The World We Live In

She was in the dark. She couldn't see, but Matilda could feel the objects around her. There was a door knob behind her, a table in the center of the room, and dotting the floor were various traps. She was tied up and hung from the ceiling. The knots were very intricate and were nearly impossible to undo, if they could not be seen.

She didn't need to see. She could feel. Every object in the room, the air that was constantly fluctuating, the water dripping from the ceiling. She could also feel the rooms around me. The kitchen beneath me. The control rooms behind and above me, the people in them. One of the sick bastards was pacing. Another was sitting, head resting on his fist watching, waiting. She moved the switch that released all of the controls to her hell chamber. Instantly she hit the ground beneath her. None of the traps activated.

They were up. They were running. She brought the knives up from the kitchen willing them through the stair well. She was instantly tackled by the two men as soon as they reached the room and busted through the door. Before she hit the floor the knives she had beckoned were placed in their backs.

Her mask was sitting on their desk. As she ran, she pulled it to her. She changed her appearance as she darted out of the back door of the hidden lab. "Sie gehen zu müssen, härter als das zu versuchen, wenn Sie sicherstellen, dass ich nicht mehr raus wollen." (You're gonna have to try harder than that, if you wanna make sure I can't get out.)

The mask hit her hand, and she held it to her face using only her thoughts to tie it. Once she was out, she turned and raised both of her hands before making a dramatic slamming motion. The building collapsed in on itself. Just for insurance she lifted it all up and dropped it. 'That's one of the central powers' labs down. More to go.'



Matilda slammed her head against the glass of the table. She closed her eyes. She reached to grab her cigs out of her purse, only to feel that they weren't there. She sighed and brought them to herself. She lit one and put it in her mouth. "Alright, class is dismissed, because I'm getting a hell of a headache."

Both Thor and Steve looked at her apologetically.

"Sorry, Ma'am."

"My apologies, Matilda, lady of knowledge," Thor said.

"It's fine. We'll skip the tech lesson for today," she told them, "You may leave."

They left the dining room, which had become her class room.

"Yeah, didn't teach a lot of this back in the day," she said to Steve, before he left.

"Makes me glad I graduated, when I did."

"You'll be fine. You've got the capacity to learn all of this, and soon enough, you'll have no problems with the modern world."

He smiled and left.

She gathered her stuff and had it follow behind her as she walked. She changed from the form she used, when she wanted to look relatively normal around the tower.

"Do you ever use your hands for anything?" Tony asked.

"To punch people," she said, "Wanna see?"

"JARVIS please inform Incubus on my smoking policy."

"I have sir, multiple times," JARVIS said.

Matilda smirked, knowing where this was going.

"And?"

"I was met with quite a bit of strong language and a few threats."

"You swore at JARVIS?"

"JARVIS, I apologize for my earlier behavior. You were only doing, what this jack ass instructed."

"It is quite okay," JARVIS said.

"Tony, what do you want?" Tilly asked walking towards the kitchen. He books and laptop floated in front of her, and she dropped them into her arms. She grabbed a water bottle and took a sip turning to look at him. "My head's killing me, so make it quick."

"I've been doing some digging."

"Am I supposed to be surprised?" she asked.

He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "So apparently in 1910 a strange woman appeared in various towns around the United States taking care of robbers and murders. The description changed a lot. Sometimes, she had bright colored hair and really pale skin. Other times it was dark or normal with skin that matched. She then popped again saying to have saved as many members of Titanic as she could. She also appeared in the journals of world war one soldiers, helping out the allies."

"Interesting," she said, sounding extremely uninterested.

"You were alive then," Tony pointed out.

"In 1910, I turned eighty although physically I was only 16."

"They said she moved things without touching them. The media started calling her masquerade because she wore a mask, which is very cliché by the way."

"It's not cliché, if you do it before it becomes cliché. Then it's classic," she informed him.

"That's not why I'm here."

"Of course not."

"Bruce wants to see you in his lab."

"JARVIS tell Dr. Banner, that I will be down in a little bit."

"Yes Ms. Knight."

"Tony, go away," she told him.

"This is my house," he said.

"Respect your elders," she shot. She went to her room changed into a t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts. She slid on a pair of DCs and walked towards Bruce's half of the lab he shared with Tony. Tony was on his half, working on something for his suit, while Bruce was sitting at his desk. She knocked on the door. "May I come in?" she asked. She sounded small and childlike.

"Never knock, when you come to see me," Tony said.

"I don't like you," she replied, sounding like herself once again.

"I thought it was that you didn't have any manners."

Bruce and Matilda gave Tony matching 'are you serious?' looks.

"She was born in 1810," Bruce said.

"I was raised in eras, where you practiced manners like you practiced religion. In all of that digging you did, didn't you notice that Masquerade, didn't exactly draw too many fans? Behavior like that was frowned upon. Women were supposed to stay in the home, not run around a deliver vigilante justice, even gifted ones. It wasn't considered proper." She smirked. "At home, when I wasn't out and about kicking ass and taking names, I was a prime example of a proper woman. That's what drew in my first husband. He was two years older than me and a lot richer. Poor bastard didn't stand a chance. I think he actually loved me."

They were both giving her scared looks.

"I didn't kill him. He got tuned up one night and fell into the river by our farm and drowned."

"One black widow is enough," Tony said.

"Care to say that again?" Natasha said, poking her head into the lab.

Matilda had spoken at the same time. "I didn't say that."
The boys ignored Romanov and gaped at Tilly. "There were some bad times, some desperate times," she said.

Natasha rolled her eyes and left.

She's very guarded," Bruce said.

"I get it. Been there."

"So I actually was wondering if I could run a few tests," he continued.

"What kind?"

Bruce went on to explain what he wanted a blood sample and to run a few scans. He also wanted to monitor her brain wave activity, when she was and wasn't using her powers. He got his blood and ran the scans. He looked over the charts. "You say you've been smoking since the early 1900s?" he asked.

"Yes, I know terrible for me."

"Your lungs show very minimal effects."

"I move things in my body." She pointed to an empty container across the room. "Can I use that?"

"Yes," he said.

She barely even moved my fingers, and it came to her. "This is disgusting," she warned Bruce. The container was sitting on the counter in front of her. She put a hand on her chest and focused on her lungs, on the tar inside. It was more difficult to moved things inside a body. It was hard to moved things that were on a cellular level as well. The key was not to think of getting rid of all the tar in parts, but as one solid mass. When she thought of things as a whole it was easier to move than thinking of getting rid of all the pieces. Once she felt she had it, she pulled her hand, so that all four fingers were side by side and her thumb was touching her middle finger. She cautiously, but swiftly moved her hand up from her chest up her neck past her jaw until floating right above her hand was the glob. She dropped it into the container.

Bruce just looked at her, both mildly shocked and disgusted.

"That was disgusting," Tony said.

"I can move anything and everything, with very few exceptions and limitations."

"What are these limits?" Tony asked.

"I can only move things with in my range that I am either familiar with, able to see, or feel."

"What is your range?" Bruce asked.

"I don't know exactly. I'm gonna say with in a twenty mile radius, unless I'm familiar with it," she answered. "Tony, that mask you were talking about, it's in a storage facility in Paris. I can bring it here. It'll take a few days, but I could bring it here."

"So if we were to stick two books in China, one you carried and moved around a lot and one you never saw, one you'd be able to move the other you wouldn't?"

"Exactly, but if you were to give me a live stream of that book, I could move it, because I can see it."

"You can't move anything if you're in the dark?" Tony asked.

"I have a sense of the objects around me. I can only compare it to how bat's uses echo location. A signal goes out and when it returns an image is produced, but it's more power full. I can feel everything in my range. Mostly I ignore it and only focus, when I need to, but if I try I can feel for miles, ever organ of every creature, every item of clothing, every object in a store."

"It sounds over whelming," Bruce said.

"Which is why I suppress it. If I can't feel and if I can't see, I can't use. There are only two things I can't move and can block me out, Adamantium and Vibranium."

"I'm going to have to work on building a safe out of it."

"Watch this," she said to Bruce.

She raised her hand at Tony and made him dance. She then made him smack himself in the face repeatedly.

"Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?" She then picked him up and dropped him to the floor in a full split. She looked at Bruce. "I can't only move him physically. His thoughts are all his own. It's been speculated that I have the capacity for telepathic powers, but if I so I am unable to unlock them."

"Well maybe in time," Bruce said.

"Then I can really put Tony in his place." Without a single movement she made him drop into the split again.

"No gestures?"

"Kind of like training wheels. I don't need them, but… It's like math. It's easier to write a problem out and see it than to do it in your head."

"I get it. Now, go. I'm sure you've got more interesting things to do than sit around here. We'll do the other tests later."

"I actually enjoy the company. It's been a long while since, I've actually been able to talk to anyone, without putting them at risk or having to kill them later."