Chapter 25 is here!
Harper's caught red handed! What will they do to Harper? Play nicely, right?!
Warnings: There is a bit of violence/could be considered mini baby torture. NOT A WHOLE LOT, but I wanted a warning nonetheless. ALSO: Harper says a bad word! She's so grounded.
I REALLY DO LOVE HARPER. It might not seem like it right now...but I do.
Disclaimer:The Avengers are the property of Marvel Cinematic Universe. Harper and a few others are mine, but for the most part, everything you recognize does NOT belong to me.
The thugs did not wait to hear what Harper had to say; one of them lumbering over to grab the phone, and throw it against the wall, breaking it into pieces. Harper winced sympathetically.
"Now was that really necessary?" She bemoaned, and the same thug who'd thrown her phone looked to Matthews, who, still beaming, gave him a nod. The thug then turned and unexpectedly backhanded her. The force of the smack had her collapsing onto the cot.
The unexpected hit had the Avengers reeling back in surprise. Steve, despite himself, let out an angry shout, jumping up from the seat he'd sunk into in shock.
Harper, to her credit, seemed unfazed, sitting up slowly and wiping the edge of her mouth, where it had split open. She sent the thug a tight smile.
"Thanks for that, asshole." She spoke clearly, and the thug hit her again, this time with a closed fist. Despite the fact that she'd seemed to anticipate that hit, she still flipped over the cot, her knees hitting the floor, an oof sound escaping her.
Steve turned away, but quickly looked back, an anguished look on her face. Why had he believed she was the enemy so quickly?
She rose slowly from that hit too, growling under her breathe. Once she was fully upright, she sent a lethal glare at the back of the thug who'd been hitting her, who was walking back towards where Matthews stood, smug.
"You hit like a bitch." She said when she was finally standing upright.
The thug growled, and charged her, throwing her onto the cot so she was flat on her back, placing a previously hidden gun against her stomach and without pause pulling the trigger.
This had everyone in the room making noises of shock and outrage. Scott covered his eyes with a screech, and Steve's knees gave out. His Kid; shot in front of his eyes. He let her walk away.
Into a bullet wound, apparently.
Against her will, Harper screamed. Blood immediately began to gush from the wound, and she jerked her head so she could eye Matthews incredulously. He held his position for a few moments, eyeing her wound in an almost predatory manner, the blood seeping out of the hole ominously. Finally, Matthews sighed impatiently and moved forward, jabbing a syringe he pulled from who knows where into her stomach, just above her gunshot wound, injecting a strange white liquid into her. She gasped as the wound immediately began to stitch her flesh back together, and stared in shock as, less than a minute later, her stomach was as unblemished as it had been before she'd been shot.
Clint's eyes were wide as saucers, and Tony nearly salivated at the mouth. What was that?! He wanted it…because science. Bruce wasn't salivating, but he too was interested. And relieved Harper would NOT be bleeding out in front of their very eyes from a gut shot. Of course.
"What was that?" Harper gasped, hands frantically moving over where she'd just been bleeding.
Matthews smirked. "Just something Connors has been working on, an infusion of blood clotting anti-biotics paired with some of Will's super soldier serum DNA. Put those two together and you have a serum that stitches flesh back together. Pretty neat, isn't it?"
"You could say that." Harper spoke softly, also interested because science. But then her eyes darkened, coming to an awful conclusion. Matthews followed her train of thought and laughed.
"Now we can shoot you as many times as we want, and recovery time is almost nonexistent. Takes torture to an entirely new level, doesn't it?" He goaded.
Harper winced. "It does, at that."
Matthews shrugged, his phone going off. He grimaced. "Well. I have to go. I'm very busy, big day and all, too much to be done to deal with such a small issue as you, but I wanted to give you a," Matthews grinned, "present. Hope you enjoyed it." Matthews smirked, then straightened his suit jacket. "Now, I'm off, but here, chat with an old friend. We'll play later." He and his thugs left the room, and Harper glared at their backs as they retreated.
She tensed, as she recognized the man entering her room, and Steve moved to better examine the guy. It was Doctor Connors, Steve recognized, an involuntary shiver overtaking him. This was the psycho genius Har- the kid had been telling them about. Steve couldn't even comprehend what had just been done to her, now what was this guy going to do?
The doctor entered with a stack of files, throwing them onto her lap with a grimace. She sent the doctor a shrewd look before snatching up the files and beginning to examine them thoroughly. He pushed a chair into the room and slid into it with a narrow look as he watched Harper skim the documents.
"What is this?!" She asked after a few minutes, eyes wide with horror. She knew what they were, she was just hoping that she was wrong.
The Avengers and Agent proctor were frozen in nervous anticipation.
"You don't know?" The doctor smiled gleefully. "Good, then that means the Avengers don't either." Doctor Connors leaned back in his chair nonchalantly, smirking as he explained. "That first page shows you the full inventory of every weapon we've swiped from Shield. The second page are the individuals we've sold the weapons to. And the third page is a list of locations that said individuals are planning to attack. The fourth page is of course, the dates and times of all attacks."
Harper laid out the pages, eyeing them worriedly. "The first attack is in two hours, at a Stark facility in Louisiana. You sold the weapons to an ex Extremis employee?" Harper looked incredulously at the doctor, who shrugged.
"Why not?"
Harper rolled her eyes and turned back to the pages. "Then an attack on the school Bruce's girlfriend works at, then a facility in Manhattan that caters to victims of the attack three years ago, a science museum in New Mexico, and then…" Stark had moved, writing down each location Harper mentioned, pausing when Harper went silent.
Harper looked up in shock at Connors. "Abraham Lincoln? The actual Abraham Lincoln?"
The doctor snorted. "No, you idiot child! The monument. The actual Abraham Lincoln died in 1865."
Harper gaped. "First off; that's what you think. Secondly; you can't take out Abraham! He's my favorite president, you know." She added, a frown on her face.
Connors looked confused. "We aim to attack a school, a facility with down on their luck individuals, and a science museum with most likely children inside, and you're worried about a monument?"
Harper said nothing, just raised a brow.
"And they call me the crazy one." Connors rolled his eyes.
Harper smirked and then turned back to the paper. "So this last location must be for your finale, then?"
The doctor smiled. "Yes. We will end the day with an army of enraged crazy terrorists who will attack Shield at their home base, in full view of, well, everyone." He leaned forward, an evil grin splitting his face. "No one is safe. Shield and your Avengers can't be in six different places at the same time, especially if they've got no advance warning, and guess what sweetheart? Only you could tell them that information, and from your little speech, you've made sure they won't come for you."
"They could." Harper spoke suddenly, eyes bright. "What if they do, what if they're on their way RIGHT NOW, and they get this information? You lose."
"They won't come." Connors insisted, matter of fact. "And unless they were on their way this second, and knew where you were, there's no way they'd reach you in time to save you. Their time is much better suited preparing for what's to come, though they won't know when we plan to attack.
Harper was silent. She knew very well the Avengers had no plans to retrieve her, but they didn't have to. They had all the information they needed, she'd just fed it to them. But if IAS was convinced that there was no possible way the Avengers could win, they'd have the advantage.
The Avengers frowned. Steve left the room. He couldn't hear anymore. He just couldn't.
The doctor grinned evilly. "They're not coming. You want to know how I know?"
Connors pulled his phone out. "IAS has spies everywhere. You know a few of them. One of them retrieved this."
The doctor pulled out a small object, grinning down at it. "This is a tape recorder. It was hidden in your backpack, which one of our under covers retrieved and sent to us, via….airmail, if you will. The doctor winked.
Harper rolled her eyes. "So basically they threw it out a window and Davie picked it up and brought it here?"
The doctor shrugged. "Just listen to it. It's very enlightening."
The doctor flipped the switch, and The Avengers winced at the first sentence that spewed out of it.
"She lied to me. And I fell for it."
"She lied to all of us."
"She was a good liar. I genuinely thought she cared for me."
"Steve,"
"I fell for it. She knew what buttons to push and I caved so quickly. It was too easy, finding her, helping her, and then just moving her in. I was surprised by how easily she went along with it. Now it all makes sense."
"She planned this out from the very beginning."
Silence. Then,
"We can't let her get away with this."
"Steve, let's just think about this,"
"No! She's a liar, and she works with IAS. That makes her the enemy."
Another minute of silence, and then a cold voice spoke.
"Fury."
"The kid was a distraction, one I fell for. I must've been out of my mind to fall for it, but I did. I'm not denying that. I promise though, I'm in my right mind now. I see her for what she is; a liar. The enemy. I leave any action you choose regarding her up to you. I want nothing to do with it, or her. Just let me stay on the mission."
"Fine."
Harper was silent. If her eyes were suspiciously bright, what did it matter? She was dead now anyways.
The Avengers sat silently, listening to the words they'd spewed not an hour ago. Clint was just glad Rogers was no longer in the room.
Steve was standing just outside; out of sight of his teammates, but within hearing distance. Listening the to words he'd spouted; he'd believed so quickly that she was the enemy; he'd turned on her so fast; not allowing her even the benefit of the doubt, and it had all been a lie, a lie to protect Clint. Steve scoffed, and strode off. He couldn't…he needed to get away.
Connors face was calculating, his smirk malicious. "They aren't coming for you. They won't ever care about what happened to you, or know how hard you worked to save them, to save everyone. They'll live the rest of their lives believing that whatever goes down today is your fault. They will shake their fists at your memory for the rest of their lives. To be honest, it doesn't even sound as if they liked you very much at all in the first place. And Steve? Well, he can't have cared about you as much as you thought, if he turned his back on you so quickly. You were just a project to him. He never saw you as a person, he never cared about you. I don't think anyone ever really has."
Harper's face was downcast, hidden purposefully from the camera she knew was scrutinizing her every move, even if she didn't actually know who sat on the receiving end of it.
"It doesn't matter." Harper's voice broke a bit, but she took a deep breath, steeled herself, and sent a healthy glare in Conner's direction. "My plan worked. You're here, they're all alive, and they know your plan. They're preparing to take you down as we speak. It's there," Only a slight pause before she continued, "sole priority right now. I don't doubt they'll do it. So there. You have me? Big whoop. You still lose."
Dr. Connors simply smiled. Then he chuckled, lightly at first, but growing in intensity. Harper glowered.
"You want to hear something funny? The Avengers are no longer my top priority. They place a very close second, of course, but you, my dear? You, I despise." Dr. Connors spat hatefully, eyes crazy. Harper frowned, confused.
"I had high hopes for you, and that clever little brain of yours." Dr. Connors slid a gloved finger reverently down her face. Harper didn't flinch, but her glower increased. "But then you ran off, and took all MY data with you, locked up in that pretty little head of yours. The advancements I could've made with a tenth of that knowledge would've taken out the Avengers with no muss, no fuss, and I would've been satisfied. But you attempted to hide that knowledge from me, and I don't like that. I'm in the business of knowledge, as you know, dear girl, and I don't take kindly when my plans are thwarted. Matthews may want the Avengers, and to an extent I do as well, but you, here? That is my prize. And it was so…easy." Connors leaned forward menacingly, an evil grin on his face. His voice softened and his eyes gleamed. "Whether the Avengers successfully defeat our secret weapons or not, at the end of the day, I'm not really concerned either way, because what I want most, I've already got. I get to kill you." Harper's eyes widened without conscious decision, and she grimaced. Connors' grin simply grew at the obvious signs of her distress, and he rose from his seat with a smirk. "So you're wrong. I don't lose. I win." Connors strode to the door, but turned slightly as his hand reached out to grab the doorknob
"Strap her down. Prepare her for injection." He turned the knob as three men dressed in scrubs entered through the door he'd opened, and watched avidly as they began to do his dirty work for him.
Harper jumped as hands grabbed her and forced her flat onto the cot, and straps wrapped around her before she could fight back, removing all hope of escape. Then she felt a cold cloth at both elbows, and the smell of sterilizing fluid gave her a guess as to what was happening. She was hooked up to a heart monitor machine before she could blink, the fast paced beeps betraying her; displaying her level of anxiety for the entire room to see. Then Connors cell phone went off. He groaned.
"I guess your little surprise will have to wait a bit. Just sit there and stew for a while, why don't you?" Connors grinned and darted out of the room, his goons following him. Harper grimaced, but said nothing, eyeing the ceiling angrily. She said nothing to the camera, to Scott, or Clint, and Scott sighed, turning to eye Clint.
"She's done talking. She gave you what you needed. You have an hour before the first attack. You should probably go make your plan. I'll stay here and watch the video feeds. I'll let you know if anything changes." Scott's eyes roamed the room. "She's still alive. Tell Steve that. She's still breathing. Now go. You have a country to keep safe."
Clint nodded, standing up and exiting the room, and the other Avengers followed him slowly, each with a last look back at the video feed. Agent Proctor pushed his chair back, sighing heavily.
Harper WAS still alive. But Agent Proctor had a feeling that wouldn't hold true for very much longer.
Sometimes I hate myself.
Guys...Guys...I do have a plan...with a HAPPY ENDING. I just feel like y'all should be reminded.
Would you punch me in the face if I told you the worst has yet to come?
Steve's upset, and he blames himself, and it's not his fault, and we know that, but Steve can't make that connection.
Any theories on what's next? On my evil plan? I'd love to hear what you think!
ALSO: I'm super worried you're going to hate me...but TRUST ME.
Even if it seems like there's no hope, you can't never always sometimes tell.
I REALLY DO LOVE YOU ALL.
~CLC~