Manhattan ⇻ The Avengers [1]

chapter three

"So..." Kae trailed off, "Are we going to open it?"

The blonde, along with all of the voices, had been putting off the prospect of opening the folder labeled with her name on it. They had fed the animals, walked the dogs, and put the cats in their play room. She even went as far as to do all the paperwork for the entire month so that she wouldn't have to see what SHIELD knew about her.

But sadly, now she didn't have anything else to do other than open the file. So, with bated breath, Kae opened the file.

The first thing she saw was her driver's license photograph. Below it was a physical description (which none of them really understood the purpose of, they had the picture) and a list of information on her. The list included the names of all of her family members, her birthday, where she was born, where she lived, where she worked, the powers of the voices, the voices' names, and lastly, what her soulmark said.

Kae looked down at her wrists. Each had a single word on them, the handwriting curly and beautiful. And it was in a shimmering silver, the color of romantic soulmates, opposed to the gold of platonics. The two words were strange ones. Nevertheless both she and the other personalities loved them, because the mark was theirs. Because they were theirs. The two words read Good Night.

The blonde shook her head and flipped the profile to the other side of the folder. Next was a record of her mental health. Which, in Kae's opinion, was just rude because all anyone had ever tried to do was get rid of the voices, and she was extremely fond of them. The list included notes talking about how she had Dissociative Identity Disorder and Schizophrenia, both of which "seemed to work together to make [her] hear the other personalities", and how "the other personalities controlled different powers".

"Stupid doctor," Gen growled, "we are perfectly fine."

"Not in the eyes of others," whispered Alison.

"Well, we're past the 18 year mark, so no more doctors or therapists for us," Kae flipped that page over too.

The ensuing page was another photograph, which was followed by another two. The first was a picture of Gen speeding down the highway, the second, Winter at the shooting range, standing forty feet away with three bullseyes in the center of the target. The last one was of Alison who was stuck in a burning building, on fire, but not burnt.

"I remember that," Alison murmured.

The truth was that all of them remembered it. There had been a fire at their old apartment building and they had been stuck on the fourth floor. The only reason they had lived long enough to get out was because of Alison's powers over fire.

Kae turned them over to the other side as fast as possible. What was under it was a document on something called the Avengers Initiative. There were 6 sheets of paper stapled together. The first was a file on Tony Stark; it talked about how he was Iron Man ("duh," Gen had said, "everyone knows Iron Man.") and had a personality profile describing him as narcissistic and saying that he didn't "play well with others".

The second was Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, which got a rise out of Winter ("the punk survived?"). That sheet included some stuff about what happened to him after the war (which prompted a lot more commentary from Winter).

The third was a more compressed version of her file. The fourth was about the someone named Bruce Banner, and how he was also known as the Hulk (who was also quite well know because of his rampages not too far away).

The fifth and sixth were about two high level SHIELD agents. The former agent was a woman named Natasha Romanoff. The redhead was apparently a product of the Black Widow program, and how she was a skilled assassin. The latter was a man named Clint Barton, who went by the code name Hawkeye because of his accuracy with a bow and arrow.

One thing she had found unusual was that there was a place for soulmarks and soulmates on all of the files, but they were all blacked out and labeled, 'Level 9'. She and the voices figured that it was like that for privacy reasons (although, SHEILD had already violated all of their privacy).

After thoroughly going through the file, she transferred the stapled papers over to the other side of the folder with everything else.

The only thing left in the folder was a small handwritten note;

Dear Kaelyn,

I was asked to deliver this to you because SHIELD has commissioned the order to assemble the Avengers. It is my understanding that you are intended to be in this team of heroes because of your abilities. I hope that you will agree to come in. If you do, please meet me in Central Park at noon tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Agent Esme Taylor of SHIELD

"Well, it would be nice to be a hero again," Gen muttered.

"I'd get to see Steve again," Winter agreed.

"It'd be nice to be a part of a team," Alison said in her soft tone, "I've never been on one."

"I think we've decided then," Kae exclaimed, "Teamwork and saving the world. What could go wrong?"

----------------------------------------------

"Lots of things!" Holly paced in front of her, "lots of things could go wrong! Like... Like..."

"Death?" George pitched in.

"Yeah! Like death!" Holly exclaimed, "and then you'd be stuck haunting George for the rest of his life!"

"Why me?" the brunette seemed offended.

"Because you're the only ghost-seeing-person we know!"

"Good point," George sighed, "and the technical term is medium."

"Medium sounds like you're small, George," Holly laughed, "and you're not small."

"You're just really tin-"

"You two do realize that you just changed the subject on yourselves?" Kae interrupted.

"Um..." Holly stalled for a bit, "...just don't get killed... or maimed... or let Gen do anything stupid."

"Hey!" Gen yelled inside of her head, causing the blonde to flinch at the loudness, "I resent that!"

Kae shook her head as if to get rid of the memory of the sound, "She resents that," she relayed to the darker skinned female.

"Yeah, well," Holly pointed a finger at Kae's face, "I meant it."

Gen huffed.

I love Holly and George very much even though they don't play a very big roll in this story. You also got to find out what her soulmark is this chapter, however her soulmate isn't in this book. But, hopefully, in the next book, she will get to meet her soulmate. Anyway, I hope that you all have a wonderful week, and I'll see you again next Manhattan Monday (yes, I am going to be using that phrase) with chapter four. :)
~ Aria