23 Kidnapping... Once again!
"Today we are gathered here for the start of operation 'Downfall', an ambitious undertaking that will passively span for the next years. What better way to start than by destroying a shared facility of the Hellfire Club, Hydra, and Essex?"
"I don't think I need to remind you that we take no prisoners... Unless it is because they could be of use later, like for creating puppets, or to extend their pain when we are dealing with scum, or experimental use, or biological samples... We do take prisoners, but we don't forgive them!"
*Giggles* *Cuckling*
"But, for this mission, we won't!... Unless we find someone we didn't expect!... Well, what I'm saying is that I expect you to maim first and ask questions later if you find someone of interest. Our enemies do not need their legs and arms, neither do we."
"A good enemy is a quadriplegic enemy!"
*Multiple nods of agreement*
"But under normal circumstances go for the kill. Remember to always go for the head!... Or the arm with the gauntlet! That should work as well."
*Confusion*
"I don't think you will find anyone stronger than the weakest of you, but overconfidence is how the plot armor gets you... and the power of friendship."
"The main target should look similar to Emma, our favorite queen, however, the age of the target is unknown. One team will be in charge of search, rescue, and protection. The other will scout, assess, and eliminate threats."
"It's a dazzling covert operation, meaning we have to be dazzling without compromising our current or future identities. Hence, I took some liberties and made a uniform that will act as our face for the rest of the world. So no maid uniforms this time."
"No magic is allowed, except for sensorial, scouting, and concealing magic, cover your ears and tails. You'll wear a mask that will go with your uniform."
*Reluctance*
"You can go crazy with your biological abilities, even your telekinesis, and weapons-"
*Slaughtering Intent* *Bloodlust*
"-BUT!... Don't use the city busters unless you know there are only enemies on the other side of your muzzle."
*Reluctance*
"To make it up to you, since I know how much you like to cause destruction, Emma and I will only move until you have visual confirmation of the target, James will follow you in the first wave but only as an overseer."
*Relief* *Agreement* *Slaughtering Intent*
"Always keep contact through tech, if there's interference use your telepathy, if there's interference use magic, if there's interference use the contract, if there's interference... surrender because only stronger beings than me can interfere with that."
"I know I'm being a worrywart and that most of you have field experience, but you might encounter mutants, enhanced, aliens, deviants, demons, witches, vampires, werewolves, wendigos, zombies, warlocks, goblins, ninjas, and failed experiments, just to name a few."
*Concern* *Anxiety* *Unease*
"Not that I'm saying that you will! It's just that this place is weirder than you think. One moment you are enjoying your life and the next it's the end of everything as you know it."
*Poker Faces*
"Hey! Don't look at me like that! It has happened! I'm not trying to alarm you over nothing!"
*Poker Faces-> Intensify*
"*Sigh* You ungrateful brats! If a 5th dimensional being comes knocking at your door in the middle of the night don't call me!"
*Poker Faces Lvl 2*
"Whatever! We leave in two hours. Come and get your uniforms, go for your weapons afterward, and then see me at Dock V. We will deploy from there."
One by one my battle-thirsty maids took a uniform and went giddily to pick their weapons.
We are raiding the biggest Hydra facility in Central America. It's mainly a Hydra base, but we have found evidence connecting that place with Essex, the Hellfire Club, and several other 'authentic' governmental departments.
Previously, the psychic presence that we had detected was in North America, but last week they moved the possible clone to this place. That's why we were having problems detecting the location, they moved it from time to time.
I think that they are constantly moving the clone because they don't know where Emma is. They have lost track of her for over a year, so they are, possibly, afraid of Emma coincidentally meeting the range of the clone's psionic field.
Not that I think that they would be afraid of Emma, but they like to lurk in the shadows and hunt the shadows.
At least we know that if there are multiple clones, there are not that many. The convoy that moved the psionic field was not big enough to host more than ten people.
Hopefully, this is the only clone or clones, and it's not that the others are dormant so we haven't detected them, or something annoying like that.
We tracked the psionic field through Brother Eye. I'm ashamed to say that I had a hard time holding myself back from levitating the convoy to Halo and being done with them. But Spark calmed me down and told me that they possibly had safeguards on the clone's body while moving it.
It's a good thing that we waited since we had no record of this facility. Which made me realize that we will have a hard time tracking all of their bases. It doesn't help that they move from time to time. The bastards are nomadic!
I thought that if I kept track of the surface of the planet and the virtual presence, I would eventually find all of their bases.
But these annoying shits are like nomadic hermits!
This base has no virtual presence and it is underground in the middle of a tropical forest. These shits are like cockroaches! Not like a hydra. What do you do cutting heads when they are a plague? At least by cutting heads, you keep them busy!
Instead of Hydra maybe they should call themselves Blattodea, or straight-up Cockroaches.
You can't even cripple their finances without crippling the world. So, goodbye to the normal subversive approaches.
This a problem for future Spark. Spark it's better at planning how to subvert power. I should focus on other things.
Right now I will enjoy the sight of my maids wearing the most badass, iconic, fear-inducing, and edgy uniform, the Akatsuki raiment.
I left the Shadow Garden style for the next chance, for this operation I needed something for our enemies to identify with us.
So I chose red clouds, symbolic of the massacres that will rain blood down on Hydra.
The girls also liked it, they said that the black and red made a nice contrast with their white skin... and that the blood will not ruin their style...
I think that when it comes to symbolic evil organization's uniforms only Akatsuki nailed it, all others used styles of dressing not uniforms. Like the Arrancar in Hueco Mundo, they were white but everything else was different.
The Akatsuki actually were uniformed and they didn't even try to sexualize their female companions, Konan and Orochimaru.
I mean, there are the military types, but those are not exactly iconic, just recognizable.
The girls were not so happy with the original baggy style, but the robe was built with nanotech, so they changed it a little on the spot, to be more anatomic.
... And here I was praising the original Akatsuki for not sexualizing their women.
After I was left alone I warped to the Dock V. If I'm being honest, although it's a secret, I was always a fan of Halo, but the Pelicans are probably the least visually appealing dropship in the history of sci-fi dropshiping.
They were bulky, and not in a Warhammer 40k cool way, so I went for another style. Still bulky, but cool. At least to my eyes.
The new design was based on the same UNSC vibe, but I prefer this style over the Pelicans.
It also helps that it doesn't scream 'Aliens' like some of the other ships that I have, they look as if they were under the same level of technology as the future Quinjets.
Presentation is important!
I could do this whole operation without leaving any evidence or clue for our 'organization', but, for the plan, I need to create this image in their minds of a secret organization, from Earth, that is targeting their bases. Not a mysterious enemy for whom they know nothing except the consequences of its raids.
So this was the set that I chose for our 'organization'. Tech from a possibly advanced secret organization and uniforms that shouted evil edgy organization that is led by a pawn of a pawn of a pawn of a pawn that is trying to free his imprisoned mother from the moon by killing everyone.
Two hours later the girls were on the dropships, Bucky piloted one and Emma piloted the other.
A heavy silence full of bloodlust filled the ship.
"You know, girls, I do wonder how all of you ended up becoming so belligerent. You act more like former mercenaries than former spies."
"..." x10
They had the shamelessness of looking the other way.
"Young master, I don't know about the other girls but in my tribe, we were always battle-driven. It's how we survived during the times of war and scarcity."- Elyseas, one of my elven maids, answered.
"Elyseas, you are excused, but look at these shameless girls. They were supposed to be the best covert agents and the deadliest assassins. Now, they embellish their rooms with AoE-Type energy blasters."- The girls in question are now playing with their P-Links, acting like this was not their business.
"Young Master, there's something that I've been meaning to ask about the operation..."- Elyseas said.
"Sure, go ahead."
"If they make public our attacks and say that we are terrorists interfering with governmental interests, Won't they take that opportunity to grab more power?"
"Yes, that's a possible way of using our interference to empower themselves. On the other side, we could release some of the shit they do as a counter-offensive, but they could still twist the truth and get the public opinion on their end."
"That's why we will maintain a balance during the following years. We won't put more pressure than necessary on them. They will always think something like 'The next time we will get them, Hail Hydra', or 'It's not so bad, Hail Hydra!', or 'Maybe they don't raid so often because they lack resources, Hail Hydra', or 'We should lure them and steal their tech, Hail Hydra'."
"~Hahahaha!~ I don't think that's how they think. It would be a problem if it were."- Elyseas laughed at my poor attempt at impersonating a Nazi-brainwashed Hydra scum.
"Hey Elyseas, not to be rude if it is, but, Why is it that your species has a melody when you laugh?"- I dig it! It reminds me of Noona's voice, but more like a song and less like a tone.
"Ah, it's a long story, it has something to do with an old curse. We used to sing a lot, it was part of our culture, something that made us different. Across Otherworld, light elves were known as the best singers."- Elyseas said with a glint of pride in her aquamarine eyes.
"We liked it so much that even when we cast magic we used to do it in a singing tone. Not that it was needed."- She chuckled at the end.
"Some time ago a powerful witch called for representatives of different races to study inherent racial magics and create a spell like never before seen."
"Most races were not content about this, but power ruled above all else, and the witch was powerful. From my race, the best magic caster was sent, to make sure that we didn't incur the witch's wrath."
"Our kingdom, from that era, was stable but not among the heavy hitters, so we couldn't afford her ire."
"The witch studied and experimented for years, to us immortal species this was normal. She was a witch of talent, and even though it should not have been possible for her to use the racial magic of races outside of her own, she accomplished it."
"Except for our magic. This displeased her to no end, but she knew that it wasn't our fault. When it looked like she was going to give up, our representative told her, jokingly, that maybe because she didn't sing right, she couldn't do it."
"Both had been working on this for years, and some boundary limits may have been redrawn, that's why our representative let his guard down and forgot for a moment with whom he was dealing."
"The witch, under the stress of her opponents and the failure of her endeavor, lost her mind when she heard him, she heard it as if he was mocking her."
"So she maliciously cast a curse on our race to spite him. The curse took our voice for the following 1500 years. A significant extent of time even by our standards."
"During the period of The Absence, what our ancestors called those 1500 years lacking in music, several wars exploded around Otherworld. On several occasions, during the wars, our kingdom only managed to survive with the help of the witch, who, by the way, ended up as close friends with our representative. In honor of the help that she provided we decided not to sing anymore, even after the curse ended, and only associate our singing with happiness, with laughter."
"By the end of it all our kind was splinted into several smaller tribes, our kingdom lost, but we always carried with us, in our hearts, that without the moody witch's help, we would no longer be here. Se even after so much time we always carry a melody in our laughter."- Elyseas ended her tale with a bright smile.
If this is not social conditioning then I don't know what it is! She is even grateful, I wonder if they were brainwashed by the witch or her ancestors.
"That was a rollercoaster, I thought the witch was evil but she turned out to be the ultimate troll witch. By the way, What's her name?"- Amazing! I do a small prank on my maids and all Halo breaks loose. She misunderstands a statement and she silences a whole race for a millennia and a half, ending somehow with the victim's favor towards the aggressor.
I will never allow my maids to meet her! I know I can't handle the consequences.
"Morgan le Fay."
"The Fuck!?"- I can see why they were so thankful. They were lying to themselves to prevent future generations from growing resentment against an unclimbable mountain.
Well done, light elves! Looking at the way Elyseas talks about the story with no resentment, I can tell that you guys did an amazing job lying to your future generations.
All it cost you were 1500 years of silence and the sacrifice of the idiot responsible for the curse.
"Do you know her, Young Master?"- Elyseas asked with her innocently shining eyes.
"I know of her, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her."- Nor will I ever, if I can avoi-
I suddenly felt a gaze, which I graciously backtracked with my crimson eyes.
I peel through space, the dimensional wall, the space between dimensions, another dimensional wall, space, a barrier, and find myself eye to eye with the trolling witch.
Dark, borderline black, green eyes with a dressing style that reminded me of Noona's dislike for 'proper' clothing.
She was startled the moment she understood that I was looking back at her. My anger dissipated, I thought it was a threat to the girls on the dropship, it's not every day that someone manages to pierce through the cloaking on my stuff or the passive cloaking around me.
I will have to look into that later, she possibly had some sort of claim or hold on Elyseas, maybe not her specifically but her people, she might have something similar to Merlin where when someone calls his name he gets notified. The real 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'.
'Watch where you lay your eyes upon, witch! For the abyss always stares back.'- My inner Chuunibyou implored me for this statement. Though I'm having a cringe-backlash now, I should later ask Noona to kill me for a while.
Normally my telepathic reach can't go this far, but I've been practicing with my powers and I found a way of combining my sight with my psionic energy. I combine the two and create psionic threads following my eyesight.
Theoretically, since my eyes don't have range, I have a virtually infinite reach, sadly the truth of the matter is that I can't filter the intensity of my sight so unless I have a way of finding where to look I will have to keep training.
For example, if I look in any direction I could end up looking through a planet or looking at the core of a star.
The witch understood my warning, she looked away and said:
"Apologies, my Lord. I thought I heard someone calling for me. Alas, I was mistaken."
Mistaken my shinny ass! But this senior is going to allow the junior some face!
I already have her location saved! I can go looking for her in case I need magic knowledge.
I looked away and brought my senses back to the ship. This is one of the disadvantages of using my powers like that, I focus all of my attention on my sight.
I found my maids staring at me worryingly.
"What happened?"- I asked while tilting my head in confusion.
"Young Master, you stopped moving for a minute, and your eyes switched to red. We called you but you didn't answer."- Yelena said.
Yeah, this technique has more disadvantages at the moment than benefits if I couldn't hear them.
"Sorry, I felt a stare and I was tracing back its origin. It was not important so don't worry."- Morgan le Fey It's too much for them to deal with, she is a true goddess and she's also a true immortal.
We let the subject die and future Aragorn will have to deal with it if there are any repercussions.
A few minutes later we found ourselves hovering over the border between 2 small Central American countries. Panama and Costa Rica.
These countries share an international park called 'La Amistad', or 'Friendship' in English. The park is protected and big enough to have most of its area full of virgin forests.
If only you choose to ignore the massive Hydra facility that was built in the heart of the jungle.
"Alright girls, the ships will be left here and I will act as overwatch. Do me a favor and one or two of you please find the power source of this facility before you blow it up."- I rather not irradiate this jungle if it's nuclear.
"Not that you need it, but, Good Luck!"
Saying so I opened the hatch and like preying birds, the girls jumped to their prey! No parachute, like a badass... We all can fly so I don't know how much 'badass' it could be considered, but still they look cool.
I moved to the cockpit and morphed the pilot's seat into a comfy sofa.
*Kya!*- Emma yelped in surprise when she felt my TK wrapping around her, but she let it be.
I brought Emma to my side and placed her head on my lap intending to pet her. Aniki knows the fox needs a distraction. The stress and anxiety she is projecting are also stressing me.
"I've told you many times not to manhandle me like that!"- She complained as she got into a more comfortable position to enjoy my caress.
"Yeah I know, but I always tell you that if I felt any displeasure from you I wouldn't do it. Also, I'm technically not a man so I can't 'man'-handle you."- I did it once to annoy her, but she actually enjoyed it. Weird girl.
"I, and almost everyone else in the Crystal, have seen you naked, if you are not a man then what are you doing with that thing between your legs?"
"How crass!"- I ridiculed her with a judgemental look.
"But I have waited for most of my life for someone to ask me that, hence I will ignore your vulgar mouth!"- I forgave her.
"I identify as a man!"- Hahahahahaha! Finally! I have every moral right to say this!
"My body has no gender I just assume this form because it matches the gender of my identity!"- I'm not even biological. I can erase my tool or grow another for that matter... Huh!?... I should add this to my list of 'Freaky Cosmic Sex things to try with Noona once we go intimate'.
"You know... Somehow your logic holds... But, What the fuck!?"- She said to my answer, I also felt her curiosity.
"*Sigh* It's not like you'll stop so I will allow it if you pay tribute by petting me afterward."- Because my Fluffy fox can't give in control without 'allowing' it. Also, it looks like she somehow suspected that my sex was not set in stone, she is taking this in stride.
"You don't have to argue with me Emma, your fur is always the candy to my eyes."- Hers and Yao are the fluffiest.
"As it should be!..."- She haughtily exclaimed.
"By the way Aragorn, Can you turn into a woman?"- There was a dangerous glint in her eyes that I recognized. Emma's sexual preference has always been confusing to me.
I answered by shapeshifting into a loli version of myself.
I've been practicing my shapeshifting with Noona's help a few times during our dates. I already have a few more default forms, my loli form is one of those; Noona's favorite. She promised to show me her loli form when she decides on one.
She had me be pampered as 'her daughter' a few times. I won't say it out loud, but I liked it.
Not in a sexual way, but definitely something I'm ashamed of liking, in public. But I'm truthful to myself, I won't say it but Noona knows that I like it, it's a silent agreement we have.
Sadly... or not, she was also jealous and aroused by my female form.
Which may or may have not been my fault. Normally you can't be sexually attracted to yourself unless you have a sort of mental deviancy. Like high narcissism or something else.
I'm not sexually attracted to myself, but Noona knows that I can edit my mind, so technically I can be attracted to my body. She said that she didn't like it because it's a weird form of NTR, but she also got aroused when I told her that I could be in this form and let her do as she pleases. Win-Win for me.
The sexual intricacies of cosmic beings are not mine to judge, but definitely mine to enjoy.
Yeah, I know that she holds herself just fine in front of me, but she is one horny girlfriend sometimes, I've seen the cracks on her mask. So my bargain paid off and now she is looking forward to the weird sex that we both are capable of.
I mean why limit yourself? We will live for an eternity so I might as well get on with the cosmic trend.
"What in the name of my empire is this, Aragorn?!"- She raised her head from my now child-like lap and stared at my loli-form with great confusion, curiosity, and... adoration?
"Kyaaaah~ So fucking cute!!!"- I was initially petting her to raise her spirits because this whole clone thing has her stressed, but now I'm stressed because she has me sitting in her lap.
"Emma, Could you not?"- This is nice, but, What about my dignity? Only Noona is supposed to 'manhandle' me like this. So complicated...
"~Cute~ Your voice is changed as well!"- Yeah, Noona asked me to change it depending on my form.
"*Sigh*"- I 'resigned' to my fate and let my head fall back in her breasts. This is comfy. *Sigh* The 'sacrifices' I make to raise the spirits of my fox.
After a few minutes of indulging in my loli self, she said:
"I like this form, Aragorn. Very much! What else do you have?"- She asked while playing with my hair.
I switched to my female form, the adult female form. I change my clothes every time I switch, to be consistent with each form, this time I chose some of my more 'anatomic' garments.
I turned 45 degrees, making sure to have Emma face to face while sitting on her lap, entangled my arms around her head, and purposedly upturned my eyes while looking at hers. I bit my lower lip, just enough to be noticed, and said:
"~Do you also like this form, big sister?"- My voice is something that I borrowed from one of the voices that Noona prefers. Apparently, when you have nothing much to do while taking care of souls you pick up certain habits. Noona has a variety of certain 'collections', a voice collection is one of them.
Strangely enough, a collection of talented souls is something I feel interested in. So I can understand her.
This is one of the 'Basic Seduction Techniques' that Noona taught me. She said a soul under her care a few eras ago taught her about it and that from time to time she updates her techniques. She said that there was a time when all you had to do was raise the hide covering your lower body and you get your caveman for life, which was at best 15 years... If you didn't die from childbirth.
That time... That time was Dangerous, with capital D.
Noona first showed me the techniques before having me repeat them. Needless to say, we didn't sleep much afterward, we played the whole night. But that was expected since we were trying to seduce each other.
At least we managed to hold back enough to not cross the last frontier. Not that any of us would mind, but we are taking things slowly and all of that.
But it paid off, I felt Emma's heartbeat, through our touching breasts, pump faster, saw her eyes wander through my body, lips, and eyes in a frenzy, and saw her face blush. She grabbed slowly my waist with her trembling hands.
I smirked at that and she finally saw that I was messing with her.
"W-W-What the fuck?!"- She exclaimed in surprise.
"You are welcome. I suspected that you were bisexual some time ago, but for some reason, you were repressing it."- I know that we are in a more advanced society for this time, but some things are still stupidly chastised. Like homosexuality, and bisexuality, among others.
Humans and their small-mindedness... Oh?... I guess I really don't see myself as part of them anymore. But that is to be expected, only I know the type of monster that I am. At least my core self is still me, and if my soul is allowing these changes in me then they are for my good.
I got up from her lap, before making things unnecessarily awkward, shifted back to my male form, and carried her to my lap to continue with her 'pets', trying to calm her down.
"How? I didn't know and it's supposed to be me."- She was in a state of shock.
"The elves, you pay more attention to their females than any other being on Halo, aside from our family that is. I thought you were repressing it because the feelings you were projecting didn't match your actions. Had I not been an empath I would have concluded sooner with my analysis."- She clearly was interested but I didn't feel sexual attraction from her, so I was confused.
Not that I can blame her, our elven friends are unnecessarily beautiful. It's like they were made to be the sexual targets of orcs, humans, and goblins.
"I-I-*Sigh* Shit! That form was dangerous."- She said while partially accepting it. Probably the 'acceptance' that I'm broadcasting helps her.
I played with her ears and in a few seconds she was yelping like a fox in affection. But I didn't abuse it because I wanted to ask her about her clone.
"Emma, before this revelation of yours, I wanted to know, How are you doing with the cloning business? Have you decided what to do with it?"- Depending on her decision we would be taking different approaches with it.
"Yeah? And now I not only have the clone in my head but I also question my sexuality! Whose fault is that? You should be grateful that I can compartmentalize my emotions!"- She accused me.
"Well, that's your fault. You can't blame me for being so hot."- I defended my innocent self. I may be a man, but I have my manly pride in the beauty of my female body! I'm smoking hot!
"Shameless!"- She shouted. I learned from her and the other girls so if they are shameless I can be!
"Not as shameless as the looks you gave those poor elf girls! You looked like an orc, ready to grow the numbers of your species."- Two can play this blaming game!
"Shut it!"- She said with a tomato face.
"*Sigh* You're a source of vexation in my life, Aragorn. I love you more than my blood family, but you can be annoying. Stupid prick!"- Not a difficult accomplishment given her family record, but I also love her, a lot. Hence:
"~Hehehe~ I love you lots, big sister!"- I said in my female voice while sending her my 'love' through telepathy.
My statement coupled with my voice brought a shiver down her spine. Something that was very visual in her free-standing fur. But my telepathic feed was what broke her.
As I have explained before, my love can run freely in my soul. Hence if love could be measured I would have more than normal, because it fills the empty spots left by my other restrained emotions. Even if this is familial affection, like the one you have for a daughter, sister, and best friend all mashed up together.
"GRRR! Look! This is what I meant!"- She growled and shouted. Then filled her teeth with my energy and took a bite of one of my hands!
"Agh Bitch!"- I shouted.
"Please! I know it doesn't hurt you!"
"Well yeah! But it hurts my fragile heart!"- Hahahaha! Messing with her queenly self is always so funny.
"*Sigh* Idiot!..."- She told me as she sent her 'love' through the temporary connection.
It's some sort of weird basic manners for telepaths that the girls and James invented a few months back. It started as a joke but it stuck. We do it with other feelings regularly as well... maybe we are weird, but that's okay, no one can judge us.
It's also better for making fun of people, you can accompany your pranks with feelings and they usually get annoyed faster. Hahahaha! So many good memories.
But it has other uses, when the little maids have nightmares, it's easier to calm them down by pouring your emotions into them, it makes them feel accompanied.
People fear telepaths because of their mind games, but we openly allow inpouring from our family. Not very normal, but it is what we like, so fuck them!
Besides, it helps when dealing with disagreements, it's easier to understand each other if you can 'feel' their situation. Maybe Nagato was right about making world peace through pain.
It's a very brutal way of doing what we are doing, but since there was no telepathy like ours in Naruto, I can't blame him.
"But I'm better now, thank you. I'm calm now, I will meet my clone first and then I will decide."- I will be magnanimous and allow her to change the topic.
"I don't need to say it, but, whatever happens, I will be there for you... And the rest of the sorority!"- The last part brought a chuckle out of her.
We let the silence flow since no more words were needed. We kept the temporary link up, sharing our feelings, meanwhile, watching the girls, slaying their way through the base, in the holograms in the cockpit.
I've been meaning to take a peek deeper into the facility, to confirm the clone's state; but since we normally share feelings I rather not. I would feel guilty if I didn't tell her about the clone's state and since she had not decided what to do with it I didn't want to pressure her into making a hasted decision.
James was taking the role of a watchtower, making sure that no surprises could ambush the girls. But they needed to split teams since one team had to go look for the power source while the other went to the labs level.
"James, send just two girls for the power source, I will take care of covering their backs."
"Roger."
I could also take a look to confirm if it was nuclear or something else, but this was the girls' chance to shine and show off their training.
After this whole ordeal is over, I will probably spend a few months in space with Kitty; while I'm not here, the girls will be in charge of storming through the selected Hydra bases, so I'm using this operation to make sure that they don't have bad habits due to a difference in experience, given that normally they just fight me instead of storming bases.
Hopefully, the situation with Krakoa stabilizes soon enough and the X-Force can help them.
The last two levels were our targets. The first levels included: a hangar, reception, communications, storage, security, living quarters, prison, mess hall, supplies, and administrative rooms. The last two levels are the most important ones, laboratories and power generators.
Most of the girls used their weapons to take down the scum. I think it's because they usually can't use them in our spars, since weapons are useless at our level of matches.
But, I have to admit that I can see the romance in energy blasters, whatever type of energy blaster. It's super clean, I won't have to deal with any form of material evidence!... Though, after the base is blown up I don't think we will have to care about that, but better safe than sorry.
The girls had their personal designs, but in the end, they all shared some basic functions: rapid-fire, beam discharge, and single-target. It's funny how they all ended there without our intervention.
Some have additional functions, like a blade mode, as if a lightsaber was not enough. We are also working on a beam that can make corners, like Darkseid's Omega beams. But unless you have energy manipulation like me, it so far has been futile.
"Anatasia, Yekaterina. Mutant dog inbound."- I informed them as I saw a bear-size dog running at them.
The interesting feature was the adamantium maw. I can assume that weapon x, plus, alpha, beta, omicron 5, and whatever other variants exist of it are somehow involved.
"Can we keep it?"- Asked Yekaterina.
"You'll need to put it to sleep and remove the bombs in its neck and stomach before we blow up the facility."- I will probably have to stabilize its DNA afterward. Mad scientists are not known for their attention to detail.
"Yey! I will put it to sleep and we will come back for it after the generators are taken care of."- Yekaterina said.
The bear-like dog took a corner and Yekaterina stabbed its head with a psionic spike. It was like spamming a continuous message of 'Sleep' and 'Relax' forcefully in its brain.
The dog fell to its size and Yekaterina patted it and said:
"You shall be known as Princess, henceforth, the most fearless girl."- Right, the bear-doggo with an adamantium maw is Princess from now on.
The pair of teenagers continued to move. Along the way, they didn't find any other dogs, but the other team took care of 5. At least their deaths were swift. RIP, poor doggos!
Finally, after testing their weapons with a few volunteers along the way, they arrived at the generators.
A quick scan and I found that the facility used some of the old Hydra batteries, the tesseract-powered ones from WWII.
"Objective Accomplished. Those won't irradiate after the explosion. You girls can go and take care of your dog."
The explosion of the generators will probably just make the crater deeper.
The girls ran back to the dog and started to prepare the field for the surgery.
They create a barrier encapsulating the dog and its immediate surroundings.
"Aragorn, can we use magic to disinfect?"- Anastasia asked.
"Yeah, go ahead, I'll clean the traces after you're done."
Anastasia has trauma surgery as one of her specializations, and Yekaterina has gynecology. Medicine is one of the most popular studies in the Crystal. The first place goes to the Managerial Studies, but that's because I asked them all to get at least one degree in that subject.
After Anastacia used a 'Microlife-killing' spell they started both incisions at the same time. The spell is simply a fire burst of high-caloric energy that blasts for less than a second.
In their hands, they create psionic blades, and using the contract they 'summon' one of the 'skills' of my eyes. The skill that allows me to see through mass.
This summon is really half-baked, not market-ready. The only reason their eyes are not melting is because of their adaptability trait. It's a perk that I made as a conceptual project, just to prove that it's possible, within the contract.
But, hopefully, in a few years, I should have an original magic system that doesn't put the user's life at risk.
After a few minutes, the bombs were out and the girls were healing the wounds. After they were done they levitated their dog out, to where the other subjects that they found in the prison were being healed and prepared for departure.
So far, most of the prisoners had traces of psionic tempering, so I can guess what they were using the clone for. As if their normal brainwashing methods were not enough, they had to use other means.
But I can assume that they were also developing the clone's abilities since the original owner was Shaw, not Hydra. Or maybe there was something wrong with it and it came for maintenance.
Once the girls and dog were reunited with the rearguard I switched back to observing the other team. They encountered more resistance and I could already see the transmissions they were sending their superiors. Lucky me! I had Spark piggyback the transmissions and track the receiver.
[We are under attack! Intruders spotted. Lower-level, laboratories, are secured! Reinforcements requested!]
[Command here. How many intruders?]
[Twenty or so. Powered individuals with higher technology.]
[...Reinforcement inbound. Secure the clone at all costs.]
Are they? Because I don't see anyone coming here.
Mmmhmm... Oh! I just felt it. They have a form of teleportation.
But, I imagine that since they didn't use it with the clone, it either is unstable or unreliable. Maybe they use a mutant with limitations or faulty tech.
"Spatial displacement in the labs. Caution advised."
"Escaping?"- James asked.
"Reinforcements. Possible mutants."- So far they haven't encountered any mutants working for the enemy, only victims in the prison ward.
"Understood."
They arrived at the reinforced doors of the lab. With a strong push of telekinetic force, the doors caved in. I used my sight to assess the enemy forces.
"One mutant, teleporter, no threat. Keep alive to allow one of them to escape. Viper, Ophelia Sarkissian, the woman in green, no threat. Allow escape to carry the news. The main target is confirmed, the blonde girl. Secure with a barrier. Maim the rest, try to keep the scientists alive to extract information. Not a priority objective. Beware of their energy weapons, possibly of tesseract origin."- I broadcasted to the entire team before they walked in.
As they passed the broken frame, they erected two barriers, one to safeguard them from the energy blasters, and the other to prevent the clone from being moved. Both are of psionic origin.
Energy blasters, unless you have a beam mode, have no penetrative power. The energy from the tesseract tends to spatially disperse upon contact. So they kept several barriers behind each other, though visually it looks like one solid barrier.
The girls didn't let the enemy analyze the situation. At a low height, they spammed psionic blades, intending to cut their legs. At medium height, they blasted the enemies still standing.
"Fuck! Take us out of here!"- Viper, who was on her way to secure their 'asset', Emma's clone, jumped back before being killed by an 'accidental' shot.
She grabbed the exhausted mutant by the throat and ordered him to teleport them out of this.
"You don't know who you are dealing with! I'll come back for you fucking bitches!"
She shouted like a classical villain thot, while warping with her tail between her legs. Not before her eyes lingered on James in realization.
After this encounter, I expect them to start creating theories about this new enemy. An enemy that is related to 'their' Winter Soldier, to Emma Frost, and somehow to mutants.
"Good job everybody. I'll have Spark download their database. Make sure that the scum doesn't die, yet. And move out as soon as possible, I wouldn't put it past them to try to bomb the base."
Luckily the clone was currently 'dormant'... She had her eyes opened but it looked like her mind was locked, I'll have to take a look later.
I left the girls cleaning up the base.
"Spark, you know what to do, get me everything please!"
"On it."
I looked down at the fox still in my lap, enjoying the pats and ignoring reality.
"Hey Emma, are you ready to meet the girl?"
"Yeah, she didn't look right. Do you think she was conscious?"- Emma said.
"Her psionic field says she was, but her body wasn't. Maybe they did her that way to secure full loyalty. If that poor machine-like girl state can be called loyal."
We went back to a comfortable silence while we lowered our ships, to load the survivors, maids, dog, and butler.
On their way back to the ships, I made sure that there were no tracking devices on the girl. I also discovered that her mind was being suppressed by magic.
That was probably Selena Galio's work.
The dog was better than the girl. There was some cellular degradation but nothing a quick pulse of biokinesis couldn't fix.
The rest of the prisoners were stable after the girls blasted them with healing spells. A bit of an overkill, but that's okay.
One of them had a tracker in her stomach, but I just fried it, I will leave it for the mutants in Krakoa to take care of.
Once the survivors and dog were in the ships, the girls were floating outside with their city busters primed and ready.
"Ok, I feel like you'll blast me if I delay this any longer. So, go ahead, go crazy you pyromani-!"
*BOOOOOOOOOOM*- They didn't let me finish.
"Fuck!"- I shouted. The explosion was more than expected. They pulled a Ghostbusters and crossed the rays.
I grabbed the girls and ships with my TK and lifted us further away.
*BOOOOOOOM* *BOOOOOOOM*- Michael Bay would be proud.
Secondary explosions mixed with the generators. And then there was a silence, followed by a wave of light that engulfed us.
I had a barrier up, so from the inside we saw the remnant blue energy of the tesseract. Like in an aquarium. Am not gonna lie, it looked awesome! I've never been inside an explosion like this one. The one in Earth-Z was not this cool.
Then there was a ringing and finally, after the wave of light ended, we saw the hole left after the explosion.
"*Cough* Maybe I miscalculated the power left on the generators."- Emma and James deadpanned at me.
"YEAAAAH!!!"
"That was awesome!"
"HAHAHAHAHA MORE!"
"The mana is calling me."
"Again! Let's do it again!"
"Awesome!"
Well... Now I'm concerned about the integrity of Halo once they get stronger.
"Yeah... Megumins! Get inside! We are bailing out right now! This shit was seen from space. I'm way too pretty for prison"
I made sure to remove any trace of energy left, at least this way they can claim that a methane bubble or some shit blew up.
At full throttle, like a father going for milk, we escaped our responsibility. Less than an hour later we landed in Krakoa's airport.
The council and the mutants specialized in healing were waiting for us there.
This city looked like those pictures of North Korea I once saw, where you find a massive ghost city. Everything is super advanced for this time and this city has a capacity of a few thousands, but the population is about 200 hundred mutants. At least it's self-cleaning.
We left the mutants and non-mutants to them and after confirming a few things we departed, back to Halo, with a mutant dog and a clone girl extra.
"I will take a look at the dog and the girl, let's go to my lab."- I told Emma, Anastasia, and Yekaterina.
"James, you can wait for me on this ship, we should go and pick up Steve Rogers after this. Jean should arrive soon, yesterday her exams were done."
I went to visit her at my mansion on Earth, to check out how she was doing, but I was surprised to see that she had remodeled the mansion. She was very comfortable in 'my' place.
But, that place was meant to be just a foothold for my human identity, so I don't care that much. I knew that I would, eventually, have to get a house in the city where the world ending happens, New York. At least for a few years.
Jean doesn't know that she will look like my sugar baby in the eyes of everyone. Well... I look young, so maybe not my sugar baby, but more like my fiancée. Either way, this has more repercussions for her than me, I bet she will have problems getting a guy on Earth once he finds out that she's been living rent-free in the house of some rich guy.
Not that I think that she'll be able to get on with a 'regular human'. No crazy mortal will start a relationship with beings like her or me... Deadpool is different.
But yeah, maybe because Scott was a crazy brainwashed fucker he is the only real match that Jean-616 had. Because I didn't understand it at first, but when your level of existence is too different from the other, it's difficult to take the other seriously.
Like a very nice poor girl dating a very nice multi-billionaire. There are bound to be problems, regardless of their feelings.
My mind is a little special so I didn't have many problems with this, but I had a subconscious desire to uplift the level of the people around me. Noona said that this was why she's been single for so long. She had trouble taking 'lower existences' seriously.
So Noona ended with me, the Voidling, and I uplifted all the people around me. Or at least gave them the potential to be more.
_______
An hour later, Jean and I were boarding the ship. We were ready to rescue the Capsicle!
Tony is a genius! I like the nickname.
"What happened with the girl?"- James asked.
"She was okay, she'll sleep for a few days and I had to stabilize her molecular structure. Emma said she will be adopting her."- The spell was nasty, but not that difficult to unravel.
"And there were no more clones?"- A valid question.
"Yes, there were. Apparently, they couldn't create a stable clone, so they had like a thousand of them but they were all slowly dying. They used the clones as expendable items, but once one of them died the psionic mind fused with the remaining. So, slowly, dead after dead, they were living longer and longer, this last girl has a mind with more than a thousand streams of thought."- She grew to the Omega level so they had to place a limiting spell on her.
"Does that mean that she has multiple personalities?"- James.
"No. She has one personality shared by all streams of thought. Like having parallel minds, but a thousand of them. Based on what I've seen she will act similar to... Have you read Harry Potter?"- I asked James in clarification.
"Yes."
"Which book are we on?"- From my world's knowledge we shouldn't have more than 3 books, but timelines and shit.
"The sixth."- Jean answered.
"Then from what I saw in her mind they all act similar to Luna Lovegood. With a dazed, dreamy look on her face. I think as she grows older she should have a stronger personality but she is only 6 years old, approx. It's hard to tell because she was dormant but the other clones were active before her for longer."
"Won't they just make more of her?"- Jean asked.
"No, gene cloning can only go so far without the source of gene data. They exhausted all that they took from Emma a few years ago. One of the clones heard them complain about it a few times. That's why they treated this one carefully, it was the last one. This lab we blew up was supposed to fix her cellular degradation and then her molecular structure."
"At least she is with us now."- Jean said.
"Padawan, you probably have a clone as well."
"Are you kidding?"
"No. It's something that I think Essex would do. He wanted something to do with you and Scott, a baby I suspect, but in this world, you can never be sure that people will live to see another day. So if I were him, just to be sure, I would have at least a clone of each of you."- That's how Madelyne Pryor came to be. The goblin queen, the most erotic Marvel character, in my humble opinion.
Another favorite would be Lady Death from Coffin Comics... I'm starting to see a pattern here. I feel like my type might be the dark path, the goth path, the path of the corrupt women.
"... What the fuck, Aragorn? When are we killing this Essex shit? I thought I was done with his mess after I fixed Scott's head!"- Can that head be fixed? Even in Earth-616, that guy was a mess. He was the most pathetic man, and yet he got the hottest girls.
"Language!... Hehehe! Never mind, it's an inside joke. Once you have mastered your powers, you should be able to do a telepathic scan of the world and find all his clones. The guy tends to clone himself more than the healthy amount."- There should be a healthy amount, right? Like two or three more than the original.
"Can't you do it?"
"I can, but my presence would be broadcasted to a bunch of guys that I don't want to know about me. Mainly the Eternals who would then inform the Celestials, or the servants of the Beyonders, or the avatars of the Chaos, or the servants of the extradimensional beings. There are a few dormant beings that may awake and mess things up"- It's just a precaution, a very well-informed precaution.
"Why not do it and be done with this? Wouldn't this happen with me too?"
"No. The signature of your psionic energy is local, mine is eldritch. They would recognize mine as the remnant from the scan of a new powerful player, then they would get ideas, annoying ideas. Like maybe my lord could take control over this new player, or maybe I should inform my lord to get rid of this variant in our magnificent plan, stuff like that."
"Normally a quick scan is fine since energy tends to disperse, but longer than that I would pop up on their radars. I assure you, distressed padawan, there are things out there stronger than me. Problematic things as well, where even Senior Sister or Noona wouldn't be able to help us."
"..."- Jean.
"... Well shit! This isn't good for my nerves. I'm a humble war veteran, I should not be stressing over this."- James. Sure, Mister Immortal Wolf.
"Don't worry too much, Jean. I'm getting stronger every day, I'm stabilizing my powers and getting to know them better. Something I didn't have a need for before, 'killing' in The Void was different. I also have like 11 plans to escape with the planet in case shit happens."- And like 20 to escape with only the Halo. I don't like much most humans, just the babies.
"... I know, it's just... Just so unfair and stressful."- She said as she sat next to me and bumped her head on my shoulder.
Contemplating the insignificance of our existence, we arrived at our destination.
We left the ship in the ice cap and jumped into the frozen sea. The Capsicle was under the kilometric cap of ice and at the bottom of another kilometric column of freezing water. There were traces of an explosion on the sea floor.
'Let's go, I left the androids not far from here.'
We moved and then we found the Capsicle. The androids were guarding it while also making sure not to destabilize the environment.
'Jean, I will create a barrier that will allow the vapor to escape while banning the entry from outside. You need to heal him as you evaporate the water. His body is shit, so if you have to choose between body or soul, don't waste your time and choose soul.'
In the best case, I won't have to make a new body for him, but Jean should be able to do it, her control over Senior Sister's fire has advanced a lot since she gained her phoenix bloodline.
His body is in a terrible state, I think I can even identify pieces of him that were eaten by the fauna in here, but I might be wrong, it could be scars from the accident and subsequent explosion.
This reality is requiring more babysitting than I thought, maybe Iron Man will die in the cave as well. I will have to get more involved in the 'earthly' matters.
I set the barrier in place and Jean got to work.
'What do you think he is going to say about your ears and tail, James?'
'He will ask if I was always a werewolf. During our time this culture about beast people didn't exist.'
'Of course, it didn't. This is the result of irradiating a country twice. Butterflies, ripples, and tornadoes, I swear if I ever end up in the past I wouldn't change most things. All the accumulation of tragedies, discoveries, successes, failures, curses, blessings, deaths, and births, led to what we have today. I very much like what I have today. That's why I work to improve it and not change it.'- A 'Church of the Shine' should be a nice addition to history.
'You said something grand right there at the end, but both of us know that you were talking about beast girls.'
'... Yeah, well, I'm truthful to my desires.'
'I know, everybody knows.'
'Whatever! Do you think he is going to want us to help his girl?'
'I would normally say yes, but Steve was always a stubborn mule. I can see him saying something about letting life flow its course.'
'You can emotionally blackmail him, you could tell him that you are going to be left alone, friendless, a man out of his time, if he and Peggy don't join you in this eternal journey. This sounds dumb, but, just guilt-trip him into eternal life.'
'I can see that disagreeable method working.'
'Well, What can I say? I am not the best when it comes to morals and stuff like that. I was pretty white at the beginning, then black, and now a grey that tends to go dark in front of scum.'
'I have seen so, but most real people are like that. Only children's heroes can live in the light and fight in the dark without dyeing themselves in the process.'
'You should tell that to Superman!'
'Hahaha! Yeah, maybe I should.'
'I'll let him know if I find him in the future.'
'...'
'...'
'*Sigh* You're not joking, Are you?'
'Oh no, I'm not. Do you know about the multiverse? If every possibility is both truthful and deceitful, shouldn't it stand to reason that stories become reality and reality becomes stories somewhere out there?'- More like in the Omniverse, but I think that there's supposed to be some overlapping here.
'I don't want to know, I already have enough with our very real cosmic terrors. I don't want to think about fighting Azathoth.'
Maybe Azathoth can be considered my super-superior. One day I might visit other multiverses, but I don't think I know how to navigate The Void, so no can do, I wouldn't leave my Noona for all the other goth girls out there. My Noona can shapeshift so that's like a one-in-all deal, she can also create multiple time instances of herself, so... I'm the true winner here.
...
...
...
5 fucking hours, that's how fucked up Steve Rogers was. Jean said that something was fighting her healing. Probably the space stone energy, or maybe some weird cosmic energy resulting from the explosion. I couldn't even help because I couldn't tell what effect removing the energy would have on his eggshell-like body. Maybe this foreign energy was keeping everything glued together.
Yet, the beautiful padawan succeded! I should be nice to her for a few days.
'Thank you my beautiful padawan!'- I said to the tired girl, she was already falling asleep and we were deep under the freezing sea.
'You're only nice at times like this.'
'I know, but you should know that I love you a lot.'
'Nobody is talking about that, we are talking about my treatment! I can always tell your feelings, stop distracting me.'
'I know, but you should know that I love you a lot.'
'Shut up! Carry me! I'm going to fall asleep!'
She gave up, moved to my back, and fell asleep immediately after she piggybacked on me.
'Let's go, James, bring the Cap with you.'
We moved to the ship above and drove to Halo. Steve Rogers should wake up tomorrow.
{Hi everyone!
This was a long one. Should be the only chapter of this week. I will upload a bunch of pictures so if you are reading this and haven't seen them you might give it a few minutes.
In case someone is wondering, I am not gender-bending the character, just something that he can do. Comic-wise Death can also do it. I might include it in Lemon scenes but not yet.
I have nothing against gender-bent, I actually like it, so don't get triggered, please.
I haven't explained this, but unless the MC is copying the physical appearance of someone, he has to imagine the entire desired body, this is why he has some default forms because imagining a new physical body from nothing takes time. If not mistaken we can't imagine new faces only by repurposing old info, we come up with 'new' faces, which are fundamentally new combinations. (Don't quote me on the last part.)
I also mentioned something about the time-instances. That's something that most nigh-omnipotent beings can do, basically, you make a past of yourself adjacent to your present self so you end up with two or more versions of you, it can be a past or future version of you just a few seconds ahead or behind, it's not cloning because both are you. At the end the displaced instances go back to their time.
I'm purposely not meddling in Krakoa's situation because I plan to write about it on different POV's.
}
