Chapter Two
Alessia woke up in a white room. Blinding white actually, and the florescent bulbs were buzzing overhead. She blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust to it. Her head was throbbing and it took her a minute to remember what happened.
Right, kidnapped and drugged. She thought. No wonder my head hurts, god I hope whatever they gave me doesn't have some kind of weird side effect.
She was still fighting to open her eyes to the blinding room, but she had seen enough to know that she wasn't the only one in there. Behind her back she felt her hands bound in what felt like nylon rope. In her daze she mused that whoever kidnapped her had no idea that she could melt it like butter. That's good she thought, forcing her eyes open to see two other women, also with their hands tied and apparently on the edge of consciousness. Thats good, maybe I can take them by surprise.
One of the women, the brunette closest to Alessia, sat up and squinted at Alessia, and something behind her. Alessia followed her gaze and realized they weren't the only ones there. A man was slumped against the wall a few feet from Alessia, but unlike the women, he was not bound with rope.
Instead, his right arm hung at his side, and his left was strapped to the wall with a series of metal braces. His left arm was buckled up in an L shape, so he couldn't slip out, but the most remarkable thing was that his arm was made entirely of metal. Alessia would have thought it must have been some kind of armor, but he was wearing just a tank top, and she could see where the metal met with the flesh. It had to be a prosthetic, but she had never seen one like it. No wonder they had buckled him to the wall the way they had. He surely would be able to rip most other bonds with the strength his arm must possess.
Alessia looked back at the brunette woman who had woken up. Every time Alessia moved her head it felt like the room was spinning. The other women seemed to be in a similar state, whereas the man with the metal arm had his face slumped onto his shoulder and didn't seem to be stirring.
The brunette woman was shaking her head and said softly. "Where are we?"
The other woman, a strawberry blonde with bangs sat up and leaned against the wall opposite Alessia. "Hey wait," Alessia said blinking at the strawberry blonde woman "I know you- You're Pepper Pots!"
"Mmmm" She groaned in reply. She sounded out of breath, like they all did. "Yes, I'm Pepper."
"Wait, so you're Iron Man's girlfriend?" The brunette women asked. Alessia twitched her feet and realized that they all had rope binding their ankles as well. She also realized that her legs were painfully asleep. She was still in just socks with no shoes, and the ratty sweater and jeans she had worn that day to work on the farm.
"Yes." Pepper said.
"I'm Jane," Said the brunette woman.
"I'm Alessia," Alessia said, wiggling her hips and knees around trying to wake up her legs. "Either of you got a clue who this guy could be?"
"No, but I think I might know why we're here," Jane began. However she was interrupted by the door on the far end of the room opening.
It was another of the helmeted men. The three women fell silent as he entered the room. Alessia braced herself for the worst, but he merely set a laptop down on the floor a few feet away from her. He opened it up to reveal a glowing light blue screen. There were no icons of any sort, and Alessia noticed that there were only about five buttons where there should have been a whole keypad, and no touch pad. It was angled so that all four of them could see the screen. The man set it down without a word, then turned and walked back out of the room, shutting the heavy metal door behind him with a loud clank.
Alessia inched towards it curiously.
"Wait," Jane said. They were all starting to sound more alert now. "Be careful, it could be dangerous."
"You said you know why we're here," Pepper said to Jane.
"Yes, well, I might have an idea. Alessia, I bet you're involved with somebody from the avengers too. And I wouldn't be surprised if -if he is as well."
All three of them looked back at the unconscious man cuffed to the wall. His face was still hidden behind long shaggy brown hair, and buried in his shoulder.
"I'm Thor's- well, we sort of... we sort of see each other. You know when he's... in the galaxy." Jane said awkwardly.
"Wait, so you think someone is holding us for ransom?" Pepper asked. Alessia meanwhile was inching closer to the laptop. The five buttons were labeled with strange symbols she didn't recognize.
"Well that's a great theory, but since I'm not dating Captain America or shagging the Hulk, I don't see why I'm here." Alessia said. But she worried. Someone could have learned about her powers and wanted to weaponize them, or experiment on her. On top of that, her powers still made her something of a commodity. Maybe someone would try and use her as a bargaining chip with the Avengers. But wait, thats not what happened.
"No, no wait, last night, they thought Clint was my dad. They have no idea who I am." Alessia said, looking at Jane and then Pepper for an answer. Neither said anything.
Alessia suddenly felt a cold shock run through her, through her heart, her armpits, down to her fingers. "Wait, Clint isn't an Avenger, is he?" Alessia asked. But even as she thought it, it all started to make sense. That's why he was always so cool about me. That's why he has to go away for work so long. That's how he knows how to fight and use guns and stuff. That's why Laura always worries so much when he's away. That's why he gets all of his mail delivered in a P.O box. That's gotta be why he picked a house in the middle of nowhere that's not even on google maps.
"A-Alessia, are you alright?" Pepper asked hesitantly. Alessia didn't say anything. How did she not put it together before? She'd always thought Clint must be FBI or black ops, or something like that, why had it never crossed her mind? He was always so unfazed and unworried about her powers, probably because he'd seen The Hulk in action and fought beside a Norse god. A pyrokinetic teenager would have seemed like no big deal to him.
"S-So you think-" Jane started, but once again she was interrupted. This time it was the laptop glowing on the ground before them. The screen changed from blue to black. The three women stopped and stared at the screen. From black it changed to a fuzzy silhouette of a person's head. A loud, shrill ringing emitted from it. Alessia wished she could cover her ears. The ringing stopped and a voice filled the room instead. Gruff, as though modified, and rather static, Alessia struggled to make out what it was saying.
"As you have realized, you have been taken into our custody for the time being. You will be released upon the compliance of you friends and family members. We will be putting you on a live feed with them momentarily so that you can assure them you are safe. If the team fails to meet our demands, you should know that the consequences will be carried out on your behalf."
The message ended, fading back to black.
Alessia turned to Pepper and Jane. They looked about as terrified as Alessia felt.
Alessia was about to speak, when the screen lit up again. This time however, Alessia was relieved to see a familiar face, as it a grouping of several men and a few women peering at them from the screen.
"Tony!" Pepper said, inching over to get closer. Sure enough, one of the faces was the unmistakable mug of the billionaire Alessia had seen so many times on the news. He, and all the others looked quite concerned. However, Alessia had noticed someone she had not expected.
"Natasha?" She asked, incredulously looking at the red head peering from behind the shoulder of a blonde man. Natasha had stayed with Barton's several times, but Alessia had never known she worked with Clint.
"Is everybody alright?" asked the blonde man Natasha stood behind.
"Yes, we're okay," Pepper said.
"Well," Alessia began.
"Jane, everything will be okay, we're going to get you out of there," Said a different blonde man, with longer hair, who was leaning on both hands forward on what must have been the edge of the control panel for the screen they were looking at. He seemed the most anxious of the bunch.
"Alessia, is everyone okay?" Clint asked. He was sitting between the two blonde men, presumably the longer haired of the two being Thor.
"I don't know about this one," Alessia said, jerking her head to the unconscious man with the metal arm. "He hasn't woken up yet."
"Bucky?" The man Natasha stood behind asked.
"Tony, they said, they said that if you-" Pepper said thickly. Alessia turned to see tears running down her face.
"Don't worry, we're going to get you out." Tony said. Alessia's ears pricked back. The Tony Stark from the news always sounded cocky, arrogant and self absorbed. This Tony sounded concerned, warm, but also, Alessia thought, scared. He loves her, She thought glancing back at his face on the screen. He really, really loves her.
"Wait, wait no," Alessia said, coming to her senses. "What do they want you guys to do?" Not a single word from one of the people on the screen. Alessia felt her stomach drop. "What do they want you to do? Who- who are they?" Alessia glanced at Jane and Pepper. Both looked scared as well. There is some kind of bargaining chip, and it's not pretty. Alessia thought. She looked back at the screen. The somber faces looking back at her did not alleviate her nervousness.
"How long did they give you? To meet their demands?" Alessia asked, cogs working in her head.
"Six hours." Natasha said.
"And what happens after six hours?" Pepper asked.
"They said they would kill one of you every three hours starting then." Clint said. Tony hit him in the arm.
"Don't worry, it won't get to that!" Thor said, desperately trying to comfort Jane, who was blinking furiously to make up for the fact that she couldn't wipe her silent tears from her eyes.
"Pepper," Tony began, but at that moment the screen cut to black again.