Chapter 24: A Date With Storm, Pt 1, Of Systems, Magnets & Conquests
[Luke Blake POV]:
In a lab in a private, self-created dimension, Luke sat at a work desk, mixing and matching different vials of liquids — some of which looked like blood. A laptop was set up on the table beside Luke's, showcasing a meeting between the faction leaders of Earth's mutants; Magneto, Charles Xavier, Emma Frost and Callisto — all gathered in one place, to discuss a rising new faction leader: Lewis.
Luke was only half-listening to the live recording, busy on this last project he wanted to finish before his date with Ororo. The blood he was mixing was Lewis's — He was attempting to assimilate more of the powers locked within it. They were all pre-Sentry blood, so he won't really be able to assimilate that power set, but that's what he has the synthetic Sentry serum for — He had 3 of them he intends to merge into an even stronger serum, but first, he had to unlock the abilities of multiversal travel locked within the Master's blood.
After a few hours in the pocket dimension he created (which is only a few minutes in the outside world), Luke finally made a breakthrough.
'The power of omniversal travel… In the palm of my hand…' Luke raised the glowing silver-crimson vial of blood in his hands. 'With this — and this —' he raised another vial of blood, this one glowing a deep violet tint. 'Both omniversal travel and powerful artificial intelligence control… will be mine as much as the Master's.'
Luke then set both vials down carefully, moving to work on the 3 synthesized golden serums, working to create something greater, while tuning into the progress of the mutant faction leaders' meeting.
They were just discussing whether Luke/Lewis was a threat or not after yet another hour when Luke had made yet another breakthrough. Holding up a golden vial, sparkled with silver and white stars, Luke was pleased with the result.
"With this… Victory is foretold," Luke grinned with pride.
Then, with no time of hesitation, Luke injected himself with all three vials at once using a tri-vial injector, falling to his knees, clutching the ground as an unimaginable pain coursed its way throughout Luke's body. He screamed out in absolute pain as his body's physiology rearranged itself on a molecular level.
The pain was beyond tolerable — even for someone like Luke — but, because he knew that the benefits were astronomically game-changing, he did his best to take it.
What he didn't know was this was just the start of a struggle to come — For both himself and Lewis....
[Erik Lehnsherr POV]:
CRASH!
SHATTER!
"He has WHAT?!" Erik's voice sounded like cannon in his rage, after tossing his glass of imported fine sherry wine at the wall, startling Wanda and making Pietro flinch — Raven had no reaction.
Erik's face was a true canvas of rage and contempt. He had first learned Lewis Blake possessed a subterranean lab where he stores various enemies of his, likely to experiment on. Now, typically, Erik wouldn't care about such things. He wasn't a goody two-shoes. He knew how the world worked. It was full of opportunistic vultures that don't wait until one is down before they feast on the fallen.
"But what if his next target is the mutants?" Magneto couldn't help but wonder. "What if he starts experimenting on my mutant brothers and sisters next? What's stopping the bastard from going too far? We already have one freak, and that is more than enough. We do not need another."
"And that's not all," Mystique said, her tone even and leveled, somehow controlled. "Apocalypse — He was there. Beaten and subdued, somehow contained."
"A-Apocalypse…?" Magneto's heart raced even in his ears, clearly aware of how hard that mutant is to beat. "You are certain?"
"I saw it with my own eyes, Erik," Raven affirmed.
"Then he's much more dangerous than I initially anticipated," Magneto murmured to himself. "And that golden vial? I assume you've already given it to Exodus?"
"I have," Mystique acknowledged. "He's still in a coma, but Wiz-Kid said he's completely transformed. His psionic capabilities are beyond anything he's ever seen. And his body is so dense, so… difficult physiologically, that Exodus seems to have transformed into one of the most powerful beings on Earth in just a couple of hours. And it's only rising."
"How soon will he awaken?" Erik asked.
"Soon, by the Kid's predictions," Mystique answered. "Maybe a month or two?"
"Any more of that serum?" he asked.
"That was the only one there," Mystique answered, shaking her head.
"Good. That means they don't have someone on their side of equal power," Magneto said, grinning malevolently. "When Exodus wakes up, have him and a handful of our followers ready to depart. We'll strike as soon as possible!"
[Deep In Space — Outside of Star System]
[Lewis Blake POV]:
Deep in space, beyond Earth's star system — by at least 600 stars away, in a stationary cosmic cloud where pre-Big Bang universal energies resided, at its very nucleus, a man floated, unbothered the solar winds that rushed him in every direction.
He was dressed in a suit of gold and red, with a cape of gold and a supreme aura of power. Even floating listlessly in the cloud of cosmic energies, he gave off a regal and powerful vibe, as only a king could. His eyes were closed, even as the energies went inside both him and hundreds of Energenesis spheres, which floated around the giant gas of cosmic energies, absorbing various samples before disappearing in tiny little portals that led to a pocket dimension that Lewis created to store filled Energenesis Spheres. Another would replace whichever ones entered full.
'My connection to Luke has been slowly becoming more and more dull....,' Lewis thought to himself, mentally sensing a semi-block in his connection to his clone. 'It's almost as if he's actively tuning me out from his thoughts, allowing me to see only what he wants me to. How peculiar...?'
Lewis wasn't worried, though. After all—
'It is about that time, isn't it?' Lewis thought to himself. 'For...him to rear his head from within Luke, no doubt.'
When Lewis created Luke, he created Luke with the intent to test him — to keep Lewis on his toes. He never wanted to go soft or relax too much and lose his edge... So he ensured he would have someone that would push him — Always testing his authority regardless of power level.
'Whether or not that Tester persona was given too much power is... Well, I'll know for certain whenever I return to Earth,' Lewis thought, knowing he'll need to return soon, before Earth's invasion of the Chitauri. 'In the meantimeOMNIS... show me my status.'
[Command Acknowledged! Fetching Status]:
[Name]: Lewis Blake
[Species]: Homo Cosmicus Sapiens Ascendens
[Metagene 1]: Premature Evolutionary Metagene Expression
[Metagene 2]: Multiversal Vibrational Traversal (Low level)
[X-Gene 1]: Ability Identification/Sense (Alpha level)
[X-Gene 2]: Limitless Singular Amplification (Omega level)
[Mutate 1]: Plasma Manipulation (Mid-Planetary Level)
[Mutate 2]: True Cloning (Cosmic Level)
[Power Set 1]: Captain Comet (High Stage)
[Power Set 2]: The Void (Restricted — Early Stage)
[Power Set 3]: Sentry (High Stage)
The text behind the lenses of Lewis shades glowed in gold, showcasing his status.
'With this, I am on par with Superman from the Arrowverse show Superman & Lois,' Lewis noted. 'I am a whole tier stronger than Man of Steel Superman.'
Lewis clenched his fists.
'I still need to get stronger, but I can send a True Clone to collect anymore cosmic cloud samples, no doubt,' Lewis thought. 'OMNIS, do we have enough samples to follow through safely with a merge?'
[Affirmative, We Have More Than Enough]
At his answer, Lewis grinned.
'I sense that my own planet should appear soon, so, if I want it to be in the milky way near Earth, then I should actually head back soon,' Lewis thought. 'But, first, let's merge the AI systems.'
Reaching through to Crystal through their cosmic psychic connection, Lewis had her send him the 3 AI systems she possessed — specifically, Brother Eye, Oracle and future Gideon — and, after merging those three with two he possessed — specifically, The Enterprise Computer and J.A.R.V.I.S. — He merged those five together, before merging the resulting A.I with OMNIS, which caused a massive energy shockwave to explode outward of Lewis as all that cumulative energy needed release.
Lewis himself felt no pain as he was using 15 EnerGenesis Spheres as the source — he was merely a conduit. And being an energy conductor — for Lewis — was not painful so much as it was itchy, like bugs crawling beneath his skin.
But Lewis muscled his way through it.
When he finished, though, he created a True Clone, who possessed 75% of his true power, and ordered him to scout the galaxies for more of these clouds and to alert him if he finds something better.
Then, when the clone left, Lewis left himself, heading back to the milky way at FTL speeds.
He was completely unaware that moments after he left, a certain Purple Titan's ship had traced the massive energy surge, thinking it to be in relation to the Infinity stones…
[Thanos POV]:
"This is where the trace of massive power came from?" Thanos asked, sitting upon his throne while Ebony Maw typed away on the screen to double-check the readings. He looked out into the vacuum of space. "There is nothing here."
"This is the exact spot the source of that mysterious energy reading came from, sire," Ebony typed away. "I am absolutely certain. According to these readings, there's something else."
"What is it?" the purple titan commanded.
"There are traces of dead cells here," Ebony answered, eyes narrowed. "Human cells."
This gave Thanos pause. He thought it over. "The humans… They've been gathering power the last 50 years unchallenged. Perhaps it's time we change that."
"You need only ask," Ebony bowed. "I recommend the Chitauri, sire."
"Yes…I agree," Thanos agreed, his grin malicious. "The full force, though. Not just a unit force. Have the Trickster lead the assault."
"Yes," Ebony bowed before leaving to make the preparations. "Your will is command, Sire."
"Earth…" Thanos looked out into space. "You shall be mine very soon. No witch nor god can save you from me. Your stones will join the others. That, I promise you."
With that, Thanos sat back on his throne, lost in his own thoughts about a certain blue little world…