Atom Eve flies through the air, looking for the place that Sentry told her. She doesn't know where to go exactly and takes a while to fly through the air. It makes her nervous, though, since she has no experience in doing hero work. She realises that she is transporting what is essentially the messed-up bodies of her siblings with her, and they are not looking good. Thankfully, she notices a large complex of buildings as Sentry described it to her and lands.
"Reynolds School and Home for Extraordinaries... this seems like the right place," she says and knocks on the door.
*Knock knock knock*
"Hello? Is somebody home?"
The door opens, and a guard exits, looking at Atom Eve and then the people she was transporting.
"Yes?"
"I know this might sound strange, but I was told to come here by..."
"Yes?"
"The Sentry?"
"I-"
"Don, it's fine. Ronald called me a minute ago and told me about her." Rose enters the picture and walks towards Eve.
"I understand, Miss Rose," the guard says and steps aside.
"Hello. What's your name?" Rose asks.
"Atom Eve. I was told to come here and to bring them. They're my siblings, and I think that they're dying."
"I see. We'll take care of it." Rose says and dials something on her phone.
Several medics arrive from another room and approach the four children a few minutes later. They start to check their conditions.
"Blood pressure, Heart Rate, temperature... pretty much all vital signs are strange. Get them to the hospital right away," one of them says.
"I already notified them, they're on their way," Rose says.
More people arrive to take care of things, and after a while, an ambulance arrives as well. Eve is utterly confused and unnerved by what she is seeing.
"What's happening? Are they going to make it?" she asks Rose, who was looking over everything.
"We are getting them to the hospital right now. Don't worry, they'll make it, I'm certain." Rose placates Eve's worries.
"But then... why was I told to come here instead? Shouldn't I have gone to the hospital right away? Wasn't this a waste of time?" she asks.
"Because, despite what you might think right now, you are a prepubescent child and wouldn't have been taken very seriously. But now, we know what this is about and could notify the hospital about the situation. If you stormed into the hospital, everyone would have known about this, and no one must know that for now."
"But why? I don't understand."
"Don't worry. You will in time. Come, you can take the ambulance to the hospital and accompany your siblings." Rose says.
"Alright."
.
While Rose takes Eve to the hospital to make sure her siblings don't die while Robert isn't present, the Sentry is shooting through the air and making his way to a secret location of the Pentagon. His construction company is here at least once a year, so he knows where some things are. But he doesn't need to know where things are, as he isn't looking for a silent entrance. He hears the man's thoughts in question and phases through the building, ensuring no one is hurt.
*BOOM*
He arrives in a room with many fluid tanks the size of humans, and one of them is even filled. He approaches the one and instantly knows who it is. He becomes angry at the disgusting treatment of life. This was Polly, Samantha's and her siblings' mother.
"You turned her into a breeding machine..." he addresses Steven Erickson, the man responsible for these experiments.
"You shouldn't have returned," Erickson says. "This has nothing to do with you."
Sentry turns towards the soldiers and agents and addresses them directly.
"Which ones of you knew about this?" he asks.
He checks their minds to see which ones were aware of the experiments. Those suddenly fall unconscious.
"As for all of you, leave and explain all of this to Cecil Stedman."
The other agents run off, scared of the Sentry and what he can do. Only Erickson and the lead scientist, Rodgers, are left now. Together with the dozens of unconscious agents on the floor. Sentry walks forward and rips open the door of Polly's chamber. Erickson had retrieved her corpse and managed to bring her back. In the process, she was rendered in an inert state due to extensive brain damage, becoming comatose in a catatonic state. She was used to producing and popping additional offspring through a tube. The Sentry removes all the tubes and closes the wound, opening it up. The sick bastards created a direct opening to her stomach.
He takes her out gently and heals her. Now, the only thing left is to deal with all that enormous, soul-crushing trauma she got. Even if she was not awake in the traditional sense, her unconscious picked things up.
"You can't take her! That's property of the US government!" Erickson shouts.
Without answering them, the Sentry walks forward. The two men try to back away, but can't as they hit the wall. He touches Polly's head and extracts the pain accompanied by the memories she suffered. Then he replicates what she went through and moves towards Erickson and Rodgers. Before they can react, he is in front of them and taps their heads with his finger, giving them the memories and the pain that Polly had and adding the one from her children. Finally, he makes the memories repeat themselves endlessly.
"NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! STOP, PLEASE MAKE IT... STOOOP!!!"
"AAHHHH"
*CRASH*
The door opens, and Cecil rushes in with other agents of the GDA. When he sees the Sentry, he realises things are serious and walks forward. He looks at the situation and shakes his head.
"What happened?" he asks.
"Unethical experimentation, crimes against humanity, slavery, rape by proxy, forced impregnation, kidnapping, murder, manslaughter, torture, child abuse... just to name a few." Sentry says.
"What?! Please tell me what happened, Bob." Cecil asks.
"Your subordinate somehow managed to create a secret government program to create superhumans under the government's control, without you noticing. And not only that, he brought this woman back and used her as a breeding machine, forcing her to give birth to more and more outrageous abominations." Sentry explains.
He is angry, and the only reason he isn't shouting at Cecil is that he truly didn't know anything about it. But others did, and he would deal with those next.
"Fuck. And those?" Cecil asks, pointing at the soldiers.
"They knew about it and did nothing. I leave them to you. As for those two, they are experiencing what she and her children went through on repeat. I leave it to you whether or when you kill them."
*Sigh*
"What a shitshow. I'll take care of everything. Did you already take care of the children?" Cecil asks.
"Not yet. I'll go there next," Sentry says and disappears, with Polly in his arms.
.
In the Solace General, the hospital Robert created, a series of doctors were making sure that the four siblings, two male and two female, wouldn't die. The mechanical apparatuses were keeping them alive somewhat, but the scans proved that something else was at work, which prevented them from dissolving, since some of the technology was badly damaged and stopped working.
"I have never seen something like this."
"What did these poor creatures have to go through to end up like this?"
"The world's shit."
"Thankfully, someone still cares."
A woman walks into the large surgery.
"The Doctor's here," she says.
"Good. I don't know how long we can keep them this way. Better that he takes over now."
Outside, just down the hall, was a nice waiting area where Eve sat next to Rose. Rose knew that nothing would happen, since Robert had taken it upon himself to solve this issue, but she didn't know whether he could solve such an issue in the way the young girl wanted or hoped. She hadn't been briefed yet, but knew that it was serious.
"Calm down, Eve. I can promise you that Dr. Reynolds is the best at what he does. And what he does is very nice." Rose says.
"Really? How is he going to save them from that? They don't even look like real people. They had to suffer, because of me..."
"No, Eve, they didn't have to suffer because of you. They had to suffer because of the greed and power lust of those who sit in high positions and are scared of those they can't control." Rose tells the young girl.
"Like me?"
"In a way, yes. But I'm thinking more like the Sentry."
"How is it that the Sentry is still alive? I thought he was dead." Eve asks.
Rose, who has successfully changed the subject, smiles. Everyone has the same reaction when the Sentry is mentioned. Old and young, everyone acts the same and has the same curiosity and excitement in their voice.
"He wasn't dead. He just focused on other things."
"But... the world needs him. There are so many bad people around and so many people who need help. He used to be my idol. Everyone I know always wanted to be like him." Eve says.
"Say, Eve. Why did you choose to become a hero? Why not just use your powers to create money and live a good life?" Rose asks.
"I can help people. I can really change things with these powers. And now that the Sentry is no longer around, the world needs my help." Eve says with conviction.
"See? If the Sentry hadn't left, the world would still depend on him. Why would you need to help others if the Sentry can just do it? But by relying too much on him, the world stagnates. And that's the same as death. Do you understand?" Rose asks.
"Hmm... I see what you mean. But what does he do now that he has so much free time?" Eve asks.
"Huhuhuhuhu... free time." Rose chuckles as she hears that.
"What?"
Before she can answer, one of the doctors walks into the waiting room.
"How is it? What happened? Did they make it?" Eve starts to go off and asks hundreds of questions.
"Calm down, Eve. Give the doctor time to breathe." Rose says.
"It has worked out. Dr. Reynolds has taken care of it and made sure they survive. But they will have to remain here for the night at least. The Doctor has asked me to tell you, Eve, that you can see your family tomorrow in the Reynolds School and Home for Extraordinaries. They should be back on their feet by then."
"Really?! Oh wow... thank you..." Eve says.
"Come, Eve. I'll get you home. I need to talk to your parents now. I think it is time that something changes." Rose says and gets Eve out of the hospital.
Despite Eve not wanting to drive a car, Rose doesn't take no for an answer and drives her home. She has received some intel in the meantime and has decided to get things on the move, without Robert having to tell her anything. The cold, hard and brutal spy has changed over the years, and Robert managed to scrape that stone off her heart. As they make it to Samantha's house, her parents are already waiting for her at the entrance, with Adam, her father, looking extremely cross with her.
"Samantha! Where-" he starts, but is interrupted by Rose.
"Mr. Wilkins. Hello, my name is Rose Romanova, and I work at the Reynolds School and Home for Extraordinaries." Rose says and hands the man her card.
"Huh? What did she do this time?" Adam asks.
"Your daughter has shown unbelievable potential, and we are interested in having her join our school," Rose says.
"What?! No way, we can't have her do-"
"Mr. Wilkins, please. How about we go inside, and I try to convince you. I'm sure you'll understand." Rose interrupts him again, and they walk inside.