In the collection

It might have been her fault for trusting a stranger, Natasha reflected, and he had certainly been strange. The most normal person she had seen for a while was the pink-skinned girl in a skimpy white dress, who was dusting the glass. The glass Natasha was now stuck behind, in the lair of the man she now knew was called The Collector.

He had collected her.

Her current accommodation was a glass cylinder, about four feet across. To one side sat a pile of protein bars the pink girl had left as food, and other than that the cylinder was empty. The Collector had rejected Natasha's request for clothing, on the grounds it would prevent people from admiring her.

Natasha crouched on the floor, the better to hide her body, her ankles preventing the aliens going by outside from getting a clear view of her crotch, and her knees hiding most of her breasts from them.

"Hi, Carina, is it?" Natasha said, remembering how The Collector had referred to the pink girl. She acknowledged Natasha with a slight smile. "Can you help me get out of here?"

"I am forbidden from disturbing the collection." Carina replied.

"But how can he just collect people?" Natasha demanded. She turned from the window next to her which opened onto the main thoroughfare. Currently a green-skinned and tentacled alien family were pointing out Natasha to their multiple children, and passing comment on the strangeness of her body in a gurgling language.

"The Collector aims to have samples of all life forms." Carina replied, "And Terrans are unique on Knowhere."

"What? Nowhere?"

"Knowhere, where we are." Carina smiled, turning back to her cleaning. Natasha looked at the window again, to see the green family had moved on, replaced by a handful of scaly blue aliens holding devices that seemed to be futuristic cameras, flashes going.

Natasha sighed, she rested her head back against the glass wall and closed her eyes. She stretched her feet out until her bare toes touched the opposite glass wall, and placed her hands over her red triangle of pubic hair to hide it from view, although this left her breasts revealed.

"This is a waste of time." a familiar voice, muffled by the layers of glass came to her. Natasha opened her eyes, to see a blue-skinned bald woman she recognised. Nebula, the robot/alien who had helped Tony get back to Earth. She was with a green girl who from what she had heard must be her sister, Gamora.

"We need the information." Gamora shrugged to her sister.

"Then let's beat it out of him and be on our way."

Nebula and Gamora disappeared in tje crowd, but Natasha got to her feet, straining to see them. She was still trapped in a bottle, in a lunatic's collection, but just seeing someone she recognised gave her hope she might get out of here.