6 Unexpected system ping. -5
Alex hadn't expected anything interesting to happen until his meeting with Stane. Even then, that was more because of his future as the villain of Iron Man 1 than anything else.
That expectation had been dashed when, suddenly his worthless system pinged him out of nowhere.
[Ding! Congratulations to Host for containing yet another SCP! As this is the first SCP that the Foundation has successfully contained without Host, Host is granted a reward!]
[Ding! Host is rewarded with 1 Foundation special combat unit of 20 class A combat personnel and 100 class B combat personnel!]
He quickly dismissed the notification and looked at the Foundation database; sure enough, a new entry had been added by SITE-644.
'Some piece of alien tech? They gave it a Safe class classification, so I guess it's not a big deal. At least I don't remember this thing from any of the movies or shows… not that I ever saw anything but the biggest films.'
Alex thought and felt a bit depressed at the end as he regretted not watching more Marvel stuff. Sure, he had watched the big popular films and some recaps of some other stuff with a few theories on YouTube. That still left a lot of blanks, given how much they had been pushing out before his transmigration.
Shaking his head, Alex dismissed the entry and was about to return to his work when a thought popped up, making him pause. "System, did that give me any points?"
["Ding! Host was rewarded with 200 points for the successful containment of the safe class SCP!"]
"I had hoped that would indeed be the case. Now I got next month covered, and I can start putting some more plans into motion."
Alex whispered with a slight smile on his lips as he started to make plans for getting his hands on more points by handling Marvel SCPs.
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The following morning, while Alex perused the newspaper at breakfast, an attendant reminded him, "Please remember your lunch meeting with Mr. Stane today, sir."
"Yes, I remember. Also, send a team to San Juan to investigate a lead on an SCP object beneath the city,"
Alex replied smoothly, initiating the search for the Kree city. Despite his limited knowledge of Agents of SHIELD plots, he felt any intervention would be inconsequential in the grand scheme.
"Should we construct a containment facility?" inquired another subordinate.
"Hmm, a class 2 or 3 facility might be needed. It might be Euclid or even Keter class and shouldn't be highly dangerous, but containing it could be difficult given its size and location. I will have what I know sent out to whatever team is put in charge."
"A team will depart within the hour," the subordinate confirmed, exiting to make the necessary arrangements.
'This will be a good first major challenge for the Foundation, to handle an entire underground city right under a major city without letting SHIELD know.' Alex thought as he finished his breakfast before returning to his bunker to write up the entry.
[SCP-12555]
[Object Class – Pending]
[Special Containment Procedures: Pending]
[Description: Believed to be an extensive underground alien facility, possibly Kree, with undetermined defensive capabilities. Recommends using class-D personnel for initial exploration.]
[Addendum-01: by order of O5-1, the use of 1000 class-D personnel has been approved.]
After completing the entry, which was sparse in details, Alex reflected on the likelihood of fatalities in exploring the city. "To think I've just potentially sentenced a thousand people to death.
Transmigration really changes one's perspective," he whispered in the silent room, shaking off the thought to focus on work before meeting Stane.
-------------------
[With Obadiah Stane]
Obadiah looked at the young man in front of him. His pitch-black suit, short blonde hair, and bright blue eyes made him look like a rich, pretty boy. But he knew that this person was nothing like his own Tony.
'I only just started selling weapons to those 10 rings guys, and then the head of the Ricci family wants to meet me? I have a bad feeling about this.' Obadiah couldn't help but let his thoughts run wild as he sat before the Alexander "overkill" Ricci.
Taking a sip of his water to wet his dry mouth, Obadiah gave the man in front of him a weak smile before breaking the silence. "So what can I do for you, Mr. Ricci?" Obadiah might act like a big deal in front of others, but he still had to give some respect to the person in front of him.
Since starting to sell weapons on the black market a few years back, he had learned a lot of things. For one, he had gotten a whole new respect for Tony's genius. The damn boy might be trouble at times, but he was a goose laying golden eggs.
After selling the first few batches of weapons, the military came knocking, not to find him but to find Tony. They wanted newer, better weapons since their enemies had gotten their hands on the same stuff they used.
Another thing he learned was that he had started at a good time, just as the 10 rings were in the middle of expanding. He also learned a lot about people he had never known before. Just like Alexander Ricci here. He might look like a harmless youth, but both of those were lies.
'How in the world can he continue to look so young! He is older than Tony, if not older than me!" Obadiah cursed in his heart. The Ricci family had been one of the big surprises. He had known of them even before entering the black weapons market.
The Ricci were the number 1 force to launder money in the states; he had used them before, as had just about everyone that could skim the book enough that they needed to clean money. That was just a new side business started by the current head, this Alexander in front of him.
The Ricci family had another title, drug kings of Europe. At least 80% of all drugs entering that whole continent came there through the Ricci family. And they were still expanding.
Their most concerning title was "overkill" since while others might send a hitman in the dark, the Ricci would send a rocket through your office window in broad daylight.
"Yes, Mr. Stane, I wanted to discuss business with you. The folder." Alex said, and an attendant handed Obadiah a thin folder.
"You want nuclear weapons!?"
Obadiah couldn't help but exclaim out loudly as he read the file. It read like a shopping list of weapons of doom as they were all the most dangerous and powerful weapons made by the Stark industry and mankind!
"Not just buying them either, even just the key components as well?" Even a man like Obadiah felt his heart hammering, and his mouth go dry at the idea of a criminal wanting stuff like this, not to mention the amounts.
"That is Right, Mr. Stane. I recently got my hands on a few very exclusive business opportunities. Yet I find myself unable to complete them on my own, which is where you come in."
The young-looking man said smoothly, like he was talking about the weather or something equally mundane and not fucking nukes!
"Well, Mr. Ricci, I don't know what to say… you sure know some dangerous people." Obadiah said nervously.
"Perhaps, but also some very wealthy people, Mr. Stane. People that can make us rich just the same if we can get them what they want. The blonde bastard said with a light smile as he leaned back.
"Even if you say that. Getting these things will take a lot of work. One doesn't just misplace a nuclear warhead without attracting all types of attention."
He tried to explain while imagining just who was attempting to get their hands on these weapons through the Ricci family.
"Which is why the option of merely selling some of the parts is there as well. Naturally, the price will be much lower for just the enriched uranium on its own, but Stark does make some powerful alternatives that are acceptable as well."
With those words, a long discussion began, which lasted hours before the two men parted ways, both satisfied.
"Oh, and Mr. Stane, one more thing, I just got my hands on a little something from the Air Force. It is something rather impressive as well, perhaps if young Tony finds himself bored and if you would rather, he didn't go back out to feed those recent rumors."
"Then perhaps you could send him my way? He could spend some time helping my men look it over and trying to understand it. Who knows, he might come back home having learned a thing or two."
Obadiah was left alone with those words and couldn't help but remember the news about the Air Force pulling some crazy stunts last month. He was now starting to think that it might have something to do with losing whatever it was that had ended up in Ricci's hands.
'Now the question is whether or not it is worth the risk of sending Tony over to that monster…'
---------------------
[Back with Alexander.]
Alex sat in the back of his car on the way back home after his meeting with Stane. He knew he had spooked the man by trying to get his hands on so many powerful weapons.
Right now, the Foundation just didn't have the ability to make its own nuclear weapons. And what kind of Foundation would he be running if it wasn't able to throw nukes at all its problems?
Sure, it wasn't like he didn't have any; every SITE had at least one. While more significant SITEs had more as well, but the amount he could freely use was far too low for his liking.
'This will put a big drain on the liquid funds available to me, not to mention Ulysses next week. Who would have expected that weapons of mass destruction would be so damn expensive.'
Alex thought as they neared his mansion. He was also tempted to visit Kingpin, but that could wait. That man was still far from as powerful as he would be in the future, and Alex himself was far more powerful than he had assumed at first.
'Now let's hope Stane comes through on this entire thing. A few ready-made nukes would make me feel a lot safer for sure.' Alex thought as he looked out the window at the many houses and manors of other rich people here in New York.
Once back home, Alex returned to work right away as there was still a bit of time left before dinner, and he was kept busy these days by his many plans. "We need more engineers. A lot more! Look into recruiting some good ones." Alex called out to the empty room as he remembered that he had gotten requests from every SITE for help in building more quinjets.
"They really are great crafts." He whispered, as even the drug smuggling operation under him wanted to use the stealth crafts to aid in the rapid expansion. The 50 engineers he had gotten per SITE wouldn't cut it as all the new SITEs too requested that treatment.
It would be good if Tony were to take me up on my invitation; those crafts are giving even my people some trouble, and getting a better relationship with Tony before he becomes Iron Man will be useful as well.
Alex would deny it until his last breath that the real reason he gave out the invitation was just because he wanted to meet his favorite Avenger.
"Sir, we just got the word from an agent. Tomorrow, Darren Cross will move to remove Hank Pym from Pym Technologies." One of his guards stepped out and informed him.
'Damn, I just informed them to keep an eye on Pym yesterday, and we already have what we need. Good thing I remembered that it would happen sometime around now, or I would have lost the chance of getting Pym.'
Alex thought, relieved, as he desperately needed people at that level, not to mention that he would get a whole family of heroes in the future if he played his cards right.
"As soon as the vote passes, I want Pym to be given an offer he won't be able to forget. I doubt he will accept anything right away. So don't try to force it; just make sure that every morning when he remembers he doesn't have to get up for work, he remembers our offer."
Alex ordered quickly and waved the guard away as he went back to his bunker so he could plan how to best make use of Pym.
Alex couldn't really remember much about Darren Cross and his stupid plans, which would fail due to a criminal in a borrowed super suit. Whatever it was, it hardly mattered and wouldn't end up succeeding anyway.
Depending on what happens in the future, he might just get rid of him and take over the company as part of the Foundation.
'Pym might like that, getting kicked out and then returning in a huge fashion as the big boss under me. Yeah, let's try and see if that is possible, and I need to make a move on AIM as well. I need someone in there to grab some control over the whole thing quickly.'
Another day ended with Alex sitting in his secret bunker and scheming like a Bond villain.
