POV Rio
"We've read over your product's results, but we can't approve it for sale until longer-term studies have been done," the FDA chairman says with a tone as if it couldn't be helped.
"I understand your need for caution, but this serum would be instrumental to healing millions of people across the world. But if the FDA is unwilling to approve the sale, I shall take my product to Europe, where it is soon to be approved for sale," I reply.
"Now, Mr Wayne, I warn you that doing that would greatly hinder its ability to ever get approval in the US," the FDA chairman warns sternly.
"Yes, but I won't be the one dealing with the backlash. I'm sure it will be the Insuricare or UnitedHealth Group who bribed you into denying the release of the Regeneration Serum due to our stern insistence that the serum cannot be used anywhere outside our company," I reply coldly.
The FDA chairman starts to sweat nervously.
"How dare you claim I'm corrupt!" the FDA chairman yells while trying to hide his nervousness.
But he freezes when several FBI agents enter the room and show him an arrest warrant.
"W-What is the meaning of this!?" the FDA chairman says with shock.
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time," the agents say as they handcuff the FDA chairman.
Once that little show was done, I left and was quite confident my approval would be on the fast track. While I was sure that some might still take bribes, they won't when it comes to this case, as they've now seen the consequences of trying to get in Wayne Enterprises' way. As for how the FBI got the evidence to arrest the chairman, let's just say Batman is a valued informant for the FBI. It also helps that Bruce Wayne has strong ties with the current President of the United States.
'Time to tell Dr Connors the good news.'
When Dr Connors came to me with the finished product, I was excited for him. Getting approval for human trials was the easy part, but when people started to realize the serum worked so well, a lot of medical companies that make money on the misery and injuries of the people tried to buy the rights to distribute it, and when that failed, they tried to steal it, but that didn't work as it turns out when you heal lifelong problems of the disabled and damaged vetrans of the US you get a fiercely loyal and protective workforce, it also likely helps I pay quite well and we have fantastic benefits. Who knew that when you treat your employees with respect and don't exploit them, they gladly work for you and efficiency soars.
But when the medical industry couldn't steal from us, they tried to sabotage us, but that didn't work either. Their last-ditch effort was what just happened. They paid that chairman 760k dollars to deny or delay the serum's entrance into the market at all costs. They also tried a little propaganda, but that was really dumb, as I have the knowledge of a Nazi Scientist that knew how the mind worked as if it were a computer. Combine with the massive popularity of Wayne Enterprises, and you could imagine how poorly they fared.
Not to mention the massive amount of contacts I have all over the world, from small-time creators on YouTube to the leader of the Free World. Speaking of YouTube, we managed to purchase it from Google for 9 billion dollars. Apparently, they had been suffering some pretty massive losses due to the whole global economic crash.
In other news, Tony had finished recreating the Thermal Detonators and was working on making as many as he could. They were not cheap to produce, even for Tony, but with some extra effort, we were getting what we needed.
'I need to start work on some asteroid mining. I imagine Tony could help make some drones... Actually, given his track record, I'd best not.'
Maybe I was being a bit harsh, but I couldn't help myself if I didn't trust Tony not to accidentally leave a massive backdoor that some future AI he creates starts to use for some nefarious purpose. Instead, I would just do the work myself.
'Sigh. So much to do and so little time. Maybe I can get some Shadow Clone user soon.'
I think that in my head, but I somehow felt the system wouldn't be that kind.
'Whatever, let's just wipe out the Xenomorphs.'
Airachnid didn't survive, but she at least took out a lot of Xenomorphs with her. Though that was because I sort of hid an experimental plasma warhead in her chest. Estimating how many had been killed was a little tricky, but it should be quite a lot.
As for our plans to wipe out the hive, it was incredibly simple. Strap Thermal Detonators to Golem and start teleporting them into the hive, where they would get swarmed and blow up. Rinse and repeat until all that is left is the Queen. However, that was where the plan sort of fell apart. I had no idea how to kill the Queen. Maybe the Thermal Detonators would work on her, but I somewhat doubted that. It would be awesome if they did, but again, I didn't see that happening.
'Huh... That could work.'
I get a flash of inspiration and head to my manor's basement to turn on the portal again. I had done some exploration and found a few dimensions in my free time. Unfortunately, none were of any use.
Flashback...
"Okay, let's hope this time it's not Eldritch Deer women," I mumble while activating the portal.
I use a similar method, but as predicted, it fails, so I enter the portal myself to see what happened. But as soon as I do, I feel a chill run down my spine as I spot what this world looks like. Everything... Was covered in tentacles. Some phallic-shaped. Just in case, I took a device out and looked at the objects here, and everything was tentacles. Even down to the atoms.
"Hell naw, to the naw, naw, naw!" I say and detonate the drone before leaving the world.
I had seen enough memes to know where that was leading, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I labeled the world the Hentai World and left it at that.
Flashback Ends...
There were a few worlds I found after that, but they were about as bad. One was a single room with a Moose, nothing else, just a room... With a Moose. Another was the Deadlands, where I had to run immediately as Mehrunes Dagon detected me almost instantly, and I wasn't about to be tortured for eternity. Thankfully, the barrier around my universe prevented Dagon from following. Still, it wasn't pleasant. Another world was fairly normal-looking... At first. But then I noticed the really odd fact that the universe had no males. It was almost as if males couldn't exist. You don't want to know how they reproduce.
There were a few others, but only one of them was important for what I had planned. The universe in question was quite simple. It was a dead universe. One where all the stars had died, and the universe had become heat-dead. From some checks, the entire place was empty. No life at all remained. It was also interesting as resources were oddly extremely scarce. Unless you wanted to mine the super massive Black Hole that was slowly devouring the universe.
The reason I brought this up was that I thought I might be able to banish the Queen to either this universe or one of the other options. Of course, there were some issues of how I would manage that, but the theory behind it made sense. If we can't deal with the Queen, then let it be some other universe's issue.
'The question is, how do I transport them from the hive to this portal without getting stranded on the other side?'
On the surface, the issue seemed simple enough, just teleport her, you might think. But that's not only mana-intensive, but that could only get me to the portal, not into it. And if the Queen tries to fight it, she could very realistically destroy the portal on her way out or before she is even sent away. And if I have to push her into the portal, which more than likely I could get trapped in whatever universe I was attempting to banish her in.
'Hmm, maybe I should get some help from stronger people.'
I knew where to find some decently powerful people. There was Hulk, The X-Men, The Ancient One, the Eternals, and Ant-Man could do the Thanos back door strategy.
'No, that wouldn't work; their insides would likely melt him before he even had a chance.'
There were also quite a few issues with the others. I had no idea how the Ancient One would act, and with her losing her source of youth, she may not be in any condition to fight. The Eternals were possibly connected with spreading the Xenomorphs across the world, so they may sooner kill me than help me. Though Icarus might help, as he was dead set on completing his mission, and that can't be done as long as a Xenomorph infestation was happening.
Hulk was also not exactly a great choice. I didn't want to send him into battle unless I had to, and there was also the question of how effective he would be, as blunt damage is not very effective against Xenomorph physiology. The X-Men weren't exactly a great option, as they have a total of 11 members, most of whom aren't even combat-trained. If you count actual X-Men and not just Mutants that live at the X Mansion, then you have Wolverine, Jean, Storm, Cyclops, and Colossus. Of which most are not useful in the battle.
Colossus can defend as long as no acid blood touches him. Wolverine could survive just about anything. Storm is far less powerful so far underground. Cyclops is just too weak to do anything meaningful before he gets infected. Jean... Jean was not that useful either. At least not until her limiters are released. But I'm not sure I want to deal with her with no limiters.
'God, we really need a useful super team, and we need it yesterday.'
I sit down with an exhausted sigh.
"Maybe I can reach out to the Black Panther. He might be willing to help in the name of revenge," I mumble to myself.
I sit up, slap my cheeks, and refocus myself.
"There's no point moping about it. I just have to put in the work and hope for the best. I've got plenty of options available to me," I say firmly before getting right back to work.