shawarma for the lady
"Let me just say, I did not expect to be visiting Russia today, this armour is basically a vest, it doesn't help with the cold at all" Said the shivering woman the second the three stepped through the portal that led them to where the battle was taking place, "it feels like fucking Jotunheim" she added under her breath
The three walked towards the concentration of the fight, in the middle, the avengers were fighting pretty restlessly, but it was to no avail, the moment an alien was killed, it seemed like three more took its place
"Do you ever take anything seriously?" asked Wong with an exasperated look
"Well, I don't see why I should, these are Chitauri, pretty weak, you just gotta kill the mothership and the rest will go poof" Replied Cora as if it was the most common of knowledge, which to her was.
After seeing the rest of the battered team eyes on her, she spoke again with realization in her voice "Ohh you guys- Sorry, didn't you know?"
"You're telling me the battle of New York would have ended just like that?!?" Questioned an exasperated Tony Stark with the helmet of his suit off, 'Oh, right, the man almost died that day' thought Cora
"Yeah, and I'd love to keep chatting, but there's work to do, nice to see you all again" She said, with a bright smile and a wave to the rest of the heroes, before jumping through a portal
"Where did she go?" asked the black widow, voicing the question that was floating around everyone's bewildered minds
Strange just pointed to the mothership, where a purple ring spat Cora, who landed on top of the alien vessel
"Wong, call off the back-up, it won't be needed" Said the sorcerer supreme to his friend, not taking his eyes off the sky. Feeling everyone else's confused eyes on him, he added "She'll be down in a minute"
As he said that, the whole team watched how the woman above of them clapped her hands, which glowed with entrancing lilac sparks, stopped, crouched, then pressed her palms on the surface of the ship
Her magic flowed from her hands to the aircraft, enclosing it. When that was done, she stood up again and flicked her wrist. Not a second after that minimal movement was made, the whole thing exploded and the woman had vanished from thin air.
Everyone gasped, with a mix of surprise and admiraton. They were all looking from where the ship stood high on the sky to the ground where all the aliens lay dead, back and forth, as if waiting for them to come back to life and start fighting again
A long minute passed, no one moved, but the shock was wearing off and the air was tense as Cora was still nowhere to be seen, worry clouded the group's heads, lowering their heads, ready to pay their respects for a fallen soldier
"THAT FELT AWESOME" Everyone jumped in fright at the sudden scream coming from behind them
"Did you guys see that?" cheered Cora while grabbing Stephen's shoulders and shaking him "I haven't done that in like three centuries!" she said moving towards the other master of mystic arts and doing the same to him "did it look as cool as it felt? 'cause it felt fucking cool as hell!"
"Language!" Cora frowned and turned her back on her friends to search for the voice that interrupted her rave.
She found the owner of the voice, 'Acts like a grandpa, must be the iced captain', she faced him with a menacing stare and sinister smile
Everyone looked shocked at the sudden change of demeanor on the woman, especially the one responsible for this shift.
The silence felt eternal, after what felt like ages, of looking like she was going to murder the man with a frisbee, she was satisfied with the reaction and started laughing, completely going back to her previous cheery state, no trace of that alarming expression left on her joyful face
"Don't have to be so scared captain, you're already pale enough as it is" joked the silver-eyed woman wholeheartedly
The man in question cleared his throat and spoke "Um, yeah, right, well, great job, it was a good... show?" He ended with doubt in his voice fearing to enrage the woman again
"Thanks!" She said and extended her hand towards Steve "Pleasure to meet you, I'm Cora Francis, you may call me Cora and don't worry about the language thing, I found it hilarious, i was merely jesting" Added Cora with a gentle smile for the sake of the poor hero
"Steve Rogers. Pleasure is all mine, Cora" the golden retriever finally shook her hand and the tension in the air vanished
Someone with a blue and red suit stepped forward and addressed the woman as well "M-Ma'am, that- Woah! That was awesome!" He sounded much younger than the rest of the team
"Thank you, Peter, it's just Cora, or Professor Cora if you're feeling fancy, ma'am makes me feel old"
"You are old" muttered Strange from beside her, she elbowed him on his side and continued trying to get to know Earth's mightiest heroes
"W-Wait! How do you know my name?" Asked a very panicked spider-man, this peaked everyone's interest even further
Cora couldn't really explain to them that she had asked a friend from another realm to give her the full details about the members of the team's lives the first time Strange and Wong had mentioned them to her, and it would be weird to just say 'Oh yeah, I know literally everything about each one of you. Cute, right?'.
"Well, Strange told me some stuff about all of you, so I wouldn't, you know, get confused, since there's a lot of you guys" she explained, and it was a complete lie, but, oh well, she'll deal with that later, plus, everyone bought it and Stephen just looked at her questioningly but didn't deny it
After Stark Relief Foundation got there, the sorcerers offered to give the others a lift back to New York, but they said they couldn't just leave the Quinjet stranded in Europe.
"I can take care of that if you want, we can get some shawarma after, Strange said it's Ton- Ouch!" She glared at the goateed sorcerer but still 'corrected' herself, "Sorry, I meant, Strange said it's your favourite victory food" she said, gesturing to the whole team when she said 'your favourite'
Because god forbid Anthony Stark ever found out that the doctor blabbered about him to his magician friends.
Wanda laughed, she looked like she knew something, but the witch couldn't have read neither hers nor Stephen's mind, so, now interested, Cora took a glance at Tony's head to see if that was the cause of the witch's chuckling
'OMG'
'He talks to his friends about me? Cute'
'And he knows it's my favourite!'
'This means I have a slight chance!'
Cora's eyes looked like they were about to pop off her head, she shared a look with the redheaded witch, and they both burst out laughing like madwomen, the group was... confused and slightly concerned for the girls' well-being, so Cora shared Tony's thoughts to the rest, except Strange and obviously Tony
Now everyone but the two who supposedly despised each other, were aware of the weird mutual pining between the men.
After some more laughter, everyone agreed to let Cora take care of the jet, and by 'taking care', it meant she opened a portal under it that would drop the ship wherever it was the jet was parked in the compound, luckily it wouldn't fall on top of some poor by-walker
"That was amazing, lady Cora" She internally winced at the title, the formalities were something she was way too used to.
"Thanks Thor, and, please, i'm no lady, just Cora is okay" She told the god as she opened a big portal for everyone to go through, leading them directly in front of the same shawarma place they frequented every time.
- - -
"My lady, you can't be walking around the palace-"
"Who are you calling 'lady' you oaf? I am a princess" Sneered the girl to the guard, she looked young but not quite a little girl anymore
"Your majesty, I apologize profusely" The man all but begged the girl for forgiveness, when realization downed up on him
"It's no problem" she assured calmly, "but could you please notify the queen i've come for today's lesson, please?"
The guard just nodded and left his post to do exactly what he was asked to
- - -
The whole group was seated around the three tables they had arranged to fit all of them. They were quiet, everyone focused on eating their food with a tired look on their faces, after all, the heroes had been fighting pretty sorely before Cora came in and wrapped it all up in a matter of minutes. The first to break the silence was Clint
"Are you sure you don't wanna join the team? I mean, what you did today..." he trailed off but was met with nods, he didn't need to add anything, she knew what he meant so she gave a smile but didn't reply
"He's right, and you could still go back to the sanctum, help with whatever it is the magicians need help with" said Tony waving the knife in his hand in a dismissive gesture but still with his signature playful smirk
Cora, again, didn't say anything. She did want to, god she wanted it so much, she was right before, one taste of the battlefield and she becomes addicted. The sanctum was interesting though, sometimes there would be intruders and she always had fun knocking them out, but that wasn't enough anymore. She was in abstinence, and her fix was right in front of her, waiting to be picked up
"You should" Spoke the one and only Dr. Strange after a minute of silence. Everyone's head snapped to the wizard, surprised that he was on board with it, the deity being by far the most taken aback by his approval
"Say what now? Should I feel insulted that you're trying to get rid of me all of the sudden?" Cora asked him with raised brows
"Of you? Never. But please, your giddiness when you got rid of the mother ship today? I'd never seen you so excited and happy, you need it" Said the doctor with his usual flat tone, but Cora knew better, she knew he meant it, he cared for her and wanted to see her happy like he had seen her earlier that day
"What do you say, Wong?" Cora asked his other friend after pondering for a few seconds
"I say go for it, though I believe we'll have to give the dear Avengers some sort of memo about you so they know what they're really getting into" He said it jokingly as to not scare away the super people in the table but the three sorcerers knew they definitely would have to give them a heads up about some of Cora's antics, like not leaving her room when meditating for long periods of times, the secrecy about her past and home, being elusive as hell about a ton of topics, etc.
"So, Cora Francis, would you like to be an Avenger?" asked Steve putting on his captain voice
"Hell yeah, captain"