By the time his new alien species was in production, Laserbeak had completed his report on the Hydra base. The base was heavily fortified, and the best way to take it would be stealthily. The acquisition of Loki's staff was one of the goals, but a second, unexpected goal appeared to Victor. Two twins, the only survivors of the human experiments to this point, were being held captive.
Victor wanted to rescue them, but he discovered they were antagonistic toward his father, Tony. They even planned to kill him, especially the girl. If he released them, they would use their powers to attack Tony, and he couldn't have that. But at the same time, they didn't deserve to rot in that Hydra base.
Their genetic material was gathered. The girl had some strange ability with probability, almost magical. It was like she controlled chaos. Dr. Lindor might find her to be an interesting student.
Her brother, who was older by a few minutes, had the power of extreme speed. The pair was an interesting genetic specimen. Could he make them more powerful? Did he want to?
Until things were resolved with his father, he needed to find a way to either block their powers or get them to listen. He had spent his time looking into their situation. Knowing his father, Tony, and his lackadaisical attitude toward running his company back when Stane was in charge, Victor tended to believe things were not as simple as they appeared.
Yes, Tony's weapons had been used to attack and kill the twins' parents. At the same time, Victor doubted Tony was even aware of the transaction. That's what caused Tony to shut down Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing division. It also threw him into a rage when he discovered that Stane had sold their weapons to terrorists, against Tony's orders. But nobody knew about Stane. Nobody knew that he was the one actually behind the sale of Stark technology to terrorist organizations.
That's why, although Tony was celebrated as Iron Man, in some ways, he carried a black mark among those who knew Stark technology had armed enemies. To date, nobody knows that Tony was innocent.
However, his innocence didn't mitigate much, Victor thought. Because of his lack of hands-on management, it allowed Stane to do whatever he wanted. Tony was at the very least an accessory to the crime.
He was absolved of all this thanks to Nick Fury's help, and thanks to saving New York during the Chitauri invasion. But would that be enough to stop the twins from wanting to kill him? Victor had no idea.
Therefore, he chose another option: he would suppress their abilities. It was a genetic suppression. It wouldn't last too long, a few months, a year, but it was enough to hopefully talk some sense into them.
Jouwa stood before Victor with three others of his species. They were each outfitted with the weaponry of their race. Dr. Lindor did a great job creating these weapons. It wasn't hard for him once he figured out the specs, especially with his three fellow Given assisting. Each of them wore a robe. Dr. Lindor wore the darkest black robes, while the three others wore gray.
It wasn't intentional, but Victor had somehow created a kind of hierarchy among the Given, where the color of the cloak determined rank. The lighter the color, the more junior the Given. Being the first, Dr. Lindor was made the leader with the black cloak, and the others were his subordinates. But they would also serve as elders to any new Given created.
As soon as they were born, the Given were ready for scientific exploration. While the next generation of Predators and Given were in the wings, the new alien race was still incubating, Victor realized it was time to expand the number of incubation chambers. He also wanted to find a way to speed up the process, especially for those meant to be part of his disposable army.
When Dr. Ort Lindor, the first Given, was born, the system rewarded Victor handsomely. He was offered the chance to master one complete C-class technology. But he had to choose wisely.
Understanding his limited resources, he debated between developing a spaceship to get to Mars or choosing a technology that could help him grow a larger army more quickly. He wanted to go to Mars because that's where he wanted to develop his swarm monsters. Earth was too small, and it would cause too much trouble. Earther would be reserved for his elites.
Sending one ship with a small team would be cheaper than sending many later, so he held off on that decision. He also received other rewards for each new alien species.
When he created Jouwa, he received 10,000 system points—a massive number. He felt rich, but the technologies he wanted were still quite expensive.
When he created the Cybertronians, he was granted designs for building a Protoform Fabricator. It was a faster creation method than his current Incubation Chambers.
Cybertronians weren't truly organic, but their materials had some organic-like traits: they could grow, repair, and absorb Energon for fuel. Energon, however, was hard to acquire—it had to be created by extracting energy from natural resources like fossil fuels.
Soundwave could create energon cubes, but Soundwave had been split into three separate beings. To use the Protoform Fabricator, Victor needed to build an Energon converter first.
The Fabricator allowed him to control the size of the Cybertronian being created, from one foot to twenty feet tall. Larger Cybertronians would require a bigger protoform machine or a return to the old, slower incubation method.
But none of this solved his core problem: what did he need most? A disposable army? Or technology mastery?
As much as he wanted the perfect machine to instantly create an army, that wasn't what he needed right now. As for spaceship technology, the Given were studying the Chitauri tech in their off time. Given's natural love of shipbuilding and heightened learning ability, all he had to do was increase their output. Eventually, they'd be able to create something that could reach Mars. And when that happened, building a large army would finally be practical.
He finally made his decision. The Given would focus on two things: fast-travel technology to Mars, and increasing the number of alien species. That meant it was time to claim the one-time mastery reward.
He selected a technology called the Proginator Machine. It was used to create an army quickly and ensured you'd never run out of soldiers. It wasn't cloning in the traditional sense. It used a genetic sample from one being and split the material to create offspring, not identical, but derivative. They could be considered the literal children of the genetic donor.
If Victor could understand this technology, it would vastly increase his capacity to manage and modify complex species. It would deepen his genetic knowledge and allow him to create more advanced lifeforms. The more he thought about it, the more he realized it was the right path.
Once he selected it, information streamed into his mind. It felt like years of study compressed into minutes. When he opened his eyes, he sat down at his drawing desk, dipped his quill in ink, and began designing the clone machine. He understood it all now—the tech, the genetics, the function.
He passed packets of this knowledge to the Given. They would learn to build it themselves. With the machine, they could begin producing more of the species Victor needed, especially more Given.
He had already created three Xenomorphs—no Queen yet. They, along with the Predators, would attack the Hydra base. But before the operation, he began growing more Given. Now he had ten incubation chambers—all filled.
Then, a new problem arose: he was running out of materials. The supplies Tony had originally stocked his lab with were nearly gone. Not wanting to ask for a favor, he contacted Tony with a different plan.
Tony was surprised to receive the call.
"Victor!" Tony said. "I was starting to wonder what happened to you. I haven't heard from you in a couple of months."
"Hi, Tony," Victor replied.
"If you want more money, you're going to have to call me 'Dad,'" Tony joked quickly.
"Uhh... I do need more money," Victor admitted, "but I'm not calling you Dad. Instead, I have a business proposition for you."
"A business proposition?" Tony perked up. "Please, do tell."
"I've developed some tech you might be interested in—something that could make Stark Industries some money. I don't have time to run a business, but you already have one. If it's useful, I'd like you to be my business partner. We can agree to financial terms."
"Why do you need so much money?"
"For the sake of my experiments," Victor replied.
"Already? How did you go through all that material I gave you?" Tony was stunned.
"Well, it was worth it. I've made some breakthroughs. If you come to my lab, I'll show you what I plan on selling."
Tony was already thinking about how to say yes. Even if the tech wasn't useful, he'd still fund Victor. But he didn't want his son to feel like he was giving him a handout. That Stark pride made him as proud as a father.
"All right," Tony said. "When do you want me to come by?"
"The sooner the better. This is holding up my experiments."
"I'm out of town right now. I'll come tomorrow. How's that?"
"Sure. Sounds great," Victor replied. "Oh—and I'll probably introduce you to my chief engineer in charge of technology development, Dr. Lindor. But do me a favor—don't react too strongly to his appearance. He might be a little sensitive."
Tony was taken aback. "Is this person disfigured or something?" Tony wondered silently.
"Don't worry about it. I've got a great poker face," Tony said.
Victor hung up and looked at Dr. Lindor, who was standing next to him.
"We should be able to solve all our money problems by tomorrow," Victor said with a laugh.
Dr. Lindor nodded. Givin were typically serious, but even he understood the reason for Victor's excitement. The Givin couldn't help but give what was considered a smile to a Givin, but to others, it looked terrifying.