Here we are! A new chapter of DOOG! Hope you'll like it as much as I do! :D
[ December 1977 ]
Barney gave her a little touch in the shoulder to catch her attention, he already found him. Lynette moved her eyes from the volunteer -who was explaining to them the tasks of the day- to the little boy. He was at the age of six but anyone could see the resemblance with his father –Barney had that look too. "Thank you for your time, we appreciate the help." Lynette smiled to her and without taking a look she took one of the presents from the pile.
Barney and Lynette Barton were twins but they couldn't be more different –physically and psychologically.
Two months ago Barney found out about their father's dead –the man who abandoned them when their mother died, Harold Barton and his new wife died in a plane crash making their only child orphan. It wasn't complicated investigate where was the kid –there was only two orphanages in the city. "He's our family now." Barney whispered to her with a rude voice, he wasn't actually happy to know they had a stepbrother.
"Hey, little buddy, do you now Santa Claus came here last night?" Lynette blended down to see him in the face, while the other kids were excited because of the present this one seemed sad and out of place. "He brought you a present." The kid took the present and before she could do something he threw it away. "Wow, you're not a present person…"
"You don't need to be sad, kiddo, your father was an asshole and your mot—" Lynette looked up to shut him up; Barney clicked his tongue and shrugged his shoulders with indifference. "He must know the truth, her mother was a whore." He excused himself in a whispered but his twin didn't agree with him, he was only a child… That little innocent kid couldn't understand why he was saying bad things about his father and mother. "Don't listen him, he's the real asshole." Lynette smiled to him with mischievous. "My name is Lynette by the way, but you can call me Lyn. What's yours?"
"His name is Clinton, it's a crappy name."
"What's your problem? Shut your fucking mouth, Charles." Charles Bernard 'Barney' Barton started to grumble, he hated the kids with all his heart so his definition of joy didn't include an orphanage. "Clint is a beautiful name, believe me." For the first time the little kid smiled to her.
[ Actual day ]
As a good team they decided to divide the group in two to cover more area. The first one, leaded by Captain America, was formed by Black Widow, Hawkeye and the mentioned Steve Rogers; their mission was inspect Strauss's lab –SHIELD finally found the new localization of the place. The second group formed only by Tony aka Ironman and Bruce Banner had the complicated part. Three days ago Aaron sent a message to Tony dating him in a cafeteria, it was a famous one –a lot of people went there to taste the fabulous and unique café. Aaron wanted to cover his shoulders, Ironman and Hulk wouldn't attack a poor old man in front of so many witness.
After the talking with Fury, Tony tried to find new information about the mad scientist but couldn't find much. Aaron Strauss was a respectable professor at the University of Portland who never committed a crime. He retired years ago after his daughter's dead but still collaboration with the university in his free time. That was all he could find in the official sites. Then he started to reach in Shield's files, a project named "The seven" was directly attach to the name of Aaron Strauss. Even he tried with all his inventiveness Tony couldn't get the file –JARVIS was working on it while they're sitting in the cafeteria. There wasn't a technology in the world that could resist to him. Impossible.
"Mister Strauss." Tony looked at him when the scientist sat down in front of them. "My name is Tony Stark, this is Bru—"
"Do you have red Jell-O?" Aaron ignored him completely when a waitress passed near to them. Tony clicked his tongue feeling irritated by the old man. "Y'now, the one that makes your tongue red after eating it." Aaron was in his sixties; his hair was growing up white so it seemed grey from the distance, his blue eyes had seen a thousand experiences so it was impossible to fool him. And right now he was disgusted because there wasn't red Jell-O in the cafeteria; Tony couldn't believe that he was the man who actually created the seven monsters. "Only green! Ugh!" Aaron complained and the waitress excused herself in order to attend the other customers –they're full today. "I don't like the green things…" He whispered to himself, his eyes were looking directly to Bruce. He shivered in a bad way, Aaron knew it. "The color red is always better. The Jell-O, the licorice, the candies, Iron man…"
"Red Skull." Tony added with a serious looking, Aaron smiled and landed his head to the left. "I heard about your team, Stark, The Avengers… Do you think your boys can win mine?"
"As far as I know, your team is not passing a big moment." Tony pointed out. Number one, Matthew Lee, was pushing up daisies and Phoebe, number two, was by his side. That's only left Aaron a pizza maker –Sully Bomer, a homeless –Jake Carlton, an arrogant police who had more merits for looking at the mirror than helping people and a zombie –Ben Scott. "Give up on this, Strauss, you're not even a pebble in my shoe." Tony stood up to seem more intimidator but Aaron didn't change his expression a bit. "My team is searching your lab while we're talking, there's nothing you could hide."
"I hope, Anthony, they'll be prepared for what they find." As much Tony as Bruce looked each other for a second, asking themselves if they done it wrong diving the group, Tony was tempted to call Natasha in order to check if everything was going well but he knew instantly it'd be worse, they needed to seem indifferent in front of the professor. "Sorry, it's my phone." Aaron took his mobile from his pocket. It was the time.
The Captain was the first to enter to the building; he didn't understand why they needed to look after that place when Steve knew it for sure Shield searched it before them… He moved his hand to indicate it was safe –out of danger; but Steve realized too late Natasha and Clint were actually inside. He sighed. The lab was a dark place that stayed closed too much time, they could smell the humidity in the air and the dust conferred it a sinister atmosphere. It was empty.
"I don't think we'll find something useful here, Cap, it will be better interrogate Aaron Strauss directly." Tasha said while looked at one of the tables, it was full of papers but none of them were important enough to keep it. "Ssht." Clint stopped and Steve raised an eyebrow confused. "There's someone."
She moved quickly running through a room they didn't searched. "Mine!" Natasha pulled out a lethal gun ready to shoot the threat, Steve and Clint followed her even they knew the Widow could do it alone.
They were searching the main room, in minutes they will turn up. He leaned on the table without moving his eyes from the monitor; it was needed Aaron's signal to take the second step. Without his approbation the process could kill her and Sully couldn't risk so much. He bit his lip waiting for it, praying for everything succeeded. His heart beat faster in his chest.
Suddenly the light in the monitor turned green. He contained himself to jump with joy, it could alert the strangers. Sullivan took a giant step to get close to the metal coffin, he typed the code and the operation was finally confirmed. The cover shifted and a cold vapor involved the room.
The door opened and Natasha entered without hesitate. The agent of Shield looked directly to him, Sully could see the surprise in her eyes –maybe she was expecting to find someone like Ben, number four. "Hey." Sullivan stood up positioning himself between Tasha and the metal coffin. "I'm Jackie Chan's biggest fan; don't let me kick your ass." Natasha rolled her eyes while clicked her tongue; for the god's sake the blond was shaking with fear! Clint was the next one to appear in the room, he was carrying his bow, and he stopped to see the body of a young woman inside the coffin. "Look at this, 'Tasha."
Aaron finished his coffee –it wasn't too good, what a shame, and then stood up with the intention of leaving. Tony jumped from his sit. "Where do you think you're going, Dr. Frankenstein?" Bruce stilled being in his sit, he didn't wanted to confront the professor –he couldn't afford turning into Hulk, not with all these people around him. He took a deep breath and concentrated in the customers of the cafeteria, ignoring what was going on with Aaron and Tony. "Do you think you're funny? Oh, you do have the same pathetic sense of humor of your father, Anthony." Aaron practically spitted the words at Tony's face with repugnance. "Stay in your perfect world while you still can, Stark, 'cause I'm going to burn every piece of your happiness."
"Put yourself in the queue." Tony joked trying not to be impressed with the threat. "You're not the only one who wants my head in a stick."
Aaron leaned his head to be closer to him. "You'll see, Howard, I'm going to destroy you." Did he call him Howard? Tony opened his mouth in order to complain about it but with a blink of an eye Aaron disappeared from his point of view. "Howard?" Bruce asked confused. "Your father? Do you think Howard is implicated in this?" Tony didn't answer to him 'cause it wasn't necessary –Obviously it was because of Howard Stark. Aaron and Tony didn't meet before but the scientist felt a strong hate upon his person –ok, it wasn't the first time somebody hate him without knowing him but now was different. "Who's Lynette?" Tony moved his attention to Bruce, Aaron's phone stilled being in the table. Before disappeared he typed a name on it, wasn't an accident -Aaron was giving them a clue where to start… but why?
The warmth of being alive (and awake) was replacing the coldness of the incubator and slowly she felt the vitality returning to her body. She heard voices –unknowing voices, hits and… Sully, her friend was there. Summer opened her eyes and tried to sit herself up, her body answered better than the other day when she tried to stand up. It was needed to be quickly, that people who were fighting Sullivan maybe had the mission of killing her. She was a threat, she needed to be destroyed –couldn't afford something like that.
"Summer!" Sully shouted when the girl with the red hair smashed him against the wall. "Summer, run! Get out of here! RUN!" The Strauss noticed the two boys –one of them was wearing a strange blue suit (it covered the entire body of the man), she couldn't use her power in him. So there only was one possibility to escape –she had to knock down the archer. "RUN!" Summer jumped to stand up, she wasn't wearing shoes and the coldness of the ground reminds her she was completely alive.
Clint was in front of her now but had no intention of using his bow –Fury wanted her alive. "Don't move yourself, kiddo." Summer didn't seem a real threat –the girl was too petite and fragile… Clint only saw her sister in a couple of occasion when he was a kid, but the hell… it was like looking at Lynette right now. Summer took a step forward and the Barton sighed. "Come on, don—" She was agile –more than he thought, in a blink of an eye the girl moved quickly enough to surprise him. And she was taking advantage of it. Clint skipped her hand once but it was a feint. The touch of her skin was warm and suddenly he felt a strange energy flowing inside him and couldn't avoid her eyes –oh, they remind him to his sister.
For the first time Sully saw the ability of Summer from another point of view. It was scary. The skin of the archer was turning too much pale and black veins appeared in his arm –where Summer was actually touching him. But the worst thing of it was his friend's eyes, so empty but at the same time she was enjoying his pain.
Clint Barton. Hawkeye. She knew it instantly when the memories of the man touched her. An agent of Shield. Nick Fury, he was the one interested on the seven. "Lyn…" Clint moaned in pain and he felt his knees failing –couldn't find the enough energy to still standing up. "Clint!" Natasha cried out and Summer let him go to face her, Sully was in the ground next to the red hair woman moving his head no –that people weren't interested in killing her but they could change their mind. Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow –she was in Clint's memories. She was dangerous and lethal enough to be a problem for her intentions of escaping. "No! I'm not gonna let you." Sully jumped on the agent trying to stop her again, they fell crashing into the ground. "RUN, PLEASE, RUN!"
She obeyed. The other man, the one with the shield, was too far to stop her –she was faster. Summer found herself running desperate to be free –no incubators, no more sleeping, no more prisons. "Stop, please!" The man with the shield shouted following her –oh, he was faster than she thought at first sight. "I'm not going to hurt you." She saw a stairs near to her, the building had at least five floors. The height would be enough. "Summer, please."
When the car stopped in front of the tower Tony saw her. She was carrying a file folder full of post-its where Phoebe wrote the messages for Tony –the most of them came from Pepper who was freaking out about the problems of Stark Industries. Bruce was the first to come out of the car, he saluted her with a head movement but the secretary ignored him. Her attention was centered on Tony.
"Not now, Pikachu, not now…" He begged with a tired face –the last thing he cared about was the problems of his company, Aaron occupied the most part of his thoughts. Suddenly the lights of the towel turned off when he entered. "Phoebe, come on!"
"Tony, come on!" Phoebe imitated his voice and crossed her arms. "You're so… inconsiderate!" Well that wasn't the words most used to describe him, Tony sighed. "Pepper is freaking me out! Do you know how many messages do you have at day? Thousands and thousands! Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony…" She imitated trying to copy all the peoples who called asking for Iron man. Tony took a step forward; Phoebe's hair was starting to send out little discharges. He thanked Pepper hadn't the ability of giving him discharges every time he disappointed her. "Tony…" This time her voice sounded distance, he couldn't see her with all the darkness… but Tony knew Phoebe was suddenly crying. "Nick wants to transfer me. Did you ask for it?" You don't trust me anymore? She wanted to ask him but couldn't stand for the answer.
"It's a mistake." Tony took a step to be closer to her. "No one can move you from here." He winked one of his eyes and the lights turned on.
She stopped in the fourth floor, the man was too close –he'll get her in a few meters, looking for the elevator. It was near to the stairs so it'll only take ten seconds to arrive. The doors were open showing the hole where the machine would go if there was one, Summer jumped without hesitate and held one of the cables. Fourth floors, the height would be enough she thought looking down to the ground. "Why are you so colorful?" Steve stopped watching her holding the cables trying not to fall down. "Clint and Natasha wore black clothes but you… well, you wear this. Does that to you an easy target?" She wrinkled her forehead. "Are you from Shield…?" The answer wasn't to change anything but she felt the urge to ask him, Steve shook his head no and Summer looked down again. "I'm not going with you…" She sentenced without looking at him. "I shouldn't be here…" Summer closed her eyes and the images returned to her. The blood, the metal, pain, Tony Stark, the crash, the darkness… She moaned and her hands dropped the cable for a second –she starting falling down- but instantly held it regretting it. "I should be dead…" She whispered to herself trying to be brave enough to end her mission.
"Be careful!" When Summer opened her eyes again she saw the man with the shield was trying to climb through the cables of the elevator to catch her. She blinked with confusion. He already saw what she did to his companion, it wouldn't be better if she die? "Come on, took my hand." Summer shook her head and looked down again, the fall from fourth floors it would be enough to finish her life –the pain will fade and so will be the memories of the crash. It was a quickly solution. "Summer, please, my hand."
Sully was crying out for Summer hysterical, Natasha already left him to take care of the archer and the pizza maker made his way to find Summer and Captain America. When he arrived to the fourth floor Steve was helping Summer to get out of the elevator's hole. His suit of Captain America gave him the necessary protection to not be a victim of Summer's abilities. "Sum! Are you fine?" He asked with worry and she shook her head again to say no. "Please, she's not dangerous… She's just… scared." Steve realized that while was talking Sully was trying to position himself between them in order to protect Summer. "Please… Leave us alone."
"I'm not here to hurt her." Steve said calmly trying to win Sully's trust; slowly the Captain put his shield on the ground. "See? I only came here to talk." Sullivan laughed with sarcasm, he didn't born yesterday. It was obviously the archer and the woman with red hair didn't come here to have a calm conversation.
"I don't trust you." The blond guy said. Summer stood up and looked directly to Steve's eyes, Sully stilled in the middle of them trying to be his shield in case she needed. "I do." Summer whispered and the pizza maker turned around to see her with confused eyes. "Wait—what?" The girl shrugged her shoulders with indifference and then she pointed the shield with one of her fingers. "He's not even carrying a weapon… He's not dangerous." Sully took her by the shoulders making sure his hands were touching the clothes to avoid her abilities. "I like the color blue."
"You're out of your mind! That's not a reason to trust him!" Sully complained –because she liked the color blue of his suit! That was the shittiest reason in the world to trust a person. But Summer had made a decision and her friend knew he couldn't convince her to change her mind. Sullivan sighed with desperation turning around to see Steve again. "Ok, Blueman, we're going to trust you... Just one condition, Summer and I stayed together no matter what. Ok?" Steve nodded slowly. "So what's the plan, Bluie?" The blond immortal guy crossed his arm with impatient. "Ah?" Steve clicked his tongue; he hadn't exactly a plan… The Captain knew it in his heart Shield wanted the seven experiments to use them like weapon –they were the new Tesseract in town. So there was only one solution. "Stay away from Shield." Sully frowned his nose; tell that to the archer and the widow.
"Cool, we're trying that until you show up. So any ideas?" Steve sighed, it wasn't easy. Shield had eyes in the whole town, hiding two extraordinary persons like them it wasn't exactly a piece of cake.
"Is everything okay, Cap? We need to take Clint to the hospital." They heard Natasha's voice coming from the main floor, Steve put a finger on his lips to ask for silent. Sully looked to his friend and Summer nodded, she wouldn't say a word. "Yeah, yeah." Steve answered with a tired voice. "But they escaped, I'm sorry." There was only one place out of the sigh of Shield –Tony made sure it wasn't any cameras at his place: The Stark Tower.