Damaged Goods

Part 22

*Author's Note*-Hey! Happy summer!!! I'm so excited to have some more time to write! I plan to finish this story by the end of this summer. This is a really long chapter. I had some writer's block and couldn't decide what I wanted to happen, but I figured it out! I think. I also will have a new cover for this book soon, all to be revealed at a later date. Anyways, please enjoy this chapter!

*****

-Vanessa-

I jerk awake with a start. I was dreaming about...something important. But I just can't remember. I can't seem to remember much these days, except my orders. Which are the only things that matter, I remind myself. Wiping my brow I get out of the stiff bed of the hotel room and meander over to the bathroom. I creak open the door and turn on the lights before I move the shower curtain to reveal the bound scrawny man laying in the tub. He's still knocked out cold, and a bruise is forming from where I slammed his head into the lab table, but he's still here. The doctor was very easy to fight - if you can even call it that - and once he was knocked out I gave him the sedative. I walk to the mirror, close the bathroom door behind me, and idly take off my clothes, preparing to switch into my suit. When my shirt comes over my head, my eyes catch the darkened skin of a scar on my lower abdomen. There's just enough moonlight through the window for me to see it extends almost entirely across my front. My fingers brush against the skin but there is no spark of pain so it must not be recent.

With my suit donned and the pick-up time approaching I march into the bathroom again. Turning the nob all the way to cold water, the shower spurs to life and the scientist awakes with a start, sputtering cold water as he tries to sit up and fails. I turn off the shower and yank him up by the ropes tying his hands together behind his back.

"What? What are you doing? Where am I-"

I slap him hard across the cheek and that seems to shut him up enough for me to drag him out of the bathroom.

We eventually make it to the car I was sent and I drive us to meet my employer. Somewhere between the hotel room and the car I managed to shove a gag into his mouth because he was getting whiny.

His muffled voice continues from behind me and I turn back in my seat.

"Shut up! You don't want to see what I can do to you." The man goes silent and I turn back to the road. 

Suddenly a large thud on the roof echos through the car. Someone leans over from the roof of the car to look inside. I raise my hand to shoot them away but they evade my blow. Red swirls of power take over the car and it's brought to a halt. I slam open my door and reel on the person that just jumped from the car. The person attempts to stab me with a syringe of some sort so I blast my power at it, incinerating the syringe and its contents. The woman - as I can now see - pauses in surprise and I take my chance, kicking her in the gut; she stumbles backward. A motorcycle comes to a halt just a few yards from her, followed by a red and jade-colored man hovering in the air, next to a red metal man. Vision and Iron Man, my intel tells me.

"Vanessa please, we don't want to hurt you," the woman that rode the bike warns. My eyes narrow at her.

"I'm not Vanessa," I counter. I extend a hand out and blast the woman in the chest, sending her flying back into the bike. She groans as the others turn to me.

"Sorry," a voice speaks behind me and I turn around to see Iron Man standing next to the car, holding my mark. "But he doesn't belong to you."

I lunge at him but he shoots into the air. In a rush, I attempt to shoot at him with my power but after one near miss a hard body slams into me, sending me to the ground hard.

The Vision holds my arms to the ground as I struggle. I face my palms up and blast my powers at The Vision. He goes flying through the air while I turn to face the others. I focus on the two red-haired women in front of me and meet one's blast of power with my own. My luminescent blue power fights for dominance against the woman's scarlet red power. Our powers seem to combine into a sizzling purple in the middle and I push harder. Two men come at me from the side but I lift my other hand, blasting them back. The other woman has come to her feet but the electrifying purple power between me and the other woman sends surges of energy outwards, keeping the others from closing in. We both lift our other hands and add more power, the purple electricity only grows in size. There's a heat radiating from it and I can see the other woman break a sweat as soon as I do. People are yelling outside our little bubble of power and suddenly a beam of yellow light intercepts our purple combination of power and everything explodes. White flashes in my vision and I'm thrown back into the hard cement wall of the laboratory. Black spots crowd my vision as I try to regain my composure. But before I can even stand back up the red-haired woman in the black suit grabs me in my moment of weakness and strikes.