POV Susan Storm
I look over the reports one more time, even though I know the results will be the same. Von Doom Industries had everything riding on this space launch, and they had done a lot of work to ensure that everything was good to go.
"Sis, if you reread that report one more time, I think the technician is gonna have a heart attack," Johnny says sarcastically.
'Oh, wait, maybe he isn't.'
The technician in question looked really stressed out. And he was clearly thinking he might have made a mistake.
"Your work is flawless as usual; you don't need to worry, I'm just being cautious," I say kindly.
The technician nods and walks away.
"Poor guy, you made him watch as you reread the report over and over again," Johnny jokes.
I roll my eyes.
"Look, sis, calm down. I know you're nervous, but everything is well in hand. While normally I wouldn't trust a suit as far as I could throw them, they can be trusted to get this right. Everything they built is riding on it. If they mess this up, they go bankrupt and will get torn to pieces by the sharks swimming around them," Johnny makes a good point for once.
"Are you sick?" Ben asks as he enters the room.
"What?" Johnny asks.
"You're making sense for once. And not making some lewd gesture about getting with a new woman," Ben jokes.
"I'm not that bad! Sis! Back me up here!" Johnny demands.
I avoid eye contact and whistle innocently.
"Sis!" Johnny yells in indignation.
After his shout, I started to laugh, with Ben joining in soon afterward.
"That's better," Johnny says with a smirk.
"What?" I ask as I stop laughing.
"You've been down in the dumps for a while. And... Look, I won't say I loved Reed, but he was a friend. And I miss him too. He was both the smartest and dumbest guy I ever knew. He didn't deserve what happened to him," Johnny says while taking a seat next to me.
"Sigh. I guess his death has been pretty hard. It's just that... We knew him for so long that it feels wrong to do this without him. This was his dream project," I say sadly.
"Look, Reed might be gone, and so is the coward who killed him, but Reed would want us to finish the project. To prove our theories, his theories," Ben says calmly as he takes a seat on my other side.
"This is a once and a lifetime oppurtunity. We owe it to Reed to do this. Not for us, but for him," Johnny says while grabbing my hand.
"Sigh. You're right. Both of you are. For Reed," I comment.
"For Reed," they both replied.
POV Shift Rio
"Everyone has been evacuated from both Watchtowers," Peggy replies.
"Good, are all sensors active and working?" I ask.
"Yep, as are the couple of robots that Stark made. They should allow us to learn what we can from the Cosmic Rays," Peggy replies.
"Good, I'm pretty sure the Watchtowers should be fine as the shielding they have should keep out any such rays, but it's better to be safe than sorry," I comment.
The shielding in question was actually a combination of things. First was the shielding built into the Watchtower, which was more than capable of keeping out most harmful things. Batman designed the tower well and had considered a lot of possibilities when designing it. While he didn't think of the nebulous Cosmic Rays that give the Fantastic Four their powers, he did design it to keep just about everything other than a safe level of visible light out. The second Watchtower was built by me and had several additions from both Cybertron and Tony. I even added the technology from the Infinity Sphere. For instance, it taught me how to harness Dark Matter for both power generation and shielding.
When I showed Tony the alien tech I had gathered so far, Tony nearly had a nerdgasm. Tony practically stopped doing anything other than helping work on the tech. And he was really invested in it. It got so bad that Pepper demanded I drag Tony out of his lab on the Watchtower and bring him home or else. I didn't know what that or else meant, so I did just that. Tony was a mess. He smelt bad, looked like a zombie, had lost 20 lbs, and hadn't slept properly in weeks. I was kinda scared to show Tony the Invincible. Or the plans I had drawn up to build a small defense fleet. I wanted to turn the Sol System into an impregnable fortress. Or at least make it so well defended that it wasn't worth assaulting.
"The crew aboard the ISS has been safely returned to Earth as planned," Peggy adds.
"Is VDI (Von Doom Industries) still going to transport materials to the ISS?" I ask.
"That's the plan. NASA, as well as a few other agencies, want to make sure that when a crew of astronauts returns to space, the ISS is fully stocked for a long-term mission. They understand that any future mission might either require the assistance of the Guardians or will have to be a very long-term mission, likely lasting several years. Though they are also inquiring if we would be interested in returning the space debris we had removed, so they can study it," Peggy adds.
"Hmm, that garbage? Sure, why not? Nothing in there was of any interest anyway. Just give it to the UN and let them sort out who owns what. As for cooperation with their space missions, I am willing to think about it. We've already started work on setting up our own nation, so we'll see how things turn out. Speaking of which, I need to talk with the Science Team about their progress on the Terrformer," I comment.
"No need, I've already got their report. They've already started the process on Mars. They said that while a full Terraformer is usable, the time it would take to build it would be too long. Instead, they have chosen to use Gaia Everfree's assistance to seed Mars. I was warned that Gaia would be unable to do much of anything for the foreseeable future while she molds Mars into a habitable world. The Science Team has chosen to call this new type of world a Gaia World. They've focused on the process of strengthening the magnetic field around Mars to speed up Gaia's work. They said that thanks to Magneto's help, they believe that the magnetic field should be strong enough to protect the planet by September at worst. More likely, they expect it to be finished around June," Peggy reports.
"Why wasn't I told before?" I ask, but make it clear that I wasn't upset.
"They... Got carried away, and Schmendrick was the one to bring up the idea that the Unicorn's ability to make nature flourish and maintain life even in situations where it wouldn't normally be possible. This led them to realize that Gaia Everfree would be an even better fit for rapid terraforming. Lady Everfree was approached with the idea first, and she was interested in the idea. Most of this was done within a day or two, so by the time anyone thought to report it, it was already started," Peggy replied calmly.
"I guess that fits. But I'd appreciate it if they don't jump into a project without asking for permission," I reply somewhat firmly.
Despite what happened, I wasn't that upset. Sure, they might have gotten a bit over-eager, but ultimately, there weren't any large issues with what happened. I was also sure that they knew how to be careful when it came to things that could actually go wrong. If terraforming somehow got messed up, then the worst that we would have to deal with would be a loss of time and some resources. As for any stray ecological disasters, my mother could easily wipe out just about anything she might accidentally create. Not that there was any risk of that happening, seeing as my mother has immense control over her power. How else do you think she learned how to raise a baby?
"I'll pass on the message," Peggy replies.
"Thank you for your work. I don't look fondly on the thought of how much more difficult things would be without your excellent organization skills," I say honestly.
"Thank you. It's been a pleasure to work for world peace. And this time, I don't have to worry about Nazi infiltrators. Unless..." Peggy jokes.
"No, you don't have to worry about that. Though speaking of Shield, or I guess their replacement, the MRA, they have been having quite the rough go at it," I comment.
"Yeah, I heard after Ghost Rider was done, very little remained of The Box, though the agent losses were nearly non-existent; they are still struggling to operate even now. If what I've heard is true, they are even thinking of recalling Nick Fury and a few other veteran agents for service," Peggy comments.
"They've actually already recalled several agents; however, most refused the summons. Turns out most had found a much happier life as civilians. Even Fury seems to have settled into a somewhat normal lifestyle and shows no signs of wanting to return back to his old job or anything similar," I reply.
"Have you considered hiring those former agents?" Peggy inquires.
"Most of them wouldn't be of any use. A vast majority of the former agents were tired and disillusioned with their jobs. Some were also not very good at their job. The few agents that I am considering hiring are busy assisting Natasha and Barton in cleaning up the last remnants of the Red Room. Though there really isn't much remaining for them to find. With Dreykov dead and those we could rescue in therapy, there are maybe a dozen or fewer Widows out in the world right now. But hey, they can use this time to continue their work," I say with a shrug.
Natasha, Barton, Coulson, May, the Red Guardian, Melina, and Yelena had formed their own little Superhero team, or I suppose the more accurate term would be spec ops team, as they don't really focus on superhero work but instead on finding and capturing, or killing if capture isn't possible, the remaining Widows. That isn't to say they aren't doing good deeds; they are. It's just not their primary goal, but rather a side effect of their work.
"A shame, but it's not like we desperately need personnel," Peggy says while dropping the topic.
Peggy retires for the day, and I return home as well. As soon as I do so, I walk in on Mal0 walking around naked again. My eye twitches, but I chose to ignore her. I know she only does it to annoy me, as I know for a fact that she can wear clothes. I know because she visits Mrs Claus every so often and makes sure to put on some clothes, or I guess summon clothes. I wasn't really sure how she did it, but I knew she could.
Speaking of Mr and Mrs Claus, I had made several trips up there, and things had gotten much better. Santa was actually coming out of his room, and while he was still very depressed, he was slowly improving. Mrs Claus, on the other hand, was doing far better. She was ecstatic to see her husband slowly improving. The condition of the North Pole also got better as the Christmas Spirit had gotten a second wind, making everyone feel much better. They had a long way to go, but it was a good start. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.