7 Chapter 6

they were all seated at the dining table as they heard Dave's confession about the dead body Chris had found that day.

So Chris, looking at his brother said, "I think you should start explaining things, Dave."

His brother took a deep breath and said, "right, you see? My first day in base camp was not what I was expecting, sure, basic training had prepared me for some of it, but there were these older guys, right? The ones that were there the longest? And Charles was the one who saw me, even though we were at different branches, he was nice to me, and soon enough we became buddies, he taught me some tricks, but most importantly, he had my back, but then a few months before he would end his tour and go back to the state, this business guy in a nice suit comes to the camp, he said he was representing this giant mogul by the name of Hannibal Corp, and that with permission for the President, he would start conducting human trials on this new drug that would make us better."

He stops and takes a sip of water from the cup Ashley gave him and he continued, "they even had a name for it, "project rebirth", that, of course, raised some red flags for me so I declined, but I did approach Logan and told him that I had a bad feeling about this, he agreed to go and check it out, next thing I know, he signs up with another friend of mine, a guy by the name of David Clark, and I don't hear from them again, not until two months ago."

Chris then leaned in closer and asked, "what happened two months ago?"

Dave took a deep breath before continuing, "two months ago a get a text from him, saying he had information on their project, and he wanted to meet up, but I couldn't get out of Afghanistan fast enough, so I was supposed to meet up with him this weekend, but by then he was probably already dead."

Then Ashley asked, "why does the name project rebirth sound so familiar?" it was Chris who answered, "that was the name of the project which made captain America a super soldier."

Then Chris' mind started remembering things from his college and he said, "wait a minute, Hannibal Corp was the name we found on the box he had in his place, and… when Steve was working with us, Hannibal pine was his benefactor up until the incident he had with us, I remember he injected something to the spiders we worked with, it was a blue…" he trailed off and then he said, "oh my god!"

Ashley put her hand on his shoulder and asked, "what is it, babe?"

"How did I not see it before? He actually did it! The crazy bastard!"

"He did what?!" both Ashley and Dave asked in unison.

Chris then turned his head towards them and said, "he created Captain America's super soldier serum, he tested it on the spiders to see if it would be safe, and he was breeding them, especially so that they would ensure they would survive the ordeal, and of course, him, but we all know how that went down."

Then Dave asked, "But the question is, how did he figure it out? I mean… wasn't It something the comic writers of the times just made up for the story… right?"

Chris was thinking again, and then a memory came to his mind, and he quickly went and opened up a website called "read comics online." And he looked up something, and after clicking a few times on the mouse, he smiled as he said, "yess! I knew it was here!"

"What Is it, babe?" Ashley asked as she has gotten closer to him.

"well it is something I saw back in college when we were investigating Steve, I remember briefly catching a glimpse of something, now I didn't pay any attention to it at the time, but in hindsight, I guess I should have look into it."

He then showed it to them, it was on the last page of the comics, and it was written in a way that one would easily look the other way, but Chris, with his experience with Steve, and with his time as a C.S.I and from what he had learned on his fortress he immediately recognized the chemical formula on the page.

"I can't believe it, they actually wrote it down, every single part of it on the first issue no less." He then showed It to them, and to their gaping mouths he added, "and nobody noticed for over seventy years, until Steve that is…"

Dave then asked, "how? How did nobody notice it?"

Ashley then suggested, "maybe because it was written in a comic book in the late 30's? I mean what self-respecting scientist would follow up on a formula that was written down in a comic book from that time?"

None of them could argue against that line of logic, hell, If it weren't for Chris himself, they'd probably dismiss the whole thing, but now they knew they had to follow up.

Chris then turned to Dave, "do you know of someone else who had gotten out of the project?"

He had seemed to think about it for a moment before saying, "David Clark, he was mentioned by Logan, he's now living back home with his parents, in Brooklyn, Flatbush if I'm not mistaken."

"Do you have an address?"

"I think so, yeah… logan wrote it down for me."

"Ok then, it is settled, tomorrow we are going to meet him, but we should probably meet up with Pete first, he could help us out."

Dave nodded, then he stretched out and said, "well, if you guys don't mind, I think I'm going to sleep."

"Oh, sure thing." Said Chris as he rose up from his seat," you know where the guest room is." Dave simply nodded and walked out of the living room area and into the guest room.

***time skip***

They all woke up in the morning and were getting ready, as they were having breakfast, a ringing on the door could be heard, and Chris opened it to reveal Peter standing there, in his regular civilian clothes but in his hand, he held a suit carrier, when Chris tried looking into it, he noticed he had difficulty doing so, so he quickly guessed the reason.

It was zinc lined, but Chris only focused harder on his X-ray and saw what was underneath, a spiderman costume. It was during his training sessions in his fortress that he found out that if he only focused his X-ray vision hard and long enough, he could see through even zinc, like all his other powers, it was merely a matter of training to surpass his limits.

He of course didn't let Pete know that and just greeted him inside his home.

Pete, upon seeing Ashley gave her a quick hug, and then he shook Dave's hand in greeting. After that was done, he looked at Chris and said, "that text seemed urgent, can you elaborate?"

Chris nodded his head and said, "on our way there." As both he and Dave were already exiting the apartment.

***later***

"What the hell?!" was Pete's response when both he and Dave were done telling him their story, "and you want me there because… what? I would have an idea of what he's going through?"

"Well yeah… that… and you are a licensed therapist, you could help us calm him down in case he is agitated."

Peter shook his head and said, "that is messed up man, you know how long it took me to get over what had happened to me? I'm not sure I could do this, ethically speaking, If, and I do mean if I do this, I must be impartial to his situation, I can only be there as a sympathizer, but I would have to see if I can be his therapist."

"Ok then, fair enough, but you would have to decide soon, we are here." Chris said, as he pulled their vehicle and shut the car off.

They exited the car, and then Chris looked around and saw orthodox Jewish kids running around the neighborhood. Chris leaned in closer to Dave's ear and asked him in a lower voice, "are you sure you have the right address, Dave?"

Dave gave him a quick smile and said, "David, from what I can recall, had said he grew up in a religious household, Jewish religious to be precise, but he always felt that he had another calling in life, and chose to enlist, from what Charles had told me, after his experience in the project, he had returned home and devoted himself to his religion, I guess it was his way of coping with the trauma."

The two went silent and didn't respond, P.T.S.D was not something to make fun of, especially with soldiers, and everyone finds different ways to deal with it.

Then Dave said, "I think this is the one." He said, as he went to a door and knocked on it a few times.

They waited for a minute before Chris heard footsteps nearing the door, it didn't take long to be opened, and they saw an older woman standing in the door.

The Whig was obvious on her head, and it didn't seem to match her older face, she looked and them and asked in her old New York/ Yiddish accent, "yes? Can I help you?"

Dave nodded his head and said, "excuse me, ma'am? Is David Clark live at this address?"

She looked at them warily, and then asked, "who wants to know?"

"oh excuse me, where are my manners, I'm Dave Johnson, we served together in Afghanistan, and I came here to talk to him about things that came up."

The woman's eyes widen and she said, "oh no you don't! he just began acting like his old self again! You can't do this to him! He served his country, and then some! He does not deserve this!" Chris listened to her heartbeat the whole time and felt the fright she was in.

He quickly added, "Ma'am, I'm with the NYPD, and we believe your son can help us with an ongoing investigation, we believe it may even help him get the help he needs."

"The help he needs? You're not going to take my son to some… psych ward!"

"No no no no! ma'am! Nothing like that! We just want to talk to him, that's all, and hopefully, give your son some Closure for his piece of mind, and help him move on with his life."

She seemed to have calmed down enough at that, and then, after taking a few breaths she said, "ok, only If you are here to help him, come on in while I call him."

She said as she opened up the door and let them in the house.

After getting in, she gestured for them to follow her, they went to a different room, with sofas and couches.

"You sit here, while I go and call him for you, he's studying in his room right now."

"studying for what? Exactly?" Pete asked, confused.

"To be a rabbi, he has his rabbinate test this week." She said and left the room, as Chris sat down, he focused his super hearing to listen in on what was going on with David, even though he felt bad about it, he would take any advantage he had if he was planning on escaping.

He heard the woman knocking on his door, and then her saying to her son, "bubala? There are some people here for you… one of them claiming to be your friend from Afghanistan…"

A few moments of silence, then a huff and a voice saying, "Ok Ima, I'll be there shortly."

Then he turned himself back to his surroundings, he looked at Dave and Pete who looked at him funny, then Pete said, "you used your super hearing to spy on them didn't you?"

"Most likely," Dave said, not giving Chris the chance to answer for himself. Then Dave added, "you know, when we were growing up, he used to do that a lot to spy on our parents when one of us got in trouble with them?"

"Really? Oh, I got to hear this."

"Please don't." Chris said, but unfortunately for him, his older brother ignored him, "oh yeah, until one day it came back to bite him in the-" he was thankfully cut off when they saw the woman returns with a large bearded man behind her, he was wearing a black suit, with a yarmulka on his head, even through the suit one could tell the man had muscles, but a quick scan from Chris confirmed what he suspected, a serum of some kind was definitely enhancing this man.

Dave rose up from where he sat, approached the man, and said, "David… it's been a while…"

The man was quiet for a moment, he looked at all of them, probably assessing their threat levels, and then he said, "what are you doing here Johnson?" his voice was deep, but Chris could catch the hints of anxiety in his voice.

"Listen… we need to talk to you about something… you might want to sit down for this…" and as he sat down, they started to clue him in on what was going on.

***third person pov***

Hannibal was sitting in his office, sipping from a glass of McCallan 25, when he heard the buzzing in his line and the voice of his secretary saying, "Mr. Pines? Your 13:30 is here."

He pressed the button and said, "Thank you, Carter, send him in."

His secretary hung up, and then the doors went open, and in walked a man in uniform that Hannibal Immediately recognized, It was general Naird, the man who Hannibal was facing in the hopes the U.S military would not pull their funding from their shared project, in the hopes of bringing humanity to its next evolutionary level.

Starting of course with the soldiers, Hannibal faced the general, putting on a well-practiced fake smile he said, "General Naird, do what do I owe this pleasure?" he said as he extended his hand, and the general reluctantly took it.

"top brass wanted me to check on how things were going with our project… "rebirth"… and frankly… I was just about to tell them that you are scamming the U.S. out of good taxpayer's money, so… what do you got for me?"

The corner of Hannibal's eye twitched ever so slightly in annoyance at the general's words, but he kept his composure, and he simply smiled and said, "of course General, right this way If you will." He said as he gestured for the man to follow.

As they passed through the doors to his office, Hannibal caught his young secretary in the corner of his eye rising up from his desk and joining them on their walk.

"Sir?" the scrawny man asked the powerful man.

"Have the boys in the labs notified of our arrival in about 20 minutes."

"On it." Said the man in response as he went back to his desk.

Hannibal saw the General looking at his secretary as he went back to his desk, and then he said, "I'm surprised, I would have figured you would hire a woman as your secretary."

"Why General? This is a new age, gender rules in society have long ago been challenged, don't you think men are capable of doing this job as well as women? And vice versa?"

The General shook his head and said, "It's not that, don't get me wrong I do believe that men and women are capable to be Equal in most things, but in my experience, men like you usually keep a personal secretary who doubles as a bed companion… If you catch my meaning."

Hannibal smirked, he didn't even look at the General as he said, "and who's to say I don't do that with Carter?" he didn't need to look at the General to know that gave him pause.

As they were making their way down, Hannibal started to tell the general a little story, "You know… my father Cornelius Pines, came to America with nothing, he was from the U.K.

When he came, even though he was a white man, which at the time was supposed to give him all the advantage he needed, he had no skill, no money, nothing. So he resorted to the one thing he did have, his brains. He worked hard and acquired skills, unfortunately, they were not exactly what you might call legal, but through those means, he obtained enough money to have a down payment for his first legal business.

Of course… life being what it is, he always faced challenges, he always told me that he felt like he was facing the roman empire, and he was the Carthaginians, that's why he named me Hannibal, he was very encouraging when I grew up, especially when I wanted to study science."

Hannibal could see the general was mildly intrigued by that but then they reached the testing labs, there they saw them, the final results of their super soldier program, which he aptly named project rebirth.

The soldiers were exercising their strength, nothing unusual, however, what the numbers were showing was, their stamina was far superior to that of a normal human, and they had milled superhuman strength.

Hannibal turned to the general and said, " General Naird, this is the future of the united state military." And in his head, he adds, and the world later.

The general looked at him and said, "Mr. Pine I do believe we are going to achieve wonders together.

***Wales- countryside ***

A small figure was walking around the road, it was a boy, with black hair, and green eyes, but despite his appearance, he was not young, no, far from it.

He looked up, and saw the birds flying, feeling an imminent threat approaching he said to himself, "not yet, soon though, very soon." And then when nobody noticed he teleported away.

He soon appeared next to a lake, he looked at it and heard a voice in his head saying," …and when the land of Albion is in danger, its once and future king will awaken…"

He then saw a hand bursting out of the water, holding a sword he was so familiar with and he haven't seen in a long time, all the while he said to himself, "not yet, not yet but soon…"

***Earth's outer orbit***

A portal opened up, reviling the damaged vessel of Mandulian and Kanjelius stepped out of it, Mandulian had stopped feeling a pulse from his father, and he prayed to all the deities he knew that it was just slowed down so much that it could not be detected, and not that it meant his father died.

Then he saw it, the blue planet Infront of him, the one named earth by its residents.

He was about to initiate landing when he felt his vessel being bombarded from behind, and to his horror, the computer confirmed his suspicions as it said, 'warning, Quarth forces detected, error, weapons system damage, can't start retaliating.'

Then Mandulian shouted something he never thought he'd do, not because of pride, but because he knew it was futile.

"begin evasive maneuvers! And seek out any alliance members near our location!"

Then after a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the computer said, 'failed to find alliance members, however, one Viltronian life signature was found on the planet.'

Mandulian was shocked to hear that, The Viltronians had gone extinct to his knowledge, as far as he knew, but if one survived…

With a tired breath, he said, "set a course to the Viltronian's locations." And then the pod escaped and rocketed forward to the planet Infront of them, and as he saw the front of his ship heat up, he prayed once again as exhaustion threatened to take him.

***New York comic con****

Chris and the others were in their outfit, Chris was in his superman costume, Peter was in his Spiderman outfit, and Dave was wearing his Green lantern costume, complete with a mask and ring, he of curse didn't need the padded muscles, as he was naturally muscular, and it was showing.

Their talk with David went as well as one could expect, he told them everything he could remember that he went through, and after they asked him if he will be willing to testify, he said he would talk to his lawyer but was willing to consider the option.

But Chris was now focused on having fun with his friends, he was laughing on the inside at the fact that out of everyone at comic con, only he and peter were appropriately dressed up, given what superpowers they had.

He was looking at what he just had in his hand, a signed superman comic book by Henry Cavill, and they also had the chance of meeting stan the man lee. (A.N bear in mind, at this point in time he is still alive.)

They were going around and Chris had turned to his brother, who was just finishing flirting with a girl dressed in a wonder woman like costume, he didn't give her much attention and asked his brother, "you having fun or what?"

His brother just laughed and said, "you have no idea!" Chris was smiling broadly, he was glad they all could take a break from their daily lives, and plus, Chris was approached so many times by other cosplayers telling him he was spot on his looks as superman, of course… he was a bit more than that.

Then as he was looking around, he heard it, but it was a second too late as it was in the process of crashing through the roof. He was now moving at super speed, while also being careful not to hit someone in fear they might get hurt, now he saw that he was Infront of the panel where the celebs were sitting, mainly the cast of Batman v Superman.

He was lifting himself up in the air, and then braced himself for the impact, and then time seemed to return to its natural flow as the roof imploded fall out started to fall, Chris saw two people stand in the way of it, about to be crushed, but luckily for them, he saw tow webs attached to their back and they were safely pulled away by Pete to safety.

He was now looking at the object he was holding, and to his surprise, it was defiantly an alien-looking vessel, it was damaged with burn marks on it, but as Chris gently lowered it to the ground, he scanned the vessel, and what he saw really shocked him, but before he could do anything, a loud hissing sound could be heard and the hatch opened to reveal the blood covered pilot inside, and his dead companion.

He looked at the feathery creature, who with labored breaths just said, "help…us…" and then he fainted, exhaustion taking over him.

Just then Chris felt Pete and Dave approaching him from behind, and Dave after putting his hand on him whispered, "Chris… I think we should go now…"

Just then Chris turned around, and he noticed that everyone present was looking at him and Pete with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

A.N hi there everyone, hope you enjoyed the chapter so far, sorry it took me so long to update, but I have a very good reason for that, about four months ago, I had gotten married, and also I recently started a new job, one that takes a lot out of my free time, so I couldn't really write for a long time, now that doesn't mean I quit writing, just that it's going to take longer to release the chapters from now on.

As for this story, please let me know what are your thoughts on it in the comments section, and please review it, It lets me know what your thoughts are and how I can improve.

And sorry for the little divergence in the story, as I a, basically building my own superhero universe in this fic, I am also doing some worldbuilding, so I do apologize for that.

Until next time, you guys are awesome!

Bookwormjohnny2 out!