Changes | Marvel

THIRTY FOUR. The Big Teddy Bear

Melinda May sat in front of the cell, watching the ex-SHIELD agent pace in front of the invisible wall. "You promised me something." He sighs, staring straight at the stern looking woman. "I don't like it when an empty promise is made to me." He warns.

"We promise to give you whatever you want, only if you tell us where Avery is." May stood up, glaring at the man. She wasn't extremely close with Avery; hell, she didn't try to even engage in a conversation with the teenager. Ever since that day years ago, she hadn't been able to talk with anyone under seventeen comfortably. She always thought that they would end up hurt, so she cut off all social connections with children. She hardly even talked to adults. May knew that Avery feared her, but she also knew it was only because May was so stern and quiet around her. Once she got back, she was going to try her hardest to get along with the kid.

"Who?" Ward teases. "I don't know who that is." May stayed quiet, not answering to his game. "Come on, why so serious all the time Melinda?"

"Where is she?" May asked again, not wanting to be down there any longer.

"In my base." He says simply. "Currently alive, in a sensory deprivation room. But with my idiot workers, I doubt it's working." May's heart pounded with delight, hearing that Avery was alive and still kicking. "Tough one to crack she is. Took me two and a half weeks to even get a peep out of her. I wanted to know where all the spare Stark weapons were." An ounce of fear began to invade her body, but she pushed it out. Rogue Stark weapons would not be a good thing.

Although she knew many members of the team were probably watching, she wanted to get this over and done with. "If you've caused her any pain at all, we will kill you." She utters, glaring at him fiercely. Ward smiles gleefully, stepping forward.

"Note for the future. Avery has a weakness with electrocuting. Especially after having water dumped on her."

---

I never saw Ward again, after that incident. Only Abu and some other Hydra agents came in, giving me food and water and cleaned up my injuries. Sometimes if I listened hard enough, I could hear conversations right outside the door. Apparently Ward and another woman, Kira, had gone out on a secret mission that no one knows about. The base was being run by Ward's second-in-command, but I had yet to come across him. Luckily.

The room I was now locked in was very different from the first. It was a perfectly squared room, clean white and it had sound-proof padding all around it. Nothing else was in here, no bed, not chair, not even a table. Literally just white, white and more white. And me, of course.

It was driving me crazy. I knew what they were trying to do, sensory deprivation but unfortunately, I was blessed with the superpower of never becoming bored. I literally spent a couple of days counting every single square in the padding on the walls, and I have yet to finish. I could also hear people outside, and I got to annoy anyone who came in. They weren't very good at depriving many things, I would think that they would be better since they can brain wash people.

I started getting worried after alarms went off one day, and I could hear the hundreds of footsteps pounding down the hallway outside.

"He... captured." I could faintly hear someone yell. Ward? Ward had been captured?

"Qui-... pack everything."

"Everyone....-cuate." It was hard to tell what people were saying obviously, so I had no idea what truly was happening until Abu came in, looking unusually pale. It was at least another day after the alarms going off, and it had been unusually quiet the whole day.