Chapter 11

Inside a certain hospital, Heather looked at the ceiling with a blank expression. According to the doctors, she had been informed that she had just woke up from a coma after several months. The doctors had then run several tests on her before dropping a massive bombshell. The impact from the explosion had severely damaged the nerves below her waist and she might never be able to walk without without crutches ever again.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the door to the room opened. Her mood significantly improved when she saw two of her friends enter in a hurry. Iris wasted no time in embracing her best friend while Sina stood behind her. The three then spent hours filling her with what had happend while she was in a coma. While avoiding the topics related to what led her to her coma and the ones about those responsible for it. Their visit was cut short when visiting hours were over. After her friends left promising to return the next day, Heather returned to blankly staring at the ceiling before she realised something.

She opened drawer near her bedside and sure enough, Iris had left her tablet inside. After silently thanking her best friend, she booted it up and began browsing through the news. Her eyes widened as details of the attack on the venue was explained as well as the possible involvement of the police chief was brought up.

After closing the news app, she called the mistress of the orphanage. After several rings an audible clink came and she heard the mistress say hello.

"Martha its me. Heather" Heather spoke.

A brief moment of silence passed before the mistress replied while sobbing. "Oh thank god you are OK, Heather. I was so worried."

Heather laughed dryly as she asked. "How are the children?"

"Most of the children were thankfully away from the blast radius. Some of them suffered a few cuts but nothing serious."

"What about Joshua?"

Martha sighed as she said. "It arm was injured. The doctors say his nerves have been damaged. His arm won't stop shaking."

Heather remained silent. As Martha continued. "I'm sure the children will be delighted to know you are fine. Do come visit when you can."

The rest of the conversation was mostly made by Martha as Heather answered with short, one word answers before hanging up the call after promising to visit. As she lay there, her thoughts wandered to the man responsible. Jonathan Vance. Despite sufficient evidence he managed to get out of this without so much as a slap on the wrist.

Her face contorted in anger as she gripped the blanket until are knuckles turned white. At that moment, she swore that she would take her pound of flesh. She turned the tablet back on and began tapping and swiping. She managed to camouflage her IP with that of the hospital's system before hacking into the police station. Vance clearly hasn't been investing in their firewall as Heather managed to bypass it without being detected.

He went through the entire server searching for anything to incriminate Vance. She went through hundreds of memos, warrants and records before she found something interesting. It was a permit. A permit allows an unarmed party to enter Lumen city without inspection. Heather eyes fell on the one who had accepted the permit and she grinned at the familiar name. "Paul Haddock, one of the officials at the City council."

Heather was aware that Vance had friends in High places. This would be the start of her revenge. She would destroy his allies first and leave him for last. As she was covering her tracks, she became aware of the presence another program. Someone else was hacking into the server as well. She quickly hasted in removing her program. Unfortunately, the new Hacker had already detected her and had began attacking her program in order to find her location. Heather began a counter attack of her self in an effort to Halt the program. Eventually, she managed to freeze the program long enough to remove hers from the server.

Heather breathed a sigh of relief once she was certain that her identity wasn't compromised. Her eyesight blurred as a wave of fatigue caused her to close her eyes. She placed her tablet back in her drawer before closing her eyes.

....

The next day,

Heather woke up as she felt the sunlight hit her face. She stretched her arms and opened her eyes only to be shocked to see someone else in her room with her. It was woman with short black hair wearing a buisness suit. She was currently engrossed in a tablet, not even bothering to look at her.

As Heather tried to speak, the woman took her eyes off her PDA and looked at her straight in the eye. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" she asked with smile. "Yeah...." Heather replied as she was still processing what was happening. The woman stood up from the chair and began pacing around Heather as she continued. "Heather Isabelle Valentine. Third child of Monica and Jacob Valentine. Frequent environmental activist and a recent victim of the bomb attack which happend around a month ago. As a result, you fell into a coma and had only woken up last night." She paused and looked at Heather.

Heather began to panic from her words but tried to keep a straight face. The woman grinned before continuing."You know, I may not be a doctor but I can say with absolute certainty that a patient who have just woken from a coma should be focused on resting. Not hacking police." She slowly advanced towards Heather causing her to involuntarily lean back.

Heather finally managed to speak." Who are you? "

The woman immediately replied." That's classified. Now then tell me, why were you hacking?" she said as she sat back down.

Heather frowned as she hissed. "You know why. It's all over the news." The woman raised an eyebrow at her words and asked. "That's it? You were hoping to find evidence incriminating him? You know it's not good to jump to conclusions simply because of hearsay."

"Is that really what you believe? That he is innocent?"

The woman chuckled. "Touché. Regardless, your actions almost compromised our operation last night."

"What operation? Who are you? What do you want with me? " Heather asked with enraged expression.

The woman frowned as she leaned forward. "what I want to know is how a little girl like you managed to almost and I mean, "almost" manged to escape my hackers. "

Heather looked at her with a smug expression." Guess I'm a prodigy when it comes to tech. "

The woman ignored as she said." Now you have two choices. 1, you can join us. We can train you, give you better hardware, turn you into an exceptional agent in exchange for your service."

"And number 2?"

"You will be arrested. Hacking police property is a serious crime you know."

"Doesn't sound so bad. I'm a minor. How big could the sentence even be?" Heather shrugged nonchalantly. She hoped that the woman would fall for bluff. Instead, she saw her smirk that immediately rang warning bells in her head."

"True. Your sentence will not be too severe, but what about your friends?"

" What about them?"

The woman stood up before passing Heather her tablet. The latter reluctantly took and looked at it to see a video showing a group of people in a a rundown building. A few moments later, a figure approached them. A figure Heather instantly recognised. Iris. She then stared in horror as Iris began killing them. After the video ended, the woman took the tablet from her hands.

"Must be nice to have such a good friend. You know, she was the one who left the evidence at that location. One can only assume how she managed to get her hands on it." The woman whispered. She the added. "Now to answer your previous question, if you refuse the authorities will receive" an anonymous tip" regarding Miss Griffith. She will be arrested, and due to her being a mutant, she will be taken to hidden facility where she will probably spend the rest of her life being used as a lab rat by the doctors. Now you don't want that to happen I assume? "

Heather gritted her teeth as she glared at the woman." No. I do not. "

"So I take it you choose option 1?"

"Yes." Heather replied with a look of resignation.

"Excellent. Welcome to S.H.E.I.L.D. You may call me Agent Hill."

An: Obviously I have no idea how hacking works. And as for Agent Hill, I made her more like the comic book version. Sorry if I made any mistakes.