Abduction

Chapter 11

Valda could barely keep still as she waited for Sybil to finish eating; sometimes her friend was so slow! Sure, she could just go ahead and blurt out the most exciting news and treat it like all the things she'd learned in training while she'd been in the Helicarrier; but then her friend wouldn't really listen.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, her friend finished and sat the plate aside. Sybil gave her an odd look as Valda dropped back down onto the breakroom couch. "Uh... what are you doing?"

"I needed to make sure you heard this, its great news!" Valda forced herself to sit still and gauged her friend's reaction. "I've been given a place here at S.H.I.E.L.D. as an agent!"

"...Um... That's-"

"Cool right?" She grinned before noticing Valda wasn't smiling with her. "What?"

Her friend didn't look at her and was instead staring at the table. "What about your family? Working here as an agent will be dangerous, and with us having our lives ahead of us... Should you risk that in a place like this? Will you really want to stay here after all this with Loki is over?"

"Of course I will! I mean, yeah, it's going to be hard but it isn't like I'll be taking any of the dangerous missions at first. Not until I'm fully trained... but yeah, I'll miss my family. They'll think I went missing and died for the rest of their lives but at this point they probably gave up hope that I'll come home. At least I'll still have you to hang out with though so I won't be totally alone." The silence spread through the room until Valda finally broke it in a desperate hope her friend would support her choice. "Sybil... say something!"

"...You should try to live a normal life, Valda. You still have that chance... I'm stuck with powers that could kill others at the slightest mistake in handling them; I'm not even fully human anymore because of them." She still didn't look up from the table.

"I don't want a normal life. I want to help save people and actually feel like I'm doing something!"

"Then become a police officer, doctor, CIA, FBI, I don't know..." Sybil finally tore her gaze from the table top to look at her. "You don't need to work here to make a change."

Valda stood up, a glare boring into her best friend; the person she'd assumed would be with her through everything. "I made my choice to work here because they thought I had potential that would be wasted in other places. You would be here working because of your new powers and maybe you'd even be made part of the Avengers... Most friends never get to do that when they grow up because they grow apart and move on with their own lives. Don't you feel excited for that?"

Sybil stared at her as if thinking about something for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Of course working together would be fun but... I don't even know if I'll be working here or if I'll just be put on some dangerous persons list because of my powers, you know? I do think it would be fun of course."

She relaxed and broke back into a smile before shoving her friend teasingly. "See this is great! You just need to stop being so pessimistic about possible outcomes!"

"I guess."

"So, what do you want to do now?" She changed the subject, hoping it would lighten the mood. "We could go train again, chill out and watch something on the TV here, wander around... huh, guess being on a giant flying ship can limit your options..."

Sybil shrugged. "Let's just watch something, you know, if this thing gets signal wherever we are."

"Alright." Valda stood up and grabbed the remote off the TV stand. "Since you've had the crappiest experience recently, you can pick... Haha don't get used to it though! I'm not giving up my shows forever."

A smirk appeared on her friend's face. "Of course. I mean, I could say fight me for that but it would hardly be fair now."

"Watch out, I just might see if Doctor Banner knows how to give me powers too!" She continued laughing with Sybil.

Her friend nudged her playfully. "Yeah, of course with your luck you'd be a giant green monster like him instead."

Valda pushed her back. "Could still beat you with that. Hulk is invincible!"

The two continued their light bickering and soon the TV was forgotten, as they had since dropped the remote and began mock fighting each other. It was almost like everything was normal- if they weren't in a ship thousands of miles above the ground and working alongside superheroes. Valda grinned and let her friend pin her down for a second before shoving her back and putting Sybil in a head lock.

"See, even without powers I can still win." She loosened her grip and allowed Sybil to twist free and scoot away.

"Yeah, because I didn't use my powers." Sybil smiled back, enjoying their break together.

"Come on, let's take this to the training room then and see who the real tough girl is now." Valda jumped up off the floor. "Unless you're scared I'll beat you."

"I'll go easy on you." Sybil rose to her feet more slowly, something else passing across her face for a moment before the smirk returned. "Lead the way."

She turned towards the door and heard Sybil following her. Valda wasn't quite into the upcoming skirmish anymore however, not after that brief look on her friend's face. Was something bother Sybil? She'd known her friend too long to miss something off about her friend, or she'd hoped she never had, and that look had almost seemed... sad. Were her powers hurting her? What if they were making Sybil sick? Valda glanced over her shoulder, a taunting smile still on her face, but Sybil's current expression revealed nothing but her normal smirk. Perhaps she'd ask Tony or Bruce about anything harming her friend later, after she'd kicked Sybil's super powered butt all over the training room.