Chapter 42: Chapter 42

The Fastest Man Alive

Chapter 42

Edited By: Joe Lawyer

 

 

Benjamin Blake

Doting Father, Dashing Lover, Dirty Fighter.

Multi-Billionaire, Leader of a Nation.

It didn't take long for us to get back to the east coast of the United States, not when the gunship you're riding in can travel transorbitally. That little trick was a boon to international flights across the planet and would come in handy later on as time went by. With the advanced anti-gravity engines, traveling from California to New York took us a half an hour. That didn't even include Alfred having to spoof our energy output to fool Stark's satellites that attempted to track us.

"Five minutes to re-entry."

The Spartans that were standing found their way back into their seats. I watched as the bracket, shaped like a giant U with padding, came down to secure them into their seats. Each place had one to secure their occupants, as if they were riding a roller coaster. The idea for them came to me after watching a few Syfy movies with the girls one night. Ignoring that for the moment, I made my way up into the cockpit to take one of the free seats behind the co-pilot, since Raven already had the one behind the pilot. I stared longingly out into the starry sky as I knew I would bring my people to the stars one day. For now, it was slightly outside of our reach since our vehicles could only exit and enter the Earth's gravity well and not explore the wider expanse.

The gasp from Raven brought me out of my thoughts. Looking out the port side, I saw the Earth from space. There were no words to describe the sheer majesty of the sight before our eyes. The one thing I knew was that I wanted to share this sight with the rest of my family. This was something to be shared at the first chance I was able. Soon, Jean would be able to reach this elevation all on her own, thanks to her natural power, no bulky ship surrounding her. Ororo would be able to, as well, but she would still be bound to a spacesuit.

I noticed the ripple on the image of the ship's shield, displayed on the center console, due to our re-entry, and I remembered the conversation I had with Alfred a while back. The physics behind the shield was pretty advanced, but we were able to get it working properly, even with my idea of using panels, instead of the normal pointed emitters. There was no way I wanted sticking points/extrusions on any ships that would be facing such incredible levels of heat or that would be experiencing the rigorous demands of combat in the field. No, they'd be just another obvious target to hit and would disable our means of communication, among other things.

The kinetic shield was designed to absorb the friction then move it along the entire surface of the gunship's shields, causing the rippling pattern. This allowed our re-entry to be both smooth and stealthy, keeping us hidden from all of the watchful eyes in the sky, a task much harder to accomplish if the ship's speed created a visible heat trail or created other atmospheric effects, like a fireball in the sky, for instance.

We had far better heat dissipation technology than what NASA was using in their own space program. We also had a working prototype of plasma-based shielding to help with the excess heat build-up. From all reports, everything was working perfectly, and with Alfred keeping everything tuned to perfection, there was really nothing to worry about. The next phase would be including these into a 'puddle jumper' that we were working on, but we would also need to create a few more vital pieces of the puzzle from scratch. I knew what I wanted, and I would not stop until I made my vision a reality.

We marveled at the beauty of the cityscape as we came down towards New York City, before the gunship banked to starboard and swung its way around the city, staying clear of flight control and all that mess. I noticed the pilot upping the sound dampening field to keep us running completely silent now that we were no longer in space, but when he did that, I noticed the systems interfere with the cloaking for a moment before it went away. I would have to file this issue to be tested and investigated later. Cloaking should automatically cover the sound, even in atmosphere, and that was how I wanted it. There was no use going invisible if people could still hear your steps or detect your scent on the wind.

Some people might consider that overkill, but not to me, not when people's lives were on the line. The galaxy was a harsh place, one that would make you pay dearly for mistakes or laziness. I refuse to allow my people to die because I was too lazy to fix a bug or compatibility issues, especially one that I was now aware of. There would likely be plenty of bugs I would never realize until someone had paid for it with blood.

After making a note for follow up on the hologram my smart band provided, I stood back up and watched my beautiful city approach. New York City was like no other place on Earth, and no matter what I did in life, nothing could compare. I was trying desperately to recreate the same feeling on my island with the main city, but still, this... this was home. The pilot did a fancy bit of flying as he made a loop under the Brooklyn Bridge before taking us for a slow, lazy loop around the Statue of Liberty once. The whoops of joy told me that he had lowered the inertial dampers a little so that those in the back could feel the effects of gravity and the G-forces placed on the body.

The smirk on my pilot's lips told me that he was enjoying this as much as those in the back of the ship. I stood and waited for the gunship to land on the roof of Luke's bar. It wasn't much, but it was what his late wife had left him when she was killed by the people that came after Luke, once upon a time. The bar was located on the corner, which gave it a nice view of everything, but also a nice empty expanse we could use as a landing pad. Back when I had to recruit Luke for my goals, I had Alfred renovate the place top to bottom, which included reinforcing the support beams in case we ever needed to land on the roof of the bar itself.

It was certainly convenient now, but I was going to make sure we didn't overstay our welcome. The pilot brought us down with no issues while still under the cloak. I watched as the display went from just the monitor to a 360 degree view of the landing area. Damn, I would have to give whoever thought that up a bonus. Holo-images came up, and one even had the view directly under the ship as it calculated the distance to the landing pad, including a rating for its maximum weight capacity. Then a ring outlined with a large X in the center was superimposed on the landing area for perfect alignment and placing of the aircraft.

There was no helping the nod I gave the smart system installed within the cockpit. I was not trying to recreate Alfred, but I also recognized the need for smart assistance in the ever more complex machines I built. This had me installing smart interfaces, to see how they would improve my tech's usability by the widest range of people. The next step would be installing truly interactive interfaces, ones that could anticipate the needs of their users, but that was the closest anyone would be getting to having their own Alfred. The other A.I. that I had rattling around in my head would be Cortana. She would be connected to everything the way Alfred was but with far more goals and purpose.

The ladies would have to get their own Virtual Intelligence ("VI") so that Alfred could live his life. I would need Cortana, though, to handle everything once I pulled Alfred out of the system. Listening to Raven hum a tune to herself, I followed her to the exit of the gunship. Once outside, I stopped to take a closer look at the weaponry on this thing. The ship made the A1 apache look like a toy in comparison: smart missiles, rail guns, attack drones, armor deployment compartments. This gunship was loaded for bear and could take on a fleet of aircraft on her own, which probably explained the cost to build even one of them.

The crew chief asked me to take a step back from the ship, which I did. He then took a small rectangular device out of his pocket roughly the size of a credit card. On the surface was a smart display, so instead of asking, I watched. Though card-shaped, it was more akin to an altoid tin, with a small enclosed space. I knew where this was going and was extremely proud of what we'd accomplished. I had been experimenting with Pym/miniaturization tech for some time now, and my goal was to recreate the HOI-POI capsules from Dragon Ball Z. I could have copied what Hank did with his hot wheels car storage box for a quick fix, but honestly, fuck that.

Advanced tech was supposed to be just that, advanced. Arguably, there was some value in miniaturized equipment appearing as toys, in order for them to be overlooked, but there was no way I was going to have my technology appear as mere toys when there was no real need for it. They will look as advanced and as badass as I had created them to be.

The crew chief took out something the size and shape of a standard USB drive, then placed it on the closed ramp of the ship. I was almost blinded when he pressed the button, due to the light emitted by the shrinking process, but I noticed that the device had hooked into the cloaking field that the ship projected before doing its work.

Interesting.

Now, all the crew chief had before him, beside the advanced altoid looking box in his hands, was the USB-looking-stick on the ground before him. Before the crew chief could pick up the storage device, I had it floated into my waiting palm with my gravitational control. Looking it over, I noticed the small energy leak that would undoubtedly be fixed at a later date, but what struck me was the lack of aesthetics of the whole thing. Handing the device over to the crew chief, I turned on my heel, heading to the exit that leads down into the bar.

Before I made it to the door, I noticed my spartans touched a spot on their armors. Their pants changed as the top armor disengaged and allowed them to remove it. Raven chuckled as the spartans essentially did a quick change into semi-civilian attire. There was no point in going down and letting everyone trickle in behind me, so I waited on the side for my spartans to get changed.

Their new attire was a set of black combat pants with a tight flexible under armor weave. With a nod, I followed Raven on the way into the building.

O.o.o o.O.o o.o.O

The bar wasn't jumping like most people would think. No, the bar was pretty chill overall, just like the owner that ran this place. After letting my guys know that I was going to foot the bill, I left them to their devices. This would be the first time many of them had even stepped foot into a bar, much less drink at one, as the astartes were born from the pods back on the island.

One of the first types of people I'd created, after my General and the Minister of Science, were telepaths loyal to me and my cause. With their abilities, I was able to share common knowledge of western culture and human experiences amongst all the astartes. To ensure the telepaths themselves had that knowledge to pass on, I would take them off the island in order to gain more experience and letting them read random people, learning the myriad number of things a person who grows up in the world learns almost unconsciously. This helped them better craft a mental imprint for all newly born astartes.

This way, they would all start with a unified baseline of experience and knowledge, enough to allow them to function and be useful out in the world, though the current imprints were useful only in the Western world. I would have to fix that at some point.

After they were imprinted they would gain their own general experiences, crafting them into unique individuals. I, of course, had my own expectations on behavior added in, as well as hardwiring in loyalty and obedience to me and my rule, but other than that, even Natalia commented on how well they fit in given the unusual nature of their creation.

I held out a hand for Raven to take as I ushered her into a booth, one that had the bar's entrance within my eyeline, but one that also gave us a perfect view of the establishment. Raven took her seat, I followed right along after. We had time for a little bit of small talk before the waiter came, yet she was stopped by the big man himself, Luke Cage.

Luke came over with that smooth, sure gait of his, the kind that just screamed 'I am a badass mother fucker' not to mess with. That cocky grin on his face that just about screamed "I just got laid" had me looking around, only to spot Jessica sitting at the bar. I also noticed a spiderlining crack on the ceiling, directly underneath where Luke's bed was in the bedroom above the bar. That ridiculous situation had me chuckling on the inside. I knew for a fact that I had replaced the bed's frame with a reinforced titanium alloy, but it appeared the flooring under the bed itself was not able to hold up under the amount of repeated and rhythmic impact force it was being forced to endure. After the introductions, Luke took our order for the kitchen before coming back to the table and pulling up a seat.

"Luke, meet Raven. Raven, this is Luke Cage, hero for hire," I said, as an introduction between the two.

"Hey now, I don't know anything about being a 'hero for hire.' I just do what I can," Luke returned with a rye shake of his head.

"That's true, but 'Hero for Hire' has a better ring to it, and no one should work without getting paid," I replied with a shrug. "Get paid, brotha man, get paid."

Luke chuckled at that little interplay while Raven looked at me asconce, trying to figure out the inner workings of our culture. Letting out a little laugh, I placed a small silencer onto the top of the table. With a quick double-tap on top of the cube, it separated and took up the space covering the booth. The enveloped space allowed sound in, but no sound would be able to escape.

"Now we can safely talk about your adventure last night," I said with a chuckle, as Luke decided to poke a finger into the field that shimmered beside him. "I heard you got a visit from a man with a black scarf over his face."

"Man, I did not expect any of that last night," came Luke's reply with a huff. "All I planned to do was to help Jess. The next thing I know, Misty is demanding to go with, once I called her with the information."

"Yeah, that tends to happen when you deal with an assertive woman," Raven said with a nod of her own and a small smile on her face.

"Yeah, well, I had to deal with two of those damn assertive women last night. One wanted to shoot everyone or arrest them while waving her badge around. The other wasn't bulletproof, but was happy breaking down walls like the Kool-Aid man to get as many of those girls out as possible," Luke groused with some pain on his face, and I couldn't help laughing at him.

"OverWatch said you got all of the young ladies out, so no problem then?" Raven asked, and Luke and I could both hear the question in that sentence.

"Yeah, but we were not expecting the fight we found ourselves in or the guy at the end beating up one of the perps."

"Okay, so you called in backup and the law in Detective Knight. Everything else sounds like your typical hero outing to me," I replied with a shrug.

Luke gave me a look that said more than enough before he launched into his story. From what I heard, he took a ride in my Arkham tank to the brownstone houses. Luke mentions he wants one like it. The thing was that I had no plans to create something like the Arkham tank for anyone else. I might create a motorcycle with some camo and other functions; I would have to sit on that thought.

After that little comment, Luke spoke about how the augmented reality shades worked wonders for him in the field. That was good to hear because I hadn't yet rolled them out beyond the bulky versions that were built into most helmet interfaces. With the shades, Luke was able to locate the correct house and break in with his immense strength. Once he was inside, Detective Knight showed up, of course. Another tap caused his shades to pick up the locations of the thugs in hiding.

Detective Knight had gone into the house with her badge held high, like it was a magical shield that could stop bullets in mid-air, and Luke had been forced to rush in to protect her from the gang members with weapons. After the fourth guy just shot at her without paying any attention to the badge, she had gotten upset and talked about beating a few 'worse than their grandmama could.' Unfortunately, Luke didn't have the authorization to take any armor out of the Arkham tank, but he didn't know about that anyway. Another thing I would need to fix when I built him a ride of his own.

With the help of Detective Knight, they went about clearing the top side of the brownstone house. With some of the knocked-out gang members restrained with flex cuffs, Jessica had shown up in a cab and wanted in on the action. That was when everything went downhill. Luke didn't say that, of course, obviously trying not to make his pseudo-girlfriend look bad, but I knew that that was the case from reading last night's report. Alfred had prepared it for me right after the event and I trusted his report more than anyone else's.

Jessica had a big heart, that was a given, but damn was the girl brash as hell. Brash could be a great quality in this line of work, that wasn't the real issue. The issue was that she had no sense of team dynamics at all, or if she did, had no desire to pay heed to them. When she arrived, she kissed Luke, insulted Detective Knight, and then kicked down the door leading into the basement. None of this appeared in Luke's report. The only thing he said was that things had gotten rough. This kind of selective reporting was not going to fly if I chose to continue to assist him in the future.

From the report, Luke and Detective Knight were moving as a team, efficiently and safely clearing the house while taking down any goons they came across. Jessica did none of that; with the basement door kicked open, she pulled it off the hinges and charged right in. Anyone she hit was given a powerful blow, with Luke having to step in and protect her a few times. Everyone that she took down rested wherever they flew, and even Luke had to save a few from some of the locations they landed.

Once they got into the basement the fighting had intensified greatly. It was as if there was something down there that the gangsters didn't want anyone to find and they were willing to kill to keep it hidden. What struck Luke as strange and Alfred noted this as well in his report, was that the gangsters there had something extra about them, something that made them noticeably stronger and faster than was normal. What I noticed, in particular, was the amount of green these guys were wearing. Something that interested me were the walls that separated the start of the basement from the majority of it. From the strange, labyrinthine layout it was clear that something was being hidden down here.

Jessica had basically brute-forced her way to the girls, with little to no finesse or subtlety. They were located closer to the window that Jessica had used to get in during her first rescue. From there, Luke spoke of how they rescued the rest of the girls, but one of them had thrown Jessica halfway across the room out of fear. My medical people were already at the hospital looking after those girls. I wasn't overly worried about them; we had great services for people who wanted help here in New York. What did concern me was figuring out whatever was in those girls' veins. Luke was not a chemist, nor did he care about what they might have been cooking in that house.

The green and enhanced strength had me worried, but the last I heard from several recent reports was that Osborn was keeping his nose clean. I was rather hoping that the universe did not feel the need to fill that void. I didn't want another version of the Goblin running around, well, not this version, at least. I was holding out hope for this being my universe's version of the Scorpion. If not, then I planned to make my name feared in the underworld. Yet, I was not sure how far I would go if this was to be a Goblin akin to his comic version.

Norman Osborn, as the Green Goblin, was the worst villain to have ever lived and that's saying something with Carnage and Venom around. While he was the Green Golbin, Norman did everything from cloning to killing and raping Peter's girlfriends and family. Those were some extremely dark comics, and I still couldn't figure out how Marvel had gotten away with storylines like those. That was also the main motivation behind me killing him so early within my anti-hero(ish) career. I would do whatever was necessary to protect this world from such evil.

Letting out a sigh, I listened to the rest of what Luke had to say about last night's rescue, such as it was. It wasn't much of a drug den, but they rescued the girls, and that was all that mattered. Luke had plans to find out where this new, enhanced drug was going and who would be its main distributors, with Detective Knight helping him.

We finished up just in time for the arrival of our food. With a double-tap on the table, I had the cube reassemble itself to be stored away.

{I am Iron Man.}

[Coming to you live from Los Angeles, this is Brooke Summers with ABC Newsroom.]

Those familiar and famous words made me sharply look up to see Tony's smug smirk on the large TV screen above the bar.

"Well, shit." I let out, while Raven just laughed at my exasperated look.

"Look at it this way," Raven commented as she raised an eyebrow at me. "As long as he is hogging all of the spotlight, the dark shadows he throws will hide us completely."

"Wait, you know something about this?" Luke asked as he pointed at the TV behind the bar.

"Something like that," I replied with a shrug. Luke took that as it was meant, before turning up the TV so we could hear what they had to say. Tony was going on and on about his patriotic duty to protect the American people. Honestly, I was trying not to laugh at the spectacle going on. Everyone considered this breaking news, but I was more worried about the super drugs that were now seemingly on the streets. That needed my attention far more than Tony and his bloated ego.

The sound of an argument in the bar stole my attention from the TV. What I found were some of the spartans getting rowdy, but I didn't have to go over there because the Crew Chief was already breaking up whatever bullshit was going down. It would seem that the spartans were doing trick shots on the bar's pool table, and some asshole had bet money and lost spectacularly. Looking around, I noticed how few people there were within the bar this early in the day and had to wonder. Why did my people have to run into the one day-drinking asshole here of all places?

Luke left us to go and smooth things over while Raven and I finished our meals. Before long, Jessica noticed us and did a little salute with her beer, which I knew was a sign of both her respect and thanks for our assistance. I knew she was probably feeling guilty about what she had found last night, so I sent a text to Nat. They would have some words because I knew Nat would be able to get through that hard head of hers and reach her a lot better than I could.

O.o.o o.O.o o.o.O

After our lunch at Luke's Bar, Alfred had sent around some SUVs to pick us up and bring us back to Vega Tower. Thankfully, we hadn't needed to hire an external construction team for the repairs following the break-in. What we did was flex our muscle with the city to expedite the approval of new permits. After our new design plans were approved we erected a holographic field and my own people got to work. No way was I bringing in potential spies. Natalia and Emma had gotten the work done in record time. Alfred and my mother had even taken the opportunity to improve the defenses with the lessons learned from this incursion, allowed improvements that even Natalia wholeheartedly supported.

They had kept the futuristic look and overall feel of the building, but a lot of the glass panels that covered concrete now had weapon hardpoints. Each floor now also had a room that housed a drone bay that stored Alfred's spider drones with access to the vents for ease of movement. There was a dedicated satellite that stayed in orbit over the building at all times, now synced with a radar system. This upgraded system now tracked all airborne objects within the city. There would be no sneaking in with the new camera system that had cloaked hardpoints on and within the building.

The new defense system was overkill personified, simple as that. Yet, I didn't say a word, because I agreed with that philosophy. Hell, I even included some of the spartans from the island in the building's security forces.

Now, though, I was back to sitting in my palatial office on one of the higher floors doing the day-to-day activities typical of any high-level CEO. I was beginning to see why Tony placed Pepper in charge of all this administrative bullshit. The only reason why I haven't pawned off some of my responsibilities was that I liked my control and didn't want to make the same mistakes that Tony had, the ones that led to his very own weapons being sold under the table and then used against him. Then there was the fact that my mind was just too fast. It wasn't so much the paperwork that was killing me, no, it was sitting in the chair for extended periods, no matter how luxurious and expensive the thing was. What they never told you in the comics was that getting the speed force meant you had an over-amped version of ADHD to deal with.

To solve that issue, I had multiple holographic screens projected above the surface of my desk, and I was working on all eight screens simultaneously. One of my tasks today was going over the future expansion and construction plans for Salem and the Island in preparation for things I knew were coming. On three monitors I was watching several in-progress training scenarios taking place in my 'war rooms.' I had taken the design of the infamous danger room of the X-Mansion, and amped it all the way past a hundred. Each of the three war rooms was set up underneath my military facilities, modeled after the underground bases in the Resident Evil movies. Each war room was about 2 miles in size. I had a lot of stolen money to burn, so overkill was my design philosophy when it came to things like this, which was why I had reinforced both the floor and ceiling and used hard light modulators throughout.

With the invention of the artificial crystal tech, the hard light constructs became far deadlier and more realistic for use in combat training scenarios. When these were used in conjunction with the danger room technology, the 'war room' was born. The three war rooms were named the fighters pit, the space pit, and the command deck. Each room was the length of two miles with a fifty foot ceiling. We had gone overboard with the space expansion runes that the Ancient One had given us, but overkill was my motto. When large scale training exercises were being conducted, meaning all three war rooms were in use, the command deck ran the fighters pit and the space pit simulations. Everyone was currently split down the middle, red versus blue. Each side always started with a random number of forces that could range from fifty to a hundred or more.

The hard light modules could reproduce any weapon, and they packed a very realistic punch, though thankfully not so realistically that they'd kill my spartans. From the monitor feeds I could tell the fighting was incredibly fierce, the defenders fighting desperately against an overwhelming attacking force. This was training against desperate odds with no back up coming for at least another day. Faora was in command of the defending forces, desperately utilizing every strategy, tactic, and dirty trick to beat the odds.

But it was her against a team of my best military strategists, each one groomed from birth to be one of the world's greatest military tacticians, for battles on land or in space. I had to give it to her, though, because for each of her forces she lost in the land fight, her enemy gave up five. Shifting my eyes to the second hologram, I watched the space battle unfold. I wanted to see more, so I rotated my hand under the hologram. The display changed to show a camera view of the large room holding all of the simulated, fully immersive, space fighter cockpit environments.

I watched as my fighter pilots banked and fought for their lives across one hundred images. This spacious room was decked out with personal gravity modulators within each of the built-in cockpits. I watched as some leaned side-to-side as they made turns that would turn a pilot's insides to mush if they pulled those moves within any planetary atmosphere and without inertial dampeners. I watched the fierce dog fight amongst the solar system's asteroid belt as they duked it out over the strategic outpost that could help their side win the war.

Bright lights brought my attention to the explosion of the bomber ships of the red team. They lost six bombers during a bombing run when a fighter failed to take out their objective, one of the main gun emplacements. A bomber was never meant to be as nimble as a fighter, but from the piss poor evasive maneuvers attempted, it would seem that the ship's thrusters would either need to be improved or they would have to be changed to a new system altogether. Each of the simulated ships taking part in this simulated battle were acting in accordance with the capabilities and restrictions granted by the current design blueprints we had on file.

Each component was built, and exhaustively tested to determine how it would behave under a myriad number of conditions, then finally uploaded into the simulation. This allowed us to simulate how the ship would act and perform in the real-world under many different conditions, including the rigors of combat, before we built the actual ships at great expense, and long before we put my pilots' lives on the line.

There was no damping my excitement watching my people learn from their mistakes, gain new insights, and come up with creative new solutions, strategies and tactics. Their development curve was crazy and the low-stakes training environment meant that they could take risks without risking their ships or their lives. This was bringing us one step closer to being able to defend ourselves in the greater universe. The first step would be tapping the resources of our own little solar system, resources that I needed to get my hands on for several other plans to succeed. There had to be some goodies hiding out in the asteroid belt or on any of the other planets within our solar system that couldn't sustain life.

Sighing, I leaned back in my seat to enjoy the show my people were unknowingly giving me. I knew that I was procrastinating and setting aside real work that I would have to do later, like meeting with Xavier, but I honestly didn't care at the moment. The drive, flight, or run to upstate New York wasn't that long, but I honestly didn't want to go and talk with that man.

I know I'm procrastinating, but such is life.

Xavier was far too peaceful, sanctimonious, and stubborn for what needed to be done. I watched my people desperately fight for their survival, suffer through the hardships of hard-fought and hard-won battles, oftentimes dying horrifically on my behalf and for all of humanity, metahumans included. None of it was real, of course, this time at least, but one day it would be. And these men were mine. I had literally given them life and now they were dying for me, and for all of humanity.

After watching for some time, I made up my mind. The demands of survival, and the cold pragmatic mentality of a soldier, can't be the only thing that drives a civilization's development and evolution; there have to be those with kind hearts involved, with love and tolerance in their souls. It would seem that I had finally made up my mind on inviting Xavier onto the island and placing a few of my plans and goals within his hands.

There was a soft ping that drew my attention, a report flagged by Alfred for my personal attention had caused a new holographic screen to appear. What I found was a major surprise. It would seem that one of the underwater crafts trying to track down that power source we had detected recently, had detected an ore vein on the seafloor during the course of their scans, but has been unable to determine what it is yet. That was going to be one interesting mining project, especially since the data was indicating a 53.567% chance that there was gold within the surrounding area.

The scan indicated that it went very deep underground, which could make mining extremely difficult, but the initial scans were promising enough to warrant further investigation. While we still planned to have my island's currency backed by vibranium, gold was still a valuable commodity the world over. Profits from mining could also be used to launder a huge amount of the dirty money in my possession, if necessary.

I sent the data to the Minister of Science and went back to watching the simulated battles play out. After watching the battles a little longer, I noticed one of the soldiers that weren't selected for a leading role during this battle. He wasn't Rambo or the Terminator, at least in direct combat action, but damn was he good with his subtle use of telekinesis. It wasn't a surprise that no one was catching on to what he was doing. If someone had, they would have targeted them for priority elimination considering how effective their actions were.

I watched as soldiers died as a result of suddenly slipping in mud or from hitting the side walls as they tried to run through an open doorway. In both cases they were initially fine, neither the fall nor the impact doing much to hurt them, but it usually happened at some critical moment and was chalked up to bad luck by everyone involved. My perspective, though, showed the truth and the result. Each stroke of bad luck meant the sufferer was almost always gunned down trying to recover or escape, usually dying in the most embarrassing ways during something like this. In the few instances where they weren't immediately killed, I was convinced this soldier had allowed it. The one suffering the sudden fall typically received an injury that required their squad to assist and protect them, thus diminishing their combat effectiveness and making the group more vulnerable as a whole. If I was right, that was some shrewd and ruthless thinking.

There was a very good chance no one would even realize it! How many were going to tell their battlefield commander in the after-action report that they died because they slipped in mud and were run over by an oncoming truck? Or that they bumped into a door frame during their escape and was gunned down with vital intel. Yeah, this spartan 249 was going to get some extra eyes on him alright. That kind of outside-the-box, asymmetrical thinking, was not something you could train people to have, they either did or they didn't. With that thought, I flagged 249's file and asked Alfred to keep me apprised of his career and training. I watched until the very end, while I did my paperwork, of course.

Paperwork might be the death of plenty of people, but the SpeedForce was the solution to many problems.

O.o.o o.O.o o.o.O

After the end of the battle, I found my way down into Gwen's lab. The seat I was using was at the countertop on the other side of the glass that led into the sealed room that contained Gwen and Susan Storm. Gwen was currently studying what Essex had in his hard drives when we hit his second base of operations on Bar Sinister. The things that Nat brought back from that island had both Gwen and Sue drooling to get their hands on it.

Susan's situation worried me, but since she wasn't sleeping with Richards. I was more than happy to be alive and try my best to make sure that a reality-warping baby doesn't get born. Hell, at this point, she can marry Doom or Namor or anyone else and I would be fine with it. There was a flash of red light as I set aside the matchmaking scheme of introducing her to my Minister of Science as the room was flooded with fire.

Jumping up from my position, I attempted to phase my way into the lab but was rebuffed by a force field.

Well, fuck a frozen duck.

"We installed a defense net with our latest series of lab upgrades. Gwen and Susan were adamant about keeping foreign contaminants out," came Alfred's voice over the intercoms. I was already moving before the intercom had the chance to cut out.

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I flipped back to the far back wall as my legs touched down, then I was moving forward again. The sudden acceleration had me tilting forward, nose nearly touching the floor, as instinctual coordination and balance granted by the speed force kicked back in, launching me towards the shield cutting me off from Gwen and Sue. My left hand reached forward, sampling the harmonics of the field through the index finger on my left hand before I matched it and allowed the feeling to flow through the rest of my body.

The aura I projected covered and protected my skin like normal, but I watched as my clothes failed to make the transition through the force field, virtually shredding off my body. I cared little for what happened to my clothes as I forced my way into the lab.

What I found was something that was just surreal. Gwen and Sue were backed up into the corner of the lab while something was trying to eat them both. Luckily for them, Sue had had the presence of mind to throw up a force field with her powers and was successfully holding it back, for now. Whatever it was, it was the size of a polar bear and looked like a sludge monster trying to imitate the look of flesh.

The fires of the lab still blazed as internal systems tried to kill off the monstrosity. I had no clue what this thing was, but I was going to make sure it died and stayed dead. The flames, a security measure to protect against the release of dangerous organisms studied in the lab, poured into the room and circled us both as I grabbed the monster by its neck and yanked it back. Thankfully my control over the strength force meant the flames obeyed me. Limbs, tentacles, and everything else, flailed around, as it tried to force its way into my mouth.

No... No... HELL NO!

My mouth closed quickly, because somehow I knew just where this was heading. There was more than enough hentai around in this reality for me to recognise that. That was not going to happen, no sir, I did not swing that way even in death. My eyes were blazing with power while the tentacles wrapped their way around my neck. Then, I felt something reach for my third leg.

"Enough!"

Fire, lightning, and death came out of my mouth as I focused the attack on this hentai monster wannabe. Flames came out of my palms as I thrust them inside the thing and forced the flames to burn this thing from the inside out. The lightning in my veins burned out the monster's nervous system as it convulsed with the amount of power I forced into it.

The monster died slowly, becoming a writhing puddle of flesh, as I did all in my power to kill it. The puddle didn't even escape my wrath for what it tried to do to me and my girls. The flames that were still pouring into the room, that I had made surround us, leapt to my commands.

My gravity control raised the puddle of flesh off the ground and I slowly burned what remained to a fine ash. The flesh puddle screamed and screamed as I increased the intensity of the flames. I was going to kill it with fire! I refused to allow something like this to survive even a moment longer.

EXTERMINATUS BIATCH!

Ash was all that was left as more and more flames poured into the room. The intensity of the flames was kept up until I was certain that every trace of this abomination was deader than dead.

"Enough, Alfred. Cut the fire," I growled out, while keeping the fire cage set on the ashes of the monster. I was taking no chances today. Gravity pulsed as unimaginable weight bore down upon the already clearly dead beast. There was a gasp somewhere behind me, but I paid it no mind as the electromagnetic spectrum flexed under my anger at what almost happened.

A hand gently touched my cheek, drawing my attention. I found Gwen standing next to me with a look of apprehension on her face. I knew why she had that look on her face; she was experimenting with dangerous substances again. This time, though, the repercussions could have been beyond disastrous for her and Sue, especially if I hadn't been here to stop it.

Glancing at Sue, I caught her trying to catch her breath. I turned, ignoring her as I summoned over a stainless steel tray that was laying on one of the counters. Metal bent and flexed under my command as it molded around the pile of ashes that floated in the air. The metal conformed into a coffin/prison for whatever hellish creature it was they were working on.

"Whatever this experiment was, it's fucking over. Do you two understand me?" I said with chilling finality as I glared at the two sexy mad scientists.

"Wait, no, you can't do that," Sue spoke up as she got in my way. "The things we discovered with that culture sample could lead to a solution for amputations and so much more. This is world-changing, and I do not accept your dismissal of the discoveries we could make."

"Then, next time, perhaps I will only save Gwen and leave you to suffer your fate," I growled back, looking her dead in the eye. "I would think from your last misadventure that you would exercise more caution with that life of yours, Susan. Just because that worked out for you four doesn't mean it always will."

That blew the wind right out of her sails as I watched her deflate before me.

"I know, but we have to continue! The things we could discover and bring to humanity... it could change the world!," Sue exclaimed, and I could hear the naked pleading in her voice.

"True, but when you rush into things, you end up with abominations like this, and Richards' last extra-dimensional portal misadventure," I responded with a nod. "Where did you even get this sample? I made certain that anything that dangerous was not brought back here to the tower. The only thing I authorized coming back here was the data for Gwen to look over."

I looked between them both and immediately noticed the shifty look they shared.

"Gwen?"

Neither replied, but the shifty look they shared intensified.

"Please tell me you didn't." I looked hard at both of them, and yet still no one said a word. "Alfred?"

"According to recovered records, the sample was removed out of Sinister's Lab #3. Mr. Sinister conducted 42 separate experiments on the sample, all failed with bizarre unforeseen results before he ceased further testing. There are also notations about this being a sample of xeno-biology he acquired somehow. No other information on its origins is available," Alfred replied succinctly with the information that I wanted.

"How many deaths?" I asked out loud, knowing resource costs was one of the few reasons Sinister would give up on something this interesting.

"From the records, four clones of Mr. Essex were killed horrifically while experimenting on the sample before he ultimately gave up on further study. The resource costs and risks were too great even for him to proceed."

"Wow, even a supervillain, mad genius like Mr. Sinister decided it was too dangerous to continue working on this thing. I'm not saying maybe you two couldn't have done better, but you decided to give it a try by yourselves, with no backup, insufficient safety procedures, and no contingencies in place. You're both grounded, no more lab time for the rest of the week. I want you both to think about what could have happened here," I said with a heavy sigh, leaving my chest. "Gwen, I'll have to revoke your access if this is what you're going to do with our resources and against my orders."

"What, no, come on, Ben, it was only the one time."

The hand testing the firmness of my pectorals drew my attention before I could reply. Looking down, I caught Sue licking her lips, her eyes below my waist at the moment. Huh, I guess I was still naked from forcing my way into the room. The best thing about looking like a smoke show was that you didn't have anything to be embarrassed about when it came to nudity.

"Let's not forget the chi chamber incident," I recalled, as I looked at Gwen. She obviously hadn't forgotten given the innocent look she was trying and failing to sell. "Yes, Sue?"

"How can I gain access to these resources that Gwen keeps bringing back?" Sue asked me with hunger in her eyes. I wonder how much of that was scientific versus carnal.

"Take that week to reflect, and I will think about letting you onto the island," I answered before I turned to make my way out of the lab. The metal sphere that I had crushed down to an eight inch diameter was floating next to me. The smooth surface of the stainless steel it was made of reflected the light perfectly with an atomic smoothness only possible with gravity manipulation.

Leaving the lab, I found my smart band damaged, lying on the floor near where the force field had started. I would have to practice that move more. Leaving my clothes and technology behind was not a great option.

"Alfred, open my door, please."

O.o.o o.O.o o.o.O

I left the lab with those two mad scientists behind. I had to quickly get dressed to make sure I made it on time to Xavier's School. To be honest with myself, I didn't really need the design schematics for Cerebro anymore, nor did I want Xavier to stick his nose into what I have built, or to try and control my actions, or force his moral philosophies upon me. However, there were still things he had access to that I did not have. It was his fame and sterling reputation as a leading metahuman that I was after, a powerful and lifelong proponent of tolerance and love that would help me sell my message to the rest of the world.

Like two extremes on a spectrum, Charles Xavier stood for peace and coexistence on one side, while Magneto stood for meta-human supremacy over the norms on the other. I would be perfectly all right with peaceful coexistence, but I was far too much of a realist and student of history to truly think it was likely humanity had it in them to get there naturally. No, I was more of a fight back and launch preemptive strikes type of person, assuming humanity would need to be dragged kicking and screaming to get them to even the middle of that spectrum. Magneto's extreme would make himself, and metahumans along with him, the enemies of the whole world. That would never work. I had seen how that nearly led to the extinction of humanity.

The flight to the X-Mansion didn't take as long as it would have if we had flown in the X-jet, but it was also longer than if I had just ran there myself. I felt the shield that flowed over the gunship as we reached the outer limits of Salem, New York. This little town had me pumping millions and millions of my money into it to secure and protect all of the meta-humans that currently lived within its borders.

The word had gone out to those within the U.S. that Salem was a safe and protected place to live if you were a meta-human. They heard that this was the place to be, a place where they could be safe from all those that tried to hunt our kind, like The Friends of Humanity, the Purifiers, and so many more who were out there trying to skin us as heretics or outright kill us because we offended their shitty sensibilities.

There was no way I was going to let any of that happen to the metahumans who trusted me with their lives. So I had made sure that this town had more than enough firepower to protect against the actions of any of those morons that decided to visit. So far, we had caught a few low-level Purifiers and had to gun down others with the armed patrol drones. They didn't seem to be learning their lesson, so the body count was slowly building, but that was also helping us rescue and recruit more metas to the town as news that we were not all talk began to leak out to the world. Of course, this had led to an outcry and investigations by state and federal law enforcement, but my law enforcement had followed the law to the letter on the use of lethal force and had video to prove it. My lawyers ensured my people were protected.

My aggressive public relation campaign to rebrand and rename mutants as metahumans had finally started to bear fruit in recent months, with the media itself finally starting to use the new term, with the old almost being seen as a new kind of racial slur, which was exactly what I intended. My end game was to relegate the term 'mutant' to the same status as something like the N-word. This was not a small thing, a name was a very powerful thing and was incredibly important in influencing how the world viewed us as a group.

I was incredibly excited when I saw how the people of Salem were already using the new term to define themselves. This was the first time I saw it used first hand, by people that were not born on my island. There was so much more about their thinking that I would like to change, but all of that could wait until they moved onto the island. I had Natalia and her little team of killer women have a few chats in bars around town. They were putting out feelers, but also giving hope about the future. The island wasn't yet an open secret, but the people knew that they would soon be invited to someplace that they could call home, run by a government made up of people just like themselves.

Now the meta-population around here mostly knew of the island and spoke of it in hushed tones, all waiting for the day that the portal would open.

The gunship touched down on Xavier's lawn with a holo-projection hiding the ship's weapon placements. I took special note of the people that were waiting for me. Surprisingly, Xavier had Moira MacTaggert, of all people, standing at his side, with Hank on the other. I knew that Moira worked on some secret island in the comics and was a partner to Xavier before he lost his legs, but that was years ago.

My spartans were standing before the back ramps even lowered for us to exit. A hand stopped me from walking out as my spartans quickly exited the ship and secured the landing zone around the X-Mansion. Once they were happy it wasn't a trap or ambush, I watched as the spartans came to attention and waited for me to walk down the ramp, constantly scanning for threats. I was sure it had to be Nat that set me up. It had to be her or Faora, and there was nothing I could say because they looked mighty professional, like they were protecting a VIP, which I guess I kind of was.

I strolled down the ramp with my head held high, looking dashing in my charcoal grey bespoke suit. Separating from my men, I walked up to the professor and his entourage.

"Professor, Dr. Macoy, Dr. MacTaggert," I greeted with a smirk on my lips at how good I felt. The last time a formal/important meeting like this had happened, Xavier had had all of the cards and crashed the BBQ at my house, even exposing my abilities to my parents. Now it was my turn to crash things here, in his backyard.

Was I petty? Fuck yeah, I'm petty as fuck.

The three of them had a look of surprise on their faces when I said the name of the lady that was trying to play undercover. I had so much lore on Marvel and D.C. stored in my head, there was no way I was not going to know such an important person connected to the X-men.

After a quick handshake and some perfunctory pleasantries, I was directed within the X-Mansion, which was filled with meta kids once more. From the few visible, they looked like the ones we rescued from the place that had taken Peter and Laura. I noticed Mercury amongst the older ones who were taking care of the younger ones. I walked by without greeting her since the last time we met I had the Red Hood persona on, and she was never able to see my face.

"Professor, you called me?" Mercury asked as she came up beside our group.

"Yes, Miss Kincaid, I would like to have a word with you after my current meeting if you don't mind," Xavier said with a fatherly smile to the silver-skinned girl.

"Of course, Professor, " Mercury answered, whose real name was Kincaid, which I already knew.

Xavier gave a pleasant smile then ushered me towards his office.

O.o.o o.O.o o.o.O

Xavier took his seat behind his large cherry oak desk while Dr. McCoy again took up a position at his right, and Moira took hers at Xavier's left. Of course, I ignored the seat that was offered to me and took the one by the couches, in order to throw the power dynamics off-kilter. Before anyone could say anything, I also used my power to move them bodily to the other couches in the room while placing Xavier besides Moira.

Gravity control for the win.

"Now, I believe we can start," I said with a chuckle. "I'm not visiting the principal's office, Charles, so there is no need for that seat in front of the desk routine."

"Thank you for setting that straight, Benjamin," Hank said with a large smile that was all teeth. "Now, I believe you wanted to have a word about something; it was you who requested this meeting, after all."

"Hmm, yes, there are a few things I would like to talk about," I replied with a nod and a serious expression on my face. "One of the things on my agenda for this evening would be to obtain a copy of Cerebro's design schematics. In return, I would like to offer Dr. McCoy a position within my cabinet as an official Ambassador, representing my country in the United Nations, once my island becomes known to the world. One of your first tasks will be helping our new nation gain recognition as a sovereign state. It's going to be a tremendous challenge, but I think you are one of the few metahumans in the world who might be truly up for it."

"Wow, Mr. Blake, I don't know what to say," Hank replied, stunned at my offer, looking visibly excited at being asked to be part of the founding of a nation meant for metahumans.

"Hmm," Xavier muttered from his location. "Benjamin, might I ask what your plans are for those young metahuman students, the ones Ororo brought to your island?"

"To teach them, of course, and no, I don't plan to preach any of that mutant superiority nonsense that Eric teaches," I replied with a hand up to signal an end to this line of inquiry. "Now, Dr. MacTaggert is here, and I would like to understand why?"

"Yes, I asked Moira here to come and assist, since I have been unable to find qualified teachers willing to work with metahumans."

"I can send some teachers if you're in need," I offered, while tapping my chin. It was odd leading a conversation with Xavier, being who he was, but damn if it wasn't something else. This wasn't some ego trip, but speaking to one of my idols on an equal footing, well, that still had its wow factor.

Xavier and Hank shared a look, and I had to suppress the urge to smile. They had obviously thought I wasn't going to be so cooperative when I arrived, or would be directly competing with their school and would want to steal away their students. That might come naturally in time.

"So, with that out of the way, ask the question that's really on your mind?"

The group shared another look.

"Yes, tell us, what are your goals for the future?" Moira asked, going straight for the jugular.

"There will never be any true equality between normal humans and metahumans, no matter how hard we fight for it, no matter how much we sacrifice, no matter how valuable they realize we are in a harsh galaxy. They might pass the laws when enough money has greased palms or enough self-interest is involved, but it will never be a true equality. We will always be 'other' to them," I stated with a shrug. "My island is the first step for our kind to have a nation of its own. A place to not only call home, but to live free of discrimination and prejudice, without the constant threat of violence and death. Everyone that lives on this island will be metahumans or humans that have been carefully vetted. Anything other than that, you do not have the clearance to know."

"What about the United Nations?" Xavier asked with wide eyes.

"What about them? The nation I'm building sits on land that belonged to no one before. As a matter of international law, a sovereign nation is one that has a single centralized government with the power to govern a specific area. But fundamentally, sovereignty comes from the ability to defend that existence, to defend the people it calls its citizens. Our will, our determination, like our shields and weapons and powers, are strong, and we will defend our right to exist as a free nation and a free people," I replied with a shrug. "International waters allow for a great deal of flexibility in that regard."

The three of them shivered from the bloodlust I leaked out. That was all they needed to know, and I would say no more on that subject for now.

"Would I be able to see this island?" Xavier asked with some hope in his voice. It was odd seeing this icon before me with a child-like glee in his voice, but I knew why. I was doing something that would give our race a future, separate from the existing power structures that often failed to protect metahumans or grant them the rights everyone else enjoyed. He could try and argue such a step wasn't needed, but he was far too intelligent not to understand how important this was.

"Of course, Professor," I answered with a smile on my lips. "I believe it's also time you gained the use of your legs back."

"How? The nerve, muscle, and bone damage was far too extensive for any type of treatment," Moira answered swiftly.

Taking out my wallet, I removed two datapads the size of credit cards.

After the datapads activated, they returned to their normal twelve inch sizes. One went to Hank, and the other went to be shared between Moira and Xavier. Removing my smart-band from my wrist, I held it in one hand as I take master control of the datapads.

Bringing up what I was looking for, I had the data sent to their tablets.

"From the molecular structure, you can see that the medigel we've developed has a powerful regenerative quality," I stated, as I let them watch the video of the gel closing bullet and other wounds. "Combine that with our advancements in nanotechnology, and my people believe we have an 82% chance to successfully restore the Professor's legs to full function. If that is too unpalatable a number, we can always prepare a fresh cloned body for a full mind transference."

The silence was deafening for nearly a minute.

"The technology to perform such a thing would have to be advanced far, far beyond anything available or even known to be possible," Dr. McCoy nearly whispered in shock, as he shifted his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"I have the money, while Essex had the tech. Now, I have both," I said with a shrug.

"Benjamin, Nathanial Essex is not a man to be trifled with," Xavier said with a gasp at my revelation.

"He has been partly dealt with, and is now hiding in some dark corner of the world, licking his wounds and no doubt plotting his revenge," I sighed out. "We were able to shine a light in most of his dark little hidey holes and got Bar Sinister, his cliche supervillain island lair, but unfortunately he was still able to escape."

"That is... That is a lot to take in, Benjamin," Xavier replied, sounding stunned.

"That's alright, Professor. Take your time, sleep on it, and get back to me. So, how about those schematics for Cerebro... and let's take a look at the danger room while I'm here," I said with some mirth as I watched Hank try not to drool at the medical data he was reading.

"Of course, right this way."

---

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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