41 || farm ambush

"Oh! Uh, hey. I didn't expect for someone to magically teleport into our humble abode, but nice to meet ya. I'm Christa. Wanna bagel?"

Barton Farm, Midwest, Thanksgiving 2016-

Alison walked through the portal, the second teleportation trip of the week, although it most certainly felt like less time had passed since she had arrived at the Sanctum Sanctorum, or whatever the place where Strange had taken her was. As she walked through the portal, Alison didn't feel the dark blackness creeping up her

Instead, the girl felt a breeze of air as she stepped through and came out in a cozy farm house, the place decorated like a family lived there. Scribbles of drawings were scattered on the refrigerator, and the place was filled with a smell of baby powder and burnt cooking.

Looking behind her, Alison saw Strange holding open the portal on the other side, giving her a once over and winking at her. The doctor saw Alison's confused face, and without a second thought, offered an explanation. "I had to give you something better than what you were wearing. It's Thanksgiving." The man closed the portal behind him, leaving Alison to look down at her attire.

Ali was wearing a red cocktail dress with a sweetheart neckline, her feet resting inside a pair of nude heels, her hair swept back in a messy bun that was much like a prom look. Her phone was tucked away in a clutch that was nestled in her left hand, where her phone had been gripped in seconds before. The girl gave a small breath out in irritation, hating formal attire. She didn't like it, but she would tolerate it. It was better than the Sweet Sixteen dress she had in that Absinthe vision.

"Holy shit!" Someone exclaimed, seeing Alison step through the portal into the house. The clatter and smash of a mug could be heard as the person yelped, clearly not expecting to see a magic portal and a teenager step into the farm abode.

Turning around, Alison saw another teenager in the kitchen, their eyes flitting between the broken mug of orange juice (even though it was the middle of the day) and Alison, who was frozen in her position. "Um.... hi?" Alison spoke, her free hand giving a halfhearted wave.

"You... You just teleported into our house!" The girl that had dropped the mug sputtered, gesturing to behind Alison to where the portal had been and then to Alison, still not processing the strange situation in front of her.

Alison could semi-relate. She had been in exactly two of those situations in the past week, and they were not fun experiences. "I have a feeling I should probably introduce myself." The girl sucked in a breath, wincing as she realized that she hadn't even given her name yet. "My name's Alison Marnell, and I think-"

Before Alison could go on, the teenage girl screamed out again, this time calling to the rest of her family, notifying them of the "intruder" inside of the Barton household. "Laura! Cli-" The girl was cut off from finishing the rest of her sentence, Alison using her super speed to face over to clamp her hand over the girl's mouth.

"Dude!" Alison exclaimed, looking at the girl with a slight hint of irritation and annoyance. "I don't want Clint knowing that I'm here. If he did, I'm sure he would either shoot me with an arrow, or yell at me. Again."

"Wait a second-" The girl responded, her voice muffled from Alison's hand blocking her face. Realizing that the girl wouldn't yell anymore, Alison dropped her hand. "You know Clint? As in, Clint Barton, the Avenger?"

"Yeah." Alison scoffed, looking at the girl with a little less annoyance. "Arrow Man? Doesn't like teenagers smarting off at him? Yeah, I know him. He kidnapped me and threw me in a white van in April." Ali added, rolling her eyes with a small hand gesture at the events that happened in April.

"Wait, you mean when he went off to fight with Captain America? He recruited you for that mission?" The girl stepped away from the awkward face to face proximity that she was in with Alison, walking over to the dining room table, pulling out a seat, gesturing for Alison to take the one next to her.

Alison nodded, walking over to the table, taking the seat adjacent to the girl. "Yeah. Although I had no clue who he was, or the fact that he was an Avenger when he first punched me in the face." Settling into the seat, and tucking her dress neatly under her, Alison looked over at the girl. "The name's Alison Marnell. I wasn't sure if you heard me the last time, you kinda yelled over me."

The girl offered a small laugh, lacing her fingers together and placing her hands on the table. "The name's Christa Amory, adopted daughter and nuisance to the Barton family. Although I'm still in this house, so I guess that's saying something." In front of Christa was a bagel spread with cream cheese, the plate in the middle of the table, right outside of her reach. "Wanna bagel?"

Alison chuckled lightly, shaking her head as a small smile formed on her red painted lips. "Nah. Eating after traveling through portals makes me nauseous, but thanks for the offer, Christa."

"Suit yourself." The girl shrugged, taking one half of the bagel on the plate, beginning to eat the breakfast item. "So, tell me, how did you end up in the lovely Barton abode on Thanksgiving? Don't get me wrong, I love presents or visitors coming to our house, but I normally expect them to come through the front door." Christa remarked, a dry sense of sarcasm evident in her voice.

"Well, it's a long story, and while I'd love to tell you, it took me about an hour and a half to explain it to a friend of mine, Scott Lang, and I'm sure that it would take even longer for me to explain it to you." Alison summarized, sucking in a wince-like breath as she spoke. "Tell you later?"

"Later, later is good, yeah." Christa nodded, her mouth full of her bagel once again. "As long as I get the explanation at some point, I'm good with later. Although you better promise that you leave no detail out." The girl finished the bite of her bagel, placing the food back down on her plate, wiping her mouth of any spare crumbs with her hand.

"In the meantime, care to tell me more about yourself? You said that you were adopted by Clint?" Alison questioned, looking at Christa with an arched eyebrow. "Is this a house like a Hawk's Nest but they adopt ducklings too?"

Christa snorted, her hand still resting at the edge of her mouth, at Alison's remark. "Strange analogy, but, yeah. I guess the Barton household can be considered a place where anyone can be welcomed. I mean, this house once held Nick Fury and a ton of the Avengers when Ultron was a threat."

"This house held Nick Fury? I thought he was dead." Alison remarked, sitting back in her seat, letting the chair tip back a little to rest on two legs instead of four. "Unless what happened in D.C. two years ago isn't true, which, if it isn't, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Well..." Christa trailed off, unsure of what else to say. "Let's just say that if I say anything more without Clint and Laura letting me, I will probably be grounded. For life. And they won't let me drive anymore." The girl winced at the idea of not being able to take long road trips, as Christa loved the wind whipping in her hair and the peace that defined a road trip, with no Barton kids accompanying her or pestering her about homework.

"I can relate to that." Alison chuckled, shaking her head at the idea of being grounded. "After the whole Airport thing in Leipzig, I got grounded for the entire summer, and then some. It was the worst four to five months of my life."

Christa shook her head. "That's a nice amount of grounding time, but I think mine is just a little bit more extreme than yours. I was grounded for six months and wasn't allowed to touch any tech because I hacked into the Avenger's Facility database to get information that Clint wouldn't give me."

"Ouch." Alison's face scrunched up in discomfort and pity for the teenager. "Did you at least get the information?" She asked, her chair thudding back onto the laminated wooden floor, all four legs back on the ground and stable.

"Yeah, and I have some great clips from the hack to prove it." Christa smirked, pulling her phone out of her back pocket, displaying the videos to Alison after a few taps. The videos showed random things the Avengers did when they weren't on mission, including Clint burning a towel on the Avengers Tower stove, Tony bumping into walls over and over again, and Sam fighting an invisible person outside of Avengers Facility.

The two giggled at the videos, Alison letting out a huge round of unstoppable laughter for the first time in a long time while watching Clint scramble around the kitchen with a flaming towel. "Oh, that hack was so worth it." Ali declared, the last video fading to black.

"Yeah, it totally was." Christa agreed, putting her phone back into her jean's back pocket. "Help me! Help me!" Christa loudly yelled, standing up from her seat, shaking an invisible towel in her hand like Clint had in the video, mocking her adoptive father. The gesture earned a laugh from Alison, whose laughter died down as the girl heard loud steps heading their way.

"Christa?" Clint called out, his footsteps audible as he creaked down the stairs. His bow was drawn, hearing her screams seconds before, ready to fire if there was really an intruder in the house. "Christa are you okay?" As the man crept down the stairs, he pulled the string of his bow tighter and tighter, worried for his adoptive daughter.

Christa and Alison exchanged a look of worry as Clint's voice echoed through the room. The man had obviously heard them earlier, when Christa had just seen Alison jump through a portal and arrive at the Barton household in an instant, and he had heard them making fun of him seconds before. "I'm so screwed now." Alison groaned, thudding her head down on the table, the slam making a loud noise.

Hearing the loud thud, Clint scaled the rest of the stairs, thinking that his daughter was in dire danger from someone who had knocked her out, or something even worse than that. Landing on the bottom floor, his eyes scanned the room for any sign of an intruder, his eyes finally landing on Christa, who was standing across from someone with their head down. Thinking the person was still an intruder, the man raised his bow again, wasting no time as he properly pulled back, aimed, and fired at the head rising from the table.

"Clint, no!" Christa exclaimed, waving her hands frantically, watching the arrow fly from the string, rapidly advancing towards Alison's neck. "She isn't an intruder, it's-" Christa was interrupted, her lips becoming silent as the world slowly calmed, the events in motion almost coming to a complete stop.

Alison, hearing the arrow advance toward her, watched the world around her slow into an almost stop, the girl turning towards Clint to see the arrow heading straight towards her. Taking advantage of the time she had, Alison's hand flew up right underneath her chin, her hand out to grasp the arrow that was slowly traveling towards her.

In an instant, reality came rushing back to its normal pace, the arrow flying until it landed perfectly in Alison's outstretched hand. Alison's eyes flitted from the arrow in her hand, up to Clint, a smirk forming at the corner of her lips. Staring straight into Clint's eyes, a glint of amusement evident in the girl's stare, Alison spoke a greeting that no one in the Barton household was expecting.

"Hey Uncle. Long time no see."

<~*~>

um hello

it is I, I'm back after publishing like two new books that I'm starting after I finish this one, whoops I'm gonna be stacked

well

this was particularly interesting, especially with the introduction of Christa, mercuryindustries ' character.

plus, you got to see Alison use her superpowers again in this chapter, once to shush Christa, once to catch the arrow. I kinda wanted to do a Flash-esque kind of thing when the world slows around her and she can do stuff at the end, so that's exactly what I did

also thank you to sebstab for the amazing new cover ily graphic goddess

this is probably one of the last more fun / more innocent chapters before we get exposition dumps and final battles. get ready, we have 11 chapters left!

anyways, I hoped you enjoyed, have fun tomorrow on your Labor Day (no school tomorrow, yay) and I'll see you in the next one!

bye

-ash