Chapter 17
Time passed by and all other patients were finally done with their treatments and enhancement with all my widow sisters alongside Irene finally having undergone full body checkups and healing. Irene was back to her youth and having full vision with or without her ring and I wasn't taking a no for an answer with the girls because even if they are trained soldiers, assassins more so, and have experience suppressing and ignoring pain, there was no way I was letting them be hampered by a singular injury or get exploited by remnant brainwashing programs and implants in the brain. Eve got rid of all of them thoroughly and even helped recover some of the lost memories.
Apparently, fixing disrupted neural pathways caused by the occasional electrotherapy old-school hydra brainwashing sessions helped recover some memories. Remembering the experience was hellish though because, from the MCU movies, I knew what that would do to me but not the extent of the damage and the process efficiency or whether it's recoverable from and confirming my suspicions, there was just a section of my memories that was just completely gone, never to be recovered even through Eve. I just wish some stuff remained in TV shows and comics and not spill into the real world but I highly doubt I'm going to get any future breaks because I think I used up all my luck getting Eve.
On another note, I was currently silently settled back on my couch in the med lab once more with Eve as my only companion waiting in relatively peaceful silence for Nat's procedure to finally conclude. It had been almost 48 hours now and due to getting bored of studying, I was currently outlining a detailed roadplan with Eve. Realistically speaking, even though I was currently on earth, this wasn't the same place where my previously boring monotonous life as a university postgraduate trying to make something of himself occurred. I wasn't Daniel anymore, and that was something I was forced to come to terms with all those years ago and I already decided to embrace the change and move on.
I wasn't the once scrawny kid who snapped one day and decided to go to the gym and start from physical health to better his own life no, I am currently Irene Ivanova a ruthless, somewhat cunning, and intelligent young female spy and assassin widow, one of its greatest in this generation. This is something I came to agree with over the years, swallowing that pill was tough but highly necessary as I understood well this was a second chance at life no matter how I looked at it. In addition to all this, I am the sole administrator and owner of my own power ring, a very powerful energy source and a few potential keys to several fundamental forces of the universe. I understood well all this power was up to luck but in the grand scheme of things, luck can also be considered as personal power therefore, I have to own up not to let myself or Eve and my companions down.
This is what I have been lying to myself that I have embraced yet I am still somewhat in denial but not for much longer. The fact that Marvel is one of the most dangerous death worlds out there that has powerful entities even if their totality is one percent, they can easily scale up to and wipeout the entire Warhammer universe at the flick of their wrist, those are entities I could potentially clash paths with along the way or the fact that this reality can be utterly unpredictable hanging at the edge of cataclysm after cataclysm isn't funny nor amusing one bit. I know even if I want to live a peaceful life, one way or another I would be forced to take up arms and fight for my chance to live eventually, and if not for myself, it's for those who I care about because at the end of the day, I might be a killer but I am no psychopath or a nihilist.
Surviving in such a world takes more than simple power, one needs courage, brains, drive and the sheer willpower to take everything head on knowing you will be tested, your worth will be weighed, your ability to adapt questioned and if you're found wanting, you will be judged against your favor and the consequences shall follow. In such a world, with such an opportunity to have the memories of a previous life and an advantageous beginning, I would not stand for mediocrity, I would not let myself waste away and be just another hapless soul in the grand totality. I have resolved myself to be great, powerful enough to etch on a legacy I would be proud of, that my family, descendants, and friends would be proud of even when I'm gone. If I want to at least fulfill this goal of mine, I have to do it right, I have to at least try and not be afraid of failing, I have to put in hard work and effort, and I have to build it with my very own hands if not for me for my family and friends.
In order to achieve all this, I have to at least start somewhere and that is where my primary power comes through, the power ring. I know nothing is ever as simple as it seems on the surface and having an autonomous fully sentient but still helpful power ring would be helpful in the future and many of my plans might revolve around it but, only relying on it in the long run wouldn't be enough and simply be foolish and a wasted opportunity. Even though that is true, I have to begin with my own power ring. I know the original conditions to wield the ring as a big fan as a kid but according to my own self-assessment, I know I currently see myself as barely worthy to be considered a potential wielder as I am not ideal for the original counterparts job, and even if I end up in possession of the ring once more, for now, I would be considered to be a weak lantern currently.
I do not have the superhuman willpower of Hal Jordan enough to hold off against the abstract embodiment of willpower itself or Guy Gardner to have such raw willpower that his very ring keeps often sparking like a leaky water faucet about to explode. I was just a simple child, once lost but I wouldn't let the universe find me less interesting and entertaining. Although this was the case, I had time on my side for now at least, enough time to settle my emotional and mental turmoil for the moment and grow myself. No matter how much I would lie to myself, I am still a growing teenage child even worse, with explosive hormones which are currently messing with me greatly but I won't make a mistake such as wasting away my life like Peter Parker and go to help save lives at the expense of my own without any ounce of training in hopes of carrying forth a monumental task after misunderstanding the dying words of a loved one. Uncle Ben probably meant for him to be the best of himself and help his family alongside his loved ones while doing good but the fact remains due to his interpretation and how he dealt with Uncle Ben's death led to a downward spiral that cost him a lot in the long run. Neither would I become like Bruce Wayne who was greatly traumatized from a young age although the situation ended up fueling his resolve, he was ultimately so lost in his past that he became obsessed with becoming the dark knight, a boogeyman of justice who beats up bad guys dressed in an expensive bat costume in the night and ending up letting Bruce Wayne become nothing but a mere mask to him. I won't deny both of them have done so much good for the world, honestly, they are some of my childhood favorite heroes but as you grow older and come to understand the world is not all black and white I came to ask myself would I be a hero just like them if given the chance and at what cost? Although being a hero sounds fun and all but, I am not willing to follow through with the same process to achieve my dreams. I wouldn't make the mistake of seeing the world from a narrow perspective in addition to the fact I have a long life worth living ahead of me so I must take it in stride and make the best of it.
The first thing I will have to do before completing my vengeance and everything is training to master my ring and improve my knowledge. I have to first exploit my own set of available cheats, and knowledge from records before finally moving onto the grand stage knowing this might be the prime universe, or even if not, I still have to have my cards. I will be like Luthor and Doom, not a villain in the sense of things but as successful and intellectually superior as them, always a step ahead, untouchable, feared, and respected even by the law. Through all of this though, I would have to adapt as I go because, I'm not that arrogant to believe myself superior and let my hubris become my undoing after all, I am still mortal for now and I know that indeed, gods can bleed.
I want to make sure some events never happen or if they do, change their outcomes completely because there is no way I am going to let dark Phoenix, civil war, house of M, fall of X, days of the future past even come to pass as I know I will either way be dragged into this and the resulting consequences if not handled well, shall be devastating. In the end, I have my goal to carve out a paradise for all that I desire but until then I shall commence my journey one step at a time.
Finishing up my introspection what followed up was a few hours of going through lantern training modules all supervised by Eve. Sessions from famous lanterns like big old Kilowog the big tough drill surgent yet lovable Bolovax and, Tomar-Re the cool somewhat weird looking bird fish hybrid Xudarian who was a scientist. Following up on the practical and theoretical lessons was highly informative learning how they projected their willpower and all this but a quick alarm knocked me out of my learning trans alerting me to the completion of Natalia's procedure.
It was finally time so I dropped all I was doing and approached the familiar scene of drones lining up before her regen pod to assist her. The sight was becoming a bit too common for my own taste after seeing, experiencing, and being preview to it before. I stood at the rear close watching as the pod was drained and opened to reveal the transformed Natalia.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," I said to her with a smile eyeing her changes. This was gonna be a long journey ahead of me.
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December, 15th, 1985,
10:00 am,
I blinked my sleep away to find myself alone on the large soft king-sized bed. The last thing I remember was working in my lab trying to develop a new clean energy source to substitute the emotional spectrum conduit batteries in my hands because that's what the green lantern power batteries were and leaving them lying around wasn't a good idea after going into further studies of the records and the power source. After procrastinating for a while I figured now that I didn't have much on my hands, I could challenge myself to do this as I waited for the completion of several of my projects as time passed by. The systems were already off the grid so it wasn't like any of my creations would blackout an entire city.
"Ohh, you're finally awake. Good morning Ivy, you needed to take a break and have a good night of sleep."
"...Good morning Eve, how did I get here?"
"Natasha carried you to bed after finding you passed out on your workstation."
Okay was my simple reply as I lazily stretched my limbs before giving myself a mini pep talk to wake up and stop lazing around. Waking up with a sigh, I looked at the tempting empty bed one last time before I decided to freshen up and go down for breakfast.
It was currently winter and months had passed since my escape and I took my time to settle down. In that time, much had changed in my life to the point you would think the last few years were a passing nightmare or dream. I got officially adopted into the Frost family as the new youngest sibling a few months back under the name Ivy Frost. I had to use an alias to help avoid all the spy organizations in the world and eliminate any previous trails, the same as how Natlia was now going by Natasha Romanoff. Well, the name was a godsend as it was derived from my last name after having a few awkward encounters of confusion sharing a name with Irene. Anyways names aside, I had moved out of the orphanage to my underground base which was a good choice considering all the tasks on hand I was currently overtaking. In addition, I had blazed through the high school education system. Although the U.S. education system was different from what I had previously grown up with, it was more flexible offering me a wider range of college and university courses.
The pain of trying to get a student visa as a foreigner was finally gone but I had to hold off my early high school diploma until early next year as agreed with Emma. I wanted to set up my subsequent academic achievements for future purposes considering right now what's been going on in the news stations since earlier this year was the entry of Haward's son into MIT. It was still too early though for those plans but I had already begun getting some recognition with Frost International by suggesting a subsidiary company for the purpose of telecommunication. Through Eve, this led to the early development of DNS and in turn an increase in the number of available network hosts allowing us to launch a more reliable search engine compared to what is currently available for the government and education purposes. This has begun earning us decent profits for the company considering how much the government wants to invest in the project. Knowing well from my past this will eventually spiral out to the explosive growth of the internet later, I made sure we took a piece of this cake earlier on. At the rate at which my brain is operating, I am tempted to just say fuck it and release technology similar to what was there in the 21st century so that everything would be much easier but I had to slowly begin reinventing things for my own convenience.
In other news, I have finally mastered the use of my lantern ring along with its capabilities although my level of mastery will be tested in different situations as I go forward. Along the way, I seeded the planet's atmosphere with advanced satellite systems and the things I discovered in the world over that time were honestly surprising. Currently using subspace communication for a secure network, we were able to point out the presence of several advanced societies on Earth after a few scans both alien and human. The energy signature readings scattered on Earth reminded me of why this was a comic book universe once more. A cosmic type one energy source somewhere in the artic which I assume is the space stone, several other smaller similar unidentified energies that are cosmic in nature identified in Greece and the Pacific Ocean, magical energies, and a few psionic energies here and there accompanied by the seemingly usual nuclear radiation the humans are always hellbent on using for power no matter the reality. I wasn't curious to go investigate the readings I was getting in fear of stumbling into something that would result in a huge mess so after also pinpointing the general location of Wakanda following the energy readings emitted from vibranium I harvested in space I just added the location to records. What messed up the common laws of reality I once knew was the moving living antimatter energy source we picked up in the US and somewhere in the western Pacific Ocean. I was not going to stick my nose within a ten-foot radius of most of the readings I was getting because I wasn't ready for some of this shit. I remember some of the comics I read as a kid, the youtube videos, and the reddits when I went back to look up stuff after watching the MCU to know I was going to fuck myself up if I messed with some of the events this early without prior knowledge and preparation. Was I going to do that in the future, hell yes I was. What's the point of being born into such a world and not making any changes following a predetermined plot? Earth seemed already to be a big hotspot before the main events which were years away even started. This was going to be interesting with so many more unpredictable paths to take.