𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓 ✘ 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐅

{3⁸} {CALM BEFORE THE METALLIC STORM}

∆ {3⁸} {CALM BEFORE THE METALLIC STORM} ∆ 

METAL WAS A strange thing. So many names, so many forms, so many variations, and yet, some things never changed.  Most were polished and refined when they were used, hardened and shaped until they exactly fit their job.  Hammered, melted, moulded, until they set in their final form, only being able to do exactly what they were made for. And Roxi was made to spy, to fight, to kill, and that would never change. On the outside, she was perfectly cold and controlled, set as hard as the metal she controlled. One thing that did seem to be changing, however, was her emotions. They kept twisting and changing, like a red hot pool of molten metal, shifting, folding in on themselves, sometimes becoming so large that they would create small bubbles and just pop.

Roxi was annoyed at herself. Before all of this, she'd been exactly what she needed to be, a cold assassin who rarely showed emotion. But now, here she was, exploding with an overload of feelings on her teammates. This sort of thing had never happened before. Sure, she'd felt stronger emotions, but she'd never felt the desire to snap as she had twice in the last few days. 

Everyone in the room was still looking slightly shaken by the way she'd reacted, Tony the most. His usually talkative demeanour had been reduced to nervous silence as Roxi sighed and sat down on a lab chair. Why couldn't she control herself anymore? She didn't respond to Clint's statement, not quite knowing how as she leant backwards in her seat, file in hand. She rolled up the file into a tube and tapped it minutely against her leg as she thought over her feelings carefully, her face scrunched into a soft frown. the whole room was deathly still, though Natasha and Clint were exchanging glances full of meaning only they knew. Roxi wondered about that for only a few seconds; the thought that they might be suggesting that she was unstable (which was simply how she felt), made her want to cringe away and curl up in a corner somewhere to wallow in her own self pity. She was being selfish, she knew that, bottling up all her emotions until they exploded, taking them out on the people around her. She needed to find a way to stop it, soon.

And then there was the matter of Natasha Romanoff. The redhaired assassin was as beautiful as she was deadly, and Roxi's feelings for her seemed to grow whenever they were in the same room. She's never sought out relationships, believing they'd get in the way of her work, but Natasha did the same job that she did, and could defend herself equally well. Perhaps there was a possibility? She shut herself down almost as soon as she'd thought it. Right now, she realised, she needed to focus on Ultron, not her overwhelming tide of emotion.

"It happened in New York." Roxi's voice was quieter than anyone expected it to be, sounding tired and slightly resigned, but in the silence of the lab, her voice was clear. Everyone looked straight at her as she stared at her rolled-up file, barely blinking as she spoke.

"Something to do with Loki, I think," she continued in her quiet voice. Tony frowned slightly as he listened, Roxi's eyes glazed over. She hadn't told Natasha quite like this, so the redhead was listening almost as intently as the others. 

"After I was hit by him, maybe the sceptre did something to me? I'm not sure, but when we were fighting the Chitauri, at one point I just... exploded, i guess." If she thought about it, it wasn't too dissimilar to what had been happening lately, except her powers had burst out of her much more dangerously than a simple threat could ever seem.

"There was just a circle of them around me," she admitted, her voice cracking slightly as it wavered from louder to quieter and back again, "crushed in their own armour." She let her grip on the file go, so it unfurled on her lap, still bent in a crescent shape as she straightened up, sweeping her black hair onto her back as she glanced around the room to gauge their reactions. Normally, she wouldn't care what they thought, but this was important. Natasha sent her a small nod and a soft smile. Tony had flinched ever so slightly when she mentioned New York, his hand clenching in its fist as he tried to supress his own overwhelming emotions. Partly to distract himself, and partly to try and clear some tension between him and Roxi, he spoke up.