Meta Essence Gacha in Marvel

Raven

After a lot of consideration, Raven decided to do one of her least favorite things… An introspection trip to the deepest parts of her mind. 

There's a reason for that, a reason why she needs to go there and why she doesn't like going there. Because that is where she finds the things that her friends once nicknamed Emoticlones.

These… Emoticlones, like the name explicitly says, are her emotions given form, personality, and even consciousness. In the past, she fractured her Emotional Spectrum, to separate herself from those emotions, so that she would not lose herself to them and end up hurting herself… or the world.

It's a defense mechanism, a seal… For the price of becoming almost emotionless, she was able to function in society. After all, she can't risk the world's safety in case she can't control a particular fit of anger, or if someone, knowing of this particular information, tries to make her lose herself. Her Creator was the first one to always try.

So there, in her inner world… Her Emotional Spectrum exists fractured into eight parts. She expected seven, but as proof that she had no idea of what she was doing at the time, the pieces are not simply representations of the famous seven emotions and colors that one would see on the Lantern Troops.

No, her demon heritage mixed with that, adding Sins and other aspects of her personality in the mixture, and that's how she ended up with eight Emoticlones.

Those physical manifestations of pieces of her being are identical to her, with the exception of the color theme. 

Finally visualizing her dark Mindscape, she sees them there, doing whatever they do, whatever she denies herself from doing in the real world.

She is very different from Gray, even Raven almost missed the manifestation of her Timidity there. The fear of loneliness, abandonment, and rejection. She is also the one who holds Raven's sadness. She is just there, pulling the hood up very tightly to hide her face while trying to be invisible.

Raven can't complain about separating from her, despite not showing happiness, Raven rarely feels sadness either. People often mistake her for a sad existence, but she is not. She is above all that.

So, she likes and pities Sadness a little, the one who holds those negative emotions for her.

The ones that she doesn't like are Green and Orange. She still doesn't believe those emotions are inside her!

Green is bravery, a tomboyish version of her; brazen, outspoken, and one who likes… fist fights? She is a magic user! Why would this version of her enjoy punching and kicking???

And Orange is Rude. No, she is not only rude, she really is the embodiment of Rudeness. The complete disregard for other people, that's what she is. If it were only sarcastic and with an attitude, Raven would accept her more easily, but she is uncouth and undignified. Look, she just burped loudly!

On the other hand, Yellow is easily the one that Raven can accept in the blink of an eye. She represents Knowledge; she is calm, mature, reasonable, and keeps the rest in line.

It would all be well, so much that Raven almost regretted separating from it… But Yellow is dangerous in a different way. The search for knowledge is a thin and dangerous line that all magic users tread. Knowledge also embodies Raven's ambition and greed.

Those are dark desires, very dangerous to someone with a demon heritage. So, even though the Yellow Raven looks innocent with her glasses, even though she doesn't mean any harm, she can end up being the start of Raven's downfall.

Funny that there's another one that Raven doesn't need to worry about… Brown represents Slothness. In the same line of Yellow, she is also obviously closely tied to a Cardinal Sin.

But Sloth is not dangerous to her, just… embarrassing. It's not only about not doing anything, Brown Raven is sloppy and dirty. It's good that she separated from it, and although the desire to take a break from all her troubles is something she can't deny, she knows she can't slack off.

Now… The last two are the ones that Raven can barely look at. The ones that make the trips here less and less consistent, making it an undesirable chore. Red and Violet…

Red is self-explanatory. The representation of anger, the most volatile emotion, the one that is just one hair away from making her lose control, the color of her creator…

If one day she falls, it will be through Red Raven. The Emoticlone even has a different characteristic from the others, she has four red eyes that shine constantly in a piercing light. Really, the closest to her demonic heritage.

That is the one that Raven needs to keep in check, sealed, and out of sight…

The other one is not as dangerous, but… Raven almost let Red Raven take control and raged when she saw what the manifestation of Love and Passion was doing.

Violet Raven is making a shrine to Hector… With moving pictures, fragments of her memories, and candles… and hearts…

"Azarath Metrion Zithos…" She calms herself.

Maybe trying to create a magic that harnesses the power of those…things,  was a bad idea.

.......

Third Person P.O.V.

One second… One move… That's all Hector needed to defeat two of the three people from the world of One Punch Man.

Sweet Mask and Zombieman lost while they were still processing his challenge. One moment, Hector was calmly sitting on his chair, playing with his Dragon Dagger, and in the next moment, he moved faster than their eyes could keep up. He appeared beside Zombieman, touched him, and the immortal hero was encased in ice.

Sweet Mask's eyes only had the time to widen before he felt pain on his ribs, his pupils moving to the side while he was sent flying. He saw Hector casually standing there, his hand outstretched, as he touched him.

Touched… That is the word, because it didn't look like he punched or attacked, his position is just like he simply touched him, but the strength behind that is enough to make Sweet Mask's pretty face kiss the wall.

And kissing the wall at sonic speeds is not the worst pain, the blue-haired man can feel waves and waves of pain and numbness spreading around his body, swapping between each other… Pain and numbness… Feeling too much and then feeling nothing… He can't muster any strength while he stays buried in the wall.

"Your organs are on the brink of rupture, so don't move too move… Your heartbeat is almost enough to overwhelm them in this fragile state." Hector's voice reaches him despite his head being buried.

So that's it… The feeling of pain comes from when his heart pumps blood around his body. Hector's attack was so devastating that it cracked his insides. It will take a long time for him to recover.

Hector then turns to look at Tatsumaki. "I told you guys to attack first." He says regretfully, but in his mind, he is okay with this development.

Defeating someone so quickly, without giving them the chance to show their abilities, is a good way to plant a seed of unwillingness in them. Initially, this would look counter-productive if you want to inspire some loyalty or "tame" a rather problematic follower, but it is like the saying: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall…"

Feeding of whatever challenging nature they have will make it effective when Hector really gives them the chance to act on their delusions and rips it off completely. For now, they can think Hector may have won because he sneaked attack, or because they are not prepared, but eventually they will discover that he is simply much stronger than they are.

In simpler words, he is gonna deal with their rebellious hearts in his own terms.

Obviously, some people needed to receive the message loud and clear from the beginning, so Hector says to Tatsumaki…

"Let's change places…" And without giving Tatsumaki a chance to reply, Hector was suddenly into her.

First, she was looking at him completely, then suddenly she was looking only at the palm of his hand and fingers that closed on her face.

"!" She was forced back, but luckily it was not an attack.

Tatsumaki feels the change in temperature, a hot wind washing away the cool air of the Space Station. When she looks around, they are in a deserted rocky place, no point of reference in sight.

"I guess here we can go… a little crazy." Hector says, pressing the tip of his Dragon Dagger with his index finger "Me, of course, you can go all out. It will now make any difference." He drawls with a smirk.

"You are starting to piss me off…" Tatsumaki says slowly, like she is trying to keep her anger in check. She notices that he is wearing different clothes from before, but her mind doesn't dwell much on it.

Despite trying to act unbothered, the psionic energy surrounded her, making her hair and pebbles around float doesn't lie. The vein throbbing on her forehead is also a pretty good indicator.

"Only starting? Damn, I need to up my trash talk game… I can't even anger an underdeveloped brat-" 

BOOOM

He was interrupted by the boost of power coming from her, it encapsulates and ties him, his arms going tightly close to his body as his body goes still.

"Oh…" He releases a small breath while looking at Tatsumaki's eyes, shining green. "So it's Psychokinesis, not Telekinesis… Trying to stop me from moving by locking my energy? Girl, you are biting much than you can chew." He laughs

BOOM And he releases himself easily enough, opening his arms like he just broke some thick duct tape. The blast of energy emitted from his body travels in all directions, creating a small crater and even pushing Tatsumaki a little before she stops herself and starts floating.

But she still needs to protect her eyes from the wind because of his energy moving like a hurricane around him.

"Let's play. It's morphing time!" He smiles widely while raising his Dragon Dagger and Saba, the white short sword... Sliding the dagger and the sword together, green and white lights are emitted from the two. 

The powers of the Green Dragon Coin and the White Tiger Coin emerge and fuse as his body is engulfed by the light, his body is covered in an instant.

When the light fades and it is finally possible to look at him directly, every inch of his body is covered in his Power Ranger suit, Lord Drakkon's Power Ranger suit.

The suit is predominantly white, with some black and green, but it also has golden ornaments. Like the chest plate and its helmet, which mix the image of a dragon and a tiger perfectly, the red visor gives a menacing look to what otherwise should have been the friendly appearance of a hero.

"Ready?" His voice is deep and muffled under his helmet. His question is simply a warning because he doesn't wait for her. "It will end that easily, too?" His voice comes from behind her, too close to comfort, making the hairs on her neck stand up.

With a boost of psionic power, she was able to stop whatever he was planning to do, sending him flying and creating some distance between the two.

She turns around fast with her outstretched palm already pointed at him. Locking on him sliding back, his feet create two gashes on the ground, while he is thrown back much less than expected.

The ground opens beneath his feet, like the huge mouth of a beast trying to swallow him, and it succeeds! For a second or two… Before a line appeared on the huge cocoon of rocks, trying to seal him.

Hector emerges from the cut cocoon and doesn't waste time dashing at Tatsumaki, short sword in hand, the dagger still on his hip. Tatsumaki hastily attacks him with more rocks from the surroundings. This battlefield gives her some advantage, at least.

WhooshWhooshWhooshWhooshWhooshWhooshWhoosh

But it seems it's not enough because Hector is not even slowed down while he cuts everything that enters his path, even the ones that she sneaks behind him, above, and beneath him are cut before they can even touch his body.

Tatsumaki remembers that Atomic Samurai can do something similar, tuning huge objects into smaller and harmless versions by cutting them into pieces.

Hector is not exactly reducing the rocks to molecules, but he is cutting them small enough so that the small rocks are stopped by the strong wind around his body.

She watches him reach her again in a surprisingly quick and long dash, his arm holding the short sword above him but already descending on her. A flash of a grim future flickers on her mind… if that attack hits her, she will be bisected from top to bottom.

She hastily puts her hands above her head and stops his hand with psychokinesis. 

BOOM

His arm indeed stopped, but she was forced into a squatting position, strain visible on her face, while cracks appeared on the ground.

She didn't even have time to question how strong he is because she just saw his free hand moving to his belt, pulling the Dragon Dagger, and aiming at her stomach.

The guy is not kidding. There's no hesitation in his movements, he is really going to stab her!

Tatsumaki opens the ground again, but this time to swallow her. His overhead swing and stab miss the mark as she goes diagonally down and back in the now-empty space on the ground.

"No need to worry about damage, I can fix you up pretty good afterwards." She hears his condescending voice above her.

"You asked for it." She says, finally going full-throttle battle mode.

The ground shook and the sky churned as Tatsumaki floated high in the air.

"..." Hector, for once, gives her the courtesy to prepare herself. He stays still, ignoring the strong winds hitting him.

Tatsumaki opens her arms, each hand pointing in opposite directions. Then her palms turn to the sky, and with that, huge chunks of earth rise from the ground and surround them.

When she closes her arms, joining her palms, she sends the huge chunks of earth in his direction with a surprisingly fast speed. One would expect that the building-sized rocks would move slowly through the air, but Tatsumaki can throw them with the same ease as kids would skip rocks on a lake.

The rocks approach Hector at the same time, closing all the escape routes… But this only makes him tilt his head, after all, she already knows that he can make his own path.

As expected, he cuts them, but the ones from above… He thinks she must have planned something, so he didn't immediately dash in her direction. He opens a path above him and jumps.

It seems he has good senses, because spikes emerged beneath him just a little before he jumped. The rocks are a distraction.

But jumping also gives some openings - for some reason, he is not flying - and Psychokinesis is one of the most versatile superpowers for a reason.

Tatsumaki easily stops the huge rocks and changes directions to attack Hector. Even the ones he cut. So what? They are smaller, but they can still be used.

Two rocks crash on Hector, like two meteors hitting each other, breaking into smaller pieces.

But Hector reappears on another rock, his feet glued to the surface. He moved so fast that Tatsumaki didn't see how he got there, but she is locked on his signature, so she attacks again.

The air becomes a three-dimensional battlefield, and at the same time, a weapon for Tatsumaki. But Hector navigates through it pretty well, quickly jumping from rock to rock, slowly approaching while avoiding Tatsumaki's attacks.

The esper bites her lip in frustration, her opponent is simply too slippery, even switching strategies to keep him away and looking for an opening is not working. He is slowly but surely approaching her.

Jumping from rock to rock, sometimes even kicking the air. When she thinks she caught him, he destroys the rock with a precise attack that leaves no openings.

A small part of her needs to admit that he is good, making it look effortless, even though she knows that fighting against her is a nightmare.

When he finally gets too close to comfort, she decides to abuse her power and once again releases an overwhelming blast of psionic energy. She removed the rocks so shat he do not have anything to use to defend himself and hits him with an unavoidable attack.

He is obviously sent back hundreds of meters, even though he dashed to her, she also noticed that he resisted the blast a little too much… Going through it and reaching too close to comfort before his dash loses momentum and he is pushed back.

Still exerting full strength, she reaches for his overall direction with her hand and power, and grabs the air while twisting her wrist. A huge hurricane is formed around him.

The winds are moving at supersonic speed, enough to shred a normal human. This hurricane is a death trap even to a very resistant person, because even if you are not killed instantly by turning into a pink mist, you will slowly be ripped by the constant onslaught. Even the small things carried by the wind only increase its power.

It blocks all senses and makes it hard to move, so if you are trapped on it, it is also not easy to escape.

"Hmpf! You really asked for it." Tatsumaki snorts while looking at her cruel trap. "I will let you off after I take a layer of skin." This kind of treatment is only reserved for monsters, and even she would be uncomfortable using it against a human.

Her scornful gaze changes slowly when she notices a figure emerging from the hurricane…

He is simply walking out of it, straight and unbothered. The winds and sand are hitting his body, but doing nothing, he is eating all that like he is taking a stroll on the beach. The small rocks hitting his suit do nothing but create sparks around him.

"..." A drop of sweat runs through her temple, and even Tatsumaki needs to admit that this guy is ridiculous.

"I think the youngsters in my older world started calling it… aura farming?" Hector tilts his head, ignoring the fact that he is the same age as the said 'youngsters. "Anyway, Tatsumaki… It's proven that I'm not that fragile, so can you please go out already? It will leave a bad taste in my mouth if I defeat you without giving you the opportunity to go all out…" He continues hypocritically.

Because he is also not going all out, and he just defeated Zombieman and Sweet Mask without giving them the same opportunity. He is giving different treatments to different people, based on his judgment of their characters.

Tatsumaki is, after all, the most defiant and uncontrollable of all of them. She is also the one who has the most destructive power, so it is not a prudent idea to play the long game with her.

He needs to stomp her now.

"I'm going to start attacking for real now- Hm, are you smiling?" He is saying before noticing something strange. Tatsumaki is smiling… Not a scornful smirk or anything, a somewhat genuine smile…

"What? Who is smiling, you weirdo?" She frowns, as confused as he, but as she uses her hand to touch her face, she also notices her curled lips.

Ba-dump Is she getting excited with this? Not even she can tell…

"Ah, I see… Holding back sucks, huh? A world made of cardboard, right?" Hector understands a little. "In the future, I'm gonna take you to some deserted planets. Train you till you can pull a moon from the sky. It will be fun."

"Don't act familiar!" She is still keeping an arm's length distance from him.

"Whatever… heads up!" He warns, and disappears from his spot

"!!" She has the time to create a buried around when she notices him appearing just a meter away, his fist pulled back before he strikes.

The punch was like a mini-nuke hitting her circular barrier; the huge rocks that she was using previously were pushed back, the wind cutting them. And even though they are a hundred of meters in the air, the ground still sinks into a crater by the sheer force of the shockwave.

Tatsumaki was launched at the horizon like a cannonball, she was still able to keep herself steady instead of spinning around uncontrollably, so she could see the land beneath her passing too quickly.

She is moving so fast that suddenly there's no more land beneath, but the sea. Tatsumaki finds herself surrounded by the sea in all directions, with no idea where she is.

Not that her location matters, she has a more concerning issue to worry about, in the shape of Hector wearing his Power Ranger armor while running at the water in her direction. He is moving at supersonic speeds, and Tatsumaki almost can't see the lower half of his body because of the water particles raised by his steps.

She doesn't panic, though. Now, surrounded by water, she has a different type of medium to use her powers. First, she splits the sea, making him lose his footing, and controls the water to shoot high-concentrated beams of water.

Thousands of them are shot at Hector from all directions, each is strong enough to pierce metal. Obviously, even without footing and under overwhelming attacks, Hector keeps his calm, dodging and deflecting the attacks that would hit him.

Afterimages of him appear on the air as he slowly approaches Tatsumaki.

"That's it! You are not gonna do much if you don't actively try to kill me!" He shouts, finally reaching her, his short sword - or small saber - slashes through her psionic shield like butter.

It would hit her if she were not passively pushing everything away from her. Her barrier is not only a ball wall, it is filled with psionic energy, like gravity that pushes everything away. Once, against Psykos, she suffered because of that because her opponent inverted the pressure and direction of the force, but this time, this saved her.

Despite slashing her on the waist, his body is moved a little back, and the tip of the blade only makes a cut on her abdomen.

It almost destroyed her dress, a little down, and she would have flashed him. Neither of the two cares about that at the moment. Hector kicks the air again, and kicks the psionic ball surrounding Tatsumaki, in the air, sending her through the clouds.

"Let's see how you fare without anything to use…" He comments before kicking the air again to follow her.

........

In S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier, their sensors captured weather and seismic anomalies in the sea between East Africa and South Asia.

"I want images." Fury says disgruntled with his crew. As a spy, few things irked him more than being kept in the dark about something, so the fact that he has so many satellites with high-end cameras at his disposal, and in all the screens that he looks at, shows nothing more than… well, nothing… doesn't make him happy.

"I'm sorry, sir. This is the best we can get, the storm is blocking us from getting any real footage of the cause." A S.H.I.E.L.D. operative says from her chair while typing frantically.

"Maybe is a natural storm…" Someone suggests weakly.

Despite the dumb statement, Fury still replies "Natural storms don't form without our sensors catching previous signals." His mind goes to a certain someone linked with Charles Xavier… The location, close to Africa, also supports this line of thought.

But what would make an Omega-level Mutant go all out like that? And the whole thing seems a little off…

He makes a decision. First, he will enter into contact with Xavier for more information, and second… "Send Wonder Man to investigate." He orders

Another part of his mind inadvertently wonders about Eidolon… With that big of a ruckus, he would be the first one there. 

......….

BoomBoomBoomBoomBoom

The dark, cloudy sky is filled with constant flashes of white and green light, sounds similar to thunder - but not quite like it - echoing all over the place where the shadows of the combatants can barely be seen.

HuffHuuf Tatsumaki is already breathing heavily at this point.

Everything she does, everything she throws at him, is shrugged off while he continues to test her limits. Even when she basically brought the sea to the sky and condensed the clouds into water to submerge him, he still kept going without any loss in his battle prowess.

At some point, he stopped using his blades and is only punching and kicking her, the psionic ball moving around like in a pinball game. 

Hector discovered that despite the huge output, Tatsumaki has limits. Something that he will try to improve later.

He has even started taking it easier, conducting her back to land…

BOOOM

After an especially nasty spinning axe kick, Hector sends Tatsumaki down. The psionic barrier hits a beach with everything, raising waves and sand high in the air.

Hector lands close to her some seconds later, looking pretty unharmed.

"Ready to admit defeat? Or do you have any last tricks that you want to try?"

She was ready to reply with a snarky comment, but Hector's armored head suddenly snapped to the side.

"Too bad, we need to continue it another time." He says in an even voice "I won by the way." He turns to her, and despite being covered completely, she can almost see his smug smirk.

"What? Obviously, it's not ove- Gurk!!!" She gags while shouting, and a black liquid starts pouring from her mouth. She panics for a moment while the liquid covers her whole body, and then disappears together with her. The whole process took less than a second.

Hector worked hard to make this specific power quick, after all… What kind of escape teleportation has a delay?

Drops of the liquid barely touched the sand when someone appeared in the sky.

"Your friend ran to where?" Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, asks while floating intimidatingly. His eyes were shining in a red-pinkish light. He is a muscled man with black hair, wearing glasses and a tight fight sleeveless costume. A huge red "W" on his chest.

"She was not my friend." Hector answers, entering the persona of Lord Drakkon

'Hmm, this is a little problematic… I still haven't decided what to do with Lord Drakkon… Should I start with a bad impression by fighting against him?' He ponders in his mind 'And sincerely, I don't know if this body can defeat Wonder Man.'

Wonder Man is one of the heavy hitters of Marvel, not someone that can be underestimated. Hector is using a fairly strong body, but it is not enough to fight someone on the same league as Thor. If a battle were decided by stats alone, this body would have no chance against Wonder Man.

'Well, I can work with that… Let's see how strong this Power Ranger suit makes me.' Despite being a cautious person, he is never afraid of a fight.

"Oh, so are you guys having a little quarrel?" Wonder Man asks calmly, a cocky smirk on his face, he seems to be in control of the situation.

"Not even introducing yourself… Those new heroes have no manners." Lord Drakkon shakes his head, looking disappointed. "I think you need a little humbling, so that you can become a proper hero." He says, his voice imperious. Maybe because he was dealing with OPM characters earlier, he decided to act a little like Garou.

"From you? Haha. No offense, your costume is cool and all, but I don't think you have what it takes to-" Whoosh

A downward slash cuts Wonder Man's words, and his body… And the land… And the sea…

The attack was so strong that it looked like a reenactment of Moses parting the Red Sea. Lord Drakkon used Saba, a pretty sharp and strong blade, that was even able to create a bloody line in Wonder Man's body!

Despite not going as deep as an inch, the attack can be considered a great feat because of how strong Wonder Man is…

"Lesson one, even the strongest of the heroes can die if they are caught off guard." Lord Drakkon says, his voice serious.

Flashes of images of people like Wanda and the Hulk dying from bullets appear in his mind. It can happen…

"..." Wonder Man almost couldn't hear him, looking at his cut forearms.

"Never met anyone that could hurt you?" Lord Drakkon tilts his head to the side. "Better me than someone that really wants to kill you…"

"You talk too much!" Lord Drakkon's condescending tone already got on Simon's nerves. His fists glow in the same red-pinkish light and fly at Lord Drakkon at neck-breaking speeds.

"..." 'Yep, this speed is just too much…' The Power Ranger thinks while stepping back with a dash, creating dozens of meters of distance, avoiding the crater made by Wonder Man's dive 'If I didn't have Future Sight, I would discover pretty early if this armor can tank his attacks.'

"Running now???" Simon shouts

"Yep, I embarrassed you enough. I bet I'm gonna live rent-free on your mind from now on… The name is Lord Drakkon, by the way." Lord Drakkon strikes an exaggerated pose characteristic from a super sentai.

"No, you won't!" Simon pushes his palm and releases a blast of energy, ten meters wide, to attack the Power Ranger.

"Stop giving me openings…" WHAM Lord Drakkon takes advantage of the fact that the attack covered Wonder Man's field of vision and sneaks around to punch the man in the face.

The hero was sent sliding on the ground some meters, but he doesn't look hurt, albeit receiving an attack strong enough to flatten entire neighborhoods.

"Seriously, it shouldn't be that easy… be better!" With those words and after pointing at him, Lord Drakkon turns around fast and grabs his short sword. "Remember, fake hero! Losing your cool is not cool!!" 

He then literally slices the air and escapes. 

Yes, Saba can cut the fabric of reality, that's how Lord Drakkon moved around the Multiverse to steal the Morphing powers of mane Power Rangers teams.

It's not for nothing that he was able to injure Wonder Man. With a lot of effort and taking some risks, he would be able to kill Wonder Man, it's possible… it would be an uphill battle, but he has a chance of victory.

But instead of doing that, he prefers letting the new hero seethe, quitting while ahead… And there's an attack of a giant monster in Japan! he can't miss the opportunity!

Too bad Lord Drakkon didn't come in a Package. He didn't gain a Megazord, not even the green Dragonzord. Yes, he tried playing the Dragon Flute, but no Dragonzord came from the sea or anywhere else.

Luckily, even without a Megazord, he can still fight giant monsters.

........

Almost every day, Eidolon visits Emma Frost because of his adopted daughters. 

Consequently, he meets Emma pretty often, too. The CEO woman decided to work from home much more because of her daughters, only travelling when absolutely necessary.

The girls are too young to travel together with her, and she is still keeping them a secret, leaving only a handful of her subordinates to take care of them. The most loyal ones, of course, who ironically are once people that betrayed her and received a little lobotomy to make them faithful servants.

After doing some paperwork and sending it to her assistants, Emma spares a moment to thank the wonders of technology that allow her to do it remotely, before moving to the playroom where her daughters and Eidolon are staying right now.

Opening the door, she was greeted with the sight of Eidolon entertaining the little girl while they showed him the things they liked: toys, drawing, telling stories of movies, and even reenacting scenes.

It looks very chaotic even from her third-person perspective, but he keeps up with them pretty well, replying to everything with an interested voice and even adding some relevant information here and there.

It's not just anyone who can engage with kids and treat them that well, his tone is neither authoritative nor condescending. 

"Oh, Ms. Frost… How was work?" Eidolon seems to have noticed her only now, the five girls turning their heads simultaneously to her. To any other person, it would be creepy, and straight from a horror movie, but she finds it cute.

"Dull, but not extraordinarily bad." She answers while hugging her daughters. She never thought of herself as the motherly type, but she can't deny that this feels good.

It helps that she skipped the arguably "worse" parts of motherhood.

Seeing their interaction, Sophie looks between the two inquisitively "Papa… Mama…"

"Yes?" Eidolon turns to her.

It seems her line of thought went through the other girls, and they started alternating words. 

"Why" "Ms. Frost" "And" "Not" "Dear?" The five say, despite their blooming individuality, they're still pretty much glued together.

But Emma and Eidolon noticed that the one who started this was Sophie, the most proactive and observant of the group. That can be a good signal.

But more important than cultivating their individuality at the moment, they need to worry about this question that came from nowhere.

"Eh… What do you mean?" Emma asks, completely understanding the question, but buying time.

"Are" "You" "Two" "Not a" "Couple?" They tilt their head together cutely.

"..." 

"Mama" "And" Papa" "But not" "Couple?" They continue

"..." It seems they learned about the structure of the average family.

"No, we are not married, nor a couple." Eidolon decides to be honest and answers softly

"..." The girls stop to look at him, and they look… sad.

Eidolon obviously noticed it quickly, and just as quickly reaches for them "Oh girls, I know that you are all smart enough to understand that your situation is not exactly… normal. But what is the problem with it? Being normal is boring most of the time." he laughs while patting their heads.

They seem to be easily convinced by him, but he continues

"And yes, your mother and I are not together like that, not by something like marriage or a piece of paper… We are linked together by something much stronger." He looks at them gently "By our love for you all. We love you five unconditionally, and this is stronger than anything." With the same gentle smile, he hugged them, and they hugged him back.

Even Emma is surprised, thinking something like 'So this is what it's like to have a loving father…' She was so absent-minded that she didn't even notice when Mindee grabbed her hand and pulled her to the group hug.

She left herself be guided, and despite the awkwardness, hugged them together with Eidolon.

"..." 

"..."

The two adults exchange glances, their eyes full of questions. In the end, they decided not to answer any of them, and with a small shrug, they simply enjoyed the strange family moment. Not putting labels on anything.

........

"By the way, I have something to tell you…" Emma says, after they separate, she has Mindee on her lap, while Eidolon is with Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe. Esme is running around the playground.

"Hm?" Eidolon makes a sound to her to go on while not taking his eyes off the kids. "I also have something to tell you, the teacher I told you about finally finished her last… project. And is free to take care of the girls." He says but doesn't elaborate, waiting for her to say her piece.

"I will be waiting to meet someone recommended by you. Anyway, during that party in the Avengers Tower, I discovered something interesting…" She starts mysteriously

"Don't go checking other heroes' minds, Ms. Frost. It can trigger some troubles." He warns

"I was careful. And the information didn't come from any hero… But hidden villains." She makes a dramatic pause, but Eidolon doesn't take the bait and asks further 

Emma "tsked" in her mind, she planned to at least tease him a little, if not gain something from the information, but seeing who those people are, it's in the best interest of everyone that Eidolon is aware.

"Hydra still exists." She reveals.

"Oh…"

"....." That reaction made her narrow her eyes. 

It was not the usual muted reaction that the expressionless hero tends to do. He is not hiding his surprise, no… He was surprised for a little moment, but it was more like directed at the fact that she knew about that.

Emma is a mind reader, and despite popular belief, that didn't make her a stunted social person; that depends on her power to understand others. In truth, thanks to her powers, she can read faces and reactions pretty well.

"You knew about that." It's not a question, it's a statement… Almost an accusation.

"Yes." He nods, not hiding anything. "Why do you think I don't cooperate too much with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"..." She gives him a look. "So are you gonna let the evil organization that almost dominated the world some decades ago do whatever they want?"

"Say the woman who is part of a hidden organization that is trying to control the world too…" He scoffs sarcastically "And you are giving them too much credit, Hydra would never take over the world. It's not that simple, there are a lot of strong people living quietly, and installing a fascist regime would destroy their zen."

That makes sense. She can imagine that there are others like Eidolon, but without the will or desire to be a hero, living secretly. But they would retaliate if their toes were stepped on.

"And don't worry, it's not like I am doing nothing." His eyes smile, shining a malicious glint. "I am just playing their game and being… subtle with it."

......…..

In a hidden place, Ophelia Sarkissian talks with a blank screen, reporting her progress with the Yashida group.

"That's good… We need adamantium to even the playing field. Many countries sped up the creation of their own superhero groups, we didn't have the time to infiltrate all of them." From the blank screen, a voice comes, it's impossible to know if from a man or a woman, from someone old or young.

"Talking about evening the playfield… I had a recent surprise." Ophelia smirked, "I recruited someone new."

"Someone? Would he be useful?"

"Well, he has a strange personality… A distorted heroic outlook that can be used. He is weird…" Ophelia says with a tilt of her head, "But you wouldn't find fault with his abilities. He is the one who humbled the new toy from the Avengers…" Her smirk grows

"Do you mean…"

"Yep, the Lord Drakkon guy. I met him after he saved Yokohama from that monster."

"Isn't he a hero? Are you keeping him in the dark about Hydra?"

"Well, he knew more than I expected… But like I said, he is weird. With a very outdated image of heroism, extremely high standards… he doesn't like the Avengers. He can be used."

"... I will let you have him as a toy for now." the voice finally says "But don't let him get in the way of our bigger plans."

"Don't worry, I will keep a tight leash on him."

While she ends the call, Lord Drakkon is leaning against a wall in the other room, his arms crossed, the wall that he is leaning against is green with a huge symbol of Hydra painted in black.

'What would my grandpa say? Or my mom?' Despite the serious outward appearance that he shows, he is still joking on his mind. 'I'm really walking with bad companies now~Huhu~'

...

A.N.:Hello there. 

You think you are going well in life and suddenly you are hanging out with Nazis, life is weird.

If you like this story, consider supporting me in the p.a.t.r.e.o.n... There are chapters ahead there.

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Till next time and stay good y'all.

Bye Bye~