AN: I might have gone a bit far with the money thing.
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[Next Morning – 7:45 AM]
The soft chime of an alarm echoed through the guest suite.
Max groaned.
"I regret being a functioning adult."
Caroline, already dressed and brushing her hair in front of the mirror, sighed. "We have a business to run. Cupcakes don't bake themselves."
Max rolled over, burritoed in sheets. "Can't we just Uber the frosting?"
"No. That's not how food safety works." She tossed Max's clothes onto the bed. "Now get up before I make your next massage appointment with the IRS."
That got Max moving.
Within twenty minutes, they were dressed, hair tied back, and heading out the door with to-go lattes in hand. Max paused only once to scribble "Tell your abs I said bye" on a sticky note and slap it to Alex's bedroom door. She wanted to wake him up, but she was being considerate of his situation for today.
After that, then left the building. There was a car waiting for them outside.
"Well, he thought of everything, huh?" Caroline said as they opened the door and slipped inside.
Next was Scarlett. She had a little breakfast before leaving. She wanted to say goodbye to Alex, but since he was still sleeping, she decided not to disturb him.
[10:30 AM – Titan Comics HQ | Executive Floor]
Alex walked into the office with a fresh coffee, a clean blue shirt, and exactly zero lingering spa energy. He was back in work mode... eyes sharp, posture perfect, and jaw set like a guy ready to challenge capitalism to a fistfight.
Rachel was already seated at the massive digital table, multiple screens open: sales dashboards, stock tracking, trending tags, preorder stats. Her hair was back in a ponytail, and she looked rested with a little bit of exhaustion still visible on her face.
"Good morning, sleepy head," Rachel said as she looked up at him.
"Do you even sleep? I was hoping for some morning fun, but you were gone." Alex sat beside her and placed the cup on the side desk.
"Well, fun can wait. Money can't," She said with a side nod. "And we got a shit ton work today."
"Fair point. So, what's the status?" He asked.
On the main display: TITAN COMICS: LIVE METRICS
DCU Trailer Views: 112,457,230
TitanComics.com Server Downtime: 16 minutes (due to traffic overload)
Most Tweeted Line: "You ever laugh so hard… the world starts to cry with you?"
Top Reddit Post: "Did DC just get invented in front of us???"
Rachel scrolled down to the next panel.
"We gotta upgrade our site," Alex said as he took a sip of coffee. "Show me the Marvel status."
Rachel tapped a few keys, and the massive wall display shifted.
EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES – ISSUE #1: Sales Dashboard
Total Copies Sold: 7,091,442
Digital Downloads: 3,540,991
Top-Selling Character Variant Covers:
Iron Man (Stark Tower Edition) – #1
Black Widow (Red Ledger Variant) – #2
Hulk (Gamma Core Foil) – #3
Captain America (Brooklyn Boy Original) – #4 (Tied)
Thor (Stormborn Sketch Variant) – #4 (Tied)
User Reviews: 97% Positive
Top Comment (Pinned): "I didn't know I needed a Russian spy, an angry green science monster, and a billionaire daddy in one book… but here we are."
Rachel sipped her coffee. "Iron Man's leading by a mile. Stark's sarcasm is trending like hell. Everyone wants to be a genius playboy inventor with PTSD."
Alex nodded, grinning. "Called it. People love tech with trauma."
She scrolled to the next panel.
Social Buzz: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #1
"Iron Man's intro scene? Literal chills."
"Black Widow might be my new religion. She's super hot."
"Thor is just OP. He can solo them all."
"Cap is hot but emotionally constipated. Relatable."
"This isn't a comic. This is the beginning of culture."
Rachel looked over at him. "Also… Reddit is already trying to cast your 'universe' like it's a live-action show. They think you've got actors lined up."
Alex shrugged. "We might."
Rachel blinked. "Wait, seriously?"
"I mean... not officially," he said with a smirk, "but I may or may not have drawn Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr.'s jawline and given Black Widow a ScarJo backflip. Well, we are still years away from that."
"Well, if you say so. But knowing you, I'm pretty sure you'll probably make a movie in a few months. Anyway, time for merch..."
Rachel tapped a few more keys, and the wall screen shifted again. This time: MERCHANDISE SALES – POST LAUNCH EVENT ONLY (In-House Only)
TOTAL SALES: $10,421,300 (Approx}
'Something smells fishy. I get it that people are excited, but this number... Something is not right, or probably too right. If this were an existing universe, then it's understandable, but... Things are going too smoothly, well, not that I am complaining, but still...' Alex blinked. "That's… that can't be real."
Rachel just sipped her coffee and said, "Oh, it's real. People were throwing money at us. I saw a guy pay cash for a $5,000 bike like he was buying a sandwich. Heck, I won't lie, I thought no one's going to buy those overly expensive bikes and heck some of the merch, but well... Call me surprised."
Alex leaned forward, eyes scanning the breakdown.
TOP-SELLING MERCH ITEMS(Event-Only Launch)
Limited Edition Iron Man Bikes – Sold: 137 units – $5,000 each
Custom matte red & gold finish, built-in AI voice lines, light-up arc reactor core panel.
➤ Customer Quote: "I don't even ride bikes, but I need this. I need to feel rich and emotionally unstable."
Iron Man Helmet Replica (Mark I – Die-Cast) – Sold: 1,920 units – $150 each
Voice-modulated, LED eyes, built-in Bluetooth speaker.
➤ Customer Quote: "Finally, I can ignore my ex in style."
Black Widow Weapon Set (Limited Props) – Sold: 890 units – $299 each
Comes with faux-leather belt, stun baton replicas, throwing disc set, and carrying case.
➤ Customer Quote: "I bought this for my wife. She's never loved me more."
Black Widow Collector's Replica (Red Ledger Variant – Art Model) – Sold: 302 units – $499 each
Hyper-detailed statuette based on her comic pose, mounted on a custom-engraved plaque.
➤ Customer Quote: "My girlfriend might dump me for putting this on the mantle, but I'm willing to risk it."
Thor's Miniature Mjolnir (Weighted Display Model) – Sold: 540 units – $89 each
Metal handle, rune-etched design, lightning base included.
➤ Customer Quote: "My kid cried when I told him he wasn't worthy."
Then there were other items...
Iron Man Replica Arc Reactor Badge – $24.99 Units Sold: 9,112 Notes: Sold out in 3 hours. People were clipping them to their shirts and pretending to power up. One guy fainted from excitement.
Black Widow "Red Room" Tactical Hoodie – $39.99 Units Sold: 6,875 Notes: Popular with both women and men. Adjustable holster-style pockets were a hit.
Captain America "Brooklyn Strong" Shield Pins – $12.99 Units Sold: 5,432 Notes: Most people bought in sets. Pins + patriotism = instant cash cow.
Thor's "I Speak Thunder" Mug – $14.99 Units Sold: 4,317 Notes: Sold best after the trailer dropped. One customer asked if it could summon lightning. Security was involved.
Hulk "Smash Mode" Gym Tank – $29.99 Units Sold: 3,965 Notes: Apparently oversized and super comfortable. Several people flexed after purchase.
Avengers Limited Edition Posters (Set of 5) – $49.99 Units Sold: 2,083 Notes: Signed pre-order variant (w/ Alex's initials) sold out in 20 minutes.
Then there were those limited edition drinks and food, and a few smaller merch... All in all, it was a little over 10 million dollars in less than 24 hours.
Alex exhaled through his teeth. "Jesus. We haven't even opened online retail yet."
Rachel nodded. "Exactly. This is just walk-in event traffic at Titan HQ. The pre-orders open next week, and the warehouse team is already warning us—we're going to need more of everything."
She tapped again, pulling up a fast-scroll view of customer feedback.
"Titan HQ is dreamland for comic nerds." "Can't believe I spent $800 on fake weapons and don't regret a second of it." "That Black Widow set makes me feel like I could kill my landlord." "This Iron Man helmet is the best $150 therapy I've ever had." "If this is Day One… what's next?"
Rachel turned to him. "Also, get this. There's already a waitlist for the bike. A waitlist. We're getting custom requests for color variants, voice packs, even 'battle damage' skins."
Alex whistled low. "Well, Rachel. You're gonna get a massive bonus or probably more than one."
"I won't say no to a big bonus if it comes with dinner and dessert," Rachel leaned back, folding her arms with a faint smirk. "Boss. We might've just invented Comic-Con 2.0 and Harley-Davidson's midlife crisis in one night."
Alex laughed, running a hand through his hair. "We need to scale up, fast. We're not just a publisher anymore... we're an entertainment ecosystem."
Rachel tilted her head. "So what's the move? Online drop? Limited launch through select stores? Or are we pulling a Jobs and making people line up at the flagship for wave two?"
Alex thought for a second, then said, "No stores yet. Let the hype simmer. We announce pre-orders only for now. Give them a countdown clock. Feed the anticipation. Meanwhile, up the production. Money doesn't matter. Hire more people and make sure everything is perfect. I don't want any mistakes. And I want all the stores stocked up by the end of the week."
Rachel nodded. "Roger that."
She paused, then smiled, rare and quiet. "We did something insane yesterday."
Alex looked at the screen again, at the numbers, the reactions, the storm.
He grinned. "Yeah. And this is just day one."
...
[Meanwhile...]
[Somewhere in Los Angeles – 11:15 AM | Jolie's Private Study]
The morning sun filtered through half-drawn curtains, landing on piles of old scripts, press clippings, and unopened mail.
Angelina Jolie sat at her writing desk, barefoot, cigarette unlit between her fingers, a half-finished black coffee on her left. The desk was cluttered with notebooks, story outlines, and a leather-bound planner dated two years ago.
Her hair was tied back loosely, and she wore an oversized white shirt, unbuttoned enough to show the faint tattoos running down her collarbone.
On the nearby wall: a framed poster of Girl, Interrupted. Below it, a tiny sticky note that simply read:
"What happened?"
Because for a long time, she'd been asking herself the same thing.
She had hits, undeniable ones. The Bone Collector. Gone in 60 Seconds. Lara Croft made her a global name. Her voice gave life to Shark Tale. She was the femme fatale every studio wanted.
And then... she fell.
Original Sin was her mistake. She knew it now. The sex scenes were awkward, censored and well, critics called it softcore porn with bad script and dialogues. Moreover, it was the way the film made her look cheap. Artificial. A mannequin in silk bedsheets pretending to be provocative.
The critics shredded it. The tabloids loved it. She hated all of it.
Then came the spiral.
Life or Something Like It – soulless rom-com, poorly written, poorly sold.
Beyond Borders – noble, maybe even necessary, but drowned by bad marketing and a studio that didn't know how to handle sincerity.
Taking Lives – a thriller so generic even she forgot the plot by the third reshoot.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow – beautiful, experimental, and dead on arrival. A misfire in sepia tones.
She felt like a name in search of a reason to exist.
The scripts that came her way afterward? Trash. Or worse, soulless blockbusters with zero character, all green screen.
The studios didn't know what to do with her anymore.
Was she an action icon? A dramatic powerhouse? A sex symbol? A troubled artist?
They didn't know.
And, for a while, neither did she.
She'd lost track of the roles she turned down out of spite. Out of fear. Out of ego. And now? Nobody was offering anything worth opening her front door for.
Her phone buzzed. She ignored it.
She looked across the room at a stack of untouched DVDs, each one a memory of a project that failed to resurrect her image. The worst part wasn't that they flopped... it was that they didn't even try to let her be dangerous, complicated, or real.
She didn't want to be likable.
She wanted to be impossible to ignore.
Then, her laptop pinged.
An email.
The email preview blinked at the corner of the screen. The subject line read:
"STARRING ROLE OFFER – URGENT ATTENTION REQUESTED"
She sighed and clicked it open. It took less than ten seconds to skim.
"...Your character, Cassandra Vale, is a former sex worker turned zombie slayer in a dystopian red-light district. The role is physically intense, emotionally raw, and requires full nudity in multiple scenes. Expect choreographed sex (4 scenes), a love triangle with rival gang leaders, and a revenge subplot involving a chainsaw."
Angelina sat there, the cigarette still between her fingers, now shaking slightly with restrained laughter.
"Four sex scenes. Six full nude shots. And a chainsaw."
She muttered it aloud like reading a Yelp review from hell.
She didn't mind nudity. She never had. Not even when tabloids plastered it all over with faux concern. But this?
This wasn't cinema. It was a necrophiliac's wet dream in a crop top.
She closed the email without replying. She didn't need another paycheck tied to fake grit and cheap spectacle.
Her gaze drifted again to that damn sticky note on the poster: What happened?
She was so tired of asking that question.
She flipped her laptop open and impulsively opened her browser. Social media. Twitter. Trends. Noise. Static.
And there it was.
#TitanComics
#DCUniverse
#AlexWilson
#ComicGod
#JokerLaugh
#IJustSawGod
#EarthsMightiest
She blinked.
Clips. Fan edits. Screencaps of glowing eyes, capes, lightning, and shadows. The trailer had dropped like a thunderclap.
She watched the trailers.
Once. Then again. And again.
By the fourth time, her coffee was cold, her cigarette still unlit, and her mind was racing.
Titan Comics. Alex Wilson. The Golden Boy.
Director. Producer. Screenwriter. Story architect. He didn't just make movies... he made myths.
She had followed him for years. Read Silent Hill: City of Ashes and American Beauty twice. Watched Titanic multiple times.
She had wanted to work with him. She just… never got the call.
Too controversial, maybe. Too "old Hollywood." Too much history.
With a sigh, Angelina closed the laptop and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temple.
She reached for her phone, absently scrolling through her inbox, past invitations to host charity galas, beauty campaigns, and soul-sucking offers to "return to screen" as someone's stepmom in a made-for-streaming drama.
Then she switched to her calendar. One modeling gig was penciled in Paris, a lingerie brand, big paycheck. Dead behind the eyes. She could do it. Probably. If the plane didn't crash and her spirit didn't fully leave her body from boredom.
Then...
Her thumb froze over one notification.
CONFIDENTIAL CASTING – WPH STUDIOS
She clicked it open. This is it. A big chance. It was as if the universe just listened to her pleas and gifted her with something big.
Her eyes caught the header.
...
From: Wilson Production House
To: Angelina Jolie
Re: Exclusive Role Invitation
Format: In-person only. No agents. No press. NDA required.
She froze.
The email body was minimal. It read:
Ms. Jolie,
You are being considered for an important role in our next high-priority production under Wilson Production House.
The project is highly confidential. Details will only be shared during the private in-person meeting.
Appointment Time: Wednesday, 3:00 PM
Location: Titan Tower, NYC - Floor A1
You will be required to sign an NDA upon arrival.
No representatives. No managers. No exceptions.
...
Her fingers trembled slightly as she leaned back in her chair, the cigarette still between them, now forgotten.
....
AN: Angelina Jolie was a request from a God Tier member. Couldn't refuse. Next will be Megan Fox and Jessica Alba. Also, I've taken some suggestions from you readers and have added to the story. You will see them in the upcoming chs.
[POWERSTONES AND REVIEWS PLS]-
Support link: www.patr eon.com/UnknownMaster
[6 advance chs] + [13 chs of Two and a Half Men: Waking up as Charlie Harper] [All chs available for all tiers]
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