Fast 83

The Fastest Man Alive

Chapter 83

By BigToFu

Frozen Planet Kelvina

Designated Leader of the InHuman's

Markus

Standing on the cliffs overlook, Markus cast his gaze far and wide with more than just aspirations and a bundle of hope within his chest. The planet was horrible, but Inhumans knew struggle, Inhumans knew pain, and most of all his people knew how to persevere. He breathed deeply of the planet's hard air, letting the atmosphere wash over him, the ambiance calming.

That bastard felt that this would cow him, but Markus was an Inhuman made of firmer stuff. With one long lingering breath, Markus allowed his venom to drip down onto the ground and delighted in the sizzle of the reaction. He should have spit in the bastard Blake's eyes when he had the chance, now the opportunity was gone. Giving the world before him a nod of appreciation, he turned around and looked over the camp they had been staying at for the last few days.

Exhaling some of his venom breath, Markus allowed it to gather above his head before snapping his fingers sparking his creation.

"GATHER THE CAMP, WE ARE LEAVING IN HALF AN HOUR!" Markus bellowed, his voice resounding through the area. His closest confidants snapped to it, but Markus could see the stragglers in the distance paying no heed to his words. They were going to be a problem either now or eventually and he would have to do something about them soon.

Looking around, Markus found the large form of Lash, with rapid movement, Markus found himself at Lashes shoulder and motioned for his attention. "When everyone is ready, trail those three."

Markus made another motion towards some Inhumans who appeared to be lazing behind

Lash looked over with a lazy eye then turned back towards Markus, "They causing problems?"

Instead of replying, Markus grunted in affirmation, displeasure clear on his features to those who looked.

"I'll keep an eye on them while I make the rounds," Lash replied with a dismissive shrug of the shoulders. Markus gave him a nod and turned to walk, he did note that Lash had run his gaze over the space expanded bag, but that would be an issue for later. Right now, Markus was going to make sure that the food was distributed properly while also recollecting the camping equipment.

A time would come when he would have to display his powers, but today was not that day.

[ 4 Days Later…]

Glaring at the frostbitten world, Markus growled through his teeth as he pulled the cloak covering his shoulders closer. That bastard Blake was going to pay if he ever got off this frozen ball of dirt. He was hoping that the fool would offer negotiations, but no. The bastard had condemned them to his frozen hell hole. If it wasn't one thing then it was the other, fuck this planet.

Things had gone bad from the start and he was really starting to think that the universe was against him and his goals. Another night had come and gone with more of his people dead due to the cold. Another night came and went to wake up to deserters and thieves stealing supplies, heaters and materials. Another night came and went with him sleeping alone with no one to warm his bed or further his legacy. Those thoughts were pushed out of his mind as runners came back to let him know that ten people were down and would not get back up. From what was discovered, they had died in their sleep due to the cold and could not be recovered.

Flipping the page over, Markus notices that they hadn't gone through terragensisis and had no powers on file. With a grunt, he dismissed the information because it was clear that he had lost nothing with their deaths. Nahh, he didn't want to read about such useless people, tossing the paper aside, he exited the tent and made his way over to where the food was being given out.

Arriving by the food station, Markus rallied his people and gathered the bag of holding along with calling an end to feeding time. With a check of his watch, Markus found that they were here for far too long, and a second check to the horizon showed that the weather could take a turn at any time. This planet would not break him, of that Markus was certain.

Before he could get about his day, a spherical drone dropped down from the clouds to hover before his face. He took a defensive step backwards, arms raised as a precautionary measure. Unfortunately, he discovered that was a futile attempt as the drone's face illuminated blue, the light cycling around the device before a holovid sprang to life.

A screen appeared before the drone flashing white then the symbol of that accursed Empire for a few rotations before changing once more. Blues, greens, purples, and other multitudes of colors flashed across the screen within seconds before everything settled on a dinner table. At this dinner table was a family that everyone knew, it was the royal family of Pandora, with the Emperor at the head of the table.

From the way things were framed, it was clear that the royal family was eating and it was clear to tell with the sound of cutlery and soft voices in the background. The audacity of this asshole to call while eating a steak dinner with extra butter on his mashed potatoes.

"What is it that you want Blake?" Markus asked as he pulled himself together, back straight and putting forward the image of impeccable poise.

Blake snorted at the question even as he cut into his steak, "From you nothing." Blake stated even as he showed off the cut of steak he had on his fork before placing it inside of his mouth.

Markus raised a brow as Blake chewed slowly and he could tell what this was, a power move from start to finish.

"My mother has a few things that she would like to say, and you will show her all the respect that you have, or this will be your final day." Blake stated and Markus could see the fork bend in his grip. "Make no mistake, that you will find my reaction to the words you speak to my mother versus those you speak to me to be completely different. I might not expect everyone to bow down and scrape at my feet, but I at least hold people to a level of decorum and expectations during the interaction."

Blake opened his hand and placed the twisted fork to the side and got another. "Regardless of how you feel towards me, you will contain yourself when you speak with my mother."

Markus went silent for half a second as he recognized the look in Blake's eye. It was clear that one would be out of order and Blake would crush his stance on neutrality and kill him, with absolutely no care about repercussions.

Putting his reaction to the side, he gave Blake a nod of understanding.

Blake gave his own nod before looking to the side, "Mother, the call is yours."

"OH, don't you mother me," A woman that Markus remembered sitting off to the side in the throne room was given the camera, and Markus realized that this might be harder than he thought. "If you had listened when those first reports came in and killed him, he wouldn't be outside your reach right now tying your hands with some neutrality nonsense."

"Mother," Was Blake's reply, and Markus could hear the long-suffering sigh punctuating Blake's voice.

Markus watched as the lady rolled her eyes before turning to give him more attention, and Markus had to admit. Her gaze was chilling to the bone, and he wanted nothing to do with it.

The Emperor's mother looked him over with a critical eye and it took all of Markus considerable willpower not to wilt underneath the power of her gaze. "I got a million on you dying in the first week and 3 on that old biddy breaking your spine along with another 1 on someone no longer putting up with your shit and taking you out."

The holovid shifted and Markus could barely process what he was seeing. These savages were placing bets on the survival of Markus and his people.

"Ma'am," Markus started trying to be diplomatic otherwise he would lose his head. "I do not believe that placing bets on such a thing is proper."

"Doesn't matter, I need you to stop being a pain in the ass." She replied and Markus found himself caught flat-footed.

"Ma'am regardless of what might be between myself and your son, I must do right by those who decided to follow me." Markus replied, he had poise and purpose in his showing. "My death would mean that they made the wrong choice, so I must carry their hopes and feelings on my shoulder and perform to the best of my abilities."

"Bahh, excuses from a small and tiny man trying to make something off of other people's hard work." Blakes mother stated with a wave of her hand. "If you had even half of those feelings you would have led a revolt out of the mining pits. Not taken advantage of my sons' good nature."

Things went silent and the shaking of the image was all Markus got before it was cut out, but he was able to hear one final thing.

"Don't you mother me Benjamin Samuel Blake, I'm just telling that parasite like it is."

The video cut out and Markus found himself staring stunned as the drone bobbed in the air once, twice, before it then flew away. He couldn't for the life of him answer how long he stood there stunned, but what he did know was that he made it back to the campsite proper.

[ 1 Week Later …]

He stared down at his hip where the bag of holding for the food was missing. Rage unlike anything he had ever felt before washed over him and Markus was certain that someone was going to die.

With a snarl of frustration, he turned out of the tent and made for Lash and the rest of those he appointed guards. It took him a five-minute walk but it felt like an eternity as Markus formulated plans on how to deal with the new obstacle of their being a food shortage. The long and short of it was that he saved some of the food outside of the bag of holding, but the long of it was that most if not seventy-five percent of the food was inside that same bag of holding.

He should have known better and seen it as a point of failure, but it was also his point of control over the people here. When he found Lash, he was also in a state of bewilderment as he scrambled to find something that gave Markus a very sinking feeling within his gut.

Try as he might, Markus could not hold onto his temper as he snarled at Lash, "What did you do?"

Lash didn't answer as he kept looking around and Markus put the clue together that he had lost the bag of holding that carried the supplies for the tents and other amenities. That was all it took for a poison coated fist to swing forward and punch Lash in the side of the head.

"Where is it?" Markus snarled over the stuned and dazed Lash. He struck again and again trying to get an answer out of the bastard before him. Then the world jerked and spun…. that's not right.

The world kept spinning until he was looking upwards at clawed feet, something red and the hulking form of Lash.

Wait, he recognized that jacket….

It was the one he put on this morning…

That's strange, why is everything turning dark.

No… it can't go dark….

He still has things to do….

He still has people to lead, he can't go to sleep now.

He was to be the new King of the Inhuman's….

[ Scene Break ]

Bob the Primarch.

The best Primarch anyone could ask for.

Stepping into the bar, Bob let the waves of music and cheer of the crowd wash over him, the ambiance of the place screamed fun. A hand came up at his side and went with the music of nzzt, nzzt, even as he saw Jacobs arm raised in the distance to call him over. As he walked, he sent a dazzling smile towards the cute little panther lycanthrope that decided to rub up against his peck as she made her way to the dance floor with her friends.

A smirk played on his lips as she blew him a kiss in passing. With a chuckle and a shake of the head, he turned away and finished the little walk to the bar. Clapping Jacob and Williams on the back, Bob leaned over and called for a Pandora special. The punk rocker looking dude behind the bar started glowing as cups shifted around along with liqueur and other ingredients.

"Yearrrrhhhh!" The bar cheered and Bob had to look up at the massive hologram hanging above the bar to see exactly what was going on. On the holo-image, Bob spotted that damn granny terror laying into some poor bastard. The poor sod got his nose smashed in, a broken leg and then stripped down to his birthday suit as granny terror took even his damn skivvies off his ass.

He along with Jacob shuddered at the image of the old lady.

"So she's the one huh?" William asked with a gimlet eye cast towards the holo-vid above the bar.

Jacob grimaced and put his beer down, "Yeah, that's the old bitch that tried to feed me my teeth."

With a shake of the head, Bob took his drink offered by the barkeep, took a long drink then put it down with a satisfying smack of the lips. "As usual, I had to cast an exemplary display of my extraordinary skills and resolved the altercation with minimal use of force." Ohh yeah, triple word score word of the day, Bob cheered internally.

Jacobs picked his beer up and gave him a sideways glance, "Was this before or after she knocked you on your ass to pull a turtle imitation?"

"Har, Har, Har!" Bob replied blandly with a roll of his eyes. "I got a million on that old croon kicking the bucket and if she don't, nothing a little fly by won't fix."

"Pffft, as if," Jacob shook his head with a laugh, "Word was given that we wouldn't interfere with that mess." He spoke with a wave of his hand towards the screen, a few people in the surrounding area making noise as the old lady took out someone with a baseball throw of a boulder.

Bob himself had watched as the old lady punched the mountain side and then threw her hand made boulder at the poor schmuck. Cringing a little, Bob shook his head and turned away from the little old lady causing a terror on that frozen hell scape. Maybe he didn't have to go after all since the Emperor had given his word and the Emperor's word is law, and that was alright with him.

"Fine, no doing a flyby and the crazy old bitch." Bob huffed with a roll of his eyes, then placed his bottle on the counter and reached for another being held out by the bartender. His arm flexed showing off the bicep for the ladies who looked before throwing a cocky smirk at Jacob who rolled his eyes.

"Anyways, I heard you got signed onto the Emperors guard full time," Jacob threw out with a roll of his eyes.

William cringed, "Yeah, better you than me pall, I was thinking about taking a station on one of those Atlantis city chips."

"Really?? You want a deep space posting?" Jacob asked, cutting across with a stunned look on his face.

William winced, "Kind of, there are talks about replacing the international space station with something more substantial."

"Huh… So that's his angle." Bob muttered after taking a drink, then put on a thinking look.

"His angle?" Both Jacob and Williams asked.

Bob looked at them both then shook his head at how they missed something so simple that was already in their face. "The Emperor already conquered this solar system with our build up and planetary positioning. Earth is technically the last front, but out of respect to his birth place and those in his life. The Emperor doesn't want to burn his birth planet to bring it to heel."

"Alright, I follow but what's the point?" William asked with a motion of his hand for Bob to get to the point.

"My point," Bob popped, "Is that all the little things will snowball and before people know it, Earth will be far too dependent on the Empire. That planet is already ours and none of those politicians are even aware of it. If they had any brain cells they would see the writing on the wall."

The other two stilled for a moment and gave what Bob said a thought. Williams then shared a look with Jacob that said a lot more than any words could ever say.

"So that's the point of all the consolidation and war games then?" Jacob muttered as he twisted the cap from the top of his beer.

"Basically," Bob replied with a gruff shrug of his shoulders. "The Emperor doesn't want to, but someone on Earth is going to do something fucking stupid and he will have to drop the hammer to prove a point."

Sigh, "And once that point is proven he plans to keep the spoils of war, I get'cha." Williams returned with a nod of understanding. Silence descended once more as they finished their drinks and watched the deathmatch of the so-called superior people. All it took was one person of dubious morals to horde the supplies before everyone devolved into savages.

That fool Markus wanted a position of ruling and didn't even have the power to make his rules stick. He wasn't a fan of the decision, but Bob could admit that the emperor made the right choice in letting that fool leave with his people of choice. Even with everything given to them and work being an option, they had malcontent with the Emperor ruling over them and saw fit to abdicate for separation. Now they were understanding exactly how far they had come since the days of cave man and gatherers.

Bob had looked through those supplies offered by the Emperor and he was still stunned at all that was handed over free with no expectation of repayment. Advanced genetic chambers, birthing pods, advanced medical supplies along with housing equipment. Materials for fusion reactors and so much more that anyone with half a plan could build a civilization with less than a thousand people.

Yet, all of that was flushed down the drain because of one man's hubris… Maybe that's why the Emperor let him have the bag of holding. Maybe the Emperor had already seen Markus being the undoing of his people. Bob cringed at the holovid once more as Markus found himself cornered and fought his way out tooth and nail. Things weren't looking so well for him and it was clear that he didn't have the bag of holding anymore.

From the tracking feeds of the drones, Markus had gotten his foolish self pick pocketed by a group of teenage kids who then ran away from the camp. That was only the start of the mess that was down on that frozen hellscape. The second problem showed its face while Markus and his ilk were out for a hunt to replace all the food that was suddenly missing.

You would think that with them considering themselves to be so called enlightened people they wouldn't turn to such distasteful actions, but they of course had no control of their baser instincts. All it took was attempted rape of a super powered female to remind those fools that woman within their society were not weak lambs to be preyed upon.

Markus' third and final failing was to not kill the bastard due to him being a favored minion. That was all it took to break the trust of the people and have hackles and defenses raised as lines and alliances were made. All it took was for bad judgment to break the people's faith in his leadership and have them all out for themselves and whatever little alliances they made.

Bob could only shake his head at such uncouth leadership, it was no wonder Markus would fail before he even started. He took a swing of his beer and nearly choked as the bar cheered at the holovid, looking up, he saw that Markus had finally caught his end. Blinking, he watched the replay of the event and could only shake his head at the sight. The one known as Lash had slapped Markus' head clean off his body. Funny enough, Lash was the one that had stuck with Markus from the very start.

The replay rolled back some more and then Bob could see why: Markus had raised his hand to Lash and the big man didn't take very kindly to such actions.

Such a waste Bob thought, then put it all out of his mind as the holovid changed to the payout screen. Plenty of people would be making a pretty credit tonight. With a shake of the head, Bob placed his empty beer on the counter and clapped his friends on the back.

While walking away from the two, Bob noticed that pretty Panther Lycanthrope on the dancefloor. Yeah, he was going to leave those heavy thoughts for tomorrow. Tonight, he would see about becoming her scratching post, anything to keep his mind from wondering back towards terror granny.

[ Scene Break ]

Exploration Team Gamma

Bjorn and Ari

Smiling down at the tablet in his hands, Bjorn couldn't help but find the sight of the wildlife captured on satellites placed in orbit over the frozen hellscape that was now known Kelvina. From what he was seeing on the topographic maps, they were going to be placed down on the very other side to the point of those fools who wanted to break away from the Empire. The scans that were taken were of those from satellite, and now it was time for Bjorn and his team to go down and check things out.

The planet was initially marked off due to the frozen nature of the biosphere, but that was only from looking at the planet from the outside. They were going down to check things out officially and then give their recommendations. Bjorn had to admit that he was looking forward to this. A fresh new hunting ground all for the taking and the planet got to stay or get removed on his word, well his team's word that is.

The sound of fluttering wings pulled Bjorn from his thoughts, and he looked over to find his second in command chatting up a shapely Spartan. At least she had good taste, that spartan was curvy in all the right places and her smell wasn't that bad either.

With a shake of his head, Bjorn refocused on the matter at hand even as Ari was able to get the number of the spartan and slipped it into her pocket. Bjorn rolled his eyes, as if we don't have omni-tools that could keep track of such things.

A flutter of wings and then the settling of a lightweight person settled next to him as Bjorn activated the holos-creen.

He waved a hand at the image, "We will insert from here, drop point at the base of this mountain." The image rotated to show how the ship would fly from the back of the mountain and down into a nice valley. "We land here, and that gives us ten clicks from the forest and one from the nearest river that's coming down the mountainside here."

"Hmm, this will give us access to three regional biospheres without leaving our backs open to the wildlife, I can agree with this plan." Ari stated even as she used a slim hand to rub at her delicate chin.

Bjorn nodded his head, "Then we are in agreement, if you would be so kind as to scout the area while I set up defenses, we shall have things sorted before the noonday frost."

At his side, Ari looked over the holo-screen with a critical eye before a wave of her hand sent a copy to her personal omni. "Sounds reasonable."

Before she could say anymore, Bjorn was already moving towards the ramp of the shuttle. She shot up with wide eyes and could already tell what he was planning.

"Get back here you oversized teddy bear."

She was halfway across the back of the cargo bay and never made it in time as the ramp finally went down. Smirking at Ari, Bjorn jumped clean out of the shuttle arms spread wide to catch the air. Only a slow bear gets left behind after all and there were things sweeter than honey waiting for him down below.

She can snoop all she wants once she is finished with the paperwork.

Authors Note's : Bag of Holding = space expansion bag ; Kelvina = fantasy elvish for cold planet

Lash clearly didn't take to kindly to people putting their hands on him and Markus lost his head.

Also, yes Benjy has three names, and you can tell who the middle name is for because there can only be one true badass trench coat-wearing mofo.

Okay, I had something to do so I had to cut this one short, but here is the chapter. Markus really didn't live up to all the hype and Mamma Blake is being a hot mess. Also, who expected any of that from that terror granny.

One more OC is to be shown soon and more follow-up with Bjorn and Ari to come. One on a hunt and the other has just discovered she has been left with the dreaded nightmare that is paperwork.

Let me know what you guys think about the chapter.

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