For the next 15 minutes my stomach was tight, the flight seemed to last hours as we flew our stolen airplane to Niagara Falls. Then the next 5 minutes I felt like I was going to throw up, it was my first real life mission, but:
It wasn't even an official mission
Everyone that I love life was in danger
That could make a 16 year old worry a little bit.
We saw a place to land about 2 miles away and hid the plane as best as we could and started the way to the house. We had to go north to find the cabin. We started a nice jog towards the Russian house; none of us said anything for a few minutes.
"Ion?" Garrett spoke for the first time since he had passed out.
"Yeah?" I didn't turn around.
"What if they're already you know…" he didn't even have to say the next word.
"Shut up, Garrett they are." I honestly didn't know that, the Russians could have already killed them all, but it if they weren't they were still being tortured.
"Well if they aren't don't you think that we should turn back?" I didn't let him finish. I turned around and socked him in the jaw.
"What the hell Ion?!" Alv yelled and helped Garrett up.
"Don't you ever say that again Garrett Banner! They are alive, and we are going to save them." How could he think that? It sickened me, I would give my life to save them, and yet he wouldn't for his own father? "How could you even say that?"
"Do you really think they would want us risking out lives to save them from something that all of us could die from?!" Garrett got up and yelled in my face. He had the slightest green tint to his face, not a good sign. "If you haven't noticed they have gone to every extreme to make sure that we don't get killed!" The green grew darker.
"Guys, just stop! If you haven't noticed we have our family to save!" Alv yelled at us, but me and Garrett were already too far into this fight.
"You honestly think I don't know that?!" I yelled back. "Then why you just go back and sit out this fight like you always do?" He was too peaceful; he had always turned his back in a fight and gone the peaceful route, people step all over him.
"It's better than risking your life every chance to get! You think you can survive anything because you're the famous Ion Barton, daughter of Hawkeye and Black Widow. You're only good at fighting and that's it!" He was dangerously close to crossing the line that Cooper crossed. "Do you ever think how all of us reacted if you got yourself killed one day?!" he screamed.
"Better off!" I yelled back. Both Garrett and Alv looked taken back, I looked surprised myself. I had never told anyone what I thought of myself. I mean, all the kids (with the exception of Grace) were already kinda like our own team. Cooper was the genius, Alv was the muscle, and Garrett could tear anyone apart and also a genius, and then me. I wasn't super smart; I didn't have the inhuman strength that Garrett and Alv had, I was just dead weight, I also thought if I died during a mission, at least I would die for something good.
"You can't seriously think that?" Alv came forward. "You're the best fighter out of all of us. You could single handedly…"
"Can we just go save them and then talk about this later?" I turned and started jogging and didn't even wait for an answer. I heard both of them sigh and jog behind me. The cold hair was refreshing in my lungs, it helped me clear my mind, another trait that I got from my mother. We climbed a hill and got to the top we saw a half stone half stone cabin with the roar of Niagara Falls little less than half a mile away. I looked at my watch- it had been 5 hours since the explosion. My dad had 1 hours till his next electrocutions, but I couldn't imagine what they were doing to my mom. She was one of the strongest people I know, but from what I heard the Red Room even had its ways to make her break.
"Common," I mumbled and started down the hill. I thought of every way to get in, we could just break down the door and go in with a full frontal assault but with only 3 people would be suicide, we could climb the roof and go in from there, or go in the basement or a window. When we were near the bottom I stopped and went over the pros and cons. Suddenly the hairs on my neck stuck up, something was about to go wrong. I whirled around to see a gun pointed at my face.
"God, you kids are stupid little shits." She said with a thick Russian accent. I looked over her shoulder and saw Garrett being restrained by another man in a big coat, and Alv being pinned down with a gun near his head, both with gags in their mouths.
"You would have made a good soldier if your mother had stayed with us, you still might." She grinned as she grabbed my short hair.
"I'd rather die." I spat at her.
"You might just get your wish." And with that she flung my head to the side and hit is on a rock, I felt a horrible pain erupt in my head right before I blacked out.
I started to stir when I heard voices talking. I quickly realized the pain in my head, I felt drying blood on the side of my face. My eyelids were a struggle to open, but when I did I wish I was blacked out again. I saw my dad strung up beside me a few meters away. He looked even worse than when we saw him on video. Fresh cuts ran along his arms, one eye was swollen, and a huge gash was up his leg.
"Dad," I croaked out. My mouth felt like it was filled with sand, my chest like it had a ton of bricks on it. I looked around the room. The room was filled the rest of the Avengers. They all were bloody, Thor had everything restrained, his hands, feet, chest, even his mouth was gagged, I'm guessing so he couldn't call to Odin or Mjönir. Steve's limbs were plastered to his sides with chains, rope and duct tape, his was on strapped to the floor unlike the rest of us. Bruce and Garrett were in a cage, god that sickened me. The cage was about 10 ft. high and had bars going both vertical and horizontal. Not only that he completely immobilized. They both sat crossed legged with chains wrapped around their feet and legs, handcuffs chaining him to the floor, and a big steel collar around both of their necks. There was no worse humiliation for them. Then I saw Tony, he was in a chair with his hands chained to the wall; his feet were tied to the leg post, his looked miserable. He was probably worried about Pepper; she was in DC for a Stark Industries thing. I looked harder around the room, my vision still blurry. I looked up by chance was surprised yet horrified by what I saw, Alv on the ceiling, his arms and feet stretched out so far out that it looked painful. We had each been decapitated based on our abilities. They knew Thor and Alv would try to use force and their powers, so they restrained Thor so he could call Mjönir, and Alv so if he struggled he would fell 10 feet to the stone ground which would surely hurt him badly. They made sure Tony couldn't use his hands to escape, and since he didn't have his Mark 42 suit he had no suit to call. Bruce and Garrett, I mean that kind of explained itself, even in hulk form they would have a hell of a time trying to get out of the cage. Then me and my dad, we were strapped so we couldn't use our hands or feet to fight. Cooper. The thought hit me harder than the Russian women I had fought only a day earlier. I didn't see him around the room, everyone took notice that I was awake now.
"Ion, you ok?" I heard my dad ask me.
"Could be better." I whispered.
"No offence, this is the suckiest rescues party ever." Tony suddenly spoke up. It was nice to hear his dry sarcasm again.
"Sorry about that." I breathed. The mood seemed to lighten the tiniest bit in the darkness of the basement. "Where's Cooper?" I asked before I could stop myself.
"In the other room, he's in the other room along with Jane." Tony said. "They probably thought with too many smart people in one room we would figure a way out." I let out a silent breath of relief. At least he wasn't dead. A huge screeching filled the room that made all of us turn our heads, the bear man came in.
"Ah, everyone's awake, perfect." He looked at me. "You are just little mice in a big trap." He grinned. I silently cursed myself in my head, they had wanted us to find them, they had allowed Jarvis to find them, guilt filled my chest; I had single handedly doomed us all.
"Yes, we allowed you to find us." He said as if he was reading my mind. "But now SHIELD never will," he boasted.
"And why is that?" I shot back.
"Russian technology little one." He smiled which was even more terrifying than his scowl. "You Americans think you have the best and newest things in the world. You haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what we have uncovered."
"Why do all the bad guys get the good tech?" Tony complained. The man strolled over to Tony and punched him in the chest. Tony gave a hard grunt and breathed heavily. I drew a quick breath, but the others didn't move my guess was that they were used to this, that thought made my stomach turn. He then came over to me and got in my face.
"Pavel, will see you soon, hopefully he will treat you better than your mother." He breathed in my face. He slid his hand up my thigh slowly. It felt sick, I did the only thing that I could do, I head butted him as hard as I could. He stumbled back in surprise, Tony let out a scoff of amusement. He raised his hand and slapped me across the face, his rings let scratches on my face.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER YOU SON OF A BITCH!" my dad screamed and spat at him. The man turned around and turned the nob that shocked my dad. The famous Hawkeye let out a scream and I could hear the electricity pulse through the wires woven into his chains.
"Stop! Please stop!" I pleaded. It seemed a little childish and stupid but it was all I could do. The man turned the machine off and my dad slumped, barely conscious.
"Then you should tell your father not to insult Nestor Lisov." He said loudly. Nestor came over and pulled a thick metal key out and released me from my chains. I automatically fell to the ground, I didn't realize how weak I was. He yanked me up and pulled me close to him with his hand a little too low on my hip. My father let out an angry grunt and Thor pulled on his chains. I looked up and Alv's face was hard with anger. I gave an encouraging nod but it didn't seem to help at all. Nestor led me out of the room and I gave one last look in the room, everyone had worried look on their faces. I looked at Garrett who looked like was about to throw up or explode. It made me sad that if I died, the last conversation I ever had with him would be an argument. Then the heavy metal door shut and their faces disappeared.
We walked, down the stone hallway and the air grew even colder which was harder to believe. I tried to keep track of which way we went. Left, left, straight passed 2 rights, right, left, right, but it was harder to focus. They had probably had this cabin for a while and made these tunnels by themselves, that was a comforting thought. Finally we ended up in another room where had threw me into it, I fell to the ground in a heap. The thought of not getting up ran through my mind, but that would show weakness- and that was the last thing I needed to do. I slowly got up and looked at the room. It was a whole lot nicer than the one they had me in. This had a big wooden desk, a large black couch with fur blankets draped over it, two chairs across from the desk, and a mountain lion carpet, yep Russian. The walls were stone and had picture on them and one tiny window to look outside. It looked like it was night right now. SHIELD had to know we were gone right? They would be working furiously to try to find us, right?
"So, this is Ion Barton nice to finally to meet your acquaintance." A raspy Russian voice said. I looked and in the corner I saw a tall, slender man with a long face and snow white hair. He stepped out of the shadow and I saw more of his face. He had striking light blue eyes, high cheek bones and his face was pale. He didn't seem like the typical Russian but by the way he said acquaintance he had probably been in the states a while.
"And you know of me how?" I kept my voice tight.
"Well because of this lovely man." He pushed a button on his desk and a secret wall went up, out fell a dirty, weakened Cooper Stark.
"Cooper!" I yelped and rand over to wear he laid. He looked so bad, he looked too skinny, his hair was in one big matted mess, he was still wearing the same cloths he had on when the bomb went off, and his was bloody and barely breathing. I had never been so happy to see him.
"He mumbled about you and the others when he was knocked out. He kept saying 'sorry Ion' whatever that was for." He commented. I felt like crying, I didn't care about what he said at the restaurant, it just mattered he was alive. Pavel yanked me back from Coopers body.
"No, no, please, let me wake him up; COOPER!" I yelled. They had probably given him something bad that would knock him out for a long time, but it was the only idea I had. My brain was completely fried. I just wanted to lie down and quit, but that would be too easy. I wanted to live, I wanted Cooper to live but I had no idea how to do it. I started to cry. I hated crying, and in front of an enemy was no better. But everything just came crashing down, my dad and mom being tortured, having everyone captured, my fight with Garrett, getting Alv and Garrett captured and now seeing Cooper like this, I couldn't take it. I sobbed where I stood.
"Come here," Pavel took me into his arms. Most people who weren't me would take this as a sign of compassion, but I knew better it was a mental trick, manipulation to try to get me weaker than I already was. He raised me head up to his, he looked no older than 20 but something already was broken inside of him. He leaned down and kissed me. Everything seemed to stop, time, my crying, the whole world paused. WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL! My brained screamed at me, but my body did nothing. I didn't lie, he was very attractive but something was off about him. Then I realized, I felt it, the energy, the actual life being sucked out of me. I pulled back and punched him as hard as I could, which wasn't very hard because I felt like I had just run a marathon. I looked up at him, he smiled and I saw his teeth, they were pointy like a shark and black. I held back a scream, he looked like a nightmare.
"Well that wasn't very polite." He giggled. Chills covered my whole body.
"What are you?" Was the only thing that came out of my mouth.
"Like it?" he lifted up his sleeves to show me his arms, they were covered in blue lines. "You think the Mandarin got this idea on his own? He stole it from us and instead of cold they burnt hot, they were not as, um, effected as we will be."
"But what does this have to do with the Red Room?" I was seriously confused. Layers just kept piling up.
"A front, we used to make sure your mother would be interested." He smiled, his face growing more terrifying by the minute. "This was the real project." I know my mother would have never participated in this, would she? I didn't want to know the answer. I blinked and Pavel was up to my face, I guess part of his powers was moving fast, because I didn't even see him move. He gripped my throat and squeezed, and lifted me up against the wall. Not only could I not breathed I felt cold, the life was again being sucked out of me. I struggled and try to pry him off me, but he was inhuman. I could see the sides of my vision getting blurry.
"Let's go see your mom now shall we?" he laughed. He let go and I crumpled to the ground. He gripped me by the collar and with his super strength drug me out of the room where Copper still laid.