This story takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe of The Avengers, after Thor: The Dark World.
However, there is one major difference: in this story, Tony Stark DID NOT have his arch reactor removed.
I own all original characters.
Rated T for Violence and Strong Language.
*Re-edited on 3/29/2018
Chapter 6
"What the hell happened?" Fury shouted, irate as he strolled into the base's central command center, "Can someone please clear this up for me?"
The entire base was in chaos. People were running into one another, scrambling to get to their stations as they hurried to address the mounting situation happening below. The alarms had been sounding on the lower decks for nearly an hour now, but before anything could be done about the theft and murder, the levels all had to be swept for radiation. The hazmat crew was down there now, collecting the bodies of Dr. Daniel Gale and the unidentified other, while Charlotte Gale had been rushed to the medical wing and placed in quarantine. Her vitals were low, but stable. Unfortunately, however, she was still unconscious, which had left whatever had happened a complete mystery.
Natasha Romanoff straightened up from where she had been leaning over the shoulder of a young technician seated in front of a large computer monitor. She had changed into her Widow suit, her crimson locks bouncing above the skin-tight fabric as she turned to address the director's question. "Sir," She beckoned to him grimly, "I think you should see this."
Fury quickly strode towards the screen, a steely expression set firmly on his face as he pushed his coattails aside to rest his hands on his hips.
"Show him." Natasha instructed the tech.
The young agent removed his head set as he purposefully turned to the director, "This is the security video from Lab V at 0130 hrs, Sir. I've enhanced the audio as best I could."
"Play it." Fury ordered.
The tech immediately turned back to the screen and queued up the recording. Instantly, a crystal clear image of the lab filled the monitor. Dr. Gale was shown at his station, alone in the room as he bent over his computer, when suddenly the lights dimmed and there was a loud popping noise. He quickly jumped to his feet, moving frantically towards the glass door, when Agent Taylor unexpectedly appeared on the other side, looking disheveled and out of breath.
"What's happened?" Dr. Gale asked her, going up on his toes to look passed her.
"Security has been breached." Taylor exclaimed urgently, "I need you to come with me Doctor! Now!"
"Were we notified about a breach?" Fury growled questioningly.
"No, Sir." Agent Barton called from the doorway as he moved briskly towards them. He stopped beside Natasha, turning his unwavering silver eyes to the screen, "Not until Dr. Banner hit the alarm."
"Nice of you to join us, Barton." Fury spat sardonically, his gaze lingering disapprovingly on his agent's blue jeans and plaid shirt.
"I came as soon as I got the call, Sir." Barton replied dryly, "I was… off base. Care to catch me up?"
"Just watch." Natasha told him solemnly.
Back on the monitor, Dr. Gale jerked the door open. But, before he could step outside, Taylor had forced her way in, shoving him back roughly as she pulled a switchblade from the pocket of her blazer. The door sealed shut behind them.
"What are you—?" Dr. Gale began, alarmed.
Taylor swung the blade forward with expert precision, slashing open his throat with a single thrust. He grabbed desperately at the gaping wound, choking as blood immediately began to pour from his neck. The hot, red liquid coated the front of his stark white coat as he collapsed, knocking over a metallic tray filled with various instruments as he clamored loudly to ground.
Taylor stared down at him, watching him die with an almost serene look on her impish face. "Bad timing, I'm afraid Doctor." She informed him coldly, kneeling down beside his struggling form, "You were suppose to be out with the others."
The light suddenly left Dr. Gale's eyes, and his body went slack on the linoleum.
"God." Fury breathed, unable to hide his shock as he watched Taylor peruse the data displayed on the monitors, "One of ours?" Abruptly, he turned to the mass of the room and barked, "I want to know how this happened! Now!"
At once, the chaos intensified, as every agent hurried to carry out the Director's newest order.
"Sir," The tech called to him anxiously, "You really need to keep watching."
Fury turned back to the screen just as Charlotte Gale scrambled through the decontamination chamber and into the recreation area, breathless and visibly panicked.
Barton tensed, "What's she doing there?"
Natasha placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him as they watched Charlotte turn towards the glass wall.
"DAD!" She screamed, running to the door and pulling on it, slamming her fist into the pane, "DADDY!" With shaking hands, she tried to punch in the code, but when she tried the door it would not open. She tried again, and again it remained locked. She slammed her fist into the glass barrier in frustration, crying out loudly, before punching in the code a third time. At last, the door swung open, and Charlie threw herself inside.
"How did she get the code?" Fury demanded.
Natasha's eyes remained locked on the screen as she answered, her voice full of knowing dread, "She watched me enter it."
Charlie raced to her father's side, streaking obliviously passed Taylor, who could be seen lying in wait just behind the monitors.
"No! No! No! NO! DAD!" She cried as she grabbed onto him desperately, struggling to turn him over. Her head suddenly whipped back, "Oh God!" She began to sob as she shook his limp body, desperately trying to rouse him, "NO! No! No! Daddy! Daddy?" She clenched her fists in his coat, sobbing onto his chest as her face became smeared with his blood, "No! No... Please! Please... Don't go! Please... Don't leave me!" She abruptly threw her head back, shrieking despairingly,"HELP! SOMEBODY! PLEASE!"
Taylor stepped out from her hiding place. Charlie turned with her mouth open, ready to call out to her, when the knife cut into her throat. Barton and Natasha flinched in unison, unable to help momentarily looking away from the screen.
Charlie mimicked her father, reaching up to grab the wound as she began to choke.
"You're right," Agent Taylor sneered at her as Charlie fell, stumbling backwards over Dr. Gale's corpse and slamming into the containment chamber door, "You really are a pain in the ass."
"Bitch." Barton hissed. The muscles of his shoulder gone rigid under Natasha's hand, and his both his fists were white knuckled.
"Charlie is alive." She told him quietly, "Just barely."
"How?"
"We don't know." Fury answered him, "Hopefully, this tape will give us some answers."
They watched as Taylor stepped over the girl's body and popped the chamber lock using some kind of small, metallic device. The door creaked open and Charlie fell in, landing heavily on her back as Taylor stepped around her and out of sight.
The tech agent's fingers began to dance across the keyboard. "This was recovered from inside the containment chamber," He told them as the picture on the screen changed.
Taylor approached the glowing orb carefully as the swirling, colorful lights blew into her.
"I don't understand." Natasha muttered, "That much radiation should have made her sick instantly."
"Not necessarily." Dr. Selvig's voice suddenly called from behind them. He hurriedly approached the screen, standing beside Fury with a bundle of papers in his arms, "A friend of mine at Cal Tech has been attempting to develop a gamma blocker. His lab was ransacked a week ago and his prototype stolen." He looked to where Charlie lay, struggling to breath as the blood pooled around her, "God in Heaven."
"Hail HYDRA..." Taylor suddenly drawled on the monitor, throwing her hands up in a prayer-like motion, "It is magnificent..."
"Did she just say HYDRA?" Barton asked flatly.
"Yep." Natasha confirmed.
"I didn't think HYDRA was still operating?" Barton trailed off as he and Natasha turned to Fury in unison.
"They're not." Fury hissed. Again, he whipped around and shouted to the room, "Call Captain Rogers in New York! Get his ass out here! Now!" Again, there was a flurry of activity as the Director turned back to the screen. "If HYDRA is coming out of the wood work," He muttered, "We better get ready."
Back on the screen, Charlie's arm abruptly went limp, her body still, with her blue eyes staring lifelessly up at the camera.
"No…" Natasha breathed, perplexed, "No. That's not right."
"Finally…" Taylor breathed in awe, grinning as she reached out and grasped onto the incandescent orb with trembling hands.
Immediately, the room began to vibrate, causing the camera to shudder violently. The sphere flared and the screen went red. Nothing else could be seen.
"Incredible!" Taylor could be heard laughing, "Absolutely incredible!"
And then, just as suddenly, a horrifying scream burst out of the speakers. It was the unmistakable sound of a woman in intense pain. The hairs on the back of Natasha's neck stood up reflexively as they just seemed to go on for minutes, and when the scarlet light finally dimmed, Agent Taylor could be seen smoking on the floor, the walls, and the ceiling.
After an eerily silent pause, the orb flared again, and the screen was awash in gold. The warm light was not as opaque as the red hue had been. Charlie's body could be made out in the haze as it shifted and swirled.
Barton leaned closer to the screen, "Is there someone still in there?"
"What?" Natasha questioned.
"There's a person standing beside her." Barton pointed to the screen, "There. See?"
"No." Natasha shook her head.
Barton blinked and suddenly, the figure was gone, replaced by something smaller seated on Charlie's chest, "What the...?"
Charlie's body began to convulse, jerking upward like it had been electrified. And then, all of a sudden, the light came back into her eyes and she took a harsh breath.
The golden haze began to condense around her into hundreds of thin, white hot, metallic wires. They hovered lazily above her, before abruptly thrusting forward, piercing her skin and wrapping around her open throat. Her muscles clenched. Charlie whimpered in pain as she was lifted into the air like a puppet on strings. The vines swirled around her, guiding her into the orb where her body slowly folded in on itself as the wires coiled tighter and tighter, until she was entombed in a perfect molten womb.
"What the fuck was that?" Fury nearly shouted at the screen, his eye wide with disbelief, "I am so done with this alien shit!"
No one said anything for a long while. They all just continued to stare at the screen.
"Absolutely incredible." Dr. Selvig breathed, "Amazing."
The agents all turned to look at him questioningly. A strange look had come across the physicist's face, "What time did this happen?"
"At 0157 hrs, exactly, sir." The tech agent replied.
"Is that significant Doctor?" Fury asked.
"Yes." Dr. Selvig replied in awe, "It's what I came to tell you. During this event, we recorded massive amounts of Beta and Alpha wave output. But, at 0157 hrs exactly, the artifact went dormant. No readings of anything. No Beta, Alpha, Theta or Delta waves. Not even any radiation. It appears to be, for all intensive purposes, dead."
"What does that mean?" Natasha questioned, watching as Bruce tentatively touched the sphere on the monitor.
"I wish I knew." He replied faintly.
"No signs of radiation poisoning." Bruce said aloud as he swept the Geiger-counter over Charlie's unconscious form in the hospital bed, "And, no signs of radiation."
"Well, that's a good thing." Tony said anxiously through the intercom. He stood on the other side of the observation window with his arms folded over his chest and his hand resting on his chin, looking into the quarantine chamber where Bruce was doing his best to keep Charlie stable, "I mean, radiation is pretty much always a bad thing."
"Pretty much always, yeah." Bruce muttered dryly as a medical technician in a radiation suit hung a bag of saline next to the bed. He gently turned her left arm and wrapped a tourniquet around her bicep, tapping her skin to raise her veins. Wiping the crook of her elbow with an alcohol swab, he tried to administer the I.V. needle, but it refused to penetrate her skin.
"Hmm…" He pressed harder, and the thin metal tube bent against her flesh.
"'Hmm…' what?" Tony asked, leaning forward, trying to see over Bruce's should through the glass, "'Hmm...' doesn't sound like a good thing."
"I can't insert the needle." Bruce stated, perplexed.
"What do you mean?"
"It won't go through her skin." He turned to the nurse beside him, "Do we have any needles with a higher tinsel strength? Maybe a thicker gauge?"
The med-tech thought for a moment before turning and pulling a white carton from the bottom of the medical cart. She held it out to Dr. Banner, "14 gauge, titanium carbide. Toughest we got."
Bruce took one of the needles from the sterile case; it was twice as thick and triple the length of the one before. He attached it to the I.V. and lined it up with the vein under her skin, before applying pressure. The needle slid in with only a minimal amount of resistance, and he taped it firmly in place.
"Interesting." He mused as he checked the saline drip.
"What's 'interesting'?" Tony questioned restlessly, "What's going on in there?"
"I need to run more tests to be sure…" Bruce responded, picking up the chart on the end of the bed and thumbing through it, "But…"
"But?" Tony took a step towards the window, "Come on Bruce! Just make an educated guess. Not even a guess! More like an informed observation."
"Well, it's just speculation at this point," He said hesitantly, "But, it appears her molecular density may have increased."
"What? You mean like Rogers?" Tony asked, stunned.
"Theoretically, it's possible." Bruce lifted his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes, "There was a reason we used Gamma radiation when we were trying to recreate the Super Soldier process. And, the artifact certainly gave off enough radiation to recreate… that particular incident." He sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned towards Tony, "The security video clearly shows the artifact injecting her with something, directly into the deep tissue. That, added with the radiation… God only knows what it did to her."
He placed the chart back at the foot of the bed and turned to look at Charlie. They had cleaned as much of the blood off her as they could, and with her hands resting at her sides, she looked almost peaceful. There was no sign that her throat had been cut open. In fact, there was not a single mark on her. He turned back to Stark, leaning against the foot board, "I'm not sure whether surviving was lucky or not."
"Poor kid." Tony sighed, running his hand through his disheveled hair, "God! What a giant cluster—"
"Dr. Banner!" The med-tech cried sharply.
Bruce spun around as Charlie's vitals suddenly spiked on the heart monitor. Her breathing quickly became labored, and her entire body went rigid as she clenched her hands into tight fists. Her eyes fluttered open before darting around the room, terrified as a low moan escaped her lips.
"Charlie?" Bruce rushed to her side and immediately bend over her, "Charlie can you hear me?"
"Y—yes." She groaned again, followed by a sharp intake of breath.
"Alright, good. My name is Dr. Banner." He leaned closer to her, softening his voice, "Do you know where you are?"
"N—no." She sobbed, her face crumpling in agony, "Ahhh! God!"
"Charlie?" Bruce tensed, "Charlie, what's wrong?"
"Ah…! I—it…nnnhh… It hurts!" She cried, her arms curling to her abdomen.
"Okay," Bruce urgently turned to the med-tech, "Get me morphine, STAT!"
The tech scrambled to the medical cart, grabbing a large syringe as Bruce turned back to Charlie.
"Alright," He pressed gently, "Can you tell me where?"
"Nnnhh…" She gritted her teeth, hunching in on herself as her breathing became increasingly heavy and uneven.
"Charlie!" Bruce called to her, louder, "Where does it hurt?"
"EVERYWHERE!" Charlie suddenly cried, her body lurching forward as she threw her head back and shrieked, "AHHIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The sound that came out of her mouth was unlike anything Bruce had ever heard. It was painful, glaringly high pitched, and burst outward in solid waves. He clapped his hands over his ears and cried out as the room began to vibrate around him. The bed slid across the floor as the medical cart flipped in the air, slamming into the wall and sending medical supplies skidding everywhere. The med-tech collapsed next to him, unconscious, as blood suddenly splattered across her face shield. Glass and sparks rained down on him from the lights as the bulbs exploded, and he threw himself onto the linoleum.
Bruce felt the terrifying sensation of the Hulk spurring into consciousness. It bubbled up inside him as it tore towards the surface. He pushed back with all his will, but the waves of sound beat into him relentlessly, weakening his resolve. Glancing around desperately, he grabbed the nearest syringe and crawled towards the bed, grabbing onto the railing and thrusting the needle into the I.V. with shaking hands.
Almost instantly, the sound died. Charlie's eyes rolled back into her head as she collapsed back onto the pillow, once again unconscious.
Bruce dropped back down onto the floor as the Hulk began tearing back into him. He grunted, grabbing onto his hair and pulling at the roots as his skin tinged green. "Ahhhhr!" He bellowed, slamming his fists angrily into the floor, "Hhrmm!"
"Bruce?" Tony called faintly. His ears were ringing loudly, and there was blood trickling down his neck. A thin cut above his right eye was stinging from where the window had shattered in his face as he crawled to where the door had been torn away, hoisting himself up on shaky legs and he stumbling into the quarantine room, "Bruce?"
He looked around at the destroyed room, disoriented. The lights had been blown out, but were still sparking periodically, causing him to throw his forearm above his head to shield himself. Medical supplies littered the floor, and the med-tech lay motionless beside the cart. Charlie was limp on the bed, her arm flailing over the side.
"Bruce?" He called again as some sound slowly began returning.
"Raaaaahh!" Bruce spun around manically, throwing his fists wildly at Tony.
Tony ducked at the last second, leaping back as Bruce flew into the wall, howling.
"Bruce!" he called to him, alarmed. He rushed forward, and grabbed hold of the man's shoulders tightly, "Bruce! Come on, Big Guy! Calm down! It's me!"
Bruce thrashed against his grip. Tony could see Bruce and the Hulk dueling for control in the man's eyes, and Bruce was losing.
"Bruce! It's cool!" He tried to reassure him, "Come on man! You're okay! We're okay!"
Slowly, Bruce grabbed onto his wrist, panting. "Tony?" He asked gruffly.
"Yeah man," Tony assured him, "I'm here. Everything's good."
Bruce slouched forward and took a deep breath. He released Tony's wrists and held up his shaking hands, "I'm good. I'm alright."
"Welcome back." Tony uttered with a crooked smirk, doing his best to hide how frightened he had really been, "What the hell happened?"
Bruce shook his head breathlessly, "I have no idea."