Before It Breaks | ✔ |

Chapter 10: Hacked

Chapter 10: Hacked

3 days.* 3 days since the discovery. 3 days since Kristen had set her mind on revenge, conrolling her powers, and getting better.

Kristen was getting used to using both legs now. She was stronger. She was happy. She was talking with Dr. Garner daily (they'd made up) and working on shooting and archery. She seemed a natural at shooting, but she wasn't as good at archery, which disappointed Clint.

"Be glad you aren't my child," grumbled Clint, "because if you were, I'd be so disappointed, I'd disown you."

"He's joking," said Natasha.

"No, I'm not," said Clint. "Lucky for them, my children are great with toy bow and arrows. They'll be great with the real deal."

Natasha shrugged. "Ignore him," she told Kristen. "He takes archery too seriously, if you ask me."

"I think I like shooting better," said Kristen. She turned to Clint. "Sorry, Clint. You're out of luck."

"Your loss," mumbled the man.

Meanwhile, the others were fruitlessly searching Washington's surveillance footage and CCTV's and anywhere else for a hit on Malarkey. So far, they were having no luck.

"DC," said Steve suddenly to the others as they sat in the room full of computers.

"Huh?" asked Sam.

"Washington, DC," said Steve. "What if Kristen meant Washington, DC? What if that's what The Man meant, but Kristen thought he meant the STATE Washington."

"Well, we could start searching there," said James thoughtfully. "We should keep an eye on the state, though, just to be safe."

Alright," agreed Steve. "Let's get looking."

Thor was up in Asgard at the moment, getting as much information as he could about the Inhumans.

Skye was trying her very best to help Kristen learn how to use her powers, applying what she had been taught by her mother, Jiyang, who used to lead the Inhumans until she had been killed in order to stop a war between the Inhumans and SHIELD, which Jiyang had been leading.

Kristen was actually finding it rather easy. She could make small gusts of air, and big ones. She used her powers to make the air lift light objects off the ground, and to blow large objects out of her path. She even used her powers to very briefly suck the air out of Skye, but she got so panicked at the idea of possibly hurting Skye again that she stopped, even though Skye had been encouraging her to try it. Skye was a little lightheaded, but otherwise OK (much to Kristen's relief).

When Kristen wasn't practicing shooting, archery, or using her powers, she had her little nose in a book, absorbing all the information she could. If she wasn't doing that, she was watching the boys as they looked at security footage from both Washington, DC, and the state of Washington.

But a lot of the time, she hung around Tony. The bond was certainly a very strong one- everyone knew it. But one thing the others did not know is why the two were so close. They just couldn't seem to to explain it to themselves.

"He's a softy," decided James. "Only reason they're so close."

"Softy?" asked Natasha. "Now, I don't know about that, James."

"Tell that to Pepper as well as every woman he's ever hooked up with," laughed James.

"That's not a soft spot," frowned Sam.

"I'll tell you this- dude's got a soft spot for Pepper," said James, "so it's entirely possible for him to have a soft spot for Kristen."

"But why does he have a soft spot for a random little 15 year old girl?" asked Clint. "He could have just given her over to SHIELD and forgotten all about her."