(Obligatory no ownership disclaimer)
AN: Hey guys.
There was some confusion about the Ultron situation, so I will be explaining it here.
Ultron is following the comics canon, not the MCU. He was already created by Hank Pym, and defeated before the fic started.
I hope that clears the doubts.
In this chapter we meet a certain blonde telepath for the first time, and recruit her to our group.
Hope you guys enjoy this one.
Chapter 5
"Tell me again why are we here?" Angela asked as we walked through the streets of Boston.
"To recruit someone." I responded.
Emma Frost just celebrated her eighteen birthday last week, and just yesterday the news was out that she had ran away from home. I was hoping to find her soon, and I spent quite a bit of money on information about Boston, the guy I contacted was a little surprised that I wanted to find out the most common spots that homeless persons visited, but he was professional enough to give me the information I wanted without asking questions.
The excuse I had for being in Boston was to check on an investment I made in a robotics startup, the money for it coming from my most recent paycheck, which was just shy of $1.5 million. I was hoping to find Emma on the streets, because looking for a probably scared telepath on the homeless shelter she goes to sleep with a government agent following me definitely wasn't a good thing.
I recognized Clint Barton following me, he wasn't even trying to stay hidden, which was actually a good strategy when you think about it. It was the first time he was following me, and if he was trying to stay hidden I would be spooked, but since he is blatantly following me a normal person wouldn't even think he was following them, he would be just another guy going the same direction as I am going. Unfortunately for him, I know exactly who he is, and who he works for.
I am being followed for a little over a week now, it started just after my meeting with the Fantastic Four. I didn't take off my mask in the Baxter Building, I knew that the FF must have some people spying on them, and there were enough windows that someone could take a picture of me from a rooftop across the street. But I trusted Reed Richards a little too much, thinking he would realize if his building was bugged, so I said my name, and now I have S.H.I.E.L.D on my ass. Or maybe Richards did know that his place was bugged and he just didn't care enough to remove it, keep your enemies close and all that. It shouldn't be a problem for him, but it became a problem for me.
I realized I was being followed just a couple of days after that, when I went clubbing with Jessica and saw Natasha freaking Romanoff looking at me from across the dance floor. She didn't approach me that day, but when I came back alone two days later she was all over me, probably trying to seduce all the information she needed out of me. And I gotta say, even knowing exactly what she wanted, it was still difficult not to give it to her, she is that good at what she does, not to mention the fact that she is super hot, I'm talking melting your brain and making you want to hump her leg kind of hot. I don't understand what it is with marvel and hot redheads, I haven't seen a single one that wasn't crazy hot, MJ, Natasha, Jean and her clone Madelyne, hell, even some random woman I saw near the place where Stark Tower is being built.
I'm a little scared that I'm now known by S.H.I.E.L.D, they probably already have all the information that there is to know about me, and I don't even know what they want with me. Maybe they are just keeping an eye on all super powered people, or the more terrifying option, they saw the videos of my fight with Tombstone and realized that I have similar powers to Captain America, and now they want to lock me up somewhere and run experiments on me. And that's just actual S.H.I.E.L.D not HYDRA, those Nazis would probably do even worse things to me if they could get their hands on me, and now they probably know everything about me due to Nick Fury being a paranoid old one-eyed bastard and still being incompetent enough to not realize that his agency in infiltrated on every level.
I took a deep breath and looked at my left hand that was being held by Angela.
Mercy was fitting in quite nicely in this world. I realized how powerful the ROB truly is when I got home from the Baxter Building and looked on the internet. The entire history of this world was changed to add her, and Overwatch into it, it is like she has always existed in this world. Overwatch is listed as a group of heroes that helped Hank Pym and his wife fight against Ultron, and then quickly disbanded. Angela has all the relevant information about her entire life on this world, from her school records to her baby pictures, I even found a photo of her with Xavier on a medical conference in Bern. The rest of Overwatch is marked as missing people, never seen after the Ultron fight, and when I asked the ROB he said that if I buy any more companions from Overwatch, he will just insert them into the world using that back story, only the younger members of the game would need a different touch, and he made an example of how, if I buy D-Va as a companion, he will insert her into the world as a Korean girl that got inspired by Tony Stark and decided to build her own suit.
On a more personal note. Angela knows exactly what I want from her, she knows that I will try to seduce her, and she seems willing to entertain me, she even seems to be willing to pretend to be my girlfriend, as our interlocked hands shown. It seems a little weird for me, I know she has to obey any commands that I give her, even sexual ones, the game is quite clear on it, but I would feel bad doing it, even if she is technically my slave, as the system is a literal slave collar, I still want to seduce her the old fashioned way, I want her to want me. The day after she arrived in this world we sat down and talked about it, and I told her that I will keep trying to seduce her, but she will have to be the one to make the first move, so I know it is what she wants, instead of her just doing it because the game made her. The ROB actually seemed a little impressed, according to him most of the others he gave a system to, end up treating their companions as slaves, 'this is a game and I'm a player, so everyone else is an NPC' is apparently the most common excuse that he sees.
Angela being around also caused a few other things to change for my personal life. Having a hot blonde woman living in the apartment below mine, which she knows belongs to me, made Jessica finally talk to me about our relationship. She didn't even want to hear me explain that I wasn't sleeping with Angela, she just said that she is ok with it, as long as I make time for her. At the time I thought that it was a little weird, it seemed out of character for her, both the Jessica I knew, and the one I remember from the comics. But the ROB explained to me that it was a base function of the system, that any woman I'm in a relationship with won't mind me having others. I'm really starting to like the ROB; sure, the bastard killed me, and he admitted that he gave me a shitty system, but my system is still somewhat powerful, and it allows me to have a multiversal harem without drama.
I was already looking for my next purchase from the game store, I could get another companion, but It wasn't needed at the moment, what I needed was more power for myself. I would need to start fighting more villains soon, or finding other ways to earn credits, there are only a limited number of thugs that I can beat up after all. I can't make much of a difference alone, no matter how much I patrol my area of the city, but with Angela healing me, and hopefully Emma using her telepathy to tell me exactly were criminal activity is happening, my efficiency will shoot up in the near future, enough that I could make a difference on my own, so I was thinking of buying some kind of ranged power for myself, it would be a lot of help.
At the moment I was looking at something like a simple energy blast, it only costs 50 credits and it gives access to a bolt of energy that explodes on contact, I could also buy chakra and training up to genin level from Naruto, it costs 100 credits and it would improve my fighting potential by a lot. I wasn't even considering things above the 100 Credits range yet, sure there are some powers that made me almost drool, Kryptonian physiology is listed as a legendary power and costs 500 credits, or saiyan physiology, which had two different versions, one without god ki unlocked, which costs 250 credits, and one with god ki unlocked, which costs 500 credits. But I don't have the credits to buy powers on that level yet.
What I really needed was some power that stopped telepaths from looking into my mind, but I couldn't find any on the store. When I asked the ROB he said that it was another thing that was in the basic package of any gamer system, or else a telepath could discover the game, I was really happy that I didn't need to spend credits on something that important.
I look around the street as Angela and I turn around a corner and find my target. She is just hanging around a restaurant, wearing clearly expensive clothes that have seem some heavy use recently, long blonde hair, blue eyes, long legs and breasts on the smaller side, probably B cups. She is comic book pretty, that kind of beauty that seems almost impossible in the real world.
I make my way towards the restaurant, Angela still holding my hand, we look the perfect image of a rich couple out for a nice walk. As we seat down on a outside table and a young waitress approach us to take our order I look around to see what our tail is doing. Hawkeye is seating on a bench near the entrance of the park on the other side of the street, he looks perfectly normal as he pulls out a book and pretends to read, if I didn't know who he is I wouldn't even realize that he is following me.
I look at the other tables of the restaurant, but apart from the one Emma is occupying they seem mostly empty, at least compared to the tables on the inside of the building, I couldn't see a single empty one there, guess people don't really want to enjoy an open air lunch these days. As I shake my head and stop looking inside the building, I lock eyes with Emma and see her own eyes widen and she starts looking towards me with a more intense focus. I then realize why the outside is so empty, she is probably using her powers to make everyone go inside and leave her alone, and she probably realized that both myself and Angela have immunity towards her powers.
"Welcome to our restaurant, I'm Kelly and I will be your waitress today, may I take your order?" The waitress asks us as she stands near our table.
"Hello, Kelly. I will have the lasagna and the 2000 Taurasi." Angela said after she looked at the menu or a few seconds.
"I will have the same." I said, not even looking at the menu. Angela's choice seemed good enough, and I am more interested in another blonde at the moment. "I would also like to pay for another drink for the young woman across from us." I added, making the waitress look at me weirdly for a few seconds before she just shrugged her shoulders and went back inside.
The waitress returns after a couple of minutes with our wine, she didn't even ask for my ID, before selling me wine, but to be fair, I look a little older than my twenty years.
"Would you like me to send a message with that drink, sir?" The waitress asked, and I guess that Emma must be fucking with her mind because she has a white wine with her, and Emma definitely doesn't look older than her eighteen years of age.
I quickly pull out a note and pass it to the waitress. The note is quite simple, it only says that I'm no friend of her father, and that I have a business opportunity for her, if she is willing to hear it. I hoping that she is similar enough to comic books Emma, if she is, the message would be non-threatening enough to not spook her, but also enough to raise her curiosity. Someone as ambitious as her, would always want to know more about my offer, especially since I mentioned her father in the note, she will want to know if I have a way for her to take Frost International away from her father. I might be barely out of my teens, both in my new life and my previous one, but I still know how to deal with a teenage girl with daddy issues, and that's exactly what an eighteen years old Emma Frost is, she is not the White Queen yet.
"So, the girl is your target." Angela finally says, less of a question and more of a statement.
"Yes. Emma Frost, one of the most powerful telepaths on this world. I'm hoping she is willing to help us." I responded, and I also see Emma receive the note from the waitress and start to read it.
"I see." Angela said, her tone perfectly calm, not showing if she approves or not. "Thank you for ordering the same food as me." She adds, making me blink my eyes.
"Why are you thanking me for that?" I ask, my honest, confused tone drawing a small laugh from her.
"It is something that reminds me of home." She responded, and I start to understand. "Every Friday I was joined by Reinhardt and Torbjörn, we would always order the same food and drinks, and then spend the rest of the day talking and sharing stories. It reminds me of better times, before Overwatch disbanded." She adds, and I honestly feel bad for her. I know she is just a doppelganger, a perfect copy created from the real Angela Ziegler, that's how the system gets its companions. But even if she is just a clone, for her everything is real, she has all the real memories of the real Mercy, in fact, up until the point I spent those 100 credits and she appeared in this world, she was the real Mercy.
"Do you want me to spend some credits to bring some of your friends here?" I ask honestly, I don't think there are many benefits to it, but I would do it for her. I don't know her for very long, but she seems like a nice person, and I don't want her to feel like she has abandoned her friends.
"Maybe once you have the credits to spare. I know it doesn't benefits you or your plans." She says, giving me a large smile. "I know I'm just a doppelganger, I'm not the real Angela Ziegler, but it all seems real to me, my memories are real to me. So, thank you." She adds and I can actually see her eyes glistening with unshed tears, and that is why I will never treat any of my companions as robots or slaves, the person in front of me is real, even if she only technically started existing once I pressed that buy button.
"I promise that I will bring a few of your friends to this world. Maybe we could start with Ana or Mei." I suggested, making her giggle.
"Looking for more women to add to your harem?" She asks in a suggestive tone.
"How can you make such insinuations about an upstanding individual such as myself. I only suggested them because of their skills, nothing more." I say in a fake hurt tone, making her giggle again.
"I'm sure you did." Angela responds in a teasing tone.
We continue to banter for a few more minutes before our food arrives. We eat our food in quiet, the conversation dying due to how good the lasagna is. It is seriously good, some of the best lasagna I ever ate. I should probably find how who cooks in this restaurant so I can hire them to be the private chef once a build my new permanent base. As we finish our food I look over Angela's shoulder and see my target for the day finally approaching us.
"I'm afraid I don't know your name." Emma says, as she pulls a chair and seats down at our table.
"Isaiah Jones, Miss Frost. And my lovely date is Doctor Angela Ziegler." I responded, and I can see she recognized at least one of our names.
"Doctor Ziegler, it is an honor to meet you. Frost Medical has been trying to recruit you for a few years, you always refused our offers." Emma says, looking Angela in the eyes, her ice queen persona fully engaged now.
"I just don't trust my medical research in the hands of a company run by your father, Miss Frost. I'm sure you understand." Angela responded, and I internally congratulate her. She immediately realized what kind of girl Emma is, and she understood the game we are playing here.
Emma just nods her head towards Angela, and then turns to look at me. "And you, Mister Jones. A quite successful financial advisor and stockbroker, with a few recent personal investments in Stark Industries." She says, and I'm honestly impressed, I didn't know she knew about me.
"You seem well informed, Miss Frost." I responded, giving nothing away.
"What I would like to be informed, is about how you know about my power, and how you can resist it?" Emma asks, and I can't hide my surprise. "I don't need my power to know when someone realizes I'm in their mind, or when I'm not in their mind. I can read body language well enough, and you showed you knew about me when you saw my surprise at my power not working." She explains, and across from me, Angela smirks a little.
"She's good." The older blonde says.
"I would be quite happy to explain everything to you, Miss Frost, both how I know about your powers and the offer I have for you. Just not here, in such a public setting." I say, and Emma nods her head.
"You're worried about the government spy that is following you, the one that is in the park across the street." Emma says, and I realize how she knew me, she probably took the information from Hawkeye's mind.
"Correct. We would be more than happy to talk in our hotel." I responded.
"You know your hotel room is already bugged, right?" Emma says, raising an eyebrow.
"I know. That's why we have another room, in a different hotel, under a different name." I responded, making her lips curl upward in a little smirk.
"Lead the way then." Emma says, and I'm surprised that she agreed that easily. My surprised must have shown on my face because she says. "You wouldn't risk doing anything to me, not after being seen in public with me, and having a government spy following you."
I call for the waitress, pay for our food and drinks and then leave the restaurant with a blonde on each arm. And as I walk way, I slowly go over that conversation again, realizing that Emma Frost's mind is still dangerous even without her telepathy.
"So, how exactly do you know about my power, and what is your offer to me?" Emma asks once we are seated.
We reached my other hotel room easily enough, and I'm sure there aren't any surveillance equipment here, like there are on the other hotel. I can almost see Hawkeye standing on a rooftop on the other side of the street, trying to look through the window, he is hidden well enough that a person wouldn't see him at a passing glance, but I know he is following me, so I'm actively looking for him, it makes it easier to find him.
"Would you believe if I told you I'm from a different dimension, and this world is a fictional one in my home world?" I say, and Emma gives me a flat stare. It is always fun telling the truth when the truth is so fantastic that no one would ever believe it. I will keep doing it to anyone I meet, the annoyed look that Emma is giving me is pretty fun to see. And how knows, maybe one day someone will actually believe me.
"I will take my leave if you're not going to be serious." Emma said, and I see the smirk on Angela's face, it seems she is having as much fun as I am.
"Let's just say that electronic methods of surveillance are getting pretty advanced these days." I say, giving the excuse that I had planned, and it seems she believed me.
"You bugged our house." Emma says, raising an eyebrow. "Impressive." She adds, and she actually sounds impressed, if only she knew that the first answer is the truth.
"I wasn't the one who did it, but I did have access to the recordings. Your father has annoyed several of my clients, and as you know, once we start talking about money in the billions, people are more than willing to ignore some laws." I say, selling the lie a little bit more.
"And so, your clients not only had business information about Frost International, but also personal information about my family. Most of them wouldn't care about the personal information, but you saw an opportunity, and now you're using it. The question is why? What do you want from me?" Emma asks, her ice queen mask never leaving her face, even if her questions make her seem a little nervous.
"You have immense potential, Miss Frost. Your sister, Adrienne, is powerful, but we both know that she isn't exactly a team player." I say, and Emma's mask fades as she visibly winces. What little I remember from the comics, is that her sister is a grade A bitch. I then get up from my chair and walk towards my travel bag, grabbing a bar of steel that I had for this exact reason I walk back towards were the two blondes are watching me, and seat back down.
"I will give you an interesting piece of information." I say before I start bending the bar of steel right in front of her. It is somewhat difficult to do, the serum makes me far stronger than a normal, but bending steel is still a difficult. And I once again have to give Emma some points, she is just watching me with a blank expression, not a hint of fear on her face.
"As you can imagine, with powers like mine, I have decided to perform, shall we say… extralegal protection. Your power could help us a lot in finding appropriate targets." I say.
"That's your offer, vigilante work. And then what? We will be celebrated as heroes by the people, instead of just tossed into some unknown prison by that lovely S.H.I.E.L.D agency that is following you." Emma says in a mocking tone, but I can see that she is interested. She might pull of well the ice queen persona, but deep down she is a good person, especially at this age, before all the things that she suffered under Shaw in canon.
"Not at all." I say chuckling a little, this whole conversation is quite fun. "I told you it was a business offer. How does a hundred thousand dollars a month, as well as a letter of recommendation to the Empire State University sounds?" I offer. It is a lot of money, but I can afford it, especially with Emma helping me find the right places to hit, I could make a lot more money that way.
"Do you really have that much pull with ESU? They are notoriously picky." Emma asks, but what goes unsaid is the important part. She clearly accepted already, and she isn't going to negotiate on the money front, or else she would have said something.
"A letter of recommendation signed by Angela alone could probably get you in." I say, and Angela nods her head in agreement. "But if that isn't enough, I'm sure someone we recently met, and traded numbers with, would be willing to add his name to the letter after getting to know you a little. And if Angela alone could get you in, adding Reed Richards is sure to get you a place." I add, and Emma's mask falls once again as her eyes widen.
"That is quite an interesting offer, but I would like to negotiate a few points." Emma says, making me chuckle a little.
"You wouldn't be a Frost if you didn't." I say, making Emma smirk.
"My first demand, and it is a demand. If it isn't met, there will be no deal." Emma starts, making me raise an eyebrow in surprise. "Is to have Doctor Ziegler help my brother. He has had some issues with substance abuse since the start of the year, and I want to help him with that, as well as a few therapy sessions, to make sure the problem doesn't return." Emma adds, and I understand why it is a demand. It is a pretty important part of her back story that the only person she likes in her family is Christian. Her brother even attempted suicide once, all because Adrienne wanted to play her little games.
"I would be more than happy to help him." Angela says, giving Emma a soft smile. "My nanobiotics will easily clear his body of any toxins, but he will still feel the withdrawal. And while I can't help his mind, I do know Professor Xavier, one of the world's foremost minds in the field of psychology." She adds, making me blink in surprise. So that photo I found is not just for show, she actually somehow knows Xavier. I feel like the ROB is just flexing his power at this point.
"It is good that you are now recognizing how powerful I am."
"Are you always watching me?"
"No, but my girls and I were a little bored, and my other gamers aren't doing anything fun, so we tuned in on your channel. It still isn't fun, but at few of the girls think it's cute getting to watch your first meeting with one of your main girls."
"What do you mean one of my main girls?"
"Don't even try to lie, we can see your mind, we know how much you want her."
"And that's why I call you a bastard, stop reading my mind."
I can almost feel him leaving my mind, and somehow I know the bastard is laughing at me. I look around and realize that both Emma and Angela are looking at me, waiting for me to say something.
"I'm sorry, I was a little distracted. Can you repeat the question?" I ask, and Angela actually rolls her eyes.
"There was no question. We just want to know if you agree with these terms." Emma says, and I realize that they were still talking about the thing with Christian.
"Angela is more than capable to negotiate for the two of us, we are equal partners in this, as you will be, if you accept our offer. I have no problem with anything she agrees to." I say, making Angela give me a bright smile, and Emma raise her eyebrow again.
"Interesting. And what exactly would be my job?" Emma asks.
"Helping us find targets. I imagine you could use your power to find places were drugs, guns and other illicit materials are stored. You find us a target, I hit said target, and Angela heals me of any injuries." I say, explaining exactly where she fits in our group.
"Yes, that is something I could do quite easily. But even here in Boston, I have heard of a man called the Kingpin, how can you protect me from him?" Emma asks, showing how informed she is, even if she is probably lying about the Kingpin in Boston, she probably know about him from looking into Hawkeye's mind.
"Yes, the Kingpin, or Wilson Fisk, as he is known in his civilian identity, currently controls almost all criminal activity in New York. But we aren't the only ones bringing the fight to him. There are many others all over the city hitting his operation hard, he has his hands full and can't focus his efforts in a single group." I say, and I can see a little surprise in Emma's face when I say the civilian identity of the Kingpin.
"Besides, you wouldn't be publicly connected to us in any way. Just driving around the city would be more than enough for you to gather information." I add, and her eyes narrow.
"Those bugs are in my family home for a long time, right?" She asks. "You are a little too well informed about my powers." She adds after a moment.
"That is one way to see it. Or maybe I am from a different universe and know about you from movies or comic books." I say with a smirk, and she actually laughs a little.
"I'm sure you are." She says after getting her laugh into control. "Not that it really matters anyway, I accept your terms... partner." She adds, extending her hand, and instead of shaking it, I kiss her hand.
"Welcome to the team, partner." I say, and see that she is blushing a little.
"And now that you are a part of the team, he is going to try and seduce you." Angela says giggling.
"I will be happy to see him fail." Emma responds, making us all laugh.
We spend another hour sorting out some details, and then we leave the hotel. Emma goes to solve some of her own issues, while Angela and I go back to our first hotel, call our rented private jet, and prepare to return to New York on the morning, this time with an additional passenger.
AN 2: Emma Frost has joined the team, and now things are about to get sirious.
Next chapter we will have another important meeting, as well as a bit of smut.
Chapters 6, 7 and 8 are already out on the pat re on. If you guys think my work is good enough to support and want to read ahead you can find me at pat re on .com (slash) TheUnseenScribe
I will see you guys in the next one.
