Chapter 3
The hands that grabbed her were cold and calloused. They grabbed her thin body leaving deep purple bruises and crushing pain. Her bones screamed under the pressure and a high pitched whimper droned from her throat. She could sense the smirk on her capture’s face and the all too familiar pins and needles pricked her spine.
“Ve haffe ein sbecial zing for vu, Schwein” they snickered, “Ein fery sbecial zing totay.”
Wanda tried to slip through the person’s grip but it only prompted them to hold her tighter. Jagged nails left crescent shaped punctures in her olive skin that had blanched from the lack of sunlight. A warm tear ran down her icy cold skin. She felt herself be dragged out of the cramped cell and back towards the labs.
“Please” she whimpered, “Please, no”
“I’m sorry, I don’t speak vermin”
The industrial fluorescent light once again bathed her as she felt herself be put back onto the table and her limbs stabbed against the metal that leached what little warmth was in her. She trembled with an aching pit in her stomach which was not just from hunger.
“Pietro,” she cried.
“Oh, zat nauscent von’t pe here to pozer us,” said an eerie voice.
A bald man leaned over the restrained girl. He had scares that looked as if his face had been stitched together and a single monocle over right eye. He smiled at Wanda like a predator would to its prey while licking its lips. He felt so drunk with power with his victim who was so vulnerable and at his mercy. He combed his fingers through her auburn locks and caressed her soft skin. The subject flinched upon each contact but was forced to take it without a means of escape.
“My aren’t you gorgeous” Strucker admired. “If only you weren’t so undesirable.”
Out of view of the subject, was a table with various instruments. He had given Dr. Zola orders to keep its health at a sufficient level which is far from the skeletal form that was in front of him. Nevertheless, the various reports said that it was not too weak to bear their desires. As long as that white haired freak was with it, it would accept the care of his employees; but to give that kind of comfort for that long was dangerous. They needed to make sure the subjects would remember that they were nothing.
Strucker turned his attention back to the subject and began to prod her abdomen. It whimpered which he was able to shush with a quick blow knocking the air out of its lungs. He slowly made his way down to its labia and slowly began to pull up the hospital gown that covered the subject.
“Stop, please” it begged,
“Silence” he demanded, delivering a swift blow to the vulnerable skin.
With no mind being given to the subject’s condition, Strucker entered unceremoniously and felt the tight muscles strain. He blocked out the pathetic whimpering as he examined the canal before making his way to the cervix. His nails brushed against the untouched membrane and a hum of approval before pulling his hand out as quickly as he had entered. He turned back to the table where a cooler sat. Inside there were several bottles of a cloudy liquid that brought a smile to his face.
“You should be thankful” he said, not taking his eyes off the bottles. “I am finally going to give your meaningless existence a purpose.”
He took a bulb syringe and began to fill it up with the chilled liquid. He placed the bottle beside the subject’s face to allow it to see what was going to happen. Its emerald eyes widened as it read the label and looked back at him.
“Please” she sobbed, “Please, I can’t”
Strucker huffed as he moved out of view of it which only prompted the cries to increase. He stuck the type of the syringe into the hole and pushed it deep until the tip hit its hymen. For a moment, nothing happened. He wanted the subject to stew. Then he pulled it out slightly and shoved it back in.
A sharp cry of agony echoed in the laboratory as the instrument broke Wanda’s hymen and entered her womb. Blood gushed out of her as the man squeezed the bulb sending a freezing fluid into her. The liquid entered her womb causing the muscles to cramp against the cold which bit the walls of the delicate organ. Once the bulb was empty, it was pulled out and the man returned to the bottle.
“CHust one vill do zis time” he smiled.
She watched as he once again filled the device and placed the bottle beside her. While Wanda had never been to a formal school (they were always too poor to send either her or Pietro) she was literate. The words Seamen Sample #1964 punched a hole in her gut. She struggled harder against her restraints which prompted the man to violate her further. She felt the long, thick nozzle of the bottle shoved through her nether region which burned under the strain. Tears wet her cheeks as she felt the blood pool between her legs and the feeling of ice enter her womb. It stung the sensitive tissues before the thing was pulled out with just as little care.
“Zat vill pe all for today. Take it pack”
Wanda felt her arms and legs be released but she didn’t have the energy to try and escape. She felt so broken, so dirty, so used. The pain in her abdomen and groin was unbearable and prevented her from walking no matter how much the two screamed and yelled at her. Eventually, they gave up and she was thrown over the shoulder of the person who brought her in as if she was a bag of potatoes. When they got to her cell, they tossed her without a sliver of gentleness. Her pelvic hit the cement first and a sharp pain blossomed around the bone. She laid there crumpled and unmoving allowing the tears and blood to surround her and soak through the rags that she wore.
Hours passed before anyone returned.
“Here you go, Kotzbrocken” someone snarled.
Wanda braced herself for a hit but it never came. Instead, she heard the sound of a limp body being thrown and smashed into the wall. The door slammed shut and Wanda strained herself to look up.
“Pietro!” she cried, trying to scramble to her twin but unable to move her lower body without it screaming in pain.
The white haired mutant looked up and the color drained from his face. He sped (quiet literally) over to the brunette and carefully propped her up against his chest.
“Wanda” he gasped, feeling the warm blood, sweat, and tears soak through his own clothing. “What happened to you?”
The younger burst into tears and nozzled the elder. Pietro gently stroked her hair and hummed an old Romani lullaby that their mother used to sing to try to comfort her. Wanda shook with pain which brought a fiery rage that spread through Pietro’s body. Ignoring the aching in his own body, he lifts his sister from the ground, careful not to further any of her injuries. He brought them to the wall before sitting back down.
“You don’t have to tell me,” he whispered in her ear.
Wanda just let out a pitiful whimper.
“But it’s going to be okay. We’re going to be fine. I promise.”
He continued to ramble the comforting words but very deep inside he didn’t believe a single one.
Dr. Zola was restless in the chair that he sat in in the office of Baron Strucker. The man’s stark eyes glared furiously at the scientist. The lighting of the room cast long shadows and darked the scars that stitched his skin together.
“The development of the two have been slower than what I desire but I do believe the results can forgive that” Strucker broke the silence, “I administered the subject with the sample at exactly 14:30. It took it well and the guards at the cell have observed its distraught to have lessened since the exposure to its companion.”
“Good,” Zola nodded frantically, “We should be able to test to see if it took in ten days.”
“How is your work with the little rat going?”
“It is going well. We have yet to discover how it is able to metabolize so much energy without a sufficient fuel source but I have a few hypotheses.”
There was a moment of pause.
“Its abilities are through, down to the molecular level. I believe that it is able to synthesize energy at that level when needed.”
“Like a nuclear reactor”
“Of sorts”
“And have you found a way that we can harness that energy? Learn from it? Replicate?”
“No,” Zola shook his head nervously. “Unfortunately it is moving at a rate that our instruments could not possibly detect. It's boarding at quantum tunneling at will and being able to use it to emit mass amounts of hypersonic energy which could prove to be…”
“And what contingencies do you have to stop that?”
“I’m sorry, sir?”
“What are your plans to stop it?” Strucker snarled, his glossy eyes burning with anger.
“W-Well it was only a matter of time before we terminate”
“No,” Strucker slammed his fist onto his desk, shaking the room. “I will not have you destroy our only weapons against the Avengers.”
Dr. Zola felt the chill of fear engulf him. The Avengers were a rising threat, one that was too young to pose any danger to the HYDRA but with time SHIELD would undoubtedly detect their agents that had been planted after the resignation of Peggy Carter. Their grip on the organization had greatly slipped since the return of Captain America and continued to get looser as the super-soldier grew more accustomed to the changes that happened over the past seventy years.
“At least, not yet,” Strucker said.
“What do you mean?” Zola wondered.
“The bitch’s due in nine months”
“If it takes and everything goes right, then yes”
“They were already too old to serve us” Strucker continued, “But it won’t be.”
“Yes, yes,” Zola agreed.
“Are we certain that the offspring will have the abilities as its dam?”
“There is so little known about mutants” Zola explained, “From what we have learned, the activation of the gene is indeed hereditary but the powers brought about the mutation aren’t always.”
“And by what age can we discover the nature of its ability”
“Around puberty”
Strucker leaned back in his chair and thought.
“The sample that I have given our breeder” he said, “Will that increase the chances of being of any use to us?’
“The sample carried the genetic information that was used in the gene therapy of Dr. Erskine original serum as well as a conduit that makes it very responsive to the surrounding energy.”
“And that means that that star spangled scout is the sire?”
“No, more that the genetic half that should be the fathers is malleable and can adapt while in vitro” Dr. Zola explained, “The fetus should inherit the abilities of the mutants around it should that mutant’s powers be manifested with some form of energy.Dr. Erskine’s work simply will allow us to ensure that the body will be able to handle it.”
“And we are certain that the witch's abilities are energy based?”
“While I can’t say for certain what it is, all of our tests do confirm that it is some form of mystic energy”
“Very, well,” Strucker got up from his seat and headed to the door. “Then I expect those two to be history within the next decade.”