Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Chapter 48 ~ monster

An overwhelming buzzing feeling came over me again as purple and now blue blasts began generating from my fingers. The caste on my wrist cracked apart as a larger blast ricocheted off the brick walls.

"Lily." Peter again began as he gingerly edged towards me. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know." My voice barely came out as a whisper as I slowly backed away from both Peter and Aharon. "Make it stop."

"I can't make it stop." Peter calmly continued. "You're doing this. You're the only one who can make it stop." He paused. "We can call Tony. He'll know what to do."

I twisted my wrist as I stared down at my hands. There had to be someway to shut this off, right? It's not like I actually have superpowers. This was because of something Dare had done to me. She had turned me into this thing. Another blast exploded out my hands and narrowly missed Peter. "Stay back!"

He froze and held his hands up. "Lily."

"This can't happen again." I panicked. "You have to stay away from me."

"Lil."

"I don't want to hurt you." I pleaded.

"It's ok. It just takes time to get use to having powers." He forced a reassuring smile. "You're going to be fine."

"They didn't make me a hero like you. They turned me into the monster that people like you stop!" I let out a shriek as a bright blue blast completely engulfed me. For a second, I was airborne and then I was stumbling to my knees.

I whimpered as rough concrete ripped through my jeans and tore my skin. The buzzing feeling slowly subsided as exhaustion overtook me. I glanced up expecting Peter and Aharon to be staring down at me. But they weren't there. No one was.

As my breathing steadied, I slowly became aware that I was so longer in the subway tunnel. Somehow, I had transported myself to the top of a skyscraper in the heart of the city.

Fantabulous. Purple must be the power blasts. Blue is teleportation. If I started spouting off any other colors, I would be convinced that I had somehow stolen that stupid infinity gauntlet.

On the bright side, if Hydra had turned me into a monster, I was sure I wasn't the weirdest one they had created. Although, a stranger one wasn't coming to mind.

I lost track of all time as I numbly watched the blue and purple blasts bursting from my hands. Everything was spinning and then slowly slid to a stop. This could really be happening, right?

A soft rustling noise sounded from the northeast corner of the roof. I glanced over to see Tony emerging from one of his suits. I closed my eyes in a futile effort to postpone the conversation that I knew was coming.

Why hadn't I just stayed in the hospital? Why hadn't I just called him. You know why. You're just too afraid to admit it to anyone, including yourself.

I reopened my eyes and glanced up at him. Hurt and concern filled every line of exhaustion on his face. My gaze darted instantly away. Why couldn't he just be mad at me? That would make all of this so much easier. Why isn't he yelling or hitting me or something? Maybe he actually cares about you.

"I was wondering who would find me first." I finally broke the awkward silence that had settled between us.

"Did I make the top of the list?" Sarcasm. Great. At least I could always count on that existing between the two of us.