Chapter 5

Mariana looked at her hand which was healing, and asked while freaking out "What is happening to me? What did you do to me?"

She was too loud, so before she could say anything, I said to her telepathically "Stop shouting, unless you want the Vought to turn you into a lab rat." She was shocked again and said in a low voice "What are you?"

I caught her by her waist and flew out of the window, because Vought had bugged the place and was listening to everything that was happening. They didn't install any cameras though, as they still hadn't invented small cameras for spying, but Vought themselves invented spying mics.

Due to the height difference, her chest was right in front of me and she hugged me tightly as she was startled and scared. I took her to the roof and put her down.

She glared at me and said "Warn me before you try and do stuff like this. Now, why did you bring me here?" she asked in the end.

"First, before you die of curiosity, I gave you a superpower back then to help you heal." I said and this shocked Mariana.

She asked hurriedly "Wait....wait.... don't you get superpowers after you inject that blue drug into babies? How do I have a superpower now?"

"It is my superpower. I can't go into details, but remember that if the Vought finds out about this, they will take you to their lab to forcefully do tests to see how well I can give people superpowers." I said.

She was freaking out and said "Why.....why....why did you...give me a superpower?....why...why...why did you save me?"

"Tell me your reason for dying and if I think it is reasonable, I will let you die. If not.....we can think about that later." I said and she immediately shouted "Because I fucking hate you superheroes. I hate you and it disgusts me to even stand near one."

I sighed and asked "Why is that? Why did you even agree to this superhero program if you hated them this much?"

"It's due to that fucking scum and pathetic excuse of a husband. Sometimes I want to kill him, but that would make me no different from you superheroes.

If only superheroes and superpowers didn't exist, I would have a beautiful life, a beautiful family and a very colourful life.

If only you didn't exist....if you didn't exist..." she kept shouting and I left her to herself and waited till she calmed down.

She was taking too long to calm down, so I said "You see, Mariana, it is useless to cry about things that are not possible. You want superheroes to not exist, but we are something that can't go extinct even if everyone in the world tried. Even if someone did manage to kill every superhero, no one can kill me.

So, it is better if you stop crying about things that can't change. You can share your feelings with someone to feel better." I had no intentions of consoling her. I know the exact reason Vought sent me here and I needed to know if it was worth staying here.

As for giving her superpowers, I will see if she deserves it. If she does something she isn't supposed to do, I will take back my power and kill her.

She looked at me and slowly calmed down. She then said "Sometimes it makes me wonder if you are actually a 5 year old kid. I don't know if talking to a superhero will help me."

She still continued and went on about her life "I had a dream of becoming an actress. I knew Hank ever since we were 7. We married immediately after we turned 18. I also got an offer to act in a movie. That's where everything went downhill."

She paused and clenched her fist before saying "Those fucking superheroes, who are worshipped all over the country, that scum, asked me to sleep with them if I wanted a role in the movie.

While those superheroes were asking me to sleep with them, a few men were carrying out a body out of a room. Those idiots don't even have mercy. Those overpowered bastards killed a woman while sleeping with her and didn't even care about her death.

I immediately refused and ran back home, looking for Hank to comfort me, but what he said next shook me completely. He replied "You should have slept with them. No one usually gets a chance to sleep with a superhero. Also, I need you to take that job, or we won't have money for the bills."

Turns out he married me for money, hoping to get rich after I become an actress. When I told him that I quit being an actress, he lost it and would continuously abuse me. The worst thing is that he has friends in many places and I can't even do anything to him.

When I was pregnant with Margaret, Vought came to us about the superhero idea and Hank immediately agreed. Since I also had to sign the contract, I refused to do it, but he threatened to kill Margaret. So, I had no choice."

After listening to the whole story, I felt like I wasted 1 hour of my life. These details were there in the file Edgar gave me, but I was lazy to read it. She is slightly similar to Billy Butcher, whose hate towards superheroes is personal.

I said to her "I know that superheroes are idiots and I have seen many such people, but there are a few good apples. You can't hate your daughter even before she grows up.

Superheroes in this time are all injected with the blue drug when they have grown up. So, the sudden increase in power makes them act like that and do whatever they want.

I will let you keep that power, but know that I am always watching you and I can get to know if someone is lying. If you do something you shouldn't, you can forget about your family."

I knew that I was getting myself into more trouble by giving her the superpower, but this is for the future and I don't think this woman is foolish enough to misuse these powers.

I had a smirk on my face while imagining Edgar's face when he learns about this. Mariana looked at me and asked "Does this have any side effects?"

"Well, when I first gave you the superpower, you should have fainted, but since the body didn't go through a lot of change, you didn't loose consciousness." I replied.

Mariana smiled for the first time ever since I came here and said "I do feel a little better after talking to you. Now I don't feel too uncomfortable around you so James, welcome to the family."

I just smiled at her and lifted her up to take her inside, but she stopped me and said "Can you take me higher? I want to see the town."

I agreed and took her to the skies, where the lights from homes and buildings lit the night sky and the stars made it more beautiful.

"This is amazing. Now I want the power to fly. Can you get me that?" she asked and I replied "A person can get only one superpower. Don't be greedy for more." which isn't the truth, but she already knows a lot and I didn't want her knowing more about my powers.

I then took her back to her room after a while and she went to bed, thanking me before she went to bed.

I also went back to my room and life went as usual, except that Mariana is more friendly towards me and she spoke to me as if she would speak to someone of her age. I was surprised to know that she was just 20 years old.

I was also sent to preschool, which was one of the worst experience in my life. I ended up bribing the teacher to help me cover up for my absence.

*Time skip 1 year*

I didn't have anything to do throughout the day, except play around with my powers and talk to Mariana, whom I call Maria, since Mariana was too long.

We were in the kitchen and were laughing while we talked about things, when the door bell rang. Maria said "Let me get that" and went to open the door.

She opened the door and I heard a woman's voice say "You must be Mariana Shaw, is James home?"

Maria looked at the stranger and said "Yes" before turning back and shouting "James, there is someone who wants to meet you."

I used my x-ray vision to see who it was, and she looked a lot like Stormfront from the show. I do have to point out that almost all the characters I met from the show, look a lot like the actors who played the role in the show. Speaking of resemblance, Maira also looked like the younger version of Elizabeth Olsen.

I then went to the door and the woman said "James, I would like to have a word with you personally if you don't mind."

I nodded and walked outside. She took me to her car and when we sat inside, the driver started the car and drove.

I asked her "Ok now, who are you and what do you want to talk about?"

She turned to me and said "I am a superhero and I go by the name 'Liberty'. I came here on behalf of Vought to ask if you are comfortable in your new home and if you needed anything."

I smiled and replied "Currently none. If that's all you want to talk about, I think I should go back." because I knew she wanted to tell me something else.

She smiled and said "There is something else I want to show you and something I want to give you. So, please wait for sometime." and we drove through the city and went to some house in the woods.

The car stopped and I got down. Stormfront, who now goes by Liberty asked me to follow her as she leads the way.

Liberty led me to a grave, which had a tombstone carved with the name "Frederick Vought". She looked at the tombstone and asked me "Do you know who he is?"

"Nothing much except that fact that he was the founder of Vought." I replied and she said "It is sad to know that his whole history was changed and his real past was hidden. Do you want to know the truth?"

I replied 'No', but she didn't seem to care about my answer. She continued "He was a German scientist under the Nazi rule. He came to America and wanted to create a weapon company and help the National defense, but failed.

At that time, he was already working on the Compound V formula. When the company fell in the weapon industry, Frederick Vought perfected the Compound V and made superheroes.

He successfully got them to help in the war and establish a good ground in the country, but since he had a past that no one liked, we had to publish a different story to the world.

He dreamt of a world where the true race will rise up and fight the oppression of other races. He fought for his culture and hoped to make an army of supermen who will fight against the oppression.

You are everything he wanted and everything he spent his whole life to create. He would want you to lead the army and return the former glory of our race."

I liked how she decided to tell the truth while omitting herself from the story. She knows that I can tell if someone is lying.

She then turned to me and said "I am willing to contribute to this by giving you my powers. Although you have an electricity related power, you can control weather of you use the power properly."

I wasn't going to refuse a power just because I have a similar one, because I could give it to others if I wanted to.

I placed my hand on her head and I stole her power, which wasn't something unique. The only new thing was that I could feel the air currents and the charges in the clouds.

As for Liberty, she also was changing. Her skin started turning wrinkly and her muscles shrunk while her hair was slowly turning white.

I said to her "I appreciate the thought. Take a dose of Compound V and you should be back to normal. You should take it before you die, because I think you were slowly aging due to Compound V." and turned to her driver.

I said to him "Take her back to the lab. I believe you know where it is. I will take my leave for now." and lifted off.

Liberty wanted to ask whether I wanted to support their cause, but her body was getting old real quick.