10 – The Beginning – May 14, 2012
"I met your father at university," Aspen's mother began. "We both had a gift for science and were particularly interested in the aspects of the brain that humans typically can't access. We started to develop the Neurological Potential Stimulus our sophomore year and had a pretty good grasp on the research by the time we graduated in 1984. During college, your father's good friend Peter Stewart had studied often with us, but despite his degree, he didn't have a gift for science like we did. His experiments and work always lived in our shadow though I'm not proud to say so. When some of our notes went missing, we didn't want to think the worst, but it became clear that he was trying to replicate our serum. Without all the information though, it was impossible to replicate, or so we thought. We didn't think much of it after we started working for SHIELD. We lost contact with Peter.
"It was just after we'd graduated that we were introduced to Joseph Danners. We were young and bright-eyed, never stopping to think that our research could be dangerous. Your Aunt Violet had joined our team with her biology degree and helped us develop the biological aspect of the serum. She had met Danners through a mutual friend. At the time he worked as the CEO for a company that made advanced armor for the military. Your aunt thought that our serum was something the government would be interested in. She made the mistake of going to Danners first."
"It's not her fault," Aspen said softly.
Her mother looked up at her in surprise. "Aspen, honey, she just let you walk straight into Danners's hands. She was supposed to protect you."
"No. You were supposed to protect me. You and dad." There was an acid to Aspen's tone though she didn't raise her voice.
"We thought we were…" Aspen's mom put her face in her hands. "God help me, I thought that we were."
"What's done is done. I suppose you know I'm the one who pulled the trigger on Danners? Despite all he did to me, to our family, it still haunts me."
"I'm so sorry, Aspen."
"So Aunt Vi gave him some of the basic properties of the formula. What happened after that?"
"Danners was initially very interested, but our work wasn't ready. Vi was young and naïve. We all were. Danners had a few propositions for us to hear, but your father and I didn't like the way he spoke. He had that gleam of hunger in his eyes. Nothing good comes from that. We told him we weren't interested and that Vi had made a mistake offering up work that wasn't for sale. Danners retreated after some argument. A few years later, we heard that he had started an organization called ARTIFACT. He'd turned smuggler trying to get his hands on something powerful, selling to the highest bidder. SHIELD became aware of our research and asked us to work for them. We agreed. We needed somewhere to continue our work, and we thought SHIELD could keep us safe."
"We continued our research, and then on June 21st, 1990, you were born." She smiled at Aspen, pride in her eyes. "We promised you a safe and happy life, and we failed," she said wistfully. "I won't ever forgive myself for what you've been through." Her eyes flitted to the scar on Aspen's face. Steve had almost forgotten it was there, but the faded white line was a reminder that Aspen's life had not been easy. "We did everything we could to make your life a happy and normal one. We bought the Sunflower House, we cut back on our time at the lab. Somehow we couldn't let the project go though. We started working on a sort of subproject – the Immunity Serum that would prevent the mind from being susceptible to control. We were afraid someone would try to get information from us by force. Being so deeply enveloped in the science world, we heard rumors of such injections. We tested it on ourselves until we got it just right, and then we injected you."
Steve stiffened. He still didn't think someone so young should be injected with something like that, but he couldn't deny it had saved her a few times.
"It worked," Aspen said. "I was immune to mind control."
Aspen's mom nodded. "That's what we had hoped. Who tried to control you?"
"No one from this world. He came from another world entirely."
"New York… It happened during that catastrophe."
Aspen nodded. "I have a good friend who wasn't so lucky. He still suffers the aftereffects from the Tesseract's control over his mind." Ava's eyes widened. "Were you aware of the Tesseract's existence?" Aspen asked accusatorily.
"We studied it extensively at SHIELD," she answered. "After Howard Stark pulled it out of the arctic in 1945 looking for you," she glanced at Steve, "SHIELD tried to figure out how to harness the energy. We were able to harness some of the energy to use in our experiments. It was then that we realized that was our missing element. The Tesseract enabled the serum to bring out parts of our brains that we couldn't normally access. It could also be unstable." Her eyes flitted to Steve again, and she seemed nervous. "How did you meet?" she asked. "Stark looked for you, but no one could find you or the Valkyrie."
"SHIELD found me in April," he said. "Aspen was assigned to look after me, introduce me to the 21st century."
"I see." He could see the curiosity behind her eyes and knew she had more questions. "Doctor Erskine's work was inspirational. I wish I'd been able to meet him," she said. "The only sample of his work left is in your DNA."
"Steve's not a test subject," Aspen said protectively.
"I know that. I didn't mean to imply…"
"What did SHIELD want with the Tesseract?" Steve asked.
"They wanted to see if they could somehow use that energy. After weapons were suggested, we backed out of the research. We wanted no part of that. We didn't hear anything about their research once we weren't involved. SHIELD likes to keep its secrets. In May of 1994, we were warned by one of our men that Joseph Danners was coming for our research. He somehow knew we'd found the last element and had completed the serum. He had planted a spy just as we had. We took our research and hid it, encrypted it. We sent you to live with your aunt. By then she had retired from the science scene. She took you in with the promise to keep you safe. We faked the explosion using cadavers to make it look as if we'd died. We disappeared."
"Did you ever test your serum?" Steve asked.
"We did. One of our researchers volunteered to be the first. It was incredible, but unfortunately he died in an accident very soon after that. He saved twenty people from a collapsed building, but he didn't make it out alive. The serum stimulates the brain, but it doesn't make you physically stronger. He was our only subject. We moved around a lot the first year until we heard rumors of research going on in Everett, Washington that sounded very similar to our own work. We approached the facility and got jobs there using assumed names. We wanted to keep an eye on the research, to see if it really was ours. We realized at once that Peter Stewart must have sold the bits of our work that he had stolen. This organization we later learned was none other than A.I.M. We knew from SHIELD that they had no good intentions. We started to quietly sabotage the work being done there. I think the research leader, Doctor Adams suspected, but he didn't turn us in. I think he didn't quite realize what could go wrong with imperfect forms of the serum. After a few catastrophes, he began to question just what it was they were being asked to research. These researchers were very low on the A.I.M. hierarchy and weren't privy to a lot of information. We warned Adams of the damage that could be done, and he told us to run while we could before A.I.M. realized we were there. So we ran. We heard about an incident that had taken place there a few months later."
"We read about it. We were there," Aspen told her.
"Good. I had hoped you would find some evidence leftover, to realize that A.I.M. was involved. But I didn't realize you'd be caught… I didn't mean for that to happen."
"A.I.M. caught up to us there. So did another organization. A lot of people died. We nearly did."
"How did they capture you?" Ava asked, voice frail.
"They poisoned me. Only Stewart had the antidote. Steve had no choice but to let them take me."
Aspen's mom drew in a sharp breath. "I had no idea how far he would go. He forced me to make that call to you. I tried to give you everything you needed, but he got you anyway."
"I don't understand how you came to be here," Aspen said.
Aspen's mother sighed. "We didn't realize Peter had started working for A.I.M. He approached us in 2010. He said he was a professor at Columbia University. This surprised us. He'd had some skill in science, but he'd never thrived in the lab. His work had vastly improved though. In fact, he'd received some awards for some of his work."
"He went by Stewart Donovan when he was there," Aspen put in.
Aspen's mom nodded. "So we heard. We agreed to meet with him. He had a proposition for us. He wanted us to work with him. He wanted to continue our work on the Neurological Potential Stimulus. When we learned that he worked for A.I.M. we told him we weren't interested, but he didn't take no for an answer. He used forcible means, and we were hauled to Iceland and forced to continue our work under threat. We told him that all our research had been lost and that we would have to start from scratch. We'd hidden all the clues for you to find and had nothing with us. Of course we still remembered the formula without notes. Peter believed us at first. He provided us with the rudimentary work A.I.M. had received from him so long ago and then some clearer notes that Danners had sold to him. We dragged our feet for a year. That was when you became his student, and he realized we'd had a child. He took a keen interest in you. He'd tell me all about how well you were doing in his class and how he watched your work, waiting to see if you showed our skill at science. When you did, he hatched a plan. He said that he would force you to make the serum if we wouldn't. He threatened you. He didn't mention at first that you were working for SHIELD. We had learned about you working for Danners but only after he was dead. We realized just how much our plan to protect you had backfired.
"He kept threatening to bring you here. I pretended to work harder, but I knew we couldn't provide him with the serum. In his hands it was a weapon. Finally he got fed up. He…he took your father. I'm not sure where he is. I think he's still alive." Her voice cracked. "And when I heard he'd captured you…" She bowed her head in defeat. "I'm almost finished with recreating the serum."
"You can't just hand it over. He's going to use it for biological warfare. We just went through New York. We can't go through something like that again."
"That's where he wants to strike, I think. Before the city fully recovers."
"But what about the Avengers? Isn't he afraid of SHIELD?"
Her eyes flitted to Steve before she said, "Where are the Avengers now? Scattered? Do they have any idea what Peter and A.I.M. are planning? Does anyone even know you're here?"
"Clint Barton and Aunt Vi know. Clint works for SHIELD and is an Avenger. We have trackers," she lowered her voice. "They'll notice."
"Then let's hope they're looking for you. A.I.M. means to counteract the power of the Avengers with their own men. The Superhero Serum is their way of building an army."
"But you said the serum doesn't make you physically stronger. How are they going to stand against Captain America or the Hulk?"
"That's just it. Peter has been working on another project. It's called the Super-Adaptoid. I haven't been given specific information on it, but I think I understand the basic concept. He had me fiddle with the formula to get it on the right track. A.I.M.'s highest group of scientists have been working on developing a serum that can take powers that already exist and replicate them."
"That's why they wanted Steve." Aspen looked up at him, worry in her eyes. "Could they do that? Could they replicate his strength?"
Aspen's mom nodded. Steve felt a jolt of fear. "They could replicate every Avenger's power."
"With the Avengers fighting their own clones, how could they defeat an army of people injected with the Superhero Serum?" Aspen asked.
"Exactly. Now you see why I've been dragging my feet. But once they threatened you…"
"But Mom, this is bigger than me. Bigger than you. Bigger than all of us. We need to stop this from happening!" Aspen sat up straighter, putting her feet back on the floor.
"A.I.M. is too powerful," Ava said. "You can't defeat it. Not even with Captain America on your side."
Aspen stared at her in disbelief. "You're just giving up?"
"Don't you think I've tried to get out in the two years I've been here?" she asked. "I've tried everything, Aspen. I live in this lab. My room is upstairs, and I haven't been outside in months. I don't know if my husband is alive. I'm running out of options."
"Stewart is just a man. I've fought worse," Aspen said resolutely.
"There's something more you need to know about Peter," Ava said, leaning forward in her seat urgently. "He was-"
Before she could say more, the door to the lab opened again. She jumped to her feet as Peter Stewart stepped into the room. "Well, have you had the chance for a lovely chat?" he asked, clapping his hands together. "I was really hoping we could get started right away. We need that serum."
"What do you plan on doing with it?" Aspen asked, standing. Steve stood as well, hovering protectively at her side.
"As your mom said. She's got it all figured out, hasn't she?"
"You mean to build an army. Why is it so important to have that kind of power?" Aspen asked.
"It's not just about that," he told her. "I need it."
"What do you mean?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
"What your mother was about to tell you." He unbuttoned the cuff of his shirt. "I'm not doing so well, Aspen. I stole your little Immunity Serum because I thought that could help me, but that didn't do anything." He rolled up his sleeve and stuck his right wrist out to them. Aspen let out a low gasp. Steve looked down at the skin and saw a vivid black tattoo on the inside of the man's wrist. It read #3.
"You were #3," Aspen said. "You were injected with the serum at Research Facility 37."
