The Monster Within - Avengers

Chapter 5

    Thor gave me directions to where I was supposed to go and left me in peace to change. I walked silently over to the dresser and with shaky hands took out a pair of dark blue jeans and a black half-sleeved shirt that had strips cut out on the shoulders. I walked into the bathroom and shrugged my pajamas off, slipping the shirt over my head and fastening the jeans at my waist. Slipping black combat boots onto my feet, speckled with blood, I stood. I stared into soulless navy eyes through the silver mirror. The lightning snapped at the mere thought of what was to come. I was going to have to kill once again. My hands gripped the cold sink, trying to steady themselves.
"One last time." I whispered to no one. "One last time."
I stood, composing myself as best I could, and let the lightning spiral around my arms, feeling the familiar tingle of electricity in my blood. Fury wanted a show. He wanted them to fear me. And fear me they would.
The training room was larger than my last, with mats lining most of the floor and weapons hung or strapped to the wall. I could see Fury, as well as the Avengers, lined up in a row behind the glass above. He gave me a nod, and I looked down the row of heroes as their curious eyes scanned me. Shaking the feeling of their watchful gazes off, I let the lightning loose, and sighed as it rippled up my body, dancing in blueish white sparks around me. It slipped down my arms and curled around my fingers. It felt like I was a wildfire, with a forest to burn to the ground.
Two agents brought in a man in chains through a side door. I recognized him immediately, and almost smiled at his bloody, bruised face. They threw him to the floor, and left, locking the door behind them. The man looked up, and gave me a devilish smirk.
"Volt." He spat at me, staggering to his feet. I snapped the chains binding his hands together. "I've been waiting to meet you." He started to circle, as did I.
"Strucker. It's been a while. Fury told me you were dead, that God's righteous man had killed you, but I didn't believe him. I don't trust snakes." Electricity crackled in the air and wove between his legs, forcing him to the ground. The crack of his skull on the tile echoed through the room. I hadn't let any of the other victims suffer, but Strucker, he was going to feel pure, raging hell.
"I've watched you kill before, Volt. You don't let them suffer. Why let me?" He asked, almost pleaded, as I let the energy travel down my arms into blazing orbs of fire. I thought I'd never see the day Baron von Strucker would be afraid of me, but here we were.
I threw the orbs at the ground and they exploded, igniting the floor in a ring of tall white fire around us. I could no longer see Fury over the flames. Baron attempted to back up but I had him by the neck before he could. He thrashed, trying to get out of my grip, but I closed the lightning around his throat and he went limp. After a few seconds I released my hold and as he fell to the ground coughing, I conjured a scene. The energy wove itself into a girl, no more than five, playing with butterflies in a field, and it soon became another, older girl, sitting on a swing reading a book. I watched as a man came out of the shadows of the woods and aim a gun at the child's head. She was dead before she hit the ground.
The older one screamed, and the man lifted the gun to her chest and pulled the trigger. But she didn't fall. She felt sparks flicker between her fingers and let them go. A wall of lightning stood between them as she held her arms out in fear. Her mother had ran out screaming, and Fury had came out with her. The girl watched as her sister was carried away, and the man disappeared into the woods.
    I hadn't known it was Strucker at the time, but now, now I was certain, and he was going pay. I put my arms out to my sides, and pulled the lightning towards me. Not the ones that I conjured, a real one. I lowered the flames so the Director and the Avengers could watch and held my hand to the sky.
    "Do you remember her, Strucker?" I asked, and thunder roared in the distance behind my words. He looked terrified, and I was glad. The storm drained the power, and as the lights flickered, I screamed at him.
    "Do you? Because you took my life away that day! You took everything from me!"
    A bolt of lightning ripped through the sky into my hand, and I held it tight. The bolt snapped and sparked, waiting for a victim to strike. As I looked into his eyes for the last time, I saw my reflection in the glass. I looked frightening. And as I let go of the lightning, as I watched the life drain from his eyes, I looked up at Fury and the Avengers. Fury gave an approving nod, but every one of the heroes' faces were lined in horror. They were scared of me.
Not the person I was, but the person Nickolas Fury had turned that innocent little girl into that very day. And I didn't blame them for being scared of me. I was scared of me too.