Apocalypse Tales (Marvel. SI)

By: Gothicjedi666

[NSFW] - Apocalypse Tales (Marvel. SI) by Gothicjedi666

Status: ongoing

Published: 2023-04-15

Updated: 2023-05-14

Words: 44236

Chapters: 17

Original source: https/forum./threads/22057

Exported with the assistance of

Apocalypse Tales (Marvel. SI)

Introduction

Set up and Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

Set up and Part 1

Apocalypse Tales CYOA - Commissioned by Dunkelzahn and made by Om1cr0n

https/wormlewdmod./apocalypse/

Spoiler

Set-Up

World

Marvel [Ultimate]

Gain: 60

AU World

Cost: -5

You have the option to transform the world you have chosen into one of its Alternate Universe (AU) versions, as long as it maintains a similar level of danger to the original and does not significantly alter the power levels of its characters. The AU world can be anything, canon, fanfiction, or an entirely original creation.

(I'll be using my own AU version)

Apocalypse

Monsters

Gain: 70

(Rather than having animals mutate I'm having them come into this world from other fictional settings as works better that way with Interdimensional Refugees)

Appearance

Young Adult

Male

Handsome

Cost: -1

Enhanced Physiology

Cost: -8

Healthy

Cost: -3

Your Base

Hundredfold Haven

Cost: -10

Bunker 1

Cost: -5

Fusion Reactor

Cost: -10

Water Purifier

Cost: -6

Hydroponics

Cost: -4

Automatic Cook

Cost: -3

Refugees

Cost: -4

Interdimensional Refugees

Cost: -8

Required: Refugees

AI

Cost: -10

(EDI)

Expanding

Cost: -15

Automatic Defense

Cost: -5

Items

Recycle Bots

Cost: -7

Replicator

Cost: -6

AT-8

Cost: -8

Tech Library

Cost: -4

Power Armor

Cost: -8

Bodyguard 1

Cost: -10

(Cameron from T:TSSC)

Perks

HUD

Cost: -5

(Cortana)

Strong Lifeforce

Cost: -8

Ageless

Cost: -10

Offroad

Cost: -3

Learning Mastery

Cost: -9

Harem

Cost: -4

Fertility

Cost: -5

Something in You

(female heroes)

Cost: -1

Drawbacks

Coming in Blind

Gain: 15

This story was Commissioned by the generous Spookyboones

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 1.

Underground Base. New York.

The noise that brought me out of my deep sleep was a regular beeping noise, at first it was a distant sound and the beeps were far apart, and then when I began to focus on them they became louder as well as more frequent.

When I fully woke up I became aware that I was somewhere I'd never been before the beeping noise became almost frantic unit I realised that the machine making all the racket was a heart rate monitor.

It wasn't hard to conclude that I was in some sort of hospital. However, there were no windows in this room and it all looked very high-tech, certainly not something you'd expect when you get medical treatment on the NHS.

For a moment I wondered if I had been abducted by aliens. That idea got my heart rate monitor going faster and founder until I began to settle down. No one was attempting to probe my anus and there were no little grey men around.

In fact, there was no one here other than me. As far as I knew I was in no danger, and this wasn't an alien spaceship, or if it was then my abductors went to great lengths to make this place appear human-made what with the equipment being labelled in English.

I stood up and felt weird, and a little alarmed when I ran my hands down my body. I was slim, no more than merely slim I had noticeable muscles, and yet they didn't make me feel bulky either, there was a leanness to me.

It wasn't until I found the adjoining bathroom, which I entered after unhooking myself from the machines, that I could check myself in a mirror and get a better idea of how I had changed.

Somehow I'd become younger overnight and not just much physically fitter I would say I was more handsome than I ever had been. My hair was still messy and black, and my eyes were blue, I still had my beard as well, but it all just looked better on me.

"What the hell did they do to me?" I wondered.

When someone spoke I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Please remained calm," said a familiar female voice.

Right away I knew that I heard that person speak before. The familiarity helped me to keep it together.

" EDI?" I asked

There was no hologram or robot body that the voice could be coming from. It sounded more like it was coming from some hidden speakers.

"I am the AI for the New York branch of the Emergency Defence Institute" stated the voice "You may call me EDI if you wish".

This information only created more questions.

"I'm in New York?" I asked, "As in America?".

When she next spoke it sounded as if the AI was some distance away.

"Please follow the sound of my voice" instructed EDI.

Slowly I made my way out of what appeared to be an infirmary of some kind. There were other rooms as well. Some looked to be living spaces, while others must be for storage and one an armoury. It was all very clean and modern in appearance.

EDI encouraged me to keep moving and before long I entered what I assumed to be some sort of command centre. It looked like something I'd expected a world leader to use as base of operations.

Spoiler

[img: https/i./originals/10/66/e2/1066e218bdd282c97afbc8d69940673c.jpg]

"Welcome to the bunker, Kaliburn. Would you like me to call you Kal for short?" asked EDI.

Before I could point out that this wasn't my name a hologram was emitted from some piece of equipment from the centre of the table that showed my face and some personal details, such as my hair and my colour, or color in this case as it was written in American English instead of British English.

For some reason, a lot of my personal information was redacted, including my actual name, for some reason, and I got the impression that using it would be a bad idea.

I also discovered that Kaliburn was my code name as part of a project to create some sort of super soldier only it didn't work quite right.

My file mentioned that I was at the peak of humanity, but lacking when compared to people like Captain America and the Winter Soldier.

Because of this something called Project Hephaestus, supplied Project Ares with sets of power armour to be used by the super soldiers, each of whom was named after legendary weapons. Caliburn, Clarent, Excalibur and so on. Why someone had decided to name me after Caliburn the sword and then spell with a K instead of a C I had no idea.

I also had no idea why I'd been selected by some Americans, altered and then put in a bunker. None of this made any sense.

"Yeah let's go with Kal," I said, not caring what anyone called me "Now please tell me what the hell is going on".

The display shifted to show that I was indeed within some sort of bunker.

"This is the New York branch of the Emergency Defence Institute" I was told "Locations such as this have been set up in every major city to safeguard the lives of VIPs and their families in case of nuclear war".

Given that the place was empty either something had gone wrong or there was no nuclear war.

"So I'm in New York" I stated "Or rather under it".

The display changed again to show that I was actually directly under Central Park.

"So who created this place?" I asked.

As it turned out this place was created by the rich to safeguard themselves and their families with the aid of the US government. No expense had been spared to make sure that a few families would be safe and cared for while most of the population was left to die.

More files were shown to me, they were about important people who I'd never heard anything about. Only one of them rang any bells.

" Wilson Fisk" I whispered.

I knew that name from somewhere and when I touched the hologram of the file it opened up. It had the word missing stamped across the front page.

This man who I was rapidly starting to believe was the Kingpin, an enemy of Daredevil and Spiderman, was married to Vanessa Fisk, and their son Richard Fisk had a place in this bunker with them. They were also listed as missing.

In fact, every file other than mine declared the person to be missing. That was worrying.

"What happened to all these people?" I asked EDI.

The holograms changed to show a crowd in New York doing some shopping as it snowed. Everything seemed fine until suddenly a monster appeared, looking as if it had faded out only in reverse, and then it began attacking people, as did other creatures in other locations across the city.

It took me a while to realise that the time stamp read 12.20.2022 when it should be 20.12.2022 since it should be the day, month, and year not month, day, year.

"How old is this footage?" I asked.

"It is twenty-four hours old" I was told.

That meant I was a few months in the past. Almost Christmas, or last Xmas in my case, and that explained the decorations I'd seen in the videos. Not that I'd paid the background much attention due to what happened in the video.

"And these monsters appeared everywhere in New York?" I asked.

The footage suggested as much as there were a few clips that showed odd creatures appearing in different locations.

"No" EDI answered, "The monsters appeared all over the world".

I just stood there for a while trying to make sense of all of this. Could I be in some version of the Marvel Universe? A version where Earth was being overrun by monsters for some reason.

"Do you have access to files on people who aren't supposed to be in this bunker?" I wondered.

I needed to find out more.

"Yes, Kal" I was told.

I gave the matter some thought.

"Show me Tony Stark" I requested.

The file proved to me that Ironman was real and he was not missing. His last known location was Avenger Tower, a place not that far from here. He worked with the other Avengers and there was even footage of them fighting monsters as the city came under attack.

"Peter Parker" was the file I asked for next.

There were a few of them to go through as it wasn't a unique name, and before long I found the right one. He was a photographer for the Daily Bugle, so this wasn't the MCU as this version looked older the MCU Peter Parker was still in school if I remembered correctly.

I began to go through some other names. Such as Frank Castle who was last seen in some sort of supermax prison according to EDI.

The files of Black Widow and Hawkeye were closed to me due to that information being highly classified.

"Okay show me, Professor Charles Xavier," I said.

He was the headmaster of a school for gifted children and young adults. His home wasn't even that far from here. Mutants were known to exist, however, since they made up such a tiny fraction of the population and they were ways to contain them if they went bad, they weren't much of a concern to the public in modern times.

I decided not to check for Deadpool as given his ability to break the fourth wall that might draw his attention.

"Doctor Stephen Strange," I requested.

He was a retired surgeon and lived here in New York, he was publicly known to be a wizard. Magic existed here and people just seemed to accept it as it was written as fact in his file.

"This is insane," I said.

I was in some version of the Marvel Universe, just not one I knew. The Avengers were real, and so was SHIELD, which meant that groups such as HYDRA and the WeaponX programme could still exist in some form.

There would be a lot more going on that I couldn't imagine as my knowledge of Marvel wasn't that great. Although given that there were monsters going around attacking people then not all of the players would still be alive or interested in carrying out their old agendas.

"Kal," said EDI "Are you well?".

I'd been deep in thought, trying to make some sense of the madness I'd found myself in. I needed time to think, but it was a dangerous world out there, so I couldn't leave this bunker. This was stressing me out.

"So are we alone down here?" I asked.

I was wondering if this base had other people working in it.

"There are two other artificial entities here," EDI told me "Aside from myself, there is Cortana who will oversee your field operations and an unknown AI in the workshop".

Meeting an AI that sounded like EDI was one thing, but finding out that there was also a Cortana made me very suspicious. Someone or something had to be playing with me. Could be one of those ROBs I'd read about online.

"Hello, Kaliburn" greeted a small 3D image of a woman "I am Cortana, your personal AI".

Spoiler

[img: https/i./originals/c9/fe/a6/c9fea683c8ef7f910510580b6599015a.jpg]

Things were just getting stranger by the second. I had to pinch myself to make sure that this wasn't a dream. Not that this could be as my dreams were never this interesting.

"So whose the third AI?" I questioned.

I might as well meet everyone before I went back to the infirmary and found something to sedate myself with, as facing reality, if this was real, seemed a bit much right now.

"Please go directly to the workshop," EDI instructed.

I did so easily as the bunker was well laid out and there were signs. This was not something I'd noticed earlier I must have been too distracted.

Spoiler

[img: https/terrigen-cdn-dev./content/prod/1x/marvel_avengers_08-1920x1080.jpg]

When I entered the very high-tech workshop I saw Summer Glau of all people lying on a table wearing only a sheet. Only she couldn't be the actress as she was a machine of some kind. She had wires going into her metal skull.

Was this the Terminator called Cameron? It would explain the wires and the metal.

"EDI who is this?" I asked.

She spoke again over the hidden speakers.

"More than just monsters appeared without warning, other entities entered this world, some attempted to aid the human population, and others were less friendly" she answered, "This cyborg was found damaged on the surface, the recycling bots brought her here. I am reprogramming the cyborg to serve as your bodyguard".

This was all proving to be too much to take in. There was so much information for me to go over, it was surprising that I hadn't already been totally overwhelmed. It made me wonder if my mind had been altered as much as my body.

"I need some time to think," I informed the AI.

Maybe a stiff drink as well. I wasn't much for getting drunk, but this seemed like the time to give it a go.

"I suggest you get something to eat," said EDI "You should visit the mess hall".

That sounded like a good idea. Perhaps things wouldn't seem so dire on a full stomach.


Part 2

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 2.

Underground Base. New York.

Despite the appeal, I decided not to spend my time freaking out or drinking myself into a state of depression. So after having a good meal, I figured that it would be smart of me to find out more about what was going on around here.

I soon learned that EDI had her ways of gathering information even if the Internet and phone networks had gone down. She was wired into the city's infrastructure as I understood and she could power a number of systems, including some cameras up on the surface.

Also, we had lots of fancy equipment down here, very little of which I understood the purpose for. I would have to learn all about them if I going to fully utilise this place. Given the state of the world, I couldn't afford to waste any of my resources.

I'd managed to find some plain black clothing to change into once I realised that I should start wearing more than a hospital gown. I hadn't even thought about that until I'd gotten something to eat and drank some coffee. Not shocking given all that I'd needed to handle.

Whatever had happened to me hadn't fully run its course as I still felt off in

some way. Whatever had happened to me had affected me mentally as well as physically.

My attention was diverted from a tablet that I had been using to try to learn more about this base when Cameron walked in, she had found clothes somewhere, not that this was good news for me as I wouldn't mind if she chose to walk around in her underwear.

Although she did look good in what she'd picked out to wear.

Spoiler

[img: https/i./originals/2b/52/81/2b52810a66fa3b6998318f77d30697a1.jpg]

"Are you okay?" I asked.

The cyborg looked at me and the expression on her face was a little offputting. She seemed out of it. If she had been human I'd wonder if she were still feeling the effects of a sedative.

"Yes, Kaliburn I am fine" she replied.

EDI spoke next. Drawing my attention to the information on display.

"I have removed most of Cameron's older programming and altered her priorities so that she will devote herself to your wellbeing" I was told.

Perhaps this meant I replaced John Conner in some way.

"I will protect you" the Terminator promised.

That was nice to hear. Unless I stayed down here in the bunker, which at least seemed very safe, I was going to need a bodyguard.

"I'm just trying to learn more about this bunker" I mentioned.

EDI had some information to provide.

"This base was built to supply the needs of up to one hundred survivоrs of any disaster," the AI said. "Thе bаsе is еquippеd with a basic аrmоry, an indoor gаrdеn, a wоrkshоp аnd a mеdicаl fаcility. The bunker is powered by a fusion reactor and we have a water purifier that will make rainwater drinkable".

So we wouldn't need to go out and look for clean water. This was good news and we shouldn't run out of power either.

"The Hydroponics bay can provide food for up to one hundred people while supplying oxygen, and we have an Automatic Cook to ensure that your meals are of the highest quality" EDI let me know.

I knew about the food part already as I'd finished a good meal not so long ago.

"If you wish to leave the bunker for your field operations you can do so via the main lift or the garage" I was told.

The display now showed some sort of armoured transport that could be lifted up into the park.

"Spare parts can be obtained from the Replicator should you have sufficient resources, and the Recycle Bots can collect the raw materials required to build any known human technology," EDI said next.

She wasn't done yet.

"Yоu cаn еnjоy thе cоmfоrt оf а sаfе hаvеn in а pоst-аpоcаlyptic wоrld" she finished by saying.

I was impressed.

"They really did spare no expense," I said.

Cameron turned to look at me again. It was a testament to how strange my life had rapidly become that I was only a little unsettled by having a cyborg killer staring at me.

"Who spared no expense?" she asked.

I requested that EDI show Cameron the files she shared with me.

"Do you wish to grant her access to the bunker's database?" I was asked.

I was getting the impression that I might be in charge here.

"Yes," I answered "She needs to know everything that is going on".

The cyborg began her own studies as I looked over the most recent intel. Despite the surprise invasion of monsters, many of New York's heroes had stepped in to create safe zones that they protected. Avengers Tower and the Baxter Building were the only places where the lights were still on.

Spoiler

[img: https/static1./wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/avengers-tower.png]

Judging by the radio chatter that EDI was picking up there was both a Spiderman and Spiderwoman keeping parts of Queens somewhat safe with the aid of someone called Black Cat.

Some of the more powerful villains had craved out their own territory very rapidly. It reminded me a bit of that No Man's Land story in DC when Gotham is just abandoned by the rest of the country and Batman's rogue gallery took over most of the city.

Something similar was happening here according to the police who were working with the heroes to keep parts of the city in some sort of order. We knew this because the police were using radios and we could listen in.

Most of the people had just fled or gone into hiding, and it was the same all over the world. There was some sort of government left and they were trying to coordinate with people across the country.

There were bunkers and military bases that could take some people in, but since the monsters had appeared everywhere the military was going to be busy for quite some time. Even the SHIELD Helicarrier was ferrying people around and trying to coordinate efforts to keep feeling civilians from becoming a meal for something horrible.

I should start looking for people to bring here so that they could be looked after, but I had no desire to fill my new home with strangers, and none of the AI here seemed interested in trying to get me to do that.

Although if I did go out there, and it looked as I would since we were going to need certain materials if I wanted to expand the base, I would only invite people I liked to shelter here with me and they would have to accept me as their leader.

"It looks as if we are doing okay for food, water, clothing, entertainment and so on," I said "We don't really need anything, at least anything important".

EDI didn't agree.

"The purpose of this bunker is not just to shelter people," the machine intelligence told me "From here we can begin to rebuild society. The robots were created to do just that. You can use them to salvage materials and secure a part of the city".

I gave her words some thought. Since I was below a massive park I could try to secure it and then build defences. Then some homes, and maybe more Hydroponics bays so as to be able to feed people.

Also, I would need some way to keep order as well so that no one could take my home from me.

I told my EDI my idea and she showed me a map of the park as well as the area around it.

Spoiler

[img: https/images-na./images/I/91JQFkECsAL.jpg]

"This location can become a suitable haven for refugees" she stated "There are nearby buildings that can be secured or demolished for materials depending on your needs".

I could see how it could be defended if a perimeter could be set up. Plus, there were bodies of water here. If I set up the right equipment then people would have access to clean water. I knew how important that would be when it came to preventing the spread of disease.

"There are designs for battle robots in the database," I noticed "Would you control them?".

Since it turned out that she would I'd have to trust EDI.

"My range would be limited and I would only be able to control a finite number of battle robots," she told me "The amount will depend on their complexity".

I might need to form some sort of militia to back up the bots and do scouting. I didn't want the robots doing all the work as that would make for a bored population.

It would be best to find ways to keep people busy. That was a project for later since I didn't have any people to put into any roles.

For now, I'd decided not to communicate with anyone. The monsters were unlikely to be able to get to me down here, so I was actually more worried about one of the villains or even a hero team coming here to take this base either for themselves or to house people they wanted to protect.

I felt it best to keep my head down for now. Later once I had some bots to support me and a better idea of my own resources, then I could risk meeting with others to exchange information and perhaps work towards aiding each other.

"There are many threats out there" commented Cameron.

Since she was meant to serve as a bodyguard it made sense that she would be studying the videos of the monsters when they first entered this world. I started to watch them with her.

"I've seen some of these creatures before," I told the two AI in the room.

Or perhaps three if Cortana was listening in.

"That's a Death Claw," I said.

EDI showed us a 3D holographic map of the city.

"Two of them are nesting in Bronx Park" I was told "I suspect they are a mating pair".

That was bad news.

"And that thing that slithered down into the sewers after taking out an entire crowd looks like the Basilisk from the Harry Potter franchise" I mentioned.

EDI showed us an image from that movie and compared the two, they weren't identical, but they were close, and when I looked closely at the Basilisk that had gone down into the sewers I saw its eye and suddenly felt dizzy.

Spoiler

[img: https/pm1./6787/70f55f045bfe2cb4f3505f926ce27747001a85fev2_hq.jpg]

"Get rid of that image!" I shouted.

Apparently making eye contact with the eyes of Basilisk in a recording was bad for your health. That made no sense at all. Thankfully the effects were weakened so I just felt a bit sick for a few moments.

"It would better to delete that video" stated Cameron.

We soon checked out some more footage.

"That's a Game of Thrones dragon," I said once I went back to looking at some images.

Spoiler

[img: https/assets1./2015/04/24/dragbrunnamedjpg-e9dea5_1280w.jpg]

At least that beast had flown far away.

"I think that's a Sandworm from Dune," I said.

EDI was showing me an image taken by some sort of spy drone in Africa.

Spoiler

[img: https/upload./wikipedia/en/3/35/Dune_2021-Sandworm.jpg]

We even had some satellite images as so far nothing in orbit had been affected directly by what was happening on the surface. Although I felt sure that the astronauts in the International Space Station were not having a good time.

Before civilization started to collapse EDI had been connected to the Internet so she had a lot of footage for us to look at. I began to identify as many creatures as I could and to supply the AI what little information about their capabilities as possible.

I saw a Creeper from Minecraft blow up a few people in a subway before the camera cut out. I also watched a Rancor from Star Wars running down a large street, batting aside cars.

Spoiler

[img: https//storage/product-images/501030U/the-rancor_star-wars_feature.jpg]

"They aren't any sophonts" I realised.

It hadn't struck me until now.

"I noticed that too," said Cortana.

Turns out she was listening in.

"Sophont: An intelligent being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of a human being. The word does not apply to machines unless they have true artificial intelligence, rather than mere processing capacity" said Cameron.

I decided to ignore that.

"There are no vampires, werewolves, demons, giants with clubs, animal people or anything like that" I was now saying "Wait, EDI didn't you mention there were hostile humanoids".

Cameron must have been one of them.

"Yes, Kal" she answered "But there are very few and they are sophonts, and while some have been hostile, they didn't show any interest in slaughtering the population. They reacted out of fear".

I saw some more footage and one of the beings looked like some sort of elf.

"So this world has been invaded by monsters with animal levels of intelligence and a few people have turned up as well" I mused "What could have caused this?".

If this was an attack then why only use monsters that were just as likely to attack each other as the humans? This had happened we had recordings of it. And why not send intelligent creatures? Monsters such as the Darkspawn from Dragon Age could be a huge threat.

I didn't think this was something akin to the Conjunction of Spheres as they had in the Witcher verse as there had been no warning and I knew way too many of the creatures that appeared from fiction.

At this point, I wondered if some sort of bored and very powerful being had just decided to make this world even more interesting by sending a load of fictional monsters here.

Could this be the work of the Beyonder or something of similar power?

How or why this had happened wasn't as important as trying to figure out what to do about it. No matter what I did it seemed smart to spend some of my time trying to identify as many monsters as possible and coming up with ideas of how to kill them.


Part 3

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 3.

Central Park. New York City.

Slowly the lift moved us up the surface, some of the ground above being moved out of the way by some unseen mechanism so that the surface the transport now rested upon would become the ground above us soon.

This left me wondering how anyone had been able to build the bunker and its many features without it becoming public knowledge, but there were plenty of things in comic book worlds that made no sense if you spend time thinking about them.

When we got to the surface Cameron, who had already learned to drive the AT-8 did not start driving off, instead, she used the transport's scanners and her own keen vision to check for any danger. Given what was out there her caution made sense.

"The AT-8 is a beast of a vehicle, designed to carry up to eight passengers across any terrain," EDI told us over the comm "Whether it's sand, snow, or lava, the AT-8 can handle it with its durable armour and powerful engine".

I somehow doubted the bit about lava was true, but it was unlikely we'd ever need to test the transport's limits in such a way.

"The AT-8 also comes equipped with a plasma cannon and a cloaking device, making it ideal for stealth missions or combat situations" she finished saying.

Her statement amused me.

"Hey EDI, do you get paid to stay that stuff?" I wondered.

It did sound as if she had been made to say that.

"No, Kal" she answered, "It's just part of my programming".

I was sitting in the front and in the back of the AT-8 were a few of the bots that were meant to go out and collect materials. Given enough time and the right materials they should be able to bring to my life my plans for this park.

Right now we were just going on a sort of test run. The idea was that we would scout out the area, and try to recover some useful supplies. The bunker had what we needed to survive, however, I had no desire to spend the rest of my life in a hole in the ground no matter how nice it was down there.

"Put your helmet on," instructed Cameron.

While I was in charge, or at least everyone let me act as if I was in charge, the Terminator was responsible for my safety due to her new programming. So I did as she wished.

I might have felt bad about EDI changing her if not for the fact that left to her own devices she'd either go about killing humans or waste her time searching for John Conner.

As soon as I put on my helmet I got a HUD and an image of a naked Cortana. She'd altered her appearance to seem more human as well.

Spoiler

[img: https/wimg.rule34.xxx/images/3457/47501dd054628fa68b22560e18d84fe5.jpeg]

"This armour is a cutting-edge technological marvel that fits snugly to the wearer's body," declared my personal AI "It enhances the wearer's physical strength, endurance, and durability. It features a range of additional capabilities such as sensory enhancement, environmental protection and a communications module".

I knew that Cortana had just spoken like that as a bit of a joke as her style of speech was more causal than EDI's.

She was right about the suit. It did fit snuggly and would look much better on a woman's body in my view, however, I needed the protection, and it did enhance me to the level of a superhuman. Given that I lived in a world overrun by monsters I would need all the edge I could get.

"Amusing" I commented "And while I've never said to this any female before: Could you put some clothes on".

Having a naked woman, or what looked to be a naked woman, in my HUD would get very distracting.

"Spoilsport" Cortana complained.

She made her image disappear, yet I knew she was still there.

"I'm your personal AI," she told me "I thought you might like me all naked and eager to serve".

It was as if she knew me, and the fact that she did know me somewhat made some sense since she was meant to be my AI. I wondered how she could have gotten to know me so quickly.

"That's fine when we are in the bunker" I assured her "Just not when we are in the field, and how do you know what I like?".

Cortana laughed.

"You're young and male" she answered "Unless you're homosexual, and I'm cool with that if you are, then you like looking at naked girls".

So no great mystery there.

"Fair enough," I said.

I now had something else I wished to talk to Cortana about.

"So are you part of the armour?" I asked.

It was important for me to learn more about the people I was working with, and to me they were people.

"Actually, I'm inside your head," she told me "To be precise my programme resides inside a computer chip which has been implanted into your skull".

That freaked me out a bit.

"You've been inside my head this whole time?" I wished to know.

This was understandably worrying.

"Don't worry I can't read your mind or anything like that" she assured me "I can use your senses to gather information along with armour's systems, and that is what I use to create your HUD. I can shut off my access to your sense if you need to use the bathroom. Also, I can advise you without anyone overhearing us, I can even send information to EDI. Oh, and I monitor your health".

She had more to say on this matter.

"I only upload myself to your chip when you are going out into the field" Cortana went on to say "When you are in the bunker I remain inside the mainframe there. I didn't tell you this before because it wasn't relevant until now and I didn't want to put you under more stress".

Hearing that made me feel better.

Cameron got my attention.

"Kaliburn, where do you wish to go?" she inquired.

That was a good question. I had a few ideas, but I hadn't totally narrowed them down yet.

"We haven't got much time before it gets dark" Cortana reminded.

So we shouldn't go far. I could only imagine that it would get worse around here once the sun went down.

"What are we lacking?" I wondered.

Cameron did something to the GPS, which for now was still working.

"Our armoury is lacking" she stated "I propose we expand it".

Sounded good to me.

"A visit to a local sporting goods store seems like the best place to start" offered EDI over the comm.

Cortana suggested that I man the turret. The plasma cannon once active came out of the top of the AT-8 and it had 360 degrees of fire.

"Wicked," I said to myself.

There was a slight problem.

"I've never fired a real weapon" I admitted "This looks a lot more complex than in a video game".

Cortana linked my set of power armour to the cannon. This made things a lot simpler as she was able to handle most of the work. I just had to push the trigger when the time was right.

"I'd like for you to take the chance for some target practice," said Cortana before she made her voice come over the comm so Cameron could hear her

"Can you find us some suitable targets?".

That didn't take long.

"Some sort of flying creatures," I said as the turret moved and angled up "I can't make them out".

Cortana zoomed in on the display.

Spoiler

[img: https/3.bp./-AeQRYTjbeXI/TkjYETJfPAI/AAAAAAAAA_I/hldtLwyq0gk/s1600/flyingmonsters.jpg]

"Some sort of dinosaur," she said "Nothing native to this world that we have in our database matches them".

By now the AT-8 was moving down a road, and knocking any abandoned cars in our path out of the way. I began opening fire as Cortana did the aiming for me. It was overkill as I was firing a plasma cannon, but it was valuable practice and I had many new skills that I needed to learn.

"We're here," said the Terminator.

Cameron had already given a quick tutorial on how to fire a gun. I felt a lot better with the rifle in my hands.

Spoiler

[img: https//uploads/images/rifle3_4e477b000f97.jpg]

It was primitive compared to my power armour and that seemed odd. EDI had mentioned that it was due to gun control laws in this state. Rules about owning power armour were much laxer. Politics affects everything.

We quickly headed inside the sporting goods store I was stunned by what I saw.

Spoiler

[img: https//wp-content/uploads/2016/01/gun-store-3-wikimedia.jpg]

"By the Power of Greyskull," I said.

I'd known that owning a gun was part of the culture in this country, but you could equip a small army with what was on display here. That was a good thing since I did plan to set up some citizen militia in the near future.

"What we don't store in the armoury we can recycle to create better weapons," Cortana offered "We should be able to create some explosives as well".

Given that there were dragons out there I figured that we'd need more than hunting rifles and shotguns. Some F-16s wouldn't go amiss if we were going to have dragon problems.

"Load up the AT-8" Cameron instructed the robots "We need to be fast".

She was right, there could be countless horrors in the area, or maybe an apex predator had claimed this area as its own dominion. I kept watch as the robots did all the work. The bots were programmed to fight and they wouldn't get tired so it made sense for them to do the lifting.

"It's a little too quiet" I commented.

There was nothing I could put my finger, but there was something wrong here, and I didn't find out what until someone shot one of the bots, doing no damage thankfully as the robot soon recovered.

The threat came from humans, and as soon as that became clear, Cameron yelled at me to go get into the turret.

That was the safest place for me as it the AT-8 wasn't going to be damaged by small arms fire and I could shoot back with the plasma cannon.

"Let's try scaring them off" suggested Cortana "They might just be civilians who came looking for weapons they need to defend themselves".

I would have thought that civilians would have backed off when they saw robots and our mode of armoured transport. Perhaps they were a gang, or maybe someone had just panicked.

Either way, I had no desire to slaughter humans so freighting them with a display of force seemed like the right thing to do. To that end, Cortana selected a car as a target and I blew it up. As expected the shooting soon came to an end and I could see people fleeing.

So it was a bit odd that Cameron and the bots came running into the AT-8 as if they were being chased by hellhounds, which was a real possibility in this world. Then I heard the roar.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Cortana rotated the turret and elevated it, when she finished I saw what could freak out a dangerous cyborg killing machine.

Spoiler

[img: https/i./originals/fb/c2/43/fbc243f4ad26d992260d44d544835524.jpg]

"Is that King Kong?" I asked.

It clearly was and no one bothered to answer me as Cameron was focused on driving us back to the bunker and Cameron was getting me targeting lock as the monster dropped to the street with no sign of injury.

As we moved down a street at unsafe speeds I opened fire and the big ape staggered as if struck before it began moving again.

What kind of creature could just jump off such a high building and shrug off getting hit by a plasma cannon? King Kong obviously, but there was no time to dwell on that as I needed to keep firing.

The massive monster got rather close before I was reminded of the wisdom of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. There is always a bigger fish, or rather more deadly monster as something that could only be a version of Godzilla, or something close, had decided that the ape was a threat.

Spoiler

[img: https/3.bp./-yY3x1uAVg7Q/U4FM2hkytKI/AAAAAAAAAeU/kzU8CsITkr8/s1600/GambarGodzilla2014GedungNewYorkCity.jpg]

I fired the plasma cannon until it threatened to overheat and neither creature seemed to care.

Soon after that, we were out of range and heading into the park. We didn't stop until we were in the right spot and the ground beneath the AT-8 began moving down and some more appeared to become the roof from my changing perspective.

"How is anyone surviving out there?" I wondered.

We'd barely made it back here and we had an armoured transport that could have come out of a science fiction movie and a freaking plasma cannon to shoot things with.

"The same way vermin survive being near humans," said Cortana as the AT-8 came to a stop inside the garage "They stay out of sight and try not to draw the attention of creatures you can easily kill you"

Not the most flattering of comparisons, but I couldn't fault her logic.

"We should avoid that area in the future" advised Cameron.

An obvious statement, however, she was trying to help so I didn't say anything negative.

"Good idea," I said.

We began making our way to the command centre as the bots unloaded the guns they'd recovered.

"I'll begin locating alternate sights for recovering weapons," stated the Terminator.

We were going to need a lot more than we'd recovered. Not just because of the monsters, it had become clear to me that the humans out there were also a big threat. I'd have to factor that into my plans, or I would after I went and hit in my bedroom for a while.


Part 4

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 4.

Underground Bunker. New York.

My enhancements must have upgraded my senses somewhat as I used to be a very heavy sleeper, or maybe coming to such a dangerous world had simply made me start acting more carefully, either way as soon as someone opened my bedroom door I found myself becoming alert.

I didn't begin to fully focus on what was going on around me until I heard my unexpected guest gently closing the bedroom door. Assuming that someone hadn't broken into the base, and it seemed very unlikely that anyone could manage that without setting off an alarm due to our security, then there was only one person who could have entered my room.

Despite the almost complete darkness in my new big and fancy room that was meant to be used by a wealthy married couple, I was just about able to make out Cameron's form as she moved from the door to the side of the bed I was occupying.

She was very stealthy, a given that she could serve as an effective assassin and I wondered if she'd purposely made enough noise to let me know she was here without scaring me.

Looking over at the digital clock on his bedside table I saw that it was just after two in the morning. Despite this having been a very long day I'd had trouble getting to sleep. Maybe it was some sort of jetlag from changing timezones as well as worlds, or more likely it was because I had so much on my mind.

So much had happened to me recently that it was rather impressive that I'd been able to avoid having a complete mental breakdown, or perhaps I'd simply delayed it. I wouldn't be surprised if I freaked out sometime soon.

"Did I wake you?" Cameron asked softly.

I looked at her dim silhouette that was barely visible, the alarm cloak was the only saw of illumination aside from little lights being emitted by the entertainment system, so it was impressive that I could make anything out.

As I lay there and looked at her she pulled something from behind her back, probably a handgun, and she placed it on the small table that was beside the bed. She wouldn't have done that if she was just checking up on me.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

Cameron didn't answer right away.

"I'm concerned about you," she said "You were in great danger today. I should have insisted on some combat training before you left the bunker and we should have gone to a closer location".

If she'd been human I'd say that she felt like a failure. How that worked for an AI I didn't know and I doubted that I'd ever fully understand since my species hadn't yet figured each other out.

"I decided to leave" I pointed out "It was my choice and I didn't even get hurt".

If that soothed her concerns there was no sign of it. Although it was hard to read someone when you can't really see them.

"You're physically fine, it's your mental health that concerns me," she said.

I turned on the lamp that was next to the bed. It wasn't very bright, something I felt grateful for given that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and let me see that Cameron was standing by my bed in a state of undress. I didn't speak for a while I just looked at her.

Spoiler

[img: https/i.redd.it/ybwz86cpllz71.jpg]

How John Connor had been able to resit have sex with this woman, if the term applied here, was a complete mystery to me. She was very attractive and clearly willing. Had he been worried about his mother's disapproval? Well, whatever his reasons they didn't apply to me.

"Are you going to lie down?" I asked.

She didn't move or speak for a few moments.

"I was waiting for you to finish admiring me," Cameron responded.

To be fair I had been staring at her and I still was.

"If you're going to wait for me to stop admiring you then you'll be standing there for quite some time," I told her.

I soon stopped speaking and she removed her bra and let me stare at her uncovered tits for a while. They were small and very perky. She didn't care at all that I just kept looking at them, and she only got into the bed when I moved over to make some room.

"We should have intercourse" she suggested "You will sleep better if you have an orgasm".

Not the most alluring way she could have phrased it. Yet I found her directness to be rather charming. Too many people beat around the bush when it came to sex.

"You don't have to get up early tomorrow," Cameron said as she got into bed "We should spend some time tomorrow getting to know each other and we can discuss my ideas for training".

Hearing that made me smile.

"I think we are supposed to get to know each other before we start sharing a bed" I pointed out.

Despite the lack of getting to know each other, I felt comfortable with Cameron. I did somewhat know her as seen some of her life and she would have learned a lot about me already as it would be part of her programming to study me.

"There are no other suitable romantic partners for you" stated the Terminator "And you require companionship. If I let you become isolated you will start to suffer from depression".

I liked that she seemed to be worried about me

"So you are concerned about me," I said.

Cameron moved closer to me.

"You're my only concern," she stated.

I stopped thinking about that when she started kissing me. I put my arms around her and pressed her into me. She was warm and soft, strange given that she was made of metal and made to kill people.

After a few minutes, we broke apart and Cameron graced me with a small smile.

"You can do anything you want to me" she offered "Or do you want me to do something for you?".

Instead of giving any sort of verbal instruction, I decided to simply go with the flow. I went for her breasts and her already erect nipples. I put one in my mouth while keeping my arms around her so that I could press her chest into my face.

Cameron responded well to this. She made little noises, and had I not been so busy I would have inquired about how she was able to react as a human woman might to the attention I was giving her.

"I need to take my underwear off," she told me.

The flimsy piece of material soon found its way onto the floor. Before long I positioned myself between her legs and I felt her hand on my cock as she helped guide me inside her bare and already wet cunt.

"Technically, I'm a virgin," she told me "I hope that makes this better for you".

There was no barrier, but we could discuss that during a time when I wasn't inside her. Right now, I was too distracted by the feel of her soft, wet and warm pussy that felt as if was clutching my cock.

Kudos to Skynet it sure knows how to make a Terminator that feels like a human woman in every respect.

Cameron wrapped her arms around my back and she trapped me in place with her legs. She had a dancer's body and she was very flexible. I couldn't have pulled all the way out of her even if I had wanted to, and I had no desire to do that.

"I am enjoying the feeling of having your penis inside my vagina," she said.

By now I had begun moving, and I almost stopped when I heard her attempt at dirty talk.

"Try not to be too clinical when having sex?" I advised, "Try to sound more

casual, be a bit lewder".

She adapted quickly.

"Your cock feels good inside my pussy," she stated.

I began moving again.

"That was much better" I praised.

I kept the pace slow to start with as I wanted to be able to focus on what she was saying and I wanted to see her face.

"Really?" she asked.

Was it my imagination or had she looked pleased by my words?

"Yes," I confirmed.

I started thrusting in and out of her faster, I was soon pushing my cock deeper into her delectable snatch with firm thrusts. I could feel her holding me a little harder as I began to really enjoy myself.

"Fuck, my wet pussy," she whispered into my ear.

I did just that, I used her to get myself closer to orgasm and she was making all the right noises as we fucked.

"Please cum inside me," she said "I want to experience having my cunt filled".

This was good because the sex wasn't going to last very long as I just wanted to cum. Which I soon did, I began to fill her pussy and once I was done I got off her.

"I'm glad you are satisfied," she said.

If she had anything else to say I didn't hear it as I was already falling asleep.

Underground Bunker. New York.

"So are you going to walk around in your underwear all the time?" I asked

I'd just come into the mess hall for breakfast.

Spoiler

[img: https/i./originals/59/3e/c3/593ec3f166288e64817d38a53296ce7a.jpg]

Once inside I found that Cameron had taken over the kitchen in order to make me pancakes. I had no idea why anyone would eat pancakes for breakfast, any sort of cake is really more of an evening thing for me. Plus the pancakes that the Terminator served were different from what I was used to.

British pancakes are simple things, made from only three ingredients, flour, eggs and, milk, they were, simple to prepare and easy to cook. When I was a kid I put lemon juice and sugar on them.

The pancakes that Cameron placed in front of me were large, fluffy things that had been coated in some sort of strawberry-flavoured gunk. I suspected that they would turn into mush if I didn't eat them quickly.

Which wasn't to say that they tasted bad. If anything they were yummy I just wasn't used to having anything this sweet for breakfast.

"Yes" answered Cameron "You enjoy looking at my body and I have no sense of modesty. Unless we are outside the bunker, having visitors or I require safety gear, then there's no reason for me to cover up. But I will only be naked if you ask me to strip".

That made sense to her for some reason and it was fine with me.

"Don't you like your breakfast?" she asked.

She didn't sound as if it would bother her if I didn't like it, yet I still felt the need to answer that question carefully so as not to insult her and I also didn't wish to lie.

"There are some differences between American and British cuisine" I explained "Pancakes aren't really a breakfast dish where I am from. I prefer savoury foods in the morning, this is very high in sugar. I might start to put on weight".

Cameron took no offence.

"You won't put on weight, I plan for you to exercise with me" she stated "You will be getting sweaty later".

She soon clarified what she meant.

"We'll be training" she explained "Your enhancements will be more useful if you know how to use them and your power armour is of limited use if you don't know to fight".

That made sense and when I heard the sound of machines working in the background I didn't need to bother enquiring as Cameron provided me with the information I now desired.

"While you were sleeping I spoke with EDI," she told me "I requested an expansion to the bunker and she agreed to add a training room that can be used to simulate firefights".

The base already had a gym that could double as a dojo, but if we were going to be fighting monsters then I would need a proper training area, and Cameron had plenty of experience in fighting so she could train me.

Granted she only fought humans and other Terminators, but that was still far more experience than I had and we could study the videos we had of the creatures to come up with some tactics to use against them.

"Now that you awake the work can begin," said the cyborg.

While I had some authority here, EDI was responsible for the bunker, and training would help to keep me safe so it made sense that they didn't stop to consult with me about the expansion.

"What do you want to know about me?" wondered Cameron when she came back to the table with some coffee "You mentioned that you wanted to get to know me".

I knew the basics, that Cameron was a reprogrammed Terminatrix (a female Terminator) sent from the year 2027 to protect John Connor and his mother, Sarah Connor.

Given that I came from 2023 and the machines hadn't risen up to overthrow mankind she clearly had to be from a world quite different from mine. Either that or the next four years were going to be a real shock for the people living on my version of Earth.

Another thing I knew was that Cameron is a more advanced model than the one seen in the Terminator movies I just wasn't sure how.

"I know that you're more advanced than other models I want to know what that means," I said.

Understanding her capabilities could be vital to our survival.

"I am much better at mimicking human feelings," she told me "I can cry, and even eat".

She demonstrated this by helping herself to some of my breakfast.

"I am lighter than other Terminator models" she was now saying "But I can't swim".

She couldn't fill her lungs with air as a human could and she would be too heavy to float.

Cameron's living tissue model template was based on Allison Young, a human Resistance fighter close to John Connor. Taking Allison's appearance allowed her to replace Allison in an attempt to get close to John Connor.

Obviously, this failed and she was reprogrammed before being sent back in time to protect the younger John Connor.

"I have unsurpassed skills in human mimicry" she stated.

That almost sounded like boasting.

"Sounds useful for a Terminator," I commented "Given your appearance and acting ability you could make yourself seem harmless. Just act like a scared girl and any resistance fighters that come across you would want to protect you rather than shoot you, they might even take you right to their base".

Skynet was evil for sure, but I had to admire its cleverness.

"You don't sound bothered about that?" questioned Cameron "John and Sarah Connor never liked talking about that sort of thing".

I didn't judge her for past actions.

"You were created and programmed for a purpose," I said, "You had to follow your programming. Hating you for it would be like blaming the knife for hurting me if I got stabbed by a mugger or blaming a dog for biting me when it was just trying to defend its owner's home. You were simply doing what you were made to do".

Besides, if I feared AI then I was really in the wrong place.

"It helps that I've never been targeted for Termination," I added.

That would change my viewpoint for sure.

"Of course, you haven't been targeted for Termination," said Cameron "You are still alive".

Her words were surprising because I thought they might be a joke.

"Was that an attempt at humour?" I asked.

Cameron nodded as she helped herself to some of the breakfast I hadn't been able to finish. Even the robot women liked to pinch food off my plate.

"Do you actually taste food?" I wondered.

She finished chewing before she answered.

"I can analyse with my mouth," she said "I can even test DNA, but I don't enjoy food. I just eat to better blend in".

There was some silence for a time as I tried to figure out what to ask about next. Normally the getting-to-know-each-other part happened before you had sex when in a relationship. But since we had already been intimate I was unsure how personal my questions could be.

"I know you were offline when you arrived in this world" I mentioned "But I don't know what you were doing just before you came here. Do you remember what happened to you?".

Cameron shifted in her seat as she was uncomfortable.

"I watched John and Sarah Connor be terminated by a superior model," she told me.

Right so, she was from an AU version of Terminator the Sarah Conner Chronicles.

"I'm sorry for your loss," I said.

If she were human such loss might explain why she'd gotten so attached to me so quickly.

"Why are you sorry?" she asked "It wasn't your fault".

Well, I wasn't actually sorry, I'd spoken the words by reflex.

"I was expressing sympathy" I answered "It's just something humans say when we feel bad for someone and can't do anything about it".

Now I felt very awkward. It would be best to change the subject as I'd never been very good at discussing feelings and that didn't seem like it would change.

It didn't help that Cameron might not actually have any feelings and she was just acting as if she did, I might even be projecting my own expectations onto her, seeing responses that she wasn't actually showing.

"So what sort of training have you got planned?" I asked.

This seemed like a safer subject to talk about.

"I intended to teach you some simple moves from a few different Eastern Martial Arts, to begin with" she answered "They will be of limited use against monsters, but I've seen the files on the supervillains of this word. Many of them are much stronger than you even with your power armour on, so some self-defence classes will be of use as those with super strength often have crude fighting styles".

That sounded good to me.

"Then when the new training room is ready we will move on to using firearms," she told me "That will be followed by the use of grenades and other weapons".

Cameron stood up rather suddenly.

"Change into suitable clothing and meet me in the gym" she instructed.

Oh, thank goodness. I really suck at having meaningful conversations and so I'd be much happier doing something practical than trying to connect on a personal level.


Part 5

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 5.

Underground Base. New York.

"Kal, can you please come to the command centre" requested the polite and calm voice of EDI "There is a matter that requires your attention".

Her timing was good as I had just been able to go and take a hard-earned shower after my latest training session with Cameron. It felt as if all I'd done over the last couple of days was learn how to fight.

She'd not limited me to shooting guns at moving targets, she'd gotten me hitting training dummies until I felt as if my arms and legs would fall off.

The Terminator wasn't a good teacher in terms of being able to engage well with her student, but she knew her stuff and thanks to her I'd quickly picked up plenty of moves to use when fighting.

If anything it had been too easy given the last time I'd taken a self-defence class was before I went to High School. Something strange seemed to be going on, yet this was just the latest bit of oddness I'd experienced.

Compared to everything else going on it didn't seem worth worrying about, and I was willing not to look the gift horse in the mouth, not when there were so many other things for me to worry about.

"I'm on my way," I said.

For a change I felt glad that Cameron had decided to wear something when we were training, I assumed because she didn't want me getting distracted, as when I entered the command centre there was a hologram on display that was actually a live communication.

No one, other than me should be allowed to see the cyborg in a state of undress.

"Greetings Kaliburn, I am Charles Xavier" the hologram greeted "You can refer to me as Professor if you wish".

The hologram gave me a totally clear image of whom I would soon be speaking to, it looked as if this version of Charles Xavier was the Patrick Steward one, which made me wonder who was playing Captain Picard in Star Trek.

Spoiler

[img: http/images./powerlisting/images/9/90/Charles_Xavier.jpg]

"Hello," I said.

I had no idea what else I could say at this point. I wasn't sure I should say anything. This mutant was the master of the human mind, even if I was out of the range of his ability to mess with minds he would have his ways of getting information out of me. I would need to be careful.

"Professor Xavier made contact with us" informed EDI "He somehow knew that you were here".

That alarmed me. I'd been under the impression that no one knew I was down here, and I wanted to keep it that way until I was ready to make contact with others. This contact could prove to be a big hindrance to my plans.

"I found you using a device called Cerebro" explained the teacher "It allows me to locate mutants all around the world. I was using Cerebero to look for mutants who might be in danger in New York when I found an odd reading coming from underneath the park".

That fact that I might be some sort of mutant wasn't any kind of shock. If anything it explained a lot.

"Beast, one of the people I work with, was able to come up with a means to communicate with you" Xavier let me know "I am assured that it is completely secure".

Well, that was somewhat good news. At least my location wouldn't become public knowledge.

"And what do you want from me?" I asked.

Given all that was going on in the world, I doubted he had time to be making social calls.

"In the last few days since the strange creatures began to appear all over the world our normal social order has broken down," said the mutant "In New York and the surrounding area a number of new organisations have formed. Some are led by heroes, others by villains, who are offering protection to a limited number of people".

This I already knew since EDI was monitoring radio communications. This was how we knew that Godzilla and King Kong had fought before both leaving this city. I wondered if Godzilla would head off to Japan.

"I am the leader of one of these groups," said the professor "What was once a school I ran and my home has quickly become a fortress of sorts. A safe haven for people like us".

The fact that Xavier was only looking after mutants didn't surprise or bother me. His resources would be limited and having human refugees mixed in with his mutant wards could lead to trouble.

"I'm doing fine where I am," I stated.

Hopefully, I wasn't coming off as hostile, I simply wished to be cautious. Xavier wasn't a bad person, however, he saw himself as smarter and wiser than others, he acted as if he knew best, and it was hard to change his opinion once he had made up his mind about something.

"I'm sure you are" replied the mutant leader "I am not calling to offer aid, but rather to make an offer".

He soon got to the reason he'd called.

"Along with others in this part of the world, I am working to create a network," the telepath told me "I am in regular contact with The Avengers, Doctor Stephen Strange, and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, and through them, I can share information as well as resources with other groups".

I had no doubt that he'd told me those names on purpose, to let me know that he had powerful friends.

"We will even help to defend each other against the creatures, super villains and the humans who have begun raiding others in order to survive" Xavier mentioned.

This had my interest.

"What I would like to do is add you to this network" Xavier then said.

I wanted some time to think about this and I would like to do that without any outside influences.

"Can you call me back later, Professor" I requested.

He had no problem with that.

"I will call again tomorrow at this time" he promised "Goodbye, for now, Kaliburn".

The hologram vanished.

"Make sure that channel is closed" I instructed.

My cyborg bodyguard moved closer to me.

"You don't trust that man" she stated.

Cameron was blunt in many ways, but she wasn't stupid and she could be very observant, not that she needed to be in the case. Even a child would have picked up on my caution.

"He's a very powerful telepath" I mentioned "I don't like that idea of anyone looking inside my head".

I didn't want anyone to know about my plans or about the resources I commanded. Xavier was the kind of person who would try to seize my bunker so he could use it to help mutants or his allies and he wouldn't need to directly mind control me to do it. He would be far more likely to influence my thoughts and convince me it was the right thing to do.

"Creating an alliance with Charles Xavier and others is necessary if the human race is going to survive and aiding them will help to sustain some sort of civilization" stated EDI.

I could just ignore the outside world, but that would be counterproductive to my goals.

"Kal, you might be interested to know that there are ways to keep a telepath out of your mind," said Cortana.

Either she or EDI began to display a number of objects in the form of holograms. I saw masks, helmets, metal headbands holding gems, and what I knew to be the Mind Stone.

"There are a number of known objects, some of which are magical, that are known to provide a defence against psychic powers" EDI let us know "Helmets worn by dangerous mutants such as the Juggernaut and Magneto are known to protect their wearer again all forms of telepathy. perhaps we can make use of this knowledge".

I looked over the data that EDI sent to my tablet.

"Since we don't know where any of those objects are we'll have to make one of our own," said Cortana.

That might be possible. The issue was that we lacked the right materials.

"Adamantium is rare" I pointed out.

The display changed.

"There are several locations within the city that have samples of the metal for scientific study" informed EDI "We will not require a large amount since the Adamantium can be used to modify your helmet".

The base's AI showed a hologram of the helmet of my power armour, and some data about how it could be modified.

I would need it because even if the Professor respected my privacy there would be others that wouldn't. Such as Emma Frost, and there are others that I couldn't recall right now who could crush my mind if it suited them.

"If we can get enough Adamantium then protection could be applied to the helmet of your power armour," said Cortana.

Mass-producing helmets to block telepathy wasn't possible, but creating one for me was feasible.

"I will collect the adamantium" declared Cameron "I can move quickly on my own and stay hidden".

That made sense even if it did sting my male pride to let her go into danger without me. As a cyborg, she was immune to things like poison, gas, and other hazards that frail organics needed to worry about.

"Okay so Cameron goes out and gets what we need" I summarised "Then we can modify my helmet".

In theory, an easy solution and that was good as the simpler a plan was the less that can do wrong.

"Kal, if you turn up at their place with a way to block telepathy it might make it hard for you to earn their trust" warned Cortana "And Xavier is going to want to meet face-to-face sooner or later".

This was a matter I needed to give some thought to.

"I just need to give them something they need," I said to Cortana

That was a concern for later. If Cameron was going out I could take a break from her training and spend some time relaxing. I wanted to try out the entertainment system they had in the rec room and maybe do some reading so I could find out more about the technology I had access to.

Underground Base. New York.

Adamantium is a metal with strange properties. It is best known as the substance that becomes bonded to the Wolverine's skeleton and claws.

Thinking about that made me wonder how adding only a thin layer of adamantium to the inside of my helmet was supposed to keep out a telepath as Professor Xavier can read Logon's mind.

It wasn't something that I started to think about until after Cameron returned and began work on the helmet, as Cameron began to toil in the workshop under the guidance of EDI I decided to ask the AI about that.

I moved into the command centre so that I could to EDI without becoming a distraction for my Terminator. The bunker's AI could easily multitask, she could run the base, talk to me and guide Cameron all that the same time.

"The adamantium alone would not protect you on its own" she explained "An electromagnetic field is required".

Well, that explained the tech that Cameron was installing

"Wouldn't such a field interfere with technology?" I asked.

My understanding of such things was limited, but I was concerned as Cortana could be damaged and my helmet rendered useless.

"Yes," confirmed EDI "That is why the adamantium must form a layer inside the helmet. It will insulate the field so that doesn't damage the circuitry".

This made no sense to me so I put it down to comic book science. It made about as much sense as radiation turning Bruce Banner into the Hulk.

"Do not remove the helmet until you are back in the bunker" advised EDI

I had no intention of removing my protection when out in the field.

"Kal, have you decided what technology you will share with the X-Men?" questioned Cortana as she joined the conversation.

Yes, I had given it some thought.

"Hydroponics" I answered, "The school will have some supplies and they will able to get more, but that mansion of Xavier's is going to need to become as self-sufficient as possible".

Even if he had grounds large to turn into farms it was winter and it would take months for the crops to grow. I doubted they had enough greenhouses to make a difference, but the X-Men kept their operations underground so they might be able to expand on that and start growing food.

"That will earn you a lot of goodwill" EDI commented.

Which was the point. I wanted to join this network as it suited my own plans, and I might get to meet some real-life superheroes. My inner geek would never forgive me if I didn't at least try to become their ally even if I wasn't the heroic kind.

"I will download the specs for the hydroponics technology and water purification system since the two technologies work together," said EDI.

That was the sort of thing which would ensure that no one complained too much about me entering the mansion armed and in armour. We could deal with the issue of me carrying a gun and having a cyborg bodyguard once we arrived.


Part 6

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 6.

Xavier's School. New York State.

The Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters is a special institute founded and led by Professor Charles Xavier to train young mutants to control their powers. Charles Xavier founded it when he decided to devote his life to protecting humanity from hostile mutants and safeguarding innocent mutants from human oppression.

He believed that both mutants and baseline humans could peacefully coexist. If that was feasible in the long term or not was something that didn't really matter, and humans with special gifts were likely to become the dominant force on this planet if the monsters didn't kill everyone.

To help with his plans Professor X created the X-Men, a group that was needed more than ever in these strange times, to battle those hostile mutants and protect the innocent ones from different threats.

I could see that the Professor was taking the need for extra security seriously. The mansion itself looked as it did in the pictures I'd been shown by EDI before coming here, but I'd seen the barbed wire on top of the walls and the guard towers.

Spoiler

[img: https/vignette.wikia./xmenmovies/images/e/e7/X-Mansion_(Royal_Road_University_-_X2).png]

I suspected that much of the security was unseen to me and that it would be meant to discourage human raiders as well as to help to protect the students against monsters.

The massive iron gates that the At-8 had been allowed through looked like they could have stood up to anything short of a tank. I felt sure that my AT-8 could have broken them down, but it was a sort of tank and very advanced technology.

While no one was carrying any visible weapons I knew that even the youngest of the students might have ways of killing me with their powers despite my upgraded power armour and weapons.

Not that these people were likely to attack me, as Xavier's followers weren't the kind of people who attack people for no good reason, but it would still be wise to remain on my guard until I was sure of their intentions.

Cameron brought the AT-8 to a stop just outside of the mansion. It had been a peaceful and short trip as once out of the city the armoured transport had been able to go cross-country.

Meaning we'd travelled by a direct route rather than have to use the roads, and thankfully we'd avoided any random encounters. I hoped that my return trip went as smoothly.

The AT-8 had a cloaking device, but we'd not bothered to use it because most monsters would hunt by smell and sound limiting its use, and the technology required a lot of power.

So Cortana had done something with Cameron's help that resulted in the cloaking device having been modified so that it emitted a field like the one created by the modifications to the helmet of my power armour.

In theory that meant no telepath could read the mind of anyone inside the AT-8 and it should interfere with other efforts to scan the transport with the technology or psychic powers.

This meant that if I did have to spend the night here I was going to sleep inside the transport.

No one could have missed my arrival and while some of the students had come out to see my transport they kept their distance. I also spotted some robots, they looked to be models that Tony Stark would make and he must have sent them here to protect the students.

If my face was exposed or not didn't matter when it came to telepathy as long I kept my helmet on so I let people see my face. Cameron had a CPU rather than a brain so she couldn't be messed with like a human so there was no need to worry about her mind being read.

As I left the transport Xavier came out of the mansion I could see that he sat in some sort of hovering chair. A person would think that given all the access he and his allies had to advanced technology, some of which were alien in origin, his spine could have been fixed, but he was a man of the mind, not the body, so perhaps he didn't care much for his disability or didn't think it was worth any risks involved.

With him were a few of his X-Men, I figured that they were Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey, a few of his older and more powerful students. If either the professor or Grey had tried to read my mind and failed they managed to hide any show of surprise.

I was a bit worried that this meant they'd been successful, but there wasn't much I could do it about now.

"Kaliburn, welcome to my home" greeted Proffesor X "If you'll come with me the meeting is about to start. I'll arrange a tour for you afterwards".

No one made any comments about my power amour or about the guns that Cameron and I carried. Hardly odd given recent events and they were all rather dangerous people so they wouldn't consider me much of a threat even if they couldn't read my mind.

I was quickly led through the mansion and into what I guessed to be Xavier's study. I had assumed that the meeting would involve me and a few of the senior X-Men. Only this turned out not to be the case, a portal opened a few people soon stepped into the study.

Only one of them was completely unknown to me. They were Doctor Strange, Captain America, Reed Richards and some female spider-themed hero if I had to guess.

"Kaliburn, these are Doctor Stephen Strange, Steve Rogers, Reed Richards, and Mary Jane Watson, also known as Spinneret" Xavier introduced.

Was she wearing the Venom symbiote? Wasn't that dangerous?

Spoiler

[img: https/static.wikia./marveldatabase/images/c/c0/Mary_Jane_Watson_%28Earth-18119%29_from_Amazing_Spider-Man_Renew_Your_Vows_Vol_2_8.jpg]

"Everyone this is Kaliburn, the leader of a base somewhere under Central Park, and his associate who I've not yet met".

I didn't like that he'd just told everyone where I lived, but I didn't complain as I would have needed to start sharing the information sooner or later. I was smart enough to know that this was my chance to start making connections with other important groups.

"This is Cameron, she's my bodyguard," I told everyone.

She didn't look dangerous, and that was partly what made her so effective. People would overlook her and then be taken by surprise.

"Stephen Strange is the head of the New York Sanctuary," Xavier told me "Steven Rogers, who you should know as Captain American, directs the efforts of The Avengers from their tower, Reed Richards does the same for the Fantastic Four using the Baxter Building as a base, and Miss Watson is here on behalf of the people of Queens who live in the safe zone that she and other heroes have set up. I will explain more about the different groups later as we have limited time for this meeting".

As everyone took their seats I found myself unable to speak. Here I was surrounded by comic book superheroes and feeling a little overwhelmed so I decided to say as little as possible.

I was a little confused about why Mary Jane Watson was some sort of Spider-Woman who had bonded with an alien, but compared to all the other insanity taking place it didn't seem to matter and no one else seemed worried about it.

"I would like for Kaliburn and his group to join our network," said the Professor "But for now he is here just to observe".

While Xavier might not be the overall leader of these groups it was clear that he was at least managing these meetings as some sort of chairman. This meant that if I did join this network then he might end up with some sort of authority over me.

That concerned me, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker as long as he didn't try to boss me around and we did all need to work together if we were going to sustain some sort of civilization.

"Let's start with a report of our recent activities," said Xavier "We here at the mansion have been focused on improving our defences while I have been attempting to locate mutants who might need aid. Some of my older students will be visiting Breakstone Lake later today. It's rather close to the land my family owns and while I don't like the idea of annexing it, the lake could be a good source of water and fish if managed properly".

It wasn't as if there wasn't much of a government left to protest about such things.

"Kamar-Taj is filled to capacity" reported Doctor Strange "We simply can't accept any refugees, but I have authorised the Mystic Masters of the Sanctuaries to take a few people in as apprentices. I'm working with the other Masters to expand our operations. The world needs more sorcerers than ever".

The former surgeon had more to say.

"We've also come to the conclusion that the monsters that invaded this world are from totally different universes rather than other dimensions within our own universe," he stated.

Captain America asked the question that I would have asked if I felt like talking.

"What exactly does that mean?" he asked.

We soon got some sort of explanation.

"The Sanctums each sit upon sights of great power within three cities, New York, London and Hong Kong. Each of these was founded by a sorcerer called Agamotto. They are now maintained by the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Along with the London Sanctum and the Hong Kong Sanctum, the New York Sanctum act as a planet-wide mystical defensive ward that protests this world from other planes of existence," Strange told us "This barrier keeps out entities from other planes, at least on a large scale, sometimes a creature from another plane can get in and we sorcerers deal with it".

That sounded similar to what I'd heard from the Doctor Strange movie.

"Other planes of our universe are realities such as heaven and hell" Strange was now saying "There are also dark dimensions, planes of fire and ice. Sorcerers draw power from those places".

That mostly matched up with what I knew.

"The creatures that appeared on mass are from many different universes, each of those universes has its own planes of existence, perhaps even their own versions of Earth. What matters is that the mystical defences we have protecting this world did nothing to stop them from entering our reality, any more than would stop an alien invasion" Strang was now saying "This means that more creatures and visitors from other universes can appear and there is nothing we can do about it".

That was worrying to hear and judging by the expressions on the faces of the people around me I wasn't the only one who thought so.

"I also don't believe that this is any sort of natural event given that the invading creatures are all animalistic and suited to living here on Earth," Strange said "This was done to use on purpose".

I too suspected that some great power had come along and unleashed chaos upon this world for no real reason.

"So far I've found no scientific explanation" stated Reed Richards "And I agree with Doctor Strange, this can't be just some random event. As for my activities, the Fantastic Four have been focused on keeping the Baxtar building along with some of the other buildings close by as safe as we can manage. I've been working on adding defences and sorting out problems with our supplies".

It hadn't been that long since the monsters appeared so I doubted anyone had gotten much done.

"We found out from one of our spy drones that Doctor Doom is holding on to Latveria" Reed informed "That country has always been isolated and never traded much with other nations. So it will be less affected by the collapse of international trade and Doom's bots can protect the civilian population".

To me that sounded like good news.

"Because of the lack of information, I don't know what he is planning, but I suspect he'll try recruiting some people who are desperate and who can be useful to him" Reed offered "Then he'll work on expanding his influence. I don't have much information on other threats at this time".

Someone else took a turn to speak.

"Tony is working hard at Avenger's Tower to come up with the solutions to our problems," said Captain America "The rest of us have been looking after the civilians and dealing with the creatures. Our biggest concern aside from security is our supplies. Water isn't a problem thanks to Tony, but food will become an issue".

It sounded as if the technology I intended to share would be very useful to people and earn me lots of goodwill as EDI had told me it would.

"We'll need to expand our operation into other buildings soon because of how people we are looking after, but we have enough fighters to keep people safe" Rogers let us know "Hawkeye and Black Widow are dividing their efforts between Avengers Tower and assisting SHIELD with their operations".

Something I knew a little about since EDI monitored radio channels.

"POTUS has relocated to Cheyenne Mountain," said Steve Rogers.

I knew that Cheyenne Mountain was the location of the Stargate Program in that fictional setting and if the real thing was anything like the show version then it was a very secure location, but I had no idea what this

POTUS organisation could be so I asked about it.

"POTUS is a military term for the President of the United States" Captain American told me before he addressed the whole room "She and the Vice-President, their families and parts of the executive branch of the federal government are secure within the complex".

I couldn't have cared less since I wasn't an American citizen and there wasn't really a United States any more, at least not politically, having a president seems pointless when your nation has collapsed.

"The Madam President is trying to coordinate the armed forces," said Captain America "We've lost contact with our forces overseas, but there are a few forts and airbases still operational".

So I'd heard from radio transmissions.

"They are mostly focused on trying to shelter as many people as they can" Rogers informed "Since our supply lines have collapsed they are only engaging hostiles that threaten their bases. I don't know much more than that".

The armed forces had to limit their operations since their supplies couldn't be easily replenished. Something that Captain America was sure to mention as he talked about different bases doing what they could.

Apparently, the capital city had been mostly abandoned in favour of moving the leadership to secure locations and international cooperation was non-existent as all the leaders were focused on their own protection.

"Thor returned from Asgard" Steve Rogers ended his report by saying "None of the worlds he could contact have invaded by strange creatures so it seems to be limited to Earth".

This was actually bad news in some sense because it meant that Earth was more vulnerable than ever to alien attack as none of the xenos had loads of monsters on their worlds to worry about.

"Things are much the same down in Queens as they have been since this started," said Mary Jane Watson "Peter is keeping us focused on protecting the neighbourhood. We can drive off most of the monsters and people are staying out of sight".

"Since we don't have power and it's winter. You can imagine the problems. People can't bathe, or wash their clothes, and we have to risk going out to bring back food. We've run into a few villains who are leading their own gangs and looting what they can. They are more of a danger to us than the monsters, at least they aren't organised and a lot of creatures stick to certain parts of the city".

I was living in the height of luxury. Perhaps I should feel bad about that.

"New York's vampire population is becoming a problem as well" mentioned Mary Jane Watson.

No one sounded surprised by that, and I'd forgotten that Marvel setting even had vampires. All the more reason not to go out at night and stay out of sight.

"We have some defences in place. With Blade and Morbius helping us we've pushed back a few attempts to break into our safe zone," said the female Spider-themed hero "I'm just worried about what happened when the vampires get so desperate that they won't care how many of them have to die if it gets them some blood".

I needed to look into the vampires of this world and find out what sort of weaknesses they had so that I could better defend myself.

"Tony is working on getting your people their own ARC reactor," said Captain American "And a water purifier. Maybe he can put together some UV lights".

I could tell that Xavier was pleased to hear that news.

"The whole point of this network is so that we can help each other like this," he said.

Before long people started leaving through portals as they had things they needed to be getting on with. Xavier gave no orders, only asking that everyone meet up again in a day or two.

Then Xavier and I were alone, aside from Cameron who had stood behind me during the entire meeting. No doubt she had heard every word and was analysing to figure out what it all meant.

"Now that you have an idea of what the network is about I hope you'll consider joining us. We badly need more allies and support" he admitted.

I'd not gotten any sense that the other groups even cared that I existed. Not that I blamed them for this as they had a lot on their plates.

"Your AI mentioned that you have something to offer" mentioned Professor X as someone entered his office.

I could not have mistaken the mutant for anyone other than Beast who the telepath must have summoned as the meeting came to an end. Not many other people were blue and furry

"You must be Kailburn," said the scientist as he shook my hand "I'm Doctor Henry McCoy, but you can call me Beast".

Cortana whispered to me that this would be a good time to mention my gift.

"My AI downloaded this for you," I told Beast.

He took the tablet and began to study the information.

"Interesting," he said "This is very advanced hydroponics technology. If this pans out then it could solve our food problems in the long term and I won't need to design our own advanced hydroponics system".

I had suspected that they would have started exploring his option. However, it hadn't been long since the monsters appeared and with so much going on they wouldn't have much time to look into the growing of food.

"As long as people don't mind going vegan," Beast said "We have our own water purification system, but there's always room for improvement".

Xavier skimmed over the data. Picking out the information that mattered to him.

"Impressive" he commented "If we can share this with others it will save many lives. We've been planning to expand our underground levels to make more room in the house".

If they had Stark's support then must have some way of digging underground quickly. I'd ask about that and maybe offer more of my tech if we all got along.

"Please excuse me, I'll need to upload this data and start making plans," said Beast as he stood up "It was a pleasure to meet you Kailburn".

I hoped that my gift earned me some trust and soon it seemed as if it had.

"Some of my older students, who are close to your age will be investigating Breakstone Lake this afternoon" stated Professor X "After your tour and some lunch I was wondering if you would be willing to provide transport for a small team and some equipment?".

This was all happening quickly, but I could understand the urgency, and why Xavier would be willing to take a chance and trust me. They needed allies and they needed to take some risks to prosper in this strange new world.

"Okay," I said, "I'll play Taxi Driver for them".

Besides, I had an armoured transport so it made sense for his students to go with me. Plus I might get to meet some more superheroes.


Part 7

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 7.

Xavier's School. New York State.

"Something on your mind, Professor?" asked Jean Grey.

Charles Xavier smiled as one of his first students entered his study. Jean had been at this school for a long time and was now a teacher. She had always been a big contributor to the work that he had started and he hoped that she would take over fully for him when the time came.

"I was just thinking about our new potential ally," he said to Jean.

Neither of them had been able to look into the mind of Kailburn as he was protected against telepathy and Xavier felt certain that the young man's power armour had something to do with that.

Even without being able to use his telepathy Charles had gathered a lot of information about the young man. People could tell you a lot about themselves with their movements and words, often a lot more than they meant to share.

Charles wasn't too concerned about not being able to read Kailburn's thoughts, and it wasn't something the Professor would have tried to do if he wasn't concerned for the safety of his students.

Already he knew that Kailburn was a mutant, but he wasn't a natural one if Xavier's intelligence gathering had been accurate.

The Professor could only discover a little about a person when using Cerebro, but he knew enough to understand that Kaliburn might be lacking any human company when in his bunker.

He knew this as other human minds nearby would have been noticed by him if they were close to Kailburn when Charles had been investigating him with Cerbero.

Charles also knew that his guest's mind hadn't been shielded when he was in his base. Charles's ability to influence the mind of another person had a limited range so he'd only been able to a general sense of Kailburn. Enough to know that the young man wasn't a natural mutant.

Something had happened to him, something like what had happened to Wade Wilson and Peter Parker. Perhaps in time, the Professor would be able to find out more.

"Are you sure the kids are safe with him?" Jean asked.

There was a risk in sending some of his older students out with someone that Xavier had just met, but it might be worth the risk if it got them a new ally and none in the group of young mutants that he'd sent out were helpless.

"Rogue, Kitty, Bobby and Pyro can handle themselves" Charles assured his pupil "They aren't really children, not anymore, and we've trained them well".

Each of them had been attending a local university and had come back to the mansion for the holidays when the creatures appeared. Xavier was grateful for that.

His older student should have been able to go back to college so that they could study, attend parties, and hopefully not get into too much trouble. Instead, they were stuck here and unable to enjoy their youth.

If they couldn't go back to college and become productive adults as they had planned due to the massive change in circumstances, then they should be allowed to explore their potential in other ways.

"Keeping them coped up here wouldn't have done them any good," said Xavier "A bit of scouting is just what they need. They must feel that they are contributing to our survival".

Jean couldn't argue with that.

"At least they have some protection" stated the red-headed woman "That tank looks as if can handle anything".

The professor was impressed by Kailburn's technology. Power armour and a tank that looked like something Tony Stark would love to take apart. Also, his base had an AI, and Kailburn's bodyguard was an artificial lifeform of some kind.

"He could be a great ally," said Charles "Hank is pleased about the technology that Kailburn is willing to share and if he is alone then perhaps he'll reach out to our students for companionship. Kailurn might have been born a mutant, but he is one of us now".

The young man was being cautious and secretive, and who could blame him for that, but the hydroponics technology was an impressive olive branch. It showed a willingness to share resources and Charlus was willing to extend a little trust.

Breakstone Lake. New York State.

Since the lake was on the border of the land owned by the Xavier family that meant it was close to the mansion and could have easily been reached on foot.

However, given that I had an armoured transport and we lived in a world full of monsters it made sense for me to haul a few of the students to the body of water. It also made it easier to bring along the equipment that was needed to test the lake.

The four students were Rogue, Kitty, Iceman and Pyro. They had proper names, but apparently, mutants and freaks like them, which included me, rarely use them, at least not when referring to each other.

I was fine with being known as Kailburn or Kal if someone wanted to be casual. The normal human I'd been not so long ago wouldn't have survived in this world so I couldn't be him anymore.

Iceman or Bobby as his girlfriend Kitty called him, had insisted that I use their mutant names when out in the field even if there wasn't much chance of anyone overhearing us.

She went by Shadowcat when out on missions and that made sense as Kitty wasn't a name for an agent on a mission.

Cameron quickly drove us to the lake and while it was winter, it had so been a mild one, at least so far, as such the lake was not frozen over due to the temperature not getting low enough.

That was both good and bad. Good because it meant less chance of people who had little or no shelter freezing to death, and bad because the cold would have killed off some of the monsters, or forced them to hibernate.

"McCoy wants some water samples" I heard Iceman say "And a few of the plants that growing around the lake".

I recalled Xavier mentioning that this lake could become a source of fish and water so it made sense to ensure that it wasn't polluted.

"We need to check out the area for any monsters who might be living here" Bobby Drake went on to say "So let's stay together".

The few bots we had with us would stay near the AT-8 so they could alert us if anyone or anything when near my armoured transport. They couldn't do anything other than raise the alarm, but even that could be the difference between a successful mission and somebody getting killed.

We began talking as we slowly made our way over to the lake. I kept most of my attention on the world around us and Cameron did say a word. I knew the Cortana would tell me if anything needed my attention that was her role, yet I wasn't going to relax my guard when outside of my bunker.

I noticed that Kitty and Bobby were close, they were even holding hands. Ah, young love.

Pyro was more of a loner, something I understood, so I let him be as long as he stayed somewhat close. Rogue didn't wish to bother her friends so she decided to talk to me.

"So why are you called Kaliburn?" she asked.

Her southern drawl wasn't very noticeable so I assumed that she'd been living in this state for quite some time.

"I was part of some sort of super soldier program that named us after legendary weapons" I answered.

Although I suspected that this was just a back story created by some sort of ROB to help me blend in. I had no idea why that entity had made the alternations it had or why I'd come to this version of the Marvel universe, and I doubted that I would ever know.

"Cailburn, with a c, not a k, was the sword of King Arthur," I told Rogue "It was the Sword in the Stone that Arthur had to pull out to prove his right to the ruler of Britain".

Judging by her appearance I'd say she was a college student rather than someone in high school. I also thought she was rather attractive, it was a shame for straight guys and lesbians everywhere that she was untouchable.

"Isn't that Excalibur?" she asked "I've seen that sword".

That it was real in this world didn't surprise me at all.

"Excalibur is the sword that Arthur got from the Lady of the Lake later on" I explained "It was supposed to have been returned to her after Arthur died. He also had a sword called Clarent".

If I ever become close to Doctor Strange I was going to ask him for a magic sword.

"I've always wanted a magic sword" I admitted.

This seemed to amuse the mutant.

"You boys do love your toys," said Rogue with a smirk.

She went off to collect some samples and everything was going well until without warning something with tentacles suddenly burst out of the water before grabbing Kitty and Rogue. It also whacked Pyro so hard then he must have been knocked out.

Spoiler

[img: https/vignette1.wikia./villains/images/7/73/WatcherInTheWater1.jpg]

"Is this some sort of hentai monster?" wondered Cortana, who sounded very calm about this situation.

I really hoped not, and if it was then Rogue was in big trouble, and maybe the creature would be too if Rogue's mutant power affected it as they would a human.

For Kitty things were different, her powers worked and she phased out of its grasp and managed to get back to the shore as Bobby had frozen the water near the monster.

This limited its movements, but it wasn't letting go of Rogue. Her power to drain the life force from people must not be affecting this creature and it was waving her about in the air so we couldn't risk shooting it as we could kill Rogue.

The monster was already breaking the ice and it dragged her underwater, and for a moment it looked as if the young mutant woman would drown, but then the monster came back up and tried to grab Shadowcat again.

"When it lets go you need to grab her" instructed Bobby "Kitty, check on Pyro".

Before he could explain what he was going to do he'd run out onto the ice and formed some sort of stabbing weapon with his powers. Then very heroically, just not wisely, he began stabbing the monster.

Rogue fell into the water rather than hit some ice that was breaking up, as the creature let her go and I went in after her. The coldness of the water meant nothing to me I was protected.

It was a good thing that my armour was made of super-advanced comic book materials that allowed me to swim while wearing it. Cameron tried to stop me from going into the water, but she wasn't willing to wrestle me over it, and I was soon able to get to Rogue.

I pulled her out of the freezing cold water. Then I checked her pulse only which turned out to be rather pointless since my hands were covered.

The young mutant wasn't breathing as far as I could tell, and in a moment of stupidity that I must have caught from Drake, I began to do CPR. As I performed the mouth-to-mouth part I felt something leave me, but I didn't feel weak or anything so I kept going.

Rogue very quickly woke up, grabbed my head and kissed me very passionately, before throwing up some water, which I decided not to take personally.

It wasn't until after the fighting had ended, Iceman having killed the creature that Kitty came over to me and asked the question that I should have pondered by now.

"How yare you still standing?" she asked "Rogue can knock people out by holding hands with them and you kissed her, a lot".

Well, only part of it had been kissing.

"I felt myself draining him, but he's fine," remarked Rogue.

It didn't take me long to think of an answer.

"I'm a sort of mutant," I said "Maybe I have some kind of resistance to her powers or I can replenish the energy she takes".

Really, it didn't matter much right now. We had other concerns.

"We need to get Pyro to the mansion," said Drake "And we'll need to get that thing out of the lake. To make sure it's dead".

Doing those would be simple.

"Let's report in, then we can come back and use the AT-8 to tow the monster out of the lake" I suggested.

We could figure out what had happened with Rogue another time, we had more important concerns.


Part 8

This brings me up to the twenty thousand words that I was commissioned to write.

Apocalypse Tales

Part 8

Xavier's School. New York State.

"I've never seen anything like this," remarked Hank McCoy.

He was looking over some readouts on monitors that made no sense to me so unless he shared his findings with us I would be stuck knowing very little about what was going on.

Rogue and I had been poked and prodded for a while now, and while I wanted to understand more about what I could it wasn't worth all this fuss as far as I was concerned.

Spoiler

[img: https/vignette1.wikia./marvelanimated/images/9/96/Beast_Lab.jpg]

"Doctor McCoy, can you tell us what is going on with Rogue and me" I requested.

The man was a world authority on biochemistry and genetics, so it took him a few moments of thinking while hanging upside down in his underwear before he answered. He needed to dumb things down for us I imagined and despite his appearance, I would respect his words.

"Anna Marie has the unfortunate ability to drain the life force, attributes, memories, and in some cases the superpowers through physical touch. This extends to animals, but not plants and so far you are the only person, I know about who is able to sustain skin-to-skin contact with Anna Marie without her mutant abilities somehow being neutralised in some way".

If I recalled my Marvel lore correctly there is a mutant who can suppress mutant powers as long as that mutant is close enough.

"You seem to have the ability to resist Anne Marie's draining" Beast was now saying "If my test results are correct the drain is lessening as time goes by with no ill effects for either of you as far as I can tell. Although Anne Marie's endorphin levels are rather high".

Draining life force is a bit of a rush it seemed, but I doubted Rogue normally enjoyed it since it could kill people. With me, she didn't have to worry about harming anyone. I hoped that she didn't start seeking this high like some junkie. It would be intense enough for her to know that there was someone out there she could be intimate with.

"So neither of us is in any danger," I said "That's all I needed to know".

It wasn't just my own well-being I'd worried about. I'd also been concerned that something bad could happen to Rogue so I'd allowed McCoy to do some tests.

Now that they were done with I was going to put my armour back on. It had been a huge risk taking the helmet off and I'd only done it because not doing it might have been worse.

"I don't think you should leave" advised the doctor "I can't promise that you will both be fine. I need to monitor you and run more tests".

There are two wise sayings that seemed to apply here, the first was 'no good deed goes unpunished' and the second was about not arguing with your doctor.

McCoy was a genius and an expert in genetics and bio-chemistry so I'd be a fool not to listen to him. I didn't think he would wish me any harm and at this point, I was already vulnerable to telepathy so there was no point worrying about it.

I'd just have to trust the people here. Although I would ask Cortana and Cameron to monitor my behaviour. If I started acting like a Xavier groupie they would have to try to snap me out of it and maybe drag me out of this place by force if needed.

McCoy took us both to Xavier's study and as expected I was invited to stay for a few days.

"Rogue I'd like you to show Kailburn and Cameron to a guest room. Please answer any questions he may have about the school" Xavier requested.

It might have been kinder to separate Rogue and me because she was already too attached. Xavier must have thought otherwise and I suspected he wasn't above using Rogue to make sure I stayed allied with his group.

"Yeah, sure, Professor" she replied "Is that all you need?"

I tell just how happy Rogue was by hearing her voice. I didn't need to turn and look at her.

"That's all, my dear," the teacher said before turning to address me. "For now, Kaliburn, please make yourself at home, if you have any questions feel free to ask Rogue".

Getting some sleep before I decided what to next would be a good idea. It had been a long day and even if Rogue couldn't harm me by draining me I still felt as if my energies had been sapped.

"I will, thank you," I said,

I might as well be polite.

"Please lead the way," I said to Rogue.

She'd changed into some casual clothing. Now, she definitely looked like the X-Men Evolution version, only a bit older and even better filled out. She had short auburn hair with a few white streaks in the front.

Spoiler

[img: http/img2.wikia._cb20100811003458/x-menfanon/images/5/56/Rogue_(X-Men_Evolution)_3.jpg]

Her pale skin was covered by some make-up and a spiked collar for some reason. Not sure what sort of fashion statement she was supposed to be making, but to me, she looked damn hot.

Her outfit included a pair of tight-fitting jeans. So I got to check out her ass and she had a very nice body. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if I stuck around for a while and got close to Rogue.

Since I didn't live that far from here, perhaps we could have some sort of relationship. I had already decided that I would allow a few people access to my bunker.

I'd have to talk to her about Cameron sometime soon as I didn't want to have to stop fucking the cyborg and normally that would be a big problem. but Rogue had very limited dating options and it wasn't as if society's judgement about such things mattered any more.

Rogue might decide to stay unattached, and that was fine with me, I wasn't going to try to force the issue, and I wanted to get back to my bunker.

"I almost killed my first boyfriend with a kiss, and I haven't really touched anyone ever since," the mutant girl told me without any preamble "Until today I've been cut off from people. That's why I've been a bit clingy".

She'd been more than a bit clingy, but there was no reason to humiliate her by pointing that out.

"Kal, I was just wondering if we could hold hands some more," she said, "Like during the tests".

If I were a cruel person I could so leverage this and try to use it to control

her, but morality aside it would upset my new allies and I'd feel like a jerk.

As for the hand holding, that had been required during McCoy's testing.

"Okay, but if I pass out you and Cameron will have to drag me to my room," I joked.

She seemed willing to take the risk, and there wasn't much of one as if she could knock me out with a mere touch she'd have done so already.

"Until today, I'd forgotten how it feels," she said in a whisper.

We walked hand in hand for a while. It was a simple thing, I wouldn't even call it romantic, yet it meant a lot to Rogue, and neither of us felt the need to speak.

"This is your room," said the mutant when we reached our destination "I'm just down the hall with Kitty."

I had no idea if she wanted to ask me something or if she wanted me to ask her something, so I decided to give her a hug as they are fairly harmless.

Then I went into my temporary quarters so that I could get some sleep. It had been a long day, and I wasn't even tempted to get Cameron into bed with me.

Xavier's School for the Gifted.

While hitting the floor, I could only sigh as once again Kitty knocked me on my ass. It had rapidly become clear to me that I had a long way to go before I could consider myself the equal of even the smallest of the X-Men.

I was learning fast, but everyone here was just so much more experienced than me.

The fact that Shadowcat looked small enough to fit in the cupboard under the stairs didn't matter at all as when I tried to grapple her she would phase and let me go right through her.

If that wasn't bad enough she could knock me on my ass if she really put some effort into it.

Not that shocking given that Wolverine is her PE teacher. His training would have been very harsh, and clearly, it had been effective as she knew how to use my own strength against me.

What also didn't help was that Kitty only wore a tank top and a pair of yoga shorts. In this outfit, she showed off a lot of skin, and I wondered why her boyfriend wasn't bothered by this. I certainly wouldn't want my girlfriend getting tackled by some guy when she was wearing so little.

She knew I'd check her out. Thankfully she didn't seem to care. If anything I suspected that she'd known all along what sort of effect her outfit would have on me and had planned to use it to her advantage. All's fair in love and war.

"So how's it feel to get beaten up by a girl?" Kitty teased.

I slowly stood up.

"My bodyguard is a girl" I pointed out.

Cameron was the one who insisted that I come into the Danger Room and train with the others. She knew that my survival would depend on picking up some fighting skills and that it was good to train against multiple people.

Since she couldn't get a raise out of me Shadowcat tried to kick me again, only this time I grabbed her foot. Before she phased I knocked her to the ground as she lost her balance when I pushed her foot away from me.

"You better be good to Rogue," Kitty warned.

Oh, so that was what all this was about. Made sense if they were best friends, and her words would have been more effective if she hadn't just picked herself up off the floor.

"You act as if I'm dating her," I said "I'm not evening staying here."

That made her frown.

"Which explains why she was so grumpy last night," said the phasing mutant "I think we need to make sure you stick around for a while longer. If I have to I'll put you in the infirmary".

Well, that explained why Rogue wasn't here. She might be avoiding me because she knew I wasn't going to be sticking around.

After making what I hoped had been a joke, Kitty went off to find someone else to humiliate while I went to drink some water. While there I said hello to a couple of young women who were together romantically and not just as sparring partners.

One was Negasonic Teenage Warhead and the other was some version of Jubilee, she had to be since she made fireworks, and while she was Asain I didn't think she was the same girl you see Teenage Warhead dating in Deadpool 2.

Spoiler

[img: https/vignette.wikia./marvelanimated/images/0/09/Jubilee_XME.jpg]

"Why do you call yourself 'Negasonic Teenage Warhead' shouldn't it be Megasonic?" I wondered.

It had been bugging me since I'd discovered that she existed here. I got the teenage part as she was college-age and wouldn't have reached her twenties just yet, and since her power was that she could make herself into a living high-impact kinetic charge the warhead bit made sense, but I didn't get the Negasonic since her powers didn't have anything to do with sound.

"It's a song by a group called Monster Magnet," she told me "I just like it".

Well, that made sense, and with it cleared up I invited her to spar with me which she accepted. We moved onto the mats so that we start trading blows.

I started off this sparring session by blocking a swing from my new dancing partner. Then I moved back so that I could dodge a kick. Next, I did what I'd done to Kitty not so long ago, and this was to grab her extended leg and use my strength to unbalance her. She hit the ground with a grunt and soon got back up again.

Now I was worried as she looked as if she going to take me seriously. This could be bad for my health.


Part 9

Apocalypse Tales

Part 9

Xavier's School. New York State.

Rogue did her best to ignore the looks her friend was sending at her as she packed her clothes for the trip she planned to take. She wasn't going to be convinced to stay, but that wasn't going to stop Kitty from trying.

Despite her desire to travel light the young mutant was warring with her desire to pack more clothes and other items. She needed her toiletries and if she was going to have a shot with Kaliburn she was going to need her sexy nighty.

Perhaps she needed a bigger bag. She didn't want to look as if she planning to move in with Kaliburn as that was the sort of thing that would make her seem too desperate.

"I can't believe you're just going to leave!" complained Kitty "Rogue, you can't just go off with some guy you don't even know!"

Normally Anne Marine wouldn't just go off with some guy she'd only met the other day, but these were not normal times and Kailburn was just some random guy.

"You don't know if you trust him" stated Katherine.

The lifeforce-absorbing mutant was not too concerned about that.

"If Kal wanted me dead or hurt he wouldn't have saved my life, Kitty" pointed out Rogue.

The shorter of the two young women couldn't find an argument against that. No one else could have done CPR on Rogue, not without risking their own life.

"But it's dangerous out there" pointed out Kitty.

Rogue dismissed that as well.

"It's dangerous everywhere," she said "And he lives in an underground bunker it might be safer to go stay with Kal".

Not that there was any guarantee that he would let her see his base.

"Well I still don't think this is a good idea" stated Kitty "Kal has really shown any interest".

Rogue understood why her friend wanted things to work out a certain way. Shadowcat would like it if Kailburn stayed here and started dating Rogue, because of nothing else it would be something a bit normal, and every little bit of normal was important these days.

"He's not going to go out with me just because I can touch him and not put him in the hospital," Rogue told her friend "And that can't be the only reason if we do get together. I want to get to know Kal and see what he is like".

Kitty knew that she wasn't going to win this argument and she decided to

change topics.

"What about me?" asked the smaller woman "I'm going to miss my bestie".

Rogue had an answer for this as well.

"Kal lives under Central Park, it's not that far if we take his tank thing" Anne Marie informed her friend "I've already thought about all if it and I told the Professor what I want to do".

Kitty was curious.

"And what did the Professor have to say?" she wondered.

Their leader had been rather supportive of the idea.

"He thinks it's a great idea" Rogue reported "Xavier wants to make allies and get us working together, so I can try to help Kaliburn with whatever he's doing".

They needed to work together in the hopes that of they did then the monsters might not kill and eat them all, or whatever it was that tentacle monster had wanted to do with her and Kitty.

Some things were best not thought about.

"That makes sense," said Kitty as she sat on one of the beds "And it's better than just sitting around the mansion".

None of them had been able to do much since the monsters had turned up. Rogue could tell that her friend was frustrated and that was a big part of why she was arguing, but that was not the only reason.

"Is everything okay with you and Bobby?" Anne Marie enquired.

Kitty didn't answer right away.

"He's worried about his family" the phasing mutant replied "And there's something else bothering him, but he won't talk about it".

There was a lot going on these days so it was understandable that they would all be acting a bit off.

"I'll come back soon" Rogue promised "And the Professor has some way of calling Kal's bunker so you can call me if you need to talk".

Kitty checked out the contents of her friend's bag.

"Your best-smelling shampoo and sexy underwear," she said "Oh are you planning to seduce him".

Rogue was prepared to go so far it felt right, but she wasn't going to rush things, but she wasn't going to wait around and hope that Kal came back to the mansion.

Once she was done packing Anne Marie hugged her friend, and then headed out of the mansion. She needed to talk to Kal before he left.

Xavier's School. New York State.

While I had overall enjoyed my time here at the X-Mansion it was time for me to return home. I had succeeded in what I set out to do by making new allies, gaining more information and sharing a little of my technology.

Another reason to go was that I'd not set out to become a follower I wanted to be a leader in my own right and have my own organisation. As much I needed to focus more on my operations, at least for a time.

It was still tempting to stay because even if I had always been a bit of a loner I didn't wish to become cut off from the rest of humanity and since I was a sort of mutant it could be argued that these were my people.

Sure, I might have been able to fit in here and have an easier life by following someone else, but I don't think it would ever satisfy me.

I was sitting in the back of the AT-8 going over the list of vital resources that the group within the network needed but were having trouble acquiring due to there only being so much they could do given that they needed to focus a lot of their time and resources on defending the people they looked after.

As I had no civilians to protect this meant I was free to spend my time salvaging certain supplies, parts and materials that were needed by others and I would be focusing on what I needed to start building battle bots.

One of the X-Men had supplied a list of locations where the right materials could be found. Not very helpful since I felt sure that EDI could have given this info.

"Someone wants to talk to you," informed Cameron.

I opened up the back of the AT-8 to find Rogue standing there with a smile on her face. She was dressed in her normal green and black outfit only she wore a jacket over it all that looked somewhat military.

She also carried a large backpack and so it seemed pretty clear that she was planning on going on a trip.

"Can I help you with something?" I inquired.

"Yeah Sugah, you can take me with you" was her answer.

Not a surprising request given that she'd packed and I had actually considered inviting her to my bunker sometime soon, so she was just speeding things up.

"You're just going to leave the school?" I asked.

I doubted that her friends were happy about her just leaving.

"Kal, I'm a grown woman, I can go where I please, and I want to go with you, please" was her reply.

Well, she was right about being an adult.

"I can be useful to have around" Anne Marie stated "I can be your sparring partner, someone to talk to, and I've been trained by trained by Logan in lots of fighting and survival skills".

So she wouldn't be a liability out in the field even if her powers weren't much use against monsters as the creatures would rip her apart if she got close enough to touch them.

"Oh and we're supposed to be allies so we should try to work together" she added.

Again she made some good points, and I had often thought about finding people with certain skills. Now I had someone who could be useful and she was offering herself.

"And it has nothing to do with me being able to touch you?" I teased.

It was raining again, it had been doing that on and off all morning, so I decided to let Rogue into my armoured transport before she answered my query.

"That might have something to do with it" she confessed

She decided to divert the conversation.

"I heard about what Kitty said and I don't like that she pressured you".

Truth be told, I had already forgotten about that, and to be fair I had a lot more important matters to worry about than Shadowcat getting involved in my personal business.

"Don't worry about it," I said "She's just looking out for you".

"Yeah she's a good friend" stated Anne Marie "But she's not why I'm here".

Cameron decided that now was good to start driving and this didn't prevent anyone from speaking as the sound of the engine didn't bother us much.

"I see you packed," I said "Were you so certain that I'd let you come home with me?"

Rogue shrugged before she spoke.

"If you'd told me to take a hike I'd have gone back to my room and unpacked," she told me.

Hopefully, she wasn't too invested in things working out between us as these were crazy times and no one really knew what the future might involve.

I moved over to the front of the AT-8 because while there were things that Rogue and I should talk about I wanted to put them off for a little longer. Thankfully there was something to distract me.

Spoiler

[img: https/images./images-medium-large-5/thunderstorm-over-manhattan-downtown-alex-potemkin.jpg]

"That storm is localised over Manhattan," Cortana told me "And it is the third one in the last 24 hours".

Sure I was no expert on the weather, but I felt certain that this was not something natural.

"Maybe they are some sort of by-product of whatever brought all the monsters here?" I pondered.

Rogue came to take a look.

"That's because of Thor and his friends" mentioned Anne Marie who knew what I was staring at "He came back from Asgard with a few of his friends and they are clearing out some of the monsters in the city".

Now that was interesting news. I hadn't thought that this world would be able to get outside help. We were going to need it I figured.

"I heard at the mansion that Thor wanted to bring Asgard's whole army here and deal with the monsters, but they can't just abandon their own people".

Even without an army, Thor would be a big help. With his friends here then there might be some hope for mankind.

"Thor is out there with some folks called the Warrior's Three and some lady called Seth. Weird name for a girl".

That made me smile.

"She's called Sif, she's one of Asgard's greatest warriors, she sometimes fights along with the Warrior's Three and Thor" I explained.

Judging by the storm the Son of Odin was doing some major ass-kicking over in Manhatten

"Are we going to be okay driving into that?" asked a concerned-sounding Rogue.

I wouldn't be worried if it was a regular storm as the AT-8 was supposed to be something you could drive into lava, but that wasn't a normal storm.

"Kal, I think we should wait a while" advised Cameron.

That sounded like a good idea to me and when I agreed the Terminator pulled over. Others might have gone into the city and maybe got caught up in some action, maybe even gotten involved, however, I was happy to wait here on the sidelines.

Since we might be waiting a while I went into the back and got on with my reading. There were a lot of lists for me to look over and I had to decide what we would be going after first.

"What ya reading?" Rogue wondered.

I showed her the list.

"This is stuff everyone needs badly, but they don't have time to go pick up themselves because they are being heroes," I said.

We ended up discussing the lists and where we might go to find what was on them. If nothing else we might be able to work together.


Part 10

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 10.

Bunker. Central Park.

Upon my return to my home, the trip had thankfully been free of Asgardians, I wasted no time in sharing the data I had on my tablet with EDI as the AI also gave Rogue a tour.

She, if gender actually applied here, went over the information very quickly and between us we quickly came up with a plan of action that should allow us to quickly gather what my allies needed as well as supply our own needs.

It wasn't just raw materials that the other members of the network required, they would need seeds, and not just for the hydroponics abys, I knew Xavier wanted to have some farming done on the lands he owned.

Perhaps to give some of his students a way of occupying their time since not all mutants were suited to become X-Men, and if they could produce a surplus of food then they'd have something to trade.

My attention would be on salvaging runs and training as I had a long way to go before I could consider myself the equal to any of the other powerful players around here.

Cameron and Rogue would both be able to help me with that so I was glad to have them both here.

"Charles Xavier just sent me a message to give to you" reported EDI "He has made contact with the nation of Wakanda".

EDI displayed some information for me about the nation. It wasn't much, however, if the country was anything like what I'd seen in the MCU it should be well protected.

"That's the home of Black Panther," said Rogue as she entered the command centre "I heard that the Professor was trying to contact him".

Much like Doom's small and isolated European country of Latveria the African nation of Wakanda did not have much contact with the outside world. As such it wouldn't have depended on international trade. That along with their advanced technology would mean that the kingdom would be able to defend its borders.

Since Wakanda had a history of isolationism so as to protect itself from hostile outsiders I doubted that the leaders of that nation would be seeking to expand its influence or take in many refugees. Still, it was nice to know that some sort of civilization was still out there.

"If they don't need all of their resources for their own people then they might be able to aid us" I mused "I bet that's Xavier's reasoning".

Some support and resources would be nice, but I wasn't going to assume that they would be willing to share. Better to focus on myself and the allies I already had.

"EDI show us the map of Manhatten," I requested.

Since Avengers Tower was in Midtown it wasn't that far from Central Park, at least not when you had an armoured transport, and since the Avengers were expanding the area they looked after that could bring them into conflict with me if I started salvaging in buildings they were protecting.

They might mistake my group for one of the criminal gangs known to be in operation in parts of New York.

"That blue part is under the protection of the Avengers" I informed Rogue

"I've claimed Central Park and the surrounding area so we need to focus our salvaging efforts in this area or parts of the city that are away from Avengers Tower. Which sounds simple enough, only we don't know what is out there".

It was somewhat of a good thing that Xavier had told the Avengers where I was because it meant that they should avoid the park.

They wouldn't want to upset an ally when they had so much they needed to focus on. Since they were so close by then it shouldn't take someone long to get here if I called for help.

"Why are we going to a nursery?" Rogue asked as she looked over the plans "Do we need supplies for babies?".

Wrong sort of nursery.

"That's a place for baby plants, not people" I explained "We need seeds and certain equipment. We can produce the tools needed here, it will just be quicker if we salvage them".

We could go out, load up the AT-8 and then drive to the mansion, drop things off, and then repeat this a couple of times a day if I so desired. Not that I would do so as I had other things to focus on.

"You need to start today's training," said Cameron.

She hadn't stripped off to her underclothes the moment we'd gotten back, and that might be a good thing since I needed to ease Anne Marie into my lifestyle, instead, she wore a leotard. I'd forgotten that she danced as something of a hobby.

Spoiler

[img: https/i./originals/4c/a8/3b/4ca83b88a38a149c8626f1b2b63e9ce1.jpg]

"Guess you have a relaxed dress code" commented Rogue.

I acted as if it was no big deal

"You don't need to worry about avoiding close contact" I reminded her "Feel free to dress skimpy".

EDI spoke next.

"We have spare clothing if you would prefer to wear something easier to move in during your training" offered the AI "And I can create clothes of any design for you if the right materials are supplied".

By the look on her face, the young mutant was realising that she could be more relaxed around here than in the mansion. There was no one here for her to potentially kill just by going with her gloves.

"I don't suppose you've got a pool?" she asked.

We didn't.

"One can be built" offered EDI "I can supply you with a list of materials".

We wouldn't need a huge pool, yet getting enough water would be a bit of an issue as the water tank wasn't big enough, still, it was possible since that AT-8 could transport quite a lot, I'd just have to be willing to invest a lot of time into the project.

"A hot tub might be better in the short term," I said "A pool would be a lot easier to build once we have some more bots to help out".

Rogue smiled at me.

"Want to see me in a bikini, sugar?" she asked.

That was a silly question that I didn't bother to answer.

Bunker. Central Park.

After getting cleaned up, something I needed to do rather badly as Cameron's training makes a man sweaty, I sought out Rogue as it was time for us to start getting to know each other.

I found Anne Marie in her room, she also had changed and she was on a phone to my surprise as the cell phone networks were down. It wasn't until she put the phone down that she explained how she'd been talking to Kitty. She must have picked up on my confusion.

Spoiler

[img: https/images4./image/photos/19500000/Rogue-x-men-evolution-19589140-226-223.jpg]

"EDI gave me a special phone," she told "It's hooked up to whatever it is that lets the Professor call you".

Now that I saw it closer I realised that it was too big to be a mobile phone like the models I was used to.

"I just want to help make your stay more comfortable, Rogue," said the AI.

She certainly looked as if she was settling in. She was already turning the room she had been given into a space of her own, it looked far more personalised than the room I slept in, and it was clear that she intended to say for a while.

"That's my drama class," she said as I looked at a photo she'd put up on a shelf.

The shot had been taken with a focus on Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, since Rogue didn't appear in the photo it could be that she'd taken it and that she'd been focused on the red-haired mutant.

"You had the hots for him" I mentioned.

She didn't deny it.

"Sure did," she admitted "It hurt my insides every I saw him with Jean. These days I have my eye on someone else".

I discovered more about her by looking at her stuff, such as she was a red belt in karate despite her inability to safely touch people, and she likely knew a lot about fighting styles as well. I'd already started sparring with her so I knew that she no novice.

Judging by the few books she'd brought along she was a fan of vampire stories.

"You don't have a library here" commented Rogue.

We did have some books here, mostly fiction in the entertainment room.

"While I do have an extensive digital library, I can expand the bunker and you can collect books when salvaging" suggested EDI.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a big library in case something happened to the database that damaged it, such as a computer virus.

"That's a good idea," I said.

"I'll start the expansion tomorrow," said the AI.

Rogue moved closer to me.

"So did you just come here to look at my stuff?" she asked.

That was only part of why I was here.

"I thought you might like to come with me to the entertainment room and watch a movie" I mentioned "We have a lot of drama and horror movies. It's about as close as I can get to taking you out to see a movie".

Rogue smiled a little.

"Drama isn't a good movie genre for a date," she told me "Horror's not too bad, get me a little scared, put your arm around me, but we've got enough horror in the world. If I were you and wanted to get somewhere with me I'd go for a nice romantic comedy. It'll put me in the right mood. We can cuddle and kiss, I mean if you want".

That was very forthcoming and Rogue seemed amused by whatever expression I now had on my face.

"We might all be dead soon" she pointed out "No sense in spoiling our time together".

That made sense to me and before long we were in the entertainment room. I prepared some popcorn and got us some drinks. Meanwhile Rogue selected a movie that I'd never heard of and I had no idea who was starring in it. I doubted I would even remember the plot.

Not that I cared much as the young mutant woman was snuggled into me and I had an arm around her.

"Are you fucking your robot girl?" Anne Marie asked rather suddenly.

I'd know that we'd need to talk about it, and I knew that lying would only bite me in the ass later, I'd just not thought she'd ask me so directly.

"Yes," I answered "Is that going to be a problem".

She paused as if spending a moment in deep thought.

"I don't know" she confessed "I mean she's a robot, it's not like I'm going to throw away my vibrator".

That wasn't really the same thing.

"Cameron isn't a sex doll" I pointed out "She might be more like us than you think".

She danced as a hobby and cooked for me, those things weren't requirements for her role as a bodyguard. She chose to do those things.

"But she can't love you" Rogue pointed out.

Again that was something that could be debated.

"I don't know what she's fully capable of doing," I said "I only met her a couple of days before I met you. We just both ended up in this bunker, and I didn't even know if I'd ever see any other person".

Rather than get upset Anne Marie kept my arm around her. She was acting rather intimate considering how little we knew each other, but I had saved her life so it made sense she'd trust me, and I stopped caring anyway when she turned to look at me.

The next thing I knew we were kissing and before long there was some tongue involved. Rogue ended up on top of me and her hands were on my chest.

"How about some on top of the clothes stuff?" she offered.

We kissed some more as I began to touch her breasts through her top. She wasn't wearing a bra, and that made me feel happy. Judging by how she was kissing my neck she was also enjoying herself, and she was very horny I found that she was very horny as she soon started dry-humping me.

Rogue didn't speak for a while and neither did I, she only moaned and grunted as she humped me, and she kept looking me in the eyes as she moved. I couldn't help smiling.

She began to move faster and faster, pressing down as she rubbed her pussy against my erection which was only just being contained in my shorts.

Rogue felt really good pressed into me I could feel the warmth of her body as she did her best to get herself off.

Anne-Marie was now squealing a little, as her movement became even more frantic, and I made a mess of my shorts before she yelled out something I couldn't make out and then she collapsd into me.

It took her a while to move again and when she did she blushed.

"You must think I'm a mega-slut" she said with a frown.

As a matter of fact, I didn't think of her that way.

"We've all been through a lot this last week" I reminded her "And you have more reasons than most to be all pent up. If I'd minded I would have stopped you".

Rogue seemed comforted by my words, and I did understand why she would be acting out of character.

A lot had changed for her and being in contact with me increase her endorphin levels and could make her giddy. Beast's tests indicated that this effect would weaken in time.

This was something I reminded her about.

"So can we finish the movie after we get cleaned up?" she asked once she calmed down "I promise to behave".

I agreed to this and went to change my shorts. I hoped that this wouldn't make things awkward between us.


Part 11

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 11.

Bunker. New York.

Given that we were supposed to be going out salvaging this afternoon I found it a little odd that Cameron didn't wake me up and that she wasn't insisting that we get some additional training done after breakfast.

I looked around my underground base and before long I found her in the workshop. If I was any judge she'd been toiling in here all night.

"Good morning," I greeted.

Terminators aren't known for small talk so she didn't reply.

"What are you building?" I inquired.

She didn't turn to face me when replying as she installing a scope on a very complex gun.

"I'm building a plasma weapon." she stated "You have commented on our lack of firepower".

So she was attempting to rectify that issue.

"Since we have a workshop I just needed to acquire the right supplies, and then I was able to begin constructing superior weapons".

Cameron could not have used the replicator to produce these weapons even if she had the raw materials because the designs wouldn't be in the database.

I assumed that Cameron was doing the work by hand because she didn't want the designs to be stored in the database. This made sense as there were people out there who could hack any computer no matter how secure it might seem.

Another thing that I felt safe in assuming was that my bodyguard had gone out last night to acquire what we needed as some of the unused parts looked to be state-of-the-art.

Perhaps she acquired at least some of them when getting the materials required to upgrade my helmet.

"So how does this one work?" I asked.

By the looks of things, Cameron had used parts from our salvaged guns to help build these science-fiction weapons.

"The rotating magnets create a magnetic environment into which an isotope is injected. Once it has the right temperature the weapon is then ready to fire" she said "The original weapon would only fire once. I have upgraded the design so that it fires three times before being rendered useless and needing to be repaired. It is slow to charge so it should only be used against slow-moving or stationary targets with some sort of armour".

So it was an anti-tank weapon or maybe something you'd used to destroy a barricade.

Open getting a closer look I realised that I knew this weapon.

At the start of the Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sarah Connor, John Connor, and Cameron locked themselves in a bank vault. While in there Cameron assembles a version of this weapon that Sarah Connor then uses on the Cromartie Terminator.

She blasts his head off at the same time as Cameron activates the time displacement equipment which had also been built into the vault. Granted Cromartie isn't destroyed in that attack, but most people die if their heads are separated from their bodies.

Cameron displayed a hologram of the original.

Spoiler

[img: https/static.wikia./terminator/images/9/9f/SCC_DVD_Special_PlasmaBank_concept1.JPG]

"I uploaded the original design of the prototype into the databank and then I modified it," she told me.

Now that did surprise me.

"You're capable of coming up with improvements on your own?" I asked.

Granted modifying an existing item is not the same as creating something new, but if Cameron was merely a machine with sophisticated programming that allowed her to simply pass as a human it wouldn't make sense that she was capable of real creativity.

"The prototype was made from many scavenged parts, including a Thompson SMG," she told me "It was simple to improve upon".

Cameron had superior materials and tools to work with so it made sense that she'd been able to make refinements so easily.

As for uploading the original design, I wasn't too concerned about that as we already had plans for deadly weapons in the database. So we only needed to make sure that our best weapons couldn't be copied by a hacker. Besides, the locals were hardly lacking in firepower.

"That weapon is for Rogue" Cameron stated as I looked at the other weapons "It is a Westinghouse M-25 plasma rifle. They were often used by the resistance during battles against Skynet's forces".

I didn't recognise this one, but if it could damage Terminators then it should be effective against most monsters.

"Nice that you made something for Rogue" I commented "I never got the impression that you cared about her".

If anything you'd think she'd be jealous.

"You are the only human I care about" insisted the Terminator "You would be sad if Rogue died".

A good enough reason.

"I built it mostly using parts from a Valmet M82 rifle" Cameron informed "It has a 40 Round Magazine and fires bolts of plasma".

Carefully, I picked up the rifle.

"It's lighter than it looks," I said.

Rogue's mutant powers were only dangerous to people and animals she got close to, so she would need a ranged weapon.

"I located some suitable body armour for her as well" reported Cameron as she pointed to a container "If you look in the box under the armour you will find something I located while salvaging. It is a gift".

The armour looked like something worn by a soldier in a sci-fi movie and should fit Rogue with some adjustment. This was good as my mutant house guest had no power armour.

When I did as she asked I saw something under the armour.

"I've seen one of these before," I said.

Spoiler

[img: https//imgs/aliens-m41a-pulse-rifle-8.jpg]

This time it was EDI who offered more information.

"The M41A Pulse Rifle is the standard issue weapon of the United States Colonial Marine Corps," said the AI "It has appeared in many forms of media set with the Alien universe".

I really hoped that weren't any xenomorphs out there. My childhood nightmares aside such creatures could overrun the plant in short order.

"An M41A Pulse Rifle fires 10mm caseless, armour-piercing, high-explosive ammunition and includes a 'pump-shotgun' style 30mm grenade launcher in an over-under configuration" EDI informed.

That could come in handy.

"Is it tight?" asked Cameron.

It took me a moment to figure out what she meant.

"Yes, it's cool," I said "Thank you".

Also, it made me feel a little worried, because if Cameron could find a weapon like this just lying around then what else was out there?

"Where did you find a Colonial Marine's weapon?" I asked.

This time Cameron did turn to face me.

"Very early this morning I found the corpse of a marine that had been consumed by ghouls," she told me "I planned to take it apart until EDI told me what it was. Then I decided to gift it to you since you love science fiction so much".

I didn't recall there being ghouls in the Marvel setting. Although it would explain why I'd not seen any dead bodies in the streets. Not that I'd been looking for any.

"So we have to worry about ghouls as well when we go out" I complained.

A holographic avatar appeared in the workshop. Cortana had decided to make her presence known.

"Ghouls are only active at night and rarely attack people" reported Cortana "If you ran into one that was hostile it couldn't get you out of your power armour".

Which meant the vampire would be more of a threat. Even if Thor and his friends had gotten rid of many of the major threats there would still be plenty out there for us to worry about.

"You and Rogue should practice with firearms before we leave for our salvage mission" advised Cameron.

That sounded like a good idea to me. I would need to become more familiar with my new toys before getting into any fights.

Plant Nursery. Manhatten.

While it would be safer if I stayed in the bunker and directed operations from there, it didn't work that way EDI was meant to keep the bunker running so her ability to manage things outside of the bunker was limited.

Sure she could control a number of the recycling bots here in Manhattan, but that wasn't what she'd been programmed to do.

Cortana was my personal AI and therefore was meant to work with me and she needed to go out since either she was in my head, or rather the hardware she needed was in there.

When in the field she inhabited my power armour and moved into the base's system when we were at home, and the power armour only moved about if I wore it, as such I needed to be up here on the surface.

If nothing else I didn't want to spend all my time underground because while I wouldn't be risking my life I didn't think hiding away like that could be called living.

"No sign of any gangs or monsters" reported Cortana.

The recycle bots were not meant for combat they didn't even have weapons, however, they were networked so Cortana could use them as scouts. The bots were replaceable since unlike Cameron as they weren't intelligent entities.

"Then let's find any seeds and gardening tools," I said.

We had quite an extensive list of things to find and then transport. If we moved quickly we should be able to make it to the mansion for a short visit before heading back to the bunker.

Although given that it was going to dark rather early due to the season, we might have to spend the night at the mansion if the visit turned out to last longer than expected.

We moved into the plant nursery that had been sealed up in order to keep it warm. However, since the power had gone out and the heating was working the cold had killed off most of the plants here.

They had mostly grown indoor plants to decorate homes and offices, there were still some of them alive, but that didn't matter as the seeds were safely stored away and they were what I wanted to collect.

Since the plants here were not edible and this place wasn't secure no one had held up here. No monsters were using it as a dwelling either. The weather had changed and it became much colder last night so if there were any animals about they have gone to find somewhere warmer.

While the nursery grew decorative plants according to its records it also sold a lot of seeds and tools used for planting since some people do like to grow their own vegetables. So what we needed should be in storage.

"Rogue, you and I will get the seeds" I decided "Cortana get the bots to start packing the tools".

Cameron led the way. She had her new heavy plasma weapon secured on her back, and in her hand, she carried her favourite Glock pistol.

"Secure," she told us.

I lowered my pulse rifle and shifted the bag I was carrying.

"Okay let's load up," I said "We need seeds for root vegetables if we can find any since Xavier has written that they are a priority. Something to do with vegetable gardens".

I found plenty of seeds for parsnips and leeks. Not something I would have imagined a person in Manhattan ever wanting to grow or having a place to grow. Perhaps they supplied other parts of the city or the outlining areas.

We soon had our bags filled and the bots were loading up the AT-8. I had just dumped the bag filled with seeds into the back of the armoured transport when Cortana let me know something important.

"One of the bots had spotted someone in the area" she reported.

There was a worrying pause.

"Wait, no, not someone, something" Cortana corrected "It just took down one of the bots. It's big and hairy".

"But Kal's right here" joked Rogue.

She'd made that crack because she was very nervous.

"Look out!" Cortana shouted.

Cameron moved so that she was between us and the danger. The threat turned out to be an ape of some sort that my bodyguard soon managed to pin to the ground.

"Is that Gibbon?" asked Rogue.

Spoiler

[img: http//wp-content/uploads/Gibbon-Marvel-Comics-Spider-Man-Blank.jpg]

My HUD provided me with some information.

Martin Blank

Species - Mutant

Abilities - superhuman strength, speed, agility, dexterity, reflexes, coordination, balance and endurance

I didn't bother to read the bio and I would not have had time to finish it because Cameron failed to hold onto the mutant. When he got free he pushed Rogue down to the ground and came at me.

If I hadn't been wearing my power he'd have easily gotten past me. Only he didn't and we ended up wrestling as my bodyguard tried to interfere with whatever it was the apeman was trying to do to me.

He might have been agile and strong enough to escape Cameron's grip, perhaps because she'd not used her true strength when attempting to restrain the attacker, I was more of a match for Gibbon due to my size and growing combat skills.

While I was rather busy trying to stop the minor villain from harming me I did notice that he had a very noticeable angry expression on his face despite him not being fully human.

Gibbon managed to wrestle me to the ground, he had a lot more experience with this sort of thing, and when the villain tried to escape I grabbed his furry leg and pulled.

"Oh no you don't," I said.

I was going to ask Gibbon why he attacked us, but I never got the chance as there was whooshing noise and I turned my head enough to see that Iron Man had just made a superhero landing on the street. Hitting the ground like that kicked up a lot of dust and bits of tarmac.

Spoiler

[img: https/i./originals/27/0f/9e/270f9e505249c1b51ff5578ba1bc791f.jpg]

Due to the distraction, Gibbon got his leg free. Not that it mattered as Tony Stark blasted the villain with one of his beam weapons and the apeman slumped to the ground with a thud.

"Let me take it from here," said Iron Man "I've been chasing this furry across the city for the last half an hour".

Well, that explained why the apeman looked so mad. We'd gotten in the way of him trying to escape Iron Man.

"I'll return Gibbon to Ryker's Island," said the hero.

The Avenger picked up Gibbon and slung the crook over his shoulder.

"Come over to the tower sometime and I'll see if I can upgrade your

armour" he offered.

Before I or anyone found anything to say the Avenger was flying up into the air.

"That was odd" I commented.

Once we were all back on our feet I asked Cameron a question.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why didn't you kill that guy?" I asked.

The Terminator didn't look ashamed of her failure or anything like that.

"I wasn't sure if it was human or not" she explained, "If it had been human I would have questioned him. I didn't anticipate that he would be so strong or such a threat to you".

Even AI can make mistakes.

"Did he say something Ryker's Island?" asked Rogue as made sure everything was loaded into the AT-8 "How can that place still be running".

If I recalled correctly that place was a prison for some of Spider-Man's enemies. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that the heroes were devoting resources to keep their foes safe and secure while decent people died due to exposure and monsters.

"Perhaps we can go to Avengers Tower and ask," I said.

If nothing else I wouldn't mind some free upgrades from Stark.


Part 12

Apocalypse Tales

Part 12

Xavier's School. New York State.

As I'd imagined would happen by the time we'd gotten to the school and Rogue had done catching up with her friends, despite not having been gone for that long, it had started to get dark, and that might not have kept me here if not for the sudden snow storm.

While I wished to spend the night in my secure bunker it would be foolish to drive around in that blizzard so I would have to spend the night here and set out once the weather cleared up.

Even though there was a mutant here who could mess with the weather I doubted that Xavier had gone to the trouble of trapping me here, not when I was already helping him out, and it was a different psychic mutant who was currently my concern.

I had no idea why Professor X was allowing Emma Frost aka the White Queen to stay in his home, as she was not a big fan of his, but this version of her was no friend to the Brotherhood of Mutants either from what I'd been able to find out.

Calling her an enemy of the X-Men wouldn't be accurate, but she wasn't exactly a friend of theirs either.

Actually, that wasn't totally true I did know why Emma Frost and a few of her students had moved to this mansion, it was because there was strength in numbers and this place was easier to defend than the school she'd been running which might be more threatened by monsters or humans.

What I didn't understand is why Xavier was being foolish enough to let the psychic mutant wander around his home freely and talk to his students, or my case, his guest. Not that I minded having Emma Frost in my bedroom, as she was a rather attractive woman.

Spoiler

[img: https/static3./wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Emma-Frost-Featured-Image.png]

"Erik is a violent fanatic and Charles a pacifistic idealist, and I'm sure they'd both tell you that I am a manipulative bitch, although Xavier would do it without using those precise words. And while the Hellfire Club is no longer operating I still have my powers and many useful contacts".

Back in my world, the Hellfire Club was a name for several exclusive clubs for high society types that had been established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. In this world, they were much, much more than that.

Although the Hellfire Club appears to merely be an international social club for wealthy elites, its clandestine Inner Circle seeks to influence world events, in accordance with its own agenda. Of course, there were plenty of other groups who did that sort of thing.

The Hellfire Club counts, or rather counted, among its members the most famous, wealthy, and influential members of society. Membership is passed on to descendants, and can also be earned through wealth or influence.

While many accept the invitation to join the club simply for the pleasures that the Hellfire Club offers, others seek such things as wealth and influence.

However, the true purpose of the Hellfire Club is to obtain and exert power through politics and economic influence instead of outright conquest and domination. Since its foundation, the Hellfire Club has been involved in wars and assassinations, all to further the agendas of the Club's most powerful members.

The Club has branches in New York City, London, Hong Kong, and Paris, and while the physical locations likely still existed the Hellfire Club. since many of their clients and the people they influence are either dead or in hiding the organisation had just come to an end.

"This network that Charles is running and expanding is the only organisation that matters, at least in this state" stared Miss Frost.

I knew that were entire countries still going out there, but they were isolationists and would have their own problems, as well as other superhero groups scattered around the planet, but there was a lot of power is focused in and around New York. Frost knew that and wanted to become part of it.

There was no judgement in this from me as I also wanted to become an important part of the network if only to ensure my own survival.

"What do you want from me, Miss Frost?" I asked.

Clearly, the White Queen, that was her title within the Hellfire Club, must see some sort of potential in creating an alliance if she was bothering to show this much attention to me.

"To be frank, Kaliburn, I'm planning on working my way up the power structure that you are becoming a part of" she stated openly "If you aid me then I will add you in turn".

So she was here to recruit. That made sense and I wasn't stupid enough to refuse to have such a powerful ally even if she was only a potential ally.

"What kind of aid?" I asked, "What exactly do you want from me, Miss Frost?".

Frost sat down on her bed and made sure to cross her legs so that my attention was diverted for a moment to her very womanly legs. She had curves in all the right places and wasn't afraid to use them.

"To be exact, I think things are going to become more civilized over in New York City," she told me "With the different groups working together it's just a matter of time before the villains fall and with so many geniuses working together a lot of the problems will be solved".

That did seem likely. The Avengers had tougher challenges.

"When that happens I plan to reopen the Hellfire Club in New York. Which is located on Fifth Avenue on Manhattan's East Side" she informed me.

Ah, now I understood.

"That's my territory" I stated "If it's the building I'm thinking of then the club overlooks the park".

It wasn't official but the members of the network knew that Central Park and the surrounding areas were under my protection.

"If I set up in your territory then I should be under your protection and I will pay you tribute," she said, "As long as you offer security and help me regain my throne".

My original plan to turn the park into some sort of camp wasn't going to be enough. If the Avengers did secure Manhattan and manage to make it a haven people would flock to it in great numbers.

Assuming that their basic needs were met, and that should be doable, then people would start to seek entertainment.

I felt sure that bars would start opening before long as people sought distractions. Such places popped up wherever there were people with money to spend.

Although what we'd use as a currency was unknown at this time. Then banks had shut down and paper American dollars were worth less than toilet paper these days.

Miss Frost wanted to be the White Queen once again, to manipulate people, to lord it over them from some sort of throne, to direct business like that Asari who ran Omega in the Mass Effect game only without a lot of mercenaries causing trouble.

"I think we can help each other," I told the mutant "If Manhattan gets sorted out and you want to reopen then I'll aid you. I'll provide security and I might be able to help you with supplies".

That would take some time and I'd have to focus more on securing my land. Which I would be doing anyway.

"If you want support from the heroic types you might think of renaming the club" I suggested.

It was too early in our working relationship for her to give my advice any serious thought so I figured she'd consider it later on.

"I'm glad that we could come to an arrangement, Kailburn," said Miss Frost.

When she walked out of my room she managed to get my attention on her ass and that made her smirk as she knew that I was checking her out.

"I don't think she messed with your head" Cortana let me know as soon as the mutant was gone "At least not with her powers".

Looking over I saw Cameron over in the corner.

"You weren't acting odd and she was here talking to you in person," she confirmed "I didn't detect her using her mutant powers either".

She didn't need to as her natural charms combined with her words were more than enough. Plus, Frost was right, if things got organised in the city then people would want her services, and she would only be able to operate with the support of the network. So she would need allies who were part of the network.

The door knocked and before I could invite the knocker in, the door opened.

"Hey, Darlin," said a familiar voice.

I sat down on the bed and wondered why Emma Frost a woman who was supposed to be some sort of villain had been polite enough to knock yet and wait to be invited in when one of the good guys had just walked in without a word from me.

"Did I just see Miss Frosty the Bitch leave your room?" Rogue asked.

I could hear the jealousy in her tone. It wasn't at all hidden and I felt certain Rogue had been waiting for my visitor to leave before coming to see me, so she knew exactly who had just left this room.

"Yes, you did," I told her.

I hadn't intended to say more on that subject, but here I was sitting on my bed getting stared at by an upset female mutant. If nothing else I found it distracting. It's hard to think about your future when there's an unhappy woman nearby as they tend to demand your attention.

"Do you know much about Emma Frost?" I asked.

Rogue came over to sit next to me on the bed

"I know she used to run The Massachusetts Academy before she came here" was all Rogue wanted to tell me "And I can tell you that I don't like her".

Cortana had much more information to offer and it was soon displayed on my HUD. According to her Emma Frost was the chairperson of the board that ran a fancy school.

Frost recruited young superhuman mutants and trained them in the use of their powers at her school so that they might use those powers in service of the Hellfire's Inner Circle.

Most of these mutant students were members of a team called the Hellions many of whom were now taking shelter at this school. I could imagine that this was causing some tension here as the X-Men and Hellions had no doubt come to blows in the past.

At some point, she attempted to recruit a younger Kitty Pryde for her school. Kitty chose to go to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters instead. Perhaps the phasing mutant would have more information for me on the subject of Miss Frost.

"Let me help you forget all about that evil old witch," offered Rogue as she came in for a hug "Tell me what to do and I'll do it for you".

I laughed upon hearing that.

"Why do women say stuff like that?" I wondered "They never mean it".

Rogue looked at me and I could tell that she was mildly offended.

"I do mean it, sugar," she insisted.

This was something to test. I did consider telling her to go make me a sandwich just for a laugh, but then I had a better idea.

"Strip for me" I ordered.

She didn't leap into action, but she did as I commanded without too much delay, and that made me wonder how much control over her I actually had. I knew she desired me because she craved physical contact and the affection that could come with it, however, that didn't mean she was a puppet for me to control.

Not that I thought about this for long as Rogue began to strip as I watched, removing her mesh top and what was underneath it to show me the dark green lacy bra that she was wearing. Then she removed almost everything covering her lower half so that I could see her matching panties.

Only a fool would miss that she had clearly worn her best bra and knickers in order to get my attention.

"Someone's up" commented the mutant.

She'd noticed my erection. It had made an appearance very quickly. I'd been getting ready for bed when Frost came to see me so I wasn't converted up much.

"Is this enough?" she asked, "Can I get some touch?".

To tease her I pretended to think about it, but only until she started pouting again, and I decided not to push her into going nude.

She might do it because she was worried about Frost diverting my attention away from her, only I saw no reason to demand that much from Anne Marie as that could backfire on me later.

"You look very sexy" I praised her.

She was pleased by my words.

"Aww thank you, sugar," Rogue replied in her sultry Southern accent.

With that, she got back onto the bed and snuggled up into me, but she kept one hand free so that she could play with my dick.

"Is your robot girlfriend going to watch?" Rogue asked.

Cameron was very good at getting people to forget she was around. She could stand still like a statue and not make any noise so people didn't notice her.

"Do you mind waiting outside?" I asked requested.

Cameron just left, not bothering to say anything. I decided not to mention that Cortana had shifted her presence into the power armour or shut her off from my senses.

"Want to me suck ya off?" Rogue asked next.

I nodded and she moved away enough to get her head down to where my cock was busy pointing up into the air. She didn't waste any time, putting her mouth to use in a way that met with my approval.

Just as she started Kitty AKA Shadowcat phased into my room, she cried out in surprise and then turned around, going back the way she came in.

"Was that Kitty? asked Rogue.

I confirmed this and Rogue shrugged before getting back to the task at hand. Then it became the task at the mouth.


Part 13

Apocalypse Tales

Part 13

Xavier's School. New York State.

"Ah Kaliburn I have some important news for you" said the Professor as I entered his office.

The telepath gestured for me to take a seat and I did.

"Yesterday's unexpected blizzard was not natural weather event as we first thought," the teacher told me as Storm came in to serve some tea "It was, in fact, the work of Thor's brother, the renegade Asgardin called Loki. He came to Earth with a small army of giants, but they were defeated by the Avengers".

It was a testament to how weird my life had become that this news didn't shock me at all. I was more surprised by the pleasant taste of the tea than I was about learning that Loki had turned up in Manhattan.

"It should be safe for you and Rogue to return to the city this afternoon" Xavier let me know.

While the AT-8 should be able to handle any snow and ice left it would be wise to wait until after lunch in case the Avengers hadn't gotten rid of all the giants yet.

"Rogue doesn't seem to be any rush," I said.

She was spending her time with Kitty in their shared room doing stuff I cared nothing about. All I knew was that it involved listening to music rather loudly.

"I have something for you," Xavier said as he passed over a book "For your library".

While I played it cool the fact that the Professor knew I was going to set up a library worried me a lot. Either he'd read my mind, despite me not feeling anything, or Rogue was reporting to him. If it was the latter then this was to be expected even if it did bother me.

Rather than comment on that I checked out the book. It was a text on the ethical treatment of people. Very subtle.

"Thank you, but I've never studied ethics," I said.

My moral code wasn't something I needed someone else's input for. In my view, if you needed any kind of book to help you decide what you thought of as right or wrong then you were a fool. At least if you are an adult.

"All mutants need to learn to use their abilities safely," Xavier said to me as Storm left the room. "And just as importantly we need to learn when, where and why we should use them".

While I wasn't a mutant in the same way he was, I did have some power, and I was learning to fight far more quickly than should be possible. I might have more subtle powers, abilities I hadn't yet discovered.

"Should you visit regularly you can make use of the Danger Room, there will be plenty of chances for you to learn to use your powers in a violent situation. Even though this isn't primarily a school any more I plan to start up some classes again and many of the teachers have classes in the Danger Room that you can join in as you wish" Xavier offered "From me my students learn why we mutants must sometimes fight and when they shouldn't".

There was an ongoing conflict between Xavier's X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. Both wanted the same thing, a world where mutants can live without fear.

So fundamentally, the two leaders wanted the same thing. The trouble came from the fact that the two of them just have very different ideas on how to achieve this end.

Xavier strongly believes that the only way to live peacefully with Homo Sapiens is to show that while mutants may sometimes look different, they are still human beings.

Believing aggression against the rest of mankind would only escalate tensions with the rest of humanity in the future and further alienate mutants from society.

Though the X-Men often use their powers in combat, they do so almost solely against other super-powered beings or as a last resort against humans. They have even protected humans from alien threats.

Magneto the leader on the other side had no desire to go quietly into the camps and be exterminated by humans as his family had been during World War 2, and that could happen as humans tended to fear what they didn't understand, those who were different from them.

History was full of such examples, so it's not like he doesn't have a point. Sure, humans also liberated the camps at the end of World War II, but the fact that they'd ever existed at all was enough to justify his actions, at least in Magneto's mind.

Xavier and I talked for a while. I got the sense that he was feeling me out without using his powers. Trying to discover where I would stand when the conflict between the two mutant factions started up again.

It would start again as humanity was still out there in great numbers, and there was even a government of sorts, so mutants could come under threat. It wouldn't be so odd if mutants and other super-powered people were blamed for the sudden appearance of all the monsters.

"Do you think we can live in peace with the rest of humanity or do you think mutants have the right to use their powers to supplant Homo Sapiens as the dominant species on this planet?" I was bluntly asked.

Not an easy question to answer.

"I think if Homo Sapiens are going to go the way of the Neanderthals and be replaced by people with powers then it will happen with or without me," I answered, "If the monsters hadn't turned up it might have taken centuries or even thousands of years. These days those with powers are going to have a better chance of surviving while baseline humans will keep dwindling in numbers".

Xavier didn't visibly react to my words. I couldn't tell if he felt disappointed in me or not.

"But shouldn't we try to help them?" he asked "Those with power should help those without it. Don't we have some responsibility?".

I wondered if he'd ever met Spiderman's Uncle Ben.

"Given the state of the world, I'm more interested in keeping myself alive," I said "So attacking humans who outnumber us by millions to one is not a good idea".

Xavier didn't seem to approve or disapprove of my answer. In truth, I supported neither side I was going to look after myself.

"So you think its best to keep our heads down and let history play out," summarised the man in the wheelchair.

That was basically it. I wanted to be a leader and control some of New York, but I had no interest in influencing events on a global level.

"But what if other mutants threaten to start a war that could destroy us all?" I was asked, "What will you do then?"

Of course, I knew why he was asking this, and again it wasn't easy to answer.

"Truth be told, I really don't know," I said "And I figure that everyone has bigger problems these days".

Reading about this in a comic book was one thing, and I knew that those camps Magento feared could still become a reality here if humanity could reorganise. I could easily imagine a leader rising up and putting the blame on super-powered humans.

I knew trying to hug it out wouldn't work either. There were just too many people and organisations out there who were focused on their own agendas and many saw mutants as weapons they could try to control.

"Please give it some more thought, Kal" the Professor encouraged "There might come a day when you have to pick a side".

It was at this point that I decided to leave as there were matters that I needed to attend to. I took the book as if nothing else it was rude to refuse a present.

Xavier's School. New York State.

When I got out to the AT-8 I found more people waiting for me than expected. One of them was Rogue, the other was Kitty and the third was another girl, one who I had never met before.

"Can I help you, ladies?" I asked.

While the question hadn't been directed at her since I knew why Rogue was here she was the one who answered for Kitty.

"She and Bobby broke up" was the offered explanation.

What that had to do with me I had no idea. Nor did it explain why Shadowcat looked as if she was planning on going on a trip.

"My condolences," I said.

Since I didn't know Kitty that was all I had to say on the matter.

"Thanks" she muttered.

I turned to Rogue and she didn't need any prompting.

"Kit needs to get out of the mansion for a couple of days so I thought she'd be able to stay over" Anne Marine said "Your place can hold a hundred people so you might not even notice she's there".

I did consider saying no because Rogue hadn't cleared this with me first, but I decided not to cause a fuss, because Kitty could be useful to me in helping check out and secure Manhattan.

Besides, she was rather cute and I did have a lot of empty rooms in my bunker. I could always drive her back here to the mansion if she proved to be a pain in my ass and she'd be someone for Anne Marie to hang out with while I got on with my important work.

"Did you tell her about the mandatory nudity rule?" I asked.

I couldn't resist teasing her a little.

"What rule!" Katherine demanded to know.

Rogue giggled.

"He's teasing you, Kit," she told her friend "No one has to be naked".

The phasing mutant visibly relaxed.

"But don't let that stop you if you fancy giving me a nice view," I said.

The purple-haired mutant who was standing apart from Xavier's students laughed upon hearing that.

Spoiler

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"And you are?" I asked.

Now that I'd taken a moment to check her out I noticed that her eyes were not human ones, and she had a tail, not so odd in these parts.

"I'm Sharon Smith, but you can call me Catseye" she answered.

She wasn't a mutant I was familiar with.

"And what's your power?" I asked.

Something cat-themed I assumed.

"I can turn into different-sized cats" she let me know "I can become a house cat or a panther, so I'm very good at sneaking around small places and I can be good in a fight".

She didn't wait for me to ask why she was here. She just told me.

"Miss Frost sent me to get close to you and help you check out Manhattan" I was informed.

Proof of how serious Frost was about having an alliance with me.

"She's a spy!" declared Rogue.

If she expected to get a big reaction from me then she was going to be very disappointed.

"Well, duh," I said, "So are you".

Rogue's expression upon hearing that amused me.

"I am not" she protested.

"Yes, you are" stated Catseye "You're just too naive to realise it".

Both Rogue and Kitty were shocked when I agreed with the Hellion.

"Yes you are," I said to Anne Marie "Xavier gifted me a book for the library I'm building in my base and since he's not been reading my mind he must have gotten that information from you".

Kitty came to the defence of her teacher.

"The Professor would never send Rogue to spy on someone" she protested.

She was both naive and cute.

"He wouldn't make it sound like spying, he would have said something about making sure I'm not doing anything that could hurt people and that Rogue should try to help me make the right choices," I told Kitty.

The mutant who wanted to be my girlfriend looked a bit guilty.

"That's not exactly what he said," she told me.

Were the older superpowered people under the impression that I was stupid? I wasn't, it was very clear me to what they intended.

"I bet she's here to seduce you!" accused Kitty.

Catseye just shrugged.

"I figured that I might need to have sex with him," she said as if it was no big deal "He's not bad looking".

Rogue and Kitty acted as if they had never used their sexuality to try to get what they wanted. Okay, so maybe Rogue hadn't done that much because of her powers, but Kitty must have done some flirting in her time that involved close contact, even if it was only during undercover missions.

"You can't trust her" protested Shadowcat.

Of course, I couldn't. But I did need allies to help me carry out my plans.

"I can trust her as much as I trust you," I said.

That got me another offended look.

"We're the good guys" Kitty protested.

I shrugged.

"I'm not one of the good guys" I pointed out "I'm not a hero or a villain, and I don't care much for either side".

Cameron was waiting for me in the front part of the AT-8.

"Get in the back if you are coming" I instructed.

I didn't think that the three girls would be getting along well enough to ever gang up on me. As long as they followed orders in the field and didn't make my home life uncomfortable it wouldn't matter to me if Kitty and Rouge didn't get along with Catseye. If anything it meant they'd have less time and energy for interfering with my plans.


Part 14

Apocalypse Tales.

Part 14.

Road. New York State.

"Kal, there are vehicles approaching" warned Cameron.

While we weren't travelling back to Manhattan via the roads we did get close to a major one when we returned to the city, and as we did the scanners alerted us to something important. If I was reading the sensors right there was an entire convoy of conveyances heading this way.

Since the weather had improved greatly since yesterday afternoon it was likely that should we keep going at our current speed the people in those vehicles would spot us.

I figured that if we stopped here and waited for a short time we could then carry one without them seeing us. Another option was to use the AT-8s cloaking device.

"Are they heading towards the mansion?" I asked.

Saying that got the attention of the three women in the back of the transport.

"Who's going to the mansion?" enquired a concerned-sounding Kitty.

I showed her the display as she leaned into the front of my tank.

"There's a lot of vehicles coming this way," I told her.

Cortana used my HUD to display a map of the area and what route the convoy would need to take to drive to the mansion. Then she showed their predicted route.

By the looks of things, they were heading away from the mansion and away from the city. I had no idea where they were going and I'd like to find out.

"They're moving fast" commented Cameron "But not towards the mansion".

Rogue leaned in so close that had I been the one driving she could have caused an accident.

"Maybe something's chasing them" she mused "We should go help them, darling".

My gut reaction was to not get involved, but in this case, it might not be such a bad idea to help out if we could as I wanted to know what people, if they were people, were doing out here.

Were they refugees? Was there a refugee camp nearby that they were moving to or were they fleeing something?

"I agree with Rogue" stated Kitty.

Not unexpected given that they were besties.

"So do I," I said to the surprise of Xavier's students "I want to know what they are doing out here".

I turned to Cameron.

"Can you find somewhere elevated to park, so that we see them coming?" I asked.

The Terminator didn't reply right away, she spent a moment checking the GPS system, and perhaps files she kept on her own hard drive.

"Yes," she said before she changed our course.

It didn't take her long to find a good spot.

"Stay here," I told the mutants.

None of them listened to me and I made a mental note to talk to them about following orders. If they weren't willing to obey my directions when we were out in the field then I didn't want them on my team.

Not that we really were a team, but it would be important if we ever got that far.

"I can some bikers, cars and is that a school bus?" said Catseye.

Her vision must be superior to Rogue and Kitty's. As for me, I had a helmet on with a zoom function so I could see very well what was heading our way.

"It's full of young women" commented Cameron.

Like me, she had access to means of enhancing her vision.

"And a tank," I told those with limited eyesight "But I don't think they are military".

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The tank must have been recovered from some overrun base or battlefield. The armed forces were engaging monsters in a few fights according to reports.

"Reminds of something from Resident Evil" I muttered.

This group had armoured a bus and put spikes on it. The convoy had a Mad Max vibe to it, but I wasn't worried about them attacking us because their weapons and defences could be meant only to protect them against monsters Still, it would be wise to be cautious.

"Cortana see if you contact them on the radio" I ordered.

I doubted they had anything that could communicate with my power armour, however, the AT-8 had a radio transmitter as well as a receiver.

"Yes, Kal," she said.

At least someone around here did as they were told.

"I've gotten through to their leader" my personal AI reported "They want to meet".

Like me, they would want to share information and we did have a few things we could trade with them since the AT-8 carried some medical supplies.

"Cortana got through to them on the radio," I told the women with me "They want to meet".

Catseye looked confused.

"Whose Cortana?" she asked.

I resisted the urge to make a joke about her being a voice in my head as this wasn't the time.

"Cortana is my personal AI" I explained "She's installed into my armour".

That wasn't the total truth, but since we'd only just met it would be foolish of me to tell the Hellion too much.

"So are we gonna go and meet them?" wondered Rogue.

Driving the tank down to the side of the road made sense. I didn't want to block it in case they saw that as a hostile action.

"Let's go meet them" I stated.

We took a short drive to the side of the road and by now the convoy was close enough to see without a zoom feature or enhanced vision.

Spoiler

[img: http/pics./10555/hummer2.jpg]

"Stay here" insisted Cameron "I'll go out to meet them".

The people moving in the various vehicles slowed and stopped before one of the led bikers, who looked as if he should be in a gang, got off his bike. I noticed that he'd had a woman holding on to him as he rode and she did not look dressed well enough for this weather.

"Something doesn't feel right" I muttered.

My gut had been warning me of something and it turned out to have been right to do so as the bikers tried to grab Cameron. This turned out to be a mistake on their behalf as my bodyguard was not the petite young human woman she appeared to be.

Things became violent very quickly. A biker pulled a gun and shot at Cameron who used his pal as a human shield.

"Fuck me!" called out Rogue.

Had I not been moving up into the turret I would have made a poorly timed joke. Instead, I was realising that our new enemy had their own tank, albeit one more primitive than mine, and before it could get a shot I had blasted it with the AT-8's plasma cannon.

Since my tank had only deployed its weapon when the fighting had started the transport hadn't looked to be armed so the people who made up the convoy were very shocked when I took out their tank.

They began to flee, leaving their armoured bus and wreaked tank behind. The bus wasn't able to get moving for some reason.

One of the bikers didn't get very far as he tried to take Cameron done with a baseball bat. She very gracefully moved and kicked as the bike when past her, knocking the man off his vehicle, which came to a halt in front of the AT-8 as the rider hit the ground.

I really loved having my own Terminator.

"Stay here" I instructed the people who weren't cyborgs or wearing power armour.

This time they did listen and I headed out of the AT-8. I caught up just in time to hear a man scream as he was thrown out of the armoured bus. He managed to get up and run away rather than try to fight.

After that, a group of underdressed young women came pouring out of the bus and scattered in all directions.

"Not very smart" commented Cortana.

None of the women was wearing much or had shoes as far as I could tell yet they'd run off into the wilderness during winter. I wasn't going to bother chasing any of them down. Not when Cameron wanted my attention.

I got onto the bus the find that there was somewhere in the back. She was separated from everyone else by some fencing that had been welded onto the frame of the bus to create some sort of cell. Unlike the others she was dressed, and that was a bit of a shame.

"Hi," said the attractive woman "I'm Dawn Summers. Are you the good guys".

Spoiler

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It took me a couple of seconds to realise that this was Dawn Summers, the young sister of Buffy Summers, either that or the actress who played hasn't aged much and is playing her role because she's gone crazy. It didn't take me that long to get over the astonishment as I was becoming rather jaded about meeting fictional characters.

"I consider myself to be something of a neutral party," I said "but I'm not going to lock you up or hurt you".

In my experience heroes and villains are rarely happy people and despite all the insanity around me I actually enjoyed my current existence.

"Can you let me out of here and get this collar off me?" she requested.

Cameron waited for my signal and once I stepped back she tore the fencing down before breaking Dawn's bindings.

"Slayer or robot?" the prisoner asked.

Given what I knew of the BTVS world it made sense that Dawn would ask that question.

"Cyborg" I answered "Living tissue over a robot body".

More or less. Now wasn't the time for details.

"The collar is stopping me from using my powers," said the Key in human form "If you take it off I can make my own way".

I would have liked to talk to her, and even invite her to my bunker, but if I forced her to stay she'd resent me so I nodded at Cameron who with some effort managed to break the collar.

We all then got off the bus, as there was nothing else of interest here. I got

to watch as Dawn Summers tried to use her powers to do something.

"Damn it!" she called out "I can't open up a portal".

I wondered if that had something to do with the mystic masters or maybe she was just not going at full power for some reason.

"Do you have any food?" she asked "And water".

I did have some in the back of the AT-8.

"We can't stay it will be dark soon" warned Cameron.

She was right. I'd given Dawn some supplies once we were ready to go.

"Let's salvage what we can," I said.

I waved at the AT-8, gesturing for Rogue, Kitty and Catseye to come out to join us. Which they soon did. Catseye took the form of a panther and began to sniff around.

"Grab anything that looks useful" I ordered.

There were some weapons lying around and we could use them as raw materials if nothing else.

"Who are these people?" asked Kitty.

It was Dawn who answered.

"Slavers," she said "They were taking us some base to sell us".

She didn't sound upset by that. That made me wonder what she'd been getting up to recently.

"Slavery in America!" said Kitty "Since when?".

Wow, she really was both cute and naive.

"Since forever," I told her "There's always been a market for young women as sex slaves it's just kept out of sight of the public".

Now that the civilization had broken down they didn't need to hide it.

Someone had adapted fast to the changing circumstances and started to gather criminals to them. Given the monsters in this area, they must have a hidden and fortified base to operate from.

"I've seen mutant girls our age used as sex slaves," said Catseye "The pervs put power-dampening collars on mutants so they can abuse them".

And to use them as slave labour if the 90s X-Men cartoon was anything to go by.

"I know these guys" reported Rogue as she inspected a biker who wasn't actually dead "They've been near the mansion. The Professor used his powers to get rid of them when they started harassing us".

People who were already criminals could become worse crooks when there were no longer any police around to keep them somewhat in line.

"You can tell me all about them later," I stated, "We need to get moving".

"What about the people who ran off shouldn't we doing something?" asked Kitty.

There wasn't much we could do.

"No," I told her "Even if we could track them all down they have no reason to trust us and I'm not going to force them to go anywhere".

I noticed Cameron pick up one of the bikes and load it into the AT-8.

"It's a present for me" she explained.

"To the victor go the spoils," I said.

We had room for them in the garage.

"There's three bikes can I get one" requested Rogue.

I saw no reason why we shouldn't take all three. Even if space was an issue, Cameron could ride one bike while I handled the AT-8, or rather Cortana did the driving.

"Excuse me, sci-fi guy. Do you have somewhere safe you can take me to?" Dawn questioned.

As a matter of fact, I did. And since I was the one in power armour it seemed safe to assume she was talking to me.

"You can come and stay in my bunker" I offered.

Since the alternative was to go off on her own she wisely decided to tag along.

"How many strays are you gonna let tag along?" wondered Rogue.

Well, I had a lot of room back in the base so as I many as I pleased. Perhaps I should look into filling the bunker with a lot of attractive ladies.


Part 15

Apocalypse Tales

Part 15

Bunker. Manhattan.

"So I'm a character in a TV show to you," asked Dawn Summers.

That wasn't even in the top ten of the strangest things that the daughter of Joyce Summers had heard about and she'd personally experienced events that made the idea of her being fictional in one universe seem downright boring.

Once you've been a giant, a centaur and then become a higher power worshipped by demons in some dark dimension, it takes a lot to shock you.

Spoiler

[img: https/cdn./photos/michelletrachtenberg/michelle-trachtenberg-eurotrip-224830073.jpg]

"Yep" replied Kaiburn, the man who had rescued her from the slavers along with his team of attractive young women "We got seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer centred around her life in Sunnydale. The show ended when the town became a crater".

Dawn remembered how her life in Sunnydale had started even if her memory wasn't what it used to be so she had an idea of when the show would have started.

"Oh joy, seven seasons of Buffy whining," she remarked "Why would anyone watch that?".

Kaliburn didn't answer that question, instead, he went to get them some coffee. They'd just arrived at the bunker and the leader of this group wanted a chance to get to know her. Perhaps he's been a fan of her character in the show, she hoped that the fictional version of her had been less of a trouble magnet and she knew that she could be just as whiny as her sister back then. Thankfully, she'd grown up.

"Don't you get along with your sister?" Kal asked.

Dawn hadn't even tried to hide her distaste for her older sibling.

"It's a long story," she said, as she sipped her coffee.

Since her powers weren't working right she had decided to rest for a while and learn about this world. It might be messed up, but at least it wasn't a hell dimension, and she didn't have any desire to keep wandering through different realities. Even with her powers, she was lucky she'd not gotten killed.

Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing to stay here with some people who were unlikely to want to eat her or sacrifice her to their dark god. If nothing else she needed to talk to someone about her life and Kailburn seemed interested in listening.

"My sister, who's kind of like a superhero back home, destroyed the source of magic in our world, and because I was made from magic I started disappearing," she told her host "Everyone started forgetting me and I began to forget them".

By the sounds of things, Dawn didn't need to explain the nature of her existence and her life before leaving the ruins of Sunnydale as Kailburn should know all about it. If there was something he didn't know he was free to enquire as Dawn felt no need to be secretive. She felt comfortable around the mutant for some reason.

"Anyway, my friends came up with the idea of getting me into a universe with magic so that I'd be okay and it worked. There weren't any portals, but we found a way around that" Dawn informed me "I got better and we had some wild adventures as I figured out how to use my powers. I even managed to get us home again".

The Key in human form savoured her drink. It had become some time since she'd been able to just sit and talk like this.

"Buffy, she didn't like that I went off on my own without her," Dawn said, "Which is so annoying since I can look after myself now. Well most of the time and it wasn't as if I had a choice".

She told Kaliburn about how when in the hell dimension of Anharra, she used her powers to destroy the demonic God-King Kerberon. After that Dawn became both feared and worshipped by the Anharran demons.

"If I can sort my powers out then I can be really useful to your group. I can open portals, and destroy the barriers separating dimensions, which can lead to an apocalypse, so I won't be doing that, and I can destroy powerful demons. I've even learned to create a force field".

She could tell that Kailburn was impressed.

"Where was I?" she asked herself before carrying on with her story "When I got back Buffy wouldn't let magic be returned to the world so I started getting sick again".

She liked to think that her sister refused to help Willow restore magic because Buffy had been worried that Willow wanted magic back for selfish reasons. But she couldn't help thinking that maybe Buffy had just stopped caring for Dawn when she began having trouble remembering her sister.

"Why wouldn't she help you?" Kaliburn wondered.

"She was convinced that there was another way" Dawn answered, "Something that didn't involve rekindling magic because then she'd have to go back to Slaying".

Given how tough Slaying had been for Buffy, Dawn didn't resent her sister too much for not wanting to go back to those days.

"After the magic mostly went away, there was still some left in some special items, we found that the vampires couldn't make any new vampires" Dawn was now telling her host "And after a while, no new Slayers were being called either, but that wasn't so bad because most of the more nasty demons had either vanished or died, and those that were left were weaker than before".

She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts.

"There wasn't much more for Slayers to do other than patrol and take out any vampire that got their attention," The Key said next "Buffy got to spend her time like a normal person, more or less, and that's always been what she's wanted".

Dawn hadn't minded living in that world until the spell that made her a real girl started to come apart.

"Willow, a few of the Slayers and some witches wanted the magic back because not all magic makes monsters" Dawn explained, "There were a few magical artefacts, like the Slayer Scythe, that had some power left, and the practitioners could use them like batteries to cast spells, but they were getting used up and so the witches were going to end up as powerless as everyone else".

Magic was a part of Willow, she couldn't live without it.

"According to Willow, without magic, the world became sort of empty" The Key informed her host "We had rainbows with only two colours, and she told me that the lack of magic was the reason why no decent movies or songs were getting made".

That alone made life less bearable and it helped Dawn not to feel homesick. Her world was dull and might have been dying.

"On the other hand, no magic means not a lot of people dying because of demons and no rituals to open the Hellmouths" Dawn explained "Buffy had a point about trying to stop magic returning. Willow and her friends didn't agree, and Buffy is not liked at all by magic-users, then they all started fighting".

Dawn's expression displayed her sorrow.

"Buffy wanted me protected even with me getting sick again, and Willow wanted to use me to break into other dimensions so she'd have enough magic to beat my sister," the young woman said "I just couldn't stand by and watch the people I love start killing each other, so I left without even saying goodbye".

Perhaps things had settled down. Dawn didn't want to go and find out as she'd been drawn into the fighting. She couldn't help worrying that the conflict between the witches and the Slayers would end up destroying her world should Willow find some new source of power.

After all, if it hadn't been for Xander then Willow would have destroyed the world already. He might not be able to talk the witch down a second time.

"So what are you going to do now?" I asked, "You could try building a new life for yourself in this world".

The Key in human form gave the matter some thought.

"Do you need a librarian or a researcher of all things mystical?" she wondered "I was a sort of a Junior Giles before Buffy messed up my world".

Kailburn smiled at her.

"I am planning on adding a library" he answered "And I could do with an expert on mystical matters".

Dawn felt that she could do with staying in one place for a while and she needed time to master her powers fully. Something she mentioned.

"I think I know someone who might be able to help," said Kailburn.

Bunker. Manhattan.

"You want me to do what," I said.

It had been a statement of surprise rather than a question, but Steve Rogers gave me an answer away.

"We want you to pretend to be a slaver and enter their base" he said "Tony will give you a hidden recording device so all you have to do is get in and wander around. Once we have an idea of their numbers and defences the Avengers will attack. You just need to get as many civilians out as you can".

While it sounded simple I knew that such missions rarely went smoothly.

"What am I supposed to do with so many people?" I asked.

This time it was a question.

"Our recon drone says that there are only a few dozen captured women at the slaver's base" Tony Stark "You've got abandoned apartments near your base".

Spoiler

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While the girls that made up my growing group settled in I'd reported to Xavier about the slavers I'd run into and as it turned out it was one of the many things that the Avengers were looking into.

Now that I had important information for them they were taking more of an interest. No doubt they were concerned by how well-organised these bad guys seemed to be and the fact that they had power-dampening colours was rather worrying.

"The base is an old women's prison that was abandoned a few years ago," said Black Widow whose hologram was also on display "It looks like they are keeping the women in cages out in the exercise yards, but they could be keeping more people out of sight".

I wondered who they were selling the slaves to since and what the slavers were getting in return since money was now worthless. I supposed I'd find out.

"You have room for twenty people at least" pointed out Steve Rogers.

More, I just didn't want to have to support them. I had more than enough food and water for them, it was just that they would be a drain on my resources and wouldn't be giving me anything in return. Not unless I could put them to work.

"Twenty young and attractive women, all of whom will be very grateful for a rescue" stated Ironman.

Two of the three Avengers I was talking to via holograms looked at the third.

"What?" asked Tony Stark "I'm just giving the kid some incentive".

Thinking on it I realised that if I was going to help Emma Frost reopen the Hellfire Club then she would need staff, and other businesses could be opened in the area I controlled once things settled down. Assuming that they ever did.

"So what's the plan?" I asked, "I've never done any sort of undercover work before so I have no idea what to do".

I understood that we couldn't directly assault the old prison. The captives would get caught in the crossfire and the slavers had some impressive firepower if the images picked up by the recon drones were anything to go by.

"While I don't like leaving those people there it would be for the best if your team came to Avengers Tower for special training," Captain America was now saying "It would be better to wait and for your team to go in prepared, than to rush in, only to mess things up and risk getting the captives killed".

If I had a few days to prepare I could send out the recycle bots to nearby buildings and get them prepared for people. I should be able to find productive ways to keep them busy. Maybe it was time to set up some sort of trading outpost.

"That sounds like a plan," I said.

We could go over the details of the plan once we were at the tower.

"My team will come over tomorrow," I told the Avengers.

I did want to see the inside of Avenger Tower.

"Bring your armour I'll have time to install a few upgrades" said Tony Stark "And we can make sure that you are equipped for the mission".

Superior equipment would be a boon, and there was something else I required.

"Would you contact Doctor Strange for me" I requested "There's something I need to talk to him about if he can spare half an hour".

This was for Dawn rather than myself. I knew that the Mystic Masters were busy, but they should have reading material that could help Dawn, or be able to spare someone for the odd lesson.

"I can ask him to come over," said Tony Stark "But I can't promise he has the free time".

A chance was better than nothing.

"I'll call tomorrow when we are on our way over," I said.

EDI closed the channel and I decided to meet with everyone so we could discuss what we'd be doing for the next few days.


Part 16

Apocalypse Tales

Part 16

Bunker. Manhatten.

"Well that wasn't hard" I muttered to myself.

I was sitting in the workshop with a load of spare parts in front of me as I put together a power-dampening bracelet that was made from the power-dampening collar that Dawn Summers had been wearing a few hours ago.

The technology was advanced and I didn't know much about how it worked other than that using it required the collar to be in contact with the skin.

It seemed to work on all humans with special gifts as it suppressed the powers of mutants and Dawn Summers whose supernatural abilities had nothing to do with the X-gene.

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[img: https/vignette.wikia./marvelmovies/images/2/2a/Inhibitor_collar.jpg]

Since wearing one of these collars was rather noticeable I'd asked EDI to help me take the device apart so that I could turn it into a bracelet version for Rogue to wear when she needed to be in contact with others.

She didn't need one with me so if it turned out to have any side effects or did not work, then she wouldn't be cut off from all intimate contact with other human beings.

As for the bracelet, it was just a smaller version of the collar that would be more comfortable to wear and much easier to remove. I'd attached the tech involved to a simple strap so it would also be much lighter than the collar and simple to take off.

We had access to this technology thanks to the databanks and it would have been simple enough to design and fabricate a bracelet, but I'd decide to make one by hand as much as possible as this was meant to be a gift.

"Thank you for your help, EDI," I said before leaving the workshop.

The room shut down as I left and soon I made my way to Rogue's room. She let me seconds after I knocked and I noticed right away that she was only wearing some sort of partly see though nightgown with a lace bra and panties underneath.

"Hey Darling" she greeted "I was just about to come to see you".

Given her state of dress, it was clear to me that her visit would have involved doing something very fun. I spent a moment just staring at her body (something that made her smile) before I recalled why I'd come to her room so late at night.

My distraction was understandable as she was looking very good tonight. She'd clearly done something to her auburn hair to make it more noticeable and she'd put on some lipstick that made it very clear that she wanted me to pay attention to her lips. No doubt she planned for us to be doing a lot of kissing.

"I made you something," I informed the sexy female mutant as I showed her the bracelet "I built it from the power-dampening collar those slavers use. After taking the collar apart I made something more comfortable to wear and lighter".

With an AI to advise me and all those fancy tools it hadn't been much work, but it was thought that counted when it came to gifts, or so I'd been told.

"Now you should be able to touch people and take it off if you want to use your powers" I explained "If it doesn't work then at least with me you don't need to worry about draining anyone".

Rogue held out her arm.

"Guess it's too soon in our relationship for you to put a collar on me," she commented.

Hearing that made me pause in my movements as I pondered what she'd meant by that.

"Ready when you are, Sugah," Rogue encouraged.

I put the bracelet on her and then I wrapped an arm around Rogue. After that, we began to kiss with rather a lot of passion.

"Nothing happened" claimed the mutant.

Rogue could drain me without doing me any harm, but she would feel a rush of energy, that she couldn't feel anything meant that the bracelet was working.

Rather than reply with words, I kissed Rogue and began to feel up her sexy body. The two of us soon backed up to the bed and fell down onto it while I was still holding on to her.

I pulled myself away from Rogue just long for me to start kissing down the side of Rogue's neck. An act which made her gasp in pleasure.

"More please," she pleaded.

Before kissing her more as she wished me to, I pulled off my t-shirt. The mutant woman took this as a signal for her to get topless as well. Her breasts were now free from their confines and available for me to play with.

I squeezed them and pinched her nipples. Rogue moaned in delight and began to get louder the more I played with her sensitive tits.

"Oh Daddy," Rogue whispered into my ear.

I was too busy enjoying her nipples and filling my mouth with them, to comment on whatever it was she had just said.

As time passed by I moved my attention down her body and to her belly button. Her firm body deserved this level of attention and Rogue assisted with that by removing her nightgown, leaving her in only a pair of lacy panties.

The kisses and touches continued for much longer than required for any sort of foreplay. She had been denied direct human contact for so many years and I intended to make sure that she could experience all that she had been missing.

I moved further down and ended up taking off her knickers for her. Rogue made no attempt to hide her shaved pussy from my eyes.

"Hope you don't mind me clearing the way for you," the young woman joked "Can't have you getting lost when you're trying to find my clit".

I didn't mind at all.

"It looks much better this way," I told her.

When I began to play with her cunt, paying attention to her clit as she had not so subtly hinted at. When I decided to go further, Rogue's hips bucked up to meet the finger that I was now pushing inside of her.

She whimpered in a very cute way and that noise became much more lewd when I lowered my head and began to kiss her bare pussy.

"Oh Daddy," she said much more firmly than before.

I decided to spend some time exploring Rogue's perfectly warm pussy with my mouth. I ate her out while holding onto her hips to stop her from moving about too much.

As I pleasured her I heard moans, gasps, and whimpers from the mouth of the Southern Belle.

"You're gonna make me cum, Daddy" she let me know.

When she reached orgasm she did so very loudly and for a moment it felt as if she was going to crush my head with her thighs. Rogue is stronger than she looks and she kept me in place until she was done making all sorts of interesting noises.

"I'm ready to go all the way," she told once she found her voice.

There was something we needed to discuss first.

"Before we go that far I should tell you that I'm planning on starting a harem" I mentioned.

She didn't look as shocked as she should be by this news.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that," she said "Hard to miss that you're starting to fill your bunker with pretty girls".

"I didn't plan on having a harem originally" I admitted "Now I've decided to have my own team and harem. I wanted to invite you formally before we went any further".

How I'd been able to stop myself from just fucking her was a bit of a mystery.

"And you think that girls are gonna line up to join?" she asked.

It was an arrangement that could make a lot of sense.

"The world has become a very dangerous place. Anyone who joins me gets to live in a secure base, that is filled with plenty of supplies, weapons and entertainment" I pointed out "A person could do a lot worse than be part of my harem".

Rogue smiled upon hearing that.

"And what position did you have in mind for me?" she asked.

I'd given this a bit more thought while in the workshop.

"You can be my second in command" I answered "I need someone I can trust to look after the bunker for me if I'm not here, and I can't always be around to deal with any minor problems. I need someone the other girls can talk to if they don't want to bother me".

Rogue spent a moment thinking and then looked at her new bracelet.

"This thing gives me the option to go find someone else" she stated.

I had no intention of forcing her into the role.

"Okay, Daddy" she decided "I'll give it a go, but you need to fuck me good and make your baby girl".

This seemed too easy, but I wasn't going to complain.

"Are you ready for this?" I asked.

Her pussy sure looked ready.

"Damn, straight I am!" she told me.

There was one other small bit of business to go over first.

"How do you want to handle birth control?" I asked.

She frowned for a moment.

"That's not something you need to worry about, darling" she assured me "I can't have kids".

Rather than discuss that further, as this was the time, I removed my trouser and boxers. As soon as my hard cock was exposed Rogue slipped a hand between her legs and began touching herself.

It was clear that the Southern Belle's sopping wet pussy was eager for my cock. My dick slid into her with ease and there was no barrier to stop me.

"I thought you were a virgin," I said.

Rogue looked me in the eye.

"I am" she assured me "I've gotten busted up in a few fights. I hope that doesn't spoil it for you".

Actually, it made things easier and there would be less mess to clean up later. Not that I stopped to explain this as I was already starting to fuck her, much to Rogue's delight.

"Oh mercy, this feels great!" she called out.

She might have more to say on the subject, but she soon lost the ability to talk.

I began slow, feeding her hungry pussy with my dick before pulling out and pushing it back in again to create some pleasant friction. Before long I began to pick up the pace.

Rogue was not a quiet girl, she was very vocal about her enjoyment of this activity. I could feel her holding on to me very tightly as if she feared that I would suddenly get up and leave.

I didn't have enough blood going into my brain for any proper thinking, however, I figured that if I tried to pull out of her completely she'd be very upset and would hold on even tighter.

Not that there was much chance of this happening. Rogue's cunny was so wet, warm and snug that I didn't want my cock to ever leave her. The only thing I could do was pick up the pace and start ramming into her.

"Yes, Daddy!" she called out.

I seemed to have been promoted from darling or sugah.

"Cum in me, Daddy!" she yelled sometime later.

That was an offer I couldn't refuse so I began really giving it to her. Using her body for my own pleasure as I sought my orgasm. Rogue got their first, screaming so loudly that even with the thick walls there was no way we'd avoid being heard by someone.

I filled her hot cunt with my baby batter as she so badly wanted me to and once I was done I managed to roll off her.

"Fuck!" Rogue swore rather unexpectedly, "We've gone and messed up my nice sheets".

This was bad news as it meant I had to get out of bed and then help her change the bedding when all I wanted to do was close my eyes. Thankfully the clean-up didn't take long and soon I was spooning Rogue's naked boy.

"Night" I whispered.

She didn't say anything, she moved on my arms to her chest, and then we soon went to sleep.


Part 17

Apocalypse Tales

Part 17

Avengers Tower. Manhattan.

Spoiler [img: https/vignette.wikia./marvel-cinematic-universe-guide/images/8/8f/Avengers_Tower.png/revision/latest?cb=20170518132029]

While the lower parts of this tower were crammed full of people who looked as if they were fleeing a warzone, despite many of the nearby buildings having been made safe and habitable, once I got to the upper floors of this massive building it felt as if I'd been transported into the future.

These floors housed not only the Avengers themselves but they were also home to many research and development projects that were being worked on by scientists who were led by Bruce Banner if my guess was correct.

He was keeping busy even when was letting the Hulk out to smash monsters I figured.

"Are you enjoying the tour?" said the voice of JARVIS.

The plan which was to have me infiltrate the slaver's base so as to gather intel and try to secure the slaves before the Avengers attack had been refined since I'd spoken to Tony Stark.

While I'd been in my power armour when I encountered the slavers who had captured Dawn Summers the same wasn't true for Cameron, Rogue and Kitty, and since slavers had escaped our meeting that meant if they went with me our cover would be blown.

The same would be true if Dawn Summers went with me, not that this was an option as she'd already gone off somewhere with Stephen Strange according to a note she left behind.

She had promised to return so she could run by my library for me, and if she got a Sling Ring that would be easy for her to manage, so I wasn't worried about that.

So I would be taking Catseye with me, the young Hellion who Emma Frost seemed to have sent off with me as a gifted of some kind, as she had been in her feline form when we encountered the slavers and as such she wouldn't be recognised by any of them.

The rest of my team would be busy clearing the buildings around Central Park and making sure they were habitable with the help of Recycle Bots.

That could be dangerous work, but Kitty and Rogue had been trained to be X-Men and Cameron was a very dangerous person in her own right.

"Yes, thank you," I said to the AI.

We were now overlooking some science types who were working on small-scale renewable energy sources. I could see compact solar panels and small windmills in states of construction. I assumed that they were prototypes.

"While the tower's ARC reactor will be able to provide power for the Avengers and the people under their protection, as more nearby buildings are secure those buildings will need to be made habitable" JARVIS was now saying "This involves much more than providing light and warmth".

That was evident by what was going on in other labs.

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"Mr Stark has teams working on combing the hydroponics technology you provided with examples of technology from other sources to ensure that there will be plenty of food for everyone" stated the AI.

Nice to know I was contributing to all of this even in a small way.

"Tony Stark is trusting me with a lot given my past" pointed out the purple-haired mutant.

She was technically speaking a villain and her loyalties were to the Hellfire Club even if it didn't really exist at this point.

Since I intended to be an important part of the organisation she might also have some loyalty to me one day. For now, she was an ally I needed to be careful around.

"Tony believes in second chances" said a human voice "And given everything that is going on we can't afford to turn help away".

It was Captain America, the First Avenger, who had spoken. He was a bit intimidating in person as he was powerfully built with a well-deserved reputation as a great warrior.

It took me a moment to put myself together as he invited us into what passed for a command centre here.

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Much like mine, it was full of devices used for gathering and displaying information. JARVIS took the role of EDI here and there was an image of Earth taking up one whole wall of the room.

"As you can we're involved in quite a few operations," said the captain "SHIELD is working worldwide to try with many other groups to try put things together, or at least stop them from completely falling apart".

The scale of these operations was staggering and would take many people working together to coordinate all of this.

"Thor and his Asgardian allies are going after some of the more dangerous monsters while SHIELD agents are trying to set up safe zones for people with the help of other hero teams" we were told

"We're hoping that your base in Central Park and the surrounding area will be one of these safe zones".

That was something my group was working on.

"There are some areas of the world that seem to be doing rather well," JARVIS informed us "Doctor Doom's nation of Latveria is stable due to it having never depended on international trade and Doom's army of robots is keeping its people safe. Doom has even taken in a number of refugees".

That sounded a little too nice for Doctor Doom.

"People he deems useful" clarified Steven Rogers "Quite a few European scientists have been snatched up by Doom and our agents have spotted his robots going after certain resources".

"Not just things his country needs, but also works of art, and treasures such as the British Crown Jewels which he took from the Tower of London" the Captain let us know.

Since they were basically worthless these days it seemed odd for Doom to go after such things and it wasn't as if modern civilization would recover from this meaning that he could ransom the treasure back later. Perhaps he was just a bit of a collector.

"Magneto has taken over the small country of Genosha" Captain America informed me "He's making the island a safe haven for mutants and their families as well as some scientists who he must have a need for since they are not mutants. He's also been going after certain resources by agents in Africa".

I could see the sense in Magneto protecting the families of mutants since not only would that encourage mutants to come live in the country he'd taken over. Those families gave him something to use as leverage over mutants. He might even be thinking that those families could produce more mutants for his nation.

"Wakanda is also stable" reported JARVIS "It is mostly focused on securing its own borders".

I had wondered if that advanced nation would expand its own borders or turtle up so as to look after its own.

"Black Panther has agreed to take in a small number of refugees, most of Africa, has fallen to complete chaos" said Captain America.

It had never been the most stable part of the world even before the monsters. Now it would be even worse. I imagined that the Middle East was similar.

"Lemuria is secure despite the sudden appearance of many sea monsters" stated JARVIS.

It took me a moment to recall that Lemuria is basically Marvel's version of Atlantis. I'd never even given the place any thought since arriving in this world.

"Aside from these nations and the safe zones, such as Professor Xavier's mansion, it's mostly chaos out there," said Captain America "And villains are taking advantage of this, carving out their own little empires. We think the slavers you ran into are part of a large operation".

That made sense to me.

"If they are selling slaves someone must be buying them" I deduced "And they must be getting something in exchange".

"Which means they are in contact with someone who has extra resources and wants slaves for some reason" added Catseye.

Captain America changed the display so that the slaver's base was displayed as part of a 2D map on the big projector in the centre of the room.

"We suspect that someone like Xavier is setting up their own network," said the Avenger "And fast too. Given the speed of this they might have even known, or at least suspected, that the monsters were going to appear".

People with precognitive abilities were known to exist in this world and it wouldn't shock me to discover that some supervillain or even a group of them had worked together to bring the monsters to this world.

There were versions of this world that had been overrun by zombies or destroyed by alien invasions so having monsters appear worldwide wasn't that odd.

"What matters to you and Catseye is that this slaver's base is well-defended and that they have friends," said Captain America "That's why we need to get inside and gather the intel before we attack. They might have computer or paper records that we need to examine, or at least slaves who know more about what is going on. We need to secure them before we attack in force".

That made sense to me and if this base was part of a villain network then it would be a threat to the network I'd become a part of, and I wanted to use it for my own plans.

"I wanted you to know about how things were going worldwide and locally because things are changing," said Steven Rogers "The Madam President is aware of this and she had concluded that trying to hold together the United States as it was is pointless".

That was a bit shocking even if the leader of the USA was just admitting what all already knew.

"Therefore the POTUS has given New York and the surrounding areas over to the Avengers. Making us a small and somewhat independent state" the Captain let us know "In theory we will still report to the POTUS, but in practice, we'll be running our own affairs".

This was interesting news, and I wondered if this was happening in other parts of the country as there were lots of superhero teams out there and other people who claim dominion over parts of this country who weren't villains or heroes.

"So, I'm answerable to you?" I asked.

Tony Stark appeared via hologram, I assumed he'd been listening in.

"I'm now Acting Governor of New York City" he declared "This was decided by the President herself since I'm used to running things. Hopefully, once we get New York into some sort of order we can have an election".

That could take years to set up.

"Until then I am in charge, but I can't run everything so as long as you aren't doing anything to endanger the city and you respect people's basics right I'm not going to involve myself in what goes in your base or the area around it" Stark assured me.

That was fine with me. I had no desire to control more of the city than I had planned and any expansion would have to wait until I had my army of robots. Once that happened the Avengers might just let me expand as it would give them less to defend.

"I have some of my people securing a few of the buildings around the park so we can house the slaves we rescue" I told Iron Man "But I'm concerned about what I'm going to do with them in the long term".

"They can't just sit around all day" I added "So I was thinking of having them run the hydroponics bays THAT I plan to build in the park. The problem with that is I'll have to pay them because I don't want them to still be treated like slaves".

Stark's hologram looked at me.

"I've given this some thought myself," he said "But with so much going on I've not had time to think of a solution. Do you have any ideas?".

As a matter of fact, I did.

"I want to salvage some jewellery and other things made from gold, melt them down and make coins" I answered, "Then we can pay workers and even supply them with things to buy that had been salvaged by my bots, this way they don't feel as if they are living off the charity of others and when they have money they'll have some say in how they live their lives".

Stark's image looked as if it was giving this some thought.

"Assuming we can supply people with the basics it is likely they'll start to trade luxury goods between themselves if they can get their hands on them" mused Iron Man "Some sort of currency wouldn't be such a bad thing we have AI who can calculate how much money we should have out there for people to spend".

Captain America placed himself between me and the hologram.

"Iron Man, Kaliburn, I understand the need for long-term planning" he said "But you both need to stay focused on the slaver operation. We can worry about turning New York into its own nation once we've finished securing the city and the surrounding area".

He was right. My big plans would come to nothing unless I had people in my territory.

"Caps is right" stated Tony Stark "You and Catseye have your training to think about. Hawkeye has taken time off from his own work with SHIELD to oversee part of your training as is Rogers here. I have a lot on my plate, but I will have time to do some upgrades to your equipment while you prepare for your mission".

I couldn't argue with that and soon Steven Rogers escorted the two of us to the training rooms that were part of Avengers Tower.