The Story Book

  Cont... Third-degree burns all over your body were no joke. By normal standards, Darling wasn't supposed to be alive. But between inherited super-soldier serum, Stark tech, and Wakandan knowledge, she was holding on barely. She was so burnt she was unrecognizable, but she was alive.  They had to put her in a medically induced coma so her body wouldn't give out. It was touch and go, but she was there. And that was what really mattered. Bucky rarely left her side through the weeks. He was glued to her side as if he left, it would all go sideways. The doctors were confident she would wake up, but beyond that, they were unsure. They had no clue what her mental state would be like.  She'd shattered most of the bones in her body. She was on life support. Her body wasn't healing itself and kept rejecting implants. Shuri had said something about possibly using an AIM project to heal the internal organs. She'd also mentioned a Dr. Cho to regrow the rest. But those big name...

Cont...  "White Wolf! White Wolf!" Bucky frowned as a voice called for him. He turned to find a young boy running up. "The Dora are at your house."  The Dora. The Dora meant trouble. Was it a fight? Was it more pain? Was it Steve? Bucky wasn't sure he'd be able to survive without any lifeline at all in his best friend.  When he came to his home, the Dora were waiting and saluted him as he entered. His eyes found Okoye, and he saw no sadness, no pain, possibly hope? "White Wolf, you are requested at the palace; it is urgent." Her voice betrayed nothing; neither did her face, but her eyes told him to hope. For what he did not know.  "Lead the way."  They flew to the palace labs, disembarking right into Shuri's lab. The thump of African music flooded the lab as they entered.  T'Challa was waiting, "You came, good."  Bucky looked around for anyone else but only saw more Dora. He did notice that the spiral walkway that ran fr...

  Cont... Waking up tied to a chair bolted to the group and gagged was high on Bucky's short list of things that could make him mad. Getting pummeled without an explanation was also on said list. He vaguely remembered someone taking a picture of him after they'd beat the living daylights out of him, and maybe talking, but the whole ordeal was a bit fuzzy.  One minute he was walking out of a bakery with some treats; he'd gotten to surprise the team the next he was here. He had no clue where he was, and by the way his brain felt floaty and detached from his body, they had the drugs designed to knock him out. They finally wore off maybe two days after the beating, and he'd been able to take stock of his surroundings.  He guessed it was an old factory by the layout and huge tanks with orange gas in them. There was a table to the left of him that had suspicious bulges under the table cloth on top of it that didn't inspire hope. He was in front of what looked like a testi...

Cont...  Tony had never seen someone do what Darling had just done, threaten danger in the face, and then hang up. The girl had also been staring at the same spot on the table for five minutes straight.  "You okay?" Tony eased himself down into the chair next to her.  She didn't acknowledge him, still staring.  "Hey, Darling." Tony reached out and tapped the metal table in front of her line of vision. A few too many mistakes invading Peter's space during anxiety and panic attacks teaching him not to shake her.  Darling jerked out of her daze and looked over at him, "Sorry, what?"  Tony leaned back and say the same scared eyes he'd seen with Peter too many times when thoughts threatened to overwhelm, "Are you okay?"  "Fine. Why?" Darling seemed so nonchalant, and it made Tony mad that she and Peter, and all the other young people caught up in events they couldn't control, had to fake nonchalant and normalcy.  "You ju...

Cont...  Tony had insisted that Peter stay the night at the Tower after he flew back from Spain that day. Peter was exhausted and more than happy to comply. Between the stress, school, and the cops, all he wanted to do was lay down and just kinda sit. Not sleep, not yet. Just recharge.  He had lost track of Darling after they left the school, but he couldn't say he was surprised to find her laying on the kitchen table, feet on the chair in front of her as she layout on the wood surface.  "You good?" Peter asked, pulling open the fridge for, something.  "Not dead yet," Darling muttered back.  Peter snorted and closed the fridge digging his vibrating phone out of his pocket, "It's Ned. And MJ. And basically everyone in math class."  Peter sighed and tossed it at the table, momentarily forgetting that Darling was lying there. She caught it without missing a beat and flipped it around to read.  Peter hopped up the wall and lay down on the ceiling, so t...

Cont...  It was two weeks before something happened. And it happened fast.  One minute they were in math class, and the next, an alarm was blaring, and the principal was telling them it wasn't a drill. Peter could feel his spidey sense growing stronger.  He snuck a look at Darling, who ever-so-slightly shook her head. Every fiber of his being wanted to do something, but he had to trust her.  The class was frozen until they heard the tell-tale sound of shots fired—a whole clip in five seconds, semi-automatic. The class panicked, falling into a meltdown.  The teacher was saying something, as was Ned, but all Peter could hear was the two sets of footsteps coming closer. The door slammed open, and two masked men barged in. The room froze again.  "You!" The man with the machine gun pointed at the teacher, "Log into the database."  "The rest of you line up by the windows and close the blinds." The man with a handgun ordered. The class didn't move. "...

Cont...  After patrol on a Friday night, Peter came flying into the lab, "The Reaper's back in town!"  "Please tell me you didn't let her in this time." Tony didn't look up from his workbench.  "And die of embarrassment? Fat chance." Peter tossed his mask to his own bench, rolling his eyes.  "Who's the Reaper?" A third voice piped up from a third workbench that had been cleaned off for that week.  "The Reaper, Mr. Keener is a friend that you cannot acknowledge outside of when you are either in the Compound or in my presence," Tony said, leaning back putting his work down.  "So she's a Rouge?" Harley Keener clarified.  "Yes." Peter said at the same time Tony said, "No."  "Which one?" Harley looked between the two.  "To the world, she didn't exist. Unofficially she's the Rouges' secret weapon. When the feud happened, she wasn't in the picture, so officially n...