I was mid-bite when something pinged at the edge of my telepathic awareness. It was another subskill I had been working on, and Jean had shown me how to fine-tune it earlier that morning. When you stripped away the actual words and coherent thoughts emanating from people—focusing only on impressions and metaphysical weight—you could extend your sensory field to a ridiculous range. Pair that with my wind manipulation, and I was cooking with grease.
"Dante?" Jean called beside me at the table we'd set up in the backyard.
We had spared no expense for the celebratory feast: a massive spread of pancakes, bacon, orange juice, and fruit that the little mutant munchkins, the X-Men, the Widows, and the Avengers could dig into. Daredevil had declined the invitation, but everyone else was here, cutting into their food. I had even ordered a vegan alternative—as abominable as that sounds—for vegetarian guests. Colleen Wing, apparently, was one of them. How she managed to fight the way she did while surviving on legumes, grain, and processed protein was nothing short of miraculous.
"Yeah, I sense her too," I said, standing from my seat and wiping my mouth. "I suppose I should invite her down for a spot of breakfast."
"Something going on?" Logan asked.
"Some unwanted guest," Jean explained. "Very powerful. They may be looking for a fight."
"Never a dull moment with you, is there?" Yelena muttered.
"It's a blessing and a curse," I said.
"Widows," Yelena called to the women scattered around the table. "Get ready for a fight."
They moved on instinct, drawing blades, knives, and guns from bags and hidden holsters, while Scott turned to the kids.
"Get inside," he ordered. "The wards the sorcerers set up should protect you."
I snapped my fingers, opening a portal. "Better yet—let's not tempt fate."
Scott looked hesitant, but eventually gave in. I turned to Yelena, the Widows, and the rest of the group.
"That goes for everyone except the heavy hitters."
Everyone looked miffed—the Widows especially.
"Isn't this what you hired us for?" one of them asked.
"Not this time," I said. "If things don't go our way, you'll be dead before you even realize it."
"And you're in no danger yourself?" Scott demanded.
"No, not really," I replied. "I can manipulate time, remember? But even I have limits."
I turned to Rin and Jean. "Whenever you're both ready."
Rin hefted his hammer onto his shoulder, while Jean raised her hand. Several floating daggers materialized in a flash of red fire, accompanied by ten glowing rings.
"Wait," Scott called. "I'm the leader of the X-Men team. I should be up there with you."
I opened my mouth, ready to shut him down, when Jean placed a hand on my shoulder. We shared a look, and I sighed before shrugging.
"You can come," Jean said, "but you have to let us do the talking. Captain Marvel is strong—probably stronger than anyone we've faced so far."
The fear settled over him like a physical weight.
I went back and forth with everybody before we eventually agreed. As the last of the expanded team vanished into the portal, I snapped my fingers again, producing a platform of solid metal for Rin to stand on. Then, I opened a second portal beneath us, leading several dozen miles in the direction of the Captain.
We appeared mid-air, and Scott—impressively—needed only a few seconds to adjust. He emitted a powerful thrum of red kinetic and heat energy to keep himself afloat. His clothes burned away at the sudden ignition, the wind tossing his hair, but the Twilight Vibranium undersuit I had passed out to everyone in my employ held firm.
I wore a silver version under my own clothes, loosely modeled after Rin's. Chunks of flexible adamantium were concentrated around the vitals, giving it a metallic sheen. My outer clothes and shoes were less impressive, infused with vibranium patterns from the aberrations in Antarctica.
The suit could tank a .50 caliber rifle round without a scratch, but Captain Marvel was several magnitudes stronger than that. Wasn't she?
She streaked across the morning sky in a rainbow blur that would have been nearly invisible from the ground. I narrowed my eyes, calling up Death Symphony, my second Transcendent skill, and activated the Predator's Gaze subskill—its secondary function letting me zero in on a target and suss out weaknesses.
There were none.
What I did sense, in perfect clarity, was the depth of her strength.
It was boundless, like the ocean.
No surprise there. She had gained her power from an accident with an Infinity Stone, strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Thanos when he wielded multiple Stones—and she had nearly won. She had reignited a sun, for Christ's sake.
I didn't stand a chance in base form. Not without my armor. Not without my Devil Trigger.
Captain Marvel's eyes flicked up, locking onto mine, and she accelerated before halting a few dozen feet away in the air. My passive telepathic senses confirmed she had some sort of mental shield active, courtesy of her powers.
"I'd invite you down for breakfast," I said, "but you might scare the children with that glare."
Her body burned with orange, blue, and red light.
"Don't you think it's smarter to ease off the wisecracks?" Scott said stiffly. "Considering what Jean just told us about her?"
I grinned. "Where's the fun in that? She's either going to fight us or she isn't. I doubt a few jokes are enough to set her off."
Rin nodded. "Besides, it's part of the boss's process."
Captain Marvel studied me for a long moment. It was anyone's guess what she was looking for—weakness, information about the missing Infinity Stone, or something related to the demons prowling the wider universe.
"You're exactly like him," she finally said, "but different in so many ways."
"Who?" Scott asked.
"Vergil," Jean supplied.
"Thanks?" I said.
"Fury told me a lot about you," Captain Marvel said.
"All good things, I hope?"
"Not particularly," she replied. "He's eager to work with you, but he remembers what you are."
"A misunderstood ally?"
"A serpent always angling for profit," she said.
"Not all of us can be a moral paragon like you, Carol," I said lightly. "Flying across the galaxy, tearing down empires."
She raised a brow. "Fury warned me about your little trick…"
"My trick?"
"Throwing people off balance by knowing things about them. Demon mind-magic doesn't work on me."
My lips quirked. "I thought you said Fury told you about me. What I have is honest-to-god clairvoyance. Are you going to see Monica and Maria this time around? Or are you going to dip out after handling the situation?"
Still, it was kind of flattering that Fury dragged her halfway across the universe to deal with me. I suppose it was appropriate, considering what I could do.
The light around her flared, and I chuckled. Jean shifted uncomfortably, and Scott glared at me. Rin remained unbothered.
"So—are we done here?" I asked. "I've got breakfast waiting, forging work to finish, and a meeting to prep for. In case you haven't heard, I'm putting a proposal to the World Council."
"I did hear," she said, the glow around her dimming, "and it's only right that I present them with an alternative. You've operated unchecked long enough."
I hadn't expected that. The movies portrayed her as a skirmisher at best, a wrecking ball at worst—smashing through whatever her allies set before her. To see her commit like this? It was fascinating. It made me reconsider what I thought I knew.
"You're a walking sun, yes," I said, "but you can't match what I'm offering."
She smiled faintly. "Can't I? There's a galaxy of knowledge and allies one space jump away."
"You're willing to risk the planet like that?" My eyes widened. If she initiated interplanetary trade, everyone would come sniffing. The Kree, the Sovereign, lunatic warlords, demon factions, Thanos…I already had more than enough on my plate. "I'll be the one cleaning up the mess when you fly off to save the Kree or chase some other lost cause."
Her expression hardened as she folded her arms. "Not this time. I'm here to stay. Leaving Earth defenseless—or reliant on one compromised demon—is just as bad. I'm not backing off."
"And what about the Skrulls?" I demanded. "You made them a promise."
"One I've already fulfilled," she said, surprising me.
"You're assuming you'll win the bid," I countered. "I just saved the world for a second time."
"The Media doesn't seem to think so," Carol said. "They're eating you alive. With Fury's backing and my military history, the deal is good as mine."
"I'd say something cliché like you have no idea who you're dealing with, but you probably have some idea since you met my brother," I said. "So instead, I'll say this: Fury should've put on his big boy pants and dealt with me directly. Now, I'll handle the fallout of the global disaster however I see fit—and believe me, he won't like it."
"Is that a threat?" she asked, drifting closer.
"Stating facts," I replied. "If SHIELD is going to look out for itself, then so are we."