Inheritance of ash

"just Vicky"

The sky didn't open with thunder or lightning.
No, that would've made sense.

Instead, it rippled.

Right above a midtown intersection. A few lazy clouds, a flock of pigeons, and then... reality blinked. A jagged tear of shimmering green light carved itself into the air like someone slashed the sky with a blade no one could see.

And she fell through it.

Boots first, arms flailing, hoodie flapping wildly, cereal still sloshing in her stomach from barely an hour ago. She barely had time to scream before gravity made its opinion known.

CRACK.

She slammed into the concrete like a missile. A very annoyed missile.

Everything went fuzzy for a second. There's dull ringing in her ears, bright lights swimming in her vision, the distinct taste of blood in her mouth.

Groaning, Vicky rolled over with all the grace of a dropped marble and pushed herself up on shaky elbows. Her left knee throbbed. Her ribs were screaming. Something in her backpack had cracked, and her hoodie now smelled faintly like burnt metal.

"Oh, for the love of- "

She looked up.

And immediately regretted it.

Right in front of her was a gleaming tower of glass and steel with a giant, glowing "A" pinned to its side.

AVENGERS TOWER.

"Oh, HELL no," she muttered, dragging herself out of the crater she'd made in the sidewalk. "You've gotta be kidding me. This is where the freaky green sky-hole spat me out?"

A car screeched to a halt. A guy holding a leash with a golden retriever, nearly stepped in the dog's shit. People were pulling out phones and taking pictures of her like she was some kind of zoo animal.

Fantastic. She was probably trending already.

She stumbled to her feet, wincing. Her shoulder was wrecked. Her hoodie sleeve had half-melted. And the bracelet — the one that had been glowing like crazy right before the portal opened — was still humming faintly on her wrist.

It didn't look special. Just old metal, tarnished gold. Almost boring.

But it buzzed with that same weird energy she'd felt since the night she stole it. Vicky reaches up to touch her face, feeling a small trickle of blood running down next to her ear.

Okay, new plan:
-  Find a hospital.
- Avoid the Avengers.
- Don't die.
- Return cursed alien jewelry to hellspawn antique shop. If not dead.

She turned on her heel and made it two steps before-

CLANG.

Something landed behind her. Heavy. Metallic.

She didn't need to turn around to know who it was. Guess that's it for her masterplan.

"You know," came a voice too casual, smooth and amused for someone who had just witnessed a sidewalk get destroyed.
"if you wanted a meeting, you could've made an appointment like everyone else."

Of course.

Vicky squinted over her shoulder. He was floating in his red-and-gold armor, arms crossed, helmet off, eyebrow already halfway to the moon.

"Hello," she said flatly. "Sorry for crashing your billionaire bachelor pad. Sky-hole said no detours."

Tony blinks. "You- you joked at me."

She smiles sheepishly at his intrigued face. It's clear that nobody ever matches his sarcasm.
"Yup. Dented your pavement, too. My bad."

He scanned her with his tech. She could feel the heat of the scan pass over her.

His eyes narrowed at the bracelet.

"What's that?" he asked, nodding toward her wrist.

Vicky instinctively tugged her sleeve down. "Friendship bracelet."

"Cute. Radioactive?"

"Only on Tuesdays."

Tony stepped closer, boots clinking on the pavement.

"You got a name, Skyfall?"

She hesitated. A beat too long.

Then: "Vicky."

"Short for...?"

"Nope. Just Vicky."

Tony tilted his head, skeptical. "Nobody's just Vicky."

She gave him a dead-eyed look. "You wanna see ID? Because I don't have any. Or cash. Or insurance. So unless you're offering me a ride to the ER or a sandwich, I'm gonna go."

Vicky blinked. The lights of the tower blurred for a second, swimming sideways in her
vision. She blinked again, slower this time, trying to steady the tilt of the world.

The pavement dipped under her boots.

Nope. Not pavement. Just her.

Tony's voice cut in, sharper this time. "Kid?"

She forced a grin, teeth slightly stained with red now.

"Yeah, I'm good. Totally fine. Just—"

Her knees buckled.

Tony caught her before she hit the ground, armor clanking around her like a cage made of worried metal. She swayed into his grip, head tipping forward, and that's when he saw it: the blood.

It was pooling fast in her hairline, just beneath her hoodie, soaking through fabric and matting against her temple. A dark, wet line trailed down the side of her face.

"Son of a— JARVIS, call med—"

"Already on it, sir," came the AI's calm reply.

Another voice approached, mixed with the sound of boots hitting pavement in a hurry.

Vicky managed to see the other guy approaching distantly. Tall, muscular, red white and blue... Her vision was blurry and her left knee had given out under the impact of the fall.

"What happened?" he asked, eyes locking on the cracked sidewalk, then the barely-conscious girl slumped in Tony's arms.

"She dropped out of a magic sky-hole and insulted my parking lot," Tony murmured, voice tight. "Then decided to bleed out on my sidewalk."

Steve took one look at Vicky's face and frowned. "She's just a kid."

"Yeah. A kid with a glowing wrist and zero explanation."

Tony adjusted her in his arms, more gently this time.

"Come on, Skyfall," he muttered under his breath. "Don't you pass out before I get some answers."

Together, they moved toward the Tower entrance. one armored billionaire, one star-spangled soldier, and a mystery girl with blood in her hair and a bracelet that wouldn't stop flickering the same shade of green as her eyes.

The city behind them kept buzzing.
But whatever Vicky was...
The real story was just getting started.