Royal Flush

Chapter One

Chapter One: Certain Abilities

At the Hydra base of Science, Germany

The room had sharp lighting, the brick walls were grayish and the scientists were running around, stressing over whatever experiment they were trying to succeed with. Strücker was one of Hydras best scientists. He was the one giving Wanda Maxmioff her powers, after all. He intently watched the experiment through a window from a room a bit further up from the floor that it took place. The door busted open and one of his best scientists, Wagner, rushed in.

"Strücker! I have new information I think you would like to know about," the man said with german accent as he handed Strücker a file marked 37SO. Strücker took a quick glance at the file but then immediately handed it back to Wagner.

"Dr Wagner, when are you going to give up on project 37SO? It was unsuccessful and we no longer have that orb in our possession. You remember as well as me the day those people, if you can call them that, took it from us," Strücker spoke back in an also german accent as he looked back out the window at the ongoing project.

"Yes I know, but..." Wagner started to browse through the pages of the file until he reached a certain section. "...maybe it wasn't unsuccessful," he said with wide eyes and raised eyebrows as he held the file open to show the section. Strücker looked at the page and then looked back at Wagner with a confused look on his face.

"Subject 11LD? It didn't work, the subject didn't make any progress. You already know all of this, why are you bringing this up?" Strücker questioned, not catching on and still confused on what Wagner was trying to say.

"Our sensors picked up on an energy wave incredibly similar to the ones we picked up from the space orb. My theory is that maybe.. just maybe.. subject 11LD caused this wave," Wagner said with hopeful eyes, trying to convince his boss. Strücker gave him a look to continue, wondering why Wagner had this theory.

"Subject 11LD is the only one that survived the experiment, it makes sense. Maybe it didn't show any sign of abilities because it was too young to understand that it had them. This is the only explanation I have for the energy waves to show up," the scientist exclaimed while gesturing with his hands. Strückers face changed to a smirk as he looked back at the file.

"Find it."

THREE YEARS LATER

I tried to block out the sharp sound of my alarm ringing right next to my ear on full volume as I desperately fumbled around with my hands to find my phone under my pillow. I turned off the song I had installed as my alarm, September by Earth, Wind & Fire, ironically the same name as the current month. I started to stretch out, then being reminded of the small space in the trunk of my car that I was sleeping in.

I sat up on the cheap mattress I had put there and tried to look up at the sky in between the buildings of New York. The time was 10:00 am and the sky was already blue and clear from any clouds. The September weather had made it harder to fall asleep in my car since I couldn't leave the air condition on, and because of that I had washed my sheets many more times than I could afford due to sweating all night. It might not have been the most economically smart thing to do, but if I didn't want my car to stink I had to do my best to keep things clean, even if that meant I wouldn't have dinner once a week until next pay.

I looked around my surroundings as I tried to find the will to get up and go to work. The T-shirt I usually slept in was in the laundry due to sweating so much, because of that I was just wearing my sports bra and underwear. I scrunched up my nose, thinking I would have to open all the doors when I got back to get out the smell of the not so fresh sheets lying thrown tohether in the backseat. I didn't have time for that now though, I had to get up to get ready for work.