Adrian Barnes (O.H.)

Backstory

First name: Adrian
Middle Name: Knox
Last name: Barnes
Alias: Onyx Heart
Age: 15
DOB: 02/14/03

Family:
-Mother, Adoptive: Natasha Romanoff
-Father, Adoptive: Bucky Barnes
-Mother, Biological: Maria Evan Winchester
-Father, Biological: Unknown
-Siblings, Adoptive: Leia and Luke Barnes

Abilities:
-Pathokinesis
-Mind-manipulation
-Possession abilities
-Multilingual
-Currently under training by Natasha Barnes (Romanoff)

Personality:
-Animated
-Sarcastic
-Self-conscious
-Dirty-minded
-Foul-mouthed
-Sharp-witted
-Emotional
-Chaotic good

Appearance:
Adrian is shorter in height, about 5'2, with a small but toned frame and intimidating posture. Their hair is short, black, and naturally curly, although it's usually straightened. They have green eyes that are often magnified by their thick contact lenses or black glasses, as well as ear piercings. Adrian is often seen wearing leather jackets or large, baggy hoodies over their worn-through chest binder, flannels or t-shirts, flexible black pants for training, and combat boots or converse.

Pre-Backstory:
Many years ago, Maria Evan Winchester was a young chemist, finding jobs that actually showcased her talents anywhere she could. She was poor and busy, but worked ruthlessly in small labs to keep herself on her feet while following her passions. The extra hours added up quickly however, when sleep-deprived and very much pregnant, she performed a routine test that quickly became a chemical disaster. Maria healed over the course of several months, and the fetus miraculously survived. Fast forward shortly to see the young mother walking through the streets of Atlanta towards home when her water breaks, right onto the sidewalk. She and the baby are carried to a hospital by an ambulance luckily called by another pedestrian. It is said that after a gruesome childbirth, just before she died, she spotted two shining crows outside her hospital room window-- before one flew away. With no present father and no godparents to care for the child, Adrian was submitted almost immediately into the foster care system.

From there, Adrian grew up bounding through dozens of houses, 3 pre-schools, 17 elementary schools, and 12 middle schools-- eventually discovering their powers at age eleven. They learned to use this advantage to defend against the threats of unstable city living, but behind the façade, they were terrified. After enough shaky fights and silent whispers around the community, Thaddeus Ross was notified of Adrian's existence and Natasha Romanoff volunteered to determine whether the child was a friend or a threat to society. Adrian was found by Natasha hiding inside a children's playground, bleeding and curled around the playset following a street fight that caused their powers to go amiss.

The fourteen-year-old was brought in and questioned, and in the end, became the youngest and first non-binary Avenger-in-training. They began to live in the Avengers Compound with the others, even if they were strictly banned from the battlefield for at least a few years. Adrian was fully aware of how dangerous their powers truly were, so a period of time after earning the title, they asked the help of Clint Barton and Natasha to learn other safer and more reliable fighting tactics.

Familial Backstory:
Adrian was adopted by Natasha and Bucky Barnes on Christmas Day, 2017, and moved in with the couple soon after. The small family was a little unpredictable at times, but loving, and better than anything Adrian could have realistically hoped for. Steve Rogers, with Natasha's consent, even joined the unit for a short while as Bucky's boyfriend, and Adrian honestly didn't mind. However, a few months after the adoption, Bucky was possessed by a powerful demon, and Adrian, not knowing what else to do, shot him in the legs with rock-salt arrows. The salted arrows did nothing to disable the demon, but caused Bucky himself to lose mobility in his lower half for months to come. Adrian, traumatized and drowning in guilt, cut off all training with Clint and swore to never pick up a bow an arrow again. They continued to train with Natasha and Natasha alone.

During Bucky's emotionally-draining recovery period after the demon possession, he cheated on Natasha several times, even after her sterilization was reversed and she became pregnant with twins. The couple divorced, splitting custody over Adrian: they were to live with Natasha as their primary caregiver, and Bucky was to let them stay with him and his girlfriend on weekends. Adrian was thrown into a familiar loop of familial anguish over the situation. It was too much like foster care, they thought. Too much like rejection. They began lashing out over the course of a few weeks.

Eventually, Natasha and Bucky reconnected and learned to forgive each other, Bucky broke it off with the girlfriend, and the couple moved back in together with Adrian as a family once more. Adrian, while welcoming the idea of being a family yet again and having growing excitement over their unborn younger siblings, still held that bit of confusion and bitterness over their parents' past choices. To this day, a minuscule strand of resentment continues to reside within them.

Love-Life Backstory:
Adrian never caught the eye of any potential love interests in Atlanta, however, that changed when they were brought to New York. Simply for the sake of possible friendship connections, Tony Stark registered Adrian as a freshman into Midtown High, the very same high school of the one-and-only Peter Parker, who was a junior at the time. Despite Tony's efforts, Adrian and Peter never quite talked until the end of Adrian's first semester, simply because of grade differences, if nothing else. Even still, Adrian somehow managed to form some kind of romantic attraction to the other, and it scared the living shit out of them. They even went to Tony in a panic, who... wasn't much help at all.

In the very beginning of the two-week span between the fall and spring semesters, before they were adopted, Adrian found themselves unable to sleep. They began playing a bit of music on the keyboard as a way to pass the time, unaware Peter was both staying that weekend in the tower with Tony and was also awake on the very same hallway. Peter came in and struck a conversation about not being able to sleep, Adrian played a bit more music, and both teens found themselves talking their way through the rest of the night.

After that night, it was as if a friendship had sprouted out of nowhere. What were once chilling-yet-awkward glances in the hallways were now warm smiles and weird handshakes. Adrian fell hard and fast, yet still refused to let Peter catch even a hint of their true feelings for fear of ruining what platonic interactions they shared.

On February 14th, 2018, simultaneously Adrian's 15th birthday and Valentine's Day, Peter volunteered to walk Adrian home from musical rehearsal. They took a detour, however, to one of the parks near the school, where Peter finally summoned the guts to ask Adrian out. The younger accepted quite enthusiastically, and they journeyed the rest of the way to their respective homes, hand-in-hand.

The couple has been going steady since, although there have been certain times of straining with Adrian's familial unpredictability and both of them being young superheroes.

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