Ghost and Tricks - Book 1

The Avengers Attack

Part One 

Age of Ultron  

Everything was in chaos.  Buildings were collapsing.  Large creatures swarmed through the sky, destroying everything they touched.  

Alien-like creatures rode on hover craft vehicles through the sky, shooting.  Everything was terrible.  Miserable.  

The image of her wide, unblinking eyes will forever be engraved in my mind.  Every detail of how my mother lay dead on the street, hit in the head by a piece of fallen building.  Trying to get us out of there.  Trying to save us.  

But she ended up dead.  

Everything was a blur, but the words kept ringing in my head:  "Keep her safe, no matter what.  She's my contingency in case it all fails.  Do with the other as you wish."  

-*- 

I woke up in a cold sweat, the loose strands of my dark strawberry brown hair sticking to my neck.  It had been three years since the attack on New York.  Since then, I 'd been away in a Hydra hideout, being quarantined.  

My twin sister, Maddisson, had been going through tests Hydra put her through.  How did I know?  I heard the screams.  I saw her during transfer.  But no matter how pale, tired, or pained she looked, she always gave me a thumbs up.  

I also saw two other kids, though they were older than us.  The only other two to survive Hydra's experiments.  A boy and girl.  The Maximoffs.  

In the small five to ten minutes I got with Maddie, she would tell me about how everything would be okay, and to take my mind off everything, she'd tell me about the Maximoffs.  Proof that there were other humans other than the doctors and scientists and workers.  

Proof that there was still goodness.  

Pietro would wave and make funny faces at me during transfers, making me laugh.  Wanda gave me kind, gentle looks, subtly moving things so it was a tiny bit entertaining.  

There were one or two guards who weren't so bad.  Not everyone was horrible.  I got an hour of TV a day, but I didn't always use it.  Most of the time I was caught up in my daydreaming.  

The food was terrible though, but I tried to scarf it down.  I knew I needed it, if I was to ever escape, I needed strength.  But it was downright disgusting, I could never get more than a few spoonfuls before gagging and nearly throwing it back up.  

"Everyone, return to your stations."  

I looked around as everything dimmed and people ran around.  Someone was attacking the base.  Maybe it was my chance to escape.  

My arms tried to lift me up, but I was so weak that was hard to muster.  My powers took most of my energy, and even if I managed to teleport outside, I wouldn't last long.  Either Hydra or whoever was attacking would find me.  

And I couldn't take the chance that they were worse than Hydra.  

Gathering all my strength, I closed my eyes and imagined myself outside, not even knowing what the outside would look like.  Something like a pull and then a drop feeling lurched in my gut, then I was stumbling outside.  

The freezing cold made me regret my decision, but I didn't have enough strength to go back.  I collapsed in the snow, shivering, hoping Pietro or Wana or Maddie would find me.  

A silver streak ran by in the distance, knocking over an archer.  The speedster stopped and walked by, said something, and ran away again.  Then the streak raced over to me and he knelt down.  

"Evie,"  he said, helping me up.  "What are you doing out here?"  

"I-I-"  I was so cold and weak I couldn't even speak.  

Pietro lifted me up and sped me back to the building.  "Stay here, I'll tell Maddie I found you."  

Then he raced off again, leaving me alone on the cold floor.  Workers ran around, and I shuffled back behind the wall as the door burst open, sending a breeze of cold air in.  Guns went off and I tried to stay still and quiet.  

"Come on, let's talk about this,"  a man's voice said, then something launched, and the shooting stopped as the workers fell to the floor.  "Nice talk."  

"No, it wasn't,"  one of the men on the floor groaned.  

Clanking sounded through the room, and I held my breath, closing my eyes tight and holding my breath, crossing my fingers and desperately hoping I wasn't found.  

"Please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door,"  the guy whispered, and I peeked out from my hiding place to see a man in a gold and red suit inspecting the door.  "Yay!"  He said when it opened.  

Once he was inside, I made a run for it.  But again, I was so weak that I only made it a few feet from the door before I collapsed again.  

I crawled away, leaning against the side of the building to catch my breath.  The coldness of the snow seared through my clothes, and I couldn't stop shivering.  

Then a man in stars and stripes came up and knelt next to me.  "There's a girl outside the base.  Don't know if she's enhanced,"  he spoke into a comm before turning his attention to me.  "Are you okay?"  

I didn't get to answer, because I'd passed out.