[A/N]: Here's your weekly regular chapter. Let's set the goal at 250 Power Stones and unlock two bonus chapters - comment, share, and you know the drill đâ¨
Jay tried to breathe. In. Out. In. Out. Control.
Anger and reality manipulation weren't a great combination. Light flickered across his hands again, responding to his emotions. Buildings in his peripheral vision bent slightly, their geometry warping at the edges.
"Control it," he muttered. "Franklin's godfather doesn't get to unmake Manhattan because he's pissed off."
The light dimmed as reality snapped back into place, and Jay's breathing evened out.
Then pain lanced through his skull.
A crack formed at the corner of his right eye, spreading across his temple.
"Shit."
Jay touched his temple. His fingers came away clean, but the sensation was unmistakable. The adaptive containment was holding, but barely. Using Franklin's power, even passively, was pushing his limits.
He'd need to be careful. Every use of the reality-warping power widened the cracks a little more. Darwin's adaptation was holding, but it wasn't infinite. Push too hard, too fast, and he'd shatter from the inside out.
The crack pulsed as a warning.
He needed to wrap this up. Fast.
But he couldn't just snap and undo everything. Couldn't erase the invasion, though the temptation was there.
But the Earth and the heroes would lose all the progress they'd made. The team forming in fire and blood. The bonds being forged. And more importantly, Loki had already announced his claim to Earth across the known universe.
The milk was spilled. No putting it back in the carton, especially with his worsening condition.
So, Jay had to make the most of it.
He snapped his fingers again.
'SNAP'
Reality melted back to normal as the impossible geometry straightened, colors that had no names faded, and Manhattan's streets returned to Euclidean sanity.
Everyone who'd been experiencing vertigo suddenly found their inner ears working properly again.
The Chitauri stumbled mid-flight, their chariots wobbling as normal physics reasserted itself. Several crashed into buildings they thought were a hundred feet away, but turned out to be five feet closer.
Civilians on the streets gasped as some fell to their knees, vomiting, and others just stood there, tears streaming, not sure if they'd just had a stroke or witnessed God.
Even Thor looked shaken, one hand pressed to his temple. "By the Norns... reality itself bent to his will."
& finally, Jay's appearance shifted.
His scorched purple shirt and torn jeans dissolved, replaced by something that made every empire watching sit up and take notice.
White. Pure white of stars burning at their core. A three-piece suit, tailored with impossible precision.
Beneath it, a black shirt, dark as the void between galaxies and a red tie, the exact shade of a dying star's final pulse.
Clear aviator glasses materialized on his face, lenses reflecting not the world around him but something deeper. Something cosmic.
The rainbow light was still there, but it was contained now, no longer cascading wildly.
{Compulsory to see the Image here}
Jay reached out with his technomorphing power, hijacking the quantum broadcast network Loki had used. But he pushed it further. Not just the Nine Realms or just the empires that had been watching.
Every civilization with the technology to receive it. Every species capable of spaceflight. Every empire and warlord that might consider Earth easy prey.
They were all tuned in now.
Then he turned his full attention to Loki.
"Loki Odinson," Jay's voice carried across Manhattan and beyond, through every speaker and device, rippling through space itself. His tone was conversational, almost friendly. Like he was discussing the weather with an old acquaintance. "The bastard son of Odin Borson the Allfather, claiming dominion over Midgard with a borrowed army."
There was poison in those words. Mock sympathy wrapped around contempt.
Loki's face went rigid. His theatrical confidence cracked further as his eye twitched. "You dare..."
"The Jotun prince," Jay continued, not letting Loki finish. "Who pledged his loyalty to the Mad Titan. And in exchange for what? These mindless Chitauri? Talk about falling from grace. From Prince of Asgard to Thanos's errand boy."
The words landed like piercing arrows. Every hero, every villain and every empire watching saw Loki's mask slip and saw the shame and rage he'd been hiding.
"ENOUGH!" Loki's voice cracked. The word came out strangled, higher-pitched than intended. His composure, already fraying and threatened to snap entirely. "You MORTAL! You may have used some cheap trick to steal that power you have, but I am a GOD, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by..."
While Loki spoke, his image began to shimmer. A telltale sign everyone had learned to recognize. His classic Illusion.
The real Loki materialized behind Jay, scepter already thrusting forward. The blade aimed directly at Jay's heart, just like it had done to Clint. The same killing blow that had worked less than an hour ago.
"JAY, BEHIND YOU!" Steve's voice cracked with urgency.
"MOVE!" Tony's repulsors tried to charge, but his power was drained.
Natasha's face went white. She was seeing it happening again. "NO! NOT AGAIN!"
Even Thor moved, Mjolnir already spinning, but he was too slow.
The scepter's blade punched through Jay's back and emerged from his chest. Clean through the heart. The same wound that had killed Clint Barton.
Loki's face split into a triumphant grin. "Cheap tricks and borrowed power mean nothing against..."
Jay reached up calmly and grabbed the blade protruding from his chest.
His expression hadn't changed. He just looked mildly annoyed.
"That's your opening move?"
He pulled the scepter through his chest. Not out the way it came but forward. The blade slid through his body like he was made of water, offering no resistance. Blue blood from previous kills still stained the metal, Chitauri ichor mixing with Clint's dried red. But no fresh crimson joined it.
Jay yanked the scepter free and held it up, examining it with the critical eye of someone appraising a substandard product.
His white suit was still pristine. Not even a hole where the blade had passed through. The fabric had simply decided not to be damaged.
Loki's triumph curdled. Confusion flickered across his face, then disbelief, then dawning horror as his mind tried to process what he'd just witnessed.
"Points for persistence," Jay said. He twirled the scepter like a baton, the deadly weapon becoming a prop in his hands. "wanna try again?"
He offered the scepter back to Loki.
The God of Mischief took it with shaking hands. His fingers trembled against the shaft. His breathing had gone shallow, rapid.
This wasn't possible.
That blade had pierced a mortal's heart and should have been instantly fatal.
But this human stood there, unharmed, offering him the weapon back like they were playing a friendly game.
What was this creature?
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