The Fallen Gamer

chapters 181-185

I had a week before I needed to deal with the Olympians and I had few other things to handle first.

To start, it had been a couple of days and I needed to visit Azazel and check on his healing progress. With my drastically improved MP reserves, I was able to heal him a lot more in one session than I could before.

"That's the stuff. I feel relief already," Azazel said while surrounded by my healing energy. "You might not know this, but dying a slow withering death is surprisingly painful!" He said with a chuckle.

"You're healing up quite well, Azazel." I said while looking over his torso. The deadened black skin that almost littered his entire chest had receded almost completely. That was a big relief. I used around 5000 MP to heal him this time and I figured I would only need one more session after this for him to be fully restored.

Azazel slipped his shirt back on and smiled proudly at me. "You're a lifesaver, littlest sister. Literally in my case!" He said with another laugh.

"You're welcome!"

"I heard you've been up to some pretty crazy things back on Earth, Marvel." Azazel said. "Something about you and Gabriel taking down Belial permanently?"

"Yes, I was in trouble there for a second. I was chasing down a lead I had on an evil wizard, only to end up coming face-to-face with that bright red asshole." I explained.

"Was he strong?" Azazel asked me? "I never got to see him in action. Before or after he fell."

I pondered for a moment and recalled some of the details of the Battle I had against Belial. "He definitely had a lot of power, and he was pretty decent at controlling Hellfire. Besides that, the most annoying ability that he had was that he could make himself gigantic. I was still landing some pretty good shots on him. I just didn't have the Light Energy reserves at the time to keep up with him." I said.

"Is that why you learned Senjutsu? Even now, I can slightly feel the energy in this room. Passively flowing into you." He asked.

He could sense that? Senjutsu wasn't really something Fallen Angels messed with. I should have also been much harder to detect because I'm not absorbing any emotions from the environment. Just pure Mana as my MP was refilling itself passively. I could refill the 5000 MP I used in under 20 minutes automatically now.

"It's not that I went out of my way to learn Senjutsu. It kind of just ended up happening that way." I said casually. "It's a side benefit of a new ability I gained. Maybe I'll show you in the future, maybe I won't…"

He could tell that I was being cryptic on purpose. just to mess with him. "Fine then, keep your secrets. It's still amazing that you and Gabriel managed to take that guy down at the end of the day, though."

I put my hands on my hips and grinned cheekily. "I know, I'm pretty amazing. So amazing in fact, that I've recently done something that will absolutely shock you and make you eternal jealous of me! Something far more amazing than taking out some boring king Of one of the hells." I boasted proudly.

Azazel raised an eyebrow. I could see he was intrigued. "Hoh? Those are some bold words, sis. Too bold in fact…" He smirked. "You might have given me some surprises, but there's no way you've done anything that great yet!" He said smugly.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked teasingly

"Very sure." He replied while nodding to himself with his eyes closed.

"You underestimate my power." I said smuggling while crossing my arms over my chest.

His eyes opened and he smirked at me playfully. "And now you're quoting Star Wars just a stall. All right, tell me what you did," He said.

[Tell him! It'll be funny. I want to see his reaction.]

Alright then. I decided to tell him. There's no way he was going to be ready to hear this…

"I slept with Lady Death!" I declared proudly while placing my hands on my hips.

"What…?" Azazel stared at me blankly for a moment. It took a while for my words to register in his mind. That's pretty crazy considering his mind can operate many times faster than the average human's.

In the end, the information was too much for him to process. His eyes rolled backwards and he fainted… He fell backwards and hit the floor with a solid thunk.

[Ooof. I think you broke him.]

I looked down at my unconscious older brother and shrugged to myself. "Told you it would shock you…"

I held up my hand above Azazel and a purple portal manifested directly above his head, facing towards him. A small waterfall of ocean water poured out of the hole and slammed directly into Azazel's face!

I was cackling at the sight below me!

"GLurrrrblllughhh!" Azazel waved his arms frantically in panic as he startled awake! A couple fish ended up flowing out next and smacking him in the face!

[That sure woke him up.]

His floor was partially flooded and there were even a few fish flopping around the place. I closed the portal to cut off the flow of water. The whole time I couldn't stop laughing.

"Hehehehehe!"

Azazel sat up and started coughing out mouthfuls of sea water. "Ugh…what the hell happened, Layla!?" He said while looking around. "Why is my whole lab flooded all of a sudden? And why does it smell like fish in here?" He glanced to the side and noticed a few sea bass gasping for air on the wet ground. "Oh…That explains the smell."

"You passed out after I told you I slept with Lady Death." I said bluntly again.

Azazel paused for a moment as he contemplated my words for the second time. He didn't pass out this time. "What the fuck!? How!? When!? Why!? And most importantly!...Was she any good and is she up for a potential threesome!?"

"As if!" I picked up one of the fish on the ground and threw it at his face!

"Hahaha!" Azazel cackled even as he got smacked in the face again. "You were right, Layla! Truly I had underestimated you. Truly you are a woman of culture! I'm so proud as your big brother!"

There was a knock on the Lab door before it immediately opened.

[For the supposed most secure place in the Grigori, it's amazing how many people can just walk in.]

Penemue walked in wearing her typical secretary attire. She gave the solving wet Azazel a casual glance before shrugging dismissively and turning to me.

"Layla, here you are. I'm glad that you remembered. I was worrying that you might have forgotten about today" Penemue said with a sigh of relief. She walked forward and gave me a quick hugged. I hugged her back in mild confusion.

'Forgotten what…?'

[Forgotten what?]

"Of course I didn't forget, Penemue." I lied.

She sighed in relief before looking at me up and down. "You're going to have to get changed into more appropriate attire. You can't go meeting the board dressed like that. I'll let you get changed." Penemue said before she walked out of Azazel's lab. As she walked by him, Azazel slapped her hard on her ass. I expected her to turn around and smack him, but she just blushed and kept walking.

I gawked at him for that. "So you two are getting serious then?"

"About as serious as our kind can get. It's not for lack of trying, but I'm honestly surprised she doesn't have a little bun in her oven yet. We've been trying quite a bit. But you know…Supernatural fertility and all."

I nodded. It wasn't as hard for us to have kids as it was for devils, but it was still hard. It was much easier if one of the parents was a human. That's how Akeno was born so quickly.

As for Azazel and Penemue, close meant that they might even be getting married. That was a big deal. Marriage for Fallen didn't end in divorce. It was a true life partnership. Death does us part and all that. They'd still have other partners, of course, but they'd always stick together in the end.

That was why I was still hesitant to marry Hela. I liked her…a lot. I think I might even love her. I wasn't ready for a huge commitment like forever quite yet…

"Good for you two." I said before changing the subject. "So…board meeting?" I asked my brother in confusion.

He was grinning at me. "You have no idea what she's even talking about do you?" He asked with a snicker.

"Not a freaking clue!" I exclaimed. "And what's wrong with what I'm wearing?" I gestured to myself. I was wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans that made my ass look fantastic along with a black T-Shirt that said "Sinfully Sexy."

Azazel gave me a deadpan stare. "You're attending the annual shareholders meeting for Fallcorp. Formerly that human company, Oscorp, that you took over. Penemue has been waiting for you so you could take her back to Earth Marvel. It's been a while since I've seen her so enthusiastic about something." Azazel explained.

Penemue might be a twelve winged Angel now, but she was a businesswoman at heart and always would be. Being able to openly run our company without having to hide was a completely new experience. No one in the supernatural had done this before obviously. We'd either have to pretend to be human or have humans working for us while we ran things secretly.

"So don't upset your sister and get ready to go. You can't go dressed like…that." He waved his hand and a fashionable women's business suit was conjured on a nearby table.

"Thanks," I said as I picked up the small pile of clothes.

[Oh yeah! That was today, wasn't it? How could you have forgotten something so important? For shame, Host! For shame!]

'You're so full of shit, System. You didn't remember either.'

[I did not.]

Using the System I was able to immediately swap the clothes I was wearing with the business suit.

Azazel gave me a pout of disappointment. "Tch, you changed so fast I couldn't even see anything…"

I laughed. "I'm not like Akeno who intentionally slows down her outfit changes to look cool and intentionally flash people at the same time."

"Speaking of Akeno, how's she doing? Baraqiel has been up my but about finding out I'd she's doing alright. Has she fallen into your clutches and ended up in your harem?" He inquired.

"Of course not! I'm a decent Fallen Angel unlike all you perves." I said.

Azazel walked me over to the door. "If you say so…" He said in a tone that implied he didn't believe me.

XXX

Penemue was looking excited as we stepped out of my portal directly outside of Fallcorp.

A supernatural portal opening in the middle of the sidewalk wasn't hard for anyone nearby to miss. It didn't take more than a few seconds for the humans to all notice us.

"Look! It's Layla! It's the Angel!" It took only one person to shout, before everyone else joined in.

"Oh my god! It is her!"

"Another Angel is next to her! She was there when Layla met the Aliens!"

Cars driving by on the road all slammed on their brakes as people started gawking at us!

Penemue sighed. "Next time teleport us directly into the building."

"Sorry. I've never actually been here…" I trailed off.

"Unbelievable! It's YOUR company!" Penemue said as she pushed forward.

"Yeah, but I made you CEO because I know nothing about running a company. You're the best at it!"

Penemue blushed at my compliment. A subtle aura was released around Penemue that kept the humans from getting too close to us. The couple security guards at the front of the building immediately opened the doors and ushered us inside. Once we were in, people outside tried to follow but were denied entry. Penemue told them to not allow anyone inside who wasn't on the shareholders list.

"So what's the requirement to be on the list?" I asked her as we made our way to the elevator.

"You own 31% of Fallcorp's stocks and I own the other 20%. Together, that gives us controlling interest. That doesn't mean we're all powerful, though. When it comes to making decisions. Anyone with at least 3% still has a seat on the shareholder's board. That's who we are meeting with today." Penemue explained.

We'd be going over the future of the company with everyone at this meeting and hope they don't flip out. We were planning on stopping Oscorp's weapons divisions. A group of our top scientists would be presenting their ideas and inventions to the whole board today to see if we would continue funding them. That was Penemue's idea. She was an excellent judge of character and wanted to see which of Oscorps former scientists were worth keeping.

…

About an hour later, after waiting for everyone to arrive. Penemue and I stepped out of her office and headed down the hallway to the meeting room. We, of course, had to be the last ones to arrive. It was some kind of powerplay that Penemue explained to me.

A few security guards were standing outside the doors to the meeting room. One of them held it open for us and we stepped inside. Immediately, all eyes in the room turned towards the two of us.

I was doing my best to see if I could recognize any of the people here and surprisingly I did.

In the center of the room was a large circular table with plenty of open spaces. Penemue sat down at one of them and I sat next to her. A few spaces down from us, Tony Stark gave us a smirk.

Of course, he would jump at the chance to buy stock in our company. If nothing else, just so he could sit on the board to troll us one time… He'd probably never show up to another meeting after this one.

"Welcome ladies. I see you're both fashionably late." He pointed to the clock in the room. It said 11:05 and the meeting was supposed to start at 11:00.

An older asian man at the end of the table harrumphed at us. "Punctuality is important. I expected more from beings thought to be myth before now. I hope you don't disappoint further."

I wanted to scowl at the rude man but Penemue placed a hand on my arm. "I apologize, Mr Lee. We were held up with other important matters. We will try to be on time the next time we all meet." Penemue said smoothly and convincingly.

Important matters? We were literally having coffee and eating donuts in her office while doing nothing for an hour…

The older man nodded and went silent.

"I suppose introductions are in order for everyone here?" Penemue started as she looked around the table. "I suppose that I can start. I am Penemue, the right hand of the Grigori and the current CEO of Fallcorp. Thank you all for investing in our company." She said while looking around the table.

"OUR company!? You stole this from MY family!" A teenage boy stood up from his seat angrily! "This was Oscorp, my family's legacy!"

I thought he looked familiar. It was a young Harry Osborn. I thought Norman had lost everything, but it looked like he still kept 3% of his stock.

"It was your family's legacy, but your father was foolish and sold away the controlling shares of his stocks. At that point, everything was up for grabs." A beautiful woman with blond hair and brilliant blue eyes said to the teen dismissively. Her tone came off as cold, but it was the hard truth.

Harry scowled and sat back down while crossing his arms angrily. I assumed that he was here in place of his father. The man's illness had apparently taken a turn after losing his whole company. I would feel bad about that, but Norman wasn't a good person so I didnt.

"And who might you be, lovely?" Tony asked from across the table. He couldn't help his flirtatious ways even if he was in a committed relationship. I didn't blame him though, this woman had looks and a body that put most supermodels to shame. She was wearing an all white business suit that had been clearly modified to show more of her curves.

She scoffed at Tony dismissively before turning to me. Her gaze locked with mine and her eyes softened a bit. "I am Emma Frost. CEO of Frost Industries and I now own 5% of Fallcorp." She said curtly. She stopped gazing at me and turned to the teenage girl sitting to her right.

[Another teenager?…Do none of these kids have school?]

XXX

"Hello everyone. It is nice to meet you all. I am Shuri, First Princess of Wakanda." She said in perfect English, but with a heavy accent.

Tony let out a whistle. "Damn, we got some genuine royalty here. Good for you kid." He gave her a thumbs up. He probably thought she was only here because she was a rich princess and a fan of mine or something. Judging by the way Shuri was looking at me, that might not be far from the truth. With my meta knowledge, I knew that she was almost as smart as Tony though. Which was very impressive for her age.

"I am not the only royal here today." Shuri looked over towards the elegantly dressed European man who had been quiet so far.

"Indeed! I am Victor Von Doom! The King of Latvia!" He declared proudly!

The fuck!? Dr Doom himself is here!? And he's on the shareholders board of my company?

[I'm sure that will turn out perfectly fine…]

The System's sarcasm was not hard to detect.

Victor didn't seem to have any powers at this point in time, so he wasn't a real threat yet. I knew in some universes that he could grow incredibly powerful and sinister though so I'd have to keep an eye on him.

I think Victor was expecting us all to be impressed or shocked when he revealed himself to be a king, but no one else in the room seemed to care. I found that pretty funny.

"That's nice." Emma said curtly to Victor.

"Right on…King of a country I've never heard of…right on." Tony added dismissively.

I wanted to burst out laughing at the look of anger on Victor's face. He clenched his fist and held his tongue though as he sat back down.

"I am Mr Lee. I am here representing my master in China who can not be here himself. That is all I will say." Mr Lee said.

"I'm Harry Osborn, and I'll be taking back my company one day!" Harry said angrily.

[You're up.]

I stood up and smiled at everyone. "Nice to meet you all and once again, thank you for investing in Fallcorp. I am Layla of the Fallen. The majority shareholder of Fallcorp. My sister Penemue is the acting CEO as most of you probably know. She has been keeping the Grigori afloat for almost 1000 years and is more than qualified to run Fallcorp." I said. That was completely true. Without her, Azazel and the other idiots (Kokabiel and Baraqiel) would have run the place into the ground…

Everyone in the room besides Tony blanched when I casually mentioned how old Penemue was. Human's tended to forget because most Angels chose to look like we were in our 20s or 30s at most. It was only the weirdos like Kopkabiel or Baraqiel that made themselves look older…

"1000 years…True immortality…" Mr Lee muttered while looking at me and Penemue in a different light. Beforehand, he had been almost dismissive of us.

Emma snapped out of her shock the quickest. "That is quite an impressive resume. I can see now why you place her in charge. An excellent decision." She praised me. Her praise was almost over the top and a bit unnerving considering I knew who she was.

Emma Frost was a powerful Mutant and maybe the third strongest telepath in the world after Jean and the Professor. In most universes, she also tended to go off and do her own thing instead of joining the X-men. Most of the time, she ended up clashing with them because of that.

"Right then. Why don't we get to why we're all here?" Victor said.

"I heard that you no longer wish to make weapons and the weapons department may be on the chopping block for today?" Emma asked me and Penemue. "I can't say that I'm not secretly happy about that news. First Stark left the weapons business, then Hammer Industries got shut down for having ties to a global terrorist organization. Now that Fallcorp is leaving as well, that almost leaves my Frost Industries with no more competition." Emma explained with a smile.

I nodded. "Fallcorp is moving in two directions now and will be focusing solely on those. We'll be branching out into genetics and space." I said.

"Space!?" Shuri asked in excitement. "You wish to go to mars!?"

"We're going further than Mars, kid." Tony replied to her. "Genuine Aliens have been on our planet recently. We need ships that can reach their own."

Emma raised an eyebrow before looking between Tony and me. "You two have been in cooperation with each other for a while now it seems. I have no problem with Fallcorp going to space. What does everyone else think?"

"I have no problems either. I would love to study the technologies of other planets." Victor said.

"I do not think my master would have any problems with that either. What about genetics though. What is your plan there?" Mr Lee asked.

I spoke up. "We wish to create a super serum for the use of the masses. But a much more toned down version than the likes of Captain America's or the Hulk's. We want a serum that can essentially double a person's physical abilities." I explained.

"Why?" Shuri asked. She looked a bit nervous. We were essentially talking about turning everyone into Black Panthers after all.

"Space travel for one. Some planets will have weaker gravity than Earth, and some will have stronger." I said our rehearsed pitch. It was far too soon to tell anyone about our world's merging. The only one I could even trust with that information was probably Shuri. Victor was evil in most universes and Emma Frost was usually 50/50 herself. Harry would probably go blabbing to the media and causing a panic just to spite us. And we had no idea who Mr Lee's 'master' was.

"Something Hollywood always forgets in all of their Sci Fi movies." Victor said while nodding. "I like this idea. Having double physical abilities could be the next big step for humanity's evolution. Doesn't that make you nervous though?" He asked me because I wasn't human. "Then again, why would it? I saw footage of what occurred recently in Scotland. That fight was truly ...eye opening for me." Victor finished with a glint in his eye.

Everyone else in the room except for one person nodded at his words.

"What happened in Scotland!?" Harry Osborn asked in annoyance.

"The Devil rose up from hell. Layla and her sister killed him." Emma said in a dismissive tone.

Harry scoffed. He clearly didn't believe her. "Fine! I don't want to know anyway!" He crossed his arms and huffed. Shuri was laughing at him and he glared at her.

The adults in the room all shook their heads at his ignorance.

XXX

"Now that we've gotten our introductions out of the way, why don't we let in some of Fallcorp's scientists now to explain their research. We will decide whether or not they are worth keeping on board. First up will be the weapons department." Penemue suggested.

A disheveled man with one arm entered the room. He looked around nervously at all of us. "Hello, everyone. I am Doctor Connors. I am one of Oscorp's–er–Fallcorp's geneticists. I'm currently working on a serum based on lizards that will heal all illnesses and even help people regrow lost limbs." He explained nervously.

"That seems incredibly interesting." Tony said. "How far are you along?" He asked.

"Er–we have succeeded in curing cancer a few times in rats…but–er…" He trailed off and put his head down.

"What the hell, man!? You were supposed to be working on a cure for my dad! That's why we paid you!" Harry shouted loudly. "If it worked on rats then you should have started testing on people!"

"Be quiet you idiot." Emma told Harry. "Clearly the serum isn't ready yet." She crossed her arms over her chest before speaking to Doctor Connors. "Continue, what went wrong?"

"...All the rats ended up mutating a few days after the serum cured them. They all grew scales and turned incredibly aggressive." He said.

"So you essentially created some kind of Bioweapon that could turn people into Lizard Monsters?" I asked. That was the plot of The Amazing Spider Man.

Dr Connors was taken aback by my statement. "Um…yes?" He said while shifting in place and not meeting my eyes.

"Ha! That's freaking awesome! I like this guy! You should definitely keep him on board!" Tony exclaimed. "I also want to see some of your lizard-monster-mice before I leave!"

"I would like to see them as well." Shuri added.

Doctor Connors looked ecstatic that Tony Stark was interested in his research. "Of course, Doctor Stark! I'll be happy to show you! Maybe you could even look over my current research?"

Tony shrugged. "I'm not as well versed in Genetics as I am robotics but I can take a look."

Shuri pouted when Doctor Connors didn't respond to her. To everyone else here but me, she was a spoiled Princess who was only here because of her family's money.

Everyone, except Harry, voted to keep funding Doctor Connors. I told the doctor that his research no longer had a deadline. He had a massive look of relief on his face when he left the room. Apparently, Norman Osborn had demanded the guy complete his research as soon as possible. Doctor Connors had been spending 20 hours a day in his lab with barely any sleep or freedom. He could have sued the shit out of us for that…

[Or he just doesn't know that's an option…]

…

The next person to walk into the room was a short man wearing round black sunglasses…indoors. "Hello, everyone. I am Doctor Octavius, and I have a groundbreaking idea that will change the world and give us all unlimited energy!" He declared proudly.

"And what would that be?" Victor asked him. He looked interested and leaned forward.

"What if we could harness the power of the SUN!" Doctor Octavius declared while raising his fist in the air.

Victor frowned and leaned back again. Tony started snickering. "We already can do that…it's called Solar Power Octavius. Are you still trying to go on about this artificial Sun crap? I rejected your idea at Stark Industries and you came crawling over to Norman Osborn?"

Doctor Octavius took off his sunglasses and glared at Tony. There was clearly some past drama between the two of them.

"Stark!" Doctor Octavius spat the name out. "You were always jealous of me and my vision! You're scared that my artificial sun will bring about a new age of clean energy! One much better than your Arc Reactor that you refuse to share with the world!"

"I feel like we shouldn't be sharing an artificial sun with the world either…" I muttered. It was loud enough for everyone to hear however.

Penemue agreed with me. "Your idea is…interesting Doctor Octavius, but unfortunately our company is choosing to move in another direction. Thank you for your time here and you will be issued a generous severance package. Good day."

"You'll all regret this! When I make my breakthrough, you'll all be wishing you had seen my vision with me!" Doctor Octavius said before storming out of the room. I had no doubts that he wouldn't give up, but without our funding it would take him much longer to almost kill himself with his idiotic idea.

[An artificial sun? That's just fusion energy with a lot of extra steps! Why not just create a fusion reactor first?]

'This is the Marvel universe, System. Scientists here are all insane.'

XXX

Finally, it came time for the weapons division to give their pitch. Three men walked in with their heads held high. Clearly they had not gotten the memo that they were on the chopping block. Behind them, they were dragging in a large cart that was covered with a tarp.

"Gentlemen of the board, I am Doctor Michaels. Head of weapons and development here at Oscorp." The lead man said. He gave off an arrogant air as he spoke.

"It's Fallcorp now," Penemue corrected him.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." He said while looking at Tony and Victor. "Women, am I right? Sometimes they just need to zip it and learn to not interrupt when the men are talking."

[Damn right! I like this guy!]

'I will find a way to stab you, System!'

[I'm in your soul. You'd have to stab yourself first!]

I took a deep breath and centered myself so that I wouldn't actually stab this sexist man. I had already decided that he was getting fired without any form of severance package. He could present me with a weapon that could one-shot Thanos today and I would still fire him!

I could detect killing intent from all around the room. Penemue, Emma and Shuri were all glaring daggers at Doctor Michaels. Some of that killing intent was also coming from me of course. Too bad this sexist idiot was an ordinary human and couldn't sense it. Otherwise he would have been running for his life!

"Uhhhhh…" Tony glanced around nervously at all the angry women in the room.

Victor had a blank expression on his face and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Mister Lee wisely chose to not say anything either.

Doctor Michaels grabbed hold of the tarp and yanked it away dramatically. On top of the cart was a very familiar glider. "Gentlemen, I present you with one of our greatest creations yet! The glider!"

"Er–What can it do?" Tony asked awkwardly.

"I'm glad you asked Mister Stark! Clearly a MAN of your caliber can see how amazing this weapon is! It can fly at speeds upwards of 150 miles per hour! It can shoot up to 10 compact missiles before needing to reload itself! AND, it can stab people with the incredibly sharp deployable blades in its front. Check these bad boys out!" Doctor Michaels pressed a button on his watch and two very long blades protruded out of the front of the glider! His two lackeys behind him started clapping!

"Amazing!" The first lackey exclaimed.

"Super lethal and effective!" The other one added.

"We can sell these to the military for 100 million dollars each! They will revolutionize warfare!" Dr Michaels exclaimed. "So, what do you think? Amazing right?" He asked us all.

"Woah! This glider is amazing! Isn't it great everyone?" Harry said. "I want one! I'd love to fly around the city on it."

"No." Shuri said bluntly.

"Hell no!" I added.

"You're all fired." Penemue declared to the three men.

"Kill yourselves." Emma spat out at them.

The three men left the room devastated and I was going to toss that Glider into storage permanently along with any other insane stuff that came out of Oscorp in the last few years.

"Well, now…that last presentation was…interesting." Penemue said. "I'd like to once again thank everyone for coming today, and this officially ends the first annual shareholders meeting of Fallcorp. All of you will of course be kept up to date with our latest plans and research in the next coming months."

"It was an honor to meet you, Layla of the Fallen. I will be in the city a few days more. Perhaps we can meet up and talk later?" Shuri asked me before she left.

"I'd be fine with that, Princess Shuri." I told her as she left.

Mister Lee bowed to everyone before taking his leave next. He promised that his 'Master' would be in touch.

Victor followed behind him after curtly saying goodbye to all of us. I'm sure the only reason Victor Von Doom bought stock in our company was to try and steal some of our inventions once we got off the ground. We'd have to keep an eye on him.

Tony asked me to create a portal for him back to Malibu where Pepper was currently.

Harry stormed out immediately and the only one left in the room with Penemue and I was Emma Frost.

"Is there something you needed, Miss Frost?" My sister asked her.

Emma smiled warmly at me. "I would like a bit of Layla's time if that's okay?"

"That's fine. I will be checking in on a few things in the building in the meantime, Layla." Penemue said to me before she headed out. Before she left, Penemue gave me a look that said "be wary." Of course I would be.

Emma and I watched her go. "You and she really look quite similar." Emma commented.

I shrugged. "You should see our niece then."

"I have." Emma said. "She went on a date recently with Ororo of the X-men."

I glared at her. "Have you been spying on Akeno?" I said with a threatening undertone.

Emma immediately shook her head. "NO! Of course not! My…organization was keeping tabs on the X-men, but they have been warned off doing so in the future. We'd rather not get involved with you and your family." Emma said as she took a seat on the edge of the table. With just the two of us in the room, she acted much more freely.

"And yet you bought 5% of my company's stock?" I asked her.

Emma smiled at me. "That was more of a…spur of the moment kind of thing. I saw the video trending online. You were sticking up for two mutants in that restaurant. You got a lot of hate from some people who used to love you because of what you did."

I scoffed. "Let them hate me. At the end of the day, that's all they can do."

There was a glint in Emma's eyes when I said that. "Indeed, at the end of the day, you have become too powerful for the masses to even be able to bother you. The world can rise up against you and you can break the world."

That makes me sound kind of tyrannical, but I guess so? "I suppose I could if it came to that. I doubt it would though." I replied to her.

"The organization I'm a part of…I joined them to feel like that. To be powerful. It did not turn out the way I wanted it to." Emma said. She looked saddened and vulnerable. Some tears came to her eyes. I knew she was probably acting to get me to feel bad for her, but damned if she wasn't a really great actress! Nobody wanted to see a gorgeous girl like her sad in front of them.

"Then just leave your organization." I said.

Emma scoffed and dabbed at her eyes. "One does not simply leave the Hellfire Club…not without consequences at least. Unless…I join a group that's far too powerful and one that the Club is afraid to mess with." She said somberly.

I understood what she was hinting at. The reason she had bought stock in Fallcorp, in the first palace, was to come and meet me. I have no idea what her current circumstances are though…

[A super hot blond with super powers wants to work for you…what's the problem here? Whatever problems she has, you can smash them…and then you can smash her!]

'Wow…System, just wow…'

"So you want to join me?" I asked Emma.

Her sadness immediately disappeared and she smiled brilliantly at me. Her glistening blue eyes met mine. "Yes." She said while stepping forward. She reached forward and delicately placed a hand on my cheek. "You'll find that I am a woman of many talents… I can be very useful and my company can be very pleasant." She said while giving me a wink and licking her lips.

I gulped. First she tried to make me feel sad for her, and now she was blatantly trying to seduce me…

[She's clearly studied you thoroughly. She knows you can't refuse a damsel in distress or resist a beautiful woman. She's hitting you with both at once.]

It's time I hit her with the uno reverse. "You've convinced me." I said and she grinned. "But can you convince Penemue?" I asked her.

Penemue was a much better judge of character and had dealt with 1000 years of bullshit. Emma knew that now as well… I didn't need to invite a snake into my growing group after all. For all I knew, this was all an act and she was spying for the Hellfire club by acting like she was defecting.

Emma's smile slipped away and she pouted. "Hmph! You're more clever than I thought. I can convince her that I'm not lying just the same."

"We'll see."

XXX

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