Dancing For Demons

The pill

"You mean to say that Earth's mightiest heroes couldn't stop a fifteen year old girl from escaping a locked room!" Fury screamed loudly at them and the whole team stayed silent. "I leave you for a few months and whilst I am away you create a psychopathic robot and then Rogers almost is killed by a child who you then let escape!" He pauses to calm down and then continues in his usual voice. "Now you are very lucky that I am here to help. I pulled on a few strings and found out a bit about her. She is known as the Ghost and is credited to the assassinations of over two hundred people in the last four years. No one knows anything about who she is or who she works for, but they obviously don't like you."
"She works for Hydra," Wanda bravely interrupted. Fury nodded and then asked "How do you know?"
"I looked inside her mind and saw who she was. Her name is Anastasia and she works for a woman inside Hydra called Madame Orlov. I know she has done bad things, but I think we can convince her that Hydra is actually bad." Tony, who had gone to the kitchen making a cup of coffee, walked back to the lounge area and sat down. He took a long sip of coffee and then spoke. "She is dangerous and has already tried to kill one of us. I'm sorry Wanda, but she has to die." Fury agreed with Tony, but Wanda would not let it happen.
Furiously Wanda stood up. "You would condemn a fifteen year old girl to death without at least allowing her the chance to know the truth."
"Fine. She can have one chance, but only if you can find her. She is probably the other side of the world, killing another person," Fury cruelly pointed out.

....................

Many weeks since Anastasia's failure had passed and each was spent within the confines of the training room and her cell. The man with the metal arm had began training with her after Hydra had restored the man to his former state of unswerving loyalty to Hydra. When they fought, she always won, however she had sustained many serious injuries from his vibranium arm. A single blow would crack her ribs and she quickly learned to stay out of reach from his arm. Anastasia was much faster and agile then him and although a single blow would knock her to the ground he would struggle to hit her.
Today had been no different. Anastasia had begun the day it by eating her usual meal of some oatmeal and a foul tasting drink that she was always given. Then, she walked over to the training room and went over to the archery course. For the past year, she had been trying to master archery and had accomplished her target. Every arrow she shot hit the bullseye.
After thirty minutes, the winter soldier arrived and they both entered the fighting ring and sparred for the next hour, neither winning nor losing. Sheer exhaustion caused them to slow, but not stop. They never stopped.
Their sparring session was interrupted by Madame Orlov herself, who commanded loudly for them to stop and was instantly obeyed. Anastasia climbed out of the fighting ring and bowed her head in respect. The winter soldier just stood rigid and to attention. Anastasia had noticed his almost absent personality over the weeks they had been training together and guessed it was from the winter soldier program. She had heard it was the toughest program Hydra ran.
"Anastasia, winter soldier, you have been selected to receive an enhancement serum. It is designed to enhance your senses and we hope it will give you the power to destroy the avengers, which will be your next mission. Please return to your quarters to get changed into the clothing provided and then you will be escorted to one of the labs to receieve this serum."
They both obeyed without question.

After changing into a thin vest and shorts, Anastasia entered a large room full of people who immediately turned around to look at her. From the clothing they wore and the authority they projected throughout the room, Anastasia could tell that four of the were on Hydra's council of leaders, including Madame Orlov. She was no surprise to her that they were here. She recognized two faces from the last enhancement she had received, when they had been watching too. In the centre stood two stainless steel tables and she was directed to lie on one of them. Her skin tingled from the icy colness of the metal and she had to resist the urge to stand up. As she lay there, waiting for them to start, she listened into to the multiple conversations going on. The leaders were discussing an offer made by 'the red room' whilst scientists made preparations. Bored of staring at the plain white ceiling, Anastasia turned her head and looked down at the white, tiled floor. A small patch of grouting between two tiles had turned a dark red colour, like blood.
Before Anastasia could think upon this mark, the doors opened again and the winter soldier entered wearing the same clothes as Anastasia. He was too directed to the neighbouring table and once he was laying down, the scientists began.
"Today we are injecting subjects A2 and B5 with 50mg of Roboromens," one of the scientists announced to the viewers and the nodded to his team behind him. Two syringes were handed one each to two scientists who walked over to us. Without warning, the scientist plunged the needle into Anastasia's arm and injected its contents into her bloodstream. She then removed it and walked away. Anastasia assumed the same thing happened to the winter soldier.
For two minutes, they both lay there in silence as the drug moved through their body. A man hooked her up to a monitor and two loads of beeping could be heard, proving they were still alive.
It came subtley at first. A barely noticable migraine that started to grow. A small increase in their pulse. Soon, however, Anastasia felt the changes. The lights were too bright, the sounds too loud and her movements were less controlled. A throbbing pain in her head that relentlessly pounded on her skull and stopped her from thinking. Her hands shook on the table from involuntary spasms and the rest of her body soon followed. The world went black and she felt herself being pulled into a nightmare of dreams and horrors.

....................

Turning his head to where Anastasia lay, he was shocked to see her body twitching and shaking. Apart from an agonising headache and the bright lights and loud noises that made his head hurt even more, he felt relatively fine. As Anastasia's twitching turned into a seizure that through her onto the ground where her body relentlessly smashed itself against the hard floor, the agitated voices of the scientists spread throughout the room. This was not supposed to happen. Someone cradled Anastasia's head in their arms to stop it hitting the floor, but the rest just stood by and watched as her mouth frothed and her limp body jerked about.
He was not allowed to find out what happened next, as the table he was lying on was wheeled out of the room and down a series of corridors. Finally he was placed in a room and multiple monitors where connected and samples of his blood were taken to be tested. He was left alone with a woman who stood there in her white coat watching him closely and writing down notes on her tablet.

After two days of close monitoring, he was given the all clear and allowed to leave the room and return to his cell, where he promptly changed into his training clothes, a black vest-top and cargo pants. While he waited for instructions to be given, he worked out in the narrow confines of his room by doing push-ups, sit-ups and other exercises. Then he practiced his punches and kicks and soon found himself amazed by the speed his body now moved. The serum he had been given must have made his reflexes quicker, as well as his senses. Time was hard to tell and it could have been a couple of hours or less before someone came. Two knocks sounded on the door and he stood stiffly to attention as the door swung open. Madame Orlov stood outside and walked in followed by another woman wearing a lab coat. She was carrying a chain with a small metal box that hung off the chain. A red star, matching the one on his arm, had been painted on the box.
The woman opened the box to show a group of dark brown tablets.
"These tablets will keep you alive," she explained. "Robomens is a highly toxic drug that although it gives you enhancements is also killing you as we speak. It slowly causes the decay of brain tissue, but as long as you take one of these tablets every day, no damage will be done to your brain. These past two days, you have received them through an injection, however these pills are much easier to take. You must have one every morning. Do you understand?"
The winter soldier's brain processed all this knowledge in an instant and he replied as she finished with a nod. The tablets were handed over to him and he put the chain around his neck, tucking it behind his top.
"Hail Hydra!"