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It had happened when she and Diana were baking cupcakes down on the Quill-Lang floor. Cassie had just put the batter in the oven to bake, and as soon as she closed the door to the oven, there was a loud noise. Normally, Cassie was used to loud noises in the tower. It was a given with all of the Avengers, and on their floor, Quill and her dad could be pretty clumsy. But this noise had been unfamiliar and loud enough to startle the teenager.
Something happened when she nearly jumped out of her skin too. One second Cassie was staring at the top of the counter, and the next she found herself face to face with Diana's shoes. The little girl had seen what happened and she carefully crouches down to look at her pseudo sister who was currently the size of an ant. Before Diana could pick her up or say anything though, Cassie grows back to her normal size, sending the little girl onto her bottom in surprise.
"Oh my god...what happened?!" Cassie gasps out.
"You were tiny!" Diana exclaims. "Do it again!"
"I...I don't know if I can." The teen mumbles.
"Maybe you did it because you were scared?" Diana wonders.
Cassie looks at her hands and then closes her eyes to try and see if she can do it again at will. She focuses on how she felt when the noise had startled her, and hears Diana gasp, causing her to open her eyes again.
She was back to staring at the little girl's shoes again.
"SISSY HAS POWERS!" Diana yells gleefully. "Uncle Scott! Uncle Quill!" She dashes up the stairs as Cassie grows back to her normal size a second time, and skids to a halt in the open doorway.
Scott was the one to join the little girl at the door. "What are you yelling about?"
"Cassie has powers!" Diana repeats with a grin before taking his hand and dragging him down to the kitchen with Quill following close behind.
Cassie was still trying to wrap her head around the new development. Diana's suggestion made her realize that at least being scared was connected to her new ability to shrink. Maybe her power was connected to her emotions? Could she grow too?
"Powers?" Quill asks with a raised eyebrow. "Did you sneeze sprinkles?" He jokes.
Cassie huffs. "No!" She says as Diana giggles out something along the lines of "sprinkle sneezes". "I...I shrunk."
Scott looks at her skeptically. "You look normal to me."
"Maybe she lost a couple of inches. She does look a little shorter." Quill chuckles.
Their comments were enough to annoy Cassie and she suddenly grew until her head hit the ceiling. Both of her parents jump back in surprise with a shout as she winces and rubs her head, and Diana just grins wider.
"See! I told you!"
Scott looks up at Cassie with wide eyes. "Peanut...have you been messing with my particles?"
"No! Of course not!" Cassie frowns.
Quill rubs his chin thoughtfully as the teenager shrinks down to size. "I wonder if you getting turned into a baby had anything to do with it."
Scott looks up at his husband. "A baby? When did this happen?"
"You were out of town. Cass was putting away our laundry and accidentally broke one of you vials--I didn't tell you about this?" Quill tells him.
"No!"
"Oh well...yeah. That happened." Quill rubs the back of his neck. "The particles turned her into a baby and Tony had to make something to change her back safely. Maybe her body absorbed the properties of the shrinking and growing formula."
Cassie drops her hand from her head. "Maybe Mom, Tony, and Bruce can check." She suggests.
The two men nod and Diana rushes ahead of them to get her parents. When the elevator comes back, Cassie takes it down to the medbay with Scott and Quill and finds Bruce already waiting for her. It wasn't a big surprise since he spent a lot of his time studying in the medbay if he wasn't on his floor with Thor. Cassie sits on the bed after he motions to it and he grabs everything he needs to draw some of her blood.
"Friday told me what happened. I'm going to draw some blood and see if there's anything different from an earlier sample we have." Bruce tells her.
Cassie nods. "Okay."
As the scientist draws blood, Stephen and Tony join them and walk over to stand by the holoscreen as Bruce finishes and tapes some cotton to the broken skin. He then brings the sample over to be tested along with Cassie's older sample and places them both in the machine.
"So what's this about Miss Sass having powers?" Tony asks.
"She grew right in front of us." Quill answers and Stephen walks over to do a quick check of her pulse and her eyes.
"How are you feeling? Tired?" He asks her.
"No. I'm okay."
"How much control do you have over it?" The sorcerer asks.
"Some? My emotions seem to have a part in it, but if I focus enough, I can get back to my normal size." Cassie tells him.
"Can you try and demonstrate?"
The teen nods, focuses on herself, and shrinks down until she's standing on the medical bed. The men look at her with wide eyes, but Stephen quickly recovers and nods before asking her to grow again. After another second of focus, Cassie grows, hitting her head on the ceiling again, and quickly shrinks back to normal to rub her head. Stephen checks her head and nods when he doesn't find any damage and smiles at her.
"Well, you fortunately seem to have reasonable control over your powers which is good. Whether or not you decide to use them to help us is up to you and your parents, but you still need training." Stephen finally says and Scott nods in agreement.
"I can help with training." He says. "I'd rather not have you on the field though."
Cassie shakes her head. "I don't mind staying behind with Dia and Val. At least these might be able to help me get them to safety if anything ever happens, and I'm already training when the boys do."
"Dr. Banner, the results are ready." Friday says and both Bruce and Tony turn to the holoscreen.
They go over the results in silence for a few minutes, flicking away mini screens or pulling more into it, and Cassie actually tilts her head curiously when Bruce's eyebrows fly up to his hairline. Both men turn to look at her and the teen straightens.
"The particles seemed to have mutated her DNA. Which makes sense since she's able to grow and shrink without the help of a suit or the particles." Tony says and shakes his head with a smirk. "So much for having a normal kid around."
Quill grins. "I can't wait to see Peter's reaction when he sees her."
Scott bursts into laughter while Cassie rolls her eyes. She was allowed to leave after that, and she took the elevator back up to her floor, leaving her parents behind to discuss her newfound abilities and probably what that meant for all of them. Before she could even consider any of it though, the smell of cupcakes spurs her to run over to the oven and pull them out with an oven mitt. She sets them on the counter to cool and turns to grab the cake decorating tools, only to come face to face with her boyfriend hanging upside down from the ceiling.
"PETER!" Cassie screeches and miraculously doesn't shrink down this time. "You scared me!"
Peter flips down from the ceiling and looks her over. "Are you okay?! Dia said something about you going down to the medbay! You're never in the medbay! At least not for yourself. Are you sick?" Peter rattles off and Cassie smiles after huffing fondly.
"I'm fine tiger. Bruce just ran some...tests." She says as she reaches behind him and grabs the tools.
Not before planting a kiss on his cheek though.
Peter, for his part, frowned instead of blushing like he usually did. "Why? What kind of tests?"
"Oh...you know...pregnancy tests--" Cassie says nonchalantly and Peter sputters as she turns back to the cupcakes.
"P-Pregn--what?! That's not possible! We haven't done anything to make that possible!" Peter pauses. "Have we?" He asks skeptically. "I know I tend to sleepwalk when I'm stressed…"
"No. I'm just teasing you, you big worry wart. Where's Dia?" Cassie laughs.
"Upstairs. She'll be back in a minute. What were the tests for then?" Peter persists.
"Nothing bad, but it's for me to know and you to find out." She tells him cheekily as she puts some color into frosting and stirs it in.
"... promise?"
"Promise." Cassie assures him. "Now help us decorate cupcakes."
"Yeah. Sure."
Cassie fills a piping bag and hands it to him, and after showing him how it was going to be done, they get to work decorating the cupcakes once they cool down enough. Diana joins them after a few minutes to help, and about halfway through, Scott and Quill return and join them in the kitchen. Scott grabs a beer for Quill and a juice for himself as the celestial sits at the breakfast bar by Peter. Quill waits to open his beer when Cassie hands him a cupcake and he tears off the bottom to squish on top before biting into it.
"So what's with the cupcakes?" He asks around his mouthful, and gets the back of his head whapped by Scott. "Ow…"
"It's for Dia's school picnic tomorrow." Cassie answers.
"Why isn't Stephen doing this?" He asks and Cassie smirks.
"Because, in his words, he is 'not a housewife'. He couldn't really do the decorating anyways because of his hands. I don't mind helping." She says.
"Maybe I should start calling you Mom instead." Quill jokes and takes another bite.
"Please don't." Cassie deadpans.
"She won't tell me what her tests were for." Peter grumbles.
Scott catches Cassie's look and comes to the rescue.
"It was just a physical really. She got everything checked out. Blood drawn, pee in a cup--"
"DAD!" Cassie interrupts with a blush.
"What?" Scott asks innocently. "Your boyfriend is concerned about you."
"I will throw your cupcake in your face." She threatens as she holds her arm back, armed with a cupcake.
"Nonono! You'll give Quill a reason to lick me like a dog!" Scott waves his hands frantically and both teens grimace.
"I don't need an excuse to do that that babe." Quill cackles when Peter and Cassie groan.
When Peter looks up from the cupcake he's currently decorating (pretty well since this wasn't the first time Cassie roped him into helping), he grins at her before looking back down. Cassie had a feeling she knew what he was thinking, and if she was right, she'd go along with it.
"Are you sure? She told me they were pregnancy tests." Peter says casually.
The reaction was instantaneous. Quill had popped the last of his cupcake into his mouth when Peter had said that, and the Celestial proceeded to choke. The older man attempted to cough and hit his chest to try and dislodge the treat, but he quickly turned blue and fell off the stool he was sitting on before Scott could help him. Peter stops again and looks down at the space pirate before looking back at Cassie as Scott helps revive his husband.
"I actually killed Quill."
Cassie shrugs. "He'll walk it off."
Quill gasps when Scott finally gets the cake to go down his throat, and he sits up and takes a few deep breaths before shouting,
"That's not funny!"
Peter and Cassie cackled anyway while Diana calmly continued to decorate. The little girl was completely unconcerned with her uncle's temporary death. He couldn't permanently die after all, and she was used to weird conversations.
"Is there any more blue?"