My Avengers (1)

Chapter 2

(Outskirts of New York, Y/n's POV)

Most days, time passes painfully slowly. Every second feels like an eternity, and I just wait around for the sun to set so that I can go to sleep and do it again the next morning.

Some days, very few days, there's a little something that makes it not quite so bad.

There's a knock at the door that makes me jump slightly, but the voice from the other side of it makes me smile.

"Y/n! Y/n, are you in there?"

I open the door and look down at the young girl, "Where else am I gonna be?"

She grins, then looks sheepish as she holds her hands behind her back and fidgets on the spot.

"What is it? What's happened now?"

"Nothing's working y/n. There was a pop, and then the whole house went black."

"A pop?"

I'm trying to understand a 7-year old girl, which is proving difficult.

I don't particularly want to have to dig into her head to find out what happened.

"Yeah, like someone popped a balloon or something. But then all the lights went out."

I raise my eyebrow and cross my arms, "Did your Daddy plug in too many things at once again?"

She shrugs, "I don't think so. All we had switched on was the kettle, the toaster, the TV, the lights. And then he turned the blender on..... Wait I think it was when he turned the blender on."

I can't stop the fond laugh that escapes my mouth. She's such a sweet child. Too precious for this world.

"Come on y/n!" she goes to grab my hand, but I quickly pull it away.

"Um, just let me grab my coat!"

She knows the rule, but she forgets herself sometimes, and I can't fault her for that.

That was the long-lasting curse of my experimentation. I can't touch anyone without the risk of shocking them.

Well, that's one of the curses.

And until I learn to control it fully, it's just safer to keep a distance.

"Come on!"

She's already halfway down the road.

"Okay, okay."

I get my jacket from the hook and shove my keys in the pocket after locking my door behind me.

"This way!"

"Trust me kid, I know the way by now."

At least once a week, I get called out to this same house, and it's no coincidence. Her Dad was kind to me when I first got here; he helped me to get off the radar, away from the bad people. He doesn't know what happened, but he didn't need to know. My fear was enough for him. And now, this is his way of checking up on me, making sure that I'm okay. Trying to make it seem not quite so lonely.

It's sweet, and I appreciate it, but he's got a family that he needs to take care of. He should put them first.

"Daddy!" she yells as she throws the front door open.

I wince slightly as it slams against the wall, then I calmly walk through the doorway after her.

"Daddy, she's here!"

My heart warms slightly as his familiar face appears from the kitchen.

"Hey y/n, sorry to call you out here again."

It's always the same.

"Don't you worry about it. Why don't you just show me the damage?"

He beckons and leads me down to the basement I've been in a hundred times before. He even keeps a flash light down here for me because he knows I don't like the dark.

You can't see the monsters in the dark.

"Here she is," he says as he points to the open fusebox on the wall.

"Tom! There's smoke coming out of it, what on earth did you do this time?"

He just shrugs, "You know what I'm like. Be a sweetheart and fix it for me?"

I roll my eyes with a grin, "Of course I will. You go on back upstairs, I'll be there in a minute."

Like I said, it's always the same. He calls me out to fix the fusebox, he stays upstairs while I do my thing. Boom, lights back on, no questions asked.

I watch his back as he hobbles up the stairs, and I sigh. He's looking older and frailer every time. He's by no means an old man, but he certainly left it a bit later in life to raise a family.

But he's a good man. He deserves everything the world has to offer.

Once he's disappeared from view, I focus on channelling my electricity to the palm of my hand, then I press is against the smoking wires. The metal hums beneath my skin as the charge powers through it.

If I can't have human touch, then this is definitely the next best thing.

The sound starts to get louder, which means I've charged it to its maximum capacity. I remove my hand from the heart, and pull the lever down. There's a small spark from the cables, but then the lights in the house all come back on again.

"Impressive," says a woman's voice from behind me.

I jump and hold my hands out in front of me, electricity crackling between my fingers.

"Woah, easy there."

She's tall, gorgeous, red curly hair, and a soft voice with a slight accent to it. Russian maybe?

My hands drop slightly, but I don't relent on my charge.

"Who the fuck are you?"