"What about her parents? Surely they're wondering where she's at."
"She's mentioned that her parents aren't very involved in her life, I think."
"But still, kid, she's been away from home for at least two days."
"She left them a note that said that she was going on a field trip with the school."
Eloise's mind emerges from a deep fog. There's a bright light behind her eyelids and goosebumps arise on her arms and legs from a slight draft. Voices surround her, talking, oblivious to her consciousness.
There's something pricked into her right arm near the soft spot on the inside of her elbow. Except for that, the drafty air, the cool metal beneath her body, she feels nothing.
"Still," one voice says to her direct right. "It would be nice if we gave her parents a call and say something more believable that would explain why she's not coming home for a while."
"How about—"
Her eyes snap open and Eloise suddenly sits up. Everyone gasps. A man with a sunglasses and a trimmed beard stares with his eyes wide and Peter Parker jumps back, bumping into the man that was with the shield standing beside him. The man with the metal arm and long hair reaches for his knife in his belt, but the shield man pushes his hand away.
There's movement to Eloise's left. She spots a metal table beside the bed she's on with all types of tools and gadgets. Her fingers wrap around a sharp tool and she whips around, stabbing the blade deep into whoever was standing on her left.
Eloise's eyes barely skim over the doctor of sorts grasping onto the tool dug into his shoulder and stumbling back, falling onto a desk with computers with a hiss of pain.
"Holy shit!"
She grabs a handful of more metal tools with pointed ends, but before she can launch them at the others in the room, a large hand wraps around her forearm. A frustrated growl erupts from her throat and Eloise jumps up onto her feet on the metal bed, towering over the man with the sunglasses, the one who prevented her attack.
His eyes widen as he looks up at Eloise. Her teeth are bared and her eyes pierce through his as she spins around and kicks him square in the jaw. His head snaps to the side and he falls, his grip slipping off the girl's arm.
Eloise jumps onto the floor and tears the IV in her arm out, then thrusts the needle at the closest person: Peter Parker.
His eyes widen and he has no time to react, but before the needle can push through the skin of his face, Eloise is tackled to the ground.
A scream pushes its way out of her throat as she swings her arms at the figure above her. Once she catches sight of the face with dark hair that's dangling in front of his eyes, she snarls in disgust. Eloise's fingers claw at the man with the metal arm's face and scratches his skin. He recoils away, keeping Eloise at arm's length as he presses down on her shoulders. Incoherent screams fall from her mouth.
He raises his metal arm and clenches his fist high above his head, but Peter Parker catches it.
"Don't hurt her!"
"This isn't your friend," the man spits, his face still getting attacked by Eloise's sharp nails. Her fist clenched and she hits his nose and he winces, but doesn't let go of her.
"Hold on!" The one with the sunglasses shouts. "Where's the sedatives, Banner?"
Eloise's sharp eyes snap to the doctor rifling through drawers of the desk with computers hooked up to it. She seethes and presses the bottoms of her feet to the chest of the man above her, then kicks him off of her forcibly. He falls to the floor on his back, taking the shield man who is without the shield down with him.
Like a lion pouncing on its prey, Eloise charges the man with sunglasses. Peter Parker desperately grabs onto Eloise's hand and drags her back, but she just spins on him and shoves him against the wall. His head bounces and he grunts.
Eloise's hands itch to be around his neck again, to finish the job, but before she can even reach towards his throat there's a prick in the side of her neck. Warm fuzziness spreads throughout Eloise's body and her legs give out from under her.
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The first thing Eloise registers is the pain. At first it's dull, only a distant feeling, but then as her mind clears, it becomes stronger. It weighs down on her chest like something heavy is sitting on her so she can't breathe. And Eloise's head—it's like a band is wrapped around her brain and is squeezing with a hammer banging on her skull at the same time. Her wrists and ankles feel raw. Even her neck burns with pain. Everything hurts.
With a gasp, her eyes flutter open. Eloise blinks rapidly at the bright light shining down on her. It pierces through her eyes and causes the hammering in her skull to intensify.
Wincing, Eloise goes to bring her hands up to shield her face from the light, but her wrists catch on something metal. It digs into her skin painfully and she lets out a small gasp of pain.
Eloise lifts her head and she catches sight of metal rings of confinement keeping her raw wrists and ankles bound to the white bed her body lies on. A thin hospital gown covers her body from her chest to just above her knees. Bruises and scrapes cover the exposed skin of her legs and arms.
Mind racing, Eloise wiggles her arms and legs to get free. It only causes the metal to dig deeper into her skin. Suddenly, the weight on her chest gets heavier it becomes harder to breathe. Her chest heaves for air as she struggles harder against the restraints.
The commotion stirs some movement from her left. Panicked, Eloise's head snaps to the right, small gasps still escaping her chapped lips.
"Hey, calm down sweetie," a man, who is dressed like a doctor, she doesn't recognize rushes to her side. His hair is dark and his face is kind, and something about his face strikes Eloise as familiar somehow. There's a bandage on one shoulder. As the stranger gets closer, her heart rate speeds up. The monitor next to Eloise starts beeping.
The dark-haired middle-aged man messes with a few things near the monitor. Eloise watches his movements with wide eyes.
"W-what's going on?" Her voice croaks as scared tears pool in her eyes. "Who are you?"
He looks at Eloise and rests his hand on her arm struggling against the metal clasps. She recoils from his touch.
He sighs and turns back to the computers. "I'm Bruce Banner," he says kindly. His eyes return to Eloise's. "It's going to be okay now, okay?"
She swallows dryly. She doesn't know how to respond.
Bruce sits down on a stool and scoots closer to her. Her breathing quickens again and Eloise tries to get away, but she's strapped in place. He notices her fear and scoots back a foot.
"What's the last thing you remember?" He asks with his warm eyes trained on the scared girl.
Her mouth opens, but then closes. Her tongue darts out between her lips and licks them as she thinks back. What is the last thing she remembers? Eloise remembers meeting Ned's mother, then seeing Ned and Peter in the hallway in Ned's house, and then going outside onto the sidewalk and seeing Captain American and his friend Bucky. The rest is foggy.
Eloise starts to answer, but her voice cuts off and she has to swallow before she can continue. "Peter and Ned. We were ... we were at Ned's house."
"Do you remember what day that was?" Bruce asks.
Eloise thinks for a moment. "Tuesday."
He nods and leans over the desk with the monitor, scribbling something down on a piece of paper attached to a clipboard.
"Did anything weird or odd happen that day? Odd tasting water? A strange person following you?"
Eloise shakes her head. The only off-normal thing that happened was getting bit by a spider, but it looked like a normal one and it didn't even hurt.
A sob wracks through her body. "What's going on?" Eloise chokes, biting back more sobs. The pressure of her head increases, creating a deeper ache.
Bruce's face fills with sympathy. "I'll let your friends explain later," he says quietly. "But for now, get some rest. Do you need anything for pain?"
She nods quietly.
He nods in return and stands, turning to a wall of cabinets. Bruce opens one and pulls out a bottle of pain meds. He shakes a few out onto his palm before capping the bottle and returning to her side.
Looking down at Eloise, he explains, "I'm sorry, but this is all I can give you. I would give you something stronger, but I already injected you with a lot of drugs today."
Her eyes widen.
Seeing the expression on the face, he quickly clears, "Drugs to keep you asleep, and, like, stabilize you and stuff, don't worry." He stops talking and sets the pills to the side. His eyes suddenly widen as he looks Eloise over. "Oh! The restraints." His fingers fumble with the metal rings bounding her sore ankles and wrists down to the bed. "Sorry about that," he says, undoing her wrists first. "After making sure you weren't hostile anymore, I forgot about them."
When Bruce frees her wrists, she shakes out her hands as he moves to the ankles. Eloise starts to push herself up to a sitting position, but a sharp pain in her abdomen and the hammering in her head causes her to hiss in pain and collapse back against the bed.
Bruce glances at Eloise. "Woah, take it easy. Your body went through hell." He gets the restraints off her ankles and steps away for a moment.
Eloise rubs her sore wrists and winces at the healing scabs. They don't look that old though, like they just started healing. Her struggling a minute ago didn't help any.
Bruce returns with a plastic cup of water. He sets it next to the pills before carefully helping Eloise sit up as much as she can without causing too much pain.
She downs the pills with the water and sinks back down so that she's lying horizontally again.
"I'm going to tell your friends that you're awake," Bruce says, stepping towards the door with his clipboard in hand. "But I won't let them in yet." He smiles. "Get some rest, Eloise."
As soon as the door clicks behind him, Eloise curls up in a ball despite the pain that shoots through her body. Her pounding head sinks into the soft pillow, her scraped knees tucked to her chest. Eloise closes off all her thoughts and lets herself give in to the exhaustion consuming her body.
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Attached Song: Everybody Knows by Sigrid
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