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Chapter 62: Baby Thanos Event
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A man with resources, authority, and a pathological hatred for mutation that bordered on the religious. No, it was even zealous.
He let his gaze drift inward, to the endless stream of the [Information] panel.
The audience was having fun with that information.
[Damn, chat's moving so fast. If I say it, no one would notice... I'm Gay!!!]
[Caught!]
[I saw it!!]
[STRYKER! This is the "God Loves, Man Kills" storyline! Or a version of it!]
[He uses his son, Jason, a powerful mutant illusionist, to fake the X-Men's deaths and trick the Professor! That's how he gets close!]
[That's the movie version! Adam's likely in one of the comic versions! William's way more dangerous here!]
[It may not be through his son, as I think he kills his newborn son in the comics! He used other means!]
[He's got a secret base! Usually a dam or a military compound! He wants to use Cerebro or a different machine to kill all mutants!]
[The timeline doesn't map out.]
[Adam's right to suspect Mephisto. Stryker's zealotry could easily be amplified by demonic influence.]
Adam absorbed it. The 'how' isn't so clear. An illusionist of sufficient power could bypass even psychic defenses by feeding the mind what it expected to see.
It could also be other means, like the thousands of times Charles has been kidnapped, or maybe Mephisto.
The 'why' was classic genocidal madness. The 'where' was likely a secure, isolated facility. The classical dam fit the profile; remote, defensible, with built-in power and water for cooling… or drowning.
But the timing. That's what gnawed at him. This didn't happen in a vacuum.
Over the past weeks, Cypher Enterprises had hit an invisible wall. Major advertisers had pulled out with vague excuses.
Cloud service providers suddenly found "compliance issues." The negative press about his "company issues" was too coordinated, too vicious.
And then there was the other shoe, waiting to drop. His sources told him a story was being prepared. Not about his business, but about his identity.
His mutant status. And the sources cited were to be his own parents, dredged up and paraded out to give the fact the sheen of heartbreaking validity.
It was a character assassination of nuclear proportions.
[They're going after his parents! That's low! Wait, no, his parents are going after him!?]
[Speaking of which, we know little about his parents, only that they have him up to the authorities out of fear of his mutant nature.]
[When he was a child, mind you.]
[This stinks. It's been more than a decade since they last saw him, and he looks so different; And he didn't take the same name, going instead for Adam Cypher. How would they know?]
[Hydra? The Hellfire Club's enemies? Stryker? Could be all of them working in a twisted harmony.]
[Mephisto doesn't need to push the boulder. He just needs to grease the slope and watch you roll.]
[Everything's converging at once. That's not bad luck; that's a strategy.]
[Yeah, I'm just not sure if his parents are forced, or if they did this of their own accord. Maybe they fear repercussions?]
[Damn, Adam even ignored their existence completely, wanting nothing to do with him, and now, they're back.]
[Adam's trust issues, at least a part of them, come from the fact that his mother of this world betrayed him. If even someone who's raised you for years gave up on you for an incomprehensible reason, then yeah.]
[It's more than that. We know he has mommy issues from his previous life, so the fact that his mother from this life would lead to a decade of hell...]
[Damn.]
A black hand behind the scenes, orchestrating a symphony of chaos.
Financial pressure, personal exposure, and now the kidnapping of his closest allies in the superhuman community.
Apply stress from every vector until the target breaks, or makes a desperate, damnable deal.
Adam laughed. A soft, genuine chuckle that escalated into a quiet shake of his head.
Doom and gloom, that isn't like him. This isn't the endgame. He's only facing the ruler of hell. It isn't so hopeless just yet.
He straightened in his chair, a fierce light returning to his eyes.
This is a baby Thanos event. If I can't handle a zealous colonel, a hate group, and a smear campaign, then I have no business dreaming of Absolute.
He just has to cheat to win.
["A baby Thanos event." I'm wheezing! His scale of measurement is insane!]
[He's psyching himself up!]
[Truuue. Mephisto isn't shit man! Beat his ass up!]
[What does he mean by cheat to win? Is it Envy? Will he finally show us some of its mysterious capabilities?]
A sense of peace, cold and sharp, settled over him. The path was clear for now.
Contain the crisis. Rescue the assets. Punish the aggressors. Then find the puppeteer. Be extreme.
His office door opened, and his mood genuinely brightened. His assistant, Natalie Rushman, stepped in.
She was a vision of efficient elegance; a sleek black pantsuit, her fiery red hair a stunning contrast to her porcelain complexion.
Her beauty was severe, intelligent, and utterly captivating. Redheads truly did light up the day.
"You seem in better spirits," She said, her voice a smooth, professional alto. A perfect smile touched her lips.
"You have that effect," Adam replied with a chuckle.
[NATASHA ROMANOFF! BLACK WIDOW IS HIS ASSISTANT!]
[He knows! You can see it in his eyes! He's playing with her!]
["Redheads truly did light up the day." He's collecting them!]
[He's definitely collecting them!! Masochism is my fetish, but his is even more special!, redheads!]
[Seek help.]
[Oh? Why don't you force me? Punish me, babe.]
[??????????????] [Fuck off!?] [Tf?] [...] [Damn, K.O.]
Natalie began her standard morning briefing. "The quarterly reports from the Flow division show a 12% uptake in European markets; however, the advertising revenue dip we discussed is impacting projections. The legal team has prepared a response to the..."
"No need," Adam interrupted gently. He swiveled his chair to face her fully.
"I called you in for a different reason. I'm going to be… unavailable. Indefinitely. I'm leaving the public face of the company for a while, the PR, the operational steering, in your hands."
"Alice will take care of everything else and will support you and Domino if necessary. Either way, you won't have to change your schedule drastically. Alice will still do most of the work."
Natalie's perfectly composed mask slipped for a microsecond. Surprise, then hesitation. "Sir? If I may… Are you sure? Is there something I can help with? A problem I can manage?"
Adam shrugged, the picture of casual exasperation. "Unfortunately, it's a problem that requires my personal touch. I have to go… face some demons."
He said it with a twisted, joking lilt, the truth hidden in plain sight. "This world is just so goddamn chaotic."
Natalie moved around the desk, her movements fluid. She came to stand behind him, her hands resting on his shoulders.
She began to knead the tense muscles there, a gesture that was both intimate and probing. "Demons? That's a new one. You'll have to tell me about them sometime."
Her touch was that of a connoisseur, meant to relax and disarm.
Adam closed his eyes, leaning into the massage. He could feel the subtle pressure points she was targeting, the faint scent of her perfume, a manipulator's perfume. "I wouldn't wish my sleepless nights on you, Natalie. Ignorance is bliss."
She was trying too hard, he noticed. She wants to gain his trust because she could gain nothing otherwise.
The way he works is that most of his valuable knowledge is stored in his mind, and he and Alice are always watching.
She leaned closer, her breath warm by his ear, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial purr. "Sleepless nights? From what I hear, you spend many of those nights in… less stressful pursuits."
[She's fishing! And he's letting her! This is a spy vs. spy mind game!]
["Ignorance is bliss." That's so true in Marvel! The more you know, the more fearful and stressed you'll be.]
[Why had Nick Fury sent Black Widow to spy on him instead of Tony Stark? That's what happened in cannon, no?]
[It's simple, really. Nick Fury believes Adam has more information on Hydra than he lets on, and he doesn't trust him at all.]
[It's Fury's paranoia thinking Adam is too dangerous and is a target for direct observation... He's right.]
Adam smiled without opening his eyes. "What can I say? A man has frustrations to work out."
He then stood up smoothly, her hands falling away. "Either way, my ride is here."
He walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window that formed one wall of his office.
At his approach, a seamless, glass panel slid aside, revealing the open air thirty stories above the ground.
The wind whipped into the room.
"Sir?!" Natalie's composure finally broke, genuine alarm in her voice.
"Keep up appearances, Natalie. Launch Oracle on schedule. Alice and Domino have your back. I'll be watching."
Before she could respond, several sleek, black mechanical tentacles shot up from below the window ledge.
They were part of the system he'd been working on in the sub-basement.
The central chest piece, carried by two of the tentacles, clamped onto his torso with a series of magnetic thunks.
The other tentacles arrayed themselves around his back. Then, without a backward glance, he stepped out into open space.
[NOPE. NOPE. NOPE. HE JUST WALKED OUT THE WINDOW! AURA!]
[HE DOESN'T CARE IF SHE SEES! WAIT! Everyone can see!?]
[The suit looks even cooler in daylight! The tentacles are alive! Like hentai!]
[He's definitely trying to show off, my man!]
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