A secluded peaceful luxury property off the coast of the US stayed a grey haired elderly man and an elderly woman with glasses; retired government agents Martin and Jona Milton who were living off their big pension package from the US government. They were watching DBC News and Jona's mouth was wide open as she saw the report of the horrific murder of most of the New Warriors as well as talking about social media reactions making fun of them since the news hit.
"Just because they weren't big name heroes and they had a trashy reality show... This horrific incident gets joked about by clowns online? What is the world coming to and someone has been targeting the hero community... Bold enough to be more open after what they pulled off at Camp Lehigh..." Jona muttered aghast with Martin sighing as he got up.
"Makes me glad to be retired... Going for a drink..." Martin said as he passed by the window and noticed something heading towards the property from the sky. He opened the door as the figure then began zooming in faster and faster before landing with a thud.
Jona was worried and walked out to find Martin standing there. "Martin; what happened..." Jona asked but she was now lost for words as facing them looking down was none other than Hyperion himself.
"I always knew that this day would come... It's been a long time Mark." Martin spoke up towards the Eternal raised on Earth.
"Especially as I haven't gone by Mark in a long time... I actually almost forgot the name that you gave me... Sorry; you didn't give it to me... Did you?" Hyperion replied as Martin's face straightened and Jona looked worried and soon flying down and landing was Rhodes in the War Machine armor.
"Hyperion... What are you doing partner? I got an alert saying that we are expected in the Rocket Central and... Where are we and who are these people?" Rhodes then asked confused as he noticed the couple.
"Colonel Rhodes. Meet my parents; looking good for those who I weren't able to save from being killed in an accident..." Hyperion then said calmly as Martin took a big sigh.
"You know about Project: Hyperion... Come inside and we can talk..." Martin then said leading the way with Jona, Hyperion and Rhodes following inside. They sat down as Rhodes looked around.
"Nice place you have here..." Rhodes then said as Martin nodded.
"A gift from our government for raising their greatest Champion... You see Colonel Rhodes; we were chosen to act as farmers in a controlled environment and raise a baby alien that they had found... With Howard Stark himself using his connections to put himself in charge of it all..." Martin then explained as Rhodes put his faceplate up to show his shocked reaction.
"Hold on... What..." Rhodes then exclaimed.
"I could go for a piece of your famous chicken Mum... Sorry; did you actually cook any of that?" Hyperion then asked as his eyes narrowed with Jona looking nervous and Martin looked at him. "You know... Ever since your deaths; I felt more adrift from feeling human... Following more and more in line with what Stark Industries and the US military wanted from me... Wanting to do more and tried to reach out to those like the Hulk but didn't know how but I kept being told to take care of the threats that I was pointed towards... That was the point right and Master Menace... Just a renegade part of the project..." Hyperion then told them.
"We never liked the man from the short time that we knew him..." Jona then muttered out.
"Tell me please; how much of my life was staged and chosen for me? What I watched on TV? The baseball games that we went to and my school functions... All actors and staged? Was who won carefully chosen for me? I always had the mental compulsion to do what's best for my country with my handlers telling me what it was... You taught me to nevr interfere too much in the ways of mankind... I guess that was just so that I would be under control and not and try and make waves on my own or break loose..." Hyperion said close to snapping as the Miltons had their faces fell.
"This is... Just nuts and please just tell me that this is an elaborate game..." Rhodes muttered shock.
"For what it's worth Mark... We grew to love and care for you and did our best to go for the bat for you when we could..." Martin said as he got up and went to a drawer. He then took out some pieces of paper. He then gave Hyperion a childhood drawing of him in his suit. "The mental conditioning wasn't actually perfect... Your favourite colors turned out to be red and yellow and Howard Stark threw a fit as he kept trying to get you to favor the blue and white instead of yellow... We saw this drawing that you made and we managed to convince enough of our superiors to let it go that Howard didn't think that the detail was important enough to fight over..." Martin then told him as he then showed a design plan of a suit that was a white bodysuit with boots and there was a dark blue area that looked like a shirt over the suit and with a red 'H' symbol.
"That was the suit design planned out before you were even given us... We grew to care more about you and it breaks our heart to see on the news the weapon that you ended up becoming... Hard to sleep most nights..." Jona then told him.
"Then why did you let me become one?" Hyperion then demanded as Jona flinched.
"We didn't exactly have a choice in the matter... Appointed government guardians answering to officials and the rich and powerful Howard Stark... If we tried to take you away or something then we would be taken care of... Warned if we would step out of line too much then they would be eliminated... Have us replaced with those that would see this as just an assignment and you as an asset and not their child... Agents would come to you as social service agents to pick you up for new guardians and agents dressed as cops would explain that we had been found to have have been farming drugs to sell and killed when resisting arrest..." Martin then told Hyperion as he thought over the words.
"Was there a plan if I ever ended up finding you both here?" Hyperion asked as they both got up and and showed them to a desk. They moved it and showed a keypad and the code was entered to show different weapons.
"Argonite powered weapons and an emergency beacon to send a signal to Doctor Spectrum as well as the office now belonging to Tony Stark." Martin answered as they stepped back along and gave a look to Rhodes to encourage him to do so. Rhodes complied as Hyperion used his Atomic Vision to destroy the weapons as he faced them.
"So what happens now..." Hyperion then asked as Jona sighed along with Martin.
"Whatever brings you closure... Goodbye and I don't blame you for this; just make it quick son..." Martin then said as Hyperion stared at him.
"If it will bring you satisfaction and closure after learning the truth... We made our peace that if you found us then we wouldn't survive the day..." Jona then said as Hyperion looked at them for a minute before heading back out the door as Rhodes then followed.
"You are going to stop me and bring me in Colonel..." Hyperion asked Rhodes turning his head to face him as Rhodes then called his US military handlers.
"Sorry... I had a lead on Hyperion but the red and yellow SOB gave me a warning shot with that Atomic Vision on him... By the time that I regained myself; he made had made off... Don't know what direction he was headed..." Rhodes then called in as Hyperion looked appreciative. After a minute Rhodes then said "ordered to come back so what are you going to do now?"
"Going to get some time to myself and figure out just who I am Colonel..." Hyperion then replied.
"Please call me Rhodey and I do hope that you figure all that out...Mark..." Rhodes then said as Hyperion then shot off high into space at top speed while Rhodes had his faceplate go back down.
A week later at a venue the lights were out for the televised funerals of Sk'ym'x, Hawkeye and the New Warriors with the families up in the front row. Alex Power's parents and siblings were looking devastated with their heads down. Up on stage was the entire Squadron Supreme (sans Hyperion) heads down low with their hands together along with Walker, Doreen and Robbie in a wheelchair. The screen showed a montage as Allison Blaire the orange haired pop star superheroine known as Dazzler in her blue eye make up and 80s styled white outfit used her hands to show her light based Mutant powers and was singing her cover of Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You.
Backstage watching on the monitors was Stark and Hill; "Beating the live views as the last Super Bowl... At least these recent disasters can be good for something... Look at those people anticipating hearing the most famous singing Mutie..." Stark muttered amused as a person in a suit came up to him.
"Sir; there is someone to see you..." said the man as Stark didn't even turn around.
"We are busy here and so tell whoever it is to come back another time..." Stark muttered as there was a laugh.
"Not even the man who spent more time raising you than your own father..." asked a bald headed elderly man with a goatee in a suit surrounded by a security detail. Stark went and embraced the man; Obadiah Stane the Vice President of the US.
"VP Oby; it's been too long since you have come to visit... Has dealing with Winchester Bob been that draining on your time?" Stark greeted the man using an unflattering nickname that people had given to President Robert Kelly which was a reference to the area where Kelly had come from.
"Believe it or not Tony; being the VP of a country takes more out of your schedule than being the VP of a multi billion dollar company..." Stane laughed before he looked more serious. "But in all seriousness Tony... President Kelly sent me to talk to you that he is getting impatient about results to whatever is attacking the superheroes..." Stane then explained to him.
"We have it under control Oby... We are prepared for whoever is responsible think that they can take on our A-listers and we have Captain America out there hunting terrorists to keep up the morale of the American people..." Stark told Stane who shook his head.
"Tony I am sorry but dressing up a super soldier to be a propaganda mascot is not good enough! President Kelly and Secretary Ross would rather we have that promised platoon of super soldiers... Plus President Kelly might hear word that the story of Hyperion being busy investigating that you gave to the public might be bogus... You know how much money that your old man and the government put into that Project: Hyperion? The US has enemies and if they think that we lost control of our most powerful hero..." Stane then told Stark who looked indignant.
"Please understand how serious this is... You know that President Kelly privately doesn't like all our celebrity heroes and would rather any beings not human eradicated or that Mutant Registration Act that he had proposed as a Senator be brought back and extended to all non-humans... Which would take all of them out of your control and into his! Only reason he hasn't gone full with ideas is that we have bribed enough people in Congress and the Senate to make sure that trying to push such a bill would be a waste of time... But if he really pushes it and gets the people behind him... Not to mention if he had an incline of just a quarter of the stuff that the heroes does that the company covers up..." Stane then told him as Stark then groaned.
"Quit worrying Oby... I have it handled..." Stark then told him and Stane then turned away with his security detail
"I hope that you do Tony as I am telling you this for your benefit..." Stane then said as Stark then turned to an assistant.
"Schedule me tonight with Miss January, March and Mrs September with some bottles in my room at the Tower..." Stark then told the assistant as he then made his way to an office and snapped out loud kicking the wall.
"Oby should have been doing a better job at keeping Winchester Bob under control... That's why pops chose him to run for Senate in the first place so we could have someone we can count on to trust... Plus Winchester Bob dare make demands like that to us... If it wasn't for those billion dollars donated to his campaign... He would never have moved into the White House..." Stark snapped as then saw a poster of Hyperion and tore it off.
"It's bad enough that you had dad's attention despite not even really meeting him during raising him up and that he treated you more like a son than his actual one... You dare do a runner on me? I have half a mind to get the contingency up and running..." Stark told the poster ripping it in half. "I will have this dealt with as I will not let whoever is responsible turn my superheroes into bad products..." Stark then muttered to himself.
Hyperion's adopted parents in their brief panel in the original Squadron Supreme comic or the agents who raised in Supreme Power never had names so I ended up deciding to mix up the names of Jonathan and Martha Kent. The costume shown in that design was one that Hyperion had in the Supreme Power comics.