A Failed Experiment

Chapter 17

As weeks passed, I grew short tempered and tired. Elanor had since left a note, telling me a time, date and address, with the words,
" Bring whoever you like, I expect you there, or I will come looking.", in her neat, small handwriting. Tony started training me against one of his weaker, less significant suits, so I could get used to the strength of metal compared to my own powers, and he trained me hard.  Today, he had beat me down bad,
" Come on, get up." He commanded, and I obliged quickly. One of my biggest strengths is I don't go down easily. I fought until it felt like it would be my last breath, only then did he decide I had done enough. He trained Aideen a lot too, she often faired better than I did. After, I would usually continue adding protective gear into the very fabric of what I would be wearing, while Aideen read, getting audibly angry at the characters in whatever story she would be reading that day.

Sometimes, when I got really bored, I would mess around with my artifact. I figured out how to summon this black smoke that seemed to kill everything in it's path. I also decorated my room with so many plants, Tony often complained that it was like a trek through the Amazon to get in the door, I didn't really care though. One day, most of us were sitting in the living room, when Tony came in, rambling to someone on the phone,
" Look, I know I sprung this on you, but you've got to be patient with me Pepper, can you do that ?" Ah, Pepper, Natasha explained her as the woman Tony was married to, but had said nothing else, " Hey Aideen ?" She looked up at him, " Come here a second will ya ?" She got up, and once she was out of the room, I immediately creeped up towards the closed door,
" Astor." Bucky warned, seemingly on to me,
" The last time I left those two alone all hell broke loose." I muttered and continued listening. Tony seemed to be stalling again,
" Uh, you have a half-sister." He eventually admitted. Aideen gasped a little,
" Really ? What's her name ?" She asked, I could hear a hint of happiness line her words,
" Morgan. She's going to love you, trust me." I let myself smile. I remember her telling me that when she was younger, she longed for a little sibling, "
 Wait, does this mean I have a step-mother ?" She asked,
" Yeah, her names Pepper, and, I don't doubt you'll get along." I quickly returned to my seat as they came in,
" Everything good ?"  I asked, Aideen nodded happily, siting in between me and Bucky, " Good, I'm glad. You do seem happy."

I spent weeks and weeks training harder than I ever have, soon, I didn't even need Tony to help me train. People started getting worried about me when I started staying up late to train, so I  quickly stopped. One day, when Bucky and I were in the kitchen, an alarm sounded, it wasn't a fire alarm, it was too low pitched for it.. I heard Thor's barbaric scream, and Tony rushed into the room, " What's going on ?" I asked calmly,
" Loki escaped." He gasped out ,
" Ok, Jarvis ?" Aideen followed him in,
" Yes miss ?" The wiring sound Jarvis made to indicate he was active had become familiar,
" Lock all the doors and windows please." With a single click, the windows around us all slammed shut and locked,
" You know what, he doesn't know where the tesseract is and he hasn't even been violent yet, I think we have bigger things to worry about." Tony admitted,
" I think we do, Jarvis ?" Without a word, I heard the faint sounds of a door unlocking, being opened and then slammed shut. The alarm stopped,
" Man was getting free food and shelter, I don't know why he was so keen to leave."

That night, everyone was in the living room watching TV. Aideen had fallen asleep on my shoulder, Bucky was sitting at the other side of her. Thor, Nat and Steve were sitting on the floor and Bruce, Peter, Wanda and Vision were on the sofa across from ours. Tony was up by the TV, fiddling with the volume. I wasn't watching the TV, I was watching them. The easy trust they had between them had always amazed me, but the amount of trust they had put in me was plain stupid. I don't know how they are letting me bring them through this, but they are, and I'm going to do all I can to keep them safe.