Edited: 11/07/22
Edited #2: 12/01/23
Edited #3: 08/04/23 

Edited #4: 17/09/23 

My brown hair hung in limp, oily strands in front of my face, blocking out most of my view. Not that there was much to see anyway. Everything around me was made from the same sterile white tiles; the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. Except for the door, though that was still a very bright white. The whole room was a Laboratory used for experiments.

I was Experiment B12. I didn't know the experiments before me that had the previous letters and numbers. I had never seen anyone else around here, except for the people who call themselves my 'creators', they were actually mad scientists. I didn't know much about them, except that they were part of something called HYDRA, and the 'bosses' were two men called Baron Strucker and Arnim Zola. They are the ones who have changed me into the monster I am.

I dragged myself out of my dull thoughts and moved one of my arms from its uncomfortable position, feeling the familiar zap of electricity from a cord attached to my arm. All the cords connected to my arms and back went through the jumpsuit I wore and were attached to numerous machines behind me. They zapped me whenever I moved, and although it wasn't painful, it was uncomfortable. The scientists told me it was so I didn't escape and hurt them and everybody outside of this horrid, white-tiled room.

I had tried to escape once, and I didn't even get far before I was gassed and thrown back into this cell. I never knew how long I was unconscious, I didn't have any concept of time here, and there were no windows or clocks in the room. I hadn't ever tried to escape again, even though I desperately wanted to get out. I just knew it was pointless. One of the bosses, Strucker, had persuaded me into thinking that I was better off here. He said that any small thing could trigger the monster inside me, and if I lost control, I could hurt someone or burn myself out. As much as I hated it here, if staying here meant keeping myself and others safe, then I would stick it out for as long as I needed to.

There was a bang outside the door of the cell, jerking me out of my thoughts again and I looked up a little bit, enough to not get zapped, but enough for my oily hair to move out of my face slightly. I looked up at the tiny glass slit that was near the top of the door, but nothing was visible through it, except the grey brick wall on the other side of the walkway outside. That glass slit was the only interesting thing in my life, I could see a little bit of the outside world through it. And by the outside world, I meant the grey brick wall, but it was better than looking white 24/7.

After waiting a couple more seconds for any signs of the cause of the bang, I hung my head again, concluding that the bang was probably someone dropping something. But barely a second after I finished my thought, another bang sounded. I looked up again, but there was still no one visible through the glass slit in the door. I waited slightly longer this time but when there was no third bang, I looked back down at my peeling fingers. I moved them around slightly, trying to stop the pins and needles running along them. There was another loud noise outside, but I didn't bother looking up. Maybe they finally had another experiment going and something was going wrong. I knew it was wrong, but I found myself wishing that one of the scientists was injured or maybe they had even died from something related to the noises outside.

I sighed quietly, wincing at the movement from my bruised ribs as I tried to stamp down my wishful thinking. The noise probably wasn't even from an experiment, someone was probably just being clumsy in the hallway.

Then my door handle rattled and I immediately stiffened, but I didn't look up as fear bubbled in my stomach. I knew who it was immediately, no one ever came to see me except the scientists. They were probably going to experiment on me, that happened a couple of times between when I woke up and fell asleep again.

I hated it when they experimented on me, they stuck needles filled with unfamiliar liquids into my arms while pinning me down with metal bands so I didn't try and get away. Or maybe they were coming to get me for training. That normally happened before the experimenting. They would poke and prod me, trying to get me to use my power for something. Sometimes they got me to kill people, hostages, I think. It was better if I didn't know who they were. I just went in, burned them to ash with the power of fire they forced inside of me and went back out again. It was easy if I did it emotionlessly. I was like that most days, like the life had just been sapped out of me. I couldn't remember the last time that I had shown emotion, except maybe fear, or even been happy.

At the thought of the scientists breaking me down, the fire monster inside me stirred and I felt my power tingle in my veins. The monster in my stomach wasn't an emotion, but I closely related it to fear or anger, so really, any tiny ounce of emotion that I did feel was negative.

The rattling of the door handle cut through my thoughts again and I looked up, confused as to why the scientists hadn't already opened the door. Then, through the tiny glass slit, I saw that it wasn't any of the scientists. It wasn't even anyone I recognized.

It was a male with slightly wavy black hair that fell just past his shoulders and green eyes that seemed to watch me with a mix of concern and surprise. He rattled the door handle again and mouthed something at me. I tried to figure out what he was saying and I slowly, realized that he was speaking in English, a language I hadn't spoken in so long. The scientists here mostly spoke in Russian. It was a language put in my head when I was experimented on, along with many other languages that I never used. I think they were meant to help me on future missions.

I focused my attention back on the new man at the door and slowly I realized he wanted me to open the door. I shook my head, wincing from the prickle of electricity. I knew that I couldn't get up to open it, not only because of the machines but also because the door would be locked.

For all I knew, this could be a test from one of the scientists for them to see if I was truly loyal to them. They did that sometimes and after the first couple of failed rounds, I slowly learnt.

The new man attempted to open the door handle again before disappearing out of the range of the glass slit. I blinked, waiting to see if he would come back, but when he didn't reappear, I looked back down at my pale, peeling hands, ignoring the electric prick in the back of my neck from the movement.

Then suddenly, something slammed into the cell door and knocked it flat onto the tiled floor, which had once been spotless but was now scattered with chunks of plaster. I scrambled back in fear, electricity pricking my whole body. I watched as the cloud of dusty plaster settled down, very slowly revealing a new figure standing in the doorway. He seemed to be built from solid muscle with a shining silver chest plate and a bright red cape that touched the floor, but it was torn in several places. My eyes drifted up to his face and I saw blonde hair hanging messily to his shoulders, framing his strong jawline. His blue eyes regarded me warily but were partly curious at the same time. He shifted his arm slightly and my eyes darted down to see a massive hammer in his hand. I scrambled back even more, knocking down one of the machines behind me and causing it to beep madly as it lay sideways on the floor.

"I think you're scaring her, Thor." A smooth voice interrupted my thoughts and the same man from the glass slit with the raven-black hair stepped around the side of the doorframe. He watched me with a cautious expression, but he seemed less worried than the man with the hammer, who must have been called Thor.

"We don't know what she can do, brother," Thor growled slightly, gaze flicking from me to the raven-haired man. He turned back to me and they both began to walk forward slowly, half crouched down, treating me like I was some scared animal.

"HYDRA could be capable of anything." Thor added. "It's probably best that she is wary of us." I bunched up my muscles, ready to jump away if they got too close.

"Careful Loki." Warned Thor, as the raven-haired man, who must have been Loki, crept closer to me than Thor dared.

"Since when am I not careful?" The raven-haired man, Loki, grinned and as he took another step towards me, I scrambled back a little more. Another machine behind me fell to the floor and Loki's eyes darted back to it and then back to me while Thor tensed up, ready to fight. I met Loki's eyes fearfully and he took a step forward again, but I only moved further backwards. I flinched as more machines fell over and I felt the monster stir in my stomach. I looked up at Loki and saw that he had frozen, not in fear but caution. He took another step forward and I bunched my muscles up, ready to scramble further away from him. I opened my mouth and hesitated for a couple of seconds before speaking up.

"Don't come near me." I rasped, my throat dry from dehydration. I coughed painfully and my ribs stung as my chest heaved, causing me to wince from the prickling pain. I clenched my fists at the thought of what the scientists did to me and the monster in me stirred slightly. I tried to stamp it down, knowing that if I couldn't control it, there was no way that Thor and Loki would be able to get out alive, and I wouldn't exactly come out best either.

"We won't hurt you," Loki said softly, almost soothingly. My eyes darted back up to Thor and the hammer in his hand. However, he wasn't even looking at me, but rather at Loki with a curious stare. Loki watched me carefully before slowly taking another step towards me, but I scrambled back even further, the crashing of machines and pricks of electricity feeding the monster stirring in my stomach.

"I'll hurt you." I pleaded in a raspy voice. I quickly looked over my shoulder to see how much space was left between me and the wall before I turned to face Loki again. I sensed Thor beginning to become agitated, constantly stepping into the hallway out of the cell to look down the hallway. I could faintly hear some fight going on further down the hallway, but I didn't pay much attention to it. Suddenly, I heard indistinct Russian being yelled, followed by heavy footsteps running towards my open cell door. Thor immediately stepped out and began to swim the hammer at what I assumed were HYDRA agents.

"You might want to hurry up brother." Thor warned, the sound of thumping bodies making me wince. Loki looked over his shoulder and sighed, his soothing face instantly disappearing as he glared at his brother.

"What do you expect me to do?" Loki demanded.

"I don't care," Thor grunted, throwing a HYDRA agent off him, and slamming him to the floor. "Just do it quickly, there are too many of them." A HYDRA agent leapt at Thor, who immediately retaliated by slamming his hammer into the side of his head, cracking open his skull and splattering blood everywhere. I wasn't unfamiliar with the sight of split skulls and blood, but it still made me uneasy.

I turned away from the still body of the HYDRA agent and closed my eyes, feeling the monster stir at the sight of the blood. After a couple of seconds of weakly trying to control the monster, I looked back up at Loki and instantly saw his eyes widen. Immediately, fear rippled through me. My eyes must have changed, it was a sign of the monster inside me trying to break through, and it tended to mean I didn't have much time until I lost control. Loki hesitated for a couple of seconds before beginning to slowly step forward again. I immediately shuffled away again, shaking my head at him in warning, the still-standing machines sending more prickles of electricity through my body.

"Please." I almost begged, my throat painfully sore. "Don't come near me. I'll hurt you."

"We just want to take you somewhere safe." Loki soothed, his face softening again as he continued to walk carefully towards me. I scrambled further away and my spine hit the solid tile wall, causing me to draw my knees up to try and get as far away from Loki as possible. Most of the machines I had been hooked up to had either crashed to the floor and were beeping loudly, or they had been pushed to the side. Although all of the chords were still attached to my body, I couldn't feel the pricks of electricity anymore, I was too focused on controlling the monster inside me, making sure I didn't hurt Loki or Thor. I may have only met them about ten minutes ago, but they hadn't tried to hurt me or make me do anything I didn't want to, yet. They didn't seem like any of the scientists either and the small naïve part of me wanted to trust them.

"Brother," Thor warned from the doorway, breaking through my thoughts. Both Loki and I looked up and saw him slowly being pushed back into my cell room by HYDRA agents. Loki sighed and looked up at me with an apologetic expression, which instantly caused fear to fill my body. He disappeared in a flash of green and I jumped, startled, seconds before he reappeared next to me in another flash of green. He suddenly grabbed my arm and I screamed in fear and partly in pain as he jolted my previously broken bones.

That contact was all my monster needed to break free, orange flames bursting out of my chest and filling the cell room. My vision swirled together and everything faded into black. 

AN: 

Well, there's the first chapter! How exciting! I'm so glad you made it to this point, I know its a long chapter, and a lot of reading, but they won't all be like this, don't worry! I'm so glad you could join this adventure, trust me, it's going to be a very big rollercoaster. 

Let me know what you think so far. Drop a sweet little vote, comment on your favourite part of this chapter, ask any nagging questions you may have and even feel free to point out any mistakes!