The Pink Ghost

Five

Hours after Gwen finally calmed Bucky and Tony down and helped the team put the lab back together, Bucky was back in Tony's chair, with supervision from Steve and Sam. Bruce and Gwen were back in their own corner with Bruce running new tests with Gwen's newfound abilities.

"How did you figure out how to do that?"

"I didn't, honestly. Watching the two go at made me panic. I didn't want my friends fighting, it worried me that one of them would get severely hurt. The overwhelming feeling made me feel like I could burst, so I screamed at them to stop. That's when the pink rope-like beams shot out of my hands." She answered and then asked a question of her own, "How did you know that one word would make me the one to control the soldier?"

"Hydra's notes. Tony has them now, all I did was read through them as fast as I could. Luckily, Jarvis was able to translate Russian for me."

"So, whoever speaks that last word controls him?"

"I didn't even know that." Bucky added. "It's only ever been one person to speak the entire activation. Never has more than one person tried. Thank you, Bruce, for thinking to try."

Bruce smiled at Bucky, "We're going to get those trigger words out of you, just be patient with Tony."

Hearing his name pulled him from his concentration.

"What Hydra did is very extensive. You said they wiped you over and over?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. They'd wipe me, give me a mission, wipe me again and freeze me."

"I'm seeing why it took so long for them to gain control." Tony was poking around in a hologram model of Bucky's brain.

"What's that?" Bucky asked, watching Tony.

"Your resistance to the mind control was so high because of the serum. Its regenerative properties were causing the damage the machines were doing to you to heal faster than I'm sure they thought they would. I'm thinking that's how Gwen pulled you out the first time."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"Well, Hydra used that damn chair for electroconvulsive therapy. Only, this wasn't therapy. It was torture. The amount of voltage used on him should have killed him instantly. It burned away at the pathways to his personal memories. Not only was it wiping his memories, it was preparing his brain for the brainwashing process. They'd wipe, freeze, wipe, freeze, wipe and then work on implanting the trigger words."

"That tells us nothing about Gwen pulling him out, Tony." Sam mumbled.

Rolling his eyes, Tony glared at Sam as he continued, "There's only so much the brain can withstand. Somewhere, somehow, he held onto Gwen and Steve. It took longer than anyone would have liked, but if Hydra truly wiped him, she never would have pulled him out. Maybe you were right about the connection the three of you have."

Tony nodded to himself then turned back to his holograms.

Bruce took the silence as his change to get back to Gwen. He continued with his tests, "From what I witnessed when walking back down the stairs with everyone, it looked as if you created a protective barrier, a force shield to be frank. It seemed to have electromagnetic particles. If you don't mind, I'd like to take you outside and see what else you think you can do. Would you be up for that?"

"Sir, do you think that's safe?" Peter asked grabbing the attention of Gwen and Bruce. He didn't want to chance her getting hurt.

Gwen smiled and reached out for him to come closer. Standing next to Gwen, she smiled up at him from her seat, "Sooner or later I have to know what this serum did to me. Banner is the best person, besides Tony, to do that for me. For the team. If there are other things I can do, I need to learn to control them. I don't want to hurt any of you." She explained.