After Esdeath beat Bronski senseless, he recovered almost imdiately.
Of course he did. Between the Extremis virus, mutant regeneration, and the Red Hulk serum, his body was a grotesque pile of recovery factors. Wolverine would probably have looked at him and muttered sothing about overkill.
"Boss."
Esdeath announced herself with a grin, then went off in search of Drex Valen, full of energy.
Drex was in the middle of grilling at.
As a severely under-socialized nerd in his previous life and on Krypton, Drex had never really had much of a hobby. He had not been the type to care about weapon models, cars, figurines, computer parts, or any of the usual collector obsessions.
Gaming had never been more than a middling skill for him, either.
After reincarnating as a Kryptonian, he might have finally found the one thing that counted as a true everyday pleasure: studying weapons and materials.
Krypton had benefited enormously from that.
Now, in the Marvel universe, after regaining emotions, Drex found himself uncertain about how to relax.
Gas? Winning too easily did not exactly scratch an itch.
Collecting cars or building PCs? Not his thing.
So his possible hobbies had narrowed down to two things: research and food.
And when it ca to food, he had a real weakness.
In his previous life, he had been the sort of person who wore a shirt for five years without thinking twice, but he would happily spend an extra thousand yuan a month on eating. And that was on top of regular als.
A massive slab of beef had been brought in from his ranch.
It sizzled over the fire, a bead of hot oil sliding slowly down the grain of the at like liquid amber. The sll alone was almost unfair.
The charcoal had already worked its magic, sealing the beef in a rich, smoky aroma, and the pepper-salt and spicy sauce only made it more addictive.
Even Esdeath, who had been approaching with her usual predatory confidence, was forced to focus on the grill instead.
"Try so."
Drex cut off a small piece with a knife. The inside was still a vivid red.
Esdeath took it and bit down.
Heat exploded across her tongue. Tender, crisp, juicy, salty, spicy, everything hit at once, dancing through her mouth in a savage little festival of flavor. It was the kind of taste that went straight to the tip of the tongue and refused to leave.
Drex could tell from her face that she loved it.
He, however, could not accept at that was still that underdone.
That was where high-energy electromagnetic waves ca in handy.
He used them to act directly on the dense interior of the beef, and the red flesh quickly darkened toward brown.
Drex tore off a piece with his bare hand and tossed it into his mouth.
Explosive texture.
His sense of taste was far too sharp by default, and the seasoning made the entire thing a bit noisy on the palate. So he simply turned down the sensitivity and left himself with an ordinary human level of taste.
That made it much better.
He and Esdeath shared the grilled at without any concern for image. By the end, Esdeath's hands were slick with oil, while Drex's were still clean, not a trace of grease on them.
"Boss, how do you do that?" Esdeath asked, staring at her own hands.
"To , grease is just a molecular structure," Drex said. "When I need it gone, I break it apart at the molecular level."
It worked better than dish soap, hand wash, body wash, or even strong tea. It also left no sll behind.
He took Esdeath's hands in his own. The oil and sauces, the bright streaks of seasoning and grease, faded visibly until her skin was once again pale and clean.
But after the cleaning was done, Esdeath did not let go.
Instead, she kissed him.
Drex was not surprised.
Her attack speed was slow by his standards. He could have gone off, drunk a can of cola, and co back before she finished moving.
"Boss."
Esdeath's smile turned shaless.
Drex did not refuse.
A little recreation was good for the body and the mind.
After what felt like two million words later, Esdeath lay collapsed on the bed, too exhausted to move a muscle.
Drex sat at the bedside, drinking an ice-cold cola.
For soone with a steel body, a fight with Esdeath could only count as a warm-up. She was a Kryptonian too, after all.
As for Uld, that had barely counted as warm-up at all. More like a taste test.
Esdeath rested her head on Drex's leg. He stroked her hair and brushed his fingers over her cheek, and for so reason, it felt strangely intimate.
He had made her himself, after all.
He understood perfectly well that she was not the real Esdeath, and that the process of giving her form had introduced all kinds of deviations from the original.
But even so, looking at her sleeping with her head in his lap, Drex felt genuine satisfaction.
Esdeath could feel his fingers tracing her cheek, her eyelids, and the corner of her mouth, but she could not be bothered to open her eyes. Every part of her body felt like it belonged to soone else.
She had wanted to conquer Drex in this brand-new field, only to discover that he was stronger than her and had worn her down completely.
Strong people really were strong in every sense.
She shifted into a more comfortable position and found, to her own surprise, a kind of safety she had never really felt before.
That quiet transition from girl to woman had also changed so of her unconscious instincts.
Drex did not think about it that deeply.
Once Esdeath had settled into a more comfortable position, he stopped moving too.
It was 2001 now.
Nine years remained before Thor descended.
Fifteen years remained before Stephen Strange traveled to Kamar-Taj to begin his training.
And the Ancient One would not die until 2017.
That ant there were still sixteen years before she followed Eternity.
The wait felt long.
Could he use that ti to expand into space?
Drex shook his head.
"No. Right now, I'm only touching Father-level territory. Space is still too dangerous."
That was the simple truth.
Leaving aside everything else, one of the Shi'ar Empire's top enforcers alone, Gladiator, was ridiculous enough to make any sane strategist pause.
The real problem was that Drex still had not figured out whether this world was following the movie continuity or the comic continuity.
At first, he had been certain it was the movie universe.
Then Gwen Stacy showed up as Spider-Woman, and that assumption went straight out the window.
That was why he had gone in person to verify things. It had been a bit of a headache.
What universe did Gwen Spider-Woman belong to again?
And if Deadpool was female too, that would beco a real disaster.
For that reason, even though Drex had already seen Wade in the underground fighting circuit before he beca Deadpool, he still kept Black Queen watching him closely.
Venom and Eddie were also drawing a lot of attention lately.
They looked terrifying, sure, but unexpectedly, that had won them a massive fanbase of people who apparently adored brutal appearances and violent behavior.
Black Queen had been monitoring them for so ti, but so far, she had not detected any sign that Venom was preparing to spawn.
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