✓ | escaped [ ➀ ]

[ chapter one ]

"This is taking too long," Pietro muttered, standing near a barred window so he could peep out. There was uncertainty on his face, but most of all, Andi could recognise impatient. He wanted to get out and put his abilities to proper use. 

Andi stood close by, the sounds of battle all around her. For the time being, they were unaffected in their Sokovian Base. Baron Strucker did a good job with putting up a strong shield around them. She knew it was not to protect the people, but rather all of his work for the past few years. The work that had given Andi her powers. And she was not the only one. 

She was, however, the only one to have been raised in that compound. Pietro and Wanda came later. Pietro and Wanda came willingly. 

Andi glanced away from where Pietro stood, and toward the center of the room, where Strucker was in conversation with Dr. List. Her mother was nowhere to be seen for the time being. Andi couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing. 

"Don't worry," Wanda murmured, crossing her arms as she stood beside Andi. "We'll go. We just need the right moment." 

Pietro looked away from the window and at the two girls. "This is the perfect moment," he said in a low tone, kicking off from the wall and walking to stand in front of them. He glanced over his shoulder and when he did, Andi briefly saw Strucker and List looking at them. "They're busy trying to protect everything. If we leave now, we can get to Stark." 

Andi had listened to Pietro and Wanda talk about Stark a lot since they arrived at the labs. She heard them berate him and talk of how they wanted to destroy him for what he did to their parents. From what she understood, Stark was someone powerful. But she also got the feeling that the twins were letting their vengeful feelings get to their head. Andi felt like there was more to the story that they failed to tell her. 

She never asked, however, because for as long as she could remember she had always been alone in this. She was number seven, of ten other kids being experimented on, but they all failed. Their bodies rejected the serums and the torture and the pain. The only one left standing to endure it all was Andi, till the Maximoff twins came along. They were older, and with their newfound abilities, they were dangerous. But Andi was not fearful of them. After all she had been through, she doubted she was fearful of that much, anymore. 

The twins never gave her any reason to be afraid anyway. Andi had long ago learned that to survive, she had to play along. She had to pretend to her mother, to Strucker and Dr. List, that she was fighting for them, and not against them, and she kept up the facade even when the twins arrived. Despite wanting revenge, they were both good people. They both took a liking to her, and while she internally disagreed with what they were planning to do, they were the only friends she had in this cruel world. 

"No surrender!"

Andi was jerked from her thoughts momentarily by the sound of what was probably a battle cry. Multiple people left the facility with guns in their hands, and her hazel coloured gaze quickly flew to the twins, who stood straighter. This was the moment they were waiting for. 

"Stay here," Wanda warned Andi while occasionally glancing at Strucker to make sure he wasn't looking. 

"I can help you," Andi protested, standing straight as well. Andi had no problem staying behind in the facility. She wasn't scared. In any case, it looked like this place was about to become a pile of rubble.

"You'd be better help in here in case one of them get inside," Pietro told her. "The scepter remains unguarded if you leave." 

Andi didn't really care about the scepter, but once again, she kept up her facade of playing along and following the same agenda. She nodded and Pietro sped off, Wanda right behind him. 

At that moment, Strucker and List turned toward her, only for the realisation to sink in that the twins were gone and Andi was all that remained. Strucker walked to her, towering over her frame, and Andi forced herself to keep eye contact. 

"Keep Dr. List safe," he commanded in a low tone. "Don't let anyone get to him till he finishes what he's supposed to." Strucker didn't give Andi a chance to respond because right after that, he brushed past her, leaving her along with the doctor, who was already busy with the computers. 

This was her chance. She could turn around and run away and nobody would ever find her. She could hide. She could go literally anywhere she wanted to. She could put the labs and Hydra behind. 

But then Andi glanced at Dr. List and she watched as he attempted to erase whatever data was on the systems. Data on her and all that was done to her, and various other kids, just so they could try to create a powerful army. He was going to get away with it, and Andi couldn't help but think that maybe there was more info there, on other Hydra labs and other such experiments. If this was all erased, then they would never be found. 

Andi couldn't leave knowing other kids were probably going through the same thing she had gone through all her life. 

So, before Dr. List could do much damage, Andi stepped forward. "I can't let you do that." 

The man barely turned around to face her. Clearly he didn't think of her as a threat. Either that or he felt like entertaining her would be wasting time and erasing data was more important than preserving his own life. 

"You're not going to erase all that data," Andi said again, her voice a little louder, more firm. At least, that's the way it sounded in her head. 

"I don't have time for your games," he replied, still keeping his back to her. 

Andi bit down on her lower lip. She didn't like using her powers. Some of her abilities haunted her all throughout the day because there was no way to control the voices. Right now though, she saw no other choice. 

Andi held out one hand and concentrated, and just like that, the ground began to tremble a bit. Dr. List finally froze, because he knew what Andi was trying to do. He turned slowly, but as he did, she noticed he had a gun in his hands. 

"You may be enhanced but you're still human," he told her, aiming the gun toward her head. The ground didn't stop trembling though, because Andi wasn't scared. If she was going to die while trying to stop Hydra, then so be it. 

"Like I said," Andi spoke. "I'm not letting you erase all that data." She didn't wait for him to respond to her this time. She just got the ground to tremble more. Little cracks began to open up in the floor, cracks that Andi knew could get bigger and swallow List whole if she wanted them to. 

But Andi didn't get the chance to do anything else, because suddenly, there was someone else in the room with them. Andi barely turned to see a flash of red before there was a quick blast and List was thrown off to the side. 

The ground stopped trembling, mainly because Andi was distracted. Dr. List was no longer a concern for her. No, now she was focused on the man stepping out of a red and gold metal suit. His gaze landed on her, and she stood her ground. Andi recognised who this was immediately. She had seen him on TV enough times. She'd heard about him even more from the Maximoff twins. 

"Tony Stark," Andi murmured softly. The man just stood there and stared at her, like he wasn't sure what to do. "You shouldn't have come," she told him, watching as he now got into action and plugged something into the computers. She assumed he was downloading all the data. But Andi couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. 

"And why is that?" Tony asked, not turning his back on her. Good. He was cautious. But Andi had no desire to hurt this man. That was the agenda of two other people. 

"My friends want to destroy you."