Iron Maiden

I scooted back as far back into the corner as I could. My heart was hammering in my chest and my blood was rushing in my ears.

I shook my head, not believing my eyes. "No." I swallowed the lump in my throat." No. This isn't happening." She was there, dressed in the cliche white jump suit of health clinic inmates.

Her dark chuckle caused goosebumps to erupt over my skin. "This is happening, sweetheart." Tears started sliding down my cheeks. "Oh, don't cry. Mommy's here." She began walking towards me.

"Stay away from me!" I screamed at her.

Something inside me snapped and things started flying around the room. Her eyes widened before she started smiling and laughing, clapping her hands like an excited infant.

"Look at what they did to you! It finally worked!" She started walking towards me. "My own daughter!"

"Stop!" I held my hand up and everything froze where it was, including my mother.

I took a couple deep breaths, standing to my feet. The tears were still falling as I looked at my mother, frozen. I was doing this. Whatever Stane had done to me. .. whatever he had tried to do to my mother...I was scared. I didn't know what I was capable of.

I was growing weaker and weaker and I had to let everything go. My mother unfreeze and everything fell to the floor. I slumped against the wall, breathing hard.

"You look just like him." My mother was closer to me now. Her voice had changed. It was softer, almost that of a sane person 's. "The dark hair...the chocolate eyes...that's what made me fall in love with him in the first place."

I looked up and met her eyes. She was so close I could make out the flecks of green in her blue eyes.

"Those eyes. He had a hard exterior, but the eyes are the windows to the soul. I could've melted in his eyes. I did." She chuckled softly, looking down at the floor and I had just a glimpse of the woman who could've been my mother.

But that didn't last long. Her head snapped back up to me, the crazed look in her eyes again. Her hand wrapped around my neck, squeezing slightly.

"But he left me, kicked me out when he found out about what they did to me." She started squeezing tighter, cutting off my airway. "He took you away from me. We could have been happy together."

"You're...crazy." I gasped out.

Her. Hand tightened, cutting off all my air supply. The door opened and two burly men dressed in black came in. My vision was blurry and going black around the edges when they pulled her off me. I collapsed to my knees, gasping for air. Two more men came in and pulled me up, dragging me away from my screaming mother, my vision still slightly blurry around the edges.

I was pulled outside and pushed into a limo.

"Did you enjoy your visit?" Justin asked me as the limo rolled away from Hammer Industries.

"Hardly." I crossed my arms, leaning back into my seat. "Where are we going?"

"The Stark Expo. I'm doing a presentation."

"So you actually invented something that works? Good for you. I feel tempted to give you a gold star and a pat on the back." I had no idea where my boldness was coming from.

Justin only smirked. "So much like your father." He looked put the window before looking back at me. "I'm finally going to put your father out of a job."

I snorted. "You'd make a horrible superhero."

He scooted closer to me, placing his hand on my knee. "I wasn't talking about that."

"Why am I coming?"

"I wanted you to have a front row seat to your father's demise. You'll be out of a job once Stark Industries falls, so if your a good girl tonight, I'll consider hiring you on."

"In your dreams, Hammer."

"I plan on it."