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Torn Cape.

Part 8.

Vought Tower. New York City.

While having a moonbase was nice, and Miranda was setting up Cerberus Defence Contracts within a fancy building of her own, if asked I would have admitted that the tower I was currently touring was certainly an impressive set-up, and it served well as the headquarters of both Vought International and The Seven.

I knew that at some point I might need to destroy this tower or maybe infiltrate it for some reason, as such, when Madalyn Stillwell offered me a tour I accepted. I came along at a time she decided upon even if that gave her some tiny measure of control over me.

The fact that she didn't meet me herself at the front desk was another little power game. If the deluded woman thought that she could control me as she did Homelander, then she was in for a very rude awakening.

There was no harm in listening to whatever offer Vought made. The fact that Starlight was the one showing me around was a nice bonus as she was pleasant to look at and I didn't find her voice to be annoying.

Since I'd killed Hughie Campbell she should be single. Starlight also looked really good in her short skirt and she didn't seem to mind the fact that I was checking her out.

At her core, Annie January was an idealist and one of the very few superhumans who truly cares about helping others and doing what she believes is right.

As such, her joining The Seven had been a wrong move as there was nothing heroic at all about that group. She'd have been much better off working on her own or finding a team that was more active.

It shouldn't be too hard to disillusion her enough that she was willing to leave Vought and maybe come to work with me. Perhaps I should make an effort to seduce her?

I didn't think it would be that hard to do since unlike most other men, I wouldn't feel threatened by the fact that she was stronger and tougher than me because she wasn't.

"Invincible, welcome to Floor 99," Starlight said.

This was where the Seven lived and worked. When they weren't off at some movie premiere or other event that let them preen for the cameras. This part of the building was filled with things that demonstrated how Vought controlled its talent.

All the pictures and statues made the superhumans feel as if they were larger-than-life figures when they were just a means for Vought to make even more money.

The Seven also had apartments here on this floor. I was not invited to check out any of them since they were meant to be private.

I took note of some of the other rooms. They were for meetings between members of the Seven and other Vought employees, there was also a dining room, a gym, and a rather nice lounge for people to hang around in.

"And this is where we have our meetings" Starlight let me know as we entered the most important part of this floor.

The Seven meeting room consists of an open circular space containing a large table in the shape of the Vought Seven logo which is a conjoined V7.

On one of the walls, I saw a number of screens that displayed information that must be important to the Seven, and there was also a set of windows that allowed for an impressive view of the city.

The subordinate six members are seated so they can face Homelander as he enters from the doorway and his chair, which I went and sat on, and the design allowed him to face any member of the Seven just by turning a little in his seat.

"I can see the appeal," I said, "If you are shallow and like bowing to the whims of unimportant people who bitch on social media about injustices rather than actually doing something about them".

Starlight looked more uncomfortable about what I was doing than the words I'd spoken. She knew as well as I that if Homelander saw what I was doing he would see it as a threat to his dominance.

I hoped that he did come in and give me an excuse to slap him down. That was the other reason why I'd decided to come here as it was time to declare myself top dog.

"You're scared of him, aren't you?" I asked.

She made an effort to deny it. It was a wasted effort as I could see the fear in her pretty little eyes.

"No, of course not" she insisted "Homelander is great, he's wonderful".

Even if I hadn't known the truth I wouldn't have been convinced by those words.

"So I assume that Stillwell told you to sell me on the idea of joining The Seven," I said.

I was giving real thought to working closer with Miranda despite the fact that we should be hostile towards each other. The more I looked into what the heroes who worked for Vought actually spent their time doing the less appealing it become to join The Seven.

I'd spend so much time getting my picture taken and attending meetings that I'd never get anything important done. The whole point of me wanting to originally join The Seven was for power and influence, but even if I could get that here I didn't think it would be worth all the crap I'd have to put up with.

They were already trying to suck me into that sort of life. That was why there had been so many reporters outside when I'd arrived. Had I appeared in costume rather than walking in the front door in a business suit and a pair of shades, I would have been swamped.

Stillwell had wanted me to get a taste of the attention I'd get as a member of the Seven. Had I been a vain person her little trick might have even worked.

I felt sure that the other reason was so that everyone would know that Vought was in talks with me. It hadn't been declared that I'd been offered a place in The Seven, however, if people saw Invincible visiting Vought Tower they would draw their own conclusions.

"She only asked me to show you around" Starlight replied.

I smiled upon hearing that.

"She asked the most attractive member of your team, who happens to be the newest member who knows the place the least well, to show me around," I said, "Madelyn Stillwell is very good at her job".

When you want something from someone there are two direct ways to get it. The carrot and the stick. You either offer them something they want in exchange, or at least offer something you make them think they want, or use the stick to beat them into submission.

She wasn't actually offering up Annie January to me, she was simply and subtly suggesting that I could get close to Starlight. Soon would come the actual offer, money, fame and all that jazz.

Plus since Starlight wouldn't know as much about this place as others who worked here she was the least likely to give away important information.

"You think I'm the most attractive?" Starlight enquired "Not a big fan of Maeve".

It wasn't even a contest and I took note that Annie enjoyed it when I flattered her. I'd never gotten the impression that she was a shallow person so I assumed that something must have happened recently to make her feel bad about herself.

She might still feel like trash because of what The Deep had her do when she joined The Seven. I made a mental note to go and hurt that jerk at some point.

"By far," I said, "Given your looks, smarts, and your power, it's a real shame that you are letting yourself be wasted here. Getting treated as a commodity rather than the hero you could be".

Before she could find out what I meant by that Stillwell entered the room.

"I see that you are already making yourself comfortable" she commented.

Starlight took her own seat and smiled at me. She was still naive enough to think that joining the Seven was a good thing.

"So what do you think of Floor 99?" asked Madalyn Stillwell as she sat down.

Since I had my own penthouse apartment in Manhattan and I had an AI who monitors things for me, such as my social media presence, that meant Vought had nothing to offer me other than distractions. Something that I should have realised sooner. I'd almost fallen for the same trap as the other superhumans.

"I'm impressed by this fancy cage you've made" I answered.

Stillwell looked confused and I didn't bother to elaborate. The whole reminded me a little of the pilot episode of the original Star Trek series that involves the Captain of the Enterprise getting captured by some telepathic aliens who trap him within illusions.

"So make your offer," I invited as I put my feet up on the table.

Stillwell's lackey, that annoying Ashely woman they sent to my home not so long ago, took a contract out of a suitcase, and presented a contract to me. I made a show of reading it.

If you didn't know what to look for it could seem rather inviting. Stock options, health care for you and your family, insurance, legal defence, a share of the profits from products that use my name, and so on.

But it wasn't all good. I'd be required to jump through a lot of hoops, to make public appearances, star in movies, to appear on chat shows. It would all be a waste of my time when I could keep the public loving me by saving people.

To ensure that the public didn't get bored of me I'd have to up my game. It was a shame I couldn't work with the Red Hood as I did with Miranda Lawson. If we did then we could have staged a terrorist attack for me to foil.

"I'm not an actor and I'm not at all musical" I pointed out.

That wasn't the deal breaker it might seem to be, at least not for Vought.

"We can work around that" assured Stillwell "We can set up acting lessons and..".

I stopped her there as she simply wasn't getting the message.

"No I mean I'm not an actor, I'm not a musician" I argued "I have no talent or any interest in such things. I'm a superhero and there's not much in here about helping people".

I had no intention of actually accepting any contract I just wanted to take this chance to show Starlight how meaningless all this was. Perhaps I could convince her to come and work with me.

"That's not true" insisted Ashley "The Seven support a lot of good charities".

I put the contract down.

"None of which make any difference in the real world," I stated "These good causes exist to help Vought save millions in taxes and they create good publicity".

Poor Ashley didn't get where this was going.

"You can set up new charities if that is what you want" she offered.

I ignored that idea as it would just lead to Vought using it to generate more good publicity.

"That's not what I mean by helping people," I said, "Don't the Seven ever go out and stop crimes. I mean ones that you don't stage for publicity".

Starlight suddenly looked a lot more uncomfortable. Perhaps she hadn't considered that Vought staged events so as to make the heroes look good. I didn't know if that was actually true and I moved on before anyone could make a denial.

"Then there's this whole part about you owning my image" I mentioned.

Madlyn handled this apart.

"That's to protect you from any legal actions," she said "Any lawsuits made against you would have to go through us".

In theory, that sounds good, but I could have Cortana handle such things by destroying any electronic records that could incriminate me and simply removing any records of the lawsuits.

Not that this mattered as the real reason they wanted to control my image was that they sell my name to other companies who could they stick my name on any bit of crap they wanted to.

Stillwell soon got the heart of the matter.

"What exactly is it you want?" she asked.

I sighed.

"From you nothing at all," I said "I'm never going to join Vought. I did want to at one time, but the more I learn about this company the less appealing it became to become a part of it, and I have other options now".

The two company women seemed to be having trouble accepting that I simply didn't care about anything they thought I should care about.

"No one can offer you more than Vought" insisted the Vice-President "We can make you a household name. Merchandise, books, your own TV show, every kid in America is going to want Invincible on their lunchbox".

They simply couldn't understand.

"I don't care about any of that" I explained "My ambitions aren't so limited. I want to be more than Vought's way of making a few more bucks".

The doors opened and Homelander entered the room. He'd been listening in as I'd figured he would do.

"I knew it!" he yelled "He's planning on building his own team".

That was something I'd considered, but there wasn't anyone who could keep up with me, and while a team might be good for publicity for Cerberus that was Miranda Lawson's concern, not mine.

"I've given it some thought" I admitted.

Stillwell got between the two of us before Homelander did something stupid.

"I told you that I would handle this," she said.

Homelander looked mighty peeved.

"He's not interested in joining The Seven" he stated.

If I played my cards right I could end up in a fight with Homelander and be able to humble him.

"Why should I work under you?" I asked, "Maybe I should be running the Seven".

He did not like hearing that.

"I LEAD THE SEVEN!" he yelled.

Stillwell did her best to calm him. She was very much like a mother trying to soothe a toddler who was having a temper tantrum.

"No one is taking over the Seven" Stillwell stated "Invincible was invited to tour the tower, that is all".

Given the contract sitting on the table in front of me that was clearly a lie. Yet Stillwell was able to soothe the overgrown manchild.

"Good boy" I mocked "Listen to Mummy".

At this point, I'd decided that I was defiantly going to slap Homelander down and that I would do it hard. If only for my own amusement.

As it turned out, the mummy remark was too much for Homelander to handle and he came right up to me as I stood up. He punched me in the face. He knocked the fancy table aside with ease as he made his way over to me.

"I actually felt that," I admitted as I rubbed my cheek.

Despite not doing me much harm at all the asshole in the cape looked very pleased with himself. He should be a little happy, as until now the only thing that had even distracted me in a fight was getting shot at by a guy with a grenade launcher.

Then he flinched as if he'd been slapped. That must be the reflected damage I'd been told about when this all got set up by the ROB. I assumed that Red Hood hadn't felt it when he attacked because he'd only disoriented me.

"I'm the real hero," he said "America loves me".

Hearing that made me snigger.

"America," I said with a snort, "You think in such limited terms".

With that, I pushed Homelander right into the monitors on the wall. The screens that weren't outright demolished would still need replacing.

"You ladies might want to give us some space" I advised.

Only Starlight was willing to stick around and I wondered if she was going to try to separate us. There was still enough power in this room for her to channel into a blast and she was strong enough to try getting in our way.

Not that she got the chance as Homelander tackled me and we both went flying out of the window. We didn't stop until hit the inside of some sort of office block that happened to be occupied.

"Finally someone who might be a challenge," I said.

I'd been transformed into a member of a race of conquerors who had become a great power by turning themselves into fighters. There was a part of me that longed to challenge myself against a strong foe and Homelander might just be tough enough for me to get some exercise while beating the shit out of him.

"It's Homelander!" someone called out.

The guy in the cape actually got up and waved at everyone.

"Is that Invincible! a woman yelled.

It was hard to tell since I wasn't in my hero outfit. Although I had lost my shades.

"Don't worry. This is just an accident," he said "We were sparing at the tower and things got out of hand".

I got up and punched him in his stupid face with my right fist which caused Homelander to stagger backwards. He took the blow well.

"Can't you go five seconds without getting your picture taken?" I asked.

People were taking photos and recording us with their phones. Not that Homelander kept caring about that as he tried to punch me. Well, he managed to punch me, but the blow was rather weak.

"Please," I said.

That was when he backed off so that he could strike at me with his heat vision and that did hurt a little. Something he noticed right away and it made him smile. It was also an extremely reckless thing for him to do as we were surrounded by office workers.

Since getting a load of bystanders killed would only harm my image, and because there was no sense in harming random civilians, I grabbed Homelander and took us both out of the building and into the sky.

What followed was a lot of punching and kicking that would have made us look more like two young boys fighting in the schoolyard if it hadn't been happening up in the sky.

I really hoped that if someone was recording this that it looked much cooler from a distance.

"Can you handle space?" I asked.

As I took us higher. He fired off his laser eyes again, and this time the beams went wild, but since we were up in the air there was nothing for them to hit unless some unfortunate bird happened to be flying by.

This was followed up by lots of weak blows as I took us both even further up.

I didn't get the chance to see how he handled space as Homelander headbutted me with enough force that I lost control of the flight and then he was pushing down on me as we fell back to Earth. He was saying something, I just had no idea what as the air was too thin up here and my focus was elsewhere.

By the time I managed to get control of our flight, I was able to use Homelander to cushion my fall. He hit the helicopter landing pad, taking the impact, and we both went through the foot and ended up back on Floor 99.

"You need to train," I told Homelander as I got off him.

So did I, that he'd be able to take control of the fight even for a short time was simply embarrassing.

"Holy Fuck is he dead?" questioned Starlight.

Given that the guy was groaning in pain it appeared not. In fact, he was already recovering, and his eyes glowed when he looked at me so I kicked him in the face, knocking him out.

"Nah he's just all tuckered out" I joked.

To my surprise, Starlight took out a handkerchief and handed it to me.

"Your nose is bleeding," she let me know.

Given that she trying to aid me when her team leader was lying in the ruins told me just how little she cared for Homelander.

"Thank you," I said.

What a nice young lady.

"Should we call a doctor" Starlight wondered "For Homelander I mean".

Did anyone even know how to treat him for injuries?

"Vought must have some specialists" I answered "I'm just going to go home".

I gave Annie my address.

"Come over for a drink if you ever want to talk to shop or just hang out" I invited.

Smartly, no one from security tried to stop me so I was free to leave the building.

Torn Cape.

Part 9.

Penthouse. New York City.

"Boss, do you know what a dungeon keeper is?" I was asked by Cortana.

It wasn't often that she needed information from me, not unless it was about refining and altering my plans. My AI ally had access to all the knowledge of this world so for her not to be able to find information on a topic was very strange.

"Is this some sort of sex thing?" I asked back.

I'd just gotten out of the shower and now I was starting to change into my outfit for my superhero work. If I'd known she wanted to discuss something sexual I wouldn't have rubbed one out while in the bathroom.

"No, it's the name of the new player in the PVP, or maybe a title," Cortana let me know "I know that you haven't killed Miranda Lawson so I was trying to work out why we have a new enemy. Do you think it has something to do with you agreeing to be Cerberus's mascot?".

That was possible. One way to rid yourself of an enemy is to make them an ally. The ROB had never told me that I actually needed to kill anyone just that I would have enemies. Looking back I should have gotten more information, but to be fair it had all been rather overwhelming at the time.

"It makes sense, Miranda was never much interested in acting as my enemy even if she wanted to foil my plan to join The Seven" I mused "She might have even planned it to work out this way".

I had lowered my guard around, knocked her up, and chosen to work for her company, at this point we might as well be partners. So it made sense that the ROB might add a new enemy with Miranda now counting as my ally as Cortana did.

The ROB might even have wanted things to work out this way. Short of bringing the Normandy with her Miranda was never going to be a physical threat, seduction had been her only option and it had worked out for her.

"Outside of S&M, I don't think I've heard of a Dungeon Keeper," I said. "I doubt it means Dungeon Master in the D&D way because someone with that kind of power could alter this entire reality.

There was something a little familiar about it.

"I thought it might be something that is fictional from your world that doesn't exist here because of how the superhero genre nearly totally dominates all forms of entertainment," said Cortana.

There was a feeling that I should know, that some piece of information was missing.

"It might be something I saw only once about twenty years ago" I pointed out "I'm sure it will come to me".

The human brain was a strange machine. If I focused on something else then the memory I desire might pop up to the surface of my mind.

"I'll get back to you if anything jogs my memory" I promised Cortana.

For now, all she could do was look for anything odd going on while I got back out there. I hadn't forgotten about the Red Hood or that arms dealer who could be a problem if I didn't end him now.

"Boss, someone is coming" warned my AI.

A laptop screen showed the image of a redheaded woman entering the building.

"Any idea who she is?" I asked.

I didn't recognise her.

"She's Margaret Shaw," I was told.

The name meant nothing to me.

"Also known as Queen Maeve" Cortana explained.

I still did not recognise her. She looked so normal when not in her superhero outfit.

"Oh the knock-off Wonder Woman," I realised, "What could she want".

I knew from the show that she feared Homelander and wanted him taken down because he would never let her go be happy with anyone else. He would rather kill Maeve than let her love someone who wasn't him.

Because she knew that she couldn't take Homelander, not her own, I very much doubted she'd come to threaten me, and she was more likely to thank me than try to avenge him.

"So what brings you to my humble abode?" I asked Miss Shaw when I answered.

I'd always wondered why people only ever call their homes humble abodes when they don't mean it.

"I want to make a deal" she answered.

So much for small talk.

"Please come in," I invited.

I might not have any fancy psychic powers, but I didn't need them to know that Queen Maeve was worried about something and desperate for my help.

"What can I do for you?" I inquired.

Maeve reached into her handbag and took out six vials of some sort of chemical.

"This is Compound V," she told me "This is what Vought uses to make superhumans, it doesn't always work on adults, but who knows, you seem lucky, and if nothing else you can use it as a way to hurt Vought".

It wasn't hard for me to figure out that she was trying to buy protection from me. The value of what she was offering had to be in the millions of dollars. Not that I cared for that it was just a means of measuring how much this meant to her.

Of course, I knew about V and could have stolen some myself if I'd cared to. Cortana had even shown me a report on a blood sample that Vought's lab that had checked for traces of the compound. The reports didn't know what to make of my blood and Vought wasn't equipped to clone people, so I wasn't worried about that.

"Where did you just this much Compound V from?" I wondered.

If she'd just stolen from it Vought Tower then I was going to need to find out if she could survive a trip to the moon very quickly.

"Homelander has been using A-Train to smuggle V to some fringe groups because he wants to make supervillains for us to fight, so people will need us more, or that was what his plan" she let me know "I guess he'll be focusing on you if he ever wakes up as anything other than a vegetable".

I could picture him acting like that Immortal superhero who was part of the Guardians of the Globe before Omni-Man killed them all. I could see him waking up screaming my name and flying right here to try to kill me. That could be fun.

"So you want protection from Homelander in exchange for this V" I stated.

Rather a silly plan. I could have killed her at this point, and then thrown her body into space. Just as I did with another member of The Seven.

"If you need me to sweeten the deal I'm willing" she offered.

There was no need for that. I did consider knocking her up, but I'd never been much attracted to redheaded women, and I wasn't in the mood.

"No, I was just thinking of where to send you," I said.

Cortana could easily erase the existence of Margaret Shaw electronically and set her up with a new identity, but she was famous and some people other than me might recognise her. It wasn't as if I could erase people's memories.

"There's nowhere in the world I can go" she pointed out "I need you to protect me by making it clear to Homelander that if he so much as looks at me you'll finish him off".

She was desperate. I could have so easily taken advantage of this.

"I never mentioned anything about you staying here on Earth," I said.

While Maeve had a girlfriend I wasn't sure if they were together right now and even if they were I could deal with that later. It was possible to return her to the world in the near future once the heat had died down.

"How durable are you?" I asked.

It wasn't just a matter of her leaving the atmosphere, she needed shielding from cosmic radiation until we reached the base and a supply of air. I might need to borrow a space suit from NASA.

Restaurant. New York City.

"Billions of dollars and decades of effort spent for the world's most expensive nosebleed," said Stan Edgar.

Despite the seriousness of this conversation the CEO of Vought International couldn't help smiling a little as he spoke to Miranda Lawson. She'd agreed to meet him at a location of her choosing, because she wasn't stupid, and now they were here to discuss the future of both their companies in a restaurant he'd made sure would be closed for the evening.

"I've seen the footage," stated Miranda Lawson.

Stan was not happy about that bit of video making its way onto the web. It had done more to harm Vought's finances than the damage done to the building. It was humiliating for Vought and for Homelander's supporters to see the world's strongest hero lying on the broken remains of The Seven's meeting room.

Somewhat symbolic too. As if the act as broken The Seven and it certainly had removed their aura of invincibility. An aura that had been broken by someone who might as well be invincible in name as well as nature.

Homelander was in Vought's own ICU and Invincible had walked away with a nosebleed. The new hero might as well have been a schoolyard scuffle.

"What you might not know is that Homelander still hasn't woken up," said Stan Edgar "Over the years, he's been shot, stabbed, blown up, gassed, poisoned, and set on fire. None of it did more than require him to change his clothing and comb his hair. Then your company's new mascot put him into a coma".

Invincible was frightening. The Vought CEO wondered if anything short of a nuclear weapon could stop the new superhero from doing anything he pleased.

"You don't seem terribly upset, Mr Edgar," remarked Miranda Lawson.

Stan didn't normally take much notice of a person's looks as other men might, yet he took note that Lawson was a very attractive woman, and resourceful too, as she'd managed to get the most powerful superhuman on the planet to come and work for her. Most impressive.

"Please call me Stan" he invited "I prefer to use first names".

She had no problem with that.

"The truth is Miranda, Vought is fat and lazy" admitted the CEO "What's worse is that we were never meant to be a superhero company. Like Cerberus, we were originally meant to be a defence contractor, yet we have become a global leader in the media, retail, energy, and pharmaceutical sectors. Vought is a bloated monster that nearly always crushes or absorbs everything it comes into contact with".

Miranda was surprised to hear this, yet she soon deduced where this was going.

"You're planning on using Invincible's fight with Homelander as an excuse to shake things up over at Vought" she realised.

That was indeed the plan. Every crisis can be made into an opportunity.

"Vought has suffered due to this, and investors have become nervous" he shared "As for the public they can't decide if Invincible is going to replace Homelander as he supplanted Soldier Boy, or if Invincible is some kind of threat".

While the former seemed to be what the majority wanted from Invincible there were many people who saw what happened to Homelander as proof that Invincible was some sort of godless supervillain.

What Stan didn't know was that thanks to the work of a couple of AI the negative opinions kept disappearing and the positive views on the situation were popping up everywhere. He'd expected more panic from people and more outrage.

The US Government had so not spoken on the subject, yet they had to see the potential of Invincible and it helped that while Homelander was recovering the man who'd been put in a coma was still out there doing good deeds.

"Invincible is better, stronger, faster and he's new," said Miranda as she enjoyed her meal "Homelander could be getting a bit stale".

Stan nodded in agreement.

"As he's a wakeup call," said the CEO of Vought "It's not just my company that's become lazy, the talent has too. The sex, the drugs, the publicity, it all goes to their heads and makes them a nightmare to manage".

Stan sipped his cooling coffee.

"I want them to be scared of Invincible" he told Miranda "I need, we all need, someone who can make sure that they don't step too far out of line".

Lawson already understood where this was going.

"You want to use Invincible to keep the other superhumans in line," she said "But why would he agree to that. Why should I?".

Stan had already considered this.

"Cerberus is a new company," he pointed out "New and hungry, and you have some control over Invincible, or at least influence. Vought could do with some way of outsourcing a few of our problems. We'd pay for the privilege and in turn, we can help Cerberus to grow".

Miranda would be a fool to refuse that aid.

"What exactly is it you want from Invincible?" she asked.

Stan drank some more coffee before answering. It was a good blend.

"Mostly we need him to keep doing what is already doing," he said "Invincible makes every superhero on the Vought payroll look lazy and careless. As long as he is out there actually acting like a superhero the others don't measure up and they won't be able to stand that".

Their egos simply wouldn't allow it.

"I'll use Invincible and this recent incident to justify holding our superheroes to a higher standard" stated Stan "We'll cut away some of the weeds and enforce a training schedule. This way I can get rid of some of the troublemakers and find new ways to keep the rest out of some of the trouble they get themselves into".

Miranda could see the logic in this.

"We'll make it clear that the only hope Vought's heroes have of ever taking on Invincible is if they work in teams as they are supposed to and actually do their jobs," said Vought's leader "This crisis is ironically good for me, at least in the long term, and it could be good for my company".

Stan was aware that the US military and government would be nervous about Invincible. He should be able to use this to push the idea of their talent getting into the military because Invincible wasn't American and short nuking one of their own cities they could do nothing to stop Invincible.

No, they would need superheroes in the hundreds to take down Invincible, each of them trained and ready to work in teams. The military would need superhumans of their own as well.

Madelyn Stillwell didn't see it that way, she and others at Vought were freaking out about how they couldn't use Invinicble's name to sell anything because he'd signed a contract with Cerberus and that was known publicly. Vought couldn't licence others to use a hero name that they didn't manage.

Even getting a DNA sample from Invincible hadn't led to anything because the sample they'd gotten made no sense at all. Some of the experts weren't even sure that Nolan Grayson was human. What else could he be? An alien?

One that just happened to look exactly like a human, bleed red blood, spoke English and for some reason come to this world to be a superhero. Not even the fictional heroes created by Vought to sell more comic books ever had people with origin stories that silly.

No something must have either altered Grayson's DNA, a byproduct of whatever bootleg version of Compound V and genetic engineering had been made to make him, or something had corrupted the sample.

Perhaps the blood had been exposed to something in the Vought lab and it was his people who had messed up. He'd believe in the incompetence of men over the idea of an alien flying around doing good deeds.

Heck Nolan might even be some freak mutant who somehow got exposed to Compound V and didn't end up a total mess due to random chance.

He'd even considered the idea that the UK had managed to make their own Homelander, one they had trained and refined, but that seemed unlikely since the United Kingdom wouldn't have sent their Homlander overseas when they could keep him at home and paraded him around.

Stan didn't understand where Invincible had come from, but he certainly wasn't some alien as a few of the scientists in the lab had speculated and no one would take that seriously even if the idea leaked out.

"So you use Invincible as a threat to make your heroes shape up," said Miranda "I can see that working and the public isn't turning on Invincible because they don't seem to know what to think. But happens when Homelander wakes up".

Miranda was having EDI working 24/7 to make sure that public opinion remained so divided that they would never take any unified action. The main two political factions were too interested in blaming each other to get anything meaningful done.

In her time and place, this wouldn't have worked, but the people of this Earth were either led about by the nose by social media or they didn't believe the news at all.

There were a few people out there claiming that all the footage was fake and that it was all promotion for some movie called Dawn of The Seven.

"If he wakes up" corrected Stan Edger "And if he does he might be so brain damaged that he won't even know who he is. Our doctors are anticipating memory loss and a change of behaviour".

Not surprising given his head injury.

"Even if he recovers and goes for a rematch he can't beat Invisible. As long as he doesn't kill Homelander we don't really have much to be concerned about" promised Stan "Homelander is well loved yes, but he's been shown to be vulnerable now. He's not the god in a cape people thought he was".

Stan had wondered if people would be foolish to demand that Invincible be arrested, and there had been talk of that, it "had just never gotten anywhere. Which was good as to who would even be able to arrest Invincible?

"We've been downplaying Homelander's condition, trying to get people to think that he and Invincible were testing themselves at Vought Tower with some sparring and it got out of hand" Stan was now saying "Since he's remained out of sight it's hard to disprove and Invincible hasn't shown any hostility towards any other superheroes, at least not publicly".

Things could have escalated if Grayson had picked another fight.

"Alright," said Miranda "I'll talk to Grayson and let him know the deal".

With that, they shook hands and parted ways as they both had a lot of work to be getting on with.

Torn Cape.

Part 10.

Underground Base. New York.

Jason Todd knew better than to get his news from the Internet as he understood that any online activity could be tracked. Besides, you couldn't even get a wifi signal while down here, and the television, which was purely a receiver, was mostly used by Kimiko who found having it on to be some sort of comfort.

He still hadn't figured out exactly how Kimiko was connected to Vought having a chemical mixture called Compound V smuggled around. While Jason Todd felt fairly certain that it was some sort of formula that made regular people into metahumans he hadn't yet been willing to try it on himself.

Jason didn't actually know what her name was, nor did anyone else, and the only person who'd ever bothered to ask was the arms dealer called Frenchie. He was a crook that Jason had been doing a lot of business with ever since that guy had nearly been killed by Invincible.

The Red Hood as he was known to the few who ever saw him was the only person who could control the metahuman woman as he was also the only person who had been able to beat her down when she got out of control.

Oddly she didn't seem to resent him for it. Maybe they got along because they were both freaks or maybe she stuck around simply because she had nowhere else to go.

"So Invincible really did take down Homelander" muttered Jason.

He hadn't believed it at first, even with all the news reports, but no one had seen Homelander for a while now and normally that glory hound couldn't go a day without popping on some TV show or getting talked about on the news.

If he was staying out of sight it was because he simply couldn't get out there and bask in the admiration of the masses. Rumour had it that Homelander was in a coma.

It was interesting that Queen Maeve hadn't been seen either. She wasn't as much in the public eye as Homelander, yet her absence had been noticed by those who passed on information to the Red Hood, and Jason wondered what it meant.

Had she been hurt by Invincible or had she taken off? Could she have seen what happened to Homelander and decided to flee so she didn't suffer the same fate?

Given that Maeve was the Wonder Woman of this world and Homelander was the local version of Superman it worried him that Invincible could have beaten them both.

Jason was supposed to be taking on that guy in combat, he was supposed to foil that guy's plans. The whole thing seemed like a cruel joke.

Sure he'd managed to stop Invincible from killing some arms dealers during a meeting, but that wasn't much and while the main problem in taking on Invincible was that Jason couldn't do much more than annoy him there was also the problem that the Red Hood didn't know what the superhuman was actually up to.

It's hard to foil plans when you don't know what they involve. Batman had taught him the importance of having as much information as possible for making a move. Granted sometimes who had to improvise, but this wasn't one of those times.

He couldn't even go after Miranda Lawson because she'd been removed from the PVP by the entity who had set all of this up, for some unknown reason, and while there was a new enemy Jason had no idea what a Dungeon Keeper was because he wasn't getting enough information.

So all he could do was keep his head down and try to prepare for the day when Invincible finally found him.

Hence why Jason was working on a batch of sonic grenades. He'd dealt with metahumans who had enhanced senses before and there were ways to use their strengths against them.

"Hood, there's something you need to know" said one of his contacts who was allowed to visit him "You wanted to know if anything odd happened and it turns out that people are going missing when underground".

Since he lived underground and kept his operation here this was of interest to Jason.

"I've been talking to some of the workers on the subway lines and they told me that a lot of the homeless who sleep in the stations are going missing" said the information provider "Maybe someone is taking them".

Since he didn't have any other leads he might as well look into it.

Mallory Estate. Remote Location.

Secretary of Defence, Robert Singer, got out of his car as the driver pulled up in front of the home of Lieutenant-Colonel Grace Mallory, the former Deputy Director of the CIA.

She'd retired after losing her grandchildren and while Robert was loath to do this he needed to try to convince Mallory to come out of retirement for a couple of years at least.

Despite being a member of the United States Department of Defense and the Democratic Party, meaning that he was used to awkward conversations, he was somewhat nervous about this meeting, but not because he was scared of Grace Mallory, rather he was concerned about the future.

The clash between Homelander and Invincible shook the world in many ways. The people working at the White House had been concerned about Invincible ever since he'd turned up one day and started saving people. Ever since then, they'd been watching the superhero, trying to learn all they could about this new superhuman.

Robert Singer had heard some interesting things, but they were mostly theories, and even getting a DNA sample hadn't helped much because the results of that test made no sense. Not unless Grayson was an alien and there was no real evidence of that as Vought could have screwed up the tests they made or something could have messed with Grayson's DNA.

One of the few things they knew for certain he had a legal identity and that he owned a penthouse in New York, and that he had the habit of leaving Earth's atmosphere, but until recently they hadn't known what Invincible was doing when he left the planet.

The idea that any one man could build a base on the moon was mind-boggling and Robert Singer wasn't sure that he believed it despite having seen the photos provided to him by NASA.

Seeing that base made Robert Singer reevaluate the idea that Invincible could be a creature from outer space. Perhaps Grayson's human appearance was just some sort of clever disguise.

Regardless the President wanted this information so tightly classified that the people who did already know didn't have the clearance to even think about it.

Alien or not, Grayson must have gotten help from someone in order to set it up, but so far the only person they knew who was working with Invincible was Miranda Lawson the CEO of Cerberus Defence Contracts.

Robert Singer intended to meet with Miss Lawson as soon as he could find space in his calendar and invent some pretext. He needed to find out how closely connected Cerberus and Invincible were as well as what they had planned. He doubted that Grayson was really just some sort of mascot for the company.

"Whatever it is I'm not interested," said Mallory as she opened her door.

Robert Singer had been hoping for a warmer welcome, but he wasn't surprised by Mallory's displeasure at his presence.

"This is important, Colonel" insisted the Secretary of Defence "I didn't come out here all the way from Washington for a social call".

Mallory didn't have it in her to stand here and argue. She knew that it would be better to just listen to what the man had to say before refusing his request.

So she let him and Singer's security people didn't bother to follow. Which meant whatever he had to say wasn't something he wanted them to overhear.

They moved into the living room and Singer opened up his suitcase so that he could show Mallory the files he'd brought.

"I've seen the video," she remarked as she glanced at the photos "Pity that Homelander survived".

While a few people would have been happy about that most of the country would have been unsettled, to say the least. The public was rather divided upon the issue, some supported Homelander, and there had been a few candlelight vigils outside Vought Tower recently, and some others thought that Invincible was their new saviour.

Robert remembered when Soldier Boy had been a household name and how quickly he'd been forgotten after the supposed nuclear meltdown. If Homelander died or had to retire then the people would need a new hero to place their faith in.

Perhaps that had been why Invincible nearly killed Homelander. Maybe he wanted people to put their faith in him instead.

"I'm more concerned with his potential successor" said Singer "Nolan Greyson is far more powerful and unlike Homelander he isn't letting himself get distracted by the glitz and glamour".

And wasn't that strange? Robert Singer couldn't think of a single superhero who didn't love the attention. It was as if gaining superpowers made you hungry for admiration.

"Certain people in the White House are worried about what will happen if Invincible decides that he can do more good if he's in charge" admitted the Democrat.

That had once been a concern about Homelander until it became clear that Vought had him mostly under control.

"What could anyone do short of nuking the bastard" wondered Mallory.

That hadn't been ruled out.

"For now he seems content to fly around and actually save people" Singer was now saying "So we have some time to prepare, but that's not why I am here".

The Secretary of Defence showed the retired Colonel a new file.

"So you managed to get approval for it," said the former director "Vought's been blocking the idea for years".

Singer looked pleased.

"Stan Edgar has been trimming the fat at Vought" he told the woman "Streamlining things, he's using the incident with Homelander as an excuse to make it clear that he thinks the superhumans have gotten lazy".

Which wasn't wrong. They were lazy. Most of the A-listers rarely saved anyone and even those superhumans who did go out to fight crime could cause more problems than they solved.

"Mostly he's doing this to assure the shareholders that he still has a tight grip on things and while it's good that Vought is going to be straightening some things out it is going to cause problems" said Singer.

Mallory could already foresee a few issues cropping up.

"Letting even a few of supes go means that they might turn to crime to fund their habits" she realised "That could cause chaos".

Robert Singer didn't look too concerned.

"Lawson over at CDC, has some sort of influence over Invincible" he explained "She's promised Stan Edgar that if any of the supes start causing too much chaos then Invincible will slap them down, but we need more than that. We need a department to manage this new situation, and people who are willing to bring rogue supes to justice if Invincible does bring them in".

There wouldn't be much point capturing them if they couldn't hold the superhumans and get them into a courtroom.

"Hence the creation of The Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, a government agency meant to monitor, police, arrest and convict any members of the superhuman community accused of illegal activities" informed Singer "And we want you to run it".

Mallory put down the file.

"I'm retired" she reminded her unwelcome guest.

Robert Singer wasn't put off so easily.

"Edgar is willing to give us Lamplighter" he informed the retired CIA director "He's going down to murder. Edgar thinks that it will scare at least some of the supes into better behaviour".

Mallory was shocked and it took a few moments to think about what this meant.

"Vought would never give up someone who was part of The Seven" she insisted "They can't afford to betray one of their own like that. The supes will lose faith and start looking elsewhere for someone to write their cheques".

The Secretary of Defence would have agreed with her not so long ago.

"Invincible has changed what it means to be a superhero" he pointed out "People are seeing how lazy they are, and how they only care for publicity. I don't know what Stan Edgar has planned in the long term, but he is changing things at Vought".

Mallory was at least willing to keep on listening.

"Lamplighter goes down for murder," she said.

It was a statement, not a question.

"Double homicide" was Robert Singer's reply "This state doesn't have the death penalty and we're not sure how to kill him anyway so barring any fuck ups he gets life imprisonment without parole. We can have a special cell made just for him".

Mallory considered this.

"No superhuman is just going to accept that" she warned.

The Secretary of Defence had considered this.

"That's why The Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs is going to have the resources required to go after people like Lamplighter" informed Robert Singer "You'll pick your team and we might even be able to get some superhumans to help out once in a while in exchange for us forgiving minor indiscretions. Call it community service".

Mallory knew that sometimes you needed to work with people you didn't like in order to go after a bigger bastard, but that that hadn't worked out so well for her last time. Still, she couldn't give up on justice for her family when it was being offered to her like this.

"We don't want you to run it for too long" assured Robert Singer "Come out of retirement for a couple of years, train up a team, teach someone to take over, get justice for your grandkids and then go back into retirement".

It was a tempting offer.

"I'll do it," she said.

Mallory figured that if nothing else it beat birdwatching.

Part 11.

Underground Tunnels. New York.

The sonic grenade went off and ended up being far more effective than the bullets had been mere moments ago. It brought Jason, Frenchie and the woman whose name they still didn't know, enough time to start running down the underground corridors.

Alas for them they did little more than buy themselves a few more moments of life and freedom as the monsters chasing them down here in the dark were not simply going to give up.

Jason had even collapsed an entire tunnel using some of the explosives he'd been carrying, only for some small creatures to clear the rubble away in mere seconds and somehow fix the passageway.

So all that had accomplished was to give the Red Hood the time to realise that they were up against something far more powerful than he had imagined.

"What the fuck are those things?" asked Serge.

No one bothered to answer, they didn't have time for that, and they needed to keep running. Despite what was happening now the three of them had actually been rather successful in this venture to begin with.

Jason, Frenchie and Kimiko had ventured into the tunnels after speaking with one of the few homeless people they'd been able to find nearby in a mostly empty subway station.

The man had told them about the things he and others had seen moving in the dark. At first, he'd thought them to be children due to their small size, only they weren't and when they came into the light the homeless man had run from what he called monsters.

He talked about how they carried tools and how their eyes were pools of black. The creatures had not bothered him or the other homeless people he'd been down here with, if anything they had been skittish. Sadly they hadn't been alone.

What else was in the dark turned out to be much worse. There was something down here grabbing people. When had just been the homeless going missing that had mostly gone unnoticed, at least until recently.

Then one of Jason's few contacts had informed him about the people getting taken and it had turned out that the situation was so much worse than they had imagined.

"Vampires!" called out Jason "They're vampires".

Bruce had told him about Dracula and the vampires that creature had sired. The Red Hood had been the under the impression that they were all gone, but apparently, this world had other ideas on the subject.

"Vampires aren't real" insisted Frenchie.

Jason gestured to the figure that was flying down the tunnel, chasing them as they fled. They would not get away as the Keeper had ordered that none who saw his minions could be allowed to report sightings to those who lived above.

"Tell them that," said Red Hood.

Serge didn't have time to argue the fact as one of the vampires grabbed him. Jason tried to stop the creature only to feel his own life force getting drained by some sort of ranged attack. His smoke bombs and other tricks did little more than slow the enemy down.

Kimiko did a little better, but she passed out as her life force was drained by one of the vampires who had been chasing them. As she was drained she fought back as best she could, but there were simply too many vampires.

Jason had dealt with a few freaks during his lifetime, mostly as Robin, but mostly he dealt with thugs and assassins, not supernatural creatures. He simply hadn't been prepared to face vampires and whatever else was down here.

One of the undead managed to sink his teeth into the neck of Jason Todd and it began drinking his blood, draining him until there was nothing left other than a corpse.

Kimiko was the only one of the three who managed to get away and she would never speak of what happened down here because she couldn't. Not that anyone would have believed her even if she had been able to explain what she saw.

Jason's body was soon dragged away by the imps who collected the cooling cadaver, they dragged it into one of the many graveyards that the Keeper had created deep underground.

The underground graveyard stank of death and dark magic. Only a few of the corpses brought here would rise again, yet enough did to make the effort worthwhile.

Serge's fate was arguably worse. He was still alive when the imps found him as the vampires knew not to kill everyone they encountered.

So soon he was dragged off to a cell, one of many that contained the lost souls that had found their way into the ever-growing dungeon that was beneath the city of New York.

Down here in the dungeons, these poor sods would be introduced to the terrifying delights of the dark mistresses, assuming that they weren't left to die of dehydration and hunger so that they could rise as skeletons who would work tirelessly to defend the dungeon.

They might be considered the lucky ones as those who went to the torture chambers were broken in either body or mind. Those that broke in terms of the body went to the graveyards or to feed the armies of the Keeper.

Those that broke in mind became willing servants of the Keeper and would help to spread his evil.

In time Serge's mind would break and the Dark Mistresses who he would learn to love would ensure that his skills were used to serve the Keeper.

Base. The Moon.

"Think I've got it," I said as I finished with the wiring.

The new command centre was finally up and running. I'd been digging into the mountain called Mons Bradley for what felt like weeks, even if it had just been days of work for me.

Now I was finally finished setting up the last of the equipment that would allow me to monitor what was happening on Earth while staying inside the base.

Such an operation took quite a bit of equipment as not only did all the information we got from Earth need to be processed and sorted, but we also needed to make electronic records of everything in case some bit of information came in useful later.

Soon the screens came to life and began to show different news programs. I could see the conflicts and disasters that were going on all across the Earth.

Cortana monitored such sources of information for me and kept me informed of what was happening, but it was good to see some of what was going on with my own eyes.

Few of the disasters and conflicts were anything I wanted to handle. I didn't have any desire to involve myself in humanity's little wars and there wasn't much I could do about a lot of the other problems. At least not without more resources and allies.

Besides, I didn't want people to become dependent upon me, if they did then they would stop trying to solve their own problems.

"If they had any idea what he was really like they'd be demanding that Vought put him down like a rabid dog" muttered Maeve who was ranting about what one of the screens was showing "I can't believe that so many people fall for his act".

I had wrestled with the choice to bring her here or not. It was risky as she could damage my base or try to expose it, but should she do the former she'd likely get herself killed, and Cortana was able to install safeguards to prevent anyone from sending out a signal.

There wasn't anything here to send out a signal with since we didn't have any transmitters, at least not any that an organic intelligence could use.

Besides, Mageret Shaw knew better than to anger me because she knew that if I put Homelander in the ICU then I could kill her with ease. Not that I wanted to as I did need allies, so it was worth the risk to have her here.

She couldn't even lead anyone else here because no one on Earth had any means of reaching the moon. At least not without me having plenty of warning of a space shuttle or probe heading this way.

As for Homelander, people were calling my arrest despite him starting the fight, and yet Vought wasn't besmirching my name, they were too scared of me to do that.

Since Cortana wasn't the only AI messing with social media that meant the opinions of the public were so divided that no one group could put enough pressure on the government to demand that they actually do something.

I put all of that aside and focused on one of the news reports that had gotten my attention.

"So there are vampires now?" I asked.

I watched all three seasons of The Boys and I'd mostly paid attention as such I felt sure that all the weird science fiction bullshit they had in that show and this world, was the result of Compound V and there were no other supernatural or otherworldy factors aside from those that had been introduced by the ROB.

"That's what the news reports are saying," said Maeve.

I didn't trust the news reports, that was why Cortan was monitoring other sources of information for verification, but this was concerning if true.

"There isn't much for me to do up here," she said "So I've been watching the news in my room. Just this morning a body was found in New York that had bite marks on them. People think it's either vampires or someone who wants us to think there are vampires".

Nothing the ROB had done suggested that we'd end up vampires in this world. Could it have something to do with this Dungeon Keeper I'd been thinking about? Could they be a vampire? Or someone who kept vampires?

The Keeper part of the name or title did suggest that this person kept a dungeon running. Was it the kind of dungeon that contained monsters, such as in D&D?

Although if that were the case then this Keeper had been a fool not to cover up the actions of their minion. Letting a body be found would only lead to people investigating the incident.

I would have Cortana monitor the case so that if the authorities did learn something then it could aid me in my own investigations. Assuming I ever bothered to go deal with the matter.

"Must be one of Vought's mistakes" said Maeve "I've met a few supes who turned out wrong. One of them could be drinking blood".

If this was a superhuman who had a thirst for blood due to something going wrong then it was unlikely to be something that could spread. On the other hand, if this was a real vampire then the condition might spread and New York could end up overrun by vampires.

"Might need to sharpen some stakes" I muttered.

Before I could think more about that my AI wanted my attention.

"Nolan would you please come to the workshop," requested Cortana.

When I got there I found that the place was full of sets of power armour from the Fallout universe for some unknown reason.

"I don't recall you making these," I said.

Because she hadn't.

"They just got here" the AI told me "I had nothing to do with it".

"So they just appeared?" I asked.

It wasn't every dozens of sets of power armour simply appeared inside

your base.

"There was no flash of light, no weird energy bursts they just appeared in the workshop," Cortana told me as she displayed the footage on a nearby screen "All I know is that Jason Todd is dead and you're not going up against Miranda any more".

The only clue to their origin I could see was a note on one set that called them a reward. The only thing the ROB should be rewarding me for is defeating someone in the PVP, and I suppose in a sense Miranda and I had won by becoming her ally.

That might explain why my reward wasn't very good. I already had a set of armour that was much more advanced. If I had actually defeated Miranda by foiling her plans or outright killing her I might have gotten something better.

"It's a testament to how strange my life is that this stuff just appearing doesn't even unsettle me" I mused.

At least the ROB was rewarding me for playing its games.

"I guess I can give them to some minions if I ever need my own security force" I mused.

Or maybe I could tinker with them and try to learn more about technology.

"You should give a few of them to Miranda" advised my AI "Part of your plan is to advance human technology and get them out into the galaxy. Introducing power armour would help with that".

Power Armor, also referred to as powered combat infantry armour, is a type of powered exoskeleton that appears in the post-apocalyptic Fallout video game franchise.

In the fictional lore of the series, it was developed before the Great War, a devastating nuclear conflict, by a group of United States defence contractors called West Tek.

This and more I learned by reading the manual that came with one of the suits of armour. I would have spent more time studying the tech if not for the fact that Cortana directed my attention to something on the news which resulted in me going back into the command centre of the base.

'Plane hijacked mid-air by 3 terrorists over the Atlantic Ocean' was the headline.

I was sure that this was an event that happened in the show and in season 1, Vought sent Homelander and Queen Maeve to take care of the situation with the intent of saving the hostages. Vought wanted to use this event to convince the public and the US Government that supes are needed in the military.

Homelander and Queen Maeve broke into the plane and successfully killed the hijackers and all seemed to be going well until they went inside the cockpit. One hijacker was still alive holding the pilot at gunpoint, the co-pilot having already been killed.

When Homelander killed the hijacker with his laser eyes in the process he also destroyed the plane's controls and after a while this caused the plane to crash.

Not this mattered to Vought as no one knew the heroes had been there and Homelander used to crash as a way of getting public support for supes joining the military.

"I'm going to go save the plane," I said.

At least I didn't have laser eyes to damage the controls with.

"I want to come with you," insisted Maeve.

That stopped me from leaving.

"I fly faster on my own" I pointed out.

Maeve was only able to survive in space for a short time because I'd let her use my special armour. I'd have to lend it to her again if she wanted to return to her homeworld.

"And if you're seen with me that will be it for you and Vought" I reminded her "You'll be seen as having joined me".

She didn't care about that at all.

"I need to go out and do something" she insisted.

She'd get all pissy with me if I left her here so I decided to take her with me. I could always dump her off somewhere on Earth if she got annoying.

Torn Cape.

Part 12.

Somewhere Over The Atlantic.

The hero called Queen Maeve had been through some twists and turns during her life, and the last few days had been much wilder than any time before.

She'd been more jaded than others when Invincible first started making the news. He'd hardly be the first hero to make a splash when they appeared only to fall into the pit that Voguht had dug for everyone who tried to make a difference in the world.

Maeve knew this because once upon a time, she had once fallen into that hole which was filled with media attention, sex, drugs and glamour. Once you got stuck in that hole you found it impossible to climb back out again.

So far that hadn't happened to Nolan Grayson. He kept going out and helping people, and while this should have people happy the folks at Vought had not been pleased that there was a hero out there that they couldn't take credit for and make money from.

They'd wanted to control Invincible to drag him down into that pit and he had simply refused to go, she hadn't been so strong when she had been so tempted.

It had been amusing to watch the management at Vought and Homelander getting so frustrated. Invincible's refusal to go down the same path as other heroes seemed to have broken something in their heads and for the first time in a good long while Maeve saw a way out.

Invincible was not Homelander, he was not an overgrown child with the powers of a god who was willing to kill people over some slight offence, he felt no need to use fear to keep people in line. Or at least that was the impression she'd gotten about the man so far.

As soon as she'd been able to confirm that Homelander wasn't the top dog any more, Margaret "Maggie" Shaw had been willing to do whatever it took to get the man's protection as she just had to get away from Homelander.

She'd have been quite happy to have sex with Nolan, only he didn't seem interested, she didn't know if he was gay or if he just didn't find her attractive. It was rather odd to meet a man who had no interest in her sexually or much interest in her at all for that matter.

Maeve hadn't thought much about that since Invincible had taken her to his moon base, and wasn't that place a surprise, now that they were flying to match speeds with a transatlantic fight she needed to keep her focus.

When Invincible opened the door the differences in pressure caused a lot of small items and one frightened terrorist to come flying out of the plane.

Invincible normally liked to hand over the crooks to the police, but he didn't have a choice this time since one arm was holding to her and the other was holding onto the door.

This means of entry was risky since it could have resulted in one or more of the passengers getting sucked out of the plane, however, they couldn't do anything else in this situation.

The passengers, the crew and the aircraft would all be lost if they didn't act. If the plane was purposely crashed into a building then even more lives could be lost.

Invincible pushed her into the plane, and she soon took hold of the terrorist who was just about to grab a hostage, before he could harm anyone she snapped his neck in one smooth motion.

A cold move for sure, yet it was also needed as they had no way of restraining these criminals, and while they could have disabled the terrorists they couldn't risk not taking them down fast as they could endanger the passengers.

Fanatics couldn't be talked down so there was no sense in trying to reason with the man with the boxcutter who was panicking due to the sudden change in the circumstances. As Invincible closed the door she went to deal with the man with the knife.

Grayson was already making his way to the cockpit as she moved towards the back of the plane. There was gunfire and a scream as Mavue dealt with the knife holder as quickly as she had the other terrorist.

Despite her use of brutal force, the passengers cheered for her as she did what she needed to do to protect them. It felt good to hear people cheering for something she'd actually chosen to do.

"They killed the pilot," said Invincible.

That wasn't good. The bastard with the gun must have decided to take down the plane once they realised that they couldn't hold the passengers' hostage or use the plane to destroy some target.

"Can you fly a plane?" Maeve asked.

She's never found the time to learn.

"No, but Cortana can," he said, "Give me the belt".

Grayson had been letting her use some sort of advanced set of armour that could be deployed from a belt. It had allowed her to survive their flights to the moon and back. The suit also kept him connected to the AI and she could indeed fly the plane.

"I guess we now just wait for the plane to land," said Maeve.

That wasn't all they needed to do.

"We should move the bodies and then check the passengers for injuries," said Nolan "There should be a few first aid kits around, and we need to keep people calm until we land".

He really was rather good at this. Maeve figured that she'd made the right choice in abandoning Vought and she hoped that Nolan would keep around. Maybe she should talk to him about forming their own team. It would be something to do while they waited for the plane to land.

Beach House. Private Island.

With a thud, I landed on the sand and set some of the annoying substance flying up into the air. I was starting to wonder if goggles weren't such a bad idea. Maybe I could get some cool shaded ski glasses.

My ability to fly had come a long way since I'd crashed into a small part of New York, yet I hadn't quite perfected my landings. I needed to take some more time to practice, I didn't feel like crashing through another building because I lost control.

The area had a nice calming breeze as the sun shined brightly in the blue sky. The tropical island was either covered by sand or a wooded area. It looked like something I might have seen in some movie about castaways.

"This better be the right island," I said to myself.

I was letting Maeve use my Rider Belt because apparently it had hidden features that could be unlocked by the right person so Cortana could only guide me via a comm.

Perhaps she could build me some cool shades with a heads-up display so that she could display information for me. It was something to enquire about later.

Loaning Maeve my Rider Belt wasn't as risky as it might seem since Cortana was the software for the device and therefore she could easily shut down the suit if anyone tried to use it against me.

This island was inhabited, it was actually owned by Miranda Lawson, and she'd sent me an email inviting me to come for a visit.

Since I could fly anywhere I wanted to on Earth without much effort it wasn't any trouble to come here and see what she wanted.

I knocked on the door to the large two-story beachfront house, only to get no response.

"Why invite me over if you're not in" I muttered.

Since I had supersenses it wasn't long before I detected the sounds of a couple of women chatting not too far away. As I followed the noise I found two women laying on fold-out beach chairs next to the ocean. Both of them were pale-skinned and had dark hair.

I began to walk towards the women and right away I knew that one of them was Miranda and the other woman looked like a younger version of her, like a twin sister who had stopped ageing some years ago while the other twin matured.

Oriana Lawson perhaps? I couldn't remember what she looked like in the Mass Effect game, but I didn't think she resembled Miranda so much.

As for their clothing, what little they wore, all Miranda had on was a black bikini and Oriana was in an equally skimpy pink bikini, and their tops barely concealed their busty chests.

"Grayson," said Miranda with a wave "I wanted to thank you for saving that plane. Because of you, CDC is getting all sorts of attention".

It might get more soon.

"Speaking of Cerberus Defence Contracts I have something that might be of interest to your company," I told Miranda.

I showed her the manual that had come with the sets of power armour. Miranda was soon absorbed by what she was reading. This left me with only Oriana to talk to.

"This is a nice place," I said

Bit of an understatement really.

"It is," Oriana replied before she changed the subject "And I'm guessing you're the father of my future niece or nephew. I don't think Miri would have invited anyone else here since she wants to keep me trapped on this island for my own safety".

Miranda put down the manual I'd given her.

"Oh poor baby trapped on a tropical island, forced to live in a beach house, are the hundreds of satellite channels and game room not simulating enough for you" teased the older Lawson sister.

I had some questions about all of this.

"How did your sister end up here?" I asked.

Miranda shifted in her seat.

"The entity running all of this promised me a reward for taking part in the madness" she explained "Reunting with my sister was my reward. I'm guessing you got a suit of power armour that you want CDC to take a look at".

That was the plan.

"More than one suit," I said "And yes I think the technology is something that CDC can use".

That was something we could discuss in detail later.

"I was on the Citadel when it was getting overrun with Reaper forces so I can't really complain about ending up here" Oriana was now saying "I just wish Miri would let me get involved with her work".

Miranda sighed.

"It's not simple" she argued "CDC is going to make a lot of enemies, Vought isn't above kidnapping people and unlike me, you don't have the training to handle that sort of thing".

I doubted that this was the first time they'd debated this issue.

"And I don't have a real-life superhero as sort of a boyfriend" Oriana pointed out.

Miranda looked smug about that.

"Nolan, would you put some sunblock on me?" Miranda said turning onto her stomach.

She was purposely showing her ass because she knew how much I liked it. I went over to her and lightly slapped her backside.

"Aren't you burning up?" Oriana asked me.

The heat didn't bother me, but I took the top of my hero outfit off anyway and then I removed my boots, much to the delight of the younger Lawson sibling. By the time I'd stripped down to my boxers, she wasn't able to do anything other than stare.

For the next ten minutes, I spread the lotion all over Miranda's body. I enjoyed touching her so much that I almost missed the fact that she'd gotten my shield symbol, the one people associated with Invincible tattooed onto her back. That was rather sweet of her. I didn't embarrass her by mentioning it.

I made sure to cover every part of her and to rub everything before offering to do the same for her sister just to see the older Lawson pretend not to be jealous when her sibling started to enjoy me touching her.

"It's not a great life," Oriana said. "You're always going to have to live in fear of being captured by Vought because they won't tolerate any rivals. Why don't you just have EDI destroy that company".

Cortana and I had discussed that. It wouldn't be much work for one of the AI to topple that business.

"Vought employs a lot of people and it keeps the superhumans busy doing meaningless rubbish" I explained "If we destroyed Vought outright it would cause economic chaos and lots of superhumans would turn to crime to support their expensive habits".

There was a bit more to all of this than that.

"Your sister and I both have plans to guide this world over the next few centuries and for our plans to work we can't let things get shaken up this soon," I told Oriana.

She knew that my words made sense, but she wasn't happy about not being able to play some sort of role.

"I'm about ready to head back inside," Miranda said "It's getting too hot out here".

She grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her waist as she got up, she then began walking towards the beach house.

"Good idea, I'm cooking out here!" Oriana said, soon following her big sister.

Not having anything else to do I got up and followed them into the house.

I headed up to Miranda's bedroom as Oriana loudly informed me that she going to take a shower. When I opened the door that was only partly closed I saw a topless Miranda pulling down the thong of her bikini.

"Hey," she said, seemingly unphased by my presence

Given that I'd knocked her up and fucked her ass she had nothing to hide from me so she pulled the thong off and walked to the end of her room so that she could go look out of the open window.

She didn't care at all that I was staring at her ass. If anything she wanted the attention I was giving her.

"My sister has only been here on this island for a few days and she's already unhappy about me planning to leave her here" I was told.

I walked up behind Miranda, taking in the beauty of her nude body as I looked at her. When I got close enough I grabbed her waist with both hands, and she pushed back so that her ass was grinding into me.

That didn't last nearly long enough as she chose to turn around and I knew that she wanted me to hold her.

"Your sister nearly died and now she's in another universe, you're the only familiar thing she has to hold on to" I pointed out "Plus, given your father's attitude to parenting I beat she's already sick of being told she has to do something for her own good".

The mother of my unborn child pushed her head into my chest.

"I guess you're right," Miranda said.

Of course, I was right. I'm a superior form of life.

"Just find a way to keep her involved" I advised.

My hard cock was poking Miranda's stomach and she reached down to feel it.

"Oh dear did I do that" she teased.

She stepped back slowly and knelt down, pulling down my boxers, and this allowed my cock to finally be free. She looked up at me with her a naughty smile on her face and then she began to work her oral magic on me.

Miranda Lawson was a talented cocksucker, I had no idea how you genetically engineered someone for cocksucking if that was what had happened, and if her father had done that, it was easy to understand why Miranda had taken her sister away from him.

"That feels so good," I praised.

She took my cock out of her mouth with a slight pop sound.

"Can I ride your cock, please Daddy" she begged.

Once I was on the bed, Miranda climbed on top of me, and we started fucking cowgirl style. She began to ride me, letting out a few loud moans.

"That feels so good, Daddy!" she called out.

Just then Oriana's voice could be heard. I'd not bothered to shut the door when entering the room.

"Miri?" she said "You call him Daddy?".

The young Lawson sibling was only in her towel, having just gotten out of the shower.

"Uhhh it's not what it looks like!" Miranda said

The younger sister was not at all fooled and she came over to get a closer look at what we were doing.

"Not sure what else this could be" she joked "Do I get a turn".

To be fair there was no mistaking what we were up to.

"Oriana!" Miranda said, "He's not a toy to be shared".

No, I was not. No matter whose home this happened to be I was in charge here.

"I can extend my protection if you agree to both get fucked by me," I said.

Despite her shock, Miranda didn't dismount. She still had my hard dick inside her.

"You want to fuck my sister?" she asked.

There was no harm in adding her to our arrangement.

"If anyone did kidnap either of you I'd come to save you," I promised "You can't ask for better protection than that".

Miranda bit her lower lip.

"Sounds fair to me," said Oriana "It's not like any other man on this planet is good enough for either of us".

Miranda got off me and soon both sisters began to play with my cock.

"I can't believe we are doing this," said the older Lawson sister.

Oriana seemed to think this would be lots of fun.

"I don't want to hide on an island for the rest of my life, so I need Nolan's protection," she pointed out "And he did save all those people. He should get a reward".

Miranda had given up fighting against the tide. She wasn't stupid enough to argue with me and I would protect her sister if I was going to use her as a breeding stock when she was older.

"If you become mine you can't let any other man touch you" I warned the younger Miss Lawson "You'll belong to me".

Oriana waved that concern away.

"Who can compare to you," she stated.

She must be into powerful men and unless there were some gods hanging about there was no more powerful than me in this world.

"Come on, I want to feel you inside of me, Daddy," Oriana said.

She soon got into the doggy-style position, and she waited for me to enter her, which I happily did. As I thrusted into Oriana's tight little cunt, Miranda got onto her knees next to me on the large bed and began to kiss me.

"Please don't knock her up" she begged "She's only eighteen".

That wasn't part of my plan just yet.

"I'll wait a few years" I promised.

Miranda accepted my terms. Not that she had much of a choice in the matter and I focused my efforts on sucking the younger woman into she was nothing more than a limp mess on the bed. This didn't take very long as I was ready to finish yet.

"My turn sis," Miranda said once Oriana had collapsed onto the bed.

I didn't normally get much use out of Sex Driven Perk because so far I had not needed it much. Pleasing Miranda hadn't been important as she was supposed to pleasure. Now things were a bit different.

Soon she was laying on her stomach, wrapping her arms around a pillow at the head of the bed. She whipped her hair back and looked over her shoulder, shaking her ass cheeks at me.

"She doesn't do anal," Miranda said.

The older sister screamed a little when I entered her, but that did not stop me from fucking Miranda, and she didn't protest, she just made a lot of noise. I decided to go easy on the mother of my child and climax quickly. There would be more time for fun later.

"That's a lot of cum!" Oriana said looking at her sister's ass.

I'd pulled out so I make a mess of Miranda's lovely backside.

"You better clean it up" I ordered.

The younger sister looked at me with wide eyes and she realised what I meant for her to do.

"Yes, Daddy," she said as she began to lick her sister's ass.

If Miranda was uncomfortable with this she didn't bother to protest.