seven | avengers

chapter nine - nightmares

"is she okay?" natasha sprung up from her seat and asked. "she's... going to be fine, we hope..." bruce looked at the trio before explaining, "we got the bullet out of her arm, but it was lodged really close to her nerve so we have to do some tests to make sure she's able to move her arm. her bruises and cuts should heal in no time, but she was being electrocuted, with something..."

"what do you mean with something? wasn't it just a normal taser?" tony asked. bruce gave tony a look of uncertainty before explaining, "it was a taser, but her heart beat's really unsteady and we had to use peter's dose of morphine to calm her down as we were taking the bullet out. it seems the both of them have the same rate of metabolism." peter came forward and argued his case, "but she might have had them before she was being tased."

the three adults looked at him.

"how so?" bruce asked.

"she... urm... just... somehow! i don't know! i could just feel it... remember when we first brought her to the tower and you guys were arguing about whether it was the right thing to bring her in? i could hear you guys, because i have super hearing. but when you guys shouted, she flinched. it was as if she could hear you guys! and also, she seemed to know who i was. as... as spider-man. it was impossible for her to know, she had only been in school for two weeks. mj took a few months to piece things together, ned didn't even figure it out until he saw me in the suit. she barely took a week to figure it out," peter explained.

the three adults look at each other in confusion, and shock. "bruce! she's unstable!" one of the doctors opened the door and exclaimed. bruce immediately put on his gloves and ran in, the door shutting behind him.

with that, tony turned his back and walked off to his lab, right beside peter's, to do some more research about the new kid. that left natasha and peter outside the lab waiting.

"ms romanoff? i- i think we should change out and have a rest. i'm sure dr. banner will tell us when he's done with surgery," peter said after awhile, rubbing his neck.

natasha nodded her head and went upstairs to her headquaters to take a rest. she changed out of her suit into sweatpants and a t-shirt, then plopped onto her bed, slowly drifting off to sleep. she was thankful for her spider accomplice, who was also someone who she took care of like her own son. and for the seemingly heartless man of iron, who actually had more heart than others think.

"she's our kid, ivan," she exasperated, "she's not an experiment, she's our kid. i can't let what happened to her sister happen to her. i won't let you." he sighed, "they'll find me, and we need the money. it has to happen, i'm sorry."

she could see a glimpse of her parents under the cloth she was tightly wrapped in. one and a half, sick, close to death. she was fragile, like any other child.

but she was different.

she was given away at one and a half years old, to the red room. destined to be like her sister. but at four, she was flown all the way from russia to the united states. she was meant to be an experiment, a toy. they wiped out her memory completely, not a trace of who she was was left in her mind. they injected her with new drugs, testing if she could resist them.

but the organisation got caught.

so at five, she was sent to an orphanage, and there she stayed. her memory wiped out completely again, including the drugs they injected into her body. she stayed in the hospital for a good whole year, with no one visiting her except the nurses and doctors. they tried to make her talk, but she didn't say a word.

she didn't say a word for the next two years of her life, until she met jeremiah and a few of the younger kids. she was only seven, but could easily outsmart a thirteen year old.

"we can't just keep her at manhattan high, they'll know something is off. she's too smart for a normal high school," a voice said, as natalie was in the closet again. "what do you suggest? midtown high?" it was the headmistress. "sounds like a great idea," the other voice exclaimed.

she couldn't move from her body aching everywhere. but the flash of light in front of her meant that she had to. she crawled out of her position but stumbled onto the ground, her right hand holding on to her left shoulder in pain.

she felt a hard kick from her back that shot up her spine like fireworks. she landed on the ground in pain, but tried to get up again before they could do anymore damage to her. one step at a time.

but she couldn't move herself.

everything hurt.

soon enough, the kick landed on her head, and knocked her out cold, black dots filling her vision as she bit her lip, trying not to scream.

"her heart rate, bruce..." it was going extremely fast. "i know, i know... nothing seems to be calming her down..." bruce was thinking extremely hard as he fumbled with the equipment. "how about the others? steve? clint? rhodey?"

bruce paused to think.

"natasha! call her down now, she might be of help!"