Playing With Fire (EDITING)

Infinite Little Words

After lunch, a meeting with Director Fury and Commander Hill, a brief training session, a meeting with all the avengers and Fury, and a well-needed shower, I collapsed on the cot in the room I'd be sharing with Megan and Kitty. This Helicarrier wasn't the same as the one I'd been held captive on. Outward appearance was the same, but it flew easier, better, smoother. In the water, some sort of gyro-balance had been added to prevent seasickness, and the same balance operated in the air as well. Everything about the ship was more efficient, faster, stronger, easier to work with. It was the newest product of Stark's technology.

Inside, the corridors were wider, the rooms were larger, and the panels were seamless. Even the glass was perfected to be the strongest glass Tony could work with. Every material was upgraded. I noticed that the docking bays for the Quinjets had been upgraded to prevent the kind of malfunction that had occurred within my first few days on the other ship.

"What do you think of this all?" I asked Kitty and Megan, both girls lounging on their cots.

Megan played with a glowing ball of condensed iridescence, tossing it hand to hand and watching it change shapes in midair. When it failed to become a unicorn for the third time, she caught it and crumpled it in her fist. "I don't like it. I'm going to be straight up honest here: I hate it. I didn't agree to being traded and pawned and bartered for. I'm not a toy."

Kitty looked up and stared at the ceiling. Her melted-chocolate eyes scanned along the edge of the ventilation shaft as if she were looking for an escape route. "I'm all right. I want to see how things turn out. Fury doesn't sound like he'll give us back to Xavier this time. He sounds like he has a purpose."

Megan snorted and began pacing along the wall, one glowing hand tracing fingertips along the surface at all times. Both girls were edgy, unsettled. They didn't like being cooped up, but neither did I. Maybe I was just too tired to care.

And I must've been way more tired than I thought, because a weight on my shoulder woke me up. My eyes opened to pitch blackness. Without thinking, I grabbed the hand on my arm, drove my knee into the attacker's midsection, and flipped the body over my cot. My victim was heavier than I expected, and they didn't make it over the cot. Instead, their weight crushed me momentarily before sliding to the floor.

"Hey, Sparky, great to see you too," Kurt gasped.

"Habit." I stretched and rolled off the cot to kneel beside him.

"Shuuuut uuup," Megan groaned, rustling her blankets. "You guys are gross."

I rolled my eyes and strapped my belts around my hips. "Go to sleep, Megan. We'll be gone in a second."

"Make that second faster," she groaned.

After helping Kurt to his feet, we left the room much more silently than he'd come. After the door closed behind us, he straightened and looked down at me. "You make a habit of judo flipping people who try to wake you up?"

I laughed and shook my head. "Tai Kwon Do actually," I corrected.

"Just like Romanoff," he mumbled.

"In a way, yeah," I mumbled back. He led the way through the corridors, past the bridge, out of the guts of the Helicarrier, to the top deck. Around behind the air traffic control station, towards the rear end of the ship, a small pile of blankets and a bundle of something waited for us. "Loser," I accused as he lit a large, three-wick candle.

"You never came to supper so I thought you might want something to eat. Sadly, all I could get you is a smoothie." He held up a quart Mason jar half filled with thick drink. "It's peanut butter and banana. Okay?"