Inhibitions

Thick wisps of glowing energy boiled off my body as I summoned more to my hands, my eyes glowing red. My hair blew in an unseen breeze, ripples of chaos magic trailing through the air above me. "By the power of chaos," I intoned, my voice echoing with power. "I release…"

Steve was my last opponent standing, his stance wide and ready. He tensed in anticipation of my attack, shield up, not willing to give up without a fight.

"…your inhibitions! Feel the rain on your skin," I started to sing, releasing the gathered power and letting it dissipate harmlessly instead as I started to groove, dancing in place, a smile on my face. "No one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in. No one else, no one else can speak the words on your lips—"

--

The White Hand of Wanda

Natasha wandered down toward the end of the training facility, trying to work out where her girlfriend had disappeared to. "Wanda?"

A muttered curse and scuffling sound came from around the back of the building in response to her call, and she picked up her pace to reach the source.

As she rounded the corner, Natasha came face-to-face with Wanda—the woman's eyes were wide, her hands hidden behind her back. "Wanda?" Nat asked, puzzled. "What are you doing back here?"

"Uh. Nothing. Just… uh. Nothing. What are you doing back here?" Behind Wanda, there was a flicker of movement.

Natasha shot her a suspicious look, then craned her neck to look behind her. Peter was huddled behind her, the teen looking about as guilty as Wanda, with one small addition—a white handprint across his entire face. "Um, Wanda? I can't help but notice that handprint on Peter's face. And the fact that you're hiding your hands behind your back." Nat raised an eyebrow. "And that the maintenance staff just happen to have recently re-painted the side of the training building."

Peter stepped out from behind Wanda, shooting Nat a slightly sheepish look.

Wanda looked at Peter, then back at Nat, then at Peter again. She took a deep breath, lowering her voice in imitation of a deep, ancient wizard-like voice. "Whom do you serve?"

"Saruman!" Peter declared loudly in response.

Nat folded her arms, eyebrow still raised. After a moment of silence, she flicked her head toward the showers. "Go get yourselves cleaned up."

--

Red or Black

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Pietro was rummaging through the fridge as I stepped out of the hall and came up behind him. "Pietro, red dress or black?" I asked, holding them up out in his direction.

Behind me, Yelena was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching something on TV.

Emerging from the fridge with a beer, my brother looked dubiously at what I was holding and shook his head. "What? I don't care. Whichever."

"I'm having trouble deciding. Pick."

His eyes bounced between the two garments a few times, then he shrugged. "I don't know. It doesn't matter. They're both good."

I made a small noise of frustration in the back of my throat, then turned and looked askance at Yelena. "Yelena? Which dress? Red or black?"

"Black," she responded immediately, flicking her hand in a quick gesture for emphasis. "The red one makes you look like a slut."

"Red it is, then." I grinned. "Thank you."

Yelena let out a small snort of amusement and rolled her eyes. "No problem."

--

Snakes on a Rocket

I read the article again, just to make sure I hadn't missed any important context, then bit my lip. "Huh," I said, maybe a little too loudly.

Natasha glanced over at me from the breakfast bar. "Something wrong?"

"There's a total eclipse happening in a few days' time and apparently NASA is shooting some rockets at the sun during it. For science."

"Uh, okay? Cool?"

"They've called the rockets APEP—Atmospheric Perturbations in the Eclipse Path."

Tony looked up from whatever he was reading on his own phone. "Oh, yeah. I did hear something about that. So?"

I chewed at my bottom lip. "It's probably nothing. I mean, I don't remember anything happening so it's fine. I think. It's just..."

"Apep's the name of an Egyptian god, I think," said Bruce. He frowned and looked over at me. "...The Egyptian gods aren't real, right?"

I made a face. "Um, funny thing about that, actually..."

"Really?"

"Apep's the serpent god of darkness and chaos, who ceaselessly seeks to extinguish the sun," I told them, trying and failing not to look overly concerned, drumming my fingers anxiously on the countertop. "NASA is launching rockets directly at the sun in the name of Apep."

Tony and Bruce exchanged a worried look. "...I'll, uh, give my NASA guy a call," Tony said, after a moment.

"You have a NASA guy?" Bruce asked.

Tony looked at him like it was the most absurd question he'd ever been asked. "You know how much stuff I have in space? Of course I have a NASA guy."

--

Arthur Harrow crouched on top of the main Cape Canaveral station control room, the off-white of his costume for once actually providing some degree of camouflage against the building's exterior. Khonshu sat casually next to him, legs dangling off the edge of the roof, leaning on his staff; the bird-skull-headed god would be in full, plain view if anyone else could actually see him.

The two of them watched as the last of Apep's cult—a man raving madly about 'bringing eternal darkness to the world'—was hauled out of the building across from them by a pair of burly police.

"They aborted the launch. It looks someone else got to them first. What do you think happened?" Arthur asked, a pensive expression on his face.

Khonshu shrugged idly. "Don't know, don't care—unless you want to send them a gift card. Whoever it was, they did us a favour. Apep's a real asshole. I really wasn't looking forward to having to listen to him monologuing again."