Chapter 5 : Cleanup & consequences.

I floated still in the docking bay as the powers of the Infinity Stones faded away, leaving me worn out. The spells had finally worn off but that's understandable. Can't expect them to survive the powers of an Infinity Stone. The good news was I could finally see myself again; the bad news?

The hand holding the sceptre had cracked something fierce, hairline stress fractures spread across the palm like a spiderweb, a golden bronze lustre shining through the tattered skin. The one with the Space Stone wasn't much better, dented and malformed out of shape. The nanomachines were working to mend the cracks but that would take time I didn't have.

Is it possible for a machine to feel tired? Apparently, yes.

Despite having a perpetual steam engine in my stomach, I couldn't muster up the will to so much as twitch a finger. I felt like a wrung out wet rag. That's not counting the blinding headache that was threatening to put me out of commission any moment now.

How do you get a headache with no head?

"Ugh…" I groaned, "JARVIS, how long was I out?"

"One minute, nineteen seconds, sir." The ever faithful AI replied.

Note to self, never again.

I turned my head to look out below and sighed.

The portal to NYC had long closed and I had loose ends to tie.

I can't afford to dilly dally here.

"Come on, let's goo-" I grunted, trying to move my hand, only to lose my grip on the sceptre. I watched helplessly as it floated away. Briefly, I attempted to telekinetically pull it back towards me but-

"OW!" I reflexively clutched my head.

Bad news, psychic powers are lights out.

Good news, that pain jolted me right up.

With a creak, I moved to grab a nearby protrusion, reaching out my arm when suddenly-

SHING!

A blade popped out of my palm like a shooting star, slamming into the wall and pushing me further away, faster than before.

"Right!" I exclaimed, "I have swords in my arms."

And they just had to choose now to malfunction.

In the meantime, I had already floated away too far, already halfway out the docking bay.

Shit.

"JARVIS, close the docking bay."

If I float away now, all that effort goes bust.

The docking bay doors began to close, just in time to contain my runaway flight.

"Okay so…" I looked back calculating a path, as I pulled out the other arms blade, a plan forming in my head, "It should go like this-"

I twisted mid-flight, as best as I could as I neared the docking bay doors, before latching an arm-blade into a lever, using it as a fulcrum to fully pivot around, adjusting the angle with the other arm, clinking and clanging, before I got it just right.

Now, facing the Tesseract, all I need was a push and while my legs were back in working condition, there was something else I wanted to try. And yes, I know I could crawl like a caterpillar across the dock with just my hands but this way is tons more fun.

I focused on my stomach and clenched, containing the rising pressure before-

FWOON!

A jet of steam belched out from the vents on my back, blowing out like a pressure cooker, and acting functionally like a jet pack as I rocketed over to the control panel again.

"Wooo!" I cheered joyfully, like a little kid. Jet packs are fun, sue me.

Though, this could have only worked in space, as the pressure would do nothing to carry me in earth gravity.

I have never been so glad to have chosen Steam Machine as I was now. The Supersoldier body would have been out of the game by now, but not this one. Nope. Infinite stamina is a hell of a power.

Reaching the panel, I pulled back the arm-blades, having grabbed the sceptre on my way here, and held on for dear life before putting my chin on the Tesseract.

Cleanup time.

First, I opened a portal the size of a needle on the side of Stark Tower, reconnecting with the JARVIS on the other side.

"JARVIS, are the avengers back in the tower or anywhere within line of sight?" I asked, just to be sure.

"No, sir. They are busy rescuing civilians and cleaning up the Chitauri remnants."

"Good. Keep them there for another five minutes at least."

Then let's begin.

I pulled on the power of Tesseract and opened up an arm sized portal behind Dr. Erik Selvig, poking him with the sceptre again.

"Forget everything you experienced within the last hour. Here's what happened. When Loki went away, his control over you waned and vanished over time and when you realized what you had done, you immediately remedied the situation and shut down the machine, using the sceptre, which you procured from down below." I contacted JARVIS to corroborate the facts and say Thor's lightning strike had shutoff the cameras on the top floor, for a few minutes, "Finally, when the portal shut down, the Tesseract blew out a wave of spatial ripples and the sceptre vanished into one of them, while you jumped away."

The same happened to the Red Skull, so it shouldn't raise suspicions.

"You will regain consciousness in a minute and never suspect foul play. You will find the Tesseract behind the machine. Goodbye, Dr. Selvig, and sorry for the trouble."

I closed the portal there and opened up another portal on the street where I had blown that Chitauri into the car, teleporting him to the bottom of the East River where I had landed. That's one more loose end covered.

Subsequent pinhole portals opened up silently behind all the witnesses, police officers and the one kid I saved, altering their memories too.

Last but not least, I paid the UN gift shop lady from Stark Industries' bank account for the clothes along with a generous anonymous tip. While I was in the butter jar, I double dipped and transferred another couple thousand dollars to my own, freshly made bank account, splitting the costs between all the various expenses like catering, housekeeping, etc. to avoid suspicions. It's a big corpo, no one will suspect a thing if a catering order costs thirty dollars more or if cleaning bill has another hundred tipped into it, especially on one of Tony's party nights. And he parties a lot, a truly sinful amount.

Finally, with a moment of peace, I pondered my next move. The first thing to do would be to get this ship operational and staffed again.

"JARVIS, what is the current state of the Chitauri mothership?" I asked.

"All functions operational. Minor repairs necessary."

"Good. Glad that power outage didn't do much damage. Say, are there any fabricators onboard that you can operate?"

"Yes, sir. Would you like to build something."

"Why yes, yes I would. Can you replicate the blueprints for the Mk2 armor with them?

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, get on it then. Start building an army of remote action capable Mk2s, start with a sample corps of 100 units and get them battle ready. Set aside another 20 units to see if you can incorporate Chitauri tech into them. Experiment a little wherever feasible. Focus on neural networks and scanning capabilities."

"As you wish, sir. What would you like to name this project?"

"How about Adeptus Mechanicus (Prototype Mk1 and Mk2)?"

"Done, sir."

Next, was the Power Stone. Having pissed off Thanos, I don't want to leave the Power Stone up for grabs. Butterfly effect is a bitch, but I'm taking no chances.

Sadly, to get somewhere with the Space Stone I'd have to connect to it somehow, by either knowing something about the place or someone there and being able to picture that. The problem is, the last time I saw the Guardians movie was in 2016, and Endgame in 2019; that's what seven, eight years ago, so my memory of Morag is real fuzzy. I know there's a temple ruin thing somewhere and there's a ball in a light beam thingy, but beyond that I have no idea.

Now that would be enough to get there if there was just that. But who knows how many temples with how many sealed artifacts exist there? I could be blindly teleporting around for hours and that's just not the kind of time I have on hand right now, not that my body could handle the strain of that much cosmic energy either.

But...there is another way, a longer, more time consuming one.

"Does the ship's navigation system contain a map for the planet Morag?"

"Searching database…Yes, sir. Would you like me to head there?"

"Yes, and be discreet about it. No one should find out what you are up to. Use a longer, stealthier route avoiding any major powers if possible."

"Mapping…Route found, estimated time to destination : 5 weeks, 3 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes."

"Alrighty then. Get on with it." I took a good hard look around the docking bay and made a scratch mark on the wall by the panel with my arm-blade, just to differentiate it.

I'll learn the sling ring trick within five weeks and get right back here.

Among the other stones, I know the Soul Stone is on Vormir but not only does it require sacrifices, Thanos doesn't know about it yet either nor do I think Gamora will fess up anytime soon, so that will have to wait for now.

The Reality Stone will also only be available next year during the events of Thor : Dark World, so I'll get it then.

The Time Stone will be within arm's reach once I join the Sanctum.

The only one that's slightly regrettable is the Tesseract. With Loki having destroyed the Bifrost, they'll need the Space Stone to return home, and Earth cannot lose Asgard as both an ally and shield right now. So the Space Stone goes with them.

That just leaves me with Mind Stone, but maybe that's enough for now. Having more stones that I can't keep safe will only paint a target on my back.

Next comes recruitment. I can't do it all alone, and some parts of my plans will need assistance. The easiest minions to recruit however come down only to four.

Shame, but a small group will also be more tight knit, and I can always plan for more as I grow in power.

"Bah! I'll get to it later. Lets get back to Earth first."

I grabbed the comms link, amulet, sceptre and Tesseract, and opened a portal to the rooftop of the New York Sanctum, dropping in.

"Heyo!" I greeted the Ancient One, who looked simultaneously pleased and annoyed, though that last bit might have more to do with the Broken God's Amulet than anything I did, "I'm home~"

"Welcome back." She didn't skip a beat as she replied.

Ooh, I like her.

Ugh, if only this stupid headache wasn't...

"Where's Mordo?" I found the lack of my favourite punching bag concerning.

"Downstairs."

"Planning to seal me? Kill me? Or do you have something juicier planned out? You know what, don't tell me; surprise me!" I joked.

"You will certainly be surprised." She said with a mysterious, knowing smile, "Follow me."

"Ah, just one minute." I stopped her and threw the Tesseract through a portal back onto the Stark Tower rooftop, before handing the sceptre to her, much to the Ancient One's surprise, "Let's go."

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Shorter chapter today, still 1777 words though.

Had to cut it in half cuz the Ancient One talk was gonna take another 1500 words at least.

Anyways, thanks for reading.

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Extra chapter then or if we can get to a 100 powerstones by tomorrow morning. 

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Till next time, bye~