NOVEL NEXT Chapter 326: Tony Stank
— — — — — —
"If you ever need help, just come find me."
"Also, you're always welcome to visit Kamar-Taj."
With those words, the Ancient One stepped through the dimensional portal and left the domain space Renzo had created.
"Huh... Interesting. This went way smoother than I expected. But hey, no complaints!" Renzo grinned.
Truth be told, he wasn't looking to clash with the Ancient One. If they could get along peacefully, that was ideal.
"Now then, time to start analyzing this thing."
He looked at the Mind Scepter in his hand and immediately began trying to break it down.
The scepter itself was easy. In no time, he'd figured out the magical runes and the materials it was made from.
But the real challenge was the Mind Stone.
Who knew how long that would take to decipher?
This thing was basically a crystallized form of an entire law of mind—it wasn't going to give up its secrets easily.
Still, analyzing just the basic psychic energy inside it wasn't too hard for Renzo. He managed that in just a few minutes.
...
"Next step—make a fake."
"Hmm… maybe all I really need is an empty shell. I can extract the psychic energy from the Mind Stone and inject it into the replica. That's the most efficient way to do it."
No sooner thought than done—Renzo got right to work.
Using Fantasy Creation, he burned through a third of his mental energy to craft a fake gem that looked almost identical to the original Mind Stone.
Then he stuck the shell onto the actual Mind Stone and used his Origin Power to force a connection, drawing the psychic energy out and channeling it into the copy.
"…Huh? What's this? Thanos's spiritual imprint?"
During the transfer, Renzo noticed something odd within the Mind Stone and quickly realized what it was.
"Should I just erase it?"
"…No. That'd probably alert Thanos. But… can I transfer it into the replica instead?"
"Let's try."
And just like that, Renzo got to it.
Maybe it was because his spiritual power far surpassed Thanos's. Maybe it was the high purity of his Origin Power. Either way, the process went surprisingly smoothly.
It only took him two minutes to move Thanos's spiritual imprint from the real Mind Stone to the fake one.
Then he spent another ten-plus minutes filling the replica with psychic energy. He managed to load it with about a tenth of the original stone's total psychic power.
But that didn't mean the fake had one-tenth the power of the original.
After all, the Infinity Stones were called infinite for a reason—as long as they stayed in their native universe, their energy supply was limitless.
It was only their capacity that had limits.
The replica obviously didn't have that kind of ability.
Next, Renzo moved on to the swap—replacing the real Mind Stone in the scepter with the fake.
Thanks to his complete understanding of the scepter's mechanics, this step was a breeze.
He pulled it off effortlessly.
Then, with a wave of his hand, he swapped this altered scepter with the one in the main universe.
And just like that, the real Mind Stone was secretly replaced.
"Only the Space Stone left… but I'll need to be careful with that one. Can't rush it or people will notice." After securing the Mind Stone inside his Takamagahara domain, Renzo turned his gaze toward the Space Stone not far away and muttered quietly.
It wasn't a matter of not having the strength.
He just didn't want the hassle.
If he were to just grab the Space Stone—or the Mind Stone—in front of the whole world, do you really think S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, or all those governments wouldn't start bothering him nonstop?
— — —
Meanwhile, inside a certain Pentagon office…
"These people are too dangerous!"
"Agreed. Completely uncontrollable."
"Launch a nuke?"
"Seconded!"
"No objections!"
Several top U.S. officials casually reached a consensus—to nuke New York.
---
Back on the Helicarrier, two pilots received urgent orders. They dashed to the hangar and began prepping a fighter jet armed with a nuclear missile.
"Sir! Pilots are prepping for takeoff—they've got a nuke on board!"
Hill received the report and looked stunned as she turned to Nick Fury.
"What?! Order them to stand down immediately!"
Fury's face darkened.
Just a short while ago, the UN Security Council had floated the idea of nuking New York. He had firmly shot that down. But now? These people went behind his back anyway.
What pissed him off even more—some of his own subordinates had acted without orders.
That was unacceptable.
Nick Fury was a man who had to be in control.
He silently vowed: when this was over, it was time for a serious purge.
"It's too late! We can't reach the pilots—comms are down! What do we do?" Hill shouted, visibly anxious.
"…Leave it to me!"
Fury's face darkened as he stormed out of the control room. He quickly reached a hatch leading to the deck, where a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent handed him a rocket launcher.
He yanked open the hatch, aimed at the jet that was just taking off—and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Fwoooosh!
A streak of fire shot out from the launcher, and with a BOOM, it nailed the aircraft midair, blasting it out of the sky and sending it crashing toward the ground.
Fury finally let out a breath of relief.
FWOOOM!
But before he could relax, a second jet roared into the sky.
Fury burst out onto the deck again and immediately whipped out his sidearm, unloading bullets at the ascending fighter.
But it was too late.
"Motherf*****!!!"
Fury couldn't hold it in anymore and let out a furious string of curses. Then, through his earpiece, he barked into the comms:
"Hill! Contact Tony right now! Tell him a nuclear missile is heading for New York!"
"Yes, sir!"
— — —
One minute later—
"Huh?!"
Tony Stark's voice came through, confused and pissed.
"A nuke?! Are you kidding me? Who the hell gave that order? Are they insane?!"
"There are still millions of people in the city who haven't evacuated!"
"And it's not like we haven't already contained the alien invasion! What the hell are they thinking?! Is their brain full of crap?!"
Tony was livid.
"I know how you feel, but this isn't the time to argue!" Hill was equally frustrated, but she kept her cool. "Tony, you guys need to come up with something. Or maybe ask Renzo? I mean, if he could make an entire Chitauri army vanish like that, maybe he has a way to deal with this too! Space ability, maybe?"
"Fine! I'll ask him! But this isn't over!" Tony snapped and cut the comms. His suit roared to life as he shot into the sky, heading straight for Renzo.
He also switched to the Avengers' shared channel: {"Hey, heads up! Hill just told me a nuclear missile is on its way to New York. Gear up! I'm going to check with that Ice Guy!"}
"What?!"
"A damn nuke?!"
"Have they lost their minds?!"
"Who gave that order?!"
Natasha, Captain America, and the others all exploded with disbelief.
"My thoughts exactly." Tony shrugged midair.
Yeah, no way he was letting this go.
"Ice Guy? Man, that's such a lame name. Just call me Renzo Theon! Well, forget Theon, just Renzo. And uh... I heard everything you guys said. Leave the nuke to me—it's no big deal!"
At that moment, all of the Avengers heard Renzo's voice in their heads.
"…What the hell??!" Tony and the rest were stunned.
Thor, being the most experienced with the weird and magical, simply said, "Telepathy? Or maybe some kind of transmission spell? Impressive either way!"
"Telepathy? Magic?" Tony hovered midair, frowning in disbelief. "This world's just getting weirder by the day. First aliens, now gods… and magic? Seriously?"
He was having a hard time wrapping his head around it all.
"Eh, call it what you want—just a basic trick using psychic energy. No big deal," Renzo replied with a light laugh.
Tony: "…"
Thor: "…"
Natasha: "…"
"…You're totally showing off, aren't you?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you can handle a nuke? That's not something you screw around with, Ice Guy."
Honestly, Tony was starting to get really curious about Renzo.
More importantly, he wanted to figure out the logic behind "magic."
Maybe it was just another branch of science?
"Relax. Leave it to me… Mr. Stank." Renzo shot back without missing a beat.
Did this guy really think Renzo wouldn't bite back?
Tony: "..."
"…It's Stark! S-T-A-R-K! Ugh, whatever. Mr. Renzo, it is."
Tony gave up and changed the subject. "By the way, do you have any ideas on how to deal with this space portal? We can't just keep fighting like this—it's endless!"
Yeah, the guy was strong. Better to play nice.
Getting flash-frozen by this lunatic wouldn't be fun.
"I've got it!" Natasha chimed in at that moment. "Dr. Erik Selvig! He said he built a backdoor into the device! We can use Loki's scepter to shut it down! I already have it in hand—we'll be able to shut the whole thing down soon!"
"Oh?"
"Awesome!"
"Nice job, Nat!"
"What are we waiting for?!"
Everyone lit up with excitement.
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PS: I made a new auxiliary chapter that lists all the Renzos and their worlds. Just a heads-up—it includes all of them, so that means little spoilers.