CHAPTER 86

[Odin Borson, The Allfather, POV]

I sat there on my throne, trying to understand what that cosmic presence brought with it. In all my years, even before my father gave me the throne, there had always been 'beings', tenets of 'existence', abstracts, watchers, that even the bravest of Asgardians would not want to face and a few days ago I felt the aura of one, and not just anyone, The Phoenix, on Midgard.

I had peered into Midgard before even Heimdall could notify me but my sight was cut off from the location I had sensed the signal. 

That action of mine which was nothing more than a precaution had turned into a cause of worry.

Abstracts were not like other beings. Just the sight of one was enough to send the vast cosmos into frenzy as the sight of one was the same as the herald of great change. And for that reason, I worried. 

I doubt a lot of people knew what had happened since Midgard was as well as disconnected from the rest of the Universe but I wouldn't be a fool to think that there are not some who had sensed what I did. 

Thankfully, it left Midgard after a few days otherwise I fear what it would have brought upon the Midgardians, and by extension, Asgard and the other realms under it. 

"You have been having that look on your face for the past few days. Tell me, what worries you?"

I let out a sigh. In my thoughts, I had neglected the presence of my wife until she was at my face. Maybe I am getting too old after all. 

"The Phoenix rebirthed in Midgard."

"Oh my!"

"Thankfully it has left."

"But that isn't all there is to it, is there?" By the fathers, she was a woman any man, any king, would want. 

"The arrival of the Phoenix… I can't help but feel like it is the prelude to troubling times. It is called the being of life and rebirth for a reason. I fear what changes its arrival would bring to our corner of the cosmos. I'm afraid troubling times lay ahead of our people and… sigh."

My words were stopped as I felt the soft hands of my queen caress my head as she hugged my head. "It'll be alright. While the younger generation can't be said to be as strong as those of ours, they do have a bright king to lead them."

By Bors beard, if there was ever a time I doubted my wife's words, it was these. 

"Frigga…"

She chuckled before she let go of my head and taking along with it all my worries. 

"You are touted the wisest king Asgard has ever seen. Time will tell, and our boys will rise up to the challenges it brings. You can't be Odin Allfather forever." Her smooth voice were like ministrations of the morning birds around Yggdrasil. 

"Now come with me. I believe you deserve a moment of relaxation before you brood away all your hair."

It's not like the Nine Realms are fated to end today. What harm is there in relaxing for a while before going back to worrying as a king. 

Who ever said being king was fun? 

… 

[Draul St. Cross POV] 

The days went by without much fanfare after the Phoenix left. The days felt somewhat bland after that experience and the others took note of it. 

The things she told me were as mind boggling as they were… mind boggling. All in all, I just didn't know how to feel about it. 

And then came the part where she said something about my abilities not being what they were. 

I spent the next few days after that training, trying to find out what she saw, what it was that I had been using since the beginning in correlation with my abilities but I found nothing. 

It was just the same since ever. 

Nothing had changed in the way I used my abilities so I just decided to forget about it for the time being and focus on something else. 

I had left the mechanics field for a while to focus on the biological sciences. I figured if I wanted to make a new arm for Bucky, knowing just how the brain works wasn't going to cut it so I wanted to know how the body as a whole worked, and maybe who knows, I might just turn out to be one of those mad scientist type that create all those fucked up serums in this universe and the next one over. 

There had never been a time where I ever regretted having such comprehensive intellect as I do now. 

Even with my mind capable of storing everything I read, it still was a pain in the ass to learn so much about cells and blood and tissues and… God, brains, all in one field of study. 

I had to study on every single branch of the damned subject that was available to me on such short time but the frustrating part was that I haven't even scratched 10%, heck even 5%, of the damned subject which wasn't surprising as that was like 10,000 years of human advances in plants and animals. I doubt I could even read and understand everything there was to know about living things even if I were to read non stop for the next decade, so I just focused on the part that I wanted, needed. No one wants to be a know-it-all, most definitely not me. 

I focused my backroom research on the only thing that I had in abundance – Super Soldier Serum. What? You thought I was going to use my blood? Delusional. I don't even want to know what type of secrets were encoded in my body. I was of the mind that somethings were meant to never be known and I treated my body as such. 

Now why Super Soldier Serum? Simply because, most, if not all, serum that made 60% of the biologically engineered heroes and villains of the Marvel-verse, on earth, had a trail mark that lead back to the serum Erskine created. It functioned as the best base for any kind of future power up one might later have. It was a place as good as any to start. 

Since Fury's, well my, search for Klaue still on hold, I had to focus on other things to keep my mind off everything that had been happening recently. 

The look Bucky gave me when I told him I needed his and Steve's blood for research was unnerving. If it had been one of apprehension, then I would have quietly backed off and started another project that wasn't based on the serum but the fucker had this look… like he couldn't believe I could ask something like that. It was like a look you'll give someone who took candy from a baby and gave him a strawberry flavored poop. It was a mix of disgust, disappointment and a healthy dose of intrigue. 

It was as if he was telling, or rather, asking me if I was done making a fool of myself. 

He seriously went: "Really? You quack? Want to do research? And here I thought Santa being real was an eye opener."

I had never been so pissed off, not even when I was fighting the X-Men or HYDRA, like I was when the bastard said that. 

I left him to his couch after I had taken some pint of blood from my resident soldiers. 

Officially I now have four lazy bums doing nothing other than working out and eating all day, laying around my house. Two super soldier brothers and two assassin sisters. The look I had on my face when Fury pointed that out must have been amusing to watch since his baldheaded ass took pictures. 

I definitely wasn't running an Avengers orphanage… oops! Don't want to say that out loud. 

Most of my equipment came from S.H.I.E.L.D since, well, you have to use what you have so why not? 

I was already running out of space in my house but moving now was not a good idea. Hell, I haven't even spent up to 6 months inside it. So unless something comes up, I don't think I would be considering moving anytime soon. 

So with all the distractions out of the way, I finally decided to focus on the task at hand. 

My first try and I was proud to say that I didn't understand a single thing about it. Sure I could tell that it acted as some sort of super steroids given that the mitochondria was shooting off massive amounts of energy than was normal but other than that, I was still a ways off from understanding and perfecting the Super Soldier Serum. 

I spent my days locked inside my new lab reading, testing and experimenting on any route my head told me. If someone had told me that I would be this smart and be conducting such research after the age of 40 then I would have smacked that idiot. 

It was almost a week into my experiments before I had a minute breakthrough that finally saw me out of the lab. 

"Woah. Bucky was serious when he said you won't be coming out for days." I met Yelena who looked like she just had her sparring session with Steve that had been going on since they moved here. 

I had offered to enroll her in a school just for her to at least experience what normal life was but she turned it down, telling me that she wouldn't be able to fit in with 'normal' anymore. 

For a fifteen year old kid, she was pretty mature but then again, considering what she'd gone through during the most part of her childhood, it was to be expected. If I were to be honest, apart from me, Nat was the only one who 'behaved' normal. It wasn't actually an act on her part but was how she responded to everything that had happened in her life. 

'Ugh! Can't think too much. Need. Refill.' I staggered to the kitchen counter to make myself a cup of coffee and greeted Yelena with a groan while passing by her. 

"You really should consider coming out every few days. Although you don't look any different, you still stink." Ughh. That hurts. 

I waved the brat off and poured two mugs of coffee for myself as I sat there on the kitchen counter thinking about my most recent success. Even if it wasn't any huge milestone, it still counted as something. 

Christmas was like a week away and I wanted to see if I could make any headway before the celebration.

I was deep in my thoughts that I did not realize when the others came out from their closets and joined me in the kitchen. 

"Any progress." Steve's question brought me back to focus and took me off the counter before making my way to the stove to flip some pancakes. 

"Not anything monumental." I said and took the bowl of whisked eggs that someone passed me. 

"Which means you've at least made some type of progress. That's… incredible." I almost scoffed at what he said. 

Incredible my ass. That thing was like a kaleidoscope of wonders, ever changing. The only thing I found incredible about it was how it increased the human's base potential, like burrowing extra holes for energy storage into the cells of the host. One other thing I was sure of was that it was almost impossible to identically recreate Erskine's formula. 

I looked around the kitchen and noticed a missing head. "Where's Bucks?"

"He's out in town. Said he was feeling stuffy from being inside the house all week long. Between us four here, I think he misses his arm." Yelena tooted. 

Yeah that gotta suck for Bucky but unfortunately there was nothing I could do. His former arm was as banged up as it could get and there was no repairing it so he had to make do with the prosthetic. 

"Hopefully the pancakes will cheer him up." Nat said as she whipped out some cream while Steve and Yelena set the table. 

This picture wasn't half bad. 

… 

[??? POV] 

"Kekekeke. Looks like things are about to get fun."

Maddening laughter echoed throughout the void as 'he' peered through the flimsy film that that stupid thing thought would help in shielding its new toy from interested sights. 

"Hmm? What to do? What to do?" He looked at the mortal and peered a little deeper, (wouldn't want to spoil all the fun now would we?) and looked at the interesting events that he could throw a few wrenches in with no one the wiser. Not that there was anyone as wise as he was after all. 

Even the stupid author who thought he was making a great scenario couldn't possibly have thought of the plan he just put in motion. He just made a bet for a few years and he was about to 'sit' back and watch as his winnings came in full. 

Oh right! That other guy who saw him. He might make a good addition. For an annoying mortal he did manage to break through the wall and watched some of the events that he shouldn't have. 

"Let's add him then."

"Hey don't you dare let him write shit about me!" He heard the unmistakably annoying voice of that mortal. 

"What are you doing here?" Amusement bled through his voice as he beheld the gaze of the mortal. 

"As the Green Lanter- oh sorry, wrong univ- wait don't!"

He waved the consciousness away and continued his wonderful plans. Even if slightly amusing, he was still annoying. 

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