Chapter Twenty-Four : New Recruits

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     Even though the Avengers Tower had been her home for quite a bit of time, it still didn't really feel like home to her. But even when she was told she and the others would be moving to a Stark Industries base that was now converted to the New Avengers Compound, it still felt weird to leave the Tower. She didn't really have much except for the few clothes Natasha gave to her shortly after she started staying with them.

     "You know, now that we got your room all set up, I should take you and Wanda shopping for new clothes," Natasha said and Valencia looked at her.

     "What's wrong with the ones I use now?" she questioned.

     "Those were my old clothes whenever I wasn't working and they're from two thousand and eight. In other words, you look like a teenager from two thousand and eight," Natasha said with her arms crossed.

     "I was a teenager in two thousand and eight. I was fourteen, Nat," Valencia replied.

     "I keep forgetting you're ten years younger than me," Natasha laughed and Valencia smirked at her.

     "So you're thirty? Damn, I didn't realize you were that old," she said and the redhead rolled her eyes.

     "I could still kick your ass like I did in D.C."

     "Hey, you cheated with those little electric discs of yours!"

     "Widow bites."

     "Whatever!"

     Natasha laughed as the two of them left the room to look for Wanda. When they found her, she was finished moving her stuff into her room and there was a pile of empty boxes by the door. Natasha came up with the idea of taking both of them out to just be normal for once instead of doing a new assignment every other day. They could use a day to feel like normal people after what they've dealt with for the past couple of years collectively.

     "You ready to go?" Natasha asked and Wanda nodded.

     The three of them walked through the compound and saw Pietro talking to a brown skinned woman with pink hair. "You should run before he pulls his signature smirk," Wanda said with her arms crossed and the silver haired speedster just glared at her.

     "I've heard a lot about you two," the woman said as she looked at Natasha and Valencia. "I'm Nora."

     "Are you one of our new recruits?" Natasha asked and Nora nodded.

     "Yes, ma'am," she replied.

     "You should probably get going or they'll make you run laps until sundown," Natasha said and Nora smiled sheepishly as she hurried off.

     "Was that necessary?" Valencia asked with her hands on her hips.

     "Hey, consider yourself lucky you never had to do any of that when you got here," the redhead said and Valencia scoffed.

     "Steve did threaten to have me train with you if I didn't go on that mission in Sokovia," she replied.

     "Thanks a lot, you guys," Pietro said as he frowned at the three of them.

     "Oh, please. She had somewhere to be anyway," Wanda replied. "I'll see you later."

     "Later," Pietro sighed.

     The three of them left the compound and out of the three of them, Natasha was the more talkative. Maybe it was their thoughts getting to them and their insecurities, but they didn't really add much to the conversation or even if they did, they didn't say more than five words. For Valencia, she felt like the whole world was watching her. Everyone knew what she did and even though she turned around and tried to use her skills and abilities to help people, she couldn't help but think that she would always be a monster to the public. There wasn't a person on earth who didn't know what she did.

     "You feel it too, don't you?" Wanda asked as she and Valencia walked behind Natasha.

     Valencia sighed as she nodded. "I feel like all eyes are on me," she said.

     "Me too. At this point, everyone knows who we are and what our history is," Wanda replied.

     Valencia swallowed the lump in her throat as they kept walking. Natasha had to keep encouraging them to pick what they liked and that Tony would cover everything. She even had to drag them around while they just groaned and rolled their eyes.

     "You guys sound like moody teenagers," Natasha said with hands on her hips and Valencia and Wanda just giggled as they looked at each other.

     "I spent my teenage years in an orphanage," Wanda said.

     "I wasn't a teenager when I got nabbed but I was eighteen," Valencia added as she shrugged her shoulders.

     "The fact that you two can talk about that so casually is kind of concerning to me," Natasha said as she narrowed her eyes at them but they just shrugged their shoulders and continued with their day.

     After a while, they went back to the compound and put everything away. Valencia went back to her newly set up room and looked out the window as the sun started to go down. She sighed as she put her hair into a ponytail and changed into sweatpants and a tank top. She would just spend the next hour or two sitting on the bed and watching a program on the TV which Tony insisted she have to keep her from getting bored whenever she was having her alone time. Some of the stuff on the screen were shows she used to watch and had completely forgotten about. She smiled faintly as she settled on Johnny Test and sat on the bed with her knees pulled to her chest. She remembered that she watched this show all the time with Daniel while she had Jaden just sitting on her lap and drooling. He didn't understand what was happening but he always laughed when Johnny, his sisters and their dog ended up in some ridiculous predicament.

     When she heard a knock on the door, she turned the volume down and got up to open it and Clint was standing there. "What's up?" she asked.

     "I don't think I ever thanked you for what you did for me and Costel in Sokovia that day. Your forcefield saved our lives," Clint said and Valencia shrugged her shoulders.

     "I saw where the bullets were heading and I knew I needed to act fast. But you don't need to thank me for that. If I have this power, I might as well use it, you know?" she chuckled.

     "I wanted to come here to thank you before I go home," Clint said and Valencia frowned.

     "You're leaving?" she asked and the brunette man nodded with a crooked smile.

     "Now that Laura had the baby, I figured it's time for me to retire," he replied and Valencia smiled.

     "Speaking of which, how's Nathaniel?" she questioned.

     When Laura had the baby, it was all Clint and Natasha could talk about and Valencia couldn't help but smile herself whenever she saw pictures of the baby boy.

     "He's doing alright. And I wanna be there for him. So that mission in Sokovia was my last one and I spent these past few weeks helping Laura prepare for him," Clint said and Valencia narrowed her eyes.

     "You know, I never asked you how you've been able to hear everything when you're on missions 'cause I know you wear your hearing aids," she said and Clint chuckled.

     "The ear pieces everyone gets have a built-in Bluetooth system that connects to my hearing aids," he answered.

     "Wait, how does that even work exactly?" Valencia questioned and Clint just shrugged her shoulders.

     "It's Stark tech, Val. No one understands it but Tony and maybe Bruce," he replied and Valencia laughed and bit the inside of her cheek.

     "Well, you should probably be on your way home now. I bet Laura and the kids miss you and I have a big day tomorrow," she said as she exhaled through her nose.

     "Yeah, you'll be an official Avenger tomorrow yet you still watch Johnny Test," Clint said as he smirked while looking at the TV screen and Valencia rolled her eyes.

     "Bye, Hawkeye," she said before closing the door and getting back to her show.

     Yeah, she was going to be an Avenger and she should be looking forward to it, but it still felt unreal to her. Maybe if the circumstances were different, she would feel different about it. But that was just a maybe.

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     Valencia sighed as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She was wearing the same red suit Tony designed for when she first joined them on their mission to Sokovia where she found the Maximoff Twins. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail with a red scrunchie instead of a red ribbon like the one she would use when she first started using her powers. She felt like it was her first mission with the Avengers all over again but this was something different. This time, she would actually become an Avenger. When she imagined getting an internship at Stark Industries, she never imagined it would be anything like this.

     She exhaled slowly as she left the bathroom and opened the door, revealing Natasha who stood there with her arms crossed and had a smirk on her face. "Has anyone ever told you how good you look in that suit?" she asked and Valencia rolled her eyes.

     "Hello to you too," she replied as she closed the door and the both of them started walking down the hallway. "Did you hear anything about Bruce yet?"

     Natasha sighed as she shook her head. "Nothing yet. Fury keeps telling me not to worry," she replied and Valencia nodded.

     "He still hates me, doesn't he?" she asked and the redhead chuckled.

     "He hates everyone," she replied.

     As they were walking, a brunette woman looked at Natasha and smiled. "You heading to work?" she asked.

     "Absolutely. And this is one of our new recruits, Valencia Parrish," Natasha said and Valencia sighed.

     "You can just call me Val," she replied.

     "Reina Collins. Nice to meet one of the new recruits. I met some of the others yesterday and they all seem very promising," the brunette said and Natasha nodded in agreement.

     "I'll see you around," she said and Reina smiled as she walked away.

     "Don't be too hard on them, Nat!" she said and Natasha smiled as she rolled her eyes.

     "How many people am I going to meet here?" Valencia questioned.

     "Don't worry about that. But as of today, you are an Avenger," Natasha answered and Valencia sighed as they continued walking.

     When she got there, Sam, Rhodey, Wanda, Pietro and Vision were there and she joined them while Natasha left the room to look for Steve. She walked over to the Twins and they smiled when they saw her.

     "Are you guys also feeling nervous about being Avengers?" she asked and the both of them sighed as they nodded.

     Even though they helped defeat Ultron and saved as many people as they could in Sokovia, they couldn't help but feel like the Avengers still didn't trust them. Valencia knew that feeling too well so all she could do was try to reassure them that everything would be okay. Steve, Natasha and the others eventually learned to trust her even though she did horrible things and if they could learn to trust her, then they could learn to trust the Maximoffs, sooner or later. Over the last few weeks, the three of them learned more of each other and that they had way more in common than they initially thought. And now, they have a chance to use their abilities to help the world.