The Experiment Is Out of Its Chamber
Her hearing came suddenly, the sound of fan blades slicing the air flitting into her mind. Her skin felt the soft sheets, her head on a soft puffy thing that is so comfortable that it isn’t.
Her eyes open to see a ceiling fan, the light from a window pouring in.
She slowly sits up, shaky, fog invading her brain, dissipating as she tests her feet, seeing how she looks just as she did the last time she was used, as usual.
The room is empty except for the bed and the ceiling fan, a simple door closed.
She walks to the door, opening it to peek out of the room, looking right and then left in the hallway.
One hand runs over her head, her eyebrows furrowed as she feels the way her head is lacking hair.
The upcoming mission must be like last time,she thinks.
She looks at her gown, understanding how many times she’s woken up to be tested on.
“Ma'am, you need to be in bed,” a man says, and the young woman turns around, standing firm, even as the man towers over her.
“Location, sir?” She asks, standing at attention.
“Avengers Tower, in the medical wing.”
“Avengers. Doctor, the mission information has not been downloaded.”
The nurse answers with a puzzled look.
“Are you one of the doctors?”
“Uh, no, I’m Carey. I’m one of the nurses.”
“Where are the doctors?”
“I can help you get back to bed, and then-”
“The Experiment is out of its chamber. What is the mission?”
“Mission?”
“The Experiment is out of its chamber. What is its mission?”
“Let’s get you back to your room, and then I can get Dr. Cho,” he says.
She nods, following him back to her room, passing closed doors on the way.
“Stay here.”
The doctor comes in a few minutes later, finding her in the exact same spot the nurse left her standing.
“I am Dr. Cho,” she says politely. “Can you tell me your name?”
She answers with a confused look.
“You are a doctor?”
“Yes,” Dr. Cho replies. “Let’s check your heartbeat.”
“You are a woman. The Program does not allow female doctors.”
“The Program?” She asks, listening.
“Yes. Is this not the Program’s new quarters?”
“This is Avengers Tower,” she says. “Let’s check your reflexes, okay?”
Dr. Cho has the woman sit on the bed, using a small rubber hammer on her right knee, immediately kicked, sent flying into the wall, crumpling to the floor.
The patient leaves the room without remorse.
“Excuse me,” Carey says as she walks down the hall. “You should be back in-”
As he touches her arm, she grabs his throat, pinning him against the wall.
“You are not the Program. Experiment 346 must return to the handlers and complete its mission.”
“Please,” Carey gasps, squirming.
She keeps her hand on his throat until his face goes red, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.
~
“Sir,” Jarvis says to Tony, who is fiddling with one of the Iron Man suits, the fingers locked in one position. “You told me to alert you when our visitor woke up.”
“Yup. Be right there.”
Tony continues working for the next ten minutes, until Jarvis speaks again.
“Sir.”
“Yeah?”
“She just injured two medical officers.”
“On it.”
~
She walks down the hallway, searching every room for her owners.
A man stands at the end of the hall, wearing a metal suit, leaning leisurely against a wall.
“What are you? Man, or metal?”
“The man who has to pay the medical bills of the two people you just hurt. I hope you left them alive."
“The Program does not have any concern for casualties.”
“The Program?”
“The Experiment must return.”
“What experiment?”
“Move, or be moved.”
“Oddly enough, I’d like to see you try.”
She does a murder strut right up to him—reminding him of Bucky—and grabs his neck, only to be blasted back into a wall.
“Jarvis, got a tranquilizer?”
“Sir, this young woman seems to possess superior strength.”
“Jarvis, answer my question.”
“Yes. Shall I prepare the sedative?”
“Yeah, and do me a favor and text the Capsicle.”
Stark watches the woman rise from the hole in the wall, her fury rolling off of her in waves.
“Wait, call him.”
“Hello?” Cap’s voice comes over Tony’s speakers in his headset.
“Hey.”
“Before you ask, no, I didn’t tell Bucky to glue your suit.”
“So he’s the one who glued it? I can’t get the glue off, and-”
“I didn’t tell him to.”
“I’m-”
Before Tony can blink, he has been thrown into a wall, crashing through it, landing on the floor.
“Stark, what was that?”
“That chick we rescued from Hydra is fine, except for the cuts I gave her by the wall she broke," Tony grunts out. "She threw me into another, though, so we’re even.”
“I’m coming.”
“It’s not much of a-”
Tony grunts as the woman drags him across the floor by his foot, yanking his feet out from under him, intending on using that lovely-looking knife set she saw a few doors away when she was peeking into some rooms.
She makes it to the door just as the elevator opens, Captain America stepping out.
“Captain America,” the woman says, her eyes going glassy. “Program mission: eliminate threat.”
“Great.”
Her eyes going back to normal, she throws Tony at Cap, the blue-clad one trying to catch him so he won’t break anything, ending in them both falling to the floor. As the two heroes mutter their complaints, the woman who threw Tony murder struts up to them, sending a punch Cap’s way as he grabs his shield, preventing it from connecting to his person, and he uses it to pin her against the closest wall.
She stares at him blindly as they grapple, her strength competing with his own, as Stark prepares a needle filled with sedative.
Cap catches sight of the needle—as does the woman—and he turns so Tony can reach her neck.
“Mission failed,” she says, and then sinks to the floor.
“Uh...” Tony says, still holding the needle, looking at the unconscious woman.