Chapter 7
Her relationship with Loki and Strange was honestly amazing. They got along quite well and while Hayley was still uneasy about sexual contact, they got a kiss here and touch there and promised to take it slow. When the team found out, they were surprisingly supportive and delighted for her, but had all threatened the two sorcerers that they would kill them if they hurt Hayley. But nonetheless, everything was great.
The team had even taken her on a couple missions. Nothing too crazy or dangerous, just small missions to see how she fared out on the field and act mostly as support. She had proven to be useful with her ability to shield the others and cast minor healing spells. Another thing Hayley was able to do was to calm the Hulk down faster than even Natasha. This had proven to be valuable and dangerous as the Hulk’s rage was unbelievably high.
The first time Hayley had calmed him down was on her second mission when she learned just how quickly things could get out of hand. Natasha had gotten hurt on the mission and ended up getting shot, which caused Hulk to go wild. He even slapped Clint and Tony into a tree. Hayley acted mostly out of instinct when she heard the loud roar and ran over to the green giant, getting his attention and grabbing his wrist. She wasted no time transferring feelings of peace and calm to him while taking in his pain, rage, and anger into herself.
It worked out and allowed Bruce to take control, but the problem was that the more emotions Hayley felt, the more powerful she became and created a higher chance of her powers losing control, which was exactly what had happened.
She had never felt a rage so strong as his, and it sent her powers into a frenzy, quickly overloading. She had fallen on her hands and knees, struggling to not let the rage consume her and attack her teammates. In her attempt to hold back from hurting them, her powers had shocked and came out in a blast like a mini explosion of astral energy. She didn’t remember anything after that was in a coma for about three days and it took two weeks before she was able to regain the ability to use her powers again. During that time, Loki never left her side and almost ripping the team’s heads off for allowing her to get hurt, and Stephen had come by to support and take care of her whenever he was able to.
Overall, things had been looking good and Hayley was doing good, forgetting about the vision entirely and getting comfortable with her life. However, she was not prepared for the sudden complications that were about to happen.
She was currently asleep on her bed, but a nightmare soon of men sneaking in the tower, kidnapping her, the red gem, the Bad Man, red device, and her killing the team soon caused Hayley to wake up with a gasp. She called out to the AI to ask what time it was only to find out that Jarvis was not working. This only made Hayley more worried and she used her soul-self to scout out the tower, seeing men in the kitchen and making their way to the living room.
‘Loki. Loki wake up,’ she told the sorcerer telepathically.
‘What’s wrong love?’
‘We’re under attack. They’re in the kitchen… We need to wake the others…,’ she informed him.
‘I’ll wake Thor. He is loud enough to wake the others. DO NOT GO AFTER THEM ALONE LOVE! Come with me to his room.’
‘I can handle myself, babe.’
Nonetheless, she teleported to the Thunderer’s room to find Loki waiting for her. When he woke his brother, Thor had woken violently and almost ended up hitting Loki, who expected to be hit as he dodged it. Loki kindly informed his brother which cause Thor to summon his armor with a loud boom before they all made their way to the living room, the team joining them not long after. Loki and Hayley used magic to light up the room and reveal not just a couple of men, but an entire army.
The fight was rough as she fought the intruders. She had just finished off three of them when two more came up from behind and she thought she was toast when they suddenly let her go and fell to the ground. She turned to see that Loki had thrown his daggers and saved her. She thanked him before going back to fighting. She blasted enemies with black energy, sending them flying back before she turned and shielded Tony from bullets. She thought they might actually make it out and beat them with minimal damage when she felt arms grab her from behind and someone injecting something into her neck. She didn’t even get the chance to fight or call for help before she passed out in her captor’s arms.
She woke up with a groan in pain, feeling dizzy as she tried to blink open her eyes. She found herself strapped down on a medical table. Metal bands around her wrists, waist, neck, arms, legs, and ankles allowed her almost zero movement. She struggled to break free with no avail. Suddenly, a familiar voice she thought she would never hear again made her blood go cold and her heart stop.
“Hayley! It’s so good of you to come back to me…”
The Bad Man.
The man that had Alexis. The man that had tortured her for years on end. The man that had made her monster. The man she had gotten away from and thought she would never see again. He had haunted her dreams and was the cause of many sleepless nights. She could never forget that voice.
“N-no...Please no…”
She saw the doctors that used to torture her surrounded over a desk with an assortment of surgical tools and other strange objects that she couldn’t make out. She saw Bad Man come to stand in front of her, smiling happily at the sight of her tied up. He stroked her face gently and she growled and tried to jerk away from his touch.
“I see someone has grown fiesty. It’s been so long…”
“Not long enough,” Hayley growled, causing him to laugh.
He slapped her hard on the face and she gasped. She heard and felt Loki and Strange reaching out to her and she concentrated hard to send them images of where she was before her attention was taken away and back on the man next to her.
“We’re going to have so much fun,” he purred happily.
She spat at him and struggled to break yet again. She saw the doctors holding a device, the same one in her vision. It looked like a red gem with metal wires on the side. She screamed and thrashed as the doctors came closer.
“This is a special device made just for you. It’s going to allow us to take control of your body and powers, and dictate your every move.”
“GO FUCK YOURSELF ASSHOLE! BURN IN HELL! I’LL KILL YOU,” she screamed.
He slapped her again before punching her hard in the stomach.
“You will fulfill your purpose, and there is nothing you can do to stop it!”
“What purpose is that?”
“To kill the Avengers."
The last thing she saw was the doctors bringing a mask to her face before everything went black.
The device on her chest had been Hayley’s worst nightmare. She was aware of what she doing, but she couldn’t stop it as they put her through tests to see what her powers could do and how the device worked. It was almost her body was the car and someone else was taking the wheel and she was just along for the ride. She was currently in a training room, blasting mannequins that popped up with powerful astral energy. Her powers increased drastically with expert precision and control over them, something Hayley never knew was possible. Apparently, it was, as long as she wasn’t in control of herself.
“Stop,” Bad Man announced, causing Hayley to freeze instantly, standing still in her place like a statue with the posture of a soldier.
The man walked over to her and circled her body, beaming with pride at the result. He came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders and she wished she slap them off as he leaned down close, his breath hitting her ear with each exhale.
“Wonderful….Our perfect creation….I knew you were destined for greatness the moment I saw you on that playground….You showed so much potential, even if you turned out being a pesky little dyke… Alexis, was it? I guess it doesn’t matter anymore really. She was quite pathetic...”
Hayley growled and ended up elbowing him in the stomach as she fought against the device’s control only to be shocked and kicked back into the passenger side. The device was honestly impressive. It was attached her skin which connected it to her nerves, pumping weird chemicals throughout her body which sent signals to her brain, allowing them to effectively take control of her. The more chemicals released, the less she would be able to fight back. In any other circumstance, she would’ve found it a clever yet scary invention. Unfortunately, all she could do was recover from the shock almost instantly as she turned back into their soldier.
“Your resistance is shocking, but futile my dear. It looks like there’s still some work to be done.”
The next few hours and days were spent with Hayley being put through tests, switching the mannequins out with people and testing the resistance, pumping more and more chemicals into her body, making it harder and harder for Hayley to resist until she eventually gave up after day four when she could mindlessly kill someone at their command. At the moment, an eight-year boy was on his knees in front of her with his mother only a few feet away, tied up and restrained, a gun in her hand as she held it against his head. She tried to take control, not wanting to let this kid die as she fought with everything she had. The boy was crying for his mother, and Hayley felt her heartbreaking as she screamed on the inside.
“Fire.”
There was no hesitation. The finger on the trigger squeezed gently, applying more pressure until a loud bang echoed in the large building and a bullet pierced the boy’s skull. His mother screamed and cried as her child fell to the ground: lifeless and dead.
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! MY BABY!!! MY BABY!!!! YOU KILLED MY BABY!!! YOU’RE A MONSTER! A MONSTER! A MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
She was right. That’s what she was now. What she had always been: a monster.
“Kill her.”
Hayley turned to the woman in the chair, aiming the gun at the pleading woman before pulling the trigger and there was nothing she could do to stop it. The Bad Man and the doctors had been watching the entire thing and recording the progress. It had happened. She had become their weapon. Their soldier. Their puppet.
“Excellent… I believe it’s time…. Your final assignment… Kill the Avengers and anyone who stands in your way.”
It was time. The moment her vision had warned her about as she made her way to the tower. The plan was to lure the Avengers out and come to them. To do that, Hayley would cause destruction and get their attention and then an army of soldiers would come to help her in the fight. She walked down the sidewalk, a communicator in her ear as she scouted the perfect spot. A small diner caught her attention and she felt the power coursing through her veins as she was forced to use her powers to lift a car off the ground and throw it onto the building.
They used her powers to wreak havoc on the city and destroy multiple building, no doubt killing people in the process. The army of agents had followed her, helping destroy the city to expedite the process. She had taken out the police that had tried to stop her with ease lifting their vehicles and crushing the officers with no hesitation. It didn’t take long before the Avengers had come to save the day. Loki and Strange were with them as well which only terrified Hayley more. Their eyes widened as they saw her, with relief and shock and concern as she stood in the street.
“Hayley! You’re alive,” Steve exclaimed.
“You know what to do. Show no mercy. Destroy them all,” Bad Man told her over the com in her ear.
Her eyes were black as she used her powers blast them with astral energy, ready to kill each and every one of them. Black beams flew at the hero’s, effectively hitting Clint and Bruce and knocking them to the ground as she rushed them.
“Hayley what are you doing? It’s us,” Tony shouted at her.
She growled, and fought the group, sending feelings of panic and fear inside Steve, so much so that he became useless as images of his greatest fears flashed in his head. She had messed with Tony’s suit with her soul-self, let the soldiers fight Natasha and Clint, blasted Bruce across the street, and fought with Thor, Loki, and Strange.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Thor said.
Hayley only rushed him, tendril-like appendages extending from her body to lift the Thunderer in the air and slam him on the ground before she turned her attention back to the two sorcerers.
“Hayley, baby, it’s me! It’s Stephen! C’mon baby, you have to fight this,” Strange yelled.
It was just the push she needed to fight for control. She couldn’t kill them. Not her only family. Not the two men she had come to know and love. She couldn’t them win. She had to fight.
“Loki? Stephen,” she said, getting control back for just a few moments before the shock came.
She screamed in pain, clutching her head. She only had a few moments before the device would take control and she had to do something to help them. She ripped her shirt open a bit, revealing the red device that rested on her chest, right on her sternum and between her breasts. Electricity ran throughout her body before she lost control again. However, once the team noticed the device on her chest, they quickly drew the lines on what was causing her strange behavior.
“If we remove the device on her chest, she may return to normal,” Loki told them.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Steve declared.
Hayley growled, quickly going back to fighting them and attempting to kill the heroes. She punched, kicked, bit, slashed, cut, and used her powers to attack the group. The team shouted at her to fight it and to remember them and to answer them, causing Hayley to fight against the control and get shocked and stunned and allowing the Avengers to make a move on her, throwing her to the ground so they could try to rip the device off her chest. It was long and hard fought battle on both sides, but eventually, they taunted her for the final time. Hayley shrieked as she fought the device, causing Clint to shoot the thing on her chest which damaged it before Tony threw her on the ground and yanked the device off her chest.
It was like her skin was ripped off of her as the thing was removed. She screamed, the damaged device crackling as Tony threw it to the side and blasted it to shreds. Hayley remained on the ground, dazed and unconscious. She felt arms pull her against a familiar body and hold her up. She groaned as she opened her eyes to see Strange holding her, Loki next to him with wide and concerned eyes.
“S-S-Stephen? Loki,” she groaned, voice cracking and weak.
“It’s us dove...It’s us…,” Loki said.
Hayley felt her eyes water as tears of shame fell down her face.
“I’m so sorry...I’m sorry...I was aware, but oh God...I couldn’t stop it...I’m sorry...I’m sorry...I…I....I...”
She wasn’t able to finish talking, however, as she fell limp in the Sorcerer Supreme’s arms.