There had been some... reticence from the remaining conscious guards onboard the Raft. Scott, Sam, and Clint met Ross's men with the rigor of warriors kept too long out of battle. They shook off the cobwebs the fun way with quick, efficient (albeit non-lethal means) all the while quipping and snarking at each other and their opponents. Steve lent a hand when necessary but mostly let his men reacquaint themselves with a brawl. Wanda, to her credit, was not to be left out. Powers or no, the Sokovian grabbed a baton off a guard Clint had put down and dove into the fight. There were perks to being trained by Captain America and the Black Widow. She didn't need telekinesis to whoop a man who clearly underestimated her.
Amelia on the other hand had not been terribly useful. Twice Steve saw her grabbing at her collar, clearly frustrated as she ducked and dodged and danced away from anyone who tried to touch her. She was a fast little thing and light on her feet, but she did not engage. The look on her pretty face was unmistakable, however. Amelia was furious. She had on the expression of a person who was not used to running from a fight but saw no other choice. Steve read her well. There was plenty Amelia could have done to help aid their escape if only that damn collar weren't strapped around her throat.
In the end, the Avengers plus one boarded the quinjet and rapidly departed the Raft unharmed. Ross's men had also all survived the encounter, battered and bruised but all still breathing. It was more than they would have allowed their escaped prisoners but Steve held his team to a higher standard than Ross did. They did not take lives unless they had to. The Captain let Clint take the pilot's chair and the Archer ran his hands over the familiar controls, a peaceful look on his face.
Steve was busy supervising the show taking place in the cabin. Amelia knelt in front of Wanda, her stormy blue eyes concentrating. Sam was beside her, holding a light steady to ensure the beam fell on the small, seamless compartment on Wanda's collar that Amelia was delicately peeling back. It had been all but invisible but it had taken Amelia only a few minutes studying the abhorrent contraption, circling Wanda until she'd discovered the panel. Scott was supposed to be watching, learning how to disassemble the collar so he could remove Amelia's once Wanda was free but he was too mesmerized by Felix.
The inconspicuous, simple black utility belt that sat low on Amelia's hips was some sort of living metal comprised of hundreds of thousands of teeny little nanobots. Each functioned independently but when combined with all the others they became so much more. Like cells combining to become tissue, tissues combining to become organs, than organ system and so on. Alone the nanobots were nothing. Together they were a responsive organism that fluidly maneuvered and reacted to Amelia's needs as they arose. Since she started working on the collar, Steve, Sam, and Scott had gotten to see Felix in action, a myriad of tiny nanobots fracturing away from the belt and reshaping in Amelia's hand to form different tools as she needed them.
Nanotech, baby.
Sam's eyes were glued to the girl, his usual smile pressed out into a thin line. Amelia was using the nanos... Felix, he corrected himself. She was using Felix as some sort of toolbox. But the potential applications of that kind of tech was staggering. It was no wonder Ross had confiscated it and thrown Amelia in a cell. Plus, there was the collar clinging around her neck. And if someone coupled the nano-belt with an unknown Enhancement? There was no telling what the kid was capable of. He shot a look at Steve.
Steve acknowledged Sam with a slight frown.
"Scott, are you paying attention? Because I need you to pay attention." For what was possibly the tenth time in as many minutes, Amelia cast an exasperated look to Ant-Man. He was supposed to be this brilliant electrical engineer, a master thief, but he was sort of like a large man child that hadn't taken his ritalin that morning. It was already nerve wracking enough to try and get anything done with Steve Rogers at her back, but the collars were finicky. If you knew what you were doing it was no big deal, and Wanda was in perfectly good hands, but Amelia was going to need help getting her own collar off. If Scott didn't start focusing soon, she was going to be shit out of luck.
"Scott!"
"No. Yeah. Totally watching. Can I use the cool belt, too? Or is that... Is that just a you thing?" Scott's eyes followed the black amorphous material as it changed in Amelia's closed fist to clamp down on the small panel and help lift it away from the collar to expose the wiring inside.
Amelia shook her head. "It's just a me thing. You could try but it would take Felix time to get familiar with you. Felix knows what I need before I do most of the time." There was a lot more to Felix than what met the eye but for the time being its true purpose was to remain a secret. The clamp in her hand flung away the small panel and changed into something that looked like a pointy version of a lock pick. Amelia turned her large, blue eyes up to Wanda and gave her a small, reassuring smile. "Wanda, you're doing great. Just hang in there a little longer."
"I will hang in as long as necessary," Wanda answered dryly. She wanted her powers back, and right now please. Her opinion of the honey-blonde was thus far unformed. Amelia was doing her best to be helpful, and there was no doubt that Ross was certainly an 'imprison first, adjudicate later kind of man, but there was always the possibility that Amelia had belonged on the Raft.
"Scott!"
"I just wanna touch it!"
Amelia pinched her eyes shut in frustration. "Mia." She stiffened at the sound of a soft, easy voice behind her. "Don't worry. I'm paying attention." Steve was, in fact, quietly watching every movement of her tools, where they picked at the wires, carefully moving them aside, and how delicate each step was. He was also watching the level of concentration with which Amelia worked. She was wholly focused, careful, and precise. This was someone used to working in these exact conditions.
She also didn't seem to care for Steve much at all.
Every time he spoke to her, every time she laid eyes on him, Amelia seemed to tense as though she found his very presence painful. She had yet to say one word to Steve that wasn't about the collars, or willingly acknowledge him in any way. Were he a less secure man, Steve might have been offended. As it was, he was simply curious. Amelia was a mystery.
There was a whirr from the collar and Wanda yelped, but the collar clattered to the floor with a hiss. Amelia immediately kicked the thick slab of metal away, disgust plain on her face before she rounded on Wanda, examining where the ugly device had bitten into her skin. "I don't see any punctures," she said quietly. "No broken skin at all. You're lucky. Some of these things are rigged to explode when they're tampered with. Some of them inject trackers into the spine. Some of them just tear you apart. Good thing Ross had the oldest models."
Wanda looked up at Amelia in alarm as Sam flicked his flashlight beam downwards to shine in Amelia's eyes. "Are you telling me there was a chance that thing was going to blow up? And you just had us all standing around it?"
Amelia grimaced and stood, mostly to evade the light that was half blinding her. "I know what I'm doing. Wanda was perfectly safe with Felix and me. But people tend to get jumpy when you insinuate there's a bomb strapped to their neck." She looked at Wanda and for the first time there was warmth in Amelia's stormy eyes. "I didn't want you to panic."
"I am glad you did not tell me," Wanda said slowly. Her pale fingers soothed along her neck. "She is right, Sam. It would have made us all that much more tense.
"Or we could have been more prepared," Sam countered.
Amelia just shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to deceive you. I just needed to work quickly and that meant keeping some details to myself." Sam's expression was dark but he gave a brisk nod. He didn't like it. Was pretty sure he didn't like her. And he didn't agree with her call. Arguing about it though, wasn't going to do him a lick of good.
Scott was inspecting the discarded collar. It was far heavier than it looked, the metal normal enough. It's design was unlike anything he'd ever encountered before. It seemed to be some sort of frequency emitting device coupled with electrical impulse dampeners but tuned very specifically. "This is super sophisticated stuff. Did you say it's an older model? I've never seen anything like this before."
Amelia flinched. She hadn't meant to say that. Even innocuous comments could be dangerous if she wasn't careful. These were the Avengers. Amelia would have to be more careful what she said. "This isn't my first time in a collar," she answered vaguely. "People have a hard time with Mutants.
"Mutants?" Steve hadn't missed her evasive answer.
"Yes. Mutants. Enhanced. Children of the Atom. Inhuman. Take your pick." Amelia forced herself to respond. She didn't want to answer anymore questions, especially not from Steve Rogers. Amelia just wanted to go home and forget this nightmare had ever happened. Her fingers touched the small cylinder still attached to her belt. Home was a long way off. "If you're ready I can walk you through removing my collar. Felix can help."
She was speaking to Steve but not looking at him. Amelia couldn't seem to bring herself to meet those familiar blue eyes without breaking into a cold sweat. The idea of him being close enough to touch her required every ounce of Amelia's self-control to keep from backing into a corner to hyperventilate. He was looking at her, his arms folded across his chest. There was a bit of a smirk at his lips as he stated very plainly, and very firmly, "No."
"No?" Amelia was confused and her head tipped to the side. "No, what?"
"No, I will not be letting you out of that collar just yet. I think we've all been fairly accommodating to you. We let you out of the cell. Got you your... Felix back. Took you off the Raft. We even trusted you to help Wanda. But all we know about you is your name. Mia, I can't in good conscience take that collar off you when we don't even know what you did to get put in a cell in the first place. And not just any cell. Ross saw fit to put you in the most secure prison in the world. I think we deserve an explanation."
