Earth-671. The blip happened and no one could correct its effects.
Rynn lost her family and, in an attempt to get them back, all her friends. Her gift to see the future failed her and she still blames herself for not being able to do anything to hel...
They sat across from each other in some empty diner they had found nearby. While Steve stirred his milkshake with one of those red and white straws, Rynn just sat there silently, arms folded as she had done in the parking lot.
She probably would have stared him down had she been able to see.
"So, talk," she demanded, for which she only briefly disengaged her tense jaws from each other.
There was nowhere she would have liked to be less right now than in this place. The atmosphere between them was a strange mixture of nervousness and unease. Besides, the diner reeked of burnt oil and cheap coffee.
She heard a faint scratching sound, which made her think Steve had been stroking his beard, which he seemed to be growing now.
Pre-Blip he had been described to her by her best friend as a handsome, well-groomed man with a face as smooth as a baby's bottom. Of course, those were Dalia's words and not Rynn's.
"Nat and I we... It's..." Steve paused and sighed deeply, as if he was not quite sure how to describe the past few years.
They had probably been as hard and filled with acts of desperation as Rynn's own.
"Tell me the short version Steve, we can sort everything else out another time."
Damn! That had sounded like she wanted to sit him down to talk again, which was not her intention at all.
"We are looking for young talents with whom we can start a new generation of Avengers. The state on the streets is unbearable and we both believe that heroes, like before... Well, before it happens, it could give people hope again."
Steve stopped himself so as not to overwhelm Rynn with too much unnecessary information, because then she definitely would not stay long.
"Okay," she reckoned disinterestedly, dragging out the last letter. One of her eyebrows had wandered up sceptically. "And you're talking to me because?"
Taken aback, Steve suppressed a laugh. She was not serious, was she?
He quickly took a sip of his milkshake in order to collect himself before pushing the glass a little away from him.
"Our organisation has had its eye on you for a while now, Rynn. We know about your... talent."
"What organisation," she relented, struggling not to let her shock at his last statement show.
"It's classified."
Actually, that did not mean anything anymore. S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D., the Avengers, nothing had survived the blip, not even Hydra, who were usually so tenacious, but Rynn had no way of knowing that, which he took shameless advantage of.
Her eyes narrowed and she leaned a little in his direction, as if she had realised something in that second.
"So you want me to run around the streets with eight other superpowered teenagers beating up criminals?"
There were eight. She knew it for a fact now that Steve had finally - finally made up his mind. One of them was barely visible, but he would be there, without a doubt.
Almost at a loss, Steve expelled the breath that hit her uncomfortably in the face, but she pulled herself together not to get up on the spot and leave. She could not really pinpoint what was bothering her so much, but the feeling was there. The distrust that had been crawling up to the surface from deep within her ever since the blip and seemed to be clinging to her brain stem.
"Something like that," Steve returned matter-of-factly. "So far there are five others who have joined our cause and Nat and I are sure you would be a good addition."
He eyed her expectantly and her gander that never seemed to quite take him in. She frowned briefly before clicking her tongue.
"And what's in it for me?"
He had had a prompt answer to that question with all of them, as it concerned him as much as the handful of recruits he had spoken to so far.
