The Outlier

Chapter One

"JARVIS, what time is it?" Annemarie asked, not even bothering to look up from her sketchbook.

"It is currently two forty-eight a.m." JARVIS replied.

"What!?" She checked her phone, just to make sure she had heard right. The screen read: 2:48. She noticed that her eyes did feel slightly heavy. "I guess I should go to bed." She said to herself. "Natasha's going to kill me if I'm not fully awake tomorrow when she's teaching me hand-to-hand combat. Well, today. Haha..." She went to bed and soon drifted off into peaceful dreams from another time.

~The Next Day~

"Keep moving!" Natasha yelled as she threw another punch. Her fist collided directly with Annemarie's face.

"Ow!" Annemarie shouted, but she had to keep going or face an upset assassin. Her attacks however, only got exponentially sloppier.

Suddenly, Natasha stopped and caught Annemarie's fist in her hand. "You didn't get any sleep last night, did you?"

"Well..."

"It doesn't count if you fell asleep this morning."

"I was focused on my drawing!" Annemarie said defensively.

"So you improved your art skills?"

"I-! Well...no."

"You still draw like a five year old?"

"No! More like a seven year old at least..."

"Okay, forget it. You have improved your combat skills some want, and I can tell you're trying hard right now, so you're dismissed. But try not to lose anymore sleep. In a real battle, you'd probably be dead. And go have Bruce take a look at you. Your nosebleed is kinda intense." Natasha said.

"Huh?" Annemarie touched between her nostrils and upper lip. Sure enough, she saw blood on her fingers. "Great. Thanks Natasha." She headed over the exit.

As she was leaving, Natasha said "Just be glad I didn't break your nose!"

~oOo~

"Ugh!" Annemarie exclaimed as she plopped onto her bed. "Too. Tired. For. Life." She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "This is better..." She said, unwinding after a day of morning training (why does Natasha have to get up at five in the morning to do it with her?), extensive tutoring from Bruce (he gets all serious and strict), having to help her dad get a stuck gauntlet off his arm and working with him to try to throw firewalls and other defenses at a hacker who tried to hack into JARVIS (and might have succeeded a little bit, they needed to check), she was ready for a few hours of sleep.

It was only nine p.m., but she planned to follow Natasha's advice and get some actual sleep. Unfortunately, today was not a good day for her.

As she laid down on her bed, about to drift off into sleep, she was jolted back into reality when two hands cover her mouth and choking her by the neck. She opened her eyes to met scarlet orbs. "Scream for help and I'll kill you before I kill everyone else in this building." He said.

He took his hand off of her mouth and loosened the grip around her neck. "What do you want?" Annemarie said, completely calm. As the daughter of a famous billionaire and inventor, now an Avenger, she was trained to be able to full handle this situations. Since they were in the Avengers Tower, JARVIS probably already silently alert the other Avengers and all she had to do was stall.

"You're waiting for Jarvis aren't you? What do you think all that hacking today was for?" Annemarie's eyes bulged. The unknown man sighed. "Well, there's no use trying to stall." In a flash, the man lowered his head down to her neck and there was a sudden pain there. An immoral pleasure, mixed with pain, was then present in her body as she realized what was happening.