23 Chapter 23: Unwanted Doom

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"The more you want something, the harder it is to wait for it."

— Kabuto, (Naruto)

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<(Atem POV)> 

"Well well well, what do we have here? It seems that you guys have done quite well for yourselves. I guess you all were speaking the truth when you said that you could make a space shuttle much better than even SpaceX, the current largest private space company. Hell, this can probably even compete with the ones designed by NASA." I whistled trying to show my amazement at the huge almost fully completed spacecraft.

Of course, I had seen stuff on a much grander scale than this with my space city, my pyramid-shaped spaceship and even Zoya possessing the capability to manufacture a dozen of these spacecraft using her worker sentinels daily but if I had said any of those things here, then Reed and his team would feel quite insulted, so I just took the easy way out and acted like I was hella impressed with their work.

Being a boss is really tough, you know.

"Thank you, Mr. Giotem. I worked really hard on this, so I am glad that you appreciate the time and effort me and my team placed in this project. It's my masterpiece and the tests that I will do in space with this space vehicle will be one of my most important researches ever." Reed said with a happy yet humble tone in his voice, something that had become a norm in our conversations after the last time Emma 'face slapped' him.

"And I am happy that I was able to become a part of this huge success of Baxter Foundation. But I have to say, the person I am most impressed with among you all is actually our amazing and beautiful CEO, Miss. Susan Storm. You despite all the hurdles were able to do the impossible in just three months. You were able to start earning a substantial amount of revenue and drive the company to profitability. That is something not a lot of CEOs can manage." I said with a small smile as I looked at the flustered Susan who was standing awfully close to me with our bodies almost touching.

"Thank you, Atem. I am happy that I was able to stand up to your expectations. But truthfully, making profits is really easy when you have access to the most cutting-edge technology available to mankind. All the profits till now were earned solely from contracts with hospitals and medical institutions by supplying them with medical apparatus and equipment with much higher precision and more advanced features than anything else available in the market.

According to my estimates, we can continue earning huge amounts of profits that can dwarf most big companies even if we only continue concentrating in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sector alone." Susan somehow spoke up as she stuttered multiple times while avoiding eye contact with me.

She was wearing a business suit that was quite tight around her body and showed all of her curves. She even had some light makeup on with her straightened long hair tied in a middle-parted ponytail, something that I had previously told would look quite hot on her.

"Sis, are you alright? Are you not feeling well or something?" Johnny asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at his sister's weird behavior, not understanding why his sister was suddenly acting so submissive instead of displaying her usual authoritative personality.

"Yeah, I am alright. Just a little under the weather. Anyway, we should start with the live demonstration. The representatives from Nasa should be here at any moment as well." She said as she steadied herself to appear more relaxed and normal, trying to hide and yet not complaining about the hold I had around her waist, my hands touching and lightly massaging the upper portion of her butt.

It seems that the last few weeks of constantly taking her out on dates have made her quite easy and relaxed with me, so much so that she now didn't even have any qualms about me touching her in her more intimate places. She in her mind had already begun considering me as one of her best friends whom she trusted and even a prospective boyfriend, a position that was perfect for me to 'exploit' when the time came.

"Susan, actually they are already here." Ben Grimm suddenly spoke up from behind me and Susan which scared her a lot as she quickly removed my hands from her waist. Of course, I had already sensed him standing there for the last five minutes but I had chosen to keep quiet about it because I just didn't care what he saw or thought about me.

I was curious about what he would do after he saw me getting cuddly with his best friend's crush. I wondered if he would be a loyal friend and tell Reed everything that he had seen, but quite disappointingly he just kept quiet about the entire ordeal and behaved like he hadn't seen anything, probably afraid about the entire space project getting canceled if he angered me, a wise decision on his part, I have to say.

"But the thing is they also brought someone... troublesome with them, someone that none of us particularly likes especially, Reed." Ben awkwardly said as he pitifully looked at the curious expression on Richard's face who had been unaware of almost everything going on around him for the last few weeks. Even Johnny had his suspicions but Reed didn't even have the slightest idea about how his future wife was slowly getting stolen from him by a chad god.

"That's insulting coming from you, Ben. I neither keep grudges on people nor do I keep a laundry list of grievances, so my not liking somebody is not really an accurate statement."

"It's Victor."

"Shit, I hate him." Reed immediately said as the expression on his face looked like he had just heard the name of his worst enemy.

"Wait, Victor Von Doom, the ruler of Latveria? Like the one who used to hit on my sister and hates Reed's guts besides being jealous of my handsome face? What is he doing here? I thought we would never have to meet him again after we refused funding from him." Johnny asked making sure to toot his own horn like always.

"Apparently NASA partnered with him and Latvera to share the cost of this project. So in short, he bribed the government to join in on the program." Ben answered directly without twisting his words.

"Double shit." Reed cursed as he took a seat in the nearest chair he found, his pams clenched in anger.

"I take it that none of you like this Victor Von Doom, do you?" I asked as I tried to sense the man in the building using my cosmic senses.

'Huh? That's interesting. I can't sense him using my cosmic awareness alone. I can sense the other two officials from NASA currently walking towards this very room but not him. It's like he is just not registering in my senses. This might be concerning.' I thought while frowning.

"You wouldn't like him too if you knew him. He is... a really non-likable person." Susan looked like she wanted to swear at the ruler of Latveria but somehow controlled herself at the last moment.

"I am really hurt by your words Susan. I thought our time together at the university would be a fond memory for you. A pity. I guess your choice of companionship deteriorated over the years." A good-looking man in his late twenties, dressed in a lavish suit entered the room with a cunning look in his eyes and a small yet arrogant smile tucked on his lips directed at none other than Reed, followed by two more people in suits.

"Mr. Von Doom, I thought I told you to wait at the lobby, didn't I?" Ben Grimm frowned with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"Yes, you did Mr. Grmm but unfortunately you were not an official employee of this foundation the last time I checked. You are on a contract as a pilot for this project. Thus I assumed that you have pretty much no say in receiving officials who are financing half of this project." Victor snarkily commented.

"Well, you assumed wrong Mr. Doom. Ben is as much a member of this Foundation as anyone else. As for my choice of companionship, I don't think it's any of your business. I said no when you asked me on a date, so don't make it sound like we had any relationship, to begin with, and just for your information I am still currently not dating anyone... But those are all in the past. So, we should move past those hurdles and instead focus on making this particular project we are collaborating on a grand success instead." Susan quickly replied while interrupting him as she gave me a few discrete side glances while explaining how she was still single.

"... Of course Miss Storm. So, may we start the demonstration? I have been selected as the lead representative for NASA's side of this project and as everyone knows whatever Doom undertakes, he intends to excel." The future villain with a god complex stated as he walked towards where the parts of the space shuttle were kept like he owned the place, the two other representatives silently following him so as not to anger him and risk ruining NASA's cooperation with the Latverian monarch.

"You are right. He is unlikable." I whispered in Susan's ears which Doom probably heard because he immediately turned around to face me with annoyance painted on his bored face.

"And who are you supposed to be, some kind of cheap male model hired to market this entire project? I heard the Baxter Foundation is making quite an amount of money now, so maybe the CEO has started some splurging money to hire male models and satisfy her own vanity." Doom taunted, looking genuinely curious as he observed me from head to toe.

"Hmm? Who me? Well, I guess thanks for calling me a model but unfortunately, I am only a small-time investor. However, I guess someone like you would be confused going by my 'way above-average' looks." I chuckled innocently as I took his hand in a forced handshake while trying to use my Witcher magic to sort of scan him. It was only then that I finally understood why exactly he wasn't registering in my cosmic senses all this time.

It was because he was never here, to begin with. This was only a clone or a sort of magically created copy that was either probably being controlled by the real Doom or had been pre-programmed to act like him.

'I guess he does live up to his name.' I thought to myself. After all, Dr. Doom was one of the most paranoid villains in the Marvel universe, a dictator with a genius-level intellect who could go toe to toe in cunning with Mephisto and could even easily surpass Kim Jong Un in raw paranoia.

But before I could find out more about this 'fake Doom', a notification sound chimed in my ears as the system panel suddenly opened in front of me. 

[New Quest Received!]

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