Avengers: Liberation

Chapter 30- My Answer Was No

I bit into my lip as I sat at the dining table. Pupils as young as eleven and as old as me gather around the table, pushing pieces of meat and pastry in their mouth getting their body ready for the day with a sugar and fat high. I shook my head as I sipped my tea, I breathed in the perfumed smell of my earl grey tea and smiled. I had finally been able to adjust my mental walls to the amount of mental babble produced by these pupils.

I chewed my lips viciously which wasn't fair on my lip. I felt my teeth rip through the delicate flesh, then felt it try to heal as my teeth continued to bury themselves deeper. My thoughts had been flipped upside down and rearranged, all because of him. I mentally rolled my eyes, I couldn't just blame Eric, it was obviously partially my fault due to the fact I was attracted to him.

But was he really worth it?

Suddenly I was quickly pulled from my own thoughts and into Hank McCoy's."I wonder how Liberty would feel about doing some tests. I should ask before assuming of course." I smiled up at him as he approached me from the other side of the hall. He smiled back as he pushed up his wire-framed glasses and scanned the tablet screen with his sharp yellow eyes.

"Good morning Hank." Hank smiled down at me, as he continued to scan the screen in front of him. "Good morning Liberty. As you know when I first met you I asked to replicate some of the tests Bruce Banner performed on you." He quickly sat down on a seat next to me and flipped around the touch screen to face me, and there it all sat, every statistic, every piece of data on me. I grabbed the screen from Hanks blue hands and scanned through the data.

"From what Banner emailed me, I see that most of these test are now obsolete due to the fact that your powers have progressed much beyond those simple tests, such as the magnetism and electrical conduction test, we both know that both these powers are readily available for your use, and can be explained via test conducted on previous mutants of a similar power." I nodded as I finally came across those scans, the pictures of my mind that gave me false hope, of becoming normal, but almost sacrificed everything I had.

I handed the tablet back to Hank, as memories that I wish to keep dead and buried decided to resurrect themselves despite me. "The only test from Banner's research that I'm interested in is the brain scans." I nodded as my chest began to constrict, and shudder violently.

"Is there anything else?" Hank nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose, as his clawed fingers worked across the screen pulling up new datafiles and statistics.

"yes, I wish to carry out some basic physical test, such as endurance and strength just so we know what level we should be working at." I nodded, as my chest stayed tight, but hadn't constricted further.

"Oh, ok. Well, when would you like these tests to start?" I asked with a steady voice as I watched the screen of the tablet mirrored in Hank's glasses.

"Oh, as soon as possible." I nodded and stood up from my seat along with Hank. He turned off the tablet screen and looked down at me. He smiled brightly with his animalistic canines easily half an inch over his bottom lip.

"I guess I should get ready then." He nodded as a glint of excitement shone across his gaze.

"Of course, meet me in the gym as soon as possible; this is where the tests will be performed." I nodded and smiled lightly up at Hank, as I turned away from him. Seeing those brain scans brought back that all too familiar pain. I hissed as I pulled away my glamour to reveal my lovingly placed scar, so neat, so precise. The Loki's dagger easily sliced through my breastbone and into the thick muscle wall of my heart. I trailed a nail over the four-inch-long scar and gave a ragged sighed. Thanos had found a weakness in me that day, that day Bruce found what he thought to be the source of my power, risking everything. Tears spilt over the edge of my eyes as I sat on the edge of my bed. That weakness did not only make me vulnerable but also made earth venerable.

I sighed as I tied up my hair into a high pony tail. I got up from my bed and look at myself, and hated it. Pulling away from the glamour just revealed more memories I wished to stay buried. Cobalt blue scars etched their way over my shoulder and reached out over my shoulder blades like harsh skeletal wings. I drew a finger pad over the very light silver scar with lay embedded in my skin, it felt like so long ago when it happened, the day Loki was stopped from saving me by the gracious Captain America. I smirked as I looked down at it. It was the same battle where I obtained these scars, my first battle scars, but not my last.

I looked over my body to see the charcoal sports crop top cut off just under my breast, I pulled a weightlifting top over my shoulders and watched as it floated down over my body and hung loosely. My three quarter length charcoal lotus yoga pants were skin tight against my strong thighs and calves.

I watched as a bronze haze laced up my new balance white and neon running trainers. I looked in the mirror and smiled at myself, once again replacing my glamour hiding my cruel mistakes under a full body mask. When I got to the gym there was a large grinning surprise waiting for me there.

"Hey, Kid." I smiled at Logan as he stood there in jeans and a white vest that outlined his very abundant abdominal and pectoral muscles.

"Hi."  Said meekly, as he stood there with his arms cross showing the full size of his biceps and triceps. He was intimidating, from what I could see he could easily take on the Hulk, and he had taken on the Hulk.

"Glad you made it Liberty; Logan is going to be going through these tests with you. He's here as a coach, not competition." Both Logan and Hank smirked at him while I just stood there slightly overwhelmed. Hank walked up to me with a number of stick-on pads connected to wires, he stuck them across my torso, above my breastbone, the top of my abdomen and across my back.

"now Liberty, I know this is an ask, but I don't want you to pull away any of your natural strength on holding back your powers, so any shields you have up, I would like them down. If you can of course." My breathing hitched as I began to panic. I heard the heart monitor beeping erratically as my heart fluttered about like a bird stuck in a cage.

"Liberty are you ok?" Logan looked at me with worried eyes, as my eyes darted about in a panic.

"I can't... I could hurt you...I...I can't." suddenly Logan put to warm hands on the tops of my arms. The heat that radiated from him caused me to relax as he held me there in the mist of my state of panic.

"Is that the only reason bub?" he bent down to my eye level. I wanted to make eye contact with him, but I couldn't. I just looked down at the ground, away from his piercing blue eyes.

"We both know your powers are dangerous when not controlled kid, but you've controlled them for the past six years, we understand that it's a big ask." I shook my head, I know I could control my powers, but there are some things some people just shouldn't see, something I never wanted to see.

"It's not that Logan, there's something I don't want people to see, under the layers of masks I placed over the years, and it's still hard for me to accept them." I finally looked into Logan's eyes to see them darken a fraction, in preparation in what he was about to see but also with sympathy.

"What are 'them' Liberty?" I sighed and pulled out of Logan's arms.

"If I pull away all my walls and glamour you can't touch me no matter what, believe me, I could kill you." Both Hank and Logan took a tentative step away from me. I felt the bronze and silver haze pull away from my skin, pulling away years of hiding my true skin. Logan's and Hank's eyes grew wide at the scars, the marred cobalt skin of my shoulder etching down over my shoulder blades, and vanishing, hiding underneath the layers of fabric. Lines etched up towards my neck, almost like claws reaching up trying to cover me.

"Liberty... how...I..." Logan stuttered as he looked at the viable marred skin. I looked away from him and towards Hank.

"I think while I'm comfortable with this, we should start the tests." Hank nodded and looked down at his tablet.

"Yes of course." Hank gestured toward two treadmills; I took the one closest to hank while Logan took the one next to me. Logan didn't try to speak, but his mind did, but still stuck on what to say, should he mention then, should he ask where they came from. My answer was no.