Starks Apprentice

Chapter 10

Soft murmurs floated through the air as the others poured over a picture on a table, everyone looking up as we walked in.

“what’s up?” Clint called casually, attempting to lean against the table only to miss it completely and fall to the floor.

I stifled a giggle with a cough, trying to supress my smile as Nat gave him a hand up.

“Clearly something if you guys are acting so sketchy” Peter attempted to get a look at the table only for Steve to block his view.

“What are you hiding?” Tony let out an exasperated sigh, leaning back in his chair as he muttered something about teenagers being nosy.

“We got some more information on the men”

“Stark”

“Tony” a few voices warned but the billionaire waved them away.

“Better they find out from us” he beckoned us over so we could see the table, the faces of the men greeting us, and I felt myself stiffen slightly at the prick who hit me, feeling Bucky pat my shoulder softly.

“Hydra” Peter stated, pointing to the familiar octopus’s symbol that sat on the screen, but I wasn’t focused on that, rather the paragraph below.

Task: Capture the spiderman and/or female friend in hopes of gaining information about Avengers, use force to transfer to the facility, if uncooperative upon arrival, proceed by any means necessary.

Use of female as motivation is advised, however if unable to achieve this, proceed with mission H.

If no information is gained, termination is required.

“The facility.” I stated sombrely, “die Anlage”

“One of them said that?”

“You speak German?” Sam and Nat asked at the same time.

“A bit and yeah, the one with the cut” I pointed him out “he said something about screaming I think? Called me girl and said, ‘die Anlage’.”

“Thank god they didn’t take either of you” I couldn’t agree more with Bruce, I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if that happened.

“What’s mission H?” Peter questioned,
“some sort of plan to end the Avengers?” silence fell, and they all shared a look, this couldn’t be good.

“We don’t know, all we have on H is that it’s some form of human experimentation trying to give people abilities” Tony said, flicking up another hologram which had pictures of missing people and sightings of them entering a car with men surrounding them.

I felt Peter move closer to me as we saw this, both of us realising how lucky we had got.

“None of them have succeeded as far as we know, but it’s only a matter of time”

“So, they’re trying to make their own version of the Avengers?”

“that’s the theory” I blew the air from my cheeks slowly.

“bless” my hand rubbed the skin over my heart as the pity oozed out of me for these poor kids. I prayed they didn’t suffer too much.

“there’s more” Peter stated, seeing the reluctant look on Tony’s face as the others waited for him to break the news.

It almost made me feel sick, knowing that the knowledge of dead children wasn’t even the worse part.

“They would have succeeded, if they had taken you” my heart stopped as his eyes met mine, the amber orbs burning with an emotion I couldn’t quite describe.

“What?”

“I compared your blood samples with ours. You have a recessive gene in your DNA which is commonly activated by exposure to radioactivity, like some of us.” He pointed at Peter and Bruce before standing up, walking over with his tablet. “it’s unnoticeable, and doesn’t really do much, unless you’re trying to build superheroes” he showed me the screen, Peter hovering over us as we watched him circle the gene.

“Do they know about that?” he shook his head.

“No, it’s not something people look for, a needle in a haystack” I rubbed my jaw as it tensed uneasily.

“It would’ve been like they won the lottery” Bruce confirmed quietly.

“So basically,” I tried to simplify it in my head, using my hands to try and shape my words “you’re saying that if I was exposed to radiation I would turn into an enhanced human? But I’ve had X-rays and stuff, and those were fine? How come my parents are okay?”

“Everyone’s had x-rays, you didn’t see Bruce hulking out as a kid when he broke his leg.” Steve commented.

“Cap’s right, X-rays don’t provide enough radiation to make any impact, but if you were exposed to, say, a thousand X-rays at the same time? That could trigger it. And it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll become like Peter, or like Bruce. It depends on the way it interacts with the rest of your cells.”

“So, its unpredictable?” Like a walking time-bomb.

“Pretty much, but it’s hard to trigger, and only the people in this room know about it, so you’re completely safe”

“great” I muttered, not completely sure how to react “so I’m not a danger to anyone here? Hydra isn’t actively seeking me so they can build their Offenders?”

“I see what you did there” Sam chuckled to himself “offenders, avengers” he received an elbow and made a face.

“No, you’re still the same old Alexandr- “

“Alex is fine” I cut him off with a small smile

"No need for the whole thing, thank you” he just smirked, and people began to talk among themselves, the tension easing from the air quickly.