Hero (Loki & Avengers)

Eighteen

I bite my tongue. "No, of course not. I brought you back something I took from you. A peace offering."

I pull the flash drive out of my pocket and hold it up. His eyes widen and he gestures to the door behind me. A guard comes into the tunnel between the doors, grabs the drive from me, and then the glass door seals on me once more.

"What do you really want, Cassidy?" Mr. Connors asks me, raising an eyebrow.

"I feel like I'm a danger to everyone around me all the time. I want to know what's inside of me. I want you to get it out." I tell him truthfully.

"Oh, little Cassidy Martin. I can promise you this; I will learn as much as I can about Substance X. I'll need cooperation from you, though." He says.

Relief fills me. For a while there I thought he would refuse and kill me like he tried to before. I knew that if I brought the flash drive and came in peace he would see reason.

"Of course." I tell him.

"Alright, we'll begin testing now then." He claps his hands together and I smile. I walk over to the door, waiting for them to let me out, but he lets out a condescending laugh.

"Oh no, you're not leaving that cell." He tells me.

"But I promised I would work with you. I'm not a threat." I say dumbfounded.

"Your very existence is a threat, Cassidy. You understand, don't you? Better safe than sorry." He replies and I again bite my tongue, nodding and forcing back tears.

This is why you came here, Cassidy. You turned yourself in. Do the right thing and cooperate.

"How about I tell you a little something to perk you up while they prepare the first test? A little Substance X history lesson." He begins and I turn towards him again, attentive.

I'd give anything to learn more about this stuff in me.

"Substance X, at least all we have of it, was contained within a meteor that fell to Earth, but nobody saw it coming because of its properties. You know well enough by now the cloaking power of the substance I'm sure. We didn't find the damn thing until someone tripped over something they couldn't even see." He tells me.

"Do you know where it came from?" I ask eagerly.

"Unfortunately it was taken from our possession before we could test it." He says, giving me a subtle dig. I stop asking questions.

Then they begin the tests. At first it's just a finger prick here or there, or a few viles of blood drawn. They see how my skin reacts when they touch metal to my arm.

All harmless, and all safely within my glass confinement.

Then I realize what they really meant when they said they would test me.

They meant they would torture me.

Over the next few days, my body becomes a test dummy for their sickest and most painful tests imaginable.

They shock me enough to kill a normal person, hooking me up to wires and shocking me for so long that the glass tube I'm in fills with smoke and smells of burnt flesh.

They heat up my little glass box to the point where my skin begins to glow red, and it feels like I'm being boiled from the inside out. No matter how much I scream or pass out, they keep going.

They fill the room with poisonous gas that stings my skin and lungs. I cough blood, which sputters onto the floor before coagulating and being reabsorbed back into me anyways, like it's drawn to me.