Chapter 25: A Date With Storm, Pt 2, A Captain Unfrozen
[Luke Blake POV]:
It's night time. The streets of New York were busy with partygoers, homeowners and nightlifers.
A dark silver and black Jaguar F-Type vehicle drove down a busy highway.
Inside, behind the steering wheel was a man dressed in a blue and black business suit — black button down, navy blue slacks, navy blue business suit jacket, blue tie etched with golden swirling designs, and volume dress shoes. On the dress coat there's golden etchings in trims.
[Luke Blake Reference Image]:
This was Luke Blake — Lewis' Clone.
As he pulled up to X-Mansion, he had barely stepped out the car when the double doors of the mansion opened up to reveal Ororo Monroe in a stunning green dress — A dramatic floor length evening gown in a deep black to emerald gradient, featuring structured off-the-shoulders neckline with sculptural sleeves. The bodice is sharply contoured, forming a sweetheart silhouette accented by bold leaf-like emerald design at the center. The dress itself was tilted with gold at the seams nearest to the center. At her side rested a matching emerald purse also etched in gold.
The dress contrasted beautifully with Ororo's smooth, unblemished coffee brown skin. Her white hair was braided back to one side and her magnificent blue eyes made almost doll-like face even more breathtaking.
[Reference Image — Ororo Munroe]:
Luke found himself paralyzed on the spot, completely unable to move. He was stunned by Ororo's beauty — Not just what she wore, but her natural beauty. She wore no make up outside the little bit of lipstick she had on.
This was all-naturalé.
"Are you speechless… Or is it just me?" Ororo's words knocked Luke from his distracted daze.
"I'm pretty certain that it is both — But mainly you," Luke smirked, rushing to open the passenger door. "You look beautiful, my goddess."
Ororo chuckled.
"You must say that to all the girls," she chided, as she made her way to the passenger seat.
Upon entering and getting comfortable, Luke smirked. "What other girls?"
Then, closing the door to her shocked expression, Luke turned to the approaching Logan. He stopped directly in front of Luke.
"If you hurt her… at all, in any way, bub —" he began his stereotypical-type threat.
"You'll stab me with Adamantium claws?" Luke quirked a bemused brow, clearly amused by this very predictable situation. "Don't worry, Sir Weasel — I don't intend to."
Logan narrowed his eyes, seemingly contemplating on the sincerity of Luke's answer.
After a moment of staring — a contest of wills that had him admitting defeat. "Just… don't hurt her," Logan sighed out at last.
"I won't," Luke stated firmly, exchanging a nod with the mutant. "You have my word."
When Logan left and Luke made his way back around to the car's driver seat, Ororo asked, "I hope Logan didn't make ruin your night… Did he?"
"Of course not," Luke chuckled. "Now, are you ready to eat? I've found a nice place on 9th Ave. Their yams are to die for."
Ororo laughed as the grey-black Jaguar drove away.
[General POV]:
[The Arctic]:
A man entered a hole of a mysterious ship, followed by a few other operatives. As they explored the interior of this frozen ship, that man suddenly seems to find something.
Dusting out snow from the surface of that something, this man's gaze is locked on that something as he speaks. 'Lieutenant?'
"What is it — ?" Flashing the flashlight, the superior is shell-shocked. "Oh my God…This guy's still alive!"
"Base? Give me a line to the colonel."
"It's three A.M, sir," a voice says over walkie.
"I don't care what time it is," he spat, never leaving the red, white and blue shield. "This one's waited long enough."
He knew that soon, SHIELD would be all over this — Or at least, that someone higher than a standard U.S military officer anyway. In fact, the sounds of propellers in the distance told him they were already here.
[New York, Restaurant]:
[Luke Blake POV]:
The date was going really nicely, with both Ororo and Luke chatting casually with one another.
They spoke about their days since they last saw one another, their interests, things they hope to achieve and a variety of different topics one may talk about on a date.
They enjoyed a nice meal of baked chicken stewed in gravy, candied yams and blackeye peas with soda — Or that was what Ororo had.
Luke had candied yams, mash potatoes, cornbread and some blackeyed peas with a cup of water.
They were enjoying each other's presences, laughing at each other's jokes too real to be faked — And genuinely got on with one another pretty damn decently.
"— And Kurt genuinely fell on his bum, with twigs from the Canadian forest still in his hair. It was hilarious!" Ororo laughed and Luke also joined in with laughter of his own. "It was ridiculous."
"It sounded ridiculous," Luke chuckled, their hands connecting to another on top of the table, much to Ororo's surprise. Her heartbeat sped up, but she held firmly to Luke's own palm.
"Many things are," Ororo's sky blue eyes stared into Luke's deep brown eyes with softened warmth. "Ridiculous, that is."
"Oh, and what examples can you tell me that are ridiculous," Luke challenged, eyebrow raised, as he stared deeply into Ororo's eyes.
"You. Me… Us," Ororo stood her ground, even as Luke raised a palm to cup her face gently.
As their moment apexed, with Luke delivering a kiss to Ororo's lips, Luke remembered thinking 'Never let this moment end.'
With all of his schemes. With all of his plots. With all of his plans and tests, and schematics and contingencies — Luke knew one thing was certain in that moment — And it was that whatever was blooming between the two of them was real and he desperately wanted it to stay that way.
No schemes. No plots. No plans pre-meditated.
No contingencies. No certainties.
Just Ororo and himself.
In that moment.
Together.
And he allowed himself that.
At least, for tonight.
[Half An Hour Later…]:
Thirty minutes later, after dropping Monroe off at X-Mansion and driving his way back to the city — It was then that it happened.
His car… it stopped driving on its own with a sudden, all-shaking shudder.
Thankfully, this time of night, the streets were empty, but unfortunately, the empty streets meant nothing to a car being magically lifted in the air and sent… somewhere.
Even as the city skyline was becoming smaller and the forests beyond were passing below, Luke already knew the forces at play behind this.
'I knew Erik was soon to act,' Luke calmly poured himself some whiskey, even as Washington D.C was appearing just beyond the horizon to the East and another city — Albany, most likely — sneaking up over from the west. 'To think that it would be now, though… Well, I suppose it isn't surprising. Lehnsherr is technically a genius and I don't doubt Mystique kept quiet about what she saw down there.'
The flight wasn't that long, but it did provide ample time for Luke to contemplate on his own future plans.
'I intend to leave this multiverse soon,' he thought, deeply distracted by his own thoughts. 'I need to be gone before the Master arrives. I have no doubt he senses my betrayal… I have a few surprises in-store for him, though. When he returns, his life will not be calm… He'll have his own army eventually; it is about time I garner one of my own, no?'
'As for attachments…,' Luke bit his tongue. 'If Ororo wishes to join me as my queen… I won't complain, but solely if she wishes to. I will not force her.'
'If I ever did, I would be no different than a stereotypical villain, and I am better than that. I won't lose myself to my own power. I am the Tester — Not the Creeper.'
Luke sipped from his cup of whiskey, losing track of time as he purposely ignored the passing environment outside in favor of diving deeper into his thoughts.
"Delta," Luke called out to his personal AI system — One made up of a purified Proteus IV from the 1977 horror movie, Demon Seed + an amplified version of Brainiac 5 from DC Comics + F.R.I.D.A.Y from Marvel Comics, only superly enhanced and upgraded — All to be combined into the Artificial Intelligence supercomputer known as "Delta" — linked solely to Luke and only Luke.
[Yes, Master?] Delta's female, robotic voice sounded in Luke's ear.
"Make a reminder to teleport around the universe to gather cosmic cloud samples for my TetraDrones, won't you?" Luke said to the black-on-red text hovering before him as he fiddled with tetrahedron-shaped, steel-black machines with glowing red trimmings he had been working on as he simultaneously became lost in thought.
[Of course, Master. It has been added as your 2 A.M.]
[TetraDrones Reference Image]:
A sudden jerk of the car and the slowing down of movement caused Luke to look outside the window, at his destination.
In a sea of forest trees, at a clearing, four large mutant factions lined the area — The two belonging to Magneto [ie. Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and the Acolytes] and two belonging to Emma Frost's faction, specifically the Hellions and the Stepford Cuckoos (All five of them). At the heads of this meet stood Emma Frost and Magneto.
And that wasn't all. Behind them both were armies of mutants that were probably there more to look intimidating than anything else.
As the car landed in the middle of this meeting, Luke gave Delta a second order. "On second thought, Delta, change my 2 A.M to 2:30. Just in case."
Luke didn't wait for a response. He merely opened the door and exited the car, ready to get this pressure meet over and done with.