Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Malibu, CaliforniaMalibu Point 10880, 90265Tempest scout shipSame day22:34

After a brief stint on the Hyperdimension, I landed the Tempest on the big landing pad that was at the forefront of the Stark Mansion. I intended to cure Tony Stark of his ills and for that I took one of my Tamaranean healer androids, he looked like a typical male of my race and his given name, that I chose myself, was Talonn. Talonn was a level 4 self aware Artificial Intelligence. He was a funny guy and I think TALI has a crush on him or something. He was tall and built like a martial artist, he had blue eyes and dark blue hair.

I didn't bother breaking into Tony’s house, I will wait for them to come back and when they get all back into their routine, I will visit. *Yes, this is an amazing plan.*

Still I was in my cozy cabin on deck three, listening to illegally downloaded music from the local extranet on my sound system. It seemed that with my surge in power, my hearing was too sensitive and thus my tastes had changed and I began to prefer relaxing Lofi music with low tones. I was floating over the sofa when TALI appeared and showed me diverse reports about people's reactions to my intervention in Monaco.

I floated to the window taking the entire wall at the end of the spacious cabin. It showed the sea over the cliff at night, but it could also be used as a screen to show videos. Immediately I saw scenes of myself fighting Whiplash. I took in all the comments and interviews by those who were here and reacted to my… alienness. All those interviews showed me how stupid or spiteful humans could be in general. The comments on YouTube and Twitter were something special.

"So are all your people supermodels or is it just you?"

"mmm. are you naturally that curvy or was there surgery involved?"

"What was with the kissing of one of the most well known genius playboys in the world? Want to get in his pants? Was kicking that man's ass a way of introducing yourself to get into his good graces and pity?"

"Damn! Did you see her go off on that whip guy? She was like moving at super speed when she beat him down."

The jealousy and unexpected vilification surprised me. Shaking my head I thanked the goddess, or higher being, who reincarnated me and gave me super powered alien heritage. I wasn't like those stupid sheep who hid behind a screen to spew poison like this. My mind ground to a halt, yet again strange feelings filled me. *Huh, where did that thought come from?*

Shaking my head, I allowed my hair to go free and I decided to float from the ground to sit in lotus position and began to do a bit of meditation. I stayed like this for an hour as I thought about a plan to answer all those curious little humans, and to stop all of them from wondering about me and coming up with their own ideas.

Opening my eyes, I was smiling and knew what I was going to do. It was spur of the moment but I needed to stay on top of things and write the narrative. I floated back to the middle of my cabin and landed before the virtual wardrobe. For another hour I drew the outfit that I wanted the terminal to synthesize, it was a golden metallic bikini with black drapery absorbing light and showing off her midriff. The high heels I designed married well with the golden jewelry set with pink diamonds and purple gemstones that I synthesized for my circlet, armbands and torc.

TALI appeared at my side and silently began to scan me. This was another thing that I liked about her, she was able to anticipate my needs and wants. The synthesizer began working once my measurements were entered into its system and it started fabricating my new outfit. In flashes of light, three Tamaranean gynoids appeared around me and began to systematically undress me. They then guided me to my bathroom, it was weird; I have a bathroom inside my spaceship. Speak of luxury.

For forty-five minutes I was pampered and taken care of by gynoid handmaidens and I luxuriated in the gold plated bathtub while my hair was worked on. Another twenty minutes was spent drying me and then applying body care products on my skin and clothing me with the finished outfit I created.

Looking at myself in the full length mirror near the wardrobe terminal, a prideful expression appeared on my face. I looked ethereally beautiful, but… there was something missing. One of the gynoids approached me, she had a glowing purple sword with a golden and white pommel luxuriously decorated; another gynoid brought a sword belt with a matching sheath. They put it at my waist and now my outfit felt complete; I really looked the part of a warrior space princess.

As we left my cabin, I told TALI what I wanted to do and almost instantly she began to compile a file for me, a Rosetta stone of the Tamaranean language and some bare bones info about my culture, history and some of the abilities of my people that I decided to share with the planet.

I took the nearest turbolift and walked to the bridge section of the ship. The sas opened and I signaled to one of my handmaiden to begin recording. Striding toward the north side of the bridge, I stopped when I reached the Galaxy Map, which was an interactive holographic tool used for navigating the galaxy.

Then I turned and faced the handmaiden recording with the spiral galaxy as the background and I started speaking, “Greetings, people of Terra. My name is Komand'r, first princess of Tamaran and I am going to introduce to you today myself and my people. To begin, it is important because for you to know where I come from…”

~/.\~

Around the world

With the creation of a Twitter account and a YouTube channel, Komand'r became the newest goddess of the internet overnight. With her sixty minute long footage explaining life on Tamaran in the Vega system and the other powers of the galaxy in her native language, Earth was now understanding that they were really small fishes.

Then she compiled a list of threats that the people of Earth should take seriously, space pirates and mercenaries who raid pre-FTL civilizations and enslave them, The Mad Titan Thanos who was a murderous Zalworg Tobeckplizing Zorgmorker*, the Kree Empire who had already visited Earth and sent a subjugation fleet but were thwarted by a powered Earthling called Carol Danvers who had taken the fight to them. The danger of pollution and dead worlds who didn't listen to those speaking of climate change.

Then Komand'r proceeded to show them wonders from the galaxies surrounding the Milky Way such as beautiful planets, nebulae and examples of utopian societies. She ended her introduction with a wave and a smile as she was rejoined by her handmaidens and her healer, followed by TALI who made a Tamaranean salute by crossing their arms together on their busts and slightly bowing.

This introductory message had created a sensation around the globe that caused a big uproar, and now humanity was scared. This simple action from Komand'r changed the course of history for humanity as some countries decided that it was time to lay to rest their differences and petty squabbles and pool their resources to defend their world. Some other organizations decided to take advantage of the chaos to further their agendas.

Hydra was on the move.

~/.\~

(Tony Stark)

May 24th, 2010Afternoon

Stumbling at the entrance of my home in Malibu, I felt the dagger-like gaze of Pepper at my back, since she learned that the space princess had frenched me, she has been in a mood. But at least she understood that it wasn't my fault after she watched the video that the space princess had released last night and created a private blog on a Stark Industries affiliated server and dumped a load of data about the current state of the galaxy and the surrounding ones.

Tamaraneans, the species space princess belongs to, were able to learn another species or ethnicity's vocabulary with little more than a simple touch or passing graze. It seemed the act of kissing was fast tracking the process too. *Damn, I'm thinking about it again. It was a great kiss.*

More importantly was the technology she had displayed and the powerful hacking abilities her computers seemed to possess. Holographic technology surpassing my own, computing power dwarfing everything known so far from what I’ve seen; my hands hitched so much as I wanted to study space princess' tech. But obviously I couldn’t as it seemed that I had bigger problems to take care of, the fact that my girlfriend was now aware that I lived on borrowed time and had been watching me like a hawk since we left Monaco.

“Tony, wait.” Pepper accosted me and took my arm to pull me inside the house.

I rolled my eyes but was still touched by her action. Even though she was still mad at me , she cared for me as well. “Pepper, I am not invalid.”

There was a sob when Pepper spoke, “I know, I know but…”

I stopped walking and embraced my girlfriend and said, “If everything pans out I will find a solution to this problem.”

Happy and Natalie Rushman passed through the door and noticed how Pepper and I were getting cozy. Although they didn’t say anything, they were clearly uncomfortable. I loved watching them squirm.

“A-and what if you don’t?” Pepper asked with a crack in her voice that simply broke my heart.

I was about to say something when I heard two loud knocks on my door, before the third one simply made it fall from its hinges. A familiar space princess in a slinky purple and black leotard, gloves and thigh high boots appeared, she was all smiles but looked at the fallen door and looked sheepish. She took the door and placed it against the left wall and she announced. “Greetings! Friend Tony, I have come to see of your good health!”

Every one froze, I almost tripped, then Pepper let loose, “What the fuck!”

I quickly saw Happy and Natalie Rushman’s body speed into action, then I also noticed the other male alien accompanying her. He was taller than anyone I had seen, easily two meters in height. Blackfire entered by floating up to me and happily hugged me. Suddenly engulfed in a bear hug, I was already getting blue and unable to breath, then two seconds later she let go of me. I breathed in a large gulp of hair, but suddenly I was in the legendary princess carry position in space princess' arms, ohh my god, the woman was manhandling me like a TOY!

She gave me a dopey smile and then we floated up until we reached the living room. I saw Pepper and the two others running after us. Komand’r let go of me and I quickly stepped back from her, I didn’t like how she was so… physical with me. She smiled at me, “It is good to see that you are still alive, Friend Tony.” she walked like a panther toward me, I tried to flee but she caught me, like a deer in headlights I stood frozen.

Her face approached mine again, she was about to kiss me again, I had resolved myself when Pepper cried and out stopped her. "Hey! Hands off my man you hussy!" She forcefully separated us by putting herself between us.

“Hmm, oh Pepper of the Potts is here!” Space princess looked at Pepper and strode toward her and to my horror, space princess grabbed Pepper and proceeded to kiss her senseless. Pepper struggled, by beating her fist on the alien woman but gradually gave in and kissed her back.

It was the hottest thing I have ever seen, I felt something wet on my upper lips and wiped, it was blood. I think this scene has just given me a nosebleed… *I thought it only happened in anime?*

When I saw Happy arrive in the living room, he saw this scene and immediately tripped and landed on the lone sofa. Natalie, my assistant, stood frozen between the entrance corridor and the living room, watching Pepper and space princess. Ah, well at least she won’t be on my back about having kissed someone else. Space Princess let go of Pepper who still had her eyes closed, completely blissed out and relaxed.

With a thousand gigawatt smile, space princess gently caressed Pepper’s cheek. “You are most skilled with the meeting of the lips, I am most intrigued by that thing you performed with your tongue, do you mind teaching it to me?”

Pepper was too tongue tied to answer her, then the black haired alien’s eyes focused on Natalie, she moved at super-speed and was on my assistant, looming over her, she grabbed her, overpowering her and pulled her into a kiss as well. Natalie fought longer than Pepper, she even tried some of those chinese acupuncture or martial art holds; she knew how to defend herself, I filed that away for later. She gave in as well and enjoyed the kissing so much more.

Five minutes later, Komand'r let go of Natalie who didn’t have that cold expression on her face anymore, she looked like Pepper did. Happy was in the background, taking a bit of breath mint in his hand and swallowing it. *Happy expect to be kissed as well.*

The glow in Komand'r's eyes blazed brighter as she made a cheeky grin at the absent minded Natalie as she said, “Interesting technique, I would like to try that skill with Friend Pepper, her lips were moist as are yours too Friend Natalia.”

Then I realized that I didn't get to have my own kiss and shouted with a hand in the air, “Wait, wait, what about practicing with me?”

Space princess turned to me and tilted her head cutely. “Sorry, Friend Tony, compared to those two you have the taste of metals and weird flavors, I would rather not. Friend Pepper has a very delectable palate and I would rather practice with her some more and with Friend Natalia.”

The ravenette turned to Natalie, I asked myself why she called her 'Natalia' though, it seemed that my assistant was hiding things from us. Happy still in the background breathed in his hand to check his breath, he was prepared to receive the space princess’ kiss to see where he was on the scale.

But as Komand’r walked up to him, she was stopped by Pepper who ran to her and caught her arm. “Princess, stop! What you are doing by Earth norms and customs is considered assault. You must ask first!”

Happy looked completely dejected, his face looked like that of a kicked puppy. Komand'r looked surprised and somewhat contrite as she said a solid thirty seconds, “I am sorry, I didn't know. We Tamaraneans don't have the same reservations as you, if I offended any of you, I apologize.” Her eyes lost the lilac glow they had as she looked down in shame.

Cough. Everyone finally noticed that the blue haired Tamaranean was there, he looked disapprovingly at Komand’r who looked sheepish. He walked toward Pepper and crossed his arm over his chest as he said,  “My name is Talonn, royal healer of her highness Komand’r, she has commissioned me for the healing of her friend Lord Stark.” The tall Tamaranean said with a clear tone, his voice was bass-like.

Like everyone present I was shocked. This male Tamaranean was speaking without the speech impediment of the Princess. I was the first one to comment, “What the hell?! He speaks perfectly good english!”

Everyone turned to space princess whose cheek reddened and she averted her eyes from them. I walked up to her and pointed my finger at her accusingly. “Why don’t you?”

Talonn chuckled lightly as everyone looked at him once again. “There’s an actual good reason, it's simply that I am older than her Highness and know how to take full advantage of my race's linguistic assimilation.”

“Oh okay.” I nodded, finally understanding.

From the file the Princess had uploaded and that I studied while on the jet, Tamaraneans lived for an awfully long time… centuries in fact. Space princess began to follow Natalie as she walked to the minibar to pour herself a drink. Happy quickly ran after them.

Meanwhile Pepper had come to hold onto my arm tightly, it was like my arm was stuck in a vise. I didn’t pay it any mind and focused my attention on the blue haired alien. “So you… have come to heal me, is that it?”

He wore a skin-tight outfit that let everyone see how well built he was, I felt somehow lacking before such a model of masculinity. I guess that Earth’s male population is soon going to feel the same thing as I am right now when they meet Healer Talonn.

The man nodded sagely, he gracefully took some kind of boxy device from his utility belt and said, “Indeed Lord Stark, would you please allow me to scan you with my medical scanner?”

“You may.” I acquiesced at his demand.

Talonn pointed the boxy device at me, which I guessed by just looking at it to be some kind of tricorder like from Star Trek. It projected some kind of heatless wide laser beam that struck me for a solid minute.

“Hmm, interesting.” The blue haired man nodded and shouted. “Your Highness, it’s just like you had shown me!”

Space princess waved at him and smiled then proceeded to downing a bottle of Ketel One Vodka and started speaking Russian with Natalie who poured herself a glass while answering in perfect accented Russian as well. I raised an eyebrow at that.

The boxy scanner beeped and projected a rectangular hologram screen, Talonn’s eyebrows rose to reach his forehead as he looked alarmed. But he calmly looked at me and schooled his expression. “I am surprised you are still alive, Lord Stark. However, judging by your impressive resilience, you have barely one week of life left.”

“I know that!”

Pepper began to sob at the prognosis as she held onto me, I hugged her and patted her back while she called out my name and said that she loved me and that she couldn’t lose me from what I could understand from the stilted sentences wracked with sobs and crying.

I glared at the alien healer. “Can you heal me or not?!”

Talonn smiled affably. “Easily, my Lord.”

The alien healer then glared at my chest. “Though we will do away with the metal shrapnel near your heart, and the energy source and magnet causing Palladium poisoning. Your blood will have to be extracted and purified, You’ll have to come on the main ship for further treatment as I also detected some liver failure and other damage to your organs by overindulgence in your consumption of alcohol.”

Like usual I tuned him out like I did to the previous doctors I had consulted after he said the  magic two words main ship. *Main ship? So the ship space princess used the last time wasn’t the only one she has? Interesting. I get to go on a spaceship, amazing!*

Pepper who was still in my arm beat savagely on my chest and screamed. “THAT’S IT! TONY I WILL THROW AWAY ALL YOUR ALCOHOL!!”

Huh she has been listening to the doctor, maybe I should have… *Hey wait! She’s threatening to wean me!*

“NO, WOMAN YOU WON’T!” I screamed back.

~/.\~

Natalia was fun to speak to, ever the spy she continued to try to milk me for information. Though I had my own problems, because of my great strength, I kept breaking glasses so I had to drink from the vodka bottle directly, which was the strongest alcohol here. The alcohol was potent enough that it took time for my Tamaranean physiology to burn through.

Natalia wore a cute white dress and her hair was styled in an elegant updo, she was trying to seduce me but I didn't care. My inhibitions were not the same as a human now. My hand glided on her right arm as she asked me, "So how do you like Earth?" She did that sexy smile thing that was supposed to be engaging and let me open up. There was a reason I didn't add in the file I released that some Tamaraneans are empathic.

I could tell she was focused and gathering information on me and anything she could get her hands on. I giggled and answered her, “So far I like this planet, it has an interesting biosphere and disparate climates, I like sunny places much more! Like Friend Tony’s home.”

I wanted an open plan house like this one; it was simply breathtaking. It was modern and in a circular shape and looked like one of the houses of the more wealthy nobles on my pla… I stopped there. More memories and thoughts from the original owner of this body seemed to trickle in.

Natasha took a swig of vodka, and put the glass on the counter before laughing and engagingly said, “Oh, I can understand why.” She looked at the panoramic window that had a beautiful view of the pacific ocean. Then she turned her head toward me. “I saw in that file you released that your species metabolizes sunlight, it must be why you like hot and sunny climates.”

I nodded, it was true hot and sunny was the best for us. We could be sustained by sunlight for a long while.

“That’s nice, say since now that I know that you like my planet, can you tell me what you think of us Earthlings? How is human society compared to your own.”

“Your people are something of a paradox to me, you do the bad bad things most of the time, but you are also able to be good too. You are all somewhat… primitive and easily swayed to avoid thinking about your problems. Some of you are the strong, but others are the weak. It is a constant in the universe, the strong take and take, they are greedy and selfish. But there's good things about you too; when I spent time doing the youtubing and watching some of your videos about your feline overmasters, I saw that you can be a caring and generous species.”

“Wait… you believe cats are the dominant life form on the planet?!” Natalia looked at me incredulously.

I liked seeing her that way, she was different from her movie counterpart so far. She was more expressive, I let my hand caress her arm a bit more. “Yes of course, your historical data shows this, the first cats followed you humans out on ships and expeditions to take over the planet—they did the settling on your six continents with even the occasional foray to Antarctica.”

For a long moment, Natalia looked at me with her mouth gaping. I took advantage of this recess in our discussion to take a different colored bottle, it was pink and with a brand called Smirnoff. I drank it without stopping and put down the empty bottle on the counter.

“Are you being serious?!” Natalia finally asked.

I ignored her question as I looked at the pink bottle. “Hmm, I like this new bottle. I want more of this.”

Natalia was about to say something when the shouting match between Pepper and Tony started about the alcohol in the bar. "It would be a shame if this all disappeared, I haven't tasted everything yet."

Talonn suddenly appeared at their side like a blur, for once showing abilities similar to mine. Natalia’s eyes widened, if she thought that I was the only one with superpowers, she was dead wrong. The gynoids and androids on the Hyperdimension could replicate my powers through science. I was still barely scratching the surface of what I have been given, and again… I didn’t have access to everything yet, there were requirements to unlock all the technology I had been gifted. Moral and philosophical requirements.

Smiling at the android healer, I acknowledged his presence with a nod and he said with a bow, “Your Highness, we are ready for departure.”

I clapped my hands, inadvertently creating a mini-shockwave that destroyed some glasswares in the house. “Very good, Healer Talonn.”

*Oops.* I needed to get a handle on my strength.

At least it did something good as Tony and Pepper stopped arguing and walked toward us, Happy trailed after them, looking rather scared by the casual display of strength. I didn’t want him to be scared though…

Talonn looked at Natalia who was still shocked by the joke I pulled on her. I think I will buy a cat and give it to her. “Is your companion interested in following us?”

He had noticed how interested I was in her body, she was a really beautiful specimen of a woman. Then I remembered that Natalia had some health issues. “Now that I think about it.. Friend Natalia should come too. If you have any maladies or past wounds we could do the fixing for you?”

Looking at Natalia in the eyes, I saw how surprised she was by my offer, how indecision struck her. I felt through my empathy how she was trying to talk herself into it, that she could finally have what she desired the most. But she was still a spy and she was wary of any procedure that could compromise her. Because in the end her story was written in her body, because of what the Red Room did to her.

"I…" She was about to refuse. How sad, but I couldn’t let her do so.

As usual, my crew pulled off what I wanted and took action; Talonn, quickly scanned Natalia, eliciting an angry glare from her at him that left Talonn unphased. “She clearly needs it, the passive scan shows that she's not at 100% health, your Highness.”

This shocked the female spy, I loomed over her and pleaded in a sweet voice. “Come with us, Natalia. Please, we will heal you.”

She sighed and lowered her gaze; she really wanted to come. Tony and Pepper arrived and looked at us trying to convince their assistant.

"I can't-" I put a finger on her lips and smiled as she was about to refuse again.

I wouldn’t let her refuse, Natalia was shit on too much in this universe. “No you must come with us, Natalia, this is better than to live with aches and pain, I will make you the better. Healer, do it.”

"Yes your Highness." Talonn pointed his wrist at the spy who didn’t even have the time to react and shot his wrist mounted knockout beam. A yellow ray of energy struck the spy’s body and she landed in my arms, unconscious.

“Oh My God, stop shooting people!!!” Pepper cried out in panic.

I handed Natalia to Talonn who loaded her on his left shoulders.

“Give me my assistant back, she is expensive!” Tony tried to take her back from Talonn’s shoulder, but I stopped him by taking him under the crook of my arm like a pocket book.

I looked down at him. "I am sorry, Friend Tony, but Friend Natalia needs as much healing as you."

He was now understanding why I was doing this, it calmed him down a bit.  “Huh, okay.” He answered awkwardly. Then he suddenly realized the ridiculous position I had him in. “Wait, wait, Space princess! Let me go!”

As I moved away from the minibar, Pepper placed herself between me and the stairs leading to the living room, arms spread wide. “Princess! Please! You can't just take people like sacks of potatoes!”

At the same time, she turned around and said out loud. “Jarvis, file the recording of this scene under potts 01.”

[Understood, Miss Potts.] A suave and British voice rang from all the speakers in our location.

*Ah, Tony’s Artificial Intelligence is here, I had forgotten about him.* I looked around me for effect.

Pepper turned back to me and then came near and mimed with her arms to give her Tony. “A-anyway... listen here princess,  put down the handbag named Tony.”

I grinned at her, she was so funny, no wonder Tony loved her. "Not yet, TALI, six to transport."

Blue light suddenly engulfed everyone, Pepper only had the time to shout, “What?!” Then we were teleported out of the Stark’s mansion to the Spaceship, Hyperdimension.

A/N:

ZalworgTobeckplizingZorgmorker: A very strong insult, equivalent of being called an inbred motherfucker.

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