"BRAD HAS THE HOTS FOR YOU."
Eszter glanced up at the random comment, taken back. When the enhanced looked at Michelle, the girl was smirking like it was the hilarious thing in the world, and Eszter could feel it. However, it didn't fail to flutter a shimmer of a rosy color across Eszter's cheeks, burning as she grew flustered.
There was no denying Brad's feelings toward Eszter, especially for the enhanced as she could practically feel his infatuation for her; it was unsettling, and it made Eszter a little guilty for feeling as if she were leading him on when truthfully, that wasn't the case. From what Eszter can tell, Brad is a good guy, but the enhanced wasn't into the boy as he claims to be with her. He's a good friend.
"Stop it," Eszter glares at Michelle with a warning stare. She only received a subtle grin which was starting to annoy the enhanced. "Brad is a cool guy, but he's kind of . . ."
"Clingy? Desperate? Obsessed?"
"I was gonna say kind of like a puppy, but yours works, too."
"Yeesh. My condolences," Michelle hums. She didn't look concerned on the surface.
Eszter stared at her friend with a blank look, almost like she was displeased by the lack of concern from her friend, but the enhanced dismisses it when there was a soft knock at the door. Sighing softly, Eszter waves her hand lazily as the door glowed purple before slowly swinging open; behind the door, a terrified Peter was standing timidly at the entrance, poking his head inside as he immediately finds Eszter sitting in bed.
His brows furrowed for a second, wondering how the door had opened on its own, but Peter suddenly had a brain fart.
Finally lifting her gaze at the door, Eszter smiles. "Pete, what's up? MJ and I were just about to head to bed," she adds. Her eyes shift to the girl across from her room.
Peter steps forward into the room, and then he notices Michelle. "Hey, we need to talk," he says in all seriousness. Eszter instantly frowns once she registers his anxiety growing, but she was concerned at how Peter was freaking out internally. "In private."
A short pause settles between the couple, and Eszter's eyes appeared distant from Peter's view, but the boy hadn't realized what she was doing; the enhanced drifts her gaze across the room as she stares at the wall, dipping into her powers. Like an invisible wave sending across the building, Eszter's face contorts into an unreadable expression, and the enhanced recognized a familiar presence.
Eszter hasn't felt this presence since Tony's funeral.
"Oh, um . . . okay," Eszter hops out of bed. In her pajamas, the enhanced shuffled toward the door and slid her feet into her slippers. Then, Eszter makes her way toward the door where Peter stood, but she turns around. "Hey, I'll be right back, okay?"
Michelle salutes.
Without another word, Eszter motions for Peter to move as she closes the door behind her, following the boy back to his room. On the way to his room, Eszter was dreading it the closer they were getting to the person; much to her dismay, the enhanced should've seen this coming. Eszter was too excited for the idea of going on a trip with her lover and friends, the mere thought of leaving the hero's life behind sounded like a dream come true.
Boy, was she wrong.
Once they enter the bedroom, Peter closes the door behind Eszter and him. The presence was closer, and Eszter can feel the man lingering in the bedroom, but as soon as the enhanced rounded around the wall, Eszter found the man sitting in the corner.
"Eszter Maximoff," Nicky Fury greets blandly. Narrowing her eyes at the man, Eszter didn't appear too pleased to see the man. "I would say it's finally nice to see you again, but considering you've been ignoring my calls, I'm assuming our first introduction wasn't memorable."
She tilts her head, burning with attitude. "Last time we met, you put my family and me on The List--how's that working for you, by the way?" Eszter taunts. Fury narrows his eye at the enhanced, but the girl seemed unphased as she continued. "Besides, I didn't feel like answering your call. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're not exactly boss anymore."
Fury scoffs, shaking his head as he grins bitterly at the sneering comment. "I see you're still a bratty little kid," he tests. Eszter continues narrowing her eyes at the man, but the enhanced crosses her arms across her chest as she raised a brow. "But I don't do voicemails."
"Yeah, and I don't do homework, but we can't get what we want," Eszter snaps, growing annoyed. She hated the way Fury felt superior, and even till this day, the man stood as if he was the eye in the sky again. Changing the topic briefly, Eszter points at Ned. "What's wrong with him?"
Peter stood in silence, baffled to see how brave and confident Eszter was speaking to Fury like the way she is.
"Sleeping. He's not dead, which I'm pretty sure you already know," Fury informs with little to no details as he examines the enhanced briefly. "How have you been?"
Eszter furrows her brows at the man in confusion, a little taken back by the sudden surge of interest. "Uh . . . I've been good, I guess," the enhanced paused for a second, wondering what sprung this bit of concern from the man. She steps away from Ned's bed and shuffles closer to Peter's standing in front of Fury. "What's with the sudden concern?"
However, Fury merely pushes her question aside as he places something on the table, creating a hologram picture of the Earth. "A week ago, a village in Mexico was wiped out by a cyclone," the picture shifts into a video clip showing a monster. "Witnesses say that cyclone had a face." They were interrupted by the sudden loud snores escaping Ned's lips, capturing their attention for a short second. "Three days later, a similar one in Morocco. A village--"
A knock on the door cuts Fury off in the middle of his briefing, but both Peter and Eszter turned their attention toward the sound, finding Mr. Harrington at the entrance. They acted as normal as they can be, but the teens stood there with nearly wide eyes.
Fury lifted his gun and aimed it at the teacher, but Eszter had noticed; subtly, the enhanced put one hand behind her back and thrust a small wave of violet tendrils in Fury's direction, warping the energy around the gun and forcing it toward the ground. Fighting against the force, Fury was no match to the enhanced because his gun was forced away from Mr. Harrington.
His eye glared harshly at the enhanced, not amused that a teenager overtook him as she didn't bat an eye.
"Just making the round. See if anyone needs any emotional counseling after today's traumatic event," Mr. Harrington smiles, but then he spotted Eszter standing in the middle of the room. "Oh, hi, Eszter. I didn't notice you were here."
Eszter chuckles stressfully. "Yeah. Just wanted to check on the guys before I headed off to bed. Wanted to see if they were fine," she points at Ned. "Looks like they are."
Peter hums to Eszter's response, tagging along. "No, we're--we're okay. We're fine, thank you."
"Great. 'Cause I'm not actually qualified to actually . . ." Ned's snoring disrupted Mr. Harrington. Realizing he was asleep, Mr. Harrington lowers his voice as he pulls the door. "Oh, he's passed out. I'm not really qualified to do it anyway, so . . . goodnight. Oh, before I go, Eszter, you better be in your room shortly. You guys are not allowed to sleep in opposite-gender rooms."
Eszter instantly felt heat grow across her face and rushing up to her ears, incredibly embarrassed. She grimaces awkwardly as she shuffles on her feet, losing her grip on the gun to scratch the back of her neck. Dipping her head low, Eszter shields her face that was turning redder by the second.
"That is not--"
Peter was just as flabbergasted. "Oh, no. We're not--I mean, we weren't--"
"I was your age once. I know all the tricks," Mr. Harrington tries to be chill about the situation, but he was failing immensely. Nevertheless, the teacher kept his firmness aside from the light jokes. "Just don't stay up too late."
Finally, Mr. Harrington retreats from the room and leaving the door ajar, leaving the trio in a deep sense of awkward tension.
"That was our teacher. Sorry about that," Peter apologizes. Cautiously, his eyes trailed to Eszter to capture her expression, but the enhanced was shielding herself from him. "You were saying?"
"A village was destroyed by what may well be another threatening--"
To Fury's annoyance, another knock was rougher and rushed than Mr. Harrington's gentle knocks. Eszter glanced at Peter with a bit of amusement, though the enhanced taps into her powers to recognize the person outside.
"Babe? You still awake? You're not answering any of my texts," said Betty.
"Um," Peter's voice cracks. "He's asleep, Betty."
"Oh, already?"
Peter hums. "Yeah."
"Okay."
Fury continues. "That's why it's imperative--"
Mr. Dell's voice was shouting through the cracked door. "Hey, boys! That canal water today was filled with a dangerous bacteria--"
"Another person touches that door, you and I are going to attend another funeral," Eszter makes a face at Fury's overdramatic demeanor. "Suit up."
💜
"Stark left these for you."
Eszter looks up, thinking Fury was talking to her, but then she watched as he handed a small case to Peter. There was a small pang in her chest, maybe a little envious that Tony hadn't bothered to leave something behind for Eszter to keep in memory of him. But the enhanced hides that deep down, pretending she wasn't phased by the lack of thought for her.
Peter was hesitant to accept the case, feeling like it wasn't meant for him. "Really?" Carefully, Peter's eyes drift to Eszter when he immediately thought of her, but the boy can see something sad hiding beneath her facade. "Are you sure they're actually for me, or are they for Eszter?"
However, Eszter scoffed with a wave of her hand, dismissing him. "I might've lived with Tony, but he was still your mentor," the enhanced tries to smile. It felt forced and disconnected, but Eszter manages to fool them with a small stretch of her lips. Though, she was a little curious about what was inside. "Open it."
Peter stares at Eszter to read her face, but then he turns his attention back to the small case in his hands, pushing the lid open with the pad of his thumbs. Inside, it revealed a pair of glasses that resembled the several pair that Tony would often wear. Underneath the glasses sat a card, Stark Industries, written on it.
Curiosity killed the cat.
"What is it?" Eszter wonders. The enhanced stands on her tiptoes creeping over Peter's shoulders, expecting an extraordinary object or something sentimental--something exciting.
But to Eszter's dismay, it was merely glasses.
"'Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,'" Fury quotes. "Stark said you wouldn't get that because it's not a Star Wars reference."
"Glasses?" Eszter knits her brows as she stared at the glasses, a little disappointed. "He left him glasses?"
A lingering sense of amusement filters Fury's mind. "He'll figure that out later."
Within a few minutes, they finally arrived at Fury's underground base, which turned out to be in the sewer--imagine Eszter's disgust when they showed up. She and Peter trailed close to Fury as he leads them further into the underground base, nearing the sounds echoing through the tunnels.
"You can lose the mask. Everyone here's seen you without it. You'd only be feigning anonymity and breathing through spandex for no good reason," Peter looks over to Eszter with a short sense of uncertainty, but the enhanced nods to reassure him. Peeling the mask off, Peter was entrusting his secret to a group of strangers. "Over there, we have Maria Hill. I'm sure you remember her. That's Dimitri. And this is Beck."
Recognizing the suit that rests on the man's shoulders, Eszter stops in her steps once she realizes who he was. There it was--the thing he had been missing from the moment Eszter had met him--a life force. It was strange to feel Mysterio at this very moment, knowing he is real and flesh, but back at fighting the monster, it was as if Mysterio was never there. But now, standing before Eszter was a real-life Beck.
"Mysterio?" Peter awes.
"What?"
"Doesn't matter. It's just what our friends have been calling you."
"Well, you guys can call me Quentin," he held his hand out for Peter to shake, to which the boy reciprocates. "You handled yourself well out there today. I saw what you did with the tower." Then, Beck shifts his attention to Eszter, holding out his hand for her next. "And you, your powers are quite magnificent. We could use someone like you two in my world."
However, Eszter doesn't shake his hand. "Thanks," she comments with a tight smile.
Taken back, Peter scrunches his face. "I'm sorry. Your world?"
"Mr. Beck is from Earth. Just not yours."
It nearly went over Eszter's head, but the enhanced raises a brow at Fury's choice of words; the way he phrased his sentence was strange to Eszter and created many questions. Maybe she heard him wrong or is thinking too hard on it, but it sounded off. Eszter eyes Fury with a slight tilt of her head like she was reading the man from his emotions, but he felt calm.
"There are multiple realities. This is Earth, Dimension six-one-six," Beck informs. "I'm from Earth eight-three-three."
Excitement filled the air, and a rush of it was swarming Eszter's thoughts, taking the enhanced off-guard by the sudden emotions bombarding her mind. "I'm sorry, you're saying there's a multiverse? 'Cause, I thought that was just theoretical. That completely changes how we understand the initial singularity. We're talking about an internal flatiron system and how does that even work with the quantum--it's insane--"
But then Peter earned strange stares, shutting him up.
Beside him, Eszter admires his nerdy talk with a goofy smile on her face. Transfixed by the sheer excitement over the idea of the multiverse. It was cute to watch and listen to Peter ramble on about something that intrigues him.
However, not everyone seemed to be as interested in hearing Peter rambling on about something they couldn't begin to understand; Eszter and Beck were the only ones to understand what Peter was gushing about, leaving Fury and Hill confused beyond belief.
"S--Sorry," Peter apologizes meekly. Turning his attention back to Beck, Peter's grin slowly crushes into a frown. "It's really cool."
"Don't ever apologize for being the smartest one in the room."
Hill clears her throat. "Anyway . . ."
A hologram paints the air.
"They were born in stable orbit within black holes. Creatures formed from the primary elements: air, water, fire, earth," Beck lists as the four creatures appear on the hologram. "The Science Division had a technical name. We just call them Elementals."
"A version of them exist across our mythologies."
"Turns out the myths are real."
"Like Thor," Peter interjects, sparing a glance at Eszter before turning his attention back to the hologram table. "Thor was a myth, and now, we study him in our physics class."
Eszter itches her brow bone. "Yeah, just wait till they find out that Thor added a couple of pounds," she cackles a little.
"These myths are threats," Fury approaches.
Beck shrugs his shoulders as he lowers his head. "They first materialized on my Earth many years ago. We mobilized and forgot them, but with each battle, they grew, they got stronger," a rush of sadness filters the air, but Eszter was the only one who can pick up on it. "I was part of the last battalion left trying to stop them. All we did was delay the inevitable."
Then, Hill adds on. "The Elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates. Our satellites confirm it."
"So, thank Mr. Beck for destroying the other three. There's only one left: fire."
Eszter scoffs in disbelief. This vacation seems to be getting worse and worse, ruining the enhanced's mood with disappointing news. Eszter didn't want this, nor did she like the idea. First Thanos, and now this? Elemental monsters?
This wasn't what she had imagined being an Avenger would be like. She's pretty certain they never had to fight anything like this.
Grimacing, Eszter sarcastically comments. "Oh, lovely," she mutters low beneath her breath.
"The strongest of them all. The one that destroyed my Earth," the holographic Earth was suddenly red, and it began to melt away. "It's the one that took my family."
Eszter stared at Beck from the feeling of grief, but when the enhanced tapped deeper into that emotion, it led back to the new face. This feeling was weird to Eszter because, oddly enough, it didn't feel as genuine as she had thought; the pout of Beck's face showed he was grieving over something he must've lost, but Eszter can feel something deeper than the eye can see.
Beck fiddles with a wedding band on his finger, and that's what Eszter assumes he must be sad about.
Peter frowns once he realized the devastating news. "I'm sorry."
"And it will be in Prague in approximately forty-eight hours."
"We have one mission: kill it," he turns his attention back to the teens, firm. "And you're both coming with us."
The demand didn't click in their minds until a few seconds of registering it, but even then, Eszter and Peter remained silent as a response. Neither of the teens had the chance to discuss the situation among themselves, especially not so soon. Fury hadn't given them the time to digest the mission. This was too soon.
"Did you say Prague?" Eszter furrows her brows.
Peter laughs nervously. "Mr. Fury, this all seems like big time, you know, huge superhero kinda stuff," he looks between the adults. "And, I mean, I'm just a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, sir."
"Bitch, please. You've been to space."
"I know, but that was an accident."
Fury changes his attention to Eszter, making the enhanced frown. "And you've been experimented on, fought robots, stopped a plane, and also been to space," he retorts. Eszter opens her mouth to comment, but Fury wasn't finished. "Besides, we can really use someone with your level of skills."
But then Eszter knits her brows. "What about Wanda?"
"She's not here," Fury sneers as he widens his one good eye. "Is she?"
However, Eszter didn't back down as her attitude merely intensifies. "Then call her," she snaps, narrowing her eyes at Fury.
"Sir, come on. There's gotta be someone else you can use," Peter looks back at Eszter, trying to come up with anything that will get them out of this situation. "What about Thor?"
"Off-world."
"Doctor Strange," Eszter names.
"Unavailable," Hill answers.
"Captain Marvel," Peter hopes.
This didn't seem to sit well with Fury. "Don't invoke her name."
"Sir, look, I really wanna help, I do," Peter swore, but part of him was lying. "But if my aunt finds out that I left my class trip, she's gonna kill me. And if I'm seen like this in Europe, after the Washington Monument, my whole class will figure out who I am, and then--and then the whole world will figure who I am, then I'm done."
Eszter stays silent as she watches the scene unfold, not sure her own excuses would help with their situation. Instead, Eszter glances back and forth between Peter and Fury, but as she stared between him and Hill, the enhanced studied their expressions.
Even as Peter mustered up a lame excuse, Eszter didn't see any way of getting out of this mess. Fury is keen on getting the two on board with this mission, whether they like it or not.
"Okay. I understand."
That was an answer neither of them was expecting. It was too easy. There was no way Fury would let her and Peter off the hook.
Shortly, Eszter and Peter spare each other a confused glance before the boy furrows his brows, looking back at Fury. "I'm sorry, what?"
Eszter stared at Fury with skepticism, not seeming to believe the man. Although it wasn't evident on his face, Eszter knew this was too good to be true. Instead, the enhanced does her own investigation by tapping into Fury's emotions.
"Why don't you two get back before your teachers miss you and become suspicious," Fury's lips tugged into a tight smile. "Dimitri. Take them back to the hotel, please."
Dimitri nods, much to his dismay.
"It's fine," Eszter stops Dimitri as he stood from his seat, but he huffs before planting himself back into his seat. "I got it."
"Thank you, Mr. Fury. And, uh, good luck."
Eszter took a step back when Peter grabs onto her bicep and pushing her away from the group, but her eyes fell back onto Fury with curious eyes; she knew he was lying, and Eszter didn't trust Fury. Eszter didn't think too much about it, but his emotions were strangely different, a lot more than when she'd last seen him.
But when she looked away, Beck says his farewells as the teens were making their way toward the exit. Then Eszter looked at the new face, not sparing him a farewell because she was certain that she didn't like Beck. Deep down, Eszter doesn't trust him.
Once they round the corner, away from the lingering ears, Eszter mutters beneath her breath. "He's lying."
"I don't know, E. I think he was honest."
Without saying a word, Eszter engulfs the two into the darkness, disappearing from the sewers.
Hill walked over to Fury back inside the command room, speaking low enough for only Fury to hear. "You think she knows?" She wonders.
"Let's hope not."