Alex was hugging Laura with one arm while the other hand was teasing her pussy. Two tendrils extended from his abdomen and attached to her breasts, forming a sort of four-petaled flower that was stuck over her nipples.
As more tendrils extended out of Alex's body to attach to Laura, she said, [Wait! Let's have sex first. I want to clearly feel everything.] She said as she looked at him imploringly.
He smiled at her and retracted all of the tendrils other than the ones attached to her breasts. [As my sexy lady wishes. We'll have a simple relatively simple sex experience before I take things further.] He said and Laura suddenly realized that her body was getting heavier and the water's buoyancy wasn't affecting her anymore. Alex also made the tall heels that were keeping her sunk lighter to free her legs.
With her body somewhat freed, she wrapped her arms around Alex's neck and kissed him deeply. As for Alex he grabbed her thighs and pulled them up, making Laura wrap her legs around him.
As she continued sucking his tongue, Alex took a step and she was pressed between a wall and Alex's chest as his bulge was prominently pressing against her snatch. She enjoyed every moment of their kiss while feeling the two tendrils that were attached to her nipples and teasing them, making her feel all sorts of unique sensations in her chest. Alex lowered his beach shorts and freed his dick as he pressed on her pussy.
[You're so wet, my Laura.] He said with a whisper as Laura felt her body tighten up when she felt his dick rubbing on her aroused pussy.
[Give it to me, Alex… I want to feel you…] She moaned out to him while desperately sucking air from his mouth.
Alex smiled after hearing her desperate plea and didn't do anything. He kept kissing her while rubbing his erection along her slit without putting it in.
[Stop teasing me, you dick… Just fuck me already. I've been waiting for this for a month…] She lashed out at him and aggressively kissed him back. She again tried to raise herself to put his dick in by herself, but he made sure that she failed, [Alexx~] She whined.
[Such a needy girl…] He laughed and pressed the tip on her folds, [All mine. All of you, everything. It's all mine…] His possessive words lit up a fire in Laura's stomach as she felt her pussy being spread apart by the invasion of his cock.
As the tip entered her, a tendril went from Alex's body to Laura's belly button and a similar flower-like mouth fixed itself over it.
Laura writhed in Alex's embrace when she felt that similar sensation appear on her belly button and when she felt a tongue-like object licking her there, she convulsed her body, tightening her hold over Alex even more.
As his cock kept invading her body, Alex and Laura's kiss got more and more passionate, with both of them trying to meld into one another.
Just as he encountered a barrier, Alex told her, [Welcome to the land of infinite pleasure…] He joked as his cock breached her hymen and went even deeper inside her.
[MMm~] She could only moan at the feeling of pleasure that she got when his cock truly entered her. She did feel the pain of her hymen being ripped, but under the myriad sensations that she was experiencing right now, that was nothing.
As Alex kept going, Laura got more and more excited. She happily swayed her body and moved in tandem with Alex's thrusts. As his cock kissed her cervix, Laura almost lost control right there. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she experienced the sensation of truly being fucked by Alex to such an extent.
[More~] She mumbled to him as he made sure to keep their lips locked together. He didn't want her to pull back and end up drinking water. Although not a big issue for him to fix, he didn't want to ruin their experience.
As they kept going, Alex felt Laura getting closer and closer to her climax.
[Try not to cum so soon, because just as you cum, I'm starting the bond with your organs. You aren't gonna be conscious of that process. I can guarantee that…] He said deviously as Laura barely held her orgasm back.
But her resistance was only going to last for some time. And within minutes, her body convulsed violently as Alex felt her pussy tighten around his girth, [I'm cumming!] She screamed in Alex's head.
Alex also came in conjunction with her and filled her up with a lot of his cum. Laura finally pulled back from the kiss and rested her head on his shoulder as Alex hugged her and kept his cock inside her, plugging her up.
[I'm going to start now, honey…] Alex conveyed in a gentle tone and Laura gave him an imperceptible nod as an instinctive jolt of pleasure ran through her body in expectation of what was about to come.
Multiple tendrils came out of Alex and started attaching to Laura's body. Including the ones on her nipples and belly button, four went at the sides of her belly while four more were stuck to her lower back.
Two more tendrils stuck to her right under her breasts, while two more went on her breasts, attaching to the sides of the ones on her nipples. Another set of four tendrils attached to her upper back.
Including a few more tendrils, Laura realized that her entire torso had a large number of those flower-like appendages attached to it that were reminiscent of electrodes that were used to monitor her vitals. She felt four more tendrils attaching to each of her arms with one going on her bicep, one on her forearm, one on the back of her hand, and one on her palm.
Before she could say anything, she felt two similar appendages attaching to her eyes, robbing her of her vision of the beautiful underwater location where she'd just had her first experience of sex.
Similarly, two more went over her ears and another over her nose, and the last one wormed its way through her mouth and thickened up just enough that her lips were perfectly sealed around it before it attached itself around her tongue.
[Alex!] She reacted when she realized that a similar thin tendril had just penetrated her ass and attached itself to somewhere inside there.
[Calm down. This is necessary.] He told her, [Your organs are much more complicated to bond with.] He was bluffing. He didn't need such a kinky process to bond with her organs. He was just into this stuff, 'I guess I'm more tentacle monster than I give myself credit for…' He lamented inwardly but mostly focused on the erotic sight of Laura in front of him.
He stopped hugging her and stopped augmenting her body density to make her sink. This instantly caused her body to lose control and she started floating upward away from Alex, unable to resist, [Alex!] She screamed mentally since she had that weird appendage inside her mouth that was wrapped around her tongue.
[Don't worry.] He told her and the uncomfortably long heels that were still on her body became much denser, pulling her back down in such a position that she was skewered on Alex's cock again. He hugged her helpless body back and said, [This might feel a little invasive and ticklish, but don't worry. You'll feel just as much pleasure as usual…] He informed her as more tendrils left his body and attached to Laura's legs. Two on her inner thighs, close to her pussy, and two right below her butt cheeks. Her calves also received two each at the sides.
[Ale— Fuhhh~] Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt the electrode-like appendages form a much stronger suction around the parts that they were latched to, to the point that she felt her skin being perfectly attached to them. With the exception of the ones on her face, the rest were all much more tightly attached than before. Before the resulting shiver was able to travel through her entire body, she felt those appendages releasing some sort of liquid material directly into her body.
It wasn't as if her skin was being pierced through, but she felt like some liquid was directly going into the pores of her skin before traveling deeper into her body. As for the ones on her eyes, ears, and nose, she felt a similar sensation in those spots, but it was more gentle as if the liquid was making sure that she wasn't uncomfortable with its presence.
Feeling that weird sensation all across her body, Laura couldn't help but want to gasp for air, but the liquid that was filling her mouth and going down her throat was making that task particularly difficult. However, since she'd stayed underwater for so many days, going without breathing didn't seem that scary anymore.
It was then that she felt Alex's cock start to move, [Huk~] Her breathless reactions were even transmitted through their telepathy as she felt those weird sensations morph into a pleasurable experience.
As the liquids went inside her skin, she started to find that experience pleasurable due to Alex incorporating quite a bit of EP into the process as usual.
As Alex slowly moved, Laura's excitement grew more and more, and just as she wanted to beg him for more, she found her mind going blank from the rush of pleasure that traveled through her entire body.
Alex had finally started blonding with her organs.
He first started with her stomach. With the symbiotic material filling her mouth and constantly going down her throat, her stomach was filled with the stuff.
It didn't take long for Laura to lose herself in the bliss of their bond level increasing. For once, Alex felt slightly overwhelmed by the feelings that were being transmitted to him through their empathetic bond.
He also felt that the walls that he'd set up with Laura getting weaker as the empathetic connection grew stronger to the point where it was extremely difficult for him to suppress it completely.
As he continued forming a deeper bond with her organs, he felt their closeness increase more and more. And while he didn't mind and even enjoyed feeling Laura's entire existence so vividly, he didn't know what would happen if she was able to truly feel him.
Gwen from the Research Earth was the perfect example. The poor girl had developed a split personality when she experienced Alex in his truest form.
In the end, Alex could only take things slowly as he deepened the bond with Laura and kept their connection as one-way as he could, but from now on, Laura would inevitably start to feel some of his emotions every once in a while.
***
The whole bonding process lasted an entire week with Laura lost in constant and endless bliss.
Under normal circumstances, the process wouldn't have taken any more than a day or two, but Alex took his time thinking of ways to suppress the empathy extending to him and allowing Laura to feel his emotions. This caused him to delay the bond by a lot, causing them to take much longer than necessary.
"Morning…" Laura heard Alex's voice as her eyes fluttered open. She instinctively closed her mouth so as not to end up drinking any water, [Air…] She asked before her eyes were even fully opened. They had gotten into this habit after staying for almost an entire month underwater.
"As you wish…" Her eyes opened wide when she realized she was actually hearing his voice, unlike their usual telepathic method. That was when she felt his lips pressing against hers, "Mhm~" She couldn't stop herself from moaning as she felt her entire body react to his mere kiss.
Laura's body writhed with pleasure when she felt that kiss grow deeper with his tongue entering her mouth and her responding in kind. She was expecting Alex to take things further, but she didn't feel his hands exploring her body, nor his dick entering her.
All she felt was his body on top of her as he kissed her and made her feel an overwhelming amount of pleasure.
Within minutes Laura felt lost in bliss as she tightly hugged him back and humped herself on him while passionately returning her kiss, [Give it to me, Alex…]
She begged, but Alex didn't give her that courtesy. Within moments, she was writhing and begging him fervently, but he just kept making her feel more and more pleasure from that kiss.
It didn't take much longer for her to reach a soft climax from the kiss alone as she loudly moaned into his mouth and convulsed, releasing her juices without him even touching her in her sensitive spots.
"How was this new experience?" Alex asked as Laura finally opened her eyes. She realized that they were currently in a familiar bed. It was one of the beds in a bunker where they had stayed for a while.
"I came from just a kiss…" Disbelief was tinged in Laura's tone.
"I'm bonded with you on an extremely deep level. This makes us that much closer now…" He said and Laura noticed something that initially overwhelmed her.
It was as if she had just discovered a new sense that exploded with information that was transmitted to her brain. As she slowly got used to it, that sense was allowing her to feel unique feelings that she could recognize weren't her own, "I feel something weird, Alex… As if I can faintly feel…emotions?" She said confusedly, "They aren't my emotions, but I still feel them… adoration… possessiveness, I think… something along the lines of love too, it seems…" She thought for a moment and asked him, "Are these your emotions, Alex?"
He gave her a gentle smile and nodded, telling her, "As we create a deeper and more robust bond with each other, our connection will also get much stronger."
After that, he told her the benefits of bonding with her organs.
For one, her stats and abilities had received a monstrous amount of growth.
[ «Status- Host #6»
«Name: Laura Kinney (X-23) (Earth-Z)»
«Bonding Rate: 31% -> 45%»
«Bonding Level: 6»
«Abilities: Low Cosmic Physique— Cosmic Healing Factor— Bone Claws (Vibranium-Adamantium Alloy)— Blood Berserker II— Melee Mastery— Weapons Mastery— Espionage Mastery»
]
Her physical attributes had breached the Low Cosmic threshold. At this point, measuring things based on tons seemed a little irrelevant to Alex. Even though the Low Cosmic threshold was equivalent to a thousand tons of lifting ability, Alex knew that that was in no way an actual cosmic grade of strength.
The Low Cosmic Grade was just an indicator that a person was approaching the level of strength to truly affect planets with their power. But that was it. It didn't mean that a person could actually affect the 'cosmos' so to speak.
As for Alex removing the ton-based measurements, this was because he could tell that ten thousand or even a hundred thousand tons weren't going to breach the threshold for a truly Cosmic Physique. It was a much more comprehensive evaluation that he would have to quantify in a different manner which he hadn't yet figured out.
'I could just measure it by how many planets she can destroy with one punch…' Alex thought amusedly. That would be a very impractical system of measurement because the methods of destroying a planet were numerous.
Alex could destroy one right now by going deep into the planet and devouring its core. That would make the entire sphere destabilize and it would collapse, breaking apart. But that's not Cosmic strength. Cosmic strength is punching the surface of a planet and having the entire planet collapse and break apart, 'But even that has many factors to determine things…'
'Whatever,' He shook his head, deciding to think about it later.
Aside from Laura's physical strength reaching Low Cosmic, the ‹Blood Berserker› ability had also been upgraded by a large margin.
Now that Alex had bonded with Laura's organs, which included the adrenal glands that are responsible for the production of adrenaline, he had much greater control over her berserk state. Along with adrenaline, there were multiple other enzymes and hormones that he now had very precise control over. And now, he could directly incorporate those parts of her body into the ‹Blood Berserker› ability to make it much more effective.
‹Blood Berserker›:: When the symbiote forms a Level 4 bond with its host, it can supercharge the blood that's flowing through the veins of the host and increase the physical stats of the host. However, there is a period of weakness after the merger process where the stats are halved from the base stage. Augmentation— 2x at Lvl 4, 3x at Lvl 5. Cooldown: 24 Hrs at Lvl 4, 18 Hrs at Lvl 5.
From the previous ‹Blood Berserker› ability, the new ability was much better.
‹Blood Berserker II›:: When the symbiote forms a Level 6 bond with its host, The previous ‹Blood Berserker› ability can incorporate more than just the blood to increase the physical stats of the host. With precise enzyme manipulation and increased organ durability, the effects of the berserk ability are much more effective and less self-destructive. Augmentation— 6x at Level 6. Cooldown: 12 Hrs.
The best part was that the new ability had completely removed the weakness period. Although there was still a cooldown, Laura wouldn't have all her stats halved during the cooldown period. This was directly the effect of Alex bonding with her organs. He was now able to passively increase the durability of her organs to the correct extent such that her ignited blood could flow perfectly without damaging her organs which was the main cause of the cooldown along with the need to replenish the lost blood.
The replenishment could be done after Alex bonded with her skeleton and bone marrow and now, the organ damage problem was also taken care of, completely removing the period of physical weakness.
'Now if I could bond with her nervous system and brain, the cooldown should also completely disappear…' Alex thought as he realized that the presence of the cooldown was mostly due to the limits of Laura's brain and nerves, which wouldn't be able to endure the burning blood running through her body. He shook his head and dismissed the idea. He already had trouble keeping the empathy at bay with the Level 6 bond. If he deepened it even further, it would end with Laura feeling him completely. And he wasn't comfortable with that. At least not yet.
There were many other smaller and less prominent benefits to bonding with the organs, such as being able to diffuse oxygen into Laura's body in a much more efficient manner than just direct infusion in her blood. He could also make the work and tasks of her other organs more efficient and less energy-consuming. This would allow her to function in essentially the same manner while using 50% of the energy that she would have needed.
Lastly, their Bonding Rate, which had gone up to 45%, left Alex vexed.
After his experience with Scientist Gwen, Alex decided to cap the rate at 50%. No matter how much sex he had with Laura after 50%, the progress wouldn't go beyond it.
He'd already tested it and knew that he had full control over the so-called system that he had. He could easily pause the increase of the Bonding Rate with his will.
'Am I overcompensating? Yes.' He thought to himself, 'Do I care? No. Better to overcompensate than to deal with two women with split personalities.'
He could've decided to cap it at 74%, or even 70%, but he didn't want to risk it.
***
Hydra Earth.
Wolverine's talk with Laura regarding her new attire left him with more questions than answers, making him give up on trying to understand the deal with the new suit.
All Laura told him was that it just happened and that she felt like it was good for her so she didn't try to get rid of it, plus, she said it was much more comfortable than her usual suit, considering that she was wearing it even under her sleepwear.
Hearing her explanation, he decided that it was okay as long as she didn't feel that it was detrimental to her.
He left her after telling her that he wanted her to let him know if at any moment she felt something wrong with it.
The next morning, Laura and Wolverine met with the team that they would be working with to execute the next mission.
"You're sending a bunch of kids with me!" Wolverine growled at Agent Maria Hill who had led him and Laura to the team that was composed of multiple men and women, most of them seeming to be relatively young.
"Kids with very good abilities. You are an experienced combatant and leader, so I know that you'll be able to manage them without too much trouble." She shrugged Wolverine's concerns off, "Everyone, this is Agent Logan, aka Wolverine. You can all introduce yourselves." She told the group of four young adults.
"I didn't agree to babysit a bunch of kids, Hill. I'd rather get things done by myself, I already have a student." He gestured to Laura who was quietly standing beside him. She didn't speak much.
"You won't have to babysit them." She calmly explained, "They are competent." She vouched for them.
Her words seemed to have some effect as he calmed down and looked at the group with an intense look, making the four of them shiver. But they still maintained professional expressions as they started introducing themselves.
The first to speak was a slender, dark-skinned woman with curly black hair and brown eyes, "I'm Agent Ironheart. I have an armored suit similar to Mr. Stark." Her eyes had a glow of reverence as she mentioned Stark.
Wolverine almost scoffed at her naked Iron Man worship but settled with a nonchalant nod before turning to the next person.
The next person was a bald African-American male wearing a blue and white outfit that seemed to be inspired by Captain America himself, "I'm Agent Patriot…" Wolverine interrupted him, "Rogers' protégé himself. What a surprise." He said with a narrow-eyed expression before turning to the next person.
The next was a black-haired, clean-looking man who was wearing some kind of blue Kevlar-like suit along with a worn-out red cape, "I'm Demiurge. A warlock." He greeted Wolverine succinctly before giving Laura a narrow-eyed glance and turning his head away.
"Okay, you're new." Wolverine nodded, not really understanding what being a warlock meant, but he would understand with time. He turned to the last member of the team.
The last was the most superhero-esque of the lot. She was wearing a blue leotard over a red spandex bodysuit. The blue of her top was contrasted with a yellow lightning bolt that was cut off at the neck of the leotard, "I'm Ms. Marvel!" She said cheerily, "I'm an Inhuman with the power to stretch my body into different sizes." She got close to Wolverine and asked, "I'm a big fan, can I get your autograph?" She produced a pen and notepad from somewhere.
Wolverine looked at her with confusion, caught off guard by her enthusiasm.
He got swept in her rhythm and took the pad and pen before he even realized it. Giving her a weird look, he decided to just sign it, making her jump and squeal in delight. As she went back to her position, Wolverine nodded and said, "This is Laura, my daughter." Laura just nodded to them in greeting. She was wearing her new black and muted-yellow tone suit.
Just as the group was thinking that Wolverine didn't seem that harsh, "I'm not babysitting a bunch of kids, Hill." His rough growl made them all develop wry smiles on their faces.
"This is your team for this mission, Agent Logan." She said impassively, "You don't have a choice here."
Wolverine stared Maria Hill down for a whole minute and she unwaveringly met his gaze before he finally grunted and went quiet, showing acceptance.
She nodded and addressed everyone, "This mission this time is to infiltrate a facility in Sokovia and retrieve…" She started briefing them about the mission.
…
"Can you show me your claws?" Ms. Marvel asked Wolverine while standing beside his seat.
The entire group was inside the cockpit of a Quinjet as they made their way to Sokovia.
Wolverine didn't reply to her and asked instead, "Why are you here?"
"What do you mean?" She frowned and asked, "I'm here to help my country. When Captain America himself gives you a mission, you don't question it, you do it." She said the words with a determined creed.
"Right…" Wolverine trailed off deep in thought. His off-putting question dampened Ms. Marvel's ever-glowing enthusiasm and she decided to sit down in her seat.
As for Laura, she was curious about her new 'suit'. She instinctively knew that it was much more than a simple suit. She extended her claws out of one of her hands' knuckles and tried to get the suit to cover the metal.
She was fascinated as she saw hin threads made of the same material as the suit extend out of her knuckles and wrap around her claw. It wasn't perfectly covered as with her body, but it was a nice scene nonetheless.
Wolverine noticed Laura's actions and narrowed his eyes, but ultimately chose not to do anything. Considering that Laura had been surviving on her own for years before she met him, she should have sound judgment.
"That's really cool…" Ms. Marvel seemed to have found her new prey and stretched her arm in Laura's direction before pulling herself into the empty seat beside her, "Do you have full control over this material?" She asked curiously. She didn't know if the material was something that came from Laura's powers or if it was some kind of nanotech like some of Ironheart's gadgets.
'It seems that Venom didn't have much of a presence in this version of 616…' Alex thought. This was a variation of the comic book Earth that was eerily similar to the Secret Empire storyline from what he'd gauged by now.
"Not sure…" Laura answered succinctly. She wasn't much of a talker in the first place.
"Can you try to wrap it around my arm?" Ms. Marvel instantly decided to make herself the test subject.
'Should I…' Alex was having some devious thoughts, but then he reigned them in. He was definitely interested in the hot piece of exotic ass that was Ms. Marvel, but the presence of Demiurge put a damper on his plans. The man's senses were fully alert and he'd been constantly paying attention to Laura. To be more precise, he was paying attention to the suit that she was wearing. The warlock could sense that there was a consciousness inside the suit and was wary of the unknown variable.
'Considering that he hasn't mentioned much about himself, he should probably have his own motives with this mission…' Alex had some guesses considering that this 'Demiurge' was one of the Scarlet Witch's two 'dead' sons. But all he had was speculation based on the original Secret Empire storyline. He would have to slowly explore everything that was going on on this Earth.
Ultimately, Alex could only lay low without acting suspiciously and attracting too much attention from that guy. He was confident that he would be easily able to escape if Demiurge tried to go after him, but he didn't want to risk it. Depending on the current scenario of the planet, Demiurge could potentially be strong enough to rival Scarlet Witch at her peak. He didn't want someone with that kind of power after him.
As Laura tried to get the suit to wrap around Ms. Marvel's hand, the thin threads extended out of her palm and started slowly wrapping around Ms. Marvel's palm, but within a few seconds there seemed to be a resistance and the threads retracted themselves, seemingly unwilling to wrap around Ms. Marvel.
"Hmm…" Laura hummed thoughtfully as she felt that the suit was grumbling at her. Though there seemed to be an imperceptible smile on her face.
"I guess there's something on me that you(?) it(?) doesn't like?" Ms. Marvel didn't know how to refer to the threads. She initially thought that they were made from Laura's power, but considering that they rejected her, meant that it was something else.
"It." Laura corrected her, "It's my suit. I have the same powers as my father."
"How cool…" Ms. Marvel quickly got chummy with Laura. Even though Laura's answers weren't very conversation-friendly, Ms. Marvel wasn't one to give up.
Throughout the ride, she gave Laura multiple ideas on how she could use the suit in different ways and helped her test some of them. After the initial uncomfortableness, Laura got used to Ms. Marvel's presence and didn't seem bothered by her.
'Hm… These two would make a nice duo…' Alex wasn't just planning to kill this version of Laura, if that was the case, he would've completely replaced her instead of going through this roundabout way and giving her a 'variant' of the Venom suit.
He wanted to test some theories that he had and she was going to be his test subject, 'Another guinea pig doesn't sound bad…' He decided as he saw Ms. Marvel and Laura getting chummy with each other. Or at least as chummy as they could get with Laura looking and acting like a typical edgy goth chick.
"Let's get this done quickly, we go in and out. Stick together, if you can't deal with someone, call for backup." Wolverine said while standing in front of the exit hatch of the jet that was still miles above ground, "Move out." He said as everyone jumped down from the jet.
The entire team of 6 jumped down from the jet and dove through the air.
Soon, their target came into view. It was a fortified facility surrounded by multiple perimeter guards. Half of the facility was in the middle of the forest and the other half was facing a military town with a caravan entering the facility.
When they were a couple hundred feet above the ground, "Demiurge." Wolverine signaled to the warlock and a wave of blue energy spread out from him, wrapping around everyone and slowing their descent. It also served as an invisibility field.
The team stably landed in the middle of the forest behind the facility but Demiurge didn't remove the coating of blue that was surrounding all of his teammates.
Wolverine signaled to them to stick together and gestured in the direction that they were supposed to move in.
"Do you really think there's an Inhuman strong enough to create and control an entire forest and monitor everything at the same time?" Ms. Marvel asked Laura, her apparent new best friend.
Laura merely shrugged. She didn't have any insight to give.
"To think that there's someone who can process all that information simultaneously…" She looked around and squinted at one of the trees to notice something different about it, but it just seemed like a normal pine tree. According to their information, each tree in the entire forest was essentially the 'eyes' of the Inhuman. They could sense and monitor everything through the trees. That's why there were so many trees throughout the military base.
"Quiet down. Demiurge's protection doesn't extend to sounds." Wolverine warned Ms. Marvel.
Mumbling an apology, she quieted down.
Soon, they entered the facility, still under Demiurge's invisibility protection, but the whole place was heavily guarded and they wouldn't be able to move further before eliminating the guards.
Wolverine signaled to Riri and she released a set of tiny camouflaged drones from her shoulders that spread through the room and attached themselves to the walls.
"Field engaged," She said in Wolverine's intercom. It was an electromagnetic field that would prevent any signals from escaping the room. Unlike the others, she was in her suit and her speech wasn't going to cause disturbances outside the suit.
Wolverine narrowed his eyes and examined the 7 enemies in the room. He directed each person in the team to one guard and sneaked up on two of the guards himself.
He kicked the back of one's knee and just as the guard knelt on the ground, he banged his elbow against the guard's skull, incapacitating the guy instantly. As for the other guy who'd now reacted to the sound, he elbowed the man in the waist and grabbed his head with his other hand. The man quickly attacked Wolverine with the electric baton that was already in his hand, not having the time to pull out his gun, but before he could touch Wolverine, the mutant hit the guard's neck and incapacitated him.
As for Laura, she decided to use one of the new features that she'd discovered with Ms. Marvel. She approached the guard and used her suit to constrain the limbs of the person. She put her hand over his mouth so that he wouldn't make any sounds and twisted his neck.
Demiurge and Patriot also made quick work of their targets.
As for Ms. Marvel, "Haah!" She exclaimed as she kicked the man in his front while holding back so that he wouldn't break his bones.
The man quickly got up and was about to press the button for the alarm, but Wolverine's claws came through his skull before he could do anything.
"What the hell are you doing?" He asked with an almost growl at Ms. Marvel whose eyes couldn't move away from the massive amount of blood that was spurting out of the skull of her target. She moved her eyes and saw the same blood dripping from Wolverine's claws and whimpered.
"Y-You killed him…" She stuttered out.
Wolverine narrowed his eyes at her, "You've never killed anyone?" He asked with a gentler tone. However, he still seemed scary to Ms. Marvel, who shakily shook her head.
Looking at her face, he closed his eyes and thought for a moment, "Hm…"
As for the inexperienced Ms. Marvel, her gaze went back to the blood that didn't stop gushing out of the three holes in the man's head.
Wolverine's next action surprised everyone in the room. He moved behind her and before she even realized it, he chopped her neck, rendering her unconscious. She couldn't even try to defend herself since his attack was a complete surprise for her.
"That's why I didn't want to be stuck with a team of kids…" He grumbled annoyedly as he gently laid her down on the ground.
"Your powers are similar to Strange, right?" He pointed to Demiurge and continued, "Cast some protection on her until we complete our mission. We'll be leaving through this same exit so we'll grab her on the way back."
He didn't react and gazed at Wolverine warily.
"Fuck's sake." Wolverine understood what the man was thinking, "I don't know what made them send her, but she should not have been here in the first place. We'll be killing not just one or two people, but many people here. What we need is going to be the most secure item in this facility and the only way for us to get it is if we work quickly and efficiently. She's gonna do neither."
Hearing Wolverine's explanation, Demiurge nodded and spoke some incomprehensible incantation that cast a bubble of protection over the girl, "Make her lean against that corner." Wolverine said and Demiurge floated her to the corner and made her invisible as well.
"Let's continue, Ironheart, scout the rooms and find the elevator. We'll then start clearing the rooms and make our way to the elevator." Wolverine said and Ironheart nodded, not really bothered by his actions. None of them were, since they understood his reasoning. She moved to the control panel in the room and started working her tech magic.
Patriot was the same as Ironheart. He didn't mind Logan's actions either. They had all already been on a couple of missions and had seen their fair share of bloodshed. Ms. Marvel was the only actual newbie among them.
As for Laura, she walked up to Wolverine and asked, "Did you have to?"
The man couldn't help but slime a little, "Worried about your new friend?" He asked.
When she nodded, he continued, "You don't need to. She'll be fine. She would've been a liability on the mission. She's a nice kid, and she shouldn't have been here in the first place." He explained while ruffling up Laura's hair.
She didn't say anything else as everyone waited for Ironheart to make her report.
"Found it." She said and everyone got ready to battle through the rooms.
She opened the door to the next room and they all moved in under Demiurge's protection. This allowed them to quickly ambush everyone and clear their way without any issues.
They were soon at the elevator.
"We don't have much time before the higher ups eventually notice that we've infiltrated this place, we have to make as much headway as possible before that," Wolverine said as they all entered the elevator while Ironheart hacked the control panel of the elevator to allow them to use it.
At the lowest floor, the Elevator stopped, but the doors didn't open. Ironheart had made sure that they stayed close since there would be many people on the other side.
"How many?" Logan asked Ironheart who had already sent her nanotech drones through the doors to monitor the situation on the other side.
"52." She answered after a count.
"Block the room, Ironheart." Wolverine said before turning to another person, "Demiurge, I think this would be a nice time to use that spell you were talking about,"
"I need a minute." He answered as he started chanting something under his breath.
Wolverine nodded and waited for a few seconds before Ironheart said, "Done."
"Patriot, Laura, keep your senses peeled for any unknown variables," Logan said as they both took a fighting stance.
Soon, Demiurge was ready with a ball of blue energy compressed in his hands. Logan signaled to Ironheart who opened the doors and Demiurge instantly threw a sphere of blue into the room. At the same time, he blocked the energy from entering the elevator.
As the wave of blue spread through the room, the people within the room all fell asleep and the team entered the room calmly.
Everyone walked to the center of the room in a formation with Logan in the center. Demiurge was slightly panting, but he didn't seem too tired after that spell.
Soon, a large contraption came into view. It looked like a cylindrical chamber that could house an entire person.
Logan made his way to the side of it and pressed an eject button. A cylindrical container, filled with a mystical blue substance came out of the contraption as Wolverine whispered, "Terrigen Essense…"
He stored it inside a prebuilt container in his combat armor before turning to the team, "Let's—" His senses honed through countless battles flared and he noticed something coming at them, making him battle-ready instantly, "Everyone, duck!"
Hearing Wolverine's warning, everyone's reaction was instantaneous. They all ducked.
In that instant, they all felt a sharp wave pass by their heads. If they hadn't ducked, they would've been cut in half, considering that the pod that Wolverine had taken the Terrigen essence from was now two pieces of junk metal.
Reacting quickly, Demiurge sent a wave of magic in the direction that the slicing wave came from.
They all got a chance to see who had come. Two people were standing in front of a door — Presumably another entrance, or maybe even their living quarters. They were wearing a matching uniform similar to the Fantastic Four uniform without the logo and some other subtle differences.
"Give back the Terrigen Essence, Hydra agents." One of them said and waved his hand in their direction, releasing the same cleaving wave again at Demiurge's energy wave with both attacks getting nullified.
As for the other man, Wolverine, and Laura charged at him instantly.
Ironheart took flight and Patriot went after the slicing Inhuman.
The other man looked at Wolverine and Laura approaching him and took a deep breath as his face took a bluish hue. He opened his mouth and bellowed, releasing a wave of blue fire at the duo.
They both split up and the man's fire breath chased after Laura. But he was abruptly forced to stop in order to block a projectile from Ironheart.
Meanwhile, Wolverine reached the man and attacked him with his claws, "Night night…"
Abruptly his eyes widened as he jumped back instead of attacking the man, he'd noticed a similar blue glow in the man's hands. His judgment proved to be correct as the man shot a wave of blue fire in his direction through his hands.
"Okay… He can just shoot fire from anywhere…" Wolverine commented as he signaled Ironheart to approach him and back Laura up.
As for him, he changed targets to the other man who was engaged with Demiurge and Patriot.
Laura reached the man and engaged with him in close combat, making it difficult for him to effectively use his fire attacks. Especially with the presence of Ironheart, who kept shooting laser blasts at him, which he had to dodge or parry with his fire. It didn't take long for Laura to subdue him with her close-combat-oriented style.
But just as she put her claw on his neck with her knee on his chest, he bellowed out, "Fuck off, dammit!" He exploded into a being of pure fire before Laura could even react.
She closed her eyes and braced herself for the pain, but it never came. When she opened her eyes, she realized that she was completely unscathed and had merely been thrown off of the man who was now completely engulfed in blue flames.
'I like this new suit…' She thought appreciatively as she quickly approached the man again. This time with new fervor, knowing that his fire couldn't really hurt her other than the recoil.
She retracted her claws that the suit didn't fully cover so that they wouldn't melt due to the extreme heat and engaged in pure fisticuffs with the man as Ironheart supported her from a range.
As their fistfight continued, Laura heard Ironheart's voice, "Try to subdue him for a moment, I have a finisher that would definitely take care of him."
Laura didn't reply, but her attacks started leaning toward restraining the man as she started trying to subdue him for Ironheart to take the final blow.
Soon, Laura grabbed the man's arm and flipped him over, but made sure that he landed on his feet. Then she grabbed his other arm and held him in front of herself like a shield, "Now!" She said to Ironheart. As for the heat that was wafting off of the completely inflamed man, she wasn't even feeling it.
Within an instant, there was the signature sound of Iron Man's repulsor blast powering up. Ironheart came in front of the man and released a blue bolt from the center of her chestpiece. But it wasn't lightning, it was a kind of cold beam that would instantly dissipate all the heat on the man and leave him in a cryogenically induced coma.
As Laura and Riri turned to the other three, they saw that the other group's opponent was restrained under Wolverine's knee as a blue glow covered his entire body, presumably preventing him from releasing any of his powers. Patriot was nursing a wound that he got during the fight on his arm.
"Let me help!" Ironheart came to Patriot's side and started dressing his wound using some sort of gun from her armor. She sprayed some material that solidified as it made contact with his skin and started mending the wound.
"Let's get out of here before they send more Inhumans after us," Logan said and they all grouped up before moving to the staircase exit under Riri's guidance. She'd extracted the blueprints of the entire facility previously.
Under Demiurge's invisibility field, they all escaped from the building and went the way they came. After grabbing the unconscious Ms. Marvel, they moved toward the forest. They would be able to escape from the forest with more ease since there weren't many guards there. The only reason they were able to safely consider going through the forest was due to Demiurge's invisibility field keeping them all hidden from the senses of the Inhuman in control of the forest. Otherwise, ten out of ten times, Wolverine would've rather escaped from the other side.
They started navigating through the forest with the help of Ironheart. When they were halfway through the forest, a voice sounded out, "You should stop now."
With those words, a tree instantly grew out of the ground in front of the group and they were forced to stop.
"Demiurge…" Wolverine said with a questioning tone. Demiurge didn't reply, but his brows were also furrowed in confusion.
The 'tree' took a humanoid form and looked at them with hostility, "You're not leaving here, Hydra agents." The feminine Treant said and the trees around everyone started elongating and their branches approached the group.
Without a word, everyone took up fighting positions and as the branches approached them swiftly, Wolverine and Laura started cutting through them while trying to approach the woman. Patriot wasn't able to cut through them, but he was able to keep himself free with his high level of combat awareness and training.
As for Ironheart, she just flew higher while camouflaging her suit. Although the ability was useless inside the forest, outside, it was all game since the Inhuman wouldn't be able to sense her. She started attempting to snipe the Inhuman from the air, though she was mostly unsuccessful due to the large canopy of trees that kept getting in the way of her shots.
As for Demiurge, he seemed to not be able to react before the branches wrapped around him and formed a cocoon around him.
As Laura and Wolverine defended themselves against the branches, Laura also made sure to protect Ms. Marvel whom she was previously carrying. With Wolverine's help, the three of them were relatively safe.
But soon, a branch smacked Wolverine's arm and made him stumble away from Laura who was left to defend herself and Ms. Marvel alone. None of the members of the team had the time to help the others since they were all busy with themselves.
"Ironheart!" Wolverine's growling tone made Ironheart snap out of her sniping attempts, "Back us up, your attacks on her are useless." He told her.
With that, Ironheart mumbled a light apology and started supporting Patriot and Wolverine from the air, but she was unable to see Laura through the dense canopy of trees.
"I don't see Laura, Ms. Marvel, or Demiurge." She told Wolverine.
"Let's get rid of the plant girl first, we'll find them soon enough." He told her and approached Patriot under the cover provided by Ironheart.
They both started working together and with Ironheart's support, they were able to approach Demiurge's location. They couldn't see the man there so they had to approach the treant by themselves, but it was proving to be impossible. They were in the middle of a forest with a literal shit ton of trees and branches under the treant woman's control. They were barely able to defend themselves, let alone attack.
"Get us out of here, Ironheart." Wolverine decided to pull back and regroup before they did anything more, 'That fucking Warlock… What the hell was he doing…' He cursed inwardly as he saw Ironheart approaching them.
Though, just before she entered the canopy of trees, she had to pull up due to a missile being shot at her.
"It's the other forces of the base." She said.
"Call for backup." Logan made a split-second decision and sent Ironheart away, he and Patriot would have to surrender since there was no way they were going to be able to escape with half of their team out of commission.
As Ironheart was hesitating, another missile was shot at her. As she dodged it, she heard Wolverine's growl, "Fuck off and get some help dammit. You're not enough."
She flinched at his tone and quickly turned around, flying away.
Just as she was about to power her thrusters to breach Mach speed, she was shot with a blue energy wave that instantly depowered her suit.
Wolverine saw all of that happen and narrowed his eyes before growling, "Demiurge…"
***
While everyone was busy dealing with the forest, Laura quickly got overwhelmed by the vines and they started wrapping around her. Especially with the burden that was the unconscious Ms. Marvel, she didn't have a chance to defend herself alone.
As the vines wrapped around her and Ms. Marvel, they wrapped them both up in the same cocoon that kept wrapping around them tighter and tighter. Laura's struggles were proving to be completely meaningless and as she grew desperate, she felt her suit conveying a feeling to her.
It asked her whether she wanted to help Ms. Marvel. Laura's answer was instantaneous. Even though she'd known the superhero for no more than a couple of hours, Ms. Marvel had made an impact on her confused mind.
With the righteous words and beliefs that the girl had, Laura couldn't help but admire Ms. Marvel to an extent.
After some hesitation, as the cocoon kept tightening around her and Ms. Marvel, she conveyed her intent to the suit. It followed her thoughts and started extending out of her body, wrapping around the vines that were restraining her. It extended further and wrapped around Ms. Marvel too, altering the design of her suit, though Laura wasn't able to see what changes happened other than the changing of the blue leotard into black. Soon, the material of the suit had essentially covered the entire cocoon from what Laura could tell.
Sadly for her, she was still completely restrained and unable to do anything. At most, she could extend her claws out of her wrists and feet to make holes in the cocoon, but without being able to move even her wrists, they were they were meaningless.
The good thing was that she felt the cocoon stop growing tighter. She was previously feeling that she would be crushed inside if it kept growing.
She sighed, feeling somewhat more comfortable as she stayed inside the cocoon that was covered by the black material.
After a few seconds, she thought of something, 'Can you control the vines of this cocoon?' She conveyed the thought, but her suit responded with a confused feeling.
It was then that she felt one of the vines wrap around her face and enter her mouth. As the girl panicked, it released some sort of liquid into her mouth that tasted like chocolate to her. It wasn't a vine and was something that the suit emulated from looking at the vines.
'No, not food, dumbass. I'm not hungry…' Laura's panic at the actions of the suit was followed by a scolding as the suit conveyed a whimpering feeling, like a dog that she'd stepped on the tail of.
'I'm sorry…' She started consoling her suit-pet and decided to wait for Ms. Marvel to wake up before they decided what to do.
Meanwhile, Alex was observing everything within the cocoon while laughing, 'This might actually be fun…' He thought.
That cocoon had already disappeared from Hydra Earth and was currently in a safe bunker in Earth-Z. He'd brought the cocoon here through a portal after Laura and Ms. Marvel were completely restrained and replaced it with a temporary decoy that the treant Inhuman wouldn't be able to detect for the time being. And it would also automatically disappear soon. Alex didn't want any traces of himself to be around Demiurge without a host.
'Now that this is taken care of, it's time to bring Laura into Hydra Earth as soon as we form the Level 6 bond…' He decided while teleporting away from the bunker. He wasn't planning on interfering with Ms. Marvel and Laura. At least not for now.
…
Back in the forest, Demiurge had just shot a blast at Ironheart, making her crash onto the ground.
"What did you just do, Demiurge?" Wolverine asked through the intercom.
"No one's leaving here…" He said and everyone that was inside the forest heard his voice. With his words, a blue dome was erected that surrounded the entire forest and cut them off from the military base.
At the same time, the forest's effects were restrained and the cry of the Inhuman was heard echoing through the forest. At the same time, Wolverine, Patriot, and Ironheart disappeared from their positions and appeared in a clearing. They saw the plant manipulation Inhuman unconscious and restrained by Demiurge's blue energy field and the man in question floating was above the ground. His eyes were glowing blue as he looked at his three teammates. Or former teammates at this point.
It was instantly clear to everyone that he'd been severely hiding his prowess when he showed some weakness after using the spell to put the 40 or so guards to sleep.
"I don't know where Ms. Marvel and Laura are. I don't sense them inside the forest." He answered Wolverine's unanswered question before continuing, "The essence, please." He extended his hand in Wolverine's direction.
"What if I refuse." Wolverine got ready for a fight.
"Your resistance is meaningless to me," Demiurge said before extending his hand in Wolverine's direction and clenching his fist. The container that he'd stored the essence inside was pulled out of his suit, tearing a hole in the waist area in the process.
"Why are you doing this?" Patriot asked.
"I have a better question," He said before glancing over at the three of them, "Why are you doing this?" He asked them while examining the container.
"Whoever he is, he is not the Captain America that you know of." He said.
"Demiurge—" Wolverine started, only to be hit by a wave of blue that knocked him into a tree.
"I'm Wiccan." He corrected Wolverine, "That was merely an alias that the freak that's controlling my mother's body calls me." He said, only confusing the three people there further.
"All right." Wolverine could see that the warlock in front of him was agitated and tried to calm him down, "Wiccan. I know that something fishy is going on with Rogers." Wolverine told him what he wanted to hear.
"Something fishy?" Wiccan almost sneered, "He's a fucking doppelganger that was created using a cosmic artifact."
"Impossible." Patriot denied his words, "Even if that was the case, someone would've noticed. And what of the real Captain America? He would've also been here." He said.
"That's the true terror of the Cosmic Cube…" Wiccan had an almost distant look as he said, "The man's still Captain America, but the cube altered reality itself. It altered his [History] and made it that Captain America was always a Hydra agent… From the start," Wiccan explained, "Becoming the leader of Shield and getting Presidential authority was all he needed to start his campaign…"
"Impossible." Patriot started, only to be silenced by Wolverine's gesture as the man stood up with an almost annoyed expression, "So what would you have us do?" He asked Wiccan while taking off his headgear.
"What?" Wiccan frowned.
"What's your goal here? You took the Terrigen essence from this insurgent group that Rogers could use to turn his own people into Inhumans. What now? You'll join the Underground?" He asked.
"I want to free my mother." Wiccan got swept up in Wolverine's rhythm and answered truthfully.
"By what I can tell, you're talking about Wanda. Your powers are similar enough…" Wolverine deduced, "If she's the one you want to free, then you're out of luck." He told the young warlock.
"No one can stop me from freeing my mother," Wiccan said with slight agitation.
Even though the Wiccan seemed to be an inexperienced kid, there was a level of confidence in his words that made Wolverine give him the benefit of the doubt, "Do you have a plan?" He asked Wiccan.
"As long as I can get to my mother alone, I can remove the external entity influencing her and free her from it." She told him.
"And that's where you're fucked." Wolverine said, "Rogers isn't someone to leave one of his most powerful guns undefended."
"I know." He said with a gloomy tone, "That's why I need help. And this thing," He raised the tube of Terrigen essence, "This is going to be my ticket to get that help."
"Appreciable plan." Wolverine nodded, his thoughts completely unreadable from his expression.
"I told you my plan, can you tell me why you're working for him?" Wiccan asked, "I can understand this guy. He's a moron who wouldn't see the signs if they slapped him in the face." He pointed at Patriot who was offended, "But you and her?" He gestured to Riri while talking to Wolverine, "I know for a fact that Tony Stark is currently one of the leaders of the Underground along with Charles Xavier, how his little student-fan-girl is here is beyond me."
Wolverine glanced at Riri before looking at Patriot and turning to Wiccan again. In the next instant, Patriot fell down, unconscious, "Is this fine?" Wiccan asked.
"Not really… But we'll make do." Wolverine ran his hand over his face and threw his mask to the side, "Rogers is strong Wiccan. Terrifyingly so. And it's no longer his leadership that makes him terrifying. He wields Mjolnir with enough proficiency to rival Thor after the destruction of Asgard. The Underground can't win in a direct confrontation with what they currently have."
Riri moved to Wolverine's side and said, "Mr. Stark sent me here undercover under the guise of 'disowning' me. I'm not really trusted in Hydra, but they need someone with my skill set desperately. As for him, well, he's a loose cannon." She shrugged, "It's not uncommon for him to prefer money over everything."
Wiccan was passively observing them both to see if they were lying, but he couldn't really tell. He asked them, "So, what would you have me do?" He asked.
"Go to the Underground with the Terrigen essence, follow your initial plan," Wolverine said, "It's best if Hydra doesn't have something that can help them turn normal humans into Inhumans with unique superpowers."
"What about you?" Wiccan asked concernedly, "You can't go back without a cover story."
They all went silent for a few minutes.
Soon, Wolverine hardened his expression, "We ran into the Underground's forces, resulting in the death of Patriot, Demiurge, Laura, and Ms. Marvel. Ironheart escaped and I survived because of my healing factor."
Both Ironheart and Wiccan gasped at the implications of Wolverine's words.
***
"There has to be a better way," Ironheart argued, glancing at Patriot's unconscious form.
"This is war, kid." Wolverine looked at Ironheart's helmeted face dead in her glowing blue eyes, "Death is the only final outcome."
"No." Demiurge shook his head, "They'll start suspecting you if you both return from the mission with your entire team lost." He was grasping at straws to keep his conscience clear.
"They won't." Wolverine's eyes showed a rare trace of sadness, "My daughter's among the victims."
That made both Wiccan and Ironheart shut up. They had presumed that Laura and Ms. Marvel had already been consumed by the forest since there were zero signs of life in Wiccan's barrier other than the people within that clearing.
"But we can't just…" Wiccan was still against the thought of killing Patriot. His mindset was that of a typical young superhero. Righteous, but misguided.
As Wiccan was still speaking, he heard the sound of metals rubbing together as Wolverine extended his claws. It was followed by those claws stabbing directly into Patriot's skull. Before either he or Ironheart could say something, Wolverine's dead-eyed gaze made them shut up, "Would you rather I guilt-trip you for my daughter's death?" He asked Wiccan who instantly felt a wave of guilt crashing down on him.
He didn't want to face it, but he was almost directly responsible for what happened to Laura and Ms. Marvel.
"If I wasn't looking for the right opportunity to get everything in one fell swoop, I could've saved them, couldn't I?" Wiccan mumbled as he looked down, his fists clenched.
"Get going, kid. I'll call for extraction." Wolverine didn't reply to Wiccan's monologue and changed the topic before turning around and walking into the woods.
"Where are you going?" Ironheart asked him.
"To look for my daughter."
…
A week passed since the failed mission in Sokovia.
"Sharon, is Logan here for our meeting?" A man pressed a button on his intercom and asked his secretary.
"I see him walking up to me right now, sir." She answered.
"Let him in." He said before releasing the button and leaning back in his seat.
Soon, Logan walked into the office of the man and nodded at the man in the seat, "Rogers."
Captain America was the one sitting in the chair. He was adorned in a black combat suit that seemed to have been molded from his original Captain America costume. Mjolnir was resting on his desk at the side, seeming like an overly showy paperweight. But Logan knew that it was the real deal. And Steve Rogers could harness its full capability.
"Come, take a seat, Logan." Rogers gestured to the seat in front of him.
"What do you need?" Logan asked as he took a seat.
"First of all, I would like to express my condolences to you for your loss." Steve said solemnly, "I'm sorry that I wasn't able to take time out to talk to you personally right when you came back."
"It's fine." Logan shook his head and said, "She might still be alive."
"Why do you think so?" Steve asked Logan with intrigue.
"Intuition," Logan replied with one word.
Steve nodded, "Well, I know firsthand how accurate the intuition of a war veteran such as yourself can be. I hope you can find her." He expressed his good wishes.
"Why'd you call me here?" Logan asked in his usual gruff tone.
"Ever the straightforward man, Logan." Rogers shook his head, "I'm going to be dealing the final blow to the Underground soon. With the current situation of our cosmos, having a united front is the most important thing in case we have to defend ourselves from the invasion of a more prepared planet."
Logan almost sneered at Rogers' words, 'Who doesn't know you're the one planning to invade the other planets…' He thought. It was an open secret when looking at how much Hydra was openly and covertly spending on Space fleets that they were going to be the conquerors in this scenario.
"I understand." Wolverine didn't show any of his thoughts outwardly.
"You have a very deep history with Charles," Steve said, "I want to know if you are up for the conflict. If you want, you can opt out."
Logan thought for a moment and shook his head, "I don't have any ties to that man after what he tried to do to Laura. I'd like to deal the final blow if anything."
"We'll see." Steve nodded, "You'll soon be called when the preparations are completed."
Logan nodded and left the room.
…
In the forest where Laura and Ms. Marvel had disappeared.
A circular portal opened as Laura stepped out of it. Adorned in her Alex-inspired yellow and black Wolverine suit, she was looking ready for a fight.
She didn't say a word and started running in the direction of the military base, the very place that Logan and his team had been escaping from previously.
[You're currently in an insurgent camp that has been testing an item that can turn normal humans into Inhumans with superpowers…] Alex gave her the backstory of the place. The reason Hydra only needed to send Wolverine and a team of young enhanced people was because this place had nothing to do with the main resistance force of the Underground. Sadly for them, they still couldn't get the Terrigen essence due to Wiccan/Demiurge's betrayal.
Soon, Laura was out of the forest and was confronted by a military barricade. After the loss of their plant manipulation Inhuman, whom Wiccan took away with himself to the Underground, they had to change tactics and set up a temporary barricade as they licked their wounds.
Seeing Laura, the soldiers guarding got alert and pointed their guns at her, "Halt!"
[Can we solve this peacefully?] She asked Alex as she raised up her hands in surrender, letting them think that she was giving up.
[Nope] Alex read their minds and told her, [They have strict orders to kill anything that comes out of that forest. Apparently, the loss of the Inhuman that was maintaining the forest has mutated the fauna.]
[But I'm human…] She said.
[Doesn't matter to them. At best, they'll capture you and experiment on you to see what makes you tick.] He told her.
[So no peace, huh?] She sighed.
[I could turn you invisible if you want to disappear without a fight.] He told her, [But that would make teleporting here meaningless, I want the story to be that the original Laura that died here has miraculously come back to life with the help of her 'special suit'.] He'd already talked to Laura about some of his actions here.
Hearing Alex's words, Laura was reminded of a conversation that he'd postponed previously, saying that they had to get going, [You killed her, didn't you?] She asked him with slight disapproval.
At the same time, she took a battle stance and charged at two of the guards before hitting the backs of their heads and incapacitating them. The rest of the people weren't even able to react to the speed of Laura's new Low Cosmic Physique as she moved to the next two people. She grabbed one of their napes and released an electric charge that put the man out of commission.
As for the other guard, she used Alex's other manipulation ability, ‹Basic Blood Manipulation› to momentarily block the blood flow to his brain. He instantly fainted.
[What?! Do you think of me as some monster?] He asked with an offended tone as Laura continued fighting the guards.
[Yes?] She asked, [I guess you're more alien than a monster, but you could be considered as a monster too.] She took his words literally.
[You're a smartass, huh?] Alex spanked her ass, making her shriek lightly. Still, she didn't stop her actions for a moment and was almost done with the tenth guard.
[Alex!] She chided as she reached the last guard, his spank had come when she was in the middle of a fight.
Alex ignored her and activated ‹Advanced Camouflage›, saying, "An Inhuman is approaching, I don't think we should fight them." He had a bad feeling about this newcomer.
He guided her to take the long route and move along the outer walls of the facility, confident that his ‹Advanced Camouflage› was enough to prevent almost any kind of detection. As long it wasn't some kind of observation method relating to Cosmic energy, Alex didn't have to worry.
[Couldn't you not have killed her?] She was still hung up on the state of the original Laura from this reality.
[For fuck's sake…] He said, [She's still alive, I kidnapped her and a friend of hers and put them both in your original Earth. They both can enjoy each other's company in that zombie-infested wasteland. Maybe they'll become besties or something more.]
[Oh, so—] Laura's appreciative thought was interrupted as she felt a belt wrapping around her waist and pulling her backward. She was pulled at such a speed that she was sure that if she wasn't superhuman, she would've broken her spine.
Her eyes widened as she saw an invisible shockwave striking her previous location and destroying a large section of the ground.
Alex dispelled the camouflage and revealed Laura's battle-ready figure as a white-clad Inhuman descended from the air. Somehow, this Inhuman had seen through ‹Advanced Camouflage›.
[I jinxed it…] Alex cursed. He was just droning on about Cosmic Energy being the only thing that could break through his camouflage. Lo and behold, an Inhuman with a power that harnesses Cosmic Energy appeared. He could see the flow of that energy running through that Inhuman's eyes, which was what presumably broke through ‹Advanced Camouflage›.
"Surrender, Hydra agent. You're all out of tricks." The Inhuman said with a multi-toned voice. It sounded as if many people were speaking at the same time. Even the physical appearance of this inhuman was contrasting. Their body kept morphing between masculine and feminine shapes again and again. It was as if their physical body was unstable and would disappear from reality at any instant.
"Ahem…" Laura cleared her throat and said, "No."
The sound of static filled the air and arcs of electricity started appearing on Laura's suit. She immediately charged at the Inhuman with lightning-enhanced speed and punched them in the gut.
Unlike what she expected, Laura seemed to have hit an invisible barrier, and the Inhuman lazily smacked Laura, throwing her to the side. She flipped and landed on her feet.
[Those attacks are imbued with Cosmic Energy. You can't fight this Inhuman head-on.] Alex told her.
[Should I run?] She asked Alex as she charged up some lightning and attacked the Inhuman from a distance.
[We can fight this weird Inhuman for a while to gauge their capabilities. If they're too strong for us, I'll get you away from here.] He told her. Someone with the power to coat their body parts with pure Cosmic Energy was too invaluable for Alex. Devouring her would give Alex some rudimentary control over Cosmic Energy.
'If Laura can't take them, then I'll bring Jane here…' He decided, 'Even though it's the most rudimentary method of coating their body parts, the Inhuman is ultimately manipulating Pure Cosmic Energy. I can't give up on an ability that useful…'
Considering that the most basic resistance ability for Cosmic Energy would cost Alex a million EP, the manipulation ability would undoubtedly be exponentially more expensive. So, Alex had to get it no matter what.
Unlike Jane, who could only manipulate Cosmic Energy through Hofund, this person could directly control it. That's why Alex was even considering devouring them. He couldn't get Jane's manipulation ability since it wasn't hers in the first place. But this Inhuman was different.
[We have to go all out…] Alex said with determination and Laura instantly felt much more connected to him. After forming the level 6 bond with her, Alex could temporarily achieve a state similar to ‹True Merge› without the drawbacks of memory and excessive existence sharing. Plus, Alex could control the degree to which they would merge in this case.
It would merely allow both Alex and Laura to temporarily achieve an extremely deep level of battle synergy. This would allow them to use all the abilities in their arsenal perfectly without the delay of Laura having to ask Alex to use one of his abilities.
As they both formed a deeper level of synergy, four thick tentacles appeared from Laura's back, similar to Doctor Octopus. As the tentacles appeared, the blacks of her suit gained a reddish hue as it was coated with Chaos Energy to counter the effects of Cosmic Energy to some extent. Alex also created a compulsion through Chaos magic to keep people as far away from this place as possible so that he and Laura could fight without any distractions.
Laura approached the Inhuman again with her limbs covered in lightning as she punched. This time, when the inhuman tried to wave her away, one of the tentacles blocked the attack and discharged even more lightning. The mix of Chaos Energy and lightning got through the flimsy Cosmic Energy membrane that was coating the Inhuman's arm and caused them to pull their hand back with a hiss. After all that, it was as if they'd just been lightly electrocuted.
As for Laura, she hit the Inhuman in the same spot a few times— their abdomen, but it didn't work. Changing tactics, she extended her claws and threw a kick at the Inhuman's neck. They barely ducked from the claw that was coming out of her foot. But her assault was relentless, she continued attacking the Inhuman without giving them any time to recover.
Soon, she knicked the Inhuman's arm. But instead of blood, there was the sound of metals colliding and the Inhuman's arm was perfectly fine. Even the Inhuman seemed surprised at how robust their defense was.
'So this person has only recently gotten their powers and isn't really familiar with them…' Alex understood the reason that the Inhuman seemed so defensive. They could coat their entire body with Cosmic Energy to get a physical enhancement. They could also cover their eyes with it to enhance them to even break through Alex's camouflage. It was a simple ability that turned insane solely by considering how overpowered Cosmic Energy was.
With the new discovery, the Inhuman seemed to gain some confidence and tried to slap Laura away again, but the tentacles that were coming out of her back kept interrupting those attacks. When the Inhuman was shocked by Alex's tentacle lightning discharge for the first time, their defense had gotten stronger and it didn't affect them anymore.
After a minute or so, "Enough!" The Inhuman seemed to have lost their patience and exploded with a speed that was difficult for Laura's physique to match and punched her square in the chest, throwing Laura away. Before she slammed into the building, the tentacles coming out of her back attached themselves to the ground and stopped Laura's momentum, helping her stand on her own feet again.
The Inhuman saw Laura's caved-in chest heal up rapidly in less than a second and narrowed their eyes. They pushed their ability even further and coated their body with even more of that 'empowering energy'.
'If this genderless Inhuman was using Cosmic energy more efficiently, Laura probably wouldn't even know what hit her, and she would be done for…' Alex was even more enraptured by the superpower and wanted it all the more. And this feeling was felt by Laura too as her desire to subdue the Inhuman increased even more.
She summoned lightning clouds in the air while continuing her fight with the Inhuman. This time, they were both on an equal level, with no one seeming to come out on top. The Inhuman was rapidly adapting to Laura's strength, mostly because they started tanking most of Laura's attacks, knowing that she couldn't get through the defense of that 'empowering energy'.
A few seconds later, a thick bolt of lightning fell from the sky, engulfing both Laura and the Inhuman.
With a bang sound, the Inhuman was thrown off their feet and slammed into the building as the lightning bolt dissipated, revealing Laura's figure. The blues of the lightning were like glowing arcs that were running all along her suit, there were even a few streaks that were glowing with a pulsating blue. Her claws turned from the previous silver to pure blue with most of the concentrated lightning energy being stored in her Adamantium-Vibranium skeleton.
The Inhuman coughed and walked out from the rubble in a relatively unscathed state, "You're strong…"
Under normal circumstances, Laura would've decided to talk to this Inhuman, but Alex wasn't really interested in talking to them and was solely interested in their ability. This also affected Laura's thought process as she didn't reply and approached the Inhuman again, leaving a trail of lightning in her path.
As Laura sliced at the Inhuman's arm, they snapped their arm backward with a hiss. Her claw might have failed to penetrate the Cosmic Energy barrier, but the now-empowered lightning ended up getting through.
'If this Inhuman's control over Cosmic Energy was even marginally better and their use of that ability was more refined, we would be having a very different fight…' Alex repeated the thought as he saw the way that the Inhuman fought. They had combat training, but their ability was so unfamiliar that they weren't able to adapt to it quickly enough and were stuck in the original convention.
'No wonder that Terrigen serum thingy was so important…' Alex thought.
With Laura's attacks finally having some effect, she pressed her advantage before the Inhuman could adapt and strengthen their defense ability even further. After a couple of minutes of continuously dominating the Inhuman, Laura realized that the same situation was happening again— The Inhuman was getting used to it and was strengthing their ability further.
Making an instant decision, Laura made her next move, steam started rising from her suit as her eyes started almost glowing with a mix of her original green, along with hints of red and blue. She let out a growl and attacked the Inhuman with a speed that they couldn't even react to before feeling Laura's slicing motion run along their torso, leaving a nasty gash on their skin.
This was the first time Laura was able to draw the Inhuman's blood.
'And it took activating ‹Blood Berserker II› to do it…' Alex thought. The upgraded Blood Berserker ability was much better than the previous one. It gave Laura a greater boost to her overall prowess and even made the recovery period much faster.
With the first blood drawn, Laura quickly overwhelmed the Inhuman within a couple more minutes and they were soon kneeling in a pool of their own blood in front of her.
She didn't bother hearing what they had to say and extended her hand toward them as black tendrils escaped her palm and wrapped around the Inhuman. Alex started the devouring process as he deactivated Laura's berserk ability and removed their synergetic state.
"You were really dying to get her ability, huh?" Laura commented as she sat on the ground while panting, recovering after having to go all out.
[You have no idea… Cosmic Energy is one of the most overpowered energies in the universe. There are almost no other energies capable of comparing to it.] He told her.
"Almost?" Laura caught on to his words.
[Almost. There are some other equivalent energies, but that doesn't matter for now.] He agreed while focusing on devouring this new Inhuman.
***