The Overlord Dominates The Marvel Universe

Chapter 2:
Cutting off a Head

Selene was a tad disappointed that her new lord and master only allowed her to use the spell to enhance his abilities while they were taking advantage of the privacy of his private quarters, but she figured as his first mistress she’ll have plenty of time to serve her master the way she’d been hoping for. Thanks to her efforts, while Grim wouldn’t be able to beat the Hulk in an arm-wrestling match, he’d be able to at least hold his own against the stronger than normal warriors of the world and at least damage the angry green giant if they did ever come to blows.

The two of them, with Grim’s minions, passed through a portal that Selene created with her magic to reach the facility that Selene mentioned.

What they found was quite surprising to the two and was amusing for Grim as well. Everyone in the facility was dead, save for a single blood-soaked teenage girl. She had long gangly black hair with a torn-up hospital gown being the only clothing she had. The most interesting thing that was about the girl was the two sets of the claws coming from her clenched fists.

“Who are you?” the girl growled at the two.

“Someone that can give you a new home. A place where you can use your…unique skills to proper use,” Selene said with a smile.

“And why should I go with you?” the girl said, glaring at them.

“Because we’re alike,” Grim said, “We both have had everything taken from us. I can see it in your eyes. You had everything taken from you. The world just took everything you knew from you time and time again. Well, if you come with us and obey my orders, you can get some payback and you’ll be the one taking, instead of being the one people take from.”

The girl thought about it for a few seconds before she nodded, “Alright. What will you be needing me to do?”

Grim just gestured to the corpses that littered the ground, saying, “What you’re clearly good at.”

“You should know that a lot of this was due to them hitting me with a ‘trigger scent,’ a pheromone-based chemical that sends me into a feral rage.”

Grim shrugged, “We can train you in the ways of violence. Trust me when I say that with us, you’ll be getting a lot of practice.” The girl just nodded in agreement. “So, what should we call you?”

“The scientists called me ‘X-23,’ but my mother called me ‘Laura.’ Call me whatever you wish.”

“Your mother? Where is she?” Grim asked to which Laura just pointed to the corpse of a woman with a pair of stab wounds in her gut, a sad expression on her face, telling Grim that the trigger scent she’d mentioned was the cause of her mother’s death. “Then, I guess we have something else in common. My parents were taken from me as well. I plan on getting revenge on those responsible for it.” There was a slight flinch on Laura’s face. It was only there an instant, but Grim caught it and he knew that she was his. “So, do you know where they keep the adamantium?”

“I didn’t have unrestricted access to the facility, so I’m not completely certain, but I’d guess that it was somewhere in one of the labs…uh, you haven’t told me what I’m supposed to call you.”

“My name is Grim Ebonyheart. I’m the newest Overlord, so you can call me either ‘my lord’ or ‘master,’” Grim said to which Laura nodded in agreement, “This is Selene, my first mistress,” he said, either not noticing or caring when Selene shivered with desire at being called his mistress, “Her orders are second only to mine. Understood?” Laura nodded again, “Good. Now, let’s find that adamantium.”

Grim led his minions, his mistress, and his new subordinate into the lab. It was a slaughterhouse. It didn’t take much consideration for Grim to guess who was the one that caused it. They went through the facility, searching lab after lab for hours until they found the massive tank of the liquid metal. After he ordered his minions to pick it up, he led the group through another portal and took them back to the Netherworld.

While they were searching, back at the Avengers Tower, Spider-man was just finishing up his explanation about the events at the docks.

“So, let me get this straight,” Tony Stark said, “The kid that lost his parents in that fight with the Masters of Evil was at the docks. Only he wasn’t a kid anymore and he was leading these creatures as they slaughtered the Kingpin’s goons and stole some artifacts. Not only that, but he has essentially declared war on us and he’s now calling himself ‘the Overlord.’ That about right?”

“Pretty much,” Spider-man said, “He had a real dark knight thing going on. I’m talking a mace and armor and everything.”

“While at first glance, he doesn’t seem to be much of a threat to us, even with that strange explosive device, but I have a feeling there’s more to him than we realize,” Captain America said, turning to Dr. Strange, “What do you think? You’re the one with the most information when it comes to magic.”

“From what I sensed, the magic that I sensed, likely from this ‘overlord,’ has an aura of the same…level as I could say as the Dread Lord Dormammu,” Strange explained, making everyone shiver with nervousness at hearing that. Even Stark, who didn’t believe in magic, couldn’t deny the power of the monster.

“Do you think he’s connected to Dormammu somehow?” Cap asked.

“I don’t believe so,” Strange said, “If I had to make a comparison, Dormammu and his followers’ magic feel as though they seek to burn everything in their path to ashes, but this Overlord’s magic feels more…corrupting, like he wants to take all sources of light and turn them to darkness.”

“So what would you suggest?” Steve Rogers asked.

“For now, I would suggest we keep our distance from this Overlord. I’d like to try and do some research. This title of overlord sounds familiar, though where I heard it escapes me at the moment. If I had to guess, I heard the term in one of the older tomes in my library, though I cannot remember which.”

“Get to work on that, Strange,” Rogers said, “I’d like to know as much as what we can about what we can expect from him before we take him on.”

Strange nodded in agreement before disappearing in a flash of magical energy. Rogers then ordered the remaining Avengers to avoid confrontation with the Overlord until Strange returned with his information unless it was absolutely necessary, which the more violence-prone Avengers, like the Hulk, Thor, and Wolverine, did not enjoy hearing.

“I understand your issues, but I’m hoping that we can convince him to give up before he goes too far. So far, he’s only killed some criminals, so I’m hoping we can get him to stop before he starts putting innocent people in danger,” Rogers said.

“I don’t know, Cap,” Spider-man said, “He didn’t seem like a kid in an adult body. He was more like a fully-grown adult, just from the way he talked. He didn’t seem to have issues with slaughtering civilians if it meant reaching his goal.”

“I hope you’re wrong, Spidey, I really do.”

Meanwhile back in the Netherworld, Grim and his group was coming out of the portal with the minions carrying the tank of liquid adamantium.

“Welcome back, Master!” Gnarl said, coming to join his dark master, “I’m pleased to see that you got a new follower and that adamantium. I’m sure that Giblet will find a good use for it. Shall I show your new servant to where she might stay?”

“Yes, but tell Giblet not to do anything with the adamantium yet. I plan to do more with it than using it simply to make a newer set of armor and weapons.”

“What do you have in mind, Master?” the minion master asked, curious about his Overlord’s plans.

“We can’t rely purely on magic in this day and age. We need technology to use against our enemies, so we’ll need to find some people that are skilled in that, so they can help Giblet make what we need.”

“I believe I might be able to help with that, my lord,” said a voice behind Grim and his group. When he turned to see who spoke, he found it was a woman with inky black hair and a matching catsuit that was split open from the base of her neck to just above her waist.”

“Ah, yes, I forgot to mention, Master, that another wench appeared offering her assistance to you.”

The new woman put a hand on her hip and smirked confidently, “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, my liege. I must say, you are even more impressive than I’d hoped you’d be.”

Selene, however, latched herself onto Grim’s left arm, glaring at the woman, “You’re early,” she said, simply.

The mystery woman’s smirk grew, “Which means you haven’t gotten the chance to ‘serve’ our lord yet, but such fun thoughts will have to wait until our master’s plan is in place.”

Girm looked at Selene, “This a friend of yours?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, my lord. This is the friend that I mentioned earlier. Overlord Grim Ebonyheart, meet Satana Hellstrom, the daughter of the Devil,” Selene said.

Grim looked at the new woman in surprise while Gnarl chuckled in amusement, “I must say, Master, I approve of the women you have been attracting! A powerful sorceress, a bloodthirsty mutant, and now the daughter of the Devil!”

Grim nodded and turned back to Satana, “You said that you could help us with finding those that could work with technology. What would you want in return for this information?”

“Oh, that’s easy, sire. I want what you’ve given Selene. I have long sought someone worth standing beside, someone worth my time. Thus far, only the tales of the overlords of old have kept me warm at night, but now that a new one has arisen to the dark throne I seek to become one of your mistresses.”

“And what of your…feeding habits?” Selene asked. Grim looked at the two women questioningly. “Satana is a succubus who feeds on the souls of those she kisses.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that, my liege. I choose who I wish to kill and the dark energy of the Netherworld will be able to sustain me,” Satana explained.

Grim looked at his minion master, “Well, Gnarl, what do you think? Can we trust her?”

“Yes, Master. The Netherworld would warn you if someone here had any hostile intentions towards you.”

Grim nodded and turned back to Satana, “You have a deal,” he said, making the succubus smile widely, “So, what is this information that you have for me?”

“Like Selene has no doubt informed you that she has, I too have informants throughout the globe. One of these informants have let me know about a deal between the groups Hydra and A.I.M. and the men of the Kingpin.”

“I’m not familiar with Hydra or A.I.M. Who are they?” Grim asked.

“Ah, forgive me, my liege. Hydra is a terrorist group that has cells all over the globe. They are said to be the most dangerous enemy to the organization S.H.I.E.L.D., are you aware of them?” Grim nodded. “A.I.M. is focusing more on technology and gaining more to achieve whatever goal they want at the time. As a result, they often side with Hydra in their plans. In other words, if you want a technology expert outside of Stark Industries, A.I.M. is where you need to go.”

Grim smirked, “Guess we better go and introduce ourselves, shouldn’t we?” Selene and Satana smiled giddily at the thought of serving their master by slaughtering and enslaving his enemies. Laura, however, looked emotionless, but Grim could tell she was uncomfortable. “Laura, think of this as practice for you to learn to do what you need to do.”

“Not to mention that it will also be a bit of revenge for young Laura,” Gnarl said, holding a folder of papers, “One of the minions brought this from your lab and I was examining it just now when Mistress Satana mentioned Hydra. Look at this, Master,” Gnarl said, holding up the front of the folder showing a symbol that looked like a skull with tentacles coming out of the base.

“That’s the symbol for Hydra,” Satana explained, making any discomfort Laura might have been feeling to disappear.

“Can we go now, Master?” she asked, her fists clenched at her sides.

“Yes. Let’s not keep them waiting,” Grim said as he led the women and his browns through the Tower gate to New York. Satana and Selene used their magic to cloak the group from all senses while leading them to where the deal was taking place.  When they arrived at the location, the deal was already going down. It appeared that the Kingpin’s men were attempting to purchase something from the two terrorist groups.

“Do you have the product?” one of the Kingpin’s thugs asked.

“Of course,” the A.I.M. soldier in charge said, sounding a little insulted, “My employer, however, would like to remind your boss that this isn’t the finished product that we would like. There will likely still be bugs in it.”

The Kingpin thug shrugged, “It’s not my problem. Kingpin wants it and he’s gonna get it.”

“Very well,” The A.I.M. soldier said, waving for another man to bring a briefcase forward, “Here it is. Just don’t expect to be able to call technical support if it doesn’t work the way you want.”

“Show us the product first. Then, you’ll get your money,” the Kingpin thug said.

The A.I.M. soldier sighed and gestured for the one holding the briefcase to open it up. The overlord’s group couldn’t see what it was, but it seemed to be sufficient to the client, who sent one of his men to hand over the briefcase of money, while grabbing the product. While this was happening, Grim gave his order for his forces to attack. Selene and Satana went to work at slaughtering the Kingpin’s thugs, while Grim took his minions and new servant, Laura, into battle against the Hydra and A.I.M. soldiers. The enemies were caught off guard and weren’t able to even consider launching a counterattack against their merciless attackers until almost half of their number was taken down. Once they started to open fire on the overlord’s forces, Grim began to move behind cover to slowly make his way to one of the Hydra soldiers carrying an energy rifle. He used his mace to bash the man’s head open before grabbing his rifle and using it with his open hand to shoot soldiers dead, while Laura just charged straight at her enemies, letting her healing factor repair any wounds she suffered from the enemy shots. The minions followed their usual tactics of running in and bashing the enemies to death before bashing some more.

The enemies were quickly overwhelmed with the last one being the A.I.M. leader, who was kneeling on the ground with Laura preparing to lop his head off with her claws. Just as she was about to execute him, Grim grabbed her arm mid-slash, making her turn to look at him.

“I want to ask him some questions first,” Grim said as Satana and Selene came to join them. Laura merely nodded submissively and stepped back.

“I will tell you nothing,” the soldier spat venomously.

Grim smirked beneath his helmet, “We’ll see about that,” he said before zapping him with his evil presence spell.

Once the man was under the spell, he stared blankly at Grim and emotionlessly begged, “Command me, O Lord.”

“Tell me first who is in control of your cell?” Grim asked.

“The Tinkerer leads our cell, my lord, though he was only the one leading this deal and wasn’t the one who created the product,” the soldier said, reminding Grim of the briefcase. He moved over to it and opened it to find what appeared to be a vial of an unknown liquid.

“What is this?” Grim asked the soldier.

“It is a prototype of our version of the super soldier serum, the serum that gave Captain America his abilities.”

Grim arched an eyebrow at that very interesting information before turning to Selene, “Take that back to the Tower then our new friend here will lead us to his cell.”

Ten minutes later, a massive explosion of hellfire shook the A.I.M. cell, killing a group of the guards in the initial explosion. Grim led the charge with his rifle, killing more, while his followers brought up the rear, sticking close to his back.

“Who are these idiots that would dare attack us!?” the one known as the Tinkerer shouted over a PA system.

“That would be me. I am the overlord, Grim Ebonyheart!” Grim shouted at the mechanical specialist.

“No, you’re a dead man!” the Tinkerer shouted before he slammed to the ground in a large mech suit.

“Shit!” Grim shouted as he dove behind cover while the mech opened fire with a gatling gun mounted on its arm.

He looked around to see his followers taking out the other soldiers, leaving only Grim himself and his minions to take on the Tinkerer. He sent out his minions to draw Tinkerer’s attention while he moved out to fire his rifle at places that he noticed would be weaknesses in the mech’s armor as he moved closer. One of his shots managed to hit the mass of wires controlling his gun, making it useless and leaving him with only short-range attacks.

“This doesn’t mean anything, you idiot! I can still crush you! After all, that’s all a Neanderthal like you can understand, right!?”

Grim, choosing not to answer, sent his minions at the mech, their number already reduced to five due to the machine gun, while he moved closer as well. The minions began to climb all over the mech, ripping out wires and smashing what they could until the overlord got close enough and pulled the hatch open to see the Tinkerer glaring at him.

“You won’t succeed, you damn Neanderthal! If you’re here to take me to jail, Hydra and A.I.M. will just break me out again!”

“Do I look like someone that’s planning to take you to jail?” Grim said before he activated the evil presence spell, bringing the technical genius under his control. “Now, what do you say?”

“I apologize for my insults, my master,” Tinkerer said, submissively, “How may I serve you?”

“You’ll come with me. I have need of someone with your skills. Come with us and we will let you know what you need to do,” Grim said as his two mistresses made their way to him, while Laura followed them, drenched head to toe in blood. Grim looked her up and down before saying, “That’s a good look for you, Laura.”

She looked at her bloodstained hands, a ghost of a smile appearing on her face for a split second, “I could get used to it.”

Grim smirked as he led the group back to the Tower. Once there, he turned to the Tinkerer, “Have one of the browns lead you to the forge. Tell Giblet that I want you two to make me new armor with this in it,” he said handing over his rifle, “I also need some tech and try to find some way to improve my evil presence spell to affect more people at once.”

“That’s a lot to do, my lord. Such a project will be difficult to accomplish quickly,” the Tinkerer said, his head bowed submissively.

“Just get it done,” Grim said turning to Laura, “You go clean yourself off. Don’t need you tracking blood all over my Tower.” Laura nodded her obeying his order and walked off while Grim turned to his two mistresses. “You two will follow me to the private quarters. It’s about time I gave you two a proper welcome to my Tower.”

The two were clamped to his side, their arms wrapped around his, before he even finished speaking, smiles on their faces being so big that it looked like their heads were going to split open. About five minutes after they disappeared up the stairs, the entire tower began to violently shake and shiver, causing Laura to rush out of a hallway, still dripping wet from her bath and wrapped only in a towel.

“What’s going on!? Are we under attack!?” Laura asked Gnarl, who just chuckled.

“No, young miss, our lord is merely enjoying the company of his mistresses,” Gnarl said with a lecherous smile.

Laura just looked at him in confusion before she realized what he was implying, “Oh. Is it always like this?” she asked, getting used to the Tower shaking.

“Pretty much,” Gnarl said, “He should be done in an hour or two. All we can do is wait for it.”

While they were waiting for the overlord to ‘finish,’ Wilson Fisk AKA the Kingpin was receiving some rather irritating news from one of his high-ranking soldiers.

“So, let me get this straight: the deal for the serum was not only interrupted, but everyone involved was killed and the Hydra cell we were dealing with was wiped out. Now, both Hydra and A.I.M. are blaming us for everything because we sent some low-ranking men and they want us to handle the problem, this ‘overlord.’ Does that sum up the situation?”

“Yes, sir.”

Fisk sighed, “I knew working with them was a mistake. We can’t afford to have both of them coming after our organization, so we will do as they ask for now. How many assets do we have available?”

“I’m afraid almost all of our usual choices are either on assignment already or are unable to do the mission due to being in prison or the hospital.”

“So how many do we have available?” Fisk asked, his annoyance with this issue growing by the second.

“One, sir,” the soldier said, handing him a file.

Fisk looked at the name on the file before looking back at the soldier, “Really? He’s the only one we can call for this?”

“I’m afraid so sir.”

Fisk sighed, “Alright. Make the call and bring me some aspirin. In fact, bring me an entire bottle of it.”

“Yes, sir,” the soldier said, before leaving to do as he was instructed.

A couple hours after Grim took his mistresses up to his private quarters, he came back down to the throne room, where Gnarl and a now dressed Laura were waiting.

“I trust you enjoyed your mistresses, Master?” the minion master asked with a lecherous smile. Laura merely kept quiet and her face emotionless.

“Very much, Gnarl,” Grim said, “Now, is there any business that we need to take care of?”

“Actually, yes, Master, there is. Someone is at the Tower Gate seeking an audience with you. Would you like me to bring him in?”

“Yes,” Grim said, sitting on his throne.

Just then, there was a flash of blue lightning and a man in a business suit appeared.

“Greetings, Overlord Ebonyheart,” the man said, bowing his head respectfully.

“You know me?” Grim asked.

The man smiled, “You have made a big impression in the short time that you have been on the scene. Making enemies of Hydra, A.I.M., the Kingpin, and the Avengers all at once tends to send a big message. So much so that my employers would like to make you an offer.”

“Your employers?”

“They are a group of people with…unique skills. While your abilities are of a different source than what they typically search for, you’ve impressed them enough that they’re willing to make an exception. They offer you membership in the group and will help you in your endeavors if you accept. Also, they have sent me to add an incentive to get you to join them. They recently came into possession of something they believe to be yours,” the man said, pulling out a laptop and playing a video.

“Is that…?” Gnarl asked.

“Your employers found the red minion hive?” Grim asked, as the video showed the red minions burning various objects of what seemed like a warehouse.

“Yes, overlord.”

“So, you are essentially saying if I join your group, then I will get what is essentially my property anyway,” Grim said, his annoyance growing.

“No, no, not at all. My employers will give you the hive regardless. You just have to come and collect it. It is merely an incentive for you to join.”

Grim thought about it for a few seconds, “When will your employer expect an answer?”

“He informed me that he would appreciate a swift answer, but he understands that you would need some time to consider it. He also would understand if you do not feel comfortable coming alone, though he asks if you bring your brown creatures that you keep them under control.”

Grim nodded and a thought occurred to him, “I forgot to ask. What is your group called?”

“The Hellfire Club, sir.”