Chapter 18

A couple of months passed and my relationship with Carol had advanced more. I was really happy to know she did feel the same way about me. We still took things slow and were slowly starting to go further when we're together. I don't know why I feel so different when I'm around her, but I always get nervous and stiff. She could see that and would usually take the lead on things. Wendy is practically finished with the project which I dread when the day would come. I have been trying to think of a way to talk to Carol about it, but I always get sidetracked.

I was inside my lab checking the status of how everything was going. I asked Wendy if she was okay with me using her lightspeed technology. I wanted to have the ability to travel space. She let my nanites go inside her ship and copy everything. Astrid took it from there and was able to replicate all the information and structure of the spaceship and the lightspeed engine. We couldn't flat out make one since it required a lot of resources, but Astrid suggested making a small ship. It would essentially be a mining ship that would travel to asteroid fields and the nanites would have resources for them to manufacture other materials we need. The ultimate goal would be to create a space station and start building a warship but that's not really happening anytime soon.

I asked Astrid to search for people to recruit eventually and to keep an eye out on certain individuals. I have noticed that my memory has become somewhat scrambled and it's been rather difficult to remember events from the comics and movies. I luckily told Astrid everything I could think of so she would be able to assist me.

Astrid had made several improvements to her body and I was curious to see how I would fair against her. I asked to spare with her, and she happily agreed. She was also curious to test her capabilities.

"Ready?" I asked as I crossed my arms. We were in the training room in case things got out of hand.

"Ready," Astrid replied. I nodded and she took off running at me.

I flicked my head to the side and her body was sent flying. I wanted to see how she adapted to different situations. I had used the magnetic properties of her body to move her. She was able to control herself midair and landed safely. I narrowed my eyes when her body shifted a bit and she started to sprint at me again. I tried to feel the magnetic field around her but couldn't feel anything. She took this chance put her hand up and fired a pulse beam at me. I released my energy to create a force field around me and the pulse beam hit the field. She took this opportunity to get out of my line of sight. Once the beam dissipated, I found her above me, and she launched herself to me by activating her thrusters. I barely had time to stop her, so I braced myself and got ready to absorb the impact. Just before she hit however, she rotated to avoid me and got behind me. The impact was absorbed by the ground behind me and as I was turned, she brought her hand towards me. Her hand changed into more of a spear and stopped at my chest.

"Impressive," I said smiling.

"Thank you. If it wasn't for your healing factor, I could probably beat you," Astrid said smiling.

"True, but I bet you already thought about how to deal with that," I said with a smirk.

"Are you meeting with Carol today?" Astrid said as she turned around and started to walk towards the exit. I chuckled and followed her out.

"I am," I said.

"Nervous?" she asked.

"Very, but I have to ask her," I said.

"Good luck. I'm going to continue working on the other projects," Astrid said and went to the direction of the lab.

I sighed and prepared myself to speak with Carol. I channeled my energy and teleported to my office.

"AH!" I heard a voice scream when I teleported. I thought it might have been a random person inside my office, but I usually lock it and I can think of only one person who would access my office. I turned and saw Wendy on the ground.

"What are you doing down there?" I asked smugly. I knew I probably startled her.

"You know why!" she responded with her eyes narrowed.

"Have you seen Carol?" I asked.

"Yeah, she's in her usual spot," she said, and I left the office. Carol always went to her plane to make sure everything was operating properly.

I made my way to there and found her just finishing up. I looked at her as she was exiting the cockpit and couldn't help but stare at her figure. When she turned around to look at me, she smirked because I was still staring.

"My eyes are up here," she said with a smirk.

"Sorry," I said and accepted the fact that I got caught.

"Are you free? I was thinking maybe we can go eat some real food for once," Carol said.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk with you," I said.

"That doesn't sound good," she said with a frown. I gave her a half smile.

"It's important," I said. We got into a taxi and got dropped off at a mall nearby. Carol was pretty anxious and so was I. I grabbed her hand and walked towards a coffee shop. We sat down after we ordered.

"So, I'll start with saying I haven't been complexly honest with you," I said slowly.

"You're not really a lesbian?" Carol asked jokily.

"What? No, I am," I said confused but I got that she was trying to make the atmosphere less uncomfortable.

"I-I haven't told you the truth about me but before I do, everything I've said about my feelings towards you are true," I said sincerely.

"My real name is Lydia Howlett," I said slowly and looked at her. I didn't have to be a mind reader to know what thoughts were racing in her head. Am I a spy? Why lie? I saw her eyes quickly scan our surroundings to see escape routes.

"Do you know who founded Howlett Enterprise?" I asked. She looked confused at first and then realized the connection.

"Lydia Howlett. But that's impossible. She's dead," Carol responded.

"Do you know what mutants are?" I asked.

"Yeah, I remember reading something about the incident in Egypt," Carol said.

"Well, I am like one of them except I have more abilities. One of them being the ability to heal which prevents me from aging," I said. Carol was stuck trying to process the information I was giving her, so I decided to continue explaining. I expanded my aura to everyone around us to make sure they couldn't see or hear us talking.

"And the other abilities?" She asked. I extended my hand out to her and she stared at it for a couple of seconds with suspicion until she grabbed it. I teleported us to my home in the grass field. Carol stumbled on her feet and looked around to figure out what happened.

"I can teleport as well," I said.

"This is my home," I said smiling and motioned to the area around me. Carol had her mouth open from the information she was processing.

"H-how is this possible?" she asked.

"I told you, I'm a mutant," I said. She sat there quietly for some time and I wanted to hear her thoughts, but I didn't want to invade her privacy.

"Are you a spy?" She asked.

"No," I replied quickly. I could guess she was trying to figure out if I was a threat or not.

"Explain," she said as she crossed her arms and stared at me. I knew this look all too well. She was not playing around now.

"I was born 1832 in Canada. I have two older brothers who have the same ability as me. We're not really talking anymore after a fight I had with one of them," I said sadly.

"I traveled through Europe and later came to here. I create my company and have been here ever since," I continued. I stopped talking but Carol just kept on staring at me. I sighed and continued to explain more.

"Over the years, I gained a lot of new abilities. If I am able to inject myself with the blood of another mutant, I can gain their abilities. I knew who to target from another ability I have. It's a form of precognition. I can see multiple futures that could happen," I finished saying. Carol looked at the ground near her feet for a few seconds until she looked at me again.

"You could have not told me. Something is going to happen isn't it?" she asked. I smiled at her quick deduction.

"Yes," I said with a frown.

"So, what's going to happen to me?" she asked.

"You are going to be in a plane crash. You and Dr. Lawson will be in the plane. Dr. Wendy will die but you will survive," I explained. I could see in her eyes that she was processing it. She then gulped and moved her hand through her hair from the front to the back and then started laughing.

"This is some crazy dream. Jen's gonna get a kick out of this one," she said laughing. I sighed and started to walk towards her. She was still laughing when I got close to her, but I reached out with both my hands to cup her cheeks and leaned in. I let go of the feelings I've been holding back and put it all in that passionate kiss. She realized what was happening and broke the kiss after a couple of seconds.

"T-this is not a dream is it?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not," I replied. She collapsed to her knees and later sat down on the ground. I sat next to her and waited for her to speak.

"What happens exactly?" she asked after a while.

"Dr. Lawson gets killed by an alien species called the Kree. She is also a Kree but doesn't believe in their cause. Anyways, she makes an engine that is capable of lightspeed travel that is better than what the Kree have and when they found out about it they send someone to kill her and retrieve it. She attempts to escape but you interpret her. You fly the plane towards the coordinates she gave you but are later shot down," I paused for a moment to see if she was following so far. Her eyes focused on me told me enough.

"Dr. Lawson is eventually shot by the assassin sent after her and you shoot the engine. It explodes destroying essentially everything nearby. You survive the blast because you absorbed all that energy. You are then taken by the Kree and trained to become a commando for their squad. They have an AI that blocks your memories, so you never really knew you were human. Eventually you come back here after about 6 years and recall everything and turn against them," I finished explaining.

"At least I turn against them," Carol said.

"But why are you telling me? Wouldn't this change the future now?" she asked.

"Well, I care about you a lot," I said fighting to keep my blush down.

"I want to know what you want to do," I said.

"What I want to do? What you do mean?" She asked.

"Well, I don't want to force you down any path. One of my brothers would definitely scold me for doing that," I finished chuckling. Carol turned her head away from me and looked at the ground. She stayed there quietly for some time. I enjoyed sitting down in the silence with her. It was tranquil for me.

"How powerful do I become?" she asked.

"Very, few can go against you when you go all out," I replied.

"Is there a way to do that without being taken?" she asked.

"Maybe, but I suspect you might be a mutant as well. Most mutant abilities are dormant until trauma is experienced along with an activation. I think the crash along with the death of Dr. Lawson got you into that stage. The blast was essentially the spark that jump started your hidden ability," I explained

"It might be possible to do it without all that, but I am not sure how," I said honestly.

"I guess it's better for me to get taken then, but what about Dr. Lawson?" she said slowly.

"She'll be okay, I promise," I answered.

"I'll help with whatever you pick," I said.

"But wouldn't it change now that I know?" she asked.

"No, I am also a psychic. I can manipulate your memories and hide we had this conversation until something happens to trigger them. Even that AI would be able to see it," I said, and she looked concerned.

"I'll only do that with your permission of course. I'll never violate your privacy," I explained quickly and raised my hands. She smiled at my quick reply.

"So how do we do this?" she asked.

"I'll teleport us back into my office. There, I'll change your memories to think that we were there talking the entire time. I'll hide the memory, so the AI doesn't look at it," I explained.

She stayed there quietly until she locked eyes with me. I was taken aback from her fierce eyes. I started to smell something I haven't smelled before. Whatever it was, it was making my body burn. She got on top of me and leaned in to kiss me. Her tongue entered my mouth and I was in a state of bliss. I returned the kiss and played with her tongue with mine. After a few minutes, she broke the kiss and stood up.

"We can continue this when I come back," She said as she was trying to restrain herself. I smiled in return

"I look forward to it," I said smiling.

"And you better not be with someone else. I'll find out," she added.

"Believe me, I'll never do that," I responded, and she turned away from me, but I knew she was smiling. I got up and wrapped my hands around her. I teleported us back into my office and looked around to make sure no one was nearby.

"What about Maria?!" Carol said urgently.

"She will be fine. She'll miss you but you guys remind good friends once you return," I said. That seemed to reassure her as she calmed down.

"I'll start now okay?" I said as I got close to her. She nodded and gulped.

"It won't hurt, I promise," I said gently. I put my hands up to her head and hovered them over her temples.

"Relax your mind," I whispered. I didn't want to force my way in. I wanted to be gentle with her. I concentrated on her most recent memories and found what I was looking for. I gathered the memories and enclosed them within themselves. I created a new memory on top of them and made sure every detail was correct so even the AI would be able to tell that there was a modification here. I placed her in an unconscious state and started using magic runes to seal the deal. My magic runes with my psychic abilities would fool even masters like Xavier or more powerful psychics. I placed a condition for the real memory to emerge and the fake memory to fade away. As I looked at her, I knew what that condition would be. I made it so a kiss from me would trigger it. I finished up and Carol eyes opened slowly.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah, see you then," She looked confused at first and then realized we finished talking from the fake memory.

I felt mixed emotions from her decision, but I look forward to finishing what she started. I got to work with my duties and after I finished, I went to look for Wendy. We discussed how much progress she has left to do and what the plan would be. We ended up with having it be as realistic as possible so I would shrink down and be in her pocket and before the shot that kills her hits her, I will absorb the energy and she would pretend to get hit. Right before the explosion happens, I will teleport both of us out of there. I had thought about absorbing the blast but it contained energy from the space stone so I would have the radiation burns. Wendy was really against the idea, but it was the only way to ensure everything happens smoothly. I gave Wendy a small push button device that would alert me. I told her to push it when the time comes.

I left her office and later met up with Carol to grab some food. We had a nice routine now and she was beginning to be more open with me. I sometimes wished I didn't block her memory otherwise we would be doing a lot of things together.

In the meantime, I continued to absorb more energy from the Tesseract. I had stockpiled a large quantity, but I still wanted to have some extras just in case. I also continued absorbing the energy from the canisters, but it was still the same pace. I could do at most two canisters before the burns would cover most of my body. No matter how many times I did it, my body could not adjust to the burns from the energy. I started to think of ways to make is easier using magic runes. I was thinking of creating something like the gauntlet Thanos used to channel the energy. I put that thought to the side as I prepared everything for the coming event.

A couple of weeks passed by until Astrid alerted me that Wendy pushed the button. I activated my suit with its stealth activated and teleported nearby her location. I found Wendy and Carol getting a plane ready and I flew closer to them. I shrunk down using the Pym Particle and landed on Wendy's lap when she sat down on the cockpit. She looked at her leg and saw me. Her face was confused and amused at the same time. She grabbed me and put me in her chest pocket. Everything went pretty much according to what I remember. The crash landing was tough on Wendy. I couldn't interfere yet otherwise they'll know something is off.

Carol got Wendy off from her seat and dragged her out. Wendy explained her real name and her intentions. She got her weapon out and was about to shoot the engine. I positioned myself exactly where the shot would hit her. I saw a flash of greenlight and I braced myself. I absorbed the blast, but the burns of the energy were around clothing. She pretended to fall down like we talked about. I channeled the energy and I added some more to get ready to teleport quickly. I saw Carol pointing the weapon towards the engine and fired. Just as she fired, I began to teleport. I had become a lot faster now with the energy I have accumulated and looked at Carol one last time before she gets taken. Just as the blast wave was about to hit us, we teleported away. We arrived in my lab and I quickly went back to normal size and put Wendy into the medical chamber to recover. As she was recovering, I brought up a display of the Kree ship leaving the atmosphere. I sighed thinking how slowly time will pass without her. I sat down in a chair and just waited for Wendy to recover. Even though everything worked as plan, I felt defeated. Wendy came out of the chamber after being there for about a hour or two.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her.

"Pretty than good! What did you do?" She asked excitedly.

"It's a medical chamber I made. It accelerates the healing process and there are small nanites that help your body heal from the outside," I explained.

"Incredible!" She exclaimed as she was inspecting the machine. As she was doing that, I compartmentalized my feelings. I had to focus on getting ready for her arrival. Knowing her, she's still going to help the Skrull's find a new home.

"So, what's the plan now?" Wendy asked after finishing her inspection.

"I have a lot of projects I am working on that you could help out with. By the way, do you want me to call you by your Kree name now?" I asked curiously.

"Hmm, you can if you want but I prefer my human name," she said as she smiled.

"Okay, let me introduce you to Astrid," I said and smiled backed.

"Astrid?" She asked.

"Oh, you'll love her," I said.