Chapter 40: 40: Breaking The World 1
Ten years ago.
"And this is what I call gravitonium. I discovered it in the depths of an excavation in Malta after theorizing its existence for years. People called me crazy and despised me, but now I am the one who—"
"Dr. Hall, let's get to the point," a serious voice interrupted Franklin Hall's out-loud thoughts. The man slightly furrowed his brow but nodded nonetheless.
"Sorry, I got a bit carried away. As I was saying, this is the element that will undoubtedly make humanity take a qualitative leap—a leap that will take us to the stars," he exclaimed with excitement, already imagining all the possibilities, the future!
"If there were enough," the voice made Dr. Hall snap out of his delusions. The man sighed and nodded with slumped shoulders.
"Yes... if there were enough," he looked at the element carefully stored behind a special container. More than ten years of searching, so many resources invested... and this was all there was.
"Listen, Dr. Hall, I know you hoped to change the world with this discovery, but often not everything we want comes to pass. It's disappointing, but clinging to the past is useless," Nick Fury approached the man, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"It's time to move on. It's time to use your knowledge for something different, something that will truly change the world."
Franklin Hall hesitated for a moment but finally nodded. Yes, maybe it was time to move forward, to fight for a better future... and to show everyone who underestimated him their place.
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There was a fluctuation. Earth's gravitational field suddenly experienced a "spasm." The seas stirred, the wind howled, the birds in the sky lost their balance for a moment, and the tectonic plates on the planet began to crack, causing small tremors to shake various areas around the globe.
"Huh?" Daniel blinked and looked at his cup of hot chocolate with a frown. Perhaps a normal person would have overlooked how the liquid inside it rippled, but he wasn't a normal person.
At the same time, he felt something change in the air? No... not in the air. It was in space.
Suddenly, one of the screens in his workshop lit up, and Lara's face appeared on it, causing Carol to exclaim in surprise.
"Mom?" Normally, Lara didn't make contact this way; she usually waited for them to visit the fortress and only then spoke to them if she had any matters to discuss.
Something that shouldn't be, considering Daniel and Carol had just returned from the fortress not long ago, and everything that needed to be said had been said.
Even though it was a hologram, the woman's face showed confusion as well as a certain degree of concern.
"Something is happening. The fortress's sensors detected a disturbance in Earth's gravitational field. It was only for a moment, but I think it's something that needs to be investigated," she said, then a three-dimensional map of Earth appeared on another screen, showing where the phenomenon she was talking about had roughly originated.
'So I didn't imagine it, huh?' Daniel set his cup of hot chocolate down on the desk and prepared to leave, changing into his heroic suit in an instant.
"I'll be right back," he said before leaving, but Carol spoke quickly.
"Maybe I should go with you?"
Daniel paused when he heard her. He remembered what she had said when the whole incident with Obadiah happened. He had told her he wouldn't let something like that happen again...
"Wear the helmet," he finally said before departing.
Carol blinked before smiling brightly, changing into her suit in an instant, and disappearing from the place.
Lara, who saw her daughter running after Daniel, couldn't help but sigh and put a hand on her face. Embarrassingly, her daughter reminded her of herself when she first started getting to know her husband.
"Should I do something?" Remembering the past, she couldn't help but think that maybe her daughter would need some help, just as she had received it back then.
There was another tremor, the gravitational field was disturbed again. Lara frowned. She would think about it later; for now, she connected to Carol's helmet, ready to provide her help and knowledge if the situation warranted it.
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Nick Fury thought he would die, crushed by hundreds, maybe thousands of tons of debris. At least that would have been more merciful than what happened to the doctor who had been with him. It happened so quickly that he almost missed it, but he still managed to see it, and Fury didn't think he would forget something like that anytime soon.
If he survived, of course.
His bones creaked as he felt a crushing pressure bearing down on him from all directions—above, below, outside, and even from within—a pervasive force that sought to turn him into pulp, a truly unpleasant sensation.
"YOU!" There was a thunderous roar filled with rage, and a pair of eyes glowing with electric white light stared at Nick as everything around him was destroyed.
"H-Hall, s-stop!" Fury said, though it was incredibly difficult. The air in his lungs felt like water.
Dr. Franklin Hall breathed heavily as he looked around in confusion. Where was he? What was this place? His mind was in disarray, memories, and fragments of the past assaulting him while two words kept repeating in his mind.
"Project Graviton..." he muttered, and the trembling ceased as Nick felt the pressure on him lessen slightly, allowing him to breathe once more.
"What happened to my project, Fury?!" Then the pressure returned.
"Argh!" He heard something crack, undoubtedly one of his ribs.
Alarms flooded the base. Above them, the entire Triskelion trembled, cracks spreading throughout the facility, threatening to bring everything down.
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and personnel began to evacuate in a hurry, not knowing what was happening as panic swept through the place.
It was at that moment that, like an invisible wave in the form of a shockwave, the entire place was ravaged by an immeasurable force.
The Triskelion's main building was reduced to rubble in an instant, and everything around it was repelled without restraint, causing hundreds of people to be killed in an instant.
Rising from the underground, Franklin Hall forcefully made his way to the surface, looking at the now clear sky with a barely conscious Nick Fury floating beside him.
"This is my power? Ha... hahaha!" His laughter filled the area as excitement surged through every fiber of his being.
"It was a success! Gravity is now under my control!" he shouted, and the entire place trembled once more.
"What do you think, Fury? More than just a mere super-soldier, don't you agree? Now I am one of the fundamental forces of the universe! Now I can change the world! Lead humanity toward an unimaginable future!"
Fury coughed, saliva mixed with blood. With difficulty, he looked at Franklin Hall and couldn't help but laugh, causing the man to frown at him.
"What's so funny, Fury?" Hall waved his hand, making the S.H.I.E.L.D. director float closer to him.
With a smile on his face, Fury dropped the communicator he had managed to reach a few moments ago and looked at Hall with mockery.
"The world already changed, Hall, and it did so without you."
Franklin blinked in confusion, then laughed, considering it an empty threat. Now nothing could stop him; he was invincible. Fury's tricks were useless.
"I hope those last words were worth it," he smiled and, channeling his newfound powers, began to increase the gravity on Fury's body, ready to crush him to death.
"AHHRG!" Fury gritted his teeth, feeling his bones being crushed along with his flesh and organs.
He was going to die.
"Let him go!"
Then the world turned upside down.
Franklin Hall's eyes widened when he felt a powerful blow impact his gravitational shields. His body was sent flying uncontrollably, his vision blurring for a moment due to the disorientation.
He gritted his teeth and, unleashing more power, forced the surrounding gravity to obey his command, stopping his body in mid-air. Then he looked in the direction from which the blow had come, and from the clouds of dust that had risen, a figure emerged, floating in the air just like him, with a long dark cape billowing in the wind.
"What?" he looked at the man facing him, bewildered.
"I don't think I need to ask, but I'll do it anyway, just to be sure," the man pointed to the ground, where hundreds of thousands of tons of earth had been forcibly displaced, crushing everything within a radius of hundreds of meters.
"Did you do this?" Faced with the obvious question, Dr. Hall, though puzzled by the strange appearance of the man, responded sincerely.
"Yes, and this is just the beginning. Soon the whole world will witness my power." The arrogance in his words was evident, as well as the madness in his eyes. The power had completely gone to his head.
"I see..." a gloved fist clenched.
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Nick Fury was plummeting toward his imminent death, a strange sensation given that just a moment ago, he had also been on the brink of dying. Then, he felt someone suddenly grab his arm, halting his fall and pulling him to the side, allowing him to rest against the ground.
His vision was a bit blurry, but he could still make out the "D" on the suit. Relieved, he decided it was time to rest a bit. He would deal with the consequences of all this later.
"He passed out," Carol said, frowning as she looked at the injured man. With her X-ray vision, she could see multiple fractures in his bones as well as numerous internal injuries.
"You'd better take him to a hospital as soon as possible if you don't want him to die from internal bleeding," Lara commented through the helmet, making Carol frown. She looked in the direction Daniel had gone and hesitated for a moment.
"That boy will be fine. Haven't you always said he's very strong? Trust him and do your part. Be useful and start helping everyone who's still alive, starting with this man and then all those people buried under the rubble," her mother said with a firm voice and a touch of reprimand.
Carol almost clicked her tongue but still obeyed. Her mother was right—Daniel could probably handle it. Instead, if she stayed doing nothing, She would only prove to be useless, something she didn't want at all.
So she took Nick Fury and began flying toward the nearest hospital.
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Tony had been having a good day, all things considered. It started with the sun rising over the horizon and a hot cup of coffee served personally by the hands of his lovely secretary, Pepper. With the company back in his hands, Tony had been spending a little less time in the lab and a bit more time fixing all the mess Obadiah had left behind.
Moving their headquarters to a new location, firing and hiring new staff, getting rid of all those weapons, and providing aid to the people affected by Stane's malpractice... there was a lot on his plate.
Fortunately for everyone, Tony was a genius and managed to take care of it all in record time. Of course, it helped that he now owned almost all the shares of Stark Industries, and therefore, the board of directors was entirely under his control, allowing him to act as he saw fit without any complaints.
"So, I think you should get a promotion, you know, help me run everything," he said, looking at Pepper across from him. Convincing her to go out for breakfast with him had been extremely difficult, but no one could resist Tony Stark's charms for long.
She looked at him with a bored expression.
"Tony, I already help you run everything."
"That's not true," he tried to counter.
"Can you tell me the name of your accountant? Or maybe something simpler, like your Social Security number?" At her questions, Tony was silent for a moment.
"Gary? And I'm not even going to try answering the second one," he sighed. Well, she was right; he relied too much on Jarvis and her for many things.
"I'm just saying maybe you deserve to be more than my assistant. How about Executive Vice President? How does that sound?" he said, expecting surprise, but instead got only a sigh.
"It sounds like more work, Tony," she gave him a tired smile, and only now did Tony notice the small wrinkles under her eyes.
"Yeah, maybe you're right. I'm sorry, Pepper, I—" Of course, he couldn't finish his apology because, at that exact moment, of all times, the damn place started shaking, and an alarm that should only sound in emergencies went off.
Just great.
Tony frowned and quickly raised his left hand, where a new and shiny watch—black with gold accents—was located. He pressed one of its buttons, and a projected screen appeared. Although there were no images, the audio that played made him stand up instantly.
"I'm really sorry, Pepper, but I have to go," the woman looked at him with concern, and before he left, she held his hand for a moment.
"Just be careful, alright?"
Tony smiled, giving her a confident look.
"Don't you remember, Pepper?" he asked as the sound of the air breaking outside the building was heard, followed by the sound of something heavy landing moments later.
Everyone in the restaurant gasped in amazement as they looked out the windows, their astonishment growing as heavy footsteps began to approach, and a tall shadow entered the place.
Tony winked at Pepper as his armor arrived behind him, and with the sound of the highest technology machinery, it opened up to let him inside.
"I am Iron Man."
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Peter Parker was having a strange day. One that started with a very strange morning.
The sun was just beginning to rise when the urge to pee hit him hard. Still half-asleep, Peter tried to jump out of bed as he always did, only this time something happened.
Something amazing.
Before he knew it, he was looking at his room from an elevated position. Confused, he tried to clear the sleep from his eyes before looking again, only to realize that nothing had changed, and in fact, he was on the ceiling.
"What the hell?"
Was this some kind of lucid dream? Without being able to help it, he tried to imagine two beautiful women, one with dark hair and one with blonde hair, both in his bed covered only by their blankets.
It didn't work.
Frowning and not knowing how the heck to get back to the floor, he did the only thing that came to mind: he tried to jump onto his bed.
It wasn't a great idea; he didn't even try. He barely moved his bare toes against the wall, and it was as if he had been launched by a high-powered catapult.
His body flew through the air at great speed, or at least he thought it was great speed because, from his perspective, everything seemed to be in slow motion, very slow motion.
In disbelief, he had to watch helplessly as he was about to crash headlong into his mattress.
Well, the only fortunate thing was that he didn't make a living with his face, which was about to get ruined.
Until it didn't. Automatically, his body twisted skillfully in the air with supernatural grace.
Peter blinked in amazement as he saw himself now perfectly balanced on the headboard of his bed.
"Okay, this is weird, amazingly weird."
Carefully, he got down to the floor and stood as a normal person would, then looked at himself.
"Huh? The floor is lower than I remember." No, the floor was the same; it was him who had gotten taller, several centimeters taller, in fact.
And his clothes were now tighter. It wasn't uncomfortable, but he could feel it, and without being able to help it, he flexed his arms slightly, causing the sound of tearing fabric to fill the room.
"Oh… This was my favorite shirt," he lamented, seeing the rips in the fabric caused by muscles he didn't remember ever having.
What had happened to him?
Confused, he headed to his bathroom to relieve the pressure in his bladder that had woken him up in the first place. But as he was about to grab the doorknob, he remembered what had happened to his clothes.
"You won't break, right?" he asked the air sarcastically. Clearly, that was impossible; the bathroom door knob, though a bit old, was made of steel and not some cheap metal like aluminum. Even a hammer would have trouble leaving marks on it.
Confident, Peter reached out and squeezed.
There was a crunch, and the bewildered boy looked down again, only to find the steel crushed between his fingers as if it were clay.
Incredulous, Peter made his way to the bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror with bewilderment.
"Where are my glasses? No, that doesn't matter right now." In a rush, he began undressing, taking off his clothes in record time, then studied his body carefully.
"Well, this isn't so bad." Putting everything else aside, having a six-pack was definitely a gain.
While Peter admired himself, he didn't notice how his shirt, which he had tossed into the sink, began to twitch as if something inside it was moving.
It didn't stay out of his attention for long, though, because Peter noticed it out of the corner of his eye as the movement intensified, twisting the fabric noticeably.
Confused, he carefully approached and saw how, from within the bundle of fabric, two hairy legs and eight dark eyes emerged into the light, reflecting his face.
There was silence.
"AHHH!!" Peter screamed.
"Chiiii!" the spider screeched.
The large arachnid leaped into the air directly toward Peter's face.
Had it been a normal person in his place, they wouldn't have even had time to react to the high-speed movement the spider executed.
But Peter was no longer a normal person.
Acting purely on instinct, his hands moved, and his palms clapped together, intercepting the spider with force.
The air exploded, shaking everything in the bathroom as if a gale had taken place right then and there.
"Ugh," Peter grimaced as he saw green liquid oozing between his hands. Trembling, he opened his palms to see that the strange-looking arachnid that had been in his shirt was now nothing more than a deformed, crushed pulp.
"Sorry?" he apologized, though he wasn't exactly sure why.
Wait, a spider?
Where the hell had it come from, and why was it so strange?
Although he only looked at it for milliseconds, Peter still remembered the appearance of the arachnid perfectly, and even though he wasn't an expert on such creatures, he could still recognize that there was something very strange about it.
After all, spiders shouldn't be glowing in red and blue colors, right?
Not knowing what else to do and with the spider now dead, the best idea he could come up with was to find a clean container to store its remains so he could study them later—a difficult task since his hands were occupied.
"Everything okay in there, Peter?" his aunt's voice called out, sounding somewhat concerned, and only now did he remember that he had made quite a racket when he killed the spider.
"Yes! I mean, everything's fine, Aunt May! I just knocked something over by accident when I went to the bathroom; I'm already cleaning it up," he quickly came up with an excuse.
There was silence for a moment.
"Alright, I'll start making breakfast," his aunt finally seemed to leave, making Peter let out a long sigh of relief.
"Alright, time to hide a body." That sounded more sinister than it actually was.
Fortunately, Peter was something of a science nerd and had several chemistry kits with sterilized containers for preserving certain substances, which came in very handy on this occasion.
He finally stored the spider's corpse in his small personal freezer along with other chemical samples and began searching for clothes that fit him—a difficult task since everything now seemed too tight.
In the end, he had to settle for an oversized hoodie that barely concealed his new physique.
He then went downstairs, hunched over to disguise his newfound height, and greeted his aunt in the kitchen while noticing that his uncle was already seated at the table, reading the newspaper.
Not wanting to draw attention, he sat in his usual spot, waiting for breakfast.
"You seem to be feeling better," his uncle said, lowering his newspaper and looking at him.
"Huh? Yeah, I actually feel really good, better than ever," Peter replied, setting aside all the weirdness. His new body made him feel incredible.
"That's good to hear, Peter. After all, it's the weekend, and the house needs some repairs, so why don't you and Ben spend some time working on that together?" Aunt May suggested as she approached with breakfast ready.
"Oh? That sounds exciting, don't you think? Maybe it's time I teach you how to fix a pipe."
Peter almost sighed at that. Well, fixing things with his uncle wasn't so bad, but...
"Actually, could I have this weekend off?" he asked somewhat sheepishly, surprising both of them.
They exchanged glances for a moment before Ben spoke.
"Well, if you have something to do, I don't see why not. You haven't had many weekends off, after all." Peter was a well-behaved kid. He always did all the chores assigned to him, sometimes even going above and beyond. His grades were excellent, and he'd never had any trouble at school.
Letting him have a day for himself was a small ask when you considered everything.
"Thanks," Peter smiled. He hadn't really had anything to do until this morning, but now he needed to figure out why he had changed, where that spider had come from, and if its appearance was related to his transformation.
Of course, all plans go awry when something else interferes. Something unforeseen.
Peter felt everything around him slow down. The hairs on his body stood on end, and a sensation like a warning bell flooded his mind.
Something in the air had changed. He didn't know how he knew this, but he did.
With concern, he watched as the liquids in the glasses on the table began to ripple, then noticed how dust started falling from the ceiling.
An earthquake? No, it was something else.
Without knowing why and following an instinct unlike any other, Peter turned toward the dining room window, which gave a direct view of the Browns' house next door.
One moment, the house was there, just as it had been for as long as he could remember. The next, it was gone, ripped from its foundations in an instant...
Peter would have been more horrified if he didn't know that the Browns were out of town on family business, though now he doubted they'd ever be coming back.
'No! Focus,' he thought. Even with everything moving in slow motion, Peter stood up and, without hesitation, took his aunt and uncle in his arms. If their house was going to go flying too, he didn't want them to be inside it at all!
With grace and superhuman agility, Peter shot out through one of the windows, landing outside the house just in time to see a truck plow through his dining room, leaving a massive hole behind.
Good news: his house seemed to have strong foundations; it hadn't been blown away.
Bad news: a truck had decided to, and his house was in the way.
"Well, on second thought, I think I might stay and help with the repairs..."
At his words, his uncle and aunt, who were completely bewildered and clueless about what had just happened, looked at their home in disbelief.
Peter decided to let them process it while he looked up. There, in the sky, countless debris was flying through the air toward what could only be described as an unnatural phenomenon resembling a cyclone, pulling in countless objects of all sizes and weights.
Uh, maybe it would be better if they started running.
The end of the world seemed to have moved up its premiere date—those lying Mayans! Didn't they say it would be in 2012? With strange thoughts like those, Peter grabbed his uncle and aunt and, without hesitation, began to lead them away.
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