(It has come to my attention that I owe you all a chapter so here it is)
As the auctioneer continued to speak, Tony Stark's face went pale, his earlier charm vanishing under a wave of anger and disbelief. "This is illegal. I shut down the production. How did you even get these?" he blurted out, thankfully not drawing attention due to being in the private VIP booth.
Alexandra, who knew about the depth and power of Marshall, Carter, and Dark, was quick to reach out and grab Tony's arm, pulling him back down into his seat. "Calm down, Tony. We need to handle this properly, not get into a shouting match now."
Tony, however, clearly wasn't thinking clearly right now. "Alexandra, they're selling my weapons, my technology. These weapons were never meant to be distributed. They are dangerous and were decommissioned for a reason."
Alex felt like she was getting a headache; why was Tony still so difficult to deal with? Wasn't he supposed to have improved while captured? She really didn't want this event to end too soon, not before she had been able to confirm every SCP object here.
As Tony seemed to be just about to stand up and shout loud enough to disrupt the entire auction and draw an enormous amount of unwanted attention, she had to act fast. "Tony, wait, listen to me. This is an opportunity, Tony."
This at least got his attention, though he was clearly still far from calm. "I need you to start thinking with that supposedly genius brain of yours. Isn't this the perfect opportunity to not only start looking into the seller but also track down the buyer?
"We just sit back and watch the auction unfold. We make a note of everyone that pits, and whoever wins, I'm sure you can somehow deal with them illegally, having acquired your weapons. Then we can finally look after the seller. I'm sure you would prefer that to just making it public disruption and possibly just being kicked out before learning who bought your weapons."
Tony paused, his agitation simmering as he considered Alexandra's words. The sharp edge of his anger dulled slightly under the cold rationale of strategy. He nodded slowly, recognizing the value in her approach. "You're right, Alex. We play this smart. Let's see who takes the bait, and then we reel them in. My tech, my responsibility."
Alexandra relaxed marginally, satisfied that Tony was now thinking strategically. She watched the crowd, her eyes scanning for any telltale signs of major players who might be interested in the Jericho missiles. She knew that understanding the buyers could provide them with significant leverage later.
The auction soon began, and the bids quickly came in. This was, after all, the most powerful weapon after the nuclear bomb itself, and it was impossible to get; many wanted it either for its use or the hope of learning its secrets and making more.
Tony was clearly upset and suddenly very focused on the action down there, which Alex personally was thankful for since it meant that she didn't have to endure his attempts at seducing her.
Of the people bidding, Alex only recognized a few of them. She spotted Osborn making an attempt and heard the voice of Hammer as well. Clearly, both of them wanted to study Stark's technique.
Tony seemed to have a better idea about the identity of those who bid, likely others in the weapons or military industry whom he knew. The winner of the first 13 missiles seemed to be a Russian man.
The next set sold for the least, while the last set sold for more than the first two combined. Earning far, far above market price to whoever the seller was.
Now Alex knew that it was Stane, no doubt attempting to gather more money to buy the falling Stark stock, hoping to gather enough to oust Tony from his own company. Something which was no doubt far more difficult with her and O5-3 also buying everything they could.
After the hammer fell for the final time, Alex was also quick to speak up, ensuring that he wouldn't act yet, not before the end of the event at any rate. "Good, now we can see these so-called impossible things and then try to find the seller."
Tony looked over at her, clearly seeing what she was trying to do, but just nodded his head. He had come here for the chance to see if his own weapons were for sale, but actually seeing them being sold like that still ended up making him uncomfortable.
Honestly, he was just about done with this whole event, but he did admit that he might be just a little curious as to what these people could possibly consider to be more impossible than his best weapon made to date, at least publicly.
After all, the thing Jarvis at home was running the last bit of simulations on was far beyond anything this world has seen yet. It might need to be used sooner than expected to confiscate his missiles.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, we have come to tonight's final chapter; the next few items will be the last of tonight and the most exciting, the most impossible things. Some of you might believe it hard to imagine these things being real, but I assure you that on the reputation of Marshall, Carter, and Dark that they are all real and as advertised."
"For the first item, we have something not suitable for the youngins. Luckily, I'm not aware of any kids here tonight, so there would be no problem. I percent auction item 1004." Key announced, and an assistant, one of the same few pretty young scantily clad ladies, rolled out what seemed to be a projector.
"To demonstrate this item, we thought it best to draw you all in. I ask that you name. Any of you name two people that you have never starred in an adult entertainment video together."
His words are next to the cult confusion among the crowd, and given that these are some of the most powerful and rich people, they're not the type to openly talk about things such as adult entertainment videos or porn.
However, Tony Stark was also present, and he had a good idea that he and his date for tonight, Alexandra Ricci, had never starred in such a project together, not even something shared privately. "Tony Stark and Alexandra Ricci!"
He shouted, his voice filling the room that was otherwise filled with whispers as everyone tried to understand, but the auctioneer wanted to demonstrate. The old man also heard Tony's voice, smiled, and nodded towards the girl, who then pressed the play button.
On the wall behind them, a movie suddenly started playing with a short introductory sequence with the logo and name of something called factory porn. The video then began, much to the absolute horror of Alexandra and the surprise of everyone else.
What was shown, there was a rather graphic porn scene of herself and Tony Stark going at it like wild animals. What makes it all the words is that it was very clearly a heavy BDSM scene that was playing, and the Alexandra on screen was fully playing into the beast role with collar, leash, tail, and ears and crying out a lot of stuff about being a criminal and needing to be punished.
She had to physically hold herself back from screaming at her guards to stop it. After all, while Alex might in truth be a man, he had spent enough time in his female form to not want it displayed in such a way for the world to see, and Alex swore at that moment that she would buy SCP 1004, also known as factory porn, no matter the price.
"ENOUGH!" She stood up, screamed loudly, and drew attention.
This only caused an even greater shock as everyone suddenly saw the very actress being performed on screen and was, in fact, very much begging to be punished.
"I do not know how that was made, but I am buying it. Now start the auction!" she screamed loudly.
The auctioneer smiled and nodded toward his assistant, who turned off the video as he began to speak himself. "A wonderful demonstration. I believe I have no doubt that you were all quite aware that Miss Ricci. In fact, I did not star in that movie personally. So perhaps another demonstration, anyone, please, two more names?"
"Tony Stark and Justine Hammer!" Alexandra roared out of the room, not willing to let anyone else bring up her name and very much wanting to get back at Tony for the absolute embarrassment he had just caused her.
The auctioneer smiled and once again nodded to an assistant, who pressed play once again, and to everyone, shock and surprise. This time, after the introductory sequence was done, it displayed a scene of those two people, Tony Stark and Justin Hammer.
This time, it didn't take that long before the auctioneer himself ended the rather Ron C display, and Alex took some comfort in the absolutely mortified and horrified look that had replaced the absolutely disgusting look he was giving her while their little scene played out.
"This item is a video that will play featuring any two people or more facts that you desire. You just have to think about the people and play it on any device. Of course, this is a DVD, so you will have to use a DVD player of some kind. It is an infinite variety of adult entertainment videos, so to speak, the impossible very much a possibility to feast your eyes upon."
The room was still in shock as people came, he said. While some believed that perhaps the first scene was real, and Alexandra was just very much not willing to show that, they all firmly agreed that the second scene could not be real, which meant that the auctioneer had to be speaking the truth.
This DVD could somehow change its content depending on what you thought about it when pressing play. Something that was completely and utterly impossible, yet most people didn't care that much because they all realized after the first scene they would have to compete with whatever wealth Ricci could bring to bear, which was no doubt much more than they were willing to spend on the possibility of this being more than just a very scandalous couple of sex tape that had leaked out.
"Well, let's begin the bit with $1 million." The auction ear called out.
"$100 million." Alex immediately beat 100 times starting bit, and the absolute furious expression on her otherwise maxima rising face was enough to ensure that there was not a second bit, even though she had to send me the most venomous glare she could conjure up to make him put his hand down before he could call out his own.
"And auction item 1004 is sold for $100 million. Congratulations." The auctioneer called out, and Alex collapsed back into her chair, panting furiously and glaring at Tony, who looked both confused and a bit sheepishly embarrassed for having caused her such embarrassment publicly.
Though internally, he very much wanted to play out that scene in real life, Anne was furiously thinking about how to properly apologize so he could achieve that objective.
That didn't mean he was curious about how such a video existed; it looked incredibly real. He might not know Alexandra's fully naked body, but he knew his own, and there was no doubt the one on the screen was a perfect replica of the tiniest of details. What he could see was a perfect replica, though admittedly, most of his attention had been on the Ricci-looking actor.
Someone who looked exactly like his date for tonight; in fact, she looked exactly like what he had dreamt about that one time before he woke up and realized that he was living in a nightmare that lasted for three months.
What only intrigued him further was the nature of this factory porn movie, how it was able to have two scenes containing enormously perfect replicas of very, very influential and rich people like that, and how it had not already been spread all over the Internet.
And, importantly, how was he going to ensure that Alex Sandra didn't leak this second video out online just to embarrass him and get revenge for his accidental reveal of the first one.
"And now unto the next of the last few items of tonight, another true impossibility." The auctioneer said, and from the side of the stage, his assistants, this time, all three of them, started Wheeling in a rather large item.
If you want to read up to 10 chapters ahead or even get the chance to pick what SCPs get summoned, or just support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / SCPsystem