Author's note: Sorry I'm a day late again. Don't know how I feel about this chapter, but I've been a bit off my game lately and think, at least for now, that it's good enough. At any rate, this marks the end of Act I. Act II will begin next week, and just like with this chapter, it will begin an era of flitting between Friend's perspective and SHIELD's perspective, and every once in awhile, the perspective of one of the other teens. It will be at that time that many questions will be answered, including SHIELD putting together who's who, what powers they have, what might have happened to make them the way they are, etc, etc. Of course, they themselves will still only be guessing, but it will still begin to make a bit more semblance of sense for the readers. We will also begin exploring the strange new world as ruled by Hydra, and we'll be introducing our new heroes to the war. So stay tuned, readers, for Act II. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for following this story!
The next day, when Friend called Light to come eat breakfast, Light waved him off testily.
"Not now," he said. "I'm close to a breakthrough."
That caught everyone's attention. "What do you mean?" Red asked, putting her bowl down.
"I mean I'm about to hack into something big," Light said. "I've been working on it all night. Once I get past this firewall, I'll have total access. I'll still have to be careful, but I'll be in."
"Good job," Friend said. "But you still need to eat."
"Oh, come on," Light growled. "It's just one meal. It doesn't matter. If I get through, I might be able to figure out how to escape, or I could use Mahavir to send for help. We'll eat when we're free."
"But that could be a few days yet," Chill noted. "I agree with Friend, Light. You need to eat."
"Oh, don't you start on me, now," Light argued. "I'm just fine. I'm not even hungry anyway. Now everyone shut up, I need to concentrate."
The seriousness in his voice made the rest of the group stop and hold their breaths, as Light frowned, his eyes closed, and began muttering silently to himself. After a few minutes, he smiled. "I did it," he said, opening his eyes and panting breathlessly. "I got past the firewalls."
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"That's amazing," Reg stated.
"GO LIGHT!" Muscles yelled.
"What are you going to do?" Friend asked.
"You should find out where we are," Sparky said. "Maybe you can find out where we're being held in the base."
"And you could access our personal files, if you can find them," Red said.
"Hold your horses, everybody," Light said as he closed his eyes, though the half-smile on his face showed he was happy with all the excitement he'd caused. "I'm working on things one at a time. Starting with where in the base we're held. Then I'm gonna look for a list of threats."
"Threats?" Sparky asked. "Why would you look for threats?"
"I mean threats against Hydra," Light explained. "They've gotta have enemies somewhere. If I find a list of their enemies, I might be able to contact them using the internet."
"Makes sense," Friend said, ignoring an uneasy feeling in his gut. "What'd'ya got so far?"
"Well, I just found the floor they did the experiments on," Light said. "That's the same floor we're on, we know because I monitored the security cameras when they took Sparky and Friend."
"Wait, when they what?" Ghost asked.
"Oh, that was before your time," Sparky noted.
"I know what floor we're being held on!" Light announced, reclaiming everyone's attention. "We're in a large metal cell on level B-6. I guess that's a basement level."
"Do you know how to escape?" Reg asked.
"Not yet," Light said. "I just got a hit on an algorithm. I'm close… Got it. I'm in the threat list."
Suddenly, the sound of a siren went off somewhere, and everyone jumped.
"Oh no," Light said, frowning. "No, no no no... I've been caught!"
"What!?" Red exclaimed. "What do you mean, you've been caught!?"
"When I accessed the file, they detected my presence in the system," Light said. "They're trying to trace the virus... I can't... I can't stop it! It's too strong of a program! They're tracing it!"
"Send for help," Friend ordered. "Before they shut you down! It's our only hope now!"
"Sending..." Light muttered. "As much info as I can fit... marked urgent SOS... There, it's sent."
"Who'd you send it to?" Reg asked. "We need to know who to trust when we're rescued."
"SHIELD," Light said. "Top of the list. Felt right. Shields protect, you know?" He cursed. "They've found me," he said. "They're coming now."
"Everyone go stand next to your bed," Friend said. "Put your hands on the back of your head and face the wall."
"We're not going to fight!?" Sparky demanded.
"We can't," Friend said. "We'd only get killed in the process. We have to stay back."
Light looked positively white as he nodded. "Get out," he said. "You guys, you've got a chance. Get out with SHIELD. If you die here, nobody escapes."
"We're not gonna leave you here to die yourself," Chill said angrily.
"Fine, then don't," Light said. "But wait for SHIELD before attacking. Come on, Chill, you know that's the only option."
Chill huffed angrily and turned away.
Ghost stood up and walked over to Light. "Thanks," he said quietly. "For sending the message. Without it, we'd all be screwed."
"And you will be anyway unless you move now," Friend said. "They're coming!"
Sure enough, there was noise coming from the other side of the door, and Light nodded to everyone before walking calmly to the middle of the room and getting on his knees, hands behind his head.
Everyone else ran to the wall and did as Friend had ordered, placing their hands behind their heads and facing the wall.
Friend did the same, but used his eyes, his dark eyes, to make out the scene from the reflection of the steel walls. The door opened and HAZMAT dudes burst into the rooms, weapons pointed everywhere. They grabbed Light by his arms and fastened them behind his back, injecting him with something, knocking him out immediately. Limp, they dragged him from the room, and the other HAZMAT dudes all backed out through the doorway, their guns still pointed at the frozen teens.
The door slammed shut.
Everyone breathed again.
Muscles roared in anger, turning and punching his bed so hard it bent in the middle.
Red sat in shock on her bed, staring at the floor as if she couldn't believe what had happened. Reg went and sat next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
Sparky sat on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands wearily, while Ghost just sank to the floor where he stood, not moving from his spot on the wall, sitting against it and staring at the door.
Chill started pacing up and down the aisle, obviously still angry.
And Friend didn't know how to help any of them. This was his fault. He'd known the risks, and he'd still let Light continue hacking, in the hopes that they'd get lucky. He should have known. Nothing was ever lucky about their lives. And now... well, now Light would pay the price for their freedom.
"Self-sacrificing idiot," Chill muttered as he paced by.
Friend finally sat down on his own bed, closing his eyes. Just like when Sparky had been taken the first time, he felt helpless. Light had told him then, that they only thing he could do was wait and not let his fear control him. Now, he clung to that memory. It was the only thing he could do, at least until SHIELD got here.
If they had even got the message.
"What do you mean, we got a message from Hydra!?" Fury demanded, as Hill stood her ground.
"Exactly that, sir," she said. "It just arrived a moment ago. It's marked "urgent SOS," whatever that means. We think it might be a trap."
"Have you run it under the tests?" Fury asked.
"We're doing so as we speak," Hill said. "We'll know if it carries a virus any second now."
With a beeping sound, Hill turned to a computer. "No virus," she said. "Just plain, unencrypted text."
"Open it, then," Fury said.
"Sir?" Hill asked, turning to him questioningly.
"Hydra has many prisoners, in many unknown bases," Fury told her. "If one of them managed to hack their system and send us an email, I want to read it before Hydra finds out how to destroy it."
"Yes sir," Hill said, opening the email. Everyone in the room stared up at the screen.
"Experiments trapped, alive. Send help. Locked on level B-6. Seven together. Powers. Hydra projects. Memory wiped. No time."
Along with this message was a geographical location provided in longitude and latitude, and an entry code for the base. The base was located in Vienna, which was surprisingly close by: The new SHIELD secret base was set up between Vienna and Cluj-Napoca.
In the back of the room, Coulson stood up. "Sir," he said quietly, walking over quickly. "Seven of them, with powers, memory wiped," he repeated. "Do you think there's a chance...?"
"There's always a chance," Fury said, allowing himself to hope. "Mobilize a team. The two of you are going in personally. I want this as quiet as possible. And don't even mention the name Avengers. I don't want to raise false hope."
Coulson nodded. "I'll get the quinjet," he said.
"I'll pull a response team," Hill stated.
They both rushed from the room, and Fury stared at the message. Someone had been smart enough to hack Hydras files and send an email to an unknown address for an organization that, for all intents and purposes, didn't exist. Fury had his suspicions on the who. He could only hope he was right.
An hour after Light had been taken, the mood hadn't changed at all for the people in the Caravan. They all sat in shock, staring at the floor, the ceiling, the windows, the door- Anything but Light's empty bed, with the corner torn off his blanket, and the slight dip in the bed where the metal had sunk when softened by Red's fire, and though it sounded super cheesy even in his head, Friend noticed that the room was a little dimmer without the glow from Light's eyes.
Not to mention, Light had been the biggest talker of the group, and the silence was way heavier than it should have been. Nobody was saying anything. They all just sat and avoided looking at each other.
Briefly, Friend wondered what they were doing to Light, wherever they'd taken him. Now that they knew about the hacking, it wasn't like with him or with Sparky. They would do anything to stop Light in the future. If that meant killing him… so be it. And he had no idea whether or not they would do it with mercy; for all he knew, they would kill him slowly and painfully. Or maybe they would do some horrible experiment or something. Friend might not have known the numbers like Light would have, but he knew the odds weren't good.
These thoughts and thoughts like them had been running through Friend's mind for the entire time Light had been gone, but now he found himself distracted as a siren suddenly went off again.
Everyone jumped up.
"What's going on?" Reg demanded.
"Do you think they'll come back?" Ghost whispered.
Friend shook his head. "No," he said. "This… this is probably SHIELD."
Probably. There was every chance that the HAZMAT dudes would come back. Who knew but that they'd discovered about the message Light had sent? There was no way Light would intentionally give any information, but if torture was involved…
Mentally, Friend slapped himself on the face. There was no good thinking like this. He had to take charge, he had to protect everyone else, from whoever came through that door.
"Everyone, listen up," he commanded as he heard people running past their door. "Muscles, you and Sparky stand in front. Red, Reg and I will be behind them, and Chill, you and Ghost stand in the back."
Chill nodded, knowing that he was placed in the back not because he was weaker than the others, but to protect Ghost if things went badly.
From beyond the door and far down the hall, Friend heard the sound of a machine gun. Red, standing next to Friend, turned to him and raised an eyebrow. Friend wasn't sure how, but he knew that to mean she was asking him if he'd just heard what she did, and he nodded imperceptibly. Whatever was happening, there was a fight going on. And it was getting closer.
"Steady," Friend said, as the sound of an explosion echoed in the Caravan, and judging by the reactions from the rest of the group, was heard by all this time.
In front of him, Sparky clenched his fist, while in the corner of his eye, Friend saw Reg slowly muscle up.
They waited.
There was a rather un-manly scream from the other side of the door, and many footsteps, as well as more gunfire.
Then there was quiet.
And then…
The door began to creak.
"Steady…" Friend said again.
The door opened, and the group was met by five or six people in helmets and bullet-proof vests, all pointing guns at them.
Muscles growled.
"It's them," one man, the leader, said. "At least…" the man lowered his gun and looked around, obviously in surprise. "Is it?"
Friend took a deep breath and stepped between Muscles and Sparky, moving to the front. "We're the prisoners who contacted you," he said. "That is, assuming you're SHIELD."
The man nodded. "I'm of SHIELD," he said. "It's just… we were um, expecting someone else."
Friend frowned in confusion. Who could they possibly have been expecting? Oh well. It didn't matter right now.
The Agent also seemed to think there were more pressing matters at hand, as there was another explosion nearby. He and the rest of the team all raised their guns again and turned back to look through the door. "Anyway, let's go," the agent said, glancing, once again, at Muscles. "We'll uh, figure everything out back at HQ. Come on, um… Kids. We don't have much time. It's just us against Hydra."
"Wait," Friend said. "There was another prisoner, he's the one who hacked the system and contacted you. He was discovered."
The leader paled. "You're kidding," he said.
"He was taken an hour ago," Friend continued. "I don't know where he is. But you guys gotta go get him."
The leader exchanged a glance with another member of the team, a woman, who pursed her lips, then nodded. The Agent recocked his gun and ran off.
"Alright," the woman said. "You're with me. We've got three Quinjets waiting for us. Let's move out."
Turning, she motioned for two of the others to move out in front, and without thinking, Friend moved to follow, nodding to the rest of the Caravan as he went. Red followed behind him, while the others hesitated for a moment before another explosion caused them to step into place behind them. Once all seven had left, the woman and the last agent fell into the rear, and glancing behind him, Friend saw the woman looking at the group in confusion.
Whoever SHIELD had been expecting, it obviously hadn't been them.
The group moved in silence, and there were surprisingly no enemies in sight the whole time. Either SHIELD had been very thorough, or luck was shining on them for once. Or it was a trap.
Friend slowed to a stop, Red doing the same. Exchanging a glance, she pursed her lips. She'd thought it too, then.
"Wait," the woman whispered, the two agents leading the group stopping and turning to look at her questioningly. The other teens also stopped. The woman looked at Red and Friend, something akin to recognition in her eyes, yet also wariness and suspicion. "What is it?" she asked them. "What did you see?"
This question startled Friend, and he blinked, wondering if he could trust this woman after all. She seemed to read his expression, and as she looked even more convinced by what she saw, he was startled to find that he was able to read her as well.
Whatever the case, he suddenly discovered he felt like he could trust her, so he spoke up.
"I didn't see anything," he said. "But something in my gut's telling me this is too easy."
The woman nodded, frowning again. "Well," she said. "If there's one thing we've learned, it's to listen to our guts."
She nodded imperceptibly at him this time, and Friend realized that she had been speaking to him in code of sorts, and again, he had known it. She felt that she knew them, just like he felt he knew her, and she was letting him know that she trusted their judgement.
He looked at Red again, and she nodded. Then he turned to the rest of the Caravan. "Get ready," he said. "Watch your six. We don't know what's ahead."
They all nodded, and the woman worried her bottom lip, obviously conflicted about something.
"Move out," she whispered, and the two agents in front nodded, holding their guns a bit tighter and moving with a bit more caution.
Their luck continued for awhile longer as they maneuvered throughout the base, going up floor after floor, until they reached the main floor. Friend could tell they'd reached it because the air seemed slightly fresher, and the light was slightly more natural. Leaving the staircase behind, they once again began making their way down several hallways, past several doors, until they stepped into a large open room, set up like a standard bar. The front for the base.
"This way," One of the agents whispered.
Suddenly, the air was rent with gunfire.
"Get down," the woman ordered, though everyone had already gone to the floor instinctively. Moving quickly to find cover, they all ducked behind a nearby counter as the agents began opening fire into the room.
One of the agents cursed. "How are we gonna get to the door?" He asked no one in particular.
The woman glanced at Friend again. "You have a plan," she guessed.
Friend looked around at the others from the Caravan. He knew they would follow him anywhere. Even to death if he was wrong. He nodded reluctantly. "Chill can rematerialize," he stated. "He could take them out and they wouldn't even notice."
The woman looked around for "Chill."
"That's me," Chill informed her. "And yes, I can."
The woman considered this. Then she nodded. "Go," she said. "Agents, cover him. Draw their fire, keep their attention on us."
The agents nodded, and all four of the adults re-opened fire into the room as Chill disappeared with a grin.
After a few moments, the room quieted. Chill reappeared. "Done," he stated. "The fools never saw me."
Again, Friend noticed the agents exchange knowing, yet confused glances. Then the woman stood. "Make for the door," she ordered. "We have no time to lose."
"What about Light?" Sparky demanded.
"What?" The woman asked. "What about the lights?"
"Light's the name of our friend," Friend explained. "It's uh… It's a long story."
The woman nodded. "If your friend is still alive," she said, turning back to Sparky. "Coulson will find him. We'll leave one of the quinjets for him. But if we don't get back to HQ, we'll all be captured by Hydra."
Friend nodded to the others. If they were all captured again, Light's sacrifice would be for nothing.
And so they all ran for the door. Stepping out into the sunshine, Friend was nearly blinded. After having spent the past few months in the dark Caravan, the midday sun was terribly bright. Hearing the others hiss behind him, he suddenly laughed. "We're a bunch of vampires," he stated as he lifted his arms to shield his eyes. "That's totally possible. Come on, guys, we're almost in the clear."
He felt hope surge through him as he made for the nearest quinjet. Stopping at the door, he turned around to make sure everyone got in. Red made it first, immediately opening a hatch in the quinjet and grabbing a gun before returning to the door to provide extra cover.
"Hey, what are you-" the pilot yelled, turning around. Then he stopped and gaped as the rest of the Caravan ran towards the jet.
Sparky made it second, followed immediately by Muscles and then Chill.
"Take off," the woman agent ordered, running up to the quinjet. "Manfredi! Johnson! You go with them."
Two of the agents climbed aboard, pushing a button to shut the door. Red sighed and tossed the gun to Friend, who caught it and turned, pointing it at the bar front as the others ran for a second quinjet. The woman looked at him and sighed, but said nothing about the gun.
There was more gunfire then, and Friend turned to see a group of people come running from a building two doors down. He recognized one of them as one of the impassive scientist who'd watched as he had been strapped to the table and cut.
At the same time, he saw movement from the door they had exited the base from, and saw the man- Coulson- come running through, carrying Light, who wasn't moving.
For a split second, a whirlwind of emotions crowded Friend's mind. Fear, hope, anger, worry, and relief at having been rescued at last all mixed together into pure adrenaline, which melted into calm as quickly as it had appeared. He knew what he had to do.
Turning back to the group of Hydra members, he raised his gun and fired six quick shots in succession, without even blinking an eye, aiming for the scientist first. One by one, all six went down.
Coulson paused, staring at Friend in shock, and then he continued running to the last Quinjet. Friend moved to join him, but was stopped by the woman.
"No," she said. "You're coming with me."
"But I need to ride with Light," he stated.
The woman shook her head. "Help will come quicker for him if you're not there," she said bluntly. "Now get in the quinjet." When he glared at her, she softened. "Look," she said. "I have just as many questions as you do. But I can promise you, the longer we stay out here, the sooner Hydra finds us, and this time, they will kill."
Turning back to the third quinjet, Friend saw the door close as it slowly began rising into the air. He sighed.
"Guess I don't have much choice now," he said, storming past the woman and stepping into the quinjet. Sitting down next to Ghost, who looked white as a sheet, he tossed the gun to the woman, who caught it, and then frowned down at the floor.
Finally, he let it sink into him.
They were free. No matter the future, no matter what happened, they were truly, finally free.
