Chapter 60: Chapter 60

The Fastest Man Alive

Chapter 60

By: BigTofu

 

 

Fury

Director of S.H.I.E.L.D

The moment those blasted robots struck, Fury knew that he was getting far too old for this shit. Maybe his sister was right, maybe he should just retire on that beach alongside her and teach his nephew's kids. Fury chuckled to himself: Yeah, that would serve him right, having little spies running around the house messing things up.

Pulling his Last Word, which, with its size, should be called a hand cannon, but was assuredly just a miniaturized canon. Fury fired off four rapid shots in succession and the rounds exploded on contact, delivering devastation and destruction to the robot's body.

Yeah, I still got it. Fury smirked before walking over to kick the pile of scrap onto it's back as he peered down upon it's broken form. These sentinels and yes, he felt that name was very pretentious, were very ugly purple things.

"Sir, shouldn't you be behind cover?"

Fury looked over at May before shaking his head at her, "My trench coat isn't just for show you know. Barton, stop being lazy, tell me what you see."

"Sir, Widow already has the lower levels handled and I have already cleared out the right side. Two on the left remaining." Barton instantly replied without hesitation.

Fury took a moment to think as Coulson unleashed a gust of wind on the two unsuspecting robots. Ignoring the carnage of what was going on around him, Fury tapped Coulson and May on their shoulders before he jumped over the balcony.

Ohh yeah, he was back in the game, baby. Landing smoothly, he stepped from his location while doing a smooth quick draw. Two more rapid shots and another set of robots went down. Walking past the cowering politicians, Fury hid the look of disdain on his face behind a calm facade when he looked at them.

Tapping his earpiece, and checking his omni, Fury called for a sitrep. "Hill, how's it looking up there?"

"Hanger one is down, but our forces are being assisted by Pandora's forces, sir." Maria Hill answered over the comms.

"Take the helicarrier over the bay as Pandorans did with their forces, we don't want any more collateral damage than what's already been done," Fury commanded in a tone that allowed no arguments. Before he could hear the reply, Fury performed another smooth quick draw firing off three more shots before anyone else could react.

Screams from the politicians echoed in the room as three robotic humanoid bodies fell into the conference room. Snorting and ignoring them, Fury decided to walk over to where Widow had a command station set up.

"Your Grace, I deeply apologize for this blunder on behalf of the United Nations." Fury began and heard the gasp from the politicians behind him. "Ignorance of my colleagues aside, Is this the command station we are working out of?"

Widow made a crisp turn to look at him through her visor. Standing there with Coulson at his back, hand cannon in hand, Fury had a sudden itch for action. Instead of answering, Widow smoothly moved out of the way while motioning towards a set of monitors.

"May, Barton, you're on overwatch, Coulson you're up." Fury said, while standing back and letting his team take over.

One flap of his badass trench coat later, he holstered his hand cannon and made sure that he was at least inside the privacy bubble before he asked any of his questions.

"Now that everyone is distracted, what type of situation are we really dealing with?" Fury asked discreetly.

"It's all bad," Widow replied, visor facing towards the command center.

"Are we talking about nuclear options bad?" Fury questioned.

"If only. No." Widow said, letting out a sigh. "We are talking Skynet bad."

At that proclamation, Fury almost visibly flinched at what he was hearing. He wanted to rub his brow but Fury knew that he couldn't since he was in public.

"Please tell me that we are dealing with this," Fury asked, hands itching for some more action. Yet he knew that the field wasn't his place to be.

"Well, see for yourself." Widow gestured and Fury looked over to see his nephew making a path of nothing but destruction. Even the high speed cameras could not catch anything but a shadow of his nephew. Fury knew that these cameras were leagues better than anything that his people could get their hands on. If even the cameras could not catch him, then he was moving extremely fast.

And that was far too damn fast if you asked for his opinion.

Then it happened; and Fury had to flex his hands so that he didn't white knuckle them. Clear for all eyes to see, Benjamin sliced a mountain into four parts. The first cut clearly uprooted the mountain while the second cut bisected it.

Yeah, it was days like these when Fury was more than glad to be the favorite Uncle to that juggernaut of a nephew. The video feed then shifted to Benjamin raining down some pure destruction on the forces hidden inside of that mountain base.

Fury's teeth ground as he saw who was behind it all, Bolivar fucking Trask. He had shut him down a few years back. If he recalled, it was over some inhumane military experiment.

"Fuck." Fury spat as he saw who it was, and now with the talk of Skynet. He didn't know what he hated more. The fact that he couldn't put a bullet in Trask, or that he had to be the one to clean up this fucking mess.

---

Ororo Blake

Storm, Queen, Avatar of Earth

Rolling over to the side in the air, Ororo dodged what she deemed a redundant swipe as the sentinel she was facing missed it's target.

[Mutant subjugation protocols activated.]

That was all she needed to hear as she once more vacated the location she was in. Rolling her eyes at the flailing robot, Ororo just couldn't wrap her mind around it. The robot was programmed to find and subjugate meta-human DNA. What happens when it completes its mission? Logically, Ororo could already see the conclusion with these robots going to subjugate the rest of humanity. It was as clear as the robot before her that was constantly adapting to combat her powers.

It was such a logical conclusion since as far as Ororo could remember, both of her parents were standard humans before their untimely demise. So if you calculated it all the way to the end, since meta's came from humans: once all of the meta's were taken care of, it would only mean the sterilization of humanity being next. Since, logically that would be the only way to truly stop births of meta-humans.

[Mutant subjugation protocols activated. ]

Dodging another swipe from the robot she was facing, Ororo flew in close and placed a hand on it's back. Calling forth an Earth Series spell, Ororo unleashed the gathered magical energy from her palm sending the adapting robot into the road below.

The robot in question slammed into the road, creating a crater. Glowing brown lights then gathered around the robot as pillars of earth rose to engulf the downed bot.

Before it could be smothered within the earth, arcs of electricity flowed all over the robots body and Ororo was reminded of the lightning used against it. The robot did not only adapt, but it also absorbed the excess energy.

Growling softly to herself, Ororo sent a mental comand through her neural link and her helmet responded. Taking a deep breath, she then pulled out a gladius blade from her bag of holding. She took a moment to admire the finely made blade. It was a masterwork made from Vibranium and Adamantium, the gladius extended her reach but not enough to feel unwieldy. A fine blade that was well balanced and today was its first foray into combat.

A flash of blue rolled over her body as Ororo empowered herself with a spell. The wind whipped around her as she flew down post haste, never allowing the foolish robot to lock onto her.

With speed and grace, Ororo landed on one foot as she kept herself from doing a three point landing. Turing on a pivot, she then launched herself towards her target with clear purpose. Within a blink of an eye, Ororo was within striking distance, but two more steps had her within the personal space of her target.

This was the place she wanted to be as she then turned and swung upwards with her sword. Ororo's blade caught the robot off guard behind the leg and underneath the pelvic structure. The nano-molecular edge of her blade proved to be far superior to the metal composites that made up her adversary.

Ororo noted that as her blade traveled upward, the robot wasn't able to compensate for the lost limb. While the robot was falling due to a lost limb, Ororo conjured another spell that bathed her sword in a green glow. Stopping the momentum of her swing she slashed her blade in a downward arc bisecting the killing machine into halves. The earth shook and rumbled for a moment before vines sprouted from both halves of the fallen robots body.

If energy attacks wouldn't work then a spell conjuring the breath of life, that can bring green to the driest of places, should. Seeing that her spell did actually work, Ororo held her hand before her as more and more spell circles formed. Then before anyone could say or do anything more, vines flew out before engulfing the rest of the robots present.

Ororo checked her surroundings before speaking over her neural link. "Samuel, what's the sitrep?"

"The promenade and the outer areas around the UN buildings are clear. Widow handled the situation inside the building and we have a team on their way to Brazil." Samuel answered over the comms.

"I received a message that Benji took care of the place where these things came from?" Ororo asked since she had removed her helmet from which that information had come.

"Correct, his majesty destroyed the mountain and the mainframe that held the mastermind behind this fiasco. Her majesty Raven is right now overseeing the team that is in charge of ensuring the destruction of the leftovers." Samuel said while sending his reports to her omni.

Nodding her head at what she was reading, Ororo did a quick flick of the wrist sending the oils and robotic fluids onto the pavement. Then she slung her sword on her back, mag locks holding it in place as she took to the sky. Meanwhile a team arrived at her location and was already in the process of cleaning up the mess.

As she flew towards the UN building, Ororo did a quick geo ping for everyone and found Benjamin on the island at home with Medusa. A security feed popped up and allowed her to spy on Medusa getting far more than her fill. Tilting her head sideways, Ororo made a mental note to try that position later.

Closing down the security feed, Ororo then found the location pinging for Nat before she flew to her location. The correct building was easy for Ororo to locate as it was the only one with the most of the flags from around the world. Not only that, but it was the building with an enormous hole on its side and emergency vehicles surrounding it like ants.

Touching down inside the hole, Ororo ignored those around her as she made her way to the security station. This was the security station that was being manned by Natasha as it projected an unobstructed view for all to see.

Ignoring the playback of her destroying the robots outside, Ororo landed beside Natasha and checked her over. Before anything could be said between them, Natasha removed her own helmet and pulled her in. The kiss they shared was a long and passionate one. It was clear that once they left here, they were going to have a wonderful time.

Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, Ororo's tongue dueled with Natasha's before they were interrupted by a cough nearby.

Turning and looking into his one good eye, Ororo summoned her throne and took a seat. "Nicholas, it's good to see you have made it through this ordeal."

Ororo watched as he smirked at her while Natasha sat down on her own throne. The other delegates began to circle now and Ororo understood why Ben didn't want to be here.

"Director, I believe we can leave the coordination of our forces to you and Samuel." Ororo said, pointing to the head spartan in the command center. "Now, before we were rudely interrupted by someone's sick attempt at creating skynet,"

There were gasps of surprise amongst the crowd and Ororo had to put on a smile and wait patiently for them to calm down again. She couldn't help the image of them acting like little unruly kids playing in her mind's eye. "Yes, my fellow officials." Ororo said with a smile she reserved for the slower kids. "If you did not hear it clearly, these robots or sentinels as they were called, were programmed to subjugate meta-humans and those that carry the gene. Now, since we know through science that the gene can be carried by anyone and it originated from homo-sapiens in the first place. It's easy to put one plus one together and understand the answer is two. For those that are unable to put the pieces of the puzzle together: simply put, once meta-humans are subjugated, the next step would be to sterilize humanity to prevent such a gene from surfacing again."

Fury turned away and quickly started to take command of his forces in the area and Ororo could already hear him sending a team to Raven's location. Discreetly she noticed that Natasha was also giving out orders from her own omni. Most, if not all of the orders were to make sure none of the sentinels would remain before S.H.I.E.L.D arrived.

Yes,that was a prudent precaution Ororo noted.

"Impossible!" One of the delegates yelled out loud.

"I am sure the news stations personnel here will gladly sell you their video footage so you can further evaluate what happened while you were under your desk. Impossible or not, that is not why I am here right now." Ororo replied, peering at him from her seat. With a sigh, she stood up and dismissed her hovering throne. The delegate took a step backwards as she stood before them all. "The only reason why I have decided to stay and speak with you is to make a few things clear. My Emperor, my husband, has made his stance very clear about your perceived notion of power over our nation because we share the same borders with the majority of the nations here. That is not for me to dispute; of course the submarines that were liberated from our waters will be returned to each nation, unspoiled and unscanned. And it should go without saying: with the advent of the sentinels, cooperation and solidarity in the face of such an attempt at our annihilation should be the thing we strive for in hope for a better tomorrow. So, in the spirit of that, I will be opening our borders for travel or an embassy for those of you who would like to look into our cures and publicly available technology."

Natasha placed a hand on her shoulder and Ororo allowed her to speak, "Of course we will not allow our military technology to fall into the hands of any nation. Respect that, and you will be allowed on our space station above as well."

One of the holograms over the command center station changed and showed the now modified Attilan. The moon city was shaped like a massive snowflake, while on top of the base were sprawling skyscrapers. The shielding that protected the station from the harshness of space was clear for all to see. Any who laid eyes on Attilan could tell that it was vastly more advanced than the International Space station in orbit. Ororo nodded in agreement as she decided to make a few more points. "One last thing that is dear to my heart, the ocean."

"What about it?" The French delegate's translator asked clearly translating in real time for his official.

"We will no longer accept the unrestrained pollution of our oceans." Ororo said eyes alight with power. "Before, we kept to ourselves and cleaned whatever we could, but that ends today. You are now aware of our nation under the waves and we shall hold you to a higher standard.

Natasha took a step forward in a stance that was clearly one of aggression. "Let's make this easier for you to understand, you either start fixing the pollution problem, or there will be no more offshore drilling. It's that simple."

A delegate with the flag of Morocco on his lapel gasped clearly in distress. "You can't do that."

"We can and we will", Natasha said. "Tyler here can tell you about life underneath the waves if you would like to ask her." Natasha replied before turning around as her throne came back to her location. "Ororo dear, I believe we are finished here."

"Yes, I do believe we are: Tyler, we turn this over to your expert hands." Ororo said for everyone to hear as her own throne came and waited for her to be seated. "Nicholas, it was nice seeing you once more."

"Goodbye Tyler, we await your report."

---

Benjamin Blake

Doting Father, Emperor, User of Maximum Effort

Shifting with a grunt, I clenched my buttcheeks as I pushed in and upwards shifting the mountain of weight on my shoulders. Breathing through my nose and not the mouth, I went for rep after rep while listening to the groan of the massive machine perched on my shoulders.

My grip shifted before I dug deep to push once more as I finished off with a powerful hip thrust. Letting out a slight grunt, I pushed up, all the way with one hand before calling a stop to the weight training. Grabbing the towel offered, I turned to the floating robot, "Talk to me Kelix."

"Current strength levels place you beyond class one hundred. Of course, these are the classifications provided by S.H.I.E.L.D. The current machine has reached its limitations at four hundred thousand tons, I advise improvements with gravitational flux capacitors. On a side note, the girls are prepared and ready for you inside the training room."

Since I wasn't sweating from what I was starting to consider a minor exercise, I tossed the towel over my shoulder before exiting the lower levels of my gym. Ignoring the express elevator, I went for the stairs. Looking at the B7, I ignored that to look upwards and noticed how it just went up and up, chuckling as I took in my own madness, I did a light jump that flung me upwards at ridiculous speeds.

Putting a hand upwards, I lightly caught myself on the ceiling before swinging myself towards the B1 door. Walking through the door, I gave the towel I didn't need to the retreating floating bot. Walking into the training room, I was greeted with the sight of my kids flying around as they played catch.

I noticed that Maya wasn't here and when I checked my omni, her location was pinging from the gardens with Illianna. Looking over at the firing range, I walked over and tapped Alfred on his shoulder. "Do you plan to join?"

Alfred looked at me, then down at his charging mega blaster. "My aim has not yet reached optimal efficiency, I will have to decline."

"Ohh come on, don't be like that," I said pouting down at my son. "I keep telling you to stop being so rigid, come back your sisters up and you'll experience real-life targets over those holograms."

Before he could say anything to get out of it, I turned him towards the fighting mats. He didn't protest and I smiled as Alfred took position right next to me. Floating up and over the mat, I caught the ball the girls were using to play catch. "Alright, you all wanted me to see the cool new powers you now have. Alfred is going to be on your team and you will face me."

"No fair," Phoebe complained, hands alight with power.

"Agreed," Followed up Celeste behind her sister and I noticed the organic diamonds forming on her fingertips.

"I believe we are owed ice cream," Sophie interjected but I had to roll my eyes at her sweet tooth antics.

Waving my hand at the lot, I had them pulled and grounded as I then walked onto the training mat. "You should have had it in writing because as the DAD, I get to make or change the rules. Your brother needs good target practice and I feel you girls would need his help."

Turning, I looked at them with a smug smirk before clapping my hands, "So let's get this show on the road shall we."

Without sharing a word, Alfred took the front tank position with his sisters arrayed at his back. It was easy to tell that their battle training was doing what it should when they didn't call out attack formations and plans for me to hear. Changing visual spectrums, I could tell that their communication was all telepathic.

Instead of ruining their link, I jumped back while sweeping my left hand upward with an open palm. My kids were tossed upwards into the air by my gravitational control and I noticed that Alfred paid it no mind as he tried to line up a shot. Of course, I dodged out of the way since it was the utter height of foolishness to stay in the way of a charged shot.

Dodging right, I was greeted with a fist covered in layers of hard light as Sophie took a swing at me. Twisting my body, I booped her nose before putting up a hand to catch a blast from her sister. Interestingly Celeste had invisibility with her organic diamonds.

Making a note of that, I flipped upside down before running along the surface of the ceiling. Sophie tried to box me in with hard light constructs which didn't work. A light flick had the constructs shatter, but the smirk on her face told me it was a trap.

Without showing that I fell for it, I simply cartwheeled out of the blast Phoebe sent at my back. My girls were smart because they had pulled a double-layered trap on me. Sophie's hard lights were leading me for the shot in the back, but they had done it in a way for me to lose track of Celeste. Well, they clearly wanted me to lose track of her with how they were cornering me with attacks.

Accepting it and wanting to see where they were going with this, I ignored the movement of the air as my kids popped back into view. Celeste was on Alfred's back and his mega buster was fully charged. They didn't wait for a signal as Alfred fired that super overpowered canon of his at me.

Rolling my shoulders once, I deftly caught the charged shot before compressing it down and dissipating the energy within. I made a mental note to get a picture made because the look on their faces was priceless and I was sure that Emma would love to look at it later. Chuckling at them, I dashed forward while making sure my speed was just above their own.

This was training so there was no need to overwhelm my kids with power. Pushing a hand forward, I made sure that they were able to see the clear outline of the force field I used to push them back and out of bounds.

Alfred turned and threw his sister back towards the ring as his feet crossed the line and mission kill rang out over his head of his hologram form. Then the mission kill message and Alfred's form glitched for a moment before disappearing in a swirl of particle lights.

It took me far less than a microsecond to realize what the little scamps had done: can't believe they set me up! Ignoring the digital death of Alfred, I moved from my location while dodging a kick aimed at my head by Phoebe, she followed up her miss by attempting to blast me point blank with her double handed laser blast.

A blue shield quickly appeared between us as I then wrapped her in soft hard light and made sure she was mission killed this time. Jumping upwards, I flipped over to stand on the ceiling as I dodged the next attempt from Celeste and Alfred.

Turning around, I smirked at Sohpie who decided that a tactical retreat was in order as she jumped out of the ring with her siblings. Chuckling, I pulled them all back towards me with a little gravity and motion control.

Still chuckling at them struggling to get out of my arms, I walked over to the end of the mats for a quick cool down.

"You've improved your teamwork," I said letting them go and allowing them to fly out of my arms. Alfred smiled as his body armor opened up and allowed him to get out of it. The girls shared a high five. Shaking my head at them I just dismissed everyone to the showers while I went myself to get cleaned up.

Once clean, I went with my kids to the kitchens that fed the troops that worked out in my training facilities. Since the cafeteria was one of those no rank allowed zones, I didn't have to worry about the whole room getting into a salute and showing respect.

While I was eating with the kids, Taleb came over.

"Your majesty," Taleb said with respect in his voice. "Thank you for your hospitality, but might I ask who will we be visiting today?"

"The tribe Proudstar has put forth a request to meet me, I thought you might be interested," I replied to Taleb, keeping the part about Emma finding Warpath to myself. The tribe wanted to meet and I felt that Taleb could learn something from meeting them. "Regardless of their decision, we will be leaving for the Savage Lands this afternoon."

Taleb gave me a contemplative look before nodding his head in acceptance. While Taleb went to get himself a tray, I turned to my kids eating at my side. A few simple gestures from my hand had a simple game of tic tac toe projected onto the table.

Alfred saw the look on my face and instantly said he didn't want to play. The girls obviously didn't get what was about to happen and jumped at a chance to beat their dad. Of course as the superior adult in the situation, the triplets were defeated. Poor girls didn't know what they were signing up for as I won game after game.

My omni beeped and I checked it to see that it was time to go. Smiling at my girls, I showed them the trick to box a person in while playing tic tac toe. Leaving Alfred in charge of his sisters, I left with Taleb as I made my way over to the transport station.

As I got there, I found the portal already set and ready for me to pass through. Man it was good being Emperor. Ignoring the guards flanking my sides, I walked through the portal and found myself in Arizona, Camp Verde. Sitting on a rocking chair a hundred meters away was an old man and on the path leading into town stood, John Proudstar.

It was obviously him since he matched the profile that Emma had uploaded into my servers. John was a massive Apache warrior that stood seven feet tall easily. The fierce glare he was sending me and mine spoke of a man willing to do what was needed to make sure law and order was kept.

Taleb responded to the stance that John was using, but I had to put a hand in his way to keep a fight from starting. Predator instinct wouldn't do anything against someone with superhuman everything except flight.

Moving towards him, I waved off my guards since I liked to fight my own battles. Walking up to the warrior, I looked him in the eye and waited for him to say something. While I waited on him, I took in the town and its old rustic feel. The saloon in the distance was like it came right out of an old western movie.

"I did not believe the shaman when he said you would arrive today." Warpath said, looking me over unafraid.

I shrugged at that comment, "I've learned not to dismiss the words of magical elder beings, there tends to be far more trouble when you ignore their words."

"The shaman tells me you carry the wolf spirit, is this true?" Warpath asked clearly unamused.

Before I could answer him, the wolf spirit in question poked its head out of my chest. A hush fell over the town as they watched as a massive wolf bound its way out of my chest. The wolf spirit was wreathed in lightning as it did a few laps around the small town.

When it came back to where we were standing, it amazed me how massive the wolf spirit had become. The wolf spirit howled for all to hear before jumping up and then down fusing back into my body. Warpath raised an eyebrow, but I completely ignored him.

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Turing to the side, I called forth one of the werewolves that joined my personal guards, "Silva, come show this gent your party trick."

Out from my troops came Silva with her long and sleek silver hair. Yeah, I know, that name was so on the nose and I had to roll my eyes when she told me. Silva came forward to stand next to us, then she removed her helmet before transforming into her half wolf form.

This time Warpath did take a step back and muttered a word that I barely missed. Silva turned back into her human form before heading back to her position amongst my troops.

Before I could say anything, I felt the world shift and I took a step back as a wise old man walked out of thin air. Warpath flinched slightly as the old man appeared and from the feathered crest on his head and markings it was clear that he was the old shaman, Warpath was referring to.

Warpath might not know, but I knew better and this old man screamed magic to my senses. The same alarms were going off for me that went off when The Ancient One, Agatha Harkness, and Selene were around.

"Sir," I said in difference to the old man, it was important that he knew that I was being neutral but not servile. Warpath could clearly tell that something wasn't right and he was now giving the old man a lot of attention. I honestly felt bad for the man, both myself and the old man could wipe the floor with him and he would never see it coming. If what my senses were telling me was correct, then this old man had been alive for a few hundred years.

The old wise shaman pulled out a pipe and tapped it once on his knee. He then let the old coyote pipe float in the air as he joined it, then pulled out a small wad of tobacco. The old shaman then fixed his pipe up before puffing himself a long toke. "Have you come to have our tribe join your tribe?"

Looking at him and then Warpath, I then levitated myself into the air and took up position before them both as I floated there. "I came with an offer of adventure, riches, and purpose for John Proudstar; but if the offer of joining is on the table, then I don't mind performing the trials to become Chief."

The old shaman smiled at me, "Never the hero, but always willing to protect."

I did a small bow in difference to the shaman, "I was never born to be a hero, but being a protector is in my blood."

The shaman smoked his pipe some more and it was clear that he was thinking things over. "The tribe will join once the red planet breathes life once more, not before."

Of course the old man would know about my Mars project, but that was alright. If things worked out the way I wanted them to, then I would be able to bring life to the Apache once more.

"Go young Proudstar, adventure across the lost lands, watch him; and then come tell the tribe of his nature." The shaman's words came riding the wind as he vanished from view. Things were quite as we took in the silence the shaman left in his wake.

Putting my feet back on the ground, it was time to face this titan of a man.

Standing up, back straight and facing the man before me. I felt it was time for some straight talk. "A recommendation from Frost came across my desk with your name on it. Are you interested?"

John mulled that thought over in his head for a moment before speaking, "For?"

"Savage Lands, one of the last unexplored lands unknown to man." I replied easily, then my omni came to life. Above my wrist was video footage of the dinosaurs roaming the savage lands and a few of the Land's people.

The tribes in the savage lands ranged from more tiger people, to dino people and the usual cavemen and so much more. I could already see that I had hooked the man with the exotic monsters available for the hunt.

"Our shaman has spoken for you, so I shall put my trust in his words. Promise me a T-Rex, and I shall track for you." James said his warrior pride clear in his voice.

Looking him over, I had to think about that for a moment before I could give him a complete answer. "That can be arranged, but I won't let you throw your life away. If we see that you are unable to take down the beast on your own, then we will assist."

"Deal."

---

Jean Grey

Phoenix, Queen, Hottest Girl Around

Space Station Titan

Sitting in one of the cafeteria seats, Jean had to push down the urge to face palm. Somehow they had talked Benjamin into appearing before the United Nations and he decided to put on a display for all to see. Shaking her head at the over the top display, Jean leaned back in her chair and kicked up her feet as the crew around her cheered.

They had been out here on the space station for about a week waiting for that lady to finally wake up. Sue had come to check on her and found that she was still out only due to exhaustion. Afterwards giving Sue her thanks in the form of some kisses to the land down below.

Jean decided to stay on the space station while overlooking the mining operation instead of going back to earth . Well, she wasn't just doing an overwatch of the quintillion dollar mining operation, but also the surveillance of the solar system.

Ohh she remembered the day that Emma had heard about the worth of this asteroid they were currently connected to. Chuckling to herself, Jean had to shift aside the memories of Emma drooling all over the place.

Summoning a pad to her hand, Jean logged in before checking for any alerts that might need her immediate attention. Seeing none, she opted to get up from her seat, pad in hand. Leaving the cafeteria, Jean floated along as she ignored what was being displayed.

Humming to herself, Jean noticed that some of the shuttles needed maintenance, while some of the outer vents needed cleaning. There was a long list of things to do and she was going to get them done. Honestly, she wanted to just walk through that portal down on the promenade and go back to earth, but she couldn't.

Jean knew that she had been the one to pick this adventure and there was no way she was going to leave now when things only got a little rough. Stopping at her quarters, Jean changed out of her officer clothes and into a pair of overalls. The UMF was great but sometimes a girl liked good ole fashion clothing.

Idly, she noted how this was the same overalls from yesterday since it was the same one she pulled towards her from the computer chair. Sniffing the overalls, Jean was happy to note that it didn't smell funky even though it had a few grease stains. Shrugging, she pulled on the overalls before summoning the pad back into her hand with a little application of telekinesis.

Looking over the maintenance on the shielding for the shuttle, Jean floated along the hallway until arriving at the elevator. A quick press for down had an elevator summoned at her location before whisking her downwards.

The doors opened and Jean found herself in a large docking bay with hundreds of shuttles built to fly around the solar system. Not only did these shuttles survey the solar system, but they also ran security for the cargo ships that traveled between the space station and earth.

Standing on top of the gangplank, Jean looked down at the rows upon rows of space ships. There were four rows of twenty five ships, each ship had at least fifteen meters of room for maneuverability. At the far end of the dock was a massive blue energy field that was at least four stories tall. It was easy to see even as Jean stood on top of the gangplank that the tri-barrier was working like it should.

The first time seeing the tri-barrier Jean had obviously freaked out, hell, it was space and all of it's dangers right there for anyone to fall through it. Shaking her head at that memory, Jean watched as two shuttles levitated upwards on their VTOL system before flying out of the massive exit.

As those two ships flew out, three ships flew inside and that was when things got busy. From down underneath the gangplank, a door burst open and a rapid response team took off towards the shuttles.

Taking a moment to watch them, Jean had to give them credit for their efficiency. The shuttles had barely made it to their landing points and the response team was already there and ready. The back of the shuttle came down and a stretcher was visible for Jean to see from her location. Making a mental note on ship delta seven, Jean was sure they would be sending her a very interesting mission report to read.

Letting her people do their thing instead of hovering over them, Jean watched as the shuttles were emptied of everything except the pilot that liked to do their own maintenance. Smiling at that, she flew up and over the railing because just like those pilots, she was here to do her own maintenance. Jean didn't mind someone coming to look over her work once it was complete, but she liked to do the fixing herself.

It was one thing to read a report and see that someone had fixed the issues her ship was having. Yet, it was another for her to learn the in's and out's of her own ship. The shuttle was her baby after all and since she was the one flying it, Jean felt obligated to make sure that she did her best.

Flying over the walkway and making sure not to stray close to any of the boundary lines, Jean kept going until she arrived at the side of a scarlet red and gold shuttlecraft. Smiling at her ship, Jean gave the ship a once over before landing on the ground. Benjamin had modeled her ship after that X-70B Phantom class ship out of Star Wars. Granted it looked far better than half of what they found in the Xander Archives, but still, it was modeled after a Sith ship.

Anyone back home that was as big of a geek as her Benjamin would be able to figure it out, she had told him that, but he didn't listen. Jean was happy that he didn't listen because the moment she got behind the controls. Jean was certain that she would eviscerate anyone for scratching her baby.

Shaped like an arrowhead with heavy quad blasters, full gravity-pressed adamantium armor with a stealth package thrown in. The back end had four massive gravity drive engines, while no matter where you looked over the front, no one could find the cockpit.

Cockpit was situated in the middle of the craft, which didn't take up as much space as she first thought that it would. Since just like everything else hand made by Benjamin, it came with expanded spatial dimensions.

Looking over at the matrix squid in sleep mode, Jean snapped her finger at it. "Look alive R2, Mama's back." The very large, very robotic squid modeled after the matrix versions opened its eyes before happily bounding over to its master. Tapping R2 on the head, Jean then pulled out her command key before pressing the button for the cargo bay hatch on her ship.

The back ramps lowered and Jean linked her pad to the systems of her ship the X-70. Eyes scanning down the checklist for her ship, Jean noticed that a few things flagged yellow. Two were simple calibrations while one was already underway with a regularly scheduled update.

Letting her pad float to her side, Jean ran a hand over R2's chassis as she walked up the ramp to the cargo bay.

"R2, get me a spare resonance crystal out of the stock in the back," Jean said as she opened a tools locker. Pulling out a tool kit, Jean then walked back out of the ship and to the front directly underneath the cockpit. Underneath the cockpit of her X-70 was a housing assembly that contained a military-grade tractor beam.

The chassis of the beam was off by three centimeters from all of the heavy lifting over the last few weeks of work. The small deviation shouldn't have occurred because her ship was more than built to last, but the issue was that Jean was working the tractor system like a workhorse. She knew that the hauling of those ice-based asteroids was the probable cause. Yet, Jean was more than alright with this.

That was because once there was enough ice within the orbit of Mars, then the terraforming could begin. She still couldn't believe that no one had been able to track them or figure out that a planet was about to be terraformed right next door. So much for NASA and looking to the stars if they missed something so important.

Ignoring the scampering of metal behind her, she then floated into the air, legs crossed hands adjacent to the tractor beam. Undoing the hidden reverse inside the latch with her telekinesis, Jean then opened her toolbox and pulled out the key to open the linchpin of the housing.

Once the housing was opened, Jean looked it over before reaching for the crystal. Same type of crystal was deposited into her hand by R2 while his other tendrils went about inspecting the underside of the X-70.

Finished with her work, she checked the crystal replacement for any smudges. Finding none, she hit the locking mechanism and then looked down at the crystal that she had pulled out of the housing. Jean noticed that there were slight cracks here and there and made a note on the pad for the R&D department. It would really suck if a crystal burst while out in the field. This way, they could explore and create an improved version.

Packing up her kit, Jean then floated back as her things packed themselves away. "Thanks, R2."

Smiling at the beeps and toots of her bot, Jean then floated up the ramp before waiting for an elevator. Once she got into the lift, Jean then took it to the cockpit. Running her hands across the controls, Jean typed in her password while inserting her key fob.

Once the X-70 activated, she then had it run a systems check while she did a cross-check with her own tablet. R2 came into the cockpit behind her and settled into the cradle overhead. Fingers flew across buttons and holo-images sprang forth showing the status of the ship.

The sound of boots on metal told Jean that her co-pilot had arrived but she ignored that as he sat down and proceeded to give assistance. Without looking up, Jean could feel the presence of Matthew as he sat in the co-pilot seat.

Finished with what she was doing, Jean sent a request to the flight control for a release from the docking bay. "So, how was your night?"

Mathew paused in what he was doing to let a smile slide across his face, "I took that pretty Atlantien Kira from Starbucks out to a Zero-gravity game of capture the flag."

Jean saw the sly smirk on his face but chose to ignore it, "Who won?"

"I did of course," Mathew replied while his hands ran over the stabilizer controls.

Rolling her eyes at him, Jean decided to deflate his ego, "Poor Kira, if all you can say after last night is that you won."

Putting hands over his heart, Mathew feigned devastating injury at her words. "You wound me, boss."

R2 beeped from up top as Jean finished reading her X-70 flight checks. "Yeah, yeah, so how was the Zero-G game, I was out with Raven last night and wasn't able to catch the match."

"The Sharks won, I lost twenty credits over it too." Mathew was clearly not happy about that. "But Kira did make up for my losses, we plan to head down to the fourth city of Atlantis for our next date."

"That's nice to hear," Jean replied before hitting the button to close her cargo bay doors. Checking to see that her crew were on board, she hit the communications button. "Flight control this is Phoenix, we are still waiting for that clearance."

[Sorry about that ma'am, launch approved, mission logs updated, Flight Control out.]

Taking it for what it was, Jean had her shuttlecraft hover in place while giving out commands to the rest of her crew. The calls came from the back as she heard them buckle down, once the rest of her team gave her the green, she slowly pushed the throttle forward.

Feeling the light press back into her seat, Jean checked her inertial dampers and found them at one hundred percent. With a quick motion of her hand, the inertial dampers for the cockpit were brought down to seventy percent right as they arrived at the outer edges of the cargo bay. Unlike some other flyers, she didn't like the completely smooth ride, Jean liked feeling the shifts of gravity during her flight.

Running a hand over her own seat straps to make sure they were tight and snug, Jean could feel the unease creep into Mathew in the co-pilot seat. Good, she was glad that he was aware of what was going to happen next.

"Alright folks, you have elected to ride with Phoenix air, but that's neither here nor there. Today our short flight will take us to the ice fields of Saturn where we shall collect the gathered ice mined for the oceans of Mars soon to be Pandora One. You know the rules, no poking strange biology found, kill it with fire if it looks at you strangely. And ohh, if you take off your helm or suit to take a closer look, I will space your ass and leave you out here. I refuse to be the star in some show of alien horrors. Thank you for flying air Phoenix." Smiling to herself, Jean turned off the intercom as they reached the outer edges of the docking bay.

Arriving at the tri-shield, Jean waited for the final scans to flow over her ship. Green lights given and flight plan settled into the navigation star charts, she hit the throttle. Laughing with the amount of energy that was completely missed by everyone else, Jean pulled back on the left flight control while pushing forward with the other.

The movement was instantaneous and the ship twisted and dove in one fluid motion. Down and down they went along the outside of the space station dodging pylon arrays that housed sensor units as if it was a training course.

Arms moved in a blur as Jean had her ship twist and turned dodging left, right and loops around the sensor pylons. This kept going for another sixty seconds before the ship made it into open space. Pulling back on the throttle, Jean pulled the controls around in a steady motion bringing her little star ship to face it's massive older brother.

Jean couldn't help but take a moment to take in what was going to be her nation's flag ship, the Infinity. The Forward Unto Dawn was just a little frigate compared to this new class of Super Carrier that came in a size almost unimaginable. Once completed, the Infinity was going to be over five thousand meters long.

When she had first heard of it and seen the blueprints, Jean was of the mind that it was impossible, but again she was proven wrong. Maybe building something like this on earth wouldn't be possible, but out here in the zero-g void, it was completely possible.

Smiling at the dockyard, Jean took her X-70 along a flight path around it's outer edges. This was so she was able to take in the massive letters of the super carrier. From that morning's briefing, Jean knew that the Infinity was already completed and would only be in the docks for another week as they ran system checks. Once those checks were over, the super carrier was going to be fully operational.

From what she knew about the new ship, it was going to be the backbone of Pandora's fledgling military might. What made that ship stand out from all of the rest was the unlimited solar reactor built inside of it, also in tandem with a speed particle drive. Benjamin had locked down the study of that particle with such restrictions, she was amazed that he let up on his paranoia for it to be placed inside of the ship.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Jean pulled back and up on her flight stick while pushing forward on the throttle. Power shifted across her X-70 and the engines thrummed to life as they kicked the ship into higher gear.

Pulling away from the space dock, Jean set her ship on a course of five zero one: the location marked on her map for today's pick up. A quick check found the GPS timer setting them for a fifteen minute cruise. Once she knew how long it would take, Jean checked the shields levels while also making sure R2 monitored everything else.

"Mathew, you had the guys load that new netting right?" Jean asked, hands working.

Mathew looked up from his own controls with an easy smile on his face, "Yeah boss, I made sure to get us the good stuff. It's a new tri-weave that they would like us to report on. The techy said it's a marked improvement over the last variant that we were using."

"Good, good, I don't want any more snapping wires while we are out in the black," Jean replied while pressing the okay sign for movement on the ship. Since they were no longer in the space lanes, Jean felt it was alright to let her crew stroll around. Instantly she got a reply from the med tech and one of the scientists about running their own diagnostics on their equipment in the cargo hold.

Sending R2 after them so he could keep an eye out, Jean went back to watching the stars. Feet kicked up and played with her omni, Jean couldn't help taking a few pictures of Jupiter as they flew by. As the techs heard the news of Jupiter and how they were about to fly right by, her omni exploded with several requests.

Rolling her eyes, Jean hit deny for each of their requests. She knew the capabilities of her ship and there was no way they were going to survive the gravity well of Jupiter. She of course told them that with far from flattering words. The flight map has been available for a few days now. The fact that they waited until last minute was not on her, hell they could have taken an exploration vessel with far beefier engines.

Ignoring them, Jean checked the star chart and found that she only had seven minutes left on the clock. Sighing to herself, she took up the controls once more while also turning off the auto-pilot. Engines flared to life as they were pulled out of their forty five percent powered mode of auto pilot.

Within moments the X70 shot forward slicing through the void with Jupiter's form shrinking behind them. Markers appeared before her as the holo-imager projected them for her to see. Signs and markers showing the working zones of Pandora's exploration industry appeared all around them. Ignoring but a few, Jean flipped her ship upside down as she flew under a particularly large ice-roid on the outer rings of Saturn.

As they dodged past the massive asteroid, Jean took the X-70 on an angle that had them look down on the majestic rings of the planet. Taking a moment to glide along, she gave the med techs some time to take their pictures. After a few minutes had passed, Jean then rolled her X-70 starship over in space.

Cutting to starboard, hand on the throttle, Jean put them into a roll before repositioning towards the right direction. Direction locked on, she then pushed forward on the throttle putting them in a large and loose spiral.

As her ship traveled across the vast expanse of the void, she let Mathew take over for a moment. Hand raised behind her was greeted with a mechanical claw from R2 as he placed her helm into her waiting hand. Taking her helmet, Jean checked over the three plugs on the back of the unit. Once she was certain that everything was in working order, she then went about checking the visor.

Happy with what she was seeing, Jean put on the helm before looking around. On the HUD, the display showed marked latitude and longitude lines. The HUD also went beyond that and showed the X, Y and Z axis for its wearer to see.

Looking around as her co-pilot flew them along the arching path towards the star chart markers. Jean checked to their left and then to their right, before looking down, then upwards. It was easy to tell that the spatial drift hand moved the picks from where they should have been. A hand on the ship's communications panel sent out sensor pings to the buoy that would be in the area of operation.

A return ping came from their Z axis up high by fifty six degrees. Laying the course into the navi-computer, Jean took back control as she flew them towards the location of the sensor ping. Within five minutes, they had arrived and what they found was breathtaking.

Outside the ship, Jean looked at the hologram windows and saw countless scout bots moving around in a swarm of action. Hundreds of thousands of matrix squids swam in space and Jean had to smother a shiver that ran down her spine. If she didn't know any better or at least the redundancies in place, she would be very worried about Benjamin creating Skynet out in space.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Jean had Mathew park the X-70 while she went over the retrieval notice. It was for an ice-asteroid twice the size of Alaska. Damn, that was going to be a lot of water. Pressing the button for internal comms, Jean called for Jacob to meet her in the cargo hold with the rest of the scientist.

Mathew dropped an anchor down onto the ice-asteroid to hold them in place. A check over the controls had them in sync around the asteroid, Jean then got up from her seat. A hand went up to run along the underside of R2's chassis as she walked out of the cockpit of her X-70.

Exiting the turbo-lift, Jean looked over the four present in the room. "Alright, let's make this a clean jab, plant the anchors and drape the netting. Med techs, you should have been running scans the moment we came within a hundred meters, I don't want to hear any complaints about not getting enough scans." Finishing up what she had to say, Jean looked them over one last time.

Walking over to her locker, Jean double checked her hard suit before getting herself ready. Stripping off her flight jumper and getting into her hard suit, Jean looked herself over one last time. Once she was happy with her suit, she then turned to her co-pilot and had him double check her shields.

Getting the double tap on her shoulder told Jean that she was all good to go. Walking away from the lockers, she passed through an atmospheric shield before she made it into the cargo hold. "Talk to me R2, what are we working with?" Jean asked her robot companion.

R2 gave her a few beeps in return as her omni flashed with information. In the middle of the cargo compartment were four large crates filled with large five foot spikes. In the middle of each spike was a ring around the center. It was clear that these spikes were for the ice-asteroid outside. The notification that she received in response was that there were ten thousand spikes prepared across a few hundred crates. The other notification she received was that they were shrunk down and placed in side compartments to keep them out of the way.

Hyping herself up for the job ahead, Jean put her helmet on before walking to the exit ramp of the cargo bay. A double check made sure that the other techs had their helms on and that Mathew was also prepared. A quick button press had the cargo ramp lower down and she had to take a moment to take in the scene.

This was the void, the final frontier, the one place neither man nor alien has any claim over. Taking in the breathtaking view before her, Jean then slightly crouched as a flare of golden red fire surrounded her form.

With power that shook the starship, Jean launched herself out into the open void. The only thing anyone heard from her was a whoop of joy as she flew from one end of the ice-roid to the other using naught but her own powers.

Jean flew for about another ten minutes before she checked her GPS and flew back to her starship. Once she got there she was greeted with the sight of R2 flying around with a crate of netting spikes. Ignoring R2 and Mathew as they went about spiking the massive ice-asteroid, Jean went and pulled out a few crates of spikes herself.

For her it was easy to simply pick up and place the three thousand ice spikes that she had within her grasp. Generally, Jean didn't like to multitask on this scale, but she had an Eternal waiting back on the space station and she didn't want to waste too much time out here.

Spikes danced around her in an orchestra of telepathic display never seen before as Jean went about her work. Smiling to herself, Jean moved her arms in rapid motions as spikes embedded themselves into the ice-asteroid.

The red and gold flare of lights zoomed back and forth until there were no more spikes to use. Finishing with her side of the ice-asteroid, Jean then flew over and settled on the lowered ramp of the cargo bay. Touching down, she found Mathew pushing out another crate of spikes.

A quick swipe of her left hand, the crate unraveled and the spikes launched out into the void before sticking into the ice-asteroid.

"What's the sitrep?" Jean asked hovering in place surrounded by her red and golden aura.

Mathew looked up from his omni after doing a quick check, "We have the asteroid ninety two percent covered, only thing we are waiting on are the techs to finish up their scans."

"Okay, give me a location on the map, I'll take out the last few spikes. Get those lab techs to finish up while I am out." Jean said, clearly not surprised that they weren't finished yet. Heading back out of the ship for a flight, Jean's omni pinged with the missing locations.

As she zoomed back and forth around in the void, Jean's omni pinged across her HUD. That eternal woke up and they had gotten a name out of her with the universal translator, Nadia.

Ohh yeah, it was time to wrap things up here. Commands were shouted and Mathew and the rest of her crew snapped to attention. The med techs were called back and the glare she gave them had them shutting up over not getting enough scans.

Within ten, the cargo bay was locked down once more and everyone was also seated and buckled. Seeing that everyone was ready, Jean had Mathew pull the X-70 back a few hundred meters from the ice-asteroid.

Once the starship was away at a safe distance, Jean brought up her omni and hit the command key. There was a thump as the power activated all across the netting system on the ice-asteroid. Arcs of electricity went from netting stake to the next, then the next and kept on going until the entire ice-asteroid was covered in state of the art electrical reinforced netting.

Checking over everything once more, Jean made sure that everything was working at one hundred percent before having Mathew bring her ship back over. Floating to the front of her the X-70 starship, Jean then took out the command anchor. Command anchor in hand, she then connected it with the ice-asteroid.

Everything in place, she took the side airlock and made her way to the cockpit. Once inside, strapping in, Jean then took the controls over from Mathew.

"Alright folks, let's head HOME!"

A/N

Hope you like the chapter.

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