Disclaimer: I don't own anything Marvel related.

So here's the thing-next chapter will have previous reviews, not this one. I'm sorry that I suck at keeping promises, but this chapter also has a big word count. I think what I'll do is the chapter after this-which will be published as soon as I can today-will be completely devoted to answering reviews and will feature no content besides that.

On the note of a huge word count, I am once again rather proud of myself. 4,450 (give or take a few and once again excluding all of my author's notes and disclaimer) words, people! However, all good things must come to an end-knowing me, it will all go downhill from here. I'll try my best to keep them at at least 2,00 words, but I make no promises!

Also, I am genuinely curious-would you guys like it if I cast actresses/actors for my OCs when this story is done, or even before then? I've seen other people do it and I really want to cast people, but I only want to go through the effort to pick actresses/actors to match what I have in mind if you want me to do it, so let me know, please.

I, um, don't have much else to say except express my worries for if I'm moving the story along too fast. My goal was to have this story be at least thirty chapters, but I'm pretty sure I won't make that goal. I mean, I might, but I have my doubts.

But anywho...let us commence with the reading!

Chapter 15

Despite the fact that she already knew the answer before he had even said it, the words still made her breath catch in her throat, and she froze. She closed her eyes, her hands clenching into fists at her sides, before she somehow managed to exhale and calm herself. Her eyes snapped open. She ignored the feelings that were not her own, her teammates' feelings of outrage and shock, and instead made slow, cautious steps around Syrelle, stopping only when she was directly behind him. She felt his heartbeat pick up when she placed her hands on his shoulders and allowed a tiny smirk to creep up on her face before forcing it to vanish. Leaning in, she breathed into his ear, "You are certain it was him?"
He nodded, eyes wide in terror, and so she released him, stepping back. And yet, despite his panicking, she doubted. He knew of her father, how terrified she was of him, so he could be lying. Keeping in mind that Syrelle wasn't the greatest liar, and that amateur liars tend to feel nervous when they attempt to be deceptive, she felt for his emotions, trying to gauge what he was feeling. She winced at the overload of emotions that flooded through her the instant she tried. Terror and fear, but not nervousness.

He was telling the truth. She wasn't sure how she should feel about that; meaning, whether she should feel relieved that he wasn't lying, or horrified that he was telling the truth. Instead, she opted for neutrality. With a face full of calm and composure, she looked up, and glanced into the one-way mirror, giving a barely perceptible nod to indicate that she was done with her interrogation. She didn't wait for any signal that her request had been acknowledged and accepted before she walked forward and towards the door, sending one last baleful glare in Syrelle's direction. She could honestly say she didn't care about what happened to the man now that she had extracted the right information from him. The thought didn't even cross her mind, in fact. She just yanked the door open and stepped inside the room, only to be greeted with silence.

She ignored them, them and her silence, and strolled right over to Selene. Bruce backed off immediately without a word, and joined the rest of the Avengers, who stood by watching her. She knelt beside her and checked her daughter's condition, noting the blood that had been dripping from her nose was now drying, and that she looked more coherent than she had earlier. Which didn't make sense, considering both Natasha's interrogation and her own hadn't gone on for that long.

"What's the status on the engine repair?" she demanded, tilting Selene's head this way and that, inspecting her for further injury. No one answered her. Irritated, she huffed and stood up, whirling on them.

"What?" she snapped, hands on her hips, glaring daggers at them. She knew that this wasn't her position, that she shouldn't be doing this, but she was too exasperated to care. Again, no one answered her.

"Well?"

Bruce cleared his throat and took a step forward, and her gaze swerved to him. He seemed to falter a bit at her stare, but managed to keep courage and said soothingly, "Hope, you need calm down."

A snort sounded from behind her, and she turned her head to look at her.

"Yeah, Hope, stop going all mother bear on me, please," she said, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the room. It had mixed results-Hope rolled her eyes, and had managed to relieve some stress in her shoulders by the time she turned around to look at her friends again, but they were all looking at her, wide-eyed and incredulous.

"What?"

Natasha was the only one to step forward, the only one brave enough to do so. Hope's eyes snapped to her as Natasha stated, "Your father ordered the attack on us."

It wasn't a question but she answered anyway. "Yes."

"He knew where you were and wanted to get you back by any means necessary."

"Not quite, but you're close."

"Oh?"

Hope didn't like what her friend's tone implied, but she wanted to be diplomatic about the whole thing. She didn't reply in anger; rather, she explained.

"He'd like for me to be under his watchful eyes once more, but he wouldn't waste supplies or men like he did here if that was all he wanted to do. This was an attempt to exact revenge, not a recovery attempt."

"And you know this how?" Natasha pressed. Hope smiled wistfully.

"I lived with him for sixteen years, watched as the death of my mother warped and twisted his heart and mind until there was only a shriveled up mess left. I know how he thinks."

"Sure you do," Natasha drawled, and Hope couldn't really blame her for the sudden mistrust in her gaze. She didn't reply to her, however. Instead, she turned to Selene and asked kindly, "Are you well enough to block a phone call for me?"

"Is the sky blue? Do pigs not fly? Can Erica not burn our food to save her soul? What kind of question is that? Of course I'm up for it. You just gotta give me a second to prepare."

She stood up, using the walls for support. "Who are you calling?"

Hope, eyes twinkling, responded, "Who do you think?"

Selene's eyes widened, and she began jumping up and down excitedly despite having been in agonizing pain only mere minutes ago. "Yes! I get to go yell at people!"

She sprinted out of the door, yelling something indiscernible, and Hope chuckled.

"Where's she going?" Tony asked, all of them putting back the previous tension in the room to the back of their minds for the moment. Hope shrugged

"To find a usable phone. We have some recruiting to do."

It hadn't taken them too long to find a salvageable phone, in the offices where little to no havoc had been wreaked. From there, Selene had gone to work, making sure no undesirables could trace the call. The Avengers all crowded around her, listening on speaker-phone as Hope made the call. Rose had answered answered immediately.

"Oh, you're back? Thank God-we were all beginning to worry about Selene's plan failing miserably," Rose said, exhaling in relief. Hope snickered while Selene huffed.

"You told me it would work!" she yelled, outraged at her "betrayal."

"Well I lied."

Selene shook her head in mock-disappointment. "That'll teach me to trust the likes of you."

Rose made an impatient noise in the back of her throat. "Go away, midget. I would like to talk to Hope."

Selene sputtered but obediently went silent, grumbling obscenities under her breath and backing away. Hope giggled.

"She's gone. Upset, but gone. Now, what did you wish to speak to me about?"

"Oh, nothing really," Rose began, feigning nonchalance. "It's just, you know, Erica seems determined to set the house on fire. Our fire extinguisher's practically empty now. "

Hope paled, all humor leaving her. "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just had a SHIELD agent tailing her, and you know how she is about them."

Hoped hummed in agreement. "Yes, I know."

Then the realization hit her that perhaps it wasn't who she thought it was, and she quickly demanded, "SHIELD is tailing you? Are you sure it was SHIELD?"

A pause, then "Yes...Or at least, I think so. Hold on."

Hope waited for her to reply, but she didn't. She was about to say something when she overheard shuffling that was quickly followed by gunfire on the other end, and she managed to make out the distant sound of Rose shouting, "move, move, move!"

There wasn't that much time for her to panic, for the same shuffling noise came back, and after a nerve-racking wait, she spoke once more.

"Don't go anywhere. We'll come to you," Rose stated, voice soft, panting and sounding like she was running and had been for quite some time. Before she could ask how she knew precisely where to go, or how she was going to get to the Helicarrier when none of them could fly, the line went dead, and the whole team stilled. Finally, after a long stretch of time, Selene turned to Hope.

"Do we wait?"

Hope nodded. "We wait."

"Wait and do what?" Tony asked, rather unhelpfully. They all shot him annoyed looks.

"What? I'm not going to just sit here and do nothing while we wait forever," he defended. Hope inclined her head, obliging him, and said, "No, we don't expect that of you, Tony."

Tony rolled his eyes. He crossed his arms against his chest and demanded, "How long will it take for them to get here?"

Hope shrugged, but it was Selene who answered. "We haven't the foggiest."

"Oh, real helpful."

"I aim to please."

He didn't reply. In fact, several tense minutes passed were no one spoke a word to each other. Or rather, no one spoke a word to Hope and Selene; they spoke amongst themselves, but pointedly ignored them. Hope didn't think they hated her, or were distrustful of her now since she neglected to tell them her father was a high-ranking Hydra operative, but really, from the stories she had told them, they should have known better. She figured it was more of a loss of pride than anything else, licking their wounds for having been caught unawares. Either that, or it was sympathy to what had happened to Selene and her other girls. She wasn't really sure, and she hated tapping into her empath ability consciously, so she simply shrugged off the issue and hoped it wasn't a loss of trust between them.

"Mother."

Everyone jumped at the unexpected voice and whirled, though a smile broke out on the faces of Hope and Selene when they saw who it was. The rest of them relaxed also, recognizing the voice from the phone call, though they did tense at the image of more people behind Rose. They all took the moment to study her. She was blond, and tall, with a bright smile that lit up the room and light purple eyes. Rose cast them a glance, but stepped forward regardless of how she felt about them, and Hope embraced her.

"Thank goodness you're all alright," Hope said, pushing her gently out of the hug and holding her at arm's length away from her, inspecting her for injury despite her earlier words. Rose laughed, and assured her, "I'm fine, Mother."

Hope looked unconvinced, but she nodded nonetheless. She did a head-count in her mind, a feeling of satisfaction settling within her when she noted it was precisely the number she had hoped it was. Well, with one extra person. She inclined her head in Jacob's direction, thanking him for his help in transporting her family there. He nodded once, then left before Selene (or anyone else, for that matter) could even notice he was there.

A lithe form stepped forward, and though she stumbled a little, righted herself immediately. Her hands shot out and reached for Rose's arm. Rose clutched the hand and guided the girl forward. She resembled Hope a little, with the same hair color and height, but she wore sunglasses, so you couldn't really what color her eyes were

It also didn't take someone of Tony's IQ or higher to know that she was blind.

"I was so worried," she breathed out, and a few tears made a trail down her cheek. Hope smiled sadly and engulfed the girl into a bear hug. She didn't bother checking her for injuries-the others would have protected Grace no matter what, and even then, she was too good to ever get injured.

"The rumors say that you've missed me," Hope announced, and Grace let out a choked laugh.

"Of course I missed you," she replied, then burst into sobs. Hope let her cry into her shirt and stroked her hair, murmuring words in her native tongue into her ear as quietly as she could. Out of all of her girls, Grace was the closest to her. They had been together the longest, and she had come into her protection when she was still a preteen, unlike the others who had all entered her family when they were at least sixteen. For all of the days she'd known them all, it had broken her heart to know that they had hated heir lives so much, that everyone had hated them as much as they did, that they felt like they had no choice but to run away.

She stayed with the crying girl until she felt the pit of sadness leave her, and her tears had subsided. When all she could sense from the girl was mortification for having cried in front of the others, and a deep feeling of relief for being reunited with Hope again, she moved on to her other girls, though she still kept a wary eye on her.

Her attention zoomed to Erica, the only tall, redheaded and blue-eyed girl in the group who was currently eyeing her surroundings with obvious distaste. They caught each other's eye.

"I've been told your temper has not been in check lately," Hope told her. Erica shrugged, looking indifferent, though both knew she felt otherwise.

"And I was informed you joined the team with questionable morals. So I guess we're both disappointed in each other."

Tony whistled. "Well someone certainly holds us in high regard."

Erica's eyes shifted to him briefly, silently studying him before she looked away, dismissing him. "If you all acted the way a real hero should than I would be your number one fan."

"Oh," Tony began, bristling at the insult. "And what do real heros act like?"

Erica shrugged again. "Oh, you know, a lack of arrogance, genuinely caring about the people you swear to protect, less destruction left in your wake. That sort of thing."

Steve snickered. "The second Tony stops being arrogant is the second the world stops spinning."

Tony sputtered in mock-outrage.

"I'm offended," he stated. The man out of time rolled his eyes.

"But it's true."

"Doesn't mater, Cap. I'm still offended. Your words hurt me. Please apologize."

Hope chuckled at their antics. Through her peripheral vision she saw that Erica had noticed the blood drying underneath, and saw the surprise in her eyes as she stared. While she knew the girls weren't particularly close, they weren't exactly mortal enemies either, and with Erica's short fuse, she knew something would go wrong. She started forward, ready to stop her, but found that she was too late, as Erica's surprised expression had morphed into anger, and she had already burst into flame.

"What happened?" she demanded, reaching out a hand to inspect Selene further, only to realize to her embarrassment that she was on fire, and that touching someone was not really the best idea at the moment, so she hastily pulled away. The Avengers could only stare at her. They'd been forewarned she could do this, of course, but to see it versus simply hearing of it was another thing entirely.

"When are you going to knock it off? You've been doing this all week!" Selene exclaimed, raising her hand as though to strike her, then dropped her arm, knowing that to slap someone who was on fire would not end very well for her.

"Well excuse me! I can't help that I have a hot-temper!"

Selene stared at her for a second before she burst into laughter. A look of confusion graced Erica's face until she figured out what exactly she was laughing at. She blushed furiously, and the fire shrouding her flared and burned even hotter, though she pretended not to notice.

"Oh my God, will you let that go. Yes, I get it and can appreciate the pun, but for the love of all that is holy will you please drop it," she said, and the flames subsided a little.

"For a former Catholic you sure use the lord's name in vain a lot."

Erica sighed and placed her face into her hands, an air of defeat filling her. "Remind me again why I care for your well-being."

Selene tapped a finger to her chin, thinking. "Um, because we've been stuck together for the last decade and if we didn't learn to tolerate each other than Hope would've put us in time out."

"Ah," she said, and the flames completely went out. "That seems right."

"Of course it does. I said it, after all."

"Don't push it, Sel. Just because the air around me is no longer 2,012 degrees Fahrenheit doesn't mean it will stay that way."

"Oo, way to get all scientific on me. I feel so threatened."

Erica scoffed and stalked away, the tiniest of flames visible in her hair as she stormed off, though where she could go in an unfamiliar place with people she utterly despised was anyone's guess.

They all watched her go.

"Does she do that a lot?" Tony inquired, making wild and obscene gestures with his hands. Hope pondered the question for a moment before she shrugged.

"It was a daily occurrence when I first took her under my wing, but gradually it lessened. However, the way the past months have gone haven't exactly been in her favor."

"That makes sense," he agreed, nodding.

"So what's the plan?" Steve asked. When they all gave him blank looks, he sighed and elaborated.

"From what you've said, and from my experience, I can tell your father isn't going to let things go," he told her, and she flinched.

"Bringing us to the need of a plan of some sort. So what should we do?" he finished. No one answered him.

"You know him better then anyone," he said, turning to Hope. This time, she tried her best not to wince, and thought for the most part that she had succeeded when she stared back at him and found no pity in his expression.

"I do. It's been years, but what happened here makes it clear to me that he hasn't changed in the slightest. I have something akin to an idea, but..."

Here, she stopped, and bit her lip, suddenly unsure, but the hopeful look in Steve's eyes beckoned her to continue, so she did.

"But my idea would mean that you and my girls would have to shake hands and make nice, which is something I doubt will happen, based on distrust on both sides of the spectrum."

When no one said anything in reply, she took it the chance to continue even further. "Now, normally with something like this, it would be only my girls and myself. However-"

"He made this personal by attacking us here, so don't even try to leave us behind," Natasha spat, taking a step forward, her eyes flashing with fury briefly, and Hope smiled in her direction.

"The thought hadn't even crossed my mind," she told her honestly, and Natasha nodded and took a step back, satisfied. She glanced over in her the direction of her girls, noting with glee that Erica had rejoined their ranks, and informed them, "The plan will involve all of us, SHIELD and Avengers included. Is that alright with you?"

A muttered debate took place between them, and Hope stood by and waited it out, her heart nearly leaping out of her chest. She was so, so afraid they would say no, and that they would leave her again. It was true that she had grown close to the Avengers, but no one could take the place of her daughters in her heart. It seemed to be a silly notion, thankfully, as Rose turned to her and, beaming, announced, "We will stay and abide by your rules."

Hope nodded, relief flooding through her bones, though a sense of dread overpowered it just as quickly as it had come. This meant war. She could lose some of her loved ones in it. But they had been the instigator, and if it was a fight they wanted, then it was a fight they would get.

"So here's what we'll do..."

Hope and Bruce were in the cafeteria room sitting beside each other (since there was no other place to sit down but in their rooms, and frankly, they wanted to be more available than that should anything go wrong), which thankfully suffered little to no damage, and they were reading. The whereabouts of the others were unknown to them, lost in their books as they were. Hope had finally decided to read Lord of the Rings. She'd made a decent dent into the book since the coffee house, but with what had been going on lately, she had forgotten all about it, until she had gone to her room and had spotted it, lying on her dresser, her place marked with a plain old purple book mark.

Meeting up with Bruce in the cafeteria had been pure coincidence, but neither person really minded. And so, here they were, reading. Until Bruce interrupted the room's silence and spoke.

"That was pretty intense," Bruce whispered, and Hope ripped herself out of the world of books and stole a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He was holding a book in his hands, some science book with a topic she couldn't even begin to comprehend no matter how much she tried. His grip on said book was a little tighter than usual, but she couldn't really blame him, seeing as tremendous amounts of stress and worry had been placed on all of them. They were all in danger now, which wasn't much of a surprise seeing as the Avengers and members of SHIELD were always in danger, but it had all been made worse when Hope had admitted that her father likely had his hands on some people like her and her girls. That is, to say, people with powers and abilities.

She eyed him, the tension and unease in his form, and instantly felt guilty.

This was all her fault. If she had stayed away, if she had refused, if she had done something, then they wouldn't have been dragged into this mess.

"I'm sorry," she blurted without thinking, and promptly regretted it when he started a bit and let his firm grip on the book become lax as he gazed at her, concern hidden in his chocolate brown eyes. She tried her best to stop it, but her emotions on the subject soon flooded out.

"This is all my fault. If I hadn't run away-if I had just stayed there-none of this would've happened," she stated, and she pushed her book away, suddenly no longer interested in reading as hate and disgust for herself burrowed its way into her chest. Bruce's book now completely forgotten, he leaned towards her and placed a consoling hand on her arm.

"It's not your fault," he said, and she shook her head, making a move to get up and leave, but his iron-like grip stopped her and forced her to stay. She didn't bother to struggle knowing it was pointless, and so she sat back down.

"It isn't anyone's fault but his own for treating his own daughter as poorly as he did," he insisted, and Hope nearly chuckled despite herself. Oh if only you knew...she thought, but kept her musing to herself.

He took both of her hands into his, and, locking gazes with her, reiterated, "It is not your fault, so don't even think about it."

She was surprised to hear such firmness, such steel, in his voice, and a peek into his emotions showed a flicker of agitation coupled with sorrow, a sadness for her and her words. They stared into one another's eyes for a few moments before Hope's nerve broke and she looked away, a blush forming on her cheeks that she hoped he didn't notice.

Their moment was broken, however, when the door swung opened loudly and the Avengers and her girls stepped in. Bruce quickly let go of her hands and righted himself, but she could tell by the looks exchanged between them that the others had noticed, though they didn't mention it. Hope fought to keep a blush off of her face as Tony announced, pointing a finger at her, "The higher-ups like your plan and have given the go ahead."

When she said nothing, he added, "So, uh, you can go ahead and celebrate, if you want."

Silence. Tony whistled, that whistle that people make when awkwardness was setting in.

"Well then," was all he said, but Hope couldn't take it anymore. She shot out of her seat and bolted out of the doors, feeling concerned eyes following her, but she paid them no heed and ran as fast as she could towards her room.

A war wasn't really something she felt like she should be celebrating, after all. Especially since it was her own doing.

The others exchanged perturbed glances, and without even needing to confer with one another, Grace and Natasha (who had formed an unlikely friendship in the short time they had known each other) stole out of the room and went after Hope. Bruce wanted to go after her, too, but he figured Natasha and Grace would do a better job at helping her then he could.

The others slowly trickled out until it was only Tony and Bruce left.

"So...see something you like?"

Bruce simply glared at him before he too, walked out of the room, leaving Tony all alone.

"Oh well. I wonder if I can get my hands on some scotch..."

There it is. A Bruce and Hope moment, small as it is, as promised. I was smiling like a giddy idiot the whole way through as I typed it because it had to be the most cutest moment I've ever written (which is rather sad, now that I think about it).

I know the whole "some science book" thing was a bit of a cop out, but from what I've read, his area of study is something that completely goes over my head, so I didn't bother trying. Still a cop out, I know, but I figured Hope wouldn't really know much about it, either. The basics, maybe, but nothing on Dr. Banner's level.

Also, despite what it may sound like, there will be no Wanda and Pietro (at least not in the first story, *wink, wink*). Just more OCs. I can practically feel the excitement seeping through my computer screen (note the sarcasm).

The '2,012 degrees Fahrenheit' thing is something I looked up. It's the temperature of a bonfire, which is why I used it. If you guys think there's a better number I could've used, let me know.

But anyway, thanks for reading, and please, please, please leave me a review. I would love to hear what you guys think and whether or not I should continue or scrap this story.

Have a great rest of your day/night!