not like you → c . barton

[14]

Remember that tube I surfed down to get to the robot sweatshop? Yeah, uh, that wasn't a slide. It was the exact opposite of a slide. In fact, it was a rise. Hank found it on accident. He stood too close to the tube opening, and the flap in front of it snapped up, and he was sucked inside, taking him back to the main floor.

"A reverse garbage chute. Not bad," I muttered, lifting the flap and jumping on top of the tube itself.

"Go up in twos. It'll be faster that way," I urged over the sound of whooshing air. I was surprised by how no one argued with me, no one tried to think of a different way. They all just listened, even the adults. And adults are notorious for arguing with children. Jeb and Diamond went first, followed by their parents. Wanda and Sam shot up after them, and all that was left was to get dad up there, and then myself.

"Come on dad! Go up!" I yelled, and he ran up to the tube. Before I could stop him, he grabbed the top of it, pulled me down, and we went rocketing up together, my screams sucked from my lungs. We came out of the tube, me landing on my dad's chest, back on the lobby floor of the building. The others stood around us, and I lifted my head.

"What we miss?" I slurred, and Hank offered me his hand. I took it, and he pulled me up while Sam helped up my dad. I shook my head and got my ears to pop before looking around.

"Where's Violet?" I asked.

"Woah, you're on a first name basis?" Jeb asked, and I shot him a look.

"In a way, yes. Now, we gotta- Oh shit."

Outside the building were some pretty miffed looking Avengers. Jeb, Diamond, Hank and I all shared a look, and we braced for impact. As soon as they entered the building, the doors slammed shut, and a voice crackled over the intercom I didn't know existed.

"Well, Ms. Barton, I should have known you were special. Gathering all of the Avengers in one spot, you talented girl, well, minus the fast one. I heard he died in Sokovia. No matter, that doesn't put a damper on my plans," she laughed, and I clenched my fists.

"You've got nowhere to go, Violet! Your henchmen are in a pile at the bottom of this building, and those conveyor belts are broken. Too much clutter on them for them to move," I yelled back, hoping it was a two way intercom. The other side was silent, and I thought I had just made a fool of myself.

"You insolent brat! How could a child shut down one of the most powerful systems in the the country?" she yelled, and I rolled my eyes, wondering what the system even was.

"Because adults always underestimate kids, you twit," I shot back, crossing my arms. The intercom was shut off, and we all heard the ding of an elevator, to which I froze, not even looking at anyone in the room.

"We need to find a way out of here, and fast," Steve said, and my thoughts started to race. The elevator that led to the top of the building stopped at the lobby, and it wasn't Violet that stepped out. I just realized that I never described what she looked like, aside from the stereotypical black dress she wore. The Violet who detained me had short, platinum blonde hair in a bob cut, these mud brown eyes, pink but thin lips, and she was short. The Violet that stepped from the elevator had jet black hair still in the bob cut, red eyes that made Voldemort's look like light pink, and she had black lipstick on. Her outfit had changed to that of a... Of a HYDRA uniform, complete with the oh so stylish black gloves that looked like she had claws instead of human fingernails, like Shego from Kim Possible. But she was still short.

"You! You've ruined everything!" she screamed, pointing her extremely pointy finger at me.

"It's my specialty. Just watch me in gym class when we play kickball." I looked at her, trying to stall for time. I had a plan in my head, and all I had to do was get her to lunge at me, and I could dart past her and get up to her office and see what I could find, particularly pertaining to the HYDRA THING.

"Enough of this! You and your little friends aren't leaving here alive!" she snarled. I rolled my eyes and sighed, pulling out my knife.

"Weird. Will you get my little dog, too?" I asked, and she glared at me.

"Such a smart-mouthed little girl."

"Thanks. I get it from my dad."

Without warning, she lunged at me, and I smirked. I don't know what came over me, but I was able to slid under her and catch her with my knife blade, leaving a nice cut on her abdomen. I scrambled to my feet and ran for the elevator, and I heard her shriek. You know what occurred to me as I entered the elevator? None of the Avengers or SHIELD agents, or my friends tried to help me. Not even my dad tried to step in. I slammed my hand down on the door close button, when Hank seemed to snap to attention.

"Alex!" he yelled, getting everyone's attention. He ran for me, and they all made it into the elevator just before the doors closed.

"God! What got into you back there?" I asked, and I could hear commotion outside of the doors.

"She's got some kind of trance thing going on. You didn't hear it? It's like this weird hypnotic sound. It started when she left the intercom and came down. But when you cut her, it stopped," Hank explained, and I looked at him.

"Great, we've got a walking talking music box villain who works with HYDRA. Maybe she's got something in her office that can stop this," I muttered, choosing not to answer the questions Hank asked about me not hearing the song. The elevator 'dinged', and we exited into her office. She's not one for interior design, either. It was all black and white and boring.

"It looks like she's got nothing to hide up here," Hank murmured, and I looked around.

"Looks can be deceiving," I reminded him, and we split up to look around. I checked her desk, and the intercom was right there, with a little chip on the side.

"I think I found our problem here," I whispered, grabbing a pen from the desk and prying the chip off. The system squealed, like when you hold a microphone to a speaker, and I could hear groans coming from the lobby.

"So this is a two way intercom!" I grinned, and Hank walked over.

"We need to find something else to play over the intercom so that trance thing can't come back, or if Violet's got a trance thing on her, it'll be drowned out," he told me, and I looked around.

"Can we sacrifice your phone for the good of a bunch of people?" I asked him, and he nodded, pulling out his phone from his front pocket. I took it and looked for the hookup wire on the intercom, which was easy to find. It was red. I hooked up his phone and had him unlock it before we scrolled through his music selection.

"Wow, you like country?" I asked.

"Not important! How about some rock and roll?" he suggested, and I nodded.

"Rock and roll works. How about.... Ooh! Sympathy for the Devil is fitting," I said, and he nodded. I played the music and turned it up loud as we both grinned. We could hear it echo from the lobby, and Violet's frustrated shrieks rang in our ears.

"Something tells me she's not 100% human!" he yelled, and I nodded. We could hear bangs from downstairs, and we both ran to the elevator, climbed in, and Hank slammed the down button. We went screeching down the wires until we reached the lobby, where we spilled out onto the floor when it lurched to a stop. I looked up and saw Violet hovering over my dad, and she seemed to inch closer to his neck, with fucking fangs.

"See? Even your friends, teammates, and daughter aren't going to save you!" she shrieked, and my whole world slowed down. Without a second thought, I pulled out my knife again and ran for her. Time seemed to stop, and all of my movements were in slow motion as I jumped onto her back, pulled her off of my dad so she was on her back and I was on top of her. The next thing I know, my knife is lodged in her freaky supernatural being chest, she's screaming as black goo spurts out of her, and I looked her square in the face.

"Don't mess with the Barton girl."

I stood up, pulled out my knife, and Hank rushed over to me. I looked at everyone else in the room and taking note of the looks on their faces, because I just killed something, something that surely wasn't human. I then looked back at Hank, and with the music still playing, he leaned in and kissed me like the inexperienced fourteen year old he was. And duh, I kissed him back like the inexperienced fourteen year old I was, too.