Chapter 164: Smooth ride. + Skrull Invasion Prologue.

2 months have passed since Ryan attacked the Serpent Society and cleared out the Secret Empire. It's now summertime in New York. With the secret Devil Worshippers Party helping him to create changes to the world, it had been a smooth ride.

"Sir, just like you have predicted, the oil magnates are banding together to fight off your initiative for electric cars." ALBUS notified Ryan who was chilling at the beach. He was shirtless and wearing sunglasses while looking at the horizon.

"5 minutes. I could only rest for 5 minutes before I am needed again." Ryan muttered in dissatisfaction. A few stacks of paper appeared out of thin air into his hand.

After reading the details and the propositions from the oil magnate, Ryan tossed the information away. The papers turned into a particle of light and dissipated.

"Just ask Tony and Pepper to deal with this. They had plans to change the world's energy source when he made the miniaturized Arc Reactor. It isn't that big of a problem, that I should solve it personally."

Tony Stark received the information from Ryan and started to work on it. The oil magnates tried to persuade Stark as Ryan's effort will cause the company's profit to plummet. But…

"I am a futurist. I am always a futurist. If you fail to see what he is doing can change the world, then maybe you don't belong in it." Tony Stark replied instigatively, causing Pepper Potts, the actual CEO of the company to frown.

"However, if you decide to stop drilling into the earth and make the world even worse, I have a proposition for you." Tony added and started to explain his plans, turning the frowns that were on the magnate's face to turn upside down.

If they refused his proposition even after the explanation, then Tony wouldn't bother to persuade them further. When the new era comes, they will be left behind, and will be forgotten by history.

"Also, put all the people banding together to my blacklist. When I make the flying car circuit around the world, they won't even get a cent from the profits…Not that I am aiming for profits to begin with."

"Understood sir."

He stood up from the chair he was laying on as his relaxed mood plummeted. Then, the chair breaks down into particles of light and dissipates.

The endless beach disappears, leaving Ryan alone inside a plain white room. He had been using a simulator to relax while he was working.

Ryan snapped his finger, and his outfit changed from beach shorts to semi-formal clothes. He walked outside his simulator and resumed his work in his VP's office.

The simulation room was built in an alternate room inside his office using the same tech he made his secret room in the penthouse.

"General Thadeus Ross is requesting a meeting with you for the 100th time." ALBUS said.

"Wow, he is relentless. Never thought me cutting unnecessary funding for the military could re-appoint him as a General. Didn't he face martial court for his actions before this?"

"He did, sir. He was demoted and had to work in the military public affairs office for two years."

That was all the punishment he got for endangering the entire resident of Harlem, by conducting an off-the-book military mission. Ryan shook his head and vowed to change these giant tyrannical institution's way of doing things in the near future.

"He had visited S.H.I.E.L.D and tried to find a sample of the Hulk's blood. His previous HulkBuster team was re-appointed and had been going undercover around the Avengers' Tower." ALBUS reported everything that he could find to Ryan.

"It seems that Thadeus Ross wanted to show me the potential for the Gamma strengthening research program he had been working on his entire life. Even if he would try to kill the Hulk to get a sample for it." Ryan smirked and went back to his desk to do his work.

"ALBUS, monitor what Thadeus Ross is doing. Also, find out what are these new samples which are making him so confident. I have a feeling we might be able to see the Red one in the near future."

Ryan had been working continuously for the last month just to make his country more advanced. The opposition that was vocal in fighting him had all been silent after the extremely massive support Ryan had gotten from the citizens of the country, and also the citizens of the world.

He had changed the economy that was dependent on wars. There will be a revenge attack from the country that was oppressed by the United States after they are able to stabilize themselves, and Ryan had prepared for it and even helped them in stabilizing themselves.

Not only did he change the United States, with Dawn's and the islanders' help, he had taken control of every major government in the world. Especially Russia and China that were the most vocal in opposing him on his missions.

Fury's vision of Ryan controlling the world had come true. Although it was quite far from what Fury was thinking off.

Ryan was on his route to create the Planetary Union and ending human's cycle of tyranny. He wanted to create a unified earth before the planet made their way to enter the galaxy.

["What exactly is our Vice President planning? Let me tell you….Well I'm not sure yet, but I know it's a great thing for ALL of mankind.''] J Jonah Jameson didn't forget to hype everything Ryan had been doing. Not that he couldn't explain it, but Ryan had tackled the issues from all over the place, adding to the people's belief that he is omniscient.

However, the most respected man on Earth was scolded almost daily since he became VP. He was admonished by the members of the chat groups on his actions, and his stupidity to ignore the quest. Reluctantly, Ryan did take some quest that directly correlated to his planning.

One of the easiest quests he had the pleasure of attempting was; Becoming the Vice-President of a country.

He received 10 chakra seeds from the reward, and he had built his own team of stealth agents that will work together with the Templars.

In these 2 months, he had focused on building his own realm, his research on new technological blueprints that he bought from the systems, and his effort to change the world. He had a lot of things to do and a very little time to do it.

Therefore, in the island, there were more than 200 Ryan Knight's shadow clones that were working secretly to help him in his missions.

When he's done, the hidden island Paradiso will enter a pocket dimension that he owns – a realm that will be as big as the current earth.

"The broken piece of the God Kingdom from Hela's quest was magnificent." Ryan muttered when he entered the realm at that time. It was a floating continent that was looking exactly like Asgard, but bigger.

After connecting the Kingdom of Gods with Dawn, his Divinity had quadrupled, and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Now, Dawn could terraform an entire country just by stepping foot on the country's soil.

After entering Tier 3, Ryan had focused all his effort to build a society he will be proud of. He didn't do it because the quest told him too, but he wanted to see the world united as one.

His journey will be long, and he couldn't do it the tyrannical way by becoming the lord of the Earth. If he did, the resistance toward his actions will cause more damage than the benefits he will bring to the world.

Humans needed a push to change, but they were brainwashed to feel that anything that could threaten their current liberty and freedom is the villain – the concept of liberty and freedom that was thought by the tyrants.

That's why Ryan had to remove the system that was responsible for the situation that was currently going on.

On another note, Wakanda seemed to be openly sharing their borders with Ryan! Only Ryan tho. Shuri was now interning in Ryan's lab in New York, working on creating a vibranium reactor. Even T'Challa was staying in New York.

With King T'Chaka still around, T'Challa has more freedom to travel. Until the time comes where he is needed by the citizens of Wakanda, T'Challa will follow Ryan by the order of Bast and learn from him.

The Dora Milaje and the Queen of Wakanda had objected to it, but the King had vetoed every single objection. T'Chaka even thought of opening Wakanda to the whole world. But first he needed to settle the oppositions inside the country.

The state of the world was no longer as it was. Ryan had eliminated the initial issues of the race wars and gender wars inside the country as the problem was sourced from the people who didn't want the citizens to be united.

However, he needed help with the deep-rooted issues, and he would take whatever help he could get.

In SHIELD's newbie training exercise.

Steve Rogers was conducting the training by Ryan's request. Some good-natured people that wanted to change the world had been joining SHIELD non-stop. However, they didn't have the experience and the organization was short of the people who could teach them.

"You did good there. What is your name, soldier?" Steve asked the promising recruit that participated in his extreme training program even though the recruit was crouching with his back on the wall, desperately trying to catch up his breath.

"My name is Sam. Sam Wilson. And to get a compliment from Captain America is something I have been waiting for my whole life." Sam replied while huffing his breath. He was sweating heavily while the Captain seemed to have just done a light exercise.

"What unit are you in?" Steve asked.

"58th Pararescue…(breathes heavily) I was working at the VA before this. Then I got the call." Sam said. Steve held his hand toward Sam, and pulled him back up.

"Wait. You said you got a call?" A recruit nearby interjected.

"What? Didn't you?" Sam asked in puzzlement. It turned out, among the recruits there, he was the only one who received the offer by a call.

"What did the recruiter say when he called you?" Steve tried to get to the bottom of this. Sam seemed like a good man for him, but he was afraid that someone was trying to mess with SHIELD. Peggy Carter came instantly to interrogate Sam.

"First, the caller said he was trying to reach me for my extended car warranty. Then, he laughed after I said I didn't have a car and he asked me if I wanted one. Afterward, he .."

"Stop." Steve face-palmed after hearing the story. He was extremely familiar with this type of behavior and recognized who the caller was instantly.

"Well, If Knight contacted you personally, that means I will have to keep my eye on you." Steve said while flashing a smirk. Sam widened his eyes after hearing Ryan's name.

"Wait. Does our Vice President work as a part time insurance salesman too, now?" Peggy chuckled and confirmed it with Ryan. Less than 2 seconds later, she received the confirmation by text.

"It's really him." Peggy said.

"I should have bought the insurance at that time. I missed an opportunity to get his personal number." Sam said playfully.

"Let's go Sam. We need to get you to catch up with the other recruits. We have wasted a lot of our time here." Steve said.

After 15 minutes, Sam was running alone on the tracks inside SHIELD's training base. Then, Steve Rogers ran full speed and overtook him.

"On your left."

"Oh come on!" Sam mustered all of his strength for the last sprint before he passed out for the entire day.

Back at Ryan's office.

"Sir. R.Q has found the Skrull's ship near Saturn." ALBUS notified.

The Red Queen had scanned the 500 meter long Queen Skrull ship that was docked near the planet Saturn. The Skrulls had been moving toward Earth using a small shuttle to avoid detection.

"Ah Finally. How about Earth Planetary Monitoring or SWORD?"

"They weren't able to find anything, sir."

"Too bad. Alter their perimeter so that they will find a clue of the Skrull's whereabouts. If they still couldn't find them after I gave them a hint, I need to consider if I will keep investing my efforts in them. What is Brand doing now?"

"She is planning to break out Fury from SHIELD's prison and replace him with an LMD sir."

Ryan mused after realizing what Abigail had planned. He knew he gave her full reins in the mission, but to break Fury out was so unexpected for him.

Abigail also had cut off contact with him unexpectedly, making him sure that she had been talking to Fury while he was in the prison.

"Or is it as expected?" Ryan muttered while monitoring the prison feed.

Abigail had broken the internal camera circuit, but Ryan had stealth spider drones crawling all over the prison. Abigail was so thorough in her plan that she only visited the prison when Kai wasn't there.

Fury's trial will be conducted in a week. Ryan was saddened to see that even though Fury was working to protect the world, he was extremely distrustful toward its citizens. Now, Fury had all of the resources he had given Brand to fight against the Skrulls, and he was okay with it.

"I guess my appeal for him to be reinstated as a 8th level agent will be rejected after they know what he did."

If only he could wait and face trial like a normal person, then he would know that it was just a formality and he only needed to be demoted to do his work again.

Alas, after being locked out for too long with no knowledge of the outside world, Fury's paranoia had grown exponentially inside the prison cells holding him.

" I wonder if he will come to his trial after investigating the current world, or will he keep being paranoid and hide himself from the world."

Ryan closed the feed on Fury and let him make the decision on his own. Fury needed to go through the journey for him to truly change himself. He won't interfere in this matter.

"Madam Stacy wanted to know if you'd like chicken or fish for dinner." ALBUS asked.

"Just ask her to wait for me. I have bought some rare ingredients for tonight."

Ryan teleported inside his penthouse in New York and banished Gwen from the kitchen. After cooking the Roc bird that was from a fantasy world, he and Gwen spent some time together before he moved back to his office in Washington. Before he left, he said to the lonely Gwen.

"Just one more month. I promise that I will be able to finish all the problems in one more month."

"I do believe you." Gwen kissed his cheek and went to the bed. Ryan's tired mind felt a bit relaxed after hearing what she said. He noted in his mind that he will pamper her greatly as a reward for being so understanding in his efforts.

…

After Fury was taken out from the prison cell, he regrouped with Talos and Abigail Brand.

"So, this Queen Veranka. Is she a real person?" Fury asked the alien.

"Yes. She is the most important person in the Skrull Empire at the moment with the high priest missing." Talos replied.

"How did Ryan know about her then?" Fury muttered. His deep paranoia was hyper-boling, making outrageous hypotheses inside his mind.

"It is unlikely for a human to know about her. Unless…He is a Skrull." Talos said his hypothesis, causing Fury's eyes to widen.

"Why do you think that?" Abigail Brand asked. "And why would he want to hunt his own people if he is a Skrull?"

"If it was me, I would be sure to do it that way to avoid any suspicion on myself." Talos replied. Then, he added,

"As you know, the Skrulls were fighting with the Kree before our home planet was destroyed. The Earth was a suitable planet to build our new home, but it was already inhabited by humans."

"The Skrulls wanted to change that before the Kree could claim Earth as their own. I think that Knight …was a part of the peaceful Skrulls that wanted humans and Skrull to co-exist. That's why he was pushing the earth toward the galactic laws."

"He is advancing the planet, to prepare the humans to fight the Kree empire for him." Fury muttered in a sudden realization.

"We need to stop him then." Abigail said anxiously.

"He is protected by the Avengers. I need to contact Captain and Carol to warn them about this." Fury said.

"Fury. The Super-skrull could copy their powers. They might not be as safe as you think." Abigail said.

"If we want to proceed with this, we need to proceed with the assumption that every Avengers is a super-skrulls." Talos said with a glint of slyness in his eyes.

However, the one facing him was the most paranoid man on Earth. Fury stared at Talos while thinking of schemes from the perspective of Talos.

The people there will play a long chest game of betrayal, conflict, and exposure. But Ryan wasn't interested in that.

Near Jupiter, another long spaceship appeared. The ship had broken through time and space to appear at the age of change Ryan was fighting hard to create.

The ship that was shaped like a sword was commanded through several beings with gray skins. However, they have one thing in common. They were all once humans.

The leader of this ship, the blue man with the armor from the year 4000, was sitting on a throne and asked his crew about this era.

"We have arrived in the 21st century…Kang the Conqueror." a random crew said.

" Good. Find out the cause of the space-time continuum collapse and the person responsible for eliminating my timeline." Kang ordered solemnly. The chronal anchor that will affix his existence on the timeline needed some time to stabilize before he entered the earth.

"Soon. I will make sure that the person responsible for the changes pays for their actions!" Kang muttered angrily. Among his arsenal of weapons, there was a planet conquering army that could self-repair and made from the toughest alloy from the year 4000. And now, the conqueror has set his target for the 21st century.