Victor von Doom still had no idea that his entire future was about to detonate in spectacular fashion.
The man trusted Reed Richards' intellect even more than Reed trusted himself, and lately every interview Doom gave radiated the sa energy: absolute confidence.
Every news channel seed obsessed with him.
Day after day, Doom appeared on television emphasizing the importance of the cosmic storm mission, speaking passionately about humanity's future in space and the breakthroughs waiting beyond Earth's atmosphere.
Watching it all unfold, Drex almost felt bad for him.
Almost.
anwhile, Black Queen finally uncovered new leads related to the bombing.
The trail pointed directly toward Western Europe.
Drex frowned slightly.
"Western Europe?"
That hadn't even made his shortlist of possibilities.
The region covered far too many nations. Britain. France. Germany. Italy. Spain. Half the developed world sat under that umbrella.
Which imdiately complicated things.
For a mont, Drex even wondered if he'd misunderstood the entire incident.
Maybe the bomb hadn't targeted him at all.
Maybe it had simply been a terrorist attack.
Then again, the explosive yield had been absurdly excessive. The blast had possessed enough destructive force to flatten an entire city block.
That wasn't normal terrorism.
Drex instructed Black Queen to continue tracing every possible lead while dispatching Beast Soldiers to assist the investigation. So places remained difficult to penetrate digitally, and most of his Beast Soldiers were forr rcenaries who thrived in ugly situations like this.
They were better suited for fieldwork anyway.
At the sa ti, Drex continued researching the symbiotes.
He had already fully mapped the biological structures of Lash, Riot, and Phage. At this point, he could even reproduce them artificially if necessary.
After so consideration, Drex used his psychic abilities to erase the self-awareness of all three symbiotes before forcibly rging them into a single composite organism.
The result resembled the monstrous stacked symbiote forms Deadpool had once worn in the comics.
Far stronger than any individual symbiote alone.
Drex examined the black mass thoughtfully.
"This is basically a Guyver unit now," he muttered. "Just missing the particle cannons and high-frequency blades."
Among all alien organisms he had encountered so far, symbiotes ca closest to the concept of Guyver bio-armor.
If he possessed Kryptonian biotech engineering knowledge, creating true bio-boosted armor systems probably wouldn't have been difficult at all.
Unfortunately, he'd arrived in this world with empty hands.
That thought imdiately made him resent Clark Kent all over again.
The man was sitting on an entire civilization's worth of Kryptonian technology and barely used any of it.
What a waste.
Give it to instead, Drex thought sourly.
Although symbiote reproduction was technically considered a biological disorder among their species, Drex didn't particularly care. Offspring tended to surpass their parents in almost every category.
So he deliberately stimulated Phage's cellular structure until it began reproducing.
Modified by electromagnetic manipulation at the microscopic level, the symbiote successfully produced an offspring.
The newborn symbiote imdiately sensed Drex's overwhelming power and lunged toward him without hesitation.
Drex responded casually.
Electromagnetic force accelerated molecular motion around the creature, generating intense localized heat.
The symbiote recoiled instantly.
Symbiotes could inherit and replicate aspects of their host's abilities.
Drex had absolutely no intention of allowing anyone access to his own powers, which was precisely why he avoided bonding with them personally.
Instead, he selected a Beast Soldier as the new host.
The mont the symbiote bonded with the Beast Soldier, it attacked Drex.
"Too weak."
Drex flicked a finger.
A subtle magnetic disturbance spread outward, altering the surrounding electromagnetic field. Atomic binding forces shifted microscopically.
In reality, the result looked horrifying.
The symbiote and its host twisted violently into a spiraling mass, like wet cloth being wrung apart by invisible hands.
The creature struggled desperately but couldn't escape the crushing force.
"What's your na?" Drex asked calmly.
Using both electromagnetic perception and super vision, he studied the newborn symbiote in detail.
Interesting.
As expected, this offspring was superior to Phage in nearly every way. It had even begun developing resistance to fire and sonic attacks, though not enough to beco immune.
The symbiote clearly recognized Drex's power now.
And since its host wasn't insane, unlike certain future hosts Drex could think of, the creature's thought processes remained relatively stable.
After a brief silence, it finally answered.
"Roar."
Drex nodded slowly.
"Good. You see those three over there?"
Roar turned toward the fused symbiote mass ford from Lash, Riot, and Phage.
The three mindless organisms drifted together in a sluggish, half-conscious state that made even another symbiote visibly uncomfortable.
"I erased their identities because they refused to cooperate," Drex said evenly. "I assu you'd rather avoid the sa outco."
Roar remained silent for several seconds.
Then it lowered its head slightly.
"…What do you want from ?"
Internally, the symbiote had already decided to obey temporarily and look for an opportunity to flee Earth later.
This planet was insane.
Nothing about it matched the harmless backwater world it had expected.
"You'll remain bonded to that host," Drex said. "From now on, you work for and follow my orders."
He paused.
"Of course, I'm not naïve enough to expect unconditional loyalty, so I've already implanted psychic markers into your consciousness. If I choose to, I can erase your mind instantly."
Roar's expression darkened.
Unfortunately, it also understood that resistance was pointless.
So it complied.
Drex seed satisfied.
Roar's raw combat capability already exceeded Spider-Man's in several areas. Properly utilized, symbiotes still had value.
At minimum, they made excellent enforcers.
As for the rged triple symbiote, Drex decided to leave it sealed inside the laboratory for future use.
Throwing away valuable material would be wasteful.
Right now, what he really wanted to know was whether Venom had produced Carnage yet.
Carnage had enormous potential too.
Letting a random psychopath beco its host would be such a waste.
Fortunately, Drex had anticipated the possibility early on.
Black Queen had been monitoring Eddie Brock and Venom continuously, including every location they visited.
So far, there were no signs of Venom reproducing.
To improve surveillance coverage, Drex modified a batch of nanomachines through electromagnetic restructuring, equipping them with ultra-high-definition visual sensors and night vision capabilities.
Black Queen now controlled the microscopic swarm directly.
While all of this unfolded, Drex sat comfortably enjoying thick-cut grilled beef sourced from one of his private ranches.
He idly wondered whether he should import Wagyu cattle next.
He'd never actually tasted authentic Wagyu before.
Then a breaking news report interrupted the broadcast.
An escape had occurred at a private prison facility.
The fugitive's na was Carl Lucas.
African Arican.
Born in Harlem, New York.
Authorities believed there was a high probability he would return to New York City.
Drex calmly finished his cola.
The Marvel universe really did generate world-changing incidents at industrial speed.
Carl Lucas.
Better known as Luke Cage.
Originally a street kid who eventually tried to leave that life behind after losing family mbers, Lucas had later been frad by a forr friend and sent to prison.
While incarcerated, he volunteered for an experintal procedure intended to recreate the Super Soldier Program in exchange for a reduced sentence.
And now?
Another future superhuman had officially entered the board.
User Comments
0 comments from readers