Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.

.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Plans In Potentia

.

"How goes the mission, my Seneschal?"

Sinister turned and bowed to his master. "The last of your golem army is in transit now, My Lord. The containers holding them will reach port within a week."

Apocalypse nodded with a triumphant smirk. "And the Sentinels?"

"We have been unable to gain access to Master Mold itself, but all the other new Sentinels have had the program that I mentioned before installed, My Lord." Sinister stated. "Once you give the order, they will flock to your banner and each day, another dozen are created."

"Excellent." Apocalypse gloated.

"I also found out something quite interesting and rather useful, My Lord." Sinister offered. "SHIELD has been infiltrated by the group known as Hydra. Their leader is the Red Skull, I was part of the project that granted him his enhanced abilities."

Apocalypse raised a quizzical brow and Sinister grinned triumphantly.

"I implanted a series of hypnotic commands into him during the infusion of the Serum. I had believed that it was a wasted effort since he seemed to die in World War 2, but he recently returned and I activated him. Johann!"

Apocalypse turned as a new figure entered. The person entering the room was clad in a long leather greatcoat that reached down to mid-shin with military-style boots and trousers visible under the hem. The coat itself was secured by a thick belt which had a metal buckle upon which was engraved a skull surrounded by tentacles.

However, the man's face was what caught Apocalypse's attention. His head was blood-red with only slits for a nose while his brows, eye sockets and cheekbones were pronounced enough that his head did indeed resemble a red skull. The new arrival snapped to attention and raised his right arm in a salute.

"Johann Schmidt is devoted to the concept of rule through advanced technology." Sinister explained. "At my… request, he has prepared the moles in SHIELD ready for when you choose to take control of the three sky-dreadnaughts that are almost complete. He had his own plans, but they relied too heavily on control of the sky-ships, so I absorbed them into your plans, My Lord."

"Excellent work, My Seneschal. Once again, you surpass even My expectations." Apocalypse stated as he slowly circled the Red Skull, examining him. "Red Skull, as Sinister is My Hand, performing the more delicate tasks I require, you shall become My Fist, smashing those who would oppose me."

"Ja, mein Herr!" Red Skull replied, gazing fearlessly at the taller metahuman. "Niemand soll im weg stehen!"

Apocalypse's smirk grew. "Indeed, and I am certain that you will make that true."

"Ja, mein Herr!"

.

"…and with the deployment of the newly-formed First Metahuman Company of the United States Army, the forces invading the new state of Palestine have been forced to retreat." The reporter said as, in the background behind him, a large, jubilant crowd waved American flags intermixed with the black, white, green and red flag of the State of Palestine. "The use of metahumans in a military environment was first pioneered by the independent nation of Genosha which uses mixed human and metahuman response units. However, despite the overwhelming success in Palestine, protests against using so-called unnatural powers to safeguard American interests have already sprung up in the USA…"

The screen muted and Dr Doom leaned back in his throne, steepling his fingers. "Fascinating… and unexpected. I was almost certain that the American government would either ignore or actively suppress those with powers…"

"Father," Connor von Doom offered diffidently, "What if the use of powers is one step towards controlling them? How long before all mutants are expected to enroll in the military as soon as their powers activate, forced to use their powers only as the government decides?"

Doom nodded slowly as he followed his son's logic.

"That is quite possible. It is the fear of uncontrolled power that leads governments to strike out… having those with powers answering to them and actively taking out those who do not conform… it is more ruthless than I thought America was capable of… Stryker!"

"Father?"

"General Stryker." Doom explained. "A man who hates mutants, mainly because of how his own son abused his powers, but if he is responsible for this… if he has decided to turn his energies from destroying mutantkind to enslaving it instead… I can see only two outcomes. Either America ends up ruling the world, or it will erupt in a civil war between those who enlist and those who refuse… I think that I may need to send Cynthia to contact my agents."

.

"General!" The President smiled as Stryker entered the Oval Office. "Congratulations, your project was a total success! Have a seat, do you want a coffee?"

"Thank you, Mr. President." Stryker said,bowing as he sat down. "I am glad that my suggestion worked."

"Oh, it worked." The President laughed. "The former leaders of Hamas and Fatah have both agreed to let our forces set up bases to help protect them. Heck, after your people saved them from being annexed by all their neighbours, there's a movement forming that wants Palestine to become our 51st state! Can you believe that?"

"It would certainly help us from a strategic viewpoint, almost certainly better than our alliance with Israel did." Stryker noted as one of the Secret Service agents passed him a cup of coffee. "I wouldn't advise trying to force it, though."

"My advisors say the same thing." The President agreed, pausing to take a sip from his own coffee. "Now if only we could get a Kryptonian to join… I hear that SHIELD have one."

"They do, but only as a semi-independent contractor affiliated to SWORD." Stryker supplied. "Besides, even Kryptonians can only be in one place at a time. The First Metahuman Company has three mutants capable of duplicating themselves. Another can teleport the equivalent of a shipping container to anywhere in the world as long as he knows where it needs to go while one of them, Veteran, can copy his combat experience to other mutants, meaning that we can give them a decade's training in just a few days. My aides are looking for more ways to maximise the strategic advantages presented by the different powers of mutants."

"And half of them were already in the military, allowing you to deploy them without needing more training." The President added, waving at a folder on his desk. "Stryker, you and your people did good."

"Thank you, sir." Stryker said with a polite smile. "However, the very totality of their success has me worried. We've already seen at the Battle of the Cure how dangerous those with powers can be, we need to know who has powers and what they are in order to ensure the continued security of our country."

The President nodded slowly. "You have a point, but how easy would it be for my successor, whoever it will be, to abuse such a list? To decide that the people on it aren't allowed to live free, but must become slaves instead? And what would happen if they decided to fight back? How much damage could they do if they think that they have nothing to lose?"

Stryker paused. He hadn't expected the President to hold back like that given the success in Palestine.

Perhaps a slightly more subtle approach was needed.

After all, although it would take six months, all of the FMC members would be permanently loyal to him, thanks to the implanted chips. And when they were, then it would be time to move ahead with his plans.

.

"Banshee."

"Wolverine." The new arrival said, then the two men grinned at each other.

"Hey, Moira." Logan added, leaning slightly to look round the taller man.

"Logan." She replied with an expression of fond exasperation.

"Leave the luggage, the kids'll take them to your quarters." Logan stated, waving the watchers forwards. "Chuck wants to talk to you."

.

"Sean, welcome back. Moira, it is good to see you again. Tea?"

"It's guid ta be back." Sean agreed, accepting the proffered cup. "Ye've resurrected tha' X-Force?"

"I call them the X-Men." Charles corrected gently. "I was able to avoid most of the pitfalls this time and the balance of the team is much better."

"I'm sure that having Superman helping to train them made a difference." Moira offered and Charles smiled.

"More than you can imagine."

"I heard he ain't an X-man." Sean commented before taking another sip of his tea and Charles nodded.

"He explained his reasons to me and I found them very logical. You know that only three countries have not offered him citizenship? North Korea, Latveria and Iran all declined, although Doom's daughter explained to the UN that her father saw Clark as being his equal, therefore offering him citizenship would effectively be an attempt to reduce his standing in Doctor Doom's eyes. Clark is instead listed as a Revered Guest in Latveria instead."

"That takes some serious balls." Sean marvelled.

"Sean!" Moira protested even as she struggled to hide her grin, then she paused. "By the way, who was the boy in the hover-chair?"

"Aother reason that I'm glad you decided to come." Xavier said quietly. "His name is Tyrone Dietz and he really needs your medical skills."

Moira put her cup down and leaned forwards. "Tell me more."

.

Stryker looked round at the bustling underground laboratory even as he stepped down off the teleportation dais.

"General Stryker. Welcome to Advanced Idea Mechanic's primary base." A bald man in a suit said and Stryker nodded to him.

"Baron Strucker."

Strucker nodded back and then adjusted his monocle. "Thank you for coming. I believe that you will appreciate what we have developed for you."

Stryker glanced round at the bustling cavern, then strode after Strucker. "Better make it fast, I only have another thirty minutes before I need to return to my office."

"Of course." Strucker said as he stopped at a large door. Waving his hand across a sensor set in the doorframe, he stepped through as the door irised open. "You wanted a way to counter the Kryptonians, General. We have developed one for you."

Stryker stepped through the door and came to a halt, staring at the thing before him. Slowly rotating in the middle of a large transparent cylinder, it looked like a silver cylinder with external conduits attached almost at random until its rotation turned it enough that he could see a distorted face that took up almost a quarter of the cylinder, a face that had a pair of underdeveloped arms to either side just below mouth level and atrophied legs protruding near the base of the cylinder.

"May I present to you MODOK, the Mechanised Organism Designed to Outmaneuver Kryptonians." Strucker stated with pride. "We used the biocomputer that we managed to… acquire a while back and combined it with one of our employees, George Tarleton. Several support systems and input/output devices later, the result is the being you see before you. Our tests have proven that he has an incredible intellect, strong psionic capabilities and multi-tasking capabilities previously unmatched by anything we have created before. He can pursue at least fourteen separate subjects simultaneously without any loss of mental coherancy. In another month, his reprogramming will be complete and you will have a weapon you can use."

"I wanted something that could stand up to a Kryptonian." Stryker pointed out and Strucker nodded.

"And so he can. Not physically, we are nowhere near working out how to programme a Kryptonian Clone to be loyal, but mentally… mentally he is far superior. His neurons work by bio-optics, meaning that his thoughts literally move at lightspeed. In one on one combat, he is indeed no match for a Kryptonian, but as a source of strategic and tactical superiority…"

Strucker tailed off and Stryker slowly nodded.

"I see your point, Baron."

Strucker smirked. "Thank you. You military types do tend to think in bigger gun terms, sometimes other factors are just as important."

"So he is programmed for strategy and tactics?"

"Not just that." Strucker said, looking at the floating bio-construct again. "We uploaded everything that affects warfare into him. Chemistry, physics, biology, psychology, neurology, geography, computing, politics, public relations… we chose not to limit him to pure combat. Place him in charge and he'll get the civilian population rising in your favour. And before you wonder about his loyalty, we have over here a device that can be used to reprogramme his core directives as needed."

"Excellent." Stryker said with a predatorial grin. "Excellent."

.

.

.

.

.

.

Authors Afternote – The Bio-computer that A.I.M. used was mentioned as being stolen in chapter 6 of Side Stories. Yep, that's a Chekov's Gun fired in order to load another one…
And I've finished writing the story, so I'll be publishing a chapter a day from now on. Enjoy!