Author's Notes:
A very special thank you to Ben2Dartmouth for his ideas for this story.
Hello again! Welcome to the very first story of Tales from the Beyonder! This one I was so passionate about that I threw myself right in immediately writing this one as this was a particular variant I've been wanting to write ever since the last episode of What If. But surprisingly and admittedly, given Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur has begun airing on the Disney Channel again and all the rest of season two of the show has been uploaded on Disney Plus this weekend, I made unintentional good timing. In any case though, hope you all this enjoy one as I did writing it!
Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: Characters belong to their respective owners.
"In this universe, like most of its variants, played out similarly as their prime counterparts. To fight against Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers, the United States government officially went through a program called Project Rebirth, to turn one Steve Rogers with a special formula to become Captain America; fighting against the likes of not just the Nazi party but its soon to be everlasting branch, HYDRA, as led by the one Red Skull.
But another constant was Peggy Carter, a British MI6 agent who soon became the love interest of Steve Rogers. In this universe, it's all played out mostly the same, well, save for the key difference of a mister Bucky Barnes surviving but we'll put a pin on that for now. But otherwise, Steve became MIA in one last mission to stop the Red Skull-being frozen in ice and all, Peggy had her adventures and founded SHIELD and that's where our story begins. I call this piece…Enter The Wolverine."
Earth-7819: Corman Motel, Hurricane, West Virginia (May 12th, 1984)
The bathroom light turned on. A large, tall, muscular women with red hair in a white tank top and jeans stared at her reflection in the motel bathroom. It had been a long day. A long, frightening, stressful day. Everything had gone so wrong. She breathed heavily as she looked down for a moment and looked up at her reflection again.
Peggy Carter had gone through a lot over the years. This took the cake out of all them.
She inspected her face with surprise.
'No gray hairs…' She mused to herself.
Peggy stared at herself in the mirror amazement.
"My lord…" She gasped in shock. 'I'm back to how I looked in nineteen forty-three!'
Indeed, she looked to appear in her mid-twenties during the years of World War II.
'But how…?'
She then looked at the palms of her hands and then to the top of her hands after she had washed them multiple times.
SNIKT!
Three metal claws suddenly popped out from the top of her hands much to her shock. She backed away to a wall.
Peggy breathed heavily at the sight of the claws in horror as memories from the past few days began to resurface as she hastily exited the bathroom. As the claws retracted and she grasped her head, she collapsed into a chair and her head began to wander back toward what had transpired earlier.
Peggy remembered last month, despite still being the head of SHIELD, it was continually suggested by other senior members or even younger members she should at least consider retirement as she was sixty-three years old. She had been the head of SHIELD for decades now. Especially given there was a promising young SHIELD agent named Nicholas J. Fury who seemed up to being the director of the organization.
While Peggy saw potential in the young Fury, she was not ready to retire, not yet. But she had a pressing matter to attend to.
As it turned out, despite orders from the US government to shut down the Weapon X program in Fayetteville, West Virginia around near the forest, there were reports of the program still continuing and defying orders by the head of the program and chief scientist, Dr. Andre Thorton. The program to her knowledge was said to be doing top secret experiments on mutants. Reports she received were on the negative side as she became more and more aware of the unethical methods involved.
Carter knew it was time to take action but she was going to need a team since it was very likely, Dr. Thorton was not going down without a fight.
Peggy Carter required the best of the best for such a mission. Young but experienced agents Phil Coulson and Melinda May were among the recruits. As were Laura Barton and Anne Weaver, both young field agents of SHIELD.
While young, Peggy Carter was at least impressed by their field work and were recruited for this specific mission to shut down the Weapon X program once and for all.
It was supposed to have been a simple mission, she thought as she recalled how everything somehow went wrong.
Dr. Andre Thorton had led them to a trap after a shoot out with the guards. A sniper had managed to tranquilize Carter and the agents and were immediately captured upon being knocked unconscious.
In the present day, Peggy Carter slammed her fist on the table in frustration and anger. It was her big mistake to overlook Thorton was planning something to override everything in his power to avoid the Weapon X program being shut down.
Peggy went to the bathroom again to see her eyes had turned a bit red, kind of animalistic. The feral personality, she quickly deduced.
Upon closing her eyes and opening them again as she breathed inhaling and exhaling that her eyes returned to normal.
With that, she went back to the table to recall more of her memories from the past few months.
Peggy remembered when she woke up, she was in a prison cell. For two weeks she was held hostage; all chained to a wall.
Thorton had paid a visit. Peggy remembered the regretful façade he expressed. She was not buying despite his words. Peggy recalled that Thorton said he had no choice.
"This program we can't afford to lose." She remembered him saying.
"Is that what you told the kidnapped mutants when they died under you watch?" She spat at the colonel.
Thorton remained emotionless at the remark.
"You're about to become the greatest experiment this program has ever created." Thorton said. "Provided you survive."
"What do you mean?" Peggy asked.
Thorton then left without saying another word. All Peggy could think was what exactly did he meant.
That day finally came as she was forcibly dragged to a large chamber.
Peggy realized she was in the heart of the Weapon X program. Dozens of scientists and technicians. People surveying computer readings and prepping a particular tube; one undoubtedly for a test subject. Her.
It was there Dr. Andre Thorton explained the main purpose.
"The one area we've yet to experiment on was human subjects." Thorton explained as he took a blood sample from Peggy. "To see if we can turn ordinary humans into mutants; giving them all the X gene. Ones to especially work for the military. And SHIELD agents turned out to be the perfect subjects given they came to us instead."
Peggy glared at the colonel for his plans. Disgusted he had counted on SHIELD going after him and set up a trap the entire time with this kind of thinking.
Moments later, Peggy was now wearing a gray and black bodysuit, save for her hands and feet being bare as she forcibly stepped into the tube by two guards who restrained her in shackles.
"It's an opportunity of a lifetime, Ms. Carter." Thorton said as she gave him a death glare. "You're about to be the first of many. A human turned mutant."
He then added, "That way, we can prove to the higher ups at DC that this is a program still worth investing in."
Peggy still gave Thorton the death glare.
"We're going to make you indestructible." Thorton said further. "But first, we're going to have to destroy you."
Peggy gave Thorton a very incredulous look over the moronic statement.
"You do realize what you just said an entire contradiction, right?" Peggy said, baffled.
In response, Thorton placed the oxygen mask around her mouth but not before she spat in his eye in retaliation before he did so.
Peggy continued to glare at Thorton even as he walked away. Finally, the liquid began to pour into the tube. She struggled to break free but it was no use. Age had not only caught up but she was now entering a stasis of sleep as the tube filled was filled with the liquid all the way.
It had been a mere five hours as Peggy Carter floated in the tube. All she could remember was feeling numb for those long hours and yet, she felt as if her insides were transforming and burning yet she could not scream or move. She wanted no matter how much she felt the pain.
But it was there, Peggy remembered her heart had begun to race; beating and beating in rapid succession. It was at that moment she had finally begun to convulse and twitch. She even felt her skin changing. She realized upon looking back, that was probably her body reversing the aging process.
The pressure she could not stand anymore. Her eyes opened and it was there, perhaps under the duration of stress, her claws appeared on top of her hands for the first time and freed herself upon slicing open the glass tube. With the oxygen mask removed, Peggy instantly went on the offense as an incoming flux of guards with guns and baton tasers charged at her.
Peggy roared with bloodshot eyes-looking very feral as she lunged at the guards by stabbing them in the chest or even slicing their chests. Despite a few guards managing to land hits on her back and even some bullets shot at her from the front, she still managed to take them down with even a single, simple slice.
The guards with taser batons tried to shock her in order to take her down but while it had some effect, she managed to slice them apart given the adrenaline increased in her body as she stabbed the guards as well.
Throughout the attack, Thorton managed to escape going into the elevator to avoid her wrath.
"THORTON!" Peggy snarled and yelled for her captor.
Suddenly, she began to sniff the air. Peggy was taken aback that she was smelling for his scent. Rather quickly, she deduced it was a side effect of possible many. But she growled as he picked up on Thorton's scent.
But before she could act, more guards came in and shot at her.
Figuring she might not get to Thorton today, she lunged at the guards as she plowed her way through. Snarling and stabbing guards through and through like practice dummies until she finally managed to burst out of the gates and ran outside-finally escaping the headquarters of the Weapon X program and into the woods.
She figured there would be soldiers out looking for her, an instinct that proved to be correct as Peggy carefully hid herself amongst the trees to avoid detection either above on a branch or even hiding behind one. She even took notice of her advanced hearing as she heard even the quietest of footsteps from the soldiers.
Peggy carefully watched the soldiers as they searched for her. Even when they came close, Peggy quietly either leapt or ran somewhere else without being detected.
Finally, after what felt like hours of searching, Thorton had ordered his soldiers to call off the search for now. Peggy was relieved as finally; she could make her move to escape further away.
'I'll come back for all of you!' Peggy remembered her vow to her SHIELD agents. 'I promise!'
She ran for hours through the woods. Never feeling tired. Not even feeling the dirt and rocks underneath her bare feet.
Peggy had to find somewhere to hide and think of a new strategy. Somehow, someway to save her fellow agents and bring Thorton to justice.
The next series of events Peggy remembered were small and incidental but she even recalled she had to even resort to stealing a man's clothes from a nearby cabin that were drying outside. She mentally apologized as she had to have clothes for necessity given she could not be seen wearing a black bodysuit or else people would ask questions.
Finally, she remembered breaking into a motel room-using one of her claws a key to get in. Or at least just the middle claw.
Upon entering, Peggy had felt the bullets finally fall off from her body as they dropped to the floor. She picked up one of the bullets to see it was flattened to her amazement. All of the bullets were flattened.
Between that moment and the claws, she remembered upon first learning about the Weapon X program was their use of the metal adamantium, a strong powerful alloy next to vibranium.
"How very curious." Peggy remarked to herself.
Peggy then wondered about other possible side effects. She noted the feral and feracious behavior when she attacked the guards.
With a notepad lying around, Peggy began to write down everything about the side effects of being put through the Weapon X program such as the reversed aging, adamantium skeleton and claws which in turn made her indestructible, sniffing scents, advanced hearing, the feral nature when under stress or anger, as well as a new one she noticed earlier.
Earlier the next morning when she met an unruly biker, not only did the two get into a scuffle where she ended up the winner, she called the biker a "yob." A rude British slang word that she was shocked to hear come out of her mouth. Though Peggy wondered if that was just only part of the feral nature and she only heard the word elsewhere when she lived in the UK.
In any case, Peggy was ready to rescue her fellow SHIELD agents from Thorton. But she knew she had to be ready in a lot of ways.
As a result for the past three months, she had begun her personal training.
Peggy first had spied on the Weapon X base from afar after she had a picked a spot where she could not be seen. She identified every guard on every shift, timing every movement as well as eyeing on every possible entry to sneak inside such as the air ventilations outside.
And she would eye on the base every day after training.
Peggy had been training in the meantime and studying her own powers on her notepad as well as patterns she noticed more and more, ever noticing her increasing feral behavior when under stress. During the training, she would find abandoned barns to use as her training ground as well as the woods itself for any kind running or using trees as target practice for her claws.
Even purposefully unleashing her feral mode to great effect when using dead trees as target dummies as she ferociously stabbed the trees with her claws. Peggy had trained for the past two months to prepare herself for her rescue mission. Every day, she had felt closer and closer to mastering her abilities-challenging herself along the way as she tested her super strength and combat skills to which she found the adamantium skeleton was compatible with her own skills as a physical fighter, even back in her youth.
Even the smallest aspects of her abilities such as picking up scents. Every day she would go to a public place, in incognito no less, and practice identifying specific scents. That way she could literally sense any enemy who could be sneaking up on her. As well as hearing even the tiniest of noises given her advanced hearing.
For an extra challenge, Peggy climbed the tallest tree she could find and raced up toward the top with a lot of effort and as soon as she reached the top of the tree with the sunset shining upon her, Peggy let out a victorious roar as she felt she had done a huge accomplishment.
Three months later…
Still near the same forest, the homebase of the Weapon X program was still standing in its location with a few guards outside. It was night, well past midnight.
A few feet away however on a nearby tree, a large but stealthy figure in all black leapt onto a tree branch. Underneath the black ski mask where only her eyes were seen, her eyes narrowed as she eyed on the guards.
Inside the room of a security guard, one guard in particular eyed on each monitor as he made sure every inch of the area was secured. As he turned away from one particular monitor, he failed to notice a hand grabbed the lens and there was nothing but static as a result.
Outside, the guards that were posted outside heard a sound. It sounded like an explosion and like flies toward a big zapper, the guards ran over to investigate-leaving their posts. But as the ventured far from the base, one of them was hit by a black glove fist out of nowhere.
The other guard tried to fire but was quickly hit in the face and knocked out before he could fire the weapon.
The figure grabbed the key card from the pockets of one of the guards and sneakily entered through the main entrance.
She had managed to find some gasoline and an abandoned car as well as a match to create a diversion to lure a few of the soldiers away.
Inside the base, the hallways were so far empty. Save for a moment where she managed to flat herself against a wall and a few soldiers walked past her without noticing her as she heard footsteps a few feet away despite being a bit far from her and hid herself in the nick of time.
But the figure in black grabbed the remaining soldier and covered his mouth to prevent him from screaming and shouting.
She slammed him against the wall-placing her right forearm on his throat.
The figure removed her mask to reveal Peggy Carter herself.
"Where are the remaining prisoners?" She hissed her demand. "Where are the rest of the SHIELD agents that were captured two months ago?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" The soldier gagged thanks to Peggy's forearm pressing on his throat.
In response, Peggy forwarded her right hand and a claw on the left and right popped out-pinned to the wall much to the discomfort of the soldier.
"Do you want to test the middle claw?" Peggy taunted the soldier with a smirk.
The soldier whimpered in response as his lips quivered.
"Keep going straight and two turns to the right and then to the left!" The soldier confessed.
"Thanks, yob." Peggy smiled in satisfaction.
With that, she punched him in the face and knocked him out-slumping to the floor.
"What a helpful chap." Peggy sardonically quipped.
After going through the exact directions she was given, Peggy managed to find a series of jail cells. Peggy prayed her fellow SHIELD agents were unharmed as she inserted the key card to release them from their jail cells.
To her relief and surprise, the SHIELD agents were still in their single jail cell albeit with metal collars around their necks. Coulson, May, Laura and Anne turned to her with a mixture of shock and astonishment as they stood up to see the head of SHIELD herself.
"Peggy?! Ms. Carter?!" The SHIELD agents exclaimed in shock.
"I swore I'd never abandon you!" Peggy said in relief but also remorseful. "I'm sorry it took long to rescue you all however."
"Not gonna lie, I was starting to think you abandoned us." Anne said.
"Me too." Laura concurred.
"Well, better late than never." Coulson said.
"About time." Melinda May dryly remarked.
"At least none of you dropped your sense of humor." Peggy softly smiled before asking, "But what has Thorton done to all of you?"
"Can't say for certain." Anne replied. "They gave us inhibitor collars that prevent us from using what powers they gave us."
Peggy appeared horrified. She cursed herself that she could not have rescued them earlier and wished she had not escaped by herself during the chaos.
"Look, we can debate about this another time but right now, we need to leave." She then said.
"You have any idea how to take off the collars?" Laura asked.
"I may have one." Peggy replied as the claws popped out from the top of her hands.
Understandably, the rest of the SHIELD agents took a step back in shock.
"Besides the apparent face lift, that's, uh…new." Coulson stammered.
"So you noticed." Peggy dryly remarked.
Two of her claws retracted save for the claw on the left and managed to pick the lock on Anne's collar on the keyhole. After a moment, the collar was unlocked and fell to the ground with a thud.
"Much better!" Anne said with a sigh of relief.
"Nicely done!" May complimented Peggy.
"I'll take care of the rest!" Anne said.
With her right hand and forming it into a fist, the other collars were unlocked and likewise fell to the floor with a thud much to the amazement of Carter.
"Telekinesis?" Peggy inquired.
"Oh yeah." Anne nodded.
"Stryker did a number on all of us." May responded in a bitter tone.
"Anne has telekinesis," Coulson began. "May, super strength. Laura, teleporter. And myself, super speed."
"Then let's use all of it against Thorton." Peggy said.
Immediately, various guards began to fire at Carter and the SHIELD agents.
"Time for some payback, is it not?" Peggy exclaimed as she leapt out of the cell with her claws out as she lunged at a few of the guards with the rest of the SHIELD agents following suit.
May grabbed the jail cell door with her super strength and whacked a few guards into the right side of a wall and were sent crashing through. And then proceeded to fight off more of the incoming guards in hand-to-hand combat.
Next, Anne took care of her share of the guards by telekinetically taking away their guns with one hand and push the guards down with the other hand.
Laura in the meanwhile, avoided the guards firing at her as she teleported during each shot and punched each guard across the face or in some cases, flip them over with a German suplex maneuver.
Coulson used his super speed to not only remove the guns from the guards' hands but also took the time to land every split-second punch.
Peggy managed to slice open every gun aimed at her and kicked and punched every guard. Either punching each guard across the face, kicking them in the chest or even bashing two heads together.
"I'm gonna go after Dr. Thorton!" Peggy said to her comrades. "Can either of you hold the fort?"
"Just give him one punch for all of us!" May cried out as punched another guard to the point of a tooth flying out before he flopped to the floor unconscious with the others nodding in approval.
Peggy smiled as she nodded.
With that, she ran off at incredible speed as she attempted to find Thorton. She began to sniff for any familiar scent. Even before she could do that, she recalled the smell of cheap cologne from the man. And a moment later, she recoiled in disgust upon smelling something; the very same cheap cologne.
"Ugh!" Carter made a noise of disgust.
'That's definitely familiar!' She thought to herself.
She traced the smell to a familiar room. The very same room where she became the very mutant she was today.
Peggy then slashed the keycard slot apart and the doors opened. Only to be greeted by Dr. Thorton himself, attempting to shoot her at point blank range. And despite knowing full well she was impervious to bullets, she ducked due to natural instinct.
"Waiting for me, weren't you?" Carter growled as she stood up.
"You can't blame me for being prepared." Dr. Thorton replied as he held a 9mm pistol. "These are adamantium bullets."
"If I shoot you in the head," He then added. "You'll lose your memory and maybe, we can pretend this never happened."
Peggy stood there with a baffled expression on her face over what she could only assume was a threat but clearly an intent to keep her in line.
"Are you daft?!" Peggy cried out in exasperation. "That's your best plan to come at me?!"
"An amnesia bullet made out of adamantium?!" She continued a bit.
"If it works, it works." Thorton retorted in annoyance. "Let's just see if it does."
Dr. Thorton fired a round of bullets to which Peggy deflected all of them with her claws. Save for a small cry of pain when one barely glazed through the surface of her right shoulder.
"Now stay still while I go for the head!" Dr. Thorton exclaimed as he fired again.
Peggy in turn once again deflected with her claws.
"Amnesia bullet. What next, you're going to make a mutant soldier with his mouth sewn shut, wrist blades and randomly give him laser eyes?" Peggy jokingly asked.
Dr. Thorton paused as his face expressed confusion as to how she knew he intended to do something that specific.
Peggy's jaw dropped in shock that Thorton actually considered it.
"Bloody hell, yob!" Peggy exclaimed in exasperation. "I was just kidding! I didn't even know you'd think of something that oddly specific!"
Thorton fired again but this time, Peggy ducked and with one loud snarl-indicating she had gone into feral mode, she lunged at the mad scientist and sliced the gun in half and pinned him to the wall with her left hand around his neck-borderline choking him.
"Believe me, I could slice you into a million pieces!" Peggy snarled with bloodshot red eyes.
She raised her right hand, her claws still out, and was headed straight toward Dr. Thorton's face. His eyes closed-expecting the worst, except, nothing happened.
He opened his eyes albeit hesitantly to find the claws were one inch away from his eyes and nose much to his shock to the point of sweating bullets.
"Except that would just give you satisfaction, wouldn't it?" Peggy said as her eyes returned to their normal color. "That even in death, you'd be satisfied your methods would have proven to be a success that I'd be the perfect killing machine."
The claws retracted.
"Don't act so scared." She added as she released him from her grasp. "You'd have wanted the proof the Weapon X is successful."
"You could have been something special." Dr. Thorton hoarsely said as he rubbed his throat.
"I don't need to prove my worth, not especially to you." Peggy retorted.
"But one last thing…" She added.
Very quickly, she punched Dr. Thorton directly in the nose. The professor in screamed in pain as he flopped onto a chair-grasping his bloody nose.
"That I can do, at least!" Peggy exclaimed in satisfaction. "And by god, that was brilliant!"
"You broke my nose!" Dr. Thorton whined as he seethed through the pain of his broken, bloody nose.
"Oh come of it, yob!" Peggy snickered. "It'll heal. Just not as fast as me, of course."
Suddenly, Dr. Thorton sneezed and screamed in pain as mucus from his nose mixed with the blood dropped on the floor much to the disgust of Carter as she recoiled.
"Nice to see you got things under control." Peggy heard a familiar voice.
She turned around to see a dark brown skinned man with dark hair and in black clothing, just as various SHIELD agents had come to arrest Dr. Thorton and seized the laboratory.
"Mr. Fury!" She said with relief. "I see you took no time becoming the head of S.H.I.E.L.D."
"When you became M.I.A for two months, someone had to take the reins." Fury replied.
"My apologies." Peggy apologized. "Not exactly the retirement package I'd have wanted."
"How'd you even know I was here?" Carter then asked out of curiosity.
"May managed to contact us during the escape via the communications room." Fury replied. "Simple as that and we were on the move."
"And I'm guessing you were caught up with Dr. Thorton's experiments?" He then asked.
"More than you know." Peggy replied, lamenting her situation.
Her claws popped out once again with a surprised Fury who soon appeared more impressed.
"And the others?" Fury inquired further.
"Different powers but otherwise the same procedure." Peggy replied.
"We might have to think what to do about the fallout from this." Fury said. "The option for you to come back as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. is on the table."
"Honestly, after everything," Peggy began. "I wish to remain at S.H.I.E.L.D. but in a more field capacity. And I have a few ideas."
"Lay it on me." Fury smirked.
One Month Later…
A Lockheed C-130 plane flew through the skies in broad daylight approaching somewhere in Quebec.
Inside were five individuals sitting on either the right or left side as they await their destination; the five SHIELD agents such as Coulson, May, Laura and Anne with their leader Peggy Carter. All of them wore unique uniforms that were unlike the traditional SHIELD uniforms. Coulson wore a red and black outfit. May, black and blue. Anne, orange and black. And Laura, gray and black.
Whilst Peggy had a coat underneath her uniform with the only thing standing out being blue boots. The one constant however was that all five were wearing parachutes on their back.
"Hard to believe we'd end up where we are now." Coulson remarked loudly due to the noisy engine of the plane.
"Becoming mutants?" Carter asked.
"I was gonna say searching for the Hulk but that works too." Coulson replied.
"It's a rather new beginning for all of us." Carter said. "Make the most of it as they always say."
Coulson, May, Anne and Laura nodded in agreement.
"We're arriving near the drop point!" The SHIELD agents heard the pilot shout.
"Is everyone ready?" Carter asked her teammates.
"You bet!" The SHIELD agents sans May shouted in unison.
"Always." May said in her usual stoic manner.
With a smirk, Peggy threw off her coat as the plane hangar opened. Peggy wore a yellow bodysuit with some black marks, blue gloves and of course, blue boots with an X belt buckle around her waist.
"I got to ask though." Coulson began to ask. "What's with the yellow?"
"A color that just feels right to me." Peggy simply replied as she pulled down her cowl with a black eye mask. "It definitely beats black leather all things considered."
"Alright, X-Force." Peggy said before she exclaimed, "Let's move out!"
With that, Peggy jumped out of the plane with the others following suit as they sky dived toward the intended forest area in Quebec.
'Let's see what you got, yob!' Peggy thought to herself as she anticipated her incoming potential fight with the Hulk.
As the SHIELD agents sky dived, the painting turned back to its original state of the Peggy Carter Wolverine bursting through the ground thanks to a hand gesture of The Beyonder when he clinched his fist and unclenched it when he moved his arm upward. Whilst the Mysticons stared in awe and amazement at the story presented to them afterward.
"Well, what do you think?" The Beyonder asked as he gave an excited grin on his face.
"I got to admit, this Wolverine chick is awesome!" Zarya said, impressed with the variant.
"She's so cool with the claws and was like 'Show's over, yob!'" Piper screamed in excitement before she launched into an imitation of Peggy Carter and mimicking having the claws making slashing sounds.
"That adamantium skeleton stuff looked pretty painful though." Em said with a hint of nervousness.
Arkayna throughout appeared very uncomfortable due to the callousness of Dr. Thorton and the Weapon X program.
"Are people on Earth, well, that specific Earth at least, always that cruel to each other?" Arkayna asked.
"Well, a lot of times on a lot of Earths and other universes, people can be cruel but that's why heroes always exist." The Beyonder replied. "Because they can show the capacity for good!"
"One thing I do want to know from this story," Em said before asking, "Why did that professor guy needed Peggy's blood for?"
Suddenly, streamers burst from out of nowhere.
"Finally, someone from the Mysticons is paying attention!" The Beyonder exclaimed happily as a graduation cap appeared on Em's head and a diploma on her left hand.
"What?" Em cried out in surprise as The Beyonder shook her hand wildly.
"What are you talking about?" Em asked as the items disappeared.
"I did say put a pin about Bucky Barnes." The Beyonder replied.
"What about him?" Zarya asked.
"Remember I said Bucky Barnes never fell from that one mission?" The Beyonder reminded the Mysticons. "Because of that, he never became the Winter Soldier. But decades later, something took his place…"
The Mysticons eyed on the painting again as it once again, morphed back into a window to its universe. Except this time, it was at a laboratory with various scientists and men in black uniforms, almost Nazi like. In the center of the laboratory was a tube with a very familiar young woman with red hair and a muscular build.
"Because Dr. Thorton took a DNA blood sample from Peggy Carter," The Beyonder began to explain. "He managed to sell her blood simple to HYDRA scientists in Russia during those intervening two months. In turn, they didn't just clone her. He gave them their own Winter Soldier."
The woman's eyes opened as she eyed on her superiors. Including a young, bald man with a monocle on his left eye. He smiled as she remained in the tube as like the original Peggy, the claws came out from the top of her hands.
Later after the Peggy clone was fully ready with a complete body and abilities, the clone began to approach her superiors.
"Can you speak?" The bald man asked in a German accent. "I am Dr. Baron Von Strucker. Your creator."
"Ready to comply." The clone spoke in Russian.
Strucker smiled sadistically as he was satisfied with the clone's willingness to the take orders immediately.
Finally, he presented the Peggy clone with a suitcase. He opened it to reveal a uniform.
Elsewhere, the Peggy clone suited up in her new uniform which was similar to Peggy's own Wolverine outfit right down to the eye ask and cowl, except it was red and black. With a red star on the right hand of her glove, a HYDRA symbol on her belt buckle and a mask for the lower half of her face-covering her mouth. Taking out from the same suitcase was the Holy Bible. And she read a particular passage to herself in Russian; As I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
Her eyes glowered in as she stared at a wall, waiting for her orders from her superiors.
Finally, the painting returned once again to its normal state of the Peggy Wolverine bursting through the ground.
"Wow." Em remarked in surprise. "She seems scary."
"Spoiler alert, she'll be Peggy's nemesis in a couple of years." The Beyonder said. "And far from the last clone given the next one after is a Sabretooth variant who's also a Peggy clone but that's another story for another time."
"Peggy clones seem kind of sound excessive." Said a concerned Arkayna.
"That's nothing." The Beyonder laughed. "Want to know what happened to Spider-Man with his clones?"
"Should we?" Zarya raised her eyebrow.
"His story is convoluted but I digress." The Beyonder said. "Let's move onto the next piece, shall we?"
With that, the Beyonder floated away to the next painting with the other Mysticons following suit. Save for Piper who had turned around to see a marble statue of a man in a fedora hat, striped sweater, the usual pants and shoes but what stood out to Piper the most was the razor glove on his right hand. The statue itself had the man raise his razor gloved hand as if he were preparing to strike and aimed for the kill.
Piper especially took notice of the man's expression, one being of sadistic glee. His mouth opening as if he were starting to laugh. She stared at the statue in fear as she backed away a few steps as if she were expecting the statue to attack her. Not helped was the display label in front of the statue on a stand.
Piper read the display label:
Freddy Krueger:
The Springwood Slasher
Piper gulped, internally prayed the statue was not alive or Freddy himself. She recognized from that visual representation The Beyonder had displayed earlier when he discussed the list of threats across the multiverse.
"Piper!"
The elf girl screamed in a fright. But after she jumped, she saw it was her friend Zarya, who looked at friend with much concern on her face.
"You okay?" Asked Zarya.
"I am!" Piper nodded rapidly. "I'm just glad you're here!"
Zarya looked at the statue of Freddy with disdain, partially out of the Beyonder having it there behind Piper to begin with and recognizing him from the visuals he presented when listing the threats to the Multiverse. But also partially what she saw at the bottom of the statue.
As the Freddy statue was giant sized compared to what was at the bottom; there were screaming kids running away from him in terror. Given her past when Captain Kaos kidnapped her, Kitty Boon and Kitty's brother Kasey, she always hated people who terrorize and harm children.
Zarya scowled at Krueger in disgust.
"You know what?" Zarya said to Piper. "If that Krueger guy comes at you, he's gonna have to deal with me and his butt is gonna get kicked so hard, he'll think twice before messing with you!"
Piper sniffled as she wiped a tear from her eye. Happy to hear Zarya will always be there for her.
"Thank you." Piper said happily as she instantly hugged her.
In turn, with a soft smile, Zarya returned the hug.
"Come on, let's catch up with everyone." Zarya said as she and Piper walked over to join the remaining Mysticons and The Beyonder.
But something else caught Piper's eye as she walked; two different marble statues of two different girls. First, a marble statue of a girl with curly hair and a line representing what seemed like a streak in her via darker shade and dressed in pajamas but stood defiantly. The plaque on the display stand read:
Nancy Thompson, the first to defeat Freddy Krueger.
And the other, a marble statue of a girl with enlarged fists and a lightning bolt on her outfit and a domino eye mask. The plaque reading on the display stand read:
Kamala Khan, the Marvelous Ms. Marvel
Future Avenger
Piper smiled as the thought of Zarya, the girl known as Nancy Thompson and a superhero like Ms. Marvel protecting her from Freddy Krueger made her feel even safer.
Finally, the two joined Arkayna, Em and the Beyonder who were all waiting for them while being in front of another painting.
"Anything wrong?" Arkayna asked out of concern.
"Nah, Piper got distracted is all." Zarya replied, choosing her words carefully should Piper not want to know why she didn't follow the others immediately.
Zarya in turn gave a death glare to The Beyonder over the statue of Freddy Krueger, to which he could only respond with a cheeky grin on his face. Arkayna and Em saw the glare and nodded to her in understanding given their equal dislike of The Beyonder.
"Well, if we can move on, what's next?" Arkayna asked the Beyonder
"Glad you asked!" The Beyonder exclaimed with giddiness. "Allow me to introduce the next painting in our journey through the Multiverse Night Gallery I call it."
"You finally gave your weird art gallery a name?" Zarya remarked skeptically.
"I was workshopping it in my head." The Beyonder replied. "Does it not roll off the tongue?"
"I guess?" Em shrugged.
"Hmm, artists such as moi are never fully appreciated." The Beyonder said, feeling a bit disappointed before he resumed back to his eccentric personality. "But I digress."
"So, who's that?" Arkayna asked as she pointed to the girl in the new painting.
"And those ominous looking people too in the sky!" Piper chimed in.
The painting in question being a teenage girl with brown skin, brown hair braided into a ponytail, red framed glasses, freckles on her cheeks, a chipped tooth on her front teeth. She wore overalls with one strap on the left loose, underneath being a white shirt with red sleeves and white sneakers. Behind her was a blur which indicated she was running superspeed-running on a pavement road.
Most of the sky in the painting was red with two people looking down on the girl in an ominous manner. An old woman with white hair styled as a pompadour who emitted a death glare as she looked down on the girl. The other, a man seemingly who looked like was in his forties with dark brown hair and an all black uniform with a disapproving, cold menacing stare of his own as he looked down on the girl.
On the other side of the sky was a bit of blue with a dark brown skinned woman with dark, braided hair and a blue coat and black boots standing with a concerned look on her face. Behind the girl with super speed was a familiar blue police box.
"Like it?" Asked The Beyonder. "This is the next story."
The Mysticons stared at the painting with a lot of interest.
"What's her story?" Asked Zarya. "Is she cool as Peggy?"
"You could say that." The Beyonder replied. "But I'll allow you to be the judge."
He continued, "For you see, this is Hailey Banks. Well, actually a variant. For you see, this Hailey Banks hails from Earth-060322. A universe with its own set of superheroes. And this Hailey variant is joining the list."
"And as for the dower looking people," He added as he circled the two people in the red sky. "You're gonna learn about the Time Lords!"
"Time Lords?" The Mysticons asked in confused unison.
"Yes, Time Lords." The Beyonder replied. "Now, I know you haven't heard of The Doctor but you can expect a visit from the Doc at some point or another in your universe. Or at least any other Time Lord. In this instance, allow me to introduce The Division."
"Admittedly the only one who isn't a Time Lord is this guy here, he's a mercenary," He added as he circled the man next to the old woman before he moved onto her. "But she is. The Doctor may be kind but most other Time Lords are not and Tecteun here is one of the ones to watch out for."
"Who's The Doctor anyway?" Zarya asked.
"Oh you'll know about the Doc soon." The Beyonder replied mysteriously as he grinned and drummed his fingers. "Just you wait!"
With that, the Mysticons watched the painting change and as before, it dispersed and became a window to the specific universe the painting was based on. The Mysticons were now beginning to watch the events of the story unfold before them.
"And this is what happened…" The Beyonder finished.
Author's Notes:
Hope you enjoyed this story as there will be more coming in! And now, behind the scenes:
- The idea of a Peggy Carter variant being Wolverine came from the last episode of What If as it finally completed its third and final season. In that episode when Captain Carter, Kahhori, Byrdie, Storm and Uatu were fighting the other Watchers, in an effort to destroy the first four women, the Watchers not only tried to kill them, but also their variants. Each character had flashes of their variants like Kahhori with a Captain America variant, Byrie with a Nova Corp variant, Storm with a Black Panther variant and at one point, a Peggy Carter Wolverine variant flashed on screen.
Someone managed to take pictures of each variant from all four characters that were shown. And simply put, I got giddy seeing because they look awesome and I wanted to write about any of them. And consequently, this is where the idea of Tales from the Beyonder was inspired by. These were either going to get a story or their own one shot. Or Addendum even.
It was to a point where I wrote rough outlines of some of these variants or discussed with other writers. And among them, Peggy Carter Wolverine I wanted to write the most and she was the first for this story.
And as I said last time, given What If started with Captain Carter, I wanted to start with a Peggy Carter variant and her as Wolverine seemed cool and most viable to go with and there are ideas I have in mind for her going forward after this and other writers are free to use her.
- The text I put in, the intent being two ways; emulating both the narration in each Are You Afraid of the Dark story as they narrate an introduction who a character is. And The Beyonder's way of speaking villain backstories in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. In which case, I thought it'd be a short and easy way to give exposition as well as testing the format how these stories will be presented. Especially the ending for each chapter and lead in to the next story.
- When I discussed the idea with Ben2Dartmouth, one of the suggestions he made was Peggy not only still the head of SHIELD but also lead an attack on the Weapon X that went south. Which, made a good plot already. Though I always intended to have Peggy become a mutant through the Weapon X program regardless.
- Earth-7819 is the same universe as the variant of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel who is African American and part of the Carol Corps. I wanted originally to have it be a different universe that I make from the ground up but ultimately, I decided that universe needed more elements. So the Peggy Wolverine variant I decided should exist there.
- There are moments in this story where the entirely yes, done as jabs and criticisms at X-Men Origins: Wolverine aka the worst X-Men movie besides Dark Phoenix. The first scene is meant to criticize a similar moment where in the film, Logan looks at his claws in astonishment and then him becoming accident prone and destroys a bathroom in the process in a very comedic moment that flies in the face of the trauma he's supposed to suffer which just baffled me.
So Peggy being startled and horrified at the claws and the result of the forced experiment is my rebuttal to that scene.
- Ben2Dartmouth also suggested giving a Peggy a team and they'd be forcibly given the X gene. He brought up What If as an example as to how they utilized characters in these stories and in turn, I thought of characters who were in Agents of SHIELD. Of course, Phil Coulson appeared in the MCU films as well. As did Laura Barton, the wife of Clint Barton and Anne Weaver is from Agents of SHIELD as I needed another member and she seemed like a viable candidate and I wanted to diverse the lineup further.
- And of course, I played around with the ages of the characters just for the sake of making the time frame work.
- Dr. Andre Thorton is the head of the Weapon X program in the Marvel universe. Not William Stryker as the movies led you to believe and believe me, I made that mistake and had to change it as I forgot Stryker is more akin to Pat Robertson.
- Corman Motel, named after famed B-Movie director Roger Corman. And he has a Marvel connection given he produced the infamous and unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four film.
- Changing the location of Weapon X to West Virginia, is a total write what you know deal I admit. I wanted to at least make this universe distinct.
- "We're going make you indestructible. But first, we're going to have to destroy you." Is a line from X-Men Origins: Wolverine uttered by Stryker which is a very baffling line that I wanted to address how stupid it sounded and Peggy I used to voice my thoughts on the line.
- The usage of the word of "yob." I asked the Infinity Crisis writers discord chat as to what would be the British equivalent of "bub" and again, Ben2Dartmouth came to my rescue there and he suggested yob and I looked it up and the more the word sat with me, the more it worked. And even decided to make it a side effect of the Weapon X program.
- I figured at least Peggy would train her newfound abilities. Probably would train them longer but for the sake of the story, I settled on two months she trained.
- In turn, admittedly I did picture the training montage music by Vince DiCola from Rocky IV when thinking of the training montage and some beats I did take that seem a bit similar.
- Admittedly, I didn't have an explanation for the exploding diversion. So I added a quick explanation what Peggy had done.
- "What a helpful chap" is a quip by the Roger Moore James Bond in the film The Spy Who Loved Me.
- Peggy threatening a soldier with the middle claw is a shout to a similar moment in the very first X-Men movie with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
- Amnesia bullet was another thing in X-Men Origins: Wolverine I criticize and I lampshaded in this story.
- At first, I didn't have an opening to make a jab at Deadpool's design and characterization in X-Men Origins: Wolverine but suddenly I did and put in the line making fun of it since it is a very stupid idea and Ryan Reynolds has rightfully made fun of it in the first two Deadpool movies.
- It was Ben2Dartmouth's idea to have Peggy and her newly formed team to be called X-Force.
- Originally, I did have Black Widow in mind to join the SHIELD team Peggy assembled and again, playing with the timeline and ages and she would become a mutant herself before I settled on Laura and Annie.
- Peggy and the SHIELD agents coming after the Hulk is a shout out to The Incredible Hulk #181 which contained the first appearance of Wolverine. Call it a Mythology Gag.
- Come on, I had to put the Peggy Wolverine variant in the trademark yellow costume and cowl. Plus, the Peggy Wolverine variant in What If had the costume.
- Originally, I didn't have a Peggy clone in mind but Ultimate Wolverine had come out when I started writing and I decided to include an extra. Hence, I decided to give the Peggy Wolverine variant a nemesis of her own who resembles Ultimate Wolverine and has Winter Soldier origins. Even included a shout out to the first issue of the comic with the bible passages given that might be a motif thus far.
- The Peggy Wolverine variant in general though, I love Captain Carter but for the Peggy Wolverine variant, I wanted her at least distinct in personality a bit and making her more feral but it's still her. I didn't want to do Captain Carter redux. So I wanted to give the Peggy Wolverine attitude and still be her at the same time.
- Peggy Carter Sabretooth variant, that's also from the What If final episode. God knows how's that supposed to work but I included potential set up for that to happen.
- Clone Saga jab, couldn't help it.
- Ben2Dartmouth brought up to me that maybe I should have had the Beyonder send the Mysticons straight to the Night Gallery, or Multiverse Night Gallery, and maybe I could have but in response to that, I decided as part of developing and testing the format like the opening narration, the Mysticons exploring the Night Gallery before coming across the next story whether it'd be variants of themselves or various characters and their variants.
- As well as having Piper look at more of the threats she'd consider scary like Freddy Krueger. I might make it a thing where each Mysticons comes across a hero or a villain they might come across someday.
- Originally it was just Piper being comforted by Zarya and a statue of Ms. Marvel but hastily at the last minute I realized that Nancy Thompson deserved a shout out but I also wanted to keep the Ms. Marvel statue. So I decided on Piper being comforted by the thought of Zarya and the two statues of Nancy and Ms. Marvel protecting Piper. And considering the character is something of a sad clown as described by TV Tropes, I wanted to emphasize on that a bit.
- Similar deal with Zarya considering her past, except she'd be more disgusted and pissed off at Freddy considering he kills kids.
- I'll delve into a bit next time but Hailey Banks from Hailey's On It as a superhero variant is something I've had in mind two years ago as I discussed with Ben2Dartmouth about it before. Right down to Tecteun and Lytton, both from Doctor Who.
- No point of reference for how I envisioned the painting. Except the posture I pictured for Hailey running as being similar to the cover of DC's Just Imagine… Stan Lee's The Flash but the pose flipped right.
That's everything! Hope you enjoyed this story and once again, special thank you to Ben2Dartmouth for his suggestions. Look out for the next story and future Infinity Crisis stories from me! See ya soon!