Valemor

Emmeline drifted through life like a forgotten receipt in a hurricane. The world around her was a sensory assault: too loud, too chaotic, and, on the days when the chaos took a coffee break, boring. Once, she had been an asset of Hydra, a walking experiment, but that chapter was closed. Now, she was left with the mundane task of reinventing herself. She needed a new purpose, a new North Star.
She certainly didn't expect that to point toward Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. And she definitely didn't expect to be in the shadow of a Cold War relic. Her mission was simple: warn a man named Alexei that his daughter might be in danger. That was it. A quick heads up and she could go back to dissociating in peace.
But Alexei Shostakov had other ideas. When Emmeline delivered her warning, she expected confusion, maybe denial. Instead, she saw a spark in his eyes. To him, this wasn't a crisis; it was a casting call. He didn't just hear danger; he heard opportunity. He saw a chance to dust off his gear, to slide back into action, even if he wasn't entirely sure what that action entailed yet. He was a hammer looking for a nail, and Emmeline had just walked in with a blueprint.
This was the part that broke her brain. Emmeline was a woman perpetually on edge, disjointed and wary of everything and everyone. The world was a jagged puzzle she couldn't solve. But Alexei? He was the anomaly in the data. In a universe that oscillated between deafening noise and soul-crushing boredom, Alexei was a constant, high-definition frequency.
He wasn't loud in the annoying way; he was loud in the tectonic plates shifting way. He wasn't boring; he was a walking, talking explosion of personality and confidence with a side of questionable life choices. And as Emmeline stood there, vibrating with the anxiety of a startled cat, she realised the most confusing thing of all: amidst the static of her life, the former super-soldier felt like the only calm thing in the room.