Chapter 1

*static* 

"Experiment 12-C-1, human trials. Head of Research and Development, Doctor Daniel Shultz. I have been permitted by my superiors to move forward with the first round of human trials after having proven my work. My serums' promising successes during primate testing have caused fervor amongst the lab personnel to spike. We are so close. I believe to have perfected Erskine's formula,"

The scientist shuffles through papers on his clipboard till he comes to a dossier.

"Subject, codename 'ARBITER', has been supplied by our overseers to be our first human test subject. Caucasian male, 85 kilograms(189lbs), 185cm(6' 1"). Serum dosage will be 120cc. The subject has been conditioned and trained since childhood to be an emotionless tool, following their superior's order to the letter. Exhibiting instinctive reality-warping abilities, he is able to heal all wounds sustained in a matter of moments, even having severed fingers instantly reappear, making him nearly invulnerable to long-term damage. Further notes expound on the subject's training to project his will onto reality that surrounds him."

Setting the clipboard down, he begins triple-checking the calculations for the imminent experiment.

"It seems that command expects to see if my serum will not only work, making the perfect soldier but to enhance their already powerful weapon. I'm being given just enough rope to hang myself with. All the funding that has been poured into our research after our successful progress. Now being given an almost perfect test subject. If this fails..."

Looking at the clock, he ends his audio dictation and proceeds through the lab complex toward the testing labs.

The subject has already been brought in and strapped down to a steel slab in the center of the room. His colleagues had set the injection IVs into both arms. He performs one final check to make sure everything will work perfectly before he orders all of them out and into the observation and control room.

A buzz of quiet anticipation fills the room. Decades of trial and error. Their life's work is only mere minutes away from fruition.

At the back of the room are large screens displaying 5 figures cast in shadow, concealing their identities. He orders everyone to their monitoring stations as he turns to the screens awaiting their permission to commence the experiment. 

With a nod from the one in the middle, he salutes "Heil Hydra!"

____________________________

Pain

Searing pain, unlike anything I've ever felt. I feel whatever they are putting in me, course through my veins as I grit my teeth, refusing to scream. 

All of the "conditioning" and "training" I was put through after my masters realized I could heal any wound I suffered. Cuts and dissections, severing of my spinal cord, removal of limbs. Trained to feel nothing, to kill without a trace, and to complete the mission I was given at all costs.

It all paled in comparison to this.

Every agonizing second crawling by felt like days. I felt my mind unraveling in this neverending sea of pain. I tried to make it stop, flexing my power, I began to see things.

Me, but... not me. Entire lives I've not lived. Emotions I didn't have. Happiness, sadness, love, loss. 

Growing up reading and watching stories about superheroes and good conquering evil. Raised by a loving mother and father, married to a beautiful, loving woman. Three young children calling me... Dad.

Countless lives flashed around me, making me come to realize these are what could have been if Hydra hadn't taken me and turned me into their weapon.

Anger swiftly boils up through the pain. 

'These people took my life from me!'

I roared in anger so loud I felt my vocal cords rip and heal, again and again. Reaching out with every ounce of my hate pushed into my power, I tear everything around me into nothingness. These "people" didn't deserve to live, not after what they've done, what they made ME do. 

After obliterating the entire lab complex, I'm left alone, floating mid-air in a crater half a mile in diameter.

Knowing how Hydra works, they'll never just let me go after this. I'm almost looking forward to who they try and send after me.

'In the meantime, this new... freedom, is going to take some getting used to.'

Leaving the now, mass grave, I make my way to the nearby hidden airstrip, air travel, being the only way in or out from this remote Hydra base.

'I'll need to ransack a few drop sites and agent bolt-holes of supplies and money.'

-One day later-

Agent Coulson had only just arrived at the site of a massive disturbance SHIELD had caught wind of through satellite surveillance. Deep in the heart of northern Canada, a massive void had appeared in the dense boreal forest. He and his team were immediately dispatched to investigate a possible 0-8-4 incident by Director Fury.

On their arrival, his team began searching the perimeter of the half-mile crater for anything that might point to the cause. After two hours the only information he was given was that the entire area looked to be hollowed out cleanly. No sign of mechanical or human presence, no sign of all the countless tonnes of displaced soil and rock, and no sign of background energies. His two scientists were left scratching their heads together, bouncing theories off one another.

His cell phone began vibrating in his pocket, he gave instructions to the two of them to continue gathering every scrap of information possible, before answering it.

"Yes sir?".... "No sir, we've found nothing so far. Fitz and Simmons believe whatever was here, was vaporized instantly. No radiation or other trace energy has been found in the area."

He pauses awaiting the Directors response.

"Understood, sir. I can get to New York in time to rendezvous with Stark after he lands and arrives at Stark Industries. Do you wish for me to debrief him on his time in Afghanistan and his escape?".... "Understood."

Hanging up after receiving his orders, he informs his team to stay and keep examining the site and heads back to the jet to fly to New York.

_____________________________________

-Four years later-

After raiding a few Hydra hideouts scattered across New York, I had enough cash to move unnoticed, along with a few blank passports and identifications from multiple countries.

I spent a few years traveling the world under one name or another, experiencing for myself all that had been denied to me for the last 24 years. 

After killing the first two Hydra capture teams who'd tracked me down. I let my hair naturally grow down to my shoulders so I could change it's color or length if I needed to burn an identity quickly. 

The second time ended up being in a populated city in Europe. They tried to ambush me after I returned to my hotel, from a nightclub with a young woman. Both of us had hit it off quickly and planned to have an enjoyable night together before I left the city.

They hadn't taken any chances, their first hit squad had vanished without a trace after being sent for me. So they came at me guns blazing, seeming to not have a lot of information on my abilities. Unfortunately, the woman under my arm was caught in their attack.

After the first bullet missed me and hit her in the upper chest I flexed my power and caused every other bullet to disintegrate before it could touch either of us. I quickly focused on vanishing the bullet that hit and crushed her clavicle from inside her, and reverted all the damage that it had caused. 

I diverted a small amount of focus so that she wouldn't be hurt again by their stray gunfire. I proceeded to decimate the 12-man hit squad. 

I decided to be a bit more hands-on with some of them for hurting her. I didn't make their deaths quick and easy as blinking out of existence. The final one left tried to commit suicide with a cyanide capsule in a false tooth, but I didn't let him off so easily. Ripping it out from his jaw with a flex of my fingers I knocked him out for later interrogation.

Doing my best to calm the young woman proved mostly futile. As soon as she got her feet back under her, she took off running. I just decided to let her go. I turned my attention to my captive, stealing a junker of a car nearby, I threw him in the trunk before driving far outside of the city to begin getting some answers about how they found me again.

It seemed the higher-ups wanted me back or dead for study. Something about facial mapping and unencrypted CCTV camera feeds around the world let them track me wherever I go.

It was after that, I changed what I physically looked like. Deciding that if I was going to change my face, I might as well be handsome. I altered my bone structure to be vertically symmetrical. Going with a stronger jawline and pronounced cheekbones. Changing my eye color to a steely grey.

I certainly had better times going to nightclubs and bars after that, making up for a lot of lost time from high school and college.

After that, I stopped running into Hydra agents who wanted to shoot me. Spending my time less stressed about being jumped from every alleyway, I eventually made my way to Nepal. Having met a few traveling Buddhist monks on my trek through Japan and Southeast Asia, I decided to visit their temples.

Liking the people and their way of life, I ended up settling down in Kathmandu, Nepal. Spending the last two years here has given me a lot of perspective on what happened to me, what I saw during that experiment, and what I wanted to do with myself now that I had a say in my future.

I started helping the sick and the injured around the city. After freely helping the first dozen or so people, even after my name and face began to spread they started coming to me, but I still refused payment.

Finding food, handmade clothing, good luck charms, and prayer beads on my doorstep every morning made me feel as if I was doing the right thing with my powers for the first time that I could remember.

A peaceful life, doing good for others after everything I was made to do under Hydra's orders.

I thought that was all about to come to an end when I felt a large group of people surround my house, outside the city. The birds and animals had gone silent and a tenseness had fallen over the area outside.

Putting down my recent attempt at drawing. I prepared myself to deal with this newest Hydra team that had finally found me. To have to leave again so I wouldn't bring chaos to the people hear.

I waited for them to kick in my door and storm inside trying to capture me...

Nothing. No movement.

A few minutes crawl by before surprisingly, a knock on my front door.

'Well, this is a first. A polite Hydra kill squad.'

Flexing my power, I prepare for any trickery they thought to try this time. I open my door to something I didn't expect.

A gorgeous, scarlet-haired woman with the most lust-inducing figure I've ever seen, standing several steps back from the door. 

"Hello, Mister Kane... or do you prefer Michael? Or maybe Steven... Mark... Francois... which name are you going by now?" she stares straight into my eyes

"If you know that much about me already, you know it's Dante," I answer back without hesitation, staring right back.

If this IS another Hydra attempt they chose far better personnel this time. The agents surrounding the two of us haven't moved in immediately, perfectly still and blending in waiting for this to go pear-shaped.

"Yes, I do. But just being polite. We've been watching you since Germany two years ago. A person with you're abilities is somebody of interest to us. We tend to keep an eye on you, but since you've settled down here and didn't cause trouble, we kept our distance."

"And after all this time, you finally come for a chat? I would invite you in but I don't think the 24 men and women you have surrounding us will fit in my home..." If this doesn't set them into action, I think I might have them confused with someone else.

She's good. Her eyes only slightly opened wider. If I hadn't been looking for minuscule muscle movements I would have missed it.

For a few seconds, she stops. Before slowly moving her hand to her ear,

"Stand down," she commands through an earpiece. I hear slight movement from around us and a subtle drop in tension but still focused if this should go sideways.

"I belong to a special organization whose job is to protect the world from people like yourself who have powers. Those who would use them for selfish gain and terror... I'm here with an offer and a request."

Well, at least they're not Hydra.

-A few days before-

Nicholas J. Fury was not having a good week.

Losing the Tesseract to a narcissistic "god", who turned his best agents into puppets. Losing an entire research base along with dozens of assorted personnel. It's all going to shit.

Spread out in front of him are dossiers of 6 individuals he classified under a special group of extraordinary people. 

Tony Stark aka Iron Man.

An unrepentant narcissist with a multi-billion dollar company, and a genius with the most advanced tech on the planet.

Bruce Banner.

Gamma radiation specialist with extraordinary anger management issues.

Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow.

Elite spy, and infiltration specialist. Subjected to "The Red Room" experimentation to replicate Erskine's serum.

Clinton Barton aka Hawkeye.

World-class, near superhuman marksmanship and situational awareness second to none.

Steven "Steve" Rodgers aka Captain America.

Recently found and resuscitated. Genetically modified super soldier. Only known success of Erskine's serum.

Finally, an enigma.

True name unknown (multiple fake aliases). Origin unknown.

An enhanced individual, who was first spotted in 2010 during an altercation in Germany. Secured video recordings show the individual being assaulted by twelve armed men(Identities unknown) with automatic weapons. All but one were destroyed and or killed shortly after contact. No further hostile actions after the incident and managed to change his facial features without obvious surgery. 

Known abilities: Telekinetic*. Disintegration*. Extensive healing of self and others. Shapeshifting*.

* Working theory

Last known location: Kathmandu, Nepal.

Grunting, he picks up his desk phone,

"Hill, get Coulson and Romanoff, all of you to my office immediately." without waiting for a reply he hangs up and stares down at the reports.

"This better work."