S.H.I.E.L.D Academy

Terif Thorson's POV • Junior High

May 26th- "It's the summer before our first year of junior high. I'm pretty excited. Well, not as excited as I'd like to be. The thing is, I'm just not so certain I'm ready. Strange, isn't it? Me, Terif, daughter of Thor, uncertain. That sentence just doesn't seem coherent. Those words simply don't fit together."

The smoke alarm won't stop screaming.

"Terif!" My mother raises her voice above the noise. "I need help!"

I shove aside my diary and fountain pen and fly down the stairs. I know what to do. I stand directly under the alarm in the hallway near the front door, tilting my head up to look straight at it. Stomping my foot, a shockwave ripples up to the ceiling and the blaring siren stops.

Mother walks in from the kitchen, removing her latex gloves and putting them in the catch-all pocket of her white lab coat. "Thanks, honey. Your precision's getting much more refined," she says, smiling a smile identical to the one I see in the mirror every day. Her light brown hair is swept up into a waitress bun, with a few shorter waves framing her face. I smile back, and I tilt my head to her coat.

"I see you've got the coat on again," I say. "What're you working on?"

I was always fascinated with my mother's projects and theories. I learned a lot when she let me work alongside her, which was fairly often.

"I'm actually not sure yet," she replies with a frown. She looks distracted, and tired. She gestures for me to follow, and I trail behind her to the lab. "But it just might change lives."

***

"So what did your mom show you?" Derek tilts his head to the side.

"Yeah, you keep avoiding the subject, Riff," Zaria adds.

"I'm not so certain that I should say, yet. I don't want to get everyone's hopes up." I speak cautiously, with a quick glance at Eugene that thankfully goes unnoticed. "It's something your dad has been working on, too," I say, gesturing to Jack and Howard. "They've been collaborating on it for a while now."

They look at each other with a look of excited recognition, then they both talk at once.

"Oh! That solution for--"

"The thing that might be able to--"

"Quiet!" I say quickly, my voice magnified by my abilities. The thunderous sound grants me instant silence from the twins.

"Yeah, guys! Shut up," Laerika says, already clamping her small, pale hands over their mouths. She looks sneakily at Eugene, but his novel is closed beside him.

Eugene looks at me with a strange look in his eye.

"What's going on..?"

One look in his eyes, and I know. I know he needs to hear this, to know he has something to believe in, to wait for. To know that he has hope.

"My mother found that when a certain solution of liquefied minerals and elements meet another through mitosis, a strong regenerative serum is produced. Now, if they can find the right configuration of chemical solutions, it is hoped that they will result in a serum purposed for curing paralysis," I explain hurriedly. Jack whistles under his breath, and Howard nudges him.

Eugene, of course, understands every word with the proficiency of a true Banner. His eyes light up, and a smile spreads across his gentle features.

**Flashback-- Eugene's POV**

It was the middle if the day, but to me, the room was dark. I felt . . hooded, and I felt closed in by every side. All that surrounded me was blackness, just a shroud of gloom. The news was just too hard to hear, and breathing became a heavy burden. Paralyzed?

"Mr. and Mrs. Banner, I'm so sorry. But there's just nothing more we can do. We've tried everything, believe me," the doctor was saying.

My head swam, and my mother fought to keep the buildup of tears from splashing down her pale cheeks.

**Present-- Eugene's POV**

From that day on, my life's been different. Everything became more difficult, goals less tangible. I'd like to say I've coped well, but I have to be honest with myself, if no one else. To be truthful . . I haven't fared well with the fact I'll never hold up a trophy again, I'll never score the winning points, and I'll never feel the camaraderie of my team owning a highly anticipated match. My only solace, really, is in the fact that my developed academic skills are still in my arsenal.

But my parents, Terif's parents, and the twins' parents are doing all they can to help me get back to where I was, back to my passions, back to my life. And--if this cure works--I'll spend my whole life being nothing but thankful.

**Present-- Terif's POV**

At my house, Eugene looks over my mother's equations and plans.

"Well, there's a problem here," he says softly, pointing and causing my mother to look closer at the board. "X couldn't equal eighty point zero seven, if the remainder of this subtraction here is the same as Y divided by that figure."

My mother looks baffled, and I suppress a giggle.

"Uhm, yes, well," she stammers, clearly embarrassed as she corrects the anomaly in her calculations. "You know I'm really an astrophysicist by trade. Tony actually came up with most of the theories behind the chemistry. Besides, aren't you barely in junior high?" She smiles with a twinkle in her eye after that last sentence, and I grin.

"He's right, isn't he?" I interject slyly. "Anyway, remember who his parents are. They're both geniuses." I turn to Eugene and frown. "Wait, if you could detect a flaw in the algebra, couldn't you have come up with a cure on your own?"

He looks back at the board distractedly, and then down at his lap. "I've tried."