Jessica had no choice but to ask Wanda for help with her studies.
Unfortunately, Wanda wasn't exactly qualified to tutor anyone.
She had grown up in the chaos of Sokovia and barely received a formal education herself. She was still struggling through the basics alongside everyone else.
The two girls quickly bonded over shared academic suffering.
After learning about the situation, Urd arranged private instructors for them and ordered the curriculum restarted from foundational subjects upward.
One afternoon, Jessica carried a towering stack of textbooks back toward the dormitories.
Then she walked straight into an ard robbery.
Her first instinct was to avoid getting involved and leave as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, one of the robbers' guns discharged accidentally.
The bullet tore through the body of an elderly man he'd been threatening before ricocheting wildly through the air.
And suddenly...
Everything slowed down.
Jessica stared in horror as the spinning bullet turned toward her.
Most of its force had already been reduced by passing through the old man first, but Jessica had no intention of gambling her life on that fact.
Panic exploded through her mind.
Then sothing changed.
She realized she could move.
Inside that strangely slowed world, her own speed accelerated dramatically.
Jessica stumbled sideways just as the bullet passed her face.
A second later, reality snapped back to normal.
The bullet slamd into the wall behind her, spraying debris outward and leaving behind a crater-like impact mark.
The robber froze stupidly for a mont before his accomplice dragged him away.
Nearby civilians rushed toward the wounded elderly man.
Then a young man suddenly pushed through the crowd.
Jessica only heard the old man call him "Peter" before the overwhelming strangeness of her own body stole her attention again.
Everything felt wrong.
Every step cracked concrete beneath her feet.
When she instinctively grabbed a streetlamp for balance, the entire pole bent and collapsed sideways.
Fear consud her instantly.
Jessica fled all the way back to Blade Academy.
"Sir, I think you should see this."
Black Queen projected surveillance footage for Drex.
The video showed Jessica unintentionally turning public infrastructure into a disaster zone during her sprint ho.
"Did you erase the traces?" Drex asked calmly.
He wasn't particularly surprised.
Ever since Jessica woke from her coma, her powers had been expected to manifest eventually. When nothing happened for days, he had briefly wondered if sothing had gone wrong.
Apparently, the timing had simply been delayed.
"Everything has already been cleaned up," Black Queen replied.
Otherwise, S.H.I.E.L.D. would already be monitoring Jessica closely.
"Good."
Drex nodded.
"She's probably panicking right now. Where is she?"
"In Wanda's dormitory."
Another video feed appeared.
Jessica was frantically explaining her condition to Wanda.
Super strength.
Bulletproof skin.
Flight.
She had effectively beco a scaled-down Superman.
Well... taphorically speaking.
DC Comics in this world hadn't even fully launched Superman yet. Their major success line was still Batman-focused, unlike Drex's original reality.
Still, the comparison fit.
Wanda listened with obvious envy.
Jessica might be terrified now, but soone with real superpowers could finally help Drex directly.
And unlike Wanda herself, Jessica seed to be a naturally empowered human rather than so unstable anomaly.
Drex originally intended to go comfort Jessica personally.
Then he watched Wanda calming her down far more effectively than he probably could.
So he quietly lost interest in intervening.
So things worked better between friends.
Under Wanda's reassurance, Jessica gradually realized her powers weren't a curse.
They were an opportunity.
Then she rembered the robbery.
She had run away.
Soone had died.
If she'd acted differently, could she have saved him?
The thought twisted painfully inside her chest.
Eventually, following Wanda's advice, Jessica nervously contacted Drex.
"M-Mr. Valen... I have a secret I need to tell you."
The mont she noticed Urd nearby, she awkwardly changed her wording.
A secret?
Urd's eyes narrowed subtly.
What kind of "secret" required private discussions with a minor?
Because certain kinds of private conversations with minors were extrely illegal.
"Urd," Drex suddenly said, "why has the legal departnt received over a thousand lawsuit notices?"
Urd imdiately snapped back into work mode.
"One of the investigators from another company dismantled a War Machine unit and discovered that one of our screws shares a slightly elevated similarity ratio with their patented design."
Drex stared at her.
"A screw?"
Even he found that absurd.
"What company?"
"Roxxon Energy Corporation," Urd replied helplessly. "They're infamous for aggressive legal harassnt."
She continued explaining.
"Roxxon is currently the largest energy corporation on Earth. They also own Footbook, Itter, and over a hundred major global social platforms. Beyond petroleum monopolies, Roxxon controls nurous manufacturing subsidiaries responsible for petroleum-derived comrcial products."
As she spoke, Drex searched through his enhanced mory.
Then he rembered.
Dario Agger.
One of Marvel's major corporate supervillains.
In the comics, Agger survived a pirate attack and discovered the tomb of an ancient Greek mutant known as the Minotaur. Starving and desperate, he consud the remains...
Then mutated into the new Minotaur himself.
Of course, this universe technically lacked active mutants, so Agger's abilities leaned closer toward mystical transformation than mutant evolution.
A genuine bull-headed monster.
Normally, Agger maintained a human appearance.
During combat, he transford into a full Minotaur form with imnse physical power and durability.
Still, if Roxxon wanted a legal war, Blade Tech Industries wasn't exactly defenseless.
Its legal departnt contained elite attorneys poached from major corporations across the country, including several legendary figures within the legal world.
After resolving the matter of Roxxon's lawsuit spam, Drex finally turned his attention back to Jessica.
He personally brought her into a secured private room for the conversation.
The gesture touched Jessica deeply.
Too many adults treated teenagers like property instead of people.
Especially in Arica, where independence and personal freedom mattered so much.
"So," Drex said with a small smile, "what secret did you want to tell ?"
Jessica swallowed nervously.
"T-Today, I got caught in an accident. And while I was dodging a bullet... I developed superpowers."
At first her voice trembled badly.
Then she t Drex's eyes and finally forced herself to continue.
"Superpowers?"
Drex repeated the word seriously.
Not dismissively.
Not like she was delusional.
Not like she was a child inventing fantasies.
He sounded genuinely interested.
And for the first ti since the incident...
Jessica felt slightly less afraid.
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