The Soldier of Summer: Book 1

Chapter 15

Auriana's P.O.V.
I don't think I ever actually passed out. I know that I zoned out a lot, and I know I was in the van. Someone was putting pressure on my arm, and someone was stroking my hair. That's really all I remember.
I've been shot before, and normally, I don't act like that. But it was the location that made it happen. It was right where I sliced my arm open to get the chip out of my body, and the bullet reopened that wound. But it was also along a major vein as well, which was why I was bleeding so much.
I was in shock, so I couldn't feel the pain when it happened, but I know that when I came to, I was hurting a lot.
I was told that I had stayed in the same spot for several days, not closing my eyes, barely breathing. Long enough for Sam to drive into America. I honestly don't know how he got us through security, but I didn't care. I was more focused on not bleeding out.
It turns out Winter was putting pressure on my arm, and Natasha was stroking my hair, which I found a bit disturbing. She didn't strike me as the hair stroking type.
When I was strong enough to sit up, I tried to do it by myself, but ended up falling back into Natasha's lap. She helped me back up and leaned me against the side of the van.
She and Winter looked me over for any more signs of injury, and Sam sat in the opposite corner of the space. I guess Steve was driving.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Natasha asked me softly.
"I'm doing fine. Where are we?"
Winter looked over at Sam for that answer. He crossed his arms.
"When I switched with Steve, we were close to the New York border, and that was about an hour ago, so we could already be in New York."
"Which means we're only a few hours from getting you the help you need," Winter finished. Sam scoffed, and Winter looked back in annoyance.
"What?"
Winter rolled his eyes and turned back to me. I could see the shirt that they had put around my arm in the corner. I think it was originally white.
I didn't want to go to sleep, but I couldn't help it. I was super light headed, and apparently, I hadn't slept in days. I payed back down on the floor, cradling my flesh arm, and slept.

I woke up to Natasha gently shaking me.
"Hey, I need you to wake up, okay? We're at the tower, and I think you would prefer to be awake for this."
She was right, I would prefer to walk into Avengers tower on my own two feet. But alas, when my feet hit the ground, my knees gave way and I collapsed.
"Ow."
I don't know why I say that whenever something like that happens. It doesn't hurt, but saying it is a reflex.
Winter picked my up bridal style, and I gave up trying to protest. I was so exhausted.
We walked inside, and I tried to take in all of my surroundings. A ton of army-looking people ran up to us and started asking questions, but Steve made them all back off.
We got into an elevator and Natasha hit a button. It was a glass elevator. If I wasn't feeling like shit, I would have been so excited, I love glass elevators for some reason.
"Natasha Romanoff: Black Widow"A speaker system said. We started going up, and when we stopped, the door opened up to reveal an incredibly messy lab.
"Tony!" Steve called out. Then Stark himself emerged from the mess, followed by a kid with brown hair. The kid looked to be maybe a year or two older than me.
"Spangles! You're back! Let me tell you for a minute we-" he stopped talking when he noticed me in Winter's arms.
"Who's this?"
"There's no time, Tony," Steve said. "We'll talk about this later, but we have to save her. She's important."
Tony hesitated for a second.
"Say no more Cap'n." He pointed to the kid. "Pete, get Dr. Cho on the phone. Have her get a room ready."
The kid nodded and ran to get a phone. Stark walked up to us and looked me over. When he noticed my metal arm, he said the weirdest thing.
"This your daughter or something metal man?"
Before Winter responded, Steve pulled Stark aside and spoke to him softly for a minute.
"Oh, got it." Stark said after a while. Then the kid came rushing in and said (In a really high voice for a teenage boy) that Dr. Cho already had a room ready, and that it was on the next floor up.
Natasha quickly walked over to the elevator and pressed the button. It took an agonizingly long time for the elevator to arrive, and we were all just there in an awkward silence.
Eventually it made a ding sound, and the door opened. Winter went in first, and faced the skyline, so I could see it too. It was really foggy, but I could still see the outlines of the buildings.
The rest of the people here filed in. Natasha, Steve, Sam, Stark, and the kid who's name I couldn't remember. It was a pretty packed elevator.
The room dinged again and the doors opened to reveal a neat lab this time. Winter carried me down a hall, and turned into the fourth door on the left.
In it was a hospital bed, a bunch of other medical equipment, and an Asian woman with black hair, which I could only assume was Dr. Cho.
Winter set me down on the bed, and the doctor put a needle in my flesh arm, right above the wound. She wasn't even phased by my metal arm.
"Okay, Auriana," she said. "This is going to hurt just a bit, but I promise you it will be okay."
She was talking to me like I was a child. I hate it when people do that.
I don't know what she did to me after that, because that's when I actually blacked out.

I woke up to an empty room. For a moment I forgot where I was and what I was doing there.
Oh, Avengers Tower, and I almost bled to death.
Which reminded me of my arm. To my surprise, it was as if it had never been sliced open or had a bullet embedded in it ever. It was a flawless arm. I ran my metal hand over the skin.
Wait, why was I not chained down? Why am I not being guarded? I looked around again. There was no one in the room. I was alone.
The door to my right opened. Okay, maybe I wasn't alone. The person that stepped through seemed familiar.
Oh yeah, it was that kid yesterday. Yesterday? Whatever, I'll ask him. He was wearing a blue collared shirt with a dark blue sweater over it, and jeans.
"Hi!" He said, all chipper. I blinked.
"Mr. Stark wanted me to check on you, and you're awake. That's good. I brought you some food."
He set a tray on my lap. It had a cheese sandwich, a bag of potato chips, and a little cup of some red stuff.
"I'm Peter by the way."
I nodded, still looking at my food. I pointed at the red stuff.
"What's this? Is it poison? I'm not going to fall for it."
He looked at me incredulously, as if I should know what it is. He shook his head and grabbed a chair from across the room and placed it by my bed.
He didn't even pause at the sight of my metal arm. I thought the metal arm was supposed to make me look menacing! What happened?
"It's jello."
"What's jello?"
"This red stuff." He grabbed the cup and peeled the lid off. "You eat it."
He pointed at the spoon as well. I narrowed my eyes and grabbed the spoon with my metal arm, still not trusting my flesh arm to work. Peter set the cup down on the tray.
I bent down and poked it with my spoon. It definitely was not a liquid, because it jiggled. Liquid doesn't do that.
I took a spoonful of it carefully, and put it in my mouth. It was really slimy, and weird, but not half bad.
"I'm Auriana."
Peter smiled. "Nice to meet you, Auriana." He held out his right hand to shake. I slowly put out my metal hand to touch his. Shaking hands was always a weird experience.
"You don't have to worry about hurting me," He said. "I could block a punch from you if I wanted."
I scoffed. "I highly doubt that."
He shook his head. "It's true. I'm Spider-Man!" He threw out his arms as if to say ta-da.
I had heard of Spider-Man. I had seen news footage of him climbing the Washington Monument.
"Really? I had imagined Spider-Man being older than me," I said, smiling.
Peter put his hand over his heart, acting offended. "I am fifteen years old! How old are you?"
"Fourteen."
   "Really? You look old. In a good way, I mean."
   I took another bite of my jello. I was suddenly very hungry. Before I knew it, I had eaten the everything.
   "Wow, do you want me to get you more?"
   I shook my head. "It's okay. How long have I been out?"
   He rubbed the back of his neck. "About a week."
   "WHAT?" I jumped out of the bed. He stood up too.
   "Hey, what do you need? I can get it for you. Mr. Stark is making me watch you to make sure you're okay."
   I sighed and looked down. "You could get me a change of clothes, I don't really like the look this hospital gown is giving me."
   I sat back down as he left the room to get me some clothes. If I were in any other place, I would run. But I was exactly where I wanted to be, so what's the point in running away from Peter and giving him a heart attack?
   I could tell he was good.

Hey guys! Just so you know, I'm going to make the chapters about this length from here on out so this doesn't become a 70 chapter book. Hope you enjoyed!