Texting THE Avengers

Chapter 20- Awoken

  When Emma awoke, she had a pounding headache. It was like the one time she got a concussion, multiplied several times over. She also felt weird. Her surroundings didn't seem right. Of course, she didn't know, since she hadn't yet made her way to the Medbay in the compound.

  But she knew something about her was off. She could feel it. It was as if everything around her was smaller, as if her field of vision had widened. To put it simply, everything had made her, well, Confuzzled.

  But, Emma was quick to remove the IV in her arm and hightail it out of that room, because she didn't much like hospitals. In fact, she hated them. So, she sped out of there like Pietro was on her ass. Though, she would've been caught if it was Pietro chasing her.

She made her way to the meeting room to overhear Steve talking, "-do to her?"

"I don't know." Bruce responded, "But I think they gave her the power to control light."

"Oh, and how'd you figure that out?" Tony remarked sarcastically, "Maybe it was the way she turned pitch black, and then suddenly got so bright we almost went blind, all for her to turn invisible? Or was it the whole 'She was kidnapped by Hydra' thing?"

"This power..." Natasha lead off.

"It could ruin her." Clint finished.

She could hear the clapping of hands, and Tony spoke, "Or it could help her out. I mean, it could keep her from getting kidnapped again."

"And then she could become an Avenger!" Thor suggests excitedly.

"No!" Clint and Natasha yell at the same time.

Steve asks the question they've all been dying to ask, "How is she?"

"She seems fine." Bruce answers, "I think that what happened on the Quinjet, her passing out, all was her body adjusting to the powers she was given. And before you ask, no. I don't know if the powers will be permanent or temporary, but if I were to guess- by the way it bonded with her cells -that it's permanent. We need to train her. So she can get a hold of it."

"How long till she wakes up?" Clint asks.

Emma takes this as her cue to walk in, "Eh, I'd say negative 5 minutes."

Natasha was the first to reach her, "Are you okay?"

When Emma nods, Clint playfully slaps her shoulder, "Don't ever do that again."

Emma shrugs, "We'll see."

"We'll see?" Tony panics, "We'll see? Is that all the fuck you got?"

Emma chuckles, "Well, you never know when your family is the Avengers."

Tony rolls his eyes, "Well, if you get kidnapped again, I'm grounding you."

"Hey!" She exclaims, "You can't do that!"

"But I can." Clint points out and Emma can see a spark of mischief in his eyes, "And I will."

"Awww, come on!" Emma begs, "Nat! He can't do that!"

Natasha grins, "I'm with Clint on this one."

"So..." Emma trails off, "I get kidnapped and my ass is going to Avenger jail- which consists of a nice bed, a TV in my room? Well, I might as well do it again."

Sam looks panicked, "No! No, no. You can't do that. I swear, I was afraid Nat was gonna kill me!"

"And Nat will if you use that nickname." Emma points out.

"And what about you?" Sam asks, putting his chin up like a defiant toddler.

Emma pulls her into a side hug, "Well, she loves me. You, well, she wouldn't hesitate to kill."

Bruce looks around awkwardly, "Are we gonna address the problem here?"

"What is it?" Natasha asks with a groan.

"Emma's slightly glowing." Tony interjects, "I mean- I assume that's the problem?"

Emma looks down, "That's- That's- well, eh."

Rhodey raises an eyebrow, "You get superpowers and all you say is 'eh'?"

Emma shrugs, "Not like it's the coolest power in the book. I mean, Thor controls electricity. Bruce turns into a big green man with anger management issues. Steve is 100 years old, but doesn't look a day over 30. Peter can predict attacks seconds before they happen. Light- Light's nice, but it's not the best."

Natasha nods her head in agreement, "But it's still pretty cool, isn't it?"

"Only if controlling light means I can make illusions." She suggests, hopeful.

"I would assume so." Vision speaks up, "If you could make yourself invisible, then I would assume you can make nonexistent things appear."

"This is so fucking cool!" Emma realizes her mistake and corrects herself, "Oh, my! Sorry, Cap. I mean freaking."

  The Avengers all burst out laughing, Steve looking back at her with a semi-embarrassed, semi-betrayed expression on his face. And eventually, Steve joins the laughter. Because with a simple remark, all of their problems are erased for a few seconds, not noticing Emma's glow getting brighter.

  But that doesn't matter, does it? Because when you're truly happy, all of your problems can be truly hidden away, saved for another day. Emma may no longer be physically normal, but in her head, she is the same Emma from before. And that's all that really matters, right?

Well, not for long.