Chapter Text
ACT ONE: AGE OF ULTRON
A sliver of blue light caught her eye amongst the solemn white of the Sokovian forest. Besides the ashen brown trees and the HYDRA fortress her team was attacking, pallidity ought to have been all that she could see, even as far as to the distant yet snow-tipped horizon. Hell, even the sky appeared hazy and sombre, cast a shade of uncertain steel in spite of the early hour of the morn. One could not easily see the sun from down here beneath the masses of clouds woven together, or at least not without a sufficiently high vantage point, she guessed.
Which meant that any streaks of blue were most certainly considered an abnormality.
Fixing her attention upon the blur of light, Astraea strained her neck to get a better view. If she could see it, she could understand it. And if she could understand it, she could use it, a fact that she had learnt several years prior.
Most everything comprised from matter held a light within; an essence of being. And ever since she had gone through the Mist, Astraea had been able to sense the light.
No two beings were the same in their light, she had come to realise. It was organic and fluid, a free-moving form, a thing of beauty. Perhaps what she found most beautiful was the way that his light moved differently to hers, and hers drew different patterns around her heart than theirs did. And yet, in this world, there were people who would seek to extinguish that light.
She shuddered at the very thought.
That was why she was here, after all. To stop people like that. People like HYDRA.
Beyond sensing the internal lights, her ability allowed her to view all sources of natural and artificial luminescence as well.
To manipulate them.
To wield them.
When she had first gone through the Mist, it had felt as though she was burning from the inside out with the intensity of her new gift. Yet, in the ensuing months, she had learnt to control it, to project her own light outwards and use it to grasp hold of any light around her.
Like the blue form sliding away rapidly.
Narrowing her eyes, she reached one hand out in front of her, calling it towards her.
It merely disappeared from her view as it twisted sharply around a tree, rather than responding to her summons.
“Johnson, are you seeing this?” The voice of Steven Rogers flooded through her comms.
“I saw it,” Astraea confirmed. “But I can’t touch it.”
“What do you mean, ‘you can’t’?”, a second voice, belonging to the one and only Anthony Stark queried.
“Whatever that is, it’s not a light,” she replied simply.
“Then what…?”
She could practically hear the captain frowning as he trailed off.
“You didn’t see that coming?” A male’s voice, laced with a strong Sokovian accent, came from somewhere behind her.
Astraea whirled.
Clint was keeled over on the ground, having clearly been knocked over, and staring at the newcomer.
He looked young; a mop of platinum blonde hair sat atop his head, his blue eyes were alit with something akin to humour, and a smirk played on his lips. In a way, he seemed tired to Astraea, though his face still held the tell-tale signs of his roguish youth. She guessed he were no older than twenty.
Closing her eyes, she felt for him. His light was fast, exceedingly so, zooming around inside of him at great speeds.
“It’s an enhanced,” she realised as the young man sped off. “I’m in pursuit.”
Putting on a burst of speed herself, Astraea made to follow him.
“Clint’s hit!” she heard Natasha call. “Somebody want to deal with that bunker?”
Her eyes flicked back to the two S.H.I.E.L.D assassins as her feet carried her away. Natasha’s vibrant red hair was visible as she bent over Clint, presumably attending to the wound he’d sustained.
They’d be fine.
They had to be.
In fact, she was pretty sure she could see the Hulk headed their way.
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“Do we have anything on the enhanced?” Astraea asked Maria. While she herself had only seen the speedster, Steve had made reference to a second enhanced, this one female.
“Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia’s had a rough history. It’s nowhere special but it’s on the way to everywhere special,” Hill replied, her heels clicking as they walked.
“And their abilities?” Astraea pressed.
“He’s got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is nuero electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation.”
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