Chapter 128

C 128

–Penemue–

"So, I think we could implement this budget into our overall project, and everything should work out as planned," Penemue said to Pepper Potts as the two of them looked over their joint plans. Penemue had gotten along well with Pepper after Tony Stark introduced the two of them. They had a lot of things in common. They were both incredibly smart women who ran their own organizations/companies from behind the scenes. They both had to put up with their incredibly smart but most of the time immature man-child bosses. They were both also sleeping with those bosses…

So yes, they had a lot in common.

Pepper startled when a purple swirling black portal manifested itself in the middle of the kitchen they were in. Penemue quickly conjured a Lightspear in her hand in case they were being attacked. She let out a sigh though, and her weapon dissipated when she saw who stepped through the portal.

"Layla! I'm so glad you're back!" Penemue ran up to her sister and hugged her. "And you brought Azazel…and Kokabiel?" Penemue asked as she looked at the two red-faced men Layla had dragged behind her into Tony Stark's kitchen. Penemue could smell and see that both of them were plastered.

…

Hi, Penemue! Heimdall told me about how you've been posing as me to help sort out Oscorp. Thank you so much. You've also been kicking ass in court, I hear?"

Penemue scoffed. "As if I would ever be bested in legal matters by these mortal attorneys. I've been practicing law for longer than this country has even existed," Penemue bragged.

I turned towards the human in the room next. Her heart was racing fast–probably because I randomly teleported into her kitchen, but she was calming down at least. "Hey there, Pepper. It's good to see you again. It's been a while."

Pepper took a deep breath and steadied herself. "Hello again, Layla. Might I suggest just using the front door next time?" She asked me.

I shook my head. "No can do. Tony's house is constantly under surveillance from pretty much everyone, and we wanted to keep our partnership a secret for now. Speaking of, where is Tony?" I asked her. I couldn't sense him in the Malibu mansion or in his secret lab underneath it.

Pepper sighed and took a seat. "He invented a new element recently to power his suit better, and ever since he's been flying all around the world with the thing. He named the new element Badassium, and it is 100 times more efficient than Palladium ever was!"

"Sounds like we could power some rocket ships with that," I replied.

Penemue was trying to sober Azazel up by comically forcing his head under the running sink, but she cut in. "That was actually the plan. Oscorp–or as it's now named Fallcorp–is preparing a joint project with Stark Industries to produce Badassium-powered rocket engines. We could be space-bound in under a year even…Hold still, dammit," Penemue explained before she yelled at Azazel and shoved his head under the running icy water!

"Blurggllr!"

Azazel slumped to the floor now sobered up. "You two are spoiling all of my fun…"

Penemue smirked before she walked over to the cackling Kokabiel and grabbed him next. He was too drunk to fight her off, and he was next to have his head shoved under the running water…

"Glurrbbrr!"

Penemue was less gentle when she tossed him to the floor next. "Damn you, Penemue. I forgot how ruthless you could be since you're always dressed in that pencil skirt," Kokabiel said with a laugh. "I suppose we should head home though before my subordinates restart the Great War."

"Wait? What!?" Penemue shrieked at him. She then proceeded to choke the life out of Kokobial after he told her the orders he gave his Legions if he didn't return to them. Azazel seemed to find their actions funny as he took a seat at the kitchen table and just watched.

While that was going on, I turned back to Pepper who was looking very confused at the situation. "I didn't think that Angels could act so…human?" She asked me.

I shrugged. "We're Fallen Angels, so we're a lot more laid back. If you meet white-winged Angels in the future, they can be a lot more stuck up. Even then, most of them are pretty laid back and chill. Michael is so calm most of the time, when he's not swamped with paperwork, that a lot of people think he's constantly smoking some amazing grass. Gabriel is a ball of pure sunshine herself that will always brighten up a room."

Pepper smiled. "I saw Gabriel on TV yesterday actually. She went to the children's hospital that was founded by Tony and healed every single child there. It was nothing short of a miracle. The churchgoers across the world of course have been losing their minds in debate. Some people have also been claiming she can't be the real Gabriel because they were depicted as a man in the Bible."

"And Azazel was supposed to be some super evil Angel always plotting the downfall of the world, but in reality, he's just a supernatural, more perverted Tony Stark. You can't always trust what you read, I suppose," I replied to her. Pepper turned and gave Azazel a once-over.

Azazel noticed us talking about him and gave us a casual wave before he pulled out a recording device and started to film Penemue choking Kokabiel…

"I think there was some kind of super powered terrorist on the news last week that was also named Azazel." Pepper noted. "I had so much work going on with Penemue at the time, though, that I didn't really pay much attention to it."

A terrorist named Azazel? I could recognize the name from Marvel comics, but there were always different depictions of him. In some iterations, he was a mutant, and in others, he was a straight-up demon! If he's becoming active though, then that might mean we're approaching the X-men timeline in this world. I honestly hadn't been paying any attention to the mutants here because they kept to themselves mostly. The mutant registration act wasn't even a thing yet so most mutants were able to live in hiding as long as they did not blatantly display their powers as well. 

I'd keep a lookout for him, but for now, I wanted to mainly focus on the Death Eaters and the Hand. Heimdall's reports on both groups were that they were being extremely secretive but were slowly coming out of hiding. I supposed that they were done cowering from me after months.

'Maybe they even teamed up together?' I thought jokingly.

After a few more minutes of conversation with Pepper, Kokabiel slumped to the floor unconscious. Penemue stood over him with a satisfied smile and dusted off her hands. "That's what the idiot gets for giving his soldiers such stupid orders!" She picked him up by his legs and started to drag him–by his face–across the floor as she walked up to Pepper and me.

"Azazel and I are ready to go back for now, Layla. I would like to come back here frequently though if that's all right. Managing Fallcorp for you has been surprisingly fun and insightful," Penemue said before she shook hands with Pepper one last time.

I opened up a portal back to Earth DxD to drop my three siblings off and hopefully pick up Akeno and Asia if they were ready to go.

…

I portaled us all back to Azazel's lab. Penemue had Kokabiel slumped over her shoulder as she stepped through. She tossed him on the ground before kicking him awake and telling him to go fix his mess. Kokabiel got the message and sped off out of the room. 

Penemue could be scary… She was also stronger than I thought. I thought she was an average Ultimate Class Fallen, but she was actually bordering on gaining 12 wings soon judging by how easy she could take out Kokabiel. To be fair though, she hardly ever fights. Most of her time is spent stopping all of her idiot siblings from running our organization into the ground.

There was a knock on Azazel's lab door. It opened a second later and Baraqiel stepped inside. He didn't bat an eye at the mess in here. "Oh good. I sensed you were all back. Good timing. Layla, Lady Yasaka of Kyoto is here and she's requesting a meeting with you before you leave again. My daughter Akeno and young Asia also aren't quite ready to leave so you have a few hours till then." Baraqiel said.

Yasaka was here to talk to me? I wondered what about?

XXX

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