A Test for Time Part 3
Jake backtracked to the elevator and hopped down the shaft. He deployed his wings and started heading downward. Was he immediately going to head for the 18th floor that Sinister said he was on? Hell no, Jake didn't believe that guy at all. He flew right down towards the second floor, where he once vaporized the elevator doors from the inside as he entered. This floor seemed much like the first, except it wasn't just an empty hallway.
The first door Jake found in the hallway was labeled to his suprise. "Let's see here," he said. "This room is Weapons and Munitions..." Jake took a second to read that before he burst out laughing and entered the room with glee.
He couldn't stop laughing at what he saw in the room. There were guns... all the guns. Hundreds of crates of assault rifles, probably hundreds of thousands of bullets, RPGs, grenades. This room literally had it all!
"Don't mind if I do," Jake snickered to himself as he walked over to crate after crate of guns and promptly stored them all away in his inventory. Did he need any of these weapons? No, no, he did not. Was he stealing them just to piss off Sinister? Yes, yes, he was. But what use were guns without ammunition? So Jake promptly walked over to all the crates of bullets and hand grenades before storing those in his inventory space as well. After a few minutes, he had pretty much depleted Sinister's entire arsenal of weapons. Could he have just destroyed them all with his power of destruction? He figured he could have, but the reaction wouldn't have been the same.
And there was that reaction now – "Are you seriously robbing me right now, you piece of shit! What kind of hero are you!?" The voice of Sinister echoed throughout the room, originating from the intercoms. He actually sounded pretty mad and quite a lot less smug than his drone robot did earlier. Jake looked to the corner of the room where a camera was watching him. He just waved at it with a smirk before hitting it with a bombarda. He doubted he was going to find any prisoners on this floor so close to the surface, but he couldn't leave so soon after getting such a great reaction from that guy, could he?
Jake smiled at himself in glee as he entered the next few rooms. This entire floor seemed to be dedicated to storage because Jake found some pretty good things here so far. In the next room over from the weapons, he found a pile of cash that was all in hundred-dollar bills. He estimated that to be a few million dollars. He immediately swiped all of it. The screams of rage he got from Sinister, who was watching him on each of the room's surveillance cameras, were also pretty cathartic for Jake. Apparently, he had just swiped the massive research funds he'd collected over the past few years.
Done pilfering the villain's funds, Jake headed back down the shaft to the third floor. Instead of another metallic hallway, though, Jake was met with a massive botany room that seemed to be dedicated solely to growing crops.
Jake wondered why a supervillain had a botany room. Maybe he enjoyed gardening as a hobby between his evil plots? "Incendio," Jake raised his hand and unleashed a wave of fire that started engulfing all the plants in the room in flames. Within only a few seconds, they were all destroyed and turned to ash. Jake was waiting for that angry response from Sinister, and the supervillain did not disappoint…
An enraged and stupefied voice went out over the room's intercoms. "Y-You bastard! How dare you... Those plants were specially cultivated by myself, and some of them had taken over a decade to create! Do you know how many of my experiments you just RUINED!!!" His angry screams blared over the speakers as Jake smirked. He figured he was doing a pretty great job of pissing this guy off. An angry enemy is one that will slip up after all…
Finished trashing the third floor, Jake decided to head down towards the fourth. This floor also didn't have a hallway, as it turned out to be a giant training room that spanned the whole area. Jake could see various targets and obstacles scattered throughout. If there was going to be a place Sinister truly wanted to fight him, it would have been here. Now Jake knew the guy was full of shit. Movement across the room drew Jake's eyes.
"..."
On the other side of the room, one of the walls actually had a panel that opened to the side and revealed another secret elevator. The doors opened, and out marched Sinister along with a beautiful blonde girl walking behind him.
"Yoooooouuuuu," Sinister spoke menacingly. "Why couldn't you just act like all the other naive heroes and meet me on the 18th floor where I said I was!" He said while seething at Jake.
"I mean, that was obviously a trap, right?" Jake replied. "Why the hell would I ever take the word of a guy who would kill his subordinates just to spite his enemies."
Sinister scoffed at Jake. "Of course, that floor wasn't a trap! I just wanted us to fight there because it was currently empty and wouldn't damage any of my other experiments. Isn't that right, Emma dear?" Sinister turned and spoke to the beautiful woman behind him.
Jake could tell she was human by the way she moved. Something about her seemed off, though. She replied to Sinister in a monotone voice. "That is incorrect, Master. That entire floor was pumped full of a potent airborne neurotoxin along with various lethal traps scattered everywhere," she said dryly, like she hadn't just exposed her master's evil scheme to try and kill Jake.
Jake just gave a dry stare directed at Sinister in response to her statement. The villain scowled angrily as he turned and smacked the girl in the face! "Why the hell didn't you lie along with me!" He screamed at her. He was Mr. Sinister, one of the most vile and nefarious beings in the world, and today he was being made to look like an absolute fool! He was furious!
"I apologize, Master. You commanded me to never lie in your presence," she said. Jake was wondering if she was another clone or maybe someone who was captured and under mind control. She was acting far too strange to be anything else. Most people show some emotion after getting smacked in the face after all…
"It's okay to lie to my enemies! In fact, I order you to lie to my enemies from now on about everything!" Sinister commanded her.
"Understood, Master," she replied blandly. Sinister felt like he heard a hint of bitterness in her tone, though. That worried him. Sinister knew that her body was currently completely under his control, but her powerful psychic mind was constantly trying to resist in petty ways like that. At least now, with that command, Sinister was temporarily assured that she wouldn't be able to hand over any more valuable information. Not that he was planning to let her live much longer anyway.
"So, are you here in person this time, or are you just another robot too scared to face me a second time?" Jake asked. He had a suspicion it was still the latter, which was confirmed by Sinister.
Sinister just laughed. "Here in person? I've never been here in person. I have a dozen bases across the world, all operating via these drones of mine that I control remotely. No one will ever find my true location!" He bragged, spreading his arms wide with a laugh. "And I can recognize a lost cause when I see one," he said with a grin at the end.
"WARNING! THIS BASE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN 10 MINUTES. WARNING! WARNING!" Alarms rang out over the room.
"Hahaha, either you escape now and leave your captured friend to die in nuclear fire, or you try to defuse the warhead which could be hidden on any of the remaining floors!" Sinister cackled evilly.
"A nuclear bomb!?" Jake said shocked before he cursed out loud. "How the hell does this guy just casually have a nuke lying around!?" Jake knew he didn't have enough time to search the remaining 16 floors for Thor and the bomb in only 10 minutes!
He needed to know where that bomb was, but there was no way the drone Sinister would tell him. 'Wait!' Jake thought to himself. 'Would the girl know where it was?'
He turned towards the blonde girl next to Sinister. "You there, how do I stop this place from being destroyed?" He was basically throwing out a Hail Mary by asking her… ironic considering his race.
To Jake's bafflement and Sinister's despair, she actually responded to him. "The nuclear bomb is NOT hidden on the 20th floor in the Master's secret office. You CANNOT access that location directly using the hidden elevator we came out of."
Sinister sputtered out in indignation. "Y-you. I ordered you to lie!" He screamed at her.
"...I did lie."
Sinister scowled in fury. "I don't even care anymore! You and whoever you came to rescue will all die here anyway! Emma, I command you to fight this intruder to the death! You will not stop fighting until you are DEAD no matter what!" Sinister commanded her. He was surprised when he noticed her face twitch as she tried to resist the command for a moment! His mental programming won out in the end, though, and she turned to face Jake.
Jake was surprised when the girl turned to him and every part of her body morphed into solid diamond! She rushed at him faster than a normal human but not quite angel fast. She reeled back her leg and tried to kick Jake in the side. Jake caught her kick easily before he went for a punch across her face.
CLANG!
"Ow!" Jake said as he shook his hand in minor pain from punching her diamond-hard face. He quickly formed an ice gauntlet on his hand before punching her again. This time she was ragdolled backwards and sent flying.
"WARNING! SELF-DESTRUCT IN 8 MINUTES!"
"Quit playing with him, Emma, and kill him with your psychic powers!" Sinister's drone commanded from the sides.
"That's enough out of you!" Jake yelled as he fired a large wave of destruction magic right towards the remote controlled robot.
"You fu-" was all Sinister was able to say before the drones entire upper body was vaporized by the wave of destruction. The bottom half just collapsed to the ground, sparking with burnt wires sticking out. Jake couldn't let his guard down yet as he still had to deal with the mind controlled woman.
Emma was forced to obey the command as her diamond form disappeared. Currently she could only use her psychic abilities when not in her diamond form. She once again took her natural form before launching a psychic attack directly at Jake's mind.
"Fuck!" Jake screamed in pain as he clutched his head in agony. An instant later, his vision cut out...
...
Jake found himself standing in what seemed like a white void. Across from him was Emma, the girl who had just attacked him.
"Hello, Jake," she spoke in a normal tone, catching him by surprise.
"Hello, Emma, was it?" He asked, and she nodded.
"I am Emma Frost," she introduced herself with a smile. Her voice had a lot of confidence behind it. "I'm a mutant who was abducted by Sinister a while ago." She scowled. "I don't know how, but somehow he was able to completely take control of most of my mind and body away from me and forced me to be his slave."
Hearing that, Jake felt bad for her. That must have been horrible.
"So, where are we right now?" Jake asked her, looking around the white void.
"This is where my true consciousness has been trapped," she answered. "I've had nothing but this empty void in my mind for over a month now. The only reason I haven't gone insane is I've been able to watch through the eyes of my body what it was doing." She explained as she waved her hand, and a large screen appeared out of nowhere. On the screen, Jake saw himself on the floor, clutching his head in pain. "This is what is occurring now," she said. "I pulled your consciousness in here when our minds connected."
"Why?" Jake asked her.
"At first, it was because I thought I was going to kill you, and I didn't want you to have to experience the agony of receiving a psychic lobotomy." That term freaked Jake out a bit before she kept going. "But then something strange started happening. Your mind is adapting to the psychic attack and is slowly building a resistance to it! I wouldn't have known why unless I read your memories."
"You what!?" Jake exclaimed. She read his memories? He was not okay with that at all!
"Well, it happened," she said curtly. She didn't seem remorseful about it at all. She had already done it and she wasn't one to apologize so easily.
"So, what is it you want with me?" He asked her.
"I told you, I've read your memories. All of them!" She declared. "I was raised to be a queen by my father. He was a brutal man who did whatever it took to make our family's company rise to the peak. He raised me to be a queen in an organization he belonged to called the Hellfire Club. A secret organization that essentially runs the world's underground businesses." She explained to him.
Jake followed along. He figured she was basically a less spoiled and more driven version of Rias.
"If you're comparing me to your half-sister, then you would be correct," she said, surprising him.
That was exactly what he was thinking? Was she reading his mind now?
"And no, I can't read your mind when you're literally in my mind currently. I can just tell from your expression. We psychics are really good at reading people. Also, we should hurry, the countdown just hit 7 minutes, and your mental resistance due to your weird bloodline is increasing rapidly. We won't be able to stay connected much longer," she explained.
"So, get to the point then." Jake said.
"Fine!" she pouted at him. "I was raised to be a queen, and after seeing your memories, that's what I want to be! A devil queen! You'll never find anyone more qualified than me to be your second-in-command for your future peerage. I was born and raised to lead, after all!" She puffed out her chest as she declared proudly.
"I had a hunch you were going in that direction with all your talk about being raised a queen. You know I'm from another dimension, right? And wouldn't you be giving up leading the Hellfire Club?" He asked her. He had to be honest with himself. She was incredibly beautiful, her psychic powers were very deadly, and she definitely had the confidence and know-how to be his queen. But he wondered if she was willing to leave this world in the future and move to his? Could she give up her current life to follow his?
Emma just shrugged sadly with a small smile. "How long could I lead the club as a queen anyway? 10 years, maybe 20 if I'm lucky. Eventually, my beauty will fade as I age, and a new girl will dethrone me. But as a devil, I will be young and beautiful forever!" She had a gleam in her eye as she said that. Jake gave her props for being honest with her desires at least. He always appreciated honesty after all.
She continued, "Plus, you've only been on this earth for a few days, so you are not aware that mutants are severely discriminated against. I've been hiding my mutant status from everyone but my family, but if it got out… my life would be over. And I mean that in the literal sense, as I would probably be killed by the club members who hate mutants. If it came out that I was a devil, though, well, let's just say that the Hellfire Club has a fair bit of Satan worshippers, non-ironically. You and I would be pretty much worshiped there until the day we chose to return to your home dimension. So yes… or no." She asked him. He could see a hint of pleading in her expression that she was trying to mask. She was clearly nervous he would say no.
Jake didn't have time to ponder her words because of the bomb. He had to make a now-or-never decision. "Fine, then I'll make you my queen," he said, and she sighed in relief before she gave him a large smile with a hint of sultriness behind it.
"You won't be disappointed," she said. "Together, we are going to do big things! Now go kill my body and resurrect me as your queen!"
"Wait, what!?" Jake asked, shocked.
"Sinister commanded me to fight to the death no matter what. You won't be able to reincarnate me until his conditioning is broken." She scowled. "So go kill me and get it removed!" She said before mentally shoving him out of her mind.
...
"Ow!" Jake said as he stood up from where his body was lying on the ground. His head was throbbing, probably from being mind blasted for the past minute or two by Emma's psychic attack. He saw her body in front of him, just giving him a blank look. She was probably still trying to mentally attack him, but now he was probably completely immune to mental attacks like that. "I'm sorry about this, Emma," Jake said as he focused on all of his pain, anger, and wrath and directed it towards the spell he'd never cast before.
"Avada Kedavra!" The killing curse flew forward and connected with Emma's body. Like a puppet with no strings, she immediately dropped to the ground dead…. Jake chose to use the killing curse because it wouldn't physically damage her body. He didn't have Blaze here to heal her mortal wounds after she was revived.
From his magical inventory, Jake pulled out his box of evil pieces and opened it. He pulled out and placed the queen piece over her heart, where it slowly sank inwards, fusing to her very being. "I, Jake Gremory, hereby declare that you shall live for me henceforth as my devil servant."
A moment later, she sat up with a hacking cough. "So that was death, huh?" She wheezed out. "I never want to experience that again… I felt like I saw the Grim Reaper for a second, but I must have just been hallucinating or something…" She muttered out. Jake had never died before, so he just shrugged as he wouldn't know.
"WARNING, SELF-DESTRUCT IN 5 MINUTES!"
"We've got to hurry!" Emma said, standing up, and Jake followed her to the no longer secret elevator.
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