The Avengers: Rayne

Chapter 1

The room was pitch black, except for the light emanating from the alarm clock, which cast a dim glow onto the bed in the small room. A woman slept peacefully on the mattress, her white hair splayed across the pillows, reflecting the light of the alarm clock. Her skin was pale, a creamy shade of ivory and just as smooth. A loud banging suddenly sounded throughout the room and the woman’s eyes opened suddenly, revealing glowing blue irises. She glanced over at the alarm clock, noting the time. It was late in the night, too late for visitors. There were also only a few people that even knew that she was staying here. Slipping from the bed, she silently made her way to the door, swinging it open to reveal the one person she didn’t really want to see. Her dark hair was up in her usual meticulous bun, and the usual serious look was on her face.

“Mariah”, she said, breaking the silence. “What are you doing here?”

“Hello, Rayne. You know I wouldn’t have come unless it was important.”

She nodded. She was used to seeing Mariah Hill this serious, but she also looked worried, and that worried her. “What do you need?”

“There’s a chopper waiting for us on the roof. I can explain on the way. We can’t risk anyone overhearing.”

“Give me a minute.” She closed the door and quickly dressed, pulling on an old S.H.I.E.L.D. bodysuit and a pair of black, leather boots. She then quickly braided her hair, the end just brushing her waist. Then with a last look around the room, she left.

The roar of the helicopter was all I could hear as we flew through the night towards our destination. Director Fury and Agent Hill both were seated across from me. I hadn’t expected for Fury himself to be on the chopper when I had boarded, all traces of sleepiness vanished when I had seen him. They had quickly filled me in on the specifics of going on and since I had previous experience with the experiment, they had decided to bring me in. I didn’t mind, they had been keeping me under the radar for a while now, so it was the least that I could do. I glanced up at the window, catching sight of my reflection, my white hair and blue eyes glowing ethereally. I’m sure that S.H.I.E.L.D. had a hard time keeping me under the radar, especially given my history.

The helicopter descended rapidly onto the roof and landed roughly, jolting me out of my thoughts. I followed Director Fury and Agent Hill off of it. Coulson was on the landing strip waiting on us. I wasn’t as familiar with him as I was with Hill; I had only met him a handful of times and we rarely spoke. It had been years since I last saw him. He shot a strange look towards me when he saw me exit the helicopter, probably hadn't been expecting to see me. Then again it was also likely because of my appearance, but I had grown used to the stares.
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​"How bad is it?" Fury asked him over the sound of the helicopter.
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Coulson gave him a grave look, ​"That's the problem, sir. We don't know." Coulson led us to an elevator that seemed to drop rapidly, almost too fast. We exited the elevator and began hurriedly walking down the hall. My head had begun to pound, probably due to the lack of sleep.
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​"Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago", Coulson said.
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​"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to go to testing phase", Fury replied.
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​"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous event."
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​Hill spoke up, "It just turned itself on?"
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​Fury ignored Hill's question and addressed Coulson, "Where are the energy levels now?"
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​"Climbing, When Selvig couldn't shut it down we ordered evac."
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​"How long to get everyone out?"
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​"Campus should be clear in the next half hour."
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​"Do better." Coulson abruptly turned on his heel and hurried down the hall away from us. We continued on our way down the hall.
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​"Sir", Hill said, "Evacuation may be futile." We began to descend a set of stairs.
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​Fury shot a look at Hill, "We should tell them to go back to sleep?"
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​"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance."
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​"That’s what Agent Black is here for. She’s seen it before, and she might be able to help", Fury said, gesturing towards me, " In the meantime, I need to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out." Inwardly I cringed, the thirst for power and weapons was all too familiar and brought back particularly unpleasant memories. Hill had told me what they were doing, and I had still agreed to help; although I didn’t particularly agree with their choices.
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​"Sir, is that really a priority right now?"
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​Fury stopped at the bottom of the staircase and turned towards Hill. I almost walked right into him, he stopped so suddenly. "Until such time as the world ends we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below; every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone."
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​Hill looked as if she wanted to say something more, but only nodded her head, "Yes sir." She descended the staircase, taking two agents with her. Fury and I went into a large room filled with all kinds of equipment that I assumed to be Selvig's lab. As soon as I stepped into the room, I felt it. The power in the room was pulsing and only seemed to be growing stronger. Blue energy suddenly sparked across my fingertips. I willed the energy down, but with the energy in the room, it was fighting to break free. It had been some time since I had felt this much power.
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Fury had kept walking towards a man in the center of the room, so I hurried after him. His hair was thinning and he looked like he hadn't slept in days. ​"Talk to me Doctor."
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​"Director." The man hardly looked up from what he was doing. There was something strange about him, but I couldn't quite place what it was.
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​"Is there anything we know for certain?"
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​"The Tesseract is misbehaving."
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​"Is that supposed to be funny?"
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​"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's behaving." They walked towards the computer linked to the cube and I followed them. As we got closer to the Tesseract blue energy blazed to life on my hands. The cube sparked an arc of energy and caught everyone's attention. I balled my hands into fists and willed my power under control. Being so close to something so powerful was making it hard to control my powers; I hadn’t even seen the Tesseract since the accident, let alone been near something so powerful.
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​"I assume you pulled the plug?" Fury had already directed his attention back to Selvig.
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​"She's an energy source. We turn off the power she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level....."
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​"We prepared for this, Doctor; harnessing energy from space."
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​Selvig looked up from the computer screen only to glance back down at it,    "But we don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete and it's throwing off interference, radiation. It's increased since your friend got here", he said glancing at me, "Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."