A Twelve Step Program to Omnipotence

by Bakkughan

A Marvel fan from our world is reborn in the MCU. Sure he could follow the SI clichés; become a hero, save the world and get the girl, but Michael McCole instead decides to follow a different path. After all, in a world where magic is real, reality is what you decide for it to be. There will be challenges along the way, but nobody said becoming a God was easy.

30. Preparation

Preparation

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March 12th

After spending the rest of the day explaining to Phineas what his duties as the Gatekeeper of Othrys entailed (mainly monitoring the island and managing the base's defenses, essentially being my version of JARVIS but with free will and the freedom to pursue his own projects and interests) I left Radcliffe with the uploaded consciousness in order to figure out future projects on which they could collaborate, and started delegating again.

Sterns I put on finishing the scanner for Ego's Seed, since he had put a stop on developing that once we had begun Operation: Respawn. It shouldn't take him much longer, so after he finished that he could return to his bigger project of the Pym Particles. Cross had already made quite a headway in using the particles to alter the size of non-biological matter, and Sterns had cracked it to the point that simple biomatter could be shrunk as well. All that was left was making sure it worked on sentient beings as well, without the insanity-drawback.

I immediately wanted to jump into learning magic again, but Pangborn was dead on his feet from the exhaustion of continuously channeling the Mystic Arts for an hour. So instead, I sent him off to bed, with orders to meet me in the morning in Hansen's labs for testing.

As I stood there in the hallway of sublevel four, realizing that most of my base had either gone to sleep or were deep into their own projects, I decided that there wasn't much for me to do at the moment and I ended up making my way towards my office instead. I didn't really have a plan in mind, but I thought it'd be nice to relax for just a little while in my luxurious chair as I looked out over my island through the full-length windows (I did had some vague idea's on translating the Evil Overlord List into a long-dead language and then writing it on some ancient looking clay tablets which I could then frame on my wall, just for the hell of it).

Unfortunately, my plans for a peaceful evening were dashed the moment I set foot inside the enormous office.

"Hello Michael. Would you care for some tea?"

My entire body tensed up as I gazed at the person who was leisurely sitting behind my massive desk, seemingly without a care in the world, as if breaching the defenses of the most fortified base in the world was no big deal.

"Ancient One."

The Sorcerer's mouth quirked just the tiniest bit at my wary tone, and it wasn't too difficult to see why. Engulfed as she was in my enormous chair (I could see that her feet barely even touched the ground), dressed in comfortable clothing dyed in soft pastel colors, the lithe woman must have appeared completely harmless compared to my looming form in the doorway.

And yet, nothing was further from the truth.

Bullets did not harm me. Blades did not cut me. Punches from the some of the strongest beings on the planet did not faze me for long.

But magic?

Other than my extremely potent chi, my mystical skills were very much still in their fledgling state, meaning any magical barriers that I could throw up (while certainly more powerful than a novice like me should be able to create) might as well have been made of rags for all that it would halt the Ancient One in her tracks.

For the past 700 years, she has been a deterrent to interdimensional horrors, for crying out loud!

Maybe I could take her. Maybe. My strength, combined with my speed, meant that I was a nightmare to face in close quarters, and compared to me, the Ancient One's body was just as squishy as your run of the mill mortal. One good hit was all it would take to finish the fight.

Unfortunately, the same went for her.

"I am not here to seek conflict with you, Michael." The Ancient One said, clearly picking up on my wariness.

"Then why are you here?" I replied slowly, as I began making my way towards her.

"Like I said, to drink tea. Hopefully, we can have a civil conversation as we enjoy our drinks." The Ancient One explained with a small smile, but her eyes kept on staring unwaveringly into my own, and I caught on to the hidden message in her words.

This wasn't a request.

Still, I might be wary of one of the very few beings on the planet that posed a legitimate threat to me, but I wasn't just going to bow down to her demands without at least some semblance of a fight.

Taking a seat in front of my own desk, I kept my body tense while my eyes were blazing embers, as I raised an eyebrow at her words.

"You breach some of the mightiest defenses on the planet, and break into my inner sanctum, all for a cup of tea?"

"Your technological mastery is certainly impressive, Michael, but I think we are both aware that such things do not matter as much to me as they would to others. And I am afraid that Jonathan's rudimentary warding is far from mighty. He has earned his title as Master of the Mystic Arts, true, but that was given to him due to his feat of extreme mastery of self, and the impressive knowledge he collected during his stay in Kamar-Taj. A magical powerhouse, however, he is not." The Sorcerer replied, and though she didn't raise her voice, her tone became just the slightest hint sharper.

"You object to his role within Othrys then? Is that why you are here?" I guessed as I leaned slightly back in my chair, giving myself a bit more room to move in should we come to blows.

"Some would call taking the names of the Titans for yourself as hubris, and were it anybody else, I would be inclined to agree. But with you… I cannot help but wonder…" the Ancient One mused, not even trying to mask the fact that she completely ignored my question about her feelings on Pangborn working for me.

"Wonder what?" I asked wearily, my body tensing even further when the Master of Kamar-Taj fixed me with a heavy look.

It seemed we were past pleasantries then.

"I am definitely looking at a living body that was once a human, but you do not have the soul of a mere mortal, reaching for a higher power. You aren't a demigod or even a full god. I have met their like, and they were both more and less powerful than you are. Your body is chained by mortality, but your soul is beyond such simple notions, beyond anything I have ever encountered. It almost makes me wonder… just how accurate is the name Hyperion?" the Ancient One asks in a heavy tone, and I only now notice something that should've put me on my guard from the moment I stepped into the room.

The island is quiet.

Too quiet.

Despite the construction of Othrys and Susan's hobbies, the Island was still home to enormous flocks of birds (thankfully the walls of my base were treated with a superhydrophobic coating, meaning that my HQ wasn't covered in birdshit) which provided a near-constant background noise.

And it was gone the moment I stepped into my office.

Reaching out with my senses (honed through manipulating my chi and lessons from Pangborn) I felt a… twist behind me, right in front of the door, almost like a static waterfall made of space and fractals.

Focusing my senses to the woman in front of me, I could feel that she had been channeling energy the whole time, though my skills weren't advanced enough to tell just which spell she was preparing for, or even if she was currently maintaining it.

Probably a barrier of sorts, which explained why she was cocky enough to confront me where I could see her (meaning she was where I could reach her as well).

"You made me enter the Mirror Dimension when I walked into my office, using yourself as a distraction so I wouldn't notice, all the while channeling your magic in preparation of an attack, either by you or me." I calmly stated (inwardly I was freaking out though. I didn't even know you could do that!), carefully watching the Ancient One's expression.

Other than a slight narrowing of the eyes, she didn't give any of her thoughts away.

"It seems Jonathan is quite accomplished as a teacher. It would've been interesting to see just what he could have become had he chosen to remain in Kamar-Taj to complete his Mastery."

Getting tired of her non-answers, I slowly straightened from my chair, clenching my fist beside me, though I didn't channel my Meteor Fist yet. I did heat myself up with Extremis though, a glow coming from my burning eyes as my veins lit up in stark contrast in the dimness of the room.

"So you do wish to fight me. Why else bring me to where you are strongest, and we cannot hurt any innocents?"

The Ancient One herself rose as well, and I could both see and feel the magical arrays that surrounded her hands, though she kept them loose at her sides.

"I have no wish to fight anyone. I only seek to protect. Either the world from you, or you from yourself. Which is why I wished to talk to you over tea. If you proved to be merely a human possessed by some being of higher power, then I might have been able to save you. But if you turned out to be an actual Titan of old, reborn into the world somehow, then I would have no choice but to strike you down. Such a battle could raze a city, hence why I only confronted you inside the Mirror Realm." The Sorcerer Supreme explained in a soft voice, but I could tell she was ready for a fight.

For a moment, I merely looked at the Ancient One in surprise as I tried to comprehend her statement.

"You think I'm either possessed by, or actually am, a Titan? And you think you're powerful enough to take one on in a fight, all on your own?"

"Who said she was alone?"

I can feel a rippling sensation behind me, and turning to glance over my shoulder I can see Mordo and Kaecillius, both brandishing weapons at me and both in a combative stance, clearly ready to spring to their Master's defense at a moment's notice, having hidden themselves with magic during the entire time I had been talking to the Ancient One.

'Shit. I really need to up my abilities in the Mystic Arts if I don't want to be taken off guard like that again.'

"None are without flaws, Michael. Not even me. But, hubris is not one of mine." The Ancient One speaks up, and I'm a bit relieved to see that her hands are still at her side, with Kaecillius and Mordo not moving an inch as well.

"I admit that my acts on this world have not all been without evil. But a kill-team consisting of the Sorcerer Supreme and the two strongest Masters in Kamar-Taj? That seems excessive to me." I slowly state as I turn so that I have both Masters and the Ancient One in my field of vision (though I can't help my eyes from occasionally flicking towards Kaecillius. Even though I know that his betrayal is still a few years off, it's still jarring to see him work together with the Ancient One like this).

"The Titans shaped the world to their whims, without regard for other life, or even other gods. Even a nascent one could wreak horrible damage. Which is why I only asked my most trusted colleagues to accompany me, and why I face you in this Realm, where I too am fueled by an ancient power." The Sorcerer Supreme explained, and I couldn't quite contain my gasp of shock when I felt her channeling something truly powerful and alien, a dark mark burning on her forehead.

"But… no, this isn't… you aren't supposed to…" I softly whisper in shock, glancing between the Ancient One and Mordo and Kaecillius.

The Sorcerer Supreme's connection to Dormammu was a secret she kept for centuries, and revealing that connection had caused both Masters to turn evil. So why the hell was she showing it so openly?

And why the hell didn't they look surprised?!

"Ah, now that is interesting. I'm not supposed to, am I? Just what are you, Michael McCole, that the events of this world are like a play to you, that causes you to be a blank in time, without past or present or future, that allows your soul to feel heavier than the infinity of the cosmos?" the Ancient One asks softly, and now her hands are in a stance as well, though no spells are flying.

Yet.

Glaring at the Ancient One, I can't help but feel some grudging respect for the woman who is only seconds away from trying to bash my skull in with eldritch energies. Clearly, my weird-ass origins have been messing with her foresight, so she took a chance and decided to throw her own playbook out the window, thus trying to counter my own foresight as well.

Still, how she convinced Mordo and Kaecillius to still follow her, I haven't gotten the faintest idea.

"I am… complicated." I say slowly, trying to get a feel for just how little I need to reveal that I can get away with.

"You are a being outside of time and space, and not originally from this dimension." Mordo cuts in immediately.

Huh. Apparently I'll need to reveal more than just a little.

Dammit.

"You are correct. I am not from this dimension, or any other dimension that you may have heard of."

"How did you come to be here? What means did you use to breach the barrier between realms?" the Ancient One immediately cut in, clearly worried that if I managed to tear my way into her reality, I might have let the way open for others to follow.

"I don't know how I arrived in this dimension. Over twenty years ago, I woke up as a human baby. Uncertain of my whereabouts, I was content to simply blend into the local population, until certain events pushed me into bettering my fragile body, ensuring my survival, since I don't know what happens to my soul should my vessel die." I revealed, though I'm tweaking the facts somewhat.

I don't like telling her even this much (alternative facts(=blatant lies) as they are), but by stressing the fact that I've been here for over two decades and the world hasn't been destroyed yet, I hope to convince the Ancient One to see me in a less dangerous light.

Of course, to her twenty years are gone in the blink of an eye, and she's incredibly young compared to the threats she usually faces (really, 700 years isn't all that old, and certainly not Ancient. Even at this point, I could easily live that long, and that's without entering in deals with eldritch abominations. For fuck's sakes, Alexandra was easily twice as old as the Ancient One, and she was just a human using chi!), so a being like me showing it could be patient for a mere twenty years probably wouldn't impress her all too much.

"You simply appeared on Earth? Were you summoned?" the Ancient One asks wearily, but I can still spot the minute shifts in her stance that show she's less tense than before.

"Like I said: I don't know. I simply woke up on the steps of an orphanage, in the form of a human baby."

"You see this world as if it were a play, with certain people performing predetermined actions. The Ancient One revealing her connection to the Dark Dimension shocked you, and even now I can tell that my presence at her side unnerves you, but it is more out of surprise at the way things are revealed, rather than their existence in the first place. Meaning you already knew of both the Ancient One's connection and my own future actions against her. How can that be? Did your people monitor the events of this universe, and were you sent back in time?" Kaecillius then asked, and just like the Ancient One, he and Mordo were slowly but surely loosening their stance, though they all had their respective weapons trained on me.

"In a way. My people are capable of viewing other dimensions, much like you would watch a movie. We enjoy watching events unfold through time, sometimes even revisiting our favorite moments. I have watched the entirety of your universe, from beginning to end, multiple times, all of your actions remaining the same each and every time. My appearance here, however, has changed the timeline quite significantly."

"That explains a lot…" the Ancient One murmured, looking me over with a critical eye.

I could tell that they were slowly beginning to believe me, but my 'origins' were clearly still putting them on edge, as I basically told them that I was a higher-tiered being than anything currently in existence. Which, considering that I was (once) real and they weren't, wasn't even that far off the mark.

"Is that why you seek power? Why you took the name of the Titan of Heavenly Light and Wisdom for yourself? You wish to return to your home, or at least your previous level of power?" Mordo spoke up this time, and out of the three Sorcerers, he was the tensest.

I wasn't really surprised by that. The Ancient One was confident in her power, and with good reason. Kaecillius, I could tell, was more intrigued than scared, which made sense when you considered the fact that with all the serums I had, I could offer a vast increase in power for a very light cost (an increase in magical power similar to the increase in power Extremis granted would usually require some pretty nasty sacrifices).

By-the-books Mordo, however, saw only a threat in me, a being that freely admitted that time was a constant and then immediately added that it had changed that constant. If he knew that I had preserved Phineas' soul, he would probably attack me on the spot, thinking I had sacrificed a hundred children to do it or something (that was an actual requirement, by the way. Some Black Magic practitioners amongst the Aztec had become quite infamous for such rituals).

Compared to the morally flexible Ancient One and Kaecillius, Mordo would be the one I had to keep an eye on.

"In a manner of speaking. This universe possesses the means to allow its denizens to reach godhood. Achieving it myself might send me back home, or it might not. Either way, I shall have the power to keep my anchor to this reality safe from any and all harm, and that is all that I seek. I merely took the name Hyperion because it fit with the theme that started to surround my emerging powers; I have no wish to subjugate humanity as my predecessors have done. I merely seek that which all sentients seek: survival." I reply in the most honest and sincere tone I can manage, with such success it should, in my humble opinion, grant me an Oscar at the very least.

"I have no way to verify your tale, but even if it were true, I cannot let you go about your ways unchallenged. I know that you will eventually turn your gaze towards Kamar-Taj, and I can guess what it is you seek within its Sanctum. I am bound to protect it with my life if need be. It seems our goals are directly opposed, Hyperion, New Titan." The Ancient One says gravely, but I can hardly focus on her words as I feel something ripple over me when she grants me that title.

Something, on a deep, mystical level, has fundamentally changed.

If only I knew what.

"They need not be, Ancient One. I will eventually seek the power of the Eye of Agamotto for myself, that much is true. But that does not mean that I cannot take it without opposing you. As the leader of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, your task is to safeguard Earth against all magical, and interdimensional threats, using whatever means at your disposal in order to do so, including the Eye. Should I come to have it in my possession, I Vow to you that I shall use it as you have, for the sake of Earth and its inhabitants." I quickly cut in before the Sorcerer can unleash their attacks.

I might get Mordo or Kaecillius, but that would still leave the Ancient One at my back, and with an ally to boot. No, at this point, conflict isn't the preferable solution. Actually, nothing is the preferable solution here. I had hoped to wait until I was a magical powerhouse until I went anywhere near the Ancient One, but once I again I had forgotten to take into account that these were real people now, and that they could act on their own.

Which included approaching me before I was ready to approach them instead.

"I hardly see why I should agree to such a deal, since the Eye is already in service of the Sanctums and the defense of Earth. Handing over one of our most prized artifacts, crafted by our founder, does not provide any benefits I can see." The Ancient One sharply replies, but she's taken off guard when I break out into a smile at her words.

"So we've established my proposal is sound in principle, now we're just haggling over the price." I say with a sly grin, prompting a surprised blink from the Ancient One.

"… Did you just… quote Jack Sparrow at me?"

Now it was my turn to blink in surprise.

"You know that movie?"

"There are movie theatres in Kathmandu, you know. Sometimes we have a night out just like everybody else, we're not monks." The Ancient One says with a slight smirk, and I can tell that the tension has been broken.

They are still wary, but judging by the masked relief I can spot with Mordo and Kaecillius, the Masters hadn't been all that eager to engage in combat with me anyways. If I prove to be a threat to the Sanctums, they'll attack me without hesitation, but as long as I'm willing to play ball with them, they hold off for now. Which was my goal all along. I know that the Ancient One will never willingly give up the Eye of Agamotto to anyone, let alone me, but that's fine.

All I need is for her to not attack me right here and now, so that I can become powerful enough that in time, I can just take it.

Or wait until she dies. Either one works for me.

Now, for the true power that fuels all magicians' spells: misdirection. Let's give these fine people something to focus on other than my timely demise, shall we?

"Right. So you agree that me being in possession of the Eye is in itself not an issue, as long as it is properly compensated, the first and foremost being that its use remains in service of the protection of Earth. Allow me to put your mind at ease on that front at least: I am compelled by Divine Mandate to save Earth, and as such, using the Eye for means that would counteract that Mandate would be impossible for me." I explain as the four of us power down our respective glows (well, the three of us, Kaecillius had been wielding one of those glass spears of his, and while I was bulletproof, I wasn't sure if I was magical-spear proof as well).

"Divine Mandate?" Mordo asks in a suspicious tone, and I give a self-deprecating smile in return.

"Ran into a spot of trouble with a certain panther goddess about a year back. I had committed offense against her, but escaped punishment by proving myself worthy enough to be her champion instead, thus righting my wrong. As her champion, I must follow her orders, which so far have merely consisted of the single command to save Earth."

Again I tweaked the facts somewhat, downplaying just what I had done in order to piss said goddess off, as well as making it seem that there was a leash on me keeping me in check. Hopefully, that would take away much of the worries of the Sorcerers.

"While the knowledge that you cannot act against the Earth for as long as you haven't found a loophole is certainly comforting, I still do not see any benefit in allowing you to take the Eye of Agamotto. It is safe in the hands of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and safe it shall remain." The Ancient One cut in, clearly intrigued, but also unimpressed, by my haggling for the item instead of merely fighting for it as she had probably expected me to do, apparently not picking up on the fact that obtaining the Eye isn't my current goal (or she might have. The woman is impossible to read, I swear).

In a way, it was annoyingly smart of her to confront me here and now, and really the only logical option for her to take. Within now and next year, I'd probably have amassed enough power to breach Kamar-Taj and take the Time Stone by force if needed, and I always had the option to just wait until the Ancient One bit the bullet.

'Of course, that's unlikely to happen, now that she has actively changed events in order to counter my own future knowledge.' I think to myself as I glance in Kaecillius' direction.

"I understand, Ancient One. Which is why I am willing to exchange gifts for it. You draw upon the Dark Dimension in order to prolong your life, but this is a perilous endeavor, in which you risk his attention at any moment, which would spell doom for all. I instead offer a far simpler solution."

From the corner of my vision, I saw Kaecillius stand up a bit straighter, while the Ancient One herself leaned forwards just the slightest amount, unable to completely hide her interest.

Mordo just scowled at me.

Asshole.

"Longevity is always at a cost. I have heard of your actions against the traitorous Hand, surely you must know that defying Lady Death always comes at a price." The Ancient One said warily, clearly on the lookout for the Faustian end of the deal I was trying to broker.

"This was true for the original method which I am offering. The risk of dying instead was great, and even if successful, instability almost always followed, both physical and mental. But through thorough research by the brightest minds on the planet, and by severely weakening the procedure, we have managed to find a method to easily add decades, if not centuries to someone's life." I explain casually, and this time the Ancient One doesn't even bother with hiding her interest as she slightly tilts her head in question.

Elaborating, I reach out to my desk, and with a few swift taps, I call up several screens showcasing both the Rejuvenation Serum, as well as a watered down version of Extremis (increased regeneration, none of the glowy powers).

"By fixing the body of all the flaws and weaknesses that come with age, a person can be returned to the peak of their youth, again and again and again, all without worry of mental instability. Absolutely zero chance of megalomanial or homicidal tendencies, it is completely safe. The only drawback of this method of immortality is that it requires upkeep, since it takes a new application in order to reverse age each time. A more permanent solution increases the healing factor of humans to incredible levels. You won't regrow a limb, but the wear and tear of the body is reduced to almost zero, keeping you in the peak of your physicality for decades at the very least. Both are yours, Ancient One, regardless of the outcome of our discussion tonight."

For a few long moments, not a word is spoken as the Ancient One intently reads the information on the screens in front of her, while off to the side, Kaecillius is nearly standing on the tips of his toes in order to get a closer look at my Fountain of Youth in a vial.

Resisting the urge to yell 'but wait, there's more!' I continue speaking, trying to butter the Sorcerer's up now that their guard is down, my sole objective being to get them the hell out of Othrys without sparking a fight I'm not ready for.

Yet.

"I also offer aid. As you already know, Pangborn is teaching me the basic principles of the Mystic Arts, as is his right as a Master. I intend to learn all I can from him, and I hope to put his teachings to use in the service of humanity. I wish I could study under you, Ancient One, but I understand if this thought discomforts you. However, meager as my skills may be, know that they are available to the Sanctums should the need be dire. Especially concerning… him." I trail off with a significant nod to the Ancient One's forehead, where the dark mark is still visible, though no longer blazing.

"You want us to believe you would put yourself into the service of the Sanctums?" Mordo scoffs, and I can sense agitated energy from within him, not focused enough to be considered part of a spell, but active enough that he can summon one in a moment's notice.

"Service? No, never service. I bow to none, not man nor god. But an alliance? Now that is something that I would very much enjoy." I say gravely as I draw myself up to my full length as I stare Mordo down.

Appearing harmless is all well and good, but if I act too meek and submissive, I'll just end up making the Ancient One weary again, since a being like me acting like that was a text book example of biding your time until you could strike someone in the back.

The fact that I was planning something just like that certainly didn't help in keeping her suspicion off me.

Which was why I was glad when she interjected when she did, her stance loose but her eyes hard, as she studied me intently.

"Know that the Sorcerer Supreme has heard your offers of gifts and allegiance, Hyperion of the East River. Despite them, the Sanctums will not allow you to wield the Eye of Agamotto, as it is only to be wielded by the Sorcerer Supremes. However, I currently do not see you as a threat to the safety of Earth, or to the Sanctums, and as such, we shall not do battle on this day. Go in peace, follow your Divine Mandate, and know that should you lift a hand against humanity, the Masters of the Mystic Arts shall be there to strike you down." The Ancient One spoke in a formal tone, almost as if she were following a ritual or something.

I suppose it pays to be polite when dealing with Supra-Dimensional Eldritch horrors.

Even as my face took on a downcast expression at being denied the Eye of Agamotto, I gave the Ancient One a formal bow, expertly hiding my cheer at achieving my true goal.

It seems our wizards duel was to be postponed for just a little while longer, thankfully.

"I understand, Ancient One of Kamar-Taj. I will not lie, and will freely admit that the denial of an object of such power that it might have returned me home, to my family, saddens me deeply. Yet, I am grateful that the Sanctums presently do not see me as a threat. Depart in the knowledge that I have heard, and shall heed, your warning, and that my offers of gifts and aid are available to all who enter the Sanctums." I reply in an equally formal tone, and a sense of closure falls over the room.

It seems we're done talking then.

Giving a nod at my words, the Ancient One casually makes a portal, with Mordo quickly walking through, though Kaecillius is slower to follow. Before he enters the glowing tear in space-time (I can vaguely see some rural area on the other side, presumably Kathmandu), he looks at me with a searching gaze.

"Those gifts of yours… you say they are available to all within the Sanctums?"

"Indeed. You need but ask, and it shall be provided. I hope to prove myself a true ally to the Masters of the Mystic Arts and their cause." I lie easily, and after a considering nod, Kaecillius is through as well.

For a moment, the Ancient One slowly looks from the portal to me and back.

"In a way, I must thank you." She slowly murmurs as she approaches the glowing ring.

"For what?" I ask as I raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"For so long, I knew the narrative of the world. I knew what had been, what was, and what was to come. For centuries, I knew that I would be struck down by one of my own, a student dear to my heart, as they all are. And now… now there is a fog over my foresight, even as I try to clear it with one of the mightiest artifacts in the universe. Peering into the future is like looking at it through a thick veil from the darkened lighting of a dim room." The Ancient One slowly muses, her eyes not focused on anything I can see.

"And you thank me for this? Why?" I ask in a puzzled tone, surprised to see the Ancient One give a small smile.

"Do they not say 'ignorance is bliss'? All this time, I was searching for the next crisis, the next horror, my tomorrows bleak and filled with pain. And now I have been forced to discard all that. My chains of destiny are broken, and I am free to move as you are. The narrative that you and your people have been observing from a place outside of time has been irrevocably changed, and I had a hand in that. A thought both terrifying as well as… exhilarating. For the first time in centuries, I look to tomorrow not with dread and weariness, but with hope as well. For that I thank you. Goodbye, Hyperion, New Titan. We shall speak again, though I do not know when."

And with those words, the Ancient One is through the portal as well, though she comes to a pause on the other side, halting in her tracks, before she turns to look at me trough the tear in space.

"As clouded as my visions are now, one keeps surfacing again and again. A terrible power, unleashed upon the galaxy, bought at too great a price. The horror of a trillion beings, crying out in fear and sorrow, as the balance of the universe is irrevocably shifted-" she raises her hand "-with but a snap of the fingers."

And with those words, she snaps her fingers, at which the portal immediately collapses, leaving me in the dark office to ponder her words, and that new title she has given me, even as I resolutely put her final warning out of my mind.

'I'll change that. It won't happen. It won't.'

In order to bring my mind to other thoughts, I recall the title the Ancient One had given me, and the weird feeling of change that had followed it. I know that in magic, names have power, and that I am more magically attuned than most.

But a title?

Hyperion, the New Titan….

As I take a seat behind my desk, I decide I quite like the sound of that.

---

March 13th

It's the day after the Ancient One has left, and Othrys is like an ant hill. There are so many projects going on simultaneously, even I have trouble keeping up. Sitting behind my desk, I make a quick mental recap, just to make sure I'm on top of everything.

Sterns is currently putting the last finishing touches on the scanner I had him build so that I could track down Ego's Seed. A potentially powerful boost to my arsenal, but it's not going anywhere, nor is it going to be activated any time soon, so it's low priority.

Radcliffe has left more than a few breadcrumbs for Skye to follow since I gave him his orders a week ago, in-between breaks from Operation: Respawn. With the Operation a success, he had left a few more for her to find, and told me that she would figure out where the data-packages were originating from before the week was out.

Currently he's working with Phineas on building bodies and utilizing the uploaded consciousness to its full potential, though he's ready to pack and go to the Kree City at a moment's notice. The Kree City can offer me powerful benefits, but I need some key data first, most importantly an Inhuman's DNA and preferably a Diviner. The former would apparently show up within the week, the latter was hidden away in S.H.I.E.L.D. lock-up. Or one was, anyways. Sterns' scanner should also be able to pick up any other Kree artifacts lying around. So again, at the moment, low-priority, shifting to top priority once I had the required components.

Harper brought me the Thompsons a few days ago, but as I was in the middle of resurrecting/preserving Phineas, I didn't exactly have time to deal with them. They weren't locked in the dungeons (yes, I finally had a proper dungeon, though since it was state of the art, there wasn't any of the traditional atmosphere of rats and dripping sewage. The moment I jokingly opted to add those features, Burstein, who had proudly been constructing them, gaped at me like I kicked his puppy. Or T-Rex, as is the case. I quickly dropped the notion after that), but they were firmly told not to stray too far away from their guest quarters.

I had given Harper permission to do some soft interrogation on them, and while they were willing to help put a stop to their wayward son by offering some helpful leads (apparently even a man as careful and mobile as Kilgrave still has his favorite hangouts) they immediately shut down the idea of giving the man's powers to me.

It wasn't as much a question of will (that could be… persuaded, after all) but more a question of ability. Because Kilgrave's power was based around a virus, a regenerating, burning individual like me (or any Extremis-enhanced, really) would simply kill it the moment it was introduced to their body. Enhancing the virus so it could survive such conditions… a shudder ran down my raised spine at the thought of it.

Tinkering with viruses in order to make them stronger? That way lied the route of the Zombie Apocalypse.

Nope. Thanks, but no thanks.

I fucking hate zombies.

Especially if they're real.

So, that avenue was a bust. Still, maybe pheromones could work? I'm sure Hansen has some creature in that hellish greenhouse of hers that uses pollen in its attack. Study Kilgrave's virus down to the tiniest detail, figure out how it works, apply its principles to pollen or pheromones or some shit like that, implant it inside me.

Tadah! Free Mind Control, right there!

The Thompson's of course wouldn't agree to making the second coming of their son, so instead I told them that their research would be used to cure Kilgrave, free him from the burden that they placed on him.

They agreed, not out of parental love (you can't put your child through shit like that and still have the gall to call yourself a parent), but more out of guilt, I think. By taking away the power they gave him, they hope to atone for the misery he caused with it.

I didn't really care in the end. They weren't a threat, and they were of possible future use to me, so I was content to simply confine them within Othrys. It wasn't as if they could mess anything up, on purpose or otherwise. Hansen's and Radcliffe's security system was foolproof, and now I had Phineas to always keep an eye on them. They weren't leaving their quarters (appearing like a nice penthouse, so they didn't really have anything to complain about, in my opinion, since by all rights they should be locked away in the cells instead) without my specific say-so.

Their son, on the other hand, was a different story. Two days ago, a few hours before I had initiated Operation: Respawn and brought Phineas back from the brink of death, Harper had locked onto Kilgrave, with Jessica requesting to come along for the ride.

While I hadn't seen Jessica after her enhancement with Extremis, as I had been virtually living out of sublevel four at that point, she had sounded healthy enough over the phone when she asked to accompany Harper, so I saw no harm in letting her take her new strength out on the scum of the earth.

And if she saw what true outright villainy looked like, the better she would regard me.

Win-win in my book.

Not so much in Kilgrave's I imagine.

They were currently closing in on his position, and would probably confront him tomorrow, while he was in transit to his next location, so as to minimize the chance of any thralls getting caught in the crossfire. At the moment, there was nothing to be done but to just wait and see. Either tomorrow I had a man with the scariest power on the planet in my clutches, or Harper would be reducing a corpse to ashes and scatter them to the wind.

Since I had the Thompsons already, either one was fine with me.

Hansen was diligently working with Pangborn as she tried to grasp the fundamentals of magic. She tried some of the basics herself, but it was quickly apparent that she had no talent for the Mystic Arts whatsoever, which annoyed her to no end when she saw me absorbing Pangborn's lessons like a sponge, my own raw magical power already outstripping his.

Learning Magic was top priority at the moment, especially after the scare the Ancient One had given me, but honestly, that was already progressing as smoothly as I could hope for. Each day, Pangborn would teach me a spell, with the spell's difficulty slowly rising over time. Naturally, I would master that spell within the day (I already had the whips and the shields down pat), after which I and Hansen (who would always monitor the lessons) would go over every last bit of the spell, trying to break it down to its fundamental level.

By doing this, we hoped to find out how the spell worked: just how was an influx of energy translated into its desired effect, why was the spell activated by a specific set of gestures, how specific did the gestures need to be, what effects did changing certain variables have, what were all the differing variables?

As our knowledge slowly but surely increased, I hoped to eventually find a way to merge magic and chi, something that Pangborn said nobody for the past three millennia had been able to do (in fact, it was thought flat-out impossible if it weren't for the fact that Agamotto had been rumored to do it, as well as a few notably powerful Sorcerer Supremes after him).

I had no idea what the end result of fusing the two different mystical branches would be, but if Agomotto's legends were anything to go by, I should be able to punch holes in reality itself.

Yeah, definitely top priority.

However, magic isn't something that allows itself to be rushed, and the slow but steady progress I was already making was honestly preferable over sudden but uncontrollable powerspikes should I try to push my research any further.

Better to just let that be, for the moment.

And also to stay the hell away from Hansen's greenhouse. Mixing plants with Extremis might be beneficial (the pop-corn plants she had created were certainly memorable) but for the most part they were just plain nasty.

Thank god my island was surrounded by water (as all islands are, I just realize, god I need sleep), since I can already tell that the forests outside Othrys already have a distinctly more… jungle-y feeling to them.

At least Susan is enjoying herself changing trees that are actually capable of running away.

Burstein, whenever he wasn't working in Hansen's greenhouse in order to 'relax' (they're psychopaths, the lot of them. And they say that I'm bad?!) had picked up a lot of Sterns old projects, including the Omni-Cure. It was practically completed, but Burstein was fighting and endless battle against just about every healthcare organization in the world.

If they had their way, testing would be decades off.

Fortunately, there were universities all over the world that were all too eager to work with a scientist from Othrys, and there were plenty of people that were willing to volunteer for a medical trial from the company capable of regrowing limbs.

As far as his own projects were concerned, he had two currently going on: the first was applying the Amber Armor to non-epidermal structures (the ferrocrete he had designed was based on the same principle as the Amber Armor, mimicking its molecular structure, but not enhanced with it. Meaning that theoretically, my base could become even more durable) like cloth, and the second was going back to his roots.

The way Amber Armor worked was based on the molecular structure of abalone's shells. Burstein was now looking into the rest of the animal kingdom to see if there were other beneficial traits that he could incorporate into humans.

Huh. Genetically engineered cat-girls could actually become a thing in this universe.

Once I had my hands on Celestial flesh, I'll put him and Hansen on it in order to study it, though I probably wouldn't be able to use Ego's Seed to its fullest potential until I had a look inside Peter's genetic make-up to see how Celestial DNA meshed with human DNA.

For now though, I left Burstein to his own devices, glad to see the man was happy doing what he loved.

Abusing science in order to genetically enhance humanity.

Gotta love the drive of my employees.

As for the people that I still wanted to get my hands on, some were easier to reach than others. I briefly entertained the thought of setting up a recruitment program inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, but quickly decided against it.

I wasn't entirely sure just how many strings Fury was currently pulling to keep me out an about in the hopes of me allying myself with S.H.I.E.L.D. (either as an Avenger or by enhancing his agents, Fury would take either one really), so I thought it best to leave well enough alone for now.

No need to step on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s toes when all I had to do was wait until Carter's shadow war against Hydra boiled over, throwing the organization into disarray. As heavily infested as it was, even a flawless pruning on Carter's part would still leave them crippled enough for me to simply swoop in and steal their brightest young minds right from under their noses.

Still, sending an invite to Fitz-Simmons, Dormer and Gill wouldn't hurt, and Othrys could always use more genius.

Brain Boosted and loyal, those four could come up with some truly terrifying and powerful stuff for me, but gaining that loyalty would take some time. I designated the young geniuses as currently low-priority, until they responded positively to my invite, after which they would be considered medium-priority as I tried to get them into the fold.

I really wanted Foster and Selvig to work for me, not just because of their raw genius and potential (I was nearly salivating at the thought of having my own Bifrost), but also because it would give me an in with Thor, who from my memories would turn out to basically be the strongest being in the universe after getting his hands on Stormbreaker, becoming one of the very few beings who could still pose a threat to me even after my Infinite Steps Program (I had stopped counting a while back when things had started to spiral out of my control) had been completed.

In short, someone who I really wanted to like me, instead of bashing my head in, and I thought that Foster at least would be easy pickings, since she was going through a bit of depression at the moment since she had given up on ever finding Thor. I had tried to approach her, but Selvig was fiercely protective of her, and was for some reason more trusting of S.H.I.E.L.D. than me. He didn't let me see her, told me that they were perfectly fine where they were, and then shut off the call.

I didn't know whether S.H.I.E.L.D. had been painting me in a bad light (I could see them do it, especially considering Selvig's worth to them, their dislike of me, and the fact that most in their command were currently death-cult Nazi's), or, and this was the far more terrifying possibility, Narrative was throwing a wrench in my plans.

The Invasion of Earth by Loki was one of the key-points in the MCU, and for that to happen, Selvig needed to be under the Frost Giant's control. Him not working for S.H.I.E.L.D. when the Trickster arrives in a few months would cause immense ripples in the timeline, potentially even larger than anything I had done so far.

So, what if Narrative was making sure that it happened, by making it so that I couldn't get my hands on Selvig before Loki did? In all honesty, while terrifying, it's probably for the best. Harsh as it sounds, the Invasion holds a lot of benefits for me, and not just the Chitauri tech that'll be lying around for grabs.

So, with some remorse, I cross Selvig and Foster off my mental list. I immediately cross off the name below as well. While I would love to get my hands on Whitehall, I'm currently swamped with projects, and just don't have the time to look into him. I'll probably send Jessica after him once she gets back from taking in Kilgrave and has had some downtime to recover from whatever horrors the man was currently inflicting on his victims, but as uncomfortable as it is to leave a hardcore Nazi out in the wild, whereabouts unknown, I decide to put Whitehall out of my mind for now.

Hell, thinking about it, I might send Carter after him, make him her problem. She is one of the very few people alive who would recognize him on sight, having met him when he was younger. I probably won't do it though, since I want him alive (for as long as he's useful to me, at least) but I might send her nipping at his heels, driving him from hiding, with Jessica to actually take him in.

Something to think about, I suppose.

Not that it matters at the moment, considering I already sent Carter her first target: Rumlow. Not for any specific reason other than the fact that he's dangerous enough to satisfy Carter that I'm not sending her after inconsequential people as a means to keep her busy (considering just how little I care about Hydra compared to some of the other threats out there, from my perspective I'm doing exactly that), while still being someone low enough in Hydra's hierarchy they won't do anything rash.

I'm saving that for when I start pointing out senators to Carter (those that aren't already beheaded, that is).

As far as objectives in America are concerned, that leaves only the Darkhold, probably the only object on my list that really gives me pause. Some of the others carry risks, or drawbacks, but none are as dangerous or insidious as the Darkhold. It's much like the One Ring: it corrupts, and before you even know it, you're committing horrifying acts with glee, your mind completely consumed by the Hellish artefact.

I might be resistant to it. Between the various enhancements to both my body and my mind, as well as my mystical training, I might be able to overcome the influence of the Darkhold.

Or I might not.

A Darkhold-controlled Hyperion? That would bring the Ancient One running faster than I can say 'aw fuck'. The far more terrifying thought is that, if I were empowered by the Darkhold, the Ancient One might not be able to beat me.

I would probably end up cracking the planet in half long before Loki even arrives here.

Still, the benefits…

And it is closest out of all the remaining objects and people I wish to collect…

But the risks…

I'm torn, and I just can't seem to make a decision. So I push it off instead. I'll come back to it later, either when I'm absolutely sure that my mind is sufficiently fortified against it, or when I have the Ghost Rider on my ass.

Offering it an artifact from Hell in exchange for it not burning my soul sounds like a good deal to me.

Actually, can the Ghost Rider judge my soul? If the Ancient One's words are anything to go by, I might be too powerful, or just too damned large to be sent to Hell.

Then again, Magic.

And Magic is bullshit.

Putting the Darkhold out of my mind, I look at the remainder of my mental list. A set of objects, and a few people, all located in Europe. I'll wait until I have Skye (or at least her DNA), so that I can drop off Radcliffe at the Kree City, have Sterns on the look-out for any more Diviners, and then make my way to Europe, a certain team in Siberia my top-priority.

Thankfully, travel time is going to be a non-issue: Pangborn's decided today I'm going to try summoning my first portal.

---

March 15th

Two days after the Ancient One's surprise visit, I was floating high in the air over Missouri, an unsuspecting Dairy Queen far below me, a futuristic looking device in my hand.

It had taken a day for Sterns to finish the prototype, but before he was willing to hand it over to me, he had spent another day perfecting it. Instead of merely picking up anomalous wavelengths, it was now a highly sophisticated spectrometer, capable of reading just about every wavelength imaginable, and with incredible accuracy trace their source of origin from just the tiniest amounts of particles, like a shark or a bloodhound.

Of course, Sterns being Sterns, it also functioned as a portable TV, could theoretically be used as a microwave, and it was even capable of playing your Spotify list.

Sometimes, the thought of my friend loose in the world scares me. It really does.

Looking from the read out on the screen to the forest miles below me, I plummet down without warning, startling a few low-passing birds as I do. Before I can crash through the tree tops and onto the forest floor, I catch myself, and slowly float down.

No need to cause a ruckus, after all.

Sterns proves his mettle once more, as when I break through the underbrush, I can see Ego's Seed literally right underneath me. Floating a few feet away, I take a small metal disk from my pocket, holding it between my fingers as I stretch my hand out in front of me.

Focusing intensely (and considering I was a Brain Boosted individual, I really mean intensely) I called upon my Meteor Fist, the golden glow quickly enveloping the disk. Then, with slow, methodic movements, I drew a circle in the air in front of me, a grin breaking out on my face when I saw that my movements traced lines of bright sparks, which remained hanging in the air.

And as I finished my casting circle, I was greeted with a portal straight to the outside of Othrys (I had Pangborn ward the base itself to hell and back against teleportation the day after the Ancient One had left, though he warned me that it was unlikely to keep her from simply walking back in again), where Burstein and Maya stood waiting, some of their assistants chattering excitedly behind them, while Maya was talking nonstop at a floating little drone which recorded each and every word.

Standing next to Maya and the grinning Burstein, his eyes wide in amazement, stood Pangborn, his gaze slowly moving from the glowing edges of the portal to the smoking disk in my hand.

Turning towards our resident wizard, Maya's face was split by a smug grin.

"I told you, substituting the inherent mystical properties of the Sling Ring by supplying some other mystical fuel for the portal is totally possible! Which means that my theory of there at least being some form of Law of Thermodynamics or Equivalent Exchange within magic is also true! Oh, the research we could do with this…"

"And as I have told you, there are no Laws within Magic. It is boundless energy, fueled and shaped by sheer Will and Imagination. There are rules and guidelines, but by its very nature, Magic does not follow Laws."

"Oh come on, this again? Look, with sufficient data-"

*AHEM!*

My supremely subtle cough snapped the two out of their heated discussion, and caused the snickering assistants to quickly straighten up as well, though Burstein, knowing me the longest out of all of them, merely gave me a grin.

"If the two of you are quite finished? Pangborn, you go through first. You still have the largest amount of magical knowledge in Othrys, you know what to look for should there be any instabilities. Your own Sling Ring should allow you to find your way back to us should the portal send you somewhere else."

It shouldn't, since sound and sight came through just fine, but it never hurt to double check.

Giving a professional nod, Pangborn raised the hand with the Sling Ring on it, and swiftly stepped through the portal, all the while examining it with a trained eye. I was watching as well, and I didn't spot so much as a flicker in the portal, something that was confirmed when Pangborn turned to me with a reassuring nod.

"The portal is stable, and steadily drawing on your power. However, it might not last for much longer as it is."

That gave me a surprise.

"I thought you said it was stable? Is it deteriorating somehow?"

"No, like I said, it's perfectly fine, a textbook portal if there ever was one. And with your magical reserves, you could keep it up for a day with ease. Your focus on the other hand…" Pangborn said with a small smile, nodding his head towards my glowing Meteor Fist.

Raising it to eyelevel, I saw what he meant: the disk had been rapidly heating up in my glowing fingers, and before my eyes the red-hot metal started to slightly sag, a flicker in the portal showing up in time with the melting of the metal in my hand.

I hadn't even noticed.

Shutting of my chi, I instead tried to use my Magic to fuel the portal, but I wasn't adept enough yet to make the switch smoothly, and the portal snapped closed. Looking at the now useless metal putty in my hand, I let out a sigh as I rubbed my bald head.

"Dammit. Seems we need something more durable than steel in the future. I hate picking up molten metal from my skin, it always has this annoying tingling sensation." I mutter as place the glowing disk in my pocket (my pants were treated with the Amber Armor after Burstein had a breakthrough in applying the process to cotton, so it was safer to just put it there rather than risk burning down the forest around me).

Pangborn gave a shake of his head as he raised his Sling Ring in order to create a portal so that Maya and Noah could come through and finally start studying Ego's Seed.

"So. Weird." The wizard muttered under his breath.

I open my mouth to snark a reply, but as the portal opens in front of us, I hear a soft chime. Tapping my ear, where a tiny Bluetooth-like device is placed, causes a screen to be projected about a foot away from my face, showing Phineas' face (well, his digitized face. It's mostly the same as the face that he had when he had been flesh and blood, but photoshopped to appear somewhat more handsome than he had been).

"Oh hey Michael! I just called to let you know that Harper and his guys returned from that capture or destroy mission you sent them on. Jessica looks pissed though, and none of the feeds show that guy you sent them after."

'So, Harper ended up killing Kilgrave? Not exactly a loss, but this will certainly push back the research quite a bit.'

"Thank you Phineas. Once Hansen and Burstein are through, I'll step right in, alright?"

"Sure thing boss!"

And with that the line goes dead, Phineas returning to do God knows what. Sure, ostensibly he's working with Radcliffe on building him a body (or even bodies), but ever since his changed state of being, Phineas' multitasking ability has gone through the roof. He's currently able to hold an in-depth conversation with Radcliffe, while simultaneously processing every single bit of data that enters Othrys' systems.

Who knows what he could be doing on the side?"

Best not to think about it, I decide, as I give a nod to my people in Missouri, before I step through Pangborn's portal and arrive in New York.

Portals are such bullshit.

Quickly taking off into the air (why walk when you can fly?) I give a lazy wave as Susan, who had been snoozing against Othrys' gates, opens a lazy eye as I rocket past her.

Entering the Hall was always a joy to me. As dull and utilitarian as the outside of Othrys looked, the inside was a combination of state of the art sci-fi and elegant design. Back in my old world, there had been a sci-fi game called Warframe, which had yet to be developed here, where there had been a faction called the Orokin, which were characterized by their opulent designs, which incorporated white and gold, with a gentle, classy architectural design form.

I had drawn them from memory, shown them to my construction workers and scientists, and instantly fell in love with my base when they made it even grander and more beautiful in real life.

Sadly, my entrance today was marred by the fact that a two ton, ferrocrete-based bench slammed into my face when the automatic doors slid aside to let me enter.

Also, fun fact, as I had just discovered, I'm apparently still capable of getting nosebleeds.

Thankfully the bleeding stopped after a few seconds, so only a few patches of the rich carpet beneath me were scorched. As I gently wiped away the rest of the glowing blood on my lip, I heard a dry chuckle come from my right.

"You alright there boss?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." I grouse as I look up to the end of the Hall, just in time to see black hair disappear around the corner in a hurry, loud footsteps echoing deeper into Othrys.

"The hell happened Harper? Kilgrave set her off or something?"

Turning to look at the veteran, I'm surprised to see him scowl. Sure, it's not like he's an emotionless robot or something, but the man is the very epitome of stoic. He takes as calmly to someone shooting him in the head as someone else would to being bumped into in the street.

For him to actually scowl that badly, something must've gone wrong.

"Don't tell me Kilgrave got-"

"We had earplugs, sealed suits, kept our distance, just like you said, even if it was overkill sir. He didn't get any of us."

"Then what the hell set her off?"

"What he did to the civilians that he did get."

I turn towards Harper with a frown, already suspecting just what Jessica might have seen.

"I thought that was the entire reason you wanted to catch him in transit. No thralls."

"We did, sir. We tracked him to some gangster's party, settled in to wait. But he suddenly changed his MO and things went south. It… wasn't pretty. Miss Jones urged for a breach, I agreed. We went in, and saw that the target was waiting for us. I wanted to do an on the spot interrogation in order to figure out why the sudden shift, but he started talking first. Figure he didn't realize we were prepared for him, he just told my boys to put their guns against their heads and to pull the trigger. Looked mighty surprised for a sec when that didn't work, didn't look too surprised for long though."

"Really? Why's that?"

Harper turned to look at me with a shrug, his face still as impassive as it ever was.

"Kinda hard to look surprised when you ain't got a face no more, sir."

I slowly blink at the dryly delivered statement.

"Come again now?"

"Miss Jones jumped the gun. Flew forwards, punched his head clean off. I ordered her off the premises, searched the house top to bottom, but no signs that would explain the MO-shift. And Mr. Thompson wasn't exactly available for questioning at that point, sir. Best I can figure is that he found out we took his parents, so he did something big to draw you out. Succeeded in that at least."

"Jessica killed him?"

At Harper's nod, I let out a deep sigh as I rub a hand over my bald head. Some things never change, huh? Still, this way was a lot more brutal and messier than in the original timeline, and done by a Jessica that was far less jaded than her canon counterpart.

Fortunately, she was far less broken as well.

"Alright. Thanks Jim, I'll take it from here. Get some rest, then start talking to Phineas, who I resurrected while you were gone. You're head of security; you should get to know the spirit that inhabits your boss' base."

Once again, my efforts to catch Harper flat-footed are for naught, as he simply turns to look at me with slightly raised eyebrows, slowly blinking a few times before he gives me a curt nod.

"Sure thing. See you 'round sir."

And with that, he shoves his hands into his pockets, and leisurely saunters off, the picture of perfect serenity.

As I glance at the disappearing back of my head of security, I can't help but chuckle and shake my head.

'One of these days, Jim, one of these days…'

Looking towards where Jessica disappeared out of the lobby, I take a deep breath and scare my shoulders.

Time to get to work.

It doesn't take me all that long to arrive at Jessica's room (located in the luxury wing of the residential tier of Othrys, less opulent than my entrance hall, but still making plenty of use of cream white colors and golden highlights, all worked into softly swooping architecture) and for a moment I pause as I stare at her door.

Looking slightly upwards, I spoke in a soft tone.

"Phineas, could you make sure we have some privacy?"

Briefly, the LED line running across the ceiling blinks twice in short succession, and immediately, the sounds coming from the rest of this floor sound muffled.

"Thanks." I quickly say to my disembodied Majordomo, before I softly rap with my knuckles on Jessica's door.

"The fuck do you want Michael?" I heard her voice come from her room, sounding oddly muffled.

"How the hell did you know it was me?" I ask instead, hoping to draw her a little out of her shell.

"Because nobody I know got a big-ass shadow like you do, and nobody I don't know would actually make it inside."

"That's…. fair enough, I suppose. Can I come in?"

For a few long moments, everything is silent, and I begin to think she'll send me away, before I can hear her give a long-suffering sigh.

"Fine. Whatever, come in."

There's the slight shuffling of movement as Jessica presumably moves to the wall, opening the holographic control panel of her room, before the red light next to her door blinks green.

Striding inside, I'm surprised how… neat the room is. Sure, clothes are piled on some of the chairs, her desk is absolutely covered in papers and forms (even as mighty as I was, not even Hyperion the New Titan could escape the terrible clutches of bureaucracy, not with a base this big), and I could spot a half-eaten sandwich on the dresser next to her King-sized bed (the same size as all beds in this part of the wing), but overall, it wasn't that bad.

I had half expected to trip over a pile of underwear the moment I opened the door to be honest.

"Stop gawking like that, I'm not a slob. 'Sides, this room is too pretty to make a mess in." Jessica groused, and turning to her I can feel my mouth fall open as the woman turns away from the round window she had been standing in front of, her arms crossed in front of an impressive chest.

Because somehow, for some reason, Jessica suddenly had boobs. Quite a pair of them too. In fact, the entirety of her body had changed, with her even being several inches taller now. It was as if someone had taken the previous, tiny, looking-like-a-wet-cat Jessica, looked up a picture of Yennefer from the Witcher series (impossible, since they did not exist here) and then tried to turn the former into the latter.

Quite successfully, I might add.

She was still Jessica, and everything about her that made her Jessica, from her nose to her eyes to her stance to her lips, was still recognizable as being distinctly her. She was just… better looking.

Way better looking.

I was violently drawn from my musings when I felt something impact my chin with enough force that I briefly felt a slight stab of pain, and then I found myself flying back out through Jessica's doorway.

Halting and then righting myself in mid-air, I spot a fuming Jessica striding out of her room, the skin on her knuckles closing in front of my eyes.

"What the hell did I just say about gawking, you creep!"

I make to respond, but then Jessica steps into a beam of light coming through the windows, and I get my first good look at her face, which has filled in more, giving her a healthy look.

And it shows me her wet eye-lashes, the red in her eyes, the dried tracks on her cheeks.

'She's been crying.' I realize, as I float down to her level, my feet not quite touching the ground.

It made sense, in a way. She had just killed someone for the first time, in a brutal and visceral way that must have brought back to mind all the fears she had as a child when she discovered that she was strong enough to snap a grown man in half.

Judging from what my fledgling esoteric powers managed to pick up from her, Jessica was currently a ball of emotions, sadness, anger, hurt and confusion a whirling torrent barely confined within her.

She just needed an outlet.

"For the last time woman, I'm not a creep!" I thunder back at her, but there's no heat in my words, nor is there any anger in my eyes.

I'm just painting a target on myself, that's all.

"Only creeps come into women's bedrooms to stare and drool at them!"

"I wasn't drooling!"

"So you admit you were staring!"

"Of course I was! Look at you! You're hot now!"

"And I wasn't hot before, is that what you're saying?!"

"For fuck's sakes woman, I've been saying that ever since I met you!"

That does it. Letting out an incoherent roar of rage, Jessica slams a fist into my jaw. This time, I'm expecting it however, and other than moving my head to the side, I remain in place.

Jessica isn't deterred, and quickly delivers several follow-up punches, and though each hits with the strength of a jackhammer (well, relatively speaking of course. I'm pretty sure that I can pick my teeth with a jackhammer at this point. Not sure why would, just that I could), I'm not visibly affected other than allowing my head to twist with her punches, as I slowly float forwards, forcing her back into her room.

Jessica doesn't seem to notice, as she's now added kicks to her arsenal as well, shins slamming into my thighs with enough force that they can crumple a car with ease. I still move forwards, and without my prompting, Phineas closes the door to Jessica's room behind me without a whisper of a sound.

Jessica's attacks continue for a few more moments, but they're rapidly losing steam, and by now she's just weakly hammering away at my broad chest, tears and angry sobs coming from her as she does.

Unsure of what to do, I close the remaining distance between us, engulfing her in a hug. I feel her stiffen for a few moments, before the sobs return, in greater intensity this time, despite Jessica's visible efforts to contain them, and she throws her arms around my middle as well, squeezing hard enough that I can feel it.

Despite her unexplained growth spurt, she still barely reaches the top of my raised sternum, so I bend down a little so I can rest my chin on her head.

"Shhh… come on, that's it… just let it all out Jess…. I'm here…"

My rumbling voice easily fills the room as I keep whispering reassuring words at the distraught woman, doing what little I can to help her as she processes the trauma of seeing Kilgrave in action and killing him. Slowly, the sobs subside, and while I can tell that she's calmed down quite a bit, it's going to take a lot more than just beating on me and a hug to get her over this.

Maybe it's time I look into hiring a psychiatrist for Othrys?

"I killed him."

I'm surprised at Jessica's small voice, but she hasn't loosened her grip so I continue hugging her.

"I know. Harper told me."

"Just like that. It all happened so fast… I didn't even realize it was all over until I… until I… felt the blood. It was so… easy." Jessica haltingly whispers, her voice faltering when she recalls the moment her fist parted Kevin's body from his torso.

"I know, Jessica, I know. What we are… we are more than human, Jessica. The powers, and the responsibility, are far greater. Here, life is easy, but outside of Othrys, we need to be careful when dealing with humans, and never forget just how fragile they are. But what you did today? Don't be ashamed of that Jess. Some would say it's wrong, but you did it for the right reasons. You saved people form a monster, try to focus on that."

For a while, Jessica is silent in my arms as she clings to me, and I think I pushed too hard or said the wrong thing, when she speaks up, her voice still soft, but with some of her old fire returning.

"When the hell did you get to sound so wise? Who are you quoting right now?"

I smile.

'That's my Jessica.'

"Saw right through that did you? It's from a game, so no great philosophers I'm afraid. But it was acclaimed as the best game of the year, maybe even the decade, and definitely the best in the franchise, if that makes you feel better."

"You know what? That actually does make me feel better. I think that means I've been spending way too much time around you nerds. Still, a game? With that big brain of yours, you couldn't have quoted some Poe at me or something?"

"First off, I didn't know you liked Poe. Second, he's a bit of a downer. I'm more of a Keats fan myself."

I can hear Jessica chuckle at my statement as her grip on me loosens as she regains her composure, though she doesn't let go.

"Fair enough. Didn't figure you for a reader though. Didn't really think you had any hobbies at all, outside of becoming more powerful."

I let out a non-committal hum as I keep resting my chin on top of her head, the deep sound reverberating through her room.

"Well, getting more powerful is a hobby of sorts, if you tilt your head and squint real hard: it's something that I enjoy doing, it takes up unreasonable amounts of time, and nobody is paying me for it. Still, I enjoy watching a movie or reading a book just as much as the next person. I'm actually thinking about picking up painting, you know, once things are less hectic around here."

That prompts a laugh from Jessica, though whether because of the idea of me painting or because of the notion of things not being hectic in Othrys, I don't know.

Honestly, both sound equally ridiculous.

Feeling that she's calmed down enough, I pull back enough so that I can look at her, though I don't break the hug, since she has yet to let go as well.

"Mind telling me what all… this is then?"

It's clear that Jessica tries to play it cool, but an unexpected downside of being enhanced with Extremis is that it's nearly impossible to hide your blush. She has trouble meeting my eyes as she starts explaining.

"I think you know this already, but my field doesn't interact with my muscles. Like, at all. It just layers itself over my body and handles any and all strain instead. I never really thought about it, until I went under for the Extremis-procedure and woke up like this. I was freaking the fuck out, but Maya only seemed a bit surprised at it. From the way she explained it, she had been expecting this to happen. Ever since the acc-… ever since I got my powers, I've not been using my muscles. For anything. Basically, Hansen told me that as far as my body was concerned, I hadn't lifted a finger in over ten years, ever since I was fourteen. The only thing keeping me from atrophying completely was my healing factor keeping me healthy, but it did mean I didn't… develop as much as I could have. Extremis fixed that, pushed me to the top of what I could be."

"Huh. Wow."

"Wait, really? A 'wow' is all I get?" Jessica asks in a haughty tone as she pulls away a bit from me, though she still doesn't let go.

I shrug at her incredulous look, giving her a lazy smile.

"I think that just about covers it, so yeah. What did you want me to say?"

Briefly Jessica furrows her brow in thought, before a gleam comes into her eye as she lets out a challenging smirk.

"How about whether I am your type now, Mr. Creep." She says with a grin, which is immediately dashed from her face by my answer.

"Nope." I say easily, popping the 'p'.

"Bullshit! Look at me! I have abs! Boobs! I'm everybody's' type!" Jessica says indignantly, stepping away from me and wildly gesturing up and down her ridiculously attractive body.

Still, I'm determined to not give her the satisfaction of catching me staring again, so I instead grin widely at her as I cross my arms in front of my chest.

"Sorry, but still no. I like blondes."

Jessica's look of fury is a beauty to behold.

---

March 19th

"So, you're Hyperion, huh?"

"Indeed I am, Skye."

"Huh. I know that at this point I'm supposed to go all like, 'I expected you to be taller', but that doesn't really apply with you looking like that."

"…"

"…"

"Right this way, Skye. I feel you'll fit right in with the ranks of Othrys."

---

March 23rd

It had taken Radcliffe a couple of days until he finally had the time to get around to testing Skye's blood, and a full day after that until he told me he was confident in identifying the different structures in the young woman's DNA that marked her as an Inhuman.

The moment he told me that, I told him to shrink his stuff (easy enough to do with non-organic components, and by now Sterns was far enough in his research that he was capable of manipulating simple vertebrae as well), after which I opened a portal to the empty lands a few klicks out from San Juan.

Joining me were Radcliffe and Skye, Radcliffe since he would be doing most of the research, Skye because she was already smart enough that Holden was willing to take her on as an assistant, because her DNA might prove useful when breaching the Kree City, but more importantly, because it would keep her away from Jessica.

The two women had hit it off right from the get-go, for some reason bonding over teasing the crap out of me, and I honestly felt I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully if I were to leave those two unsupervised within Othrys (technically, Harper was now in command, but he thought it was funny, even if he refused to show it, and Phineas couldn't care less about my discomfort, since he was currently wrapped up in assembling his first body).

"The entrance to the city is underneath Castillo San Cristobal. I suggest entering after visiting hours. Once on the outskirts of the alien City, set up your lab and begin your first readings. Remember Radcliffe: slow and steady wins the race. Don't go running off into the abandoned alien city touching who knows what and unleashing the Apocalypse on us. Skye, you hereby have my permission to taze Dr. Radcliffe if he shows any signs of breaching any of the Commandments of Reasonable SCIENCE!"

Ignoring Radcliffe's betrayed look and Skye's smug grin, I enlarge a bike that I had kept in my pocket, giving the handles to the dismayed looking scientist.

"If you need more materials, or manpower, just contact me. Either I'll have Pangborn open up a portal, or I'll do it myself, and we can ferry in whatever you need. Just… be careful, alright? Sterns is currently searching the planet for another object that will make all this go a lot easier, so just sit tight and start laying the foundations." I impress upon the scientist, getting an impatient nod in return.

I move to turn away from them, but Holden's hand on my arm stops me in my motions.

"When you go to Spain… when you go see… her… Tell her that I'm sorry. Tell her that leaving her was the dumbest thing that I had ever done. I want to make things right. I know I can make things right, and not just by healing her. But if she doesn't want to come, I'll… I'll understand." The scientist says with feeling, and placing my massive hand on his shoulder, I give him a grave nod.

"I'll tell her Holden. You'll get your second chance, I promise."

And with those words, I turn on my heel, and draw a portal in the air in front of me, the howling winds of Siberia in front of me, the sun of Puerto Rico shining on my back. And with but a step, I'm halfway around the world.

Portals are bullshit.

The entrance to the hidden base is right in front of me. The heavy steel door looks imposing, but I simply portal my way inside the building, arriving in the room where in another time and place, Tony Stark would learn the truth about his parent's deaths (I hadn't portalled straight inside because I still wasn't entirely sure of my accuracy, and I didn't know what would happen if ended up placing my portal inside a wall or something).

I glance around the five Cryo vats arrayed around me. These guys had higher kill counts than Bucky had, before they were enhanced with the supersoldier serum. They were so balls-to-the-wall insane, Hydra thought they were too murder-happy and locked them away to be forgotten. After their enhancement, a single one of them was capable of destabilizing nations.

Compared to me, they were harmless.

Still, after being stuck delegating stuff from behind my desk for months, I was itching for some physical contest, so, dumb as it might be, I walked towards the nearest Cryo vat, the resting face of a large man with a chiseled jaw looking back at me.

My hands dig into the metal of the lid, the heavy iron crumpling underneath my strength, and with a heave I tear it clean from the pod. I let the heavy lid fall to the metal grating with an enormous clang. For a moment, nothing at all happens, as I'm staring motionless at the frozen man in front of me.

Then he opens his eyes, and a boot crashes into my face.

I'm briefly taken off guard by the unexpected attack, and as I take a half-step back, the Winter Soldier has already thrown himself from his pod, easily clearing several feet, completely ignoring his broken foot.

He lands in a rough roll, before coming to his feet with a slight snarl, grabbing the railing of the raised platform, vaulting over it, intent on retreating for now and attacking at a more opportune moment.

Only he doesn't descend.

Looking up, he sees me holding him up in the air by the back of his shirt, my feet hovering about a foot above the ground. With contemptuous ease, I hurl him back to the center of the platform, where he lands roughly on his side, the breath knocked from his lungs.

To his credit, he's on his feet and in a combat stance in a flash, seemingly unbothered by his lack of breath or his broken foot, apparently recognizing that fleeing isn't an option, so fighting it is then.

Foolish mortal.

Fighting isn't an option as well.

Not against me.

The more beastly side of me had been looking forwards to a fight, and adrenaline had been thrumming in my veins when the Winter Soldier's attack took me off guard.

But all it (and I) felt right now was… disappointment.

Luke Cage or Spiderman were already powerful enough to take one of these guys in a fist fight (alright, maybe not Spiderman, but that was solely due to lack of experience, not power).

Compared to me… these guys might be some of the most dangerous humans the world had ever seen, but they were just that.

Human.

Weak.

Landing on the grating in front of the hunkered down supersoldier, I approach him with slow, measured steps, no guard to speak off. The crazed Hydra elite immediately capitalizes on it of course, striking me in the liver with enough strength it would've KO'd every human (and even some superhumans) that were unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of the mighty blow.

It tickled.

He has enough fight in him to leap up, ignoring his broken fist as the other is on a collision course towards my eye (figures people like him will always go for the obvious weakspot of the body), but I've seen enough.

My hand closes around his forearm in a flash (I can move at near supersonic speeds, does he honestly think that he could attack faster than I could react?) and without any effort I lift my hand high above my head, taking the supersoldier with it.

Right as I've extended my hand as far as it will go, the Winter Soldier at the top of his arc in the air, I slam him down onto the ground again, the grating buckling around his body with the force of the impact.

Not giving him a chance to recollect himself (to his credit, he's still conscious. Most people would be either knocked out, or just straight up dead from that move) I bend down, my hand engulfing his head, as I raise him in front of me.

Without ceremony, I head-butt him with enough force I can hear a dry 'crack!' ring out, and as I hold the unconscious man out in front of me, I can see blood run down his forehead.

He'll be fine.

Now then, time to shackle these supersoldiers to my will. Technology alone would be insufficient, Hydra had proven that in the past. Let's see just what I could accomplish when I add magic to the mix, shall we?

---

March 28th

It had taken me little under a week to slave the Winter Soldiers under my control to the point I was confident that they wouldn't rebel against me. Honestly, at this point they were more like mindless drones, completely incapable of acting without any input from me, though they thankfully retained all their previous skills and were capable of following my orders.

If I said 'topple North-Korea' then they'd do just that, using the skills they had employed in the past for much the same orders. However, if an unknown variable sprung up (for instance, what if both Korea's suddenly joined back together again, basically removing 'North-Korea' from existence) then they'd just shut down, unable to come up with ideas on their own.

Both a comforting thought as well as annoying.

Had I been able to implant Kilgrave's power into myself sooner, this wouldn't have been a problem, but Loki's arrival was getting closer and closer, and I got sick of waiting around. Still, even as… sub-optimal as they were now, they were still powerful tools, and I felt I had made some impressive progress in my magical knowledge as I tried to find ways to slave the Winter Soldiers to my will.

Of course, I wasn't in Siberia non-stop, making sure to portal back home each night, checking in on the progress the others were making.

Most were still advancing their own projects, though Sterns and Phineas had gotten breakthroughs. Phineas had finally finished his body and it honestly looked somewhat like Data from Star Trek (of course) though more basic and barebones. I meant that literally. Phineas had yet to develop a polymer that mimicked skin so he hadn't bothered putting it on the android. He was currently taking it for a test ride within Othrys, even as he was building a more sophisticated body for himself already.

Sterns had been given some small pieces of the Kree City to study from Radcliffe (a disappointed Skye told me the scientist had been a good boy, and that he had followed all of my rules, meaning that she hadn't had the chance yet to taze him) and he had used it to further calibrate his scanner, having picked up several locations in the world with similar energy signatures.

I sent out the five Winter Soldiers to retrieve the items as their first mission in order to test them, after making sure that none of the locations were on S.H.I.E.L.D. grounds (which was more of a chore than you might think, since a depressingly large amount of the signatures that Sterns had found were in S.H.I.E.L.D. storage, which was a damn shame since they probably didn't even know what half of it even did).

Maya and Burstein were completely engrossed in studying Ego's Seed, to the point they barely even acknowledged my presence when I poked my head inside their lab to check up on them. Deciding to leave them to it, I opted to quickly leave (the Venus flytrap that had leaped at my face had nothing to do with it, no sir), before I visited Jessica.

Me and Jessica were… complicated.

She had apparently remembered when I told her I thought she was hot back when I was trying to rile her up in in order for her to let out her emotions and our interactions had changed ever since then.

The teasing back and forth that we had done ever since I recruited her last year was still there, but it was definitely more… flirty, in nature than ever before, with me catching her giving me long, considering looks.

Even worse, I had caught myself giving her similar looks.

Nothing had happened yet, but it was clear that she wouldn't be opposed to something like that. And shallow as it sounded, I wasn't entirely either ever since her transformation.

I had always liked Jessica for her abrasive personality and had respected her for her strong will, and that hadn't changed. It was just that physical attraction never even factored into our interactions since I just didn't feel any towards her. Then there had been the fact that due to my Extremis body heat, there were some… practical concerns to consider.

Now that her own Extremis enhancement had enhanced her to the point that she was looking like a supermodel though…

Sue me, I'm a healthy young male in the prime of his life, with one of his closest female friends being ridiculously hot, of course I'm going to get a bit… exited.

Still, I hadn't made any serious moves towards her because, well, I wasn't sure that I should.

My weird ass origins aside (as well as the fact that I just plain didn't know how to talk to women in that way) Jessica was still my employee first and foremost, and it might be inappropriate if she starts sleeping with her boss.

Also, did I really want to tie myself down to this reality in a romantic fashion?

Sure I had made connections here, even if most of them had been made in the past year, and if I was suddenly presented with a way home tomorrow, I'd be sad to leave them behind (if I was to leave at all…) but still, a relationship?

That was a whole different ballpark entirely.

However, when I raised these concerns (edited in order to leave my extra-dimensionality out of it of course) to Sterns and Harper as we were sipping drinks in my luxurious office (I had finally caved and allowed Jessica to decorate the thing, and thankfully she kept it classy, with warm, dark tones, and subtle golden highlights, somewhat reflecting the grand entrance hall below) both shared a look, before bursting out in laughter.

Well, Sterns did.

Harper just sort of chuckled and gave a shake of his head.

"The hell is so fucking funny?" I growl deeply, taking care to not crush the glass with fine Limoncello in it as I lean forwards.

Sure, Sterns was my friend, and Harper, as dependable and steady as he had shown himself to be, had somehow found himself in a similar category, but opening up like this was still hard, and being laughed at certainly pissed me off.

"Look, I'm not exactly sure I'm the guy you should come to regarding girl problems-… actually, why did you come to me?"

"You're my closest friend." I admit with a shrug, pretending not to see Sterns beam with pride at my statement, before the egghead points over at Harper with his thumb.

"And him?"

Looking up from my glass, I glance between Sterns and Harper a couple of times, before I shrug again.

"He's old."

That finally draws some expression onto Harper's face (only a disgruntled frown though, but I'll take it) even as Sterns laughs out loud again.

As the scientist calms down into mirthful chuckles, he turns back towards me again.

"Look, Michael. When a woman shows interest in you as you're describing Jessica is showing, it doesn't automatically mean that she wants a relationship. She might just want to… experiment a bit. Maybe just go for some casual sex. Jessica is her own woman, Michael, she can make such decisions for herself. You don't have to agonize about your interactions with each other in the future as long as you're sure that she's willing."

I frown at Sterns' words, so Harper jumps in with his own two cents of wisdom.

"Look sir, I've known women like Miss Jones. They get something in their head, a goal, a career, or just plain sex, they go for it, no regrets. Just make sure you're her friend, that she has a good time, and all will turn out alright in the end. Maybe it ends up being a one-time thing. Maybe you end up special friends. Maybe you two fall in love, get married, sell Othrys and buy a house with a white picket fence and have lots of terrifying little mini-monsters together. Maybe. And all that, and more, will always remain a maybe for the rest of your life, until you actually go over to her and try." The aged veteran says in his rough voice, his eyes distant.

I glance at the soldier with a calculating gaze, before Sterns takes my glass from my hand with an impatient look on his face. It takes a few seconds before I catch onto his meaning.

"What, now?!"

"Yes, now! C'mon, get over there!"

Which is why at half past eleven in the evening of March 28th I found myself in front of Jessica Jones' room with a bottle of wine in my hand and a lump in my throat. Clearing it nervously (and mentally cussing out Phineas, who I just know is watching the hallway right now and laughing his non-existent head off), I raise my hand and rap sharply on the smooth wood of her door.

"Who is it?!" I can hear her yell from her bedroom, and once again clearing my throat, I speak up.

"It's me! Uhh, Michael!"

For a moment, I can't hear anything, before the sounds of rapid footsteps ring out from behind the door, and then there she is in the door opening, standing in an oversized shirt which just barely comes to her hips (which does… interesting things to my composure), looking from my nervous expression to the bottle of wine in my hands.

And then she grins.

"Fucking finally."

And before my brain has had a chance to reboot, I'm bodily pulled into Jessica's room, her door clicking shut behind me.

'I should give Sterns a raise.'

That's the last coherent thought I have that night.

---

April 3rd

I spent roughly a week back at Othrys, just taking it easy for a while as my Winter Soldiers tracked down their respective targets while I continued my lessons and magical testing with Pangborn and Hansen, whenever the scientist found the time, that is. During that week off, me and Jessica had quite a few more… nightly encounters.

Thankfully, our daily interactions remained mostly the same, though neither one of us tried to hide the fact that we were now sleeping together (we didn't advertise it or anything, but we didn't really bother with the Walk of Shame when we spent our nights at the other's room).

The reaction of the other inhabitants of Othrys were surprisingly positive, with people either not really caring or being happy for us (Harper, of course, was one of those who didn't seem to care, whereas Sterns was annoyingly proud of being the one to 'finally' give me the final push).

Even more surprising than that though, was the somewhat disappointed reaction from some of my other female employees.

Nope.

Nu-uh.

Not touching that with a ten foot pole.

I won't even try and imagine the terrible horrors that Jessica would unleash upon me if I were to start sleeping around with other women as well, and she found out about it, even if we were keeping things casual at the moment.

I quite like all my bits attached to me, thank-you-very-much.

During that week Sterns had finally managed to crack the Pym Particles to the point that it would resize even humans without adverse effects, and I had immediately contacted Cross with the good news.

He was absolutely floored that we've been able to crack it so quickly, and he was nearly falling over his feet in pushing some of the other projects that Cross Technologies was struggling with our way. I declined most of them for now, though I promised him that Titan Solutions was more than happy to repeat a similar partnership in the future, with my personal top lawyer already hammering out deals that would keep money flowing into my pockets in the future.

Hogarth's business savvy and the smaller inventions that my scientists kept inventing just in order to do their jobs more efficiently (a new manner of data-sharing, for instance, which Burstein had developed just so that he didn't have to get up from his computer whenever he tried to work on differing projects, had the potential to revolutionize the tech industry, if marketed right) meant that I was currently swimming in more money that I really knew what to do with.

Sure, building Othrys had put a massive dent in my funds, but my deals with Verizon and AT&T had easily filled that back up again. I almost had China Mobile Ltd. as well, but Stark swooped in with an entirely new satellite system which he sold to them, using pre-existing contacts that I hadn't even known that he possessed.

That was actually becoming the song and dance of the tech rivalry between our companies.

Titan Solutions was truly revolutionary, nobody could deny that anymore, not even Stark's staunchest supporters. But whenever big companies started flocking towards the new tech, Tony pulled something equally innovative out of his ass, and by using Stark Industries longstanding reputation and established connections, always managed to net the truly big whales that I had been hoping to get for myself.

That wasn't to say that he was just playing catch-up though. In a brilliant move, he had vowed to start fixing America's abysmal roads before I had even managed to start putting out feelers into the construction world, and it was only because I focused on a different aspect (the exo-suits I had Adrian's company use, as well as a cheaper, far inferior knock-off of ferrocrete) meant that I had been able to steal some of the really big companies away from his camp.

Still, I was happy to let Hogarth deal with that aspect of my life, while I concentrated on collecting ancient powerful artifacts in order to get ever closer to godhood, and she was doing a damned fine job of it too.

With the Pym Particles basically done, I had expected Sterns to whip out something else, but to my surprise he kept on being engrossed in Hank Pym's masterpiece. When I asked him about it, he told me that the Particles were just scratching the surface.

"Shrinking is all well and good, but at its basic principles, these Particles are interacting with the Quantum Realm somehow. Quantum, Michael! Even to me, that stuff is weird! I love it!"

After extracting a promise from my friend that he wouldn't inadvertently shrink himself to the mind-breaking universe (retrieving him could be done, but it would be an enormous pain in the ass, not to mention the fact that, if I weren't bald, I would probably go gray from worry in the meantime), I left Sterns to his own devices as he played around with Quantum Mechanics.

Worries about the egghead were pushed from my mind, however, when the Winter Soldiers returned to the agreed upon rendezvous, which was the base I had found them in (even as morally flexible as some of my employees were, and despite the fact that each and every Winter Soldier was a mass murdering Nazi psychopath, after news of Kilgrave's actions spread through Othrys, most of them had found that the idea of mind control left a bad taste in their mouths, so I made sure to never bring the Winter Soldiers close to my base).

They had retrieved two things I couldn't even begin to guess what their function was, one amulet of sorts, one straight pole thing that I was fairly sure was a weapon or something, and finally the grand prize.

A diviner.

I ordered them back into cryo, took the various Kree artifacts back to Othrys, teleported to Radcliffe's laboratory in the outskirts of the Kree City (startling Skye so badly she tazed me. She blushed like mad at the utterly flat look I sent her as I slowly plucked the sparking wires from my the bridge of my nose) handed the Diviner over to Radcliffe, and then teleported back towards Europe.

There was just one last item that I wanted to get, which was scattered in several countries, the last one that I wanted to visit being Spain, where there were two people that I wanted to talk to.

The first country that I went to was Ireland, stepping out into the small garden behind a certain church in the middle of the night, the street lights providing ample illumination. I wanted to make sure that the premises were abandoned before I started searching for the first piece of the Beserker staff, which is why I hadn't teleported straight inside.

I strained my senses to the limit, and when I didn't hear, see, smell or sense anyone, I moved my hands in intricate patterns, calling a cradle of light into being in between my palms. Various glowing circles spun rapidly within ever-changing rectangles, and after studying the glyphs intently for a few moments, I saw that the spell (which would reveal the location of nearby sentient beings) didn't pick up anything in the vicinity.

Quickly flying up to the bell tower, I managed to make my way inside, easily breaking the padlock that had kept the trapdoor shut. Once inside the darkened church, I immediately started to make my way towards where the bit of the Berserker staff was kept, which was inside a small wooden safe, mounted on the wall and out of the way.

Hiding in plain sight.

Again, the lock on it didn't even give me a moment's pause, but I did hesitate for a moment when I finally looked at the smooth metallic surface of the Asgardian weapon.

I had come to a pretty good understanding with the darker side of me, and I possessed a body that could more easily handle the strain of the mystic weapon than a human would. In theory, I should be relatively fine when wielding the ancient artefact.

Still though…

Eventually I forced myself to stop dicking around, and reached out in a flash, my enormous hand closing over the smooth grip of the Berserker Staff, the mythical weapon immediately lighting up in a plethora of Nordic looking runes.

The moment my skin made contact with the weapon, adrenaline slammed into my body, kicking my Extremis into overdrive, the glow of my veins matching the glowing runes on the weapon. Deep inside my mind, no, my very soul, I felt that darker side of me roar to life with a snarl.

But I was still in control.

I was angry, ridiculously so, while I could feel the more beastly side of me was getting stronger by the minute.

But there was no conflict between my instincts and my will. I had made peace with myself, body and soul, during Bast's trials, and compared to that ordeal, the efforts of the Staff to try and drag my worst memories and burning hatred to the foreground of my thoughts were almost laughable.

Focusing my chi to flow through my hand, enveloping the Staff in a soft golden glow, I felt the tempest that had been raging inside my mind start to slowly settle down, though it wasn't gone, that thirst for battle still very prominently in my thoughts.

But I was steadily calming down, becoming more and more focused as the burning hatred invoked by the Staff was shackled by my will and turned into calculating anger instead.

Something that I could use.

I could tell that I was now stronger than ever before, but I wasn't sure just how much stronger I had become, and I'd have to return to the fortified testing facilities of Othrys if I want to find out.

Still, I'm not done yet.

There are still the remaining parts of the Staff to collect, after all.

In order to give myself a bit more focus (it's not as if I'm about to do battle any time soon anyways), I place the piece of the Staff inside a duffelbag I had brought along, before I concentrated on casting a portal.

Stepping through the glowing tear in the fabric of space, I emerge in a heavily forested area. I'm currently deep in the woods of Trillemarka National Park, Norway, where the Warrior Who Stayed his a part of his Staff inside one of the legion of trees surrounding me.

Thankfully, searching for a needle in a haystack can be very easy if you do it right.

All you need is a magnet.

Reaching into the duffelbag that I had slung around my shoulder, I take out the broken piece of ancient metal, controlling the wave of hatred and rage far easier now that I know what to expect.

Holding the Berserker weapon in one hand, I close my eyes as I lift my other one, a magical array of eldritch energy springing to life around it. It's not even a proper spell, really, more a question of intent.

I'm searching the woods around me for an energy signature similar to the piece of the Staff I'm currently holding in my other hand. In principle, it worked somewhat similar to Sterns' Spectrometer, which is why I had brought the device along should my Mystic skills prove insufficient.

Still, never skip Magic-training day, is my motto, and I always try to first try things with Magic, before I solve my problems with my tech.

Or my fists, if the need arises.

Thankfully, Hansen's (and mine) research into the fundamentals of channeling energy and bending it towards your will for a certain desired purpose has paid off, since my barebones bit of 'coding', as the Ancient One occasionally calls it, does it work perfectly.

An exact match to the energy signature in my hand, a hundred feet away to my right, and roughly twenty feet up.

Quite a climb, especially for humans about a thousand years ago, which explains why the Warrior thought it was an adequate hiding place.

I fly over towards the location of the second piece in a matter of moments, rustling leaves in my wake as I spot the enormous tree standing in a clearing, a circle of ancient stones surrounding it.

Since the centuries that the Asgardian warrior had left his weapon here, the old tree has grown around the metal, consuming it completely. Thankfully, my strength allows me to crack the trunk of the tree open like an egg, the dry wood splintering with a thunderous 'crack!' which echoes throughout the forest.

And right there in the middle, exposed to the open air for the first time in centuries, lies the second piece of the Berserker staff. Without hesitation, my hand closes around it's runed surface, the ancient inscriptions lighting up with a hellish glow as I do.

Once again, a tidal wave of rage crashes over me, my darkest memories –a knife slipping into a throat, blood splattering the faceplate of my helmet- being brought to the fore.

Once again, I master myself, shunting the hate down and chaining it, bringing it under my control.

Taking the other piece of the Staff, I hold their broken edges against each other, twisting them a bit until I feel the grooves and notches of the breaks slide smoothly into place, like finishing a puzzle.

Almost immediately, the Asgardian weapon flares with light and power, and the two halves are joined together flawlessly, as if they had never been broken at all.

One piece now remains.

Straightening myself, I place the nearly complete weapon back into the duffelbag as I focus intently on creating another portal, my concentration growing stronger as the haze of mindless anger slowly subsides.

And with but a step, I leave Norway, and arrive in Spain.

Portals. Are. Bullshit.

Standing on the Plaza del Salvador (or more accurately, floating about a mile above it, since I didn't want to draw any attention to myself with the glow of the portal), I gaze down at Iglesio el Salvador, the impressive cathedral appearing imposing and mysterious in the various city lights of Seville. Still, as beautiful as the church is, I'm more interested in what lies underneath it, specifically the Roman tombs hidden away there.

Finding my way inside the church is just as easy as entering the church back in Ireland was, and once inside, I find that all that's standing between me and the final piece of my new weapon is a slim, wrought-iron gate.

Sending a mental apology to the clergy that works here, I easily break the lock, and stride into the cloying darkness of the ancient catacombs.

Once again I take the Staff outside the bag, using its energy signature to home in on the remaining piece, my enormous size meaning that I'm constantly bumping my head against the low hanging ceiling as I make my way down the winding passage ways, sometimes even being forced to duck in order to fit through some of the smaller ones.

Still, after more than five minutes, I can feel a very strong signature resonating from my left, and as I sharply turn in that direction, I find myself looking at a… tomb.

Of fucking course.

Giving a sigh (and a silent prayer to the deceased, just in case) I grab the top of the stone coffin, dragging it hallway out of its alcove in order to better reach it. Shoving the solid stone lid off is a piece of cake, and as I wave away the dust that springs up as I remove it, I can finally see the final piece.

Clutched in the skeletal claws of the coffin's long-time occupant.

Swallowing down my slight revulsion, I gently pry apart the mummified fingers, and take the last piece of the Staff from its hiding place. Since standing in the absolute darkness surrounded by skeletons is starting to give me the creeps, I quickly exit the church, flying up into the night sky with a grateful gulp of air, reveling in the lack of claustrophobic confinement as I soar free as a bird.

Calming down a bit, I place the broken tip of the Berserker Staff onto its brethren, and just like before, once the grooves and scratches line up with each other, the two parts fuse together seamlessly, the entire weapon now lighting up in glowing runes and swooping lines.

The tidal wave of rage is not only stronger now than before, I can tell it's more complete as well. It doesn't just slam adrenaline into my body, putting its fight-or-flight response into overdrive, its working on a deeper, more magical level as well.

It's not just trying to make me angry, it's trying to make me completely lose my shit, to become a rampaging monster literally too angry to think about ways to counteract and control my own rage.

My respect for Agent May's and Elliot Randolph, for not just wielding the damned thing, but actually summoning the willpower to let go of it as well, coming out of the experience relatively unscathed (though I now understand Randolph's vow of complete pacifism a lot better now. Wielding this thing, waging war with it… it's going to leave scars, even on Asgardian warriors).

Speaking of the good Mr. Randolph…

---

April 4th

After spending the rest of the night high up in the air above the Atlantic Ocean (though making sure I was well below the flight paths of any possible airlines) trying to master both myself and the Berserker Staff, I returned to Seville the next day, having found Randolph's lesson plan online.

Since I knew that stealth was out of the question if I were to visit him at Seville University (there were spells for concealment and infiltration, but that was much too refined for me to attempt with any real confidence for now), I decided to wait until late in the evening, knowing when Randolph would return to his home off-campus.

Sure enough, around half past seven pm, the disguised Asgardian warrior leisurely made his way towards his car, throwing a jaunty wave to a rather pretty student that had accompanied him to the unassuming vehicle.

Still a few miles off the ground, I began to easily tail the professor as he made his way home, floating along almost bored. Since I could just fly in a straight line, without traffic lights, pedestrians or other vehicles in my way, I had to slow down significantly in order to keep up with the University professor, who was visibly getting annoyed as he was forced to deal with aforementioned obstacles.

Still, after an uneventful twenty minutes, we arrived at his residence (I could've flown here straight away of course, but since Randolph is a bit of a hedonist, there was every chance that he might have had something planned for tonight, which didn't involve sleeping at his place), and the Asgardian quickly made his way inside.

I waited for a couple of minutes in order to appear less suspicious (I was a renowned superhuman and successful business man from New York, me appearing on the doorstep of a Professor of Nordic Mythology would be suspicious anyway), before I dropped down in a nearby alleyway, and then I quickly crossed the street and knocked on the Warrior's door.

After a few moments I could hear footsteps approaching, and then Elliot Randolph, known in a distant past as the Warrior Who Stayed opened the door, glancing up at me with surprise clear in his eyes.

"You?"

"Good evening, Mr. Randolph. Might I come in please?"

For a moment, the Asgardian is completely flatfooted, before he regains his composure and gives me a quick nod.

"Of course, of course. Come in, make yourself at home!"

As I step over the Asgardian's threshold I'm surprised to find… well, that there's nothing really to find. I had half-expected to feel some powerful ward scheme's surrounding the doorway, or for some mystical artefacts to be placed on coffee tables or something.

But the house I step into is just about as mundane as you can imagine, the picture perfect example of an intellectual's home, with cozy furniture, and books scattered everywhere.

If it weren't for my meta-knowledge, I would never have guessed that this was the home of an alien warrior.

Which was precisely the point, I suppose.

"Do you want some coffee? Thee perhaps?" Randolph asks, and if it weren't for the miniscule micro-expressions I can spot, I would've thought that the man was completely calm.

"Just water is fine, thank you." I reply in a soft tone as I make my way over to the couch in the living room, while Randolph goes off towards the kitchen to fix me my drink.

"I have to say, I'm quite surprised to find you here, Mr. McCole, especially unannounced and at this hour. May I ask what brought you-" Randolph's words die in his throat when he returns to the living room, his eyes falling on the complete Berserker Staff in my hands, the glow of its sigils lighting up the room.

"Well, I stumbled over this fascinating little thing here, you see, and I found myself wanting an expert's opinion on it. Hence why I approached you." I say with a calm voice as I rise from the couch, absolutely towering over the diminutive Professor.

As a testament to his history as part of Asgard's elite fighting force, he doesn't show a hint of fear at being confronted with the first man in millennia who can probably beat him in a straight up fight, especially since I'm wielding the Staff, raw energy coursing through me.

However, I can also see the visible effort he puts into not reacting to the threat I present to him, forcing his body to not fall into a reflexive combat stance, his arms still loose and his guard wide open.

Randolph takes his vow of pacifisms dead serious, and I just now that even if I were to attack him now with deadly force, he won't fight back against me.

I can respect such an iron conviction.

°Well, I'm happy to lend my expertise on examining a piece of history I had always thought was merely part of myth and legend. Though, if I may ask, how exactly, did you… stumble over this artefact? The legends say that the Staff was broken in three pieces and expertly hidden, lost to the world lest its dark powers fall into the wrong hands." Randolph asks in a neutral tone of voice, still trying to keep up appearances.

Let's put a stop to that, shall we?

"Expertly hidden you say? I find myself doubting the Warrior's sense of judgement if that's the case. The pieces were easy to find, especially if you knew what to look for and where, and they were completely unprotected. Add in the debacle of the Tesseract, and I have to ask myself whether Asgardians as a people are simply incapable of hiding valuable artefacts." I rumble in dark amusement as I approach the former Berserker, who cannot quite contain a slight bristle at my mocking words.

"The fact that the pieces remained hidden for well over a millennium begs to differ, I think." The Professor says sharply, and I clamp down on the anger that's been singing in my veins ever since I assembled the Staff.

I want to befriend this Asgardian, or at least turn him into my ally, not alienate him against me.

"Fair enough. Tell me about them." I say with a tilt of my head, drawing a surprised look from Randolph.

"Tell you about them? Who?"

"Asgardians."

"You want me to tell you about Asgardians? Why?"

"Well, ever since a certain hammer fell from the sky in New Mexico, I've been rather interested in the Nordic Pantheon, and you are definitely the world's leading expert on that subject. So, tell me about them."

Running a hand through his thinning curls, Randolph gives me an inquisitive look.

"Well, what exactly would you want to know?"

"Everything you're willing to tell me."

For a moment, indecision wars in the Asgardian's eyes, as they flicker from my calm face to the burning weapon in my hands and back. Eventually he seems to decide that keeping me in engaged in conversation is preferable to leaving me to my own devices with an emotion-influencing ancient weapon and he takes a seat in the nearest chair with a sigh, as I sit down on the couch in front of him.

"Well, if you want to know everything about the Asgardians, I suppose it's best to start at the beginning. You see, once there was the void, and from the void came two realms…"

I kept Randolph talking all through the night, not having to fake my interest in the slightest as I learned small and intricate details of Thor's world that had never even been touched upon in the movies or shows. Their more obscure customs, the tales they told each other, their dreams and fears.

Oh there were the big things of course, the wars and conquests and peacekeeping (I didn't ask the Warrior about Hela, since I felt that that would both be a bit of a sore subject, and I had the feeling merely uttering her name would cause Heimdall's vision to snap in my direction), but the really interesting things were much smaller and mundane.

Did you know that there are no less than 250 different hairstyles for men and women in Asgardian culture, each one representing something different, from just a general mood, to a certain fashion, to even showcasing your marital status?

I hadn't until that night.

After talking for hours on end about his people, eventually unable (or just uncaring) about hiding his plain to see nostalgia as he thought about long lost friends and family, I could tell that the ex-Berserker was starting to warm up to me, though he kept giving the Staff long considering glances.

Eventually, as the first lights of the new day slowly started to enter his living room, I decided to finally make my move.

"Fascinating. Truly fascinating. Asgardian culture is both so old and yet so advanced, the dichotomy it creates and the culture that forms from it… thank you for your impromptu lecture, Professor Randolph. I'm very interested in learning more about these interesting people, so might I make you an offer?" I speak up as the Warrior takes a short brake in order to drown his glass of water, his throat somewhat tired from speaking all through the night.

"You may certainly make me an offer. Whether I'll accept or not is another matter entirely."

"I want you to come back to Othrys with me."

That certainly gets his attention, as he sits up straighter in his chair, fixing me with a sharp look.

"And why would I want to involve myself any further with your hectic life? I'm quite content with my job at the University here, the food is nice, the women are good looking and the weather is almost always pleasant. Why would I walk away from that?"

"Because Asgard's eye will soon return to Midgard, and I don't think you'll want them taking a look around and recognizing a certain Professor at a certain University." I say bluntly, drawing a sigh from the other man.

"So, we're done pretending that you don't already know who I am then. Look kid, a thousand years ago, I went AWOL from one of the most bloodthirsty forces in Asgard's employ. And during all that time, I kept my head down, stayed out of trouble, and lived a life of piece, and Asgard's Watcher either never noticed me, or just thought I wasn't worth the bother anymore. Why would I jeopardize that?"

"Like I said, in the not too distant future, Asgard will gain a vested interest in Earth and I can guarantee you, you won't be able to go unnoticed then, not when you're surrounded by mundane humans as you are now. But in Othrys? You could stand in full battle armor on my front lawn roaring a battlecry to the heavens and they wouldn't even bother to look in your direction, since they would be too busy staring at my fire-breathing T-Rex. Besides, I offer luxurious room and board, and the latest Midgardian technologies will be at your disposal. You can either see it as a long holiday, or you can actually work there. We're currently researching and testing various branches of Magic, you're input would be immensely valuable." I press on, and I can see that Randolph's starting to get tempted.

"I'm not that familiar with magic myself kid. I was a mason before I joined the army, and my Staff was just handed to me, I don't know how it works, just what it does. You really are studying magic? You might already know more than me." The professor scoffs, and with a grin, I stand up from the couch, my massive form looming over him, the staff held loosely in my hand.

As I focus, I start channeling energy through the staff, making the glyphs inscribed upon it glow even brighter, until the light it's giving off is nearly blinding. And then I use the tip to draw a circle in the air, a glowing, sparking line following my movements.

And just like that, a portal to North Brother Island, New York is opened in the living room of Professor Randolph.

Turning to look at him over my shoulder, I give him a challenging grin.

"Care to find out?"

For a few very long, tense moments, the ex-Berserker remains seated in his arm chair, a thoughtful look on his face as he keeps looking between his old Staff and the portal I just made.

Eventually, he lets out a massive grin and rises from his chair with a spring in his step, fearlessly approaching the portal as he rubs his hands in excitement.

"Well what are we waiting for? You had a fire-breathing dinosaur, you said?"

And just like that, Othrys is host to its first Asgardian.

---

April 6th

Since I hadn't slept for two days ever since I set out to collect both the Berserker Staff, and her original wielder, I decided to go to bed after getting Randolph sorted. Sleeping for a whopping six hours (twice as long as I usually slept) left me fully energized and I set out to finally fulfill a promise I had made to one of my co-workers, leaving Randolph in Hansen's hands (the Asgardian immediately began flirting with the pretty scientist of course), once again teleporting to Spain.

This time I went to Caldes de Montbui, to a residential area in the old city center where Agnes Kitsworth lived, the woman who Radcliffe loved but couldn't fix. Walking around in broad daylight in a city in Spain when just that morning I had been in New York was rather conspicuous, but I had promised Radcliffe that I would see to this personally, and the scientist was far too valuable me to alienate by not backing up my promises to him.

Which is why I smiled brightly when Agnes herself opened the door after I had found her address.

"Mrs. Kitsworth? I'm here on behalf of someone who really want to meet you. Holden Radcliffe apologizes for everything that he has done to push the two of you apart, and he has asked me to ask whether or not you're willing to hear him out. He said that if you don't want to see or speak to him again, he'll understand and respect your decision."

For a moment, the woman merely blinks in surprise at my torrent of information, before she narrows her eyes.

"If Holden's so damned sorry, then why did he send you? Couldn't he be bothered to come in person?"

"At the moment, he's working on a crucial project for me, though I have given him permission to take time of if you are willing to meet with him. He's waiting for you now, I can take you to him if you want so that he can explain everything?" I offer, and Agnes takes quite a while to decide whether or not she'll accept, or if she'll slam the door in my face.

Finally, she gives out a long sigh as she steps out of her house, closing the door behind her and turning towards me with her hands on her hips, a stern look on her face.

"Alright then, where is her?"

"If you'll just hold on Miss, this will only take a moment."

And without ceremony, I scoop the lithe woman up in my arms, ignoring her startled squeak which turns into a frightened scream when I shoot up towards the sky. Before the air can become too cold for the dying woman, I come to a halt, making a circle with my hands as best I can as I'm holding onto her.

"What are you-"

That's as far as she gets, her eyes going wide as her mouth falls open when she sees the portal hanging in midair in front of her. She briefly flinches when I make my way through, but her shock turns into awe when we arrive on the far outskirts of San Juan in Puerto Rico, the sun here just cresting the horizon, throwing the stunning landscape in beautiful golden colors.

She's so absorbed with her surroundings, she doesn't even notice that we're descending, and it takes Holden a couple of discreet coughs before she sees him standing somewhat sheepishly next to a pick nick blanket.

"Surprise?" the scientist tentatively tries, and Agnes doesn't respond at first, appearing completely floored by this roller coaster of events.

Then, without a word, she walks up really close to a surprised Radcliffe, leans in close and-

SMACK!

-slaps him across the face.

For a moment, everything is silent, before Holden turns back towards his fuming girlfriend, rubbing a glowing red cheek.

"Fair enough, I probably deserved that one."

"Start talking. Now."

Realizing that my task here is done, I discreetly back off from the couple as Holden begins to pour his heart out to the woman, floating up and quickly stepping through a portal, back towards Othrys.

There's an Asgardian who's brain I want to pick, an ancient weapon I want to train with, a Celestial's flesh I want to study and incorporate into myself, Inhuman and Kree powers that I need to pilfer, and Magic that I need to learn.

So much to do, so little time.

At least my evenings tend to be a lot more enjoyable than they used to be.

---

May 3rd

"God I fucking hate this dress. It's so uncomfortable."

"I think it makes you look pretty."

"I said that I was uncomfortable, Michael, not that I was ugly."

"I know. Still think you look amazing in a dress though."

"Well, look all you want now buster, after tonight it's back to jeans and leather jackets for me, thank fucking God."

"You say that now, but I just now that Skye's going to take one look at you right now, and then drag you off to a shopping spree once a month."

"Skye? Clearly you don't know her as well as I do, the girl hates dresses and fancy shit as much as I do! That's what I like about her!"

"She couldn't afford fancy shit, Jess. She lived out of a van for crying out loud! Now she's got a big fat pay-check and basically lives in a magical castle. Of course she's going to go on a shopping spree sooner or later, she already went on one to assemble her workspace with all those goddamn laptops she started ordering like crazy."

"Oh just shut up and hand me another champagne will you?"

"Yes dear."

And with a smile on my face, I turned away from the smoking hot Jessica Jones in a tight red dress, halting a waiter that was about to pass me by, the youth paling somewhat as he cranes his neck in order to look me in my glowing eyes.

"Bitte. Wir hätten gerne noch einen Champagner?" (Excuse me. We would like another Champagne?)

Before the boy can nod and be off, Jessica speaks up from around me, leaning forwards slightly and exposing a generous amount of cleavage as she does so, which causes an impressive blush to appear on the youth (and reflexively, for a low growl to come from deep within my chest).

"Bring uns einfach die ganze Flasche mit." (Just bring us the entire bottle.)

As the boy nods again and quickly leaves (I think my audible anger at his staring scared him quite a bit) I turn towards my date for the evening with a raised eyebrow, to which Jessica simply shrugs.

"We've been in Stuttgart for two days now, the Brain Booster allows me to pick things up easy enough. German isn't that difficult to learn anyways."

Grinning at her, I can't help myself and lean in to steal a quick kiss, which clearly takes her by surprise, though she quickly reciprocates with equal enthusiasm. As we separate, she gives me a searching look, though a slight smile is playing around her lips.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Nothing in particular. I was just thinking about how lucky I am to be with someone that beautiful, and that smart. And they're even the same person!"

Playfully elbowing me in the side (a baseline human would've been thrown clear across the ballroom) Jessica rolls her eyes at my joke, since she knows that as far as I'm concerned, she has absolutely no competition.

While what we had at the end of March when we first started sleeping together was very much a casual thing between good friends, whatever we have now is definitely more than that, even if we have yet to really discuss just what our relationship is at this point.

I do know one thing though.

I'm starting to fall head over heels in love with Jessica Jones, probably the most abrasive woman in fiction.

It seems that my life just keeps on getting weirder.

The boy from before is back quite quickly with a bottle of Champagne in hand (though he's careful to keep his eyes from wandering this time. I approve) and as I take the drink from him, I start filling up my date's glass.

Just as I've finished doing that however, right as I want to fill my own glass as well, I can see my target for tonight moving in the back of the room over Jessica's shoulder. Placing my empty glass on the table next to us, I snatch Jessica's Champagne from her hands right as she's about to drink from it.

"Hey! What gives?"

In response to her indignant growl, I step closer to her, and give a significant nod in the direction my target has just walked out of the room.

"Our victim is here. Time to get into action."

"Really? Now? We just ordered Champagne!" Jessica says with a bit of a whine, and I can't quite keep the amusement I feel from showing on my face as I look down at her forlorn expression.

"Well, we can always dance in the meantime, until the moment arrives where we can take him down."

"Wait, dance? What-"

But I cut her off by simply grabbing her by the middle and swerving my way onto the dance floor of the ballroom, easily stepping into the rhythm of the waltz that had been playing in the background, performed by a live orchestra, of course.

As I guide Jessica across the floor she keeps scowling at me, and I'm convinced that some of her stumbling is faked, just so that she can stomp on my feet a couple of times.

"I don't do dancing, Michael!" she hisses at me, but I've known her well and long enough by know that I can tell from the look in her eyes that's she's grudgingly enjoying herself.

So I just spin her around once more, before catching her in my arms again and taking off across the dance floor, my face split by a massive grin.

"I thought that you said that with the Brain Booster you picked up stuff easy enough?" I tease, and though she mock-scowls at me, she can't deny the fact that what I'm saying is true.

Already, her movements are smoother than before, and after another two rounds across the dancefloor, she's dancing as well and as natural as I am, our movements in perfect sync to the beat of the music.

As we twirl underneath a massive chandelier, her in a beautiful dress, me in a sharp tuxedo, we look into each other's eyes, smile and-

"Now."

-at Jessica's mark, we use the momentum of our latest twirl to move off the dancefloor completely, instead now standing several feet away, barring the path of a young man with slicked back black hair and a cane in his hand.

The man looks up in surprise as I'm suddenly standing before him, but to his credit, his hand immediately shoots out towards the cane that he had been twirling around and that was now hanging suspended in mid-air.

I'm faster.

My hand closes around the smooth golden metal and I immediately draw back my arm and throw it further into the building, where it punches straight through a support pillar and ends up burying itself into the far wall.

"Babe."

"On it!"

And with a blur, Jessica's now standing next to the disguised spear, and with a heave rips it straight out of the wall, great chunks of concrete falling away with it. Another blur, and she's gone from the premises completely, heading towards our rendezvous.

The young looking man turns back towards me with a murderous scowl, showcasing impressive senses and reflexes if he was capable of following all that, the edges of his form already flickering with golden light.

He opens his mouth, probably to threaten me, or maybe to monologue, but once again the element of surprise allows me to be faster.

"Loki Laufeyson. I don't believe you have an invite to this party. We can't have that now, can we?"

And with that, I perform my most audacious act since I have woken up in this universe more than twenty years ago.

I punch a god in the face.

---

AN: I am so terribly sorry that it took so long to get this out. I am extremely unhappy with it, and every single part of it was rewritten between three to five times individually, meaning that there are literally hundreds of different versions of this chapter in the end. Like I said, not too happy with it, and the second part especially is complete crap, but I'm absolutely exhausted. Feel free to give me your critiques and I'll get started on the rewrite this week. University has started again though, so my update speed will definitely be dialed back a bit. As much as I love writing, it still takes a backseat to my studying and this year will be the toughest one yet. About the whole Jessica thing, I hope her altered appearance doesn't come across as an ass-pull or wish fullfilment. I tried to give a somewhat believable explanation as to why Michael would suddenly feel any physical attraction towards her (because I was steadily coming around to the idea of those two ending up together) and an Extremis transformation a la Steve Rogers to Captain America felt like it might fit. I dunno, let me know your thoughts.

Fun Fact: The scene in Captain America, the First Avenger, where Peggy Carter reaches out to touch the glistening pec of a recently transformed Steve Rogers wasn't scripted. Hayley Atwell, who portrays Carter, hadn't seen Chris shirtless before, and one set, during the shooting of the scene, she couldn't help herself and gave the good Captain a little squeeze. Joe Johnston, the director of the movie, felt that it fit in the scene, so cast and crew just rolled with it, though you can see a few people in the background break character for a bit.

As I do at the end of every chapter, I want to extend my thanks to my amazing Patrons, AndrewDC_MAC2, Miu, justlovereadin, Carn Krauss, ReapeScythe, Thordur hrafn and Daniel Dorfman! You have all of my thanks, I cannot believe the monumental amounts of support you guys are giving me, thanks so much!