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Torn Cape.

Part 13.

Base. The Moon.

"Bloody Vought," I said with a sneer.

The screen in front of me was showing a news report. By reading between the lines, I understood that the superhero company was making itself look good by claiming that it had been involved in the operation that had resulted in Maeve and I saving that transoceanic flight just yesterday.

This was distracting people nicely from the fact that Homelander still hadn't woken up and that Vought's stock had been dropping for weeks. Given that the Seven no longer existed as a team it was hardly a shock that Vought's shareholders had lost a lot of their faith in the company.

"We can't let them take credit for our actions," Margaret Shaw complained "I didn't even renew my contract with Vought".

She'd made a public declaration by coming with me to stop the terrorists. She intended to show the world that she longer had any loyalty to Vought and that she'd sided with me. Only for Vought to twist everything.

"The problem is that they own the identity of Queen Maeve," said Miranda who was in her office at CDC headquarters and talking to us via a secure connection "It's similar to the laws that allow a movie studio to own the rights to a fictional character or a franchise".

Must have something to do with the superhero merchandise that Vought was making millions from.

"Getting into a legal battle with Vought to claim the identity of Queen Maeve would be a long struggle" Cortana informed us.

"And not worth the effort".

"Just set up a new superhero identity" advised Miranda "Then hand that identity over to me so that Cerberus can protect it for you, Miss Shaw".

A rather good idea.

"I never liked the Queen Maeve image" I commented "The armour makes you look like an old shoe".

Margaret acted as if she was offended by my words.

"My image was meant to make people think of me as some sort of warrior queen like Boudica" explained Margaret "I do have Celtic ancestors".

Since I was from a Celtic country I wondered if I should complain about cultural appropriation.

"Whatever you say, Xena" I joked.

She didn't get the reference.

"You're allowed to call me Maggie," she told me.

The sexy woman on the screen who wasn't an AI got our attention.

"This seems like a good time to reinvent yourself" said Miranda who was more focused on the matter at hand than either of us "Cerberus can protect your new image without making a mockery of what it means to be a superhero".

Margaret Shaw thought about that before turning to address me.

"Nolan, if you're going to let me keep the armour then I should change my superhero identity to something more futuristic," said Maggie before she turned to the screen "I'll let Cerberus represent me from now on".

Miranda smiled upon hearing that.

"I can have my media department present this new image to the public" she said "Something about casting off the past and becoming a hero for the future".

That sounded like something the sheeple would eat up.

"We can leave the details to my PR department" Miranda went on to say "Just make sure you wear the science fiction armour and get rid of the old shoe leather stuff".

Margaret frowned.

"It's the armour of a warrior queen" she insisted "It's based on outfits worn by real women warriors of the past".

I very much doubted it.

"No one who ever went to war dressed like that would be taken seriously on the battlefield and I doubt they lived long once the fighting started," I remarked.

Before we could argue about that Miranda spoke again.

"Some of the die-hard Homelander supporters think that Invincible kidnapped Queen Maeve and that he is somehow forcing her to work with him" the CEO of Cerberus Defence Contracts let us know "I have EDI spinning everything, and the actual people on the plane are singing your praises so at least the extremists are being ignored".

That was good news.

"The more radical Islamic groups are denying involvement and they are denouncing the attempted hijacking" Cortana let us know.

Miranda had more to tell us.

"Nolan, I've gotten my R&D department to start going over the designs for the power armour you gave me" she let us know "I scanned the manual and had EDI transfer the data into a new format to make it look as if it had been developed in this world".

"I'm having different teams work on different parts of the armour so that we can patent every component" she was now saying "I won't be presenting the armour to anyone for a few months at least as I need to make it look as if CDC developed the technology even if we didn't create it".

That made sense as if she just presented the military with functioning power armour people would start to wonder where the technology came from. The fusion batteries alone could be a game changer when it came to advancing humanity's technology.

"Sounds like the tech is in good hands" I praised.

Miranda smirked at me.

"Yes, seducing you with my feminine charms was smart," she admitted.

I couldn't argue with that.

"Pop by and see our progress sometime soon" invited Miranda before she closed the channel.

As soon as he was gone Margaret slapped my arm.

"So you have a girlfriend," she said "I was wondering if you were gay. Not that I would mind if you were".

She was supposed to be bisexual so I could see why she wouldn't have been bothered.

"Miranda isn't my girlfriend" I let Margaret know "We just have an arrangement. In exchange for me working with her I'm the only man she's allowed to be with intimately".

Maggie didn't have anything to say about that.

"Why did you think I might be gay?" I asked.

I wasn't offended by her assumption, I was just curious.

"You have me alone in your moonbase, and I offered you sex, you could have me doing whatever you want while I'm up here," she pointed out "But you never showed any interest".

I had my reasons for keeping my distance.

"My thinking was that you wouldn't want to trade Homelander for another superpowered man who would tell you what to do," I explained

She didn't see it that way.

"You are nothing like Homelander" she assured me "And just so you know if you're interested in a friends-with-benefits deal I'm fine with that. A girl gets lonely on the moon".

I'd never been attracted to Queen Maeve, but Maeve was just a character played by Margaret Shaw, I might be able to have some fun with Maggie.

"Just so you know I am working on putting together a cloaked shuttle so that Nolan doesn't have to play taxi driver for you," Cortana informed Margaret.

I wondered if the armour I'd given to her would unlock its true potential when she wore it. Maybe she would be able to fly to the moon and back on her own.

"Thank you, Cortana," Maggie said.

Perhaps I would sleep with Margaret if she came up with a new superhuman identity, something I was attracted to.

"If I put the armour on I might be tough enough to do some sparring with you" Maggie suggested.

Cortana wanted me to keep expanding the base, but I could do with a change of pace and it would be good to get some pointers on fighting as my brawl with Homelander had proven that I did need to learn to fight.

"Boss, I just got an update for the PVP" Cortana let me know as I began to leave the room "Do you know anyone called Doctor Victor Von Doom".

I swore so loudly that Maggie came running into the room and began looking around as if there was some sort of danger.

"Nolan, what is it?" she asked.

We were in trouble and it would take me some time to explain why. Not that I had much time as soon there was something else I needed to deal with.

Federal Reserve Bank. New York.

Grace Mallory, the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, did not like the fact that she was going to have to work with a couple of supes, but given what had happened here she didn't have much choice in the matter.

Besides, she had nothing against Invincible personally or Queen Maeve for that matter, who for some reason had changed her look so that she looked something out of a science fiction movie.

"Mr Grayson, Miss Shaw," she said "Thank you for coming".

If she had to work with them then she was going to use a proper form of address.

"Director Mallory, can you tell us what happened here?" asked Invincible.

Yes, it would be best to get right down to business. What had happened here could affect the entire world so there was no sense beating around the bush.

"At 4.30 am local time this vault was broken into" answered Mallory as she took the two superhumans over the huge hole in the wall "Who or whatever made this hole did so without using any high-tech equipment or explosives, or at least none that we can detect".

One of her aids passed over a tablet which contained a few seconds of footage. The video played and showed the wall collapsing before several small figures could be seen. Then as a large figure appeared, entering the vault the footage degraded before simply ending.

The footage was rewound so that Invincible and Maeve could watch the last few seconds at a slower rate. This allowed them to see that the smaller figures were not human, they might be the size of children, but they were not kids.

As for the larger figure it too was humanoid in form, yet also not human, and while the cameras did not give them a good look at the prominent figure it was possible to make out some of its features. Such that it wore armour best suited to a character in a fantasy novel and carried a scythe.

"Whoever these people are they carried off billions of dollars worth of gold," Mallory told the two superhumans "This vault housed a little under half a million gold bars of different sizes, with a combined weight of about six thousand tons. Only a fraction was actually taken from the vault and we need to get in back".

Grace had more information to share.

"None of the gold stored here in the vault belongs to the Federal Reserve System. This place acts as a custodian of the gold on behalf of account holders, which includes a number of foreign governments, other central banks, and a lot of official international organizations" said the acting director "So this is an international incident with ramifications on a global scale".

At least both of the superhumans were looking as if they were taking things seriously.

"The vault is only able to support the weight of so much gold because it rests on the bedrock of Manhattan Island, down here we are 80 feet below street level," she told the superhumans "So someone has been digging down here a lot and there's no trace of explosives or any sign of the kind of equipment you'd need to dig through steel reinforced concrete".

Mallory had only been able to conclude that a small group of superhumans were working together. That was the only reason why she was willing to work with Invincible and whatever Maeve was going to start calling herself now that she'd changed her image.

While the armoured figure looked as if he had horns, and could be some superhuman, there was one super she knew about who had wings so a horned one wasn't so strange, she didn't understand who or what the smaller humanoids could be.

"So far a security team working for the Federal Reserve has gone missing while trying to track the thieves, an entire squad of cops went after them and also went missing, I even authorised a SWAT team, and they managed to report that they were under attack and we heard some gunfire before we lost contact with them".

Mallory took a sip of her cold coffee before she spoke some more.

"My choices now are to entrust you two, to call upon Vought or I can wait, and then send in the National Guard to sweep all of the tunnels," said the Director "Unfortunately getting the National Guard involved is going to take time. Some sort of jurisdiction issue since this is a federal matter not a state one".

She would be able to get the guard here sooner or later, but she had a feeling by then it might be too late.

"What exactly do you want us to do?" asked Maeve.

Mallory was surprised by easy it was to get their cooperation. Perhaps working with Cerberus wouldn't be so bad.

"I want you to go into the tunnels and find the stolen gold" she answered "I can authorise you to use deadly force, but I would like someone to blame this all on, other than I want you to clear the way for my agents. They can recover the gold once it's been located and the tunnels have been secured".

The two superhumans didn't require anything else they just headed off into the tunnels. It was odd to work with superhumans and more so when they acted more like people than overgrown children.

Maybe this job wouldn't be so bad. She'd have to see if they messed up recovering that gold.

Torn Cape

Part 14

Public Library. New York City.

Victor Von Doom, as a rule, did not play games, and he certainly didn't play them to amuse a bored cosmic being, but what choice had he been given when the prize for this game was his mother's damned soul?

She was the only person that Doctor Doom would have done this for. He would play this silly game for her sake, at least, until he got what he wanted from the cosmic being and then he would see about freeing himself.

He had agreed to come to this world to combat others who had been sent to a version of Earth so as to amuse a being who clearly had far more power than sense. A creature known as The Beyonder had something simpler in his home universe.

His objective wasn't to outright kill them, as if nothing else that would be boring, for now, he simply had to do battle with them. As long as Doom got what was his he didn't much care who he went up against. Anyone he had to fight would fall at a time of his choosing.

Yet even he could not win a game when he could not see all of the board or the pieces on it. That was why once he'd arrived in this world, and found that he had been stripped of his armour while being granted a normal appearance, he had gone in search of the information he required.

Quickly he had discovered that while the world he had been sent to was much like his own, complete with costumed heroes and incompetent governments, the heroes of this world would have been unworthy to stand beside those whom Doom had faced in the past.

This was one of the first things he'd learned when he entered the library and began to discover how this version of Earth differed from the one he'd come close to conquering more than once.

Many people and historical events were the same, there were two world wars and many lesser conflicts taking part with the same leaders rising to the top of society in both recent times and in the distant past.

In other ways, things were very different. There was no organisation such as S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect this world and the countries here were too divided by national borders and religion to unite against a common threat. They would be simple to deal with.

As for the superheroes, if they could be called that, were far more concerned with how the public saw them than with actually doing anything heroic. They would be unable to unite against him any more than the governments of this world.

Doom already despised them, even more than the self-righteous clods that he normally had to deal with. Many of his enemies had been brutes or naive fools, but at least they tried to make the world a better place in their own small ways. The heroes here only saved people in order to look good in the eyes of the public.

Perhaps some of these fools could be spared and made into enforcers as even Doctor Doom needed minions to carry out the less important tasks. Doom already had several ideas about how he could gain control of a few heroes and use them for his own ends.

There was no Reed Richards here to challenge him, no Fantastic Four to get in his way, and no Avengers to bother him when he was trying to work. The closest thing this world had to a proper hero was one man who was clearly up to more than the people realised.

For sure this Invincible put on a good show, but once Doom had hacked into what the FBI and CIA of this dimension, jokingly thought of as online security it was obvious that Invincible had plans for this world. Why else would be building a base on the moon?

This Invincible, or Nolan Greyson as he was also known, had access to technology far beyond that of the rest of the people in this world, and he'd already been here long enough to set himself up as a superhero.

Doom quickly and correctly calculated that Greyson had his own plans for this version of Earth, and if they got in the way of his plan then this Invincible would need to be dealt with.

Already Doctor Doom was aware of another threat. That of something called a Dungeon Keeper, but he had been unable to find out much about this other player despite the great amount of data he'd already amassed.

There had been many disappearances lately among the lower classes, and someone had just robbed the Federal Reserve Bank, but other than he didn't have much idea of what was going on in this PVP that he'd agreed to join for his mother's sake.

He was able to quickly figure out Grayson's connection to Miranda Lawson the head of Cerberus Defence Contracts. Since she was also not from this world it seemed likely that she could be an issue, or perhaps an asset, he would have to study her before deciding upon her fate.

That required time and a place to work from. The latter was easy to arrange when you could hack into any records you wished and alter them. It was child's play to divert funds from one source and place them into an account he could access.

If he bankrupted a few fools in the process then that was just fine with him. The so-called heroes of this world had far more money than they needed and the company they served was going through some interesting time. This made it easy to take some of their resources for himself.

Now all he had to do was find a suitable address, alter some more records and take possession of his new residence. Dealing with the current owners would be a bit of a chore, but between his masteries of magic and science, such self-appointed assignments were easily completed.

After some thought Doom selected an address and left the library. Unknowingly following in the same footsteps as others sent here, and had he known he would have told himself that sometimes he had to sacrifice originality for the sake of expediency.

Doom needed to work quickly if he was going to win this little game and take over this world. Only he had the right to rule this or any other version of Earth, and this time there would be no one would stop him from bringing order to the world.

Tunnels. New York City.

I grabbed the skull of the animated skeleton and smashed it so hard into the wall that the bone shattered, yet that didn't stop the creature from moving so I grabbed its exposed ribcage and tore the monster apart with my gloved hands.

"Since when did our lives become a game of Dungeons and Dragons?" Crimson Edge asked me.

I was surprised that she made such a reference and since my face wasn't covered in a helmet as hers was, she could read my expression of curiosity.

"We had a DM at Godolkin University" she explained.

The Godolkin University School of Crimefighting or God U, is a university founded by Vought International and dedicated to teaching young supes how to be heroes.

Their training leads up to the annual 'Vought Hero Draft' where once a year, the best and brightest young supes compete for Vought International contracts that in theory require them to protect America's major cities.

Since it was important to study your enemies I knew that Godolkin the university once included Queen Maeve, A-Train, and the Deep as students.

"I think we have found ourselves in something similar" I reasoned "And I think we now know that happened to all the homeless people that have been going missing".

Maggie didn't take long to put it together. The evidence of their ghastly fate was all around us.

"So we're dealing with a Necromancer" she realised.

I suspected that somewhere down here there was a powerful and evil magic user would be found.

"Maybe even a dragon" I mused "That would explain the sudden need for lots of gold".

If this was a D&D situation, we should expect to run into a dragon.

"Hell of a time for me to change my persona," said Maggie "I can see the movie title: Queen Maeve and the Dungeons of the Dead, or something like that".

She hadn't gotten out of the Vought mindset yet. There would be no movie. Although we might still profit from this venture.

"Keep an eye out for magical items," I said "If there is a dark wizard down here with the power to command the dead he or she is bound to have some cool magical stuff".

I'd played enough RPGs to know that the boss always that the best loot.

"Boss I have some news for you," Cortana let me know.

We were somewhat cut off down here because there was nothing for my AI to connect to, but she was still able to get some information.

"Homelander has woken up" I was informed.

That was something I could deal with later.

"According to the chatter I'm picking up from the Vought building he's coming after you" warned Cortana "And he's bringing what's left of the Seven with him".

The robbery couldn't be kept secret for long so I figured that if Homelander wanted to track me down he could.

"We predicted that this might happen," said the AI.

Yes, but our predictions had only accounted for him coming after me directly or that he would go crazy and start lashing out, it had even been possible that he'd commit suicide as Stormfront did in the show.

I had not guessed that he would bully the rest of the Seven into attacking me. Why would he do that when Homelander had little o no respect for them?

"It doesn't matter," said Crimson Edge "They can't hurt you, and we need to focus on the mission".

Homelander was a coward like all bullies. Most likely he'd try to ambush me at my home when he thought I'd have my guard down.

I was so convinced by this and distracted by having to take down even more moving skeletons as we moved deeper underground, that I was unprepared when something hit with some major force and I was knocked into the wall so hard that it cracked.

"It's A-Train!" Maggie called out.

He was capable of running into people with such force they exploded and could do so without doing any harm to himself so it made sense that he could at least knock me about despite how tough I'd become. With enough mass and velocity, he could do me some real harm, assuming he had the stamina to keep going like this.

The sound of an incoming train reached my ears at the same time I felt something hit me hard enough that I was again thrown into the wall of the narrow tunnel.

Crimson Edge was close enough to yell something at me, but she couldn't help me for some reason.

A-Train stopped ramming into me, perhaps because he needed a moment to catch his breath, and I realised what he was doing. It was rather clever for The Seven.

The super fast man knew he could not fight me directly because if he stopped, rather than simply push me as he raced by, I'd kill him, so he was trying to soften me up to wear me down enough for Homelander to come to finish me off.

He was doing a good job on his own. I knew that I would be bruised after this encounter because he was just so fast.

When the sound started, I managed to move just enough that I got spun around and knocked down rather than slammed into anything. Since he A-Train didn't seem to be suffering from any reflected damage I assumed that he wasn't doing enough harm to me for it to register while he was so focused on knocking me about.

As I picked myself up I reached for the Darksaber and I swiped at where I guessed A-Train would come from. By sheer luck if nothing else I got him.

Since the tunnel was narrow he had to run past and then come at me from the other end. Knowing this I waved the Darksaber wildly knowing that waiting for the noise would be pointless as he was faster than sound.

The noise of an oncoming train did reach my ears after A-Train dropped to the ground in two pieces. It was only now that I realised that we were under attack by what I could assume to be goblins of some kind.

So the Dungeon Keeper was more than some Necromancer, he was a full-on Dark Lord with many kinds of evil minions.

That was not good news, and to make matters worse the other members of the Seven were coming after me because they were more afraid of what Homelander would do to them than they were of me.

At least Crimson Edge had no trouble protecting herself. She had The Deep pinned to the tunnel wall at the far end. I saw him when I caught up with her.

"I would kill you" Maggie was saying "But I pity you too much".

She slammed the head of the knock-off Aquaman into the wall hard enough to knock him out, either that he was smart enough to play dead.

"You really did a number on A-Train," said a familiar voice.

I turned to see that Homelander had arrived with Starlight in tow and I wondered where Black Noir had gotten to. The biggest threats were the ones you didn't see.

"We don't have time for this," said the newest member of the Seven "Those monsters are attacking the subway stations".

Cortana soon confirmed this to be true. She was still having trouble accessing information for us down here and I wondered if it was only because we were so far underground.

"Shut up, bitch!" shouted Homelander.

He then turned his attention to me.

"That was a fluke the last time we met," he said directly to me "And after I'm done with you I'm going to make sure to teach Maeve her place".

Ah, so that was how he justified his failure. He'd convinced himself that it had been a bit of misfortune. He was rather skilled at lying to himself.

"No one is stronger than me!", Homelander declared.

There was movement behind me as Black Noir jumped out of the shadows to strike at Crimson Edge who thanks to her new armour hardly even noticed the blow. The sword didn't shatter or anything dramatic there was just a clunk noise.

"You deal with Noir" I ordered "I'll deal with Homelander. As for you Starlight, why don't you go and help the people who are under attack".

Anne didn't need much encouragement to go off and do the right thing, and more importantly, it would keep her out of the way.

"I'll make this quick and then I'll deal with the traitors" stated Homelander.

He was so wrong. I had no intention of making this quick. I planned to fully enjoy the suffering I would cause him.

Torn Cape.

Part 15.

Tunnels. New York City.

The wall broke apart as Homelander came at me much as A-Train had, and while he didn't have the sheer speed of the member of the Seven who I had just killed, he had a lot more raw power.

Because of this we through the wall and into a man-made tunnel that was running parallel to the one we'd been in. How deep underground we were I had no idea and I didn't have time to find out from Cortana since I had Homelander to deal with.

While this city wasn't that old, at least when compared to major ones over in Europe, it was aged enough to have developed a network of passages. They were thankfully empty of any innocent bystanders such as maintenance workers. This was good as Invincible had a reputation for limiting damage to public property and safeguarding human lives when possible.

"After I'm done with you I'm going to burn that traitor bitch to ashes," promised Homelander as his eyes began to glow "Then I'd find that hot piece of Australian ass you are fucking and I'll...".

As it turned out I cared more about Maggie and Miranda than I'd realised as that unfinished declaration made me very mad and his somewhat handsome mug suffered because of it. I punched him hard in the face before he could tell me what he planned to do my baby mama. In fact, I struck him with such force that my knuckles hurt.

"You won't be harming anyone, ever again" I stated.

That sounded like something a cheesy action hero would say. I wasn't playing for the cameras here and there were no witnesses to impress. I should just get on with killing this jerk.

Due to the visor that Cortana had made for me, I could see Homelander just fine and I assumed that he had some supervision that allowed him to see me, because he could still block a punch despite the sheer darkness here.

Sadly for him, he didn't defend himself so successfully against the fist of my left hand and this allowed me to land a blow strong enough that it cracked at least one rib. The blow made a very satisfying sound.

"Son of a whore!" Homelander called out.

Understandably, I did not take that insult very well, which had been directed at my mother, and I began punching Homelander so hard that for a moment it looked as if the man-made passage would collapse upon us.

Then I threw him to the cold concrete floor that made up this tunnel.

"You know everywhere on this Earth they speak your name," I said "It's Homelander this and Homelander that, but in reality, you're just not that cool".

I began stamping on his chest and I was unsure if the sound I heard was his bones breaking or the concrete shattering beneath us. As it turned out it could have been both as there was a snapping noise as the floor gave way.

In the past, before I became super awesome, I had played games that involved fighting monsters in a dungeon and in my experience they tend to be rather 2D. Meaning that once you are underground you stay at the same level. There aren't normally any means of going up or down until you reach an exit or at least enter a different section of the dungeon.

Real life isn't so well set out so when Homelander and I went through the concrete floor we ended up in a deep part of the dungeon that something had either created down here or was at least using in some way, and we fell into some sort of underground lake.

Both Homelander and I could swim and as we began to climb out, we found out what happened to all the stolen gold. It seemed safe to assume had something to do with the massive dragon.

Some sort of ugly dwarf creatures that I'd seen in the recording were piling bars of gold at the feet of the massive dragon to go with the treasure already here. How the Dungeon Keeper had amassed this much wealth I had no idea and the amount of skeletons down here was worrying.

This dragon was not one of those beasts you see in Game of Thrones or Harry Potter. This was a real dragon, massive, blood red in colour, it had four legs and cruel intelligence in its eyes.

"Who dares intrude upon the lair of Kalzeruth!" the huge creature demanded to know.

Before anyone could answer it the creature breathed fire and I ducked myself back into the water I'd been trying to win out of just moments ago.

Since Homelander was slower than me due to his injuries if nothing else, he screamed as he burned alive. I didn't know if that would kill him and it hardly mattered right now as I had a dragon to deal with.

Also, I was supposed to be recovering that gold, I'd not forgotten about that. Someone would come to recover the wealth, so I just needed to deal with the monster that had taken ownership of it.

When the creatures stopped breathing fire, and even under the surface of the cold lake I could feel the heat of the flames, I flew out of the lake and into the air. It was a large underground cavern so I had plenty of room to move around in.

Now that I could get a better look at the dragon I saw that it was Smaug shaped and about the same size, so I had some idea of what I was going up against. However, since I didn't see any damaged scales, as such I'd have to deal with this creature in a rather brutal way rather than exploit a weak spot.

I did not attack right away, rather I floated there in surprise as Kalzeruth leaned down and popped the charmed remains of Homelander in his mouth before chewing and swallowing rather noisily.

Given how tough Homelander was I knew that Kalzeruth's teeth were something that I needed to avoid at all costs because they might be able to break me into meaty chunks as well.

Yet despite the horror of what I'd just seen and the fact that I was in danger, I couldn't help laughing.

"Why does your friend's death amuse you so?" asked Kalzeruth.

Hearing that was also funny.

"He wasn't my friend" I answered "He was an enemy and a well-loved hero, and now he's going to end up as dragon shit".

It was a fitting fate for Homelander that I found extremely comical, yet Kalzeruth did not find the situation humorous at all. Rather he took offence and tried to roast me, perhaps he was still hungry, and I avoided the fire by flying around the dragon.

Since I know that the hero sometimes needs a special sword to slay the beast I reached for the darksaber and ignited the weapon as I got behind Kalzeruth. The dragon had trouble twisting its body around and so I was able to slash at its back.

"My scales are stronger than steel plate," boasted the fire-breathing monster.

A lightsaber could defeat such defences, even if they were boosted by some sort of magic as this dragon's scales seemed to be, but I would need to either keep attacking the same part of the body so I could melt through the scales, be able to focus on one spot for more than a second or find a vulnerable part to attack. I decided to go with the latter and I went for the eyes.

Only I had to stop my assault because Kalzeruth breathed fire once more, as I again lamented my lack of any kind of ranged attack. Not that there was any sort of gun I could acquire that could equal the sheer power of my physical strikes.

At least I had speed and agility on my side as the dragon simply didn't move very fast when compared to me. This was how I was able to avoid Kalzeruth's spiked tail, which the dragon was using to try to knock me out of the air.

My hopefully superior intelligence allowed me to come up with an idea. I landed on the ground and began swiping at the gold with the darksaber.

As I'd suspected that it would, messing with the dragon's treasure made it very mad and it tried to burn me yet again. Only this time I was ready for it. I went up the ceiling and then down as the dragon breathed fire at where I had been standing mere seconds ago.

My next attack worked wonders. The darksaber was driven into one of the eyes of the dragon and the energy blade was driven into what passed for its brain. Magical creature or not it was still an organic being and without its grey matter, it died like any other mortal creature.

It dropped to the ground as it died and I pushed the blade of the exotic weapon into its head as deep as I could. That much dragon slamming into the ground shook the entire cavern for a moment.

"Well that was fun," commented Cortana.

I did feel a certain amount of satisfaction from defeating this dragon. It had been my toughest foe so far. With that in mind, I cut off one of Kalzeruth's smallest horns so that I could take it as a trophy and I stored it in a pouch I kept at my side.

"They aren't going to be able to pass this thing off as a super terrorist" commented Crimson Edge when she dropped down the hole I'd made.

No doubt Vought was already spinning some tale about the remaining members of The Seven going off to fight super terrorists who had set up under the streets of New York. I wondered how they would spin Homelander's death.

"The government will put this thing into a massive packing crate and store it with the bodies of the Rosewell aliens and the Ark of the Covenant" I muttered "They'll stage a massive coverup, that's what governments do".

Once Maggie was done inspecting the creature, something she would have spent much more time doing if our attention wasn't needed elsewhere, she turned to speak to me.

"Noir is gone" she told me "He's not dead, but he'll be out of action for a while".

If needs be I would throw that guy into space. He was somewhat like Deadpool or maybe Deathstroke, so short of utterly destroying his body it might not be possible for me to kill him.

"Hold on. Invincible. What happened to Homelander?" she asked.

I pointed at the mouth of the dragon.

"As I was beating him to a pulp we fell into this cavern and he got turned into burnt meat by that monster," I told her "It chewed him before it swallowed. So I guess he's somewhere in the dragon's digestive system".

Maggie Shaw needed a moment to process that.

"So he's dead," she said with a sigh.

The method of his death made me wonder if all of Vought's manufactured superheroes were vulnerable to magic. Since this world lacked magic, or at least any magic the locals could use, until the Dungeon Keeper appeared, it wasn't something they would have needed to worry about.

Since I could also be vulnerable to magic, or at least some types of magic, we would both need to be careful. This was something I pointed out to Crimson Edge.

"Do you really think this is magic?" she asked "Maybe the skeletons were some kind of robotics or maybe some super has the power to animate bone and make them like puppets, I've seen some messed up stuff when working for Vought".

I pointed at the cooling body of the dragon. There was no way something like that could exist without magic or maybe some really advanced cybernetic technology mixed with genetic engineering that was way beyond anything we had access to, but there was no evidence that technology had been involved.

"Okay, so magic is now a thing" agreed Maggie.

"Or maybe it always was and it's just been dormant" I mused.

To be fair this was all a lot to take in, but she would have to process everything later as we still had a job to do. I needed to deal with the Dungeon Keeper quickly so that I could focus on Doctor Doom.

I figured that my only chance to deal with Doctor Doom was to kill him before he had any time to plan and then throw him into space, on course for the sun. As such I could not afford to delay.

"We need to find this Dungeon Keeper" I was now saying "That's the only way to end this. If we don't take them down they'll begin again, and if he or she any sense when they start over they'll do somewhere remote".

This Keeper doesn't need dead people to build their army. We'd seen what I assumed to be goblins and some kind of very ugly dwarf so if this Dungeon Keeper managed to escape he or she could go out into the middle of nowhere and hide out until they had an army big enough to threaten all of civilization.

If the Keeper could bring a dragon into this world then the ROB only knows what else they could ally with.

The Keeper's forces were already a threat to the people of New York. Cortana had been able to show me a few images on my fancy new visor that showed that the subway system was being evacuated and the police were trying to keep the monsters contained. Even Starlight could only help them so much.

"Any idea where we can find this Keeper?" questioned Maeve.

I didn't need to give it much though.

"If they are like any of the other big baddies in this sort of situation then they will have a grand throne room and a fancy seat to sit upon" I mused "They'll make a speech about how awesome they are, and tell us all about their plans for the future before ordering our deaths. Then they will act all surprised when we easily survive whatever death trap they have set up for us".

That was normally how these things worked. Only that wouldn't be the case this time.

"Or maybe I'll attack you right now with my strongest minions at my side," said a male-sounding person who wore a black robe that covered their entire body and face "Less of cliche that way".

I hated it when the bad guys were smart. The Keeper was supposed to send his minions after us first and then we could have the boss fight. They weren't supposed to attack all at once. This could get very messy.

Torn Cape.

Part 16.

Keepers Dungeon. New York City.

"Is this one of yours?" asked the robed figure.

The head of the superhero known as The Deep was thrown at us and it came to rest near our feet. Neither Maggie nor I reacted much to the sight. Compared to what else we'd seen today getting shown the head of someone we didn't even like was a bit dull, to be honest.

"Didn't really care for him" I admitted.

"I don't normally use terms like toxic masculinity," said Crimson Edge "But Deep was a toxic guy".

He was the kind of bloke that feminists could point to and then lecture people about fish not needing bicycles.

"Oh," said the Keeper, who sounded a bit discouraged "I was expecting that to have more of an impact. Ah well".

The hooded figure paused for a moment before giving an order.

"Kill them" the big bad commanded.

Before I could leap forward and take the fight to them, Frenchie stepped up from behind the Keeper and fired a grenade launcher that hit me with something that caused me to stagger back.

Whatever he had loaded in those things cracked my visor so I had to take it off and fight in the dark. My enhanced senses could only do much for me, but they would be enough.

"I hate it when people fire grenades at me!" I yelled.

Whatever was in those things they made me feel dizzy if only for a few moments, and if Cortana had been able to speak with me I felt sure she would have told me she was sorry for not having finished the personal shield she'd promised me.

In her defence, she had a lot of other things to do, and it wasn't as if I had ever made it seem important.

Once the grenades had stopped blowing up in my face, I found myself getting struck by bolts of lightning and while those blasts didn't harm they were very distracting.

"The ROB gave you a lot of power too" commented the Keeper

"More than I imagined".

I got the impression that I wasn't dealing with a fictional character but rather someone who had once been normal like me. Although I could be wrong about that.

Not that I had time to dwell on this as I saw that Crimson Edge was fighting some sort of demon in armour who carried a scythe, the same creature that broke into the bank I was sure.

Maggie would have done more than hold on her own if not for the fact that a gang of leather-clad dominatrixes with whips were keeping her from moving much.

I wasn't sure if they were meant to be a threat or if this was a kink thing. If it was the latter I wasn't going to judge.

"The ROB rewarded me for killing Jason Todd. Now I have my own lightsaber," said the Keeper.

I ignited mine. I had turned my weapon off and returned to my belt after I slew the dragon, which was something I was still a bit giddy about, and then I was ready to duel. Only I had to wait to face the boss as monsters were now pouring into the underground cavern.

Creatures that had to be vampires flew above the others and reached me first. One of them wore a red helmet and dressed like a modern biker. This must be what happened to Red Hood.

Apparently becoming a vampire meant that he wasn't back in the PVP either because he was still dead or because he was under the Keeper's control.

Not that it matters much as the Darksaber still worked, it sure was a durable bit of tech, and I used to slice the vampires into pieces, they turned to dust and that annoyed me more than their attack because the sheer amount of ash I made clouded my vision for a moment.

After that, there were more skeletons for me to crush, and goblins for me to cut down as well as some other things, that could have demons that needed to die as well.

I soon had to deal with what I guessed to be a troll because it looked like the one out of the first Harry Potter movie. Only this troll was wearing armour and it carried a weapon that was more than some crude club.

The massive creature came running at me while swinging around a spiked mace, that looked as if someone much more intelligent had made it, and that weapon did much more damage to the Keeper's forces than it could ever do to me.

For fun, I put the Darksaber away, and I caught the mace with my bare hands when the troll tried to use it to crush my skull, and I managed to yank it free of the surprised creature's hands.

"It's clobbering time!" I yelled.

This was the wrong superhero world for those words, but it was fun to say and I began to clobber, or rather I tried to as the massive mace was really too big for me to handle with any skill.

All I could do was swing it around to clear a space around me, and once I'd built up enough speed I let go of the weapon. It should have reduced the Keeper to a bleeding mess only the cloaked figure was able to teleport out of the way.

"I have an army" the cloaked figure declared "Every monster under my command is coming here to kill you".

Ah, the old Zerg rush tactic. I could respect that, and if I had chosen a weaker power set when I took the ROBs deal this plan might have worked.

While the remaining monsters got their act together the kinky chicks who had been bothering Maggie came at me, but rather than charge, they moved more seductively as they expected me to lower my guard around known enemies.

None of them spoke as they moved around me, yet they made noises, the kind of sounds an aroused woman might make, even if only when starring in porn.

Then without any warning, one of them struck out at me with a branding iron of all things its tip glowing red hot as the bitch tried to stab my face.

I grabbed the very hot end of the branding iron and it sizzled as the metal burned the material that made up my hero outfit, yet I didn't call in pain or even flinch. This was much to the surprise of the dominatrix, who watched open mouth as I bent the rod.

A whip struck me and wrapped around my arm. Much the delight of the woman around me if the noises they were making were anything to go buy. Those noises turned to ones of fear when I yanked on the whip and dragged the dominatrix towards me.

I let go of the whip and then grabbed her neck, as Maggie had done not so long ago with a terrorist, I snapped the neck of the kinky woman, and let her body drop to the ground. While they moaned in dismay and backed up I smiled at them.

"No disrespect meant," I told these scary ladies "But I like my girls more submissive and gentle. I'm a bit old-fashioned that way".

I just wanted to make it clear that I wasn't going to kill them because I felt threatened by strong women in any way. I was about to kill them because they were my enemy.

To that end I moved with great speed and grabbed one of the four remaining leather-clad torturers before she could do more than scream in a way that was not at all sexy I had her head in my hands and I squeezed until it cracked much like a hard-boiled egg.

Their cries of dismay were music to my ears as I began to enjoy this fight as I had when battling the dragon. Sure I could have ended this fight sooner, but where was the fun in that?

These women couldn't hurt me, or at least they had been able to so far, and I liked that I could make those who were used to harming others realise what it was like to be the victim.

After she died another of the scary women, one who preferred latex or rubber over leather, came at me with Freddy Kruger-type claws on her hands.

She went for my eyes and I grabbed both of her arms before she could try to cut my face. I squeezed hard and then pulled her arms out of her sockets. This made quite a lot of mess.

The third scary lady I killed had more power than the others she was able to electrify her whip despite it not being made of metal and it tickled when she whipped me.

I actually laughed and that freaked her out. Then she got really scared as I began to strangle with her own weapon as it electrified her. The smell generated was not at all pleasant.

As for the last dominatrix she tried to run only to be cut down by the Dugoen Keeper.

"Either die to him or die to me!" shouted the big bad.

At least the boss tried to fight me. The big bad used some sort of magic and I began to weaken as I'd suddenly gotten the flu, only for the Keeper to suddenly end the spell as they staggered backwards.

I recovered quickly and I wondered what sort of spell that had been to weaken someone as powerful as me it couldn't be some low-level cantrip.

"You can reflect damage too," the cloaked figure said "OP plz nerf".

That settled it I was for sure fighting someone I could once have chatted with on sci-fi and fantasy form. But this was no time to enquire about that as I had a battle to win. I activated the Darksaber and waded into the fight as I cut down monsters that the Keeper had summoned to this cavern. They didn't last long.

Then I faced the Keeper himself. Now that I was closer I could tell that the form was male and that the person had glowing eyes as if possessed by something unnatural.

We trade blows with our weapons and right away it became clear that Keeper was better with weapons than me as he managed to strike me and the strike on my arm actually hurt me if only for a moment.

Thankfully it hurt both of us thanks to the ROB not having nerfed me. No doubt it found this entire fight to be amusing even and it wasn't totally one-sided as magic could harm me, and so could lightsabers apparently.

Like my weapon, it must have been granted by the ROB and perhaps that being had made the more powerful than the real thing. I checked the wound and found that the small burn was already fading away. My hero outfit was however going to need some repair work.

Before I could try to attack again the Keeper held out a hand and I felt magic affect me once again. This time it was my mind that came under attack.

"Kill the woman who came here with you" he ordered.

I turned to see that Crimson Edge had just decapitated the big demon guy with his own scythe, and I felt the urge to cut her down. Only I resisted the mental command. A wave of primal anger came to the surface, I felt as if the attempt to control me had awoken something, and I launched myself at the Keeper.

Much like Luke on the second Death Star, I brought my sabre crashing down again and again until I took off the Keeper's hand. He screamed and then I got myself under control.

I reached down and picked up the Kylo Ren sabre. It was a silly design, but the technology behind it was advanced and I might need it for spare parts if the Darksaber ever broke.

"I don't want to exist as a sentient crystal" complained the Keeper.

A person would think he'd be more upset about what I was going to do to him, but the Keeper only seemed annoyed as I removed his head much like how Anakin took off Count Dooku's head in The Revenge of the Sith.

"There can be only one!" I called out.

Maggie had to ruin the moment.

"What about the Doom guy you were freaking out about?" she asked.

For a few moments, I had forgotten about him.

"Is that it?" wondered Maggie.

I had no idea. Nothing seemed to have changed as far as I could tell.

"What does Cortana say" I questioned.

The armour that Crimson Edge wore actually contained Cortana, as much as anything did since she was made up of information.

"She has no new information other than the monster attacks have stopped" I was told.

That meant this wasn't over.

"He mentioned something about a sentient crystal" I mentioned "Might the source of his power".

Before we could discuss it further the roof began to collapse in on us. I'd made a hole in already and the cavern had taken some damage during the short battle, but I didn't think it was caving in naturally.

"Run!" I shouted.

Maggie didn't need any encouragement and we soon legged it out of the cavern. Only we were too slow and the rocks crushed me under the weight.

Torn Cape.

Part 17.

The Dungeons. Somewhere Under New York.

He was not a happy Keeper. Until now, everything had been progressing slowly and while that could be dull at times, things had at least gone smoothly for him, even from the start, and until now he'd not regretted making his deal with that ROB who offered him power in exchange for taking part in some sort of PVP.

Even when his mind, soul, or essence, whatever it was called, had been trapped within the magical crystal that served as a power source for him and the heart of his underground domain, he had not wanted to go back to the puny man he had once been.

The Keeper of the Dungeon remembered when this had all started. He'd been someone else not so long ago, someone unimportant and best left forgotten. Then he'd become the Keeper and for a time he'd been all alone in the dark. Which hadn't been dull even if it had been worrying for a time.

When he had figured out how to create his first imp, it had been a joyous event, followed by many more happy discoveries. The Imps had dug for him, creating tunnels and rooms deep beneath New York at a rate that should have been impossible.

They even found veins of metal down here. Not much gold, or at least not enough, but the imps had the uncanny ability to find metals and mine them effectively so that their master had materials to work with.

As the imps worked, the Keeper discovered that many kinds of rooms could be made and that he could shape mana, magical energy, to make himself a physical body, and over time he'd learned how to use that power in the form of many different spells.

Then the portals had been found and with them, creatures from other worlds had come to serve. Goblins, trolls, and the Dark Mistresses came to him. He'd created vast lairs for them, training rooms, underground farms, and workshops.

The Dark Mistresses had always been fun. They were as eager to be hurt as they were to do harm and quite willing to let their master include his desire to dominate in any way he desired.

Later others appeared, the warlocks who aided him in learning magical spells in libraries they'd helped him to create, and by unlocking new knowledge he had been able to create even more for his growing kingdom.

Over time his imps dug further from the crystal that was the source of his power. They found the underground tunnels of New York City and they began to claim them for their master. They also found people, who were to the Keeper nothing more than a useful resource.

He'd not been greedy or reckless back then, so he'd sent out just a few of his creatures to grab those who would not be missed. Plenty of homeless people were brought down into his dungeon, some were left to die in the cells and death was no escape for them as they served him as undead.

The Dark Mistresses broke some and they served him as well and some who died were sent to the graveyard to bring vampires into this world. They were useful servants and thanks to them he'd defeated Jason Todd.

Perhaps the ease of that victory had made the Keeper too confident. Looking back now it was clear that he shouldn't have gone after that gold. He should have stayed hidden for longer and only gone to the gold when he was sure was ready and he had a much larger army.

Even now despite recent events, he still didn't wish to go back to the life he had, but he recognised that he was in big trouble. Taking on Invincible and whoever was in that armour had cost him many of his forces, including the dragon he'd coaxed into his service with a great deal of gold, his lightsaber, and his physical body.

He'd lost so much that the Keeper didn't think that he would be able to fight off another enemy in a round of PVP and there were the locals to consider. Sooner or later they would organise and send in the army, or at least the National Guard, and they would flood his tunnels with soldiers.

Of course, the Keeper had known that would happen soon after he'd sent out the raiding party to take all that gold, but he'd needed it to bring a dragon into his service and if the beast still lived he wouldn't have been so worried as dragons could take on whole armies.

Maybe if he had the imps build more tunnels for the soldiers to get lost in then he could keep the soldiers away from the Dungeon Heart long enough to form some sort of cohesive defence.

He had the workshops as well as the training rooms, and already new monsters were entering his kingdom to take up service, so they could build traps and if he killed enough invaders he could send their corpses to the graveyards to make more vampires.

As for the vampires he had plenty of them as they had respawned by now, so he would send them against the soldiers to buy himself some time. Yes, he could do this, he would survive and rebuild.

The humans of this world would have to destroy one of their greatest cities to get at him. He could make it a bloody affair and perhaps force some sort of stalemate

The Keeper, or the Master as he was known to his servants, moved into the armoury that he had created for his own needs. Imps moved to remove the black cloak he wore to show a surprisingly normal-looking body that was soon covered

in armour forged in the workshops and enchanted by the warlocks.

He'd decided not to wear this armour when going up against Invincible, as he didn't think it would have helped, and the robed look went better with the lightsaber.

The Keeper had thought that his magic would be the only weapon worthwhile against the person that the Keeper had mistakenly thought of as a Kryptonian. One of those aliens could have been killed by magic and he had plenty of that.

That he'd been wrong about that no longer mattered. Invincible was gone, and he knew that the other heroes who had come down here were also dead. That would demoralise his enemies the Keeper considered as he picked up the mace that the trolls had forged for him.

It was a shame that Frenchie was dead having been crushed along with the invaders. That human had been useful due to his knowledge of modern weaponry. The Keeper had been hoping to equip his monsters with more advanced weapons once they had access to the surface world. He would have to find someone new to aid him in that endeavour.

As the Keeper returned to the main chamber and approached the dungeon heart, which was surrounded by offerings of treasures, skulls and weapons, the Keeper got the sense that something was wrong.

He wondered if the National Guard had already arrived. If so then he needed to finish gathering his forces and prepare for a siege. He connected to the Dungeon Heart and found his attention drawn to the cavern he had collapsed upon on Invincible and the woman in the science fiction armour.

"That's not possible!" the Keeper yelled.

Via the Dungeon Heart, he watched as his strongest enemy managed to drag himself and the armoured woman out of the rubble and into one of the tunnels that made up his dungeon.

Thinking about it the master of this place should have realised that Invincible wasn't dead. He would have somehow known and some sort of reward would have appeared. He'd been foolish to start planning ahead without making sure the current threat had been fully dealt with.

"How did he survive?" wondered the Keeper.

They both should have been crushed under tons of rubble. He'd used a lot of mana to make sure that part of the dungeon completely crumpled and it had been a risk since he could have ended up causing more of his kingdom to collapse with it.

The woman had survived as well. What kind of armour was she wearing? Granted she wasn't moving, and that meant she was likely out of action, but the Keeper still had to find some way of dealing with Invincible.

But what could he do? What would kill that bastard? The dragon hadn't been able to. His minions had been slaughtered and even he hadn't been able to harm the hero without doing damage to himself.

The Keeper considered collapsing more of the dungeon, regardless of how that might affect the city above and his own kingdom, but he dismissed the idea, he'd be burning the village to save it and it wasn't as if it had done more than slow down the hero the first time.

It didn't take long for the Keeper to realise that he couldn't win and he wasn't meant to. He knew about the new other people taking part in the PVP and he realised that the ROB had clearly favoured Invincible.

Then there was Doctor Doom who was also out there somewhere, for Doom and Invincible, he was just a challenge to overcome, something to amuse the ROB before the real conflict began.

The Keeper felt betrayed, and there was nothing he could do about it, even summoning the Horned Reaper wouldn't help, although he could do that and would because the Reaper might at least buy him some time if he did manage to come up with a plan.

He couldn't even run because he didn't know how to move the Dungeon Heart. Maybe the imps could remove it from this chamber and carry it to the nearest portal and he could leave this world. He had no idea if that would work, but it was worth trying and maybe he could destroy the portal so he couldn't be followed.

With his power, he summoned every creature to his location. Every vampire, dark mistress, troll, overgrown bug, goblin, skeleton, and imp would soon be here. They would guard the Dungeon Heart as he attempted to relocate, giving their lives for him as they should.

The Dungeons. Somewhere Under New York.

Digging myself out of that cavern had been unpleasant and it was a good thing that Crimson Edge had been with me so close to the exit, or I could have lost her in the rubble.

As it was she might not make it as I couldn't wake her up and her armour was damaged. She'd be of no help to me and she might be spending some time in a coma as Homelander had done.

Leaving her here was risky, but I didn't even know the way out of this place because the cavern I'd fallen into no longer existed as such I wouldn't be able to fly up through the hole and reenter the tunnel network.

I couldn't help wondering what that collapse might have done to the city above, had some section of it collapsed as well? On the plus side, if all the bodies of the people and creatures whose lives I'd ended recently had been crushed then there would be no forensic evidence linking the deaths to others I'd slain with the darksaber.

That was something else to be concerned about later as right now I needed to end this fight and maybe get Maggie some medical attention if there was anyone out there who knew how to treat her or if they could be trusted to care for her.

I needed to find a way out of here and I also had a need to finish off the Dungeon Keeper because I just knew he wasn't dead. I could not accomplish either of those goals if I stood here and guarded Crimson Edge. With that in mind, I headed out to look for something to kill.

Rather than walk I lifted myself a little into the air and then flew down the passageway. I bashed my way through doors made of wood and metal. I ignored the traps in my way, paying no attention to the darts, the spikes and going right over the traps built into the floors.

With my enchanted senses, I was able to hear the sound of movement in the distance and I got the impression that a great many living things were moving towards one spot.

This made sense if the Keeper did have some sort of crystal that was the source of his power. He must be preparing for a last stand in some foolish hope that he would be able to protect it.

It wouldn't matter if he had an army because I was not playing around anymore. By collapsing that cavern, which was something that could have trapped me, the Keeper had proven himself to be a real threat.

I soon found the creatures who were under the Keeper's command and they charged at me. Intent on overwhelming me with sheer numbers since they saw it as their only chance of defeating me.

While I'd managed to hold on to my weapons, the darksaber and the lightsaber I'd taken from the Keeper, I didn't bother to use them. Instead, I kicked and punched by way through the enemy who had been foolish enough to charge me.

I simply broke them and then some of the smarter enemy tried to take me down with magic since they weren't close combat types. The magic users sent fireballs at me and magically created spikes of ice, all of which did nothing as spells meant to damage the body weren't effective against me.

There were a few of the kinky ladies left, but they didn't do any better this time as I grabbed one and used her to beat a few others of her kind to death. Oddly the women didn't seem to mind that much.

The demon, who I was sure Maggie had killed, made another appearance and I didn't let that monster get close in case his scythe was enchanted in some way that might allow it to hurt me.

To deal with that guy I picked up a bit of the wall that broke loose during the fight and threw it hard enough that the head of the monster seemed to explode. Not much, but I'd had a long day and I wanted to get this over with.

"No, this isn't fair!" someone shouted.

I assumed that this person was the Keeper and that they had some way of either possessing someone or making a physical body for themselves, and this one looked like Sauron's armoured form for some reason.

"What's the point of a game that I could never win!" he yelled.

I'd just assumed that the ROB was an unfair jerk. I didn't complain because the unfairness was in my favour.

"Are you crying?" I questioned.

He was weeping like a big kid. Today must have been hard on the guy. But I had to end this so I picked up the scythe that I had last seen in the hands of Crimson Edge, and she should have her trophy back, and then I dashed forward so fast that the Keeper could do nothing before I cut his new body in half.

Given that the room was lit up by a crystal that glowed and then dimmed it wasn't hard to figure out what the Dungeon Heart could be found.

"Hulk Smash" I yelled.

I put the scythe down for a few moments so I could focus on breaking the crystal with my fists, and once that was done everything went quiet. I knew right away that I'd won, however, I didn't know if this dungeon would remain stable with its source of power.

As such I didn't hang around. I grabbed Maggie's trophy and then flew back to where I'd left her. There must be a way out of here and if there wasn't then I'd make one.

Torn Cape.

Part 18.

Penthouse. Manhattan.

"As horrible as it might sound, we can take advantage of this," said Miranda Lawson.

Her beautiful face was on my laptop's screen as we took part in a secure conference call as our AI exchanged information.

I'd only just managed to find a way out of the underground and already Miranda was working on spinning the situation to advance our own agendas. EDI and Cortana would be able to control what information was shared on social media so as to help me look like the true hero of this disaster.

Even with the gold having been recovered the Keeper had done a lot of harm to this city. No one kicked up much fuss about all the dead homeless, it was the people killed in the subway attacks that were the focus of attention.

Add to that, the destruction of the underground cavern had in turn collapsed service tunnels and brought down some of the city's services in a poor part of New York.

Many homes had lost power and water, a few were simply too unsafe for anyone to live in because the ground they were built on no longer had firm foundations.

"There are disaster relief organisations on the way and on your behalf I made a generous donation to the charities than fund them" Cortana let me know.

That was fine with me as if I ever needed more money there were plenty of bad guys for me to steal it from.

While Maggie wasn't in bad shape considering all that had happened she badly needed to get cleaned up so I was letting her use the bathroom of my penthouse before I got myself sorted.

"I plan to use this to get CDC a lot of funding" declared Miranda.

Another person might berate Miranda for thinking of ways to take advantage of what had recently befallen New York, I was not one of them as like her I had decided to guide humanity over the next few centuries, something that would involve making some hard choices.

"How?" I asked.

I kept an eye on the door to the bathroom and the volume low in case Crimson Edge was listening. My own enhanced senses let me know that she was in the shower so she shouldn't overhear anything.

"People are scared and the government is desperate" Miranda stated.

I didn't need her to tell me that. Cortana was already putting together files full of information about recent events and how the world was reacting to them.

If it became public knowledge that the disaster wasn't the work of a terrorist cell made of supes that there were supernatural elements involved then people would panic more than they currently were.

"As far as the public knows, only you and Edge managed to make it out of the underground" Miranda was now saying "They don't know that Margret is already back on her feet and even if you are fine you sure didn't look it when you got back to the surface".

The mother of my unborn child showed me an image that had been taken of me back when I'd managed to make my way back to civilization. I looked bad even if I hadn't taken more than some superficial damage during the mission.

"Starlight is the only member of the Seven accounted for," Miranda said "She's being praised for defending civilian lives, but Homelander, Black Noir, The Deep and A-Train are all MIA".

That last part wasn't true.

"Only Noir made it out alive," I informed the head of Cerberus Defence Contracts "I killed A-Train, the Dungeon Keeper got The Deep and Homelander was roasted before getting eaten by a dragon. After I tenderised his meat for the beast".

Miranda took a moment to think about what I had just told her.

"Nolan, we are going to need to sit down and talk about what happened," she insisted "But business first".

She showed me an image of The T-45-powered combat infantry armour. In the Fallout world, it was pressed into service in the Sino-American War, with its first deployments taking place on the Alaskan Front to counter the Chinese offensive.

This world needed power armour so that normal men and women could fight in a different kind of conflict.

"I wanted to take this slower and leave more of a paper trail" Miranda let me know "However, given recent events I've decided to speed up my timetable and we can do more to cover up the fact that this technology wasn't developed by anyone".

You couldn't have brand new tech such as power armour simply appear and expect people to simply accept it. Some government agencies would look into its background so Miss Lawson would need to derail any kind of investigation. Not that hard to do when you had AI allies, it just meant more work.

"So you're going to introduce the power armour sooner than expected," I said.

I didn't need to enquire as to how, as she soon shared that information.

"Robert Singer, the Defence Secretary, has been wanting to meet with me for," Miranda shared "He'll want me to provide some off-the-books funding for the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, which is going to need to majorly expand given recent events".

I wouldn't be surprised if the UN set up something like Doctor Who's UNIT so as to try to deal with all the strangeness.

"If he likes the power armour then I can get CDC a nice defence contract worth billions," Miranda said with a smile.

Defence contracts are awarded to individuals or companies by the federal government. The contracts are an agreement to produce material or perform services related to national defence for the United States.

"Then I'll be expected to provide even more off-the-books funding taken from that money," Miranda said, "That's how we funded Cerberus back home".

Politics, business, making under-the-table deals. These were things best left to her.

"What about the fusion core?" I wondered.

They could be a real game changer. In the Fallout world, they were long-term nuclear batteries used by civilians to power a multitude of devices, from automobiles to generators and many other things. military instead used them for warfare, mostly by having them supply energy to sets of power armour.

Without the cores, it wasn't possible to keep a set of power armour moving outside of a controlled setting because they required a lot of power.

"As planned I had EDI design a power core for the armour that is as basic as possible" Miranda let me know "I patented the core and I will have CDC introduce upgraded versions of the core over time to minimise the impact".

Having that kind of battery for sale could upset the global market if it wasn't handled carefully.

"Do you need anything from me?" I asked.

I might be the most powerful man on the planet, not counting Victor Von Doom, who was doing a very good job of hiding if Cortana couldn't find him, but since I couldn't be in two places at once and because the danger was growing, it would be a good idea to give the military an upgrade.

"Maybe an endorsement for the armour when it goes public" answered Miranda "In the long run, EDI predicts that Robert Singer will make a play for the big chair in Oval Office within the next few years. If we can get him on our side it might not be such a bad idea for Invincible to publicly support him. We'll have time to make him dependant on us to get into and to stay in office".

I would leave the politics to her.

"Do what you think is best" I instructed "I'll pop by for a visit soon".

Maggie's long shower was coming to an end so I closed the laptop before she left the bathroom.

"If there's any hot water left it's all yours" said Crimson Edge.

Due to the fact that I am male, I only needed a fraction of the time and water she did to get cleaned up. My hero outfit had taken too much damage to be useable again. I'd have to go up to my moon base and get Cortana to fabricate a new one.

Unlike Crimson Edge, I had plenty of clean clothes here so I came out of the bathroom wearing more than a robe and towels. I wore a simple black T-shirt and some shorts.

"I'm starving," she said "And you have nothing in".

Ever since the moonbase had come online I hadn't been spending much of my time there and so my cupboards were bare.

"We can order something," I said.

Thanks to the Internet that didn't take long and at least my drinks cabinet was well stocked. Something that Maggie took advantage of before she came and sat next to me on the very comfy couch.

Before long we started making out. I could only assume that today's events had brought Edge to the point that she needed to do something to decompress. Sex was a good way of dealing with stress and she wasn't wearing much so it was easy for me to get access to come bare skin to touch.

"No stop." she insisted.

I did so even if it was tempting to keep going.

"Let's go into the bedroom" she decided "I need to lie down".

It became clear to me that she wished for me to do the work so that she could relax and I was happy to go along with whatever she wanted, at least for a time.

"You can tell me to stop anytime you want," I told her.

She might be the physically toughest woman on the planet, but she'd been through a lot today. At one point we'd been buried alive and even with superhuman durability, I didn't think she'd have survived without the Rider Armour. If nothing else she would have suffocated.

Maggie opened up her bathrobe and exposed her nude form to my eyes. She wasn't as muscular as a person might imagine. This made sense since her strength wasn't from her muscles, but she was very firm and curvy in all the right places.

I spent some time with her breasts. They were a good size and her nipples let me know, even without the big smile on her face, that she was very aroused.

Not that I could have missed this since she was already wet between her legs. Something that I discovered when I got down there, but I kissed around her pussy before going for the sweet spot.

"No, don't lick me there!" Maggie said with a giggle.

Odd that she was so sensitive and a bit ticklish. Her inner thighs were susceptible to my kisses.

"Why not?" I asked.

She chose not to answer that question

"Nolan, don't tease me so much," she said with a groan "Just fuck me already!"

Despite her words, she didn't do anything to stop me from playing with her some more, and I couldn't let her have everything her own way even though I was willing to indulge her desires due to the hard day she'd had.

"All in good time," I said

I drove my tongue into her wet snatch which did have some hair, she'd styled into something of an arrow, as if she was worried that I might get lost down there.

"Oh fuck yeah! Right there baby!" Maggie moaned.

Her moaning turned into screaming of the good kind as I went done on her and drove my tongue deep inside her fuckhole. Her cunt was absolutely drooling at this point and Maggie's hand went through my hair as I ate her out. She very much enjoyed that I had great stamina and that even my tongue was very strong.

"You ready?" I said when it was time to move to the main event.

I looked down at Maggie, as the redhead bit her lip and nodded. I then grabbed my hard dick and jerked off a bit as Crimson Edge watched with a transfixed look on her face.

"Nolan, stop teasing me put it in!" Maggie complained.

I was going to have to train her and make her more sexually submissive in the future. For now, she was going to get her way.

"Oh fuck it's so big!" she called out as I entered her.

At first, I took it slow, I was enjoying how her hot wet pussy felt as if it had wrapped itself around my cock. For the former Queen Maeve, this wasn't enough.

"Yes, fuck me!" Maggie shouted as she wrapped her powerful legs around me "Just wreak me".

I smiled at her and didn't move my hips.

"Say please" I instructed.

She gave in quickly.

"Please, fuck me," she said.

Her cunt felt amazing, and she was really needy. I'd warmed her up nicely with the oral sex and so it wasn't taking much to get her off. Despite her protests, she must have liked that I'd not rushed things.

As for me, I began to pick up the place. I didn't have to be as careful with Maggie as I would with a human woman as she was much more durable than a baseline member of her species. Yet it wasn't much work to fuck her roughly as she desired.

"Yes, I'm cumming!" she yelled.

Soon I could feel her pussy tightening around my cock. It felt as if it wanted to milk every last drop of cum out of me and it worked.

"Fuck. I'm cumming again!" Maggie declared to anyone listening.

Two orgasms in a row left her unable to do anything other than lie there for a time.

"That…that was amazing," Maggie said with a happy smile on her face.

Before I could answer the bed collapsed under us.

"Looks like we're sleeping in the guest room" I commented.

For some reason, Crimson Edge found that to be extremely funny and as if to add to the silliness this was when our food arrived.

Torn Cape.