14 chapter 14
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Chapter 14
The battle for New York was over.
Thank God. Ash finally realized the final weakness of his new Quirk. It was super draining in terms of Stamina. His body felt like lead as he leaned back on his chair after the surprisingly good Shawarma.
Loki had been captured by Shield along with the tesseract. However the time shenanigans, where the future avengers come back in time to gather the infinity stones did not happen. Which meant that they either failed even worse than when Thanos snaps his fingers or the less likely scenario that Thanos was stopped before he could eradicate half of life in the universe.
"Let's all address the elephant or rather the kid who can turn his entire skin into rock and still move, in the room."
Tony started, speaking to the table. The Shawarma place was intact for the most part, except for the hole through the entrance and the missing windows.
Outside there were numerous reporters, wary to enter the restaurant mostly because of the green mean machine seen entering with the individuals who had saved the day. The Avengers were famous all around the world by now and that made them hot news.
"Don't call me a kid."
Ash protested half heartedly. He was so exhausted.
"Seriously? None of you have anything to say?" Tony shook his head in mock disbelief.
"Is this how the world operates nowadays?" He lazily asked, pretending to stare at his nails.
"I must have been locked away in my lab for too long because last I checked," he turned to Ash, leaning on the table and causing it to crack due to the weight of the armor.
"Minors don't get to put themselves in danger doing suicide missions. An example of which would be...ding ding, stopping an alien invasion."
Tony said obviously.
"He's right."
Captain America agreed with a sigh. Black Widow rolled her eyes.
"Sometimes it's not about age. The kid did well. He had the strength so he used it to save lives."
Immediately Ash was on guard. That... wasn't what he thought Natasha would say.
She said it like she supported him but knowing her past, Ash knew there was a lot to unpack there.
And he also suspected she was only pretending to respect his privacy in order to gain his trust. The fact that Barton was suspiciously silent and closed off meant he was giving Natasha the go ahead to be the good cop to their bad cop. It would have even worked if he hadn't known who he was dealing with.
Ash was getting nervous now. So he decided to act as if none of what they were saying was bothering him. Showing any kind of reaction was equal to their suspicion being justified, followed by an innocent trip to Shield who would be interested in his abilities and then after that, Hydra. Just a snowball of events that he wasn't keen to be a part of. Why can't life be as simple as having good Shawarma and then just resting? Like 10 seconds ago before this conversation started.
"Indeed! The young troll proved his valor in battle." Thor raised his glass of orange juice. There was no beer in the restaurant.
"To Ash, may we fight more glorious battles together, my young friend. Cheers!"
Thor bashed his glass on to Ash's own. Both glasses broke.
"Curse these fragile Midgardian cups!" He yelled in indignation, just as the rest of the Avengers chuckled at his bitterness.
"Tavern keeper! another!"
He called out to the owners.
"Thor, that is not how we treat people who offer us services. Be polite."
Captain America chided.
"Oh." Thor watched as the head chef walked towards them with nervousness coursing through him.
"I apologize, good man for my uncouth behavior. Could you please get me another of this sweet fruit drink!"
The owner sighed in relief.
"Right away. Any friends of Mr.Stark are welcome here."
He bowed and left.
"Wow Tony, seems like you have a good rep around here."
Bruce now in the form of an average harmless looking man commented.
"I'm a business man. It's all in how you interact with people. Oh and nice try by the way Banner, but no changing the subject."
Banner threw an apologetic look Ash's way.
"I just feel like this is not the time for more aggression. We have had enough fighting for one day." Then he added to himself with a haunted look on his face.
"I have had enough."
Tony leaned back with a sigh, crossing his arms on his chest.
"Here's the thing Rocky." Tony struggled.
"I am sorry. I truly am and Banner's right. This is not an interrogation."
"Sure feels like one."
Ash interrupted with a blank expression.
"Touche." Tony continued with ease.
"That doesn't change the fact that we need something. Trust has to be built on something. Telling us why Jarvis couldn't find your face or name in any database on earth is that something."
As one the others turned to stare at Ash. The mood at the table was getting more and more tense.
The teen shrugged without care.
"There are 7 billion people in the world. It's not too outlandish to consider that some might slip by unnoticed. Maybe I'm one of them."
Tony chuckled without humor.
"I concede to the point that you know how to stay levelheaded under pressure but look around you kid. Do you want to kill this camaraderie we have going on now? Tell him boy scout."
Cap threw an annoyed look towards Stark before turning to Ash.
"Loathe as I am to admit it, Tony has a point. We know nothing about you. We have fought together and you have not given us any reason to mistrust you." Steve acknowledged reasonably.
"However, it would help if we knew your intentions."
Ash stiffened in his chair.
However, it wasn't because of the growing interest into his past that the Avengers were having. It was because of the new Ouroboros styled text box that had opened infront of his face. Looking around, the world seemed to have come to a complete halt. A fly that was buzzing Infront of him looked to be suspended in the air. Everywhere his eyes touched, he saw a gray tint to everything. Even the avengers were in a similar situation, frozen in time.
Ash sat up in shock. Trying to get up from the chair however was impossible. It seemed that whatever was exempting him from the time freeze only extended a mere few inches from his current position. He was stuck inside a world that was stuck in time. Oh goodie. More time fuckery.
Atleast he knew who to blame. The blinking box Infront of his vision. Ash brought his fingers up and touched upon the Ouroboros symbol. He felt a brief tingling sensation before the Symbol burst into light and a new one with details took it's place.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
(Welcome To The Marvelous Loop System.)
-The first of it's kind. This system is very straightforward. You are given missions to carry out across the wide expanse of the Multiverse. The rewards match the risks, so there is no difficulty cap to any mission. You might get a godly ability based on how tough the task given is. And to ensure you have the maximum advantage, you have several chances to attempt to complete the mission through controlled time loops. The number of loops you get depend on different variables that you will find out as you progress.
-Complete more loop missions to gain more information about how the Marvelous Loop System works.
-You are permitted to ask one question for every loop Mission you complete.
Move On to the next time loop mission?
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
That explained almost nothing! At the end of the vague description was a question that blinked at second intervals. Did he want to start the next time loop mission? What kind of question was that?! He was tired, hungry, hurt. Of course fucking not! No more time loops until he...wait.
He read the description again. From the phrasing he could understand that if he chose to move on to the next mission, it would probably be in a different world. Far from Marvel. Far from the conversation they were having before the Marvelous Loop System decided to intervene. And what kind of name was that?
The question came down to one thing. What was worse. Dying over and over again to complete an almost impossible task that he had no way of knowing what it could be or trying to outwit a group that had a genius and two master spies? Granted he could tell them the truth but that somehow seemed to be an even worse idea.
Ash decided to bank his decision on the answer he would get from the system, upon using his chance to ask one single question. Everything would depend on that.
"What is the next loop going to be?"
The answer came in fast.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
(Active Missions)
(Prevent the death of Emiya Shirou in the hands of Lancer)
Rewards:
Random high tier treasure.
End of The Loop.
Temporal Units: 60.
Time Loops remaining 35/35.
Commence Loop Mission?
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
A feeling of dread hit Ash. His body shivered in fear at the description of the mission.
Prevent Shiro's death at the hands of Lancer?! Was this stupid system crazy?! They were talking about Cú fucking Chulainn! Let alone prevent Shiro's death, Ash would be smoked the second he appeared between Lancer and his opponent.
Lancer had Ash outmatched in every single category. Be it strength or speed, there was nothing Ash could bring to the table that would hurt or kill the legendary Servant. He wouldn't be surprised if Cú was even able to solo the Avengers themselves. He was a talented warrior who had learned from one of the most formidable individuals in myth. Scáthach.
This task was basically a suicide mission. Ash gulped, his fingers tapping his knees as he leaned into the text box laid out infront of him. He still couldn't believe it. And staring at the text box wasn't going to help, not really.
Ash sighed and waved the text box away. Oh man seems like he now had to explain to the Avengers that the multiverse existed and that he...wait. Ash perked up. An idea had just formed in his mind.
The mission never said anything about killing or defeating Lancer, only preventing Shiro's death and Shiro survived due to making a master-servant contract with King Arthur. Ash only had to ensure that things happened exactly as they did in canon and he was golden.
