Dr. Eliot Franklin, former member of the gang of superstrong and invulnerable thugs known as The Wrecking Crew, was tired. Tired of being dismissed as simply muscle. Tired of having to follow the whims of the stupid thug known as The Wrecker simply because he was the source of their powers. Tired of a life of simply getting into physical brawls, brawls that he would then lose, then being imprisoned afterwards. As a physicist smart enough to build a gamma bomb, he idolized Einstein and was well aware of his famous quotes, but the one that came to mind most often as of late was "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."
So, when he finally found himself freed, he decided to turn over a new leaf. He already had some friends in the "super insurance company" known as Damage Control whom he hoped wouldn't look too closely at the forged papers giving him a new identity that he purchased from The Tinkerer. After he presented them to HR, "Darnell Stone" was hired on to work for them as a common construction worker - albeit one who was a "mutant with superhuman strength and durability."
It was by no means a life of luxury or even much personal satisfaction, but it was a life where if he kept his head down, he managed to stay out of painful superhuman brawls and, most importantly, prison. During his time in various metahuman prisons, he'd had plenty of time to think about just how he'd managed to end up where he was and the answer always seemed to be bad decisions and random luck. That idiot Wrecker got his abilities simply from stumbling into the right hotel room and putting on a hat by accident, for God's sake. Given how much bad luck he'd found, it seemed to Eliot that he was overdue for some positive luck to come his way . . . and he was right.
One day, as he was finishing cleaning up the wreckage left behind in the wake of a clash between the Avengers and some Atlantean soldiers near the docks of New York, he saw something bronze glimmer in front of him. As he stood thigh-deep in the sewers of NYC, lifting up metric tons of destroyed warehouses with his bare hands and shoulders, something in him sensed a unique opportunity like the one Wrecker had stumbled into so many years ago.
"Darnell, you good down there?" came the voice of his foreman, Lenny from a distant ways off.
"I'm fine." he responded, keeping his voice level as smashed several broken girders and other wreckage into a more manageable ball, then placed it behind him to hide his actions from view. "I'll toss up the next bit of debris in one moment - something's embedded in a wall here and I don't want to break anything we shouldn't. Give me about five minutes, please."
"You got it! Take five everybody!" the older man yelled to the others.
Eliot smiled. He'd been surprised to find how quickly Damage Control had accepted him into their folds. His supervisors and co-workers trusted his judgement and respected his obvious intelligence more than his former criminal associates ever did, save for the imbecilic Hercules who was the other superhuman employee in the clean-up crew, a fool who failed to recognize him outside of his famous yellow and green garb and without his signature wrecking ball. Luckily, Hercules wasn't here this day, leaving him to get first crack at this strange shining item.
He reached down and found a brass lamp like something out of the tales of Aladdin embedded in the wall of the sewer, obviously smashed up into it by some collapsed girders from one of the warehouses that had been destroyed by the Avengers battling with Namor and his ilk above. As an escaped convict working under an alias, he kept a careful ear to police scanners via an app on his phone and recalled that they mentioned that this battle they were cleaning up the aftermath of was in relation to "a fight over a damn magic lamp or something." Both the Avengers and Namor had been unsatisfied as they assumed that a salvo from Thor's hammer had destroyed the lamp, when in reality it had merely been smashed downwards into the sewers . . . right in front of him.
Cautious but excited, he removed his work gloves and pried the brass lamp out of the side of the sewer wall, his strong, dark hands rubbing it gently. It appeared to have suffered not even a scratch.
For a moment, he thought it wouldn't work and resigned himself to yet another disappointment in a life full of them, but then purple smoke began to issue forth from the lamp.
An improbably proportioned Ararbic girl with long dark hair and glittering purple eyes looked him up and down and her pouty lips curling up into a lustful grin. Her voluptuous body was covered in thin purple silks that accentuated her near nudity rather than hid it. She looked like a stripper or porn star playing up the "harem girl" cliche. He raised an eyebrow quizzically while looking her up and down appreciatively.
"Hello, Eliot! You've freed me and I'm now able to read your mind and know everything you know as a result! My name is Inara and yes, I'm a genie of a sort - an ifrit - that grants wishes. You specifically get 7 wishes but they must be sinful in nature or inspire others to sin. My favorite sin is Lust - obviously -" she gestured at her form "But I love them all! I prefer not to kill anyone because that ends all the fun we could have with them but otherwise, the sky's the limits!"
His walkie-talkie crackled back to life.
"You ready down there?" his foreman asked.
He frowned, debating how to proceed but Inara just waived a hand airily.
"Oh, don't worry, nobody can see or hear me but you! And if you hide the lamp against your person, it also becomes invisible."
He nodded and replied to his foreman.
"I'm tossing up the next ball of debris now. Everyone get clear."
He clicked open a belt loop on his work belt and attached Inara's lamp to it before turning to grab and toss a massive amount of wreckage out of the hole.
Inara made some appreciative noises as she watched him work.
"My, the Asgardians certainly gave you impressive strength! And you're quite handsome too!"
A thundering impact echoed distantly from where he'd thrown the garbage.
"Thanks, Eliot, let us know when you're tossing up the next bundle!"
"Will do."
Inara blinked in shock as Eliot turned and began collecting more wreckage.
"Ah, perhaps you didn't hear me? I'm able to grant you 7 wishes of almost unlimited power! Why are you still mucking about in literal muck as a common laborer?"
Checking to make sure his walkie-talkie was off, Eliot turned to address the voluptuous ifrit calmly.
"Everyone knows that your lamp was the end goal of the parties involved in the fight that led to this wreckage. If I were to suddenly vanish or become king of the world, multiple gangs of metahumans would put two and two together and I'd be knocked out cold and imprisoned - again - before I was able to wish for so much as a cheese sandwich. I don't plan on utilizing you until at least a month has passed from today's date, at which point I'll be extremely unlikely to be fingered as your new owner."
Her purple eyes widened in acknowledgement, then narrowed in concern.
"Oh! I see. Patience, caution and discretion are not qualities I usually find in my users, so I am much impressed . . . however, there is something of a catch you should be made aware of, Eliot."
"And what is that?"
"I am obligated to inflict a penalty of some sort on the user every night they go without making a wish - anything I would find amusing that causes sin or suffering. I usually try to use the most innermost, secret lusts of my user as inspiration."
Eliot sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose but she reached over and gave his muscular bicep a squeeze.
"Don't worry! I can tell you really, REALLY want to use these wishes and will be extremely clever about them when you do so! If you were some "superhero" sort, you'd have to worry about suffering. I'll try to make these penalties as pleasant as possible - unless you upset me of course, but that goes without saying."
He shrugged but noticed how pleasantly warm and sensual the ifrit's touch felt even through his work shirt.
"Oh, and yes, we can totally fuck later if you'd like! Just because others cannot detect me, it doesn't mean I'm not here!"
With a small smile, he nodded decisively.
"I suppose I have **** but to take you at your word. We'll . . . explore new opportunities later this evening, if you don't mind giving me some time to finish my shift first."
Inara nodded.
"Your wish is my command, as they say! Perfectly fine, I wanted some time to explore this strange new world anyways! I shall return to you at dusk!"
With that she vanished and Thunderball began contemplating how best to use 7 magical wishes and what "penalties" might mean as he kept crushing and tossing debris. One thing was certain at least - the next few weeks were going to prove extremely interesting.
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