Note: Edit (02/01)

The SUV pulled to a smooth stop in front of Elite, a run down tailor shop in the heart of Brooklyn, at five till midnight. Alex fidgeted with her mask, ensuring that it wouldn't fall off in the middle of the inevitable fight. The suit fit surprisingly well, with the material neatly fitting every curve of her body while still being breathable and comfortable. The upper body was coated in vibranium, with intricate black tendrils stitched into the fabric. Alex's pants were solid black except for the thin metallic designs. Her only accessories were a pair of graphite grey combat boots with a thin bottom and her black mask. Angelo had stressed the importance of keeping her identity a secret during her briefing.

"Are you ready, mi figlia?" Joey asked from the seat to her left. Angelo sat in the passenger seat, and Marco and Luca in the far back row while she, her grandfather, and her father occupied the row of seats in the middle.

Alex swallowed thickly and nodded, not trusting her voice to sound confident and prepared as they wanted her to be. She would do anything for the Genovese family, and that included ending the lives of those who were considered a threat, but it wasn't something she was comfortable with. The family knew that, of course, and respected her feelings on the matter. At least, they did most of the time. When they didn't need her abilities.

After seeing both of her parents killed in front of her ten years ago, every time she cut off someone's life with a flick of her wrist it brought the nightmares rushing back full force. She had a nasty feeling that after tonight, sleep would elude her like the plague once again. However, despite her misgivings, if any of her new family gave the order, Alex couldn't hesitate.

Joseph's grin seemed to darken the heavy night air around them, "Excellent." He turned towards his son, Underboss, Captain, and Advisor. "Tonight we will take back the position that is rightfully ours. The Genovese Family will no longer be just another part of the Commission. Our very own Shadowbreath will ensure that the other families recognize our change to the hierarchy." Her grandfather's cruel laugh seemed to reverberate within the confines of the SUV, and Alex could feel the hairs on her covered arms stand straight up.

Amros opened the car door, first letting out Joseph, followed by the rest of the team. The men around her straightened their fancy black suits before making their way inside, forming a protective circle around Alex to shield her from wandering eyes.

The older gentleman behind the old red oak counter bowed in respect and reached underneath the ancient cash register to push a button. A click sounded towards the back of the small store, and a hidden door slid open. The tailor still had yet to notice Alex and escorted them towards the back room. They were met with a thick cloud of smoke. Alex could practically taste the tension buzzing between the walls. Joseph sauntered through the door with his family behind him, and greeted the four dangerous men already seated at the large poker table each with another man behind them protectively.

From what Marco had explained to her, each Boss was only allowed to bring their respective Underboss to the sparse Commission meetings; so to say that the other Families greeted Joseph with nothing short of pure contempt was an understatement. They were on their feet in an instant, reaching for the guns stuffed into the waistband of their pants. One man was so surprised that he dropped the thick cigar that had been resting between his teeth onto the green felt. "What is the meaning of this, Joseph?" He didn't even attempt to hide the bitterness lacing his rough voice.

Her grandfather simply smiled, opening his arms wide. "Brothers, put down your weapons. This does not have to end in a fight."

"What are you on about?" One of the Underboss' spat, tightening his hold on the gun. Alex's eyes narrowed, and she did a quick inventory of all of the weapons that were pointed at her family. Eight potential enemies, twelve weapons, not counting the Genovese family. Piece of cake.

Joseph frowned, as if severely disappointed that the other Bosses refused to settle down. "I'm disbanding the Commission, gentleman. From now on, each of you will report to the Genovese Family directly. The title of capo di tutti capi has returned."

The four bosses snorted and one raised his weapon at her grandfather's eyes. "Don't be daft, Joseph. You can't possibly believe that you will walk out of this alive. Remember what we did to the last man who tried to replace the Commission?"

Joseph shrugged, not bothered even in the slightest. "Yes, but I have something that he didn't. Something that will persuade each of you to change your minds regarding my promotion...or else." Without looking away from the other bosses, he gestured towards Alex, who pushed past the men surrounding her and took her place beside her capofamiglia.

All eight men studied her with wary eyes full of contempt. "Who is this?"

"She's the one who will punish you all for not dropping your weapons when I instructed you to the first time." Her grandfather's lips upturned, and Alex took that as the signal.

She immediately took hold of the powerful pull in her gut, and brought her arms upwards, willing the earth to obey her. In a matter of seconds, solid rock jetted from the now cracked tile floors and surrounded the Genovese family, protecting them from the rain of bullets coming down. Alex leaped into the air, bending the wind around her to push up higher so that she landed on top of the wall. She tightened her fists, and jets of flames erupted around them.

Alex flipped downwards, expertly crashing into two of her targets, causing them to drop their weapons. She spun around for a roundhouse kick, nailing another in the temple and knocking him unconscious. Alex felt for the familiar pull that now settled within her bloodstream, and held a hand out towards the dripping faucet on the other side of the room. The next second, a mountain of water erupted around them. She took a deep breath in and a column of flames escaped from her throat. The fire entangled itself around the pillar of water, before dancing around and crashing into the remaining men, half of whom were still shooting at her while the other half were trying to escape through the hidden door.

Thanks to the Vibranium suit, any bullets that did make it through the chaos simply bounced right off. She stomped her foot onto the newly unearthed ground, and rock-solid posts covered every possible exit. Alex flicked her wrist, and the posts crumbled before taking the new shape of daggers. She sent them forward, and forced herself to keep from wincing when they implanted themselves into four of the men's shoulders.

Strangled screams burst from around her, and Alex scanned the chaotic room to make sure she hadn't missed anyone. Each of the Underbosses were either unconscious, writhing on the ground, or gurgling boiling water or tending to their third-degree burns, while the four Bosses were pinned to the walls, heads thrown back in agony. She took a deep breath, and released her hold on the wall of earth protecting her family.

Alex met her grandfather's wide eyes for a brief moment before ducking her head and moving to the side and dipping her head respectfully. He stepped forward slowly and started laughing, the barbarous sound reverberating throughout the room. "Brothers, does anyone else wish to argue with the change to the hierarchy?"

The moans coming from the injured men quieted down, no one wishing to chance that their cries of pain could be mistaken for disagreement. Joseph reached for an untouched whiskey glass sitting on the countertop and took a long sip. "I will allow you all to keep your lives. Return home, and communicate to your respective families that I, Joseph "The Lemon" Genovese have undertaken the title of capo di tutti capi."

Small whispers could be heard from around the room, and Alex reached a hand out to release her hold on the earth daggers barbed into their flesh. Before she could, Joey moved to stand in front of her. "On the contrary, Father, I'm afraid there's been a change in plans."

The temperature surrounding them seemed to drop five degrees, and every member of the Genovese family froze. What was her father doing? This was not part of the plan. Joseph slowly turned on his heel, his piercing gaze locking onto his son's. "Excuse me, boy?" His voice shook with barely controlled rage. Alex's eyes flickered to her father's; silently begging him not to ask what she began fearing he would.

Joey straightened and dusted off the sleeves of his coat. "Your time as capofamiglia has come to an end, Father. I am the one who has allowed the Genovese Family to evolve, and I'll be the one assuming the mantle of capo di tutti capi."

Joseph snorted, and Alex thought that if he could, her grandfather would have had smoke barreling out of his nostrils. He advanced on his son, taking two large steps in his direction before Alex's protective instincts kicked in, and intercepted him. Her grandfather's eyes widened at the obvious display of loyalty, "You would choose him over me, Shadowbreath?"

Alex swallowed thickly, trying to contain the impending heartbreak vibrating within her chest. "Please, grandfather," She whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. She didn't want to do this. "Step aside."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. His scowl deepened, and he tried to push past her to get to Joey. "You will become capo di tutti capi over my dead body, boy!" His large meaty hands moved to reach for his son's throat.

"That can be arranged, Father," was Joey's simple reply, and Alex recognized the command in his voice. She twisted around quickly so that she was between the two feuding men again, and called the closest dagger of earth protruding from a man's shoulder into her hands. In the blink of an eye, Alex jammed the piercing tip into her grandfather's beating heart, her quivering gaze suddenly filled with unshed tears never leaving him.

"I'm so sorry, grandfather." She whispered, the dam breaking and silent streaks running down her cheeks as she watched the light behind his dark eyes grow dim. He raised a large hand to cup her cheek, and she flinched at the contact.

Joseph "The Lemon" Genovese choked out his last word with blood spattering from his caked lips, and Alex felt her chest burst open at the seams.

"Alexandria..."

And then he was gone.

XX

"Boss, you have an incoming call from Miss Potts. Shall I accept?" F.R.I.D.A.Y.S.' voice caused Tony to start, nearly falling off from his spot on the couch. He blinked in bewilderment, trying to assess where he was. At the sight of Peter draped across the loveseat with a trickle of drool hanging off the corner of his lips, Tony figured that they must have fallen asleep during the movie. Damn, the kid was adorable even when he wasn't buzzing with untold amounts of energy.

He tried whispering as to not wake up Peter. "You can accept her call, I'll take it in my room." Tony padded over to his door and gently closed it behind him. "Hey Pep, what's up?"

"Tony, why haven't you been answering your phone?" Her disembodied voice sounded distressed, and he furrowed his brow. Tony checked the clock beside his bed, two-thirty in the morning. What could he have possibly missed in the past few hours?

"I asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to hold all of my calls while I'm with Peter. I told you that, didn't I?" He asked, hoping that she wasn't too angry with him.

She snapped, "No, you conveniently left that little piece of information out." Yup, she was angry. "Chief Jones has been trying to contact you for the past two hours."

"Really? I'm just going to assume that it wasn't anything important. Did I tell you that I actually cooked something tonight? The kid and I absolutely killed Chicken Parmesan. I don't know why people think it's so difficult-"

"Tony!" Pepper interrupted his display of word vomit, "Now is not the time for your cavalier attitude. Remember how the NYPD planted a security camera in the back room of Elite?"

"Yes..." He muttered, feeling properly scolded with a sudden curiosity peak, "They were supposed to get footage of the Commission meeting. It was meant to be evidence they needed to start moving against the known Mafia families. Why? Did they screw it up? You just can't find good help these days-"

Pepper did not seem to be in the mood for his jokes tonight. "TONY!"

He held up his hands in self-defense, although she couldn't really see him. "Fine, fine, what's the deal?"

She took a deep breath, as if to steady herself. "I just sent you the video from tonight. You need to see this. Jones has already put in a call to Fury, he's on his way."

Tony's head snapped up at that, and he immediately reached for the phone in his pocket. He tapped the screen forward, lighting up a fourteen by sixteen inch hologram in front of him. He watched the scene begin with a tilt of his head. Eight men were sitting at a large poker table with whiskey glasses and cigar smoke swirling around them. They seemed to be waiting on one last family considering the two empty chairs.

The hidden door slid open, and a group of six people stepped out of the haze of smoke. That was weird, why did this Boss have so many people with him? And was that a woman in a catsuit?

The NYPD apparently had forgotten to put an audio feed with the camera, because no sound was attached to the video. Somehow, that only made the next few minutes even more chilling.

The newcomer stepped forward, apparently trying to reason with the eight men who had their weapons trained on him. Tony wished the department hadn't been so incredibly inadequate; he really wanted to know what this guy was saying. He almost missed the small gesture the Boss made with his right hand, calling forward the girl in the metallic suit. Her thin face was covered with a black mask, and her long black hair fell straight past her shoulders.

That was new. Was that fucking Vibrani- ?

Before he could finish his last thought, the world seemed to erupt within the dimensions of the screen. The girl raised her arms, and a column of rock bent to her will, surrounding the men she came with. What the actual fuck was that? Tony stepped closer, his eyes scanning the video to make sure he didn't miss anything. She jumped higher than a normal human should be able to, although he assumed that she was demonstrating her mastery over air, considering that she bent water and fire around her next. Wait, fire actually came from her fucking mouth!

Tony's mouth dried, and he found himself watching the super scary demon girl's movements with rapt attention and a heavy sense of dread. The video was nothing short of terrifying and she seemed to have control over everyone and everything in the room. From what he could tell, no one was actually dead, though he guessed most of them probably wished that they were.

When everyone around her was incapacitated, she let down the protective wall, allowing the remaining men to walk towards her. Something must have happened, because everyone in that room flinched. The Boss turned around slowly, and started walking towards one of the standing men with a dangerous look on his face. That was obviously a no-no, because the super scary demon girl planted herself between the two.

When the Boss failed to stop his advances towards the younger man, one of the daggers sticking out of someone's chest flew to her hand, and she impaled it into his heart. Tony's eyebrows soared. He was not expecting that.

Tony moved a finger to drag the cursor on the holographic screen back to the beginning. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., put in a call to Rhodey and Agent Romanoff. They need to get back to the compound, now."

Pepper's voice surprised him; he almost forgot that she was still on the line. "What do you think, Tony?"

He sighed as he watched the video again, never taking his eyes off of the girl in the suit. "I think one of the Families found an Enhanced to work for them. They must have been attempting some kind of power play, but something went wrong."

"Have you seen anything like her before?" Pepper asked, "Wanda can move things like that, can't she?"

He shook his head before remembering that they weren't on a video chat. "No, her powers are related to something called chaos magic. In a nutshell, she got her powers from the same structural integrity that makes up the Mind Stone, which Vision's got glued to his head. Whoever this girl is, she seems to be controlling those elements differently."

"Tony, is everything okay?" Peter's sleepy voice caused him to jump, and he immediately waved a hand through the holographic video.

"Er, yeah, kid. Sorry if I woke you. I didn't mean to let you fall asleep on the couch, I'll show you where your room is." Tony sputtered and raised his chin up. "Pep, I'll call you later."

Tony could practically see the fake smile plastered across his girlfriend's face, "Bye, Tony. Goodnight, Peter."

The kid gave him a confused grin before looking up at the ceiling. "Er, goodnight, Miss Potts." Tony ended the call from his phone as Pepper tried correcting Peter into using her first name. He stepped forward to usher him out of the room, but Peter tried peering around him. "What was that video?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it, kid." Tony pushed past him and led him down the hall to a closed door. "There you go, you've got your own room and everything." Peter grabbed his duffel bag from the living room and his eyes widened as they stepped inside.

"Wow this is bigger than my entire apartment. Thank you so much, Tony!" Peter gushed, moving to bounce atop the king sized bed.

Tony half-smiled, trying to keep the growing anxiety from building up within his chest. "Glad you like it, kid. Now get some sleep. We'll be doing some training tomorrow, and you might even get to see Rhodey and Natasha."

Peter stilled his movements, and a huge, nervous grin stretched across his face, "They're coming here? I thought they were on a mission?" His brow furrowed, "Wait, does this have anything to do with that video you didn't want me to watch?"

The billionaire cursed inwardly, "How much of that did you see, kid?"

He shrugged lazily, "Not much, just a whole bunch of movement on the screen. I didn't see any details."

Tony let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Don't worry about it. It's Avengers business."

Peter stood up, "But aren't I an Avenger-in-training? I can help!" Tony gave the kid's shoulders a light push, so that Peter would return to his spot on the bed.

"You haven't had any actual training, so technically you're not even at that level yet. If something comes up that you need to know, then I'll tell you about it. Until then, let us handle it." He moved back towards the door and shut off the light, "Get some sleep kiddo, I'll see you in the morning."

"But-" Tony closed the door before Peter could protest, and returned to his own room. He rubbed his eyes, glad that he had gotten a few hours of sleep in before Pepper called. Fury would no doubt be waltzing through the Compound doors as soon as daybreak hit, so Tony needed to become an expert on this mystery super scary demon girl over the next few hours.

It was going to be a long night.

XX