A fantastic encounter

So I followed Sarah off the landing pad once we got out, following her inside. We entered into what looked like a living area and saw a guy with orange rock like flesh talking to a guy that reminded me of an **** sports burn out, and I'm not sure why. "Come on Ben, you didn't need to send her away! We had a date all set up and everything!" "Johnny we literally had an emergency..." I started tuning them out at that point, which worked all the way until we get closer and I saw a blonde bombshell of a woman come walking up to them. "Johnny you didn't have a date with her, you tried flirting and she shot you in the mouth with webbing before leaving." The woman laughed out, Ben following up with. "That was the best few minutes of my life, the silence was just paradise... Then you had to ruin it by burning the web off..." What the HELL is being discussed right now? "Hey Sue! I brought him with me, you sure about their wanting to question him right?" Sarah spoke to the woman, she got a nod in response before the blonde turned to me. "Hey there! Zane right? Sarah told us you got hold of some special materials. There's a few people that wanted to ask about it. Also I heard you've got an ability to improve people's mental defenses against telepathy?" I gave her a nod, no reason to correct her that it also fought back against things like mind control right? "That sounds really helpful! I'm sure my husband would love to get a better understanding of how it works, but I think that'll be for after the meeting." With that Sue and Sarah led the way as I heard the two guys start trading verbal barbs again.

When we entered into a new room I watched several people turn to look at us, among them was a woman with red hair wearing a black bodysuit, a man with a black cat like mask with sharp looking claws on his gloves, another man with blonde flowing hair and I think I saw a hammer hanging on his belt, lastly was a man floating in the air wearing mostly blue clothes along with... was that a red cape? "Okay everyone! Here he is, this is Zane. Be nice now, he hasn't had his powers for very long!" Sue took a rather motherly tone amongst them, then I noticed Reed Richards looking around the cat man to see me... and I think he noticed how I hid a little behind Sarah without meaning too. "Oh hello there! Allow me to start by saying your not in trouble. These people just wanted to know a few things about the materials Sarah brought to us. They came from you right?" Sarah nudged me forward, I couldn't help but gulp, I had a feeling I was being eyed down like a potential threat or something. "Uh well that part's correct yes, but I don't really have any way of making it happen again. Not with certainty anyways... It was... It was more like a random chance kind of thing? I didn't know what any of it was even called, so I thought I'd ask a few others that I thought might know more about it." I thought it might be best to keep my mouth shut as much as I could, besides I hadn't really lied about my powers, it was true that I couldn't willingly MAKE more appear, I mean I didn't get to choose my rewards or anything like that.

"He came to me talking about materials he didn't know about, so I took him to see Dr McCoy to try and make sure it wasn't anything dangerous. The samples we brought over are all that he showed us." Sarah explained, the red head woman speaking up before anyone else could. "Impressive for a kid who not even a month ago lived in a terrible neighborhood to carry such a heavy chunk of Vibranium and not spill the boiling Adamantium in his other hand..." I watched Sarah turn towards me for a moment, like she was wondering how I'd carried all of the materials to Beasts lab. "Oh that? I have basically a very small pocket dimension. I'd only learned about it that morning myself but I was a bit more focused on what they were than anything else at the time." I explained, I mean surely explaining that much couldn't hurt right? I saw the guy in the red cape start trying to ask if it was some sort of magic, almost at the same time that Reed was asking about the scientific aspects of my power. Everyone was surprised to suddenly hear Reed shout in pain, only for Sue to seemingly appear next to him, I guess she stomped on his foot? "Dear, focus yes?" Reed cleared his throat looking sheepish for a moment, then the attention went back to me. "Your powers, exactly what are they?" THAT was not something I wanted to answer at ALL. No way was I avoiding answering though, the attention was all focused on me. Sarah nodding her head like it was safe to share that info here, I think she saw the worry on my face though. "It's alright Zane, these people can be trusted." I know she was trying to calm me down, but even she didn't know all I could do, so now came the time to pick and choose what info to tell them about.

"W-well um, I'm still learning about them but what I've found out so far? So far I can create Hard Light Contructs of varying forms, I can create clones that are well... Only good for numbers really. There's the pocket dimension I call my inventory system, uh there IS one or two more but...C-can you all promise this isn't gonna go into some file somewhere that can be read by anyone?" I must have looked as scared as the surprise on their faces when I asked that, the red head woman was about to say something when Sarah spoke up. "I know what he's asking sounds ridiculous, but that request is VERY warranted..." Sarah had left it at that, but I noticed the others got more serious from her words. "Alright kid, whatever it is won't go into any report or recording." The red head woman spoke up first, the others nodding their heads. So with that I took a deep breath "So the second to last is a particularly strong mental defense, one that I can connect to other peoples minds to help keep them from being mentally attacked. And no, I don't have any way or ability to read anyone's mind when I do it or after, it's like creating a bridge that allows my defenses to help protect others. There doesn't seem to be a limit on range from what I can feel either, but as for the last one... I call it the 3 wish system, it allows me to grant 3 wishes to anyone, as long as they aren't too big and don't break any rules..." The looks received were of surprise, then worry, SERIOUS worry and fear. Sue spoke up a moment later. "So like a Genie?" she suggested with a little giggle. "W-well yes but like I said there's restrictions. Like for example Dr McCoy tried to wish for some sort of Science equipment I couldn't even BEGIN to pronounce, the wish was FAR too big and caused a backlash effect. So far backlash effects seem to be limited too me getting massive headaches, thankfully such wishes can be cancelled if the person making the wish attempts to do so. If I lose consciousness from the headaches though it can cancel not only the wish it tried to grant but possibly other recent wishes as well. As far as the rules go there's a time limit if someone wants to reverse a wish, from what I can tell there's no way to overwrite someone else's wish and I can't grant any wishes that I would want to make either."

"So what happens when you grant someone their three wishes? I mean do you disappear into a cave or something?" I don't know when Johnny and Ben had gotten there but I was quite happy they had, especially with Johnny's question. "I don't think so? I haven't granted 3 wishes to some one yet." The red haired woman blinked for a moment. "Wait what do you mean you haven't granted 3 wishes yet? Hasn't anyone come up to you wanting to make a wish yet?" I realized what she meant pretty quickly. "Oh! No I mean I've granted probably around 2 dozen wishes or so? But no one's used up all 3 wishes yet. I can grant 3 wishes per person." I saw the red head laugh as the cape guy smacked the table with his head for a moment, the cat man pulling off his mask to rub his temples a bit. Reed blinking for a moment before Ben came over towards me. "You can grant 3 wishes to every single person? Long as their not big huh?" I gave him a nod and explained. "Yea! For example one person made a wish to give somebody cat ears and a tail, even gave them soft little pads on their palms and claws. As a prank mind you, we cancelled that one out before too long had passed though." The smirk on Ben's face turned further and further into a smile. "I wish that Johnny's hair would change color every time he sneezed." My eyes were glowing as I snapped my fingers before Johnny could let out the shout for me to stop, turning towards Sue. "Your really gonna let him make a wish like that?" Sue dead pan looked her brother in the eyes and cocked an eyebrow at him. "What wrong? It's no different from when you put hair dye in my shampoo when I was 15." I then got everyone's attention by pointing something out. "Hey relax Johnny, it's not so bad... All you have to do is just NOT sneeze right?" As if on cue Sue used her power to tickle his nose... He sneezed.

Ben let out a chuckle and began to full on belly laugh as he watched Johnny's hair to almost instantly turn a bright pink. Sue bursting out laughing as I saw the red head woman join her. A moment later and Johnny sneezed again, his hair changing to a mix of Orange and Green this time, in a swirl pattern no less. "MY HAIR!!!" He yelled out in terror. "I'm calling you captain light bright from now on..." Ben called out, I heard the laughter spreading a bit more now. "I'll get you for this GRIMM!" With that Johnny ran out of the room, fake crying and clearly having fun with it. "Could you grant someone's wish for more Vibranium?" I was asked by the cat man. "No, maybe someday if my powers got stronger? But currently that's impossible." I thought it better to alleviate any worries about such things for now, besides I still have my actual reality warping power that I could use once it gets strong enough. "So wait... How did you get Uru then?" Came from the blonde hammer guy. "Oh! Well my powers... Are any of you familiar with video games? I essentially get these little pop up screens from time to time, they offer me quests or missions and if I succeed then I get rewards. They don't really tell me WHAT the rewards are before I do the quest though and I have no idea how the rewards are chosen usually. I could show you what I mean if you want?" I offered, to them I must have looked like I was tapping on nothing when I brought up a couple screens.

I must have looked strange when my jaw dropped though, a notification had popped up saying I would have a new additional perk that allowed me to share messages across my mental connections if I made a certain number of total connections, currently I was at 25 of the 30 needed. With another one available at 50. "How interesting, you can show us? I don't see why not. Go ahead!" I heard from Reed, so I thought I may as well try inviting one of the people here. Looking over at the red head I spoke again. "So uh there's gonna be something that appears in front off you, please don't freak out?" I requested just before sending the party invite to her, she looked like she was about to say something when the screen popped up in front of her. I saw her body flinch ever so slightly, like she was about to reach for something on instinct. She immediately got asked by Reed what she was seeing. "Looks like a black screen with gold writing, it says I've been invited to a party and is asking if I accept... What will happen if I press yes?" She asked turning her head towards me. "W-well I know that you'll be able to see screens that I bring up, so you can see what it's like for yourself. Beyond that I'm not sure really." I truly wasn't, but she pressed yes and I saw the name Black Widow appear on the side of my HUD along with a health and stamina bar, just below where my name health and stamina bars had been. I opened up the quest screen for making new connections and she noticed it, I saw her stand up and walk over to me, looking at the screen. "Huh, so this is what your quests are usually like?" "Well more or less, not all of them offer stuff like additional rewards like this one does. Most of them so far have been about training or studying, I've been trying to learn as much as I can about science lately, as well as learning a few other things. My powers did knock me out the other day though, I got extra rewards that allowed me to learn the basics for a martial art or two and it basically shoved the information right into my head. It knocked me out almost right away from info overload though... Oh I can also summon clones, can't do it right now though cause their all busy with stuff."

I felt explaining that wouldn't really hurt. "So what kind of martial arts? Did you have a choice to make or something?" Widow was still just behind the chair I was sitting in, asking as she looked at my screen, I minimized it and turned to focus on her question. "About that... there was a list that showed up, a LOT of options were on it... Martial arts from all over the world, weapon specific fighting style's, it was a bit overwhelming for me honestly. I mean trying to keep up with my powers has been a tad difficult already and then there's literally hundreds of options for me to choose from?" I couldn't shut my mouth apparently, but my words got a few chuckles if nothing else. "Wait I can see your name, but what are these bars exactly?" I tried to think of how to best describe it. "Well the red bar is a representation of health, for example if your were injured it would look like part of it was missing from the bar. The green bar I think is Stamina, I haven't seen any other bars before though." I explained before Widow seemed to have an idea. "Can you send an invite to anyone else?" I nodded my head and sent the other invites I could to the Cape guy and Sue. A couple taps later and the names Sue Storm and Stephen Strange appeared on the side of my HUD below Widow's. "Whoa wait a second, um so Mr Strange has another bar, a blue one. It looks like Magical Power? Sue has a white bar I think for her own powers?" I tried to explain, Getting a nod from Strange as Sue tried to look a bit more at the changes to her view. "So you have a quest to share your mental defenses with as many more people today as you can? No idea what you'll get for that?" I shook my head from Widow's question. "No I won't know until I turn in the quest, then what it gives me will be what it gives me."

There were a few other small questions, but the next one that really mattered was asked by Sue. "So your mental connection helps protect against telepathic attacks, wanna make a connection with me and my husband? It could be a good bit of extra security right Reed?" She asked as she turned to her husband, his nodding was sufficient enough. "Well I'm not sure how long it would take to set up, it could be a little time consuming... Also I uh, I brought something else..." I explained as I stood up, ending the party before switching to the Inventory screen and pulling a single chunk of the Nth metal and setting it on the table. I watched as Strange seemed to drop his jaw at the sight of it. "What... What is that? I can sense something magical about it..." I left it alone, pulling back from it as Reed brought some equipment over that began to scan and look at it. "Um apparently it's called Nth metal, at least that's what my powers labeled it when it was in my inventory." I explained, watching as Strange apparently used magic to try and scan or sense whatever this stuff was. I watched them examine it as carefully as they could, after around 10 minutes they were each wanting to take the piece to perform further examinations. "I um... There's no guarantee I'll get more but I could hold onto any extra pieces I get hold of." I offered, I would have liked to get something in exchange though, this stuff was REALLY powerful to say the least. "Shouldn't we offer something in exchange to help him? I mean it is the only piece he currently has." I heard from Sue no less, surprise on my face while I felt a little bad for not correcting her. I got got an invite from T'Challa to come and visit his kingdom should I need help or something happen to the X-Men as well as an offer to help me with making whatever I might need should I get more materials. Natasha was able to offer information that wasn't too high clearance as well as some resource help and possibly more depending on just how useful the Nth metal turned out to be. Strange offered to help set me up with a teacher for magic if I wanted to come by and learn, stating he was curious what could be made from such a magical material. Reed offered to help send information and arrange a teacher for my studies in science, but it was the last offer I heard that was the most surprising I think. Thor offered me a chance to not only take a trip through space to see Asgard, he even offered an opportunity to meet with someone named Eitri, who he then revealed was one of the people that had made his hammer. I opened a screen for a moment before thinking about trying something...

"Well I don't know if this will work but... I can try getting the rewards from one of my quests and see? Um I do need to try making more mental connections though, if it helps then I'd be happy to share other pieces I get." I offered, getting a smile from Sarah. "Pretty sure Natasha was gonna ask about you doing that anyways..." Natasha responded pretty quick. "True I was gonna offer, but if it helps that's more of a reason to try it right?" So with that I nodded my head and began to work one by one making a connection with the people I hadn't yet. Natasha, Thor, Strange, Sue, T'Challa, Reed, Sue even convinced Ben and Johnny to come by and give it a shot. I think it was what Natasha said after the connection was made with her that helped though. "Huh that's odd, I feel... calmer? Wait, are my sense's heightened...?" She had asked, Sue soundlessly trying to move past her only for Natasha to suddenly spin around and catch her. "Whoa! I think you got faster Natty." Natasha looked in surprise for a moment. "So I FELT her there... Like didn't hear her, or see her, it's like I just FELT she was there behind me... Did you do that?" I shook my head for a moment, even Sarah looking surprised. "I had no idea the connection did anything like that, I was honestly just hoping it would be helpful." I explained before I heard a laugh from Thor. "Young one you need not be so humble, your abilities are still unknown to you after all. It will take time to learn all you can about them." I saw nods of agreement from others. That was basically the end of the meeting, beyond that I got methods to contact each of them for when I got hold of more Nth metal, leaving the piece behind with Reed as he went too work studying the new ore. I watched the others leave first with their bodyguards, before Sarah and I prepared to head back for the mansion.

Unfortunately we... didn't have a peaceful flight back, not long after we left there were rockets fired at us. We heard the alert before anything else happened, Sarah yelling at me to "HOLD ON!" as our ride got shot out of the sky, it ended up crashing on a rooftop, the mansion not even remotely in view yet. I couldn't hear, could barely see anything, Sarah pulled me out, trying to talk to me... She carried me away from the crash, we got near the door when we heard a roar from nearby, right as my hearing was coming back too. I watched as some huge black creature chased after Spider-Man, I saw it launching out tendrils of black goo at him, meanwhile I saw Sarah looking around, like she was on high alert. The creature ended up landing a hit on Spider-Man and sending him to the roof next to the one I was on, bouncing off it to roll onto our roof. The goo creature leaped over to attack, Sarah trying to keep herself between the creature and me. My sense's back fully when I saw Spider-Man throwing something at the creature, it threw a CHUNK of the roof back in return. Spider-Man dodged and the concrete smashed into our downed vehicle, it burst into flames, the creature tossing several more chunks around as it seemed to get enraged. One stray flew at Sarah and she blasted it to dust, neither of us saw the creature flinging one in an arc around the side, Sarah catching sight a moment before I felt it smash into my torso. I suddenly found myself in free fall as I went over the side, eyes widening as I felt weightless for a few moments, watching the windows nearby flying past me as I fell, I felt dizzy, couldn't focus, couldn't focus on my flight. I felt something grab me and found myself being carried away, down to the street level. I managed to look up in time to catch sight of Spider Woman swinging away, just barely caught sight of her white and black suit, little patches of purple looking web patterns on her suit as well. I figured I'd stay down here for a few moments, try to recover. Then a thought popped up in my head, where did the rockets come from?

That's the moment I heard foot steps behind me, I turned my head in time to see something slam against my head. When I woke up, I found myself tied up, I looked around and wondered...