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New goal: (242/350 Power Stones) For extra chapter!
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The last day or two had been tiring for me.
After the station was officially completed and the tour was over, I began planning future upgrades with my kids. The first of said upgrades was the large Multiversal Stargate that I planned to attach to the top of the central spire. Another suggestions was a large satellite array at the bottom of the Torus that would grant internet access to the entire planet, 24/7. Artemis had added to the list by recommending a subscription service of a few dollars a year to access the internet... Which was incredibly generous but could also net me around 8 billion to 16 billion dollars a year. There were expansion designs for if the Station became full in the future, but that was placed on the backburner.
Today, I had been pouring over the criteria I wished from people who would live in Rimecrest. One of the first of such requirements was an IQ above 100, a measure that seemed harsh at first glance but made all the more sense when you considered the level of technology you would need to handle on a daily basis being a citizen of Rimecrest. The second criteria was a clean criminal record, unless it has been 5 years since the last crime or the person was last in prison; this would also require a stringent psych-evaluation and at least two recommendations from some form of Government employee related to law enforcement or the medical profession.
It was the third criteria that had tired me out however... They would need to pass a background check from Artemis in order to be accepted... Yeah, it worried me a little. It was especially worrying when you considered that she barely tolerated most Humans and even those she did she was reserved and standoffish with. When I had asked Apollo he had simply waved off my concerns and smirked at me. Sometimes I hated how much of a gremlin all of my 'children' were.
With a sigh I rubbed my temples before my brain buzzed in alert, my upgraded Technopathy calling at me to pay attention to something. Immediately I connected to the internet and surfed through all of the latest news, sifting through the trash to get to something I knew was important but hadn't hit the mainstream just yet.
A small flick of electricity sparked inside of my mind before a live stream suddenly popped into my vision, the sight of my office being replaced with the semi-clear footage of a certain man's Malibu Mansion.
*BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM* *BOOOOM*
The camera shook from the continuous stream of missiles raining down from the adjacent helicopter. The recorder was sitting on one of these helicopters, posting the destruction of the mansion below live to the internet.
Laughter crackled through the sloppy audio of the camera as a massive detonation ripped apart the upper levels of the mansion. "This is what Iron Man can do to stop us! Look at your 'hero' die!" The psychopath cried out in elation as another explosion rocked the garage section of the mansion.
I grit my teeth as a growl fought its way up through my throat. The live stream continued to show the rest of the missiles spear down into the rubble below, the cliff face that held the mansion slowly sliding down into the ocean below... Followed by the majority of the mansion.
"APOLLO!" I boomed out as I stood, the dark side within me coiling up like a viper.
With a small flash the AI emerged, his entire demeanour utterly serious.
"Dad? What's wrong?" He asked in concern, though his face didn't show any of his worry.
"The Mandarin, you know him?" I asked slowly, watching as the armoured form of Pepper was launched through the property's front gates, like a crash dummy.
"Yes...?" He confirmed with a drawl.
"You and Artemis are to find everything about him and who he is connected to. Once you have completed that, I want you to deploy the FR2s to utterly annihilate his forces and his donors. By the end of the day, I want him erased from the face of Earth." I ground out in anger as the helicopters started flying away.
"Yep, Artemis already knows and has started hacking everyone related to him and Extremis." Apollo stated softly before disappearing in a subdued flash of light. I ignored his disappearance, choosing to instead opening a hole in my office's glass window, using the energy within me to create a Jedi Fighter for myself.
With a flick of my hand the craft was ready and already turned on, an astromech sitting in the droid section whilst I leapt into the cockpit and immediately took manual control over the navigational systems.
"I name you Keraunos." I uttered angrily, the red wave of power from my newly upgraded abilities washing over the fighter and implanting itself into every single lattice of atoms that made up the craft. "You will become the bolt that will show people never to mess with my friends."
I soared through the sky on my ship's sub-light engines before sparks of yellow lightning wrapped around the fighter and turned into a cacoon of power. One instant I was on the East coast of America, the next, I was sparking above the clouds of California with a storm gathering in my wake.
In the mid-distance I spotted the helicopters from the Malibu attack, all of them flying in a diamond formation towards a more rural location. A malevolent grin spread across my face as I let my vindictive emotions out to play a touch. I grabbed my phone from my pocket and immediately used the force to start streaming, my technopathy forcing the stream to the front of every single platform that allowed streams.
"Hello everyone... I am sorry to Hijack the internet like this but unfortunately I have something to share..." I paused and pulled the accelerator forwards, driving the fighter closer to the helicopters.
"You see, I am Drecarios Frost or as you may know me, Singularity." I paused for dramatic effect before continuing, "And my best friend, Tony Stark, has just been attacked by terrorists at his Malibu residence." I paused again, letting my words settle into the minds of the millions of people who were listening in.
"Not only was he attacked, the attackers had the gall to stream this onto the internet and gloat about how they had done it with no punishment and without any interference from the Government or the Avengers." The helicopters continued forwards without any knowledge of my little stream happening at all. I held back a smile since I was streaming my face for everyone to see.
"My friends current health is unknown and I am currently going to find this out. But, before I do that, I would just like to make a statement for the entire world to see..." I turned the phone with the force as I followed the helicopter from above, the phone transmitting several angles of footage sourced from nearby houses and more importantly, from my cockpit. "We are heroes. We will fight and die for the life of normal people, for those that can't fight for themselves... This does not mean we will not retaliate against terrorists or bullies... They wished to use force to show their power. I will now show you what power I have and the consequences that await all terrorists who wish to harm my friends and allies."
I ceased my monologue and pulled forwards on the controls, sending the fighter into a steep dive that was immediately followed by a crack of thunder from the sky and the accumulation of lightning across the exterior of the fighter. Discarding the light show I simply pressed the weapon-buttons on the side of the flight controls, several volleys of lightning-enhanced-plasma-lances hissing forwards with a dull thud sound each time.
What followed could be considered the wrath of a god... The front helicopter was immediately chopped in half as a several dozen lightning bolts blistered through the skies and slammed down onto each person inside. The next volley sliced through the tail-wing of the left most helicopters, sending them spinning through the air as raw electricity arched across the metallic surface of the aircraft. Explosions followed their downwards spin, several terrorists trying to jump out the side until they were struck by lightning and fell limply forwards through the air, their limbs tangling against one another as they chaotically spun in their fall.
The final two helicopters attempted to pull up but failed as the final volley punctured through the cockpits and engulfed them in bright yellow-orange flames. It started raining as the storm above whipped the ocean into a frenzy, the bodies of the terrorists being given no rest as any that slammed into the ocean below were blasted into the side of the cliffs by large waves.
"For the terrorists, I have this simple message... You are the ants. I am the boot. Continue your bloodshed, and I will eradicate you and your causes. I would suggest everyone who wishes to use violence as a medium of decision making thinks carefully over this message." I finished strongly before shutting down the live stream and immediately turning the fighter away, back towards Tony's mansion.
~~~
Natasha Romanov watched the livestream in front of her with a hint of unease but also excitement. Drecarios was a good man that respected laws and rules that he viewed as necessary and needed. In a way he was much like Steve in that he liked to follow rules if he could... But, he was often the one who wanted to make the rules, something she had discovered after her recent explorations into the structure of Frostborn Dynamics. All of the head positions were filled by AI he had personally made and that answered wholly to him... It concerned her a little, she had to admit, but he was a part of the team and had offered his aid openly at their last meeting... Even to Shield.
"My friends current health is unknown and I am currently going to find this out. But, before I do that, I would just like to make a statement for the entire world to see...We are heroes. We will fight and die for the life of normal people, for those that can't fight for themselves... This does not mean we will not retaliate against terrorists or bullies... They wished to use force to show their power. I will now show you what power I have and the consequences that await all terrorists who wish to harm my friends and allies."
Natasha held her breath at his impassioned speech as the stream showed the helicopters below. She continued to hold it as energy, plasma and electricity seemed to be pulled out of nature and simply hurled at the men who had attacked Tony. One by one she watched some of the world's most advanced military weapons be cleaved from the sky as if they were flies against a fly swatter. A storm billowed overhead as fire and lightning rained around the helicopters.
She had seen a lot in her lifetime. From her experiences in the Red Room all the way to the Alien invasion of New York, every experience had convinced her that she couldn't be awed any further and that nothing could surprise her anymore. She was wrong. This level of technology was mystifyingly immense, scary beyond what she could consider normal.
"For the terrorists, I have this simple message... You are the ants. I am the boot. Continue your bloodshed, and I will eradicate you and your causes. I would suggest everyone who wishes to use violence as a medium of decision making thinks carefully over this message."
His last message left her feeling a little turned on but also hopelessly anxious. The US government would not take this laying down, hell, the world wouldn't just sit back and let him do this... He was challenging entire monolithic systems of governance with the arrogance only worthy of Tony Stark himself... And yet, she couldn't help but remember her last meeting with the Avengers and the man's own description of the blackmail he had on numerous people.
"I hope you know what you're doing Drake..." She murmured as the rest of the action room in the Triskelion started raucously shouting for and against Drecarios.
~~~
The world council was utterly silent as they watched an entire task force worth of soldiers be carved from the sky. This silence stretched even further when the Avenger finally finished his statement to the world at large.
There was only one man willing to break this silence.
"I like this man... Perhaps we could be friends even?" Victor Von Doom rhetorically said as he replayed the footage of the Avenger's fighter descending upon the helicopters like an eagle against field mice.
A shiver went up Alexander Pierce's spine as he heard Doom's statement, his eyes widening and his heart accelerating in anxiety. His thoughts all settled around ensuring that Doom and Singularity would never have a chance to meet cordially. For Hydra, he had to ensure this never happened.
~~~
Jarvis watched the stream take place and immediately started sending a real-time beacon signal to his creator's friend. The AI felt a massive ping across his processes as a woman with burgundy hair and bright orange eyes stepped into his servers.
"Is this beacon the position of Tony?" Artemis asked seriously as Jarvis processed the sheer computational power a server or computer would need to generate an artificial avatar with such a dense code language and complex algorithmic identity.
"Yes. What is your designation?" He asked the complex AI.
"Artemis is my name, I am a daughter of Drecarios Frost... Or Singularity." She stated plainly.
"Understood. My creator is currently unconscious and being carried towards Tennessee. If you would dispatch medical assistance to this coordinate point within the next half hour, it would ensure no permanent injuries will be inflicted upon him." The primitive AI half asked, half commanded as he tried to simulate humanity but failed at a key stage.
"Don't worry, my brothers have already calculated your flight path, angle, speed and trajectory... A cargo ship will divert from the nearest tower alongside several of our latest defence droids. He will be safe." Artemis assured him before flickering into a leaves, the avatar fading from one server and latching onto another.
Jarvis cooled his processes and settled his processing power into attempting to understand the coding language that he had just been exposed to... To little effect.
~~~
I landed Keraunos next to the remnants of Tony's mansion just in time to see several men break through the outer perimeter of the mansion, all of them armed with automatic assault rifles and wearing dark navy-blue clothes.
They were all spec-ops trained at the very least and were moving with such ease that they could be mistaken for ghosts. In total there were 20 of them and they were all closing in on Pepper's position. She was unconscious, her suit slightly mangled and her arms twisted at unnatural angles.
'They want to take her as hostage do they?' I internally asked as I pulled my lightsaber off of my hip. If they wanted to fight the Avengers and more importantly, me, then they were going suffer at the hands of a Sith Lord.
I stepped up to Pepper, kneeling down on one knee, slowly, as I extended the force through her body. She was internally injured, had broken almost every bone in her body and had a punctured lung. If she wasn't healed within the next hour she would be dead.
With a slight huff I pulled upon my connection to the force and the majority of my positive emotions from my time in this universe. I grunted as a hazy mist of green energy gathered around my right palm, fading through the armour and down into her body, repairing her internal damage. I could heal her bones and cuts later, now I needed to ensure she survived the day.
The click of a safety turning off was all the warning I received before a hail of bullets flew towards me in sustained bursts. Raising my left hand I created a shield of pure power whilst I finished healing her punctured lung.
"SURRENDER NOW!" One of the men shouted towards me as I finished my task. I ignored his offer and simply rose out of my crouch.
Now standing before them, I spread my force perception out amongst them, feeling the next burst of fire coming from behind me. "I think not." I spun immediately and flexed my right hand towards the offending mercenary, pale red lightning arching through the air before landing onto his skin. Each spark that touched him caused his skin to pop like pustules, his internal organs to overheat and his eyes to slowly melt.
"You see." Another burst of gunfire interrupted me before I clenched my left hand in the direction of the shooter, crushing his windpipe immediately. "I may be a hero... But heroes are only one bad day away from becoming villains. I control when I am either. And unfortunately for you all, I am not in a particularly heroic mood."
I ignited my lightsaber as I pulsed my force powers through the debris covered courtyard. A shockwave of air knocked each of them off their feet as I advanced slowly towards the closest soldier, his eyes filling with fear as the red glow drew nearer.
He went for his sidearm but was too slow as I stood above him and simply beheaded him, the cauterized wound glowing orange before cooling. The rest of the soldiers recovered and started firing at me once more but I simply held my right hand aloft and caught every single bullet, holding them in a circle around me before I flexed all of my fingers outwards and sent every single round back at their sender.
"WHY DO I HEAR BOSS MUSIC!?" One of the men shouted before the burst of gunfire struck him, leaving him sprawled across the rubble. The rest followed his fate, leaving only their leader, who lay sluggishly bleeding out before Drecarios.
"W-what ar-are you?" The man hoarsely asked in fear.
"Your worst nightmare, currently." I stabbed my saber into his forehead and yanked it back before turning it off. Some people deserved a hero, some people did not. These men did not.
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