章 162: Chapter 161: Secret Empire.
Author: Enjoy the story. And don't forget to gimme powerstones.
A line of citizens were encircling around Ryan's office. They started the moment Ryan got into his office for the day.
"What are you doing here?" Cindy Moon, a reporter from the Daily Bugle, asked the citizen who seemed to be the leader of the group.
"We are protecting Mr. Ryan Knight from the snake people. We will ensure he won't be harmed by anyone! Anymore!" The citizen replied.
Inside Ryan's office.
"You sure are loved by the people. Why don't you become the president instead?" Tony asked.
"If you're here for the chitchat, I'd advise you to stay at the tower. But you're not here for that are you?" The blind Vice President asked.
"I need details." Tony asked in a toned-down threat in his voice. "I need to know how they get in here! And What exactly are you fighting against!"
"Snakes. That's it." Ryan answered playfully.
"Ryan!" Tony yelled angrily. He almost lost his friend yesterday. He didn't think he could do that again. 'Then, who will become my daughter's godfather? Cap?' Tony shuddered at the thought of his daughter becoming a musclehead.
" Alright. There is really Nothing much to say. They poisoned me and it caused me a temporary blindness. I will get my eyesight back, albeit slowly." Ryan said calmly.
He knew Tony would be dissatisfied by this, but it's for his own good that he kept it all under wraps. It wasn't the time yet for the Avengers to interfere on this matter. Tony huffed and calmed down. If he wasn't going to get answers from Ryan, he would get it by himself.
"Why does your office smell like swamps?" Tony asked as the smell kept bothering him.
"A visitor came by. I guess he couldn't clean himself very well."
The Man-thing had come to help in curing his eyes two times through the pipe he installed that connected to the forest nearby. He felt that he could use glasses to see after the third session as his vision was getting better.
'I am the only person in the world that has a swamp monster as my doctor. I guess I am lucky.'
It has been two days since the Serpent-men revealed themselves. Although his vision was temporarily blurry, it didn't bother Ryan in his day to day life.
His watch started to produce a grid-type holographic laser and scanned the document in front of him.
ALBUS scanned and sorted all of his documents and then it relayed that directly to his brain. He only needed to approve the documents afterward.
J. Jonah Jameson has been creating hell for these politicians and important people, causing them no way to get out of their situations by trying to get people's sympathy.
Ryan did a press conference and explained the matter to the public. Of course, he didn't tell them the origins of the Serpent-men, just them being a different race. After Tarot, people's trust in the government and laws had lessened.
That's why Ryan actively involved the Avenger with his effort. He wanted to borrow their influence to generate trust back into the laws. Something escaped his mind when he planned for the aftermath. That is, his influence.
Not only people outside his office had stood up to protect him, all over the country, people were doing the same things. He had become a completely indispensable person to the country – And it was only a week since Tarot had left….
"Why don't you take a rest? The country won't fall if you rest for a day!" Tony said, a little agitated.
Ryan was injured, and potentially crippled for his entire life, no matter how much he tried to deny it. Tony had been analyzing the poison sample he got secretly from Natasha, but there wasn't any known cure for it in THIS world.
"Will it really?" Ryan asked sarcastically. Tony opened his mouth, but no word came out afterward.
The day before, Ryan got into an intense argument with Gwen after she got to know what he had done – Not what he showed to the public, but she knew about his solo fight with the Serpent.
Although she was angry, she was also saddened by the fact that Ryan didn't believe in anyone else helping him during the fight.
He didn't want to risk her life in fighting an Elder God, and it was the impetus for their argument.
"Let me help you!" Gwen said angrily.
"You're helping. By not getting involved!"
After a while, he managed to calm her down. But she is still in a pouting mood.
He still kept the identity of the Serpent a secret from her, lest that Set was watching for anyone who mentioned his names. A few of his shadow clones were hunting all of Set's children all over the world, killing them off one by one.
'Still. I couldn't find his true child.' Ryan was quite worried as his search for Set's child bore no result.
Today he returned to his office after it was fixed, and Tony came to visit him.
"The Avengers have been asking me about you. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help." Tony said.
A brunette woman walked in during his conversation with Tony and handed him some paper.
"Sir. Your proposal was approved by the Supreme Court. It will enter deliberency after this." May Parker said with a sad tone.
"Is that sadness I sensed in your voice May?" Ryan asked while stamping the document she gave. Tony was still in the room, and he too closed his eyes after hearing that the proposal for a new law had passed.
"No Sir." May answered. She knew why Ryan had done this. She also knew how hard he had been working to help the country. She won't add to any more of his concerns.
The new law stated; The traitor for the human race will be dealt with the cruelest punishment possible. That is, the death penalty.
The people who were arrested by the Avengers before this were the lucky ones as Ryan had already killed those who weren't.
"It is very Harsh. Even Asgardians only exile those who betrayed them." Tony said. For example, Loki.
Ryan shook his head. "Although it's a harsh punishment, it will be hard for someone to actually get the death penalty. Not without sufficient evidence of their betrayal. Also, go kick some butt. You said you want to help me right?"
Ryan got a notification from ALBUS about a situation that was going on.
"Wait. What happened?" Tony muttered while widening his eyes.
Ryan controlled ALBUS and sent some documents toward JARVIS. Tony glanced at the data quickly and was astonished.
"It seems I am a target again." Ryan said playfully.
Tony wanted to hit him as he kept diminishing the importance for his safety. But now, he needs to listen to what Ryan has to say first.
"They are called the Secret Empire. Peggy has crossed her paths with them once, so you can refer to her. They are basically a more powerful KKK, so tread lightly. Also, bring Ayala and Elijah. Once they know what the Secret Empire has done I'm sure they will go in."
They were a branch of Hydra that had managed to break free. Ryan had killed a lot of them during the purifications, but their important leaders had survived as they weren't in the continent at that time.
"They are moving at the moment, trying to find ways to activate the Orion Missiles. If they did. They will shoot it here. At my location." Ryan said casually.
The Orion Missiles could take out a city without much of a hassle. And the Secret Empire was activating 5 of them. Tony knew about missiles the moment it was mentioned as he played a part in creating it before he became The Iron Man.
"What the- Why are you so casual about this? EVACUATE. NOW!!!"
"You have 10 minutes before they get to the missile base." Ryan said.
"Damn it. One after another. Avengers!! ASSEMBLE!!" Tony summoned his Iron Man suit and flew toward Nevada where the missiles were stored.
He contacted the other Avengers, and all of them flew together inside the Avenger Jet and moved to Nevada quickly.
"You! Stop making enemies with the entire world! Evacuate now!!" Tony said before completely disappearing from Ryan's audible range.
May interjected sternly. "You should evacuate. I had called the Templars to protect you."
"It doesn't matter May. They won't be able to do it. Now, bring me my next papers."
"SIR!"
"May. Trust me. Trust the Avengers. They won't fail."
May walked hurriedly outside the room and summoned all the Templars nearby to protect Ryan. She also called for her backup, Sir Hiddle, to come and drag Ryan out of there.
"Hmm, are you going to come out now?" Ryan said to the empty room.
Then, the cloaked figure appeared out of thin air, directly in front of him. However, he couldn't see her, and it crushed her heart.
"You really do LOVE to make trouble." Gwen said sarcastically to avoid him seeing her true emotions. She teleported directly toward the island the moment Ryan's eyes were blinded. However, even Dawn couldn't help.
Although Dawn told her not to worry. Even Kai told her not to worry about it. But she couldn't help but feel that way.
Ryan walked in and dragged his angry fiance to his desk.
"You already knew this before we got engaged. Why are you mad now?" Ryan said comfortingly.
"I can protect you now. Trust me Ryan." Gwen said with determination. After the New York War, she had vowed to never let him fight alone. But she had failed helplessly at this matter.
"I do. I trust you with my life. There is someone coming here to attack me. You can handle them for me." Ryan said teasingly while kissing her cheek.
"Really?" Gwen was a bit surprised, and a little excited to beat someone up.
"Yeah. In fact, they are directly on top of the office now, and will drop a giant bomb on me while the Avengers were distracted in Nevada." Ryan explained the true plan of the organization.
"DON'T SAY THAT CALMLY!!!" Gwen said and quickly equipped her best combat mode. The Iron Spider. 4 spider leg came out from her suit and it changed into a black and white spider armor.
"You can use that. But the attacker is an aerial beast. Use Mercy."
"No. I still have jet boots that could catch up with them." Gwen said and kissed his lips. "Besides, after roleplaying with Mercy multiple times. I don't think I could use it in public anymore. I will get way too embarrassed to use it."
Gwen moved outside the office and stared at the sky, waiting for the enemy to come. What she didn't realize was that, a few blocks from there, a man in a panther suit was observing Ryan's office from afar.
The blind man was looking at the panther's direction with a smirk on his face.
"Did you bring my vibranium to fix Captain's shield… or not?" Ryan mumbled alone in the room. Despite everyone's warning, he didn't move and did his job calmly.
…
In the airspace above Ryan's office. A beast that seemed to came out from a mythological book was flying with a bomb on his hind legs.
The Griffin. Once was a man named Johnny Horton. The Secret Empire did some experiments on him to create their own warrior.
Wings and claws were permanently grafted on the man's body while he was still conscious in the whole operation. Then, he was injected with a mutagenic serum produced by the Empire, based on their research on the Super-soldier serum.
He mutated into a beast that looked like a griffin. The serum gave him a peak superhuman strength, that will be able to contend with Hulk for a short period of time. He could also fly, albeit not as fast as Kai or Carol.
He lost his mind after becoming a beast, and was tamed by the Secret Empire to do their dirty job.
"SCREECH!!" The Griffin let out a loud roar and dived to the building.
"Look in the sky!" The citizens around the building were pointing at the sky and squinted their eyes to see what was happening.
"Is it a bird? Is it a plane?" It's…"
"SCREECH!!" The beast saw the citizens at the area and started to view them as a threat.
"It's a giant bird!!" The people there screamed. But surprisingly, they didn't run. "Protect Mr. Knight!!!"
They picked up rocks and other stuff from the ground or their bags, and threw it at the monster. However, before they could do that.
"TEMPLARS! RELEASE!"
A group of men in an exoskeleton suit shot at the bird using their energy rifles. Explosions on top of explosions occurred at the beast's body, causing it to shriek in pain.
Then, Gwen flew toward the sky and started to web the beast. She stuck a Web line toward the beast and sent a fatal electric current through the web.
"Shriek-" The Griffin screamed in pain and dropped the bomb it was holding.
The bomb will explode on impact instead of a timer bomb. And it's headed straight to the citizens!
"SHIELDS!" The Templars got into formation and activated their energy shield. Hexagonal energy shields bonded together to create a honey-comb shield that was big enough to protect all the citizens there. However, before that happened.
Thwip. Thwip. Thwip. Thwip.
Gwen shot out 4 webbing in 4 different directions. It created a Web-net and catched the bomb mid-air, without setting it off.
"ALBUS, Is it okay?" Gwen asked her assistant. This was her first public debut. She was very nervous about it.
"Yes, Mrs Stacey. It will hold them nicely." ALBUS replied.
"Good. Are you in the mood for fried chicken?" Gwen asked playfully as she stared at the Griffin.
"I will advise you not to eat that beast Madam."
"That's not what I meant ALBUS!" Gwen hopped using her 4 metal legs, increasing her propulsion that caused her to jump high in the sky. She landed on the back of the beast.
"Screech!!"
"Shut up." She thwip-ed a ball of web into Griffin's mouth.
The black panther stared at the bomb mid air, and made his way slowly toward it without anyone noticing him.
Being a Prince, T'Challa knew how much Ryan adored the citizens, and respected the way he was trying to change the world. That's why he came personally to America to meet with Ryan. However, the previous incident caused his meeting to be pushed back. Now, this incident happened.
'He really is a trouble-attracting magnet like Shuri said.' T'Challa thought to himself.
His younger sister was obsessed with Ryan, and wanted to meet with him desperately. If her mother didn't stop her, she would have already done that and would spill all of her knowledge to have a discussion with Ryan.
'If she knew I was here and didn't do anything, I would be scolded.' T'Challa arrived at the bomb and started to disarm it.
BOOM
The Griffin falls on the ground after a short entanglement with Gwen. She dodged its claws and shot a web on its head. She pulled it toward her and kicked it extremely hard in its chest. Before it could recollect itself, she webbed its entire body in a spider cocoon, making it immobile.
"YEAH!!!" The crowd cheered after they saw the monster was taken down. The Templars didn't attack Gwen and just waved politely at her. Anyone who dared to was just looking for death – as she was the boss's future wife.
"ALBUS. The bomb." Gwen jumped on top of the web that was holding the bomb and started scanning it.
"Madam. The bomb had been deactivated." ALBUS replied unexpectedly, surprising her on the inside. At that time, the black panther was already ten blocks away, and was returning to his Wakandan embassy.
In Nevada, the Avengers had made short work of the missiles. With the Hulk, Captain Marvel, Thor, Captain America and Iron Man splitting the job, the missiles that were launched were brought down on the ground.
Natasha infiltrated the facility with Ayala and had knocked down all the members of Secret Empire there.
Hawkeye finally returned to the Avengers after confirming multiple times that his wife wasn't a Hydra member.
He shot at the escaping Secret Empire people in their KKK outfit and incapacitated them.Kai didn't join in the fight as he was still busy at the prison. The fight wasn't even a filler for the Avengers, but then Tony received a notification about the incident that happened in Washington.
"Ah, so he created a suit." Tony said in excitement. He wanted to finish the work there early and grill Ryan on the makings of his suit. "But who is the girl wearing it? Could it be Gwen?"
In Washington. The public was surrounding Gwen and bombarded her with questions.
"Are you a new superhero? Are you one of the Avengers? Can I get a photo with you?"
In her nervousness, she accidentally said her superhero name. "I'm the Spider-Gwen."
It was what Ryan called her multiple times before. She webbed away to run, leaving a stunned group of people.
The crowd was silent for a while, and they pieced the puzzle instantly. "You mean, Gwen Stacy. As if…Ryan Knight's fiance?"
"Oh my god. A superhero couple? That's so ROMANTIC!!!" A random teenage girl screamed.
Gwen re-appeared inside Ryan's office.
"Congratulations on your successful debut. And you managed to give away your secret identity in 5 minutes." Ryan teased.
"Shut up. I'm nervous. And it's all your fault!" Gwen retracted her face helmet into the suit and said while grinning widely.
Her plan to use the name Ghost Spider went down the drain when she became startled by the sudden mob. However, her heart felt full.
"What are you so happy about?" Ryan asked as a smile also bloomed on his face.
"I just thought, now we can do missions together." She said happily.
"Hmm. Too bad for you, I won't be going on a mission for quite some time." Ryan said in a playful manner. Gwen held both of his cheeks. He thought she would pull it and ask him to stop playing around, but unexpectedly, she kissed him.
"I will wait. Make sure you heal properly. I will always be at your side."
…
Before the incident happened.
Domingo opened his restaurant as usual. However, today he was short on a staff member. A waitress in his shop suddenly had to move back toward her hometown.
"It'll be a busy day too." He was worried as all of his staff were essential.
The moment he put up the help wanted ads, a woman with a black-green hair walked in and asked for a job there – as if she knew what was going to happen.
The sexy woman had just moved toward the city, and needed a job very urgently.
Domingo sympathizes with the woman, and definitely not because she is very pretty and not a stranger for skin-ship. In the 5 minute interview, the woman had touched his arm 5 times, causing him to become greatly attracted toward her.
He then hired her on the spot. His decision was greatly praised by Chris, his helper, and the woman's presence brightened up the restaurant.
"Ophelia, clean up on table 5." Domingo ordered.
"Yes boss." Madame Hydra, i.e. Viper, i.e. Kai's Stalker answered.
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