Troublesome [The Avengers]

10|| Trials

Arden hadn't been too thrilled to be staying in a house full of superheros but it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Over the past week she had met everyone that lived in tower. Some --mainly Spider-woman-- had been reluctant to tell her their actual names but Arden didn't mind. She understood the need of wanting to keep their private lives away from the public.

Even though Arden didn't hate everyone in the tower she still tried to avoid them as much as possible. She didn't mind the people behind the masks but that didn't mean she wanted to suddenly buddy up with them.  After all they were still superheros and no matter how hard they tried she would never like them. 

"Good morning Arden." A robotic female voice startled Arden from her deep sleep. 

She jolted upright in her bed and flung her pillow in the direction of the voice. "What the fuck!" She snapped. It took Arden a moment before she realized that she was the only person in her room.

"My apologizes but Mr. Stark has requested that I wake you up." The robotic voice Stated. Arden's eyes drifted up to the small black speaker on the corner of the roof. "He's expecting you in the secondary lab for testing." 

Arden rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took in a deep breath. "Thanks, i'll be there in a minute." She said with a sigh.

She rose to her feet and shrugged on one of her many hoodies. She stumbled to her washroom where she started her day. 

She wasn't one for waking up early, or anytime before twelve. Tony however seemed to like the idea of waking her up at the crack of dawn for whatever stupid thing he had planned for her. 

Arden left her washroom with a clean face and a fresh bandage on her calf. The bullet wound was healing up nicely, it didn't hurt as much anymore and the stitches were holding up nicely.

She left her room, pulling the door closed behind her. Like usual that floors common area was empty and every bedroom door was closed. Everyone on this floor liked their privacy but then again most of the Avengers had secret identities that they didn't want to share with her. 

Not all of the avengers lived in the tower, most of them split their time between the tower and their homes. Steve, Tony, Clint, and Bucky were the only people that lived here full time.

Arden didn't know much about Bucky. He was Steve's friend and the currant Captain America, but asides from that she knew nothing about the man. He tended to keep to himself and he had the whole brooding dark guy thing going for him.

The elevator dinged, taking Arden out of her thoughts. She stepped inside and pressed the button for the floor the lab was on.

Arden wondered why Tony wanted to run tests on her. Her powers were pretty inadequate compared to that of The Scarlet Witch, or even Spider-Woman. She could move stuff with her mind and create a shield around herself, it wasn't anything too exciting.

****

"I don't understand the point of this." Arden plucked off the small white pad that Hank Pym had placed on her temple. 

"It's to monitor your brain activity well you use your powers." He said calmly as he took the square pad from her hand and reapplied it to her temple.

Arden rolled her eyes and sat back in the office chair. She listened to Tony and Hank banter about some tech mumbo-jumbo as they finished setting everything up for testing. She had never really cared about technology or science, they usually involved more math then she liked. 

However for a scientist Hank intrigued Arden. He wasn't quite what she had been expecting the creator of Ultron to look like. He was tall, muscular, with dirty blonde hair. He didn't look like the kind of man that could create a murder bot.

"Alright we're ready to begin." Tony said and turned to face Arden. "Just move that cup." He pointed the pen in his hand at a glass cup sitting on the table to her left.

Arden rolled her eyes and flicked her wrist. A little blue ball with a kind of misty tail circled the glass and launched it across the room. The cup shattered against the pearly white wall and Arden smirked sarcastically at the men.

"Ta-da." She said dryly and wiggled her fingers. 

Tony tilted his head to the side and raised a brow. "Was that really necessary?" 

Arden made a 'hm' sound before flashing a cocky grin. "Totally. Did you see Hank jump." She giggled.

Hank frowned and looked over at Tony. "Is she always like this?" He questioned, his voice barely loud enough for Arden to hear.

"Yes." Both Tony and Arden replied in unison. 

"At least she's honest." Tony smirked before turning back to the computer. "Alright, let's do this again but this time don't break anything."

Arden slumped in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "Yes dad."

Just like she was told to do she moved another glass around the room well Tony and Hank collected their data. It started with the glass, then move on to a ten pound weight, then twenty, and up to a hundred pound weight; that's when she began to struggle to move it around longer then a few seconds. 

After almost half an hour of objects being moved Hank and Tony decided to switch to Arden's other power. She explained how the shield worked before they decided to test it. 

Hank glanced between Tony and Arden, his brows furrowed and a frown tugging at his lips. "I don't think this is a good idea Tony." He said.

Arden knew Hank was probably right but where was the fun in playing it safe. Tony looked at her with a smile that was far to wide for what was about to happen. He had his right hand raised and the gauntlet of his iron man suit on. 

"She already agreed to it. It's just a little pay back." Tony said. His brown eyes were twinkling deviously but it did nothing to shake Arden.

She smirked back at him and prepared her body armor. Maybe she was being a bit overconfident. Tony's suits were powerful, maybe they were even capable of cutting through her defenses. But in Arden fashion she positioned her feet for the impact and her smile grew. 

"Bring it on."

A blinding stream of blue-ish white light shot from the palm of the gauntlet. The force of the light hitting the transparent blue armor caused Arden to stumble back but that was it. The armor held up against the force. All Arden could feel was a slight rush of wind and a feeling similar to being shoved by a child.

The light faded into nothing and Tony lowered his hand. "Huh."

"Huh indeed." Hank walked over to Arden and pressed the tip of his finger against the shield. "We need to study this more." He said and looked up at Arden. "Is that alright?" 

"Of course it is." Tony quickly answered for Arden. She rolled her brown eyes and flipped him the bird. It seemed that she didn't really have choice in the matter, not that she minded. She liked being able to show off her powers like this. It gave her a sense of pride.