"Shit. Shit shit shit shit... when was the last time anyone saw Cheshire?"
Finally it all clicks. And the realization becomes collective.
"Shit."
---
"How could this have happened? AGAIN!"
"Why do you think we actually got an alert this time? After the first incident I made sure to put in a backup alarm system that didn't require Friday to be completely active. That way if she was ever shut down again, we would be alerted within the first five minutes of her being inactive. The elevator mishap was the system rebooting just enough to send out the signal."
Once the elevator finally stopped on the floor to Starks laboratory, we all rushed into the room completely normal except for the computers were all shut down. Tony promptly gets to work while we all hover over his shoulder except for Romanoff who went to Cheshire's floor to look for her and Bruce who was looking around the lab for anything that she may have taken weapons wise.
"How do we even know it was her this time?"
All eyes shift in my direction. The question was obviously moronic. But hey, I've already put away most of my pride for this girl today anyway. Everyone goes back to watching Stark work while Wanda explains as if I actually didn't understand their reason for suspect. In doing so however she goes to ask another question before Banner comes back.
"She didn't take any weapons, but it does look like she raided the med bay. The place is trashed and a bunch of antibiotics, and supplies are missing."
"Evidently someone plans on being gone a while. We should make sure she hasn't left the building yet. Everyone, go in pairs I want this whole place stripped."
"Wait wait, I alerted security on the ground floor. They're on the lookout and as long as she's got those bracelets on, we can track her... umm."
"Um? Um what?"
"So, we've got a problem. She's not in her room. And I checked the whole floor. The only thing I did find were these." Of course, Natasha arrives then with the bloodied silver cuffs and the key in her hands. Tony hangs his head at the sight.
"Great. So, an enhanced fugitive is officially missing. Do we even have any security footage up yet to see if she's left the building or not?"
I can only sit back and hope that she did. And that if so, she was long gone or else she is in for a very rude awakening.
"Okay anddd, got it. Friday! You awake?"
"... System rebooted. Security update, loading."
"Good to have you back Fri. Okay, security footage as of fifteen minutes ago on the main floor elevator. There she is."
Several videos of just moments before Friday was shut down. We all watch as she exits the elevator and heads to the kitchen where she begins raiding the cupboards and filling her bag with protein bars, pop tarts, and my tea.
That furry little witch.
"How did she get that back? I though SHIELD took it?" Steve asks no one and I watch as Tony's eyes shift. He remains quiet as we all continue watching.
After that, we see her go back into the elevator and make her way down here to Starks lab. First, she goes to the back where I suppose the medical bay is located. She rushes around the room grabbing bottles and bags of other medical equipment and medicines and puts them in her bag as well. She comes back to the front then and begins searching around for something else that she doesn't seem to find. She turns around then to Stark's office and blasts it open with her powers, the purple light shooting from her hand. She walks in with ease and after a few moments comes out with a headset on and a laptop.
Tony wipes his hand down his face and looks up at his office door still hanging open.
"Tony.. why were her things in your office and not with SHEILD? And more importantly, how did she know you had them?"
"The same way she got the key..."
Steve grabs Stark by the front of his shirt to pull him up and everyone backs away.
"You gave a criminal a one-way ticket to breaking out!?"
"Look, I only gave her her bag back okay chief? She came down here to get the bracelets loosened up and I guess she took the key when I wasn't looking."
"You loosened the cuffs? And you didn't say anything?" Nat comes forward just as furious as Steve.
"Look, they were hurting her, okay? God help me for having a little bit of sympathy!"
"Guys look!" Wanda points and Steve let's go of Tony while everyone's attention refocuses on the screen.
From the lab she goes to an elevator behind the emergency stairs that I have never seen before, and the screen goes black.
"Wait, what happened?"
"I don't know this was supposed to be the retrieved footage after she shut Friday down. This must be-"
The recording resumes, only this time Cheshire is no longer in the elevator, and some sort of counter appears at the bottom along with the word-
"This is live feed! She's on the ground floor or on her way."
We split up like originally planned only in bigger groups to get there quicker. Everyone goes off to gather their supplies. Steve his shield, Thor his axe and hammer, Tony his suit and so on. Some of us then take the stairs, others take the main elevator, backup elevator. Somehow, Thor, Tony and I all end up in an elevator together.
"You know brother, quite curious how that little game of yours with Barnes took place just as all of this was going on hmm?"
... Well. It appears my brother's not as idiotic as I had presumed.
Starks sudden glare at my direction then doesn't go unnoticed.
"Oh, come now brother. Surely you aren't suggesting I assisted the little miscreant."
"You two sure did walk into breakfast this morning all buddy-buddy." Stark turns towards Thor and I so that I'm cornered.
"We met in the elevator. And to what would I gain in doing such a thing?" He grabs my shirt and pushes me against the wall, lifting his mask to speak to me properly.
"Who knows, but without those cuffs she's got all her power back. A power that you don't have. You're telling me with your track record of manipulating powerful people that it's just coincidence that she's gone at the same time you're causing a ruckus that gets all of us in the same room?" He points and I instead direct my attention at my brother.
"Wow. Show's what you really think of me brother. And just once I thought we've passed this."
"Oh, spare me the games Loki. What have you done?"
Odin, am I ever going to hear the end of that phra-
Ding
The elevator doors open to my relief, and screaming ensues. Evidently, we weren't the first ones here.
Walking out we were actually the last ones here except for Natasha, Clint, and Banner. The others were currently trying to help security get everyone out safely while simultaneously keeping Cheshire in. The girl in question was fighting Steve as he tried to keep her away from her bag across the other side of the room.
Almost everyone is out when Tony walks in blasters raised and the people outside stop to watch through the plexiglass doors.
I said I wouldn't help beyond this point... but if I could just get to her bag. No, and put my head on the chopping block when I'm already being questioned?
I decide to stay put and I watch as the others close in on her now that the room is secured of civilians.
"Come on Cheshire, think this through. Once you walk out those doors, your fair game. Can you really call a life lived in fear living? I know things may not have been approached in the most civil of ways, but at the end of the day your safe here. Don't make us the bad guys."
Steve ends his speech while we all stand around to watch and Cheshire lifts her head up high.
"You made yourselves the bad guys a long time ago. Before any of this. Doing nothing when you have the ability to do something? That's what makes you the bad guys. I leave here and yea, maybe that's it for me. But I can't just stand back and do nothing."
"And you don't have to. That was part of the deal. We can use what you know and what we know to take Hydra down together." Stark flips up his mask again and puts his blaster down as he walks up beside Steve.
"No. Fury already said that was a lie-" She grits her teeth, and a purple glow emits from her hands. We all step forward when-
Ding.
The elevator opens, and Natasha is the first to step out throwing something at Steve while the other two follow close behind her. I don't see what it is, but he catches it, and suddenly Cheshire falls to her knees with her hands over her ears screaming in agony. I run forward but Thor catches me.
"You had twenty-four hours to go. And this is the route you chose? Sorry kid but, you've really forced my hand here."
Steve shuts the device off and Cheshire stables herself before looking up at Natasha.
"Please.. please I'm begging you.. I just don't want him to get hurt, I-I swear, and you'll only make it worse! Just let me go, I'll save him and y-you'll never see me again."
Natasha crouches down to her level as everyone else looks around confused.
"... I'm sorry. Really. But you've been through enough. And I'm even more sorry we weren't there to help you the first time." Romanoff shocks all of us then when she takes the girls hands into hers. "But we're here now. And we can help. You don't have to do this alone anymore."
She looks as if she could burst any moment. Her eyes are glassed over, breath staggering, and Romanoff sits there smiling sadly with a similar look in her eye. It was like watching a mother console her daughter. And Cheshire does nothing to fight off Natashas touch.
"Nat, what are you guys talking about?"
Natasha looks at the girl one more time before bringing her and herself up to their feet. Chesh gives one last pleading look before Natasha shakes her head and brings out the note, handing it over to Steve.
"This was given to Cheshire yesterday by the man at the mall. He was an ex-Hydra agent."
Eyes widen, jaws drop. The look of blind hate creeps up on everyone's faces as they lift their weapons and glare, but Steve quickly hushes them when Cheshire braces for impact.
"Who's Wilson?"
Cheshire finally composes herself and takes a long-exasperated breath before responding.
"The friend I was talking about this morning. His name is Wade Wilson. He's all I have and sometime after I was taken, they found him."
"Hydra? But this is signed X.P.?"
"You're all familiar with Alexander Pearce I presume? Xander Pearce is his son. His father was put in charge of the Super Soldier Project and when I came along, Xander was put on mine."
I'm not familiar with the logistics of the conversation, but by now we have all formed in a 'U' shape around the girl as she further explains the situation in awe.
"He's younger, and more ruthless. Especially after um.. after Buck escaped and Fury killed his dad. I'm the last thing he has left. So instead of just killing me he wants me back. And he'll stop at nothing until that happens. I don't know how he knew about Wade, but now he's with them. And Wade, he-he's enhanced too. He can regenerate, and he's strong.. but if they 'replace' me with him, he won't survive."
"Why not?" Barnes asks bravely and she looks at him for a moment before responding.
"Because Wade wasn't born enhanced. The trials they will run on him- he won't be properly equipped for. His body may be able to heal itself, but the mind.. it's a complicated, dangerous thing. And Xander knows that."
"Mind? I thought the telekinesis was Hydra's doing?"
"My powers derive from the reality stone, the space stone, and the power stone. But the one I was born with, comes from the only one left on earth." He eyes shift to the Vision. Or more accurately, his head.
"The mind stone. So, wait, what power were you born with?" This is where my interest is piqued.
"Well. I guess you could say, anything Wanda can do, I can do better. Not to sound presumptuous Wanda, your magic is beautiful. But Wanda is a witch. Even before coming in contact with the mind stone, she held of great power. I don't know that the cause of my power comes directly from the stone as it's been passed down generations. I can only assume someone in my family tree did at one point. It's not a normal mutant gene so it's immune to any vaccine."
"So, if your like Wanda, you can...?"
"Read your mind? Yes. Along with some other things, but honestly that's the real reason I try to hide it. It's dangerous."
"To others or to yourself?" I speak up now without thinking. I receive some odd looks, but they too are curious and reapply their attention to her.
"Umm.. well, uh..."
"It hurts yourself more than it hurts anyone else. Even if you are reading someone else's thoughts or controlling someone to do something, you're far more at risk to go too far and lose yourself then you are to hurt anyone."
"Now hold on Wanda, you've showed us firsthand that having your mind invaded is no picnic, this is what the limiters are for, the lack of control is exactly what we need to worry about." Steve chimes in and I bite back.
"Oh, she has it plenty controlled. Power suppression is an incredibly difficult skill to master, bust she has walked around this tower for a week around nothing but stressful triggers and hasn't managed to have an incident."
"Yes, because she had the limiters on."
"She has a different genetic makeup than a typical power mutation making her immune to vaccines, the only power she has been able to use this entire time is the most dangerous, and the one she has the most control over."
"And she hasn't used it this whole time."
With Wanda and I's experience in this field, we come to Cheshire's defense against Steve's ignorance.
"Even after i warned her how dangerous it was."
"You knew?"
"Of course I did. She knew of Wandas capabilities, but she knew nothing of mine. I caught her with her guard down. But once she realized this, it hasn't been down since."
"So, wait, it hurts you to use your powers, but it hurts you more not to?"
"Using my powers doesn't directly hurt me, it just could. But more importantly, it's an invasion of people's privacy and I swore I wouldn't use it like that. I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Why are you telling us all of this?" Barnes asks now.
"Well, I would have stuck with my plan, but Romanoff is kind of forcing my hand here. I thought I could leave that place and never look back. But when I found out there were others just like me out there... I couldn't stand back and do nothing. Now he's made it personal. Wade can't stay there so if it comes down to me or him, it has to be me. One way or another, once I walk out that door, you'll never see me again. I promise."
She really thinks we're just going to let her walk away from this. I'm glad I'm not the only one with a conscience, but I do find it odd to be agreeing with Stark so often lately as he responds.
"No no no no, once you walk out that door, you're dead. Or worse. And you think what, that then your just not our problem anymore? No. We're the heroes. We don't stand back and do nothing."
"We can't imagine what you went through. Some of have only ever gotten close. But we'll be damned if we ever watch anyone go through what we did, let alone twice. You have us now. Let us help you." Natasha insists.
"I can't ask you to do that-"
"You're not. And either way, it's our job. More than that, it's who we are. You've been doing it on your own long enough."
"We'll help you save your friend. And then we'll knock every last hydra base in the country. We started this war, we'll finish it." Steve states poetically. I roll my eyes at his words, but what he does next completely changes my outlook on the man.
He takes the device Natasha gave him earlier and throws it on the ground before crushing it under his foot.
"You're not a prisoner anymore. Not with Hydra, and you won't be here. You're free Cheshire."
At that, the girl grins the biggest Cheshire grin I've ever seen, and Odin is it contagious. We all share the sentiment and begin clapping and congratulating her as if she's just won the lottery. Over the cheering though, a ringing starts going off and Stark scrambles in his pockets for another 'phone' before holding it up to his ear, much like Natasha did earlier.
3rd Person POV
Tony finally gets to his phone and is met with an unsaved number.
"Hello?"
"Yes, could you put Y/N on the phone?"
"I'm sorry who is this? There is no Y/N here?"
Tony turns around confused until his gaze meet Cheshires. That ear reaching grin of hers falls suddenly at hearing the name escape Tonys lips and her eyes widen. The girl is completely frozen, and the cheering stops to look in Tonys direction. Tony frowns and his eyes squint questioningly.
"...Tony, who... who is that?" Cheshire asks with a shaky voice.
"Give the girl the phone."
Tony doesn't respond to either of them and simply hands the girl the phone while everyone watches. Tension spreads across the group, anxious to know who it was on the phone demanding for the girl who was so well hidden from the media's attention. Who could possibly be calling her? How did they know to call Tony?
"...H-Hello?"
"Hi sweetheart. Did you miss me?"
It takes everything in the girl to not drop the phone hearing the familiar voice coos in her ear sending goosebumps down her spine. Her body trembles as she grips the phone and responds just above a whisper to keep from sobbing.
"Daddy?"