17 Chapter 17

I prepared myself with the odor that was about to hit me once I entered. It wasn't too crowded in the here, so the smell wasn't too bad at least. I started to look around and spotted Carol waving her hand at me. I smiled and went to the table she had.

"Hey Carol," I said smiling.

"Hey Jennifer, glad you could make it," Carol said smiling.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked. I looked around to see if I could spot anyone else but couldn't find anyone.

"Maria said she couldn't come. Same thing with Doc," Carol said.

"What?" I asked.

'Oh…my…god…you got set up, it's a date!' Astrid said laughing hysterically.

"Yeah, I was about to leave until you showed up," Carol said.

"Oh…" I responded. I instantly got nervous. I can never figure out what to say when I'm alone with her. At least with other people driving the conversation it would be easier. I looked down at the table trying to think of a way to say something.

"I'll go get us some drinks," Carol said.

"Okay…" I said. Damn it, I need to relax. It's not a date. It's not a date. It's not a date.

'This is hard to watch,' Astrid said.

'Shut up, you're not even helping,' I replied.

'I can provide you with helpful hints on what to say during first dates. Would you like me to start?' Astrid responded with a mocking tone.

'I hate you' I said.

"Here, hope you can hold your liquor,' Carol said as she came back with several shots of liquor.

"That's a lot," I said rising my eyebrow at the amount she got.

"Well, we have to drink to everyone that didn't make it," She said. I couldn't help but chuckle. I reached and grabbed one of the glasses.

"More for us then," I said while rising the glass and drank the liquor. There was a burning sensation as the liquid went down followed by a nice warm feeling. It didn't last long. With my mutations and enhancements, I couldn't get drunk. I might at best get a bit tipsy, but it would leave as fast as it came.

We drank all the drinks Carol had gotten and I manage to get enough liquid courage to have a normal conversation with her. I asked her from her family and her childhood. She didn't have a brother and her parents pasted away. She had about the same childhood as my memories displayed. I told her half truths about my childhood since I couldn't really tell the actual truth.

Carol was getting to the point where she was drunk. We decided to call it a night and went out to wait for a taxi to arrive. Carol wobbled a bit and as she took another step after we exited, she fell and, in her attempt to catch herself, she grabbed my arm. Normally, this wouldn't be enough force to drag me down, but I suddenly found myself falling forward. It seemed like I had lost control of my body for that moment. I immediately knew it was Astrid who messed with something. I grab Carol and twisted myself so I would be at the bottom. I then found myself face to face with her and my widen my eyes when she took a whiff of me.

"You smell nice," She said as she hummed. My mouth was slightly open as I was completely stun with what she said.

"W-Wha" I struggled to say.

"How come we don't hang out as much?" She asked and twirled her finger on my hair.

"Did you guys call a cab?" A voice interrupted. I looked upwards and saw a guy in a taxi with his window down. I was a bit irked, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything. I pulled her up and took her to the taxi. The ride back was quiet since she fell asleep. After we arrived, I contacted Maria to help Carol back to her room.

'Astrid' I said.

'I know I know. I am sorry but it did start something didn't it?' Astrid said.

'…' I couldn't find anything to say.

'Besides, I'll never do that again unless you want me to help you with your romantic life,' She said.

I couldn't help my sigh loudly. I went to my room and hoped that it wouldn't be awkward the next day. There were multiple scenarios running in my head of what could happen. I was hoping that since she was drunk, she wouldn't remember anything.

The next day came quickly. I went to my office and began to read up on the designs of the ship. Wendy was incredibly smart. She was close to finishing the lightspeed engine. She needed the energy from the Tesseract now to be able to finish it.

"Sooo" I heard Wendy's voice. I tried hard not to acknowledge her.

"How was your date?" Wendy said.

"I hate you," I said.

"Oh, come on now. Did you guys kiss or what?" She asked. She received her answered when I glared at her.

"Well, there's always next time, right?" She said smiling.

"I have work to do Dr. Lawson" I said angerly. She just waved her hand and left laughing. I closed my eyes in frustration. She's worse than Victor.

"Hey," I heard another voice call out from the door. This voice I recognized. I slowly lifted my eye to the doorway. Of course, it had to be her.

"Hey Carol," I said trying my best to smile.

"Listen," She started and walked into the office.

"About what happened yesterday," She spoke carefully. I waited carefully to see what she would say.

"…I think I might have said some things I shouldn't have. I wanted to hand my request to transfer," She spoke in a professional tone.

"What!? No!" I suddenly spoke loudly. She was caught off guard by my action.

"…I mean that's not necessary. Nothing you did was unwanted," I spoke.

"…That's good to hear," She spoke smiling after a moment of silence.

"Ahem," Wendy's voice interrupted us.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to drop off this paperwork for you," Wendy said smirking. I feel like she does this on purpose just to mess with me.

"Right, I'll be seeing you then," Carol said smiling to me and turned to leave promptly.

"That went well!" Wendy said smiling.

"Don't pretend you didn't have a hand in this!" I accused her. She dismissed my accusation with a wave.

"In the end, it worked out didn't it?" She spoke and left. I knew she did something. She didn't even leave behind the papers she wanted to drop off.

'I believe the correct statement in this situation is "loosen up"' Astrid said.

'I guess…' I responded.

'Joking aside, I think it'll be good for you. You know what will happen. Are you really ready to let Wendy die and Carol to be abducted?' She said.

I couldn't respond. I couldn't let Wendy die. I started to plan for the events to come. With the abilities I have and the tech, I could change a lot of the outcomes. My mistakes have been that I've forced my decisions on people. James was right in that regard.

'Astrid, can you update me on the status of all projects please' I asked in a serious tone.

'Right away,' Astrid responded. I put on a pair of glasses and Astrid started to display the projects.

'All projects are proceeding to plan. We have incorporated the Pym Particle to all the nanites. The amount of energy stored from the Tesseract has also been applied to the nanites. They will essentially never run out of power after interfacing the energy with our power core. The Sentinels have been created as you requested and their size have been reduced as well,' Astrid responded.

'And your body?' I asked. I had the inspiration to create a body for her from Vision. Her body would be made of a perfect combination of Adamantium and Vibranium. It would essentially be a super charged version of a Sentinel.

'It is almost complete. I wanted to make some changes with your permission,' she asked.

'What type of changes?' I asked.

'Cosmetics mostly' she responded.

'Okay, let me know when you're done,' I said and took of my glasses.

I got up and made my way to the hangar bay. I saw multiple pilots performing their checks on their planes. I placed my arms on the rails and leaned forward looking for one person. I continued to look until I spotted her. She was talking with Maria and laughing. A weird sensation started to build up, but I quickly identified it as jealously. I wish I could have that with her. I felt someone come from behind and stand next to me.

"Funny seeing you here. You're usually in your office most of the day," Wendy said. I glanced at her and then looked at a plane that was covered up. I could feel the space stone's energy within it.

"You've completed your design," I said. Wendy looked surprised since she never told anyone.

"Yes, the plane will be years ahead of any other country," Wendy spoke.

"Not that one, the one with the lightspeed engine," I said and turned to face her. Her face was in shock but then turned serious. She attempted to jump over the rail, but I stopped her. A faint blue light covered her body. She looked frighten when she couldn't move.

"Relax, I'm not a Kree. I'm a Human with mutations," I said smiling.

"Now I'm going to release you, I just want to talk so let's not make a scene," I said. She nodded and I released my grip on her.

"A mutant? I've heard of a rogue faction doing experiments, but I had no idea to what extent, incredible…" She spoke.

"You have no idea," I said chuckling.

"How long did you know about me" she asked.

"For a while," I responded.

"And you know why I built it?" She asked curiously.

"Yes," I responded again.

"And how did you get this information?" She asked.

"Mutant abilities," I said smiling. She furrowed her eyebrows. Confused because of her lack of understanding. I don't blame her. Mutant abilities could be severe as Jean's abilities or as weak as a simple eye difference.

"So how much do you know?" she asked.

"I know you're a Kree and left them after discovering what they did to the Skrulls. I know you are trying to help them find their home away from the network access. You're doing that by creating the lightspeed engine using the power of the Tesseract," I explained and crossed my arms.

"I'm guessing there's more to this since you're telling me now," She said.

"Yes…however it will not happen yet. I know of certain futures that will occur," I said.

"Precognition?" she asked.

"In a way, yes," I said and looked at her with a sad expression. She caught on quickly.

"I see…" she said quietly.

"I would like to stop it from happening, but I don't want to do it if you don't want me to," I said. I guess James got through to me when it came to meddle with people's lives. I wanted to give her the choice rather than make it for her.

"Well, I would be stupid to turn down help," she said with a smirk. I smiled at her.

"Is there something I should do?" she asked.

"No, I'll take care of it. We'll talk more later," I said.

I turned and headed for my office again. I locked the door and closed the blinds. I channeled my teleportation powers and came back to my lab. I was surprised to see Astrid's new body walking around the lab. As she was walking, she kept shapeshifting her body to the form of different people I didn't recognize.

"Astrid?" I asked. She turned her body and looked at me smiling. She took the form of a female with black hair.

"How is it? I have moved most of my processing to this body. I can still communicate with you but that would be mostly secondary now," she explained.

"You look good," I said smiling. I went to a computer and started entering new data.

"Let's make it official, shall we?" I said. I updated Astrid's credentials and added Howlett as her last name.

"Welcome to the family," I said smiling. Astrid didn't move for a few seconds trying to process what just happened. She lowered her head, but I could see her smile.

"I stopped by to get the new upgrades to the suit. I'll be heading back to talk with Carol," I said.

"OoooOooooh," Astrid mocked me as I started to leave. Upgrading the suit was quick. All the nanites needed was a software upgrade and they were good to go. I teleported back to my office and started to look for Carol.

"Dr. Howlett," I heard a voice call out as soon as I opened the door. I saw an officer with a clipboard on his hands.

"Yes?" I asked.

"The first test run is ready. Your presence is request at the command center," he said. I scanned his mind just to make sure he didn't see me teleporting which luckily for me, he didn't.

"Right, let's go," I said.

We headed over to the command center which consisted of numerous computer station each monitoring different aspects of the flight. I could see Carol and Maria in their cockpit through a live feed. There were more cameras throughout the plane to make sure everything was recording. I guess Wendy must have had a hand in creating that technology. I spotted Wendy hovering over some guy and nodded at me when she saw me. I nodded back and went to my chair. My computer station had access to all the feeds so I could monitor anything I want. The countdown started and Carol's fighter was the first to launch. You could see the force of the G's as she accelerated. She then performed a right turn and you could hear her applying her breathing technique. Maria was next to fly and following her were two older model jet fighters. The exercise was to see the maneuverability of the new jets. In the end it was pretty clear that the new jets outclassed the other jets. Carol and Maria were ecstatic on how they outperformed the other pilots. They were heading to the lockers to change from the flight suits. I decided to talk with Carol then. I made my way there and saw Maria starting to unbuckle several items from her suit. She saw me and smiled. She motioned her head behind a wall of lockers. I smiled at her and continued to walk and around the corner I saw Carol practically naked. I was in shock on how fit she was. Her skin looked so smooth. She noticed me and smirked.

"Like what you see?" Carol said.

"S-sorry, I just wanted to talk with you," I said and turned around.

"Alright, shoot," She said nonchalantly. I gathered myself so I don't talk like a total fool.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go and grab a bite to eat?" I said.

"Oh, Maria and I were planning to hit the bars after, you can come with us if you want," she said. I couldn't help but feel a bit sad that I couldn't spend some time with her. I bit my tongue to make myself focus.

"I see. I don't blame you for celebrating after kicking butt out there," I said faking a happy tone.

"You can with her, I gotta go and take care of the little one. Babysitter bailed on me," Maria said smiling at Carol.

"Oh, that sucks. Well I guess you have me all to yourself," Carol said smiling. I don't know if she intended to say that, but I could feel my head burning.

"That's great! I'll meet you in front of the base at 6," I said and left.

I went back to my room and gathered some clothes to wear. I decided to wear casual clothing and some nice boots. I'm glad I did since Carol wore casual clothing as well. I decided to take a cab to a nearby by restaurant. I honestly looked more like a diner than a restaurant, but the food was still good. We sat down and ordered our food. We chatted about work and Carol talked about the issues she was having with the other male pilots. I could relate to her in that aspect. I told her about my struggles as well when it came to the sexism.

"Hey, listen I wanted to talk to you about something," I said cautiously.

"What's on your mind?" Carol replied.

"I wanted to know if this was going somewhere," I said and motioned my hand between us. Regardless of her response I would still give her the option to help her.

"I have feelings for you, but I've been holding them back because I was unsure about your feelings," I explained. I saw her eyes widen slightly and stayed silent. I steeled myself to prepare for her response.

"I��I got to say that's very upfront" She said smiling. I smiled slightly back at her.

"I am not sure how I feel to be honest," She said and paused.

"But I would like to take it slow if you don't mind," She finished speaking and looked at me. I was happy that she at least wanted to see where it would go so, I'll take it.

"I am new to this too so, I think taking it slow is for the best," I said smiling.

We enjoyed our time eating and talking some more. I talked a bit more about myself and she did as well. Before we knew it, the restaurant was closing. I've always heard about that happening, but I never thought I would find myself in that position. We got a cab back to the base and went to our rooms. I think both of us we ready to do anything other than getting to know one another which was fine with me. It was nice talking to someone other than Astrid. I would usually have my brothers but since they left, I have been lonely.

The next day I went to find Wendy to speak to her. I knew she had a lot of questions most likely. I went to my office first and she was already there waiting for me.

"Hey there! How was your date?" Wendy asked smugly.

"It was nice," I said smiling.

"Well I'm glad you had fun. Did you guys make out?" She asked.

"So, I'm assuming you have questions," I asked and ignored her previous question as I sat down on my chair. She smiled at me when I dismissed her but turned serious when she was ready to speak.

"Several but I would like to know how I die," She asked. I stared at her and thought about how much to tell her.

"They find out what you are trying to do and send a squad to come and kill you and take the technology for themselves," I responded.

"Do they get it?" she asked.

"No, Carol actually destroys the plane and eventually saves your space laboratory," I replied.

"Atta girl," She whispers and smirks.

"So, what's the plan?" She asked.

"Well, I have some ideas. I just want to tell Carol as well," I said softly.

"Ah, and you don't know how to approach her about," She said clearly identifying my problem.

"Yes…" I sighed.

"When is this attack going to happen?" she asked.

"When you complete your research. You also knew that someone was on your trail," I responded.

"Well good news is I'm not finished yet. I think a few more months before I completely finish," she said as she paced around the office.

"That's good. It'll give me time to tell Carol," I replied.

"I understand she destroys the plane but why is she important? Couldn't you just destroy it to avoid putting her in danger?" she asked.

"Yes, but she is a mutant as well. Her ability won't activate until the explosion happens and she absorbs the Tesseract energy. She will be arguably one of the most powerful if not the most powerful person on Earth," I spoke.

"She is able to absorb its energy? That's…impossible" Wendy said.

"Yes, I know but for her it's possible," I responded.

"So, what happens to her after?" she asked.

"She gets taken by the Kree who shot you down. The Supreme Intelligence will use her to get any information about the lightspeed engine. She'll be trained to fight like them and will also have Kree blood running through her," I explained.

"���wow," she said.

"I some plans to interfere but I want to ask her what she would like to do. If she never gets the Kree blood I don't know how it may affect her powers," I said.

"Right, let me know if you need help," Wendy said as she began to head to the door to leave my office.

"Enjoy," she said with a smirk. I was confused at first until she opened the door to leave and Carol came inside.

"Hi" I said smiling. She smiled back at me and closed the door. We began to talk about things we wanted to do after work. I think I'll focus on my relationship with her before I just ask her anything.

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