AN: In another alternate universe, Andi Brave is starring in this story with Pietro Maximoff. First, I like to give credit to Marvel and Disney whom own the rights to the characters and plot that is contained. I own all the rights to Andi Brave as it being my character. To give some hints for this story, I will say that this has to do with plot from the second Avengers movie (Spoiler Alert) and an intersecting plot line for Andi that bleeds to the Avengers.
Anyway, while Flash of Curiosity is under construction at the moment, I thought about giving you guys a treat. I thought of different superhero (and Avenger) that some of us know and love. This will be a story to be broken down in parts so it's not just a one shot or an imagine because it's longer. I might be spending time on this, but I will also prepare the sequel to Flash of Bravery for you guys. Thank you for all of the support for the past books and I hope you will continue your feedback. Onto the story! EnJoy!
These walls have been the only home I've known for these past months—if you called being locked up in a room a humble abode. Not that I have been keeping track, either. I have been forced to get along with this place. My home—my real home, at least what I remember of it—was destroyed. There's no point of hoping I would get out of here and go back there. If I ever get out of here.
I might sound like I hate this place, but I don't. No. I hate Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker—the person behind this prison I'm in in the first place.
Then there goes that voice in the back of my head that tells me I can't blame him for all that he has done. If it wasn't for what he did to make me the person I am today, I would probably be dead. The voice also reminds me that I volunteered for this. I got myself mixed up in this.
For now, I am stuck in this room as their lab rat, waiting for their next experiment to be tested on me.
From what I was told, there are more people they use for their experiments besides me. I never get the chance to know everyone that's kept here. I don't even get the chance to see anyone at all.
What had happened to me was from some blue magical scepter that had some sort of energy in it. They used it on me and though it gave me pain like I have never felt before, it gave me powers. They told me about getting the opportunity to use my powers, that they will do great things after what happened to my home. To my homeland. To my parents. I figured I'll end up being used by them with this. I'll only be a weapon to them, but that'll be the day I will be free of this place. Maybe I'll never be free of Strucker, but that's how I see it. Give and take.
As for now, I wait under these dim lights in this cell, somewhere in Sokovia. At least I think I'm still in Sokovia. They didn't let me see where they took me.
I sit on my bed in a comfortable pose with my legs crossed and eyes closed. My fingers and my lips form an 'O' shape, letting myself focus on my breathing. The sounds around me and the voices inside my head always disappear when I meditate. It calms down my emotions along with my fiery pit of anger that is usually the only way I can use my powers. If I keep my anger in control, they'll be in control too.
Suddenly, I hear the wall rattle behind me and the overhead lights start to flicker. The wall behind me sends a hard shockwave and it actually cracks the concrete. I can feel it. Shattering of bone, tissue, nerves, and atoms of the human body being crushed from the inside out. But it doesn't stay damaged, it heals and become new.
I open my eyes and turn my body around to lean my ear against the wall to try to hear anything from the person I sense though it. I search through the wall for one of the people who are going through the same transformations as I have.
The first couple of days were the worst. I had outbursts that nearly destroyed this room because I couldn't keep my senses in check. I heard everything from the flickering of lights to the beating of organs of the guards through the tightly sealed door. I heard everything except 100x louder like it was all bullets against my ears and it overwhelmed me so much they had to constantly sedate me until a couple tests later where they had me practice to channel my powers to my emotions.
An outburst of something close to a cry and scream comes from the person on the other side of the wall. Now I can tell it's a male. I press my right hand against the wall and then come in contact with another small crack under my palm. What if it's—
The next thing I know, the lights shut off. I raise my hand to the light to turn it back on without looking away from the wall. Using my fingers tips, I trace the small crack that is no bigger than my thumb beneath the much longer one above it.
Then, the noises stop and I don't sense him anymore. Like he's not there anymore.
After a few minutes, I conclude that the person must have calmed down, so I turn around return to meditating.
A few minutes while I'm in my pose, I can feel an object in my grasp. My mind has set on an object and wants me to take it. I lift my hands upwards and feel the object's surface, the solidness of it as it makes it's way towards me. I open my eyes to see what the object was and before it made its way into my hands, I pushed it against the wall in front of me, fearfully.
The object's a gun.
My wide eyes watch as feet step towards the gun. A rough, wrinkled hand reaches down to pick it up. I look up and see a guard in a moldy dark green uniform. He raises the gun dead straight at my head. I earned, it didn't I? Guess someone filled him in on me otherwise he would have shot me for what I did. How else was he not threatened by it?
Without any resistance, I hold up my hands in surrender and get myself on my feet before he has the chance to tell me to do so himself.
Guess it's time for my check up.
When a guard comes looking like some second-hand Arnold Schwarzenegger dressed in that dark gross moldy green uniform, it means they're specialized in security because they are the ones that have to escort me to the other side of the building where I receive my physical. The guards outside my room wear lighter green uniforms. They're the ones that escort me to my training sessions. Besides the fact that he entered my room undetected and that they usually use the same guard to escort me to my physical, those aren't the only reason why I'm confused right now. I don't understand why this check up is so close to the last one.
I follow the guard out of my cell only to be welcomed by three more guards who are all dressed the same way. They also all wear he same deadpan experience on their faces that read they're "serious" and "dangerous" and "don't mess with me" That's how they see me.
I keep my hands raised above my shoulders and walk the same, steady pace as the two guards in front of me while the other two keep on my tail. How do they know I would be willing to go?
Last time I had my physical, I resisted the guard who yelled in my face because he had the bad idea of taunting me to follow his orders. I told myself that I didn't want to listen to a man who only speaks of hate. I refused to do what he told me to do and managed to fight back. The guard held my arms hard enough for me to bruise and it triggered my powers. I count that as the first time I used my powers, well, using them against someone. My anger got the best of me and I hurt him. But even though it was self defense—it was wrong. I don't like thinking about it because using my powers didn't feel wrong. But what I did. . .
So, I train everyday in my cell (which I'm allowed to do due to the security measures placed inside) and prepare myself just in case another guard decided to follow the other's memo. Thankfully, it's a different guard this time who doesn't share the same attitude like the other one did. I'd take a silent gun to the face over an insult and the threat to do so if I didn't obey to satisfy his ego.
They aren't even using chains like last time. When I was fighting the guard, they needed two other guards as backup just to stop me. They chained my wrists in metal cuffs that weighed me down. Or that's what it felt like. They kept me from using my hands to control my powers, even though it's my mind that does it all. My hands help navigate my mind on focal areas—
My thoughts are interrupted as we stop at a door listed 'Medical' in German letters I recognized since we're taught German in school. One of the guards holds the door open for me as I enter. Then, I look around at all the appliances that the scientists have used for Project Insight (the name of the project I'm being tested for).
Dr. List was the only scientist in the room this time. He's the one who does all the testing while Strucker is the one who organizes everything. Dr. List looks at me and nods to the chair in the middle of the room. I place my feet at the bottom of the seat and sit back against the leather padding like always. I look up at him and when he turns to me, I see an empty syringe in his hand. He is going to inject it in my arm to take my blood. Oh, what joy.
I shut my eyes once he places a lamp over my face. My muscles stiffen but I notice that they strain in spite of the leather restraints that someone from behind straps around my wrists while my eyes keep closed. I can't see who it is, but it doesn't matter when I'm chained like an animal. But I have to admit, it keeps me down. Well planned.
Once he ties a tight strap of gauze around my arm, he holds my left arm, turning it to the side to rub a spot of bare skin with a cold substance. He points a finger at that same spot and injects the syringe to take enough blood he needs to fill the thin tube. It never hurts as much as I think it will but it's only because of the short amount of time it takes.
Once he finishes, Dr. List waves at the guards to take me back to my room. That's it? After they take the restraints off I just get the stupidest idea in my mind. I don't allow myself to think before I act. I get on my feet and wave off my hands to send the two guards and Dr. List across the room. Their bodies frail up against the wall but not before making contact against the wall with a hard slam. Besides them being pushed to the back wall, other medical appliances on the counters in the room were taken with them. Good, I think, I want to see this place destroyed. I make a break for it to the door, using my strength to pry it open, but I end up opening it too quickly.
There's the three guards who waited outside that point their guns at me. This is what they get for that slice of freedom they granted me. I lift my hands and wave them to make them face each other to from a triangle. I lift their guns, making the guards hold each other at gun point and let both take a bullet. force myself to turn around not watch as they collapse in pain so I can keep going. It's officially too late to stop now.
I've never tried to break out before. It's against my better judgement. But that stupid idea that doesn't feel like mine came at its opportunity. The guards didn't chain me. They didn't threaten me (more than they could). When am I gonna get another opportunity like this? When I run, I activate my teleportation to get myself behind the door down the end of the hall. I take a deep breath, feeling as if I just dived into a pool and float six feet deep underwater. I'm just happy that I teleported without knowing what's on this side of the door.
I swiftly look around, careful to search for any more of them that might be here. My senses reinforce what I don't see. Now I don't know what to do next. I don't exactly have a map to escort myself out of here. I need to figure out how to get out of here. Which means I need to find a window. This was a stupid idea, I tell myself. Though, another voice reassures me, But it might be the only way to escape.
As I look around, something in the corner of my eye catches my attention and I come to a complete stop. I take a moment to process what I'm seeing. Words couldn't describe my feelings at that moment. Because what I see are not only my best friends. . .but the broken versions of themselves.
My eyes swell with tears seeing them again. I haven't seen them since. . .well since I volunteered. Since we all volunteered to be here. My breath hitches, unable to breathe from shock. I gasp for air, unable to look away from the sight of my friends and how much they have changed. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, both in cells beside each other. Of course they would place them beside each other. They always had that unbreakable bond since they're twins. They always needed to stay close together. As for me, who was placed on the other side of the building. . .they could have forgot all about me.
I place a hand against the glass on each of their cells as they both sit in front of it. Wanda has her chin up, her eyes to the ceiling as she waves around her hands to use her scarlet energy to lift some blocks in the air. Pietro crazily runs all around the room, as if he's chasing something that isn't there while his dark hair flaps around his face, hiding it from my sight.
"I will see you again," I promise them, listening to my husky accent as I speak every word at a time.
I give Pietro a last look seeing the way just as he eyes the glass, almost as if he sees me standing here. But he can't since it's one way.
I keep thinking about what made me do this. To break out. I think of the path that I will take after leaving this place. Whether it's laid out for me or I have to make it myself. Regardless, it's the path I choose to take after taking back my freedom. I could take them with me. . .but I'm out of time.
Guards start to surround me but I don't dare take my eyes off of my friends. I slip my hands off the glass and wave both of my hands as a goodbye which looks like a surrender to the guards.
Before they could grab me, I take a few steps back, just enough to trigger my teleportation and get myself out of this place and to my new home. The place I've seen in pictures over the years. The place where my parents met. The land of the free.
The United States.
Or specifically, New York City.