Every Superhero Needs a Tragic Backstory
Prologue
******
On May 4th, 2012, aliens invaded New York.
Before that, only a select number of SHIELD agents were tasked to a special energy source pulled from the ocean several years ago by Howard Stark, including Dr. Jennifer McCall.
When Maisie was really little, her mom would sometimes bring her into her work. Her father and mother would argue about who had to take her; she'd been kicked out of several child care services, and this was her last option. Her mother didn't want to leave her with a nanny, so she got to stay in the office and watch her mom work on the pretty blue cube.
As she grew up, the pretty blue cube was given a name: the Tesseract.
Dr. Jennifer McCall, Maisie's mom, climbed the career ladder from a small town in Missouri and found her way onto SHIELD's radar, eventually becoming one of the leading astrophysicists in the world before being assigned to the Tesseract's case. In the move to SHIELD's research facility, she met Maisie's father, Jonathan McCall. They married within the year.
Despite the Tesseract being of utmost secrecy, Maisie was brought to work by her mother most days. Maisie wasn't one to pay attention in her school class most of the time, and she caused more problems than her teachers cared to deal with. So, she learned the basic concepts of mathematics and physics before she was in third grade alongside some of the most brilliant minds in the world. Maisie always felt at home in the lab alongside her mother, solving whatever problem thrown her way and feeling a rush of pride when she would smile in approval at the girl's work.
Currently, her mother was working on some sort of device that would be used to distribute energy from the Tesseract and utilize it in other types of machines, or even buildings. Maisie was mesmerized by the technology. Apparently, clean energy was the next big thing, and Stark Industries wasn't the only player in the game. Granted, this was only a prototype and one that fit into the palm of Dr. McCall's hand.
"Mom?" an eleven year old Maisie asked. "Is it time for dinner yet? I'm starving."
"Soon, I'm finishing up here," she looked to her daughter from her conversation with another scientist. Noticing the impatient look on Maisie's face, she sighed, handing her the device she was working on, "Here, could my favorite assistant go put this on my desk for me?"
Maisie smiled and nodded, taking the purple prototype device from her mother and returning to her lab station. She smiled at its glow; purple was her favorite color.
Jennifer had been giving her little lessons during their time together at the lab, and Maisie ate them up. Science had always been her favorite subject. She loved helping her mom out, and she was usually her little lab assistant to do the little tasks.
A strange noise interrupted her thinking, and Maisie lifted her head from the small purple device in her hands. She scanned the room with inquisitive eyes, trying to locate the source of the noise. Her gaze landed on the far end of the room where the Tesseract glowed with bright blue energy.
"Mom?" Maisie asked again, watching the cube.
"Just a minute, Maisie," her mother replied, turning to speak with another scientist Maisie remembered being Dr. Selvig.
The sound came again, and Maisie wondered if she was the only one to hear it. It sounded like lightning or static electricity zapping something that she couldn't see. She knew she shouldn't go near it; she was always told to stay far away from the Tesseract, but she ignored the thought and went to investigate anyway. After all, that's what true scientists did.
The girl snuck closer, looking over her shoulder at her mom. Dr. McCall was working, speaking avidly with Dr. Selvig. Maisie turned around and walked within arms length of the Tesseract before she finally stopped.
Electricity crackled, and Maisie's eyes filled with wonder as the Tesseract glowed even brighter than before. It took her a moment to realize that she was only a few inches away from it, reaching out with her hand toward the cube. Her eyes moved to the small device in her hands, and she saw the purple start to glow brighter, too. Maisie furrowed her brows in concentration, and she switched the purple device from her other hand, reaching out with it toward the Tesseract. The crackling noise got louder.
Finally, someone noticed her, "Maisie!" her mother exclaimed in horror.
She wasn't close enough to reach her daughter when suddenly, the Tesseract exploded open with blue energy shooting outward. Maisie didn't have time to react as some of the energy collided with the device in her hands, and she felt the energy travel up her arm and into her body. The purple device in her hands heated to her touch, and the purple glow burned brighter before dying out completely.
"MAISIE!" Jennifer yelled, rushing to her daughter's side.
When Jennifer checked for a pulse, she breathed a sigh of relief as she found a faint one. Maisie was unresponsive, and the woman shook her daughter in an attempt to wake her up. The rest of the scientists were staring in awe at the Tesseract. In all their time working on it, it hadn't acted like this. Someone got on the phone with the director, but Jennifer couldn't be bothered to pay attention.
Jennifer glanced down at the small device still clutched in Maisie's small hand. The purple glow had dissipated, and the device was smoking.
"Dr. McCall," Erik Selvig crouched next to the woman, "is she alright?"
"I-I don't know..." Jennifer turned to the other scientists. "Someone c-call for an ambulance or a doctor, something!"
"Talk to me, doctor," Director Nick Fury entered the room, all business. He glanced at the Tesseract which still shuddered with unlimited energy, static electricity sounding throughout the room, and looked at Dr. Selvig.
The man sighed and stood up to discuss the cube's misbehavior.
"You're going to be okay, Maisie, I promise," tears were leaking out of Jennifer's eyes. "I promise."
Suddenly, Maisie's eyes shot open, and her hands clamped down on her mother's arm, squeezing with an unnatural amount of strength. When Jennifer looked into her daughter's eyes, all she saw was a purple glow, sizzling with pure energy.
Jennifer jumped back in horror as Maisie choked out, "Mom, what's happening?"
Before she could respond, Maisie collapsed again, arms limp by her side. The woman stared in terror at her daughter's unconscious body.
The sound of a fellow scientist's voice brought her back to reality, "Doctor, it's spiking again!"
Jennifer glanced around; in the chaos, no one noticed Maisie's episode. Dr. Selvig left Fury's side and rushed over to the computer where a quick-thinking intern already managed to record the behavior of the cube.
Then, the Tesseract repeated itself. Its blue energy burned brighter and bigger than before, heating the room's temperature by at least fifteen degrees. Jennifer held up a hand to lessen the effects of the light on her eyes. The tears streaming down her face clouded her vision, and when she finally managed to focus on the scene in front of her, she couldn't believe it.
A man with long dark hair and a mischievous smirk stared back, holding a golden scepter with a glowing blue center.
"Sir, please put down the spear," Nick Fury ordered, not seeming too nervous, but when was he ever?
The man regarded Fury for a moment, then pulled back and aimed, shooting a burst of blue energy from his spear. Jennifer dove to the ground beside Maisie in an attempt to protect her even though she feared she was already gone. More tears escaped her eyes, but she was desperate to save her daughter. She heard fighting, and several gunshots sounded throughout the room. The woman pushed her daughter's body underneath a lab table where the girl remained unconscious and out of sight. A feeling of relief that she was hidden filled her heart as she stood up, moving away to distance herself from the lab table and keep attention away from her daughter's vulnerable body.
She only made it a few small steps before a throwing knife hit her in the chest, burying itself in her heart. Jennifer collapsed, gasping for breath, but her killer already moved on, pointing his spear at Clint Barton's chest. With her last breath, she managed to lay her eyes on her daughter, untouched and unharmed underneath the lab table. Please let her be safe, she pleaded. Let her be okay. She's gotta be okay...
And Jennifer McCall took her last breath.
******
Maisie awoke to the sound of pulsing energy coming from every direction. Her eyes shot open, and all she could see was purple. Slowly, her vision returned to normal, but she was no less confused.
All around her laid the bodies of SHIELD agents. She looked around, starting to cry as she tried to find anyone that could tell her what to do. Her heartbeat quickened as her eyes landed on a familiar face.
"Mom?" she whimpered, crawling over to her.
Her mother didn't respond.
Maisie looked down and saw her mother's eyes staring unfocused at the ceiling above her.
"Mama!" Maisie burst into tears, feeling the grief wrack her body at the sight of her mother. "No! Come back!"
Maisie threw herself over her mom's body, hugging her to her chest. She felt something wet seep into her shirt, and she pulled back to see her mother's blood covering her shirt. Maisie's hands started to shake, overcome with shock.
A booming sound startled her so much that she jumped in surprise, landing on her butt a foot away from her mother's body. Maisie looked up, and she froze.
The ceiling was covered by what must've been the remains of whatever the Tesseract did to her. It pulsed with unlimited energy, letting off zaps of lightning randomly throughout the room. At the sight, Maisie decided that if she wanted to live, she had to get out. Looking down at her mother, she hesitated, tears clouding her vision. Did she even want to get out?
One of the lightning strikes hit a light fixture, causing it to spark and fall from the ceiling. It landed mere feet from Maisie, and she felt a piece of stray metal ricochet into her arm. The girl's tears never stopped, but now, she was angry. Angry at the ceiling for not giving her time to grieve her mother. Angry at her mother for dying. Angry at herself for touching the Tesseract when she should've been listening to what her mother told her.
Maisie lurched forward, taking Jennifer by the arm and pulling her toward the door, "Come on!"
The young girl didn't move very far, and her mother's extra weight only slowed her down.
"I'm not leaving without you!" Maisie cried; she was sobbing now. "Mama, let's go!"
She moved a couple more feet, but glancing up at the ceiling, Maisie knew she'd never make it out in time. She was done. The girl collapsed on the ground, punching at the hard concrete with her fists. One of them started to hurt, and she thought it might bruise, but it wouldn't matter in only a few moments. Maisie turned onto her back and stared at the blue ceiling. Tears leaked out of her eyes as she heard the pulsing energy come to a complete stop, and she knew it was over.
Anywhere but here, Maisie wished, squeezing her eyes shut and gripping her mother's cold hand. Please, get me anywhere but here.
******
When Maisie opened her eyes, she was staring up at a starry sky, still holding her mother's hand. She sat up and looked around. The sound of destruction filled her ears, and she watched in horror as the SHIELD facility imploded.
And she was sitting atop a grassy hill over a mile away.
******
FOUR YEARS LATER
Maisie closed the trunk of the car and picked up the one of the last boxes full of her father's stuff, turning to look at her new apartment building. Her father approached her, frowning at the remaining boxes in the car.
"Margaret, hurry up, we don't have all day," Maisie's father instructed, taking the box from her hands and moving toward the entrance to the building. "You finish this, I've got some work left to do."
Maisie fought the urge to roll her eyes, replying long after he left, "Yeah, okay."
Once her father was gone, Maisie scanned the streets for any prying eyes. Then, she picked up a box and teleported into her room inside the building, ensuring her door was locked so her father wouldn't see. She dropped the box on the ground and popped back down to the car for the last two boxes. She smirked as her job was finished within a minute, and after locking the car, she settled into her bed with her laptop.
After Maisie's mom died, Maisie was heartbroken. Her mom was her best friend, and she couldn't help but wonder if she hadn't been so stupid to try to touch the Tesseract or woken up to teleport the two of them out before Loki could even see them, that her mom would still be here.
As it turned out, scientific experiments on things not a part of this world tended to have superhuman results.
At first, Maisie didn't know how she got herself and her mom's body out of SHIELD before it collapsed, thinking it was some miracle or act of God. The grief overtook any sense for the situation she had. She was found by the authorities asleep, holding her mom's hand and shivering in the cold. She thought that was the end of all the supernatural crap in her life until one day when she accidentally teleported all the way to Midtown Manhattan from her soccer practice in Boston. She couldn't figure out how to get back until in her confusion, she was almost hit by a New York taxi. She ended up laying in her bed. She barely heard the scolding from her father, too busy focusing on the fact that she, eleven year old Maisie, had superpowers.
A knock sounded at Maisie's door about an hour later, and the girl took out her headphones, "Yeah?"
Her dad stood in the doorway, "School starts tomorrow at eight. Don't be late, and don't skip class or there'll be consequences."
"Fine, but I'm going to need money for a MetroCard or something," a knowing smirk settled on her face. "I can't just teleport myself to school, you know."
"Obviously, or else you'd never be as late as you always seem to be," her father shot back, taking a hundred dollar bill out of his wallet and tossing it on her desk. "Go to sleep, and I expect you to be on your best behavior tomorrow. This is the best school in Manhattan, and I don't want to hear of another suspension, do you understand?"
Maisie nodded, responding wordlessly, as usual. The man nodded his head once and closed her door on the way out with a resolute click.
She jumped onto her bed and glanced out the window with a sigh, "Midtown School of Science and Technology, here I come."