"I'm so excited to be here!" I said whispering to Kris, my twin sister.
"Quiet Tess! You are going to get us in trouble!" She hissed back.
"No I'm not!"
"Listen up people!" Pepper pots yelled.
"See! I told you!" Kris said.
"I know you are all excited to be part of our training program at Stark Industries. Most of you were handpicked by Tony Stark for a reason and will get to become part of the avengers. Some of you will not make it through this training and some might not get to do field work, but regardless of who you are and where you work, you all play an important role to this team." Pepper said. "Before you start your training you will all be placed in groups. You'll live with the people in these groups, work together on group stimulations and projects, and you'll sometimes do group training sessions with these groups. Does anyone have any questions? No? Good, follow me and I'll give you a tour."
"Ugh, I hate group projects!" I said.
"I hope we get a good group, our future may depend on it," Kris whispered.
"Me too. I wonder who it'll be," I said.
6 months ago
"Tess look over here! I see a herd of elephants in the distance." Kris yelled me.
My family was on vacation in Liwonde, Malawi for the week and so far it's been going great. My family has lived in Africa for the past 10 years doing humanitarian aid work and so far it has been great. My mom and dad ran school programs while my sister and I did our studies and helped out at much as we could around the schools.
My twin Kristy, but everybody calls Kris is the only sibling I have. We look pretty similar but have completely different personalities. I have long brown curly hair while my sister has a nice pixie cut right now. We both are around 5 ft 3in although I am slightly taller than her and we both have curvy hips and gorgeously olive tanned skin.
We just turned 25 last week and we got this vacation as a birthday present. This vacation has been extremely relaxing but this morning I woke up with a funny feeling in my stomach. I tried expressing my concerns to my family but they just laughed at me. I'm also a second year nursing student so whenever I'm coming down with something they say it's just in my head.
"I don't see any," I pouted.
"False alarm, those are just rocks." Kris said.
"Thanks you got me excited for nothing. Also how did you mistake elephants for giant rocks?" I asked.
"Sometimes those things happen. Like when you mistake seaweed for a school of fish," our mom said in my sisters defence.
The rest of us chuckled thinking about our last family vacation at Lake Malawi. It was so nice being on Christmas break and with family. I love taking nursing in Canada but sometimes it's just nice being with family.
"Girls come over to this side of the vehicle! There are lions right next to the van!" My dad exclaimed.
I ran right to the front and leaned over the side. Right below me was a pride of lions. Lions were always my favourite animal to see on safari.
"Looks like it's all the females out," Kris said.
"Here comes the male! I'm going to call him Mufasa, although he has the attitude of scar right now," I concluded.
The next few seconds all seemed to go at once. All of the sudden Mufasa started charging towards us and while he was charging our safari driver slammed on the gas pedal to try and get a clear getaway. But since I was leaning so far off the edge, when our driver got the gas pedal I fell off the side of the truck. The next thing I saw was Mufasa roaring in my face and then all I saw was darkness.
***
I woke up to a beeping sound. When I opened my eyes I was lying in a hospital bed with ports and tubes connected to me. I looked around me and I saw my entire family all with tear stained faces.
"Mom! Dad! Tessie is awake!" I hear Kris scream.
"Ahh Kris! Not so loud. Where am I? What happened?" I asked in a groggy voice still trying to wake up.
"Oh Tess we are so glad your alive!" My mom exclaimed.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I asked confused.
"Do you remember what happened?" My dad asked.
"Of course she does! Who doesn't remember almost being killed by a lion! Also just because you name it after a Disney character, doesn't mean it's going to sing and dance for you!" Kris exclaimed.
"I do remember that, I remember his claws puncturing into my stomachs and seeing a pile of blood before I passed out." I quickly looked over my skin doing a thorough integumentary assessment like the good nursing student I was. "Why don't I see scars from surgery or claw marks on my skin?"
My family just looked at me awkwardly at first. My mom then started to speak up. "The thing is, after you were attacked-
"Your body started to self heal! I saw it with my own eyes as we were driving out to the nearest hospital in Blantyre!" Kris interrupted.
"Wait what?" I asked really confused.
"We thought you were a goner. We had your time of death mapped out and everything." My dad said.
"Did you have any idea that your body could do this?" Kris said way too excited about it.
"No, I had a weird feeling in my stomachs when I woke up this morning. And whenever I had cuts they would always heal in an instant. I just thought that was normal but I guess not," I said.
"Well now we have to figure out what else you can do!" Kris exclaimed.
***
The next three months were filled with constant experiments to see what my body could do. I fell off of numerous buildings and even did the 10 hour drive to Victoria falls to see what happened if I jumped off. Every time I fell my body just started healing itself and each time was faster and faster.
Since my sister and I were doing all of these public experiments we caught the attention of the media. I also learned that I don't just self heal, I also have the ability to heal others. I found that out when Kris fell off a ladder up to one of the buildings I was about to jump off.
The media hasn't been too bad because they got me in touch with some scientist who have been studying my DNA to figure out why my atoms are built like this. However my sister thought that we should have taken professor X's invitation but I wasn't ready to give up my position in the nursing program I was in.
The scientist also found out that I have adoptive muscle memory. This means that I can watch any fight sequence and my body automatically knows how to do it. For the most part my powers have been awesome because I basically will never die and I can kick anyone's ass.
***
Another 3 months have passed since I've first figured out my powers. I was back at Canada into my third year of nursing. I was in my dorm room getting ready for clinical the next morning when I heard a knock at my door. I went to answer and when I opened the door Tony Stark himself was on the other side.
"Mr. Stark! What do I owe the pleasure to?" I asked.
He smirked at me and took off his ridicules shades that he totally pulled off. "Tess Jackson right?" He asked.
"Yes that's me, how can I help you?" I asked back.
"First of all I am actually here to help you. Word has gotten around of your extraordinary abilities." He asked.
"Haha yeah lots of people are talking about it and staring at me as I walk around campus. It doesn't help that the whole victoria falls thing went public." I said sheepishly.
"You have nothing to be embarrassed of, own your abilities, it'll only make you stronger." He said.
"Thank you mr. Stark. I'm still not sure why this would have caught your eye though," I said.
"Please call me Tony. I also heard that you turned down professor X's offer and that made me so happy to hear."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because Tess I want to offer you a chance to be apart of the Avengers." He said.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head from shock. "Really?"
"Yes really! Stark industries and the avengers team is looking for new recruits after our past couple of battles. We are hosting a huge event where we will be training new recruits to see what place will best fit for them. Most people will get jobs in the department buildings. I don't normally tell my recruits this, but you have a great chance to actually be part of the avenger team working alongside the hulk or captain America. What do you say Tess? Are you in?" Tony asked.
I took me a little bit to think about it. I really love my life as it is right now but I could totally see myself using my nursing skills and my new powers while fighting villains such as the green goblin. "I'm in!"
"Great! Before we go I want to talk to your sister." Tony stated.
"Why?" I asked.
"You don't know?" He asked.
I shock my head no.
"Well it seems like you have lots of family members that have special powers." Tony said.