Driven Mad (Book 1 in the MAD Series)(An Avengers Fan Fiction)

Toni Banner

Tears streaked down Toni’s face, regretting everything, yet regretting nothing at the same time. The Avengers were throwing her in a prison without trial, without a jury to hear her statement. She hadn’t been the one to kill anyone in all of this. She just supported his cause and joined the Thinker, that was all. It was her right to have an opinion in all of this, was it not? All she’d done was join the Mad Thinker after helping them against him for awhile. Maybe she was a traitor, but what they’d done to her was no more unjust than what they’d done to her. She’d felt like an abomination, not even beginning to measure up to their little Billie Tyler. So joining to side that accepted her for her seemed like the only logical step, even if what the Thinker was trying to do was borderline crazy.

Borderline crazy. That’s all it was.

Toni had herself convinced that what the Thinker was trying to do was just and right, and he was just the misunderstood hero. He wanted to make Midgard, as he liked to call it, equal with the other realms instead of the oblivious realm. He’d explained this to her while they were tying up pretty Miss Janet Van Dyne. He’d explained how Earth was below all of them, behind them in every way, not even able to independently reach other realms. Many didn’t even know about the other realms. All the Thinker wanted to do was make them less of an easy target and prove that they were just as good.

All of these thoughts rushed through Toni’s mind as her lips met against the Mad Thinker’s gently moving together. She desperately wanted to be closer to him, feel his warm touch against her body, and feel his hands run through her hair. But instead all that Toni could feel of him was his icy cold lips against hers in a desperate attempt to stay together for just a few more moments. They were being pulled apart, torn away from each other by S.H.I.E.L.D agents.

Stupid S.H.I.E.L.D.

All that S.H.I.E.L.D had done was hurt her. It hadn’t tried to save her from the Thinker; it hadn’t tried to help her in any way at all… They, of course, hadn’t exactly had the time… But Toni knew that they’d end up locking her away, just like everybody else, just like what they did to all of the other freaks like her. The Mandarin had informed her of this while she’d been in his clutches, when she was still deciding what was right and what was wrong. She’d been told that S.H.I.E.L.D wasn’t what everybody thought. They were the bad guys, not the good guys that they tried to portray themselves as.

S.H.I.E.L.D was all about fear… Not freedom.

It was punishment before the crime, it was about secrecy, and it was about holding everything back from the world. Toni knew that the world deserved the truth, that everyone deserved to know what was going on instead of being hidden in the dark. Toni had quickly developed a hatred for S.H.I.E.L.D, especially after she’d joined the Mad Thinker. When she’d joined him, she’d realized that she truly was independent, not having to think what the Avengers thought. They all thought that S.H.I.E.L.D was perfect and they didn’t have any dirty little secrets, so Toni had forced herself to think that way too in her short time with the Avengers.

Not anymore.

As Toni was jerked away from the Mad Thinker, the only man to treat her as equal and not make her feel useless, she cried out for him. Her hands and feet bound by heavy, clunky chains, restrained by the guards of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division, she cried for him. She cried out for his hand to be in hers again. She cried out for the warmth of his skin. She cried out for the feeling of him lurking in her mind, a feeling that she’d hated at first but now desperately yearned for. She cried out for his lips pressed against hers. She cried out for their perfect unity that had been broken.

“Please. Please, don’t. Please, don’t take me from him!” Toni sobbed, pleading for mercy from the guards that held her captive. She needed him and she desperately wanted to be near him, just to be held by him. Even if they were going to be held hostage by S.H.I.E.L.D, she wanted to at least be near him, where she could reach out and still feel him.