They call her Human Torch! Chapter 4
In the end it took 30 minutes for Jane to get here and when she did, she and Darcy kept looking at my face and body like I was on display on a museum. To top it off they looked at Paul up and down like a tree they are debating to climb or not, him being all for the climbing if his smug smirk was anything to go off.
"Bella I would never judge you for plastic surgery but I mean, I don't think that is what you went through? Why are you all bruised up and so pretty? It's not like you weren't before but I mean I'm not sure if you are you or if you are some spy body double that is trying to hide something… you're hot! I just don't understand? Oh! Did they experiment on you? Is that what really happened? Like in those comic books where they inject you with something but instead of it going wrong and deforming you it went right and perfected you? Because that's awesome."
"Isn't that the story of Captain America?"
"No he volunteered for that stuff didn't he?"
"Darcy! Jane! Just let me explain everything and don't interrupt okay? It's hard enough to put it all together so you both just listen please."
I took a deep breath to build up a nerve to start talking. I didn't even know where to start so I just told them about my first day of school in Forks, meeting up with Jake in La Push, telling me the legends which Paul explained right then and there, there were times that they wanted to interrupt or they would give me looks that questioned my sanity but ultimately they respected my request of staying silent until the end. I told them about the baseball field and of going to Phoenix with Alice and Jasper, I showed them the bite mark and Darcy lost the unbelieving look when I told them about the ballet studio burning down.
"I called to tell you about that but you never answered, I never told you that our old ballet studio burned down that summer."
I interrupted her and kept telling them about waking up in the hospital with all the injuries, I told them everything I could remember up until my birthday incident. It was painful to repeat to Sam and the pack but it was even worse to tell Darcy about how Edward left me, she was the one person that wouldn't judge me and would just hold me while I cried over it. I could see she wanted to hug me but instead she came and sat by my feet. Jane and Darcy started crying with me when I told them the real way Charlie had died, I told them all about Victoria and how the wolves patrolled around La Push constantly now. When I got to the part about the space station they were paying very close attention, it had been all over the news for a week now and the public still did not know exactly how things went wrong or how the deaths happened. Darcy was really sobbing now that I had told her how Ms. Storm saved my life, Jane had never met her but she was very angry and kept calling Mr. Von Doom every name in the book, she was very let down because she always admired how he built up his company so fast and had the best lab workers in his staff. I could tell that they did believe me now although they were not sure how it was possible and they did not know why I was telling them everything now. They were just as confused as I was when I told them about waking up in the private hospital, we didn't understand why I had been put so far and why the doctor seemed to think it was an accident in a lab instead of being told what really happened. I told them about Mr. Vitter being sent by the company but I saved that for last because I knew it was time to show them what I had been talking about when I said he freaked out about the 'side effect'. I had been practicing all day yesterday before going to the airport on how I would show them, I was still nervous but Paul gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and I got up to show them.
"Just, don't freak out okay?"
I took a deep breath and let my whole arm be covered in flames. Darcy jumped a foot in the air.
"Shit! What the fuck?!"
She reached out to touch it but I quickly turned it off and stepped away
"Are you crazy? It's fire Darcy! You could get hurt!"
"Why doesn't it hurt you?"
"I have no idea, I don't know how or why this happened."
Jane got up slowly and came towards us, she seemed to be having an easier time accepting this than Darcy had. She looked very fascinated in what this could mean and that is what I was hoping for from her, I knew without asking that she would help me figure it all out.
"The cosmic cloud altered your DNA. That's the only possible explanation."
"Yes that is what I was thinking but the others that were exposed are dead. I have no way of knowing if it was because I was only partially exposed or if the energy somehow mixed with the venom from James's bite. The radiation shouldn't have altered my body like this. Only the venom could have made my body seem attractive, and it burned so much until I passed out. I was out for almost 3 days which is how long the change is. Those are all vampire traits but I still eat food, nothing about my diet has changed, just that maybe I eat more and Paul said I don't smell anything like vampires so I don't know."
I finally ended by telling them about all the tests that the wolves had put me through and what the news had said about footage.
"If there was a camera in that section of the lab and the footage exists then I need to see it, it could explain something maybe. I don't know how it could affect the trial or what it could prove but I have a feeling his lawyers are going to do everything they can to make me disappear."
"Are you going public with this?"
"I think I have to. He needs to pay."
They both nodded in agreement but I could tell they were worried.
"I don't even know how to go about it though. I don't want to go to the news cameras, I want to go straight into court and the people who are prosecuting him."
"I think the company investors are the ones that are leading that right now with their own group of lawyers. The news said they have been having meetings everyday in order to speed up the trial and all investigations. You know these things take months but of course both sides are full of rich assholes so it has been moving very fast. The building is still on lock down but as far as they can tell no more police vans have showed up so they think the search is almost done of all the floors and new footage this morning says that they even went through his penthouse."
"Well I just have to figure out where the meetings are and how I can get in."
"Just take your old badge and ID they have to know you are the one that survived. I'm sure they would have called you to the stand later when the trial began but beating them to it will look better for sure!"
"You're right, yeah I'll do that tomorrow then. I'll start at their main office on 8th street if they are not there then someone could point me in the right direction or I could just wait for the guy we saw on the news. What was his name?"
"Stanley Lent I think."
"Darcy that's the guy he killed. His name is Johnathan Evert. He is the new head of the stock and business investment club, he was second in command and Stanley Lent was the leader. I read that a bunch of Mr. Von Doom's lawyers have either quit or gone to work with the investors. They must know something or are just looking to get a pay off."
"Duh! They are all jumping off the sinking ship that is Von Doom industries, he is totally gonna lose this case and no one will hire them if they stay on with the company, it's a loss on their careers."
The rest of the afternoon was spent going to the market and restocking the bare kitchen, Darcy and Jane had survived off carry out apparently. I cooked while Paul charmed the girls and I was so relived that he was not being rude or standoffish like he usually is in La Push. Dinner was peaceful and I was glad that everyone was too hungry to make conversation, I didn't want to talk about anything, I was too focused on what I could possibly say to a bunch of men that were probably prosecuting Mr. Von Doom in order to get their money back. Would they even care about the lives lost? I don't know what I would do if I stood before them only to find out that they were a bunch of heartless men like Mr. Vitter. I waited until the time was appropriate before saying goodnight, all of the day's events had my still sore body aching. Paul would be staying with me since it was only a 2 bedroom apartment and Jane had taken to falling asleep on the couch instead of going home, we didn't mind since we knew how dangerous the streets were so late at night and even though I was not as comfortable as Leah said I would be, night after night of burning my clothes had definitely made me less self conscious in front of the guys. Paul and I had fallen asleep on Sam's couch plenty of times so I resolved to just not think about it too much. Showering and changing to my sweats I gently laid my body down, shifting until I found a spot that hurt less. I didn't have to worry about awkwardness when Paul came in because not a minute after my head hit the pillow, unconsciousness took over.
All day I had been running around. ALL DAY. I woke up bright and early to catch a cab down to 8th street where Johnathan Evert had his main office but then I had been directed to their meeting place in the financial district, I figured it would take too long to be stuck in traffic from East Village all the way through Bowery, down through Little Italy, past Chinatown and finally to the iconic Financial District which happened to have the worst traffic due to business men and all the tourists around Wall street and the world trade center. My destination was past all the busiest places, walking would certainly be faster but half way through Chinatown I had been through too many shoves and rude crowds, my bruised body ached and my patience was running thin, I knew if just 2 more people pushed me out of their way I would burst into flames here and now. I gave in and figured if I didn't have an appointment then I didn't need to rush, calling a cab I gave him more than enough cash to get me to William street as fast as possible though there weren't any empty streets at this time I could still hope. Finally after an hour I made it to south financial district, there weren't many tourists here but as I passed the Von Doom Inc building I did see all the news cameras people were talking about. I decided to get off here and just walk the last 2 miles. Seeing the building now gave me chills, a part of me felt like I was looking upon a dark omen and another part just wanted to walk in and take the elevator up to Ms. Storms office. Turning a corner I followed the walking directions on my phone and I saw the building I would be going to, it was much more modest and looked to be no more than 10 floors I knew that was small for New York office buildings but really how much space do investors need? Von Doom Inc had been a 72 floor building and the first 60 floors were all different departments, not even I had been to all of them but I knew it was one of the most expensive buildings in New York, I always felt Mr. Von Doom was a pretentious asshole!
Walking into the lobby was very intimidating. The whole first floor seemed to be a 'Lobby' although there were no chairs, no windows and actually no furniture whatsoever! Looking up I saw one lone reception desk against the farthest wall, I couldn't help but think this had to be a type of tactic, whatever it was for worked like a charm because as the grumpy woman stared me down while I did the whole minute walk to her, the silence completely killed off half of my courage, I seemed to forget what I was going to say too.
"Hi."
She scanned me up and down before raising an eyebrow.
"What name is your appointment under?"
"I- I don't have one but-"
"No one comes in without an appointment."
"I just need to speak with Mr. Eve-"
"Ms, this is a private building, no appointment no entry. Am I going to have to call security?"
I swear this fucking bitch is enjoying herself!
"Look Ms I am not leaving until I talk to someone about Mr. Von Doom! You can direct me to someone or I can get on that elevator behind you and hit every floor until I figure out who Mr. Evert is! You bet your ass I can and will do it. Don't think that dinky little guard coming down the stairs can stop me, I saw you press the security button."
Shit! I need to pull myself together! God why did I make Paul go play tourist with Darcy?
"Ma'am I need you to come with me."
"No, I am not leaving. I have information that needs to be heard. I can say it to the board and help them prosecute Von Doom or I can go to the news stations and tell them all about how the investors are only looking for revenge for their chairman's death and don't care about innocent people dying on that space station. I will tell them all what actually happened up there!"
Stupid! Of course that is what I should have led with! I tell them I was on the space station and look! Now they listen! Both the receptionist and the guard looked alarmed and she quickly picked up the phone to make some calls. I stood there for 4 minutes and she still would not look my way. Finally 2 minutes more and a tall woman with curly blonde hair came straight up to and offered her hand.
"Hello dear, my name is Angelina Stein, I was Mr. Lent's head lawyer and am running the group in charge of Mr. Doom's prosecution, could I see your ID? Linda here say's you claim to have been on the space station however we have spoken to all the employees, all except one. Are you Ms. Swan?"
"Yes Ma'am, I am."
"You fell off the grid Ms. Swan. We have been looking for you. Now your ID please. We need to verify."
I quickly took it out and handed it over along with my employee badge, she then went and swiped it through some device 'Linda' had on her desk. Was that supposed to mean something? Like a machine to see if it is real or not? Mrs. Stein kept looking at the picture and then looking back at me until I had enough.
"I've lost some weight over the last 3 years since I took that picture!"
She gave me one last stern look before tilting her head and motioning me to follow her towards the elevator. As she passed the reception desk she threw a glare Linda's way and I held myself in check to not stick my tongue out at her… twat! I know Paul would agree with me on that one. I was right in my assumption, the elevator only had 12 buttons and that was including the basement and lobby. We went up to floor 8 and down 2 empty hallways until we got to a door that said 'Conference room 8B' so far I had not seen or heard anyone in this building other than the 3 people I had spoken to. As soon as I stepped through the door however was a whole 'nother situation. There were at least 25 people in here! And every single one stopped what they were doing to look up at me. Great.
"Gentlemen, this is Isabella Swan."
That's it? No explanation, no you have the floor, just my name? And gentlemen is right because we were the only 2 women in here! They were all looking at me with expectant looks on their faces and I realized these were business men, they were not here to socialize, they obviously knew who I was but wanted to know right away why I was here. No games.
"Hello. I have been keeping up with the news of the company since I woke up last week, as soon as I found out Mr. Von Doom had been arrested I took the first flight back to New York. I'm not sure how much I can help but I needed you all to hear my side of the story, especially now that there are rumors of footage."
The man I had seen on the news, Mr. Evert stepped forward and gestured us all to sit down.
"Ms. Swan, now is the time to tell your story, we will listen and we will archive everything you say but keep in mind that the footage of the incidents has all been seen by the people in this room, trying to give us false information which leads to false accusations can and will be punishable by law. Every thing you say from this moment forward is in the assumption that you are agreeing to let us call you to stand and use whatever you say for or against you. Recording will begin as soon as you do."
He nodded towards me and pushed a recording device to my side of the table, it seemed everyone had procured some type of notepad or laptop and were paying close attention to me. I cleared my throat and thanked god that I had told Sam, Darcy, and Jane the whole story. By now I was able to put it in a way that made sense.
"My name is Isabella Swan, I started an internship at Von Doom Inc this summer and was soon mentoring under Ms. Storm. During my first few weeks at the company I witnessed many meetings with Mr. Richards as he explained his research on cosmic energy. An experiment was quickly planned and the day before the departure, I got to work only to be told by Ms. Storm, Mr. Richards, and Mr. Von Doom, that I was being invited strictly as an observer on the space station. I was very excited and agreed to go right away. The next day everything seemed to go normal as far as I could tell, we arrived and Mr. Grimm was sent to do his task and arrange the flowers that would be experimented on. I was with Mr. Richards when the system started changing track and announced that we had minutes before the cosmic cloud hit. We were supposed to have 7 hours. Mr. Richards quickly ran to get both Ms. Storm and Mr. Von Doom, I noticed that he seemed annoyed to be interrupted and didn't have any urgency to the danger we were all in, after Ms. Storm double checked the systems she along with Mr. Richards and I ran to the air lock chamber where Mr. Storm was already located. The cosmic cloud was coming too fast and even though Mr. Grimm jumped to try to get to the chamber, gravity was too slow. Ms. Storm suddenly appeared at my side and pushed me back to where Mr. Von Doom was at, she told me he was going to close the shields to protect the space station. When she stepped back out of the room the wall/door was already half closed. The last thing I saw- the last time I saw them, they had their hands pressed against the glass as they waited for Mr. Grimm. I started to cry and that was when an employee came into the room and pressed a button on the outer wall, he told Mr. Von Doom that the room was not as safe as previously thought, Mr. Von Doom quickly strode to the door way and made it out on time but I unfortunately tripped, he looked back at me with a snide grin and kept walking, the door closed and I was alone. The countdown finished and I remember seeing a pink colored chemical come in through the crack of the door, when it reached me it cut off my ability to breath and it burned my skin horribly. When it became too much, I thought I was dying, the pain was unbearable so I forced myself to take a deep breath of the cosmic radiation, I figured it would kill me quicker. I lost consciousness and woke up in a private clinic, my emergency contact was with me and he explained that the company never told him what had happened to me, they simply sent a private jet for him and brought him to my location. When a doctor came in. he clearly did not know what had really happened, he was told that I had inhaled dangerous chemicals at work and when I asked him about the others, he said I was the only one brought in by paramedics, he said that my employer 'must be very worried because they left notes to call as soon as I had woken up'. It was not until later that a nurse came in and took my temperature, it was extremely high and she thought the thermometer was broken so she left to find another. I got increasingly worried because I felt myself growing hotter still. I started to panic when I looked down and saw my hands were actually caught on fire, it did not hurt, I could actually not feel the actual heat of the flames then."
So far they seemed to believe everything I said but this was the most important part of my story. I got up, took a deep breath, and once again like last night, let my arms be covered in flames. They all seemed to have different reactions. Some jumped back in fear, others in disgust, some were so focused in writing what was happening that only their facial expressions showed their shock. One man in the back jumped up and pointed an accusing finger at me.
"You are a mutant!"
"I was not before, the cosmic cloud somehow altered my DNA. I was so shocked when this first happened that I could not turn it off."
"Do you have control of it now?:
"For the most part. If I grow very angry or frustrated then I have a hard time keeping it in, if it does come out I've learned this past week how to rein it in quickly,"
"Please Ms. Swan, do continue the story, we would like to close this recording and open a new topic afterwards. If you would be willing."
I simply nodded and gave a silent thank you for them not completely freaking out, although some of them no longer sat next to me and others looked at me with distrust they were at least still listening.
"My friend freaked out as well but he helped my figure out that if I calmed down then it would go away. I had just calmed down when Mr. Vitter came into my room. He explained that he was a lawyer for Von Doom Inc, he was offering me a severance package and some papers to sign but I never did, I asked him about the others and he told me about the survivors but then went on to tell me that as expected in that situation there were casualties, when I found out they had died, I lost it. I started crying and my friend knew I would lose control. He asked Mr. Vitter to step out while he calmed me but at some point he came back in and saw that my hands were on fire. He freaked out and started saying that the company had turned me into a mutant, that it changed everything and that the papers he had with him for me to sign had to be revised. He was very worried about the papers but I never found out what was on them. When I asked him what I should do he told me that the news did not know I was the only survivor so that I should stay far away from New York, he said he would contact me in a week but he still hasn't. I came here and am ready to expose myself in order to get justice for Ms. Storm. If it were not for her, I would not be here. She knew what was going to happen and she saved me. Mr. Grimm would not have made it in but Mr. Richards and Mr. Storm had no chance, they were left outside the shield to die! Mr. Von Doom was selfish and chose to protect himself, he had no regard to any life but his own. It is his fault they are dead. He knew that he had messed up, that is why I woke up in that clinic in Colorado. There is no other reason why he would place me so far from New York and not tell the doctor what really happened to me. He needs to pay for his actions!"
Of course I was angry just thinking about him but still I was in control, they didn't think I was because they asked me to sit back down and calm down.
"I'm not going to set your building on fire."
"We know that, I have to apologize for our shocked behavior and also for the way your situation was handled. The information confirms many things for us and it was certainly helpful. We would like to thank you for that and although we will be asking you to assist in our case, we would encourage you to select one of our lawyers to start up with your own case against Mr. Doom, we would have more of a chance at prosecution if there are 2 cases along the same lines against him. It would start as 2 but once trial starts up we can formerly ask the judge to merge the cases in order to ask for maximum sentencing."
I could only nod my head since I was kind of over whelmed and happy that they were willing to work with me.
"There are many things that are stacking up against Victor but for the most part we will be inviting you and Ms. Masters to join our meeting only when they will be about the space station. There are other parts to this case that we are not at liberty to share until the trial."
"Ms. Masters?"
"Yes, she was Mr. Grimm's fiancee. She is the only other person aside from Mr. Grimm's mother that is actively working with us on the case."
I felt my throat tighten in thought. I never stopped to think about their families or how they must be feeling.
"Are no other family members involved?"
"No Ms. Swan. As far as we know, Mr. Richards was orphaned at a young age and only had a friend in Mr. Grimm. Mr. and Ms. Storm are survived by a father but, he has not been in a right frame of mind for a while. We are trying to get their wills in order to tie them into the case as well. I can assure you that we are actively working to build a strong case. Even if he gets away with one thing, surely he can't escape all the charges he will be faced with."
"Money does miracles sir. I'm sure you can understand where I am coming from."
"I most certainly do, however I can't imagine he has enough money to bribe anyone at the moment. We pulled all our money from the company, it is now paying for itself and with no work being done and no new money coming in, well I don't see how the company will stay afloat for too long. Victor is very frivolous with his money, he spends millions every month just to make the building look presentable. He must be using any personal savings to keep paying his group of lawyers. We will see how long he can keep it up."
Another lawyer came up behind Mr. Evert and has a new badge along with some papers.
"Ms? Please follow me. I would like to debrief you on these papers and give you a schedule for which meetings you will be allowed to attend. We need your contact information and these papers are for your statement, it will give up permission to ask for Mr. Vitter to be involved in the case. This badge is for you to gain entry through our private side door we just need a picture and your fingerprint to activate it. I can explain them all further if you'd like?"
I nodded and followed him out of the room. There was a feeling in my chest that I could not describe, through the beginning of this I always felt that I could not really help because I was just a teenager, I always had the idea that graduating from college and getting a job would make me an actual adult but now, realizing that these people were taking me seriously and listening to what I had to say, I felt like this is the beginning of my new path. A path where I was my own person, not holding on to vampires that could love me and care for me, not hiding behind horse sized wolves to protect me. This is something I am starting and finishing on my own.
