ʟᴏꜱᴛ ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ || 𝟙

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 7

"That's not possible."

"Well clearly it is."

"How did she even manage to?"

"D-Do you think she knew?"

The cacophony of voices erupted like a dormant volcano, all of them talking at once, aghast at the latest development of the mystery girl's identity.

"HEY." Pepper's authoritarian voice cut through the noise. "As much as I enjoy all of this noise, not that I haven't had enough of it for the past few years but can we please focus on what we're going to do with her?"

"Speaking of her, what is going on with that?" Bucky pointed out as they brought the camera feed back to the main screen.

"What the-," Peter muttered as he zoomed in onto the cell where she had stopped battering the glass and instead, she had collapsed to her knees, hugging herself so hard it was like she was the only thing keeping the pieces of herself together.

Sudden collapse aside, the only thing more worrisome than that was the faint magenta aura outlining her body which was getting brighter with every second.

--

She could feel it in her fingertips, at first a faint brush, then waves of pure energy that brought her to her knees as it rushed to her solar plexus, raging and roiling inside her. She struggled to gain control of it, but it was like swimming against a riptide, no matter where she looked or where she swam, all she could feel was the current tugging her downward into an infinite abyss of coldness.

Her back arched in pain as it zipped down her spinal cord, leaving them as sensitive as live wires. Opening her mouth, she gasped for help but all she heard was an animalistic scream of pure pain that left her throat blisteringly raw. Clawing at her sides, feeling the blood dribble down her arms, thin trickles of warmth, her eyes darted back and forth, searching for something to hold onto, something that could channel this monstrosity anywhere else that wasn't her body.

But she had been the chosen vessel for its power and had no choice but to suffer as it surged within her.

The split second before the universe had come into creation. That's what this moment felt like. Eons condensed into a nano-second.

Every single nerve in her body sparked and danced with pure electricity.

The pain was everywhere and nowhere.

She felt ice-cold and on fire all at once.

Praying that it ended quickly, she exhaled, deep and slow.

It warmed in the centre of her body like a miniature sun before exploding outwards in a circular wave, like a stone thrown into the middle of a pond, the ripples spreading outwards, shattering the glass that kept her captive in her cell and destroying everything it came in contact with.

As soon as it had begun, it was over.