Color scheme | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter 14

     Elizabeth awoke strapped down to a chair. She rattled her arms and legs against the metal clasps, her breath quickening.

     "Hello, Neuronica," she looked over her shoulder to find Strucker, how was he alive?

     "Why am I locked up?"

     "Why were you friendly with the Avengers?"

"What do you mean?"

"Occasionally, we would send HYDRA agents to spy on you. We are not idiots, did you really think you could fool us?"

     "I was just trying to gain their trust, I had to be friendly. It seems I did a good job considering you think I betrayed you."

     "You clearly did not do a good job, since you were chased out. You had a mission, and you failed," Eliza looked at the ground to avoid eye contact.

     "I'm sorry, they were too strong."

     "Lying will not help you, we know you did not fight back," he waved his hand at a one-way mirror, and an intimidatingly built man walked in. "We will give you one chance to redeem yourself, give us information about the Avengers."

     "I never got a chance to hack their systems-" She was interrupted by a punch to the jaw, delivered by the soldier Strucker brought in.

     "We know you picked up on some intel during your stay. Tell us now," she hesitated before making a decision, which may be a very poor one. Clearly, lying and creating excuses was getting her no where. It was time to be truthful.

     "No."

     "Excuse me?"

     "They are my friends. You won't get any information out of me," the man threw a fist into her eye, but she stayed firm in her mindset.

     "You will tell us one way or another."

     "No," she glared daggers into his eyes.

     "I do not understand," he spoke while the man attacked her in every way possible. "HYDRA has practically raised you, and you betray us?"

     "Even while I was their prisoner, the Avengers treated me better than you ever did. I thought they were the enemy, but I was wrong," for that statement, Elizabeth received a blow to the stomach.

     "If your loyalty was broken so easily to us, it will break to them too."

———

     Punch after punch, Elizabeth had not uttered a single word. Blood pooled up in her mouth, escaping from her lips, along with streams of blood flowing from cuts around her face.

     "Fine, you do not want to give us information. I have something better," he had a soldier roll in a TV, placed directly in front of Elizabeth. "We will be attacking the Avengers while they are distracted by your 'betrayal'. We have already managed to hack into their defenses, they will not see our jets coming," he turned on the TV, showing a first person point of view from one of the soldiers. "We have cameras on our top soldiers' helmets. If one of them dies, the screen will switch to another soldier's camera. That way you will get to enjoy watching your friends die one by one."

     "No, don't-" she stopped herself from panicking, and tried to reason with him instead. "They are too strong, even your top soldiers won't stand a chance."

     "If you would pay attention, that is why we are attacking while they are distracted. Thanks to you, we have the perfect opportunity to take down the Avengers," Strucker exited the room, leaving Elizabeth with the man who punched her many times before. She watched hopelessly as the soldiers marched down the HYDRA hallways, heading towards where the jets are parked. She could have screamed out in torment. She could have cried helplessly as her friends were slaughtered before her eyes. She could have given up right then and there.

But instead, she fought back.

Elizabeth used her super strength to tear out of her chains. The soldier monitoring her ran up behind her, strangling her. She drove her heel into his toes, distracting him just long enough to get out of his grasp. She grabbed his arm and flung him over her shoulder, into the ground.

Elizabeth picked up the TV, and threw it at the one-way mirror, shattering it. The soldier hopped back onto his feet, ready to charge at Elizabeth. She grabbed a shard of the mirror and launched it into his neck. That will stop him.

She hopped through where the mirror used to be, where she found a desk and computer. She heard soldiers running down the hallway in her direction, she needed another escape route.

She looked up to find an air vent. Elizabeth grabbed the computer and launched it at the air vent, popping it open. She stepped onto the desk and leaped up, grabbing the edge of the ceiling. She climbed in and placed the cover of the air vent back in its place, hiding her tracks.

Using her common sense, Elizabeth figured she was in the second strongest base of HYDRA, the first being the previous base she lived in before it blew up. Luckily for her, she had been kept in this base when she was younger. This was typically the base younger recruits were sent to in order to be trained. Though it was years ago, Elizabeth still had the base mapped out in her head. She frantically crawled through the vents, looking at the rooms below her to locate her way outside.

———

Elizabeth found the exit, and darted outside. Jets were preparing to take off, or were just leaving the ground. She managed to go unnoticed as she boarded a jet, entering the weapon storage department. She shuffled through the weapons and found a machine gun, perfect.

Once the jet took flight, Elizabeth slowly creaked opened the trapdoor above her head, just enough to catch a glimpse of the room around her. It was filled with HYDRA soldiers, great. She poked the gun through the trapdoor, careful to not make a sudden noise or movement. Elizabeth took a deep, but quiet breath, and fired at the row of soldiers. She managed to take out all of them before they even realized she was there. She grabbed a smaller gun from one of the soldiers, and entered the cockpit. The pilot turned around to find a bullet between his eyes. Elizabeth quickly moved his body out of the seat, and took control of the jet. She learned to fly a few years ago when she had a mission to take down some enemy planes, hopefully she wasn't too rusty. Elizabeth found the communication radio and pressed the call button, contacting all of HYDRA's pilots. She disguised her voice using a Russian accent.

"I have received word that Neuronica escaped and has boarded one of the jets. If you have not taken off yet, check your vehicle first. If you have already taken off, land somewhere and make sure she isn't aboard. We cannot risk her entering the tower, she will warn the enemy," Elizabeth watched as the jets around her either turned back to the base, or landed on islands. "All of the closest landing spaces are taken, I will land on a more distant island," her plan was working smoothly. Now she can continue flying ahead without the soldiers suspecting anything, and get to the tower ahead of time to warn the Avengers.

———

Elizabeth landed on top of the tower. Luckily for her the defenses were hacked, otherwise she would have been shot down. Elizabeth tried to open the door, but it was locked. Her solution was to kick open the nearest window, and hop in.

Eliza ran through the hallways, looking for any of the Avengers. Her emotions began to catch up to her, and silent tears filled her eyes as she darted to the elevator.

The elevator took her to the living room, where she found Steve. He was startled by her appearance, and went to grab his shield. But Elizabeth hugged him, sobbing into his chest.

"You shouldn't have come back here," he tried to sound intimidating, but was slightly broken by Eliza's crying.

"HYDRA," she looked up at him, but still clung on in a desperate hug. "They're coming."