Chapter 45, The New Year

The Fastest Man Alive

Chapter 45

The New Year!

Island of Pandora

Benjamin Blake

Leader, Doting Father, Lover.

The New Year had started without a hitch, and I was super grateful to the universe for that. The island was partying for three days before it died down. After that, I had set up another AI to run the systems. Then I gave the honors of putting out the call to Xavier. The light of hope in the man's eyes almost made me feel bad about what I had set up for him in case he ever decided to do something stupid like all of his comic book incarnations. I had reservations about doing an all call like that incase Eric decided to show up at my door, but I was thinking of my people since I had more than enough forces to end him.

I had fail-safes for my fail-safes, and of course, I wasn't going to give that man access to my resources without some type of protocol to shut him down.

Humming to myself, I smiled as I watched the number of my citizens rise in an almost continuous motion. We had upgraded and boosted cerebro's reach with our satellites allowing the telepathic platform to reach all corners of the globe. Xavier had connected to the world's meta-human population and told them that they were not alone. Those that were lost were now found and that we were willing to share our home. Xavier and Hank were really choking up once I gave him the locations of safe houses I bought around the world.

It was a very emotional moment for them.

Each safehouse had an underground layer built with expansion runes, obviously. Meta's could come with their entire families to get checked before moving onto the island if that was their thing. I made sure that my people let it be known that we would not be shipping anyone international to another continent, just to be safe. Each of the safe houses had at least one hundred spartans for defense with a few doctors and empathic social workers. Beyond that, each safe house had a portal with a ward system that set the house invisible unless invited.

In locations, I wasn't able to get myself a safe house, I had my spartans bring one to site. Besides all of that, the phones have also been ringing off of the hook. It happened since we had also given out numbers for those that needed picking up.

Everyone that made it through the safehouses didn't have to agree with my ideals, but they had to agree on a few basic things. Medical and schooling would be universal, with my government giving out monthly stipends, but they would also have to attend at least one class. With that one class, an adult had to pass at least one test every six months.

I wasn't trying to be a hippie about it, but knowledge was power. Hell, the homeless were asking where to sign up once I had told them. I was sure that most of them didn't even have their high school equivalency.

Then there were the places that were just way out in the middle of nowhere. For those, I had my people visit to see about bringing them into the fold. Some of the things we found almost had Ororo go mother nature on their asses.

Ororo was not happy with some of the conditions we found the kids in. Hell, we had to talk her down because that was how it was in those parts of the world. Yes, I had a lot of ideas that might be able to make it better in those places, but my focus was my people first before I turned my attention to the rest of the world's problems.

Shifting my focus from that, I checked on my little side project.

The mind healers had gotten back to me after the start of the year, giving me an update on Eric Killmonger. The work they have been doing on his unprotected mind was working wonders as he fell into my control. Eric was now one of my die-hard supporters, and in his mind, I was the one that helped him get over the death of his father. His intense hatred was still there, but he had it focused on his work. I was still working out how to get him on that throne before I could bring forth some of my other plans, but slow and steady wins the race. Since I had his mind, there was no need to rush. I refused to push it until I knew without a shadow of a doubt that once he is out of my area of effect, he can't be broken out of my influence.

Other than that, things were moving along nicely.

Now that our population was expanding at a steady pace, I had made sure to have the agricultural feilds properly manned by both spider bots and people. It would be detrimental to the growth and prosperity of my island if I didn't solve this issue awhile back. The Western City was set up as my main trading hub, even before I had received the expansion runes, we had tricked out the port. At the start, I had created a triple-layered system with hydroponics to service the island while secretly importing the meats that we would require. Now though, I had gotten my hands on the expansion runes, and my mad geniuses had fucked it seven ways from Sunday, and it was one on the ultimate cheats at my disposal.

Before the end of the year, I had over a thousand Astartes working on gutting back out the three floors for repurposing. Now, instead of using each floor for something like hydroponics, we had large industrial warehouse doors built into runic doors. We had one floor that housed the portals that held crops and animal husbandry. I was thinking about having another added to house fishing farms; this way, we could still get fish in our diet without impacting the resources of the ocean. Hell, we were on the road for complete independence, and that was great, but I wasn't trying to turn us into isolationists.

I wanted us to reach the stars and SEIZE them.

O.O.O

There was plenty to do today and look over, but I felt my time could best be served in taking my daughter to one of the new game centers that was opened in the Northern City. With the advancement of our tech, a lot had changed in how we did things. Video games were no longer simple things because now we had fully interactive holograms. The smart lens was available for purchase, and each person's personal smart band had basic holo-games available. Free, of course, courtesy of yours truly. There was so much that needed to be completed, but Natasha had made sure that I understood that I didn't need to be the one doing it all. That's why I had a staff and hundreds of people at my command.

With that thought in mind, I closed down the holograms over my desk before standing to take a look out the window to my office. The heart tree was as tall as the Chrysler building in New York, so I had an unhindered view as I looked over the jungle below. The sight before me was breathtaking.

As I looked down over my island, I think I was starting to know what it felt like for the Wakandans. It wasn't that they were scared to open up to the world. Granted, they had that fear, but I also felt that they had the knowledge that once they open the borders. Those that come would destroy the peace in the pursuit of their greed.

I stood there looking over my island, and I understood more than I could put into words. It was too sad for the rest of the world; I would not bend or be swayed by the words of the United Nations. Destruction would be the only thing to be found here for those that cross the line.

The sound of my door opening drew me from my introspection.

"Yes, Salt?" I asked as I kept my back turned to the door while standing in parade rest.

"Reports are in sir; the shuttle is ready for test flights." Salt returned as she stood on the other side of my desk.

"Good…" I replied as thousands of plans shifted through my mind. "Tell them to keep running checks, and I'll be the one to take it up into space with an exploration team."

"Sir?" Salt replied sharply as her voice cracked like a whip.

I heard the question from that 'sir' with how sharply she said it. I turned around to look at her as I held my peace.

"I can survive in space without a suit." I said, looking at her as her eyes bore into my own. "You should know this already; it was in the profile that you have access to."

"Sir, its space." Salt grounded out.

"I understand, and I will be fine." I said, trying to reassure her some. "Plus, I have already flown up to the thermosphere without a suit or shuttle."

The look she gave me in return could have skinned me alive. Salt grunted before marking it off on her tablet.

"Clear a few hours in my schedule." I said with a megawatt smile. "I plan to take Alfred, and Maya to the new gaming center for some family time."

Before Salt could say anything, I had already jumped backward. I phased through the glass window of my office on top of the heart tree.

"HAHA!" I let out a mad laugh at the memory of the look on her face as I dashed madly through the jungle heading to the Eastern City on the island. With a quick scroll through my smart band, I changed my clothes to my Vegeta gear. I was wearing commando pants with a Vegeta styled over armor with an all-black undershirt now. I took a sharp turn at one of the large lakes that grew the plants that could cure most human maladies. I worked my way to the location ping in Alfred's personal smart band.

His location showed that he was in the dojo, interesting, I guess Natasha was showing him some moves. I wondered about that as I moved in their direction. Maya was physically five while she had full cognitive functions, Alfred, on the other hand, was a combination of Natasha and myself. Natasha had decided to bring him into our world with the body of a ten-year-old, which was an interesting choice on her part.

I had no issues with that, not when my own mother pushed me aside for more grandbabies. Hell, she was already asking if I was going to knock up the others, or will she be looking to receive more grandbabies in mystical ways.

The damn woman just wouldn't quit.

I was slowing from my speeds down into a jog, then a full stop. I gave the mother that was floating nearby with her daughter a wave. It was interesting to see that the mother was normal except for the floating while her daughter resembled a bear. Her daughter waved back with a smile before I walked into the martial arts studio. Inside the information pamphlets that we gave all the newcomers was that meditation and learning some form of energy control would be able to help those with mutated parts greatly. One of the crazy things I had come to understand was that THE GREEN and THE RED dimensions were even here in the Marvel Universe.

Before, I thought that was a solely DC thing, but the Ancient One set me straight when I was sharing some of my ideas. The omniverse was all-encompassing everything, and there was no running from one thing because we were in another part of the multiverse. Through our talks, I found out that the animal mutations were because their X-gene was pulling from THE RED, which was the dimension of primal nature.

Then she went into telling me that werewolves also suffer from the same thing, but the difference was that they didn't have the gene to compensate, and no one has made such a connection until my mad geniuses made the connection. The X-gene allowed us to punch through the astral during our times of intense stress to connect to the closest power or what's calling to us without us being aware of energy build up. From what we could tell, there was a bit of matter and reality manipulation at the time of activation.

There was just far too much to understand when it came to the X-gene and how it worked.

After scanning myself in at the front desk, I took a right through the door that leads to the mats. Passing the barbels and the squat racks, I made my way up the steps to the second floor up. What I found put a smile on my face, Alfred was on his way to being able to defend himself. I watched as he threw out jabs after jabs, before ducking under a swipe that Natasha had aimed for his head. With a duck, Alfred struck back with a rising upper, right into the open mits that Natasha held for him.

Alfred had a smile on his face that showed his pride, but I knew that smirk that Natasha wore. Before I could warn the kid, Natasha struck. He never even saw it coming as she took him down. One quick wrap then into a soft suplex onto the mats had Alfred down and out for the count as Nat got back up with a laugh in my direction. Shaking my head, I walked over to place a kiss on her lips.

A chuckle escaped me as I felt Nat squeezed my ass before we released our kiss.

"What brings you here?" Natasha asked, looking up at me.

"I came to take my kid out to the arcade." I returned with a roguish grin. I watched as she mulled that idea over in her head before turning my attention towards Alfred. "Come on, bud, it's normal to get whipped by your mother. She even beats me during our spars."

Alfred scowled at me before I twirled a finger, picking him up off the ground with my control over gravity.

"Are you not going to invite me out?" Natasha pouted at my side, giving me a look.

"I don't know; it's kinda a dad and his kids type of thing." I returned a little smugly.

"That's interesting." Natasha replied saucily before turning to walk away. I watched that ass walk away before I shook myself to get out of the idea to follow her to the changing rooms. Turning back around, I found Alfred looking at me puzzled. Yeah, super happy that his hormones haven't kicked in yet. Ignoring the puzzled look, I turned him around and directed him towards the locker rooms to get cleaned up. Before Alfred could pick out what he wanted to wear, I already made a selection. I made him a duplicate of my own dragon ball z Saiyan battle armor minus the shoulder pads.

It didn't take us that long to get him ready before we made our way out of the dojo. When Alfred and I got out front, we found Nat leaned up against a sexy black and red hovercar. The sleek lines had the car looking like a bird of prey. There was no wheel hump, but you could see the fins glowing blue where the wheels should have been. Walking around it, I found a little marker that called it the Widow. Smirking at her moniker, I placed my hand on the door panel where the bio-locks indicated, but the beep made me frown.

"Nah, big boy, this is my ride." Nat quipped as she pushed me along from the driver's side door.

"Alrighty, then mama bear, let's head to the school so we can pick up Maya." I answered as I held my hands up in defeat. Once Nat had placed her hand on the bio-lock, the doors opened, and we were allowed in. Alfred sat in the back while I took the front passenger seat.

Inside, the hovercar was just as advanced as the outside. On the driver's side was a panoramic screen showing the angles of approach, but also everything a driver would need. I noticed that everything was set in a way that Nat had the ease of reach while in control of the vehicle. Looking around, I noticed the interior was all fine leathers tailored to perfection.

Most of the lighting was custom, hell, even the widow marker on the dash looked amazing. Looking closer, though, I noticed the battle mode under that same widow marker. Leaning back in my seat, I wanted to ask Nat what she was waiting on, but I was interrupted by the pinging from the dash before the auto-drive kicked in.

With a whoosh, we took off into the sky-lane, interesting. I knew that Alfred, Alex, and I had entered a lot of fail-safes into the system for the flying cars, but it was still something to see it working so smoothly. The system had linked up to traffic control to check the surroundings before finding a nice slot for taking off. People could bypass the system, of course, but any accidents that happen because of such actions are entirely on them.

As we flew, Nat kept throwing Alfred little questions to keep him fully interactive. What we had found was that once he got his body, Alfred would become silent for hours as he sat back and absorbed everything that happened around him. Nat had come up with the idea of keeping him in constant communication to keep his mind stimulated.

I was of the mind that it was alright for him to be a little quiet since Maya was already so outgoing. Alfred was pretty soft-spoken, so I tried not to stress him now that he was no longer living inside a server, but I think it was all of Natasha's motherly instincts coming out. Pulling out my tablet, I check off on a few things while also interjecting into the conversation now and then.

A lot of headway was made before we had arrived at the school. Once we touched down, though, I was greeted with an interesting sight before me. Ororo was dressed in some tight-fitting yoga pants with one of my sweaters thrown over a shirt with some regular sneakers on her feet. Maya was with her, and so was her other friend. Since little Illianna was here, her brother Colossus decided he wanted to tag along as well. Looking at Natasha made me want to put her over my knee with that smug ass smirk she had on her lips.

There was plenty I could say, but I decided to keep my sass but point out the obvious that we couldn't all fit. Ororo gave me a smirk and pointed upwards in the direction of the heart tree. Colossus gave me a look of apology as I released a sigh.

"You know, I only wanted to hang out with my kids today." I said while giving them both the stink eye.

"That's fine because I would like to bring my daughter on a little trip." Ororo answered as she checked over Maya before checking the rest of the girls in the group.

"And what about you, big guy?" I asked, turning in Colossus' direction.

Colossus looked completely lost, but he was trying to keep up before he answered me. "Little Anna asked to play princess; I said yes."

"Well, alrighty, then let's head to the Holo-tower."

"Yaaaaaayyy!"

o.O.o

The ride had not taken us that long before we arrived at the parking hub. With the advent of flying cars, parking garages had to be redesigned, allowing both mid-level and upper levels of entry for vehicles. We had touched down on level three before getting out and taking the elevator to the street level.

We walked down the city block of the northern city as we went about our way. Looking around, I couldn't help but smile at the sight around me. The city had progressed from the last time I was here. In the air around us, some of the buildings floated on gravity emitters. Other buildings had interesting neon holograms covering the window panes as they wrapped around their buildings. With this city being the middle of the magic users and most of the entertainment, of course, the style was going to change from what it last was.

Everything was far more advance than back home, but now there was magic in the mix. Hell, looking off to the west, I could see the central library to the island float around defying gravity with gardens to match.

There was a nudge at my shoulder that drew my attention to Ororo and Natasha. The raised eyebrow prompted me to speak.

"The moment I turned my back on the mad geniuses around me, things changed most spectacularly." I said as I nodded in the direction of the floating buildings.

"That's your influence at work Ben, you gave them life, but you have also inspired them to keep on moving forward." Ororo said from the side.

"Let's not forget you like to say, forward is the best way to go, never backward." Natasha quipped from my other side.

"Dah, you said the sky was never the limit, only our imagination." Colossus spoke up as Illianna rode on one of his shoulders.

Hearing that was weird; I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted us to be more than what we were and what the Marvel comics made the mutant race to be. I wanted us to explore the stars and bring humanity to the advent of the universe and beyond, but to hear that was something else. With that, I had gone silent as I went through more introspection as Ororo and Nat took over leading the small gaggle of kids.

Quickly, we had made our way to a building that was at least ten stories or more. On the front of the building was a holographic image of ARCADE with scrolling games sprawled across its front. Walking inside the building, we were greeted with a wide sprawling open atrium. Looking up, I noticed that the atrium went up for three floors connected by escalators and elevators. Hanging down in the middle, above our heads floated spheres that projected holovids and games currently in motion.

Looking around, I noticed the number of kids and teenagers with parents around while some were without. There was a flash of red beside me, but I was already thinking ahead and moving. Hanging at my shoulder as if someone had cut her strings, floated Maya pouting at me.

"No running off." I told her smugly as I tapped her on the nose. The puppy eyes she gave me were a critical hit to the soul, but I was greater than lesser men. With a chuckle, I pulled Maya under my arm as I walked behind Nat to the counter. Ororo was the first to reach the counter and was engaged in conversation with the attendant. The kid at the counter had bright orange scales along the side of his neck, going down under his shirt. The scales seemed to reach the rest of his body because I noticed the same scales on his right hand, but not the left.

The name tag on his chest had the name Kevin written on it, but I didn't need that as I had remembered the profile on the young man. Kevin had reached one of the safe houses in Australia with his sister. He had brought her with him out of the orphanage in search of a better life. His little sister didn't have any mutations, but we didn't really care about that.

We accepted him because he was in search of a better life but also had that spark of wanting to work to repay us taking him in. He didn't have anything other than his secondary school equivalent, but he had the will to work and better himself. His younger sister was placed in the school with the other kids while Kevin was given a two-bedroom apartment. He was currently working while also attending advanced classes to get his certifications in Pandora.

Thousands of profiles like his had passed along my desk, allowing me to read them. This was so I could know those that lived on my island. Getting up to the counter, I ordered some time in one of the holo-room for one of the rescue princess games. The way the gaming tower and holo-rooms worked was really simple. The room was the size of a standard gym using space expansion. From there, the floor was covered in some of the most advanced nano-constructors you could find on this planet. I know using such advanced tech as props, gasps at the sacrilege.

Each holo-room had the floor made up of nano constructors that would take the form of anything to give mass to the holograms projected in the room. This also doubled as the walking floor since it would mess up the immersion if someone walks into the wall. Or they realized that they have been running in a circle for some time. I had some ideas to recreate some games, but I would have to submit those ideas later. Yeah, I was thinking life-sized Mario Karts, but aye who wouldn't. We did some more small talk before getting a room for a small group.

"Alright, so who wants to be the princess?" I asked the girls. They looked around at each other before each of their hands shot into the air. "Alright, alright, everyone can be a princess."

Chuckling, I turned around to let the counter guy know to add that into the programming. What I wanted to do was take control and set the commands myself, but I was trying to be just a dad today. Getting in the elevator, I noticed the floors went all the way up to twenty, but our stop was on the fifteenth. The playtime tickets showed that we had room two.

Nat opened the door allowing the kids to run inside. Inside the gaming room was a hologram set up as a forest where a knight in shining armor stood. The girls looked around for a moment before standing in front of the knight. Once I closed the door behind us, the holograms kicked in as the door vanished from sight.

"Hello, I have been informed that you young ladies are the princess of this kingdom in dire need of rescue." The Knight spoke in deep tones. Before anyone could respond, the world shifted as the images changed to that of a cartoon nature. The girls giggled at the change as the night was no longer tall and imposing. Now, the knight in question was five feet tall with a half plate and long curling mustache. "This way ladies…"

Maya and Illianna shared a look before folding their arms with a pout at the knight.

"We don't want to stay in some castle." Maya said with a pout on her lips.

"Yeah, we want to beat up the mean dragon." Illianna piped up at her side.

"Little ladies, that would not be possible." The Knight replied as he tilted his head to the side. The knight in question had one of those slow dopey looks on its face. I was sure the programmers thought that this would be

comical to see for any kids.

"Override Alfred sigma echo echo one one." Alfred said from the side before anyone could interrupt. I looked over and noticed that he had a holo-computer open on his wrist as he walked up to the side of his sister. The knight paused for a moment before giving us a bow and vanishing in motes of light. Alfred turned around to look at us then gave a shrug. "She wanted to defeat the dragon herself, what?"

"Nothing, nothing, just keep being a big brother." Ororo replied with a smile. Nat turned to give me a wink, and I noticed the smile on the Colossus face. I turned in time to catch Maya pressing the start phrase that floated before her in a hologram. Character screens appeared in front of everyone, but I looked over Maya's shoulders to see her options. Chaos Princess, Fire Princess, Princess of Dance, the list went on and on.

Shaking my head, I turned back to my own character screen to make a choice. Let's see, Rouge with a trench coat. Yeah, I'll go with that and let's not forget the nerf guns, I had no bloody need to run around with daggers. A flash of light caught my attention, and I turned to find the girls in a magical girl outfit. Frills tutu with a rainbow wand and everything it entails.

Ororo was now the healer, while Natasha took up the spot of the archer to the team. Turning some more, I found Colossus in a warrior's garbs ready to go.

"Alright, girls, let's go defeat that bad dragon." Natasha said with a smile as she pushed Alfred forward. Alfred had picked the knight option, but I guess my kid was using cheat codes with what he was wearing. Alfred was decked out in an all-black suit of armor lined with red and gold. The sword on his back was large and bulky. From the way he walked, I could tell that the sword was one-hander that he could shift into two.

The world around us shifted as the story started to play. 'It was a kingdom lost long ago, and that was when I tuned it out. Kill the evil dragon, yadda yadda, rescue the land, yadda yadda, save the people, and the princess. I snorted at that because these girls needed no saving. Ignoring the story that's being told, I looked around and was amazed at the crazy dungeons and dragons holo-program that was now a game kids could interact with. It was a long way from being tabletop when it was just Peter and I during middle school.

The scenery changed, and before anyone could do anything, Nat already had three arrows launched into the trees. There was a burst of sparkles, and loot fell down onto the ground. Illiana was the first one to dash over to the loot, followed by Maya then Alfred.

Ororo looked at Natasha with a raised eyebrow, while Natasha had a sheepish look on her face.

"Sorry, sorry, I'll leave them for the kids." Nat replied with a wince. Chuckling, I walked up to the kids as Colossus looked around for any more ambushes. The only thing they had for me was duel crossbows, which I placed in my inventory. The girls got a new tiara of power, one glittered with each step, and the other allowed her to shoot rainbows.

"So which path shall we take?" Ororo asked as she looked at the fork in the road a little ways past the trees.

"Rock, Paper, Scissor." Illianna said with a nod that Maya copied.

"We can't just…"

"Rock, Paper, Scissors, shoot…"

"Paper beats rock, I win!" Maya yelled excitedly as puffs of glitter were produced with each excited jump she took. "Onward to the right!"

"Alfred, what did you get out of the loot pile?" I asked, bumping my silent kid on the shoulder.

"I received a map and currency father." Alfred replied, and I tried hard not to cringe at that.

"Dad, call me dad, it can't be that hard. I know you call Nat, mom." I replied with a sigh.

"I shall endeavor to try." Alfred replied cheekily.

Before, I replied to his statement. My nerf guns were already up, and I was tagging more targets as the girls ran towards them. The mini nerf darts made piff piff sounds as I fired, taking down my foes.

"Daddy!"

"Sorry, sorry." I replied sheepishly, since I had taken them down the same way Nat did on pure reflex. The kids went to collect the loot, and what they found was candy, which was supposed to work as potions to give them back power.

Rooaar! Yeek!

A Trent roared and was instantly silenced with a smash from Ororo's mage staff as he tried to ambush us from the side of the road as the girls tried to dig through the loot. The Trent wasn't the size of those from Lord of the Rings; this thing was a four-foot-tall chibi thing that made me feel bad for even wanting to attack it.

Clang.

Looking over, I found Colossus doing a classic facepalm about the situation. Turning away from him, Nat, Ororo, and I shared a small excited look. Before anyone could say anything, we began to sprint down the path. The first bandit that jumped out looked like he was right out of the Disney cartoons, but he was shot down with an arrow to the face paired with a nerf dart. The one after him was knocked aside by Ororo's staff.

Was I supposed to feel bad that we left Colossus back there with the kids, sure, but not today. I duck low as Ororo staff went over my head, taking out the dwarf that jumped down from one of the tree's aiming for my back. Nat blew Ororo a kiss as she took down a rider that was on the back of some unicorn while I was firing at the lanky legged scarecrow that was in the back as the wizard. Our assailants burst into glitter and sprinkles as we started to look around for more enemies.

"Mommy!"

Maya came flying up, flaming hair and all while Illiana rode on her brother's shoulder. I heard the sound of hooves, turning I found Alfred on a black pony with flaming hooves.

"I thought we were supposed to defeat the dragon?" Maya asked in a pleading tone. I whistled while looking off in the distance as Natasha and Ororo shared looks.

"Okay, sweetie, lead us." Nat said as she placed a kiss on Maya's forehead. "Dad?"

Turning around with a swiftness, I was struck a critical blow. Her little face looked so vulnerable. I just wanted to squish her cheeks together and squeal like a fangirl.

"Yes, pumpkin?" I asked, trying not to fall victim to cuteness overload.

"Can you please walk in the back with both mommies?" Maya asked with a pout as her bottom lip quivered.

With a sigh, I allowed Nat and Ororo to drag me to the back of the group. After that, things picked up. The girls had fun calling out magical spells while Alfred went around with his shield to protect them from the baddies. Rainbows, glitter, and all manner of attacks burst the monsters before us; since there was no way that the kiddie games were going to show blood. The enemies all burst into different things, from cream puffs to glitter, to sparkles and the like.

After we played for an hour, we finally came upon the dragon's horde. The dragon's horde was inside of a large cave dug into the side of the mountain. The front of the cave had one of those silly signs telling people to keep out and go away or be burned. Illianna whispered something in her older brother's ear. Before anyone could say anything, Colossus stepped forward and kicked the door down.

We traveled deep down into the cave as we took down the Disney looking dwarfs. Things progressed okay until we came up along a room filled with golden coins. Maya, Illianna, and her brother went into a little huddle to talk plans as we waited. Alfred to the forefront as the girls protected his back. They walked into the room with the dragon bolder as the sun shone within the sky. The dragon was as large as any school bus you could find within the states. Besides that, it was not as imposing as I thought it should be. The dragon was bright purple with some blue undertones, along its back were spikes, and the fire that breathed out of its nose was not even fire.

The dragon roared, and bubbles came pouring out of its mouth. The look Ororo gave the dragon said it all, and nothing was stopping me from doubling over to let out a full belly laugh. Natasha swatted me as she motioned towards the grim look on our kid's faces. With a sigh, I picked up my nerf guns as rabbit monsters started to pour into the room. Ororo tossed out a healing spell every now and then while Nat and I just fired off pop shots at the dragon.

The kids went through the rabbit monster like a whirlwind; they stood no chance as they burst into glitter and other things. Illianna made a call for her brother, who, in turn, charged the dragon as it fired bubbles at him, taking down some of his health. Maya called Alfred, who summoned his horse to let her ride as they attacked from some distance. I gave Ororo a peck on the lips, then turned and gave the same to Natasha.

Without a look back, I took off running along the walls face as I aimed and fired at the dragon.

"Daddy, go for the belly!" Maya yelled while I was running along the wall. With a shrug, I did as my baby girl asked as I rained down nerf darts at the dragon. Illianna was making her own summons, which turned out to be a large gingerbread man that attacked the dragon from the front.

Dodging a swipe from the dragon's tail, I turned to find Ororo sprinting over some cover as she fired off her own spells. Arrows rained down from the sky, bringing my attention to Natasha, who was on the ceiling upside down as she attacked. The attack kept going for another five minutes before Maya asked us to pull back as she and Illianna stepped forward to the dragon. Before I knew it, Maya and Illianna were floating before the dragon as bright lights released in a halo effect.

"BY THE MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP WE BANISH YOU!"

The light that surrounded the girls strengthened before pushing outwards. The dragon roared once more, but the beam that the girls unleashed had already slammed into the dragon pinning it down. Yeah, there was no helping it as I face-palmed as the dragon exploded into candies. I recovered in time to see the girls pull Alfred into a group hug. I don't know who designed the kids mode, but I had no words. This thing was just weird, even by my standards.

The back of the cave opened, causing massive amounts of sound, which drew everyone's attention. Alfred shrugged as his sister looked at him. Maya turned towards Illianna, who was already walking in the direction of the back of the cave. Ororo shook her head before following along. What we found in the back was loot, loot, and more loot.

Gold and jewels surround us on all sides. Along the corners were piles of gold, and around the room in a circle were multiple treasure chests. Out of the treasure chest came the uploads for princess dresses that they could load into their UMF suits. Some of the other chests contained credits to be spent on the island. The prizes actually surprised me because they can actually be useful.

Yeah, this would need to be under review. With that in mind, I fired off a snap message. After sending the message, I noticed the time. We did some last checks before getting the kids together so that we could leave to have our lunch. I knew the girls wanted to play one more round, so I paid for another and kept the room reserved as we went out for lunch.

o.O.o

Once Alfred and the girls had their lunch, they had made their way back to the gaming tower, but I had to get back to my own work. I left the kids with Ororo, Natasha, and Colossus as I made my way to the southern city to my military base. When I touched down in the hover taxi, I found the base a hive of activity. I noticed the spider tanks off to the left of the base, and the gunships on the right. I could see the industrial repulsor lift moving from the layers down under the base that carried out training while others housed the arsenal.

Faora walked up to greet me, and at her side was her brother Alexander. We shared pleasantries before moving to the hidden train that would take up to the spaceport that was located between here and the western city. The west side of the island was more of a barren nature, and it made for the perfect place to have the port station. Looking down at myself, I decided it was time to change. Since I was using the template from halo, I had already made the Fleet Admirals Lasky in my smart band.

My pants changed from blue slacks to moveable dress pants. My shirt changed from over and under armor to a dress shirt that was topped by a long-sleeve flak type shirt. My shoulder changed to have small armor pads. A gun holster appeared on my hip as I felt my back get reinforced by a spinal and back brace. A crown appeared on my shoulder and lapels, that drew my eye as did the utility belt around my waist.

"That's interesting." I mumbled as I checked out the gold chevrons under the crown.

"You look good, my king." Faora said as she handed me a sidearm with an ammunition pack in her other hand. I looked at the sunshot in her hands and knew who was the one that changed my suit. Taking the weapon, I did a quick safety check before clearing the weapon, then holstering the pistol.

"Thanks General," I said as she led the way into the base. I turned to the side to speak to her brother since he was the one running the development of the island. Alex was made with the collected genius genetic material of ten different recorded intellects. Besides the sample of Richards I took and added to the stock, there were a few more inside Nathanial's genetic storage, including powers that gave extreme intelligence boost. "So give me the rundown Alex."

"With the advent of the miniature sun that now powers our island, we finished the creation of the molecular synthesizer and forge. This will enable us to recycle all of our waste into synth blocks." Alex said with some pride in his voice. "With the completion of the forge, we have been able to experiment with some of the ideas you have had written on your server for creation. Our material synthesis has allowed us to create a new variant of space steel."

"Space steel?" I asked, interrupting Alex's flow. "Please tell me that's not the name you have it classified under?" The silence that met me said enough." Urgh, let's just steal the term durasteel from Star Wars."

"Of course, my king." Alex replied as he shot off the change on his holopad. "Ahh, yes, we have also completed that special satellite, which would allow us to connect to the wider galaxy. I have also been going over the plans for that cruiser design as a test bed and space station, and I would have to inform you that we would not be able to complete those within the year. Faster if we are able to get the forge online."

"That's fine, Alex; I have a plan for that." I replied as I tapped my chin. Faora had a frown when Alex talked about not being able to get the battle cruiser plans completed in time. " Ignore the cruiser for now and focus on the space station."

I held up my hand to stop Faora from interrupting as I stepped into the underground hyper-train.

"Are the squids and nano-forge completed?" I asked Alex, turning towards him.

"Of course, my king, we even had the nano-forge installed on the main exploration vessel, like you asked." Alex replied as he puffed his chest forward.

"Then have them loaded onto the shuttle that we will be taking out into space." I said while taking my seat. "We can drop them off at the belt; the squids will survey for what we want then have the nano-forge turn one of the asteroids into a proper space station." My General and Science Minister sat down with me as the train started to move while they took down my plans. "We set up a portal, then we gain access to exotic materials and all the metals, gold, and other things we will need. This is how we are going to build the cruiser and everything else."

"Once the station is up, I would like my Spartans to start running spaceborne operations" Faora cut in with plans to make sure our soldiers were well rounded in their fields of expertise.

Alex gave her a verbal confirmation, and I sent off a message to Marcus to meet us at the spaceport. Now that I had my military general and minister of science in front of me, there was no reason to sideline the Archmage of my island. We rode the hyper-rail as I laid out my plans and vision for the future. On the side, I had one of the aids set up a video call so that Marcus could be kept abreast of the situation.

Marcus had roughly a thousand mage's under his command, and they have been doing damn good work. He had advanced extremely far with some ideas from me and being pushed in the direction of the Ancient One. Most of the portals we were using had a combination of magic and science since he worked hand in hand with Alex in their development. They had also worked on the study of how the island created its own plant portals and the portal that was destroyed when I went to rescue Peter.

The ride was short as we arrived at the spaceport right under the entrance center. As I stepped out of the hyper-rail, a flare of gold drew my attention. The flash of gold was a portal that Marcus used to get to our location. Marcus walked out of the portal, looking like a large Viking. He walked with a loose flowing robe that showed off his mage tattoos. Those same tattoos were sparked from an idea that I had on my black server, which my heads of office were allowed access.

The mage tattoos came from an idea I had about redoing Roy Mustang's gloves from FullMetal Alchemist. We had found that a person could find their focus, then internalize that, with the internalization, they would be able to produce magic. Magic was both dimensional power and channeling the cosmic forces through one's person. Well, Marcus took that a step further than we thought was possible, and it was a damn runaway success.

Using the holo-projectors, Marcus had taken a 3D print then converted that into a tattoo. To place the tattoo on his body, Marcus had used a gram of vibranium mixed with an nx5 chi solution to stitch the focus into his skin above his heart. The life-giving nature of the chi solution mixed and propagated with the living organic bonding and adapting nature of the vibranium. Once the tattoo was placed on his skin, the magic breathed life into the focus. One of the discoveries of the focus tattoos was that it also grew with the person's magical growth. Hell, the tattoo glowed and changed with the element that the magi liked.

With that discovery, all of the magic users on the island got themselves on. Hell, they even had the main anchoring rune that was placed on the sling rings. Now they didn't even need that to travel.

"Thank you for joining us on such short notice, Marcus." I said as I stretched an arm out for a shake. "Today we have to launch the shuttle and since you and your people have done such extensive work on it. I felt you should also be here to witness it."

"My king, that's… thank you for inviting me." Marcus replied with a jovial smile.

"Come along, let's go inspect the shuttle." I replied as I followed along behind one of the attendants that were being our guide. I strolled with easy grace to my steps as Primes followed along. Behind them were my guards and the rest of the security forces.

We walked through some doors and across a large platform. We came to the shuttle-craft I would be taking into space. The shuttle was gunmetal grey with red stripes along the side just how I like it. At first, I wanted to make something like the jumpers from Stargate Atlantis, but I was building something new, and there was no way I wanted to make some copy. The front was all clear carbon composite crystalline structured glass that was ten times harder than the advanced titanium they used on the space station in orbit.

There was the main viewing window with a lined bracket wrapping the cockpit made of adamantium. Under the cockpit, I noticed two triple barrel mass accelerated cannons. That had me let out a whistle in appreciation, damn, I wanted to fire those babies already. The two large fins on the side housed the anti-gravitation drivers, and from their rotation and movement from the testing. Those drivers were able to pull off torque vectoring like the F22 Raptor.

There was some golden finish here and there along the shuttle, but I paid that no mind as I took in her beauty. Looking down, I was surprised with the schematics that said the shuttle was ten meters on the outside. Yeah, I would have to agree with them on that.

Tapping my smart band, I allowed it to sync up with my tablet as I made my way to the back of the shuttle. Along the side of the shuttle, I felt the thrum of power that pulsed through the vehicle. The ramp was down, but I took the time to look at the triple door set to keep the vacuum of space on the outside. With a nod, I walked past the airlock and into the cargo bay of the shuttle.

The cargo bay was fifty meters in length, and it had clear signs of expansion runes at work. Floating in the air were a couple of spheres that worked as the cargo bays tractor systems to move pallets and items around. The sound of clanking drew my attention to the loaders as they filed in with twenty of the squids I asked to be made. Walking over, the first thing I noticed was the twenty eyes that laid on the crown in a 360-degree arc of view. The main eyes were open the top and bottoms, then on both sides. Each of the eight arms was far more advanced variants of Otto's arms. Each capable of withstanding the harshness of space.

Did I steal these squids from the matrix, hell yeah I did. With one look at these things, anyone could tell where I got the idea from. Hell, I wanted thousands of these patrolling and scanning the asteroid belt. Some would keep my people safe while the rest would scan for viable asteroids to mine.

Pulling out my tablet, I smiled as I looked at the updates going to the squids. Even the nano-forge was updated with its connection to the docking station for the squids. I listened to the technical aspects from Alex as I walked around, inspecting each of the mechanical tentacles.

Once that was finished, I was directed to the elevator so that I may inspect the cockpit. I noticed on the layout for the ship that there was a portal room on the same floor that housed the crew quarters. There was a decent-sized mess hall and medical facilities; I approved of those also. We breezed by the armory on our way to the cockpit.

The doors parted with a swoosh, and I was greeted with four seats in the cockpit. The canopy of the cockpit had one large unified hologram. I could see that the secondary seats had access to the internal defense systems and data streams. The co-pilot seat had the weaponry while the pilot seat had overall control of the vessel.

Tapping my overall command code into the center council activated the shield. We had worked out the issues with the cloaking and kinetic shields. Now we had a system in place called the shroud. The idea came from dragon scales, and it worked amazingly under heavy testing, and without transponders, it wouldn't even show up on our own sensors. It was an overlapping octagon layer system that solved the issues we had with shorting out capacitors. Tapping some more commands in, I pulled up the camera feed of the spaceport and watched the video of the shuttle going invisible.

Kinetic shields, energy shields, and all the rest were great, but this shroud was a game-breaker. It was going to be one of the backbones of my military. The shroud didn't interfere with anything and gave us full functionality while invisible.

I was putting in some commands to shut everything back down. I turned to get some more information before leaving to get myself changed into a spacesuit. While in the dressing room, I was stripped down to my boxers, placing a UMF suit belt around my waist.

"So tell me, General, who will be my co-pilot for this flight?" I asked out loud while pressing the activation button on my UMF belt. A space suit worthy of adventure out into the harsh vacuum of space wrapped my body snuggly. Flexing my fingers and rotating my arms help me check the full range of my motions. Looking down, I noticed the boots that wrapped my feet, magnetic yet stylish.

There was another golden crown over my heart and on my lapels. Ignoring those, I moved from the dressing room to find Jean standing before me in a red spacesuit with a phoenix over her heart.

"When did you get your pilot's certificate?" I asked as I looked at her smug grin.

"When you had the writing exam snuck into my workload, I decided why the hell not." Jean replied with her hands on her hips. "I also put in about a hundred hours into the sims. And I passed a few tests given out by the military. Not only that, but the Phoenix said I could survive in the vacuum if anything happens."

Jean said that with such disregard, I could only grumble because of what I knew about that damn overpowered chicken. Instead of arguing with her, I pulled Jean into a fierce kiss.

"They ahh, do realize we are here right?"

"Yes, Marcus, they do, but we are not to interrupt."

Jean and I parted, and her face flushed while I just ignored Marcus and Alex being the peanut gallery on the side. Jean walked in front while I followed up behind her as we made our way back to the spaceport. I took in the gold trim along with her suit as it hugged that fine ass while she-cat walked in front of me.

My general and the rest left to head to the command center as I walked into the docking area of the spaceport. On the docks stood ten spartans all decked out in their full gear, waiting to head up into space. Looking at their MK3 miljnor armor made me look at my own. They looked damn good, while I looked like a damn space-cowboy.

"Pre-flights have been completed and only need your confirmation, sir." The Spartan nearest to me in the camo green said.

"I know everyone's been drilled in discipline, so at ease Spartan." I said with a wave of my hands, and Jean and I came to a stop before the group. "Load up and strap in, what's your name spartan?"

"Anderson, sir, and my second in command's name is Sanchez."

"Alright, Anderson, Sanchez, let us see what we are working with." I said as I accepted their salutes before we all loaded into the back of the shuttle. I sent a nod in the direction of the crew chief as he went about double-checking the cargo, ensuring that it was locked down properly.

The spartans strapped in as we walked past their seated area to the cockpit. Before I sat down, Sanchez stopped me as he reached for my UMF belt. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he didn't even reply but grunted as he pulled out my helmet from the storage space. Anderson was helping Jean with hers. I had noticed that everyone kept their helmets on, but I didn't know why.

"Just a precaution, sir" Anderson answered because of the look I was giving Sanchez. "We know from all of the tests that the shuttle will work, but cosmic radiation is still a valid concern. We have shields in the way, then the hull of the shuttle and then our suits."

Taking a moment to think, I had a flash of the fantastic four in the comics. Urgh, that was also a possibility, but I was certain that Reed's overeager ass was nowhere close to my important projects. Pulling on my helmet, I an augmented reality layer that showed more information about the shuttle.

"This is flight control." The comms system announced.

"Flight Control, this is Blake, go ahead." I replied as I started with the preflight checks. Jean was checking the radar and the weapons systems.

"Sir, you have been cleared of the airspace and have clearance for liftoff." Command said as they sent the overlay of the islands changed flight paths. The anti-grav boosters check out, and so did everything else. Coolant system, communications, environmental systems, there were no issues as far as I could tell.

"Flight Control, this is Blake, please clear the flight deck. Repeat, Please clear the flight deck."

An alarm went up, and so did a shield for the platform. That was an interesting addition, but I wasn't going to say anything against it.

"Shields are active." Jean said as her hands flew across the control panel.

"I'm starting with a hover before we shoot out of here." I replied while flipping switches. "Retracting landing gear."

"Landing gear retracted. Shroud is up." Jean said as she did her part as my co-pilot.

"Alright, let's kick it up a notch."

With that, I turned the shuttle towards the open ocean. With a little nudge from me, we shot out of the spaceport at mach five.

"Woah! Baby got some kick." I laughed out at the speeds we were going with only a nudge from myself. That was nowhere near the speed of escape velocity that was needed. We had to go at a speed of 26k miles per hour, and we barely went over 3k.

Luckily for the shuttle, we were still only pushing around one percent in output. Pulling back on the flight stick, I angled us for the stars as upped out output to ten percent. The automatic dampers kicked in as I heard a whomp from the shuttle. Jean was calling out something from her co-pilot's seat, but I was having far too much fun as I rode this tiger.

Damn, there was one thing running at these speeds, and then there was controlling a ship or vehicle that can go almost as fast as I can. We went up and up at an angle before punching out of the atmosphere and pushed right into vacuum. The controls went from stiff and controlled to slick with grease. I eased back the power as we rocketed towards the moon. Bringing us around, I had us into a hover as we ran system checks roughly 200k kilometers from the moon.

"Shuttlecraft zero one this is command, do you read?"

"Flight Control this is shuttlecraft zero one; we read."

"Be advised; command is running scans and diagnostics."

Jean snorted at my side, and I heard her mention something about her running her own checks.

"Environmental seals are holding, sir." Anderson spoke up from the seat behind my own.

"Same with the atmospheric recyclers." Sanchez rumbled in his deep voice.

Everyone was a hive of activity, and I said nothing and just let the people do their work. We sat in space for half an hour before I had enough of the waiting.

"Flight Control, this is Blake." I said, fingering the push button for the communications system. "I'm going to open up the hyper-kinetic power source and push into the belt. I want these squids set up before the end of the day."

"Ahh, my king, we have protocols to go through."

I could hear the hesitance in Alex's voice as he spoke over the communications systems.

"Bahh, if this blows up. Jean and I can just bring the spartans back by hand." I replied, waving off his worry. There was no reply, so I started to change over the power source and flipped switches to change the cooling system on the anti-grav drives. Music kicks in over the speakers once the track was selected. The guitar thrummed as the music hits, 'High way to the danger zone!'

"Alright, Jean, here we goooooooooo!"

While we were waiting on the scans to finish from command, I had already selected one of the initial asteroids. This was selected one of our satellites had scanned a while back. The initial kick meant that we needed to tighten up the reaction time of the inertial dampers because wow, these damn anti-grav drives had some kick.

The little holo-radar in the center that shows the earth and moon on a holographic display changed as we rocketed out of their gravity wells. We were now going twenty times the escape velocity necessary and had already vastly outstripped the furthest anyone had been out of Earth with their own creations. Our speeds kept on increasing as we neared Mars within the first ten minutes of flight.

My heart beats to the sound of the track as I sunk into my seat from the forces.

Jean laid in a course for me to use Mars as a slingshot to get us out to the asteroid belt. Ignoring the command prompts back from Earth, I followed the flight path as I still rode this tiger. With no harsh gravity well besides the Sun, Saturn and Jupiter the controls were slick with ease while we were out in space. It was fun using my reaction time to adjust on the fly at rates that no human could possibly copy. I knew that the computers were recording everything and that was damn good because no one else would be able to copy my moves.

A tremor started in the controls as we approached Mars on the port side of the shuttle. The lights flashed, notifying me that our speed was too high. I shifted us towards the starboard side of the planet's rotation to keep the vibrations down. Activating the boosters on the port side gave us a kick away from the planet. With our angle of approach dialed in, we shot around the planet at speeds that made me damn proud.

The shroud was stressed a little, from what the readouts told me, but I didn't care. I was flying this bitch flat out, giving everything she had. Rolling us over, I had the belly faced out into space as the cockpit looked down on the red planet beneath us. Jean let out a gasp from my co-pilot's seat as we cruised around the planet below.

The shuttle shot out of Mars gravitational well going twice as fast as we entered it. The whoops of joy drew my attention to the crew feed as they had their hands up in the air.

Hell, we flew hard and fast for the last when we finally arrived at our destination. Asteroid P9564 was fast approaching on the holo-radar.

Instantly, I knew we had a problem. There was no way to come to a solid stop in space without some tricky maneuvering. The asteroid was a hundred miles wide, and we were going to overshoot the damn thing if I didn't think fast. There was a spark of an idea in my mind, and that was when I knew I might be a little crazy.

Cutting the engines removed all added acceleration even though our momentum was still carrying us forward. Shifting all of that power, I had it routed through the front thrusters at the front of the shuttle. What this did was cause us to pull off a backflip before I kicked in the anti-grav engines once more. The entire suttle lurched as we came to an arrested stop.

Quickly, I powered down the drives as I started up our system diagnostics. That was a hard ride, and I wanted all of the data on the stress points the shuttle went through. I knew that the body would be fine because of the adamantium casing, but other parts could have suffered.

Releasing my seat straps, I checked for any radiation types before pulling my helm off. Before anyone could say anything, I was already out of my seat while pulling Jean up with me. I moved like a hurricane as my lips met hers and our tongues dueled for dominance. There was a flare of red as Jean increased her power to dominate the kiss.

Chuckling internally, I allowed Jean to dip me over, letting her win our little kissing battle. There were whistles and catcalls from the spartans before Jean let me back up.

"Alright, alright, settle down." I said with good humor as I waved down the spartans that came into the cockpit to look out the main viewing port. The view was damn beautiful out here in the vastness of space. On one side was the vastness of beyond with twinkling stars, and on the other side were asteroids the size of miniature planetoids, states, mountains, and much much more. This was a rich field that I was going to exploit, like the damn American that I am. "Anderson, you're with me. Sanchez, you're with Jean, get all of the data collected and the shuttle ready to head back."

Accepting my yes sirs, I made my way past the spartans as they filed in behind me. Yes, I enjoyed the ride, but we had come out here to do a job. We trooped down to the cargo bay on a mission, and I was already throwing around orders.

"Master Chief, take two spartans and unstrap that satellite uplink first. Anderson, take five spartans to unhook those squids, I want that docking bay with the nano-forge this shuttle once the satellite uplinks set." I was shouting orders as I made my way to the airlock with three spartans following.

Pulling on my helmet, I had the three following me to check my environmental shields before heading into the airlock. Checking my wrist computer, I watched the scans from the asteroid pop up. There was no gravity outside, but I would be okay since I had my own form of 3 dimensional movement.

"Ready?" I asked, turning to the three that decided to follow in my footsteps. The nods I got back in response put a smile on my lips as I led the way into the airlock. There was a hiss as the door closed, and the air was pulled back into the life support systems. The touch function on the gel pad on the other door flashed a green. There was a swoosh, and we were out into the void.

My equilibrium changed as I flew out over the asteroid. The spartans bound out about fifty meters from the back of the shuttle before they took out some spike markers from their belt of holding. My suits systems were doing their own scans of the area while I floated out in the void. The last thing I wanted was to run into a xenomorph's eggs while my people mined out here. Hell, I had strict protocols in place for discoveries like those. Fire, death, and large fucking nukes were in the future of the idiots that stumbled across something like that.

The scans from the spikes came back, letting us know what was directly underneath us. Gold, some new type of metal never recorded, and so much more was flowing through in data streams. Hell, there was even a gas pocket next to a twenty meter compressed diamond. Yeah, mining the asteroid belt was a damn good idea. All we had to do now was find more vibranium, and then this expedition would pay for itself a hundred times over.

Changing over my comms unit, I was hit with the excited chatter from the command center as the scientist there was going over the data scans we were sending back. With a snort at them, I changed my comms back over to the shuttle and her team.

"Jean, take the shuttle into a hover, then bring her to heading 1.6.7," I spoke into my comms. "Master Chief, is that satellite ready for launch?"

"Yes, my king," Master Chief replied back as I used my gravity manipulation to pick up my spartans.

"Anderson, open the back and let the satellite out first." I commanded into my comms while floating in the void. We waited and watched as Anderson and his team pushed out a large metal frame the size of a double door fridge. Anderson and Rubio in the blue camo spartan colors pushed off from the back ramp of the shuttle, allowing me to catch them with my gravity manipulation.

The glowing purple hand reader on the front brought my attention to where I had to place my hand for authorization. After entering my codes, I moved the satellite back from our location to allow it to grow and unshrink. We all watched as the satellite went from two meters in height to over one hundred. This was one of the most powerful communications arrays that we have created to date, yet it was still smaller than the asteroid that we floated next to.

"Command here; we are getting a clear reading of the galactic communications systems." Alex said over the comms.

"We are still unable to read it." Faora growled out.

"Snort, speak for yourselves. I can read it just fine." Marcus spoke up, adding in his bit. I knew that gave everyone pause from the way things went silent. "What, you should have been reading my reports. We solved the universal planetary translation runic array. Here it's this little tattoo behind my ear." Marcus said as I heard him show something off. My visor flashed to show me what he was talking about, and I held in the urge to snap at him. "We have even took a look at those other transmissions you had, and I guess the array is now universal; it would seem. Hell, it's only right because the array is hooked into a person's neural net bypassing everything else, so you get a true understanding of words and body language."

SIGH.

"Get the translation software running, and Marcus, put some of our mages on that task." I said, giving my command. There was a reason why I had my own magic users at my disposal, and this was one of them. Hell, once I meet Thor, I would have to ask him about letting my people learn 'all speak'. It would be interesting to see if Marcus's little translation array matched up.

Ignoring them, I flew myself and the spartan to stand on the side of the satellite. Looking down on the asteroid, I noticed the three-point glow of the data jacks we had placed down. Anderson was floating outside of the shuttle on a tether as he held onto the handles of the nano-forge. The nano-forge was shaped like a javelin with four ribs along its center.

Anderson let it float out, but I caught it before it could go too far. With a push, I had the nano-forge lined up between the data spikes. My HUD gave me precise targeting as I pulled back before jamming it into the asteroid. The nano-drills activated, allowing the spike to drill further into the asteroid. The four ribs were going to disconnect when a chamber was created to form a portal back home. This was going to solve a lot of issues with logistics and so much more.

Hell, I wanted my force of squids to expand to a hundred more if not a thousand. Those matrix squids were going to map and chart out the asteroid belt for me and my forces. So thoughts and plans flitted through my mind about my new playground.

Before I could do anything else, I received a red alert on my personal line. What I saw struck me with dread. On my wrist showed a larger burly man with ham chops, but it was the lady he walked with into my safe house that formed ice into the pit of my stomach.

BEEP…

BEEP...

BEEP...

The fucking Black King Sabastian Shaw was walking onto my property, but it was who he brought that filled me with dread. She stood five feet ten inches, long flowing black hair with light blue eyes. Facial recognition scans had already brought up her profile, and my own meta knowledge filled in the rest. The Black Queen of England, The Black Priestess Selene Gallio, walked into my fucking safe house. She was a SSS tier Omega class threat, and now she was stretching into my backyard, I was fucking pissed.

They didn't even decide to visit alone either. No, from the reports, they came with fifty followers that were now waiting outside of my safe house in Morocco. Hell, they didn't even want to fight on their own home turfs.

"Jean, you're in charge. Faora, have them stall at the safehouse in Morocco and get my battle armor ready." I didn't wait for a reply, because I didn't need one, I was already moving. Stars whizzed by as I moved with a purpose.

SPEED, I AM SPEED. NOTHING WAS FASTER THAN ME, NOT EVEN LIGHT!

The stars shifted and changed, but my augmented HUD kept my focus on where Earth was compared to my position. I stepped on space itself as I ran home. The void couldn't hold me; the distance could not sway me from my path.

THERE WAS NO VOID.

THERE WAS ONLY ME.

I pushed and pushed; I was focused on the task laid out before me. Within moments, I watched as that glorious blue marble of water enlarged within my vision. I ran past the upper atmosphere as I made my way to Pandora. I was so focused; I didn't even realize I ran right through Pandora's shields. Within seconds I was over the military base while people were frozen mid-action.

Ignoring them, I went on my way to my personal armory. If they came loaded for a fight, then WAR they shall receive. Checking the clock, I was surprised to see that it only took me five minutes from the asteroid belt to get back home on my own power. Bypassing everything, I made my way towards the armory that I kept for myself. Faora was already there with Marcus and Alex in tow.

I pulled a full stop as I dumped all of my momentum into the speed force. Ignoring the three, I walked up to my armor on display. My ax was in the display case right beside my armor. The first thing I noticed was the new array of runic clusters written all over the ax. Even in front of my armor, I could feel the thrum of power emitting from the weapon.

Tapping on my UMF belt, I threw it to the side as I walked up to my redesigned armor. Most of the armor was red with flashes of golden lightning bolts broken up with some blacks. There was a red bat located on the chest with the same lightning bolt.

The material felt like a mixture of high-quality fabric and leather mixed. I was just happy it wasn't latex. The armor plating was a mixture of vibranium and ceramic crystal lattice-work. The armored shirt first followed the combat pants. I noticed the grey of vibranium here and there but paid it no mind as I pulled on my boots quickly. I gave those a once over and noticed that they were built for a speedster.

Putting that out of mind, I pulled on my gauntlets that also had fingerless gloves instead of solid metal. I appreciated the look of the single blades that came out with a mental command on the left gauntlet. On my right hand was a triple minigun system set in a triangle formation. Two of the rotating barrels were located on each side of my right gauntlet, with a rotating barrel underneath. My right hand looked like an unholy abomination to kill it with lead.

Flexing my mental command put those away as I looked over the rest of my armor. There were runic arrays all over my chest, arms, legs, and back. I noticed fortification, spiritual boost, negate illusions, hell there was even the runes for the sling rings teleportation anchors located on my utility belt.

There the helmet was deconstructed into the suit. I noticed there were two small triangle devices with nano-adhesive on the bottom that went on the sides of my face. Putting those on the side of my eyes close to my ears activated the smart glasses function.

With my armor on, I reached for my ax, placing it on my back and not in my storage. Next, I reached for the super shotty gun that was on display beside my ax. This was something I have been working on for some time. It was made with adamantium, of course, for the frame, but I had taken it a step too far. During the casting process, I had the holoprojections imprint millions of power runs along the shotty.

Marcus had made the arrays for me, and the advanced 3d printers did the rest. The super shotty could shot hot plasma alone at velocities capable of punching holes in 20mm thick armor. It was also able to launch concussive forces of air, but a shotgun would always be a shotgun.

The super shotty was a triple-barreled monster, and there was no way around it. Not with something that had unlimited ammo at its disposal.

Once I was fully kitted out, the look on my face was completely feral. Turning around, I was ready to cross the planet to face my new foes. Unfortunately, Marcus stopped me before I could take off running.

"Our General went to get changed. The message she left asked us to meet out on the tarmac." Marcus said to me as he watched me heft my ax onto my back.

I grunted and said one word.

"Portal."

Marcus snapped to attention and had a portal opened to the outside, where I found a small army standing waiting for us. Before I could say anything, Faora dropped out of the sky in a classic superhero landing.

Yeah, that's right; she was my Super Woman.

"We are ready, my king." Faora said boldly as she stood up to her full height. This allowed me to see the battle armor that she wore and damn did she look amazing. The suit was full body advanced polymer UMF spandex, with metal boots, grieves, and over armor that protected her chest. This design was another taken straight from my black servers, and damn did it look good on her. There was only one thing to say about it.

"No cape."

There was a nod as the cape disappeared into the back of her armor.

"Let me introduce you to your Praetorian guard. Three hundred of the best Spartans we had to offer." Faora boldly stated as she waved her hand towards the soldiers that stood before us. "Personally trained by Natasha and myself. Capable of flight, speed, strength, and intelligence to think outside the box."

"Good." I replied as I checked the blades on the side of my gauntlets. I was interrupted by the activated holo-screen that was notified of tensions rising. "Marcus, portal."

Without replying to my command, Marcus had already turned around. He activated a portal the size of a double garage door. My head was held high, and my shoulders were squared.

IT WAS TIME.

"TO WAR."

Authors Notes:

It's a FanFiction so I plan to explode this path with maximum badassitude.

I hope everyone is as excited as I am.

Because this is the year that the Stark Expo goes down and also Hulk comes out of hiding. Nothing can ever go wrong.

Please leave a review with your thoughts, I enjoy those because they help me understand how people view the story as a whole. Also please think about leaving a nice rating.

You can reach me here at my discord or join my patron because there will always be early chapters.

Removes the - for the internet links

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