Urd opened her eyes to an empty bed.
Drex Valen was already gone.
Of course he was. He was always up on ti.
Urd felt a little disappointed. In her mind, mornings were supposed to be for lying against his chest, warm and lazy and unhurried. But even after everything that had happened last night, Drex still kept the kind of iron discipline that had him up at eight sharp.
As for last night, Urd still could not tell whether it had been love or sothing else. She only knew that when she kissed him, Drex had not pushed her away. That was enough for now.
Drex, for his part, did not dwell on it. He had worried about pregnancy before, but that was no longer an issue.
He could simply erase that problem with electromagnetic force.
Android 18 had spent the entire night waiting quietly in the laboratory. The mont Drex returned, she stood up at once and looked at him without saying a word.
"Black Queen," Drex said after a mont, "set up her schedule."
He had no particular interest in won like Android 18. Choosing that body type had simply been a matter of habit.
Now that he knew artificial humans were possible, he was already itching to start making figures of his own.
He considered it for a mont, chose a design in his mind, and began shaping it.
Atoms gathered in his hands.
"If controlling atoms is already this powerful, what would it be like to control elentary particles?"
The thought brought Molecule Man to mind, the only superhuman he knew of who had ever gone toe-to-toe with the Beyonder and lived to tell the tale. And even that man only controlled molecules.
So why did Drex still only count as planetary level?
He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
A father-class being was supposed to be able to blow up stars.
A planetary-class being was supposed to be unable to do that.
Drex could dig down into atomic nuclei and pull out world-ending power through chain reactions if he wanted, but even then the result would still be limited. At most, he could obliterate a continental plate.
He shaped the new body carefully.
Ice-blue hair. Tall, elegant build. Even with her eyes closed, she gave off a chill that seed to bite right through the skin.
Drex touched her cheek and wondered, not for the first ti, if this counted as making dolls by hand.
"Wake up."
After what he had learned from activating Android 18, he already understood the key. He only needed to tap her between the brows.
A thread of electromagnetic force drilled straight into her mind, awakening the brainwaves inside her and opening her eyes.
At the sa mont, Drex poured everything he knew into her.
"I am... Esdeath?"
The artificial human looked around in confusion.
Drex had given her a mutant-like gene structure modeled after Iceman, and then layered in weakened Kryptonian genes on top of that. Not the high-end kind, of course. Just the soldier-class template. He was not reckless enough to give her anything stronger at this stage.
Within monts, Esdeath absorbed the mories he had given her.
Her personality settled into sothing very close to the sadistic ice queen he rembered.
"Making figures really is satisfying," Drex said with clear approval.
Esdeath turned to look at him.
Her creator.
The being who had made her.
At that instant, her feelings toward Drex were not unlike Akafil's feelings toward the Descenders. A loyalty laced with worship. Akafil's greatest dream had been to ride a spaceship and go find his father, one of the Descenders.
Drex had shaped Esdeath with roughly the sa emotional blueprint.
He had also been willing to use Kryptonian genes on her because he genuinely liked the character.
After all, he had once called her his wife in another life. Back then, he had wanted her and could never have her.
Now he had her.
Granted, he had called a lot of won his wife over the years. If he really created all of them, he would be planting Kryptonians all over the Marvel universe.
"Esdeath. From today onward, you're part of World Serpent," Drex told her. "But your only orders co from ."
Esdeath nodded without hesitation.
As he looked at her graceful figure, Drex deliberately shifted his gaze away.
He was not impatient.
There was no rush.
The appearance of Android 18 and Esdeath killed almost all of his interest in his earlier subordinates. He could make people now. That ant he could make armies too. Beast soldiers and the like were no longer that important.
Drex was quick to replace the old with the new.
That was not how he saw it, of course. In his mind, it was just survival of the fittest, the sa principle that applied to old energy and new energy.
Which was exactly why he did not think he was suited to ruling a nation.
He had no hesitation when it ca to discarding obsolete products.
That was a common flaw among scientists.
If it were not for people like that, the world would still be ruled by those who were less intelligent than the ones who built it.
But all of that was irrelevant to Drex now.
The only thing that mattered was that he could shorten the project tiline.
Blade Tech Industries, satellite launch site.
Using atomic assembly, Drex created three satellites perfectly.
He did not even bother with a conventional launch.
One hand on each, he teleported them straight into orbit and placed them there himself.
Each satellite carried Drex's own signal-scrambling technology. In this era, aside from absurdly advanced black-tech systems, Earth had no way to detect them.
He had also shaped them from indestructible atomic alloy, just in case sothing slamd into them and caused a failure.
Inside each one was a magnetic beam fusion reactor. Solar concentrator panels were installed as well, letting the satellites alternate between the two power sources. Their service life was far beyond that of ordinary satellites.
"Blade Tech Industries finally has its own private satellite network."
When Drex returned to the company, a lot of employees were startled to realize the signal coverage had beco dramatically better.
"Boss."
Urd looked radiant.
She really did seem even more beautiful than usual, and a few employees wondered whether she had gone in for a beauty treatnt sowhere.
Back in her work mode, Urd set a stack of files on Drex's desk.
"Does the company really have this many projects now?" Drex muttered.
"Boss, every single one of these is sothing you asked for," Urd replied. "For example, the magnetic beam fusion power station. We need to negotiate with more than a dozen countries. But I think only China is likely to show serious interest."
She pulled out one file after another.
"That's the first step toward rolling out new energy," Drex said, not bothering to hide his satisfaction.
"There's also the lunar mining plan. The United States is not optimistic about that one."
Urd handed him another docunt. This was the file she would need to discuss with the Arican military.
In truth, Drex wanted to build a so-called mining site on the Moon. In reality, it would be a base. Maybe even a weapons platform aid at Earth.
No need to misunderstand. Drex was simply preparing for the Chitauri invasion.
When the ti ca, a laser cannon would descend from the sky, a ribbon of death-light erasing the Chitauri forces in one strike...
He could practically already hear the terrified silence that would follow.
Yeah. After that, nobody would be stupid enough to provoke Black Knight Drex.
"And this one," Urd continued, "is the seawater developnt plan."
User Comments
0 comments from readers