Hope you all enjoy the extra chapter! 👌👌👌
Power Stones (124/150) ~Extra Chapter~
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It had been two days since the invasion of New York and things were looking good. The National Guard and Military had soon stepped in and began humanitarian efforts alongside the police and emergency services. Shield was aiding in the rescue operations whilst grabbing as much alien tech as they could, the parasite within them looking to get its grubby hands on the juicy salvage.
Tony and I had also helped in the recovery efforts. My contribution had been repair duties and rescue operations. I had saved thousands in a single day by simply going building to building, repairing streets and cars along the way. Children, men, women, there were too many to count after a while as I moved forwards onto new zones. Tony, meanwhile, was flying to the top of skyscrapers and grabbing people that couldn't manage to get down due to the damage to multiple floors. He also decided to donate one hundred million to the relief effort, paying for food, water and shelter for those that had their homes destroyed or ended up by themselves due to their parents dying.
Not everything was peachy with the cessation of conflict however as many companies pulled out of New York and investors were floundering in the uncertainty of recent events. The Stock Exchange had frozen trading for disaster-affected securities as the entire city recovered. This had the unintended consequence of leaving numerous skyscrapers in the state of forced liquidation, due to covenant breaches, placed under receivership and left empty. Many skyscrapers were also too damaged and thus left vacant, the owners having died or simply begun the process of auctioning off the land and thus the building atop it.
The city was in a panic still. America was in a panic... Hell the world was in a panic and companies everywhere were taking drastic actions in the assumption that this was just a precursor to further invasion. The mainstream media was launching this paranoia to the stratosphere while independent journalists and media outlets tried assuring the public that it was an isolated incident... Unfortunately not many believed them or even attempted to hear them out, preferring to ready themselves for doomsday.
Thus, I was standing here, at an auction for Tier-1 Manhattan properties; both damaged and not, in the heart of New York. Not many people were present, my sister and I were the only affluent people that had attended whilst the rest had hunger in their eyes and instincts sharpened by misfortune. I was dressed in a plain T-shirt and pants, sporting flip-flops and a baseball cap, a necessity when you're a newly minted Avenger and wish to hide your identity.
"So, how does it feel to be an Avenger, bro?" I scoffed and drew my baseball cap down further, listening to the auctioneer explain the bidding process and increments.
"Yeah, just great... it's not like I fought those aliens for the fame..." My pout didn't seem to throw my sister off however as she just grinned and poked my ribs.
"C'mon, Singularity, you got to admit it is cool!" My face remained placid whilst internally I squirmed at the feeling of accomplishment that was suffusing me. In my last life I had been a wage-slave and watched as everything crumpled down around me. This life, I was an Avenger and was given a badass moniker all for helping people out and saving the city from a nuclear missile... Yeah, my sense of normality was getting obliterated...
"Fine. It is cool." My grudging agreement made her smile wider.
The auctioneer banged a gavel at the front of the marble room, several aides standing off to the side as a technician meddled with a laptop that was connected to a large TV screen. Not long after the gavel was slapped against the wooden podium the presentation began flickering across the screen, showing Central Park Tower. The residential complex was the tallest of its kind in the world and pierced up into the sky like an obsidian spear. Below Central Park glowed softly in vibrancy, the images showing the building in spring and summer; including the park.
"Beginning price for the entirety of Central Park Tower is at $650,000,000!" The auctioneer shouted out to the room after a long-winded explanation of the amount of apartments and the previous prices that the building sold for. "The price has been set at a discount due to insurance companies pulling out and possible condemnation due to material usage in construction; found after the invasion." The auctioneer paused and looked out before shouting out, "Begin!"
I raised my numbered paddle, flicking it to grab his attention, "Here!" Emma's grin turned wicked as the rest of the room awkwardly looked at one another. Central Park Tower had been damaged in the invasion and thus the top twenty levels were essentially blown out. The positive to this was that all the rubble was contained to those floors. The insurance element was inconsequential to me considering my powers whilst the condemnation was also a non-issue due to my ability to simply exchange one material to another.
"Going..." The auctioneer looked around the room. "Going..." No one else raised their paddle, most of these people not having the funds to buy the skyscraper and then also fix it. "GONE!"
The auctioneer banged his gavel and looked towards us. "Central Park Tower goes to number 65! Congratulations. Please meet with officials after the auction has ended to pay fees and ensure your name is signed on the land ownership papers." The man then nodded to the technician again, the wiry little man flicking the slideshow to the next page.
"Next we have the Chrysler Building! One of the most iconic and well-known skyscrapers in New York and America at large! Having been owned by Signa Holding, RFR Holding and the Cooper Union, this skyscraper is being sold by all parties in light of recent events!" The auctioneer paused for a few moments and then started speaking once again.
"The beginning price for the Chrysler is $100 Million!" Multiple people shouted out at once, the price quickly skyrocketing to 180 Million in no time. Emma and I watched on as the moderately rich fought over the building like a bunch of piranha. When the building reached 200 Million I rose my paddle once again, "50 Million here!" The entire room went quiet for several moments before the auctioneer ecstatically punctured the silence.
"We have $250 Million from number 65!" There was some grumbling in the crowd before another round of small bids swept in. I grinned as I watched them stretch their pockets at this level of money. Frost International was the 5th largest company in the world and earned trillions annually, my own allowance was staggering and left me with multiple billions in my personal accounts; saved over a decade of investing and saving my money.
I flexed my paddle again, "1 Million!" and watched as all the small fish grumbled at losing to me. The Chrysler went for a total of 263 million dollars and was now solely mine.
"Nice acquisition. The Chrysler earns $80 million per annum, in four years you'll have made your money back and can then start profiting from it... That's if you don't consider the maintenance costs..." I smirked at her analysis.
"Yeah, the maintenance cost would be horrid... If I wasn't a mutant that could strip the entire building of anything old and just replace it with the same atoms in a completely new state." Her eyes widened before she chuckled into her hand.
"That's so devious~! Didn't know my little brother had it in him..." I shrugged before paying attention to the auctioneer again.
"For the final item in this auction we have the Bank of America Tower. This building has been written off by the Bank Of America in an effort to limit exposure and is thus being sold at a premium discount." Murmurs rose around the room as the auctioneer flipped a page and began listing faults with the building, "As many of you know, the building has complex energy systems, eco-friendly technologies, and is highly regulated. Yesterday it was found that some of the alien energy weapons interfere with some processes in these systems and thus there is the potential for the entire building to need restoration and revaluation."
All the murmurs disappeared now, silence replacing them. The auctioneer coughed into his right hand before lifting his head and speaking out once more.
"In consideration of these factors the starting bidding price has been lowered to 1 Billion Dollars." The auctioneer looked semi-nervous as he glanced between the bidders. There was a distinct lack of interest from many of them as this building sounded like a flight-risk instead of a money-maker.
My sisters, on the other hand, giggled a little and whispered in excitement, "Easy pickings... Especially for you brother." I nodded and raised my paddle, yelling out soon after. "Here!"
The Auctioneer sighed in relief and smiled widely in my direction. "1 Billion from number 65!" All of the bidders turned towards us with numerous different reactions. Some were scoffing and sneering in derision, others frowning in mild confusion, whilst a few furrowed their brows in consideration. It didn't matter to me though, I had just gained three awesome properties that would earn me a lot of money... All for the small price of 1.5 Billion dollars.
"SOLD! Congratulations number 65 and I hope that every other bidder finds luck in future auctions." The staff around the auctioneer waved us over and I began the process of filling paperwork and signing land-ownership certificates. Only two hours later I was the owner of three top-grade buildings and thus a real-estate tycoon.
~~~
Later that night I finally was able to sit down in my apartment, the exhaustion of the last two days catching up with me. My hand slid down my face as I considered ordering Pizza or Shawarma for dinner. Ever since I'd eaten Shawarma with the rest of the crew after the battle I'd been hankering for more.
I sighed whilst closing my eyes. The aftermath of the battle had been rather chaotic. SHIELD had stepped in and tried to assert their dominance over me and Thor, refusing to hand over Loki to Asgard. It had required Fury's help and my own insistence to ensure that the transfer was made. SHIELD was a pain in the ass.
But that wasn't the worst of the incidents, no... You see Chat-Loki had left behind the Tesseract in Tony's bar-fridge, a location that Tony immediately went to after Loki was detained. He had taken it down into his labs and begun scans on it in an instant. SHIELD had discovered this and had tried to breach into the room to take the artefact away. Fortunately I was beside Tony and quickly replaced the Tesseract with a fake copy that would mimic the outer casing. SHIELD eventually got in but only left with a phony version of what they once had. The painful part of this was that Thor protested the decision for SHIELD to keep the Tesseract, requesting that it was taken away by him to Asgard where it would be kept secure and safe.
Tony and I had looked at one another and shrugged, the SHIELD agents quickly taking the argument to Fury who quickly gave the fake to Thor, not wanting to argue with a 'god' who could melt entire cities with his lightning.
Did I call out and say that it was a fake? No. Do I feel guilty about ensuring that the Tesseract is out of the hands of Hydra and Asgard? Nope, not even a little bit. In fact, lore-wise, it was probably the best choice. Have a fake on Asgard as decoy whilst Tony has the real article locked away deep in his tower. Tony was even talking about adding a slough of different defence mechanisms and traps along the path that lead to it. This was supported by Luke, Loki, Gandalf and Ciri, the latter of the group using her knowledge of magic to ensure that the entire room-design had lead lining it and the strongest material surrounding the room.
As for the Mind Stone... Well, I still had it. It was far less dangerous in my hands than in Tony's. Ultron was made after he had contact with the Mind Stone; in the MCU, now it would be in my hands. How could I use it, you ask? Well, I can absorb radiation and create matter with said energy. Gamma radiation was easy for me to just absorb and transform into whatever I wanted it to. The thing that really sold my ability to keep the stone was the Metallic Hydrogen box that I kept it in when I wasn't using it.
My only regret of the invasion was not 'scanning' Mjollnir. I couldn't make Uru metal yet and wouldn't be able to for the foreseeable future since he was back on Asgard. On the upside however, I could now create plasma rifles and recreate the alloy that the alien armour was made of. It wasn't anywhere near as useable as Trinium or Metallic Hydrogen, but it was something that I could make in regular quantities and just haul out to construction companies or SHIELD.
The chat panned into view and drew my attention away from my thoughts. The screen was in motion as my friends discussed the invasion and other innocuous oddities of our differing realities. That was all normal. What caught my attention however was the rewards tab that shone brightly in gold, at the top of the chat panel.
|Congratulations In Completing A War Mission|
|Rewards Will be Dispensed Shortly...|
|Rewards Being Dispensed!|
~| Rewards For Saving Civilians- Total: 20.1 Million|~
1- 68.8 Billion Dollars (To be transferred legally into your account)
2- Knowledge of The Atomic Structure and How to Produce: Carbonadium, Solarium, Mithril
3- Quantum Computer (10,000 - 100,000 Qubits) (To be placed wherever Drecarios wishes)
~| Rewards For Aliens Slain!|~
1- Super Soldier Serum
2- Repulsor Beam Technology
3- Lightning Control
4- Advanced Gun Knowledge and Usage
5- Enhanced Accuracy
6- Immunity to Gamma Radiation
7- MP + 1000
"Well, damn..."
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