Unknown Location

A man in a black, business suit walked up to a man sitting on a throne. The man on the throne leaned forward, but all of his features were still hidden in shadow.

"Report," said the man on the throne

"Reaper has been detained, your majesty," said the man "The Avengers are searching the area for Maddie, Wasp is nearing their hideout, let's see how she fares against our new weapon."

A screen on the wall turned on to show Wasp flying through the forest. On a separate screen, a video of the camp where Maddie was camped came up. Maddie was talking to a young girl named Jane. Regretfully, the man had been unable to convince Jane to join his cause, but had places spies and cameras around the area to watch her, soon, AIM would make its play to bring Maddie over to their side, by any means necessary.

As Wasp neared the camp, the man pressed a button and spoke into his com link.

"Proceed with Operation: Honeybee," he said

"Understood, sir," said another voice over the link, before terminating it. The man continued to watch. The Avengers were going to lose this time, and then there would be nothing to stop him from taking the world. He signalled to his men to ready his secret weapon and be ready to fire. The weapon charged up and then, when the men had determined their target, fired.

Jane's Camp

The Wasp had reached the camp. Hiding in the bushes shrunk down, she looked around for a girl matching the description of Maddie. It didn't take her long to spot her across the forest clearing, talking to a younger girl. She changed back to her normal height and walked out of her hiding place, her hands up to show them she was not threat. She didn't get the reaction she was expecting. The children in her view brought up crudely made wooden weapons, sharpened and pointing at her, and one even held a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

"I mean you no harm," said Janet "Please lower your weapons, I just want to talk."

"Why should we talk to you?" asked the younger girl Maddie had been talking to "Everyone here are runaways, from a society that didn't have enough room for us, we follow no rules but our own, Maddie came to us for help and harbour, we will do what we can to protect her."

Before Janet could answer, an invisible beam hit her from above. She was still aware, she could see, feel, hear, smell and taste, but she was no longer in control of her body.

"I have a better idea," Janet heard herself say in an evil sounding voice "Avengers Assemble."

It didn't take more than a few minutes for the Avengers to converge on Wasp's location, but by then, all of the children, including Maddie, had vanished.

"Search the area," Janet heard herself say "They were just here, she can't have gone far."

Janet knew what had happened. Somehow, her body was being controlled from somewhere, and she was unable to move her own body.

"Help!" Janet tried to shout, but it echoed in her own head, as if she was standing in an enormous cavern "Help, Help, Help."

She realised that none of her team would be able to hear her, she was trapped inside her own head with no way to get out. Who could have done this, and more importantly, what could she do about it?

Somewhere in the forest where Jane's camp was

"Keep running," said Jane "Stay together, we're nearly out of the forest."

"The Avengers will be searching for us by now," said Maddie, panting slightly as she continued to run "Where is this second hideout you spoke of?"

"It's not far," said Jane "You'll be safe soon."

It wasn't long before Jane lead them to a sheer rock wall. In the wall, was a gigantic fissure.

"Go through," said Jane "Quickly now."

The kids climbed through individually, running into the cave beyond. Jane waited until the last of the kids had gone through the fissure, before leading Maddie through it too.

"Get as far below the fissure as you can," said Jane "During the night, when the temperature cools, the fissure will close and hide our entrance."

"How did you find this place?" asked Maddie, as she complied with Jane's orders to get down low.

"It was a long time ago," said Jane "Before I became homeless, I was out hiking here with my father when we discovered the fissure, today, I thought it would make a good hiding place."

Maddie's stomach rumbled. Jane smiled

"You hungry?" she asked "We stored quite a lot of our meat down here, it's cold deeper down, so it keeps it fresh."

She led Maddie down into the cavern below the fissure, where a few of the children had gotten a fire going and was already roasting a small animal. Maddie sat down next to the fire to rest, with Jane sitting down next to her.

"I still don't get it," said Maddie "The man who told me to run said that the Avengers were monsters and that they would use me for their own ends, but that woman wanted to help me for a few moments, before she called in the Avengers, it's like she had a complete change of character."

"You told us the man also told you she was a good liar, how can you be sure she was showing you the real her when she talked to you the first time?" asked Jane

"I had a good feeling about her," said Maddie "Then it turned out she was just distracting me until her team was in position."

"That's not necessarily true," said Jane "I had the same feeling, but then she changed, to be honest Maddie, I'm just as confused as you are."

"I'm sure we'll figure it out," said Jane "But for now, let's eat."