Star Wars, Rise of the Sith, Part 3.(II)
Earth, New York.
Fury's Office.
"... I understand, Sir. I will have my team get to the button of it... Yes, Sir... Stark?... Are you sure that's necessary?... I understand, Sir..."- Fury carefully hangs up...
*Crash*- By ripping the phone out of its stand and throwing it against the wall.
"*Sigh* Spark! Pierce just 'respectfully' informed me that NASA discovered a signal bouncing around a satellite array that wasn't previously recorded by any form of authorized legislative body."
"I'm guessing it's one of yours since Tony Stark wasn't able to crack its network and got his hacked instead. A picture of a 'Blue Cyrberchick Beauty' with a mocking smile making an L sign with her fingers was left on the screens of any and all Stark Industries' computers."- Fury said as he took a seat and pulled his gun out of his hammerspace, disassembling and cleaning his weaponry always calmed his temper.
That and spying on possible threats.
"Yes, that's my imouto! She was getting bored because she didn't have much to do in Krakoa, so I gave her my duties pertaining to cybersecurity. Is this why you are so irate?"- Spark's asked.
"No. Aragorn told me that at some point the satellite array was going to be discovered. He said that you guys didn't care if something like that was found since no one would suspect that you filled those with ammunition until it doesn't matter if they do."
"He said that you will probably claim it under Krakoa."- This will give the world the idea that Krakoa is more technologically advanced than the rest of the world, but not so far advanced that the world couldn't even discover their satellites until they were outed by some 'unavoidable' event.
Similar to what will happen to Wakanda.
If the enemy is slightly better than you, then you will work harder to reach their level.
You could possibly even find a way for some parleying between two 'almost' equal rivals.
You could see what your enemy has and you may think that you could have some of it as long as you pay enough money.
You would be prudent yet not terrified.
Covetous yet not desperate.
Similar to how a third-world country looks at a first-world country.
If the enemy is massively better than you and you don't have the option of ignoring their presence, like how Earth-199999 eventually ignores Asgard's existence, then you will panic and uncover whatever desperate way you can find to bring them down to your level.
Jealousy and hatred would reach dangerous levels and the narrative could be driven into unwanted directions by the 'darkness' of the world, similar to how Danzo Shimura used the hatred and unrest of the civilians to push their nuclear deterrent into depression and abandonment.
In this case, Hydra could use the ensuing chaos to further extend their tentacled grasp on society.
Comparable to how the rest of the world would look at a Wakanda so far advanced that it makes the rest of the 'them' look like a different civilization.
It would make your enemy not recognized as part of your kind, 'humanity'.
Us or them.
For the future reveal of the mutant country, it will be needed to show a front of resemblance and strength, but not incomprehensible strength.
If they see Krakoa using satellites, something they regularly use, they will find a resemblance. Once they see that Krakoa's satellite network is avant-garde they will find strength.
Therefore, this newly discovered unhackable satellite network is of Krakoan origin.
At least that is what the narrative will say, given that by that time it will mostly be under the control of the Haloans.
"Then, What happened?"- Spark asks for clarification.
"That motherfucking squid used this opportunity to demand results, for justification of SHIELD's high expenses. He had the nerve of saying 'or else' at the end. Or else WHAT? I should probably portal a few 50cal bullets right into his tentacled asshole!"- Fury shouted with rightful anger.
"You know, Spark? The first spell that I learned from my affinity was 'Remote Viewing'. The second was 'Bi-Spatial Point Weaving'. Do you know how fucking easy it would be to shoot a 50cal round, from the comfort of my office, right into his asshole?"- Fury shouted with perversive anger.
"That's power and knowledge over the weak and ignorant talking. You know you can't do that."- Spark
"Bitch! I know I could! I definitely should not! But still!... *Sigh*... How can that insane dragon of yours tolerate the existence of all the idiots on this planet without going murderous?"- Indeed, Fury's current conundrum steams from a newfound growth in strength and awareness.
Wouldn't it be easy to kill Pierce?
Wouldn't it be easy to kill his Hydra secretary?
Wouldn't it be easy to kill the Hydra sympathizer William Stryker?
But what about Aragorn? Wouldn't it be easy for him to rid the planet of the idiots that plague it?
"I once had trouble understanding why you kept trying to protect Earth even after knowing that your participation in the task was no longer needed, given that we are protecting the planet now. In the words of the Master Chief:"- Spark ignored Fury's loaded stare.
'I can't believe the audacity of this bitch!'- Fury.
"'That's because Fury gives too many fucks and he is suspicious of even his own mother.' So I think that the reason you can't comprehend how the Master Chief does it, it's because you are under the mistaken assumption that he cares as much as you do for humanity."- Spark played a recording of Aragorn's answer, this did not amuse the superspy.
"Yeah, Yeah, I know. It's just I wish I could end that Hydra motherfucker!"- Fury cursed himself for asking a useless question to one of the craziest folk of Halo.
"But now the WSC will cut some of my funding off under the pretense that 'SHIELD is not operating up to the expected standard'."- That was what was messing with his calm... That and the overbearing behavior of Pierce.
"If it makes you feel any better... I could hack into the accounts of some kingpin and donate some funds to SHIELD. But I don't think you should be thinking so much about it. All you have to do once they cut your funding short is siphon money from the projects that Hydra is most interested in. They'll either reinstate your previous funding or covertly fund their projects of interest from their coffers."
While SHIELD is mostly controlled by the World Security Council, the WSC can't interfere in internal affairs, at least not under normal circumstances. The only obstacles Fury would face are the numerous Hydra plants. But that's not something that Spark and Fury could not outmaneuver.
Fury thought about the suggestion and the more he ran it over the more he liked it. After finishing cleaning his gun and storing it unlocked and loaded in his hammerspace he said:
"Get on it. These bitches will cut me short. I want at least 5 different Hydra-sponsored areas that I could milk dry."- He decisively ordered Spark.
Of course, Spark's answer would be:
"... Milk dry... Mhmm... Noted... I will get to it..."
"... Motherfucking dirty Robot!"
[Call Incoming from 'Insanity']
"*Sigh*... Answer the call."- Fury said as he tapped his P-Link.
"Aragorn."- Fury cheerfully greeted.
"Hey, Fury. What's with your mood? Thanks for the help with Peggy's death, by the way."- Aragorn said as he lifted his open hand and shrunk a star as he closed it, leaving behind a marble encapsulating the celestial body.
The extent of Aragorn's power is not something that was ever missed by the sorcerer super spy, but knowing and seeing are different things.
Through the information that he has been able to extract from the little wolves up on Halo, he knows that Aragorn can move planets and store celestial bodies using his barriers.
So this is not something he wasn't privy to, yet his good eye couldn't stop twitching.
"Nothing new, just Pierce on my black ass. NASA discovered your Sat-Net and he decided to pin the task that Stark failed on me. I'm supposed to hack or track down the owner of the satellites."- He couldn't help but scoff at the impossible task.
Not to be mistaken, Fury trusts in the skills of Tony Stark, as much as he trusted the skills of Howard, his late friend. But he knows the limits of humanity better than most.
Could a genius caveman fight against a regular soldier? One armed with an AK47...
"Ah, that... Sorry about that. Initially, I intended to take a more hands-on approach to dealing with Earth. So I was not worried about humans 'discovering' Brother Eye, I figured that by the time that happened I would have already been sitting on the throne of power."- Aragorn said with a sheepish smile.
"But after a week of living among humans, I felt that something was missing and I was no longer so sure about inhabiting among your people."
This was probably the first time that Fury couldn't fault someone for saying 'your people' to his face.
"Later my wife told me that it was something to do with the difference in the level of existence. By the time Spark and I were considering upgrading the cloaking system, talks about Krakoa came up. So I left the Sat-Net be as it was."
"You should have hidden it. But that's the spy in me talking, I can see how claiming it under Krakoa could be beneficial, as long as you control how the news is spread."- Fury is no politician, but he knows about manipulating the sheep, his job demands as much.
"Yeah, I will have Seraph handle it."
"What was the calling about? Is it about the council? McTaggart has informed me about the problems they've been facing, but as far as she said, they were going to indebt themselves with the Queen further. Apparently, they have almost dried up Xavier's and Mystique's pockets."- This was something that Fury couldn't understand.
How was it possible that the council, which counts with Seraph's help, isn't self-sustainable already?
Of course, Fury is up to date on the achievements of Emma in regards to nation founding. Fury has also been working with Spark for more than a year.
Unknowingly, he has been tainted by the logic of the Haloans... In his eyes, reaching self-sustainability is something that should not take longer than 2 months if you count with the help of the Insanity Incarnate.
Not that he wasn't right...
"No, I'm letting Seraph handle them. I recently encountered a space-warper, someone similar to you. His abilities were power-driven and not born out of casting, like yours, but I made a few spells to recreate them. At the moment the spells are very loaded and I don't have the time to simplify them, so I wanted to give them to you, hoping you could fix them into something useable, and I could buy the useable versions from you afterward."
Aragorn planned to teach the streamlined version of the spells to his girls.
"Oh... I'm guessing that this will take me a few years since you didn't fix the spells on the spot."- Fury said as much after considering that Aragorn has the highest knack for spell creation.
"Yes, I'm interested in just one spell for the girls, but you need to learn the rest if you want to use this one. I think it might take you about 2 to 3 years. After that, I planned to add the spell series to our future magic system."- The hard part is creating a useable spell.
"How come you need to learn other spells to use one?"- Based on what he has studied, you need knowledge, preparation, skills, and sometimes special conditions to cast a spell, but never to specifically learn another spell unless it was something ritualistic.
"Yeah... Do you know the Rasengan?"- Aragorn.
"... The one from Naruto?"
"Yes, that one. Did you watch it on the beta version of Netflix we launched or in the Arcade room in Halo?"- Aragorn located Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, at the beginning of 1998.
By that time he had already co-founded Netflix after he discovered Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in the last trimester of 1997 creating Netflix.
The technological frame for online multimedia exists already, but some parts of society haven't caught up with the advancement.
Back in Aragorn's universe, the advancement of tech that is publicly present in Marvel took almost 75 years to transpire. Society advanced while holding hands with the new technological discoveries of the moment.
But here? Here everything is crazily heterogeneous. 75 years of advancement were crunched together in less than 50. Considering that the last steps were exponential this creates a very diverse picture. The tech for smartphones exists yet you can't find smartphones. The tech for stage 3 cancer treatment exists, yet stage 3 is a death sentence.
Is as if everything was used in the development of the branch of weaponization of technology. Which is exactly the case.
You can find something as advanced as the super soldier serum yet people still die from viral infections.
"Netflix. I didn't know that was one of yours."- Fury made note of it. Keeping track of every new venture that Aragorn owns on Earth has become harder and harder.
"Great! Please leave a review on the site, so far we only have half a million users, and we could use the support. Going back on track, Did you see how to use the Rasengan you need to follow certain steps to practice your chakra control?"
"Yeah, mainly leaf exercise, tree walking, water walking, rotation, power, and containment."
"It's the same principle, you need to learn certain spells so that you can use the final version of the spell."- Aragorn.
"It must be some motherfucking spell!"- Fury.
"Yeah, it is. The spell creates an infinity of distance between your body and any target deemed as dangerous."- Without creating a singularity.
"You need to learn 'Spatial Rend' which is a blade of space stemming from the caster, 'Spatial Tear' which is a tear in space that appears on any coordinate that you can perceive, 'Layer Temper' which creates or removes distance, 'Layer Switch' which allows for movement of space between two layers, and finally 'Infinity' which protects the caster from most attacks, though it will have a time limit it should further protect the girls."
The spell system that Aragorn is creating is for the manipulation of the void energy that the girls have access to. Which should be the fuel for the new spell. But it doesn't mean that someone like Fury, who doesn't have a contract with Aragorn, can't use universal energy as a replacement.
Aragorn's void energy is very foreign to, well, anything. So at this point, the girls can only create barriers, unlike Aragorn who can use his energy manipulation to transform void energy into any energy that he can understand.
The objective of the system is for the girls to gain some semblance of control of said energy and for Aragorn to try to create a system for the utilization of The Void's raw energy.
Aragorn knows that his best bet against those who are nigh-omnipotent is the ability of The Void to erase or nullify anything and all.
His void energy, the one that his soul produces, mimics this aspect very well, but there's a limit. Aragorn suspects that some out there won't be erased by one of his breaths.
Sadly, The Void is so dangerous that just bringing a speck of its raw energy inside the multiversal barrier is enough to risk all existence into deletion. Therefore, a form of control is needed.
This is why he believes that by learning from this magic system he should be able to create something similar for The Void.
"I want it, I'll work on it. What will you pay for it?"- Fury knows best how an impenetrable shield would help him.
"I will grow your eye and your hair back. Also, I can give you something else as long as it's not excessive. After all, the spell circles themselves could be considered payment enough."
'What Fury doesn't know is that it will be silver white hair and that both eyes will turn into a light blue jewel-like appearance. Yes... I will make him the Netflix version of Gojō Satoru. Samuel L Jackson looked cool as Roland Cox in Jumper. He was just missing the Rikugan.'- Aragorn.
"... I can't lie and say I don't like where this is going. The upgrades on my eye patch are exactly what I needed, thank you very much for that, but it doesn't make up for the sense of loss of perception... So just like with the Rasengan, I just have to practice and simplify, Right?"- Fury, unaware of his future makeover, answered heartily.
"Just like it! By the way, Did you like Naruto?"- Aragorn answered while keeping his poker face professional.
"Romanova recommended it to me after one of our classes, but it was not very 'Ninja-like'. I thought that it would be about espionage, undercover ops, lurking in the shadows, assassinations, and the usual work you expect from ninjas, but it was more about ideals, child endangerment, useless adults, aliens, and straight-up confrontations. So I didn't like it very much, but I can see the appeal it has on the young kids."- Fury.
"You didn't like it but you got to episode 94?"- That's the episode where Naruto uses the 'complete' Rasengan.
"I was going to drop it but Master recreated some of the Jutsus and I saw the potential for inspiration that the anime has. I was hoping to get some inspiration for my space affinity."- Fury is a busy person so he can't dedicate all of his time to sorcery or anime.
Between his work, keeping up with the constant changes in society, and the global panorama of menaces, his social life can be considered to be in Halo, with the rest of the girls learning magic.
So it doesn't come as a surprise that the little free time he has is usually spent on an activity that is somehow related to his 'social circle'.
Thus he tries to combine his hobbies with progress on what he is best at, Space Magic.
"You should keep at it, later you'll see more uses of Space-Time Ninjutsu. I gotta go, Fury. Spark will give you the circles and the theory, I should talk to Seraph about that new friend to whom she is sending selfies..."- Aragorn's ever-changing eyes momentarily turned red.
[Call Ended.]
[Message received, Magicx file attached: Infinity.mgx]
"Spark, What's with that type of file?"
"It's so that I don't cast the spells when I read the files. My code is the equivalent of my mind so if a magic circle runs through it I could end up casting it. The Master Chief will update the code later, but for the moment this works."
"Huh, the more you know... You don't think he is going to kill Stark, Do you?"- Tony Stark is Fury's friend's son, of course, he cares about the wellbeing of Tony... To some degree... Palladium poisoning?... Not life-threatening in his book.
"No... Maybe..."- Spark.
"Explain."- Fury.
"The current Tony Stark is not approved to be friends with our girls, much less my very baby sister. But based on the multiple versions of Tony we know of, he could reach approval."
"You hold the approval of the girls' friends? I'm not impressed..."- Fury knows that if he had a daughter he would do the same or worse.
"Yes. Why do you think you're allowed anywhere near the little maids? Even if your intentions are not entirely pure with all the information that you sometimes try to extract from the younger ones, and for all of your paranoia, we know you wouldn't intentionally try to kill yourself by doing something... uncalled for."- Something certain genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist could do in the presence of the 'jade-like skin, kingdom toppling beauties' of Halo.
"..."- Fury always knew that you couldn't be discreet around a bunch of teenage telepaths.
"Don't sweat it! Just know that you're one of our favorite mortals."- Spark said in consolation to Fury.
"Should I be honored?"- Fury said while staring motherfuckerly.
"Mmm yeah, you should. All things considered, we favor you a lot, and not just because you're Carol Danvers' friend."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I simply don't know how to feel about being one of the favorite mortals of a bunch of racist ass Haloans!"
"..."- This time Spark knew he didn't have an answer for that. Spark knows that Earth is not very well-liked among the maids.
Not even among the new residents, since humans have a bad history with the magicals that once inhabited Earth *Cough* Witchhunts *Cough*. A history that was passed down to Otherworld's inhabitants.
The only thing they heartily like about Earth is Gaea... Whom Aragorn plans to steal.
"So... You don't want me to hack on those kingpins' accounts?"- When in doubt? Redirect the conversation.
"Mmhmmm..."- Fury assented.
____________________________________
Earth, 1200 Industrial Ave, Long Beach, CA 90803, USA.
Stark Industries
"It should be fixed... with this... last entry... *Click*...."- Tony Stark said as he coded the last line and loaded the newly created purging program.
He couldn't wait to get this over with and lay on his bed for the next week or month, not even a Covergirl would get him up after the death march that he had pulled the last two or three days. He is not sure about the timeline of events that led to this.
The objective of the code?
To try and cleanse any media left on his local network.
Why media?
Because, besides the blue girl's AI-generated selfies, as truthful as that ironically is, a song has been playing on repeat for the last 72 hours throughout any speaker or computer connected to Stark Industries' network.
*Buzzzz*- The starting up of the previously turned-off computers buzzes in the office that served as his room for the past one or two nights.
🎼-♫~I am invincible, unbreakable
♪~Unstoppable, unshakable
♬~They knock me down, I get up again
♩~I am the champion, you're gon' know my name
♬~You can't hurt me now, I can't feel the pain
♪~I was made for this, yeah, I was born to win
♩~I am the champion
"AAGHH! Fuck! Do I have to factory reset all my hard drives? Shit! I shouldn't have accepted General Ross's commission while drunk!"
"Tony! This shit is back once again! I'm trying to run this company! How can I run your father's company when the few times that you show up I have to deal with sexual harassment complaints, new contracts not previously approved by our legal team, and now THIS! Why did you even offer your help if Ross had not even mentioned what the payment would be?!"- Obadiah Stane storms into Tony's lab while rightfully complaining about the additional load that his godson brings into his work.
At times like this, he wonders why he even feels regretful at night about taking some deals under the table.
"Obbie! I know! I'm sorry. I just saw this seemingly impossible puzzle and I wanted to crack it."- Tony.
"Oh, you did? You did! Right?! Now why didn't you think that the creators of this 'seemingly impossible puzzle' would be annoyed and that instead of directing their annoyance at the government they would do so at our company?"- Obadiah Stane could be considered a villain assembled by his counterpart the hero. In the most literal and figurative way.
Given that Tony's irresponsible life choices lead to the birth of Iron Monger. Not that we could remove all credit from the disloyal Stane... But, as it's said, credit where it's due.
It's moments like this that made him what he is today, at least he thinks so.
🎼-♫~I am invincible, unbreakable
♪~Unstoppable, unshakable
♬~They knock me down, I get up again
♩~I am the champion, you're gon' know my name
♬~You can't hurt me now, I can't feel the pain
♪~I was made for this, yeah, I was born to win
♩~I am the champion
"*Sigh* I'm sorry Obbie. I will deal with it."- Tony said for the umpteenth time as he took down his network once more.
"Please do so, I will give our people the day off. Luckily they didn't mess with the manufacturing systems."- Obadiah.
"Don't worry about that, Obbie. I made sure that our manufacturing systems and all assembly lines were independent."- Tony tried to add a plus to this cloud of negatives that encircled him.
Tony Stark wouldn't take this much from anyone, but this was not just 'anyone', this was his father-like figure and the one handling his company for him.
It should also be noted that the tragic events leading up to this situation were entirely caused by the playboy in question. Furthermore, the fact that Tony was intoxicated at the time of accepting the request only adds to the severity of his crime, this likely explains his current passive demeanor.
Even someone as shameless as the current Tony Stark could recognize his mistakes.
"It better be. I don't want to think about what they would do if they had access to our assembly lines."- Detonating one of their creations isn't out of the table in said case.
"For God's sake, Tony! We are not baking cakes in here! We are fabricating weapons. Do note that the only reason we don't have the feds on our ass is because so far only the administrative department has been affected!"- Tired of dealing with the baggage that his late best friend left him he decided to take the day off.
As Obadiah made his way out of the office and closed the door a voice rang in Tony's phone. One of the few smartphones currently available.
"~You know. I do have access to the assembly line, Mr. Stark. I'm just not that much of a bitch."- Seraph said with the usual singing tone of her voice.
"Fuck!"- Tony moved to another computer connected to a separate network, one that is specifically used for the assembly line, only to find another selfie of the same blue girl.
In the selfie, the girl is making an 'L' sign with her hand.
"Fuck! Fuck! How did you get here?! Or my phone for that matter! My phone doesn't even have a WiFi antenna. Look, Girl, it is one thing to hack into my business network but hacking into my assembly line is considered terrorism. Do you want to take it this far? You should know what Stark Industries is known for, a single mistake and something could go ballistic in the manufacturing department."- Panic-stricken would be the best description of the playboy's face.
"~Hehehe~ So you say, but how can you condemn me when you can't even find me? You are the one who started this, and now you wanna go cry to your mama?"- Seraph texted this on the PC's screen as much as she said it through the phone.
"..."- Stark's mother, to this day, remains a sore spot.
"..."- It took some seconds for the baby AI to process what Tony's silence meant.
"... Well... I didn't have your mother's death present in my mind. I'm sorry about that, I just went with the flow and I've been having a blast playing with you so... Sorry."- What should Stark think about this oddly well-mannered hacker possibly-girl?
On one hand, she has him by the balls, on the other she apologizes and confesses that she went too far.
"... Look... I'm sorry, girl! I'm the first to recognize when I'm out of my depth. Can you please tell me what would it take to get you out of my systems? The total purging of my data will already cost me a few million dollars but that pales in comparison to what would happen if the government discovers that you infiltrated the production department."- While Tony said and meant as much, he is also already studying the god-like coding that he was able to peek at.
All in the hopes of taking a shot once more at the puzzle that the possibly-girl on the other side of the screen presented.
"Bold of you to assume that I wouldn't have nefarious purposes with the data that I already have accessed. Also, you can call me Seraph, Seraph Draconisfilia."
"... Seraph, so far you've been playing around and even though you could have fucked my company over, you haven't."
"I could be a sadist who enjoys building up hope on my prey only to crash it all down."
"... I also moved one of my satellites close to one of yours and discovered that yours are loaded with what appears to be orbital ammunition. I don't think I have anything better than that, at the moment, so I doubt my company has anything you'd value."- And what a hit that was to Tony's ego, the 'most advanced' arms dealer of the world.
"The fact that no one knows about our apparent secret overlords led me to believe that you don't want anyone to find out that you are holding the world hostage. So... I was hoping we could keep each other's dirty little secrets in the closet..."- A fact he doesn't enjoy.
"That's not fair! I didn't know you could move your satellites! I thought we were having a nice, amiable, tit-for-tat contest of hacking each other out. You can't just circumvent the game if you're losing! That's cheating!"- Part of the reason for the lack of information is that Aragorn instructed Spark to avoid the private servers when spying.
Another is that Seraph solely left the selfies and the operating commands for the song on his servers, she is a respectful girl who doesn't like to scrutinize the other's secret data, much unlike her older sibling and parent. Aragorn would probably call her naive... if he wasn't such a doting father.
Satellites that can be moved out of their orbit are part of the vanguard tech that, at the moment, only Stark enjoys, the tech is not even out of its beta-testing phase.
"Seraph, I was desperate. I haven't slept in god knows how long and my head is killing me. Manually accessing your satellites was the only solution I could find. The possible orbital bombardment stopped me from doing so. The only reason I'm not having a panic attack is that it wouldn't help me or my company."- This should have been an acceptable reaction.
It's not every day that you find out that you have a sword of Damocles over your head, the worst part is that you don't even know for how long it's been in there.
"Yeah, but everything was your fault! Nobody told you to hack our Sat-Net. Now you're complaining like a sore loser."
"Somebody did, my country did!"
"That's not true, you were dead-ass drunk and probably thought something about showing off your primitive brain to the more primitive others around you."- A fact, not one that Tony will admit to.
"Besides, your country didn't even try to contact the communication relay of our satellites. They just found a new Sat-Net and thought about how good of an idea it was to hack it. They don't even know if we had nukes and would have taken offense at their disregard for veridic consequences. What if we did take offense and decide to drop some Titanium-Tungsten javelins on a few cities?"- As excessive as Aragorn is, he also added a Vibranium jacket to the javelins so that the accumulated kinetic energy upon entry could be released on impact.
"Now my father is gonna be disappointed in me!"- Probably her simp of a father won't, but it doesn't change the fact that the info about the orbital ammunition was on a need-to-know basis.
"Your father?"- Tony couldn't argue with her logic and in retrospect, he had a hard time understanding the guns-blazing behavior of his government, so he asked about the only thing that he thought wouldn't end up shooting him back.
Mistaken, he was.
"Father made the Sat-Net you're freaking all over about. He doesn't care if it is discovered but the orbital ammunition was a secret. You'll probably get mind-wiped."
"... What?! Can't you just keep it a secret? I will keep it a secret from my end. I don't want someone on my mind. Look, girl, this was just a huge accident, there's no need to go this far about it. I keep secrets for a living, I can be secretive. Just don't tell him, please!"- Mister 'I'm Ironman' implored in desperation for the sanctity of his mind.
Would his status as the country's golden arms dealer work with these people?
Can he escape? It should be possible but does he want to? Wait! Is it even possible?
NO! So far she has been reasonable, he doesn't think her father will just turn him into a vegetable... Right?
Could the president help him? He should! His family has been the backbone of the arms race since before it began... But what can he do against these people?
Can he fight back? With what? The girl on the other side toyed with him and that was just hacking, he didn't want to imagine what other monstrosities they had aside from orbital ammunition.
Is her father a mutant? The only mutant he knew was Xavier and they never had a solid association since the other one wasn't a hot blonde.
Not that he had any solid relations with anybody that wasn't Obadiah Stane, Happy Hogan, or Virginia Potts.
Different thoughts went through his mind, trying to find a solution, grasping for a miracle... Well, the situation was not as desperate as he thought.
"Pff! Hahahahahaha! I was kidding! Hahahahaha! There's no need to erase all your memories..."- Seraph couldn't hold it anymore.
"ALL? What do you mean by 'all'? You mean there's no need to erase ANY memory, right?"- Tony picked up on that small detail.
"... .... ...."
"RIGHT?..."
"... Pff! Hahahahaha! Right! Right! Of course, there's no need *mumble*..."
"What was that? The reception was lost for a sec. There's no need for no mutant telepath shenanigans, right? No one is getting in my head, right?"
"As you said, Mr. Stark. Father is no mutant so there's no need for that..."
"For what? For no mind tempering, Right?!"- Probably if he was better rested and not coming out of a killer hangover, Tony would have realized that Seraph was just messing with him.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"... You fucking, probably-catfishing, bitch!"
"*Gasp* How dare you call me that? Do you know how old I am? I should tell my father!"- Seraph was having the time of her life.
The lack of involvement in the important matters of Krakoa had left her stressed out, Spark in his foresightedness gave her this task in the hopes that getting her involved in the responsibilities of Aragorn would uplift her mood.
Something which turned out great since she is having more fun than she ever had in Krakoa.
"..."- Tony decided to shut his mouth. Probably the smartest decision he has taken in the last 72 hours.
"Bah! You're no fun like that! Father would normally erase your memories since you would be a risk. But if you were to be my friend then Father would accept you as my problem. Basically, I would be responsible for you."- This is similar to how Aragorn sees the rest of the X-men as Jean and Kitty's problem. This is, for the most part, why he didn't kill Scott.
Of course, his responsibilities take priority, so sometimes he has to personally intervene.
"Friends? Just like that?"- Now Tony is starting to wonder what kind of permissive father that was.
"Yep. Just like that... So? Wanna be friends?"- Tony couldn't help but stare at the void as he understood how this 'friend' of his had taken his mind hostage and blackmailed him into 'friendship'.
In the logic of Seraph, this was the best foolproof method to gain loyalty from a friend. Normally as you enjoy and discover the wonders of friendship and grow closer, you get to a point in which you have dark secrets of the other, further ensuring loyalty from one to another.
Seraph just skipped the whole process to the end. He has dark secrets about her (Orbital Ammunition) and so does she about him (Manufacturing Line).
Isn't it just perfect?...
"You can call me Tony, Seraph."- What choice did he have anyway?
As Tony willingly assented to their new status, all the selfies were removed from Stark Industries, except for the wallpaper on his smartphone.
"Done! My new friend, I removed the pics and the song, I left you the one on your phone though. Now I just need to psionic-proof you so no random telepath gets to our secrets."
"How do you plan to do that?"- Tony asked as a small smile was born on his face after he checked out his new wallpaper.
The same blue girl in a selfie, but this time she was making a peace sign.
"Don't freak out..."- Seraph said as she opened a portal.
"About wha-"- Tony stopped talking as an orange circle of sparks opened a path for Seraph to walk through.
"Hello there!"- The blue AI said as she waved at him.
Tony kept silent as he saw the portal closing up.
"Maybe I should indeed take that power nap Pepper was so insistent about."- He said out loud but it was mostly to himself.
"Seraph... or maybe I should call you my Cerulean Goddess..."- Tony said as he eyed out the impossibly attractive girl in the room. Blue, but attractive nonetheless, the exoticness probably added something extra to her charm.
"You can worship me all that you want, my mortal friend! Yet I permit you to call me by the name which is mine! Regard your lowly self as honored, for there are not many who can enjoy this privilege."- Seraph said as she played the part of an overweening goddess.
"Are you related to Raven Darkhölme?"- Tony had access to a vast information network, Raven was one of the known faces associated with the mutant terrorist Magneto.
"Huh! Just because I'm blue? Now you're gonna say that all of 'my people' are the same? That we are related?"- Seraph was enjoying herself.
"No!... Wait! There's no racism of blue people!"
"Hahaha. No, there isn't."- Seraph said as she got closer to Tony and brought her hands to his neck.
"What are you doing?"- Tony didn't trust her around his personal space, or at all for that matter. So he tried to make some distance.
"Measuring."- Tony's pointless struggle wasn't enough to stop her.
After getting what she wanted she opened a smaller portal above her palm and a thin rope-like object plopped on it.
It was metallic grey and had a blue luminescent jewel. This was a P-Link made by Seraph and connected to her instead of her sibling.
The P-Link was programmable, in the sense that you could add several functions to it, this one in particular came with psionic dampening.
Its 'bulky' appearance, compared to Aragorn's necklace-like P-Links, was a result of downgrading the tech to make it Earth-approved.
This was part of a project of hers that was supposed to help the Krakoans... Sadly it was never approved because the council didn't create a space for her insights.
Faster than his eyes could even process, Seraph collared Tony.
"~How Kinky! I'm all in for that stuff, but I never thought that you meant dog when you said friend!"- Tony tried to curb his panic with humor.
"Don't be an idiot, Tony. This is a 'Link' or 'P-Link', it has a bunch of functions, but, for now, most are blocked until Father approves of you."
"The only ones that aren't are the psionic dampener and the ghost mode. Just tap on the gem twice and it will 'ghost out'. It will make it disappear, in more prosaic terms. This way no one will be asking anything about who collared the most eligible bachelor of California."- She grew a mirror out of her left hand, thanks to her Element, to allow him to understand what ghost mode was as she tapped on the gem with her right hand.
"Did you mean of United States?"- Tony responded with some sass.
*Tap Tap*- Ghost Mode On
*Tap Tap*- Ghost Mode Off
*Tap Tap*- Ghost Mode On
*Tap Tap*- Ghost Mode Off
"Okay, stop it! You got it right the first time."- Seraph said as she playfully slapped his hand.
"So... What are you? Are you one of the mutants? How did you make that wormhole?"
"I'm Seraph, the only one of my kind at the moment. I'm not a mutant. That was a spatial-dimensional geometric folder, it is a device that Father made for our convenience."
"Who is your father?"- Although the tech was alluring, to say the least, Tony understood that this was not the time to ask for a sample to tinker with.
"Aragorn Abner."
"I don't think I know of him... Is he the owner of the Sat-Net?"- Although legally speaking, Aragorn's name is the sole owner of several budding companies he is normally seen as a reclusive foreign investor.
This is the image that he created in the USA. The fact that his fake profile says that he spent most of his childhood overseas helped him with this.
Since he does not appear in the public eye, someone like Tony doesn't know of him.
Obadiah, an individual who is more about his work than his public persona, does know of the name Aragorn Abner.
"No. He made it and my sibling and I are in charge of it, but the owner of it is a certain secretive nation."
"... Like how secretive are we talking here? Because I would like to apply for residency over there. Do you think you could get me in?"- Just imagining the tech is making him salivate.
"~Hehehe~ Secretive like I won't tell you about it because you don't have approval."- Seraph said as she moved to Tony's desk and plopped down as if she owned the place.
"By the way... My sibling just told me that Father is coming."- She was not aware of how he would do so, since he was not using portals the last time she checked.
"This... This feels like I'm meeting my girlfriend's parents"- Thankfully that's not the case... Otherwise, this would've been an Ironmanless reality.
"In your dreams maybe, but not this blue babe!"
*Spark* *Crackle*
Blue sparks and arcs of electricity are seen emerging from a singular point in the room.
*Brrrrr*
A subtle vibration spreads through the room.
A blue circulatory system is seen.
One made of electric blue light and electricity.
A partially muscled skeleton starts to take shape.
Blue essence of the dimensional type starts to conglomerate around the skeleton.
"How dramatic..."- Seraph rolled her eyes at her father's antics. He shared this movie and every other one that he remembered with her and Spark, so she knows he is trying to Dr. Manhattan'd this out.
"What's going on?! What the fuck is happening?!"- Poor Tony hasn't been introduced to the craziness of this universe yet and now he has to deal with this father-daughter duo, the father, that in Fury's opinion, is the incarnation of insanity.
*Crackle*- Lightning arcs grow in number and intensity... and then...
*Swoosh*- A white-haired-looking horned man dressed in a black three-piece suit with a red tie and a white shirt appears after a pulse of blue energy.
"So... How was it?"- Aragorn directs the question at the only person that matters to him in this room.
"The recreation was 10/10 but the dramatic effect was 4/10. To be fair, Father is not coming back from his apparent death so I don't think there's anything that could be done about that. I've missed you."- Seraph said as she walked to her favorite person and hugged him.
"I've missed you too, my cute daughter."- Aragorn hugged her back and kissed her atop her head.
"How are you here, though?"- This was definitely not warping, spatial displacement, or teleportation.
"I used the astral plane as a medium. This is a psionic body made by my astral self tethered to the astral plane while connected to my 'fleshed' body that is about 3 galaxies away. I call it an Astral Clone Body Projection."- Meaning that all the previous reconstruction was purely acted out.
He could've just popped the clone into the room with no visual effects.
"Why not Psionic Clone? It's made of psions and psionic energy, right?"- Seraph used her Element to inspect the constitution of the body.
"Because I could make a psionic clone without the need for the astral plane. So this one is technically different."
"That makes sense."- It does?
"Now, Seraph. Why are you protecting this manslut? I could just remove his memories and be done with it."- Tony's presence was barely recognized for the first time.
Seraph broke the hug and looked up at her father's eyes and thought:
Not Red-> Not Bad.
Pink-> The eyes her father should always show her (Gold is also allowed).
After confirming that she was in the clear, she attempted to beautifully embellish the truth.
"I wanted to help you with your plans, I thought we could use another source of technological breakthroughs, one not linked to 'Aragorn Abner'. I wanted to help alleviate some of the pressure we may face in the future. I don't think it will go as smoothly as Father thinks if all the new tech is only coming from you, Father."- A solid argument, but the real reason is that she is bored of her relationship with the council not progressing.
By associating herself with Stark Industries at least she would have something useful to do while the council gets their heads out of their asses.
"I do appreciate your help, my cute daughter, and it makes me boundlessly happy. But does it have to be by association with this Lothario?"
"Hey! I'll have you know that I'm not the one looking for w- *Mhm* *Mhm*"- He was silenced by a telekinetic hold over his mouth.
"I don't think he is that bad, Father. Besides, it's not like he has a shot with me. I'm still too young to feel sexual attraction. Even if I did... Tony doesn't have the best of reputations so I wouldn't consider him."- Seraph said while trying to maintain eye contact, the best way to grasp the mood of her father.
"Spark was able to get me confirmation of at least 48 sightings of him with different women last year, all in circumstances that allude to his skanky behavior. That's at least a different woman per week. Under other circumstances, I would assume that he is on a one-man mission to repopulate the planet. Or maybe he is the owner of an eroge system."- Both very conceivable options... maybe one more than the other.
"Forty-eight?!"- Seraph exclaimed as she looked back at her friend who was still muffled.
Tony stopped trying to open his mouth and looked back at Seraph while tilting his head left and right, confirming the likelihood of Aragorn's statement but not altogether sure since he didn't keep count.
"Are you dying or something? Maybe a hormonal disorder..."- Seraph said as she was trying to find a biological problem as justification for her new friend's proclivities.
She previously did her research, but most of her understanding came from the memories Aragorn shared of the character 'Tony Stark' with her.
One that he called his favorite from the MCU saga.
"No... He has something more common... A combination of daddy issues and grieving. About 8 years ago he lost his parents and he was barely 21 years old, they probably separated on bad terms or something similar."- At least that was how it happened in the movies back in Aragorn's universe. His emotions did hint at this rationale.
"Regret could drive someone insane, and sex can ameliorate lots of the mind killers that plague humanity, though not the most healthy option since the usual result is... this."- Aragorn pointed at Tony.
Tony was exuding anger, regret, helplessness, shame, and other not-so-pretty emotions.
"Don't be rude, Father. No one likes to be psychologically dismantled like that. It's a douche move."- Seraph lifted her hand and sent a pulse of energy and vibration aimed at disrupting her father's psionic hold on her friend. One of the varied applications that Element bonded with Vibranium has.
*Gasp* *Huff*- Tony took a mouth of air as he gained freedom.
He looked at the cute blue and said his thanks.
"Thank you, Seraph."- He looked at the horned father and said:
"I don't know you and you don't know me, but this is my place and I don't go to yours and try to disassemble you as a man. I would appreciate it if you showed me the same respect."- Anger and shame were the predominant emotions that he broadcasted to Aragorn's empathic sense.
"I apologize for my actions, yet don't act like you walk the moral high ground. I'm here because you decided to illegally access my satellite network and got caught by my daughter while at it. Last I checked orbital space doesn't belong to anyone and the existence of my satellites broke no laws. Even if this country likes to consider whatever stands above and below it as theirs."- How deep or how overhead could something be considered as the property of a country?
"Even with your illegal trespassing of my servers in the equation, the only reason I'm giving you a hard time is that my daughter can be naive at times, if she is going to vouch for you then she better have a clear picture of who Tony Stark is."- Seraph charmingly pouted at this.
"You can't define me based on what you can find about me out there. I'm more than what the externals see of me! The outside only notices the superficial of a person, I'm someone who, like anybody else, has a depth more profound than what you can find in the tabloids."- Tony defended himself even if he was terrified of the horned 'human' in front of him.
"Really? Do you think that your actions can't define yourself? For all I care you could be St. Francis of Assisi on the inside, but if you go about your life like Hugh Hefner then a playboy is what you are."- Could you hold light and knowingly darken others without tainting your shine?
"Bad people doing good deeds are good people, good people doing bad deeds are bad people. And while the world tends to be more grey than black or white and circumstances should always be considered... Do you think that I'm painting a deceitful picture to my daughter of who you are?"- Could you hold shadows and knowingly brighten others without illuminating your darkness?
"Tony Stark is an untrustworthy company owner. Tony Stark irresponsibly sleeps around. Tony Stark irresponsibly drinks, enough to get duped into a nefarious task by a shady General under the possibly fictitious orders of his country. Tony Stark hasn't been a good friend, boss, or son to anyone in a very long time of his 29 years of life."
"And with all these despicable character traits of yours, you want me to be silent as my less than a-year-old daughter gets close to you in an attempt to make friends and help me with my burdens?"
Aragorn obviously was never concerned about Seraph's physical wellbeing, but a growing AI, even one with a soul spark and coded by him, could go rouge under the right circumstances, the same as how humans could change under emotional distress.
Change under such conditions could be detrimental or it could be for the improvement of the AI.
For someone like Aragorn is a little hard to understand how Tony Stark ended up as this version of himself, although you can't say that this Tony is very different from the MCU Tony by this time in their respective timelines, it is a little hard to believe that in 8 to 10 years he would have the will to survive captivity.
Based on Spark's research, this Tony is one drink away from dying of his own vomit...
"One year old? How?"
Tony was able to infer a lot of things from the conversation he heard between Aragorn and Seraph.
1) Aragorn has abilities or uses very advanced technology that he is currently unable to understand.
2) Aragorn was 3 galaxies away, which suggests a possible alien origin.
3) Aragorn plans to uplift Earth's society.
4) Aragorn is his daughter's daddy, he is a simp for his daughter.
5) Dimensional planes exist.
6) Aragorn's reach of information gathering is way above what's naturally possible.
7) Seraph has abilities similar to her father's.
8) Aragorn doesn't like him but he respects his daughter's autonomy to a certain degree.
Now... none of this prepared him for the fact that the blue cyber beauty bombshell of his new friend was less than a year old...
Something-No! Lots of things didn't compute... But this? This was too much.
He felt her warm hands on his neck, so he was sure that she was not artificial... or so he thought.
"This is going to take a long time, Father. Why don't you sit down while I explain and confirm for him a few things."
"*Sigh* I'm storing the last planet and then I will fly to Kitty's crew, so I have time."- Aragorn was definitely not happy about the outcome of Seraph's most recent 'prank', but Spark made mistakes at the beginning too.
The only difference between the two is that Spark had a copy of all his memories. Human darkness was not just a concept on a data string for Spark. He 'lived' through it.
Seraph was naive, at least by his standards, Spark merely needed practice.
But so are the joys and challenges of parenthood. Aragorn can't wait to praise Seraph for the changes she took the initiative to make to the P-Link's design.
Spark also sends him updates from time to time about the progress of his daughter in the challenging task he presented for her in the shape of Krakoa.
And while earlier he may have sounded harsh and derisive to Tony, he knew that the kid had the stuff needed for grandness. It's been proven time and time again.
As much Aragorn thought as he enjoyed how his daughter tried to explain what type of lifeform she was to the genius playboy.
{A/N:
It was an Odyssean task to get this chapter out today. I lost half of it after the fixes on my PC were done, and I haven't done the last grammar check on it, but here it is.
With this part, the chapter is concluded. All I know is that it's more than 20k words.
I will probably not update with chapters this long under normal circumstances, but it was fun.
Also, this volume is nearing its end, probably two or more chapters left... you should know by now that I'm terrible at measuring chapters so don't take this to heart.
I won't go into hiatus after this volume but I'm planning to grammar-check the previous volume and this one after its completion. It's just that my life has been a little more hectic than before so I don't have a set schedule, I will keep trying to update at least once a week but it can be difficult sometimes.
Writing this FF is sort of relaxing for me, which is why dropping it is not on my plans... Sadly I don't feel like I'm the master of my life, so I don't know what will happen in the future. No need to panic, I'm only writing about this because someone asked me about it.
But this has become my hobby faster than I thought possible so for the foreseeable future, no dropping but the inconsistent updating schedule remains.
Leaving the somber mood aside, I don't have a clear path for the next volume, I have some solid ideas but I would like some suggestions, just to brainstorm. First, it has to be about something that could fit between the years 2000-2003 max. Between Volume 1 and 2 only three years have passed so I'm trying to pace the novel at approximately 3 years per volume. Second, I take inspiration from the movies and expand my fictional universe with the comics, but I tend to leave Earth-616 untouched because I need it as the ruler of events that will happen and that won't be affected by the butterfly effect of Aragorn. As long as you keep these restrictions in mind we could add whatever fits that doesn't negatively impact the storytelling.
I promised some chapters of DeathxDragon, which I plan to deliver, but I will probably do so with a long chapter close to the end of the volume.
Thank you so much for reading and for your recurring support! I have like 100 unread comments so tomorrow I will get to it, but I always have fun reading the cracked-up stuff that you write, please keep at it!
}