Noah Vale stepped through the portal and back onto Earth, landing in the middle of a street that still hadn't recovered from the earlier chaos. Sirens wailed somewhere in the distance. Smoke curled lazily into the sky.
He looked around, then let out a quiet laugh.
"A duel?" he muttered. "Odin wants a duel with me."
It almost felt theatrical. Like something out of a story where warriors set dates and meet under the sun to decide fate.
Still… it had a certain charm.
Noah folded his arms, thinking it over. A month, huh?
Maybe he should actually take it seriously. Not because he had to—but because it was interesting.
"Alright," he said under his breath. "Let's treat this properly."
For once, he considered the idea of pushing himself—really pushing. If he spent the next month focusing on physical training, he could multiply his baseline strength several times over. Not that he needed it, but against someone like Odin, a little excess never hurt.
Even a lion doesn't half-heartedly swat a rabbit.
"Hey," a voice called out.
Tony Stark descended from the sky in a rough, early-version suit of armor. It wasn't sleek or polished—more like a prototype that had skipped a few design meetings—but it got the job done.
He landed beside Noah, eyeing the space where the Bifrost had appeared earlier.
"That rainbow beam thing," Tony said. "That was the Bifrost, right?"
"Yeah," Noah replied. "If it's pushed to full output, it could crack a planet open. Earth wouldn't last long."
Tony's expression tightened behind the visor.
Noah added casually, "Though it's not as scary as it sounds. Straight-line attack. Bend it with a portal, and it ends up hitting itself."
Tony didn't look reassured.
"I've been thinking," he said after a moment. "We've got a serious problem."
Noah glanced at him. "We've got a lot of those."
"I mean Earth," Tony said. "We can't defend ourselves. Not really. Take you out of the picture, and we're done."
Noah spread his hands. "But I am in the picture. Problem solved."
"That's not a strategy," Tony shot back. "You're not always going to be around. Like today."
He hesitated, then added, quieter, "And even if you were… you can't be everywhere at once."
Noah considered that.
Tony wasn't wrong. If everything kept funneling back to him, it wouldn't just be inefficient—it would be exhausting.
"Alright," Noah said. "Fair point."
He tilted his head, gears already turning.
"Let's build something better."
Tony leaned in slightly.
Noah started ticking ideas off like he was assembling a team from a cosmic catalog.
"There's a guy in Brazil—Bruce Banner. You'll want him. When he loses control, he turns into something that can go toe-to-toe with Thor."
Tony blinked. "That's… useful."
"Very," Noah said. "Then there's Wakanda. Hidden nation in Africa. Advanced tech, massive reserves of vibranium."
Tony's helmet snapped toward him. "Wakanda's real?"
"Very real," Noah said. "And very well-armed."
He continued, warming up now.
"You've also got mutants. One of them—Magneto—can manipulate magnetic fields on a massive scale. He's not subtle at the atomic level, but give him enough metal and he can reshape a battlefield."
Noah smirked slightly. "Imagine dropping tens of thousands of tons of vibranium into his hands."
Tony didn't say anything.
He didn't need to.
"That's just the start," Noah went on. "You can engineer vibranium structures—layered, interlocking designs. Turn it into containment systems. Something that can hold even the worst threats in place for a while."
Tony's mind was already racing ahead.
"And then," Noah added, "there's Hank Pym."
Tony stiffened slightly. "My father's old rival."
"Same one," Noah said. "He created particles that can change size—expand or shrink matter. Strength scales up when size increases. Shrinking doesn't reduce force output."
Tony frowned. "That breaks physics."
"Completely," Noah said. "Which makes it perfect."
Now he was on a roll.
"Picture this," Noah said. "You combine them. Banner transforms—then you amplify him further. Scale that strength up exponentially."
Tony's breathing slowed.
"Or Sentinels," Noah continued. "SHIELD was working on them before things fell apart. You take over the project. Build them heavier, stronger—then scale them up too."
He glanced at Tony. "At that point, you're not just defending Earth. You're rewriting the rules of the fight."
Silence settled between them.
Not empty silence.
The kind filled with possibility.
Tony just stood there, processing it all. None of these ideas were completely foreign—but the way Noah combined them? That was something else entirely.
Like realizing you could stack lightning on top of an earthquake and call it a strategy.
"JARVIS," Tony said quickly, "record everything. Don't miss a word."
"Already in progress, sir," JARVIS replied smoothly.
Noah waved a hand. "You've got enough to work with. The rest is on you."
Then he added, almost as an afterthought, "Be careful with AI. Last thing we need is your machines deciding they don't like us."
Tony gave a short nod. He understood exactly how dangerous all of this could get.
"If this goes wrong," Noah continued, "we're not talking about a bad day. We're talking about casualties on a national scale."
Tony didn't argue.
He couldn't.
"One more thing," Noah said. "When you get your hands on those Pym Particles—I want a sample."
Tony glanced at him. "Planning something?"
Noah smiled faintly.
"Just making sure I'm not caught off guard outside this universe."
Because here, with access to external power sources, he could push himself far beyond his usual limits.
Elsewhere?
He'd need something extra.
And Pym's discovery…
That might be exactly what he needed.