The Fastest Man Alive

Fast 92

By BigTofu

Sera Auguste

Tucking her arm in with her shoulder slamming into the face of the Wendigo, the booster on her back flared brightly shooting Sera upwards. This was perfect as it brought her into the range of the beast's maw. The bolter pistol in her grasp aimed true and with a solid double boom. The beast's lower jaw was blasted off along with one of its clawed limbs.

With a solid whoosh, Sera flew upwards a solid twenty-plus feet while swapping her bolter handgun for her power sword.

"AAAYYEEAAAHHH!" Sera roared before coming down with her power sword and removing the head from the Wendigo. The body started to burn as it fell into a pile of ash. Then her sword was held high above her head, the energy charging through it and shining like a bright star, "For the EMPEROR!"

The clouds turned grey and rumbled before a massive bolt of lightning shot downwards at her sword. With a swift movement of her arm, Sera pointed her sword towards the scattered mass of Wendigo's within her sight. "SMITE THE HERETIC! SMITE THE UNCLEAN! SMITE THE CURSED! BURN UNDER THE WRATH OF MY EMPEROR!"

Benjamin Blake

Pandora's Emperor

Everyone watched the hologram in the middle of the United Nations room while my people did the work.

*CLAP*

Bringing my hands together hard, I caught everyone's attention. "Now that my men are taking care of this I will see myself out." I turned to go but it looked like that just wasn't in the cards.

"You will halt, sir," The French Priminister called out in smooth French with a bang on his hand onto the desk. "There is still a list of things for you to answer for."

Turning around, I gave him a raised brow, then looked at each of their faces. "And how do you plan to stop me from leaving, by personal might or by sacrificing the soldiers around the room?" I asked with a hand motion towards the soldiers who all shared worried looks. My Spartans took a threatening step forward, but I raised a hand, then lowered, a command telling them to back up. I snorted, "No, there is nothing you have or can do to stop me from leaving: no personal power and no economic might since my Empire doesn't depend on the world for its trade. Not even the threat of your nukes can keep me here for they pale in comparison to the weapons my ships overhead could field during any battle."

That brought the German Delegate up short as she paled; even the American and Chinese delegates stopped what they were about to say and looked up.

Standing from my throne, I walked over and stood before the French Priminister, "So, I ask again, what power do you have to hold me here? You lack the currency to pay me with your country in debt. You lack the might to delay my leaving, you lack all of the necessary qualifications to even be seated at the same table as one such as myself." As I spoke and laid forth his many deficiencies, a spartan opened the portal back to Pandora.

The French Minister puffed himself up as he got red in the face, "I'm in charge here and I say that you will stay for the rest of these proceedings."

Bringing a hand up, I laid it on the Prime Minister's shoulder. "Do you feel in charge?"

"You are on French Soil, sovereign lands." The French Minister replied with a gulp.

With a sigh, I went from laying a hand on his shoulder to slightly squeezing his jaw, "And you think this gives you power over me."

With a disdainful snort, I let him go as I twisted around on the spot, my cape doing a dramatic flourish with my movements.

Walking to the portal as the tension and silence ramped higher and higher in the room, I stopped just before it. I turned to look at each of their faces. "Your status as leaders of this planet died the moment that I sat upon my throne. I've allowed this farce to happen because inevitably the world would join my Empire in time, don't force me to expedite that timetable."

I then stepped through my portal home and ensured they could still hear me. "Can't even leave the planet's gravity well and you expect me to stay on your level, pathetic."

Without looking back, the portal closed as my ambassador stepped through to the other side behind me. I had better things to do with my time and I could just go over the summary later. With a smile and a step, I was at the school with just a rustle of the wind. Looking around for a second or two, I smiled at the sight of flowing water suspended over the concrete by an anti-gravity system allowing the Atlantians of my empire to have the freedom to the surface world.

Every twenty feet or so was an anti-gravity ring that stabilized the surging currents that flowed all around the courtyards. With a wave of the hand, I dismissed the large contingent of guards following behind me down to only two as I walked through the school campus.

"Hi, Emperor Blake," A kid with a wife and with green hair and pointed ears called out . There was a shimmer of air around her location, then she was off like a shot with a little bit of sparkle and rainbows left in her wake.

With a chuckle, I just waved her on without saying much else as I continued my journey through the campus. As I walked, I received a few more good mornings and hi's, all returned since I wasn't an asshole. This continued until I reached the main admin building and walked my way to the Head Mistresses Office.

With a smile and wave, I walked right by the secretary and into Ororo's office, I found that she was on the phone. So it was a lot easier to just take a seat and wait, which I did. I also found the latest issue of Meta-Human Today; a few of the articles caught my eye. There was a comprehensive article on keeping various types of wings clean and healthy. There were also articles on the different types of metaphysical abilities, their subtypes, and even how to recognize the signs.

Honestly, I was loving it, even the parts on how to recognize the different mutations your body might go through. It was things like these I was coming to love about my nation. The thing was even though I was leading an Empire, I was born an American so I carried a lot of those values with me. I didn't want to fuck things up the way the politicians did. I could recognize where my nation needed a firm hand but also knew to keep myself only relegated to state craft. So things like Meta-human Today or little shows and restaurants appeared without my having to push forward the idea.

It helps affirm that my choices were very worth it. So much that I have to do, yet so little I can do without making it appear like overt action.

As I swapped from one magazine to the next, I started to notice the trend. Fashion was united both on land and under the sea. Some magazines could be read underwater, there were even magazines that could be read at high speeds. I even found one showing off amazing sights around the Empire and how to reach the locations. A lot of them could be reached via flight, some through portals, a couple you had to be fast to get there and some were just plain underwater, and even the rebreathing apparatus couldn't let you see the sight because of the reflective dome around your head.

This was just amazing, the culture was taking off all on its own. I was rather enjoying myself since I didn't get much time to relax and today was one of those few days, but all things had to come to an end as I noticed Ororo wrapping up her phone call. WIth a burst of speed, I went through the last three magazines and had to make a note to self to see what else might have developed around here while I wasn't looking. It would be amazing if we were able to come up with a sport. Although, I might have to cheat and create something like the Avatars Pro-bending league. Powers were so varied along with body types, It would be too much to just create all those sports and divisions when I could just use a template to have everyone fit except the crazy outliers. Plus, it was still basically a knock-off platform type at the end of the day. If I could sort that with a certain number of players on each side with a smart ball launcher system instead of a rock disc, I could possibly create a solution everyone could get behind.

Super strength and speed would amount to nothing if you were in a ring with limited radios. Hmm as I think about it for a few more hyper seconds, I might need to give speed, strength, and irregular body types their own division.

It would really suck to be the person who got in a ring to face little Sarah not knowing the girl could fold a truck in half. Or face someone like Oswald not knowing the fat bastard can run for hours on end with a cruising speed of a little over six hundred miles per hour. Would also need to deal with the obvious cheating by getting a telepath on the team and cheating that way.

With a chuckle and a flick of my wrist, I put my notepad away as I returned to normal speed and time. As I closed out the note functions on my omni-tool, Ororo finished up with her call. Her hands ran across the keyboard in front of her for a few seconds, then she gave a nod at the screen once she was finished. Pushing herself away from the desk, Ororo stood and walked over to the serving station to get herself something, "Tea?"

I shook my head at the question, "Water is fine." I replied easily.

I watched with a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips as Ororo prepared herself a coffee then sat down at my side, her body pressing into my own. "Sooo, tell me, how was the United Nations?"

There was no hiding the grimace on my face, "They aren't too happy with how I killed ole Draccy. And Canada is being Canada."

With a sigh, she placed her coffee cup down and turned to look at me, "And were you at any time diplomatic?"

Wincing a little, I shook my head. "Not even close, I ended up putting them in their place and made sure to especially embarrass the French Prime Minister."

Ororo sighed once more and took a drink of coffee. "You know, if you had just used the same amount of power that you use against Myphesto, you wouldn't have such troubles with Dracula."

In reply, I could only shake my head at that, "We both know it's not a power issue, it's a precision issue. Plus, I go throwing around power like that and I'll end up cracking the planet."

Ororo sighed at my side, "Well be that as it may, I'm glad you didn't decide to stick around and play with them for the rest of the day."

At that, I chuckled as she wrapped an arm around my neck and pulled me in for a kiss. I pulled her close and we kissed deeply enough that I took her breath away. Letting her lean into my side, I said nothing as she took another drink from her coffee mug.

With a hum, I gave Ororo a slight nudge, "So how are those three doing?"

Ororo paused in her motions, then gave me the side eye, "You know you won't be able to bribe them right?"

My shoulders went up and down in a shrug, "Yeah, but I at least want them to have a life before the hammer drops."

She sighed, then stood up, "You do them a disservice giving them this life only to pull it away when their loyalties shift."

As I stood, my shoulders went up and down in a shrug once more. "The Sorcerer Supreme already checked and the invasion is on schedule to happen. Starts on May 1st, and ends on the 4th." I then shook my head. "There is no point preventing it, but I at least have orders in place to keep the kids out of the mess."

Ororo paused with her hand on the doorknob, "Ben, that's only a month and a half away."

Opening the door and holding it for her, I gave Ororo a smirk, "So it is, but let's be honest, time isn't relative to the plans in place."

"And why is that," She asks while stepping out of the office and into the hallway with me.

"Because sooner or later, ill become the Emperor of Mankind and you, it's Queen," I stated with certainty. "The upcoming betrayal is just a means to an end. I would rather have a reason to bring all continents to heel than wage warfare because I got tired of the politicians and their bullshit."

Ororo waited until we were in the elevator and the doors had closed before she spoke once more, "When you do go for the world, make sure you take it by the throat."

Shifting my position, I turned towards Ororo with a raised brow. In return, she gave me her no-nonsense look, but I got the point. It was what it was and when it comes down to it, I would pick my family over the world also. The difference was that even if I picked my family, I wanted to at least help all the other families. That was one of the main reasons why I wanted my home planet under my control. I wasn't doing any of this for power's sake, I was doing this for my people's sake. Those that lived under my control and those that lived under the control of others. We were all human and at the end of the day, I wanted the best for humanity and I knew that could only come to pass with me in power.

Two beeps rang out as we arrived at the fourth floor, being the gentlemen that I was. I held out a hand to stop the elevator doors as Ororo walked out first with me right on her heels. A quick glance around told me we were in the art section of the school. Looking around at the light blue walls, I raised a brow at all the female students and adults roaming the halls. I thought nothing much of it until I got to one of the main classes. Steve was standing on the podium in the middle of the class, with a bright smile as he talked the class through their painting procedures.

There was just no missing how the central lighting from overhead cast a soft glow over his shoulders, the shadows shift and his calm and clear voice rang out around the room. With a snort, I turned to check the rest of the class and could only roll my eyes at what I found. The damn class was filled with at least eighty percent girls with a sprinkle of jocks and a few nerds in the mix. Everywhere I looked, I could see young ladies with hearts in their eyes.

I even noticed one of the images being drawn had a title, America's Ass. And yes, it was nothing but Steve's backside across the large canvas.

Okay, I could see why this class was so popular. Sigh, good chance the drama class was also the same thing since the teacher of that would be rugged bad-boy, Bucky Barnes. Since I could see that Steve was still teaching a class and was doing pretty well. It was time to check the other side because seeing was believing. With a shake of the head, I stepped away from the door and made my way to the drama workshop that was a little way down from Steve's classroom and around the corner.

Ororo laughed at me as I shook my head once we arrived at the mini-theater that Bucky was using for his classroom. When I pushed the door open, I had to come to a full stop once more as I noticed how things were set up. The room was shaped like a bowl, with the stage in the middle back of the class.

On the stage in the middle was Bucky speaking in that flowy old English crap with one of his much older students, easily 18 if not 21. Standing at the back of the class, I kept silent and watched things proceed. Bucky held her, they spoke, then he dipped her over and ran a hand along the side of her jaw.

"End Scene…"

Good, good, he knows where to draw the line and didn't kiss the student which I was more than happy with. Looking around, I also noticed that there were far more girls in this class. The same with Steve's, he even had the same flavor of men in the class. The range went from jocks to nerds to those who wanted to knock the boots around with both men. With a chuckle, I turned to leave without interrupting.

Waiting, I smiled as Ororo closed the door behind us, "Not going to take them aside and talk?"

I shook my head, "No, I can just read the review when you send it to me later."

She looked at me with a raised brow, "That can be arranged, do you still want to proceed to the gym?"

With a smirk, I was by her side picking Ororo up with a bridal carry. Soon we were moving at incredible speeds. I took us on a lap through the school and even on the speed loop that gave a sense of time stretching for speedsters. It was something that Alexander had come up with during a brainstorming session. A few seconds would feel like minutes and a few minutes felt like hours.

We kissed and before we left the speed terminal, Ororo fixed her make-up, then we arrived at the gymnasium by spitting distance. It was pure chaos when we stepped through the double doors with a bright red ball flying back and forth. The ball whizzed by up, down, left, and right since it was clear that powers were allowed at this level of super dodgeball. Standing off to the side and watching Peggy move around the court, I could only raise a brow at the insanity of it all.

This truly was a highly intense game of dodgeball clearly with power involved. I watched as some snot-nosed-looking geek drew back, his arm growing three times the size with blue and green fur all over. Then his arm came forward and the ball shot out like a cannon. My brow went up as the ball clocked 304 on the side walls MPH sensor. Then it glowed purple and twisted, shooting at a sixty-degree angle and right into the hands of a big ten foot girl that had a shy surprised expression on her face. Yeah, she did not mean to catch that at all. But the nerdy kids with a super arm were out of the game now.

Peggy blew her whistle and glared at one of the kids, the shock of purple in her hair clearly marked her as the telekinetic that did that little stunt. Now, I gotta wonder if I need to check over the bully situation because that just might have been premeditated. I sent off both a request for the girl's records and an order to review the bullying policies that were in place.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked over to see Ororo giving me a head motion toward the bleachers. Accepting that, I turned and followed her even as I gave the super-speeding dodgeball a nudge or two. I may or may not have gotten a double or a triple combo with a little bounce off someone's head, shoulder, or back. There were a set of twins, one on fire-human, and the other ice-human which was odd since when they touched, they also swapped powers. Those two should not be on the same team, the other set of twins was able to teleport around a certain area next to each other. Or maybe it was to each other's location, I could tell that something was up with how one had to set a location and then the other would teleport to their twin.

So yeah, those two had to get benched, and the last one I got was a flier who liked to skim the gym ceiling. Guess we are gonna have to set a maximum flight height inside the gym also like we do on the main street and hallways. That was for later though, right now I was reviewing Kimberly Ann's records. She was from Beverly Hills, transferred in from the Highschool and her parents even offered to make a very sizable donation.

Rolling my eyes at that, I shifted from her parents and basic background to see what she has been up-to within the Empire. I might as well investigate that this wasn't a mean girl situation while I waited for class to end.

Notes : Have some more slice of life stuff planned before kicking it back up a notch. Got my invasion plans ready and its going to be a wild ride.