Marvel Reborn: Gems Of Infinite Potential

I was born, or reborn I suppose, into a world of gods and monsters. A world where the legends of childhood comic books were real and where Apocalypse was coming within my lifetime.

My rebirth parents were upper-middle-class professionals, my father a computer programmer and engineer, while my mother was a corporate lawyer, and my childhood was one of driven ease. I knew what was coming the first time I heard the name Tony Stark and found out that Captain America was a real person, I was four then. It didn't matter if I wanted to take it easy, be lazy, or coast through life - I was in a world where only the exceptionally extraordinary mattered or had agency (much less freedom) and survival demanded that I become one of those legends.

So I didn't hold back. I had thirty-five years of life experience that extended all the way to 2018, and I had been born in 1981. I smashed through the education system and was lauded as a genius on par with Tony Stark. It was a lie, that man-made me look like a complete idiot, but it was still the perception. My parents' resources got me, tutors and trainers, to keep pushing my education (both intellectual and martial), and I graduated from MIT at 18. I made my first splash less than a month after graduation when I sold Stark Industries the rights to a little product that I had spent years working on. The iPod.

And now here I was at a New Years Eve party in Switzerland to ring in the new millennium. In truth, I cared nothing about the party. I was instead here to recruit.

I spent the party people watching and keeping a discreet eye on my target, Maya Hansen. And so I was there when she entered the hotel lobby on the morning of January 1, 2000, fuming at Tony Stark for f.u.c.k.i.n.g and running. Sales were ninety percent appearance, perception, and approach, and so I stacked the deck. The private investigators and profilers I had hired to study Miss Hansen had hopefully done their jobs well; everything from the cut and color of my suit to my diction was carefully designed to gain the lady's favor.

My bodyguard was discreet as he stayed back, close enough that Maya would realize he was there and yet far enough away that she wouldn't feel threatened.

"Miss Hansen, Octavian Raith." I extended a hand.

She c.o.c.ked her head slightly as she extended her own to shake and said, "Of Raith Industries?"

I smiled. "The one and only. Care to join me for breakfast?"

"What's the occasion Mr. Raith?" she asked.

"Please, call me Octavian, Miss. Hansen. And I thought that we could start off the new millennium with a mutually beneficial business opportunity." I offered her my arm.

She looked at it for a long moment before taking it. "You may call me Maya, but what business opportunity would that be?"

I led us out the hotel lobby and into my waiting car, the two of us in the back with my driver and bodyguard in the front. Once inside, I opened a discreet box and put my cellphone inside and smiled slightly regretfully. "If you could, put your cellphone and any other electronics into the container."

Maya eventually relented. "What's all this about?"

Once the container was closed, I triggered the small scale EMP that would remain confined inside the Faraday cage that lined the passenger compartment of my car. "Security, Maya. I may be paranoid, but considering that the reason we are having this meeting is that I had Tony Stark's room bugged last night and that your conversations with him intrigued me, I think it just common sense and basic prudence to ensure that my privacy is actually protected."

"YOU SPIED ON US?" the woman shouted, outraged.

"Of course, I spend a lot of money keeping an eye on Tony Stark. He may be an alcoholic party boy who could put most frat members to shame, but he is still probably the smartest man on the planet. At least when it comes to moving from theory to practical products. His company, largely on the back of his own and his father's inventions, is the world leader in pretty much every even remotely interesting field of study. Weapons, power, material sciences, AI, computing; hell, even in the life sciences, they are on the bleeding edge.

"And it is thanks to that spying that you are sitting here in this car and being offered the resources needed to complete Extremis." I calmly explained.

"I wonder what the press, or Tony for that matter, would think about your spying," Maya countered.

"The press would stay quiet because you have no proof, and I have very good lawyers on retainer. And Tony, well, I have information that he would do almost anything for. That is all irrelevant though, Maya. See, I am betting that you will cut the 'proverbial deal with the devil' to be able to complete your work. Extremis has the potential to change the world, and I want to realize that potential."

Maya snorted slightly. "Change the world, right. Somehow I doubt that 'the devil' is interested in my work, out of the goodness of his heart."

"You would be surprised." I dismissed it with a hand. "Oh, I'm not wholly selfless or even mostly selfless, and I will use everything I can get my hands on, including Extremis, to my own benefit. But, I also care about the world and have no interest in hoarding the fruits of our labor. Think about it: perfected Extremis is effectively immortality. At a minimum, it is being in the physical prime of your life until your mind breaks down in a few hundred years. On the one hand, that is a technology worth trillions on the open market, and on the other, can you imagine how the world will change if humanity as a species is made up of what are effectively immortal re-generators? Work with me and you won't have to worry about your research being suppressed or being locked away in some secret government vault by people who fear to change the world and advancing humanity."

Maya sat and stared for nearly five minutes before finally saying, "What kind of resources would I have? And what limits would you place on me?"

I shrugged. "Whatever you need, and the only limits I will place on you are those required to ensure our security. At the moment, I am wealthy but I lack the virtually limitless funds of someone like Tony Stark. I have plans to change that, but that will take a decade or so. However, given the stage your research is at and that you are years away from even contemplating human trials, that timeline shouldn't be an issue. I have a lab facility set up back in the US already, just give me a list of whatever equipment that you need, and I will see it delivered." I pause. "I will insist that you have twenty-four-hour security, however."

"What? You want to keep me prisoner or something?" Maya said with mild anger.

"No, I have no interest in imprisoning you. Indeed, I'm insisting on the security to keep you free and unrestricted. Have you ever heard of an organization called SHIELD?" I asked.

"No, I don't think so at least. Why?" she replied.

"SHIELD, or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division to use its full name is an organization that was created by Howard Stark after World War II. During that war, the Nazis made use of superhumans and various bits of exotic technology, primarily under the direction of a division of the SS known as HYDRA. The Allies, of course, responded in kind, and Howard Stark was at the forefront of that fight. For the allies, the biggest, but far from only, success was the creation of Captain America, and his team managed to largely destroy Hydra.

"After the war though, a lot of HYDRA's research and resources went missing. Much of it was seized by the SSR, SHIELD's predecessor, but some ended up in hands hostile to the interests of the Allied powers. Given that fact and the more general realization that enhanced individuals with exotic technology both existed and were beyond the ability of more traditional forces to effectively counter, a secret article was added to the NATO treaty. It established a transnational black ops outfit with the primary objective of handling these extraordinary threats. While supported by the various member nations and under their nominal oversight, it was effectively beholden to none of them.

"Its founder and first director was Howard Stark. Today, Tony is only peripherally aware of the organization, but Stark Industries still provides much of its funding and allows it to use Stark Tech. Obadiah Stane handles that," I explained, sharing knowledge that had taken me years to piece together even with the advantages that my meta knowledge provided.

"Understand, Miss Hansen: if you accept my terms and work with me, then you are playing in the big leagues. SHIELD makes the CIA or NSA look like schoolyard bullies stealing your lunch money. It has aircraft carriers, strategic bombers, nuclear weapons, full access to every NATO member intelligence agency, limitless funding, access to technology that is literally out of this world in some cases and is fully willing to engage in kidnapping and assassination to achieve its objectives. Its current director is a man named Nicholas Fury, and I will say, without exaggeration, that he is perhaps the single most dangerous human being on this planet. He is a good man and has prevented the outright extinction of human life multiple times, but he is also an utterly amoral, ruthless, bastard who will do whatever is necessary to achieve his objectives. And one of his primary objectives is to ensure that something like Extremis never sees general release or even general knowledge.

That's bad enough, however, when SHIELD was founded, mistakes were made. Have you heard of Operation Paperclip?"

Maya seemed shocked. "Yeah, when the CIA extracted a bunch of Nazi scientists."

I gave a nod. "Well, SHIELD was carrying out its own Paperclip at the same time, except it was extracting HYDRA scientists and cutting deals. Unfortunately for SHIELD, a lot of HYDRA's members were never detected, and over time, they managed to infiltrate SHIELD and the various governments with seats on its oversight council. SHIELD has been quite thoroughly infiltrated by HYDRA, as has the US government. To the point where I know for a fact that even some sitting Senators are card-carrying members of HYDRA. Everything I said about SHIELD, HYDRA is a hundred times worse and has ruling humanity as its end goal."

Maya seemed shaken but her voice only quavered slightly as she said, "Ok. I would say you are engaging in conspiracy theorist bullshit, but I will assume, for now, that you have convincing evidence of your claims. But why are you telling me all this?"

I pointed at her jacket pocket. "Because you already almost made it onto their radar. Aldrich Killian, the man who gave you his card last night? His think tank, AIM, was being funded by HYDRA. I'm not sure how much he knew about his backers, and I'm pretty sure that you personally haven't been noticed by them, but he was using HYDRA money. And that's why he drunkenly committed suicide last night when he stumbled off the roof of the hotel."

Her hand came up and covered her mouth as her eyes went wide. "You killed him!?"

"As I told you, Maya, this is the big leagues. A saying that I heard once and has stuck with me: 'when you play the game of thrones you win or you die.' Well, Miss Hansen, your research has dealt you into the game, and now it's time to play. So yes, I had Killian killed, and I have no doubt that I will have other people killed in the future. I can't afford to make mistakes, Maya. The stakes are too high, and my opponents won't hesitate to take any action," I answered. "Now for the million dollar question: are you in, or are you out?"

"Are you going to kill me too if I say no?" she snapped back.

"No. If nothing else, I think that you will continue your research regardless of the consequences, and there are only a handful of organizations in the world that would fund it. Given that I have methods of infiltrating those organizations, I would just steal your research from them in the future and use it for my own ends. On the other hand, if I kill you, then I have no guarantee that anyone else will figure out how to replicate or complete your work. Yes, telling you all of this is somewhat risky for me, but I am interested in a partner and not an employee. I have no d.e.s.i.r.e to spin a complex lie to ensnare you or to gain your loyalty under false pretenses. I want your willing assistance and that means both sharing information with you and trusting you with information that could harm me."

After a long moment of staring into my eyes, she extended a hand and said, "Fine, I'm in Octavian. Partners?"

I took her hand. "Partners."