Inside the bunker, the main screen once again lit up as the video of a flaming man breaking through the Baxter building's entrance appeared, observing as he flew at breakneck speed in a certain direction.
"All right, I've fulfilled my promise," Alex said. "Now it's all on you. Start communicating with Gaia and work with her to establish yourself. I want to see you as the president by the time I'm done with this planet."
Not only Susan, but even Reed and Ben were emotionally looking at the screen, almost as if unable to believe the scene in front of them.
"U-understood," the older Susan agreed, turning to Alex with glistening eyes. "I shall work with Gaia to reestablish the corrupt government structure left behind by Hydra. Thank you…Apex."
"Don't sweat it," he waved his palm. "Just work for me wholeheartedly, and I'll make sure to keep you and your family safe. Toodles."
With that, Alex turned around, grabbing Susan's hand as the two of them walked out of the facility without the slightest impediment.
"What do you make of him?" Reed asked Susan.
"Not sure…" The blonde responded. "He's weird, that's for sure. But if that tri-planet cluster is indeed Gaia. Joining them might not be that bad an idea. After Hydra…we're vulnerable, prone to being invaded. If not this…Apex person, then another character will try to take us in. Better a known dictator than an unknown conqueror. At least he cares enough to maintain a facade under the name of a Federation."
"So we're joining them?" Reed asked.
"That's the best choice we have available," Susan said. "You saw the way that Rogers was handled in the battle. With that kind of power, even without the Infinity Stones, Apex is a force to be reckoned with. As long as he doesn't hurt any of us or cross our bottom lines, I'm willing to serve him wholeheartedly."
"Are you just saying that because he can probably monitor you through that choker?" Reed asked.
"A little bit," she smiled. "But the decision stands. No point in resisting things meaninglessly. If I do things right, I might even be able to bring about a peaceful resolution to even his more violent requests. For now… I want to meet my brother."
"We don't know where he flew off..."
"Gaia?" Susan smiled. "Can you pinpoint my brother's location?"
[His current flight trajectory puts him en route to the Antarctic. Likely destination: Franklin Richard's safehouse.]
Gaia's words immediately made Susan stiffen.
"He knows?" She whispered.
"What's wrong?"
[Naturally. Nothing is hidden from Apex. Miss Susan.]
Gaia's feminine voice, while having a mechanical touch to it, possessed a faint presence of emotion that agitated Susan further, making her take a few deep breaths.
"Nothing," she answered Reed's question. "She can talk in my head. I was surprised."
…
"Where to next?" Susan asked Alex just as they stepped out of the broken bunker.
"New Avengers Tower," he said. "We need to meet Stark and pick up two helpers."
"Got it," she nodded before extending her arms toward him.
"What?"
"Pick me up," she said as a matter of fact. "We're going to fly there, right? I need more practice before I can fly freely."
"I'll just teleport us there," Alex said with a teasing smile, raising his hand as the air distorted with a red glow. Before the portal could form, however, Susan grabbed his arm, looking at him coldly.
"I said, pick me up."
"Not like that, honey," Alex said, smiling knowingly as the blonde's chest area started squirming. "Say it like you mean it."
"Mm…" She suppressed a moan as Alex sucked and pinched her nipples at the same time. "You're an ass."
Her aggrieved expression did nothing to change Alex's mind and even turned him on a little.
Realizing the futility, she sighed, suppressing another moan as he continued stimulating her nipples.
"I want to fly in your arms… I enjoyed it a lot," she said with a cute, puppy-eyed look that Alex had come to adore, reminding him of Wanda, yet possessing a slightly mature charm unique to Susan.
"That's my girl," he smiled and stopped teasing her breasts before picking her up in his arms. "All you had to do was ask."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and made herself comfortable in his embrace as he took to the air.
"If you weren't such a sadist, you could've simply taken the hint and made this a romantic moment..." Susan mumbled with a sigh as she took in the view.
"I think you're plenty wet right now," Alex said. "How about we take a little detour and have a quickie?"
"One, your quickies last no less than an hour," she pointed out. "And two, arousal doesn't mean romance. Sure, I was turned on by how you made me bare my desires like that, but a little vanilla romance every once in a while would be nice."
"I do plenty of vanilla romance stuff," Alex said. "Just the other day, I even brought you flowers."
"Yeah, but it's always in kinky circumstances…" she said. "You put me in that accursed chastity belt and denied me all forms of pleasure. How am I supposed to care about shitty flowers when I'm too horny to even think clearly? It's never an isolated instance of romance with you. You feel me?"
"I guess you aren't completely wrong," Alex nodded. "I'll keep it in mind. So, quickie?"
"No…" She trailed off with a sigh. "Let me enjoy the view."
"I get your point, okay?" Alex said, squeezing her thigh. "I'll be more considerate to keep things balanced between romance and kinks."
"That's all I want," she smiled again. "We can fulfill each other's kinky fantasies all we want, but an emotional connection is also necessary."
"Once we're done with this planet, I'll take you back to Gaia. We'll spend plenty of time enjoying each other's company. I'll do all the romantic stuff you want, and then you'll do all the kinky stuff I want. Deal?"
"Hey, I have kinky things I want to do as well," she said. "Have you ever tried pet play? I want to try role-playing as a moody and pampered house cat. Maybe then you'll stop teasing me all the time."
Alex paused, looking at Susan with a half-amused and half-impressed look. "I think out of all my hosts, you are the most sexually compatible with me."
"I'd take that as a compliment if you weren't talking about other women in that same sentence," she said, looking at him with frustration. "I want to know something…"
"Anything."
"What do you mean by Gaia being your subconscious?" She asked. "How can an artificial intelligence even become something like that?"
"Not naturally, that's for sure," Alex said. "It took a weirdly lucky situation and a lot of Mind and Soul Authority that wiped out all of my Bioenergy reserves at that time."
"What kind of situation?" She asked.
"It started a while ago, actually. About two months ago in actual time…though considering everything that's happened, it feels like it happened ages ago. There's this wasteland post-World War Three version of Earth…"
Alex spent the rest of the journey telling Susan about his early experience on Earth-Z and naively falling under Ultron's scheme before thwarting it recently and merging it into Gaia.
Before either of them realized it, half an hour had passed, and they had reached New York, home of the Avengers Tower.
Without bothering to waste any time, Alex directly entered the building, taking control of Susan's powers and turning intangible to pass through their myriad defenses and the reinforced concrete walls. They directly appeared on the top floor penthouse living room.
Susan immediately perked up, raising a brow as she heard faint moans from behind one of the doors.
"Those are two distinct moans, right?"
"Honestly, I'm surprised it took me this long to run into an actual manslut variant of Stark," Alex said. "The only ones I've bothered communicating with are either committed or too traumatized to think about anything beyond their suits."
"Iron Man, huh?" she said. "To be able to build something like Ultron… an infinitely evolving artificial general intelligence. He's competent. Some negative habits seem to come with the description."
"It varies from reality to reality. The one from 199999 relied on the Mind Stone."
"Are we going to wait for him to finish?"
"Of course," Alex nodded. "Why cockblock the man after all that he's been through? No need to mention what he's going to go through."
"That's unlike you," she said, looking at him with suspicion. "Are you stalling for something?"
"Guilty as charged," Alex raised his hands. "And here they are."
Just as he finished, the doors swung open as two young women, barely appearing twenty, entered the room. One with a reserved, yet suppressed, feral expression, and the other, with a boisterous expression as her eyes honed in on Alex and Susan.
"Are you Apex?" Kamala asked with shining eyes as Laura's expression changed as well; both women looked at him expectantly.
***
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