Mc pov,
I groggily woke up although it was much of a struggle cause of my current physical injuries which are not much of a surprise in my life now. Well, it's to be expected considering today is the day I got out of the torture rooms in the name of building a resistance to physical and mental pain to avoid breaking down in the middle of a mission.
Yes, it's a crime to force a 14-year-old child to undergo this procedure but who am I gonna complain to the government? They are the ones who initiated this project in the name of wanting to fashion out a top-enhanced spy to work in the field for their interest. Well I know I don't have a choice or say in the matter because I lost it more than six years ago but it's good once in a while to rant as an outlet of my anger and frustration to avoid doing anything stupid after all I have to survive.
I have to survive for a better future. Just a few more years before being deployed to the field and finally having my freedom. Why am I so optimistic if one may ask? Well for that we can go back to the start a brief preview of my past.
Well, I am Irina Ivanova, an orphan girl as a result of losing my parents due to good old unreliable medical facilities back in the 70s, or was I abandoned I don't remember well. I was nothing special apart from my observative and rather analytical skills you have to pick up as a young defenseless girl living on the streets to avoid suffering worse fates. All this was before I was picked off the street one day with a promise of a better future.
Out of desperation, one thing led to another and I found myself in the Red Room being pumped with genetic modification serum and screaming in agonizing pain. That's when it all began to change, memories of a previous life where I was a 26-year-old male came hitting me hard with a vengeance.
I barely survived and that's when it all came back ramming me like a fucking truck the seeming discomfort I felt with my out-of-sync body and mind due to the memories. My enhancements only made the change agonizingly worse, along with my change in mental maturity as life had never been so kind to me and I was pretty used to struggling to stand on my two feet while I was being kicked down and the seemingly inconsistent facts about the world indicating I was in the Marvel universe.
Well so much for having a peaceful afterlife after getting skewered like a kebab by a construction pole as though it's something fresh out of the final destination but I could do nothing but force myself to move on and adapt. The enhancement wasn't a copy of Captain America's super soldier serum but it contributed to enhancing my physique and unexpectedly my intelligence. Well, everything in life has a price, so although I got a nice boost to my physical capabilities, I had to now pay the price in full with my full existence from put through strenuous daily training to push our physical limits as we were still young growing kids, hand to hand training, assassination training, and acrobatics. Extensive weapon training and tactical skills.
Honestly, the training wasn't the word part for me considering I always wanted to get strong to not experience the helplessness of being weak staging from my past life traumas but the part where we were being slowly brainwashed while being fed propaganda and all that bullshit was getting on my nerves. I am lucky at least because although they have also been mentally messing with our brains imprinting false memories here and there, they had at least left room for free will although I already knew from experience they had mental triggers that would leave me at their mercy.
The level at which weakness is despised and not tolerated is so immense that we were even forced to occasionally violently spar to the death against each other. I remember the first time I felt the life of my first friend in this world fade as I held her body in my arms. Honestly, if I were one of those fanfic protagonists who would look at the world like a comic, novel, or game and shit I would have killed myself on that day. I felt broken, more than I already was. My hope for a better future and to make the sick fucks who ran this place pay keeping the big puzzle called Irina in one piece.
Forced to kill I got more desensitized to death as time went on and became selectively somewhat emotionally detached forcefully repressing them and logical to keep my cards hidden waiting patiently to strike. I lost count of the number of times I was told to torture or shoot a man dead in a firing range and the amount of praise I got for being among the best trainee widows of this generation. What made it all worse was the feelings of pride I felt being praised by General Dreykov whom I had unknowingly begun to see as a father figure and the slow but steady manipulation to make me more loyal to the organization.
That's when I realized that I could be even more fucked considering I once heard of the organization being under a subsection of the weapon x department. Well, I wasn't in the MCU timeline that was confirmed although I hoped it would be considering Natasha was a close friend of mine although her hot bombshell of a sister Yelena was nowhere to be found. When I asked her about a person with a similar name I always got a negative answer so that was one factor indicating I'm in a different timeline but life had to throw me a curve ball and say they are fucking mutants in the world from my knowledge of the comics. Yes, I was a fan of the comics when I was young so no way I was gonna rely on meta-knowledge considering all I have been through and all the versions of different events. So I consider the possibility of minor mind fuckery being subtly used on us and came up with a rather disturbing conclusion.
I have survived for years now in rather relative peace as it could get being kept underground on what was going on in the world on a seemingly tight leashe with only occasional assassination assignments once I turned 12. When the instructors decided that it was finally time to train us seriously to desensitize us to pain, the occasional torture sessions officially became the worst experience I ever had. The sessions normally ranged from pulling out my teeth, nails, and hair, to being forced to inflict self-harm or being beaten up by the instructors.
In all this, I appreciate the silver lining of not being raped cause we were either still underaged or underdeveloped but I highly suspect that the instructors saw it was gonna be a drag as we had not undergone sterilization yet so there is a risk of having unwanted children. Although this was the case, we were already taught about our female biology, seduction, and how to use our bodies as tools to complete our mission.
That's enough on a personal introspection now back to the reason why I bothered waking up in the first place and going on a tangent, the shiny green ring floating in front of me.
Ever since I found out I was in Marvel, I thought not much could leave me completely baffled but seeing not just any ring but a green lantern power ring in front of me seemingly made my mind almost grind to a halt. So why am I hesitant to accept presumably one of the most powerful weapons from the DC universe? The self-doubt I'm feeling right now, the unanswered question on why I'm in this universe that should have been a work of fiction from back home, and the fear of seemingly switching out one master for another considering who the ring creators are from the comics.
I mentally slapped myself to knock myself out of my stupor after catching hints of movement from the corner of my eye. If there is one thing life has taught me in this hell hole is that time waits for no one and that I should not kick a gift horse in the mouth and spit on rare opportunities. Without wasting another moment, I stretched out my right bandaged hand towards the ring causing it to consequently move and attach itself to my middle finger.
God, it was painful feeling the ring slide over my injuries before bright green light flowing from my hand encased my entire body making me close my eyes. I just decided to leave my doubts and future problems to future me as I opened my eyes to find myself encased in a green environmental barrier floating a few feet from my bed.
Suddenly I felt the aches all over my body progressively decrease as a relatively female voice rang out of the ring slightly startling me, [Irina Ivanova of Earth, you have been identified as the administrator and primary user by ring unit designated as prime Overseer]. That was honestly surprising but I had less time to myself as I noticed that most of my sisters were slowly waking up.
"Ring can you give me the basic rundown of how to use the ring abilities?" I asked my ring now as I was sure I didn't have enough time to myself if the blinking surveillance devices on the walls were to be considered or the survival instincts that I have cultivated over all these years.
[Affirmative. Downloading necessary information into the user's brain] what followed was a staggering 30 seconds of a rather unexpected but informative headache.
That was rather useful but I had to learn and master all I just learned on the fly as the main thing that I learned was that through the ring all I have to do is channel my will and imagination. It sounds easy right but I need practice otherwise I would make many mistakes. I finally took off willing myself to fly towards the room entrance door while also materializing the common green lantern suit a smaller similar version to that of Jessica Cruz cause I didn't have time to maul over my options for protection. I had a job to do.
"Ring create a safe compact impenetrable wall around the room. Also, make sure all the cameras inside are destroyed and free them from their restraints."
[Confirmed, processing request]
I watched in amazement as green light constructs began getting produced and placed in all strategic locations of the room before further expanding out covering the walls as I stood at the exit. It's one thing to see the entire process of a lantern ring project constructed on television and another entirely to see it with my own eyes. By now most of my sisters in all but blood were awake but I didn't want to put them in harm's way cause I figured out that in an unexpected situation, I somehow ended up failing I prefer if all of them are left out of this.
In a battle where gunfire would be everywhere, although they are all trained child soldiers, they are too young and will be more of a burden as all that is needed to end them is a single well-aimed bullet.
I stood on guard at the door but once the door was reinforced, I willed for extra protection armor similar to a female doom guy outfit with the helmet on to appear over the standard lantern costume. Can't end up getting killed due to a stray lucky shot to the face although my shields might be able to withstand it, that won't be acceptable.
"Before I forget, ring what is your current charge capacity?"
[Current level of charge is at one million percent.]
"…How in the holy fuck is that possible Ring?"
[Host due to proximity to the Central Power Battery which is currently within the ring sub-space pocket allows for limits to be removed.]
"Mhh, so basically infinite power for now until I find a good place to store the Central Power Battery. I can't be running around with something this powerful. Ring scan the facility and make a comprehensive map while also highlighting all life signatures and make a minimap display on my hud. Also, remove kill restrictions off the ring."
[Affirmative]
"Well, happy hunting I suppose." I quipped out to myself as I chuckled while proceeding to construct myself a sawed-off double barrel shotgun as well. In all the decades the red room has been operational, never did they once expect to be taken down by a 5 foot child in a glowing suit of armor and a shotgun.