The Science of Monsters

“Please,” I begged, “don’t make them angry!” Tony Stark did not understand what he was doing. He did not understand what could happen to me here.

“Come on,” he grabbed my arm. “They’re not going to stop me, and I’ve already made my demands well known. I always make what I want well known.”

“Stark,” I hissed. The alarms, that flashed moments ago, now roared with angry alerts of disruption.

He stopped and turned to face me. His warm teddy bear eyes glared into my spacey blues. “Do I need to tranq you?” He stamped his foot repeatedly as if I’d been a very bad girl.

I tilted my head toward the floor before tangling my fingers together in front of me. “No…”

He grabbed my arm. “Good because I don’t have any tranquilizers with me, and I don’t have time to steal or make them.” He pushed me in front of him. “Through that door.”

He shoved me through a door that led into another room with thousands of monitors. His arm continued to push me forward until I planted my feet. He grabbed my arm while I tried hard not to move. “What’s going on? Why are you kidnapping me now?”

“I will put you to sleep the first chance I get, I swear to…” he trailed off. I glared. “Because you heard, Fury. That eye patch is the phoniest thing I’ve ever seen…” he rattled off on a tangent that I didn’t care to listen to.

“Stark?” I asked. He continued talking. “Stark!” He still talked. “Ugh!” I growled before my hand connected with his right cheek. His eyes glazed as he stared open mouthed at me. “I warned you,” I stated.

“When?!?”

“When I yelled your name twice.” I hissed. “Why the hell are you kidnapping me?”

“Because Fury told me I’d have to leave you here until he thought it was safe to go out there.” He rolled his eyes. “I killed Killian! Killian killed Maya. I even know how to fix the virus, but you said you didn’t want that!”

“I don’t want that! I’ve learned to adjust like this; I won’t learn again.”

“Then we have to go before they tell me I have to give you a damn vaccination!”

I growled again as I let him take me by the arm and lead me right into another mess. He opened the sliding door on the other side of the monitor room only to find Fury standing there with a narrowed eye and a permanent frown. His brow furrowed into his eye patch.

“I told you…” Stark’s voice was cut short by a thud against his nose. I gasped when the blood began to pour.

“Call me a pirate again, Sardine, and I’ll show you what I can do when you don’t have that tin can to protect you,” Fury growled. I burst into a fit of laughter.


Bruce crunched the numbers in the notebook he’d been assigned. The experiment worked about as well as Fred did before he fixed the engine. Nothing seemed to help the pain for his patient.

“I’ve tried nearly everything.” He said aloud, more or less to the recorder in front of him.

“Did you try upping the dosage on the…” Her voice was soft and familiar. Bruce wondered how she got in without any sounds. He wanted to ask her why she came now. Her voice continued long after he tuned her out.

“Hello,” he stated before taking a deep breath and forcing his eyes in her direction, “Betty.”


We sat in yet another room in this hectic place. My eyes focused on Stark. Fury didn’t insist on handcuffs for me this time, but Stark was chained to a chair so tightly that the chair wouldn’t move. He sighed before his eyes met mine. “I’m taken, Honey. Stop looking at me.”

“Honey,” I growled, “I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole.”

He smirked, “liar.”

My fists balled against my knees. His eyes twinkled. The fist balled against my right knee rose slightly. Romanov coughed. “So, can we not upset the bomb?”

Stark attempted to shrug. It looked like a turtle sinking into an over stuff shell. “Can I speak for myself?”

Romanov raised her brow before looking over her shoulder. “Listen,” she whispered, “you haven’t talked in nearly two weeks now. Are you sure you want to take on Fury’s wrath?”

I met her soft, pitting expression with anger and sadness. Something in her eyes changed. They didn’t seem sorry for me anymore, but they didn’t believe in me either. “I want to do this.” Determination filled my voice. I stood from my chair while Stark glared at me.

“What are you going to say,” she asked. Realization crossed his features.

“You can’t tell him…” he trailed off.

“I’m going to tell him the truth,” I sighed. “That I want to go. If he doesn’t set me free he’s going to kill me.” My voice rang in the dimly lit room. The red security light blinked in agreement with my words. Faster and faster. “Just like Killian tried.” My voice was high pitched. Blood raced through my veins. My heart thundered in its place while the heat of lightning heated my eyes. “He’ll destroy me with the testing and the enclosures. I can’t live in a cage!” My voice reached the point of yelling while my feet began pacing. Fire sparked between my fingertips. I stopped in front of Stark and turned toward the redheaded spider that kept me alive for the last two weeks with her comforting.

“Scarlett,” she whispered.

“Please,” I begged. “Let me go!”

The red light no longer flashed. It glowed in the room. Light filled the once dim room. The illumination poured over the room while the heat washed over me. I saw the gun. The man with the gun. Sound echoed through the room as the trigger clicked. A three pronged syringe hit my left shoulder.

“Please?” I begged. Suddenly, there was no more light.