In Marvel As Dante

We spent our evening moving into my realm. Thanks to the new Time dilation mechanics, I suggested buying a tent or building a cabin in preparation for the visiting candidates, but Jean thought otherwise.

"We're impossibly rich," she said. "Let's just buy a mansion. You said you could theoretically add land masses to your dimension."

I rubbed my chin. She did have a point. Why go through the trouble of constructing another mansion when I could buy one and make adjustments later? I would need to set up a reservoir and waste disposal system. But all that could come later.

"I know just the eccentric Billionaire to ask."

Tony sold us one of his houses in Hollywood Hills, and it only cost us 2 million. Thank God for 2001 prices. Searching through the house, it became obvious why he was okay parting with such an impressive piece of real estate. It had no AI attached and was mostly stocked with booze and clothing.

It took the better part of a day to set things up, buy water tanks, fill them up and hook them up to the house. In the meantime, I purchased a Diesel generator and hooked it up to a humongous tank to solve my power problems.

I could focus on creating an impenetrable fortress later.

We spent the rest of the week of dilated time testing the limits of Jean's new body, working on combination attacks, bombs and more weapons for the both of us, and a new armor for her.

There was also a great deal of sex.

She insisted on not needing anything bulky, and I concurred, but that didn't stop me from creating the most badass body suit I could think of

It had a tinge of all three metals woven into the fabric: 10 impact runes, 15 protection runes, and 20 storage runes.

I even offered to buy her a storage ring, but she refused, saying she could always teleport and summon her weapon and armor from her place in Kamar-Taj. She suggested I give the ring to Rin instead. He wanted to be a crime fighter. So, he needed to be ready for anything within a moment's notice.

After exhausting all the dilated time Jean could get away with, she departed, leaving me a week to drill down on my stats, work on my affinities, create numerous demonic cores, and look deeper into computer engineering.

Jarvis was too great a resource not to utilize.

Before I left, I created one more ability combination using Unity—something that has been a long time coming.

I combined Wave of Desolation with Advanced Burst

(E) Demonic Burst (Adept)

Release demonic energy in a controlled Burst. Energy discharged can be slowly released, spread out or focused, and charged for a greater effect or released quickly. Greater Ease of use and effectiveness with multiple affinities. Ten instances of Burst can be stacked concurrently before release.

I hadn't expected this much of an increase, but the difference in power and versatility was night and day, and I used this newfound strength to strike at the heart of Domina's power.

Oscorp.

--

Dante.

Later that night.

Wenwu and ten other members of the 10 rings slid across a wireline, landing on top of the roof of Oscorp, where I waited.

We were all dressed in black fatigues, carrying single-bladed swords and knives strapped to our backs and sides.

"Glad you could join me," I smiled. "Knocking over Shaw's biggest investment is no fun alone."

"Fun?" Wenwu scowled. "I did not come here for Fun. You promised me leverage."

"And you will have it," I said, kicking down the door into the building. "Security cameras have been disabled. They know we're coming, but it won't matter. Your people can head up to get Osborn, while you and I head down to get you your leverage."

"What is it?" Wenwu asked.

"You'll find out soon enough."

Wenwu nodded to his second in command, a tall, ethereal-looking man with a strange mask. His name was Death Dealer.

He broke off from us with his own team, heading for the top floor, where Osborn's office was. 

Meanwhile, Wenwu and I went lower, riding the second elevator as low as it would go. Unsheathing Steel Bane from my side sheathes, I carved a hole in the bottom of the elevator car and dropped several hundred feet.

My Twilight Devourer skinsuit absorbed the impact. Wenwu landed a second later beside me. His rings reached the ground before he did, and he lowered himself to the ground carefully.

I pried the door open with my bare hands, coming to a hallway packed with soldiers holding energy rifles.

Shit.

They opened fire immediately. I took a bold step forward, practically appearing in their backline, lowering myself and performing a 360-degree leg sweep. I sent them flipping. Before they hit the ground, I was on the move, ripping guns from confused soldiers and flinging them into groupings of others.

It took less than five seconds to incapacitate a team of 20 soldiers. All their guns were pretzeled, and they were carefully knocked out.

"Impressive." Wenwu said.

We continued down the corridor, coming up to a large blast door. My eyes narrowed, and my perception skill went into overdrive, scanning every single detail of the subterranean corridor and the lab door on the other end.

"Do you see something?" he asked.

"I'm not sure…" I muttered. It seemed like the perfect spot for an ambush.

"We don't have time for this. I shall bring down the gate."

"Wait!" I raised a hand as I sensed movement in the shadows. "They're coming."

The lights in the corridor flickered off and on. The hallway was suddenly packed with bare-skinned, hulking wolf-porcupine hybrids with dozens of spines sticking out of the backs.

Rages—thirty, by my count.

Two of the Rages were substantially larger than the lot, and I pulled my Uchigatana Kurogiri in preparation for a fight.

Wenwu reacted immediately, sending all 10 of his rings, crushing the heads of Rages. They popped like water balloons full of blood. I zipped into the fray swinging. I took off the hand of an offending rage, followed up with a decapitating slice, flipped over his dying body and split a second rage into two. 

The surviving Rages let a rip, peppering me with rows and rows of charged, kinetic spines. My Steel Bane daggers replaced Kurogiri, and my hands blurred, deflecting and parrying waves and waves of attack, all without flinching.

I started thinning out the herd, summoning throwing knives, intermediately sniping particularly aggressive Rages. In seconds, we were down to the last two.

They felt like some of the stronger, greater demons I'd faced, which, given my current strength, didn't mean much.

I got to work immediately, sending dozens of throwing knives, fanning out.

They dodged easily enough by flanking Wenwu and me, forcing us to the center while they pounced.

Their bodies were suddenly aflame with pure demonic energy. They shattered the ground when they kicked off with a snarl. Wenwu went left while I went right.

Pulling Kurogiri again, I slid under the charging demon's attack, disemboweling him.

The rage landed with a surprised scream and jerk, but it did not relent, charging me immediately.

My lips spread wide as I parried, blocked, and checked every single attack.

I went on the offensive when I summoned Steel Bane to my offhand, taking swipes at the Rage. A feint revealed an opening. Vanishing both of my weapons, I pulled the Rage's overextended hand over my shoulder, and Judo flipped that sucker with all of the strength I had. The floor splintered. Kurogiri went through its throat before it could recover.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Wenwu stand over the crushed body of the second Rage.

He was panting. He marched over to the blast door keeping us out of the lab and ripped it open.

Dr. Connors and his assistants were frantic when we stepped into the lab. They were in the middle of destroying the serums and experiments. I put a stop to all of that with a single word.

"Stop." They all froze. My voice had more of an edge to it because of my hidden features. I pointed at Connors. "We are here for him. Behave yourself, and no one has to die.

"What's going on?" Connor asked, shivering.

"Leverage," I said to Wenwu, and he raised a brow.

"Mr. Connors here is the head of the Osborn Super Soldier research and development team. She would give you just about anything to get him back.

Connors took several steps back, shivering. "No. Please don't do this. You can take the research instead. We have finished the Serums. You don't need me."

"I was about to ask about that next," I said, nodding to who I assumed was his second-in-command. "Pack up the mutated spiders, and samples of the Lizard, Wolf, and Cat serums."

He hesitated, looking over to Connors. Before the older man could answer, I appeared before the mousy, balding man and pinned him down with my glare.

"He can't save you. Now do as you're told."

He gulped and slunk away.

"Who are you?" Connors asked in a shaky voice. I walked up to the disheveled professor and strapped a bracelet I produced from my inventory onto his arm.

"Don't lose that. It will protect you until this entire ordeal is over. You'll be fine," I playfully tapped his cheeks.

"What do you think you're doing?" Wenwu demanded, rings glowing.

"We agreed to a hostage situation, not to you turning the professor here into a super soldier factory."

"We never agreed to you leaving with his research either," Wenwu said.

"It's my payment," I said. "If everything goes well, you get his body. I still have to put her in the ground by myself. I think that's more than fair. You can't touch the researchers either."

Wenwu's jaw tightened. "This is not over."

Couldn't agree more. He was going to lash out. Probably not right here in front of witnesses, but perhaps later. Maybe demand something more from Domina or make the demands without telling me first.

Whatever it was, it would only serve my ends. After I left this building, I was going to ensure it.

After collecting the genetic samples, I led the scientists out of the lab and proceeded to thrash it completely by hand, destroying their samples and machines, much to the scientists' horror.

We left them in the tunnel and met up with the rest of Wenwu's group. They'd killed Osborn, but I could feel the disappointment and fear rolling off them. They'd failed to obtain Osborn files as intended. Oscorp's entire mainframe had been penetrated, copied, and subsequently wiped, thanks to Jarvis, which was how I discovered a back door. Domina wasn't losing her edge after all.

Wenwu was furious when he departed that night, and pondered long and hard about how to punish me, settling on allying with Domina after Shaw was dead and exposing Regan to gain points.

The Stage was set, and the ball was in her court now, but given what I know of Domina. She'd react fairly predictably.