𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗛𝗘

𝘞𝘈𝘙𝘌𝘏𝘖𝘜𝘚𝘌 𝘐𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘙𝘖𝘎𝘈𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕𝘚

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After blindfolding him, Arielle took Philip to an abandoned warehouse. She didn't plan on hurting him more than she was needed to, but the man let the fear take control of him and started to misbehave.

When he tried to attack her, she knocked him out.

It took a few hours until he slowly started to regain his consciousness, but she had no time to spare.

"Hey, wake up!" She lightly kicked the chair he was tied to with the tip of her shoe.

Philip started to blink rapidly. He was about to wake up. He thought he heard a strange noise and the first thing he saw when he opened her eyes was terrifying. It almost made him faint again.

Catastrophe was sharpening her knives not so far from him.

She was obviously not going to stab him, but she was about to use her weapons to intimidate him enough to get him talking. After all, he was a scientist, not an agent trained to resist the psychological torture.

"Oh, you're up. Good. It took you long enough." She approached him and lifted one of her legs. She placed her shoe right between his thighs and leaned forward, resting her elbow against her knee.

Proximity was great for intimidation. Her face was close to his, but not too close. She wanted him to see that she still held the knives in her hands.

"W-What do you—"

"What I want—" She pressed one of the cold blades against the side of his neck, "—is for you to tell me where Kamenev is and what is he up to these days."

"I don't know, I swear I don't!"

She brought the other hand behind his head so that the second knife would be pressed against the opposite side of his neck.

"I take that you want to see which one slices first? Or maybe which wound bleeds to death first?"

She wouldn't make such a big mess. Killing him was not enough to make him suffer like she suffered. No matter how slow and painful she'd do it, it wasn't enough. He had to live.

"Y-You're Arielle! Little Arielle!" He shook his head from side to side quickly. "You used to like me, remember? And I brought you little gifts, remember?"

"Where.." Arielle pressed her forehead against his, "is.." then gritted her teeth, "Kamenev?" Lastly, she pushed his chair back, but caught it quickly with the tip of her shoe, holding him in place.

"I'll tell you, okay! Please don't hurt me, please! I'm begging you!"

He probably expected her to put his chair back as it used to be, but instead, she let it a little more loose. Just so he would panic even more.

"Then you better start talking".

"He—He has two labs! They're both near New York City, one is less than thirty minutes away and the other one is about an hour away."

"Oh? And what exactly is he doing there?"

"He's trying to f-finish the project, please don't kill me!" Khan's voice got even more shaky when he noticed the sudden change in her attitude. "I-Improve it, even.."

"And you're helping, obviously."

"I'm not! Not anymore! I swear!"

Arielle clicked her tongue and let go of his chair slowly, so that he could stand in a normal position. "So you expect me to believe he just let you quit?"

"I-I'm working on something else, something—"

"Something what? I swear to God, it feels like I'm talking to a baby. Man up and tell me!"

"I'm trying to improve him and help him get back to the way he was before the accident in Siberia, that's it!"

"Accident?" She frowned. "You mean when Project 13 was destroyed, right? What happened to Kamenev?"

"H-He can't walk anymore, the explosion—"

She dismissed what he was about to say with a swift movement of her hand. She heard enough. "Tell me where his two labs are. Will I find him there?"

"Yes! Yes! He's always at the labs! If it's not one, then it's the other!"

Arielle wrote down the addresses he told her and shot him a wary look. "You do know I'm not going to let you go, right?"

"What?! But you said—"

"I said I'm not going to kill you. I'll go after Kamenev and if I don't find these labs, if you lied to me.."

She took a step back.

"I told you the truth, I swear! Please, let me go!"

"We'll see about that. Oh, and this is for what you did to me. A small payback."

Before he could react, Arielle punched his cheek so hard that he was instantly knocked out. Again. Then, she shook her hand so and wiped off the blood.

It was time to check on Kamenev.

"It has to be this one—"

"Steve, this is the fifth abandoned warehouse we searched today and also the fifth time you said that."

"Well, I was wrong before, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong now."

Bucky scoffed. "Sure, whatever you say."

He gestured for him to keep quiet as they approached the entrance of the warehouse. There were fresh footsteps on the ground, one set belonging to a man and the other one to a woman, which meant they got the right place.

Bucky kicked the door open and pointed his gun forward. Steve was right behind him, ready to shield him from any bullets if needed.

But all they heard was the sound of a man sobbing.

"Help, please! Please, help me! Please!"

They lowered their weapons as soon as they saw he was tied to the chair.

"Fuck! We missed her! Again!" Bucky groaned, then turned to Steve, who was ready to call him out on his language again. "Don't start."

"Please, untie me!"

They both looked at the poor man at the same time, then sighed.

"We will," Steve started, walking towards Reid, "once you tell us where the woman who calls herself Catastrophe is. We know she dragged you here, don't bother lying."

"And I recognize that," Bucky said, gesturing towards his face, where Philip was hurt. "She has a nice punch, I gotta admit."

"You mean Arielle, right? I gave her the address to Kamenev's labs, but she didn't untie me! Wait, did she sent you to kill me?"

"If she sent us here, we wouldn't be asking you where she is, don't you think?" Bucky scoffed and rolled his eyes.

And then he realized what the man had said.

"Hold on," he continued, "what did you call her?"

"You know her name?" Steve added.

"You two don't?" Philip was surprised. "So she's not working with SHIELD?"

"What made you think she was?" The Captain curiously asked. They were already a step behind her, he had to make this man talk. Fast.

"You, obviously. I mean, why else would Captain America be here? If she's not your ally, then it means she's your target.."

"Her name, Khan. We want her name," Bucky interrupted him, rushing him to get to the point.

"Her name is Arielle Henderson." Philip sighed. "I'm surprised you didn't know that by now. I didn't know she was calling herself Catastrophe now."

"So," Bucky said, suddenly moving towards him. Now, he was standing in front of Philip's chairs. "You knew her when she used to go by Arielle. Could it be that she had been a part of Project 13?"

Philip noded.

"So there were twelve students, not eleven."

"There were thirteen orphans," Philip corrected him. "But two of them were already gone by the time the project was turned off."

"Okay, buddy. I think it's time you tell us everything you know." Bucky grabbed another chair and placed it in front of Philip, then took a seat.

"She was five when she was brought to Siberia. It surprised me to see they gave me a five year old to run tests on, but what was even more surprising was that she responded best to the formula."

At this point, neither Steve nor Bucky were saying anything. They should have left by now. They should have asked where exactly did Philip tell Catastrophe to go and chase her there, but the man had important information to share and they might not get a second chance to talk to him.

"I didn't interact that much with them after injecting the serum, but I would check up on them quite often. Most of them were unstable and experiencing pain for no reason, but she seemed.. fine. She was Kamenev's best student, but she had a small problem with authority. She has been insubordinate since day one."

"What exactly did that serum do?" Bucky asked.

"It was similar to the Super Soldier serum. It enhanced her physical abilities: her strength, her speed, her flexibility and resistance. But it also developed her intelligence, her brain was constantly analyzing possibilities, more often and more correctly than a regular human. Kamenev tried to break her will and turn her into his puppet, that was the point of the project, but it didn't work. I tried to play with her genes too, but I couldn't make her obey to the orders. It's like her mind simply refused to comply."

"So she's way more dangerous than a regular human," Steve muttered under his breath but loud enough to be heard.

"Dangerous? She's lethal. She aced all of the tests. If only she would have listened to orders.."

"What's her weakness? Come on, she must have one."

"Loud noises are a weak point for sure. She can hear better than any of us and loud noises have a bigger impact on her. Her sense of justice could also be considered a weakness: she was obsessed with making the bad guys pay the price for their wrongdoings, no wonder she became a vigilante."

"And no wonder she's coming for Kamenev." Bucky scoffed.

Then, he rose to his feet and pushed the chair he was sitting on to the side.

"Let's go, Steve. We must split up."

"Hold on, what about me?! Are you going to leave me here?! Like this?!"

"It was nice meeting you, Doctor Khan," Bucky said, walking right past him.

"SHIELD is going to come pick you up later, the agents are on their way. Oh, and by the way? You're under arrest." Steve patted him twice on the shoulder before leaving the warehouse.

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