Void (The Avengers)

six

She shook her head slightly, earning a small smile from the man in front of her.

The man who was previously iron scoffed. "Can't get anything out of her. Wouldn't tell me a damn thing."

The tall blond man then knelt down aswell. Even kneeling, he was taller than Carter.

"Let me try," he said, whilst in the process of getting on the floor. "Hello, small human. I am Thor, son of Odin and god of thunder. I demand that you tell me--" he said, voice rising on the last sentence before he was cut off by Steve.

He put his hands on his shoulders, pushing him away from the girl.

"Alright, alright, we don't need to demand anything."

The woman turned to the metal man. "Did she not have any parents with her?"

"No, she said something about not seeing them since she was three."

The woman's hard facial expression softened the slightest bit.

She, like the others, bent down to reach Carter.

"Kid, you're gonna have to work with us. You have to talk. What's your name?"

She stayed quietly before speaking quietly. "Carter."

She barely noticed Steve's face fall at the mention of her name, almost as if it was sad to hear.

"Carter? Alright. And your last name?"

"May. But I know that's not my real last name. It's what they used." Carter spoke the word 'they' as if it were poison on her tongue.

"They? Who's they?"

Meanwhile, an alarm like sound played. It was coming from a small computer in the middle of the ship. Metal man walked over to it. Carter saw a woman with a solemn expression appear once he pressed a button. Carter averted her attention back to the woman in front of her as the woman on the screen spoke.

"Th- the scientists." She stuttered.

"Scientists? You mean you had guardians who were scientists?"

She shook her head. "They took me from my parents. I was three."

The woman's face suddenly lit up, as if she had an idea.

"Does the name Von Strucker ring any bells?"

Carter thought for a moment before shaking her head. She had never heard that name when she was in the building. The woman's face fell slightly, but she continued her interrogation.

"Where did they keep you?"

Carter's eyes were now getting slightly teary. She shook her head again. "I don't know."

"Okay, how did you get out?"

She looked the woman in the eyes. She then made a portal appear, only going a few inches to the right. The small look of surprise that had appeared on the woman's face left quickly.

"You did that to get out?"

"Yes. But then they found me. I had to- a man's arm- I didn't mean to do it! I panicked! It just happened!"

Carter's breaths were becoming shallow again. A few stray tears began to leave her eyes as her voice became slightly louder and unsteady.

Steve and Thor now turned around to watch the conversation between the two girls. But the older woman turned. "I got this, it's fine."

"Nat, look at her. It's not fine."

Steve walked towards the younger girl.

He held on to her shaking arms. He looked her in the eyes as he said "Hey, it's alright. You're safe here, okay? It'll be- it'll be alright."

It took a few minutes, but the girl calmed down.

Steve and Nat were now whispering back and forth as Carter lay on the ground trying to sleep. Even though she was tired, sleep wouldn't come. She wasn't even sure she wanted it to. She didn't welcome the nightmares that came along with it.

She could hear snippets of Steve and Nat's conversation.

Steve was telling Nat to leave Carter alone. They would ask her more questions when she was ready, as she was clearly not in the right place to talk about it just yet. But Nat argued that she could be some sort of spy. Carter supposed she was in the right mindset. It was slightly suspicious that a random girl shows up with a strange superpower, and tells them that she was kidnapped by scientists.

They walked over to the others in the ship. Carter now couldn't hear the conversations. She was only looking at the area where the wall of the ship met the floor. And even though she wasn't asleep, a flashback came.

Room 16: Learning. The only thing good about the room was that there were no injections. Most children don't like school. They have to get up early, do boring work everyday, be with people they don't like, but Carter would do anything to go to normal school. At least in normal school, you didn't get punished severely for each wrong answer.

It was her English lesson. A six year old Carter sat on a polished white chair, in yet another all white room. Dr. Mayer, her teacher, sat at the white desk across from her. A baseball bat lay neatly on the desk.

"Definitions now, Carter."

Carter tried not to panic as she heard that. Definitions were never her strong point. But she still had to try.

"First one: Conviviality."

She thought for a second before answering. "Festive or merry."

"Gasconading."

"To boast or brag."

"Anomalist."

"Difficult to classify."

"Osculator."

Just as she began to feel she was doing well, she got one she didn't know.

Her hesitation earned a sigh from Dr. Mayer. He stood up, grabbing the bat as he did so.

Carter's arms went automatically to her head as he approached. Her legs also came up onto her chair as she tried to curl in on herself as much as she could.

He demanded the six year old to take down her legs. She did so, slowly.

Tears streamed from her eyes as the man towered over her, the bat in his hands.

"You just need to be better, Carter. Although, I have to admit, it's fitting for you to not remember that word in particular."

Once he stopped speaking, he swung the bat at the crying girl. He hit her arm, causing pain to fly through it. He struck more times. Carter couldn't even count how many times he struck, too distracted by the pain going through her body. He shoved her off the chair. He lifted the bat again.

Carter's sobs filled the room. "P- please. Stop."

"You're too weak!" He shouted, as he brought down the bat once again.

A fast downward movement of the ship broke the girl out of her episode. She hadn't even realised that tears stung her eyes, and she tightly gripped her legs to her chest, her fingernails digging into them.

She went into a sitting position as the ship landed.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
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I'm clearly AmAzInG at writing the avengers. Yeah... hopefully I get better over time, but for now, you've gotta deal with this rubbish. Oops sorry.