The sun was your enemy. You were convinced that there was a cosmic force out there, just waiting to torture you when the sun finally rose and shone it's glaring light into your room, waking you from a peaceful sleep to start the day. Little did the sun know, you were its arch nemesis, it's one true enemy, the one who could wipe away that happy disposition. With a wave of your hand and a loud groan as you rolled over into your blankets, the clouds began to build and covered the rays that lit your room. The soft tapping of rain hit your windows, lulling you back to sleep.
"Miss, your training session is in five minutes."
"Leave me alone, FRIDAY. Don't make me fry your systems again."
"Apologies, but I should warn you that Miss Romanoff is on her way."
It crossed your mind, only in a flash, that you could easily redirect Natasha away and remain in the comfort of your bed for as long as you wanted, but it wouldn't be fair to manipulate her that way. You had always chosen your powers carefully and vowed to use them only when absolutely necessary. Right now, keeping the sun out of your eyes was considered as such.
"Get up, you lazy bum!"
"Come back later, you pushy jerk!"
Your door swung open to reveal Natasha, holding your gear with a smirk on her face. "Get your ass out of bed." She threw the uniform on the bed next to you and pulled your blankets back. She walked to your windows and pulled the curtains open, laughing at the current state of the weather. "It was sunny just a couple of minutes ago. I assume this was you?"
"You can't prove a thing." You reluctantly rolled over and grabbed your suit, making your way to the bathroom to prepare for your session, knowing that your energy was no match for hers today. "I don't know why you keep trying, Nat. I suck at combat."
"Captain's orders. You need to be able to handle yourself without using your powers." She turned away from the window and leaned back against the ledge, raising her voice so you could hear her through the bathroom door. "Hey, about that, what exactly are your powers anyway? The team has a bet going on and I'd really like to win."
You peeked your head out through the door, confused that they wouldn't already know this. You distinctly remembered that Steve was holding your file when you arrived at the tower, and the entire team was there to greet you. Did they not read it? Well, if they really didn't know, then it served them right to lose a little cash.
"If you don't know after all this time, then I'm not gonna just give it away so you can win some silly bet. Some spy you've turned out to be."
~~~
You may have picked on her spy skills, but you would never doubt her skills at fighting. Your entire body hurt after the morning session was complete, and all you wanted was a shower and to go back to bed. As you unwrapped your hands and helped Nat put away the equipment, Tony's voice boomed throughout the room.
"Alright, kids, suit up and meet at the jet in ten."
Natasha laughed to herself, knowing full well what you would rather be doing, and how sore she had made you. "So, you up for this, (Y/N)?"
"Sure, let's do it." You tried to look like it was just another mission, and that you couldn't understand why she would think you didn't want to go, but in reality it was the last place you wanted to be.
"Great, I'm going to have my eye on you," she pointed your direction as she walked through the door, "I'll win this bet once and for all."
Oh, if that's how she wanted to play, you were ready to play. Once the team arrived at the mission site, you took a moment to center yourself and focus on the powers you wanted to use. You had one of the rarest skills, the power of ability creation; you could develop any ability needed in the moment, and sometimes bestow it on a teammate if needed. You had never done that before, but maybe today would be the day to have a little fun with it.
You followed Steve out of the jet and towards the building thought to be holding a large storage of weapons left behind by Hydra, believed to be enough to get a good start on rebuilding them back to power. It wasn't known if anyone else had found the base, but the team was prepared for an attack at any moment and had entered the area from all sides.
"(Y/N), on your left," Steve whispered, staying next to you as you put your hand on the lock of a large door, easily melting the metal away so it could be opened. He glanced at the door and then to you, surprised. "Wait, that's new...when did you start doing that?"
"Shhh. I hear someone in there."
The Captain stood silently for a moment with his ear close to the door, straining his senses to hear what you had, but was visibly frustrated when he couldn't. "I don't hear anything. Are you sure?"
"Hold still," you said, lifting your hand to his head but pausing just before you made contact. "There, try again."
His eyes grew wide and he shook his head a few times, unsure that he was actually hearing what he thought he was hearing. He stared at you with awe, then turned back towards the building as he listened to the voices inside. "I'd say there's at least ten, maybe fifteen in there. Sound right?"
You nodded, turning towards Tony and Nat, signaling to move in. You were about to pull the door open but he grabbed your arm and turned you towards him. "How did you do that? That's amazing; I could hear everything like they were right next to me."
You smiled casually and pulled your arm away to continue your progress. "Don't get too excited, Cap. It's temporary." He nodded silently towards the door, stepping in front of you to shield you as you made your way down a long and narrow stairway. With your wide range of abilities, you had always found weapons to be pointless, but at the Captain's insistence you carried them, and now had your gun drawn and pointed past him defensively.
"I can hear Tony and Nat on the other side of the building," he said. "They're in position." He raised his hand over his ear to signal them through his comm, "on my mark...3...2...1."
As you entered the small gathering room, the men inside quickly rose to their feet with weapons drawn, yelling at you in a foreign language that you didn't immediately recognize. After a moment of listening for dialect and inflection, you adapted and spoke back to them without difficulty. "Stand down, gentlemen. We have you surrounded, and you have no hope to win here. Stand. Down."
They continued to yell and aim their weapons, and the sound of Tony's repulsors charging sent fear through you. If he fired then it would be sure to begin an attack that could injure one of your teammates, given the small area that you were in and the fact that you really were outnumbered. Steve raised his shield and Nat moved to stand behind Tony, but you knew this wasn't going to end well for everyone. You closed your eyes and focused on the group, regretting that you would need to use a power that you never wanted to have.
Put your weapons down and lie on the floor.
Two of the men in the group looked at you with confusion, while the others shook their heads and became distracted enough for their weapons to lower just a bit.
I said, put your weapons down and lie on the floor.
The men looked at each other and cautiously put their guns down in front of them, then began to lie on the floor with their arms at their sides, unmoving. Natasha and Steve charged forward and kicked the weapons away, rushing past to the next room where more voices could be heard. With each group that you encountered, it became harder to hold your control over each of them as the numbers grew, and it began to drain you.
"Guys, we need to wrap this up. I can't hold this much longer."
"I've got this if you need to go, (Y/N)." Natasha was finishing the restraints on the last two guards, while Steve and Tony worked on securing the final room and removing the weapons from the site. As you watched her work, her face turned to shock, pointing behind you and yelling to get down.
You heard the click of the gun's trigger before she had even reacted; you raised your hand behind you and slowed the bullet to a stop just before it touched the skin of your palm. Closing your fingers around it, you held it until the metal was fully melted away and dripping onto the floor below. Taking advantage of the moment and the stunned assailant, you lunged forward to deliver a blow to his neck and a punch to his abdomen, easily knocking him down. You pulled his arms behind him and dug your knee into his spine, holding him in place as you restrained him.
"Wow. I've never done that before! That was so cool! Did you see that?"
Nat continued to stare at you with her mouth open, totally unsure of what to say. After a moment, she finally mumbled out a few words, "yeah, I saw. Um...(Y/N)...I've never...I mean...what are you?"
~~~
"No, you guys, seriously. I saw it. She totally slowed it down and melted it in her hand."
"I saw her do that to the lock on the door too! Oh! And then she gave me some kind of super hearing, and I heard your feet on the stairs all the way across the building!"
"Okay, okay, but can we just talk about the mind control thing? When did that start? Should we be worried?"
"No! The language thing! She concentrated for what, a few seconds, then spoke to them like it was nothing!"
You laughed as you walked past the group, grabbing the jar of cash that held their collective bets on your abilities. "I guess I win this one, sorry kids." They watched silently as you made your way to the elevator, finally able to head back to your room after the events of the long day that you never even wanted to start.
Once you were in the solitude of your own environment, you crawled into your bed and pulled the covers up, ready to take your long-awaited nap, but the sun had returned and was keeping you from sleep. "I thought we covered this already," you groaned, waving dismissively at the window, smiling as the clouds bent to your will and the rain began to lull you once again.
Downstairs, Nat pointed out the window, exasperated at the change in weather that she had seen happen earlier in the day. "And then there's this! Can't the girl just shut her damn windows like everyone else?" She shook her head and walked away, frustrated and mumbling under her breath, "lazy bum."
Part 2
"Ugh, I'm dying," you groaned to yourself, rolling over to look at the clock on your bedside table, seeing that it was only 4am. With a hiss and a swat of your hand, the clock took flight and slammed against the far wall of your room, breaking into pieces across your floor. You sat up with an ache that pounded in your head and pulled at every muscle in your body, deciding that your nose was too stuffed up to breathe if you laid back down. "Where the hell did this come from?"
Despite being all-powerful, using your abilities on yourself was something that you tried to avoid; the results weren't always what you were aiming for. The last time that you tried to heal yourself after a broken hand in battle, you ended up growing another one, much to the delight and humor of the team around you. It took nearly a month to figure out how to get rid of it and still keep your other two. You could heal people around you, but turning the power towards yourself only seemed to bring even worse consequences as if to keep your ego in check.
When you stood to make your way into the bathroom to grab some much needed Kleenex for your nose, the room began to spin a little at the sudden shift in position, making you sit again with a heavy drop onto the bed. You closed your eyes and regained your equilibrium, but a frantic knock on your door forced them back open.
"(Y/N), what are you doing in there? Open the door!"
"FRIDAY, let Steve in please."
The door opened to a sight you weren't expecting; it wasn't the Captain who entered your room, but Natasha...with Steve's voice.
"(Y/N), please tell me that this was you and that you can fix it," he begged frantically. "I have...boobs...and stuff."
You sat frozen in place with a look of terror on your face, unsure if you had done this to your friend or not. The worst of it was that Steve seemed to have not noticed, in his urgency to get to you, that Nat sleeps naked. "Um, Cap...maybe grab some clothes from my closet first?"
"Oh, God!" He scurried off to your closet while trying and failing to keep his alternate body covered, his face the brightest red that you had seen anyone wear. He seemed to be embarrassed that he had to touch any part of a body that wasn't really his own. "(Y/N), what the hell happened? All of the sudden I woke up feeling really dizzy and then...this."
"I have to find Nat," you mumbled to yourself, pushing yourself up again, but this time much slower. "Steve, just stay here. I need to check on Natasha." It was only a few seconds later, and you had barely put a foot through the door, when you heard a scream from down the hall. "I think she's awake."
"(Y/N)!"
You cocked your head to the side at the sound of your name, coming from a body that you weren't expecting to see. When Natasha threw the door open and ran out into the hallway, she was in Tony's body.
"Fix it! Fix it right now!"
"If you're Tony, where's Steve's body?"
"Right here, and would you look at the build on this guy?" Tony laughed, approaching from the other direction. "I mean, I've seen it, sure, but to actually have it myself..."
"I'm getting that back, Stark, don't get used to it," Steve interjected, joining the group now that he was fully dressed.
"Oh my god, this is the best morning ever," Tony laughed, holding his side and wiping tears from his eyes at the sight of his teammates. "Can we just stay like this for a while? I'd love to see Cap make it as a girl."
"No, I want my own body back, thank you very much!" Natasha argued, poking Tony firmly in the chest. "You're so hairy, Tony, I can't stand it. How do you not start a friction fire when you walk? And this beard is so itchy."
"Speaking of which," Tony replied, avoiding answering Natasha and turning to Steve, "do you wax or something? I can't believe how smooth you are. I can't stop touching your chest..."
"Well try," Steve groaned, "because once I'm back in there you're not getting anywhere near it. If I can keep from touching Nat's chest, then you can stop touching mine."
"Yeah, how are doing that? If I got that body, I'd definitely need some time alone."
"Gross, Tony, stop," you huffed, holding your still-pounding head as you leaned against the door frame. "Just everyone let me think for a second okay? Just be quiet."
The three of them followed your order and stood silent, watching expectantly while you tried to figure out the best way to switch them all back, though you knew that it would take an amazing amount of energy that you didn't think you had. When the telltale tickle began in your throat and worked its way up into your nose, you turned away to cover your sneeze, only to feel the building shake beneath your feet.
"Okay, you've gotta lock that down," Tony warned, his voice no longer jovial. "I think you've hit the pinnacle of weird shit already, alright?"
"It's not like I'm trying to do this," you sniffled, thumping your head back against the wall in frustration. "To get you guys back into the right bodies is gonna take more energy than I have right now. You might need to wait until later."
"Nope, no, no way in hell," Natasha countered. "I'm going to the store and we're gonna drug your ass until you get better. Steve, come on."
"Why do I have to go? I think Tony should go. He's the only one who sounds right out of the three of us."
"Damn right I'll go," Tony clapped his hands eagerly, "I'll take this body out anywhere. I'm not even gonna wear a shirt."
"They won't let you in without a shirt, Tony," you sighed, turning to go back to your bed.
"Pfft, I'm Captain America," he scoffed in reply, waving you off dismissively, "I'm wearing a free pass to everywhere, baby."
As Tony walked away and Natasha returned to her room, refusing to leave until you could fix the situation, Steve followed you in to make sure that you were tucked in and comfortable before he left. "I think the thing that makes this the worst, is that Tony seems to be living out some weird fantasy in my body," he groaned. "I'm not sure if I'm going to want it back now."
~~~
It took Tony far too long to return from the pharmacy, now seeing the sun rising as the trio woke you up to take the medications that he had found for you. They were determined to stay in your room with you until you were well enough to fix the situation, since the rest of the team would be waking too and certain to make this hell for them.
"Take this one first," Tony offered, a small red pill in his extended hand, "it's Sudafed to dry up that faucet on your face."
"Such empathy," you snorted, making you cough incessantly. The room quickly darkened at a sudden change in atmosphere, the skies through your window filling with clouds and bolts of lightening.
"Hey, what did I say about locking that down?"
"This is actually really cool," Steve replied for you, standing to cross the room and gaze through the window. "It's snowing."
"But it's the middle of summer..." Natasha added cautiously, rising to join him. "(Y/N), hurry up and chug some cough syrup."
Tony dug through the bag until he found the bottle of dark green liquid, hurrying to read the label before cracking the top open and handing it to you. "It says a teaspoon, so take two. I think someone sick enough to screw with the weather should make sure that it works."
"Ugh, gross," you gagged, reluctantly taking down the horrible tasting medicine in a fast swallow, just to get it over with. You were never one to take medication, and hadn't really needed to until now, but somehow you thought that maybe you were already feeling their effects.
Tony sat himself next to you on the edge of the bed, gently pressing the back of his hand to your forehead as you closed your eyes at the touch of his cool skin against yours. "You're still pretty warm, kiddo. I have something for that in here too," he paused, turning to grab the bag, but you put a hand on his arm to stop him.
"I think we should slow down on the meds, Tony. I'm not sure how I'm going to react."
As if on cue, you felt a surge of energy wash over you, followed by a strange sensation of heightened nerves in your skin; the tiny hairs on your arms were standing on end and almost tickling against the blankets. Colors in the room became so vibrant and sharp, and the sounds around you were cleaner. Your nose had almost instantly cleared of the congestion, and taking a deep breath wasn't a problem at all. "Guys, hurry up, come here," you insisted, hopping up onto your feet. "I think we need to do this right now before this buzz wears off."
Your three teammates scurried to stand in front of you, each of them staring back with wide and anticipating eyes, hopeful that you could switch them back to their rightful bodies. As you concentrated on the shift of their energies and moving them to where they belonged, the trio shut their eyes at the return of the extreme dizziness that began this whole ordeal. Natasha wavered and grabbed Steve's arm to stay steady, but he wasn't doing any better. Tony dropped to sit on the floor, holding his head in his hands and moaning quietly at the nauseating sensation.
"This isn't fun anymore," he groaned, but stopped just as quickly, opening his eyes to realize that he was in his own body again. "Oh, yes, this is better," he sighed, "as cool as it was to run around as Cap, this is so much better."
"Finally," Steve agreed, "I didn't think that I could stand wearing a bra for one more minute."
"Think of how we feel," Natasha huffed, but looked just as relieved to be returned to herself. "But still, I'd rather suffer wearing a bra than spend any more time as Tony the Sasquatch."
"Rude."
"Sasquatch," you snickered, followed by a snort that turned into a giggle. A giggle that became incessant, then into a full-blown laugh as you pointed at him. "That's a funny word...sasquatch..." Your uncontrollable laughing continued as they watched, until Tony pointed back and joined in.
"You're high as a kite!"
"What did you give her?" Natasha asked, growing concerned now, not only for you but for what you might do when you weren't fully in control, if it were anything like the mess you had just cleaned up.
"Just a little codeine," he shrugged. "My doc called it in for her. He said it would help her sleep."
"Sasquatch," you repeated, "I like that. Iron Squatch."
"Jesus," Tony laughed, pushing you back towards your bed, "that's enough, (Y/N). Time to sleep it off."
When he reached out for you, you put your hand on his arm to steady yourself, but only laughed more, running your fingers over it. "You really are furry. So soft...I could knit a sweater out of that...no! A squeater."
"Please, shut up now," he chuckled softly, "just go to sleep, okay?"
"Mm'kay, Tony Squark."
Once the three of them felt safe that you were asleep, and that you seemed to be down for a while, they left your room together, stopping just outside of your door to look at each other in both awe and relief; it wasn't the way they had planned to start their day, and it was only 7am. With a nod of understanding that this would be kept between them, they each turned towards their rooms only to be halted by a frantic Clint running towards them.
"Barton, what's wrong?" Steve asked, fully alert and concerned.
"Oh, I don't know," he practically screeched in terror, ripping off his shirt and turning around to display a tiny set of wings growing from his mid-back, "you tell me! Is (Y/N) awake? She needs to fix this!"
"Sorry, bud, she's out cold," Tony smirked, "but I'm sure she'll fix it once the meds wear off. Until then," he moved forward to inspect his friend's new feature, "I'll help you alter a few shirts."
"Great, just great," Clint hissed, but his face grew red when the wings began to flap at his heightened shift in emotions. "Seriously? You guys, can't we just wake her up? It's not like she could do anything worse than this, right?"