Hero Material

Chapter 17: The Shitstorm Pt 2

Mariana refused to roll over.

She may have been scared – God, she was scared out of her mind – because almost a year of psychological and physical torture at the hands of one slightly unstable man will have that effect on you when faced with your tormenter. She was scared for the others as well because that sciency guy still seemed to be controlling the bots and Adaptoids which means the others were still fighting and was Bucky okay?

Were any of them?

But she wasn't going to back down. She wasn't going to play ball. She never had before, not with him, so why the hell should she start now?

. . .

Mariana spent all of five seconds cowering away from Markus' cold gaze before steeling herself and straightening her stance as much as possible, trying to muster up the defiant glare she had pinned the scientist with only moments before but the defiance seemed to have abandoned her the moment she laid eyes on her old tormenter.

So she wasn't quite sure that it worked.

Looks like she would have to summon up some of that reckless idiocy she was used to shielding herself with then.

Markus gave a dark chuckle and spoke slowly. "Ah, Mariana. Always so strong-willed. Tell me, do you ever stop fighting the inevitable? Come on, we both knew we would see each other again, you could only lie to yourself about that for so long. Could only deny the truth for so long. You're a reasonable girl; it's one of your lesser qualities." He was only a few feet in front of her.

"You did all of this for me? Oh Markus, you shouldn't have. Really. I do not appreciate it."

He laughed. "No, Darling, unfortunately this wasn't all for you. We do have goals in mind and you aren't that important in the grand scheme of things."

"Goals? I do hope this is the part where you get cocky and spill HYDRA's big bad plans for the world, that has always been my favourite part of the action movies. Usually comes right before the villain gets his ass kicked which is always highly entertaining."

Markus shook his head slowly. "I don't think so. I will, however, state what I assume you already know. You're a clever girl so I'm sure you're aware that we want The Avengers out of the way. Permanently. You see, they keep stopping us, getting in our way, sticking their noses in where they don't belong. Now, we've been trying for quite some time - as I'm sure you're beginning to realise – and we've found some very interesting results.

"The Avengers, like everyone else, are quite easily distracted. It was delightful to discover even this retched world's heroes aren't perfect. You see, we – and I would like to say I but credit where it's due – have found that when there are a large number of civilians in the area or The Avengers have to fight off more than one force at once are when they come the closest to defeat. You catching on?" He tilted his head and stepped closer. His tone was more than just condescending and he spat the word Avengers like a curse.

Mariana swallowed thickly. "You tried to recreate both conditions today. I was right, Rumlow was a plant. Wasn't he?" Markus grinned wide as her words became soaked in venom. "You knew I would recognise him and you knew I wouldn't just let him walk away! Whether I beat him or not, not only would I be injured afterwards but he dropped a pretty little golden nugget of information, right? Side effects. No fucking way Cap'd let me into the field if there was even a possibility that I couldn't rely on my abilities. Fucking hell did you even know there would be any side effects?" She was practically screaming by the end, struggling uselessly against the Adaptoid's grip on her.