Chapter Four: Where You Come From
While S.H.I.E.L.D. had the rest of the meat factory
facility covered, Mindy opted to scout its rooftop alone. A flat structure
with wide, towering brick chimneys spaced apart, once reserved for emitting the
smoke from rotted meat and entrails burnt in furnaces, Mindy detected something
strange and alien there. From the common observer, it would seem as if she investigated or scouted the area as part of protocol; however, she was in
actuality searching for someone…someone familiar.
Halfway across the rooftop, she heard an agonized groan
from her right. Turning to that direction, she saw none other than Natasha
Romanoff leaning against one of the chimneys in obvious pain. From her abdomen,
there was a switchblade dug deep through her flesh – blood seeping out like a
stream. Immediately, Mindy rushed to her aid as her body slumped against the
chimney.
“Oh, my god.” Mindy whispered. “What are you doing back
here, Genevieve?”
There was no denying the truth that was so blatantly
obvious the moment she saw the woman who made herself to look like Natasha
Romanoff to everyone else. The “Morphomakeo” spell, perfected by Genevieve
herself, was meant to only fool non-magical beings in seeing her as whomever her
disguise was based upon. To Mindy, who was anything but non-magical, Genevieve
only looked as if she were Romanoff in a costume meant to mimic her appearance.
(Narrative Note: "Morphomakeo" was first introduced in Tales of the Disneyverse when Genevieve used the spell to disguise herself as Merida, the princess from Disney/Pixar's Brave. In addition to physically appearing as the chosen character to non-magical beings, she also sounds like them, either taking on their vocal patterns or accents.)
“Why do you still have this switchblade in your stomach?”
“I didn’t want them
finding it and tracing the blood to me…plus, it really hurts when I try to yank it out.”
Mindy could see Genevieve’s body breathing and quivering
heavily from pain that would have been unbearable to the average human being.
Being a reincarnation, the seventeenth one in a line after the death of Sean
Thomas, Genevieve had experienced various forms of anguish in her prior deaths.
The stabbing she suffered was merely another footnote.
“Alright. I’ll
take it out on the count of three, but I’m gonna need you to be braced,
alright?”
Genevieve nodded, doing as she was instructed. Slowly,
Mindy counted – each number before “three” another excruciating throb in her
wound. By the time she did get to the third number, she pulled out the
switchblade with all her might. The overwhelming sensation that conquered her
abdomen encouraged her to let out an agonized squeal. She managed to keep the
pitch low enough to not attract the attention of the S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel all
over the area.
Mindy lifted Genevieve’s jacket and saw the gaping,
bloodied hole in her flesh created by the switchblade; it had broken completely
through the skin and bled profusely. Then a golden glow soon overtook
the wound. It closed up on its own, healing itself to the point where it was no
longer existent. All that remained was blood caked over where the wound had
once been. Relief quickly swept over Genevieve’s once-tormented body; her
breathing steadied and she was comfortably still while sitting against the base
of the chimney.
(Character Note: The rapid healing of Guardians has been a focal point in their immortal power since Gigi's face - bruised and fractured from an attack at the hands of Ciciley Livingston - managed to restructure itself back to normal. There are many other instances throughout the World of Disney series of this ability between the reincarnations of Joanie and Sean Thomas.)
“O.K. Now that that’s all over, you wanna share with me
just what you think you’re doing back in the Marvel Universe?” Mindy urged.
“I tracked Dawn here.” Just hearing that name out of
Genevieve’s mouth unsettled Mindy. “I’ve had visions of her that have led me to
this world.”
Mindy shook her head. “The nightmares I’ve had my own
about that woman have been in my head since she stole Yvette’s reincarnated
form. It’s like she’s using that part of us to haunt us in our dreams.”
“Why would she want to be here?” Genevieve asked this
knowing that Mindy had sort of made the world her home in her life cycle and
grown familiar with it – from living in it and how familiar she was with it
from her life as Sean Thomas.
(Character Note: To differentiate her lives in the Disneyverse and Marvel Universe, Mindy alters her eye and hair color. In the Disneyverse, taking on her true Guardian form, she has bright blond hair and aquamarine eyes. In the Marvel Universe, taking on the guise of her "Avenger" persona, she has dark brown hair and brown eyes. These changes in appearance reflects the light and dark sides of the worlds she journeys between.)
Mindy shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Dawn is
unpredictable now that she’s one of us. But I would venture to guess that she plans
to use one of the events that will occur in this universe to her advantage. She
does have my memories of this place – past, present, and future.”
“What kind of events?”
“Well, quite a bit has happened since the Dr. Facilier
incident: Tony Stark destroyed all his suits after fighting this guy named
Killian and his ‘Extremis’ army, Phil Coulson has been resurrected and is
leading his own team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Thor was last spotted in London
and battling these creatures called ‘Dark Elves,’ and – just recently – Captain
America and Black Widow went on a rescue mission. And, speaking of Widow, how
the heck did you manage to fool S.H.I.E.L.D. into believing you are Romanoff when the real Romanoff is on her mission?”
Genevieve smirked. “I only fooled the handful. But
they’ll do the math pretty soon, I bet.”
(Authorial Note: Much like her Merida disguise in Tales of the Disneyverse, Genevieve's "Black Widow" guise is inspired from Genevieve Marie Nylen's fantastic cosplay of the character, which she has showcased at many conventions, such as the San Diego Comic Con and D23 Expo.)
“And you’d better watch your butt when they do. You’re
not the same person you were when you were last in the Marvel Universe. They
won’t see Sheryl when they find out who you really are, so I hope you have a
plan for explaining the change of appearance.”
“After all that you told me just now, they’ve dealt with weirder things than a woman who can
change her face and personality. I was the one who helped stop Facilier from
controlling the worlds, remember? All I have to do is find the right people to
explain that to.”
“And find the
right people to trust.”
Genevieve raised a curious eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“There are things that’ll happen soon in this universe
that will change everything. Let’s
just say that if you intend on using Black Widow’s look any further, you could
find yourself in more trouble than you’d want to have.”
(Authorial Note: This chapter is the first to establish events from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, such as the revelation of HYDRA having been hidden within the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. for over a century. At the time this chapter was written, I'd pretty much seen the film and worked the story in with the plot.)
-------------------
To most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel that discovered
her, she was referred as the “cryogenic woman.” But, to Ciciley, she was known
as Chrissy Livingston – her mother and the grandmother of Sean and Elendriel. Chrissy
was transported to a S.H.I.E.L.D.-operated hospital facility in Washington,
D.C. where she was “thawed out” and sent immediately to a bed, hooked up to
multiple machines that kept her stabilized in her recovery. Her long red hair was
down, her makeup washed away, and she was fitted with a gown, bearing the full
look of an actual hospital patient. Sean and Ciciley watched her as she slept
in the bed, both of them feeling like Phil Coulson while he kept tabs on Steve
Rogers during his recovery from a
frozen slumber.
(Biographical Note: "Chrissy Livingston" is based on and inspired by my close friend and fellow author Chrissy Bernal. Prior to Marvel Mayhem, Chrissy was featured in the third installment of my Disney Ghostbusters series as "Chrissy Spengler," a member of an alien Ghostbusters team. She was to be the main character of a Disney retake of the Men In Black series until the story was ultimately scrapped. Her character in Mayhem is interconnected to others in the World of Disney series, such as "Chrissy Ryder" in World of Disney 3, setting up a major plot to be uncovered in later installments.)
“How is this possible? Who did this to her?” These were
two of many questions that ran through Sean’s mind as he watched the young
woman that was his grandmother lying unconscious in the bed. “You told me that she
died while giving birth to you.”
“I’m just as shocked and confused as you are, hon.”
Ciciley remarked, almost in a whisper. “What I told you about your grandmamma
is what your granddaddy told me.”
“Why would Granddad lie to you?”
It was clear how distraught and angry Ciciley was over
this discovery. “I don’t know. But I promise you that I intend to find out the
truth as soon as your grandmother wakes her ass up.”
Detecting the fuming tone in his mother’s voice, Sean
grew cautious. “Whoa, whoa. Hold on. I don’t think it’s such a good idea for
you to immediately ask questions to a woman who’ll be waking up to the world
after 63 years.”
“Then how’d you
suggest we handle it?”
“Slowly. Rather than ask the personal questions, we
should ask the official questions.”
After a moment of consideration, Ciciley nodded in
agreement with her son’s idea. “Alright. We’ll do it your way. But we ask my questions once the official ones are
out of the way.”
Having more to say on the matter, Sean was suddenly
interrupted by the commotion that took place outside the room. He and Ciciley
turned their heads to look out into the hallway just in time to see a group of
doctors and paramedics wheeling a patient as fast as possible down the corridor.
They got a fleeting glimpse of the patient as he was wheeled right by their
window, and Ciciley’s eyes widened in alarm once she recognized him as Nick
Fury. His body had been fatally shot multiple times, and the sight of it on the
stretcher sent Ciciley into a state of panic.
Sean saw her make a quick decision in rushing out of the
hospital room. Before she left, she turned to him and instructed, “Stay with
your grandmother.”
“But Fury…!”
“Don’t argue with me, child! Stay here!”
Seeing how stern she was, he did as she told him and
watched her through the window as she departed from the hospital room and
followed the doctors into the emergency room. She was soon ushered out by one
of the doctors, leaving her to nervously stand at the window looking into the
ER while the doctors began working on the dying Fury. Sean could see her practically
shaking as she watched.
The sound of a woman moaning turned his attention away
from the window and back into the room he stood in. Chrissy had reached
consciousness. The moment she opened her eyes and saw Sean standing near the
foot of her bed, she groggily said in a cultured type of voice, “Hello there.
You aren’t dressed like any doctor I’ve ever seen… unless
the code’s changed these days.”
“I’m not a doctor. I’m an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Chrissy’s eyes lit up with intrigue. “Oh? Well, it’s nice
to see the government is allowing colored agents in their agency.”
(Factual Note: The word "colored" was first used in the 14th century, during the colonial period, used to refer to people of sub-Saharan African ancestry. Since the success of the African-American Civil rights movement, the term, along with "negro" and others, has been largely replaced by "black." In the 21st century, "colored" is generally not regarded as a politically correct term, despite the fact that it lives on in the association name "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People," or "NAACP" for short.)
“Colored?” It
was obvious how offended he was by her derogatory remark. “Now listen here – if
you expect to get around the new world you’re in, you should get used to
addressing people like me as ‘black,’ not
‘colored!’”
His tension on the subject made her feel nervous,
embarrassed, and guilty. “I-I’m sorry. Really I am. My husband is colo—I mean
black. I mean no offen…Wait. Did you say ‘new world’?”
Hoping to have broken the ice a bit more discreetly, Sean
realized that he now had no other choice but to fill her in on what was
happening: “You were found cryogenically frozen for supposedly 63 years. It’s
2014.”
Chrissy did not seem the least bit surprised to hear
this. Instead, she happily clapped her hands and exclaimed, “Hot dog! I did
it!”
“Did what?”
“I’ve finally awakened in the 21st century. I froze
myself so that I could awake in a time period with science advanced enough to
suit my needs.”
This disconcerted Sean as he realized that his
grandmother had abandoned family for science. “Seriously?”
“Oh, yeah. I’d hoped someone from S.H.I.E.L.D. or the
government would find me and thaw me out, and now that you have, I can get
right to work. But first I must use the bathroom. Where is it?”
Sean snickered. “They didn’t have bedpans in the 1940s?”
“Excuse me, young man, but I detest the idea of urinating
in bed. I am not a baby.”
In the short amount of time Sean had interacted with her,
his grandmother had turned out to be selfish and arrogant in his eyes. He
pointed her in the direction of the visitor bathroom to the left side of the
room, and she slowly and carefully got up from the bed, unhooking herself from
all of the machines while doing so. Balancing herself with the aid of the IV
pole she was still hooked to, she headed into the bathroom and closed the door
behind her. It worried Sean how much angrier and frustrated Ciciley would be
when she found out the truth in her
mother’s cryogenic freezing; but it quickly dawned on him that he could not tell
her on account of how much further it would separate them.
While waiting for Chrissy to be finished in the bathroom,
Sean suddenly caught sight of Maria Hill as she passed by the room, heading
towards the ER. Quickly, he rushed out to catch up with her; but, as soon as
she saw him following her, she told him, “Now is not the time.”
“I only want to know what happened to Fury.”
“He was assassinated.”
Shocked by this update, he asked, “Do we know who the
assassin was?”
“Someone as strong and fast as Captain America. He had a
metal arm.”
The description she gave him – particularly the “metal
arm” part – clued him in on the identity of the assassin: “The Winter Soldier.”
(Marvel Note: James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes made his debut in Captain America Comics #1, which was released March of 1941. His supposed death occurred in Avengers #56 before he was brought back to life as the Winter Soldier in Captain America #1, released in January of 2005. In 2008, he became the new successor of Captain America, following Cap's assassination in the aftermath of Civil War. Eventually he returned to his role as the Winter Soldier, giving way for Sam Wilson/Falcon to become the most recent Captain America.)
Hill glanced his way in surprise. “You know him?”
“Just heard stories, but never thought they were true
until now.”
(UP NEXT: Where Things Get Complicated!)
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