Several days passed, and still, no news from Asgard.
Rumor had it Loki had escaped for good this time.
The whispers claimed that when the Rainbow Bridge was first forged, it created countless natural cosmic junctions, rifts scattered across the realms that could connect Asgard to other worlds. It seemed Loki had found one of these hidden portals and slipped right through.
Somehow, he'd even managed to sever Heimdall's all-seeing gaze. The guardian who could perceive every star and soul across the Nine Realms… could no longer sense Loki's existence at all.
When Thor awoke to the news, the mighty god of thunder was devastated. His morale crumbled. His appetite, too, he could barely finish half a roasted ram these days.
Neither Frigga's gentle words nor any warrior's encouragement could pull him from the gloom.
Loki wasn't just his brother. To Thor, he was… Loki.
Even Mjolnir itself ranked only second in his heart. Jane? Well, she didn't even make the list, unless she was the one wielding Mjolnir, in which case, maybe she'd get honorable mention.
As for Darren, he had neither the hammer's cold glow nor Jane's… warmth. He wasn't qualified for comfort duty.
So he simply sighed, opened his game menu, and activated teleportation, returning to Earth, straight into the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
He stepped out of the shimmering light in front of the main doors, looked around, and, out of pure habit, walked up to a random "lucky car," popped the lock, hotwired the engine, and drove off like he owned the place.
Whole process? Two minutes, tops.
Smooth. Efficient. Criminally casual.
But he had to admit, the teleportation landing point was becoming a real pain.
Every single time he came back from Asgard, it dumped him right in the middle of S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. Not ideal. If he didn't have a mission lined up, it meant wasting time traversing the city just to reach wherever he actually needed to go.
"Yeah, I really need to activate more teleport points," he muttered as he turned onto the freeway. "At this rate, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s going to run out of cars."
With that thought, he hit the gas, heading toward the shining monolith of modern technology, Stark Tower.
...
It wasn't his first visit. Far from it. The last time he'd been here... was the last time he'd been here.
Walking through the sleek lobby, Darren made a beeline for the restroom. There, he reached into his inventory and pulled out his most absurd disguise, the Stan Lee mask.
Darren slipped it on with a smirk.
Stan Lee... was back.
Beneath the mask, he was wearing his Gantz Suit as always, though he'd learned to throw some clothes over it. Tight suits were fine for Matt Murdock, but Darren refused to parade around with his heroic anatomy on display for the whole city.
A few minutes later, he stepped out of the restroom in a perfectly pressed suit and began strolling through the tower, card in hand.
Tony had given him clearance months ago, which meant, unfortunately for Stark Industries, he could now wander wherever he pleased.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Stan Lee!"
Several long-time employees spotted him, smiling politely.
Darren nodded with mock gravity. "Good. Keep it up. Continue shining for the company, I'll be watching."
He walked away like a benevolent ghost of corporate motivation.
The employees stood frozen.
Wait a second...
Wasn't Stan Lee... dead?
One by one, realization dawned, and panic spread like wildfire.
By the time Darren reached the upper levels, Stark Tower had erupted into chaos. Rumors multiplied faster than viruses. Someone said the ghost of Stan Lee had returned to watch over the company. Another swore they'd seen his spirit whisper, "With great stock options comes great responsibility."
At that exact moment, Darren's phone rang.
He answered lazily. "Yo."
Tony's voice crackled through the line, dripping with exasperation.
"You wouldn't happen to be in my tower right now, would you?"
"Uh... how'd you know?"
"Because you're terrible at stealth. The entire building's losing its mind. Half my staff think Stan Lee's ghost has come back to audit their productivity reports. I've got Pepper calling priests, Darren."
Tony sounded on the verge of a breakdown.
He'd just been in the middle of some deep conversational research with Pepper when JARVIS cut in with the news. The mood had died instantly.
"I swear," Tony continued, "you are single-handedly setting back corporate PR by a decade. What are you even doing there?"
"Just looking around," Darren replied innocently.
Tony didn't buy it for a second. He knew better. It had to be Fury. Every time something insane happened, that one-eyed snake was somehow involved.
"Get rid of the mask," Tony groaned. "I'll have Pepper assign someone to show you around properly. No more... haunting my employees."
"Sure thing."
Darren hung up, peeled off the mask, and waited.
A few minutes later, his "guide" arrived, and when she did, Darren blinked in surprise.
"Wait... Gwen?"
There she was, Gwen Stacy, the same blonde assistant he'd worked with back at Oscorp.
"Dr.Darren?!" Gwen exclaimed, just as startled. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same," Darren said, genuinely surprised. "Weren't you still interning at Oscorp?"
Her smile faltered slightly. "I was. But after you vanished... Mr. Osborn came straight to me, demanding to know where you'd gone. I honestly didn't know anything, but he didn't believe me. Fired me on the spot."
"Yikes." Darren winced. "Classic Norman."
She continued, "After that, I heard Stark Industries was starting a new clean-energy initiative, so I applied here. Got lucky, I guess."
"Lucky, huh." Darren rubbed the back of his neck, a tinge of guilt creeping in. "Guess I kinda caused that, didn't I?"
Then he waved it off, grinning. "Don't worry about it. I'm tight with Tony. I'll make sure you get promoted and paid properly. Oh, and drop the 'Doctor Darren' thing. Just call me Darren."
"Uh… okay?" Gwen said uncertainly, clearly not following half of what he'd said.
Still, she smiled politely and began leading him through the building.
Compared to Oscorp's dark, scheming laboratories, Stark Tower felt bright, modern, and weirdly... wholesome.
No shady scientists, no deranged test subjects, no cursed artifacts lying around.
Honestly, it was a little boring.
As they walked, Darren chatted casually, and Gwen gradually loosened up. That's when she mentioned something interesting.
She was still a Midtown High student, same school Peter Parker attended.
"Oh, now that's a coincidence," Darren said, eyes lighting up. "I was just about to swing by Midtown myself. How about you keep being my tour guide there too?"
Gwen blinked. "What? I, I'm not a tour guide!"
But before she could refuse, Darren made a quick call.
Within minutes, Gwen received a message from Pepper Potts herself. Her pay had just been multiplied tenfold for the day, and she was officially being transferred into a "key research internship program."
All she had to do... was accompany Darren wherever he wanted to go.
Gwen lowered her phone slowly, staring at him in disbelief.
"...You absolute capitalist," she muttered under her breath.
Still, ten times the pay and a slot in Stark's research division? Only an idiot would say no.
She exhaled, forced a smile, and nodded.
"Fine. Lead the way, Mr. Capitalist."
Darren grinned. "That's the spirit."
And just like that, the unlikeliest duo set off again, one Midgardian troublemaker, one ex-Oscorp intern, heading toward a high school that never seemed to stop birthing heroes, disasters, and cosmic nonsense.