When he said friends, I assumed his buddies. Maybe use me as a parlor trick. Play a few jokes on some people. I had no idea he meant the Avengers.
The next day he was picking me up to bring me to the compound. I don’t think he could wait to show everyone what he just happened to run across in daily life. According to him, people like me were usually on some sort of radar for them. I had no idea what that meant. My nervousness was overcome with excitement as Sam built up my confidence to meet everyone on the team. He gave me a quick tour of the ground level before we headed up a floor to where the lab and conference rooms were.
I met Bruce and Tony in the lab first. Both brainiacs in their own ways. Bruce seemed nice. Quiet, calm, reserved, but he kept talking about ‘the big guy’ and I made a mental note to ask Sam about what that meant later. I’d heard of Tony Stark before, and according to him you’d have to be living under a rock to have not heard about him. Tony had a funny sarcastic arrogance about him, and it reminded me of a bartender I once knew, so I immediately hit it off with him. I too enjoyed a bit of sarcasm, and felt he and I had similar humor. He was quizzical of my talent, he advised Sam had shared his experience at the diner but wanted to hear about it first hand.
“It’s different for everyone if I just allow your own brain to fill in the gaps,” I began, both Tony and Bruce giving me engaging looks, “For example, I could simply pull in an emotion like fear, where your brain pulls in it’s own fears, or pull in love/lust/desire and you would see or feel things that fall into those emotions.”
“Emotional manipulation overriding the brain's own sensory neurons and neural pathways, very interesting, please continue,” Bruce said, jotting down some notes.
“Then I can also override what your brain would normally pull in for you and give you something specific. I only override if it’s something very particular I want you to feel. Say I want you to fall in love with me specifically, I can’t just insert love into your mind, you’d paint your own picture of what that means to you and it most certainly wouldn’t be me. Not that I’ve done that or would do that, just using it as an example. Maybe a better example is getting you to trust me or think that I’m really trustworthy and spill your secrets to me. Recently, I’ve been able to suppress emotional responses, like having you freeze in fear or not cry, but I’m still having that backfire occasionally. Although it was successful with Sammy in the diner, he didn’t make a peep after everything he saw. Most of the time I can get a visual on what’s all going on inside your head, like what you’re seeing that’s going on inside your head with the forced emotion. Sorry, I’m rambling, it’s hard to explain.”
“No, I get it,” Tony says, “have you ever been able to draw out someone's emotions, like feel what they feel, as a way to read them?”
“No, but I don’t think I’ve tried to necessarily.” I say hesitantly, trying to think back on the countless hours of attempting to get a handle on improving and managing my abilities. “I can get a picture of what you see with the emotion I give you, but that’s about it.”
“So a bit of telepathy as well. Can you just do one person or multiple? How long?” Tony fires off question after question.
“I can do more than one person at a time, the groups that sam held were maybe 15ish people, but only if they are all the same emotion. I’ve never tried different emotions on different people at the same time. What I can do is only temporary, trying to hold on for too long, especially when more than one person gets me really worn out. Nose bleeds, fainting, things like that.”
Tony thought for a minute, pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes as he paced a bit around the lab, “Well then, we will just have to work on developing that and mastering these talents now won’t we?”
Sam grabbed my hand with a ‘come on’ motion so we could keep up with the rest of our meet and greets. Traveling up a floor, we came across Natasha and Steve arguing about Steve needing to take ‘Tina’ out as they casually ate lunch in the common area. Another mental note that I’d have to ask Sam to point out Tina, just out of pure curiosity. Natasha was drop dead gorgeous. Striking red hair, luscious full lips in a seductive pout, the effortless beauty type. I attempted to hide my immediate jealousy of her and subconsciously searched to find some sort of flaw. Steve was super nice, tall, classically handsome, with sultry blue eyes. Incredible body, hugged tight with his gray t-shirt and fitted jeans. I knew he was Captain America and I tried not to go all fan girl, keeping it cool. I laughed a bit too hard when Nat said she had to return the fossil to the Smithsonian and asked if I knew what time it closed.
Sam ushered me off to meet up with ‘Wanda’ and ‘Bucky.’ Bucky? What kind of name was that?
We approached a younger woman, who I can only assume was the Wanda he referenced, throwing cinder blocks apparently telepathically? With elegant waves of her hands and arms, vibrant red firelike swirls carried each one up and over to be demolished by a man. So this was ‘Bucky’, the farthest thing from what I had originally pictured.
Sediment gathering on the mat, even through the gray dust cloud, I could make out that he was the hottest man I’d ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes on. Shirtless, the best type, he wore gray sweatpants that rode low, accentuating the curvature of his hips dipping into that desirable ‘V’. Muscular build, sweat glistening on his body, reflecting the fluorescent lights above. Graceful for such a well built specimen. And a prosthetic arm? Is that metal? Whatever it is, it’s high tech, plates adjusting and aligning, moving just as methodically as it’s counterpart. Doesn’t surprise me, this whole place is screaming with tech and the newest of the new. Hell, Tony Stark’s whole Iron Man suit is just advanced tech.
They pause when they see us and take an opportunity to rehydrate. He grabs a towel to wipe his face, then chest before draping it over his neck and hanging on to the ends. Wanda barely broke a sweat. Approaching, I accidentally let a ‘fuck me’ slip out under my breath. His eyes snap to me. Did he hear that? There’s no way, I’m still too far off. Sam couldn’t have even heard that and he’s right next to me.
“What was that sweetheart?” Bucky gives me a devilishly handsome smile, accentuating his chiseled jawline, playfully tilting his head to the side. Gosh, he’s even hotter up close if that was even possible. My knees threaten to buckle and my breath hitches.
He’s trouble, I can tell, that look is no good. I’ve seen it too many times before, hell I’ve given that look before. After Stanlee left, the emptiness consumed me. I tried haphazardly to fill it, anyway I could. I tried different groups, joining a gym, cooking classes, even book clubs. Anything that would result in me spending as little time alone as I could.
Nights were the worst though, the nightmares, waking up to an empty bed. No one to curl up against or have an arm slung over me for security. Nothing compares to the feeling of being alone when you don’t want to be alone. It was like the quietest personal hell to live through. I craved intimacy to wash away the abandonment, it temporarily filled the hole inside me, even if it was just for the night. I just needed to get through until the next day as those were much easier to fill and keep my mind occupied. So, I resorted to filling my bed nightly with someone, usually men, and occasionally a few hot masc lesbians. And I went through a lot of them. Far more than I’d ever want to admit. I didn’t want a relationship, that would mean having to share about my past resulting in them probably feeling sorry for me. I wasn’t some pathetic charity case that needed the pity. No, I just wanted something to make me feel good for the night, a warm body to wake up to.
Clueless on how to actually take someone home at first, I felt despicable when I had to resort to my powers to lure someone in. It was a horrible guilt, I all but vomited the next day on how disgusting it made me feel. Vowing to never do it again, I became really good at the game. Flirting, sexual inuendos, seducing, what to say, how to say it, what to dress like, you name it. And with this fine ass piece of man meat, I was going to pull out all the stops.
“Bucky, Wanda, this is J. She’s the new recruit I was mentioning to you, the one attending my groups with her friend,” Sam said, pointing a finger at Bucky “and Bucky, play nice.”
He smiles, “Of course Sam, I don’t bite… unless they want me to.” Again with the sly devilish smile, displaying perfectly white straight teeth.
Wanda closes her eyes and shakes her head. Grabbing her water bottle, “I’m so sorry for him, we try to keep him on his best behavior in front of newbies, but sometimes in front of beautiful women, he just can’t help himself.”
I blush thinking she just called me beautiful and can’t stop my thoughts as they drift to him, his hands and tongue gliding up and down my body. Lord snap me in two. Fuck me until we are both dripping wet with sweat. I wonder what that metal arm can do…
Wanda chokes on her water, spitting it out on the mat. “Sorry,” coughing, struggling to get the words out, “I’m fine I just need some air,” continuing to cough, shaking off Bucky’s hand from the whacks on her back.
Passing me on her way out, “It was nice to meet you and I’m sure I’ll see you later,” she leans in closer, “Your thoughts are very loud. You should try a bit harder to keep them to yourself,” whispering with a petite smile and quick pat on my shoulder.
Embarrassed, I can feel the redness spread to my cheeks, returning my gaze to him. It's evident he heard that too as he shrugs his shoulders and smiles confidently, like he can’t blame me for how I feel.
Super-sonic-hearing-metal-arm-man and a telekinetic mind reader. It all makes sense why Sam brought me here. We’re all weirdos.
____
Please remember to vote if you liked this chapter! Thank you!