Again we'll be back to the normal characters soon!
FIONA
Uncle Bruce ran out to meet me.
"What the hell are you doing here Fiona?" He asked, gently guiding me in by the arm, with a confused look at the animals around me. "And what the hell are you doing with the whole New York zoo?"
"They're my protection." I explained calmly, stepping inside. I turned to the pigeons, squirrels, and single fox that had joined my entourage. "You're going to have to stay outside now. Guard the perimeter, send word to me if he gets any closer."
"Who are you talking to?" Bruce asked me, trying to pull me further inside. I shook him off lightly.
"What about me?" Kiraz asked from my shoulder. Bruce stared at her. It was likely all he was hearing was squawks.
I held out an arm and she walked carefully to perch on my outstretched forearm. "I want you with me, but keep in contact with the birds above. We need their eyes."
Kiraz bowed her head slightly to me to demonstrate understanding, before letting out a series of shrieks. The receptionist stared at me weirdly and I saw Bruce mouth a sorry.
"I have let them know." Kiraz informed me.
"Right." I sighed and turned to Bruce. "Sorry about this, I needed to talk to you, and I needed a safe place to stay."
"Why aren't you in school?" He asked, pulling me over to the elevator.
"I uh, I skipped. Again."
"Fiona!" He shook his head as we stepped into the elevator. "You can't bring that bird in."
"This human-" Kiraz began to raise her wings.
"Kiraz, please calm down. Chad stop scratching at me, please! Can you both just cool it?" I opened my shirt to look at Chad. He tried to pretend he was macho, but really, what would you expect from a squirrel? I turned to my uncle. "Sorry Bruce, I've got a lot of explaining to do."
He looked me up and down slowly as the lift doors closed. Kiraz flew off my arm and onto the hand rails on the side of the elevator, making Bruce duck.
"Don't worry, she's very careful."
"You called her Kiraz." He said pointing at the hawk.
"Yes. Well it is her name." I shrugged.
"What, is she your pet now?" He asked in disbelief.
I frowned. "No? That's her name, she's wild." I sighed. Explanation time. "You remember when you told me never to mess with things in your lab?"
"Yes." Bruce squinted at me. "Are you about to tell me you ignored that?"
I scratched the back of my head. "Only a little bit."
"Fiona! You-" He clenched his fists slightly, before unclenching them and lowering his voice. "You know what consequences that had for me."
"The big green thing?" I asked.
He put his palm over his eyes. "Yes. The hulk."
"Don't worry, I didn't turn big and green. I can just understand animals now. The radiation did something to the communication part of my brain I think, I mean I'm not exactly a scientist, but I was looking through some of your research papers and you said it was possible for Gamma radiation to do that to a brain, if exposed in the right conditions. I just... tap into a frequency other people can't."
He took his hand away form his face, his hand shaking slightly. "When did this happen?" He asked.
"Last year. I'd just started high school." I replied nonchalantly.
"You were 14!" He yelled, before trying to calm himself down with some deep breaths. I'd never seen him turn into the hulk, and I didn't want him to.
"Yes. But we can discuss this all later. I haven't had any other side effects. Just that." The elevator doors opened and I stepped out to see a group of people looking at us. I lifted my hand and gave them all a small wave as Kiraz flew back onto my shoulder. "Hi!" I turned to Bruce. "You didn't tell me this was a group meeting day?"
A man stepped forward who I instantly recognised as Captain America. "Bruce, why is she here."
"I know as much as you." Bruce said wearily stepping out of the elevator behind me. Gently I pulled Chad out of my T-shirt and set him on the floor, making one of the girls in front of me who I didn't recognise jump back. A tall man at back, Loki who had invaded New York only a few years before, laughed a little.
"Roara," He said lazily, "you really must get over your fear of rodents."
"Maybe," The brown haired girl turned to him, "you should stop being such a dick!"
"Hey guys, I'm not here to cause trouble." I said stepping towards the group. "But I have information and it couldn't wait. I was followed all the way here, and apparently according to a messaging system that came from Washington DC, a girl was taken outside her home last night. Thing is she could turn invisible. Even weirder, the guy who took her, he's the one who's been following me."
Everyone stared at me, their jaws going slack.
"What?" I looked around, completely confused.
"Kid, I think you should come with me." I looked to my left to see Tony Stark walking away down a corridor. Bruce gave me a little push and I walked along, Kiraz rising to fly alongside me. "We've heard the exact same thing." Mr Stark said over his shoulder. "Only we didn't know he'd be in New York so soon."
"Well, Mr Stark, can I call you Mr Stark?" I asked. I saw Mr Stark's shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. "Mr Stark, he's very very fast. Even Kiraz can't see him properly when he moves, he's just a blur to her."
Mr Stark turned around to face me. We were in a big room, lots of people running around, on computers, talking to each other. "Who the hell is Kiraz."
"The uh," I turned around in a circle. This place was huge. Really huge. "The bird." I said quietly, taking everything in. There were some couches off to the side, with a small kitchen section too. It was a place that if you were working you didn't need to leave.
"The bird?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, I can uhm," Someone pushed past me and I felt the small claws of Chad climbing up my leg, "I can speak to animals."
"You can what?" A woman asked. Black Widow.
"Yeah, I messed around with some of Uncle Bruce's equipment." I muttered. Black Widow led me to one of the couches to take a seat.
"My name is Natasha. This is Roara," she pointed to the brown haired girl who didn't like rodents, "that's Alina," she pointed to the tall girl who was wearing a crop top and combat trousers, her slender dark fingers tapping on the desk impatiently, "and I suppose you know everyone else from the TV."
"Yeah." Someone placed a mug of coffee into my hands. I took a long drink. "Sorry, I didn't realise how scared I'd been that I was being followed. I just tried to go into tactical thinking brain. Sorry. Words aren't working."
"It's okay." Another girl sat down beside me. Wanda Maximoff. "Just tell us everything you know."
I relayed what Chad had told me and my walk there from Central Park. I saw Kiraz fly out of the window and come back in.
"He's retreated." She told me, before perching on a lampshade.
"He's gone." I translated for them. "We won't be able to keep track of him now, but I've stationed some guys down below."
"Some guys?"
"Wildlife. New York has masses of it. They all know who I am, word spreads quickly when a human can talk to them, they're very gossipy creatures. Apart from moles, they're very antisocial."
"Moles?" Roara said with a squeak.
"It's fine." I told her. "They stay underground most of the time. They're blind anyway so sunlight doesn't do them any good. But they're useful for passing messages between states without being noticed."
"Wait, you've had these powers a year, what have you done with them?" Bruce asked me, sitting down across from me.
"I stopped a terrorist attack about six months ago." I shrugged.
"Wait that was you?" A boy I didn't recognise asked me.
"Sorry, who is this?"
"Oh, that's Peter." Alina answered.
"Yeah, the guy they found in a dumpster with a load of bites on him? That was me. He was going to blow up a school." They all fell silent. "This place is the animals home too. They don't like to see destruction."
"I bet they don't." Steve Rogers said quietly.
"Right." A man came over, tall and brooding. He was scary. "Name's Nick Fury." He nodded to me. "You should stay here, safest place for you."
I wasn't about to disagree. I didn't want to be out on the streets right now.
Chad crawled up to my shoulder. "Do they have any food?" He asked me.
"Shut up." I whispered. "You had an acorn and you decided to throw it at my head."
He groaned fell into my lap with an annoyed expression in his beady little eyes.
"GUYS!" A woman called. "They've taken another one!"
"Who?" Alina said, instantly rising to her feet.
"Bethany Goodwin. No relation to us, but she can manipulate sound into different types of energy."
"Give it to me." Alina said. The woman passed her a tablet, which Alina began to flick through hurriedly, scanning the screen with impressive speed. "That's on the other side of New York."
"Guys." Peter said looking at his phone screen. "I've got to go." He stood up hurriedly, grabbing his bag from beside the couch.
"Hey, hey, not so fast." Tony put a hand out to stop him.
"Mr Stark, they broke into my apartment." Peter said desperately. "Aunt May didn't even see them."
"Don't go." I said, standing up quickly. "You wouldn't even see him. I'll send a patrol out to guard." I gave some instructions to Kiraz to send to the others and she flew out the window.
"Man." Falcon, Sam Wilson, said looking at Kiraz as she went. "I gotta get me one of those."
"Hey, that's a hawk. I think I should have one." Hawkeye replied.
"Can you do a Falcon?" Wilson asked me.
I groaned. "Maybe?"
Wilson pumped a fist into the air as Steve Rogers put his head into his hands.
"I feel like I'm not qualified for this information." I said abruptly, standing up. "I'm not an Avenger, I don't want to be an Avenger, can I go please? I just want somewhere safe and quiet to read my book."
"Come on." Wanda tugged at my arm. I stood up, causing Chad to fall onto the floor. He got up and made some unusual squeaks, which I assumed must be squirrel swear words. Kiraz followed Wanda and I as we walked through the complex. "This is my room." Wanda explained, opening the door. "You'll be fine in here."
"You play guitar?" I asked looking at her walls, my eyes catching on the wooden instrument hung up near the bed.
She smiled. "I do. Do you?"
"Yeah, I'm trying to teach myself. I'm not so good though."
"Maybe I can teach you sometime." She offered, pulling some blankets out of her closet. "Make yourself at home. If you get cold just use these. We'll call for you if we need you."
"Thank you. Could you keep an eye on Uncle Bruce for me?" I asked as she left.
"Of course." She smiled and waved me goodbye.
I pulled my book out of my bed, and began the wait.