14A/N: OMFG, I am so sorry peoples! My stupid, gay-ass Internet was out for a few days and I couldn't post a thing. Now, my Internet is back up, but don't be surprised if I can't post as often as I like just in case.
BTW: Just in case you were wondering, this story is including elements from: the X-Men: Evolution, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and Wolverine and the X-Men TV shows, as well as the IronMan, IronMan 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers movies, along with my own twists *smirks evilly*.
Now, on with this story!
X~*~*~*~*~Men
Pietro and Amelia's good spirits seemed to evaporate as soon as they reached their apartment. Amelia cocked her head to the side, listening. "No shouting; that's a good sign," she said in a poor attempt to lighten the mood.
"That probably just means he drank himself into a stupor again," Pietro said, easily finding a way to dampen the mood once again. Amelia shot him a pleading look. "Don't make him angry again; mom is running out of excuses for your injuries. The other nurses and doctors will start to suspect something's up," she said quietly as she quietly opened the door with her key.
Pietro narrowed his eyes but said nothing as Amelia entered the apartment. "We're home!" she called as cheerfully as she could.
Marya Maximoff – Amelia's mother and Pietro's foster mother – leaned out of the kitchen, her eyes bright despite the dark circles under them.
"Mom! You're home early!" Amelia cried, running forward and nearly tackling her mother. Marya smiled, though it was strained. "Cindy offered to do my shift because she said I didn't look that healthy today. She's such a worrywart," she sighed, sounding tired, and Pietro could tell from the way she pressed a hand to her temple that she had a migraine.
"Marya! Where's my beer? !" snarled a voice down the hall, making them all jump. Marya blinked her eyes shut longer than necessary, her pleasant smile becoming a strained grimace. "It's coming, Conrad! Just a moment!" she called, her voice catching slightly.
Amelia seemed to have gone from pleasantly tan to deathly pale in a millisecond. "M-mom, is he-?" she asked, but Marya quickly cut her off. "He's in one of his moods right now, sweetie. I think you and your brother need to go to your rooms. Now."
Her tone certainly didn't sound alright, but there was no arguing with her. Pietro quickly dragged Amelia through the living room and into the opposite hall, stopping at her room.
"You okay?" he asked, eyes trained on her face. Amelia smiled unconvincingly. "I'm fine, Pietro. Go ahead; you have a basketball game tonight, remember?" she said, her former cheerful attitude almost completely gone as she opened her door and disappeared inside, closing it with a loud thump.
Pietro stood outside for a few seconds, opening and closing his fist in frustration as he heard Marya deliver several bottles of beer to Conrad's bedroom – it hadn't been her bedroom for a while now. She just slept on the couch instead.
After several muffled words, she handed them inside to her husband and quickly shut the door, turning shakily and walking back to the kitchen. She caught Pietro's eye and sent him a sad smile. Pietro tried to say something, but she just smiled, shook her head, and disappeared into the kitchen.
'Damn it!' Pietro thought venomously, spinning around and stalking toward his room. He opened the door, entered, and slammed it shut so hard he was sure he'd made one of the picture-frames fall crooked slightly.
He didn't care. None of this was fair. Pietro Django Lehnsherr had been living with this family for well over eight years, ever since his sister Wanda had proven herself too dangerous to control and Pietro proved himself unworthy of his father's time.
Could Pietro help it that he'd gotten such a weak, near useless mutation? No, of course not, but to his father, it seemed Pietro had chosen to be weaker than his sister. And so, after locking Wanda up in a mental institution, Magneto, his loving father, had willingly signed Pietro over to his old friend and accomplice Conrad Maximoff and his family. Of course, back then, Conrad wasn't a slobbering drunkard who couldn't stand up straight.
But, of course, times had changed. Conrad had lost his job and now had nothing to do but sit around the house, drinking beer and beating his wife and children when he ran out. Marya, a nurse, worked almost all day every day to pay for the beer and for the bills of the household. Amelia struggled to finish her schoolwork on a daily-basis because of her worsening dyslexia and fought to survive the taunts and jeers that it caused. And Pietro could only sit in his room and listen to it all happening, while also trying to imagine what it would be like if he were with his father right now.
Cursing several times under his breath in German – "Verdammt noch mal in die Hölle! Scheiß!" – Pietro dug his gym bag out from under his bed and checked to see if he had everything he needed inside.
X~*~*~*~*~Men
In a secret location somewhere in New York (A/N: The exact location has not been revealed; even to the author.:)) underground, a tall black man with an eye patch and wearing an all black trench-coat stood in the middle of a room, pacing back and forth.
The door to the room suddenly opened, and a woman with black hair – and purple highlights – wearing a pure black body suit entered, looking breathless. "Agent Romanov said you needed to see me, sir?" she said, straightening up and saluting as soon as she saw him.
"Yes, I do," he said, motioning to a chair for her to sit in. The agent sat down cautiously, keeping her eyes trained on her superior as he paced back and forth for a few more minutes.
"Has something happened, sir? I heard Agent Coulson was being assigned to New Mexico-" The agent began, but he cut her off, "That is none of your concern, Agent Braddock, at least not for right now. Right now, I have an entirely different mission for you."
Braddock quickly straightened, looking him right in the eye. "I'll do whatever you say, Colonel Fury," she said confidently.
Fury looked like he was about to smile, but it quickly disappeared from his face. He leaned forward until he was face to face with Agent Braddock. "This information cannot leave this room. Understand?" he asked in barely a whisper.
Braddock, her skin slowly going as white as a sheet, nodded.
Now Fury did grin. "Then I chose wisely. Alright, here's the situation…"
X~*~*~*~*~Men
Far from the secret base in New York, inside a severely similar secret base that belonged to an organization completely opposite of the last one we saw, another man was planning and scheming with another female accomplice…
X~*~*~*~*~Men
"Now, this is extremely important, Harsaw. Are you sure you can handle all of this? For if it turns out that you cannot do this…." Schmidt left that threat hanging in the air.
Eileen Harsaw, a.k.a. Phantazia, smirked at her employer humorlessly. "Trust me, Red Skull, if I couldn't handle this I wouldn't have volunteered. Now, remind me; who are the targets?" she asked, eyes sharp as flint as she stared at him.
Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. the Red Skull, a.k.a. the leader of HYDRA – (A/N: Holy crap, this is certainly AU!) – glared slightly at his subordinate, promising himself that if she did accomplish her task, he'd shoot her anyway.
"For now, you have only four targets; that may change if we find any others," he said, pointing toward the computer screen in front of them and bringing up the files he had. "Pietro Maximoff; the result of Magneto drunkenly looking for a nice woman for the night," he said in disgust as the first was brought up. Eileen did not comment; rather she studied the picture like it was a maze she had to figure out.
"Regan Wyngarde; I believe her sister Martinique is a friend of yours, yes? Both of them are results of Mastermind's fickle womanizing, as always," Schmidt continued. Eileen looked unimpressed with her. "Finally, Emma and Cordelia Frost. Their father owns Frost Industries, so it should not be a problem for you to keep an eye on them; though, Cordelia should be less troublesome to turn to our side," he finished, bringing up the final pictures and turning to his agent.
"Make no mistake, Phantazia; this is no simple task. S.H.I.E.L.D. is already wary of these four. I do not doubt they will send an agent of their own to keep an eye on them; a skilled agent, probably Black Widow or Hawkeye – perhaps even Psylocke – but this is of little consequence. If you fail in bringing in these four and any others I assign you, I will personally see that you get escorted to Hel! Do I make myself clear?" Red Skull spat at his subordinate.
"Yes sir!" Eileen said quickly, biting back a snappy retort.
"Then you are dismissed. Hail HYDRA!" he said, nodding to her to leave.
"Hail HYDRA!" she responded, lifting both arms in salute before quickly leaving the room so she wouldn't start mouthing off at him.
X~*~*~*~*~*~Men
A/N: Sorry if Fury and Red Skull were a bit….. AU. I've only seen them in the Marvel movies, and this was the best I could do to replicate those. I'll try to make them much more bad-ass in future chapters. :D
Anyway! We now find that HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. are both sending agents to find four unlucky mutants; why? That is a question you'll have to wait a while to see answered. In the mean time: Avengers…. ASSEMBLE! ! ! ! ! !
(P.S. Sorry I've wanted to do that for a while!)
PLEASE REVIEW; DON'T JUST FAVORITE THE STORY! ! ! ! ! ! !
~Persephone