บท 15: Chapter 15: Heavy hitter

~3rd POV~

~Day one after the tragedy~

It took everyone a different time but after seeing this, they all started to hear Lor's words when they put him in his cell. Everyone from the avengers to the Fantastic Four came to the meeting that their leaders had announced. Stephen Strange was currently unavailable due to him fighting a legion of demons in Europe.

Carol and Fury had gone into space as she was informed that the Kree empire had started to move again. She was going to investigate and Fury came to help, he left S.H.I.E.L.D to Maria Hills.

Carol had not been asked to fight Lor as she was being called back to Terra at that time. She had mixed feelings when she heard that Lor had been locked up. She never came to visit him.

When both groups of heroes met up at the Avenger Tower, they saw that Steve, Tony, and Reed were standing side by side facing chairs and a couch for them to sit on. They got the hint and proceeded to sit then waited for them to speak. Steve was the one to break the silence.

Steve: I know what you all might be thinking but Lor was not behind that tragedy-

Tony cut him off in the middle of his sentence.

Tony: What Cap here, wants to say is that as far as we can prove... He is clean.

Reed: ... For now.

Tony and Reed seemed to agree that all this was orchestrated by Lor sadly, Lor had the best alibi he could, themselves. They had spent a lot of time in those five years monitoring Lor's every move even doing daily system check-in. There was no way Lor could have done that without leaving his cell.

There was still the possibility that Lor outsmarted them all but neither Tony nor Reed's pride allowed them to consider that possibility. Lor had not orchestrated that tragedy but he knew that they would think that. As he remembered Lex Luther in the TV Show Supergirl explained it best.

"There has yet to be a better alibi than prison."

All three leaders had gone to ask Lor if he was behind this. Steve was the most enraged as if Lor was behind this then it meant that he caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent. Tony and Reed came to understand how Lor bested them.

~3 Hour Ago~

Lor was laying down on his bed when he heard the doors opening. He got up to look at who it was. He waited for them to start the conversation as it would give them the illusion that they informed him of what happened in the outside world.

Tony restrained Steve as he was about to shout at Lor. He gave Steve a look that told him to calm down. Steve took a few deep breaths before calming down. Tony looked back at Lor.

Tony: Have you heard of the New Warriors by any chance?

Before Lor could even say anything, Tony continued.

Tony: Oh right, you haven't since you have been here for roughly five years. It must be tough not being able to enjoy the sunlight from outside. In your case, it must feel even better since you get a power-up.

Tony smirked as he circled the cell. Reed knew that Tony was trying to get under Lor's skin, too agitated him into slipping up clues if he was behind this. That is why Reed stood there and said nothing. Steve also knew this but he rather trusts his gut.

Steve: Yesterday, a group of young upcoming heroes called the New Warriors fought a villain called Nitro. The battle caused the death of both along with hundreds of more innocent lives, including kids. They were broadcasting their fight thus many saw the tragedy. I only have one question. Did you have anything to do with those deaths?

Lor looked Steve in the eyes. He walked up to the end of his cell to get closer to Steve. Toby played the footage of the fight. Lor watched it from start to finish.

Lor: I had nothing to do with their deaths in fact all of you are as responsible for the death of those innocent lives as everyone from that footage.

Steve's guts told him that Lor was telling the truth, not the full truth but every word he spoke was true.

Steve: What do you mean?

Lor looked to the ceiling.

Lor: When I was still an active member of the X-men, I got carried away by my powers. I was getting stronger by the second. I felt that nothing could go wrong. I felt that I was INVINCIBLE-

Tony: But you weren't since you winded up in that cell.

Lor looked at Tony giving a deadpan look before resuming his conversation with Steve.

Lor: One day, we fought a group of brainwashed mutants. They had been the ones the government had kept their eyes on but never did anything since the mutant's powers were not desirable for them. This changed after we started freeing mutants left and right. They got desperate and used the mutants they had. One of them was named Gambit. He threw an explosive projectile at me. I knew I would be fine thus I just stood there. As it was exposed I heard a yell. I turned around only to see that Kurt was behind me. Luckily, I was able to move him out of the way before it became fatal. I grabbed him and ran back to the mansion. He was able to recover without any lasting scars but it could have been worse if I was not been fast enough.

There was a silence between the four men but Tony broke that silence.

Tony: Does that trip down memory lane has any significance other than pointing to your previous failure... before the one that got you here?

Lor looked at Tony.

Lor: I grew overconfident and lost sight of the objective. That's what led to my friend almost dying. Now image a bunch of teenagers with abilities and heads filled with delusions of grandeur fueled by our actions-

Reed: Our actions?!

Lor: Yes. We save people and get recognition for that. For attention-crazed teenagers, that must be the dream. Now, what do you think those teenagers would do if they didn't get as much recognition as THEY thought they deserved?

This clicked in all three heads.

Reed: Although this would explain the law you tried to make it still does not explain you watching the young heroes fighting.

Lor: Okay first you made it sound like I was a pervert when it's technically you since you were definitely stalking me. Second, I am extremely fast. If I had seen what the New Warriors were doing, I would have been able to arrive there between the time it took Nitro to detonate and the time it took for the first one to get hurt. I could- would have saved all those lives.

Hearing this, no one knew what to say. Still, Steve had one question left. Everything Lor said had truth in it. That was what his gut was telling him. It was also telling him that Lor was omitting something but that had always been the case with Lor.

Steve: If you knew would happen, why did you not tell anyone anything for five years?

Lor looked at Steve after he went back to sit on his bed.

Lor: The same reason as to why Bruce has yet to visit me. Some people can't be trusted.

Reed: For the last time, Bruce has gone into hiding to research a cure for the Hulk.

Lor: If you say so.

Lor lay down and waited for them to leave as he smiled. The reason he smiled was that he was not the only one who caught on Reed's slip up. Steve's gut was telling him something was amiss. He decided to put a pin on that one for later.

~Back to the present~

Steve: And that's why I think Lor was not involved because he knew one day someone would mess up without him helping. Whether it was masked individuals like the New Warriors or us did not matter to Lor he knew one day one of us would mess up.

Steve's reasons did convince some but the sheer coincidence of all that happened makes it harder to believe Lor's innocent.

Johnny: Look, Cap, I wanna believe you but it's not like there was a definitive chance that one of us could cause something like that out of reckless.

Johnny made a good point sadly his track record only helped to prove Steve's point.

Ben: I'd be willing to bet a lot that I know who laser eyes were expecting to fuck up.

Everyone looked at Johnny for a second before nodding. Even Reed had to agree that considering Johnny's track record and the fact that they would be busy raising a child, everything added up. Sue could only give her brother an apologetic look while she nodded.

A week had gone past since the tragedy happened. Signs of the public's outrage were getting bigger by the day. At first, they condemned the New Warrior's actions because of their recklessness but slowly they started to point their fingers at other Heroes. Nitro had at this point become forgotten.

As they accused the heroes of not caring because they could take off their suits and avoid all responsibilities, a certain opinion started to surface. If Lor-Zod hadn't been imprisoned, he could have saved innocent lives. At first, it was overlooked before some die-hard fans started to explain that with his speed and strength, Lor could have arrived and taken Nitro to space before he blew up.

Lor had done a lot of things to lessen the hate against the mutant kind. At one point, he saved a city that was caught in a Typhoon. He had brought everyone in the city to New York while the Typhoon was happening. No one had died. That had cemented his image as a hero.

The die-hard fans used that as an example to show that Lor could have saved those innocent lives. They even brought up the law he suggested and explained his reasoning. Little by little, the public started to criticize the government's decision as well as protest masked vigilantes as they called them. The government, seeing the public outcries, decided to pass a law that every superhero should be registered and would work for the government.

They received a mixed response from the heroes in question. Most of the public liked that law as it seemed "fair" enough. Surprisingly, the same die-hard of Lor protested against that idea. You see, Lor had always explained the danger of revealing your identity to the world. His die-hard fans knew that, they were adamant that with Lor everything would be fine.

Lor had multiple plans to lessen the experiment against mutant kinds. He could have easily taken over the world with his Kryptonian body. He could have killed every government and established a world for himself but he didn't for three reasons.

At that point in time, he was restrained on what he could do without affecting Loki's arrival with the scepter. The second reason was that he was not an idiot. He did not assume that what he saw in the MCU was everything there was in this world. The ancient one could have stopped him even without the time stone. He did not know enough about magic to assume that he would win. He knew that the ancient one was not the only magic user.

The third and final reason was that he knew being a tyrant would not work. Lor did not want the mutant to become the dominant species just to start making experiments on normal humans. He did not want to become like those waste of atoms as he called the scientists.

One of the plans he applied was to be a hero like Superman to bring a positive light to the image of mutants. One of the others was to change the government slowly. Slowly enough to not get noticed. At the start, he did not have a mind stone thus he could mind control people. He decided to subtly inside the right people.

Lor only needed to ask a few of his artificial intelligence and invisible drones to spy on key figures. When they were in danger, Lor would save them and make sure they know he was a

mutant one way or another. When those Key figures would go home the invisible drones would make sure that they either saw a flyer about a mutant being an abomination or a TV screen inside a store showing defamation of mutant kind. This did not work every time but some of the key people decided to change the government from the inside. Lor's hero work also had the same effect.

After obtaining the mind stone's power, he was tempted to use it but he realized that some psychic would notice this and it would backfire on his plan.

After learning about the new law, Steve was called by S.H.I.E.L.D, he had a gut feeling something was up but he went anyway. When he entered he was greeted by Maria, Tony, and Reed. If he had any doubts of nothing wrong happening this shattered it.

Steve: Why was I called here? Something tells me that I am the only person in this room that doesn't know the answer.

Tony was in his Iron Man suit. The face cover opened revealing his face.

Tony: Steve, with the recent events, things are changing very fast. With the new law being put, a lot of masked individuals will not agree with this. I, along with Reed, think we must show a united front to prove that the new law is beneficial to masked individuals. It would go a lot better with your help. What do you say? I already have permission to be the head of S.H.I.E.L.D, that way no one would take advantage of this law.

Steve looked at Maria and Reed before looking at Tony. He might not be a behavior analyst but he knew that this whole meeting along with Tony's speech was planned. He sighed.

Steve: I will answer that question when you answer mine. Where is Bruce?

This brought confusion to all three.

Reed: Captain, you already know as much as we-

Steve: As much as you lied to us. I might not be the smartest guy in the room but I can pick up a thing or two. During the last week, I have been watching you guys. Every time I mention that this whole thing might be used to hunt down Bruce or that we should look for him as a civilian might try to take their anger out on him, you assured me it would not happen. It was not that you thought the chances were extremely slim no you KNEW those scenarios would never happen.

Tony sighed. He knew there was no way to lie his way out of this one.

Tony: We send Bruce to a planet with a peaceful lifeform where nothing could hurt him and vice versa. I guess this means no. You realize this might- no is part of Lor's plan, right?

Steve: That might be the case but even with that, the fact that you sent your friend who trusted you in his moment of weakness proves that I can't let you do that.

Suddenly a legion of S.H.I.E.L.D agents armed to the teeth pointing their guns at Steve.

Tony: I thought you might say that so I brought backup. Surrender Cap, no need to make this any harder than it is.

Steve looked around. He saw no exit.

Steve: You brought backup? Wished I had thought of that... Oh, wait! I did! Now Kurt!

Suddenly Kurt, A.K.A Nightcrawler, teleported beside Steve and teleported both of them out just in time to avoid the ammo shot at them.

During this past week, both Tony and Reed had been busy getting ready for the law that was about to be approved, they did not bother watching the masked individuals as they thought that they would handle it perfectly with Captain America on their side. If Steve was not on their side then they would confine him for an appropriate duration period that way he would not rally the ones against that law.

That had been their mistake as Steve used that window to gather those that were against that law. He even went to the city of Fortitude. He knew he would not get help but he get to try. He was surprised when they offered to help but only in some critical situations where they needed help to escape from hiding for a certain amount of time. Although Charles was part of the Illuminati, he disagree with that law. The same could be said for Strange. Black Bolt cared little about it. Charles chose to stay out of it and so did Strange not that he had a choice as the impeding chaos was drawing a lot of demonic creatures.

Charles could not join Tony even if he wanted to. His part in Lor's imprisonment even though it was minimal was not well received by the citizens of the city. He had resigned from his position as one of the ten members of the council. He was not mad about it since it help him focus on his school. Charles knew how the mutants saw the registration act. It was basically the same law they had tried to pull where mutants had to be registered along with a full detailed explanation of their abilities. None were for that law. Those that had to suffer persecution for being a mutant even actively criticized the new registration act.

Lor had instructed them to never try to break him out as he did not want to cause a war. The true reason was that he did not want to bring attention to his Mars project.

Reed, Tony, and Maria looked at the place where Steve was. Reed sighed at this.

Reed: Like Lor said war is coming.

Tony: Yeah but let's make sure he does not participate in it.

Maria: I will get the transport ready. Is that prison in the Negative zone ready?

Reed: there is still some verification to be made but after a week it should be functional.

A week went by and Tony was now in front of Lor's cell. Lor was sharpening a sword. Tony knew where he had gotten that sword. Steve had come to break him out but Lor refused as he said that if he came with them the other side would get desperate. Lor just did not want to be part of the Civil War. It brought no benefits to him. When Steve was leaving, Lor gave him some advice.

Tony: Steve, remember to not lose sight of the objective. That's what you said to him before he left. Does that mean you are supporting him?

*Shling**Shling**Shling*

Lor kept sharpening his sword. After some time, he stopped and looked at Tony.

Lor: I was merely advising him to not forget his goal. I was going to say the same thing to you.

*Shling**Shling**Shling*

Tony: You? Advising me? Ha! I didn't know you had jokes.

*Shling**Shling**Shling*

Lor: You and Steve want the same thing but fight for a different goal. He thinks that this law would do more harm than good. I think he is right about that.

Tony scuffed but let Lor finish.

Lor: You on the other hand think that this law would do more good in the long run. The problem with your reasoning is that you only take into account your and Reed's perspectives. You don't into account the other masked individuals as you guys call them.

Tony: We did take their perspectives but that does not excuse them for being held accountable for their actions-

Lor: Like I said. Your and Reed's perspectives. What you are actually asking them, by going along with that registration act, is to trust you and S.H.I.E.L.D to protect their loved ones. S.H.I.E.L.D was infiltrated by Hydra since close to day one while you created pseudo-Skynet who was going to eradicate every single intelligent life on this planet.

Tony: That's-

Lor: The one time you guys fucked up? Tony, you can't use blame them for doing that since that's the same thing the people, voting for the registration act, are doing.

Tony was about to speak but Lor cut him off.

Lor: A lot of people forgot that most if not all those that are against gain nothing by trying to "save the day". They are not like you or Reed who profits with the publicity alone. They are just people who were either born or acquired power and decided to help others.

There are even some that just decided to help others without powers and just skills. What the registration act means to them is either letting crime happen when they could prevent it or putting a target on the back of their loved ones.

Don't give me that crap about police officers living with that threat every day. First of they get paid to be a police officer. Second, ask any police officer whose loved one died due to someone they put behind bars getting revenge if they wouldn't have wanted to hide their identities and see who wouldn't.

Lor looked at the ceiling. He sighed.

Lor: Tony, if you had to choose whose hands would you put Pepper's life? Yours or someone else?

Tony said nothing.

Lor: Like I thought. I don't want to participate in the upcoming fight. If I do, I do not doubt that they would send nukes like a machine guns.

Lor continued to sharpen his sword. Tony saw that he had lost control of the conversation and thus decided to change.

Tony: Okay, I've been meaning to ask. What with that sword?

Tony knew the answer but that was the only thing he could use to change the subject.

*Shling**Shling**Shling*

Lor: Oh this? Well, I heard that my little sister got cheated on by her boyfriend. I'm just getting ready to hear the full story before I... advise him on his life choice.

Kurt had lied to Lor about Spider-Man cheating on Kitty. He had come back after dropping Steve in hopes convince Lor. He had forgotten to tell Lor that it was a lie and by the time he had remembered Lor's cell was too secured to go back. The way Lor started to sharpen the sword he had asked Kurt to bring, send a shiver inches later's back which forced him to leave as soon as possible.

He offered a small prayer for Spider-Man before acting as if nothing happened. What Kurt did not know was that Tony had lived stream his conversation with Lor in a way to spin things into discrediting both Lor and Steve along with their supporters. That plan backfired.

Tony had thought that he had shut down the live streaming when Lor started to take control of the conversation but it seems that they were hacked. The live stream continued.

Reed, who saw that, decided to shut the live stream. He went towards Lor's cell and they transported him into the new Prison Reed had been working on. A prison in the Negative zone.

Reed had been researching the Negative Zone but with the birth of his son, his research had been slowed down. It was thanks to Lor playing with Franklin that Reed had the time to make a breakthrough. Ironically, Reed had built that prison to restrain Lor.

They had seen that every time someone would try to experiment on Lor they would be sent to a random place on earth if they were lucky. For the unlucky ones, they would be shredded alive. Surprisingly, two of the people that were against experimenting on Lor were, General Rose and Strycker.

For General Rose, it was because it was unethical. To him, Lor and Hulk were different. Lor could talk, had a job, paid taxes that benefit his country, and most importantly was not trying to fuck his daughter. That last one was personal.

The real important reason was that Lor was giving the U.S government a way to spy on their enemies. Why would Lor do that? That is because the U.S government was not the only government trying to get its hands on Lor.

Whenever it was a foreign government that was responsible for blowing his house or testing their new secret weapon on Lor, he would sow the seeds of conflict between countries. Not enough to start a war but just enough to leave him alone.

Strycker did not explain his reason but all thought that he was just scared of Lor. What no one knew was that, after building the city of Fortitude, Lor took his Phantom Zone projector and used it on Strycker. Lor and sent a robot along with Strycker, chanting the "words of Zod". After months in Phantom Zone, Strycker's mind had become brainwashed. Lor made sure to get rid of the Zone sickness before letting Stricker go at the time he had put him in the Phantom Zone.

Weeks went by as S.H.I.E.L.D started the hunt for the masked vigilantes. Lor's speech had lessened the public eagerness but had increased S.H.I.E.L.D's aggressiveness. They hunted down the masked vigilantes as if they were animals but Steve's group always managed to rescue them before S.H.I.E.L.D put them in jail.

Tony and Reed were busy with project Godhood. That project had been on the back of their minds until Steve's group acquired a heavy hitter going by the name of Icarus. He was in a layman's terms water down version of Lor. Flight, Super speed, strength, endurance, and laser eyes were his powers. He had been the reason why Steve's group never lost.

Tony and Reed managed after a lot of effort to collect Thor's D.N.A from the Hammer. During Lor and Thor's battle on Asgard, Odin had stopped it but that was after Lor had thrown it at Thor's face. The D.N.A collected from the Hammer was just the missing piece they needed as Tony had collected Thor's D.N.A at one point to prove that he was not a God. He never got to use it and kept it until now.

It took some time but they managed to clone Thor. They could not clone Lor as they would suffer the same fate as those that tried to experiment on him. Neither knew that cloning Lor was simply impossible. The clone was made to enforce the registration act, in hindsight, the duo would later regret that fact. Now that they had their own heavy hitter who could wield a magic hammer they were ready for a showdown. Their targets were anyone that was neither a mutant nor a citizen of the city of Fortitude.

Lor had made it very clear that if a single hair was touched he would scorch the country. Both Reed and Tony knew it was a semi-bluff but they knew that some people were off limits, a excellent example was Kitty Pride. At one point Tony had been curious as to why Lor cared for her that much thus he investigate her backstory.

She had awakened her mutant gene at the age of five. She was scared and cried a lot. Lor happened to meet her when she was crying and comforted her because although he had decent control over his hearing it was still very active at close range. He would spend time with her to cheer her up and get some quiet sleep at night, not disturbed by anyone's cries.

As they spent time together, Lor started to see her as an actual little sister. He started to dote on her and acted as an overprotective brother whenever she got hurt. Tony paid a couple of millions for that story. Kurt had been the one to sell this information to Tony on the orders of Lor since it was not even a secret. The duo had decided to scam the Iron billionaire. Tony could do nothing when he found out about it.

It took two weeks to set a trap. They sent a fake emergency on the news. A plant was going to explode with hundreds of workers trapped inside. They knew Steve would not resist trying to save them. They were right. He and his group showed up.

It did not take long before Steve and his group realized they had walked into a trap. As they realized that, the pre-registration act along with Tony and Reed surrounded them. The pre-registration act consists of a few heroes, mainly S.H.I.E.L.D agent agents a group of villains that were granted a pardon if they helped. Tony looked at Steve, he did not know what it was but his friend looked different.

Tony: Cap, let's end this without any bloodshed.

Steve: Iron-man, we won't stop until you free Lor-Zod.

Steve got into a fighting stance. Tony felt strange. He thought that even with all this Steve was acting strange. He had never called him Iron-man and both of them called Lor by either that or Lo. They had rarely used his full nickname.

Tony: You think you are the only ones to get heavy hitters well guess again?

Suddenly Thunder danced in the clouds above all of them. Thor or his clone to be precisely decended upon them wielding his weapon and ready to fight. Tony's side got a moral boost.

Steve: So you have to join his side God of Thunder?!

On Steve's side, some got scared but that changed when Icarus flew up to meet the clone. They were at eye level with one another. Icarus' eyes glow bright yellow as the clone started to rotate his hammer. The glow in Icarus' eyes increased and so did the speed of the hammer rotation. Each heaviest hitter from both sides was about to fight the other. Those on the ground had the same thought. It was not going to be pretty.

Cliffhanger!!!