Finally, it came time for the weapons division to give their pitch. Three men walked in with their heads held high. Clearly they had not gotten the memo that they were on the chopping block. Behind them, they were dragging in a large cart that was covered with a tarp.
"Gentlemen of the board, I am Doctor Michaels. Head of weapons and development here at Oscorp." The lead man said. He gave off an arrogant air as he spoke.
"It's Fallcorp now," Penemue corrected him.
"Yeah, sure, whatever." He said while looking at Tony and Victor. "Women, am I right? Sometimes they just need to zip it and learn to not interrupt when the men are talking."
[Damn right! I like this guy!]
'I will find a way to stab you, System!'
[I'm in your soul. You'd have to stab yourself first!]
I took a deep breath and centered myself so that I wouldn't actually stab this sexist man. I had already decided that he was getting fired without any form of severance package. He could present me with a weapon that could one-shot Thanos today and I would still fire him!
I could detect killing intent from all around the room. Penemue, Emma and Shuri were all glaring daggers at Doctor Michaels. Some of that killing intent was also coming from me of course. Too bad this sexist idiot was an ordinary human and couldn't sense it. Otherwise he would have been running for his life!
"Uhhhhh…" Tony glanced around nervously at all the angry women in the room.
Victor had a blank expression on his face and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Mister Lee wisely chose to not say anything either.
Doctor Michaels grabbed hold of the tarp and yanked it away dramatically. On top of the cart was a very familiar glider. "Gentlemen, I present you with one of our greatest creations yet! The glider!"
"Er–What can it do?" Tony asked awkwardly.
"I'm glad you asked Mister Stark! Clearly a MAN of your caliber can see how amazing this weapon is! It can fly at speeds upwards of 150 miles per hour! It can shoot up to 10 compact missiles before needing to reload itself! AND, it can stab people with the incredibly sharp deployable blades in its front. Check these bad boys out!" Doctor Michaels pressed a button on his watch and two very long blades protruded out of the front of the glider! His two lackeys behind him started clapping!
"Amazing!" The first lackey exclaimed.
"Super lethal and effective!" The other one added.
"We can sell these to the military for 100 million dollars each! They will revolutionize warfare!" Dr Michaels exclaimed. "So, what do you think? Amazing right?" He asked us all.
"Woah! This glider is amazing! Isn't it great everyone?" Harry said. "I want one! I'd love to fly around the city on it."
"No." Shuri said bluntly.
"Hell no!" I added.
"You're all fired." Penemue declared to the three men.
"Kill yourselves." Emma spat out at them.
The three men left the room devastated and I was going to toss that Glider into storage permanently along with any other insane stuff that came out of Oscorp in the last few years.
"Well, now…that last presentation was…interesting." Penemue said. "I'd like to once again thank everyone for coming today, and this officially ends the first annual shareholders meeting of Fallcorp. All of you will of course be kept up to date with our latest plans and research in the next coming months."
"It was an honor to meet you, Layla of the Fallen. I will be in the city a few days more. Perhaps we can meet up and talk later?" Shuri asked me before she left.
"I'd be fine with that, Princess Shuri." I told her as she left.
Mister Lee bowed to everyone before taking his leave next. He promised that his 'Master' would be in touch.
Victor followed behind him after curtly saying goodbye to all of us. I'm sure the only reason Victor Von Doom bought stock in our company was to try and steal some of our inventions once we got off the ground. We'd have to keep an eye on him.
Tony asked me to create a portal for him back to Malibu where Pepper was currently.
Harry stormed out immediately and the only one left in the room with Penemue and I was Emma Frost.
"Is there something you needed, Miss Frost?" My sister asked her.
Emma smiled warmly at me. "I would like a bit of Layla's time if that's okay?"
"That's fine. I will be checking in on a few things in the building in the meantime, Layla." Penemue said to me before she headed out. Before she left, Penemue gave me a look that said "be wary." Of course I would be.
Emma and I watched her go. "You and she really look quite similar." Emma commented.
I shrugged. "You should see our niece then."
"I have." Emma said. "She went on a date recently with Ororo of the X-men."
I glared at her. "Have you been spying on Akeno?" I said with a threatening undertone.
Emma immediately shook her head. "NO! Of course not! My…organization was keeping tabs on the X-men, but they have been warned off doing so in the future. We'd rather not get involved with you and your family." Emma said as she took a seat on the edge of the table. With just the two of us in the room, she acted much more freely.
"And yet you bought 5% of my company's stock?" I asked her.
Emma smiled at me. "That was more of a…spur of the moment kind of thing. I saw the video trending online. You were sticking up for two mutants in that restaurant. You got a lot of hate from some people who used to love you because of what you did."
I scoffed. "Let them hate me. At the end of the day, that's all they can do."
There was a glint in Emma's eyes when I said that. "Indeed, at the end of the day, you have become too powerful for the masses to even be able to bother you. The world can rise up against you and you can break the world."
That makes me sound kind of tyrannical, but I guess so? "I suppose I could if it came to that. I doubt it would though." I replied to her.
"The organization I'm a part of…I joined them to feel like that. To be powerful. It did not turn out the way I wanted it to." Emma said. She looked saddened and vulnerable. Some tears came to her eyes. I knew she was probably acting to get me to feel bad for her, but damned if she wasn't a really great actress! Nobody wanted to see a gorgeous girl like her sad in front of them.
"Then just leave your organization." I said.
Emma scoffed and dabbed at her eyes. "One does not simply leave the Hellfire Club…not without consequences at least. Unless…I join a group that's far too powerful and one that the Club is afraid to mess with." She said somberly.
I understood what she was hinting at. The reason she had bought stock in Fallcorp, in the first palace, was to come and meet me. I have no idea what her current circumstances are though…
[A super hot blond with super powers wants to work for you…what's the problem here? Whatever problems she has, you can smash them…and then you can smash her!]
'Wow…System, just wow…'
"So you want to join me?" I asked Emma.
Her sadness immediately disappeared and she smiled brilliantly at me. Her glistening blue eyes met mine. "Yes." She said while stepping forward. She reached forward and delicately placed a hand on my cheek. "You'll find that I am a woman of many talents… I can be very useful and my company can be very pleasant." She said while giving me a wink and licking her lips.
I gulped. First she tried to make me feel sad for her, and now she was blatantly trying to seduce me…
[She's clearly studied you thoroughly. She knows you can't refuse a damsel in distress or resist a beautiful woman. She's hitting you with both at once.]
It's time I hit her with the uno reverse. "You've convinced me." I said and she grinned. "But can you convince Penemue?" I asked her.
Penemue was a much better judge of character and had dealt with 1000 years of bullshit. Emma knew that now as well… I didn't need to invite a snake into my growing group after all. For all I knew, this was all an act and she was spying for the Hellfire club by acting like she was defecting.
Emma's smile slipped away and she pouted. "Hmph! You're more clever than I thought. I can convince her that I'm not lying just the same."
"We'll see."
XXX
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