Marygold spun around, and glared at Stark. She did not like how he downplayed what the team did, on a good day anyway. Clearly he hadn't seen the team back when the original members were around. Most people in the group hadn't been in combat before, so it was understandable why there would be problems. They needed to work hard, and this guy had the guts to call them the Avengers Little League, when a few of the members were adults, not kids.
"You know something Stark? You are one to talk, since you can't seem to leave your own kid alone. Maybe this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been distracted by YOU playing over protective parent. We at least try to help others, while half the time you mess around and act like an idiot to everyone. I personally think that Guin can do whatever the heck she wants. So why don't you go off and have fun doing whatever you do on your days off, and leave everyone here, Guin included, alone!" she said, well, more of shouted at Tony.
She turned to look at Cassandra, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down, before she started speaking again. She was ignoring Tony's shocked face, clearly he never had anyone say anything like that to him before. He started to say something, but stopped when Marygold started talking again, since she clearly wasn't listening.
"We can talk to S.H.I.E.L.D about where we can hold Wanda over there. She's still out cold, so we'll have to find a way to hold her back at the mansion until arrangements can be made. Something tells me we don't have to worry about Pietro," she glanced over at Quicksilver, who was still standing there and who seemed to have no intention of leaving,
I'm guessing Wolverine is going to go off again after Sabretooth," she said, as Wolverine turned around and ran off in the direction Sabretooth had gone,
"Let's go back to the mansion, and talk to the Professor, along with getting medical help for you, Oshea, and Beast. Can someone help me grab Wanda?" Marygold started heading back towards Scarlet Witch, meanwhile, Tony was livid. He was pissed off that a freaking kid told him off. That she had the nerve to tell him what to do.
"Like you know what you're doing! You're all just a bunch of kids dressing up as superheroes. Come on Guin, we're going home". "You are my father, but I am an adult. I can make my own decisions," Guin huffed.
"Besides, I was always a rebel without a cause. Now I have one. I'm using my gift--our family's gift--to try to make a difference, to try and help the world. You of all people should understand that, Dad...And besides, Romanoff has been training me for years. I can kick ass," Guin replied before walking over to help Marygold with Scarlet Witch. Between the two of them, they are able to move her in the direction of the Blackbird, leaving Tony Stark glaring after them. After a few minutes, he flies off again, planning to have a discussion with Fury about his daughter being in S.H.I.E.L.D.
Quicksilver actually isn't running off, as he decided to stick around. He followed Marygold and Guin, giving a little wave to the others as he passes them. After 10 minutes, everyone is on the Blackbird. Beast is still where Cassandra had left him, and they are able to get Oshea set up in a seat before they take off with Marygold at the helm. Every injury that occurred was fairly lucky, though it will take a few weeks for them all to heal.
The power plant was only just the beginning of their problems. Magneto and his group of mutants had taken the Gifted Index and destroyed the Triskelion in DC while the power had been out. Turns out Sabretooth had just been a major distraction to keep you all away from the main SHIELD Headquarters. With that in hand, he has begun to track down other mutants, and bringing them all together. Of course, he does leave those of you at the institute alone. He wouldn't have dreamed that you would ever desert Xavier, and knew figured that you would just get in the way.
It has been over a month since then, and a lot can happen in such a short amount of time. Scarlet Witch refused to help in anyway, and eventually moved to a secure facility in Upstate New York. SHIELD is crumbling, and are now dealing with a new threat from HYDRA. Hawkeye helped Fury to squish Stark's protest about Guin though, so she'll be sticking around for a while. Both Cassandra and Guin have orders to stay with the X-Men, and to catch Magneto at all costs. The two also were given a few new little toys to use, but only some since SHIELD is scrambling and has limited resources. Someone else from SHIELD has been sent to help them, Marina van Essenhout. Another person has also joined up with the X-Men, Agent Reed's younger sister Carolina. With these two helping the group, maybe they can stop Magneto once and for all. Once Beast recovered from his injuries, he and Professor X began trying to locate Magneto, and figure out his end game. Though the two of them have more information than they could ever have dreamed of with another new addition to the team. Quicksilver after the incident at the power plant had decided to join the X-Men, and he has helped them to narrow down possible locations. Unfortunately, his information is still very limited, as Magneto never told him much about his plans, generally keeping him out of the loop.
Now, on February 13th, they have finally uncovered what Magneto's plan is. Several chemical research facilities have been broken into, and several pieces of equipment and chemicals were stolen. How do they know that it was Magneto? SHIELD finally let them know that something else had been stolen, something that could potentially be altered for Magneto's purpose. A chemical combination that could wipe out all mutants and other super-powered beings. There are ways to alter it, so instead of killing the mutants, it would take out every living human on the planet, rampaging across as a disease. They have no doubt that he would be able to accomplish this. With so many mutants now on his side, it would be simple to find a few people who took Chemistry and Medical as a college major.
They have managed to track him down, to what is practically on their back porch, a research lab in New York City. The plan is to have you interrupt Magneto before his plan comes to an end, and he disperses this disease that he has been creating. Remember, this time around, it is a race against time before he manages to wipe out every human on Earth. You will still have a chance though, Beast says that all he needs is a list of things that were used in its creation to make a cure. Even if the disease is unleashed, but hopefully it doesn't have to come to that.
~Meanwhile, here is an intermission that takes place before all this, only 11 days after the power plant for your reading entertainment~
The date was January 19th, 2019. The place? Stark Tower, of course. And the event? Guinevere Stark's nineteenth birthday. The tower had been lit up purple in Guin's honor, since it was her favorite color. Music from the 80's played over roaming speakers, specially designed by Tony Stark himself. The guests were entertained with cocktails and champagne, with fine wine and sharp beers. The drinking age seemed to hardly be an issue, despite the presence of some members of the US Military, including one Colonel James Rhodes.
Guin stood in the corner, wearing her favorite leather jacket, as she attempted to avoid her father's friends if at all possible. They were messing around with Thor's hammer at the moment, eliciting only eye rolls from the young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. She had invited a few of her friends from high school, but none of them had showed up quite yet. Guin didn't even spot her friends from work just yet. Professor X, Beast, and Marygold had all been on the invite list. She hoped they'd show up, otherwise she'd be stuck trying to convince Steve that a dragon had ended World War II.
Marygold was the only one of the three who was able to make it. Professor X was busy as always, and Beast was still recovering from his injuries almost two weeks ago. She didn't really know what to get Guin for her birthday, since she practically had everything already, so she decided that she would go, and ask her friend later about it. Marygold wasn't used to crowds, and she only really knew two people there, and she wasn't sure if Tony Stark should count in that number.
She started looking around for Guin once she arrived, not sure of where she was going. Having never been to Stark Tower before, and she felt out of place. She could tell that she was one of the younger ones there, and it bugged her to know that she was basically on her own for this one. Even though she was in a crowd, she felt alone, and now she started to wish somewhat that she hadn't even come because of this.
The instant Marygold arrived, Guin spotted her. It wasn't too hard to find a ginger in a crowd, especially when most of the people in the crowd were in their thirties at least. Guin and Marygold were the youngest people in attendance, as it wasn't like Guin had any siblings. Tony had been extra careful after that little accident.
"Mary! Thank god you're here," Guin called out, making a beeline over to the woman. Before Marygold could respond, Guin dragged her over to her corner, pulling out a little box she had hidden behind a decorative sculpture. Inside were about two dozen jello shots.
"Want one? It's the only way these things are bearable," Guin explained, before pulling one out for herself and another for Marygold.
She smiled when Guin came over, at least she was with someone that she knew now.
"Sure, I'll have one. Happy birthday anyway," she said as she took the shot from Guin. The crowd was pretty big, and the fact that everyone was at least ten years older than she was, well that was just plain weird.
"How has your day been so far. I see that your dad pulled out all the stops for this one". She waited for a response, but she did not like the next thing that she heard. The doors opened, and suddenly a gust of wind came blazing through, whipping through the crowd. Suddenly, Pietro Maximoff was standing there, in front of Guin and Marygold, once again with a twinkie in one of his hands, and he had a small box in the other.
"Cool party. Hey, I got you something," he said as he handed Guin the wrapped box he was holding.
Guin blinked, having finished off her shot only to find Pietro standing in front of her. She had been preparing a little bit of a monologue to Marygold, focusing on how these parties were never really for her. They were for Tony, in order to make him feel like he hadn't failed as a father. Or at least, that was the way Guin felt about them. She never wanted all of the pomp and circumstance that Tony did. She didn't enjoy the press camping outside of Stark Tower, waiting to catch a shot of the birthday girl or some of the other guests.
"Pietro. Didn't expect to see you here," Guin said, raising an eyebrow. She took the box and hoped that it wasn't just another piece of technology. Everyone seemed to think she wanted that, forgetting the fact that she was
rich. She didn't need anything expensive or fancy, and she didn't want anything like that. Setting the box down next to the Jello Shots, she figured she could open it later.
"Why are you here?" Marygold was as surprised as Guin when Pietro showed up, and when she heard Guin's response to him, it made her wonder when these two really had a conversation, since the only place they could have met was at the power plant in DC. Though it was possible that they had fought, or more of talked by the sounds of things.
"Hey, you're the one who said I should come to your party. Then you had me go to Stark Tower asking for Happy, which was a very interesting experience let me tell you," he said with a grin,
"I think you'll like what I got you". "Most boys don't come back after that," Guin mused with a bit of a chuckle. She had been sending boys to ask for Happy for years. Happy, in turn, would put the fear of god in them and turn them out. They'd never come to bother her again after that. With Pietro, however, she had the secretary hand him a note, instructing him that he had one minute to find something Guin had left for him. Otherwise, Happy would catch him.
"I usually open these later, but what the hell," Guin said, opening up the small box Pietro had gotten her. Her face was a little flushed, though it wasn't from the alcohol.
"Yeah, that was interesting. Though I'm guessing Happy doesn't generally deal with guys who are speedsters. Thanks for the tape by the way. Nice choice of music. Though I kinda left a huge mess in the area that I was searching in. That was a fun little scavenger hunt," he said, still smiling at her.
Marygold started feeling like the third wheel here while these two were flirting up a storm. She hoped that Tony didn't notice, especially since that would probably cause a big scene or something, and they didn't want that to happen. These two were hopeless, clearly never having a relationship in their lives or something like that. This was just plain getting pathetic in her opinion.
Guin's eyes widened as she saw a cassette tape in the box, with Pietro's scrawl labeling it as a mix tape he had made--
for her. Her cheeks were very red at that moment and Guin wasn't sure what to say, and she turned to look at Marygold for a moment, as if that would help.
"Thanks, this is rad," Guin finally managed to say, putting the tape back inside of the box for safe keeping. She did another shot, as if liquid courage could help her somewhat.
"You can have one if you want, Pietro. And...think you can get the three of us into Dad's lab without anyone noticing, Silver Balls?" Guin always did love going for joyrides in the Iron Man suits.
"Nah, I'm good. Shouldn't drink and run you know. Can I get you into your Dad's lab? Who do you think your talking to? Some goody two shoes turtle? Nah, I can get you there easily," he said, giving her a mischievous grin. He grabbed hold of Guin and Marygold's arms, and started running. He didn't really have any idea of where he was going, only that he was looking for the lab of freaking Iron Man, so he figured he'd be able to find it easily. Eventually, he entered a room, and soon the trio found themselves in Tony Stark's lab.
Guin snickered a bit. Alcohol was considered the breakfast of champions in the Stark household. Her father did at least half of his work while at least mildly buzzed. Stepping over to a terminal, Guin entered in a few strokes of code, before glancing back over at Marygold and Quicksilver, before adding in a few more numbers. She quickly hit a key to mute J.A.R.V.I.S., just in case anyone else heard the AI program running.
"I used to do this all the time," Guin explained, though it wasn't much of an explanation.
A few minutes later, three chambers came out of hidden spots in the floor. Within each, there was an Iron Man suit.
"They're programmed only to have flight capabilities, so they aren't weaponized," Guin said. Minor adjustments were being made quickly to the armor by the bots. One of the pieces of armor didn't need any, since Guin used it regularly, but the other two were being fixed in order to match Marygold and Pietro's heights.
"Want to take them out for a spin?" Marygold wasn't too sure about this, but Pietro was all for it. He never really had the chance to fly around, usually running and staying on the ground. He enjoyed the idea of going for a joyride in one of Iron Man's suits.
"Are you kidding? This is going to be awesome!" he said, bouncing around slightly on the balls of his feet.
Of course, Marygold was closer to a rule follower than the other two, but she did not like the idea of being left behind while they went off. She never had really done any rule breaking before, so why not start now? Better late than never.
"I'm in," she said, and prepared herself for what will most likely be an interesting experience.
"Sweet!" Guin exclaimed, happy that she'd have her friends with her. She had only taken someone with her on a joyride once before, something that resulted in the two of them crashing into the midst of a prison. It had given her a healthy fear of that place, but the fear wasn't enough to get her to follow the rules or even to stop flying her father's suits around. It just made her more appreciative of the lawyers they had on retainer and the fact that any bail amount that was posted, she'd be good for it.
Guin stepped over to the platform with the suit matching her size, stepping up into it as the bots got to work, getting the suit onto her. By the time it was just the mask left to go on, Guin motioned for Marygold and Pietro to do the same.
"It'll take some getting used to, flying it, but Dad'll be distracted for at least another hour. And even then, who the fuck cares what he thinks? I've got it on the Joyride Protocol, so he won't be able to remotely pilot these things unless we deliberately allow him to," Guin snickered. She had been acting out since the day she was born. Why stop now?
Pietro instantly hopped up onto the platform and waited to get into the suit. Marygold, of course, being more hesitant about it. The idea of being able to fly was just strange to her, but she was kind of excited for it. She walked up onto the platform as well, and watched as she and Pietro were put into the suits. It was a little weird, to be in the things, but she figured that once up in the air it would be easier to at least move around.
Guin grinned as the mask went on over her face and she quickly explained the basics of piloting the suits to Marygold and Pietro. A prototype version of J.A.R.V.I.S., called P.H.I.L., had been loaded into each of the suits. She didn't want the butler to go and tell on them before they had a chance to do some real fun.
"Don't worry about breaking these things either. Dad's got at least a hundred of these fucking suits," Guin said, using the suit-to-suit communication system, before she flew through the glass window, shattering it completely, and made her way soaring over the New York City skyline.
Marygold had a surprisingly easy time getting the hang of flying the suit, and she flew off after Guin. Pietro, on the other hand, was used to running, so he had a few problems getting off the ground and out the window. He managed to do it, though it had taken him a while. He enjoyed flying, and was happy once he understood what he was doing.
"Hey Guin, you wouldn't by chance be able to play any music through these suits would you?" he asked as he flew to catch up with Guin and Marygold.
"Yup!" Guin replied cheerfully, beaming and blushing. She was glad that Marygold and Pietro couldn't see her facial expression, thanks to the suit.
"P.H.I.L., play my awesome mix, will you?" Guin instructed. A moment later,
Take On Me by A-ha was playing through the suits. Guin flew up towards the top of the Empire State Building, going as high as she could without running into too much of an icing problem. They were old suits that she had made with the Joyride Protocol, after all. And once she went as high as she could, Guin let herself free fall for a good few minutes, enjoying the feeling of the rush of the wind. At the last second, she pulled up and then went soaring through Times Square, laughing and having one of the best times of her life.
"If I was a mutant, this is what I'd want to be able to do," Guin said with a bit of a sigh.
"Just fly...No rules, no parents, nothing...Just me and the sky." "I don't know about that. Being able to run away from your problems is pretty cool too," Pietro said, and flew after her, enjoying the music. Marygold was fine with being able to fly around, but she still preferred the ground.
"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I kind of agree with him. I personally prefer the ground, but this is pretty cool. Being able to fly around, not a worry in the world until you get back on the ground". "True, being able to run so fucking fast is amazing. And Mary, do you even realize how powerful you are?" Guin pointed out, flying along the Hudson River now. She was going everywhere and anywhere in New York, her mind away from the problems of her life.
"When I was little, I always wanted to get a power one day. But after someone tried to kill me when I was ten--yeah, Uncle Obadiah was fucked up--I realized it wouldn't happen. Can't get more stressful than that, right? So this is it...Flying around in Dad's suits. That's my escape." "Well, flying is still really great. Plus I love the choice of music you have here," Pietro said, quickly changing the subject away from mutants and powers, not wanting a potential girlfriend to start getting jealous of him or something. Marygold just stayed silent, not knowing how to respond to that. Her powers had their limits, she literally was all depending on the area in which she was in, practically useless in the city unless she was at a park. Though she didn't feel like mentioning this.
Guin sensed that the others weren't that comfortable with her reminiscing, so she decided not to talk too much on that subject.
"Anyways...Last one to Coney Island is a HYDRA operative!" Guin shouted, before taking off at full speed towards her destination. Coney Island had been one of her favorite places to go as a kid. Her mother, whenever she had custody that day, would practically abandon Guin there. And that was fine by her. Her mother only wanted to spend time with her if it got her in front of a camera.
"Oh, you are so on!" Pietro yelled as he took off after her. Marygold didn't want to be left behind, so she took off after him, but since Pietro wasn't the best at flying the suits, she easily maneuvered past him and was soon flying behind Guin. After several minutes, the trio found themselves at Coney Island, with Pietro being last out of the three of them.
Guin snickered, landing on the roof of what seemed to be an apartment building.
"Come on, Silver Balls. I thought you were supposed to be fast!" Guin teased, her mask popping off to reveal her face. The blushing had stopped for the most part, a fact that Guin was immensely grateful for. And according to P.H.I.L.'s calculations, they had another ten minutes before Tony noticed that they had left with his suits.
"Hey, I'm fast on my feet, not a few thousand feet in the air!" Pietro said with a grin as he took off the front of his mask. Marygold followed suit, revealing her face, and her eyes roll at the two of them, but Pietro of course doesn't notice this. He is too focused on Guin, and Marygold has to stifle a laugh in order to not draw to much attention as to what was probably going through her head right then.
"Excuses, excuses, excuses!" Guin countered, still laughing at the man. She couldn't deny the fact that he was rather easy on the eyes, plus he shared her taste in music. There was a strand of hair in her eyes and she blew at it to get it out of the way. She didn't notice the eye roll from Marygold, having practically forgotten that the X-Men leader was still there.
"I bet I could run just as fast as you can, maybe even faster," Guin joked, clearly bluffing. She ran fast--by human standards. She couldn't outrun Captain America, much less a speedster.
Pietro laughed, and was still smiling from ear to ear. He seemed to have also forgotten that Marygold was even there. Marygold turned away and looked out on the city, and could just make out a form that was headed their way. She knew who it was, and they were probably going to be in major trouble for it, but it still had been a fun experience overall. She watched as Iron Man came closer and closer to where they were, and turned around to tell Pietro and Guin, but stopped in her tracks. Pietro had pulled Guin in and kissed her, right when her father showed up.
"What the hell is going on here!" Tony said as the front of his mask popped open. Marygold just sighed, figuring that this was going to be a long explanation.
