A/N: Well, we've finally come to the end of the first Carly: Teen Hydra Agent saga. It's been a fun ride.
I hope everyone's enjoyed it. More notes to follow.
Chapter Thirteen
"No!"
Things ripped her veins, crawled into her guts and brain, ready to strike. Carly grabbed her head.
Like a flip on a roller coaster, the whole world receded, became small. The building shrank, crumbling beneath her feet. Carly slid off the side, fell for an eternity, then slammed soft ground. All around her, buildings kept shrinking, until it struck her—she was growing, just like the bugs and birds. Whatever invaded her veins ballooned her body, suit and all.
Her head loomed above the buildings. Carly stepped carefully around the streets and sideways, heart hammering her chest, looking for a place to stand with harming anything among the trucks and soldiers and shops. Everything kept shrinking. Would it ever stop? She shivered. If she kept growing, she would destroy a good part of Richmond just by existing. The army must have had the same idea, because all of sudden, troops opened fire.
The bullets and flames pierced, little pinpricks everywhere, wounds battling her ability to heal. Carly covered her face, tried to walk, then run, crushing houses and cars with her knees and ankles. A freeway, mostly empty, offered a path away. She hopped over the bridges and wires.
"What's happening to me?!" She'd always been the one with powers, never had powers used against her before now. The world kept shrinking as her head reached toward the clouds.
Why would Carly's father want to destroy his own daughter? If what that girl said was true, then why do this? A jet fired missiles at her and she swatted them away, burning her fingers. "Ow!" Tanks fired, tiny pellets in her butt. "Curses!"
Wait—what if this was a test? That girl had lured her in, using both her names, made herself a royal nuisance. Back in that so-called jail, Dad had mentioned her powers, that if she gets hurt, she'd be stronger than before. Well, this hurt. Roads crumbled beneath her feet like she was walking on sand. She needed to get away from civilization and fast. There. A forest. Some state park or other. She strode over some malls and developments, then felt the crunch of trees under her feet. Now she was among vegetation. She closed her eyes and reached out her hands. All the life around her, at her command. This was her element, the crux of her abilities. Life. She let her power flow, from the trees to her arms and back.
And then she realized—her power didn't come from within. It came from the plants themselves. It's why they withered and died when she used too much.
She had sucked the life out of Lance. That's what killed him. But she could pull life into herself, and she did, as the forest withered, she used the power to beat back the nanites, to one by one destroy them and their grow-rays, until they were defeated. Like the dog she had rescued, she used the power to heal herself back to normal size, slumping down and down until she was just a girl, laying in a blackened forest that looked like a fire had raged through it, shivering from all the power that still coursed through her veins.
The X-Men suit still clung to her although mostly in tatters. She felt around and discovered the lump of a phone in her pocket. Somehow, it still worked, even after growing and shrinking with her. She punched in the exfil code, hoping Hydra wasn't actually trying to kill her. Emotions surged through her—relief that she had defeated the nanites, horror at what she had done to the countryside for miles around, rage that Hydra had done this to one of their own. She lay there, breathing, staring at the missile-trail-filled sky, with jets zipping around, their thunder breaking on her like the worst storm ever.
The drone of a nearby car engine rallied her. Carly hid behind a rock as it approached. With all the nearby forest destroyed, she's be powerless, unless she wanted to kill more people by ripping out their hearts.
The car stopped. "Carly? Are you here?"
Carly poked her head out and looked at the long black SUV. "Becky?" Her one-time friend, now a hated enemy. How?
"Whoa. Is that you? Come on, kid, let's move," called Becky. "I'm working with your father."
Carly froze. It could be the worst lie of all time. Becky supposedly was with S.H.I.E.L.D. but was she a double, working both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra? The thumping of helicopters grew louder, searching every inch of the forest. Carly had to take a chance. She sprinted to the car and jumped in the back. The car immediately sped away.
Another girl sat in the back, a red-headed thing with freckles and a dimpled chin. Wait. She was the girl from the roof who had done this to Carly. She must have escaped the X-Men somehow…probably Becky's doing. Carly reached for the door and prepared to jump from the moving SUV. The handle didn't budge. Locked. Carly turned back to the girl, ready to rip her heart out, but the girl reached up with a hand and smiled. "Hold, on Carly. We're not the enemy. Name's Ginger. Sorry about all that, orders and all. You did great. I have to say I love the new look."
Carly stared at the hand, half a mind to strangle the girl in her seat. But wait—Ginger? Curses! She was that girl from the Science Fair, at the next booth. Hydra had known her plot the whole cursed time! Carly's heart swooned as the realization struck her harder than Wolverine's blades.
Carly would never been free, not for one single second. Defeated, Carly took the hand and shook it. "What look?" Carly scooted over and stared into the rear-view mirror.
She was green. Hulk green. Her hair—it was now made of leaves and grass. Her eyes, her lips, her tongue, all shades of olive and lime and avocado.
"What the hell? I'm the Jolly Green Girl now?" She had only one explanation. Not only had she taken the power of the forest to cure herself, she had somehow taken in the essence as well.
Becky laughed as they slipped past troops scrambling to find them. "At least you don't look like a Hydra."
Carly crossed her arms slumped in her seat, brain unable to process. It would fade, right? She wasn't about to spend her life looking like a woodland nymph. She barely contained the rage that would send the SUV into a ditch if unleashed. They passed through an area with a giant crater—one of Carly's footsteps. "How bad is it? How much damage?"
"Not sure. You might have wiped out all the crops in the surrounding counties."
"How many dead?"
Becky glanced at Ginger. "Enough. Listen, Wild Flower, let's get something straight. Everyone knows who you are now. You're wanted for the murder of Lance Conrad. You're sought for the destruction of Richmond and the surrounding areas. You no longer get to play the innocent card. You're now firmly on the list of super-villains. We made sure of it. And now, with your…distinctive…appearance, you'll have no place to hide."
Loathe as she was to admit it, Carly realized that Becky was probably right. There was no coming back from this. Sure, she might have been tricked into some of it, but Lance—Lance was all her doing. Like her green skin, it was a stain on her soul she might never lose.
They drove through Carly's miles of destruction. Forests burned beyond recognition. Highways pummeled. Ambulances swarming at every building she had crush. She was a monster. A wanted fugitive. A non-hero.
All Carly had wanted was to make Lance better, help rescue her father. Now she was the world's newest super-villain—something she'd thought she always wanted. She looked at her arms, green with moss instead of hair.
Something moved in the street ahead. "Stop the car!"
The driver slammed the brakes. A dog sat in the road, panting.
"Wait here," said Becky, drawing a gun.
"No way. I know that dog."
"Carly!"
"Open the damn door."
"No"
Carly leaned forward and grabbed Becky's chin, rage running through her veins. "Do it."
Becky looked into Carly's eyes and shivered. She nodded to the driver.
Carly popped out of the car and ran to meet Doggie. "Aw. What are you doing here all alone?"
But of course, the dog wasn't alone. Wolverine stepped out from behind a van on the side of the street. On the other side was Mystique.
"Step back," yelled Becky, running after Carly. Ginger also held a weapon, maybe the one she'd used over in Richmond.
Carly knelt next to the dog, petting her.
"Stop right there," said Wolverine, talons out, ready to strike.
Mystique stepped up. "We can help you. If you go with them, then you will be our enemy. Your life doesn't have to be like this. Come with us and we can fix what they've done to you."
Carly looked at them, and looked back at Becky.
"You've made a vow to us," said Becky. "To your father."
Doggie licked Carly's face. At least Doggie didn't mind Carly's new, hideous look. "No one has done anything to me," she said, defeat thickening her blood. "This is who I am. Doesn't anyone get that? I am Wild Flower. I am The Hydra. I'm a monster. I don't belong with X-Men or S.H.I.E.L.D."
Mystique stepped forward. "It's not about belonging. It's about fighting the fights that need to be fought. The world is in peril, and Hydra isn't even near the top of our concerns. You have to make a choice. If you continue down this path, it only leads to darkness. Trust me, I've been there."
"We've all been there," said Wolverine.
"Well, Jeez, it sounds like I'm on the right path," said Carly, standing, facing the X-Men. Tempting as it sounded, she'd be just as much a prisoner with them as she was with Hydra. At least with Hydra she'd be with what passed for her family. "If I need you, I'll call. How does that sound?"
Mystique and Wolverine glanced at each other, and charged.
Carly held up a hand, power flowing, stronger than ever, ready to destroy the X-Men. The two stopped and blinked.
"Kill them," said Becky with obvious glee. "Finish this."
Carly smiled grimly. Damn, Becky was bloodthirsty. Killing them was the last thing on her mind. After all, they seemed sincere in their efforts to help her. But Carly had power over life. "I have a better idea."
Wolverine and Mystique turned to each other and awkwardly hugged. Mystique's body twitched, her skin and hair rapidly changing shades, blue and tan and white and red. Wolverine's veins bulged as he fought the power forcing his body to move. Doggie barked at them, tail between her legs.
"How are you doing that?" breathed Becky.
"I control their muscles. Trust me, they aren't loving it. I'm sorry, guys, but I've got to follow my own path." Her captives turned their heads to her, anger and fright writ in their eyes. Who knows if they'd ever faced a power like Carly's? "I won't forget what you did for me."
Carly motioned to the girls, and they retreated back to the truck, Doggie in tow. As they drove away, Carly held the X-Men as long as she could, and then released them. "Move it, they're free."
The car zoomed to a clearing where a helicopter waited, rotors spinning and washing them with bursts of wind. They jumped in, and in seconds, the helicopter zoomed up and over the destruction.
It took a few tense moments to evade the damaged area, but soon they were away from the destruction and the prowling jets.
They all donned flight headphones to hear over the roar of the engine. The copilot turned to them. "Everyone alright?" he said through his helmet mic. Goggles obscured his face.
Carly nodded, Doggie in her lap.
"Well, Carly, I must say I'm proud of you. You're everything we hoped you would be. And what you did to Logan and Raven…magical."
Carly shivered. The voice, distorted as it was, was familiar. Could it be? She shivered. "Daddy?"
He pulled off his helmet and goggles. It was Dad!
"Hi, Sweetie. Welcome to the Club. Welcome to the Inner Circle. You're now officially a full member. We have so many plans for you, so many things that you can do. Carly, I just want to be the first one to say this to you." He extended his hand in the Nazi-like salute. "Hail Hydra."
Carly slumped in her seat. Yes, now she was in the so-called Club, a villain's villain, freakishly green, able to destroy nature and control human bodies, even powerful superhero's. She was now destined to live a life of solitude, because who the heck would ever look at her now?
Doggie looked up and panted. Carly petted her head and stared out the window. She sighed and looked back at her dad. This was her destiny. There was no other way her life could have turned out.
"Mystique said Hydra wasn't even their biggest concern. We need to change that. But it's not going to come at the cost of more innocent lives. If you want me, then no more deaths. Destruction, mayhem, fine, but no murder. Understood?"
Dad looked a little pale. "Yes, dear. Of course. Whatever you say. Are you in?"
Carly looked at her frenemies Becky and Ginger. With a thought, she could destroy them. She could look out the window and eliminate whole neighborhoods. This was going to be her life, the tool of an evil organization.
An evil organization that had no idea of what she was really capable of doing. If they wanted her, then they would have her, green skin and a rage that might rival the Hulk's.
"Of course." She glared at her father and raised her arm in a crisp salute. "Hail Hydra."
The End
Or is it?
A/N: So that's all for Carly:THA/Wild Flower for now. I might pick it up next year after I see how this coming season of AOS goes.
However, I do have a short piece, a little interlude between these events and the next Carly series, I could throw up here if people are interested, where Carly goes to a comic-con cosplaying as herself. It's sort of a fanfic of my own fanfic, since there's only one Marvel character that ever shows up. Let me know if you'd be interested and I might post it here as a bonus chapter.
Anyways, thanks for reading. And of course...
Hail Hydra!