Captain America burst into the bunker through the main door, bringing everyone's attention to himself. The members of the Underground ignored Laura and Iron Man flew higher from his original spot, floating in front of Captain America and the other Hydra members who had broken in alongside the man. At a glance, Laura saw some familiar faces like those of the Defenders, Baron von Strucker in some sort of cyborg form, and Arnim Zola in a completely robotic body. She counted more unique people on Hydra's side than the Underground, not to mention the hundreds of basic Hydra grunts that were behind them. She also noticed that Scarlet Witch seemed to be strangely missing at the moment.
"Let's just get this over with, I guess…" Tony said while looking at the cold face of his old comrade. Just as he said it, he pointed both his repulsors Captain America, and blasted them at the man.
And then, pandemonium broke as the battle turned into an all-out brawl everyone started fighting. Though it was mostly the people with the more basic abilities. The true higher-ups of both Hydra and Underground — other than Iron Man and Captain America, were still standing back, probing the strength of the other party.
Captain America blocked Iron Man's blasts with his shield before shooting a lightning blast at the man, blowing him back before he could react. Even before colliding with the wall, Tony's suit stabilized mid-air as it took a much more bulky form. It seemed to have been made of nanites that turned it into a much stronger variant, "This is the Thorbuster as I like to call it." Tony commented before charging at Captain America once again.
At this time, Alex was going through the large number of people that Hydra brought with them and noticed some anomalies. A couple of the heroes that Hydra had brought with them were Inhumans. He was sure that Inhumans were being persecuted by Hydra, which led him to a conclusion that made him wary for a moment. He recalled the possible mind controllers that could be working for Hydra. Searching for some specific people in the crowd who were standing behind the main line of combat, he heaved a sigh of relief when he identified the man behind this anomaly.
[Laura, follow my lead.] Laura heard in her head and instantly, she felt much more connected to Alex. He'd brought her to the state of semi-merging with him such that they had perfect synergy in their actions. He camouflaged Laura while also suppressing her sense of hearing, and they started moving. Laura would've asked why Alex did that, but she understood the reason behind his actions within moments, their current state being enough for her to know exactly what Alex wanted to do and why. They quickly crossed the battlefield without getting embroiled in the conflict and reached the group of people who were just watching the conflict.
Laura specifically stopped in front of a person and stabbed her invisible claw through his heart, making the man groan in pain. The camouflage disappeared, revealing Laura as Alex's black substance extended out of her claws and enveloped the man, devouring him instantly.
"Doctor Faustus!" There was an exclaim from the side, identifying the man whom Laura had just killed. She was instantly attacked by Arnim Zola as the robot punched her. She stomped her foot on the ground and a wall of black appeared in front of Zola's fist that promptly went through the hastily-created shield. However, it slowed down the momentum enough that Laura grabbed the fist with both her hands. Some tentacles extended out of her arms and held the robot in a tight grip. Then she flung him away and into the ground before blocking a blow from Cyborg Strucker, who had merely half of his face, the other half was metallic.
"Stop," Laura said and Strucker instantly halted in his place, unable to disobey her command. Not wasting any time, she punched the cyborg's chest, throwing him away before he could snap out of it. This was the result of the technique that Alex got from devouring Doctor Faustus. Having quickly processed the monstrous genius of a psychologist's memories while focusing on his knowledge of psychiatry, he was able to derive a new ability based on the man's technique.
‹Hypnosis›:: Through the modulation of the voice, it is possible to hypnotize weak-willed beings and even momentarily incapacitate strong-willed ones for a limited time. Limited to Vocal Hypnosis.
Although Alex could manipulate people to an extent through his biological manipulation, it was a very brute-force method that usually resulted in some damage being done to the original recipient. In most cases, he was just taking control over someone's body and trapping their mind. With this, he now had a concrete method to manipulate people's minds correctly.
Sadly, Alex couldn't get the full range of Doctor Faustus's abilities. There was no real superpower to devour here. It was just an extensive amount of knowledge and experience that the man possessed and utilized for his hypnosis. Since Alex was only copying the knowledge without the application aspects, it was undoubtedly going to be somewhat weaker, but it should still work.
After punching away Struker, Larua didn't waste any time in moving back to the Underground's side. Just as two of Hydra's higher-ups pounced on her, she disappeared from her position. Moving unimpeded, with her speed, she was back behind the line of defense of the Underground within a second.
She startled some of the people as she appeared, but she just turned to the smartest man in the destroyed room, "Doctor Faustus is dead. I'm going to free the Inhumans from his influence."
Mister Fantastic didn't even have the time to react before Laura disappeared once again.
"She may have killed Charles, but she still ended up taking his role," said Susan Storm who was standing beside him, biding her time.
"That might not have been a coincidence," Reed said as he saw an Inhuman who was breathing fire at Ironheart turn around and attack the Hydra soldiers who were supporting the main attackers. He narrowed his eyes and said, "She's turning them against the very people who enslaved them."
Saying that Laura was freeing the Inhumans was not completely accurate. She was using Alex's new hypnosis technique to break Faustus's command and instill her own command to attack the Hydra forces. However, since Alex wasn't spending time biologically manipulating the Inhumans' brains and they were only working with the hypnosis, the easy acceptance was only because they were already inclined to attack the Hydra forces. Alex would need time and practice with hypnosis to pull it off as smoothly as the late Doctor.
Laura's actions just made the Inhumans somewhat more focused on what they already wanted to do. It also made sure that the more meek ones weren't startled in the middle of the battle, getting meaninglessly killed in the process.
By the time Captain America noticed Laura's actions, she had already freed half of the Inhumans under Hydra's control. His face twisted into an annoyed expression and he roared in Iron Man's face. In that instant, a green sheen appeared all over his body as he exposed one of his trump cards. His symbiote. It formed over his body like a bio-suit and he was quickly able to get the upper hand against Tony's improvised Thorbuster. This one didn't have a star's worth of energy powering it, so its capabilities were severely limited, barely being able to keep up with Captain America before. With the Hydra Supreme exposing his symbiote, Tony wasn't a match.
His roar seemed to be a war cry that made all forces of Hydra converge toward the battlefield. Even the ones who were staying behind and observing started running toward the battlefield. At the same time, Laura and Alex felt a foreign influence acting on their body and the bodies of all the Underground, suppressing everyone. It felt both familiar to her and yet unfamiliar. She instinctively tried to use Alex's Chaos energy to resist the influence, but Alex stopped her and they continued freeing the Inhumans with a much lower efficiency.
By the time she was done with two more Inhumans, she found herself unable to move, "Hello dearie…" She was face-to-face with a woman dressed in red as she radiated an immense crimson aura around her. She was the source of the suppression around them.
"Scarlet Witch…" Laura's eyes narrowed as she extended her claws, but she was still unable to move, needing Alex to utilize either his Chaos Energy or the Time Stone to get freed. But he wasn't using either of those powers since they would give Laura away as a much stronger opponent.
"Let's see what makes you tick, shall we?" Just as the possessed Scarlet Witch said those words, a blue beam of light blasted toward her that she was forced to defend against. The red glow around her got focused on the blue beam as she turned the energy into her own, sending it back at the assailant.
Wiccan swatted the energy blast away and floated in between Laura and Scarlet Witch, "I'm your opponent, bastard," He growled before attacking Scarlet Witch.
As for Laura, she was freed the instant Scarlet Witch released her influence and stepped away from what was going to be a destructive battlefield, the same as everyone else. Just as she was about to continue freeing the Inhumans, a lightning bolt appeared in front of her as Captain America appeared from the dust. Along with him were two unknown people whom she didn't recognize.
-x-X-x-
Captain America appeared in front of Apex along with two unknown individuals. He had Mjolnir in one hand, the handle of which was tinged green with only the head of the hammer still having its original luster — the symbiote was unable to affect the core of the divine artifact. He had a green bio-suit on him with the Hydra logo on his front that extended to his arms and legs. Unlike the usual Symbiote outfit, he didn't have a maw covering his head since he didn't want to appear monstrous. His shield also seemed to have become a part of his outfit as its color scheme changed into the same green with the Hydra logo in the center.
As for the two individuals beside him, they were wearing the basic Hydra armor and combat uniform.
"Laura—" Captain America's words were cut short as a bolt of lightning landed on top of Laura. He was confused as he hadn't attempted to attack her just yet, but when he saw her seemingly absorb the power of that lightning bolt, he got ready for a fight.
Laura-Alex roared at the three of them, "We are Apex!" They shouted with an almost demonic-sounding voice before punching out toward Captain America. The arm extended forward with a black appendage that collided with Captain America's shield which he'd used to block the blow. The man didn't waste any time and threw his hammer at Apex, choosing not to use lightning for now.
With their form pulsing with lightning, Apex dodged the hammer by moving away from its path, fully aware that they weren't worthy. Even if they were worthy, now wasn't the time to test it out. Just as Apex moved to the side, their feet extended to form a springboard and they jumped toward Captain America with all claws extended. Seeing the glowing blue claws approaching him, Captain America narrowed his eyes and recalled Mjolnir toward him. He raised his shield and blocked the initial attack as a small blast of lightning appeared from the collision. It pushed back both of the man's supporters who quickly cast their respective abilities.
One of them knelt and put both of his hands on the ground while channeling some sort of energy and the other looked at Apex and started speaking. Apex found a shield being raised all around the battlefield between them and Captain America, isolating the two of them. Their eyes narrowed at the man who was kneeling outside the shield maintaining it. Apex heard the other man's words and felt as if they were going into a trance, "Seriously?" Apex slashed a claw at Captain America and spoke with a scoff, "Trying to hypnotize me? Who is that? Doctor Faustus's disciple?"
The Captain's eyes narrowed as he grasped Mjolnir's handle once again, swinging it at Apex who ducked under the swing while swiping their leg at Captain America. He had to flip over the leg that had a glowing blue claw coming out of it, following the hammer's momentum before smashing it down at Apex. They couldn't dodge the attack, so Apex extended their hands together to block the attack with their claws, "Since you can't be controlled, then you are a liability," He said while in mid-air, approaching Apex.
As the hammer hit Apex's claws, a shockwave of lightning spread all around the shielded area. Feeling their claws losing out in the frontal exchange, Apex used their ‹Lightning Manipulation› to suck in Lightning from Mjolnir. Using the divine weapon as a conduit to empower themselves, the arcs of lightning all around Apex started amplifying as the glow got much more prominent. Channeling all of that lightning energy into their claws, Apex burst out with another lightning blast that almost blew Captain America away if not for his impressive hold on the hammer.
Still, though, it gave Apex the opportunity to get out from the siege of the hammer with a flip, almost stabbing one of the foot claws into Captain America's skull.
Both Apex and Captain America stepped back as the captain started rotating the hammer, generating some momentum. At the same time, his head also got covered by the maw of his symbiote, similar to Apex, but not as sleek. Apex had a sleek look since the main host was Laura who had a lanky physique dedicated to a more flexible style of combat. On the other hand, Captain America's form was almost twice as buff as Apex.
Captain America used the momentum of his rotating hammer to shoot toward Apex. Four tentacles appeared from Apex's back as they pushed down on the ground and jumped over Captain America, who had to stop himself in order to not destroy the barrier that was keeping them hidden and isolated. This was the only way for Captain America to go all out without destroying his noble image as the leader by looking like a monster. This was the secondary purpose of the barrier, the main one being to hypnotize Apex while making sure that they didn't escape, which turned out to be useless since they seemed immune to hypnosis.
As Captain America stopped, Apex's legs made contact with his back as they kicked him, making the man collide with the barrier. Following up on their advantage, Apex quickly attacked him with a tentacle that was unfortunately blocked by Captain America's shield. As more tentacles approached, he swung his hammer, swatting away the tentacles as he approached Apex once again.
Getting into close-range combat, Captain America used his hammer to block Apex's claws before slamming his shield into them which was blocked by two tentacles that swatted it to the side. Apex quickly kicked Captain America's undefended side and left a massive lightning-infused gash on the man's abdomen that was quickly covered up by his symbiote.
Ignoring the minor injury, Captain America slammed his foot on the ground as green material escaped from his foot and started tangling up Apex's foot. Just as the Captain slammed his hammer at Apex's claws again, they gave him a terrifying smile that extended from edge to edge, "Big mistake."
Before Captain America could respond to those words, his eyes widened as he felt his suit weakening by a large margin. Instantly understanding the source of the problem, he slammed his shield into Apex before smashing Mjolnir directly on the ground, at the spot of the connection between his symbiote and Apex. The loud bang was followed by the ground cracking as the barrier surrounding him and Apex flickered. But Captain America's objective was fulfilled. He was able to sever the connection that Apex had made with his symbiote.
'25%,' He mentally noted. Within a fraction of a second, Apex had weakened his symbiote by a quarter, 'This is getting difficult without either lightning or many of my symbiote abilities.' He decided to go all out and see who would come out on top. He charged at Apex with his hammer charging up with lightning. Just as he collided with the lightning-infused claws that Apex blocked his attack with, he flipped over them and tried to swipe their legs. Apex flipped above the swipe and did a handstand, slashing their foot claws at Captain America who jumped back.
Charging his hammer up again, Captain America rotated it while at the same time, a Hydra symbol appeared on his back with one of its heads getting cut off. It was witnessed by the man outside who was maintaining the barrier. Captain America attacked Apex once again, repeating the same hit-and-run tactic.
After it was repeated a few times, Apex roared at him and the captain got the illusion of steam rising from Apex's body. Not understanding what was happening, he approached Apex once again, planning to engage in combat before retreating. This time though, just as Apex dodged Mjolnir's blow, they punched Captain America's shield with a level of strength that threw the man away, making him collide with the barrier.
Pressing their advantage, Apex roared and used the four tentacles that were coming out of the back to grab Captain America who barely dodged the four appendages, approaching Apex once again with the hammer swinging in his hand. This time though, there was a charge building up in the center of the hammer. Soon enough, Captain America propelled himself toward Apex who had to block the attack.
Just as Mjolnir and Apex's claws collided, a huge lightning bolt fell from the sky, breaking through the shield and enveloping both Apex and Captain America. Just as it seemed that the lightning was about to die down, even more bolts of lightning joined in with the main bolt like some sort of a lightning tree.
Within the center of the bolt, Apex, and Captain America continued their fight, seemingly unaffected by the lightning that was falling from the sky. As the bolts of lightning continued falling, Apex's movements became faster and faster as they finally got a significant punch in, stabbing Captain America through the abdomen. The momentum of the punch made Captain America drop Mjolnir and threw him out of the blast radius with a trail of smoke. Moments later, Apex absorbed all the falling lightning, turning into a glowing entity of lightning themselves. They condensed all of that lightning toward the Adamantium-Vibranium claws before using the metal skeleton as a conduit to transfer all of that power into a compressed blast that was shot directly at the airborne Captain America, instantly enveloping him in a blast of pure lightning.
-x-X-x-
Meanwhile, as Apex and Captain America fought within the isolated barrier, Wiccan finally confronted his possessed mother.
"Mom, I know you're in there," Wiccan said as he stabilized the distorted reality around him that was caused by Wanda's spell.
Wanda gave Wiccan a scornful smile, "Demiurge." She said with a motherly tone, though her eyes were devoid of any warmth, "You should listen to what your mother tells you." She released a torrent of crimson energy below herself as it propelled her upwards, spreading the energy all around. Wherever the wave of crimson passed, pitch-black cracks that seemed to rip apart reality itself appeared.
Those cracks seemed to be swallowing anything and everything around them like black holes, even light. This led to them having a distorted view that made them seem illusory.
Within moments, the wave had spread outward and some of the cracks had swallowed some Hydra grunts along with a couple of the people from the side of the Underground.
"Dispell," Wiccan reacted as fast as he could and cast his spell on the spreading red glow to envelop it with his blue energy, making the increasing torrent halt in place as it shrunk, reducing the cracks that had appeared in reality to nothingness. He started floating upward himself as he looked at Wanda who had a disdainful expression on her face.
Wiccan then cast a spell to pull Wanda into the Mirror Dimension to stop their battle from affecting the weaker people and wiping everyone out. Wanda also didn't resist and allowed him to pull her into the Mirror Dimension.
The moment Wiccan followed Wanda in, he found himself in an expanse of pure white nothingness. As if the Mirror Dimension had been altered on a fundamental level. He couldn't see or feel the existence of anything around him.
Turning to face the woman who had an immense presence of red Chaos Energy around her, Wiccan took a breath and spoke, "Halt."
His words were followed as if some kind of absolute decree as the large number of red spikes that appeared out of thin air seemed to impact some kind of invisible shield. Instead of impacting Wiccan like they were supposed to, they all stopped in their place without moving even the slightest.
"Repel," Wiccan spoke and, the spikes all turned around in their place before being teleported right in front of Wanda, who made them disappear before they could get close to her.
"Dammit, Mom," Wiccan shouted and released a huge amount of his energy into his surroundings, "Come back to me."
Following his words, Wiccan's surroundings changed and he found himself in what seemed like some sort of dark corridor. He tried to use his energy to illuminate his surroundings but found that he didn't have access to any of his energy as if it had been sealed away from him.
Wiccan looked around his dimly lit surroundings, thinking of the current situation, 'I'm in its mindscape…' He concluded as he tried some magical ways to probe his surroundings.
Having understood the situation, he took a breath and spoke again, "Show me my mother, demon." There was an imperceptible tremble in his voice as if he was almost afraid of what he would see.
His surroundings changed once again and he found himself in front of a black wall, "Mom…" Wiccan called out, trying to look around, but all he saw was darkness.
"Billy…" He heard a familiar voice that roused his spirit. The voice was hoarse, weakened, and in pain, but it was without a doubt the exact voice that he had longed to hear for so long.
"Mom!" Wiccan shouted as he desperately looked around, but it was still all darkness.
"Billy…" He heard the voice clearer this time and quickly started approaching the source.
"Mom!" He tried to use his magic to influence the demon's mindscape to reveal his mother to him.
His words seemed to have had the necessary effect as the darkness faded with a dim light that didn't seem to have any source. It was then that Wanda's current state was revealed to Wiccan, horrifying him down to his bones. Wanda was stuck to a crimson wall that had multiple spikes protruding out of it, having stabbed through Wanda in multiple parts of her body. They were still dripping with her blood as her face seemed to have lost most of its previous rosiness, seeming mummified.
She'd been crucified cruelly as those spikes pierced through her body, two spikes each coming through each of her arms and legs, followed by two through her shoulders, one straight through her stomach. The ones that horrified him the most were the ones that went through her eyes, stabbing her through the back of her head and coming out of her eyes.
As he saw the blood dripping down from her body, William felt as if his heart was about to explode. He screamed in pain and knelt on one knee, supporting himself, "Mom…" He said with a hoarse voice.
"Someone as weak as you can never contend against the might of one such as myself." Wiccan heard a demonic-sounding voice right beside his ear and stiffened up.
"Cthon." He said with a voice dripping with fury as he turned around, only to see nothing.
"What?" The same demonic voice asked, right beside his ear. Wiccan turned once again, but he only came to face his mother's crucified form.
"Free my mother," Wiccan spoke, trying to use his unique brand of speech-based magic.
"Pitiful," He heard the demonic voice speak again, "Did you think you appeared in my mindscape because of your weak ability? It's because I let you enter."
"You think you have everything under control, don't you…" Wiccan spoke with a tone of defiance as he looked upon his mother's crucified form with bloodshot eyes.
"Why yes I do, actually," The voice spoke in Wiccan's ear once again, "Even a strand of the greatest Dimensional Ruler's will isn't something that a mortal such as you can contend against.
"Maybe not," Wiccan spoke, though his tone was strangely devoid of hopelessness, "It's good that I decided to use more than just mortal means to deal with you."
Before the voice could speak in his head once again, Wiccan spoke, "Exorcise this demon from my mother's body."
Following his words, He could feel the voice that spoke beside his ear panicking, "What is going on?" There was a clear tremble in that voice that conveyed its fear.
Following the demon's panic, Wiccan felt reality warping and found himself appearing within the Mirror Dimension once again, this time it was the real deal unlike the white expanse fabricated by Cthon's will. As he opened his eyes, he looked at Wanda's floating visage. In his hand, he held a staff that glowed with a blue light that originated from the gem at its tip. It was the Mind Stone.
"Banish Cthon's will from my mother's body." Wiccan's repeated chant was followed by a concentrated blue glow that shone on Wanda, resulting in a demonic screech being released from her mouth as a red aura escaped her body.
Wiccan groaned in pain, feeling his life itself being consumed in order to channel the stone's power in conjunction with his magic.
Eventually, the screech stopped and the red energy ceased escaping from Wanda's body. It caused her energy to be completely exhausted and she fell down from her levitating position. Wiccan didn't care about the Infinity Stone on the staff and dropped it before floating toward Wanda's unconscious form, catching her before she impacted the ground.
"We're free, Mom…" Wiccan hugged her in his arms, "You'll be fine. We'll look for Tommy together," Tears escaped from his eyes as he hugged Wanda tightly.
Sadly, he was aware that he was still needed outside. He quickly grabbed the staff with the Mind Stone before moving out of the Mirror Dimension while holding Wanda tightly.
Just as he appeared back on the battlefield, he heard a loud explosion reminiscent of multiple simultaneous sonic booms, and his vision was dyed blue.
When Wiccan emerged from the Mirror Dimension while holding his mother in his arms along with the scepter, he witnessed the scene of Apex blasting Captain America with a blast of concentrated lighting that blew the man away into a cliff, causing the huge structure to crack due to the effects of the attack.
"No rest for the wicked," He mumbled as his head turned in the direction where the beam of lightning originated. Seeing the unfamiliar form of Apex yet feeling a familiar energy from it, he identified Laura. Narrowing his eyes as he felt her erratic aura, Wiccan was about to approach her but then heard her roar loudly directly in his direction. "Okay," He backed down and flew higher, not involving himself in the battle. He'd already taken out the heaviest hitter from Hydra's side.
Just as he thought that he was out of the vicinity of the battle, he felt the space above him fluctuating. He groaned weakly, "Return to where you came from, I need to tend to my mother." He felt an untold amount of his magic being sapped away from him when he cast that spell. Sadly, even that wasn't enough. The portal nonetheless formed above him as he almost lost consciousness from the loss of energy.
"Hi, honey," He heard a voice that made him open his eyes in panic, "You're so strong, Billy."
"M-mom…" Wiccan felt a shock journey through his body as he saw his mother descend in front of him. Unlike her usual red outfit, she had distinct streaks of gold and blue in it. There was no tiara on her head, but there was a natural golden glow to her crimson hair. She had an undoubtedly holy aura around her that almost made him want to worship and kneel before her.
"Let mommy have that, okay?" The Angelic Wanda spoke as she bent slightly forward and grabbed the staff that contained the Mind Stone from Wiccan's hand. His eyes widened as he tried to stop her, "Thank you for the gift, honey." She smiled and gave his forehead a loving kiss before slowly dissipating away, leaving hints of gold dust that soon got blown in the wind.
Wiccan was left frozen in his place for a while. Only when he felt that his actual mother was slipping from his arms did he come back to his wits, "She took the Infinity Stone," Wiccan felt like he'd just been cucked. And by his mother no less, or at least a version of her. "Fuck." He quickly used the last remnants of his energy to teleport himself and his mother away to a safe place before he fainted.
…
Alex had noticed the presence of the Mind Stone on Wiccan but decided to take it for himself later. He was currently embroiled in conflict with multiple Inhumans who all seemed to be out to get him. Captain America had already planned an ambush for Laura and these Inhumans were presumably brought here by the man who was previously trying to hypnotize him.
'Well, that doesn't help…' Alex saw an unfamiliar version of Wanda appear in front of Wiccan and take the Mind Stone from him. He was still embroiled in conflict with the weak foes as he played around, but that soured his mood completely.
'I have fucking competition now. Great.' Alex couldn't help but curse inwardly, 'It's fine, I just lost one Infinity Stone. There are like forty copies of just the Mind Stone,' He consoled himself while burning with fury on the inside. He'd just decided to delay taking the stone and in ten seconds someone came up to him and snatched it away from him.
Laura was leisurely playing around with the hydra people and the hypnotized Inhuman, but she then felt Alex's disarray, [You okay, buddy? You seem like you just lost your dick or something.]
[Close enough,] Alex was too tired to even quit, [A random Wanda Maximoff just came along and snatched away the Mind Stone.]
[Oh…] Laura didn't react much, [Did the stone contain an important person's mind?]
[Huh?] Alex took a second to realize that Laura had no idea about the Infinity Stones, [It's an Infinity Stone, Laura. The one that has control over the aspect of the Mind throughout the universe. At least a fragment of the Mind Stone.]
[I'll show you later.] Alex said. He didn't want to use the Time Stone right now in the middle of this battle unless completely necessary. Quite a few of the people here had powers that would require the Time Stone to utilize a huge amount of authority. Alex could still manage the EP consumption for that, but he had better uses for that EP. Like sensual massages that led to wild sex. And also strengthening his girls. Those things were a much bigger priority for him.
This was also the reason he didn't attempt to freeze the Angelic Wanda in time. He was partially sure that she also had a Time Stone or two lying around while also being strong enough to at least resist the effects of the stone by herself. If he'd tried hard enough, he could've gotten the stone, but the cost just wasn't worth the reward. Not to mention that he was already eying several Infinity Stones with his slimy tentacles at the same time. That would come later, however.
Eventually, Captain America emerged from the rubble, apparently still alive, albeit barely. Half of his body had been blown off as his symbiote slowly attached itself to the lost parts of his body, recreating them to look the same as the original. At this point, the man didn't care for his public image and swung Mjolnir at Laura, holding on to it to quickly approach her.
Laura, still in her Apex form, just without the symbiosis state, got ready to take the blow head-on. However, something appeared in the man's trajectory that caused his hammer to collide with a force field in mid-air, halting his attack.
Laura looked to the side and saw a familiar face. She had an expression of struggle on her face as blood ran down her nose, "Hi," Laura waved at the woman casually, "I don't really need you to put yourself out there, there are better battlefields you can be on." Laura punched down two Inhumans as she said those words, they were both spewing fire at her, but it didn't seem to affect her in the least.
"I'm taking him," The woman said as she looked at the man with an expression of hatred. She didn't listen to Laura's words for much longer and groaned painfully before compressing her forcefield around Captain America.
"You obviously have something personal against the man," Laura nodded, "I can respect that. Let me help you out though." With her words, Laura released a distinct energy signature that made all energy-sensitive people on the battlefield look at her in shock.
They had all just recently experienced a storm of that energy, albeit brief, that had killed a large number of people from both sides.
Laura used Chaos Energy to manipulate reality in a way that Alex was able to get access to Captain America's symbiote without being affected by the force field that Invisible Woman was still compressing.
Moments later, the man in question slammed Mjolnir on the ground while screaming in pain as parts of his body started disappearing. Alex was devouring his symbiote.
His attempt at escape proved futile as he repeatedly tried to use Mjolnir to break through the forcefield, but it didn't budge. It didn't take long for Alex to completely devour Captain America's symbiote, leaving the man weak and crippled. Just as Alex left the range of the force field, it compressed almost instantly and crushed Captain America in a ball of flesh and blood.
The force field disintegrated as the woman slumped down on the ground, tears in her eyes as she wailed weakly to herself while curling up in a ball in the middle of the battlefield.
[Important lesson here, kids. Don't kill Susan Storm's brother.] Alex joked in Laura's head.
[This is serious, Alex.] Laura said while feeling bad for the woman. She had witnessed the raw emotions that the woman put in that attack and how she crumbled down once the target of her hatred was gone.
As Laura was feeling pity for the poor woman, Alex had other thoughts. With his newly acquired sensitivity toward Cosmic Energy, he could see how it was directly fueling her power. Invisible Woman didn't directly use Cosmic Energy, but a derivative of it in the form of vibrational waves that allowed her to do all that she was doing.
Alex was sure that if he bonded with her, she could be a heavy hitter on par with Jane and Wanda.
'Not this version though,' Alex thought to himself, 'She's going to lose her powers sooner or later since one of their Fantastic Four is dead…'
Alex decided to add bonding with a version of Susan Storm to his to-do list.
"Let's wrap this battle up, everybody." Reed came down to Susan and hugged her while taking control of the battlefield.
-x-X-x-
As the battle in Hydra Earth was going on, Alex decided to get a head start on his Infinity Stone collection. The first one that he targeted was the Mind Stone in the MCU since he was sure of its location. Most of the other stones though, not so much.
It took him getting control over Cosmic Energy to be rid of whatever influence kept him ignorant about the different timezones throughout each planet. It wasn't farfetched to think that he was also being manipulated to ignore the Infinity Stones consciously by the same influence. However, now that he knew what he wanted, he was going to start collecting them to the best of his ability.
In the Avengers compound.
A portal opened through which a blonde woman walked out of, "Oh this is a nice place," She spoke while chewing gum. She was wearing a sleek black leather combat suit that highlighted all of her right curves while having multiple weapons strapped to spots where she could grab them in an instant.
[You've already triggered five alarms with your appearance and speech. Vision will be on you in a second, just get him to grab you. Or just come in contact with him momentarily. I'll take care of the rest.]
"Miss Yelena Belova," The blonde heard a robotic yet oddly normal-sounding voice and turned to face the red hunk of Vibranium that was The Vision.
"Hi there," She waved at him.
"You have not been registered to enter the Compound," Vision said, "May I ask what brings you here?"
"I'm here to get myself registered," She said while looking around, acting casual, "Nat sent me."
"Through what appears to be a Mystic Arts portal?" Vision asked. If he had brows, one of them would be raised right now.
"Yeah," Yelena nodded, "Natasha has access to a lot of interesting stuff."
"From what I'm aware of, Miss Romanoff and Mr. Stark are currently in Kamar Taj. Their current statuses are unknown, so I don't know how you are here." Vision pointed out the holes in Yelena's story.
"Oh, how about you detain me for a bit until you reconnect with Stark?" She asked, "It shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?"
Vision gave her a look, "I expected resistance," He didn't say anything more and walked toward Yelena, "Please move your hands up, I need to cuff you if I'm detaining you according to the procedure."
"Sure," Yelena raised both her hands up so that it would be easy for the Vision to slip handcuffs on her. It only made the synthetic android more suspicious, but he still approached the woman to cuff her.
The moment Yelena's hand came in contact with the Vibranium hand, The Vision's movements stopped abruptly. She stepped back apprehensively and saw a familiar black substance covering the glorified robot that quickly got absorbed into it and returned it to the same state as before.
At this time, Alex was groaning inwardly as all his 'real' hosts, namely the two Gwens, MJ, Laura, Wanda, and Jane, were feeling the effects of his new acquisition. His soul also gained the tinge of yellow that was reminiscent of the Mind Stone forming a third layer over his soul following the red from Wanda's chaos and the green from the Time Stone. Following a similar procedure as before, the new Infinity Stone settled in the center of Alex's soul, right beside the Time Stone.
«Authorities»:: ‹Time (2.5%)› ‹Mind (2.5%)›
He had now gained the Mind Authority.
With the Gem still active, when Alex looked at Yelena, he saw a tether that entered her mind from the Mind Stone. Focusing further on the Mind Stone, he saw that a nigh-infinite number of threads were extending out of it, presumably connected to every single living being in the universe. Alex looked through some of the threads, noticing that each of them contained a profound connection to their respective minds.
Deciding to test something, Alex brought his focus to the thread that was connected to Yelena's mind. What he saw made him raise a brow. Most of her mind was occupied by thoughts of how Alex would reward her for her work. She even had multiple different scenarios in mind for her reward that made Alex want to get down to do those things to her right at that moment.
He held himself back, for now, wanting to finish his testing the Mind Stone.
He then brought his focus to other aspects of the Mind Stone than just reading people's minds. Utilizing the authority of the Mind Stone, Alex established a connection to Yelena's tether. He then felt himself in her body. It was different from his usual presence where he was just using her body as a vessel. Right now, Alex was in complete control of her body, and Yelena didn't even realize it.
'I should be able to make her do something that she will think is her own will, but I'm controlling her like a puppet.' Alex realized. He was going to continue testing more abilities but felt his soul itself straining from using the Mind Stone like that. With his EP also being consumed at a rapid pace, he was forced to stop his actions.
He examined his current status to see the exact situation.
{ «Skill Acquisition»
«EP: 54478 -> 54587 -> 54236»
«CP: 0.0000»
«Manipulation Abilities»:: ‹Advanced Lightning Manipulation› ‹Basic Blood Manipulation›
«Innate Abilities»:: ‹Biological Manipulation› ‹Host Enhancement› ‹Devour› ‹Copy›
«Derived Abilities»:: ‹Low Cosmic Physique Creation› ‹True 6th Sense› ‹Inventory› ‹Advanced Camouflage› ‹Elemental Immunity› ‹Hypnosis›
«Magical Abilities»:: ‹High Magic Affinity› ‹High Chaos Affinity› ‹Host of the Scarlet Witch›
«Authorities»:: ‹Time (2.5%)› ‹Mind (2.5%)›
«Cosmic Abilities»:: ‹Low Cosmic Manipulation (Incomplete)›
}
He'd used up more than 300 EP just for the testing phase, bringing him down to 54236 EP. It had increased a bit after he devoured some of the enhanced Individuals in the battle on Hydra Earth. None of them gave him any useful abilities other than Doctor Faustus' hypnosis knowledge either.
With the high EP consumption along with the strain on his soul, Alex realized that he needed to work with these stones in a systematic manner.
'I need the Power Stone,' He concluded. The Infinity Stones work as a circuit of cosmic proportions. They all have unique powers that complement each other.
The Power Stone's job is to power the other stones. Without it, they would be depleted sooner or later, causing Alex to have to fuel them himself. Considering how much EP it took for him to just continue channeling their power, empowering the stones by himself was a no-go, at least not without a sustainable model to generate Cosmic Energy.
The low efficiency of EP also had to do with the fact that it was strictly a kind of biological energy. Even though it could be considered to be the purest form of Life Energy, its effects worked best on living beings. Powering cosmic artifacts like the Infinity Stones was not something that Life Energy specialized in. On the other hand, Cosmic Energy would be a ridiculously efficient source of energy for the stones since that's what its main purpose was, in addition to creating life and all those other things that Alex didn't care about right now.
It was the same case with Cosmic Energy when it came to the job that Alex's EP did. He wasn't going to waste his time using Cosmic Energy to empower his hosts. Using it would probably bring about some unique effects, without a doubt, but the efficiency would be ridiculously low, not to mention the huge risk factor.
This was also the reason that even though Chaos Energy was on a similar scale of power as Cosmic Energy, it had its own set of uses and worked better with some things than others. Alex was sure that Chaos Energy would go hand-in-hand with the Reality Stone, but that would be it. The other stones would have an even lower efficiency than when using EP due to the messy nature of Chaos Energy.
To be able to utilize the Mind Stone to its fullest potential, Alex needed the Soul Stone to offset the consumption of his soul. The Soul Stone would in turn require Alex to have mastery over reality to be able to manipulate the souls of other beings, which required the Reality Stone. For mastery over Reality using the Reality Stone, he needed the Time and Space Stones to control the authorities of Time and Space. All of these stones required the Power Stone to provide them with energy. Finally, to utilize the Power Stone to its fullest potential, he needed the Mind Stone since the immense power of that stone could corrupt the mind.
All the stones were bound together in a circuit and once all of them were assembled, the user could have absolute control over all existence.
Alex shook the thoughts of the stones away and decided to celebrate a little. He'd just gotten his second Infinity Stone. And what better way to do that than to reward the beautiful blonde spy who had done her best to help him out without asking any questions?
"Is it done?" Yelena asked for the tenth time as she waited patiently in front of the Vision who was floating slightly above the ground with its eyes closed.
"Yes, it's done," The Vision's eyes opened as he nodded, spooking Yelena out as she jumped back.
"Apex?" She asked hesitantly.
[Yeah, it's me. I'm in control of the Vision now. Your mission was successful.] He told her as Yelena almost seemed to deflate.
"Thank god," She said, "I was terrified that I would turn into a globally wanted criminal. Not that I couldn't handle it, considering that I'm already somewhat globally wanted because of my actions when I was — " She was unable to finish as Alex formed a gag in her mouth that slowly started getting larger while filling up her mouth like a balloon.
[Quiet down, do you want your reward or not?] Alex asked in her head with a voice that was familiar to Yelena.
"Yef Mafter~" She felt a pleasurable shiver pass through her body as her legs quivered from anticipation while the gag kept getting larger, almost to the point of hurting her jaw.
[Kneel.] At Alex's words, Yelena quickly fell to her knees in the middle of the living room of the Avengers Compound. She looked around and felt apprehensive of someone abruptly appearing and seeing her state, but followed Alex's order with even more enthusiasm than when she was being mind-controlled as a Black Widow.
As she continued looking around, she felt some resistance in the movements of her head and realized that her collar had gotten much thicker as it covered her entire neck and kept going further. It pushed her chin up and fixed her head in that position making her look forward at an upturned angle, unable to move her head in the slightest.
"Uuu~" She groaned incomprehensibly from her gag as she felt the collar extending even higher and completely covering her chin, removing any semblance of possible movement. It even attached itself to the gag that was wrapped around her head and fixed it in place.
[Correct your posture.] Alex said in Yelena's head, making her forget about her discomfort as she focused on her posture. She straightened her back and spread her knees apart. She felt her heels disappearing and was left barefoot, so she straightened her feet and made sure that her legs were parallel to the ground. She placed her palms on her thighs, awaiting Alex's subsequent instruction.
[Hands behind your head.] She immediately moved her hands behind her head, placing one palm over the other. She then felt the different parts of her leather suit disappear as the material started tightening around her body. Eventually, it turned into a thin layer of black latex that barely hid anything from view while keeping her body completely wrapped in it.
She felt like it was a second skin that perfectly clung to her original skin, giving her an indescribable sense of helplessness as she felt it resisting any movement that she made.
[Tie your hair in a ponytail.] Alex said in her head as Yelena gathered up her hair and held it all in the form of a ponytail. She then put her hands back behind her head and waited for Alex's next order. [Good girl.] She felt a wave of glee pass through her at Alex's praise. Although she was unable to respond clearly due to the gag, she made plenty of approving noises to convey her happiness.
Following Alex's praise, Yelena found the posture collar start to move once again and felt it traveling up her head. It first enveloped Yelena's latex-covered hands, forcing them to cling to the back of her head, fixing her arms in that position. It continued moving higher as it covered the rest of her head, covering her nose, eyes, and ears. She only had her ponytail coming out of the back of the mask and the rest of her head was completely covered and immobilized. She couldn't turn her head in the slightest and was forced to keep facing her front while feeling apprehensive of someone approaching her in the middle of the compound.
[Are you feeling tense,] Alex asked with a hint of teasing in his tone, [Could you possibly be worried about someone seeing you?]
With her head stuck in place and her hands affixed to it, there was little Yelena could do to convey her struggle and unwillingness.
[What would happen if someone just came here and saw a hooded blonde kneeling submissively in the middle of the room?] Alex asked, making Yelena shiver as she barely let out a muffled groan through her gagged mouth, [With how irresistible you look, they probably won't waste any time in making you their personal toy. Turn you into a slave whose entire purpose is to be fucked.]
Yelena tried to convey her disapproval, wanting Alex to bring her back to the base. She slightly wiggled around her torso, as much as she could without moving from her spot. She had relatively enough freedom to get up and move away, considering that she didn't do any of that, she was enjoying Alex's teasing just as much. What she didn't know was that he had already brought her back to her personal bedroom in the flying fortress.
[Move your torso forward, press your face against the ground, and present your ass.] Alex said. Yelena instantly followed his words, not caring that she was in the middle of the living room of the Avengers compound, at least as far as she knew. She bent forward and pressed he face on the ground, with her hands stuck to her head, it gave Alex full access to both of her holes. Feeling even more clearly the presence of the latex material that was stuck to her skin, Yelena felt as if each and every movement she made was under scrutiny by the material, providing her a sense of resistance for even the slightest wiggle of her toe.
With how latex worked, the material was as closely stuck to her body as possible, giving a clear outline of both entrances. Yelena shook a little when she felt a hand on her ass. She couldn't help but wiggle as she felt that hand traveling across her butt. Even though the feeling was dampened, she could still feel the hand tracing her butt.
As she let out a weak groan through her gag and hood, Alex spanked her ass, making her groan again. The sting of the slap was as clear as it could be as if the hand had passed through the latex membrane to spank her. She lightly wiggled in place as Alex continued spanking her, jolting her core with each slap on her ass as she let out increasingly pleasurable groans.
By the time Alex was satisfied with the spankings, he rested his hand on her ass, slowly tracing it lower, along her thigh. He went halfway and tightened his hold over her thigh, he repeated the same process and held her other thigh from the middle, allowing Yelena to know exactly what was happening. Alex then started spreading apart her legs, making Yelena yelp through the gag and hood that suppressed all of her senses. He kept going until she felt her inner thighs straining to keep her in that position.
She knew that she couldn't fall down as it would break her position, but Alex was spreading apart her legs which had been in a comfortable position till now. She was now forced to keep her thighs engaged to keep her legs in place and prevent herself from disappointing Alex.
[Keep your legs in this position.] Alex's words made Yelena whimper as she felt her legs start to strain from having to hold that position. She had an enhanced physique, sure, but there were limits to it. She was sure that her thighs would be burning with soreness sooner or later. She wasn't even able to use her knees to stick to the ground due to the slippery nature of the latex and that forced her to keep her thigh muscles engaged completely.
Feeling the difficulty of maintaining that position, Yelena groaned lightly. Midway, however, that turned into a yelp of surprise when she felt a familiar appendage pressing on her pussy. She felt Alex rubbing it on her skin so clearly that she was sure that the latex had disappeared from her crotch area.
[Push yourself backward, impale yourself on my cock.] Alex ordered, [I won't be fucking you until you can push yourself back to completely take my cock.] Another whimper escaped Yelena's lips as she felt a sense of desolation, knowing how hard it would be for her to follow those words. Not only were all of her senses blocked, but her arms were also stuck above her head, where she couldn't use them to generate any leverage. With the spread-apart position of her thighs, it would put immense stress on her entire body if she wanted to push her ass back.
Yelena's back arched as her ass was raised a little higher before she tried to push it backward, attempting to take the cock that was right behind her. She stressed herself while moving backward, doing the best she could. By the time she reached halfway, a groan escaped her mouth as she moved forward instinctively to lessen the burning soreness of her thighs and core.
[You were barely halfway there, Yelena.] Alex said in her head before spanking her ass, eliciting a pained groan from Yelena. She was very sensitive after the previous spankings and felt his spank feel much more painful, [This isn't what I expect from one of the best Black Widows. Push your flexibility and core to its limits even if it breaks your body.]
Alex's words almost sent Yelena into a spiraling of a flashback from her training times. Almost. Following his words, Alex slammed his cock inside her snatch before taking pulling it back out, [A little incentive for you. Try again.]
His words made her forget all about the torturous training she'd endured in the past as a breath of life seemed to enter her tired form. She attempted to take him once again, wanting to constantly feel that cock filling her up. She pushed her flexibility and core as much as she was able to. This time she barely took in three quarters of it before losing her strength.
She didn't move back in her position, but didn't move forward either, her body shook as she tried to keep going, but eventually, she was forced to give up and move back so that she could try again.
[You did better this time.] Alex praised her, following it with another painful spank on her sensitive ass. As he heard her groan in pain, he decided to give her a few moments to rest, [Tell me, do you feel an oily sensation within your latex suit?]
"Uu hu~" Yelena conveyed her affirmation with a groan. It was followed by a few more groans that could roughly be translated to, 'What is it?'
[It's a special kind of energy-based oil that's going to enhance your physique by a significant margin.] Alex said as Yelena conveyed a surprised groan, [So, you can expect to be put in increasingly difficult predicaments as I take you from every hole.]
If Yelena's subsequent excited groan was any indicator, she liked Alex's proposition. [Now move your ass, pet.] Alex spanked Yelena's ass once again, making her groan out painfully as she quickly pushed her ass back. As she exerted her body to its limits, she felt a hot sensation within her abdomen that made her want Alex's cock even more than she already did. desperation, she continued pushing her ass backward while groaning in pain as her thighs felt like they were burning. Her core was feeling both her heat of arousal and the heat of being pushed to the limits as she continued pushing her ass backward.
Following a loud groan on Yelena's part, as she pushed her flexibility to its limits, she kept feeling more and more of his girth stretching her pussy. Finally, she finally felt an obstruction on her ass and quickly exhaled, losing all her strength as she realized that she'd taken his entire cock. Just as she attempted to move to her original position, she felt Alex grasping the sides of her hips, forcing her to stay in that stressful position, albeit with some less difficulty, now that she just had to maintain the position.
As Yelena groaned, Alex pulled back and slammed his cock into her pussy, making her feel a wave of pain and pleasure pass through her body, [We're just getting started, honey.] Alex's words only made her more aroused.
As Alex thoroughly rewarded Yelena for helping him get the Mind Stone in the MCU Earth, he decided to take care of something essential in the Gaia Federation cluster.
"This is going nowhere…" Alex sighed as he looked at the burning whiteboard and notes before dousing the flames. There were no alarms since the fire wasn't big enough to pass the threshold of the lab's smoke detectors. They were currently in Gwen's personal lab, where the detectors had a much higher threshold for smoke and fire. She'd been working here before abruptly setting fire to everything as Alex barely stepped up in time to stop her such that she was only able to set fire to the notes and the alcohol of the markers on the whiteboard.
He turned to look at Gwen who was looking at him angrily while restrained. Her arms were held behind her back in an armbinder and her legs were chained to the floor to prevent her from moving around.
'At least she's not struggling to the point of self-harm anymore,' Alex thought as he looked at her hateful expression while she stood there without doing anything. He knew that in time, her resistance would naturally lower, but he didn't have that time, 'Especially with that Scarlet Witch-Angel whatever who took the Mind Stone from Wiccan.'
"Even if I'm not being freed from you, I'm sure as hell going to make life as difficult as possible for you," Gwen said, bringing Alex out of his musings as he looked at her with a wry smile.
"Honey," Alex said, "Why are you making this harder on the both of us? If you want, you can just stay inside and let your counterpart be the one in control at all times."
"So that bitch can help you devise a way to get rid of me?" She scoffed, "No thanks."
"Fine then, I guess work's done for today," Alex sighed as he walked up to Gwen and put her up on his shoulder while keeping an arm wrapped around her waist. He also made the armbinder that held her arms behind her back extend and grab her legs, restraining them too, "Let's go home."
It was already night and Alex and Gwen were about to go home when Altar Gwen came out. Alex created a portal in front of himself and walked through it, directly moving to her college dorm. He decided against bringing Gwen out of her personal lab. Some of the scientists and researchers were working late and it wouldn't paint Gwen in the best picture if they saw their lead scientist being carried in such a manner by their other more scary boss.
"We should really get our own place, don't you think?" Alex asked, "Your dorm is nice and all but it really doesn't provide much in terms of space."
"Let me down, asshole," She ignored Alex and tried to struggle to get away from Alex, but it was useless.
"Well, that's rude," Alex said nonchalantly, "I think that warrants some punishment, don't you think?"
"You can do your worst," She said stubbornly, "You will never make me accept that meek slut of my other personality or you."
Alex coughed awkwardly when he heard her words, "I think that's all the consent I need to spank you as punishment."
Alter Gwen tried resisting, but it was no use. Alex was soon sitting on the bed with her lying across his lap as he rubbed her butt from over the skirt that she'd been wearing. He shackled both her feet and hands to the ground so that she wouldn't try to shake away from him. However, after the initial resistance, she was surprisingly unexpressive as Alex put her in that position.
Alex traced his palm over her backside as her skirt and most of her other clothes disappeared into her body, leaving her naked except for her underwear. Her struggle renewed as she felt herself losing her clothes, but it was still weak, almost as if she'd accepted that she wasn't going to get out of this.
Alex wanted to mention how she seemed to be accepting of the situation but didn't want to make her conscious of her subconscious thought process just yet. He gently traced his palm over her butt for a few seconds as he spoke, "You know I don't hate you right?"
She scoffed, "Right." She was about to speak further, but Alex's first spank stole the words out of her mouth as she suppressed her shout, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. The wave of pain traveled through her entire body like a jolt of electricity, coalescing right in her core and making her feel like putty in his arms.
"If I hated you," Alex spoke while lightly rubbing her butt that had a light red marking on it, "I could've just gotten rid of you permanently." As he said that, he spanked her once again, eliciting a suppressed yelp from her.
"That's only because you can't," She spoke with gritted teeth as she felt Alex rubbing her butt gently, bringing a sense of comfort to the stinging feeling on her butt. It also enhanced the tingling feeling that she had in her abdomen. She spoke further to try to ignore the weird feelings, "If you forcefully cut me off— Ahh!"
Alex's next spank cut her words off as he spoke, "What were you saying?" He asked, "Can you repeat it?" There was a hint of taunting in his tone as he started lightly rubbing her butt.
Gwen growled at her failure to suppress her yelp, but spoke, "If you forcefully cut me off, your precious Gwen will also lose a large chunk of her—" Another spank cut her off, but this time she was ready and only let out a suppressed yelp from the pain.
"That was the case beforehand," Alex said as he gently rubbed her butt, [Beg me to spank your naked butt.] Gwen heard his words in her head and didn't feel anything wrong in obeying the order. Although she felt them sounding a little weird, she obeyed nonetheless.
"Please spank my naked, butt, Master~," She said sultrily while wiggling her butt lightly as Alex smiled and pulled down her panties, leaving her butt naked for his spankings. He could see the prominent reddened marks from his previous few spanks and felt his shaft twitching. This had been without Alex using the Mind Stone and only working with the new Hypnosis knowledge that he'd received from Doctor Faustus.
"Such an obedient girl," Alex praised her while rubbing her naked butt as she shuddered, "Did you feel anything weird when you asked me to do that?"
"Of course not," She snapped, "I asked you that because… because…"
"Because I hypnotized you to say that," Alex said before spanking her again, drowning her outrage in pain as she let out a pained shout, not being able to suppress it anymore.
"How could you… " She was in disbelief when she heard his words. When Alex's fingers traced along her folds, she panicked and tried to move away, "Get away!" The vulnerable tone of her voice gave away her thoughts. The mix of conflicting feelings overwhelmed her.
Alex gently rubbed her back and shushed her while continuing to rub her folds lightly, "Hey, calm down," She whimpered and continued resisting as the heat in her abdomen started getting on her nerves.
"I'll go back in, okay?" She pleaded, "Just stop, please... " Her desperate and vulnerable tone made Alex listen to her words as he stopped.
"Okay," He said and rested his palm on her butt, "I'll stop," He said gently, "I showed you that because I want you to know that I can just hypnotize you to agree to merge with your other half. It would take some time, but I will be able to take care of everything without any problems."
"Then why don't you?" She said with a slightly hoarse voice that had hints of hopelessness.
"I don't really know," Alex said before spanking her again, making her shout in pain without even trying to suppress her voice.
"Ouch!" She wiggled while feeling the lasting sting on her butt, feeling slightly comforted by how Alex was gently rubbing her ass.
"I did wrong you," Alex said, "And maybe it's because I want some sort of a challenge, but I want to make you accept me willingly, without using any weird supernatural means."
His words had her silent for a few seconds, "Just do whatever you want," She said with a desolate tone, "I'll time out sooner or later anyway."
Alex sighed tiredly, knowing that he'd pushed her as much as he could for this session. He spanked her once again, eliciting a pained groan from her as her eyes got teary, "Spankings man," He mumbled, "They can have so many effects… " He said before bringing his fingers back to her folds, lightly rubbing her most sensitive spot as she instantly shuddered. The spanking had primed her up and she was very close to an orgasm.
Her personality may have been different, but the body was still the same one that Alex had been intimately familiar with for a while now. He knew exactly what buttons to press and how to work her in the most optimal way to being her closest to an orgasm.
'Please change, please change please change… ' This was the internal plea that Gwen had been making for the past few seconds as she felt the building of the pleasure within her abdomen, but it seemed to be of no use. Neither she nor her counterpart had any sort of autonomy over who was in control.
She was desperate not to cum to Alex's fingers and desperately wanted her counterpart to take control, but it seemed to be hopeless. Soon enough, the wave of euphoria passed her body as she came with a squirt after being spanked in a way that made her extremely vulnerable.
It didn't take her long to pass out as she reeled from the effects of the orgasm.
-x-X-x-
"You're up?" Gwen opened her eyes to Alex's words and saw Alex sitting on her study desk as he looked at her. She noticed the curtains having been drawn away as the morning sunlight shone through the room, illuminating every corner.
Gwen groaned a little as she felt the sun hitting her eyes, "What happened?" She asked while turning around to lay on her back so that the sun wouldn't directly shine on her eyes. A hiss escaped her mouth, "Why's my butt stinging so much?" She had to turn to the side again, "Did you spank alter me?" She looked at him with blame in her eyes.
"She asked," Alex said with a smile as he admired her nude body and cute expression while she looked like a literal goddess who was being illuminated by the sun, "I had full consent to do what I did."
She raised a brow and looked at him suspiciously while rubbing her butt. After a few seconds, "Did she cause any problems?" She asked him with a slightly guilty expression on her face.
"Burned a few notes," Alex said, "Nothing too important, I made backups of everything. Come here." He gestured to her.
Gwen shrugged and got off of the bed before walking to him and sitting in his lap, "What?" She asked.
"She's not your fault," Alex said, "She came to be because of me."
"Yeah yeah, you have a huge secret that will make me completely despise you for all of my life. I'd rather not know about it," She said while nestling her face into his neck and straddling him as she wrapped her arms around his torso.
They both sat in their places for a few seconds as Alex gently traced his knuckles along Gwen's spine, "So…" Alex seemed to have something on his mind.
"Yeah?" Gwen prompted him to go on while enjoying his light caress.
"I have a way to really accelerate the Time of the Gaia Federation cluster," Alex said, "But I need a medium to channel Time Authority before I can get anything done."
"Back up a little," Gwen blinked a few times, pulling back from his neck and looking into his eyes, "Explain the situation to me from the start."
"Oh… um, sure," Alex took a moment to think before saying, "I won't go too deep into it, but the universe has six major authorities that came to be right as the big bang happened, they are Power, Space, Time, Reality, Soul and Mind. There are many other aspects too, but these are the six most fundamental authorities that make up the fabric of reality itself. You getting it?"
"I think so," Gwen said, "And you have access to the Time Authority?"
"And Mind Authority," Alex said, "There's a whole thing going…" Alex took a couple of minutes to explain to Gwen the whole concept of the Infinity Stones and how they each allow him to access a fundamental authority within the universe.
"Any questions?" He asked.
"So you need the Power Stone to be able to use the Time Stone to its fullest because it has a limited energy capacity?" She asked. She'd changed her position and was sitting sideways on Alex's lap with one arm around his neck for support as she leaned her head on his chest, making him raise his head higher to let her rest her head on his sternum.
"I also need the Space Stone," He said while rubbing her back lightly, "Peak time manipulation cannot be done without altering Spacetime."
"And what exactly does this have to do with manipulating the time of the Gaia Cluster?" She asked before shuffling again and trying to make herself more comfortable. Her actions undoubtedly caused her butt to constantly rub against Alex's crotch repeatedly.
"I need some kind of medium that can amplify and spread the authority through the entire cluster without me having to use the kind of energy that would deplete the stone within a couple of days." Alex said, "Currently, as far as my estimates go, without a medium, I can speed up time such that seventeen days pass in undistorted space while around seven months pass inside the cluster's shields. If I factor in the current temporal distortion of three Gaia days to one 'space day', we can have almost twenty-one months, maybe two years if I push it."
Gwen went silent for a few seconds, thinking about Alex's requirements. She seemed to still not be comfortable enough and shuffled around a little more before saying, "The temporal distortion that is induced by the messed up gravity has always been very unstable, we can go from the three-to-one ratio for Gaia and space days, as you call it, to half-to-one within a matter of hours. So we need to factor those changes in too."
Alex wasn't going to stay completely passive and brought his free hand to Gwen's thigh, slowly creeping toward her pussy with light gentle strokes along her inner thigh.
"I should probably be able to freeze those distortions to a single point, but it will, without a doubt, dip how long I can accelerate the time." Alex said, "From the initial seventeen days, I'll probably drop to ten days. You can do the math. This is all considering that the entities who are being enveloped within the domain are all normal un-superpowered humans. If we run into some special abnormal, that will without a doubt dip things significantly."
"How much time do you really need?" Gwen asked Alex while looking into his eyes, "Two years sounds like a long time to work on my alter ego who already seems to be getting receptive to you." She moved once again as Alex's fingers made contact with her slit, slowly rubbing her labia. Her expression grew a little hazy from his actions and she shuffled once again, slightly spreading her legs to allow him better access.
Alex had been barely holding his erection back as Gwen kept rubbing herself on his lap as if trying her best to seduce him, "That's because I also want to accelerate the development of both planets to an extreme extent. Which cannot be done without a significant amount of time," He said, "Remember our other project? Generating Cosmic Energy through the prosperity and destruction of life? I need that energy. Once we can start collecting it, I should be able to amplify my use of the Time authority by many magnitudes."
"Ugh!" Gwen groaned just as Alex decided to push her down on the bed and give her what she was so desperately vying for, "So much work. I want a break just thinking about these things." She just got off of his lap after essentially spending the past ten minutes grinding on him and moved back to the bed, "I'm taking a nap, wake me up in an hour or so." She wrapped herself in the blanket and closed her eyes, leaving Alex stunned.
"What's the date today…" He spoke to himself blankly, "I can never keep track of time anymore."
"Alex, come into bed this instant," Gwen said poutily, "I'm uncomfortable."
"Yep, she's moody again," Alex mumbled to himself before slipping under the blanket with Gwen before hugging her. He also formed a comfortable set of clothes over her body since she wasn't as comfortable sleeping naked during her 'downtime'.
"Mm~" She smiled happily as she pushed her face into his neck, hugging him back and putting one leg on top of him.
'Should I just take care of it on my terms?' Alex thought absently as he felt Gwen rubbing herself on him without having any intention of having sex. She was just going through her motions and Alex let her, 'Not having to go through menstruation regularly should be a lucrative idea… But do I want to alter their bodies in such a way? Not to mention that I'd have to put it back to normal eventually.'
Alex turned to his side and looked at Gwen's expression which didn't seem to be fully at peace, but she seemed to have settled down by now and was happily snuggling with him.'Forget it, they'll ask me when they decide that it's too much trouble to spend immortality going through this every month for an entire week…'
-x-X-x-
Gwen and Alex spent the next few days cooped up in Gwen's lab as Gwen analyzed the Time Stone's authority as best as she could. Since it was impossible to contain it, she had to work with a lot of guesswork, not to mention the presence of Alter Gwen who would pop out every once in a while and throw a wrench in their work.
After an initial outburst where she would try to destroy whatever she could before Alex suppressed her, she usually just stayed quiet, not giving him a chance to do anything anymore. The previous spanking had deeply impacted her and although she was still showing extreme resistance outwardly, inwardly, she was in a state of disarray.
A week passed as they continued working on the Time Stone.
"All right, with intricate control over the shield's force, we can stabilize the effects of surrounding gravity that are affecting the gravitational field of the cluster. We can also amplify the effects of your Time authority in the same manner. You only need to rapidly accelerate time around the main reactor. The modifications to the shield generator should take a little more than a few hours with everyone working together." Gwen told Alex with a hint of fatigue in her tone, "We should be done with everything within twenty-four hours."
"You're awesome," Alex said with an appreciative smile.
"You helped too," She said, "Without you, I'd have had to refer to a lot of books."
Alex looked at her blankly for a few seconds, "I can't tell if that's a dig or not…"
Gwen smiled cheekily and kissed his cheek, "I'll convey the instructions to the team. Work with them, okay?" She didn't wait for his answer and walked out of the lab.
"Yeah," Alex said to himself with a thoughtful nod. "She's pent up." He shrugged and walked to a set of metal doors in the center of Gwen's lab. Swiping a keycard through a reader, he unlocked the thick set of doors that were far too bulky for a normal commercial elevator and entered the metal box. When he entered the lift, he opened the terminal using a key and entered a special code before executing the command. The doors closed before a whirring sound appeared and two more sets of doors enclosed over the initial ones. That was when the lift started descending.
"I really need to have Wanda find another teleportation method to get to the center of the Earth," Alex said to himself before taking a seat on a chair that he created for himself. "The energy fluctuations of the generator and the radiation from the Earth's core destabilize the dimensional gateways…" Alex talked to himself while making himself comfortable. The journey was going to take him almost two hours.
"I'm so bored," It didn't take long for Alex to groan from the boredom, "I'll just bring Gwen here once she's instructing the people."
A few minutes more passed as Alex passively observed Gwen giving orders to more and more scientists, even getting herself involved in the process of loading up some of the augmentation tools and materials to the main elevator which was much larger, but also took far more time to reach the core. Around eight hours for a one-way trip. That was the reason for Gwen's twenty-four-hour estimate. The installation process wouldn't take as long as traveling down to the core of the planet.
It wasn't that the elevators were slow, they were extremely fast, but it still wasn't enough. The distance that needed to be traversed was more than three thousand miles or almost five thousand kilometers. Considering that they were covering it in a matter of a few hours meant that the elevators were approaching Mach speed. The smaller elevator in Gwen's lab was moving at Mach 2 while the larger cargo elevator was moving at half the speed of sound.
'I should look for the Space Stone…' Alex thought to himself, 'But the Power Stone comes first. I don't know what the deal with Morag would be. I just hope Quill hasn't already looted the planet… or someone else,' Alex's first targets were the MCU Infinity Stones since they were the ones he recalled the most clearly.
The other versions of Earth could have their stones anywhere and he would have to scour through their information to get a concrete location, but the MCU was a relatively unpopular universe within the Marvel multiverse so it would be much easier for him to go and grab those Stones early on. Not to mention that most of the Infinity Stones from the other realities would be in someone's hands, unlike the MCU's stones that were just up for grabs and hidden in certain locations.
Right now, on Asgardian Earth, Alex was actively looking for Morag with Jane after getting her to agree to help him. Asgard's records didn't go very far beyond the nine realms, so they didn't have any location for Morag, but they would be able to locate the planet sooner or later with the necessary technology. Not to mention they could just trial-and-error through the planets as long as they could get an idea of the possible location. Using the Bifrost to travel across planets wasn't a big deal.
As Alex mused around and made plans to get the Infinity Stones as quickly as possible, he finally noticed that Gwen was done with her instruction work and he was still only a quarter of the way there, which meant he had at least an hour and a half remaining to reach the bottom.
Just as Gwen opened the door to come back into her lab, instead of the actual view, she found herself in front of a portal that led directly to Alex, who seemed to be in the familiar elevator that led him down to the core of the planet. Before she was able to react, multiple tentacles extended from behind Alex and wrapped around Gwen, forcefully pulling her into the portal and keeping her restrained completely.
Two tentacles wrapped around her legs and thighs while two more wrapped around her arms and held them above her head before multiple more wrapped around her torso and chest with another wrapping around her head, specifically forming a sort of cleave gag that covered her mouth.
Gwen instinctively resisted as she felt the abrupt change in her environment. She had just been peacefully walking to her lab when a big tentacle monster kidnapped her and started dissolving away all of her clothes. She'd even been gagged, unable to scream out about the unfairness of the situation.
"How's my slutty scientist doing?" Alex asked Gwen as she floated in front of him with her limbs all restrained, trapped in the metal box that was the elevator. She tried to resist, but the tentacles didn't give, tightening around her body even more.
The ones around her legs folded them and spread her knees apart, putting her in a frog-tie position while she was suspended by her arms and had both her holes free after Alex dissolved all of her clothing.
"Uu~" She struggled against Alex's tentacles, but it was useless. Since Alex hadn't heard her speaking in his head through their telepathic connection, he was sure that she was much more into this than she was showing him.
The tentacles around Gwen's torso tightened and especially wrapped around her breasts while moving in a circular motion as the tips both latched onto her nipples, making her feel as if they were both being sucked. The blush that rose on Gwen's cheeks along with the arousal in her eyes despite her outward resistance expressed her exact thoughts clearly.
Soon enough, the cleave gag tentacle that was going past her mouth loosened its hold on her head and instead entered her mouth while taking a phallic shape, identical to Alex's cock. She choked but didn't hesitate to keep her mouth open, happily taking the dick into her throat as far as it went.
Alex was turned on by the display of having his tentacles assault Gwen and the feelings associated with the process, but his personal preference had always been toward latex and leather restraints. After having his fill of the visual and sensory delicacy of using his tentacles to toy with Gwen's body, Alex transformed most of the tentacles into a leather and latex form. Her legs stayed separated, but the tentacles turned into a black substance that enveloped her folded legs, forming a leather binder. The same happened with her arms, forming leather cuffs that hung her from the ceiling.
As for the tentacles that were assaulting her breasts, he didn't do anything about them, same with the phallus that was inside her mouth, assaulting her throat.
He looked into Gwen's eyes while holding her chin as the dick kept going into and out of her mouth, "You look so sexy like this. It's impossible for me to resist you when you look at me like that," He said before opening his pants, revealing his erect shaft that Gwen couldn't see, but she could very accurately imagine it approaching her wet and needy pussy. She squirmed in her bonds as Alex held the sides of her waist and positioned himself in front of her entrance while rubbing his tip against her slit.
"We have an entire hour and a half to spend here in this enclosed metal box, not to mention the hours that the others will take to reach the core…" Alex's words had Gwen release a pleasurable moan as she pushed her pelvis toward his shaft that was teasing her pussy. She wanted it.
"Show me you really want it," Alex said while continuing to tease her, "I want to see your desperation."
"Uu~" She made a pleading expression while taking the cock that was assaulting her mouth deeper into her throat, letting out gurgling sounds every once in a while. Her eyes were constantly fixed on Alex as she looked at him with her pleas, wanting the aching needy fire in her abdomen to be doused.
Alex spent a few seconds enjoying Gwen's pleading as she kept taking him into her mouth, "Your begging is the cutest, Gwen…" Alex praised her before tightening his hold over her waist and pushing himself inside her, making Gwen groan out in pleasure through the cock that was in her mouth.