"With great power comes great responsibility." - Stan Lee
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Chapter XI: Ontario - Part I
"The tracker that we placed in her arm isn't showing up on the monitor, which is suspicious considering it was working fine before. Do you think the enemy agent cut it out or is messing with our system?" Bruce rambled, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion as he continued rebooting the monitor only to come up with nothing.
"There's no way she could know exactly where we placed the tracking chip in Ariel and even if she did, she clearly isn't stupid and should know that if she tried to cut it out, Ariel would bleed to death in under two hours. And there's also no way this system could be penetrated. I'm the one who created it," Tony responded, shaking his head as he paced to room with his arms crossed.
"Hold on- you put a tracking chip in Ariel?" Natasha questioned angrily, her voice raising.
Both Bruce and Tony halted in their actions and looked back at Natasha. "Of course we did. How did you think we found her when she ran off this morning?" Tony defended in a tone that suggested Natasha was stupid.
The agent groaned in frustration, holding her hands by her temples briefly. "You can't just do something like that without asking or telling her! No wonder she doesn't trust you idiots!" Natasha exclaimed before rushing out of the room, grabbing her jacket on the way.
"Nat, wait, where are you going?" Bruce yelled, chasing after her anxiously, leaving Tony alone with Peter, Clint and Steve.
"This is all my fault. This would have never happened if we had just waited to let her leave the tower," Tony muttered to himself, his chest rising and falling with each anxious breath he drew into his lungs.
Peter swallowed and glanced at both Clint and Steve before speaking. "Mr. Stark, you can't blame yourself entirely. You didn't know Ariel was going to run off," he tried, but Tony just shook his head.
"No, kid. I tricked her into going back to a scary place and that wasn't okay. She wasn't ready, and these are the consequences," Tony responded and Peter sighed quietly, his thoughts a jumbled mess and his emotions tangled with each other confusingly.
Steve stepped forward. "There has to be another way to track the chip you put in her arm," the captain began.
Tony shook his head. "We haven't installed the tracking number into other devices yet. I should have done that as soon as we put the tracker in her, but didn't think she'd be kidnapped this fast," he groaned, gripping his hair in frustration, rolling his eyes. "We might just have to find her by putting soldiers in the air to scan the area. It's only been an hour; they couldn't have gotten very fa-"
Tony's voice was cut off by a repetitive beeping emitting from the monitor and all of the men whipped their heads to the side to see a mobile blue arrow on the monitor screen with Ariel's name and tracking number attached to it. Tony rushed forward and examined the screen and his expression dropped, eyes slightly wider.
"This thing has to be broken. This is impossible," Tony muttered.
"What? What is it?" Peter panicked rushing towards the screen, Clint and Steve right behind him.
"They're already passing the border of Ontario," Tony said, his body rigid and unmoving with shock and confusion. "That's a seven hour flight and it's only been just under an hour since she escaped with Ariel."
The room went silent for what felt like an eternity before Steve spoke up. "I'm not doubting you, Tony, but it does seem unlikely they could make it so far so fast," he began and the three other men turned to look at the captain. "Transfer the tracking data to your phone and we'll see what we can do from there."
"We can't just wait around. We have to act fast," Peter blurted, eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the captain in disbelief. "And who knows where their final destination is? What if they're not stopping in Ontario? We have to go now."
"No, Peter, it's too risky," Steve raised his voice slightly. "The tracker says she's in Ontario right now but it doesn't make sense how they could have made it there so quickly. They might have tampered with the system and be somewhere else entirely."
Peter sighed in frustration and fled the room, needing fresh air more than ever. He hadn't felt this stressed since his Uncle Ben was killed and he could feel the anxiety and panic building up. Ariel was a good person and he wasn't about to let some uncertainty about the tracker stop him.
"Pete," Tony called after him in an attempt to turn him around but he had no such luck.
The teenage boy made his way to the elevator and glanced over his shoulder cautiously to make sure nobody had followed. He soon was standing on the asphalt of the landing pad, staring at the Quinjet in deep thought. If only he knew how to pilot something like this, he would just leave and find Ariel himself in that moment.
Arms crossed, mask hanging from his clenched right fist, he sighed quietly and closed his eyes. He hated being a pessimist but ever since he lost his uncle, he can only imagine the worst possible scenario. Was Ariel being tortured? Brainwashed? Or worse? With these thoughts swirling around in his mind, he blinked his eyes open and made a decision. He would just need to find someone willing to-
"Parker! Wait."
Peter's thoughts were interrupted by Clint coming up behind him. The man had been jogging, likely rushing to find Peter before he left, knowing the kid better than Peter expected.
Peter met the older, more experienced man's eyes. "You're not changing my mind. I'm going. We can't wait for Ariel to-"
"I know," Clint interrupted and Peter just now noticed Hawkeye was in uniform and began walking towards the Quinjet. "Let's go."
Peter's eyebrows knitted together as he jogged after him. "What?"
"There's no time to waste here," Clint agreed and they both climbed inside the aircraft once the entrance laid open for them. The man looked back at Peter. "Tony and Steve don't have kids. They don't understand how much more terrifying and serious this would be if it was their own daughter. We need to treat her like family. If it was one of us in her place, we would have left a while ago."
Peter paused for a minute. "Thank you," he said.
Clint glanced back. "Yeah, just get in here before the team sees us."
Peter quickly scrambled in and the entrance door sealed shut. Soon they were taking flight, Clint piloting, and Peter stared at the tower from above, stomach swirling with anxiety.
Ontario, Peter thought, here we come.
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Ariel blinked her eyes open, not remembering much of how she came to be in the room she now resided in. She remembered being grabbed by the female agent who stood before her now, and with just a few words spoken, she was in a trance. She turned her head to the side and stared into the one-way glass window, her reflection showing no emotion. Her eyes were glazed over with a milky white film, her conscience seemingly non-existent.
"Where would you like to start?" The familiar woman's voice caused Ariel to turn her head back, only to see she was speaking to a man who had entered the room. He looked dangerously familiar.
"Prep it and draw blood first. I want to make sure no one tampered with the DNA we altered," the man responded in a lower tone as he pulled medical gloves over his pale, bony hands. "Then take it to the screening room. I want to better understand how it developed Regenerative Healing-"
"She," the woman suddenly snapped, her expression stony as she stared back at the man. "She's a girl, not an 'it.'"
"As far as I am concerned, Angeline, she is a mutant and nothing more. Don't let your relation to her get in the way of our mission," the man returned in a firm tone, his jaw clenched as he stared into the eyes of the agent now known as Angeline.
Ariel's glazed eyes watched the exchange with a lack of feeling or understanding, and simply stayed put in the chair she sat in. She only now noticed the zipties keeping her in place but didn't pay them much mind.
The man stepped towards Ariel, his hands coming up to meet her jaw and tilt her face to the side to meet his gaze. He smiled gently, though it was underlined with a sense of complacency, and he murmured in a dangerously quiet tone, "Welcome home, my love."
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A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading, it means the world to me you've chosen to read this story!
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Stay safe, wear a mask around others, wash your hands and sanitize! I wish all of you safety.
–Blys♡