Reaching Out | Bucky Barnes

13 |

Pain lances through my body and my eyes shoot open, finding Doctor Hof standing in front of me and pressing something into my side that makes my jaw clench and my brain sizzle.

Finally, she pulls away, and my body untenses. "Sorry about that one. We are here, and I do not need you attacking people."

Whatever she injected earlier is still in my system because I can barely hold myself up when a guard cuts my restraints and drags me forward, directing me through the jet.

I look around as I stagger off the plane, eyeing the red rock walls that surround us before I'm pulled down a ramp and guided across the space to a metal staircase. The moment we pass through the door at the top, I'm forced into a wheelchair, mind too hazy to focus on anything except the rolling of plain walls as we snake through halls.

After an elevator ride and a few more turns, whoever is pushing me stops, giggling keys a moment before I hear a tap and the wall begins to shift, revealing a thick pocket door. I'm wheeled into the room and Doctor Hof walks around me, ordering someone to lift me onto the bed. They're not gentle as they prop me against the wall and move aside, letting Doctor Hof step forward with a thick circlet of metal in her hands. I'm unable to move away as she wraps it around my neck and snaps it shut, my entire body filled with dread at the object.

The collar.

My eyes then land on the capped syringe the guard holds out to Hof.

No.

Not more.

I try to push myself as far away as I can, but all I do is shift down the wall slightly, earning an annoyed huff from Hof as she yanks on my arm and stabs me with the needle before letting my arm flop back into my lap. I wait to feel more drowsy effects, but instead feel nothing.

That makes me more nervous.

"I am going to give you some backstory that I think will answer a lot of your questions. First of all, my name is Jael Stadelhofer. You probably recognize that name from your trip to the Underverk facility. I was the lead doctor for a very specific program there—we were creating a class of humans who would out rank any other," she says proudly. "Very few made it past the first trial, but one woman made it past all three. She showed abilities much like your own, less refined, albeit, but valuable. She was able to manipulate the speed at which atoms moved, which meant she could make herself move at speeds impossible for regular humans—but she could also create heat sources from seemingly nothing. Very unique. Very useful. However, we noticed her behavior changing; she was getting sick, missed her periods, gained weight. That is when we found out she was pregnant. A guard was apparently sneaking into her cell at night. Back then we did not have facility-wide surveillance cameras, so we had no idea it was happening until the job was done.

"We killed the guard, obviously. He was impacting our studies and could not be trusted. But it did give us an opportunity which we would not have otherwise. We could see how the abilities might pass from mother to child. We monitored her closely, keeping electroshock to a minimum, counted the months until she would give birth. She was biding her time, it seemed. She gave birth in her cell a month earlier than we anticipated, then she staged a riot. She would not let us learn from her child, you see—she thought us so cruel that we would subjugate the child to torture. Of course, we would not have tortured the child. But we did want to learn from them. During the upheaval she ran from the patient wing, trying to escape into the mountains, I guess. Stupid. She was cornered. So, she blew herself up along with the baby.

"Countless died as a result of her actions, and a handful of patients escaped. We began tracking them down; most we found within days, but two escaped together, found their way to a nearby town, stole money and clothes from a poor elderly couple, and made their way to the airport. We tracked them to America three months after the incident. They did not show any potential, so they were a liability that needed to be taken care of. Fast forward 25 years, I get a call from an old friend, Tony Stark. He says he recently met a young woman who had amazing abilities, and he would like some tests done. Of course, I would help... Well, when I saw you, I suspected.