Hello there! Welcome to my first attempt at Avengers fanfiction - if you look at my account, you'll see that it is all Hobbit stories following one OC. But, I love Marvel almost as much as LOTR, and this character popped into my mind and I just had to write her story. I hope you love her as much as I do!
It was a bad idea. A very bad, very dangerous, very rash idea.
But Gwen didn't care.
The Avengers were attacking the base she was being held at - held at, trained at, experimented on at - and the entire place had been drained of soldiers heading out to hold them off. Pietro and Wanda had taken advantage of the empty halls and made their move to escape, and if they could do it, Gwen could do it.
Even if she was one person short of a duo.
She had to do it - she would never get another chance to escape Hydra. They had been impossibly careful in keeping her under lock and key, in making her behave in exactly the way they wanted her to, for three years. Their sudden lax in her personal security from their panic of the mighty Avengers attacking them was almost laughable, but Gwen didn't dare disregard how dang grateful she was that the team of heroes packed so much of a punch that it gave her the perfect opportunity to escape.
Gwen kept close to the ground, close to the thick tree trunks, and illogically moved toward the sound of gunfire. Her one ticket out of that blasted freezing forest was the one thing that could tear her security detail from her - The Avengers. If they knew she was running from Hydra, she was certain they would give her a lift - anything to hurt the Nazi organization. They were the only ones in the area she could trust to get her out of Hydras control, and she would never make it out of that forest alive on her own. It was too big, and she didn't have Pietro's super speed to get her out of there fast.
They had never been friends. Hydra wouldn't allow it, and even if they had, she had vastly different motives and morals than they did. She knew they wouldn't come back for her, and she didn't want them to anyway.
"Clint's hit!"
A woman's voice echoed through the trees towards Gwen, and she paused, listening. Soon, a roar and the sound of something being destroyed followed. The roaring grew more distant, meaning the Hulk had gone to find something else to destroy, but Hawkeye had been hit by whatever he had just smashed, and she wanted to talk to him or the Black Widow, not their raging friend.
Gwen adjusted her path and crept forward, being even more careful than she had been. It was risky, sneaking up on a master assassin, but everything else Gwen had done so far was risky, so what was a little bit more? Either she died by the Avengers, or she died by hypothermia, or she died when Hydra inevitably found her.
Her options were depressingly slim.
When she spotted the signature hair of the famous Natasha Romanoff, Gwen immediately brought her mind into using her powers. It was effortless now - day after day of training had made it second nature. Black Widow and Hawkeye - who was lying on the cold winter floor, bleeding from a wound on his side - would never hear her footsteps.
Gwen was practically in the clearing with the two Avengers before Hawkeye spotted her. His eyes grew wide and he made a move to get up, though his wound stopped him.
"Nat, behind you!" He yelled, grasping his side.
Black Widow spun around, gun steady in her hand as she pointed it at Gwen's head. Gwen froze, hands in the air, and thanked every god from every religion that the Black Widow didn't shoot first and ask questions later.
"Who are you?" Widow asked.
"My name is Gwen Merlin." Gwen was proud of how calm she sounded, even though her heart was pounding out of her chest.
"Where are you from?"
"Canada, originally." Gwen risked a small smile. "But more recently, Strucker's lab. I'm an experiment, if you will."
Hawkeye said something quietly so only Black Widow could hear, but Gwen focused in on him and picked up the question.
"Sonokinesis." Gwen answered before Widow could relay the question to her, earning shocked looks from both Avengers. "To sum it up I can manipulate sound waves. All that that entails is a little more involved, but I won't get into it."
"That's how you snuck up on us." Hawkeye said, an impressed little smirk on his face despite his pain.
Gwen nodded. So far, her plan wasn't going too badly. They were listening to her instead of shooting her, at least.
"Cool." Widow said, not as impressed. "So what's your story? Strucker sent you to kill us with your sonokinesis?"
Gwen pulled a face at the thought of Strucker and doing what he wanted.
Hawkeye laughed, then winced. "I'll take that as a no."
Gwen saw the flicker of annoyance that went through Black Widow at how lightly Hawkeye was taking the situation. But it wasn't an annoyance filled with animosity - it was more like a sister would get annoyed with a brother. Gwen knew that kind of annoyance well.
"It's a no." Gwen spoke before Black Widow had to repeat her question again. "Strucker kidnapped me when I was young. He experimented on me, trained me. There's no love between me and Strucker. The twins escaped, so I followed after them, and if you'll let me, I'd like to get a ride back to somewhere civilized with you."
There it was - the bare bones of her pitiful story up until that moment. She could have pulled so many pity cards, and all of them would've been true, but she didn't want the mighty Avengers to look at her like some helpless little girl that needed to be taken care of. All she needed was a ride.
Gwen stiffened as her powers picked up the sound of two people running toward her and the two Avengers. Seconds later she saw Black Widow and Hawkeye hear the same thing.
Thor and Captain America burst into the clearing, slowing to a stop when they saw Gwen. Hammer and shield were held at the ready. If Gwen wasn't desperate to get out of that frostbitten forest, she would have laughed at how cautious they were around her. She certainly didn't look like much of a threat.
"Who's this?" Captain America asked, looking from Black Widow to Hawkeye to Gwen.
Gwen saw the connection made in his mind. She shook her head almost violently. That connection would put her so far back in her plan. "No no. I didn't hurt him." She said, raising her hands to show once again that they were empty and unable to do any damage. That Captain America knew of, anyway.
"She's telling the truth, it wasn't her." Hawkeye spoke up from the ground. "This is Gwen Merlin. A Strucker experiment. She wants a ride with us."
There was an awkward silence, at least for Gwen, as the Avengers looked at each other, communicating without words. The hesitation was absolutely justifiable, and they didn't even know the full extent of what Gwen could do.
"First of all, we need to get Clint out of here." Captain America took the lead, breaking the silence. "Thor, you can take him back to the jet. Natasha, Banner needs the lullaby. Tony is on his way back to the jet with the scepter, and I'll deal with this."
The other Avengers nodded and took off as per Captain America's orders, and he stayed behind, looking at Gwen with vague curiosity.
Gwen crossed her arms, eyebrow raised. "I'm a this, hm?"
Captain America took off his helmet with a weary sigh. "Sorry. My words haven't been coming out right today."
"Apology accepted. I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on you when I'm asking for a favour."
"What's your story, kid? You don't seem like a threat to me." Captain America ran a hand through his hair and sat down on one of the big boulders that littered the forest. He gestured for Gwen to do the same.
Gwen obeyed as quickly as if she were trained like a dog. Eager to please - to get her ride out of there. "I'll give you the short version, because your friend is in rough shape. Strucker and my father were rivals. When he started getting up the Hydra ranks, he kidnapped my entire family to use in… various ways. Fast forward to now, I'm an enhanced individual that Hydra wanted to weaponize. But you've ruined those plans, because your attack gave me a window of opportunity, and now they don't have me. All I need is a ride and then you'll never hear from me again. Not a bad gig, if you ask me - ruin Hydra's plans in exchange for an extra passenger back to New York."
Captain America thought carefully about this. "Strucker will look for you."
"Then I'll kill him." The words left Gwens mouth a little too quickly, and she could tell by the look on the Captains face. "If he finds me. If he finds me, it's either me or him. If he doesn't, he can go on causing problems."
"Your family - are they still back there?"
Gwen took a moment to quell all the feelings that that question brought up. She had a feeling the Avenger already knew the answer, but he wanted to know the truth and hear it from her. It was the only way he would trust her.
"I'm the only one that survived Strucker." She blinked slowly after the words came out of her mouth. Her voice wasn't firm and determined as it was when she was asking for the ride. Now it was soft and shaky, and not as a pity card.
Captain America nodded, and Gwen could tell it wasn't sympathy on his face - it was empathy. He understood her pain.
"You can come with us. But I can't let you go on the run. Hydra has infiltrated more than we know. It isn't safe."
Gwen narrowed her eyes, shoving her sadness down to bring back her stubbornness. "And what exactly would you have me do instead? Get locked up? Have me pretend to me normal? Go to college? Or are you going to add me to the Avengers and use me like Hydra planned?"
The Captain opened his mouth to answer, but in that moment the Avengers jet flew over them, and a rope ladder dropped down.
"Is it a deal?"
Gwen looked from the jet back to the Avenger, and made her obvious choice. Whatever they would plan for her, she would work her way out of if necessary. Until then, she needed out of the forest. She took a breath and went to the ladder.
Captain America extended his hand. "Steve Rogers."
Gwen accepted it, then grabbed hold of the ladder and began the climb up to the jet. Steve was just below her. As soon as she reached the ramp, Thor was there to give her a hand inside.
"Are we a taxi service now?" Iron Man was in the pilots seat, looking behind him as the jet began to fly off by itself.
Steve hit the button on the ceiling of the jet to close the ramp, tossing his helmet on the floor. "Tony, meet Gwen Merlin. Gwen, meet Tony, Thor, Bruce, and you've already met Clint and Natasha."
Gwen stared at the jet full of superheroes, feeling more than a little uncomfortable. She hadn't really thought about how to interact with them on the ride, she had just known she needed one.
"So let me get this straight, Cap." Tony said, leaving his seat and picking up some gadget to fidget with. "You meet a random girl in the forest, and you decide it's best to kidnap her."
"He didn't kidnap me." Gwen spoke, crossing her arms as an act of protection more than trying to appear strong. "I just need a ride."
"What's your gig? I assume you have some sort of connection with Strucker." Tony looked meaningfully at her shirt, where a Hydra symbol was embroidered.
"I'm not with Hydra." Gwen said forcefully, holding back her anger.
"And how do we know you're not going to suddenly change your mind on us?"
"Tony." Steve said softly, tiredly.
Gwen didn't fault Stark for pushing her harder than the Captain had. It was a very real possibility that she was lying to them just to get close.
"Besides the fact that they turned me into a monster and killed my entire family? Well, one day I was… poking at Strucker about Hydras recent loss to the Avengers, and he gave me this." Gwen turned around and lifted her shirt, revealing an ugly, scarred Avengers 'A' burned into the middle of her back. "He had nobody else to kill, so he doused cigarettes in my skin instead."
The superheroes had already been quiet, but now it seemed even more silent in the jet. Gwen turned back around, taking in their horrified stares. She cringed, looking to the ground. There was the pity she had been trying to avoid.
"He said if I admired you so much I should show it." She lifted her hands and dropped it. "I don't know what else to say to convince you."
Tony contemplated this for a second before taking a deep breath and cutting the tension. "Alright. I believe you. But clearly Strucker didn't keep you around for company, so I'll ask again. What's your gig? Super strength? Invisibility? Flight-"
Tony stopped speaking. Or, more accurately, his voice stopped coming out of his mouth. What really happened was Gwen had stopped the sound waves coming from him before they reached anyone's ears. Tony grabbed at his throat, eyes wide. His mouth moved, with no result. He pointed at Gwen, and from his hand movements and the expression on his face she supposed he was telling her to give him his voice back or else - but she decided he could wait a little longer.
Clint craned his neck back, looking at Tony in confusion. "Did she just - did she just turn Tony's voice off?"
"... Yeah. Yeah, she did." Natasha said, leaning closer to Tony as if that would help.
Clint looked back at Gwen with approval. "You can stay."
And there we go! Chapter 1 is done and we are officially starting this journey. Please leave any thoughts, comments, or constructive criticism by hitting the review button! I'll try to update at least once a week.