Chapter 15: Chapter Fifteen

Sirius Black grinned, causing his current lover to roll her eyes as she sipped her milkshake from across the small two-person table, "So claims the man who didn't know how to use a smartphone." She shook her head with a wry smile, "Seriously, how did you not know how to use one while being an old friend of the Stark's?"

He coughed into his hand, a light blush on his face "As I said, I'd been out of contact with them for a while..." 

The plump woman laughed, her smile widening at Sirius' embarrassment. Laura Jackerson, the same widow Sirius woke up next to when he felt Jasmine's fight, as well as being someone he hooked up with immediately upon arriving in America, fresh off the airport. She swiped a bit of blonde hair out of her eyes and took a bite of her burger, grinning, eyes locked on Sirius as he tried to calmly sip from his milkshake.

"Yes, yes. Out of contact for a while. Frankly if they didn't corroborate your story I wouldn't believe it." She snorted lightly, elegantly taking another bite and swallowing, causing Sirius to flashback to last night. "You really should get more with the times. Don't want to embarrass your friend's daughter, after all~♪" 

Sirius groaned, causing Laura's smile to widen as she laughed, "Don't worry, don't worry~♪ I'll help you all you need~" She teasingly sang, causing Sirius to wryly smile. He truly needed help in this regard, who knew non-magicals would come up with such odd things that even surpassed magical newspapers... And considering Jarvis and Jarvia, he wondered how long it would take them to make paintings that actively interacted with the observers...

He took a bite of his burger and did his best to keep his amazement off his face. The fact something so... flavorful could be pumped out in just a few minutes was still blowing his mind. And they weren't even using magic to help with cooking! 

Laura licked her fingers, somehow still looking sensual and graceful while doing so. He smiled, causing her to smirk at him. 'She's definitely different than lovers I've had in the past.' He chuckled to himself and continued eating his burger, 'Can't say whether it's better or wor-' *BOOM* 

The wall exploded outwards, causing tiles and drywall to fly out and bowling Sirius over, sending the table and chairs flying. 'Laura!' He quickly scrambled and pulled out his wand while coughing out dust. Alarms screeched and cried, drowning out other noises. His eyes scanned the room, becoming calm- "Laura!" His scream even surprised him as he spotted her- barely moving as blood soaked the side of her head. He took a step then leaned backwards as a tile was flung past his face. His eyes glanced at the being who threw it. A bulging humanoid twitched and pulsed, veins grotesquely sticking out all over the exposed skin.

"sO, yoU'rE her CurRent, lOveR? UNACCEPTABLE!" The being's ruddy face twisted and warped, arms and legs bulging as it threw itself forward with a boom. 

Sirius jabbed his wand forward- "Flipendo Duo!" The beast was launched back through the hole as if hit by a car as Sirius turned back to Laura. 'I need to get her out of here and heal-' A roar caused him to turn back just in time to cast a defensive charm as a fist appeared in his face. 'FUCK!' He slammed into a wall, breath driven from his lungs, his hand firmly clenching his wand as he spat a shield charm, the wall and floor around the bubble cracking and caving as the beast slammed his hands into the barrier over and over. 

He didn't even catch his breath before he felt the shield break on the beasts third hit, flinging himself to the side as a swollen fist carved through the wall where his head was. "MiNe. minE. MIne. mINe. MinE-" "Fio Languidus! Incarcerous!" His wand flashed twice, causing the beast to stagger and sag, then its limbs snapped together as if tied with a rope, depressions forming in its meaty body as it struggled to roar and tried to break free. 

Sirius sprinted across the floor, attempting to reach Laura, sliding on his knees as a healing charm left his tongue, instantly hitting the dazed and bleeding woman. A shard of tile slid out of the side of her head, clinging on the ground as a bit of clarity returned to her eyes, she mumbled something unheard in the sirens. Her eyes suddenly widened- "LOOK O-" Sirius quick cast another shield, the ground in a circle around the two cracking and shuddering as a meaty fist slammed into the side of the bubble. 'He broke out that quickly!?' His eyes hardened as he started to turn, placing himself above Laura as he prepared to kill. "SIRIUS!" Another first broke the bubble, quickly followed by a faster one appearing in front of Sirius' chest- 'BAM!'

Sirius stepped backwards, nearly tripping over Laura as his eyes briefly widened- her arm now stretched, circling from behind Sirius' body, and diverting the blow. "wHY!? MiNE!!!" The beast roared as Laura's limb quickly retracted as she tried to quickly stand up, shuddering in a bit of fear. Sirius sent the being flying and quickly recast several binding and weakening charms, "Do you know it!?" Sirius shouted above the alarms. 

Laura ignored her tears and the dust, "He's my husband's killer! We need to run!" He frowned and quickly turned back to the beast, "Duro Decrusto Maxima!" The tip of his wand flashed, the ray hit the beast; it froze, stone slowly growing across its body as Sirius grit his teeth at the backlash. More and more of its body turned to stone, Sirius' wand shaking in his hand. It gave one last glare before its head too was encased. For a second it was still, then slowly fell apart into grey dust.

Sirius stood still with his wand extended, panting as the alarms blared around them. Taking a deep breath he turned to Laura, "A-are, you alright?" She stood wide eyed, numbly nodding her head, before tears started running down her cheeks and she wrapped Sirius in a hug and started crying. Gently, he stroked her hair as she clutched him. 

 

>>> Back at Laura's villa

The clink of the cup being placed in front of her caused Laura to shake out of her trance, blearily blinking her puffy red eyes at the drink. Sirius sighed and collapsed in the seat across from her, rubbing his hand over his forehead, the gaping void of using most of his mana clawing at his head. The sunset stood prominently through the living room window, casting long shadows as both sat there silently. 

"I should give Tony a call and see if he can help with the clean up..." Sirius muttered causing Laura to shakily smile and finally take a sip from her drink. 

Neither got up to move. 

Laura closed her eyes, gathering her strength before opening them. "I'm a mutant." She said, causing Sirius to blankly look at her. "That... monster was my brother." She started rambling, tears regathering in her eyes "He's been stalking me for a decade now. I thought that maybe he was gone now that he didn't show up for a year after... killing my husband." New drops spread down her cheeks, "I... understand if you want to leave. I'm... sorry for getting you involved..." 

Sirius sighed and got up, going around the table to give her a hug, causing a fresh wave of tears to burst out of the woman, a complicated expression on his face as he consoled her. 

"I'm not leaving." He finally said, causing Laura to grip him tightly. "You don't have to worry about... your brother anymore. I'm pretty sure he can't come back from being dusted." He joked, probably in bad taste he admitted, causing Laura to bleakly laugh. 

"No. I don't think he can..." Her mind started finally processing the night, exhaustion and shock taking its toll as her head started throbbing. "Let's go to sleep?" Her fingers curled around his clothes, "Thank you." She let out before closing her eyes. 

Sirius blinked, wryly smiling as she fell asleep in the chair while holding onto his clothes. 'I'll need to get her to bed. She probably isn't used to such high stress situations.' He looked up at the sunset through the window, absently going over the fight again. 'Tomorrow is going to be filled with questions.' He looked back down at Laura in his arms, a confused expression briefly flashing across his face, "Is this what it's like being attached? And what's a mutant?"

 

>>>  

Jasmine bit back a curse as the magic unraveled. 'Another failure.' The spider sitting on her gave her a pat as she leaned back, sitting cross-legged on a concrete floor in one of her dad's testing rooms. 'Is this not gonna be possible with just the spider principle? No, it should work. After all it's just a different way to project a contract...' She sighed, 'Well. I wish it was...' The problem was always her mana- this wasn't a simple expansion on her contracts, but a way to transfer her mana through space without directly moving it. 

'It should be possible. I wish I had a lich or something to examine. I imagine their phylacteries do something similar... But Maeve won't give me access to forbidden, highly dangerous, corruptive magic.' She huffed, watching her girls crawl around the walls. 'Just have to reinvent an extremely complicated bit of magic, no biggie...' 

Her tablet levitated by her side, writing down her notes as she thought through the last few processes, absently staring at the small ball of gold she wanted to use as an anchor. '... Do I have to use a different space?' Her eyebrows furrowed. Some of the advanced magic books had mentioned layered spaces- such as the enchantments for spatial expansion and storage. But nothing exactly as she needed. 

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She closed her eyes and started meditating, several 'presences' being brought to the forefront of her mind, silently sitting there in what Jasmine could only describe as 'tentacles' or 'cloth' of her own emotion, like she was constantly holding onto them with just her mind. According to her girls it was not a figment of her imagination, and even Natasha could feel something. 

She focused on the presence that was her aunt, a steady solid thing that was always an arms distance away. They had done a few tests before, with Natasha claiming to be able to feel when Jasmine 'hugged' her, by tightening the mental/emotional limbs of this odd space. Seemingly irrespective of distance. 'Is this usable?' Her many limbs in this space stretched out and gave everyone a hug, feeling curiosity and amusement come from Natasha's presence and joy from her girls. 'But I don't know where to start for this either. I think it's an extension of my empathic capabilities...' She opened her eyes and sighed, rubbing her forehead.

'Maybe I should just make a contract with aunty? That would be the easiest path, right?' Yet somehow it felt... lackluster. 'The shared power contract would be alright...' But some part of Jasmine rejected it. As if it would cut off a better road. 'But why!? There's no reason not to, right?' Yet she hesitated, her instinct warning her. 

She sighed, leaving her head resting on her hands as her hair swirled behind her. Slowly, her mind started wandering away from the goal immediately infront of her, eyes emptily staring past the concrete floor infront of her. 'The croc, britain, and osborn. Current enemies that will cause trouble in the future. And more are coming.' It was a certainty- not born of logic or foreknowledge, but an undeniable, absolute feeling. 

Even if she wanted to ignore Britain entirely- she knew she was already scooped up by it. Sirius had told her about the prophecy- causing a vehement distaste to start blooming in her. Her unexplainable disdain and disgust with the idea of prophecies starting to boil the more she thought about it. It was an attack on her. A shackle. An attempt at slaving her to someone else's whims.

'I'm not strong enough.' It was a certainty, an annoyance. The feeling of a path already walked against her will- an event manipulated to have already happened, and now she was helplessly waiting for it to come to fruition. Of being swaddled in a blanket, limbs bound to her sides. Of being locked in a small closet as the world swept by with its whims outside.

A snarl absently formed on her face, the girls going quiet and still as the air around Jasmine bent and sparked, rumbling. 

'Yet.' 

 

>>> New York City Sewers

"Almossst. Almossst." A thick tongue licked crooked fangs, reptilian eyes glinting in the flickering led light. Dozens of human sized tubes of opaque liquid lined the stone walls of the cave, cords and wires haphazardly scattered about the floor.

"Almossst enough..." The croc's claws tapped the table infront of him, his reptilian head tilted to the side as if listening to something only he could hear. "Yesss. YeSSsSs..."

The poor excuse for a labcoat- patched together from several stolen ones and constantly torn afterwards- flowed in the constant, damp breeze. Quiet hissing, clicking of claws on stone, and the whisper of scales brushing was ever present. 

The croc gave a keen look around the chamber, examining the tubes. "Next batch ssoon..." A growl rumbled in his throat, "Hungry..." With startling quiet the croc moved, slipping around the table as if he was in water, his thick scaled tail making no sound despite sweeping over the floor.

The hissing and clicking grew louder as he exited the smaller stone chamber into a huge cavern, filled with humanoid lizards illuminated by haphazardly hung LEDs in the ceiling. Most were large, just under the croc's three meter frame in height, hefty with fat and muscle with thick scales. Few were tall and slender, wiry frames with longer claws. None were completely identical. All were nearly silent as they quietly turned as one and watched the croc, eyes empty, inactive.

Without caring for his puppets the croc waded forward, pushing a few aside with his bulk as he made his way to the center of the cavern, hundreds of lizardmen he born from his tubes quietly watching. With ease he came up to a small pond of water. One disconnected from any tunnels or other caverns. But connected to something far greater.

With hunger he watched as misshapen blobs of flesh floated to the surface in response to his presence. He waited till the surface of the pool was near completely filled- then lunged. His jaws snapped over and over, ripping and tearing into the meat infront of him. Gorging himself.

All the while watched by countless, silent lizardmen.

 

>>> OsCorp Tower 

Porcelain shattered against the wall, sending the heated contents spilling across the wall and floor. Norman heaved over his desk, eyes wild with rage as his knuckles turned white. 

"Damn it. Damn it. Another failure. Can't have failure." He shuddered, head snapping upwards at an odd angle as he watched his monitors with blood shot eyes. A notification of an email from the military popped in the corner. His eyes locked to it as a snarl sprouted on his face.

"They think to command me? Fools. FOoLs. They'd get nowhere without me. Even Stark... Stark! He can't match my brilliance. Only me!" He slammed a fist on his desk, quickly scrambling with his other hand to a drawer, fumbling with the fingerprint scanner before ripping it open to reveal seven black tubes and an injector. 

After fumbling and dropping three of the cylinders. With a 'snap' a tube loaded, and a crazed smile spread across Norman's face as he jammed the needle of the injector into his neck, not even noticing the pain. An ecstatic moan left his lips as he felt the effects of his brilliance enter his blood and flesh. Yes, the result of his work! No one else's! 

He felt his mind sizzling and grow, a deranged chuckle escaping him. "It's mine. mine. mine." His head snapped upwards. "No one can be allowed to think its not. No one. For it's mine. My success!" His eyes crawled down to his screen, bloodshot and wild. Another snarl formed across his face, "Not even these bastards. They come to me! Me!? And then they think to command me!?" He hissed, then laughed, chuckling and giggling. "I'll show them. You? Want a powerful army? I'll give you a powerful army! Except you won't be in charge for long..... heHehE..." 

With twitching fingers he switched tabs, a grimace appearing across his face. "And then I'll take out Stark. How dare he make me rely on his technology. For now it's useful, but soon... soon... He'll be begging me to kill him." He didn't notice the saliva dripping from his lips as he giggled, "Yes. Yes I will, then his technology would be mine! Then everyone will see my brilliance. When he's dead and his knowledge mine, no one will care about him! It'll be me, my brilliance!" 

Spittle dribbled onto the keyboard infront of him. "I'll be king. The most enhanced and superior human!" His eyes rolled around, "Yes, good idea. Those filthy mutants shall become more fodder for my power and kingdom. I'll have some of my contacts start acquiring those resources." His eyes rolled around again, before locking onto a direction. "And I should accelerate the plans for my soldiers. I'll have to push those fools to work properly... But the mercenaries will do that well enough." 

He turned his eyes back to his computer and smirked disdainfully. "And Stark won't be ready for me." He snickered, "He thinks I don't know? All of my computers have no connection to an outer network. His little slave can't peek here." He giggled. "Nono, no one will stop me. For I am the true king..."