Stark, Bruce and I were in an observation room, looking in on Loki's staff from behind a thick layer of reinforced glass, while SHIELD agents in biohazard suits - or whatever the hell they were wearing - ran scanners over the thing, reporting every little change and shift in temperature, radiation levels, light refraction- anything Stark and Bruce could think of. The two of them could adjust simulations and room conditions and such from within the observational lab, and all other personnel were being kept as far away from the staff as possible.
The only reason I was there was because I told Fury I could see when the staff tried to attach to someone's mind. Fortunately, it looked like the tendrils were put off by a physical barrier between it and it's targets, so the workers should be safe as long as they had no exposed skin. The suits had to be airtight, too - there couldn't be the tiniest opening that would allow a tendril to worm it's way under and infect. Fury had had something put together, though, so I reckoned it should be fine.
I'd stopped paying attention a while ago. All I could think about... The only thing I could focus on... Was Stark's words.
His name... Is Genesis.
That was my name. Or, at least, what I had called myself, back in 1962. So... What? Was this the potential future of what would have happened, if I'd never been brought into the future? Had I been on a course towards becoming the leader of a terrorist group?
I meant... I understood the struggle of mutants. Even in the short time I'd been with the Hellfire Club I'd seen just how hateful and terrified people could get of mutants, and the story Azazel told me and shown me just how widespread this opinion was.
So... I could potentially see how that could happen. How... Maybe... That had gotten to me? And... Maybe I'd seen something, in this alternate timeline where I never got transported to the future, that made me want to fight back, establish the Brotherhood, become a terrorist group...
But for the life of me, I couldn't think what. What could possibly have motivated me to, to, to kill people? Enough people that, apparently, most people had lost someone?!
No. Okay, calm down. There are other possibilities, if you just took a fucking second to think about it, moron.
That's right. There were already quite a few people who knew the Genesis name - the whole of the Hellfire Club, for one. Not to mention any number of people who might have found out between my disappearance, and the events of the Cuban missile crisis.
Or even someone who just came up with it outside of my influence. It wasn't like it was a particularly uncommon theme - Genesis meant creation, it had links to the Bible, it was just a word used by anyone. Just because I had taken that name, didn't mean someone else couldn't have come up with it and used it.
Right. That was right. It wasn't necessarily me. It could be any number of people. I should wait until I found out more information.
But the nagging doubt remained... Was I capable of killing- at all, never mind on the level Genesis apparently had?
Stark left at one point, after an alert beeped insistently at him from his phone. Bruce and I looked up briefly, but we quickly turned back to the tests going on in that room. With no one to discuss the science of the thing, Bruce lapsed into silence, and I was too absorbed in my own thoughts to even attempt keeping up the conversation.
Once the staff had seen that there was no way it could possibly get to the bare skin of the agents inside, it stopped trying. The cords became docile, falling limply to the side of the scepter before retracting back into the glittering blue gem that topped it. I barely noticed.
Time passed, Bruce puttered about the room adjusting holographic gauges and illusory dials. I remained centered, arms crossed and chewing on a thumbnail, an intense frown deep-rooted in my brow. Every now and then I'd look up, to briefly check the Trance cords hadn't emerged, before returning to my introspection.
I was startled out of these ruminations by a sudden beeping, emanating loudly from a large screen on the wall. It had a map of... Somewhere, on it, and large, white, '95%' next to it, along with coordinates and a bunch of other information.
High techy, I thought. Bruce apparently thought so too, as he seized a panel and unhooked it from the wall, the information relaying onto it easily. Without another word, the man pressed a pad on the wall and slipped out of the room hastily, the door not even half-open before he wormed his way through and set off.
... I should probably follow him.
I exited before the door could slide shut again, jogging after Bruce's fast-disappearing form, as he rounded a corner and re-entered the lab he had originally been in. I sighed in relief as I followed, even this small distance diminishing the unrelenting headache the staff had been tattooing into my skull.
Inside of Bruce's original lab was... The whole crew. Apparently. Stark, the Captain, Fury, even Blondie and Redhead. Thor and Natasha, Bruce had called them. As I slid in behind Bruce, whatever conversation they were having stopped in it's tracks. The whole room turned to face the pair of us.
"What's... Going on?" Bruce asked hesitantly, holographic pad held loosely in his right hand. I inched around him, leaning against a table for support.
"What's going on," Stark replied immediately, his voice unusually tense as he seized hold of a panel attached to the ceiling and swung it round. "Is that SHIELD is planning to use the Tesseract to make weapons."
Fury cursed under his breath and turned away. "What?" Bruce said, breathless with disbelief. I looked aroud innocently, utterly confused.
"Psst," I whispered to Redhead- Natasha. "What's the Tesseract again?"
"Classified," she replied tersely. I blinked, shrugged, then leaned the other way.
"Psst," I whispered to Thor. "What's the Tesseract again?"
"A doorway to another part of space, capable of drawing immense amounts of power through it, to be used for whatever nefarious purpose the wielder desires." Thor said, cuttingly. "It belongs on Asgard."
"Right, yeah, I remember now." I replied, then resumed my leaning position. I glanced over at Natasha. She pointedly looked away.
"... Clean energy, not weapons of mass destruction!" Bruce exclaimed, jabbing his finger at the image of a complicated bullet on the screen. "I didn't sign up for this? Why do you even want them!?"
"Because of him." Fury interjected, loudly and a little - dare I say - furiously, pointing directly at Thor.
"Me?" The blond giant replied, confused and a little concerned.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet." Fury explained, gesturing violently with his hands. "He had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor said tersely, teeth gritted and anger on his face, looking directly at Fury with no small amount of anger.
I couldn't help myself. I snorted.
The entire room turned to look at me. "Something to say, Frost?" The Captain asked, the same solemnity and agitation settling over him. There was none of that slight camaraderie and kinship I'd felt last time I was in the same room as Captain America- now, all I felt was the cold certainty that he could put the hurt on me.
While, I can put that same hurt right back on you.
"Yes." I declared boldly. "I cannot believe we're having this conversation."
"Thank you!" Stark sighed, relieved, and turned away, throwing his hands up in the air.
"No, I agree with SHIELD on this one." Everyone's eyes narrowed. And I do mean everyone's, turning to focus on me once more. Stark, in particular, spun with such force he nearly knocked some tools onto the ground. I continued before any more interruptions could erupt, throat drying up now that I had everyone's attention, but determined to say my piece. "Thor, your people may not want war, but they certainly don't care about peace. To the Asgardians, humanity is a particularly large anthill, teeming with insects that don't matter and can't hurt us. Last year, Odin tossed you down to Earth without even the slightest care about where you might land, what consequences you might bring, how dangerous you could be. He wouldn't have cared of you had crashed into the middle of New York City and had the Destroyer decimate the place! You don't care, you're not even trying to care! So yes, if there's a chance that weants can get ourselves a gun that makes you - at the very least - not toss your highly dangerous trash into the midst of our most vital cities; yes, we should build the damn gun!"
There was silence. My throat was dry and tight, and I felt my cheeks burn at the lack of reaction.
"How..." Thor asked, approaching me slowly. "How did you know all that?" He asked.
"... What?" I replied, dumbfounded. What the hell does he- Wait...
"There is no... Conceivable way you could have possibly known about all that." He continued, voice dropping to a low and dangerous tone. "So answer me carefully, Child of Frost- how did you gain that information?"
"Let's all calm down here, alright?" Fury cut in, interposing himself between me and Thor.
"I..." I looked down at my hands. How the hell did I know all that? I hadn't even been thinking about it particularly hard, I'd just... Once I got going in my rant, it all came flooding out. I hadn't even consciously known that stuff, how on earth had I just blurted it all out like that?
"You need to-" Thor started, his stony gaze growing more heated as he ignored Fury totally, before he was cut off by another loud beep from Bruce's pad.
"We've got the location of..." He started before trailing off.
"Bruce?" Natasha spoke up, sounding concerned. "What's going on? Did you find the Tesseract?"
"Oh my God..." He breathed, then glanced up with an expression of intense panic seared into his eyes. He opened his mouth to call out something, but-
Noise, force, pressure and heat, bearing down from all directions. I'm not prepared, I'm not ready, and this I'm too slow to reach for my powers, and as the explosions roar in the distance, I feel enormous weight slam into my chest and pin me against a wall. The chaos fades.