Aden Strong: Avatar In DC

Advance chapters on [email protected]/Saintbarbido.

4/4.

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(General P.O.V)

"Will this hurt?"

A young Natasha Romanoff asked.

She was young. Barely 17. Yet, her mind...I had had to undo a lot of brainwashing, forcing me to go through her memories. Extensively.

Suffice it to say, the future Black Widow had not had it easy.

"Don't worry, you won't feel a thing."

I smiled down at her, patting her head.

We were both inside a tree house if you can imagine that. The tree house was built on top of the tree of healing's branches. The same tree that had the weird bees.

Nagini also loved to cuddle underneath it and the shade it provided was like a flesh massage on the skin. If I was the core of Energia, then the tree was the face of it. It represented the mystic side of the realm.

"The last time someone told me that, I ended up infertile."

She stated in a monotone, prompting me to look back at her.

"You do know all you have to do is ask right?"

She blustered at my statement.

"What?...I.."

I grabbed her palm in my own. Natasha looked away in a flush.

"Its not shameless or a sign of weakness to ask for help."

Her eyes swept across my face briefly.

"How...how did you know?"

"When I freed you from the Red Room I gave you girls a choice. One, I have a friend of mine help you rejoin your families or go back to your previous lives, two, I send you to a place where your talents can be used the most efficiently. A place where you could learn to become stronger and maybe one day make a difference. And three, join me, no questions asked, whatever I tell you to do, you do and a promise of danger...all the way."

Natasha turned to stare at me. A brief silence descended upon us.

"You're the only one who decided to join me."

I concluded.

Natasha smiled proudly.

"That was before I knew the benefits were shit."

She joked.

I smiled down at her.

"I know what you have gone through, Natasha. You did not deserve any of it. You're a brave, beautiful, talented and good person. Your past actions were not done out of malice. You had to survive. I don't blame you for what you did."

I patted her hand.

"Don't forget that."

I stood up from my kneeling position.

"Now, the process will hopefully be painless, if you feel any discomfort however, speak up."

During my tour around the world, meeting new mutants, I had come across some... nefarious activities. For instance, my buddy Hydra and I had met in Beirut. Things did not go well for them. Hydra were up to it again.

It seems I had stumbled upon one of their arms dealing weapon cache. They had to fund their terrorist activities, I suppose. I made sure they saw the weapons go up in an explosion of fire and light, only for the whole thing to implode upon itself as I inverted the space around it.

That run in had opened the floodgates. Secret societies that weren't even familiar to me, doing horrible things in the name of monsters or race or some other stupid shit. There was one where they sacrificed on of their eyes in reverence to Odin.

Anyway, one instance, while in Moscow Russia, a certain idiot thought to take me out, due to Aden Solutions calling them out on how they were poisoning the environment.

The company was quickly growing at an unprecedented rate. They were already taking over many industries. Aden Solutions was meant to save the world. That was the motto. And a certain Roderick Fincher had a problem with the world getting saved. Basically, it removed a few zeroes from his paycheck.

So the fact that I was in Russia, having visibly flown in on a private jet and booking a hotel room at one of the finest hotels in the city, was a lucky coincidence. Haha. Not.

From there I had just had to wait until they came. And what do you know, Roderick hired the Red Room. A beautiful assassin known as Kira had arrived, disguised as the maid. They had no idea who they were coming for. Kira had blonde hair. She didn't have blonde hair anymore.

And no, I didn't kill her.

She was in the Bahamas, name changed from Kira to Ashley and enjoying 1 month at the best resort. This was a reward for helping me know the location and activities of the Red Room. You might ask why I was so invested in this.

They groomed children. Little kids trained from a young age to become killers. That was investment enough. As a Dad, it made me sick to my stomach, much more than even Hydra's whole 'lets take over the world bullcrap.'

I had quickly organized a raid on all of their training facilities, safe houses and branches across the world. It was a simple matter of asking for a few favors. I got the Ancient One to lend me a few Sorcerers who could open portals. In return she reserved the right to ask for anything in the future. It was a risky deal but I accepted nonetheless.

After that, raiding the Red Room was only a matter of pairing up the sorcerers with Chaos' team, the women he had saved.

The mission had been fairly simple and at the end of it, I found my mutant candidate. I brought Natasha to Energia after telling her what it is I wanted. The only thing she asked for? I had to ensure her sister lived a normal and good life. Chaos was taking care of that.

My eyes lost their glow as I finished examining Natasha's physique for anything that might interfere with the process. A process that was in itself very easy. You see, armed with my new control over biology, all I had to do was just tweak a few things and voila, I would have my own super-powered individual.

A camera floated around us. I needed to film the entire process for Gaea.

"Let's begin."

I told her, letting out a small breath of air.

Geb and Nagini were on Earth with Shuri and Chaos, Lindy was deep within the confines of the realm, her body suspended in a rejuvenation chamber, a sort of cocoon that would promote good health and nourish the mind. She had yet to show any signs of waking up and it was worrying me.

I needed to do something about it soon. I could feel my time here was coming to an end. If this thing worked out like I wanted, then I was one step closer to leaving.

The point is, there were no distractions as we begun.

My hands hovered above Natasha's body, streams of energy rising up from the branches of the tree, entering her back and then covering her in a wash of golden color.

"The properties of the Tree of Healing will ensure that even if I miss anything, you will not be in any sort of danger."

I assured her softly, eyes penetrating past the thin veneer of mortality to inspect the building blocks of a normal human.

Her musculature was efficiently built up from hours on a gymnast bar and mat. It emphasized quick and fast reflexes over power, yet her strength would easily be above an average middle-aged man. Her body showed signs of healing from recent breaks too. Cracks on the ribs and sprains at the joints. The Red Room had brutal training programs.

I got rid of all of that. Then my eyes trailed to her belly and I barely hid my wince. They...they were animals for what they did to her. I had thought she was joking when she said, they went in and pulled everything out but that's exactly what they did. Natasha was missing her inner reproductive organs.

There was scarred tissue and the damage was fresh enough to know the whole process had happened within the past year. I looked at Natasha, making eye contact with her. My anger was getting the better of me.

Now I wanted to skin Dreykov instead of handing him over to 'Charles's friends' like the professor had called SHIELD. Speaking of which, while it wasn't my problem, something had to be done about Hydra. Maybe I could send Geb and Nagini to destroy some of their bases, just to fuck with them. I was really hating the whole secret group cabals bullshit.

"Please."

Natasha whispered, placing a gentle palm on my hand that was above her belly. I blinked realizing my anger had gotten the better of me. I exhaled, prompting the process of growing flesh and organs.

"It's done."

I told her, withdrawing the hand. In response, tears begun running down her cheeks. She opened her lips, blinking rapidly.

"I...I can feel it. I can feel it. The emptiness, it's gone."

She whispered, her eyes betraying joy.

"Thank you."

I smiled at the heartfelt gratitude.

"Don't mention it."

Done with healing her body, we moved on to the next step. Flesh sculpting. Now you might ask what's left? All I needed to do was add an X-gene right? Or maybe just activate a dormant one.

Natasha was a normal human from what I could tell and simply adding an X-gene was not going to work. The body needed to be strong enough to handle that power.

I repeated the same process I had gone through with her. First, her sensory organs got an upgrade. Her eyes could see better and her ears hear sounds that were of a low frequency. Her skin, flesh and organs went through the same. It was exhilarating, improving things.

It was a high I had never felt before. A sort of mental stimulation as I accounted for everything. I wasn't simply the Avatar anymore. These past few months had changed a lot for me.

Finally, I completed the process by enhancing the bones. The Natasha that laid before me, looked nothing like the girl from earlier. She was taller, her skin seemed to glow and her slim but full figure exuded an aura of power.

The final step was introducing the X-gene to her d.n.a strands and hoping it didn't break it down. This brought with it complicated number crunching as I had to be precise. My entire focus was on that.

And a few minutes later, there was a mental click as it slotted itself perfectly inside her body. Immediately the change was apparent. Under my gaze, metaphysical connections, one that blurred the lines between the physical and mental aspect, fused with Natasha's body.

I had no idea the kind of ability she would get but just witnessing how the X-gene connected with a dimension of power was more than enough to understand how I could capitalize on the process and gain control over any energy. Any energy.

It was enlightening and pushed my knowledge of Mutant abilities to the fore front. I knew how to do it now. I knew how to channel Cosmic energy.