"You want me to attack you?"
On Utopia Island, Professor X had just ended a call with Nick Fury when Noah Vale's request left him genuinely stunned.
"That's right," Noah said calmly into the phone. "Use your telepathy. Push it as hard as you can—try to break my mind if you have to. That would actually help me."
There was a long pause on the other end.
Charles had heard strange requests before, but never anything like this.
Lately, Noah's physical strength had been improving at an exponential rate—every gain feeding into the next like a snowball rolling downhill. But his mental resilience wasn't keeping up. It wasn't that his mind was weak—it just wasn't scaling fast enough.
So he'd found a workaround.
If natural growth wasn't enough, he'd force it.
And there was no better pressure test than the world's most powerful telepath.
"You realize how reckless that sounds?" Charles said slowly.
Noah chuckled. "Or maybe you've been playing it too safe with your abilities. You can control minds, sure—but you've barely explored offensive applications. Think of this as training for both of us."
A beat.
"And hey," Noah added lightly, "keeping your brain active might help stave off dementia."
Charles, who was very much not young anymore, let out a quiet sigh.
"…Fine," he said at last. "But if anything goes wrong, I'm stopping immediately."
"No holding back," Noah replied. "And don't go digging through my memories. Trust me—you don't want that."
The moment the words left his mouth, it hit.
A crushing psychic force surged across miles in an instant and slammed into Noah's mind.
It was overwhelming. Violent. Precise.
It didn't probe—it attacked.
But Noah didn't resist.
His consciousness held steady, like a jagged rock standing against relentless waves. The pressure came in crashing tides, again and again, but he remained anchored.
Pain flared behind his eyes—sharp, invasive, impossible to ignore.
Good.
He steadied his breathing, letting the assault run its course instead of fighting it.
"Yeah… that's it," Noah murmured under his breath. "That's exactly what I needed."
Where it hurt, something was changing.
Adapting.
Strengthening.
The system quietly tracked the process in the background, estimating that enduring this level of strain for several hours would yield noticeable improvement—far more efficient than his usual training.
And this wasn't even Charles at his absolute peak.
If necessary, Noah could always push things further—have him use the Cerebro amplifier and turn that pressure up to a global scale.
Now that would be interesting.
"By the way," Charles said, his voice echoing faintly through the connection, "S.H.I.E.L.D. contacted me earlier."
Noah blinked. "What for?"
"They want help identifying infiltrators inside their ranks. Hydra operatives."
Ah.
That made sense.
"Reading minds is the fastest way to clean house," Noah said. "Up to you. They're an official agency—might be worth cooperating."
"…Understood."
Thousands of miles away, in Afghanistan—
A military convoy rolled across the desert.
Inside one of the vehicles, Tony Stark leaned back in his seat, grinning as he joked with the soldiers around him.
"Wait—you actually went to that book launch?" one of them asked.
"Of course," Tony said casually. "And once I'm back, I'll have access to internal energy from my company's system. Give me a little time and I'll be flying around in a suit, saving the day."
He smirked. "Honestly, I should start thinking about my superhero name now."
Then—
BOOM.
The explosion hit without warning.
The vehicle behind them erupted in flames, torn apart in an instant.
"Stay in the car!" the lead soldier barked, slamming the brakes.
Weapons came up. Doors flew open. Gunfire erupted from every direction.
Chaos.
Glass shattered. Bullets tore through metal.
Tony didn't wait.
Ignoring the order, he slipped out of the vehicle and ran.
A minute later—
He froze.
Lying in the sand ahead of him was a missile.
Stamped with his company's logo.
His breath caught.
"…No way…"
BOOM.
The blast threw him backward.
Pain exploded through his chest as shrapnel tore into him. Blood soaked through his shirt almost instantly.
His vision blurred.
As consciousness slipped away, something flickered across his sight—
A translucent screen.
Tony Stark
Status Message:Maybe it's time I finally pick a superhero name.
"Tony Stark?"
In a ruined world far from Earth, the Overlord stared at the newly appeared name in the Interdimensional Chatroom, eyes lighting up.
That name meant one thing.
A gateway to the Marvel Universe.
Advanced tech. Exotic materials. Reality-breaking artifacts.
The possibilities were endless.
Without hesitation, he sent the invitation.
[Tony Stark has joined the Interdimensional Chatroom]
The notification echoed across every member's mind.
Mid-training, Noah's eyes snapped open.
"Tony Stark…?" he muttered.
Too convenient.
Suspiciously convenient.
Was this another setup by the Overlord?
Or—
Was it real?
He ran through the timeline in his head.
Afghanistan. Missile demonstration. Ambush.
It lined up perfectly.
Noah didn't waste another second.
With a sharp motion, he broke free from the restraints of his training apparatus and dropped to the floor.
Whether the Tony Stark in the chatroom was his Tony Stark—or a variant from another universe—there was only one way to find out.
Go there.
Now.
"Boss?" Smith asked, startled. "Something wrong?"
"I've got to leave the country," Noah said, already pulling on his coat. "I'll be back tonight. Shut this machine down—I won't be needing it anymore."
Before anyone could respond—
He vanished.
A blur racing across continents, heading straight for Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, inside the chatroom, the members reacted almost instantly.
It had been a while since anyone new had joined.
Especially after the last strange arrival.
Kana Kimishima: Finally! A new member! Welcome!!!
The Noble Blade: I am Yue Buqun of Mount Hua. Welcome. If you have questions, I can explain the basics.
The Exorcist: You may consult the administrators to learn about your future.
And somewhere in the desert—
Tony Stark lay unconscious, his fate already beginning to shift.