108- Avengers (14)

Seeing the smug look on Supergiant’s face, Mason grinned and attacked before she started thinking better of it. And indeed, she did nothing but watch as he approached, despite clearly being able to follow him.

Mason took his time, gathered as much Sunfire to fuel the most powerful Starfist he could muster, and even stopped in front of her, his body coiling like a spring. Mason remembered an old trope in Wuxia stories about some martial artists being capable of drawing the power of the Earth and channeling it into their attacks.

That actually had a fragment of truth, although Mason was not drawing the literal power of the Earth, but using the support of the ground to generate greater power. And this time, it was so grand that Mason actually started feeling some pain around his body.

Then, he struck out like a whip, his fist becoming the tail end of the attack, becoming the point where all that energy would be delivered.

And again, Supergiant did not move. Her form became ethereal, her density lowering to somewhere around that of air. Unfortunately for her, she had chosen the worst possible person for her show of force.

Mason struck her face like it was a very real, durable face. Her body might have reached a state of zero density, her Chi was still there, and it was all Mason’s own Chi cared about.

All that force transmitted along that connection between their life energies and exploded inside her brain. And this time, her lowered density worked against her. A stronger density would mean stronger bonds between atoms, and a better way to resist the damage. A lower density meant the exact opposite.

Her density did nothing to decrease the force transmitted to her brain, causing it to shatter and heal in a single moment. It was like a grenade had blown off inside her brain, and it had instantly returned to its initial form.

But for all intents and purposes, her brain had been momentarily shut off, which should have meant unconsciousness, but Supergiant existed more as a psychic entity than a physical one, so while her body shut off, her mind remained very active.

That did not mean complete immunity to damage, though, so the moment she was sent flying, Mason immediately followed, straddling her waist in mid-air, and started laying out punch after punch into her face, each of them a Star Fist.

Her density manipulation must have been a physical ability, as it no longer changed, and her Spirit, while undoubtedly mighty, simply had no time to act. Curiously, she still grabbed onto the Tesseract tightly.

The fall from the top of Stark Tower was over three hundred meters, which, with the help of Mason’s punches and the Gravity Dao, was enough for them to surpass terminal velocity. The physical power he could muster for his punches was much less in midair, but thankfully his Chi could still hit just as hard. Moreover, as he remained attached to her, Mason shrouded his body in ordinary flames, which burned her just fine.

Supergiant tried to fight back, but her psyche proved itself to be useless against Mason. Her Spirit reached levels that came close to Jean Grey in terms of quantity, but the quality was a noticeable step behind. Still greater than Mason, but nowhere near what she would need to overpower him with a single blast of her Spiritual Energy.

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Moreover, from what Mason had observed, she was more of the kind to latch onto someone and slowly influence them, rather than his style of sudden domination. Since she was getting constantly punched, even if she was unconscious, she could still feel the pain that transmitted to her mind, which worked to destabilize her attempts at wrestling back control.

And on the whole way down, Mason kept laughing as he rapidly hit her, something that grated on her very soul. Unbeknownst to her, his very laughter exuded some Spiritual Energy, destabilizing her mind.

Finally, as they were about to reach the ground, he leapt off her, speeding up her fall and killing his own momentum.

Supergiant landed with a devastating crash, shattering the asphalt and embedding half her body inside, while Mason gently floated down.

By the time he reached the ground, Mason’s breath had grown labored as he watched her carefully, his Divine Sense on tenterhooks. The short fall, but he was starting to draw empty on his internal energies.

The fight against the Chitauri had already drained quite a bit out of him, and then that short but intense fall drained even more. Even his Spiritual Energy was drawn up further by her attempts at invading his Spirit.

But thinking of the Tesseract, Mason knew he could not leave her even a moment of respite, so he did not wait to see whether she would rise, and attacked again.

He drove a bare fist into her chest, and to his surprise, punched right through her chest. He had expected her to be tougher.

Immediately, his mind turned to the Tesseract, and sure enough, he managed to get it from her easily. But as Mason finally grasped the Tesseract, he felt a powerful force slam into his back, paralyzing him with a green flash.

Out of a shadow walked Loki and the teenage mutant, the God of Mischief grinning deviously. "Well, well, well, a daughter of the Black Order getting manhandled by a single Earthling, and far from the most powerful one of them all at that. I wonder what your father would think if he learned of this."

Supergiant groaned and tried to get up, but only spat out a mouthful of blood, pinned down by Mason as her spirit body snarled, "Get this human off of me, Asgardian!"

Loki grinned, walking over to Mason’s frozen form. He crouched to his level and noticed Mason’s eyes following him. He tapped his forehead, jeering, "To tell you the truth, I didn’t think much of you the first time I saw you."

He gently picked up the Tesseract, the soft blue glow of the cube reflecting on his face as he studied it. "But I’ll give it to you, you have genuinely impressed me. You probably don’t know about the Black Order, but if word got out that you basically killed one of them on your own? You would become famous throughout the universe. And receive half a dozen medals. Actually, I think that even Asgard put up a bounty for her arrest or death. However, you did beat me up, and I don’t take too kindly to that."

Loki was still grinning when Mason suddenly moved, headbutting him right in the nose. He did not go for the Tesseract, however, and instead punched down on Supergiant, splattering her head on the road.

With the death of her physical body, Supergiant’s spirit body rose from it, invisible to most, but not Mason. She screamed, "You fucking-"

Mason ignored her, dodging a beam from Loki, who licked his lips, clutching onto the Tesseract tightly. "You… you’re good, but you’re also infuriating. Here I am, holding one of the most powerful weapons in the Universe and trying to hold a friendly conversation, and you just had to strike me."

Loki shook his head, and a brilliant blue cube of energy, not quite unlike the Tesseract but much larger, was fired at Mason. He dodged, having seen it coming, but grew cautious as he saw how the energy burned through any obstacle effortlessly, driving a cube-shaped hole through a nearby building.

Mason would very much rather not get hit by that.

On the side, Supergiant approached Loki, her form becoming larger as she said, "You have accomplished your mission now, Asgardian. Give me the Tesseract."

Loki smiled, offering the Tesseract in an open palm. Supergiant did not try to grab it, though, as she also knew her spirit form could not interact with the physical world and hold it.

"I never expected you to be struck down so decisively. But you know me, a deal is a deal. I originally intended to use the kid because of his great power, but I will gracefully offer it to you."

Supergiant stared at him coldly, before turning her attention to the shivering teenager.

And right at that moment, several portals opened all around them. Out of them came the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four, as well as Doom and Spider-Man. Only the Hulk was missing.