Meredith Skyler: Scion of the Aesir [Finished]

This story starts not at the birth of a little girl child, but goes back in time, to places when history was blurred and 'ancient' was 'current events'. The story began in the Asgardian world long ago, when Heimdall sounded the horn to rouse the Asgardians for the epic battle of Ragnarok. As this tale does not concern the battles that occurred, these battles shall not be dwelt upon. It is sufficient to note, however, that Ragnarok brought about the death of life, save a select few that would awaken in time to repopulate the worlds of gods and men. For in essence, Ragnarok was but the catalyst of a reincarnation process, wherein the world would be formed anew and life would florish again. And the acts of mortal and divine would pave the way for another Ragnarok...

In the last Ragnarok that happened, when the gods died, and Surtr the Muspel engulfed the world in fire, the goddess of wisdom, Vör, was slain along with the rest of her kin. A copious quantity of her blood had been shed upon the cold ice that had been caused by Fimbulwinter, and this blood was frozen solid and preserved. Escaping the conflagration of Surtr, the frozen blood, encased in a thick block of ice, sank beneath the waters that engulfed the earth.

After life returned to the earth, seasons came and went, civilizations grew and fell, and the time of technology came upon the earth. It was in this time, our time, that a group of scientists at the North Pole discovered what appeared to be some protein compounds preserved in ice. Believing that this might be a missing link with the age of Ice, or early man, or dinosaurs even, the scientists took the samples back to the labs in Quebec, Canada, and discovered, to their excitement, that the proteins contained DNA samples that were still intact. After some consideration, they decided to see whether they could clone the creature from which the sample came. Since it was almost identical to human DNA, the scientists introduced a strand of it to a human egg and placed it in an incubator. To their delight, the cells began to divide and undergo all the biological processes that would give rise to a foetus. They expected to breed some sort of Neanderthal, as their carbon dating equipments estimated the date of the sample to be more than many millennia old. Disappointingly, the foetus showed no abnormalities, and the scientists began to wonder whether their equipment had been wrong. Although most of them lost desire in the 'project', they still decided to let the child be 'born', since they were unwilling to 'abort' the baby. In about nine months, the test tube baby was born. The foremost of the scientists, who was well-to-do, but had no children, had since shown interest in raising the baby as his own. Thus was the child adopted from the labs, and he gave her the name Meredith.

Merri seemed to be normal (besides her violet eyes), until she was around five, when she started demonstrating intermittent strength levels that were a little bit abnormal for a girl her age. While her father's scientific mind considered this as something to be explored, he, as well as his wife, had become too attached to Merri to treat her like a guinea pig. Perhaps she was a mutant; that wasn't too strange, and they decided they could live with that. And thus she grew into her teenage years, no one aware that she bore Asgardian blood in her veins.

When she was fourteen, it came to the notice of one of her father's colleagues (who was in league with a crime lord) that the girl possessed uncanny powers. This scientist approached Merri's father with a proposition: all he wanted was some blood samples for further "research". Sensing an ulterior motive, and unwilling to expose his daughter to experiments that he was not sure of, he sent her to America to live with a brother of his (who was also wealthy, but distant) to keep her out of harm's way. Unfortunately, she was abducted and brought back to Canada by the cronies of the crime lord. There, she discovered that her mother had also been taken hostage, and the criminals were trying to force her father to perform experiments on her, as he was the most talented in that field, and had some experience that was lacking in the other scientists, not to mention that it was his labs they were using. It would seem that they wished to create some form of steroid from her body that would enhance human capabilities. Her mother, even in torture, appealed to her father not to harm his daughter. The tormentor, in a bid to break her mother's will, made a mistake that caused her mother her life. Irate with grief and anger, Merri's father suddenly attacked one of his captors, leading to damage of the computer systems that sealed off the entire labs. Unable to control him, one of the crime boss' agents shot her father.

The trauma of that day's events suddenly kicked her powers into motion. Merri tore through her bonds and went on a rampage. This led to a fire outbreak that threatened to destroy the entire complex, with everyone in it, as the complex had many stores of propane and other combustibles. In order to subdue her, she was fired upon. Superhuman strength is not the same as invulnerability, and the bullet dug into her shoulder. The pain was enough to render her unconscious.

She awoke about two days later in a hospital. There, she discovered that her father had not been initially killed by the bullet, and while pandemonium reigned in the complex due to the fire outbreak, her father had dragged her to safety through an escape hatch. He was unable to get far with her because of his injuries, but the sealed areas of the complex bore the brunt of the explosion, killing almost everyone else. The crime boss had met his demise there as well, and so she would have no troubles with him in the future. Merri was overjoyed to discover that her father still lived, though the joy quickly faded when she was told that he wasn't going to make it. She requested to see him, so they took her to him.

Her father tried to tell her the origins of her life, though that was not sufficient to answer all her questions, and he passed away soon after. The next few months were a blur of lawyers and court cases, but the bottom line was that she had inherited her father's estate (which was sufficient to last her a lifetime, provided she was not profligate), but had to live with his closest relative (which was his brother) until she was of age. Thus, she moved back to America and stayed with him. While her uncle made sure that she did not lack anything, his aloof nature and engrossment in his work somewhat put her off.

On reaching eighteen, Merri decided to live by herself (it wasn't much different living with her uncle). Fortunately for her, her father had owned a comfy little house there in the States, and so that was where she stayed. Currently, she attends college, and whenever and wherever she can, tries to use her blossoming powers to help others... and herself.

Little is she aware, though, that she may be watched by others... others who may be considered in a way as her kin....