HALLOWEEN
★ ★ ★
The past several days had been relatively busy for the residents of the Avengers Towers, including Marlena. Rather than working on preparing for the Halloween party as everyone else had been, she was busy with more evaluations, more tests, and more damage control as Tony still liked to put it.
During the week, Tony had come to discover several new aspects of her mental abilities beginning to emerge inside her.
It was discovered first that Marlena could create realistic telepathic illusions, meaning that she could make people see and feel whatever it was she wanted them to and experience it as if it were actually happening. This particular ability had originally been uncovered after Marlena had fallen asleep on the lab table during one of her evaluations. She had been dreaming, and Tony, who had been working on her at the time, found himself inside the dream, experiencing it just as she was but from his perspective. After freaking out and yelling repeatedly for Bruce to wake her up, it had stopped, and Tony wasted no time at all in assisting her with controlling it.
For the past few days, Marlena had been working on doing nothing but trying to contain it, as well as working with Tony on attempting to project it if need be. So far, she had successfully managed to strand him alone in the Sahara Desert; she had also managed to successfully give Clint the opportunity to visit the Bahamas, as he had always wanted to do. She refrained from altering anyone's emotions, though, as she believed that particular aspect of her ability was too much of a personal intrusion within the mind.
The second ability to appear was her ability to speak telepathically with those around her. This one was discovered after Tony had said something to annoy Marlena, and Marlena had responded mentally by calling him an asshole. She hadn't intended on him hearing it, as it had been said inside her mind, but unfortunately for her he had, and that led to even more tests and evaluations. She could control it better than she could control the illusions, but she was getting much better about both of them. She was also finally beginning to process just how quickly her mind worked, and that helped aid her in further learning how to control herself.
As most normal telepaths could, Marlena could also read minds. It was among the last (as of yet) of her abilities to be discovered during the past several days. She was not as fond of this particular ability as she was the others; she believed reading minds to be an invasion of privacy. She found herself working day and night trying to control it, which was a fairly exhausting endeavor for her. It seemed to be a lot more difficult to control something that seemed to be so natural within her. She just hated being inside others' heads without their permission, not to mention, she hated hearing an abundant amount of voices inside her head at once. It drove her absolutely crazy and gave her headaches, but after hours upon hours of working, she finally managed to find a way around them. Of course, she didn't have full control over it—it would be long before she would—but for now she was more than willing to accept what was already done.
Marlena had decided to take a break from all things that involved being stuck inside a laboratory for all hours of the day every day. Her mom and Greyson had arrived at the tower several hours ago, and after not seeing her mom—or Greyson—in several weeks, she decided she would spend her day with them until it was time for her to get ready for Tony's party, which was scheduled to begin in about two and a half hours. She still hadn't a clue as to what or who Tony was making her go as, but at the moment she was far too consumed in spending time with Greyson and her mom. She only wished that her brother could be present as well, but she didn't necessarily think this type of party was suitable for someone his age, and neither did her mother.
"This place is huge," Miranda said from the couch inside Marlena's temporary guest room. "I'm never gonna get used to this."
Marlena shrugged and pulled her blanket over her shoulders. "You will get used to it, trust me. I definitely have."
"You've been here a bit longer than we have, little nugget," Greyson replied, settling himself back into the couch beside Miranda. "Where's that beautiful specimen of a man you're so in love with? Haven't seen him since we arrived. Kinda depressin' if you ask me."
Marlena chuckled. "He may be workin' out with Steve, sleeping, or getting ready for this costume party—I have no clue, to be honest. I haven't seen him all day, sadly."
"Who's he dressing up as?" Miranda asked, leaning forward in her seat.
"Steve," Marlena answered. "I can't wait to see how that plays out."
"Who are you dressing up as?"
Marlena shrugged. "Once again, I have no clue. Tony's been trying his hardest to keep that specific piece of information from me."
Greyson narrowed his eyes at her. "Do you know anything? At all?"
"I know that you're rude and I hate you," Marlena teased with a smile.
"Please—it's impossible to hate me," Greyson scoffed, propping his feet onto Tony's very expensive coffee table.
Marlena shook her head. "You and Tony are going to be great friends. I can already tell."
"Who's going to be great friends with Tony?" a voice sounded, attracting Marlena's, Miranda's, and Greyson's attention.
She looked to the opposite side of the room to find Bucky making his way through the bedroom door. He wore a very tight, black muscle shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants, while his hair was pulled back into a messy man bun. Marlena could not help but stare at just how incredibly attractive he looked, and when Bucky noticed this, a smirk appeared on his face.
"Uh," Marlena started, shaking her head. "Greyson and Tony; they're both arrogant and in love with themselves."
Greyson scoffed once more and stood up, making his way towards an approaching Bucky. "She's over exaggerating."
Bucky chuckled and shook Greyson's hand before moving towards Miranda. "She does that sometimes."
"Hey, sweetie," Miranda greeted him, pulling him into a tight hug. "How are you? Has Marlena been giving you a hard time?"
"No," Marlena muttered, cuddling herself into her blanket.
Bucky chuckled and pulled away. "Don't let her lie to you."
"Why do you guys have to be so mean to me?" Marlena frowned.
Bucky turned to look at her, a smile of admiration on his face. He leaned down to kiss her on top of the head before standing back up. "I love you."
I love you, Bucky Barnes, she managed to conjure up inside her head.
She practically felt the words entering themselves into his mind, and, once they settled, a look of pure shock flashed across Bucky's face. He hadn't seen her lips move, but he had heard her words inside his mind as clearly as if she had verbally spoken them. Tony and Bruce were the only ones who knew that she could speak telepathically with others; she had never gotten around to telling anyone, especially Bucky. It wasn't important to her, especially with everything else going on.
"Did you just—"
Marlena nodded.
"Wait," Miranda said. "What are we missing here?"
Bucky turned to look at her. "Marlena's been discovering new aspects to her abilities; she just showed me one."
"You're getting freakier every day, kid," Greyson remarked.
Marlena narrowed her eyes at him, concentrating solely on sending what she wanted to say into the depths of his unsuspecting mind.
I can beat you in a fight—try me, Greyson.
His eyes widened slightly, and he glanced between Bucky and Miranda. "This kid is a fucking savage. She's going places in this world, I can see it."
Marlena smirked. "You haven't seen savage just yet, Greyson. Come to think of it, neither have you, mom. I may have to teach you two a little something about combat and what not. Even old people need to protect themselves sometimes."
Miranda shook her head. "I'm getting tired of you calling me old."
"Don't worry," Greyson assured her. "It's a compliment. She likes 'em old."
Marlena grunted, pulling her blanket tighter over her body. "Shouldn't you two be getting ready for this party rather than sit here and criticize my age preferences?"
"No one's criticizing anything, Marlena," Greyson said to her. "If anything, we're encouraging it. Age is just a number, and I only say that because Bucky looks damn good for a ninety-seven year old."
Bucky chuckled and shook his head, sitting down on the couch beside Miranda.
"You really are an idiot," Marlena murmured.
Before anyone could respond, there was a knock on the bedroom door. Marlena called for them to come in, and before long Natasha was sauntering into the room.
She gave the group a friendly smile and leaned against the door frame. "May I steal Miss Prodigy for a bit?"
Over the course of time she had been at the tower, she had grown to like her alias rather than hate it. There was just something about the way it fell out of everyone's mouth that made her like it. It had a nice ring to it when it came to them, but with Rumlow it hadn't, and she believed that to be why she had despised it so much.
"Why?" Marlena asked. "I'm comfortable. What do you want, Natasha?"
"Tony wants me to help you get ready for the costume party, considering everyone else in this tower is incompetent," she sighed.
Marlena raised a brow. "Did he tell you who he was dressing me up as? I swear it better not be something stupid."
"It's definitely not stupid; it's almost poetic," Natasha told her, her tone serious.
"Poetic? Who the hell does Stark think he is? Edgar Allan Poe?" Marlena retorted.
Natasha chuckled and shook her head. "C'mon, Claire."
Marlena only sighed and stood up, taking her blanket with her. "I'll see you three idjits soon. I love you lots," she said to Miranda, Greyson, and Bucky as she made her way over to the door, tripping over her blanket in the process.
"I sure hope Tony isn't dressing her as a flamingo," Greyson mumbled.
"Shut up!" Marlena exclaimed, rushing out of the bedroom door, Natasha following closely behind her.
It was time for the night to finally begin.