Ash Blackheart: The Blackheart

A New Home

When I woke, Miko and Etat were gone, and I was still by the boulder laying on a pile of jackets. I quickly touched my face to make sure the glasses were still on my face. They were there. 

"Etat...?" I asked a little hesitantly. 

"Hello, Ashley." Etat's voice floated into my head. "Miko and I are doing a perimeter sweep to see if there are any towns close by." He replied to my unspoken question. I nodded to myself.

"Alright, just let me know when you're coming back so I don't accidentally blast you by accident." I told him.

"Yes ma'am." Miko's voice chuckled through the speaker. I rolled my eyes and looked around the savanna. The glasses pointed out different kinds of grass and zoomed in on small bugs and gave me a briefing on them. When I got tired of this, I rummaged through my bag. Dr. Ian must have put some things in while I wasn't looking. I found multiple cans of powdered milk, he had obviously planned on Miko joining me, and a card. I bit back tears and zipped the letter in a separate pocket, not wanting to break down again. Finally I found what I was looking for, and sat back with a sandwich that I had made that morning for my escape. As I relaxed, watching the setting sun, I slowly allowed the cartoon stories to run wild in my mind. I may not have been able to see them, but at least I could remember them. But. . .what if I could see them.

"Etat, you swept through my worlds internet, correct? Did you save any of it?" I asked, an idea slowly coming into my head. 

"I did."

"Wonderful, can you play my lonely spotify playlist please?" I asked, chewing on the sandwich, hoping this worked. 

"Right away." He replied obediently. I smiled as the music slowly drifted into my ears. When my dinner was gone, I looked down at my cuffs that held the grooves shut. I searched for the power I'd felt earlier that day, and it came eagerly. It swirled around my fingers and out of my wrists. Dr. Ian said I could control light and darkness, and maybe more. I looked at the setting sun, and stared hard at it. Immediately, my head began to throb uncontrollably with pain, but I persisted. Then, rather disturbingly, the sun began to rise backward. I barely made it past the rim of the earth, before my ribs popped, blood exploded out of my nose, and I passed out for the second time that day.

"You are probably the biggest idiot I have ever met, what if you killed yourself?" Miko asked exasperatedly as soon as I had recovered the next morning.

"Well, I wasn't exactly thinking about anything. I just wanted to try it." I muttered, holding a rag to my nose, which had started bleeding again. 

"No kidding." Miko snorted pawing through my bag. "Wait for my instructions next time." I rolled my eyes but didn't reply to Miko.

"Etat, have you found the Gram guy yet?" I asked Etat who stood near by keeping watch.

"He is at his office in a S.H.I.E.L.D. base in New York. His guard has been doubled because of you, he expects an attack." Etat told us, not taking his scanner off the planes. 

"As he should!" Miko growled hopping up onto a smaller boulder beside the one I leaned against. "Ashley, lets start exercising your powers slowly. Try to clear this area around us of grass. That way we can light a fire without burning this place down." I sighed, but summoned my powers quickly and let it spread out from my hands. It dribbled from my hands to the grounds and began to spread out. Immediately I could feel the life in each stem of grass. I grasped at this and began draining it, watching the grass before me wither and turn to a fine ash that blew away with the wind. I got excited, and the grass began dying more rapidly, rippling away from me like waves in a pond when a rock is tossed in. The trees in the distance quaked, and blew away in ash. "Whoa whoa stop!" Miko shouted in my ear. "I didn't mean kill the savanna, I just wanted a place to make a fire." I turned my attention back to the magic.

"I-I don't know if I can stop it." I yelled grasping at the black strands curling away from my hands.

"You have to! Train yourself." Miko snapped. My mind was a mess. How had they done this in my comics? Panic shot through me and the ring of dying grass grew quicker. "Calm down, remember, you're in control. You're just overthinking it." Miko sighed, quieting his voice. I latched on to his calm like a limpet and haltingly, the magic returned to me.

"Maybe-maybe I can fix it." I murmured, looking around the desolate  scene I'd created. 

"Possibly, but let's just get some dinner, I'm sure you're starving. While you're at it, get me some milk will you?" He asked, jumping off the rock and sitting on the ground. I glanced at him. White with black blotches and green eyes. He looked like the average house cat, but he could talk. "Stop staring child." He sighed. I went back to work preparing the food, and got out the lighter.

"Um, we don't have any fuel for a fire." I murmured.

"Of course we don't. You destroyed everything that was around us." Miko snorted, licking one of his paws. 

"Could I make the magi bring me some?" I asked, reaching for the black magic that swirled inside me.

"Go ahead and try. Just don't bring the entire continent of Africa crashing down on our heads, please and thank you." I rolled my eyes. Miko was getting cranky now that he was hungry.  Thinking carefully, I remembered what happened best in the comics, and called a thin stream of the magic between my hands. I crafted this strand for one purpose, to bring fuel. It darted away from my hand and I waited anxiously, hoping I hadn't messed anything up again. But to our relief, the magic brought us enough fuel to last through the night.

"What an impressive trick, Ashley Victor." I leapt to my feet and Miko's fur stood on end. We turned. Four men stood by the boulder, all armed, but none of their weapons were in their hands. Without realizing I'd done it, the magic swirled around my hands.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" I snarled. I could kill more people, I'd done it once before.  Deep down, I was still uncomfortable with that fact. 

"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Klaw, and I offer you my services." The leader chuckled rubbing a hand over his highly tattooed neck.

"What do you want from me?" I raised my hands. "This? I'm not giving it to you. I'll kill you with it if I have to." Klaw chuckled again.

"Listen, sweetheart, we don't want trouble, I just want to talk. I have something you need, and you have something I need."

"We don't need anything." Miko hissed, eyes snapping sparks.

"You need a home to take refuge in, one that the Avengers can't find you in. I need another man on my job, or woman in this case." His cobalt eyes looked me dead in the face, as he leaned closer and whispered so that only the two of us could hear: "What do you say, Ashley? I'm the only one here qualified to teach you. I can provide a safe place to do it in." I took a deep breath. 

"I'm in."