"My name is May!" the little girl yelled.
The guard pushed her back into the holding cell, slid a small window on the door open and bellowed, "Nobody cares!" before slamming it closed again.
Light flooded in from a dusty bulletproof window on the other side of the 20x20 metal room and May noticed that nobody had bothered to change the sheets. Three other girls, two older and one younger than May sat together on the bottom of the far right bunk bed.
"May, you're gonna get in trouble if you keep yelling at the guards like that." The girl who had spoken was the youngest, named Danielle although outside of this room she went by 24.
May walked over to her own bottom bunk labeled 6 and peered at the sheer covers that were still slightly damp. Danielle hung her head and whimpered.
"I'm sorry," she whined. "I had a bad dream… I tried to clean it up before it dripped onto your bed."
"I'm not mad at you," said May. "Not in the slightest. It's stupid that we live like this. We don't deserve this."
"That's east for you to say." The girl named Venus and called 12 had spoken up. Her older sister that they only knew by 2 stayed predictably silent and aloof in the corner. Venus proceeded to wave her hands around as she talked. "You're the only one that still has a mother. She even still visits you. Our parents didn't want us, that's why we're here."
A guard clambered noisily down the hallway and when they were sure he was gone, they returned to talking. May crossed her arms and refused to sport a hushed tone.
"Don't you guys get it? We're all equal slaves here. My mom was kidnapped and had me here. And don't think for a second that your parents had any more say in the matter than she did."
That was part of the story. May clutched the locket that was barely attached to her charm bracelet, running through everything she couldn't tell her friends. It was true that her mother, Sharon Carter, had probably been taken just to get to May. Her mother was very honest about this in their short visits. Apparently she had no idea she was even pregnant when the illegal space agency known as Vintex took her from her home. That was 6 months ago, which made May 3 months old to the day despite looking, thinking, and acting ~ 6 years.
It was obvious why Vintex wanted her so badly. So far in her life, she had been through two major transformations. The doctors here referred to them as "growth spurts", where for some unknown reason she would become very sick for about a week, all leading up to a type of seizure or fit that caused her to unexplainably grow and mature by several years. It was incredibly painful, and each time the trauma brought her closer to death. The doctors predicted that she wouldn't even be able to survive the next wave which was due in about one month. Perhaps this was the reason May had been so reckless lately. She reached up, patting on one of her blonde pigtails that had come loose during her earlier training session. The others watched as she walked over to the sad excuse for a mirror hovering above the dirty sink and redid her hair, brushing out the tangles with her fingers.
"How was it today?" asked Danielle. "Did they tell you our new mission?"
May nodded and everyone, including 2 leaned forward in anticipation.
"You know that big company in the smack dab middle of the town center? I think they do something with the water."
They nodded eagerly.
"And you know the big boss guy that runs the place? He walks around the Glasscenter shopping mall in a fancy suit sometimes and is always followed around by a bunch of security dudes."
They nodded once more.
"Yeah, we're going to kill him," May announced.
"Yes!" Venus and Danielle exclaimed in unison. 2 smiled and moved out of the way when her sister started punching the air in excitement.
"Wait," said Venus. "Who gets to do it? Who gets to actually kill the guy?"
"Well," May thought on this. "You and 2 are too big to fit through a sky trapdoor, and Danielle doesn't like to kill with a gun…"
"it's not natural," Danielle said defensively. She had always been more of a hands on worker.
Venus groaned and crossed her arms.
"You always get the kill. We're just your setup crew."
May dropped her smile. She pawed at the ground with a foot before sheepishly voicing her thoughts.
"You guys… Do you think there may be… better ways to live? Being an assassin can't be our only option."
Venus squinted.
"Don't tell me you have another crazy idea to get us out of here."
"Just hear me out," May started.
The girls groaned.
"Nobody on the entire planet of Lawkus knows about Vintex. All we have to do is get the word out…"
"And they'll kill us and move on."
Everyone turned to look at 2 who kept her eyes on the nails she was trying to bite off.
May walked cautiously over to her quiet roommate.
"This isn't life," she pleaded. "Please. You've been here longer than anyone else. You have to know something."
2 pulled her hand back, examining her work.
"There's a spaceship that cruises around at receiving level. It's maintained by the Humanitarian Effort, and if we shot a video to their servers… It might be our best chance."
"That's amazing…"
2 cut her off.
"I'm only telling you this because I saw your chart, May."
May blinked. She felt cold.
"How much did you see?" she asked quietly.
2 shrugged.
"Just your expiration date. If you're gonna up and die in a month, then that means we'll be stuck here for good. You're our best chance to escape."
May could feel their eyes on her like tiny knives were slicing her open from every angle. She put on a brave face and smiled.
"It's fine," she said. "You're right. We gotta get out. Gotta keep moving. So, we have our mission. Kill that guy in a suit and… and… wait a minute. How will the Humanitarian Effort help us? They aren't soldiers."
"They're contractors. They'd reach out to the closest team to do a full sweep and take out Vintex," 2 explained.
"And who's that?"
"That's be the Guardians of the Galaxy."
"Right!"
May put her hand out and the others piled theirs on top of hers, forming a circle.
"Kill that guy in a suit and get the Guardians to wipe out Vintex!"
The girls counted to three and threw their hands up repeating the mission just at the right volume to be unheard by the guards.
"KILL THAT GUY IN A SUIT AND GET THE GUARDIANS TO WIPE OUT VINTEX!"