Alright, here it is! Even though it’s definitely amateur writing compared to what I can do now, it is canon to my Marvel series and very important

Prologue

28 years ago...

“Directer Fury!”
It was Phill Coulson, the newest S.H.I.E.D agent. He ran up to the Director of S.H.I.E.D who was watching the happenings around the base.
“Yes?” said Directer Fury turning around to face the young agent.
“I think we’ve found the planet you were speaking of,” Phill handed Fury a few papers.
Fury scanned over the papers quickly and then handed them back to the agent. “Good,” he said. “I want everyone in room C3 finding more information about this new planet.”
“Yes, Director.”
“Do not come back until you know exactly what we are dealing with.”
“Yes, Director.”
“I want agent Barton to be informed as well.”
“Yes, Director.”
“We are going to make enormous discoveries with this new insight.”
“Yes, Director.”
Fury raised an eyebrow. “Go and tell them.”
“Yes, Director!” Phill hurried off clumsily.
Director Fury pondered on this discovery for a moment then turned back to observing operations, but could not shake the feeling that this would be one of the most important finds in his life...

Chapter 1

1 year later...

“Did you remember your toothbrush?”
“Yes, mom!”
14 year old Lily was in her parents SUV. Her dad, James, was driving and her mom, Willa, was sitting behind Lily who was in the front seat next to her dad. They were approaching their destination and Lily was getting very nervous, and her mom’s endless questions were not helping.
“Oh, what about your pillow, did you pack it?” her mom asked for the millionth time.
“Yes, mom, l did,” Lily sighed. “I remembered everything.”
“I just don’t want you to have forgotten something.”
“I haven’t forgotten anything.”
“Ladies, we’re here,” Lily’s dad said, pulling into the parking lot of a large office looking building with the word S.H.I.E.L.D on the side in big writing.
“We’re here,” Lily muttered to herself.

Chapter 2

After parking, Lily and her mom and dad got out, each carrying one of Lily’s bags and Lily pulled her suitcase.
When they made it inside, they were greeted by a balding man in a dark gray suit. “Welcome!” he said. “To S.H.I.E.L.D Training! Is this our newest recruit?” he gestured to Lily and gave her a wide smile that was obviously fake.
“Yes, she is,” said Lily’s dad, putting his arm around her.
The man nodded and said, “She can go to the girls bunk room for the time being while we go through the paperwork,” he then said something that was inaudible to them into his ear radio. “Maria Hill will escort you there now,” he told her.
A few minutes later, a dark haired girl in a blue uniform who looked about Lily’s age came up to them. Other than her and the man, who introduced himself as Agent Williams, there were no people in sight.
“Hi!” said the girl. “I’m Maria,” she held out her hand.
“Lily,” said Lily, shaking Maria’s hand.
“Maria, take Lily to the girls’ bunk room and fit her in a uniform,” said Agent Williams. “You will say goodbye to your parents later.”
“Come on,” Maria starting walking down the hallway to the left. “Let’s get ya’ settled.”
Lily grabbed the bags from her parents and set off down the hallway after Maria.

Chapter 3

Lily and Maria walked down the long hallway. Each time they passed a door, which was rather often, Lily was sure it would be the right one, but she was wrong every time. Finally, when Lily’s arms were killing her from carrying 4 bags and dragging her suitcase, they made it to what seemed to be the thousandth door.
Maria pushed open the door and said as they entered, “Welcome to the girls’ bunk room!”
It was a large room with about 20 bunk beds lining the gray metal walls, but there were no girls anywhere.
“Nice!” said Lily, dropping her luggage on the floor. “Which is mine?”
“This one,” Maria led her to the 14th bunk. “You’ll be right overtop me!” she patted the bottom bed. “This one’s mine. See the name tag?” She showed Lily a small tag that was clipped onto the blue comforter. It read ‘Maria’. “So that’s how we know who’s bed’s who’s. You’ve got one, too.”
Lily climbed up the ladder. The bed had a blue comforter just like the others. She found the paper that read, ‘Lily’.
“Your uniform is in the closet,” added Maria, gesturing to the left one of two doors. “The other is the bathroom.”
Lily climbed back down and went to the left door. She opened it and saw, with surprise, a room almost as large as the bunk room, except this one was completely filled up with clothes.
“There’s a divider between each section of clothes,” said Maria. “This is yours.”
Lily headed to the last section with clothes in it and pulled down from the hanging rack a blue uniform that looked just like Maria’s, but this one’s name tag said ‘Lily’.
“Try it on!” Maria grinned.
After she left, Lily changed into the outfit. When it was on, she felt like a true agent, the agent she had always dreamed of being.

Chapter 4

“Wow!” said Maria when Lily stepped out of the closet. “You really do look like a real agent.”
“You think so?” Lily smiled.
Maria nodded then glanced at her watch. “Oh, no! We’re 10 minutes late! Come on!” she grabbed Lily by the wrist and pulled her, with surprising strength, out of the bunk room, down the hallway, and out of the building all together.
Outside, Maria let go of Lily’s wrist and she walked to where her parents were in the parking lot next to their SUV. “Hi mom, dad. What do you think?” Lily gestured to her uniform.
“You look great, dear,” her mom said with a half smile.
“Look, I know you don’t approve of me going here but I really want to!” Lily said. “It’s my dream, mom.”
“I know I know, it’s just-just so dangerous!”
“Well, I’m not an agent yet. I have to be 18 before I can you know.”
“Yes, I know,” her mom sighed.
Lily gave them both big hugs and then waved goodbye as they drove off, she couldn’t help but miss them already.

Chapter 5

After her parents left, Lily followed Maria back inside. When they were in the bunk room, Maria said, “You’ll start training tomorrow. Today, you’ll just get settled.”
“Oh, ok,” Lily was a little disappointed that she couldn’t start today.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get a chance to train soon,” Maria said, looking at her watch again. “Aw man! Late again! Gotta go, I’ll be back in a little bit!” and then she ran out of the room.

A couple of hours later, 26 girls came bursting into the room just as Lily was finishing going through the training manual she found in her uniform’s pocket. The only other thing she found was an ear radio. Most if the girls headed to the bathroom, but since there was just three stalls, the unlucky ones sat on their bunks and waited. Maria was among them so Lily climbed down and sat next to her.
“Hi, Lily,” Maria managed a smile even though she looked exhausted. That’s when Lily noticed she had a bleeding scrape on her check.
“You’re hurt!” Lily exclaimed.
“Oh, that?” Maria shrugged. “It’s nothing. Everyone gets hurt during training, just part of it.”
Lily took a glance around the room and saw that pretty much everyone looked to be beat up. She gulped. Maybe she wasn’t cut out to be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent after all...

Chapter 6

The next day, Lily woke to the sound of snoring coming from underneath her. She panicked for a moment before realizing where she was. Lily couldn’t help but grin at the fact that she was actually there, at the famous S.H.I.E.L.D base getting ready to become a real agent. She still just couldn’t believe it. She then looked at her clock, 6😮0am, way too early. So she turned over and was just about to go to sleep when...
“PLEASE GET UP AND GET DRESSED FOR TRAINING AT 7:30. THANK YOU,” the loud voice came out of the speakers on the walls.
At once, every single girl got up out of bed and walked to the bathroom. But, like yesterday, only a few girls got in and the rest went into the closet to get changed into their uniforms.
Lily climbed down, still half asleep, and found that Maria was waiting for her bellow.
“You ready?” Maria asked.
“Is this how every morning starts,” Lily groaned.
“Every one except for Sunday,” Maria explained.
‘Great’ thought Lily. ‘Just great.’

A little before 7:30, all of the girls, freshened up and in their uniforms, left the bunk room. But instead of going through the front door, they went down a different hallway and came out into blinding sunlight... and a training course...

Chapter 7

The training course was large. Extremely large. It had five ropes courses, a ginormous climbing wall, a landing pad with four helicopters and three jets, and a concrete pad with training dummies and a weapons rack.
“Wow,” said Lily, looking at Maria. “This is where we train?”
“Yep,” Maria answered.
They all lined up in a row next to the paved area and waited.
Just then, a man with brown hair wearing a black suit came into the course. He stood in front of the girls and said, “Today, you will be learning how to be. On. Time.”
Lily looked at her watch and saw, with surprise, that he couldn’t be talking about them considering it was exactly 7:30. And then she saw that he was not looking at them, but was watching the door that they just came out of, as though he was waiting on someone.
“Being on time could be a matter of life and death,” the man muttered.
Suddenly, about 30 boys in blue uniforms with name tags came out onto the course and groggily lined up next to the girls.
“About time!” the man said to the boys. “Remember what I told you all last time? If you’re assigned to be at a certain place at a certain time, you need to be there at exactly that place and time. If not, you would most likely be the thing that kept your team from doing what they needed to do.”
“So, no pressure,” Lily whispered to herself nervously.

Chapter 8

Their first training exercise was to do warm ups, which Maria said happened every morning.
After doing 50 jumping jacks, their trainer said, “Well done! Now, we have a new trainee here with us today,” he gestured to Lily.
All eyes fell on Lily and she squirmed under their stares.
“You will have a small physical challenge before joining in with the others,” he told her. “Don’t worry!” he added when Lily’s eyes went wide with fright. “It’s not anything serious, just a little bit of practice, that’s all. If you could come forward.”
Lily took a few steps toward him even though her legs felt like jello.
“So, my name is agent Barton, but you can call me Clint. What is your name?” he asked.
“L-Lily.”
“Well then, Lily, this is what you’ll need to do...”

Chapter 9

“All set?” Clint asked Lily who was strapped into the harness.
“I-I think so,” said Lily.
“All right, start climbing,”
It turned out that Lily’s physical challenge was to climb up to the very top of the climbing wall. Which was as tall as an apartment building. And it also happened that Lily had an extreme fear of hight. Wonderful.
Lily took in big, shaky breaths and stared up at her goal that seemed millions of miles away. The other agents in training were standing behind her and Maria gave an encouraging smile while several of the boys dozed off in the back of the group. Lily put one hand that felt like it weighed a hundred pounds into the first handhold. And then the other. Then one foot. And finally, the other foot. She was up. For several minutes it was like that. One hand then the other then one foot then the other and repeat.
Lily heard Maria say after another few minutes, “You’re doing great! I’ve never seen anyone go faster!” That caused Lily to look down. Big mistake. The ground look thousands of feet below her and the people looked like tiny ants. She had to steady her breathing so she didn’t go into a panic.
“Easy, Lily, easy,” she mumbled. “This is nothing. Just look, you’re almost at the top,” she looked up and was surprised to see that she was only a couple of feet from the top. “See,” she grinned weakly. “You can do it.”
About five minutes later, Lily was scrambling faster than ever up onto the platform at the top of the wall. The others down bellow cheered for her. Some halfhearted, others relieved, but most looked surprised that this rather small girl with a quiet personality could do it. Maria grinned widely and Clint seemed impressed. ‘Maybe I can do it,’ thought Lily, smiling at the agent and agents-to-be. ‘Maybe I really can.’

Chapter 10

“Director, I need a word with you, in private please,” said Clint, walking up to Director Fury who was in his office.
“Of course, agent Barton,” said Fury getting up to greet him. “How are the agents in training?”
“That’s what I would like to speak to you about, sir,” Clint looked serious.
“Go on.”
“The newest recruit, Lily, well, she’s different from the others.”
“How so?”
“Well, she’s only been to a few training classes and hasn’t even been here a whole week yet, but I see potential in her. More than I’ve seen in a long time.”
Director Fury thought for a moment then said, “Is she getting along with the other agents?”
“Somewhat, but she seems to only be real friends with Maria.”
“And how much potential are we talking?”
“She climbed up the climbing wall in less than fourteen minutes. Most agents take thirty.”
Fury looked shocked. “That’s not possible. The fastest time recorded was twenty minutes.”
“That’s what I’m saying, sir, she’s different.”
“How about other sections of her training?”
“Perfect scores in all of them. The only thing she seems to struggle with, and I mean the only thing, is piloting ships.”
What Fury said next surprised Clint, “I’d like to meet her, in person. I want to see how much potential we’re talking about...”

Chapter 11

“PLEASE GET UP AND GET DRESSED FOR TRAINING AT 7:30. THANK YOU,” the usual, and very annoying, voice woke up Lily and the rest of the trainees.
It took Lily a few groggy seconds to realize that today officially made one week of being in training. She smiled at herself, incredibly hard or not she had enjoyed the training and looked forward to every new day so that she could learn something new.
Just then, the voice came out of the speakers again, but this time it said something different than normal, “AGENT IN TRAINING, LILY, PLEASE GO TO ROOM H7 AT 7:15. THANK YOU.”
Lily climbed down from her bunk, confused. “Maria?” she asked when she spotted her. “Does this happen sometimes?”
“Never since I’ve been here,” Maria scratched her head and yawned. “But then again, I’ve only been here a few weeks so I don’t know completely.”

Lily, with help from some agents, found herself facing the metal door with the letter H and number 7 on it a little before 7:15 She sucked in a breath and stood tall, trying to seem unafraid, and pushed open the door. What she saw almost made her faint. Director Fury, THE Director Fury, along with Clint and another agent she had never seen before were standing in front of a computer and typing on it.
“Ah, is this Lily?” Fury asked Clint, turning around.
“Yes, sir,” Clint answered, beckoning for her to come up to them. “That’s the one.”
Lily walked toward them and shook their hands, still in shock, Fury’s eye patch was very intimidating.
“Hi,” said the agent she’d never met. “My name is agent Coulson.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Lily, still watching Fury with wide eyes. “I’m Lily, a trainee.”
“I know who you are,” said agent Coulson. “You’re the special one.”

Chapter 12

“The, um, the special one?” Lily asked, confused. “I’m not special.”
“Oh, I think you are,” said Coulson.
Lily stared at him. “Why am I here?” she asked Clint, after glancing at Fury and his eyepatch again.
“You’re here, because I’d like you to join us on a mission to the Draco Planet,” Fury answered instead of Clint.
“A...wait what?” Lily’s eyes grew wide. ‘What’s going on?’ she thought to herself.
“I want you to become an agent early,” Fury explained.
“An agent,” Lily said blankly.
“Yes.”
“The Draco Planet,” Lily muttered, closing her eyes and sucking in breaths.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I think you are ready,” said the Director.
“I, well, I don’t know...”
“Think on it for a day, tomorrow, you can decide.”
“But, the Draco Planet. What’s that even supposed to mean?” Lily questioned them.
“We’ve been watching it and gathering intel for about a year now,” said Coulson. “And we have discovered that it holds a large number of scaly, fire spitting beasts, hence the name.”
“Dragons,” Lily breathed.
“A resemblance of the ones in the tales, yes, but these are much different.”
Lily’s head began to spin, never before did she believe that those creatures even existed. They were supposed to be made up!
“Like I said,” said Fury. “Think on it today, tomorrow morning, you must give us an answer. You may go now.”

Chapter 13

Lily walked, as though in a daze, back to the girls bunk room. It was empty, most likely because they were all at training, so she sat down on her bed and twirled a strand of her shoulder length, black hair as she thought.
“You have a big decision to make,” Lily said aloud to herself. “And you’d better not mess it up,” But what a small voice inside her head said made her troubled, she ignored it.
Just then, Lily heard a noise come out of her front shirt pocket. She reached inside of it and pulled out her ear radio, putting it in. “Hello?” she asked into it.
“Lily!” came Maria’s voice.
“Hi, Maria.”
“I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for the past hour, what’s happened?” Maria sounded concerned.
“Oh, well, um, I’ve been asked to go to the Draco Planet, which is full of dragons because Director Fury says that I’m ‘special’ and he wants me to become an agent,” Lily said rather fast.
“Uh, can you repeat that?” Lily did and Maria said, “Wow! I’ve never heard of something like this happening, like, ever!”
“I know! And I don’t know what to do.”
“Oh, um, sorry but I need to go, training-“
“Go, I’ll be fine!” Lily said even though she was freaking out.
“Ok, I’ll see you tonight.”
Lily put the radio back in her pocket and the voice inside her head returned, this time she couldn’t ignore it.
‘What if you’re not brave enough to be an agent?’

Chapter 14

The next morning, the trainees woke again to the sound of, “PLEASE GET UP AND GET DRESSED FOR TRAINING AT 7:30. THANK YOU. AGENT IN TRAINING, LILY, PLEASE GO TO ROOM H7 AT 7:15. THANK YOU.”
Lily opened her eyes and immediately knew what she had to do.

Lily faced room H7 with confidence an hour later and pushed open the door after muttering words of encouragement to herself. Inside were six people. Three she recognized as Director Fury, Agent Coulson, and Clint. Two she didn’t, a young man with black hair and glasses and a middle aged woman with blonde hair and brown eyes. One she felt like she did but couldn’t place, a man with black hair and a goatee who was wearing a black suit and tie.
“Lily,” welcomed the Director. “Have you made a decision?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“And-“
“And I will. I’ll join in on your mission to the Draco Planet.”
“Wonderful!” Fury turned to the three others in the room that Lily didn’t recognize. “This is Dr. Banner,” he gestured to the man with glasses who gave a shy nod. “Agent Cassandra,” he gestured to the women who was smiling at her. “And, I’m sure you know him, Mr-“
“Stark,” said the man with the goatee. “Director of Stark Industries.”
Lily’s mouth fell open. Her two idols, Director Fury and Tony Stark, were in the same room with her at the same time. She would have probably squealed if she weren’t so nervous.
“Now,” Fury said. “Lets get down to business.”

Chapter fifteen

After going through the safety measures, Lily, Director Fury, Agent Coulson, Clint, Dr. Banner, Agent Cassandra, and Mr. Stark began to talk about teams.
“So,” said Fury. “Dr. Banner, Agent Coulson, Agent Barton, Stark, and I will stay behind at communications and walk Agents Cassandra, Olson, Pains, and Lily through the journey. Because lets just say, some of them are not the best pilots,” he glanced at Lily. “Olson and Pains will join us tomorrow when we head to the Draco Planet.”
“Wait,” said Lily, suddenly very nervous. “T-tomorrow?”
“Yes, you’ll be leaving Earth tomorrow,” Fury explained.
‘Tomorrow,’ Lily thought to herself. ‘Tomorrow, I’ll be leaving Earth and everything I know behind.’
“Blueberry?” Stark offered them. Lily now noticed he was snacking on them the whole time Fury was talking.
“Snacks are not allowed near the computers!” Fury grabbed the bag out of Mr. Stark’s hand and threw it in the trash.
“Well that was rude,” Lily heard Tony mutter.
“The planet,” Fury began as though nothing happened. “Is surrounded by a forcefield,” he showed them a computer image of a sphere inside of another one, most likely the forcefield. “Now, we don’t know exactly what will happen if we crossed it, so we’ve given the pods you’ll be traveling in extra protection that will make them sealed, fire proof, and gamma proof.”
“Nothing is completely gamma proof,” spoke up Dr. Banner.
“We’ll see,” said the Director, then checked his watch. “We don’t have time to go over a few other things I wanted to but we can do that tomorrow. For now, rest up, it’ll be an early morning tomorrow.”
Lily lingered until it was just her and Fury left before she asked him, “Why am I here? And don’t say it’s because I’m special.”
Fury looked at her for a moment before answering. “You are the best trainee I’ve ever seen. And believe me, I’ve seen a lot of them. You do well under pressure, your a team player but can do fine on your own, your not prideful, and your fighting skills are excellent. No one I’ve seen is better.”
He left without saying any more, leaving Lily stunned.

Chapter 16

Lily couldn’t sleep. It was 4:59 in the morning and she had been lying in bed awake for the past two hours staring at the wall, where she had tally marked the days of her training. She’d only been there 9 days and was already asked to be an agent, it was exciting and terrifying at the same time.
“AGENT IN TRAINING, LILY, PLEASE GO TO ROOM H7 AT 5:30. THANK YOU!” the voice from the speakers said at exactly 5😮0 AM.
Lily heard grumbling from the others and then, after another few minutes, the usual quiet snoring from all, but Maria. She climbed down, wide awake, and saw Maria waiting for her at the bottom.
“Guess this is it, huh?” Lily’s friend held out her hand, but Lily grabbed her and pulled her into an embrace instead.
They let go and Lily said, “I’ll miss you, but we can chat any time from communications, ‘k?”
“Definitely!”
They said no more and Lily got into her uniform and tiptoed out, careful not to wake the girls.
She went by memory to room H7 and entered. Inside was the whole crew, including Mr. Stark, and two others who Lily assumed were agents Olson and Pains.
“Lily!” greeted the Director. He then introduced her to Olson and Pains who smirked, obviously not approving of her. “Here are your weapons,” Fury handed Lily a knife and some bombs, which she excepted with trembling hands. “Now, into the pods with you all!”
“W-what!” Lily exclaimed. “Aren’t there some, uh, stuff we need to do first?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” said Fury. “Hurry up, we’ll be with you all the way from communications.”
Lily’s legs felt like jello as she walked over to the four small ships on a metal platform that agents Cassandra, Pains, and Olson were climbing into. Dr. Banner and Clint gave encouraging smiles while Stark studied her as he ate blueberries.

Chapter 17

Lily stepped into the small ship, which she was skeptical of, and looked around. The walls were pretty much completely covered with buttons, switches, and flashing lights. The one seat kind of looked like a gaming chair, and in front of it was a steering wheel that reminded her of a video game controller. A large widow was covering the front of it and two smaller ones were on each side. She sat down in the surprisingly comfortable seat and gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white, and she was also trying not to throw up from nervousness.
“Testing testing, can you hear me?” came Coulson’s voice through the scratchy radio.
“I can,” Lily answered, glad that her voice wasn’t shaking.
“Good.”
All was quiet for another few minutes before Director Fury said, “All set?”
Lily heard the others say yes so she did as well.
“Start the boasters in, 10-“
Lily began to panic, trying to remember what she had learned in training. Piloting was not her strong suit. She wildly looked at all the buttons, which did what?
“9, 8, 7-“
She quickly found, and flipped, the switch that Clint had told her she could always recognize as the one that warmed up the engines because it was a deep blue color.
“6, 5, 4-“
Lily pulled down the lever that fired them up, it was red. Then, the platforms the pods were on leaned them back and raised up toward the large opening shaft in the metal ceiling, ready for them to fly through.
“3, 2, 1, NOW!”
Lily slammed her fist on the red, center button and heard the loud ROAR of the engines coming to life. She grinned, pleased with herself. The ships then, with a jolt, shot out of the room through the shaft and gathered speed as they went through the air. It was like being on a roller coaster, just a bit more scary. Lily watched out the front widow as they passed through a cloud, all was white for a moment then a clear, bright, blue, endless sky was what was on the other side. It was breathtaking.
“All right up there?” came Agent Coulson’s voice out of the radio.
“I-I think so,” said Lily, still in aw of the wideness of the sky.
“Your going to be out of the atmosphere soon, so don’t be alarmed.”
‘Out of the atmosphere,’ thought Lily, her stomach did a summersault.

chapter 18

Silence. Blackness. That was what followed after the four small ships had made it through the atmosphere. Lily was worried for a moment that she might be blind, but then she could start to see tiny lights in the distance. Stars. She let go of a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding and watched the lights blink, feeling peaceful.
“All good?” Coulson asked through the radio.
“Very,” Lily smiled. “It’s so beautiful up here.”
The others reported that they were good also.
“Excellent, you’ll be in space for another few hours before you’ll reach the planet and we’ll check in on you all every hour,” Coulson told them.
“Ok,” said Lily along with the other agents. She looked behind her out of the rear window and gasped. Earth, but not the earth she was used to, loomed behind them. It was HUGE! It looked like a ball the size of...something larger than she could imagine. The little clouds were like wispy cotton balls, the ocean like a puddle, and the ground like stepping stones covered with moss. For some reason, Lily wasn’t afraid of the hight.

About four hours later, when Earth looked more like a golf ball and the moon was a speck, Lily could see a small planet in the distance. It looked kind of wavy, like it had fumes around it, and it also had a dark purple and black hue. It looked very creepy.
“The planet you should now see in front of you is the Draco Planet,” said Coulson. “It may look frightening, but the fumes you see are part of the force field. As for the purple and black colors, well, we don’t really know.”
“Encouraging,” Lily mumbled.
Just then, an explosion sounded behind her, she spun around and saw out the back window that Olson’s ship was on fire.

Chapter 19

BOOM!!! Olson’s ship exploded.
Lily screamed, so did Cassandra, and Coulson asked, “What’s going on? Everyone all right?”
“Olson’s ship-“ Agent Pains was in shock. “It exploded.”
Lily couldn’t believe it. How could this have happened? She watched the ashes float off in space.
“AGENT LILY, BEHIND YOU!!!!” yelled Agent Cassandra through the radio.
Lily was frozen with fear as she watched in, what it seemed like to her, slow motion as a sleek, jet black ship with large thrusters sliced through the sky like an arrow. It was coming straight towards her! She got out of her shock and put the boosters in high gear, dodged the bomb the ship dropped, and zoomed off toward the Draco Planet. She slammed on the breaks and spun back around to see what was happening. There! Two more ships appeared out of the dark and dropped more bombs. Cassandra and Pains dodged them and shot there own weapons at the @ttackers before racing off toward the planet, Lily hurriedly followed.
“What is happening?!” this time it was Director Fury.
“Sir,” said Cassandra, panting slightly. “We have a problem, there are-“
But she was cut short as their pursuers chased after them, throwing bombs. A bomb suddenly hit Cassandra’s ship and, with an explosion of fire, she was gone. Just like Olson.
“Cassandra’s down!” cried Lily.
The black ships were gaining. Their aim more accurate. The tiny pods were doing their best. But it was no good. Another bomb flew...and exploded Pain’s ship.
Lily’s heart thundered faster than ever before as she urged her ship to go faster. The Draco Planet was nearing and, wait, did it suddenly just get a lot clearer? She didn’t have time to think as she dodged the bombs and went as fast as the pod could go. Then, in a split second, she was lurched forward and could smell smoke. The back of the ship was burning! The thrusters failed and she was falling fast.
CRASH!!! Her and the pod crashed on the Draco Planet and Lily became unconscious.

Chapter 20

“Agent Lily, do you copy? Agent Pains, do you copy?” Directer Fury’s voice entered Lily’s head. Pictures of fire and black rock swam in her mind as she regained consciousness. After a few groggy moments, she was able to see her surroundings. She was lying on her side, wedged between two black rocks in a pile of rubble. The sky above her was cloudless and red, like a sunset.
“Does anybody copy?” Fury’s voice said.
“I-I copy,” Lily managed to say. She sat up and braced herself against the rocks. She slipped. “Ah!” she gasped. The rock was slick! She studied it, yes, it was very smooth. It also had a weird purple shine to it.
“Agent Lily? Did you say you copy?” Fury’s voice sounded surprised.
“I copy!” Lily called and tried to stand again. This time, it was a success. She got a better look around. A rocky desert. That was the best way to describe it. Jagged, but smooth sided, rocks completely covered the ground. There were no trees, no grass, and no hills or mountains, just miles and miles of the crystal like rock. The only change in her surroundings was a small, beat up pod.
Lily rushed to it as best she could without tripping over the rocks and climbed inside. It was completely fried but the communications system still seemed to be working.
“Lily?” came Fury’s staticky voice from the radio. “What has happened?”
Lily launched into a detailed explanation of the past events.
After she finished and drew in shaky breaths of the rather humid air of the planet, the Director said, “I understand it’s just you now, so we’ll send up a few more pods to bring you back to earth. Obviously, we did not plan this well.”
‘Obviously’ Lily thought to herself with a roll of her eyes. “Ok, but be careful.”
“We will.”
“Oh, and this planet is-“ but she was cut short as another explosion happened. The pod! She was thrown backwards as the remains of her ship became dust from the gas explosion. Lily sat up, groaning, and wondered what she could possibly do without communications. Would they even send another pod now? She heard a far away roar and shivered.

Chapter 21

“Lily? Lily! LILY!” Director Fury yelled into the microphone. But no answer came. Only static.
“Sir, I don’t think she’s going to respond,” Coulson said, softly.
Fury slammed his fist on the table in anger. No plan had ever failed so badly before.
“Sir-“ but Coulson was cut off.
“They’re gone! They were some of our best agents and now they’re all DEAD!” Fury was furious at himself for letting this happen.
Coulson flinched but said nothing, feeling depressed as well.
Clint was in training so he wasn’t there at that time. Dr. Banner was leaning against the table and kept running his hand through his hair. Tony Stark had run out of blueberries and was now sitting in a chair, staring blankly at the wall. Agent Coulson was standing next to the communications system and watched Fury, who was fuming over the losses.
“There’s a small chance she could have survived...” but Dr. Banner trailed off. They all new that the likelihood of anyone surviving that type of explosion was almost none. And pretty much zero chance for a skinny, 14 year old girl.
The Director stormed off and slammed the door of room H7 behind him.
There was silence in the room for a few moments. Then Mr. Stark spoke up, “So, the mission was a complete fail. Ok, I get that, but how do we know she didn’t survive? Are we just going to give up?”
“There’s no way she could’ve. The odds are against her on this one,” said Dr. Banner.
“In other words, we are giving up,” Mr. Stark sighed and left the room as well.
“Doctor, there’s really no way,” said Coulson, he left too.
Banner stared at the radio for a few more minutes, letting Coulson’s words sink in.

Chapter 22

It was dark. Like really dark. Like pitch black dark. Lily had gathered up all of the supplies she could that weren’t burnt, sadly, the weapons didn’t make it. After, she decided to look for civilization or something that might help her get off the planet before being eaten by dragons. It turned out that there was almost nothing on the planet but the black rocky landscape and that when it got to be nighttime, it got darker than dark.
Roar!
Lily got chills. And there was that. The sound of something big and scary somewhere near but also far away. Luckily, her flashlight still worked or she’d probably have had a heart attack by now. She was currently curled up in between the two tallest rocks in the area (three feet tall and two feet wide) for protection while she tried to sleep, but that didn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. Lily’d never liked the dark that much, and this was a type of dark that made her really wish for a nightlight.
ROAR!
Lily gasped. That sounded really close! She peered out from behind the rocks and shined the flashlight beam which illuminated more shiny rocks and...something else. She looked around, but saw nothing and decided it safe to check it out. She quietly stood up and stepped through the rocks to the unidentified object.
ROAR!
It sounded slightly farther away so that was good but it still made Lily shudder. She squatted down and picked up the strange object. It looked like a scale of an incredible large lizard, a dragon no doubt, she shuddered again. It was about the same size as her palm and was completely black, but shiny too. She put it in the pocket of her ripped and dirty uniform as a souvenir and stood back up, she then noticed another scale, and another and another and a whole bunch! They were all the same, though some in different sizes, and as Lily shone around the flashlight beam, she saw that the ground was completely littered with them from that point on.
“Well, your not alone, Lily,” Lily muttered to herself, and her heartbeat quickened with fear.

Chapter 23

Lily walked farther through the scales, trying not to step on any of them, and shone the flashlight beam in the darkest areas looking for any sign of a giant lizard waiting to jump.
Splash!
Lily almost fell. Her foot had surprisingly landed in freezing cold water. She jerked it out and got chills from the icy water. Water. It dawned on her and she was immediately thirsty. She sat down the flashlight so that it still illuminated her surroundings, cupped her hands and plunged them into the water. After she drank her fill and her hands were numb, Lily looked around and saw that the water source was a gurgling river that stretched so far to her left and right that she couldn’t see where it started or ended, but she was ever so thankful for it. Now she just needed some food and she’d be good to go. Since trees and other food baring things normally were around water, she decided to venture up the river to find out for herself.
A little while later, Lily had walked for so long that the sky had begun to be a deep orange color and the pale red mist returned. She was exhausted and sat down for a rest, now realizing that she had left her only belongings behind at the two rocks. She sighed and lay back. Hope seeming miles away.
GRRR!
Lily froze. The sudden, low growl was close. Too close. She slowly sat up and looked to her left. There it was. A dragon. And it didn’t look happy to see her.

Chapter 24

The dragon was smaller than Lily had imagined, about five feet tall but nineteen feet long. It was covered in black scales, had two huge bat like wings, two cat like green eyes, four short legs with three claws, and two bison like horns on either side of its small head. But the most striking thing about the beast was its tail. It was long and slender and on the tip of it was a spike. Not just any spike though, this one glowed green.
“Lightning Bug,” Lily breathed, still sitting. The dragon was beautiful, but also looked extremely dangerous. Its sharp teeth were bared and it was still growling at her.
Grrr!
Lily had to make a decision, fast! Before it got too hungry. She stood up ever so carefully, thankfully the dragon stayed in its same position a few feet from her.
“Hi, Mr. Dragon,” she squeaked out.
Grrr!
“Miss Dragon?”
GRRR!
“Ok! Mr. Dragon then?”
Grrr!
Lily still wasn’t sure if this was a waste of time, or if the dragon could even understand her, but it looked like the only way out of this mess. “So, um, Mr. Dragon, uh, please don’t eat me, ok? I really just want to leave and go back to Earth with everything still...intact.”
Grrr!
‘Not much progress,’ she thought with a sigh. Just then, a loud noise caught Lily’s attention and she squinted through the fog to try and see what it was, when a net came flying out of nowhere from behind the dragon and hit it, entangling it. Lily gasped as six men, all wearing grey armor and dark helmets, came running out and grabbed and poked with their spears at the screeching dragon trapped in the net.
Another man, wearing silver armor and a helmet carrying a golden spear, approached Lily. She backed away, unsure, and the man said, “Don’t worry, the beast will be long gone soon and you’ll be safe from it,” in a smooth, but rather creepy, voice. He took off his helmet to show a long face, pale blonde hair, and grey eyes.
“Who are you?” asked Lily, as the others loaded the dragon into a cage on a cart and muzzled it.
“I am Sage,” he said in a cold, controlling voice. “The leader of the Sage Army banished from Asgard.”

chapter 25

“Asgard?” Lily asked Sage as the men began to climb into the cart. “What’s that?”
“It’s a planet,” replied Sage. “A beautiful place with a golden castle and rolling hills. But the king, queen, and princes? Ha! They aren’t fit to rule such a kingdom,” he looked back at the people who looked ready to leave, but the dragon seemed very unhappy and kept scratching at the muzzle. “Will you join us? You could do with a change into fresher clothes.”
Lily looked down at her tattered S.H.I.E.L.D uniform, then she looked back at the dragon. It was sad to see it in a cage, but these were the only people on the planet that she knew of, so she really didn’t have much of a choice but to go with them to...wherever they’re going.
She looked back at Sage and said, “Ok I’ll come with you, but tell me, what are you going to do with the dragon?”
“The proper name is draco,” Sage corrected. “And what we’re going do with it? Until I find out more about you I cannot say. Now come, into the cart.”
Lily climbed up into one of the seats, trying to ignore the men’s sneers and the dragon in the background. Sage got up in the cart too, he gestured for one of the men to start the engine. Wait. There was no engine, or steering wheel for that matter. There were reigns though and they were connected to-
“They’re dragons!” Lily yelped. Two dragons, which looked almost identical to the one they had just caught, were tied with what seemed like a million ropes to the cart. And their backs were covered in deep scars.
“Yes,” said Sage as the man cracked the whip. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Lily wasn’t sure why, but she did.

Chapter 26

After about an hour of going over the rocky planet, they stopped at a large fortress built out of the shiny black rock. It was only one story high, but it was very long and surrounded by a large wall.
“Put our new dragon with the others,” Sage ordered, some of the men hurriedly unloaded the caged dragon while the others cracked whips and unhitched the two dragons tied to the cart.
Lily and Sage got down out of the cart and began walking toward the fortress wall’s large door that was guarded by two of the Sage Army men. The guards gave Lily scowls as they opened the door for them.
“Don’t mind them,” Sage told Lily. “They don’t you yet, but in time, they will.”
“In time?” Lily shook her head. “I’ve gotta get back to earth, I can’t stay here.”
“Hmm,” was all Sage said as they walked inside the courtyard area.
Lily couldn’t seem to find anything that she was seeing uninteresting. There were men leading scarred dragons, people working and sharpening their silver spears, and then their was the fortress itself. Massive couldn’t even describe its size.
“It’s impressive, is it not?” Sage asked, seeing Lily’s brown eyes wondering through the crowd of Sage’s army.
“It is, but it’s also,” Lily stopped, what she was going to say was that it’s also sad. Seeing the poor dragons getting hurt by the people, and all she did was watch it happen, it was incredibly difficult. Instead she said, “It’s also pretty cool.”
Sage just looked at her, then he turned his attention back to leading her inside the fortress.
Lily looked behind her as she walked and saw the new dragon being roughly inside of another cage next to...more dragons...lots more black scaled dragons with bison like horns in cages. Oddly though, none of the other dragons she had seen had their spikes on there tails glowing green like the one they just captured. She finished counting, there were exactly TWO HUNDRED AND FOUR caged dragons. She gasped. This was just wrong.

chapter 27

Lily and Sage had made it inside the huge fortress after another few minutes. They went down hallways and passed more ãrmÿ men, who all nodded respectfully to Sage, but sneered at Lily. The two of them finally made it to an incredibly long hall filled with almost a thousand doors, Sage led her to door number fifty-seven and opened it. The room was small with a twin bed, dresser, window, and hanging on the wall was a banner with a symbol of two spread bat like wings with a green, cat like eye in between them, which was surrounded by sagebrush leaves.
“That is our coat of arms,” Sage informed Lily.
“Nice,” she said, thinking the opposite.
“It is, isn’t it?” Sage muttered to himself, then to Lily he said, “This will be your room. You’ll find in the middle dresser drawer some armor you can wear.”
“Ok, and when can I go back to Earth?” Lily desperately wanted to know.
“I’m afraid, I cannot let you return to your home planet.”
Lily felt like she’d been punched. “But-but why?!” she cried.
“If you go telling others from there about this planet, then our secret mission will have failed!” he said firmly.
“What even is your mission?” Lily was feeling like this S.H.I.E.L.D expedition was becoming much harder than she thought it would be.
“Our mission?” Sage looked at her and smiled. “Our mission is to overthrow Asgard with an army of banished Asgardains and dragons.”
Lily didn’t know anything about Asgard, so she wasn’t too concerned, but she did want to know this, “So why were you guys banished?”
“Because,” said Sage. “We had begun to create the army when we were there.”

chapter 28,

Lily was lying in bed, watching the stars blink outside the window. There was absolutely no way she could sleep, the thought of feeling restful with everything going on was almost frightening. She turned over to stare at the door and think about what she was going to have to do. She couldn’t stay there, that was a fact, but how could she leave? She didn’t know if Sage had any ships she could take, but that would be too risky anyway. Everything was risky. Lily couldn’t help thinking about home, the S.H.I.E.L.D base, training, Maria, and of course just normalcy. She wondered what the trainees were doing rights now, maybe sleeping, but how different was time on the Draco Planet?
“Will I ever go back?” Lily said to herself, feeling defeated. “Will my life ever go back to the way it was?”
Now, she thought about the dragons. She didn’t really know much about them, but they didn’t seem that horrible so why was Sage treating them so badly? And what’s Asgard? She felt millions of other questions surfacing in her mind so she decided not to think anymore about them, it would only make her feel more depressed than she already was.
Lily got out of bed and walked to the window, she peered out over the torch lit landscape of the fortress’s courtyard and saw with surprise that there were no army men in sight. The only living things were dragons. Caged dragons. Then she had a thought.
“Well Lily, if you’re stuck here might as well make the most of it and be somewhat useful,” she muttered, pulling back on her S.H.I.E.L.D uniform, she didn’t feel comfortable in the Sage armor.
Lily opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. Empty. She crept out and tiptoed down it, constantly looking over her shoulder. She headed through the fortress, meeting no one along the way, and eventually got out into the courtyard. Luckily there were torches or she would be tripping over the black rocks that lined the red, sandy ground. Lily was suddenly at the wall of cages. All of the dragons were sleeping, but she still carefully picked her way through the cages, eyes peeled for movement. Then she saw the dragon she was looking for. The one that had just been captured. It was scratching at the bars, trying to get out. And it’s tail wasn’t glowing anymore.
“Hello again, Lighting Bug,” Lily said softly to it.
Grrr!
The dragon turned around and growled at her, it’s tail whipped back and forth.
Lily slowly approached the cage. “I’m going to get you out of here, it’s terrible and I can’t let them do this to you.”
The dragon stopped growling, but was still in a threatening posture.
Lily was now only a foot from the beast. She reached out her hand. She grabbed the lock. And...realized she didn’t have any keys. “No!” she cried. “How could I have forgotten about the keys?!”
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The alarm went off and Lily heard hundreds of footsteps inside the fortress.

Chapter 29

Over a hundred armored men with spears in their hand, charged at Lily. Sage was among them. Lily tried to be as small as possible and the dragon began to growl again.
“Well well well,” Sage shook his head. “I should have known you’d try to release this beast.”
“He’s not a beast, you are!” Lily gasped, she’d never yelled at anyone before. It kinda felt nice though to get her frustration out on someone who was as mean as Sage. “You’re horrible! You cage and make animals do your own dirty work! You’re-you’re just so MEAN!”
Sage looked amused. “You’re not in a position to bargain, but I admire your courage, young girl. How old are you anyway? 10?”
“14,” Lily grimaced.
“Still too young for S.H.I.E.L.D to let go on such a journey as this. I’m very surprised that you were able to get past my men and arrive, almost, completely safe on this planet.”
“Wait a minute, it was you,” Lily gaped at him. “You sent those ships...you killed my team before we could even get here!”
Sage sighed. “Loss has to come before gain.”
Lily was about to loose it. “You’re pure EVIL!”
Now Sage was mad. “I think you’ve been here quite long enough! Sage Men, kill her!”
But before anyone had the chance to do anything, a great ball of blue fire shot out from behind Lily, barely missing her, and set half of the men on fire. The screamed, running around like maniacs and Sage tried to bring back order.
Lily spun around and stared at the dragon’s ripped muzzle lying on the ground, hole in the cages bars, and the now free dragon. She was frightened at what it might do.
ROAR!
The dragon let out a victorious roar and spread its huge black wings. It rose a foot off the ground. It flew at Lily. And it scooped her up, right off the ground with its claws. Lily yelped. But as she dangled, she realized the dragon wasn’t hurting her. It was saving her.

Chapter 30

Lily and the dragon had been flying and what felt like a million miles an hour for about twenty minutes, the far away black ground was practically a blur. Lily was starting to feel rather achy around her stomach where the dragon’s claws were grasping her. But oddly enough, she wasn’t really afraid.
ROAR!
Lily winced, why did the dragon have to be so loud?
Roar! Roar! Roar!
And hundreds more came after. Each roar seemed to come from a different area, like other dragons were answering this one. Lily tried looking up at the dragon, but she couldn’t move, its grip was too tight. She sighed and continued watching the ground pass below.
Ten minutes later, they were slowing down and lowering slowly. The dragon all of a sudden let go of Lily and she tumbled to the ground.
“Ouch!” she said, rubbing her back and standing up.
ROAR! GRRR!
Lily spun around and saw hundreds, or maybe thousands, of black scaled, green eyed, glowing tailed, horned, sharp toothed dragons standing behind her. They didn’t look friendly.
“Um...hi?” Lily made a little wave of her hand.
Rar!
The dragon that had rescued her ran to the other dragons and made all sorts of grunts and the others grunted back. Lily noticed that his tail spike was now glowing green again, she wondered why.
Purr.
Now that was weird. The dragon turned back toward her and...purred. Well, it was a good sign at least.
“Uh, are you a cat now?” Lily smiled weakly.
Purr.
“O-ok then,” she was still shaking slightly. Then, even though she didn’t really know that she was doing it, Lily raised her hand and brought it close to the dragon’s face. The dragon bumped its forehead against her palm and she stroked the scales of the supposedly vicious beast. That was proven wrong.

Chapter 31

Lily had been with the surprisingly friendly dragons for a few hours now. They mostly kept their distance but were still very curious about her and, oddly enough, seemed to understand every word she said. She had decided to name the dragon that had rescued her, Lighting Bug, because those were the first words she had said to him.
Lily was currently sitting underneath one of the trees next to the river, munching on a mango like fruit. The strange fruit grew on the small, leafy trees that were scattered around the river. The dragons also ate the fruit and so she assumed that they were probably herbivores.
Purr.
Lily looked behind her and saw Lightning Bug slowly approaching. “Hi,” she said, watching the dragon carefully.
Purr.
She still wasn’t a hundred percent sure she knew that the purring was a good sign, but she took it as one at least. Lightning Bug was only a couple of feet away and Lily swallowed the rest of the fruit and stood up.
Purr.
“So,” Lily wasn’t exactly sure if she should say something, this dragon did save her life after all. “Thanks,” she decided on that simple word.
Purr.
Lily was again at a loss. How did she talk to a dragon? She looked at the orange, foggy sky, “Um, is the weather always like this?” she winced, not a very good question.
Lightning Bug was silent and looked sideways at her with those huge cat like eyes.
“Ok then, uh,” Lily sighed. “Look, I don’t know what to say to a dragon, I’m not good at making conversation anyway. Also, I’m under a lot of stress because I’m all alone on a strange planet, the only people ere want to kill me, my team is dead, I let S.H.E.I.L.D. down because I’m a terrible pilot, and I don’t think I will ever, EVER, go back to Earth!” Lily breathed in deep, wow, it felt so good to let it all out.
Lightning Bug came up to her and, still purring, let her hug its neck and cry.

Chapter 32

The sun was leaving and the super dark darkness was returning. Lily was sitting on a rock, staring out across the rocky landscape where the dragons were lying down and closing their eyes, tails still aglow. Lily had come to the conclusion that she will never go back to earth. And she was ok with that. Maybe she was just supposed to be here, with the dragons on Draco. But Sage still won’t stop until every dragon was captured for the sole purpose of attacking Asgard. And Lily wasn’t going to let that happen. She looked around, it seemed like every dragon was asleep except for Lightning Bug. She stood up and glanced behind her. Where was Lightning Bug?
A small gust of wind and a soft purr above Lily conformed that Lightning Bug was taking a flight. She looked upward and saw the dragon, it’s great black wings spread out as it glided to the ground. Landing quietly, it walked over to her and, with a purr, licked her across the face.
“Ew!” Lily exclaimed, feeling the wetness on her scrunched up face. “You’re kinda disgusting, you know that?” but she couldn’t help but laugh.
Purr.
“Now, could you go to sleep? I need to get to work and I can’t have any distractions.”
But Lightning Bug just gave a small grunt and continued to watch her.
“Please?”
Grunt.
“Fine,” Lily sighed. “Just try to stay out of the way.”
She crouched down and began to pick up the black scales that littered the ground, Lightning Bug watched curiously. After Lily had a large amount cupped in her arms, she sat back down on a rock and pulled out a sharp needle-like rock from her S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform that had gotten stuck in it and pulled off a string from her shirt sleeve and started to sew the scales together.

The blackness left (thankfully Lightning Bug’s glowing tail lit up their surroundings so Lily could see) as the morning came and many hours and pulled-off strings later, Lily had finished sewing a full-body, helmet and all, dragon scale suit.
“Wow,” she whispered, staring at her creation in her hands as realization hït her and Lightning Bug peered over her shoulder. “I’m really doing this. I’m really going to try take out Sage...on my own.”

Chapter 33

“So, how do I look?” Lily asked the dragons.
Purrs and satisfied grunting came from the large group of curious dragons that were crowded around Lily.
She looked down at the dragon scale suit that she now had on, the scales glistening in the orange light. It was a little tight fitting and itchy, but overall a nice suit.
Lightning Bug nudged her on the back with his forehead to get her attention.
“Oof!” said Lily, turning around, “next time, a bit more gently, ok?”
Grunt.
Lily rolled her eyes. “Sometimes, I wonder if you can understand me.”
Lightning Bug blinked at her, then dropped something that he was carrying out of his mouth onto her head.
“Ouch!” Lily said as it bonked off of her head and landed on the ground. She picked it up and saw that it was her helmet that she had made with a triple layer of scales. She put it over her head and looked through the eye holes at Lightning Bug, who was watching with interest. “I can see pretty good through this thing,” she said.
She took it off, her black hair now pretty frizzy, and sat it on one of the rocks. Then she had an idea. “Well, if I’m here I need something to defend myself with, especially if Sage comes.” Lily looked around, taking in the surrounding black and purple rock and orange sky. “But I’ll need help,” she glanced at the dragons, they purred. “Great, let’s get started.”

About half an hour later, thanks to the dragons’ sharp horns, part of one of the rocks was cut off and shaped like a sword blade.
“Nice work, guys!” said Lily, holding the black shard and grinning at the dragons.
Lightning Bug purred, then spied something in the distance behind Lily and stopped. His eyes narrowed. Then the other dragons saw it too and got into a fighting position. Their teeth bared.
Lily turned around, confused, and gasped. Over 500 Sage army men and 204 armored dragons came into view. They were marching toward Lily. In a very unfriendly way.

Chapter 34

“Lily, Lily, Lily,” Sage, who was leading his army of dragons and men, said when they got in hearing range a few yards away, “how I wish you had chosen a different path.”
“I’m glad I didn’t!” Lily yelled at him from her station at the front of the couple hundred free dragons, Lightning Bug by her side.
“You won’t be for long,” Sage said, “because you cannot stand between me and my destiny!”
“Oh,” Lily gripped the shard of black rock, “I think I will.”
“Then you’ll be dead!” he roared.
Lily stood up straight. “All my life I’ve dreamt of a day when I could fight for what I believe in,” she told her enemy, her voice shaking, “and now I can finally do that. Yes, I will die, but I’ll end my life doing something good. Something right.”
“We all think that!” Sage said impatiently.
“Yes,” Lily looked at Lightning Bug and touched his side, he purred, then she turned back to Sage, “but I might be the only one who means it.”
Sage growled. “Sage Army,” he called to his men and dragons, raising his staff, “today, we will take what is rightfully mine, the Asgard throne!”
Cheers came from the army men.
“After we take out our small, puny adversary and capture these last dragons, I will chargeAsgard and destroy anything that gets in my way!”
More cheering.
“After today, no one will ever question my power. Never!”
“Never!” shouted the army, thrusting their spears in the air.
“Now,” Sage turned to Lily with a nasty grin, “let’s test that power, shall we?”
Lily gulped. “Let’s.”

Chapter 35,

Sage and his army charged at Lily and the dragons, and they charged at them as well. Lily pumped her legs to their limit, but was soon falling behind the speedy dragons.
Rar!
Lily quickly halted and spun around to see Lightning Bug standing behind her. “I’m...too...slow,” Lily panted.
Purr.
The dragon came closer and knelt down to her level, almost looking as though he wanted her to climb onto his back.
“Are-are you sure?” Lily hesitated.
Purr.
“Well,” Lily felt a grin start on her face, “if you insist.” She put the shard of black rock in her makeshift sword hilt and vaulted onto his back just before the wing joints, steadying herself by grabbing his horns.
Lightning Bug turned his head to look at her with his cat like eyes, then suddenly spread his wings wide and hurtled into the sky with several other dragons behind them.
Lily squealed as they flew high above the fight below, then after gaining enough altitude, plummeted back down to glide just above the heads of Sage’s army men and the dragons’ horns. Lightning Bug shot a burst of hot fire at the army, which must have provoked the other dragons to do the same and suddenly there were fire spitting dragons everywhere!
“WHOOHOOH!” Lily shouted her delight when they did a barrel roll and multiple fire blasts, “THIS IS SO COOL!”
All of a sudden, a golden spear was thrown from somewhere below them and hit Lily, knocking her off of Lightning Bug’s back. She screamed as she fell and tumbled to the ground.
“Ah, Lily, or should I say, Dragon Rider?”
Lily looked up at the evilly handsome face of Sage. She stood and pulled out her black shard from its hilt, holding it out in front of her. “You have no right to give me a nickname!” she said.
Sage smirked, then whipped his spear around to hit her, but was blocked by Lily’s own weapon. So they began to fight, the clanging of their weapons was drowned out by the noise of the battle around them.
“You’re weak,” Sage told her, pushing his spear against her shard of rock.
“At least I don’t have an ego,” she replied, straining.
“Have you ever been to the Ego planet before?” he asked.
“No,” Lily grunted, then surprised herself when she overpowered him and threw his spear a few feet away.
Sage growled and threw himself on her, pinning her to the ground.
Lily dropped her weapon and gasped for breath as his hand closed around her neck. The air left her. Her lungs tightened. Sage’s sneer began to fade. Almost everything was black. Then a loud BOOM sounded and bright, colorful lights nearly blinded her.
“Sage!” a strong voice said.
A throng sounded and Sage was thrown off of Lily. She rolled over and sucked in the wonderful air around her. Then she saw an old timey stone hammer lying only a foot from her.

Chapter 36

“Are you hurt?” said a kind voice.
“Wha-” Lily rolled back over and looked into the face of a woman with long black hair and silver armor.
The lady helped Lily to her feet and asked, “What is you name?”
“Um, Lily,” she said.
“Mine is Lady Sif, and these are my fellow brave warriors, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg.”
Lily looked to her left and saw three people who could’ve just jumped out of a book on knights and kingdoms.
“And the king and princes of Asgard, Odin, Thor, and Loki.”
Lily then looked to her right and literally saw three myths that had come to life. “If I didn’t know dragons were real...” Lily shook her head and blinked.
“Sage,” Thor growled, “where did he get off to,” he looked around at the battle.
“We will find him, son,” said Odin.
“Let us hope so,” Thor reached out his hand, and suddenly his hammer flew to him and he grasped it tightly.
“I have to find Lightning Bug!” Lily gasped.
“Now is not the time to go chasing bugs,” said Loki.
Just then, Lightning Bug flew over their heads and landed a couple of yards away, looking wary of the newcomers.
“It’s ok,” Lily said, running to him and throwing her arms around him, “they’re friends. After all, they saved my life.”
Purr.
“Now we can find Sage,” Lily told the Asgardians.
“Then let us make haste,” said Fandral, pulling out his sword and charging into the battle with the others close behind.
Lily gulped and looked at Lightning Bug. “Stay with me?”
Purr.
“Alright then,” Lily picked up her shard of rock and pulled her helmet over her face for extra protection, then jumped over a black rock and k!cked an approaching army man in the chest.
“ARRGH!” she heard Volstagg shout from up ahead, and his strong ax met its target.
Sif spun around and yanked her sword from the sheath, then battled with an army man. Suddenly, Loki appeared out of nowhere from behind the adversary and hit him on the head, knocking him out.
“I could’ve taken him,” Sif told him.
“Yes, but I saw an opportunity,” Loki smiled slyly, then disappeared in the fighting.
Lightning Bug shot out a stream of fire and cleared a path through the army. Lily hit an army man on the back with her rock shard and Lightning Bug smacked him in the stomach with his glowing tail spike. Just then, one of Sage’s army dragons set a burst of flames toward Lily and the fire hit her, but her dragon scale suit protected her from getting even a slight singe. However, her shard of black rock was burning.
“Oh no!” Lily said, watching her only weapon in her hand burn, but wait, was it burning? Lily gasped and told Lightning Bug, “It’s on fire, but isn’t burning to a crisp! This is incredible.”
That gave her an idea. “Lightning Bug, what if the rest of this type of rock does the same? Could you and the other non-captured dragons set this whole place on fire?”
Lightning Bug looked around and called to the rest of the dragons.
Rar! Rar!
They hurried over, taking out some Sage men on their way, and Lily told them her idea as well. They seemed to agree, because they then sprayed fire onto the rocks around them. The fire spread from rock to rock until all the rock from as far as Lily could see was in flames, but without being harmed.
Sage’s army men fled into the river and were trapped there. The Asgardians must have been wearing fire proof armor, though, because they stood comfortably in the flames.
“Well done!” Thor said, coming over to Lily and patting her on the shoulder.
Lily grinned around at the Asgardians and dragons through the fire. They’d won.

Chapter 37

Lily was sitting alone on the beautiful rainbow bridge of Asgard, her legs dangling over the side. After the battle, they had found Sage and the Asgardians took him and his army prisoner. Lily had then freed the other dragons from their cages and set Sage’s fortress on fire. She had to admit, it was a pleasure to see Sage’s flag with his coat of arms on it burn. It was almost like, after it was ashes, she felt as free as the dragons. Then the Asgardians asked her to go with them back to Asgard, she had said yes immediately. Though she had no idea how amazing the planet could be, and those accents of theirs, so cool.
The final rays of the sun vanished and the innumerable stars shone brightly over top of the green mountains. Then, the little lightning bugs appeared all around Lily. She let out a breath as she watched them, they reminded her of her dragon friend.
“Enjoying the Asgardian night?”
Lily looked up at Thor as he walked toward her and sat down next to her on the glowing bridge. “It’s very pretty,” she said.
“Indeed,” Thor replied, “though, you are troubled by something.”
“I,” Lily sighed, “I guess I am.”
“By what?”
“I miss,” she struggled to find the right words, but just decided to say one, “home.”
“Do you mean your home planet,” asked Thor, “Earth?”
“No,” Lily was honestly surprised to hear that word come out of her mouth. She tried to explain it to him, and a bit to herself, “I do miss my family very much, but I miss Lightning Bug.”
“The dragon?”
“Yes. He saved my life and I saved his, more than once. And I sorta,” she thought for a moment, “feel a connection to him and Draco.”
“So you do not want to stay here in Asgard? You will be treated like a hero.”
Lily shook her head and said, “I don’t want to be a hero. I wanna be, well, me. And I feel like myself when I’m on that planet. They say, home is where the heart is, I say, home is where my dragon is.”
“They say that? On Earth?” Thor looked puzzled.
“Uh, yeah. They don’t say it here?”
“Not at all. That does not even make since.”
“You’ve actually got a point there.”
“Oh, I had almost forgotten, I came to give you this,” he handed her a sheathed sword that she hadn’t noticed he was carrying.
Lily took it and unsheathed the weapon. It was her own black shard that she and Lightning Bug had carved from Draco’s rock, but fitted with a black hilt covered in fancy Asgardian carvings. “It-it’s beautiful,” Lily said softly, touching it lightly as though it was very fragile.
“Do you see the little switch on the hilt?”
“Yeah.”
“Hold it out and flip it.”
She gripped onto the hilt and held out the sword, then flipped the switch. The blade caught fire. Lily gasped and Thor smiled.
“Do you like your new sword?”
Lily grinned at him and waved the sword around, watching the flames lick the air. “I love it! Thank you so much, Thor!”
“You’re welcome,” Thor then added, “now, where would you like to go?”
Lily flipped the switch and the fire on the blade vanished. She looked out over the water and a firefly landed on her knee, blinking its green light at her. Lily looked back at Thor and said, “Home.”

The next morning, all the dragons woke up, tails aglow, and stretched and yawned. One dragon in particular walked away from the others and looked up into the red sky with his bright green eyes. Suddenly, a light appeared just above him, he moved out of the way as the beam of multicolored light shot down in front of him.
“Lightning Bug?” Lily asked when the light cleared.
The dragon bounded over to her and licked Lily across the face.
She laughed. “It’s good to see you, too, my firefly.” Lily glanced at Thor and said, “Thanks for bringing me home.”
Thor smiled at her. “Thank Heimdall,” then he rubbed his chin and asked, “Why do the dragons tails glow?”
Lily gave Lightning Bug one more scratch behind his horns and answered, “I think their tail spikes glow when they’re free.”
“Interesting,” said Thor, “I had best be going back to Asgard. But before I do, when we Asgardians speak of the swordsmaiden, Lily, what title should we call you?”
Lily turned toward him, her dragon by her side and fire sword on her back. “Call me, the Dragon Rider.”

Epilogue

27 years later...

“WHOOHOO!” Lily shouted, the wind whipping in her hair. There was nothing like the feeling of riding a dragon.
Lightning Bug did a loop-the-loop in the air right before landing. Lily jumped off of the dragon’s back and grinned at the other dragons. One of the young dragons waddled over to her and rubbed around her legs.
“Hi there, Glow Worm,” Lily scratched the purring dragon chick behind its horns.
Suddenly, a loud roaring of a sound Lily hadn’t heard in a long time came from behind her. She whipped around and grasped her fire sword, igniting the fames of blade. Lightning Bug got in a defensive position and the other dragons backed away.
A blue, orange, and black spaceship landed not far off. The door lowered and two figures stepped out. They walked toward her and Lightning Bug, one nocked an arrow while the other raised his crossbow.
“Who are you?” Lily asked firmly.
“I was about to ask you the same question,” said a familiar voice.
Lily blinked as the two men got close enough to come into focus. One was Clint, her old S.H.I.E.L.D. trainer, but the other one didn’t look familiar.
“Clint Barton?” Lily lowered her weapon and the flames on it disappeared when she flipped the switch.
“Lily Simmons?” Clint smiled, also lowering his bow, “I never thought I’d see you again!”
“It’s ok, my firefly,” Lily told the confused dragon, “he’s a friend.”
“You know this girl?” the other person asked Clint.
“I do,” Clint replied, “I trained her at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base 27 years ago.”
Lily gasped. “Did-did you just say, 27 years ago?”
“Yeah,” the other guy said, “bro, this girl does not look that old.”
“That’s because here on Draco,” explained Clint, “time doesn’t pass. We went over this back at the base, Lee.”
“All I know,” the man named Lee said, “is that this is my first mission, which is to recruit a new Avenger, the Dragon Rider Thor told us about.”
“What are you talking about?” Lily exclaimed, this was way too much for one day.
Clint turned back to her. “I’ll explain more later, but all I need to know is, will you help Earth’s Mightiest Heroes defend the planet against a new threat?”
Lily looked at Lightning Bug, who seemed excited, then back at her old friend and said, “I’ll do my best.”

                          Dragon Rider will return.

I love it!

Thanks!

Here is the prologue for my new story, “The Dathadorian Chronicles” @NC, it’s the one I told you about earlier about my hate for the human society, anyways, here you go!

Prologue

A large explosion rocked the night. Sirens erupted into bright red lights on the buildings surrounding Marcus. He had succeeded in striking another blow for The Acolytes’ rebellion on The Empire of Dathador.
He ducked down towards the floor of the small alleyway quickly as he saw the faint shadows of what he knew must be the city guards. Grime and ash coated the cold concrete ground, a fact that was mostly ignored by Marcus as he pressed his body flat against it. Better dirty than dead. He thought, almost letting a loud maniacal laugh out as he considered how he had gotten into this situation. So much for staying out of this fight.
He held his breath as the footsteps stopped, followed by a short exchange that was muffled to him by his balaclava. The footsteps began again, growing louder. He couldn’t tell where the guards were and didn’t dare to turn his head to find out. His lungs felt as if they would explode at any second, he begged to breathe but knew that his life could depend on not succumbing to the temptation of oxygen.
Again the loud clang of boots stopped, Marcus felt anxiety rising in him and hoped that the shadows would hide his figure. Suddenly, a voice broke the silence, “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
He scrambled to grab his syringe but his arm was trapped. Then he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and it all went black.

Nooooo! Cliffhanger! 😆 It’s cool, well done

Thank you! I’ll have to get you guys the next couple chapters after I’ve deemed them worthy to go out into the world. It’s really easy with prologues, I just write them and it’s not that hard, but then the chapters, oh, the editing.

Alright, it’s time to read my second Marvel story: Wave-Runner! 😄 Who here has seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? ‘Cause this book contains a lot of spoilers for that show

Im getting to the end…. ## im not, im only on season 2 😦

XD (I’ve watched it)

Why: lol, well, you should be alright then since you already know about Ward

Chapter 1

Splash!
Jillion was in the water. Her scuba equipment was heavy on the boat, but now it was lighter than air. Actually, she herself was lighter than air. The bubbles that surrounded her popped and she could see Victoria, Tess, and Jackson, her fellow marine archeologists, begin swimming into the depths of the sea. She followed them.
They were going to explore a newly discovered sunken ship in a coral reef in the Atlantic Ocean to take some of the artifacts to a museum. Jill was definitely looking forward to finding out what they might discover in the old ship. This was her first time going on an archeological expedition, she had just gotten out of college and was very excited to be asked for this mission. She couldn’t let her team down.
As the four of them swam deeper and deeper, their flippers propelling them through the water, they came upon a coral reef. It was a breathtaking sight.
Jill smiled inside her mask when a blue tang, her favorite fish, wiggled around in the sparkling coral.
Then, they saw what they were looking for. The large sunken pirate ship stuck in the coral just up ahead. Jill gulped. You got this, no reason to get nervous. It’s your first ever expedition, which should be fun. Relax.
Vicky went in the ship first. Jack, Tess, and Jill followed close behind. The inside of it was all rusted over and decomposing. It was now or never to bring out the possible artifacts.
Jill was amazed at how large the pirate ship was. It reminded her of Pirates of the Caribbean. She couldn’t help but pretend that Jack Sparrow himself had commanded this ship, taking it into many sea battles.
She left the others and swam into a different section of the ship. That’s when she noticed something glowing. She quickly turned around and floated toward a metal box. Jill, with shaking hands, opened the lid. Inside was a glowing blue amulet. She picked it up. Then, felt a feeling she’d never experienced before. It felt as though her whole body was being filled up with water. It didn’t hurt, but was slightly uncomfortable. Suddenly, the ship started shaking, crumbling. The walls collapsed around Jill and the others. The ship was falling apart, with them in it!

Chapter 2

Jill hurriedly put the amulet back in its box and held it tight, swimming out of the crumbling pirate ship. The other archeologists looked unharmed and swam just ahead of Jill up to the surface.
Their heads appeared atop the water and they clambered onto the white boat with the help of a few other people.
“You guys ok?” asked an older archeologist.
“Just fine, mate,” Vicky said in her British accent, taking off her mask and shaking her wet, pink hair, “but that was a whooping expedition! The whole ship was falling apart!”
“I’m glad we made it out,” shuddered Tess, wringing out her long brown hair, “I wish I could’ve gotten an artifact or two, though.”
“No luck on my end either,” said Jack, Vicky’s cousin who was from Australia.
“Jill,” Tess questioned, “did you find anything?”
Jill took of her own mask, revealing shiny blonde hair and eyes as blue as the ocean. “I did, actually,” she replied, holding out the rusty box and opening it to show them the majestic amulet.
“Blimey,” Jack leaned over for a closer look, “that’s a good find if I’ve ever seen one.”
“Great, Jillion,” beamed the older archeologist, “I’ll have it shipped off to a museum pronto,” he grabbed the box from Jill and closed the lid, handing it to an intern, “remember, only touch with gloves.”
“Sorry,” Jill said, pulling off her flippers, “I did pick it up, but I don’t think I scratched it.”
“No worries,” the archeologist waved his hand, “the important thing is that this will help our community learn more about the wonders of the deep.”

Later that evening, Jill opened the door of her apartment room and dropped her grocery bags on the kitchen countertop, locking the door behind her.
“What a day it’s been, Clyde,” she told her angelfish, kicking off her shoes and hanging her jean jacket in the closet. Jill continued talking to her pet in the tank on a round table as she put up the groceries. “Not only was this my team’s first expedition, but also the first time I saw a coral reef! So cool! You would’ve loved it. I also got to see a sunken ship, but it collapsed after we went inside. I found a neat amulet, too, that was glowing. Should I be more concerned about that? I dunno, what do you think?”
The small fish merely stared at her from inside some plastic reeds, blowing a few bubbles from its mouth.
“Exactly right, Clyde,” Jill began preparing some soup for dinner, “there’s absolutely no reason I should be worried—OW!” she exclaimed, accidentally slicing her finger as she was cutting up some carrots. She winced and gripped her finger, her eyes watering. Jill peeked at her finger, sure it would bleeding like crazy, but saw something that was a definite cause for concern. Water was dripping from the wound.

Chapter 3

“What in the galaxy?!” Jill exclaimed, staring at the cut in bewilderment.
Her finger had water, blue water to be precise, dripping from its wound and onto her bamboo cutting board. The growing puddle of water on the board was glowing blue.
Jill rushed to the kitchen sink, turned on the faucet, and stuck her finger under the water.
She breathed out a sigh of relief when all of the blue was gone, replaced by regular old water. Jill turned off the water and looked back at her wound, which wasn’t leaking anything and looked pretty well like an average cut.
“All good, Clyde,” Jill told her fish, “problem solved... sorta.” She glanced back at the cutting board, which still had a small, glowing blue puddle on it. No need to have concern. Just breath, keep breathing.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Jill nearly jumped out of her skin. She hurriedly grabbed a paper towel and wiped the spot off water on the cutting board. She then checked her finger, which was still looking normal, and tore open her apartment door, saying, “Come in, guys!”
“Hey, mate!” Vicky grinned at Jill. Vicky, Jack, and Tess walked into Jill’s apartment.
“Hey,” Jill faked a smile, her heart pounding in her ears. She’d forgotten that she had invited her archeologist friends over for dinner. And she definitely hadn’t expected for her finger to bleed water.
“So, what’s for dinner?” Jack asked, his green eyes venturing toward the small kitchen.
“Uh,” Jill blinked several times, “soup. Yes, chicken noodle soup.”
“Awesome,” Vicky said, still grinning, “Jill’s famous chicken noodle soup!”
“Is there a game on tonight?” Jack asked.
“Yes,” Vicky rolled her eyes as Jack scrambled for the TV remote, “is football all you think about?”
“That, and food,” Jack winked at his cousin.
“Speaking of food,” Tess smiled, showing everybody a container she was holding, “I brought some vanilla custard for dessert. You do like custard, right, Jill?”
“Oh yeah,” Jill said distractedly, “I was very sad when Colonel Custard died at the Battle of Little Cream Horn.”
Jack burst into laughter, Vicky smirked and raised an eyebrow, and Tess looked at Jill with concern.
“Are you ok?” Tess asked, “you’ve been a little off tonight.”
Jill blinked. Her mind was elsewhere. Why was her blood glowing blue, and made of water? She was so confused and worried that Jill barely knew what her friend was saying. “Yeah,” Jill said after awhile, “I’m ok, just exhausted from our scuba diving earlier.”
“It’s ok,” said Tess, “we’re all tired. Why don’t I help you with dinner?”
“Thank you,” Jill smiled, appreciating the help. But even though nothing else strange happened that night, she still felt as though something was very very wrong.

Chapter 4

Jill woke to the sound of a dove singing outside her window. She sighed and smiled, her eyes still closed to the world. She enjoyed sleep and didn’t want to wake up. But then she remembered what happened yesterday. Jill shot up in her bed, gasping, her heart beating very fast. Her blood was blue. Her blood was water. This was not good. She had to do something.
Jill went to her bathroom and got ready for the day. After breakfast, she said to Clyde, “I’m heading out to the museum. Don’t eat all of the cheesepuffs while I’m gone.” She gave her fish a serious look. Satisfied with his silent response, Jill left her apartment, got in her blue SUV, and drove to the city’s museum.
“Hello,” a young man with a thick Mexican accent, who worked at the museum, greeted Jill when she walked inside. “May I help you?”
“Hello,” Jill replied, smiling, “I’m an archeologist. Some other archeologists delivered a blue amulet here yesterday, am I correct?”
“You are,” he said, “we actually just put it on display, if you would like to see it?”
“I would,” Jill followed the man through the crowded museum. In a few minutes, they approached the amulet, which was protected in a glass case on a pedestal behind a velvet rope. The amulet was still glowing, but not nearly as much as when Jill had first found it. If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought the amulet was only shining in the sunlight. No one would ever suspect it was actually glowing.
“It does look nice,” Jill commented.
“Yes,” he said, “you archeologists do your job well.”
“Thank you. I do need to get going, I just came to make sure it got delivered ok.”
“It did. Have a good day,” he called, as Jill was already leaving.
“Welp,” Jill muttered to herself when she got back in her car, “I think I know what I have to do.”

It was now midnight. The museum was closed, its lights out and windows dark. But then a clumsy shadow darted under the soft glow of a street lamp.
Her jacket hood up and wearing all black, Jill slowly crept along the museum’s wall. She was extremely nervous, but this was probably the only way she could learn what this amulet might have done to her. Because as far as she knew, the amulet was only touched by her. The archeologists and museum workers would never be so careless as to handle the amulet without gloves. Jill had reasoned that it was the amulet that must have changed her. To most people, this would be a drastic assumption to make. Who would ever believe that an amulet could change someone’s blood? But Jill lived in a world with superheroes and aliens. Anything was possible.
Because only a fool would ever try to break into a museum through the front door, Jill went to the back entrance. The back door wasn’t locked, which was good luck for her. She sneakily walked inside of the building and, with her heart pounding in her ears and breaths coming out in short gasps, Jill stepped up to the amulet. She ducked under the rope and slowly lifted the glass case containing the glowing jewel. With trembling gloved hands, Jill sat down the case on the floor and picked up the amulet.
WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!
Jill whipped around, the amulet still in her grasp, and heard the alarms go off. The sound of sirens followed close after, but by the time the police arrived, Jill was already gone.

Chapter 5

Jill burst back into her apartment room and slammed the door behind her. She glanced down at her gloved hand, which was holding the amulet. She took a deep breath and flipped on a light switch to see the amulet better. It looked just the same.
After getting changed from her thief clothing, Jill walked back out to her living room and stood rigidly on the rug. She stared with wide eyes at the amulet laying innocently on the couch. The only sound that Jill could hear was her heart thumping loudly in her ears. All else was silent in the night. She sucked in a breath and reached out her hand, which was no longer protected in a glove, to the blue amulet. She picked it up by its chain. Nothing happened.
“A bit disappointing,” Jill muttered to herself, sitting down on the couch with the artifact in her hand, barely glowing.
Jill then sat the amulet gently on the table next to Clyde’s tank. She leaned back and crossed her legs, holding up her hand and looking intently at her veins. Are they really filled with blue water? As soon as Jill asked herself the question, the veins lit up with a soft blue glow.
She yelped and jumped up, running to the bathroom like any sane person. She held her hand out over the sink and watched as a few drops of glowing water dripped from her fingertips and splashed in the sink bowl.
“It’s not possible!” Jill exclaimed, in a panic. She closed her eyes, clutched her hand to herself, and gasped in sobbing breaths as she sank down to sit on the cold, tile floor.
It was just like when Tony Stark built his first armor.
It was just like when Bruce Banner first turned green.
It was just like when Daisy Johnson first quaked.
It was just like when Clint Barton shot his first arrow.
It was just like when Sam Willson first learned to fly.
This was just like all of that. This was Jillion Copper’s first superhero transformation. This was the first time that she realized what she could do.
Jill opened her eyes, which were red and swollen. She drew in another shaky breath and stood up. She walked back to the sink and held her hand over it again. Her veins glowed blue and water flowed out from the palm of her hand. Jill smiled.

Chapter 6

Jill managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before the sun rose. Now five o’clock AM, she leaped from her bed, threw on a pair of blue jeans and a bright yellow T-shirt, wolfed down her cereal, slipped into some flip-flops, grabbed a pink baseball cap, and burst out of her apartment. Now was her time to see what she was really made of.
With the world still asleep, all was quiet as Jill strutted to the shore of the Gulf of Mexico like she owned the place. Kicking off her shoes and rolling up her pant legs to her knees, Jill stepped into the cool water and let the rising sun warm her face. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Peace. And if it wasn’t for the famous Avengers, that wouldn’t be possible. For ten years they have protected this world with their lives. Jill was grateful. And perhaps, she’ll even make a difference, too.
She opened her eyes, which were now glowing a bright blue, and gritted her teeth as she raised her arms, veins glowing. Then it happened. Water flowed forcefully down her bare arms and shot hard into the Gulf’s water, scaring a group of small fish that quickly swam away from Jill’s stream of water. She gasped and as soon as it happened, it stopped.
“Woah,” Jill murmured, staring at her arms, which were dripping with glowing blue water.
Then, very suddenly, she couldn’t breath. The air stung in her throat and she gasped for breath, bending over. That Gulf water looked very inviting. Without even considering what she was doing, Jill fell face first into the salty water and took in long breaths. Relief washed over her with every wave that caressed her back. She breathed without trouble.
Standing up, her soaked shirt clinging to her skin, Jill felt very refreshed. Then, her eyes, no longer glowing, grew wide.
“What happened?!” she panicked, lost her footing, and collapsed. She splashed down into the shallow water to sit in the wet sand with only her neck and head exposed to air.
Jill had just breathed underwater. And she couldn’t breath oxygen. She pulled her knees up and hugged herself, not caring when a wave crashed above her head.
This was just all too much for a twenty-two year old archeologist to handle. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t be a superhero. That was just in her fantasy. In her farfetched hopes and unrealistic dreams. In reality, Jill couldn’t even deal with the fact that she could only breath water. Imagine if she had to survive in space, with no water or oxygen.
“There’s no hope for me,” Jill said to herself, then cried to the unhearing world, “there’s no hope for me! Ya hear that, Avengers?! I’m not one of you! And I never will be! Never!”
She jerked up and yanked her hat out of the water, slapping it back onto her wet blonde hair. Shivering, she drug her feet through the grainy sand and walked back to her home with only the glowing blue tears streaming down her face to keep her warm. Jill had left her flip-flops behind. But she didn’t go back to get them.
“Well, Clyde,” she said bitterly, slamming her apartment door behind her and stomping into her room, “I have had the worst morning ever in the history of ever!” Jill grumbled herself as she walked into the bathroom to shower.
Now clean and dry, but no less grumpy, she stepped back into the living room with a change of clothes (dark blue hoodie, yellow leggings, and pink, fluffy socks covered in breakdancing lemurs). She looked down at the trail of damp, sandy footprints leading from the apartment door to the bathroom. She sighed and grabbed a towel, getting out all of her frustration on the wet floor.
After the wood floor was parched by Jill’s handiwork, the antique clock hanging behind her couch told her that it was almost noon. Where had the time gone? Her stomach’s angry growling told her that food was needed for her survival.
“Are you hungry, too, Clyde?” Jill walked over to her fish and watched him swim up to the glass to watch her with curiosity. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she picked up his food container and shook the pellets into his tank. Clyde eagerly pecked at the food.
Jill changed into some blue jeans and traded her fuzzy socks for a pair of sneakers. She put back on her baseball cap and drove her SUV to Chick-Fil-A.
“Jill, hey!”
As soon as Jill stepped into the restaurant, she saw Tess wave at her. She waved back and, after ordering two strawberry milkshakes, slid into her friend’s booth.
“How’ve you been?” Tess asked with a grin.
“Better,” Jill said, slumping in her seat.
“Oh really?” Tess said, concern showing vividly on her face, “I’m sorry to hear that. I have noticed that you’ve been a little... Off, recently. It’s the new archeologist job, isn’t it? Well, I had a bad case of nervousness when I first became one, too, so it’s nothing to be ashamed about. Maybe you just need a vacation.”
“Vacation?” Jill excepted her frothy, pink drinks and sat one to the side while she started slurping the other.
“Yes. You need one. Don’t you have a cousin who lives in New York?”
Jill nodded, her shake almost half empty.
“Well, why not visit him? It’ll do you some good, trust me. What’s his name again?”
Jill finished her first milkshake and started drinking the other. She answered Tess, saying, “Grant Ward.”

Chapter 7

Jill drug her overpacked suitcase into the airport. It got weighed and, to Jill’s surprise, passed that test. She went through security and, though the police officer wearing a name tag saying, “Ann,” looked suspiciously at the large amount of water bottles in Jill’s carry-on, she passed on through that as well.
The airplane was very crowded and Jill, who wasn’t a fan of tight spaces, felt like she was being pressed in on either side by angry murders, just waiting for her to make one wrong move. She gulped and quickly slipped into a seat, watching out the window while she took a long drink of water. Not much longer and she’ll be in New York City. With her cousin, Grant Ward. Maybe then Jill will figure out her powers.
“Hey, mate! What’re you doin’ ‘ere?”
Jill looked over her shoulder and her eyes grew wide. There was Jack and Vicky. On the plane. With her.
“Hey, guys!” Jill tried to smile, but it just looked like she was in pain.
Vicky clambered into the seat next to Jill, Jack taking one right behind his cousin.
“So,” Vicky grinned widely, “you never answered my cousin’s question, what are you doing here, mate?”
“I’m,” Jill squirmed under her friends’ happy faces staring down at her, which instead of feeling like a comfort, felt more like she was at the dentist, “I, uh, am going to see my cousin. Grant.”
“Oh yeah,” Vicky buckled her seat belt, as did everyone else, because the plane had just started to take off, “you’ve mentioned a cousin before. Is he cute?”
Jack face palmed.
“Er,” Jill’s eye twitched and she gulped down more water, “maybe..?”
Vicky just smirked. This was going to be a long flight.

And it was. Jill was almost too happy when they finally landed.
“See ya ‘round!” Jack and Vicky waved at Jill as they, grasping the handles of their luggage, walked out of the door of the New York City airport.
“Yeah...” Jill shook her head and left the airport as well. She called a taxi, looking left and right down the incredibly busy road. Welcome to New York, she thought.
The taxi dropped her off at one of the apartments. Jill took in a deep breath as she approached the apartment building, pulling in her suitcase behind her. She had called Grant, to make sure he was ok with her coming, and he was. But she still felt nervous. It had been years since they last saw each other. And, he worked for none other than S.H.I.E.L.D. itself! Jill was a bit intimidated. She climbed up the steps and knocked on his door.
“It’s open,” she heard the call come from inside.
Taking the deepest breath she ever had, Jill pushed open the door and stepped inside.
“Jill! Glad you could make it,” Grant Ward walked down stairs toward Jill.
“Nice to see you, Grant,” Jill said, her voice strained as they hugged.
“So,” they let go of each other and Grant spoke, “why did you decide to come visit your cousin when you only just became a Marine Archeologist?”
Jill made a few strange facial expressions that Grant couldn’t comprehend. “I just... Thought it would be a good... Time..?” she gave a weak grin.
Grant frowned at her and stuck his hands into the pockets of his black leather jacket. He, though they didn’t know each other extremely well, could always tell when she was lying to him. “Well, I’ve got the guest room ready if you want to relax after your trip.”
Jill bit her lip and nodded, then hurried up the stairs to the guest room. She was surprised that he could afford such an expensive apartment working for S.H.I.E.L.D., but then again, she didn’t know much they paid. But it couldn’t be this much... Could it? Oh, what was she doing, thinking about how much money her cousin had? Money wasn’t everything.
She opened her suitcase and laid it next to the queen size bed, then she sat cross legged with a long exhale onto the light blue comforter. She unzipped her carry-on and pulled out a wooden box. Opening the lid with her heart pounding, Jill took out the blue amulet. She stared at it. Then she put it back into the box and held out her arms, her veins were glowing again.
“What am I?” Jill asked herself. No one answered. So she left the room.

A man in a suit and tie stood in his office, watching cars driving past below his skyscraper view. His hands were clasped behind him. His expression was emotionless, though he was very happy. Nothing could ruin this day.
“Sir?”
The man turned to see a woman walk into his office, holding a tablet.
“Yes?” he said.
“Someone has entered the city,” she said with obvious concern.
“It does happen sometimes,” he said, wondering why she was worried.
“But, sir,” she tapped a few more things on the tablet before lowering it, “this person is... Inhuman.”
He blinked. “Send someone with experience to check it out. I don’t want anyone to interfere with what we’re doing.”

Chapter 8

The next morning, Jill and Grant ate breakfast in silence. Half way through, Grant said that he needed to go somewhere. Jill just nodded and watched him leave. She sighed and wondered how Clyde was doing with only Tess to look after him.
An hour of boredom passed in the slowest way possible. She had turned on the TV, but the most interesting thing on the news was that Spider-Man had saved a group of elementary school kids from a rampaging truck. Jill yawned widely. So bored. She drunk two bottles of water and went outside for a walk through the city.
New York City was very different from the small town where she lived in Florida. There were so many people all over the place, bumping into her without even an apology. Jill hugged herself and quickly walked to the nearest bus stop, hoping to get out of the crowd. She slipped into a seat and breathed a sigh of relief, downing another water bottle she had brought with her.
“Psst!”
Jill sat straight up. The bus had just started moving, so she fell backwards again. She shook her head. Hearing things that weren’t there was not a good side effect to having water in her veins.
“Hey! I’m talking to you!”
Jill felt a soft tug on her hair and she looked left and right. No one but just average bus passengers could be seen.
“Look on your shoulder.”
Jill did as the mysterious voice said, but saw nothing.
“Your left shoulder! And please, don’t freak out or scream.”
Her eyes slowly went over to her left shoulder. She had to try as hard as she could to do what the voice said. ‘Cause she would’ve definitely freaked out and screamed.
A very tiny person wearing a red and black outfit and helmet stood on her shoulder.
“What-who are you?” Jill whispered, frightened.
“I,” the small person tried to stand as tall as he could, “am Ant-Man!”
“Right!” Jill exclaimed, then earned herself a few questionable glances from the others on the bus, so she lowered her voice. “I should’ve remembered, you were the one that caused the Endgame to happen.”
“Uh,” Ant-Man rubbed his neck, “I only sorta gave them the idea to go back in time-”
“And created the Time-Heist!” Jill was very excited. She was talking to a real Avenger!
“Exactly!” now it was his turn to get excited. “You really know your stuff—the very important stuff.”
“I’m a fan,” she grinned.
“YES!” Ant-Man threw his fists into the air. “Finally! An Ant-Man fan!”
“No, well, I’m just an Avenger fan. Hey, do you know Thor?! I’d love to meet Thor!”
Ant-Man just stood there on her shoulder, looking up at her wide grin. “No. I don’t know Thor.”
Jill couldn’t tell his expression, because of his ant-like helmet, but she guessed that she might’ve hurt his feelings.
“Anyway,” he said, “I was sent by S.H.I.E.L.D. to find the inhuman who’s entered the city… My tracker says that it’s you..?”
Jill’s eyes flashed a bright blue. She turned her head away from him and looked out the window. “We’re at the bus stop,” she said coldly. “We should get off. Besides, you probably have some avenging to do.”
“But-”
Jill suddenly stood, knocking the Ant-Man off her shoulder. She didn’t bother to see where he fell, but just pulled her pink baseball cap lower to shield her face and went with the flow of tourists out onto the city streets. She didn’t even know where they were. Nor did she care.
“Hey! You there! Wha-that man just took my wallet!”
Jill whipped around to see one of the people that got off the bus with her, point to a man who looked to be running off with their wallet.
It wasn’t really a thought or a feeling, but an instinct that washed over Jill. She didn’t even think about why she was doing it or what the consequences would be. But she ran at that criminal with every vein in her body glowing such a bright blue that anyone who was watching her could see it.
She caught up with him and tackled him to the ground. He kicked her off and pushed her to the ground, sprinting off in a mad dash down the road.
Jill, still on the hard pavement, all of a sudden shot a burst of boiling water from her right hand, which hit the thief on his back. He fell and cried out as his coat was burned by her water.
Just then, Ant-Man appeared out of absolutely no where underneath the burned man and punched him in the chin, knocking him out.
Ant-Man’s helmet vanished and he stared at Jill, who had stood up and was shaking.
Claps. Cheers.
Jill turned and saw an entire group of civilians crowed around her and the Avenger. Jill gulped and ducked into the crowd, disappearing from sight in her own way.
She ran. And ran. And ran. All the way to Grant’s apartment. She burst inside and yanked off her hat, breathing in the moisture from the air like she had never breathed before.
“I did that,” Jill collapsed on the couch, “I took down a thief with an Avenger. So what does that make me?”

Chapter 9

“So tell us,” said the news reporter, holding up a microphone, “what is S.H.I.E.L.D. doing to bring back The Avengers Initiative?”
“Well we, uh,” Ant-Man looked uncomfortable, “that’s classified, ma’m.”
“Oh really?” she inquired. “No information you can give us at all?”
“Not really,” he said, glancing sideways at the camera and microphone aimed at him.
“What about the new superhero, seen helping you earlier today?”
“She’s not a superhero, S.H.I.E.L.D. is still trying to help her. But right now she’s a rogue and possibly dangerous inhuman.”
“Ah,” the woman said slyly, “so S.H.I.E.L.D. is involved with The Avengers again.”
Scott squirmed. “No! Well, er, yes, but not like it was before.”
“What about S.W.O.R.D., is that organization involved, too?”
“I can’t say.”
“Well,” the lady turned to face the camera, “what’s really going on with S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D., and The Avengers still remains a mystery. Back to you, John.”
“Thank you, Andrea,” the TV screen switched to a man. “Now following the case of the so called, ‘new Avenger,’ we look at a witness’s video of what actually happened earlier today in Manhattan. Take a look.”
A blurry video of a blonde haired woman in jeans and a pink hat that shadowed her face appeared on screen. She chased after a man and attacked him, but he fought her off. She then shot glowing blue water from her hand and it hit the man, which knocked him down. Ant-Man all of a sudden materialized and punched the criminal. The mysterious woman was suddenly no where to be seen.
The video ended and John came back on screen. “Obviously,” he said, “we couldn’t see much from this video, but it is the only known footage taken of this event. The woman is still unidentified and, as the Ant-Man told Andrea, ‘possibly dangerous’.”

That was three days ago.
Now it’s Friday.
Jill was very worried about Grant. He had been gone for those three days and still hasn’t returned. She knew that he worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., so he might be on a mission. But why didn’t he tell her? Maybe he just really couldn’t.
She sighed and continued flipping through TV channels. But no matter which news channel she went to, they were still talking about her. Or at least, they were talking about the ‘new Avenger.’
Suddenly, she heard the doorknob rattling.
Jill leapt to her feat. Her heart skipped a beat. Someone was trying to break in. She grabbed the nearest weapon: A lamp. She crept slowly to the door. It was being pushed open. Due to the placement of the window, everything but the door was illuminated by the morning light. The front door remained cast in a deep shadow. A tall dark shape slipped through the opening. Jill readied her lamp.
“Jill, is that you?”
Grant walked inside.
Jill quickly lowered the lamp and, feeling very foolish, said, “Oh, thank goodness it’s you,” she laughed. “I thought you might’ve been Hydra or something.”
“No,” he smiled, “there’s no Hydra over here.”
“Obviously,” she chuckled and put the lamp back on the table, embarrassed.
Grant stepped more into the light, which was when Jill noticed that he had a number of cuts and bruises on his face.
“What happened to you?” she exclaimed. “And why have you been gone for so long?”
“Oh,” Grant glanced into a mirror hanging on the wall next to the dining room table. “Well, I guess I can tell you that I was on a mission. Everything else is classified.”
Jill sighed. Classified. She’s been hearing that word way to often. “But, why couldn’t you tell me that before you left?”
“I didn’t know that I had a mission before it was already happening,” he explained, sitting a backpack on the floor. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to change before lunch,” and with that word, Grant left up the stairs to his room.
Jill though, was not a hundred percent satisfied with his answers. Her eyes traveled over to the backpack her cousin had left there. He wasn’t around. She could easily take a peek—no. That was wrong. Jill couldn’t believe what she was thinking, searching through someone’s own bag. She wasn’t a thief. He had already answered all of her questions. Why shouldn’t she trust Grant’s word?
And with that thought, Jill left up the stairs to her room. She grabbed her own backpack and reached inside, feeling for the wooden box. She found it and pulled it out. Through the cracks in its lid, there was a faint blue glow. She carefully opened it and stared at the blue amulet.
Technically, she mused, *I am a thief. I stole this amulet without much consideration and deceived everyone, even Ant-Man, to think that I’m better than the criminal who stole the wallet. Heh, I stole a priceless jewel from a museum that I work for. Take a look at me now, Avengers[i]. Jill sighed. After her two week vacation was over, she was going to give back the amulet.
“It’s the right thing to do,” she whispered, clutching the ornate necklace in her hand. But the question was, how will she confess?

Chapter 10

Jill placed her hand on the water bottle in front of her. Taking a deep breath, the veins in her fingers glowed blue and the bottle froze solid. She knocked the bottle over, and water spilled out of it. She then picked up the bottle in one hand, but held out the other. The spilled water floated up and splashed back into its plastic home.
“Well,” Jill collapsed in a chair, breathing hard, “I think you’ve done good enough for a few minute break.”
Ever since Grant’s mysterious disappearances became a regular thing, Jill decided to make good use of the solitude to practice her new abilities. Even though she still didn’t really understand the powers, she did enjoy filling up water bottles and spilling them, only to refill them and do it over again. She didn’t drink the water, of course, that would just be gross.
She opened up her drinking bottle and strained to lift its water out of the bottle. But no matter how hard she tried or how much she concentrated, Jill still couldn’t manipulate regular water.
“You tried,” she muttered, taking a sip of the plain water.
She suddenly leapt to her feet and ran outside the apartment. She had found out very quickly that her cousin had no neighbors and a quiet street, which, though strange, benefited her training very much.
Jill looked left and right. No one. She put her arms at her sides, palms facing the concrete, and shot glowing water out of her hands. She was lifted off the ground and hovered in the air for a moment, before shooting up into the sky to land on top of the apartments’ roof.
The view was, as always, incredible. But still very different from her home town. The skyscrapers were shining in the sun, including Avengers Tower, which was the tallest building for miles. She could even see the Statue of Liberty far into the distance. She thought she might faintly smell smoke, but couldn’t see anything.
“Wow,” Jill whispered, sitting down cross legged and taking in the beauty of Manhattan. If her connection to home wasn’t so tight, she would for certain move to this city. But she had exactly one week of this vacation left, so she had better make the most of it.
Jill glanced at her green and blue Wizard of Oz watch. It was ten minutes away from 6😮0 PM, which was when Grant was supposed to be home.
She stood up and ran to the edge of the roof, doing a backflip off the side. She shot water out of her hands at the last second to slow herself down before touching down on the sidewalk. She ran inside and hurriedly cleared the dining table of any evidence of her training.
A knock on the door.
Jill rolled her eyes and quickly dried her hands, walking to the door and saying, “Grant, did you forget your key again? ‘Cause if you did you’ll be—”
“Surprise!” Vicky jumped into the foyer and hugged a flabbergasted Jill.
Jack came in behind her, holding up a Chick-Fil-A takeout bag. “Don’t look to shocked. Remember, we said we’d be by sometime to visit ya.”
“I,” Jill faked a smile, “had forgotten.”
“So,” Vicky strode into the apartment and peeked around a corner, “where’s that cousin of yours, Jill?”
“He’s… Out. But Grant should be back any moment,” Jill took the food from Jack and started setting the table.
Jack plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV while Vicky helped Jill, who was very annoyed at all of this.
“Woah,” Jack said suddenly.
“What is it?” asked Vicky.
“It’s—well, you’ll just have to come and see for yourselves,” Jack made room on the couch for the others to sit.
It was on the news, showing a large financial building being attacked by terrorists. Citizens were running and screaming while fire was being set to everything around them.
“This is terrible,” Jill gasped.
“Where are the Avengers?” Vicky questioned, concern obvious on her face.
“Who knows,” Jack shrugged.
“Grant,” Jill said under her breath. She was very worried. Where was her cousin? He could have gotten stuck in the traffic or hurt or… She couldn’t bear the thought.
“Jill!”
She heard her name and spun around. There was Grant. Safe, for the moment, in the apartment.
“Thank goodness,” he sighed, sitting down the backpack he always kept close. “I was afraid you might’ve been out in that mess… Who are they?”
“This is Vicky and Jack,” Jill introduced her friends. “They unknowingly followed me here.”
“Oh yes, we’re master spies,” Jack winked.
“Hello, Grant, we’ve heard so much about you,” Vicky grinned widely.
Now that she new Grant was ok, Jill turned back to the TV. Why weren’t the Avengers doing anything? S.H.I.E.L.D.? S.W.O.R.D.? No one was there to stop the assassins. Suddenly, the drone’s camera changed position. That’s when words spelled out by fire on the road suddenly became visible. The flames read: WE ARE HYDRA.
“Wait, Hydra?!” Jack cried. “This isn’t possible! S.H.I.E.L.D. wiped them out years ago!”
“But did they?” said Vicky, grimly.
“Hydra?” Jill’s voice was weak. Oh, where were the heroes New York was counting on? That’s when she realized something. She had powers. She had training, well, sorta. But she could be the Avenger they needed.

Chapter 11

“Where are you going?” Vicky called after Jill, who had suddenly pulled on her pink hat and raced out the door.
“To see this for myself,” she replied.
“Jill, don’t, this isn’t a joke,” Grant said.
But she was already gone before he had uttered the first word. As soon as she was outside, Jill shot water out of her hands and lifted off from the ground. She hovered for a moment before zooming down the street, leaving behind a trail of glowing water.
When she finally arrived at where the attack was commencing, she had to quickly land on the roof of a nearby building. In person, the sight was almost too much to bear. Fire licked up the sides of apartments, civilians screamed and cried for help, all while people in red jackets laughed and threw more gasoline on the fires. Police and firefighters roamed the streets, helping the innocent people escape and trying to contain the agents of Hydra. But their weapons were no match for that of Hydra’s.
Jill almost cried out when one of the red jacketed agents struck a police officer in the shoulder with a green knife, which would have been bad enough, but a bubbling green liquid oozed from the dagger and burned the officer’s arm. He screamed from the pain, but the Hydra agent didn’t flinch.
Jill turned away, unable to watch any longer. She had come to help, but how? She had no plan of attack. Her powers weren’t strong enough to take out this kind of evil force. She wasn’t ready.
“We never thought you’d show up.”
Jill fell backwards and held up her fists, glowing blue.
“Hey, hey, no need to kill me. I’m on your side. Actually, I’m on your shoulder—your other shoulder, why is this so difficult for you?”
“Scott?” Jill said to the tiny Avenger.
“The one and only!”
“Wait,” Jill’s brow furrowed, “what did you mean by ‘we never thought you’d show up?’”
All of a sudden, four grey Jeeps with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on their doors drove onto the scene with screeching tires.
“You guys were just waiting for me to show up before you intervened?” Jill couldn’t believe it. “That’s rather cruel, people are being hurt down there.”
“We weren’t going to wait much longer, though. Now come on, follow me,” Ant-Man jumped off of her shoulder and ran to edge of the building, hopping onto a waiting ant’s back. They flew into the chaos.
Jill would’ve been angry at their trick if she wasn’t so relieved. She could hardly imagine how badly this might’ve gone if S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn’t shown up. Jill, just as she’d practiced, ran off the side of the apartment and blasted water from her hands to slow the fall. She landed on the ground Iron Man style.
Sixteen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents ran out onto the field, icers loaded and ready. One man was at their head. He had on sunglasses and nodded to Jill. “Glad you could make it,” he said.
“Yeah,” Jill jumped when a Hydra agent ran at her, but the man quickly iced him. “Thanks,” said Jill shakily.
“You’re with me on this mission,” a woman with short, purple dyed hair hurried up to Jill.
“O-ok.”
“Hey, it’s ok to be nervous. But don’t worry, I’ve seen a lot of Hydra,” the woman smirked.
“Yeah well,” a man with a Scottish accent said, “these agents are different from the others. They’re part of the new Hydra Agency. Led by Madam Hydra.”
“Always here to lift my spirits, aren’t you Fitz?” the purple haired woman rolled her eyes.
“There’s a Madam Hydra?!” Jill exclaimed.
“There’s a lot more than just Madam Hydra,” the man, Fitz, said darkly.
“Can we go beat these guys up now?” another woman said.
“It would be my pleasure,” the purple haired woman turned to a frightened Jill. “I’m Daisy, by the way.”
“Wait,” Jill’s eyebrows went up as she began to understand, “you’re Quake? And you’re agent Coulson? And—wow, you guys are the team. Like, the best on S.H.I.E.L.D.!”
Daisy smirked again. “We don’t like to brag but—”
“We love to brag,” said a Latina woman with a wink.
“Let’s go then, best S.H.I.E.L.D team ever,” Coulson said.
Jill was very excited. Working alongside an Avenger, wherever he may be, and S.H.I.E.L.D., this was her dream. But then the current situation became visible again. Hydra was attacking. And they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.
Daisy charged the nearest Hydra agent and kicked him, then punched him in the face. She then whipped around and did a backwards summersault over a kick aimed at her by another agent of Hydra. But she didn’t see an attacker coming up behind her. Jill jumped forward and shot ice on his red jacketed arm, which made him fall.
“Nicely done,” said Daisy, out of breath.
“Don’t mention it,” Jill was rather shocked herself.
Suddenly, Ant-Man appeared behind them. “Guys, we have a problem,” he pointed into the sky. Two large red helicopters with green Hydra skulls on their sides flew out from behind a singed building. They each had three missiles underneath them.
“Ready to take out the big guns?” Daisy asked Jill, who just gaped at the copters above them.
“As long as we’re not alone,” Jill said.
“That’s the thing about S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Coulson, along with two other agents came toward them, “we always do things as a team.”

Chapter 12

“Jill, Scott, and I will take out that one,” Daisy hollered over the beating wings of the massive copters above them.
“And I’ll get the second one with May and Fitz,” Coulson nodded, putting back on his sunglasses.
Jill gripped onto the remaining half of a lamppost. The ground Hydra agents had left, knowing that the copters would be coming to bomb the city. S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to help the civilians evacuate, but the only way to truly save them was to dismantle the missiles. Jill squeezed her eyes closed and felt the wind slap her on the face, as though trying to tell her how much she was in over her head. No going back now.
Scott hopped onto his flying ant’s back while Fitz gave Coulson and May jet packs.
“Wait,” Jill said, “how are you getting up there, Daisy? I can fly, but Fitz doesn’t have another jet pack.”
“I have my ways,” Daisy smirked. She spread her legs and looked up at the helicopter directly above her. She then forcefully placed her hands down on the pavement and shoved off of it, shooting high up and landing inside the helicopter.
“Oh yeah,” Jill gaped up at Daisy, “she’s Quake.”
“Better hurry before you’re left behind,” yelled May as she ran past Jill with Coulson and Fitz following close behind. They leaped into the air and blue flames shot out of their jet packs.
Jill let go of the lamppost, but was almost blown over by a gust of wind. Her veins flashed blue and water burst from her hands. She lifted up and soared to the copter Daisy and Scott were in.
“Took you long enough,” snarked Daisy, punching the helicopter’s pilot in the face.
Jill didn’t reply and just hovered next to the door for a moment, then extinguished her powers and grabbed the door handle, uselessly kicking her legs as she dangled miles in the air. She gritted her teeth and climbed into the cockpit just as Daisy shoved the final Hydra agent out the side. Jill leaned on the wall and tried to steady herself as the air current whipped her blonde ponytail back and forth and threatened to blow her out of the sky.
Ant-Man popped up beside Daisy and spoke, “I’ll keep the copter in the air while you hack the main computer and disable the missiles.”
“Aye, aye,” Daisy suddenly jumped out of the helicopter.
“Wha-what’d she do that for?!” Jill cried.
“The computer is on the belly of this copter, same as the other,” Scott gestured to their neighboring helicopter, where Fitz was hovering below it and typing on some sort of keyboard.
Jill was glad that Daisy hadn’t just killed herself, but not as happy about the fact of her floating just beneath them with nothing to hold onto. Jill’s knuckles grew white just thinking about it.
Scott slipped into the pilot’s seat and grasped the controls to keep their helicopter steady.
“Do you even know how to fly this thing?” asked Jill.
“Nope,” Scott licked his lips and pressed a few buttons.
Jill sighed, hoping for her and Daisy’s sake that he at least knew how to drive a car. But she still had some doubts.
All of a sudden, a buzzing sound caught Jill’s attention. She glanced outside and about fell backwards when she saw four red jacketed Hydra agents wearing jet packs hovering just in front of her. Their guns aimed at her head.
“Don’t just stand there,” shouted Scott, “protect Daisy!”
Jill snapped out of her fear and let go of the wall with one hand, shooting a jet of water at the first agent, knocking him out of the sky. He fell with a scream.
The next agent was luckier, as he fired a bullet Jill’s way. She dodged just in time and shot ice at his gun, freezing it over. He was now weaponless. Jill gripped the ceiling handle with both hands, swinging her feet to kick him. He knocked into the agent behind him and they both plummeted to the ground with smoke trailing out of their jet packs.
“Did you see that?” Jill beamed at Scott.
“A little busy here,” Scott jerked on the controls. “Something must be jamming the engine!”
“Oh no,” winced Jill. There were four Hydra agents with jet packs, not three. The remaining one must’ve been doing something to sabotage the helicopter.
“Be right back,” she said.
“Where are you…” Scott trailed off and watched her summersault over the edge.
Daisy shot the agent with her sonar, but he was quick and flew out of the way. Jill lowered down next to Daisy.
“I’ll deal with him,” yelled Daisy. “There’s only one more missile to disable, it’s simple: just cut the rest of the black wires.”
“Ok,” Jill shook with nervousness. You can do this, Jill, you’ve got this.
She flew underneath the helicopter and looked up at the tangled mess of colorful wires. What black wires? There were none. She stopped her right arm’s flow of water and shot a stronger stream from her left. She used her now free right hand to to rummage through the blue, red, and green wires, desperately trying to find a black one.
A bullet wizzed inches past her face and she glanced behind her with a gasp, but the wind was blowing too much of her hair into her face for her to see.
Jill looked back at the wires. Suddenly, as though it had always been there, a black wire caught her eye. She reached with her right hand to yank it out, but her left arm jerked and blue tears streamed from her eyes. A shocking and cold pain tingled up her arm. The water flowing out of that hand ceased and she fell. Just before Jill blacked out, she thought she could hear another gun shot.

Chapter 13

Blurry shapes appeared in front of a white light. People, maybe? She turned over on the soft bed and the blackness returned.
Jill sat straight up. She was panting hard and sweat poured down her forehead. Her eyes shot around the small hospital-like room. It seemed to be made up entirely of white hexagon shapes. The bed she was lying in, white like everything else, was against one wall with a nightstand on either side. A bench and dining table mounted to the floor and wall were directly across from her. Other than that and a little rectangular window on the door, the room was bare.
[i]I’m gonna get a headache from all this white if I don’t find a way out soon.*
She slowly and carefully slid out of her bed. That’s when she first noticed the cast on her left arm. Where the pain had hit it… Yesterday? She had no clue on what the time or date was. Though she was barefoot, she was dressed in a white T-shirt and pants. Whoever built this place sure did like that color.
Jill walked up to the door and peered through the window. A dark, blank hallway awaited her on the other side. She grasped the door handle and tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t budge. It was stuck. It was locked. She was locked inside this white room.
Jill leapt back from the door and glanced around. Beads of sweat returned to her forehead. Is this the Hydra base? A security camera in the top right corner of the room caught her eye. Its blinking red light was right on her.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
Jill tripped and almost fainted. She caught herself before she fell and spun around, her fists up and glowing blue.
A young woman stood in the doorway, holding a clipboard close to her. She had light brown hair up in a tight ponytail and was wearing a grey sweater with pink polkadots and a black skirt. She also had a smile.
“Jillion, right?” she spoke in a British accent.
“Yes,” replied Jill curtly, fists still ready to blast this lady if she made one wrong move. “But I prefer, Jill.”
“My name is, Jemma Fitz. I’m the doctor who’s been fixing you up after that ghastly bullet shot,” she gestured to Jill’s left arm.
“Wait,” Jill lowered her fists. “Are you related to Fitz, the smart Scottish guy?”
Jemma nodded with a small giggle. “In a way. He’s my husband.”
“Oh, thank goodness, I was afraid this was a Hydra base,” laughed Jill.
“Not at all. This,” Jemma held a hand out to the grey hallway, “Is S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Jill’s eyes widened. “I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was destroyed, right before the Avengers’ Civil War. But you guys are back!”
“We aren’t really back, exactly,” said Jemma. “S.H.I.E.L.D. has been through a lot in the past couple of years. Our base location changes every few months.”
“Where are we now?” Jill questioned. This was very interesting.
“That’s classified,” Jemma suddenly became very stoney and professional.
Jill eyed Jemma with worry. She was sounding a bit like Grant. Classified. Everything was classified nowadays.
“But,” Jemma regained her sweet nature and smile, “that doesn’t mean I can’t give you a tour.”
“I’d like that,” Jill blurted out giddily.
“There’s a change of clothes in the second drawer of the table. I’ll leave you, just come out when you’re ready.”
Jill watched the doctor leave, then she raced to the drawer and yanked it open. She pulled out navy blue, button-up S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. A smile slowly grew on her face as she changed into the uniform until she was beaming.
“Official,” she muttered to herself as she strode to the door with an unusual confidence built up inside of her.
Jemma turned to see Jill walk up to her. “You look like an agent ready for action,” she commented.
“Not sure about ‘ready for action,’” Jill laughed uneasily with a glance at her cast. “I am, though, ready to be an agent!”
“Maybe we’ll just start with the tour,” Jemma said. She began leading Jill down the hall.
Jill noticed that the walls and floor were a type of reflective silver metaI. There were more white hexagon doors like hers, but the rooms were empty when she peeked into the windows.
They turned a corner and saw a brighter hallway, with many glass doors lining the walls. Jill had yet to see a window to the outside, however. The only brightness came from the white artificial lights on the ceiling. Now they passed agents in the hall and Jill could see more working in offices through the glass.
“These are the agents work spaces, but the classified work happens in the Dark Room,” explained Jemma.
There was that word again. Classified.
It seemed like they walked the entire base to Jill, because she was already ready to collapse into a chair after only a couple of hours.
“I’m exhausted,” she said to Jemma in the lab.
Jemma ceased her explanation of what the scientists were working on and looked over at Jill. “The medicine I gave you to help your wound heal quickly can cause that side effect. Here,” she grabbed an unoccupied chair, “sit.”
Jill fell into it with a long sigh. Her legs thanked her.
Jemma continued standing. “Do you need anything else?”
“Well,” Jill tugged on her loose hair. “A ponytail holder would be nice. Preferably, blue or yellow.”

Chapter 14

Jill fitted her pale hair into the blue ponytail holder Jemma had given to her. She was very happy right now and had a peppy tune in her head. But questions flooded the rest of her mind. Where was this base? Why was everything classified? How long had she been there for?
“Better?” asked Jemma.
“Much,” Jill replied with a smile.
“So, your favorite colors are blue and yellow?” Jemma asked another question.
Jill nodded. “Turquoise blue and pale yellow are the colors for me.”
“Well then, now that you’re settled, I need to go help Leo with a project. Feel free to explore the base while I’m gone.”
Jill waved to Jemma as she left. A few minutes passed before Jill stood. She aimlessly walked out of the lab and through some hallways. Where did she want to go? Voices from an office caught her attention. She headed that way and peeked into the window. Four people stood inside in a heated discussion. She recognized the purple hair of Daisy and Coulson’s stern expression, but she couldn’t tell who the other two were. They both had quivers and wore similar clothes, and they even looked alike. Brothers, maybe?
“We need to attack now,” the younger of the brothers slammed his fist on the table.
“But we have nothing that could defeat a force that strong,” argued Daisy.
“I saw these things up close,” said the young brother. “They’re weaker than we think. They can be beaten.”
“With what?” the older brother asked with crossed arms.
“Another ghost,” murmured Coulson.
Jill felt like she was intruding, so she began to slink past, but a hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. It was the younger brother.
“Who’s this?” he inquired.
“Jill,” said Daisy, plainly surprised. “What are you doing here? This is a classified area.”
“I-I didn’t know,” muttered Jill, a little scared, especially with this guy gripping her arm.
“Let her go, Lee,” said the older brother.
The younger one, Lee, sighed and did as the older asked. Jill stepped away quickly as soon as he released her.
“Hey,” Daisy called to Jill before she ran off. “I need to tell you something.” She left the others and followed Jill out in the hall.
“Is she new here?” Jill heard Lee question.
“Something like that,” said Coulson.
Daisy walked Jill into an empty dark closet and shut the door behind them, flipping a light switch, which turned on the single bulb. Jill couldn’t help but assume she was about to be interrogated.
“If I have the facts right,” Daisy started speaking slowly, so slow that Jill had a hard time understanding what exactly she was saying. “You came to Manhattan to visit your cousin. Grant… Ward… Is that right?”
Jill nodded, wondering where this conversation was headed.
Daisy took a deep shaky breath. Just tell her. You’ll be fine. She has to know, Daisy tried to reassure herself. “Ward was not who you thought he was.”
“What do you mean?” Jill said, a strange feeling deep in the pit of her stomach.
“I don’t know what he told you, but if this is the Ward I know—knew—he would’ve said that he works for S.H.I.E.L.D., is that correct?”
“Yes…” Jill did not like this at all.
Daisy tried her best to control her breathing as she continued. “Ward did not work for us. He worked against us. He was Hydra.”
It was as though everything that Jill thought to be true was suddenly crushed into a million pieces. She wanted to cry, “No!” but she couldn’t find her voice. Her own cousin, Hydra? How was it possible? But there was something in the way Daisy told her all of this that bothered Jill even more.
“You said everything in past tense,” Jill spoke almost as slowly as Daisy had.
“Well, yes,” hesitation filled Daisy, but she still said, “Ward is dead.”
Now Jill was very puzzled. “When did that happen?”
“A few years ago,” said Daisy. She wiped at her eyes, not enjoying reliving her past.
“But, wait, how long have I been asleep here?!” Jill exclaimed.
“About two days, why?”
“I just saw Grant two days ago, then!”
“But, no, that can’t be true,” Daisy blinked a few times. “I saw him explode myself.”
“It’s true!” Jill was officially panicked.
“But… Oh my gosh… Ward survived?! I have to go tell, well, everyone!” Daisy suddenly rushed out of the closet, leaving Jill still petrified inside.
What now? Her very own cousin, whom she had been living with for almost two weeks, was part of Hydra. Jill could not believe it. But it was true. Every puzzle piece now fit together perfectly. That’s why Grant had been going on these classified missions and wouldn’t tell her a thing. It was because he had not been working for S.H.I.E.L.D., but Hydra. And the reason he was gone when Hydra attacked the city, he had been with them. The only thing now that really troubled her was how he could’ve survived an explosion which Daisy clearly thought he had died in.
“Oh no…” another thought came to Jill. This one worse that all of the others. She left the amulet, the one that gave her powers, back at Grant Ward’s apartment.

Chapter 15

Jill left the closet feeling shaken. She unknowingly rubbed her cast as she walked and let Daisy’s painful words sink in.
Ward did not work for us. He worked against us. He was Hydra… Ward is dead… I saw him explode myself… Ward survived?!
Jill shuddered. If Grant really did die and somehow come back, did that mean he was a zombie? An android? Or was there a vital piece of information missing. She had to get to the bottom of this mystery. Where to start, though? Did this base have a file on Grant?
She peeked around a hallway corner and didn’t see anyone. A row of glass offices filled with computers called to her. Jill slowly crept inside one office. Empty. With a feeling of guilt and excitement, she sat in the swivel chair and smiled at her luck when the laptop didn’t require a passcode.
“Let’s see, agent information, here we go,” she muttered to herself as she searched for what she needed.
The folder opened and tons of agent files appeared in alphabetical order. She scrolled through them all and eventually made it to the G section. Gabe… Genevra … Goose, whatever name that was. Wait, did it have a picture of a cat? Aha, there was Grant. She clicked on it and his bio popped up. Jill was a little surprised and bothered by the word deceased written across his picture in bold red letters.
She read the bio aloud to herself, “Name, Grant Ward. Alias, none. Blah blah blah—oh, now we’re talking! Cause of death… It’s classified?! You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
A hand all of a sudden slammed the laptop closed in her face. She jerked backwards, heart pounding and hands up in fear.
“Yeah, it’s classified,” said Daisy, frowning down at an embarrassed Jill. “Do I need to put a tracker on you?”
“No,” sighed Jill. “I had to figure out what actually happened to Grant. I didn’t want to bug you guys with questions I wouldn’t get answers for. But it looks like this computer is classified, like everything else.” She pushed the laptop toward Daisy and crossed her arms, leaning back in the chair to show that she wasn’t planning on leaving anytime soon.
Daisy looked annoyed, especially when a man entered the office. “What?” Daisy snapped at him. “I’m kind of in the middle of something.”
“Uh, this is my office,” the man said, puzzled. He then saw Jill. “Who is she?”
“Davis, meet Jill, Jill, meet Davis,” said Daisy in a rushed tone. “Now that we have our introductions, I need to do some important stuff. Unless of course, you have any flyers that need passing out.”
As Daisy ran from the office, Davis and Jill looked at each other with wide eyes.
“She doesn’t like being annoyed,” said Davis in a joking way.
“No she does not,” Jill half-joked back.
“But really, what are you doing in my office?”
“Trying to steal top secret information on my dead-but-actually-alive cousin,” explained Jill in the least time consuming way she could think of.
“That’s a new one,” he scratched his head.
“Nothing’s new anymore,” she stood and walked from the room much slower than Daisy. Why was the cause of Grant’s death classified? Daisy had hinted at it being an explosion, so why would that need to be kept a secret? What was really going on here? Jill was so deep in thought that she nearly bumped into someone.
“Sorry,” her and the person said at the same time. But the other person had a Scottish accent.
“Fitz?” said Jill. Sure enough, it was him. What did he know? Was he hiding something? She noticed a long black case in his hands. As soon as she glanced at it, however, he held it behind his back. Yet another secret.
“Hi, Jill,” Fitz said, out of breath.
“Wait, before you run off, I wasn’t sure if you knew anything about Grant Ward?” Jill asked, hopeful.
“What about him,” Fitz was stern.
“Well, you should know that he’s my cousin and is somehow alive and is also in possession of the amulet that gave me water in my veins, so, uh, yeah,” she laughed dryly.
Fitz blinked once and seemed to be considering all that she had said. He then spoke carefully, “You’re telling me that Ward is alive? And he has a magical amulet?”
“Pretty much, yes,” Jill nodded.
“That is not good,” panicked Fitz. He rubbed his chin with his free hand. “That is really really not good!”
“Can we do something about it? Send a team to go kick his behind?”
Fitz shook his head. “We’ll have to wait for the rest of the agents to get back.”
“Why? Where are they?”
“Tracking ghosts. They just left, so now we have a problem.”
“Big time,” Jill was honestly surprised that S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t more involved in this yet. But, maybe they did have something else to worry about. An idea flashed inside her mind. “Shouldn’t I just go talk to him?”
“Too dangerous,” Fitz replied.
“I’ve been living in his apartment for two weeks, how much danger would I be in? Besides, I doubt he even considers me a threat right now.”
“All the same, you still shouldn’t leave the base. You’d never make it there on your own.”
“Who said I was going alone?” Jill said mischievously.
“No way! I am not going with you! Jemma and I are backup for the others if their plan goes South and… Arg, who am I kidding? I’m coming. You’re too persuasive.”

Chapter 16

“We’ll take a quinjet,” Fitz spoke hurriedly whilst he and Jill trotted into the vacant hanger.
Jill was amazed at the sight of the aircrafts that were stored in the base. She marveled at a helicarrier and oohed to a grouping of hover-cycles. Fitz had to have a good grip on her arm to keep her from running off and exploring the hanger. Focus was not one of her skills.
A dark blue quinjet with orange wings and the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo painted on its top was waiting for them. With Jill in tow, Fitz jogged onto the the ship’s ramp door and into its hull.
“I’ve never been in a jet before,” breathed Jill, gently raking her fingers along the walls as she walked farther inside.
Fitz slid into the cockpit and placed his black case in the copilot chair before falling in the pilot’s seat. “There’s no time to check out the scenery, we’ve got to go. Strap in. It’s going to get bumpy.”
She did as he requested. She then began tapping her feat on the metal floor in excitement, which made an annoyingly loud sound, causing Fitz to cringe.
The enormous hatch that shielded the hanger from the outside slowly began to open with protesting groans. Wind flew inside that ruffled Jill’s hair before the quinjet’s ramp could close. Fitz started up the engines and they glowed a fiery blue. The quinjet lifted from the floor and the landing gear sunk up into its compartments. Now, with a whoosh, the jet tilted back and was nearly vertical when it shot upward through the hatch, which closed almost immediately afterwards.
Jill strained her neck to peer out of the cockpit’s windshield and watch them fly from the underground base and out to shining blue skies. But from her view, she could not tell where on Earth they were. If only there had been a rear window.
Practically no time passed until the sky darkened and she could see small, red flames start to lick the front of the ship. Her feet stopped tapping when her thrill turned to concern.
“Are we on fire?” asked Jill.
Fitz shook his head. “No, we’re only reaching the edge of the atmosphere.”
“Oh yeah, only the atmosphere’s edge, no big deal,” she was jittery.
The quinjet automatically leveled out at this altitude, unable to climb any higher, as it was not build for travel out in space.
“It may be a little while before we reach Manhattan,” said Fitz, standing and motioning for Jill to unbuckle, “so you might want to preoccupy yourself.”
As soon as Jill stood, she noticed a change in the gravity. “I feel light,” she giggled.
“The gravitational pull is much less up here,” he explained, holding onto the back of his chair to steady himself. “Anyway… I have something for you in here. It’s something Jemma and I have been working on.”
Jill was intrigued. The black case was for her. What was inside? A weapon? Maybe even an icer or a baton. She giddily accepted it from him.
“Well, open it,” he said, nearly as excited as she was.
She didn’t need to be told twice. With trembling hands, she carefully pried the lid open and saw a pair of boots. A little disappointed, but still, she pulled them out. They were very tall and very yellow. The tops of them curved upwards in a sharp and stylish point. The material was interesting and felt like a thick wetsuit.
“Thank you..?” Jill said, almost in a question.
“There’s more,” reminded Fitz.
Curious, she now saw two yellow gloves that were made of the same material as the boots. And something else. A pale blue, neatly folded wetsuit made her give an unnoticeable gasp.
“I’ll go in here and let you change, tell me when you’re done. Oh, and you can remove the cast, it should be completely healed now,” he walked, floated, more like, into the cockpit and closed the sliding door to give her privacy.
She let out a yelp, throwing off her S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, including the cast, and yanking on the wetsuit as though in a race. The wetsuit’s fabric was much more silky and comfortable, making it feel like a regular shirt while still being waterproof. The boots slid on easily over her bare feet and came above the knee. The gloves the did the same and rode almost to her shoulders. After wadding up her former attire as tidily as she could, which was quite messy, she called Fitz in.
He at once began to look her up and down, feeling how the gloves fit to her arms and muttering to himself ways to improve the outfit. Jill felt like a mannequin.
“This is just a prototype,” he commented, stepping back with his hands on his hips. “We will want to update it, but it’s a good test to see if we may want to use the material for the other Avengers’ suits.”
“Avengers’ suits?!” exclaimed Jill, absentmindedly scratching the area of her arm where the cast used to be.
Fitz nodded. “We’ve been designing new ones for them. They’re a bit picky, though.”
“I’m wearing an Avenger suit?!” she collapsed in the chair behind her.
He nodded again, slightly amused. Suddenly, the quinjet lurched and Fitz perked up. He ran to the cockpit and flipped a few switches. Jill worriedly followed him.
“The ship’s going down,” he took his hands off of the controls and spoke angrily. “There’s nothing we can do about it. I was distracted and this is the consequence. Way to go, Fitz!”
“Stop being sarcastic, I’m sure we can fix this,” Jill glanced out the window and could just make out the tops of skyscrapers. “I hope.”

Chapter 17

In the cockpit by herself, Jill smushed her face against the orange windshield and watched the grey storm clouds billow past. Manhattan lay below them. And they were speeding toward it.
“How are you doing back there?” questioned Jill loudly.
A Scottish voice answered her. “Not too well. Turns out it’s not my flying skills that’s bringing us down. The engine is faulty, which is why this jet was in storage.”
Worry pricked Jill. “Will we be able to land?”
Silence followed her inquiry. She took it as a maybe.
Her nose was starting to hurt, so she pried her face away from the glass and let loose a breath. She examined her outfit once more and was yet again thrilled with the Avenger suit. Was she obsessing over it… Jill wouldn’t admit that to even herself.
She turned in her chair when Fitz returned. There was grease smeared on his clothes and he had a blank expression.
“So,” he began, “the bad news is that the engine is fried, but you already knew that. The good news is that we have just enough fuel to land safely in the middle of the city—Jill? Are you paying attention?”
“What? Oh, right, er, yeah I’m paying you my complete attention,” Jill gave him an askew grin.
Fitz talked now with his hands folded together in front of him. “Anyway, we should be on the ground soon, so we need a plan. Do you have a plan?”
Jill thought for a moment. Plans were never her strong-suit. Most things in her life had just… happened via coincidence. Like her becoming an archeologist. One week she was the college graduate with no path, the next she was headed off to explore a coral reef and find an amulet that would change her life. And that amulet was why she was here today: to stop her evil cousin from taking it and using it for who-knows-what in Hydra. A plan was needed. “I should talk to him, alone. Explain why Hydra is bad and convince him to join S.H.I.E.L.D. instead,” she spoke matter-of-factly.
“Jill, I don’t—I don’t think that will work,” he said with memories flashing in his mind, “Ward isn’t someone who listens to reason.”
Grant may have been the bad guy now, but Jill knew her cousin. She opened her mouth to argue with him, but the quinjet jolted again and both of their heads shot to the windows. The engine spluttered and died within moments. They hung in the air. Suspended for a split-second, but soon fell from the sky like a meteor.
“Get in the back!” hollered Fitz, moving behind Jill and pushing her by the shoulders into the hull. She obliged without much struggle as she was still in shock. He shoved her in a seat and dropped in one himself. They buckled their crisscrossing seatbelts and readied for the worst.
Crunch
The impact jerked Jill hard and made her head spin. She gasped and wished for a bucket in case she vomited. Soon the crash landing was over. She unfastened the straps in a rush to get out and see what damage the jet might’ve caused. She checked on Fitz, but the young man was knocked out cold. She left him there and climbed out of the hatch.
A concrete road met her yellow boots. She coughed and waved her hand through the dense dust that surrounded her and stung her eyes. In a few steps, the smoke cleared and she saw a timid crowd of citizens .
“Are you an Avenger?” was the first question from the group, wondered by an excited teenager.
“Well…” she wasn’t sure how to reply.
An older man asked this question. “Have you come to save us from the Cyclone?”
“Cyclone?” Jill’s voice was rough. She needed water.
The same man nodded and pointed to the dark sky. Raindrops suddenly fell as though he had conjured them.
Jill caught a few droplets and studied the tiny pool that they made in her palm. They glowed blue. Just like her own water that flowed through her veins. She closed her hand and the water trickled from the fist.
“Gotta go,” was all that she said before bracing herself and thrusting off of the ground with water gushing from her gloves.
Faster than a bullet, Jill soared high in the air before slowing her ascent when she reached the grey clouds. Her heart pounded and her throat tightened in fear of whom she knew that she would find.
A flash of lightning illuminated a shadowed figure floating in front of her. She wobbly flew toward them and ignored the thunder of her heartbeat in her ears.
The figure wore a black and blue wetsuit and a skintight black mask. Their hands faced downwards and water poured from them. A shiver of fear entered Jill when the mask stared straight at her.
“Who are you?” her voice shook.
“You don’t know?” answered a muffled voice.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on levitating, not wanting to focus on the person facing her. “I do know, but I wish I didn’t. What are you doing?”
“Ending the world with a Cyclone,” they calmly said, “are you here to stop me?”
With a deep breath, she replied, “Yes.”
A sudden blast of water from them surprised Jill and she barely managed to dodge it. The person sighed. “Then sadly, we are enemies.”
“We don’t have to be,” said Jill, “we could work together. S.H.I.E.L.D. will—”
“You don’t know S.H.I.E.L.D. like I do!” they bellowed and she winced. With glowing fists, they lunged and attacked her.
Jill blocked their blows, but couldn’t fight back. She was shaking with emotion from head to toe.
They ripped off their mask and revealed the face of Grant. “Oh cousin, you do not know S.H.I.E.L.D. at all.”

Chapter 18

“What?” cried Jill, blocking a blow from her cousin with her arms. “What don’t I know about S.H.I.E.L.D.? They told me that you are Hydra! You betrayed them! And you-you died!”
Grant shot a useless stream of water at Jill. “All of that is true. But they lied about one thing. I didn’t die, I was murdered! By Phill Coulson!”
“But, you were the bad guy to them,” Jill tried to speak reason to him and herself. “That’s part of war.”
“He crushed my lungs and left me on another planet! He killed me out of cold blood, your precious S.H.I.E.L.D. has no mercy on their defenseless enemies. And neither does Hydra.”
“Don’t you work for Hydra? And how did you survive?”
“Hydra is as cursed as S.H.I.E.L.D.! They hate mercy and don’t forgive. I left them as soon as I understood what they were doing,” he explained with anguish in his eyes. “No, I didn’t survive, but my body was possessed. The thing took over my mind, though I was still there. Just a small particle. When S.H.I.E.L.D. sent me and my possessor into space and exploded us, only the possessor died. I remained.”
Grant ceased the fighting and held out his right, gloved hand to Jill. “Join me in ending both S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, and everyone else who lies and sins. We’re better than they are. We deserve to start this corrupt world over.”
“But by starting the world over,” Jill was now sobbing, “you’d be pulling a Thanos. You’d be killing the entire population.”
“They’ll die so that others—better people—will live!”
A powerful gust of wind nearly took Jill out of the sky. The Cyclone of all cyclones was beginning. All across the globe, clouds were covering the skies and sheets of glowing rain would endlessly fall from them, flooding the whole world. Again.
But Jill took heart in knowing that somehow, someway, her cousin would not be able to complete this feat. So she yelled through her glowing blue tears, “I will never join you!”
Grant’s face screwed up in anger. He sent a large water blast at Jill, which hit her. She cried out in agony and felt the wetsuit’s shoulder melt away from the boiling liquid. The rest of it protected her skin from the impact.
“Just leave then,” said Grant. “You’re powers are no match for mine. I found your amulet and held it for so long that I drained the last of its power. You only absorbed a quarter of what I did.”
As though to prove it to her, he lifted both of his hands and sent a swirling current of the rain from the clouds at Jill. It blew her back, but she managed to avoid most of the water tornado.
“A drought will have to come before I give up!” Jill pulled back her arms and sent iced water to Grant. It hit his left arm and froze it for a moment, but it soon melted when he threw boiling water over it.
Jill breathed heavily. She used up too much of her strength in that pitiful blast.
“Weak!” Grant created another, larger tornado and blew it to her.
This time, she made a thick ice shield and held it out in front of her. It caught the attack and reflected it right back at him with double the power. He got its full blast and fell a few feet, only to levitate up again.
“The Avengers defeated Thanos out of fear of his power and knowledge without understanding of what he was actually trying to do,” he yelled at her. “So I’m going to do what even The Mad Titan could not.”
Rain fell on Jill. Hard rain. Hail. It poured onto her by the gallon. She strained to stay afloat, but found it nearly impossible. I cannot let him win. I will not let him. With a cry, she forced out her legs and arms, breaking off the onslaught of hail and blowing it to Grant. He dodged, but that wasn’t all she had for him.
She closed her eyes and ceased the water coming from her hands. She hovered without any support. The moister in the air had come to her aid. Every vein in her body glowed the brightest blue. Jill could feel the water. Really feel it. The Cyclone around her no longer belonged Grant Ward. But to her.
“What are you doing?” breathed Grant.
She opened her eyes, which were now shining solid blue. “I am one with the water, and the water is me.”
The rain ended for a split second, then returned. But this time every droplet was aimed at her cousin. The full blast of the Cyclone now attacked him.
“What—no, this can’t be happening!” Grant held up his hands as the rain got heaver and heaver. It fell onto him like bullets. He shrunk back and, with one last scream, fell from the sky into the clouds below.
Now that he was out of the picture, Jill turned back to the rain clouds. She breathed and calmly commanded them to stop the Cyclone. They did. And all across the globe, the clouds receded. No harm had been done.
She then floated down through the clear, blue skies. Her eyes and veins slowly faded their glow as she descended. She landed on a sidewalk and was grateful that the people were too focused on the weather to notice her sneaking by them. Jill crept into an alleyway and sat down on the pavement, leaning her bruised back against the brick wall of a restaurant.
It was over. Grant was finally defeated and the world was now safe. She let it all sink in.
“I’m sorry, cousin,” she mumbled. “It had to be done. But I’ll always remember the good version of you.”
She looked around with now dry eyes. Maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. could use a new member.

Epilogue

Two years later.

Jill jumped up and gave the robot a triple kick to its mechanical face. She flipped a lose strand of her ponytailed hair back as she landed. Her eyes glowed blue and she lifted her right hand, shooting a burst of water at the robot, finishing it off.
“Destroy target. Destroy target.”
She whipped around, still crouched down on the white hexagon floor. Three more human sized droids came toward her with their stun guns pointed at her.
Out of breath, she spoke. “You know, you guys can quit whenever you want to.” They didn’t listen and kept coming. She shrugged. “Tried to warn you.”
With the veins in her arms and face glowing blue, Jill charged the robots and pushed off the floor in a blast of water. She threw balls of water at each enemy and summersaulted over their heads, landing in a handstand. She flipped over, the droids falling behind her.
“Record time!” Fitz came out of a door to her left, followed by Jemma, Daisy, and Bucky Barns.
“Thanks,” said Jill, her veins’ glow dimming.
“Yeah, I think you beat Natasha’s timing. And no one beat Natasha.” Daisy looked impressed, so Jill took pride in that.
Jill looked around at the people standing in front of her. “Where’re Lee and Clint? I thought they were going to be here for my record?”
“They…” Jemma looked to Bucky and he nodded his approval. She turned back to Jill and said, “They left. There is someone we need. For the approaching battle.”
Jill blinked. “Battle?”
Bucky nodded again. “That’s why we’ve been training so hard. We’ll be attacked soon.”
“Woah woah woah.” Jill held out her hands. “Why are you just telling me this? I’ve been with this team for two years now. I think you can trust me.”
“It’s because we didn’t know about it until a couple of weeks ago.” Daisy was worried. “Something big is coming. Something we’ve never seen before.”
“Ok, so who are they going to get?”
“Someone we should’ve called for The Endgame,” said Bucky.
“So, like a superhero? Like a SUPER-hero?” she was itching to learn more.
“They’ve returned,” Fitz muttered to Jemma.
“They’re here!” Jill exclaimed. “Can I meet them? The superhero?”
Daisy took a deep breath. “Ok. Follow me.”
Jill did. Not sure what to expect.

Nice! 👍

👍

Thanks!

So i (for the first time EVER) am planning a story, but i need input, so i made a forum and im wondering if yall could check it out
https://www.mecabricks.com/en/forum/topic/4900