Avangers: Doomsday
Summary: Following the heroic death of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers returned the Infinity Stones, but he did not come back from his time travel. At least not as his present self. He stayed with Peggy Carter on Earth-828 to get his own happy ending.
However, this triggered a never-ending anomaly in the multiverse, one that not even the TVA could manage without causing harmful consequences in other universes.
The rising Doctor Doom seeks to create a universe of his own, driven by a thirst for absolute power. But to achieve this, he must execute anomalies of his own-endangering not only the lives of civilians this time, but the lives of our heroes as well.
However, one of Doom's Latverian witches shares a troubling prophecy with him: one day, a bright-eyed child will come from the past-whose eyes she foresaw as either purple or blue-and this child will defeat him by absorbing the power of every existing superhero. To prevent this, Doom embarks on a secret solo mission to track down the child's whereabouts and prevent their birth.
Part 1
Somewhere on Earth-828, there was a hidden underground organization. Long before the two Fantastic Four could capture the attention of the people (one of them being The Beatles), around 1948 Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Alain Delon were dominating the scene.
A vast array of distractions away from the existence of a base that was still operating under HYDRA administration, remaining undiscovered due to its caution. This was the twin institution of the Red Room: the Blue Room. The only difference was that they brought only children here who already possessed some form of artificial biological mutation.
Those who ended up here were tortured and trained until they spoke at least fourteen languages, including a minimum of eight human tongues and six native mutant languages from other dimensions. From among the arts, they had to learn to perform at least eight of their own choosing to perfection. The ninth was mandatory-ballet, which provided both self-discipline and further torture.
Under these and similar conditions grew up the Blue Ravens, who were allowed onto the surface to live as embedded agents and spies only after a coming-of-age ceremony, with the approval of the leadership.
Those Ravens who were not successful or were unreliable were forced to assist within the organization. They could choose mentorship (which included parenting), surrogacy (they were impregnated using the same donor to better expand the system), or serving simply as instructors and administrative personnel maintaining the facility.
Hugo arrived at the base with the second Raven generation; back then, they entered the system in their teenage years. He was roughly the same age as the current members of the leadership and was among the most respected Ravens, with women and girls secretly demanding his attention from almost every generation.
He owed much of his reputation to having heroically and legendarily endured every stage during his coming-of-age ritual, even surviving the Filter Ceremony. No matter how hard the system strived to make everyone perfect, deep down, the mutants were still human beings with their own flaws and weaknesses.
Hugo's weakness remained unknown to everyone for a long time, right up until the end of the Filter Ceremony. The only unforgivable mistake he dared to commit was love. Specifically, it was the commander's younger sister who completely charmed him with her beauty.
Lea, the legendary hunter who had hidden herself for years in the arena of the filter tournament, was suspected by no one.
The barely eighteen-year-old youths usually suspected each other, while Lea manipulated the entire game from start to finish. More precisely, she was two years older than Hugo, but a single moment of eye contact during the countdown was enough for the boy to know that she was the hunter, and that he would marry her.
When the game time expired, Hugo was one of the survivors, and Lea still didn't seem suspicious. Since he was now among the adult Ravens, he was allowed to speak with his peers. In secret, he began courting Lea, who initially feigned indifference. Meanwhile, she continued to prove herself the best hunter in the ceremonies.
She was set to be the hunter for one more year. Except Hugo secretly seduced her, married her, and got her pregnant.
When this came to light, the commander presented Hugo with a cruel choice: he could raise his son if they executed Lea as punishment. Or they would keep Lea alive and banish her from the system as soon as their son was born, and the boy would grow up here under the care of another mentor.
Thus Hugo chose the second option, because he loved Lea too much to have her killed.
After Lea was banished, Hugo was useless to the system for months, suffering in silence and drinking his days away. For future coming-of-age ceremonies, it was ordered in advance that those who did not intend to become surrogate mothers be sterilized, to avoid similar situations.
The commander (since he still felt a faint trace of respect for him) then offered Hugo the opportunity to go to the newborn ward and choose a baby for himself to raise. Hugo initially refused this, avoiding the ward entirely.
However, a good friend of his from the rituals kept persuading him until Hugo finally brought himself to at least take a look around.
While Kate was looking at the babies, cooing over every single crib, Hugo just leaned uncomfortably against the wall, still not knowing what to make of his sudden, perhaps overly rushed agreement.
The atmosphere, sight, and noise in the room completely blurred together for the man. In his head, he could only hear his wife's sobbing after they took their son from her, not even allowing her to hold him in her arms. Then he started thinking that he should have another drink, when he finally caught the sound of a baby crying-one that hadn't stopped since they entered the room.
The nurses had been taking turns trying to calm the baby wrapped in a pink bundle for at least a quarter of an hour, but the little one threw an even wilder tantrum as soon as they tried to soothe her. The noise slowly began bothering the other babies too, as more and more of them started fussing.
Hugo watched for a while as the nurses rocked the swaddled little one with growing frustration, to no avail. The baby just kept squirming and screaming.
Suddenly, he found himself taking a few slow steps toward the nurses, without taking his eyes off the little one. Thanks to his abilities, he could see the baby's thoughts, so he already ruled out hunger and a diaper change at this point. The little girl was simply restless because she didn't feel safe.
"May I hold her?" he asked quietly, to which the nurse sighed in relief and carefully placed the baby into Hugo's arms.
Hugo adjusted the baby's head so that her little ear touched his chest, letting her hear his heartbeat. Following this, the little one instantly stopped crying and blinked up at the man exhaustedly.
"Hey... Shhh... Good girl... There now... Everything's going to be okay... No need to cry..."
Kate, along with the nurses, watched him open-mouthed as the little girl just looked at his face, no longer crying. Hugo didn't take his eyes off the little one either; in fact, a faint smile involuntarily formed on the edge of his lips. Then he slowly leaned closer to the baby's face and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"You should adopt her, Hugo," one of the younger nurses said softly.
At this, the man blinked up at her in surprise, completely snapped out of his admiration of the baby. His first thought would have been a refusal, but just then, the baby grabbed his index finger and held it in a surprisingly firm grip. Hugo looked down at her again, and seeing her innocent face, his heart suddenly began beating faster-this time not with grief or sorrow, but with a sudden surge of paternal love. He could no longer hold back his genuine smile, and kissed the little one on the forehead once more.
"What paperwork do I need to fill out?"
"I'll bring it right away."
