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. Oh, and several names are made up, some are real. The Ambassador from Romania is made up.
AN1: Going to write at least one more chapter of this before I go to one of my other stories. The plot for the next chapter kept me from sleeping pretty much all last night.
AN: WARNING! There is another intimate bedroom scene in this chapter. I try not to get overly graphic and I never like raunchy in my works, but please skip that section if you don't care to read it. Not reading it won't overly impact the integrity of the story nor stop you from understanding the plot. Cheers!
'Thought'
"Speech"
Chapter 17: Speak Softly, Carry A Big Stick
"Diplomacy - the art of saying `Nice doggie' 'til you can find a stick."
- Wynn Catlin
The year was 1998 and United Nations had been in continuous session since noon when Romania returned from wherever it had disappeared to. Though the time was nearing midnight, the heated debate on what to do was still going strong in the Assembly, as well as in the hallways and back corners of the building.
Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, was in his second year of 'leading' the United Nations, and never before had he seen such an intense combined outcry from the member nations' ambassadors. Most of the time Kofi referred to his job, when he was feeling generous, as that of 'Herding very large and very stubborn cats with large teeth.' However, when Kofi wasn't feeling as generous and he was alone at home with his family he often likened the quibbling backstabbing ambassadors to 'A bunch of school yard bullies in a pissing contest to show who had the largest dick.'
"Gentlemen and Ladies! Gentlemen and Ladies, Order. Order please." Kofi patiently repeated, banging his gavel to attempt to get the bickering ambassadors to stop talking at once so that a combined decision could be made regarding Romania.
The crowd slowly quieted and the member nations' representatives resumed their seats.
Kofi looked out over the audience and then stated, "We still do not have the requisite information necessary to ascertain the fullness of the situation. I plead to you to relax your tensions and to come to an orderly decision on how we will proceed." The Ghanan born Secretary-General's voice was smooth and deep, the very nature of its tone and timbre of Kofi's voice helped to bring the ambassadors to order.
A light lit up on Kofi's desk, and he replied, "The representative from Ukraine has requested the floor, go ahead ambassador."
The Ukrainian Ambassador stood, a broad shouldered man with neatly cut hair that led one to believe that he had spent some time in the military prior to his life as an ambassador.
"Tank you Secretary-General Annan. It is Ukraine's belief dat, as Romania is our neighbor, dat our military inspectors should be appointed by da United Nations to enter Romania and monitor dat country's military buildup as to ascertain dat nature of any threat to da world." The Ukrainian Ambassador stated succinctly in his Russian accented English before sitting down again.
The offer was immediately met with loud cries of anger that the Ukraine thought they could be the only member to get access to reviewing Romania's new military technology.
Several lights on Kofi's desk lit up, and he quickly rapped his gavel.
"Order! Order! One at a time please. The representative from the United States was the first to query a response; the United States has the floor." Kofi ordered.
The Ambassador from the United States briefly stood up from his chair, "The United States would like to amend Ukraine's idea and allow for a multination party to be assigned to examine the situation within Romania. With the presence of a possible meta-human as the current de facto leader of Romania, the United States also, politely, requests that Dr. Amanda Waller be included on the team reviewing the situation inside Romania." The U.S. Ambassador had gestured towards an African-American woman dressed in nicely pressed power suit with an American pin on her lapel. The woman, apparently Dr. Amanda Waller, nodded and gave a slight smirk when her name was mentioned.
The proposition from the United States was met with much muttering for a few minutes before the Secretary-General again announced that a representative wished to be heard.
"The Ambassador from The People's Republic of China has the floor," Kofi Annan announced.
A sharp dressed and cunning eyed man of obvious elite Chinese ancestry stood up and gazed over the crowd for a moment before speaking. A crisp Hong-Kong British accented English addressed the Ambassadors of the Assembly, "The representative of the People's Republic seconds the motion from the United States and respectfully requests that a member of our country be included on the review of Romania. As a founding member of the 'Freedom of Power Treaty', we believe that we have a legitimate interest examining any new foreign power who openly flaunts its meta-human powers."
With that the representative from the People's Republic of China sat down and the mumbling in the Assembly resumed.
The Secretary-General gave the representatives about ten minutes to talk amongst themselves and to receive feedback from their assistants before rapping his gavel and bringing the Assembly again to silence.
"I would like to hear from the Ambassador from Romania on his opinion on the situation and the possible motion before us to allow a United Nations team of examiners to enter the country." Kofi interrupted the Assembly and gestured towards a man who appeared very stressed and a bit rumbled.
A slightly balding man in his late fifties stood up; his tie and shirt showing spots from spilled coffee and the discoloring around his collar showing that he probably had been wearing his business clothes for quite a while.
The Romanian Ambassador removed and then wiped his spectacles before putting them back on his face and began to speak, "The representative for the legitimate government of Romania…"
A loud 'bang' of the Assembly chamber's doors flying open and impacting with their door stops interrupted the Romanian Ambassador.
"The former Ambassador from Romania to the United Nations is out of line in answering for a country that he no longer represents, and which I would put forth never really represented in the first place given that his actions were not in the benefit of the people of Romania but rather that of himself and his dictator friend." Ushered out of the doorway to the Assembly chamber as the very world leader they were discussing walked into the assembly. The Leviathan had come to visit the United Nations.
Strolling in as if he didn't have a care in the world, Xander, in the garb of the Leviathan, walked into the United Nations Assembly chambers in his midnight black suit with the blood red tie and his briefcase in his gloved hand; Tara trailing quickly behind him in a low-cut midnight black business suit with what appeared to be miles of leg showing between the hem of her skirt and her black stiletto heels.
"How Dare You Sir! I am the leader of the Romanian government in exile," The Romanian Ambassador began to spout, his face becoming red and a vein beginning to pulse on his forehead as he yelled at the Leviathan who seemed to be ignoring him.
The members of the Assembly all began to mumble to each other and several where quickly typing away on blackberries or making calls on cell phones that the Leviathan was here at the United Nations and not in Romania.
"Let me see, here we go." The Leviathan interrupted as he walked to a table at the ground level of the Assembly, set his briefcase down and popped the latch. Reaching in a hand he pulled out a sheaf of papers. "Romulus Miculescu, 'former' Ambassador to Romania and self proclaimed head of the government in exile, I have here documents that would be interesting to the Assembly."
The Leviathan began to walk around the outer boundary of the floor of the United Nations, looking to be reading from the documents.
"Romulus Miculescu, let's see, complicit in a scheme to enter blood diamonds into the European market through dealings with rebel forces in Sierra Leone." The Leviathan stated, dropping off a packet at the desk in front of the Swiss representative who seemed interested when the word 'diamonds' was brought up; a packet was also dropped off in front of the representative from Sierra Leone.
The Leviathan continued to read as he walked, the Romanian Ambassador's face slowly going from red to white, "Romulus Miculescu, here is an arms deal made with Chechen and Kurdish rebels in exchange for money to be forwarded to an account in Lichtenstein, hmmm, I wonder if Russia and Turkey would be interested in seeing these." Xander's voice, pitched a bit deeper and older, issued from the speaker system in the Leviathan's helmet and seemed to flow to all parts of the assembly. The Leviathan continued to walk around the outskirts and dropped packets of information at the desks of both the Turkish and Russian representatives.
"And last for today, but hardly the full extent of your crimes, I have documents detailing Romulus Miculescu being involved in allowing his family's airfield to be used as a way station for planes shipping arms made in the United States into both Iran and Kasnia, says here LexCorp was written on the boxes and manifests of the weapons heading to the embargoed countries." The Leviathan stated, Xander smirking inside his helmet as he dropped a packet of information on the table in front of the United States's Ambassador and then at the desk of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, detailing all of the Romanian Ambassador's crimes against humanity and world peace.
The audience of Ambassadors were stunned at first, but then outcries calling for the head of the Ambassador from Romania, Romulus Miculescu, or for him to be arrested were heard to issue out of the crowd in increasing volume.
Xander merely raised his black gloved hand, and such was the presence and power of his spark that the world leaders found themselves shocked that they stopped talking at his command.
Looking up at the now white as a sheet Romulus Miculescu, Xander tilted his head slightly to the side and stated, "Did you think you could keep this from me, The Leviathan? I know all crimes that happen in my country, and you are guilty. I'm giving you ten seconds to get out of here, I wish you the best in finding a country that won't extradite you or charge you for your crimes, for if you return to Romania Romulus Miculescu, you will die." The black helmeted figure stated in a monotone but fierce voice; Xander was genuinely ticked off at some of the information that he had learned about the Ambassador after ransacking the Romanian intelligence buildings.
Romulus Miculescu, the former Ambassador from Romania gazed into the reflective black mask of the Leviathan and saw the destruction of his life mirrored back at him. The former ambassador didn't even bother to grab his papers before bursting out of his row and fleeing from the room, the distinctive scent of urine following Romulus's path.
Xander watched the little rat of a man run off with a smirk on his face; his reflective black helmet hiding all expression.
The Assembly members were all just staring at Xander startled at the latest shakeup that the figure in black had done to the United Nations.
"Now then, where were we." The Leviathan stated as he turned, closed his briefcase and picked it up, and then floated up through the air in a standing position. The Leviathan flew over the railing of the bottom row of representatives and up to the Romanian seat before seeming to float into a seated position behind the desk. Xander really didn't want to actually sit in the now urine soaked chair.
Tara followed Xander, though she took the long way and walked up the stairs. Xander smirked to himself as he watched many of the representatives struggle to figure out where they should look, at the scary Romanian world leader, or at the long legged beauty in the short skirt and high heels walking up the steps; her skirt was short enough that hints of the top of Tara's stockings and the garter attachments showed with every step, and her suit coat was open enough to see the creamy upper portion of breasts that were hinted at under a red silk chemise.
Xander just grinned inside his helmet, also enjoying the view of Tara as well as loving the fact that he was keeping the world leaders off balance.
However the other Ambassadors hadn't gained their positions by being distracted for long; at least that would be their argument, not the fact that Tara had already reached her seat next to Xander and had sat down.
"What makes you think that you can waltz in here and just claim leadership of Romania through force of arms?" The representative from the United States angrily stated, popping out of his seat and turning to face the Leviathan.
The Leviathan tilted his head to the side quizzically at the U.S. Ambassador, "Mr. Ambassador, isn't that exactly what the United States did when they seceded from Great Britain and King George, or China from its Nationalist rulers, or Russia from its Tzar, or France from its monarchy? You can hardly blame me for following your examples… even if my revolution was a bit more stylish than a tea party. Just because my take over was flashier than yours is no reason to get into a pissing contest, it's not like you're suffering from an incredibly small penis or something… oh wait, my X-ray vision is telling me that is the case. Please give your wife my condolences." Xander replied, smirking under his helmet as he saw several ambassadors shift in their seats uncomfortably at the mention that their governments had been formed through armed revolt of some manner or other just as Romania now had. The American Ambassador first went white in the face, then red, and quickly moved his hands to cover his crotch, even though Xander hadn't really engaged the x-ray vision on his helmet.
"You know what they say about glass houses and stones don't you Ambassador?" The humor in the Leviathan's question could clearly be heard, and several representatives from small third world countries openly smirked or covered their chuckles with coughs. They enjoyed seeing the strong handed United States put in its place every now and then even though the country was responsible for supplying most of the world aid they received.
The representative from the United States sat down, unable or unwilling to go down his original path of questioning now that he had lost his 'righteous moral high ground.'
"Ahem, new Ambassador from Romania, by what name or title may we address you?" Kofi Annan interjected, always the consummate diplomat and trying to get the proceedings back on track.
Xander looked out over the audience, noticing the many different representatives facing him, from every color and creed of the Earth, and then answered, "You may call me 'The Leviathan,' or simply 'Leviathan.' I am the keeper of my people and need no other title other than my name." He replied.
Inside Xander's helmet he muttered to himself, not allowing it to be broadcast, "Leviathan sure as hell beats LaVelle. If there was ever proof that my parents hated me, it was by making my middle name LaVelle." Xander continued to himself, most of his focus going to picking up the whispers made between representatives and their staff.
Xander's full attention was again called to the front by Secretary-General Annan, though a conversation between the Ambassador for the People's Republic to an aide regarding Oolong Island, horseman and special infiltration squads caught Xander's attention, he mentally commanded Jarvis to listen in and record a translated version for analysis.
"Leviathan, we were just discussing a plan for the United Nations to implement a team of inspectors that would travel to your country to review the state of your military and your society. Do you have any thoughts that you would like to share?" Kofi stated before sitting down again.
Xander had expected something like this, and already had a plan set aside for dealing with it. Standing out of his seat, Xander panned the gaze of his helmet at the myriad faces before facing the Secretary-General. "Yes sir, I would like to comment. No team of inspectors from any country foreign to Romania will be allowed on Romanian soil, whether sanctioned by this body, the United Nations, or done clandestinely by any government or power of this world other than my own. I will protect my people completely, and that includes from you all medaling in its affairs." The Leviathan stated, remaining standing after he was finished with his brief answer.
The answer met an immediate outcry of anger from the gathered leaders, and it took several minutes of the Secretary-General banging his gavel on the podium for quiet to resume. The quiet didn't last for long, as the representatives from Russia, China, France, and the United States all stood up at the same time and tried to talk over each other, finally the multiple ambassadors shared a look with the representative from the United States before nodding and resuming their seats.
The representative from the United States announced, "In light of your response, I have been authorized by the President and his party that effective immediately the United States will place an embargo on all products and aid flowing to and from Romania, and we urge this august body to place an equal blockade and or tariff upon Romania." The U.S. Ambassador sat with a smirk pointed at the still standing Leviathan.
"The representative from The People's Republic of China seconds the motion that an embargo be placed on all services, goods, and aid flowing to and from Romania." The Chinese Ambassador stated, adding a bit of slight sneer towards the Romanian seats, as if The Leviathan was an insignificant speck compared to him and his country.
"A motion has been raised, shall we put it to a vote?" The Russian ambassador stood and asked, using the clout of his country to practically usurp what should have been the Secretary-General's question.
Immediately the voting lights on the board behind the Secretary-General and President of the Assembly's desk lit up, the vote for an embargo was almost unanimous; though there were about thirty countries that voted against it or abstained due to their long term stances on neutrality. Ultimately, none of the small countries could afford to get in the combined crosshairs of the existing super powers; Romania would have to stand alone at this point.
Kofi Annan, grimly stood and smacked his gavel, "The motion has carried, an embargo will be placed on all goods and services coming in and out of Romania." The Secretary-General responded, before smacking his gavel again.
The eyes of every ambassador to the United Nations turned towards the Leviathan, who had remained standing the entire time.
Reaching down to help Tara stand from her chair with one hand while grabbing up his briefcase with the other, Xander wrapped his arm around her and the two floated out of their seat, down the aisle, and then out into the center of United Nations Assembly.
Setting Tara down lightly, Xander turned and set his briefcase down on a table before opening it and reaching inside.
Pulling out a little black box with a red button on it, Xander turned to the audience before him while simultaneously pushing said red button.
Psyching himself up for the 'part' he was about to play, Xander talked to himself inside his helmet, "Ok Xander, you're only talking to the representatives of every government in the world, you already convinced the people of Romania to follow you, so this shouldn't be too hard." He continued to mumble as he looked at the angry faces pointed at him.
"Ok, so maybe it will be harder. Maybe I should do what the speech teacher always said in class, and imagine them naked?" Xander mumbled out loud in his helmet.
The image of the mostly pudgy and almost universally unattractive diplomats staring at the helmeted Xander suddenly appeared to be naked to Xander's eyes.
"Dah! Jarvis! I said imagine, not image! Change the image back to clothed! For god sake turn off the X-ray vision." Xander commanded inside his helmet, the only outward show that the something was going on in the mind of the Leviathan was that he took an odd step backwards and looked down at the box with the big red button before again looking back at the gathered Ambassadors.
Taking a deep breath and mentally cursing his photographic memory, Xander spoke to the gathered hostile crowd, "If you will embargo me, I too will embargo you." Xander replied as he turned and put the black box back into the briefcase. "What you just saw me activate were the defenses surrounding my country, Romania is now cut off from the rest of the world via ground transportation, and my air force will restrict all air traffic attempting to enter the space over Romania; that includes all satellite traffic, which from the new angry looks that I'm getting from the U.S. and Russian Ambassadors means that they have just been informed that all of their expensive spy satellites orbiting over my country no longer exist."
This statement brought about some mumbling, but The Leviathan didn't stop to let them cast dispersions on him or his actions. "Some of you may be questioning what this has to do with you and your smaller countries, you may be saying to yourself, 'I have no satellites and don't travel through Romanian airspace or do trade with Romania, how can this possibly hurt me?' Well, I will tell you."
The Leviathan announced, his voice rising as he began to pace before the gathered world leaders; a holographic image lit up from within the depths of the briefcase and its images were broadcast to all of the representatives.
By this point, the news stations from around the world were also tuning in to this history happening in the United Nations.
"You embargo me? Fine! None of your citizens will be eligible for my cures." The Leviathan announced, gesturing towards the image behind him which flashed between visuals of children having their cancer cured and their hair re-grown, or people having fully functioning limbs reattached, or the disabled getting up out of wheelchairs.
The pictures stunned the world, but the words coming from the Leviathan were like hammer blows. "There will be no cure for cancer for you, no cure for AIDS, Malaria, plague or disabilities. I've cured old age and helped the lame to walk, and your people will not gain the benefit of it because of your actions; I hope your President and his party enjoy their next election U.S. Ambassador, because they played a leading role in stopping the citizens of the United States from seeing their loved ones survive their diseases." The Leviathan finished at the end making a comment towards the grey faced and shaken U.S. representative who was watching his career flushed down the drain.
The crowd attempted to cry out, the African country delegations were beginning to be especially loud in crying for relief from AIDS, the volume was rising in the room as people shouted at the Leviathan to share the gifts, or that the world deserved the cures he held.
"Silence!" The Leviathan ordered, and the full power of a major Spark came to play as the audience immediately shut their mouths and sat back in their seats like somebody had cut their puppet strings.
"There is no hunger in my Romania, or Crime, or Pollution. Energy is readily abundant and my people want for nothing, and I will not share any of my gifts with a pack of petulant bullies who are too busy fighting over who has the largest dick to focus on what is best for the world and your people." Xander continued, unknowingly mirroring the private sentiments of the Secretary-General.
"I will not invade you or attack you as long as you don't attack me. I will hold you accountable for any subversive or undercover operations you attempt to use against me, no matter how many go betweens you use. I follow the path of peace through power. If you can't leave me in peace, I will do everything in my power to make it so that you never bother me again. But I repeat that I'm not looking for a fight with you all and I abhor war. Let this be noted that you and your nuclear arsenals do not scare me at all." The Leviathan menaced, this statement had the entire assembly on their feet yelling questions and demands for answers or access to The Leviathan's cures and technology.
Their cries were stifled by a blue zapping sound and flash of light forming about four feet away from where Xander stood.
Walking out of the blue energy portal stepped the hulking behemoth form of The Grey Knight, whose scary visage focused down on the short little humans in the audience before turning to face The Leviathan.
In the voice of Darth Vader, the Grey Knight chuckled, "He he he. I see that you are once again having fun with politics cousin." The Grey Knight said to The Leviathan, his deep voice seeming to rumble in a way that it was clearly heard even in the furthermost corners of the upper balcony of the United Nations Assembly room.
The Leviathan turned towards the Grey Knight and black helmeted face looked up towards the skeletal helmet, "Well, you did make a mess of Romania after you wiped out the Vampires and scared most of the other demon spawn into hiding. If you would just clean up after yourself I wouldn't have to keep taking over and making sure that you don't leave any more chaos in your wake than you normally do." The Leviathan responded, a bit of humor coming through his voice with a bit of chastisement.
By this time the combined leaders of the world were stunned to see probably the weirdest family reunion in history taking place right before them.
Chuckling again to himself, the laughter sounding like deep church bells tolling, the Grey Knight continued the banter, "Well, you do such a good job of cleaning up my messes, and you were born to lead, even if that Hobbes character did get some of it wrong when describing you. The only nasty brutish and short things I see here are politicians. Are you still sure that the politicians are not demon spawn that I should wipe out of existence?" Though there was humor in the statement, the look that the hulking armored and armed figure gave the politicians was anything but kind as the Grey Knight's eyes seemed to flash deeper red for a second when looking towards Dr. Walling and the American Ambassador; Doctor Walling lost control of her bowels and bladder at the same time at the intensity of the look. If Xander only knew, his embarrassment of her and scaring her had just cemented Dr. Walling's ill will against all meta-humans.
"No no, none of that. I'm sure they will all play nice eventually. Speaking about playing nice, why are you here?" The Leviathan questioned the Grey Knight after gazing over the crowd, inside Xander's helmet he smirked at the antics of the American Ambassador as the man was busy pushing Dr. Walling away from him while at the same time trying not to soil himself with her waste products.
The Grey Knight waved his hand in the air, and three portals opened up in the air, and several bodies dropped to thud to the ground; some of the bodies moaning, some of them smoking slightly, and several of them just laying their limply. With that all of the blue portals snapped shut again.
The delegates to the United Nations began to yell and there were screams from several of the female members of the audience, but the combined looks of The Leviathan and The Grey Knight quickly quashed any continued outcry.
"These are some of the infiltrators who attempted to breach the boundary of your country, cousin. The moaning ones are the Americans, the unconscious ones are the Russians, and those two slightly smoking ones are all that is left of the team of Chinese that attempted to breach the new lightning moat that you've installed along Romania's boarder. Apparently they were trying to cross when you activated your defense systems." The Grey Knight detailed while gesturing to the different groups of bound and incapacitated individuals.
"The-The People's Republic of China disavows all knowledge or connection to any alleged infiltrators. We did not send anybody to infiltrate your country and you can't prove it!" The Chinese representative announced as he came to his feet, at first stuttering but then growing a backbone as he continued his statement; he ended with a smirk at The Leviathan because there wouldn't be enough proof to show that they were truly Chinese operatives.
Xander turned his helmeted visage away from the Grey Knight and swung to face down the Chinese ambassador who had the gall to smirk at him. In the brief moment that it took Xander to listen to the Chinese representative and turn to look at said scum sucking bureaucrat Jarvis quickly relayed to Xander's nano-clanks, and thus Xander's mind, the contents of the earlier intercepted message between the Chinese Ambassador and aide referring to actions commanded by Chang Fu from the Chinese held Oolong Island.
"I don't care about proof, but you can rest assured that there will be retribution for your trespass." Xander growled, the voice of the Leviathan growling out of the speakers on Xander's helmet. "Rest assured that there will be consequences for all of you who invade my country. Whether the proof is clean enough for the eyes of the world or not, I will hold you, the diplomats, politicians, and leaders directly responsible for your choices." Xander finished before turning back towards the table and closing the briefcase and picking it up.
"Come cousin, let us return to Romania, this place is starting to stink." The Leviathan stated, making a slight head motion towards Dr. Waller and then towards the Chinese Ambassador.
With that, a red portal and a blue portal opened up in front of The Leviathan and The Grey Knight. The Leviathan bowed his gorgeous assistant through the red portal before following her. The Grey Knight took one last moment to stare down the combined delegates before stepping through the blue portal; both portals closing and disappearing.
Behind The Leviathan and The Grey Knight they left a horde of world leaders in need of getting their shit together, both figuratively and literally, given the state of Dr. Walling.
The red and the blue portals appeared in the master bedroom of the Chateau in New Mechanicsburg. Out stepped Tara, The Leviathan, and then The Grey Knight before the portals closed and disappeared.
Xander stretched his arms up straight and popped his neck, turning from right to left while mentally telling his helmet to retract and his suit to transform into something a little less constricting.
Xander's suit morphed into a Hawaiian t-shirt and his pants turned into jeans, his black gloves receded off his hands and Xander stretched his fingers before casually turning towards The Grey Knight.
"Good job Castle, you play a mean Grey Knight." Xander stated with a smirk.
"Why thank you Xander." The Grey Knight stated out of its speakers, sounding exactly like Xander's voice. "Now if you don't mind, I'll send the armor back to the Castle to help on the retrofit of the defenses. I'd like to keep it close to my mainframe and the situation in the country in case I need to interfere with any more interlopers or big bads that decide to test out the boundaries. By the way, have you thought of a new name for me? Calling me Castle gets a bit confusing when you realize that I'm an imprint of your personality and knowledge, plus what with the Heterodyne Castle going by Castle." The armor questioned, being controlled by the computer and personality that Xander had put in the fortress formerly owned by Dracula but now being reworked.
Xander looked from the Grey Knight armor to Tara who had just let her hair down from the tight bun it had been in, shaking her head and causing her hair to cascade down her back.
Xander was understandably distracted, but forced himself to complete the conversation with the armor, and through the armor his new castle, "Well I've been bouncing ideas back and forth, but Voltron, GreySkull, or Cair Paravel just aren't original enough. I'll think of something, but right now I have to take care of some business or I'll never hear the end of it from her." Xander replied, again focusing on Tara as she strutted across the room to lay Xander's briefcase down on the floor next to his desk, making sure to bend over at the waist with her legs together, rear pointed towards Xander.
Xander gulped and waved The Grey Knight armor to get out of there, he watched Tara as she stood up and took her suit coat off, revealing a red silk chemise underneath it with the crests of her breasts peeking out from the top, both pale mounds being hugged by the silk material.
Xander swallowed again and quickly covered his eyes so that he wasn't distracted from what he had to do, it wouldn't do to make her angry at him or he would have to be ducking and dodging projectiles all of the time.
"Aunt Chateau, I'm home!" Xander yelled out, still keeping his hands tightly clasped over his eyes so that he wasn't distracted by the view in his room. Xander briefly peaked between his fingers and saw that Tara had just removed her bra from under the chemise, and now her breast swayed and moved tantalizingly under the silk top, every heeled step across the room doing things to Xander that caused blood flow problems.
Xander quickly clasped his fingers shut again to fully cover his eyes.
"Well it's about time, how was your time conquering the world?" The feminine voice of the Chateau issued to Xander from all around him.
"Pretty well so far, conquered my first country and told the world leaders to piss off, so all in all it went well for my first try." Xander answered, turning his head towards the ceiling and using his hands as blinders so that he couldn't see what was going on around him.
"Good good, and you conquered a new castle. Be sure to give it a name soon so that I know what to call my new grand nephew." The chateau ordered.
That statement made Xander's brain fart and freeze, 'Wait a second, does that mean I'm a father?' He thought as his brain seemed to flicker and then flash to the blue screen of death.
Xander stood there, staring dumbly at the ceiling for a few moments.
A tongue licking the outside of Xander's ear lobe and a hand dragging nails lightly across his chest brought Xander's attention back to the here and now.
Shaking his head Xander looked down and watched Tara sashay away from him, now sans skirt and panties and wearing nothing but stockings, a garter belt, heels, a red silk chemise that swayed with her free breasts and the top only covered down to right above her belly button.
Xander's mouth was suddenly very very dry, and he found himself licking his lips.
"Well, um, well um… what was I saying?" Xander asked out loud as he couldn't move his gaze from Tara's perfect rear, the only thoughts in his head were, 'God, you could bounce a whole roll of quarters off of that!'
"There there dear, I see that you are a bit preoccupied at the moment and its good that you get your stress out now rather than blowing up the moon or something. Make sure to stop by the library when you've worn your assistant out will you?" The Chateau laughingly commented, the sound of humor punctuated by a giggle at the end.
Xander licked his lips again, his eyes following Tara as she slowly walked up to the edge of the bed, she slowly spread one leg to the side, then the other, and then bent over at the waist and put both of her hands on the bed to look over her shoulder at Xander and lick her lips.
Xander's brain overloaded.
"Yeah sure, anything you say, I'll blow up the moon and then visit my assistant after I wear you out…" Xander mumbled as he started walking towards Tara, eyes firmly focused on her delectable rear and assets that were clearly on display; the leaning over gave Xander a perfect view right up the inside of the silk chemise at her dangling bosom.
The Chateau's feminine bell like laughter echoed through the mansion, but Xander wasn't paying attention to it any more.
WARNING ADULT MATERIAL AHEAD, TURN AWAY NOW BY ORDER OF THE ADULT CONSPIRACY
Walking forward, Xander slowly raised his hand out and ran it first over the globe of Tara's buttock before tracing it down her thigh and then over the front of her leg and up the V that Tara's pelvis naturally formed. Moving forward, Xander had the little bit of mental acumen needed to mentally order his clothing to fall off of him, which they did as they suddenly turned into silvery fluidic material that pooled off of his body and puddled onto the floor before sliding under the bed.
Naked, Xander traced his other hand up Tara's back, under the chemise and ran his nails up the sides of her spine.
The sensation caused a mixture of almost electric pleasure and tickles to shoot through Tara's body, and she found herself gasping and arching her back towards Xander's touch; throwing her head back so that the hair that had been dangling over her shoulder cascaded down her back.
While holding her back towards him with one hand, Xander's other hand continued to trace up her back slowly, however the pent up stress and tension from the whole Dracula and Romania situation was just too much, and feeling Tara's softness was too much for Xander. Though it wasn't the full primal treatment, all men have an urge to dominate and lavish pleasure on their partner, both taking and receiving pleasure at the same time.
It was this urge that had Xander growl, his hand that had been lightly tracing up Tara's back slid through her hair and then circled around to lightly pull her to him, one hand pulling her hips back against his growing length while the other encircled her neck and pulled her shoulders back against his chest.
Tara gasped and moaned as she felt Xander's muscles ripple behind her as he seemed to fight his strength that would allow him to absolutely dominate and control her if he so wished. Still the growl caused her body to immediately be covered in goose-bumps, and the voice that growled in her ear made her so wet that she just wanted Xander to throw her over the bed and take her.
"Mine." Xander growled in her ear, before nipping her lobe with his teeth and then trailing little bites down her neck before lightly latching his teeth to the juncture between her neck and shoulder. The hand on her neck slid down to pin her arm to her side while cupping Tara's breast and clutching it firmly but not painfully, finger drawing a slow circle on her nipple.
Tara's reaction was to moan again and grind her rear back against Xander's full hardness. The silky softness of her flesh caused Xander to growl into her shoulder where he was biting and claiming her.
Leaning his weight forwards, Xander forced Tara to lean over the bed not unwillingly, the angle of her bend enough that he shifted back and miraculously lined up with her, sliding forwards into her as he released his bite and stood up to look at the beauty leaning on her elbows down on the bed before him.
Xander slowly withdrew and then slowly but powerfully pulled Tara back towards him, causing her to gasp and moan as he slid his length in and out of her.
Tara looking over her shoulder at Xander with smokey eyes only caused him to growl deeper as he picked up speed, the silent message of her eyes letting him know that she was enjoying him being in control.
Xander smirked back at her and picked up his speed, rapidly increasing the pace and keeping up full depth strokes but keeping it within human tolerances. Still, his instincts were taking over, so it was at the fifteen minute mark that Tara closed her eyes in pleasure, and then opened them to realize that she was no longer leaning on the bed but hovering four feet above it.
Tara laughed in combined pleasure and humor as Xander spun her around in mid air, turning in a barrel roll while still impaled on him. His super strength allowed him to move her about as if she weighed no more than a mere doll.
Wrapping her stocking clad legs around Xander's back, Tara sat up and joined Xander in a passionate kiss, tongues dueling to end with light nips at each other's lips as they smiled at each other, the whole time Xander using his superior strength to pull her up and down his length as she kept her long legs wrapped around him. Tara's hands played with his hair and her nails grazed up his back as he continued to control the lustful ride, their lips continuing to mold to one another.
The minutes continued to pass in playful and pleasure filled activity. However the aerial gymnastics were quickly coming to climax, as Xander's growls were now mixed in with stifled moans as he concentrated on holding out and prolonging the pleasure as long as possible while Tara was shivering through miniature orgasms; each one causing her to moan louder and louder.
Closer and closer they came, both rocking and thrusting their bodies together, striving together for mutual release. Tara was the first to draw close, as a low deep wail started to build in her chest and a red flush started in between her breasts and grew towards her neck. She started fluttering inside, and all of Xander's concentration on lasting longer went out flew out the door at the incredible feelings of pleasure he was getting.
It started out as a growl in his chest that matched her wail, it turned into a roar with his release, Tara's eyes grew larger as she felt Xander swell inside her, then with a rush, both male deep roar and female high pitched scream twined together in ecstasy as the pleasure of each joined together in a synergistic orgasmic climax.
Tara went limp in Xander's arms twitching and clenching herself around him, arms struggling to cling to his neck. Xander thrust once, twice, and on the third stroke buried himself as deeply as he could into her, and let out an animalistic roar as the pleasure caused him to spend himself inside of her.
The moment of pleasure seemed to last forever yet at the same time was too short, the type of pleasure hedonists strive to gain but rarely succeed in winning for more than a moment. In the end, Tara was draped around Xander, legs limply wrapped around his hips and her head laying on his shoulder, little tender kissing being planted on his neck and shoulder as she struggled to regain her breath.
Xander had a content look on his face. It was one of the few moments of pleasure where the nonstop rampage of tangential thoughts and voices in his head was quieted. Ok, not fully quieted, as a little voice in the back of his head yelled out, 'Woo Hoo! Way to go Dude! Now you just have to work on the harem.'
WE NOW RETURN YOU TO THE STORY, PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
As Xander floated above the bed after his latest gymnastics, he ignored that little voice inside as his recent activity with Tara took the urgency off of any need to fulfill the little voice's dreams of a harem.
Xander smiled to himself as he stroked Tara's hair and held her in his arms while hovering above the bed. He noticed the mark that he had left on her neck, and a melancholy feeling of happiness mixed with sadness went through him as he realized that, 'Yes, Tara is mine. But she isn't going to be nearly as long lived as I am. Whereas my healing factors very well may make me immortal, she will grow old and maybe one day die if she so chooses or if fate decides for us.' Xander thought somewhat sadly.
It was impossible to be completely sad though, not with Tara still wrapped around him. With command born more out of instinct than conscious thought, Xander hugged Tara to him and rotated them in the air until they were horizontal, and then lowered them to the bed. Xander took a moment to relieve Tar of her heels, and pulling the sheets up, Tara snuggled into Xander's shoulder and both closed their eyes.
Tara's breathing was the first to go into that sleep stage, but Xander wasn't far behind.
Xander's last thoughts before going to sleep were, 'What a long week, I need to take a vacation.'
While Xander was sleeping, his Castle back in Romania was having fun messing with the teams of special forces and spies that were trying to enter the country.
'He he he he, trying to enter by sea are we? Ok, off to the middle of the Indian ocean with you." The Castle cackled somewhat madly as it caused a transporter to snatch up the team of frog men and then dropped them out into the middle of an ocean half way around the world.
The AI of Xander's main fortress, if an Artificial Intelligence is what it could be called given that it was as alive as the Castle Heterodyne or the Cheateu in New Mechanicsburg, was reading sensors and information coming in from miniature clanks hidden throughout the country and along the borders as well as from the Starscream units that flew up above. Additional sensors were being deposited in the earth and landscape around the country as fast as they were made in order to act as additional eyes and ears for the Castle and Xander in their effort to protect the country.
As for the few spy satellites that had attempted to breach Romania's boarders or glance down on the country, the Castle had gotten tired of playing a real life version of space invaders and just started teleporting hacking clanks up into space to hijack the satellites. Romania had just created its own spy satellite system, courtesy of the United States NSA and the other countries satellite departments who dared to steer their satellites above Romania.
The world powers were trying desperately to get a view of what was going on inside Romania, but it was beginning to bore the Castle doing the same thing. It was simple repetition and it was getting boring: find a group, transport them to Antarctica, the top of Mt. Everest, or into the woman's locker room for the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Ok, that last one never got boring.
The Castle was trying to find some enjoyment in its work; it had even gone so far as to turn off sections of the lightning moat in order to dare enemy forces to cross it.
"Ok, shutting down the tesla coils and lightning generators in section 42A." The Castle said to itself, apparently suffering from the same problem that Xander did in talking to himself.
"Wait for it… Wait for it…" The Castle said in anticipation, watching as several special forces groups in black combat gear and on black painted ATV's attempted to drive through the dead spot.
"Wait for it…" The Castle repeated.
Just before they cleared the moat, the Castle yelled, "Now!" The lightning generators came back to life in an instant, lightning bolts the size of a full grown man's torso shooting across and grounding themselves into the tallest thing between them and the ground; the humans on the ATV's.
"Yes! Got three with one bolt! Wow, look at that one, he left his shoes behind when he was blasted off the ATV." The Castle continued to speak. "Hey Armor, mark up another one for blasted out of shoes, I'm going to see if I can get somebody blasted out of their shoes and socks next time, maybe even their pants." The Castle ordered. In the room connected to the computer core, the armor of the Grey Knight turned towards a chalk board and made another tick mark next to 'Blasted out of shoes.'
The computer continued watching the boarder. Spotting a character aiming a rocket launcher at one of the lightning towers, possibly with the hopes of shutting it down and running through the gap in the defenses, the Castle yelled out, "Oh no you don't."
The transport system in the room hummed for a second, and at the same time a holographic display popped up in the room.
"Going to save this one for posterity, maybe a good message to email to the world powers who think about attacking the border." The Castle said.
On the screen a red flash of energy was shown right where the man stood; the man, rocket launcher, and a section of the earth all disappearing from where the man had been standing.
At the same time, high above in Earth's orbit and above the atmospheric level, a man carrying a rocket launcher and standing on a piece of turf appeared.
Transporting a little clank up near the man, the Castle caught the whole thing on video. The lack of gravity caused the man to twitch, firing the rocket that flashed by the little clank but sent the man into a tailspin in the near zero gravity environment. The spin wasn't the biggest problem for the guy, as decompression soon set in. Flesh turned red, blood vessels popped, yet nobody heard the man scream in the vacuum of space. The floating red droplets of blood and fluids sizzled and seemed to flash freeze in the coldness of space. The little clank was able to watch as the corpse, or what was left of it, slowly started to drift towards the first layer of the earth's atmosphere, no doubt on its way to burning up on reentry.
"Oooook. Maybe that's a little too gruesome to show to the general public, but I'll give it to Xander to use if he needs to frighten somebody." The Castle stated, doing its own impression of a verbal shrug.
"Now what should I do?" The Castle asked, noticing that all of the teams trying to get into the country had stopped for the moment, no doubt refusing orders to proceed given that it appeared that none had succeeded yet.
Panning through the views around the country's borders, the Castle finally saw something that made it smile.
High up, flying at about 50 to 60 thousand feet over Kasnia was a transport plane. Focusing in with the optics mounted on the original pylons spaced around Romania's borders the Castle was able to see that there was an American flag insignia on the plane.
"Yes! Initiating pre-programmed response to US in retaliation for embargo and invasion, operation 'Returning The Refuse' is a go." The Castle said, this time in a more mechanical voice than usual as one of Xander's preprogrammed directives kicked in.
High above Kasnia, Agent Jim Bind of the CIA was strapping himself into a blade, a small, one manned stealth glider that would allow him to quickly zip across the border into Romania. The jump master checked the man's straps, gave him a thumbs up, the light went green and Agent Bind went sliding off the ramp of the plane and into a free fall; the wings on his blade quickly deployed and he shot like a bullet from a gun at the border of Romania.
Smiling to himself, Agent Bind though, 'There's no way that they will be able to intercept me in the air with their fighters, and by the time they realize I'm on the ground I will have already seamlessly blended into the population. Hopefully this will be like my other missions and I'll be 'blending' with some hot Romanian government agent who is willing to betray her country and tell me their secrets all due to my good looks and long penis.'
Alas, such was not to be for Agent Bind, for as soon as he hit the border a red flash took place right in front of him.
Agent Bind only had a moment to think, 'Oh Shit!' before he went head first into the President's desk in the oval office, traveling at about two hundred miles an hour; or rather the desk was the last thing to go through Agent Bind's head.
Speaking about shit, it would be a while before anybody could find the agent's body as after he flew into the Oval office of the White House, the Castle redirected the septic systems for the castle to dump two tons of semi fluid and oh so chunky human waste through the portal and into said office.
The Pièce de résistance was a white wooden sign on a long sharp post that shot out of the portal and embedded itself in the office floor, the sign standing clear of the waste.
The sign read, "Keep your shit out of our country, and we will keep our shit out of yours."
It was too bad that Agent Bind had to die, but the United States couldn't say that they hadn't been warned.
Similar lessons on watching who you defecate with were provided to Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and several of Romania's other neighbors when their agents attempted to parachute over the border into Romania.
As for The People's Republic of China and its original bar-b-cued agents, well Xander had special plans for them and Oolong Island.
Perhaps, just perhaps, Xander could even gain an ally in another Meta-human ruler when Xander taught the Chinese a lesson in not to screw with him or his people.
AN: Well the chapter needed to be there, and I've set it up for Xander's vacation and a little lesson to the Chinese. Don't like to give spoilers, so that's all you're going to get at the moment. I've hit 17 chapters on this story; I'm tied up with my Freak of Nature story. I'm trying to figure out which one of my stories to work on next, perhaps I'll catch Aspects of Death up to this one and Freak? Let me know what you think.