grounded「peter parker.」

01

𝓼𝓱𝓮'𝓼 𝓪 𝓵𝓸𝓽 𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓷 𝓶𝓮

"How is she?" Steve Rogers asked as he entered Stark's lab. Valentina sat inside her cell, her arms wrapped in a straight jacket as she stares at the wall. The young woman, being restless for days, couldn't sleep without having nightmares. To be honest, Valentina feels nothing anymore. She feels... numb. Like she's letting what's inside her take over.

Steve took his gaze away from the poor lady when Natasha Romanoff spoke, "It's odd. There are no records of her, even from the destroyed Hydra base. I don't know if the girl knows what she's doing, but she deleted all documents they have of her."

"I don't want to say this, I shouldn't say this, but I, Tony Stark, a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, can't seem to figure out what's going on inside her," Tony stroked his chin as he narrowed his eyes at the unsuspecting girl. It was uncommon for Tony to not have answers, and this is one of those rare occasions. "I think it's a variety of something. Or everything. Have you guys seen the Powerpuff Girls? You know, when that professor just dumped almost all ingredients in those test tubes and poof, out came the three. Damn it! This is where Bruce should enter." Tony hissed.

Steve being clueless from what's Tony Stark's been saying, "What? So you mean?"

"She's a mixture of everything," says a woman who just entered the lab. "I don't know how her body took it. I can't even see through her, and I know she's not trying to keep me out of her mind. That's how powerful she is."

"So you mean...?" Natasha trailed off.

Wanda Maximoff nodded, "She's a lot stronger than me. She could even take us all down without breaking a sweat."

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Despite the disagreements of the team, Steve Rogers entered Valentina's cell unarmed. He claims he doesn't want to scare the young woman out and he wants to gain her trust. But he figured it would be hard. The girl won't even spare him a glance. It's like he's not there, invisible to her eyes.

"Hello," Steve gently smiled. "How are you feeling?"

The rest of the team was waiting anxiously outside her cell, some even combat ready in case all hell break loose. "Where is Nick Fury when you need him?" Tony mumbled, remembering the ex-director of SHIELD, which was taken down along with Hydra a few years ago. He usually interrogates potential threats, but with him in Europe doing God knows what, the Captain America has no choice but to take over. They shushed him, earning an eye roll from Tony himself.

"I'm Steve Rogers. But they," He ushered to his members listening to their conversation outside, "They call me Cap. What is your name?" He waited patiently for the girl to give him answers. Steve sighed, realizing that getting her to talk is a hopeless case. "Listen, I want you to know that you're in the safest hands. No one will hurt you, okay? As long as you're with us, you are safe. And you can trust us. We will figure out and help you control what's inside you, hmm? But we will need your cooperation. But we are not pressuring you. Just call for me if you want to talk." Once again, Steve smiled before standing up from his crouched position and proceeding towards the door.

"Wow. Who knew Cap's good with kids?" Natasha muttered, but fell silent when she realized the young woman inside her cell talked.

"Valentina Aleksandra." The girl finally answered with a hoarse voice. "They used to call me that. That's my name, I think?" She turned to Steve Rogers who has a confused look on his face. "Is it true? What you said. Are you going to help me? Are you not going to hurt me like t-they did?"

Valentina was never the one to cry easily. She remembered being a prisoner to Hydra's abusive hands and yes; they tortured her a lot of times and she felt like her brain was on fire for all the experimentations they did on her but as the days passed by, she became numb. But today, the powers lurking inside overwhelmed her, making her emotionally unstable.

"No, we are here to help you. See that guy over there?" Steve motioned to the clueless Tony outside. "He's smart and he can help figure out what's inside you." Tony smirked at the captain's compliment, planning to use it against him in the future.

Valentina lets her guard down around Steve. There's something inside her telling that she can trust him. She can only hope that her gut's not wrong. Finally, she's in the safe hands. For now.

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[a.n]

so valentina has lots of powers (which will appear further into the story) after years of being a lab rat. like basically, hydra injected her with almost everything. and she's lucky enough that the experimentations didn't kill her

but the consequences are, since there's a lot going on inside her, she finds it hard controlling them. she's a ticking time bomb, that's how she ended up being detected by the avengers' radar.

as for peter, he won't be making an appearance yet in the first few chapters :')

with love, rie