Chapter 26: Prove It

            It’s a little after 8 now and Jarvis just told me that everyone is up and in the front room I walk to the closet to take one more look at myself and then back out to my room.

            “Hey, Jarvis?” I ask as I grab my phone.

            “Yes, Jade?”

            “You still on bored with my plan?”

            “Of course, Miss.”

            “Well then,” I say while scrolling through the music on my phone, “would you mind playing this on the 83rd floor as loud as possible without making everyone deaf?”

            “Not at all, Miss.” I see on the screen that Jarvis is now connected to my phone, so I play Young Volcanos by Fall Out Boy. It blares through the sound system that I assume Jarvis also plays through. I smirk and put my phone in my pocket as I saunter out of my room. I slam the door again and see that I did in fact knock something off the wall because there’s a blank space there now. I begin to stomp down the hall and start singing along. Well singing/screaming.

“Tonight the foxes hunt the hounds and it’s all over now, before it has begun, we’ve already won!” I scream as I walk/dance into the kitchen and pour myself some coffee. “We are wild! We are like young volcanos.” I continue, while shaking my hips and adding sugar and creamer. I stir with a spoon and toss it in the sink as I turn again. “Come on, make it easy. Say I never mattered. Run it up the flag pole.” I sing, pointing at myself while looking at Banner, Rogers, and Thor who inhabit the counter bar and Stark, Romanoff and Barton who are at the table. “We will teach you how to make boys next door out of assholes!” I continue while walking past everyone towards Peter on the couch, and the abruptly turning to face everyone in the kitchen on ‘assholes.’ I take a swig of my coffee making half of it disappear as I’ve seen many teenagers in the Starbucks by my apartment do. “We Are!!!! Wild!! We are like young volcanos!” I pick up again when I take the mug away from my mouth. “We are wild! Americana…” During the ‘ooo’ background part I point my fingers down in a wave like motion, “exotica, do you wanna feel a little beautiful baby!” I chug the rest of my coffee while swaying my hips along with the song. When my cup is empty, I pull it away from my mouth and turn it upside down and stick out my tongue as if catching the very last drop. Then I pick up singing again as I walk back to the sink. “La do dada, la da dada da, la dada da do dada! We are wild! We are like young volcanos! Americana, exotica, do you wanna feel a little beautiful baby!”  After placing my mug in the sink, I continue dancing and singing, barely even taking notice of the glares and confused looks being shot at me. The rest of the song is the same drum beat repeating. I drum on the table, then my legs as I make my way to Peter and then during the last time through, I gently pat his head. After the song ends, no one gets a chance to talk because another song immediately plays. Now I did plan this out, so Ballad of Mona Lisa by Panic! At the Disco plays. During the intro, I turn away from Peter, who I can see is simply trying to contain his laughter, and lean against the back of the couch. “She paints her fingers with a close precision, he starts to notice empty bottles of gin, and takes a moment to assess the sins she’s paid for.” I start singing. “A lonely speaker in a conversation, her words were swimming though his ears again. There’s nothing wrong with just a taste of what you paid for.” I continue while meeting the eyes of everyone in the kitchen. “Say what you mean, tell me I’m right, and let the sun rain down on me. Give me a sign, I want to believe.” I push off the couch and prepare to full on rock out when the chorus comes. “Whoa Mona Lisa! You’re guaranteed to run this town! Whoa, Mona Lisa, I pay to see you frown!” And that’s when Metal Head decides to but in.

“I thought you said this was going to be bad, kid! Not annoying!” He shouts over the music. I jump over to him.

“Oh, I’m just getting started, sweetheart.” I slither out when I’m right in front of him, mocking one of his nicknames for me. I turn and continue to dance as I walk away from him.

“Jarvis! Turn off the music!” Stark tries, but I just smirk knowing Jarvis won’t. “Jarvis!” He screams again, but there’s no reply.

I stop and shout, “It’s okay Jarvis!”

“Of course, Miss.” Jarvis answers while diminishing the music. Stark points at the air, which I’m assuming refers to Jarvis, then me, confused.

“Since when does, my,” He starts pointing at himself, “a.i. listen to you?” He finishes pointing to me.

“Ever since you asshats decided to, well be asshats and insult me so.” I state while skipping to the entrance of the kitchen and jumping to a stop. Stark opens his mouth, but only releases a powerful sigh as he has no response.

“Well then what the hell is all this?” Romanoff asks from the table.

“Oh, well, I’m just showing you what you think I am. A bitch who acts like a teenage screw up and can’t get her shit together.” I explain.

“You do realize you’re being incredibly hypocritical?” Barton says.

“Do explain.” I say while placing a hand on my chin.

“Well you say we judge you, which is true, but you’ve deemed us asshats when you know nothing about us.” I smile at how wrong he is.

“Well you see, Big Bird, that’s where you’re wrong. How do you think I defeat you so easily? Research. And now that I no longer need to hack in, I know so much more. The reasons why I think you’re all wearing you’re helicopter asscaps is because you never gave me a chance and even after I trusted you, you took that information and completely disregarded it and me.” I finish. During that entire time, I’m completely calm.

After a few seconds of silence Romanoff turns away from me and dares to utter, “I still think you’re a bitch.” That’s when I decide to prove to them, just how much I do know.

“Well, I do have my moments, but if I recall correctly, I’d say you were a fairly big one too… Natalia Romanova. I mean what with being a Soviet spy and all.” I say striding towards the table. I see she tenses, but I don’t stop. “Also, would you mind telling me about brain-washing? I’m sure it’s a bitch, but what do you expect from the Red Room? Although, I’m sure being a ballerina wasn’t too bad. I always enjoyed ballet as a child. Oh, wait, that’s right. You never really were.” I finish. Widow is doing her darndest to hide how she’s feeling, but I know that look. Hell, I’ve worn it multiple times. She just wants to punch me and run off to be alone, but she won’t. If we have one thing in common, it’s our pride and stubbornness.

“Okay, Jade, I think you’ve proved you’re poi-”

“Oh, pipe down, Circus Boy.” I cut off Barton off leaving him stunned and standing across from me. “Except you weren’t always Circus Boy were you? Nope. Little Clint lived on the streets all alone, but only after you ditched your brother. Yeah, your life wasn’t much different from mine, minus the torture. Stealing, just barely making it by, and then SHIELD plucked you up and made you Hawkeye, the superhero. That’s how you two met, right?” I say, pointing between him and Widow. “Good ol’ Hawkeye was sent to kill his now partner. You guys could have your own ABC drama. And you had the audacity to call me a hypocrite.” After he stands in front of me speechless for several seconds I move to Stark. I mean, I’m on a roll, why stop now? “Ah, but let’s not forget Metal Head. Tell me, what’s it like being a prodigy? Cause you see, I never got my chance, what with growing up as a slave, but I’m sure your parents must have been so proud. Oh, right, forgot you had Daddy issues. He never gave Baby Stark enough attention, did he? Although I’d say your childhood was still better than mine. But I am curious about Afghanistan. That must have been a ball. Gone for 3 months, oh dear Pepper must have been so worried.” He’s kept a straight face this entire time. I need to crack him… His attacks… Okay, now this is low, even for me, but what they did was lower. Right? Before I can even stop myself, my Viper side takes over and leans up to Starks ear and whispers, “How’s the attacks? Those must ruin the moment all the time. But hey, you did what you had to do. At least dying while sending a nuke into space through a worm hole would have been a good way to go.” We were standing in front of the fridge, and as I lean back, Stark spins around and slams his fist into the fridge. He’s hunched over and taking ragged breaths and I can see the sweat forming on his forehead. I’m compelled to comfort him, but remember the attack he and his teammates induced on me last night. I do stop the smirk though, because I’m angry now. I don’t need to be giving a sadistic smirk when I’m trying to make them feel bad. It’s actually becoming hard to look at Stark, so I spin on my heel away from him. “But let’s not forget you three.” I say facing Thor, Banner, and Rogers. Banner stands in front of the counter bar while Thor and Rogers have stood up from their seats. Even Peter’s up from his place on the couch, but I continue. “Now Doctor, you must be able to relate to me. Although I will say it’s a bit messed up having your own father experiment on you. At least insane scientists tested on me, granted your father was insane too. Ah, but when you were 9, I believe, you went to go live with your aunt and uncle and everything was peachy again. That was until you messed up and caused the Jolly Green Giant to use you as a meat suit. Well meat suit may not be the right phrase, but you get the idea.” I say as I took a few steps away from Stark, whose breathing has returned to normal. I can see Banner’s skin get a little green, and his eyes have changed from their deep brown-grey and to that vibrate Hulk green. I’m sure to keep him at arm’s length. “Looking a little green, Doc. Maybe you otta lay down, or do I need to bring up Betty?” Banner spins away from me as he lets out a low and painful sounding grunt. He stumbles to the wall and Romanoff steps up to him while muttering words to Banner that seem to calm him down.

“Lady Viper, I assure you, we und-”

“Really, cause I don’t think you do.” I cut Thor off and whip to face him on the other side of the counter. “See I did think you understood, but then you of all the people here, you, who I actually was starting to like, had to go and open your big and loud mouth.” I start while walking around the counter and out into the living area. I can see Thor is getting tense by the way his muscles bulge and tighten. But I can’t just let him off the hook. “Remember how I told you I wanted to learn more about Asgrad? Well, I did. Seems like a lovely place. That is until Loki took the throne. Yeah, he really screwed things up, but hey, he’s adopted. Oh and then there’s all that Dark Elf business. I bet that just sucked, what with your girl basically getting infected with the Aether. Tell me, how is that whole group doing? Darcy, Ian, Eric, Jane. They having a good time in London? I’m sure they would be if it weren’t for all the destruction you caused.” I say while turning and standing right in front of him and I won’t lie, he’s huge, but he no longer intimidates me. He never really did.

“Be weary of your tongue.” He threatens.

“Why? You weren’t.” I seethe. And then, out of nowhere, Thor grabs my throat and lifts me off the ground. At first I lose my breath and actually choke for a moment, but his grip isn’t tight enough to do real harm. I’m able to grip his meat paw and adjust myself so I’m holding myself up with his hand. “Oh, it won’t be that easy, Barbie.” I say through gritted teeth. Still holding myself, I swing my legs and wrap my right leg outside and around the arm that’s holding me. With my left leg, I swiftly kick Thor in the jaw which loosens his grip on me, but I still hold on with my hands and right leg. While he grunts and tries to focus again, I kick him square in the chest with my free leg. Now with no grip on my, Thor falls back and I push myself the opposite direction with my right le against his shoulder. I slide away from him as he falls and land mainly on my left foot, crouching, as my right leg is straight and sweeps out in front of me and to my side. I stand and look down at Thor as he pushes himself back up.

“Okay let’s just all calm down now.” Rogers says behind me. I feel his hand on my shoulder but I smack it away as I turn to face him.

“Oh, but you! You are the worse of them all, Captain.” I hiss taking a few steps towards him and jabbing him in the chest with my finger. This whole scene actually reminds me of when we first met on the jet they used when whey first captured me. “See, silly me thought that you were supposed to be kind, a gentleman. But no. Who would have that that I actually was hurt by Captain America’s words? Well, sonny, let me tell you, you’re wrong.” I say while standing in front of him. He looks down at me, and tries to his emotions, but I can see in his eyes, his perfectly blue eyes that have been stern from the moment I met him are filled with regret and guilt. But I ignore it. The nagging inside me that wants to tell him it’s going to be okay. It’s overpowered by all the times he has been negative towards me. The only time he wasn’t cold or hostile towards me was when he met that French girl at the gym. When he met me, but they’ve all completely disregarded that. “How’s Peggy?” I ask before those retched feelings of comfort surface. “Or Bucky?” At those names I can see sadness pool in with the regret and guilt. “And I don’t even need to ask about the war, because my father served in it. And you know what, he talked about you. He said you were a noble, good man, but, and dare I say it, he was wrong. If he could meet the man who he respected, and trust me there was few who earned that honor, he would damn you and spit on the ground you walk on, you filthy, god awful son of a bitch!” I shout in his face. He can’t say anything. He doesn’t meet my eyes because he can’t. He knows everything I’ve ever uttered about him is true.

“You’re right.” He finally whispers.

“Looks like you finally got something correct about me.” I say still looking up at him as he looks at the ground. I move around him and am headed towards the hall but he stops me.

“Wait.” Rogers says while grabbing my wrist. I stop and turn towards him. “Why didn’t you mention HYDRA?” He asks. After giving him a confused look he continues. “You wouldn’t hold back with what you said to everyone else. Why didn’t you mention HYDRA?” He stresses again.

“What the hell is HYDRA?” I say. He looks shocked, so I continue. “I saw it in your file, but there was nothing on it. Nothing I didn’t need Level 10 clearance to see and I figured since I’m part of SHIELD now I shouldn’t try and hack it.” Everyone comes out of the kitchen all calmed down and joins Rogers, Thor, Peter and me.

“You know all that, but not what HYDRA is?” Stark asks.

“Well considering it sounds like a big deal that’s been around for a while, I’m sure Patches doesn’t want people like li’l ol’ me reading about it.” I say facing him. He gives me a thinking gaze and them looks to the rest of the group as they seem to make a silent decision.

“Jarvis, pull up everything on HYDRA. Or do you need Leiton to tell you?” Stark says.

“I was simply playing music, sir.” Jarvis replies which makes me smile.

“Yeah, yeah...” Stark mumbles while walking over to the sitting area.

We all follow him and when we’re all seated Jarvis says, “Displaying all information on HYDRA.” Holograms begin rapidly popping up in front of the couches. It’s so much information I can’t keep track of it. I see several pictures of Cap pop in here and there, but it’s still too fast for me to really catch any of it. Then a black circle comes to a stop in front of all the information. Red begins to fade in from the top of the circle and creates what looks like an octopus or squid. The information’s all here. I can learn all about it. The symbol is right in front of me again… The thing I saw so many times growing up… And I can’t even find the power to move.

A/N: Heyyyyyyy... So, my wrist is all good now, just a few more weeks in therapy, but updates should get back to once a week or so. 

Anyway, whatcha think?? I hope you guys don't mind that I added the songs, but I am a very musical person and that's a way I portray characters. I also think music is one of the best ways to connect things and get a message across. So, yeah, expect that. Oh, and speaking of music, I have infact started writing a song for the story, but there's no guarantee it'll even be a thing anytime soon... 

So, what do you think of Jade knowing so much? I hope I summerized the Avengers pasts well, and that the chapter just played out well. And that you like it!! Also, what do you think of Jade finding out about HYDRA?!?!?!? I mean, I know you guys knew, but she didn't!! What do you think will happen with that information and how do you think Jade is going to react to it? Give me predictions in the comments.

The video attached is the music video for Young Volcanos and here's the link for Ballad of Mona Lisa

I couldn't add two videos, so yeah. With the Young Volcanoes one, I suggest watching all the videos for that Fall Out Boy album, cause the band made videos for each song and they all create a story through. It's pretty cool, so if you like the song, or Fall Out Boy, check it out. 

Also, real quick, I was wondering what you guys think I look like. I mean, I haven't really given you anything to go off of, but let me know and next update, I'll probably just describe myself rather than upload a picture or anything, cause... well... I'm sure you guys understand why... 

Anywhoo, I hope you all had an enjoyable and that this was a good outcome to the Avengers talking about Jade the other night. The next chapter gets pretty good if I do say so myself, and may or may not cause some feels. But the good kind, I promise. Love you guys!!! Vote, comment, and I'll talk to you guys next time. 

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