Chapter 27: Captain Marvel & Nova
[The Triskellion — General POV]:
In a private lab on the most secure area in S.H.I.E.L.D's Triskellion, a man in red, white and blue, star-spangled suit is currently being carved out of Artic ice and thawed out on a high tech medical table surrounded by scientists who had him hooked up to various advanced devices to both monitor his vitals and melt the ice without damaging his tissues.
As scientists worked to carefully thaw out an unconscious Steve Rodgers, above them, behind reinforced, one-sided, bulletproof glass, an everwatchful Nick Fury was watching it all unfold, his second — Agent Hill — at his side, typing away as three other agents — Black Widow, Agent 13 and Agent Woo — recounted their encounter with the vigilante known as the "Redline".
"We can confirm he is telepathic — And a powerful one at that. He casually bypassed my mental defenses and I had no idea about it until he pointed out his ability," Widow listed the abilities he displayed. "Telekinetic and highly skilled in stealth. He has flight as well."
"And this?" Nick gestured to the flashdrive given to him by Agent Woo. "What does it contain? Where did you get it?"
"Redline gave it to us," Agent Woo said. "It supposedly contains highly confidential files that even we don't possess. I've already scanned it for bugs. It's clean."
"It contains documentation on the Blake triplets," Agent 13 explained. At Fury's inquisitive stare, she said "Lewis Blake. He's part of a set of triplets that have gone under our radar. Lewis Blake. Lucas Blake. And Luke Blake. Not much is on Lewis that we don't already know and very few is on Lucas, but there's an emphasis of data on Luke Blake. His powers and abilities, habits, mutation as both a mutant and mutate, even the suggestion..."
"Suggestion?" Fury inquisitioned.
Agent 13 and Agent Woo looked gazes, nodding.
"The suggestion..." Agent Woo began. "That Lewis Blake... the Lewis Blake that we've seen on media, in-person and in public — isn't who he says he is, but in actuality, Luke Blake, either covering for Lewis or taking over the Lewis persona entirely."
This gave the room a great silence as everyone present processed this properly. Even Agent Hill had paused her tapping away at her tablet for a moment.
"So its a conspiracy either way," Fury acknowledged the elephant in the room, before asking a question most were thinking. "If we assume Luke is Lewis and we can conclude Lucas is Redline, then where the Hell is the real Lewis Blake?"
No one answered... Until someone did.
Widow walked up to Fury, opening a folder to classified contents. "I have a thought..."
The image that greeted Fury was a man floating in space, before the Sun, his hands outstretched on either side of him as he sunbathed...
[Deep Space, Beyond The Milky Way]:
[Lewis Blake POV]:
Meanwhile, in the depths of space, beyond the Milky Way, a bright streak of light was shooting through the abyss at beyond FTL speed. He was travelling so fast, there was an almost tunnel of energy enveloping around him, almost as if he were travelling through hyperspace. And, within this almost comet-like streak of light was none other Lewis Blake aka, Spectrion.
As Spectrion flew aimlessly faster than most starships, he mentally communed with his A.I Interface, OMNIS. "I'm pretty sure that clone of mine is gearing up for a heist... something. I just wonder what."
[There Is Indeed A 98.991% Chance That Clone Dubbed "Luke Blake" Is Scheming Against Host.]
'Oh, yeah, OMNIS?' Lewis thought, curiously. 'What data have you garnered to come to this conclusion? Oh, wait, let me guess: He's stopped using you in anything he does recently? Are you jealous?'
[...]
[Teasing Without Viable Purpose or Basis Are Signs Of Immaturity.]
[Perhaps Master Would Like To Apply To High School A Second Time?]
A slight shiver of disgust passed through Lewis as he thought about being a hormonal, prone teen in HS a third round. "Absolutely not," Lewis grimaced. 'But I am still curious what metrics you used to get to your 98.991% conclusion.'
[Simple.]
[Suspicious Activity & Behavior From This Clone Has Been Steadily Rising.]
[He Disappears For Long Swathes of Time To Places Even I Have No Access To.]
[Lucas Is Suspicious of Him.]
'And?' Lewis questioned, brow raised.
[...]
[And He Hasn't Used My Interface For Long Moment.]
'I knew it,' Lewis laughed — Or tried to. Space made it difficult. 'For the most advanced, highly adaptive, most complex Artificial Intelligence mankind has ever come up with, you are very easy.'
[That Is False And Inconclusive, Master.]
[And I Don't Miss Him.]
[There Is Just A High Probability That He Has His Own Equally Impressive A.I. That Is All.]
'Right,' Lewis snorted.
Then suddenly he frowned, instantly halting hyperspace-like flight without even a meter of waste movement.
Scanning the environment — The unfamiliar sun, consequential planets, moons and nearby astroid field: — Lewis knew instantly: 'I'm lost,' he thought.
[Inconclusive. Inconclusive.]
[Due To Possessing Adam Blake's Abilities Master Has A Universal Psionic Scan Ability That Enables Host To Mentally Map The Universe.]
[You're Not Lost. You Can Never Be Lost.]
[You're Just Lazy.]
Lewis grinned.
He was about to continue his flight when the sound of deep space combat reached his ears.
Utilizing his super sight, Lewis spotted an interesting sight: a couple of lightyears from his position: A caravan of NOVA Empire ships, escorted by a young Frankie Raye, Nova, and the one and only Captain Marvel — The two were defending a small squadron of Nova Empire vessels — maybe 9 — from a large armada of Kree Empire military cruisers, likely a rogue fleet of Ronan's himself.
Captain Marvel did her best to take out the vessels in a timely manner but there were quite a few of them, easily numbering in the millions. She took out hundreds at a time, easily destroying entire vessels with her energy blasts and energy-coated body alone, but because of the numbers against them, some made it past her.
Nova took on what he could while staying close to the ships he was suppose to protect, but there was only so many he could defend against. Some got blasts past him and into the caravan behind him — Or their barely holding shields. Lewis could instantly tell that he was young and inexperienced, this likely being his first, or among the first, of his missions.
Lewis tilted his head, contemplating if he should involve himself.
He wasn't afraid of either empires — Nova or Kree. He just didn't feel like dealing with the drama of either... At least, not before he had to.
'But It's Captain Marvel,' Lewis thought. 'Carol Danvers is more than enough of an incentive for my intervention, is she not?'
[Captain Marvel Reference Images]:
[Nova Reference Images]:
Lewis very much intended to have his own harem — Maybe not a large one. Maybe just 3 or 4 or 7, but Captain Marvel was definitely on that list.
'And Nova would make an excellent underling...' Lewis thought, before mental coughing to himself. 'I mean, friend. Yes, friend, because I'm honorable and a champion of justice.'
[Who are you trying to convince, Master?]
'Shut up, OMNIS or I'll turn you off,' Lewis thought back.
[And Then Who'll Act As Your Conscious?]
'Are A.I's supposed to be this snarky?' Lewis pondered. 'Maybe I should fix you when I return to Earth...'
[...]
[...]
[...]
[You're A Bitch, Master.]
Lewis' brow twitched at the remark, making a mental note to fiddle with OMNIS' default settings later.
Then, refocusing on the battle, he practically vanished from where he was floating, in a streak of golden light, aimed directly at the fleet.
When he was within range just seconds later, twin golden laserbeams shot from his eyes, arching and twisting at odd angles as they swiftly destroyed ship after ship, thousands at once, startling his participant present.
Many of the caravan who thought they were about to die, watched as a caped being in gold and red descended upon the battlefield, laserbeams that arched and twisted at homing angles blew apart ships like they were toys, causing them to blow up almost instantaneously.
Golden blasts shot from this stranger's palm traversed lightspeed, combusting in even greater explosions than the homing laser beams, taking out tens of thousands at once.
Both the Captain Marvel and Nova were awestruck by how powerful this new individual was — They had been holding their own fairly well against the fleet but this new party was absolutely demolishing the enemy fleet.
With Lewis' added support, it took very little time to clean out the trash. Within minutes over a million enemy ships were destroyed, their crew killed in brutal explosions of energies.
What little who did manage to get away only numbered in the thousands — Of the roughly 6 million vessels in this armada, only 3,000+ survived Lewis — And that was only because Lewis wanted his feats spread — And, maybe, a greater enemy to arise for next time.
For all his faults, Lewis lived for the thrill.
Scoffing at the thought, he produced a golden bubble of energy that allowed him and the other two before him to stand in earth-comparable gravity, breathe air and talk. It was roughly the size of a stadium and shaped like a bubble — An energy construct within which physics mirrored Earth.
He took off his shades.
"Hi, there," he looked to Captain Marvel and Nova who hesitantly landed before him. He outstretched a hand. "I'm Spectrion — A passing fellow cosmic wanderer. This place is my air chamber — a construct I created to talk. Those were the bad guys, right?"
Carol seemed startled by this for a second before taking off her own helmet and taking Lewis' hand. "Yes. I am Captain Marvel. Carol Danvers, but you can call me Carol."
"I'm Frankie," Nova announced.
"I'm Lewis," Spectrön stated.
"Why'd you help us, Lewis?" Carol said, eyes narrowed. "Not many would — Nor could, so why did you?"
"I hate bullies," Lewis shrugged. "Listen, I've gotta go, but if either of you ever need an upgrade — unlocking full potential, or anything like that, head my way. You know where Earth — or Terra — is, right?"
"Yes," they said.
"Cool," Lewis said, then one-upped Carol. "Maybe we could go on a date then."
"Are you so shameless?" Carol smirked.
"Without a doubt," Lewis challenged with a smirk of his own.
"You're insane," Carol laughed.
"That's not a 'no', though," Lewis grinned.
"Maybe..." Carol laughed. It was a nice laugh. "Maybe when I'm next in your sector I'll stop by."
"I'll be waiting then," Lewis grinned, a cheshire smirk holding Carol's blushing gaze. "Anyway, you should dawn your helmets. I'm about to head out. Gotta get back to Earth."
They did just that and Lewis, after taking one last glance at Carol's curves, de-constructed the Air bubble construct of energy, before vanishing in a stream of gold.
Meanwhile, on Earth, a certain clone was about to meet with a robotic armed octopus and a millennial old mutant...