"So..." Sam mused the next morning at breakfast, eyeing the girl sitting across the table from him over his cup of coffee. "Voltage, was it?"
Elysia halted, the forkful of pancakes not quite reaching her mouth before she set it back down on the plate with a slight clanging sound, nodding slowly. "That would be me." she confirmed with a small awkward smile, the room falling silent around them.
"So why is it we've never heard of you?" he asked suspiciously. "The way Tony and Rhodey make it sound, you must be quite the character."
She shook her head quickly, shrugging off his words. "I helped with a couple missions a few years ago in exchange for Tony taking me in." she explained, trying her best to sound nonchalant and steady the shake she could hear at the edge of her voice. "I had an... incident with my foster family when I was eighteen and I ran away, which is when they found me. But I don't do that anymore. Tony kept me on his reserve in case he ever needed me, but I haven't used my... abilities, in years."
Her curse, was more like it.
"Well, as soon as you're finished, go suit up and we'll get you down to the training center to see what you can really do." Steve said, taking his empty plate back into the kitchen.
"No problem," Elysia murmured, her appetite having long vanished as she followed suit, disposing of the leftover pancakes and dishware before disappearing back up the stairs towards the living quarters.
As soon as she entered her apartment, she slid the sliding lock into place behind her, moving quickly to the closet in her room and pulling it open to reveal a line of plain black suits hanging up. Pulling one of the bodysuits off the hanger, she laid it on the bed, changing out of her normal clothes and pulling it on, noticing the way the material seemed to cling to her body yet still allowed for a full range of motion.
"Well, at least there's no stars and stripes," she mused, catching a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, already looking more and more like the frightened twenty-one year old who'd fled New York without a second thought rather than the grad student who wouldn't willingly admit she'd been raised anywhere other than Arizona.
Pulling her hair into a ponytail, Elysia left the room, spying an illuminated path on the floor before her left by F.R.I.D.A.Y. to lead her down to the training center. As she followed the arrows to an elevator, it opened before her, a button already illuminated and ready to take her downstairs to the training floor.
"Good morning, Miss Sparks." the metallic voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke through the elevator's speakers.
"Good morning, F.R.I.D.A.Y." Elysia said, her eyes staring straight ahead through the clear doors of the elevator, watching as it passed down floor after floor before finally coming to a stop in the second basement, the doors sliding open in front of her.
The space before her was open, with a singular wall made entirely of bulletproof glass protecting any onlookers from those inside the training center. Dummies and traps covered several stations in the room, displaying several training scenarios for the Avengers to practice, though the wide space in the middle was empty, several circles on the floor mats spacing out areas for hand-to-hand combat. Already, Steve and Natasha were warming up as the rest of the group watched from the sidelines, each of them rooting for their favorite contender.
"Glad you could join us, Sparky." Tony said, announcing her presence as he stood up from his chair, walking over to meet her at the beginning of the mats, and Natasha and Steve broke away from their sparring, rejoining the others.
"Just remember, Tony, I'm only here for-" she began, but was cut off as he continued speaking.
"Alright, everyone, grab a sparring partner." Tony announced. "Sparky, you're with Falcon."
"Alright, Voltage, let's see what you've got." Sam said in an amused tone, clapping his hands together in anticipation. "Don't think just because you're a kid that I'm going to take it easy on you."
"No, but she'll be taking it easy on you." Tony muttered, giving her a nudge in Sam's direction. "Go on, Sparky, show them what you've got."
"I-I don't want to hurt anybody." she stammered, nervously stepping closer to Sam and feeling everyone's eyes on her as the electric thrum began to once again pulse in her veins. "I'm just here to kill the power, remember? I think I'll leave the punches to the big guys."
"You're also helping us train." Sam explained. "But believe me, it's for your benefit just as much as it is ours. We need to get your powers warmed up, and being ready for anything can't hurt. What if something goes wrong and HYDRA gets hold of you? You need to know how to control your abilities, whatever they are. Here," he offered, sliding on a pair of boxing gloves and holding them up for her to see. "You don't even need to use your powers. Just punch me."
Elysia tightened her hands into fists, raising them up and studying them briefly as she mentally weighed the pros and cons of his advice. It'd been a few years since she'd thrown her last punch, on one of the many missions she'd accompanied Tony and Rhodey on when she lived in Stark Tower, but she was fairly certain she still knew how.
"There you go," Sam encouraged as she threw the first punch, hitting him square in the middle of the boxing glove, causing him to move back a bit from the force as they collided.
As the pairs got more and more into their sparring routines, throwing and dodging hits as they began to circle one another, the air began to heat around the Avengers, causing Elysia's palms to start buzzing as her body began to react to the sheer electricity in the room. She froze in place, nearly taking a punch from Sam before he narrowly missed her, not realizing she had stopped.
As Elysia held her hands out, the sparks began to crackle across her fingertips again, stronger this time, as if begging to get out from where they'd been suppressed for years under the surface of her skin. The other sparring pairs had stopped their fighting as the scene stretched out before them, stepping closer to witness the spectacle.
"There she is," Tony said proudly, crossing his arms over his chest with a knowing grin, and Elysia tried her best to control her breathing, trying to push the sparks back, deep down where they belonged.
"Well, how about that?" Natasha mused.
"Alright, now let's see what you can do with them." Steve said, stepping forward and holding his palms out in Elysia's direction, causing the girl to pull back instinctively.
"What?" she asked in disbelief, shaking her head as she crossed her arms over her chest to stifle the electricity. "No. I-I don't want to hurt anybody."
"You won't hurt me." Steve assured her. "I'm sure I can handle it. Control it."
At his gentle words, Elysia finally nodded nervously, slowly pushing her hands back towards Steve. Pointing a finger at his outstretched palm, she lightly made contact with his skin, causing a small electric shock to hit him as he stepped back in surprise.
"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, the sparks instantly leaving her hands as she took his again, inspecting his palm for any sort of damage she might have caused. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No," he assured her, shaking his head with an awestruck smile. "It stings a bit, but it doesn't hurt. If we can get that trained up? We'll be able to save Bucky in no time."
Elysia nodded, her eyes still trained on her palms, though she had no intention of actually using them unless absolutely necessary. "Well, it's good to know I'm good for something besides just killing the power." she lied through her teeth.
"Welcome to the team, Sparky." Tony said, clapping his hands together. "Alright everyone, back to your marks."
As the days began to pass, filled with more and more training sessions to get the team ready for the HYDRA mission, Elysia allowed herself to get more comfortable in her new routine, with a new sparring partner each day to help her hone her hand-to-hand combat skills. Following her first day with Sam, she was able to learn new tips and tricks from Natasha, though the day she was partnered up with Vision, she still couldn't get over hearing the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. coming from the sentient being.
For a bit, she allowed her mind to wander, imagining what things might have been like if she'd never run from New York, had stayed long enough to fight in the Battle of Manhattan and be an actual part of the team. If morning coffee runs with Sam and Wanda and sparring with the great Captain America were considered a normal day, rather than using a cafe's free wi-fi for coding and the occasional party with the few friends she'd made back at school. Maybe in another universe she'd learned to embrace the enhanced being she was, rather than pining for a life she knew never truly could've been hers.
After all, she was just there to kill the power and then hop the next flight back home.
"Sparky?" Tony asked, causing Elysia to quickly lift her head, the rest of the team looking over at her from their seats around the table in the conference room. "Are you listening?"
"Hmm?" Elysia asked, nearly snapping her pencil in two as she gripped it tightly, feigning concentration. "Yeah, sure, sorry. What was that?"
"I said you're with Vision on this one." Tony repeated, causing Elysia to look back over at his brick-red figure before nodding in agreement.
"Okay," Elysia said, reassured at the information. If there was anyone on the team powerful enough to keep her safe from anything HYDRA had in store, Vision was the best place to start.
"Once we arrive, Vision will take you off the Quinjet to their generators." Tony continued. "With the amount of power that thing gives off, none of them would dare go near it, so the two of you should be safe there. Get in, kill the power, get back out. Wanda, Natasha, and Cap, once the power's down, that's your cue. Get in there and grab Barnes, and get back out without causing too much of a scene."
"Us, cause a scene?" Natasha chuckled sarcastically. "Never."
"Sam, you're with me on defense." Tony continued. "You're our eyes in the sky on this one. Nobody gets back into that building without our say so."
"Roger that," Sam agreed.
"Once we have Barnes, Wanda's going to keep him under." Tony finished up. "Keep him out until we're back on base and have him contained. Any questions?"
"No," the group collectively murmured, Elysia jotting notes down onto the pad in front of her.
"Alright, if that's all, then everyone go hit the sack." Tony ordered. "We're out at oh-two hundred hours."