Disclaimer: If I owned the Avengers, all the male characters would have fallen in love with a girl named Karen. Seeing as how that's not true yet...I don't own the Avengers...yet.
Chapter 1
From the Sky
The world was bright and hostile when she awoke. Everything was disorienting-the pure, stark white of the walls, the artificial lights, the pungent hospital odor. Her vision was blurred; she could only see smudges of color against a bright white background. The rest of her body tingled and burned at the same time-she couldn't move. When at last her vision had been restored and she had gained some control over her limbs, she struggled to sit up and surveyed her surroundings. The room was clean and white, just like any other hospital room. Her hospital gown was thin and papery, not much comfort against the stale hospital air being circulated and humidified by a worn humidifier on the bedside table. There were no flowers by her bed, nor were there any cards. Before she could get out of the bed, the door to the cramped room had opened.
"Don't move," said a deep voice. "We have enough firepower to flatten an entire city pointing directly at you and I don't think you'd like to see what happens if I order them to fire."
A tall man entered the room. His black jacket flapped theatrically behind him as he strode forward. One of his eyes was covered by a worn leather patch, but the other eye glared at her with all the ferocity of a lion defending its young.
"Who are you?" she snapped, glaring back at him.
"I think I should be the one asking that," he said, leaning against the wall casually.
She stared at him, her gaze unwavering. When he shifted, she studied his posture: he leaned ever so slightly to the left, a sign that he was harboring some sort of weapon on his right.
"Okay, then. I'm Nick Fury," he said, crossing his arms. "It's your turn."
"I…don't know," she said slowly, surprised. "I don't…know."
She blinked in surprise. She had known almost immediately that Fury had hidden a weapon somewhere deep within his black coat just by looking at the way he stood, but she did not know her own name. She looked at him again and cocked her head to the right, bewildered. She frowned, concentrating. Her name…her name…
"SHIELD doesn't like liars," growled Fury. "Or actors."
"I don't know," she repeated. "I don't know…I don't know who I am, or how I got here."
He glared at her with one eye and pointed to the television.
"That's how you got here."
She watched, astounded, as a tiny black figure toppled from the sky. A news reporter was screaming frantically into her microphone. The tiny black dot grew bigger and bigger, until she recognized herself. She was free-falling, dropping from the clouds. The news reporter was still screaming, garbling incomprehensible words at the screen. Fire trucks and police cars had formed a ring around where she would potentially fall. Police officers and firefighters were struggling to keep the hordes of people from pushing their way into the ring.
"Why isn't anyone trying to catch me?" she cried in shock.
"You were going at a few hundred miles per hour. Nothing would be able to catch you. The only potential person that could have caught you without killing themselves was Tony and he was in California at the time. On his way, mind you, but he didn't exactly get there in time."
There was a colossal thump as she landed. The impact of her fall had created a huge crater, nearly 50 feet out from where she had fallen. The fire trucks and police cars that had been parked around the circular perimeter were flipped onto their sides, forced over by the impact of her fall. Black cars suddenly pulled into the TV screen. Nick Fury was the first to step out, followed by a woman with brilliant red hair. The on-screen Fury took out a small black device from his pocket and pressed it-the screen went black.
"You just appeared. Just in the middle of nowhere, thousands of feet in the air, you just appeared. And then you hurtled a couple thousand feet from the air, straight onto Earth, without a single scratch on yourself. Now, tell me…who are you?" Fury emphasized each word angrily.
She stared at him evenly.
"I…don't…know," she repeated, and her voice trembled slightly.
Fury stepped back, momentarily confused by the truth in her words. "Goddamnit," he muttered. "You really don't know."
"No." She looked defiantly into his eye, but she was really on the verge of tears.
"We're taking you to SHIELD headquarters," he stated. "Get her clothed properly and send her down to the garage."
Two nurses rushed into the room. They placed a plain white t-shirt and a pair of black shorts onto the bed, along with undergarments.
"Please dress," said one of the nurses, forcing a smile. "We'll take you down to the garage when you're ready."
She was slightly numb from the footage, but she managed to dress herself. When she was done, one of the nurses reappeared. She lifted her arm to hand the woman the hospital gown, and the nurse flinched away. She was obviously very afraid. Slowly, she let her arm drop and the gown slithered onto the floor.
"Thank you," she whispered.
The nurse forced another smile and led her out the door. Fury was in a black car, one similar to one of the cars in the video.
"We're on a tight schedule here. The Avengers aren't going to sit around for long."
The car ride was silent. Within an hour, they had arrived at an airport. She found herself being ushered into a private plane, one with STARK INDUSTRIES written in huge block letters across it. She stumbled onto the plane, overwhelmed.
"The people are afraid of me."
"Yes," replied Fury, eyeing her.
"You carry a weapon on your right," she murmured.
Fury snarled and reached for his gun. "How'd you know that?"
"You lean slightly to the left when you stand," she continued sadly. "Fury, I know that, but I don't know my own name."
She looked up, her dark hair falling in curls around her face. Her navy blue eyes were filled with a deep sorrow. A sorrow that was centuries old-a sorrow that shouldn't have belonged to the eyes of a 16 year old.
WOOHOO!
First chapter is up!
I have the next couple chapters written out, but I'd like to see some responses (*AHEM* reviews) before I post them.
Enjoy!
