Well, this sucks. I thought to myself, once again stalking around the perimeter of the containment room. I had been around it at least twelve times, looking for any way out. So far, the only place had been the front door. There were no air vents, and the light fixtures were permanently bolted to the ceiling. How did they even replace broken bulbs?
I couldn't break out unless I either used the door or powered up. And neither of those were options. I would just have to wait for someone to take me to a different room in this stupid base to make my escape. It needed to come soon; how much more of this quarantine, I wasn't sure I could take. My body wanted to turn, to bust out of this place and destroy something. But I knew I couldn't do that. If I did, they would chase me forever. Just like those freaking crazies from the house.
As I was thinking about how to get out, the lights went off and red ones went on in my room and in the hallway. "Great, what is this? Decontamination? So I can finally leave?" I grinned, happy to get out finally.
"SHIELD, listen closely. You have something of ours and we want it back." I felt the grin slide off my face as the familiar, terrifying voice crackled through every speaker in the room. "We are prepared to take it by force, if you do not give it up in seventy- two hours. Don't bother pretending you don't have it; we watched you take it from the field. We have your base under surveillance. If you make a move to hide it, we will attack. If you try to mobilize against us, we will attack. If you do anything except move it to the drop location, we will attack." The TV crackled to life, a photo coming through on the screen, grainy black and white depicting the subject. "In case there is any confusion, we want this. Laylia Harker." I gripped the desk, keeping myself upright while dizzily looking at the picture. "If she escapes, we will find her on our own. Remember, seventy- two hours. We will send more information." The red lights flickered off, and the regular lights came back on. I slowly slid to the floor, nausea and horror filling my entire body. Shaking, I stared at where the picture had been. How? How had they found me? I had disappeared after every fight I had with them. It had been two months since I had last saw them, but I had given them the slip. How could they have found me?
I heard the door slide open, and loud footsteps come into the room. I looked up at Mackenzie, Simmons, and Johnson, who were looking down at me. Behind them, the chick from earlier and two other guys were conversing in whispers. I swallowed and shakily stood, keeping a hand on the wall for support. I cast a glance at Johnson. For once, she didn't look mad, but looked in between scared and concerned.
"Who was that?" The woman asked, looking at me. "And don't say you don't know them, because they sure seemed to know you." I looked at the floor, trying to think of a way where I didn't have to tell them anything. I grit my teeth together. This wasn't going to end well for anyone. I had no doubts that their base had been compromised, and that it was under surveillance as well.
A hand reached out to grab mine. I looked up at Simmons, her face telling me that she knew what I was, or at least knew my stories were lies. The look she had told me that it was time to come clean, about everything. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, trying to shake off the terror I still felt. "You want to know the truth about me? Everything? Because I will tell you. It's not fair for you to not know what you're dealing with. For you to not know who you're dealing with.
"I was born in a lab. My mother wasn't from Earth; I don't know where she was from. I don't know my father. After I was born, my mother died as a result of bioweapons testing. The scientists at the lab were trying to make a weapon powerful enough to take out an alien army. After several years of testing on my mother, she finally was finished. I was two.
When she died, the scientists were furious. They had lost the perfect test subject, one that could regenerate as long as they weren't killed. I was being taken care of in a different part of the lab. I didn't know that the games I played were actually tests to see if I had a power like my mother. One of the scientists saw something in the tests, and he tried to provoke a reaction from me. When he did, they dropped all research from my mother's tests and began testing on me. Every day, for hours, I would go through pain and suffering. I still have some of the scars from it. And every minute I endured under their tests, I built up anger and hatred.
By the time I was four, I was a mess. Every person that came near me, I wanted to kill them. I wanted to make them hurt the way they had hurt me. But there was a group of men tasked to keep me in check, called Chaos. Any time I stepped out of line, they were there to reprimand me. The pain that I felt during the tests was nothing compared to what they did to me. I feared them more than anything in the world. And their leader was the worst. He dreamed up new ways to punish me, and had the scientists invent something called the Fear Helmet. It keeps you in the scariest situation you could ever think of, for as long as the timer is set. He would keep me in it for hours.
Until, a new person showed up. He was kind to me. He would bring me food, he would stop Chaos from hurting me. He wanted to help me in every way he could. I thought of him as a father, and he acted like one. One day, he heard that Chaos were going to use the Fear Helmet again. He took me out of the lab that day.
I used my powers to get us out safely. We ran for months, finally settling in a rural town. But somehow, they found us. They killed him so I wouldn't resist going back. But I couldn't take it. All the pain and anger I felt spilled over, and I killed every single one of those Chaos bastards. Or so I thought.
A few years later, I was attacked by them. They were new faces, all except one guy. His last name was Keller. I thought I had killed him, but it turns out that someone had been wearing his face. I knew I had to stay away from them, so I continued to move around. Every time I settled, though, they would find me and try to take me back. That's why there have been blue flashes of light everywhere, and people turning up dead. I end up killing at least three of them every time. The man on the intercom was Keller. And make no mistake, however well you think this base is protected, or how prepared you think you are, he will waltz in here and destroy every single person until he has found me. I wasn't the only person experimented on in the lab. Just remember that." I finished the story, finally calmed down enough to tell it, minus a few parts. The six agents stared at me, all of them in shock.
"So, what do we do, Director?" Johnson turned to look at one of the men, who frowned and scratched his head. "I think it's time we get in the field and take down these bastards." He looked at me. "I'm still not entirely sure I trust you. I want Mr. Reyes in on this op, just in case you lose control." I swallowed, nodding my head even though I had no idea who 'Mr. Reyes' was. "Let's get to work, team. Coulson, you take point."