SuperSoldier (SI-OC/MCU) ENG

6: First contact

6: First contact

"Where are you going?" Raven watched nervously as John hastily grabbed a few things. He had suddenly entered while she was taking a nap; he seemed to be in a hurry, and his expression was serious. Something serious was happening. Raven had started to become quite good at reading people's body language, something she hadn't been able to do so well before. She attributed it to her powers; she could become anything, perfectly imitating anyone. That also came with the ability to act like them, even if she had never known them before.

This had resulted in her being able to read people quite well. John was more difficult than most but also easier in some ways. He clearly showed what he felt, as if he always wore his heart on his sleeve. Raven had learned that people hide many things; they strive to hide parts of themselves behind layers and layers of lies. But John was different; he seemed to have no need to hide anything. Yet, at the same time, there were moments, small fractions of a second, where he seemed to transform in some way.

It was as if the man who was always honest had something more beneath what should be his true self. It was confusing, and even with her powers, Raven couldn't see through it.

"I've let others dictate what I should do for too long, Raven. I'm a soldier, not a circus monkey or a glorified dancer. It's time for me to do what I should have always done: go to war." He looked her in the eyes, blue eyes with hints of light green. There it was again, an unbridled honesty that for some reason Raven couldn't question.

"What will happen to me? What will I do?" she couldn't help but ask. While it had been her choice to follow him, he had promised to help her too, to take care of her. In the end, she was still a teenager with no place or family to turn to. At this moment, John was all she had left, and if he left, then she would have nothing.

John put his hand on her shoulder and reassured her with a soft voice.

"Don't worry, I'll be back quickly. You can stay here until I return, and then I'll take you to a place where you'll be safe while the war passes."

That didn't sit well with Raven. Maybe a different girl would be fine with just having a home and waiting for all the bad things to happen, but she wasn't like that. She didn't like waiting.

"Let me go with you, I can help!"

John looked at her, sighed, and paused for a moment in his haste.

"Raven, war, war is not a place you want to go. I know things have been turbulent for you, and you're barely adjusting to this new life, but the battlefield is a cruel and ruthless one. If you go, you'll never be who you once were,"

He said it with a seriousness that Raven knew she couldn't convince him otherwise, no matter what she said. He adjusted his suit one last time before grabbing his shield and preparing to leave. Before he went, he stopped at the door and gave her one last look.

"I'll come back, I promise."

Then he left, and Raven clenched her fists, feeling useless. She was a meta-human! Something just like him, like a super soldier! So why was she staying behind while he went to fight?

She paced around the room, thinking about what to do, and that's when she heard the sound of birds' cawing. She looked out the window and saw one of the many crows that surrounded the base, staring at her intently. In a place where soldiers' corpses were coming out by the dozens every day, seeing crows wasn't strange. She had seen many before, but rarely this close.

Raven frowned, feeling her skin tingling, and a strange idea crossed her mind. Maybe...

Her disguise fell away, her blue skin along with her long red hair returned, her yellow eyes stared at the crow, which now seemed to look at her in "amazement" at her change. She smiled, and in a way beyond natural, her physical structure began to change. Her body shrank, black feathers started to emerge from her skin, and her face transformed, a beak growing where her jaw had been.