Jane's expression hardened as she contemplated Alex's words.
"I need to take care of these guys…" Jane said.
[I'm not so sure. They've managed for this long, there has to be some successful resistance. In the end, this eye was just minding its own business while we attacked it out of the blue.] He told her.
"I'm not risking it. That thing is made of crystallized human blood." Jane shook her head.
[Well if you want any chance of resisting that guy's blood control ability, you need to let me bond with your blood.] Alex told her. That was their best bet at resisting the monster's what Alex assumed to be ‹Peak Blood Manipulation›.
He had no chance of contending with that with his measly ‹Basic Blood Manipulation›. Even though he and Laura had been active and he had devoured multiple leader class enemies since the last time they'd encountered that huge horde of abominations, the ability had shown no signs of leveling up.
Alex thought, 'I could also invest some of my over 50,000 EP into the ability, but it would be a complete waste. I can just devour these new ‹Eldrich Leader Class› dudes and get the Peak ability. If one isn't enough, I'll just get some more.'
Jane contemplated for a while, "Any other suggestions?"
[None that can get things done quickly. We have the option of killing the subordinate ‹Leader Class› enemies and letting me devour them. But I have no clue when I would be able to copy their ability to the extent where I would be able to contend with that guy.] Alex told Jane. He'd just given her a lot of inferences about his power system.
"And there's no other way?" Jane asked with narrowed eyes. She'd gotten the feeling that Alex was hiding something from her.
'Fucking Cosmic energy bullshit…' Alex was sure that her intuition had to do something with her ability to manipulate Cosmic Energy.
[There are obviously more ways. But these are the only options I'm willing to work with.] His words were the truth and Jane couldn't find any fault in them.
"Let me think it over…" Jane said and glared at the monster before swinging Mjolnir in a specific direction. She wanted to check out how strong the monster in Asia was.
Jane was in no state to answer and was barely even conscious. Her body was filled with multiple lacerations as if her skin and blood vessels had been torn apart. She hadn't even been able to get a look at the ‹Eldrich Leader Class› before her blood started running out of control and almost exploded her entire body within mere moments.
Alex focused on escaping that place as fast as he could while healing Jane's body. Ever since bonding with Laura, he'd integrated her ‹Cosmic Healing Factor› into his ‹Biological Manipulation›. So, he could easily heal any of his hosts even from near-death states. Although he wasn't as efficient at healing as Laura's X-gene, he could get the job done, which was all that mattered.
[Jane, you up?] Alex asked her. She barely hummed a response. She'd already lost her transformation and inside the suit that was Alex, she was a frail weak woman right now, a far cry from the Mighty Thor.
[Water…] She transmitted the thought.
Alex obliged her and pushed a straw through her lips to let her drink the water, [Can you drink?]
Her throat exerted a weak suction force, but she couldn't even swallow. Alex sighed, [Don't panic…] He ended up extending the straw into her throat and directly releasing the water into her throat, hydrating her and remedying her dry throat.
Jane didn't even notice the straw and mumbled a weak thank you mentally before she passed out.
'Should I just get rid of the cancer and tell her about it later?' Alex entertained the thought but decided against it, 'Nah, she's a bit too stubborn, it would be more troublesome that way…' He thought.
In the end, he just brought her to a random bunker he found close by and let her rest there. At the same time, he started draining the lump in her chest to reduce its size and also started altering her body to reduce the effects of the cancer. It wasn't going to be anything substantial, she wouldn't even notice it, but in the long run, it would prevent her state from getting worse.
Jane's eyes fluttered open in half an hour, 'Where am I?' She thought. Her throat didn't feel as dry as it usually does when she wakes up from a nap and she wasn't feeling as burnt out as she usually does either.
[You're finally awake.] Alex's voice in her head jolted Jane awake as she remembered her situation.
'Oh…' That's all she thought before summoning Mjolnir to her.
[Don't—] Alex's warning was too late and a hammer crashed through the ceiling of the bunker, bringing a huge amount of debris down on Jane's still extremely weak body.
As Alex shielded her from the damage of the falling ceiling, she grabbed Mjolnir's handle and transformed back into Thor, [My battle junkie of a host. Will you please think before you act for one fucking time?!] Alex shouted at her and Jane visibly flinched.
"Hey, I'm on an unfamiliar planet, in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar slimeball inside me. My panic is justified!" She snapped back.
[For fuck's sake…] Alex didn't want to deal with her trust issues right now.
"Hm?" Jane looked up with unfocused eyes as if she was seeing beyond the debris and even the atmosphere itself. She quickly swung Mjolnir, taking flight and instantly breaching Mach speed.
Within seconds, she crossed the atmosphere and appeared in outer space above Earth-Z. The mesmerizing view of the cluster of planets wasn't what she was up here for. Seeing her acting like him when he sensed something with his ‹True Sixth Sense›, Alex thought, 'Does she have some sort of cosmic sense when it comes to these things?'
He knew exactly what she was sensing.
Jane moved to the other side of Earth-Z and was greeted by a mesmerizing view. On two of the variants of Earth that were passing by each other, weak hexagonal patterns were appearing above the surface, coating both nearby planets.
"Are they…" She trailed off as she saw the hexagonal patterns multiplying at an unholy rate and covering the entire surface of the Earth within moments. Though that wasn't all. More layers of the hexagonal shield started appearing.
[Do you have any information about those planets?] Jane asked Alex.
'Of course, I know. They're both my personal planets.' Alex thought but told her something else, [I do actually. They are non-superhero planets with merely a Spider-Man for a hero.] He told her.
Before Jane could say anything, she saw an even more astounding view. The two planets were attracting each other. A bridge of pure energy was forming between the planets and kept getting thicker and thicker. At the same time, the planets were moving closer to each other in the cluster.
[Aren't those going to…] She trailed off.
[Just keep watching. Venom is bonded with both of the Spider-Men on those planets. They won't collide, hell their gravitational fields will also not interfere.] This was the culmination of months of work from Alex, Scientist Gwen, and the army of scientists and research companies he had working for him. It also included getting help from the MCU Wakanda where Alex was the de facto after taking over Killmonger. That came in the form of Vibranium and their shield technology.
"This is crazy," Jane muttered, knowing that no voice would be traveling in the vacuum of space.
As for the moons, they were also included in the conjoined system that those two planets were forming.
In the end, the two planets were revolving around each other in a common orbit with a permanent bridge between them. At the same time, their moons were circling their respective planets in a vertical orbit. That whole system was surrounded by a translucent bubble made of hexagons.
[Do you want to try breaking through the shield?] Alex offered with an enticing tone.
[Why would I do that?] She asked.
[I don't know. Testing.] He shrugged. He was confident that his shields could hold even against her strongest attack. He'd already seen her at her strongest.
Jane scoffed and changed the topic, [We'll be seeing more of this kind of stuff, won't we?]
[I think that the next big thing that's going to happen is the Hydra Earth invading another Earth.] Alex told her.
[What?] Jane raised an eyebrow in surprise.
[Yeah. They're preparing for war.] He told her. He'd already landed on half of the 40 variants of Earth in the past months since he'd arrived in this clusterfuck and had made himself comfortable in them. Even though he hadn't bonded with anyone there, he'd infiltrated into the power structure of those planets and knew a lot of the inside information, 'Except for that fucking Bastion… They have their shit air-tight…' He cursed at Earth-Z for making such an extreme version of Tony. He was sure that if even Jane tried to attack The Bastion, Tony would pull the Thorbuster out of his ass.
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