Collab with LocalAreaMan(Raven, Steve Rogers, Margaret Rogers, Phil Coulson)
As the assembly ended Margaret herded out of the gym with everyone else, chatting mindlessly with classmates and friends while also keeping an eye on the other project teammates. Personal feelings of being brought in aside, Margaret knew she had to make sure they were taken care of. Sure, she didn't have to mother them on every little thing, and definitely didn't have to be their nanny. But for a lot of them this all had an aire of too much too soon about it. Maybe she wasn't being the best at showing it outwardly, but she damn sure felt the responsibility inside of herself. This wasn't her ideal choice going into a school year, but she can't let her personal feelings make things harder for other people.
As she went to get things out of her locker Margaret eyed an small earpiece Coulson left for her placed delicately on the top shelf. She threw it on quickly and discretely with a quick glance around to make sure no one saw it, tucking a little of her hair over her ear so it'd remain all the more hidden away. "Coulson, this is Margaret checking in. Can you hear me, over?"
"Loud and clear, sounds like its working perfectly. Excellent timing too..." Coulson had eyes and ears set up around the academy. His role to the students and staff was Rogers' personal assistant. An old war buddy he was giving work, help him ease out of a bad divorce. Really though Coulson's main job was being the middle man for the project and SHIELD themselves.
Margaret though noted the last part of what Coulson said, "What's up?" He asked.
"Well your father is roaming around the east hallways..." Coulson noted, sounding puzzled.
Margaret froze, confused to put it mildly. "...okay... so?"
"Your father is in his office, I'm looking at him right now."
Margaret was now very confused, "I... what?" Was all she could blurt out.
"Just go check it out, we'll cover for you when you get back so you won't get in trouble for being late to class." Coulson asked before a click of ending the conversation occurred.
Margaret paused before heading over to investigate, the first day has barely started and already things are weird...
By the time she started over she spotted 'Steve' from down the hall, whistling something classical to himself. Which was strange enough, her dad hardly knew much classical music (Not that she was any better with the subject.) Keeping herself out of his sight, Margaret squinted to examine the man more. Quickly she noted another weird quirk, her dad's gray specks in his hair weren't there. "Coulson, you weren't kidding. Something's up." Margaret said into her earpiece after tapping it. "I'm going to intercept and bring who... whatever this is to the office."
"Understood, we'll be ready. Just keep it as discreet as possible." Coulson responded.
Finally Margaret hid away one more time. Quickly giving herself a breath of air and nod before turning the corner. Immediately forgoing her confusion and wariness to a smiling bubbly little sunshine. "Daddy!" She called out to 'Steve' as she came strolling up. She hugged the imposter on the waist quickly. Only to look up and give him a pouting look of worry. "I was looking all over for you. You were suppose to be in your office..."
There she was, humming one of her favorite overtures from Wagner waiting for someone to come across, when Raven hears steps behind her too late to avoid being hugged from behind, and called 'Daddy' with a lot of enthusiasm. And that was the moment Raven realizes she had made a great miscalculation by thinking there wasn't a chance of also running into his daughter.
This is okay. I can make this work.
"Hey honey." Raven/Steve turns around and hugs the girl back with matching enthusiasm.
"Yeah I was but, felt like roaming the halls looking for any first day ditchers." She/he breaks the hug and shrugs "Looks like I did. What are you doing out of class right now?" She/he asks with a mock accusing look.
Margaret could already tell that just being there shook whoever this really was up big time. Still they were going to resist, and it wasn't like she personally didn't see it coming. At this point all she had to do was get the imposter to go to her dad's office.
"Duh silly! I have the first period free so we were going to have our breakfast!" Margaret lied through her teeth, but at this rate in life her lies were as convincing as her truths. Still, her smile was clenching her teeth a little harder by the second. The fake was really starting to piss her off.
"Right!" Raven/Steve slaps his forehead and rubs her shoulders, rolling with the whole thing in the hopes some opportunity to get out of this will come along. Sooner rather than later. "I am so sorry honey, got a lot on my mind. Come on, let's go have breakfast, the most important meal of the day. But how about...you go ahead and wait for me, then I'll be right there. Gotta run by the office quick." She throws out that line, hoping it sticks, the girl goes off wherever it is they have breakfast, and she can find somewhere, anywhere, to change out of Steve Rogers before this got more dicey.
By this point Margaret was starting to lose her patience, her smile starting to have a tinge of crooked anger to it as Margaret grabbed hold of 'Steve's' hand. "No no we were going to eat in your office, so come on..." Margaret suggested with might that showed she wasn't so much suggesting as telling.
Pulling the fake Steve away from the hallway Margaret's smile faded as she led him down, looking more and more like it was less a festive meal to start the school year, and more she was about to beat someone up. Most likely him of course.
Okay this is getting bad. Very bad Raven thinks as she feels the unusual strength of the girl pulling her along. It then occurs to her that maybe, just maybe, this girl was the same kind of not ordinary as Raven herself. Which doesn't help the situation at all.
"H-hey now, no need to get rough." She tries to reason with the girl while she works out how to get out of this situation. That look on her face is rather familiar to Raven, its been on her own when she wanted her father's attention very desperately.
Although in this situation, unlike Raven herself, this girl has the strength to keep her 'father' in place.
That is until Raven alters the hand Margaret is holding to shrink rapidly to her normal size, allowing her to slip it through her grasp easily. "Sorry kid, but I really need to go to the bathroom right now." Raven/Steve tells her quickly before taking off at a run down another hallway.
All she needs to do is round a corner, and make a quick change before the girl can see it happen. Then she can just be Raven, and point her off in the wrong direction if asked where Steve Rogers had run off too.
But then it doesn't occur to her, in her stressed state, that not only are there cameras, but others in wait to stop the fake Steve as he comes to a corner.
The moment Raven turned the corner she was caught when all of the sudden a man in a fine suit dashed towards her. In a instant, all the air in her lungs was smashed out as the balding man slammed into her, clenching her waist in a diving tackle that sent her backwards a few feet, back into Margaret's view which provided a pretty amusing view.
As soon as Raven hit the ground though neither Margaret or the just arriving Coulson were prepared to watch the once fake Steve Rogers change. Shrinking a few inches the large man changed into a girl, a blue tinted girl at that. Margaret's amused look quickly changed to confusion as she ran up next to Coulson. "Holy crap..." She let out through her breath.
"Just between you and me Ms. Rogers..." Coulson muttered glancing over to Margaret. "That felt like beating down Santa Claus." Coulson meekly admitted. Margaret rolled her eyes, once a Captain America fanboy, always a Captain America fanboy.
Still the two got back to the reality of the situation, while seeing a man turn into a blue woman wasn't that insane considering what else they've seen. A blue lady who is seemingly naked shouldn't be laying in the middle of a school. Grabbing her lanyard ID and purse, both Margaret and Coulson hoisted her up by her shoulders and legs. Carefully carrying her away and towards Rogers' office. Hopefully they can sort out this mess.
Raven lolls her head side to side as she tries to get her head back on straight. One moment you're executing (what you think) is a foolproof escape, the next you're being picked up off the floor and wheezing to get air back in your lungs. Her vision is quite dazed, so things are a jumble to her and she doesn't even realize she's completely exposed.
As people are want to do, she speaks in her native tongue as she asks "Was.....passiert?" in a strange voice moments before she gets right, and struggles against Coulson and Margaret's holds, saying "Lass mich gehen!" but to no avail. Her body ripples as she is distressed, her very cells changing her skin color and texture rapidly. It feels peculiar in the grip of those holding her, but it's not enough to break their hold before they're in the office of the real Steve Rogers.
Being extremely careful to not let anyone see what they were doing, let alone the fact the person they were carrying was going kaleidoscope in their grips. Margaret quickly muffled Raven with a hand tightly over her mouth. "Hush, you've already done plenty today." Margaret hissed quietly at Raven, still able to carry her shoulders like a champ.
By the time the two got into Rogers' office neither Coulson or Margaret were very gentle in getting her seat onto a normal looking office chair. Steve watched on confused for a moment before Coulson came up to him. "Sir, here's the troublemaker impersonating you earlier." He told Steve as the school dean pulled some paperwork from his desk. "So... Raven Darkholme." He said aloud, more to himself.
"Heiress to the hotel empire, and by the look of things not the first time you've gotten yourself in trouble." Steve suggested to Raven as he looked her dead in the eyes. The prideful, dashing dean from earlier giving way to something a lot more serious and professional, dangerous even.
"Probably not to this extent too..." He added.
Raven almost spits on Coulson when they put her rather roughly into the office chair but decides against it. She lowers her head as Rogers says her name, and changes into her normal human appearance.
Really got myself into hot water this time. How can I spin this?She asks herself while at first looking back at Steve, then averting her eyes from the Dean as she settles on a way to play this.
If his daughter isn't normal, maybe I can play this right to keep it covered up and he doesn't tell Father.
"N-no Mr. Rogers....I have been in trouble but...not like this. Nobody's seen me like...that." She says in her German accent referring to her actual appearance he'd seen when brought in.
Raven brings her gaze back up to meet his, but puts on some sadness and desperation. Which wasn't entirely an act. She was truly scared of how this could turn out.
"Please forgive? I meant no harm to anyone, honest. And please don't tell father that you know. He told me I was never to let anyone find out...what I am." Which was an entirely true statement actually. Her pranks have been mean-spirited at worst in the past, but she's never intended to hurt people.
Margaret was behind Raven as she tried to worm her way out of trouble, causing her to just give the most apathetic eye roll she could muster with folded arms. It was sad to hear her whimper like this when earlier she probably would've been boasting how she totally pranked the dean with her little special abilities.
Before Margaret could call her classmate out on it however. Coulson quietly slipped her an excuse slip to get to her first period Social Science class. Margaret got her things together and headed out so she wouldn't be too late. After all her dad will probably drop the hammer on the little punk.
With Coulson leaving shortly afterwards Steve quietly listened to Raven before he went to check the blind on his office window that led into the rest of the administration section of the academy. Only to turn back to Raven. "Now, excuse me if this is all starting to seem a little suspicious but I do have reason for the secrecy. Especially given that using your powers in public was a very dangerous proposition." Steve told her before going back to the front of his desk as he leaned against it.
"So... if I may ask. What exactly is it you can do?" Steve asked. Staring a hole straight through Raven.
Raven doesn't turn her head when Margaret and then Coulson leave the office, she keeps her gaze on Steve. Her eyes follow him when he goes to shut the blinds; an action that causes her to tense up a little as it gave her the impression he has some uncouth ideas about where this was going.
Great Raven. You finally got yourself into this scenario. Raven admonishes herself as she watches Steve lean back on his desk. In the videos they sit back in the chair. Oh well this is his office anyway. She thinks before she's asked about what exactly she can do.
"What I can do?" She scratches her arm nervously, looks away. "I can change...well myself into almost anyone." She gives the simple answer and anticipating a request, changes into his daughter. "I can mimic clothes and voice." She says in Margaret's voice. "Or...I can make someone up too." She changes again, into an adult version of her normal look in a shimmering blue dress. Then she reverts to her blue form, but in the school uniform. "This is how I look when I'm just me." Finally she asks him, donning a questioning look "Why are none of you afraid? Father said people would be afraid, seeing me like this."
Steve watched on, and although he did widen his eyes a little at the sight of Raven's true appearance he still maintained as stoic look to him. Finger covering his lips as he leaned back against the desk. Only giving a small 'hmm' at first when she finished. "Well… under normal circumstances it would be a really strange thing to see but…" Steve paused, clearly pondering something before sighing, glancing down at his shoes before back up at Raven. "Listen, what I'm about to say never leaves this office okay?" Steve asked, though not really waiting for a response before leaning back upright, gently pushing himself off the front of his desk.
"Truth is, I've worked for a long time in secret operatives. So to be honest as unique as you and your powers are. It still doesn't crack the top ten of strangest things I've seen." Steve noted, giving Raven a playful smile as he told her that. He went into another brief moment of thought before reaching over to a bookcase and pulling out a folder. Thumbing through it before pulling out a few pieces of paper that he placed face down on his desk. "Now, speaking of. Normally I would make sure you were disciplined for your little 'prank'. Plus there are laws you broke in publicly displaying your supernatural powers as you did." Steve made it clear he was being dead serious in what he said.
"However, if you're willing to hear me out on this. I might have a proposition for you that'll benefit the both of us. Plus potentially millions more." Steve handed Raven the folder, which inside contained information from SHIELD (With blacked out markings over the SHIELD name and other confidential information) about the super project at the academy. "Miss Darkholme, have you ever considered using your powers for protecting mankind?"
Raven catches the widening of Steve's eyes and changes to her normal appearance in response. Likewise she tries her best to not appear to be saddened by his reaction, practicing great self-control to prevent even her lips from quivering. Those uncomfortable emotions are put to the back of her mind as she listens to Mr. Rogers talk about how there is also more to him than what he had given in his speech, nodding that she understood this all had to remain a secret. All fine to her, as she got the feeling this meant her prank may just be 'covered up'.
"Millions of people?" Raven asks when given the folder. She opens it and skims over the contents. Her eyes widen as she reads about this project being put together by an organization whose name and such were blacked out. Margaret Rogers being part of it was no surprise, but the others she sees listed with powers are. Particularly the girl, Gwen, she had struck up conversation with, and the boy she'd had her eye on when she had walked onto campus.
Posed with Steve's question, Raven closes the folder and sets it on her lap as she considers how to answer. Truthfully she hasn't harbored fantasies of heroic deeds before; all she has thought her power would be good for was her own amusement and occasionally to steal. Sure she can buy most anything she wants, but there was a thrill to theft money couldn't buy. And even if she had, looking at the roster of people Raven doesn't see immediately what she can contribute to a team.
Yet Raven gets the impression answering truthfully would bring the consequences she absolutely does not want. Expulsion, and punishment upon returning home if Mr. Rogers informs her father as to why. Or even if he didn't, her father knew enough about her to figure why and punish her anyway. That thought elicits a minute twitch of her right eye and her hands to wring together.
So the only option Raven can see is to do what she's best at: Answer with a lie that has been infused with the truth.
"I...haven't thought about that, honestly." Raven shrugs and looks down at the folder. "I can make myself look big and tough, ja, but then I am a balloon not a hammer. And yet I feel you think I would be good for this team. Otherwise why ask me that kind of question?" Raven purses her lips and moves them side-to-side in a thoughtful manner "I am not very good in fight...but if there is occasion you need a Trojan Horse, I would be best suited." Raven nods. "Yes, I will join this project if that is what you are thinking, Dean Rogers."
Studying Raven's reaction to the idea and news he could tell she was hiding something. The idea of someone being able to change overnight is always one that is hard to swallow. Plus a juvenile that is wealthy and up until now probably hasn't had a responsibility in her life makes it harder. Still Steve believed she could change for the better, even if it meant pushing her in a way that would result in the mother-load of complaining.
"Well in terms of learning hand to hand combat, I can give you some of the best to tutor you." Steve told her, already knowing Natasha Romanov was on board to at least provide training. "However the reason I want to bring you on isn't because I'm convinced you'll be the best fighter. We already have plenty who I think will surpass those requirements needed. What I want you on the team for is someone who can give us something you might not realize is important in battle. Winning a battle doesn't always mean direct action against the enemy, and you can fill those other parts of the role perfectly." Steve sounded like he knew exactly what he was talking about, as he did, but was trying in the back of his mind not sound like a war general to little high schooler Raven.
"Now if you do get involved I am expecting full cooperation. Otherwise all I want from you is your best." Steve told her.
A wave of relief comes over Raven to hear that she's not expected to be involved in direct combat. The way it's described, brief as it is, it'll be a more serious spin on what she's already done. Sneak in while the others distract everyone, snatch something important and maybe knock some heads on her way out if necessary. The idea was certainly exciting. Assuming she made it that far in the project.
Raven nods in agreement, begrudging as it is, when Mr. Rogers finishes and makes it clear what he expects from her. She allows herself to smile, if nervously, as well. "I thank you, Dean Rogers, for this opportunity to make things right, and to help people with my talents." She says, at least thankful this turned out well enough for herself. Now there was the matter of also getting out of this project soon as possible. Without landing in another kind of trouble, which would defeat the purpose of any plan she could come up with.
The girl rises from the chair, holding out the folder for Mr. Rogers and asking"When will I meet the others?" still keeping her smile on.
"I expect you here in my office at the end of the school day, you'll meet the rest of the students involved then." Rogers didn't like the tone she gave him when she thanked him. Something in the tone didn't show a complete sincerity behind what she said. It made Rogers suspicious if she'll try anything the moment he or Margaret turn their backs.
"Anyways go back to your class, and again come straight here after school today, okay?" Roger waved her off as he turned to go take a seat at his office chair.
"Understood, Mr. Rogers." Raven replies setting the folder on his desk, collecting her things, and leaving his office. The moment she's no longer in his sight or anyone else's in the hallway, that smile falls to a frown. She got the very distinct impression Mr. Rogers wasn't fully buying into her charade, but wasn't going to call her out on it because really there wasn't a reason. He had Raven where he wanted her, and she hated that fact. Hated herself, really. She'd gotten too bold too fast. It should have been one of the other students she impersonated first. One of the good-looking boys, or one of the other girls even.
But that was spilled milk, as they say. Raven reminds herself it could be worse. Much worse than being compelled to take part in this project. At least she wasn't going right back to the hotel to await the call from her father that she was to catch the next plane 'home' to Munich and face the consequences of being expelled on her first day. Now all Raven could do was to proceed with her classes and eventually come back to the office and meet her 'teammates' as they would be. For the time being at least.
And that is what Raven does. For the first day there's really not much to take in. The general subjects do the usual thing and hand out their textbooks to clutter up lockers, go over the outline of the semester and the like. Her electives were the most interesting points of her day that actually manage to be fun, boding well for the rest of the school year.
In her Theater class, the teacher has the students pair off and do an exercise wherein they take turns talking about themselves for a full five minutes while the other can only listen, and switch off. This is a fun activity for Raven, as she is a very good listener(even if she is not a good follower) and when it's her turn as listener she takes in all details of her partner for the purpose of the exercise, and to use her visage whenever the occasion calls for it. When it is her turn to be the talker, Raven gives her partner a lot of lies said with confidence. So the truth, for all anyone could know.
Art is a similarly pleasant experience. The teacher is engaging, and after going over the mandatory boring stuff, allows the class to explore the space they'll be using. Even use the sheets upon sheets of sketching paper and pencils to begin express herself. Raven partakes, but mostly fills her sheet with flowers. Lillies specifically, her favorite kind. This is the first thing she puts on display in her locker, and she's proud of how it turned out.
Finally, the dreaded walk back to the Dean's office comes after the last bell has rung. While most everyone is headed out to their family, friends, or other 'normal' afterschool activities, Raven moves against that tide to the Dean's office. She gets to it, takes a deep breath, and knocks while putting on her smile again and excitement in her voice "Mr. Rogers? It's me, here as you asked!"
