The Phoenix || Marvel

ONE - gunfight

IMMEDIATELY AFTER Raena's realization, she wanted to be anywhere but near the military.

She sprinted away from the cafeteria with her apple in hand, only having one location in mind. Her room.

No matter how much she hated this place and everyone that resided within it, she knew that there was bound to be guards willing to protect her. In fact, she would've bet her life on that assumption.

Knowing she was quite a popular figure within the base ever since her capture 16 years ago, there would always be someone that was thinking about her in an emergency situation.

Unfortunately, when she arrived at her room, she saw that she was more than right. The bodies of three guards laid on the floor of her room, their blood staining her carpet and pooling around them on the floor. Her face paled at the sight.

She walked toward the guards and watched as one of them groaned, shifting uncomfortably as he tried to apply pressure to his wound. She kneeled down next to him, her hands hovering over him uselessly, unsure of how she could help.

"No..." He shook his head, eyes wide as he stared up at her. Her hands shook as she stared down at him, more than confused as he continued to speak. "Get to the emergency exit... don't let anyone find you... they'll kill you..." He pushed his pistol into her shaking hands and inhaled sharply from the pain.

"What...? What do you mean? Why!?" Raena questioned quickly, eyes widened. The guard struggled to exhale before he fell completely limp, his lips parting and eyes fading. She took a moment to stare at his limp corpse before staring down at the gun in her hands, running her thumb against the barrel.

"Find Raena Crawford! Don't let her escape!" She heard the voice of a guard from down the hallway shout as multiple footsteps made themselves known. "Don't let them capture her!"

Oh fuck. She gulped, checking the magazine to find that she only had five shots. Gotta make it count.

Knowing the guards nearby would likely check her room, she ran out as fast as she could, holding the gun securely in her right hand while she absentmindedly held her uneaten apple in her left hand.

She realized as she ran away from voices and gunshots that she was really, genuinely not that afraid. Spooked, yes, definitely; though despite the sudden invasion of what had been her 'home' for the past 16 years, she really wasn't that afraid.

It was funny, even considering the fact that she barely knew how to shoot a gun or defend herself. She assumed it would be as easy as the movies she used to watch as a kid—simply aiming and firing. She knew that good form was needed, but she was sure she had that.

Hopefully, of course.

She was still trying to process the scene of the boy being shot in the head with no hesitation. She thought about the soldier that shot him and pondered on what he said.

"I've found one, it's behaving in a hostile manner. Orders?"

The soldier called the boy an it. What did that mean—and why? He was quite clearly a human being, but also somehow genetically modified just like she was. He wasn't an it—he wasn't an object, nor a creature.

He was a human. Nothing less than that.

Plus, the way the soldier phrased what he said...it sounded like he was looking for something. 'I've found one.' What was that even supposed to mean? It couldn't be anything but the fact that they were searching for something that the boy quite clearly aligned with.

Raena felt herself pause suddenly, standing in the middle of an empty and quieter hallway. Face still quite unusually pale, she had another realization.