Wither Wings (An Avengers Crossover)

Phase 10: The Nightmare

They're back.

Max backed away from the mutant's body quickly. Her hair and sweater were streaked bright red with blood. Nurses and doctors ran into the room and attempted to stem the blood flowing from the mutant's mouth, but they were dead before anything could be done.

It's starting again.

The words reverberated around Max's skull, getting louder and louder until she was clutching her temples, screaming. She breathed with difficulty and stood. her hand on the wall for support. With a final glance at the dead body of the mutant, she ran from the room.

"Max!" Steve called out after her. He reached for her arm.

"I have to leave," Max said, her voice frantic. "I can't stay here. I have to leave."

"What is going on?" He asked. Steve looked so sincere and wonderful, like he would fight anything that came his way, but this wasn't something he could do.

"I have to leave," Max shook off his hand. She walked down the hallway as fast as she could without breaking into a jog.

"Max-" Steve grapped her shoulder.

She turned around, her eyes blazing with anger. "You don't get it, Steve. They're going to kill everyone. I have to leave. I have to stop them."

"Who? Who is doing this?" He asked.

"We're all going to die," Max said. The colour drained from her face. "They're going to kill everyone."

"You keep saying that, but you're not making any sense." He stared her directly in the eye, his hands on her shoulders. "Who is going to kill everyone?"

"They're going to kill everyone!" Max shrieked. "Dead. Gone. Like the mutant in there. That's what they do."

Steve attempted to get more information out of her, but Fury approached from the room the mutant was being held in. Max turned to him, like a startled woodland animal.

"Maximum," Fury said. His voice always had such gravity to it. She hadn't spoken to him in a few weeks, but the sound grounded her. "It's time you tell us what is going on."

Max's heart rate began to slow. She nodded. "It's your funeral, Fury."

He grunted. "Let's go."

Steve was left in the middle of the hallway, alone with blood staining his fingertips and questions on his mind.

---

"You've come a long way since the last time you were here," Fury said.

He'd taken her to the interrogation room they'd stuck her in the last time she'd escaped. Max wondered for a second why she hadn't tried to do so again, but then she realized that she'd become complacent in her new life. Like a fat, old cat.

"How would you know?" Max asked. "You don't call, you don't write. Do you even love me anymore?"

"There it is," Fury said. "Now if you could cut that crap and tell me what we're dealing with, that'd be great, Max."

"You're dealing with the devil," Max said. "Once they figure out you took something of theirs, they'll come after you with all they have."

"Why didn't they come for you?" Fury asked.

"They thought I was dead," Max said. She took in a shaky breath. "It's name is Itex. They're a research institute that is trying to cover up their real operation: mutant manufacturing."

Fury's expression didn't change. "They created you? You didn't have the X-Gene?"

"Yeah. I'm a true blue test tube baby," Max laughed humorlessly. "2% Avian, 98% human, if you want to get really technical. I was born in a lab. They kept us in dog crates until we got too big for them, which they didn't really care about. We were poked and prodded every day; I have more than my fair share of scars to show you. I don't know what they were looking for exactly, maybe what our limits were, but they sure did love their torture. Water, fire, electricity. I think some asshole remade the rack for them. Then they started making weapons. Part-human, part-wolf, all evil. The little ones liked to call them Erasers because if you crossed them-- poof! You got erased." She became more somber. "I escaped though; a while ago."