The White Wolf

XXXIV

Five years. Five years of her life without the people Thanos snapped away. Five years of work to try to keep the world as safe as they could. To monitor any threats to the few that remained. To provide aid across the universe in any way they could. Natasha's hair had grown out past her shoulders again, her natural red roots encompassing her head once more, leaving the ends of her hair bright blonde. Ava's hair would have grown out or fallen out, but Natasha made her take care of it with good shampoos and conditioners- even going as far as giving her hair a trim when the ends would begin to fray.

Ava sat behind the desk beside Nat who stood, speaking to the others. The scent of peanut butter invaded her nose from the sandwich Natasha had made and set on a plate on the desk. She stared down at the tablet in her hands as she took notes on everything they were saying. They held group meetings like this monthly, and individual meetings every other week. The work was busy, but at least they were making an effort to keep their broken, depressive world and universe at least a little safer from wrong-doers.

Rocket and Nebula stood in one hologram projection together, Okoye in another, followed by Carol, and lastly Rhodey. Nat leaned her hands on the desk as she stood, listening to everyone share their news from their individual missions and surveillance. "Yeah, we boarded that highly-suspect warship Danvers pinged." Rocket muttered, turning his furry little head toward Carol, his teeth bared.

"It was an infectious garbage scow-" Nebula shot Carol a similar glance. If looks could kill.

"So, thanks for the hot tip." The raccoon crossed his arms.

Carol shrugged, not minding their dirty looks whatsoever. "Well, you were closer."

"Yeah, and now we smell like garbage!"

Ava chuckled lightly, looking up at them from the tablet as Natasha cut her sandwich in half with a sharp knife. She looked back down at her tablet, going over the notes from their most recent meetings. "We got a reading on those tremors?" She asked, glancing at Okoye for an answer.

Okoye clasped her hands together behind her back, lifting her chin. "'Twas a mild subduction under the African Plate."

"Do we have a visual?" Natasha asked, setting down the knife. "How are we handling it?"

The general deadpanned at the red-head, refraining from rolling her eyes. "Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it." She said, her tone edging on judgment. Natasha had a habit of getting hyper-vigilant with this job. It was her desperate attempt to fix everything she could to make up for the wrongs that were caused five years ago. Ava pursed her lips, taking note of the news in her files.

Natasha took a breath to refocus herself before moving on to the next idea. "Carol, are we seeing you here next month?" 

The Captain shook her head. "Not likely."

"What, you gonna get another haircut?" Rocket scoffed at her. Ava couldn't help the small smirk on her lips as she looked to see Carol glare at the talking animal. The new hair didn't look awful on her, but Ava had a preference for her longer hair. Her blonde locks were just much shorter than they all had expected when they began the meeting that evening. Short and pulled back, cut into an elongated pixie with an undercut. It was sexy and functional in their line of work- it wouldn't get in her face. Ava didn't have the confidence to cut her hair that short, but she knew how beneficial shorter hair would be.

"Listen, fur-face." Captain Marvel snapped. "I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets." 

Rocket nodded, looking down at the ground. "All right- all right. That's a good point, that's a good point."

She sighed, turning her head to look to Natasha with a much friendlier expression. "So you guys probably won't see me for a while."