center mass.

A small grin appeared on her face.

She went to grab two more knives, but as she knelt down and looked at the knives in her set, she noticed a knife that wasn't there before.

She grabbed it and saw it was in a black leather sheath. The sheath looked worn and old, much older than her sheaths.

She pulled the blade out of the sheath and studied it. It was a Gerber Mk II. She recognized it, but wasn't sure where. Then a small note fell out of the sheath.

'Angel, I've had this knife ever since HYDRA had me. I used to use this knife to end lives and take them. Its a reminder of what I was. I kept it to keep myself sane. I kept it to keep myself from becoming him; however, after our adventure, I realized that I don't need to hold onto my past anymore. I need to embrace my future. I am giving you this knife in hopes that you could do good with it, despite its terrible history. -Buck'

Emma looked at the note and read it maybe five times. She sat there in the grass. Reading the words over and over.

Slowly, her eyes move to the knife and she looked at it. The old knife in her hands. The long list of names that has met its end because of this knife. The lives it ruined.

She almost didn't want to keep holding it, knowing that it use to belong to the Winter Solider, but she didn't freak out.

Instead, Emma rose with the knife still in her hand. She looked at it and then to the target. She got into a good stance.

She charged up the knife and prepared to throw it.

One.

Two.

Three.

Thud.

The knife hit the head of the target.

She stood there and stared at it.

.

..

...

Emma kept getting calls. A lot of them in the past few days.

She ignored them all.

She was told by Happy that Nick Fury wanted to talk to her, but she just sent him to voicemail. She wasn't getting involved with the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D., no matter how big of a deal it was.

She was getting calls from government agencies. The NSA, the CIA, the FBI, and so on. Plenty of them wanting her insight on setting up a "New Avengers", or even setting up a galactic protection squad in order to prevent another Thanos situation.

Again, Emma sent them to voicemail.

She didn't want to deal with politics. She didn't want to deal with the kinds of people who run these agencies.

Although, one number stood out. One agency.

An agency called S.W.O.R.D. had been interested. She had heard of them before the Blip. She had been called by them before and she ignored them.

Emma was just a little shocked when S.W.O.R.D. took it another step further than just call her, but sent someone to see her in person.

A black car pulled up on the property as Emma was tuning her motorcycle. She put down her tools and stood up when the car halted.

Stepping out of the car was an African American women. She was tall and beautiful, but also looked familiar. Like Emma had seen her face somewhere, but she wasn't sure where.

"Are you Emma Stark?" The woman asks the second she shuts the car door.

Emma looks at the woman, "Yeah. I'm her." She says, "And who are you?"

"Monica Rambeau," Monica says, "I'm from S.W.O.R.D,"

Emma nods with a small smile, "Ah, so they sent someone. You guys must really want me for whatever this is." She says, "But I'm sorry, Monica, I'm busy."

Emma knelt back down to her toolbox and was reaching for something, anything, just to appear to be busy.

Monica ignores Emma's actions and steps forward. She walks all the way to Emma's motorcycle and even stood behind Emma.

"Look I'm here hoping you'd have some information for me." Monica says.

Emma lifts her head from the tool box to Monica, "Ever since agencies like yours found out about my identity as Static, that's all you guys want from me." She says, "Information to fuel whatever war you're plotting our race towards."

Monica shakes her head, "It has nothing to do with the space program or the future Avenger program." Monica says, "Please, this has to do with a missing person."

Emma's eyebrows furrow, "You come all the way out here for a missing person?" She asks.

Monica says nothing.

"Must be some important person," Emma says.

Monica pulled out her cellphone and seemed to pull up her camera roll. She turns her phone to Emma and its then Emma looks at the screen.

The photos were of a brunette woman, and then the same women with red hair. The photos were someone Emma knows, or rather knew.

Emma rose to her feet stunned.

"I need to know everything you know about Wanda Maximoff," Monica says.

(published on: 10/21/21)