Girl At War

HYDRA - 24

**Italics in these: ** = flashback**

bright lights. beeping. footsteps. clanging of a door. voices. hands. cold. pain. light. dark.

Eloyse groaned softly, her eyes fluttering open. She lay motionless still, trying to remember. Something. Anything.

A fight. A white-haired girl. Lots of noise. Damian shot.

Damian shot. That jerked her out of her daze and cleared her head. She remembered everything. Kanzia's betrayal, the fight, activating her tracker, the HYDRA agents swamping her at the end. Was Damian alright? She turned her head slightly, trying to look around where she was. A shudder ran through her when she realized she was on a white table in a spotless room.

"Oh, no." She muttered, closing her eyes. Opening them again, she was met with the same scene. "No, no, no. Oh, no. Not again." Last time she had been scared, but now she was just angry. They'd stolen her brother and his innocence, tried to take over her country, turned her friend against her, and then to top it off, they'd tried, and possibly succeeded, in killing her horse. She tried to sit up, and surprisingly found she wasn't tied. She swung her feet over the edge of the table and lightly dropped to her feet.

"Glad you're awake, Ms. Kaleni."

Eloyse whirled, searching for the speaker, before she realized the voice came from over her head somewhere. She crossed her arms and glared at the walls. "Nasty vermin." She growled. She stalked over to the door, trying the handle. Of course, it was locked. As she expected.

"You really don't think we'd let you escape that easy, do you?" the voice sounded amused. Eloyse gave a a huff. She discreetly checked her boot for her knife, but they'd taken it. The overhead voice made another snide comment, which Eloyse prudently ignored. She paced around the room like a caged animal. She was on the other side of the room when the door handle rattled. With a guarded expression, she spun around to face it. 

********************

"Uugh...." Clint moaned, collapsing beside Natasha. She gave him a sympathetic look, gently massaging her own feet. "How does she just vanish like that? It's been thirty hours." he complained. He stretched his legs out wearily. Bruce came out of the jet, carrying two glasses of ice-cold water. Natasha and Clint gratefully accepted them. Bruce had been anointed as the camp person. He kept the jet tidy and ready for use, made the meals, hauled water, and worked at tracking down the TT chemicals with science. The rest of the Avengers were out doing the hard labour: searching.

The jet wouldn't be any use, seeing as Eloyse couldn't have made it very far. So they were criss-crossing the ground on foot. Steve came over, limping slightly.

"I am never buying Georgia boots again..." He sank down near the two assassins. "Where's Tony?"

"What's wrong with Georgia boots?" Clint protested. 

"Not back yet." Natasha replied. "He's gonna run his arc reactor into nothingness the way he's pushing him and that suit."

On cue, Iron Man came streaking over them and landed a few feet away. The suit closed up, and Tony dragged his feet over to the three Avengers. They looked up hopefully, but when he gave the small shake of his head, they dropped in disappointment. Steve turned to Clint.

"They are horrible boots that put your foot through the worst kinds of torture for no reason."

Clint disagreed. "I'm wearing Georgia. They're great boots! Here, lemme see yours." Steve extended a foot. Clint examined the boot, then shoved it away. "No wonder! Those are an off brand. Get the real stuff, Cap."