Winters War Phase 3: Some Kind of Monster

Part 23

The fight outside the QuinJet still raged on. Ant-Man and Spider-Man did their best to keep the HYDRA soldiers away from the aircraft, with the help of an outraged Hulk. From every side, a new soldier appeared. Often it felt like more than one.

"Dude, I've got an idea! Why don't you enlarge yourself like you did in Germany and trap them like ants?" Peter called out to Scott.

"Great idea!" Scott exclaimed, and seconds later he became a bigger version of himself. "Why didn't I think about this earlier?"

The enemies screamed in fear and ran away from the massive feet, while some of them got kicked away by the giant Avenger. Once all of the soldiers were gone, Scott shrank to his normal size. Tired and sore Peter and Scott dropped themselves to the dirt. They were sitting, back against back.

"That was hard work," the teen acknowledged while panting.

"I totally agree with that."

The Hulk, still enraged, looked around aggressively.

"Hulk, more smash!" he growled in rage.

"Calm down, big boy. Maybe there will be more later. Take a rest now," Scott advised, while still catching his breath.

Inside the QuinJet, Jemma gazed at the control system while she waited desperately until the lights turned green.

"Please, Fitz. Hurry up!" she pleaded softly.

"Still working on it. It has an extremely secure firewall," Fitz calmed her. "It will be done in no-time. I hope."

"Surrender and you will find meaning. Surrender and you will find release," Whitehall told Pepper in a hypnotic tone.

He stood in front of her and cupped her face, looking into her tired eyes. For hours, he had performed the Faustus Method on the redhead.

"Are you ready to comply?"

He removed a gag from Pepper's mouth, so she could answer his question.

"I want you to let me go," Pepper said quietly with fatigue in her voice. "I don't feel so good."

Whitehall sighed in defeat when he noticed the brainwashing didn't cause any effects and placed the gag back over her mouth. He never expected it would take such a long time with her but somehow he had the feeling he was getting the results he wanted. He went to his minibar while the television, in front of Pepper, showed hypnotic colors. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey from a shelf and poured the golden liquid into a glass.

Suddenly, a round of bullets from a machine gun hit every security guard in the area. Even the television got hit and went black, spattered with bullet holes.

Pepper sighed through her nose, relieved, while she gazed at the broken and smoking TV.
Whitehall turned around to see who the shooter was. He saw Julia leaning in the doorway with a smoking machine gun in her hands. With wide eyes, she looked at him.

"What's going on here?" Julia asked while she walked to him, wobbly on her legs.

Whitehall walked towards the teen and stopped her by laying his hands on her shoulders. Julia's body froze instantly when he touched her. Feelings she couldn't explain welled up in her.

"I'll explain everything, but first...." he said and took the weapon from Julia's hands, "I'll put this away for our safety."

Whitehall walked to his desk where he placed the dangerous item. Julia went closer to Pepper and saw the woman was extremely tired. Pepper glanced at her and noticed Julia had a different look on her face, compared with the first time she saw her. The teenager looked less evil.

"Why are you doing this to her?" the teen wondered as she gazed at Pepper.

Whitehall walked back to Julia and stood behind her. The strange feelings inside of Julia appeared again as he placed his hands onto her shoulders and massaged her a little.

"She will become your family."

"Did you do this to me as well? This kind of torture?" Julia guessed as she looked over her shoulder at Whitehall.

"This isn't torture," Whitehall said without any compassion.

"Are you sure?" she asked, suspiciously.

Her eyes darted over each feature of his face, searching for something out of the ordinary.

"Come, let's have a seat and I'll explain everything." He reassured her with a smile and led her to an empty chair, at the other side of the room.

While walking to the seat, Julia did not have the desire to hurt him, save the lady and run away. The strange and unknown feelings inside her kind of numbed her. Whitehall let her sit down and walked back. On the wall across from Pepper were a few belts. Whitehall took one of them, walked back to Julia, and tied it around the teen. She kept on wondering why he was doing this but she let him tie her up. Perhaps he had a good reason for doing this?

"We didn't do this exercise to you because I know you are my daughter. Can you remember what I have told you, about your mother?" he started manipulating her while he tied the teenager up.

"Mom said Claus Berger was my father," Julia replied, as she remembered what her mother had told her about her biological father.

Whitehall sighed after he was done binding her to the chair.

"No, she used him to protect you from SHIELD."

A look of puzzlement crossed her face.

"But mom is working for SHIELD."

Whitehall took another chair and sat in front of Julia and looked deeply into her eyes.

"Your mother works for HYDRA inside SHIELD. SHIELD is a very dangerous organization. Do you even know who else works for them?" he asked her.

Unsure, Julia shook her head.

"Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man."

Julia looked away from him. She'd always had the feeling he was against her. In the background, Pepper started to mumble but couldn't be heard because of the gag around her mouth. Then Julia's eyes popped back to his, when the next name was revealed.

"Steve Rogers. Captain America," he continued.

"No!" she snapped in interruption when she heard Steve's name. "No, he's not. He's kind to me. He didn't hurt me. He's like a brother to me, just like Bucky and Sam."

"You've been brainwashed by The Avengers. They're not your family. We are," he kept on manipulating her and cupped her face.

Tears welled up in Julia's eyes as she felt her heart cracking.

"But they were kind to me. Sam told me I'm one of them," she started to stutter, sadly. "They helped me so I could return to you. I--"