I fell in Marvel with Essence Gacha but I’ve never heard of Marvel

Vibranium was a metal Lex had come to rather like. He had first learned about it through Sharon, since the shield she carried was made from the material, but his interest in it had grown considerably after he realized that he could simply produce unlimited amounts of it. Sometime earlier, after delivering a ton of Vibranium to Tony, Tony had returned the favor by sending Lex practically all of his research on the material. Lex had already possessed enough knowledge to understand the basics, but Tony's research had given him considerably more insight into how Vibranium behaved, how its unique properties interacted with other materials, and the limits of what could actually be done with it.

The research was useful, although Lex's current stay in this universe had been far more complicated than simply studying metals.

The Seven-Day World Travel Card had originally given him only seven days in this world. When those seven days were finally over, the card had attempted to forcefully teleport him back to Marvel. Under normal circumstances, that would have been the end of his visit, but Lex possessed the Essence of Transcend Self, and something as simple as reality insisting that his time was up was not enough to make him leave when he didn't want to.

He had simply declined.

The card had been destroyed in the process, although that was hardly a loss considering it had been a one-use card anyway. Even if Lex had allowed himself to be returned when the seven days were over, the card would have disappeared regardless, so there was no reason to regret destroying it.

Getting back to Marvel was not particularly difficult either.

There were a couple of options available to him. He could use his Conquering power, whatever exactly that power wanted to call itself, to perform a ritual that would allow him to return to his territory. Alternatively, he could use the transportation ability provided by the Essence of Ultimate Chad, which also allowed him to travel to any world he had already visited through a ritual.

The word ritual made both methods sound considerably more complicated than they actually were.

In fact, the ritual associated with Ultimate Chad was ridiculously simple.

Lex merely needed to impregnate a woman.

That was it.

There was no complicated spell, no rare material, no elaborate magical circle that needed to be drawn under a full moon. He just needed to get a woman pregnant and apparently reality would consider that sufficient qualification for interdimensional travel.

Lex had stared at that particular piece of information for a long time when he had first learned it.

It was one of those moments that reminded him just how damn weird Essences could be.

Unfortunately, while the ritual was certainly easy enough, Lex had absolutely no intention of getting someone pregnant merely because he wanted to go home. That was a level of ridiculousness even he wasn't willing to embrace.

Which was why he was still here.

He could return to Marvel whenever he wanted, but until this world was actually considered conquered according to the arrangements his father had made, returning would simply make coming back here an unnecessary hassle. Since he had already invested so much effort into taking control of the world, there was little reason to abandon the process halfway through.

Besides, he had already settled into the place.

Over the past month, Lex had been doing quite a lot more than simply watching Kom govern the planet.

For one thing, he had been building a prison.

There were simply too many assholes running around this world with superpowers.

Lex had no intention of killing every single one of them. He wasn't opposed to killing when it was necessary, and there were certainly people in this world who deserved death, but not every Supe who had committed a crime was someone who needed to be executed. Some of them could simply spend the next decade or two regretting their life choices from behind reinforced walls.

The prison itself wasn't particularly exotic. Lex had no need to construct some pocket dimension or magical hellscape when a sufficiently sturdy conventional prison would do the job. It was simply built far stronger than any ordinary facility, with reinforced structures, specialized containment measures and anti-Supe systems designed to prevent prisoners from escaping through their powers.

And there were already a few occupied rooms.

Of course, prison wasn't the only form of punishment being handed out.

Some people, especially those whose crimes had been so horrific that simply locking them away would accomplish very little, were being punished in ways specifically designed to make the consequences of their actions visible to the public.

Homelander was the most prominent example.

Once the evidence against him had been gathered and hundreds of witnesses and victims had been brought forward on television, there had been very little room left for Vought's old propaganda machine to protect him. The public had been shown what Homelander had actually done, and for someone who had spent his entire life cultivating an image of perfection, being exposed had been devastating enough on its own.

Lex had decided that wasn't quite enough.

Or, more accurately, Raphael had designed something after Lex made the mistake of asking her to read Homelander's mind.

Lex had no interest whatsoever in personally finding out what went through that man's head.

The resulting punishment was humiliation.

Every Sunday, Homelander was brought before the cameras in nothing more than his underwear and subjected to public spanking by people he had personally victimized. The victims were allowed to decide how long they wanted their turn to last, and once someone had completed their session, they could even sign up again and potentially find themselves back in the queue months or even a year later.

They were given whatever ordinary equipment they might need for the purpose as well, whether that meant a belt, a paddle or simply their own hand. There were only two rules: Homelander was not to be completely naked, and the punishment could not become sexual.

Everything else was apparently fair game.

It was ridiculous.

It was humiliating.

And that was precisely why Lex had chosen it.

Homelander had spent his entire life demanding worship and presenting himself as something above everyone else. Now, every Sunday, millions of people could watch the former "greatest hero on Earth" being humiliated by the very people he had once considered beneath him.

It was darkly comedic, certainly, but there was a genuine psychological component to it as well.

For someone like Homelander, being physically hurt was one thing.

Being made powerless, stripped of his carefully constructed image and forced to endure the public's laughter was something else entirely.

While Lex focused on the Supes and other physical threats, Kom had been dealing with the less glamorous side of ruling an entire planet.

With Raphael's notes and assistance, the World Government had already begun making substantial improvements to the lives of ordinary people. Ending world hunger was looking increasingly realistic, with current projections suggesting that it could be eliminated within a year.

Technically, they could probably force the problem to disappear immediately.

That wasn't the goal.

A temporary solution that relied upon dumping food into starving countries would simply recreate the same problem once those supplies ran out. Instead, the World Government was taking the slower route of restructuring agriculture, distribution, infrastructure and food production so that the result would actually be sustainable.

Security was another area that was gradually improving.

It wasn't perfect. It wasn't even dramatically better than before in every part of the world, but the direction was unmistakable. With wars between nations no longer being permitted without World Government approval, the traditional military structures of many countries were slowly being repurposed toward planetary security rather than preparing to fight one another.

One of the biggest improvements came from something considerably less dramatic than Lex's battles.

Raphael's ability to acquire and process enormous amounts of information made it much easier to evaluate the people actually running these institutions. Promotions and demotions could be based on performance far more effectively than under the old systems, meaning competent and honest people were far more likely to rise while corrupt, incompetent or abusive officials were gradually pushed down or removed altogether.

It wasn't perfect.

Raphael wasn't omniscient, after all.

But compared to the systems that had existed before, it was an enormous improvement.

And for the first time in a very long time, the average person was beginning to notice that the world was actually changing.

Lex wasn't particularly interested in taking credit for most of it.

He had his own work.

Just as he was about to finally call it a day, Raphael's voice entered his mind.

<Annie January is calling you.>Lex paused.

Annie.

He had almost forgotten that he had given her a way to contact him.

Almost.

The number itself didn't actually exist as an ordinary telephone number. Raphael had simply created it as a convenient point of contact, allowing her to call it and have the call routed directly to her. In practice, it was little more than a virtual number, although Lex had never bothered thinking too deeply about the technical details.

He took out his phone and held it against his ear as Raphael transferred the call.

Technically, he could have simply answered the call inside his own mind, but something about doing that still felt strange to him. Holding a phone to his ear while having an ordinary conversation was familiar, and sometimes familiar things were worth keeping even when they were no longer necessary.

"Hey, it's Annie here," Annie said when he answered. "We met a couple of months ago..."

There was an awkwardness to her voice that made Lex suspect she was wondering whether he would actually remember her.

"Hi, Annie. How have you been? I honestly didn't expect to hear from you again after all this time."

"Yeah, well..." Annie hesitated before adding with a hint of annoyance, "you and your friends did kind of conquer my world."

Lex paused.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that part."

He couldn't help laughing softly at his own response.

"I suppose that could be a reason for calling. So, are you still mad about it? If you are, maybe I could apologize over coffee."

"Oh?" There was a little amusement in Annie's voice now. "And if I'm not mad?"

"Then it's your treat."

A short laugh escaped her.

"Smooth as always, huh?"

"Can't help it."

"Sure. I'll send you a location. Let's meet in an hour?"

"Sure. See you."

Once the call ended, Lex cleaned himself up and headed out.

He teleported directly to New York, appearing without any fanfare in the city where Annie currently was. She had probably assumed that he was there as well, considering he had made a public appearance in the city only a few days earlier, and Lex wasn't particularly concerned about correcting that assumption.

The location Annie had sent him turned out to be a small pizzeria.

Lex looked at the sign as he entered.

"A pizzeria, huh?"

It immediately reminded him of the last time he had eaten pizza in this universe, which had only reinforced his opinion that Grayfia's cooking had spoiled him.

Still, pizza was pizza.

He found a table, sat down and ordered a Margherita pizza while waiting for Annie.

He didn't have to wait long.

The door opened, and Annie walked into the restaurant.

Lex immediately raised a hand to get her attention, and she spotted him almost at once. She walked over and took the seat opposite him, and for a moment there was that slightly strange feeling of two people who had already been considerably more intimate with one another than their current conversation would suggest, yet hadn't actually spoken in months.

"So, how have you been?" Lex asked.

Annie let out a small breath before settling more comfortably into her chair.

"Honestly? Confused, mostly."

She looked at him for a moment before continuing, trying to organize the last few months in her head.

"I had just gotten an email telling me that I was going to be joining the Seven. I was excited about it, obviously. Then I turned on the television and watched the Seven get completely butchered by Hela."

Lex's mouth twitched.

"That must've been an interesting day."

"That's one way to put it."

Annie shook her head, but there was more thoughtfulness than anger in her expression now.

"Then you guys started releasing all that evidence. Witnesses, victims, documents, everything Vought had been hiding. At first, I thought it was all fake. I mean, everyone knows how easy it is to manipulate information, and Vought had spent my entire life telling us that people like you were the villains."

She paused, looking down at the table.

"But then I started looking into it myself."

Lex remained quiet, allowing her to continue.

"My parents confirmed the Compound V thing. They told me that was how I got my powers. Then I talked to other Supes, people who had their own experiences with Vought, and..." She shook her head. "There really was a lot of horrible shit happening behind the scenes."

Annie looked back toward Lex.

"And then you and that new Prime Minister actually started changing things."

There was uncertainty in her voice.

"You've done more for the world in a month than Supes ever did as heroes. You're ending wars, dealing with corruption, trying to end world hunger, fixing the security system... I don't know what I'm supposed to think anymore."

Lex was about to answer when his expression suddenly changed.

"Before we continue..."

He reached across the table.

Annie barely had time to react before Lex plucked one of the buttons from her top.

"What are you doing?"

She immediately covered her chest, staring at him in confusion.

Lex held the tiny object between his fingers.

"Sorry. This is a camera."

Annie blinked.

"What?"

"I don't know how long you've been getting monitored, but someone has been watching you."

He turned the tiny device over in his fingers.

"Looks like it's connected to some CIA branch."

Annie took the button from him and examined it herself. The closer she looked, the more obvious it became that it wasn't an ordinary button.

Her expression hardened.

"You're serious."

"Unfortunately."

She stared at the device for another moment before looking back at him.

"Aren't you, like, the World Government now? Shouldn't you actually do something about this?"

Lex smiled faintly.

"I will."

There was a little more steel in his voice now.

Nobody spied on his girl without consequences.

Whoever had authorized the surveillance would be receiving a suspension order from the World Government, along with a rather unpleasant reminder that the new administration did not consider secretly monitoring its own citizens—or people under its protection—acceptable behavior.

But Lex wasn't going to let a single surveillance device ruin their meeting.

"So," he said, returning his attention to Annie, "back to what we were talking about. If you want to check the evidence yourself, I can arrange that. You can speak with victims, confirm documents, talk to people who worked for Vought, whatever you need. If you're going to make up your own mind about what's happening, I'd rather you have every opportunity to do it."

Annie considered that for a few seconds.

"Maybe I will."

Then she gave him a small, almost embarrassed smile.

"Although, honestly, I already believe most of it. Otherwise I wouldn't have come here."

Lex nodded.

"I'm glad."

There was genuine relief behind the words.

"You're one of the few genuinely good ones among the Supes, Annie. It would've bothered me if you were still believing Vought's propaganda after everything that happened."

Annie's smile became a little warmer.

"Yeah."

She leaned back slightly.

"Actually, that's partly why I called."

"Oh?"

"I heard you guys are putting together a team of Supes," Annie said.

"Oh yeah, I am actually the one leading that," Lex replied.

Annie raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You'll be leading the team?”

"No, I'm leading the building of the team. As for who'll actually lead it, I'll decide that later."

"Ohh?" Annie's expression brightened slightly before she gave him a playful smile. "Well, I've put in my application too. Maybe we'll meet there soon. Hopefully I get accepted.”

There was a quiet optimism in her expression now, mixed with the uncertainty that had been there since the beginning of their conversation.

"Maybe I could work with you."

Lex looked at her for a moment, and despite everything else that had happened in this strange world, he found himself genuinely pleased by the idea.

"Yeah," he said, his smile widening slightly. "I'd like that.”