Torn Cape.
Part 13.
Base. The Moon.
"Bloody Vought," I said with a sneer.
The screen in front of me was showing a news report. By reading between the lines, I understood that the superhero company was making itself look good by claiming that it had been involved in the operation that had resulted in Maeve and I saving that transoceanic flight just yesterday.
This was distracting people nicely from the fact that Homelander still hadn't woken up and that Vought's stock had been dropping for weeks. Given that the Seven no longer existed as a team it was hardly a shock that Vought's shareholders had lost a lot of their faith in the company.
"We can't let them take credit for our actions," Margaret Shaw complained "I didn't even renew my contract with Vought".
She'd made a public declaration by coming with me to stop the terrorists. She intended to show the world that she longer had any loyalty to Vought and that she'd sided with me. Only for Vought to twist everything.
"The problem is that they own the identity of Queen Maeve," said Miranda who was in her office at CDC headquarters and talking to us via a secure connection "It's similar to the laws that allow a movie studio to own the rights to a fictional character or a franchise".
Must have something to do with the superhero merchandise that Vought was making millions from.
"Getting into a legal battle with Vought to claim the identity of Queen Maeve would be a long struggle" Cortana informed us.
"And not worth the effort".
"Just set up a new superhero identity" advised Miranda "Then hand that identity over to me so that Cerberus can protect it for you, Miss Shaw".
A rather good idea.
"I never liked the Queen Maeve image" I commented "The armour makes you look like an old shoe".
Margaret acted as if she was offended by my words.
"My image was meant to make people think of me as some sort of warrior queen like Boudica" explained Margaret "I do have Celtic ancestors".
Since I was from a Celtic country I wondered if I should complain about cultural appropriation.
"Whatever you say, Xena" I joked.
She didn't get the reference.
"You're allowed to call me Maggie," she told me.
The sexy woman on the screen who wasn't an AI got our attention.
"This seems like a good time to reinvent yourself" said Miranda who was more focused on the matter at hand than either of us "Cerberus can protect your new image without making a mockery of what it means to be a superhero".
Margaret Shaw thought about that before turning to address me.
"Nolan, if you're going to let me keep the armour then I should change my superhero identity to something more futuristic," said Maggie before she turned to the screen "I'll let Cerberus represent me from now on".
Miranda smiled upon hearing that.
"I can have my media department present this new image to the public" she said "Something about casting off the past and becoming a hero for the future".
That sounded like something the sheeple would eat up.
"We can leave the details to my PR department" Miranda went on to say "Just make sure you wear the science fiction armour and get rid of the old shoe leather stuff".
Margaret frowned.
"It's the armour of a warrior queen" she insisted "It's based on outfits worn by real women warriors of the past".
I very much doubted it.
"No one who ever went to war dressed like that would be taken seriously on the battlefield and I doubt they lived long once the fighting started," I remarked.
Before we could argue about that Miranda spoke again.
"Some of the die-hard Homelander supporters think that Invincible kidnapped Queen Maeve and that he is somehow forcing her to work with him" the CEO of Cerberus Defence Contracts let us know "I have EDI spinning everything, and the actual people on the plane are singing your praises so at least the extremists are being ignored".
That was good news.
"The more radical Islamic groups are denying involvement and they are denouncing the attempted hijacking" Cortana let us know.
Miranda had more to tell us.
"Nolan, I've gotten my R&D department to start going over the designs for the power armour you gave me" she let us know "I scanned the manual and had EDI transfer the data into a new format to make it look as if it had been developed in this world".
"I'm having different teams work on different parts of the armour so that we can patent every component" she was now saying "I won't be presenting the armour to anyone for a few months at least as I need to make it look as if CDC developed the technology even if we didn't create it".
That made sense as if she just presented the military with functioning power armour people would start to wonder where the technology came from. The fusion batteries alone could be a game changer when it came to advancing humanity's technology.
"Sounds like the tech is in good hands" I praised.
Miranda smirked at me.
"Yes, seducing you with my feminine charms was smart," she admitted.
I couldn't argue with that.
"Pop by and see our progress sometime soon" invited Miranda before she closed the channel.
As soon as he was gone Margaret slapped my arm.
"So you have a girlfriend," she said "I was wondering if you were gay. Not that I would mind if you were".
She was supposed to be bisexual so I could see why she wouldn't have been bothered.
"Miranda isn't my girlfriend" I let Margaret know "We just have an arrangement. In exchange for me working with her I'm the only man she's allowed to be with intimately".
Maggie didn't have anything to say about that.
"Why did you think I might be gay?" I asked.
I wasn't offended by her assumption, I was just curious.
"You have me alone in your moonbase, and I offered you sex, you could have me doing whatever you want while I'm up here," she pointed out "But you never showed any interest".
I had my reasons for keeping my distance.
"My thinking was that you wouldn't want to trade Homelander for another superpowered man who would tell you what to do," I explained
She didn't see it that way.
"You are nothing like Homelander" she assured me "And just so you know if you're interested in a friends-with-benefits deal I'm fine with that. A girl gets lonely on the moon".
I'd never been attracted to Queen Maeve, but Maeve was just a character played by Margaret Shaw, I might be able to have some fun with Maggie.
"Just so you know I am working on putting together a cloaked shuttle so that Nolan doesn't have to play taxi driver for you," Cortana informed Margaret.
I wondered if the armour I'd given to her would unlock its true potential when she wore it. Maybe she would be able to fly to the moon and back on her own.
"Thank you, Cortana," Maggie said.
Perhaps I would sleep with Margaret if she came up with a new superhuman identity, something I was attracted to.
"If I put the armour on I might be tough enough to do some sparring with you" Maggie suggested.
Cortana wanted me to keep expanding the base, but I could do with a change of pace and it would be good to get some pointers on fighting as my brawl with Homelander had proven that I did need to learn to fight.
"Boss, I just got an update for the PVP" Cortana let me know as I began to leave the room "Do you know anyone called Doctor Victor Von Doom".
I swore so loudly that Maggie came running into the room and began looking around as if there was some sort of danger.
"Nolan, what is it?" she asked.
We were in trouble and it would take me some time to explain why. Not that I had much time as soon there was something else I needed to deal with.
Federal Reserve Bank. New York.
Grace Mallory, the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, did not like the fact that she was going to have to work with a couple of supes, but given what had happened here she didn't have much choice in the matter.
Besides, she had nothing against Invincible personally or Queen Maeve for that matter, who for some reason had changed her look so that she looked something out of a science fiction movie.
"Mr Grayson, Miss Shaw," she said "Thank you for coming".
If she had to work with them then she was going to use a proper form of address.
"Director Mallory, can you tell us what happened here?" asked Invincible.
Yes, it would be best to get right down to business. What had happened here could affect the entire world so there was no sense beating around the bush.
"At 4.30 am local time this vault was broken into" answered Mallory as she took the two superhumans over the huge hole in the wall "Who or whatever made this hole did so without using any high-tech equipment or explosives, or at least none that we can detect".
One of her aids passed over a tablet which contained a few seconds of footage. The video played and showed the wall collapsing before several small figures could be seen. Then as a large figure appeared, entering the vault the footage degraded before simply ending.
The footage was rewound so that Invincible and Maeve could watch the last few seconds at a slower rate. This allowed them to see that the smaller figures were not human, they might be the size of children, but they were not kids.
As for the larger figure it too was humanoid in form, yet also not human, and while the cameras did not give them a good look at the prominent figure it was possible to make out some of its features. Such that it wore armour best suited to a character in a fantasy novel and carried a scythe.
"Whoever these people are they carried off billions of dollars worth of gold," Mallory told the two superhumans "This vault housed a little under half a million gold bars of different sizes, with a combined weight of about six thousand tons. Only a fraction was actually taken from the vault and we need to get in back".
Grace had more information to share.
"None of the gold stored here in the vault belongs to the Federal Reserve System. This place acts as a custodian of the gold on behalf of account holders, which includes a number of foreign governments, other central banks, and a lot of official international organizations" said the acting director "So this is an international incident with ramifications on a global scale".
At least both of the superhumans were looking as if they were taking things seriously.
"The vault is only able to support the weight of so much gold because it rests on the bedrock of Manhattan Island, down here we are 80 feet below street level," she told the superhumans "So someone has been digging down here a lot and there's no trace of explosives or any sign of the kind of equipment you'd need to dig through steel reinforced concrete".
Mallory had only been able to conclude that a small group of superhumans were working together. That was the only reason why she was willing to work with Invincible and whatever Maeve was going to start calling herself now that she'd changed her image.
While the armoured figure looked as if he had horns, and could be some superhuman, there was one super she knew about who had wings so a horned one wasn't so strange, she didn't understand who or what the smaller humanoids could be.
"So far a security team working for the Federal Reserve has gone missing while trying to track the thieves, an entire squad of cops went after them and also went missing, I even authorised a SWAT team, and they managed to report that they were under attack and we heard some gunfire before we lost contact with them".
Mallory took a sip of her cold coffee before she spoke some more.
"My choices now are to entrust you two, to call upon Vought or I can wait, and then send in the National Guard to sweep all of the tunnels," said the Director "Unfortunately getting the National Guard involved is going to take time. Some sort of jurisdiction issue since this is a federal matter not a state one".
She would be able to get the guard here sooner or later, but she had a feeling by then it might be too late.
"What exactly do you want us to do?" asked Maeve.
Mallory was surprised by easy it was to get their cooperation. Perhaps working with Cerberus wouldn't be so bad.
"I want you to go into the tunnels and find the stolen gold" she answered "I can authorise you to use deadly force, but I would like someone to blame this all on, other than I want you to clear the way for my agents. They can recover the gold once it's been located and the tunnels have been secured".
The two superhumans didn't require anything else they just headed off into the tunnels. It was odd to work with superhumans and more so when they acted more like people than overgrown children.
Maybe this job wouldn't be so bad. She'd have to see if they messed up recovering that gold.
Torn Cape
Part 14
Public Library. New York City.
Victor Von Doom, as a rule, did not play games, and he certainly didn't play them to amuse a bored cosmic being, but what choice had he been given when the prize for this game was his mother's damned soul?
She was the only person that Doctor Doom would have done this for. He would play this silly game for her sake, at least, until he got what he wanted from the cosmic being and then he would see about freeing himself.
He had agreed to come to this world to combat others who had been sent to a version of Earth so as to amuse a being who clearly had far more power than sense. A creature known as The Beyonder had something simpler in his home universe.
His objective wasn't to outright kill them, as if nothing else that would be boring, for now, he simply had to do battle with them. As long as Doom got what was his he didn't much care who he went up against. Anyone he had to fight would fall at a time of his choosing.
Yet even he could not win a game when he could not see all of the board or the pieces on it. That was why once he'd arrived in this world, and found that he had been stripped of his armour while being granted a normal appearance, he had gone in search of the information he required.
Quickly he had discovered that while the world he had been sent to was much like his own, complete with costumed heroes and incompetent governments, the heroes of this world would have been unworthy to stand beside those whom Doom had faced in the past.
This was one of the first things he'd learned when he entered the library and began to discover how this version of Earth differed from the one he'd come close to conquering more than once.
Many people and historical events were the same, there were two world wars and many lesser conflicts taking part with the same leaders rising to the top of society in both recent times and in the distant past.
In other ways, things were very different. There was no organisation such as S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect this world and the countries here were too divided by national borders and religion to unite against a common threat. They would be simple to deal with.
As for the superheroes, if they could be called that, were far more concerned with how the public saw them than with actually doing anything heroic. They would be unable to unite against him any more than the governments of this world.
Doom already despised them, even more than the self-righteous clods that he normally had to deal with. Many of his enemies had been brutes or naive fools, but at least they tried to make the world a better place in their own small ways. The heroes here only saved people in order to look good in the eyes of the public.
Perhaps some of these fools could be spared and made into enforcers as even Doctor Doom needed minions to carry out the less important tasks. Doom already had several ideas about how he could gain control of a few heroes and use them for his own ends.
There was no Reed Richards here to challenge him, no Fantastic Four to get in his way, and no Avengers to bother him when he was trying to work. The closest thing this world had to a proper hero was one man who was clearly up to more than the people realised.
For sure this Invincible put on a good show, but once Doom had hacked into what the FBI and CIA of this dimension, jokingly thought of as online security it was obvious that Invincible had plans for this world. Why else would be building a base on the moon?
This Invincible, or Nolan Greyson as he was also known, had access to technology far beyond that of the rest of the people in this world, and he'd already been here long enough to set himself up as a superhero.
Doom quickly and correctly calculated that Greyson had his own plans for this version of Earth, and if they got in the way of his plan then this Invincible would need to be dealt with.
Already Doctor Doom was aware of another threat. That of something called a Dungeon Keeper, but he had been unable to find out much about this other player despite the great amount of data he'd already amassed.
There had been many disappearances lately among the lower classes, and someone had just robbed the Federal Reserve Bank, but other than he didn't have much idea of what was going on in this PVP that he'd agreed to join for his mother's sake.
He was able to quickly figure out Grayson's connection to Miranda Lawson the head of Cerberus Defence Contracts. Since she was also not from this world it seemed likely that she could be an issue, or perhaps an asset, he would have to study her before deciding upon her fate.
That required time and a place to work from. The latter was easy to arrange when you could hack into any records you wished and alter them. It was child's play to divert funds from one source and place them into an account he could access.
If he bankrupted a few fools in the process then that was just fine with him. The so-called heroes of this world had far more money than they needed and the company they served was going through some interesting time. This made it easy to take some of their resources for himself.
Now all he had to do was find a suitable address, alter some more records and take possession of his new residence. Dealing with the current owners would be a bit of a chore, but between his masteries of magic and science, such self-appointed assignments were easily completed.
After some thought Doom selected an address and left the library. Unknowingly following in the same footsteps as others sent here, and had he known he would have told himself that sometimes he had to sacrifice originality for the sake of expediency.
Doom needed to work quickly if he was going to win this little game and take over this world. Only he had the right to rule this or any other version of Earth, and this time there would be no one would stop him from bringing order to the world.
Tunnels. New York City.
I grabbed the skull of the animated skeleton and smashed it so hard into the wall that the bone shattered, yet that didn't stop the creature from moving so I grabbed its exposed ribcage and tore the monster apart with my gloved hands.
"Since when did our lives become a game of Dungeons and Dragons?" Crimson Edge asked me.
I was surprised that she made such a reference and since my face wasn't covered in a helmet as hers was, she could read my expression of curiosity.
"We had a DM at Godolkin University" she explained.
The Godolkin University School of Crimefighting or God U, is a university founded by Vought International and dedicated to teaching young supes how to be heroes.
Their training leads up to the annual 'Vought Hero Draft' where once a year, the best and brightest young supes compete for Vought International contracts that in theory require them to protect America's major cities.
Since it was important to study your enemies I knew that Godolkin the university once included Queen Maeve, A-Train, and the Deep as students.
"I think we have found ourselves in something similar" I reasoned "And I think we now know that happened to all the homeless people that have been going missing".
Maggie didn't take long to put it together. The evidence of their ghastly fate was all around us.
"So we're dealing with a Necromancer" she realised.
I suspected that somewhere down here there was a powerful and evil magic user would be found.
"Maybe even a dragon" I mused "That would explain the sudden need for lots of gold".
If this was a D&D situation, we should expect to run into a dragon.
"Hell of a time for me to change my persona," said Maggie "I can see the movie title: Queen Maeve and the Dungeons of the Dead, or something like that".
She hadn't gotten out of the Vought mindset yet. There would be no movie. Although we might still profit from this venture.
"Keep an eye out for magical items," I said "If there is a dark wizard down here with the power to command the dead he or she is bound to have some cool magical stuff".
I'd played enough RPGs to know that the boss always that the best loot.
"Boss I have some news for you," Cortana let me know.
We were somewhat cut off down here because there was nothing for my AI to connect to, but she was still able to get some information.
"Homelander has woken up" I was informed.
That was something I could deal with later.
"According to the chatter I'm picking up from the Vought building he's coming after you" warned Cortana "And he's bringing what's left of the Seven with him".
The robbery couldn't be kept secret for long so I figured that if Homelander wanted to track me down he could.
"We predicted that this might happen," said the AI.
Yes, but our predictions had only accounted for him coming after me directly or that he would go crazy and start lashing out, it had even been possible that he'd commit suicide as Stormfront did in the show.
I had not guessed that he would bully the rest of the Seven into attacking me. Why would he do that when Homelander had little o no respect for them?
"It doesn't matter," said Crimson Edge "They can't hurt you, and we need to focus on the mission".
Homelander was a coward like all bullies. Most likely he'd try to ambush me at my home when he thought I'd have my guard down.
I was so convinced by this and distracted by having to take down even more moving skeletons as we moved deeper underground, that I was unprepared when something hit with some major force and I was knocked into the wall so hard that it cracked.
"It's A-Train!" Maggie called out.
He was capable of running into people with such force they exploded and could do so without doing any harm to himself so it made sense that he could at least knock me about despite how tough I'd become. With enough mass and velocity, he could do me some real harm, assuming he had the stamina to keep going like this.
The sound of an incoming train reached my ears at the same time I felt something hit me hard enough that I was again thrown into the wall of the narrow tunnel.
Crimson Edge was close enough to yell something at me, but she couldn't help me for some reason.
A-Train stopped ramming into me, perhaps because he needed a moment to catch his breath, and I realised what he was doing. It was rather clever for The Seven.
The super fast man knew he could not fight me directly because if he stopped, rather than simply push me as he raced by, I'd kill him, so he was trying to soften me up to wear me down enough for Homelander to come to finish me off.
He was doing a good job on his own. I knew that I would be bruised after this encounter because he was just so fast.
When the sound started, I managed to move just enough that I got spun around and knocked down rather than slammed into anything. Since he A-Train didn't seem to be suffering from any reflected damage I assumed that he wasn't doing enough harm to me for it to register while he was so focused on knocking me about.
As I picked myself up I reached for the Darksaber and I swiped at where I guessed A-Train would come from. By sheer luck if nothing else I got him.
Since the tunnel was narrow he had to run past and then come at me from the other end. Knowing this I waved the Darksaber wildly knowing that waiting for the noise would be pointless as he was faster than sound.
The noise of an oncoming train did reach my ears after A-Train dropped to the ground in two pieces. It was only now that I realised that we were under attack by what I could assume to be goblins of some kind.
So the Dungeon Keeper was more than some Necromancer, he was a full-on Dark Lord with many kinds of evil minions.
That was not good news, and to make matters worse the other members of the Seven were coming after me because they were more afraid of what Homelander would do to them than they were of me.
At least Crimson Edge had no trouble protecting herself. She had The Deep pinned to the tunnel wall at the far end. I saw him when I caught up with her.
"I would kill you" Maggie was saying "But I pity you too much".
She slammed the head of the knock-off Aquaman into the wall hard enough to knock him out, either that he was smart enough to play dead.
"You really did a number on A-Train," said a familiar voice.
I turned to see that Homelander had arrived with Starlight in tow and I wondered where Black Noir had gotten to. The biggest threats were the ones you didn't see.
"We don't have time for this," said the newest member of the Seven "Those monsters are attacking the subway stations".
Cortana soon confirmed this to be true. She was still having trouble accessing information for us down here and I wondered if it was only because we were so far underground.
"Shut up, bitch!" shouted Homelander.
He then turned his attention to me.
"That was a fluke the last time we met," he said directly to me "And after I'm done with you I'm going to make sure to teach Maeve her place".
Ah, so that was how he justified his failure. He'd convinced himself that it had been a bit of misfortune. He was rather skilled at lying to himself.
"No one is stronger than me!", Homelander declared.
There was movement behind me as Black Noir jumped out of the shadows to strike at Crimson Edge who thanks to her new armour hardly even noticed the blow. The sword didn't shatter or anything dramatic there was just a clunk noise.
"You deal with Noir" I ordered "I'll deal with Homelander. As for you Starlight, why don't you go and help the people who are under attack".
Anne didn't need much encouragement to go off and do the right thing, and more importantly, it would keep her out of the way.
"I'll make this quick and then I'll deal with the traitors" stated Homelander.
He was so wrong. I had no intention of making this quick. I planned to fully enjoy the suffering I would cause him.
Torn Cape.
Part 15.
Tunnels. New York City.
The wall broke apart as Homelander came at me much as A-Train had, and while he didn't have the sheer speed of the member of the Seven who I had just killed, he had a lot more raw power.
Because of this we through the wall and into a man-made tunnel that was running parallel to the one we'd been in. How deep underground we were I had no idea and I didn't have time to find out from Cortana since I had Homelander to deal with.
While this city wasn't that old, at least when compared to major ones over in Europe, it was aged enough to have developed a network of passages. They were thankfully empty of any innocent bystanders such as maintenance workers. This was good as Invincible had a reputation for limiting damage to public property and safeguarding human lives when possible.
"After I'm done with you I'm going to burn that traitor bitch to ashes," promised Homelander as his eyes began to glow "Then I'd find that hot piece of Australian ass you are fucking and I'll...".
As it turned out I cared more about Maggie and Miranda than I'd realised as that unfinished declaration made me very mad and his somewhat handsome mug suffered because of it. I punched him hard in the face before he could tell me what he planned to do my baby mama. In fact, I struck him with such force that my knuckles hurt.
"You won't be harming anyone, ever again" I stated.
That sounded like something a cheesy action hero would say. I wasn't playing for the cameras here and there were no witnesses to impress. I should just get on with killing this jerk.
Due to the visor that Cortana had made for me, I could see Homelander just fine and I assumed that he had some supervision that allowed him to see me, because he could still block a punch despite the sheer darkness here.
Sadly for him, he didn't defend himself so successfully against the fist of my left hand and this allowed me to land a blow strong enough that it cracked at least one rib. The blow made a very satisfying sound.
"Son of a whore!" Homelander called out.
Understandably, I did not take that insult very well, which had been directed at my mother, and I began punching Homelander so hard that for a moment it looked as if the man-made passage would collapse upon us.
Then I threw him to the cold concrete floor that made up this tunnel.
"You know everywhere on this Earth they speak your name," I said "It's Homelander this and Homelander that, but in reality, you're just not that cool".
I began stamping on his chest and I was unsure if the sound I heard was his bones breaking or the concrete shattering beneath us. As it turned out it could have been both as there was a snapping noise as the floor gave way.
In the past, before I became super awesome, I had played games that involved fighting monsters in a dungeon and in my experience they tend to be rather 2D. Meaning that once you are underground you stay at the same level. There aren't normally any means of going up or down until you reach an exit or at least enter a different section of the dungeon.
Real life isn't so well set out so when Homelander and I went through the concrete floor we ended up in a deep part of the dungeon that something had either created down here or was at least using in some way, and we fell into some sort of underground lake.
Both Homelander and I could swim and as we began to climb out, we found out what happened to all the stolen gold. It seemed safe to assume had something to do with the massive dragon.
Some sort of ugly dwarf creatures that I'd seen in the recording were piling bars of gold at the feet of the massive dragon to go with the treasure already here. How the Dungeon Keeper had amassed this much wealth I had no idea and the amount of skeletons down here was worrying.
This dragon was not one of those beasts you see in Game of Thrones or Harry Potter. This was a real dragon, massive, blood red in colour, it had four legs and cruel intelligence in its eyes.
"Who dares intrude upon the lair of Kalzeruth!" the huge creature demanded to know.
Before anyone could answer it the creature breathed fire and I ducked myself back into the water I'd been trying to win out of just moments ago.
Since Homelander was slower than me due to his injuries if nothing else, he screamed as he burned alive. I didn't know if that would kill him and it hardly mattered right now as I had a dragon to deal with.
Also, I was supposed to be recovering that gold, I'd not forgotten about that. Someone would come to recover the wealth, so I just needed to deal with the monster that had taken ownership of it.
When the creatures stopped breathing fire, and even under the surface of the cold lake I could feel the heat of the flames, I flew out of the lake and into the air. It was a large underground cavern so I had plenty of room to move around in.
Now that I could get a better look at the dragon I saw that it was Smaug shaped and about the same size, so I had some idea of what I was going up against. However, since I didn't see any damaged scales, as such I'd have to deal with this creature in a rather brutal way rather than exploit a weak spot.
I did not attack right away, rather I floated there in surprise as Kalzeruth leaned down and popped the charmed remains of Homelander in his mouth before chewing and swallowing rather noisily.
Given how tough Homelander was I knew that Kalzeruth's teeth were something that I needed to avoid at all costs because they might be able to break me into meaty chunks as well.
Yet despite the horror of what I'd just seen and the fact that I was in danger, I couldn't help laughing.
"Why does your friend's death amuse you so?" asked Kalzeruth.
Hearing that was also funny.
"He wasn't my friend" I answered "He was an enemy and a well-loved hero, and now he's going to end up as dragon shit".
It was a fitting fate for Homelander that I found extremely comical, yet Kalzeruth did not find the situation humorous at all. Rather he took offence and tried to roast me, perhaps he was still hungry, and I avoided the fire by flying around the dragon.
Since I know that the hero sometimes needs a special sword to slay the beast I reached for the darksaber and ignited the weapon as I got behind Kalzeruth. The dragon had trouble twisting its body around and so I was able to slash at its back.
"My scales are stronger than steel plate," boasted the fire-breathing monster.
A lightsaber could defeat such defences, even if they were boosted by some sort of magic as this dragon's scales seemed to be, but I would need to either keep attacking the same part of the body so I could melt through the scales, be able to focus on one spot for more than a second or find a vulnerable part to attack. I decided to go with the latter and I went for the eyes.
Only I had to stop my assault because Kalzeruth breathed fire once more, as I again lamented my lack of any kind of ranged attack. Not that there was any sort of gun I could acquire that could equal the sheer power of my physical strikes.
At least I had speed and agility on my side as the dragon simply didn't move very fast when compared to me. This was how I was able to avoid Kalzeruth's spiked tail, which the dragon was using to try to knock me out of the air.
My hopefully superior intelligence allowed me to come up with an idea. I landed on the ground and began swiping at the gold with the darksaber.
As I'd suspected that it would, messing with the dragon's treasure made it very mad and it tried to burn me yet again. Only this time I was ready for it. I went up the ceiling and then down as the dragon breathed fire at where I had been standing mere seconds ago.
My next attack worked wonders. The darksaber was driven into one of the eyes of the dragon and the energy blade was driven into what passed for its brain. Magical creature or not it was still an organic being and without its grey matter, it died like any other mortal creature.
It dropped to the ground as it died and I pushed the blade of the exotic weapon into its head as deep as I could. That much dragon slamming into the ground shook the entire cavern for a moment.
"Well that was fun," commented Cortana.
I did feel a certain amount of satisfaction from defeating this dragon. It had been my toughest foe so far. With that in mind, I cut off one of Kalzeruth's smallest horns so that I could take it as a trophy and I stored it in a pouch I kept at my side.
"They aren't going to be able to pass this thing off as a super terrorist" commented Crimson Edge when she dropped down the hole I'd made.
No doubt Vought was already spinning some tale about the remaining members of The Seven going off to fight super terrorists who had set up under the streets of New York. I wondered how they would spin Homelander's death.
"The government will put this thing into a massive packing crate and store it with the bodies of the Rosewell aliens and the Ark of the Covenant" I muttered "They'll stage a massive coverup, that's what governments do".
Once Maggie was done inspecting the creature, something she would have spent much more time doing if our attention wasn't needed elsewhere, she turned to speak to me.
"Noir is gone" she told me "He's not dead, but he'll be out of action for a while".
If needs be I would throw that guy into space. He was somewhat like Deadpool or maybe Deathstroke, so short of utterly destroying his body it might not be possible for me to kill him.
"Hold on. Invincible. What happened to Homelander?" she asked.
I pointed at the mouth of the dragon.
"As I was beating him to a pulp we fell into this cavern and he got turned into burnt meat by that monster," I told her "It chewed him before it swallowed. So I guess he's somewhere in the dragon's digestive system".
Maggie Shaw needed a moment to process that.
"So he's dead," she said with a sigh.
The method of his death made me wonder if all of Vought's manufactured superheroes were vulnerable to magic. Since this world lacked magic, or at least any magic the locals could use, until the Dungeon Keeper appeared, it wasn't something they would have needed to worry about.
Since I could also be vulnerable to magic, or at least some types of magic, we would both need to be careful. This was something I pointed out to Crimson Edge.
"Do you really think this is magic?" she asked "Maybe the skeletons were some kind of robotics or maybe some super has the power to animate bone and make them like puppets, I've seen some messed up stuff when working for Vought".
I pointed at the cooling body of the dragon. There was no way something like that could exist without magic or maybe some really advanced cybernetic technology mixed with genetic engineering that was way beyond anything we had access to, but there was no evidence that technology had been involved.
"Okay, so magic is now a thing" agreed Maggie.
"Or maybe it always was and it's just been dormant" I mused.
To be fair this was all a lot to take in, but she would have to process everything later as we still had a job to do. I needed to deal with the Dungeon Keeper quickly so that I could focus on Doctor Doom.
I figured that my only chance to deal with Doctor Doom was to kill him before he had any time to plan and then throw him into space, on course for the sun. As such I could not afford to delay.
"We need to find this Dungeon Keeper" I was now saying "That's the only way to end this. If we don't take them down they'll begin again, and if he or she any sense when they start over they'll do somewhere remote".
This Keeper doesn't need dead people to build their army. We'd seen what I assumed to be goblins and some kind of very ugly dwarf so if this Dungeon Keeper managed to escape he or she could go out into the middle of nowhere and hide out until they had an army big enough to threaten all of civilization.
If the Keeper could bring a dragon into this world then the ROB only knows what else they could ally with.
The Keeper's forces were already a threat to the people of New York. Cortana had been able to show me a few images on my fancy new visor that showed that the subway system was being evacuated and the police were trying to keep the monsters contained. Even Starlight could only help them so much.
"Any idea where we can find this Keeper?" questioned Maeve.
I didn't need to give it much though.
"If they are like any of the other big baddies in this sort of situation then they will have a grand throne room and a fancy seat to sit upon" I mused "They'll make a speech about how awesome they are, and tell us all about their plans for the future before ordering our deaths. Then they will act all surprised when we easily survive whatever death trap they have set up for us".
That was normally how these things worked. Only that wouldn't be the case this time.
"Or maybe I'll attack you right now with my strongest minions at my side," said a male-sounding person who wore a black robe that covered their entire body and face "Less of cliche that way".
I hated it when the bad guys were smart. The Keeper was supposed to send his minions after us first and then we could have the boss fight. They weren't supposed to attack all at once. This could get very messy.
Torn Cape.
Part 16.
Keepers Dungeon. New York City.
"Is this one of yours?" asked the robed figure.
The head of the superhero known as The Deep was thrown at us and it came to rest near our feet. Neither Maggie nor I reacted much to the sight. Compared to what else we'd seen today getting shown the head of someone we didn't even like was a bit dull, to be honest.
"Didn't really care for him" I admitted.
"I don't normally use terms like toxic masculinity," said Crimson Edge "But Deep was a toxic guy".
He was the kind of bloke that feminists could point to and then lecture people about fish not needing bicycles.
"Oh," said the Keeper, who sounded a bit discouraged "I was expecting that to have more of an impact. Ah well".
The hooded figure paused for a moment before giving an order.
"Kill them" the big bad commanded.
Before I could leap forward and take the fight to them, Frenchie stepped up from behind the Keeper and fired a grenade launcher that hit me with something that caused me to stagger back.
Whatever he had loaded in those things cracked my visor so I had to take it off and fight in the dark. My enhanced senses could only do much for me, but they would be enough.
"I hate it when people fire grenades at me!" I yelled.
Whatever was in those things they made me feel dizzy if only for a few moments, and if Cortana had been able to speak with me I felt sure she would have told me she was sorry for not having finished the personal shield she'd promised me.
In her defence, she had a lot of other things to do, and it wasn't as if I had ever made it seem important.
Once the grenades had stopped blowing up in my face, I found myself getting struck by bolts of lightning and while those blasts didn't harm they were very distracting.
"The ROB gave you a lot of power too" commented the Keeper
"More than I imagined".
I got the impression that I wasn't dealing with a fictional character but rather someone who had once been normal like me. Although I could be wrong about that.
Not that I had time to dwell on this as I saw that Crimson Edge was fighting some sort of demon in armour who carried a scythe, the same creature that broke into the bank I was sure.
Maggie would have done more than hold on her own if not for the fact that a gang of leather-clad dominatrixes with whips were keeping her from moving much.
I wasn't sure if they were meant to be a threat or if this was a kink thing. If it was the latter I wasn't going to judge.
"The ROB rewarded me for killing Jason Todd. Now I have my own lightsaber," said the Keeper.
I ignited mine. I had turned my weapon off and returned to my belt after I slew the dragon, which was something I was still a bit giddy about, and then I was ready to duel. Only I had to wait to face the boss as monsters were now pouring into the underground cavern.
Creatures that had to be vampires flew above the others and reached me first. One of them wore a red helmet and dressed like a modern biker. This must be what happened to Red Hood.
Apparently becoming a vampire meant that he wasn't back in the PVP either because he was still dead or because he was under the Keeper's control.
Not that it matters much as the Darksaber still worked, it sure was a durable bit of tech, and I used to slice the vampires into pieces, they turned to dust and that annoyed me more than their attack because the sheer amount of ash I made clouded my vision for a moment.
After that, there were more skeletons for me to crush, and goblins for me to cut down as well as some other things, that could have demons that needed to die as well.
I soon had to deal with what I guessed to be a troll because it looked like the one out of the first Harry Potter movie. Only this troll was wearing armour and it carried a weapon that was more than some crude club.
The massive creature came running at me while swinging around a spiked mace, that looked as if someone much more intelligent had made it, and that weapon did much more damage to the Keeper's forces than it could ever do to me.
For fun, I put the Darksaber away, and I caught the mace with my bare hands when the troll tried to use it to crush my skull, and I managed to yank it free of the surprised creature's hands.
"It's clobbering time!" I yelled.
This was the wrong superhero world for those words, but it was fun to say and I began to clobber, or rather I tried to as the massive mace was really too big for me to handle with any skill.
All I could do was swing it around to clear a space around me, and once I'd built up enough speed I let go of the weapon. It should have reduced the Keeper to a bleeding mess only the cloaked figure was able to teleport out of the way.
"I have an army" the cloaked figure declared "Every monster under my command is coming here to kill you".
Ah, the old Zerg rush tactic. I could respect that, and if I had chosen a weaker power set when I took the ROBs deal this plan might have worked.
While the remaining monsters got their act together the kinky chicks who had been bothering Maggie came at me, but rather than charge, they moved more seductively as they expected me to lower my guard around known enemies.
None of them spoke as they moved around me, yet they made noises, the kind of sounds an aroused woman might make, even if only when starring in porn.
Then without any warning, one of them struck out at me with a branding iron of all things its tip glowing red hot as the bitch tried to stab my face.
I grabbed the very hot end of the branding iron and it sizzled as the metal burned the material that made up my hero outfit, yet I didn't call in pain or even flinch. This was much to the surprise of the dominatrix, who watched open mouth as I bent the rod.
A whip struck me and wrapped around my arm. Much the delight of the woman around me if the noises they were making were anything to go buy. Those noises turned to ones of fear when I yanked on the whip and dragged the dominatrix towards me.
I let go of the whip and then grabbed her neck, as Maggie had done not so long ago with a terrorist, I snapped the neck of the kinky woman, and let her body drop to the ground. While they moaned in dismay and backed up I smiled at them.
"No disrespect meant," I told these scary ladies "But I like my girls more submissive and gentle. I'm a bit old-fashioned that way".
I just wanted to make it clear that I wasn't going to kill them because I felt threatened by strong women in any way. I was about to kill them because they were my enemy.
To that end I moved with great speed and grabbed one of the four remaining leather-clad torturers before she could do more than scream in a way that was not at all sexy I had her head in my hands and I squeezed until it cracked much like a hard-boiled egg.
Their cries of dismay were music to my ears as I began to enjoy this fight as I had when battling the dragon. Sure I could have ended this fight sooner, but where was the fun in that?
These women couldn't hurt me, or at least they had been able to so far, and I liked that I could make those who were used to harming others realise what it was like to be the victim.
After she died another of the scary women, one who preferred latex or rubber over leather, came at me with Freddy Kruger-type claws on her hands.
She went for my eyes and I grabbed both of her arms before she could try to cut my face. I squeezed hard and then pulled her arms out of her sockets. This made quite a lot of mess.
The third scary lady I killed had more power than the others she was able to electrify her whip despite it not being made of metal and it tickled when she whipped me.
I actually laughed and that freaked her out. Then she got really scared as I began to strangle with her own weapon as it electrified her. The smell generated was not at all pleasant.
As for the last dominatrix she tried to run only to be cut down by the Dugoen Keeper.
"Either die to him or die to me!" shouted the big bad.
At least the boss tried to fight me. The big bad used some sort of magic and I began to weaken as I'd suddenly gotten the flu, only for the Keeper to suddenly end the spell as they staggered backwards.
I recovered quickly and I wondered what sort of spell that had been to weaken someone as powerful as me it couldn't be some low-level cantrip.
"You can reflect damage too," the cloaked figure said "OP plz nerf".
That settled it I was for sure fighting someone I could once have chatted with on sci-fi and fantasy form. But this was no time to enquire about that as I had a battle to win. I activated the Darksaber and waded into the fight as I cut down monsters that the Keeper had summoned to this cavern. They didn't last long.
Then I faced the Keeper himself. Now that I was closer I could tell that the form was male and that the person had glowing eyes as if possessed by something unnatural.
We trade blows with our weapons and right away it became clear that Keeper was better with weapons than me as he managed to strike me and the strike on my arm actually hurt me if only for a moment.
Thankfully it hurt both of us thanks to the ROB not having nerfed me. No doubt it found this entire fight to be amusing even and it wasn't totally one-sided as magic could harm me, and so could lightsabers apparently.
Like my weapon, it must have been granted by the ROB and perhaps that being had made the more powerful than the real thing. I checked the wound and found that the small burn was already fading away. My hero outfit was however going to need some repair work.
Before I could try to attack again the Keeper held out a hand and I felt magic affect me once again. This time it was my mind that came under attack.
"Kill the woman who came here with you" he ordered.
I turned to see that Crimson Edge had just decapitated the big demon guy with his own scythe, and I felt the urge to cut her down. Only I resisted the mental command. A wave of primal anger came to the surface, I felt as if the attempt to control me had awoken something, and I launched myself at the Keeper.
Much like Luke on the second Death Star, I brought my sabre crashing down again and again until I took off the Keeper's hand. He screamed and then I got myself under control.
I reached down and picked up the Kylo Ren sabre. It was a silly design, but the technology behind it was advanced and I might need it for spare parts if the Darksaber ever broke.
"I don't want to exist as a sentient crystal" complained the Keeper.
A person would think he'd be more upset about what I was going to do to him, but the Keeper only seemed annoyed as I removed his head much like how Anakin took off Count Dooku's head in The Revenge of the Sith.
"There can be only one!" I called out.
Maggie had to ruin the moment.
"What about the Doom guy you were freaking out about?" she asked.
For a few moments, I had forgotten about him.
"Is that it?" wondered Maggie.
I had no idea. Nothing seemed to have changed as far as I could tell.
"What does Cortana say" I questioned.
The armour that Crimson Edge wore actually contained Cortana, as much as anything did since she was made up of information.
"She has no new information other than the monster attacks have stopped" I was told.
That meant this wasn't over.
"He mentioned something about a sentient crystal" I mentioned "Might the source of his power".
Before we could discuss it further the roof began to collapse in on us. I'd made a hole in already and the cavern had taken some damage during the short battle, but I didn't think it was caving in naturally.
"Run!" I shouted.
Maggie didn't need any encouragement and we soon legged it out of the cavern. Only we were too slow and the rocks crushed me under the weight.
Torn Cape.
Part 17.
The Dungeons. Somewhere Under New York.
He was not a happy Keeper. Until now, everything had been progressing slowly and while that could be dull at times, things had at least gone smoothly for him, even from the start, and until now he'd not regretted making his deal with that ROB who offered him power in exchange for taking part in some sort of PVP.
Even when his mind, soul, or essence, whatever it was called, had been trapped within the magical crystal that served as a power source for him and the heart of his underground domain, he had not wanted to go back to the puny man he had once been.
The Keeper of the Dungeon remembered when this had all started. He'd been someone else not so long ago, someone unimportant and best left forgotten. Then he'd become the Keeper and for a time he'd been all alone in the dark. Which hadn't been dull even if it had been worrying for a time.
When he had figured out how to create his first imp, it had been a joyous event, followed by many more happy discoveries. The Imps had dug for him, creating tunnels and rooms deep beneath New York at a rate that should have been impossible.
They even found veins of metal down here. Not much gold, or at least not enough, but the imps had the uncanny ability to find metals and mine them effectively so that their master had materials to work with.
As the imps worked, the Keeper discovered that many kinds of rooms could be made and that he could shape mana, magical energy, to make himself a physical body, and over time he'd learned how to use that power in the form of many different spells.
Then the portals had been found and with them, creatures from other worlds had come to serve. Goblins, trolls, and the Dark Mistresses came to him. He'd created vast lairs for them, training rooms, underground farms, and workshops.
The Dark Mistresses had always been fun. They were as eager to be hurt as they were to do harm and quite willing to let their master include his desire to dominate in any way he desired.
Later others appeared, the warlocks who aided him in learning magical spells in libraries they'd helped him to create, and by unlocking new knowledge he had been able to create even more for his growing kingdom.
Over time his imps dug further from the crystal that was the source of his power. They found the underground tunnels of New York City and they began to claim them for their master. They also found people, who were to the Keeper nothing more than a useful resource.
He'd not been greedy or reckless back then, so he'd sent out just a few of his creatures to grab those who would not be missed. Plenty of homeless people were brought down into his dungeon, some were left to die in the cells and death was no escape for them as they served him as undead.
The Dark Mistresses broke some and they served him as well and some who died were sent to the graveyard to bring vampires into this world. They were useful servants and thanks to them he'd defeated Jason Todd.
Perhaps the ease of that victory had made the Keeper too confident. Looking back now it was clear that he shouldn't have gone after that gold. He should have stayed hidden for longer and only gone to the gold when he was sure was ready and he had a much larger army.
Even now despite recent events, he still didn't wish to go back to the life he had, but he recognised that he was in big trouble. Taking on Invincible and whoever was in that armour had cost him many of his forces, including the dragon he'd coaxed into his service with a great deal of gold, his lightsaber, and his physical body.
He'd lost so much that the Keeper didn't think that he would be able to fight off another enemy in a round of PVP and there were the locals to consider. Sooner or later they would organise and send in the army, or at least the National Guard, and they would flood his tunnels with soldiers.
Of course, the Keeper had known that would happen soon after he'd sent out the raiding party to take all that gold, but he'd needed it to bring a dragon into his service and if the beast still lived he wouldn't have been so worried as dragons could take on whole armies.
Maybe if he had the imps build more tunnels for the soldiers to get lost in then he could keep the soldiers away from the Dungeon Heart long enough to form some sort of cohesive defence.
He had the workshops as well as the training rooms, and already new monsters were entering his kingdom to take up service, so they could build traps and if he killed enough invaders he could send their corpses to the graveyards to make more vampires.
As for the vampires he had plenty of them as they had respawned by now, so he would send them against the soldiers to buy himself some time. Yes, he could do this, he would survive and rebuild.
The humans of this world would have to destroy one of their greatest cities to get at him. He could make it a bloody affair and perhaps force some sort of stalemate
The Keeper, or the Master as he was known to his servants, moved into the armoury that he had created for his own needs. Imps moved to remove the black cloak he wore to show a surprisingly normal-looking body that was soon covered
in armour forged in the workshops and enchanted by the warlocks.
He'd decided not to wear this armour when going up against Invincible, as he didn't think it would have helped, and the robed look went better with the lightsaber.
The Keeper had thought that his magic would be the only weapon worthwhile against the person that the Keeper had mistakenly thought of as a Kryptonian. One of those aliens could have been killed by magic and he had plenty of that.
That he'd been wrong about that no longer mattered. Invincible was gone, and he knew that the other heroes who had come down here were also dead. That would demoralise his enemies the Keeper considered as he picked up the mace that the trolls had forged for him.
It was a shame that Frenchie was dead having been crushed along with the invaders. That human had been useful due to his knowledge of modern weaponry. The Keeper had been hoping to equip his monsters with more advanced weapons once they had access to the surface world. He would have to find someone new to aid him in that endeavour.
As the Keeper returned to the main chamber and approached the dungeon heart, which was surrounded by offerings of treasures, skulls and weapons, the Keeper got the sense that something was wrong.
He wondered if the National Guard had already arrived. If so then he needed to finish gathering his forces and prepare for a siege. He connected to the Dungeon Heart and found his attention drawn to the cavern he had collapsed upon on Invincible and the woman in the science fiction armour.
"That's not possible!" the Keeper yelled.
Via the Dungeon Heart, he watched as his strongest enemy managed to drag himself and the armoured woman out of the rubble and into one of the tunnels that made up his dungeon.
Thinking about it the master of this place should have realised that Invincible wasn't dead. He would have somehow known and some sort of reward would have appeared. He'd been foolish to start planning ahead without making sure the current threat had been fully dealt with.
"How did he survive?" wondered the Keeper.
They both should have been crushed under tons of rubble. He'd used a lot of mana to make sure that part of the dungeon completely crumpled and it had been a risk since he could have ended up causing more of his kingdom to collapse with it.
The woman had survived as well. What kind of armour was she wearing? Granted she wasn't moving, and that meant she was likely out of action, but the Keeper still had to find some way of dealing with Invincible.
But what could he do? What would kill that bastard? The dragon hadn't been able to. His minions had been slaughtered and even he hadn't been able to harm the hero without doing damage to himself.
The Keeper considered collapsing more of the dungeon, regardless of how that might affect the city above and his own kingdom, but he dismissed the idea, he'd be burning the village to save it and it wasn't as if it had done more than slow down the hero the first time.
It didn't take long for the Keeper to realise that he couldn't win and he wasn't meant to. He knew about the new other people taking part in the PVP and he realised that the ROB had clearly favoured Invincible.
Then there was Doctor Doom who was also out there somewhere, for Doom and Invincible, he was just a challenge to overcome, something to amuse the ROB before the real conflict began.
The Keeper felt betrayed, and there was nothing he could do about it, even summoning the Horned Reaper wouldn't help, although he could do that and would because the Reaper might at least buy him some time if he did manage to come up with a plan.
He couldn't even run because he didn't know how to move the Dungeon Heart. Maybe the imps could remove it from this chamber and carry it to the nearest portal and he could leave this world. He had no idea if that would work, but it was worth trying and maybe he could destroy the portal so he couldn't be followed.
With his power, he summoned every creature to his location. Every vampire, dark mistress, troll, overgrown bug, goblin, skeleton, and imp would soon be here. They would guard the Dungeon Heart as he attempted to relocate, giving their lives for him as they should.
The Dungeons. Somewhere Under New York.
Digging myself out of that cavern had been unpleasant and it was a good thing that Crimson Edge had been with me so close to the exit, or I could have lost her in the rubble.
As it was she might not make it as I couldn't wake her up and her armour was damaged. She'd be of no help to me and she might be spending some time in a coma as Homelander had done.
Leaving her here was risky, but I didn't even know the way out of this place because the cavern I'd fallen into no longer existed as such I wouldn't be able to fly up through the hole and reenter the tunnel network.
I couldn't help wondering what that collapse might have done to the city above, had some section of it collapsed as well? On the plus side, if all the bodies of the people and creatures whose lives I'd ended recently had been crushed then there would be no forensic evidence linking the deaths to others I'd slain with the darksaber.
That was something else to be concerned about later as right now I needed to end this fight and maybe get Maggie some medical attention if there was anyone out there who knew how to treat her or if they could be trusted to care for her.
I needed to find a way out of here and I also had a need to finish off the Dungeon Keeper because I just knew he wasn't dead. I could not accomplish either of those goals if I stood here and guarded Crimson Edge. With that in mind, I headed out to look for something to kill.
Rather than walk I lifted myself a little into the air and then flew down the passageway. I bashed my way through doors made of wood and metal. I ignored the traps in my way, paying no attention to the darts, the spikes and going right over the traps built into the floors.
With my enchanted senses, I was able to hear the sound of movement in the distance and I got the impression that a great many living things were moving towards one spot.
This made sense if the Keeper did have some sort of crystal that was the source of his power. He must be preparing for a last stand in some foolish hope that he would be able to protect it.
It wouldn't matter if he had an army because I was not playing around anymore. By collapsing that cavern, which was something that could have trapped me, the Keeper had proven himself to be a real threat.
I soon found the creatures who were under the Keeper's command and they charged at me. Intent on overwhelming me with sheer numbers since they saw it as their only chance of defeating me.
While I'd managed to hold on to my weapons, the darksaber and the lightsaber I'd taken from the Keeper, I didn't bother to use them. Instead, I kicked and punched by way through the enemy who had been foolish enough to charge me.
I simply broke them and then some of the smarter enemy tried to take me down with magic since they weren't close combat types. The magic users sent fireballs at me and magically created spikes of ice, all of which did nothing as spells meant to damage the body weren't effective against me.
There were a few of the kinky ladies left, but they didn't do any better this time as I grabbed one and used her to beat a few others of her kind to death. Oddly the women didn't seem to mind that much.
The demon, who I was sure Maggie had killed, made another appearance and I didn't let that monster get close in case his scythe was enchanted in some way that might allow it to hurt me.
To deal with that guy I picked up a bit of the wall that broke loose during the fight and threw it hard enough that the head of the monster seemed to explode. Not much, but I'd had a long day and I wanted to get this over with.
"No, this isn't fair!" someone shouted.
I assumed that this person was the Keeper and that they had some way of either possessing someone or making a physical body for themselves, and this one looked like Sauron's armoured form for some reason.
"What's the point of a game that I could never win!" he yelled.
I'd just assumed that the ROB was an unfair jerk. I didn't complain because the unfairness was in my favour.
"Are you crying?" I questioned.
He was weeping like a big kid. Today must have been hard on the guy. But I had to end this so I picked up the scythe that I had last seen in the hands of Crimson Edge, and she should have her trophy back, and then I dashed forward so fast that the Keeper could do nothing before I cut his new body in half.
Given that the room was lit up by a crystal that glowed and then dimmed it wasn't hard to figure out what the Dungeon Heart could be found.
"Hulk Smash" I yelled.
I put the scythe down for a few moments so I could focus on breaking the crystal with my fists, and once that was done everything went quiet. I knew right away that I'd won, however, I didn't know if this dungeon would remain stable with its source of power.
As such I didn't hang around. I grabbed Maggie's trophy and then flew back to where I'd left her. There must be a way out of here and if there wasn't then I'd make one.
Torn Cape.
Part 18.
Penthouse. Manhattan.
"As horrible as it might sound, we can take advantage of this," said Miranda Lawson.
Her beautiful face was on my laptop's screen as we took part in a secure conference call as our AI exchanged information.
I'd only just managed to find a way out of the underground and already Miranda was working on spinning the situation to advance our own agendas. EDI and Cortana would be able to control what information was shared on social media so as to help me look like the true hero of this disaster.
Even with the gold having been recovered the Keeper had done a lot of harm to this city. No one kicked up much fuss about all the dead homeless, it was the people killed in the subway attacks that were the focus of attention.
Add to that, the destruction of the underground cavern had in turn collapsed service tunnels and brought down some of the city's services in a poor part of New York.
Many homes had lost power and water, a few were simply too unsafe for anyone to live in because the ground they were built on no longer had firm foundations.
"There are disaster relief organisations on the way and on your behalf I made a generous donation to the charities than fund them" Cortana let me know.
That was fine with me as if I ever needed more money there were plenty of bad guys for me to steal it from.
While Maggie wasn't in bad shape considering all that had happened she badly needed to get cleaned up so I was letting her use the bathroom of my penthouse before I got myself sorted.
"I plan to use this to get CDC a lot of funding" declared Miranda.
Another person might berate Miranda for thinking of ways to take advantage of what had recently befallen New York, I was not one of them as like her I had decided to guide humanity over the next few centuries, something that would involve making some hard choices.
"How?" I asked.
I kept an eye on the door to the bathroom and the volume low in case Crimson Edge was listening. My own enhanced senses let me know that she was in the shower so she shouldn't overhear anything.
"People are scared and the government is desperate" Miranda stated.
I didn't need her to tell me that. Cortana was already putting together files full of information about recent events and how the world was reacting to them.
If it became public knowledge that the disaster wasn't the work of a terrorist cell made of supes that there were supernatural elements involved then people would panic more than they currently were.
"As far as the public knows, only you and Edge managed to make it out of the underground" Miranda was now saying "They don't know that Margret is already back on her feet and even if you are fine you sure didn't look it when you got back to the surface".
The mother of my unborn child showed me an image that had been taken of me back when I'd managed to make my way back to civilization. I looked bad even if I hadn't taken more than some superficial damage during the mission.
"Starlight is the only member of the Seven accounted for," Miranda said "She's being praised for defending civilian lives, but Homelander, Black Noir, The Deep and A-Train are all MIA".
That last part wasn't true.
"Only Noir made it out alive," I informed the head of Cerberus Defence Contracts "I killed A-Train, the Dungeon Keeper got The Deep and Homelander was roasted before getting eaten by a dragon. After I tenderised his meat for the beast".
Miranda took a moment to think about what I had just told her.
"Nolan, we are going to need to sit down and talk about what happened," she insisted "But business first".
She showed me an image of The T-45-powered combat infantry armour. In the Fallout world, it was pressed into service in the Sino-American War, with its first deployments taking place on the Alaskan Front to counter the Chinese offensive.
This world needed power armour so that normal men and women could fight in a different kind of conflict.
"I wanted to take this slower and leave more of a paper trail" Miranda let me know "However, given recent events I've decided to speed up my timetable and we can do more to cover up the fact that this technology wasn't developed by anyone".
You couldn't have brand new tech such as power armour simply appear and expect people to simply accept it. Some government agencies would look into its background so Miss Lawson would need to derail any kind of investigation. Not that hard to do when you had AI allies, it just meant more work.
"So you're going to introduce the power armour sooner than expected," I said.
I didn't need to enquire as to how, as she soon shared that information.
"Robert Singer, the Defence Secretary, has been wanting to meet with me for," Miranda shared "He'll want me to provide some off-the-books funding for the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, which is going to need to majorly expand given recent events".
I wouldn't be surprised if the UN set up something like Doctor Who's UNIT so as to try to deal with all the strangeness.
"If he likes the power armour then I can get CDC a nice defence contract worth billions," Miranda said with a smile.
Defence contracts are awarded to individuals or companies by the federal government. The contracts are an agreement to produce material or perform services related to national defence for the United States.
"Then I'll be expected to provide even more off-the-books funding taken from that money," Miranda said, "That's how we funded Cerberus back home".
Politics, business, making under-the-table deals. These were things best left to her.
"What about the fusion core?" I wondered.
They could be a real game changer. In the Fallout world, they were long-term nuclear batteries used by civilians to power a multitude of devices, from automobiles to generators and many other things. military instead used them for warfare, mostly by having them supply energy to sets of power armour.
Without the cores, it wasn't possible to keep a set of power armour moving outside of a controlled setting because they required a lot of power.
"As planned I had EDI design a power core for the armour that is as basic as possible" Miranda let me know "I patented the core and I will have CDC introduce upgraded versions of the core over time to minimise the impact".
Having that kind of battery for sale could upset the global market if it wasn't handled carefully.
"Do you need anything from me?" I asked.
I might be the most powerful man on the planet, not counting Victor Von Doom, who was doing a very good job of hiding if Cortana couldn't find him, but since I couldn't be in two places at once and because the danger was growing, it would be a good idea to give the military an upgrade.
"Maybe an endorsement for the armour when it goes public" answered Miranda "In the long run, EDI predicts that Robert Singer will make a play for the big chair in Oval Office within the next few years. If we can get him on our side it might not be such a bad idea for Invincible to publicly support him. We'll have time to make him dependant on us to get into and to stay in office".
I would leave the politics to her.
"Do what you think is best" I instructed "I'll pop by for a visit soon".
Maggie's long shower was coming to an end so I closed the laptop before she left the bathroom.
"If there's any hot water left it's all yours" said Crimson Edge.
Due to the fact that I am male, I only needed a fraction of the time and water she did to get cleaned up. My hero outfit had taken too much damage to be useable again. I'd have to go up to my moon base and get Cortana to fabricate a new one.
Unlike Crimson Edge, I had plenty of clean clothes here so I came out of the bathroom wearing more than a robe and towels. I wore a simple black T-shirt and some shorts.
"I'm starving," she said "And you have nothing in".
Ever since the moonbase had come online I hadn't been spending much of my time there and so my cupboards were bare.
"We can order something," I said.
Thanks to the Internet that didn't take long and at least my drinks cabinet was well stocked. Something that Maggie took advantage of before she came and sat next to me on the very comfy couch.
Before long we started making out. I could only assume that today's events had brought Edge to the point that she needed to do something to decompress. Sex was a good way of dealing with stress and she wasn't wearing much so it was easy for me to get access to come bare skin to touch.
"No stop." she insisted.
I did so even if it was tempting to keep going.
"Let's go into the bedroom" she decided "I need to lie down".
It became clear to me that she wished for me to do the work so that she could relax and I was happy to go along with whatever she wanted, at least for a time.
"You can tell me to stop anytime you want," I told her.
She might be the physically toughest woman on the planet, but she'd been through a lot today. At one point we'd been buried alive and even with superhuman durability, I didn't think she'd have survived without the Rider Armour. If nothing else she would have suffocated.
Maggie opened up her bathrobe and exposed her nude form to my eyes. She wasn't as muscular as a person might imagine. This made sense since her strength wasn't from her muscles, but she was very firm and curvy in all the right places.
I spent some time with her breasts. They were a good size and her nipples let me know, even without the big smile on her face, that she was very aroused.
Not that I could have missed this since she was already wet between her legs. Something that I discovered when I got down there, but I kissed around her pussy before going for the sweet spot.
"No, don't lick me there!" Maggie said with a giggle.
Odd that she was so sensitive and a bit ticklish. Her inner thighs were susceptible to my kisses.
"Why not?" I asked.
She chose not to answer that question
"Nolan, don't tease me so much," she said with a groan "Just fuck me already!"
Despite her words, she didn't do anything to stop me from playing with her some more, and I couldn't let her have everything her own way even though I was willing to indulge her desires due to the hard day she'd had.
"All in good time," I said
I drove my tongue into her wet snatch which did have some hair, she'd styled into something of an arrow, as if she was worried that I might get lost down there.
"Oh fuck yeah! Right there baby!" Maggie moaned.
Her moaning turned into screaming of the good kind as I went done on her and drove my tongue deep inside her fuckhole. Her cunt was absolutely drooling at this point and Maggie's hand went through my hair as I ate her out. She very much enjoyed that I had great stamina and that even my tongue was very strong.
"You ready?" I said when it was time to move to the main event.
I looked down at Maggie, as the redhead bit her lip and nodded. I then grabbed my hard dick and jerked off a bit as Crimson Edge watched with a transfixed look on her face.
"Nolan, stop teasing me put it in!" Maggie complained.
I was going to have to train her and make her more sexually submissive in the future. For now, she was going to get her way.
"Oh fuck it's so big!" she called out as I entered her.
At first, I took it slow, I was enjoying how her hot wet pussy felt as if it had wrapped itself around my cock. For the former Queen Maeve, this wasn't enough.
"Yes, fuck me!" Maggie shouted as she wrapped her powerful legs around me "Just wreak me".
I smiled at her and didn't move my hips.
"Say please" I instructed.
She gave in quickly.
"Please, fuck me," she said.
Her cunt felt amazing, and she was really needy. I'd warmed her up nicely with the oral sex and so it wasn't taking much to get her off. Despite her protests, she must have liked that I'd not rushed things.
As for me, I began to pick up the place. I didn't have to be as careful with Maggie as I would with a human woman as she was much more durable than a baseline member of her species. Yet it wasn't much work to fuck her roughly as she desired.
"Yes, I'm cumming!" she yelled.
Soon I could feel her pussy tightening around my cock. It felt as if it wanted to milk every last drop of cum out of me and it worked.
"Fuck. I'm cumming again!" Maggie declared to anyone listening.
Two orgasms in a row left her unable to do anything other than lie there for a time.
"That…that was amazing," Maggie said with a happy smile on her face.
Before I could answer the bed collapsed under us.
"Looks like we're sleeping in the guest room" I commented.
For some reason, Crimson Edge found that to be extremely funny and as if to add to the silliness this was when our food arrived.
Torn Cape.
Part 19.
Meeting Room. Vought Tower.
Annie January, known to most of the world as Starlight, didn't know what to make of any of this. Not so long ago she had thought she'd made it. She'd been chosen to become a member of the Seven, the greatest superhero team in the entire world.
She'd been chosen to replace Lamplighter, who had decided to retire after many years of hard work as a superhero. Given what she'd learned while here at Vought she no longer believed that Lamplighter had simply grown tired of his profession.
While she was still young it had been a long road for her to get this far. Her childhood had been full of beauty pageants, bible camp and other events that her mother, Donna January, had forced her to take part in without bothering to find out what her daughter wanted out of life.
When she'd gotten the call from Vought it was as if all her hard work had finally paid off. Only joining the Seven had not been what she had expected at all. She hadn't helped nearly as many people as she would have liked and none of her new teammates had been at all like she'd imagined.
The Deep had been a big disappointment, to say the least, she had the biggest crush on him as a teenager, and Homelander was, or rather had been, downright terrifying. She hadn't gotten to know Maeve very well before she left and she would never get the chance to learn more about the others.
This was because the other members of the Seven were either gone or dead. The only members of the team left were her and Black Noir, who was at this meeting at least in terms of his body, but it was clear that his mind was elsewhere. If he knew what had happened under the streets then he wasn't going to talk about it with her.
They were the only two active members of the Seven who were confirmed as alive. The feds were still digging through the rubble, but it didn't look promising from what little they'd been able to find out from Black Noir who had written down some of what had happened.
Looking around the room Annie thought back to her first official meeting as part of the Seven and how Translucent had spent most of it going on about the lost revenue caused by people pirating his latest movie.
Annie didn't approve of pirating movies, she just felt that the greatest heroes on Earth should have other priorities, more important ones. A lot was going on in this world, and she'd much rather be out there doing some good than sitting around in
meetings while discussing profits.
Invincible had really shaken things up here at Vought and while it was good that the company had cast off some of its deadweight and streamlined itself so that it could focus more on what mattered, it was only now that things were really going to change.
When Nolan Grayson had put Homelander into intensive care he had altered the way things ran around here for good. Everyone had either loved or feared Homelander because of his power and so when someone came along and knocked him off his pedestal no one had known how to react.
Then as if to make Annie feel worse about her lack of activity, Maeve left and joined Invincible, it was as if she'd known that the Seven was already over as a team and had decided to jump ship. Annie wondered if that was a move she should mimic.
Starlight might have resented her fellow hero leaving if Maeve hadn't gotten out there and actually saved some people. She'd even left her old superhero identity behind, and become a heroine for the future known as Crimson Edge.
Again Annie couldn't help wondering if she'd backed the wrong horse in this race and that maybe she should be looking for a new team to join.
"So it's been decided that you, Starlight will become the temporary leader of the Seven" stated Ashley.
It took a moment for those words to register for Annie. Now she had no thoughts of leaving. Not if the team needed her this much.
"You want me to lead the Seven," she asked.
She wasn't sure she'd heard Ashely say that.
"Officially it would be temporary until Homelander gets back," said the red-headed woman.
People all over the world knew that Homelander was missing as someone from the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs had leaked enough information to get people worried. There were even more candlelight vigils for Homelander than there had been back when he'd been in a coma.
She'd read some of the articles and there were plenty of people out there who thought that Homelander would return from the dead if it had to protect this nation as was God's will. Annie knew better, if some power did cause his return it wouldn't be heavenly in origin.
Annie wondered what people would do if Homelander was confirmed dead or didn't return to the public eye in a few days. Would they lash out? Give in to despair? Or would they find a new figure to rally around? Only time would tell.
"Unofficially the job is yours," stated Ashley "Mr Edgar saw what you did in the subway and thinks you're perfect for the job. He wants a new Seven, a leaner, meaner team that is ready to face the challenges out there".
Annie only knew a little of what had happened in the tunnels under the city, and she'd seen enough to understand that it hadn't been a cell of super terrorists behind all the event madness.
"We've got a big list of superheroes for you to go through once Madalyn is done sorting out the profiles" Ashley was now saying "Mr Edgar wants you to pick the team but he does want to add a woman called Stormfront to The Seven, she's very strong and experienced, I think she'll be an asset".
Annie would look into this Stormfront later.
"How are we going to make the team leaner and meaner?" she asked.
Even before she spoke Starlight knew that Ashley didn't know for certain. Hardly unexpected given how shaken up things had become.
"The new Seven will have a new contract" the red-headed woman explained as best she could "You'll train hard, get new uniforms, and be sent on more rescues so that you can learn to work as a team".
Annie did like the sound of that. In a position of authority, she'd have some real power and she could make some positive changes here at Vought.
"Mr Edgar will get you the support staff you need," Ashley was now saying "But he expects you to decide on a lot of things. The Seven isn't the only superhero team that's going to be seeing some changes".
While Annie had many doubts about Vought she was confident that she could help to change things from within the company.
"Mr Edgar wants you to approach Invincible" mentioned Ashley "If we can't get him to join the Seven, and I know that's extremely unlikely, then we need you to at least appear friendly with him, and you'll need to meet with the head of the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs this week. We'll be working closer with them".
Starlight wasn't sure how she felt about Nolan Greyson, he might have killed Homelander and if he had then he was the most dangerous man in the world. He was not someone to be messed with. On the other hand, what could be the harm in just talking to him?
As for the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs if there were super terrorists out there then the Seven could do with some allies in the government.
"Let him fuck you if that's what it takes, just get him to be seen in public with you," Ashley said as she made her way out of the meeting room "You need Invincible's support if you want to stay as leader of the Seven".
As the redhead left Annie was left feeling shocked and unsure what to do. She was sure that Madelyn Stillwell was up to something behind the scenes and that she had only been chosen to lead the Seven because everyone else was dead or gone, other than Noir who couldn't lead a team since he either couldn't or wouldn't talk.
Annie was brought out of her reflections by one of the monitors going off mute as Black Noir caught something that needed their attention.
According to this report, another super terrorist was attacking the innocent people of the city and she was able to say that the two of them should head down there when the report mentioned that Invincible was already on the scene.
This didn't shock Starlight as she knew Invincible was a real hero. She wouldn't sleep with him for Vought's shake, but perhaps she could spend some time with the man and get to know him.
Downtown. New York.
While I hadn't even collected my reward for defeating the Dungeon Keeper, I already had a new enemy to deal with in the PVP. This was a bit of a shock because I had thought that the ROB would give me a bit of downtime or that I'd at least get some warning before I had to go back into action.
I was not equipped or dressed for dealing with this as I'd only popped out to fetch some coffee and bagels as my cupboards were indeed rather bare. Perhaps I should convince Maggie to do a bit of shopping for me?
My intention had been to fly out, grab breakfast, and then return to the penthouse to surprise Maggie with breakfast in bed. In my experience, women tended to enjoy these small thoughtful gestures and I wanted her in a good mood when we discussed how things were going to work between us.
Breakfast was going to be late as I would be facing a Primaris Librarian from some Space Marine Chapter that I'd never heard about, at least according to Cortana who had called me on my laptop to warn me.
When I got to the scene of carnage I could see that the Astartes was armed with a fancy-looking sword. Should all go well that blade was so going to end up on display in my base.
Given he was channelling the powers of the warp against a SWAT team. The mere mortals were not doing so well and the regular police would not be able to contain this situation.
The presence of a person from the universe of Warhammer 40k unnerved me because if a Space Marine could be sent here, then perhaps something else from that universe could be.
While worrying that was a concern for the future. Knowing that I had to work fast, I landed next to a cop who was standing at a street corner and I handed him the breakfast tray.
"Guard these with your life" I ordered.
Before he could say anything about that I was moving so fast that I'd appear to be a blur as I headed down the street.
The abhuman in the power armour had just used the power of the warp to throw a car at the SWAT team and it would have hit them if I hadn't taken to the air, grabbed the car and then thrown it back at the Space Marine.
The Emperor's Avenging Angel stood his ground and the car struck the ground after impacting against some sort of energy barrier. Either this Space Marine could create psychic shields or he had some sort of personal shield generator.
"Of course, he has a shield" I muttered to myself "Why make this easy for me?".
I spotted a bolter of some kind on the ground. The Space Marine must have run out of ammo for the weapon, and that would explain the mess around here, but he was far from helpless, he was armed with a fancy-looking sword and a plasma pistol, the latter of which he fired at me before I even realised he'd opened fire.
When I was hit I felt a great deal of heat pass over me and the smell of burning hair filled my senses just before I flew right at the Space Marine and struck the barrier with my fist. It collapsed despite the fact that hitting it made my arm go all numb.
"FOR THE EMPEROR!" the warrior yelled.
The Astartes leapt forward and tried to cut me down with its awesome sword, and I went up into the air after I tried to block the blow with my arm and felt real pain. That had been much worse than when I'd been struck by a lightsaber.
Somehow the Space Marine's fancy weapon had been able to draw my blood and I was sure that I'd have suffered more if the reflected damage perk of mine didn't affect the marine and cause him to cease his attack.
"FOUL XENOS!" shouted the man in power armour.
For a moment, I wondered how it knew I was an alien. Some sensor in its helmet? Or was it the flying that gave me away?
Not that it mattered. What I needed to focus on was ending this fight. To that end, I put some distance between myself and the Space Marine before I flew right at him. I had to pass through another shield and that stung my entire body as I'd been electrified.
When I hit the armoured warrior we both ended up going down the street and I managed to get my flight under control while the Imperial did not. He rolled and then came to a stop.
Before he could recover I was punching the warrior, making dents in his armour, the high-tech suit was not easy to break and the warrior within the metal was tough as well, but he couldn't stop me, and I was just strong for him.
Psychic powers take focus to use and the warrior dropped his sword at some point. His efforts to shoot me with his plasma pistol were for nought as I didn't allow the warrior any time to aim, and as we wrestled I crushed the arm holding the gun. That took some effort by me to do.
When he let go of the pistol I grabbed it and I shot him in the head at point-blank range. The fool hadn't been wearing his helmet and even Space Marines couldn't take that kind of punishment so the fight was over.
That Space Marine had in a very short amount of time done far more harm to me than the Dungeon Keeper and all his forces. The ROB was introducing stronger foes as time passed. So at least I wouldn't be getting bored.
As I caught my breath I looked around and saw something odd. I sped through the air and grabbed the strange object which had gotten my attention by looking very much out of place despite its efforts to keep its presence hidden.
I couldn't know for sure, however, I got the impression that this odd machine had been watching my short fight with the Space Marine Psyker.
The probe exploded before I could do more than give the device the briefest of examinations, so it was good that I didn't need to see much of it to figure out where it had come from. Only three people in this world had the technology to make something like that, myself, Miranda and Victor Von Doom.
Perhaps it was a good thing that the probe had blown itself up or been remotely made to as I would have taken it to my base to be examined and that would resulting in Doom learning at least a little about my base before Cortana secured the probe.
Despite how intense this morning had been I knew that I needed to grab the Space Marines' weapons. That sword had messed up my arm and could have done worse so I could not let anyone else have it. Although if it was a psyker weapon it might not be useable by anyone in this world.
When I'd seen my reflection in that probe's eye I'd seen that my face had been burned even though most of the damage had been done to my beard. I would need to be careful if anyone managed to build any large-scale plasma weapons.
I considered securing the body and the armour, but that wasn't a direct threat given how much technology went behind the creation of a Space Marine. No one would be back-engineering that technology for a very long time.
Torn Cape.
Part 20.
Base. The Moon.
"So this is my reward," I said with disappointment clear in my voice "A funny-looking wooden ship".
The strange vessel was sitting in the newly built hanger bay, one that I'd dug out of the rock, and according to the note on the side, this was a reward for winning two rounds of PVP.
I had indeed recently defeated two dangerous enemies and all I got for my trouble was a fancy sailing vessel. Who was choosing these prices? Was there a drunken monkey throwing knives at a big list?
Okay, so part of my bad mood had to do with my messing up my arm while fighting that Space Marine rather than because I had expected my reward to have great value to me.
Still, between that and the loss of my manly beard, I felt that I had a right to complain.
"It's a nice boat," commented Crimson Edge as we walked around the vessel "If you could move it down to Earth then maybe we can go sailing".
Her effort to lift my mood failed. My AI was more successful.
"If the files I've received are anything to go by this is a type of ship known as a spelljammer," Cortana let me know as she made her sexy holographic avatar appear before us "So it is much more than a sailing vessel".
Now I was much less disappointed, if anything I was pleased because if this craft was indeed a spelljammer then I'd been given a sort of spaceship.
"Really?" I asked Cortana "This is a spelljammer?".
Unlike the more well-known kind of wooden vessels with sails, Spelljammers had their own fields of gravity and atmosphere, despite the ships having open decks. They tend not to resemble the spaceships seen in science fiction rather they look like sailing vessels.
Well the human spelljammers do, the ones crewed by non-humans can look like huge animals, birds, and fish or even appear in more wildly fantastic shapes.
I knew that The Spelljammer setting had been designed to allow the usual sword and sorcery adventures of Dungeons & Dragons to take place within a star system.
In Spelljammer the fictional setting you have flying ships travel through the vast expanses of interplanetary space, visiting moons and planets and other stellar objects.
I had no idea how this would work in this universe, which had different rules, and I found myself eager to find out.
"According to the files this ship can take you anywhere in the system," said Cortana as Crimson Edge and I flew onto the deck of the spelljammer with my arm around Edge, "Even further than that if I'm reading the files right".
Maggie was understandably confused so I did my best to explain.
"A spelljammer is a type of vessel powered by magic that can travel through space," I told her "They have artificial gravity and a way of keeping the air from getting sucked off into space. Each ship has a magical helm that allows a suitably powerful mage to pilot the ship. Some spelljammers are capable of travelling to other planes of existence".
That gave me some food for thought.
"What kind of helm does this vessel have?" I asked.
Maggie gave me another quizzical look.
"It runs on a Furnace Helm" Cortana let me know.
That wasn't such bad news.
"The ship needs magical energy to run," I told Crimson Edge "That means either someone who can cast spells has to move the ship or you have to sacrifice magical items. neither of which we have".
Doctor Doom was a spell caster, but I couldn't go and ask him for help even if we hadn't been enemies.
"Didn't you mention that the Dungeon Keeper was magical?" said Crimson Edge.
I gave the matter some thought and I realised that I did in fact know about something magical I could throw into the furnace.
"Cortana can you find out for me what happened to the materials the recovery teams took out of the underground?" I asked, "I need to recover the shards of crystal that are all that remains of the Keeper's power source".
The Feds had been working to recover all the stolen gold and clean up the bodies so it was likely that they had cleared up what remained of the Keeper's source of power.
"I'll get the information for you" Cortana promised "For now, Boss, you should know that Miranda Lawson urgently wants a word with you".
More than likely this was about the fight I had with the space marine just this morning. My baby mama would want to know what happened and to figure out if there was any way she could take advantage of the situation.
"Fine, I'll talk to her soon," I said.
Perhaps I would soon pop by her home for some more sister-on-sister action. For now, I had something else on my mind.
"I wonder if there are any magic users around," I mused.
Magic was most certainly an active force in this universe. The existence of the Dungeon Keeper proved that so perhaps somewhere on Earth there were now people with magical abilities.
"We need a magic user to pilot this ship even if we find something to fuel it with," I said.
I turned to face the third person who was on this ship before they announced themself.
Unless I was very much mistaken this person was a female human dragonborn.
"Who the hell are you?" Edge demanded to know.
While I had told her all about the ROB and the rewards, and about how things were going to get even stranger for her world, she had no idea who this person was.
"I'm Elayne of High Rock" she said "And I'm your pilot".
Well, wasn't this turning out to be an interesting day? I very much wanted to know why a female Breton Dragonborn was dressed as a Nord Warrior, so I was just going to have to ask her about it.
Headquarters of Cerberus Defence Contracts. New York.
Defence Secretary Robert Singer knew that the world was changing and that the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs wasn't going to be enough to keep the super terrorists, as the public called them, from destroying the nation he was supposed to protect.
Hence why he was looking for some off-the-books funding and extra resources that could be used to combat the 'super terrorists' which is why he was eager to see what Miranda Lawson had to offer. So far he was impressed by the setup.
It was clear, that the Australian businesswoman had access to some of the best technology on the planet, and that her people were working on improving what she had. But what really mattered was what kind of support he could get for his work.
"The Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs was a good start," said Miranda as they headed down into the testing area so that she could show off some tech "But the break-in at the gold depository, and the incident with that armoured man just the next day, proves that this has gone beyond a matter of law enforcement and investigation the USA needs more than the Bureau to handle what is happening".
Robert Singer suppressed a sigh before speaking.
"So far the President hasn't seen fit to authorise the armed forces becoming involved in these super terrorist attacks, and he's made his position about supes in the military quite clear," said Mr Singer.
Despite all that had happened Vought was still pushing to have some of its talent placed in the armed forces and given recent events they might get their way. People were scared and so some action had to be taken to reassure them. Mr Singer was working on that.
"He has authorised the creation of the Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans, or A.R.G.U.S" reported Mr Singer.
That had been just one of the ideas thrown around the Oval Office and the President had gone with it if only so he'd been shown to be doing something about what was happening in New York.
"This is a new group that I intended to see put together soon despite the team not coming under my jurisdiction," he told Lawson.
Singer had been sent to convince Grace Mallory to lead the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs because he knew Mallory and because he'd hoped that setting up the Bureau would keep the supes out of the armed forces.
"Isn't that the kind of you're trying to prevent from happening?" she asked.
Miranda thought that this A.R.G.U.S. could be a stepping stone to getting supes until the military.
"The A.R.G.U.S. team will be working for the Department of Homeland Security" Singer explained "They will have some military personnel seconded to them and officially that is why I am involved".
Which meant there were also unofficial reasons.
"While the Department of Defence will provide this new group with resources, and military personnel will oversee some parts of the training of their people, A.R.G.U.S. will be a civilian-led organisation and not part of the armed forces" stated Mr Singer.
Miranda was pleased to hear that. It suited her long-term plans to keep supes out of the military.
"And I assume you are looking for funding?" she asked.
She already knew the answer to that question,
"For both A.R.G.U.S. and the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs," said Singer "The Bureau needs to expand if it means to help to handle what's going on in New York and with Vought having let so many supes go. It's only a matter of time before one of them tries to become a crime lord".
That was not the only concern.
"A.R.G.U.S needs every cent it can get if it's going to have a chance in hell in dealing with the threats to this country" Singer was now saying "These super terrorists can't be handled by normal law enforcement and we can't depend on Invincible showing up even if he has been helpful in the past".
Miranda had already decided to fund the Bureau and that she would support Singer when he ran for President. Funding another group wouldn't be much trouble if she got the defence contract she desired.
"Who did you get for the team?" the head of CDC wondered.
Singer passed her a folder that she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep so if she could the chance she would scan its contents with her omni-tool when her guest wasn't looking.
"So far we've got Behemoth," said Singer "He's a hot head, but if A.R.G.U.S. can keep him under control he can be a good weapon against rogue superhumans. We also have Cold Snap, who will work for anyone willing to pay for his whores".
Miranda looked amused by one of the names.
"Eagle the Archer" she read out "Didn't he fuck up a hostage situation?"
Singer sighed having failed to suppress it this time.
"We don't have a lot of options and A.R.G.U.S. is hoping we can equip him with some arrows meant for taking down rogue superhumans. Trick arrows, explosive arrowheads, that sort of thing" he said "A.R.G.U.S. isn't Vought, but it will have to worry about its public image and Eagle's presence is being passed off a chance for the man to redeem himself. Aside from that, we needed someone to take the spot for the superhero team that will be the public face of A.R.G.U.S.".
Miranda was pleased that this new group was desperate as it would make her job easier.
"So this A.R.G.U.S. is going to need some top-of-the-line equipment if its members are going to be able to keep up with the supes you've managed to convince to work for Homeland Security," reasoned Miranda.
This seemed as good a time as any to show Singer what her company had been working on. With a gesture one of the techs removed the heavy sheet that had been covering up the prototype power armour that while based on the technology shared by Nolan was made from local materials and had been put together by the technology of this world.
"Mr Singer may I present the T-45a model of power armour," said Miranda Lawson "This prototype exists to demonstrate the technologies involved and the reliability of the manufacturing techniques that we are using. While the T-45a is rather crude, it is a fully functional set of power armour and now we know it works we can start to make improvements".
The Secretary of Defence had not been expecting this and it took him a little while to get over the shock.
"Why bring supes into the military when you can make a soldier a walking tank," said Miranda.
One of the techs was helped into the armour by his colleagues. When he was ready he began to slowly move around.
"This thing works?" Singer asked as he was allowed to look over the blueprints "Outside of the lab I mean?".
If so then he could see the implications. One of his teams had managed to get their hands on the suit of armour that the super terrorist had worn when shooting up cops in downtown New York, but the R&D team hadn't even begun trying to figure out how it worked.
Sure this T-45a armour didn't look as impressive, but if it was something that could start using soon then it needed to be in the hands of the US military.
"It does" Miss Lawson confirmed "We've recently created a power source that can be used to provide energy for the power armour, and that is what makes the T-45a more than just a showpiece. Although realistically we'll have a few more prototypes made before we find a model suitable for mass production".
She had more to say on this matter.
"The power source has exciting applications for civilian use, but CDC is a military supplier so that's focus on the military applications for the T-45a" said Miss Lawson "Although it could be used by law enforcement as well".
Her VIP guest found that hard to believe.
"You want to sell these things to the Department of Justice?" was Singer's next question.
He could imagine crooks surrendering rather than having to face someone in the armour.
"While the armour does greatly enhance the strength of the wearer and offer a great deal of protection, it has no inbuilt weapons" Miranda explained "You can arm the wearer with anything you want, including weapons for non-lethal takedowns".
Mr Singer was impressed, however, he still had some doubts.
"Even if this armour does turn a soldier into a walking tank we don't have the firepower to take supes down and there are going to be more freaks popping up" he said.
Miss Lawson had something to say about that.
"We did recently acquire a weapon from Invincible that he took from the super terrorist," she said "He dropped off what he calls a bolter. It is a powerful assault weapon that fires explosive kinetic rounds referred to as bolts".
Miranda had needed to beg before Invincible had agreed to let her R&D people take the bolter apart.
"I have people working on back-engineering the weapon so that we can build our own" the former Cerberus Operative was now saying. "Our version will be crude, but imagine a squad of power-armoured soldiers with a mixture of heavy weapons. They might have been able to deal with that armoured super terrorist without any help".
Robert Singer had been impressed by the firepower shown by the super terrorist in the recordings he'd seen. He would have liked to have claimed all of the armoured figure's weapons, but not one had been willing to stop Invincible from flying off with them. The Feds had claimed the body, and his people had gotten the armour.
"So what do you think?" asked Miranda "Is this something the USA armed forces would like to invest in".
There would be a lot of paperwork involved, but Robert Singer figured that he could sort out funding for a defence contract that led to soldiers wearing power armour and carrying weapons that should even the odds when they had to face a super terrorist.
"I think we can do business," said Robert Singer.
With the right weapons, these suits could help to keep American soldiers alive the next time they went up against a super terrorist, and so he would secure them for the armed forces of his country.
Torn Cape.
Part 21.
Asteroid Belt. Sol System.
Contrary to the popular imagery you get from science fiction, an asteroid belt, such as the one between Mars and Jupiter is mostly empty and it is rather a sedate place.
The big lumps of rock are spread out over such a large volume of empty space that reaching an asteroid without carefully aiming your vessel at one would be highly improbable.
Asteroids can and do collide with each other, and you don't want to be around when that happens, but it takes such a long to get anywhere in space that if a collision does happen then you have plenty of time to get out of the way.
This meant that Elayne of High Rock was able to fly to the part of the belt that we needed to reach for this mission without us ramming into anything.
As to why we were out here, that was because the belt contained fortunes worth of rare metals that would be easy to get at since I could break them apart with my fists.
Unlike on Earth, when out here you didn't have to worry about mining rights or damaging the environment. So there was no paperwork to fill out or environmentalists trying to get in my way.
Since the top speed of a Spelljammer is 100 million miles in 24 hours and the belt was 111.5 million miles from Earth it should have taken us a little over a day to fly to the belt. However, Elayne needed to take breaks so it actually took us three days to get there and it would take us that long to get back.
Add in a day to do the mining, which wouldn't take long due to the speeds I can fly at and how easy it is for me to break rock, and we'd be gone from Earth for a week.
While this might seem like an issue if there was any trouble on Earth if needs be I could fly back on my own. Assuming that I cared enough to go deal with the issue.
The only reason I didn't fly out here by myself was because we needed to bring out some special equipment and because there was only so much mineral wealth that I could carry.
It made more sense to bring the Spelljammer out here and to do my outer space mining while using the special ship as a base. If nothing else it was a good test flight to see if the Dragonborn could actually fly the ship in space.
Sure I can mine on the moon, but according to Cortana, there were rare minerals we needed out here, and she knew exactly where we should go to get them.
For example, iridium is found in some asteroids, as well as metals like platinum, osmium, ruthenium, rhodium, and palladium. All of which had uses when you are making Mass Effect and Halo technology.
There were companies on Earth that are considering mining asteroids for platinum and other metals so if I ever needed some extra income then I could gather some more ore.
By now the Spelljammer had come to a stop, more or less. Elayne was able to halt the ship's motion despite there not being any breaks on this vessel. The spelljammer was a strange craft that seemed to be able to laugh at physics.
"What are you doing, my Jarl?" asked Elayne.
Despite being a Breton by birth the Dragonborn had a Nord father and had spent enough time in Skyrim to become a Thane. In her mind, Thanes served their Jarl, a Nord term of address for a lord, and since she served me I must be a Jarl.
I did have my own kingdom. I could claim to rule the entirety of the moon as there wasn't anyone who could argue against it, at least not effectively.
"Cortana is scanning the astroids to find us ones worth going after," I said.
I'd only just finished setting up the required equipment on the deck of the Spelljammer and already we were getting a lot of data.
The idea was that once the AI had found a suitable target, a metal-rich asteroid, I would fly out and break it apart, and then I would use a scanner to identify which of the fragments were worth collecting. Once we got back to the base the collected materials could be purified.
"And then you will start mining," said Elayne.
Maggie was here too having helped me to set up. She was treating this as a vacation and spending a lot of time simply relaxing. It had been an odd sight to see her sunbathing on the deck while wearing only a swimsuit.
It wasn't as if she could get a tan because the ship was protected against all forms of radiation, at least as long we didn't get close to the sun or nuclear reactor on meltdown.
"Once Cortana has the data she needs," I told the mage.
Elayne nodded as if she understood what was going on as Maggie came over to join us.
"I trust you are pleased with my work so far," said the Dragonborn.
Having my own mage had so far proven to be good. As it turned out we didn't need to worry about acquiring magical items for the Spelljammer as this version of Dovahkiin had been defeated in her final match with Miraak.
Before she'd gotten that far she'd learned the spell that summoned a Dremora Merchant who would we could buy magical items in exchange for what was basically junk in this universe.
It would take some time for the merchant to get what was needed, but he should be able to supply the Dovahkinn with what she needed to set up a proper workspace for a mage.
During the trip here she'd told me about she'd been strong enough to get to Miraak, just not strong enough to defeat him and how she'd gotten trapped in Hermaeus Mora's realm while the FIrst Dragonborn went free.
The ROB had given her the option of serving me or staying in a realm of Oblivion as the plaything of a Daedric Prince. I could see why she'd chosen to serve
While it had been a little strange for her to kneel before me and swear loyalty to me, I'd kind of liked it.
As for the rest of her story, I'd played the game so I had a good idea of what the Dragonborn got up to before she met me, and I would no doubt hear more once we returned to my moonbase.
"Nolan," said Cortana "I've found a few targets for you".
The scans had already exposed to us the existence of several metal-rich asteroids that contained the minerals both my group and Miranda's business had some need for.
"Led the way," I told the AI as I placed my special visor over my face.
With a quick wave, I jumped off the deck and flew into the cold vacuum of space. By now it was all natural to me and the lack of any air was no concern.
Asteroid Belt. Sol System.
As her new Jarl flew off into the airless void that surrounded them with no need for any protection, Elayne of High Rock, couldn't help thinking about her lord, the man she'd chosen to serve rather than live as the plaything of Hermaeus Mora.
Had she stayed in the realm of Apocrypha she had no doubt that she would have become like Miraak in time. She would have been willing to enslave and destroy all in her path in order to escape. Only after her, there would be no more Dragonborn to take her place in Apocrypha.
So when the god who was known as ROB, which was an odd name for a deity, offered her an alternative she jumped at the chance despite not fully knowing what it would involve. Anything had to be better than Apocrypha, those tentacles were very unsettling.
There was something about having become the Dragonborn that kept driving her to take risks. She'd been called Doom-Driven once and so she was glad that she would have someone else making choices for her. She'd never been much of a leader, she would have preferred a life of study and experimenting with magic.
She'd been heading for the Collage of Winterhold when she'd had the misfortune to get caught between a Stormcloak warband and an Imperial patrol. The damn Imperials hadn't cared and they'd been willing to take her head off as if she was some rebel and not a loyal subject of the empire.
Elayne had made it to Winterhold while looking for an Elder Scroll and looking back she shouldn't have let herself get distracted, first by the college and then those bloody cultists.
In retrospect, it would have been wiser to deal with the World-Eater first and then worry about those killers in the freaky masks, but at the time she'd thought Miraak to be some pretender she could easily deal with.
As for Alduin, he was Miraak's problem now, the First Dragonborn would have to deal with the World-Eater or be consumed as well. She had a new life here in a strange universe, and it was nice that someone else was dealing with the fate of the world.
All she had to do was fly a magic ship and study anything that the Jarl wished her to while offering aid with her magical powers. She was his court mage even if he didn't have a court.
This was much better than the last time she'd started working for a Jarl. Balgruuf had been generous, but he'd tried to force her into a role of a warrior, even going as far as to equip her with Nord-made armour.
"Margaret" she called out "Are you Jarl Nolan's Housecarl, like Irileth is to Jarl Balgruuf".
The redhead, who was also known as Crimson Edge just as Jarl Nolan was called Invincible, had spent most of this trip with their Jarl when not relaxing on her own, and while she and Margaret had spoken before the two women were still having trouble understanding each other.
"Who is Irileth?" questioned Maggie.
That didn't take too long to explain what role Irileth had served.
"I don't think I'm his servant" said Crimson Edge "But I'm not his wife or girlfriend either".
From what the mage understood Margaret and Nolan had recently gone into battle together to save a city called New York and they become strong allies.
The Dragonborn wondered what sad fate had befallen Old York.
"I was under the impression that Miranda was his lady wife" admitted Elayne.
She was uncertain because she'd never gotten to meet that woman.
"They aren't married" explained Crimson Edge "Miranda Lawson wants to be a queen in her own right, but Nolan is the father of the baby she will have. They used to be enemies and Miranda surrendered to Nolan and is having his child to ensure the peace between them, she's Nolan's lover I guess. It's rather complicated".
Elayne of High Rock was no stranger to complicated situations.
"So you are his Thane," reasoned Elayne "You are more than a servant because you fight with him. Do you advise him as well?".
It was clear to the Breton that Nolan ruled over the moon and everyone who lived in his fortresses. Maggie seemed to see things differently.
"What exactly is a Thane?" asked the other woman "From what you told me before it sounds like you were knighted for slaying that dragon you mentioned".
Elayne knew about knights and about the dragon that Nolan had slain. That he had done so without the help of the town guards or a housecarl was proof that he was a worthy lord.
"They are similar" she replied "Knights fight for personal glory and honour, usually in service to a lord. A Thane can do that as well".
There was a pause in the conversation.
"I was wondering if you had made any kind of formal vow of loyalty to our lord?" asked the Dragonborn.
Elayne had only made a quick one and she was wondering if she should do something more official so as to secure her place as Nolan's court mage.
"I have a contract with CRD" answered Maggie "But that's something you need to talk to Nolan about later. To answer your question I haven't made any vows. Do you think I should?".
Despite having gone by the name Queen Maeve she had never thought much about what the title might mean if it were true.
"Without formal oaths, our lord could replace you" warned Elayne "And he has no obligations to you. He has not awarded you lands or the right to purchase a home of your own in his domain".
Maggie gave the matter some thought.
"Maybe we should sit down and talk to Nolan about what exactly we will do for him, and what he expects from us" decided Crimson Edge.
Elayne was glad that her new friend had seen the wisdom of her words. It would be nice to secure their positions and while money wasn't a concern as she knew the spells Transmute: Silver Ore and Transmute: Gold Ore having a protected place with Jarl Nolan was worth more than any amount of currency.
Torn Cape.
Part 22.
Graveyard. New York City.
Annie January AKA Starlight had been intending for some time to make contact with Nolan Grayson, the man known all over the world simply as Invincible.
She was certainly getting pressured into doing so at work, but she'd been putting it off because she had no idea how to get the world's most powerful hero to agree to do anything for her.
If the right man came along she might be willing to have premarital sex despite her faith, but she wasn't the kind of woman who would spread her legs simply to advance her career, at least not anymore.
The last time she'd done anything sexual for such reasons it had made her ill and the only reason she still didn't loathe herself about what happened when she met The Deep was because he was dead.
Given that it seemed as if she would have to try to get close to the man known as Invincible in order to stay captain of The Seven then she was going to have to do something to get his attention.
Perhaps they could form a friendship or at least a professional working relationship, and she certainly wasn't against the idea of getting romantically involved with Nolan Greyson.
She and a few other million women certainly wouldn't mind, the others just weren't under pressure from Vought to make a connection.
At the very least she would need to go and introduce herself while she had the chance, as the new leader of The Seven even if there weren't actually seven of them these days.
Her team was made up of herself, Black Noir, Stormfront, who was having worrying thoughts about, Supersonic, who she used to date, and Shockwave, who was trying to replace A-Train as the world's fastest man and even take his title.
Having Supersonic around would make any attempt of hers to get close to Invincible a little awkward. Their romantic relationship had ended a long time ago, but since they were both single and would be working together it wasn't unreasonable to think that the old flame could be rekindled.
There was also talk of getting another woman on the team and going with a girl power marketing campaign that would distract the public from what had happened to the Seven when they went underground, but that was something she could think more about later.
Annie forced herself to pay attention to her surroundings as something hit the ground just outside of the graveyard, much to the joy of the crowd as while this was a crime scene, it had drawn attention from the media and some of the public.
Starlight was the only member of the Seven who had been invited to aid in the investigation, Annie was rather popular so her presence here had drawn a crowd.
Now that Invincible had landed she had no doubt that the police would have to call in more officers to help keep the people here from getting out of hand.
Annie wondered why the man had arrived after her given that he could fly. Perhaps he'd been busy saving someone, or maybe he'd been with someone special.
There were rumours online that Grayson was involved with the CEO of Cerberus Defence Contracts, who was a very attractive woman not known for dating, or perhaps he and the hero formally known as Queen Maeve were a couple as some online articles suggested.
"Starlight, Invincible," said Grace Mallory the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs "Thank you for coming".
Annie knew that Grace Mallory did not like superhumans, that was clear as soon as they met as Mallory's body language and tone of voice were not friendly.
As such she wouldn't have called both the leader of The Seven and Invincible here unless she desperately needed their help or at the very least she needed to appear as if she getting outside help. Appearances mattered more than results these days.
Oddly she and Nolan were not the only superhumans here, there were a few that Vought had let go and they seemed to be part of one of the law enforcement agencies that had been called in.
"Glad to be of help, Director Mallory," said Grayson.
Starlight smiled, unsure of what to say, as Invincible had just grinned at her and he had totally checked her out. She was so glad to be back in her proper uniform as she felt it was sexy without making her come off as a total slut.
She wondered how other people were able to be so calm around the man who had defeated Homelander. Grayson was the single most powerful man on the planet, and here he was looking at her. If they weren't standing around in a graveyard she might have enjoyed the attention a lot more.
"What happened here?" Annie was able to ask.
Mallory sighed before speaking.
"It's best that you talk to the witness" she said "It might sound less crazy if someone else says it first".
They didn't travel far and soon the two heroes met with a man who wore gloves and overalls suited for wearing while working outdoors.
"This is Mr Andrews Smith," explained Director Mallory "He's the groundskeeper".
She then turned to the middle-aged man.
"Mr Smith, I need you to tell us what you told the police officers" she instructed.
The man soon did so.
"I was here just before dawn" he began by saying "I normally do my work early in the morning to make sure that the grounds are in order before anyone comes to visit one of the graves".
The man took a deep breath as if he needed to calm himself.
"Someone times kids will come here to hang out with their friends and they can make a mess, and we'd had a few vandals over the years, but nothing serious until this morning" he then said.
Annie didn't like the idea that someone had been messing about in a graveyard, it was creepy.
"It was just before dawn that I saw them" the man was now saying "At first I thought they might be graverobbers, as they had shovels, but they weren't digging up graves they were burying people, a lot of them in a mass grave".
Now that was shocking to hear. Annie felt a bit ill.
"Did they see you?" questioned Invincible.
The groundskeeper nodded.
"They did, and it was still fairly dark so I know that I must be mistaken, but they didn't seem normal" the groundskeeper was now saying "They were ghostly pale, all of them were hairless, and I swear when one looked at me his eyes glowed".
Annie didn't think this man was lying.
"Did they do anything to do you?" Starlight asked.
The man seemed fine, at least physically.
"No, the sun started to come up and they ran away," said the groundskeeper "That was when I called the cops".
Mallory took them over to the now empty mass grave.
"Every victim had puncture wounds on their necks and their bodies had been drained of blood according to the few autopsies that have gotten done so far," said the director.
Annie had never imagined that she'd be involved in something like this. She'd fought muggers and other criminals when acting as Starlight, but this was something else.
She had the feeling that the monsters she'd thought in the subway weren't going to be the only odd creatures she'd fight during her superhero career.
"How many bodies were there?" Grayson.
"Ten at each site" Mallory answered.
While Annie was shocked, Invincible seemed to be taking the news in his stride.
"Ten at each site, and we've found three such sites just this week" she said "This had happened at other graveyards, but we've managed to keep that hidden from the public to avoid a panic".
They were shown a map and it looked as if half a dozen sites had been found containing mass graves.
"All of the bodies recovered are those of people who won't be missed," Mallory was now saying "Vagabonds, prostitutes and people who live in low-income neighbourhoods. They were all killed by blood loss and buried in sites like this".
Starlight didn't know what to make of this.
"There may be more that we don't know about because the NYPD is spread thin due to recent losses and the mess with the underground, and my own people only do so much" the Director added.
Annie wondered what Mallory expected her to do about this and she asked as much.
"As much as I don't like the idea of superhumans doing policework we don't have a choice," said the Director "I need heroes keeping an eye on as many graveyards as possible so we can catch the sick bastards behind all of this".
Starlight figured that the Seven could stake out a graveyard that hadn't been disturbed.
"I can certainly fly over the graveyards near dawn and see if I spot anyone" offered Invincible.
That seemed to satisfy Mallory, who didn't really want them involved anyway, and she soon made an excuse to leave.
"What do you think this is about?" Annie questioned Nolan.
Despite being a bit star-struck by the man she'd found that she could talk to him.
"Vampires," he answered.
Annie just stood there for a moment.
"Vampires," she said, "You think vampires are real?".
It was hard to accept.
"You saw what came out of the underground and attacked people in the subway" stated Nolan "Don't pretend that they were super-terrorists".
She found it hard to accept that those creatures had ever been human. It was something that had kept her up a night more than once.
"Can we go somewhere and talk about this" requested Annie.
Before long, Starlight was up in the air and getting flown across the city. It was certainly one way to have people see them together.
Penthouse. Manhatten.
After meeting with Grace Mallory, who was not a fan of mine despite the aid I'd given her in the past, I'd come to the penthouse with Starlight who had asked to be able to talk with me.
Currently, she was making a phone call of her own in another room while I video-chatted with Cortana.
"Maybe it's some sort of cult" suggested the AI "Since magic is a real thing in this world, or at least has become real, then there could be some sort of ritual magic going on".
I had considered that and it was impossible to deny the existence of magic in this world since I had my own Spelljammer and a Breton Mage helping me out.
"There were vampires in service to the Keeper," I said "And the drained corpses along with the graveyard all say vampires to me".
Cortana came from a universe that worked on logical rules so it wasn't odd that she didn't jump to that conclusion.
"You do have the tooth of a dragon in the trophy room" said the AI "So why not have vampires?".
Compared to fighting a dragon having to deal with a few vampires should be no big deal.
"I need to know if there was anything special about the graveyards the vampires were using to bury their victims," I said to Cortana "What makes those sites different than any other graveyard".
Cortana soon had some information for me.
"The only thing that makes them different from a dozen other burial grounds is that the ones the vampires visited are cemeteries made available for people with irregular denominations or who aren't part of any religious organisation," she told me.
It took me a few moments to figure out why that would matter. Cortana knew better than to spell it out for me.
"So they didn't go to any graveyards that are part of any church or temple" I reasoned.
I was on the right track, just not there yet.
"They are avoiding holy sites" I stated.
There was a bit more to it than that.
"Some cemeteries are made up of both consecrated and non-consecrated land" the AI told me "And according to some vampire lore I'm looking at a vampire can't rise from a grave if they are given a Christian burial".
I needed to look through that material as well.
"The vampires didn't visit any graveyards devoted to any of the other major faiths either, so it might not just be Christianity they don't like" Cortana informed.
This was useful to know.
"So the vampires aren't just getting rid of the bodies of their victims they are trying to make new vampires" I mused "They might need to plant them in a burial site but they won't go near consecrated grounds because either it does something to mess up the process or at least they think it will".
I gave the matter some more thought.
"Cortana, is there anything in the autopsy reports that seems odd?" I asked.
Of course, she'd gotten copies of them for me.
"Aside from the fact that they were drained of blood and had neck wounds the only oddity is that they had traces of blood in their mouths," said the AI "But it's not human blood according to the tests".
Yeah, that sounded like some effort to make vampires to me.
"What I don't understand is why they are digging mass graves," said Cortana "That's just drawing attention to them. It would be a lot easier to hide a single body".
I had no idea and the only way for me to find out would be to question a vampire.
"If I find out I'll let you know" I promised "For now, I want a list of every burial site that has unconsecrated grounds in and around New York".
That was easily done.
"Do you think Doom has anything to do with this?" questioned Cortana.
I highly doubted it.
"Doom would consider himself above such creatures," I answered.
Cortana was right to ask because my new Dragonborn companion, who along with Crimson Edge had recently sworn formal oaths of service to me, had prophetic dreams and she'd foreseen my moon fortress come under attack by metal men. Which to me suggested that Doom was planning an attack.
I didn't know if the Dragonborn normally had dreams about future events, but given that they got their power from Akatosh, the dragon god of time, it wasn't unreasonable to think that the Breton Mage could get glimpses of possible futures.
"Then I'll keep doing what I can to improve the base's defences while you go be Van Helsing," said Cortana.
There was a pause in the conversation.
"Should we inform the public?" wondered Cortana "The government won't want people to know in case it leads to panic and witch hunts, but the public would believe you if you warned them".
I thought about it and decided not to let people know. Some idiots would try to Buffy or Blade and get themselves killed trying to slay vampires, and most likely end up killing some goth kids, and it wasn't as if I cared about the civilian population.
"Say nothing for now" I ordered "They'll be no need if I can deal with the vampires".
With my enhanced senses. I heard Starlight end her call, so I terminated my own.
"They are going to send a car for me soon," my guest let me know.
I wondered if her masters were pleased that we'd flown off together.
"So you really think that there are vampires out there?" Anne January asked me.
I'd flown us to my place and invited her to chat as she needed to be seen spending time with me to appease her bosses as it turned out, and I wouldn't mind having sex with Starlight as she is cute. I didn't think seducing her would be a simple task. I would have to put some effort into it.
"Yes," I said "It all fits together. Bodies drained of blood have been turning up for a while and there were strange creatures in the underground. I think some of them got out and now they are attacking people".
I decided not to mention that the vamps might be trying to increase their numbers. They didn't seem to be doing a good job of it.
"We shouldn't rule out some superhuman with a taste for blood," said Starlight "Maybe he or she even thinks they are a vampire, and they might have followers. The world is full of crazy people".
That wasn't outside the realms of possibility. Compound V could do strange things to people.
"Why don't you look into that and I'll investigate the possibility of vampires" I presented "If there is a superhuman with a taste for blood then he or she might have worked for Vought at some point".
Annie accepted that suggestion.
"Makes sense," she said.
I decided to change the subject.
"So why do your bosses so badly want you to be seen with me?" I asked.
I assumed it had something to do with publicity. She hadn't yet had time to fully explain it to me.
"Well, you are popular" Annie said "And if I'm going to be taken seriously as captain of the Seven then I need to be seen as someone on your level".
There was no one on my level.
"I was basically ordered to do whatever it took to get you to be seen with me in public" she admitted.
Since I liked Starlight I was willing to help her out and I wouldn't mind getting to fuck her so I figured that I could try to date her. My followers were okay with me having sex with other women as long as they could too.
I knew that Maggie was bisexual so perhaps she'd hook up with the Dragonborn who she got on with very well. I didn't think Miranda had any interest in romance due to her work and the need to take care of her family.
"How tough are you?" I questioned.
It was a rather random inquiry.
"What?" asked Annie.
I smiled in what should be a reassuring way.
"Flying over the Atlantic is easy for me so I was thinking about shopping in London or having dinner in Paris" I explained "But an ordinary human can't fly at the speeds I can without suffering ill effects from g-forces".
Maggie could withstand the speeds I flew at even without her special armour, but she was a tough cookie and had flown with Homelander enough to get used to it.
"Oh," said Annie "Yeah, Vought put me in one of those spinning things they use to train astronauts with I can handle supersonic speeds".
I was pleased to hear this.
"Then I'd like to date you" I told Starlight "Both for your public image and to get to know the real you. So how about we go across the pond and do some shopping".
I so wanted to see what she looked like while naked.
"Yeah we can do that" she agreed "Shopping in London sounds great".
Hopefully, the PVP would remain quiet until the date was over. As for my next trip on the Starchaser that could wait a few more days as there were things going on in this world that needed my attention.
Torn Cape.
Part 23.
Coffee Shop. London.
Again it amazed me how easy it was to pass as a normal person once I took off the hero outfit that identified me as the most powerful hero on the planet.
After putting on some causal clothing and a pair of sunglasses, which were a way for me to stay connected to Cortana, no one saw me as Invincible despite any video of me in action online almost instantly going viral.
It worked for Annie January as well, she had dressed in street clothes and took a little time to tie her hair back, and then suddenly she was a totally different person as far as anyone was concerned. Even if she was still rather attractive.
I was amused because Starlight had tens of millions of Instagram followers, and yet no one recognised her even though she had plenty of followers here in this country.
As someone who read comics as a kid and watched the adventures of superheroes on TV, I'd always found it a bit odd that no one sees the heroes under the masks, but having a secret identity somehow does work even in an age where nearly everyone has a camera/computer/phone in their pocket.
There were no doubt some interesting psychological reasons for this that some doctor of psychology could inform me about should I ever care to go find out.
Since my image was owned by Cerberus Defence Contracts, just as Vought owned the right to use the name of its heroes, that meant no one could use me to sell anything, at least not legally.
Yet that didn't stop people from selling posters of me and t-shirts that had my shield symbol on them. I wasn't sure if I should be flattered or insulted that people were profiting from me without my permission or knowledge.
"We came across an ocean and now we're sitting in a Starbucks," said Annie with a tone of amusement in her voice "We might as well have stayed in New York".
Starlight and I had been moving around London all afternoon, visiting some shops, and she'd commented about how it wasn't that much different than shopping in New York.
London didn't have anywhere near as many Vought products shown as advertisements. This meant that Annie wasn't seeing her own face plastered on a lot of surfaces.
"Both New York and London are very culturally diverse cities with a mostly English-speaking population so it's not surprising you find them similar" I pointed out.
This might have led to an interesting discussion that proved that Annie was a stereotypical blonde, not that I thought she was, only something exploded outside, and then some more explosions happened. They were rather distracting.
"Cortana, what is going on?" I asked.
Even an AI couldn't keep track of everything so it took her a moment to get the information I desired.
"An unknown superterrorist is flying over London and firing energy bolts" she reported "No one knows who she is or why's she doing this. But I just got her file, she'd part of the PVP, her name is Blackfire and she's a Tamaranean".
I knew Blackfire to be the older and normally evil sister of the Teen Titans member called Starfire. While Tamaraneans were not as powerful as Viltrumites or Kryptonians, Blackfire could be a threat.
At the very least she knew I was here and she wasn't at all shy about getting my attention.
"Excuse me," I said to Annie "I better go deal with this".
I raced into the men's toilets and changed while everyone else ran off or tried to get a better view of the action, depending on their level of stupidity.
Lucky for me, I had my hero outfit in the pouch of holding that my Dragonborn companion had been able to provide, so I could easily carry my outfit with me.
Once I'd gone out of the back of the coffee shop I took to the air and quickly I found Blackfire as she wanted me to find her.
I got up here just in time to watch her blast a news helicopter. It didn't explode and I realised that to maintain my reputation I was going to have to try to save the fools inside. I still needed to be seen as the greatest hero in the world by the masses.
With great speed, I flew over the helicopter and caught it before the out-of-control vehicle hit the ground. Fortunately for the occupants, they were well strapped in or the sudden loss of momentum would have resulted in them going flying.
I very quickly put the copter down in a park its recovery could be handled by others.
When I got back up into the sky I could see the alien princess smirking at me.
"I knew that attacking these primitives would draw you out" she gloated "Once I've defeated you they will lose all hope and they will bow to me as their new queen".
Hearing that amused me.
"I'm not the only person who defends this world" I pointed out.
Blackfire kept smirking.
"You're the only one who matters," she stated.
Well, she wasn't wrong about that. Compared to me the others were only just above baseline humans in terms of power, but it sounded like the heroic thing to say, and perhaps with her special armour Maggie could at least stand up to Princess Blackfire. Not that I would let that ever happen.
"After I'm done with you I'll receive my reward and I'll have all the power I need to rule this world".
So she was on a standard supervillain path of power. She wanted to rule the world, to have its riches laid at her feet, and its people enslaved to her whims. Since that would include me and the child growing inside Miranda I would have needed to fight Blackfire even without the PVP.
I'd considered going down that route, but I didn't want humanity to become dependent on me and ruling as an emperor would be a lot of work. I didn't think people like Blackfire ever gave much thought to what ruling would involve.
"You have to defeat me first," I said.
Rather than reply verbally she blasted me with some sort of energy and I actually felt it. I also felt the punch she hit me before the shock of getting blasted wore off.
That hurt too and Blackfire showed no sign of suffering due to taking some of the harm she'd caused getting reflected back at her. Either that or was enjoying the pain.
We traded blows for a time, as she threw energy bolts at me, and hit me with glowing fists. Every time I struck her it seemed to do no damage at all.
I might have to do something drastic like see how well she could handle the vacuum of space or if a bath in some magma would do her some harm. If needs be we could take this fight to another planet.
As we fought in the skies I could hear sirens and people screaming below as the energy blasts that didn't hit me either went flying off into the sky or hit something, such as a building, street or even a person. I hoped Annie was okay.
Blackfire blasted me so hard that I hit a massive office block and before she could follow up on that attack I flew at her as fast as I could to tackle her. She was able to avoid that move despite her being much slower than me.
I used my super speed to land some blows, but she just took them and kept going, as if nothing I did could hurt her. Even when she hurt me and some of the damage should have been reflected she didn't seem at all phased.
While fighting Blackfire and I went through the roof of what I took to be some sort of business involving fashion given all the fancy fabrics scattered about, we both decided not to attack for a moment.
"You can't win for I have the Jewel of Charta" she bragged "It enhances the power of any Tamaranean who wears it.
It wasn't hard to guess what she meant by Jewel of Charta. She'd made no effort to hide or protect the source of her power.
"You villains can always be depended upon to make such outlandish mistakes," I said.
In a blur of speed, I raced forward in a blur and yanked on the jewel, I broke the flimsy chain and now I held the jewel in my hand.
What a foolish girl. Had she kept her mouth shut and this pretty thing hidden under armour she might have been able to beat me since she seemed to be invulnerable. Now she was just another superpowered fool in a world filled with them.
"No, give that back!" she called out.
Her arms weren't long enough to grab it.
"Now your power is mine," I stated
I didn't feel any different while holding it, but my enemy was certainly weakened.
"It only works for a Tamaranean," Blackfire told me as she tried to recover her property "Now give it!".
I didn't think she was lying, and I had other ways to increase my own power and that of my followers, such as making use of enchanted items created by my Breton Mage and developing advanced technology, and I felt sure I'd win more prizes from the ROB. So I didn't need this bauble.
"If you had a future I'd advise you not to go around sharing information that can be used against you," I said to Blackfire as I crushed the jewel "But you don't have a future".
With little effort I threw her across the room, denting the wall, but that didn't do much harm to the alien princess, who tried to blast me, only for me to dodge the attack and do more damage to the building.
I then once again moved using great speed and hit Blackfire so hard she went through the damaged wall. She hit the next building and dropped into an alleyway that was out of sight of the public.
Soon I joined her as the alien princess got back up. Then to my surprise, Blackfire dropped to the ground as if bowing before me.
"Please don't kill me" she begged "I'll do anything you want. I'll be your slave. Please spare me, master!".
I was tempted to simply crush her skull as she couldn't be trusted, but I also knew that Blackfire was someone who was controlled by her desires, including a desire for power, I'd proven that I was the one with the power, so naturally she wanted to cosy up to me.
Perhaps I could use her to provide me with some strong children, or maybe her skull should decorate my trophy room, or I could peel off her amour and put it on display as that might be more tasteful.
I knew that Blackfire was dangerous and she could be cunning, but she was a fool, and I would see her through her attempts to manipulate me very easily.
"What to do?" I asked myself.
Military Facility. Russia.
While Victor Von Doom was not here in person he saw the base via the eyes of the robot he was controlling remotely from the underground rooms of his home far away.
Had he more in the way of resources he would have sent an army to recover the target or perhaps a skilled underling who could be trusted to carry out such errands, but his resources were limited so he had come in person even if he wasn't here in the flesh.
Doom's body was secure in a chamber beneath his home just outside of New York City. His awareness was in Russia thanks to the machine he'd created that allowed him to control what some might call a Doombot from hundreds of miles away.
Even though he had a limited amount of materials to work with the device hadn't been too complex for him to create and the technology of this world was advanced enough for him to work with.
The timing of this operation had to be precise because right now the world's attention was an event taking place in London and this site was a remote one so it would take a large duration of time for anyone to respond to this raid even if the base had officially existed.
Because this Soviet-era base didn't exist the Russians wouldn't be able to kick much of a fuss about the attack even if they were willing to admit that anything had ever happened at this location.
Doom was here for two reasons, the first was to test out his technology, lacking the materials he'd had access to in the past meant that he'd needed to improvise while creating the Doombot and the means of remotely controlling it, as he was not yet ready to show himself to the world.
So far, he was pleased with the technology. The crude assault weapons of the guard were no threat to the Doombot and the robot's inbuilt weapons were more than enough to destroy the troops who were making a pitiful effort to defend the base.
None of them had thought to try to use explosives or to bring heavier weapons, assuming they even had access to such things. The soldiers here had not been prepared for an attack.
Energy blasts left the open hand of the Doombot as he killed a Russian who didn't seem to comprehend that staying here to fight was a very bad idea.
Once he'd killed all those foolish enough to stand against Doom the future Master of Mankind used his avatar to directly connect to the computer systems here. The system here was a closed one so he needed to directly content a computer here.
The information stored on these machines included many recordings and notes about experiments performed on a superhuman known as a Soldier Boy.
Doom desired to have this data and that no one else possess it so once he had taken what he needed the systems were wiped clean. This knowledge now belonged only to him.
Soon the chest of the robot opened and Doom placed a powerful explosive device on the ground. It would be remotely detonated once he had left this place with his prize. Which he was now going to collect.
Soldier Boy, who was a mockery of his world's Captain America, would prove to be to an asset for Doom. Once under the control of Doctor Doom, he might have been useful as a mere enforcer, but the future ruler of the world had grander plans for this man.
Many improvements would need to be made and this sorry excuse for a hero would need to be educated for his new role. This would be simple enough as none could resist the will of Doom.
Doom did not bother waking up the sleeping superhuman, the robot simply took the device that was keeping Soldier Boy sedated and once clear the entire base was wiped off the map or would have been if it had ever appeared on any maps.
Torn Cape.
Part 24.
Base. The Moon.
"So this is what you have been up to," said Elayne of High Rock as she entered my throne room "Now you look like a true Jarl",
This throneroom looked more like something from Star Wars than say ASOIAF. I even had control stations in here that would allow me to monitor the base and go over the information that Cortana kept gathering.
When Blackfire came over to me and handed me a chain the Dragonborn couldn't help looking shocked. Even more so when I attached the chain to the throne.
"Not that any of them had a slave girl they got to chain to their thrones" she added.
I'd refer to her as a concubine rather than a slave as she'd agreed to serve me in exchange for accepting her surrender, shelter and protection.
After that, I decided to build myself a throne room as it was time for me to live more like a king now that I controlled the moon and had an alien princess to make babies with.
So I have indeed been busy over the last couple of days. Even for me, it takes quite some to dig through solid rock and to set things up according to a design, but it was well worth the effort.
Even if the throne room was rather empty for now the window did provide a lovely view of the moon's surface and Earth could be seen in the right-hand corner of the window.
While the throneroom was lacking in decoration, I did have Blackfire's armour on display as a reminder to her that she had submitted to me. I felt sure that given enough time I would have more trophies to display.
The Force sword that I had claimed from that psyker Space Marine did look good up on the wall and I hoped that soon I would have other weapons up there.
Maggie was a little more focused on Blackfire, who to be fair had chained herself to the throne willingly and could get free easily given her great strength.
So her situation was not as debasing as it looked, although the skimpy outfit she was wearing did create the impression that she was a slave even if she'd happily put it on.
"Slavery is illegal and immortal" Crimson Edge pointed out.
Before I could answer the alien princess spoke.
"I'm a concubine, not a slave," said Blackfire "Ignorant Grimplork, no wonder he isn't using you for breeding".
During my breaks from digging, I'd talked with Komand'r and she'd begun to teach me her people's main method of speech.
She might be able to learn a language by kissing someone, but sadly it didn't work the other way around so I had to study her language.
"What did she just call me?" questioned Edge.
There was no direct translation, but the word could be used as an insult against a perceived romantic rival. Given the current situation, I figured that Blackfire was using it in this context.
"I think it means she called you a slut" I said.
Maggie looked ready to throw a punch.
"Don't get mad at me" said Blackfire "You two Glubnorbs have been fucking behind his back".
I wasn't shocked by this news. Both Elayne and Margret were bisexual women who'd been spending a lot of time together. I was their lord, not their boyfriend so it was only natural that they would seek emotional support and companionship elsewhere.
"Crimson Edge and the Dragonborn are my vassals," I explained to Blackfire "That means they outrank you".
I then turned to my two followers.
"Blackfire surrendered her freedom to me instead of fighting to the death" I informed them "She's too powerful to be contained in a prison on Earth, so I decided to accept her service for the next twenty years and then she goes free".
Her race's lifespan could be measured in centuries and she was only just out of childhood, at least by the standards of her race so spending a couple of decades raising a child for me was a good deal.
Aside from that she just wanted some luxuries and attention. If she was more aloof I would think of something akin to a pet cat.
"So like Miranda?" Maggie asked, "Just without any freedom".
That was more or less the case.
"Miranda never tried to kill me and she didn't blow up parts of London," I said "Besides, Miranda doesn't wish to rule over anything other than a business empire".
Without her fancy crystal, Blackfire simply wasn't strong enough to go against me. At least not on her own and she wasn't that smart considering that she came from an advanced species.
She was also a hedonist and egotistical so I figured if I gave her plenty of presents along with some flattery she'd be docile for me.
"So what's this about you two hooking up?" I asked.
I wasn't mad about this. Although if they broke up it could cause some issues.
"You did say that we could have sex with other women," said Maggie "I took Elayne to Earth on the shuttle and we've been spending some time together".
Cortana had used this base's facilities to produce a small shuttle that could move between the Moon and Earth without getting detected by the humans of this world. It made use of ONI stealth tech from what I understood.
"And you are developing feelings for each other," I stated.
It wasn't hard to tell given the quick looks they were giving each other. I assumed that Blackfire could smell them on each other or that she had just picked up on the subtext before I had.
"As long as you remember who is in charge around here I don't mind if you date," I told them "You deserve some happiness".
Both of the young women nodded.
"Maybe you'll join us sometime," said Elayne with a smile.
Blackfire was sitting by my leg and I could well believe that her species had been involved from a feline as she looked as if she'd soon start rubbing against my leg.
"So you're not going to breed them?" she asked.
I would not.
"Crimson Edge and the Dragonborn, to use their hero names, are warriors in my service," I told her "Elayne, the Dragonborn as she is known by her people, is a powerful mage as well as a fighter. Crimson Edge is a warrior, she prefers to use her talents to save people".
With the Rider Armour, she was quite capable of flying to Earth and Cortana aided her mission to fly around while helping people.
"And good service should be rewarded," I said "Princess, bring me the box".
Blackfire picked up the small box that contained the small prize that the ROB had given me for defeating Blackfire, who I would soon impregnate, had I killed her or drawn out the fight, I felt sure I would have gotten something much more powerful.
The magic wand in the box looked like one that could be used by a Harry Potter-style witch or wizard, but it was different.
As soon as I'd picked it up I'd known that even a non-magic user such as myself could cast some spells with it, but in the hands of a true mage it would be much more powerful and it didn't seem to mind who used it.
"It's a magical focus of some kind, and I can feel the spells it can allow me to cast," said the Dragonborn as she inspected the tool "Thank you, my Jarl. I can use this in my work as your court mage".
Cortana displayed her hologram before anything more could be spoken about on that subject.
"Boss, I have some news," she told me.
While she was addressing me everyone paid attention as everything Cortan had to say was worth hearing.
"Is this about the vampires?" I asked.
While they were a concern they weren't my biggest one or a real threat to me. Still, it was best to keep tabs on them.
"According to the police reports, I've gone over" she began by saying "Last night thirty members of a small gang who were using an abandoned store as a base were either killed or abducted".
Taking out an entire gang in one night was not something another gang would be able to do without drawing a lot of attention to themselves and taking their own losses.
"Twenty died, some looked to have died of bloodloss others look as if the life was drained right out of them, and ten are missing" reported Cortana "Judging by the crime scene report the gang fired off a lot of rounds when defending themselves, but there are no bodies of their attackers at the scene despite how quickly the police got there when someone called 911".
So the gang had been attacked by vampires.
"A witness statement says that a man with a red helmet was seen leaving the gang hideout" Cortana let me know "But there are not photos or video footage to confirm any of this".
That witness report had given me a big clue as to what was going on.
"It's Jason Todd," I said, "It fits his MO. He'll be killing anyone he can't recruit so as to expand his influence and resources".
He wasn't part of the PVP any more so he wasn't my concern, but he could cause me problems and destabilise things in New York.
"Law Enforcement agencies are downplaying the event, claiming that it's gang violence" the AI stated.
Blackfire was confused. She knew all about the PVP as she'd been part of it, but Jason had been out of that for a while.
"I'll explain later" I promised.
Before long I would need to meet with Starlight and make sure she didn't get herself killed taking on so many vampires.
"Try to track them down" I ordered "Vampires always nest somewhere and I might need to stake them in their coffins so as to get rid of them".
The Dragonborn stepped forward.
"I've dealt with vampires before, let me help you" she offered.
Perhaps I should let her and Edge deal with the vamps as I might have better things to do.
"I have good news as well" mentioned Cortana "The British Monarch, has declared that she's going to award you a British Empire Medal for your service. Apparently, this award is given to someone who has served a community. In this case, that community was London and you are getting the award for stopping a super terrorist attack".
Nice to be recognized for my efforts even if Blackfire attacking the city had been partly my fault since I had agreed to play the ROBs game.
"It's not one of the best medals you can get from the Queen, but no other superhero has been given this award," said Cortana.
"Not many governments would ever do something like this," said Maggie "They don't like to admit that they needed a superhero to handle a situation for them. At least not when you're dealing with the people high up".
That made sense, they wouldn't want to look as if they couldn't handle any situation that came up.
"It's a result of public demand" Cortana told us "EDI and I didn't need to do anything this time there was a demand by the public".
I gave the matter some thought.
"Miranda must already know about this," I said "I'll let her make the arrangements and accept the medal. No sense in offending the monarchy".
That wasn't all the news.
"When the people of New York found out about the medal the British want to give you they decided to get in on the action" Cortana was now saying "I suspect that the Major of New York will be offering you the Bronze Medallion soon".
Maggie explained what that was.
"It's the highest award conferred upon civilians by New York City," Crimson Edge told us "The medal is presented by the Mayor to those individuals who have demonstrated, 'exceptional citizenship and outstanding achievement'. Homelander has, or rather had one".
Well, I did need to decorate my base. So the more shinies the better.
Base. The Moon.
"Thank you for letting me get on top, Master," Blackfire said as she mounted my naked body "I promise to make it worth your while".
Currently, I was lying on the fancy and very secure bed that I'd built for her.
"I've always felt more comfortable when I'm on top" she let me know "And I want to cum real good when you breed me".
She began by rocking her hips back and forth, rubbing her pussy lips against my cock that she had not yet let inside her.
This allowed me to tell how wet she already was and she took some time to use this as foreplay. Only making me more eager to get my cock inside her for the first time.
I was not a naive fool. I knew that Blackfire would use all the tools at her disposal to try to influence me and secure her own position within what passed for my organisation.
She might be the lowest in rank out of all those in my service at this time, but if she was smart she would have chances to rise up and if I did acquire more concubines I would need someone powerful to help keep them in line.
"No problem," I said as I took told of her hips.
It hadn't been a great surprise to me when she requested that she be allowed to get on top, and I hadn't seen any issue with letting her have her way as long as she didn't push her luck.
Since she was the one who would be impregnated I was willing to cut her some more slack, as this was a special event for her.
"I'm going to put it in now," she declared.
At this point, I was more than ready to get my cock inside of her, and she also seemed eager to start fucking.
The alien princess lifted her hips up off me momentarily so that she could grab my cock. She held it still and faced it straight up as she sank back down.
She was now filling her tight cunt with my dick, and it was a very pleasurable experience for me.
Until she relaxed a little she was almost painfully tight and her cunt was hot, noticeably more so than any human woman I'd been with.
Once she got used to having me inside her pussy it cooled a little and stopped gripping me so tightly. Not that I hadn't been enjoying the feeling.
She began to move, slowly rocking her hips back and forth, she went slow to start with, either because she wanted this to last or to increase her enjoyment. It could even be because she wanted to delay getting pregnant for a little while longer.
Not that it mattered I would soon fill her with his seed and impregnate her as we had agreed. This was the price for my mercy and protection.
The idea of spending the next couple of decades raising a powerful child for me was bound to be something that would make her hesitate or maybe she was really into the idea and desired to enjoy this moment.
If she wanted to take it slow at first and have some fun then that was fine with me as long as she performed her duty.
Besides, her fuckhole was tight and very warm, still more so than a human woman's cunt, it must be a Tamaranean thing.
"Does it feel good for you?" she asked.
She was smirking at me playfully and despite the fact that she was alien I could tell that she already knew the answer given the smile she was sending my way.
From what I knew of her life she had certainly never lacked confidence, at least not what little I saw of her in animated series and she was showing it now.
"You feel great," I answered. "You look great too".
Blackfire had the kind of physical form that should only exist in fiction. Her naked body would make even the most attractive woman in this dimension deeply envious.
She smiled even more, and threw her hair back, as she picked up the pace. She started riding me properly.
Blackfire put her hands on my chest and started to move her body she was soon bouncing up and down steadily.
I was impressed at how quickly she was able to reach this pace, and because she was super strong and tough, at least when compared to a human woman, she was able to slam herself down onto me with some force.
Lucky for both of us I'd learned my lesson when fucking Maggie and I made sure to make the bed as sturdy as possible so that it didn't break.
I needed to breed with some powerful females for my long-term plans and I didn't want to have to stop now due to weak furniture.
"Getting close?" she asked with another smile on her face "No male can last long with me on top".
Her violet eyes were watching me intently as she rode me. She wanted to make me shoot my speed up into her pussy on her terms because this would be the only time she had any power over me. Sadly for her, it wasn't going to be that simple.
"Not yet," I said, "You need to make a real effort".
If not for my superpowers I felt sure that she'd have popped my cork by now.
"We'll see about that," said Blackfire before she gave me a look that was even more sexy, "Please, Master, I need you to impregnate me. Please cum inside me. I need it".
Rather impressively she somehow managed to pick up the place and began moving her hips with even more gusto than before.
As planned I was soon climaxing and because I could control my fertility she would soon be pregnant.