First Encounters [Multi-Fandom]

Lydia's staring the hologram screen in front of her, the numbers and graphs blurring together as the pain behind her eyes worsens. She sighs, takes a step back, and pinches the bridge of her nose as she allows her eyes to close and darkness envelop her.

"Hey, Lydia, us girls are getting drinks. You in?"

Eyes blinking open, Lydia turns towards the doors of the lab where she finds Natasha- the infamous Black Widow- lounging casually against the glass. She's dressed in a black and gray striped hoodie, jeans that cling like a second skin and small heeled boots around her feet, and Lydia still has trouble trying to wrap her mind around the fact that this is her life now.

Lydia Martin had always had dreams of living in the big city or traveling the world, but when she found herself in the middle of some supernatural business and landed herself in a werewolf pack, she was fine with life in Beacon Hills and helping save lives. However, years of friendship and pack loyalty just wasn't enough to quell the feeling that she no longer belonged there and Scott eventually picked up on her far-away thoughts. Scott and Stiles were adamant that the banshee was needed in Beacon Hills, but Lydia thought and felt otherwise. So after much arguing and then managing to salvage her friendships, she left on decent terms with the McCall pack and transferred to Columbia University.

She found her niche quite quickly and even dropped some of her original classes in favor of some new ones that she found herself drawn to. And it was the new classes, of course, where she spent a majority of her time down in the labs that eventually led Stark Industries finding her and offering her a part-time job with them. But sadly, within her first week at SI, Lydia found the tower under attack.

She was still learning how things ran in Stark's labs when she noticed some files got mixed up and decided to return them to their rightful owner herself since she was close to clocking out anyway. She found Doctor Banner alone and though she knew exactly who his alter ego was, she wasn't afraid of approaching. It was while she was explaining the mix-up to the man that JARVIS alerted them to the tower going on lock down and it was with Banner that some lone rogue agent decided to make his way to Banner's floor in hopes of causing some mayhem.

Bruce had tried to get Lydia to a panic room, but the small redhead merely shrugged off his concerns. The enemy managed to temporarily blow the locks on the lab doors and pushed his way in, but before Bruce could let his anger loose he watched on in awe as Lydia elbowed the rifle's nuzzle downward just as he fired off two rounds. She took a punch to the chin in the man's retaliation, but spun away and managed a high kick that landed to the guy's helmet clad head. At his stunned hesitance, Lydia then took the chance to steady herself before gaining just enough momentum to pounce and slam the palm of her hand into the guy's sternum. As he stumbled backward, JARVIS sealed the doors once more and Bruce finally managed to tuck Lydia away safely.

There had been hours of debriefing and interrogation as Tony and Natasha replayed the video feed in front of Lydia, the Avengers wanting to know who Lydia truly was, but her story checked out. She was just a girl from a small town that took defense lessons from a deputy that was ex-military. Plain and simple. And once everyone eventually made sure that there was no second motive behind Lydia being at the Tower, Tony cancelled her living arrangements with the University and gave her her own apartment within the Tower. And Natasha- Natasha had found her new best friend.

"Lydia?"

"Hm, what?" She jolts from her thoughts.

Natasha's brow faintly furrows and she pushes off from the wall. "I asked if you wanted to go out and get drinks with us. Are you okay?" She then asks. "You spaced."

"I'm fine," Lydia waves her concern off and flashes a small grin. "I'm tired and I have a massive headache. I think I'm just going to call it a night."