Hey guys, thanks for clicking :) I've just gotten into the Avengers movies and thought I'd take a stab at writing something about them. So basically, this story will travel through a few of the movies, following the adventures of my OC, Holly. I won't give away the story, so you'll just have to read on and find out.

This chapter and the next will be just introducing Holly, and then things will pick up after that.

Hope you like :)

In the beginning, there was darkness.

For a few hazy moments after she awoke, there was nothing. She couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel. All she knew was that she was alive and awake. Unconnected pictures and words swirled around in her mind, and she was unable to form a coherent thought. And then, through the murky blackness that was her mind, there came sounds.

Just noises at first, muffled and unrecognizable. They gradually became sharper, more distinct, and after a little while she was able make out a few words.

"Boot-up... Slowly... Hear me... Holly..."

That word, 'Holly,' was repeated a few more times. Just as she was starting to recognize the voices, she realized she knew the word, too. It was hers. Holly was her name. And the voices were her parents.

The hopeful voices had faded to worried murmurs just as she tried to grasp them in her mind, which was starting to work again. Not wanting to lose them, she tried to part the darkness that seemed to enfold her everywhere, and briefly wondered if she'd gone blind. No, there was a crack of light. It widened slowly, and then suddenly the darkness was gone and the light was blinding her and she let out something that sounded like a groan, only it sounded nothing like her voice. It sounded more like screeching metal.

But she had no time to dwell on that, for as soon as the sound left her mouth, two heads blocked out the horrible light and she was straining to focus. Her eyes were acting strangely, blurring and sharpening and blurring again, like her camera did when it was having a spaz attack. But her ears were working fine, and she struggled to make sense of the gabble that was coming out of her parents' mouths.

"... Holly, say something. Can you see us? Can you hear us? Can you move your fingers and toes? Holly?"

"Slow down, she won't be able to understand you."

Now that she thought about it, could she move her fingers and toes? She tried and was distantly alarmed that she couldn't even feel them. What had happened to her?

Eyes finally focusing, she stared up at the familiar faces of her parents. Mother, face pale and lined and worn out, bits of hair hanging limply by her ears. Father, frowning and determined, sweaty and exhausted, hair sticking up all over the place, and holding a screwdriver. Wait, a screwdriver? Yes, that's what it was.

She blinked slowly, eyes flicking from one face to the other, as her father placed a hand on her cheek. Another moment of distant panic as she found she couldn't feel it.

"Holly? Can you hear me, sweety?"

She tried to move her head, but her body didn't seem to want to work. So she tried to talk, and though that worked better, all she could get out was a croaky "Yehhgh."

That appeared to be good enough for dad, who turned to mother and grinned excitedly. "She's awake!"

Mother's eyes filled with tears and she clasped Holly's numb hand in hers. "Oh, Holly! I can't believe it worked! My baby's alive!" She broke down weeping and pressed Holly's hand to her lips.

That's right, she had been dying, hadn't she? She vaguely remembered lying on a hospital bed, her parents whispering nonsensical things about brain patterns and electrical charges while she drifted in and out of consciousness. After the doctors had confirmed her limited time left, they had asked her all kinds of strange questions, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what they were. All she knew was that her answers had been yes.

She desperately wanted to know what was going on, but the only sound she could make was an faint "Mmehhl..." She started to panic. Why couldn't she talk? Why couldn't she feel anything? What was wrong with her?

Something beeped out of her view and her father appeared over her again, steady and reassuring. "Its OK, its OK. Don't panic. You're going to have to breathe now. Can you take a deep breath?"

She wasn't breathing? How had she missed that? Actually, that wasn't surprising, seeing as she couldn't feel anything anywhere. She could be suffocating right now and not know it.

"Holly, baby, come on, you can do it. Take a deep breath."

She tried to remember what breathing felt like. She just had to suck in some air, that was all. She knew how to do that. She stared up at the faces above her, concentrating with all her might.

"You can do it, honey." She saw, rather than felt, father slip a hand under her head. "Breathe in. Come on. Breathe. In."

For a moment, all she could see was her father's expression go from hopeful to worried as she failed to breathe. She strained, trying to move her numb chest. And then, it came.

The air rushed through her like nothing she had ever felt before, and a whirring started up in her chest like the beating of a hummingbird's wings. And then her body seemed to spring to life, and she could feel and move and now she was nearly jumping off the table and gasping for breath. She could now feel her fathers other hand supporting her torso as she tried to catch her breath. How had she not been breathing? Now the air couldn't come quickly enough.

Her parents were laughing and crying for joy, and they seemed to crowd her as the expressed what was obviously amazement that she was alive. They were talking at once, asking question after question that she couldn't even hear properly, let alone answer. Finally, Father placed a finger on Mother's lips and both were silent.

"Holly, say something," he asked quietly, taking her hands in his. The sensation felt strange, like half her hand was still numb and the other half had pins and needles. She looked down, puzzled, and saw them for the first time. Saw her hands, which weren't her hands, clasped in her Father's protective grip. Saw her arms, her uncovered chest, her legs. The panic was back, and her father must've seen it, because he squeezed the foreign hands and forced her to look at him.

"Holly, don't panic, OK? Don't panic. You're fine, your safe. Calm down. Look at me. You're alright. Jenny, get me a mirror."

"Are you sure?"

"Mirror, now, please."

Mother was soon back with a small, handheld mirror, shiny side down. Father took it and held it out. "Do you want to see your face?"

Holly nodded, trying to suppress the fear that threatened to consume her mind, and slowly took the mirror. She turned it the right way and held it in front of her face, fingers clenched awkwardly around the frame as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing.

It was her face, but not her face. Her features were there, but her skin was wrong. It wasn't skin at all, but some kind of stretchy rubber or plastic, the same stuff that covered her palms and, from the feel of it, the bottoms of her feet. But around her jawline and continuing down her neck was the same metal that covered the rest of her body. Clean and white and shiny it was, all fine lines and sharp edges at the joints, a few random black markings that seemed to serve no purpose. She touched her chest where she could feel the hummingbird beat deep inside her, too fast for a regular heartbeat, somehow able to feel the light touch through the metal. Shocked and terrified, all she was able to make out was a choked "What?" before she dropped the mirror, metal arms shaking.

"Holly, its OK, don't panic!" Her mother dove for the broken shards of glass as her father tried to pacify her. "I know its a shock, but you agreed to this, remember? You knew what we were going to do. Just breathe, darling, you're fine. Calm down."

She agreed to this? When? How? And what was 'this', anyway?

"W-what happened?" she stammered, her voice sounding strange and mechanical in her ears. "Why do I look like this?"

"It was the only way to save you. Your body was shutting down, and there was nothing the doctors could do. So we downloaded your brain and put in here." Mother tapped Holly's head, smiling proudly. "It took a while, but your father finally managed to get you working. You're state of the art. The first one. You, my girl, are the future."

State of the art. Girl of the future. None of it made sense. "So I'm a... a robot, now? You took my mind and put it in a metal suit and now I'm a robot?"

"Android, not robot," father corrected. "We went through the design specifications with you, remember?"

"No." She shook her head, the movement stiff on her little-used neck joints. This was going to take some getting used to. "No, I don't remember. What happened to me?"

Her parents shared a look, both worried, and Mother spoke up hesitantly. "You did something to yourself- overdosed on your meds, I think- and all of your organs started shutting down. We had barely any time to think, let alone try to keep you alive. So we got everything ready. Your dad already had most of the equipment, and almost everything else came out of his old sci-fi notebooks. When we were ready, we told you what we were going to do, you gave us the go ahead, and so we did it. We saved you."

"Hopefully you should start remembering soon." Dad checked something on a computer screen, tone positive. "Your brain patterns and storage center are mostly intact. There's just a few broken links, but you should make new pathways in a day or two." He hesitated, seeming to weigh up whether he should say the next thing or not, and eventually decided to go on. "However, I would like to run some tests to make sure. You will need to be deactivated for them."

"Already?" Her mother started to protest, but then she stopped herself and sighed, taking Holly's strange metal and plastic hands in her own flesh ones. "Is that alright with you, darling? You'll just be asleep for a while so we can do a few scans and things."

Holly nodded slowly, her mind whizzing with everything she had just learned. It was all so sudden, and she was definitely finding it hard to cope. Maybe sleep was exactly what she needed. Or if not sleep, at least peace.

She let them lay her down again, keeping her eyes fixed on a point on the far wall, and felt her fathers fingers find a switch somewhere behind her ear.

And then, once again, there was nothing.

And there you have it- the first chapter. Please review and tell me what you think. Opinions? Ideas? Suggestions? I'd love to hear them all.

See you in the next chapter!