Picking Up The Pieces

5. Powers Awoken

Ward, no, Hive looked at Daisy in ways I couldn't describe. "Interesting," he said, stepping forward. "Your name. Something... pretty." He stepped toward her, and a sphere of water appeared in my hand. "Not pretty like the sky. A flower. Daisy."

"Please," Daisy repeated. Hive set his hand on the side of her head, but he moved it away as if he were burned. "What?" Daisy breathed worriedly. "What is it?"

"I can't." Hive looked at his hands in horror. He finally had something that he couldn't do. I quietly stood up, my body hidden by the portable's walls

"What? Why not?" Daisy asked. "What did SHIELD do to you?" I slowly heated up the ball in my hand, making the water boiling hot. Steam started to trickle out of the doorway.

"It's not what SHIELD did to me," Hive explained before spatting "it's what creature stole from you." Creature? "He made you impervious." Daisy sputtered as he walked away.

"Please," she began to cry. When he turned back, I threw the ball in his face. Hive growled in pain, holding a hand to his face. I grabbed Daisy's arm and tried to pull her out of the jet.

"Daisy, come on!" I grunted.

"No!" she yelled tearfully. "No! He has to fix me!" Hive lowered his hand to look at her.

"No," he shook his head softly. "I'm sorry, Daisy." Daisy wrenched her arm out of my grasp, and that's when he actually saw me. "Isabel, I think," Hive mused. "Your artificial powers hide what's truly inside you." He set a hand on his chest, as if he was being empathic. "But I know."

"Don't touch me, you bastard," I spat. Hive bowed his head.

"Daisy, you've helped me one last time," he acknowledged. "You brought me a new soldier, a child for me to protect."

"No!" Daisy yelled, pointing to herself. "It's my gift! Not hers!" The Zephyr began to shake as her anger grew. Hive stuck a hand out to me.

"Come, my child," he ordered, and I was sucked toward him. I grabbed Daisy's arm again.

"Daisy!" I pleaded, but she didn't pay attention. I was pulled into Hive's arms, and I began to squirm. He slowly placed a hand on the side of my head, the way he did for Daisy.

"Awaken," he said softly, and I shouted in pain as a black shell, similar to O'Brien's, slowly advanced up my legs. Hive wouldn't let me go. I pushed hard against his chest as the shell made it's way up mine. He set me down softly, and the last thing I saw was Daisy charge at Hive, looking ready to kill.

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There was no light, no sound, and no movement. I was surrounded in darkness with my arms in the same position they were right before the shell consumed them, and all I could hear was the beating of my heart. I couldn't tell if my eyes were opened or closed.

All of a sudden, my heart paused, and there was silence. The shell erupted off me with a deafening crack. I opened my eyes, and everything felt. I could tell I was in the Zephyr, but in a closed room. Then, it came. The voices, everyone's voices, came crashing in. Daisy's, my sister's, Spiderman's, someone who sounded Chinese, another Italian, and another Brazilian. Trillions of voices mixed together, no single word intelligible. I held my ears in pain as I slowly fell to the ground, thrashing. It was more painful than anything I had ever gone through.

As I laid on the ground, I let out a heart wrenching wail, and the voices quieted. Only one remained.

Finally.