Author's Notes

Welcome to the latest in the Wild Flower Saga! Based in the Marvel Movie/TV Universe (AO SHIELD, Avengers, X-Men, Spiderman).
The Wild Flower story starts in Carly, Teen Hydra Agent and continues in Carly and the Winter Soldier. This is the 3rd installment.

Carly Richards (aka Wild Flower) is a teen Hydra agent, brought up by Hydra parents into that secret society. She's pledged her life to the Cause. Up to now, it's all been a game, an abstract concept, something fun. In this installment, things are getting real, and people are getting hurt by her actions. Carly has a presence inside her, an evil power that's threatening to rip her apart and destroy the world. She needs answers, so she turns to the X-Men for help.

Here's the quick summary so far [Spoilers for the first 2 installments]:

Carly's a Hydra Agent. At first, all she knows is that she has some extra-human strength and healing ability. She sneaks into the Governor's Ball to investigate rumors that the Governor's son has super powers that Hydra might want to exploit. Turns out they're right: Lance has the power of a Bull and almost kills Carly. But her super-strength saves her, and she gets a sudden crush on Lance. SHIELD is there, too, for the same reason, and Carly has a run-in with Skye. She escapes with the help of fellow Hydra agent Larry, but reels when her friend Becky reveals that Carly's father is alive and is being held by SHIELD so Carly better do what they want.

In the second story, Carly find that she has a strange power-she can make flowers grow. When she's assigned a stake-out to find the Winter Soldier and gets caught up in a gang of thugs, Bucky rescues her. As they fight to survive against forces seeking to capture Bucky, Carly discovers more of her powers, and when they are surrounded, Carly uses her power to turn D.C. into jungle, allowing Bucky to escape. As a reward, Carly is brought to see her father, who tells her a terrible truth: her power is far greater than anything she can imagine:
It's the Power of the Hydra. Whatever hurts her makes her stronger. And if someone tries to kill her-she's a ticking time bomb.

Trigger Advisory: Nothing really, mostly comic-book-style violence, mild sexual situations but nothing graphic.

Wild Flower and the X-Men
Carly Richards, Teen Hydra Agent

by

Iapetus999

Chapter One

Carly Richards stood in the ballroom of the Virginia Governor's Mansion, setting up her display. No one suspected she was Wild Flower, the scourge of Washington, D.C., the out-of-control super-villain who had turned D.C. into a dying jungle of monster cherry trees. Or that she was an Agent of Hydra, that so-called evil organization. If the world only knew—but she wasn't here for Hydra.

Carly was here to enter the State Science Fair. Not that she gave a rip about Science—well, maybe, one small aspect of it: what the crap had been done to her? What had turned her into a freak capable of destroying cities with rampaging plants? Not that she might ever find out. Not without finding her father again. Then again, that wasn't even the real reason she was here.

Bull-Boy, aka Lance Conrad, was the Governor's super-hunky son with the power of a raging bull. After their clandestine meeting at the diner, his people had shut off all contact between them, not even allowing a text or a tweet. Lance was locked up tight, but this was his home. If Carly could just establish some kind of contact…the feel of his lips on hers still lingered, the strength of the bull in his arms, that look of desire that lit his eyes…maybe there was some way to still her heart. Or set it loose…

So when she heard of this Science Fair, set right in the same room where she'd first encountered Mr. Beefcake, she spent all her time reading up on Science and Biology and all the nerdy textbooks she'd been avoiding. It might be her last chance to see him before they shipped Lance to some development facility where they could exploit his powers, turn him into a Weapon For Freedom or some other nonsense.

Someone tapped a microphone noisily. "Ahem. Hello? Okay. Reminder, the floor will be open soon. You have 15 minutes to finish your setups. Good luck!"

Carly rushed to set up her pots and plants and charts with lines and equations and chemical formulas. The ballroom was set up with long folding tables in rows, tape marking each student's space with a sheet of paper declaring the project. Dozens of students busied themselves in a murmur of voices and scrapes, erecting large cardboard structures detailing their projects, along with towers of computer monitors glowing with videos and moving charts. Carly had nothing like that, just some tomatoes and daisies in pots. She had no intention of competing with anyone around her, she just wanted a glimpse at Lance. Maybe she could slip a message to him. Anything. The boy next her stacked glass aquariums full of spider webs. One of the arachnids snapped at her, if that was possible. She should crush the thing with her power, but no, let it be. Only worry if the creepy arachnids escape.

"Hey," she said to the boy, a jittery sort with glasses and the inability to make eye contact. "Impressive display."

"Thanks," he said in a mumble.

Carly looked at his work. Boy's name was Peter something. "Radiation?"

"Yeah," he said. "Should kill them, but it makes them stronger."

"Wow." Carly shivered. That was her power. What should kill things, she made stronger…and then they died anyways. "I'm doing something like that with plants. Hey, when there's a break we should compare notes."

"Sure," he said unconvincingly, putting his nose on one of his tanks and staring at a bug.

A presence stood in front of Carly's booth. Some man waited, along with two others behind him in dark jackets, shades, and prominent gun bulges. The man held up one of Carly's pots and studied it. "I thought you were never to step foot in these premises again," said the Governor, looking down his nose at Carly, holding the plant as if he was about to drop it. Last time she was here, he'd sucker-punched her to the face, driving her to the floor and loosening her teeth. He was enhanced somehow, with some super power. Now he was inches from her face, her butt pressing the table, no escape.

Curses. So much for seeing Lance. So much for not getting thrown in jail and tortured. This was the stupidest idea she'd ever had. A Science Fair?

"Careful, sir." A bearish man walked up and took the pot from the Governor and placed it back on Carly's table. Wait—not a man. An animal with blue fur and claws and reading glasses. "Please observe but don't touch the student's exhibits."

Carly's jaw dropped. The blue beast-man held out his claw as he shouldered away the Governor and placed himself in front of Carly.

"We're watching you," yelled the Governor as he tromped away.

Carly took the furry hand and shook it, trying not to tremble. That was close. Guess they didn't want to make a scene. So who was this guy? The Beast? A veritable superhero? And definitely not someone who would have any business with Hydra. What the furry hey?

"Name's Dr. Hank McCoy. I'm one of the judges here today. Impressive display you have." He threw her a gentle smile while he eyed the Governor away.

Carly studied the woman standing a bit behind him, looking bored as heck with a frown on her face. She was probably the most prettiest woman Carly'd ever seen, with long blond hair and arching eyebrows.

"Oh, this is Miss Raven Darkhölme, my assistant for the day."

Raven didn't even look at Carly, just a sigh escaping her lips. Kinda how Carly felt about Science. Before all this…

"So," said Beast, "tell me about your project."

Carly's lips stumbled. She'd forgotten about this part—that she might actually have to explain her experiment.

"Um, uh."

Dr. Beast read her charts. "So how did you control the Heberg Reaction? Or refract the Spatzer particles?"

"I—I couldn't. There's a problem."

A big one.

"It says here that you can demonstrate."

Carly recovered enough to spew her prepared spiel, all the lies that she'd cobbled together from various science journals. "Yes. The world faces a climate disaster. Crops are failing all across the world, famine is spreading, and with that comes social unrest, war, and destruction. As the recent events in D.C. demonstrate, there may be a path for rapid plant growth, the ability to feed millions. Here we have a common tomato." Carly held up a small seedling. "Here I have an extract from some of the destroyed plants of D.C."

She held up a syringe filled with absolutely nothing but dyed water. She poked the plant with it, then used her power to make it grow. The tomato plant popped out some flowers and then a green tomato which quickly turned red. She plucked it and handed it to Beast. "But too much and it dies." She forced the plant into overgrowth and it quickly turned black.

Now Carly had Raven's full attention. The tomato in Beast's hand burst and dripped black juice onto his paw. But this was Carly's chance. She caught Dr. McCoy's attention, handing him a towel. She hadn't anticipated this encounter, but now that it was in front of her, this might be an opportunity.

"What I need is help," she said, quietly, so only they could hear. "I need help figuring this out. You see how dangerous this kind of 'Science' can be. It could be used to feed the world—or destroy it. It all depends on how it's used, and who controls it."

"I understand," said Beast, eyeing her through his glasses. He nodded to Raven, and she handed her a card. "If you need help with your…experiments…I'm always willing to lend an ear. Thank you for this demonstration. It was…impressive." He handed Carly the towel and moved on to the spider-dude's display.

Raven stood there, eyeing Carly for a long moment. There was a darkness in her, despite the almost-yellow eyes.

"Pleasure meeting you," said Carly, holding out a hand.

Raven made no move to take it. She studied Carly's display, made completely of petals as if it was a Rose Bowl Parade float. "God, I hate flowers," said the woman at last and moved off.