A small army of over 100,000 was gone, and their ships were left unattended, ripe for the taking. I gave the order with a mental command, and Sentinels, each connected to Manny's mind, density-shifted in, navigating past the robust wards and infiltrating the ships completely.
"Scan the runes, and do the usual stuff."
That constituted stealing their engine tech, taking their valuables, and robbing them of their data. Everything else was useless to me. I could grow any metal I integrated into my armor, and I'd been busy adding microscopic metal bits aside from Arcanite.
With Manny's help, it'd only taken me days into my crusade to figure out nanotechnology and how to integrate it into my armor. Technically, I didn't have to summon it anymore. It could now transform into my clothes, realistically mirroring the movement and texture of regular fabric.
And then there were my planetoids. They were big improvements on the ones I used to take down Lauren. Each one was packed with over 1,000 Sentinels, armed with a quarter of a million AE and DE each, sonic cannons, repulsors, demonic techniques, and other technologies I'd harvested from my dead enemies: Palefyre, Darkness affinity, Light, and a bunch of other fantastical, esoteric shit, as well as a few overpowered mutant abilities.
Given the rumored performance of the cannons on our dead enemies' ships, I might consider integrating them into the planetoids themselves. They each possessed energy stores numbering in the hundreds of millions and had a high enough energy output to glass entire solar systems if I so wished, not to mention freeze time, rip people's souls from their bodies, fold space and time, and a bunch of other bullshit abilities, including the ones I'd recently gained from Hank Pym. I was still very much enjoying playing around with it.
Being able to directly tap into five of the six Infinity Stones made the entire ordeal a cakewalk, more or less. And I planned on eliminating my enemies with Avarice as soon as I retrieved the final stone.
Speaking of enemies, a copy of Manny manifested on the bridge and linked to me telepathically, relaying everything that had happened.
Kaecilius, it would seem, was getting too big for his britches. He was attempting some suicidal plan to bring back his loved ones using bargain-bin abilities he'd gotten off Shin before the Phoenix sent him scurrying off. Vampires, manipulating the Hulk, and galaxy-famous mercenaries wielding armies of Chitauri destroyers. It sounded like my kind of party.
But only if Jean wanted it to be. For a while now, she'd been looking after our interests on Earth while I tended to the cosmos. She was the reason there weren't big mutant stories on the news. They were awakening faster than ever, but with her telepathy she'd been addressing and diffusing big events worldwide before they became global news.
It'd taken me no time at all to create bracelets that dampened and reduced the potency of mutant powers. Most people, especially those with dangerous or inconvenient abilities, had them. So far, we'd issued only twelve. Everybody else was coping in their own time with Jean and most of the Widows playing therapist on Krakoa. Was it the best use of their considerable skill? No. But it certainly made sure new enemies weren't springing up from the woodwork.
As for the mutants that were too far gone, had killed people already, or were just plain awful people, they'd been shipped off to SHIELD, which kept them secured in the new and improved Raft. Obviously, it was a pipeline for their black-budget group, not that any member of the World Council would admit it.
"Hey, babe," I called out to Jean across space and time through a drone standing near her. She was in a garden of metal and stone, with massive trees from different parts of the world sprouting around her. Flowers were in full bloom, the air was dewy, and the sun was just the right temperature.
The place was practically paradise on Earth. I should know. My drones had spent days ensuring that it was.
"You know about the situation?" I asked as she demonstrated to a young psychic how to move a small piece of stone from one planter to another.
"Yup," she sent telepathically.
"Where do you want me?" I asked delicately, slightly unsure of how to approach the conversation. Things had been sensitive between us lately; two guesses as to why? And forcing an issue instead of letting her grieve at her own pace was bound to do more harm than good.
After all, she'd been there when it happened. She'd fought Lauren and Corvus.
"The space mercenaries," she said. "Though one of your planetoids won't hurt either. I need help with the vampire population. I'd like to spare some of them if I can help it."
I nodded. The vampires Kaecilius fielded were Vampire Dairies-style monsters, meaning they still had humanity deep inside them somewhere and could be assets if they were carefully monitored and cultivated. Though I was fine with killing them all anyway.
Maybe it was the wholesale slaughter of several million demons, but it was getting harder and harder to get myself to care.
"Good luck with rehabilitating them," I said, then added, "I made a huge dent in our soul fund today. The last army I took out yielded about 100 million souls."
"Oh?"
Although my system technically ran on the souls of people I killed and I could get stronger by processing them, I held off on doing both for now. We needed as much fuel as we could manage to make the trip across the multiverse and back. My safe number was 5 billion.
"The Chitauri army should give us quite the harvest," I said
"I'll keep Kaecilius alive for you," Jean said. "He should yield a tidy sum."
I nodded. "Well, uh... I guess I'll see you on the other side."
The telepathic call cut out awkwardly, and I scratched my head, my lips twisting into a slight frown. "Well, that went well."
"I estimate that it did, Sir," Manny chimed in, and I shot his avatar a glare.
"I know you understand sarcasm. I programmed you."
"I was just trying to comfort you, Sir."
I folded my arms, pouting. "Well, I don't need it. What I need is to rip an army apart... And I think I'm going to take my time this go-around. Been a while since I've had a good fight. Could stand to blow off some steam."
"You deserve a break, Sir. You're a great boyfriend."
I could swear the android was smiling. A wave of dimensional energy banished him.
"Where does he get off giving me sass?" I grumbled, teleporting halfway across the galaxy.
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