This was bad. This was really, really bad.
Alisson Harper was currently pacing the main lab back at the Compound while Steve called up Sharon. Tony was already on his way with his suit and the rest of the team along with Helen Cho, Erik Selvig, and Maria Hill waited impatiently for any news on Danielle after she'd somehow sent a distress signal telepathically through the Mind Stone on Vision's head.
Steve finally returned with a look of complete horror. Jack, Wanda, and Alice tuned in instantly to hear what he had to say. "Well?" Jack prompted.
Steve shook his head. "She never made it back from ice cream with her friends." He explained.
Alice instantly went into monstrous mother bear mode. "Well, where the hell is she? Was there anything that gave away a location in that signal?" She asked the android in the room.
Vision shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm afraid not. It was only a loud ringing sensation coming from the Stone itself."
"How'd you know it was her then?" Sam wondered.
"I'm not sure." He admit. "The Stone somehow recognized it as her."
"How could this have happened?" Natasha asked. "She moves things with her mind, how could someone get the drop on her like this?" Steve didn't miss the way Alice and Jack flinched simultaneously at the ex-assassin's blunt statement.
"What if..." Wanda trailed off. "What if Eris was released?"
The room fell eerily silent at the thought of that happening. "You think the signal Vision felt was Eris?" Steve asked.
"It's possible..." Dr. Cho said with dread.
"Oh my God..." Alice sank into a nearby stool before she completely collapsed.
"Do we have any way of tracking her other than the Mind Stone?" Rhodey asked.
"Eris..." Selvig said.
"What about her?" Jack wondered.
Selvig turned to face the group with an expression full of realization. "It's been believed that Danielle's alter ego has telepathic powers, correct?" No one knew how t answer as the scientist continued. "What if we could track her through her telepathy?"
"How would that work?" Rhodey asked.
"We need a telepath who's been inside her mind..." All eyes in the room suddenly fell on Wanda Maximoff.
She quickly jumped from where she was sitting and became weary of the plan. "I've told you all before, the last time I tried to get inside her head... It went terribly wrong."
"You wouldn't need to get inside her head again, Wanda." Vision assured her. "Perhaps just trying to detect her mind... It wouldn't even have to be Eris, try to track Danielle."
"You've been inside Danielle's head before, right?" Jack asked her to which she nodded.
Alice let out a humorless laugh from her corner of the lab. "I miss the days where the weirdest thing Jack ever said was that he wanted to become President so he could make jelly beans the National food." Everyone in the room smiled slightly at the joke that seemed to ease the nervous tension in the room.
Steve took a step towards Wanda. "Can you do this?"
Wanda pressed her lips together and nodded firmly. "Yes." Her voice shook slightly, but she knew that the consequences of not finding her little sister would be far dire than just Eris getting inside her head if Eris had in fact been released. "But I might need a bit of a boost from..." Her gaze fell from Steve to Vision.
A few moments later, Vision was seated in a stool in the middle of the lab with many wires attached to his body that were connected to a weird device Cho and Selvig had come up with. Wanda stood behind the android ready to try and find Danielle.
Before she began, Jack walked over and set a hand on her shoulder. "Remember, if she gets in your head, you pull back. Understand?"
Wanda smiled slightly. "I'm older than you, remember? I give the orders out of us enhanced siblings."
Jack let out a small scoff. "Yeah, right, Maximoff." Wanda shook her head before Jack said in a more earnest tone. "Be careful."
She nodded before turning back to Vision. She raised her hands as the rest of the team stood back and watched. Wanda closed her eyes and let both her hands rest against each side of Vision's head. She concentrated on moments that she had been inside Danielle's head, not trying to instantly go into the time Eris got inside her head. When was the most recent? Right! The shopping trip with herself, Danielle, Sharon, and Danielle's Mom when she was calming her emotions. She focused on that moment and that small memory of Danielle's telepathic signature.
Every mind and soul had a unique signature, Wanda came to find that fairly quickly while learning more about her powers. When she'd planted those fearful visions inside the team's minds all those months ago, she'd felt what their minds felt like when fearful. Danielle had a stronger signature of course due to both the connection the enhanced shared through the Mind Stone and her small, untapped telepathic ability.
After a few moments of concentrating, Wanda finally caught into something and gasped out loud. "I think I got it." She murmured before red mist shot of her palms and enveloped the Stone on Vision's head to help boost her abilities for a brief moment. Wanda concentrated even harder on pinpointing Danielle's mind. As she came closer and closer she finally found it. She fully expected Eris when her own mind consciousness came face to face with Danielle's, but instead, all she saw was the innocent girl's grace radiating from the small signature. Wanda let out a sigh of relief. "Eris hasn't been released." She informed the group.
A chain reaction of sighs and huffs of air were set off, but their work wasn't over yet. "Where is she?" Steve asked.
Wanda frowned at that and tried to find a way to pinpoint the exact location of where Danielle was. Vision felt the strain the young enhanced was going through and quickly spoke up, "Focus, Wanda." His soothing voice told her. "You can find her."
Wanda took a deep breath in and let a heavy sigh out before focusing more intently. There was only one way to find out where Danielle was. Wanda concentrated and concentrated before pushing her telepathic consciousness into Danielle's mind.
Danielle awoke with a jolt.
She didn't remember much, but as her consciousness slowly returned, so did her memories. The hand on her shoulder, the prick in her neck, and then black. She had been kidnapped using a drug...
Danielle suddenly became aware of her surroundings. She was in what looked to be an abandoned building on a large empty floor with many broken windows and no light. It was dark outside and it was cold all around. There was a metal cart a few yards away with what looked like needles filled with different colored liquids and many files of what looked like blood...her blood.
Danielle tried to move, but fell instantly back down onto her rear. She looked to the source of what was holding her down and found that her wrists were bound by thick and mechanicalized handcuffs attached to a chain holding her arms above her head. Danielle narrowed her eyes and concentrated on turning those handcuffs to dust, but the moment she felt her powers being called upon from her core, a painful sensation arose from her head as a loud ringing noise blocked her hearing.
She gasped and yelped in pain as the odd sensation passed. What the hell was that?
"Yeah..." A low menacing voice said from the shadows surrounding her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you..." Danielle's eyes darted across the dark room, still unable to find a source to the voice. "...Those handcuffs are made especially to trap freaks like you."
Freaks like her... Whoever this was knew who she was... One word, one dreadful word, popped into her mind... HYDRA. She shifted as far back as the handcuffs over her head would allow her to our distance between her and whoever it was speaking to her.
"There's no need to be afraid, Danielle," The voice said. "I'm not going to hurt..."
Highly unlikely, she thought to herself as she quickly tried to find a way out of this situation like Natasha had taught her in the events of her ever getting captured she saw many open windows she was sure she could escape through. She could debilitate her kidnapper with one of those syringes, possibly. But she knew she wasn't moving anywhere with these heavy duty cuffs on. She finally did the thing Natasha taught her to do if she couldn't escape. Talk. "What do you want from me?" She said in a tone that was barely over a whisper and full of fear.
She could almost hear the smirk of the person In the shadows. "Oh, I want a lot of things from you. Your power, your mind, your knowledge, your capabilities." They listed. "But, I'm not here for you..."
"W-What do you mean?"
"Sorry, Danielle, that's classified." The person said as they slowly stepped out from the shadows. Danielle was able to make out their body. It was a tall, muscular man who was wearing a black metal mask to hide his lower fad and a matching armored black suit. "Sadly, though, you won't be leaving here unscathed."
"What?" Danielle asked, panic rising in her chest as the masked man moved to the metal table nearby and grabbed a small scalpel. "No. No, please, don't do this." She begged as she tried to pull her hands free of the handcuffs holding her down. The man came forward with the sharp object and she kicked and pulled and screamed. "No! NO!"
Wanda gasped and released her telepathic connection from Danielle's mind before staggering back from Vision, breaking her focus.
"Wanda!" Jack cried before rushing over and kneeling beside her. The psychic was sweating all over and shaking from what she'd just seen through the eyes of her sister. "Wanda, are you okay? What happened?"
"D-Danielle." Wanda stammered. "She's in danger. I saw them, they're hurting her."
"Who?" Steve practically growled. The thought of anyone even touching Danielle made the protective soldier in Steve present in that moment.
"I-I don't know. They wore a black mask and black suit..." Wanda murmured.
Alice felt a twinge of realization ping in the back of her mind. Dammit, she thought to herself. "Where are they keeping her?" Alice asked as she knelt beside Wanda.
"Some abandoned warehouse. I'm not sure where." She admit.
"I do." Vision spoke up. "An abandoned office building just outside the New York City limits."
Steve, Alice, Jack, and Natasha were already starting out of the room with Wanda, Vision, Sam, and Rhodey hot on their tails. "Call Tony, tell him to meet us there as fast as he can. Everyone can get prepped on the jet. We leave in five." Steve ordered.
The entire team was already in their uniforms, going over the plan of attack while Sam flew the Quinjet to the warehouse Danielle's kidnappers were keeping her.
"Vision, Sam, and Rhodey will clear the roof." Steve began to has out. "Alisson, Nat, and I will take the lead in and clear the ground floor before making our way up with Wanda and Jack. Tony should be in bound and he'll meet us on the fifth floor where they're apparently keeping her."
"I still don't understand," Jack muttered. "How are they keeping her from using her powers?"
"HYDRA gave us our powers," Wanda began. "They'd want to know how to control them before we did. How to stop us if we got out of line. The person holding her captive had these...handcuffs that stopped her from using her powers."
"We have to get her back before they get whatever it is they want from her." Natasha exclaimed.
"Or before they hurt her anymore." Alice added as she cocked her two pistols and put them into her waistband holsters. "I get first shot at her captor." She stated and everyone in the jet knew better not to argue with her from the look on her face. She was in mother bear mode. And no one wanted to be caught dead on the other end of a mother bear's gun, especially when that mother bear was a trained assassin.
The Quinjet landed a few buildings away from the abandoned office. Just as planned, Vision, Sam and Rhodey took perimeter on rooftops surrounding the building. Steve had called Sharon prior to their arrival and had her order the CIA to evacuate everything within a mile radius of the building in case anything got too hairy. While the flyers took the top, the assassins, super soldier, and enhanced entered through the front.
A few men dressed in black bullet-proof vests holding machine guns guarded the first floor, but were no match to the group. While Natasha and Steve held off the HYDRA men on the left and Wanda and Jack held off the ones on the right, Alice took it upon herself to rush up the stairs to the open seventh floor.
Just across the room, the metal masked man turned around to face Alice with a wide smile. "Silencer." He greeted. "Plan is going smoothly. I took 'samples' of Danielle's blood. Captured her. Made it look like I wanted her powers. The plan is perfect." Alice didn't listen to his rambling as she walked forward and landed a firm punch to his jaw knocking him to his knees. "What the hell?!" He growled.
"You hurt my daughter." Alice growled as she held her pistol to his temple. "That wasn't part of the plan."
"I had to make it look real!" He defended. "So, what, the kid's got a few scraps and bruises! That's what you wanted, wasn't it?!"
Alice held the man's head by his hair before slamming the butt of the gun into his face. "No, it wasn't! Now, where is she?!"
The agent laughed through his bloody mouth. "Oh, no. I ain't telling you where that little freak is until I'm paid for my work, Silencer." He hissed menacingly.
Alice grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into the metal table forcefully and letting him fall to the ground before her. "Where is she?!" She repeated.
The agent laughed. "You know, Rumlow always said you were his favorite. It was why he didn't kill you when he had the chance. I, personally, don't see what all the hype is about."
Alice lowered her gun and fired off a shot into the Agent's thigh. He cried out and laughed. Alice then pressed her boot heel into the wound causing the HYDRA agent to howl in pain. "Where. Is. She." She growled.
"Basement!" He bit out. "Basement!" Alice lifted her boot heel before aiming the gun barrel at his head. Se was about to fire when the agent held up his hands. "Before you shoot me, Rumlow has a message." Alice raised an eyebrow before he continued. "He wanted me to tell you that this little stunt with your kid, it was just a piece of what was to come if you don't get the job done. I'd watch your back if I was you, Harper."
"It's a good thing you're not me then." She said lamely before shooting him point-blank.
Just then, Steve and Natasha came bounding in. "Where is Danielle?" Steve asked, breathlessly.
Alice was already walking past them in a haste as she replied, "Basement." Steve, Wanda, Jack, and Alice rushed down to the basement while Tony, Natasha, Sam, Rhodey and Vision wrapped up everything upstairs with the rest of the agents.
Alice was the first to enter the basement. It was pitch black and cold. There was no sound once they entered. But Steve's sensitive hearing was able to pick up on soft whimpers coming from a far corner of the basement. "Danielle?" He called out.
"Steve...?" A faint cry called out.
"Oh my God!" Wanda gasped before the group ran to the sound of Danielle's voice.
Alice pulled her pistol out and activated the flashlight on tone top while they navigated their way through the basement to find Danielle lying on the ground, her arms held up to the wall with the handcuffs wrapped around her wrists. She was curled into a tight ball and had dried tears flowing down her cheeks. There were fresh scars lining her cheeks, neck, ear, arms, wrists, and legs. She was still in her jeans, purple t-shirt, and Converse tennis shoes she had worn to school that day. Her clothes were now soaked in her own dried blood. "Danielle!" Alice sobbed as she dropped the gun and rushed beside her. She tried to break the handcuffs, but they really were heavy duty.
Steve then walked over and slammed the edge of his shield into them, breaking them into pieces. Danielle's arms fell down from the wall and cried out from the pain it caused by moving her arms.
"Oh, my baby." Alice cried as she pulled Danielle's curled form into her arms.
Wanda brushed the dirty hair out of her sister's face as she cried into her Mom's chest. "We've got you now, Danielle. You're safe."
"Dani?" Jack nudged her knee gently. "We're gonna get you out of here."
"We need to move." Steve stated as he knelt down, he was unable to look at Danielle. He couldn't manage to look at how damaged and hurt she looked curled up on that dirty floor, bloodied and bruised like this. He pressed a finger to his earpiece and spoke into comms. "Danielle needs medical attention ASAP. We're in the basement level. Send the EMT's stat."
"Roger that, Cap. They're on their way." Tony replied.
Within moments, the paramedics came and gently strapped Danielle onto a stretcher before rolling her onto the Quinjet Dr. Selvig and Dr. Cho had taken to get there. They locked down the Quinjet while they performed life saving procedures inside. The only people allowed inside were Wanda, Jack, and Alice. After the procedures, they flew them all back to the Compound while the rest of the team cleaned up the mess in the building with the help of the CIA, thanks to Sharon.
The team left shorty after, letting the CIA take over. What was about to happen next, none of them could have expected.
Alice hadn't left Danielle's bedside for anything other than bathroom breaks and small trips to get more coffee to stay awake. Jack visited every day with Wanda, but stayed for a few hours before they had to leave to get sleep and heal after the office incident.
Natasha visited once, as did most of the rest of the team. But for the most part, they kept their distance while the youngest Avenger got her rest.
She'd been unconscious for a while and when Steve began to panic, Dr, cho had to debrief him on her condition every five minutes it seemed. "She's lost an excessive amount of blood, Captain Rogers. If she were a normal human that didn't have slight regeneration abilities, she would be dead." She stated bluntly causing the Captain to flinch. "But luckily, Danielle is enhanced and will heal normally. She's expected to wake up in a few days. She'll be fine, I assure you."
After that, Steve was able to sleep better at night...kind of. There was something off about how Alice acted during the excursion. She was...too calm for a woman who just had their kid kidnapped. Her reaction to Danielle's wounds was devastated, however, and Steve summed it up to her keeping her cool until she actually saw just how bad they hurt Danielle. Much like everyone else on the team. Even Natasha, the former Soviet assassin on the team, had to admit shed never seen someone do such vile things to a kid her age.
And because of that reason, Steve hadn't gone to visit Danielle once he didn't want to see her broken, weak, bruised, and unconscious. He couldn't. He felt selfish for not being there for her, but he just couldn't bring himself to even think of the small girl being so...hurt. All because of the things she could do. Not all of it was bad, she was a hero. She was pure and innocent. Sure, her powers could kill someone in an instant if she truly wanted them to, but she didn't. She was good, not an ounce of bad in Danielle Harper's soul. But these people, these MONSTERS, had done unthinkable things to her simply because of the remarkable things she could do with just her mind. Disgusting.
When Steve finally went to visit her, it had been four days since she'd been unconscious. Tony was the one to finally convince the super soldier that he needed to at least see how she was doing. When Steve entered the room, Alice-who was sitting at her bedside- hadn't bother to dare him a glance as she met her eyes on Danielle.
"How is she?" Steve asked. He caught a glimpse of the girl's scars lining all along her arms. They were healing at an abnormal rate that he was sure they'd be gone in a few weeks, but the mental scars would always be there.
"Dr. Cho says she'll be waking up soon. She's already taken her off of the stronger pain medications and they took the breathing tube out yesterday." Alice replied in a cold, dead tone.
Steve let out a sigh before taking a seat on the other side of the bed. "What's gonna happen after this?" He wondered.
"I'm leaving with my kids, Captain Rogers." Alice answered. Steve's head snapped to face the woman as she continued to explain. "This life...this Avenging life...it's too dangerous. I'm retiring as the Silencer for the sake of my kids. And I'm taking them with me to a better, safer life. A normal life where they won't be kidnapped because of their powers. Where they can be happy like they were before all of this." She explained.
"That's not your choice, Alice."
"It is." She replied. "I'm Danielle and Jack's legal guardian. They go where I go."
"Alice, you can't do this." Steve exclaimed. "They are not normal. They have these powers, and nothing you can do will take them back-"
"You think I don't know that?" She cut him off. She took a deep breath before continuing. "Do you ever wish you could get a time machine and go back to fix a single mistake. A mistake that could change everything?" Steve nodded, he'd wished he could do that on multiple occasions, especially when he'd first woken up from the ice. "I wish I could go back and change the decisions I made. I wished I'd never let my husband do what he did to our children. I wished I would have figured out who he really was and who he worked for before it was too late." She explained as her eyes drifted to Danielle's sleeping figure. "I couldn't save them from a terrible fate then, but I can now. And you won't get in my way because deep down you know, if they continue on like this...Danielle will be the best-case scenario. You care for them, don't you, Captain?" Steve nodded. "Then you know what's best for them."
Alice made her final argument before standing up and walking out of the room, leaving Steve alone with his thoughts. Alice knew she got through to him. Sooner or later, he would let the kids go and Alice would continue on to the next step of her plan.
She almost stopped. She nearly called off the entire assassination, but the recent attack only made her even more hellbent on getting it done. No one and no thing could stop her from keeping her children safe and fulfilling her mission.
A/N: Oh, I love writing villains. They're so fun to use as torture devices, especially in this case.
Song for the chapter is Game Of Survival by Ruelle.
Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:
Tony: You hacked into a prison security system?
Jack: Is that judgement I'm hearing?
Tony: ...Pride.
