Reed had stormed off after that. Peter had made it perfectly clear that he was no longer welcome with the rest of the expedition.
"Sue, I won't hold you to your contract, nor you Ben, but let's be clear. People make mistakes, I've made plenty. I don't care, I cared he lied. If he covered up those accidents, what else has he covered up,'' Sue looked guilty at her hands while Ben's face was frozen in a hard rock face of anger.
"Reed just doesn't know better, can you give him one more chance?" and Peter shook his head,
"Sue, he caused at least four accidents, the red flags went up when I found out even Banner isn't banned from the campus he trashed. I needed to know." but it was Viktor,
"It is okay Miss Storm, While Peter may not, I will happily take the young Richards under my wing. He may accompany me, as we explore the ship further." and Peter shrugged, "I assume we are exploring further?" and Peter nodded.
"As long as Reed follows your instruction and doesn't touch anything I label as off-limits, sure," and Viktor smiled, "Sue, tell me now though" and she shook her head,
"Johnny?" and he shrugged,
"I uh, just came along for the ride. I was bored. I'll give that harness a shot though, can it fly? I mean, Iron Man can fly," and Peter huffed
"No, it can't fly. This version can't fly, but we're working on adding in a few modifications." or we are now Peter thought to himself.
"Well then," and Viktor threw away the dregs of coffee in his mug and stood, "I will find Reed and persuade him to accompany us, and well, Good luck Mr Parker," and Peter sighed and nodded.
While Reed wasn't a fan he had just split apart a group that had been together for years, even unintentionally and there would be fall out. It would be a barrier between Sue and Reed, and if Reed was as oblivious as she said, it might even break them up. Ben's face hadn't shifted, and even without powers, Peter knew that he was angry and betrayed at Reed's admission. It was one thing to lie about the accident but another to let the man follow him blindly acting on that assumption.
"Okay, the plan for today is to see if we can access the rest of the ship. From yesterday I doubt anything is working, but access will get us to the parts we need to strip. Shuri should send us some help to dismantle the ship and transport it to Wakanda," and the trio nodded, with very little enthusiasm. "Hey, it's fine, If you three want to take a day I don't mind, it's not ex-" but Reed stormed back into camp
"No," and he stood in front of Peter, "Viktor offered me a position, Ben one for you and Johnny too. Sue, I know Gwen promised you a researcher position but Viktor does have a bio-organic fuel department, and Peter did offer to let you out of your contract," but Sue stared at the cup of coffee in her hand,
"But it's not biochem Reed, and that is what Gwen is working on. I'd be working with Gwen." and as she stared at him, "Don't you get that?" and he shrugged.
"Still Parker Inc, still with him." and even Peter sighed.
"Dude, stop being an ass. She cares about you, and met me once, grow the fuck up."
"Peter, you're my boss, not my friend. Stay the hell out of this," Sue snapped and Peter shrugged and finished his coffee.
"Be at the entrance in the next hour." and walked away.
"See?" Reed pointed at Peter's receding figure, "he's interfering." but Sue moved and put a hand on his shoulder,
"I knew about the labs, Reed, but I didn't think you hid it from Ben. You need to apologise to him, and make this right." and Sue lifted her head and kissed him on the cheek, "we're fine, we'll always be fine. My job is just a job, you are important to me." and as she pulled him into her embrace "but I'm not quitting my dream job to work on biodiesel. Now Ben." and as she brushed the side of his hair with her fingers she smiled, "it'll be fine Reed."
Sue let go, and headed to the main entrance as well, leaving Johnny, and Ben alone with Reed,
"Yup, great talk" and as Johnny patted Reed on the shoulder, "don't screw this up, my sister is a lot more forgiving than he is." he heard to catch up to the pair.
"Ben I uh" but Ben shook his head,
"Did you save me because I was there, or because you wanted to?"
Redd was confused, "I saved you because it was right. I caused an accident, and I hid that from you but I didn't save you or lie because I wanted to, I saved you because it was right."
"And the lie?" and Reed looked at Ben
"I didn't want to lose my only friend."
Ben snorted and shook his head, a small grin creeping into the corner of his mouth, "I gotta say though, this harness, it's pretty great, you got a harness?" and Reed laughed,
"I'm sure I could make one. I mean, if Parker can build one, how hard can it be?"
Jackass, Peter thought to himself, I should steal your girlfriend just for that alone, and as he shook his head she smiled at Sue.
"Great, Johnny, is everything fixed?" and Johnny nodded,
"Viktor offered me a post. He's got a few cars for the European market that need test drives."
Peter looked at Sue, who shook her head, "You're a crash test dummy." and as she nodded, "Perfect, at least you're qualified," and Peter laughed.
Reed and Ben soon made their way over, and Ben rubbed the back of his head, "I uh, gotta decline Pete. Viktor offered me a job as well, and with Reed workin' there, I gotta take it. It's just you Suzie. I mean, gonna split up the family?" and as the guilt was laid on thick Sue hesitated for a moment.
"Why don't we actually finish this assignment, and you can decide once you're in New York," Peter said pointedly.
"Uh yeah, sure, Sorry Pete." Ben stammered. He was right though, This was still on his dime, and talking about jumping ship with their current boss was bad manners, even if he was just a kid.
Peter frowned "great, now. Once Viktor gets here, we can start" but Reed pointed to the entrance,
"Uh, Viktor already went inside." and as well as frowning Peter shook his head,
"Then, I guess we should join him, " not that he could do anything unless there were more symbiotes on Earth, he doubted that anything was able to access the ship's systems.
Viktor was pouring over Sues notes, and comparing them to a set of hieroglyphics on the furthest wall, "if Miss Storms notes are correct, I believe there are several hidden compartments, storing supplies and weapons. It might be an idea to secure them first before we open anything else. Anything with an active power core should be dealt with, as you said Peter, just in case of an accident." and while he didn't say it, they knew he meant Reed.
"Let me" and placing a hand on the table once more Peter accessed the ship's schematics once more. Almost immediately he was swamped by a barrage of error messages. The ship's engines weren't just offline, they were empty, and that at least meant no fuel for an explosion. He hoped. While the ship's schematics were available some of the words didn't translate through his symbskin properly, a world in the alien language with no English translation he figured and while he could guess it meant fuel, what the actual substance was, he had no clue. Looking for weapons as well, he found that the ship had some projectile weapons, he guessed were missiles of some kind but once more, the error messages he was getting indicated that nothing was volatile, and nothing was active.
"We're fine, The ship wasn't carrying any heavy armaments, and it must have been fissionable, as even the engines are empty." he caught a mild look of annoyance on Viktors face, but as everyone had their own agenda, he ignored it. As long as he wasn't a nazi hydra agent in disguise, Peter could understand wanting to be the first one to market with alien tech. He was having similar thoughts himself.
"Right, we've got cargo, medical, engine room is gone, and I mean gone gone not just shut off, and uh, something that won't translate into English but I think might be storage? It's small enough, and uh, whatever is in there is locked behind a," and he shrugged, "uru is the word I'm getting but nothing in English, some kind of metal I guess or alloy."
Viktor rubbed a hand on his chin, "can you call up the cargo manifest, or the last ship's log. See if we can find out what their last mission was." and Peter nodded,
"No journals, worth a shot," and without explaining he sought out the ship's black box.
"Right, escape craft, no passengers though, only a mineral? Maybe? I don't know. Other than the medical bay, which we're standing in, there is only the storage bay accessible right now. We'd need machinery to dig the rest of the ship out."
Peter was confused. He knew that Shaw and Selene destroyed a lot of the machinery here, but the cave in and the dust didn't look two thousand years old. When he plundered Shaw's mind, he didn't get anything saying that he'd been back to grab the tech. Maybe he did something to himself to stop anyone from finding out. It also explained where he got the cloning facilities from, and why the weapons and engines were empty, but then how did he? And it finally clicked. Harry. Monarch's ship, the shield generator and the spawning tanks. Harry had been here, and even Shaw didn't know. He was working with Shaw, and if he found out about the ship, he could access its systems.
"We're not the first here," Peter admitted. "I think Osborn came and grabbed everything he could, quietly so as not to alert anyone. That's why it's all gone, and well, it is all gone. When he tried to take over, Shield and I destroyed it all. Whatever is in that compartment is all that is left. Harry must not have known how to get to it, or it was under rubble and he couldn't."
Reed nodded, "Only one way to find out." and Viktor agreed,
"Open the chamber, and we can at least see what it is. A new mineral might be advantageous to us both. If there is enough." Viktor added.
Peter also agreed. If it was Vibranium then he could let them have it, Shuri made sure that Parker Inc got their share of Vibranium and from the size of the compartment, Peter knew it was barely a kilogram. As he accessed the controls, a series of hieroglyphs on the far wall lit up and the wall just melted, leaving an opening.
"Uh, neat" Peter said and Viktor stepped forwards,
"If I may Peter. While this is your show, I would at least like the honour of seeing the discovery first hand," and Peter shrugged and nodded.
"Sure, but I think it's either Vibranium or an alloy" and as Viktor peered into the room,
"And we are both wrong." and reaching forwards brought out a box.
The box was still shiny and smooth, with no apparent latch on any of the sides. Viktor held it in his hand, tilting it from side to side but there seemed no way to open it. As they all looked, the top split along the centre line and flipped open.
As the contents rose on a black material cushion the room was filled with an intense red bright light and as Peter tilted his head, his eyes went wide and he sprang towards Viktor,
"Don't!" he yelled but it was too late.
Viktor touched the red gem with one finger, and the world changed.
Stephen was reading from a book, giving Wanda a lecture on the different types of magic when the sanctum rocked. Not just a simple earthquake shudder, but the whole building seemed to tilt and then right itself
As Wanda picked herself up from the floor Stephen shook his head, "stay here, do not leave the sanctum or open any exterior doors or windows." and hurried away. Wanda dusted herself down and decided the safest palace would probably be with him and followed.
Stephen looked over a spell array. Its bright blue circles trailed and circled each other. And he cursed as he ran a finger over one. "There has been a dimensional attack. We need to wait until it stabilises and then we can see what has happened." but Wanda looked confused,
"Dimensional attack? But then how are we still alive?" and he sighed,
"What use is the Sorcerer Supreme if any attack on reality just erases them. The sanctum has wards that protect it, it's uh," and he frowned and nodded his head from side to side, "complicated. The sanctum technically exists within its own dimension, sealed off from the Earth."
"Wait, we're in another dimension?" and he nodded,
"Ite perfectly safe, but if we open a door, we let the wards down and it alters us too. So tea?" and he waved a hand and his favourite tea set appeared, "I'll pour."
Soon enough the blue circle indicating the wards shifted position and as he sipped his tea, he moved a hand over and spun one around, "It's safe. And it seems it was an Infinity Stone. My favourite." and Wanda looked at him,
"You know about the stones?" and he looked surprised,
"I'm more surprised that you do, care to explain?" and she looked guiltily at her cup, "I am your teacher you know, it makes it easier If I know what I'm dealing with," and Wanda scowled and sighed,
"Peter has the Mind Stone. But I did not think it could do that kind of thing,"
"It can't," and as Stephen waved a hand a pile of books appeared next to him, "start with the top one and work backwards," and Wanda took one.
"Uh, okay. What am I looking for?" and he smiled as he took the next one down,
"Simple. The easiest way to find what changed and when is not with a spell. You simply leave a selection of encyclopedias in a safe palace, outside the wards, and once the anomaly passes you see if they're still there. As they were, we now check each year, working backwards until we find out what changed."
Wanda was now even more confused, "but, if reality has been altered, how does that affect history?" and it was Stephen's turn to sigh.
"Of the six stones, there are two that are considered the most dangerous, the Power Stone, as it is just raw power, and the Reality Stone. See, while the Mind Stone, or the Space Stone, even the Time Stone can all be used for disastrous effects the Reality stone can affect all of reality, including space, time and peoples minds. Unlike the Time Stone," and Stephen waved his hands in front of it and the room was filled with a green light, "I can only alter events. So a to b to c becomes a to d to e. Anyone with the power to travel in time can reverse the events I created, but the Reality Stone can manipulate time itself, so rather than a, b, and c. It's x, y, and z."
And Wanda picked up the tome, "and we just check the difference in events until we find where reality changed."
Stephen smiled, and picked up a plate, "clever pupil, have a cookie." and as Wanda took one and bit into it, "but uh, please don't get crumbs in the ancient tomes, I think Wong was outside, and once he's back, he gets very grumpy about that kind of thing." and while Wanda brushed off the page, she rolled her eyes at him.
The pair sat in silence until Wanda stopped, "I found it. 1944. The events of the war are different. Right until the creation of Captain America," and she turned the book around to let him see.
Captain America, the results of a secret America Super Soldier Project.
The Ancient One.
A German scientist has made a startling discovery using a serum. I checked to make sure he was not dabbling in the dark arts, as so many of our German brethren have begun to do in efforts to aid their homeland. It is for all intents and purposes a simple chemical, but if his notes are correct then it will change everything.
During the experiment, a young technician, fleeing his home country, saved Captain Rogers and Dr Erskine from nazi collaborators. As a reward, I tracked the newly christened Captain America across Europe to the young man's home country. Latveria.
Saving it, and Europe from the Nazi's, Erik Von Duum was granted American citizenship, and with the help of Howard Stark began manufacturing Duumbots, a newly created robot army.
"See, I know this. During the war the nazis attacked Latveria and annexed it from the rest of Europe, they renamed it Sokovia and began to use it as a staging ground for the war efforts. Captain Rogers came in and liberated it, but like Germany, the European governments kept them separate, and Latveria fell into ruin." Wanda explained, "Captain America was saved, but we know Dr Erskine was not, he changed history, to change the future."
Stephen took the book, "that is more problematic than I had hoped. I can use the Time Stone, but unless you want to murder an innocent man, I would also have to deal with the Ancient One as well. There is nothing we can do for the cause." and as he closed the book and laid it back on the pile, "No, we need to find the Reality Stone right now, and use it to set things back the way they were."
"But how, we don't know anyone or anything about this new world. Even if we can find the Stone, how do we get it?" and Stephen gave her a small smug smile,
"Peter Parker has the Mind Stone. While I have many things I cannot tell you about the powers of each stone, or what knowledge the Sorcerer Supreme has, there is one thing I can tell you. If he has the Stone, then the Reality Stone could not have altered him. As long as he still has his powers, he'll still be the same."
"But Peter is not a sorcerer or an Augment. He was given his powers. If those events didn't happen, he would be an ordinary person, stone or not."
Stephen sighed and his brow furrowed, "The Mind Stone requires power to use. If he is a normal kid, then the Reality Stone would have changed him, we can still use that though. You have one of his creatures don't you?" and she nodded, allowing Hexen to cover her,
"We know the Peter, and we will help,"
"Good, Your memories of him, coupled with the Stone will be able to resist the influence of the Reality Stone. We'll need to bring him here though. There might be side effects of having two sets of memories, and he might not want to follow."
Wanda smirked and gave Stephen a look. "You think he can resist me?" and as Hexen shrunk into a scarlet mini skirt and form-fitting blouse Stephen shook his head
"You can't. For all we know, that will get you arrested for indecency," and Wanda nodded and Hexen became a set of more conservative clothing, a long skirt and cardigan over a top.
"I will still head out. We should be able to find him faster, as long as New York is more or less the same."
"I will remain here and see what else had changed. For all we know it could be a paradise out there."
Wanda paused and stared at Stephen with a shocked look on her face, "You mean, if it is better you would leave it?" and he nodded,
"Altering reality is dangerous, altering it back even more so. If the condition of the outside world is not worse than the world as it was, then yes I will leave it alone rather than risk destroying all of reality to set it to what it was."
Wanda was shocked, "no, what about all the lives that have been changed, or lost?"
Stephen shrugged and poured himself meow tea, "And what of the lives that have been made better and created? As Sorcerer Supreme I have to weigh the risks of complete reality collapse against those factors. Wanda, I'm not refusing to help, nor am I saying that I won't attempt to change it back. It could be a warzone out there, it could be a utopia. While we can pour over books, the only way to find out how bad it actually is, well, is to go out, and with two of us, I can stay here."
"Stay safe you mean?" Wanda said, huffing and crossing her arms.
"Yes, that and I have never met Peter, so you are the obvious choice. You know where he might be, or where any of his companions might be. I can search the whole city and not find him, you can look for five minutes and bring him here." Stephen put his cup down, "this isn't about staying safe. This is about the most practical and time-efficient way of dealing with the problem."
Wanda frowned, "I still don't like it." and she sighed, "but, you are right." as she checked her clothing, she took out her phone and set an alarm, "I will stay out for one hour. If I am not back, something has happened to me. Checking a phone book for a list of names should not take longer than that."
"Assuming the Library still has one" and Wanda raised an eyebrow at him,
"I can change my mind Stephen, and you can go." and he raised his hands in surrender,
"Okay, Okay, I will give you one hour." as he called up the control spells for the wards around the sanctum, Wanda prepared herself.
"I pulled them back, once you leave I'll extend them back around the whole building again, and see what changes have been made if any." and Wanda nodded, "And good luck."
Wanda pursed her lips, "I hope I don't need it," and turned and walked out of the study. She felt a slight buzzing against her magic as she walked through the ward but nothing changed. The rest of the house was still exactly the same as before but as she turned to tell Stephen she noticed the milky white bubble across the doorway. Half-heartedly shrugging Wanda made her way outside, and as she stood on the steps of Bleecker Street, she needed a few moments to compose herself.
To her New York was grey, and without admitting it, slightly depressing. She was used to fields and sight of evergreen trees, and the grey concrete of where Peter and the others lived was unpleasantly drab. This, however, was worse. The mix of architecture that dominated New York, from art deco '20s to modern glass and steel were all gone, replaced by uniformed blocks of either houses or offices. From the outside, their uniform concrete walls bore no difference. Even the windows all had uniform curtains and with no lights on in any window, it was impossible to tell what the inside was like.
The streets themselves were busy though, and the crowd flowed down the streets as if this was a normal New York day. Wanda cast an eye over the attire of women as they walked and Stephen had been right. Long skirts, cardigans or jumpers, and hats. It seemed like fashion had been frozen in the '50s and as Hexen shifted slightly her outfit changed into a more sedate brown and grey colour.
Suitably disguised, all she needed to do was find Peter, and then they could begin to fix things.
As she stepped off the small set of stairs she lifted her head as she heard,
"Unregistered Mutant Detected. Please Remain Calm, Citizen."
And the crowd scattered.
ความคิดเห็นย่อย
คุณลักษณะความคิดเห็นย่อหน้าอยู่ในขณะนี้บนเว็บ! เลื่อนเมาส์ไปที่ย่อหน้าใดก็ได้แล้วคลิกไอคอนเพื่อเพิ่มความคิดเห็นของคุณ
นอกจากนี้คุณสามารถปิด / เปิดได้ตลอดเวลาในการตั้งค่า
เข้าใจแล้ว