POV Lucy
"Please be gentle," Rouge says nervously.
"I'll be gentle," Rio responds.
My eyebrow twitches as very suspicious sounds come soon after that.
"Oh~" Rouge moans.
I slam the door open and see what they are doing. Rouge was blushing heavily, and Rio had his hand on her... head.
"What? I can't help it if she makes weird sounds," Rio complains when he sees my narrowed eyes.
I just stand there... Menacingly. Well, actually, I was lost in thought. The issue wasn't that Rio could be with someone else; I didn't really care about that. I knew fully well that it was very unlikely that I could give him a child, and I wasn't going to stop him from seeking someone for that kind of thing. But I had standards that they had to meet. Lara was one such banned person. I don't care if she could likely produce a child with Rio or that she is a friend. She still cannot be allowed into an intimate relationship with Rio.
Selene, on the other hand, I wouldn't mind, but apparently she isn't interested in Rio like that. At least not now. Seeing as she can live for, theoretically, ever, she might change her mind someday. There was that Emma Frost character, whom I wasn't willing to let near Rio. Perhaps she wasn't a home wrecker and, all things considered, she seems nice enough, but she is a flirt, and I refuse to let her into my home.
'At least she took no for an answer.'
That was what I liked most about Emma: she understood boundaries and accepted them without complaint. If you said no, that meant no, and she was fine with that.
Admittedly, most of this idea of getting Rio a second girlfriend was born out of a bit of fear. Gaia will wake up soon, and when she does, she will bring more pressure to have grandbabies. And if someone else is present to take the fall for me, then what's the harm?
"You're thinking something suspicious again," Rio says while holding his chin.
A bit of nervous sweat pours down my back as I try to avoid his eyes. There was one massive issue with my plan. Rio was really old-fashioned, and his Elven nature made him not even consider a second lover. He would also never take the first move. That loyalty is what I admire, but it makes this even more complicated.
"A-Are you done with her?" I say with a slight stutter.
"Yeah, I absorbed her power, and she is now an average human girl again," Rio replies.
"Who's next?" I ask while poking his bare skin to see if anything happens.
"Don't worry, as I said earlier, I have perfect control over any power I absorb," Rio says with a smile.
I nod and get a mischievous idea. I move quickly to kiss him on the cheek, but he counters with a kiss to my lips instead.
"Hehe, gotcha," Rio says with that sweet smile.
I blush a bit but start planning my revenge later tonight.
POV Shift Rio
I shudder as I see the clear scheming look on her face. The inner machinations of her mind are an enigma.
"Since I already got McCoy's ability, that should leave Mr Wagner next," I comment to distract her.
Lucy stares me in the eyes and licks her lips dangerously.
'Hehe, I'm in danger.'
"Let's go then, as we have stuff to do," Lucy says in a whisper in my ear.
She then grabs my hand like a degenerate, and we start walking to my next destination.
Timeskip
It took a while and lots of talking with various people, but I managed to convince most Mutants on Earth to give up their powers. The one that surprised me the most was Magneto. Mostly because he came to me.
Flashback...
"I hear you can take a mutant's abilities," Erik comments.
"I only take the powers of those that abuse them or those that willingly give them up," I reply firmly.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to condemn you or anything of the sort. I knew your Grandfather; he helped me get out of Nazi-controlled Poland and settle here in the US. He was a good man, and I have seen nothing to suggest you don't have the same spirit to help others and do good. Which is why I am here today; I want you to have my power," Erik says calmly.
"W-What?" I say with utter confusion.
"Hahaha! Don't be too surprised," Erik laughs boisterously.
Once he calms down, he continues.
"I'm pushing 80 years old now, and being president and helping terraform Mars has done nothing but likely shorten that lifespan. I might live another couple of years, at least long enough to finish my current term, but before that, I wish to pass on my power to someone who will use it for good. To protect Earth and all that call it home, no matter what they look like or what they believe," Erik says while showing the years upon his face.
"I-I don't understand. Sure, I can use the power, but why risk giving it to me? I'm not human, and we both know I wasn't born a Pines; I was adopted," I say while trying to figure out his angle.
"You may have been born from the blood of the Pines family, but you were raised with them nonetheless. And even now, you haven't abandoned Earth. And don't tell me that you have land here. You could easily abandon Earth, pull back all the support you give even now, and society would collapse within weeks. But you don't because that's not who you are. You care for others even when you don't have to. While I'm sure you will pull back that support eventually, you'll never stop protecting Earth, because this... World is your home," Erik says wisely.
"Sigh. Yeah, fine, you got me there. But this is still a lot of trust to put in me," I comment.
"And you have earned it. Through your actions and the actions of those under you. All I ask is for your word that you will use my gift to do good. You don't have to sacrifice yourself for others; any level of good deeds will make my gift worth it," Erik says with a tired smile.
"You know this sounds like you're going to die," I comment.
"Hahaha. Well, no, I think I have a few more years in me. But yes, I feel my time is coming. I have lived a long life. Avenged my mother. Brought Mutants equal rights. Righted so many wrongs. I've planted the tree that I'll never see. But I'll die knowing that it was a life worth living," Erik says with a content and at-peace aura about him.
"Very well, then I will accept your gift," I say calmly.
Flashback Ends...
After all was said and done, I ended up with the powers of 11 people. In no particular order, I got the powers of Luke Cage, as he wanted to return to a normal life. Couldn't really blame him, as he was never the biggest into being a Superhero. I got Rogue's absorption ability; for her, it was a logical choice, as she couldn't control her abilities and she was starved for physical touch.
Her ability did end up having some very interesting synergy with All For One. I could now take everything from someone and keep it forever. But I could still filter out what I didn't want. If I wasn't already immortal, this ability would grant me eternal life. But there was a neat little trick with that. All For One includes the ability to gift powers to others. While I can't gift System Powers to anyone, I can gift Life Force to others. Thus, I could easily make others effectively ageless. From what I have learned of my own physiology, I don't have endless Life Force, but any drain is quickly replenished, which is sort of how I can live forever.
Thus, with some testing, I can gift that Life Force to someone else and thus extend their lives forever. I have other methods I could use, but this is still quite usable.
The next power I got was the Phasing Ability of Kitty Pryde. For her, it was a bit harder to convince her to give up her ability, but when I explained that I could always give it back later if she changed her mind was enough to convince her to give it up for now. The death of several of her friends had made her less keen to use her powers for anything, and like Rouge, she didn't mind the idea of having a normal life.
Then there was Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler. He had more requirements for me to have his ability. He wanted to know a few things. First was to know who his mother and father were; second was if I could make him look human; third, I had to fund a church for him to preach at, and fourth, I had to swear upon the bible that I wouldn't use his ability for evil.
The first was easy to find with a little magic. The second was also quite easy, as all I had to do was make the Human traits dominant over the Demon parts, which wasn't that hard since Kurt was a practicing Christian and wasn't suffering any backlash for that. The third was super easy, as I had plenty of money and many churches had gone bankrupt since the resource crisis, and the last was the easiest, as it had no binding power and I didn't plan on using the ability that much.
Then there was Hank McCoy, who didn't even let me finish before requesting I take his mutation away. Mind you, this wasn't the Blue Furry Beast but rather just the gnarly-looking feet McCoy. Speaking of blue, I also got Mystique's abilities. She didn't really ask for much. Just a billion dollars. She didn't really care about her powers, as she didn't have Magneto brainwashing her into believing she was superior. All she wanted was to be an average human with a stable and comfortable life.
Wanda gave up her abilities as well, but she did so cause she believed it was worthless, which, honestly, it kind of was. Without Chaos Magic, her ability was practically useless. It manipulated probability, not on the level of Domino, but rather a slight chance to make things more likely to go in your favor. For example, if you flipped 100 coins and you wanted heads the entire time, you would get 60 heads and 40 tails. A very minor change, but it was something.
Then came a bit of a surprise. Steve wanted to give up his abilities. It seems now that Earth was at peace and likely to remain so; ol' Captain America was ready to hang up the shield once and for all. Peggy was also interested in traveling the world with Steve for a while. And since we had enough staff to run things without Peggy, I let them go on their little Honeymoon.
The last two powers I got were from Logan and Laura Kinney. Logan was more than ready to give up his powers, but he wanted to have enough time to raise Laura. This only required me to remove his Adamantium Skeleton, which was easy when I had Magneto's abilities. Just numb him, then rip it all out and cast some healing spells to make sure Logan heals from the flesh that was left behind and not the metal skeleton. I also used this chance to remove the shrapnel in Logan's brain, helping restore some of his lost memories. The point is, magic is really useful. Laura, on the other hand, didn't have any requirements; she wanted to be rid of her powers, as it only reminded her of how she got them in the lab and the torture they put her through.
With all those powers, I was well on my way to assimilating All For One, and while I may not have full mastery of the powers, I do have full control, which means I don't have to worry about any accidents. I still had a way to go to beat Thanos, but hopefully the dwarves would solve that soon enough.