##
Time: April 11th, 2004 — Late Night
Location: Triskelion, Washington D.C. Nick Fury's Office.
##
The low hum of fluorescent lights echoed through the near-empty halls of the Triskelion. Outside the wide, armored windows of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director's office, Washington's skyline slumbered beneath a veil of stars. Within, a dim desk lamp painted soft shadows across the room, casting an amber glow on the scattered folders, half-finished reports, and a steaming black mug.
Nick Fury leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temple with two fingers. The dull throb behind his right eye was stubborn tonight, like the world itself was warning him of something. With a quiet sigh, he reached for his coffee and took a long sip, letting the heat chase away a sliver of the chill in his bones. The cup clicked softly against the mahogany desk as he set it down.
"Anthony Edward Stark," he muttered, flipping shut the thick dossier with a satisfying thud. "Billionaire brat with too many toys and not enough supervision."
He reached for the next file in the stack. His hand paused mid-air.
#
SHIELD CLASSIFIED EVALUATION REPORT
Subject: Leo Howard Stark
Code Name: Prodigy (Provisional)
Date: April 11, 2004
Prepared By: SHIELD Intelligence Division.
Security Level: EYES ONLY – Director Nicholas J. Fury
File ID: SHD-2004-LHS-001I. EXECUTIVE
#
"Leo Howard Stark." Fury read aloud.
The name froze him. His eyes sharpened instantly, slicing through the fog of fatigue like a scalpel. He lowered the file slowly, as if opening it too fast might spill secrets he wasn't prepared for.
"Now that's a name I haven't heard in a while," he whispered to himself.
He opened the folder, the pages inside crisp and fresh—compiled only days ago by his best agents and discreetly confirmed by a few Skrull operatives embedded deep across the globe. But before he could read, his thoughts dragged him backward.
'Friday Evans.'
He could still remember the—sharp, brilliant, fire behind those eyes. Back in '97, she'd shown up at Peggy Carter's doorstep, dragging Hydra secrets behind her like a smoking gun. He was still rising through the ranks back then. She hadn't trusted him at first—smart woman—but Peggy had vouched for him. And That was enough to build a bridge.
Friday hadn't been just another defector. She was a storm wrapped in lab coats and quiet fury. The kind of genius that didn't just work in theory, but rewrote it. And she'd only asked for one thing: help dismantling the shadows she'd helped build. Hydra.
Fury' turned his focus back to the file.
The first page detailed Leo's birth. May 7th, 1995. On paper, the mother was listed as "Unknown." Fury chuckled dryly.
'Yeah, right. I know exactly who your mother is, kid.'
Tony Stark might be the face, the name, the bank account. But the core genetic foundation? It was definitely laid all by Friday.
As he flipped the page, the headache vanished. Line by line, the report unfolded—and with it, his disbelief grew.
IQ was estimated to be off the charts and comparable to the likes of Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Reeds Richards. His popularity in America was comparable to the likes of popular celebrities. Within a few years, He had managed to build a business empire estimated to be worth around 15 billion dollars and that's excluding Stark industries which he would inherit in the future. The Latest inform strongly suggested that Leo was already building military-grade robots that was about to be sold to the military along with the launch of the first ever smartphone called 'Vision'.
He dropped the folder slightly and muttered, "Motherfu—"
Fury bit the rest back, running a hand down his face.
'This kid ain't just smart. He's dangerously smart.'
He reached for his coffee again, but forgot to drink. Instead, he stared into the dark liquid, mind racing.
"Feels like I'm reading the origin story of a main character in a novel" he muttered, almost amused. "Ain't no way this is real."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose, then sighed.
"But it is."
'This kid… Hydra definitely has their eyes on him.. waiting to get their dirty tentacles on him...'
He shook his head. 'No. That couldn't happen.'
Fury closed the file, steepled his fingers, and sat in silence for a long moment.
'Gonna need to keep a real close eye on him' he thought. 'The world doesn't need a super genius like him joining the dark side...'
'Maybe..' Nick's eyes flashed 'He could be The face of Avengers.. But He is still too young and Part of the deal with Friday was Leo is protected.'
Nick let out a sigh, he flexed his right hand slowly, feeling the familiar pulse of strength beneath his skin. The Genosis V5 Serum still hummed in his veins, a reminder of that women's favor and their deal.
He remembered the way Friday had handed him that vial—no smile, no ceremony. Just a quiet, steady warning.
"You'll be faster, stronger, sharper. But even if I have stabilized the weakness somewhat there is still a risk that You'll become dumber than a brick."
Fury had thankfully handled it well.
Now, he looked thirty-eight. He could bench-press a truck and heal from a stab wound overnight. His memory, while not perfect, was damn close. He could analyze field reports in half the time, recall decades-old intelligence in vivid clarity. Heck even his dull eye had healed to the point he could see clearly.
It had helped him get here and become Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
A sharp knock echoed through the room, breaking the silence like a snap of thunder.
Fury's brows furrowed as he turned toward the door.
"Who?" he asked, voice low but carrying weight.
"It's Hill, sir," came the firm reply through the reinforced door. "We have something urgent."
His expression tightened. "Enter."
The door swung open and Agent Maria Hill stepped in, her navy-blue tactical uniform crisp and spotless despite the hour. Her salute was sharp, practiced.
"Director," she greeted.
"At ease," Fury said, waving her in. "What's the emergency?"
Hill stepped forward, her tablet already in hand. She tapped the screen and brought up—an image of Earth's upper atmosphere with a single object blazing across it like a comet.
"Our satellites just picked up a rapidly approaching vessel, sir. Speed and trajectory confirm it's not terrestrial." She paused. "It's the Marvel, sir."
Fury's jaw clenched. His good eye locked onto the hologram like it owed him an explanation. "The Marvel?" he echoed slowly. "They weren't supposed to return for another three months."
Hill nodded. "Exactly. Which suggests—"
"—They ran into something," Fury finished for her, already rising from his chair. The casual weariness he'd worn moments ago evaporated. His entire body shifted into mission mode—calm, sharp, commanding.
"Can you pinpoint their landing?"
"Based on current trajectory, they'll be entering atmosphere over the North Atlantic," Hill replied quickly. "Estimated touchdown is somewhere between Newfoundland and coastal Iceland. But their descent path is unstable—we won't know the precise location for another two minutes."
"Get me that location as soon as you have it," Fury said, already striding out of the room with her at his heels. "Wake every deep ops team in a five-thousand-mile radius. I want a rescue crew in the air before they even make contact."
"Yes, sir," Hill said, her pace never faltering.
##
Time: April 11, 2004 — Past Midnight
Location: Near-Earth Orbit, Aboard the Marvel
##
R2D2 was quiet. Not from fear or malfunction, but from pure, calculated focus.
The stars outside shimmered like distant signals, but the blue marble below consumed his full attention now. Earth. Home—at least, for those inside.
The Marvel slowed, its colossal form shifting with the grace of a leviathan easing into slumber. Automated joints disengaged as sections of the ship gently broke apart like petals falling away from a blooming flower. Heat shielding panels peeled, detached, and drifted into orbit, revealing the sleek rescue shuttle nestled at the core.
Five green pods pulsed softly inside the shuttle's chamber, casting a verdant glow in the dim cabin. Inside each pod floated a figure—Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm—and Victor Von Doom. All suspended in viscous Extremis pod fluid, a concuction Leo had managed to come up with that regenerated damaged cells, stabilizing vital signs, reinforcing internal structures without actually giving permant power.
R2D2's processors flicked from one screen to the next. It checked oxygen levels, fluid integrity, core temperatures. All green.
"Hatching sequence complete," the AI's synthesized voice muttered into its logs. "Initiating atmospheric descent."
As the shuttle separated cleanly from the disassembled body of the Marvel, a whisper of energy radiated through the remaining fragments, scattering shimmering debris into the void. Some of those fragments drifted toward Earth—metallic, glinting with a strange, iridescent sheen. Mysterium. Unnamed and unknown to the planet below, but powerful enough to change everything it touched.
One shard cut through the stratosphere like a hot knife, trailing a brilliant silver-blue tail before vanishing into the clouds.
Below, the rescue shuttle's hull began to tremble from friction. R2D2 adjusted the heat shielding, angled the descent fins, and fed more data into the nav systems.
"Approach vector stable," The ai said. "Impact site projected: Antarctic Ocean quadrant 3C."
The pod lights flickered momentarily as the shuttle punched through the mesosphere. The ocean glittered beneath—cold, vast, endless. But too close to the frozen south.
Suddenly, the wind screamed against the hull. R2D2's internal alarms flared. An iceberg loomed out of the fog like a ghostly cathedral of ice.
"Trajectory deviation detected. Rerouting…"
The shuttle tilted hard. Groaned. R2D2 rerouted all power to directional thrusters. The ship's nose veered just enough to avoid catastrophe—but not completely. The port stabilizer scraped a jagged ridge on a smaller ice mass.
CRRRRRACK!
The sound of glacial fracture echoed through the air as a spiderweb of cracks crept along the chunk of ice, radiating from the point of impact like lightning veins.
"Stabilizers holding," The ai reported. "Touchdown in 3… 2… 1…"
SPLAAASH.
The shuttle crashed into the frigid water, momentum carrying it forward before it bobbed to a gentle float. Sensors immediately compensated, adjusting buoyancy protocols to keep the cabin horizontal. Recovery pods glowed with renewed stability.
"Descent successful," The ai announced, though no one but a delighted R2D2 could hear it. "Recovery stage holding. Awaiting extraction."
Then silence returned—deep and oceanic.
But far behind them, the small iceberg the shuttle had grazed was no longer still.
#
It began with a sound no one heard. A soft crackle beneath the wind. The tiny fracture lines spread inch by inch, like something waking from a dream of ice.
The fissures extended, deepening through the white layers, traveling inward like purposeful scars. The iceberg groaned. A chunk fell off the edge and splashed into the dark water.
And then—at the very heart of the glacier—metal glinted.
A plane.
Frost-covered, forgotten, embedded inside the ice like a preserved relic of war. The frame was unmistakably that of a World War II bomber, its nose art faded, wings broken, its paint stripped, but the cockpit still sealed shut.
The fissure reached it—and stopped.
Silence returned. A long, dreadful stillness.
Then—soft, barely audible—the sound of a breath.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Not the wind. Not the sea.
From within that ancient plane...
something or someone was apparently alive and asleep.
##
Word count: 1896
Again I could write more in this chapter but I opted to hold back since that just feels like the right spot to leave this chapter at.
So, first, why didn't I upload the extra chapters last week and also missed a chapter that I should have uploaded?
Well, apparently if you can't sleep all night due to excessive heat and your mind is strained after writing a big chapter worth 3.6k words, you experience a mild writer's block and your brain wants to rest for a few days, Lesson learned.
I won't rush to write chapters anymore and take my time, the extra chapters will still come but I will upload them on my own pace to not exhaust Myself. Just a reminder for me that I owe you all 4 chapters in total.
With that out of the way, let's discuss last chapter's debate of Harem vs a single love interest and what is the final verdict.
Well thankfully I have reasonable readers who have very patiently given me feedback regarding this matter, for that Thank you, especially Vergil and Yeti who patiently pointed out their reasons when asked.
So now, after pondering and contemplating a lot thanks to my small break, I am relieved to announce that There will only be a single love interest and it's Valeria Richards.
Why specifically her? Well it's unique as far as I know and she is said to be smarter than Reeds himself. And as Vergil the one who suggested this character said, it would suit Leo. So give him your thanks if you also like this pairing.
Now that I have Decided Valeria Richards as the love interest, I will give you a fair warning. She will receive many growth in terms of power and character in the course of this fanfic because I don't want a damsel in distress for Leo's future wife. If you have a problem with that then sorry I can only follow what I want to do with this fanfic.
I am mentioning this because I have seen many fanfic readers in other fanfics somehow having a problem with the MC's lover gaining powers and also the mc giving his lover stuff that would protect his lover.
Because apparently it's not very sigma of the mc, if he doesn't horde stuff that he doesn't even need and are downgraded version of his existing powers. Then they would also complain if the lover is useless in later chapters.
I am truly baffled by those kinds of readers. So I am very glad to have gotten the reasonable readers lol.
Anyways, In essence, Treat her as a deuteragonist or secondary protagonist from now on. Leo will still get the most amount of power and stuff, but she will definitely be a few step behind him to always support him.
What else? Oh yeah, I am planning on writing a secondary fanfic from next month.
This is because I remembered that, I have always faced the issue of writer's block after writing around the first 15 chapters which eventually leads to me dropping the fanfic.
So my solution was to have a secondary fanfic that I can focus on to take a break from the main fanfic. Basically rotate my mindset to avoid filling like it's a Repetitive schedule.
Don't worry, The main fanfic would still get at least two chapters per week. While the seconady fanfic will at least get one chapter per week.
Now I need to decide what would be the secondary fanfic, I have a cool idea for a Naruto fanfic but I still want to hear everyone's thoughts regarding this.
Especially if you want me to write a specific fanfic idea that you either once read and it was abandoned or the execution of that idea was too subpar. Or you know, you have a fanfic idea but you are too lazy and would rather have someone write it for you.
To make the selection more concrete and grounded, I will set a few requirements.
1. The mc will be a reincarnator or a Transmigrator i.e they will have canon knowledge.
2. It must be from the listed franchises since I am knowledgeable about them and also I am interested in writing a fanfic in that franchise.
Note: It's in order of how knowledgeable I am on that specific franchise
One piece, Naruto, Dragon ball, Hunter X Hunter, slife (Rimuru anime).
You can still suggest fanfic ideas from toehr franchises, but it's unlikely I will consider them. I also didn't mention Marvel there because it would feel too Repetitive writing two marvel fanfics.
Anyways thank you for reading, stay safe and hydrated and healthy.
#
Schedule: Tuesday (Today), Wednesday and Thursday at 10 am Central Time.