Inner Animal Chapter 1, an avengers fanfic

Chapter ONE- I Dare You To Move

Welcome to the planet

Welcome to existence

Everyone's here

Everybody's watching you now

Everybody waits for you now

What happens next

[Chorus]

I dare you to move

I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor

I dare you to move

Like today never happened

Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout

Welcome to resistance

The tension is here

Tension is here

Between who you are and who you could be

Between how it is and how it should be

[Chorus]

Maybe redemption has stories to tell

Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell

Where can you run to escape from yourself?

Where you gonna go?

Salvation is here

I dare you to move

I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor

I dare you to move

Like today never happened

Today never happened

Today never happened before

Dare you to move- Switchfoot

I wasn't running away. I refused to even entertain the thought that I was afraid of the people who were seeking me. That would only make me upset and nothing good ever came out of me being upset even if I couldn't recall exactly what happened. No, I wasn't running, I was keeping my distance and biding my time until I was…caught was such a strong word, retrieved was a better one.

I wasn't running away, I was biding my time until I was collected and frankly, the distance that I was keeping was more for their benefit than mine.

That distance that I had been oh so carefully keeping was violated as I came awake. My eyes were blurred and unfocused with an intense desire to continue resting. I was like that in the morning, it was part of my condition. I never got enough sleep, if I could sleep for a week, I would. But as I opened my eyes and saw the barrel of a gun staring at me in the face, I found myself alert very quickly.

The man behind was young and from what I could tell by the other beefy looking hench men lurking around my carefully arranged Manhattan studio, I could tell he was no one of importance, none of them were. They were just pawns in an endless game that didn't guarantee a wanted outcome.

"Sit up slowly." He ordered me and I humored him. He must have read my file, he was shaking like a new born foal. I was careful to follow his orders, I had dealt with people like him before, if I so much as made a abrupt, unexpected movement he would shoot me. The shot wouldn't kill me but digging out the bullet hurt like a bitch.

I could hear handcuffs being retrieved from his belt and waiting until I saw him remove one of his hands, apparently his trigger hand judging by the way he held his gun and only went he had his arm fully extended towards me, I reacted. I was fast, inhumanly fast and had him disarmed and across the room in seconds. The rest of the meat heads charged at me and one by one, I claimed their consciousness. Even in these circumstances, I never killed. At least, I never killed when I was aware of it.

When there were only two men out of the original seven left, I fled out of my patio seeing my opening in their hesitation when they saw me take out their team mates. Fifteen floors up, I scaled a series of fire escapes downward until I was only three or four flights up before free falling. I crouched low, allowing my knees and legs to receive the shock from the harsh jump and in the next second, began sprinting. There was nothing of importance in my studio, I never kept an ID and never applied for any credit cards. My clothing options were meager and I had no problem sticking with the clothes on my back for the next couple of days. Seeing as I was usually tight on cash, I slept in my workout shorts and a loose fitting tank top. Going without a bra was going to be uncomfortable but I could deal, I've survived worse.

Sailing over a chain link fence and after I nearly got pancaked by a taxi cab, I slowed my pace in a dark alley, looking around and extending my senses outward. As soon as I had left the building I had been aware that I was being followed. The curious thing was that compared to the gun in my face I initially woke up to, this new threat seemed to be ten times as dangerous.

Inside, in the back of my mind I could feel my inner…other, growl and bare its teeth. It wanted a piece out of whatever dared to attempt to cause us harm, to show it just exactly what the word harm meant.

"No!" I hissed quietly to myself. I backed up against a cold and damp alley wall and sunk down until I was hidden from the entrance view by the shadow of the dumpster and began breathing easy, trying to reason with myself.

We can't kill them, only immobilize them. Spilling blood is not satisfying. I thought to myself. My other, disagreed adamantly, apparently there was severe satisfaction in killing those who made you their prey. I don't know how long the inner battle lasted before I won, but when I stood up and began looking around for another route to continue my way out of Manhattan; I felt eyes on my back. Whatever had been following me was practically on top of me.

The slight WHIRR of something sailing through the air was the only warning I had. I turned quickly and with one hand, grasped the arrow that was aimed at my shoulder and split it in half in my hand. I had no time to glance around for a marksman, two more arrows were shot in succession and I was on the move again.

As I ran and occasionally dodged arrows, I wondered how many S.H.I.E.L.D had brought in this time. Close to the Manhattan bridge, soon I would be able to cross or even dive into the water, being what I am, I had very powerful lungs and could hold my breath underwater for five to seven minutes.

I was halfway down the road that would lead me directly to the Manhattan bridge when I noticed that the arrows had stop coming, I wasn't naïve enough to think that he or she had run out of arrows. I didn't even see the shield that was my undoing when I figured it and turned the very last corner, into the bridge. I was being herded.

It a blur of blue and red, maybe even a little white. How patriotic. With enough force to knock the wind out of me which was pretty impressive, it slammed into my gut, sending me hurling into a brick building. Pain shot up my spine and combining that with the instense pain in my gut, I couldn't breathe. Gasping and coughing so hard, I was nearly vomiting I desperately tried to remain calm. My pulse raced, and that was fine, it was my anger that would do it, that would kill everyone. My…curse only reacted to my anger as I have learned over the years. Any other intense emotion was fine; panic, worry, even lust. Anger was the only culprit to my change and I was currently harboring a boat load of it.

"We don't want to hurt you." The voice was deep and masculine. It radiated a man who was comfortable in his own skin and knew he could defend himself. In an effort not to be a complete sitting duck, I slowly got to my feet and winced at the feeling of cracked bones and torn skin being repaired. I felt a gash I knew was on my face close and smiled at the amazed look the boy in red white a blue attempted to hide with a very promising poker face.

He was tall and lean. His body portrayed that of a runner and a fighter. If the stars and stripes wasn't a dead giveaway, I don't know what was. Promptly, with every ounce of anger and pain I felt, I laughed.

"You're kidding me, right?" The man who the People of the United States of America knew as Captain America arched an eyebrow, or at least I think he did. Half of the mask was covering his face.

"No ma'am, I kid you not, we don't want to-"

"Not about that." I said, cutting him off. "They are attempting to recapture me and they send you? Mr. I fight for freedom and peace? Dear God, I think I'm offended." I watched as his jaw clenched once and then twice. He breathed in deeply before letting it out and continued talking.

"My orders are to apprehend you and bring you into headquarters; I assume you know just which headquarters I'm talking about?"

"And if I refuse?" I asked, crossing my arms. He mirrored my stance and stood stalk straight, his chest puffing outwards. Even though the suit was slightly baggy, you could still see that muscle definition in his chest and biceps which being that I am of the opposite sex, was distracting. I forced myself to listen though which I was immensely proud of.

"I have been given orders to apprehend you and take you into headquarters using whatever force necessary." In the back of my mind, I felt my other growl and bare its teeth again. For the first time in many, many years, we were actually in accordance.

"Well, Captain, I'd like to see you tr-" I was unable to finish, seeing as something lodged itself into the side of my neck. Quickly, I pulled it out and was only able to see the arrow doubled as a projectile hypodermic needle and a very small empty syringe was involved in the contraption before I began to get very dizzy.

"At least I had a hell of a run." I muttered to myself before I keeled over, blacking out.