The Tower

The Rescue Mission

The others didn't come at all that night. I started to panic and I noticed that Clint started pacing in the middle of the night. The cells were too dark to see each other to be able to sign to each other. Thankfully, at some point, Scott showed up and whispered to me that it had taken longer than he'd expected to back up their data. It had meant by the time it was done most of the people in the building had gone home for the night. So they were waiting until morning to raid the building with federal backup.

After that, I slept. Not well, I woke up panicked a few times but I did sleep. I was woken early by a male guard. He was polite but made it clear I had no choice about going with him. I looked back at Clint who signed to me that I'd be okay.

The guard took me to some showers and gave me toiletries and a change of clothes. Thankfully he left me alone to shower, choosing to stand guard on the door outside. While I was in the bathroom I drank as much water as I could. I had not touched any food or drink since I got there and I was very, very dehydrated. After I washed I was taken to a cafeteria to eat. I was really hungry so I watched what the handful of other people that were there were getting and copied them. I went extra safe, opting for prepackaged yogurt, a banana, a sealed bottle of orange juice and a bottle of water in case I needed it later.

I was then taken up to the lab where Alexa was waiting for me. "Elise," She said greeting me with a kiss on the cheek. Like we were friends despite the fact she'd locked me in a prison cell overnight. "You look terrible. Didn't you sleep?"

"You locked me in a cell opposite Clint," I said, my voice monotone.

"Mmm..." She hummed looking quite pleased with herself. "I heard you two were fighting. I'm sorry, sweetie. It's best to have a clean break." She took me into a lab that had a biometric scanner on the door. "This is where you'll be working. Your data is uploaded onto the system. Right now your project is fixing my genome but whatever other side projects you want to run is up to you."

There were three people in the room, two women, and one man. "This is Claire, Rachel, and Ben. They will be working directly for you. Whatever you want them to do they will do it."

The three scientists nodded to me. "The door will be locked to you. There's a bathroom over there and lunch will be brought in."

I nodded to her without making eye contact. She put her hand on my shoulder. "Just show us we can trust you and you can have your life back. That's all."

I nodded again and she left. The other three looked at me awaiting instruction. I looked around not really sure what to do. I didn't actually want to do any work. "I'll uhh... need blood samples from... from the... the assets put through the centrifuge." I stuttered. "I'm going to need a full DNA analysis."

They nodded and turned to start work. I went and sat at a bench and just started opening up files on what Alexa had done to herself. It was quite horrific really. Justin had gotten it into his head that along with the manned flight suits he wanted to try getting into the Super Soldier arena too. He'd started experimenting on Alexa. I'd thought my dad was bad. He was a positive saint compared to Justin Hammer. Alexa had basically joined HYDRA bringing all the money from Hammer Industries just to fix her father's mistakes because all he'd left her with was terminal cancer.

I'd be sympathetic if she wasn't torturing my family.

I was starting to get an idea of what she'd done to herself. She'd created a serum, made from her own genetically modified cells and then used Bruce's gamma radiation technique hoping they'd take over from her cells. It had worked except her modifications weren't enough. I was just wondering if I could modify her technique to actually create these mutations in people when an alarm went off and the three other scientists all stood suddenly.