Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Chapter 50 ~ new beginnings

Whoever's idea it was to start training at 6:00 am was not my favorite human.

Tony had the "brilliant" idea that all the new recruits should start being trained by current Avengers so we could learn to work together in spite of our differences. I really think he was just trying to keep us all busy. Correction. He was trying to keep Cassie busy so she wouldn't go off and form her own super secret group of heroes.

Unbeknownst to Tony, he was too late. That ship was probably in Fuji by now.

In spite of Tony's best efforts, the whole fast friends thing was not working out too well. So far the morning had consisted of me insulting spider boy (I may have called him seagull-man complete with what I considered a very catchy theme song), Johnny spilling his coffee all over Cassie, and a lot of suspicious looks.

But from the looks of it, Sam, Bucky, and Daisy were planning on turning us into a functioning team with or without our cooperation. Unfortunately for them, it was going to be without.

"Alright." Daisy cleared her throat. "Welcome to Day One of training. To start things off, we're going to break you off into teams."

"Why can't we pick our teams?" Cassie interrupted. "I don't want to be on a team with him." She pointed to Johnny Storm who was too busy chugging six shots of espresso to notice. 

"Because in the real world, you have to learn to work together with people that you didn't get to choose." Sam answered whilst shooting dagger eyes at Bucky. Honestly, they needed a team building exercise just as much as we did. Maybe even more.

"Exactly." Daisy nodded in agreement. "Bishop, Keener, Parker, Williams. You're all a team. You'll be working with our very own Captain America, Sam Wilson." She paused. "Barton, Lang, Stark, Storm. You're together. You'll be working with Agent Barnes." She smiled. "I'll be available to work out special training sessions for those of you who are enhanced."

"Awesome." Johnny exclaimed under his breath. This remark earned him a warning glare from all three instructors.

"Before we break up into groups, I want all of you to ask yourselves the question: Why am I here? If you're here for the glory of having your face on lunchboxes and backpacks, that's not going to be good enough." Daisy paused to look at each one of us.

"In my time with S.H.I.E.L.D., I have been betrayed by my closest friends, seen friends sustain injuries from which they never recovered, seen friends die." Her voice cracked as she took a deep breath. "This isn't a job. This is your life. The people next to you will become your closest friends. They'll be your family. And they need to know that when the war starts, that you'll have their back no matter what. I can guarantee you that if you stick with this, you'll never be the same."

Never be the same. The story of my life. Join Hydra. Never the same. Kill Peter's parents. Never the same. Escape. Never the same. Natasha. Never the same. Captured. Never the same.

It was all a part of who I was now. While surrounded by tragedies, they had molded me into the person I was today. This wouldn't be any different in that regard.

Why am I here? To be honest, I didn't know. Tony had told me I was going so here I was. But that wasn't a good enough reason to stay.

In spite of the DNA test, I still hadn't been able to even call him Dad. Part of me wondered if I ever would. Was I too damaged by Hydra to ever just be normal?

Was it bad that there was a part of me that didn't want to be here training? A cute little house in the country with sunflowers and white picket fence almost sounded nice.

I shifted my stance as I reconsidered Daisy's question. I stole a glance at the Cassie and Peter. Neither one seemed the least phased by the question. Maybe I was just overthinking this.