A Spark of Genius
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy verse, Girl Genius verse, DC comics or any of the other smatterings of pop culture and literary ideas that I refer to in my story, I just tread through a few other sandboxes.
AN1: Still enjoying writing this, and still have a lot of little plot bunnies that I want to work into this story so we have a long way to go before I find any sort of an ending. Thanks for all the reviews and messages with your thoughts, praise, constructive criticism and ideas for new things; though I probably won't use the exact ideas that you give me.
AN2: I dislike giving spoilers and I hate to spell things out about the plot in Authors notes. That said it's called an alter ego people. Superman doesn't act like Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne does not act like Batman, and Xander doesn't speak or act like the Grey Knight or any of his other alter egos. When I stated that Xander is trying to keep his identity secret, I mean secret; it's not 'acting out of character' when he is dressed as the Grey Knight and lying like crazy in the face of pissed off heroes.
AN3: If you send me a private message, make sure you allow me to reply to you please; it's annoying when you have private messages turned off but still insist on private messaging me.
'Thought'
"Speech"
Chapter 15: Hobbes Leviathan
"Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum"
Translation: "Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe."
Totalitarian regimes come in many forms, just as governments of different philosophies and cultures come in many forms. However one of the things that remain the same for all governments is that they rule through at least some form of readily accessible force. Now Democracies and Republics are supposedly 'ruled by the people,' and Communist and Socialist governments are supposedly ruled 'for the people.' But no matter the form, there is usually some form of established police force, army or constabulary that is there to not only 'protect the people' but also to protect the government itself and keep the government from being overthrown or falling into anarchy. With this said, government guards are usually stationed at access points, doorways, thresholds or barriers to movement. When you have the ability to open a portal anywhere you want on planet earth in a blink of an eye, it doesn't matter how many guards there are at the threshold or how many weapons a country's army has to protect it. You just cut the proverbial head off the snake and watch the body flop around as you do with it what you want.
Nicolae Ceauşescu didn't even have time to turn around when he heard a snap and hiss sound behind him. Before the dictator could move, a plasma blast flew through the portal behind his dining room chair and disintegrated the dictator's head. The guards that rushed into the room at the sound of the rush of the exploding head and gout of fire were handled more humanely as they were systematically shrunk and packed into mayonnaise jars, with holes in the lids, by the forces that ported into the dining room and into the other rooms of the buildings that sat around Piata Palatului, Palace Square, in central Bucharest. Into the dining room stepped a figure in a dark black and light absorbing dress suit of an Armani style, a white dress shirt, blood red tie and a solid black featureless helmet that also seemed to absorb the light everywhere except for a large white question mark that had been painted across the middle of the face. The man wore matching black gloves that disappeared into the sleeves of the suit and he carried a briefcase in one hand. Two heavily armed black armored figures, that stood at close to seven feet tall, bracketed him on both sides as they stepped out of the portal behind the former 'president' of Romania and next to the future ruler. These two black armored troopers and the center imposing figure in his suit represented the largest grouping of invaders, as throughout the rest of the government buildings single troopers attacked out of portals, spreading chaos through the governmental structure.
The Jägerkin troops had been outfitted with solid black armor with polished facemasks that showed no features, all Heterodyne symbolism or skulls had been sealed over with ample application of quantities of nanoclanks. Though the portion of the armor that was made out of a sea of miniaturized clanks wasn't as strong as metallo or Nth Metal, it was more than adequate to stand up to the rounds of assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades or hand tossed explosives that the presidential guards, secret police, and army soldiers attacked the forces with. The Jägers were like self contained walking armies compared to the normal human soldiers they faced in their invasion.
The dining room was secure and Xander's HUD inside his mirrored black helmet was telling him that most of the building he was currently in was under his control with sporadic boughts of gunfire exchange. The situation was the same for the majority of the other government buildings that sat on the square and surrounding areas.
Xander walked up to the headless body of Ceauşescu and pushed it out of the chair and then sat down in the chair and put his briefcase down in front of him. Though the chair and table were covered in gore and splattered grey matter, the suit and briefcase seemed to repel any material that might have wanted to stick to them.
"One big bad down, one country to subjugate and reform still to go." Xander stated into his helmet and his computerized screen saw that second stage plans started to go into operation as soon as he announced that Ceauşescu was dead. All of Xander's readily available forces and robots/clanks were fully engaged in the operation, it was time for Xander to get the gear out of his briefcase and get the next part of his mission completed.
As Xander's body went through the motions to unlock the hidden latches on his briefcase, his mind went over everything that was needed for the attack and triple checked to make sure it was ready. Thinking back, Xander had used the hours in between the news brief and the attack to the fullest. Xander had been busy giving orders and directing manufacturing efforts even while he had been in the midst of taking off his armor and trying to get his brain to switch personas; as the Grey Knight costume was another one of his alter egos, just as this new 'Leviathan' persona would be one as well. It was all part of the crazy inner workings of his new mad genius brain, helped along by the myriad of little voices in the back of his head. It just happened that the multiple voices in his head helped him to pull off characters and changes of personality that would help shield him from exposure; kind of like Clark Kent the mild mannered reporter really being the brave and outgoing Superman or Batman's playboy image when he walked around as Bruce Wayne.
As far as the preparation for the invasion went, everything had gone swimmingly. Using large moving portals to excavate portions of the mountains behind the castle and transport the mined material to be processed, Xander's people had carved out huge cavernous spaces that had been quickly shorn up with concrete and steel. These caverns would be the launching grounds for his attack, as well as room for a new giant transit center to be built. While this was going on, the defensive pylons that Xander had been building to go around the valley surrounding New Mechanicsburg had been updated and mass produced, and the little clanks had been mining under the mountains of his valley in order to acquire the materials to mass replicate. Everything seemed to go well thus far, and neither Murphy nor Lady Luck had reared their angry heads as was usual for Xander's life.
Yes, the coup d'état was going swimmingly for Xander, right up until the telepathic meta-human pushed opened the door behind Xander's seat, and Xander and his Jägers found themselves unable to move as their muscles refused to respond to their mental commands.
Xander panicked inside of his mind as this new spanner in the works caused him to feel suddenly helpless.
"Vhy Tank you for taking care of Ceauşescu for me comrade. I couldn't have done it better myself." The telepathic meta-human said with a Russian accent as he walked around the table to where Xander could now see him.
The telepath was wearing a brown and red soviet style military uniform, but had a bald head with a metal contraption stuck to the back of it; tubes disappeared off of the metal band on the meta's head, tubes that disappeared down the back of the figure's uniform. The telepath's complexion was pasty white and sunken grey eyes stared down at Xander's seated figure with a smirk.
"My name is Yuri, and I have been zey power behind zey throne long enough." The telepath stated with a sneer as he walked past the body of Ceauşescu and spat on it.
"It is a shame zat I vas unable to stop you from killing Ceauşescu, but alas I vas able to kill you and your guards quickly afterwards, enabling me to take zey reins of power and bring order once again to Romania." Yuri stated sarcastically, clutching his hands to his chest and batting his eyes as if to mockingly show that he was innocent in allowing Ceauşescu to be killed.
Xander was freaking out inside his head, only he couldn't consciously do anything with his body. Xander was totally helpless at the hands of this crazy telepath that Xander had never heard of in any of the comic books.
"I'm not stupid enough to come over zere and try to take off your helmet, so ve vill just have to put you to sleep and zen I can use your execution to cement my control of the country." Yuri stated.
Xander saw on his HUD that several of his soldiers were trying to hurry to his position in response to the silent alarm that his helmet was issuing, but unfortunately the troopers were tied up at the moment getting through the guards at their assigned stations.
Worse, the situation with the telepath Yuri had come out of left field so quickly that they wouldn't be able to get to Xander in time.
"Say good night Zander." Yuri sneered, and like that, Xander's head dropped to his chest in unconsciousness.
"Excellent!" Yuri lisped in glee as he walked towards Xander's limp form and the two black armored statues standing next to Xander.
"All will eventually bow to the power of my mind," Yuri snarled as he stood next to Xander and reached for the briefcase.
Xander's hand shot up off the table and crushed Yuri's hand that was reaching for the briefcase, the bones cracking caused Yuri to scream out in pain and fall to his knees in agony.
Xander's head slowly rose to look at the kneeling Yuri, and a low growling sound came from deep within Xander's chest.
"GRRRRRrrrr ha ha ha ha ha." Xander's growl turned into a laugh of pure evil as his other hand shot out to grab Yuri by the throat. Xander stood up out of the chair, holding Yuri's crushed wrist in one hand, and the telepath's throat in the other; lifting the telepath off the ground as Xander stood.
"H-h-how? How are you doing this, you should be unconscious?" Yuri gasped and choked out, his face starting to turn red and eyes bugging out as he tried to use his free hand to pry Xander's chokehold loose.
"He he he. Well Bub, let's just say that Xander isn't home now and the party is going to be a whole lot more fun now that I've arrived." A primal and animalistic voice growled from out of the helmet, the smile on Xander's face behind the helmet turning evil.
These were the last words that Yuri would ever hear as Xander released the hold he had crushing Yuri's hand and used his now free hand to grab Yuri's face by the jaw and forehead and violently tear Yuri's head from its place on Yuri's body.
Blood spurted up into the air as Xander, or the Primal Xander in this case, dropped the headless body and examined the skull of the wide eyed head of Yuri.
"Alas poor Yuri, I knew him well." Xander's gruff voice stated with a humorous tone.
The Jägers that were with Xander came out of their statue like poses and one moved to shut and secure the door behind them while the second dragged Yuri's body away from the table and threw it next to Ceauşescu's corpse which was also propped against the wall.
Xander took the head of Yuri to his briefcase and popped the locks of the thin case and dropped the head inside; the head disappearing into the briefcase, suggesting that the case had more volume inside it than the outside could possibly contain.
"Waste not, want not." Xander growled as he pushed his arm deep into the depths of the briefcase, up to the shoulder before pulling out a long cylindrical rocket body that was a foot across in diameter.
Using both hands to pull, and pull, and pull the rocket body out of the brief case, the six foot tall missile finally cleared the briefcase and Xander hoisted it onto his shoulder as easily as a mother picked up a baby.
"Jarvis, announcement to all forces." Xander's gravelly voice commanded, "Change of plans gang, not going to be a bloodless coup anymore like I had originally stated. Kill all resisting forces and we will pick up the pieces later." Xander ordered with an evil smile on his face, his eyes glowing green for a second.
"Jarvis, have Transit Central send through the packages to the borders and bases immediately, I feel like hunting in my own private reserve. The Alpha is in control of the situation tonight!" Xander ordered, and smiled darkly as he closed up the briefcase with his free hand and carried it and the missile out of the room. The two Jägers disappearing into portals to assist in the invasion of Romania.
Across the entire width and breadth of the country of Romania, attacks were taking place. At two main army bases, semi trucks rolled up to the security gates and waited their turn to approach the guard booths. The situation would have been humorous if it wasn't so deadly, as at both gates the Guards stepped up to look into the open side windows of the truck and exclaimed in Romanian, "There's nobody in there," right before the trucks transformed into giant robots that began to slaughter the guards. The trailers of the trucks opened up at the seams and disgorged units of terminator and defensive robots that went on to cut their way into the bases.
That wasn't the only attack on the military of Romania, as little clank sized portals opened up at Romania's air bases, and the clanks then proceeded to be spotters for Xander's transit center. As soon as the little clanks arrived on top of or inside the hangers of the airbases, portals snapped open and closed quickly across the entire airfield, precisely severing landing gears from the bottoms of every fighter, bomber or supply aircraft in the Romanian air force; they even sheared through the propellers of the helicopters. While this was going on, Starscream and his brother craft that Xander had created blazed in from out of the stratosphere and shot down any military craft airborne at the time, and then proceeded to force all commercial aircraft in the skies over Romania to land at the country's airfields.
The scene was similar but different at the army bases, as portals disgorged swarms of flying metal clanks that jetted towards barracks or machinery. These clanks, adaptations of the Batclank that Xander had used to hijack the Amazo corpse, had two purposes: Steal the tanks, scud missile systems and heavy machinery, or; Detonate themselves against the fuel tanks, weapon depots, or the doors of the barracks sealing them shut. With the senior officers on the bases though, the little clanks turned into Kamikazes and detonated themselves against any senior officer that they came across.
The attack was as devastating as it was fast. Blitzkrieg had nothing on this attack, as rather than an armored push through the front door, Xander's forces didn't even bother being polite and using a door. Xander's forces were already in the military's proverbial bedroom before the military could pull up their pants.
Xander hadn't forgotten to deal with the secret police and the KGB and GUB like intelligence forces that had helped Ceauşescu keep power. Throughout the known buildings run by the intelligence services, clanks carrying containers filled with ANFO, ammonium nitrate/fuel oil, appeared under desks and in other nooks and crannies throughout the building. These clanks posted the charges and then began to attack the humans working in the intelligence centers. Rather than a Lilliputian battle of little clanks against large humans, the little clanks had been equipped with equalizers, aka shrink rays. Thus it was the humans found themselves fighting clanks that seemed to be at least 2 feet taller than them after the humans had been struck by some sort of ray. After defeating the humans in melee combat and foisting the remains back through portals to a retention center, the little clanks then proceeded to initiate the opening of portals that stole all of the filing cabinets, desks, computers, and safes throughout the building; individuals found being held in the prisons or torture facilities beneath the buildings were transported out to receive medical aid. The buildings were ransacked of all data, the intelligence forces were decimated, and the prisoners rescued; the clanks then ported out of the buildings while triggering the explosives to go off after then left, leveling the buildings behind them. This pattern would continue at other secret intelligence bases and buildings as the information stolen led Xander's forces to find all of the Romanian safe houses and intelligence secrets.
Now normally an attack of this size on an unready country would cause a reaction from the Justice League, as though Romania was led by a dictator, that government was still recognized as the 'legitimate' government of the country by the United Nations. Xander had known that he couldn't let the Justice League interfere, not only because it would wreck what he was trying to do, but it would also allow his identity to possibly leak to the world along with him coming into direct confrontation with a swarm of heroes that Xander couldn't hope to defeat at the moment. Thus while the battles were going on, twenty foot tall poles, with prismatic crystals on top appeared in the ground along the borders of the country, ported in from the transit center in the US and evenly spaced every five miles along the 1558 mile border. As soon as the poles appeared and mechanically imbedded themselves in the ground, the tops of the polls telescoped up, one hundred feet in the air, before deploying a crystalline satellite dish that looked like a mix between a crystal chandelier and a kitchen sieve. Now it was just up to Xander and his missile.
Deep within the monitor womb of the Watchtower space station, red lights flared on the monitors keeping track of Eastern Europe. Quickly flipping buttons, J'onn the Martian Manhunter, focused multiple screens on a view of the Balkan territories. Normally difficulties in that region of Europe were focused around the war torn country of Kasnia. This time the static filled and cut off distress calls came from Romania on the northern border of Kasnia.
Quickly pressing buttons, J'onn tried to figure out what the situation in Romania was. The translation program on the consol turned the Romanian language into easier understood English but wasn't able to clear out all of the static in the radio messages.
"Psssttt We're under attack! Psssst Robots psssst They're everywhere! Psssstttt Oh no, they're coming in the door! Ahhhhh!" One message translated before the sounds of shearing metal and human screams filled the transmission before cutting off with a high pitched squeal as the radio gave up the ghost.
Another translated message was apparently a sat. phone relay from a government office to the Romanian embassy's at large, "This is the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Unknown forces have stormed every governmental building and are taking over the country. To whichever embassy receives this, plead for whatever aid you can receive from your host governments and notify the United Nations that we are under attack. Repeat, we are under attack by unknown, oh dear God, no, no! Don't come any closer! Ahhhhhh!" The message cut off as there was a zapping sound in the background followed by the sound of the receiver hitting the floor. A series of tiny patterning metal clacking sounds were heard before the phone was disconnected.
"Attention Justice League. We have a country wide crisis in Eastern Europe with unknown forces invading the country of Romania. To all free Justice League heroes we are in need of assistance in Eastern Europe to stop a possible invasion." J'onn announced as he activated the speaker system in the Watchtower and the communications systems.
A klaxon sounded and one of the images on the screens regarding the Romanian situation focused in on the capital of Romania, Budapest, and showed a missile launch. Smoke and fire trailed behind the missile as it was seen to clear the rooftops of the capital and fly high into the sky on a trajectory towards the exact middle part of the country.
"Superman, we are in need of your speed to intercept a missile on an unknown trajectory above Romania." J'onn stated into his communicator as he watched the missile climb.
One mile high, two miles, five miles high the missile flew.
Right before the missile hit the ten mile altitude mark, Superman replied, "Affirmative J'onn, I'm on my way and should intercept it before it can clear the atmosphere."
Unfortunately for the Superman and the Justice League, the ten mile altitude mark happened to be the missile's target.
Watching on the screen, the body of the missile sheared off and fell away, launching a warhead that pealed apart to show a glowing red jewel of some sort mounted on the top of an gizmo with multiple long tubes and crystalline arrays.
The warhead hit the ten mile mark and abruptly stopped accelerating upwards, coming to a complete standstill and hovering over the country. There was a tremendous flash of red light that blanketed all of the screens on the monitor womb and which was visible from space with the naked eye.
Blinded for a second, J'onn rubbed his eyes and watched as the optical sensors from the Watch Tower briefly rebooted and focused again on where the country of Romania was supposed to be located.
'Supposed to be' being the important words, for the country of Romania was simply gone.
Where once mountains, streams, hills, valleys and even continuous roads and railroad tracks met the borders of other countries, the country of Romania was now a ten mile deep hole cut straight into the earth's crust. Magma and hot blasts of superheated water were seen to shoot up from the bottom of the hole.
J'onn was stunned, but being the stoic Martian that he was he quickly snapped out of it and began issuing orders to multiple Justice League heroes to help stop the multiple trains and automobiles that were threatening to crash and fall into the newly formed country sized crevasse in eastern Europe.
It was going to be a busy day for the Martian Manhunter and the rest of the Justice League.
A black suited and masked Xander stood smirking up at the contrail of the missile he had just launched. He was situated on a roof of a soviet era apartment building with a good view of the missile's path. The optical sensors on his helmet zoomed in to enable him to watch as the warhead deployed and the Nth Metal in the device stopped the warhead to hover over the center of the country. The red multi-cut gem embedded on the top of the warhead seemed to glow ominously before emitting a solid stream blast of crimson refracted inverted teleportation energy across the width and breadth of the country. It happened in an instant, but to Xander he could see every part of his mechanism fire as the red sheet of energy impacted the poles that had been planted around the boarders and created a solid wall of red energy that spread between the one hundred foot poles as well as cut deep into the earth after being diffused through the poles' crystalline arrays.
The sky and earth glowed with a solid red light that made the sky look like blood as the country of Romania was taken out of phase with the world around it, but not transported to a new position. If Xander's calculations were correct, the energy in the warhead would last eight days before Romania once again joined its place with the rest of the world. That was eight days with which to take over and build the country of Romania into his new domain. If Xander's calculations were incorrect, then there was a possibility that they would disintegrate upon return to the proper phase, but he had figured that you can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs; such is the way with mad genius.
Xander gave a dark primal smile and stepped off the edge of the roof to plummet twenty stories to the street below.
Xander landed straight legged to the sound of a tremendous crack as the concrete street exploded on impact and dust obscured the view of the black suited figure for a moment. The people on the street, who had rushed outside to see what was making the sky turn red, scattered screaming as the bomb like explosion caused people to cower or run depending on their individual instincts.
As the dust cleared the black masked figure was seen to fix his blood red tie; the powdered concrete that had flown through the air seeming to refuse to stick to the figure's midnight black suit.
Xander smirked to himself, 'It's good to be bad.' He thought to himself, realizing that his thoughts were a little corny but not giving a shit.
Taking a deep breath, Xander smiled to himself as he stepped out of the shallow crater that was formed by his fall, and started to walk down the street, glancing from side to side at the people who cowered back from his visage. Men pushed their families behind them, people closed and locked their shutters, and an old woman clutched her rosary beads and was mumbling prayers under her breathe as she stared at Xander with wide scared eyes.
Xander just smirked back at the look of fear, but his attention was quickly diverted as a police car slid around the corner of the street up ahead of him and came tearing towards him. Xander merely stood in the middle of the street, smirking at the oncoming police car as it came to a skidding sideways stop twenty feet in front of him and disgorged two police officers who jumped out in front of the car and pointed guns at him.
"Stop and put your hands up!" The officers yelled at Xander in Romanian, which was perfectly translated to him through the use of the program in his helmet that was translating the message right to the nano-clanks in Xander's head.
Xander smirked and his eyes flashed green under his mask as he walked nonchalantly towards the two police officers.
"Stop! Stop or we'll shoot!" The officers shouted, guns now shaking a bit.
Xander merely continued to walk towards them, sliding his gloved hands into his pockets.
Both officers opened up on him, firing once at his chest, but then firing all of the rounds in their guns as Xander continued to move towards them unaffected.
The sounds of the officers' gunshots was accompanied by 'plopping' sounds as Xander's suit seemed to ripple like a pond struck by pebbles. The bullets disappearing as they were absorbed into the midnight black suit as the cloth, which was really a sea of nano-clanks, absorbed the force of the impact and destroyed and absorbed the metal of the bullets before they could penetrate through into Xander's flesh.
Xander stopped a foot in front of the two frightened officers, who were still clicking the triggers on their guns which were now out of bullets.
"My turn." Xander growled. The sound and voice coming out of his helmet was in Romanian, before lashing out with both hands and grabbing the officers by the fronts of their uniform jackets.
Xander used his incredible combination of primal and technological strength to lift both officers off the ground and then launch them backwards through the windshield of their police car.
The officers' heads crashed through the glass, knocking out both of the officers as well as leaving them bleeding and laying tangled in the back seat of their cruiser.
Xander merely smirked and brushed nonexistent dust off the sleeve of his suit, but a cry of fear to his right drew his attention.
Looking to the right, he noticed a short cute brunette huddled in the doorway of a building, obviously locked out if the ineffective jerking on the door's handle seemed to indicate anything. The girl was crying and whimpering as she tried to get away from the gunfire and the man who had possibly just killed the police officers.
Her jerking on the door handle was interrupted by a black gloved hand that grabbed her wrist, and another that lightly but insistently pulled her chin around to face the mirrored surface of a black mask with a question mark emblazoned on it.
"Why hello there gorgeous." A gravelly voice issued out from the black helmet, speaking Romanian. Then a big long sniffing sound was heard, as if the figure under the helmet was inhaling deeply.
"Mmmmm, you smell good honey, good enough to eat or have some fun with." The suit wearing figure said as he pulled the shaking girl into his arms. "How about I take you back to my place." Xander said, sneering inside of his helmet as he wrapped his arms around the now struggling girl.
Before the girl could answer or Xander could do anything more than hug the girl to him, two things happened. First, a preprogrammed subroutine in the nano-clanks in Xander's body began to run triggered due to Xander's anomalous behavior with the girl. Second, a radio emergency broadcast came over Xander's communications system in his helmet.
"This is Optimus, I am experiencing greater than expected resistance at the main army headquarters and am requesting assistance from Xander prime." Optimus stated over the radio.
Xander growled and cursed before looking down at the girl still futilely trying to struggle out of his grasp. "What's the fucking problem Optimus? I was about to entertain a lady here." Xander swore over the radio. "You better have lost an arm or something or I'm going to tear one of yours off."
"Xander prime, I have in fact lost an arm, and a leg." Optimus answered in his unemotional robotic voice.
"Shit!" Xander cursed, " Sorry honey, we'll have to pick this up later." He answered as he dropped the struggling girl and immediately took to the sky, flying straight up to hover over the city.
"What's the damn problem Optimus? This better be fucking good." Xander again cursed, the primal spirit version of Xander having a potty mouth compared to Xander's normal vocabulary.
"The clanks assigned to the invasion of the main base are facing stiff resistance from the meta population of the Romanian secret police. I am down due to removal of my limbs by a super strong individual and Optimus two is malfunctioning due to heavy arms weapons fire. Terminator and defensive clanks are fully engaged and unable to advance on the super strong meta and one who engulfs our miniature clanks as if his body was made of some rubbery substance." Optimus reported. The message was followed by an explosion in the background.
"Optimus, what was that explosion? Optimus? Answer me damn it!" Xander first questioned and then demanded when he received no answer. Spouting off a stream of curse words with as much skill as a seasoned sailor, Xander took off flying towards Optimus's last known location.
Faster than a speeding bullet, Xander enjoyed the stolen powers from Superman utilized through Nth Metal infused nano-clanks as he flew across the breath of the country in an instant. Landing next to what his sensors told him was the twisted remains of Optimus prime covered by a grey tarp, Xander lifted the tarp to look under it at Optimus.
The figure of Optimus looked like it had been crushed by the tarp and there were crumple marks on the external thin metal armor that made up the shell of the truck when it transformed into its truck shape.
"Damn Optimus, what the hell happened to you?" Xander cursed out loud as he examined the deformed shape of his transformer.
"I happened!" A voice said in English as the tarp whipped out of Xander's hand and wrapped around Xander's torso to pin his arms and legs together and started to crush him; a grey face formed out of the grey material and stretch to be in front of Xander's helmet and smirk at him.
Xander smirked under his helmet, "Who are you supposed to be bub, some sort of knock off on plastic man?"
"No mate, nothing so quaint. They just call me Crusher." The grey head said to Xander in British accented English while trying to squeeze Xander to a pulp.
"Really?" Xander growled, "Well I call you confetti."
With that black spikes exploded from all over Xander's suit slicing through the grey meta's tarp like constricting flesh like an industrial cutting laser through a wet paper towel. The spikes extended out a foot from Xander's body in all directions.
The meta human wrapped around Xander had a moment to scream before the spikes skewering him each split into four thinner spikes and quickly separated and flailed about like tentacles, ripping 'Crusher' into confetti.
The screech of a human screaming in ultimate pain quickly cut off as one of the tentacle like spikes mercifully wrapped around the grey head of 'Crusher' and sliced it off.
Xander sneered down at the head that was lying on the ground at his feet as the head and particles of shredded grey flesh reverting to a pink human skin tone dripping with blood and frozen in a mask of agony in death. Picking the head up, Xander slid it into a pocket of his suit that stretched out to make an opening large enough for the head before again shrinking back to its tailored form.
The sound of gunfire and the explosion of shells drew Xander's attention to the other side of the base. Using a combination of The Flash's and Superman's speed, Xander sprinted across the base in a blur just in time to intercept a flying anti-armor tank round fired out of a Russian made battle tank at one of Xander's terminator clanks. Grabbing the round out of the air Xander used the momentum of the round to pivot in a circle and straight arm fling the round back down range and right down the barrel of the attacking tank.
Xander didn't have the time to admire the sight of turret of the tank jumping into the air as the flung round struck the ammunition already prepped in the barrel and caused the tank to explode in a gout of fire.
"Number 5 can fly!" came the voice of one of his defensive bots, causing Xander to duck as the metal tracked robot flew past where Xander's head had just been.
Xander ignored the flight trajectory of the high pitch voiced robot as he turned to his left and saw a hulking seven foot tall man with bulging muscles, black military t-shirt, and camouflage pants charge after the flying robot and right at Xander.
Xander growled and reared back his fist as he charged the figure, the whole time machinegun rounds were kicking up the cement at Xander's feet and disappearing in ripples into his suit, fired from a machinegun nest situated in a guard tower a hundred yards away.
"Grrrr- AARRGGH!" Xander growled, and then gave an animalistic yell as his fist collided with the fist of the muscle bound meta-human.
The resulting 'Boom' and shockwave from the two fists colliding knocked back several soldiers that had piled out of an administrative building, leaving them falling on their asses as Xander's flight skill combined with his super speed and strength to also blast the super strong meta-human backwards.
"You may be strong, but I'm the alpha here." Xander growled out in Romanian before charging the meta-human hulk and rapid firing blows at the meta's head using all of Xander's super speed.
The meta used his bulging muscled arms to protect his head as he grunted under the blows and kicked himself up to his knees and before the meta wrapped his arms around Xander's body and tried to squeeze Xander in a bear hug.
"Me smash you little man." The meta grumbled in a low deep voice with Russian accented Romanian, the veins popping out on his face as he struggled to squeeze Xander to a pulp.
Xander nonchalantly answered, "You're not a smart one are you, Crusher already tried this." Xander snidely replied before smashing the bridge of his helmet into the face and nose of the huge meta-human that was trying to pick Xander off the ground and squeeze him to death.
The dull crunching sound of the meta's nose made the strongman's eyes cross as Xander repeatedly smashed his helmet into the large man's face; if at first you don't succeed, smash, smash again.
Finally after the fourth blow the meta-human's grasp on Xander relaxed as the man's eyes rolled up into the back of his head, the blood rolling down his face from a thoroughly broken nose, and the meta-human fell to the ground unconscious, releasing Xander before the meta fully collapsed.
Inside Xander's mind, he snarled under the control of the primal alpha's control and claws extended out of the sleeve of his suit to cover his fingers and extend out over his fingers. Rearing back to gut the unconscious and now totally helpless meta-human, the subroutine in Xander's head clicked over due to the second anomalous behavior noted and went on high alert, still, it didn't stop the meta-human from losing his lunch; along with the stomach, kidneys, and intestines that went along with it as Xander's clawed hand disemboweled the former strong man.
A rocket propelled grenade interrupted Xander doing a slasher-fest imitation on the corpse, and several large caliber rounds disappearing into the back of Xander's suit made him aware that he had more forces to take care of.
Turning around with a roar, Xander bore his clawed hands wide at the troops who were now desperately trying to unload their entire ordinance on him as quickly as possible; all without any effect.
Inside Xander's head the primal spirit shouted, 'Kill them all! Slaughter the sheep!'
Only, before Xander could take a step towards the shaking horde of troops that had seen him kill their last hope for protection, the subroutine in Xander's head clicked over for a third time and an electronic voice in Xander's head said, 'Three strikes, and yer' out of here Primal.' Coupled with the clanks inside Xander's head emitting a blast of electrical energy.
'Zzztttt!' Xander's head and body was electrocuted, jolting him up onto his toes stiff straight and causing his hair to stand on end and a brief bit of smoke to issue out of Xander's ears.
Now electricity was not capable of really killing Xander, given the voltage and amps used, especially not when considering Xander's super durability and healing capabilities. However it was sure able to give Xander a wakeup call.
Xander slumped over backwards like a falling board, impacting the ground and laying still as the claws retracted off his hands and back into the sleeves of his suit coat.
The soldiers who had been arrayed against him stopped firing, confused as they had been sure that their rounds and grenades hadn't been doing anything to the terrifying figure. Their confusion was quickly interrupted when the figure sat straight up, and proceeded to stretch with one arm into the air while the other one went towards the mask as if stifling a yawn.
"Yawn. Boy that was a nice nap…" Xander's voice issued out of his helmet as he looked around, the voice fading off as he looked around and realized that he wasn't in the conference room where he had last remembered sitting down.
Looking around, he saw several Romanian army soldiers shakingly pointing weapons at him, so Xander queried his nano-clanks and Jarvis what the hell had happened, cringing as they informed him about the actions of the Primal while Xander had been unconscious.
"Well at least I'm not dead at the hands of that telepath," Xander mumbled to himself inside his helmet as he stood up and stretched, popping his back.
The popping sound made the soldiers cringe back a step, and there was visible shaking in their hands holding the weapons pointed at Xander.
"Well crap, better pick up the pieces." Xander said to himself, "Jarvis, new order, less killing, more prisoners please. But might as well follow through with some of the ideas the primal had and collect the heads of the dead." Xander commanded, for what mad scientist couldn't do with more 'brains' to experiment with.
Looking up at the shaken fearful soldiers, Xander smiled before disappearing for a second before appearing back in the same position with a pile of weapons and vehicle keys at his feet.
"Ok men, now that the metas are no longer a problem I suggest you surrender. I promise you will not be injured if you comply with my orders and stop resisting." Xander broadcast in Romanian over loudspeakers in his helmet.
The soldiers arrayed against Xander hesitated for a second, but only for a second as Xander raising his hand and claws once again formed over Xander's fingers, causing the soldiers to all quickly get down on their knees and put their hands behind their heads. The soldiers manning the tower machinegun positions or functioning tanks quickly exited their positions before joining their comrades on their knees with their hands in the air.
"Good idea." Xander announced, right as a two portals opened up behind Xander's right and left shoulders and his black armored bodyguards from earlier stepped out to bracket him. The defensive clanks and terminator robots moved forward to secure and shepherd the soldiers into a barracks where they could be held for the time being.
"Sir, Romania is yours." The voice of Igor announced over Xander's radio in his helmet, causing Xander to smile.
There, standing under the blood red crimson sky of the country he had taken out of phase with the rest of the world, Xander continued to smile as he looked around and realized that his plan had worked. Sure there had been some unexpected problems, but no plan ever completely survived first contact with the enemy. Ultimately though, Xander had conquered his country, now he just had to subdue it and keep it.
Throughout time there have been leaders whose voice and message had the ability to resonate with the souls of the people of their country and guide them where the leader wanted. These speakers, these leaders of men, had used their voices and their oratory skills for both good and evil. Men such as Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill had guided their countries through times of hardship and into a glowing new world; whereas men like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler had used their oratory skills and vision to guide their countries to do great but oftentimes horrible things. However none of those world leaders had ever had the innate oratory skills and almost magical voice of leadership that a major spark was able to use. Infused with the powers of the 'Spark', Xander's very voice had the ability to cause people to follow him not only willingly but also enthusiastically. The best way to describe the voice of a major spark would be that if he told you to go to hell, you would look forward to the trip and happily march off on your journey while offering to pick up souvenirs. Such was Xander's ability when the Spark of Genius took over, and such was the voice that now addressed every man, woman, and child in the entire country of Romania.
From every radio, every TV, and even from speakers and projectors mounted on little clanks spread out to every village, town, hamlet, and city in Romania, Xander's voice and image was heard to speak in Romanian to his citizens.
"People of Romania, I come not to you as an invader, but as a liberator." Xander's message began with an image of him sitting calmly at a desk with the Romanian flag behind him as well as a solid black flag with a question mark on it, Xander's black helmet with the white question mark looking right into the camera.
"I come to liberate you from the oppression of Ceauşescu and his greed as well as the forces that held his leash." Xander continued, the images on the television showing the body and charred head of Ceauşescu as well as the deceased bodies of several known leaders of the secret police organizations and the headless body of Yuri.
"I come to free those wrongfully imprisoned and held captive in darkness." Xander stated, and background pictures of the prisoners were shown; freed and fully healed of their captivity by the secret police, hugging family members with the women crying and children who had feared to never see their fathers, clinging to their necks.
"I come to free you from sickness, from hunger, crime, and poverty." Xander continued, his voice and energy rising as real-time images were shown of people in wheel chairs being injected with a syringe before getting out of their chairs and walking for the first time in their lives. Other pictures followed of bread, meat, and coffee being handed out in the poorer areas of the cities while other pictures showed booths being set up in cities across the country; booths with signs stating that there was work to be had by all who wanted it.
"I will cure your cancer, I will help the lame to walk, and the elderly to have a new chance at life immortal." Xander's energy came through his voice as he clenched his fist before the camera. The people all across the country were electrified as his voice resonated with their souls and the images spoke to their hearts as they saw sick children with bald heads being cured and playing together as Xander continued to speak.
"Together we will guide Romania to its rightful place as an individual superpower, not dependant for the crumbs from Russia, China, Germany, Turkey, or France, not a puppet of the western powers and their corporations, not victim to the villains and criminals of this world, but a strong, powerful Romania armed to the teeth and a true economic superpower." Xander's voice rose, empowering the people and causing them to start crying out in joy and support. Spontaneous bursts of cheering were heard to issue throughout the country as images of abandoned industrial factories were shown as the factories were entered by robots that began to scour the buildings of rust while rapidly fixing up the tools of industry and growth. Already smoke was beginning to appear from smokestacks of long abandoned factories, smokestacks that were quickly capped by strange metal devices with pipes that disappeared back into the factories and recycled all of the waste chemicals and smoke.
"Stand with me Romania! Stand with me for now and forever and I will guide you into a greater world, a better world for our People!" Xander's voice rose and he stood before the camera, black helmet shining and immaculate red tie and black suit seeming to now glow with power while at the same time absorbing the light.
Clenching his fist before the camera, Xander continued towards the climax of his speech, "I am the Voivode of Transylvania, I am the Leviathan of Romania, and I come to you now to lead you into prosperity, into protection and security, into a new life and power unlike ever seen in this country. Follow me, and we will show the world, no the universe, exactly why it will never ignore Romania again!" Xander yelled into the camera, shaking his fist at the sky, the background behind Xander flashing to show an image of his Transylvanian castle that even now was swarming with clanks, clouds of nano-clanks, and giant robots and people that were reworking it into Xander's design.
"Follow me Romania! For a new day, a new dawn! For Romania!" Xander stated, feeling a bit corny and overdramatic, but needing to get his point across as he willfully manipulated an entire country to submit to his will.
The people cheered. All throughout Romania, in every town, in every house, in every square and street, field or hamlet the people cheered the Leviathan, the Voivode of Transylvania, Romania, and most of all the mysterious liberator who had taken over their country. The sound carried from every throat as every man, woman, and child who heard his speech cheered Xander on and the goals that he promised; even the babies cried and screamed even though they didn't know what they were screaming for.
The cheering issued to the blood red sky and bounced across the terrain as it mounted in sound as twenty two million voices joined together to cheer Xander and his message, their freedom from Ceauşescu, and the dawning of a new day for Romania. Such was the power of Xander's Spark, such was his leadership. Such was Romania, Xander's country.
AN: Sorry for the wait on new chapters from me. I'm still having to nurse my dogs back to health after their horrible treatment at the kennel over Christmas. Cheers!