watch your back

chapter 1

"it was cold... that's all i remember."
the man standing in front of me sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"this isn't going anywhere.", i heard the tall, blonde one say. he was one of the two i had recognized. the whole world knew him. captain america.
i tried to move my arms but the rope they had tied me up with was extremely scratchy and the wooden chair i was seated on wasn't exactly comfortable either. i reckoned i was at the avengers home base. and the brown haired guy with the arrows that had been questioning me must be an avenger too, but my head felt too dizzy to put any pieces together. i wasn't in that prison anymore. that was all that counted.
"she's going to faint again." that was tony starks voice. he was the other person i was able to recognize.
"we should leave her alone, she's just a kid.", that must've been the captain, but i couldn't be sure. the comforting warmth that came over me seemed to slowly shut me out from everything around. i felt like a dimmed light, continuously fading.

i'm not on the chair anymore. that was my first thought when i woke up. fluorescent light was dazzling my eyesight and i had to turn my head away, eyes squeezed shut. it took me a while to realize that my hands weren't tied together anymore, just because my wrists were still sore and it felt like there was still something wearing them open. i was with the avengers. i suddenly remembered. flashbacks from the prison outbreak flooded my mind. the collapsing building, screaming, fighting, blood. i remember i was falling. it was peaceful. then i remember iron man catching me. that wasn't so peaceful anymore. there was blood running over my face. a head wound, i concluded. i went over my head carefully and felt the bandage. it was a little wet, so i figured it must've bled through. but it was real. all of it was real.
i heard a door open and immediately sat up straight. a rather stupid idea, because i almost fell over again and had to hold myself in place with my hands grabbing onto the bed.
"it's okay.", a voice said. "i just thought you might be hungry."
i blinked a few times until my eyes focused again. tony stark had walked into the room, holding a plate with a delicious looking sandwich. under the cold light he looked a bit pale. i noticed how wide the room was and that there was nothing in there, except for the bed. stark looked a bit lost, standing unusually awkward in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do next. there was a big abrasion on his forehead that seemed to have only recently stopped bleeding.
"did that happen during the breakout?", i asked. my voice was hoarse. i cleared my throat loudly, then i suddenly had to cough. a blinding pain shot through my head and i pressed my eyes shut, waiting for it to pass.
stark seemed to have gained his confidence back and came closer to me.
"yeah, it did. these things always make me look cool though, don't they?", he grinned at me and i tried my best to give him something at least close to a smile.
"you shouldn't have come there.", i said.
„the others said you might be dangerous.", he replied.
„i might be.", i admitted.
„good.", he looked me in the eye. „we need that."
he caught me eyeing the sandwich and gave it to me, then sitting down next to me on the bed, with a respectable distance.
"what's your name?", he said.
"subject 2375X.",
i immediately flinched after i said that. shit, shit, shit. my voice had that mechanic sound to it again that i despised so much.
"i feel like we should try that again.", he said, patiently. "what's your name?"
"sub-", i stopped myself, then i shook my head. "i don't think i have... a name."
stark blinked a few times, then he stared at the wall opposite for a bit.
"take your time.", he said, after a while. "we'll find out what your name is soon enough. now i suggest we go tell the rest of the team that you're not dangerous."
i nodded, then i turned to him.
"weren't they listening all this time anyway?"
i thought i almost saw a smile form around his lips, then he just told me to follow him.

we left the room and entered a long hallway. it had huge windows all the way to the end and was flooded with natural light. when i caught sight of the scenery, i had to stop for a second and walk up closer to the glass. it was a beautiful landscape, a lawn with the richest green i had seen in ages, hills that ran like waves on the horizon, huge, healthy trees with full treetops.
"wow...", i breathed, stunned.
"pretty amazing, right?", stark agreed.
"i haven't seen anything like this in at least seven years."
i didn't realize what an impact my words had, but suddenly the normally so self assured iron man seemed a little intimidated. or maybe i just mistook his pity for that.
i quickly caught up to him and we reached a door. it opened automatically and when we walked in there were about eight people staring directly at me. it was a workspace with quite a few computers. they must've been watching me from here.
„what the hell are you thinking?", cap said, indignant.
„you heard her!", stark replied, just as upset as the captain. „does she really seem dangerous to you?"
„she literally admitted to you that she was.", the brown haired arrow guy remarked, dryly.
„can i sit down somewhere? my head is really killing me.", i said, my voice sounded hollow in comparison to the others. but maybe that was just me imagining it.
everyone was quiet for a bit, then the arrow guy brought me a chair.
„thanks."
„im clint, by the way.", he introduced himself. i shook his hand shortly.
„this is wanda maximoff.", he pointed at a short red head that looked rather calm, but i could feel that her senses were sharpened. she was just as on edge as everyone else in the room. „vision.", he pointed at a red, robot looking person with something yellow stuck in his forehead. out of them all, he definitely confused me the most. out them all, he was also the most intelligent. it was something about the way he held himself that convinced me of it. „spiderman.", clint pointed at a young boy with blonde hair, who was standing rather awkwardly next to all the gruffly looking avengers. a little bit like a cute dog next to a couple of bulldogs.
„peter.", he corrected and was the first who also let me shake his hand. „peter parker."
clint gave me a look, but the he continued. „natasha romanoff.", he pointed at a confident looking woman with also reddish hair and remarkably pretty eyes. there was something about her, that made me curious. maybe the fact that i couldn't at least guess what she was thinking. „steve rogers." steve nodded at me. he looked silly in his suit, was the only thing i really thought about him.
„kate bishop.", he said and my eyes wandered to a brown haired woman with curious eyes and an expression on her face that made me think of her as brave. she also had a bow and arrows.
„yelena belova.", she was the last person he introduced, a blonde woman that had intelligent eyes and a very kind face. the way she held herself reminded me of the other woman, natasha , but i couldn't quite tell why.
clint had now turned back to me, probably expecting an answer of some sort.
„that's an awful lot of people that are interested in me.", i said, eyes narrowed. if i were to run away right now, nothing could stop me, i thought. anxiety crept into my stomach. i didn't know how long i could pretend to be this confident.
„why are you so interested in me?"
the avengers went quiet.
„look-", stark started, but rogers interrupted him.
„tony, no.", his brows were arched and his voice had that serious edge to them. he spoke like someone that was used to give orders. tony, however, acted like someone who was used to ignoring them.
„the mission wasn't just about you. it was about all the people that were in that horrible place with you. all the children."
„then how come only im here?"
„things went... wrong.", romanoff said, looking down shortly and then right into my eyes. „we planned on saving all of them but... some didnt want to be saved. they attacked us."
her voice was raspy. i sighed.
„i told you you shouldn't have come. that place... those people...", i closed my eyes at the memories as if i could shut them out.
„it's okay.", tony said and placed a hand on my shoulder. when i flinched at the touch, the blonde woman suddenly looked up. she must've looked at the ground this whole time, thinking, but i noticed the rapid movement. what was her name again? i wrecked my brain, but i didn't remember. it was too much right now.
„why should we trust you?", the smaller redhead asked. maximoff? i wondered why i was suddenly forgetting all the names.
„you shouldn't. i told you. i'm dangerous. so is every single one of the prisoners that you just let out into the world. they might've been innocent when they were kidnapped and brought in, but they aren't anymore and all of them will cause chaos to this world."
tony took a step back.
„how would you know? how would you know that all of them are bad?", the arrow girl asked.
„because none of them have ever experienced love of any kind. and that makes people rot from the inside."
i could see that some of them understood. i could also see that some of them couldn't. this was too hard to help them understand. they took something upon themselves that they couldn't comprehend. i sighed, got up from the chair and sprinted away. when i had first gotten the powers, i felt they were useless in comparison to everyone else's. but i had learned their perks and benefits. being as fast as light meant that i could run away.
and now i did. and i didn't stop for a long time.