Chapter 8: Belief in a New God

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"This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's a little broken but still good."

—Stitch, (Lilo and Stitch)

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<(Omniscient POV) >

"Come on, eat my darn claws if you want more of me. You all are like cockroaches, no matter how many I kill, you just don't seem to end." A girl in her late teens cursed as she thrust her clawed knuckles into the throat of a fur-covered humanoid creature and tore it apart, immediately killing the critter.

There were still scores of the same creature still following her. They all looked mostly similar to each other with sharp ears, wolfish faces, huge claws, and furry bodies. None of them tried to converse with her, all they did was try to attack and kill her. These wolfish creatures had been stalking her for a long time now, ever since she had escaped from her previous place of confinement but it was only until recently that they had begun to actually act.

The girl was none other than Laura Kinney previously named X-23 by the Facility, a secretive criminal organization that had made her artificially as a clone in one of their laboratories using Wolverine's DNA. She was made as a potential weapon by the organization to be used at their discretion, something similar to the Weapon Plus program. She was supposed to be brainwashed from her childhood to be their loyal tool but fortunately for her, her kind surrogate mother who was also the chief researcher of the cloning program had tried to provide her with the kindness and the familial affection that she desired and very much needed.

Dr. Sarah Kinney was the one who gave Laura her current name instead of calling her X-23 like some company product. She was one of the few reasons Laura could differentiate good from evil in her initial days. But her good old days ended once the man in charge of the program found out about their mother-daughter relationship. Her mother was restricted from ever meeting her again and it was decided that Laura would be trained in the cruelest of ways to make her the best weapon for the Facility, one that would never be limited by trivial stuff like kindness or mercy. 

Laura had thought this to be the end of her joys and the relationship that she had built with her mother. But she didn't resist because she knew that if she did, her mother could be the one getting hurt because of her. She would have done anything for the facility just to ensure her mother's survival even if it was to kill others. And she would not blame anyone else for her own situation but fate itself. It was perhaps her destiny to be someone else's pet.

But only a month after her harsh training to be the perfect weapon started, the people in the Facility became afraid and less active for some reason. Not only their regular activities, their scale of projects, and their members, but even her training under them, everything decreased steadily like the organization was itself declining steadily for some reason but Laura could never understand why. Not until that day, when she met them, her rescuers, the acolytes of her god. They were his servants sent to her by him to rescue her and her mother. They were the divine help that she and her mother were praying for all those years. It had arrived a little late but arrived nonetheless.

After she along with her mother, all the other children and prisoners were rescued, her God took them all in, fed them, and took care of them. He kept all of them safe and even trained them how to use their powers. He even introduced her to her biological father, another guy who worked with her father in a school, Wolverine. After the guy heard about a potential daughter, he had been trying his best to be a responsible father ever since she met the guy. For the last few years, Laura couldn't even remember the last time she was actually unhappy after she was rescued. It almost seemed like she got everything she wished for served on a golden plate. That was enough of a reason for both Laura and her mother Sarah to trust the god of metahumans and work for him.

While Sarah worked as a researcher in his private lab, Laura in turn worked as a sort of mercenary of his, a punsiher who dealt out punishments to those who deserved it in his name. She was his talon, the claw that sliced his enemies to minced meat and she was quite proud of it.

That's why she was more than happy to do what she was doing right now, chopping up the wolf-like creatures that had been chasing her left and right. They had been stalking her and keeping an eye on her ever since she received the mission to investigate the link between the Facility, Weapon Plus Program, and the Friends of Humanity organizations. She had been working on it for quite a while collecting research materials and killing the important people left in their few remaining branches. But just when she felt like she was nearing the truth behind all of these organizations, these creatures turned up.

"You have a connection to those people. You all are probably on their payroll... or their meat roll." She determined with a smile as she slashed her claws at one of her nearest wolfmen, spilling their entire brain matter outside.

None of these creatures were too powerful. Although they had similar abilities to hers regarding their instincts, claws, and senses, they were still much on a much weaker scale. What really gave her a headache about them was their growing number. There were too many of them for her to fight, no matter how strong she was compared to each of them individually. So, after slicing up a couple of more wolfmen, she decided to do a strategic retreat for now. After all, she needed to inform her God about this. It was his first and foremost duty as his talon.

"The next time we meet, I'll make sure to gut you all like the sinning beasts you are." She vowed as she stared at the filthy beasts with bloodthirsty eyes, the abominations that had the gall to oppose her god.

Taking out a small round marble-sized object from a hidden section on her belt, she threw it hard toward the floor between her and the creatures which when it hit the ground released huge amounts of smoke, blinding all the wolfmen around and even disrupting their sense of smell and hearing due to its bad odor and loud ringing explosive sound. As the smoke cleared, none of the unintelligent humanoid beasts could find Laura around anymore. She had disappeared in the smoke like she was never there in the first place.

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<(Atem POV) >

"Achoo, *sniff**sniff* Is someone talking about me or something?" I wondered aloud as I looked at the open sky above while lying on the fresh grass outside.

"It might be possible. You are quite famous at least in Genosha after all my love. Maybe everyone is already missing you. I heard they are even making a temple in your name. Although they still haven't decided if they want to call it a temple or some kind of church." An extremely beautiful black-skinned white-haired commented as she lay beside me and kept her head on my chest.

A temple? I really hope they don't do something like that. It would be so cringe. I thought I made it clear to just 'remember me only at heart' and not to embarrass me by building temples and stuff for me. I mean I could like a statue or something but a temple in my name would be too much. Thank god, the gods in Marvel aren't as Godly as in the real world or they would have cursed me to oblivion for heresy like this.

"Maybe. I still haven't met them since I came from the... 'war'." I almost let out a giggle at that last part after I remembered how easy winning the war in Nornheim was especially since I didn't even partake in it and just watched the para-sentinels and Morgana handle everything. 

"I'll be visiting them after this. I only came to pick you up on the way since I thought that it was time you returned home." I smiled at the buxom African beauty in my arms.

"You were right. As much as I appreciate my culture and homeland, I love being in your arms more. Also, I had already completed learning everything I could from the elders in my village including my ancestry, my bloodline, the divine connection my family had with a certain Egyptian goddess, and even some voodoo tricks they knew." She proudly said as she lifted one of her arms and slightly twisted it, making a wild tree grow out of nowhere a little away from where we were lying down.

"That's neat," I said impressed. "But did you just learn everything they had to teach and bolt or did you do something for them in return?"

"There was not a lot I could do for them considering they were tribal people who lived in conjunction with nature. They had no use for money or material things. So, I instead helped their village and the forest they lived in as a whole. Let's just say they have one of the most fertile lands in the world right now along with a wide selection of fruit and vegetable trees. I even made sure that it rained and filled an empty pond full of clean water for them to use." She smiled in self-satisfaction.

"I knew you would do something like this. You are too kind Ororo. But that's why you are one of my favorite girls. That and your juicy banging body." I teased.

"Funny, I feel the same way. I also fell in love with you because of your big heart and the extremely long cock you pack in there." She teased back at which both of us could not help but laugh aloud.

"So, are you planning to return to Genosha at all? Because I feel you are trying to avoid going there for some reason Atem. May I ask why?" She asked after a while, accurately guessing the reason I was lying down here where nobody could find me with her.

"... It's stupid. You won't understand." I sigh as I stretch my body.

"Try me." 

"Well, you see. When I initially established the country, I was a different person. I was more ambitious, more immature, more greedy, more selfish. I even promised all of the things that now seem stupid. Like I remember the one time I promised that I would drag out all the gods that had never listened to their woes and slaughter them. But now in hindsight, I don't even realize why I promised that. It was more than just plain stupid of me.

But, I have changed, a ton over the years. I had become more mature, smarter, more responsible, and maybe even a little lazier, okay correction a LOT lazier. So, what if they do not accept me as the same person I was before? What if they are disappointed in me?" I questioned, knowing their disappointment won't mean much to me since I don't care about what people think of me but it still wouldn't be fun considering the current present me was supposed to be the better version of... me.

"They won't ever be disappointed in you. You really think too less of them you know. They are the people you once saved from their lives of constant struggle. Half of them on that island were either some kind of lab rats in secret laboratories or lived in sewers to hide their pitiful selves and the other half had to constantly protest and struggle to fight for even basic rights. You were the ones who rescued them from that, who gave them a home to cherish and protect. They do not think you are a perfect god because you declared yourself so a decade ago. 

They all have powers. They all can be gods to their own selves. No, you became their god because you saved them. You rescued them from a pit of darkness that threatened to consume their whole lives. You were the light that guided them like sheep at night. They are loyal to you as your followers because they wish to be not because of what you promised them or told them." She finished her explanation with passion in her voice indicating she herself completely believed what she had said.

"Wow, that was actually a good pep talk." I chuckled.

"I know. I practiced with the students back at the school. Now, will you come to Genosha with me or are you still going to be a pussy about it?" She challenged with a smirk on her face.

"Hahaha. Let's go then. I guess this venerable god has been away from his country a long time." I said as I affectionately kissed her on her soft lips and got up while opening a boom tube in front of us.

"Ladies first," I said with a small bow.

Ororo just smiled at my antic and flew into it with a smile on her face as I followed after her.

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(A/N: This chapter might seem a little out of the ongoing events but I wrote this because I wanted to show the mentality of some of the people rescued by Atem back when he had first arrived in the world as well as his own thoughts about his 'gamer protagonist' type mentality and actions back then. Hope I didn't bore you guys.)

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