Winters War Phase 3: Some Kind of Monster

Part 18 Mention of rape!

During her fall she screamed out loud and saw the trees coming closer, fast. She squeezed her eyes closed, waiting for the plunge as she went through the high tops of the trees. But then she sensed a rope around her ankle and it stopped her fall. She felt herself bouncing up and down. When she opened her eyes she saw she was some yards away from the ground. Julia looked up at her feet and saw a web was tangled around her ankle.

"Are you okay?" she heard a young man's voice from behind her.

Julia looked at the direction the voice was coming from and saw a red-blue suited person hanging upside down, with the help of spider webs.

"Are you hurt?" he asked worriedly.

She kept silent as she gazed at the red-blue masked figure which she remembered from the villa she grew up in. She even wondered on which side he would be.

"Can I trust you?" she asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, you can. Shall I take you down safely?"

She nodded, but still was suspicious. He went closer to her and wrapped his arm around her. She winced as a burning pain occurred on her upper back.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah."

Then he noticed the burn on her back. It didn't look good as it was a second degree burn.

"You're burned," he almost panicked.

"The man in the gold-red suit did that. Can you please put me on the ground?"

"Okay. Hold me tight," he advised and she followed his word.

He ripped the spider webs from her ankle, quickly shot a new string and slid her slowly to the ground. When she got her feet on the ground she looked at him, scared. He wondered why she was staring at him.

"Something wrong?"

"I think I recognize your voice."

"Uhm, yeah. We've met before," he said while he rubbed the back of his neck.

Julia squeezed her eyes at him and tilted her head.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Spider-Man."

She went closer to him, shaking her head, not really believing what he said.

"No. Who are you?"

Sweat broke out of his pores as he held up his hands in defense while she was coming closer. In a quick movement, she tried to rip off his mask. In his turn he quickly grabbed her wrist and held it firmly. They were both amazed at their own fast reactions. Carefully she placed a foot behind his foot and pushed him, making him trip and fall. She got on top of him quickly and was able to grab his mask. She lifted it and a piece of his throat appeared. Then Spider-Man shot a web over her face. She went off him and pulled at the sticky substance to get it off her face.

"Get it off me! I can't breathe," she panicked.

Spider-Man felt sorry and helped her remove the webs. Once her face was clear she was taking deep breaths. She looked at him and saw a piece of his bare throat.

"You okay now?" Spider-Man asked worriedly.

Julia nodded while gazing at him. Behind them they heard a man laughing. They looked up at the laughter.

"The Madame is still right. You're weak," Lex chuckled while hanging upside down on a tree, almost completely mummified in spider webs.

"Will you please be quiet?" he asked, and he shot a web that covered Lex's mouth. "Thank you."

Spider-Man sighed and glanced at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. He found it hard, what he wanted to say next. She deserved the truth about her father.

"Listen, I have to tell you something first. It's about your father," he started with a shaky voice. "Iron Man was chasing him and your father's car got into an accident." He took a deep breath and continued. "The car exploded and killed him. I'm so sorry for telling you this."

After he put his gaze back on Julia, she quickly grabbed his throat with her bare hand. Her fingers managed to touch the revealed skin and her powers started to suck out his energy. Spider-Man screamed out his pain. In her turn, Julia yelled as images flashed painfully through her mind of a brunette teenage boy she saw in her mind. He was making webs in a jar, and hugged her while she was crying in a school canteen. Also flashes of Spider-Man and herself standing on the roof of a villa and a fight in a bathroom between them.
She released him and the memories faded away.

"Peter?" she whispered while panting.

Panic rose in Spider-Man's guts.

"How...I mean...huh?"

"Are you..."

Spider-Man quickly shot another web at Lex, covering his eyes. Then he removed his mask to reveal his identity. Julia's eyes widened in shock as she backed away from him.

"What the hell, Peter?"

"Don't tell anyone," he begged with a quiet voice.

Julia rushed her hands through her hair as she couldn't believe who was hiding in that suit.

"Are you...?"

"Yeah, I'm an Avenger."

"How come I have never seen you in the compound?" she asked, confused when the panic level in her body reduced.

"I still live at Aunt May's house. Mister Stark, who is Iron Man, is also an Avenger but lives in his Stark Tower in the city. And then there's Hawkeye, who lives on a farm in Missouri with his wife and kids but stays in the compound for a night when a mission is done. Then he goes back to his home the next day." Peter explained. "His real name is Clint Barton, by the way." He watched her while she picked up her leather glove and put it on. "So, what happened?"

Julia sighed as she looked at her hands. She finds it hard to tell what happened to her.

"Remember we had to search for crystals in his villa?" she started while memories slowly went into her mind.

Peter nodded. He did remember it. It was traumatic to see her covered in rocks and then finding out she was missing.

"I got in contact with it a few days before we had that ambush by HYDRA in our villa."

"But you also were in contact with it during the ambush," Peter reminded her. Julia nodded. "I have learned from Mister Stark these crystals can give you powers. So anything special you can do now?" Peter wondered.

Julia didn't know where to start, because she didn't want to scare him off. She turned around and took a few steps away from him. Peter noticed the burns on her back were gone.

"Julia? The burns on your back. It's gone."

"That's because I touched you," Julia started to explain. "I can heal from wounds when I touch somebody, skin to skin. Sometimes I have memories of the person I'm touching. " She went silent for a few seconds. "I remembered you were making webs for Halloween," she continued. She looked over her shoulder to meet his gaze. "But I guess it wasn't for Halloween, huh?"

Peter felt embarrassed.

"No, it wasn't," he admitted.

She turned around to face him better.

"But there is more about my powers. I can absorb the life out of somebody when I hold them too long. You should be lucky I didn't kill you with my powers."

"Did you...?"

Memories of her killing HYDRA soldiers and Crossbones with her powers faded in and out of her head. She started to feel embarrassed.

"In several memories I did see myself killing and hurting people," she sighed. "But I don't know if it was really me because HYDRA can remove my memories and change me into another person. Although some memories are coming back since I've been in some kind of memory restore machine from SHIELD."

Peter heard the regrets in her voice when she spoke.

"So my so-called father is dead now?" she asked.

Peter nodded. She just gazed away from him. He noticed she had no sorrow for the man who raised her. Then somebody interrupted him through his comms.

"Kid, could you find the Living Dead Girl?"

He laid a finger on his ear to speak into the comms.

"Uhm...No Mister Stark, I'm still looking for her," he lied to protect Julia. He sighed before he put his mask back on. "I have to go," he said softly. "I'm sorry."

Julia just nodded but Peter saw she was inside her own mind. Gently he laid a hand on her shoulder, that made her look up at him.

"Will you be okay?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine," she reassured him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, just go. Do what you need to do and don't worry about me," she said while she shrugged her shoulders.

He nodded, shot a web and flew away. Julia looked at him as he made his way, like a Tarzan. When he was out of her view, she looked at Lex who was still hanging upside down, covered in webs. She searched for a rock with a sharp edge. When she found one she climbed into the tree and started to bang with the rock on the web. After a few bangs it started to shred and before she knew it, the rope broke and Lex fell down on the ground. She heard his muzzled scream. Julia jumped out of the tree and landed next to him.

"Sorry," she apologized to him.

With her gloved fingers she tried to peel off the webs off his face. She got irritated when it didn't go fast enough, in her opinion. Finally she freed one eye and he looked angry at her.

"Hey, I said sorry."

"Need help?" she heard a woman.

Julia looked up with big eyes at the direction the voice was coming from but exhaled in relief when she saw it was Natasha. The Avenger took out a knife out of her belt and started to cut the webs off Lex.

"They are after you," Natasha warned.

"I..." Julia said but got cut off when a large arrow pierced through her shoulder.

"Julia!" Natasha called out as she saw her being pulled away.

Julia screamed out her pain as she collapsed on the ground. Natasha looked up at the other side of the thin chains and saw it was Clint.

"Clint, no! Don't do this!"

"It's for our safety," he snarled at Natasha when he pulled Julia closer to him. "She belongs in the jail of SHIELD."

Then a small metal disc appeared on his arm. It spread out tiny wires and electrocuted Clint. He shrieked as he fell on the ground.