[ Underground City ]
From the inside out, this underground city was clearly designed by someone who thought mazes were too mainstream. It was all concentric circles like a really determined onion, and Daisy's destination was smack-dab in the center.
She walked for an hour straight, and the path was so direct even a road-level dummy wouldn't get lost. But that didn't mean Daisy dropped her guard. Nope. Channeling every survival reality show she'd ever hate-watched, she scratched arrows at every arc-line intersection with the seriousness of a SWAT team marking a hostile zone.
With nothing but the echo of her own footsteps for company, she kept her wits sharp by pausing every two hours. Hydration, check. Breathe, check. Existential dread? Surprisingly manageable.
Starting her descent at high noon, Daisy checked her mechanical watch—because you can't trust phones in spooky ruins—and it was already 8 p.m. She'd been walking nonstop and was beginning to feel like Frodo without the ring or Samwise's cooking skills.
She plopped down and tried nibbling a compressed biscuit. Two bites in, she gave up. It tasted like drywall. Water was precious, so she rationed like a post-apocalyptic accountant.
Luckily, she'd figured out the obelisk was more than just a shiny rock—it actually replenished her stamina a bit when held tightly. Which made it her new best friend.
Gritting her teeth, she pressed onward, pistol at the ready. Even though she hadn't seen a single ghost, zombie, or interdimensional threat, she wasn't taking chances. Marvel taught her better.
Midnight struck, and though her body was holding up, her brain had clocked out. Daisy decided to camp out—if curling up like a lonely taco on a stone floor could be called camping.
Backpack as pillow, obelisk as heat lamp, she tried sleeping. Tried. Instead, she dreamt of Thanos pancaking her face and of reviewers flaming her new novel. Three hours later, she woke up, only to realize she was bleeding. But not from Thanos—just good ol' biology being annoying.
Embarrassed, annoyed, and grossed out, she cleaned up and powered on.
"Oh my God! It's finally here!" Daisy looked like a mess. Not even a sixty-year-old beauty filter could save her now. If it weren't for her long hair, even Sitwell—her favorite bald brother from S.H.I.E.L.D.—might've mistaken her for a cave-dwelling NPC.
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[ Evolution Chamber, Underground City ]
After three days of urban spelunking, she'd reached the heart of the underground city. The center had six massive stone gates arranged in a circle like the world's creepiest Stonehenge fanfiction. In the middle was a meter-high stone platform, perfectly illuminated by natural light refracted through some ancient wizardry-level architecture.
Daisy wiped her dusty face with the last of her water and surveyed the area. According to ancient Inhuman lore—and probably a few Reddit threads—once the ceremony started, the stone gates would close, trapping her inside.
That was fine... unless they didn't open again.
She squinted at the gates like they owed her rent. No motors. No power source. Definitely no "Exit" signs. This was either very advanced alien tech or very committed stone craftsmanship.
Whatever. Sometimes being a woman means being ruthlessly pragmatic. If she evolved into a human paperweight, so be it.
She centered the obelisk on the stone platform and took a few steps back.
BOOM. The gates began shifting with the grace of a heavyweight ballet, grinding into position. The room shrank by half.
The obelisk lit up and started spinning like it was auditioning for a Marvel rave. Click. Click. Click. Its metal casing broke apart, revealing glowing blue Terrigen crystals. The crystals began multiplying like enthusiastic bacteria.
Daisy, nerves at Defcon 1, held her breath. In her original timeline, this ceremony had been shared with another Inhuman, and then the crystal got smashed by some goody-two-shoes. Not this time. This was all her.
But then... nothing happened.
She stepped forward—and that's when it got weird.
The crystal hissed, releasing gas with a sour tang. It was like a fog machine from a high school play, only terrifying. Daisy coughed. Her fingers tingled.
She looked down.
"Oh, great," she muttered. Her hand was turning to stone.
Panic tried to knock, but Daisy slammed the door shut. "This is normal. This is fine. Routine petrification. Totally cool."
Spoiler: it wasn't.
Stone crept up her arm, across her chest, up her neck. Her last thought before the world went dark was something along the lines of: Sitwell, you bald brother, if I die here, I'm haunting your shiny head forever.
Time passed.
In the eerie silence, a faint heartbeat echoed from the statue. It grew louder. Louder.
Then—CRACK. The stone fingers shattered first, revealing gleaming, unblemished skin beneath. One by one, cracks spread, turning her into a living mosaic.
Daisy could feel... everything. More than before. Like her senses had leveled up in a game she didn't remember starting.
Something inside her had changed, surged forward like a tsunami trapped behind a wall. Then—
"AHHHH—!"
With a primal scream that would make even Hulk raise a brow, Daisy burst free. Stone exploded outward. Energy rippled through the chamber.
She wasn't just Daisy Johnson anymore.
She was reborn.
Powered.
And definitely ready to punch fate in the face.