A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since my last update, but I've been super busy with summer school, work and everything. Anyways, this chapter is a little longer than the other ones, to make up for it. So here you go, enjoy chapter four. I promise that I will try to keep a better writing schedule for the next chapter.
- Harper E. Pierce
Six months later...
"You guys haven't been doing your job! I told you that you have to train them to become apart of the team!" Director Fury fumed. Four of the six original Avengers sat in a meeting room in the tower with Fury and Hill. The Director had been on them about the girls going out on missions.
"But we have been training them!" Clint began.
"Then explain to me why they're not even being trained with their powers yet?!" The Director tested them.
"They're not ready yet," Steve argued.
"They're not ready yet?! Steve, they don't even want to be here!" Natasha told the blonde.
"What are you talking about?" Fury asked them.
"Spencer thinks she's smarter than everyone else, Edwards is afraid of hurting a fly, Whiteson is way overspending her money, and that says a lot coming from me. Wells keeps on disappearing every few nights for some unknown reason. Don't even get me started on Atkinson, and Hart takes off on us constantly. We always have to send Barnes and Romanoff off to track her down! The only one of them who hasn't been a complete pain in the ass is Adams!" Tony tiraded as while pacing the floor.
"We've also been reading files from the therapy sessions each one of them has been having," Hill added, opening up one of the files, "none of the girls have progressed in their mental health at all. Some of them won't talk about the things that are bugging them, which is what the point of therapy is. In fact, we don't even have data on one of them! Hart is refusing to talk during her sessions."
"I had no idea," Steve looked flabbergasted.
"Seriously?!" Natasha looked over at Steve with surprise, "Lexi takes off, doesn't talk to anyone, locks herself up in her room and always has a gun on her. Tell me again that you had no idea."
"Should one of us talk to her?" Clint suggested.
"Do you really think she's going to say anything to us if she's not saying anything to her therapist?" Tony asked them.
"You need to get them using their powers."
"Tell that to Edwards. We still make her spar, but she only defends herself, she doesn't do any attack damage to her opponent. She doesn't want to hurt anyone,"
"I don't care who is refusing to learn to use their powers! If they don't master how to fight and control their powers, HYDRA can and likely will take them again, and then we will have more problems with assets of HYDRA. You saw what happened with the Winter Soldier, Captain Rogers, I do not think you want that to happen again." Fury warned them. "Get them using their powers or there will be consequences. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal." Clint gritted his teeth.
"Good. Dismissed." Everyone walked out of the room in frustration. They had been asking the girls to listen and trying to grab their attention with sincerity. They were fragile, or so the Avengers thought. Steve wanted them to feel comfortable and train at the same time, but it wasn't working out. It looks like fragile wasn't doing anything. They all headed to the training room, where the girls were either working on their cardio or beating the crap out of a punching bag.
"I'm calling a meeting!" Tony yelled angrily the second he walked into the training room. The other, newer Avengers followed Tony to the sparring area. "You guys too, sexy seven."
"Sexy Seven?" Raven questioned, following the rest of the team. The other girls stopped and made their way over as well.
"Alright. Sexy Seven, I'm done playing nice with you all. You need to train. If you don't train, you have a higher risk of being captured again. You also need to know how to control your powers, otherwise you may hurt or even kill people. I don't give a shit if you have morals against hurting people, you need to learn these things. We can't let you back into your old lives until this happens. Let me let you in on a little secret; you guys becoming Avengers in ultimately up to you, but that choice comes when you all are trained. Do you understand?" Tony tiraded breathlessly. Everyone looked shocked at what he said.
"Wait, this is a choice?" Lexi asked.
"Not yet it isn't, but technically it will be in a bit. But it seems that doesn't apply to you, because you keep taking off." Natasha shot at her. "Anyways, we're going to start your training with your powers. Lorelei, you're up. Go into that glass room over there and show us what you can do with your powers right now. We will test this for all of you," Lorelei nodded, and followed Sam into a room of Plexiglass walls, so everyone could watch. Once she was in the
"Good luck, sweetness." He winked at her, leaving her to roll her eyes as the door shut. Sam had been hitting on her for a few months now, and as much as Lorelei had told him that it wasn't going to happen, he just wouldn't stop trying.
Lorelei stood in the middle of the room, back towards the Avengers, and took in a deep breath as she closed her eyes. She began to generate water from her hands, and it looked like it was about to spill over and hit the floor, but it stopped just an inch above the floor level. Once it looked like she was standing in about three feet of water, which she had generated in just a couple of minutes, she jumped up and began to walk on the water. And she was completely dry. After a few seconds of walking, she parted the pond in the glass room, and walked into a bone-dry pathway. Then is when she began making the water move above her head, making waves, throwing water blasts at the glass and nearly breaking it. Then, she took the water away, and it minutes, it was like it was never there. Then she turned to the Avengers, and took a bow, as they all looked amazed.
"Amazing, but Lorelei, are you able to freeze and heat things?" Steve asked her.
"Not yet, but in my file, it says I have the capability to cause tsunamis, hurricanes, and alter the temperature of water. I just can't do it yet." She replied.
"How much control did you have over your alter ego?" Tony queried.
"I felt like I needed to hold back my full potential, but it wasn't something I needed to concentrate on,"
"We will work up to that to using that full potential," Clint told her, "Tori, you're up."
"Already in the room," she said, appearing next to Lorelei, causing her to jump.
"Don't do that to me!" Lorelei lightly punched her, making Tori laugh even more.
"Now, Tori, can you only turn yourself invisible?" Wanda asked her.
"That, and whatever is on my body, such a shame that no one will be able to see my sophisticated taste in clothing." She flipped her hair.
"More like overly expensive taste in clothing," Tony muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Can you project it on others and on objects that aren't on your body?" Sam asked her.
"It's in my capability range, but I'm the same as Lorelei."
"Understandable. Are you able to work on it?" Vision asked her. He was usually quiet and just observed. He was usually hanging around Wanda.
"Sure thing," Tori replied, stepping out of the room. "Quinn?"
"Oh, me? Well, if you insist," she looked at Lexi and Raven as she said this. Out of nowhere, Raven backhanded Lexi really hard across the face. Raven looked just as shocked as Lexi did, not meaning to hit the girl.
"What the hell was that for?!" Lexi shouted at Raven.
"I-I didn't mean to do that, it just... happened," Raven stammered. They all turned to look at Quinn.
"Really?" Steve shot a disappointed mother look at her.
"What? You said we had to test our powers! I have mind control powers, I need human test subjects!" She defended herself. Tony, Clint, Nat, Tris and Sam all snickered, while the rest of them rolled their eyes.
"Can control multiple people's minds at once?"
"So far only one at a time. But I'm working on it,"
"Working? Quinn... " Steve scolded.
"I'm gonna practice now, bye!" She smiled innocently and took off to practice with Tori and Lorelei.
"Anyway, Tris, you wanna show what- and you're already in the room." Tony was cut off by her teleporting into the room.
"Nope, I'm behind you!" She shouted from behind him. But when he turned around she was back in the room.
"Okay, we get it, you can teleport, now how far can you go?" Bucky rolled his eyes.
"From here by myself, around the world, but with somebody, just as far as Los Angeles. Although it is quite draining, going as far as Australia in a second. I still pass out sometimes,"
"That's some immense power by itself." Wanda commented.
"They had quite a bit of time to work with me, I was the first captured." Tris boasted.
"That's not something to brag about, Tris!" Lorelei snarked from the sparring ring.
"Shut up, Lorelei!" Tris shot back.
"Can you practice teleporting with someone?"
"After I'm done testing my powers, I'll practice with her," Skylar offered.
"Perfect. Lexi you're up." Tony told her, yet the tough girl was hesitant.
"I'll pass thanks," she replied nervously. Wanda looked at her with pity, while Tony looked at her with surprise.
"You'll pass? I think not," He declined.
"I have to use my powers on someone," she argued.
"So what? Quinn used her powers on someone. Big deal. And since when do you care about other people's well being?" Tony shot back. Wanda's eyes widened at Tony's ignorance. But
"Fine. Any volunteers?" She asked bitterly. Wanda looked as nervous when she asked this.
"I'll do it I guess..." Bucky stepped in. Shit.
"Uhh... are you sure?"
"What's the worst that could happen? You kill me" He asked her. A lot.
"O-okay." They stepped into the room awkwardly. Once they were in the center of the room, Lexi looked straight up at him.
"I-I have to... um... touch you. Preferably not by the heart or the head, I don't want to kill you," She told him awkwardly. He just rolled his eyes in response
"Don't act like you care if you kill anyone," he spat. Her eyes narrowed in response, as she roughly placed her hand on his right shoulder, and began to make him feel some emotions.
"Mr. Barnes, please tell us what you feel," Vision passively told him. He nodded. He began to feel a light, bubbly feeling that caused him to smile.
"Happiness," he told them. The moment was brief before he began to feel an immense wave of anger. He began to grit his teeth. "Anger." He growled. But then he felt a wave of pain, beginning in his shoulder. He clenched his jaw together, it was almost as bad as being wiped. But the pain quickly intensified, and he began to groan. Lexi's eyes opened and looked into his, but when he looked down into hers, he knew it wasn't HYDRA staring back at him, it was... partially Lexi, but it wasn't her at the same time. He began to scream as he fell to his knees in pain. The pain was unbearable.
"LEXI STOP!" Wanda shouted, but it was like she couldn't hear her.
"GUYS SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME!" Bucky screeched.
"She's lost control!" Raven exclaimed as she went inside the room to help, but the therapist was pulled back by Vision.
"She may kill you if you come into contact with her, Ms. Wells." He told her.
"Knock her out, fast. It works with him." Natasha suggested.
"Nat, if one of us touches her, we could die. She's powerful," Steve argued.
"Your shield, dumbass." Tony rolled his eyes.
"Oh, right." The captain picked up his signature weapon, entered the room, far enough away from them that he wasn't going to get hurt. He threw the shield at her, lightly enough so that it wouldn't kill her, but that it would surely knock her out. It hit the side of head, immediately causing the girl to fall to the ground in an unconscious state. Bucky back to the floor as well, the pain intensity causing him to fall unconscious as well.
"Vision, Sam, Wanda and Tony, take them to the lab and have them looked at. I also want to hear what Bucky saw and felt during that test. After that, have them all tested. I want to know exactly what HYDRA did to them." Steve ordered. After that whole thing happened, Tony had no remarks, and complied to Steve's order. Wanda used her telekinesis to lift up Lexi, while Vision and Sam carried Bucky off.
"What about us? We still need to go," Skylar asked Steve.
"You guys are going to go now. Raven, you're up." Nat told her. On the spot, the woman turned herself into a wolf. Then into a parrot, and then into a cat before turning back into herself.
"Can you turn yourself into other people?"
"Not yet. I was supposed to learn to do that first, but it turned out that I had an easier time turning into animals than people, so they started with that." She told them.
"We'll work on that. Skylar, I know that you can regenerate yourself, but can you heal other people too?"
"No, but HYDRA gave the capability to, but I need to focus on it. I also need to know what the object and person look like."
"Alright, then," Steve told her, as he walked up to her with a knife that Clint handed to him, "I'm sorry about this." He said as put the knife through her left side, making sure not to hit any vital organs.
"JESUS!" She screamed at him. He pulled the knife out, and within seconds the wound was gone.
"That fast?" Clint said.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt like a bitch," she griped through a clenched jaw.
"Sorry Skylar, we just had to test out your powers." Steve apologized again.
"You could have just cut me, the stabbing was a little extreme, don't you think?" She groaned again.
"Sorry. But practice that on other people." Steve told her. Natasha brought all the girls over to them
"We need to run a couple of tests on all of you, to know exactly what happened with Lexi, and if it can happen to you guys, okay?" She explained. The girls nodded and followed the redhead to the lab portion of the floor, where Lexi and Bucky were doing tests. Bucky was just waking up and needed to talk to Tony about what happened, and they needed to find out fast.
After a few hours, when they had finally gotten the results from the testing and heard what Bucky had to say, the Avengers concluded what had happened.
Bucky had told them that it was like Lexi was there, but at the same time, it was like she wasn't, but it wasn't HYDRA. It wasn't just completely her there, it was more like the emotion of someone or multiple people who weren't her had taken over.
Lexi had told them nothing, as per usual. No explanation, no leads, nothing. So the Avengers concluded that it was just that she had lost control. Lexi thought that she'd rather keep what really happened to herself. She wasn't going to tell anyone, even if it was going to send her to the grave, no matter how much it hurt to keep it.
"What was all that about, Lexi?" Tris asked her as they were walking back to Lexi, Tori and Skylar's floor.
"Yeah, you almost killed Bucky." Tori added.
"Just leave me alone," Lexi sped up her pace towards her room.
"But-"
"I SAID PISS OFF!" The girl screamed, cutting off Tori.
"Hey, I know you're upset, but you can talk to me," Raven cut in, trying to reassure her.
"Good luck with getting her to talk." Quinn shouted from the couch.
"What?" Lexi turned and spat.
"You take off, don't talk to anyone and hate it here. You are almost murderous, you're angry, reserved. You know, why don't you try being nice for a change?"
"Why don't you trying shutting your big fat mouth for once?" Lexi shot back. Quinn stood up and walked over to her.
"You know, I wanted to be friends with you, I even tried. You seemed like a decent person. But I guess I was wrong. I guess you're just a selfish, bitchy, mean person who can't get over the fact that she was with HYDRA and who can't think about anyone but herself. Well news flash! WE ALL WERE! So just GET THE HELL OVER IT!" Quinn tiraded harshly. The rest of girls gasped, covering their mouths in shock. Lexi looked up at her with eyes that carried only pain.
"If you only knew-" she trailed off.
"Knew what?!" She griped.
"Nothing." Lexi turned around and stormed into her room, slamming the door behind her. Steve, Bucky, Tony and Natasha all came running at the loud noises.
"What happened?" Steve asked them.
"Quinn, why don't you explain?" Lorelei looked at her with narrowed eyes. They all stared at her with longing to know what happened.
"Put this way; I said something that needed to be said, and Lexi didn't like it." The girl replied carelessly.
"You told her to get the hell over the fact that we were HYDRA for god's sake!" Skylar exclaimed.
"Thanks for blurting it out, Skylar." Quinn rolled her eyes at the brunette.
"FRIDAY, playback the fight between Lexi and Quinn," Tony ordered the A.I.
"Of course, Mr. Stark." It replied, playing back the recording.
"You know, I wanted to be friends with you, I even tried. You seemed like a decent person. But I guess I was wrong. I guess you're just a selfish, bitchy, mean person who can't get over the fact that she was with HYDRA and who can't think about anyone but herself. Well news flash! WE ALL WERE! So just GET THE HELL OVER IT!"
"If you only knew-"
"Knew what?!"
"Nothing." The recording ended after that.
"Nice work, Atkinbitch. You've just caused a situation," Tony growled.
"Wait guys, did you hear that?" Natasha pointed out.
"Hear what?" Steve asked the redhead.
"I heard it too. She's not telling us something," Bucky agreed with her. "Lexi said 'if you only knew'. Knew what, exactly?" They thought about it for a moment. Steve went to go knock on her door, but Tris held him back.
"Don't. She's not going to talk, especially not right now." She advised him. The blonde sighed.
"Fine," Steve shook his head, "we should head to bed. It's getting late,"
"Agreed," Lorelei said.
"Goodnight!" Quinn told them, heading up to her floor with Lorelei, Tris and Raven. Once Tori and Skylar were alone, they went their separate ways to their rooms. But little did they know what Lexi was doing behind that door; she was silently falling apart in her own solitude.
-
Lexi woke up to loud screaming coming from a couple of floors above her. She knew who it was immediately, and silently made her way out of her room. She got in the elevator and pressed the button that was four floors above hers, where a certain supersoldier was having a nightmare. She stepped out of the elevator and quietly ran over near his room. She didn't hear anyone's voice coming from the room other than Bucky's screams. At that, she entered the room, seeing Bucky in a large bed, thrashing around and screaming. He was covered in sweat. She knew what she had to do, she just had to make sure she wasn't going to get caught doing it, almost unlike the last time.
Lexi walked over to Bucky and placed a hand over his heart, and began to take away all of the fear. His metal hand shot up in the air and grabbed her throat at the touch. She needed to intensify the relaxation the fear was being replaced with, before she was knocked out by the lack of oxygen getting to hre. At that, his grip around her throat lessened, and then he let go. Once his stiffness was completely gone, she had decided that the rest of the night, he would sleep well. She took her hand off of him, and turned to leave, but the shocked faces of Steve, Tris, Skylar, Lorelei and Tori got in their way.
"Shit," she said. But that wasn't want got her. It was Bucky standing behind her, with a look of pure mistrust on his face.
"What the hell did you to me?"