Chapter 72

The Fastest Man Alive

By: BigToFu

Beta: morde24

Emperor Blake

Father, Husband, Emperor

With my hand out at my sides as if I was a grand showman, I accepted the love and accolades of my people as they showered me with their faith and adulations. My Queens gathered around and I gave each one a hug and a kiss before heading back to the BBQ alongside them. All around us, flyers and those with aquatic powers were already out exploring our new planet. 

I watched as a few of the folks from both Atlantis and Vodan jumped into the river that led out into the rest of the planet. That was interesting to me because they didn’t usually mingle all that much, but now they would with a planet like this. Was I an asshole for placing this here? Maybe. Yet, the bridge would also work as an lynchpin piece to remove in case of an invasion, even as unlikely as that might be. I could have gone with the bunker-type setup that I had back home and in my other cities, but that was a double edge sword. 

 

On one hand, the bunkers would be a choke point to keep the bad guys in, but it would also work the other way around. Then again, I did have the bunkers laced with explosives and wall emplacements. Contingencies were great and all, but I was trying to be paranoid without looking paranoid and I didn’t want my actual planet to have such ugly structures. 

With my arm around Raven and Ororo’s waist, I flashed us through the portal and back to the party. Arriving back to the festivities with Fury and his trusted team. 

 

I noticed that Coulson looked around before double-tapping the top button on his obviously Agent suit. I had to blink as his suit rippled before changing into a Hawaiian shirt, his shoes changing into socks and sandals.

Ohh by the grace of Stan Lee, who in the hell thought that it was okay to program that into his UMF? Fury's uniform quickly changed to copy Coulson’sand I had the instinctive urge to go let it be known that they were not with me. 

That urge got larger as my mother appeared out of nowhere and gave Fury a big hug, then proceeded to give one to Coulson and the rest. Barton, I noticed, came without his family, and that was probably only because this was sorta work for him.

Melinda May was still in her agent clothes but I noticed that she had made her way to the side of the ring. Up in the ring, Maya was in it with El Macho yelling his version of how youth shall prevail over all. 

 

Sigh, I was really gonna have to do something about him, but the girls liked him, and I would be a poor father if I got rid of the super sitter. He didn’t know it yet, but he was just drafted.

Shaking my head at what I was seeing in the ring, I acted as if I never saw my mom calling me over to say hi to Fury. Ignoring Peter giving Laura a kiss, I pushed him to the side as I took my BBQ apron from around his waist before giving it one badass ‘fwap’ to the side.

Before Peter could say anything, I reclaimed my cooking utensils before lobbing his  ass into the pool. Laura growled at me before huffing and taking a seat at the table. Before I could laugh, I spied the look Logan was giving me and I could only shrug at the man. 

 

Peter would be alright and Laura could get him once he got out of the pool. We were a super-powered family, and I had seen the combat training records. Peter was a powerhouse, even if he didn't look like one. A ten-foot throw with a pool landing was nothing compared to that level five survival training he went through last week. 

I turned as the air rippled and I felt the gravity shift a few feet away from my location. Raising a brow, I watched as Wanda, her brother Bruce, and Betty all walked out of the portal. While the portal was hanging in the air, I noticed Jane, Thor’s girlfriend, poking a device that looked like a remote with a pole on its end into the folded dimensional space along the edges of the portal. 

 

I could only sigh, this was a day of fun, but of course, the nerd types were happier with data instead of sun and food. Looking over at them, I found Jane and the other nerds gathered around her and the device in her hand. Betty and Darcy hovering at her shoulders with Selvig not far behind, and all I could hear was ‘mutter, mutter, mutter,’ I guess that constitutes fun for them. Well, that is until Thor shows up and Jane decides to ditch them for her hunky beefcake. 

With a smile, I waved Bruce over, since the poor man was looking around with a lost look on his face. He noticed me and his face pinched up into a sour look for a second, then he swallowed it all down and approached my BBQ pit. While Bruce was taking his sweet time to come over, I called my dad and Otto, who were both looking at my grill as if they could do a better job. 

 

As if I would let them touch my grill. I was taught by gramps himself, and Dad was never the cooking type, even if he tried to act as likewas.

Bruce made it to my side first, so I twisted him around and made a gesture towards my dad and Otto with the spatula. 

 

“Bruce, let me introduce you to my dad and Otto Octavius,” I said with a wave, but Bruce was already moving. 

 

“The, Dr. Octavius? The man behind the solar reactor?” Bruce asked with a gush as he fell over himself to meet my father-in-law. Ignoring those two, I smacked my dad's hand away from the grill as he snatched up one of the seasoned chicklets that Peter had put on the grill while I was gone.

 

Shrugging I turned to face the person who tapped me on the shoulder, and seeing no one behind me I jerked my head the other way, just in time to see dad nab a piece of chicken from right under my nose. With a scowl laid into my father for stealing a chicken thigh instead of a chicken leg, a way better finger food.

Shifting my attention, I got a smug grin from my dad as he bit into the chunk of chicken breast, he motioned towards my grill, “Why does the seasoning taste so familiar?”

 

“Huh?” Was my reply as I acted as if I never heard his question. With a burst of speed, Sue had a plate and a cup of apple juice. Natasha also got a plate with a steak on top, and Logan got his own plate with some sausages. Peter got himself an extra-large plate of ribs to share with Laura. 

 

Raven received a plate of mashed potatoes with bbq chicken on the side, and extra gravy of course. As I was blazing by, I made sure to swap the beer in my mother’s hand while also leaving one for Fury. Coulson got himself a pina colada, Barton got water, then I kept it moving.

My girls got the chicklets from the chicken breast and Alfred got ribs. Of course, I acted as if I didn’t see him eating off of Rose’s plate. Popping back to my location, I chuckled as my dad jumped at the sudden shift. All around there were minor yelps of surprise as things appeared to just suddenly arrive, while my family took it a whole lot better. Super-speed for the win.

 

I didn’t even bother to bring Emma a plate of food since she was still in her zero gravity lounge while sharing a bottle of wine with Ororo. I wanted to shake my head at them just lounging there while being lazy, but this was a big day for our nation, and everyone had a chance to just kick back and relax. I fixed myself a plate of mashed potatoes with butter and some ribs with a nice dash of BBQ sauce before shifting locations to Sue’s table. 

 

Before I could take my seat, Sue rose from hers, only to take my food from my hands, then all it took was a hip bump for me to fall into her seat. Wrapping an arm around her waist, I pulled her onto my lap as she placed my food on the table. I kept one possessive hand around her waist, right over the bump of our still-growing child. 

With the other hand, I tried to feed myself, but Sue felt that it was a job that only she could perform, since she knocked my free hand away, and to be fair, I was alright with that. We were like this for a while as the music blared and my people played. Things shifted when Jane’s Omni beeped and she went all super excited. Well, that could only mean one thing. Thor was calling and would most likely be showing up soon. 

 

This wouldn't count as an invasion since I was keeping a pretty loose alliance with Asgard, even if Odin didn't want to admit to such. It's not like my mages were opening portals around the nine realms for him for free. We both knew how this working relationship was going to go, even if the alliance wasn’t made official, it was still there. 

 

With Thor being a friend of an Empire that had portal mages, Odin didn't have to draw on whatever dark forces that were mentioned in the MCU to send his son across the nine realms. I was still trying not to base my life around the MCU, even if certain things were the same. What I was more worried about was the comic cosmic level type bullshit. Then again, we all had to start somewhere. 

The moment those thoughts flash through my mind I watched Jane run over to Wanda say something brief before a smile lit her face, illuminating her surroundings. Letting out a sigh I turned back to Sue in time to catch her trying to smack me on the chest, smiling down at her, still holding her hand, I leaned down to give her a kiss on the forehead.

 

Sue took the kiss on the forehead before tilting her head upwards for one on the lips. Before she could speak, someone had approached our location, and I quickly identified them based on the aura. Hmm, I guess I wouldn’t have to say anything, looks like Madam Harkness taught her some manners.

Sue clutched my leg, but it was a big day and I didn’t have it in me to be a bastard to anyone right now. So, I placed a smile on my face and acted as if I didn't know what she came over here to ask, “Yes, Wanda?”

 

“Jane had a request for me, but seeing as you are the ruler of this domain, I would like your permission to open a portal from here to Asgard,” Wanda replied with her head held high. Guess she learned a thing or two. 

 

Taking my time to peer over at Wanda, Sue gave my chest a smack as the girl started to fidget, then with a smile of my own.With a roll of my eyes and a shake of my head at the girl, I created a medallion out of jade. Once that was completed, I put a firewall enchantment on the jade, which would allow the holder of the medallion to portal in and out of the island. I could just key Wanda into the island's wards, but I was far too paranoid to do something like that. The jade medallion was all she would get since I can always just summon it back to my hand.

There was a minor flash of light before the gravitational reference of the area burped, then the portal opened to reveal Thor in fucking beach shorts.

 

“Guys, I brought Asgardian Ale!”

 

Okay, maybe I did wince a bit after seeing the look on Jane’s face. 

 

Yeah, I wasn’t about to touch that with a ten-foot pole. So instead of getting into that mess, I shifted Sue in my lap to give me a better view of the ring. With my view clear, I was finally able to notice that El Macho was back at it once again. Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy myself, because Fury decided that he wanted to stand in my way. The smile that he had on his face as he sat down was more than telling, and I was not pleased at all. 

 

“Come on, old man, can’t you see that I am with my family right now,” I half growled and half spoke to the one-eyed bastard. 

 

“This only means you can’t escape from this conversation,” Fury replied with a small smile of his own. Then the smile fell away, "Really Ben, two planets? One Mars and another brought from who knows where. The United Nations is not pleased with you at all." 

 

Talk about distasteful, "Not my problem seeing as none of those nations except Wakanda has anything that could remotely be called a space program," Was my retort, "Howard solved the rocket issue years back and a few geniuses over the years solved the fuel problem." 

 

"Okay, and where are you going with this?" Fury asked with a scowl. 

 

"That maybe if they pulled their heads out of their collective asses then maybe they would have beat me to space and Mars," I replied with a shrug, "You can toss a stone and hit fifty different geniuses, but those nations don't want to advance. No, they want to act like crabs in a bucket, and I refuse to allow my nation to be anyone's stepping post."

 

"Be that as it may, they are planning to pass sanctions on your Empire," Fury replied with a sour look on his face. 

 

I shrugged once more, "Not going to affect us. If you haven't been paying attention, I made sure we were self-sufficient from the start, and with our imports from space, our economy is pretty strong. We don't depend on, nor need, the dollar or euro," I replied, which caused Fury’s brows to raise.

 

“So, no compromise?” Fury asked and I could feel the question in his voice.  

 

“None,” Was my reply as I held his gaze for a time. The only thing that broke it was Sue feeding me a spoon of mashed taters with some BBQ sauce. Smiling at Sue, I accepted her feeding me, the kawaii atmosphere that came around us was pure pink. 

Fury grimaced, but I paid him no mind until he asked a question that might have been good for him. Yet, such a question for me was not only redundant but also a little insulting, to be honest.

 

“What about your nukes? I will have to bring an answer back to the UN about those,” Fury asked, and I could tell that he was trying to be serious with the question. 

 

Sigh, of course he had to break the moment. I turned and gave him one of the flattest stares I could produce, “Please don’t insult me with such a question,” I remarked after swallowing what Sue was feeding me, “Not only are nukes useless within Earth's atmosphere, but even if I had any to use planetside, it would be none of their business.”

 

Fury took his time to chew through that before my statement finally clicked for him, “So none of your nukes are on-world right now?”

 

“I plead the fifth since I know any definitive answer that you are given will reach their ears,” Was my own cheeky reply. 

 

The look he gave me was unamused, but I really didn’t care. Sue squeezed my hand and I went back to giving her all of my undivided attention and ignored the man. It was clearly a holiday, he should be a lot more festive than working. If his workaholic team members were in a festive mood, then he should be too. 

 

And since I was a cheating cheater who cheats, I sent a quick text from my Omni to my cousin. Hell, since I was such a great nephew, I even mentioned to her about bringing her boyfriend over to meet her dad. Before Fury could say or ask anything, he was glomped from the side by Michelle.  

 

And with her was definitely not Warren, who was dumped about two months ago, but Fury didn’t know this, so the look he gave the poor kid said more than enough. Michelle, of course, didn’t notice the muscle twitch in Fury’s jaw or how his hand reflexively went towards the gun hidden at his back. Was I a bastard for setting this up… maybe, but it was too good of entertainment to give up. So all I could say was; you’re welcome, Fury.

 

The guy that she had brought with her was an Atlantean that clearly didn’t know what a shirt was since he was only in shorts. Seeing the eruption that was about to happen, I picked up Sue in a princess carry and relocated us to Raven's table. 

 

From the way the vein was throbbing on Fury’s forehead, he was going to blow in sixty seconds, and I didn’t need any of that in my life. With Raven on my left and Sue on my right, I tried to enjoy the day, but it was clear that the universe was not going to let me rest. 

I, and everyone who was within my Homeland security division, got red alerts on their Omni. Groaning at the interruption, I flipped my hand over so that Raven could activate the Omni for me. A hologram flashed to life and we were met with rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth, well shit. 

Looking up, I found a rush of Vodanie coming out of the portal and on the island with panicked looks upon their faces. With a grimace, I finally got off my lazy ass and kissed my ladies before heading to my armory. Everyone wanted to mess with my damn day? Okay, I can play that game. I just hope they knew that I played for keeps. 

 

I cycled through all of my guns to the blades that Natasha was trying to hide from me and grabbed my chainsword. As if I was going to just let her vanish my favorite blade. Grabbing my chainsword, I dashed out of the armory with speed that no eye could follow. 

With a small burst of wind, I was back in the party clearing and I was shocked at what I found. Thor was standing there in beach shorts with his hammer raised above his head, lightning striking down upon the weapon. 

 

“I shall have at thee, foul fish beast!” Thor roared before jumping through the massive portal that let out to my city center of Vodan. 

 

“Big monster!” Hulk roared before he also jumped through the portal, following Thor’s lead. Ohh fuck me sideways, by the grace of Stan Lee, why must they try and get on my very last nerve! Can’t I just get one day of bloody peace!?

 

Taking off my shirt, I folded it then left it with Raven and Sue before dashing over to the portal and jumping through. Once I arrived through the portal, I was greeted with a monster the likes of which I have never seen before. The damn thing was the same size as the Chrysler building back in New York and nearly as wide. 

By the grace of Stan Lee, monsters like this are why I sometimes dislike living inside of a comic book reality. The sight of the beast was pushed aside as I watched a giant green bullet launch its way out of my city and into its side. I would have been alright with that if Thor wasn’t floating around like a dead fish or the fact that Hulk was using one of the underwater vehicles that had been provided to my citizens as a bludgeon. 

 

Before I could ignore Hulk and the monster, I brought up my Omni and activated the overrides on the shields and defenses. I guess since this wasn't a humanoid attack, the systems didn’t recognize the monster as a threat. From the reports that I was reading, the barrier teams also didn’t know what to do. That had to be fixed, of course, but I could put things in place to fit that after the attack was over.

Floating beside Thor, I cast a bubble-headed charm so that he could breathe once more before putting my hand on his shoulder and giving him a nice jolt. Thor’s eyes snapped wide open and I had to dodge to the left to make sure that hammer didn’t say ‘hey’ to my face. 

 

“Thank you, Blake of Pandora,” Thor boomed as he raised a hand to check the charmed bubble that wrapped around his head, “You do good work,” Then he took off with a swing of his hammer. Looking at him, I could only shake my head at their antics, but lucky for me, I knew something that they both didn’t.

Hovering near one of the towers within the city, I checked the count down on my Omni, then smiled as it reached zero. Blue lights flashed from the tops of each building before a shimmer flowed over the city. This was the same shimmer that Thor bounced off of once the monster smacked him with its tail. Hulk, I had long ago lost track of somewhere on the outskirts of my city. 

 

Thor stood on top of the shields that protected my city, and before he could jump back into the mix, there was a thawump from multiple locations within the city. Thor tensed as he heard the sound, but my attention was already shifting to the giant sea monster who let out a blood-curdling scream. 

 

Two gigantic holes opened up on the monster's sides as the railgun rounds tore into its flesh. More railgun shots sounded out as more wounds erupted on the side of the beast. Thor, deciding that he didn’t want to be on the sideline, launched himself forward with a swing of his hammer, and I didn't even wince as he was swatted away with the tail.

 

Once Thor was swatted away, Hulk decided it was his turn, “HULK GAMMA-SMASH!!!!”

 

There was a roar and then a flash of green before the side of the beast charred a nasty scary glossy black from the attack. Okay, that was my cue to get up off my ass and do something, and I would have to talk with Bruce about that attack later.

 

Vanishing from my location with a burst of speed, I reappeared along the side of the beast. Vroom! Vroom! Went the sound of my chain sword as I revved its engine, sending the adamantium blades buzzing. A flick of my wrist and a twist of the hips was all that I needed before digging into the side jaw of the monster. 

For the briefest of moments, there was some hard resistance, before the blades went to work. The monster roared and tried to turn away from me, but I held firm. Casting several spells to keep it in place, I cast one final extension spell upon my blade and watched as it grew out of the other side of the monster. This time, when it roared, there was a gurgle before it stopped thrashing, dead as a doornail. 

 

With a kick, I shifted myself from the side of the beast to underneath it. 

 

“Sage, task some people to come and gather this monster's carcass,” I said with one hand holding up the spell that kept the monster from crushing the city below. 

 

“Copy,” Comes Sage’s voice back from my Omni-tool. Before I could put down the hand that had my Omni on it, Thor came flying up with Hulk bouncing across the city. I tried not to grimace at the damage that was happening to the top of my buildings, but nothing stopped me from glaring at the man-turned monster.

 

Hulk huffed at me before turning away in his giant purple onesie. Thor didn’t look too pleased that I had spoiled his fun battling the monster, but honestly, fuck that. My people were in danger and there was no way I would just let this thing rampage all over the place. Hell, I would need to make sure that this didn't happen again. 

I would also need to kick people in the ass since this place should have been locked down seven ways from Sunday. A ping came in, alerting me to those at the portal waiting. Turning away from the two, I had to force my mind not to think about how Hulk was able to adapt to not only the deep pressure but also the fact that there was only water around. 

 

Ignoring all of that, I floated through the portal like a barbarian warrior with his conquest. Everyone cheered, but I was, unfortunately, unamused, since Sage had sent me a follow-up report. Someone had set a sonic inducer at the edge of the city, which was still there, emitting a special soundwave. This soundwave had an underlying gamma signature that set my teeth to grind. That would have been fine since just the gamma signature wasn’t evidence of anything, but the follow-up information was. 

 

The device still had residual aura echoing off of it. Then there was the magical projection cast around the area to discern where and who the aura belonged to. The moment that I landed, Sage’s team was already casting the spell. I noticed a flare of light that washed over the island only to bloom green at a distance far from my location. Okay, that was a dead giveaway on who it was, even if I wanted to give the man the benefit of the doubt. 

 

I just found it odd that he would go with something so... lame. 

 

Letting the excitement of the crowd wash over me, I motioned for El Macho. Then once he was close enough, I transferred the carry spell from my hands to his. 

 

“HAHA! EL MACHO HAS DECLARED, SUSHI FOR EVERYONE!!” El Macho shouted at the top of his lungs as he held the monster up high above his head. The thing was so massive that half of its body was still inside the portal blocking passage. 

 

Before anyone could praise or clap me on the back, I was already moving towards a shack on the distant far side of the island. Paused mid-action in an attempt to escape the island was one Dr. Sterns, also known in the comics as The Leader. 

My backhand knocked out the guard, then my kick swept a few more guards aside. Stern’s was still frozen mid-motion, but I left him for last as I checked around for any traps. The same thing that niggled at the back of my mind that told me to search for traps was the same thing that allowed me to survive what came next.  

 

One of the guards was obviously bait, so when I took him down, the trap triggered. This would have normally been okay, but I had made it instinctual to surround and cover those I carry at high speeds with my speed force aura. The explosion happened right as my aura allowed the trigger to react as it would normally in standard time. 

There was a massive BOOM, which tossed me back into the forest. With that massive boom, I swore that I could taste metal in my mouth. Granted, I didn't have any blood to spit out, due to internal bleeding, but it was the thought that counts. 

 

With a groan, I rolled ever with ringing ears, barely a scratch on me, but not on my emotions. I was angry, beyond angry, I was furious on a level that I couldn't even fathom being. 

This man not only used the lives of my people as a distraction but had also boobytrapped my soldier after his sick mind control experiments. Sterns was a dead man. No, there were worse things than death, and he was about to find out what those were. I had magic at my fingertips with my Empire being the most technologically advanced this side of Mars. It was time to put a considerable amount of resources behind making a man truly suffer. 

 

Time barely passed as those thoughts flashed through my mind's eye. That didn't matter as I had blasted off from the mini crater in the jungle. Earth tore, trees trembled, but at the speeds that I was going, none of that made any difference, the only positive that came out of this was that I wasn't using the Sonic boom of my wake to destroy my surroundings. 

Jumping out of the treeline, I hit the water running, only to find the boat Sterns was on also immolated from the explosion. The bloom of fire was still frozen in the air as it was still spreading from its own epicenter. That was the thought that stopped me from turning around to head back and check on the shack. 

 

The epicenter of the blast was all wrong, "ohh that gremlin motherfucker," I growled as I finally caught onto why it all looked so bad. The explosion wasn't coming from the outside or the trap on the guard that was thrown off the pier who was in a mid fall while exploding, no, the blast was coming from Sterns, which meant that this was also another fucking decoy. 

Twisting on the spot to continue moving, I cast my own locator spell on the aura I picked up from the sonic device. 

 

(5 miles southeast, underwater.) 

 

Smoothly turning in that direction, I dove beneath the surface of the water, moving like a homing missile. All around me, the water parted with ease, as I made my way down to the submarine that was still moving even while I was surfusing my body with the speed force. I could only snort, because of course he would be one of the few that was able to get his hands on the data for the speed force. Then again, he was kept on the island where any of his sensors could have picked up traces. 

Gliding over to the side of the submarine, I ripped the back propeller clean off its housing. There were rending and grinding noises as the metal was ripped asunder, but I was all out of fucks to give on this day. 

 

With the propeller removed, the submarine started to list to its side as the force of my blow knocked it off balance. 

 

I cared not for the crappy little submarine as I yanked a fist full of metal out of its sides, working my way to the midsection. Then with a roll, I positioned the submarine overhead before digging deep and pushing off the ocean floor. 

 

When we breached the surface, I made sure that we were correctly positioned towards the island before I gave the submarine a mighty throw towards the coast. Twisting back around, I went back down below to collect the propeller that I had torn off the submarine, before heading back to the surface in time to catch my own pitch. 

I waved off the security forces as I spread my legs and prepared for the catch of a lifetime. The submarine rolled once, then twice before I jumped and caught it in the middle, the force of impact almost causing both ends to buckle from the sudden impact. Rolling with the catch, I did a rotation before landing down on the beach. 

 

Sitting the submarine down upon the beach, I jumped backwards before launching myself at the submarine with vengeance. Both of my hands went forward, both fists first for maximum impact, I then slammed into the submarine's side, causing shockwaves to ripple outwards.

My hands tore through the bulkhead as if it was tissue paper, but that was the least of my concerns right now.  No, my current problem came from the fucking clapping that i heard at a distance. Eye’s wide, I turned and dashed out of the submarine as half of my troops rushed in to subdue Sterns. 

 

More claps were heard, which forced me to pulse the area with magic, only to find a massive signature miles out from my island just right outside the shields. The second half of my troops that followed behind were dismissed as they followed me halfway to the new destination.

 

There, floating in the air sitting on a hover-throne, was the one and only… Doom.

Author’s Note’s :

Hot damn!

Also yes, Sterns was found quickly because every law enforcement within the area descended like piranhas. He had the right idea, but no one can really escape a speedster that is out for your blood. 

Poor Sterns, his escape to become The Leader was thwarted before it could even start. 

Thank you all for having the patience to wait on this chapter since life happens and it took its time to get published.

Let me know what you guys think about the chapter.

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