Bab 16: Chapter 16: Secrets of the Baxter Building
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"I was a God, Valeria. I found it... beneath me."
- Doctor Doom, (Marvel Comics)
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"Are you sure that we can leave Irene alone? I mean she looked pretty excited to test out her new divine powers. Even though she still can't use them to her full potential yet and can only detect the past and future of objects and other people, that won't stop her from trying to experiment with her powers." Emma Frost expressed her concerns.
We were currently traveling in a Rolls-Royce Phantom Hyperion on our way to the Baxter Building. Normally I only traveled through Boom tubes as it was the most efficient and fastest way to reach any destination in the world but that didn't mean I couldn't enjoy riding luxury cars, did it? In fact, I quite liked traveling in extravagant cars whenever I had time on my hands, especially if I was going to parties or any other official visits.
"Don't worry Emma. It would be alright. I don't believe Irene would suddenly become drunk with power just because she got cured of her blindness and awakened her divinity. I have at least that much trust in her. She has always been the responsible one especially when compared to her dear skin-changing wife." I snickered.
Also, Destiny was more or less harmless. She might let herself loose sometimes in trying out her new powers but that didn't mean she would harm anyone voluntarily. Even if she succeeds in developing her powers and starts actually manipulating the fates of others, a few evil blood-sucking politicians or bankers might lose everything they have but that would be it. She wouldn't do anything extremely nefarious to anyone without taking my permission..., at least that was what I wished... In hindsight, I should have probably 'ordered' her not to do that.
"I sure hope so, for her sake at least. Anyway, we are here, the infamous Baxter Building that you spent a billion dollars to buy. A pretty useless expenditure if you ask me. I mean we were one of the earliest investors in the foundation back when Dr. Franklin Storm started it but even after ten years, we were never able to get back our investment's worth.
They never had any groundbreaking invention that they could market. So, buying out the entire foundation, its building along with the massive debt that it had accumulated over the years makes no financial sense... unless you plan to sleep with the newest CEO of the foundation in which case it's pretty expensive for a one-night stand." Emma remarked, annoyed at my blatant expenditure.
Objectively speaking, she was absolutely right. The foundation made me lose a lot of money since it never gave any substantial returns on my investments. After all, a billion dollars was a lot for just a single building and only seven employees which also included two cleaners and an attendant. But what she didn't know was that I neither had any interest in its CEO who was by the way one of the most attractive women in Marvel comics, nor was I interested in making money through the company. What I was interested in was gaining control over the actions of a certain group of fantastic people.
But of course that didn't mean I couldn't tease Emma about it and annoy her more.
"Yeah, you are right. A billion dollars is a lot for a one-night stand. Maybe I should extend it to a one-year stand or maybe a couple of years. What do you think Emma?" I asked as I got out of the car after the driver parked it in the building's garage.
"I hate you." She said, not really meaning what she said.
"Nope, you love me. You are the mother of my children after all, and five of them at that too." I stated confidently to which she just huffed.
No, I did not exactly have any biological children with her. Whom I was referring to here as our children were the Frost quintuplets who also used to be known as the Stepford cuckoos. They were five clones, sisters made from Emma Frost's DNA by Sublime, the talking virus. I had rescued them from his laboratory where he was cultivating them to be part of his next big evil plan, whatever it was. After that, I then forced Emma to at least try to be a mother to them. I even succeeded in that endeavor even though how good a mother she was to them was questionable since she made them call me daddy and not in an innocent way either.
As we both made our way to the main building lobby from the garage, we were soon greeted by the CEO of the company, the woman I was looking the most forward to meeting, among the employees of the loss-making foundation.
"Ms. Frost, Mr. Giotem, welcome to the Baxter Foundation. I am Susan Storm, the present CEO of this small enterprise. We talked on the phone earlier. I and the entire team have been looking forward to your arrival today. I am glad that you could spare enough time from your busy schedule to be here today. The others are waiting for you upstairs. If you will please." Susan Storm, the current CEO of the company politely said as she directed us to the elevator.
She was wearing a business suit and rimless glasses giving her a proper corporate executive look as opposed to Emma who was dressed in her signature white corset and an expensive white fur coat on top of it.
'Surrounded by hot blondes from both sides. I guess, my luck is going pretty okay today. Maybe, I should let loose as well and release the seals that I had put on my Golden Rule ability to curb its power earlier.' I thought, wondering how long will it take for Susan to develop a crush on me if I let loose my full charm. But I ultimately decided against it since I didn't want to attract every male and female in the area to flirt with me.
"Before we begin talking about official stuff, I should mention that I am really glad that Meta Enterprises decided to help us out in our time of need. After my dad died, we almost went bankrupt due to the... hiccups we were facing while running the foundation. As you know, we are a non-profit organization that pursues scientific development and knowledge and I hope we can continue to do exactly that with your support." Susan tried to get on our good side like any self-respecting businesswoman would when interacting with the new owner of the organization but unfortunately Emma was here with us too and she had too much experience to get swept up just with this.
"Non-profit? Your team couldn't even earn enough revenue to meet your operating costs let alone even hope to profit from anything. You don't have a single product that you can sell or any actual research that you can show to justify the huge expenditure. No, you currently run a highly loss-making venture, Miss. Storm and it is something that we intend to change." Emma said with a strict professional tone in her voice while giving a few gazes in my direction to make sure that I was not against what she was saying.
I didn't react to her and just kept a poker face the whole time, making sure that my intentions remained unclear to both women.
"I-I see. Well, we would have made enough revenue to pay for our operating expenses but the thing is that our lead scientist although bright, is of the paranoid type. He doesn't really want any of his inventions that can cause potential harm to the general public to be released to the masses. That's why we haven't been able to commercialize any technology or monetize any products." Susan explained with a helpless and tired sigh.
"I see. I think we will have to change that going forward. You are the CEO, Miss. Storm, not your scientist. You decide which products the foundation sells and which services it provides. You are in charge, not anyone else. I am sure that if you make a decision, everyone else in the company will respect it as well." I finally opened my mouth.
"Yes, I understand. Thank you for the advice, Mr. Giotem. I will make sure to do my best not to disappoint you."
"You can call me Adam if you want. Calling me Mr. Giotem all the time sounds a little weird." I admitted to myself surprising Susan since I was basically saying that my own name was weird.
"And he made the first move," Emma muttered under her breath with a snort which was completely ignored by me and went unheard by Susan.
"Uh, sure." Susan nodded.
*Ding* The elevator reached the top floor of the building as the doors opened by themselves.
"Please follow me, Adam. Oh and treat this as your own place... especially since you paid for it after all." She cracked a joke at which I chuckled and even Emma smiled.
"Oh, Susan you are here. Good, I actually needed a couple of new machines for our newest space exploration project. An Indian company is selling them for only a million dollars which is a steal and will even arrive in a week if we place the order right now. So can you do the honors?" Richard said as he held onto what looked like a tab in his hands and brought it to Susan. "Huh, who are you people? Were we supposed to receive guests today?" He asked after noticing us, looking genuinely surprised.
"Reed seriously, did you forget? We were supposed to meet the new owners today who purchased the foundation and got us out of our debt situation. I told you all this last week, remember? You even told me that you would remember all this and make sure to clear your schedule. Gosh, sometimes I really want to just..." Susan angrily reacted to Reed's forgetfulness and almost stomped her feet in annoyance but somehow controlled herself after remembering I and Emma were also present in the room.
"Owners? Did we sell the foundation?" Reed stared at the blonde CEO with a confused expression in his eyes making me wonder if he really was the smartest person on the planet or if the entire thing about him having the highest IQ was just false advertising and useless overhype.
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