Rowan, single-handedly, crushed the entire Chitauri reinforcement fleet.
The Avengers, who were still locked in battle with the Chitauri soldiers on the ground, froze in shock at the sight.
Hawkeye, Captain America, and Tony Stark those who had actually gotten to know Rowan were completely dumbfounded.
They had never imagined that the usually easygoing Rowan possessed such terrifying power.
Slaughtering aliens as if they were chickens or stray dogs, effortless and merciless.
And those six floating blades… they were utterly monstrous.
Even Nick Fury, hiding beneath a collapsed skyscraper, was left speechless.
Now he finally understood why Rowan had always carried himself with such confidence.
Too strong. Almost absurdly so.
Given time, Rowan might really be able to wipe out every invading alien by himself.
Inside Stark Tower, Shuri who had been observing everything through live surveillance hadn't managed to close her mouth since Rowan had first taken to the sky.
She knew Wakanda was powerful, but compared to these alien invaders? Hardly.
Yet Rowan was dismantling them as easily as chopping vegetables.
If Rowan could do this to the Chitauri… what would Wakanda be in his eyes?
Would he cut them down just as effortlessly?
Shuri couldn't help but shiver. For the first time, she felt thankful that her brother had stopped her from provoking Rowan earlier.
Otherwise, Wakanda would already be a wasteland of corpses, wiped clean without a single survivor.
High above the battlefield, Rowan stood tall atop his pentagonal shield, hovering just beneath the wormhole.
The Chitauri soldiers on their hovercraft hesitated.
They had all seen what those flying blades could do, and fear crawled up their spines. None dared to charge through the wormhole first.
A guttural roar snapped them out of their hesitation.
An elite commander sent a surge of electrical currents through the implants in the soldiers' necks.
The Chitauri trembled, fear twisting their faces.
Their lives were controlled entirely by their overlords.
To falter meant certain death.
Under the shadow of that threat, the army surged forward once again.
Rowan didn't flinch. He shot upward to meet them head-on.
A brilliant purple glow erupted across his body the stored kinetic energy he had absorbed earlier from countless energy blasts.
With a thunderous hum, the very clouds above were blown apart.
The incoming Chitauri never even reached him. In an instant, the shockwave shattered their hovercrafts, ripping their bodies apart. Flaming debris rained down like garbage.
Without pause, Rowan pierced straight through the wormhole, emerging into the cold emptiness of outer space.
Everyone on the ground gasped in unison, their hearts skipping a beat.
He went through?
No one dared believe it.
Was Rowan seriously planning to take on the entire alien fleet by himself?
Even the Avengers, Fury, and the world leaders watching the live broadcast fell into stunned silence.
Rowan soared out of the wormhole, alone, into the starry void.
Thankfully, he had prepared. Shuri and Dr. Helen Cho had recently upgraded his armor, giving it an oxygen reserve that allowed him to breathe in space for up to ten minutes.
"Ten minutes," Rowan muttered. "Plenty of time to pick out a new ship."
Scanning the horizon, his eyes locked on a massive battleship shaped like a scorpion, its sheer size radiating a mountain-like pressure. Smaller escort ships swarmed around it, and dozens of Chitauri whales floated nearby.
The sight of Rowan infuriated the alien troops. They screeched in unison, enraged that a primitive native dared charge their fleet alone.
They swarmed toward him.
Rowan smiled.
Then he moved his speed far beyond anything they could track.
On Earth, he could already break the sound barrier. Out here in the vacuum of space, free of wind resistance and gravity, he accelerated past Mach 5 with ease.
He streaked toward the nearest escort ship, his six S-rank blades carving through Chitauri soldiers along the way.
The weapons slid through their armor as if slicing air itself. Corpses scattered in his wake.
Inside the command deck of the massive battleship, the Chitauri general seethed.
Never had a native dared to breach their fleet so brazenly.
He roared, ordering the escort ships to open fire.
Immediately, the cannons of the Chitauri warships charged, glowing with deadly energy.
Rowan narrowed his eyes.
These weren't the small rifles carried by foot soldiers. The warship cannons packed dozens of times more destructive power.
Even with his vibranium armor, he wasn't certain he could take a direct hit.
No point in gambling.
Better to test it.
Rowan hurled his vibranium shield ahead of him just as a massive beam of blue energy lanced toward him.
The shield intercepted it in a blinding flash.
In the silence of space, there was no sound, only the shockwave of light.
The shield was knocked back hundreds of meters but quickly returned under Rowan's telekinetic control.
"Not even a scratch," Rowan grinned.
He had overestimated them.
Without hesitation, he pushed forward, weaving between blasts, his eyes locked on the escort ship.
The Chitauri commander's fury twisted into disbelief.
That shield… it shrugged off their cannons entirely. What kind of metal was that?
And this human's abilities so much like Ebony Maw's. Could it be?
His confidence wavered.
But by then, Rowan had already driven a blade straight through the escort ship's viewport, tearing open a gaping hole.
The atmosphere vented violently, sucking the crew into the void.
Rowan slipped inside, quickly studying the control deck.
He spotted the controls: a lever and a strange gauntlet.
One hand on the lever, the other slipped into the gauntlet.
The ship responded immediately. The lever adjusted thrust; the gauntlet controlled direction.
Crude, but simple. Perfect.
The Chitauri commander realized too late. The "destroyed" ship suddenly lurched back toward the wormhole.
"Fire!" he roared.
The scorpion warship's main cannon glowed blinding blue.
Rowan was ready.
His shield split into particles, reassembling into a massive umbrella-shaped barrier five meters wide.
The cannon fired. A beam as thick as a tree trunk slammed into the shield.
A flare of light lit up the void.
Rowan felt the ship shudder violently, his shield blasted far away beyond his reach.
But he didn't care.
Full throttle straight through the wormhole.
Blinding light enveloped him, and suddenly he was back above New York.
Rowan immediately guided the stolen ship down toward Central Park.
It was only the size of three or four passenger jets, manageable to land. He clipped a few trees on the way down but the alien alloy held; only scratches marred the hull.
Before the ship even settled, Rowan burst back out through the shattered viewport.
"Shuri, get a team. This ship's yours now," he said over comms.
Shuri's eyes widened, then sparkled with excitement. "On it, boss!"
Meanwhile, the U.N. council members watching from their secure satellites nearly jumped out of their seats. The alien ship was theirs and Rowan was still alive.
But the battle wasn't over. More Chitauri poured from the wormhole.
Rowan only chuckled. The ship was secured. That was enough.
Time to end this.
He streaked toward Stark Tower.
But when he arrived, something was off.
"Where's the scepter?" Rowan muttered.
In the original timeline, Loki had abandoned the Mind Scepter on the rooftop after being beaten by Thor.
Yet his telekinesis swept the area and found nothing.
Then came the sound of chaos from a nearby building.
Rowan turned and froze.
The Hulk was slamming Loki into the floor like a ragdoll, over and over.
And as Loki was flung helplessly, something clattered free.
The golden scepter crashed through glass and plummeted toward the street below.
"There you are," Rowan's eyes lit up.
No effort needed.
With a flick of thought, the scepter halted midair, floating neatly into his hand.
The moment his fingers wrapped around it, a surge of power coursed through him.
His mind blazed. His telekinetic force roared back to full strength, stronger than ever.
The Mind Stone.
For a telepath like him, it was a treasure beyond measure.
Rowan's heart pounded with elation.
He had just claimed the greatest prize of all.
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