ACT I | Avengers
chapter nine. Explosion and The Arrow Guy

You talk too much
You're not the first to tell me that

SHE HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON. One moment they were arguing, then an explosion happened. Her mind was blinded from the overwhelming pain that she had forgotten what the Avengers had been arguing about. Compared to the shocking incident, it seemed small. Anne regretted it.

    But right now, the only thing she could think about was the pain. Oh the overwhelming pain. She felt everything starting to bruise, her arms started to ache. From the initial contact, she had been thrown around carelessly. The floor beneath her started to crumble, started to break and everything around her disappeared. The other avengers were missing, Nick Fury was gone. To replace all those arguing voices were loud sirens going off in the background and the sound of metal creaking.

     Who could have done this? Loki. The god of mischief. The man the Avengers took in. Anne knew it. It was way too easy. She didn't know for sure if she was right until she saw that devilish, evil, manipulative, and mischievous smirk he always wore. And now, because they had so much trust in him, hell broke loose. The helicarrier was frantic. Avengers were missing. And Anne? Anne was all alone.

The pain was minimal, yes, sure. But it was just enough to remind her of all those terrible things. She thought that death was coming close and she was going to die all alone. Her breathing started to pick up at just the thought of death. All that hard work she did, all the studying, all the college work, all the work she accomplished for her Project Orphic, and all that work to get her Andrew- oh sweet Andrew- was all for nothing.

All hope was lost until she heard her voice. She has never been so happy to hear it. A reassuring voice. Anne wasn't alone. Her brown, doe eyes peered up to find who the voice belonged to. Well- she did know who spoke. It was Natasha Romanoff. Only, her assuring voice was troubled. It shook with terrible fear. It made Anne look around her. Fear arose in her but quickly deflated once she saw nothing.

"Agent Romanoff?" Anne whimpered.

    The red head's eyes widen once she heard the younger girl's voice. She twisted her head over, shaking it violently. "No no no no no..." She groaned. "Suckers, run."

    At first, Anne was confused as she raised her eyebrows. But if someone says run, you don't question it, you run. The girl squinted her eyes in pain, groaning aloud. Her ankle had been caught underneath all the rubble was easy to pull out. After she quickly pulled it out, she stepped onto her two feet. Although she could not not see the growing purple on her ankle, or how there were colors of brown and green painted across it. Or how pain kept creeping up.

    Groaning was heard in the back. Assuming it belonged to Natasha, Anne turned around to see if she needed assistance. She should have ran. But, there was a man there lying on the ground. His fist kept bumping onto ground as his veins popped out of his forehead. His green forehead. His skin was turning green. His eyes were bulging. Fear was being drenched in him and Anne. In that moment, she recognized the man. This was not Doctor Banner, not Bruce Banner. This was someone completely different. This was the Hulk.

"Oh my god." Anne muttered to herself. "That's the freaking Hulk!"

She soon regretted her words once Doctor- no- the Hulk turned his head. The green bulged even more, the hulk over coming as he growled loudly at her. "Okay," She whispered as her feet slowly treaded backwards. "I'm just going to go now."

Natasha rolled her head back. Her eyes never breaking from the green man. "Run." Is all she muttered.

And Anne ran. She ran as fast as she could. She alls started to creak, to crumble within. They began to fall, only some parts of course. Anne spent most of her time dodging each of them. She had no idea where she was going. Was she going to safety or maybe to help? She was one of the few here to be specially chosen for this project, so she was suppose to help. Right? But technically, she couldn't do anything until Director Fury had initiated Experiment Morosis. So she continued to run with a place in mind: the main bridge. Two important people were going to be there and it was Nick Fury or/and Maria Hill. One of them would tell her what she needed to do and if she could reveal Experiment Morosis.

As she stopped at a door, where a hallway stood to the right, she caught a glimpse of a person. He wore dark clothing, a tight- corset like- clothing wrapped around his torso and an identical leggings. In his right hand was a weapon, his signature weapon. It was loaded with its arrows, waiting to be thrown at Anne herself. But what was strikingly different about him were blue, icey eyes that were staring at her. Anne didn't remember his eyes being that bright. They were- and she had hate to admit this- very identical to the god, Loki.

"Mr. Barton?" Anne muttered. Suddenly she felt her eyes beginning to water at the sight of the man, her hands trembling. The man had said nothing back. He just stared at her. This was not the man she once knew. "It's me!" She hopefully spoke. "It's Anne Robinson. Monkey? Remember?"

    "Oh." Anne remorsefully spoke. "You're going to fight me are you."

    Clint shrugged in agreement and cocking his head to the side. "Not the first time you're right."

Anne shook her head. She leaned back on her right leg, her fists coming up as she prepared to defend herself. "Nice to see you are still you." She retorted. "Just know, I'll still be your friend after this. Maybe get lunch. Carmine's maybe?"

"You talk too much." The other breathed out.

"You're not the first to tell me that." Anne smiled.

In the next moment, Clint had whipped out his arrow, pointing it straight at the woman. An arrow was already entangled with the string, his hands were hooked onto it as he pulled it back. The arrow was let loose within a single second. Anne had seen it coming from the moment she spoke. She dodged the sharp arrow by just a hair. But one of the things about the Hawkeye was that he never missed.

Anne looked behind her to find the provoked, metal walls pierced with three arrows. It was inserted at the exact right point for the wall to finally come apart. The loud groan of it echoed throughout the walls, the bolts began to fall onto the ground and clatter. Anne found herself running towards the arrow man as she tried to avoid the wall crushing her. But, it was far too late for she could feel the air swooshing onto her. Anne realized what she had to do- to save her life- her hands curled up in front of her face to protect her from the metal wall.

Then, the wall stopped.

Blue hues illuminated the room.

Anne was crouched down, emitting grunts.

Clint paused in the background. His weapon was still up and pointed at the girl, waiting for the exact moment to strike.

    Anne had initiated Experiment Morosis. Her hands had made these dark blue lights that shielded her from the wall. It curled once it hit the circular shield. Yes, this was Experiment Morosis. How did it all come to be?

2 0 0 7

P O R T L A N D

"Are you ready"

"Always, my friend."

Anne, who was only a nineteen year old prodigy, stood in her Project Orphic. It had only been in progress for about three months. Before that, she had been in college for four years. She quickly climbed her way up the ladder earning her three degrees.

You might be saying 'Oh! She's one of those people who needed to complete her schooling quick for the story line!" No. Her father was the great John Robinson- although he wasn't that great to Anne since he was her father and a drunk one that is. And her grandfather was the great, awesome, incredible Henry Robinson. She was a prodigy from birth. But due to her mother and father, she had never known that until she was off on her own at the prime age of fifteen. And when she did go to college, that is all she did for the next four years. She didn't focus on anything else.

Project Orphic was a ship of some sorts. It was once an idea amongst philosophers. But Anne knew it was more than an idea. It was a possibility. For three months straight, she had poured her life into that work. She was found by the one and only S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury- like he always does- showed up randomly in her home after a long day of college. He knew of her projects and of her ideas and recruited her. The deal was, SHIELD would use Experiment Morosis if they would supply Anne all that they could. Of course it was a no-brainer and she took the deal.

Little did she know, her long lost sister and brother were also working as SHIELD scientists. Together, Anne with her sister, Kate, and her brother, Benjamin or Ben, worked on the Experiment. In just three months they had built the machine as best as they could with many trial and errors. When it came to the day of the first try out, it was discussed who would be the dummy since the three of them denied a random person to be it.

"It should be me. I'm the youngest. I did the least work." Kate muttered against her fist.

"Come one Kate you can-"

"Shut up Ben!" The young girl argued. "I need to do this. And you know why." She gave a knowing look to her older brother.

Ben shook his head with a sarcastic laugh. "No? No! I'm the oldest. I should have taken care of you both. Let me do this."

"Ben," Anne whispered somberly, catching the attention from both of her bickering siblings. "It wasn't your fault. You got out as soon as you could. Kate and I would have done the same." She turned around to look at the space-ship like machine with a circular metal bar in front of it. "I need to do it. It was my idea. I should go."

And that was that. Anne hopped into the space-ship, buckling herself up and pressing all the necessary buttons. Her brother and sister were reassuring her over the speakers. They all knew that this might be the last time the trio might be together. So they were taking all their time hearing their voices, taking a note whenever there was a crack or if their voice sounded like silk. Anne had to be brave for her siblings like she had been for her whole life. She needed to do this and if she died? Oh well.

The ship started to take off as the engine started roar. Anne took ahold of the steering wheel. And it took off. Next was a series of events no had recollection of. All the trio knew was that the machine had exploded along with the portal. Anne's body was flung around like it was live of trash. It was colored with purple bruises, red scratches, and most importantly blue veins.

    Anne, however, remembered everything.

Where am I?

    Anne wasn't home. This is far from home. It wasn't like anything she had ever seen before. She thought if she ever had gotten lost in this experiment, it would be in the space; in the stars. But this... Was different. Anne could hear everything. From her inner thoughts to how her chest was rising up and down. Everything. Yet, it was so quiet and almost Ed deafening.

    Anne opened her eyes and immediately started to panic. The place she was in was painted in auroras of blues and blacks. They were so beautiful. I'm the center of it all was a bright yellow circle illuminating just a small part of the place. There seemed to be a clear tube load everywhere in crazy patterns all of the place.

    The woman reached out to touch it even if it seemed to be miles away. She was just so captivated by its beauty that she couldn't comprehend that it was out of reach. She tried to think of before. Where she was before this happened. But all she could remember was this place. How beautiful it is? She wouldn't mind floating in this place for all eternity just to be baffled by it.

And I believe I ever telling all of you, alive or otherwise, that we needed a suit of armor around the world.

I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to... evolve? With these? These puppets. There's only one path to peace.

    Anne's eyes widen at this. Who does these voices belong to? She twisted and turned to try to find the culprit, the one saying these echoing and disoriented words. The first voice was one of a sad one; one with anger seeping through it along with rage. The second was even more disoriented than the last one. It sounded almost robotic, creepy.

I said, "we'd lose". You said, "We'll do that together too." And guess what? We lost. And you weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact?

    As Anne had gotten closer to the clear spirals, she reached out to touch it once again. When she did, however, it seemed to warp away along with the voices. And soon, a bunch of voices began to clutter together. Some were her own, but words she didn't recognize.

Zola's algorithm is a program...for choosing Insight's targets!

What targets?

You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, Anne Robinson, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future.

    Anne's face morphed into one of shock. Why what was Insight and why was she on the list? She could only imagine the worst when she asked her self what the word target had meant. It scared her to be honest. She didn't know whether this was happening right now, in the past, or in the future. Whenever it was, it still terrified her to death.

    She didn't recognize any of these voices. Except for her own family of course. But beside them, none of them were familiar. There were a couple female voices and more male ones. Yet, a part of her felt comfort in these voices. Like she had known them for years but she knew for a matter fact that she didn't.

So, are you doing anything this Friday?

No. Just hanging at my house, eating tv dinners while I sit all alone.

Wow, that's depressing.

Yeah. I'm used to it though.

Ever had Blini? It's one of my homelands food.

Not that I remember.

I'll make it for you when this is all over.

    Anne looked over to the yellow circle, how its light began to dim. The beautiful scene in front of her was slowly fading away and everything she once knew was doing the same. She so desperately wanted to hold onto it and never let go. In here, she felt at peace. Like no one expected her do anything and all her worries were casted aside. Everything was perfect.

    As her vision became dark, dull, the voices started to clutter all at once. It was loud. Too loud. It was overwhelming. Anne's hands reached to cover her ears as she tucked her knees closer to her chest. Her eyes squinted as she yelled out in pain. All she could hear was the ringing due to all the voice echoing throughout whatever this place was called.

We need a friend.

What is your true reasoning for being here?

Monkey, I need a favor.

Some people move on; but not us.

You know? Some people don't have all these amazing powers. Some of us, have to use our brute strength. Guns anyone?

Then we'll do it together.

See you in a minute.

Next three months were spent with Kate and Ben studying her, testing her. It was concluded that the accident had changed her.

2 0 1 2

N E W  Y O R K

Anne continued to grunt as she tried to continued to hold her shield up above her. Once she heard a snap, the arrow man. His bow was readied and the string bounced back. An arrow was shot- one with a red beeping button on the brushes of it. Anne held up another portal with her bent fingers to shield her from the arrows. The weapons started to bounce off the shield, explosions setting off around her.

    It was getting hard to hold the both of them. In a single moment, Anne threw the portal over to the other side of the hallways along with the walls colliding to the floor. Barton took this as an opportunity to begin to charge at the woman. But she saw it from the corner of her eye. With both of her portals dropped, she brought up her fists to protect her.

"I'm not going to try and hurt you." Anne muttered.

Clint threw a punch across Anne's face but she threw her head back to miss the hit. She recoiled and swung her leg towards the man's own, causing him to jump up in the air. The two continued. Anne would punch, Clint would miss then throw his son attack, then the woman would dodge it.

Eventually, Clint had pushed Anne against the wall, her back colliding hard with it. Her feet were planted straight onto his chest and she used this to her advantage. With all of the power she could muster, she pushed her feet as hard as she could causing Clint to stumble backwards. While he was distracted for a moment, Anne quickly snatched the weapon from his arms and brought up in the air. She brought it down onto his head, hitting him quite hard. The arrow man retracted his bow from her arms and swung it at her feet, but Anne jumped up high enough to miss it.

It came to a pause when the arrow man had managed to kick his foot into Anne's shin, the most delicate- or that's what she felt like at the moment- bone in her body. Pain began to ache throughout her right leg as she dropped onto the floor. Her hand began to grip her leg, her brown eyes squinted in pain. The arrow man stood above her, his arrow was pointed at her forehead, prepped and ready to shoot.

But then, Clint faltered. Anne had waited for moment when the arrow would pierce her skull, but it never came. She gazed up to find his eyebrows furrowed at her. It was like he was concentrated in something else, something completely different. "It's your lucky day." Is all he said. His footsteps began to echo as he tracked down the hallway, away from Anne and her bruised form.

Anne dropped her head onto the metal ground. "Oh my gosh."

     Then there was a ringing in her ear, a voice. "Doctor Robinson," The voice commanded. "Initiate Experiment Morosis. The Captain and Stark need help to start to turbines again. We are being infiltrated right now as we speak. You are now being deployed to engine three. I repeat engine three."

    "Sir! Are you sure?" Anne breathed out.

    "Go Robinson." The director yelled.

A/N

No. Because. We don't question that Anne's feet bruised that fast. I'm literally trying to get over my writers block.

This chapter was verrryyyy fun to write. Clint meeting Anne?!?! What's that????

I also have a problem. Like, sometimes I'm writing for myself and I know the whole backstory and everything. But then I forget that y'all don't know the full story so sometimes I forget to put hints. Yikes. That's my bad.

Anyways.... Have a good day!