The Expansion

[extreme1]

The Expansion

Disclaimer: Warner Brothers and Disney owns the characters in this story, We're just borrowing them!

Prologue
All anyone knew for sure about the Expansion, was that it had happened without any warning.

All of a sudden two universes had collided together, leading to new cities and new worlds for both.

To make matters worse, what followed was absolute carnage and devastation, with resources becoming much more scare and a large chunk of Earth's population dead and gone.

Which left Super Heroes to pick up the pieces

Not an unusual situation for either universe, but now that they were all in one place, everything had changed.

People split from teams, some of those teams went to war, Some heroes turned villain and vice versa and new alliances were formed.

Not to mention the many romantic relationships created and ended in the aftermath.

It was their way of coping with the trauma of what had happened.

Everything had changed in just a year, but most people knew that the changes were far from over.

And that was the part that worried everyone the most.

[extreme1]

*Arkansas*

Rogue walked out of the motel room and looked at the carnage the Expansion had wrought.

Abandoned buildings and the long dead bodies of both animal and human filled the sides of the roads that she had traveled on, she'd been in Arkansas looking for survivors in less populated areas of the state but there was very little beyond death.

Ready to move on to somewhere else after her dead end trip through the state, Rogue got her car and started it.

Before she began her drive to wherever she was going, she remembered how it was in the blink of an eye that new cities magically appeared, places like Metropolis and Gotham showed up, bringing countless new people with them.

It was anarchy, countless people died thanks to inadequate food and water due to the new cities taking space in more agricultural towns and the sudden massive population boom, that led to various diseases killing even more.

The Superhero community was largely (at least in terms of physical health) unaffected by The Expansion.

The main theory being that they tended to be more mobile and had better access to places that did have food and water (not to mention that some superheros could just conjure things up out of thin air), so they could get whatever they needed for themselves and their loved ones.

Mentally, however, things were much different story.

With such a devastated population leaving not a lot of people (outside of the large cities) to save, many superheros had resorted to the three things they were best at: Fighting, training and fucking.

Some superheros quickly turned on each other as they tried to figure out what happened for instance, The Avengers and the X-Men had begun a war that neither side seemed to be winning and Wakanda had descended into Civil War with Storm vs. Black Panther in what everyone was pretty sure was a proxy war for the Avengers and the X-Men.

Others gave up superheroing all together.

Dazzler had returned to music full time, deeming it incredibly important to use music as a way of helping people through this nightmare.

There was even a rumor going around of some superheroine leaving it all behind and working in a strip club that had become renowned for it's live sex shows.

No one ever named a name, so Rogue was skeptical of that, but she had to admit that anything was believable at this point.

After Rogue left the X-Men, Pixie became the last real line of contact to the team, happily gossiping with her about who was sleeping with who and what various Ex-Teammates where up to.

That led her thoughts to stray towards Gambit.

Their relationship had ended shortly after the Expansion, the weight of everything causing them to become incredibly tense which in turn led to them constantly arguing about the slightest thing, soon enough their relationship was over and Gambit had completely dropped off everyone's radars, it was made worse by New Orleans ending up under water.

Something that she knew wore deeply on Gambit's soul.

More than anyone she ever met, Gambit had identified himself as being proud to be from New Orleans.

She felt some guilt on her part, she had been so busy trying to both the X-Men and the Avengers from splitting apart at the seams that she spent little time consoling Gambit.

But, things were different now and there was little time for guilt.

Recently she'd heard rumors that Gambit was leading the guilds in running Bludhaven, not that she would be shocked by that, it made sense that the Guild would want a presence somewhere, especially if rumors of Gambit having recruited some pretty heavy hitters to the new Guild were true.

As for Rogue, she had left both the X-Men and Avengers when the war truly broke out, instead she had become a solo super heroine who bounced around from city to city, going wherever she was needed, trying to stay as unconnected from people as possible

Not that she hadn't had one night stands here and there (or, in the case of Nightwing, a two week stand), but she was focused on protecting the weak from the countless villains who now found themselves much higher on the proverbial food chain keeping people safe and getting them to larger communities were what she was about now and all romantic feelings did was distract from her mission.

She couldn't say the same for others.

For some reason, during her travels, she had become rather popular with guys now.

Not that she wasn't before, but there was a line few could cross due to her powers.

Despite the traumatic events, she maintained her control over them and, as such, guys saw her as much more available.

In particular she had to deal with Lex Luthor and Black Panther (although she was pretty sure the Panther was trying to twist the knife on Storm).

Outside of a brief vacation with Nightwing, she made a point to rarely stick around in the life of any potential romantic partner.

Still, those two seemed the most persistent in trying to make her theirs.

Panther was more than happy to offer her a spot in Wakanda, helping the fight against Storm's rebels.

As for Luthor, it appeared as though he'd turned over a new leaf, trying to help as many survivors as he could.

Everyone that knew him from before was sure that there was a scheme there and had repeatedly warned her away from him, but he hadn't dropped the other shoe yet, so those people left him to his devices, while keeping one eye on him.

Lex may have tried to charm her, but she'd been in love with Remy LeBeau long enough to know bullshit when she saw it.

Which left her in her current situation: figuring out her next move.

Maybe she'd accept one of the many offers she got to help out.

Panther wanted her to help out in Wakanda, as did Storm, both wanting her and her powers on their side.

Lex was practically begging her to return to Metropolis, according to him there was something of urgent importance that he needed her help with.

He was being cagey about the details, and that was something that worried her.

But still, if it was as urgent as he said, he probably did need her help.

Magneto had reached out to her a few times to see if she wanted to help him in his rebuild of Genosha, although she was pretty sure that her name was pretty high up on the list of potential Queens for him.

Made sense, it wasn't like their prior relationship had ended on bad terms.

She could also head to a city that she'd never been to before like Star City.

Or, if push came to shove, she could tell them all to piss off and go check up on whatever the hell Gambit, Nightwing or even Deadpool were doing.

She had a lot of options at her fingertips.

She just had to pick one.

[Cadeauxxx]

Nice work, looking forward to reading more.

[extreme1]

Ultimately, for Rogue, it came down to either Wakanda or Metropolis, and since the last thing she wanted was to involve herself in the Wakandan civil war (at least not yet, she was pretty sure that getting involved in that clusterfuck was inevitable, she just wanted to delay it for as long as possible), she headed for Metropolis.

She wanted make sure that Lex wasn't lying to her, she still didn't trust him all that much and if he tried anything, she wanted to help put him down.

With those thoughts in her head, she pointed her car towards Metropolis and made it to her destination in almost record time.

It had taken only a few days and she barely slept the whole way, finding no survivors in any of the decimated areas she drove by on her way to Metropolis.

She was a little tired when she finally got there, but she paid that no mind.

Sleep, after all, was often a superheroes worst enemy.

A lesson every superhero had learned time and time again.

All he'd said to her was there was an urgent mission he needed her for, leaving no details what so ever.

That made her curious enough to ask him what was going on in person.

She walked into Lex Corps. headquarters and was immediately treated like a movie star.

People rushed over to her to make sure she was comfortable, they offered her whatever she wanted and made sure that she would instantly get what she needed while she waited for Lex's meeting to finish.

It was clear that they had been told that treating her well was a major priority and, she had to admit, she liked the treatment.

For the most part it was a hard life out there as a superhero, especially one who often spent time in places that reminded her of the death and destruction that the Expansion brought) and she rarely got treated this well (outside of whenever she was around T'Challa).

In fact when she did find a survivor, they usually people who hated superheroes for adapting so well to the post Expansion world but they still needed their help so they accepted it, even if they let her know how they felt about her and her kind as she giving them that help.

It was incredibly annoying to her to say the least.

After a while, the wait was over and she was finally sent in to meet with Lex.

His office was huge and he sat behind a massive desk.

"Rogue, as always it's fantastic to see you." He greeted with a handshake.

Rogue gave him her usual lukewarm greeting towards him in response.

Lex always seemed to take her coolness towards him in stride.

He gave her a long winded speech about the importance of this mission, but gave her little idea of what it actually was.

By the end she was incredibly annoyed at him and his self aggrandizing speech.

"Alright now that your 30 hour speech is over, what do you actually want from me?" She snapped, she had gotten better about keeping her temper in check, but wasting her time was a quick way for that temper to come out.

Her blunt response surprised Lex a bit.

"Perhaps I was a bit long winded, my apologies." He said, although he was half assing it.

It was clear to Rogue that he wasn't a man that liked to apologize, but he wanted to stay on her good side.

"There's a section of people in Metropolis who I believe are plotting against mutants on behalf of an anti-mutant fanatic named Christoph that emerged after the Expansion, I want you to find out if my suspicions are true." he said.

The name Christoph got her attention which mean that her curiosity led her to she immediately agree to the mission.

Even far away from Metropolis, she'd heard the guy was a nasty piece of work and she wanted to see just how bad he really was.

She did wonder this was a set up between Lex and Christoph.

She'd learned to keep her head on a swivel these days.

Especially when Lex Luthor was involved.

Her trust wasn't easily earned, and she knew that Lex was well aware that everyone had told her just the type of person he used to be, but she'd give him the benefit of the doubt and, if this worked, she'd certainly be more willing to trust him in the future.

But, for now, Rogue was on the trail of Christoph and she was gonna make sure that found out what happened.

She just hoped this would give her plenty of heads to crack, she had a lot of pent up frustration to work out.

[extreme1]

Rogue was not happy.

Her brief investigation into Christoph revealed that he was damn near a vapor.

So far every single lead she had ended up being a dead end.

That didn't bode well for her or the mutants of Metropolis and she had to figure something out.

She'd heard enough rumors that she gathered that he knew Lex was on his trail and so he went underground

Which meant that the info was increasingly slim, but she was still sure that she would eventually find him.

In the time since the Expansion, Rogue had gotten much better at tracking people.

She was already good at it thanks to training from Wolverine, but going from town to town really gave her the experience she needed to utilize that skill, usually those towns were abandoned, so she so she figured out how to look for the little signs of life that one would normally miss.

All that training meant that all she needed was one thread and her instincts would kick in.

And right now she was looking for that thread and she wasn't gonna give up until she got it.

She walked into an alley way, she'd heard a rumor that someone that had some info that spent a lot of time there.

Naturally, the entire area was a notorious spot for addicts.

People would pass out and OD in the streets and in alley ways on a regular basis and prostitution ran rampant.

Rumor had it that someone had pretty much shepherded them all into an area and, from the sounds of it, Rogue was pretty sure that whoever was behind that was committing a slow genocide on an 'undesirable' part of the population.

Unfortunately, she knew that there were a lot of people that would want to do such a thing.

Still, at some point she wanted to start figuring out if those rumors were true and, if they were, making whoever was behind it pay dearly.

For now, however, she had to focus on her task.

After a bit of asking around (most people would have told her to fuck off, but her good looks got a lot of people willing to chat), she started hearing the name Darren Anderson, a dealer who, according to a few people, knew some things about Christoph.

It took a bit of prodding, but she found out which bars he liked to hang around.

Because of the nature of the people in that area, she wasn't sure if they were telling the truth or if they were just trying to get her off their ass, but her gut told her that they weren't lying, and she had nothing else to go on, so why not follow this lead?

Sure, she could have easily used her powers and just taken whatever info she needed, but Rogue only did that as a last resort, the less she used her powers, the better.

And besides, half the fun was taking a chance on a lead that might either go nowhere or crack everything open.

If she was wrong, it would just waste her time, if she was right, this could lead her to her target.

She quickly made her way to a transient bar that Darren was just leaving.

He was obviously rather drunk which bode well for Rogue.

After all, drunk people weren't nearly as good at running away as sober people were.

Not that humans were much of a problem for her in general, her powers, meant there was no real getting away from her if she wanted something from you.

She strolled up to him and he immediately realized something was up.

Rogue knew he was about to pull a runner, but he never had a chance.

He was drunk and she was faster than most people.

A bad combo for him.

He got a few steps before Rogue chased him down.

Then, in an act of incredible stupidity, he pulled a knife on her.

Within seconds, she had him against the wall, using just a fraction of her incredible strength to send him the message that she wasn't playing around.

"I got a question for you." She asked in her nicest voice, hoping this wouldn't turn into a big deal.

Unfortunately for her, Darren wanted to make it a big thing.

"I got no fucking clue about anything." He said with a crooked smile.

Rogue's patience was rapidly running out and she decided to make sure he knew it.

"Sugah, you got a choice to either tell me what I want to know, or else." She said, giving her usually sweet voice a sternness to it and her grip on Darren tightened just enough to make a threat without saying a word.

There was few things on earth more terrifying than an angry Rogue, as her target was finding out.

"Look, I'll tell you what I can, just be cool." He responded, trying not to pee himself in front of her.

Rogue gave him a smile in response, she gave the appearance of warming up to him, but they both knew that one wrong move would get him tossed into a dumpster.

"Tell me what you know about Christoph." She said, getting an annoyed grunt from him.

"Are you trying to get me killed?" He asked her in his lowed voice.

"Not trying to, but it'd be no skin of my ass." She shot back.

"Cute, look, you're lucky I'm drunk, otherwise I would kill myself to keep from talking." He said.

That told Rogue just how serious this was.

"Then let's get you off the street and get you somewhere safe." She responded.

He immediately agreed and the pair went off to one of the safe houses Lex had set up for her.

For Rogue, this had gone smoother than she had thought and for Darren, well he agreed mainly because if he said too much in an open street, people would overhear, which would lead to people talking and if it got back to Christoph...well whatever she had planned was far less worse than what Christoph would do to him.

And, hey, it wasn't like he was above lying.

If anyone asked why a superhero was escorting him to an abandoned building (of which there were many in this part of town), he'd gleefully tell them that she just couldn't resist a man as sexy as him.

[extreme1]

The Hellfire Club had waited long enough, it was time for action.

Shaw had kept a very low profile during the Expansion.

Determined to slowly make the moves he felt would make the Hellfire Club relevant again when the time was right.

And that time was now.

"Ladies and Gentleman, we can no longer wait in the shadows." He began, as he addressed the Inner Circle.

"Over the past year, I have assembled you because you most fit what I want the new Hellfire Club to be, and I have done a fine job, if I say so myself." He said, getting a few chuckles.

"First I recruited my Black Queen: Wanda Maximoff, AKA the Scarlet Witch, a woman with truly incredible power." He said as he nodded towards Wanda, who gave a small bow.

"Then I recruited the White King: Wilson Fisk, a man who would truly brutalize those who get in his way."Shaw continued, The Kingpin followed Wanda's lead and proudly bowed as he name was called.

"Then I recruited the Red Queen: Frenzy, a woman whose power rivals even the strongest hero out there." Unlike the others, Frenzy didn't bow, instead choosing to give a small head nod.

"We still have some work to do with her." He said, getting some more chuckles, although it was clear Frenzy wasn't amused by his joke.

"In the Red King, I went to Roberto da Costa AKA Sunspot, a young man who had plenty of potential, it just took us to unlock it." He said, Sunspot, of course, bowed when he was acknowledged.

"That left the White Queen... a position I'd spent a long time looking for the perfect person to fill that role." He began.

"I'd looked high and low for her, determined to get someone that could truly fill the role as it deserves....and then after almost a year of looking, I found her." He continued.

"I found a woman whose beauty dwarfed almost every woman I had ever seen, a woman who looked like the perfect mix of business, pleasure and extreme power, it took a while, but I'm proud to say I finally brought her into the fold." With that, the doors opened and in walked a blonde woman who was everything Shaw said she was and even more.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm proud to introduce the White Queen of the Hellfire Club: Karen Starr." Shaw finished, as the new White Queen strolled in and gave everyone plenty of time to drink the sight of her in.

Even with her body hidden by a cloak, her unmistakable beauty shone through and, even hidden by a cloak, her large bust was very evident.

Even if they weren't saying it out loud, everyone in the Inner Circle would agree that Shaw had just hit a home run.

****

*Metropolis*

The trip for Rogue and Darren didn't take too long.

Lex had made sure that she had plenty of spots that she could use as a safe house dotted around the city.

And she was already very close to one of those safe houses.

"Tell me what you know about Christoph." She insisted as soon as she got him inside.

"Look, I don't know much, I just know that I heard that he's got some hooker that he usually visits, named Vanessa, before you ask, I don't think she was anyone before the Expansion, from what I hear she's just some random broad." Darren said as he sank down onto a filthy armchair.

"So where is Vanessa?" She asked, although this lead was probably going to be even more of a longshot.

"This time of night? She's usually on some street corner, looking for a john." He responded, although Rogue immediately realized that Darren was about to throw some monkey wrench into this situation.

"But, no one has seen her for the past few weeks, I'm guessing when Christoph heard someone was looking for him, he made sure she disappeared as well." Darren said.

"Like disappeared in what way?" She asked, hoping he didn't mean what she thought he meant.

"Don't know, might have taken her with him or he might have stuffed her in a dumpster somewhere, I don't know Christoph, just heard rumors about him, if they are true, then he probably was smart enough not to dump the body in some dumpster." He said with a headshake.

"So where did all these rumors come from?" She asked, hoping this would be the lead she was waiting for.

"Look, I was one of Vanessa's regulars so I know he was also a regular, I would show up on her doorstep with a six pack and the money and me and her would get drunk and go at it, if she was drunk enough then she'd open up to me about everything, didn't matter that I didn't love her, she just wanted someone to listen to her, she told me about Christoph being a client and that he was incredibly dangerous, but not much beyond that, the other stuff I heard because I would ask around, this was all before people started taking an interest, back when it was just a rumor that some guy was taking mutants out." Rogue was irritated that she wasn't gonna be able to get to Vanessa (although she hoped that was temporary), but this was a great help already.

"So, who told you the other things about Christoph?" She insisted, even if it was just old wives tells with a new coat of paint, she still wanted to hear them.

"Just random people I sell to, been so drunk that I can't really place rumors with faces, once the murders started gaining traction down here, people started shutting up about him." Darren said, right before Rogue turned to leave, with a proclamation that she was going to ask around about people he sold to.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this." Darren said, the sadness in his voice told Rogue that she should give this guy a few extra minutes of her time, so she turned around and nodded, a silent way to let him know that he could continue.

Even now, Rogue felt an obligation to give an ear to a wounded soul.

"I grew up in Colorado, I was a wide receiver in high school and college, shattered my high schools record for most catches, most receiving TD's, most yards, I was as good of a player as you'd find, just turned 19 and was ready to tear things up in college." He began.

"Then my knee was pretty much destroyed after a dirty hit and that was that, makes it kinda funny that I tried to run from you tonight." He continued with an unamused chuckle.

"That was the end for me, I lost my football career, lost my scholarship, lost my girl when she found out I cheated on her, lost any future I had, some of my boys were selling drugs, so I figured I might as well, needed some income to take care of this woman I had knocked up." He gave a head shake, he looked up at her and, for the first time, she got a good enough look to see just how world weary he truly was.

"She couldn't handle the fact that I was dealing and she moved away and took my kid with her a few years before the Expansion, then the Expansion happened and I had to get out of Colorado as fast as I could because I couldn't stand to watch everyone dying around me, so I drove until I reached Metropolis and I spent the past year here just dealing and waiting out the clock, waiting to see what was gonna finally put me in a grave, Christoph is probably gonna get to me before I ever get to see my kid again, if she's even still alive." He concluded, letting his biggest fear bubble to the surface.

"Look, if you're telling the truth, then I'll have a much easier time finding him and, once I've found him, he's going away forever." She said, determination in her voice.

"Once this is all done I'll give you some places to go to in order to dry out and to get you back on your feet." She said as she left Darren to his thoughts, the regret he'd spoken with was all the evidence that she needed that, deep down, he was still worth saving.

But first, she had to find Christoph and deal with that problem once and for all.

[extreme1]

*Metropolis*
Rogue was determined to find Vanessa as she might be the key to this all.

That is, if she was even still alive.

Christoph seemed like one of the most dangerous guys in Metropolis, so it wasn't unbelievable that he "took care" of Vanessa as soon as Rogue started sniffing around.

Still, she had to be sure and she knew that she couldn't leave any stone unturned in her quest to stop Christoph.

So she began to ask around about Vanessa.

Naturally, no one had seen her lately, but she'd heard rumors that the last place she'd been scene, a large limo had picked her up.

No one could remember the license plate, but she had enough of a description that she could start looking into it ASAP.

If she couldn't find Vanessa, then maybe the limo was the key.

She started asking around if they'd seen the limo before.

Turned out, it wasn't exactly a rare sight in certain places, mainly in places where prostitutes hung out.

The rumors were that it was a rich guy with a taste for making women do whatever he wanted.

That caught her attention.

Maybe Christoph hadn't gotten to Vanessa just yet.

If that was true, she had a huge lead right in front of her.

Of course, she was gonna have to do a lot of waiting before that limo showed up.

Unfortunately for her, she knew it wasn't gonna be that easy.

Especially if whoever owned the limo didn't want to be on anyone's radars.

So, it was now a waiting game, she found a small spot and set up shop, ready for a stakeout.

If this worked, she'd crack this case wide open, if not, she prayed for some kind of miracle.

***
*New York City*
Karen Starr was trying to keep a level head about all of this.

The Expansion had shaken even the most devout hero.

It had led to so many broken teams, broken relationships and broken people.

For Karen, it was a deeply confusing time that had shaken her to her core.

Like everyone else in this new world, she tried to figure out just what this all meant.

Power Girl couldn't leave the superhero life, she knew that much.

So she got back to work and moved to New York, which, from what she understood, was the superhero capitol of this particular world, but it wasn't the same.

She felt listless and the heart just wasn't there anymore.

She still felt like she cared, but she just couldn't stop this weird emptiness inside of her.

And then she met Shaw.

From the first time she met the businessman, alarm bells were sounding in Karen's brain.

He was smooth as butter and didn't really seem to give a shit about much more than his pleasure.

Those two things made Karen feel like she had to keep an eye on him.

She wouldn't admit it at first, but she was fascinated with him.

Well more like she was fascinated by his lifestyle.

He seemed to just do whatever he wanted.

And he'd made it very clear from the first time they met that he'd set his sights on her.

For months he worked on her, charming her at every opportunity and going out of his way to offer her a new life.

One that looked more and more tempting by the day.

Still, she knew he was the kind of person you couldn't trust and she had to be on her guard around him.

She made sure to take notes on every encounter they'd had, and how he acted around her.

Her biggest takeaway was just how much he enjoyed preaching to her about a life without any concern but pleasure.

She simply went along with him, never letting on that she was suspicious of him.

Eventually, he let her in on the existence of the Inner Circle.

Then he let her in on the fact that he had a spot for her in the group).

Which gave her exactly what she was looking for: a way in.

Joining the Hellfire Club would be a great way to find out what he was really all about.

She was smart enough to keep him at arms reach at first, which only made him want her more.

Which meant he went on a full court press to recruit her with lavish gifts, offers of vacations and promises to indulge her every whim.

Power Girl played her role of hard to get, yet very interested, perfectly and Shaw knew it was only a matter of time before she was by his side.

Partly because, for better or worse, she was interested in this Inner Circle.

A part of her did want to just give it all up and live for her pleasure and nothing else, but, she still felt an obligation to be a hero and that meant infiltrating this group.

Or so she told herself.

She hated admitting it, but she wasn't sure if she actually was infiltrating the group or outright joining it and only waiting for the right time to really leave the whole superhero thing behind.

After she accepted Shaw's offer to become the White Queen, she realized that she was gonna find out soon enough.