First Light | Steve Rogers (Book Two)

Chapter Thirty-One: Awake

"No, no, no. No!" the man yelled angrily, "She has Inhuman powers now? Can we get a break, please? Can we get one break?"

"Guess they weren't assessing powers as Hydra as much as collecting them" May huffed as she staggered to her feet.

I made my way over to Steve, helping him up from the ground. He was still trembling slightly, but he gave me a reassuring nod. There was a small table in the corner, which had my blaster on top of it. There were various microscopes and tools around them, which I had to push aside to pick it up. "Did she actually keep our stuff?" I huffed, "She'd better not have messed with any of it"

"Who even knows what Hydra was doing in the Framework," the man sighed as he examined the sport where Aida and Fitz had disappeared before turning back to face May, "Oh, wait. You do, I guess, right? Sorry. I'm having trouble sorting through the two lives we lived"

"You feel that too, huh?" Steve finally spoke to the man. He took a step towards him, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "We know you... you're supposed to be dead" he whispered.

The man nodded slowly, "Guess I've got some explaining to do"

I nodded and crossed his arms, "Yeah, Coulson. You really do"

"Maybe once we're somewhere safe. We were lucky to have gotten out of there"

"It wasn't luck" we all span around to face the figure stood in the shadows. He had a thick Russian accent and a cold glare that seemed to pierce into us like a dagger, "You are only alive because I had restrictions put on me. Fortunately, those restrictions have just been lifted"

I glared at him, blaster aimed at his face. I knew him from the night we had been kidnapped, but still wasn't entirely sure who he was. "Who the hell are you?" my voice shook slightly as I tried to push aside the war that was still going on in my head.

Coulson shrugged, "You guys missed a fair amount. The quick version is, you can go ahead and shoot him"

My finger flexed against the trigger, but I couldn't fire. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make myself do it. May took the opportunity to shoot him instead, frowning in confusion as the man advanced, barely seeming to feel the bullet hit him.

She continued to fire at him, only stopping when he knocked her to the ground. Coulson tried to fight back, but he was knocked aside as well. I let out a huff, aiming a kick at his chest. He continued to advance on me, only pausing when I jabbed my hand  into his neck, spinning to elbow him in the face.

His hand wrapped around my neck and I gasped for air, clawing at his grip. I slowly turned the blaster around, shooting him in the thigh with it. He yelled angrily and threw me across the room, watching as I collided with the wall before he turned on Phil.

"You are nothing now without a SHIELD to hide behind" he taunted, holding a knife against the man's throat.

There was a loud crack as a hologram of a shield appeared from Coulson's wrist, cutting the front of the man's face off. "That's not all they're good for" he remarked.

I stared at the tiny wires and mechanisms poking out of its head, "Robots. Is that a common occurrence now?"

"Like I said, you missed a fair amount"

Footsteps could be heard outside and we looked out of the door, seeing at least three copies of the robot lying behind us. May hit a button on the wall, making a thick, metal door slide its way in front of us. "It's good to be back" she murmured, her voice dazed and distant.

"We call him the Russian," Coulson explained to us, "'Cause, you know, he's Russian. Radcliffe teamed up with him for protection"

"After he replaced me with a robot version of myself. Just to clarify" May huffed, exchanging a tired look with Steve and I.

The man shrugged, "The technical term is 'android', but yeah. You remember any of that?"

She sighed heavily as she leant against one of the stand things, "I remember getting hit in the head. Should've stayed in that damn spa"

"So, how do we get out of this?" Steve frowned as he paced around the room, looking for an exit. "We're still on the drilling platform, right?" hearing him talk like that almost made me smile, he sounded a little like his old self.

I approached a small, glass box on the wall, opening it up to examine the bright blue and red lights inside it. I began to fiddle with some of the wires, trying to avoid the metal cylinders in the middle of the box. "This ought to keep the door shut for a while" I called, closing it back up.

Tall lockers lined one of the walls and May and I began to search through them, pulling out a few of our things. I tossed Steve his suit, both of us pulling our combat clothes over the grey shirts and leggings that we had been changed into at some point. 

Coulson began to speak as I put on my belt, buckling the thigh holsters that were attached to it. "Escape is not an option," he huffed as he nodded towards the one person still plugged into the Framework, "Mack has to stay plugged in. If we wake him up, it'll fry his brain"

I slowly walked up to the unconscious man, staring up at him with a look of envy. "So," I finally said, "We need to take control of the space"

"And, hopefully, we won't have to do it alone," Steve added as he buckled up his helmet, "Daisy and Jemma should be coming to help us"