Rescue

Terrible Mistake

No one knew what happened, but Sy just seemed happier one day. He was less morose whenever he was with them, and even started talking more about his past. Not much, he was still having a hard time opening up to anyone besides Natasha and Bruce, but it was a start.

Everyone also grew incredibly attached to Reon and Blue. The two chimaeras, despite their half-hearted grumbling, did indeed enjoy petting and cuddling; it was not uncommon to find them curled into Sy's side during a movie night. They were extremely intelligent and seemed to enjoy the movies almost as much as everyone else did. They also especially took a shine to Peter and Bucky and could often be found playing energetically with them. Bucky's dog was at first hesitant about them, but they learned to get along just fine at Bucky's assurances.

Every training day, Sy joined in and participated in team exercises. He picked up on things quickly and seemed used to being part of a team. It wasn't long before he was the best swordsman on the team, much to Clint's annoyance, as he trained almost daily with Sy in that area.

Sy was a natural with the sword. Everything seemed to make sense and flow when he was holding a sword and everyone could see how comfortable he was with it. One day, Clint made the mistake of suggesting Sy train with the knife alongside the sword if that was how he was used to fighting; Clint couldn't him fight for more than 30 seconds each match when Sy took him up on the offer. It could be terrifying how calm he seemed with the two weapons. Then, one day, all hell broke loose.

Not really, but if you asked any of the Avengers—besides Peter, he was part of the problem—it was horrifying.

It all started when Peter's friends got home from their respective family vacations. He had invited them to spend the rest of the summer at the Compound, and they, of course, agreed. Needless to say, they were surprised to find a teenage boy, not Peter, sitting on the sofa in the common room.

"Who are you?" MJ asked, getting straight to the point.

The boy looked up at them and smiled, "You must be Peter's friends; I've heard a lot about you."

"That doesn't answer the question," Harry retorted.

The boy got up and offered his hand to the other teens, "Sy."

"Why would we sigh?" Ned asked.

Sy burst out laughing and shook his head, "No my name, it's Sy. S-Y. I'm sort-of an Avenger-in-training."

MJ nodded and went to sit down on the comfy chair.

Ned's eyes widened comically and he rushed forth, "Whoa, you have powers? What kind of powers? Can you fly? Do you have super strength? Can you—"

"Ned, let him talk. You're not giving him any room to answer the questions," Betty laughed. "We didn't even introduce ourselves. I'm Betty." She said that last part to Sy.

"Harry; that is MJ" he shook Sy's hand and went to sit down next to MJ; she pinched him for taking up part of her seat but he just laughed and kissed her cheek. She pulled the book further up in front of her face, but Sy could see the hint of a smile.

"I'm Ned," he shook Sy's hand, "and seriously, do you have powers? What kind of powers?"

Everyone looked interested—except MJ, she kept reading her book—and Sy contemplated for a moment. "I have quite a few powers, but the ones I use the most are Telekinesis, Animal Telepathy, Lumen, Plantae, Photokinesis, and Charms."

"Charms?" huh so MJ was listening.

"Yeah, there are many charms I can cast, but they are mostly in the field of protection and sealing: like, keeping people from dying and keeping a container from being opened by anyone except the person its 'tied' to. It's not exactly 'magic' but pretty close."

"What's 'Lumen'?" Betty asked.

Sy grinned and held up his palms, shining his Lumen toward the ceiling. Ned's mouth dropped open and be breathed out, "So cool."

"Useful for finding your keys in the dark, I guess," MJ was thoroughly unimpressed.

Sy grinned and set his hand on fire. Ned screeched and backed away several steps. "Dude, dude, your arm's on fire!"

"I know" Sy replied nonchalantly "Lumen makes me immune to heat, so this isn't a problem. Here" he extinguished the fire "feel my hand." He held out his hand toward Ned, who looked at him like he was crazy, "You want me to burn my hand?"

"Your hand won't burn; I'm immune to heat, so that fire didn't even raise my temperature. Feel." Ned tentatively placed a finger on Sy's hand and his mouth dropped open, "It's not even abnormally warm! Dude, that is awesome!"

MJ grinned devilishly, "Do you like pranks?"

And that's how it started: first, the Avengers found Sy lying, seemingly unconscious, on the floor of the training room, on fire. Everyone—except Natasha and Peter—forgot about his fire immunity and freaked out, rushing for the fire extinguisher and trying to call Cho—who was aware of the prank—to treat Sy's "third-degree burns." Sy had burst out laughing at that part and everyone was not amused.

Another time, Clint went to get suited up for a heavy-duty training session only to find all his gear colored a vibrant pink. He accused Sam and Bucky of dyeing it and refused to wear it until Natasha threatened him with no video games for the rest of the vacation unless he "got his butt in here for training." Everyone spent the entire training session trying—rather unsuccessfully—not to laugh at how ridiculous Clint looked. Only after the session was done, did Sy stop manipulating the light reflecting off Clint's armor and let it revert back its natural dark purple. Needless to say, everyone burst out laughing and Clint was not amused.

Only when MJ planned a prank did things really get terrifying. The team was up late watching movies one night. The teens had elected not to join them. When everyone got up to go to bed, they all herded into the hallway leading toward their bedrooms. At first, they didn't notice anything was wrong, until Sam noted that the lights seemed to be very dim. According to FRIDAY they were at their normal power, but it really seemed to be getting dark in the hallway the further they went along, until it was nearly pitch black.

Everyone was on edge and nervous, and when they turned a corner, Bucky screamed. Sy was floating there, cross-legged, with slow-moving purple flames moving across his body occasionally. His face looked dark and evil except for his eyes, which were glowing with orange flames leaking out of them. Several knives were floating around him, seemingly in zero-gravity. Some were bumping into the walls, some were sharpening each other, and others were just floating there. When Sy looked up, all the knives pointed toward the terrified Avengers—except Natasha, nothing really scared her anymore—and Sy spoke with an un-earthly voice, "Who dares enter my domain and disturb my rest? Trespassers must prove their worthiness or die." At that the knives flew at a blinding speed toward the Avengers, who were too shocked to move and simply shut their eyes, waiting for their end. Nothing happened. They slowly opened their eyes and found the hallway to be lit normally. There were no knives and Sy was nowhere to be found.

Sam looked like he was ready to hurl and managed to choke out, "Did- did you guys see that too? Or was I just hallucinating?"

Only Steve with his super hearing could pick up Sy and the other teens laughing hysterically in his room.