Chapter 10: Meet Captain Marvel.

~In Cabin~

Fury was having a headache. "How long until they invade?" He asked. They had essentially destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. It would take time for even him to gather enough personnel to make it operational again. The Avengers could help but frankly, he did not trust Lor-Zod. Yes, he had been helpful and civil, but Fury knew that at this point he was a few inches away from breaching Magneto's philosophy. He could not blame Lor as after the number of assassination attempts, he received it was already a miracle he agreed to help.

From what S.H.I.E.L. D's profiling said about Lor. He cared about the mutants first and others second. Fury could not count the amount of time he wanted to strangle Stryker and his accomplice. They had made him into a ticking time bomb. Fury did not know how much more Lor would take before snapping. Lor had made it clear that he did not trust them, and the shit Stryker had pulled did not help. Fury promised himself that if he ever had the chance, he would kill Stryker because that idiot had told Lor that the government knew his weakness. That already increased the amount of danger required to take him down if needed.

As Fury was reminiscing on the incompetence of the government via their management of mutant's affairs, Carol's words brought him back to reality. "They will invade in about a year," she said. This was both good and bad news for Fury. This gave them enough time to prepare but he knew those brainless idiots in the upper echelon would gain guts after they learn that Carol came back. He would bet his remaining eye that they would try to use her to capture Lor.

He still remembers the time they had tried to nuke New York. Fury only managed to convince them against it when he said that it would only piss Lor off. Now that he knew about Hydra, he understood it was more about eliminating future enemies. It seems that both Hydra and Fury thought that the only way to defeat Lor would be with the Avengers.

The way Fury saw things going down if that ever happened was at best, they defeat Lor, but they are too weak to fight the Kree and at worst Lor snaps. The people in charge may forget it but Fury does not. He knows that Lor's greatest asset is his intelligence. He had a gut feeling that the light of a Red Sun did not work on Lor anymore if it ever works, to begin with. He had watched as Lor created a company with enough firewall that even S.H.I.E.L.D could not completely hack everything.

They always stopped when they realized that if they continued, they would reveal themselves. This had given the board of directors something to gloat about, but Fury found it suspicious that they would be detected if they went further. S.H.I.E.L.D could hack into most of the country's defense without them realizing but they had to use thrice the amount of effort to gain half of the expected result from a single company.

This had proved that Lor was not some muscle head to Fury. The moment Lor saw what Carol could do, he would keep his eyes on her. That was not something Fury wanted as a secret weapon is supposed to stay secret. He sighed and looked at Carol before speaking.

"We need to go meet some people. They will help with the invasion."

She raised an eyebrow and spoke.

"Who?"

Fury left the cabin and spoke.

"I'll tell you on the way."

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~MC POV~

I am an idiot. Yes, I said it. I had an elaborate plan to steal the time stone at the moment between the Ancient One's death and Stephen Strange obtaining it, but I realized that they never guard it. If I was to explain further, it means that they do not guard the Time Stone as they should. I had the reality stone which gave me some protection against time-related attacks, but I was not immune to them at the very least not yet. That is the reason why I decided to take the time stone, I will leave an artificial one in case Darkseid's wanna-be appears. After three days of shielding myself, I used a combination of the powers of the mind and space stone to locate the eye of agamotto via astral projection. The powers of the reality stone help me camouflage myself completely. Once I located it; I use the powers of the three stones to take the time to stop. I use the space stone's power to bypass any enchantment they might have put; I use the power of the mind stone to lessen the attention put on the eye of agamotto at that moment and the power of the reality stone to create a fake time stone. It would only work for ten seconds at most. That however was more than enough.

I took the time stone and immediately created a copy of it thanks to Rick's parting gift. It took one second for the time stone to go from 5% power to 65% power. I quickly absorbed the real-time stone in my body. I put back the artificial time stone after three seconds had passed as it was back to 100% power.

After that was done, I went into space where I assimilated the time stone. It was weird as it only took five minutes. It seems that my body's absorption ability was strengthened further than I thought. Now that I had decent control over time, I did something that insured my survival. I locked my past. This meant no one would travel back in time to stop me from acquiring the infinity stone. I also put a veil over myself this explained why Odin or Heimdall never question why I had a space stone on my abs. It was because they did not know it was the space stone. Neither Heimdall nor the Ancient One saw me absorbing them. This explains why she never came into contact with me or try to kill me.

A month went by fast until I got a call from Tony saying they found Loki's scepter. Someone had stolen it and it was now in a Hydra base. This showed that Pietro and Wanda Maximoff were about to enter the stage. I accepted as one of the clauses I put when joining the Avengers was that I had a major say in any mutant-related case. The fight was boring as nothing happened. I just slapped a few Hydra soldiers and started making my way toward Hawkeye as my enhanced hearing pickup something moving at a fast speed. I heard Pietro talking to Clint.

"You should really watch where you're going."

He was about to run when I grabbed him by the throat, undertaker style. While he was still processing what happened.

"Let's go say hi to your sister."

I ran toward her and arrived just in time. She was about to be hit by Tony's suit. I grabbed her by the waist and spoke.

"Okay, that's enough. You guys are mutants. Hydra never gave you powers so here's the deal. You guys are coming with me to meet your biological father, once that happens you are free to do what you want."

[AN: I thought that Pietro was Wanda's big brother due to the x-men days of the future past but in the comics there are twins. My bad.]

Wanda protested more than Pietro as he had seen that I saved Wanda from being hit by the Iron man suit. She finally gave in once she realized that she could not show me my greatest fear. I let both of them out of my grip. None tried to escape as they knew who I was. Since I promised them freedom after meeting someone, they now wanted to meet, they saw no reason to decline my offer. I was not telling them not to kill Tony just postpone it. Seeing the other Avengers arrive, they were glad they accepted as now they had a way out of this.

As we were leaving the building, I heard someone coming toward us or more accurately flying toward us. It only took a few seconds before a woman clad in a yellow-gold aura descended in front of us. It was a woman. While the avengers were surprised by her entranced, Lor was speechless as he did not expect to meet her this soon. She was the first to break the silence that had ensued. "You guys must be the Avengers. Who are those two? Recruits?"

The Maximoff siblings retreated behind me. I took one step forward before speaking. "There are with me, and you must be the reason, why Fury let that Anti-mutant higher ups go that far." I smiled. She took one step toward me and continued the conversation. "And you must be the guy that threatened to send the president into space. Lord Zod or whatever you call yourself." I took another step. "First, it's LOR-Zod. Second, I did not threaten the president, I promised the president that he would spend his last second on one of the moons of Saturn if he went too far."

Her fists started glowing brighter as well as her eyes. I stopped smiling and my eyes emitted a red light that was getting brighter. Our standoff was broken by Captain America who told us to calm down. "If you are with Fury then that means you're an ally. Let's calm down. Something tells me you didn't come here to start a fight." He said while aiming his hand at both of us as a way to calm the situation.

We calmed down and went to the jet. It brought us to Avengers tower where Fury was waiting for us. He was about to tell us why he was here, but Tony asked Thor's permission to study the scepter and he agreed to it. Tony and Bruce were busy studying it till the evening. I call the X-mansion to tell Magneto to come as I had something to tell him.

I do not know how but Tony had organized a party for us. I was sure that he was devoting his all to the scepter. I dressed casually. White pants, a black T-shirt, and a blue button shirt that was opened revealing my Rubi diamond-shaped neckless. I was going to prevent the creation of Ultron but since Rick said that things will start going by the comic, I am curious if he will still be born.

I asked the Maximoff siblings if they wanted to join, and they accepted. It might be because Tony apologized for what happened to them or the fact that they now learned they have a father that is still alive, but they seem less bent on killing Tony. I am pretty sure they are angry at Magneto because in their view he was never there for them. I could tell them the truth, but it is Magneto's choice on this matter. During the party, I heard War machine telling one of his stories. Personally, I thought it was a good story, funny even but since people expected Tony to be in it, they had less of a reaction to the punchline. I mostly stay in a corner during the party with someone none of the Avengers would expect Carol Danvers A.K.A Captain Marvel. She was observing me from the other side of the room, probably ordering from Fury or the higher-ups. I decided to humor her and went next to her to speak to her.

"So, mind telling me what they told you about me? I am a little bit curious at what they omitted to mention considering your glare." I brought the wine in my hand close to my mouth and took a sip before looking at her, waiting for her to speak. She looked at me up and down before speaking.

"Laurance Zekiel, A.K.A Lord-Zod, mutant level: Omega. Possess Super strength, speed, stamina Bla blah bla powers. It is noted that although he is shown to be a primarily logical thinker, he exhibits major signs of a sociopath. It is almost confirmed that he barely values any non-mutant life if he values them at all. Protects mutants no matter what crimes they have committed. They are a few thousands case of missing people that have you as their prime suspect since those people have somehow offended you shortly before their disappearance."

She did not hide her disgust or anger. I took one more sip before speaking. "Wow, they Disney it! I thought they would just omit things but they Disney it. Well since you have that much of an opinion on me ask Fury if all that is true then tell me his response." I left without letting speak. For those that are confused, remember your favorite Disney fairy tales well those are based on darker stories that Disney changed to make it kid's friendly.

I spent time talking with Thor, Bruce, and Steve as they were the only ones who would not engage in a conversation with me for ulterior motives. After a while, we finally gathered for the after-party where Thor and Tony were arguing about whether magic exist or not. Thor told Tony that his hammer was magic, but Tony was skeptical. Thor said that if he could lift the hammer, he could rule his future kingdom. Tony immediately jumped at the occasion and failed as quickly as he tried. Steve faked his try and Natasha did not bother. Bruce and Clint got the same result as Tony. When it was my turn, I could hear Thor's heart beating like there was no tomorrow, but it slowed down after hearing me talk.

"I have no interest in ruling. Lifting that hammer will not benefit me so I will abstain from doing it."

Tony's eyebrows twitched. He got up with a drink in his hand and spoke.

"Oh, and here I thought the kingdom of the "Gods" would be good enough for the man of Adamantium."

That nickname came up when Adamantium had become the only thing to hurt me though that was years ago. I pore myself another drink before speaking.

"Ruling a place is not within my goal."

This intrigued everyone as I felt their attention on me. Tony spoke what everyone had in mind.

"And what is your goal?"

I responded.

"Surviving and enjoying my life."

This confused everyone. Steve asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Aren't you doing it?"

I finished my drink before speaking.

"I am surviving but I am not enjoying my life as much as I would like to."

To this, Carol snorted.

"Let me guess it's something similar to that friend of yours, Magneto?"

I pore myself another drink, I finished it under five seconds and looked at the bottom of the drink before speaking.

"No. What I mean by enjoying life is that I would like it if people were to stop trying to kill me every weak in the stupidest way possible, aiding me to believe in Darwinism of stupidity."

This confused Carol for a moment long enough for me to take a small pause in my conversation were them. I resumed before Carol could say anything.

"Let me tell you the tale of my first year of publicly stating my mutant's status as well as starting my company. In the first month, my house was subjected to a dozen of shootouts. A few blind fanatics came to my door to sacrifice themselves to get rid of me via kamikaze. I managed to save them all but later after the fourth hundred, I stopped counting as well as caring. Still, in the first month, the water in my house was replaced by poison on numerous occasions. Each deadlier than the last.

In the second month, they noticed that things were not working thus they decided to blow up my house while I was sleeping. I survived but sadly my dog didn't and neither did the one responsible for the explosion.

In the third month, a strange woman started flirting with me when her advance did not work, they went bolder. At one point she sneaked into my office completely naked trying to seduce me-"

Tony interrupted me.

"I don't see the downside to that."

Pepper sent a death glare at him to which he realizes his mistake. I continue where I left off.

"The downside is that she had a bomb implanted into her uterus, it blew up when I pointed it out. The poor woman did not even know she had that in her. That was the day I decided to put at least two empty reinforced floors between my employees and my office.

In the fourth month, nothing happened since I had found where the new anti-mutant group and left them in the middle of the sea. 'Though surveillance increase tenfold around me' he thought.

In the fifth month, an anti-mutant extremist found himself on the upper side of the government for the nth time and decided to use his newfound power to do unethical experiments on mutant kids. We managed to stop them, but the government wanted to use the damage we cause while getting the kids away to spread hate against mutants.

Sadly, for them, I had a lot of dirt on them. You would be surprised at how many publicly anti-LGBTQ+ senators are in the closet. Too bad they made their career and credibility in suppressing the movement. They even tried to play the moral card but after seeing the corpse of the ten kids, they were lucky I did not rip their heads off. 'At least while they were in the spotlight, now they are floating near Venus.' He thought.

In the sixth and seventh months, my second house was blown up. That was the day I decided that I should stop having pets since they either died by random shootouts, poisoned water or food, or a well-placed bomb. I was also invited for a business proposition sadly, the plane I was in, was bound to crash if not for me holding it until it touched the ground. We landed in the desert.

At first, I thought they were planning on pinning the death of the passengers on me but turnout that they had planted some fanatics with instruction to assemble a mini nuclear bomb. They managed to do it while I was scouting the area. As soon as I return, they detonated it. I don't need to tell you who the sole survivor was.

In the eighth, ninth and tenth, nothing major happened other than my house blowing up again at first. The nuke failing bought me a few moments of peace from the anti-mutant side. Another cockroach anti-mutant cult emerged from nowhere and decided to kidnap an X-men, we managed to find our member before any bad happened.

In the eleventh and twelfth months, S.H.I.E.L.D and Hydra decided to infiltrate my company. The anti-mutant side started trying anything they read on Reddit or rumors they heard. On Christmas, a kid came to sing a song only to release a deadly virus before dying gruesomely. I managed to save everyone on the block other than him. After that, my desensitisement toward the death of strangers began."

I was drinking my nth cup while the rest were speechless. I could feel carol was feeling conflicted. Hm?! I just felt a temporal lock. It is identical to the one I did in my past. I guess my future self wants nothing to change before here.

A full minute of silence went by before Natasha spoke.

"Wait?! You knew about S.H.I.E.L.D infiltrating the Worldo… and that Hydra was still alive!"

I finish the drink I had just pored before answering her.

"Yeah, I knew that Hydra was still kicking."

Steve stood up and before he spoke I did first.

"Before you say anything, to me S.H.I.E.L.D and Hydra were the same things. They both wanted to capture me and use me as a lab rat. If you are doubting me then I would like to tell you that the crazy lunatics that experimented on those ten mutant kids were offered a place on S.H.I.E.L.D as scientists…"

I was going to finish here but the one-eyed spy we all think to know spoke.

"Before they mysteriously disappeared. A few years later, a satellite reported having found those same scientists orbiting close to Venus."

I closed my eyes and put my cup down then spoke.

"Fury, to what do we owe the pleasure."

Fury walked in like he owns the place. I knew he had doubts about my weakness and I need to fake a new one. I did not want them to create Sentry. He was, by all means, a pain in the ass just by being immortal. I had already thought of Kryptonite, but they were none in this universe. Luckily, Fury gave me the perfect opportunity.

"There is a war coming. The Kree, an intergalactic empire is coming here to annihilate the planet."

Amid the battle, I could transport us into a world of DC. This was possible because my body was that of a Kryptonian, something not from this multiverse but Rick must have made my body compatible with both multiverses. This means that the infinity stones will be able to function while there are residing in my body.

Fury told us about the Kree and his story with Carol, who till now was looking at me with a different look. I was definitely the reason why they invaded but I would not tell anyone that. Now that I thought about it, my warning to the Chitari was powered by the mind stone. Some empires must have heard it and taken it as a sign of war.

It is funny that he did not know of the inhuman city on the moon. Wait a minute! Inhuman city! Why did I not think about it? I can make a city for mutants! All I need was to absorb enough energy and change the outside of my fortress of solitude into a city and I can bring the mutants, along with the people that want true co-existence, there.

I used my super speed to check the inside of my fortress with the power of the mind stone and space stone. Turns out, I will not need to do anything. The little change rick made was expanding the fortress into a city heck he even added his project phoenix next to the Kryptonian reviving chamber.

I slowed down my sped-up perception just in time for Ultron to show up and do his monologue. There was a fight, but I let him go as Vision could be a great ally. If by any chance Ultron does download his consciousness into Vision, well I will only need to turn off the artificial mind stone.

Thor and Tony fought, but I left soon after as I needed to go to the X-mansion with the twins. When we arrived at the mansion, I was bewildered that Magneto had brought all his force, but this made my plan easier. While the twins were building up the courage to talk to Magneto, I asked him why he brought all of them and he told me I called him and told him to do as such as I had something to tell which involved every mutant.

I let Magneto have his moments with his kids while I used the power of the time stone to tell Magneto to bring every mutant from his side. Once everyone was in the garden of the X-mansion and Magneto had told his children his story I decided to speak to everyone.

"Are you all tired of fighting an endless war?"

This brought confusion to many of the new X-men while the older, as well as people on Magneto's side, understood what I was implying."

Logan was the first to speak.

"Look lottery boy, I know that you know the answer for those that understand what you mean so can you skip the politician speech and get on with your plan."

I smiled at Logan's response. He was one of the few people that always treaty me like everyone else no matter how powerful I got.

"As long as I remember, the only time we were not attacked every Tuesday was when the leaders of both sides were united. I know that getting things like they used to be is impossible but how about we come up with a compromise?"

This caught the attention of everyone, especially Charles and Magneto. They spoke at the same time.

"What is it that you propose?"

I brought my hands up almost T posing. A hologram displayed the city I envision along with the defense at the end of it.

"I propose we all live in a city built by a mutant for the safety of mutant and those that wish for co-existence. The X-men will be in charge of most of the public relations as well as recruiting along with the brotherhood of mutants while the brotherhood will mostly be in charge of the defense along with the X-men. They will be ten people in charge of managing the city which will be decided by vote."

I could feel that Magneto was already on board. He understood my reasoning. He would be in charge of the defense thus he will be able to eliminate those that try to invade the city. We both knew that if Charles were in charge of the defense, he would be too soft to do what must be done. The ten people in charge would allow his people more chances to be in charge. Now that he had his kids, he did not want to fight anymore. He just wanted to protect them and find a place for them to live as a family. Lor had given him just what he wanted.

Charles being in charge of public relations will allow him to further his cause of co-existence while not fighting with his old friend over mutants that need their help. They would lessen the chance of the kids being taken while they fight among themselves. The more he thought about it the less he wanted to refuse.

At the end of their own internal monologue, they both nodded to Lor as a sign of acceptance. This shocked everyone as it had been far too long since those two had agreed on something. Henry, A.K.A the beast, was the first to speak.

"A city for both sides to protect is an interesting concept but I fear that it will take years to build it. Lo, I am sure you are aware of this more than anyone else."

I smiled at my old teacher.

"I know more than you even think since I already finished building it."

This made Charles, Magneto, and Henry's eyes grow like a cartoon. Again, Silence dominated the garden. This time it was Charles that broke it.

"How? It would take multiple genius minds to engineer a city that futuresque. Not to mention the number of resources it would take to build it without anyone knowing at that."

I stopped the hologram and looked at everyone. They were wondering the same thing. My left eye twitched before I spoke.

"You guys forgot I have multiple Ph.D. in many fields of sciences, right? I understand all of them but not you Henry. I mean you are the one who taught me some of them!"

Kitty was the first to speak after me.

"You really are a lottery boy! Hey, can I steal some of your luck, I have a final next week?"

I looked at her with glowing red eyes, but she still had a coy smile. She knew that I was bluffing, I could never hurt someone I viewed as my little sister. I sighed.

"I will help you study for it later now there is something I would like to talk to the leaders of both sides."

We went into the mansion, where I told both leaders and their close confidants about the invasion. Charles and Magneto wanted to help but I had other plans.

"While I appreciate the sentiment, I would rather think of the worst-case scenario."

Logan interjected.

"What, we all die?"

I looked at him before answering.

"No, from what I have gathered the Avengers will be enough to defend against the Kree empire but it's what happened after that worries me."

Magneto was quick on the uptake.

"You think they will backstab you? Who am I kidding there are likely to do it."

Charles rebuked him.

"Come now Erik, have a bit of faith."

Logan inhaled his cigar and then exhaled smoke before speaking.

"I hate to agree with the tin can, but I can't think of a better way- no opportunity to get rid of Lottery boy over here."

Henry and mystic nodded. I took back the flow of the conversation.

"That is a possibility since someone who could fight me appeared, with her on their side we all know what their deprived brain cells are going to do. That is why I want to speed up the process of the city. It will be done in three months, by that time I will bring those that want to live there. I had designed it to be able to protect its citizen from outside threats for a long period."

We discuss what the rules would be but since they were still time before the city was finished, we decided to postpone that discussion. When I say finish, I meant to find a suitable place for the city of fortitude.

After I went and talk to my friends, I went back to Avengers tower. I was happy that I saw Ororo, she had been on a mission for months and I missed my best friend. Funny enough, she and rogue were a thing now. My super smell is sometimes a curse as well as a blessing. Kitty thought that she could fool me, but I know she is seeing a boy. I texted her father, who thanked me for the heads up while we wished each other luck for the hunt. I did say I saw her as my own little sister.

When I came back nobody was there. I search the whole earth until I found them in a cabin. It was supposedly Clint's safe house. They were shocked that I was there, but Fury told them about my super hearing. Thankfully nobody knows about my X-ray vision.

After they had their own pep talk, we want to confront Ultron who had an army of robots for us. Thor had gone to get high or something. He did not explain it clearly to Tony. I enjoyed ripping the robots. At one point it turned into a game between Hulk, Carol, and me.

Steve and Tony managed to retrieve Vision. While I was talking to Carol, Thor broke in and hammered Vision into life. Now that we were "ready", we went to have our showdown against Ultron. He was planning on putting the city in the sky.

"Guys, keep him busy while I evacuate everyone."

I bolted and carried everyone that was in the city in under five minutes. I came back as the city was hovering in the sky. I pointed my hand toward the sky. Clouds darkened as my eyes were glowing in blue light. Lightning and thunder were dancing in the clouds. Sparks were coming out of my hands and eyes. As I dropped my hand, lightings and thunder descend to pass judgment on the bodies of Ultron.

"You wanted your string to be cut right? Let me help you with that."

I flew toward a legion of Ultron as I blasted a heat vision toward them. I knew Tony had a plan to trap Ultron in his body and then kill his copies. I needed the exercise thus I killed as much as I wanted. This was also to let those higher-ups know that I'm not weaker than Carol. I grabbed Thor's hammer that had come toward me and threw it toward the Ultrons that were behind Carol. I smiled when she got competitive.

It took an hour of fighting to end Ultron's day of terror. After that nothing big happened. I bought a small island where I threw the crystal, and the city of fortitude was born. Most of the mutants came to live in the city along with their family. I had made it clear that no discrimination would be tolerated. I even made a special place for those that wanted to let their powers loose. It was a fight club. This helped the troublesome people calm down.

A year went by quickly. The avengers had been preparing their own way except for Thor. He was living his life with Jane. Carol was debriefing the new S.H.I.E.L.D about the battle that was about to happen.

I woke to feel refreshed. I had acquired the Phoenix force. It turned out that it wanted me to be its new host as I was perfect for it, and I would not be caging it. That was not the reason I felt refreshed. I slept with Jean last night. No, we are not back together. It was a one-time thing to get it out of our system. She had learned about the invasion last night and came to confront me about it.

The invasion was going to be today as they had already gone past Mars, they would be here by noon. I used the reality stone to change into my superhero suit and went to S.H.I.E.L.D as they were going to be a briefing about the battle plan. I was curious as to when they were planning on backstabbing me. They had been silent during the whole year surely due to the invasion.