Frostbite

One

Present day: 2012

It had been two years since I escaped that hellish prison. I was experimented on and tortured for years. Ten years actually. I had been gone for ten years. Someone helped me escape, and I couldn't remember much of it. There was a lot of snow and a long trip, but I had kept going in and out of consciousness.

The only thing I could remember clearly was when I returned home. I guess the person had dropped me, literally, on my brother's doorstep. I woke up on the front porch, looking out at the ocean and its heavy waves crashing against the cliff side.

I had been fazing in and out when the front door suddenly whipped open, jarring me to full awareness. Glancing up, I saw Tony blinking down at me in disbelief. A smile broke out on my face.

"Tony," I managed to croak out. He swooped down, pulling me into a bone crushing embrace.

"I didn't think I would ever see you again Lanie," he whispered into my hair. Tears started to cascade down my face as I hugged him back.

Not long after, Tony rushed me to the hospital to have me checked out. That situation probably should have been avoided entirely. Overwhelmed, I had spazzed out and caused some serious damage to some of the hospital equipment. Tony was shocked at first but helped cover the incident up to keep my abilities a secret. He didn't look at me differently, like I was the monster they had created.

He had changed, too. He went through a lot while I was gone, becoming the infamous Iron Man. There had been several appearances of abnormal people in the last few years. At least I wasn't the only so-called freak out there.

My abilities did attract the attention of an organization called S.H.I.E.L.D, who successfully recruited me to work for them shortly after my recovery. That's what I'd been doing with my time since then. Training with other agents and helping with missions here and there. Fury didn't send me out much because my powers weren't public knowledge yet and he wanted to keep it that way for the time being.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked out the window just in time to see Tony flash by in his suit. He was back from finishing the last pieces of his clean energy project. He and his girlfriend slash assistant, Pepper, had been working on Stark Tower for months.

I had taken up residence on one of the floors here. I felt I needed a change of scenery. I had been living in Malibu with Tony when I wasn't at S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. Plus, Tony had sold my apartment after a few years of my being gone.

A knock on my partially open door made me look up. Agent Phil Coulson was standing there, waiting to be invited in. He was a middle-aged man who worked for S.H.I.E.L.D, and I swear I had never seen him wear anything other than a suit. It had to be uncomfortable to fight in.

"Hey, Coulson! Come in," I greeted while dragging myself into a sitting position on the bed and muting the T.V that I hadn't actually been watching.

Coulson was a stand-up man and a great agent. He was one of the people who helped train me when I first joined. Not that I would ever tell him to his face, but I kind of saw him as the Uncle I never had.

Smiling apologetically, he said, "Sorry to intrude. We have an emergency, and director Fury has requested your presence. If you'd like, you can wait for me downstairs and ride with me."

I wondered what kind of emergency, but I knew I wouldn't get any answers until he decided to divulge them. No need to waste my breath trying.

"Sounds good to me. I hate the smell of cabs," I quipped. As he was turning to leave, I asked, "Why did you come all this way to get me?"