January 1st
It took me an hour longer to return to New York, than the mere three hours it had taken me to fly to Miami. The reason for this was currently shivering in my arms as I slowly descended towards the top of the hotel I was staying at.
While I could handle flying in the cold January night sky at speeds that easily rivalled most conventional aircraft, Maya Hansen decidedly could not.
My immense body temperature kept her from freezing at least, though it didn't help much against the wind or rain. I had to slow down until we were flying at a speed where the little droplets of water didn't feel like knives slamming into her frail body.
Despite the fact that I had only been superhuman for little over a year now, I still occasionally forgot just how fragile humans are.
Touching down on the roof, I set Hansen on her feet, only to snatch her up again the moment she started to topple over. Looking down, I could see that she was utterly exhausted, and despite the fact that she had been clinging to me for the past four hours, she was shivering like mad.
Picking her up in a bridal carry with a sigh, I entered the building, swiftly making my way down to my room, where I placed her on the bed, and put her under the warm covers. Hansen was out like a light the moment her head hit the pillow.
I on the other hand didn't really need to sleep tonight, and even if I did, I doubt it would come to me.
Instead, I just stood by the window, listening as the rain made a soft pattering sound against the glass, the still partying New Yorkers far down below nothing more than a dim background noise, barely audible even to my senses.
I knew that I should be plotting and planning right now, after the defeat of one of my enemies. That now was the time for Titan Solutions to rise from the ashes and take its new and improved place on the world stage.
But I figured that I could at least keep these few hours to myself, at least until Sterns and co arrived. Just a little me-time, before I dove back into the crazy world of the MCU again. Just me, the soft lights from the city around me, the rain tapping against the glass, and the fiery yellow glow coming from my fist.
Even as I stood there, I kept summoning and dismissing the legendary power of the Protector of K'un-Lun, trying to get a feel for it as it moved through my body. There was no urgency in my actions, this wasn't some feverish search for secrets to gaining more power.
This was just me, relaxing as I gazed in wonder at this display of a new ability of mine.
Again I summoned the Immortal Iron Fist, even if I knew that what I was currently wielding wasn't the same thing. Oh, it was powerful, to be sure, and considering the natural strength of my body, I think I could at the very least match Danny punch for punch, despite his better skill at chi manipulation.
But it was visibly different from Danny's version of this power. His was a soft glow, coming from within and clearly controlled, showing his veins in stark contrast. Mine wasn't anything like that.
It glowed yellow alright, but more like the deeper shade you saw in flames, or the sun, rather than the outspoken lemon-yellow of Danny's Iron Fist. It also glowed uniform, not showing my veins, probably because they naturally lit up already due to Extremis. And it wasn't quite as… controlled, as Danny's version was, appearing more like the God Fist skin for Lee Sin, a character from the video game League of Legends, which existed both here and in my old universe (though they had differing playable characters and maps).
Little wisps of pure power shimmered and danced across the surface of my skin, the air around my hand wavering with the heat that was coming from it. I wasn't even trying to warm it up, it just seemed that a side effect of channelling chi like I was doing meant that it also kicked the natural processes in my body into a higher gear.
It probably was one of the reasons why chi was capable of healing, though I held off for now on making any more speculations.
Once I had built a new base, me and my think tank could study chi to our hearts content.
For now, I was just amusing myself.
Again, I let go of that feeling of power, and the glow faded from my hand. Calling on my chi felt very distinct from drawing from the power that I gained from Jessica, and yet it felt rather familiar as well.
Jessica's power was like a field, that I drew from some well, deep inside me, that went over my entire body like a second skin. Interestingly enough, it didn't interact with my body all that much: it didn't enhance my muscles, it simply took over their task of applying force. Until I put Jessica under a CAT-scan (due to my immensely dense skin, I wasn't sure such a scan would even work for me, and I sure as hell didn't fit in one of those machines), I wasn't sure whether Jessica produced her energy, or channelled it from another source right now, but to me it felt like I was doing the former.
But channelling chi… that was a whole other ballpark. If heating my body up using Extremis felt somewhat like clenching a muscle, channelling chi felt as if I was both working out my individual cells down onto the microscopic level, as well as flexing my soul somehow. Chi had been described as a spiritual force channelled through the body, and it certainly felt like it, raw power crashing through my very veins, fed through my spirit or something.
It reminded somewhat me of how chakra was explained in Naruto. Then again, chi, chakra, ki, weren't they all at least somewhat the same on some fundamental energy? In all cases, wasn't this the life energy of a being, being fuelled for various purposes through rituals, meditation or training?
Something to explore later, I suppose, but for now, there's a more important question.
Could I layer my powers?
During my fight with the Alexandra Dragon (wait… Alexandragon! Yeah, totally using that from now on) I had used the energy field inside me in order to fuel one of my punches, to great effect. I suspected that Jessica did this naturally with her own field, cloaking herself in her power whenever she used her superstrength, and that it was only due to the Heart-shaped Herb that I could even feel what I had been doing.
So what if I enveloped my fist with my powerfield, and then charged the fist itself with chi?
And what if I then heated my fist up with Extremis?
The combination of Extremis heat and Jessica's field had been enough to evaporate Alexandragons chest, and punch an enormous crater in Killian's house. What would I be capable of if I added my bootleg version of the Iron Fist into the mix?
A shiver of anticipation ran up my raised spine, but I controlled myself.
As excited as I was to take my new power for a test ride, I knew that it would be impossible for me to test it in the city. That immediately gave me the first criteria for my next base: close to New York, without actually being inside it so that I'm still free to undertake large-scale damage tests.
Of course, if I was planning on doing some real damage, I could always just decide to take off and be practically everywhere in the States within a couple of hours.
And so I just stood there in front of the window, calling upon my chi, only to let it fade again, constantly examining the feeling inside me as I did. I tried to channel my Iron Fist into my other hand, but it proved extremely difficult to manipulate my chi in the same way I manipulate my field.
This wasn't a power that surrounded my body, this was a power that came from within my body, from each and every cell. Trying to draw chi away from those cells just made them power down, it didn't light up those adjacent to it.
Still, I knew that it could be done, considering the fact that Bakuto had shown Danny a video of an Iron Fist wielding his power in both arms in the show. If he wasn't such a murderous immortal asshole, I might have kept him alive in order to teach me chi manipulation, but that would've been too risky. Given that chi could be 'perverted' somehow, like the Hand had apparently done, Bakuto might have been able to trick me into crippling or even killing myself due to applying my chi the wrong way or something.
No, the world was better off with that bastard being a smear on the ground.
I also didn't know how to get my hands on Stick or any of the Chaste, so it was probably better to just wait and see if they approached me, either to have a drink with me or to try and take me out. Either one would be ineffective either way, but the latter option would be more troublesome. It was a moot point anyways, since I had no way to contact them. Meaning they too were out as a teacher.
But I knew of at least one other person here in New York who had dabbled in the mystic arts, though in a different branch than chi. Still, his teachings might show me how to gain better control over my own powers, and I could always learn more from his skills in magic.
Seems I would be tracking down Jonathan Pangborn.
Well not really, I would probably just end up sending Jessica after him, there was a lot that needed doing and only five months to do it in, meaning that I was going to be swamped for the foreseeable future, but still, the point stands.
Magic will be mine soon.
It was several hours after I had formulated that first tentative step of my coming plans, when Sterns and co. finally arrived at the hotel, the light of dawn just starting to peek over the horizon.
The little group quickly filed into my hotel room, Radcliffe looking at me with excitement in his eyes, and judging by the way his eyes kept flitting over every single item in the room in a flash, he had already been Brain Boosted.
Harper, of course, didn't say a word, merely giving me a nod and a grunt and making a beeline towards the minibar. I wasn't sure why, it's not like there was anything in there that could make him drunk, but I decided not to pry.
Sterns was standing next to his fellow scientist with an equally large grin on his face, but I could tell that he was somewhat worried about me. He was clearly wondering just where my head was at now that I had completed my counterattack, though I doubted he knew all the details.
The last to enter was Jessica, and she appeared to be… conflicted. She only met my eyes briefly, before she quickly looked away, walking over towards the couch and flopping down on it without saying a single word to me.
Before I could even think on the dour woman's behavior, Radcliffe was suddenly standing right in front of me, hand outstretched as he grinned up at me.
"Holden Radcliffe, a pleasure to meet you. But you knew that of course! I have to say, this Brain Booster of yours? Amazing! These ideas that keep shooting through my head, everything that I struggled with seems so simple now! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Shaking the transhumanist's hand, I let out a sly little smile as I looked at the man who in another universe would end up pushing the boundaries of modern science forwards by decades at least, before he was augmented by a technological treasure trove from the Hell Dimension.
And now he was here, working for me, and Brain Boosted to that same level of genius. I was looking forward to seeing what he could be able to cook up for me, as long as it didn't end up trying to kill everyone and of course. In terms of loyalty however, Holden Radcliffe would prove to be one of the easiest persons in my employ to keep in check.
"Greetings doctor. You are very welcome. I am sure that Titan Solutions, and indeed humanity itself, will benefit greatly from your work. Though I think that one person in particular would enjoy the fruits of your labour. I'm heading towards Spain in the near future, as there is an item there that I wish to collect. You are free to join me of course, I think that someone there would very much like to see you again." I say warmly as I shake the man's hand, and when I reference his ex-girlfriend who currently has an incurable tumour in her brain, his jaw falls open in shock.
"Imagine the possibilities working for me could grant you, Dr. Radcliffe. This time, with my help, you might even succeed." I whisper, as I lean in close to the man.
Radcliffe looked up at me with wide eyes, filled with hope and excitement, and giving him a smile, I reach into the pocket of my pants (a fresh pair, since the one from last night were severely singed and filled with tears and bullet holes) fishing out a key card, which I presented to the awestruck scientist.
"Think on the future a bit more, Dr. Radcliffe. You have just had an exhausting trip, try and get some rest in your room. It is just down the hall from mine, so if you need something, anything at all, feel free to come by any time you wish."
Numbly taking the card and grabbing his suitcase, Radcliffe left my room, his mind filled with new and improved plans to save his dying girlfriend. By pledging my help to save the woman he loved, I had been assured the loyalty of one of the most brilliant men on Earth.
Turning towards the most brilliant man on Earth, I allowed a small, but genuine, smile to form on my face.
"Same goes for you Sterns. Go get some rest. We'll talk about rebuilding Titan Solutions in the morning, I want Hogarth and her team present for it anyways, and Jeri has told me in no uncertain terms that today is her day off, considering the events around New Year's."
"Yeah, about those events… what exactly happened? You said that you were going to counter-attack against the Hand, so… how did that go?" Sterns asked in a hesitant tone, and I could hear Jessica sit up a little straighter on her couch.
Harper had simply taken a seat in the armchair and was quietly nursing a bottle of Jack as he stared out the window, outwardly not even reacting to us, but I knew that the aged veteran was closely following each and every word.
"It went… well. Three of the five leaders of the Hand have been killed. Permanently. One of the remaining ones is a warlord in Africa, so I imagine he'll have his hands busy with Erik and Wakanda's expansion. The other one is holed up somewhere in Japan. Don't know much about him, other than the fact he didn't much care for the other leaders, so there's a real possibility of him just ending up doing his own thing. At the moment, neither one of them is a problem, so we should focus on rebuilding first, before we start on threat-assessment." I explained calmly, but Sterns didn't seem entirely convinced.
"Right. Right, of course. But, eh, the killing thing… what I told you over the phone…"
"I'm okay, Sterns. Like you said, I'm no saint, and I don't regret my actions. But I'm not a monster. I did some pretty bad stuff in order to get to the leaders of the Hand, and I recognize that. I didn't enjoy it, but if I had to do it again, I would. Although, punching a dragon in the heart turned out to pretty rewarding." I say with a half-smile, amusement dancing in my burning eyes as I see Sterns' jaw fall open in shock.
"You did what?!"
"Right, quick recap: you know how I told you that the Hand was capable of bringing back people from the dead by using material extracted from the bones of dragons? Their leader, Alexandra Reid, was dying, and the Elixir needed to bring her back to life had been practically used up. So, she went to AIM, which was backed by Hydra, but who employed the Mandarin, leader of the terrorist organisation The Ten Rings as a front. The Rings were the ones that kidnapped Stark. Turns out, the Mandarin was actually loyal to the Hand, betrayed Hydra, and turned over AIM to Alexandra."
"Just skip the exposition already and tell us where the fucking dragon comes in." Jessica spoke up from her position on the couch, making my grin grow even wider.
"I just told you about her. As it turns out, the Extremis regenerative properties didn't affect just Alexandra… it started working on the dragon substance within her as well. She started to mutate into a dragon, and was ripping apart both Hydra and her own underlings, it was brutal. I had extracted her location from the other two leaders of the Hand I managed to kill, so I tracked her down, flew in, ripped open her chest, and punched her in the heart."
For a moment, the room is completely silent, before I see Sterns turn slightly green, muttering a weak 'oh god' as he stumbled towards the nearest seat, flopping down on it with a drawn expression. Turning around to face Jessica, I see her sitting up fully on the couch, looking at me with incredulous eyes. Behind her, still sitting in his armchair, Harper had paused in his drinking to raise an eyebrow in my direction.
Then he gave a shrug, turned back to the windows and continued to raise the bottle to his lips.
Damn. If not even killing a dragon faced that man, then what the hell did?
"Why did you punch the dragon-lady in the heart?! Why not, I dunno, shoot her, or drop a building on her?!" Jessica asks, clearly struggling with the concept of me going around and killing dragons, with my bare hands no less.
For a moment, I ponder her words, before I just end up giving a shrug and a smile.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time?"
Jessica opens her mouth to rebuke me, before she's interrupted by Sterns.
"Hang on. You said you flew there? Why do I get the feeling that you don't mean using the repulsors in your armor?" the scientist asks as he leans forwards in his chair, fixing me with a suspicious look.
Giving a massive grin in response, I slowly start drifting upwards, until my feet are about a foot off the ground, my bald head brushing the ceiling.
And I'm still only clad in my pants.
Turning towards Jessica, I open my arms wide, slowly spinning in place before I turn to face her again. Something in my grin clearly sets her off, because her look of amazement is replaced by one of wariness, and she slowly gets up from the couch, backing away from me.
"The fuck are you so happy about?"
"Today is going to be a fun day for me, Miss Jones. Because today, I'm gonna throw you off a building."
…
"WHAT!"
After explaining to Jessica and a concerned Sterns (Harper didn't seem at all bothered by my cryptic statement) that my flight had been a result of applying Jessica's powers to myself, meaning that there was a high chance that the surly woman was capable of flight as well, things quickly started to pick up speed.
I showed my bootleg Iron Fist (I really should come up with a different name for it. Tungsten Fist?) to Sterns, Radcliffe and a recently woken up Hansen. The woman had recovered admirably from the events around New Year, and the promise of safety, along with the knowledge that I could provide that safety (seems killing the dragon that wanted to eat her made an impression) meaning that she would be loyal to me.
Though she did almost punch Sterns in the face when he casually mentioned perfecting the Extremis formula in a matter of days, when she had been slaving over it for the past year.
After quickly making sure everyone was up to speed on recent events, I made sure to call everyone in my employ, telling them that there would be a company meeting tomorrow, where we would collectively decide on the future of Titan Solutions.
Of course, being the kind of dick that I am, I didn't decide to give my employees a voice solely out of altruistic reasons. It was simply because collectively, the twenty Extremis/Amber Armor enhanced workers of Titan Solutions were amongst the most powerful fighting force in the world.
Hydra had been able to topple nations with less than what I had at my disposal.
With the hit that Titan Solutions had just taken, I needed to keep them loyal to me. There was a very real chance that, as grateful as they might personally be to me for bettering their lives, they would still turn their backs on me if they thought the danger outweighed the benefits, especially now that one of our enemies had proven they weren't above hitting us where we lived.
I was hoping that by including them more in the planning side of things, they would feel more valued, and thus keep working for me.
The day of the meeting, I quickly lined out what we would be discussing, mainly that we would focus building a new base first before we even considered focussing on anything else. All later Steps would require me to have an HQ where I could safely stash items and perform research, and Titan Solutions needed a workshop for its scientist to create tech that we would sell to the world.
After listing a series of criteria (vicinity of New York, defensible, private, etc.) I opened the floor to everyone who had any ideas on what would be a good site for building the new base. I of course had quite a few idea's myself, based on my meta-knowledge, but I held off from adding my own two cents, for two reasons.
One, like I said, I needed my employees to feel more connected to me and the company. Just following my own suggestions would undermine that. It was better to just let them stew on it, until they came up with something great, or something unusable, or even nothing at all, in which case I'd jump in to save the day, so to speak.
And secondly, I wasn't quite sure just how much I should lean on my meta-knowledge. I wasn't going to just outright discard it, but finding out that I had been wrong about the Mandarin had really rattled me, though I didn't show it.
What especially worried me wasn't the fact that my meta-knowledge was incomplete (I knew that it was, considering I hadn't watched all the shows) or even wrong (it had been a long time since I had watched any MCU movies or series, even when taking my new recall in mind), but the possibility that the Plot would correct itself.
Despite the changes I had made to the timeline, it seemed that there was still a possibility of Iron Man 3 playing out, considering I had no confirmation that the Mandarin had died during Alexandragons rampage.
If the universe edited itself to preserve the canon-timeline, then it meant that I couldn't really change anything at all. Everything I did would just screw with my meta-knowledge, while certain events would still play out nonetheless. What did that mean for those I had killed, like the Fingers? Or what about Ross? Who's going to spearhead the Accords now?
In the end, I decided that I wouldn't worry about changing the timeline or preserving canon in order to keep most of my meta-knowledge, considering the waves I had already been making. It would be best to just stick to the Plan, while at the same time, leaning less heavily on my meta-knowledge, instead basing my decision making more on the knowledge that I had gained and had access to in-universe.
As I sat pondering this, I barely even noticed when the room began to quiet, the sea of voices that all had been discussing why their suggestion was best starting to fade. Looking up, I saw Sterns, who had been keeping track of the discussion, finish writing something on the enormous whiteboard we had set up for the meeting, underlining his words with a flourish.
As he stepped back, I could finally read what he had written.
North Brother Island.
Immediately, the relevant information surfaced to my brain, courtesy of living in New York for more than twenty years. The Island was located in the East River between the Bronx and Rikers Island. North Brother Island was once the site of a hospital, but it was now uninhabited and designated as a bird sanctuary after the city bought it in 2007.
The City itself however didn't quite know what to do with it either, and there had been rumors floating around that the City Council was considering selling it.
It would be perfect.
As an added bonus, having named myself after Hyperion, the Titan who stood at the East end of the world when he and his three brothers held the Sky down so that Chronos could overthrow his father Ouranos, it was only fitting that I would have a base in the East River, wouldn't it?
Looking at the room filled with my grinning employees, my eyes fell on the burly man who had suggested it (just because I had been deep in thought didn't mean that I had been unaware of my surroundings) and I slowly gave him a smile.
"You, sir, have just earned yourself a promotion."
March 6th
It had taken little over two months to get the paperwork finalized, have ownership of the Island transferred to me, tear down the old decrepit buildings and finish building my new HQ.
Covering about half of the Island and appearing almost like a tiered dull grey Ziggurat, I had unleashed my thinktank on its construction, ordering them to go absolutely crazy, fortifying it to hell and back. Burstein of course had come up with a concrete-like compounded that easily rivalled the durability of my own skin, meaning that a wall of just a couple of inches thick would be capable of weathering heavy artillery fire for a full day before being damaged.
I ordered the outer walls of the base to be five feet thick instead.
Radcliffe had taken on the electronics part of things, placing an interconnected system of sensors that covered every square inch of the island, the surrounding waters, and even the air.
He had also worked on the security of the fortress itself, installing a mainframe that ran on its own coding language, which could only interact with people that were keyed into it through a bio-matrix interface that Hansen had created after she had been Brain Boosted, meaning that it was basically unhackable if you weren't an employee of Titan Solutions.
The mainframe handled everything automated inside the building, from temperature, to lights, to security, and taking a page out of the movie Irobot, could be interacted with from everywhere inside the building, since a LED strip ran through each and every single room (exceptions were made for the bathrooms of course).
Interacting with the base was done by calling up a haptic interface, which was projected from the strips lining the walls, meaning that you could walk towards a wall, tap it, and a digitized sheet would appear on the wall, showing you the functions of that room. You could then literally pluck it off the wall and take it over towards a couch or something and turn it into a tv or a book, or basically everything you could think of.
Only I had master access, meaning that I could control every room simultaneously, and only me, and Harper had the clearance to mess with the security settings.
And Sterns?
Sterns did everything else. After I had ordered the construction teams (helpfully provided by Toomes after I had personally given him the multi-millions dollar contract) to start digging, so that only a third of the massive structure actually showed to any curious onlookers, he went one step further, and made an underground hangar that was located at the other end of the Island, that was connected to HQ by a tunnel, and to the East River by another tunnel, accessible through the small artificial lagoon he had created, leaving a way out for any future submersibles (though Oliver had seemed suspiciously wet after Sterns went off to test the entrance).
Even the roof could open, allowing our vehicles to fly straight out of the ground, like some kind of Thunderbirds spinoff.
Between the combined intelligence of the Think Tank, and my own innovative idea's (basically ripping off every cool sci-fi feature I ever saw in movies and games during the combined forty years that I had been alive) the massive Ziggurat was easily the most advanced and secure facility in the world.
Hidden weapons in the walls, state of the art entertainment systems, highly advanced laboratories, and sparring rooms, the base had everything that we could ever hope to need, and could easily withstand a siege from every single organization in the world.
With the adaptive shielding that Sterns and Radcliffe had created together (which also covered the generator that was powering it, which was hidden on one of the sublevels. Thanks, Evil Overlord List) I'm pretty sure that we could even survive nuclear bombardment.
Fittingly for the fortified abode of the Titan Hyperion, I had named it Othrys, after the stronghold of the Titans during the Titanomachy, the war with the Olympian Gods.
One might question why I named my base after the one used by the losing side, but to that I could do nothing but shrug and say that calling it Olympos, while definitely cool, just didn't fit with the theme.
But now that Othrys had finally been finished, I could get on with the rest of my Steps. I only had two months until Loki arrived on Earth, and I had an enormous amount of work that I wanted to get done before he did, though I knew that it was unlikely that I would succeed in all of my plans.
The solution?
Prioritizing.
Sitting behind the humongous desk that I had designed for myself, I flicked my wrist upwards, causing a holographic screen to appear above the shining black surface. It was a list, and it was divided in two halves: objects and people.
They were ranked in easiest to hardest to acquire, and I was trying to see which one I should go to first. Most of the things that were the hardest to get to were either hidden away in Europe, or in secure storage in one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sites. For instance, the Berserker staff, while lacking in any protections like some of the other items were, was split in three parts and hidden all over Europe, meaning that I couldn't just pop over and collect it.
In the same vein, some of the people that I wanted to get my hands on were more difficult to get to than others. Jonathan Pangborn would be relatively easy to track down, but Whitehall, whose brain I wanted to pick, was significantly more difficult to locate.
It was unfortunately very likely that I would be unable to get all the items and people on my list, but I should be able to gather enough that dealing with the Invasion would be a breeze.
Granted, Othrys amounted for a very large part of that (a leviathan could fall on top of the base, and the lights wouldn't even flicker at the impact, due to some nifty Wakandan reverse-engineered tech focused around shock absorption incorporated into our foundations) but the other items should give me the extra edge I need should a certain Trickster decide to throw down with me.
A chime sounded from the other end of my office (which basically took up the entire top slab of the Ziggurat-shape) and with a simple tap against my desk, the vault-like door opened automatically without even a whisper of a sound.
Amazing, the stuff Radcliffe could get up to when you gave him free reign.
Speaking of which, he, Sterns, Harper and Jessica quickly filed into the room, Jessica glancing at the futuristic looking office with a raised eyebrow.
"A bit… bare, don't you think?" she drawled, taking in the unadorned ferrocrete (turns out Burstein was a huge Star Wars fan) of my office walls.
"Once I start raking in trophies, I'll let you hammer them to the walls, how's that sound?" I asked with a smile, getting a shrug from the woman.
"Boring." She said with an eye roll, making my smile grow just a bit wider.
"Well, if you really feel that way, I suppose we could go for another round of aerial dodgeball again instead?" I offered, enjoying as Jessica made a face as if she had just bit down on something extremely sour.
"And give you an excuse to throw me out the window, and then throw tons of crap at me? Thanks, but I'll pass."
Turns out, Jessica can indeed fly.
As it also turns out, however, she's got aviophobia, meaning that she's absolutely terrified of flying.
That little inconvenience didn't stop me of course. It wasn't really all that crucial to my plans whether Jessica could fly or not, but giving her that extra mobility would speed my Steps up significantly. So after carefully confirming that she did in fact have the power of flight (I just picked her up, placed her on my toes, and then gently hovered, trying to give her a feel for how I was using my field) I had taken to randomly throw her either off tall places, or just straight up in the air.
Once she could (somewhat) fly, I had thought up aerial dodgeball, based off a quote from an enjoyably bad movie back in my old universe, which I decided to use in order to try and help Jessica overcome her phobia.
"If you can dodge a car, you can dodge a dodgeball!"
However, due to a lack of cars that I had available to throw at Jessica, I had taken to throwing enormous blocks of ferrocrete at her when she was in mid-air (always making sure to only do so when there was nobody in the immediate vicinity who could get hurt, the ferrocrete itself was tough enough to handle being thrown around) making her so angry she actually forgot about her phobia and started using her power of flight to avoid getting hit in the face by a hyper-durable piece of concrete.
Again.
Still, despite the fact that I helped her deal with her phobia (somewhat. She could fly, now she just didn't want to), when she touched down she spent a full hour trying to beat me to a pulp.
Really glad I only enhanced her with the Amber Armor treatment after the dodgeball lessons, otherwise she might have actually been capable of doing a bit of damage.
I was only slightly worried how strong she'd turn out to be once we've managed to tailor the Extremis virus specifically for her, so that it plays nice with her genetics, and enhance her even further. She was already plenty dangerous with the Amber Armor and the Brain Booster, the things she'd be capable of after being enhanced with Extremis and potentially chi training…
Drawing me from my horrified musings, Sterns spoke up.
"So, what did you call us in for Michael?"
"Right. For now, Titan Solutions is doing just fine without any new input from me, considering that Jeri's currently out there transforming the tech we put into Othrys into marketable, large-scale technology for the masses. Smart homes should be a thing by the end of the year, and she told me yesterday that there are quite a few celebrities that are interested in having their new mansion designed by TS. As well as a couple of prisons that want our designs, but we'll need to be selective in what we supply to them, so they can't turn it around on us."
"Naturally. But what does that mean for us?" Radcliffe cut in.
The man, while brilliant and certainly happy with all the work that he was allowed to put into building Othrys, was getting antsy. He wanted to start working on a cure for his ex-girlfriend, but with the rebuilding of Titan Solutions, there was always something getting in his way.
"Right. It means that I'm free to pursue my original plans. I can do a lot, but I can't do everything on my own, so I'm giving you assignments. Jessica, I need you to find this man, and bring him to me." I said, flicking my hand forwards, and another screen popped up, flying at the woman and coming to a halt in front of her.
The holographic screen showed a photo of Jonathan Pangborn, with his personal details listed to the side.
Grabbing the haptic window by the top, Jessica fished a glass plate out of her back pocket, before pushing the screen onto it, where it automatically refitted itself to the size of her phone.
"What's he got that you want?" Jessica asked as her eyes skimmed the list of information I had been able to pull on the man.
"Magic." I said simply, drawing surprised looks from the people in my office (with Harper being the exception of course), but none of them looked disbelieving.
A quick demonstration of my Tungsten Fist (no, that doesn't sound right either) had quickly silenced any and all doubts about there being at least a kernel of truth to mysticism.
It had also conveniently dug a large enough hole in the earth that we could immediately get started on building the subterranean levels.
"This guy knows magic?" Jessica asked, still somewhat sceptic, though her expression changed when her eyes fell on the part that listed Pangborn's injuries and medical diagnosis.
"At the very least, he knows enough about magic that he can make himself walk again, even if it's medically impossible. I want him onsite before me and Hansen finally start our testing on chi: she just finished the wing for mystical research this morning, and she can hardly wait to get started. His insights could prove very valuable. If he needs an incentive, just tell him that I'm willing to heal his legs for him. Permanently."
As a person who was currently in New York and without any noteworthy protections, Pangborn was at the top of my list. Jessica gave a curt nod, before turning on her heel and stalking out of my office, clearly struggling somewhat with bringing another unsuspecting fly into my web.
After she had returned from her assignment to collect Radcliffe, the woman had approached me with the dreaded words 'we need to talk'. As it turned out, my rampage had unsettled Jessica, and she was wondering just what kind of man she was working for.
For all that she had a rather blasé attitude regarding a lot of things, she drew the line at working for villains.
And so we ended up talking.
A lot.
It started out at just how I saw those working under me. Were they disposable pawns, or were they people that I genuinely cared about? Then she asked whether I hired her solely because I wanted her power for myself, and now that I did have it, was I just going to get rid of her? And following that question, she asked me why I was always looking for more power? What was my goal, exactly?
Deciding that honesty was the best policy in this case, I decided to just be plain and upfront with Jessica. Yes, I recruited people because of their potential usefulness to me, but I didn't think of anybody as disposable, and I sure as hell wasn't going to just kick her to the curb now that I had her power. And as for why I needed power in the first place?
Very briefly I considered telling her that I wanted to gain omnipotence before some alien bastard wipes out half the universe (or the entirety of the universe, in Malekith's or Ego's case) but I eventually decided against it, not really trusting Jessica to believe me if I told her something like that.
For all that those working for me had seen some weird shit, this was still Earth pre-Invasion. The notion of some alien warlord, millions of lightyears away managing to wipe out half of all life in the entire fucking universe?
Yeah, even post-Invasion, that would've been difficult to believe for most people.
Instead I told her part of the truth: initially, I was scared of being turned into collateral damage, some no name character that was smushed by stray debris the moment shit hit the fan. Now those days were firmly behind me, but I didn't stop trying to obtain more power, precisely because it was there to be taken.
This universe had the tools to turn yourself into a god, and I was already halfway there.
I wasn't going to stop.
Though Jessica seemed pleased by the way that I viewed my people, she still seemed somewhat disappointed in my less than altruistic reasons for trying to gather more power, so she had moved to lighter topics, and we ended up drinking the night away together.
Nothing happened (though I did have to drop her at her room. Seems even Jessica can get knocked out after drinking the entire bar dry) but I did feel that Jessica's loyalty to me and the company had been strengthened. She may not like being put on an assignment to reel someone in, but I was confident that she'd do it anyways.
Turning towards the remaining non-scientist, I gave Harper his assignment, once again calling up a holographic screen, before swiping it to his phone.
"Harper, I'm sending you out as well. This guy is dangerous. Very dangerous. He infects the people around him with a virus that make them slaves to his every whim. He says jump, you wouldn't even be able to muster the will to ask 'how high'. Now, originally I wanted to wait with dealing with him until I've picked up a certain team from Siberia, but once I get in Europe, I'll probably stick around there for a bit, so there's no time. You're the only person in my employ with both the skill, and the physiology, to take him either in, or down."
That statement draws the first change in facial expression from the aged veteran since he has stepped foot in my offense, a slight raising of his eyebrow.
"Search and destroy? You sure 'bout this? Ain't easy to switch your mind after the deed is done, you know." Harper said slowly, clearly not having a problem with the act itself as much as wondering whether it was the proper action to take in the first place.
"Trust me, Harper. This guy once told a man to go fuck himself. Do you want to see the pictures?" I say idly, raising an eyebrow in the man's direction.
Though Sterns and Radcliffe turn a bit green around the gills, Harper just blinks once, before minutely shaking his head.
"Nah. I'm good."
Calling up two other screens, I send those over towards him as well, explaining as I do so.
"The guy literally just goes around, and sleeps where and with whoever he wishes. He has destroyed hundreds, if not thousands of lives, just with casual cruelty and pettiness. As such, he has no weak points, nobody we can use to apply pressure to him, except for those two." I say, pointing at the picture of the Thompsons.
"They experimented on their kid ever since he was born, effectively torturing him until he went completely around the bend and came back out the other end. But with mind-controlling powers. Bring them in. It'll allow me to squeeze all of their research from them, and it would work perfectly as bait for their son. Extremis should protect you from him, but if you know you are to engage him in close range, wear a hazmat suit just to be safe."
Raising his eyebrows a bit at the intel and the warning I gave him, Harper shut off his phone, and exited my office, throwing a 'sure thing, boss' over his shoulder as he just up and left.
Turning towards my best friend, I looked at Sterns as I called up another screen.
"Sterns, I want you to continue with your Pym Particle-research. Given that we used it to great effect during the creation of Othrys, I'm confident it's safe enough that we can start brokering deals with spacefaring agencies, construction and even transportation of non-organic goods. It should be enough to keep Cross off our backs if we include him in all the deals, make it seem like it was his doing all along. But I'm giving you a little sideproject."
And with that, I send the screen his way, making his eyebrows rise in surprise as he looks at a map of Missouri, with several Dairy Queens highlighted.
"You… want to take over a fast food chain?" Sterns asks incredulously, drawing a smile from me.
"As amusing as it would be to see Stark's reaction, no, unfortunately not Sam. Located in the vicinity of one of those Dairy Queens lies an item of great power, organic in nature. I currently don't have the time to just fly over to Missouri and start searching in random patterns, so I want you to build me a scanner of sorts, something that can pick out anomalous wavelengths from great distances."
"You want me to track something without even knowing what I should look for? Honestly Michael, this sounds like something you might want Dr. Banner for-"
"I have the utmost confidence that you will succeed in creating the device, Sam." I say with a genuine smile, one which widens when I see Sterns stand a little straighter.
"Sure thing Michael. I'll have it done in no time."
And with that, Sterns leaves my office as well, leaving me alone with Radcliffe, who gives me an exited smile as my burning gaze turns towards him.
"So! What you got for me then? Finding someone who cannot be found? Unearthing something that has not seen the light of day in millennia? Creating something that not even Stark can dream of?"
Letting out a loud laugh at the exited scientist, I call up three separate screens this time.
"Amazingly, Radcliffe, you've managed to hit the nail on the head: I want you to do all three." I say with a chuckle, as I swipe the screens from my desk to his phone.
The first picture that looks up at him is the face of Daisy Johnson, along with her public record (which was even more depressingly bare than mine when I had left the orphanage. The girl did not want to be found).
"That there is Miss Poots, aka Skye. I'm sure that if you try and dig, you'll uncover bits and pieces from her past, but all I've got for you now is her current alias, and her known associates. Ever heard of Rising Tide?"
"Yeah. Bunch of hackers right? All about freedom of information, that kinda shite?" Radcliffe mused as he started scrolling down the little known information on Miss Johnson.
"Correct. She's part of their group, and she's pretty damned good. I refuse to let her waste her incredible skills working from a van for a bunch of idealists. I want her working for Titan Solutions instead, and I want you to make it happen."
Looking up in confusion as I said that, Radcliffe frowned at me.
"Look, I'm flattered and all that, but why come to me? I thought Miss Jones was the one you sent out on retrieval missions?"
"True, but Skye is mobile, and she's smart. There will be a very faint trail for Jessica to follow, and it would take time to track a hacker of Skye's calibre down when she doesn't want to be found in the first place. But by putting you on the case, I don't have to track her down at all. I can make her come to us."
"And how were you planning on doing that-… oh." Radcliffe trailed off as he came on the last page.
It was Skye's S.H.I.E.L.D. file, and just about every single line in there had been redacted. Looking up at me intrigued, I gave a sly little smile as I leaned back in my custom made chair.
"The thing that Skye wants the most in the world is answers about her past. The thing that she hates the most is not being able to outsmart something. Or someone. And I can use both against her. I have the answers she's looking for, and you can leave something for her to find that she can barely outthink. And then you leave something else for her to find, and then-"
"A trail of breadcrumbs." Radcliffe realizes, gaining an approving nod from me.
"Instead of wasting months hunting her down, we can just stay put and have her knocking on our door within the week."
Giving a chuckle of approval at my dastardly plan, Radcliffe closes Daisy's screen, before moving to the next one.
"Fine. I'll do it. Now what's this then?"
"That is the thing that hasn't seen sunlight in millennia that I want you to uncover. Though calling an entire alien city a thing doesn't sound quite right, wouldn't you agree?"
Looking up at me in shock, Radcliffe slowly returns his eyes to the holographic screen in front of him, intently reading every little scrap about the Kree City that I could remember, and whatever relevant information I could dig up about it in-universe.
"Alien technology, sitting right under our noses for untold millennia, Doctor. And it could be ours. Technology that caused the original inhabitants to be revered as angles, gods even, during a time that man had just started stacking stone blocks and calling them buildings. Imagine the secrets we could uncover there, Doctor. The revolution we could unleash. The way we could help humanity. The way we could help-" and with a quick swipe of my hand, the last screen shows up on Radcliffe's phone, showing a photo of Agnes Kitsworth and him together.
"- her." I finish intently, watching Radcliffe's wondering face very closely.
"I'm planning a trip to Europe Holden. There are quite a few locations there that are of great interest to me, one of them in Spain which I plan to visit. Hasn't she moved there not long ago, waiting to die in piece?"
"Yes." Radcliffe whispered, his eyes fixed on the smiling face on the woman who he had loved.
The woman who had only years to live.
"Here's my proposal. I go to Europe, and I end my trip in Spain, where I find Agnes. Meanwhile, you travel to Puerto Rico, where you start studying the Kree City. When I return to New York, I'll stop by the alien city first, and I'll drop off Agnes with you. Then you can be together again while you work on saving her life, properly this time. San Juan is a beautiful place, Radcliffe, perfect for long lost lovers to reconnect once more." I press, and for a long time, the scientist remains completely still, just staring at the picture of the woman who he would base one of the most sophisticated androids this universe has ever seen on.
Finally, he looks up at me, and I politely pretend not to notice the slight wetness in his eyes.
"That sounds like a proper plan, alright. When do we leave?"
"I'm not too sure yet. There's a lot that needs to be done within Othrys itself still, and then there are the various items and people within the US as well. But definitely before the year is out, I swear Radcliffe. I at least want my hands on Pangborn and Skye first, and then we can go, alright?" I say, wary for any backlash from the scientist when he hears that I'll postpone the trip, but thankfully, Radcliffe just gives me a thoughtful slow nod, before he turns to leave my office as well.
"Just… don't make me wait too long, alright? I'll get on writing something for Skye in the meantime then."
Giving a nod, I bow down over my own screen, before I can hear Radcliffe clear his throat. Looking up in surprise, I can see the scientist stand somewhat uncomfortably in the doorway, before he fixes me with a surprisingly sincere look.
"Michael… thank you."
Giving him a genuine smile, I incline my head towards him.
"Don't mention it Holden."
And with a somewhat embarrassed nod, the scientist left my office, allowing the heavy door to silently fall closed behind him. Now alone again in what's basically the throne room of my castle, I look back towards the holographic screen in front of me, calling up the item I had dismissed when my guests had entered.
It was an encrypted mail, and consisted of only one line.
Cut off a head, you were right, we're coming by, need to talk – C&R
Smiling, I lean back into my chair, waiting for my next guests of the day to arrive.
"Yes, that's it, Mrs. Carter. Bring me Zola and his secrets…"
Fun Fact: Many of Marvel's notable superheroes and villains are of Irish descent including, Captain America, Beast, Ice man , An incarnation of Ant-Man, Daredevil, Bullseye and Dum Dum Dugan.
As always, I want to extend my thanks to my wonderful Patrons, AndrewDC_MAC2, Thordur hrafn, Daniel Dorfman, ReaperScythe and Miu! I cannot thank you all enough for your support, it really does mean a lot to me! To all of my readers, if you wish the original novel I'm writing, then you can! For just 1 dollar, you can read my exclusive retelling of one of the most brutal crusades on European soil! Here's a little preview of the first chapter, which is already available over on Pa Treon :)
Slumping in his chair with a defeated look upon his face, Jacques gave his friend a long look, before he let out a deep sigh.
"What does this all mean, Luc? You have warned me there is danger on all sides, even from our king, yet what is it that I and my family should truly fear?"
Luc seemed to struggle with his words for a long time, before he slowly rubbed his forehead, his eyes closed as he answered his friend's desperate question.
"King Phillipe's wife hails from the Champagne. As such, his influence here is amongst the strongest in all the lands under his control. If… no, when he calls his people to arms, many here would not hesitate in following him, since they are sworn to both him and the family of his wife. Jacques… that includes me. I fear that someday… I shall be ordered to march upon Albi, and once I am, I will have no other option than to obey. I am sorry."