Once his decision was made, Alex decided to activate an ability that he hadn't used in a while: Blood Manipulation. After killing and devouring the top brass Eldritch Abominations of both North America and Africa, the ability had been significantly strengthened, evolving into its advanced version.
«Manipulations» :: ‹Lightning Divinity› ‹Advanced Blood Manipulation›
Not only could he remotely control the flow of blood, but he could even modify the density and coagulation factors. In an edge case, he could directly create a clot in a person's brain, almost instantly killing them.
With the activation of the ability, Alex instantly made everyone around him freeze, not letting them move even a single finger. Even the ones who hadn't had the chance to act yet, like some of the Inhumans or the Mutants. At that point, the only ones with any semblance of resistance were Photon, Kitty Pryde, and Vision.
"That's much better, don't you think?" Alex asked the three remaining people. Photon had already transmutated her body into an energy construct the moment she felt her blood being controlled. Kitty had phased into an alternate dimension, and Vision was entirely made of metal. Out of the three, only two had any semblance of combat capability as long as Alex maintained the blood control.
Vision was the first to act, shooting Alex with a beam of energy from his headpiece—which, unfortunately, wasn't the Mind Stone.
Since the magic circle was still active, Alex's body was still suppressed, but he didn't particularly care anymore and allowed the beam to pass through his body. Before it even struck the floor, the hole it left behind had disappeared.
"Surrender. If I wanted to kill you all, I could have done so with but a thought," Alex said.
"Never," Kitty's translucent projection said as Vision prepared to attack again. But this time, Photon raised her hand.
"Stop, Vision," she said before turning to Alex. "Let them go, and we will retreat."
"No can do," Alex said, shaking his head. "Mister Rogers here, your beloved Captain America seems very resistant to submitting to my rule. But that is the only option this planet has."
"What will it take for you to let them go? You can't do anything to me."
"Is that a fact?" Alex asked with a smile and turned to look at Vision. "Power down."
Vision's body immediately slumped to the ground at his words, leaving the synthetic android little more than a glorified paperweight.
"The moment she dares to show up in the material world, I will disable her X-Gene," Alex said. "That only leaves you, Monica Rambeau. Shall we talk now?"
"What if I refuse?"
"I will kill everyone here," Alex said flatly as if killing so many people meant nothing to him.
"It seems that I don't have a choice, huh?"
"Even if you nuke my body right now, it won't matter," Alex said. "I am a symbiote. This body you see in front of you is merely an extension of my true body."
"Fine," she sighed. "What do you want from me?"
"Two things," Alex said. "One, I want to study your powers. I want to analyze how your powers allow you to manipulate different kinds of energies. Two, I want you to serve as one of my two representatives on this planet."
"Sure, go for it. Plenty of people have tried to analyze my powers," she said, shrugging. "As long as you don't torture me, I don't care. What do you mean by representative, though?"
"I explained it to Steve before, but he seemed quite resistant to it," Alex said. "Essentially, I will bring this planet under my rule and provide you with protection. In exchange, one or two people from this planet will represent them in front of me, acting as the intermediaries. I want you to be that intermediary."
"If that was all, he wouldn't have initiated this attack." She looked at Steve, who was struggling with his full might against Alex's restraints, but with his blood itself disobeying his commands, he couldn't break through. "There's more to it, am I correct?"
"Yes," Alex said. "This is a monarchy disguised as a democracy. You will have a voice in front of me, yes. But it will be up to me whether to listen to you or not. Your only role will be to execute my commands. Act as my…executioner, you may say."
"Do we have no way to reconcile?" She asked.
"I know you may be resistant to this, but my goal truly is the prosperity of humanity. I desire control, yes, but I have no intention of stripping people of their free will. If anything, my supervision will only enhance the planet's living standards."
"Mr. Rogers…" She turned to look at Steve as if asking for advice.
"Go on, have your discussion," Alex said. "I'll take care of this pesky magic circle until then."
Alex raised his palm, and a thick black tentacle shot out from it, breaking through every wall and pillar in front of him and appearing in front of a cross-legged man sitting at the entrance of the White House. Just as it got close enough, a golden barrier made of constantly cycling runes appeared, blocking the attack.
Alex didn't give Doctor Strange the chance to mount a counterattack and broke through the shield with a burst of his ‹Lightning Divinity› and wrapped around the man's head. With a direct use of ‹Biological Manipulation›, he put the man to sleep, deactivating the suppression magic as well. The blindingly bright golden magic circle soon flickered out of existence, freeing Alex from its suppression.
"Phew…" Alex said, stretching his arms. "That's much more comfortable."
He turned to look at Photon, who was talking to Steve. "Are you done deciding? I'm not exactly a patient man."
"Fine," she said. "I will accept. But if you force me to do something against my conscience, I will not stand for it. I will resist you until I die."
"Sure," Alex said, waving his hand. "Put this around your neck." He handed her a thin choker. "I will form a mental interface with you through this."
Looking at the choker in Alex's hand, she felt a sense of apprehensive resistance. But she knew that any resistance was useless in front of him. Even if she could survive, he held the lives of the strongest defenders that Earth had in his hands right now. Any wrong move could lead to every single one of them dying.
"Okay." She stepped forward and hesitantly accepted the choker from Alex before putting it around her neck. It automatically adjusted itself and stuck to her throat like a second skin.
"Allow me to introduce myself," Alex said. "I am Apex. The highest authority in the Gaia Federation. Within the week, your planet will be in range of the cluster, and I will pull it inside."
"Monica Rambeau," she said absently. "What about Loki and Hela? They are still at large."
"You do not need to worry about them," Alex said. "Please, follow me. It's time for the preliminary examination of your powers."
"Right now?"
"Yes," Alex nodded. "As long as you work with me, I will let everyone here go."
"It's not like I have any other choice…" She snorted and followed Alex to the fire escape.
As she entered the stairwell, she found herself right in front of Alex as the door automatically closed behind her with a thud, making her jump a little.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No," Alex said, shaking his head. "Do you know about my species, Miss Rambeau?"
"Not particularly." She shook her head. "I haven't been active for a long time, so the things I know are limited."
"I see." Alex nodded. "I need you to undress."
"W-what?" The woman cautiously stepped back, pulling her arms over her chest defensively.
"That is what such an examination entails," Alex said.
"This is a sick power move," she said with a disgusted expression.
"I am not coercing you into any sexual favors, Monica," Alex said. "But yes, this is a power move for me to test your feigned obedience."
Huffing in outrage, she instinctively morphed into an energy construct, but before the transformation could even complete, a painful sting shot through her body, interrupting it as she was forced back to normal.
"I gained full control over your biological functions the moment you put that collar on, Monica," Alex said. "Now undress. I will not be so cordial again."
"Cordial?!" She felt such frustration that she let out a deep laugh. "Fine, whatever."
She aggressively pulled her spandex top off and got rid of her lower. Not bothering to care about any sense of modesty, she directly ripped away her underwear as well.
"All right, I'm done," she snapped at Alex, crossing her arms without a hint of shame. "What now?"
Alex didn't say anything and gave the nude woman a once-over, not affected by her disgusted expression that seemed to convey how she thought of him as less than a bug.
"You know, I wouldn't be this rude if your side hadn't directly gone nuclear against me," Alex explained as Monica felt something slithering on her throat and brought her hand up to touch it. "Even if I was overbearing, Steve directly replaced the primary target from Loki to me and launched an attack on me."
"That's because you left him with no choice," she tried to explain the reasoning behind Steve's actions before pulling her hand away and seeing the black, leathery substance on her fingers that seemed to be spreading further along her hand. "What is this?"
"I am a symbiotic life form," Alex said. "With that choker, you host a part of me. That includes a special set of clothes."
"Is that why you had me undress?"
"No, I just wanted to see you naked," Alex chuckled. "But coercing a woman into sex is too archaic and not really to my tastes…not anymore, at least." The last part was said under his breath, just low enough that Monica couldn't make out his words.
"What have I gotten myself into…" She looked tired and disgruntled as she saw the black material cover her body from the choker down to her toes.
"In bed with a very dangerous alien," Alex said. "I'll be leaving. I will communicate with you telepathically from now on."
***
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