11 Chapter 11

Shit, I completely lost track of time.

"Hello Charles" I said hoping he might not remember me.

"…Dr. Howlett?" Charles said has he dropped his extended hand. Well, so much for hoping.

"You know her?" said a man that walked in behind Charles.

"Yes Eric…this is Dr. Lydia Howlett. She helped me learn to cope with my powers when I was younger," Charles said still looking at me while touching his left wrist. I looked and saw he was wearing the bracelet I made him long ago. I smiled and looked at him.

"It's good to see you are doing well," I said as I stepped to the side and gestured for them to come inside. We all sat down in silence as we waited for someone to speak.

"So, it seems like there's some history between you two" Erik said while looking between Charles and me.

"Charles' parents asked me to work with him when his powers were emerging many years ago. It's good to see you Charles." I responded.

"How is this possible?" Charles said. I smiled at him.

"I'm a mutant as well" I said.

"You haven't aged a bit" Charles said.

"My mutation is high regenerative powers and heightened senses. Just like my brothers here" I said while gesturing to James and Victor. Charles didn't speak a word as he just kept looking at me.

"We are looking for fellow brothers and sisters to join our fight. We are going after an organization called Hellfire Club. Their aim is to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia." Erik explained. I hummed before speaking.

"That is definitely not good news," I said. James and Victor just looked at me. They rarely spoke in these situations. I knew they would follow whatever I decided to do since I knew about the future. It warmed me to think they trusted me so much.

"Unfortunately, we can't help you." I said carefully. Charles looked at me shocked. James and Victor stayed quiet.

"What?! Do you not know what's at stake here? If we lose, the world is over. If we win, we can finally show that mutants are good!" Charles said. Ah, there it is. The undying will to prove that mutants are good. I looked at Erik. Then there's the will to make sure mutants will not be prosecuted like he was for being a Jew, no matter the cost.

"We can't get involved. Not yet." I said calmly.

"Not yet!?" Erik questioned as he got up angrily.

"You don't want to do that," I cautioned Erik as the metal around us started to shake.

"I'm warning you…" I said as I began to spread my energy around.

"Erik, stop!" Charles said as he put his hand on Erik's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Charles. We will help you when the time comes," I said smiling. Charles didn't say anything as he exited with an angry Erik following behind him. As their backs were facing me, I placed a silent tracking rune on Charles' back. I would need that later to create a portal to him.

"Sis" James said. I sighed. I knew he wanted to help them.

"I know. Everything will be alright" I said.

After that incident, I went back to my work. I needed to finish this as fast as possible before I begin to start on the suits. I continued to monitor the Charles' activities to make sure I would arrive at the right time. The AI project I'd been working in was close to completion, but I still needed more time. James and Victor decided to stay and help me finish all the construction. With their help, I managed to complete most of the necessary facilities I needed. I focused mainly on the medical room that I would need. I kept track of the time that passed, and I knew that the events of the Cuban missile crisis would happen soon. All three of us were ready. We were dressed pretty casually. The armor suits weren't even started so we just went in normal clothes. I used my sling ring to create a portal to Charles when the time came.

As we exited, I saw the missiles and shells coming towards us.

"Lydia" whispered Victor.

"Relax, they have it under control" I said calmly. I saw Erik take control of the missiles and shells. He rotated them to face the attackers and proceeded to push them towards the ship. I saw Charles tackle Erik to the ground. I took this opening to lift Shaw and bring him to us.

"Take him and prepare my medical room" I said and created a portal to our house. I watched them take Shaw and stepped through the portal. I turned a continued to watch. As much as it pained me to watch I saw Charles getting hit with the bullet that Erik deflected. I waited until Erik left with his group to move. As I approached, Charles' team took a defensive stance around him.

"Relax, I can help him" I said as I put my hands up and slowly continued to approach.

"It's okay! Let her through" Charles said. I got down next to him and looked at the damage. I took my sling ring and created a portal.

"Step inside. I can heal him, but we need to move quickly" I said hurriedly.

I directed them to put Charles in a flatbed. I heard them asking questions, but I ignored them all. I sat prepared all my medical devices and started. Charles was still awake.

"What a mess… Erik shouldn't have taken the bullet so forcefully" I said while using the monitor panel to start a healing process.

"It was an accident" Charles said as he grunted from the pain.

"Always believing the good in people" I said shacking my head. I had made this medical chamber using the technology I had stolen. I modified a lot of the designs, but I only managed to finish this chamber. I proceed to view the projection that gave me a 3-D image of his spine where the bullet entered. I quickly found the problems and began to work.

After a few hours, I left the medical chamber and saw his team waiting outside.

"How is he?" Hank McCoy said. He looked very anxious as he approached.

"He is fine. He'll make a full recovery" I said smiling. I could see Hank breathe a sigh of relief. I walked away and asked James and Victor to make sure they don't go anywhere. I don't want them to see anything else inside here. I could see Alex, Sean, and Moira talking with Hank about the good news. I went back inside the chamber and saw Charles opening his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" I asked while looking at the 3-D monitors.

"I feel great" Charles said like looking at me.

"Can you try to move your legs?" I asked still facing the 3-D monitors looking for any changes.

"Yes" Charles said.

"Perfect. You should rest for a few days and use a wheelchair. Let your spine have a break before you start walking or standing" I explained.

"James, Victor!" I yelled. They came with the other people inside. I put my sling ring and created a portal to Charles' mansion.

"W-wait!" Charles said as he sat down on his wheelchair.

"Next time, Charles" I pushed all of them to the portal and closed it. I sighed. I knew I should probably explain, but I wasn't prepared to have that conversation.

"What about the body?" Victor said as he reminded me about Shaw.

"Shit…" I said in a low voice. I was too focused on Charles I had completely forgotten about Shaw.

Thankfully James and Victor had put it in the other flatbed. I moved quickly to see if the blood was still somewhat fresh. I found that the blood was almost to the point of being worthless. I decided to do a transfusion on the spot and draw the blood and inject it at the same time.

"Victor! James! Cover for me okay? I might be out for a few hours!" I yelled as I got everything ready.

"Be careful, sis" James said.

"Aren't I always?" I said. I could hear Victor scoff as I closed the door.

Shaw's mutation involved absorbing energy so even if it activated, I wouldn't absorb any. I started the blood transfusion and saw the blood being pumped out of Shaw and start making its way to me. As the blood slowly entered my body, I began to close my eyes.

When I woke up, everything looked normal. I got up from the flatbed and looked at the body of Shaw. It was now extremely pale and drained. I moved the body and got it ready to be discarded. I began to clean the room and restored it back to its sanitary state. I closed my eyes and searched for anything new. I noticed my body had a thin aura around it. I inject my energy to it and the aura glowed for a few seconds before stopping. I collapsed to my knees. I am beginning to see a pattern, every time I gain a new power. I can barely hold Shaw's power for more than a few seconds. In a combat situation, I would die. I would need to have the space stone in my possession so I could absorb its power. Even doing that would drain me. I began to breath heavily. Using Shaw's power was even more draining than teleporting. I couldn't move for hours. I just didn't have the energy to make my body get up. I closed my eyes and decided to rest.

I woke up still feeling drained. I closed my eyes to focus on my own energy. I could feel that there was barely anything left. I mentally cursed myself. I was too ambitious. All these powers had a draw back. En Sabah Nur basically cheated by transferring his essence to a new host. It practically combines the two energies together. It freed him of having to worry about my problem now. I had too little energy to support all my new abilities. I could use them for only a few seconds. I can't take the space stone. If I do certain events won't happen. But if I did, I could use Shaw's power for a few seconds to gradually increase my natural energy. I think that my body was trying to adjust by making my energy denser, but I kept on adding new powers. Now I need a lot of energy. Technically, the powers I have are considered omega level mutations, so they demand a large amount of energy to use them. I would gladly accept whatever energy the space stone gives me. I think that any new ability I gain is like an active skill. It's just like how my regeneration mutation doesn't need me to focus or channel me energy to active it. It's more like a passive skill. For my new abilities, I have to channel my energy to active them and the new abilities have passive skills sensory abilities that are draining constant energy like how I can feel the magnetism of objects around me.

I sat there pulling my knees to my head. I had to think about what to do. If I used any power, it would only be for a second at most. I would collapse on the spot. My only choice was to use the space stone energy. It was the only thing that had enormous amounts of energy for me to absorb. I was running several simulations in my head. I began to gather all the information I knew on the stone. I needed to gather its energy somehow. Even if I had access to it, I would collapse when trying to absorb its power. It would extremely suspicious if someone was found knocked out in front of a highly classified item. I didn't know how much energy I would absorb and how long I would be knocked out for, but I had to take the risk of being hunted down by the government. I can't just take it because it'll affect future events too much. Right now, I can't walk into the base where it's held. Or can I? I could use my sling ring. All it needed was a miniscule amount of energy to create it and it mostly relied on concentration. I began to look through my memories to make sure I didn't miss any detail. I had a lot of preparing to do. While I can't rely on my abilities, I can rely on my technology.

I asked Victor and James to continue running the business. I told them I'd be away for a while. I focused all my attention to creating my suit and AI. While I couldn't use my abilities, my body was still able to move and operate vehicles. I moved all the equipment I needed to my facility near the house. I began with working on my AI. I used the technology I stole and used my memories of Tony Starks AI designs. The technology from Wakanda was insane. The chips inside were incredibly small and advanced. I spent months creating the foundation of the hardware. I then focused on all the coding. It took me almost a whole year on just creating the AI hardware. I had decided to name it Autonomous System for Tactical Response and Integrated Defense or ASTRID for short. I uploaded all the book information to her. All I had to do was scan each page, it was tedious, but worth it. It was a relief to talk to someone. I really didn't think of her as a machine. She saw me build all the facilities and would ask question after question. I don't know if it was my desperation to talk to someone and me trying to grasp at something, but I think of her as part of my family. I think Astrid noticed my attachment to her. She would always talk to me and ask trivial things. I was glad she didn't go rogue and try to end the world or something like that.

Months past and Astrid helped me greatly with designing the suit. She was able to decipher the technology from Wakanda a lot faster than I could and incorporated it to the suit. I explained to her all my ideas so she could help me organize and prioritize them. She would also improve on my designs and fix mistakes. James and Victor would come by from time to time to update me on the business, but it was always just me and Astrid. I began to rely so much that I decided to tell her more about future events and asked for her input. Some of the advice she gave me were things I was going to do but other things she said gave me something to think about. I provided her with more knowledge about as much as I coud. It was helpful to see things from more of an analytical point of view.

I gave James and Victor instructions to stop showing their faces. We would handle business actions remotely. I created advanced communication devices inside the medical facility and our mansion to have secure talks with business partners or with other doctors. It was safer this way since they won't see our faces and notice that we don't age. Only high-ranking personnel from the facility could communicate with us to let us know about business decisions that we needed to make. I also installed advanced video surveillance around the medical facility to monitor personnel since I couldn't do that anymore with my abilities. I asked Astrid to monitor any suspicious activity and report it to me. I also revamped the security around our mansion.

It was now 1965, Astrid and I had finally finished constructing the suit and it was ready for testing. I also asked Astrid to help me in designing a device that would be able to capture the energy of the Tesseract. What we ended up with was a large cylinder container. It was larger than your average fire extinguisher. There was an opening at the center where the Tesseract would go. The top and bottom would store the energy from the Tesseract as it syphoned it.

"Hello Dr. Howlett" Said Astrid. Her voice was originally mine when I first made her, but she has modified it to sound a lot more feminine and gentler.

"Hi Astrid. Let's start working on the suit" I said and grabbed my tools.

"Certainly," Astrid replied. A coffin like metal structure started rising from the metal floor. The structure opened and inside was the suit. It was black and yellow. It was very similar to the Ironman suit from the outside. It was mostly black with yellow lines going along the arms and legs. The main problem we ran into with the suit was powering it. I shared with Astrid the element construction formula that Tony Stark eventually makes to fix his poison in his body. It took us a while to create it. Once we did, we improved on its design and scaled it down to make it even more portable. Astrid took control pretty much and told me how to make it. Our work led to the creation of the new power source. In the center of the suit was a circle that shined like a neon blue white light. I entered the suit from the back, and it started to surround me and close. It hummed as the suit started its sequence. I began to move my arms and hands. I looked around as the HUB display started. It had a lot of information to display but Astrid took care of what gets displayed so I don't get overwhelmed.

"How's it looking Astrid?" I asked.

"All systems passed initial boot up, Dr. Howlett. Should we proceed with a test flight?" Astrid said inside my helmet.

"You bet," I said while grinning.

The ceiling started to split open and a small tunnel appeared. It was large enough for the suit to fly through. I placed my feet together and arms at my side with hands extended. I lifted my head up to see the sky. It was dark outside. It was the perfect time for testing. I would look like some UFO if anyone caught a glimpse of me. Astrid displayed a test flight path for me to take.

"Launch!" I yelled.

The thrusters on my feet activated and I launched at an incredible speed. I wobbled a bit, but regained control as I ascended. I got familiar with using my arms and body to tilt, roll, and change directions. I started to move along the path that Astrid put up on display for me. It consisted of loops and sharp turns. I had to get good at using the suit. Especially now since I can't use my abilities. Thankfully my regeneration was still naturally there, but I noticed it was slower. I continued with the flight plan and finished quickly. Astrid guided me back to the same tunnel entrance I launched from. I hovered over the entrance and slowly decreased the power to the thrusters. Once I was a few feet above the ground I deactivated them and landed on ground. A loud metal sound was heard as I landed. I felt no pain from the sudden drop as the suit absorbed all the impact. The suit was a mixture of adamantium and vibranium.

"How was that Astrid" I asked.

"Testing shows small errors in flight stabilizers. The suits aerodynamics have been updated. Additional testing would be needed to see height limitations" Astrid said.

"We'll do that later. Let's move on to other systems," I said.

"Initiating stealth system," Astrid said. I looked at my hands and saw how it started to bend the light around it. I was basically invisible as long as I don't make sudden moves.

"Energy consumption has increased. Stealth system can only be held for approximately 5 minutes," Astrid said as she finished her calculations.

"That's pretty short but it's better than nothing," I said.

"Testing safety systems," Astrid said. The suit began to have some parts move independently. I stayed still and waited for Astrid to tell me once it was finished.

"Testing completed. Failure detected on left arm. Surge protector has malfunctioned," Astrid reported.

"Not bad for the first time running it," I said.

"Now it's time to break into Camp Lehigh," I said slowly. I was dreading this moment. I honestly had no clue what awaited there, but I felt prepared enough with this suit.