A few weeks pass, and now I'm back home in Australia, and the kids have found a home at the compound. I haven't shaken the paranoia yet, but I can't talk about it. I don't want to expose myself. Hydra won't stop, and I know it. I have to remain anonymous so they can't find me. I haven't shaken the pain yet either.
People who aren't really my friends walk along ahead of me. Six hours, damnit. Now it was my turn to go on a school trip. "Look after Irongirl, and Shuri, and especially MJ. Oh, and Peter, but whatever, who cares about him?" I joke over the loudspeakers of my new bracelet. "I will. I promise. Stay in touch, tree." Bucky says. I will. I disconnect the line. Me and my group of year nines have to wait for six hours before our transferring flight arrives to take us home from our trip to the northern territory. I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about not being able to talk to the family- my family- back at the compound. I walk along behind them, trying to be interested in the clothing stores they drag me into. But I keep passing stores selling Avengers toys and figures. I pass one of Ironman and think of my new little sister, Irongirl, left crying in her mother's arms. I pass one of Spider-man, and it reminds me of the way I felt his pain, the way he recruited me so gladly. But a plastic Bucky draws my attention above all. "What are you looking at?" one of the girls asks. I tear my eyes away from it and smile at the ground, feeling a tear run down my cheek. Metal arm, I think to myself, the thought warming my own conscious. "Oh, me? Nothing." I reply. We wander, and I look around at all the people Peter nearly sacrificed himself for, the people I tried to protect from Hydra's influence. We're all so proud of you back at the compound. Shuri's voice reappears in my head. I did all I could, and it was enough. I defended the innocent. This is why I'm not just the nothing people see me as. Now, with the thought of the Spring soldiers suffering out of my head, I realised another thing- They were going to grow up, and Hydra was going to take advantage of that- Nah, screw doing all I could. I saved so much pain and trouble. I hope the kids are ok. These girls will never know. I'll still be nothing to them. But I'm something to the kids, to the Avengers. I know that will never change.
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1nn0c3nt
AdventureWhen a fourteen-year-old Australian shapeshifter is recruited for the NextGen initiative, she's shocked. But now she has the power to do more than she ever thought she could- Can she prove herself to the NextGen Avengers and the world despite her ow...
