A slightly hysterical grin spread across his face. The system notification glowed proudly in his vision: [+500 System Points!] He was rich! Maybe this Truck-kun deal wasn't so bad after all. The initial terror was fading, replaced by a giddy, burgeoning confidence. The Avengers were mopping up. Maybe he could just… help with cleanup. Stay on the periphery, grab a few more points by lifting some debris, and avoid the main event. He'd done enough, right?
The thought was comforting. Safe.
Then the world turned red.
A searing, urgent notification, edged with what looked like digital crimson flames, BLASTED across his vision, overriding everything else. The text was stark, brutal, and utterly terrifying.
[NEW URGENT QUEST: The Cosmic Keystone]
Objective:Neutralize the Asgardian Prince, Loki Laufeyson, and secure the Tesseract.
Reward:Unlock the System Mall (Basic Tier). +1000 System Points.
Punishment for Failure:TOTAL POINT REVERSION. All accumulated System Points (650) will be permanently deleted. Progression of the [IMMORTAL SUPERMAN TEMPLATE] will be temporarily halted. Accept? [Y/N]
Leo's blood didn't just run cold; it flash-froze in his veins. His triumphant grin vanished, replaced by a mask of sheer, unadulterated panic.
Delete his points? All 650 of them? The fruits of his face-plants, his clumsy charges, his near-death experience with a space whale… gone? And his template… halted? He'd be stuck at Level 1, a clumsy, sensory-overloaded noob, in the Marvel Universe. That wasn't a setback. That was a death sentence. The system wasn't offering a quest; it was holding a gun to his head.
"No, no, no, no…" he muttered, his hands clenching in his hair. "That's… that's suicide!"
His head snapped up, eyes wide with fear, scanning the chaos around him for… he didn't know what. A way out? A miracle?
His gaze locked with a pair of sharp, calculating green eyes. Black Widow was twenty yards away, her boot planted on the chest of a downed Chitauri, expertly yanking its rifle away. She'd seen his insane display of strength. She'd seen him tank the Leviathan's tail. And now, she saw the raw, primal terror on his face.
For a split second, their eyes met. She saw a scared kid, not a powerful alien. Her brow furrowed. She didn't know why he'd suddenly gone from whale-punching badass to a deer in headlights, but her instincts were screaming.
"Hey!" she shouted, her voice cutting through the din of dying aliens and crumbling buildings. "Kid! Whatever you're thinking about doing next… be careful!"
But the battle waited for no one. Another wave of Chitauri foot soldiers rounded the corner, their weapons charging. Natasha's warning was all she could offer. She gave him one last, searching look before turning away, her Widow's Bites crackling to life as she engaged the new threat. She left him alone. Alone with the system's ultimatum.
Leo's eyes were dragged upward, toward the pinnacle of Stark Tower. There it was. The source of all this trouble. A pulsating, beautiful, terrifying blue beacon of cosmic power. The Tesseract. And he could just make out the figures converging there. The red and gold of Iron Man touching down. The flash of lightning from Thor. The star-spangled shield of Captain America.
'They've got this,' his inner fanboy pleaded, desperate. 'This is their moment. The big finale. I'm not supposed to be there! I'll mess it up! I'll trip and break the Tesseract or something!'
He could almost hear the epic music swelling.
But superimposed over that image was the system's message, burning in his mind's eye. TOTAL POINT REVERSION.
The fear was paralyzing. But the fear of losing his power, of being reset to zero in this nightmare, was even greater.
A strange calm descended over him. There was no choice. There never had been.
With a sinking heart that felt like a stone in his chest, Leo closed his eyes and sent a mental scream into the void.
"[Y] ACCEPT!"
The red quest notification solidified, a permanent, grim reminder in the corner of his vision. He was going to the top of the tower.
The rooftop of Stark Tower felt a million miles away, a stage for gods and geniuses, and he was just the stagehand who'd tripped over a cable.
Flying was out of the question. His [Sky-Soaring Ascension] was a joke—a wobbly, uncontrolled mess that would make him a floating target for every Chitauri glider in the sky. He'd be swatted out of the air like a bug.
No. He needed a different approach. A direct one.
His eyes, sharpened by \[Heaven's Senses\], scanned the face of the tower. Balconies. Dozens of them, leading up like a ladder for giants. A crazy, suicidal plan snapped into place.
"Screw it," he growled, his fear hardening into a gritty resolve. "Parkour."
He took a running start, his enhanced leg muscles coiling like springs. With a grunt of effort, he launched himself from the street. It wasn't a jump; it was a ballistics launch. He cleared the first ten stories in a single, terrifying arc.
WHUMP!
His feet hit a balcony railing not with a graceful landing, but with the force of a wrecking ball. The reinforced concrete and metal crumpled under his boots like tinfoil. Glass from the panoramic windows exploded inward with a spectacular crash. He didn't pause. The second his feet touched, he pushed off again, a human rocket leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.
CRUNCH-SMASH-BOOM!
He was a one-man demolition crew scaling a skyscraper. Each balcony he landed on was obliterated. Shards of glass and twisted metal rained down onto the streets below, adding a new layer of danger to the battle. He didn't care. The system's punishment was a more terrifying fall than any physical one.
From the ground, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and battling Avengers saw a blur of motion ascending the tower, accompanied by a rhythmic series of explosions of glass and concrete.
"What the hell is that?" Hawkeye muttered over the comms, loosing an arrow at a glider. "Is Stark redecorating?"
Inside the penthouse, the dramatic family spat between Thor, Loki, and the newly arrived Iron Man was reaching its peak. Thor's voice boomed with righteous anger. Loki's smirk was dripping with condescension. Tony's sarcasm was on full blast.
Then, directly outside the shattered wall of the penthouse, there was a sound that dwarfed their arguing. A sound of shearing metal and shattering glass that was way too close.
KABOOM-SMASH!
A figure shot up past the balcony, a blur of denim and sneakers. There was a brief, heart-stopping moment of silence.
Then, two hands grabbed the ragged edge of the demolished balcony floor. With a grunt of effort, a disheveled, panting teenager hauled himself up and over the ledge, tumbling into the room in a clumsy, rolling heap that ended with him flat on his back, staring up at the ornate ceiling.
The sudden, violent intrusion was so absurd, so utterly out of place, that it slammed the brakes on the entire confrontation.
All action froze.
The God of Thunder, his hammer raised mid-argument, fell silent, his mouth slightly agape.
The God of Mischief, his smirk wiped clean away, blinked in genuine, unscripted confusion.
The Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist, his repulsors still glowing, could only stare as his faceplate retracted with a soft hiss.
Three of the most powerful beings on the planet stood in a perfect triangle, all staring down at the panting, dust-covered kid who had just literally crashed their party.
Tony Stark was the first to find his voice, a masterpiece of dry, bewildered sarcasm. "Uh, Cap? You recruiting from the local high school now? Because I'm pretty sure this is a violation of, like, a hundred child labor laws. Kid, this is not your place to play. The VIP section's full."
Loki's shock melted away into delighted amusement. This was a new variable. A deliciously chaotic one. He looked Leo up and down, a cruel, elegant smile playing on his lips. "What is this?" he purred, his voice dripping with mockery. "Do the children of Midgard now flock to my banner? Or are you here to plead for mercy? Speak, little insect."
Thor simply gripped Mjolnir tighter, his brow furrowed in profound confusion. "Another mortal? How did you…? The side of the tower…"
Leo pushed himself up on his elbows, his heart hammering against his ribs like a drum. He was here. He'd made it. And now three legendary figures were staring at him as if he'd just grown a second head. The meta-knowledge in his brain short-circuited. He was living a meme.
He was utterly, completely, and totally out of his depth. The system's quest notification glowed mockingly in the corner of his eye.
[Objective: Neutralize the Asgardian Prince, Loki Laufeyson, and secure the Tesseract.]
Right. He was here to fight the smug, green-and-gold loki currently looking at him like he was a mildly interesting stain on the carpet.