Talia Scott was a superb racing driver, so why did she end up driving Tony Stark around? And how does she become an Avenger?
Well it's a quite a story, trust me.
Read on and discover the sarcastic delights of the Avengers favourite bodyguard and ch...
He looked... totally at calm and at peace, no worry clouded his face, only a thin layer of crystallised ice, clinging to the thick glass, obscured her view of him.
All she could think was that chilling footage. On that road, with that car and it's two passengers. Images of the videotape flashed through her mind so quickly and violently that she had to turn away from the frozen capsule, and the familiar man inside it.
"How long will he stay like this?" She asked quietly. "Not long, my sister thinks she knows how to help him now, and my kingdom is safe enough now to bring him back for recuperation from.." T'Challa trailed off at the look on her face.
"From being HYDRA's murderous assassin for a hundred years, you've sure got your work cut out for you," she joked, but her face remained stony.
"For a man who needs our help," the king replied softly, "It's okay to need help, ....tell me Talia, how well do you sleep?" Her face snapped up to lock with his own at the words, golden eyes burning with silent fury,
"Just fine." She uttered through gritted teeth, before forcing herself to look back at the icy tank, "At least my mind is my own. T'Challa ... anyway I don't think I can accept your help here, if he's here... because Tony.. I..."
His face remained passively calm, but he gripped her hand firmly, "Don't let your friend's troubles affect your life Talia, that would not be wise."
She didn't reply, eyes still glued to the tank, so he sighed, releasing her hand, "We'll put him on the outskirts, far from the city."
She nodded tightly, so he walked away in near silent padded footsteps, she noticed, all the while she still gazed at the sleeping man.
~
A month passed by, and she didn't once ask about Bucky, even when one day, when she tentatively ventured to see his frozen state, she found the capsule open and empty.
No, she didn't ask about how they intended to help fix him, and neither did she ask about herself either, so far her stay had been mostly residential.
She had her own set of chambers, comfy and warm in the depths of the mountain, near to lab where Shuri spent all her time. Near to the basement that contained rows of high tech sports car models that she drooled at the sight of, spending a good portion of her day with the beauties, the rest exercising or doing whatever- the Wakandans didn't seem to want to stick her in therapy or anything, almost like they were waiting for her to do something- which she had no idea about.
Until one night, when the nightmare got so bad she started screaming and awoke to find several armed guards standing around her, mouths wide in shock at the sight of her burnt bed, reduced to embers and glowing ashes. Shouting "UMLILO! UMLILO!" FIRE! FIRE!
Then they wanted to talk.
"You have powers?" Shuri exclaimed excitedly, bouncing from one foot to another beside a worried looking T'Challa and the general of the Dora Milaje, a fierce woman who she knew now to be Okoye. They were currently stood in the lab, while Talia sat on one of the chairs, wrapped in a blanket, ash and sweat still clinging to her skin.
"Not exactly," she rubbed a hand over her face exhaustedly, but they didn't look convinced. So she explained, told them her story, of the war and then driving and Extremis.
"They didn't take it out of you, did they?" T'Challa said quietly, and she shook her head, "It had been part of for me too long, unlike Pepper, it had bonded to me. So the only way to keep it from killing me was to suppress it, which Tony did somehow- I'm not sure but I lost my hand again, obviously."
Shuri's face had lost her childlike excitement now, and was analysing her with quiet intent, "If you let me scan you... I could work out what he did, maybe find a better solution for you."
"Really?" Talia looked up at her with hope shining in her eyes, "No ones ever known how to fix me." She whispered.
They didn't reply, Shuri cleared her throat tactically and even T'Challa swallowed before mischief flickered upon his face, "I knew you were too strong to be normal."
"Oh yeah?" She grinned, "Was that before or after I wiped the floor with you?" T'Challa laughed with her but Okoye just tutted, loudly. The first noise she'd made, clearly she didn't approve of anyone fighting her king.
"The king is the most skilled warrior, he will have allowed you to win, or won eventually."
Talia's grin didn't fade, "Oh he did, I had the bruises to prove it." Okoye tutted again, "You fight like a soldier girl, I should teach you the warrior way."
"Yintoni ingxaki ngamajoni? What's wrong with soldiers?
Okoye blinked, the only surprise she would show at her native tongue, "Kwaye Ndiza kukufundisa nesiXhosa esifanelekileyo." And I will also teach you proper Xhosa.
She nodded her head gratefully, hiding her smirk, this was not a woman to be messed with and she was actually quite excited to be taught by her.
" Come Talia, there is much to do."
~
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Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
The huge metal ring rotated around her, the movement humming past her ears as she tried to remain as still as possible under Shuri's watchful eyes, "Right." The girl announced, as the whirring stopped, "All done, let's take a look."
Nervously Talia sat up from the examining table and moved to peer over Shuri's shoulder at images she literally couldn't tell were of, the genius in front of her clearly did though, and flicked through them rapidly, before transferring it to a floating holographic image of her body above the table.
"Does my bum really look like that?" Talia frowned and Shuri just rolled her eyes, zooming in on certain systems in her body, there was an orange haze surrounding her internal organs and right arm.
"So?" She asked impatiently after a couple of minutes.
"So." Shuri hummed thoughtfully, "I might be able to isolate the alterations from your main organs, but you'd need to..." she paused still scanning the images, "You'd have to somehow harness the power, actually use it in some sense, to keep it from overwhelming you, like it does randomly."
"U-use it? I can't even control it. It melts or disintegrates everything I touch, my hand has actually melted before! Tony's made me so many in the past."
"Guess you'll need an upgrade then, what is it titanium?" the scientist grinned, "No match for tempered vibranium, it could withstand molten lava if you needed it to."
Talia nodded, worries and thoughts swirling through her mind, she'd never thought of Extremis as anything other than a foreign object within her, that caused only pain, never a.. superpower? She felt ridiculous even saying it, she wasn't a superhero, or an Avenger. But if this could work, maybe she could help more, do more, without worrying about hurting anyone accidentally, and she'd have control.
