"And so, after three more months in the hospital, he died," Alina says, making sure she's making eye contact with her classmates and teacher. Teachers always hand out better grades for those who don't read off their slides directly, and she isn't taking any chances now. Currently, Alina only has an average of 90 in her English II class, but she isn't going to allow a simple oral project to ruin her perfect straight A's.
"My grandpa may have died of a heart attack," Alina continues, "but he was a great man. He may not have died saving the world, and he may not have had powers, but he accomplished what many people never have. He tried to be a hero by serving his country, and that's why he is, in my eyes, a hero and the person that I look up to the most."
Alina ends her presentation with a nod and a smile. The class erupts in applause like they have after every presentation thus far. At this point, for many of the students, clapping after someone finishes a presentation is simply just an impulse, whether they payed attention to the presentation or not.
"My, that was wonderful," Mrs. Gilbert praises, and a second later the bell rings. All the students, including Alina, scramble to get their things together before bursting out of the classroom, excitement for the weekend spinning around in their minds.
"Enjoy your weekend!" Mrs. Gilbert calls after them.
After two more classes, the school day finally ends for Alina. She walks home like she does every day, with her earbuds in her ears and her hands tucked into her hoodie pockets. As Believer by Imagine Dragons turns on, she can't help but bop her head to the music.
A sudden ringing from her phone blocks out the music. Annoyed, she digs her phone out of her hoodie pocket and reads the caller ID.
Sam Wilson.
Alina's heart jumps into a frenzy. It had been two years, two whole years since she last spoke to Sam. The last time she saw him was at her grandpa's funeral and that was it. No visits, no texts, nothing, nadda, and here he is now contacting her. She knows he's an Avenger now, which likely explains why he never checked in on her, but this is definitely unexpected.
Not knowing what else to do, Alina presses the green accept button.
"Alina, are you there?!" Sam's voice comes through immediately.
"Um, yeah?" she says, almost in a question. "Long time no see, Sam," she adds.
"Alina, listen. I need your help."
"Wait-Wait, what? You need my what ?" Alina stops walking and settles herself on a bus stop bench. This phone call is definitely not just a friendly check in. "I"m sorry, but I'm so confused right now. Not to be rude, but aren't you like an Avenger now? Why would you need my help?"
Sam's heavy release of air can be heard through the phone. "Look, some serious stuff is going down, and we're low on numbers. I'm sure you've heard about the Accords, right?"
"Well, yeah," Alina answers with a shrug.
"Well, because of those stupid Accords, we have a major threat coming our way. I wanna tell you more but I'm kinda on the run right now, and I'm not sure how safe this line is."
Alina's raises her eyebrows. "What the hell? You're on the run?! And you're calling me ?!"
"Look," Sam says, "I'm gonna hang up now, but before I do, I need an answer. If you say yes, I'll have some friends of mine come and get you. If you say no, then you and I will pretend this conversation never happened, okay?"
"Uh, I guess." Her heart thumps in her chest. This situation felt serious and only seems to be getting more serious by the second.
"Will you help the Avengers go against the law?" Sam finally asks.
Alina's breath hitches in her chest. Her mind starts swirling with excitement and nervousness all at the same time. Getting to meet the Avengers? That would be a dream come true. But going against the law? That is an issue, a big one. Although at the end of the day, Alina trusts Sam. He helped her grandpa all those years ago, and now it's her turn to help him.
"Sam are you still there?" she asks.
"Yeah."
"I'm in."
And just like that, Sam hangs up. With a sigh, Alina tucks her phone away in her pocket and stands up. As she continues to walk home, her mind spins with thoughts. She has no idea where she's going. How she's going to get there, or even who she's going with. All she knows is that she's helping out the Avengers and whatever it is they're doing, it's against the law. This has her thinking. Since Sam said the situation concerns the Accords, that likely means that only half of the Avengers are even involved. Alina knows this since it was reported on the news that only about half of the Avengers signed the Accords, but they didn't exactly name any names. She knows for a fact though that Sam definitely wasn't one of the ones who signed. After all, he did say that the Accords were stupid, and to Alina, he just doesn't see like the kind of person who would allow governments to have so much control over something, especially after seeing the damage that corrupt governments can do from his days in the United States Air Force.
When Alina gets home, she heads for her room, but her mom blocks her path. "I just got a call from Sam Wilson," she announces.
Alina's gut churns. Why in the world would Sam have called her mom?!
"And I'm so proud of you," her mom finishes, capturing Alina in a hug.
Alina tenses in confusion. What the heck did Sam tell her mother?!
After her mother lets her go, she stares Alina in the eyes. "You should probably start packing for your trip right now," she suggests.
Alina's face contorts in utter confusion. "Wait, where exactly am I going?" she asks.
Her mother smiles proudly at her. "To Germany of course. I thought Sam said he already told you. You're going to Germany to assist him as a junior intern for the Department of Veterans Affairs trip."
A smile creeps onto Alina's lips. Good ol' Sam. He already thought of an alibi to get her parents to let her to go. It's a good thing her parents tend to miss the news on TV. Otherwise, they would know more about Sam's involvement in the Accords and would know that he was lying to them about this whole VA trip she's suddenly invited on.
-~-~-***+++***-~-~-
Alina stares at her reflection in her bedroom mirror and smiles. Just because she's going to help the Avengers out, that doesn't mean that she's going to reveal her identity to them so easily.
Over her eyes and the upper part of her nose is a maroon red mask while her blond hair is held up in a somewhat messy ponytail. She's wearing a maroon red body suit with gold accents which is inspired by one of Alina's favorite Avengers, Black Widow. Finally, she's also wearing combat boots.
Alina admires her DIY suit for a little longer when her phone dings. She grabs it off her desk and holds it up. It's a text from Sam with the location for her pickup.
Excitement fills inside of her. This is actually happening. She's really about to meet some Avengers and help them out. Thank God her parents had her brother and her take martial arts classes during the summers. Otherwise, she would be feeling much more unsure of herself when it comes to self defense and combat.
After Alina packs a few more things in a backpack, she calls her parents who are at work that she's leaving. With that taken care of, she hails a taxi, and it drives her to a Wendy's joint right next to an abandoned parking garage.
"Interesting...choice of clothes," the taxi driver comments as Alina gets out of the taxi. "Are you going to a costume party?"
Alina nods unsurely. "Um, yeah, something like that." She shrugs.
Once the taxi drives away out of sight, Alina walks away from the Wendy's joint and heads over to the abandoned parking garage. It takes a while, but she finally makes it up the stairs and to the top. A small jet is waiting there for her. She assumes it's a variation of the famous Quinjet.
A minute or two passes before Alina realizes that whoever is inside the Quinjet, has no idea that she's there. She shifts her weight from her left to her right foot awkwardly. She considers to try knocking on the Quinjet to get someone's attention but then thinks against it. It would be weird and make her seem too unprofessional for the major task she's been asked to be a part of.
So with no better ideas, she just sucks it up and waits for a few more minutes when finally the Quinjet opens and the ramp is let down. Alina's heart beats intensely when she sees a man walking down the ramp. It only takes her a second to recognize the man as Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. She remembers his face from the news and even though he's only wearing black pants and a simple black leather jacket, it's impossible not to recognize him since he's world famous and all.
Alina remains silent as Clint approaches her. He stops five feet away then finally speaks up. "Hey, so, I'm gonna guess that you're the one Sam wants picked up, cause of your suit and all," he says, motioning to her super suit with his hand. He looks at Alina expectingly, waiting for an answer.
Alina takes a second to soak in the fact that she's actually meeting an Avenger before blinking rapidly and gulping. "Um, yeah, that's me." She laughs lightheartedly to help calm herself down. Meeting your heroes and trying to keep it together is going to be harder than she thought it would be.
"Okay, so, we need to get going now if we're gonna make it to the rendezvous point on time. Are you ready?" he asks.
Alina nods. "All ready to go," she affirms. She lets out a deep breath that she was holding in, feeling relieved that she was finally able to speak to Clint without panicking too much.
"Alright," Clint says somewhat awkwardly as a way to end their already completely awkward interaction. He turns on his heel and heads back to the Quinjet, motioning for Alina to follow him with his arm.
Alina exhales another deep breath before walking behind him towards the Quinjet and up the ramp. Once inside the Quinjet, she holds in a gasp. Sitting inside are two people, one of which is a man she doesn't recognize but the other person is none other than Wanda Maximoff. She's even more gorgeous in person with her brown hair and beautiful green eyes. Alina can't help but admire her stunning black knee high boots. She takes a mental note to get herself a pair after this is all over.
Clint turns around and brings his attention back to Alina. "Feel free to get comfortable. It's gonna be a while till we get there," he informs her before walking towards the cockpit, leaving her alone with Wanda and the other guy.
Alina quickly tries to defuse the chance of any awkward silence starting by addressing the two of them immediately. She smiles brightly. "Uh, hi, I'm..." She stops herself, realizing that the whole point of wearing the mask is to keep her identity a secret...at least...for now. "Well, I actually can't tell you who I am because of the whole secret identity thing but feel free to call me whatever." She smiles again, but this time she's not as sure of herself anymore. Is there even a proper way to introduce yourself to people as powerful as the Avengers?
Wanda finally addresses her. "It's fine," she smiles. But Alina can sense that something isn't completely right. Something seems to be bothering Wands, but Alina had no idea what it could be, other than it might have something to do with the whole Accords thing. She briefly remembers seeing something on the news about the powerful young Avenger.
"Hi, I'm Scott," the other man greets. He stands to his feet and extends a hand out. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he says with a smile.
Alina takes his hand and shakes it. "Nice to meet you," she says.
Scott sits back down. "So, Cap recruited you too, hah?"
Alina stares in confusion at him. "Um, no, actually Sam Wilson-the Falcon did."
"Oh yeah, me too actually. How do you know him?" Scott asks curiously.
Alina sighs. "He was friends with my grandpa before he died, and, well, he's sorta been in contact with me after he found out I had powers, so yeah. I really don't know him that well if I'm being honest though."
Scott nods in understanding before continuing. "I hope you don't mind me asking but what exactly can you do?"
Alina smiles. Since only she and Sam know about her powers, she never gets to explain them to anyone, and now she has a chance too, with other enhanced and super-powered people nonetheless!
"I can harness the energy of a star basically. I can use it to burn and vaporize things which is pretty cool, so that pretty much sums it up," Alina explains.
"Nice," Wanda comments, finally speaking up after just listening to her and Scott talking, but she immediately seems to fall back into thought afterwards. She obviously has a lot of things on her mind at the moment.
Suddenly the Quinjet jerks making Alina have to steady herself to keep her balance. Scott pats the empty space next to him to which Alina smiles gratefully. She seats herself beside him and places her backpack next to her.
And just like that, they are off.
Author's Note: Don't be a silent reader! Remember to vote, comment, share, and give me your theories and thoughts! Constructive criticism and any criticism for that matter is always welcome! Know any other Tom Holland's Spider-Man fans? Let them know about this story!