A/N: I'm back so let's kick things into full throttle mode. I got a lot of sleep, and I mean a lot, during the weekend so I think I should be able to go back to working on the last arc of the story.
=============≠==============
[COLD CHRONICLES V]
"It is, and at the same time it's not." Draul said, drawing all their attention from Bucky's skin which was slowly losing its purple glow.
"What do you mean?" Ororo asked, fascinated by such a change happening in front of her.
"Watch." Was all Draul said before he formed an ice lance and fired it at Bucky with the latter not moving, wanting to see what else he could do.
The moment the ice touched Bucky, it immediately went inside his body, surprising the audience who had their eyes wide open in shock, only for it to grow wider as Bucky's body became scalding red with intense heat, making them feel as if they were standing a few meters away from a volcano.
"Reactive Adaptation. It's even stronger than my own adaptation since his is purely physical but that by no means means that that's all what he can do. Since he took on the properties of Vibranium means he can also take on the properties of different matter, irrespective of their composition. We would have to test out his current limits thou-"
BANG!
Draul words were cut short as the sound of a gun resounded in the room, cue Yelena pointing the muzzle of a glock in Bucky's direction while said man had a bullet caught between his fingers, sporting an unamused and partly cheshire grin at the teenager.
"Reaction speed likely surpass the speed of sound." Draul noted as he saw exactly how Bucky moved to catch the bullet, almost in an exasperated, yet astonished, ease. "It's highly likely that you still can't control how you adapt to the situations around you, hence…" Draul left the following words unsaid as everyone saw that Bucky's fingertips were already transformed, looking like reinforced steel reminiscent of Colossus' metal form.
"That… Is… Freaking… COOL!!" Yelena almost emptied an entire clip on Bucky if not for Natasha snatching the gun out of her hand and Ororo snatching the other that she drew out from her back.
"It sure is, but that doesn't mean you get to shoot bullets at me." Bucky chastised but there was no heat in his voice as he was more focused on the changes in his body.
"You guys can have your fun later. Steve, it's your turn." Despite the excited atmosphere, Steve managed to keep his cool and sat on the chair, legs crossed as if he was taking a photo.
There was no nervousness, only anticipation rolling off of him. "Same thing I said to Bucky; your imagination is the limit." Steve nodded at Draul's reminder and closed his eyes as the purple hue washed over him.
…
He felt cold, freezing cold that rattled his bones.
He forced his eyes open only to find out that he was trapped in some sort of ice, the cause of his cold hell. Though he was trapped he didn't panic as he knew he could easily escape such bonds which was proven true as he broke through the ice covering him with ease.
He crawled out of the ground only to find himself in the freezing tundra of the Arctic. "Seriously? Should have asked Bucky what the hell he went through."
Steve wasn't a fool. He knew there had to be a reason why he was seeing such things as he could remember that this was where he was dug up thanks to Draul.
This place was a place of regret for him, a constant reminder of what he lost and could never get back, well maybe he could but the price was not one he was sure he could pay.
If only he had been a better shield then none of this would have happened. If only he had stopped the mad man then many people would not have had to pay the price they did.
HYDRA wouldn't have had a way to infiltrate the world once again, poisoning the times with their malicious revenge.
He was a defender and all he could do was sleep while the world burned. Senseless killings happened because he was closing his eyes to them.
The metahumans were shunned and even publicly persecuted because they didn't have a loud enough voice. They didn't have someone with the power he had at their side.
… If only he could have been a better shield…?!!
"A shield." He might not have had the chance to be the best protector like Erskine wanted him to be then, but he more than had enough chance to be now.
He could be the perfect shield.
Steve didn't want anything special. He didn't want a flashy ability or the destructive power to decimate any foe that faced him. All he wanted was the power to better protect his new family and to remain standing strong.
A shield could be many things in the right hands and no other hand was better than Steve's when it came to wielding a shield.
He needed something that no attack could go through but Draul had already stressed it so many times that nothing was absolute in this world, so he settled for what was possible but also within the realms of impossibility.
Steve would admit that he was not one for broad imaginations but he had a concept he could walk with, one Draul had shown so many times. One that would prevent his enemies from reaching him.
It didn't need a shape like his shield since the perfect shield was one that would be able to protect in every situation and as attached as he was with his shield, he knew just how awfully lacking his trusty partner was.
There was no need for a size because the concept was all-encompassing, and as for its attacking power… Well there were more than a thousand ways to kill a man with your bare hands.
A defender still had to fight unless how would he be able to defend? Steve's answer to that was something other than his ability to defend regardless of whether it can be armed. He needed the perfect weapon, a sword to complement his shield and the answer immediately came to him.
Why need a sword when he was a perfect weapon?
He had his shield, and as the soldier he had always been, all he needed was a command. An order to the battlefield that he couldn't refuse. What defines a soldier's worth if not a trial of blood?
He was but one man, a simple soldier, wielding a shield and armed with nothing else, jumping into war. That was who he was and has always been.
Gaining new abilities and expanding the battlefield to a universal scale wasn't going to change that.
"Really original. You couldn't think of anything else, could you? It won't have much use from here on out you know." Draul materialized by Steve's side and watched him as he created something that was eerily similar to his Proto-adamantium shield, but without the stars and stripes.
"I'm no longer fighting for my country so the stars and stripes don't really matter anymore so I got rid of them. And besides, it was all I could think of." Steve replied as he finished his work, admiring the unoriginal beauty of it.
"I could tell." The two of them fell into a comfortable silence before Steve broke it.
"So are you really Draul? Or something else?" Steve asked with the same casualness he always had around him.
"You noticed? Bucky didn't, so that's 1 – 1. And to answer your question, yes I am but not really at the same time." Seeing Steve made no intention of prodding 'him' on, he continued. "I am the part of Draul that holds supremacy over Power; a segmented part of his consciousness if you will."
"That sorta makes sense." Steve hummed. "So this was all you, or was it Draul?"
"In a way you could say it was both of us as I can't exist on my own without the main consciousness, or the one that assumes the identity of 'Draul', which is the one you all are familiar with. Everything I do is in conjunction with his innermost thoughts. But I think the credit this time wholly belongs to me, *sigh*, alright, maybe 80% credit."
Steve was greatly amused as he saw Draul, or rather the part of Draul that was the Power Stone, explaining about himself. It just goes to show how thoroughly fucked up in the head Draul was if he had split personalities for each of the stone.
"As much as I would love to chat with you, Steve, your time is up. Oh and make sure not to spoil the game with the others. Space, the grumpy angry old guy, and I, made a bet on if you guys would be able to differentiate between the slight changes in our personalities, which reminds me; how did you know?"
Oh Draul definitely was on a constant trip if even his subconscious was making bets and even losing against themselves.
Steve chuckled at yet another crazy aspect of Draul. "Honestly, it was just a hunch."
"Great! I lost to a dumb guy's hunch, how hilarious." 'Draul' grumbled before fading away, leaving Steve to witness, as he woke up from what had definitely not been an illusion, the prelude to his wish coming through.
It felt as if he had never left as the sensation of him being seated on a chair came back to him.
"That definitely was an experience." Steve stood up, trying his best to shrug off the dizzy spell that was hitting him full time.
"You okay, buddy?" Bucky held his arm to keep him from tumbling down to the floor.
"Yeah, I think. Feels like I just smoked pot and I don't know how smoking pot feels." Steve complained but he was getting used to it as the seconds trickled on. "What?" He asked as he saw them looking at him with raised brows.
"Steve, it's your eyes. They look almost white now, kinda cool if you ask me." Yelena pointed out before passing him the mirror she got from Draul.
"It's not as exaggerated as I thought it would be. I can live with this." The change wasn't much compared to what he was currently feeling…
Displacement.
He felt as if he was everywhere in the house and it was almost driving him nuts. It was as if one second he was in the room and another one he was outside the house.
"Woah, woah! Easy there bro." The dizzy spell that he was currently experiencing fizzled out of his system as Draul's words entered his ears.
"What the hell was that?" He managed to ask after gulping down a bottle of water. He was half sure he was going mad since he was looking straight at them… while he was facing the ground!
"Spatial manipulation. That feeling of being everywhere at once was the minor omnipresence that comes with it. If space manipulation, and to such an astonishing degree, is the first thing you are currently exhibiting then I'm almost anticipating what you can do after we run all sorts of Yelena-based tests on you." Draul said, paying attention to Steve's condition. "Try focusing on one spot, forget all the information currently being drilled into your head. You have to first be spatially aware of where you actually are before you want to try something like warping." He advised.
Steve followed his advice and focused only on the room they were in, trying his best to ignore every other sensation he was currently getting that was not from this room.
He was finally able to reign himself in, though he still felt slight dizziness due to being able to see them from every other perspective. His omnipresence was now constrained to the room and it would take some practicing for him to learn how to ignore it.
"So Bucky got Draul's adaptation on steroids as his first ability while Steve got Draul's power over space for his. Can this day get any cooler?" Yelena, like always, was the most excited out of all of them.
"Then why don't you wait till you get yours." Ororo hugged her close to prevent her from clamoring the poor Steve.
========================
Don't forget to vote.
Read up to 35 chapters ahead at pa*treon.com/Draul_TheOminous.