Black Swan ▹ Marvel

TEN: MILKSHAKES

(   A FEW MONTHS LATER   )

It was May now and Elizabeth has been living with Liz for a few months now. She hadn't been back to her actual home since she saw her no good father and hadn't seen Ryan since the night on Liz's back porch when she warned Elizabeth about winds changing. After that Ryan dropped off the map and so did Roger Copper, her father.

Her mother was the only person she saw on a regular basis besides Liz and MJ and she rather liked it that way. Ever since Liz had dropped Manon and the rest of her butt-kissers life had been everything, but awful. Elizabeth didn't expect it to last and also made the best of it.

Elizabeth stares at Liz's phone as they sit side by side in a rinky-dink diner booth while they shared a pair of earbuds. They were watching the new for the first time in history because something interesting was actually going on. Each girl had a half melted milkshake sitting in front of them.

There was chaos in Romania involving Captain America and a shadow assassin from Russia. No one knew the full truth, but Elizabeth knew this had something to do with what Ryan was talking about.

"Crazy," Elizabeth said after the video was over as they take Liz's headphones out and she turns the phone off. Liz takes a sip of her strawberry milkshake.

"I know. What the hell do you think that guy they're chasing is?" Liz asks and takes another long drink from her cup. Elizabeth pauses to think for a moment as the diner's door opened and the bell attached to it let out a short ring.

"I don't know," Elizabeth replies, "I know just as much as you, Liz."

"Hey," a woman's voice said. Both girls turn to see Jessica Copper standing near the foot in the table. Her long blonde hair had been cut to shoulder length and had a on a fancy blouse and jeans. She admittedly looked amazing just like every time she saw her since Elizabeth left home, a far cry from the ponytails and rumpled clothes she wore before Elizabeth's accident.

"Mom," Elizabeth said and a large smile spread across her face, "you look amazing."

Elizabeth slides out of her seat next to Liz and hugs her mother tightly. Her mother's recognizable scent washes over Elizabeth and sighs at the familiar scent. They let each other go and Elizabeth sat back down and Jessica took the seat in the booth across from the two girls.

"Hey, Missus Copper. You look awesome," Liz said to Elizabeth's mother. Jessica smiles widely at the compliment.

"Thank you, Liz. You two girls aren't looking too bad yourself," Jessica replies in a happy tone.

"Have you heard from Ryan?" Elizabeth asks. Jessica's smile drops a little bit, but it stabilizes once again.

"Nothing, it's been radio silence on my end," Jessica told her. They sit in silence for a moment and Elizabeth takes a long drink from her milkshake which now was more of an ice cream soup than a milkshake.

"Let's talking about something more positive," Liz said. Both Jessica and Elizabeth nod in agreement. 

Jessica speaks next, "how has your powers been treating you?"

Elizabeth lets out a little laugh.

"I've got flying pretty much down, but the electricity still goes haywire sometimes, but not as bad as the first time," Elizabeth replied in a voice in a little bit above a whisper. Jessica nods while she listens.

"You should have seen her the other day," Liz said excitedly, "she scared the living daylights out of me when she let herself fall in midair and almost landed on the ground."

Jessica looks at her daughter in mock anger and Elizabeth raises an eyebrow teasingly.

"Elizabeth Amelia Copper," Jessica said somewhat crossly to her daughter, "you have to show me."

"I'll do it for a milkshake," Elizabeth told her. She thinks for a moment, "with extra whipped cream."

Jessica rolls her eyes and calls the waitress over.

"You want anything, Liz? I'm buying," Jessica asks.

"No, I'm alright, Missus Copper."

Liz finishes off her milkshake while Jessica orders Elizabeth another one. The last few months were calm, but all three women at the table new they were just in the eye of the storm.

▹

A tiny line of blood ran down Daydream's mouth as she stared down her opponent. He had put up a decent fight, but she had yet to use her powers on them.

She uses her sleeve to wipe the blood away as she climbed from her knees to her feet. She lets out a deep sigh as the angry man in white charges toward her once again. With a tilt of her head everything in a fifty feet radius flew backwards including the man.

Desks and mechanical equipment are destroyed and loose wire Daydream had pulled from a light fixture start to spark and set some paperwork ablaze and eat up an overturned wooden desk near the source like kindling in a camp fire.

The Doctor struggles to his feet as Daydream uses her telekinesis to make the sparking wires float and whip through the air like snakes. She makes the wires strike at him, he is able to clumsily dodge them by what seems like a hair's length.

She walks closer to him and backed the man into a corner where the fire had yet to spread. He was coughing from inhaling smoke unlike Daydream. Only when they are face to face does she let up with the sparking wires that could kill a normal human in an instant, but Daydream was obviously not a normal human.

"Here's what is going to happen to you," Daydream said to him, "I am going to make you live your worst nightmare and when you wake up it will be too late to escape, you'll burn to death and you'll feel anything.

"Please, Ryan," the Doctor pleads, "you don't have to do this."

"Of course I don't," Daydream replies and her face goes sympathetic for a moment, but turn back to a wicked smile, "but I want to."

She places two fingers on his forehead and watched him descend into his worst nightmare.