A/N: I very rarely write fanfiction so there are bound to be some mistakes. I thought of making this an OC, but after reading up more on Pietro's past, I ran into Crystal. I'll be changing some aspects of her character to fit the story. She'll still be an Inhuman, but like the other Inhumans in this universe, it'll be caused by experimenting/chemical exposure. I'd also like to note that I haven't watched a single episode of Agents of Shield. There will likely be spoilers in the upcoming chapters; however this first one shouldn't have any since it's mainly going to be introducing Crystal's character. Support and constructive criticism is loved. This fic will start out at T but may change into M later on.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, really.
It all had to do with being in the wrong place at the worst time. It had to do with the curiosity of her sister and the "No Trespassing; Weapon Testing zone" sign that she had chosen to laugh at and then subsequently ignore. Crystal had only been 10 at the time, her sister just a few years older. Their parents were both at their respective jobs, leaving the siblings up to their own devices. Crystal knew that she should have known better, but the small amounts of fear that she felt crawling beneath the broken chain linked fence just push her on. The fact that her sister was actually giving her the time of day helped with that as well.
The siblings hadn't ever been close. Medusa was the oldest and didn't take the transition from only child to older sibling very well. She had always enjoyed the full attention that their job oriented parents could give her, but when Crystal entered the picture that attention was split between the two. Despite Crystal's many tries to grow close to the sister that she looked up to, Medusa always kept a bitter distance between them. At least, before they moved to a small town in the middle of Nevada. It had been a job offer for her father that forced them to pack up and move there. With all of their school friends now hundreds of miles away, Medusa didn't have much of a choice but to spend some time with her younger sister.
This led them towards the moment that would change her entire life.
"Medi, wait up!" Crystal cried, trying to balance in her strappy sandals and run across the uneven terrain at the same time. Her strawberry blonde curls bounded with every step as she tried to catch up to her sibling. She tried ignoring the roll of her sister's eyes as Medusa continued along at the same pace in front of her.
"It's not my fault if you're slow. If you get lost out here, I'm not getting blamed for it when mom gets mad" Medusa replied.
The supposed "Testing Zone" was a large, empty area that stretched out for as far as the eye could see. "There's nothing here but dirt," Crystal pouted, stretching out her once white dress that was now covered in red dirt stains.
"Dad said that they haven't tested in this area in years. The people who owned this place just up and left one day which means that they might have left something out here," Crystal frowned but stayed silent, looking around for something that might impress her sister. Maybe if she found something cool enough, Medi would be proud? They could take it home and show their parents too!
"What's that?" Crystal paused, pointing towards a shiny white object lying in the sand a distance away.
"First one there gets to keep it!" Her sister yelled, pushing her back before running off towards their find. Crystal cried out but was quick to get up and follow, not backing down from the challenge.
The sibling's footsteps both slowed as they grew closer to round canister looking object lying in the sand. A bright ice-blue label was stamped on the side of it; however the writing on it appeared to be written in a different language. It was covered in the red dirt, but other than that looked as though it had been left completely undisturbed.
"Wh-what is it?" Crystal asked, not taking her eyes off of the object. Could it be a bomb like the ones that they saw in the movies? Was it going to explode? A bead of sweat dripped down the side of her face as she become conscious of just how hot it was out here with just the sun bearing down on them.
"It's probably nothing. You were the one to find it, you pick it up!" Crystal glanced over to see her sister's grey eyes glaring at her. But she was the one to win the race there, so shouldn't she pick it up? Swallowing, Crystal moved closer to the old metal thing. This was her chance to impress her sister. A nervous smile started tugging at her lips. When they took it home their father would be able to tell them what it was.
What came next was just a blur in her memory. Later, after she had gotten her job position at Shield, she found out that the metal container had been the remnant of a secret chemical that a weapons company had been developing a few years earlier that had been shut down during the testing process. The scientists that developed the chemical out of some rare kind of crystal had gotten extremely sick and died soon after it was created. The company thought that they'd be able to sell the dangerous mix however as soon as the government got a sniff of the idea of chemical warfare that would follow, they were closed down. That metal canister had been a mist bomb that they previously believed had been set off during testing.
The sweat from a child's hand had been enough to set it off.
The chemical inside of the bomb was called Terrigan Mist and it had changed her life forever.
She could remember waking up weeks later, still attached to a life support machine. One of her entire forearms was covered in red, web-like burn marks forever physically marking her of the event that gave her the powers that would later mark her as inhuman. Her entire body was throbbing with pain and she tried crying out around the tube that was pressed into her airway. The panic set off her heart rate monitor that sent a fleet of nurses into her room who gave her drugs to put her back to sleep.
The next time she woke up it was just as bad. The pain was still there, only dulled by medication. Her memory of the event was still foggy. Her father was passed out in the chair next to her bed. When she found the strength to turn her head, she registered that her neither mother nor sister were anywhere to be found. A small whimper was all it took to wake up her father, Quelin, from his slumber.
"Sweetie," He cried, sitting up and pressing a hand to her wet face. She hadn't noticed when she started crying. "Let me go get a nurse. They'll be able to help," Crystal tried to cry out to object him leaving, but it only came out as a strangled squeak. Tears dripped down her cheeks tenfold as he walked out of the room, leaving her alone. The next thing she knew the curtains were on fire.
That had terrified her into screaming with her sore throat and drew the nurses into the room at a run. Their eyes widened in surprise at the scene they walked into before they began scrambling to get her out of there.
They would later on blame the incident on faulty wiring but Crystal knew that it had been the first moment that she unconsciously used her powers.
Green eyes blinked, snapping her out of the trance that she had fallen into. The now soggy bowl of frosted flakes greeted her back to Earth as she realized that she had been stirring her breakfast cereal for the past… 20 minutes.
"Shit!" Crystal's eyes widened as she glanced at the clock again. Oh crap this was not how her day was supposed to begin. Pouring her uneaten breakfast down the drain, she begrudgingly decided that she'd have to go hungry on her way to work this morning. Rain pounded against her kitchen window, the grey sight bringing down her mood even more. Didn't she leave her umbrella at the office last week? If only she had actually remembered to bring it home!
Pulling on her black blazer and slipping on her heels, Crystal doubled checked her hair in the entryway mirror. Her long strawberry locks refused to be tamed without at least a half an hour of work in the morning. Grumbling, she ran her fingers through her hair opting to go with a pony tail today, since the humidity in their air would just make everything worse. Hopefully the light make up that she applied this morning would distract from any hair disasters.
Stepping out of the house and locking it behind her, Crystal ran down the steps and over to her black car focusing on bending the water drops around her.
It was one of the benefits of being able to control water. She wasn't allowed to practice her powers in public; if Fury saw what she was doing he'd likely chew her ear off. Luckily, with Shield's new situation she didn't have to worry about the eye constantly watching her. Shield going underground did have some benefits, she supposed. Getting in her vehicle and backing out of her driveway, Crystal set off towards work at Shield's new headquarters.
A/N: A slow ending, but it'll give me options as to how to start the next chapter. I hope that you enjoyed her character so far. For those who don't know, Crystal's inhuman abilities include control over Water, Fire, Earth and Air. Let me know what you think!