Chapter 13 (PA)

June 20th, 2016.

It was finally the night of my induction into the Hellfire Club, and somewhat surprisingly, it was into the Inner Circle, the
White King position. I had spent the last five days preparing and soldifying my hold over my new assets, and even began
acquiring more with my profits and new funds from my exposure and war on crime. I had my recently acquired Kilgore
Arms scrap the Sentinels they were building and focus on better and more beneficial technology. The anti-mutant bigots
naturally threw a tantrum, so I destroyed all traces of the technology as a precaution. My announcement that I wouldn't
support hatred, oppression, and genocide made me some enemies, but I didn't really care.

I calmly entered the Hellfire Clubs mansion, dressed to the nines, yet not to the point rubbing my wealth in everyone's
faces. As such, my suit was from Savile Row and costed under ten grand. That was sensible, considering my level of
wealth.

"Mr. Jackson?" A tall, buxom, black haired woman said, distracting me from my inspection of the building.

"Yes," I replied, politely.

"I'm Tessa. I'm here to escort you to where your induction will take place."

"Thank you," I replied.

"Follow me, please." Tessa said, before walking away.

I obeyed, and managed to avoid admiring her body while doing so. I quickly picked up that she was a mutant and could
detect other mutants, I was quite curious what her 'scan' of me showed. I knew I had unimagineable levels of power, I
just wondered if she could see it all and my Demi-god status. I would need to find an evil alternate of her to acquire her
abilities, sadly I hadn't found any in my search of alternate universes.

"Here we are, Mr. Jackson." Tessa said, leading me into a large meeting room.

"Thank you," I said, as Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost neared me. I noticed a light pressure impact against my mental
shields and made sure to briefly glance around the room. There were fifteen suspects to disprove Emma did it, even if we
both knew that she did. This explained why she looked so young, though, when she was really an old lady.

"Welcome to the Hellfire Club, Mr. Jackson," Sebastian said, beginning to shake my hand.

"A pleasure to be here, Mr. Shaw. I apologize for the difficulty contacting me, I was lying low after my acquisition spree."

"A wise move. You made quite a few enemies that were all eager to kill you." Shaw replied in amusement.

"A couple actually tried, but they won't be doing that again." I corrected, causing him to smirk.

"I heard that Jones and Kilgore tried. Is that how both lost their controlling interests?"

"Of course. Avoiding life in prison was great incentive for them. I'm not sure why, but when I suggested that they might
meet someone special in prison, they quickly sold their shares." I replied, causing Shaw and Frost to laugh.

"And what was your interest in mine and Sebastian's companies?" Frost asked. Shaw seemed to share her curiosity.

"I believe you both still control around 2-3% each of Hammer Industries from early investments. I'm willing to trade a 5%
stake in each of your companies for that." I said, giving them a major profit in exchange.

"Deal." They both agreed, without hesitation.

"Excellent." I said, before noticing the others arriving. I recognized several of them, the infamous Selene Gallio, Roberto
da Costa, Harry Leland, and Trevor Fitzroy. "I take it that's the infamous Inner Circle?" I asked, amusing Shaw and Frost.

"Yes. Now let's induct you, White King." Frost said flirtatiously and grabbed my arm, directing me to the proper seat, and
amusing the others in the process. If she was claiming me for herself, then she was in for a rude awakening.

"Well, let's get started!" Shaw called out, everyone immediately gave him their undivided attention. "We are here tonight
to welcome Perseus Jackson to the Hellfire Club, as the new White King."

"Which I object too, again." Fitzroy said angrily. "He sent Pierce running and took over his companies! Pierce and I are
far more deserving! He's not even one of us!"

"You mean a mutant?" I asked in amusement, getting glares or looks of shock from everyone. "What? Blondie gave you
away when she tried reading my mind. Hothead over there," I said, pointing at da Costa who actually looked somewhat
amused at the name. "Beat someone with super-strength while turning black. Fitzy there," I said, causing the others to
chuckle and 'Fitzy' to become enraged. "Is a well-known thug, who can teleport, and he wears some lame ass and dorky
looking battle-suit in battle."

Fitzroy let out a yell of rage and ran over and grabbed me by the neck... He tried to absorb my life-force, but failed epicly.
I easily broke his arms and threw him back into his seat. I wasn't going to kill this asshole. I refused to give the Hellfire
Club leverage over me by commiting a crime.

"Out of curiosity, what is your mutation?" Shaw asked over Fitzroy's whimpers.

"Who said I had a mutation?" I asked in amusement. I knew that I was about to be exposed as a mutant, Tessa would
obviously inform her master anyway.

"Tessa?" Shaw asked boredly.

"He has an absorption based ability and several others absorbed. One of which is the ability to control reality." Tessa
informed the room, causing looks of fear to be directed my way. I rolled my eyes. "He's the most powerful mutant that
I've ever seen or heard of."

"Flattery doesn't work on me sweetheart." I said, causing some light laughter.

"Well, we can safely say that you are one of us now." Shaw commented with a smile. "Anyway, welcome to the Hellfire
Club. The original purpose was to obtain and exert power through politics and economics, and we still do that, while
working on other projects..."

"Any that you can mention?" I asked, somewhat curiously.

"We're waiting to see how this recent drama unfolds. It seems Ellis will be impeached soon. The articles are already being
drafted and mutants are even becoming more accepted. Even Magneto seems to be exercising patience to see where
recent events lead." Shaw replied.

"I'm more concerned about the anti-mutant bigots," I said, catching their interest. "They're most likely too blinded by their
senseless hatred to unite with mutant-kind. They really have nothing to whine about, homo sapiens aren't exactly all that
impressive. We'll eventually be surpassed and replaced too and hopefully mutants won't complain as much about it." I
said, causing some light laughter.