Chapter 27 : Luxury RVs.... (Patreon)

Disclaimer - I don’t own Marvel/Disney IP. I am just a humble keyboard warrior. Also, the Chaos Gacha was made by Bronz here. I am just dipping my toe in the water, so to speak.

Antarctica

–Mike–

It was only a couple of hours since he had that conversation with Fury, trying to get his forehead vein to burst, when he felt yet another aircraft enter his sensing rage, which was expanded now, thanks to the raw power boost he got from becoming a Pendragon.

He wondered if Excalibur and its heritage function, making him the King of Britain, was real or not? Fun thing to test out once he had some time and freedom. Well, not for the current ruling class of Britain, but certainly fun enough for him.

It would just make him a person on their side. Then, they would not have the claim of him being an outsider. If he was the ruler of a major Western economy, then he had a stake in the current status quo, something that would placate most of the people in power.

After all, as he was now, he had nothing to lose, and everything ot gain. Politics demanded that every player in the game had something to lose and something to gain. Politics as a whole could not function without it. He was, essentially, an out of syllabus question for the current crop of politicians who had never had to negotiate from a position of overwhelming weakness with someone over whom they had no leverage.

It would be fun to see what they could offer him. He fully expected the process itself to be boring, but he was sure that the top negotiators that the world could bring to bear would have something to give him. If nothing, it would be amusing if it could turn into an auction-type scenario, where everyone wanted the same thing, which resulted in continuously elevated bids.

Shaking his head to get rid of the absurd scenario with a hall full of people and him suspended mid air as an item to be sold, he focused on the large aircraft that was being escorted by multiple fighter jets headed their way.

In the time it took for them to bring him the RV, he had wanted to use [Telepathy] to see if he could communicate properly with Ghidorah, but something in him told him that the process would not just be an open and shut mental connection that he could easily switch on and off at his convenience. For one, Ghidorah, if he had all the memories of the original one and all his conquests, would have an uncountable number of memories in him, not to mention the obvious weight of his soul.

Now he knew that the familiars couldn't hurt him intentionally, but that didn’t mean he was going to be stupid. Even being knocked out for some time was a dangerous outcome, for both him and the area around him.

Antarctica was important. And if he was knocked out, the idiots watching him could get funny ideas, leading to a catastrophic response from Ghidorah. This meant that he had to keep any experimentation ideas until he was safe and in an enclosed space. 

It was just too bad that Ghidorah would never be able to enter his Beach Pocket Dimension, not in the sense that he could not fit the Pocket Dimension once he was inside, but in the impossibility that was getting the giant Kaiju through a door. What door could there possibly be that could take Ghidorah?

It would have been the perfect space for experimentation.

Leaving that be, the Jets stayed back a bit as the Aircraft continued to fly overhead. As the large Jet flew on top of him, drawing the attention of Ghidorah, who just looked up with one eye open on all three of his heads, something dropped from the Jet.

A parachute slowed the crate down, which looked small at first, but by the time it was above him, its size had become apparent to him. Grinning, he lifted his hand, waving it lightly in front of him. The wind in the area responded to his will, subtly guiding the package until it dropped in front of him, sinking slightly in the snow.

It was a run of the mill crate, reinfocrced ot all hell. The only thing remarkable about it was its size. It was massive, longer than a truck, if he had to eyeball it. He waved his hand, the parachute cutting off from the parcel as he took a step forward to inspect, only to freeze mid way as four charges detonated around all four edges of the crate, throwing away the crate.

He looked, wide eyed, as the smooth and definitely luxurious RV was revealed to him. Sleek, black, shiny, with all the space he could ever need. The drone that had stayed dormant all this while came to life, its fan blades spooling to life, bringing the drone to him. 

This time, however, the one to greet him was not the Director of Fury, which meant no second shot at the forehead vein, but the calm and unfappable Agent Coulson.

“Mr.Mike, this is the best RV that money can buy in the Hemisphere. I assure you that enough necessities have been stocked inside for a week. The summit will be held in approximate three days, so I believe it should be enough for both you and your companion,” here he paused, as if expressing disbelief at the sentence he was about to say, “Ofcourse, that excludes your Ghidorah, as you called it. We were unsure as to what its appetite was so we have prepared a selection of suitable food items in suitable quantities that can be air dropped in badges. If you could just tell me–”

“Energy.” He stopped the man mid way, as he was about to show him a large selection of meats, as they assumed that something that big was surely a carnivore, and had probably assumed that they would need tons of meat to fulfill him. Alas, the answer he gave them was not reassuring at all.

ANimals that eat meat were familiar, understandable, and exploitable. Beings that live off of energy? Energy that they can't realistically control, poison, or withhold? Now, that was sure to invoke a reaction, just like the slight twitch on Coulson’s face. 

Now, a slight twitch might be a minor expression, but it was Coulson, and for him to reach, the news was shocking to him.

“Excuse me,” Coulson cleared his throat before asking again, “Did you just say that Ghidorah,” He butchered the pronunciation a bit, but that was alright, “here can subsist off  of just energy?”

“Yes. That’s what I said.” He supposed that this was just a way to gain additional information about Ghidorah. After all, energy came in many types, and while he did imply to Fury that a nuke would just end up energizing Ghidorah, they probably wanted to know more, to develop their precious contingencies.

Ah, the quintessential spy contingencies, which did not work half the time. He was sure that this incident was only going to accelerate their program with the Tesseract, as they, correctly, assumed that the Tesseract’s energy was the one thing that could give even Ghidorah a pause.

Hell, if Ghidorah could no sell energy from a freaking Infinity Stone, then he might as well declare himself the de facto strongest being on the planet. Which he was not, hence his suspicions that Ghidorah might just get dusted by a sufficiently strong Tesseract blast.

“What type of energy?” Coulson shifted to the interrogation mode that did not feel like an interrogation, one of his special talents. He saw no reason not to oblige. After all, the more they knew, the more they would despair and realise that diplomacy was the only option, as all he had to do was disrupt the entire global economy was to plonk himself in any one of the major shipping arteries and tell Ghidorah to block everything.

Hell, Ghidorah wouldn’t even have to attack anyone. The second it was revealed that Ghidorah would be locking everything down, the insurance companies themselves would throw their hands up, and without insurance, no shipping company would risk their supermassive tankers, as that was not a loss to be taken lightly.

Most shipping companies would be placed under massive strain if they lost even a couple of their massive ships, especially without any insurance payments to lessen the blow.

“Any energy,” he shrugged as he walked towards what was supposed to be his home for a few days. The drone as well as the Hologram followed suit, “Solar, Nuclear, Heat, Electricity, Plasma, and probably many other exotic forms that I haven’t had time to test yet.”

The explanation silenced Coulson for a bit before he spoke in a soft, subdued voice, “I see. So I take it that no food shipment is necessary?”

“No.” Not right now anyway. Once he established two way communication between them, he could see what type of food Gidhorah preferred aside from energy.

The feed shut off as the drone floated off the side before landing on the ground, lights and the fans shutting off as if telling him that it was switched off, as if he did not know what SHIELD was most likely to do. Keep all the cameras and mics on, and transmit all the data back so they can analyse every breath he took.

The same must be the case for the RV as well. He would eat his own words if the whole thing was not rigged to hell and back. Hell, he was sure that aside from the standard suite of audio and video surveillance, they must have something inside that could do a full energy scan as well, if they could have fit that in time.

The absurd possibility of SHIELD predicting such a scenario and preparing for this did come to mind, but they couldn’t possibly be that competent, could they?

___xx__

–Phil “Touch LOLA and die” Coulson–

“I am sorry, Coulson. Did you just tell me that the three headed cerebrus of a Dragon that we are seeing right now can absorb any energy? Even kinetic energy?”

He resisted the urge to point out that being known as Ghidorah was likely an energy being, so shooting them with energy did not make sense at all. Instead, he just nodded and told him his thoughts.

“Yes, I believe that any weapon that we can field right now will just serve as fuel for Ghidorah. I recommend any and all diplomatic channels to be used because the firepower the other side can bring to bear, coupled with their global mobility, means that we don’t have a way to defend ourselves from them.”

“Yeah, being capable of bombing the West Coast certainly was a very good deterrent to have,” Fury said dryly, though the forehead vein told him another story. While everything that SHIELD did came with complications that resulted in headaches more often than not for the Director, this case was a specialty.

If SHIELD and, by extension, Director, could not navigate this properly, there was a good chance that SHIELD as they knew it, would not exist in a couple of years. 

The unlimited funding. The limited(read: zero) oversight and the trust that SHIELD had cultivated in decades could vanish due to a single reason, so beyond just making sure that the world was not subjected to the nightmare of Ghiraoh attacking, Director Fury also had the additional burden of preventing it in such a way that SHIELD’s contributions were emphasised.

He did not envy the Director right now.

“I trust that the gift is working as predicted?”

“As far as the eggheads can tell,” The RV was a rush job, but the boys in the lab had assured everyone that it was done properly, and no equipment should give off anything obvious tells. It was a concern, but the man seemed reasonable and, more importantly, intelligent enough to realise that anything that SHIELD gave him would be bugged.

It was good that SHIELD had a luxury RV in one of the bases, for reasons he hadn’t read. It was likely built as an experiment because the boys in the lab had leftover budget and wanted to try their hand at luxury transport, or something equally ridiculous.

The fact that it was delivered brand new just a few months ago and was just sitting in the storage without being torn down and built anew with the signature SHIELD logo plastered on its sides gave them some plausible deniability.

Even if both the parties knew that the RV was bugged, SHIELD could just claim that it came from a third party, instead of being outfitted by SHIELD, no matter how flimsy the claim might be.

___xx___

–Mike–

The doors to the RV slid open on their own as he approached, which was one of the hallmark signs of a luxury vehicle. If you didn't have to touch the door to open or close it, it meant you either had a vehicle that could do it on its own, or you had a driver to press the buttons to do it, or you had a door boy, a person specifically to open and close the door of your vehicle so you didn't have to sully your hand.

As soon as he stepped inside, the entirety of the RV lit up, showing him a rather cramped situation. He was confused for a second, his middle class upbringing showing before he realised a button on the side of the door frame. It was blinking as well.

He hesitantly pressed the button, only to pause as the sound of motors being activated reached his ears. He realised what was happening a moment later, as the walls of the RV shifted before moving out. 

And soon enough, the cramped space with space only enough for a single man to move changed to allow movement for multiple people at once. The small sofas on both sides, the small kitchen, as well as the end of the RV, which was supposed to be a bed, had a big wooden box, similar to the crate in which this entire RV came through.

His senses told him of the food inside, as he turned around and walked into the driver’s cabin, looking at the big screen in the center. Settling into the RV cabin, he cranked the engine and smiled at the subtle vibration that entered the cabin. If it was subtle for him, then it might as well be non existent for normal people.

He looked back at the door that was open once more, as Alcina entered the cabin, looking all around.

“Welcome,” He said, “to our temporary home.”

“It is far better than sleeping in the other world with the flimsy tents,” She snarked back as he paused and then nodded. IT did make sense, after all.

Getting back into the cabin, he set up the sofas into the makeshift beds, before going to the back.

Time to see what SHIELD sent for food.

___xx___

It had been a couple of hours since he made the high quality ramen, and after a rather comfortable sleep, courtesy of the high quality mattress and temperature control, despite the fact that he could live comfortably in very extreme temperatures, he was awake and ready to get out.

It was too bad there were no screens in the whole thing. Only the one next to the driver, but no iPad. Well, even if he did get one, with no internet, the things might as well be Bricks. All the reliance on the internet, with next to no stuff that could be done without connecting to the cloud meant that even if he did get a tablet, it would be useless to him.

Alcina was asleep as well, as was Ghidorah outside. The kaiju had curled up around the RV, resting right next to the RV, which meant it did not have to work as hard for temperature regulation.

Getting out of the RV, he looked at the picturesque scenery all around him, stretched and yawned, feeling, oddly enough, like a tourist of all things.

It was true that at one point in time, he would have loved to visit and experience the beauty of such places but now that he was here, in arguably one of the most remote and thus, most beautiful places on the planet, he couldn’t enjoy it all that much, with much of his mind focused on the stuff that he had to go through in the next few days. 

Despite his confidence in his strength and that of the Ghidorah, he was still kind of apprehensive about the meeting. Sure, he would love nothing more than to participate in society without being hunted down for it, the politicians might just take that as a sign of weakness and push him for it, leading to escalation from his side.

That was not something anyone wanted. Plus, it definitely didn't help that his best weapon, Ghidorah, was kind of incapable of executing its best moves, courtesy of the Ancient One and the planetary ward system that was basically the embodiment of too OP, please nerf.