Chapter Text
Heavy black boots met polished floors as the silhouette of a man stalked down a long hallway, headed towards the basement of the Avengers Tower. Despite his clunky combat boots, muscular figure, and brutish look, the man made little sound as he walked with ruggish purpose.
He ran his left hand through his hair, metal arm glinting in the fluorescent light that illuminated the underground floors, lifting the soft locks to uncover piercing blue eyes. They zeroed in on a door at the bottom of a staircase, sharp as diamond, with the intensity of a nuclear bomb.
He took the steps two at a time, not so much as looking down to keep his footing sure. He approached the door quickly, before suddenly stopping dead in his tracks. He stared forward at the metal door, clenching his jaw tight. A moment passed before he huffed air from his nose, shaking his head slightly, and reached forward to grab the door handle.
Swinging the door open, his steadfast gaze met the eyes of his colleagues, possibly even friends. A tall, strongly built man with blonde hair turned to face him, eyes drowned in contemplation. His lips folded in on themselves as he recognized his friend in the doorway, shrouded in an aura of determination. A black-haired man, sharply dressed in an immaculately tailored suit spun around on his heels towards the sudden intrusion.
“Ah, Bucky, nice of you to finally join us,” he quipped, shoving his hands into his suit pockets as Bucky stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. “I was beginning to think you didn't want to hang out with us.” His tone was sarcastic, though his voice was tinged with distraction.
Bucky stood there for a moment, dragging the room into a dense silence, before he finally piped up.
“I know what you found, Stark.”, he spoke simply, not caring in the moment to engage with witty banter. “More specifically, who you found.”
He stepped towards the center of the room, glancing towards the far wall. On it was installed a one-way mirror, showing through into a sterile white room, a figure laying in a hospital bed.
Stark took a hand out of his pocket, gesturing with it as he spoke “Well yes, Steve suggested you would. That was sort of the entire point of me calling you in here.”
His voice faded out of Bucky’s consciousness as his gaze zeroed in on the figure, his gut clenching.
A redheaded woman stepped up to him quietly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Is this what I think it is? One of the…монстры {Monsters}?” she asked him gently, eyes narrowing at him.
He let out a sigh, nodding his head. “No doubt in my mind about it.”
He looked at her, his icy glare softening a bit as he gazed at Nat, one of the few people on the unforgiving earth he’d consider a genuine friend.
Her lips pursed as she curtly nodded, drawing her hand back and turning to face the still figure, unconscious on the bed. Tony finally stopped chattering away, realizing he was being ignored.
“Yeah, hey, billionaire funding all your reckless endangerment of property during your little vigilante missions here, could we listen to me for two minutes, people? What are we going to do about this…unique situation?”
His question fell on a silent room, no one having anything worthwhile to say until Steve spoke up.
“Well, we can’t just dump it where we found it. Thats…inhumane” he ventured, throwing glances around the room for support.
Shuffling sounds came from the corner as a salt-and-pepper-haired man cleared his throat before speaking. “Well it’s not exactly a stray dog, Cap. What are we gonna do, keep it here? I’m not even entirely sure what it is..” he trailed off, throwing a questioning glance in the general direction of the mirror and Bucky, who stood still as a statue.
“A weapon.” came the super soldier’s voice, rough and cracked as a desert. He shifted his weight slightly, suddenly uncomfortable. “A…mutt. A beast.” he insisted, glancing over his shoulder to the rest of the heroes.
His face betrayed no emotion, staying neutral. He opened his mouth to say more but was interrupted as a series of three short beeps played over the speakers in the room, the audio being fed in from the other side of the mirror. Every head snapped to attention as they watched the figure start to stir.
There was stillness for a moment before the tension snapped and the gray blanket that laid peacefully over the figure was thrown off quickly. Uncovered, thrashing wildly, though cuffed to the bed by the ankles and wrists, was a very, very angry humanoid.
The first thing anyone could help but notice…were its wings. Ivory feathers dappled with a tawny brown extended out, reaching past the bed around 6 feet on each side. They were spattered with deep red, the creature's own blood caked in its extra limbs. It contorted its sleek wings every which way, fighting desperately to break its body free of its restraints.
Though its wings were certainly the most distinct feature, it was somehow the second most chilling. As the human, which seemed to be female, snapped its head towards the dull glass, its eyes were jarringly alive and sparking with confusion, fear, and burning hatred. Their yellow hue seemed to glow, and for a moment as she looked towards Bucky, he could have sworn she saw right through the glass straight to him. His eyes narrowed as his body tensed slightly, watching her flail about in an utterly feral manner.
It only took a couple seconds for the, for lack of better word, monster, to blink the last of the sleep from its eyes, opening its mouth to shriek. The piercing noise that left its lips couldn’t be described as a scream. It was the unmistakable cry of a bird, terrified and injured. It was blood-curdling, the pitch shrill and primal.
She tossed around in place on the bed, convulsing wildly like a caged animal for several chilling minutes before suddenly stopping. The heroes watched with bated breath, waiting to see what it would do next. It sat for a moment, breathing deeply, then cocked its neck in a confused manner. It looked around the room, calmly surveying its surroundings.
It was like a switch had flipped within it. No…within her. She seemed much more like a woman now, as her behavior changed from erratic to human. Her eyes went from wide and scared to half-lidded, dragging around the room carefully.
“It’s almost…scarier now.” Tony muttered, breaking the icy silence in the room. Steve flashed a look at him, which Tony waved off with a dismissive hand. “Relax, it can’t hear us from in here. It still thinks it’s alone.” he assured the group.
“No. It doesn’t.” came Bucky’s gruff yet dissonant voice from the front of the room. He stared straight at her, never once letting his gaze wander from her. “As feral and animalistic as it seems..it knows it’s being watched.” he muttered, crossing his arms.
“So why is it just…sitting there and not trying to communicate?” Bruce asked, meekly taking a small step towards the mirror, jotting down notes on a small notepad.
“It doesn’t know where it is. As far as it’s concerned, it might be from where it came from. There, you don’t speak out of line. You wait for orders and you do as you’re told” Bucky explained, tapping the fingers of his right arm against his left bicep, slight metallic thunks dully resounding.
The air seemed to suck out of the room as realization crept into everyone but Bucky and Nat.
“Bucky..you’re not saying it’s from-” Steve was cut off as Bucky interjected.
“Hydra. It’s a Hydra abomination. A monster.” he stated with a tired sigh, staring at the hybrid woman. “And just our luck, I think I know this one.”