An air-raid shelter ten kilometers away.

Harley, Christine, and Jason were hunkered down together. Through her spatial perception, Harley sensed the massive reduction in their forces. She didn’t need to guess to know what was happening outside. Her face was contorted with rage and urgency; she wanted to rush out and save them, but the residual damage from Thor’s lightning still racked her body. Furthermore, the repeated long-distance teleports had drained her energy to a critical level—she had, at most, two jumps left.

Those two chances had to be saved for Jason.

As Harley wrestled with her thoughts, Christine’s energy finally bottomed out. Her eyes rolled back, her body swayed, and her arms slipped from Jason’s shoulders.

"No..." Harley reached out to catch her, but having stood still for so long, her legs were numb. She missed Christine and instead stumbled to her knees.

Watching Christine fall backward, Harley felt a wave of despair. It’s over.

Christine’s consciousness blurred as she tipped toward the cold floor. But the expected impact never came; a powerful arm caught her. She forced her eyelids open to see a face that was hazy yet unmistakably familiar.

"Ja... son..."

At the sight of him, Christine’s tears finally spilled over.

"It’s me. I’m sorry. You’ve worked so hard," Jason said softly, his voice full of heartache.

"Honey... you’re finally awake!" Harley sobbed from the ground, wiping her eyes.

Jason turned his head. "Harley, give me a moment."

He closed his eyes, and a massive surge of energy flowed from his body into Christine. Just moments ago, the invisible war within him had concluded. With Christine’s assistance, Jason had continuously manufactured cells to chip away at the Mind Stone’s essence. After a day and a night of grinding down the "Boss," the cells had finally secured a victory.

Jason had now accessed the cosmic energy hidden within the Mind Stone. The Stone itself had lost its luster, reduced to a high-capacity Infinity Power Bank. However, absorbing the energy didn’t mean he had mastered it yet. To use a metaphor: he had captured Godzilla, but the beast was proud and refused to serve its captor. Jason would need significant time to domesticate the power of the Mind.

Still, there were other gains. By merging with a sliver of the Stone’s energy, Jason’s maximum energy capacity was now several times higher than it had been twenty-four hours ago.

The gentle energy enveloped Christine, and her cells greedily absorbed the influx. Her haggard complexion regained its luster and color. Moments later, her depleted reserves were full, and her spirit revived.

Jason tenderly stroked her golden hair. "Rest a bit more."

"Mm!" Christine nodded, as docile as a kitten.

Jason then moved to Harley, replenishing her energy in the same way while Christine moved in to heal her physical wounds. Once both were restored, Jason stood up.

"Let’s go. It’s time to end this."

On the battlefield, Thor sat atop a massive boulder, his eyes vigilantly tracking the captive Joker executives. Though they were exhausted, they were still superhumans, and Thor took no chances. Behind him, the Iron Legion hovered like a dark cloud.

The Joker Organization had lost this round. Their executives were captured, the Hulk Legion was decimated, and over a thousand Joker Suits had been torn to scrap. But SHIELD and the military had paid a heavy price as well.

SHIELD’s star operative, Natasha, had been reduced to a pulp by A-Train. Captain America was missing following the blast, his status unknown. And of the 5,000 Iron Man suits the military had deployed, over sixty percent were destroyed. At a cost of a hundred million dollars per suit... the bill was staggering.

Despite the desperate situation in New York, the remaining 2,000 suits didn’t move an inch. Their objective had always been Jason Walter. Even though Thor had killed him, they knew that with a villain like Jason, nothing was certain until a body was found.

A soldier landed near Thor and handed him an earpiece. "Sir, the Director wants a word."

Thor put it in. "Report."

Fury was in the lab, staring intently at a monitor. "The scan is almost finished. Commencing countdown."

Thor stood up and gripped Mjölnir, his expression turning solemn.

"Five!"

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

BEEP BEEP!

The scan was complete.

Thor waited, but the other end of the line went dead silent. He felt a cold dread creep into his chest. "Fury? What is it?"

After a long pause, Fury’s voice came through, low and gravelly. "Motherfucker..."

"Speak! What happened?"

"The scan... it’s nothing," Fury muttered.

"What?" This was the last thing Thor expected. "How can it be nothing? Is the equipment broken?"

No matter how arrogant Thor was, he didn’t believe for a second that he had destroyed an Infinity Stone with one hammer strike. Those stones were remnants of the Big Bang; they were the absolute laws of the universe. His hammer would shatter before a Stone did.

As Thor prepared to press for more answers, a cold, calm voice spoke from behind him.

"What exactly is broken?"

"The Gamma scanners!" Thor snapped back irritably, and then... he froze.

He spun around.

There stood Jason, flanked by Christine and Harley. He didn’t have a single scratch on him. Time seemed to stand still as the atmosphere turned heavy enough to suffocate.

After a moment of pure shock, Thor leaped back, raising Mjölnir high.

RUMBLE!

Thunderclouds gathered instantly. "Jason. I knew you weren’t dead!"

"I appreciate the vote of confidence," Jason replied dryly.

He raised a single hand toward the sky, and an arched energy shield materialized.

KRA-KOOM!

A silver bolt of lightning struck the shield with a roar, but when the flash faded, the barrier remained perfectly intact.

Thor’s heart tightened. Jason hadn’t just survived—he had grown significantly stronger.

"A rather bloody battlefield, isn’t it?" Jason said, glancing around as if he were simply surveying a minor property dispute.

Harley seized the moment to complain: "The Joker and Hulk Legions were wiped out. Our comrades are all down... Thor did all of it!"

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You can read advance Chapters and view R-18 images of the characters on pat reon page.

pat reon.com/GreenBlue17

500 power stones.

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