Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the original character.
As soon as they were gone, I sprinted down to the workshop. I HAD to finish my suit. I HAD to follow them. I didn't care what they said- six Avengers and one sort of trained kid were better than just six Avengers.
Thinking logically, I knew that I couldn't finish my suit in time. There was no way. But within fifteen seconds, thanks to Tony setting it up for me, I had on the completed bottom half of my Iron Man suit on and the skeleton of my chest plate and hand thrusters with the Arc Reactor powering the entire thing.
"Holly, my name is Phil. I know this is scary."
I looked up. The guy who my dad always called Agent was standing in the workshop. "Don't care."
"They're going to come back. They're the best team that the world has ever seen. And to be honest, this mission really isn't going to be that difficult for them."
"None of them is invincible," I said tonelessly, putting the finishing touches on my helmet. It glowed to life and I put it on.
"Hello, Holly," a pleasant voice greeted me as the HUD screen lit up.
"Um… hi," I said. "Listen, I need to get to Sokovia, now. Can you fly me there?"
"My name is NOVA. I'm an AI created exclusively to help you work the suit. Right now, JARVIS is showing that the Tower is not under any sort of distress. My apologies, but I cannot justify using the thrusters right now."
I let out a sigh and held out my hand to Agent. "Nice to meet you."
Agent watched me for the next few hours as I worked on my chest plate. I talked while I did it, just kind of babbling. One of the questions he asked me was how I liked living with the Avengers.
"Well, there's Dad. He doesn't sleep, is dysfunctional, and likes robots. Steve's basically a cinnamon roll, calls people son, and only talks about morals- it's gross. Bruce is the nicest, but a huge nerd, like he probs got beat up every day in middle school. Thor eats Pop-Tarts and talks weird. Clint just sleeps and drinks coffee and then gets mad when you try to summon him with bird calls. And then I'm pretty sure Natasha just wants to kill everyone. So, yeah, it's going great." I knew I wasn't making sense, but NOVA was talking to me through my helmet, helping me finish my suit.
Meanwhile, in the snow covered landscape of Sokovia, the Avengers were doing what they did best- kicking ass.
As far as missions went, this one was going smoothly. The offensive, although better than normal Hydra bases thanks to the scepter's influence, was still no match for their power. Looking at the way they fought seamlessly as a team, Steve couldn't help but feel proud about what they were accomplishing as they fought their way through to the building where the scepter was located. They were better than New York- and not just in skills. They trusted each other, they knew that they had each other's backs.
But then it all went to shit, like most Avengers missions usually did.
"Argh!" Came Clint's grunt of pain, and it was obvious that he was down. Two seconds later, so was Cap; he didn't even see what hit him, but he managed to turn the fall into a flip and landed on his feet. "I have confirmed an enhanced human!" Steve barked into the earpiece. So they had succeeded in using the scepters power to give people abilities. This was bad.
"Can someone deal with that bunker!?" Natasha snapped as she tended to Clint, the bunker firing wildly all around them.
Bruce had already Hulked out, and the Hulk went in and ran right through it, easily decimating it.
"Thanks, big guy," muttered Natasha.
"Stark, we need to get inside!" Steve ordered, grunting as he took down multiple enemies at once, praying that Clint was okay.
"Closing in," came Stark's report.
Steve heard a single explosion, and then the force field around the building came down.
"Drawbridge is down, people!" Tony barked.
"Clint's hurt pretty bad, guys," Natasha's voice came over the earpiece. "We're gonna need evac."
"I can get the jet and evac," Thor suggested. "You and Stark, secure the scepter."
"Copy that," Steve agreed.
There was a line of enemies and a tank in front of them; like they practiced, Thor hit Cap's shield with the hammer, creating a sound wave that took the opponents out.
"Find the scepter," Thor said, before winding up his hammer and flying off to start the evac.
Tony was now in the building. He easily took down a dozen soldiers that were trying to shoot at him, then moved on to the next room, where some moron- wait, that was Strucker, the leader of this place- was typing hurriedly at a computer. One shot from Tony's repulsor took him down.
He casually stepped out of his suit. "Sentry mode," he told it before moving over to the computer to copy the software. The suit immediately went autopilot, guarding his back.
"There's got to be more files in here," he murmured after a few minutes. "Hey, J? Give me a scan of the room."
"The wall to your left," Jarvis told him. "I'm reading steel reinforcements."
"Please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door." He pushed on the wall. "Yay!"
The wall opened, leading into a dark and musty corridor, and Stark followed it.
"We have a second enhanced human. Female. Do not engage!" Came Steve's voice over the earpiece.
Tony ignored the words and kept walking. "Guys, I've got Strucker," Steve's voice said a minute later.
"Yeah, I've got something bigger," Tony muttered. The corridor had ended in a vast room with a creature straight out of his worst nightmares in it. A Chitauri whale was handing from the ceiling. Though obviously not living, it still sent shivers down his spine. "Holly," he muttered, trying not to freak out or have a flashback. The sooner he was done with this, the sooner he could get back to Holly. Forcing himself to focus on what was around him, he then saw the scepter. "Thor," he said. "I've got eyes on the prize."
He wasn't aware of anyone sneaking up behind him.
Suddenly, Stark wasn't seeing the scepter, or the room. Just the Chitauri whale, and now, it was alive. When Stark looked around again, he yelped.
His friends… the Avengers. All dead or dying before him. Captain America's vibranium shield was cracked in half, next to a seemingly dead Steve Rogers.
Tony sank to his knees next to Steve and felt for a pulse. Steve's hand came to life, snagging Tony's.
With hate in his eyes, Steve gasped out, "You… could've… saved… us. Why didn't you do more?" before Tony saw the life leave his eyes.
Looking up again, Tony saw a wormhole, infinitely larger than the one in New York. And directly underneath it was…
"HOLLY!" Tony screamed, his voice breaking through several octaves as he ran to his daughter.
The vision broke. Suddenly, Tony was back to staring at the scepter. He looked around at the Chitauri whale- it was not alive. He leaned over and puked. Seeing his daughter, his family like that… it was his worst nightmare. What the hell happened?
Shaking, he stood up. It wasn't real. Holly was safe at the tower. His teammates were waiting outside for him. He just had to grab the scepter and go. He wasn't aware of the two teenagers watching him.
Tony was silent on the Quinjet ride home, disturbed at what he had seen. Clint was injured. Bruce was wiped out from Hulking out. But they had the scepter.
Tony was contacting Jane Foster, so she could set up in the Tower's infirmary. He knew that he had to take care of the team first. But as soon as that was done, he video called Coulson. He wanted Holly to know as soon as possible that he and the rest of her family was coming home. "Jarvis? Dial Coulson."
He waited impatiently. "Agent Coulson did not answer, sir. In fact…" Jarvis sounded disturbed. "I cannot seem to reach any of the servers in the Tower at all."
"What the_" Tony broke off, swearing. He knew that SHIELD was able to get into the tower- he left that loophole purposely, just in case something happened to them. But SHIELD wouldn't be able to disable all of the servers. It would take someone as intelligent as him… "Did Holly disable them again? Did she try to follow us?" Tony asked.
Suddenly, despite their fatigue, the Avengers were once again on high alert.
"If she did, then she is on foot, sir. Nova is still in the tower, so her suit is as well. None of the security of the Tower has been breached, so the most likely case scenario is that Holly disabled the servers and walked out."
"I can't believe I forgot that Holly could disable Jarvis. She probably knocked Coulson out and then tried to hijack a QuinJet. Jarvis, please try to hack into any security footage of buildings around the tower- find her, or whoever left the tower, and find where they went. Cap- let Fury know. Someone needs to go check out my tower right now before Foster goes in, just in case someone else got in when the security was down. And we need to find Coulson. That kid is so grounded when we find her."
Steve looked at his team. Tony was now a wreck, nervous about his daughter, and working desperately from the QuinJet's computer to get Stark Tower's system back up. It took him about ten minutes, but his hands were shaking.
Hell, they all were worried about Holly; New York City was no place for a twelve-year-old girl to go unattended on foot, but if she did in fact hijack a QuinJet- and Steve had no doubt, with a mind like her father's that doing something like that would be no more than child's play to her- she could be anywhere. She could get shot down if the military thought she was flying an enemy bird. Or, if she did go on foot, she could have been kidnapped by someone not even related to Hydra, just a psychopath off the streets. Anything could have happened. Steve felt sick to his stomach as his brain flipped through the worst possible scenarios.
Everyone was silent after Steve contacted Fury. They were all waiting for Jarvis's report back, to see if he had anymore information from him. But Fury called the Avengers back first. In the background was the living room of the tower. Coulson was not with him.
"Avengers, your mission isn't over yet," Fury said gravely. "Stark, your daughter appears to have been kidnapped by an unknown individual. They slipped in, knocked Coulson out from behind, damn near killed him. He's still out. Your kid is not here. I saw that you were building her a suit." He glared at Stark disapprovingly. Like Tony cared right now. "Your workshop is trashed. Her suit is in pieces. I grabbed the software card off the helmet and uploaded it to the server, you need to enter the passcode- it's encoded. Maybe the AI that was in her suit can enlighten us what happened. Stark… it looks like a kidnapping. There's a bunch of blood. Some of the blood is hers; the rest, we're still waiting for a match, but it only looks like one other person. Get back here, get some rest, and while you're doing that, we'll be gathering intel. We're going to find her."
The video screen flashed off. Tony passed out.
The pounding in my head woke me up. I realized I was lying on a cement floor in a room that wasn't very big- 6x6 feet at the most. There was a singular bulb lighting up my surroundings. I turned my head to the right and retched until there wasn't anything left in my stomach. After a few minutes of lying there and trying to keep the world from spinning, I tried to remember what had happened to me.
I couldn't remember exactly what had happened in the workshop of Stark Tower. I think I saw someone in my peripheral vision- the details were too blurry, but I think it was a woman- take Coulson and throw him across the workshop. I had reacted in complete panic- fired my thrusters, tried to activate Nova to take me away from there, and then-
An explosion. My chest burning. I think my Arc Reactor blew up. I must have done the chest plate wrong. My suit shut down. The legs were too heavy to move, and I was stunned, anyway, too out of it to move even if the suit hadn't trapped me. And then I got stabbed with a needle and the world went black. The tranquilizer must be why I felt so horrible, why my head was so foggy. .
I had no idea how long I had been out for, and that worried me. I could be anywhere in the world right now. Well, I couldn't do anything now. Had to think, use the information that I had and the little training I had done in Stark Tower to escape this prison. What would the Avengers do? How would they deal with this situation? I tried to think of it, tried to think how they would escape so- I dunno, I would have some sort of epiphany or something. Steve and my dad would fight their way out. Natasha and Clint would sneak out, Bruce would Hulk out and smash everything. Thor was a god, for shit's sake. He's zap himself out. I closed my eyes. It hurt thinking about them, my dysfunctional, but loving family. Were they okay? Were they back from Sokovia? Were they worried about me, or did they not care?
I brushed off my last thought. Of course they cared. And I knew that they'd be doing their best to find me.
I don't know how much longer I was laying on the floor, my thoughts racing and my head pounding. I couldn't seem to focus on only one thing.
The door opened, and the harsh light felt like it was an ice pick stabbing through my forehead straight to my brain. I was dragged roughly to my feet (the motion made me start gagging again) and handcuffs were snapped on my wrists. I felt too out of it to resist. Someone- no, two someones- were half-dragging, half carrying me through a dimly lit, dingy corridor.
When my eyes adjusted, I had to laugh. I was twelve, grossly undersized, and there were two musclemen escorting me. They didn't look American; they looked sort of Egyptian. I couldn't be sure, since the whole mixing pot thing, but it could be a safe guess to assume that I was not on U.S. soil anymore.
"What? You guys are afraid of a little girl?" I jested, trying to get them to talk, trying not to give in to the pounding in my head or the fear coursing through my veins. As far as migraines went, this one took the cake. But I had to figure out more about where I was- I needed to find some way to get a message to the Avengers.
The man muttered something in a different language and thumped me across the back. I fell flat on my face and felt my nose break. I tried to think through the pain and blood. Obviously, these thugs weren't able to tell me anything. I wasn't sure what language he was speaking; it sounded coarse, though. Maybe German? Russian? I had no clue. I swore internally at myself for not studying different languages. I had thought knowing binary code was cooler.
It was hard now not to panic. Where the hell was I? In the back of my brain, I heard Tony telling me to take in my mechanical surroundings, Steve telling me to be brave, and Natasha telling me to think through the fear. I started using some of the breathing techniques from Bruce. Whatever these guys were taking me too, I could handle it.
After what felt like a mile, they finally stopped in front of another prison cell like door and dragged me into the room. Easily defending themselves against my weak kicks (any sudden movement caused white lights to flash across my vision), they strapped me down to a table and then removed my cuffs. I now had restraints over my ankles, wrists, hips, chest, and neck. The blood from my broken nose was trickling down the back of my throat, thanks to the fact that I was flat on my back, and I tried not to choke. For the first time, I was terrified and couldn't think at all. What were they going to do to me that required being strapped down like this? Where was my dad?
A bald man walked in wearing a lab coat. My heart rate, if possible, kicked up another notch.
"Holly Stark, my name's Ajax. I manage this facility. This is a HYDRA-led program that turns extraordinarily gifted people like yourself into people of extraordinary abilities. But if you think super human powers are acquired painlessly, well..." he smirked. I scowled back. "I'm injecting you with a serum that activates any mutant genes lurking in your DNA. For it to work we need to subject you to extreme stress." The man had a British accent and an ego that could probably rival my father's.
"Extreme stress is what you're gonna be feeling when my family comes and kicks your ass," I said, trying to sound confident and cheerful. "Don't you know? My dad's Iron Man.
"They're not coming, Holly. They're dead." He smiled creepily. "See, we fed them the information about the scepter being there- they fell for it, right into the trap. They're dead because of you. So I suppose you had better think about what you're going to say at your father's funeral- oh wait. You won't be there."
This was by far the worse I've felt since I've woken up in this hell hole. "Yeah, I won't be there- because it's not happening. My father isn't dead," I said, my voice cracking, all traces of confidence gone.
"Whatever you say. Maybe you'll believe it when he and the rest of your pathetic 'family' never come to save you. Hard to mount a rescue mission when you're six feet under." Ajax shoved a needle into a vein in my forearm.
I refused to scream. I refused to beg. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction, and I still didn't believe that my father was dead. He was Tony Stark. He laughed at death. "Why me?" I gasped out as he hooked up the IV line.
"Ms. Stark, with who your father was? You are already extraordinary. With this… who knows what you'll become. But we'll find out, now wont we? This is how it's going to work. Adrenaline acts as a catalyst for the serum, so we're going to have to make you suffer. If you're lucky, your mutant genes will activate and manifest in spectacular fashion. If not, well, we'll have to keep hurting you. In new and more painful ways, each more different than the last. Until you finally mutate. Or die."
"I don't need my father. I'll kill you myself, you son of a bitch."
"Foul language isn't very becoming in a young lady." He flipped the switch and the blue liquid started to seep through the IV lines. "Hail HYDRA," He whispered before exiting the room.
The blue liquid reached my veins and I started screaming. I don't think I stopped until the pain finally caused me to pass out. And maybe not even then.
