CHAPTER 121

[Draul St. Cross POV]

The days that rolled by after our little outing saw us plunging back into our old ways. Unlike the others, normal training didn't do it for me anymore. I had more than enough explosive power and what remained were the applications.

Right now my abilities included cryokinesis, hydrokinesis, pyrokinesis, optic beams, telekinesis, electrokinesis, energy absorption, energy assimilation, psychic perception, minor electromagnetic kinesis, energy projection, energy augmentation… and that was it. And the cream of which was my superhuman physique. To be perfectly honest, none of my abilities were up to par with my physique. Sure they were cool, but then again, I wasn't the only one who had these kinds of abilities in this world. Though you would be hard pressed to find someone who had as numerous abilities as I do, of which there absolutely were some, your chances of finding them were almost zero. 

Even though my body's adaptation was not at the level of Doomsday from DC, it was coming up swimmingly. 

And that was not even factoring magic. Although not as noticeable, the complexity of magic was a huge boost to my strength. Sealing, Transmutation, Summoning, Runes and the Dark Arts were something that even if you took away my mutant abilities, I would still be able to hold my own against all the foes I've fought against… maybe not Doom though. It was pretty clear that he eclipsed me in the mastery of the Arts. Same with Strange. 

Why was I doing a roll call of my abilities? I just wanted to keep a tab on my skillset and see where to improve on. 

Presently, the only part of my abilities that really needed work was my electromagnetic-kinesis. I was not at the level of Magneto's mastery which was not that hard to believe as the man had decades to perfect his abilities. I was nowhere near being able to control the different ends of the magnetic spectrum, I could generate force fields though, like Susan Storm. 

Speaking of Susan Storm, I haven't heard a peep about the Fantastic Four in a while. The news and media were quiet about any of their activities which could be attributed to the assumptions that they were spending their time in the labs but… it's none of my business what they do. 

Back to my abilities, apart from my small mastery of magnetism and its spectrum, I was able to use it in flying. Though that would be more of telekinesis and my ability to create force fields. Using telekinesis alone was harder than anyone made it seem, so I opted for the two similar abilities. 

One thing I also figured when experimenting with my abilities was that they could be evolved. It was a thought that occurred to me during one of my rare geeking out moments, that with sufficient proficiency in one's abilities, one could divert from the clear linear part and onto a more obtuse domain. And Magneto was the prime example. 

During our fight last year, the man had been able to not only control metals but also the earth's geographical poles to the point that he lifted the state of New York… subconsciously. It wasn't an active action on his part but rather an effect of him tapping into the wider arrays of his abilities. And not only that, he had also been able to increase the gravity of the environment we were fighting in for kilometers, also a subconscious action. The piece of the cake was when Magneto made his last stand by twisting space. That had been the hardest of his attacks throughout the fight. 

But it didn't end there. According to the comics, Magneto could very well create black holes and anybody with two brain cells would know how dangerous a person who could create black holes was. So yes, though a very powerful metahuman ability to have, it was also very hard to learn how to control it. And when I say hard to control, I meant blasting EMP waves and shifting the earth's plate or even manipulating gravity. Controlling metals was just too easy, way easier than the time I spent learning how to control the dual elements. 

So with the check on my abilities out of the way, the next thing on my plate was locating the undying creep known as Nathaniel Essex. And as everything unholy would have it, I was able to find a match on him as a staff of Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane. Now why aren't I surprised? Not only was he a psychotic genius and admittedly the world's foremost expert on bio-engineering and the X-gene, but he also chose to work in a place where he would have a steady stream of experimental subjects. 

From what I remembered about the guy, he was practically damn near unkillable as he always came back, was crazy strong, had an unhealthy and borderline psychopathic obsession with the Summers and Grey blood, and also… clones. 

This guy was singlehandedly responsible for all the clones in the X-Men franchise. He made a clone of almost everyone, be it from the X-Men, Brotherhood or Hellfire Club. Any meta that just so much as catches his eyes…. Boom! Clone. 

And also yes, he was partly responsible for Scott's fucked up life. Not that that particular subject mattered as the kid was basically a prick from his adolescent years to old age. He never seemed to get the stick out of his ass even after so many fucked up relationships and breakups. None of it, all his experience in life, changed the fact that he was a Grade A asshole. 

I had already told Steve and the others what I found out about Essex and given what I knew from the guy, there was no way I was letting them go into his nest alone when you had no way to be sure they would come out the same people that went in. 

To be perfectly honest, I was of the mind to nuke the entire place but couldn't since I knew for a fact that the fucker would live 100%. Hopefully the bastard didn't have a clone of me because if he did, even if it were a little child, I'd be killing it. He was like a certain pale snake humanoid from a popular Japanese animated series that I watched for a while when I was a kid. 

Way too obsessed with his experiments and cloning to the point that every clone was an extension of himself. 

This guy singlehandedly made the DC universe, and anyone else for that matter, look like rookies when it came to the cloning arts. 

So now I had to prep my friends on how to fight a wannabe but deadlier, more annoying and almost impossible to kill Dracula. 

What happened to the days when the only thing we had to fight were HYDRA? Even Steve and Bucky had asked that very same question. 

Sometimes I wonder how this type of shit always finds itself in front of me. When I thought that I could take the next few weeks and just relax and work on my runes or something, this shit just somehow magically ends up in my laps. If it had been any other villain then I would have maintained my hands off policy and chill the fuck out, but no… it just had to be one those don't-fuck-with-me villain types. 

I haven't told the X-Men since I didn't know how far Essex's reach on them went, call me paranoid but I wasn't taking any chances of him catching a sniff that we were on to him. Heck I haven't even told any of the others what his name was. 

Though with all the bad that came with Nathaniel Essex's name, also came a lot of good. This guy was successful, had been for centuries, in cloning the X-gene and cultivating it in himself. His mind was a literal hive of metahuman research knowledge. It was exactly what I needed to make the Serum I gave to Bucky and Steve bring out its potential. 

Right now they were just really buffed super strong soldiers. Steve could most likely bench a weight over 20 tons, same with Bucky. Such the Serum made them super strong, super fast and notched up their durability to superhuman levels, it was actually made in mind to be paired with a meta ability. Something I created to make the most rounded soldier. 

I could say that the research of Essex was the only good thing of his existence as far as I was concerned. 

But what really stood out about this whole thing was how easy it was to find out about the metahuman kidnappings. According to Logan, Charles had been able to pick up the thoughts of a child whose elder sister was kidnapped during one of his peeping sessions with Cerebro. They immediately knew something was up when the same thing started happening with different other metahuman families and children, only becoming full-blown when one of the kidnapped victims fought back with his attackers. He was a young man who had apparently trained with his abilities since young. He had been able to hold down his attackers until the X-Men came on the scene. 

I had run that angle for a while with reference from the information Fury had shared with Steve and what I found out was that most of those trails, even the bases that were raised, belonged to different organizations and institutions that dealt with organ trafficking and metahuman experiments. 

It was only the reminder of Logan and Fury's paranoia that made them know that there was something else behind the kidnappings and trafficking. Sabretooth's and Mystique's appearance alluded to that fact. 

All these thoughts were making my head dizzy, well not really, but it was the thoughts that counted. 

Right now I was swimming in the Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano in Hawaii. Why was I swimming in a volcano? For the simple reason that I lost a bet against Clint and he dared me to dive to the bottom of an active volcano. A weird dare it was, but I was a man who honored his bets… HYDRA really did a number on me, didn't they? 

Anyway, I dived to the bottom, at least on the surface(land height), of the volcano I was currently in and after reaching the bottom, I took my sweet time before coming back up. 

It said a lot about my resistance and the physiology of my body to be able to survive under such temperatures for as long as I did, comfortably. 

Maybe I should take a dive in Antarctica next? Nothing beats the ice cold water on a sunny day after all. Unfortunately, it would have to wait as I had a pest problem to deal with. 

… 

[Nick Fury POV] 

When Barton had told me that the motherfucker was sunbathing, I had no idea that this was what he meant. 

"Sir… The council…"

Fuck them! 

"Even though I agree with that sentiment, we still need to decrease their influence inside S.H.I.E.L.D" Coulson and Hill were with me, watching the latest video Barton had captured of the source of my headaches, diving into the depths of the biggest active volcano in the world. 

What did this mean? Well from a theoretical point of view, nothing short of an atomic bomb could kill him in one shot, given his wide arrays of abilities, and that was no even talking about the fact that he could somehow now open portals… Goddammit Draul! 

"What are they still doing?" I needed to focus my frustrations somewhere. And those old fogies dutifully presented themselves as the scapegoats. While S.H.I.E.L.D was all in my hands, the time I've had control of it wasn't enough to thoroughly remove and weed out every pulling power they had invested in it for decades. This wasn't like HYDRA where we could kill all of them…

What happened to the days when all we had to deal with was HYDRA? 

"Those days are long gone, sir. You and Draul made sure of it." Why was Coulson talking as if he could read my mind? Is he a Meta? 

"No, I'm not sir… You've been talking out loud for a while now." Have I now? 

".. You did it again."

"Fuck you Draul! If it weren't for that shitty move you pulled in the Pacific, none of this would have been happening!" Gah! If only I could strangle that bastard to death, it was a very pleasing thought to have if not for the fact that something told me he was more than likely to shrug it off…. 

And it also turns out I owe him money since he can now fly. 

That dry cunt had billions in his account and he still asks me for 50 bucks? That's it! He needs a talking down from dear o'l Fury. 

"Clear out my schedule for the day. It looks like someone needs the 'talk'." And boy was he going to get it. 

"Yes sir."

That reminds me. I needed to talk to him about his satellites that were almost ready for the first launch. If I could secure a deal with him to use his satellites to monitor everyone connected to it?!....! 

"Motherfucker!" That crazy bastard! I could sue him for invasion of privacy. Oh there was no doubt in my mind that that was what he planned to do from the start… 

… 

… 

I hate that guy! 

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