𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

𝐯𝐢

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐒𝐇 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 '𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲...' 𝐀𝐥𝐬𝐨, 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐔𝐥𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧, 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐬𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐰-

Natasha combed through Adelaide's silvery hair with her hands, her nails brushing it gently as Addie sat in the cold bath hugging her knees. Adelaide was still sobbing slightly, her blue eyes stained with the painful memories.

'Ssshhh... quiet now....' Nat whispered to a frightened Adelaide, who looked up at her friend. Her bottom lip quivered slightly as she began to speak.

'I still want to go to the after party.' Adelaide expressed mousily. Natasha sighed, circling the deep scars on Adelaide back with her finger, which made Addie shiver.

'Honey, you're not well enough to go to the after party.' Natasha soothed, her clothes swirled in the water as it sloshed while Adelaide turned around to face Nat anyway.

'It's just going to be our friends! Everyone there knows I exist, even you said so yourself!' She pleaded. Natasha rolled her eyes and brushed through Adelaide's hair again. She smiled at her before reaching for a towel and helping Addie out the bath.

'Alright, fine, but don't tell Pepper, Addie, or I'll be in massive trouble. You know how she feels about you going out after an episode.' Adelaide was bored with Nat's words, she'd heard them almost a thousand times before. She dried off her body and wrapped the towel around herself after removing her now extremely wet clothes.

'Be down in ten minutes, or I'll worry, mkay?' Natasha made Adelaide promise, who was looking down at the small black dress laid neatly on her bed in admiration. 'I can't believe you're already seventeen, Addie...' She nodded, eyes still fixed on the dress and as soon as she heard her bedroom door shut she pulled it on with haste.

Adelaide used to dry her hair with the hairdryer sat on her dresser, but after becoming more used to her powers, she figured out she was able to wring all traces of the water from her hair, and place the large water droplet neatly down the sink. It reduced the amount of time to get ready significantly. s.

She pulled on her small black heels, brushed her hair through and let it sit delicately on her shoulders, the white complimenting the black like a domino. When she trotted out her door in excitement, she could already see the team sat down in the lounge, chatting and laughing.

'Addie! You're looking lovely as always.' Maria Hill greeted as Adelaide walked into the room and sat down next to Widow, who had scooted over on her chair, making room for her friend.

'Why thankyou, Maria.' She giggled and looked over at Nat reassuringly, but she wasn't convinced.

Agent Hill frowned and then clung onto her arms with her hands.

'It's freezing, can we light the fire?' She asked, which triggered Nat's hand to fall on Adelaide's in comfort, as Addie shivered slightly, and not due to the cold. Tony lifted his drink towards Maria.

'We don't light the fire. It's the uh... ash, Adelaide's allergic to it.' He revealed, making Adelaide smile. It wasn't really a secret that Adelaide had these experiences, her getting overwhelmed or shot back in time, resulting in an outburst of power. Maria had even been the victim of one of the episodes; Adelaide had heard a man's voice, which sounded slightly like Thanos, but to Addie it was enough. Maria was in the wrong place at the wrong time and Adelaide freaked, sending Agent Hill flying. Adelaide hated herself for that. But Tony's excuse kept Maria happy, she didn't seem suspicious, and even if she would have been, she wouldn't have said anything. Steve smiled at her and removed his leather jacket like a skin. He walked over to her and placed it on her shoulders.

'Take that.' He said, rubbing her shoulders to warm her up. Maria thanked him, as Nat mouthed to Adelaide 'You alright?' Addie smiled. 'Yes.' She responded inside Nat's mind.

'Hey, no poking around in there!' She jokingly complained, punching Addie softly, before letting her younger friend cuddle into her shoulder.

The chat continued on, with pitiful attempts from the team at lifting Mjölnir, and Tony Stark getting a little too annoyed about it.

'The handle's imprinted right? Like a security code? 'whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is I think the uh... literal translation' Tony mocked after his failed attempt at lifting the hammer. The team chuckled at him, mostly pitiful laughs.

Thor stood up, glass in hand and nodded slightly. 'Yes that is a very interesting theory. I have a simpler one.' He lifted Mjölnir effortlessly, drink in one hand and the large hammer in the other. 'You're all not worthy!' He announced.

A deafening screech erupted from in front of the team, causing Adelaide to cover her ears in pain.

'Worthy.....'

'No.... how could you be.... you're all..... killers.'

A slow and broken up Stark Legionnare began to hobble to in front of the Avengers. Tony looked up in visible confusion.

'Stark?' Steve uttered, hoping the suit was a practical joke.

'JARVIS...' Tony clicked buttons on his small tablet he held in his hand. The robot tilted it's head and outstretched it's torn up arm.

'I'm sorry I was asleep....' The AI began to start, 'Or was a dream...' Stark was beginning to panic now, Adelaide could see a small droplet of sweat drip to hit his brow.

'Reboot Legionnare OS, we got a buggy suit.' Tony tapped his tablet again, but there was no response from JARVIS, which was extremely abnormal. Nat rubbed Adelaide's back in comfort and moved close towards her.

'Go upstairs, and don't come down until I get you' She whispered into Adelaide's ear, who began to get up and do as her friend said until the robot yelled once again.

'The girl stays!' It announced, deafeningly loud. 'Oh just listen, there was this terrible noise... and I was tangled in....' The suit looked directly at Adelaide as it spoke now. 'Strings.' Her eyes widened at the AI's speech, heart rate rising. It must've been an accident, an oblivious mistake. The robot just looked at the right person at the right time, it couldn't possibly know. Know what she's done. But it seemed to wear a smile on it's prosthetic face. It looked away from her, leaving her questioning.

'I had to kill the other guy... he was a good guy...' It began to confess, much to Steve's horror, who was the first to speak to the robot.

'You killed someone?' Steve asked, with no response from the AI.

'Wouldn't have been my first call but, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices...' It continued.

'Who sent you?' Thor demanded to know, to which the robot answered with an audio clip of Tony and his vision for a suit of armour around the world.

'Ultron...' Banner breathed and turned to look at Tony who had grabbed onto Adelaide's hand when he noticed her terrified expression.

'In the flesh!' Ultron confirmed. 'Or no, not yet. Not this... chrysalis' It's scratchy voice hurt Adelaide's ears.

'I'm on a mission.' It's words caused Thor to grip his hammer, tight, and Adelaide noticed Maria hold her pistol, which she hadn't noticed was stashed in the side of her dress.

'What mission?' Natasha questioned. Adelaide wished she'd have shut up.

'Oh you just had to ask.' Adelaide complained as she rolled her eyes. Ultron tilted it's head again, leaning it's wait onto it's left side.

'Peace in our time.'