Hi!
My name's Gwenyver Greenleigh, but you can just call me Gwen. I think my mom wanted to make my name hard for people to spell out, but Gwen is what I go by. You know, making it easy for people to say and spell.
Anyways! Let me give you the low down on myself. As I said, my name's Gwen, and I was once a normal teenage girl. Now you may be saying to yourself, "Once? What does she mean by that?" Well you see, Brainiac's invading the world (again), but this time, some guy from the future brought back these tiny mechanical things called Exobytes that have somehow given over half of the population super powers, and I'm one of them. Pretty cool, right?
Oh, you want to know more about it? In better detail than me blabbing my mouth like some diary entry? Well okay, but only because you asked so nicely!
Alrighty then folks. Grab some popcorn, take a seat, and prepare yourself for the origin story of Vav Girl (that's me)!
The final bell of Metropolis High School had just let out, and the students were filing out, heading for home or the mall. One girl, in particular, was practically skipping to her home after bidding goodbye to her friends. Her name was Gwenyver Greenleigh, but she preferred to go by the name Gwen since it was easier on people to say.
The reason for Gwen's excitement was because it was Friday, and while other students were happy that it was Friday because it meant they had the weekend away from school, Gwen was excited about the day for a different reason. Since it was Friday, that meant her favorite animated T.V. show, Team Lads vs. The World, would be coming on later that night. Team Lads was a show intended for teenagers and older, which was why it was on at night. The show was about a team of three superheroes named Team Lads protecting their city from the world of evil.
Vav, one of the members of Team Lads, was Gwen's favorite character of them all, and she self-proclaimed herself to be his number one fan. She'd rather watch him (and the Lads) every Friday night, over going out with her friends to see a movie or watch a sports game. Her friends didn't understand her obsession with the fictional character, but they didn't bother questioning her about it, and simply accepted it (and made her agree to not rant to them about the show).
Gwen was half-way back to her home when she heard what sounded like a sonic boom. Looking upward, she saw strange black and yellow devices in the sky, specifically one of them being the closest to her. Gwen stared at the strange item in surprise, before her eyes widened upon watching the building (the Daily Planet) the strange item had been hovering over it suddenly get consumed in a purple energy-field. Curiosity getting the better of her, she ran towards the building. Before she was even 10 yards away from it, she was stopped by the Justice League attacking robots that had come from the Daily Planet.
"Oh wow," Gwen muttered in amazement.
John Stewart, who had been close by, noticed that their battle had gained an audience, and after sending one of the robots flying, he directed his attention to the people.
"Do all of you have a death wish? You need to get out of here now!" he ordered.
Gwen almost protested, almost, but she thought better of it when she watched John Stewart stop a missile from hitting her and the other civilians around her. Understanding that being a spectator wasn't as fun as it sounded as it did in her show, Gwen turned around and ran for home. Once home, she locked the front door and turned on the television, immediately going to the news. The local news helicopter was circling over the Daily Planet. The Justice League were still battling against the robots, but as the helicopter was reporting, more buildings were being surrounded in force-fields throughout Metropolis and Gotham. Halfway through the video feed, the image on the television screen began to fizzle out, and just before Gwen got up to give the television a whack on the side to fix it, the image cleared. On the screen was an alien with green skin, and Gwen immediately thought it was a Martian like the Martian Manhunter. When he spoke, however, the theory of him being a Martian flew out the window.
"Greetings, humans," the green-skinned being began in a mechanical tone that reminded Gwen of a computer. "I am Brainiac of the Planet Colu. I have come to claim your planet as mine, and to assimilate the data your Earth holds about the multiverse. Nothing you can do will stop me, as your heroes have already shown. Assimilation is your only choice."
As abruptly as the video had begun, it fizzled out, leaving Gwen shaken to her core. She didn't really understand what he meant by assimilation, but it was obvious it wasn't anything good. Any person coming to Earth to claim it as their own didn't make them a good person. The local newscasters were talking about the latest video, fear evident in their tones as they tried to make sense of what they had just observed.
Gwen continued to watch the news, even when her parents came home early. All three family members watched various scenes of buildings encased in the energy fields Brainiac had made, as well as many areas that had been destroyed by Brainiac's forces. Martian Manhunter came on an hour later to reassure the general public that the Justice League was handling the situation, and that they shouldn't be worried. Gwen found that easier said than done, but she didn't comment about it allowed. After a while, her dad turned off the T.V., unable to stomach the news any longer.
"Don't you have studies to do Gwenyver?" her father asked her.
"Yeah...kind of forgot about it with this whole alien overlord thing," Gwen responded. "Do I really have to do the homework though? I mean, I'm pretty sure this whole invasion thing means school's over, don't you think?"
Her mother frowned at her, still disturbed by the news but trying to look strong for her daughter. Or maybe she was just annoyed that her daughter was trying to make an excuse not to do homework.
"Until the Earth is destroyed you will continue to do your studies like it's a normal day, am I understood?" her mother demanded, her voice steady and firm.
Gwen deflated in her seat, pouting a little as she replied to her mother with a, "Yes ma'am."
"Good, now go to your room," her mother ordered.
Gwen sighed, but did as her mother instructed; she didn't want to earn her mother's ire, which was probably worse than what this Brainiac was attempting to do.
After an hour of schoolwork, Gwen was left to her own devices. She had turned on the T.V. for only a moment, but they were rerunning the images they had shown earlier in the afternoon, so Gwen had turned it off. Nothing new had happened, except that Brainiac's forces were multiplying.
"What does that green guy want with Earth anyways?" she asked herself, before remembering Brainiac had mentioned what he wanted from the Earth. "What the heck is the multiverse? It sounds sciency or something." She hummed a little, thinking about the situation before consulting her laptop. "Maybe the internet knows. I mean, that thing knows everything about everything, so it's got to be there."
After a few minutes of searching, the younger girl leaned back in her chair and heaved a sigh.
"Stupid me. Why did I even think I would be able to understand all that science lingo?" she questioned, placing a hand to her forehead and messaging the spot. "Now I went and gave myself a gigantic headache."
A loud noise from outside, that sounded suspiciously like a fight, made the girl nearly fall out of her chair in surprise. Rushing to the window that was located over her bed, she kneeled on it and leaned against her window, finding Power Girl punching a bot several times in the stomach. It looked like the heroine was winning, which was a major relief to Gwen. Sighing in said relief, the girl turned to her pillow, where her Vav doll was laying against. It was a gift from her grandmother; handmade and everything. She reached out and held it, glancing back through the window.
"It's okay Vav," she assured her stuffed doll. "The heroes will protect us, just like they always have."
The doll made no noise, and the duo continued to stare out the window, watching the match between good and evil until it was over and Power Girl flew off to handle another Brainiac bot. Seeing that the coast was clear, Gwen returned to her desk, the Vav doll still in her arms. With nothing to do and nothing on the T.V. but the news, Gwen took a glance at her cellphone, which she had ignored since arriving back home. Text messages and missed calls from her friends were what greeted her. All her friends were freaking out about the Brainiac invasion, and Gwen didn't feel like putting up with their hysterics, so she put her phone on silent and placed it back on the desk to once again ignore it.
She guessed she should be more worried about Brainiac trying to take over the world, but she had faith in the heroes. It was probably her bias towards superheroes thanks to her T.V. show, but she honestly didn't feel frightened. Worried, perhaps, but not frightened. If she thought more about it, however, she was positive she'd be as terrified as her friends were, so she didn't want to dwell on the matter for too long. She absentmindedly picked at the doll's hair, before turning it around and looking at it.
"Okay Vav. I've finished my homework like mom told me to, there's no chores for me to do because mom's doing them to keep herself busy, the T.V. is showing nothing but Brianiac's face all over it, dinner won't be for another two hours, and your show doesn't come on until later tonight. So what should we do to pass the time?" she asked the doll.
The doll, obviously, remained silent, staring at her with its sewn in facial features. Gwen raised an eyebrow at the superhero doll before leveling it with a glare.
"You're not helpful. I might as well die of boredom instead of by Brainiac," Gwen complained, sitting the doll back on her lap as she laid her upper body on the desk. "I guess surfing the internet it is, so long as the jerk doesn't cut out our internet...wait, how could he do that?...Oh well, so long as he doesn't do it, I'll be happy."
Gwen was getting ready for bed after the long day. Team Lads vs. the World had just ended, and it was an excellent episode from Gwen's standpoint. But it was now time to hit the haystack, and so, with her cellphone and Vav doll in hand, she got in bed. She normally never slept with her cellphone, but she was keeping it beside her just in case her family had to spontaneously evacuate; she wanted to have a way to get in contact with somebody if she were to get lost in that scenario. She placed it on vibrate, just in case one of her friends called because they were in danger and needed a place to stay, and it was fully charged, ready to be on the entire night. Giving her window a quick glance to ensure there was no immediate danger, Gwen said a little goodnight to her Vav doll and fell asleep, one arm holding Vav and her other hand holding onto the phone under her pillow.
While most of the world slept, and while most of the Justice League was out protecting the citizens, containers were shot from the Watchtower and exploded in Earth's atmosphere, releasing little nanites called Exobytes. The Exobytes moved swiftly through the atmosphere, and began to attach to the humans' DNA, affecting a little under a half of the population with their special abilities, none of them the same. Gwen was one of the many who gained Exobytes, but that made her a target for Brainiac, who had been monitoring the Exobytes the moment they broke Earth's atmosphere. Deciding he wanted those Exobytes back, and to not let them give power to the humans they had just taken host in, he began to round up many of the super-powered humans, including Gwen, and transported them onto one of his many harvester ships.
In the morning, some would awaken to discover they were taken by the evil Coluan, and some would never wake up at all.
So some notes to make. This chapter was a bit jumpy because I was trying to give a quick background, but the action starts in the next chapter.
Team Lads vs. The World is based on a group from RoosterTeeth's Achievement Hunter. They have three members who made three "alter-egos and they are part of the team Team Lads when they play video games together, which I have fictionalized for this story.
Gwen's appearance: Light brown hair that goes to her waist and blue eyes. Day attire: plain green v-shirt with black jeans and white sneakers. PJ attire: pink spaghetti shirt and white pajama shorts.