I walk into Stark towers warily, waiting for the attack I know will happen once everyone sees Ashton coming in with us. Unsurprisingly, the avengers are waiting in the lobby. I may have disabled my tracker but the fact I disappeared for a few hours without telling anyone would raise suspicions, I doubt Peter informed them where I was going.
"Hey, Tony" I say as he looks at me. He doesn't look very impressed; I don't think I can blame him. I wouldn't want my child sneaking off on dangerous missions either.
Tony, Steve, Bruce, and Natasha are waiting in the lobby. I'm not entirely sure why Steve always has to be here, he's not my parent. I guess the one silver lining in everything is that Tony's my dad instead of Steve.
Natasha immediately walks over to the desk after spotting Ashton, probably pressing a secret panic button or something to alert Fury that there's danger. I watch as she quickly presses a button, almost too quickly for me to see.
"Where have you been?" Tony asks me, his eyes flickering to glance at Ashton. "Please tell me you didn't kidnap him from the x-men institute." If I was going to kidnap my old friends, I would've done it before now. Besides, Scarlett's basically bashed my head in, I don't want to go through that again with Ashton or Henry.
"He asked to come with us" Clover replies. Before she can elaborate, a bunch of security guards and Nick Fury walk out, two of the guards immediately handcuff Ashton and drag him off, he doesn't bother looking back.
"He knows the truth now, he wants to help" I say, ensuring I don't look at Nick Fury, I know he won't be impressed. Hell, I don't think anyone will be particularly impressed with me right now. As I look around, I can tell I'm right. Steve looks annoyed, Natasha looks emotionless as usual, Thor and Bruce look confused, and Tony looks concerned. There are dark rings under Tony's eyes, causing a twinge of guilt to stir in me. I know how much Tony worries over things, I shouldn't be adding to it.
"He's telling the truth" Wanda states, I glance at Wanda, remembering when Natasha wanted her to read my mind. I really hope she hasn't. Wanda's power scares me, she's one of the most powerful people in the universe, not just on Earth. The idea of her being able to read my mind is also quite unsettlingly I will admit.
Wanda glances at me, looking curious. She's frowning slightly, maybe she's wondering why I'm fighting so hard for my ex-friends; I'm beginning to wonder the same thing. Natasha was right when she told me it might be time to let go, but I still don't know how.
"We will talk to Ashton and figure out if he's telling the truth or not" Nick Fury decides after a few seconds of silence. "Stark, you're coming with me." Tony glances at Steve questioningly, who shrugs. Apparently, Steve doesn't know what Fury's doing. Tony follows Fury without another word. If anyone knew it would be Steve, he's the 'boss' which I think is stupid because Tony builds all their weapons and outfits, pays for everything, and they live in a building he built.
"Clover, Storm, come on" Natasha says, and she begins walking away. I follow her, I'm sure she has lots of questions. I resist a strong urge to roll my eyes as I realise Steve is coming too, I get he's in love with Natasha, but does he seriously have to go everywhere she goes? I'm not Steve's kid. If I was, I think I would've gone back to the x-men and let Mystique kill me.
We walk into a room I haven't been in before. It's small with a clear coffee table in the middle, two beige couches, and I can see a coffee machine on a desk in the corner. Natasha gestures for us to sit down so I sit down on the couch, Clover sits down next to me.
I glance at the desk, trying to figure out the purpose for this room. Maybe it's just a normal, meeting room.
"You do both understand the danger of bringing Ashton here, right? It was irresponsible and dangerous" Natasha says, I glance at her. I'm hoping Ashton is genuinely on our side, I'm not sure if I can lose another friend.
"Yes" I answer honestly. Wanda did say Ashton was telling the truth and I can't imagine Ashton would be able to hide his thoughts from her, she's fought much stronger people and won. She could be the most powerful person in this building. However, I did know the risk that Ashton was counting on me still caring about him to trick me into letting him come here.
"If you find out he's lying, you can keep him locked up. We have no issue with that" Clover replies. Clover has no issues with that, but I'm also not going to argue if Fury decides he's evil. I'm not the ideal person to decide whether or not Ashton is on our side or not.
"Storm, we understand it's hard for you, but you can't just bring your friends here the minute they claim they want to help, they could be manipulating you" Steve says gently. I roll my eyes, I didn't bring all my friends, Scarlett and Henry aren't here. Well, I think everyone is aware that my friendship with Scarlett is over, it's pretty hard to forgive someone smashing your head in and wanting you to die a slow, painful death. Scarlett didn't have a flicker of remorse or hesitation when she attacked me or when she murdered Mystique, I can't believe I always thought she was the nicer one out of us two.
"He knows where Charles Xavier is" I say, causing Steve's eyes to widen and Natasha to raise her eyebrows. I probably should have led with this, I know the avengers have been trying to track him down for a long time, he knows everything about Magneto and Mystique and he's powerful, really powerful. Even Mystique and Magneto couldn't find him, I know Mystique either wanted him dead or on their side.
"That changes things, I guess" Natasha mumbles, looking at Steve. "We should go talk to Ashton and then go find Charles, will you come with me?"
"Of course," Steve answers immediately. Steve is a good person for Natasha to go with, I know he'll protect her, and I think he'd be good at convincing Charles to come back here. "Thank you, Storm." I nod. Natasha and Steve both leave the room without a word.
"I meant what I said earlier" Clover says, I glance over at her. "I would risk my life for you a hundred times over and not regret it." My heart begins to race, and I can feel my cheeks getting hot. I've only known Clover for a short while and yet I can't imagine life without her, we fight well together and we're always on the same page. I reach over and push a strand of Clover's hair off her face.
"If you needed anything, I would be there." I think I'd follow Clover to the other side of the universe if she asked. Clover reaches over, placing her hand on my cheek. She kisses me, taking me by surprise. My arms end up around Clover's neck and she moves closer in.
We both pull away as soon as we hear the door open. I see Peter smiling as he glances at us, Ned and MJ are next to him. "I told you" Peter says to me, laughing slightly.
Clover has briefly met MJ and Ned before which is good, this would be a bit of an uncomfortable first meeting since we were caught making out.
"Did you get it?" MJ asks, she shuts the door and the three of them sit down on the couch across from us. I didn't know Peter had told them the plan, but I'm not surprised. I just assume everything I tell Peter goes to back to MJ and Ned which I'm cool with. Clover wordlessly pulls it out of her backpack along with my file.
"Why do you have a file?" Ned asks me, glancing at the name on the file. I glance at the brown file, a part of me doesn't want to open it, what good will come from a file that a bunch of scientists made? I should destroy it.
"I have no idea" I answer. I stare at the file, and it bursts into flames, I ignore Peter telling me to stop, I don't want to read it. The fire disappears and I blink as the file is still there, it's fine. Someone has spelled it.
"Let's read it together" MJ suggests, giving me a reassuring look.
YOU ARE READING
Beautiful Ruins
Aksi"Maybe there was a fleeting moment where I wanted to be a hero and believed I could be one, but the truth is I'm not, I won't ever be. My past does define me, it made me a villain" - Storm. Fifteen-year-old Storm is the daughter of Black Widow and I...
