Between the Lines

Glass Cage

          Locked in chains that held my hands behind my back, I was escorted from the jet first by my brother, the soldier, and the metal man before being passed over to eight fully armed guards. They kept me in front, the men directly behind me telling me which way to turn by pressing the muzzles of their weapons into my flanks as we went. I refused to let them see my reaction to my injuries as they pushed on my sides, the old bruises and fresh marks yet to appear from today's fight aptly reminding me of their presence with each jostling. As we passed the laboratory that sat in the very center of the aircraft, I felt the scepter's presence. The center stone began to glow as I came nearer, I smiled, watching as the man with as many secrets as I carried looked up and toward me. So, this was the shapeshifter; the one who would soon be mine.

    Before we had fully passed, I thought of what I wanted Barton and his men under my control to do to get me out. I knew that once I was too far from the scepter, I would not have such a chance again, at least not to send orders. While they would remain under my control until I released them, communicating long distances would become far more difficult once I was no longer near the staff. Escorted down a final corridor, I was led into a large circular room that resembled the barren raised platform rooms and balconies within the Dark Aster. In the center of it though stood a glass cylinder, held precariously above the floor by two heavy hydraulic arms; it stood there, bluish-tinged lights running above the windows and in a circle around the floor, centered between four balconies, each with one short pathway that led into it. The eight guards split up then, two moving to stand upon each of the small paths, their weapons raised. The two who had remained behind me worked together to keep me subdued, though had I wanted to I could have easily overpowered them both and been on my way in a matter of minutes, the remaining six men dead where they stood.

    While one guard kept his weapon aimed at my head, the other opened the glass door before me, undoing my restraints before he shoved me roughly into the cylinder. Glancing around at it, unimpressed, I watched as the door slid shut and locked. The one-eyed man who seemed inclined toward only black leather, entered the grated pathways then,  headed toward a projected display to my left. The guards slowly filed out as the man Barton had once called Fury began swiping and tapping on the screen.

    "In case it's unclear, you try to escape; you so much as scratch that glass..." He turned toward me pressing a button as a whirring sound emitted from beneath me, the glass prison shuddering as it did before the loud shrieking of wind filled my ears. I moved over to the side, gingerly leaning as close to the glass as I dared to glance down toward the floor beneath the cell. I knew what awaited beneath me now, though it was still intriguing to view. We were far higher than I had thought; the fall would indeed kill me, and if it failed to, the rubble of this glass cage certainly would. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap," the man shouted over the maelstrom before he pressed another button on the control panel, the sound fading quickly. "Ant," he gestured to me with his hands as if handing me a parcel before gesturing back to the panel beside him; "Boot. You get how that works?"

    I couldn't help but chuckle, shaking my head as I once more looked around my new home. I lifted my hands, a smirk on my face as I gestured to the glass and steel walls around me. "It's an impressive cage, yet not built, I think, for me." I curled my fingers in toward myself as I watched, waiting for the response from the man who wanted yet failed so badly to be intimidating.

    "Built for something a lot stronger than you."

    "Oh, I've heard..." I couldn't help but turn my head in the direction I'd come from, the direction where the man carrying a mighty beast ripe for the taking lurked within the presumed safety of his laboratory. A camera stood there, covered by a thin tinted globe just as one did at all four sides of my glass prison, watching my every move. I smirked right into it; though I couldn't be sure who was watching, I somehow knew that those who had brought me here were at the very least, listening in on my every word. I had to make this good, had to let them know just how much I knew while not revealing my full hand. "The mindless beast; makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you," I asked turning back toward him, still smiling from the higher ground I held.