Chapter 41: Chapter 41

Chapter 41

The Fastest Man Alive

Edited by: Joe Lawyer

 

 

Harlem

Luke Cage

Ladies Man, Power Man, Handyman, Bar Owner.

Ex-Police Officer, Ex-Soldier.

Luke looked down at his phone, deep in thought, as he sat in the barber chair, contemplating just what he was going to do with the information Jessica had just given him. Looking up, he noticed Pop was finishing up with his last young customer of the day. Debra, the boy's mom, was dressed as delectable as ever and continued to send flirty looks his way. Luke remembered the last time he had walked them home, down the block. It ended with her son being plopped in front of the TV with Debra's legs wrapped tightly around his waist as he held her up in the air and plowed her hard, since the woman's bed springs liked to creak.

"Alright, young blood, you been moping long enough tonight," Bobby called out from his location near the window. Bobby Fisher was a longtime friend of Pops, but his day job was being the neighbourhood's tax man, the local pseudo accountant who helped people and local businesses with their tax questions and filings. Right now, though, Bobby was just another patron and longtime friend of Pops, a man that was known to give great advice when you just didn't know what to do. That wisdom and advice was something that Luke would surely need this night.

Luke watched Pops close the shop's door then turn over the sign, from open to closed, before locking that same door. Before Luke knew it Pops had turned around and took a seat directly across from him.

"Alright, let's hear what's going down," Pop rumbled as he leaned forward in his seat, ready to dole out wisdom. Bobby had already put away his chess set and had also taken a seat closer to Luke's location.

Luke frowned for a moment as he tried to order his thoughts.

"Jessica was on a missing girl case. She found the girl, but what she found wasn't pleasant," Luke began as he mulled over the rest of the words.

"Okay, Jess found the girl and is getting her looked at I hope?" Pops replied as he listened, with Bobby nodding along with him.

"Yeah… Jess brought in some of the best doctors around," Luke replied. His hand had unconsciously crushed the hand rest of the chair he was sitting in, when he thought about the state that girl was found in. The damage to her body could be healed in time, but the mind was a very different matter.

"Then what's the issue? The girl's been saved," Bobby asked, obviously trying to get to the point.

"Jess told me that there were a few other girls there, ones that she was unable to get out," Luke replied as he looked between both older gentlemen. "I want to go there before they can get the girls moved somewhere else, but I don't know if I should or not."

"Then go be POWERMAN," Pops replied instantly, his mouth set in a thin line.

"As long as I have known you Luke, I have never seen you suffer from such indecision, especially in a situation like this," Bobby started, now leaning forward in his seat. "You have the power to save these girls, so go save them. No need to be here worrying about what-ifs with us old people. Life's too short for regrets like that."

"Exactly what Bobby said Luke. Remember that you have people that will cover for you," Pops reminded him with a nod of his head. "It's time you suited up, POWERMAN."

"And give that cute detective that you used to date a call," Bobby added, as he placed a hand on his chin. "I bet whoever the guys that are behind this must be wanted by someone and Misty would want to take them down."

"Are you saying that she will help me if I gave her a way to bring these guys down?" Luke asked, suddenly looking very interested by the idea Bobby was sharing.

"Of course, young blood. It's not like you have a van to take the girls you rescue away. Hell, I bet you're about to find yourself a drug den, or a stash house," Bobby supplied as he started to take his phone out of his pocket.

"Don't call her with your real phone, Bobby, she will know who is calling. Let me get to one of the pay phones by the corner bodega," Pops admonished, as he got up from his seat. Pops was halfway to the door before Luke called for him to stop.

Luke had gotten up and gone to the back of the barber shop where they had the fridge that held snacks and juice for the little kids. The back of the shop also held a small table and a pullout couch that turns into a bed for any of the kids that couldn't go home because they had abusive parents or were drug addicts that would routinely forget to feed them. Yeah, Pops was a man that took care of the kids that lived in the neighborhood, no matter the situation, and he was loved for it.

Putting all those thoughts out of his mind, Luke pulled the minifridge out from where it was located while also bringing over a small ladder for him to stand on. With the ladder under him Luke reached up and moved the ceiling panel that was above the fridge. With the panel moved Luke pulled down a briefcase that he was really hoping would not have been needed for a long, long time, if ever. Life often had other plans, it seems. With the fridge placed back in its normal spot, Luke called Pops and Bobby to the back so that they could see what he had and brainstorm some ideas.

Placing his open palm on top of the case, it began to scan his fingerprints and other unique biometrics before a loud click sounded, letting Luke know it was now unlocked. The top of the case opened to show Luke the suit that Ben had created specifically for him. The first thing to greet Luke were the two vambraces that were made for his wrists. The vambraces were a gunmetal grey and sat within foam inserts within the case. Luke noticed that on top of both sat a clear screen, of some sort, that displayed information that Luke didn't even know he had access to. The left bracer showed nearby police vehicle locations, including what calls they were currently responding to, and the right showed locations of heros that were available to help, if called upon to assist.

Taking a closer look now, Luke also noticed a tool/utility belt and he couldn't stop from shaking his head in disbelief. The shirt was a polymer weave, comprised of microfiber adamantium coated linked braids. He remembered Ben talking about how adamantium was the strongest metal that could be found on earth and that this was an alloy creation of sorts, to give it a few more useful properties. Now Luke had pants, a shirt, and all his tools made out of the hardest substance on the planet. Putting aside the combat pants, Luke pulled out a half face mask that covers his nose down past his jaw and neck, leaving his eyes uncovered.

Pops chuckled at the sight of an all black pair of sunglasses in the case, with labels informing the user that it was coated with a nano-synthetic adhesive that would also double as neural connectors when worn. From the note, Luke knew that the glasses contained smart lenses that were connected to the mouth guard covering.

"Seems you've got everything you need to 'suit up', POWERMAN," Pop stated with enthusiasm and good humor as he looked over all of the rather impressive looking gear Luke was pulling out. If Luke was going to play the hero, having the right equipment would certainly help both do the job and keep him alive.

"You heard the man, suit up. I'll see what I can do about getting you a ride across town, the usual 'no questions asked' variety," Bobby said as he pulled out his phone.

"That will not be necessary, Mr. Fisher. One of the available battle tanks in the area are enroute with stealth engaged."

"Okay, who just said that?" Pops asked as he warily looked around the backroom.

"I did," replied one of the gauntlets that Luke had within his briefcase. On top of the gauntlet was a small holo-projection of a spider, the name 'Alfred' floating underneath.

"Ohh, well, hello there?" Pops spoke in an odd questioning manner as he looked down at the gauntlet.

"Good evening, sir. I would like to inform you that transportation for POWERMAN is enroute, ETA is 93 seconds," Alfred informed the group of open mouthed men, as the holo-image changed to show the stealth vehicle's real time location, as it raced through the streets of New York on a virtual street map.

"Umm, thanks," Luke answered as he watched the progression on the mini-map, fascinated. Taking a deep breath, Luke went to change.

Tonight New York would welcome its newest hero.

POWERMAN

O.o.o - o.O.o - o.o.O

Bar Sinister

Natalia aka Black Widow.

Doting Mother, Lover, Fighter, Assassin.

The night was dark and the chill in the air was more than enough to set the appropriate mood for Natalia as she scaled the nearly sheer cliffside to her target. It had not taken their analysts and data miners long to find the location of Bar Sinister once it was taken from the head of the clone. With the location on file, Natalia had ordered a flyover of the area with the satellites and found the island underneath its cloaking field, exactly where they were told it would be by the clone.

Natalia hoped that this would be the location of the real Sinister, because chasing him around the world did not please her at all. Putting those thoughts aside as the distractions they were, she climbed higher and higher.

"Blue Team in position at the docks."

"Alpha Team in position at the southern escape tunnels."

"Red Team in position for orbital insertion, just waiting on the shields."

"OverWatch in position for any escapes; teleportation is disabled with quantum harmonic field lock."

With a silent grunt, Natalia deftly rolled over the ledge onto her toes before launching at the wall above the ledge. Looking down below her position, Natalia watched a guard come out for his nightly smoke break. The guard had pasty white skin with a red diamond on his forehead. Something they still hadn't figured out the purpose of yet, even with the clone brain's help. Frowning at this potentially vital lack of information, Natalia turned around and continued her crawl upwards to the peak of the castle mountain.

From the satellite scans the top of the castle housed the shield generator that both cloaked and defended the entire island. Remove that protection and everything else came crashing down. Natalia climbed onwards, but came to a stop after a while. Before her was an active energy field that separated her from the top of the castle.

Relaxing back on her haunches for a moment, Natalia inspected the field before her. Pulling the scanner out of her handy tool belt, Natalia ran it over the force field before her. The readings came back zero point energy.

Not good.

After a few more scans on different wavelengths and using different methodologies, the readings that came back did not give Natalia any more cause to be happy. The force field was designed in such a way as to capture any intruder, then move them along the pointed protrusions that housed the emitters, like a relay handoff. With the emitters moving along the surface of the castle wall the captured prey would then fall into the dungeons to await the jailer. It made some sense. An infiltration would be infinitely easier in a small team, capturing that person or team alive would allow Sinister to figure out how his island had been found, where his security failed, and who ultimately was behind the intrusion.

Pulling out two shrunken stasis emitters from her belt, Natalia enlarged it back to their proper sizes. Placing both emitters three feet apart, Natalia took a step back then brought up her forearm vambrace. With a few taps on her personal computer, a line started on her left, rose up, then arcd over to land on her right. In front of Natalia was a clear hole in the defenses for her to go through. Walking through, Natalia removed the emitters and placed them back within her handy tool belt. As much as she'd made fun of Ben for being a nerd, this tool belt was certainly useful.

With a glance at her watch, Natalia took off at a sprint, trying to make up lost mission time. At the top of the castle there was a glass window pane that was four feet tall while three feet wide. Noticing the reinforced security glass, Natalia pulled out her laser cutter from her tool belt. With swift and sure movements, Natalia cut her way into the room adjacent to the shielding facilities.

Alfred would love this, Natalia thought to herself as she remembered the scans that she had taken of the outside emitter. She would have to shut the system down then lay traps in waiting. There was no need to destroy a perfectly fine zero point energy field emitter, especially one that her scans indicated likely had alien origins. You could tell a lot from a design, a non-human mind and culture was behind this one, from a very advanced tech base. With the window sliced out Natalia couldn't help but shake her head at the situation. They didn't even have basic heat and tremor sensors to detect people trying to break in or when a new heat signature might have teleported within the room. It was probably due to overreliance on this alien tech, and it's supposed invincibility.

Placing those thoughts out of her mind, Natalia pulled herself within the room through the hole that she created. With a flip she landed on her toes balanced perfectly. The room she was in was dark as night with no lasers or defenses active, that meant nothing had changed from when she first checked. With a nod and a few mental commands the augmented reality feature of her goggles changed from the night vision with data points to echolocation. The echolocation feature was working just fine as the layout details of the hallway appeared in her view.

Looking around, Natalia located the door to the shield facility. The room was rather large, but it was L-shaped, placing the door further away from her location. Pulling out a multitool, Natalia checked the door for any alarms before working on getting herself out of her current location.

With the door clear, Natalia worked her way into the hall silently. A soft click made itself known before Natalia crawled her way up the wall then onto the ceiling while in complete stealth mode. There was a subtle shift in color hue that Natalia noticed coming from the room that held the shield generator, an oddity that caused her to immediately stop in place and go totally still. Unexplained oddities got you killed in this job.

Thermal vision scans showed nothing but the expected output of waste a heat a generator like this inevitably gave off. When that didn't explain what she was seeing, Natalia checked all of the other scan/vision functions her HUD possessed, switching from one to the next, before stopping at a very particular mode that had only recently been added. In fact it hadn't even been truly field tested yet. The vision mode that Natalia hadn't used yet was for psionic emissions. From the reports that Alfred and Ben put together, the first version of this scan technology was only able to pick up the wavelengths of psionic energy from a person, but what was also picked up were undifferentiated emission waves, like free floating energy permeating a room in a cloud, allowing no clear designation of an individual person. which cluttered up the visuals. This had only recently been further refined to pick up emissions released from a person's body, which shrank the visual down to a glowing outline of a person and cleaned out the clutter of everything else.

Turning this new vision mode onto the room she wanted in, Natalia noticed three people hidden inside. A string of Russian curse words silently flitted across her mind before a grim smile played across Natalia's features as she noticed those that lay hidden in wait for her. Taking up a position on the wall directly across from the three in hiding, Natalia pulled out a molecular phase emitter, then placed it securely into position. With her dramatic entrance into the room set up, Natalia pulled out her favorite Ruger 57 combat pistols. Ben had modified these to work in conjunction with her powers, so that the pistols didn't overload and blow up on her when she paired it with her bio-electric blasts.

Weapons, check, armor, check, and her stealth field was still up and effective. With a silent countdown, Natalia rushed through the wall, causing it to ripple as she passed through it, as if it were made of water. The first person went down permanently with a double tap to the head and one in the heart for good measure. The specially designed porcupine rounds did their gruesome job, horribly shredding the insides of her targets. The porcupine rounds were another advancement in munitions that Ben had made for special occasions, as he called it. The rounds would enter a body, but would never create an exit wound. This was because the body of the round would flair out with needles that would fly off once inside the body, destroying everything within its vicinity.

The black aura on her HUD confirmed the kill as she lined up her next shot. The second person also went down quickly, but the third had had time to dive behind cover. Natalia gave him little reprieve though as she ran along the ceiling itself. A few extra seconds of life was all they gained from diving behind cover, before Natalia gunned him down as well. A jump and a flip placed Natalia on the ground in front of the generator that was currently producing the shield that both hid and protected the island.

Before she attempted to deactivate the generator, Natalia noticed that none of the bodies had dropped their stealth field after their death. Now that was mighty interesting. She had assumed these three merely had or were granted metahuman powers by Sinister to hide them so well, that this effect survived death meant her initial assumption might have been wrong. Was the psionic invisibility technology based?

Pulling out three devices the size of hockey pucks from her pocket, Natalia enlarged the devices. These smaller 'hover pucks', as Ben had named them, enlarged to eight-by-eight inches. They were not only able to scan, but also upload that information directly to OverWatch on the island for real time review and analysis. Moving away from the invisible corpses, at least to the naked eye, Natalia turned back to face the main generator for the island. With a mental command through the neural link, the scan spectrum that she was using for vision changed. From the scans Natalia was receiving, she was able to deduce that the machine could not be turned off without the destruction of the main capacitor.

It would be a shame to destroy a working example of this extremely advanced technology, tech that could easily be used in a myriad number of ways, but with the deep scans she was taking, she was reasonably sure that one of the techs, Alfred, or Ben himself would be able to recreate it, and probably build it better. Then again why not just bring the whole thing home as her spoils of war, Natalia thought, tapping a spot on her chin.

"How does Ben like to put it? 'You're not trying hard enough if you don't steal and improve your enemies' technology' or was it 'if you're not cheating you aren't trying hard enough'.'"

With that thought, Natalia pulled out a device the size of her palm with two large buttons, one was red and the other was blue. She approved of such simple controls on field equipment. Placing the device on the side of the zero point shield emitter, Natalia made sure that the nano adhesive was fully secure. Once she was happy with that she pressed the blue button.

Shhhooooooooopphhhh

A fast sound followed the shrinking of the zero point shield emitter. Now she could bring a gift home for her son, Natalia thought, as she stashed the shield generator away in a handy compartment on her utility belt designed specifically to protect delicate technology during transport. She was interrupted from her musings, though, as her comlink activated.

"Ma'am, shields are confirmed down, we have motion. Permission to start the party?"

"Give the command then, OverWatch. Party is a go. I say again, 'Party is a go.' Happy dancing team." Natalia ordered as she jumped to the ceiling, turning invisible mid flip. The soft sound of her landing on the ceiling was overshadowed by the guards that rushed into the room. Natalia wanted to frown at the heavy armor these guys were wearing, something that would have been a serious problem in the past, but then again, she was no longer the Black Widow that the Red Room had trained. Now she was a super assassin working with her family to better the future of the world.

Silently, two blades came out of her Widow's Bite web shooters that Ben had reengineered for her use. Natalia waited for the guard on the far left to check behind the shelf within the room before she went for the silent kill. The sound dampener built into her suit took care of the muffled sound he made as her Widow's bite sank deep into his jugular vein. The now dead body stopped struggling as she laid him aside and retreated back to the ceiling. It was amazing how few targets looked up for threats, something she had gleefully taken advantage of after her power up.

After her first kill of the new targets, explosions rocked the castle, causing the remaining combatants to stop and look at each other in confusion, but she paid little attention to that. Unfortunately, they were standing too far apart for her comfort, at least too far to get them both with a stealth kill. What made it worse was their posture and how attentive they were now. The explosions probably hadn't helped in that regard.

They called out a few names, probably the invisible people she'd already killed in this room, and when no reply came, that was when she struck. Two blades came out of her heel at a forty five degree angle when her leg wrapped around the rear guard's neck, the blades within her Widow's bites sinking deep into the other as Natalia used her shifting body weight to pull her first dieing victim forward to slice into his partner. They both went down quickly and silently in a display of ruthless bloody efficiency. The random and rather silly thought that someone other than Ben was getting to touch her well moisturized thighs crossed her mind, but since he was now dead, he would take that experience to the grave. Somehow she doubted Ben would mind in this instance.

Turning around, Natalia flipped back to the roof in preparation to hunt down Nathaniel Essex, the supervillain known as Mr. Sinister.

O.o.o - o.O.o - o.o.O

Alias: Jason Todd aka Red Hood.

Real Name: Benjamin Blake.

Father, Lover, Fighter, Mad Genius.

Caution: Loves Maximum OverKill.

BEEP!

BEEP! BEEP!

With a grunt I slapped my hand down hard on the alarm that was causing such an unholy racket so early in the morning, crushing it. I was too slow stopping it, since my bed partner had started to grumble in her sleep. When Coulson had shown up at the end of the latest assassination attempt on Tony Stark last night, I gave him a short report before trying to decide whether to take Raven to a hotel further in town or just running us back to the island. Unfortunately, before I could decide, Tony had found out that his bedrooms had gone untouched by all of the carnage. I guess his paranoia meant that Tony had all the living quarters reinforced in case of attack. Even with Tony offering the rooms as a small thank you, Raven and I had decided on staying at a hotel. There was only so much Tony Stark exposure we could handle.

We were certain that Fury wanted Tony and I in the same place, but I was certainly not going to stay somewhere that had just been shot up like the Fourth of July. Ignoring the now crushed alarm and my slowly waking bedmate, I looked back at my data pad to once again go over the design for a more advanced quantum communications array that would be going into space soon. I knew that the Nova Empire, Shi'ar and the Kree had a linked network that allowed them to speak together. This link also kept the Galactic Bank the undisputed bank across the known Galaxies.

The satellites I had already launched into orbit were all far more advanced than anything any of the big seven currently used, but were still unsuitable for what I truly wanted/needed them to do. I needed something ultra advanced to tap into that galactic information network in order to learn the English equivalent of the galaxy, the commonly accepted basic language that bridged the most borders. That needed to happen sooner, rather than later, to help further my nation and plans for the future. Learning the galactic standard for mathematical expression would be the next vital and necessary step to take advantage of all the technological advances that had been made by these advanced races. Even their millenia old obsolete tech and science would be revolutionary for Earth.

The only two countries I was worried about competing against with my current satellites were Latveria and Wakanda, but we would not really know what those two countries' capabilities in space were till we got a shuttle into orbit. Looking over my blueprints one more time, I made a few notes identifying systems that I wanted my scientists to look at more closely. The satellite, at its core, was built with rugged modularity in mind. When technological advancements inevitably came in the future we would be able to add on upgrades quickly and easily for years to come. For now, though, I would like to be able to get 'Galactic basic' to my people before we took the next step.

It was still surprising to me when Alex told me that we were picking up and getting intermittent glimpses of a complex hyper-communications network from beyond the stratosphere, though it was quite a while before we even realized what it was and began translating it into something our systems could use. To put it in recognizable terms, our current satellites were 'accessing' that network as if we were using an old dial up connection, one haphazardly cobbled together by a third world country who didn't understand the tech involved. The download speeds just plain sucked and I was far too much of a first-world baby to have the patience for shit like that when the collective (common) knowledge of dozens of hyper advanced races and civilizations was right there for the taking. Of course this was stuff that was publicly available, but like I said, their obsolete millenia old shit was revolutionary to us.

The immediate hope I had for this satellite array was to improve those download speeds and build a better translation matrix to interpret and display the information, but ultimately it was to open a small window into the wider galaxy, even if we had no true way to explore it physically yet. Once the satellite was up and running we would need to get a list of materials that the rest of the galaxy valued, so if the opportunity to go out and explore a bit of the galactic community ever came, we'd at least have some 'money' to buy a few souvenirs.

That wasn't bad for a good night's work, at least now that I no longer needed to sleep. A hand snaked its way up my naked form as I sent off the last of my draft blueprints for a second opinion. Placing the holo-tablet on the side table. I looked down at the very naked form of my bedmate. Silky locks of luxurious wavy red hair were on the form of a blue skinned minx. Raven had snaked her way up and under my arm as she obviously sought my undivided attention, something I was only too happy to give her. With the tablet out of my hands Raven tossed a leg over my thighs to straddle my lap.

"How much longer will we be here in Los Angeles?" Raven asked as she leaned down to give me a kiss, grinding that amazing ass on my lap.

"Once we turn our after action report in to Fury, we will be leaving," I answered as I allowed her to position my hand above my head. Hell, I was hard as a rock from the moment I noticed that she woke up, so I was certainly not going to stop her. She had passed out from orgasms last night, long before I was ready to be done with her sinfully beautiful body. Outlasting your bed partners was one of the downsides of unlimited stamina, I was learning. Of course, there were many more benefits.

I had no complaints as I thrust fast and hard up into Raven's depths. The sharp gasp of pleasure that escaped her lips was worth far more than my minor issues. Her eyes fluttered for a moment and I took the chance to flip us both over, putting me back on top. The glazed look Raven gave me said it all as I sped up my movements, changing my angle and depth giving my hips some rotation. Her nipples, lips and collarbone, nothing was safe from me as I played with Raven's body like a finely tuned instrument.

Raven's well manicured nails dug into my back as her legs wrapped their way tightly around my waist.

"Hmm, you must like that," I whispered into Raven's ear as I thrust deeper into her and felt the resistance of her womb.

"Yess!" Raven moaned/yelled in pleasure.

Looking down at Raven, I decided to leave my personal mark on her flawless blue skin, no matter how temporary it might be with her powers. The first hickey went on her neck and the second one went on her right breast.

A crazy idea came to life in my mind then began to niggle at me until I finally gave in and indulged. Arms made of red and yellow energy appeared from my sides as I formed them from my aura, then willed them into tangibility with force of will. The first set of arms broke Raven's vice-like grip on my back then trapped her hands above her head. Her ineffectual struggles were delicious, obviously having no experience with a bed partner being able to overpower her with her powers being what they were.

Then the left arm from the second set undid the legs that Raven had wrapped around my waist. The right arm went around her waist and held her there while my normal hands held Raven's face so that she could look directly into my eyes as I dominated her, demonstrating that I was the master in this bed, no matter her age and experience.

Each of Raven's arms and legs were locked in position. Raven had no leverage to move as I fucked her hard. Her eyes dilated and her pussy spasmed as she came again and again, but I kept up a punishing pace. Raven has been trying to seduce me ever since our first introduction. I had allowed her a reprieve after she passed out from our first session last night, but she would not escape my attention that way this morning.

My being blazed with power, tapping into the speed and strength force, as I drove into her again and again. Lightning enhanced flesh met the silky walls of a blue metamorph. I soon noticed the drool as I allowed my aura of power to envelope Raven when I came. Instinctively, somehow I felt her energy levels rise once more and I met her at the crescendo of her climax, releasing deep within her.

"That... that was... I have no words," Raven breathed harshly from atop my chest, her head resting above my heart, as I had flipped us over at the very last moment.

"Hmmm," I rumbled as I relaxed with Raven on my chest. I was already ready to go again, but there was far too much to get done. There would be a time to truly indulge in endless pleasure, but unfortunately it would not be today and would likely require a group to truly wear me out.

O.o.o - o.O.o - o.o.O

You are reading story The Fastest Man Alive at novel35.com

After Raven and I had our little morning workout, we performed a shorter reenactment in the shower that followed, before we both agreed that it was time to get some food into our systems. We both got dressed in some loose fitting combat clothing before we left the room. Once outside we made a right turn down the hall then got into the elevator and went down three floors to meet with Agent Coulson. I knew exactly where they would be even before they had sent a text message to my smart band. Alfred was continuously keeping me updated on a myriad number of subjects since I no longer needed sleep. My people were getting quite used to the 3am emails from their boss/king. Luckily I was nice enough not to expect them to immediately respond at those hours.

Hell, from seeing the after action report on Luke's little outing I had plans to swing by the bar before I went up north to see Xavier. Somehow, Luke had gotten help from Detective Knight while helping out Jessica. There was a beep from my wrist causing me to look down at my smart band. I just knew that I would eventually break down and simply recreate the famous omni tool from the Mass Effect games, because changing from smart watches, to smart beads, to smart bands, to all the other technological innovations for connectivity on one's wrist was getting out of hand. My current thought on that was to make it a nano injection that anyone could get, but also a ring that does a DNA analysis when placed on the user. The inside of the ring would have a super computer shrunk down with a few additions for the ordinary citizen to my military officers and ship captains. The problem with having shrinking technology was that the initial building of that supercomputer cost just as much as you'd expect, it made no difference that it'd eventually be shrunk down. No, that probably wasn't the answer either. In fact, overreliance on shrinking technology could be seriously detrimental to my people's tech development and innovation over time. The need to do it smaller had led humanity to make incredible advances in miniaturization which led to more efficient microchips and processors and a slew of other things.

Living on the island came with a mandatory DNA profile kept in our systems that went hand in hand with any of the smart connectivity devices. The way things were set up currently, anyone without a smart band and/or a recognized citizen DNA profile, would show up on a 3D representation of the island in the police department and several other systems, including the military and intelligence services since infiltration would be a very real danger going forward. Hell, there was no way I was going to allow anyone onto my island without some type of real time tracking in place. It wasn't about the control, it was more about the people that were out there willing to do harm to their fellow man, meta-humans or not. The issue was that metahumans were far, far more often the victims than not. For every metahuman with a truly powerful or useful power, there were a thousand or even ten thousand or more with some very small and sometimes even detrimental powers.

Sigh, the cost of living in an advanced, post-poverty society was mandatory connectivity. Living 'off the grid' would not really be an option anymore. Of course there were many benefits, like a much higher standard of living, access to higher education for all, and free advanced health care. So, on the whole, our citizens would be giving up a little, but hopefully gaining a lot more in return. And as a fledgling nation, these measures would also help ensure its survival. There would be many jealous eyes on my lands in the future.

I checked the hologram above my wrist, noting my on-call team reported their task to sanitize the hotel room we'd just used had been completed, bedsheets and all. Considering how seriously they took their job, you could probably perform surgery in that room now. Honestly, I wasn't worried about Fury. It was the monsters operating in the shadows, the boogeymen hiding under the bed that were feeding on the insides of SHIELD that I was making sure didn't get their hands on my DNA. There were others too, of course. You only had to face one genetically engineered super-monster with your stolen powers before you developed a very healthy and reasonable paranoia about such things.

I also really didn't want to turn around and find out that they had turkey basted some woman and now I have some evil kid with my powers, raised to hate me his whole life, intent to kill me once he grows up. Call me paranoid all you want, but if they can do that to sports stars and celebrities then my jizzed up sheets were fair game in the eyes of the crazy Nazi group and other ruthless villains who could plan long-term.

Showing Raven the hologram that sat on top of my wrist, she gave me a small smile at my precautions, even as she blushed indigo at the fact that the team had reported the bedsheets had been soiled so badly they'd needed to be removed and burned. The elevator beeped, the doors opening, requiring her to use her powers to shift her blush away. I sent a wink at her in good humor, even as Raven's hair fell around her shoulders in loose red curls that matched the color of her now power painted lips. The raising of my eyebrow said it all. Man, being a metamorph was such a cheat, though I knew many people felt the same way about my 'hax' powers, as they called them. Guards were waiting for us on the other side of the doors.

Once we stepped out the guards fell into place around us and I had to type out a quick order on my smart band so that my people stood down before someone looked at me funny and they shot them from stealth. They were understandably a little worked up and jumpy at the huge running battle that their leader had just been forced to fight virtually by himself. From what I could tell the entire floor had been taken over, with guards at every junction. Ignoring this, Raven and I walked into what appeared to be a secured room from the amount of SHIELD agents standing around.

It was a beehive of frenetic activity, doing what they could, I could only assume, to cover up the clusterfuck from last night. The first person to recognize me wasn't even the guards that stood in the way, but Stark himself. The sigh I released caused Raven to turn around and give me a smile that was silently asking me to play nice with the man.

"Hey Todd, over here!" Tony yelled out excitedly, like an overexcited teenager with a crush. "Meet our nanny. He found me this morning once Pepper and I came down for breakfast."

Shifting slightly I took in the typical crew cut, the secret agent all black suit that every conspiracy nut talks about and that slightly charming/disarming smile. Phil Coulson, the man, looked like any typical agent, but the good vibes he gave off in waves practically screamed 'trustworthy person.' If I didn't know any better I would have thought Coulson was a secret metahuman telepath, that's how strong his good guy vibe was. Stepping forward I shook his outstretched hand with a small smile.

"Good morning, Red Hood, Athena. Welcome. Fury is waiting for you in a secured office," Coulson said with his disarming smile. He shifted after shaking our hands to motion in the direction of a nearby office. Raven turned then gave me a look while Tony was trying to talk my ear off about my weapons and armor technology from last night.

Holding up a hand for Tony to stop, I turned to the open air behind me and spoke.

"Wait here," I ordered out loud, since they would now be in a room filled with SHIELD agents. I knew it was risky and that one of the personnel here might be HYDRA, but my threat classification was already EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. It was weird seeing that threat level next to my name when I had looked myself up in the SHIELD database once the Russia mission was over. Seeing that classification stroked the ever loving shit out of my ego, especially since I was still a singular individual back then, someone with no actual forces known to be working with or for me and not connected to any known organization.

Now, though, I had my own hidden nation, an army at my back with highly trained soldiers and advanced weaponry that could topple nations if I ever woke up on the wrong side of the bed one morning. My soldiers uncloaked and instantly the vibe in the room changed. Agents and guards reached for their weapons, my Spartans also raising their own ChemRail rifles and taking aim at these new threats. This was the standard rifle made for my military forces. It fired proprietary 8.75x52mm FSDRAS rounds. That means that these rounds were fin stabilized discarding rail sabot rounds with a muzzle energy rating of eighteen kilojoules. It is a dual-stage weapon using chemical propellant in the first stage of firing and then electro-magnetic rails in the second stage. These weapons were able to punch through advanced reactive body armor and up to three feet of steel plate and each magazine was able to carry fifty rounds with a quick release function for faster ammo swaps.

Overkill, perhaps, for Earth forces and its weapons technology, but there was no such thing when you factored in the possibility of warfare with aliens and advanced alien civilizations. If my forces ever ran across anyone with personal shielding, that stopping power would be needed. Normal shields could stop plasma rounds, but nothing with this much kinetic stopping power. It also helps that it can crack kinetic-based shielding with sustained fire, but I was keeping that to myself. Even now energy weapons were possible, but I kept our weapons as slugs throwers on purpose. If the rest of the galaxy saw us as primitives and underestimated us, I would do nothing to dissuade them from that notion. It was an advantage we would desperately need.

I had taken some inspiration from the Mandalorians in Star Wars who chose to switch from energy blasters to slug throwers because of the Jedi and their powers. The Jedi were badasses and feared throughout the galaxy for their powerful abilities and skills, using the Force and their lightsabers to block and even return blaster fire to kill any who fired on them. The Mandalorians went for the shotgun approach with the slug throwers to overcome those abilities and it worked better than anyone would have thought. The Jedi were able to block energy fire with their lightsabers but when they tried it with the slugs there was no blocking/returning it, now getting peppered and injured with hot metal. I knew that I was in one crazy dimension where physics could change with the weather, so I was trying to always be prepared. I will survive.

"Woah, woah, where in the hell did they come from?!" Tony all but screamed as he jumped from fright at the appearance of half a dozen heavily armed soldiers in full body armor appearing out of thin air.

"At ease," I commanded aloud, with my hand raised in the command to stand down, but remain alert. My Spartans stayed in a half stance with weapons down slightly, no longer aiming directly at anyone, but could be brought up to fire at a moment's notice. I still noticed that they had overlapping fields of fire, just in case.

"Ahem, excuse me, Mr. Todd. May I ask who these people are?" Coulson asked as he stopped mid stride. "I thought your only back up was Athena?"

"Last night my only backup was Athena."

"This young dashing and handsome fellow is what, chopped liver?" Came Tony's mock outrage from the side.

"Nope, you're the shaved gigolo that Pepper keeps around for some reason," I said in response to Tony. Pepper gave a very unlady-like snort as she tried to contain her laughter.

"They're here to make sure that the top brass of your organization doesn't get any ideas about me," I told Coulson as I eyed the agents around us. "I would suggest that they lower their weapons before someone starts something that can't be taken back; my Spartans carry personal shields."

"Coulson performed a small hand gesture and the agents around us now lowered their weapons. With a slight nod of thanks in his direction at de-escalating the situation, I continued on my way to the office door that was open and waiting. I knew Fury was watching this on one of his many ubiquitous monitors. That was fine. I had to make a strong showing today, engaging in a bit of dick measuring to ensure that they would think twice before trying anything against me. My spartans stowed their assault rifles onto the back bracket which then shrunk down the weapon for storage in a hidden compartment.

When that happened, the personal shields of each Spartan flashed momentarily, surprising a few, but I noticed the move covered the appearance of a side holster and sidearm. That was smooth, but I was not going to say anything about that neat little move.

I walked into the office with a smooth grace to my steps. Standing at a large floor to ceiling window looking rather badass in a long black leather trench coat was the one and only Nicholas Joseph Fury, head of SHIELD, and my uncle, though few alive knew that.

Ignoring the man as he pulled his wizened elder routine while looking pensively out the window with his back turned, I pulled out a seat for Raven, like a gentleman, then one for myself. I'd let Fury have his dramatic moment. Pepper gave Tony a look with a small smile that stumped the man before he caught on. With everyone seated one of my men directed Coulson into the room before closing the door behind him.

"You both have become a thorn in my side, you know that?" Fury began with an overly dramatic movie statement. "That debacle last night caught the eye of those in power. Now I personally have to deal with you two."

"Before we begin, do you mind if I secure the room further?" I asked, ignoring the tough guy routine that Fury is putting on currently. "No objection, ok, here goes."

Tapping the side of my belt a 'silencer cube' came out of the pocket that stored my shrunken equipment. The cube was the size of a grown man's fist and was able to split into four equal parts. The amount of tech I had stuffed into this thing was on a level that even amazed me. Turning the cube's top with a left twist, like it was a rubix cube, activated the anti-surveillance protocol. The cube floated out of my palm before running a visible scanning beam over the entirety of the room we were in, before it split into four equal parts.

Once the cube split apart, the pieces flew into the corners of the room, a shield activating, blocking all direct sight and sound going out as a shimmer encapsulated the room's surfaces. Fury raised his eyebrow at me while Coulson looked stunned at the technology used. The shimmer that ran around the room would isolate us completely within a spatial distortion bubble while also cutting the ambient vibrations leaving the room to zero. No one with a laser mic pointed at the window would be picking up our conversation and any listening devices in the room would temporarily record nothing but static. The sudden and complete silence was obviously startling to everyone but me.

"Now we can speak freely," I advised with a small smirk, even as I pulled out two more cubes and two smart bands to match. I placed those gently on the table, before I went back into my belt to pull out two small pager-sized devices, then placed those with the rest.

"And what's all this?" Fury asked as he leaned onto the large oak table looming over us.

"The bribe to keep me and Athena off the radar, of course," I answered with a matter of fact tone while rolling my eyes. "The cubes can do more than secure a room from surveillance, though, they can also physically restrain anyone or anything with a strength rating up to one hundred tons or less. The smart bands are advanced wearable supercomputers with enhanced storage capacity. Everything I'm giving you is incapable of being reverse engineered. Go ahead and try it and see what happens, at your peril, you will not get more. Contact my tech department and they can load it with almost anything you want. Now these babies here, they're the latest and greatest out of my labs. Portable teleportation transponders. The smart bands are meant for you and Coulson alone, meaning the first time you wear them your DNA profile will be loaded into the system, that will be the key."

"Wait, wait, where are you pulling all of this stuff from," Tony questioned incredulously, as he leaned forward to examine the items I had placed on the table. "Not only that, but where are you getting the power to run a personal teleportation device? The power needs would be astronomical, yet you have them in such a small device."

Tony kept rambling for several long moments before he got this manic gleam in his eyes and reached forward for one of the smart bands. My response was as swift as a striking cobra. The smack echoed within the room, as Tony pulled his smarting hand back and gave a pout when I glared at him fiercely.

"You're the supposed 'genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist' so why don't you go and make your own toys, Tony," I warned as I glared steadily at him, trying not to smirk at the smile on Pepper's face besides Tony. Turning back to the rest of the room, I watched as Raven picked up the second set and gave them to Coulson. "Another reason you're getting this tech and why I brought my guards is to let SHIELD know how much of a fight I can bring to you, if they decide to fuck with me."

Fury stared me down for a moment, then he switched to Stark.

"You have a press conference scheduled for an hour from now. With those suits activating their self destructs, roughly eighty percent of the evidence has already been destroyed and it would seem that most of the footage of Iron Man, as the press is calling you, has been mysteriously erased," Fury said, while staring hard at Stark.

I wasn't all that worried about some press conference, no, I was far more worried about the roughly twenty percent of the tech used that night that they were able to recover. I received a message that told me my people had been able to recover most of the more intact suits. These were scanned, found to contain no new advancements or tech we didn't already have access to, and then were recycled for raw materials. We could build better on our own, but it was still worrying that a lot of examples of this tech were now in the hands of a Hydra infiltrated SHIELD and god knows who else.

"Hold up, hold up, why doesn't he have to attend any of this?" Tony asked as he pointed a finger in my direction.

"Jason here has been a consultant for us for some time now, since he has the military background and experience to go with such a position. I'm surprised he was even in LA for your party, the last I checked he was on some invisible island somewhere," Fury smoothly replied as he placed the smart band around his wrist and the rest of the tech in his pocket. I looked him in the one eye and said nothing, having no idea how he had come by that information.

"Come on, Tony, you know how this game is played," I replied with a cheeky grin of my own. Raven smacked me on the side of my arm before pressing on the other side of my utility belt. Two of the portable shields came out, which she then gave to Fury and Coulson.

"These are portable shields. They contain an advanced kinetic generator allowing them to recharge from any activity," Raven said as she gave Coulson a seven inch wide disk. Raven ran his smart band over the top showing Coulson how to activate the device and key it for his use only, then placed it within the inner breast pocket of the suit. "Any directed scans or attempt to open the device will result in its destruction. Do you understand?"

"I understand. Thank you," Coulson answered with obvious gratitude. He grinned down at his smart band that now had a rudimentary OS hologram floating above his wrist. Yeah, I was going to make sure he survived the ordeal with Loki for sure. The man was a low key nerd that would go to any ends to back his people, thus my kind of guy. I would also have to add a note-to-self to bring him a bag of holding once I get my runes mastery from the Ancient one. I know I was putting that off, and had been for a while, but I was banking on the production of bioorganic nanites that would be able to do their own version of cellular division.

The project to build Alfred a new body was almost finished. The design was complete and we had the facilities to build it, but my main fear was in the consciousness transfer while also keeping him connected to the network. Cutting him off outright would play hell on his developing mind. Alfred had been born connected to it, with all the hyper awareness that that entailed. Placing him inside a body would change that to an extreme degree, possibly far too quickly for him to adapt.

I turned again to look at the pouting Tony beside me and recognized the calculating look in his eye.

"Give me your bank information so I can pay for that shield from last night," Tony asked sullenly, with a sigh.

"Nope, it's already been integrated into your suit so you keep it. Just promise me you won't produce it for anyone else, or attempt to sell it," I returned with a shake of the head.

There was no freaking way I was going to give him my account information, even some near anonymous Swiss Bank account connected to me, for him to backtrace. This was the man that broke into the Pentagon when he was a teenager and SHIELD servers when he gets bored, a bank's security would be nothing to him. Hell, I had to remove a few mini trackers that Tony thought he was able to slip into my Todd persona sports tank vehicle. Since he was playing dirty, after deactivating these trackers, I had sent them to my science teams to begin studying their design in a shielded facility. I also knew he had a few scans for my prototype proton cannon, though my anti-reverse engineering technology should have prevented any scans from being viable. As for my sports tank, because of the active shielding that was always in use he'd be unlikely to get anything from that either.

"Thanks, so here is what I was thinking," Tony said in clear excitement. "I already have plans for the reopening of the Stark Expo, in fact, preparations are already underway. I would love to give you a slot on opening day, prime placement. I plan to change the world, you plan to change the world, let's do it together. We have so much in common. Give me your number and let's be friends."

"Urgh, I don't know about that."

"Come on, it will be like old times. I stumble upon the big bad and we take them down guns blazing," Tony replied as he waved a hand, dismissing my previous statement.

"Yeah, nooo. Coulson do you mind showing us where to get ready for the press conference?" Pepper asked as she stood up. Tony tried to complain, but with her hand firmly around his bicep, she pushed him right out the door. There would be no compromises this day.

The door closed and I turned back to look at Fury. This entire time he had been silent after I handed over my bribe. As soon as the door clicked closed, Fury spoke.

"You know, it's getting harder and harder to keep them off your trail," Fury said with a sigh, as he leaned back into his chair.

"Mom told me about the last time she dealt with the World Security Council. They ended up two members shorter and was finally allowed to retire," I replied with a shrug. "The conversation I would have with them would ultimately have you in overall command of SHIELD, but we both know you would hate the paperwork and all the politicking required."

Fury shot me a hard glare for several long moments, before letting out a sigh.

"Tell me your thoughts on Stark," Fury ordered as he started to collect the items I brought for him.

"Since Tony plans to go out and find and destroy all the weapons that Stane sold under the table, we can only guess that not only will Tony improve during overall combat, but his suits will be upgraded after he gets a little more experience in combat. That man has a fire burning in his gut right now, being so fresh from his kidnapping and this latest huge betrayal by a man he considered a second, better father. I would postpone any recruitment for after this coming year. My scans indicate the palladium in his chest is going to cause him some health issues within the next six months. Wait and see how he handles these near death experiences and the death of Stane," I replied with a shrug. "The hype is real for once. From what my OverWatch told me it only took him about six minutes to figure out how my shield tech worked and then incorporate it into his already complete suit, a design that currently has no modularity for upgrades. It was mighty impressive."

"When he is suited up Tony is practically invincible, but when he is out of the suit… well, that's when the issues will crop up, so you better watch out for that," Raven added.

"Huh, The Invincible Iron Man," I said with a chuckle.

"So are you going to accept my invitation to join the Avengers Initiative?" Fury asked from his chair.

"I will think about it; that's all I'll commit to at this time," I replied with a shrug. "I have a few plans in between now and when you might need the team."

"So when will I be able to visit this island that my daughter keeps talking my ear off about?" Fury asked with a raised eyebrow. I knew the answer to that, and it was 'never in the seven hells,' but he was family so I was straight with him.

"Never in the seven hells, especially while you still answer to those self-serving douchebags," was my instant reply.

Fury looked at me, then grunted in acceptance.

"Fine, but I will need you to send us some upgrades. I know the cleaners picked up some stuff, but it will take forever in development," Fury stated after his grunt.

"Tony did give us an invite to the Stark Expo, and prime placement on opening day. Vega does have a few things that they were planning to release for sale, maybe that would be the best time to unveil it to the world," Raven suggested, cutting me off from telling him 'hell to the fuck no!' once more. I took a few moments to think about that before I answered. I could sell them these things before the military and other agencies, giving them first priority. That should assuage them for now. If Vega became a vital weapons and equipment supplier to SHIELD, that would give me a great deal of influence and cover from them.

When it came time to finally deal with HYDRA, well, who's to say that those same weapons and equipment wouldn't suffer mysterious malfunctions. This was advanced technology after all. Once I take the Winter Soldier they would need some type of edge to fight back against me and my army. Then there is also the fact that the Winter Soldier would also need a good challenge when he hunts Alexander Pierce.

"We do have a combat exosuit ready to bring to market, we just didn't know how to unveil it to the world. Tony's exploits in his armor might be just what we need to prove the combat potential and value of such a system," I followed up, with a nod.

"Fine, but SHIELD will have first priority to purchase these exo suits," Fury replied with a pointed nod.

"Agreed. I will send Salt or one of my Spartans over to give a personal demonstration to your people after the Expo," I agreed with a nod.

"Good, so tell me where does this transporter take me in case of emergencies?" Fury asked as he held up the little pager-shaped transponder that I had just given him.

"There is an underground bunker in the middle of nowhere Alaska, a place that only mom and I have the authorization to get into. It's completely off the grid, just the way you both like your emergency fallbacks," I replied with a nonchalant wave. "The Bunker is built in a triple layer style with bedrooms, danger room, and a few other things you will like, including enough food, water, and medical supplies to last a few years if needed."

"I'll keep the World Security Council off your back, but understand, you can't dodge them forever, especially if the Todd persona keeps doing shit like this," Fury replied with a grunt.

"Understood," I answered, while standing up and bringing this little powwow to a close. Raven snapped her fingers, summoning back the cube that was generating the silencer shield. With a strong handshake I walked out of the room to find my Spartans standing off to the side, engaged in a continuous staring match with several agents, while some SHIELD techs drooled specifically over their loadout.

"Let's go."

With those two words my Spartans went from at ease to strict attention, back to guarding my life while in their presence. I nodded Coulson's way before I turned to the exit that lead to the stairs. What I didn't pay attention to was Tony running into the elevator just as we made our way up to the roof. Even with each of us carrying several hundred pounds of armor each, we arrived at the roof fairly quickly. When I got to the top I found the door was already guarded by one of my Spartans.

That was good, protecting areas of infiltration and extraction in case of attack or emergencies was sound military tactics. There was a loud bang as the door below the stairwell opened in what sounded like a rush. Out on the roof was a quinjet that must have been what Fury arrived in, but I ignored that to look at the patch of roof that seemingly had nothing on it, well, unless you had a HUD and a connection to its systems.

"Come on, Jason, we still have a party to throw," Tony cheers as he comes bounding out of the door leading to the roof like an overexcited puppy.

"No time to party, Stark, my schedule is filled. Another time perhaps," I returned with a shrug.

"Come on, we saved the day, we're heroes!" Tony whined practically in my ear as he looked around in confusion. "Also, I don't think everyone is going to fit into that ride of yours."

Before I could say anything in response, the rear of my gunship uncloaked, now fully visible to Tony. The cockpit and underside were still in stealth mode, as the craft was still active and in the air floating over the city.

"Ohh come on, what is this?!" Tony all but yelled, with his arms outstretched and flailing in shock at my gunship with cloaking and my unique anti-gravity technology. My gunship was shaped like a capital 'W' with the impulse engines shaped like a large circle built into the outer wings with a smaller stabilizing circle on the inside. The body lines were modeled after a bird of prey, and that's the way I liked it. It was sleek, sexy, and deadly looking, but in that ohh so delicious gunmetal grey with red stripes. If a tiger could do it, why couldn't I?

"What on Earth are you powering this thing with?" Tony asked in a whisper, his eyes frantically moving over the craft as he tried to take a step closer to my gunship. The crew chief standing on the lowered ramp put an arm up to stop Tony from getting any closer and boy, he did not like that at all.

"Ohh, come on, I just wanna take a peek!" Tony all but yelled once more.

"Sorry, sir, you do not have the authorization," the Spartan crew chief warned, with an arm up barring Tony's way. Shaking my head at just how surreal the situation felt, I watched my spartans load themselves into the gunship taking seats on each side and strapping in, since my sports tank was parked in the center of the cargo bay to better distribute its great weight.

I stopped at the top of the ramp, two tethers shooting out from my utility belt. Each tether locked into an anchor point on either side of me as I held up my smart band and activated the ship's ramp shielding, an energy field that would keep the cargo bay pressurized even if opened at 35k feet in the air, or keep out unauthorized personnel when on the ground. The gunship hovered for a moment and I almost laughed when Tony tried to follow my spartans in, whose smart bands were recognized by the ship and thus allowing them entry through the field, but bouncing him off rather hilariously onto his ass, like a mime who just walked face first into an invisible glass pane window. Ohh sweet baby Stan Lee, I'm glad my suit recorded that. I could probably sell it to the paparazzi for 100k.

I knew why he was trying to talk me up and stick around. It must be incredibly lonely to always be the smartest guy in the room, to be an engineering genius who had everything he ever wanted and now have revolutionary technology he doesn't even know how to build yet dangled in his face, just out of reach. Now a guy comes out of nowhere who is just as rich, just as smart, and who has created tech that makes his own pale in comparison. I was a kindred soul to Tony and he was hoping to make a friend he could truly connect to, someone with a ton in common. It was distinctly human. We were a very social species, after all.

I might as well throw him a bone.

"Stop being such a fangirl, it's only technology," I said with a wink, a smile clear in my voice. "I will see you in Monaco, if you're man enough that is. I'll be entering a clean energy vehicle for the race and I already have a driver lined up."

"Ohh come on, just let me take one quick little peek," Tony yelled as we slowly drifted up and away from the building.

"Nah, you're doing alright," I replied over the speakers. "And Tony, bug my people again and I'll shove them up your ass, ok?"

With that I dropped the bugs he had placed on a few of my guards off the ramp and onto him, like tiny metallic droplets of rain. The look on his face was priceless, the same as a child getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I laughed out loud as the stealth field went up fully and we shot off towards New York.

O.o.o - o.O.o - o.o.O

Undisclosed Location

Nathanial Essex

"I have been thwarted for the last time by that neanderthal and his creations."

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Shout Out to the awesome Joe Lawyer for doing Beta in this chapter. For those that have seen the vast improvement in grammar in this chapter over the others should tip your hats to such an awesome guy. Just want to say thank you all that take time out of your day to read my story, you are all appreciated.

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