The thought of a murderous rampage lingered in the back of Alex's mind as he continued observing Susan dealing with the three experienced mutants. They were, by no means, the only heavy hitters that remained among the group, but all three of them were a force to reckon with in their own right. As for those that remained, they served as a backup plan.
At the moment, Susan seemed to have gained the upper hand despite the three-to-one scenario in front of her.
Be it Scott's light beams or Ororo's weather manipulation methods, both were tangible, straightforward means of attack. That allowed Susan to easily counter them with her force fields. As for the backlash that forced her body to endure the force that impacted her force fields, that was entirely negligible. Even without Alex's active enhancement, her Hyperspace Physique possessed physical characteristics equivalent to a Peak Superhuman physique as per Alex's measuring standard. With her physical advantage, a massive weakness that she possessed had been essentially eliminated.
The only troublesome factor was Jean. As opposed to Ororo and Scott, the powers she showed were entirely formless. Whether it be telepathy or telekinesis. While Alex had helped her set up a mental barrier through her powers that blocked any mental probes from affecting her, it wasn't perfect. Unlike the means that Alex employed by tapping into Kitty Pryde's phasing ability, which made it so that there was no target present in the material world, Susan's means involved a physical barrier that had to be actively maintained, occupying her attention.
Still, Alex showed no intent to help for the time being, letting Susan fight her battle.
Eventually, the lack of real combat experience started shining through her actions. Even though she possessed an overwhelming advantage with her force fields, her opponents consisted of three battle-hardened mutants. As they figured out her powers and inability to land a finishing blow, they started exploiting flaws in her abilities.
With a grunt, Scott's light beams suddenly spread around, covering a large area that forced Susan to enlarge her shield to block everything. Instead of compressing it to protect herself, her instinct was to block the entire thing. With that, Ororo took action.
The storm surrounding the mansion intensified even further, completely blotting out the sun as the black clouds above Susan morphed and twisted into a whirlpool in the air. Moments later, as Scott's wide beam of light kept Susan occupied, a concentrated bolt of red lightning struck down from the center of the whirlpool. The sheer intensity even made Alex raise a brow as he analyzed it and observed that it was comparable to the lightning that he usually summoned from the skies. For Ororo to match his output was a big deal, considering he had devoured three variants of Thor, pushing his capabilities with lightning to a divine level.
I might even be able to incorporate her technique to empower my lightning further… I'll try it out sometime.
Susan's response was also timely as she grunted, pushing herself to form massive layered force fields above her that completely absorbed the impact of the red lightning, letting it dissipate in the wind. With her stretched thin in two directions, the third strike came.
Jean, instead of trying to infiltrate her mind outright, used her telekinesis to form a two-pronged strike that targeted both major force fields that Susan had formed. Her targets were precise and compressed into a thin point, only attempting to pierce through the force fields.
Unable to see what Jean was doing, Susan only felt a pricking sensation spread all over her skin as both force fields were pierced through. The destabilization quickly collapsed both barriers as Susan grunted in pain, narrowing her eyes in annoyance.
With that, both the continued red lightning and Scott's light beams struck Susan's spot, releasing a massive shockwave that sent dust flying everywhere and forced some of the weaker X-Men to tumble backward.
Unfortunately, before any of them could cheer, the crater and dust all flew high up into the air, revealing an airborne blonde woman floating a few feet above the destroyed ground.
"You still aren't going to help me?" Susan asked coldly.
"Just create a force field inside one of their heads. Instant brain hemorrhage," Alex said from the back, also unaffected by the shockwave and attack.
"That's a terrible method to get people to follow you," she grunted, forming a force field in front of her that blocked Scott's incoming light beam. Crying out, she directly pushed her force field against the beam as the red light was completely suppressed. The force field struck Scott like a truck, ramming into his torso and throwing him back into the crowd. Before his stray light beams could hurt anyone, a bubble appeared over his head, blocking the beams.
She didn't have any plans to stop and switched targets to Ororo, another glass cannon. The only one who might be able to take her strike was Jean, with her immense mastery over telekinesis and psychic energy.
Unfortunately, despite being fast enough, Susan's strike had prepared her remaining opponents, and her force field was blocked right in front of Ororo as if encountering an invisible barrier. She turned and saw Jean with her arm raised, barely having blocked the attack.
Susan quickly formed a barrier over her head, blocking the incoming lightning, and targeted both her opponents with her force fields, wanting to take care of them in one fell swoop.
"I guess the same trick won't work again…" Susan mumbled, seeing Jean block both of her force fields without too much effort.
"Surprise attacks are, ultimately, only successful as a surprise," Alex spoke from the side. "What are you going to do now?"
"Only thing I can do…" Susan raised both her arms and shot two force fields at Jean and Ororo once again, only for them to be blocked. Instead of dissipating them, she kept pushing. Her goal was clear—to brute force Jean and break through her defense.
A loud cry left Susan's lips as she pushed forward, directly contesting against the psychic might of Jean Grey, the host of the Phoenix Force. As for Ororo, no matter how great a potential for widespread destruction she possessed, it ultimately fell short in front of Susan's individual might.
Ororo's following attempts of striking Susan with lightning fell short of her previous exhaustive efforts, casually blocked by her through the use of a single barrier.
Soon enough, Susan gained the upper hand and, with a scream that distorted the air itself with her powers, she broke through Jean's resistance and slammed her force fields into both Ororo and the redhead with enough force to break multiple bones.
"Phew…" Susan mumbled, wiping away some sweat that had gathered on her forehead. "What a workout…"
"It's not over yet," Alex said, looking at her display with amusement.
"I'm not fighting anymore. You do it," she said, shrugging and starting walking toward Alex. Her previous ability to float was barely achieved through a ton of concentration, which meant that it was far from sustainable. It definitely wasn't enough to help her casually float to other places.
"Jean isn't done yet," Alex said. "She isn't a new person, is she?"
"No way…" Susan looked surprised, fully aware of how much force she'd used on Jean. After Alex's initial introductions, she had possessed a preliminary idea of the woman's capabilities and hit her with the strongest force field among the three.
Turning around, she indeed saw Jean emerging from the ground, but her state was odd. Her pupils had turned white as a fiery red aura surrounded her, distinctly different from Alex's Chaos energy. Her body was limply hanging from the sides as the few bruises and scrapes on her exposed skin were directly set on fire, yet she didn't care in the slightest.
At her emergence, let alone Susan, even Alex frowned with a solemn expression.
This shouldn't be the case… All these dimensional entities are asleep; the Phoenix Force, by all logic, should also be asleep. Maybe like Wanda, its situation is also special, allowing the Jean Grays of the universe to still access its powers under duress or something…
Susan, still not realizing the sheer terror of someone enhanced by a cosmic entity, threw forward a casual force field to put Jean down for good, only for the woman's psychic energy to turn visible, possessing a fiery red hue as it slammed into Sue's barrier and broke through with seemingly no effort.
As the telekinetic hue continued forward unimpeded, Susan, still reeling from the backlash, was in no state to react or defend herself in time. Just before the wave of energy struck her, she felt a soft material envelop her.
A black blur was thrown back, slamming into one of the pillars that comprised the entry arch.
[Yeah, you can't take her.]
"I didn't want to take her on in the first place!" Susan exclaimed as Alex settled on her body, creating a special Apex suit for her.
***
Susan's Apexified look incorporated her thematic blue with Alex's black, with blue shoulder pads that extended down to her arms, transitioning into black gloves that seemed to be creeping along her forearms, forming a wavy pattern at the color shift. The blue also extended down her sides in an alternating pattern mixed with black, while her front and back were entirely black, save for a blue glowing V-shaped belt on her waist that accentuated her hips. The blue that went along her sides disappeared at the belt and emerged on the back of her thighs and legs, forming into blue boots, while the rest of it was all black. Naturally, in true Apex fashion, it generously hugged her perfect body, accentuating every single curve perfectly yet elegantly, not looking vulgar in the slightest—the body-hugging latex outfits were something Alex kept to sexual matters, be it any of his hosts, since his possessiveness meant that any real exhibitionism was off the table. While Alex had also covered her head for protection purposes, he made everything above her neck invisible, leaving her face free as her hair got tied in a ponytail, flowing behind her as it went down to her shoulder blades.
(Imagine Marvel Rivals outfit, but replace the whites with black.)
The now-suited Susan was not only under the fourfold amplification to her physical attributes provided by their level two bond, but also had a crimson glow surrounding her that was distinctly different from the Phoenix Force's slightly orange-red flames that surrounded Jean. Levitating above the ground as Alex supported her utilization of her abilities—effortlessly making up for her weak precision and control—she had a fierce look in her eyes. It wasn't directed completely at Jean, but more at Alex.
[You still want to make me continue fighting?]
[Imagine this is a life-and-death struggle. If we don't suppress her, she'll kill me. Do you want that?]
Susan was left speechless at his words, unable to retort, and could only surrender to the stubborn creature that had taken root inside her body.
With Alex augmenting her control, Susan quickly zipped forward, only stopping a few feet away from Jean as the redhead's fiery aura kept spreading wantonly, attempting to push her away but to no avail. Their surroundings were empty, the force of Jean's unconscious release of power having already thrown everyone away and even destroyed a part of the front of the mansion.
Still, in Susan's current state, the waves of force that were spreading from Jean as the center couldn't do anything to push Susan back as she landed on the ground, covering the rest of the distance on foot while looking up at Jean's floating figure with a frown.
"What's wrong with you?" She asked, concluding that the redhead was no longer in control of her actions.
[She's been possessed by what I'm going to conclude has to be the remnant will of a sleeping entity.]
"Meaning?"
[Remember our talk about Celestials? There is a similar entity called the Phoenix Force in the universe. Jean Gray can be considered either an avatar, a herald, or even a conduit of that entity, depending on the version. But at the moment, the Phoenix Force is asleep.]
"What's a remnant will?"
[Something like an instinct that keeps your power working unconsciously. It can even be considered a self-defense mechanism.]
"She needs help…" Susan said, a hint of concern appearing in her eyes.
[Too troublesome…]
"Aren't you curious?"
[I am, naturally. But at the moment, I don't have any real way to suppress Jean successfully. And bonding with her is out of the question. I am not yet ready to risk letting the Phoenix Force form a direct connection with me, regardless of whether it's asleep or not.]
"So can we knock her out?"
[Actually, scratch that. Try to hold her off for a little while. I'm close to getting something substantial soon that might be able to help me suppress her successfully.]
Susan was surprised by the sudden shift and nodded, willing a large number of smaller force fields into existence all around Jean. With that, the wantonly spreading fiery aura suddenly seemed to encounter multiple invisible barriers the size of doors that blocked parts of the aura from spreading further. The barriers soon multiplied and spread around, forming a multi-layered hemisphere around Susan and Jean that quickly blocked all of the released energy from spreading any further than a twenty-meter radius around them.
The collective force that Susan had to block made the blonde stagger a little due to the immense pressure behind it, but with some support from Alex, who helped her keep her force fields stable, she held on successfully.
Once she got the hang of maintaining the outward dome, Susan's attention once again focused on Jean. With the redhead barely in control, she had time to consider her next course of action. As she saw the redhead's chest rising and falling rhythmically, a thought crossed Susan's mind.
She still needs to breathe…
Once she realized that, her following actions were extremely swift. With a focused thought, she created a bubble around Jean's head, forming an airtight seal over her neck that blocked any air from passing through. Within seconds, a struggling expression appeared on Jean's face, and her white eyes seemed to regain her sense of self as her pupils reappeared for a moment. Just as Susan let out a relieved breath and prepared to remove the bubble, Jean's expression twisted into one of fury as her eyes once again disappeared, leaving behind just a budding flame that entirely covered her eye sockets.
Unable to make sense of the situation, Susan prepared to maintain the bubble, but instead of her hold over the bubble tightening, it loosened, and in the next moment, it disappeared, sending a far stronger backlash than she'd ever experienced before.
"Oof…" She bent forward, coughing, feeling as if she'd just been punched in the gut. "W-what just happened?"
[How interesting… She took over your Psionic Force Fields. Despite yours originating from Hyperspace, and hers being a physical manifestation of her mental power, the Phoenix Force is a sort of cheat entity. I need another minute, okay? Just hold her off for a little while longer.]
"Easier said than done…" Susan felt a chill go down her spine when she felt Jean's fiery gaze lock onto her. Instinctively, she summoned a layered force field right in front of her, and it extended forward as a visible wave of red telekinesis slammed into it, breaking through most of the barriers and only dissipating by the final few. At the moment, without Alex's support, Susan's internals would have been in a complete mess as she herself would be bleeding from her orifices. Instead, she was let off with a few coughs, feeling as if the air had been punched out of her lungs.
Still, she responded promptly, countering with more force fields that tried to physically strike Jean.
"Can't you help me see her force fields like I can with mine?"
[I wanted you to figure it out yourself. Remember how you can fine-tune your invisibility to isolate frequencies? Apply the same principle to your eyes. The difference between her psionic energy and your psionic barriers is merely the frequency at which they operate. That is why she could interfere with you. Logically, you should be able to do the same, but that's probably going to require some practice and specialized fine-tuning.]
True to her nature as a genius, it only took a brief guiding hand from Alex before she tapped into her powers to modify her retinas and tuned them to be able to see Jean's invisible telekinetic fields as well. While Susan's were usually barriers and solid shapes, Jean's psionic fields were much more fluid, flowing around her and constantly colliding with the larger hemisphere that enveloped both of them.
With the field evened out, Susan was unable to absolutely trap Jean, and Jean was similarly unable to gain an upper hand due to all of her psionic attacks being blocked by Susan. As the stalemate continued for a minute or so, before either woman was able to think of any way to break it, Susan felt a unique power coursing through her entire body that felt as if her internals were being zapped. The sheer intensity completely broke her concentration, and not only did she fail to block Jean's subsequent assault, but the dome also started disintegrating.
Even though she was barely conscious, Jean didn't fail to grasp the opportunity and sent forth such concentrated psionic energy that Susan would have been crushed even with Alex's enhancement. However, before the telekinetic psionic energy could reach Susan, the electrifying sensation ceased. At the same time, multi-colored arcs of lightning appeared on her skin. Unlike before, she didn't even feel the presence of these arcs as she quickly raised her arms in defense, barely forming a single weak shield that wouldn't be able to block anything.
Though the impact never came as a blue glow wrapped around Susan, and she disappeared entirely, appearing right behind Jean. Surprised by the sudden turn of events, she didn't even realize that her body was no longer under her control as her hands unconsciously clasped around the enraged redhead, pulling her into a hug.
Alex had taken full control of Susan's body and activated her powers to the fullest, tapping into the specialized Hyperspace aspect of her Psionic Manifestation to create a five-simplex structure around Jean. With the formation of that structure, six Infinity Stones projected themselves into reality, surrounding Susan and Jean as they seemingly slotted into their respective vertices in the five-simplex, perfectly equidistant from each other to the point of transcending dimensions.
With that, Susan completely lost consciousness as Alex overdrew her powers to activate all six Infinity Stones in an attempt to alter reality on a fundamental level. His goal was simple. He wanted to suppress Jean's connection to the Phoenix Force on a fundamental level. Directly severing or blocking it wasn't going to be enough. He wanted to make it so that such a connection didn't exist in the first place, completely disconnecting this version of Jean from its power.
***
As Jean fell powerlessly on the ground, barely breathing, Alex finally separated from Susan and slowly lowered the bewildered blonde to the ground.
"What just happened?"
"I used all six Infinity Stones to alter reality and disconnect Jean from the Phoenix Force," Alex said.
"Infinity Stones are…" She trailed off.
"Cosmic artifacts. Extremely overpowered stuff," he said succinctly as he bent forward and put two fingers on Jean's neck to examine her state. "She's fine."
As the dust settled, the X-Men came into view but didn't approach Susan or Alex; instead, Emma Frost broke away from the group and walked up to them unhurriedly.
"You can just do something like that?"
"Not without all six stones gathered. There's a resonance effect that amplifies them when they are used together."
"Is that what you were waiting for?"
"Yeah. This planet's time is slower than outside; one day here is equivalent to around three in space," Alex said. "I finally got my hands on the Space Stone, that's why I had to disappear for a moment."
"So you can just alter reality on a whim, now?"
"It's not that simple," he shook his head. "I have to mitigate the backlash of using the stones. Not only a physical backlash that would hurt my hosts and me, but a corruptive effect on the mind. That's why I don't freely use the stones to do everything for me."
As Susan opened her mouth to continue, Alex raised his hand, gesturing toward the approaching woman who was dressed in a revealing glossy white outfit, proudly exposing enough skin to send a conservative man reeling.
"Was this test to your satisfaction?" Alex asked the approaching mutant.
"What's wrong with her?" She asked directly, focusing on Jean with a scrutinizing look.
"She is no longer connected to the Phoenix Force," Alex said, smiling. "Her powers are all still there, but the Phoenix Force can't boost her anymore."
"H-how…"
"Going by your expression, it seems this has happened more than once," Alex said. "You all did seem prepared and quickly retreated when she lost control…"
Understanding that she wasn't going to be getting any answers, she didn't push it and moved on.
"We are willing to surrender, but we have our terms that must be agreed upon first. Otherwise… The X-Men aren't ones to go down without a fight, no matter how much the odds are stacked against us."
"I'm not interested in discussing those terms with you," Alex shook his head. "My representative on this world will contact you when the time comes. Are you going to serve as the de facto leader of the Mutants now? I didn't see you during the final battle against Hydra."
"I was there," she said, smiling without any intent to elaborate. "And yes, as you've seen, Scott's volatility makes him an unreliable leader. I'll be taking over the Professor's position."
"Good," Alex nodded, waving his hand as a black blur shot at Emma, wrapping around her neck like a choker. Immediately, he formed a tertiary bond with her. "This is your higher-level connection to Gaia, my artificial intelligence. It will let you interface with her directly, but you will be under Susan Storm. She is my primary representative on this planet. The choker will also allow you to directly contact her. Any questions you have, she will answer. We'll be off."
Emma was still surprised, trying to pry away the choker that seemed to be completely stuck to her skin as Alex wrapped an arm around Susan and took off into the air.
…
Their next, and final goal, was the floating island that belonged to the Inhumans. This time, Alex didn't bother to waste too much time and quickly subdued them with Susan before handing a choker to Medusa to have her serve as his representative among the Inhumans. His initial plan had been to look for a variant of Luna Maximoff and choose her to copy the same roster that he'd chosen for Earth-65, but as it turned out, Quicksilver's Inhuman progeny was a male in this reality, forcing Alex to reevaluate his options. Ultimately, he settled on the de facto Queen of the Inhumans, Medusalith.
Now, all that remained was to subdue Hydra's more troublesome remnants before activating the planetary shield that had long been set up underground. Unlike his overt appearance on this planet with Susan, one of Alex's bodies had long been lingering here, preparing to activate the planetary shield whenever necessary. That was the case for not just this planet, but also for a number of others, where he didn't sense any truly cosmic threats. He was only waiting to placate the people on the planet before pulling it into Gaia's cluster as the fifth planet.
Taking over the multiple factions, despite their efficient pace, had still taken Alex and Susan an entire day, so they decided to rest for the night before moving on. The remnants of Hydra were still being located by Gaia, and unlike the singular locations of the Mutants, Inhumans, and New Avengers, dealing with them would require traveling all over the world.
Of course, resting for the night was merely an excuse for the duo to indulge each other's carnal needs. Having fought all day, first the X-Men, then the Inhumans, Susan's libido was at an all-time high. Just like that, the two of them spent the entire night locked in carnal pleasures. If not for the fact that they had things to do, Susan was likely to keep at it for an entire week without caring about anything else.
She was a lot like Wanda in her single-minded desire for pleasure when she clung to someone. Though unlike Wanda's extreme neediness that bordered on obsession—which stemmed from losing everyone she cared about—Susan was a lot more grounded and straightforward. She was someone who had a lot of desires and freely acted on them without any constraints once she found someone she could trust.
The two of them only exited the hotel room late in the morning and had a casual brunch, flirting with each other and playing around. No one could imagine that the two of them had changed the entire world in the span of a single day.
It was only after noon that they resumed their quest to root out all of the enhanced Hydra remnants. They weren't targeting the normal members since that was something he'd already delegated to his subordinates in this world. Alex was only interested in the variables with superpowers because they were the ones who could cause trouble and disrupt his progress in consolidating everything on the planet under his banner.
Just like that, the entire day passed as Alex and Susan flew around and dealt with any potential variables that could oppose his regime. By the end of the day, after all the fighting, Susan was once again on a passion high and thoroughly enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh with Alex. Unlike before, she even made him use the Time Stone to spend more time with him, only feeling satisfied after a full week.
The next day, their final goal was one that had been flagged as the most dangerous location by Gaia. Alex had detected certain cosmic fluctuations from the place and had left it for last, and indeed, it didn't disappoint.
"Hey now… It's a familiar thing," he said, observing the familiar Inhuman that had Cosmic Energy coursing through its body. Alex had already encountered this entity with Laura once before on this very planet and had devoured it after a thorough suppression. This Inhuman seemed to barely cling to reality, its physical form constantly morphing between masculine and feminine figures as its face remained in a constant, blurred state.
"What is that thing…" Susan was positively creeped out by the creature in front of her.
"An experiment by Hydra to replicate an Inhuman with special powers. It can coat its body with Cosmic Energy, significantly enhancing its physical abilities," Alex said. "I killed the original, but it seems that they got their hands on that Inhuman's genetic data from somewhere."
"So you can take care of it?" She asked hopefully, not particularly interested in fighting.
"I want to see how your powers interact with real Cosmic Energy," he said. "Block it."
Susan instinctively raised her shield to block the Inhuman's incoming punch, but it passed through as if the shield didn't even exist, striking Alex right in the chest. Though all that was achieved was creating a minor shockwave.
Unlike last time, where Laura had to pull out all the stops to deal with the Inhuman, Alex had grown vastly stronger, and this Inhuman was merely a clone of the real deal, naturally weaker. If his Cosmic Physique, capable of shattering entire planets with mere punches, lost out to someone who could, at best, coat their body with Cosmic Energy, Alex might as well give up.
Seeing that Susan's force fields were useless in front of its ability, Alex didn't bother wasting too much time and directly devoured the creature in front of him.
[Cosmic Energy + 0.0195]
[Bioenergy +0.0134]
Unlike last time, where he had to spend days grinding out the Inhuman's innate defense, now, technically less than a week later, Alex could directly devour the clone whole, absorbing all of the Cosmic Energy. Of course, it didn't have anything to do with his devour ability getting stronger—it was already at the peak of what it could be. The reason that he was able to effortlessly absorb the Inhuman's clone was the ability he'd copied from Susan, ‹Ambient Cosmic Manipulation›. It allowed him to directly dispel the innate defense and devour the Inhuman.
"And you made me fight every troublesome enemy?" Susan looked flabbergasted at the effortless manner that Alex handled everything.
"Of course, these experiences will help you broaden your perspective, letting you come up with more creative ways to use your powers," he said. "It's for your own good. Now, follow me. Let's see what the hell allowed Hydra to clone someone with Cosmic Energy…"
Alex was immensely curious as to what allowed the cloning of such a creature.
As he strode inside, Susan huffed and followed him into the base. Soon, they reached the core area.
"This is it…" He said anticipatorily.
"Don't you already know what's in there? Gaia already knows the path to this place," Susan said.
"They deleted all records of this thing's existence," Alex said. "This is essentially Pandora's Box. It could have an Infinity Stone, the core of a Celestial, or more likely, the thing that brought this reality into existence in the first place…"
"What are you talking about?" Susan asked as she saw Alex press a few buttons before a hissing sound signified the central chamber being opened.
"A sentient Cosmic Cube," he said with a gleam in his eyes as he looked at the glowing blue cube, as it revealed itself in front of him. The moment his eyes fell upon the cube, a bright blue light flashed as Alex felt reality itself twist, targeting him.
***
The moment after opening the Cosmic Cube from its confinement chamber, Alex found himself manifested within his soul, staring directly at the nigh-incomprehensible five-simplex of infinity stones at its core, which radiated a multicolored glow that covered his entire soul. His expression flattened from his initial confusion into a cold one as he processed the events that had just transpired.
At this moment, he had been completely severed from reality. Not a single one of his bodies remained outside his Soul Dimension. Let alone his bodies, he couldn't even feel his hosts. The only one he could barely sense the presence of was Wanda, but it was so faint and detached that he could do nothing beyond sensing her existence.
He had been completely purged from the universe, even the bodies in layered dimensions like Magik's Limbo weren't spared. The Cosmic Cube had thoroughly purged his entire existence from reality itself, rewriting everything and omitting him entirely.
A sudden yet profound sense of loss struck Alex, almost sapping all his strength away as he frowned, his breathing growing shallower as parts of his soul itself started fluctuating as if responding to the feeling of loss that was assaulting him.
"Aren't you six a little useless?" He asked rhetorically. "No passive defenses at all… It seems I need to keep these stones on my physical form from now on if I'm dealing with things like the Cosmic Cube…"
While very irked at the Stones' lack of action, Alex was far from helpless against the reality-bending powers of the Cosmic Cube. Especially since it hadn't been able to interfere with the Klyntar Soul Dimension, leaving Alex's soul completely unscathed. That was enough for him to reaffirm that his decision to keep himself hidden within this dimension was very good. Even now, he was sure that there was more to this dimension than he had explored. But that could only come once he had a solid grasp over Cosmic Energy so that he could have actual innate defenses against items or entities that could bend reality at a whim.
With his survival affirmed, Alex simply extended his hand toward the simplex and grasped all six stones into a fist before drawing upon his entire Bioenergy reserve.
At this point, Alex's reserve was solidly in the hundreds of thousands of units of Bioenergy, giving him the freedom to act wantonly with the Infinity Stones without any backlash from their utilization.
Closing his eyes, he articulated his thoughts and activated the stones to their fullest potential, invoking a resonating effect between all six of them.
…
A few seconds earlier, just as Alex operated the console to bring the Cosmic Cube from confinement, the glowing blue cube radiated an imposing might, enrapturing Susan for a moment. Instantly after that, a deafening cracking sound echoed throughout the universe itself. Susan's expression immediately broke down as she squatted, covering her ears and letting out a pained groan. Looking closer, her ears were bleeding from the sound of the crack, and her face had turned pale and bloodless as if she was suffering from a severe bout of weakness.
Beside her, Alex's physical form had already turned into a formless puddle beside her.
At the same time, the Cosmic Cube in front of them lost its imposing luster, weakening down to barely a flicker of blue within as if all of its energy had been sucked away.
Seconds later, Susan completely passed out, unable to hold on any longer as Alex's puddle persisted.
Soon, half an hour passed before Alex's puddle showed the faintest flickers of movement.
Fortunately, while Alex had shifted Gaia's core into himself, he hadn't completely removed her from physical servers just yet. That delay ended up benefiting him right now since, despite his current situation, no one had found out about Alex's current state aside from his primary and secondary bonds, and every single one of his women, even Wanda, was currently incapacitated.
Soon, the black slime on the ground rose up slowly, coalescing into Alex's humanoid form as he looked coldly at the weakened Cosmic Cube, as his remaining Bioenergy was reflected in his eyes.
«EP/Bioenergy»:: 0 Units
A wave of annoyance shot through him even as he saw the number actively start to increase by the second as he resumed his operations in Gaia Penitentiary.
"Who put you up to this?" Alex asked, grabbing the cube roughly and looking at it intently. "And don't you dare tell me it was Hydra, Kobik."
Receiving no response from the cube, Alex's expression grew colder as he tapped into the meagre cosmic energy that he had sucked away from the cloned inhuman and used it to activate his fragment of the Mind Stone.
Yellow lightning erupted from his arm that was holding the cube, immediately coursing toward it and dyeing the graying cube yellow for a moment. Unlike normal activation, his infusion of Cosmic Energy into the Infinity Stone seemed to have briefly supercharged it, giving it the same output as a full, unfragmented Infinity Stone.
"Ahh!" A pained groan immediately erupted from within the depths of the cube as it tried a futile resistance, its glow intensifying slightly. This time, Alex simply activated the full force of his lightning divinity and summoned a massive bolt of thunder from the sky as it tore through the ceiling and struck the cube.
"Tell me who it was, Kobik," Alex repeated coldly. "Before I completely wipe out your spiritual consciousness and turn you into the raw material for a toy that I'm building."
"I can't!" The voice that came through the cube was slightly childish, but that did nothing to dissuade Alex. The Cosmic Cube wasn't just acting in self-defense, but was outright attacking Alex's entire existence as if fulfilling a personal vendetta, going as far as to completely exhaust itself in the attempt.
Naturally, all this happened once Alex started mounting his resistance by using the Infinity Stones; otherwise, the Cosmic Cube would have been done after simply wiping Alex's existence out of reality.
"Then your continued existence serves no purpose," Alex didn't give Kobik another moment to mount a final resistance and reversed the effects of the Mind Stone entirely. Still powered by the scraps of Cosmic Energy that he possessed, it completely wiped Kobik's consciousness away from the Cosmic Cube, turning the conscious artifact inert as its blue glow disappeared, leaving it gray with hints of blue at the core.
He continued looking at the cube for a few seconds, contemplating whether he wanted to risk pulling it into his ‹Inventory› or not. While a Mystic Arts portal was also an option, it was something that could be traced by others and wasn't as secure a method. Ultimately, he decided to go with the ‹Inventory› method, but with a precaution. He tapped into his slowly increasing Bioenergy and used all six Infinity Stones to form a barrier that formed an isolated space within his soul. Only then did he absorb the Cosmic Cube into it to transfer it away to Wanda, immediately pulling the cube out of his soul to minimize both the risk of keeping it there and the consumption of his Bioenergy.
With the Cube dealt with, he turned to the unconscious Susan beside him. The rest of his primary hosts had already regained their consciousness and were in the process of being coaxed by him, leaving only Susan. Despite her high potential, her bond with him wasn't nearly as deep as the others, so the passive benefits that she received from bonding with Alex were naturally far weaker.
He knelt down beside Susan and gently pulled her up into his arms, using a third tentacle that emerged from his back to hold her head up and let her rest against his chest.
"Well, I'm sort of done with this place now… All that's left is the final thing…"
Stepping forward, Alex passed through a Mystic arts portal and emerged in the space above the planet. A significantly larger blue sphere was already close enough to blot out a significant part of his view as Alex remotely activated his preparations for this planet. Since there was no Celestial in its core, the shield generator was the same as the rest of the Gaia Cluster. The hexagonal pattern quickly spread through the entire celestial body, covering it in a blue shield. From the larger blue shield that held the Gaia cluster, a beam of blue light erupted that enveloped the entire planet in a controlled glow that guided it toward the cluster.
Mere minutes later, Earth-61311B, or as Alex called it, Hydra Earth, had become the fourth Earth to join the Gaia cluster, and the fifth overall when counting Earth-65, which was still some ways away. Not to mention the threat of the incubating celestial within that particular planet's core that Alex had to eventually deal with.
Watching the new planet seamlessly become a part of Alex's domain, he exhaled, seemingly unaffected by the fact that he was floating in the middle of space. After the ambush that he had just encountered, Alex was extremely concerned about the situation. Not only the current situation with Kobik, but also the previous one with Ultron. If it were just the situation with Ultron, he would have chalked it up to a coincidence and left it be. But the ambush by a literal Cosmic Cube left him somewhat rattled and concerned.
This was a targeted assault. Hydra Earth itself was a trap. This had to have been planned even before I brought Laura here the last time… Cosmic Cubes have immense power, but it isn't enough to force me to fully activate all six stones, even fragmented. And that was merely me holding on defensively until the cube was exhausted. I couldn't counter it even after running out of my full reserve of Bioenergy.
Alex's mood worsened as he looked at Susan's powerless state. The stones had impacted all of his hosts quite intensely, leaving all of the primary and secondary bonded women unconscious. And that was after Alex bore the brunt of the backlash of using them all at the same time.
"Let's go home," Alex said. "I'll fix you right up. And then, we can deepen our bond… You're lagging quite a bit behind the others."
I really need to up my caution now that I've come into the eyes of truly dangerous entities. That Scarlet Angel variant of Wanda is probably also someone's pawn, otherwise she couldn't have overtly held on to five planets all by herself… I need to start taking more precautions.
***
Stepping out of the room with Susan in his arms, Alex was enveloped within a black mass and instantly emerged inside Gaia Federation, specifically, Victor's penthouse on Susan's Earth that had become their abode. The addition of a fourth planet to the cluster hardly changed anything for the general populace. Mostly because of the absolute separation between planets that Alex maintained. While he'd seen multiversal variants of the same person interact multiple times without any issues, likely due to the unique underlying rules of this reality, he wasn't yet sure what would happen if something like that happened on a large scale.
He brought Susan to the bedroom and gently laid her down before examining her.
"Overdrawn vitality is certainly troublesome… I have to either spend time regularly infusing her with Bioenergy, or form the Skin Bond with her."
Naturally, Alex's decision was already made. He'd spent enough time with Susan to gauge their compatibility and was more than willing to go further with her by now.
Sitting down beside her, he held her hand and let out a breath, leaning against the headboard. He'd already started infusing her with a gentle stream of Bioenergy the moment they stepped into the apartment and was simply waiting for her to respond and wake up.
Not long after, she stirred awake as her eyes shot wide open in a panic.
"Alex!" She shouted, only for him to immediately pull her into his arms. Feeling his familiar warmth and presence through their bond, she instinctively calmed down, clutching his shirt and burying her face in his neck.
"I'm here," he gently rubbed her back. "Everything's fine."
"I-I… You were gone. I couldn't feel you… And it hurt so much…" She said weakly.
"I know," he said. "It's fine now…"
Alex spent a few minutes coaxing Susan while continuing to heal her. Although she was awake right now, her current state was still precarious.
"I feel weak… Too weak," she said, pouting.
"It's because of a backlash from the Infinity Stones," he said.
"And I feel horny…"
"It's because I'm healing you with Bioenergy," Alex said.
"Goddamn sex energy…" Susan mumbled. "I can't even lift a finger, let alone grind with you and tease you… You gotta help me here."
"Bioenergy is the purest essence of life condensed into the form of an energy," Alex said, grabbing one of Susan's legs and shifting her position such that she was straddling him.
"Yeah, and what is the process of making life called?"
"Heh, touché," Alex smiled. "We're done with that planet now. What do you want to do now?"
"Right now? I can feel how hard you are right now. Are you consoling your other hosts as well?"
"Everyone got a little spooked by what happened," he said. "They all felt me disappearing for a few moments before I came back."
"Tsk, I don't want to hear about you fucking other women," Susan scowled, weakly biting his neck, barely able to muster any strength.
"You asked," Alex sounded wronged.
"You should've deflected," she said. "If you weren't cheating, your harem wouldn't last a day before delving into chaos."
"Exactly because I have cheats that I don't need to walk on eggshells around my women."
"My women," she said mockingly. "What an archaic phrase."
"Somebody's looking for a fight," Alex said, smiling. "Are you being bratty so that I punish you?"
"What? Pfft, no," she scoffed defensively. "You're imagining things, you pervert."
"Am I now? I believe you've just remembered that I had intended to deepen our bond after completing our work," he said. "Aren't you the pervert here, Sue?"
"Hmph, keep dreaming," she huffed, though considering that she had been whispering these things in his ear all along, it was only serving to make her words more tempting.
"So my Sue isn't a perverted submissive who loves it when I take control, huh?" Alex said. "I guess we'll have to limit ourselves to vanilla sex from now on."
"…You're an ass."
Alex chuckled at Susan's resentful words and tightly wrapped his arms around her, kissing her cheek. "You ready for some mind-melting pleasure? Every time I increase the bond level, the pleasure you experience will increase by an exponential factor. This time, I'm going to form a deeper bond with your skin and flesh. I call it the skin bond. During the process, the nerves connected to your skin will be hypersensitized, so I will have to wrap you up completely to make sure a gust of wind doesn't burn you."
"All right, I'm into latex play. Planning to turn me into a helpless doll, are you?" Susan chuckled. "Sounds fun. How about you start right now? Mama wants your cock."
"Anybody ever tell you that you get really corny when you're aroused?"
"I wouldn't know," she said dismissively. "No one else ever made me feel this horny."
"I'm going to fuck you for days after this," Alex followed up on his words by bringing both hands down to Susan's ass and holding her up before getting out of bed.
She yelped, weakly leaning toward him without being able to wrap her legs around him due to the immense weakness in her body.
"I'm too weak…"
"The skin bond will fix that right up," Alex said, moving toward the window.
"We should do something after this," she said, resting her chin on his shoulder.
"More sex?"
"No, dummy," she rolled her eyes. "I was thinking of a sport. Like tennis. We have a couple of months here, right? I've always wanted to start playing, but never had the chance."
"Your wish is my command," he said. "We'll play some tennis, then have sex on the court."
"You damn pervert…" Susan laughed before immediately hissing and trying to move closer to him. "Hey, it's cold… When did I get naked? I was wearing clothes a moment ago."
"Don't be a baby. It's going to warm up in a bit," Alex said. "I'm going to raise your arms now."
Susan felt a glove wrap around her limp hands as it crawled up her wrists and covered half of her forearms before pulling both arms up, forcing her away from Alex's embrace. As he let her go, she gave Alex a needy, pitiful look as her arms were raised high above her head, leaving her dangling a few inches above the ground. In that moment, her peripheral vision caught sight of the outside, and a shiver went down her spine.
"Can't we go somewhere without windows?" She asked, glancing at the glass pane on the side that made her feel completely exposed. Alex had restrained her against the wall right beside the window.
"This place doesn't have a sex dungeon," Alex said. "I'll take you to the one in the White House someday."
"The White House?" She raised her brow.
"It has quite an expansive collection of tools and devices," Alex said. "I'll take you there after renovating the one on this planet."
"I don't even…" Susan looked flabbergasted before her gaze caught some people looking through the windows of a nearby skyscraper, seemingly directly at her. She tried to twist her body to hide herself, but only successfully turned her head away. "This is embarrassing…"
"You should know better than me that this glass is completely opaque from the outside," Alex said.
"It's still embarrassing…"
"And it's about to get even more so," Alex smiled, squatting a bit as he grasped Susan's legs and raised them up.
"Alex!" She gasped, intimately aware of her suddenly exposed state as she tried to bring her legs together, but to no avail. Alex was holding them apart and brought her feet up to the same height as her hands. She felt two cuffs wrapping around her ankles to hold them in place as Alex let go of her legs and stepped back to admire her.
She tried to wiggle in place, biting her lower lip as she tried to hide her exposed body, but to no avail. Let alone her current weakened state, she would have been just as helpless even if she was at full strength right now.
"You look beautiful," he said, bringing his hand to her entrance as a finger moved along her slit. "I knew it. Act demure all you want, you are just as much of a pervert as I am."
"No…" She whined with a slightly aroused smile playing on her lips as Alex slowly teased her entrance and brought his other hand up to her breasts, squeezing one of them gently as a faint moan escaped her lips. "You just love suspending me, huh?"
"I know how much you enjoy being helpless and left to the devices of your master, Sue," Alex said. "And suspension is a tried and tested technique to achieve that to the best effect. Without anything to anchor you in place, exposed and impotently hanging from the ceiling, all you can rely on is me, and if I disappear…"
He trailed off, pulling his hands away as Susan's expression turned to one of frustration.
"Alex~" She called out in a desperate tone. "Come… I want you…"
"And you'll have me," he smiled, bringing his hand to her crotch once again. This time, his thumb was stroking her wet entrance to tease her while he pushed his finger into her ass, immediately eliciting a gasp from her lips as she looked at him with panic.
"W-what are you doing?"
"From now on, we'll be starting your anal training," Alex said. "Don't worry though, I like taking things slow."
"Something… You're putting something inside," she said, trying to look down, but all she could see was his thumb circling her clit.
"It's called a butt plug," he said teasingly as he pulled his finger out of her ass, leaving a butt plug inside her that had its base exposed.
She looked a little uncomfortable from the novel sensations, but didn't voice any resistance and looked at him with aroused desperation.
"Will you fuck me now?" She asked, hints of pleading in her voice.
"Patience, my darling," Alex stepped forward and kissed her.
***
Susan bit her lip, looking needily at Alex as he slowly rubbed her pussy and teased her.
"Come on, I'm injured, and you keep teasing me. Don't be like that…" She pleaded.
"All right, fine," Alex said. "I'll tease and torture you once you're healed. How does that sound?"
"Deal," Susan nodded without hesitation and even a hint of anticipation.
"You sure you wouldn't rather continue as is?"
"Alex, I will cut you," she flatly threatened.
Her words made him smile. Even though Susan was helplessly restrained and at his mercy, none of that held her back from threatening him.
"How's the butt plug feel?" He asked her, stepping closer enough that she could feel his breath caressing her cheek. At the same time, his hand went up to her breast and squeezed it, rolling her nipple between his thumb and index.
"Weird…" She said, taking short breaths.
"Good weird?"
"I can't tell yet," she said, leaning her head forward and extending her tongue to lick Alex's chin. "Maybe if you fuck me, I might feel its presence more, you know?"
"Never change, Sue, never change," Alex smiled with an almost adoring expression on his face as he captured the blonde's lips in a heated kiss. She was momentarily surprised before closing her eyes and leaning into the kiss, letting Alex take charge as his tongue snaked through her lips.
"Mmh…" She groaned the moment she felt Alex's erection pressing against her wet entrance. He continued kissing her and slowly entered her, instinctively humming as he felt her tight insides and her desire to squeeze him dry. Once fully inside her, he quickly retreated and thrust his cock inside her, eliciting a suppressed squeal that disappeared amidst their kiss.
As he started fucking her, his hands were focused on her breasts, roughly mauling them and teasing her nipples to enhance her pleasure.
Already deeply aroused, Susan quickly lost herself in the pleasure, gladly giving herself to Alex's whims as her mind went blank. It didn't take long for her to experience her first orgasm. Alex took the chance to pour a significant amount of Bioenergy into her system in that instant. At the same time, starting from her crotch, a thin black layer of Alex's body started covering her skin, slowly spreading further as he continued fucking her.
As Susan's orgasm slowly died down, Alex pulled back from the kiss and looked deep into her pleasure-filled eyes.
"W-what?" She asked, moaning as she felt Alex continue to thrust his cock inside her.
"You're beautiful," he said with a smile. "Do you want to try sensory deprivation? I'll block your sight, your hearing, even your ability to breathe. I'll infuse oxygen directly into your lungs."
"I'll try anything…as long as…it's with you," she said between moans, invoking a primal possessive desire within Alex.
"You keep this up, and I won't ever be able to stop fucking you…" He said before leaning forward and capturing Susan's lips in a kiss once again. As the black material continued spreading along her body, she reached a second climax, squirting her juices on Alex as he continued his relentless movements.
By now, most of her body had been wrapped in Alex's black material, allowing him to form an intimate connection with her as he infused even more Bioenergy into her system than last time. The material now crawled up her neck and started covering her head in the midst of her heated kiss with Alex, first crawling up to her ears and covering them entirely. Going further, two tendrils entered her canals, inflating until they were pressed against her eardrums, blocking any auditory input from reaching her.
He felt the change immediately as Susan's moans grew more intense, her insides tightening around his cock, making it harder for him to maintain control over his impending release. Still, he didn't slow down, enjoying Susan's moans that disappeared in the midst of their kiss. Next came her sight, which didn't elicit much of a response from her since her eyes were already closed. Finally, the hood completely formed around her head, leaving a ponytail of gold hair extending from the back as the black material blocked her nose, acting as an inflatable plug that sealed both nostrils. Right now, the only part of her body that was exposed to the air was her mouth, her lips locked in an intense makeout session with Alex.
This time, her response was even more visceral as the breathless sensation tipped Susan over the edge, making her cum a third time as he poured almost all of his recently generated Bioenergy into her body. While they were now inside Gaia, Alex had temporarily disabled the time dilation for their current Earth, allowing him to generate around forty units every minute, considering the daily output of almost fifty thousand units that he got from his farm.
[More…] Alex smiled at Susan's pleasure-filled plea and continued his thrusts at the same pace, but immediately felt her getting tighter around his cock.
[Like what you feel?]
[Fuck, Alex… My ass. It's too big.]
[You're just feeling overwhelmed because I'm stretching both your holes. That plug is barely beginner size right now.]
[That has to be a—]
She couldn't quite complete the thought as another orgasm rocked her body. Alex wasn't making the anal plug thicker, but longer, and it had just gotten deep enough to stimulate her prostate in a way that only anal stimulation could. The new sense of pleasure was enough to send Susan reeling into such an intense orgasm that her release drenched Alex's abdomen, almost making him slip out of her.
[Try not to go crazy, I'm initiating the bonding process.]
Susan was in no state to coherently respond. She expressed her approval by means of tightening her core, momentarily squeezing Alex's cock inside her as if desperately trying to suck him dry.
The moment Alex initiated the bonding process, Susan's sensitivity shot through the roof, instantly triggering an orgasm as she loudly moaned into his mouth—neither of the two had separated from their kiss for a while now. As he flooded Susan's body with Bioenergy, his body slowly started merging with Susan's skin and flesh on a molecular level, inducing a mutation in her body to trigger her Hyperspace Physique in an attempt to enhance it.
…
After the events with Kobik had transpired, simply upgrading the bond with Susan was far from enough for either her or Alex, which meant that their indulgence of each other's desires continued long after the level three bond was formed. Under the reactivated time dilation on the planet, the two of them spent a week cooped up in the room, adhering to a primal routine of sex, food, and showers, which mostly involved sex.
A week later, their passionate, almost visceral desires had cooled somewhat in favor of a more mellow approach.
That led to the current situation, where Susan had her arms bound in front of her in a straitjacket that covered most of her upper body, save for her breasts, which were adorned with two nipple clamps that had small vibrators attached to them, constantly stimulating her pink nubs. Her legs were folded into individual units in a frog-tie that left her immobile and at Alex's mercy.
The man himself was currently on the bed behind her, holding one of her legs up with one hand, and squeezing her breast with the other as he thrust his cock deep inside her, enjoying Susan's loud, unrestrained moans. His lips were buried in her neck, sucking the soft skin as he left a trail of hickeys in his wake.
Before long, Susan's impending climax caused her pussy to tighten up as it became impossible for Alex to hold back his orgasm. He erupted inside her, simultaneously triggering her full orgasm as he filled her insides with his semen.
As a few seconds passed, the only sounds in the room remained those of Alex as he sucked on Susan's neck along with the blonde's audible breaths.
"Alex…" She mumbled, sounding tired.
Without a word, he released her breast and shifted his arm to let her use it as a pillow. He brought his other hand to her breasts to slowly toy with the still vibrating clamps attached to her nipples.
"Mmh…" Her moan made her seem pleased. "I think I'm ready to do something else now…"
"Do you have something in mind? I was thinking of shifting gears to try electricity play. Localized shocks do wonders in terms of sensitivity and pleasure."
"No, you horndog," she scoffed. "We've been fucking for a week…"
"Oh, so you want to try denial play again… Sure, let's make it happen," Alex's words prompted a growl from Susan.
"Are you being intentionally dense?"
"Fine, we'll go play tennis," he said. "But after a short nap. I want to hold you in my arms while you're tied up like this."
"This position is oddly comfortable," she nodded. "Though I have to say…"
"What?"
"I didn't think you'd last a whole week," she said.
"You're underestimating me too much," Alex scoffed. "I can go without breaks for a month and still wouldn't break a sweat. It's you who needs to catch up to me."
"I don't think that's possible," she shook her head. "Any progress regarding the thing you tried?"
"None for now," he said, gently nibbling her earlobe, forcing a giggle out of her.
"Stopp~" She said, shaking her head.
"I might be able to activate your physique's potential when I upgrade our bond again," he said. "It's fine, not like it's something urgent."
"True…"
Susan didn't say anything and closed her eyes, enjoying the rare moment of peace.
Meanwhile, Alex pulled up Susan's status.
{ «Status- Host #6»
«Name: Susan Storm (Invisible Woman)»
«Bonding Rate: 23% -> 39%»
«Bonding Level: 2 -> 3»
«Powers: Hyperspace Physique (Superhuman) — Ambient Cosmic Manipulation — Hyperspace Psionics Manifestation»
}
Despite the level increase, nothing much had changed. Susan's physical capabilities had indeed improved, but her Hyperspace Physique, while being a vital part of her powers, held back her physical prowess, keeping her at merely the Superhuman level despite the amount of Bioenergy Alex had poured into her during the bonding process.
Still, he wasn't in a hurry. As long as he was with her, even if her physique was that of a frail human woman, nothing would be able to harm her.
I guess we can spend a few months enjoying our time here… Though, I need to consider my next moves carefully from now on. Things are getting dangerous. I need to change my approach before something catches me off guard and something irreversible happens…
***
Research Earth.
Alex was currently in an elegantly decorated office with Reed and Ben, naturally accompanied by Gwen. This single room held the two smartest people on this planet without a doubt. After gaining the support of a version of Reed Richards and seeing his capabilities firsthand, Alex had grown to appreciate just how big a deal Gwen's ‹Superhuman Intelligence› was. While it was impossible to accurately quantify something like intelligence, Gwen had done a damn good job of working at the same pace as the supposed smartest man in the universe and even surpassed him on multiple occasions.
Still, with both of them working together, one of the things that Alex had been most desperate for had now been completed. But for now, their meeting had a different agenda.
"Gentlemen," Alex said with a smile, holding Gwen in his arms as she unabashedly sat in his lap while he faced his capable scientists across the table. "I have a proposal for you all. Something you've been asking me for a while."
"Awfully nice timing," Ben said with a hint of displeasure, scowling. Though on his rocky face, the expression was barely discernible. "As soon as we complete your project."
"Timing has nothing to do with it, Ben," Alex shook his head. "Contrary to what you might believe, I am no saint or philanthropist. You spent your time working for me and achieved tangible results. That warrants a reward. That's all this is."
Before Ben could respond with greater aggression, Reed cut him off.
"I appreciate your bluntness, Mr. Hunt," he said. "But I believe that your compensation has been more than fair."
"There can always be more," Alex said. "Gaia, transfer a thousand creds to these gentlemen here."
Both of their wrists immediately beeped, signifying a notification, leaving them somewhat incredulous.
"By the conversation rate, this is around ten million dollars," Reed said, unsure how he was supposed to feel right now.
"This was just the appetizer, Reed," he said. "I'm here to offer you a path to normalcy. I can extract the cosmic factor within your genetic makeup and revert you to normal. It's a short and painless process, after which you will be turned into a full-fledged human. No more powers, no more mutations, and no more accidents."
Reed's reaction was somewhat mellow as he fell into a deep contemplation, but Ben's was in stark contrast to his, gripping his chair to the point of crushing the handlebars as he stood up.
"Are you serious?" He asked, his breathing growing shallow. "How can you do it when even Reed can't even begin to think of a solution?"
"You know something, Ben," Alex didn't directly answer Ben. "The reason I don't particularly mind dealing with your brash and somewhat disrespectful attitude is that I empathize with your situation. Your whole life was turned upside down because of this. I understand that you're hurting and are prone to lashing out."
"What's the point?"
"Get your shit together," Alex said flatly. "Once I revert your mutation, I expect you to be a fucking model employee, understood?"
"Alex…" Gwen whispered in his ear, gently caressing his arm.
"Hm," he glanced at her, his stern expression softening as his fingers continued caressing her thigh under the table. "I know…"
"I understand," Ben nodded grimly, sitting back down in the custom metal chair that had one of its handlebars crushed.
"Did something happen yesterday?" Reed suddenly asked. "In the years we've worked together, Gwen has never acted so… indifferent to everything around her."
"It was just a small accident, nothing major," Alex said, feeling Gwen's fingers tighten around his bicep as she shifted herself even closer to him, sticking her face in the crook of his neck. "Ben's decision is clear. What about you?" Alex asked Reed.
"May I ask how you plan to do this?" Reed's attitude was far more polite. "Per Ben's words, I've researched extensively into this in my free time, but to no avail."
"It's just a matter of perspective, Reed," Alex said. "To you, manipulating a person's genetic makeup is a highly complex process that cannot be achieved with the current technology that we possess. To me, it's an innate ability that merely requires me to articulate what needs to be done. I've never tried it, but I can probably turn a human into a banana with some effort."
"Please don't try that," Gwen mumbled. "That sounds like a horrible way to kill someone."
Alex smiled, rubbing Gwen's head with his free hand. "What do you say?" He asked Reed. "Interested?"
"I think I'll pass," Reed said. "After so long, I've grown used to these powers."
"I understand," Alex nodded. "Ben, meet me at the lab in the evening. We'll take care of your powers."
"Uh, Apex," Reed said, prompting Alex to raise his brow. Over the years, they had, more than once, heard Gwen calling Alex by his name, but everyone still maintained a tacit understanding and continued referring to Alex by his so-called screen name. "Mind if I ask a question?"
"What you've done for me is enough to warrant a Nobel Prize, Reed," Alex said. "Ask away."
"What about them?" he asked. "Johnny and…Sue—ah, Susan."
The sheer longing radiating through Reed as he uttered Susan's name almost made Alex burst out laughing. While he was still pining over her, she had long moved on without him. Considering how deeply intimate Alex's relationships with his primary hosts were, by the time things moved to the point of forming the level three bond, it became nigh impossible for any degree of separation to occur. And Alex had to learn that particular piece of information the hard way.
When he'd broken his bond with Mary Jane, the effects on him were a sense of weakness that lasted a somewhat significant amount of time, aside from the immediate pain during the process. While he'd bounced back quite easily—mostly because he didn't have a single host, Mary Jane wasn't so lucky.
The redhead had chosen to become the first occupant of his Gaia Penetentiary as Alex downgraded her to the tertiary bond stage, which was no more than a passive presence that he had on a person with essentially no contact. It hadn't taken long for her to mentally break down. Losing the bond had been equivalent to ripping away a part of her own being, which left her hollow and depressed.
It had taken years of constant pleasure-based therapy administered by Gaia to treat the suicidal tendencies that she had developed. As for Alex's initial thought of making her a sort of warden for the prison, that was impossible considering her mental state. Not to mention, Gaia did that particular job with far better efficiency.
As for Susan, after forming the level three bond with Alex, the two of them were completely inseparable.
"They both plan to keep their powers as well," Alex said. "Johnny enjoys being the center of attention, and Sue… There's no way in hell I'm getting rid of her powers. Not that she wants to in the first place."
Reed picked up on the way Alex was talking about Sue and let out a sigh, nodding. He seemed to have accepted the situation.
"Thank you for satiating my curiosity," he said.
"Anytime," Alex waved his hand. "Since you didn't accept my offer, I'll give you a blank check. Within certain limits, you can ask me for anything. How about that?"
"Appreciated," Reed nodded. "We should be off."
"Take a break. From next month, we will put our full focus on the next big thing," Alex said.
"Upgrading the bracelets, right?" Reed asked. "For sure."
With that, the two of them left Alex and Gwen alone. Before the door even closed, Gwen's hand had slipped into Alex's trousers, gripping his rapidly hardening erection.
"Still not satisfied, huh?" Alex asked, grasping her breast over her shirt as she bit her lip and gave him an aroused look.
"I'm still mad at you," she said poutily. "How dare you make me panic like that? Do you have any idea how terrified I was in that moment?"
"I thought you'd be more mortified about the black slime that almost fell out of your ass in the middle of the lab because I lost focus on my body."
"Don't remind me," she rolled her eyes. "If I went through that kind of social death, I wouldn't be able to show any of them my face ever again."
"I'm perfectly fine," he said, reassuring her. "I just went through a bit of a rough patch and got caught off guard. I have no intention of letting it happen ever again."
"You better," she said. "I don't know what I'll do if you ever disappear."
"Getting back on topic… The almost-accident clearly hasn't made you resistant to my butt plugs," Alex said.
"Like my resistance would mean anything," Gwen said. "Eventually, you would coax me into wearing it."
"Keep telling yourself that," he said. "Admit it, you've come to start enjoying butt stuff."
"That is false, and this is the end of this conversation. The actual main topic here is the completed Infinity Radar, not your obsession with my asshole," she snapped. "Now, you're going to bend me over this desk and rail me, fill me up until I'm all warm and cozy, and then we will test that radar."
"What a demanding woman," Alex commented before sweeping her up into his arms.
***
A few hours passed as Gwen's request for a short quickie led to one extension after another, turning it into a long session of passionate sex that lasted multiple hours. Alex ended up sending a clone to take care of Ben's powers as a few more hours passed before their passion finally cooled down after marking every single surface of the room in their juices.
In the end, the two of them were resting on the soft rug without a scrap of clothing to cover them. Gwen was snuggled up on Alex's side with one arm splayed across his chest as he traced his fingers along her spine.
"I don't get it," Gwen suddenly said with a hint of sloth in her tone.
"What?"
"Isn't it better for you if they keep their powers?" She asked. "Why give them that offer? It's not like you have any use for them. Turning your skin as hard as a rock is hardly useful when you can punch through the core of a planet with some effort. The stretchy powers are even more useless for you."
"That's not why I want their powers," Alex said. "I want them because Reed and Ben aren't immortal."
"What does that mean?" Gwen asked.
"Exactly that," Alex said. "It's been around twenty years since I took control of this planet. Almost two decades. Technically speaking, you are in your early forties."
"Hey," she pinched the skin on his chest. "It's rude to talk about a lady's age."
"You don't look a day over eighteen, honey," Alex smiled fawningly and kissed Gwen's hair. "That's a fact. The moment you bonded with me, your aging halted completely."
She snorted, seemingly not impressed by his words, but the side of her lip was curled, exposing her suppressed smile to Alex.
"That goes for all my hosts," Alex said. "Even Susan. The issue comes into play when we look at the resonance between the powers of these four."
"They are all connected?"
"In a vague, metaphysical way," Alex said. "Depending on the version of the Fantastic Four, it's possible that the connection is virtually nonexistent, to very robust, wherein if a single one dies, or loses their powers, everyone does. That's why I have Reed and Ben under strict monitoring. That goes for Johnny as well. Whether they die due to old age or something else, I will make sure to contain their cosmic factors within myself to make sure that there is no chance of Susan being affected by it."
"Interesting concept," Gwen said, sounding somewhat interested. "Their powers were given by the same cosmic cloud, so they are all interconnected for life."
"Yeah," Alex said. "How about we move on to something more fun?"
"Oh, I'm not sure if I can go another round," Gwen waved her arm. "I can still feel your phantom thrusts… I'll need a minute for the soreness to subside."
"Phantom thrusts…" Alex chuckled. "Not that, you succubus. The Infinity Radar."
"You're one to talk, sexual slime…"
"That's a terrible hero name," Alex said, sitting up, forcing Gwen to get off of him with a pouty scowl. "Get up. It's time I got my hands on whatever Infinity Stones might be hidden within Gaia's four planets. I'll only be at ease once we have them in our hands and out of the hands of someone who could use them to break through my planet shields."
Before Gwen could voice her protest, Alex grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Clothes automatically appeared on their bodies as he practically dragged her to the exit.
Gwen sighed with a helpless smile, going along with Alex's whims. He could've activated it by himself as she'd asked him to do already, but he had refused, stating that she had to be present for the first official activation.
…
The Infinity Radar, unfortunately, wasn't the kind of Dragon Radar-esque device that Alex had expected to lug around to locate Infinity Stones. Instead, it was a massive quantum supercomputer that detected and analyzed the specific frequency of gamma radiation emitted by Infinity Stones. That required a medium that could detect this radiation. The solution was either a large number of specifically designed satellites to be deployed all around the world, or for the planetary shields to be modified somewhat so that they could serve the purpose of the satellites.
Alex and Gwen had gone with the second option since that was both more reliable and faster than deploying thousands of satellites all around the stratosphere. Alex was considering developing a better detection method, but that was still a few ways off. His immediate priority was to start collecting raw Cosmic Energy. Both due to the crisis looming over his head and the fact that it could actively enhance the effects of the Infinity Stones by a significant margin.
His preparations for it were ample, having directly boosted the global population of his initial two Earths to fifteen billion each, double their original, and ten billion for Susan's Earth in the five years that had passed there. It lost a year due to being out of sync with the rest of the cluster for almost a day. Unfortunately, he was missing the key element of being able to actually collect Cosmic Energy from this large population.
Inside the lab, Gwen and Alex worked together to sync the supercomputer with the planetary shields of all four planets of the cluster, which would allow it to immediately detect the presence of any Infinity Stone that released the tiniest bit of gamma rays within the full range of the cluster.
They didn't have to wait long after activating it before getting their first alert.
"Time Stone, Earth E," Gwen announced. "The signature is coming from the Pacific Ocean. It seems to be buried deep underwater."
Regarding designations, Alex had gone with the simplest one and assigned letters to each Earth. Instead of relying on their reality numbers that were emitted in a specific frequency by the planet itself, he decided to simplify the naming to the point that even a child could understand it. The letters were assigned on the basis of the order in which Alex brought the planet into the cluster. Research Earth had been designated with A, Farm with B, Earth-65—which wasn't in the cluster yet—with C, Susan's Earth with D, and the Hydra Earth with E.
That made keeping up with each planet much more straightforward.
"Good…" Alex smiled, immediately sending off a clone to collect the stone. While it might have been in the hands of Atlantis—unlike the rest, Hydra Earth was chock-full of aliens and super individuals— Alex didn't care. He was getting every single stone on these four planets in his own hands.
As the minutes passed, Alex's expectant smile slowly faded, turning into a full frown after ten minutes.
"It shouldn't be like this," he said. "Is there a problem?"
Gwen shook her head. "While I can't be a hundred percent sure, we spent an entire year dedicated to testing the validity of our system. It's far more likely that the stones haven't been detected yet."
"Or they aren't there at all…" Alex said.
"Don't say such ominous things," Gwen shook her head. "Think happy thoughts. We're only halfway done with the scan."
"You can think them in my place," Alex said, frowning. "Because otherwise, my shields were useless and our cluster was compromised from the start. I will have to expedite certain plans that I was being lax about in terms of the development of the cluster…" By the end, Alex trailed off in his thoughts as he focused on the data showing up on the screen.
As the minutes passed, Gwen's expression also fell as she realized that Alex was most likely correct. Even after the entire cluster was scanned, they had found no more than the single Time Stone on Hydra Earth.
"Maybe…" Gwen started. "Earths A, B, and D never had any stones. Unlike the new one, my Earth doesn't have any enhanced individuals. It's possible that means that we never had any Infinity Stones to begin with."
"Possibly…" Gwen's words did little to assuage Alex's concerns. "Keep this active," he said. "I might not find the stones, but if someone is bypassing the shields using an Infinity Stone, I'll be able to locate them quickly."
Observing Alex's current attitude, Gwen's lips parted, but her words died in her throat as she pressed them together, looking at him with a worried expression.
Alex immediately caught her hesitation and raised a brow at her.
"You shouldn't hesitate when you want to ask me something," Alex said. "No matter the situation, or my mood, I will never let it affect my attitude toward you. Even if I burn the world, I will make sure that you are sheltered from it."
Gwen had a helpless smile on her face at his words. "I dread how much you plan to shelter and pamper our children in the future…" she said. "Do you say this to all your hosts?"
"Doesn't make it false. Not only can I shelter every single one of you from the dangers of reality, but I can do so without ever letting any of you feel neglected," he said. "What is it that you wanted to tell me?"
"I thought that if this worked, I would ask you to take me to one of your dungeons…" She said, blushing as she looked to the side. "It's been a hot minute since we did something intense…"
Her words made him laugh lightly. "You've been insatiable since yesterday, haven't you? I'm out of Bioenergy right now—activating the stones emptied out my reserve. Once I have some of it in reserve, I will bond with your blood. It's been long overdue anyway," he said. "As for the part about your anal virginity… I'll take it under advisement."
"Tsk," Gwen pouted before approaching him. "Whatever, let me blow you then…" She fell on her knees right in front of him.
…
Before anyone realized it, a month had gone by. While the completion of the radar and the subsequent revelation that so many of Alex's Infinity Stones had been stolen from under his nose was alarming to say the least, he didn't let it affect his time with Gwen. Having her worry about something like this would be pointless. If anything, it would distract her from her research, which was far more vital for Alex.
Unfortunately, Gwen had been mad at him for the past few days because of his decision to postpone making their bond deeper. She didn't care too much at first, but somehow, she found out that the real reason for the delay was that he'd prioritized forming the skin bond with Susan, which led to her giving him the silent treatment for two days.
He didn't have any real problems with her tantrum. If anything, he enjoyed coaxing her.
With the short vacation over, Alex was once again in his office, with Gwen on his lap, though with a visibly resistant expression. Her cheeks were puffed up as she looked away, refusing to rest her head on his shoulder. Contrastingly, she seemed to have no intention of moving away from her position either and was comfortably leaning her torso against his chest.
Sitting across the table were Reed and Ben, both of whom tacitly refrained from commenting on what seemed like personal matters between Alex and Gwen. Ben was now sitting on a normal chair, having reverted back to his human self, without any trace of rocky mineral deposit on his skin.
"I've been preluding to our next research direction for a while without letting you in on its contents," he said. "It's something that Gwen has been working on with me behind the scenes for a while, but frankly, we haven't had any progress. I'm hoping Reed might be able to give us a fresh perspective on how to tackle the issue."
"What exactly is it?" Reed asked. "Isolating a single frequency of gamma radiation was complicated enough. What challenge do you have for me now?"
The man's words revealed a hint of pride and newfound confidence that had been lacking ever since he'd arrived on his planet.
"You seem like a new man, Reed," Alex said with a smile, shifting the topic. "Went on a journey of spiritual discovery, did you?"
"Do you even need to ask?" Reed asked, a hint of frustration crossing his eyes. "What kind of a monster of an artificial intelligence is Gaia? Even something as basic as spoofing my location was impossible. I had to leave the bracelet home…"
"I was still tracking you," Alex said. "After all, other people still wear the bracelets."
"Getting back on the topic…" Reed sighed in defeat before even bringing up his privacy concerns. He was well aware exactly how much of a tyrant the man in front of him was. He hadn't grown complacent after seeing the casual and approachable demeanor that Alex showed. He and Ben had firsthand seen both the unquestionable strength that Apex possessed, along with the man's utter disregard for life when they had first arrived on this planet. That event had left a psychological shadow on both men.
Of course, that was something Alex had deliberately arranged, going so far as to use a targeted yet extremely subtle hypnosis method that he'd acquired after devouring Doctor Faustus during the major battle against Captain Hydra. After all, Reed was far too capable, and far too dangerous for him to simply let the man loose in what he believed to be his playground. Though that was before he knew that this playground of his was already compromised.
"What is the project?" Reed finished his words with an inquisitive expression.
"We have been working on a way to generate Cosmic Energy," Alex said, continuing before Reed could speak. "I'm talking about the purest form of Cosmic Energy. The Cosmic Cloud was merely a derivative of real cosmic energy. To put it into perspective, your cosmic cloud was likely nothing more than an energy-infused breath that was released by a Celestial. Crassly, it was more likely that it was the result of a Celestial's equivalent of a fart."
"Ugh…" Gwen grunted at him, glancing with a disgruntled expression before regaining her cold, pouty expression and looking away.
"That's an…image," Reed said. "Do you mind telling me what a Celestial is?"
"A god," Alex said bluntly. "Not the spiritual, pray to them kind of god, but the kind that creates life itself. They are the ones who seed barren, unlivable planets with life, gradually terraforming them over millions of years. They are some of the closest entities in the universe to actual gods. And the Cosmic Energy that I'm talking about is their power exclusively."
"That is…a frightening goal, Apex," Reed frowned. "Do you wish to become God?"
"As fun as creating life sounds, my immediate goal is to preserve my own," Alex said with a scoff. "The sheer might of the entities at play here is far bigger than you can even imagine right now. I need power to protect those I care about. And that care extends to these planets under my command and their inhabitants. Am I clear?"
"Crystal," Reed nodded. "Do we have a direction to follow? How do these entities generate this Cosmic Energy in the first place?"
"Emotions," Alex said. "Or at least that's the working theory. The larger the population of the universe and the more emotional those living beings, the greater the Cosmic Energy that the Celestials command."
"Emotions?"
"For you to understand that, you need to first learn about the incubation of a new Celestial," Alex said. "Their birth involves inseminating an egg at the core of a life-bearing planet. Millions of years later, the infant Celestial, after gaining a sufficient amount of Cosmic Energy, bursts through the planet's core, destroying it in the process."
"Are you sure these so-called gods are creators and not destroyers?" Ben said with a skeptical expression that Reed shared.
"That newborn Celestial will go on to bring life to countless barren planets in the future," Alex said. "This process is as natural as the death of a star after millions of years. It's a part of nature itself."
Reed quickly calmed himself down and posed a question. "Do you want to stimulate the birth of a Celestial and collect this Cosmic Energy?"
"That's the rough idea at least, but not exactly," Alex said. "The main issue is that this goes even beyond the basic metaphysical stuff. There is no special frequency released by living beings that comes remotely close to meeting our requirements. Looking into emotions is our current working theory, but we haven't had any success yet. That is also where this comes into play."
Alex brought out a basketball-sized sphere that had a perfectly even red color on it, unmarred by the effects of any light that struck it. No matter the angle or the shadow cast at it, the red color stayed the same, without any reflection despite looking like a glossy glass ball.
"This is the core of a destroyed super dimension," Alex said. "This will be the core of our Cosmic Energy generation system. I will share the documentation with you so that you can get up to speed on how much we know about it."
"Can this replace a Celestial's method of absorbing raw energy from emotions?" Reed asked, extending his hand toward the core. "May I?"
"By all means," Alex said, letting the man hold the sphere. "And it can achieve that, but in a limited fashion. This core only works for those that are tagged to it, i.e., the inhabitants of a dimension. Now that it is in the main material plane, this is no better than an indestructible red ball. Getting this to work is our first hurdle. Then, we need to upgrade Gaia bracelets to serve as a medium for collecting Cosmic Energy and preferably refine whatever is generated before it is collected by the core. Because if it is actually dependent on emotions, then the Cosmic Energy we collect will essentially be the same as a poison. Anyone who harnesses it will be poisoned by everyone's emotions."
"But it must be the same for Celestials then…" Reed said.
"Over an incubation period that lasts millions of years, these whispers become nothing more than a fleeting thought for the Celestial. Don't try to apply common sense to them. It's meaningless."
"I see…" he said. "This is quite a bit of order…"
"We'll all be working together for it. Don't you worry."
…
As work on Alex's Celestial energy project started, he collected the Time Stone fragment from Hydra Earth, bringing his Time Authority up to 5%. With that, his first thought was to enhance the time dilation aspect of the Gaia cluster, bringing it from one year a day to two years a day.
While it would increase his consistent Bioenergy cost, the gain would be far greater since this increased factor included the farm. That meant his Bioenergy production would essentially double from now on, giving him over a hundred thousand units every day even after factoring in the increased cost.
Without further ado, he enhanced the Time Dilation factor. Not only would this increase his Bioenergy generation, but it would also significantly bring up the timeline of his Cosmic Energy project. Of course, not a single occupant of the planets realized that this change happened. Susan was the only one who might be able to identify the change, but she would need an outside view of the planets from space, which wasn't happening for a while.
…