Chapter 2811 - Marvel 55

Even if she had agreed to help Alex, her annoyance was clear on her face as Alex brought her to the exosphere of Hydra Earth. It only grew when she noticed a blonde woman on the opposite side of the thing in between who was radiating Alex's presence from her.

"Why is she here?"

[Leave it to you to ask about the other woman instead of the glowing mini-planet in front of you.]

"That's not an answer."

[We will need her help. This is Tiamat, a living, albeit incubating Celestial. Susan is here to help me anchor it to Gaia and manipulate the positions of all other planets. We need to set up a formation to suppress the presence of this Celestial. And it has to be modular so that I can fit more planets into it in the future.]

Hearing his explanation, whatever possessiveness was radiating from Wanda receded as she realized that she was indeed not sufficient for this. Not only did she have to connect the planets with the core, but she had to set up a complex magical formation to contain the aura of the Celestial. She couldn't maintain the barriers and move the planets around while thinking of the solution.

She first focused on the current barrier to sense its state and understood that its current situation was one of deep conjunction with the Infinity Stones. But even that wasn't enough. The actual barrier was the one surrounding the sun-like mass in the center of the cluster, and it was more than a hundred times more potent.

She needed to tap into the deepest recesses of Cthon's limited omniscience to create a customized barrier for this purpose, as even the Dimensional Ruler's knowledge had nothing related to suppressing actual Celestials. Even if it was there, it wasn't included in the inheritance that she received from the Source of Chaos.

She immediately got to work as Alex poured a steady amount of Soul Energy into Wanda to rejuvenate and even slightly enhance her soul. While he could achieve the rejuvenation aspect himself, he was already stretched thin maintaining the complex barriers around Tiamat and Gaia. Soul Energy was a more convenient method with its immediate rejuvenation and enhancement aspect, considering Wanda would need to completely push the limits of her limited Omnicience to solve his issue.

In preparation, he'd already paused almost every major action that was being taken, acting in a defensive state to maintain everything as is without consuming too much of his attention.

As Wanda got to work on coming up with a spell to set up an absolute barrier for Gaia, Alex manually took control of Susan to manipulate her powers. She wasn't nearly proficient enough with them to do what Alex was about to do. While he was also far from being considered proficient with Susan's powers, the sheer weight of his soul allowed him to process far more data and activate her force fields with far greater effect, despite the lower efficiency.

Activating Susan's powers, he used the authorities of the Infinity Stones to amplify the force fields, infusing them with the combined authority of all six stones. Alex started with the Celestial, using the force fields to replace his makeshift barrier with a stable one that had a significantly lower requirement for the Authority of the stones.

With that done, he moved on to the next step and slowly enveloped the individual planets with her force fields, temporarily powering down the innate planetary shields to entirely replace them. As the five planets were all handled and barricaded on an individual level, the final hurdle was the outermost layer of Gaia that enveloped all of the shielded planets in a second sphere.

At this point, even with Susan's far-enhanced physical abilities and the multiplicative enhancement provided by her bond with Alex, he had pushed her body to its limits, with blood flowing out of her orifices as her internals endured the immense strain that was placed upon her body by her powers. For now, without deepening their bond further, Alex could only continuously heal her with his that had been enhanced by Laura's Cosmic-grade healing factor. After all, ultimately, the true ability was Susan's. He couldn't channel its full potential by himself just yet.

Eventually, Alex successfully formed a stable barrier outside Gaia using Susan's abilities amplified by the Infinity Stones. Forming a nigh-impenetrable planetary barrier that was impossible to breach, at least not without Alex noticing.

Now, all that was left was for Wanda to come up with a solution based on Alex's requirements while he maintained the barriers through Susan. Even though he wasn't expanding the barriers, even just maintaining them was exacting enough of a toll on her body to crush her ten times over every second.

'Any second now...'Alex wanted to hurry Wanda, but knew that disturbing her right now would be counterintuitive. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little anxious as he saw his Bioenergy reserves approach the one-third mark. He'd already exhausted over five hundred thousand units out of the approximately eight hundred thousand units that he'd started with. If he ended up reaching zero, he would be left with no other choice but to handle the brunt of the backlash of using the stones all by himself.

Every second that passed felt like a mini-eternity of grueling wait while literally holding up multiple planets for Alex. It went so far that he'd even deactivated Gaia's Time Dilation since that consumed quite a bit of his focus and Bioenergy after deactivating the planetary barriers.

After all, the originals made by Gwen had the effect of a lower Bioenergy requirement to maintain the Time Dilation effect as opposed to the ones Alex made with Susam's powers, which had an entirely different purpose.

Soon, as Alex's Bioenergy reserves dipped below a hundred thousand units, Wanda's eyes opened with a bright red luster. Immediately, the sheer quantity of magic energy that she released was enough to dwarf even the pressure that was radiating from the Celestial. Even if Alex stopped maintaining the barriers and allowed Tiamat's presence to radiate out into the Universe, it would be completely unnoticeable under the beacon of Chaos energy that Wanda had suddenly become.

At the same time, every single practitioner of Chaos energy, from the magicals from Apex City to the different variants of Wanda across the Earths and potentially the universe, completely lost the ability to access Chaos energy. Wanda had completely focused her Source of Chaos on supporting her creation.

Alex silently observed from the side as Wanda formed a complex multi-dimensional magic structure that likely breached into the fourth Dimension. Likely because he felt that it was similar to the five-simplex formed by the six Infinity Stones, but unlike the stones, he couldn't perceive the structure completely due to his innate limitation as a three-dimensional entity.

Once completed, Wanda immediately spread her hands, and the structure floating between her palms quickly expanded from less than a quarter of a meter to almost five hundred thousand kilometers, enveloping the entirety of the Gaia cluster and bathing it in a crimson glow. Alex had no time to deal with the sudden panic that erupted in the multiple planets under his command due to the sky literally turning bloody crimson. He left it all in Gaia's hands, not giving her any directives to deal with the sudden situation.

His focus was entirely on maintaining the barriers and syncing with Wanda, achieving a semi-True Merge state as they instantly communicated what needed to be done. Further consuming his Bioenergy, Alex started manipulating Susan's force fields to work with and support Wanda's spell, as it, in turn, slowly replaced the effects of the Infinity Stones, reducing the burden on Alex's rapidly dwindling Bioenergy.

The outermost barrier was the first to be converted to Wanda's system, entirely replacing the Infinity Stones as it achieved a similar, albeit somewhat weaker defensive effect. They were followed by the internal planetary barriers that all grew far stronger under Wanda's spell compared to their older states, and even the versions that Alex made with Susan's force fields since he didn't use the Infinity Stones to enhance those specific barriers.

Finally came the barrier around the Celestial. This one, Wanda didn't simply enhance to replace the effects of the Infinity Stones. She directly replaced the barrier with one made entirely using Chaos Magic, instantly freeing Alex from the constant use of the Infinity Stones. Yet, their work wasn't completely done.

Once Wanda replaced the barrier, it immediately resonated with the other barriers, forming a sense of resonance as she guided Alex to specifically move the planets around to place them around the Celestial in a formation that seemed quite similar to the Solar System, with each planet being placed at a specific distance from the core,

The next step involved the emergence of a crimson corridor that shot from the Celestial to Research Earth, with the highly scientific designation of Earth-A. It was also the Earth closest to the Celestial. The corridor shot into the Pacific Ocean and directly connected to the core of the planet, anchoring itself to the planet completely. The same thing happened with the other five planets-Farm Earth, Fantastic Four Earth, Hydra Earth, and MCU Earth-all received the same treatment, getting anchored to the Celestial through a corridor that led to the core of the respective planet.

Finally, the Infinity Stones came back into play as Alex directly altered reality to replace Susan's force fields with the original planetary shields that Gwen had helped him build. Under Wanda's guidance, he pulled back Susan's powers and activated the planetary shields again, modifying reality to make them compatible with Wanda's spell.

Ultimately, the planets all formed a cyclical energy system that fed their energy into the Celestial, which served as a sort of central hub for every planet's energy, operating as a complex battery while also empowering Wanda's spell model that blocked all outward means of investigation for Gaia.

Once everything was done, both Susan and Wanda fainted, having overexerted themselves to their limits and then some as Alex used the scraps of Bioenergy he had to once again dilate the time inside Gaia. With Wanda's upgrades, it was even more efficient than before and had an even lower requirement for Time Authority, hence reducing Alex's Bioenergy consumption even more than before.

-x-X-x-

A few days before Alex made such a massive change to Gaia that it left both of his strongest hosts unconscious and changed many of his plans because of the incubating Celestial at the core of MCU Earth, he was still leisurely playing around with his lovely assistant slash cat on Gaia, considering different methods to ramp up his Bioenergy production.

As the sun set and most of the West Wing's staffers adjourned for the day, most heading home, only a few stayed late. The Secret Service agents, military aides, and other key personnel remained in the West Wing as the President left the Oval Office and adjourned for the day, leaving much of his more tedious work to Gaia.

Barely half past six, and the sky wasn't even dark yet as Alex went up to the second floor of the residence, a private area for him to rest and relax where even Secret Service agents weren't permitted to enter without his explicit orders.

Sitting at the small dining table right beside the window, he waited for his late lunch—which might as well be dinner—to be brought up from the kitchen while enjoying the serene view from the window.

"Here's your lunch, Master," a soft voice broke Alex out of his reverie as he looked to the side and saw a familiar platinum blonde woman standing behind a cart.

"Fel," he smiled. "I'm famished. Join me?"

Felicia, dressed in her daily officewear, had a blue shirt on and a skirt that hugged her hips and went to the middle of her thighs. Lower down, she wore pitch-black stockings and heels that gave her a professional look yet were enough to turn quite a few heads. The only outliers were the white apron she wore over her clothes, the black gloves, and the somewhat prominent choker that was in the middle of her throat, with any visible skin below covered in black.

"Presidents don't usually have meals in the residence with their secretaries," Felicia said, setting the cart beside the table and pulling away the covers.

"Secretaries don't usually bring said meals either," Alex said, his eyes never leaving Felicia as she moved the plates to the table, shuffling around in her high heels.

"You could just leave things to Gaia, you know?"

"Of course," Alex nodded. "If anything, she's probably better at handling things than I am by manually going through documents and talking to people. But then, that would make this place no different from the other planets."

"It's been so long. Still not over the novel feeling of being addressed as Mr. President, Mr. President?" Her voice took a slightly sultry tone as she took off her heels and neatly set them behind the chair before sitting down opposite Alex.

"Not going to wash up?" Alex asked.

"Isn't my master keeping me clean?" She asked teasingly.

"Go, wash your hands. It's only good manners."

"It's fine, they're gloves anyway," she said, looking at the steak with greed on her face.

"Felicia…" Alex trailed off, giving her a pointed look.

"…" She suddenly looked down, biting her lower lip. "No…" she said in a small voice. "I won't."

"Are you rebelling against your master?" Alex asked, a slightly amused tint in his otherwise flat tone.

She took a breath, seemingly gathering her courage. "I want to eat without these today," she said while looking up at him with an intense gaze. "Please… I'll be obedient and only eat, promise."

"Fine," Alex agreed. "I don't feel like refusing such a heartfelt request. Plus, you are going to be in for a shock soon."

"Hm?" Her immediately brightening expression paused.

"I'm bringing another version of you here, not for long, a year at most," Alex said as his words immediately made the expression on Felicia's face fall.

"W-why?" She felt her heart race as the gloves receded into her skin. Sadly, that only made her panic. "Y-you don't have to replace me just for this request, do you? That's–that's just cruel… We've been together for practically two decades now."

"What's been going on in your head these days?" Alex poked Felicia's forehead. "She's one of the versions of you with the most prominent bad luck surrounding her. I want to see if I can get you her powers."

She looked at him with a frown, putting her palm on her forehead. "You sure that's all she's coming for?"

"My desire to have a threesome with multiversal counterparts is certainly a factor."

"…" Felicia didn't say anything and continued looking at him with a somewhat scathing look. "You couldn't bring that up after dinner?" She asked. "I haven't eaten anything since we had breakfast, and this just killed my appetite."

"Want me to feed you?" Alex asked with a smile. "Better yet, we are going on a walk after this anyway. How about I include our dinner in that?"

"Right after I mustered up the courage to ask you to take off my gloves?" Felicia asked. "Not a chance. I'm eating this steak like a normal person, whether I feel like it or not."

"Stop thinking about that," Alex said, serving a slice for Felicia and then one for himself. "She won't be here for at least another six months to a year."

It took Felicia a few minutes to move on from the bomb that Alex had dropped on her, but she eventually forgot about it while enjoying the immaculate steak in front of her. It didn't take long for them to completely clean their respective plates as Felicia was left stuffed and leaning back in her chair, groaning in comfort.

"This is the best steak I've ever had."

"We have steak very often."

"Yeah, but I've usually eaten them with gloves on, or worse, from a dog bowl, getting grease all over my face. Ugh…"

"So being able to lick the grease from your fingers…no, steak is eaten with a fork. This is better even though there is no difference?"

"Miles," she said. "I don't even care that you've already found my replacement in case you get bored with me."

"Still on that?" Alex asked, bemused. "That's not happening. I literally told you that she's the one with the best potential for probability manipulation, and I want to use her as a reference to make you stronger."

"Isn't that more troublesome than just replacing me?"

"I have spent more than a decade training you to be the best sex pet ever, Felicia. You think I'll just give up on all that effort?"

"I'm serious."

"I'm also serious," Alex said. "You're acting like our time together means nothing. That's wrong. It means everything to me. Do you think I spend this kind of quality time with anyone other than my primary hosts? No. Regardless of how many of your variants I meet, or even utilize, that won't diminish your value in my eyes, Fel."

"Mr. President," Felicia suddenly shifted to a playful tone. "Are you confessing to me?"

"What am I confessing that you don't already know, Fel?" Alex asked.

"Why do you do this anyway?" She asked. "You didn't answer me before. Haven't you gotten bored of being called Mr. President all the time?"

"It's not about that," Alex shook his head. "We have this talk every few years. Doing this keeps me grounded. Keeps me from becoming an indifferent god who can decide the fate of billions on a whim with no consideration for the common man. That's why I don't leave everything here to Gaia, who can do a much better job. That's why I generally create an actual body of flesh and blood that still needs to eat, exercise, sleep, and more."

"I've never seen you exercise."

"Regular hardcore sex is all the exercise I need," he said dismissively. "Now, since we're full, shall I get you ready for our walk?"

"As Master wishes," Felicia nodded before standing up. "Just let me clean up the dishes. Are we going outside or just indoors?"

"We're going to the penitentiary," Alex said as Felicia immediately stiffened. "Silvija's sentence is over, and it's time to release her."

"Do you really have to take me to that place?" She asked.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked. "I won't milk you if that's what you're worried about."

"No, that's…" Felicia looked uncomfortable. "That place just creeps me out."

"But you've never been there," Alex said.

"Yeah, and I'd rather keep it that way," she said. "Like Pandora's Box. It's better if it stays closed."

"What do you think I do to women in there?" Alex looked speechless.

"Unspeakable tortures?" She asked. "They are being treated like cattle. It's not really paradise, you know."

"To some, it is. Many enter voluntarily, knowing what awaits them."

"Less than one percent," she said.

"Even lower," Alex said. "And I'm not doing any unspeakable tortures to them. It is a prison. One more comfortable than many."

"That's impossible."

"It's not the conventional kind of comfortable, I admit, but based on the stats alone, those who enter, even if they aren't masochists, are satisfied based on their hormones."

"That's because it's a debauched place that runs on pleasuring those women while treating them like cattle. Of course, their happy hormones will be high. Let them outside for an hour, and you'll see them for who they really are. Broken-down cattle."

"Even idle, left to themselves, those who have gotten used to that life don't mind their current situations. If anything, they enjoy being in there."

"Stockholm Syndrome."

"Just come with me to see. It's not as bad as you are making it out to be. You'll get to meet a future Widow commander as well," Alex said.

"No, it's creepy! Anywhere else. Take me to the streets and hide my identity. I'd rather do that than go there."

Not responding to Felicia's words, Alex stood up and approached her, noticing that her hand trembled for a moment. Stopping in front of her, he took the plates from her hands and placed them down on the cart. Trying not to look intimidated, she looked up at him, her wavering eyes still maintaining a sense of defiance.

He held her hand with a gentle grip and led her away to the living room, stopping in the center of the soft rug. Wordlessly, he started unbuttoning Felicia's shirt, quickly reaching the bottom as he pulled it out of the waistband of her skirt, pushing the skirt down at the same time, and finished with the last button before pulling it off entirely. It revealed a skin-tight black latex bodysuit that went from the choker on her neck down to her toes, covering every inch of her skin while perfectly sticking to every single curve of her body.

Alex then held her hands with a gentle touch as the black material once again covered them, completing the bodysuit.

"A-Alex," Felicia spoke his name with a stutter, feeling odd considering how seldom she used it. At the same time, she was feeling a little apprehensive about his silent demeanor and wanted him to speak up. "Please don't be like this…"

"We're going to the penitentiary," he said. "That's final. If you really feel uncomfortable when we are in there, tell me, and I will bring you out. But I will not have you close your eyes and deny the kind of person I am. I am not a good person. Not by a long shot. And I expect those around me to be aware of that fact."

"I've known that for a long time," she said. "I'll go there. No more complaints, promise."

"Good girl," Alex whispered before leaning forward and capturing her lips in a gentle kiss that slowly deepened for the next few seconds. When they separated, Felicia's eyes had a glint of desire in them as she took audible breaths that caressed Alex's neck.

"Meow…" she let out a cute mewl, sticking out her tongue and licking Alex's face.

Her action made him smile as he planted a gentle peck on her lips once again before pulling back. "Down."

Giving him a sultry look, Felicia quickly got down on her knees and further lowered herself, getting down on her elbows.

"Good girl," Alex said. "Turn around now."

"Meow~" She let out a cute mewl and turned on her side.

Alex squatted and patted her head, combing her hair and pushing a strand behind her ear. "We'll do a full set of restraints today."

"Mm?" Felicia's expression fell as she raised her brows and looked at him pitifully.

"No can do, honey," Alex said. "You tried to resist my direct order today, and that warrants punishment."

"Mew…" She tried to plead with him.

"Be good now," he said. "I don't want to encourage this kind of rebellious behaviour in my pet."

Letting out a sad whine, she accepted her fate, looking helpless as Alex created four black leather sleeves beside him, two larger and thicker than their counterparts. He started with her arms, slipping the smaller sleeve over Felicia's already latex-covered arm. The end was a fingerless stump that forced her to ball up her fist before Alex tightened the belt at the wrist and another just below her shoulder, covering almost her entire arm. He repeated the process for her other arm before moving to the legs and slipping the larger sleeve over her leg, tightening a belt at her ankle and another at her upper thigh before repeating the process for her other leg.

Once the sleeves were correctly fixed to her, Alex had her fold her arm and tightened two belts around it, forcing her to keep it folded before repeating for her other arm.

"Feeling helpless?" He asked as his hand made its way between her legs, gently rubbing her sensitive entrance over the latex bodysuit.

"Wuu…" She let out a cute whine, waving her folded arms at Alex and trying to hit him with her elbow.

"Turn on your stomach and get on your knees," Alex said, gently smacking her between her legs as her legs twitched to a close and a low cry escaped her lips.

"Haah…" She gave him a slightly annoyed look and obeyed, turning on her stomach and getting up on her knees and elbows.

"Good girl," Alex praised, kneeling behind her as he forced her calves to touch her thighs and tightened two belts around either leg, reducing them into similarly useless stumps as her arms. "It's been a while since I gave you the full bitchsuit treatment, huh?"

"Mm…" She let out a weak whine, flexing her joints and waving her hips to get used to the restraints.

"All right, on your back again," he spanked her ass. "Show me your stomach."

She cried out weakly and shivered as a pleasurable jolt went directly to her core before turning around and exposing her front to Alex.

"I'll let your skin enjoy some air today," Alex said, resting his hand on Felicia's belly.

She took a moment to realize what he meant and looked surprised, lowering her gaze as the latex bodysuit started disappearing, revealing her pale skin. Feeling Alex's hand caressing her bare belly, she took a sharp breath, not used to the sensation. While Alex did occasionally let her get out of the bodysuit, it was very rare. She felt Alex trailing his hand higher as her breasts were revealed by the bodysuit, her pale pink nipples already erect from arousal.

He brought both hands to her chest, squeezed, eliciting a sharp gasp from Felicia as she instinctively brought her legs together, slowly rubbing them against each other as he started toying with her breasts. A few seconds later, his target switched to her nipples, pinching the pale pink nubs. It earned him a loud moan from Felicia as she failed to maintain her cat-like meows and closed her eyes. Alex didn't mind and continued his actions for a few more seconds as Felicia's almost melodious moans rang through the room, tempting Alex to entirely forego the walk and take her to bed.

Resisting the immediate urge to do exactly that, he stopped playing with Felicia's irresistible breasts and created two clamps in his hand. Before Felicia even opened her eyes to look up at him, a jolt of pain shot through her left nipple, forcing a yelp through her lips as she looked at the source and saw a clamp tightly pinching her sensitive nub that Alex had just been playing with. She whined at Alex as he quickly followed up with the second clamp that pinched her right nipple. She suppressed the resulting yelp, biting her lip while glaring at Alex.

He completely ignored her expression and continued by attaching two small bells to the clamps that chimed with every movement that Felicia made, only serving to embarrass her.

"No, you cannot speak unless you use your safe word. And you remember what happened when you used your safe word unnecessarily the last time, right?"

"Mmm…" She whined with a frown, looking like she wanted to say something to him.

"Fine, you can speak until I'm done outfitting you," he said before forcefully turning her around and putting her down on her stomach as her folded limbs splayed around her.

"Oww…" She cried in pain. "You know my nipples are sensitive to clamps… And why the bells?"

"If I kept things within your comfort zone, then it wouldn't be a punishment. If anything, I'm considering that it's time I start pushing some of your softer limits."

"Like?" Felicia asked with trepidation as she felt Alex's hand squeezing her bare ass.

"Clamps for one, anal for another," he said. "You've always resisted whenever I tried to go beyond tail plugs."

"…" She gulped. "Can't we just pretend that I never resisted you taking me to that place? I'll be the best sex pet ever…"

"It's not because of this, you know that," Alex said. "And it's not like I'm immediately going to fuck your ass. We'll take things slow. Like we always have."

Before Felicia could respond, she felt Alex's lubed finger pushing against her puckered hole and took a sharp breath, instinctively clenching her core.

"Be good now," he said, patting her ass. "Or do you want me to help loosen you up?"

"A little…" she mumbled. "It's not every day you get rid of the bodysuit."

"What a pampered cat…" Alex smiled and put his hand between Felicia's legs as his fingers immediately prompted her to arch her back, forcing a throaty moan through her lips. Within seconds, she had become a trembling mess as Alex's lubricated finger slowly entered her puckered hole. He eventually pulled his fingers away from her pussy and continued slowly pumping two fingers in her ass as her sexy moans filled the room.

Finally, Alex replaced his fingers with a solidly girthy tail plug that quickly nestled itself in Felicia's ass, leaving her to feel a constant yet faint presence inside her anal cavity.

"P-please…" she gasped, looking at Alex over her shoulder with a needy expression.

"No orgasms for my naughty cat just yet," he patted her ass. "That comes after the walk."

"Uu…" she whined pitifully, pressing her face against the soft carpet and letting out a tired breath.

"I'm done," Alex finalized Felicia's outfit by attaching a leash to her collar and lightly tugging. "No more speaking. You don't want the muzzle, do you?"

She shook her head, straightening herself on her stumps as a natural arc formed in her back due to the difference in the length between her arms and legs, causing her to lean forward.

***

Alex led Felicia to a restricted elevator in the residence that led directly to the bunker in the basement. The bells hanging from her nipple clamps kept chiming with her movements, keeping Felicia aware of their presence and highlighting her exposed state with every chime. Still, after getting used to the initial shock of the add-ons, she had regained her composure and was walking on her restrained limbs without much trouble. After all, even though this kind of situation was rare, Felicia had spent over twenty years with him and experienced the even more intense walks.

The elevator doors opened, revealing an empty bunker with only some emergency lights active to light the way. Alex continued walking at a steady pace as Felicia continued crawling behind him and passed through a door that led into a tunnel. It was one of the many escape routes under the White House. But this one led directly to the Gaia Penitentiary that was built right beside the White House. It was a secret entrance that Alex had personally installed for exactly such an event, where he brought Felicia or another woman there through the White House.

'See, you were worried for no reason," Alex said. "After walking for a few minutes, you are already leaving a trail of liquids with every step you take. Do you even remember our destination?"

"Meow..." Felicia let out a mewl that was a mix of anger and arousal. Generally, these walks served as a therapeutic experience where she got to unwind and turn her mind away from everything else. With the restraints and the constantly chiming clamps, not to mention the tail plug that made her aware of its presence by putting just enough pressure on her prostate to arouse her with each step, she was filled with thoughts of intense sex where Alex ravaged her thoroughly.

"I'm curious what you will feel when you see those women and realize just how much pleasure they enjoy every single day," Alex said. "Maybe I'll let you stay there for a month. I'll even give you special treatment and personally milk you for Bioenergy."

"Wuu!" Felicia did not like that idea. She was clearly expressing her stance of refusal. It was understandable. No matter what Alex did to her and put her through, she was a woman with quite a stubborn sense of pride. That was the reason that she still served as Alex's secretary despite Gaia's presence. Not only that, she still went out to play around and steal some nice valuables. It wasn't even about the money for her since Alex generally just returned the things she stole. It was entirely about the thrill of the game for her.

For her to accept being milked like cattle would completely go against her sense of self and pride.

"I know, I'm just teasing you," Alex chuckled. "If I put you in there, who am I going to tease and mess around with while managing the world from my office?"

"Meow..." She protested.

"Yes, yes, your work is very important as well. Your secretarial duties certainly make my life much easier. Especially with you also acting the role of my maid and mistress. I'd probably get frustrated to no end without you around."

Felicia seemed pleased with his answer and responded with an indicative mewl.

The two silently walked through the tunnel for a little over ten minutes before stopping at another door.

'Beyond this door is the Gaia Penitentiary," Alex said. "Inside, you'll realize just how incorrect your perception of this place really was."

Felicia meowed weakly in response, not particularly interested in seeing whatever was on the other side of that door. Yet, a part of her was also curious. She felt that she had a solid idea of what kind of person Alex was, but knowing and seeing something manifested into reality were two different things. And the Gaia Penitentiary was essentially a dark part of Alex realized into existence.

As Alex commanded Gaia to open the thick metal doors, Feliciahad to squint as the bright light on the other side shone on her face, illuminating the dimly lit tunnel that they were in.

Blinking a few times, she got used to the light, only for Alex to tug on her leash, making her instinctively step forward as she observed the corridor that they had emerged in.

The entire area was pure white, with a flat, almost reflectively clean white surface on the floor. As the two of them stepped further inside, Felicia's gaze was immediately drawn to her left, and she froze after seeing the scene in the room.

Inside, an asian woman with brunette hair was standing up on her toes with a pole rising up from the ground and shoved deep inside her. Her arms were restrained inside a straitjacket, and a collar was wrapped around her throat, attached to the ceiling by a metal pole. Her attention first went to the two suction cups that were constantly extracting a white liquid from her breasts, but the woman's face caught her attention moments later. The sheer expression of bliss on the woman's face was something that she could only imagine showing up on someone drugged out of their mind, but she was sure that that wasn't the case. After all, she personally knew just how amazing the pleasure Alex could let a woman feel.

As they passed the rooms, Felicia saw all kinds of women in all sorts of different states of restraint. And each and every single one of those women had suction cups attached to their breasts, sucking out literal life energy from them without actually doing them any harm.

Soon, the two of them reached the end of the hallway as Alex led her through a door and down some stairs.

"That hall was just one out of a hundred on that floor," Alex said, much to Felicia's surprise as she let out a confused meow. "I know it's impossible normally with the space used by this facility. I used the Space Stone to permanently expand the space inside this building. I could have just renovated it again, but it's a temporary thing anyway. I'll be moving this to space eventually."

"Mew?"

"It's a logical progression," Alex said. "An interstellar empire like the one I aspire to create should at least have an isolated satellite in space serving as a prison for the most heinous criminals. That way, it becomes a true black box, and I stop having to deal with overly curious spies who can't restrain their curiosity."

"Uww..."

"I know I could just pull the roots and kill them all, but that defeats the purpose of a civilization. If I overmanage everything and ådestroy all dissenting voices, it will lead to stagnation. For now, I am happy to serve as a source of conflict for ambitious, risk-taking groups. I'm leaving these groups alive because they will lead the charge against a common enemy in the future."

"Moww... She trailed off, expressing exasperation.

"I know you aren't fond of my idea, but it's the most efficient way to get things done. If I take the long way, it will take centuries for me to unite every nation under a single banner."

Felicia wasn't particularly pleased with Alex's words, but didn't continue voicing her dissent as they continued descending the floors, skipping a few exits, much to her curiosity.

"The primary five floors are for those without any growth potential," Alex said. "These are the women who have spent over five years in this place and are yet to awaken any Qi. They permanently reside in those ten cubic meter cells that are barely large enough for them to stand up straight and raise their arms for restraining purposes. I invest the least amount of resources into them."

"Meow?"

st

"Their limit is fifty years of age, at which point, extracting any more Bioenergy becomes counterintuitive and actually sucks away their life force. I don't really have a plan for them yet. They are criminals with a life sentence after all. Can't just let them out into the world. I'll probably just let them live out the rest of their days in bliss without extracting any Bioenergy from them."

"Meow..."

"Might as well kill them, you say..." Alex mumbled thoughtfully, making Felicia widen her eyes. "I like your idea, Felicia. It seems my habits are finally rubbing off on my cat..."

"Meow!" She panicked and protested loudly, hitting Alex's calf with her head.

Alex laughed at her actions and rubbed her head, messing up her hair as the two of them stopped. "They have already given me enough that it consumed their lives. Even if they are the most heinous of criminals, I will let them live out the remainder of their days in peace."

His words made Felicia calm down as she immediately hissed at him about messing up her hair. He promptly produced a comb and quickly fixed her silky locks and tied them in a ponytail.

As they continued descending the stairs, Alex finally stopped in front of a door labeled 6, representing the negative sixth floor. The doors automatically opened to reveal a much larger hallway compared to the one from before. Considering that the one from before was barely a meter wide, this one was five times as wide, though it followed the same blindingly white color scheme, seeming like some kind of mental facility to Felicia.

***

As Alex and Felicia stepped forward, her gaze went to the first room to her right, immediately noticing the significantly larger area available to the occupant, who, in this case, had slightly tanned skin and black hair, looking to be of Latin American origin.

Unlike the women from before, who seemed to be in semi-permanent bondage, this woman was free from all restraints and was casually sitting on her bed, reading a book whose title was covered. The only thing that made the situation somewhat odd was that she was naked, save for a collar on her throat-likely serving as the medium that Gaia used to manage her.

"Meow..."

"No, she can't see outside. The glass is opaque on her side. It was the same for the rooms upstairs,' Alex answered as if reading Felicia's mind, as he'd been doing since the start of their walk. After years of communicating in cat, Alex had learned to read Felicia's micro-expressions with perfect accuracy, allowing him to almost perfectly translate most of her meowing just based on her emotions. He didn't even need to use any unfair means, like actually reading her mind, to do that.

Felicia let out a cute purr that made Alex pause for a double-take as he turned to look at her with a raised brow.

"Meow..." She whimpered shyly, lowering her gaze from the embarrassment of making such a sound.

"Cute," Alex commented before continuing on their walk.

Felicia missed the next couple of cells on her way forward before Alex stopped, prompting her to look up. The woman in the cell in front of them surprised her enough to get a suppressed yelp out of her. With lustrous golden skin and flowing blonde hair, the woman looked like she was wearing body paint, but certain discrepancies forced her to accept that the woman simply possessed golden skin.

"Meow..."

"Yeah, this is a criminal from the Sovereign," Alex said. "Ayesha is quite reluctant to send her people into my hands, but I have still brought quite a few of them here."

The golden woman was currently on all fours, not too far from Felicia's current state, but was completely immobilized. A floor pillory kept her in place, shackling her arms and legs to the device and forcing her to stay in that position as a pole from the ground connected to a metal shackle on her throat, and another pole connected to a metal shackle on her waist, forcing her to maintain her position with a slightly arched back. At the same time, all three of her entrances were currently being assaulted by tentacle-like metal appendages, constantly going in and out of her.

"Meow..." Felicia grew thoughtful as she observed the suction cups extracting Bioenergy from the woman.

"Yeah, women from the Sovereign have better physiques and inherently produce more Bioenergy compared to human women. The only complicated thing was to actually get her to produce it." "Ou?"

"They are genetically designed to abhor the process of natural births and anything adjacent. I had to establish a whole new hormone infusion regimen to activate those recessed traits for these women."

Looking at the alien woman who looked to be in a state of constant bliss despite the large appendages that had penetrated both her lower holes and her mouth, Felicia's desire not to return here was only reinforced.

These women were criminals of the highest order and likely deserved death, so Alex's actions in exploiting their value were morally ambiguous at best and not nearly the worst thing that he had done. But knowledge is one thing, and actually seeing things is another.

As they moved forward, Felicia saw the imprisoned women in far more varied states compared to before.

Some of them were restrained and being fucked like the Sovereign woman, some were simply lazing around and passing the time, some were working out with quite a high intensity, and some were experiencing a special kind of bondage workout that Alex had only done with Felicia once before, concluding that she wasn't meant for it. As much as Felicia enjoyed pet play, that was about the only thing. Beyond that, she was as far from a masochist as they came and was far more biased toward vanilla intimacy without too many restraints.

At the end of the hall, they exited onto another staircase that led to the lower floors. At this point, Felicia was getting a little tired of all the walking since she had been following Alex along for over an hour by now.

Alex noticed her plight but didn't offer any comfort just yet, leading her down two flights of stairs as she kept moving without a word of complaint. Finally, they entered the negative ninth-floor hallway as Alex paused in front of the first cell on the right.

Felicia took a breath and looked at the sight inside. The breath hitched as she saw a blonde woman in almost the same predicament as her, walking on a treadmill, as Bioenergy was constantly sucked out from her breasts while an appendage protruding from the wall behind her stirred her insides. The only addition to the woman's outfit was the blindfold and headphones, aside from the suction cups on her breasts; otherwise, she was in the same restraints as Felicia. Unable to peel her eyes away, she didn't even notice that this room was even larger than the ones that she'd seen on the negative sixth floor, large enough to be used as the living room of a one-bedroom apartment.

"Let's take a moment, okay?" Alex said as the glass panel slid open to the size of a door.

"Meow!?" Felicia was struck by a wave of panic and disgust as Alex started leading her inside the room.

"We aren't doing anything with her, just resting. Don't worry about it," Alex said, calming Felicia down a little as she hesitantly entered behind him, expecting to be struck by a musky scent of sweat and sex but instead being greeted by a soft floral one produced by a room freshener. Ignoring the woman's constant moans of pleasure, the room looked spotlessly clean, slowly receding the disgust that Felicia felt.

Alex ignored the restrained woman and walked to the bed with Felicia and sat down.

"I don't handle things manually, but this place is kept spotlessly clean by Gaia. I don't have any intention of spending time and effort manually dealing with the biological issues and illnesses that the women here might encounter, which would lower production. This facility is almost entirely mechanized and requires minimal intervention from my side."

Sitting down, he guided Felicia to sit between his legs on her knees as she rested her elbows on his thighs and looked up with a pure, almost thoughtless gaze.

"What is it?" he patted her head and toyed with her earlobe.

Ignoring the woman's moans in the background, Felicia looked around at the walls that seemed to have posters of a very specific metal band, and even what seemed like a closet, before turning back to Alex and giving him a faint mewl.

"Those who haven't yet awakened Qi are still ordinary women and possess no comfort or autonomy over their lives. At best, Gaia gives them some basic benefits in the form of entertainment as a means of motivation. The ones who have awakened Qi, however, are treated differently. They have quite a few privileges, all based on an internal merit point system."

"Uw?"

"Gaia assigns these merit points based on multiple factors-obedience, growth, the amount of Bioenergy extracted over a day, and a few more. They can use these merit points to exchange for privileges. Those include entertainment, life comforts like different clothing, and even the Anti-Age Serum."

"Mm?" Felicia frowned at the mention of the Anti-Age Serum.

"Unlike the normal women upstairs, the ones on this floor have all awakened Qi and provide far more value to me. Even someone who has just awakened provides me with a tenth of a unit every day. It would take over five hundred women to match the output of a single Qi awakener. I am not letting them exhaust their lifespan for no reason. Especially since they can grow."

"Mmm..." Felicia gently elbowed his abdomen with a shining look in her eyes and gently nudged his crotch with her chin.

"Do you want to learn as well?" Alex asked as he pulled open his zipper and lowered his pants.

"Meow..." Felicia gave him a cute meow and licked the shaft that he'd just freed.

"We'll talk about this later, Alex said, resting his hand on her head as she took him into her mouth. "This

floor still consists of those with slightly less talent and output, but on the lower floor, every single occupant provides me with over half a unit every day, with some even giving me a full unit daily. Unfortunately, that seems to be some sort of bottleneck point, and I haven't seen anyone break through that number yet. Even with regular training and practice, their Qi growth has become somewhat stagnant..."

Looking at his cat's engrossed expression as she mindlessly fellated him, Alex realized that she probably wasn't listening anymore and stopped talking, choosing to enjoy her meticulous service instead.

***

After the short break, Alex led Felicia through the ninth-floor hall and down to the tenth. The insides of the cells were mostly the same, with most occupants in some form of restraint while either being forced to exercise or dealing with a difficult predicament that required them to engage their muscles.

Some were on break and reading or watching something, while some were sleeping in relatively comfortable restraints while Bioenergy was still extracted from them. Only the ones on break weren't having their Bioenergy extracted. Whether they were sleeping or exercising, Bioenergy was still being extracted from them without question.

Finally, almost at the end of the hallway, a tuft of red hair caught Felicia's attention and made her pause.

The occupant in the cell on her left was Mary Jane Watson, a companion who had been with Alex from even before Felicia came into the picture. Though Felicia had been quick to realize that the so-called companion was more of a set of glorified holes than anything else. It had been years since Alex had broken his bond with her and semi-discarded her, but Felicia couldn't help but recall memories of the first time she'd seen Alex ravage the redhead.

At this moment, Mary Jane was restrained to a cross, with her limbs spread apart as mechanical phalluses stimulated her and pumps extracted the Bioenergy from her breasts in the form of milk.

"Meow..." She called out to Alex as he glanced at the redhead.

"She didn't awaken Qi," Alex explained. "Doesn't have the talent for it. Due to her past bond with me that enhanced her physique, she can still give me half a unit of Bioenergy every day. That's her limit, though."

Felicia nodded and turned her attention away from the woman. Regardless of the history there, she didn't matter anymore. Her attention went to the cell directly opposite that of Mary Jane, and she raised her brow.

The woman inside had almost identical hair to hers, albeit slightly less lustrous in comparison. At this moment, she was upside down, hanging from the ceiling by a single leg as a leather cuff wrapped around her foot and held her up. Her other leg was restrained by leather belts, forced to stay folded, while her arms were tied to the floor, held together by a belt at her wrists and another above her elbows. Without a scrap of clothing on her stretched body, she was completely exposed.

Unlike the others, however, she wasn't being ravaged by mechanical cocks, nor did she have any suction cups attached to her breasts. She was idly restrained, with no senses suppressed, and no pleasure assaulting her incessantly. The thing that stood out to her most was the look in her eyes. Unlike the pleasure-addled submission that she had seen in everyone else, this woman had a calm look on her face, almost as if treating the difficult restraints as a means of therapy to calm her mind.

"Meow..."

"Yeah, I never had any plans to keep her here permanently. That's why she's had a few extra privileges. Keeping her here long-term would be a waste of this woman's skills and talents. Let's go and greet her."

Felicia didn't show any resistance, having expected that Alex would definitely lead her inside. She didn't particularly care, aside from feeling a little conscious due to the clamps on her nipples and the bells attached to them that kept chiming all the time.

Silvija's eyes immediately focused on the partition that formed in the wall in front of her and saw Alex emerge, followed by Felicia.

"Mr. Apex," she greeted as her eyes paused on Felicia, seeming a little surprised. "This is the first time you've brought a guest to meet me."

"This is Felicia, my secretary and advisor, Alex said as the panel behind him closed, leaving a featureless plain white wall. With a wave of his palm, Alex made a platform rise from the ground right in front of Silviia and took a seat.

As Felicia instinctively moved closer to him, he put his arm around her and suddenly pulled her up, eliciting a cute yelp from her mouth. Notably, she didn't break character despite the surprise, continuing to make cat-like sounds.

Not giving her a chance to settle, he placed her on his lap, making her face him. She let out a meow, shifting her position a little to settle herself without the slightest resistance.

"That's an... interesting kind of advisor," Silvija sounded a little amused by Felicia's state.

The cat in question turned to look at Silvija with a blank stare and responded with a low snort and completely ignored her, burying her head in Alex's abdomen.

"This is just a hobby," Alex said, resting one hand on Felicia's breast and the other between her legs. "Do you know what day it is today?"

Silvija didn't seem to care about how Alex brazenly caressed his so-called advisor's body and responded. "Our monthly meeting wasn't too long ago. Should be a special occasion. Anniversary, maybe? I haven't kept track of the date."

"It's been ten years, Silvija," Alex said, immediately making the woman's expression freeze. "You are going to be released today."

"..." The woman froze at Alex's words, only squeezing out a single word after seconds of silence. "Oh..."

"Excited? Disappointed? Sad? How do you feel?"

Alex's words broke the atmosphere as Silvija looked at him flatly. "Finally."

"You know what I do to a disobedient subordinate, don't you, Silvija?" Alex asked, toying with the clamp on Felicia's nipple as the bell chimed. He was casually caressing her most sensitive parts, treating her as little more than a stress toy, yet she only seemed to enjoy the treatment, nuzzling her face in Alex's stomach and purring.

"..." She looked a little subdued.

"Tell me how it feels."

"Complicated," she said after a moment. "A little bit of everything, I guess."

"Good answer," Alex said. "Once I send you to the widows, you and Yelena will both serve as the deputy commanders, answering to either Natasha or me. Yelena will brief you on your specific duties once you arrive."

"We're leaving now?" Silvija seemed a little surprised, glancing at the purring woman in Alex's arms.

"I'm just telling you these things while you are of sound mind, Sil. Did you think I'd let you leave without a proper farewell?"

The woman was momentarily speechless and snorted, turning her head to look away.

"Come here," Alex said, raising two fingers toward Silvija.

"That doesn't seem feasi-ahe..." Silvija's words were caught in her throat as a thin tendril wrapped around her tongue, forcing it out. She noticed it connected to the two fingers that Alex had extended in her direction.

Alex stayed silent as the tendril grew taut, tugging Silvija's tongue.

"Aaa..." She let out an uncomfortable groan before automatically drawing closer to Alex. Glancing up at the ceiling with difficulty, she realized that her restraints were shifting in position, moving her closer to Alex.

Soon, she found herself right in front of him, facing his chest as her hair almost brushed against Felicia.

"Your behaviour over these past few years has been very satisfactory, Silvija." Alex pulled back the tendril, freeing the woman's tongue, and raised his hand to rest it between Silvija's legs.

"As long as the master keeps his promise about my country and its sovereignty, she gave him a sultry smile.

"After all this time, is that really true?" Alex asked as his fingers started working, immediately making Silvija squirm in her bonds. "Can you truly bear to give up all this for your country?"

"..." Silvija bit her lip, suppressing the moan that threatened to erupt from her throat, and looked at Alex with a scathing intensity. "Yes."

"All right, you have a strong will, almost as strong as my Nat, Alex chuckled. "I will naturally keep my promise and allow your country to maintain its sovereignty under my rule."

A weight seemed to lift from her heart at his words as he took the opportunity to push his fingers inside her, forcing a moan through her lips as she shivered. As for the specifics of 'under his rule, those had long been discussed by the two of them beforehand.

As Alex started teasing Silvija's entrance, he looked down at his secretary, who had clearly decided to play the role of an inactive doll in the threesome and grasped one of her nipple clamps, forcefully pulling it off.

Felicia's cry of pain was quite cat-like as she looked at him with an aggrieved expression, only to let out another pained groan when he pinched the sensitive nipple and twisted it.

"Can't play dead anymore, kitten, Alex said with a chuckle as he freed her nipple and reattached the clamp, earning him a pitiful whimper. "Down, make sure I don't get impatient when playing with my new spy."

As Alex put her down on the ground, Felicia didn't hesitate, pulling down his pants with her mouth and taking him into her mouth.

As for Silvija, the woman already seemed to be close to a climax under the assault of Alex's fingers.

"I'm going to make you cum so much today that you'll dread any sort of pleasure for a week after," Alex said as he grabbed one of Silvija's nipples and twisted it, earning him a loud moan from the woman as she came from his fingers, her release trailing down her abdomen.

***

Outside the Gaia Cluster, once all was said and done, each planet seemed to have two suns. One was the actual sun, while the other was the incubating Celestial. Unlike the way planets orbited around the sun, however, the Celestial's orbits were under Alex's direct control. The way Wanda had set up the spell allowed Alex to manually modify many aspects of the structure that had been formed, including adding new planets or removing older ones, even shifting them around if he desired.

The only limitation was that the planets could never form a conjunction. That was because Wanda had formed literal beams that led from the Celestial to each planet's core. In the scenario of a planetary syzygy, the beams would overlap and collapse the spell. And without anchors, the planets would likely run into untold problems simply due to the interference from each other's gravity.

In the aftermath of such a grand undertaking, however, both Wanda and Susan had lost consciousness due to overexertion. Wanda's recovery wasn't too troublesome, lasting barely a week of Gaia's re-dilated time. She was already out and about after Alex coaxed all of the dissatisfaction out of her and was enjoying a life of leisure.

Susan, on the other hand, had been unconscious for two weeks with no signs of waking up. That was because of a mix of multiple factors. The primary one being the sheer undertaking that Alex had put her body through. The kind of output he forced out of her body without the necessary foundation had left her far too fragile for even him to immediately heal.

Adding to that, due to their low bond level, he couldn't go into a True Merge state with her, and instead had to suppress her consciousness to take control of her body. While that protected her mind, it also caused slight mental damage to her that will also take a while to heal.

At the moment, she was on the Fantastic Four Earth, lying on a large bed in her room as her brother sat beside her with a disgruntled expression of worry.

"She's been out of it for two weeks, man," Johnny said. "Are you sure it's a fatigue-induced coma?"

"Yes." Alex walked in with a glass of water. "She overexerted her powers recently and needs to recover. It's a mental issue more than a physical one."

"So she's going to wake up with amnesia?"

"Is that all you took from my words?" Alex asked.

"The doctors said she's fine, right? How about we surprise her when she wakes up?"

"What do you have in mind?" Alex asked with a laugh.

"How about this... We'll act like it's been two years, and that she only woke up because we found an alien parasite to heal her. Now, that parasite is coursing through her blood."

Alex instantly choked on his water, coughing violently as he barely set the glass down on the table nearby.

"V-vivid imagination," he wheezed out, slowly recovering.

"So?" Johnny didn't bother suppressing his amusement.

"Sure," Alex said, shaking his head. "Go for it when she wakes up in another week or two."

"Sweet," Johnny said. "I'll be off. Take care of her. And seriously, put a ring on that finger, will you? You've been together for years. She isn't getting any younger."

"Yeah," Alex waved the man off. "I'll keep that under advisement."

After Johnny's departure, Alex stayed beside Susan, doing his best to accelerate her recovery as his exhausted Bioenergy reserves slowly started climbing back up. His previous exhaustion had even impacted his production in the Penitentiary, causing the recovery process to slow down and, in turn, reduce the amount of Bioenergy he got every day. That was bound to normalize in less than half a year, which was less than a quarter of a day outside.

As for the healing process, due to her shallow level three skin bond with Alex, he couldn't easily fix her issues on a mental level. If they had even formed the blood bond, Alex would have had a much easier time due to the constant cycling of her blood through her brain, but for now, that wasn't an option.

The best way to accelerate her healing was Soul Energy. Unfortunately, he'd entirely exhausted his reserves of that as well during his previous actions. Because of that, he had to go on a killing spree on Earth-Z to devour a large number of mindless abominations that barely gave Soul Energy in tiny fractions. Despite having to supplement the low quality with a large amount of quantity, Alex's collection pace was enough to heal Susan over a month.

Since Johnny had left, the Susan on the bed no longer needed to be maintained and simply dissolved away as the bed itself melted away, revealing the real Susan, floating in a horizontal pod of clear liquid. Without a scrap of clothing on her body as her hair floated all around her, she looked more like an ethereal mermaid than a human, but Alex wasn't in the mood to admire that. He was using a slow, methodical technique to infuse Bioenergy directly into her brain, mixed with the small amounts of Soul Energy to aid in her recovery.

"I really need to increase the bond level with her soon... Her powers are too important for them to be this weak at this stage," he said to himself. "I finally found a lead on another Cosmic Cube, and the one person who can come with me is out of it..."

...

As the days passed, Susan's recovery finally concluded, and per Alex's estimates, the healing process was complete.

Upon waking up, the woman found herself in a pure white room, not unlike the room she'd first woken up in when she had just gotten her powers, except this one felt even more like a mental facility, without a single window or medical equipment. The thing that drove it in further was the padded walls.

"Sis?" A voice spoke to her through the speaker. "That you?"

"Who else would it be, Johnny?" Susan scoffed. "Where's Alex?"

"When we were five, who was it that you wanted to marry, even going so far as to propose-"

"Another word and I turn your head invisible, Susan growled.

"It's important, sis," Johnny said. "Who did you run after, screaming for marriage?"

"I'll kill you!" Susan got out of bed, ready to activate her powers.

"Who was it?" Johnny asked with a forceful edge to his tone. "Or do you not know, Alien?"

"What are you talking about?"

[Alex?]

"Answer the question, sis." He emphasized his address. "Or do you not know?"

"Shove it, Johnny," Susan said. "And tell me where Alex is?"

"How do I know you aren't the alien parasite?" Johnny's words made Susan freeze.

"What?"

"I expected as much." Johnny's tone turned grave. "I told you you shouldn't have used that parasite to heal her."

"What the fuck is going on?" Susan received no answer. "Johnny? Alex?"

[Alex? I can sense you behind that wall. What's Johnny up to?]

"Unless we can determine whether you are my sister or the parasite, you will have to stay confined in that room."

"I'm breaking that damn wall..." Susan activated her powers as her hair floated around her.

"Name that man, Sue, and it'll all be over."

"I'd rather just beat you up." Just as Susan was about to break through the wall, she felt an interference.

[Alex? Why are you stopping me?]

"Can't even use your powers, huh. She's definitely parasitized. It seems we need to set her on fire."

"Johnny, if you don't stop fucking with me, I will take Mr. Bauman's ice cream cone and shove it so far up your ass that it comes out of your mouth. Now tell me, where the fuck is Alex?"

"She said it!" Johnny exclaimed. "I told you she still remembered the ice cream guy's name. Even I'd forgotten."

The wall split apart into a door as Alex stepped in with a laughing Johnny.

"Still so in love with ice cream that you'd marry an old man, huh?"

Susan gave the two of them a scathing death glare and raised a palm before clenching it into a fist.

nce.

far

"Ack!" Johnny instantly started choking and started struggling, grabbing Alex's shoulder. Glancing at the man, his eyes widened. "Wy not im?"

Alex was perfectly fine. Looking at Johnny's miserable state, he chuckled. "All right, don't kill the poor guy. I'll give you some ice cream."

Even on the verge of losing consciousness, Johnny couldn't help but let out a gagged laugh at Susan's twitching expression.

"I'll deal with you later," she said venomously, dropping Johnny on the ground.

"You'll never... never be..." Johnny wheezed out between coughs. "You'll never be...as good...as Vader..."

Susan rolled her eyes before turning to Alex.

"What's going on?"

"You were out cold for a month," Alex said. "We decided to play a harmless prank on you."

"I liked it better when you two didn't get along," she said.

Alex laughed. "Come on, let's get some solid food in your system. We have things to do soon."

...

Another month passed as Alex made sure that Susan was fully healed before finally moving to the next planet on Alex's agenda to subdue.

Asgardian Earth.

***

While Alex was dealing with the Illuminati, he sent Susan over to Wakanda to confront Hela.

At the moment, the woman was casually lounging in the throne room, casually rubbing the head of a large tiger that was acting as docile as a tamed house cat in front of her. Just like Loki, she immediatel noticed the spatial fluctuation of a Mystic Arts portal in the middle of the room and raised her brow.

Unlike Loki, however, she cared little about testing the intruder and directly conjured a necroblade that shot out from her arm and at the origin of that portal. Yet, as the portal continued forming, she raised a brow in curiosity.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" An outraged voice came through the portal. "This could have stabbed me just now."

Susan stepped through the portal, holding the black projectile that Hela had shot at her.

Hela seemed uninterested in talking to this unknown person and casually shot another sword at her, only for it to stop inches away from the woman's face.

Susan grabbed the sword and examined the texture with a sense of curiosity.

"This doesn't feel like an energy construct. Can you conjure matter from your energy? What an interesting power."

"What's your name, girl?" Hela asked lazily, a barely discernible hint of curiosity in her eyes. Normally, she would've identified Susan, the ever-present force field in front of her, but this planet seemingly lacked the presence of the Fantastic Four. Whether they had died before Hela and Loki's arrival, or if they were never there in the first place, was unknown.

"Don't you have authority over death? What if giving you my name gives you power over me?" Susan asked with an innocent expression.

"My power isn't nearly as troublesome," Hela said. "I presume that bug, Loki, was useless."

"Not particularly, no," Susan said. "Do you mind surrendering directly? I'm not really a fan of fighting."

"How presumptuous." Hela's expression grew colder, and she didn't speak any further before standing up, tapping the tiger with her foot as it quickly scampered away with an annoyed squeak.

[Don't let her touch you. That usually only works on Asgardians, but you never know, and it's best to be cautious. I didn't expect another Hela to start conjuring weapons...]

Hela's volley came without warning. A storm of blades appeared out of thin air around her, all shooting toward Susan like a black tide. Curving unnaturally around the open room, they shot at her from all sides.

Susan's expression didn't change as the air around her started warping with the solidification of her force fields, blocking every single blade that struck the sphere. The ensuing shockwave broke through

the glass windows and cracked the Vibranium-reinforced walls around them.

Susan's expression grew strained as the blades continued putting pressure on her force fields, warping the sphere. The Death Goddess was testing the limits of her powers, how long she could hold on under sustained pressure.

Observing Hela's casual, almost mocking expression, Susan snorted and controlled the sphere to turn elastic, letting the weapons push closer to her, but before they could pierce through her, the force field snapped outward, pushing the barrage of weapons in a violent ricochet all around her.

The weapons found themselves embedded all around her in the walls and shooting toward Hela, who didn't bother dodging. The weapons that got close enough to her simply simmered out of existence and dissolved away before they could touch her.

"Good," Hela said, her interest in Susan seeming to grow a little stronger.

She took a step forward and seemed to vanish before appearing right in front of Susan. A sword materialized in her hand mid-stride, which she swung at Susan.

Susan reacted, but not with the sphere that surrounded her. She knew that she needed to get some kind of initiative if she was to have any advantage here. Against a millennia-old goddess, every moment she gave the goddess to understand her was a moment closer to her loss.

A thin, almost blade-like force field appeared in the middle of Hela's swing, before the strike could gain enough momentum. The blade struck the force field, and sparks flew through the air as it stopped in its tracks.

Hela was momentarily caught by the sudden appearance of what seemed like an invisible blade that blocked her attack, giving Susan the initiative that she desperately needed. The blonde didn't hesitate, clenching her fist as a force field compressed around the blade and Hela's arm with a crushing force.

Hela's expression darkened as a flood of green necrotic energy erupted from her as the center, momentarily stifling Susan's force field as Hela pulled her arm back, letting the blade in her hand dissolve. Two blades shot toward the blonde's face, and the goddess swung another blade at Susan.

Susan was quick to respond and created three elastic force fields to first block the three blades, letting them push into the construct before solidifying and compressing them. The two free blades cracked as Hela used the blade that Susan had blocked as leverage to step back before the force field could encroach upon her.

"Repeated tricks," Hela commented, still not looking particularly serious about the fight.

Susan narrowed her eyes as the air around her warped to such an extent that it seemed to be vibrating. In an instant, she conjured a hundred sharp constructs with her force fields that were all directed at Hela.

The death goddess seemed to have an intuition of their presence and released her own blades to accurately block Susan's attacks, stalling every invisible construct before it could even pass the halfway mark.

Neither slowed down for even a moment as Susan continued tossing invisible constructs for Hela to block.

Eventually, one construct passed by the almost supernatural intuition that Hela possessed and scraped along her side, producing sparks on her armor as it shot past her.

Instantly, a wave of green energy erupted from Hela, followed by a massive spike shooting through the window at Susan, forcing her to actively pause her attacks to block it.

When she saw the size of the blade, Susan felt a bit of cold sweat on her back. The spike was larger than the room itself, with more than half still sticking outside the window. Just blocking the massive mass took quite a bit of focus from Susan, not to mention the pressure that Hela was putting on the force field as the spike slowly inched forward.

"A good move," Hela said, glancing at her side. "You would serve as a very strong assassin."

Susan's expression changed when she realized that the tiny force field she'd managed to send into Hela's body had been destroyed. She'd expected that her subtle move would be able to take care of the goddess without much trouble.

"You are still too green, child," Hela said as the large spike above her slowly inched closer to Susan.

"Shall we go for another round?"

"Don't underestimate me," Susan said, letting out a throaty grunt. The air around her simmered once again, and the spike pushing at her stalled. Not only did it stall, but a crackling sound also followed as the black construct started breaking down, soon collapsing entirely and vanishing into black smoke.

At the same time, Susan formed a large red wall in front of herself, blocking Hela's view, and sent the construct toward her.

Hela casually waved an arm and conjured an even larger sword that directly broke through the construct and continued unimpeded, breaking through the walls. Looking in from the outside, it seemed as if a heavenly sword had pierced through the Wakandan palace.

As the red wall shimmered out of existence, Susan was nowhere to be seen. No fluctuation, no disturbed air currents, nothing. As if she had teleported away.

Hela was calm and unhurried, a faint smile gracing her lips.

"You hide," she said. "Does that reassure you?"

Moments later, Hela felt her heart palpitate, an instinct honed by millennia of combat and war that seemed to go beyond mere sixth sense. Instinctively, a sword appeared in her hand that she swung to the side, only for it to be intercepted halfway by a sphere of compressed force.

An explosion of force ensued as the sphere expanded like a bomb, for the first time, throwing Hela off her feet as she flipped and was about to land.

Susan didn't want to give her the chance to do so and formed tens of similar constructs. Mines and projectiles surrounded Hela, leaving her with no option other than to take the brunt of their explosive force. At least, that's what Susan expected.

Mid-air, Hela's figure stalled as a green necrotic mist started swirling around her. Before the first projectile could reach her, the green mist exploded outward, impaling Susan's structures and detonating them. Regardless of the explosive force behind the structures, the green mist pushed everything back, directly overpowering everything Susan had just thrown at Hela.

The goddess didn't seem satisfied with that and lowered herself. Just as her foot touched the floor, it

turned black, seemingly liquefying entirely as it spread around her.

From the blackened surface emerged skeletal warriors, decked in armor that did not belong to this era, or even to humans at all. Susan tried to interrupt the summoning by shooting force fields at Hela, but her efforts were in vain as the surrounding green mist countered each attack she sent forward.

-x-X-x-

Within moments, the entire room was filled with Hela's undead soldiers, leaving Susan with barely any room to maneuver. Even as she used her force fields to deal with the constantly emerging undead while also attacking Hela, the goddess didn't relent for a moment.

Eventually, the high-intensity combat left Susan somewhat exhausted. After all, no matter how much high-intensity training Alex put her through, it couldn't suddenly make her comparable to an entity like Hela in terms of sheer combat experience. Without an overwhelming advantage, it all boiled down to who was better at using their powers. And despite the potential of her powers, Susan was still weaker than many of her own variants, who had learned to use their powers in countless fatal scenarios that forced them to push past their limits to survive. No matter how intense Susan's training was, it couldn't compare to such vivid experiences.

"Is that all?" Hela asked, a hint of boredom creeping into her tone the moment she noticed the reduced intensity of Susan's attacks. "Pity, I was just about to start having fun..."

"You will, Hela." A new voice emerged, prompting Hela to raise her brow as she turned to look at the source.

Susan simmered into existence, surrounded by Hela's ever-increasing undead army as her force field constructs continued to pierce through whatever creature got into her range. There were multiple such clearings all around the room to mask Susan's invisible presence amidst her attempts to get close enough to Hela. Unfortunately, her endurance gave out before she could find the right chance. Alex stood beside her in the clearing, looking at Hela with a bright smile.

"You will get your fun, Hela, Alex said with an amused smile. "Now that my Susan is satisfied, it's time we get serious."

"And who might you be?" Hela asked with a hint of caution in her tone. Unlike Susan, Alex's presence made her intuition flare with danger.

"Apex, at your service," Alex said with a mock bow. "I'm taking over this planet today. And you have two options in front of you. Submission or death."

Hela's eyes narrowed as she burst out laughing. "With just you?"

Before Alex could respond, he felt a spatial fluctuation high up in the air. The moment he turned his head up, five massive swords burst through the ceiling, directly striking the spot where he and Susan were standing.

The swords continued their descent, entirely obliterating the Wakandan castle as if its Vibranium was no more than mere paper in front of the death-infused necroswords that rained down upon it. The massive swords were even larger than the castle itself and embedded themselves in the earth, sticking through the now-ruined castle.

"You wish to make me submit? Do you qualify?" Hela spoke, hovering high in the air, overlooking the desecrated and destroyed castle as she landed on top of one of the swords.

"I'd like to think so," Alex said. "Where are you summoning these swords from? These require Asgard as an anchor, no? Are you in contact with Odin or Thor or whoever rules this universe's Asgard?"

Looking at the slimy mass that coalesced into the familiar figure of Apex a few feet in front of her, Hela looked both cautious and a little excited.

"Did I kill your lady?" Hela asked, almost taunting. "How about I bring her back for you?"

"That won't be necessary, Alex said. "I have much better uses for your power over death."

"Is that so?" Hela, despite her caution, was not lacking in confidence as she let loose a torrent of green necrotic energy all around her. It spread throughout the surroundings within what seemed like an instant, dyeing the sky green as the area all around them got enveloped in the same green mist. Countless humanoid undead figures rose from the mist, spreading through the entire nation of Wakanda.

"Did you already kill everyone in Wakanda?" Alex asked with a frown. "What a waste of resources. Do you have any idea how useful Vibranium is?"

Hela frowned momentarily. What she had released wasn't mere energy. It was close to a domain that isolated the interior and put immense pressure on anyone stuck inside. For someone to speak freely while inside this domain, without the slightest impediment, was odd, to say the least.

"Whatever, I doubt you have anything that can counter me. Considering your actions up to now, your death authority is limited to Asgardians. Even these undead, most of them are summoned from Valhalla and embody the dead humans' souls... Pity. I thought you had a higher necromantic authority..."

Not giving Hela the chance to respond, Alex tapped into Susan's powers. Instantly, an invisible wave spread all around, momentarily distorting everything it passed. Within moments, a force field had appeared around Hela's domain and started compressing it. It didn't take long for the radius of the domain to start shrinking.

Susan's powers were sufficient to contain and move entire planets, let alone suppress the domain of an entity like Hela, who barely qualified as a demigod.

Realizing her disadvantageous position, Hela didn't hesitate and formed multiple portals, taking advantage of the fact that her domain was still present to instantly summon more swords. Not giving Alex a chance to react, ten gigantic necroswords shot at him from different directions. With a thought, Alex summoned ten compressed shields that appeared in the path of every sword, in an attempt to push them back.

While Susan had barely blocked far weaker swords, Alex casually blocked ten that were far greater in scale and power while also compressing Hela's domain.

Seeing her attack blocked with seemingly effortless ease, Hela's expression grew graver. Summoning two swords in her hands, she shot forward, going for the most direct kind of assault. Unlike the average necrosword, these were wreathed in green flames, imbued with the essence of Hela's powers.

Alex saw her approach him and knew she was getting serious. For all her use of magic and necromancy, he was well aware of the wealth of combat experience she possessed. Even with his advantages, that was something that he couldn't compare to. Getting direct and personal was Hela's most powerful means of attack.

With a wave of his hand, Alex crushed the necroswords that he'd blocked and summoned a sword of his own, made with his own body, that appeared right in the path of Hela's swinging blade. Alex only had the time to notice a scoffing smirk on the woman's face before the necrosword sliced through Alex's summoned sword and was about to strike his shoulder, only stopping an inch away, blocked by a force field. Even then, the flames that covered the sword would have almost scorched his face if not for another force field pushing the sword back. He didn't have time to do anything about the other sword and chose the most direct way of handling it. His body simply split apart in the path of the sword, letting it harmlessly pass through as he joined back together.

He did it mostly to avoid the decay effect of the necrosword. When Hela had cut through Alex's sword, he'd felt that part of his body decay and promptly cut it off before the effects could spread further. As immune as Alex's body was to most things, certain kinds of magic and higher-level godly energies could still affect him.

As Hela's sword passed harmlessly through him, Alex switched completely to Susan's force fields, which were essentially immune to any authority Hela could throw at them. The only way to break through Susan's force fields was raw force, and Hela could never reach the amount of force required to break through those force fields when Alex was the one using them.

Alex's odd method of dodging didn't deter Hela for a single moment as she immediately swung her other sword at Alex's neck, intent on beheading him. Alex raised his hand as an invisible sword simmered into existence, finally blocking Hela's sword as he summoned another sword above the goddess that pierced down at her.

Hela only needed a single shift of her body to dodge the descending invisible sword as she swung the other sword at Alex's left shoulder. He formed a sword in his left hand to block it. As for the other side, Alex had extended the force field over to Hela's sword, holding it in place. It worked only for a millisecond before Hela released a concentrated burst from the tip of her sword, piercing through the enveloping force field as the aura shot toward Alex's eye, forcing him to retreat for a moment as he blocked the aura with another force field.

With her freed sword, Hela suddenly targeted the sword in Alex's left hand, swinging it down to pressure the force field with both her swords, confident that she would be able to break through. Her confidence wasn't unfounded, as Alex found himself on the defensive as Hela's dual swords pushed his sword construct down, momentarily overpowering him. Tempted as he was to activate other powers, he wanted to see just how far he could push this veritable goddess of combat before being forced to tap into his other powers.

As Alex swung his newly freed sword horizontally at Hela, she grunted, suddenly bursting with strength as she swung both swords to the right, sliding over Alex's invisible sword. The two swords narrowly missed Alex's fingers as he lowered his left hand barely in time, as Hela's two swords directly hacked at his right hand.

Seeing that it was too late to change the trajectory, Alex simply dislodged his arm, letting the two swords pass harmlessly through as the invisible sword continued moving toward Hela. Seemingly not even noticing them, Hela continued her momentum in a pirouette, intent on slashing Alex, but the sword was upon her before she could even complete the maneuver.

Before the invisible sword could cut her, a large sword tore through the air right behind Alex, prompting him to tilt his head to the side as he dodged it. Though he didn't seem to be the target, the sword clashed with his invisible blade that was about to hack through Hela. That gave her enough time to complete her motion as she slashed both swords horizontally at Alex. Even as he barely raised his sword to block her attack, her momentum allowed her to push past his strength and reach him with her swords.

Just as her swords were about to hack through his torso, Alex simply separated again, letting them pass by without the slightest harm.

"This was fun, Hela, Alex said. "I mean it. Let's do this again sometime."

Before Hela could react, she felt something wrap around her leg as it quickly siphoned away all her powers, directly destroying her domain and blocking her from accessing any of her powers and authorities. In the next moment, everything went dark.

Alex looked at Hela's surprised expression, still devoid of panic, with a smile as he enveloped her entire body in a black bodysuit, rendering her nothing more than a helpless doll with her legs stuck together and her arms stuck at her sides.

He extended his arm toward her and pulled her over his shoulder before she could fall down, and created a mystic arts portal before disappearing with the woman.