Ladies and gentleman, I present the chapter that starts all of the craziness Pentatonix will bring to Kristin's life. I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Marvel or Pentatonix. I guess I should have said that before. Kristin, Laura, and their crazy friends are mine, though.

Love you all, my darlings!

I came around a few days later. None of the Avengers were particularly happy with me. Natasha and Clint gave me the worst verbal lashing I had ever received. Steve was proud of what I had done but assured me he wasn't overjoyed that I had put my safety at risk like that. Banner and Stark, while not understanding why I saved a man I had previously hated, were pleased I had sufficiently recovered. Thor was just happy to see me before he had to leave again.

Laura even stopped by to visit me. "Kristin!" she exclaimed when she entered the pristine white room.

I smiled and gladly returned her embrace, although I was still very sore from the wounds. "Hi, Laura. How are you?"

"I'm fine. How are you? What did you do? No one will tell me anything, only that you saved Quicksilver's life!"

"Ah, so that's what they're calling him."

Laura waved her hand. "That's beside the point! You almost died trying to stop him from dying!"

I nodded. "I promised his sister I would keep an eye on him, Laura. You know when I give my word I have to keep it."

She sighed. "Yeah, your nobility and humility are going to kick your ass one day."

I shrugged. "He is all right, isn't he? Pietro?"

Laura snorted. "Why don't you ask him yourself? He and his sister are right outside. They haven't left their stand as guards outside your room for all three of the days you've been conked out."

"Send them in, then."

She hugged me one last time, and we agreed to see each other again soon. No faster than she had stepped out the door, a blue flash followed the man that entered my room.

"You are finally awake?"

I smirked at the handsome man in front of me. "You didn't see that coming, no?" I asked, mimicking his Easter European accent.

A female giggled. "I do believe you speak as if you have lived in Sokovia all of your life."

"I'm pretty sure I'm from South Carolina, sugar. But, I do take pride in being able to speak in other dialects."

Wanda's brown eyes turned serious. "Thank you for saving my brother."

She and Pietro took seats near my bed. I made to sit up and winced as a wound on my shoulder pulled. Pietro's hands appeared behind my back and assisted me in sitting upright. "Thank you."

"It is least I can do. You did save me from bullets."

I chuckled at his broken sentences. "I understand the importance of relationships, especially between siblings. I do not have any myself, but I could feel your love for one another."

"You could feel it?" Wanda quizzed curiously.

The next hour or two was spent explaining myself to the twins, and in turn, I learned more about them. We grew close over the numerous questions. We had lost our parents at a young age and to a horrific event. While they were forced to survive on their own after they left the orphanage, I was given to my deranged aunt and had to fend for myself. We both made bad decisions for good reasons and suffered the consequences.

A nurse came in a few minutes later; Director Fury walked behind her. Pietro and Wanda stood as the man entered, and I sighed when I saw the weariness and tension in their shoulders. I reached a hand out to Pietro and grasped his tightly. He glanced at me in shock before relaxing under my touch. I gave Wanda a meaningful look before turning to the nurse. "I assume it's time for more medication?"

She nodded and began changing my IV. Fury stood by the door. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I threw myself at a concrete wall embedded with spikes," I answered honestly.

The twins were alarmed. "Why didn't you tell us before?"

I answered Wanda in a small voice. "Um, it didn't matter?"

Pietro shot me a patronizing look. "Next time, you talk. Yes?"

I sighed in acceptance. I caught Fury's disbelieving glances between the twins and me. I went on the defensive. "Director?" I prompted.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, I wanted to let you know that Professor Xavier has been informed of what happened. You should be released tomorrow if you aren't in too much pain. He will send Scott to pick you up if that occurs."

I closed my eyes as I felt the morphine flow through my bloodstream. "He's upset, isn't he?"

Fury chuckled. "I wouldn't say he was thrilled to learn of your decision. Neither was I. It won't happen again. Understood?"

I sluggishly saluted him. "Yes sir," I slurred, the drugs taking effect.

The nurse spoke up. "I think we should leave Agent Windsor to rest now. You two can visit her when she awakens again."

The last thing I heard was promises of visits before I fell into a restful sleep.

I was indeed discharged, and Scott picked me up. The twins weren't happy about my leaving, but all three of us were overjoyed when Fury assigned them to stay at the school for a month or two. I was overjoyed to have them with me, and I made it a point to make them feel welcomed into the Mutant world. It was, after all, their home now.

Wanda and I became sisters easily. We both had fiery personalities and were fiercely loyal. She taught me how to think before I acted, and I taught her how to multi-task. We also worked together great as training buddies. Pietro and I were a bit different. We were close, almost inseparable, but I couldn't quite call him my brother. He was more than that. No, he wasn't a lover, and I knew he never would be. But, I couldn't treat him as simply family. A position such as that would be too mundane to describe the way Petro and I fit together. He was my very best friend, even surpassing Laura – though not removing her.

The Maximoffs were returned to Fury in a better state than they left him. They joined the Avengers and threw themselves into the missions with a passion. Thankfully, there wasn't any world takeover to worry about, but some foolish military powers and mad scientists were always sticking their noses where they shouldn't be. The years passes quickly and gracefully. There were days, though, when I missed the feeling of community being around the Avengers brought about. The fighting even left a memory of adrenaline that was hard to forget.

It was on one such day that I was moping around when Lauren found me. Apparently, the others were insistent on going on a shopping trip. Of course, it was necessary that I go. And directly related to their health, according to Davis. I begrudgingly dressed. While I certainly enjoyed trying on clothes and browsing, I did not like spending a lot of time in a mall. The large environment made me extremely nervous, and the humongous number of people constantly coming and going increased my anxiety greatly. However, for my friends and because I really needed a new pair of Converse, I pushed away possible scenarios that held horrible conclusions and went to prepare for my day. No reason to let my paranoid and pessimistic ass ruin the day.

At twenty-five, I supposed I should have dressed girly. Sadly, I only wore dresses when I absolutely had to. In my opinion, the only person I had to impress when going out was myself. I was happy wearing jeans and tee-shirts. Since it was warm outside, I slipped on a pair of ripped jean shorts, a dark red tank top under a black plaid shirt, and some flip flops. Quickly, I checked my reflection in the mirror, making sure my hair looked fine in the French braid I had put it in and that my eyes were the green color I had chosen. A little bit of makeup adorned my face. I hated too much of the stuff, but a little could certainly go a long way. I had put my jewelry on beforehand, and after grabbing a purse, I made my way down to the lobby to meet my friends.

"Well, it's about time girl!" Lauren yelled.

I rolled my eyes. "It takes time to look this perfect," I stated confidently, striding past them to the garage.

I heard laughter behind me. "You should have taken longer, then," Davis joked.

"You were the one who took thirty minutes just to choose a shirt last time!" Mikayla said.

"Hey, I was torn! I couldn't decide if I wanted to match Nathan or not."

"That's why it's a good thing that Nathan's busy, or we would never leave at a reasonable time," Holly teased.

I groaned, and I heard Leon do the same. "Is it ever possible for you all to be either quiet or serious?"

I ignored the rest of the conversation as I moved into the extremely large and well-furnished garage. I loved this place. It was my favorite part of the mansion, besides the training room and the basement that I fondly called the Dungeons. Johnny kept this area modern and filled with the latest technology and cars. Of course, each individual who was old enough to own a car, and earned enough money to pay for one, had his or her own, but there were also larger vehicles that could carry many people that were owned by the school.

I walked over to where all of the keys were labeled and stored. I grabbed the one for the black GMC Denali and unlocked it. "Okay, guys, hop in! And please, don't mess anything up."

I climbed into the driver's seat and buckled up. I started the vehicle and turned the cool air on because it was just over seventy degrees outside, and large vehicles can get stuffy pretty quickly. When everyone was in and all the doors were shut, I pushed the button on the remote that controlled the garage doors. They lifted, and I swiftly drove out. Lauren, who was in the passenger seat, instantly went for the radio, and the last CD that was in the Denali started to play. I smiled widely as the sounds of Pentatonix filled the air.

"What in the world is this?" Leon asked.

I smiled. "It's a great group of five amazingly talented people that sing like angels."

Silence sounded in the vehicle as my friends listened to the track playing, which just happened to be "Natural Disaster". I glanced in my rear view mirror to see Mikayla and Holly bobbing their heads with Davis and Leon pretending like they were performing the songs themselves. I couldn't help but laugh, and Lauren turned around and laughed as well. She pulled her phone out and video recorded the group as they continued to be silly for the rest of the song.

The next track on the CD I had burned was "Run To You", and I decided to break out of character and sing. I didn't sing often, and I certainly didn't do it in front of anyone. My voice was special, to me at least, and I wanted to keep it to myself. I was confident in it and my ability to sing, but I needed to keep something secret, to hide away a part of me from the others so I could claim it as mine only.

At the end of the song, their mouths were hanging wide open, forming quite a comical expression. I suppressed the urge to giggle, but my light mood was quickly dampened. I was upset to discover that Lauren had continued filming and captured my display on video. "Please don't show that to anyone," I pleaded with her.

"But, Kris, you were amazing!" Davis shouted.

"I didn't know you could sing like that! You sounded like Chloё Agnew!" Mikayla stated.

"Dang, girl! You were gettin' it!" said Leon.

I kept my attention on the road and refused to sing for the rest of the way there. Lauren must have caught my mood, because she told me, "I'm not going to show anyone. And you have a beautiful voice; you should sing more often."

I flinched. "Some things are better kept secret, Lauren." No one needed to know about the event other than the occupants in the car, and if they were to tell another, I could easily erase the memory completely.

Luckily, we arrived at the mall shortly after the whole fiasco. I breathed a sigh of relief as we all piled out of the vehicle, and chatter instantly started on which stores to hit first. Groups were formed; I decided to go solo. I felt uncomfortable going with the girls, because I tended to be more of a tomboy, but I couldn't go with the boys because they tended to hang out at sport stores instead of actual clothing stores.

The layout of the mall was familiar to me, so I had no problems locating the stores I wished to enter. I meandered around for a while before gliding into Journeys. I went straight to the Converse and found a pair I loved. They were plaid, and I fell in love immediately. I went up to the girl at the counter and asked for my size, an eight. Unfortunately, they were out of that size, but she said that I could order them online and ship them to the store, free of charge. I promised I would do so, thanked her, and left.

I ended up in Express and found some cute plaid tops that would probably look good on me, but I passed up buying them. I wasn't really in the mood for shopping. I had only come for the Converse, and since that mission had encountered a set-back, I was now only there to allow my friends to have some time to shop. Realizing I was only taking up space, I turned on my heels to exit the store, and when I did, I ran into another person. The individual gasped and backed away, and an apology was already formulated on my lips before I could really think. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bump into you! Are you all right?"

I gathered a closer look at the person and almost gasped in shock. The individual was a girl who looked to be only a few years younger than me, and she looked oddly like Kirstin Maldonado. But, that couldn't possibly be. I was a huge fan of Pentatonix, and I knew the members' faces almost as well as I know my own friends' features. It just could not be Kirstie. I couldn't be certain, because I didn't know what town their tour had currently taken them or anything. I also didn't have a Twitter, or any social media for that matter, so I was essentially completely lost.

"It's fine, really. I'm not hurt or anything. You just turned around really fast, and we kind of collided." She smiled, and I couldn't help but smile back. Even if this girl wasn't Kirstie, I certainly wouldn't mind being friends with her. If I ever actually continued to talk with her past this short meeting, that was.

"Yeah, I am really sorry though. I hope I didn't mess up your purchases or anything." She had quite a number of bags on her arms.

She shook her head, her cropped blonde hair flying. "No, I'm actually going to meet up with some friends and was kind of in a rush. One of them gets really impatient sometimes, and if he came looking for me, it would not be good."

I nodded. "Well, do you need help carrying all of that stuff to your friends? I am more than willing to help. I wasn't going to get anything from here anyway," I said, gesturing around me.

The girl hesitated for a second but then nodded. "Sure, that would be great. Thanks!" I was in the process of taking a few bags from her arms when our skin touched, and it was as if a million alarms went off in my head. No, not the kind of alarms that your subconscious gives off that tells you danger is near. It was the alarms that make it seem like you know that person, like you've met them in another life and should remember them, but you don't. The sensation greatly confused me, and I decided to talk with the Professor about it when I returned to the school. "My name is Kirstin, by the way. But everyone calls me Kirstie."