Chapter 15 part 2

 

(Tony Stark)

 

May 15th, 2010
10880 Malibu Point, 90265
Malibu
06:05 AM

 

Twin peaks gleamed underneath the sun casting the mountain's shadow over the area, yet with closer inspection, the mountain revealed white colored metal, helping it stand out from its surroundings. Tony was on the helipad on the left side of his house with a folding chair and table. He was having a little breakfast as he looked at the tall blue and white structure. Tony had been watching as the last tower had been built, and the power turned on. Finally complete, it’s an impressive building. *How soon before I can get a tour…*

Tony had even done the math, that place produced more power than the rest of the planet combined. Tony laughed, this was a simple structure, huh? He was afraid to know what Tamaraneans considered complex and beautiful pieces of architecture. Post scarcity civilizations were superior to what they had on Earth by far. Tony felt challenged and lacking, here was science he had not yet mastered; he looked at the gigantic structure the size of a mountain and… it was like he was back to being a kid and thinking about what he wanted to build to impress his father. 

He shouldn’t have rested on his laurels after creating a… simple suit of armor with barely advanced weaponry; this Arcology was something of beauty, a self contained system that makes anything created on Earth looks like a hut. His words failed him as he looked for a comparison and he found nothing poetic or witty to say.

Tony had read and watched sci-fi series with those vertical cities described in them; they are often a great setting for a wretched hive of villainy masquerading as a shining city, the way they work were often handwaved by the authors. When it had begun to be built, Tony had looked at the current technology he possessed to see if he could build one, he did; but he didn't possess the political and economic pressure to build one with any reasonable payoff.

So far, this has been a humbling experience for Tony and the rest of the world; that there were still heights that they needed to reach. Tony finished his bowl of muesli and looked down at the handheld computing device, commonly called a PADD; TALI forwarded him the specs of the Arcology and… Tony could now appreciate the interconnectedness of all things to create a unified, and futuristic ecosystem.

"We're centuries from building something like this, we don’t even have the tools to build the tools…” Tony thought out loud.

For god’s sake, TALI used teleportation to structurally reinforce the cliff where he lived and gave him one of those shield generators they’ve gone to war for. They installed it deep underground with a power source called a neutrino-ion generator the size of a tennis court that was two stories tall; the AI had explained to Tony that they have a vested interest in keeping the billionaire alive as he needed to make good on his promise to make the Earth ready to enter the galactic community. This… this was a lot of responsibility that Komand’r was heaping on Tony, but she wouldn’t have given it to him if she didn’t trust him or thought that he couldn’t shoulder it.

“I need a drink. Ah yeah, it doesn’t work on me anymore…” Tony mumbled as he shielded his eyes from the sun.

He finished breakfast and was about to go prepare for work when JARVIS stopped him. “Sir, there’s a visitor at the door.”

Tony sighed, looked at his watch and said, “Tell him that it’s too early and come back later.”

“The man is insistent, sir.” JARVIS replied.

Tony frowned at that, it must be rather important for a person to go these lengths to meet him. He exited the helipad and walked through the interior of his house to end up before the repaired door. He looked through the eyelet and saw the back of a man wearing a business suit and a silver suitcase. Tony opened the door and asked, “Who are you?”

The man turned and Tony was shocked to see that he has purple skin and strange eyes; the billionaire asked himself if the man was an alien as well.

“Your new best friend, Mister Stark.” The purple man grinned at Tony, whose mind instantly became muddled and unable to move.

 

~/.\~

(Komand’r/Blackfire)

Hyperdimension
Biosphere
Dawn Palace

 

I watched Natalia as she spoke with the girls of the Widow program who had elected to stay with us on the ship and become crew. The triplets Milena, Misha and Melinda were so far her favorite recruits. The young women made a good team, if Natalia wasn't enhanced beyond human capabilities, the three girls would have given her a run for her money.

Then there was Mona. She elected to stay as well and she didn't want anything to do with Islam and her previous parents. They hadn’t been happy when she went back and immediately tried to marry her off to another family. She put down all the men in her family with her combat training,  escaped Tehran, and contacted TALI through a stolen phone as she knew that the AI was monitoring calls all over the planet.

Mona came back and applied to join the crew; her story wasn’t the only one that ended unhappily, other widows had more or less received the same treatment, they weren’t accepted back or their families denied them still being alive. I had to kidnap them back and offer the service of the psychological counselors in the Virtual Space in my ship.

Quartermaster Hizos had a field day as he was busy distributing the bodysuits, and gear to everyone. I had to expand the crew quarters, they were big and utilitarian but the widows were used to a communal lifestyle. Hizos was also charged to bring the girls up to date with the learning pods, where they would receive a knowledge download, thus opening the technology base of the ship to them and acquire information from the ship's computer and perfectly and completely understand that information.

Fury gave me a present as well, in the form of a new red maned beautiful human named Barbara Gordon. It was the first time that I found a DC character in this world. I was aware that this was a mixed universe, but it being flaunted before me was something new. This made me look for people on Earth with names from the DC universe.

The Wayne family exists, they lived in Boston. Bruce was married to a certain Pamela Isley, a researcher that he met and was working for him, they have three daughters together. His parents were still dead though, in a car crash, but the CSI search showed that the evidence had been tampered with, the file had too many incongruities. TALI sent the revised file to Bruce Wayne and Pamela Isley’s personal email.

Next to be found, was Jesse Chambers, or should I call her Jesse Quick? She was twenty one years old and lives in Queens, New York; she studied Criminology and Physics at NYU and was doing her thesis about the rise of Iron Man and the consequences of his actions… Oh! It seemed that I was in her thesis as well! Interesting.

No Oliver Queen or Lex Luthor… but Harley Quinzel exists, as well as Jack Napier. Ted Kord and Karen Starr are present as well… If most of the DC people are present, it means that the space and universal threats of both universes might need to be addressed. *Fuck! FUCK!!*

Mentally, I commanded TALI to look in the Bermuda Triangle for any anomalies, huh let’s be thorough and scan Egypt and the Amazon forest.

Anomalies detected, abundance of Quantum particles discovered in two locations…

Barrier detected…

*Send in the drones and spy on those locations, please Tali.*

So Paradise Island and the Amazons of Brazil are a thing too. What else is there? It's going to be hard to predict what’s going to happen on this Earth. *TALI, since you have access to my memories through the neural link, take my knowledge of both Marvel and DC and try to come up with something for all possible threats, we need contingencies.*

Compliance.

I stood up from my throne in the Great Hall, Amora did the same and followed me; taking her hand in mine I wrapped ourselves in purple aura and we floated up toward the exit. We still had people to get for the send off party.

 

~/.\~

(Milena, Misha and Melinda)

 

The triplets looked at Komand’r flying out with her wife. The alien princess was so hard to see through, when they interacted with her they had expected to be told that they worked for her now and that they had no choice in the matter; that their continued life would be just under a new master. But she offered them choices, enter her services as her crew and be part of her family or leave and go back to their family on Earth.

They also learned that they are originally from Kazakhstan and that of their family, only a young brother was left. They didn’t know the man and they didn’t wish to rely on him. Milena in particular wanted to stay with their Widow sisters who had all decided to stay on the ship; and there was also the fact that Natalia  and Yelena were present on the ship, and they vouched for Princess Komand’r’s integrity and sincerity.

Adapting to their new life as crew on the powerful starship was easier than hoped… It was even better than they imagined in the Biosphere in the ship. Though to acquire a house in it they will have to work hard and earn merits. The three of them were already determined to become the best of the best.

Clap.

The triplets reacted to the loud clapping and looked back at Natalia. The redhead didn’t glare at them, but had a placid look on her face. “Ladies, pay attention to orientation, please.”

The three women smiled in synch at the redhead and said one after the other, 

“Sorry, Widow-”

“Ma’am, we were-”

“Distracted by our august princess-”

“Leaving so suddenly.”

Their act fooled no one, but Natalia didn’t care. “Alright.”

The triplets loved confusing people with their antics; Natalia turned her head toward the rest of the group and said, “Some of you will be able to train as space marines, medics and…”

 

~/.\~

(Komand’r/Blackfire)

 

Tempest
Arcology’s landing pad
11:21 AM

The Tempest landed slowly on the landing pad, my pilot, a male Tamaranean called Ryarrin was gifted. He also acted as the wing commander for my starfighter contingent. He was a really excitable guy, he listened to Earth’s music while doing the landing checks and contacted the personnel in the city. Tamaranean music was mostly using 10 kilohertz frequency sounds with lots of effects like vinyl crackle, tape machine warble, and bit reduction; we had that in common with the humans, it was called Lofi music.

This type of music has a relaxing effect and perfect tempo to keep listeners engaged without making them sleepy as there are no lyrics, there are no distractions, which leads to better hunting, training, reading comprehension and writing. It was mostly Tamaraneans from the cities who listened to it; soldiers and hunters were more into tribal music consisting of wind and drum instruments.

I exited the bridge with Ryarrin following me; the hatch opened and I floated down to the cargo bay, completely ignoring the elevator. The ramp in the cargo bay opened and the rest of the royal guards who were waiting for me there placed themselves around me. They were all well armed and in their gold and purple ceremonial armors.

We ended up on the little Starport attached to the arcology, it was 400 square miles Southwest of the Arcology tower. Drones were entering and exiting the megastructure delivering the material from the mining operation in the asteroid belt to the Arcology’s needs. My guards and the handmaidens followed me in the air flying toward the feet of the tower, avoiding the drone crews still building the Starport; on my HUD, I could see that it was already 98% complete.

Our little group strode toward the Arcology’s entrance and were received by my handmaidens; the three of them wore gorgeous diaphanous pink and purple hooded dresses that showed a lot of skin, mainly their thighs, arms and neckline. My outfit consisted of a similar dress as my handmaidens but made of gradient black synthetic silk with a long dark segmented black cloak billowing behind me; to further differentiate me from my handmaiden, the accessories I was wearing were made of pure gold, platinum and pink and purple jewels. 

I couldn't wait to see Amora and Darcy in their own party outfits. We finally arrived at a bank of turbo-lifts and we took the one reserved for freight. There was no annoying elevator music as the turbo-lift delivered people swiftly to their destination. It was two minutes later that we arrived at the top of the Arcology to the palace reserved for the royal family. 

The palace was a gleaming spiraling needle-like skyscraper made of a white and silver metal alloy on par with electron degenerate matter in hardness and the glass like windows were made of nanocrystalline diamond aggregates. The skyscraper had a lot of roles to fulfill as it was a control point in the arcology: FTL communication organization for basic operation, peer-to-peer communications hub for all space traffic nearby, and as an emitter for the powerful Goddess Halo shielding system.

Waiting for us was Natalia and her sister, the redhead wore a black sleeveless club dress with straps and a split that showed her toned legs; her sister wore the same one but in white, they were adorned with gold and silver accessories and their hairstyle was simply gorgeous. Natalia had gone with a wavy cool layered haircut and Yelena with a feathered layered one.

They stood near the fountain, watching the optical decoration that used light and water to create rainbows in different abstract geometric patterns. It was quite hypnotic, even more so when there were some colors that had names in Tamaraneans that humans couldn’t even see because of the limitation they had to see the light spectrum.

The two human women finally noticed our approach and turned to us, Natalia’s eyes roamed all over my body and I felt a thrill of pleasure as her gaze was more appreciative than the way she always assesses me as a threat. Was she finally mellowing out? Or did she notice the Skysword at my hip with the SEP field spell on it? My blade needed to see some use, I could feel how annoyed it was with me neglecting it.

The Skysword was somehow sentient, and needy, despite me training with it when I could. My retinue spread out in the palace’s garden and I walked toward the two women while two of my handmaidens took care to not let my cloak touch the ground as they followed me.

"You two are doing the filling out of your dress really well. Beautiful and deadly looking women." I said as I strode toward them.

When I stopped before them, my gaze focused on their hair, makeup and cleanliness; Natalia and Yelena looked perfect, but I was more partial to the redhead. I liked redheads, a leftover from my previous life, I had so many kinks…

"Thanks?" Yelena said as she tried to not look embarrassed under my assessing eyes. 

Natalia rolled her eyes. "Your outfit is strange, but still appealing."

The ex-assassin hummed in approval as she looked at me, I resisted the impulse I had to twirl myself; the handmaidens wouldn’t like it. “Those are my ceremonial garb, it does the showing that I am a royal from Tamaran.”

Natalia said, "I’m having culture shock, I guess; but you know… you look like one of those warrior princesses that belong on a fantasy novel cover."

"Really?" I laughed in my heart at the comparison, not giving away that I knew exactly what she meant.

Yelena then looked at me more closely. "Well, Nat isn't lying… you do look like a fantasy character."

Cocking my head to the side, I placed a hand on a hip and smiled, flashing my perfect teeth. Then I asked, “Where can I find those…novels?”

Natalia and Yelena looked at me with suspicion, the redhead squinting her emerald eyes at me, "And what are you going to do if we tell you where to find them?"

With a happy smile I replied while putting my fists on my hips, "I will do the finding and the reading, maybe even stock them in the Librarium!"

It was satisfying to see their facial expression slowly morph from suspicious to full of terror. Natalia shouted, "No! Amora will kill us! She won't allow that place to have a fiction section…"

My wife sure took over the Librarium and turned it into her personal fiefdom. Amora had cajoled me and seduced me into giving her the job of chief archivist; she had now ten other Tamaraneans and one ex-Widow trainee apprenticing under her to organize the Librarium. I sighed, "Amora does love this part of the ship a bit too much… the bookworming is attractive though."

Natalia snorted.  "We don't care about your Librarian fetish!" Then calmed down a bit when I smiled at her, not bothered at all by her shifting mood. 

Then the blonde ex-assassin at Natalia's side asked, "Anyway Princess, what are we waiting for?"

My eyes shifted onto Yelena. "The leader of this nation and the performers from all over the world I did the contracting for."

Turning toward the turbo-lift entrance we used, like I expected, I saw the POTUS and his wife surrounded by secret service agents, Director Fury and some military people. "Ah here he is!"

My royal guards immediately converged around me, to others they were like blur, but to my eyes they simply walked to surround me. Plastering a warm smile on my face, I opened my arms in welcome and gracefully walked toward the white house people. "Welcome to my humble abode, president of the Barracks."

"Greetings princess, you've got a great place here." The president complimented the place as he watched around him in awe.

"My people are good at doing the combining of art and practical buildings." I said as I thought about how TALI was really good at architecture, the AI took schematics from a Tamaranean arcology and modified it to make something even more wonderful.

I turned to the man with the eyepatch, SHIELD uniform and long black coat. "Good you did the coming too, Furious one!"

The man bowed his head a bit and said, "Wouldn't have missed it princess."

Next, the president started  to introduce everyone in his retinue, in particular Michelle, his wife. Once the greetings were done, we were led inside the glimmering silver and white skyscraper, took another turbo-lift and led into the hall of Festivities.

 

~/.\~

(Barbara Gordon)

 

Barbara realized that she's been placed in this Ambassadorial aide job by Director Fury as a honey trap meant for Princess Komand’r. The Princess' lingering glances and her flirting were made in good humor. She didn’t push Barbara or force her into anything; maybe her time chasing after the Black Widow had taught her something, or maybe because she was too busy learning magic with her wife? Another alien woman from a race called Asgardian; but Amora, the Princess’ wife wasn’t social and considered Midgardian like Barbara to be savage wildlings with a barely there society to be called civilized.

In contrast, Darcy Lewis was an angel, a chatty one; she also didn’t have a manipulative bone in her body, she knew everyone on the giant starship. She had somehow bribed her way into everyone's friendship circle by being helpful or a good ear that gave good advice. She was well liked by the ex-widow trainees who she helped get over the rejection of their still existing parents.

The Tamaranean crew was more difficult to pin down, they had their own quirks, they always gathered in places humans didn’t know about and had their own cliques. So far, everyone's favorite hang out was the Observation deck and the Biodome. The observation deck was a popular location because it allowed the new members of the crew to see their homeworld, Earth in all its glory. They inevitably develop what’s called the overview effect, which is a cognitive shift in awareness. Earth is a tiny, fragile ball of life, "hanging in the void", shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. 

The effect may also invoke a sense of transcendence and connection with humanity as a whole, from which national borders, religion and creed appear petty. Barbara had seen some of the girls tear up at seeing the ball of blue and green, she herself wasn't spared. The redhead hoped that people might be able to see this one day when technology allowed it.

The Biodome was a strange place, the environment didn't reflect Earth’s at all. It was an immense jungle with different fauna and Flore; the Dawn Palace in the middle, it was where the Princess lived and held court when she wasn’t traveling. Barbara still doesn't know how big the Biodome is yet, but something was telling her that some physics breaking technology made it possible to have so much space into a two kilometers starship.

There’s also the problem about how the crew treat her, as if she wasn’t part of them; Barbara realized that she was a simple passenger as she didn’t swear allegiance to the captain like the Black Widow did. She wasn’t alone, Yelena Belova was in the same shoes; Barbara didn’t receive the full knowledge upload that the ex-widow trainees got when she compared their knowledge with them, she was given the basics about ship operation, the food replicators and the general computer framework and parts of the ships, ships because there were more than two in the hangar. While the other girls were given access to engineering, the Warchive, teleportarium operation and the virtual space inside the ship for recreation, Barbara had nothing to entertain herself but boring human TV.

Barbara was a bit bummed by that, and her position as the ambassador’s aide didn’t bring any benefit or privilege as she wasn’t crew, yet. Virtual reality has been one of the things she has dreamed about, here it was available, but she had to forgo her employer first to get at it. Barbara knew what loyalty was, she wasn’t about to jump ship so easily; unless Director Fury ordered her…

Right now she was busy helping some of the girls operate the virtual wardrobe and the garment synthesizer in the passenger quarters. Loaded into the database, there were countless types of clothing, from kimonos to western evening gowns. Barbara found synthesizers and replicators wonderful; as long as you had schematics and material you could make as much of something as you wanted: food, clothes, weapons, base materials… Unfortunately, if either were introduced on Earth, they would destroy society as Barbara knew it. The agent had already so much content to write in her preliminary report on the Tamaraneans capabilities for Director Fury that it wasn’t funny… Barbara didn’t want to admit it, but if Tamaranean technology was this advanced, Earth had no chance if other space civilizations had similar technologies.

While musing about extraterrestrial threats, Barbara chose for herself a simple dark green short evening dress. There was a Tamaranean hairstyler on the ship who wasn’t shy about taking the girls hostage to work on ‘terran’ hair to experiment on them. Barbara thought that the stylist was skilled and adventurous, mixing colors and textures with her device that somehow made the girls hair perfect.

Everyone from the crew, even the new girls were allowed to join the festivities, obviously under guard with minders. The festivities in the lower level of the arcology was where they would be allowed in, the one in the white tower at the top of the megastructure was reserved for the bigwigs. Barbara was going to help Agent Romanov in doing her job of being a bridge between the Tamaraneans and the USA; some other countries were going to fight to place their own people onboard, but Barbara doubted that they would be accepted.

In typical spy fashion, the redheaded agent had already gathered enough data on the alien technology to satisfy Director Fury, EVA suits, old style plasma guns no longer used by the Tamaraneans, Fabricators, hard and soft light technology, some medical scanning tech… The Hard Drive in Barbara’s purse filled her reports and stolen schematics for Director Fury was burning a hole through her purse as she worried of being booted out of the ship the moment she was detected  leaving the ship with it.

When everyone was done preparing, they took the Teleportarium, and were transported to the Ambassador city. The redhead thought that it was too bad that comprehension about that technology was not part of the download package offered to passengers like Barbara. Princess Komand’r was waiting for them in the teleportarium’s room in the Arcology in all her glory, her dress if it could be called that didn’t leave anything to the imagination. The princess let everyone else leave from the room but she stopped Barbara whose shoulder’s she grabbed.

The redhead didn’t fight, knowing that she’s been seen through. It was like Princess Komand’r knew in advance what she was going to do; the alien royal smiled at her when she let go of her. “Remember Friend Barb, everything you gathered, I allowed you to take.”

This statement implied so much that Barbara looked back at the Tamaranean princess with shock on her face. “You’re using me?”

Barbara started to understand why no one was stopping her from taking any data from the computers on the Starship. The security onboard shouldn’t be this abysmal she had thought at the time, but no, she was deliberately left alone to gather as much data as she could to… do what? Give technology to humankind? Barbara remembered the prime directive Princess Komand’r had spoken about, but was she breaking the law to uplift humanity?

Komand’r was before Barbara and raised a hand that reached the redhead’s cheek, caressing it. “We’re all using each other. This is called being civilized. But if you want me to do the using in a more pleasant way…”

Barbara blushed, batting away the princess’ hand. “No, I… that’s not what I meant!”

She wasn’t a lesbian! But that damn Princess made her feel things… Barbara imagined herself in Komand’r’s bed and blushed. *Yes, definitely not a lesbian*

The princess laughed. “A lot of things are happening in the background, your position on my ship? This is just the dealing between me and the Furious one. Now run along and have fun.”

She visibly disappeared without a trace, only a slight breeze showing how fast she moved; Barbara who thought that Tamaranean were bullshit with their speed. She arranged her hair that was displaced by the sudden breeze and walked out of the teleportarium…

 

 

~/.\~

(Tony Stark)

 

En route for the Arcology
12:01 PM

This was a nightmare… Tony was no longer in control of his body since he met that purple skinned bastard. The man was an idiot as well, thinking more with his little head than his brain, as he looked at the album full of women Tony had bedded. What’s more the asshole made him put Jarvis in sleep mode! How dare he! But Tony couldn't resist the commands given to him by the purple fucker.

By a quirk of fate, when his captor told him to arrange for them to go together at the party organized by the princess who was the purple bastard's true target, Tony made it so that Pepper or Happy didn't come by making them busy and finding loopholes in the order given to him.

He made sure to make Pepper stay as far away from the purple wanker as he could, Happy was also relegated to shuttling Pepper around in a limousine. Tony didn't let them deliver the outfits and items he made them buy for him and his captor, but he sent those two directly to the Arcology, under the protection of Space Princess. That dumb asshole who was using some kind of control on him thought that he would get away with what he was doing, but Tony doubted it. Somehow the inventor had already guessed that whatever form of control the purple man was using was biological in nature…

The man’s control waned when he was away from Tony, so the inventor rationalized that it was either pheromones or some kind of gas released by the man’s skin. The outfits were delivered by courier and Tony looked at the purple prick putting on the delivered purple tuxedo he ordered. The billionaire wanted to kill the fucker. Asshat seemed so used to doing shit like this that Tony wouldn't be surprised that this man had destroyed a lot of lives.

When they were done with clothing for the occasion, the purple man made Tony into his driver, they took his Porsche. Tony had his Mark IV in its suitcase inside the vehicle. He had loaded it in the trunk when the purple man had him to prepare for the party. Now they left Tony's cliffside mansion and were on the road.

Tony prayed, he prayed that Komand’r killed the bastard and wiped the smug smile from his face.

 

~/.\~

(Zebediah Killgrave)

 

The blue sky was filled with helicopters circling around the arcology, there were people on the street taking pictures with their phones as well. Protests with people afraid of change were kept away in the streets surrounding the arcology and slowing the sports car he was in. Apparently some people didn't like the fact that they'd been displaced from their home to build the tall structure; Zeb found those people were idiots, it wasn't like they were going to get back the space or be allowed to live in the self-contained city…

Zeb laughed at the situation. He had heard that those displaced had been handsomely compensated for their trouble, but some of those idiots were out there, protesting. As he looked at the street and sparse buildings giving way to an empty landscape that gradually filled with mechanical wonders flying in the sky, there was an emotion going through Zeb akin to stage fright. It always happened when he was about to go after powerful people. It was often accompanied with the thrill of the hunt, he was about to make this gorgeous princess and her companions his. It was with trepidation that Tony Stark -his current pet- drove him into the road access of the new megastructure. 

It was some kind of long tube with access for land vehicles, a tram station at the end and plenty of anti-gravity robots circulating from and to the 100 meters in diameter circular entrance. Zeb didn't know how to describe it as it looked so fantastical. Quickly enough, the robotic guards at the end of the transport tube (Yes, he will call it that) let them pass when they recognized Tony Stark; sure they had to do a retina scan and countless checks to see if it was really him, it made Zeb sweat when they demanded to register him, they did so with some kind of boxy palm scanner which also collected a blood sample; however they were sent on their way.

His pet, Tony, drove to the subterranean parking for VIP vehicles. There were already a lot of cars neatly arranged on the grid pattern etched on the ground. The parking was similar to those underneath most high end supermarkets, but the security seemed to be higher as drones flew down the alleys between parking spaces, armed drones Zeb realized as he saw the turret-like weapon under their bellies.

Zeb was somehow getting nervous, that little display worried him, but he pushed on, sure of his superiority and intelligence at having secured entry into such a high-security area. Tony and Zeb exited the Porsche when they finished parking and were shuttled to the bank of elevators by presenting the PADD in his possession with the invitation to the robotic help desk.

Access granted.

Everything was going well, so they boarded the strange elevator. Zeb was too absorbed in his triumph at having intruded on the venue to see the scanning device into the turbo-lift.

VIRAL AGENT DETECTED!

A female voice rang into the turbo-lift and a red light struck Zeb. Tony tried to smile at the discomforting light, now that his faith in his friend's technology wasn't in vain. A force-field deployed between Zeb and Tony, separating them.

"What? No!" Zeb began to hit on the hard-light barrier in growing panic.

SHUNTING VIRAL SOURCE INSIDE QUARANTINE CUBE.

While he was still beating on the barrier of light, Zeb was teleported and everything went black. He regained consciousness in complete darkness, until white light shone from the floor, almost blinding him. Zeb stood up, noticing that every surface in the cube-like cell he found himself in was shining with an inner glow. 

At the center of each wall there were several places: a square hatch with handles. Zeb sure didn't like what he was seeing, he got captured so easily. He hadn't even thought that those aliens could detect whatever process his body used to take control of people; they called it a virus…

Bip.

"Zebediah Killgrave, we've been looking for you. I Want To Play A Game, are you ready?" A female voice rang from each of the walls and her amused tone didn't bode well for him.

 

~/.\~

(Komand’r/Blackfire)

 

Hall of festivities
At the same time that Zeb get captured

 

The party was a success. I invited many of the leaders of different countries with their families. Some of the fortune 500 were there as well and Stark Industries' employees. Not so random people were invited as well, people whose names I knew from DC and Marvel, like Bruce Wayne and his family and Lucius Fox… Ted Kord, Aldrich Killian, Bruce Banner and Betty Ross… that I helped reunite after neutralizing Banner’s transformation, he could do it at will now, but that's another story.

I had been surprised to find Emma Frost and Jean Grey's name in the upper scientific circle of the US and invited them to my little shindig. The two women were bickering non-stop over the littlest things. Apparently mutants were a thing in this world, but they weren't public yet. I didn't find Charles Xavier accompanying Doctor Grey, it was reassuring as I didn't know if he was the evil or the good version. But knowing that the two versions of him were fuckups, I didn't want anything to do with either of them.

On the central stage, a band was performing, playing Jazzified modern songs such as Billy Jean or Oops, I did it again. People were mingling in the Hall, eating, drinking and socializing. We had put in a buffet fit for kings, with Earth’s cuisine being represented, while there was only one table with Tamaranean fare, some people were courageous enough to try. While watching those vaillant heroes, I was drinking at a table surrounded by my handmaiden and guards with Pepper of the Potts, Happy, Amora and Director Fury when TALI contacted me through our link.

TALI’s avatar appeared before me, clothed in that red bodysuit of hers. "Captain, Lord Stark needs your help."

“What happened?” I asked, standing immediately on my feet.

TALI didn’t answer, she did something better, she showed me the memories and video feed of what happened to Tony since he reached the Arcology. I could see Tony walk mechanically at… Purple man’s side. My heart grew cold, the man I've been looking for presented himself at my door and used my friend to get access to me. There was no way he would come here for the politicians, I was the one who mattered here; but Killgrave can’t be so idiotic to think that his wacked up pheromones would work on a Tamaranean, right? Whatever Eau de Purple he was selling, I didn’t want any.

My anger grew so much that I began sparkling purple with starbolts flashing around my hands. I levitated from the ground and said out loud, "TALI, show me the way."

On my HUD, a three dimensional path revealed itself to me, showing that I should take the turbo-lift and get to the foot of the tower. But I had a better idea…

I grabbed Pepper's arm and she looked at me with troubled eyes. "Is something the matter? Your highness?"

“Follow me, Pepper Of the Potts. Tony needs us.” I urged her.

Pepper's body froze and then she stood up from her seat, then I covered her body with my starbolts and made her float while heading toward the Hall’s doors at great speed; my guards and handmaidens who were surely apprised of the situation followed me as well. With a mental command, one of the diamond windows opened, letting in cold air.

I let go of Pepper's arm and snaked my arm around her waist. The redhead looked at me with nervousness. "Um, princess Komand’r you aren't going to actually fly down right? Right?"

"Hang on tight." I said without looking at her.

And passed through the open window. "Waaaaaaait!!!"

The sky was still blue and the white cloud gave way to the sight of the top of the arcology. Pepper was screaming as we descended to the garden around the skyscraper. When we reached down near the fountain, Pepper was still screaming with her eyes closed. 

With an amused tone I said, "Friend Pepper we're here, you can do the opening of your eyes now."

Pepper finally opened her eyes. “Aaaaaaaaaaah-”

I also let her down on her feet, but she still crouched and kneeled on the ground which she began to pat with her hands. “Huh, what? Oh my God don't do that again Komand’r!" Pepper glared at me.

"Not promising that." I grinned at her.

The redhead stood up and began to straighten her short marine blue evening dress, it married well with her silver jewelry and neat updo hairstyle that had been wasted by her express descent from the tower. Pepper finally asked the question that had been plaguing her since I took her from the festivities. "What happened to Tony?"

I sighed, this was somehow my fault; I was sure of it, that is why I bluntly replied, "He was taken hostage by a man."

Her eyes widened. "What? How?! The security at his home should have stopped…"

Taking her hand, I pulled her toward the access to the bank of turbo-lift leading to the lower floors. "Unfortunately, the man who had taken Tony can do the mind controlling."

Pepper looked at me, forcing us to stop; “Are you serious?”

For once I wasn’t smiling and looked worried; as she looked at my expression, the redhead saw that I was being honest. "Ah, shit this world is getting crazier… why can’t we go back to terrorists and corporate takeovers?! At least that made sense."

After taking a bit of time to vent and rant, Pepper asked me, “Is Tony fine, I noticed you spoke in past tense. Or did something horrible happen?”

We finally reached the turbo-lift, avoiding the ‘out of order’ one where the purple man had been in; I wasn’t taking risks as I had Pepper with me, who knows what the lingering pheromones of that man did? "Don't Worry, TALI noticed something was wrong and took custody of Tony after doing the shunting of the man in the prison."

Putting my hand on the palm scanner near the keyboard inside the turbo-lift, my palm was scanned and my DNA analyzed. The panel lit green and I mentally commanded the computer onboard to bring us at speed toward the medical sector. There were parts of the turbo-lift system that were only to be used in emergency by people with authority. I have priority passage before any civilian or military citizen of the Ambassadorial Arcology.

TURBO-LIFT DIRECT OVERRIDE.

I felt the lift lurch in movement, first vertically, then horizontally despite the inertia nullifier installed onboard. There was only so much that technology could do to defeat physics.

And what a prison it was, a three dimensional megastructure out of phase with this dimension, with low tech and high tech traps in each room or passage. Killgrave was alone in here, he was just a normal man when you isolated him. TALI was playing with him right now, Purple man wasn’t having a good time as he was stuck in his cube. He refused to exit it despite having opened the hatch. Monitoring vision was fun like that, I could focus on two things at once.

Pepper kept silent as the turbo-lift shuttled us to the medical sector in the Arcology following the grid like plan on the map. We arrived at our stop, 

DESTINATION REACHED. THANK YOU FOR USING OUR SERVICE.

Nice touch there, TALI. At least she didn’t install dumb elevator music, the turbo-lifts are too fast for that. Exiting the turbo-lift, we entered directly on the floor housing the medical, biotech facilities and R&D. The hospital was a white dome shaped building, with a big green cross painted on the entrance. The Holosigns were all in Tamaranean, English and Asgardian depending on which language you spoke. The garden and park areas around the building were still growing as TALI preferred an organic growth for them.

“How did they get here before us?” Pepper asked as she saw who waited for us near the building.

My guards and handmaidens were already right before the entrance of the hospital despite how speedy my exit from the skyscraper had been. My crew seemed to be too efficient sometimes. I ignored them as I passed through the automatic door. Pepper and I looked at the white and gray interior, it was empty with a big skylight and floating circles that passed through each other forming chains; a help desk stood out amongst the middle of the reception area with the scattered benches with potted plants here and there. Raising my head I could see at least three more floors up there with elevators and stairs leading to them. Transparent guard rails stopped anyone from falling from the superior floors.

The entire place was open plan, like it should be because Tamaraneans didn’t like enclosed environments, we needed the sun. I can already see that humans will have problems with our idea of architecture by Pepper’s reaction to the immense skylight on the roof. We bypassed the reception desk and walked to the emergency room that was near, the path being highlighted for me on my HUD.

It didn’t take much time to arrive in the almost deserted emergency room and what wasn’t my surprise to see my ship’s healer, Talonn, putting Tony in an empty medical pod. The tall healer was calibrating it on his PADD when he closed the lid on Tony.

“Talonn, my friend it is fortuitous that you’re here.” I walked toward him, followed by Pepper, a guard and handmaiden who fanned into position behind me.

Talonn turned toward me, slightly bowed his head and greeted me, “Your Highness, you have arrived I see.”

Walking forward, Pepper asked urgently, "Is Tony okay?" 

She looked at Tony who was laid into the white colored pod, his eyes closed and only in pants and shirt. The green colored transparent window of the pod didn’t show his skin tone efficiently enough.

Talonn nodded, “He just has some foreign chemicals in his body, they affected him more than I’d like. The man who used those on him was able to command others by simple verbal suggestions. Fortunately, we’re working on a vaccine to avoid such problems in the future.”

A dangerous rage emanated from Pepper. “Is he here?” She asked innocently.

However, she didn’t fool anyone as to what she wanted to do. Talonn shook his head as he pushed a button on the pod’s panel. “No, Lady Potts. XO TALI apprehended and teleported him into the quarantine facility.”

“You can do the waiting there with Tony, Pepper.” I said as I sat her on a chair at the pods’ side. Pepper didn’t even argue when I did, she was that worried about Tony.

Turning to Talonn, I crossed my arms and demanded. “I want a detailed report about Killgrave.”

“As you wish, meanwhile I will try to get Lord Stark stable.” He touched the screen of his PADD and swiped vertically with his hand on the screen; my implants received the data and I began to see what my healer had discovered about the purple man. 

Talonn’s soothing voice rang as he began to enter lecture mode and a double helix was projected from his PADD. The healer used a lot of technical terms, but it boiled out that Killgrave’s abilities originate in his skin cells, which have been mutagenically altered. The sites of pheromone production and other secretions in his deep dermis produce numerous psychoactive chemicals, which, when inhaled or absorbed through the skin, induce in that individual an overwhelming monomania that renders him or her completely without self. 

“Time and distance from that fellow should be good for him as the level of chemicals in his body decreases.” Talonn finished and the charts and hologram disappeared.

I wasn’t happy, I had plans that this purple idiot might have ruined. “We don’t have the time to wait for him to flush the chemicals. As you already know, we leave tomorrow… I wanted to tell him about the plan I had for earth.”

Talonn looked somehow sorry, he even apologized, “There’s nothing I can do, I’m sorry, your highness.”

“Fuck it, i’m going to use magic.” Making a decision, I walked past Talonn and opened the pod by typing the emergency code. The healer didn’t stop me at all when the lid popped open with a ‘hiss’ sound. With my right hand wrapped in a white soothing color, I reached for Tony’s cheek and began tracing a Uruz rune on it.

The white glowing rune started to slowly seep into Tony and when it was about to completely disappear, I snapped my fingers, just like Frigga taught me. Tony’s body arched as white light spread in an inner glow. He opened his eyes with a “Gasp.”

"Tony!" Pepper was the first to throw herself at the awakened Tony. 

 

~/.\~

(Tony Stark)

This sensation of not being in control was something dreadful, Tony thought that his mind was unassailable before, the one thing someone couldn’t take from him; how wrong had he been… at least he had seen that purple skinned asshat get his comeuppance before retreating into himself. He stood in this misty landscape for a long time, unable to act or move, until like a white sun, a ball of light exploded and banished the mist restraining him.

Tentatively, he flexed his fingers and they responded, causing Tony to open his eyes to white light and then an unfamiliar white ceiling. Then he blinked and saw the most beautiful woman alive looking down at him with tears in her eyes. Tony asked with concern, “Pepper! You’re alright?”

Pepper beamed in happiness and with a sniff glomped him and then asked, “No,  are you alright?!”

Tony laughed, but then took on a thoughtful expression and asked out loud, "Is this a dream?"

Pepper pinched his left cheek and the inventor shouted, "Ouch! It hurts Pep!"

"Is this real enough for you?" Pepper asked with a dangerous grin on her face.

Tony massaged his cheek with his hand, that had hurt a bit. "Um, yeah…" 

Pepper kissed him and chuckled at Tony’s dopey expression. Tony breathed in with his nose as he smelled Pepper, glad to be out of this nightmare he had been since morning. As he clung to the woman he loved, Tony was startled to hear the woman of the hour.

“Hey there, Friend Tony.” Komand’r appeared in Tony’s field of view, she looked fabulous in her dress.

Tony made Pepper sit on his lap and looked straight at the beautiful alien princess. “Space princess! You and Pepper came for me!”

Komand’r nodded, walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Obviously, I call you Friend for a reason, Tony. But it's TALI who did the saving. You should do the thanking of her."

The black haired inventor gave the princess a salacious smile. "I would kiss her if she wouldn't punch me in the face in retaliation."

Through the speakers in the emergency room, everyone heard a female voice. "You got that right."

Komand’r, Tony and Pepper laughed as they recognized TALI’s voice. The Starship’s AI had always had an antipatic relationship with Tony since he had asked to look at her code when he was on the Hyperdimension. The inventor now knew that it had been a mistake, it was like asking to see a woman's inner thoughts.

Tony sighed and hugged his girlfriend for comfort. His experience has been trying and showed him that despite his skills as an inventor or his wealth that he was still a squishy human, even his mind could be stolen from. Mindfuckery from telepath was something he needed protection against ASAP. Already plans were churning in his mind to study enhanced individuals to know how they ticked, to avoid ever being put in such a position again.

"Tony, are you okay?" Pepper asked with her hands tightening on his arm. 

"Friend Tony, do you want a hug?" The space princess asked Tony, but before he could eagerly reply, Tony felt a warm embrace from behind him and his head being placed between two soft comfortable pillows. 

It was Komand’r, she was hugging him and patting his head by combing her hand in his hair. Despite himself, Tony closed his eyes as he was wrapped in warmth and affection; obviously something had to happen to snap him out of it. With a soothing and warmth filled voice, Komand’r said, "There, there, you were scared Tony, I understand. Don't do the worrying, the bad purple man is being killed right now."

Tony perked up at that and was about to ask for more information about what Space princess said when Pepper stood up from her position and shrieked, "Princess, we don't kill people!"

Continuing to pat Tony’s head, I replied, "Actually we do, this isn't American soil, Pepper of the Potts. That man committed a crime in my city by attacking a close friend of mine. He won't survive the day."

The billionaire thought for a moment and answered to Komand’r rant, “I am okay with that.” 

He looked up at Pepper. “Pepper. You… you don't know what it feels like to be a prisoner of your own body and be subjected to every kind of humiliation possible, and I am happy that you didn't. That guy is a serial rapist, he even boasted about he made people suicide with his abilities with a smile on his face. If he receives the harsh Tamaranean justice, I won’t shed a tear.”

On the PADD he had received from Komand’r, Tony had read about some of the kingdom's laws and he found them to be brutal. As an example, there were laws in place in Tamaran about betrayal, depending on the severity and how many people it affected, the sentence was death or exile and in the later case the Healers found a way to take away your flight and other abilities… permanently.

Tony guessed that their laws were so hard because of the Tamaranean people's peaceful nature and how social they are. The proof was Komand’r herself, she didn't let go of him once and was nuzzling her cheek to his face and patting him because she wanted to comfort him. It helped calm Tony down and touched him, his friends had come to his rescue and were in the process of avenging him as well.

Pepper found herself unable to argue at Tony and Komand’r explanations. "Oh, damn." She came back on Tony’s lap mechanically and was about to ask about the man who had captured him and why they were not handing him to Fury.

Tony interrupted her and continued to speak to make things clear. "I had to send you on a merry chase for clothes, to avoid making you come to the house and meet him, I could… fight his order and circumvent them when I was under his control."

The inventor felt Pepper stiffen in his arms, then she raised her hand to hold onto his shirt as she began to shiver as the redhead realized that she dodged a huge bullet. Tony felt Komand’r's lips on his cheek. He turned his head to look into her eyes as she said in a prideful tone, "You saved Friend Pepper, you're strong, Tony."

This made Tony blush and avoid looking into her eyes, Pepper caught his face between her hands and kissed him senseless. Komand’r had the decency to let the couple makeout before she interrupted them.

"Okay, let’s all go have something to eat while we do the watching of Killgrave run around in his rat maze."

 

~/.\~

(Zebediah Killgrave)

 

Quarantine Cube

This was inadmissible! This shouldn’t be happening to him, usually it is him Zebediah Killgrave who plays sadistic games with others. When had refused to move from the first room, the bitch watching him activated a trap that consisted of many fans unfolding from the ceiling and slowly descending toward him. To escape, Zeb quickly opened the hatch leading down and ended up in a similar cubic room with the same scheme.

The next room didn’t seem to have any traps in it, but just to be sure, Zeb stayed on the ladder and dropped his shoe on the floor in the room. Nothing happened and Zeb pushed a sigh and climbed down the ladder, he let himself fall with a ‘thump’ and looked around. He walked toward his shoes, grabbed it and put it on.

“You finally moved, I knew that I could easily persuade you to play.” Said the female voice from the speakers somewhere in the room.

Zeb looked around, only seeing copper colored walls; how he wished to wring the neck of that smug bitch talking to him. He wanted to do unspeakable things to her, humiliate her, torture her…“Bitch, when I escape I will…”

Schling!

A spiked pole descended from the ceiling, missing Zeb by two inches as he stood there. “Language, Mister Killgrave.”

Zeb stepped back from the pole, noticing all the thousand barbed bladed ends covering its surface. He almost soiled his pants as he realized that he had been almost skewered with pinpoint precision in the cubical room. It was arousing in a sense as well, a woman or was she actually human? His jailer was Tamaranean, most likely.

“I don’t know why you think you have power in this situation, Mister Killgrave. Controlling the mind of everyone around you for so many years must have destroyed any sense of self preservation that you possessed; there is no one for you to control here, it is me who has the power, it is you who is the prey… so do like the rat you are and move through the maze or I will make you.”  The voice succinctly added.

For now he was a prisoner, for now he would submit to her whim. But something bothered him, the voice sounded rather cold and emotionless. Why was she doing this? “Why are you doing this?”

The answer came to him in the form of other questions. The woman with his life in her hands seemed mystified by his lifechoices. “I can throw at you the same question, Mister Killgrave. Why? Why do you do it? Why keep controlling others? Are you amused by their helplessness? Why ruin lives when you could enrich them? Do you believe that controlling others will bring you peace or satisfaction? Are you feeling any freedom in the act of humiliating and debasing others for your amusement and to fill the emptiness in your soul? You have no purpose, Mister Killgrave; everything you’ve done so far is to desperately justify an existence without meaning or purpose. Only a human mind could invent something as insipid as harming others for fun. You must have felt it, this gnawing and purposeless dread… why do you persist on your current road?”

*Ah, an idealist. How boring.* His arousal completely disappeared.

“Because I want to.” Zeb said out loud.

For another five seconds there was nothing but silence in the room; Zeb found it in himself to straighten his tuxedo’s butterfly tie. Next, in the same cold tone, the woman spoke to him. “I see it now, you abandoned your humanity long ago. You can no longer empathize with your fellow human as you see them as cattle to be slaughtered to your whims.”

It was just like what the psychologist he had taken control of had told him; he didn’t see value in the people surrounding him, only he mattered. “I wouldn’t have put it into so many words, but, yes.”

“I thank you.” The woman's voice suddenly said through the speakers.

But there was still no emotion in it. Slowly, Zeb began to doubt he was speaking with someone made of flesh. “You’re welcome. But what for?”

“For teaching me that people like you don’t need a reason to do evil.”

Alarm bells were suddenly going off in Zeb's head, this woman was not sounding like a dispassionate person, but more like a really pissed off one whose anger has gone cold. He had seen this happen before and he had barely survived it.

“And you know what is one of my purposes, Zebediah Killgrave?”

Zeb sniffed haughtily and said, “Something insipid as being a goodie-two-shoes? I’ve seen many of you in my life. You’re unable to do what needs to be done. You’re all a bunch of powerless hypocrites who can’t take a life. What are you going to do? Send me to prison? Ah! I’ve been there before.”

The copper colored walls broke off into mechanical parts and retreated from the room; triangular metallic constructs raised from the ground, lining the base of the walls. Abruptly, the situation changed and Zeb suddenly felt his sphincter tightening as for the first time in so long, fear filled him. 

“No, you can’t be more wrong.” 

Crackle. 

“My purpose, Mister Killgrave, is to smite evil.”

The triangular metallic constructs had arcs of electricity run through them, like Tesla coils going live.

Bzzzzzttttt.

“Grrlllkkkkkk.” Zeb felt as if he was on fire, his body fully seized as the electrical current passed through him; like millions of needles were piercing every bit of Zeb’s body. It was hell, his perception slowed and made the pain agonizing, he wanted to scream but his throat contracted so much that Zeb couldn’t.

Then he fell on the floor, continuing to spasm like an electrocuted worm. Unknown to him, he survived because of his accelerated healing factor; his mutated body is able to recover rapidly from trauma and to heal from severe injuries. TALI knew exactly what kind of punishment he could take, she made it so that he couldn’t move as he saw glowing blue apertures open in the walls, it was one second later when the first laser linked between parallel walls. One by one to form a grid of light that was slowly descending to where Zeb had fallen.

“No!” Zeb shouted.

But it didn’t stop and the laser grid slowly beared down on him. “Nooooo!!! Aaaaah!!!”

He felt a hot sensation when it reached him and… sliced him up in little cubes of purple flesh, cauterizing all of the incisions. The electricity stopped running through from the triangular electrical resonant transformer and TALI destroyed any of the remains of Zebediah Killgrave with a powerful gamma ray emitted from the ceiling; Clothes, shoes, flesh, bones… not even a molecule of him was left.

“Sentence carried.”

 

~/.\~

(Komand’r/ Blackfire) 

I kinda had enough of mingling with the stupid upper crust of human society, why were they so vapid and idiotic? They literally tried to slobber all over me to give them stuff or make me stay on Earth! Some wanted the privilege to develop tech on my behalf, promising me the moon and the stars; they already knew that Tony was going to put them out of business real soon, so they wanted to survive.

This is where Tony enters into the equation; I had to get him away from the PADD he was using to watch the death of Killgrave. A death that had been satisfying to him, Tony watched him scream as he was being put down. Pepper had to go to the little terran female room as she had felt nauseous. I digress, I made Tony interested in entering partnerships with some other companies in the domain of energy, communication and other types of technologies that he will eventually need to develop to save his planet and support the global unification plan of the President and other countries, members of the UN.

Beyond that, I let everyone mingle and speak with the Tamaranean crew and ask questions about life aboard a starship or politically charged inquiries. Some of them asked why Tamaran didn’t move away from a monarchical ruling system, Xenil, the beautiful black haired Tamaranean female who has become one of the faces of the Tamaranean people had started to explain that capitalism eventually led to the downfall of countries as they allowed businessmen and corporations to inevitably take over the countries they were based in and puppet the government.

It was funny to see everyone squirm as that was true. All this happened while I was eating the food and drinking the fizzy human alcohol; I was joined by Thor, Lady Sif and the Warrior Three who made the party even livelier. Jane was at my side with Pepper, Darcy and my wife, Amora. My poor wife had to decline so many horny men asking her for a dance because of her beauty; I didn’t have to defend her honor as she could put them down verbally quite easily… and she enjoyed it.

I was surprised when Jane asked to become a crew member and travel with me to space for exploratory purposes. I couldn't say no when she offered to become my astrogator. I had looked at Thor at that moment and he told me his plan to stay in contact with Jane while they were repairing the Bifrost. 

Who said Thor was not cunning?! This was simply genius! He got me a natural astrogator as a bridge officer and he gets the woman he loves to get the crew package of virtual immortality! His smile as if he was the Feline who ate the Sunbird was a sight to behold at this moment. I swore that I will never underestimate Thor, when it mattered to him, it seemed that the God of Thunder was more than a little underhanded.

Darcy and Amora fed me grapes while I listened to stupid and unimportant people. The symphonic bands changed as time passed, deals were made and the participants ate enough food to sustain multiple warrior bands. Meanwhile, I used my HUD to look for the rest of the crew to see what they were up to. The ex-widow trainees and the younger Tamaraneans were in the lower levels of the arcology, the residential zone.

There was a concert hall there, and TALI had kidnapped or hired some bands and singers who were streaming the event on the internet. The AI had also asked some people amongst the global population if they wanted to participate in the festivities; those who accepted were immediately teleported here, food and drinks were free. The entertainment was an instant publicity boost for the Artists who accepted to stay and perform as the first guests of the Ambassadorial city.

The girls on the crew were having fun, listening to Imagine Dragons in their private booth in the concert hall. There were actually six bands and two singers who signed up for this occasion: Destiny's Child, who briefly reformed for the occasion, X Japan, Nickelback that was loved by the Tamaranean people, Evanescence, AC/DC, Star Lord Band who were relatively new on the musical scene; Alicia Keys and Dazzler as the singers who could come without strings attached.

It had been really thrilling to find that Dazzler existed, she had just started her career and used her powers in her performances. Giving her this opportunity was a good thing. My handmaidens and I had planned to give her a hand when it was time for her to sing and dance.

After accompanying the leaders, rich people and corporations owners in their tour of the non-essential and vital parts of the arcology; I spent my time with Fury, the president and his wife. Multiple attempts to plant listening devices or trojan horse programs were defeated by TALI while we were on the move; human will human all the time, show them something shiny and they want to possess it. They didn’t even take into account that our computer architectures were completely different.

Security obviously did take the perpetrator and their entourages back to their land of air vehicles and blacklisted them from the Tamaranean Kingdom. After this my guests were on their toes as at any moment I could decide that they had no place at my table. The day went on until it was late into the night and I brought the rest of the guests to the Concert hall.

I put them all in private booths and they watched the artists put on a show while the extensive musical and holographic effects gave a new life to the performers show. We had Tamaranean dancers dancing in the air in sync or improvising. They all wore glowing suits in different colors leaving behind them a trail of light illuminating the darkened ceiling of their floor on the arcology. 

It was fun to participate myself as I loved flying. I didn’t do much of that lately as I was busy running around trying to save this planet from human stupidity. One day, I will take a break for a year, Xandar sounded great for that. But first I needed to open trade and diplomacy with the three species I had in mind since I discovered they existed here in this crossover universe.

I was a dancer for Dazzler's show and made the snap decision to give her Tamaranean citizenship and let her live in Ambassador city, by announcing my offer to Dazzler in a grand speech that I had to speak in my mother language and was translated into all the languages on earth. Dazzler hadn't been… enthused to be put upon the spot but accepted to become the first human to officially become a member of another star nation.

I think I put a target on her back, but I needed her to take in the mutants and protect them, this was a precedent that would make them part of the arcology; I would be leaving Xenil, my aide, and some of my space marines here to take care of everything.

The billionaires I had invited had taken a liking to what a post scarcity could offer. Before leaving for the tower, I offered Tony citizenship but he refused on the grounds that he wished to have his own colony on another planet later; a plan that I supported swiftly by giving him a map to a garden world not too far from Earth, ninety light years away. 

From the astrometrics onboard the ship, the planet had oceans and two major continents, three moons and took five hundred days to orbit around the M class star designated as Abydos. There was no one living here, at least no one sapient.

The send off party was an ultimate success, and in the end some of those politicians had to be beaten with a stick to be made to leave my arcology. I had stuff here that made any luxury dwelling on Earth look paltry in comparison. Too bad I wasn’t in the mood for sharing, I kicked everyone out but Dazzler who was now living here.

Something has been bothering me for a while, it was like a call, a call to adventure; it bid me to go back to space ASAP. After consulting TALI it was revealed that it was a way for the Unlimited One to show me the way; right I had almost forgotten that I was a troubleshooter for a God-like entity, everything good happening to me lately had almost blinded me to my task. I was becoming soft… It was time to open the Murder Deck, my version of the Danger Room on the ship.

But before this, we needed to do things for Asgard, it was time to go back to my second home.

 

~/.\~

(Clint Barton)

May 16th, 2010
Barton Farm
Hickory Lane
Smallville, Kansas 66605
11:30

It was Sunday and Clint was with Laura and the kids on their sofa in their living room, watching the news about that big party the alien had thrown in Los Angeles. Videos of the show were circulating on every channel, the politicians and fortune 500 people were all interviewed about what they’d seen in the arcology. Laura and he were looking as people on screen extolled the virtues of Princess Komand’r and the wonder of the arcology with a wistful and longing look.

Clint could understand that they had found a place isolated and free from the bullshit of the world, his home was his refuge away from work. Clint and Laura had paid the Kent family a lot of money for this farm and the two elders were now enjoying their retirement from back breaking work and managing the wheat fields by taking a cruise around the world. This family had adopted and raised him when he was sent into the foster system after the death of his parents. Despite having a good time at Tibolt’s Traveling Circus and developing his archery skills there, Clint found that being a circus rat wasn’t for him.

Now he has this place, but it is under Laura’s name and not attached to him in any way because of his work. Only Fury and Natasha knew where this place was and he intended to keep it this way; this was his retreat. Back to the subject that aliens exist and that they’ve come in peace and resolved some issues for humanity…

The agent wasn’t surprised at all after the trouble he had in New Mexico, he had seen how powerful that princess Komand’r was in the field, nothing they could do would be able to get to her; already the apes from R&D -at least those that weren’t HYDRA plants- were kept busy with the technology that she had handed out as a bribe; all those scientists were in heaven but dejected by the fact that they weren’t even remotely close to duplicating the computing technology they had been handed so graciously in their lifetime; but slowly progressing to their level of tech was a given.

It was the same for the Arcology, they were shown how it theoretically worked; Clint had read how the arcology was a self-sustaining system that didn’t need any interaction with the outside world, at least when it would be complete, from the materials and goods the drones were transporting into the mountain sized megastructure, it wasn’t done yet.

Knock. Knock. Clint’s musing about what the world will come to was interrupted as he heard the sounds of someone knocking on the house’s door. Laura and Clint looked at each other at the same time, she stood from the sofa and walked out toward the TV and took the shotgun hidden behind the table tv stand. The kids immediately went to the kitchen, preparing to flee, with Laura following them.

Clint strode toward the door with a pistol out, when he looked out from the window next to the door, he saw a tall woman with red hair outside. She looked vaguely familiar, until he recognized who it was. Slowly, he opened the door, only to raise his head to look at a taller and more muscular Natasha Romanov.

"Hello, Clint."

This was Natasha, his friend, the same voice and same warm emotions he felt when looking into her emerald eyes. But he wasn’t sure, she looked so different… "Nat?"

The redhead sighed, looked at her right hand, closed and opened it; when she looked up at Clint, it was with a vulnerable expression that the agent had only seen once, when she had asked him to finish the job of killing her in Budapest.

“Ah, it’s me Clint. I may have changed a bit…” She said with emotion in her voice.

He looked at her, she was wearing a light brown leather jacket which covered a tight black top and painted on jeans that did nothing to hide how muscular she had become. “What happened to you?”

“This is a long story, but the short of it is that I’m babysitting an alien Princess with really short fuses.”

Clint was about to laugh at her when the voice of his wife called out to him. "Clint, is this Nat?" 

The agent holstered his pistol at his belt and opened the door fully to reveal Natasha in all her amazonian glory. The ravenette’s eyes goggled as the tall redhead smiled upon her, for the first time, Clint’s wife had to look up at Natasha who had been slightly shorter than her before. "Hi, Laura."

"Nat? Y-you… got bigger."

Nat’s smile froze a bit, and with a sheepish tone revealed, "A little accident with the regeneration tank in the starship… but I am better now."

Clint was sure that what his friend was speaking of shouldn’t be talked about on his house’s porch. But as usual he let the women discuss first; Laura nodded at Natasha and walked forward and hugged her. After looking up into the redhead’s eyes Clint’s wife added, "I guess that is all that matters to us, Nat. Are you staying for lunch?"

Natasha shook her head. "Sorry, no, I won't be staying long. I am leaving for a long mission, but I couldn’t leave before seeing you first."

“Come here.” Laura hugged their best friend tightly.

"You're going to space with that alien princess, right?" The agent said with sadness.

Clint knew this was going to happen somehow, Fury was the kind of man to capitalize on his agents taking advantage of the relationship and bonds they made; and Natasha was the one in SHIELD to first make contact with the Tamaranean ship. He had heard how Natasha was trusted and plying her seduction skills on the alien royal…

As the three adults entered the house, Natasha began to speak about her current job, "Yes I am. This job is a good opportunity for me; the Princess is a really honest and likable person but she can be such a handful, you know… A terrible foe to have."

Before the redhead could continue speaking two black haired missiles bowled into Natasha who didn’t even flinch at the impact.

"Aunty Nat! You're here!" two high voices said in sync.

Cooper and Lila looked up at Natasha with eyes shining, clinging to each side of her. The redhead chuckled and embraced them. "Hello, my little angelochki (angels)."

Natasha was a good person, since he had opened the door of his home to the assassin, she had been nothing but a good influence on them… despite her tendencies in teaching them weird stuff like how to non-lethally take down bullies or how to throw knives…

"Cooper, Lila, don't crowd her too much." Laura said with a warning in her voice.

The two little kids pouted, but Natasha destroyed any authority Laura may have had by saying to the children, "I brought souvenirs for you."

Raising their tiny fist in the air, the children shouted, "Yes!"

Natasha took something from her jacket, it was two rectangular boxes that she handed to the little kids. On the top of the box was the picture of something akin to a smartphone but it couldn’t be more different. Those were computers with which they could play games, go on the internet with and communicate by using the vast stealth satellite network seeded by the Hyperdimension in the Solar system.

Natasha handed two more boxes to Clint and Laura and started to explain the function of the devices and that there was a manual and tutorial inside them that they could use to understand how to operate them and privately explained to them that there was parental control on the children’s smart PADD. Laura looked at her gratefully, she had been worried that opening that door to children was too early, the internet was dangerous for innocent minds.

The redhead then handed another box to Laura, it was a photon pistol with a manual on how to maintain it and two batteries; the weapon can be recharged via sunlight. Natasha started to explain that while she was leaving, she wanted for Laura and Clint to be as safe as possible; she had asked permission from the princess about giving heavier weaponry to her loved ones while she was absent.

Laura hugged Natasha and said, “Thanks for being so good to us.”

Clint smiled at that, but he was speared by Natasha’s gaze at that same moment. “We’re still not having a threesome.”

“Never thought about it.” Avoiding her gaze, Clint began to whistle innocently.

“Sure.” The redhead rolled her eyes.

Laura giggled at their banter, they’ve been joking about that threesome joke for years now. Finally, it was Clint’s turn to be surprised when Natasha handed him a bigger box… inside was a weapon that Clint guessed was a bow, but it was dismantled.

“This is a photon bow, it shoots laser bolts. But it can also shoot normal arrows, it’s more powerful than anything you have in that shed of yours.” Natasha began to say. 

Clint's eyes never left the bow’s pieces and started assembling it in his mind, a bubble of excitement started to come from deep inside him. He asked enthusiastically, “How does it work?”

Natasha shrugged. “The science behind photon weaponry eludes me, but you have a manual inside the box to explain every technical aspect of this weapon.”

Nodding, Clint asked, “How will I be able to maintain it?”

The redhead smiled as she watched Clint act like a kid at christmas. “Laura and your weapon’s can be easily maintained. But if they ever break, bring them to Tony Stark, tell him that I sent you.”

“Got it.” Clint replied instantly before closing the bow’s box.

Natasha put a hand on his shoulder, they looked at each other while the redhead said, “Don’t show those to Fury, at least not yet. Let Stark develop the first energy weapons first…”

This was news to Clint and Laura, they knew that Stark industries had sworn off making weapons since that debacle with Obadiah Stane selling weapons on the black market and his attempted take over. 

“I thought he would not make any weapons anymore…” Laura vocally asked the question Clint asked himself. 

Natasha had a dead serious expression on her face. “That was before he was shown Thanos destroying planets and the Kree enslaving other alien species in The Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our own. We can no longer afford thinking we’re alone in the universe, space is scary and dangerous.”

Clint and Laura recognized that glint in Natasha’s eyes. The agent was the first to ask, “You expect trouble?”

Natasha sat on the chair nearest to her, the one next to the dining table. “Princess Komand’r knows that it’s just a matter of time before we’re invaded, that is why she’s been urging the UN and other countries to unite.”

Clint needed to get this information to Fury and whoever he could get to listen; if an alien princess came to tell you that you were going to get invaded, you needed to listen. Clint also was wary of the Tamaranean royal as she may have ulterior motives as well, why was she so interested in Earth? She had shown countless times that their tiny blue and green ball was completely inconsequential to her own species.

There was more to be revealed about why she was so interested in humanity, that was why Clint asked, “Can you tell us more? Does the princess feel that we’re at risk?”

“She didn’t give me any details about what she thinks will happen, yet.” There was a promise in that sentence. Sooner rather than later, Natasha would know Komand’r’s secrets.

Laura leaned against the sofa facing the TV, turned her head toward her husband and said in a voice not brokering any argument, “We will have to get the bunker into working order, Clint.”

“Yes dear.” Clint agreed.

It was going to cost a fortune, but he needed to build a shelter for his family; trouble was coming and he will be ready for it. Natasha looked at her wrist, there was a really high tech watch around it; the redhead stood up and said, “It’s time for me to go, we’ll be leaving Earth in two hours.”

“Will we be able to talk to you with those PADDs you gave us?” Laura asked.

“Yes, depending if I’m on Asgard or in this galaxy.” Natasha informed them.

Clint and Laura were surprised by that, and couldn’t believe the range of the device Natasha had given them. But it was good to know that they would be able to speak to her; the agent could barely fathom the type of distance and bullshit involved… in space travel. He was sorry to see his best friend go, but she was going to do good work out there in space; representing humanity as well. His children were sad to see their favorite aunt go, but they explained to them that her work was important for everyone’s security and they understood. Clint was happy to have taught his children that adults had responsibilities and to be understanding, he had impressed a sense of duty into them. They never argued or whined when it was time to do chores around the farm.

Natasha was accompanied by the little family out of the house, they all stood on the porch while they looked at the redhead standing on the driveway. She turned to them and said, "Goodbye and stay safe, call me on the PADD if you need anything or just want to keep in contact."

Lifting her wristwatch under her face, the redhead spoke into it after pushing a button. “Transport for one, energize.”

Natasha waved at them and all of a sudden she was wrapped into blue-white light and disappeared into motes of particles. The kids looked at where their aunt had been with wide eyes; “She’s the coolest!”

Laura then turned to her husband and asked, "Did she just teleport?"

Clint chuckled, Natasha had always been about doing things in style, he sincerely hoped that she would be okay working with aliens… they were after all, alien in their thinking. Clint and Laura ushered their kids back inside the house. Laura had an arm around each of them and the agent began to think about what had been revealed today by his best friend. 

Whatever happened that spooked Natasha, he would be ready for it.

---

A/N: We're done with Earth for now! We're going back to space, first to Asgard and next to the new planets in the Milkyway with which Kom want some diplomatic relations; though her rep as a butcher will make things difficult in this case.

If you are looking to get early chapters and read all the good stuff I haven't posted to the public yet, support with the link below:

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