Charred skeletons of trees jutted out across the forest's obliterated expanse like gravestones.
A tall, lanky figure stood at the center of it all, overlooking the tents. The grim set of his mouth tightened into a pale line as he dug into his lab coat and retrieved a pocket watch. The noon hour when the experiment was to commence had long ticked by and the sun had already reached horizon's cradle.
Hope diminished and sleep deprived, he sighed and adjusted his glasses.
"Sir," Simon called from the tent.
The boy, barely out of grad school, was too jittery and young for his liking, but Banner had insisted on giving him a chance. Not that Banner's opinion mattered now, but he could hardly send the boy back when all the planes had been destroyed in the Great Battle. They were stranded on this island and would die soon without more provisions. Thus far, all their attempts at the experiment had ended in failure. The scientist in him wanted to continue trying while the realist argued he was merely delaying the inevitable.
"Yes?" he asked, turning from the dismal scene to the boy.
The boy grinned. "It's ready, Mr. Cooper."
"Very well," he muttered, disgruntled with the boy's naivety.
The tent, relatively twice the size of his New York condo, comfortably fit the team of scientists as well as their equipment, but the extra S.H.I.E.L.D. presence made it so he had to squeeze through in order to reach the control panel.
Excited whispers followed in his wake.
Onlookers watched in anticipation as he thrummed the keys, barely with conscious effort having ran through the initiation sequence countless times before.
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The lights flickered as he keyed in the passcode and pressed enter. The electricity was unpredictable at best. Since the attack, they were forced to mostly rely on their solar-powered generators that were never meant to produce the force needed to conduct such an experiment.
When the monitors blared to life, he nodded to Simon.
"Bring out the-"
Words failed the man of science. Though informal and inhumane, 'sacrafice' and 'victim' seemed better suited, but instead he settled with the scientific term for the one who, if the experiment failed as it had every time before, would die in the next few minutes.
With his gaze fixated on the keyboard, he took a steadying breath and waited for Simon to give the all clear. When he did, he glanced up at the person laid out on the metal slab situated in the middle of the room. His next breath left him in a gasp.
"No!"
His shout caused all those in the tent to stare, but he did not care. Pushing others out of his way, he ran to the table.
"Dad! Dad, quit," the girl ordered, shoving his hands aside as they pulled at the IV's. "I want to help."
"By sacrificing your life?" He shook his head. "No, I won't let you. We're getting you out of here. Someone else can take your place."
Green eyes the shade of spring grass gazed up at him as her lips broke out into a smile he knew was meant to comfort him. It did not. If anything, it merely broke his already fragile heart.
She cupped his cheek and he stilled. Her hand felt cold against his flesh. Too cold. He moved his hand over hers and released a trembling breath.
"Please, Ayla-"
"No, dad," she said quietly, but firmly. "We both know I have a few months, at best, left to the cancer. But this could maybe save my life. More than anything, it could help everyone else."
"You don't understand, darling. This procedure is painful. Excruciating even."
"So is the pain I have had to live with for the last two years." She squeezed his hand. "Please, let me try."
Everything within him longed to protest, but he could not bring himself to.
"Sir, it's ready," Simon murmured from the monitors.
Cooper hung his head as unbidden tears threatened to spill. His daughter's gentle touch stirred him and forced him upright. After kissing her forehead he turned back to the computers and nodded to Simon.
"Begin the injections."
The room buzzed with sudden activity as the standby scientists began working. With bated breath he watched the variants of his superhuman concoction spread through the tubes. Soon they would reach her bloodstream and then her heart. All the ones before who had braved the experiment were stronger subjects, not weakened like her by the effects of cancer.
The thought churned his gut with regret.
"Stop the experiment!" he roared, but no one heeded his command.
Running over to where Simon was busy preparing the final-and most fatal- dosage, he jerked the boy away from the monitors.
"No! Mr. Cooper, if we stop now her heart will fail anyway," he insisted, trying but failing to pull the older man away from the control panel.
Out of the fog of his desperation, a strong grip on his shoulder kept him from bringing everything to a halt.
Nick Fury held him by the arm. "Now, Professor, I'm sure-"
His bare knuckles against the agent's jaw caught Fury off guard and sent him back several paces. He righted himself and rubbed his jaw, glaring at the scientist.
"You-"
But Cooper spun on his heel, already moving back to the panel. However, Simon was there, carrying out the final stage of the experiment.
His heart lurched. It was too late.
As a silver liquid seeped into the IV's tube and into his daughter's veins. Her body spasmed and went limp on the table. The heart monitor's alarm was triggered and code blue was called. The medical staff worked on her, but to no avail.
Cooper staggered backward.
She was gone.
An animalistic groan bubbled in his chest and left his mouth before he could stifle it as his hands braced the desk behind him. People scattered, clearing a space for the grieving father.
"That can't be it," he murmured.
Then an idea struck him.
"Wait! Give her another dose! Her heart needs more of a stimulant."
In his haste to retrieve more of the concoction, he did not see the few men coming up behind him to stop him.
"No, Cooper."
"She's gone."
"There's nothing else you could have done."
But despite what they said, he knew he was right, that it was their only chance at saving the experiment and his daughter.
"Fury! Tell them!" he begged, struggling against the hold the two men had on him. "Tell them to let me try. I beg you. It's the only way to save her."
All eyes turned to Fury. The agent looked at Cooper, searching his face. He then raised a brow at the others.
"What are you looking at me for? Do what the man says."
The two men holding him released him and he raced to the table. After the medicine was administered, he waited.
At first, nothing happened.
His daughter remained unresponsive and, her heart, still.
Then...
"I'm picking up something," a doctor announced, glancing up at the heart monitor while his fingers pried the flesh at her wrist, searching for a pulse. "It's faint but it's there."
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-
Pain. White hot, blinding pain made every nerve sing in agony.
Never having been burned by acid, she could only assume the pain she experienced was equivalent to acid melting her body from the inside out.
Her father had not exaggerated when he had told her the experiment would be excruciating.
After a minute or so, the pain subsided and her consciousness slipped away like water through splayed fingers. Then, just as quickly, she regained a semblance of coherent thought.
Everything felt different.
Years of chemotherapy had ravaged her strength and agility, leaving her body weak and practically useless. But as she slowly regained consciousness, Ayla felt reinvigorated- reborn even.
"Everyone, stand back. Give her some room."
"Look at her vitals. There. Do you see it? How is that possible?"
"I- I'm not sure."
"Maybe, the second dose...?"
"Surely, not. Even if we gave her ten times the amount, it shouldn't look like that."
"I warned you against rushing the experiment."
Their words fell flat as her mind processed what they were saying. Whatever the cost, she would gladly have paid double in order to feel this alive.
Opening her eyes, she immediately noticed her vision was astonishingly clear. In fact, she could see particles she could have never seen before without a telescope. Flitting her gaze to the scientists standing around her, she found a familiar face and stared.
"Dad?"
The man's chin trembled as he nodded. "How do you feel, Ayla? Can you sit up?"
Testing her stability, she slowly rose to her feet. Aside from her vision and newly found vigor, nothing felt out of the ordinary. Perhaps, her father's experiment hadn't proved successful after all.
"Miss Cooper," said Nick Fury, standing with his arms folded by the computers. "How do you feel?"
His reiterating of her father's question didn't provide her with a more suitable answer. Not wanting to fail her father, she nodded, reassuringly.
"Fine."
"That's good and well, but do you feel... super?"
No. "I suppose."
She bit her lower lip and glanced down at her frail figure framed by a simple, blue sundress she had donned for the occasion.
"Now, we can prepare you," said the scientist under her father. She believed his name to be Simon. He raked a hand through his red hair, causing the unkempt curls to loosen and appear scraggly. "The Hero Slayer will be arriving in a week or less."
An ear-splitting alarm sounded, casting a red glow on the room and those in it. Gasps and cries resounded. The memory of the last time the alarm had gone off, chilled her veins with dread.
Her father came forth and gripped her by the forearms.
"Ayla, listen carefully," he yelled over the chaos as people ran for cover. "You have within you the DNA of some of the greatest heroes of our time. If anyone can defeat this monster, it's you."
"Here." Simon led them to a crate in a corner. She recognized the contents immediately.
"Take Captain America's shield," her father insisted. "Also, you should be able to call upon Thor's hammer. Hawk Eye's bow and arrows would also be-"
"Professor, the girl is a weapon for crying out loud," Fury shouted. "Get her out there to stop him."
Ayla took up the shield, finding it lighter than she had expected to be and nodded at her father. "Don't worry. I won't let you down."
He smiled as if she had not just lied to his face.
-
The man before her could have been mistaken as human.
He was taller than any man she had ever seen, but aside from his stature, The Hero Slayer appeared human. Nothing in his appearance would have signalled her that something unnatural looked beneath. His presence, however, was unnerving.
An aura of power weighed heavily in the air as she approached the being. Raising a brow, his gaze raked over her from head to toe.
"This?" He shook his head and chuckled. "This is what they send me? A girl?"
Ayla raised her chin and met his stare evenly, hoping that he could not see the fear hidden there.
"So, you've come to stop me?" His grin fell away. "Very well. Let's have it then."
Feebly, she raised Captain America's shield and steeled herself, but nothing could have prepared her for the impact that followed.
A gust of air knocked her off her feet and propelled her backward, onto the hardened ground.
As she lay there, struggling with remaining alert, she wondered if her father was watching from the tent and if he knew yet that his experiment had been a failure.
"You know, I'm not the bad guy in all of this," The Hero Slayer said, stalking her like prey. He stopped and glanced toward the cluster of tents behind her and sneered. "That's what they want you to think. But I'm not. I'm a victim."
Pulling herself upright with trembling arms, she wiped at her mouth only to see blood when she lowered her hand. People counted on her; humanity counted on her. Yet, the villain's words arrested her.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, climbing to her feet.
The man's expression darkened. "The heroes in your story are the villains in mine. Iron Man. The Hulk. Black Widow. They ruined me."
'But you killed them,' she wanted to argue, but the crazed look in his gaze stopped her.
Instead, she asked, "So, where does that leave us?"
A sinister grin tugged at the corners of his lips. "It leaves us with a dilemma. One I'd be open to settling with one condition."
"And what's that?"
"Willingly give yourself up as a sacrifice. Upon your death, earth must submit to my rule. Otherwise," he said, sweeping a hand out in front of him, "all of it burns."
Ayla's stare remained unwavering on the villain as she weighed his words. His terms were simple enough. Enslavement or death. She doubted the world's powers would want her to bow to his demands, no matter the risk.
"Earth has had it's fair share of evil." Ayla jutted her chin. "One thing humans have learned is that in the end, light always prevails over darkness."
Malice painted over his face, so quickly, it was frightening. "Then I shall burn the world down, one continent at a time."
"You'll have to go through me first." She raised the shield in front of her again.
The maniacal laugh that followed sent chills down the vertebrae of her spine. "They couldn't stop me, what thinks you can?"
She could not stop him. But she refused not to try.
The earth trembled beneath her feet as the sky split open, revealing an empty abyss of darkness.
Inky black tendrils shot from the darkness and flew at her. She raised the shield, but it was knocked out of her grip.
The appearance of the man changed before her eyes, peeling away any semblance of his humanity.
In its sted, a monster was revealed. Bottomless pits where his eyes had been, stared back at her, void of emotion. Jagged, black claws twitched as he raised his arm and pointed at her.
"Today you die," he said.
The air around her grew thin, threatening to suffocate her. The lining of his skin glowed red as the ground beneath her gave way.
As she fell into opened earth, something within her snapped and a force so strong she could not contain it, exploded from her hands, sending her up and back out of the hole. Hope swelled within her.
The experiment had worked!
The villain glared when she reached the surface. He sent a blast of light at her, but an invisible shield appeared around her, preventing the power from reaching her.
He growled and shot at her again and again.
Instead of becoming tired, the more he attacked, the more the power infused her veins with supernatural strength.
The invisible shield lowered and she raised her hands and a rush of energy left her.
He must have picked up on what was happening, because at the same time, his own power shot out and collided with hers.
Sparks ignited around the two powers as they waged against the other. She kept her arms up, but it was not long before she felt her strength wane for the first time.
Still, she pushed back, channeling all the power within her into her hands until the light from it exploded. The world around her turned white and unconsciousness overcame her.
-
"Ayla," her father urged. "Ayla, wake up."
Ayla moaned, tossing her head to the side. Slowly, she opened her eyes and saw the outline of her father hovering over her. She blinked. "What happened?"
"You did it," he said, forcing her head up. "You beat him. You saved us."
She had done it? She slouched in relief.
"But listen, you have to go." He helped her onto her feet, frantically glancing over his shoulder. "Get as far away from here as possible. Hide. You have to hide."
"I don't understand." Looking toward the tents, she noticed the scientists were beginning to make their way across the broken earth to them.
Her father kissed her forehead then stepped back. "I love you. Please, know that I do. I'm so sorry."
"What's wrong? I don't understand. Why do I have to run?"
"You're too powerful. They plan to kill you, Ayla. I can't let that happen."
She frowned, glancing back to the scientists.
"Kill me? Why?"
"So you don't pose a threat to their plans." He tugged at her hand, leading her away from the scientists. "You don't know how powerful you are, but you will. Don't worry, when they need you again, they'll change their minds about you. But until then, you must run."
Whatever freedom and newfound life she had been given was ripped away from her. She blinked away tears.
"Okay," she murmured. "Okay."
"Run, Ayla."
And that's what she did.
-
Nick Fury did not like being tricked; especially, by kid scientists.
"So the father and daughter just vanished?" Nick asked, incredulously.
Simon nodded, returning his attention to the screen. "It seems that way."
"You're telling me, that a thirty trillion dollar experiment just vanished into thin air?"
Simon kept his back to the agent as he keyed the keyboard. "Unfortunately, yes."
Nick scoffed. "And I'm supposed to believe that your team had nothing to do with it?"
Simon's shoulders tensed, but he nodded. Something about the boy had always irritated the agent, but irritation now gave way to suspicion.
"Uh huh," he muttered beneath his breath.
Just then, his phone went off. A text appeared on the screen from an unknown number.
"Hero Slayer. Confidential. Government involved. Cooper dead. Girl hiding."
He glanced up from his phone and stared into the barrel of a gun.
"Now, Mr. Fury," Simon said. "I think it's time for you to leave."
Fury glared down the length of the gun at the man. "Actually, think it's time for you to leave."
Simon frowned, confused, not seeing the female agent as she snuck up behind him and knocked him over the head with her weapon. The scientist fell motionless onto the floor.
"Cutting it close, don't you think?"
"I saved you, didn't I?" the female, replied, stepping over the fallen scientist. "What now?"
"Now, we find the girl and build a team again. The earth still needs a hero."
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