A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the sort of later update! It's been hectic recently, and I've been trying to post new chapters, but I haven't gotten the chance to since two weeks ago. I will let you guys know that I will likely be updating every 1-2 weeks, and I will let you guys know if chapters are delayed. Thanks for being patient, I love your support, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
- Harper E. Pierce
A couple of weeks passed, and everyone was busy doing their daily activities, not much had been going on the tower. Loki had tried to stir up some trouble with the new recruits for awhile due to boredom, but Wanda was quick to stop that from happening.
The main focus was on the girls' powers and developing them. Skylar hadn't forgotten about what had happened to Lexi, but she decided not to mention it because it had been over a month, and nothing had happened to her. Speaking of Lexi, she'd been extra outgoing since she had returned. She'd been friendlier, less hostile towards everyone and... happier?
Over the past few weeks, she'd become best friends with Tori. The two blonde girls had something big in common that was quite the surprise for most of the tower. Lexi had a love of fashion. Instead of the constant sweatpants and baggy sweater she'd usually wear around the tower, she now wore black ripped skinny jeans, some form of a tighter shirt with long sleeves, and a black leather jacket. Her long blonde hair was left down and loosely curled. And she wore a natural makeup look until you got to her eyes, which were done in a half-cut crease brown smokey eye to match her naturally dark brown eyebrows. It seemed to all happen in one day, when she walked downstairs a little later than usual, looking more like Tori did when she walked downstairs; like a supermodel. Her attitude was different, her look, everything. It was like everyone in the tower was looking at a different person. The trendy and edgy looks seemed to stick around.
But what was concerning everyone was that she was acting like any troubles she had before never existed. She always dodged the question of 'what happened to you?' or 'is there anything wrong?' with either something ominous or she played dumb. Raven, Skylar and Tris had asked her on multiple occasions about what was going on, and so had the therapist, but she had done the same thing as she did with everyone else. Tori had asked over a night of business talk over a glass of wine, but she laughed it off and continued to give the twenty-year-old advice about her business. The only two who hadn't asked yet were Lorelei and Quinn.
That morning, Steve, Tony, Natasha, Bruce, Loki, Thor and Sam wanted the girls and Peter to wake up early to do some extra training and to talk about their power development so far. At seven that morning, when everyone showered and was in their workout clothes, they headed down to the training floor and met up with everyone they were assigned to work with.
"For the next three weeks, your going to work with one of us as a mentor. Today I'm going to assign you all to work with one of us on your training. The people you each work with will switch up when the three weeks are over. We'll start with the oldest. Lorelei, you're with Sam. Tris, Loki. Raven, Natasha. Skylar, Thor. Lexi, Bruce. Quinn, you're with me. And Peter and Tori, you guys get Tony." Tori rolled her eyes at the mention of her other training partner. Tris and Loki headed over to the sparring area.
"No cardio training?" She asked.
"You can teleport, there's no point." He replied bluntly. She suddenly was behind him.
"I guess you're right," she attempted to kick him out from under his legs, but she was hitting nothing but air, and she fell right on her butt. "What the hell?" Loki's chuckling was heard from farther away then where she saw him.
"Little tip; tricking the God of Mischief is not your best option." He said, as his hologram disappeared and he came out shadows about twenty feet away from her. Her eyes darkened in frustration, and he laughed even more.
"You know, it's kind of adorable when you get all frazzled." He smirked. She rolled her eyes at him.
"This is going a long three weeks," she muttered under breath. Narcissistic bastard.
"Ouch, your commentary pains me, Bite-Sized." He quipped about her petite frame and her irritated thoughts.
"OKAY, THAT'S IT!" She threw a swift punch at his face, but he caught her wrist before her fist could connect with his jaw. She growled and kneed him in the groin, causing him to immediately drop to the ground. She immediately felt satisfied with herself as he moaned in pain on the ground. After a minute, he stood up.
"Good work," said Loki, "rage makes you stronger."
"What?"
"When I was making you mad, you weren't thinking when you went to hit me, therefore I couldn't block any of your offensive tactics. If you keep doing that in a real fight, anyone who can penetrate your mind will have a harder time using their own defence tactics against you,"
"So you were trying to piss me off?"
"Precisely, Bite-sized." He smirked
"GODDAMNIT LOKI!" She yelled in frustration. Raven looked up at them with concern. Skylar was laughing in the background behind her. Tris looked at her darkly. She laughed even harder.
"I'm sorry Tris! It's just so funny!" She hysterically spoke. Loki turned to her.
"What's your name, again?"
"Skylar."
"Skylar, I believe that you and I could be great friends," Loki said to her. Skylar smiled at him and continued to what she previously doing.
"Don't pay attention to them, that's just how he is." Natasha reminded her. "I need you to transition into me."
"It's harder for me to replicate features of a person than an animal. When I turned into Ross at the fight, it took me about a minute to replicate his features."
"Alright, then turn into a bird first." She told her. Raven nodded and closed her eyes, shifting into a blackbird that visually matched her name. Except, the bird's eyes were a glowing red. After a minute, she shifted back and her eyes were their normal colour again.
"Good. Now try shifting into me," Natasha instructed. Raven nodded and closed her eyes. It took her about ten seconds for her to shift into the redhead standing in front of her. For Raven, that speed was like lightning, she had never shifted into a person with that speed at such ease. She now looked exactly like Natasha, red hair, height, body shape, everything. Except for her eyes; her irises were a glowing red.
"Your timing was impeccable, but why are your eyes red?" She inquired. Raven looked confused at her comment.
"What're you talking about?" She asked.
"Your irises are glowing red. It's little creepy, actually." Raven ran to go look in the mirror. Of course, the reflection didn't belong to her, but that wasn't what was freaking her out. Natasha was right; her irises were glowing red.
"Why do I look like a Twilight vampire?!" She shouted at the mirror. She shifted back into herself in the mirror with a speed of almost five seconds. Her red eyes lasted another two seconds before the unnatural colour disappeared. Lexi then appeared in the bathroom with her, her eyes glowing orange rather than their usual blue.
"What the hell?" She asked in the mirror.
"Your eyes-" Raven exclaimed in response.
"I know. Bruce told me. Why're you here?"
"My eyes changed too."
"Orange?"
"No, my eyes were red."
"That's not creepy at all." Lexi quipped. Skylar appeared behind them as well.
"Lexi, Bruce is going to run some tests on you. I told him that this happened before. Raven, what's up with you?"
"Same problem."
"Seriously?" Skylar groaned. "That means everyone has to get tested. Just great. I have more important things to do than get tested for shit."
"I'll go tell Bruce," Lexi said, taking off to see her trainer. Raven and Skylar went back to training with their mentors. Both hers and Lexi's eyes continued to change when they used their powers, and no one could tell if it was a good sign yet.
Within the next hour, everyone had stopped their training and were told to go the lab floor, as all of them had to be tested for whatever it was they were doing. Tony and Bruce decided to run the tests, with the others looking through a glass window on the other side. They hooked each of them up to machines and called them one by one to use their powers. Lexi was first, then Raven and after her was Skylar. Then it was Quinn, Tris, Tori and last was Lorelei. The tests seemed easy, they only lasted about ten minutes per girl, and they all went back to training. The only ones' whose eyes turned were Lexi's and Raven once again.
"Hotness, throw the flame like you mean it. There's not enough energy in your flame," Sam told Lorelei, using that nickname as he always did.
"Sam, I've been trying for half an hour now. Can't we just... let it go?" She whined in response.
"Lorelei," that was the first time he had properly used her name, "what spites you to use your powers?"
"I don't know... when something bad is happening, I guess. Why?"
"That's adrenaline. Think of a time when you needed to use them. Remember how you felt. Or should I call Lexi and-"
"No, I got this." She said. She thought back, trying to think of a time when she felt scared or angry when she had her powers. Now, there were a few before she got them. After a minute, Sam spoke up.
"You know, you're cute when you're in deep thought like that." He said, inching closer to her.
"Bugger off, Sam."
"No seriously, your... perfect mouth seems to purse a little. It's quite... exquisite." He complimented. "Jesus Christ I sound like Reindeer Games trying to score. Maybe trying to flatter her to a point of anger isn't a good idea."
"What? What's Reindeer Games? And who are you trying to flatter?" She asked him with concern. "Is it me?" She joked, wiggling her eyebrows at him.
"What?"
"You said you sound like reindeer games trying to score. What does that even mean?" She asked with strange curiosity.
"I never said that," he furrowed his brows. "How did she hear that?"
"Hear what?" She asked again.
"Lorelei, I'm not saying anything." He said with even more concern. "Are you... hearing my thoughts?"
"No way! I can't do that, only Quinn can..." she trailed off at his question, in genuine concern about what was going on.
"That's what I thought."
"Good, because you're freaking me out, Sam." She replied aloud again. Sam's eyes widened at her statement. Just as he was about spiral into a million questions, FRIDAY's robotic voice piped up.
"Everyone in the gym must head down to the lab immediately." It said. At that, Lorelei and Sam just looked at each other and sprinted downstairs, meeting up with everyone else there. Bruce looked like he was about to explode with information and Tony looked as if he had seen a ghost. What was happening?
"Any reason why we're here?" Tris asked out of pure boredom.
"Any reason is better than being in training." Tori scoffed at Peter, who immediately blushed red with embarrassment.
"You're here because of your results. All of your powers are enabled by a cosmic power source, one unknown to us. I don't know how HYDRA was able to get your powers from these sources, it would've had to have been extracted through a portal into space, or they already had some of whatever it is." Bruce breathed.
"So what does that mean for us?" Quinn asked.
"We don't know. All we know is that all of your eye colours will change, some earlier than others." Tony said.
"But why are they different?"
"The cosmic energy that each of your powers has generated from is slightly different for each one of you. It seems as if the same entity created whatever it that your powers came from, but each one has different properties. Except you,"
"What do you mean, except me?" Lorelei asked Bruce in shock.
"Your powers seem to match Raven's. Same properties, same source, same everything."
"But then why are mine and Lorelei's powers different?"
"That's the question we also have yet to figure out the answer to," Tony shook his head. But Sam decided to pipe up.
"Something happened to her during training. For some odd reason, she was hearing my thoughts, and thinking I was saying them out loud." He asked. Tony turned and looked at the girl with curiosity.
"I thought your powers were controlling the elements," Bruce said. "That's not possible, is it?"
"I don't know if it's possible." She said nervously.
"Quick, what I am thinking right now?!" Tris jumped in.
"You were thinking about how Loki's a dick." She replied monotonously. Quinn giggled.
"How about the things I can do with-" he smirked.
"Loki, if you finish that sentence, I will make sure that you will never be able to do anything with it again." Tris snapped back angrily, making him immediately shut up. Quinn and Lexi snickered.
"I wouldn't be laughing Atkinson, you were thinking of how hot Steve's body is about five seconds ago." Quinn's eyes widened and Steve's head shot up from beside her.
"Hm? Sorry I wasn't paying attention. What?" Steve asked.
"Oh relax, I can't read your mind Quinn, you have mind control powers." She smiled. The worst was that she was thinking that exact thing. She breathed a sigh of relief that thankfully went unnoticed.
"Someone want to explain to me what's going on?" Steve asked.
"If you were paying any attention whatsoever, you'd know." Tori shot back at him.
"Hey, go easy on him, he's Captain America." Peter stuck up for him.
"You don't get to say a word to me about respect, Parker! So take that comment and shove it up your ass!"
"Quit acting like you're so high and mighty, Tori. You know what happened was a misunderstanding, just get the hell over it!" Raven snapped at her.
"Why don't we all just calm down?" Lexi shouted over everyone.
"You're such a hypocrite, Lexi! You're telling us to calm down, when you're the angriest person in the room? Shut the hell up!" Quinn told her.
"You're one to talk, Atkinbitch! Telling Lexi to shut the hell up, when you don't know when to shut your goddamn mouth," Skylar stood up and began to yell. Everyone except for Lorelei began to yell at each other. The Avengers in the room looked to Lorelei.
"What do you want me to do? Tell them that they're being idiots and to actually listen to you guys? It's not my job to keep them under control, it's actually yours." Lorelei replied, but Steve and Tony gave her a pleading look. "Fine," she commented, standing up and throwing a fireball over their heads, barely missing their heads. They immediately fell silent.
"Adams, you got a burn on my wall! Was that really necessary?" Tony whined.
"Yes, it was," she turned to the girls, "you guys are acting like idiots! This is pointless! We have an actual thing we're dealing with here! Raven and Lexi have weird-ass eyes while I seem to be able to read almost every single person's mind in this room. I have an idea, why don't we use our powers more in training?! Maybe try controlling the whatever that thing is in Vision's head with our powers. Maybe we can even find out more about it! There's a thought, for once!" She yelled sarcastically.
"Jesus Christ Lorelei, you're a genius." Bruce told her.
"Actually, I'm the genius in the room, haven't we established that already?" Tris stepped in.
"No, but seriously. This could be a way that we figure out what our powers are made up of, and whatever that thing in Vision's head is. It's worth a try," Tony added.
"I guess that's not a bad idea, actually. Why didn't I think of that?" Raven asked.
"Probably because you're not the genius of the group," Tris commented.
"Tris, we get it, you're smart. Can we move on now?" Quinn and Lexi groaned simultaneously.
"Great, now that we have a plan, we can go back to training!" Peter clapped. The girls all groaned.
"Don't you think we've had enough? It's already ten o'clock, we've been doing this for three hours!" Skylar groaned.
"Fine. You're dismissed," Steve told them.
"Great, now I can finally have my Poptarts!" Tori said, turning to run out of the room.
"Poptarts? I haven't had those in years!" Thor shouted to her, following her.
"I don't intend to share them!" Tori snarked.
"Neither do I!" The tall blonde sped past her to their floor.
"Guys, can't you just split the box in half?" Skylar called after them, but they were both gone. She and the girls rolled their eyes, knowing that they were going to have to deal with their floor being a mess once Thor and Tori were done fighting over their favourite food.