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Chapter One
2012, May 4
Sylvie sat alone at the counter of a half destroyed bar in the centre of New York. Well, not completely alone, a small rat sat atop the counter staring at her in what would almost appear to be concern. Sylvie nudge an undisturbed bowl of bar nuts in its direction which it happily obliged to nibble away at.
She poured herself another glass of whiskey and nursed it with a contemplative gaze. 'You should really try this! It pairs quite nicely with the figgy port!' Ughhh she tried to shake the memory from her mind by downing her drink but to no avail, as that memory became a precursor to more unwanted memories.
Unwanted memories, it was why she was here in the first place. She had been through enough apocalypses to indiscreetly watch the battle of New York unfold. Dodging explosions, falling buildings and Chitauri all the same. She had watched Loki, who was not the Loki she had known, fight with Thor and couldn't help but flinch as she saw the huge green guy smash him into the concrete several times like he was a rag doll.
She had had a plan. She had been going to intercept the Tesseract before her Loki had stolen away with it. Why? Because she was close to breaking point. Sylvie had thought that if she stopped Loki from creating the branch, the branch where they had met, maybe just maybe it would change things. Wipe all she knew of him from her mind. She had gotten close too. She was there watching him as the Avengers escorted him out of the building, watching the chaos caused by the Hulk having to use the stairs, watching the the Tesseract fly across the floor and land at Loki's feet. That was her opportunity, but she couldn't do it, and she very well knew why. So she watched as Loki vanished from sight to embark on one hell of a journey he didn't know he was in for.
Sitting at the bar she let out a dark chuckle. "To glorious purpose!" she raised her glass in toast and downed the drink. A flash of orange filled the room as TVA portals opened behind her. "I am SO not in the mood right now!" her eyes flashed green with magic "won't you all just… leave. Me. ALONE?!" and with that she sent out a wave of emerald magic that sent the agents flying backwards, one sailing through the front window of the bar onto the street, all of them rendered unconscious. "That's better" she muttered and returned to her previous alcoholic engagement.
"Uhh excuse me miss?" Ugh, Sylvie rolled her eyes but didn't look towards the voice at the entrance to the bar.
"Whatever you're selling I'm not buying!" She called out.
"Just like you're not buying that bottle of whiskey I imagine?" the voice responded.
"Can you just piss off? I want to drink in peace" still not looking up.
"We have some questions for you" the voice said rudely ignoring her request to piss off. She was annoyed enough now to flick a cursory glare at the person speaking to her. Said person being Steve Rogers aka Captain America. Standing behind him were the rest of the Avengers looking a bit worse for wear after their very recent battle.
"What Capsicle means here, is that we just happened to be enjoying some post apocalyptic shawarma a few doors down and couldn't help but overhear G.I. Joe flying through the window over there" Tony added though his usual witty charm was mostly overridden by exhaustion.
"I thought I saw my brother's magic nearby, you haven't seen anybody else in the area? Or are you Loki in disguise?" Thor questioned Sylvie seriously.
Sylvie's only response was to let out a sharp bout of laughter, before composing herself to respond "do I look like your brother?" She asked sarcastically.
"She doesn't really look like your brother" Clint whispered to Thor.
"Well no, but he can be quite deceptive, and I would not at all put it past him to disguise himself as a woman" Thor said.
Sylvie's response was to swig directly out of her whiskey bottle, clearly bored with the conversation.
"Who are you? And who are these soldiers? I've never seen this insignia before" Natasha asked, crouching over one of the unconscious bodies to inspect them.
"Just the idiotic time police, not even the original time police, mind you, these ones work for Kang" Sylvie let out a sigh, the alcohol was starting to create a nice level of drunkenness, but also had the negative effect of making her a bit more liberal in disclosing information.
All that said piece of information did was garner a series of confused looks from those interrogating her.
"Did that make an iota of sense to anyone else?" Tony asked.
"She's drunk" Bruce commented.
"I am NOT drunk!" Sylvie exclaimed indignantly, "I'm full!" She declared happily, then realising she just quoted him slapped her palm against her forehead and let out an annoyed groan.
The Avengers stood there rather dumbfounded not sure what to make of the situation. They began to discuss Sylvie in front of her while she continued to clutch the whiskey bottle as if it were the most important thing in the world right now.
"So what do we make of this?" Nat asked her entourage.
"Clearly she's insane" Tony said.
"Drunk" Bruce corrected.
"She's obviously not a local" Clint commented gesturing to her attire.
"She's dressed like a warrior" Thor remarked.
"And she's talking to a rat" Steve added. They all returned their gazes to the strange woman, who indeed was murmuring in what was a one sided conversation with a seemingly rather tame rodent.
"Well this day just keeps getting better and better. It's already been one hell of a weird one, do we really have to deal with this on top of everything else?" Tony questioned.
"We can take her back with us, keep her under observation. Get SHIELD in to clean up the rest and find out if they're good guys or a new threat" Steve commented.
"Sounds like a plan, now who wants to convince the crazy rat lady to come with us?" Bruce asked.
All eyes looked to Steve, who let out an exasperated sigh but stepped forward all the same.
Taking a few steps towards Sylvie he said "you still haven't told us who you are".
"Ohhhhh right, introductions… introductions!" Sylvie jumped up from her place at the bar clapping her hands together as she faced him. "I'm Sylvie, and you must be Captain Goody Two-Shoes, that's Arrow guy, Thunder boy, Robot Man, Anger Management and Sexy Spy" she threw a wink at Nat who didn't seem phased by the flirtation.
"I think she needs to up her nicknaming game" Clint muttered.
"I don't know, Anger Management has a nice ring to it" Tony said elbowing Bruce in the ribs jovially. Bruce didn't rise to the taunt though.
"Look Sylvie, I'd like you to come with us, we can talk more once you've sobered up a bit."
Sylvie raised her hand to her chin in a thinking gesture mockingly "hmmm, how about… no" she said flatly.
"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way" he attempted, walking closer until she was in arm's reach.
"Oh, I much prefer the hard way" she smirked.
"Very well" and Steve went to grab her arm but she stepped back before his fingers found any purchase. She may have been drunk, but drunk Sylvie still new how to hold herself in a fight.
She swung a fist at his head which he blocked, but she followed with an immediate kick to his chest which sent him stumbling backwards. She let a menacing grin take over her face, he had underestimated her.
While he was still off kilter she launched at him, laying down a series of blows that he managed to block, barely.
He parried and she ducked using the momentum to put some distance between them. "So you're not more than a pretty face" she tutted "that's a shame" and again she shot forward. This time Steve landed a few well timed blows, he was very strong, but Sylvie revelled in the pain. It was another way to numb herself from thinking about certain aspects of her life that were far more painful.
She had yet to draw her dagger or call on her magic, nor did she feel the need or want to, finding the good old fashioned fist fight quite enjoyable.
The others watched the sparring match with quiet intent. The two seemed evenly matched, with neither backing down.
"Need some help there Cap?" Tony called.
"I'm fine" Steve grunted from the ground where Sylvie currently had him pinned.
"I think you may be wrong about that" Sylvie smirked she raised her hand to land a finishing blow but stopped short when Thor's hammer smacked into her chest and smashed her into the wall behind. The hammer falling near her feet.
"I said I was fine" Steve grumbled to Thor as he got up from the floor.
"Didn't look fine to me" Thor remarked with a raised eyebrow.
"Is she dead?" Clint asked looking at the pile of debris where Sylvie's body lay unmoving.
"No… but I'm definitely going to feel that in the morning" Sylvie groaned as she rose from the rubble.
The Avengers once more were staring dumbfounded at Sylvie. She looked down at Mjolnir near her feet, "who would've thought hammers were an effective form of weaponry" she reached down towards it.
"You're not going to be-" Thor's sentence was cut off by a series of gasps as Sylvie picked up Mjolnir and tossed it from hand to hand.
"Hmm lighter than it looks" she commented before looking at the others' expressions "what?" Thor was gaping like a fish. "Oh sorry forgot how men get so protective over their tools" she said sarcastically and threw the hammer back to Thor with the same amount of momentum that had knocked her to the ground. To his credit, Thor managed to compose himself in time to catch his precious hammer and not be blown back by the force. He did let out a small noise that was very akin to a whimper.
"This is boring now" Sylvie stated looking at the Avengers blankly. She walked back to the bar grabbing the near empty bottle of whiskey "Ugh I really need a shower, and a nice loooong sleep" she yawned. She leant back against the bar propped by her elbows, looking at the others who were still staring at her like she'd grown another head.
"I'll go with you" she drained the remainder of the bottle "on one condition".
"…and what would that be?" Natasha asked her.
"The rat comes too" she grinned, before proceeding to pass out.