"I've got it Stark."
"Will you let me use my own holograms?"
"My files, my play," Coulson snipped as we came into the conference room.
"My holograms your files are using," Tony shot back, "Hey Kay!"
"Hey," I grinned at the two.
I had heard that ever since SHIELD had fallen and Coulson's resurrection discovered, Tony in particular had been less then forgiving to him for hiding. Natasha and Clint, SHIELD themselves, had understood as did Steve. Thor and Tony however still brought it up daily.
"Kay, SHIELD has a list of people of interest, an Index if you will. We ran your name against every list as well as your DNA and came up empty. After running your DNA against the Index however..." Coulson looked to Tony.
"Ugh! Fine!" He groaned, collapsing gracefully in a chair.
"Thank you," Coulson placed a small USB in a slot and a hologram appeared.
All I could see were videos, photos and a lot of documents about specialized individuals. I whistled at the sight, unaware that there were so many in the world.
"It seems that you hail from a small island off of Portugal. Did you know that?" He asked me.
"Ya," I shrugged, "The Azores. My ancestors came here early 1800s."
"He did, apparently his descendants had a knack for trouble." Couslon flipped through numerous papers and photos and opened one photo bigger.
"Who is that?" Steve asked.
"Ernie LePrado. Kay's paternal great grandfather. He was an archeologist. Worked for the government in 1904. Discovered a cave of unusual properties in the Nevada desert."
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked, annoyed at the history lesson.
"Because only he could see what was inside the cave," Coulson explained, "According to this report, there was a mountain of gold, jewels and unspeakable riches, all at the feet of a statuette of a hybrid of fox, eagle and horse. A creature he described as godly and beautiful. Unfortunatly, the gold was so heavy he couldn't lift it and every time he tried to return to the cave,, the pathways changed, almost by magic. When he was thrown out of the government funded archeology program for blasphemy, he decided to blow up the cave so that he treasures inside would rain down on top of everyone."
"He didn't do it did he?" Steve asked, "With the First War, there were no explosives here in the US."
"None," Coulson nodded, "So between the wars, he managed to make enough money through smaller endeavors to collect the funds to explode the cave. When he lit the fuse however, he fell off the mountainside and into a small hole. He landed inside the cave again staring at the hybrid statue and the while place exploded. Same time this was happening, WWII was brewing."
"I'm so confused," I groaned, "First you talk about Azores and my family in the 1800s, then this cave my great grandfather found but no one believed him then just before WWII he blows himself up and the cave? How does this relate to my powers?"
"I'm getting there. In 1939, after Poland was attacked by Germany, most people didn't believe a second World War. A group of people did. These people would go on to achieve great victories for science, humanity and the war, including our very own Captain here." Coulson blushed at Steve.
"The SSR," Steve nodded, "Strategic Scientific Reserve was founded in 1940. They were responsible for my transformation. Project Rebirth and the Manhattan Project. The Atom Bomb."
"Exactly," Coulson nodded and brought up a series of blacked out articles, "You weren't the first though, as many believe. The first gifted person ever documented was Ernie LePrado."
"What?" I sat up straight at this information, "You mean my great grandfather had powers?"
"So it would seem," Coulson said, "The explosion didn't kill him, Roosevelt sent a private unit to investigate the bomb, thinking it was an attack by Germany, instead they found your grandfather surrounded by a white gold field, millions of dollars in gold and holding a small necklace that had a fox eagle horse hybrid on it."
"The gold must have been used to fund the SSR," Tony murmured.
"Couldn't move it," Coulson said, "No one but LePrado could. He decided that he didn't want to help his country after they ridiculed him. The SSR tried taking him by force and well you can guess what happened next."
"He got mad and used the same powers I had?" I guessed.
"Sounds great," Tony groaned, "So you have a super powered person running around during WWII. Explodes, possibly setting up inspiration for Manhattan Project and being superpowered, sets up inspiration for Project Rebirth."
"Correct," Coulson nodded, "The hybrid statue that was shrunk to a necklace it seems was based on a deity worshiped by people on the Azores. The native Azores, natives who you are directly linked to."
"Damn," I breathed, "So it's genetic. Why didn't I know? I mean, my name isn't even LePrado. It's Morea."
"Changed his name. In fact, the SSR wrote him off as dead. The only link we have is that in 1966, another operative, SHIELD operative, by the name of H. Pym or Ant-Man found out about him while on mission in Rome. Same abilities and DNA signature. He was dying, but already had changed names and had a completely new life." Coulson said.
"Ant-Man?" Tony snickered, 'What did he do? Eat a radioactive ant?"
"Not funny," Steve growled.
"At least Hawkeye sounds cool, but Ant-Man? Sorry but I hate bugs," Tony said.
"Shall I tell Black Widow you said that?" Steve raised an eyebrow.
"You know what? Ant-Man sounds amazing! We should make a new one! I'll find a radioactive ant right now!"
"Please," Coulson sighed, "Back on topic please?"
"Fine," Tony said.
"After tracing back your grandfather's multiple wives, he married three times, and discovering none of them had abilities, your great grandfather was written off as a fluke. Think due to the trauma you experienced when the Utronbot threw you into the truck, you generated a protective barrier. The same that protected your great grandfather during the explosion."
"So..." I breathed heavily, absorbing the information, "What could he do?"