Author's Note: Again, sorry I'm so late. This time, there were two problems. First, I was sick for the first half of the week, and didn't get any writing done. Then, when I finally started working on it, my laptop started having problems, so hence the late update. Anyway, I hope this chapter serves to clear up any confusion regarding the situation with Hydra, SHIELD, and the Avengers themselves. Enjoy!
"What's your name?"
"Don't have one."
"How old are you?"
"I don't know."
"Where are you from?"
"No clue about that, either."
Phil Coulson sighed and exchanged a glance with Maria Hill, who was writing down the unhelpful conversation as they went. It had been like this with every teen they'd questioned; and now as the boy with black hair and eyes sat leaning in his chair glaring at them obstinately, the two agents were at the end of their rope.
"Look," Phil said, rubbing his forehead in frustration. "We're trying to help you-"
"Oh yeah?" The kid asked dryly. "Then why won't you let me see my friend?"
Phil sighed. "I told you," he said. "Your friend is alright, he's being held for observation-"
"Yeah, you've told me a thousand times," the kid interrupted again. "But that doesn't change anything. Let. Me. See. Him."
"I can't do that," Phil said. "Unless you cooperate."
"Why would we cooperate," the teen said. "When you're no better than Hydra?"
This surprised Phil. "No better than…" he trailed off. "What are you talking about? We're trying to make an effort here!"
"Yeah, looks like it," the kid said sarcastically, leaning back in his seat. "We've been here for eight hours, and so far, you've locked us all in a room, held our friend for 'observation,' and you've been interrogating us one at a time since we showed up."
"We can't just drop you off at a bus stop and say good luck, have a nice life!" Phil said. "You were in a Hydra research facility, as human experiments! We're doing the best we can under the circumstances. Until you cooperate, we can't do anything for you."
"Until you show us an act of good faith," the teen said, leaning forward and narrowing his eyes. "We're never gonna cooperate."
Phil sighed in exasperation and put his head down on the table. This kid was being frustrating beyond belief. Aside from that, he kept making faces like Clint Barton, and Phil was getting a massive headache behind his eyes. How were they ever gonna get any answers?
Sitting back up, he looked to Maria for confirmation of his new plan. Maria pursed her lips and nodded.
"Alright," Phil said, turning back to the kid. "Here's the deal: We take you to see your friend, just you, and then we'll take you back to the others and question you all at once. And you get the others to cooperate, so we can get some answers about this whole mess."
The kid smirked and leaned against his chair again. "Deal."
As Friend followed Coulson and Hill to the hospital facilities, he took in everything about the base. The small hallways, the glaring overhead lights, the floors of bare concrete. Adding in the state of their current "quarters," Friend could make the following assessment: SHIELD wasn't doing so hot right now. Even Hydra's base had been better equipped.
"So what's with the lame base?" Friend asked. "You guys undergoing budget cuts or something?"
Coulson glanced back at him. "Well, sort of," he said. "We used to be employed by the government, but we had to go Ghost when the war started."
Friend looked at an open panel with sparking wires behind it. "War?" he repeated.
"Yeah, the war on Hydra," Coulson said. "Ever since Hydra took control a year ago, most of the old organizations had to go undercover or they were destroyed. Even after going undercover, some weren't as lucky as others. Only a few are still around."
Hill nodded. "We're on the lucky list," she said. "We've been attacked a few times, but we've managed."
"What's Hydra's deal anyway?" Friend wondered.
"Well, people have been asking that for years," Coulson stated. "Pretty much, Hydra is the supervillain equivalent of World War II's Nazi's."
"Supervillain?" Friend echoed. "You mean, like, with powers?"
"You guys aren't the only ones with special abilities," Hill said. "Heroes have been around since the forties."
Here was a tidbit of information. "Do these powers come naturally?" Friend asked. "Or does it happen through… experimentation?"
"It depends," Coulson said after a moment. "Some happen because of experiments gone wrong, or even experiments gone right. But some are natural."
Well, that didn't clear anything up. Friend sighed. Where had they gotten their powers? Were they experiments of Hydra's, or had Hydra taken them because they were gifted naturally?
After a moment, he spoke up again, with another question. "What does SHIELD stand for?"
Coulson chuckled. "Strategic Homeland Intervention: Enforcement and Logistics Division."
"Wow," Friend said. "I'd say SHIELD too. Are there other divisions of this Strategic Homeland Intervention, or did you guys just call it that because you really wanted the acronym?"
"...You know, I never thought about that," Coulson said. "Hill, are there any other divisions?"
"No idea," Hill said. "We're here."
All other thoughts fled as Friend looked at the door they had stopped at and Coulson pulled out a card key, swiping it in a card slot. The little light turned green and Hill opened the door, and the three entered the hospital ward.
There were curtains everywhere, portioning out the large room into small cubicles, with an aisle down the center. From different parts of the room, Friend could hear coughing or moaning, and quiet chatter from visitors or doctors.
Coulson and Hill led Friend down the aisle toward the back of the room, and Friend felt the eyes of everyone they passed, watching him curiously.
Going to the back, Coulson swiped his card through another machine, and led them into a small room.
There, lying on a cot with his wrists strapped down, was Light. Still unconscious, looking paler than Friend had ever seen him.
"Take those off," Friend demanded immediately, gesturing to the straps.
"We can't," Hill stated. "They're on for his own protection. We don't know what he'll do when he wakes up."
"He'll think he's still at Hydra," Friend said harshly. "He…" Friend hesitated. He didn't want to compromise Light, but he wanted to get the agents to understand. "He had nightmares about being strapped to an operating table," he finished. "He'll think he's still there."
Coulson and Hill looked at each other.
"Well," Hill said. "If you think it'd be better…" Reaching over, she undid the first strap, and nodded to Friend, who undid the other.
"What did they do to him?" Friend demanded as he stepped back.
"We're not sure," Coulson said tentatively. "When I got to him, they had him hooked up to some machine, I think they were trying to drain the power from the…" He trailed off.
Friend looked up at him. "From that thing on his chest?" He finished.
"...Yeah," Coulson nodded. "That thing. We'll know for sure what all happened when our tech team finishes reconstructing the damaged databanks."
"Databanks?" Friend said, standing up a little straighter. "They got data from the base?"
Coulson looked caught. "That's not what I meant," he tried.
"What about us?" Friend continued. "Where'd we come from? Who are we? Where did we get our powers?"
"We don't have all the information yet," Hill stated, shooting Coulson a glare. "The base was going to be destroyed. The computers were part way through a total wipe when we got there. Once we know what happened, we'll let you know. In the meantime, anything you can tell us will help."
Friend looked back down at Light, who seemed, for the circumstances, to be in good care. Turning back to the agents, he nodded. "Alright," he said. "Take me back to the others. We'll tell you what we know."
Coulson massaged his temple as he carried the eight bulky manilla folders into Fury's office. After hours of talking with the teenagers, followed by gathering information from the tech team, his headache had escalated from painful to excruciating. And it was only three in the afternoon.
No, wait. It was three in the morning. He would so need a few cups of coffee after this debriefing.
Walking in without knocking, he dropped the heavy files on Fury's desk and sat down. "There are eight total," he said, getting straight to the point. "Seven boys and one girl."
"I take it you got through to them?" Fury asked, opening the first folder.
"Yeah, well, they were more accommodating once we got Friend on our side," Phil stated.
"Friend?" Fury echoed.
Coulson pointed to the picture in the open folder. "He was the first to wake up," he explained. "No memory of anything prior to their cell. As far as we can tell, he's physically around seventeen years old. According to DNA testing and Hydra's databanks, he was once Clint Barton."
"...What." Fury stated in disbelief.
Coulson shrugged. "I've got three theories," he said. "Crazy, insane, and downright ridiculous. Which one do you wanna hear first?"
Fury continued browsing the file. "Surprise me," he said.
"Theory number 1:" Coulson said. "As part of experimentation, Hydra implanted massive amounts of DNA from the Avengers into teenage hosts, thus making them, in part, the Avengers. Theory number 2: Hydra managed to find a way to actually de-age the Avengers during experimentation, making them the actual Avengers, just younger. Theory number 3: The teens were created through bioexperimentation, using the Avengers DNA as base patterns, making them completely new versions of the Avengers."
Fury looked up at Coulson with his one eye. "That's the best you can come up with?" He said.
Coulson shrugged. "As far as we can tell, those are the most likely explanations," he said. "But for whatever reason, the teen they call Friend was once Clint Barton. And I believe it. I swear, the kid makes these faces, and it's like I'm having a flashback."
Fury examined the picture more closely. "Go on," he said.
"Well, according to Hydra's databanks, he was Subject Five," Phil continued. "He was bombarded with copious amounts of radiation, and was transfused with several different experimental drugs Hydra was developing, pretty much steroids. He's stronger, faster, and smarter than he should be, and if his eyesight was good before, it's nothing compared to what it is now."
"So Hydra's into making steroids," Fury noted under his breath. "Just what we need."
"He was also transfused with blood from Subject Three," Phil said. "Which was once Steve Rogers."
Fury looked up at him with a look that clearly said "Don't screw with me."
Phil nodded. "As a result," he said. "Friend now has a bit of the Super Serum in him, which is partially responsible for the increase in his mental and physical strengths, and it resulted in his having slight healing abilities. According to the databanks, the Serum is a key element in the drugs Hydra now uses in their soldiers."
"Is there any good news?" Fury demanded with a glare.
"No sir, I'm afraid not," Phil said. "Unless you count the fact that at the very least, we now have the Avengers with us, and any information or research Hydra gained was lost with their base."
"Small blessings," Fury said. "Is there anything else important I need to know about this one?"
"They call him Friend," Phil said. When Fury glared at him again, he held up his hands in defense. "Hey, I didn't pick it," he said. "That's just what they all started calling him, when they couldn't remember his real name."
"Is there anything else important about this one?" Fury asked again.
"Just the basics," Phil said. "He's 6'0", 201 pounds, and exceptionally strong, thanks to the serum. He also seemed to have become the unofficial leader of the group, probably because he was the first to wake up."
Fury nodded his understanding, then went on to the next file. "Thor," he said, seeing the picture.
"Yep," Phil confirmed. "And as crazy as it sounds, he's actually not much different than his adult self."
"Aside from his memory loss and sudden transformation into a teenager?" Fury asked.
"I guess they couldn't really do much to an Asgardian," Phil shrugged. "The teens all assume that his strength and battle tactics came from experimentation, but really the only thing that happened to him was he gained control of electricity without having to use Mjolnir."
"Did you recover the hammer?" Fury asked.
"No sir," Phil said. "We were unable to locate it."
"How is he able to control the lightning?" Fury wondered, reading the file.
"Well, the teens say he remembers being struck with red lightning," Phil said. "But according to the databanks, he was being bombarded with radiation, and he called the lightning to him in an attempt to escape. The lightning coursed through him and the radiation followed the electrical current. That's how he got his red lightning."
"Interesting," Fury said. "What else?"
"Thor goes by Sparky," Phil said. "And I guess that was Clint's idea of a joke, that Thor just ended up liking. He's 6'2", and he's 220 pounds of muscle. He's around 18 in maturity, but physically speaking, that makes him around 500. You know, Asgardian years."
Fury closed Thor's file and opened the next.
"Tony Stark," Phil said before Fury had a chance to ask.
Fury raised his eyebrow. "That's Tony Stark?" He asked incredulously, picking up the picture of the pale teen with white hair. In the picture, the teens' eyes were closed, as he was still out from the ordeal with Hydra.
Phil nodded. "Subject Six. He has the Arc Reactor to thank for his appearance," he explained. "According to the databanks, they used the power of the Arc Reactor to power several different implants, in an attempt to engineer cyborg technology for their armies. He has repulsor ray technology in his hands, though the teens don't know it, and he has wires and conduits running alongside his bones. They serve as a second nervous system, running to the Arc Reactor. The Reactor itself has been fused into his flesh and serves as a second heart."
"Wow," Fury noted.
"That's not even the strangest part," Phil stated dryly. "The new element Tony Stark used in the Arc Reactor leaked into his bloodstream during experimentation, and the element quickly became dominant. His blood is now 40% the new element. His blood glows in the dark, just like his hair and his eyes."
"His eyes?" Fury repeated.
"Yeah, his eyes changed," Phil said. "They're the same color as the Arc Reactor. Fluorescent blue. But that's still not even the strangest part."
"Tell me what the strangest part is, then," Fury ordered.
"He's got several implants in his brain," Phil said, pointing to one of the pages in the file. "In several different locations. Together, these implants make up the core elements of a computer."
"A what!?" Fury demanded.
"A computer," Phil said again. "He's got a computer in his head. That's how he hacked the system. Hydra implanted a computer into his brain as part of the experimentation. I don't know why they didn't shut it down when they memory wiped him. Unless he knew what they were about to do and put up a failsafe. That's it as far as his experimentation. When it was discovered that he hacked Hydra's system and sent us a message, they took him and hooked him up to a machine, we think they were harvesting the energy of the Arc Reactor. They were mid-transfer, they had a portable device they were storing the energy in. We shut down the transfer, and the Arc Reactor is generating new energy to replace what it lost. He's still out from the drugs and from the loss of energy, but he should recover completely. Physical attributes, he's 5'10", and he weighs 194 pounds. As far as we can tell, he's around 17."
Fury nodded, looking slightly put out as he closed the file and opened the next one. "Loki," he said immediately.
"Loki." Phil agreed. "Subject Seven. They managed to do a bit more to him than to Thor, but again, they were more studying him than doing research. He can do everything he was always able to do; teleport, cast illusions, that kind of thing. The teens all think it's due to the experiments, they don't know he could always do it. However, according to Hydra's databanks, he shifted into his Jotun form once during an experiment, and they began trying to discover his true form, resulting in him losing control of his transformation. He shifts between his Asgardian form, his Jotun form, and his human form. The teens call it Radiation fever, since they don't know he's not human, they think-"
"They think it's from the experiments, I know," Fury snapped. "This is all very frustrating, agent."
"And we're only on the fourth one," Phil noted. "If you're getting a headache, you'd better take some acetaminophen now before we go much farther."
Fury nodded and rubbed his head. "Just keep going," he said.
"Alright," Phil said. "Loki is called Chill, due to his habit of turning Jotun, dropping his body temperature enough to burn anyone who touches him. The kids don't know this, but he also has the tendency to create ice from the water in the atmosphere, one incident during experimentation was put to a grinding halt when he instinctively caused a layer of ice to freeze over every surface, and Hydra had to stop experiments to melt it all and get the machines working again."
At this, Fury chuckled. "Sounds like something he'd do," he stated.
Phil gave a half smile before continuing. "Teen Loki is 6'0", he's around 17, making him… a little less than 500 years old, and he's 170 pounds, but he's exceptionally strong due to his Asgardian and Jotun physiology."
"Does that make him weaker when he's in his human form?" Fury asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." Phil confirmed. "But even then, his strength is above average for his size. Moving on to the next one, we have Subject Two, Natasha Romanoff."
Fury opened the next folder. "What happened to her?" He asked.
"Bombarded with radiation," Phil explained. "With her, they were testing their ability to unlock mutant genes in people, although some of their attempts caused unintentional side effects. They attempted to give her the ability to control the element of fire, but it was forced mutation; the radiation left her with a higher body temperature, and left her appearance the way you see now. While the control of fire was what they were going for, they also unlocked her true mutant potential, which is the ability to shift her appearance."
"You mean like that mutant involved in the whole "Magneto" debacle?" Fury asked. "What was her name… Mystique?"
"Just like that," Phil affirmed. "Natasha, or Red, as the teens call her, now has the ability to shift her appearance. In her usual form, she's 5'4", she's around 16, and she weighs 118 pounds."
Fury sighed and closed the folder, opening the next one. "I'm assuming this is Captain Rogers," he said.
"You're right," Phil said. "Subject Three. Captain Steve Rogers. The majority of his testing was regarding the serum, and it was studied after being removed. While they did a few experiments, it was just the basics. Radiation flooding, drugs, the works. Most of which had little to no affect, as his high metabolism and serum-enhanced blood neutralizes threats of that sort. Some changes were made, however. His advanced healing can be applied to others through physical contact."
"Really?" Fury said. "That's handy."
"And he also has very slight shifting abilities," Phil continued. "He can't really change his appearance, but he has the ability to "muscle up" when he needs to be strong, and then back down when his strength is no longer needed."
"Why'd his hair change?" Fury asked, examining Steve's brown hair in the picture.
"We don't really know that, sir," Phil said. "The psychiatrist who examined them suggested that it might have gone a shade darker as a result of the physical and mental trauma of the experimentation, but it could also have changed due to the radiation testing."
Fury considered this. "Anything else I need to know?" He asked.
"That's about it," Phil said. "He's called Reg by the others, short for Regular Guy. He's around 18, he's 5'11", and he weighs 190 pounds. At least, that's how much he weighs when he's powered down. It varies depending on how strong he needs to be."
"That leaves two more rescues," Fury said, eyeing the last two folders. "And there's only one more Avenger. Tell me this isn't going to be what I think it is."
"Unfortunately, I can't do that," Phil said. "They successfully split Doctor Banner and the Hulk."
Fury sighed and rubbed his temple before opening the next file. "Tell me what you've got so far."
"Well, it took quite a lot of experimentation, but they seem to have developed some way to take him apart on a microscopic level, and they separated the two entities one piece at a time."
"That's a bit extensive, don't you think?" Fury asked. "How does separating the Hulk from Dr. Banner help Hydra's research?"
Phil shrugged. "I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish with it. Unless they were in it purely for the scientific curiosity. At any rate, both Banner and the Hulk survived, the Hulk because he's indestructible, and Dr. Banner because they pumped him with serum the whole time."
"Does that mean this one has super serum as well?" Fury asked, picking up the picture of what was once Bruce Banner.
"Unfortunately, no," Phil said. "The procedure was too volatile. They had to keep a constant stream to keep him alive, the separation used it all up faster than they could put it in. They almost lost him four times, and now his structural integrity is compromised."
"Compromised how?" Fury asked.
"The teens call it phasing," Phil said. "His body fluctuates solidity. The matter they manipulated is now in a constant state of flux. When it fluctuates, matter can pass right through him."
Fury frowned as he read the file. "What does this mean for Dr. Banner?" He asked.
"He'll always be compromised," Phil said. "Physically, he's a liability to the team. His body can't handle physical strain or fatigue, and though there's always a chance an attack will go right through him, if he takes even a single hit, it could mean death. However, he retained the qualities he had as Dr. Banner, and has a knack for science. He also seemed to hit it off pretty well with Stark, according to the teens."
"I'm not surprised," Fury noted. "The two of them got along from the start."
"I guess wiping their memories couldn't affect their relationships with each other," Phil said. "According to the teens, Stark also had problems with Captain Rogers, while Loki and Thor have a sibling relationship going on as well. And anyone can see that Clint and Natasha are just as in sync as always."
Fury nodded his understanding.
"Banner is now around 16 years old," Phil continued after a moment. "At 5'8", he's shorter than all but Natasha, and he's the skinniest of them all at 102 pounds, though that does tend to fluctuate as well. The name the teens gave him is Ghost, because of the phasing. Meanwhile, the Hulk is much the same he ever was, except they managed to de-age and memory wipe him as well. He, like Banner, is around 16, and the Hulk is 7'1", weighing 323 pounds of muscle. The teens call him Muscles. Apparently, Stark hit it off with him too, and even managed to calm him down when he first woke up. The teens say Stark was working with him to teach him better English."
Fury snorted, something Phil had never thought he would see. "Now that sounds like Stark," the director said, closing the file. "Is there anything else you need to tell me?"
"Only that the teens are definitely suspicious of us and our motives," Phil said, standing and gathering the folders. "But as soon as we explain all this, they should cooperate more."
"Agent," Fury said. "We're not going to explain all this."
Phil stopped. "...What." he repeated.
"We can't tell them who they are," Fury said. "Not right now. Not yet."
"Sir, they have a right to know-"
"I know that," Fury said. "And we're going to tell them as soon as we can. But right now, with Hydra looking for them, whatever knowledge they have makes them a liability. We're not even sure they're not bioengineered Hydra envoys, sent here in an elaborate trap for SHIELD."
Phil couldn't believe what he was hearing. "We have to tell them," he said. "They want answers just as much as we do! Even if we don't tell them, they'll figure it out eventually! What about Stark? He hacked Hydra. What's to keep him from accessing our files on them anyway? You can't possibly expect us to keep him sedated!?"
"No," Fury said immediately. "Let him hack. Let him hack all he wants. He can't access these files. Keep them off the computers."
Phil glared.
Fury sighed. "Look," he said. "I don't like this either. But it needs to be done. We can't let this leak. The world is full of Hydra's spies. Even here in SHIELD. The more people that know about this, the bigger the target sign on SHIELD."
"Then what do you propose we tell them!?" Phil demanded.
"Tell them that we're doing what we can," Fury said. "With the thousands of people going missing every day, they can't expect us to know each one. And let them search. They don't know they were de-aged, they'll be searching the databanks for missing teens answering their basic description. And with Hydra having removed most Avengers paraphernalia, the odds of them finding an old article and figuring things out are slim."
"That's not right," Phil protested.
"Regardless, it's necessary," Fury argued. "The best thing to do right now is keep them out of sight, keep them safe, and keep them busy. They are not prisoners, and they need to know that. If possible, we've got to get them to stay willingly. I want you and Hill to handle the situation personally, no other agents."
"How are we supposed to get them to stay willingly?" Phil asked. "They already made it very clear they don't want to be held here or anywhere else."
"Tell them the truth," Fury said. "Tell them that they're too volatile to go out into the world. Tell them about the war with Hydra, and offer to train them to control their powers. You know the Avengers, Phil. They need a reason to fight. Let's give them one."
"Am I gonna have to die again?" Phil asked sarcastically. "Because I'd like to avoid that, if that's possible."
"I'll see what I can do," Fury said. "Look, I don't expect you to agree with me, but this is the best course of action, and I command you to follow it through."
Phil huffed in frustration. "Yes sir," he said, picking up the files and turning to leave the room.
"Phil," Fury said.
Phil stopped. Fury never called his agents by their first names unless it was important. Turning back around, he looked at Fury expectantly.
"I know you don't like this," Fury said. "But I need you to trust me. Have I ever been wrong before?"
Phil sighed. "No," he said. "Maria says it often enough, Nick Fury is always right."
The corner of Fury's mouth turned up. "Let's hope this works out too, then," he said. "Dismissed."
Closing the door, Phil began walking up the hallway towards Maria Hill's office, already formulating a plan. Getting the de-aged memory-wiped Avengers to willingly stay on to train up as SHIELD agents would take all the persuading they could muster.
