"Can't you feel the power?"
A voice echoed through my mind. Then a catastrophic explosion of some kind followed. There was no fire, no heat. This wasn't an explosion in the traditional sense. It was a cataclysmic eruption of energy, gravitational energy. Then everything went dark in an immediate blackout.
I gasped, my eyes snapping open as if jolted by electricity. I was lying in a hospital bed, a stark white sheet draped over me. An oppressive headache pounded behind my eyes, and the hum of fluorescent lights echoed in my ears. The sterile scent of a hospital room overwhelmed my nose. Confusion fogged my mind. Wait, why am I in a hospital?
I was a college student in a decently safe place and I was decently healthy last I checked, though I was on some powerful meds, but I'd certainly have no reason to be here.
Two nurses were hovering over me, a man and woman wearing a nurse's uniform, rather than a white coat, marked their profession.
I tried to move, to get up, but my limbs felt too heavy, as though they were being constrained by something.
I glanced at my hands and discovered they were bound by restraints. A tug confirmed what I already suspected; these bonds weren't something I could easily break free from.
"What am I doing here?" I asked the nurses, my voice sounding strange to my own ears.
"It's okay, Franklin," the male nurse responded calmly, "There's been an accident. We're just worried you might've been exposed to something-"
"What the hell do you mean by accident? There was some explosion but I wasn't anywhere near something combustible!"
"Shut it down Hall, that's an order!" a voice belonging to a different man demanded.
Suddenly, a memory that wasn't mine surged forth. It was of a man, Franklin Hall, conducting an experiment with gravitational forces for S.H.I.E.L.D., to create super soldiers. An experiment that resulted in that explosion. Followed by the blackout.
A realization hit me like a thunderbolt. Franklin Hall? The scientist that would become the supervillain Graviton? Was I...in his body?
The male nurse started to say something, but his words were drowned out by my panic. I tried to control my breathing, to somehow convince myself that this was all some bizarre dream, but my heart was beating like a jackhammer. I was in a strange place, in a strange body, a body that was not mine. I had no idea how I got here or how I could be here. Fear and confusion gripped me, and suddenly the room began to tremble, the sudden quake mirroring the fear ricocheting in my mind. The nurses stumbled back, their faces etched with surprise.
I looked at my now freed hands, my breath hitching in my throat as the reality of my situation came crashing down.
Franklin Hall.
The name echoed in my mind. I continued to glare down at my hands, seeing not my own familiar lines and scars but those of another man. No, not just any man. Graviton. Now me.
"This has to be some kind of a dream," I muttered to myself, my own voice sounding foreign to me, confusion melding with an inexplicable fear. The memory of the experiment replayed in my mind, of being caught in the blast. It felt so real, like it was my own memory, not just Hall's.
But it couldn't be. It shouldn't be!
Panic welled up in me. And with that panic, an uncontrollable surge of power erupted from me, and the nurses were suddenly flung against the wall. I watched in disbelief as everything around me floated mid-air, suspended by an invisible force. I looked at my hands again, my breath hitching in my throat as the gravity of my situation came crashing down.
The force that was disrupting everything, that was pushing and pulling at the world around me - it was gravity, and somehow, I was the one controlling it.
Fear and frustration spiked, fuelling the chaotic force. I was losing control, the room threatening to tear apart under the strain of my uncontrolled power. Objects rattled and shook, gravity's hold on them becoming erratic.
My panic escalated as I realized I had no control over this newfound power. It felt like an unstoppable torrent, fueled by my overwhelming emotions. The walls groaned under the strain, and the medical equipment clattered to the floor. I was on the verge of tearing the room apart when a hissing sound filled the air.
I turned my head to see a dense cloud of sleeping gas creeping into and quickly engulfing the room. I tried to hold my breath, tried to move away, but it was too fast, it was already infiltrating my nostrils and lungs. Its sedative properties quickly took effect, overpowering my desperate struggle for control.
The edges of my vision started to swim in a blur, and the last thing I saw was the unyielding stare of Nick Fury, cold and unflinching, before darkness claimed me once again.
My final coherent thought wasn't of anger or fear, but surprise. A surreal observation amidst this chaos.
Huh, he still had hair.
When I opened my eyes next, I was no longer in the hospital but in a chillingly cold cell. Rather than a decently comfortable bed and restraints, I only had restraints as I was held up like a prisoner.
And like in the hospital, my restraints had failed against my power of gravity. Could it be a result of whatever had been keeping me asleep, or my power contained, no longer working?
This was likely the Raft, I realized. My prison was far too advanced to be anything other than the very best that S.H.I.E.L.D. had for superhumans of my power. I had been locked away in the closest thing to maximum security outside of the Negative Zone, left to slumber for what seemed like years in a medically induced coma. I felt a stab of anger. They had imprisoned me, denied me my freedom, my rights. (Sure Franklin was Canadian but we're neighbors damnit!)
Despite having committed no fucking crime!
But I was not the Franklin Hall nor the Graviton that would've been. I would not resort to violence, to revenge. I wanted justice. I wanted compensation. I had been unjustly locked up, stripped of my life, and I very much deserved to be compensated for that.
Nick Fury would hear from me. Not the Graviton who sought bloody revenge, but the Singularity who demanded justice. Or some form of retribution at the very least.
But in order to do so, I needed to get the hell outta here. And seeing no place to go but up, I levitated into the air, using gravity to push myself into the air.
Once outside of my cell and in the wider area of the prison, I saw that I wasn't the only one freed from their prison, as villains of all kinds run around; still in their prison uniforms or having found their costumes.
"Where the hell am I? How long have I been stuck here?" I muttered to myself, running a hand through my new beard. It was certainly long enough for this beastly mane to appear, though I found myself actually likely it. I just needed to give it a proper wash, it being rather rough in some places.
"Longer than me, and I've been here for six years." Standing before me was a man, dressed in an elaborate costume, his eyes hidden behind a mask. I felt that I should know, or at least have an idea of who this guy was, but he wasn't ringing any bells for me. He sounded German though, which meant that there was a not small chance he was HYDRA of some kind. But I found myself a bit too preoccupied to pay that thought any further.
"WHAT!?" I roared out. A wave of anger and resentment washed over me. Over six years? I had guessed that it had been years, but I certainly wasn't fucking happy to have that confirmed so bluntly yet ambiguously. I had been in a coma, imprisoned for over six years, a decade even, while S.H.I.E.L.D. just forgot about me?
When Fury knows damn well that I hadn't done anything outside of losing control and panic when I got my newfound powers. As if that wouldn't have been a fucking normal reaction to something so unexpected, that fucking paranoid slime!
I felt the energy surge again, my rage amplifying it. The room shook as debris started falling from the ceiling. But I quickly put a lid on it, it'd be a waste to perform a repeat of the hospital, spending that energy so wildly. Though the urge to repeat what Pain did to Konoha with an all-out Almighty Push strongly appeals to me. No, I'd be better off directing that towards something that wouldn't instantly get the Avengers on me. And so I burst up straight through the metal ceilings, my quickly formed gravity barriers shielding me while also allowing me to push through the steel.
As I took in the panorama of the endless ocean, a slew of fragmented memories washed over me. They weren't my own recollections, but Franklin Hall's. Visions of his time in the lab, the quiet hum of machinery, the countless nights spent poring over theories and equations. I could almost hear the low murmur of his voice as he spoke about gravitational forces, the passion in his words becoming tangible in the echoes of his memories.
In the past, I had been a simple college student with no background in advanced physics or gravity research. But now, with Hall's memories becoming an inherent part of my psyche, I found myself understanding concepts and ideas that I never thought I could.
Hall's knowledge was a lifeline, a crash course in controlling the unruly force that I'd somehow inherited. It was bewildering, like learning a new language overnight, but also exhilarating. For the first time since this bizarre twist of fate, I felt a sense of control, a semblance of mastery over the immense power that lay at my fingertips.
Once I found myself out of the Raft and into the ocean it was in, I realized that I might have made a few enemies in case any of the villains almost drowned. But fuck it, I doubt most of them were much of a threat to me outside of whatever organization they belonged to happening to find some kind of superweapon. And considering that this was Marvel, odds were good that it was a case of maybe, but I should still be fine. Especially when I could always just throw it and them out of orbit or put them through a second of Vegeta's training in the Gravity Chamber.
As I burst through the icy waters, a cold wind bit into my skin. I was in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by miles of frigid water. The sight was breathtaking, but I had no time to admire the scenery. I had a mission.
In a swift motion, I propelled myself upwards, using my gravity control to fly. The sensation was exhilarating. Freedom. It was intoxicating, it was empowering. But it also served as a cruel reminder of what had been stolen from me. Yet also of what I will gain.
And now, I found myself breathing in fresh, though salty, air and feeling sunshine for the first time in years. Already my body is appreciating the natural sensations, greatly above the artificial and sterility of the Raft.
The city of New York was a few miles away, its skyline a comforting sight. I had no idea how I knew this since I lived in Massachusetts for all of my life, perhaps another residual piece of knowledge from Franklin Hall's memories, I suppose.
And something that grabbed my attention even more than the Big Apple was a rather noticeable landmark of the Marvel Universe. The Helicarrier, now sunk into the water. …with an enlarged castle sticking out of it from some areas? Well, I guess if Fury having hair didn't rule this being the MCU out, this certainly did.
Suddenly, I just realized. I was a fugitive now. S.H.I.E.L.D. would be looking for me, as they would with all of the other escapees from The Raft. I, Franklin Hall, Graviton, was now a wanted man. And my escaping during such an inconvenient time would not endear me to them or the Avengers. But that was the thing, wasn't it? I wasn't Franklin Hall. I wasn't Graviton. I was me, trapped in the body of a man who was destined to become a villain via his pride and ego. But I didn't have to be that man. I didn't have to be a villain. Didn't want to either if I'm being honest.
The rumble of a helicopter shattered my reverie, and I looked up to see a S.H.I.E.L.D. chopper descending. So engrossed had I been in my own thoughts, I'd failed to notice its approach. And it appeared that they hadn't registered my presence until just now, judging by the surprise in Fury's eye.
"Evac now! Abort the mission! Everyone off this barge!" Fury barked to his troops, preparing to evacuate himself.
But I couldn't be having that, now could I?
I lifted up my hand and pulled Fury towards me, as I did I also flew into the sky dragging him along with me. I'll freely admit that I was rougher than I needed to be with my speed, but I'm sure he could handle it just fine, head of super spies and all.
Our momentum sent us soaring, Fury dangling behind me. His solitary eye widened in a fleeting moment of fear before it morphed back into a glare. He reached for a gun, but I simply tossed it away with a gesture of my finger and a flicker of my will.
"Put me down, Hall!" Fury yelled over the rush of wind that whipped past us, his voice barely audible. He struggled against the gravitational force, but it was futile. I was in control here.
"No, Fury," I responded, my voice cold and firm. "I think we need to have a little chat."
XXXXXXXXX
This was mostly inspired from a bit of writer's block for most of my stuff and a bit of me wanting to write a story for Marvel (no idea what to do with the MCU tbh with it being a clusterfuck of mid tbh, Guardians 3 was hella good tho). Also, because I did DC with Amazo-n Prime fic, I wanted to even it out with a Marvel fic.
That, and just from how preventable the conflict with Graviton was. Just don't try to murder Fury and a bunch of innocents and he'd already have the sympathy points needed for Fury to be the unreasonable guy in all of this with his paranoia. mad scientists, smh.
Now, as for the next chapter, Fury and Graviton will be having a bit of a not so friendly chat. As for the rest of the Avengers, it'd be a lot more positive even if they do come to blows.
so, tell me what you guys think and I hope y'all liked it