All right go to Marvel! This is a revised and updated version of the story.
"North tower is down," the Punisher said in his deadpan voice. He was looking down at the complex Quicksilver had charged at only seconds before. The odd group stood waiting for their window the speedster was making.
"Christ… they call me Flash," Agent Venom was gazing after Quicksilver with something like shock on his voice. "Hellstrom, you ready?"
"You have to ask?" Daimon said from the tree he was leaning against. "Just remember our deal, Agent." Flames began to lick out from his right hand forming the outline of his trident.
"Keep up your end and I won't take you back to the Raft when this is over."
"Oh, touchy," Daimon said absently as he created a portal to the tower Pietro had just cleared. The Punisher and Venom gave their weapons one last check as they walked toward the Son of Satan.
"Have no fear, Agent of Venom! Daimon and I have worked together on several occasions. After we have saved the day we'll all go get milk shakes. Castle, are you familiar with the Midgarian delicacy? I have become rather fond of them myself. Though, I am told they are rather bad for you," Loki was doing nothing to reassure the rest of the team. If his idea of villainous talk involved milk shakes they were in trouble.
"You're sure you know what you're doing? Valkrie made you sound way more evil," Venom said doubtfully.
"Agent, I am the trickster of Asgard! Silvertongue! If anyone can play the role of a villain it's me. Besides I've become rather familiar with Midgardian ideas of villainy through the Internet. Very informative though I feel they are often very one dimensional." Loki sounded confident, but he still just looked like a child in strange clothing.
"Alright, kid. See you on the other side," Venom nodded to Loki as Daimon teleported Frank and him into the tower. Quicksilver had taken out the cameras along with the men, so no one would see them appearing from a mass of swirling flames. Frank immediately dispatched the lone guard slowly returning to consciousness easily snapping his neck. Venom shifted into a uniform like the guards while Frank pulled a jacket off the man he'd just killed.
"Sir, do you think we can trust them?"
"I don't trust anyone, kid. Let's move out," Frank said calmly walking towards the cell-block.
Quicksilver continued his run through the complex creating as much chaos as possible. His goal was the cell-block the Punisher had showed him on the map. How Castle had that map or any of the intelligence on this group Pietro could care less. He tried to clear his mind of the plan focusing on rescuing his sister and running. As long as the telepath was busy trying to keep up with Quicksilver's thoughts he had a good chance of keeping him distracted. Frank said this telepath loved victims with lots of dark memories to exploit. Since Frank was practically immune to personal torture and Venom's identity was mostly secret it had fallen to Pietro to provide the distraction for the sociopath. Rounding a corner he was met with a room full of guards in black tactical gear. He easily dogged the wall of machine gun fire, but he wasn't ready for the force fields that sprung up around him.
"Nice of you to join us, mutant filth, but it probably won't be too nice for you." It only took Pietro a couple seconds to completely take in his captors, the cage holding him, and the larger one containing most of the super hero community while still thinking of several escape plans to keep his mind busy. He didn't remember seeing any of his captors in the Avenger's files as he focused on going over ever detail he could remember from the files. The first speaker looked normal enough, but every mutant can tell how little appearances count toward danger. He had short, dark brown hair and green eyes. His face wasn't ugly or handsome and without the smirk he was currently wearing he would be easy to forget. Pietro gave him a bored smirk electing to ignore the opening insults.
"Why don't you just make this easy and let all of us go. I have better things to be doing than sitting around here conversing with you on these imbeciles behalf." Pietro rolled gracefully to his feet and gestured vaguely at the heroes. He barely looked at Green Eyes. "Who are you anyway?"
"Erebus and my colleague Metis."
"Should I be impressed by your classical education alone?"
"Oh I've heard about you. I have to admit I'm somewhat surprised you didn't just take you sister and run." He was carefully concealing his rage, but he was very quickly loosing patience as Pietro idly looked at his nails. Pietro had that effect on people.
"The thought had occurred but she'd probably be upset if I left the others. I don't relish the idea of her taking my powers again." Judging the walls of his cell safe he coolly leaned against a wall with his arms folded over his chest.
"You'll be wishing that was all that happened. My employers have paid a considerable sum to keep you all busy. We've decided to take the chance to delve into your heads to get all your secrets. There's bound to be some useful facts we can sell. While we're at it we decided to test some new tech. Don't worry we'll be making DVD's so your most painful moments can be revisited at any time. I'm going to have you screaming for the end you worthless piece of-"
"Can we hurry this up? I find your diabolical monologue somewhat lackluster. Honestly you'd have a hard time thinking of a torture that I haven't survived before including several speeches by Doom." In all this time Pietro had barely glanced up to meet anyone's eyes, but as he said this he glanced briefly at his sister. He used to feel so reassured by her presence. These days it only reminded him of all the things he'd left behind. He risked another glance at his captors in an attempt to stop himself going into that line of thought. Unfortunately for Pietro his brain was wired to handle several trains of thought simultaneously. The only thing that made the cycling stop was running, but the tiny cell was currently stopping him from doing more than pacing restlessly (or in this case tapping his fingers at super-speed). It wouldn't do for Quicksilver to appear any more agitated than usual.
"Oh how lucky for us then." His captor had suddenly seemed to calm down as if Pietro had just said exactly what he'd been hoping to hear. "See I've found that the most effective way to torment someone is through their own memories. You superheroes are a tragic lot. Except no one seems quite sure if you're a hero or a villain. Hell you probably don't know either. If you actually gave a shit about being one or the other you'd be practically unstoppable." Erebus pulled out a communicator and stood listening to someone on the other line giving occasional orders.
"Well lucky for everyone I'm a free thinker," he mumbled sullenly.
Pietro took the chance to look at his other captor. Metis had been patiently staring at Pietro the whole time. He barely seemed to breathe. When he caught Pietro looking at him his eyes slightly narrowed and the corner of his lips twitched into a cruel smile. Fighting the urge to shiver or look away, the speedster stared blankly back. The man's ice blue eyes seemed to be gazing directly at Pietro's soul and he looked hungry. This was a man who fed of the pain of others and smiled while he drew it out. Pietro was very familiar with men like that. He knew pleading would only excite him more, but he had few things left to beg for.
"Well then looks like I have a mess to clean up now thanks to our little intruder. You took out two guards towers and nearly 300 heavily armed men in five minutes." He looked more impressed than annoyed. "Oddly enough when preparing to take on the Avengers you didn't really come up as a serious threat. We were so focused on containing that insane family of yours that we practically forgot about you, but I promise that won't happen again." He turned to the other man placing a hand and his shoulder and speaking directly into his ear conspiratorially. Metis didn't look away from Pietro, but smiled slightly and nodded.
"Be sure to record it. I'm sure this one's secrets will be amusing though they probably won't sell for as mush as the others I can always do with a laugh." He left the room laughing evilly and Pietro couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes.
"Well don't just stare at me. Get on with it." It seemed Pietro's legendary impatience could extend to the people intent on torturing him. Rather than speak the enigmatic villain motioned to a man at the control center. The two-dozen men in black tactical gear quickly began securing and checking their helmets.
"There's lots of painful memories in that pretty little head. Can't wait to look through them with all your friends watching. Do they realize just how worthless you are?" A few technicians were quickly wheeling in a machine wired to a flat screen.
"Oh dear, please don't ruin their good opinions of me," Pietro was a picture of arrogance, but inside he was barely restraining his body from shaking. He'd known what he was running in here to face and the sudden flurry of activity was doing little to calm him.
"Oh this isn't about them. Although, for being a part of so many teams it's truly remarkable, the efficiency you turn everyone against you."
"It's one of my lesser known mutant powers." He simply smiled and glanced at the engineer. Giving him a slight nod the engineer pressed a few controls. Pietro's cage began to fill with a faint gas. For his part the speedster looked completely calm. Frowning at one of the screens the engineer pressed another control that sent a charge through the wall Pietro was leaning on. The shock made him gasp in a few quick breaths before he could stop himself. The minor lungful of gas loosened the speedster's mental barriers enough for Metis to form the necessary footholds. He put on a helmet similar to the X-Men's Cerebro and the TV immediately flicked on. The few remaining henchman not wearing helmets were leaving.
"Ready for a test run?" he asked the engineer that was hurriedly strapping on his own helmet. Giving an eager nod the engineer stood waiting. Turning back to his subject Metis tilted his head. "Let's start at the beginning." Pietro was having a hard time putting thoughts together, but he knew he should probably be trying to stop Metis from continuing. Instead he knelt shaking his head trying to clear his addled thoughts.
It felt as though someone was splitting his head open. Pulling out all his memories with no attempts at being gentle. The room vanished and suddenly Pietro was in one of his earliest memories. Wanda and he were so young. Running around outside the small cottage they spent their brief childhood in. He remembered Django and Marya Maximoff laughing as they worked. The sun was bright and being a childhood memory certain details were hazy while others seemed exaggerated. The sun was one of the exaggerated parts. The whole memory looked like it was made of gold and warmth. He could clearly remember simply playing with his sister in the sun when everything was still okay. When they had parents that loved them and would take care of them. The memory quickly faded and the room before him momentarily confused Pietro.
"That is a truly ridiculous helmet," he said dully. Metis chose to ignore the asinine remark and stared at the engineer. The TV stirred to life and a familiar scene quickly took shape. The field and the miniature Maximoff twins laughing and playing replayed on the screen. Pietro glanced at the other heroes. They didn't look completely surprised about seeing the younger versions of the two Avengers although seeing it on the small screen was unusual. His heart began to sink and he once more looked at the various helmets in sight.
"Not quite the same as an undiluted memory, but it'll suffice." Metis smiled and followed Pietro's line-of-sight. "Oh yes since your friends aren't wearing one of the ridiculous helmets they get the undiluted memories. See my helmet broadcasts everything I get from you, thoughts and feelings included, so the computer can record what it can. We can't have this lot getting distracted so their helmets block the signals. Don't feel too bad for them though. They get to watch the TV, but these helmets are expensive. We saw no reason to make more for your friends."
"Well that's not the least bit reassuring," Pietro was looking decidedly uncomfortable. Metis had told the engineers to call Erebus back that their subject was ready. No longer caring if he looked agitated Pietro began to pace his cell. He could feel the others intense stares. A large part of the Avengers including Captain American, Iron Man sans actual Iron Man suit, Spiderman, Hawkeye, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Spiderwoman, Thor, Hank Pym, Black Widow, Doctor Strange, Wolverine, and Wanda had been corralled with Rogue, Beast, Storm, Emma Frost, Collossus, Kitty Pryde, Ice Man, and Captain Britain. The fact that all of these heroes had been individually caught and were now being held was not reassuring. As soon as they were out of play the villain community had stepped up all their action effectively preventing the remaining heroes from forming a proper rescue. Quicksilver had literally marched through the front door and began destroying everything he could touch on his way to the cells. Although he'd done more damage in those five minutes than anyone thought possible he'd still been caught.
"Gentlemen! Ladies! Let's begin this leap forward in the exploitation of the weaknesses of others! Quicksilver I'm so glad you ran in here and effectively decided who our first subject would be," Erebus had returned and was excitedly securing his own helmet. "The only real question is where to begin. This childhood one is a little too happy for my tastes though it's always strange seeing one with such a twisted heart young and innocent. Magneto, you old relic, did you ever see your kids this young?"
"I was not aware I had them at that time," he replied dismissively.
"Who was the lucky lady, eh? She must not have liked you much if she didn't tell you about them. Metis let's see what Pietro here remembers of mommy dearest," Erebus rubbed his hands together seemingly eager to begin.