A Saiyan Needs Companionship
With the Super Saiyan transformation unlocked, Jax felt an unsettling calm. He was ready for the Chitauri, which was months away. This newfound downtime meant his focus had to shift back to his civilian life and the System's agenda. He couldn't be the world's savior if he couldn't even manage a dinner date.
"AI, current relationship status check on Janie Carter," Jax requested, cooling down after a high-gravity workout. "I need to make genuine progress with her. She's too grounded to fall for just money."
"Janie Carter's Relationship Status: Amused Respect (75% Friendship / 25% Romantic Interest). Current hurdle: She perceives you as an eccentric, wealthy dilettante—a tourist in her working-class reality.
Recommendation: Show consistent, practical commitment to her world—protecting the neighborhood is an excellent shared activity," the AI replied.
"Protecting the neighborhood it is. Tonight, AI, we are going on a low-profile, crime-fighting date."
The Landlord and the Late-Night Patrol
Jax knocked on the door of Janie's apartment. She opened it, and Jax was momentarily stunned. While Janie usually dressed in comfortable sweatshirts and jeans, tonight she had made a slight effort. Her dark hair was pulled back into a messy, practical ponytail, highlighting the sharp, intelligent angles of her face. She wore a simple, dark olive-green military-style jacket and dark jeans, emphasizing her athletic figure. Her blue eyes, normally filled with a skeptical, piercing intelligence, held a warmer, expectant glint tonight. She was, in a word, effortlessly gorgeous—the kind of practical beauty that radiated competence.
"Jax," she greeted, a slight, knowing smirk playing on her lips. "Ready for our 'Neighborhood Security Consultation'?"
"Absolutely, consultant," Jax replied, quickly recovering his composure. "I bought the snacks." He held up a bag containing hot pretzels and two massive cups of coffee.
They set off, patrolling the quieter, older parts of their Brooklyn neighborhood. Janie pointed out weaknesses in security, talked about her ambitions to join the FBI, and voiced her frustration with the systemic issues in the city. Jax listened, genuinely engaged, for once not thinking about intergalactic conflict.
As they walked past an old warehouse, they heard shouting. Two thugs were shaking down a visibly terrified owner of a small liquor store, using intimidation and a length of pipe.
Janie's posture immediately tightened. Her training kicked in. "Stay back, Jax. I'm calling this in, but we need to distract them."
"Too slow," Jax murmured. Before Janie could object, he moved. He didn't use Ki or super speed; he used the Gate of Babylon and his perfect Saiyan reflexes.
He quickly materialized a handful of miniature, high-powered smoke grenades (Noble Phantasm: The Non-Lethal Tactical Diversion). With three lightning-quick, baseball-pitching motions, the grenades landed, filling the alley with thick, non-toxic, strawberry-scented smoke.
The thugs, momentarily blinded and choking on the surprisingly sweet smell, were disoriented. Jax, using the cover, zipped through the smoke, pulling a pair of miniature stun cuffs from the Gate. He slammed the cuffs onto their wrists with precise force, rendering them unconscious without ever touching them physically.
The smoke cleared. The liquor store owner stared, bewildered but safe. The two thugs were neatly cuffed and unconscious.
"What... what just happened?" Janie gasped, staring at the perfectly restrained criminals. "That was... professional. And what was that smell? Strawberry?"
"Advanced tactical defense," Jax said, dusting his hands off. "It's all about non-lethal deterrents. And yes, strawberry scent. Psychologically disarming."
Janie looked at the complex, glowing blue stun cuffs, then at Jax. Her suspicion was at war with her undeniable admiration.
[A.I.S. Harem Quest Progression: Shared Danger.]
[Janie Carter's Relationship Status: Shared Adrenaline (90% Trust / 10% Attraction). New Quest Unlocked: A Date Without Guns (Now with 10% increased success rate!).]
The Brilliant Mind and the Cosmic Check..
The next day, Jax changed into his bespoke suit again, focusing on advancing his intellectual connection with Dr. Lily Chen. He found her in her tiny, cluttered NYU lab, staring intently at complex equations on a whiteboard. She was wearing thick-rimmed glasses that made her look both studious and incredibly appealing, a few strands of brown hair loose from her bun.
Lily didn't look up when he entered. "The five million check cleared, Mr. Ryder. Thank you. Now, explain this kinetic discharge anomaly you mentioned. It doesn't fit the standard Bifrost signature."
"It doesn't fit because you're calculating for a standard Asgardian war-hammer," Jax explained, leaning on a lab bench. "You need to factor in the Primordial Ki resonance I generated when I bypassed the hammer's worthiness enchantment. That energy pulse creates a temporal distortion, which is why your sensors are picking up an echo."
Lily finally looked up, her blue eyes wide with a manic excitement that only true physicists possess. "Primordial Ki? Temporal distortion? You're either a complete lunatic or you have data that could rewrite the entire standard model!"
"I prefer 'well-funded hobbyist'," Jax chuckled. He then pulled out a small, complex holographic device from the Gate of Babylon. It displayed a 3D visualization of the early universe, complete with intricate energy pathways and a clear diagram of the Nine Realms' cosmic structure.
"This," Jax said, tapping the hologram, "is a Simulated Multiversal Map (S.M.M.). It illustrates the actual energy flow between the realms, not the mythological version. Notice the faint 'bleed' between the established MCU continuum and this secondary... 'Saiyan Plane'."
Lily snatched the device, her fingers flying over the holographic interface. Her mind, racing a million miles an hour, was trying to reconcile the data with everything she knew. "This is impossible! The physics... the energy scaling is flawless, yet I've never seen any of these constants! You aren't just rich; you're cosmically informed!"
"I told you, Dr. Chen," Jax smiled. "I'm interested in things that don't exist in this dimension. We need to work together to understand the forces hitting Earth, especially the ones that glow blue and hint at another invasion."
[A.I.S. Harem Quest Progression: Intellectual Stimulation.]
[Dr. Lily Chen's Relationship Status: Overwhelming Scientific Fascination (80% Intellectual Interest / 20% Personal Intrigue). New Quest Unlocked: Debunk the Multiverse (Progress: 15%).]
A Date with Danger (Agent Hill)
Jax knew his approach to Agent Maria Hill needed to be entirely different. No charm, no foosball, no scientific mumbo-jumbo. Only leverage and genuine threat assessment.
Jax received an encrypted message on his flip phone: "Meet me at the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house, Pier 46. Alone. - M.H."
Hill was waiting for him inside the safe house—a sparsely furnished, windowless room. She was in full tactical gear, looking even more formidable than before. Her dark hair was neatly pinned, and her expression was pure, professional steel. She was utterly captivating in her intensity.
"You have five minutes, Ryder," Hill stated, folding her arms. "Fury wants to know how you know about the Tesseract and the eyepatch. Stop playing games. What organization do you work for?"
Jax leaned against the wall, projecting the absolute confidence of a man who could evaporate the entire building. "I don't work for anyone, Agent Hill. I told you, I'm a cleaner. And I didn't come here to explain myself; I came to give you a warning."
He lowered his voice, delivering the information that would cement his value. "That glowing blue cube—the Tesseract—it's a very powerful doormat. Fury is going to use it to create weapons. That's a mistake. The cube is going to attract a certain person: a pale, sickly man with a large gold staff who is very, very good at making people fight each other. He's coming soon. You need to focus on securing that cube, not weaponizing it."
Hill's face remained neutral, but her eyes betrayed her shock. This was classified information known only to the highest levels of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the World Security Council.
"You're referring to Loki," Hill stated. "But how do you know our internal usage plans?"
"I'm a hobbyist," Jax deadpanned. He then pulled a small, silver object from the Gate of Babylon: a universal data decryption key (Noble Phantasm: The Omni-Tool Key). "Here. This will give you access to a fully encrypted, anonymous drive I've set up. It contains data on future alien threat vectors and optimal defense strategies. Use it. Trust me, the fate of the world depends on you not making that alien a God-king."
Jax tossed the key onto the table and walked toward the exit.
"Why are you doing this?" Hill demanded.
Jax paused at the door. "Because someone has to keep the Earth safe. And I like the pizza here. Call me when the golden guy with the staff shows up."
He didn't wait for a reply, using Instant Transmission to vanish from the room, leaving behind only a faint, subtle trace of Ki—just enough for Hill's sensors to confirm he was something entirely outside their classification.
[A.I.S. Harem Quest Progression: Dangerous Intrigue.]
[Agent Maria Hill's Relationship Status: Intense Professional Caution (50% Suspicion / 50% Asset Value). New Quest Unlocked: Reveal a Classified Secret (Progress: 25%).]
Jax smiled. The pieces were in place. He had the power, the resources, and now, the human connections that would anchor him in the Marvel Universe. The Chitauri were coming, and he wouldn't be fighting alone.