5 [ Gus ] First Dictate

Night had fallen by the time my suit was finished, assembled, and tested. So I arrived at the end of the pipeline which was still under construction, to see the protesters being hosed down in the mid-February weather.

Policemen, men who had sworn to serve and protect others, stood to either side of the large vehicle that was firing a high pressure stream of water at unarmed people trying to peacefully protest a violation of their rights. The police wore riot gear and just stood there as people were being soaked out in 0-degree weather. Or 32 degrees Fahrenheit as it was measured in stubbornly backwards America.

I floated above them and wasted time fuming and resisting the urge to kill them all. Slaughtering a group of morally corrupt police officers was not how I planned on starting my reign. Deposing of such trash would be done with a dedicated staff pursuing lawsuits and applying economic pressure would be something that I would have to set up later on. Besides, my bio mom would not approve of mass murder and I still hoping to be on decent terms with the woman.

So first, I put an unseen ring of force around the control stick of the vehicle’s controls to ensure the water could not be stopped. Then a force construct consisting of a long tube going from the nozzle of the mounted hose to its sealed endpoint was applied with two nozzles of its own aimed at either side of the tank like riot control vehicle.

Slowly reshaping the two nozzles let me thoroughly drench the police who had approved of the assault on the protesters by standing there on either side of an act of terror doing nothing. They yelled in protest, but by their own rules, people in the wrong deserved to get soaked in freezing cold weather.

Once I finished applying their just rewards for such dedicated service, the vehicle’s tanks were drained. I dismissed both the ring and the tube, replacing them with a wall between the uniformed thugs and their victims. Shooting into the crowd in the hope of hitting any empowered protesters responsible for challenging their authority seemed like the next step for fascist thugs.

I preferred to give them a more legitimate, and bullet resistance, target. Me.

A few quickly summoned and dismissed the expanding sphere of force sending their flood lights flying and crashing to the ground leaving the entire area in darkness. Only for a moment.

One of the drones I had the Matrix Forge produce while I finished my armor activated my own flood light as I dismissed the invisibility field I had wrapped around myself. Allowing the light to reflect off of my gleaming white armor as I hovered motionless above and between the armed thugs and their victims.

Two other drones amplified my voice.

“I am Apex. All of the continental United States of America west of the Mississippi are now mine as my Protectorate.”

Of course, a few of the Police began to shoot at me. Their only tools in dealing with others were either the threat or use of violence.

With a dramatic raise of my hands, I created disks of force beneath the feet of those who had managed to draw their sidearms and fire at me. As well as the two fools who shot tear gas at my face so that I had to send my spare drone to stop the canisters from flying over my force wall at the protesters.

As I flicked my hand up, the disks beneath the feet of the men with the tear gas changed into the tilted tops of two short cylinders which sent them tumbling off their feet, while the ones who fired lethal weapons rose upwards upon two meter tall cylinders. The cylinders rose quickly enough to launch the trigger happy men into the air to then fall with bone breaking or possibly even lethal force.

They’re the ones who choose to escalate this confrontation to the use of lethal force. Their injuries or deaths were on them.

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“My first dictate as Tyrant is this. Act like Nazis, and you will be dealt with like Nazis.”

Most of the police had gotten their guns out by now, but a few of them failed to make the connection from the first few who had shot at me and opened fire. They got sent flying for their efforts. Even then three more of them decided to start shooting and got sent up into the air as well.

The rest of them seemed to make the connection and held their fire.

“And don’t think claiming that you were only following orders will work for you either. You know what you were doing tonight was wrong. Using a hose on people in this weather, including some elderly people, was putting their health and possibly their lives at risk. You could have said no even if it cost you your jobs. You choose to be a part of this.”

I set a cylinder of force behind the front axis of their water shooter vehicle and then slowly grew it in height to begin toppling the vehicle over backwards. This took more than enough time to allow the crew and the surrounding police to escape being crushed by their own machine.

“This land was promised to these people in return for everything that had been taken away from them. Do not trespass on them again or you will meet your Doom.”

The drone cut its lights as I wrapped a second soft force field around me to vanish as the water truck stood up on its back end and then slowly fell over with a crash.

Seeing that the police were no longer interested in shooting anyone, I dropped the shield between them and the wisely walking away protesters.

Now for the pipeline.

A cone of force inserted into the end of the pipe followed along with me as I flew above the pipe. I had learned that while I could not directly move a force construct. I could set in to stay in place relative to myself, allowing the cone to travel down the length of the pipe along with me. Splitting and tearing it open as I traveled along under the force of the Gravatonics built into my suit, and the repulsers thrust in the bottom of my shoes for the thrust I needed to tear up the metal piping.

The repulsers are Stark tech, but I’m not my father. I’m not above using whatever works.

Every now and then the cone lost its connection to me and vanished due to the resistance of the metal, so I was only able to destroy 1.8 kilometers of the pipeline before my high altitude drone detected a high speed aircraft heading my way.

As military craft would have come at me in pairs, and from the direction it was comeing from it was more then likely to be a Quinjet carrying the Heavy Hitters team out of Nevada. While the gravity manipulator would be troublesome, my choice to abandon the field before their arrival was due to me having nothing to gain from such a victory.

I had chosen a role that I considered that of an anti-hero, but getting into too many fights with Superheroes could turn me into a villain by whatever narrative rules this universe ran by.

My point had been made. And I had done enough damage to put the pipeline construction months behind. Possibly enough time to let the Crow nation’s pending legal maneuvers to bear fruit.

If not. There would be other nights and even the Roxxon corporation could not afford to place super powered security guards in place every night and in large enough numbers to protect all of it.

The first of many official denouncements labeling me as a terrorist started within an hour.

Good. I hoped those who chose to oppose me would be terrorized.

Now I just needed a place to sleep. It had been a long day, thirty two hours since my birth, and I had achieved the goal of my first day of life.

Let them know my name, and what I stand for.

Let them know what line not to cross.

And if they will not obey, let them fear.