Blue or white?
Avari Carter muttered under her breath as she looked between the various options in the chip aisle. Aside from the varying colors, there didn't seem to be any obvious differences between the two kinds of corn chips. She eventually shrugged and grabbed a bag of the blue ones. Color made life interesting. As simple and plain as her life was now, she could use some interesting, as long as it was safe. And you couldn't get much safer than chips.
The grocery store was a small one, barely big enough to hold the necessary items. There was one employee whose attention was focused on the small T.V. near the single cash register in the front of the store. He never noticed she was there, and that was just the way she liked it. After four years of hiding, simple things like that had become second nature. There was a soothing comfort in the minute everyday tasks like grocery shopping. If nothing else, it helped keep her mind refreshingly blank and clear of...well, the past. And doing it without notice was even better.
After quickly tallying up an estimate price range for everything in her handheld basket, Avani walked up to the cash register, setting the basket and her bag down on the counter. As she waited for her presence to catch the employee's eye, the newspaper headlines caught her attention. Every major paper had a picture of the Avengers battling in NYC splashed across the front page. The din from the T.V. caught her attention next, and she turned to ask the clerk for assistance when she noticed the story playing across the screen.
Scenes from the alien battled flashed by, the wreckage and body count prominent in the footage. She opened her mouth to catch the boy's attention when a flash of green appeared. Every muscle, every nerve in her body reacted, all tensing as she fought the fear rising in her chest.
It was one of the Avengers. A banner of text on the screen labeled him as "The Hulk." A small gasp escaped her as she instinctually backed away from a danger she felt but couldn't identify. All she could see was green.
The forgotten memories that had been so deeply buried, far beyond her reach, suddenly forced their way back to the front of her mind. Her mind, jumbled and confused, made no sense of anything that was happen, and her instinct to run took over. Autopilot ensured she grabbed her purse, and within seconds she was hurrying out to her nondescript car.
She shook her head as she went, struggling to clear her thoughts and refusing to think of it anymore. It was over, and she was going to concentrate on living this normal, everyday life, just like they told her to.
The next twenty seconds passed in a blur. Two black shadows appeared, both rushing towards her. Her small bag tumbled to the ground. A jolt of fear shot through her as she realized what was happening. She didn't bother stepping back into a defensive stance, instead choosing to duck low and swing her leg straight into the nearest attacker's feet as he got close. He fell to the ground with a heavy thud and as her training rushed back, she jumped up to face the next man. Her eyes flickered past a green band tied around her assailant's arm and she froze for a moment too long.
No.
He used her increasingly jumbled state to her advantage, knocking her down with little more than a powerful uppercut, and she stumbled backwards…right into the other man. Instinct prevailed still, and she used every last bit of concentration left to shakily lift her hand up to her necklace and thumb the stone hanging from the chain. Huge hands wrapped around her forearms, easily holding her dazed body hostage. A prick of pain in her arm, something clapped over her mouth, and she hazily registered that she was slumping over sideways.
The whole event took place without a sound.
Avari held on to one last thought as she finally blacked out.
Her past had finally caught up with her.
-:-:-:-
"Sir."
The urgency caught Director Fury's attention, and he looked up immediately, glaring with an intensity that even the eye patch couldn't diminish. He lowered the folder in his hands and stared at the agent in front of him with an expectant look on his face.
"This better be important."
The almost exasperated look on Maria Hill's face clearly portrayed her thoughts. "It's Agent Carter, sir. She's gone missing."
Fury tossed the folder on his desk and headed towards the door immediately. "Where was she last seen?"
Agent Hill followed. "Walking out of a grocery store in Glenley, right where we placed her, sir."
"Do we know what happened?"
"Security cameras show her being taken by two men in black, both wearing green arm bands. The struggle lasted for a few seconds, but they hit her with a dart. She went unconscious shortly after alerting us."
Fury stopped in his tracks and turned back around. His face looked grim. "Green arm bands?"
Agent Hill nodded.
He turned back around. "Find her. And let me know as soon as you do."
-:-:-:-
Avari woke up, shivering on what felt like a cold stone floor. The cold air was brutal, seemingly slapping her awake each time she attempted to close her eyes again. After several long and painful minutes, she finally managed to sit up. She looked down at her odd attire: the gray suit she wore, one that looked similar to a prison jumpsuit, only made of a stretchy, formfitting material similar to spandex. Her feet were bare.
Her necklace was gone.
Her eyes widened and she quickly looked around, but even as she took in the scene before her, shocked, she felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
She was surrounded by rocky craters in the floor of what looked like a man-made cave, built from large rectangular gray stone. Several bodies were lying in various position around the room, each in the middle of its own crater. She had no idea where she was, how she had gotten there, or what had happened in this room, and yet… it was all so familiar.
It was the color, or lack thereof, that caught her attention next. It was somehow more important, more frightening than the signs of violence that were strewn around her.
Gray.
Everything was gray.
The color was revolting, and had a strange hold on her emotions and her stomach, just as everything else seemed to since she walked into the grocery store.
She slowly rose to her feet, the pain slowly fading down to a tolerable level. It was only once she was standing tall that she heard the footsteps echoing towards her.
"Well done, Agent Carter," a familiar gravelly voice taunted her.
A tall form came out of the shadows and into her line of vision as she shook her head in denial. Everything inside her wanted to give up, to run, to plead for mercy, but her training and her stubbornness shoved everything else to the background, and Avari merely cocked a cool eyebrow at Leonard Samson.
He chuckled. "Remember anything yet?" He started to walk around her, a familiar intimidation tactic that she now remembered he had used before. "My colleagues did a fine job with you last time, that is, until you got away. And now look at you. All grown up- what are you now… 25? - and with no memory of anything before your… 21st birthday right?" He spoke as if they were friends. As if he was the friendly uncle that had just dropped by for a visit. As if he hadn't ruined her life several times over.
Samson looked at Avari's expressionless face and smiled. "No idea what happened to you, or who I am. Don't worry though. That's exactly how we planned it. You can't possibly fight against a danger you don't remember encountering, now can you?"
Avari bit her tongue, refusing to say anything. He was deranged. He was baiting her, waiting for her to lose control and snap. She couldn't play into his hands. As long as she kept quiet, he'd never knew that her memories had been slowly coming back…
"You've turned out to be the best one yet," he whispered as he came close. "Look at everything you've accomplished." He gestured proudly to the bodies, the craters, and Avari's resolve shook, her jaw clenched.
"But we aren't through yet. This time, your memory will be fixed properly with no memory of S.H.I.E.L.D., and no training to help you escape. And by the time we're done, you'll be the perfect replica of our original experiment…You'll be even better than Aaron," he finished lightly.
It was the last statement that did it. Avari threw herself forward. Her vision went green as she acted on some sort of primal instinct and rushed him. Her anger fueled her, but he was prepared. A high pitched noise erupted from the device that had appeared in his hand, and as it made contact with her arm, she crumpled to the ground in a twitching heap.
His leering face appearing in her fading vision, but she was too far gone to hear anything else he might've said.
"Very good, Ari."
-:-:-:-
Hey, everybody! This is a preview for my first story... so please leave a review and let me know what you think!