Marvel's Villainous Gacha 61 (Patreon)

A random warehouse in the middle of nowhere wasn’t the best place to heal Peggy Carter, but he avoided better locations to make sure he stayed hidden. Also, since he would be relying purely on his ability-based healing, no machine was necessary.

He had laid her gently on a clean cot, monitoring her vitals through equipment that conventional medicine couldn't quite explain. She looked so small. The photographs Steve had shared with him during their training sessions had shown Peggy in her prime, sharp eyes and an even sharper smile.

She was a dangerous woman. She had to be, to climb the ranks during the Second World War, when most believed the only fitting place for a woman was a hospital; and even then, only as a nurse.

He knew that, technically, what he was doing was against medical ethics, forcing treatment on someone without asking their opinion. Luckily, his System, despite the number of healing rewards it provided might indicate, wasn’t a saintly one.

He put his hand on her temple, and spread his golden flames. He could have started with Purification, but he prioritized a diagnostic, mostly because Mind Palace allowed him to catch every single ailment she had. He wanted to be through.

What he found made him very still.

The Alzheimer was real, shown by protein plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, the cellular architecture of cognitive decline. That was the surface diagnosis, the one her doctors had been managing, the one Steve had been told about.

It wasn’t natural. She was poisoned.

It was an insidious scheme. Defining it was difficult, but all the markers he could read suggested a scheme of microdosing, carefully calibrated, layered into her system through a delivery vector she interacted regularly over the years.

He couldn’t guess just how long it had been since she had been systematically poisoned without a deeper analysis. It was definitely years. Maybe even decades.

Curious, he took a sample, and actually opened a gate to deliver it to his lab. Even with a supercomputer behind, standard analysis method didn’t catch anything. He had to spend a few minutes going over the molecular structure of her historical medicines to catch the insidious change.

Even then, he suspected that, without Expert Chemistry, he wouldn’t have caught it. Whoever designed it played it very carefully.

“Well, not whoever designed. Obviously, Hydra,” he said, finally having a name for the mysterious faction. Peggy Carter had been the one who had dismantled their organization after the war.

The real aim was to take away her mental edge. A slow, steady approach.

“Well, maybe Fury has a point in his extreme paranoia,” he admitted.

The strategic logic was obvious once Michael saw it. Peggy was one of the key members, who not only dismantled Hydra first, but also managed to climb to director position despite being initially dismissed after the war. Meaning she had the skill set and the grudge against Hydra.

Even with the strategic infiltration of their key scientists with Operation Paperclip, they couldn’t have achieved infiltration with her gaze turned inward.

So, they dulled her gaze.

It probably went back to Howard Stark’s assassination, but frankly, he didn’t care that much. He didn’t trust SHIELD’s competence even without Hydra worming itself into the structure. Ultimately, there was a limit how efficient a government organization could be.

“Well, if Nazis are scared of you, let’s give them their bogeyman back,” he said. His initial aim was merely to cure her and add some vitality so that she could handle the command.

He changed his mind. If Hydra could play dirty, so could he.

He started by using Purification, which worked wonders to get rid of every bit of the insidious drug from her body. It simply vanished, but the damage that it left had been left behind.

Then, he followed it with Divine Healing Light, which fixed all neural damage. He couldn’t imagine how a scientific treatment would have worked and impacted her memories. The magical version carried no such issue. The disease was gone, and its damage was fixed, her memory was back.

Peggy Carter shifted as she woke up … yet she acted like she was asleep, her arm tense. Curious what she would do, he leaned forward just a bit, and immediately, she lashed against his throat.

“Good to see you’re still sharp, Agent Carter,” he teased her as he caught her hand.

“Who are you—“ she started, then paused. “Why can I actually think without a mist suffocating my mind?” she added.

He bit a sarcastic response he normally would. Peggy Carter belonged in the same category as Steve and Bucky. The equation was simple. Save the world from genocidal madmen, and earn — limited — protection from his sarcasm.

“Long story. The short version is that Hydra isn’t as far gone as we realized. They actually infiltrated SHIELD to a shocking degree. Your mental collapse is because they had been poisoning you for decades. I cured you against my inclinations, because Steve is one of the few among the list that can help my assistance. So, I appreciate if we can keep it a secret. I’m already dealing with enough greedy assholes.”

She paused. “You’re that healer from the Battle of New York.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“You healed me to help SHIELD.”

He shrugged. “Not particularly. I’m not particularly impressed with SHIELD as an organization. I healed you, because Steve and Bucky need your help.”

She tensed. “Bucky is dead.”

“Funny that. He’s alive, but the situation is complicated.”

She paused, looked into the distance. “Brainwashed?” she asked. He nodded. She gasped. “The Winter Soldier.”

“Right on one,” he said, impressed by the speed she connected the dots. But then, sometimes, deduction was like that. She probably spent years trying to track down the Winter Soldier, with a lot of data. She just lacked a very important detail, the fact that Bucky was alive.

Finding out the truth required one to look for it.

It was the same with him and Hydra’s infiltration of SHIELD, any data he found was easily explained by a factional battle, and he didn’t felt the need to dig deeper.

Occam’s Razor sometimes cuts the wrong branch.

She sat up slowly. Her hand went to her temple, trying to process it. He didn’t say anything. Peggy Carter was many things, but fragile was not one of them. A fragile woman couldn’t achieve what she had done.

She spent a minute trying to register what was going on. Then, she studied him with focused attention. Luckily, there was nothing for her to catch. For once, he was telling the truth.

Well, mostly.

“I feel like I’m in my seventies once again,” she said as she stood up, moving back and forth. Coming from anyone else, it would have felt like a complaint, but watching her make a few moves, he suspected that she could have beaten him before the System started improving him.

Formidable woman.

“You don’t have to be,” he said.

“What do you mean?” she said.

“I can make you even younger,” he offered. She opened her mouth, but he stopped her with a gesture. “Look, the only reason I’m even offering is because you’re on a very short list of people that I respect. And, believe me, it’s a close thing. You wouldn’t have been if it wasn’t for your poisoning. You’re experienced enough to understand just how big of a target it would put on my back.”

“Naturally,” she said.

“So, I expect you to keep that part a secret. For the wider public, claim that Peggy Carter is dead. Claim you’re some kind of distant relative if you want to connect with your family. For the others like Fury, tell that you have been exposed to some kind of artifact Bucky stole from Hydra or some nonsense.”

“That’s not the only condition, right?”

“Well, I’m also going to apply an untested super-soldier serum on you, but I’m confident there will be no side effects. Otherwise, all I expect from you is to deal with the Hydra mess. I suspect you don’t need me asking a favor to do that.”

“True. They are not my … favorite,” she admitted. “You know it won’t stay secret forever, right? Eventually, it’ll be revealed.”

He shrugged. “I am not afraid of the trouble. I just don’t want the hassle,” he said. “If it goes out, I expect you to clean up the mess.”

She smiled, still suspicious. “I’ll take that deal. This is too much trouble to trick a dying old lady,” she said.

He nodded, and removed the large injector. “That’s it?” she asked. “No machines? No secret bases.”

“That’s the good thing about being a superpowered healer. No hassle. It’s like making instant coffee.”

She nodded. “Is the situation really that bad?” she asked. He gave her a quick summary of the events. “This is bad, indeed,” she said. “Alright. Hit me.”

He was surprised by her decisiveness. He suspected the speed she trusted might have to do with Steve visiting her to tell stories, which probably included him as well. But, he didn’t bother checking to confirm.

He started with Greater Blessing, improving her Stamina, which would help the bonding process greatly. Then, he hit her with his golden flames, curing her ailments and replenishing her life force, a process half magic, half science.

He could also feel that he was triggering like a hundred different cancers in her body, forcing him to use both Purification and Divine Healing Light frequently. Even with all his cheating, the process took an hour.

He could feel that it was painful. Her whole body was being rebuilt. Pain was inevitable. Peggy bore it with discipline. “I have survived worse,” she growled. Considering her past, he suspected it wasn’t an exaggeration.

When she stood up, he didn’t hide his appreciation. The hospital clothes she was wearing was made for a woman in her late eighties, her whole body collapsed and shrunk. They fit very snugly on a rather voluptuous woman in her late thirties.

A very well-developed woman in her late thirties. He had seen her pictures, and while she had always been an impressive woman mentally, physically imposing was not the first word that came to mind.

No longer. She was taller, just an inch below six feet, and her body was the perfect mixture of power and femininity.

That had something to do with his control. Without his intervention, she would have probably turned into a six-foot-three Amazon with bulging muscles, which he decided to prevent.

A favor to Steve. They would look like a perfect couple.

She was slightly weaker as a result, but considering she could punch through concrete and bend steel bars casually, a couple percentage points of lower performance shouldn’t matter that much.

Steve better appreciate all the effort he put in.

Meanwhile, he also used his bodily control to reduce his own functions, showing visible signs of exhaustion, which was not entirely fake. He was actually exhausted, just nowhere as bad as she believed.

"How do you feel?"

"Like myself. From a long time ago." But, as she moved, she stumbled, unprepared for her power. Her clothes ripped.

Not flirting with her took some effort, but he kept himself back. Steve owed him big for this. Instead, he turned his back. “Check the bag; there are some of my spare clothes. It should fit you well enough.”

“Thanks,” she said, and changed while he looked away. He heard the fabric ripping apart several times. When he finally turned, he saw her wearing his sweatpants, and a buttoned lumberjack shirt.

She wore them rather excellently.

“Attack me. It’ll help you get familiar with your new strength,” he said.

She didn’t waste time, and attacked. He countered. In terms of sparring, it wasn’t fun, mostly because she was still getting familiar with her new reflexes … and rusty didn’t begin to cover her situation.

Due to her age, she probably hadn’t trained seriously for decades. But, that was the good thing about the excess physical power. She didn’t need to be a finesse expert. With her tactical mind intact, a more direct fighter would work just as well.

Especially if she was fighting with Bucky and Steve.

He couldn’t even imagine the devastation those three would create. If he were unleashing them against anyone but Hydra, he would have actually felt bad.

"Ready?" he asked. “Because I’m too exhausted to fight more, especially since I’ll still be driving.” He wasn’t as tired as he claimed, but acting like turning her young exhausted him even more than it looked was a good way to prevent people from annoying him constantly.

She nodded.

They drove back in another stolen car, and on the way back, he answered her questions, including why he had the super-soldier serum. Technically, she no longer had clearance to know those things due to her retirement, but he didn’t care about it in the slightest.

Her real focus was on the Hydra reveal, and they had kept it mostly practical.

Cave was loud when they arrived, with Bucky grunting in pain. Understandable, as they arrived when Jemma and Skye were installing the new arm. Connecting to the nerves was a painful procedure.

Skye looked up. Her eyes moved past Michael, found Peggy, but she didn’t recognize her. Not at first.

“P-Peggy,” Steve whispered, his voice too complicated to be described. His voice was filled with everything, from joy to pain, from nostalgia to hope.

“Steve,” she responded, her voice equally complicated. Understandable, as their story was a great tragedy.

Jemma and Skye noticed her identity, but they smartly said nothing. They were surprised, but not shocked. After all, the fact that they were operating on another historical war hero who was supposed to be dead blunted their shock.

“As always, I’m the ignored one,” Bucky whispered playfully, more than happy to enjoy the nostalgia as well. “It’s as if nothing had changed.”

They shared silence; their gazes told a story. One that he didn’t want to observe. It was a private moment they deserved. So, he went to Bucky, helping them to install the arm, which went quickly with his healing abilities.

“Let’s go,” he said as he tugged Skye away, knowing that otherwise she was curious enough to stay. Jemma followed as well.

As they left, he heard Steve whisper her name again, dazed. He glanced and saw Peggy’s face equally mixed.

Michael didn’t question what she was feeling. It was their story.

“T-that was Director Carter,” Skye whispered once they were out of the cave. “You have turned her young.”

“Let’s just say there was an unexpected interaction with healing and super-soldier serum.” They paused. “I used the prototype on her, the one with Steve and Bucky’s blood. I also asked Professor’s help. It won’t be replicated,” he lied. He used his own superior variant, but he kept that a secret.

“I thought it wasn’t safe,” Skye asked.

“It’s not safe for you,” he replied. “You know, the whole being from Area 51 thing—“ he teased, and received a playful slap on his shoulder. “Let’s just say there were compilations that made it a smart move, and she agreed to take the risk.”

Skye looked at the horizon. “What now?”

“I don’t know you two, but I’m planning to find a nice safe house and sleep a few days. What I did with the super soldier serum binding wiped out my reserves.”

“Really, that’s it?” she said.

“Hey, I united the legendary Captain America, Bucky Barnes, and Agent Carter. The rest, they can handle just as well,” he said. “There’s only so much a healer can do.”

He had done more, especially taking over Hydra’s supercomputer and started feeding them the wrong information, but he had kept his mouth shut. The Battle of New York already gave him a higher profile than he wanted.

The last thing he wanted was more renown.

He was more than happy to dismantle Hydra while staying hidden … and maybe rob a few SHIELD bases in the process, blaming it on Hydra.

After all, just because he saved their ass didn’t mean he was a fan of the organization, and he deserved a hefty payment for saving their asses. SHIELD wasn’t using most of the artifacts they had acquired, and they were better used in his hand.

The best part, he could use the destroyed Hydra bases to feed information to SHIELD about Hydra agents piecemeal, making things much easier.

“What about us?” she said.

“What about you two? Don’t tell me protecting me while I recover is too much of a chore,” he teased. “Look, I’m a strategic asset that’s about to collapse for about twenty-four hours of uninterrupted sleep. I need you two to defend me if something goes wrong.”

Skye nodded. “You can trust me,” she said.

“And me,” Jemma added, her tone panicked, but her determination was just as clear.

“Good,” he said. “Then there’s one last thing.”

“What’s that?” Skye asked.

“The traditional reward for saving the world, again I might add,” he said with a chuckle, deliberately pointing at his cheek. Skye kissed his cheek, giggling. He turned to Jemma, letting his smirk twist just a touch. Jemma paused, then her gaze shifted. She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.

He responded quickly, enjoying her hum. A skilled kisser, she was not, but it only made her more attractive. She wore the cute nerd identity perfectly.

“Finally,” Skye chuckled when Jemma pulled back and looked at Skye.

That made Jemma freeze. “What do you mean, finally?”

Skye smirked. “I mean, wasn’t it obvious that we were waiting for you to take that step?” she teased.

“But—“ Jemma said, shocked, but he kissed her, interrupting her thoughts. While he didn’t get the System rewards his actions deserved, which was not a surprise. Helping SHIELD to defeat Hydra by strengthening them was the farthest thing from being a villain by any sensible measure.

At least, in the Battle of New York, he was defending his turf against invasion, which was reasonable villain behavior.

Still, if forced to choose between a few more gold tickets and Jemma’s cute moans as he kissed, he would certainly select the latter.

He didn’t push her more. Soon, the trio walked out, their faces wearing a matching sharp expression. Yet, he was happy to see that their aura carried an ease, something they had been lacking. Bucky had his trauma, Peggy had her shock, Steve always struggled to accept his displacement.

But, together, with their presence reinforcing each other, it looked different. Suddenly, he wasn’t looking at three broken people, but a picture from a history book.

Hydra was fucked.

Hard.