"You know what they do to guys like us in SHIELD"
Phil Coulson sat before the golden bar Stark had in the Avengers' Tower while Tony handed him bag of frozen peas for his bruised black eye. Even at that moment he could hear the rest of his crew and his old friends talking in other rooms, though a female voice was heard above them all. A shiver ran down his spine. He did not want to see that woman angry with him again in his life. Ever.
"Thank you, Tony," he murmured, taking the ice and placing it on his wound. He couldn't help a hiss of pain at the touch of the delicate flesh with the cold of the improvised remedy, followed by a sigh of relief. His swollen eye was grateful.
"It looks like it hurts, Agent," the philanthropist said, sitting down beside him at the bar.
"I didn't know that Pepper had such a right hand"
"It's not like you did not deserve it," Tony pointed out in a sour tone, and Coulson grimaced.
"You lied to us. They lied to us".
The director shook his head, pricking the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes tightly. That particular subject always caused him a headache and Phil was starting to get fed up.
"They didn't."
"Oh, come on!" Stark replied, throwing his arms into the air. "They said you were dead! And", Tony pointed at his friend's chest with a finger, "I do not know how you feel, but I see you very much alive."
"I was dead".
Stark's face became serious immediately at the tone Coulson had used. It was not an apology, nor an explanation, nor an excuse. It sounded simply to a fact, to something certain that is being exposed. His suspicions were confirmed when Phil added that it had not been minutes, or hours, but whole days. The rest was... "classified".
That wasn't a problem for Tony, who would later deal with hacking any files SHIELD had had about it. What supposed a problem was the mere fact that the agency seemed to have played chess with them, and with the lives of those around them. There was also the fact that until very recently SHIELD and HYDRA had been the same thing.
Now there was only one question left in mind: How many jobs would they have done for HYDRA... without them knowing?
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"This is starting to feel ridiculous," you said, looking at your peers, your (h/c) locks falling over your eyes. "What is the probability that we have never crossed paths with the Avengers and suddenly we meet them three times in two months?"
"It's Peter's fault," Allison said automatically with a shrug, without taking her eyes off the computer in front of her. Suddenly, a red and blue figure fell from the ceiling. Peter turned on his heels then and looked at her, grimacing.
"Why?" the boy exclaimed as he finished squeezing into the tights, the mask still on his hand, while Gwen smiled slightly.
"Parker's luck."
Sighing, Peter pulled the mask up down his head to his neck, adjusting his lenses perfectly. And so, the young adult, scientist geek, Peter Parker, was gone and had given way to (the amazing) Spider-Man.
"Going to make a round," he said, walking to the window while mumbling things about how unfair life was and how bad the girls were with him.
"Did you say something?" Gwen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"..." There was a 'thwip' and Peter had left. Your two friends burst into laughter, but you could not help but shuffle uncomfortably, thinking (feeling) something was wrong.
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A teenage girl with fire-red hair and a yellow-and-green fighting suit hurried down the aisles of the huge mansion in Westchester, dodging her companions to go as fast as she could (a couple of wings around, a few horns there, a fire-spitting boy who almost broke a hole in her leg by sneezing... the usual thing) until she got at a tall dark wooden door and stood still. What should she do? Should she just enter the room? Should she keep waiting for her to be called? But it was an important subject. She had run all the houses' corridors for this! Why did she stop now?
"Do you need a push?" Though the voice was rough, the tone was sweet, and her stomach kinda twisted a little (as if it was full of... butterflies). Her green eyes met Logan's blues, following the straight nose, the dark sideburns, and the square jaw, until she looked at the other side in amazement of herself.
What the hell was wrong with her? Although her counterpart had felt something very strong for this man, she could not afford it again. First, he was much older than herself (although with his healing factor that would be no problem, since Logan was growing old much slower than any other person they knew, but still ...), and secondly, if she was there it was because he and Kitty had prevented certain future things from happening, creating that crossing of realities and as a consequence that she was now here, living the life of her other self.
Well, thinking about it all made her brains hurt from a big headache, but surely her case wasn't the only one that had gone through the alteration of its timeline throughout its existence at least to couple of times. And of course, that was the daily bread if you were a mutant...
Besides, it wasn't as if the fact that she was in the present time was the greatest of their concerns.
Before she knew it, Wolverine had turned the knob down and they had both entered a precious room with multitude of books, wooden shelves with beautiful reliefs, and a beautiful pine-colored desk.
"Professor?" the young mutant called, to be answered by a couple of voices to her right.
"Hello, Jean".
Yes, a couple of voices. One from a young man with crutches dressed in jeans and a shirt, the other from an elderly man in a wheelchair; both with their characteristic and affable smile on their faces.
And that, gentlemen, was one of the biggest complications of the events mentioned before. At least she was just one.
Sighing, Jean glanced at her mentors (or could she speak of him in the singular even if they were two since they were the same person?).
"Where's Magneto, Chuck?" Logan asked before she could even open her mouth, leaning against the table. "Didn't see him today in class".
"Erik is in a meeting with SHIELD" the young Xavier began, being cut by Wolverine right on the spot.
"I didn't mean your boyfrend, but the old bucket head, Chuckie," the Canadian stated, being answered by a metal ball that pierced the ground and hit him directly on the jaw. "This is what I get for worrying..." he murmured as he put his lower jaw in place again with a crack.
"Enough," Professor X said, looking at Jean, seeing what she had seen minutes before in her mind. She didn't even know how, but she had come to see something only SHIELD agents had witnessed. Maybe Erik had helped her somehow? She didn't know, but... Wow. "Amazing," he whispered, never taking his eyes off her.
The young Charles followed the example of his older version and a smile covered his face. Such power... and responsability to use it.
"I'll call Erik," he said then. "If that video is real ..."
"We could have another member for the X-Men," Jean completed, almost bouncing off the excitement. Another girl on the team? And she looked young! Maybe she was her age?. She would give anything to have anyone besides Kitty to talk...
"Yeah, well..." Logan cut in, pulling the claws out of one of his hands. He did not know who they were talking about, but he did know that person had powers, maybe was mutant, and that meant that HYDRA would be tracking her. He wasn't going to let them get there before him, not at all. "What if we first try to find her before others do it?"