Ella
"I'm not a child, Clint," Ella snapped, crossing her arms and turning away from the spy.
"It's a long trip, Ella," he said, stretching his hand out more so she could grab the tablet. "We just downloaded 'The Incredibles'."
Ella looked over at the tablet he held out of the corner of her eye. She really loved that movie.
"How'd you know I like that movie?" She asked, snatching it from him.
"You tell us at least once a day," Steve interjected from the front of the plane.
"I do not," she protested.
"Maybe not outright," Natasha added, "But you manage to throw in a quote in any normal situation."
Ella's face burned.
"How long is the trip anyway?" She asked, trying to change the subject from herself.
"A very long time. Watch your movie, Kiddo," Tony said, sitting across from her. She plugged her headphones into the tablet and started the movie.
"I do love this movie," she mumbled.
By the end, she was sharing the headphones with Bruce.
"How have you never seen this movie before?" She asked him. Bruce shook his head.
"I have no idea. That was amazing."
"Best thing Pixar has ever created," she said with a sigh. She leaned her head back, but seconds later, a realization hit her like a moving train. "I'm Mr. Incredible."
Bruce turned to look at her with a quizzical gaze.
"What?"
"I'm Mr. Incredible. I always thought I'd be more like Dash or Violet or Jack Jack, but I'm Mr. Freaking Incredible."
Two minutes later, Ella was passed out, head leaning on Bruce's shoulder.
"Is this really a good idea?" Natasha asked, watching her young face shake with the turbulence of the quinjet. "She's too young."
"She's strong enough for this," Steve said, not watching her. He had seen soldiers younger than her die on the front lines in World War II, but he agreed with Natasha, even if he wouldn't say it. They needed every helping had they could get. And she was ever so willing.
"If she wants to fight," Tony agreed, "She should be able to fight."
"I know, but if she dies today, I'm not the one going to Scotland to tell her parents that we killed their 21-year-old daughter." Natasha fell silent, turning her face away from Ella. Bruce looked down at the girl asleep on his shoulder.
"She's Mr. Incredible," he said aloud, causing Natasha to look at him. "She can do anything."
"Snow?" Ella growled to herself. "Why is there snow?"
"I told you to be dressed for the cold," Clint said, stomping off the quinjet after her and crunching the white snow beneath his feet. She glared at him.
"I expected a breeze or maybe some full on wind, not snow."
"Well, it's a good thing you didn't come out of that chrysalis with fire powers," Natasha teased, walking after Clint.
"Did everyone else know we were going to be in snow?" She asked. The other six Avengers nodded, making various affirming sounds. She grumbled and marched after them.
"Remember the plan?" Steve asked her as they walked. She wrapped her arms around herself.
"Get to the base if you can. Don't kill anyone," she said, tucking her chin into her turtleneck.
"And?"
"Smash some things," she said through her shirt with a smile.
"And?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Don't get killed."
"Right. We all ready?"
There was a chorus of yes's from the Avengers. Steve smiled.
"Avengers, let's kick some Hydra butt."
"Language!" Cap yelled at Tony into the coms. Ella almost doubled over from laughter, unable to hear the rest of their conversation.
She was doing very well with the 'punching not killing'. There was a trail of men laying behind her in varying degrees of pain and consciousness.
"Loki's scepter must be here," Thor said. "Strucker couldn't mount his defense without it. At long last."
"At long last is lasting a little long, boys," Natasha replied, breathing hard. Ella, who was sticking close to Clint like she was told, punched a soldier in the face, hearing the sickening crunch of his nose.
"Yeah, I think we lost the element of surprise," Clint added through clenched teeth as he shot a few more men.
"You think?" Ella asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Clint rolled his eyes and released another arrow.
"Wait a second," Tony interjected. "No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'?"
Ella laughed again and hit a guy in the throat a little harder than she meant to.
"I know," Steve groaned. "It just slipped out."
Clint and Ella hid behind a few trees next to a defensive base that held a giant gun.
"Someone's gotta take the gun out," Ella said, more to him than anyone on coms.
"I vote you," Clint replied, not looking over at her. It was her turn to roll her eyes.
There was a rush of air and a streak of blue. Ella was about to comment on the strange wind when she saw Clint lying on the ground.
"What the hell happened?" She asked him, dropping to the ground beside him.
"I don't know," he growled, sitting up.
Walking past them was a boy with silver hair and a cocky grin.
"You didn't see that coming?" He asked, his accent thick. Ella glared at him. She stood to confront him, but he was gone in the same blur that he had come.
"What the-"
Before Ella could even look around to find him, an unseen force slammed into her back and sent her flying into a tree.
"Ella!"
"What's going on?" Natasha asked over the Coms.
"We have some kind of speedy dick problem," Clint said in reply to her. Ella pushed herself off the ground, groaning in pain.
"What?" Natasha asked. That's when Ella heard the creaking. She turned around towards the tree she had just been thrown into and saw a her sized crack in it. The tree was leaning, ready to fall at any moment. Before it did, the gun from the base fired. She turned to find Clint back on the ground, holding his side.
"Clint!" She and Natasha yelled at the same time. Out from the trees came the red-haired super spy, eyes narrowed in concern for her friend.
"We have an enhanced in the field." Steve's cautious voice informed them. Ella rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, we realized."
"Clint's hit," Natasha said, ducking as the gun fired again. "Anyone want to take care of that bunker?"
Ella looked around for the enhanced who had just got her friend shot, eyes narrowed. He was fast, but she was strong and now she was angry, and that was a bad combination.
Hulk ran through the bunker, destroying the gun.
"Thank you," Natasha said, though he probably couldn't hear her.
"The enhanced?" Thor asked. "What is it?"
"He's a blur," Ella said. "Feels like wind, looks blue."
"All the new players we've faced, I haven't seen this," Steve added with a sigh. "In fact, I still haven't."
Ella couldn't see the enhanced that had attacked them. Her eyes were drawn back to the tree that was just about ready to fall.
"Nat, the tree-"
"Clint's hit pretty bad, guys," she said. "We're gonna need an evac."
Then the tree fell. It was slow, at first, and Ella didn't realize until it was almost too late.
"Natasha! Get out of the way!" She yelled, running towards Clint as the tree started to fall towards them. Instead of rolling away, Natasha covered Clint with her body. Ella reached them just as the tree came feet from squashing both Black Widow and Hawkeye. She turned towards the tree and braced herself, lifting her arms to stop it. The tree hit her with a rattling force. She cried out and fell to her knees.
Natasha lifted her head.
"Ella, you idiot!" She seethed. Ella turned her head slightly and managed a smile.
"Get him out of here," she told her.
"I can get Barton to the jet. The sooner we're gone the better. You and Stark secure the scepter," Thor said, obviously talking directly to Steve.
Natasha dragged Clint away from the tree.
"Let me help you," Natasha said. Ella shook her head.
"Get Clint out of here. I'll find a way out of this."
Natasha nodded, helping Clint to his feet.
"Ella," Clint said, his voice labored, "If you die because you got squashed by a tree, I'm laughing at your funeral." It should have been funny, but the way Clint said it was with utter seriousness. Ella knew what he was really saying. "Don't get yourself killed."
She smiled and nodded. Natasha and Clint limped away and Ella was alone. Sure, she was strong, but the tree was stronger. Her arms shook under the weight of it, her muscles burning. She was trying to figure out how long she had if she let the tree go. How quickly could she let go and roll out of the way? She should have been able to figure it out, but her brain was so concentrated on keeping the tree from crushing her now that she couldn't figure it out.
Her first mission and she was already going to die.
Great.
There was a streak of blue, a blur. Wind whipped through her hair. She moved 100 yards away from the tree before it hit the ground. Her stomach twisted and sloshed.
"What the actual hell?" She whispered to herself.
One second she was under the tree, seconds away from her muscles giving out and the tree crushing her, and the next second she was safe, watching that very same tree hit the ground.
"Ella? Ella, are you okay?" Natasha asked, voice full of worry.
Ella shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.
"Yeah, yeah, Nat, I'm fine."
There was no response. Until...
"Get back to the Quin Jet. Steve and Tony are on the scepter."
"What about the enhanced?"
"Get back to the Quin Jet."
Standing, her legs trembling, Ella scanned the trees. The enhanced. There was no other possible explanation. The same enhanced who had knocked her into the tree then saved her from it.
"Now, that is something I didn't see coming," she muttered to herself.
"We have a second enhanced," Steve told them. "Female. Do not engage."
"Copy." Ella started stumbling the way she had seen Clint and Natasha had gone. Her arms felt like noodles as she walked. When she made it back to the Quin Jet, exhausted psychically and mentally, Natasha and Thor were standing there with crossed arms and narrowed eyes.
"Romanoff tells me that you deliberately almost got yourself killed," Thor said. Ella rolled her eyes and sat down next to Bruce, who looked like crap.
"I did not. Natasha was the one who tried to get both her and Barton killed instead of moving out of the way like I told her to."
"You could have died, Ella," Natasha said, voice sharp.
"Yeah, I know. We all could have died. That's the job, right?" Ella was too tired to deal with them acting like parents. Natasha sighed and dropped her crossed arms.
"We just don't want to have to tell your parents that we got you killed."
"You wouldn't have to, because you didn't get me killed. I got me killed, if anything. Don't worry about me, I can handle myself." Ella stood and turned to walk towards one of the beds.
"How did you get out from under that tree anyway?" Natasha asked.
"I have no idea."
Ella slept through the trip back. She knew her muscles would be incredibly sore when she woke up and was not looking forward to it. When they got back to the Avengers Tower, Clint was immediately taken to Helen Cho, the Avengers new partner. Ella liked Helen. She was very sweet. Helen, like Ella's parents, was from South Korea. Most of the people Ella knew didn't know Korean, so it was nice talking to Helen like she did her parents.
Steve was rebuking Ella for her 'irrational choices' (even though he would have made the same decision) when they arrived, Tony on Ella's side, rolling his eyes and making her laugh. Maria Hill approached them in the middle of Steve's speech.
"Lab's all set up, Boss," she said. Tony pointed at Steve.
"Uh, actually, he's the boss. I just pay for everything, and design everything and make everyone look cooler." Ella laughed at Tony. Steve rolled his eyes. There was a lot of eyerolling going along with the Avengers.
"What's the word on Strucker?" Steve asked. Tony split away from them to go talk to Bruce.
"NATO's got him," Hill told him. She turned to Ella. "I heard you tried to get yourself killed."
Ella groaned and facepalmed.
"I did not. I saved both Natasha and Clint, not that anyone cares."
Hill just laughed.
"The two enhanced?" Steve changed the conversation back to what it was before. Ella wanted to know just as much as Steve, maybe even more, about who these two were.
"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special," Hill said, showing Steve their profiles. Ella leaned over Steve to see it.
"That's him," she said, pointing at the boy. Pietro.
"Yes, I know," Hill said. Ella looked up and narrowed her eyes at the smiling woman.
"Their abilities?"
"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation." Hill was tapping on the screen, not looking up at the confused faces of Steve and Ella. When she finally did, she sighed.
"He's fast and she's weird."
"Oohh."
"Well, they're going to show up again," Steve said with a bit of a sigh.
"Agreed. File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts."
Ella turned slipped away from them before the conversation ended, hoping to avoid anymore chiding from any of them. She made her way to her room, thinking over everything that had happened. She sat on her bed, thinking about the blue streak, Pietro Maximoff. He confused her.
Had he not attacked her friend and threw her into a tree? Had he done nothing to help them get Clint to safety? Had his sister not attacked Steve in the base? They both signed up to be experimented on by HYDRA. What kind of person does that? And why would he save her? Why help her when he could have just as well left her for dead?
There were too many questions that she had no answers for. So, she lay in her bed and took a nap. There were a few hours before the Stark Party that took place after missions. It would be her first time attending and she really wanted to be bright and ready for it. She set an alarm on her phone and fell asleep, thinking that a nap would make her feel more awake later.
She couldn't have been more wrong.
***
Haha I got another chapter done before school.
So there's a chapter. IDK. Pietro is my precious bean and I'm so sad he's gone but there's always fanficiton.
yeah so that's all really I go back to school tomorrow so updates won't be as frequent with any stories but that probably won't matter by the time people read this so yeah.
I love and appreciate you so much don't ever stop being beautiful and being you.
not ready to go back to school,
authorsbane