The world stood on the brink of change. Whether it was Earth or Asgard, all needed to prepare for the formidable enemies that lurked beyond the sea of stars...
The curtain of peace had been drawn aside, and the winds of a new era howled mournfully. Some heard its call, while others remained oblivious.
The rumbling wheels of fate turned slowly, their destination unknown to all. One could only wait with either anticipation or trepidation for the coming transformation.
Sokovia, like most small Eastern European nations, was a land of political turmoil and economic collapse. The chasm between the ruling class and common citizens grew ever wider. Tensions reached a boiling point that frequently erupted into massive protests.
The Maximoff siblings lived in such a country...
Before the age of ten, they had known only warmth and happiness in their impoverished household, never minding their lack of expensive toy cars or delicate dolls.
That day had begun like any other. The Maximoff family of four sat around their modest dinner table, enjoying their simple meal when the nightmare descended without warning.
Suddenly, a warlord from the city's outskirts launched an armed coup due unable to suppress his hunger for power any longer.
Sokovia plunged into chaos as government forces clashed violently with private militias. The roar of artillery and hail of gunfire brought war to everyone's doorstep in an instant.
The Maximoffs were not spared. The first shell tore through two floors below them, their parents disappearing into the gaping hole it created.
As the house began collapsing, Pietro was quicker... he grabbed Wanda and they rolled beneath the bed just as the second shell landed amidst the rubble and ruins.
The unexploded bomb came to rest barely a meter from the Maximoff children. Pietro clung tightly to his sister as the two terrified youngsters waited helplessly for death.
They remained trapped for two endless days. They were starving, parched, and paralyzed by fear. They feared that the slightest movement might trigger the bomb that loomed so close.
For those two interminable days, death's shadow hovered above them, laughing coldly at their plight.
When the fighting finally ceased, the warlord ascended triumphantly to power, swearing before the revolutionary statue that he would sacrifice everything for Sokovia's people, burning his very life if necessary.
Six months later, outraged citizens overthrew him. His corpse swung from that same city-center statue where he'd taken his oath. Which was fate's bitter irony that left people torn between bitter laughter and stunned disbelief.
Amid this farcical transfer of power, no one remembered the shattered Maximoff family. The orphaned siblings were sent to a state-run orphanage, left with only each other to rely on in this unforgiving world.
"Wanda, we can barely feed ourselves. Food prices keep rising at the stores, and the government stopped our relief payments after we turned sixteen."
Pietro had been born twelve minutes before his sister. So he would occasionally play the mother's role and fuss like an old woman.
As for why not father? Because Pietro talked so much, that Wanda teasingly called him "Mom"...
"I'm working part-time at the market. Even the fat manager complains how the country's economy is in shambles. He's even planning to strike and join the protests."
While selecting fresh tomatoes to toss into Wanda's paper bag, Pietro kept up his running commentary as his sister pretended to listen obediently.
"...I don't understand why you brought that idiot home. He doesn't even remember his own name, worse, he can't even speak properly!" Pietro glanced around furtively as he spoke, slipping a pound of beef into his coat.
The security guard was his buddy. A few bottles of whiskey would smooth things over later.
"He's not an idiot," Wanda retorted indignantly, "Sean just has temporary amnesia. He fell from somewhere really high up."
"Sean? That's his name?" Pietro frowned.
"Maybe. Yesterday while watching your favorite Godfather Part II DVD, he suddenly started talking." Wanda stuck out her tongue playfully.
Her rescue of the mysterious man hadn't been purely out of kindness...
After her bar shift that day, a gang of hippie-looking thugs had harassed her. Fleeing desperately to an abandoned factory, she might have suffered a terrible fate had he not suddenly "appeared" and knocked out her pursuers.
"What? You let him touch my collector's edition Godfather DVD?!" Pietro nearly lost it.
In his eyes, this stranger Wanda brought home already threatened their fragile peace.
Bickering nonstop, the siblings returned to their home on the city's outskirts, a dilapidated old house beside an abandoned factory.
Since leaving the orphanage at sixteen, they had struggled to survive on their own. Pietro apprenticed at a factory while picking up odd jobs at the market, and Wanda worked as a bartender. Slowly, life had begun improving.
Inside the crumbling house, movie dialogue echoed as a widowed mother groveled before a mafia don, a child clinging to her side.
"He's small. He can't hurt anyone."
"When he grows, he'll be strong."
"Don't be afraid. A child is no threat."
"When he becomes a man, he'll seek revenge."
"..."
The young man sat quietly on the couch, watching this classic collaboration between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino... the interwoven tales of the first and second Godfathers retaining their brilliance across generations.
He was Sean Cyphers...
When the young man opened his eyes, this name surfaced in his mind. Other memories lay submerged like a frozen iceberg beneath vast oceans. It was not true amnesia, but more accurately a, self-defense mechanism.
Though unclear what exactly had happened, he knew he had experienced something profoundly traumatic before awakening; something so shocking, his mind had sealed away portions of memory.
When he tried recalling carefully, only fragments emerged: blinding light, erupting magma, the earth's core quaking... Basically, he 'saw' apocalyptic visions that still made his heart race.
Amid these terrifying scenes of catastrophe, a black-cloaked figure stood like a demon god, cape billowing like a banner. This image was seared into his mind, and was practically impossible to forget.
Each night when sleep took him, endless darkness enveloped his being. Flickering lights swirled as a yellow gem glowed faintly, its radiance distorting reality with bizarre illusions.
Yet Sean felt no panic, only calm certainty. He would reclaim what was his. It was merely a matter of time. This conviction came without reason, yet felt utterly unshakable.
According to Wanda, he had fallen from the sky, crushing some street thugs before she brought him home, saving him from life on the streets.
'Sokovia...'
When this country's name surfaced, the massive iceberg in his mind trembled, releasing a flood of information.
His mind functioned like a search engine, inputting keywords triggered relevant data. And Sokovia seemed destined to play a crucial role in future events.
As Sean pondered this, the television screen playing The Godfather suddenly filled with static.
A mechanical and emotionless voice spoke through the snow: "Welcome back, sir."