Ch.36

Frost's apartment high rise wasn't hard to find as not many had steal reinforced sliding doors to prevent the sun from seeping in. I arrived just as the one handed minion did and stepped through the portal while he was telling Frost Blade had backup. "What a whiny toady, perhaps Blade should've taken his tongue instead."

Frost smirked a bit before asking. "And who are you?"

I shrugged. "The one that helped Blade slaughter the vampires you sent to capture him."

He sneered. "Kill him!"

I stood still as their bullets entered my body and did no damage as I'd basically turned into a symbiote to absorb them. When I returned to full human form, I waved a hand and sent the bulled into the knees of those who'd fired them.

I looked a Frost with a droll stare. "Would you like me to kill them next or are you willing to listen now? I can't be killed by a simple bullet nor by a simple vampire."

He looked around at the wounded and sighed. "Useless. Fine, what is it you want?"

I chuckled. "I was going to ask you the same question. Wait, no, I already know what it is you want, La Magra, the vampire blood god."

He stilled and I smirked. "Now here's what I want for helping you achieve your goals. I want a fight with you or more like the blood god once it's inside you. Agree to this and I'll help you get blade and even those twelve purebloods or whatever they're calling themselves. Simpering fools don't even know they're no more pure than a dirty dipper."

Frost smiled. "A fight with you once I become a god, is that it?"

I nodded. "That's it. Winner take all and all that good stuff. If I win, I'll eat the blood god and you'll become my disciple like Dagon was to him, and if you win, well, the blood god will extract my powers and likely use them to make you even stronger."

His eyes lit up with greed. "You have a deal!"

The one handed ass bandit spoke up. "Frost, he's the one who killed Mercury."

He snorted. "So what? She's dead and I can't stop my plans to become a god any more than you can or would you risk not becoming a god just so we get our revenge on him now? Think about it, I'll be able to kill him once La Magra and I become one. Get up Quinn, we have work to do."

Quinn stood up and I sighed. "Really scrapping the bottom of the barrels there huh? Well, I'll go kidnap some purebloods now and get Blade as well, once I've done that, I'll meet you at the temple of endless night tonight."

He nodded and I stepped back through the portal to the mirror dimension. I spent a couple hours until daybreak kidnapping purebloods until there were only the royals left in the city and their court. I hog tied them in trinium-carbon metal vests and dragged them along with me in the mirror dimension until I exited it after tossing them in my inner galaxy.

My next an biggest problem was getting Blade's handler, Whistler, to agree to my plans. After a few shotgun rounds and some tasty silver and garlic sauce down the hatch, he finally asked. "What in gods creation are you?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not your god's creation but if you need a description, then I'm called Dark. I was made to kill gods."

The female doctor asked. "Wait, gods are real?"

I smirked. "More than you could possibly know. And yes, they each officially have a bounty on their heads and I'm here to collect. I've tricked Frost into agreeing to my help for a chance at his god and I intend to keep that deal. Killing Frost now means only one more dead vampire, but killing him after I shredded his god means no more vampires can be made without sex and their fertility rate isn't that high because only purebloods can conceive children."

Blade turned to Whistler who asked. "How do we know you aren't lying just to trick us into helping you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because I could simply take what I need and beat the Dhampir black and blue before braking his arms and legs to force you compliance. In truth I don't need you to cooperate, I'm just in a good mood and I'm generally a decent guy when I get to kill gods."

Blade raised an eyebrow and I chuckled. "Nothing you have can harm me, not even that anticoagulant the doctor has. I really can beat you have to death to get what I want, want to see?"

I raised my own eyebrow while releasing bloodlust focused on him while he growled a bit before snorting. "I'll pass."

Whistler raised his own eyebrow before sighing. "It seems we're in for a bit of action then."

I shook my head. "Sorry, no humans allowed. Once Blade plays the part of the stuck pig/blood sacrifice, you need to take him and get out of the temple. Odds are the place won't be standing once we're finished with our fight and I'll be having my own snack on god flesh. If I'm interrupted I'm likely to eat you all as well. It's one of the drawbacks of making godkillers like me, we're insatiable and relentless."

The doctor asked. "What made you?"

I chuckled. "A dying god as a last middle finger to all the gods that turned against him. I ate him as well, in fact, he was my first meal in this life."

I turned to the doctor and narrowed my eyes before saying. "Don't worry, once the blood god is dead those in transition will revert back to being fully human as their bodies will treat it like an infection. By tomorrow morning you'll be human again."

Whistler asked. "What was that word you used before? Damn fear?"

I smiled. "Dhampir, it means half-blood vampire. They're born from humans who got pregnant by pureblood vampires. It's the only way to make them."

Whistler frowned. "That's not possible, Blade's mother was bitten before he was born."

I shrugged. "That may be true but his biological father is still a pureblood. Her being bitten only means she survived the birth and was reborn as a vampire. If he were simply infected the way you think he'd have been a stillborn. Dhampir's are rare in and of themselves but what you're describing isn't possible. Besides, I can smell the difference in him, he's definitely a Dhampir."

That left them each flabbergasted and Blade more than a little confused. I let them talk for a few hours while I checked on a few things and sensed how Natasha was doing. She'd excelled at her training and paid the prices for mistakes in bruises but when they tried to punish her, they found her untouched and protected by the armor.

The soul weapon symbiote armor only left her when she was alone in the bathrooms or showers and always returned no matter how they tried to interfere, killing guards if necessary to do so.

Feeling that she was fine, I sent a message to the puddle jumper that I'd found Phoebe or who she's inside at the moment anyways. They already knew to expect this outcome though I didn't get a reply back right away so I left them to their own issues for now. They'd call if they need help I'm sure.

I returned to find them ready and agreeable though still reluctant to go through with it but then, the choice really wasn't up to them. I took them into the mirror dimension and walked them to the temple of the endless night. It wasn't far when you can manipulate the surroundings to get you there a lot faster.

When we came out, Frost and his henchmen stood there. He frowned. "Why isn't Blade bound?"

I shrugged. "He doesn't need to be. You see, I've promised him his life if I win the fight and he's banking on me winning. They're here to take him away once he's drained."

I turned to the guards and waved my hand as nearly three dozen bound purebloods fell out. "Choose twelve purebloods and kill the rest. We won't need them and there can be only one avatar of a god at a time so there's no point in keeping them around."

Frost nodded and they grabbed twelve at random except one Frost had a hard on to hurt. They killed the rest and the metal bindings were put back in my inner galaxy for later uses. Frost led us to an anti chamber and told Blade. "I was going to have your mother tie you up but seeing as how you're being so cooperative, hop on in."

Blade sneered before taking off his vest and shirt before telling Frost. "You'd better pray he wins or I'm coming after you regardless of your power or deal."

Frost snorted. "Soon enough it won't matter what you say Blade, bon voyage and all that crap."

As the casket closed, he turned to the purebloods. "Don't look so sad, soon you'll all be sacrificed for the greater me."

I chuckled and watched as he led them downstairs. I smelled a storm brewing overhead and smiled as Blade's blood started trailing through the glyphs the purebloods stood under.

Once it gathered at the top and splashed down, I felt a shift in the room as a connection was made to another dimension and a god/demon was reaching through. A lightning bolt struck the temple and traveled down to the purebloods, frying them in an electric light show.

I sensed Blade and the others fleeing and chuckled inwardly as the purebloods died and skeletal bat like wraiths burst from inside them as they fried int dust. The wraiths took flight before swooping into Frost a few times and finally all at once, sending him slamming into a wall.

I didn't hesitate as I was on him in a second, my fangs buried in his throat as I shifted and wrapped my wings around us. It took a bit of effort and a great deal of magical firepower as the vampire blood god and I battled on the astral plane. He was bound to Frost now and through his blood, to me so he couldn't escape and every power he through at me, I became immune to and threw back just as powerfully.

The fight lasted days before finally the god succumbed as his chosen vessel was finally drained dry as well. I pulled the vampire blood God's corpse through the astral plane from his blood dimension and connected myself to it as it's new ruler before sucking the entire dimension dry and storing the mystical energies inside the coins on my blades with Natasha.

The blood and souls I absorbed into my body, feeding the abyss like hunger as I ate the God's corpse as well, adding the magic in it's blood to my own. It wasn't even an elder god but it did help with bringing my physical strength and body fully up to Asgardian standards with the likes of Thor and Odin just as physically powerful as I was now.

It wasn't my peak or even the peak of this world, let alone the reality but it was a start. Though my magic finally coalesced and I felt that I could loan out magic to fuel spells like to gods or the Principalities like Watoomb or Valtorr when called on for magical help in spells. I reigned it all in and finished off Frost as I left through the mirror dimension because the temple started collapsing.

True to my words I used my control over the vampire species as a whole to cut off their ability to spread like a plague through biting. Now so long as the bite doesn't kill you, you can survive by getting a blood transfusion and patched up. I canceled all transitions as well, leaving only the Purebloods, half-breeds and Dhampir's like Blade left alive.

This didn't mean I was the god of all vampire species because there were at least six different types out there and some were even alien in origin. This just meant I was the god of all vampires Dagon had turned and on and on down the line. Then there were the converts that worshiped the old god of blood.

All in all it was a hassle but nothing more as I killed the converts with a thought, leaving only the later three mentioned before as my temporary subjects for now. I went back to Blade's hideout after cleaning myself off and found them packing up to move on to the next big hunt.

I chuckled, getting their attention. "It's over, La Magra is dead and so is Frost. Your girl here is human albeit about to go through some serious flu like symptoms but she should be fine. The vampires can't spread like a disease now but that also means they'll be more desperate. They might resort to more human methods of dealing with you."

Whistler asked. "And what about helping us finish them off?"

I shrugged. "There's a way to do so, but it's a few years to early right now."

He was about to get pissed and I raised a hand saying. "Ah-ah, I said I'd help you end them and so I will. The key to beating them and ending all vampires is in a biological weapon. You need to wipe them all out at once or they might resort to clones and crazy shit like their own biological weapons. I've given you the answers old man and some might say that's help enough. I'll be in touch when it's time to meet again."

I stepped through the portal to the mirror dimension, avoiding a shot gun blast to the head with laughter as I went home to my own super soldier research. I used what I knew about all the humans be it magical or non to create not just a super soldier serum, but a human genome builder for myself that way my base physiology would no longer just be a special symbiote creation.

Add to that some Kree DNA, a bit of celestial DNA and some God DNA and I was looking at a body specifically grown to perfection for me. I'd thrown in some DNA from the young baby Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Jean Grey and Daisy Johnson for future power boosts as well.

The serum was used as a cohesive glue to improve each of the special characteristics as well as my symbiote DNA to ensure a successful bonding. Add to it the Vita Ray chamber of life-force and my own natural life-force and it was an agonizing five years in the chamber as I used the time stone connection to speed things along.

I went in the chamber in 1997 and came out at the tail end of 2002. If not for the specially made potentia generator, I'd have run out of power as the vita ray chamber would've drained even a mark six naquadria generator in three years let alone the five it actually took.

The power requirements for it were insane! I'm actually surprised Howard, bless his soul as they say, hadn't overloaded a reactor when he ran it for the short time he needed it for before. On the bright side I came out in human form though looking like I could match Steve for physical fitness.

Unfortunately my molecular density had reached that of three times the human body's so I kind of broke the chamber on accident when I stepped out. I wasn't quite used to human flesh and feeling the sensation of touch anymore so it took some getting used to.

On the bright side my old body or should I say form, had fused inside me as well and with a thought, I could cover myself in symbiote armor as it was still me in a way. It had no thought of it's own as it was entirely my body only it was more like an appendage now.

I could shape it to my will so I made it into clothes and from inside it, my old armor came out fitting me like a glove once more. I had to cover my red eyes and white hair with an illusion again and put away all the magic that was radiating from my blood as it too had been transferred along with all my powers.

After effectively bottling up my magic in a shield just under my skin, I couldn't help but grin. It was time for a bit of change. All I had to do now was make myself die in the eyes of the public and that was easy. I'd already mapped that pat out as I'd officially die when iron man is born.

For now it was time for some glorious murder and massacre. Natasha had already graduated and was earning her title of Black Widow. Since she got to do violence on a daily bases, it was only fair I began as well. I needed to test my body out anyway and doing so against a Pantheon of gods only sounded fair.

I headed to Greece and stood atop mount Olympus until I found the official portal to Olympus. When I stepped through and saw the gods all happy and content for the most part, I grinned as my symbiote body covered myself.

I made a barrier around all the entrances and exits I could sense and began with Apollo. His death was quick and brutal as I was still eating his headless corpse when I killed the next godling, Hercules. Their bodies were almost as strong as mine physically except Hercules who was actually stronger until he god a few punches in. Then we were even.

I swept across them like a plague as everything they hurled at me was simply mimicked as I became immune to it. By the time one of the few survivors, Artemis, ran to get Zeus who'd been in an orgy this whole time, I was tossing gods and goddesses corpses into my inner galaxy to be eaten or used later.

Soon enough I got electrocuted by bolt of lightning that nearly whipped out half of Olympus. The only real structures left were made of Adamantine as it had deflected the mystical energy of the lightning bolt. Unfortunately for me I picked a real bad time to want to feel things as even my mimicry ability couldn't make me fully immune to an attack by a godking, even just the avatar body of one.

My symbiote body may have taken the brunt of what my mimicry couldn't but damned if I didn't feel this as well now that I could physically feel. It was connected to my DNA and nervous system just like a real limb my next thought was only centered around one thing, Dodge!

I barely managed to avoid the second bolt that's mere blast sent me flying back. Zeus was pissed! He roared and went to attack me once more but I pulled us both into the mirror dimension and used it's features to avoid his direct blasts.

The entire mirror realm shook with his every attack as he went on a rampage trying to get to me. I was busy healing myself and trying to pin his ass down with the buildings I was throwing at him, made of the same Adamantine material as his actual broken city. It was several months of fighting and fleeing before I finally wore him down some.

I'd gotten lucky one evening while the newly dubbed Black Widow was taking a shower in route to her next target on a plane that I'd opened a portal and called to my blade. I through som of the Adamantine inside it while dodging a lightning bolt to the ass. We'd broken the mirror dimension enough that I'd had to transport us back to Olympus before it collapsed a week before.

Zeus was fast to be sure, but when he tried to get close he'd found I was his equal in strength superior in combat and my immunity to his lightning bolts had afforded me enough time to injure him physically. So he'd stick to throwing parts of Olympus and throwing lightning bolts at me, trying to overwhelm me.

When I summoned my swords however and they took on the Adamantine's features as it assimilated into them, I surprised him by going on the offensive. He hadn't expected me to be able to dodge and deflect the lightning while charging at him and what's more when I got in close, I split into two. My symbiote form and my real body acting as one with a blade in each body's hand.

We came at him like a pair of velociraptors, from both sides. My real tactic wasn't seen until it was too late for him. I'd made the blades in my hands illusions while the real blades were invisible thanks to a spell. While he'd dodged my illusion blades from front and back, my real ones struck according to my will.

One went through his heart from behind while the other went through his throat from in front. Both were absorbing his godly essence at an extreme rate while my symbiote body wrapped around him, holding him in place. I'd chained his body down with magical chains and held him there, forcing him to die.

He growled as I saw the essence draining from him. "When I see you in the outside godling, I'm going to use you like a cock sleeve."

I chuckled. "As crude as humanity views you Zeus. But who said I'll be giving you a chance?"

He sneered. "You're no Godking."

I nodded. "Very true, but then, soon you won't be either."

His eyes went wide as my binding stones showed their real powers. They connected into one stone that took in all the essence from the avatar and were in the process of pulling more from his outside self. Reality shook as Zeus's real body outside of this reality felt the connection and was turning his full presence towards this reality.

If he didn't stop soon it would all collapse but then, something or someone made him look away as fear was shown evident on his avatar's face. Even a bittersweet tear fell from his eye as the primordial essence in him that I was targeting was ripped from his Godking form, collapsing his inner galaxies as they were turned back into primordial essence and sucked into the binding stones.

I had to stop before it was complete and he'd truly lost all his power because one of the binding stones was full now and I couldn't risk both being full when I needed them the most. It didn't matter now as he'd been dropped from a Godking's level in power to a Primal god's level of power with only a couple dozen galaxies inside himself now.

I withdrew my swords and he cut the connection quickly before I ate his avatar. All that remained of the Olympic pantheon was Artemis who stood proudly watching in the distance.

After I finished my meal, I walked over to her. "So, do you want to leave this reality or are you willing to sign a magical contract with me?"

She grunted. "You men are all the same."

I shrugged. "And you women are all unique. Perhaps that's why we men prefer woman for the most part. You can relax, I don't want you for your body or anything like that. I want you to be my herald, to inform all the gods, celestials and even those higher beings that I'm coming for them. They can either swear fealty like you will or be devoured. I'm not picky either way."

She shook her head. "I won't, so kill me and get it over with, I've already severed most of my connection with this avatar body so even if you wish to take my-crack-pop..."

I swung my elbow into her head, breaking her neck before biting off her head. Even if she'd severed her connections as a last resort, she'd remember her avatar's death as I ripped it apart into edible pieces. I had my symbiote body consume it while I gathered all the Adamantine into my inner galaxies and emptied Olympus out. The nymphs and dryads were returned to earth through a portal and I stepped through after emptying the vault of weapons and collapsing the dimension as I absorbed the magic inside it into my second binding stone.

I decided I'd no longer attack Godkings in such a manner again as I didn't want to be feared amongst them until I was at least equal to them in power, else they may gather and attack me as one when I leave this reality. I'd massacred a hundred and twenty five gods on Olympus and ended an entire pantheon so there was little I could do about not garnering attention as I'm sure rumors would spread outside this reality and the other pantheons inside will learn of me either way.

Not that I'd stop it even if I could. This just added to the challenge. On the bright side, after eating Zeus's avatar, I'd gained an affinity and complete immunity to lightning. It wasn't much more than what Thor could do but then again he was as immune to it as I was now.

I headed to Malta next and extracted a rare element called Gravitonium from the earth. I took it into my inner galaxies where I'd study and understand it before applying some to my blade and making more like I would with the Adamantine.

Next I headed to Canada where Alkali Lake was located. Walking through the mirror dimension, I exited where the supplies of Adamantium were being held. It wasn't much but it was more than enough to find it's chemical makeup and make my own.

With my list of objectives complete, I began building Frosthaven enterprises. It started small but grew rapidly as I introduced new genetically modified crop seeds that could grow in any climate and needed little to no tending. I had it all patented and even the technology to make them. I built an AI to guard my research and called it Shadow.

It was completely loyal to me as it's father and creator. To help it and the company, I made work bots which were essentially nanobots or human form replicators I'd you will. They served as a physical body for shadow and helped to rapidly build my company.

Next came alternative fuels such as heavy water and electricity as well as extremely light weight body armor that could stop all but head on tank rounds, made of trinium-carbon and a small percent of vibranium.

Everything was constantly being patented and I'd been forced to come out into the light as the son of Damon Dark, Creed Dark. My records were all taken care of and legitimate by any standards and I was officially an online college genius who'd had doctorate degrees in nearly every field of technology.

I had to spend a few months getting the practicals as proof done as well as accepting my doctorates in each field but it was worth it. After six years, my company was in the field of giants alongside Stark industries as a rival and competitor. I'd met the arrogant playboy a few times over the years and while I'd been mildly impressed with his intelligence, his narcissism was on a whole other level.

I'd avoided most head on confrontations with him and Stark industries as I'd only ever called him on his shit when I sued him for attempting to hack my company's servers. Unlike his, my company was still privately owned and as such I didn't have to worry about the stock market. But that had it's own issues as it basically prevented me from going international.

That is until I announced it the same day I'd felt my blade suit quiver as Black Widow had attempted to kill a school playground full of children. It had stopped her and the bomb she nearly blew up there by eating the bomb and forcing her to retreat.

I had made my announcement as I opened my company up to the stock market and created a board of governors that had been secretly bots. They'd bought most of the stock while I kept fifty one percent for myself.

I'd been notified when several organizations had went to buy my stock. The Hand, Hydra, Obadiah Stain, Wilson Fisk, Justin Hammer, Norman Osborn and even Victor Von Doom. They'd made out with fifteen percent of my stock all together but I didn't really mind. Only ten percent got you a seat at the board of directors and they'd have to combined theirs to do so.

As it was I went international over night with cures, crops and medical treatments. I'd invented new medical scanning beds and treatments for genetic disorders as well as cheaper more effective drugs for nearly every drug currently on the market. The FDA had a hard time trying to disprove any of my patented chemical compounds and damned if the drug companies didn't try as I was effectively shutting them down with all I was releasing as well as what I was offering.

None could refute it in the end even when they threw money at it as I'd secretly leaked the chemical compounds into the internet and since I was basically selling at cost, none could make it cheaper as most didn't have the technology nor the facilities to actually pull it off so quickly.

Big drug companies were closed all over the world because of my own work. I had a plan for the laid off workers as well. My bots approached them with magical employment contracts and once signed would prevent them from telling a soul or doing anything against my company or me personally.

I hired by the thousands and bought the spare factories and buildings as Frosthaven basically took over the medical industry over night. I stayed out of the military contracts though as I only sold body armor to the police stations. Stark, Hammer, Osborn and several others held the high end in military and I wanted no part of their pissing match.

Instead I was pure technological and medical in advancements. From phones, computers and TVs to gaming systems, credit card machines and ID scanners, only Stark was able to keep up with me and that was just barely and only on occasions as he was mainly focused on weapons and armor.

I'd received a dozen or so military offers for me to enter the field and try to replicate the super soldier serum and the like but I'd turned them all down saying there'd only ever be one Captain America. Durning my downtime I'd successfully replicated adamantium and Gravitonium before adding them to my blade that protected Black Widow.

The Gravitonium has worked like a charm, slowly weighing her down just a bit so that she'd grow stronger which my enhanced serum I'd woken her up one night to give her had helped with. At first she hadn't recognized me and went to attack but my blade armor had stopped her as I spoke. "Don't attack me, my body would hurt your feet or fists if you did so."

She frowned. "Who are you? How did you find me?"

I sighed. "I've always been with you love, every step of the way, protecting you."

I flicked the armor as it moved off of her. Her eyes went wide. "It's you! I thought you were a hallucination brought on by my suit."

I chuckled. "Hardly but fair point. Now I can't stay but I've brought you this, it's like what they gave you to make you stronger in the red room only it will erase most of that and make you as powerful, fast and enduring as Captain America was."

She frowned. "What is it?"

I sighed. "It's the original Captain America serum only I've enhanced it specifically for your physique. I've added the Vita radiation to it as well so it'll be a bit painful, but it'll remove any sickness or diseases you might have in your blood or organs."

She nodded and I injected it into her. After I pulled the syringe out I told her. "I've altered it to allow you to grow stronger, beyond Captain America in every way so long as you train. My red eyes searched her face as she only gritted her teeth a bit from the pain.

She finally bit out. "Why won't the suit let me have a boyfriend?"

I smiled lightly. "You know the answer to that already. I am a god love, and gods are greedy. We don't like to share what we've claimed with anyone, mortal or not. Now rest, and if you wish for someone other than me in the future, then you and they must find and kill me. Remember this as well, all things are permitted in the dark."

I slapped her ass lightly before walking through a portal as the suit closed up around her like a cocoon, protecting her during the change. That next day she'd nearly blown up the school and shield had found her. I'd released my company to the public's whims and great changes had begun all around the world as I expanded my influence.

Shadow had stalked the net, cameras and cellphone information, finding and weeding out the members of Hydra, the Hand, the Ten Rings, AIM and evening shield members. All of them were put on lists and some were put on many lists unsurprisingly.

I started another company, Grim, that worked solely with law enforcement all around the world in non dictatorship countries. It basically did what shadow did only it located all the wanted criminals and collected the bounties as it notified the cops where each individual was hiding out.

It's sub job was to weed out the guilty and innocent before giving the innocent a chance with Grim law, it's secondary company and subsidiary. They would defend the innocent in court and present evidence of the guilty party to the courts.

Grim law went international as well, becoming another powerhouse in the law field. Pro bono work was done all the time as well as high profile cases. The bots were the senior partners and each of them were registered citizens with official law degrees.

Grim, the AI that worked under shadow, was proficient in helping those who'd been wronged. So much so that even Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson had signed on with magic contracts. They were both made partners in under a year as the legal aides that helped them were all bots.

Grim had under my request, sent a special contract to Jeryn Hogarth and Jennifer Walters. They would be made partners upon joining and all their money problems with their current employers would be paid for by Grim and Associates.

The magical contract would see their salaries doubled and more paid out on a case by case basis. It really was too good to be true in most people's eyes and I wasn't even asking them to bring their clients with them or damage their old company's reputation in the least bit.

They'd agreed and their clients came with them of their own accord from the looks of it. Grim had been forced to ask them if they were sure as doing so would mean a full open policy for the companies that tried to hire Grim and Associates because he'd never represent a deviant client.

That gave Rand industries pause as this policy would no doubt reveal the Hand's influence in their ranks. Ward Meachum had been forced to back out, drawing Hogarth's attention to them because of it.

Both Grim and I were later attacked by Hand ninjas but they disappeared mysteriously and wound up dead at various Hydra bases where they too were dead with the Hand's symbol at said bases. Hydra retaliated and this began a war between the hand, the ten rings and Hydra.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was drawn into the secret war eventually as Hydra was at their core. It wasn't until Madam Gao and the Hand retreated from New York for a time that things cooled down. It was by no means the end but more like a respite as Rand Enterprises received several new S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra employees as each side prepared to sound the other.

I turned my attention elsewhere for now and headed to Egypt for a vacation. The Gods there sensed my coming and Bast sent me a mental message asking why I was there, trying to discern whether I was after her pantheon like I'd done to the Greeks.

I told her I wasn't interested in gods at the moment as my prey for now was Apocalypse. She accepted that as she could tell I wasn't lying, mentally linked as we were at the time through her blessing.

I went to Cairo and from there, searching through the followers minds of En Sabah Nur, I found the entrance to what it is I seek.