Next morning at 9am, Elodie and Wanda were in full disguise. They stood in line outside the warehouse in clothes that were the opposite of what they'd normally wear.
Wanda's stylish skinny jeans were swapped out for fitted grey joggers with a Star Wars shirt tucked in. She finished her look with a grey cap over her hair that was now put into a messy low bun.
Elodie has opted for black leggings, black top and a burgundy oversized cardigan. She wore glasses and left her long brown hair as it was.
The instructions they were given by Tony was for Wanda to read the minds of the gamers to be good enough to fit in, while also telepathically giving Elodie instructions.
They each found a space invaders game and got to work.
Wanda - "The pattern is; left, left, right. Right, right, left. Left left, right. Right, left, right. Say it with me in your head."
Wanda and Elodie I their minds - "left, left, right. Right, right, left. Left left, right. Right, left, right."
Elodie's brown eyes were trained on the screen, following each character and tracking every object that approached. She was doing really well, they both were. Until she remembered... the way his lips felt against hers. The way his fingers traced her tattoo.
Suddenly Wanda stepped back from the machine, letting out a gaps. She looked at Elodie with wide eyes, her mouth forming a shocked "o" shape. She saw into Elodie's mind as she helped her control the game.
Wanda clenched her jaw and looked at her friend with fiery red eyes. "Steve's a good guy. Don't play with him."
"Wanda..." Elodie breathed out, feeling guilty. "It wasn't my intention. This morning, it. It just happened."
Wanda shrugged and returned to her game. "I don't care what you both do, you're adults. Just don't hurt him."
——
~Two years ago - A year into being an Avenger~
She stood outside of the facility in her new uniform. A dark blue, almost navy, leather suit. The top was long sleeve and had a black zip going up the middle. The top cling to her sides nicely, emphasising her waist. The pants cling to her toned legs, a pair of black boots traveled up her shin to just over her knee, grazing her thigh. Around the waist she had a nice black holster for guns and various tools with a unique symbol Tony had designed for her in the middle. It was a very comfortable suit, easily to slip onto and out of for emergency situations and was light enough and flexible enough for her to run.
She placed a cigarette between her lips and lifted her lighter, setting fire to the tip. Tucking the silver lighter into her back pocket she took a drag, breathing in the familiar sting of tobacco in the back of her throat. With every puff came a satisfied, clear mind. Smoking helped. It brought clarity when the world was cloudy - ironic huh. Having a smoke cleared her mental clouds. Ha!
Steve walked out of the facility and spotted the newest member and her activity. He shook his head as he approached. "You know in my day, doctors used to treat asthma with cigarettes." Elodie scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"I'm not going to lecture you." Steve waved a hand, as if to dismiss the idea. "You know that's it bad for you. All I'm saying is, if you run out of breath on the job, and someone has to go back for you. And they get hurt, or worse. That's on you." Steve places his helmet on and took off running across the field to join the others.
Elodie watched while leaning against the building. The cold metal was soothing against the hot leather. The suit looked good but boy was it boiling. And she was not unzipping in front of her peers, not yet anyway.
Bucky threw the ball and it skimmed Sam's head, hitting Thor on the shoulder and heading towards Wanda. Bucky's hand sprang to his mouth, scared he was about to witness the young girl get knocked unconscious by his ball. He let out a shaky breath of relief as the ball stayed in the air, surrounded by red energy and Wanda used her power to protect herself. With some oddly bent fingers and a contorted wrist, the ball flew back at Bucky and hit him in the stomach, winding him.
" Hey newbie." Tony nodded as he stepped out of the facility. He looked over at the team and the back at her. "What's ya think so far?"
"Maybe a few of them are ok." She shrugged. "I'm not a fan of the captain."
Tony chortled. "You and me both. But as much as it pains me to say this, he's the best damn captain we'll ever have. He's a good guy, you can trust him."
"Do you?" Elodie asked, narrowing her eyes at him before tagging another drag from her significantly smaller cigarette."
Tony looked at her with serious eyes. He poured his heart into his next words. "With my life."
Before the conversation could get too deep, a motorcycle pulled up at the gates entrance. "Who's that?" Tony asked, nodding to the bike.
"That would be tonight's distraction." She smirked. She doubted the cigarette in the empty packet and walked over to the trash can, a few feet towards the entrance, close enough to hear Tony's next question.
"What happened to David?" The genuine asked, remembering her date from a few days ago.
"Nothing. We're going out tomorrow." She sent a wink to Stark and skipped over to the motorcycle. As she put her finger against the the scanner to allow the gates to open, she shouted back. "TONY!"
"Yeah?" He asked, not really caring what she had to say next.
"If Marcus calls, tell him I'm tutoring orphans or something."
And before he could reply she was already on the back of the bike and speeding away.
——
Wanda's deep green eyes were fixated on the game in front of her. Her now crinkled every now and again when she was about to lose. Her eyes would narrow when she knew she was winning. Her knuckles were almost white as she had a vice-like grip on the joy stick.
Elodie was brought out of her stare as Wanda's game started making loud noises. *DING DING DING DING DING* Suddenly a tall slender man ran on stage in a red body warmer and a blue cap and started talking excitedly through a microphone. "Ladies and gentleman our highest scorer setting the record to beat at 2:30pm is Gamer140." He pointed down at Wanda and everyone began clapping. "Her score so far is 1,666,680. Halfway to maximum points!"
There was another round of clapping and cheering and Wanda stood there blushing. The man came down from the stage and approached her with the microphone. "Hello miss, can I ask what you're name is?" He held the microphone quite far away but close enough that Wanda knew he was talking to her.
Wanda leaned forward to speak. Through the comm on her ear, Tony said "Kathy Adler."
"Kathy Adler." Wanda replied with a fake British accent, that was actually pretty good.
"Well it's fantastic to have you playing with us today, Kathy. Good luck!" The guy then gave her an awkward high five and began walking away.
Wanda gave Elodie a confident smile and she shook her head, of course she's winning, she's using all of the nerds as her own personal instructors. Poor people don't even know she's in their heads.
—-
Upstairs in the small room the Avengers has previously found the two young boys, the owner of the game sat behind a set of computers. The computers showed various security camera angles from around the gaming floor. The owner tapped a few keys in the keyboard and the left screen showed the camera zooming in on a contestant. There on the screen was Wanda, playing her game. The owner then used the mouse to shifted the screen, zooming in on Elodie
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Hey everyone!
Thanks so much for reading! I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally include a bit of Elodie's past. This memory was supposed to start of the entire story but I've had so much going on in school that all my ideas are jumbled up. I promise it'll get better haha xx