Loving Marianna

Chapter Twenty- Six

Due to the bakery being redone I have a bit more free time which really means more time for training and my mates.

"Marianna, Fury needs you at shield alone." Tony informs me nervously. I take his hand in mine and plant a kiss on it before pulling him to me rubbing his back.

"It's gonna be okay. I'll be back before you know it safe in your arms." I whisper sweetly before pulling away and heading for the door.

"Wait!" Tony stops me in my tracks.

"It's not too late to back out. To just stay here. Safe."

I give him a half smile and walk out the door.

I have Happy drive me so I don't keep Fury waiting. He doesn't seem like the guy to keep waiting.

"Finally." Fury says without turning around. I roll my eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes."

How did he?

"I know everything." He finally turns looking at me cockily.

"Except about me." I shoot back.

He did not find that as funny as I did based off the way he's staring daggers at me.

"Sorry." I apologize halfheartedly. He shakes his head.

"Obviously I called you here today for your first solo mission. Because of the fact that you can breathe underwater I thought this would be a perfect mission for you. Couple of months ago a handful of scientists got fired from Stanford because it was found out that they were mutants. Saying that they would endanger the students and faculty there they got away with it. So they started creating mass weapons of destruction. Normally we wouldn't take on something like this but because the weapons are so high tech and the fact that they are mutants changes things. I need you to stop their boat. Safely secure those weapons and the scientist."

"So no killing?" I question.

"No killing." He states.

"To make that easier here is a S.H.I.E.L.D level sleeper gun. One shot and your target is out like a light for at minimum 3 hours." I hold it in my hands and smirk. It feels really nice. I've held my fair share of weaponry. This is high class and will make the job way easier.

"Any information on their mutant abilities?"

"Drea, and Drew Carson brother and sister who both use illusions." A hologram of a young woman no older than 25 and a man who looks maybe a year or two younger.

"Phillip Sully has super strength." A hologram of a middle aged man appears.

"And Maira Welsh the telepath." The hologram changes to a woman who looks about 30 or so.

"I'll send you the information. Now that you're officially an Avenger I'll be contacting you personally." He says and I briskly leave. I get the information right away and make sure to save his number and quickly head to the location he sent. Once I get there I scope out the boat I'm supposed to be following and strip in a hidden area and shove my clothes into a bag before jumping into the water and shifting. I conceal myself and watch as the four people enter the boat and take off. I follow closely behind careful not to get stuck in the propellers. Once we're safely away from anyone who could be hurt if a fight breaks out I quietly board the boat and get my suit on. It's wet but at least it's not destroyed from the shift. I sing quietly to dry myself off and move in the boat.

"Someone's here." I hear a female voice say.

"I can hear her thoughts." Fuck me. I clear my head and try to think of irrelevant things. Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Anakin Skywalker.

"She's thinking of Star Wars characters what the fuck?" She says aloud.

"Find her now." But it's too late I found them. I shoot the telepath with the gun and she falls to the ground with a thud. All of a sudden a hole appears under my feet and I'm falling into the ocean. I go to shift but remember that the siblings use illusions. This isn't real I tell my self. Just as I pull myself out of the illusion I receive a strong kick to my jaw from the man with super strength. I stumble back and see the man look impressed that I took his hit I use this time to shoot him three times just to be sure, he's a pretty big dude and I don't take chances. I turn to the the siblings who look scared but are in a defensive position.

"How did you break out of our illusion?!" The girl screams.

"Guess you're just not that good." I turn around and shoot behind me instead of at the two people in front of me. When I do the illusions in front of me fade and the real siblings fall to the ground.

I tell Fury the job is done and to come clean up this mess. I wait on the boat to make sure they don't wake up and that nothing happens to the weapons.

Suddenly I hear footsteps. I just updated Fury so there's no way even he could've gotten here that fast. I move towards the sound drawing my sleeper gun.

"Don't shoot!" A naked figure says when I point the gun at their head. I lower it immediately when I recognize them as a siren.

"I'm sorry you can never be too safe." I laugh handing the male siren a towel that was on the boat.

"Is everything okay in the waters?" I ask concerned.

"Nobody has came to bother us in any region of the world if that's what you're asking me. My soulmate is a human and now we can tell her family and begin a family of our own without fear. So when I saw you swimming after this boat I needed to thank you and tell you that though some of the elders are skeptical everyone is thankful for what you did , now we can live freely in water and out of water. We accept your protection and offer ours in turn. Thank you Marianna." He bows. I look shocked down at him.

"You don't have to bow syngeneìs." (Kin in Greek)

"So they don't hate me?" I ask my brows slightly furrowing in worry.

He shoots up and touches my shoulder.

"You are of us. It does not matter that you spend your life on land. You carry the songs and the blood and are pure at heart. None of us could ever hate you. I take a deep breath, relaxing. It's such a relief to know I didn't lose the only part of my father I have left. I sing and he harmonizes with me tears rolling down our cheeks from the connection. We finish together and hug.

"Thank you for telling me this-" I falter realizing I don't even know his name.

"Ivan." He smiles.

"Thank you Ivan. There will be government here soon, they won't do anything but I'm sure you don't want to deal with all that."

"Thank you Marianna. If you need anything I frequently visit the west deep sea corals you can find me there or just sing out for me. Now that we know each other and have harmonized it shouldn't be too hard to locate me."

"You too Ivan, you or any other siren can sing out to me if something happens or find me at Stark Tower, I wasn't joking when I said the protection of the sirens is up to the Avengers now including me." He nods gratefully and jumps into the water shifting and flapping his tail to me before disappearing. Almost on cue Fury and his guys show up and take the scientist into custody and safely secure the weapons.

"Need a ride back?" Fury questions.

"Nah I got my own way." He turns away the tips of his ears burning red and I strip down again shoving my clothes into the bag and jumping into the water. I shift and Fury looks at me in wonder. Realizing what he's doing he quickly snaps out of it and grumbles, "I've seen cooler."

I laugh and splash him as I swim away into the night silently celebrating my first successful mission.