Ch. 6

As we arrived in the hanger we were met by Hamilton. I gave him orders to start rotating the crew out for rest and to block all comms coming in. There is a reason I fought to keep the rank Petty Officer, it was because I was so good at being Petty. After I sent him off I bid farewell to my fellow Spartans and made my way towards the infirmary. I greeted the Marines and crew members along the way and conversed with the injured once I was in the infirmary.

Once I was doing with being a people person I grabbed a couple of blood analyses guns and brought them into a commandeered office. After locking the door I took my helmet off and placed it on the desk and Artemis projected herself onto the desk. I walked over to the chair behind the desk and sat down and leaned back.

"Ok Felix, give me a moment to connect to the receiver for the gun," Artemis said. I watched her glow greener and dim repeatedly while she worked. It only took her a couple of seconds before she said, "You should be good to go. Network is secure, go ahead and shoot yourself."

With her prompting, I brought the analysis gun up to my neck and pulled the trigger. I flinched at the needle penetrating my neck and steeled myself as it drew blood. The whole process of the blood removal and the needle retracting back into the gun was fairly quick. As I pulled the gun away from my neck I was looking at Artemis and I swear I could see her growing wider.

"What is it Art?" I questioned her.

"Felix… You visibly healed at a rapid rate…" she said in shock.

I could then start to see her glow dimming and brightening rapidly. Her light continued to speed up until it was going so fast that it didn't look like she was blinking anymore. After a couple more seconds I saw the lights in the office starting to dim.

"Art! What are you doing?!" I quickly questioned her.

My question had seemed to knock her out of the trance she was in and the lights went back to normal in the office, while she returned to her normal green self. I looked down on her with concern and waited for her to answer.

Artemis let out a little cough and spoke. "Well, I can answer what's happened to you. It seems that the Forerunner Crystal has unlocked your DNA. You will be in a constant state of evolution per se. Part of the reason why I started drawing power, and computing power from the ship was that I was trying to find an upper limit, but I couldn't. It seems like you have enhanced regeneration, along with the fact that your muscles, organs, and skin won't have any limit! In theory, you can be stronger than Atlas in Greek Mythology!" She said in an excited tone.

"What was the other part of the power and computing power draw?" I asked, not letting that little bit slip past.

"Caught that, I did try to wash it out with good news." She replied with a sigh.

"Quit stalling Art," I replied back with a knowing look.

She put her arms behind her back and looked down and twisting back and forth. She even threw a kick in the ground in there to make herself look more pitiful. I didn't fall for it and just stared her down.

"Fine, I might have had a sequence loop." She squeaked out.

I looked at her with concern.

"That look is why I didn't tell you!" she admonished me. I didn't let up my concerned look until she finally harrumphed.

"Ok fine! I was imagining it, and it's a scary rabbit hole. I feel. I feel the code that I'm composed of, but I also feel more than that code. I'm able to imagine, think, not just in logic bound by code actual thinking!" She managed to get out.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"I'm terrified, how do sentient beings deal with it?" Artemis shivered a little and meekly said.

"I don't know how others deal with it. But I just live for the moment, it might not be the best thing to do. But, I know that I could die at any moment, we don't exactly have a long life expectancy you know." I replied to her honestly.

"Oh, and was that Corporal on Forward Unto Dawn living in the moment?" She mirthfully quipped at me.

"Hey! That was a trap, how was I supposed to know it was a guy. He wore a female officer's uniform, filled it out wonderfully I might add. It also doesn't help that it was after he blew me and I was lined up to bang him doggy style did he drop his pants and do the great reveal." I argued back.

Artemis started to laugh hard at that. It took her a couple of seconds to get out, "Yeah, but you still banged him."

"Hell yeah, I did. I was horny, and had to teach him a lesson he'd never forget." I said back proudly. "Then I brought in Elise to make sure it really sank in. It was really funny when she was peg-"

"Enough, enough. It's unfortunately saved in my memory banks." she cut me off laughing.

"Maybe you should play that at Elise's party tonight, you know set the mood." I grinned menacingly at Artemis.

"Oh, the guys are going to HATE you tomorrow." She chuckled and I saw her glow a couple of times and smirked at it.

"Thanks, partner," I said with a genuine smile and reached my fist out on the desk.

"Any time partner," she replied back with her little fist-bumping my gauntlet.

"Now, back to serious matters. Let me know if you need anything. I won't pressure you. Just know that I'm here." I said to her.

"Thanks, Felix, I will," she replied and stopped projecting her hologram.

Getting up I grabbed my helmet and put it back on. As I left the office I made my way over to the biohazard disposal and ejected the blood vail into it. After that, I made my way to the Armory to take my armor off and then headed up to my personal quarters. After plugging in Artemis's data card into my computers I went to bed and fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow.

I awoke the next morning, I guess, it was by Artemis at my usual time. After getting up I went into the bathroom and freshened up in the sonic shower and changed into my Physical Training clothes. As I was leaving my room I was greeted by a woman that was as tall as me, red hair that was cropped at her shoulders, and a body that I could never forget.

"What can I do for you, Elise?" I asked as I walked past her to head towards the gym.

Elise quickly caught up to me and hip-checked me. "Thanks for the entertainment last night. I had almost forgotten about the Corporal. Though I'm pretty sure the guys are going to hate you today." she said with a sly look on her face.

"Oh? They all knew the possibilities of your parties. It's not my fault that you haven't brought your toys out in a while and they forgot." I chuckled at her.

"When are you going to finally let me use my toys on you?" She purred at me.

"When you can finally beat me in a fight," I replied with a smirk.

"I have been sharpening my skills, how about after warm-up we have a nice little spar?" she asked me as she lifted her arms in the air stretching. Like any male, I was enjoying the sight of her toned body that was only covered by a grey sports bra with black lettering of UNSC on it and short gym shorts.

"Fine, I need a good warm-up for the day," I said and started to jog to the gym and Elise followed.

--Punisher POV--

This has been surreal, being with these Marines is like being in my old Unit back when I was enlisted. Well, like my old unit plus advanced weapons, add-on 6 super-soldiers, aircraft that can easily fly into space, and a literal space warship. Other than those materials the jarheads were still jarheads.

When the Commander decided to kick everyone that wasn't UNSC out of the FOB I went to the nearest officer to return the rifle that the Commander threw to me. The guy just looked at me funny and asked, "What? Leaving so soon? Petty Officer gave you a nickname: you're one of us now if you want."

Part of me wanted to turn it down and keep punishing the criminals since my Government wouldn't. But the comradery that I had never forgotten between soldiers during wartime has its own appeal. When my wife and kids were murdered and I was left to die by the mob, I felt lost. Trying to go to the police didn't help considering they were in the mob's pockets. I didn't return to the Marines after that and started to drift and do what I did best. But meeting this group was like a sign from God, that there is still more that I can do. That's to be a Marine again and fight for someone who is willing to say fuck you to what they believe is wrong.

So I kept the rifle, and held the line, and was on the last transport back to the ship. I was offered to go to a party last night, but once I heard the details I quickly bailed on it. When my new roommate got back from the party the next morning. He was walking funny and said that he wished he didn't go. All I could do was shake my head at that, some things never change.

Before he could go into detail on what happened I asked him to show me to the gym. He agreed and I followed the waddling Marine to the gym. When we got there, there was a crowd gathering around in a circle and watching two 7 foot tall giants duking it out. One was a man built like a brick shit house with sharp angles outlining his face and brown hair that was high and tight. The other was a knock-out redhead that would put Black Widow to shame, no wonder these guys hardly reacted to her.

As we neared my roommate was getting excited. "Oh shit, we get to see Petty Officer and Dagger 1 go at it!" he exclaimed. We made our way over to one guy who looked like he was collecting money.

My roommate asked him, "Yo, what are the odds?"

The makeshift bookie replied, "75 to 1 Dagger 1 beats him."

"What is their bet?" the roommate question dubiously.

"She wins, she uses her toys." the bookie grimace.

"Yeah fuck that. Petty Officer is not going to hold back." My roommate said and walked away.

I heard the conversation in the background, but my eyes were focused on the two monsters fighting. It had the primal fierceness of The Hulk but with the refined technique of Captain America. With each contact, you could hear the smacks and sweat flying off the contacted area.

The woman would go for a jab, which the man would bat aside and follow it with an uppercut. She wasn't staying still as she went with her jab and brought her leg up for a high kick. It was blocked by the man's forearm faster than I've seen anyone move, then it turned into a grab on her leg. Which she followed up by bringing her body up and wrapping her other leg onto his arm creating an armbar. I thought she had him by this point but his strength surprised me, and I think her a bit too. He literally started to bring her over his head to slam her on the ground. When he reached peak height she had disengaged from his arm and rolled away.

The man didn't give her any breathing room, and it was visible that she was getting tired. As he kept blocking and dodging and all-around wearing her down he found his moment to strike. With speed that surprised the woman he went in and dodge all her strikes and went for a grab that would make any MMA fighter jealous. Before we all knew it the woman tapped out and groans were let out amongst the watchers.

"You do love to do it from behind. How about we finish this somewhere else?" the woman purred to the man who just shook his head.

The woman pouted and looked around and her eyes stopped in my direction. I froze like a deer in the headlights not liking where this was going. Before I could do anything she started to make her way over to me. Sweating bullets I was trying to figure out how I could tell her no. But before I could think of anything she opened her mouth and the breath I didn't know I was holding was let out.

"JAMESON!" She yelled.

I looked over to my Roommate and did a silent prayer for him. He had gone ghost white and didn't even try to run from her.

"You're in the gym early, it seems our workout last night wasn't enough." She said with an evil smile.

She didn't even stop when she reached Jameson. She just grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him off. The whole time he was staring at me in despair and pleading to me with his eyes. All I could do was salute him off, which was quickly followed by the others that had watched the fight. We were just glad it wasn't us.

"Your sacrifice won't be in vain." I deadpanned.

(A/N: So, first off I suck at writing fights I think. I hope you're enjoying this so far. But I want to give everyone a heads up. The direction of this story I'm trying to go with is ambiguous. As far as relationships go, it's not going to be a collect them all harem story. I touched on it a couple of chapters back and then again in this chapter, gender doesn't matter for these soldiers.

Now, as far as the MC goes and this will probably piss off people. The love interest will be She-Hulk. POSSIBLY Emma Frost as well. Now, here's where it's gonna rub people the wrong way. They will be swingers/netorase, so there will be other guys+girls involved. Of course, the MC will be the "Best" and "Biggest Dick" and fuck em so good they come back begging, even cheating on their husbands with him. Also, with the other guys that are not the MC, they will not get any pussy play with MC's girls. I'm debating on adding a trap to the pool of lays, that's why I have the set-up but we will see. Though it would be kinda funny, She-Hulk pegging the trap while the MC fucks her. It'd be the new Human Centipede movie.

Now onto what I envision where this story is going. The MC will have to deal with the mental issues of coming back from a genocidal war and try to adjust to "peace" times. He will be more like Punisher in his methods of dealing with Villians, but that would also be balanced out by She-Hulks desire not to kill criminals.

As far as what universe this is, think of a mesh of 616 and MCU. I do love some things from MCU, but hate the gimping on powers. Plus Galactus is not a fucking cloud, and Silver Surfer needs another fucking chance at a movie. So let me know what events you think we should go through.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

-Pepto)