Calm Before the Race

AN: It's my birthday!

That's all.

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In a certain room.

Superman had just woken up and saw the Grandmaster glaring at him.

Huh? Where am I? Wasn't I fighting just now…?

Asking the same question, the Grandmaster questioned him.

"What happened just now!? Why were you knocked out!? You're supposed to be stronger!"

Superman glanced at him calmly as he answered without much emotion.

"...It must be that hammer of his. You know I'm bad at dealing with magical things."

It wasn't the first time he fought against 'magic' in the arena.

Some years ago, he fought someone who could shoot magical beams from his hands. At that time, Superman was quite arrogant and stood still, not thinking much of the attack.

Surprisingly, he was blasted off and nearly lost that match.

After winning the match quickly, they tried to find out what caused him to weaken and were surprised that he had such weakness against magic.

From what Superman could tell earlier, the hammer of that guy from before should be some kind of magical weapon.

However, although he said it like that, Superman was also a bit unconvinced and felt that there was something else that caused him to faint.

Not knowing what he was thinking, the Grandmaster clicked his tongue.

"Tsk! I should ban the use of weapons and magic from now on!"

Grandmaster complained.

Well, he only said it in annoyance. His pride wouldn't allow him to blatantly show his own weakness in a game.

"Whatever. Prepare for the death race tomorrow!"

"Death race? You mean…you want me to pull your car?"

Superman guessed.

After all, with his speed, there was no need to deliberately 'slow' himself by getting inside a race car.

So this must be another ploy by Grandmaster wanting to cheat by using him to pull his car.

Guessing correctly, Grandmaster laughed.

"That's right! Those fools have no idea that they will never win! Still, no need to pull too fast. I want to savor the looks on their faces as they try to catch up and maybe die on the various traps on the track!"

"..."

Superman sighed and just nodded silently.

When the Grandmaster saw him nod, he laughed again as he left the room.

After the Grandmaster left, Superman looked out the window and up into the sky.

How he wished he could just fly away from this hellhole…alas, with a bomb implanted in his brain, he had little to no choice but to keep obeying.

Meanwhile, on Benjamin's side.

Thor had also just woken up and saw Benjamin glaring at him with half-closed eyes.

Thor could only chuckle awkwardly as he knew he was in trouble.

"Ha…haha…Ben! Buddy! You're here! How's uhh, how's life?"

"It's going very well until I heard about this bet you agreed on your own."

"Uhh. Isn't it fine as long as I win?"

"Did you?"

"Did I?"

Thor also asked back, clearly still confused who won the match earlier.

Benjamin rolled his eyes.

"The match ended in a tie. But only because I cheated a bit and knocked out your opponent when I saw you faint first in that last blow. So technically, you should've lost."

Hearing that, not only Thor was surprised, the others also looked at Benjamin in surprise.

Rocket Racoon was having a blast.

"You actually cheated the Grandmaster!? Hahaha! You're crazy! I like it!"

"Alright, calm down. No need to broadcast it so loudly, lest Grandmaster backs out on the game tomorrow."

Benjamin shrugged.

Gamora frowned as she spoke.

"Benjamin Freed, although the Grandmaster seems weak in power, you must not underestimate him. He has connections all throughout the galaxy and has various means in his arsenal."

"Don't worry, his brother, the Collector, has already been beaten by me. One more Grandmaster isn't really a problem."

"You…beat up the Collector!?"

Starlord was shocked.

"Yeah. He was keeping a dog from Earth and resisted arrest so…I just beat him up. It's fine, I made it look like I was doing it as part of Thanos' remnants that escaped before. Let them fight it out among themselves."

"..."

Everyone was speechless again.

Rocket Racoon nudged at Groot.

"Hey, how about we ditch Stardick over there and join this guy instead? He seems more fun."

Benjamin just chuckled.

"I'm not sure if Nick Fury can still take it if you join though. There's already a talking duck and a talking dog on our side. If a talking racoon and a talking tree joins, he'll probably lose it."

"Makes sense. Guess Quill can't join either since he's a talking dick."

"Hey!"

Starlord complained.

What did I ever do to you!?

After joking around for a while, Benjamin broke up the group.

"Alright. Get some rest. After winning the game tomorrow, we're heading back."

After Benjamin and the rest left Thor to recuperate in his room, another visitor arrived.

"You put up a good fight, Asgardian."

Thor looked at the dark-skinned woman with white line markings on her face and his eyes widened in shock.

"Those markings…you're a Valkyrie!"

"'Was' a Valkyrie. Not anymore. Now tell me. What's an Asgardian Prince doing all the way in this trash dump?"

"'Was' a Prince. Not anymore. I am Thor Odinson. Ruler of Asgard! The God of Thunder!"

Thor puffed up his chest as he announced himself in pride.

Seeing him like that, Valkyrie facepalmed.

"I guess Asgard is doomed."

Thor pretended not to hear that as he asked.

"And what about you? What are you doing here, when you could've been in Asgard, leading our army against Thanos!?"

Valkyrie frowned.

"Thanos? Why would he…no, it seems the old man has croaked, so he started a war against you…then why are you here? Did you run away, o Ruler of Asgard?"

Thor snorted.

"Your insults are of no use. Thanos has long been defeated. We are merely here to sell off some war prisoners we had no use for to the Grandmaster. Better to earn something rather than wastefully kill them all."

Valkyrie was surprised.

"Huh? That Mad Titan has been defeated!? Was it Odin? Did he not die after all?"

"It's not my father. It's a human from Midgard called Benjamin of Freed. He is very powerful. He fought my father and won. He also slayed the Mad Titan by himself rather easily. Thanks to him, both Asgard and Midgard were safe."

Valkyrie's eyes widened.

She knew of Midgard. From what she knew, the humans of that world were weak. Yet one was able to defeat both Odin and Thanos!?

Valkyrie glanced at Thor.

Obviously, this guy is useless. But if what he said was true, and this person is indeed that powerful…then maybe…he could also deal with Hela, the Goddess of Death who killed all her comrades!

At this moment. In a certain house.

"Achu-!"

Hela, wearing a maid uniform, was tending to Natasha who was still pregnant suddenly sneezed.

Natasha looked at her weirdly.

"Do Goddesses also sneeze?"

Hela rolled her eyes.

"Of course we do. Although very rarely. I don't know why I sneezed either. Someone must be talking about me."

Natasha was confused even more.

"Why do you say that?"

"It's what Lady Death told me before. I don't know why either."

If Benjamin heard this, he would probably retort.

Alright, it seems Mors has been reading and watching some anime again and even teaching useless stuff to Hela…

Back in Sakaar, Benjamin was touring the surroundings with Carol when he paused and sighed.

Thanks to his He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named skill, he was able to see Valkyrie and Thor meeting when Thor mentioned him.

Seeing as this world's version of the Valkyrie was the same as the movies, it means she should have a lot of hatred for Hela due to their war in the past.

However, Hela is now the maid of Death. Although Benjamin has a very close relationship with Mors now…to the point where she's even carrying his child…it would still be hard to mediate this issue.

Hence, his sigh.

"What's wrong?"

Carol asked.

"Nothing. Just some troublesome matter. It's better if the people involved explain it than me…anyway, it's a problem for the future. No need to think about it now."

Benjamin shook his head.

It isn't something that he can just explain simply. There were too many things to consider. Whether it was Hela's feeling of betrayal from her father, or Valkyrie's grief over her dead comrades, only the people involved can speak of it.

"Anyway, where was I? Oh right, the talking pig spider."

As they had nothing to do in the meantime, Benjamin and Carol just strolled around while he told her about what happened in the Spiderverse.

The story was quite a novel experience for Carol who sighed.

"Although I've been to many planets before, I've never been to a different universe. Were there really a lot of Spider-Men?"

"Theoretically, as many as there are universes out there."

"How about me? Is there a Carol-verse too? Oh, maybe Captain Marvel-verse?"

Benjamin nodded.

"There's definitely alternate versions of you in the multiverse. Although probably not as many as Spider-Man. That guy's just different as it involves the Spider totem and the Web."

Thinking that, Benjamin frowned.

Come to think of it, I didn't see any Madamme Webb?

If she had been present there, they wouldn't have had a lot of problems considering her ability.

Benjamin shook his head.

Well, she'll probably turn up somewhere. There's no need to keep worrying about it.

Carol looked at Benjamin.

"Then, will there be a Benjamin-verse too?"

"Uhh, maybe? We all have our own doppelgangers."

"Considering your power, I'm kinda curious what will happen if you were all put together in one room."

Benjamin smiled wryly

"Let's hope that doesn't happen."