Chapter 28: The Avengers Initiative
[Luke Blake POV]:
Luke wasn't sure exactly when, but, as he stood a few blocks from the X-Mansion, alone, his mind shielded and cloaked, a certain clarity had passed over him — One that he hadn't felt in months, and that only came to be when he was in Ororo's company.
He's learned to appreciate these moments — these pockets of clarity. For he knew that they were his other side's way of letting Luke — the true Luke Blake — out and unchained, if only briefly for a time.
Because that was what this was, wasn't it? There were two Lukes. The Original clone Luke who was — and will always be, loyal to the Master.
And then there was the Tester — A persona that Luke never knew was wired into his creation — One that was made solely to test the limits of the Master and ensure the Master was kept on his feet.
Luke stood before a hat store, dressed in business casual — All dark colors, from top open button down to the slacks to the shoes. In his hands, he carried freshly feed rare blue roses, their stem and roots planted in a fairly reasonably price pot of dirt and plant feed.
They were Ororo's favorite flowers, and, because of her natural affinity with plants, Luke ensured he got her unpicked flowers instead of pulled flowers. They make her much more relaxed, Luke figured out multiple dates ago.
As he looked at his reflection, Luke couldn't help but sigh at himself.
He knew that this last meeting with Ororo will be the last for awhile on his end. With his other side's plans to ditch the Marvel multiverse and its undeterred need to test the Master, Luke knew he would be pushed deep down into the consciousness of his own body for awhile.
'At least, I can explain things to Ororo in person,' Luke thought. While he was tempted to write everything he needed to down in a letter to Monroe, Luke couldn't bring himself to take such an easy, cheap route — Not for her. Never for her. 'Hopefully, when I am allowed back in control and I return, I can have my happy ending with my dearest lover...'
Luke stood at the edge of the X-Mansion estate, having already sent a mental message to her to meet him here.
'I just hope I'm not making a mistake,' Luke thought, noticing the approaching figure of Monroe descending from above like the goddess she was. 'Better yet, I hope my other side doesn't ruin things too much. I genuinely love her and I care too much to lose her.'
And, as Ororo approached Luke, Luke was mentally already prepping his words. He was going to be as truthful as he could without exposing secrets no one else needed to know.
Internally he was wishing himself luck…
[General POV]:
Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, a large helicarrier floated atop dark blue waters. A quinjet was just landing, its gears extending as it touched down.
A woman with short red hair was walking up to the jet as its rear entree ramp descended and out came Agent Phil and Steve Rogers.
"Agent Romanoff," Phil introduced.
"Captain Rogers."
"Ma'am," Steve said.
"Hi," Romanoff greeted, then turned to Phil. "They need you on the Bridge. They're starting the Face Trace."
"See you there," Phil said, nothing off.
As Romanoff and Steve talked, walking as they went, observing the crew around them move, the atmosphere was calm, almost serene.
Eventually Dr. Banner joined the duo and it became a trio.
After the awe that was the hellicarrier taking off, and things settled down a bit, Widow took both Steve and Banner into the Bridge. The hellicarrier went invisible and Fury turned to address the gathered duo.
"Gentlemen," Fury said, making his way to Banner. "Doctor, thank you for coming," he shook Banner's hands.
"Thank you for asking nicely," Banner said. "So how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract."
"Where are you on that?" Banner asked.
Just as Fury was about to answer, a blaring alarm sounded throughout the ship as a crimson and black heavily armored, surprisingly agile ship made its way before the window. Many of the agents below scrambled to be at the ready in case of attack, their trained reflexes already expecting the worst.
[Attention! Unidentified Aircraft Detected!]
[Attention! Unidentified Aircraft Detected!]
"What the Hell is that?" Banner's asked.
"Another guest," was all Fury answered with, slight smirk tugging at his lips, as he overrode the alert, allowing the mysterious ship safe passage and landing unto the helicarrier. He wasn't sure how its pilot detected a cloaking flying helicarrier, but he wasn't going to complain about it when the pilot was someone he had been gunning to put on the initiative for the longest. "Took him long enough to arrive."
The Redline had just arrived.
[Deep In Space]:
Beyond the Milky Way, travelling at speeds far exceeding lightspeed, Lewis was still quite far from his home galaxy, but he was closer. He would be within the Milky Way in a day, and within the star system half a week, by his estimates.
'I'll be home by my birthday,' Lewis thought. 'Just in time for my planet to finally appear.'
As if enthusiastic by the thought, Lewis flew even faster. He may or may not have spotted 3 Texas sized asteroids carrying large chunks of Vibranium with them — And he may or may not have used his telekinesis to make the large expensive chunks of rocks flow him home — But that wasn't anyone's business but his…
[Luke Blake POV]:
Luke stood on the roof of the Empire State Building, dressed in his own personalized super suit — A sleek, tactical suit of mainly black armor with crimson and dark violet trimming — Complete with a techy band around the forehead, and a utility belt.
[Reference Image Suit]:
'I allowed Luke the time to get closure with Ororo,' the Tester thought to himself. 'It seems to have went well for the most part. Ororo seems willing to wait for us. Of course, all she knows is that I will be going away for a very long time, on a journey that will require making tough decisions, but that's all that she really needed to know…
'Now I can focus on my mission at last....I've left a welcome home surprise for the Master. I'm sure he'll love it... Probably not.'
"You're both ready?" he asked to the two other allies joining him on his expedition across the multiverse.
Tristan Axton stood to his right, suited up and armed. His suit was tactical in black with violet lining and dark green trims. He had a tactical spear in-hand, made from vibranium, specially designed to aid the flow of psionic energy flawlessly.
[Tristan Axton Suit Reference Image]:
His sister, Terra Axton, one of the triplets — the more wild one of the bunch — stood beside him dressed like a true wilderness survivalist in green leather and cloth and wool, complete with a bow specially made to allow for physical arrows and her psionic arrows. She even had daggers on her person like a proper hunter.
[Terra Axton Reference Image 1]:
[Terra Axton Reference Image 2]:
"I hope we get to hunt some powerful beasts while we're out," acknowledged a bored Terra, as she began playing with a dagger, tossing it in and out of her hands. "I'm wondering what otherworldly meat taste like. Maybe I should go hunting offworld whenever we arrive? That would be fun, honestly."
"We're ready," Tristan stated with a nod, ever the straight-to-the-point kind of guy. "I will follow your lead."
"Then let's go." Luke nodded, opening a portal to his private dimension, and stepping through. Planted by his second and third.
A moment later, the portal expanded greatly, using his aura into the sky, as it let out a massive ship of black, with dark violet trims and crimson touches. This was the Dark Examiner — A ship of many that Luke had built himself. It was the best of the batch that he made, complete with everything one could want in a space ship for long distance travel, including a super ai [i.e: Delta], sleeping quarters, stasis pods, planetary destructive capable automatically adaptive defensive systems, etc.
["The Dark Examiner" Starship Reference Image]:
As the Dark Examiner flew into the sky, at the ship's zenith, a silver portal opened before it, swallowing it whole before disappearing itself. For its passengers, however, it was merely the start of a new chapter…