The next day.
Damian woke up to the sound of his phone.
A bit confused, he picked it up before checking what was going on; his phone should have been on silent.
Looking at his phone, he saw a cute message with emojis from Cortana. His phone had been completely hacked as it now had an unknown operating system.
Damian couldn't help but chuckle when he saw the message.
At that moment, a call came to his phone, which Cortana quickly minimized to continue their conversation.
"We can continue talking after I finish the call," Damian said gently to his phone.
Cortana sent a pouting emoji before accepting and answering the call for him.
"Hello," Damian said calmly as he got up and left the room.
"Hello, do you have the Tesseract?" Fury asked, getting straight to the point.
"Yes, I found someone running with the Scepter and the Cube while I was taking a walk, so I took them away," Damian replied sarcastically.
"I told you that if you didn't take care of the Tesseract, I wouldn't give it back to you," Damian chuckled.
"Alright," Fury said, annoyed. Although he didn't like the idea, he had to admit that he couldn't protect the Tesseract properly, so it was better in Damian's hands than anyone else's.
"Better the devil you know," he thought.
This time, he had no choice. If they were looking for someone to blame for the invasion of New York, it would be him for not safeguarding the Tesseract properly.
"Don't get too depressed; anyway, the Tesseract is too advanced for your SHIELD agents to understand. Only the brightest minds could make any sense of it," Damian said, shaking his head.
"I'm not depressed," Fury said, frowning. After all, he had his eyes on all that Chitauri technology, which could provide more advancement than studying the Cube.
"I had forgotten that you always speak like that," Damian said with understanding.
Fury said nothing and simply hung up. Damian was the one person who could push his buttons more than anyone else.
Damian looked at his phone and chuckled quietly. Annoying Fury was one of his pastimes. Who told him to want two of his wives to work for him?
At that moment, a servant approached him.
"Sir, a U.S. ambassador is outside and wants to talk to you," the servant told Damian, looking at him.
"Hm, I understand. Tell one of the guards to escort him to my study," Damian said before walking to the indicated place and taking a seat on the main sofa.
While he waited, he chatted with Cortana, who acted like a little girl, wanting all of his attention and asking him all sorts of things.
Damian had a good idea of why the ambassador was coming, and he couldn't help but tease them. People who had no fear never held back.
In a few minutes, the guard knocked on the door and entered when Damian told him to come in.
A middle-aged man in a formal suit with a serious expression entered through the door. The guard closed the door behind him and returned to his post.
"Your Majesty Damian," the man greeted.
"Have a seat," Damian said, nodding in greeting and pointing to the chair in front of him.
Damian remained silent and simply looked at the ambassador, waiting for him to speak.
The ambassador was a bit uncomfortable as he waited for Damian to initiate the topic, coughing slightly as he began to speak.
"Your Majesty, the President has sent me to discuss the matter of Madripoor's troops entering the country illegally and opening fire in the middle of the city," the ambassador said to Damian.
Damian couldn't help but chuckle. To someone who didn't know the context, it really sounded bad.
"What about it?" Damian asked, a bit amused.
"Well," the ambassador said in a low voice, not sure how to continue with the matter. He had always been on the dominant side of conversations, but he had been told to be firm for this mission and withdraw immediately if things got serious.
Several people were trying to test Damian's stance. If he acted dominantly, they could drop the matter and be grateful for his help as the weaker party. If Damian showed a little guilt, they would definitely pursue the issue further.
Thinking about the benefits he could get if he made a good deal, he gathered his courage before speaking again.
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''I'm afraid that's a significant violation of international treaties. We can resolve it amongst ourselves or take it to the UN,'' the ambassador subtly threatened.
''I seem to remember that my country is not part of the UN.'' Damian said, smiling at the subtle threat.
The man's expression froze when he remembered that it was like that.
Under the gaze of those intimidating red eyes, the man's courage couldn't help but deflate as he thought he had failed completely.
''Since you seem so dissatisfied, tell your president that I will leave the country and live in Madripoor indefinitely. You may go now,'' Damian said, uninterested when he saw that the man had nothing more to say.
''I will tell him. Thank you for your time, Your Majesty,'' the man said respectfully before leaving, a little hurriedly and clearly disheartened.
Damian chuckled to himself and shook his head. He couldn't blame them for trying. The president probably felt that with the Avengers and the vast amount of Chitauri technology, Madripoor would not go overboard.
Returning to the dining room where his whole family was already having breakfast, Damian took his seat before his plate arrived, and he began chatting with his family.
''Did someone come?'' Sophia asked, looking at Damian.
''Hm, an ambassador came. They wanted to gauge my attitude and pressure me regarding the presence of the Spartans. We didn't get to the negotiating part, so I'm not sure what they wanted,'' Damian said casually as he ate.
"How cheeky," Carol said, pursing her lips.
''You try to be good, but they make it hard for you," Ana said, feeling annoyed at the attempt to take advantage of them when they were helping them.
''It's okay, I was expecting that, now let's just decide when to move to Madripoor,'' Damian said, calming the situation before Ophelia spoke up and said something outrageous.
"Then let's just move today since we're leaving," Sophia suggested.
"Sure, let's go today," Carol agreed.
"What about you, honey?" Damian asked, looking at Natasha.
"I'll stop working for SHIELD. The Avengers are an independent group, and after Fury's intrusive investigations, I don't want to go back," Natasha said, pursing her lips.
''It is normal to keep some record of the activities of important or dangerous people, but your record was very exaggerated," Natasha said.
Carol also frowned upon hearing Natasha's words because she didn't know what they were talking about.
"Then let's just move today," Damian agreed.
"I'll call the palace servants to help us move our things quickly," Sophia said.
"What will happen to this house?" Carol asked Damian, as she had grown attached to it and didn't want to just abandon it.
"I'll put several protections in place to preserve it and prevent any intrusions. Don't worry," Damian said, smiling at Carol.
"We'll also start going to school soon," Alice said happily.
"School isn't just fun; you also need to learn," Ana said, looking at the three girls.
"Shouldn't we change the topics taught in schools?" Ophelia asked Damian. Considering the future, there were many subjects that were unnecessary, and even more topics that were missing to prepare the children for that kind of world.
"An magic school is already under construction, and the curricula of other schools will gradually be modified," Damian said.
"Will you make the school you built only for the rich?" Ana asked Damian, as this was quite common.
"No, it will be based on ability. Only the best will attend this school, while others will go to regular schools," Damian explained.
"Even when the change comes, and everyone has magic, it will still be based on their individual talents," Damian said as he continued eating.
After lunch, Sophia went to Madripoor through the portal and brought several servants who began to pack their personal belongings carefully and then took them to the palace.
The three little girls also went to the yard and started picking up their things.
Ivy was talking to Tyr, telling him that they would be moving to another place.
The whole family spent the rest of the day supervising the move and bringing the items they wanted. By the time they finished, it was already night, and they were all having dinner in the palace's dining room.
"I'm exhausted," Natasha said as she ate. Even though they had brought several servants, she still wanted to help and moved a lot of things around.
"I told you to take a break," Sophia said, smiling at Natasha. While the others had also been active all day, they weren't as tired. After all, Natasha was still human.
"That's fine; someone will give me a massage later," Natasha said playfully to Damian.
"Has Tyr settled into the garden?" Damian asked Ivy with a smile.
"Yes, the garden here is bigger, so he's happy to have more space to run around," Ivy said, smiling adorably.
"Griny, Goldy, and Blacky are also happy. They really enjoy running," Ivy said, smiling adorably.
All the adults chuckled slightly at the names of the three Velociraptors. It would be amusing to call them that when they reached nearly two meters in height.
After finishing dinner, everyone went about their business.
"I'm going to take a bath," Natasha said, looking at Damian with a slight smile before heading upstairs.
At that moment, the scientist entered the palace and found Damian.
"My lord, I'm glad you've finally decided to live in the palace," the scientist said happily.
"I have the results of the captured soldiers. They were modified with Emil Blonsky's blood."
"Sir... I discovered something quite interesting. After receiving the Gamma radiation, Bruce Banner more or less stopped being human."
"If I had to compare, I would say he's somewhat like you, my lord. He can transform other organisms to his likeness."
"Blonsky is an example. I checked SHIELD's database, and I found out that Blonsky was injected with a diluted sample of Bruce's blood. This completely changed Blonsky, giving him the ability to transform just like Bruce."
"If it were just this case, we might call it a coincidence, but with Cortana's help, I found a really interesting video," the scientist said with an excited expression as he showed his tablet to Damian.
The tablet showed General Ross injecting himself with Bruce's blood and transforming into a flaming red giant.
"By directly transforming with Bruce's blood, his transformation was much more perfect, and he even seems to have abilities related to fire."
"From a certain point of view, we can say that Bruce is the progenitor of a new race," the scientist said, excited.
"Hm, that's interesting," Damian said, nodding as he looked at Ross with a slight smile. This was something he didn't know, and it shouldn't have happened, which made it really intriguing. He wondered what ramifications this could bring.
Although he didn't know why Ross seemed to be hiding it, could he be planning something big?
"So, the soldiers who attacked us were low-level ones made with Blonsky's blood," Damian said.
"That's right. We could say they're the lowest of their kind, not much different from cannon fodder," the scientist said disdainfully.
"From what I understand, their strength isn't much worse than the Spartans'. They probably wouldn't appreciate hearing your words," Damian said, looking at the scientist.
"It's different. The Spartans are still 100% human; HYDRA's soldiers no longer are," the scientist shrugged.
"They're the cream of the crop among humans. When the world changes and they gain magic, they'll quickly surpass anyone," the scientist said proudly.
Whatever you say," Damian said, shaking his head as he smiled before giving Ross a last look.
He wonders why he didn't show up at the invasion, it was a good time to reveal himself.
He finally decided to leave it aside as he doesn't care enough to actively investigate it, he'll see what surprises it might bring.