jackmurdock:

It was good to be back in San Francisco. Why had he stayed away so long? No clue, but now his head was clear and he had a plan. He and his new friends would take care of the WCA, and then he could come back home and pick up the life he was meant to live.

toni_rhodes:

Though the subject matter of the rally on the local college campus greatly concerned and even directly affected Toni, she wasn't paying much attention to the words being spoken.  Instead, she was watching both the crowd and the others gathering occasionally around the edges of it. 

Despite having been around for several decades now, the issue of mutant rights continued to be a tricky and volatile one.  While there were a great number of second generation super-heroes, many of whom had inherited the abilities of their parents, not all of them owed their abilities specifically to an X-Gene as she did.  So it made her somewhat sensitive to the issue when it came up, especially since she was publicaly known to be one.  But while she was well know as Anya Stark's best friend and as an Avenger, she was not quite so distinct that, out of costume, she couldn't slip easily into a crowd.

Call her crazy, but she was certain something in this thing was going to turn ugly.

toni_rhodes:

"Okay," Toni said, walking a little bit backwards.  "So you saw the living quarters already, and saw the kitchen.  Entertainment room's over here..."

She pointed to a positively huge TV.   "Satellite picks up pretty much any network you could want on this planet, and a few from off.  There's a Kymellian soap opera I'm recording right now.  Don't understand a single word of it, but I think the point gets across.  They're pretty emotive for horse people."

She kept walking.  "So where'd you say you were from again?"

anyastark:

Anya had spent Thanksgiving with her team and with her family. Early dinner in Boston and then dinner with the family in New York in the evening. It was great having two Thanksgiving Day dinners. The best part of the holiday after the food was the day after Thanksgiving. It wasn't for the shopping or the deals, but for the time honored tradition of rating the male members of the superhero community.

Anya had the rec room of the Avengers mansion all prepared. Pizza, snacks, drinks of the soft kind and other various items for eating and drinking were laid out. Electronics were all prepared for the event. All that was left was for the guests to arrive.

toni_rhodes:

Avengers Mansion

Toni looked under the couch, and then behind the curtains.

"Okay, girl," she said to herself, "you know Anya's here somewhere.  Not that many places to hide..."

nextgen_misc:

Once the imprisoned Zodiac members were free, they didn't wait long to make a move. Mikel Fury directed the members to attack Leo and his Triads in San Francisco. Violence erupted in the streets in the more seedier parts of the city and the civilians stayed inside out of the way.

anyastark:

Fate was being kind. After celebrating Buck's birthday on the second, Anya had to fly to the west coast for a meeting in San Francisco. Seattle wasn't too long of a flight away. She made a detour and stopped by the headquarters of the West Coast Avengers. She wouldn't let her best friend's birthday go by.

mishaloganovich:

The helicarrier crash and aftermath might've delayed his memory for a day or two while 'Iron Man' assisted SHIELD, but Darlene was right on top of things. She reminded Misha of Anya's birthday and provided a list of possible gifts, all of which required him to shop at at Jared's. He did a head shake over his car's single-minded determination to get him to buy jewelry. Only his AI car would keep pushing the subject.

He traded the Iron Man armor for the stealth suit and flew to Boston to personally deliver burgers and a six pack of beer to his workaholic sister.

american_eagle:

Mike waited a few days after receiving the invitation before showing up at the address on the car. He sat out front on his bike and stared at the building for awhile. It was quite the building, he'd give them that.

It was time to bite the bullet. He climbed off his bike and climbed the steps to the front door. He pressed the buzzer.

nextgen_misc:

Jarvis and his staff made sure the conference room was ready for a meeting. A table with pastries, cookies, and some healthy snacks had been prepared along with one that held various drinks. It wasn't frequent where the Avengers assembled for meetings that had been planned.

nextgen_misc:

The trail eventually led the Avengers, Future Foundation and the Defenders to the other dimensional realm that served as the home of the Greek gods. They traveled to a few realms that were home to other gods only to find them destroyed and in ruins. Olympus wasn't in ruins, but it was under attack. Battle raged all around and the skies thundered and were lit up by lightning bolts.

treadlightly:

They'd done their scouting. They've put up all the defenses they could, and put themselves in a position to attack. Buck has reviewed what they have on hand, and the situations exploding around them.

"Alright, folks, thank you for your patience. I know its been a tense situation waiting and doing patrol work... but I think we've identified some key points in the enemy strategy. We're still going to have to be careful. We're dealing with major influences here, but...

Alpha Flight... and their current guests, should be obvious. There's every sign that more of the Great Beasts will be awoken... that's a top priority situation.

X-Men... and the Genoshans - in following up the uprisings earlier, we've identified a 'Cult of Apocalypse', who took the whole massive fight before as a sign its time for En Sabbah Nur's awakening. We've located some of their likely strike points, your leadership has marked maps.


Champions and Thunderbolts, we've located a massive danger in the Red Lord. Its been determined that it will likely take both teams to deal with it.

Nightstalkers and Big Hero 6, we have a second target of the same type, Sakhmet. You two are on that.

SHIELD will be picking up on all of the general monitoring, crowd safety and control, and other work we've been doing in the lead up to this.

Finally, Avengers, Defenders and FF - you're with me. We're targeting the masterminds behind this.

Any questions?"

nextgen_holiday:


You are cordially invited to attend the 28th annual Maria Stark Foundation's Winter Charity event.

Four Seasons Hotel
57 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Friday 21st of September
Seven O'clock pm - Midnight

Formal dress required.

Please bring a donation for Toys for Tots.


The grand ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel on 57 East 57th street was festively decorated for the holidays. A series of lit candles on every table gave off warm light and the dulcet tones of a jazz ensemble filled the room.

People, the upper elite of New York society, Hollywood celebrities, musicians, politicians and even superheroes moved around the room. People sat at tables and talked, while some moved gracefully around the large dance floor.

Tables loaded with unwrapped and unopened toys lined one wall and at one end stood a very large decorated Christmas tree. Wrapped presents sat under the tree, but they were just empty boxes wrapped for decoration. Mistletoe hung from the ceiling near the tree and people stopped to kiss.

The air was light and the mood happy and festive.

anyastark:

The annual Maria Stark Winter Charity Ball was coming up and Anya didn't have a thing to wear. Sure she had a closet full of evening gowns, but she couldn't wear one of those. She had to have a new one, not to mention her sister needed a dress. That only meant one thing. A shopping trip. Not just any shopping trip, but a worldwide one.

She sent out invites to Vernique, Toni and Lyta. It would be a shopping trip like the ones they used to have before their lives got busy.

She had the Stark plane readied and had Sunny make the hotel reservations. London, Paris and Milan were on the agenda for this trip. Sunny of course could come if he wanted to. Anya found that she couldn't live without the man.

When it was time she headed for JFK and the waiting jet.

anyastark:

Traditions were important.

For a lot of people the day after Thanksgiving meant hitting the stores and getting great deals on items that would most likely be Christmas presents. For the female Avengers and others the day after Thanksgiving meant a different tradition. They would gather and rate the hunkiness of the male members of the various teams.

Anya had been up at the crack of dawn and readied the Thunderbolts' headquarters. Normally this would take place in the Avengers Mansion, but the boys would be holding Rate the Babe there and the girls needed their own space. She made travel arrangements for everyone invited. Avengers, X-Men, SHIELD, Future Foundation, Alpha Flight, Champions, and the Defenders.

Anya had the event catered by a local restaurant, not wanting to make the Thunderbolts chef have to feed so many people. She had even made sure that all of the Kelly's guns were unloaded.

Everything was ready for their guests.

junoslace:

 She had slept alright the night before and the bed was more comfortable then her own. Now she was freshened up and ready to face the day in her favorite beige pants, purple button up top, black shoes and winning Stark grin. This was how her Tony taught her to take on new situations. She wanted to make a good first impression on what might be a team of people that she would be working with plus it was the Avengers, all her father ever talked about and her dream team.   She headed down to the rec room and hoped she wasn’t late.

nextgen_misc:


You are cordially invited to attend

Terra Nova Charity Fundraiser

Twenty-Fourth of September Two Thousand Twelve

New York Botanical Gardens' Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

Seven pm until one am.

Formal dress required

anyastark:

Anya was an early riser and she couldn't wait to spend the day with her best friend in the universe. She flew down to New York in the early hours of the morning and arrived at the Avengers Mansion. After a cup of coffee and a freshly made muffin with Jarvis, she ran up the stairs and pounded on Toni's door.

nextgen_misc:

The Avengers, future and present set off for Castle Zemo. Miranda and Bobby had tracked the unusual radiation and the energy signature of the stolen time traveling device to that location and it was now time to stop Hadelinde and her crew from destroying the future.

The plan was simple. One mixed team of bricks to cause a distraction and the other to sneak in and get the source of the radiation and the time traveling device.

nextgen_monster:

Hadelinde was a bit shocked when a future kid, hers no less, showed up and told her of the bleak future. In the future she was in prison as was most of the criminal world. The Avengers had brought peace to the world and there wasn't a place in that world for her or her kind. The main driving force was a future Avenger called Solver Svalinsson, now an infant.

That couldn't stand. The future could not play out that way. She would make sure of it. The Avengers would not win, not as long as she was alive. She had to do something now to prevent that future.

The meteor that had fallen in Texas was the key to changing the future. Her son had mentioned the strange properties to her. In his past the Avengers had disposed of it by flinging it into the sun. Hadelinde had changed that by having her Masters of Evil steal it out from under the Avengers.

It had taken time and the lives of some test subjects, but in the end they had been able to harness the mutating radiation from the rock and get the results they desired. Each of the Masters of Evil's abilities were boosted to higher levels in addition to creating some very strong, almost indestructible mutates. It was time to test the mutates' abilities against the Avengers.

If this test went well, then they could produce an army.

Hadelinde had the mutates teleported to the middle of Central Park. She and the Masters of Evil would be nearby to watch.

nextgen_misc:

The small town of Hartley, Texas was not much more than a wide spot in the road that was situated about an hour northwest of Amarillo. The town was small and the surrounding area consisted of mostly ranches and farms and nothing special ever happened in Hartely.

Until a meteorite burned across the west Texas night sky and landed just outside the town on property belonging to one Martin Reynolds. Martin promptly hauled the meteor into town in his pickup. The townspeople all gathered around to see the hunk of space debris that had crashed to Earth.

The strange space rock was put in the center of town and over the next few days it was the center of the talk of the town and the focus of their attention.

butterflybullet:

The Doctor stuff for Svalin had been going well. The family had been great to see. Now Vernique was going to check out the Nevell factories producing and shipping her perfume. And she was going to bring Solver with her. Let him see something different.

...Let him see different people, in different circumstances, who absolutely were not window dressing.

So she carries him around the floor telling him what's going on.

nextgen_baddie:

It wasn't fair! He had spent so much time and money making himself invulnerable, to prepare himself to survive the inevitable nuclear holocaust. He had built an empire, amassing great wealth wealth and power. He had been opposed by the so-called superheroes and the idiots that represented the law. He had attempted vengeance but in the end such efforts had been unproductive. In the end, he had decided to take what was left of his empire, and retire to live out the rest of his life in peace, away from self-righteous fools that dogged him. He had purchased ownership of an unmarked island, and had lived there in decadent luxury. But now...

Now he was dying from a disease adapted to his body. None of his doctors could cure it. His invulnerable body worked against him as his unique immune system prevented any treatments from heading the illness off. He tried to contract underworld doctors into aiding him, but none could do it. Damon Dran was still a wanted man, but..he would need help from the so-called "legitimate" medical community. There was a doctor, Ian Lennox, who had invented a new kind of vaccine. Dran needed him. He gave the order for his people to kidnap the doctor.

He knew this would attract the hated "heroes" so he put in a call to Calvin Hammer, the Mastermind of the Secret Empire. He would need help, the cost seemed negligible at this point.

toni_rhodes:

Some five possible years hence...

Anya Stark was always in demand.  For speeches, for technology consultations, for charity functions, for the good work her company did, for any number of other things.  

She was posed, perfect, and practiced when the situation called for it, though occasionally much was made of her sounding a little "rehearsed" and occasional snipits of private conversations revealed a dialog that was a little more "street" than one might expect out of a rich white girl.  But she was still a rising star who was only going to continue to rise higher, and seldom seen without the company of her good friend, Antoinette Rhodes.  Rumors aplenty had been made of a secret lesbian relationship between the two, but no proof had ever surfaced, and both had been seen on the arms of various men anyway.  Though much had been made of it when Ms. Rhodes had been seen dating the Rogers boy previously thought to be with Anya.

Yes, Anya Stark had it all.  Money, fame, friends, a fabulous jet-set lifestyle...

Anya Stark was, in fact, a complete fraud.  It was on her mind after every speech, every company presentation, such as the one she had just left, returning to her office to meet with "Ms. Rhodes."

Because Anya Stark was not, in fact, Anya Stark.  She was, and had been for the last five years, Toni Rhodes.  Ever since the would-be Mandarian had kidnapped her while in Anya's body and had stolen the ring.  They could have recovered it, could have still found it in time to return to their proper bodies, if he had not used it to turn himself into a virtual god, whose defeat had destroyed him and it completely.

But for the sake of the company, the public, and the general welfare of the world (the idea of body switching becoming common knowledge was not a good thing)... they had had to begin an elaborate game of pretend.  One which still continued to this day.

It had cost them both so much.  There were so few people with whom they could actually be their true selves.  What might have been a wonderful relationship for her had been cut down before it could even begin.

It was a lie.  A life of lies.  But she tried to tell herself it was for the best, and not to cry when she looked in the mirror and failed, as she always did the first time, to remember that that was her.

She opened the office door, slipping inside.   "Ugh.  Jackals."

anyastark:

"I'm almost ready," Anya said as she opened the safe where her mother kept all of her jewelry. She picked out a pair of emerald and diamond earrings and a ring she never saw before. She studied it for a moment and then slipped it on her finger. The safe was re-secured and Anya turned to face Toni. "Now I'm ready."

anyastark:

Anya stood at the corner across from the Thunderbolts HQ waiting for the light to change and the crosswalk signal to come on. She held a paper bag that contained a few containers of Indian food in it since she worked through dinner. A few hours in the lab and Martin's laptop had been modified in order for him to be able to use it. Now it was time to eat and get back to the dozen things she had to read for Ren Tech. After calling her parents and wishing them a happy anniversary and see how they liked her gift. They had been married for three years. Who would have thunk it?

The light changed and Anya crossed Hampshire street. She reached the other side and reached for the door handle of the entrance to the renovated firehouse that served as the TBotls HQ. The blow she didn't see coming hit her on the back of the head and blackness enveloped her.

A large man caught the body before it fell to the ground and picked her up as if she were nothing more than a doll. He put her over his shoulder and walked off into the night.

The next day a picture and a note was delivered to Xavier's Institute For Higher Learning addressed to Misha Romanov.

nextgen_holiday:

Christmas. Yule. Saturnalia. Dies Natalis Solis Invicti. Many cultures have celebrated and still celebrate a winter festival. There have been many names for it over the millennia. No matter the name it is a time to come together and celebrate with feasts and gifts with friends and loved ones.

Each culture has a legendary figure who would deliver gifts to children during this time. In Russia and some Slavic cultures he is known as Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost, and comes not on Christmas but on New Year’s along with his granddaughter Snegurochka, or ‘”Snow Maiden”. In the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe he is known as Father Christmas. In the Netherlands and Belgium he is known as Saint Nicholas or “Sinterklaas” and in France he is known as Père Noël. In the United States we know him as Santa Claus.

No matter the name or who is delivering gifts, it is the season of peace, joy and togetherness. It is the season for thinking about loved ones, friends and those less fortunate. It is a time to witness the goodness and generosity the human race is capable of. It is a time for peace on Earth and goodwill toward man.

anyastark:

Anya took advantage of being in New York and the Avengers' Mansion to make a killer sundae. Nothing beat the sundaes one could make in the kitchen of the Avengers' Mansion. They were stuff of legends. Sitting at the breakfast counter in the kitchen with Jarvis putting around brought back many good memories. She had spent many afternoons in the kitchen just like she was now while she was growing up. Dad would be working and Mom would be out on a mission and that usually left her in the mansion with Jarvis after school.

He was like another parent to her. Mom and Dad were in an out all of the time, but Jarvis was always there. He always had treats for her. Whether it was cookies, ice cream or little bits of chocolate there was always a treat for her. While she had her treat Jarvis would tell her stories of the Avengers and of her Dad when he was her age. It was always the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Today she had made her own sundae, but Jarvis as always was there and she listened to him tell a story as she ate her sundae. She had heard them all a million times and she would never tire of them. There were a million and one things she had on her plate, but this afternoon there would be no work. Even Starks had to take time off once in awhile. Monday was full of meetings in New York and then Tuesday morning she would be on her way to Genosha.

anyastark:

For a lot of people the day after Thanksgiving meant hitting the stores and getting great deals on items that would most likely be Christmas presents. For the female Avengers and others the day after Thanksgiving meant a different tradition. They would gather and rate the hunkiness of the male members of the various teams.

Anya had sent out invitations to the females on the other teams well in advanced and made arrangements for food and refreshments.

Once the day arrived she and the Thunderbolts traveled down to New York and gathered at the Avengers Mansion. Anya readied the slide show and waited for everyone to assemble.

anyastark:

It had been an interesting Halloween and subsequent trip to Germany. She and Jimmy had been almost inseparable for the trip. Germany had been fun and productive. The BMW test had gone extremely well and the contract was being drawn up. Jimmy and she had then driven cars around Nurburgring at ridiculously high speeds. Her car had performed very well and she had sent the collected data to Tesla Motor corp. They would be interested in seeing how one of their cars performed with the zero point energy tech installed. With any luck there would be more contacts coming soon.

The business part of the trip had been straight forward and easy. It was the personal part that had her confused. She had a lot of fun with Jimmy and he had been just what she needed after the run-in with Temujin, but what was going on, or wasn't, between them is what had her off balance a bit. Was there something there or was it just her imagination running away with her?

They had known each other all their lives. The only person she had known longer than Jimmy was Toni. Stark and Rhodes had a long history, but so did Stark and Rogers. Anya had known James for her whole life, but know she was seeing him in a whole new light. It was something she was unfamiliar with.

The first and last time she had taken an interest in someone it had turned out very badly and the bastard was still causing her problems. She hadn't been interested in anyone since then despite what the tabloids said. If she was seen talking to a member of the opposite sex, sometimes the same sex, there were rumors in the tabloids the next day. It was never ending.

Anya need to talk things through with someone and there was only one person on the planet she would talk to. She arrived in New York and headed right to the Avengers Mansion. She climbed the stairs and stopped at a certain room. She knocked on the door.

nextgen_vampire:

Earlier in the day the owner of the farm, Henry Collins, was working on his farm. He was clearing some land to build a new barn for his cows. His old one wasn't big enough any longer and he had decided to build a new one instead of expanding the old one. Bulldozers and other heavy equipment had been brought in to even out the land he had selected as the site. During the day one of the pieces of heavy equipment unknowingly unearthed something that had been lying in the ground. The wooden stake that had been driven into the cow was knocked out.

When darkness settled over the Collins Farm that evening, the cow that had been unearthed rose from the ground seemingly alive. Bessie, as the cow was known, was free once more and free to hunt down the being that was responsible for her condition. First she needed to feed and make an army to help her in her quest to defeat the Lord of the Vampires.

She ambled toward the old barn and the herd of cows inside.

Three days later the cows that Bessie had killed rose from the dead. Bessie now had the first recruits in her vampire cow army. They went off into the night to recruit more members to their cause.

anyastark:

Toni's birthday wasn't until tomorrow, but as part of her gift to her best friend in the entire universe, Anya headed to Kansas City the day before and would spend the night out there. It had been awhile since the two of them had some best friend quality time together. Life had gotten hectic for both of them and sometimes a timeout from the rest of life was needed.

Anya knew Toni had a thing for sailboats so she got her a gold sailboat charm with chain for part of her gift. Anya would have bought her a real sailboat, but there just wasn't any ocean to go sailing in the middle of the US. Rivers didn't count as a place to go sailing.

Anya also made a digital photo album of every picture she had of the two of them. Anya's parents and Toni's had been helpful in supplying pictures for it. There was even one of Anya in her cardboard Iron Man suit and Toni in her cardboard War Machine suit taken when they were five.

She also brought along a stack of Toni's favorite movies and a huge box of Belgium chocolates. There had been many movie nights with too much chocolate and a lot of laughing. There would be many more. Anya had faith that Toni would be fine and they would grow old together and tell their kids and grandkids of their adventures.

She showed up and rang the buzzer instead of letting herself in. It never ever hurt to pay attention to social niceties.

mishaloganovich:

With Darlene's help, Misha had Anya's birthday box ready for mailing in time for her birthday. Included with the must have Mets jersey (he didn't want her to forget the greatest team in baseball history!) were a pair of Cthulhu slippers and gift cards to burger places around Boston.

And truffles. Always remember the truffles.

toni_rhodes:

She let of a blast of electricity, the voltage enough to power a city block for the better part of a day.  She followed quickly with infra-red radiation, then microwaves.  Radio waves, x-rays, gamma rays.  Toni was immune to the effects of the radiation itself, and the room would scrub itself down afterwards, but the effect of expending that much power left her feeling both better (not unlike cooling down after a day in the hot sun) and worse (tired, burned out, spent...).

She finally stopped and carefully unclipped her armbands, placing them in the unit that popped up, and replacing them with the next pair in the sequence.

Thirty-six hours this time.  Thirty-six where she hadn't otherwise expended any injury or taken in any additional power.  She'd started feeling hot... too hot, as the timeline had gotten closer.  She could make it longer if she was actively using her abilities, though she rather needed to expend any extra she took in fairly quickly.

She sighed as she snapped the armbands into place.  That brief moment where her energy was entirely unregulated was a terrifying one, the power surging up and making her every nerve stand on end, but it passed as the devices performed their function, regulating her body's energy flow.

Mutants were supposed to be immune to the effects of their own powers.  Why the hell were hers so screwed up?

She made her way back upstairs, to the kitchen, finding a frozen dinner in the freezer.  She popped it into the microwave and took a big step back and away.  She didn't need to pick up any stray rads.

Three minutes, according to the little digital timer.

hello_program:

It hadn't been intentional but Jensen had arrived in Cowtown ahead of the rest of the group, a few days luxury that permitted her to get sorted out in their surroundings.  They had acquired the Western Auto building, the rental lofts converted and redone until the building was more than suitable for their purposes.  She didn't want to know how much money that acquisition had cost, as it appeared that the building was something of a landmark and desired loft space, but she was glad they had it.  It was a good location and, with serious next generation internet capabilities being brought to the twin KCs, everything was perfect.

Especially the food. She'd found a nearby Gates BBQ and that's what anyone who had shown up would smell as she hauled in bags of delicious meaty goodness.  She was going to make sure they had a classic Kansas City lunch.

Didn't want to come off as noobs.

stark_ravingmad:

Tony waited in his office for Justin, Toni and Harvey to arrive and went over the pitch with them. He hoped Rhodey would show as well; he wanted everyone to start off on the right foot with this whole thing.

When Justin arrived, Tony nodded.

"Good to see you. How are you feeling?" he asks.

nextgen_parent:

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first annual Maria Stark Foundation Charity Auction. I'm Alison Blaire and your host for tonight's festivities. Prepare yourselves for a night of fun to help a worthy cause. In just a few minutes many very handsome men will be brought out one by one for your chance to win a date with one of them.

Before we begin I would like to bring out Her Imperial Highness Anya Stark. Miss Stark helped arranged tonight's event and will give you a little more information on the charity organization tonight's proceeds will help."

Anya walked out on stage and smiled. "Thank you, Ms. Blaire. All of the proceeds from tonight's event will go directly to Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières. This organization was created in 1971 in France to benefit the citizens of the world. The organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crisis regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation all across the globe. MSF operates independently of any political, military, or religious agendas.

I'm happy to announce on behalf of the Maria Stark Foundation, that all money collected here tonight will be matched dollar for dollar by the Maria Stark Foundation."

"Thank you Miss Stark and that is a very generous offer by the Maria Stark Foundation. Now it's time to begin. So open those wallets and let's bring out our first man." Anya left the stage and went to take her seat.

"First we have the son of Captain America Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff. James Romanov-Rogers is currently an Avenger and has recently moved to Seattle to lead the West Coast Avengers."

"Let's start the bidding at a hundred dollars."

anyastark:

The weekend had been insanely busy. Friday morning Anya, Steve, Toni and Charlie had flown out to Seattle to the WCA's HQ. Anya worked on the computers while Charlie, Toni and Steve got to hang out with James' team. Once Anya was done, they hopped on the plane and flew down to LA to hang out with the Defenders for a bit.

Anya hid away with the computers and Griffen while the others bonded. They spent Saturday night and Sunday during the day there relaxing and getting to know the Defenders better. It went a long way bettering relations between the teams and it was good to see each other on occasion.

Sunday night they spent at the Grammys. It was a lot of fun seeing some of the celebrities she hadn't seen in awhile. She made it a point to introduce Steve, Charlie and Toni to all the ones she knew. Afterward they skipped the traditional after parties and headed to Vegas.

Anya had it all planned out. She had a very large suite reserved at the Bellagio and reservations for the wedding chapel inside. Of course Charlie and Toni knew none of this and weren't going to until it was time. Anya put on a simple white dress, carried one rose and had her hair up.

She sent a text to Charlie and Toni telling them to meet downstairs in ten minutes.

She put her hand in Steve's and together the two of them went downstairs to the chapel.

anyastark:

Iron Girl, War Machine, Photon, and Misha flew toward the large factory on the outskirts of Bucharest, Romania. Tony had tracked down and located the factory where the drones using stolen Stark tech were being manufactured. Now that he wasn't wearing the Iron Man suit any longer, it was up to the kids to take of this little problem. With any luck they would find Evil Auntie here.

In advance of the trip Anya had written some small programs. One was a virus to upload into a drone or a computer that would infect the whole system and wipe everything. The other was a self destruct program. She wasn't sure if the original Stark code to shutdown the systems was still there, this was a safety precaution.

They approached the factory. "I'm going to hack in a set off the fire alarm. That should clear the building of the civilians before it goes boom. Watch out for drones."

toni_rhodes:

During the course of the others return, Toni had finally found a moment to tell Charlie that they needed to talk.  Or rather, she had tried to.  Because Charlie had blurted out the same thing at just about the same time.

So they'd gone to her room to talk.  She stared down at the silver gauntlets covering her hands and forearms.  Keeping her alive.  Regulating the vast amounts of energy her body produced.  It beat other methods of containment, for sure, but who knew how long these would last?  Doctors McCoy and Pym were just barely ahead of the curve, even with Uncle Tony's help.

"So..." she ventured.  "Who goes first?"

borntolead:

Charlie was glad to be home. In the end of it, he enjoyed his time hoping around through the timestream, and had gotten to become really good friends with his teammates.

But goddamn, it felt good to be back.

After stopping off at his parent's apartment for a quick change of clothes and a shower (his Mom wasn't home yet, but his Dad said that he'd tell her that they had come back later), Charlie made his way over to Avengers Mansion.

"Anybody home?"

nextgen_holiday:

There's a piece of paper and a pen attached to a bulletin board. Across the top is written:

New Year's Resolutions
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Anonymous entries accepted.

nextgen_holiday:

Christmas. Yule. Saturnalia. Dies Natalis Solis Invicti. Many cultures have celebrated and still celebrate a winter festival. There have been many names for it over the millennia. No matter the name it is a time to come together and celebrate with feasts and gifts with friends and loved ones.

Each culture has a legendary figure who would deliver gifts to children during this time. In Russia and some Slavic cultures he is known as Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost, and comes not on Christmas but on New Year’s along with his granddaughter Snegurochka, or ‘”Snow Maiden”. In the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe he is known as Father Christmas. In the Netherlands and Belgium he is known as Saint Nicholas or “Sinterklaas” and in France he is known as Père Noël. In the United States we know him as Santa Claus.

No matter the name or who is delivering gifts, it is the season of peace, joy and togetherness. It is the season for thinking about loved ones, friends and those less fortunate. It is a time to witness the goodness and generosity the human race is capable of. It is a time for peace on Earth and goodwill toward man.

toni_rhodes:

There was, in fact, a very good reason Toni hadn't talked to her friends in a while:  She'd been rather sick.

Or something, anyway.  There was definitely something wrong with her.  She didn't... feel right.  No appetite.  And her powers were going pretty haywire.  She'd either end up shooting out too much energy or too little.  And when she did, either way, it felt like just about every nerve in her body was on fire.

She'd told her parents, of course, but she couldn't bring herself to tell her brother or Anya.  They had too much on their plates already.  Just about one more worry would probably break her best friend in half.  She'd have to settle for telling her later and suffering the "you should have told me"'s there.

Fortunately, as both a mutant and Avenger, she had access to the best medical treatment of both worlds.  Regular tests had been occurring over the past several weeks, but now...

Now she was feeling worse than ever.   And as she sat waiting for the results of her latest test, Toni Rhodes was quite worried.

anyastark:

Anya didn't have many traditions in her family, unless you counted being a bastard as one of them. The Avengers however did have a few time honored traditions that must be kept going. Sure saving the world from alien invasions, beating up the world level threats and other heroic things were some of those traditions, but not everything could be about beating up the bad guys. One such non-heroic thing was Rate the Hunk.

Each year the female Avengers got together and rated their fellow male Avengers. The new generation had eagerly picked up and kept this tradition going. However, they had expanded it a bit.

The day after Thanksgiving was a perfect day to avoid shopping crowds, take over the rec room, banish the males and look at pictures of them. Anya had run it last year and she took it upon herself to do it again this year. Invitations went out to fellow female heroes. Avengers, X-Women, Defenders, Champions and Thunderbolts all got invitations to come to New York to Rate the Hunk.

Food, drink and snacks were laid in. Signs were put up on the doors and electronic surveillance was set up to see if males dared to interrupt.

Anya settled in on one of the couches and queued up the stash of photos she had collected in the past year.

nextgen_misc:

It had taken a little time, with the new baby to deal with, but Tony had managed to develop a device to help track down the stolen Stark tech. Four devices had been made and one given to each of the kids to use. Though Tony had told them he wanted them going in pairs to watch each other’s backs.

Anya and Misha were sent out together and Justin and Toni were paired up for this mission. The next one may be different.

Anya and Misha were sent toward Montana while Justin and Toni were sent toward Arizona. They were unsure of who exactly had the tech, just that the tech was there.

anyastark:

The Masters of Evil had attacked the Thunderbolts headquarters and had made off with Victor's body and with it a way to eventually access Ultron's files on the Avengers. It was a situation where a collaboration of the Thunderbolts with another team was needed. They needed to get Victor's body back as soon as possible.

The Thunderbolts made the trip to New York and were gathered in the conference room at Avengers Mansion along with the Avengers. They needed to discuss strategy and form a plan to retrieve Victor's body.

Anya sat back in her chair and let her brother take the lead. James was more experienced with leading a team and if anyone could get them to all work together as one big team, he could.

anyastark:

Anya felt like a heel for missing Justin's birthday. It was the day after Toni's and it had slipped past her. She quickly gathered what she needed and pulled an all-nighter putting together an obscene laptop for him. The thing was two to three times faster than anything on the market and she installed her custom OS on it. He wouldn't have to worry about it crashing on him.

When it was finished she packed it up and shipped it by special courier to Justin.

nextgen_holiday:

The air was warm and the sun was bright making it a perfect day for a cookout to celebrate Labor Day. Classes would start on the 8th (for those going to college they started a week ago) and it was the last chance to kick back and cut loose before hitting the books.

At the Avengers' Mansion in NYC Jarvis and some helpers he managed to rope into helping with the preparations were busy getting the food ready. Tables had been placed out around the pool and the large grill fired up to get nice and hot. Burgers, hot dogs, sausage, ribs, corn on the cob, pasta salad, salad and fruit salad were just some of the food available to eat. Soda, water, fruit juice and other beverages were on ice.

To help get to know each other the Thunderbolts received an invitation to attend.

It was a day of rest and relaxations for those who put their lives on the line for others.

anyastark:

Each day wasn’t any easier than the one before it. In fact it could be said each day that passed was harder than the one before it. Each day since Steve had disappeared had been hell and every single one seemed to last for a year. The day had gone from one of celebration to one of her world shattering into a million pieces.

Anya had been taken into SHIELD custody not long after Steve had vanished. Or she thought it hadn’t been long. All sense of time passing had disappeared since he vanished. They questioned her and she told them about the fight in the warehouse and how there was another Steve Barton. She told them about the fight and how they both disappeared.

She wasn’t sure if they bought her story or not, but they had nothing to hold /her/ on except the little thing about escaping from SHIELD custody. Mom had been the one to finally get her out of there and then she had to explain to her parents what had happened.

That wasn’t even the worst part.

Explaining to Clint and Bobbi what had happened was by far the worst. Anya had to tell them all that happened and that their son was now missing and it was Anya’s fault. Sure they said that she shouldn’t blame herself, her parents said the same thing, but no matter what anyone said it wouldn’t change the fact that it /had/ been her fault. She knew that Clint and Bobbi had to be thinking that if their son hadn’t gotten involved with her, this wouldn’t have happened.

Anya returned to Boston.

She locked herself away in her room. She refused to answer the door, the phone, text messages and emails. Contact with the outside world wasn’t wanted at this time and the only contact she had with anyone was an occasional text to Mom to let her know she was okay. It was a lie, but Mom understood and didn’t press. She knew Anya needed space and time and Anya was grateful.

She spent her days and nights lying on her bed staring at nothing in particular. She didn’t even know what day it was. The passage of time had no real meaning anymore. In her mind she relived memories of time with Steve and the tears would start again. There was a big helping of guilt to go along with the emptiness and sadness she felt.

She only ventured out in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep for a few bites of something to eat and a glass of water. It was a struggle to get each bite of food down and it was even difficult to drink. She just didn’t feel like eating or anything else for that matter. She couldn’t even remember the last time she took a shower.

Sleeping was another thing she wasn’t doing. Every time she closed her eyes the nightmare would come. It was the same one each time. It was Steve asking her how could she possibly do this to him if she loved him so much and saying he wasn’t ever coming back. She woke up crying each time. Vodka was the only way she got any decent amount of sleep.

Notes from team members were slid under the door after the knocks were ignored. Anya didn’t bother to pick up the notes to look at them.

In her heart she wanted to believe so badly that Steve would return, but her head and evidence so far pointed to the contrary. Not one of the extra-dimensional visitors had managed to go home yet. Her brother, her sister, and a few of the X-kids, not a single one had managed to go home. Would it be the same for Steve? She desperately wanted to believe he would come back. Life without him was too unbearable to think about.

The thought prompted a fresh bout of crying. Anya curled up with a teddy bear as the tears started to fall.