Chapter 38

(General P.O.V)

Fury narrowed his one good eye at Ash. The mood inside the Quinjet became tense. Ash felt like hiding behind Coulson at the intensity of the glare he was receiving. That would surely be funny as hell. But he refused to look away and that seemed to satisfy Fury.

"Thanks."

The large black man finally responded. Ash felt like sighing in relief but instead settled for a nod before calmly walking to a seat and strapping in.

He ended up sitting opposite Fury, who was eyeing him with a curious look on his face. Ash thought of it as curious but that was just him being nice. The look was full of suspicion. It felt as if Fury was dissecting him piece by piece. He looked away from the paranoid man's gaze. This, was not going to be a comfortable ride. It didn't help that the two agents that had been with Coulson took seats to his right and left.

Coulson on the other hand secured himself the seat next to Fury, leaned back and closed his eyes. Ash knew the agent was alert and ready to spring to action. It wasn't hard to see he was more like a prisoner to them and a part of him considered that they were taking him to a black ops facility to interrogate him.

The reason he didn't escape was because he was tired from running away. If his life was put in danger he would merely have to activate his free vacation reward from the system and leave.

The Quinjet lifted off after everyone was on their seats. Ash found the ascent smooth. There was silence inside the cabin before Fury broke it with a question.

"What is your name?"

"Ashton. Ashton Phelps."

Ash answered without a moment of hesitation. He had decided he would cooperate fully.

Fury showed no reaction, merely moving on to the next question. Or in this case questions.

"Well Mr.Phelps, mind telling me where you have been for the last 3 years? And while you're at it, why is it that the very first time anyone has ever seen you is during the New York battle? Who are you and why do you not exist anywhere?"

Ash stomped down on his urge to make a quip.

"By order, I have been in another world and the reason why I don't have an identity in this world is simple. I am not from around here."

Fury showed a reaction this time around. He frowned.

"Care to repeat that?"

"I am not from around here."

Ash said, again.

"Does he mean the US?"

The pilot asked his partner. Everyone in the back heard it due to one of the Quinjet's perks. It was not as loud as one might expect from the jet.

"Yes. Technically, I am from Canada but not the one you know." Ash answered.

"There's another Canada?"

The co pilot whispered to his partner. Ash rolled his eyes.

"I mean, am not from this version of earth. I come from an alternate universe and can jump in between worlds at random." He shrugged, not really noticing that everyone was looking at him as if he had grown a second head.

"Still can't control where or when I end up though."

Coulson was now awake. He looked at Fury's face from the corner of his eyes to gauge the man's reaction. Fury cleared his throat, leaning back while placing one leg on top of the other.

"That's...quite an interesting story, Mr. Phelps. Now if you don't mind telling me, which part of it is true?"

"All of it."

Ash answered without delay, holding Fury's gaze without breaking eye contact.

"Right."

The Director of Shield finally stated. He closed his eyes.

"Wake me up once we arrive at the Helicarrier."

He instructed the pilot.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Yes sir."

The pilot answered and Fury seemed to have lost all interest in Ash.

"He doesn't believe me, does he?"

Ash asked Coulson who merely smiled tightly at the obvious question.

"It's not personal kid, You have to admit the story does seem too farfetched."

"I do. But I don't want to lie either." Ash told him sincerely.

"Everything I'm telling you is the truth."

He insisted.

"We will found out soon enough."

Coulson promised with another amiable smile.

Ash knew it was a losing battle trying to convince them. This was one of the times when actually telling the truth worked against him. He was forthcoming but all he was met with was skepticism. Luckily there wasn't risk to him failing his mission because where the Avengers were, Fury was not too far behind. He just had to find a way to get from the Helicarrier to Sokovia before the fight officially begun and Quicksilver lost his life.

"So how long until we get to this Helicarrier thing?"

Ash asked the agent next to him. The agent stayed quiet, ignoring him.

"Wow, nice customer service."

Ash said in response to the no response.

The agent to his left snorted.

"If the customer could turn into a rock and smash in a building."

He muttered lowly.

Ash ignored him, realizing that these men were not going to help him with information. It would have been a different thing if their bosses weren't around. Ash's stomach begun to growl and it was then that he remembered he hadn't had anything to eat after his spar with Urahara's spiritual pressure. A spar he lost. Badly.

A chuckle left his mouth. God, he had such a long way to go. But his power was growing. That wasn't a lie. He could feel the strength in his muscles, even in his regular form. Something had changed within him. Something other than the 'soul of ascension' perk granted by the Hogyoku.

Ash however, still felt as if he had lost out in the deal. He hadn't gotten the information on how to create reiryoku contracts from Urahara. Fortunately what he had received was still really good. Speaking of which, he used his mind to pull up the Ouroboros Interface. Specifically, the rewards tabs.

Using the Interface this way was more taxing on the mind and required a lot of focus. The silence in the cabin provided him with the latter and having closed his eyes, they must have thought he was copying Fury and taking a short nap.

He focused his mind on the rewards section.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Quirk Evolution (Activate?)

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Of course. The answer was clear.

Ash needed all the power he could get. Ultron was merciless and wouldn't hesitate to take him out if he had the chance. Evolving his Quirk to the next level would enable him to survive better and complete his mission in the least amount of loops.

Infact, Ash was determined to do it on the first run. There wasn't a need for more loops because he knew the exact moment the speedster died and could prevent it merely by being in the right place at the right time.

He clicked on the (activate) text and a new tab appeared in his vision.

Oh, this is new.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Specialize or branch out?

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

It was a question. The Interface was giving him two options to choose from.

One that seemed simple enough if you didn't understand that it basically decided Ash's foundation for the future.

Specialize would probably elevate his physical strength and durability to the next level while branching out would give him access to other avenues of development using his quirk's unique characteristics as a base.

For example, branching out would probably give him the ability to shoot out his hard rocky carapace as projectiles. Or it could give him a weak control over the earth. Geo-kinesis. The opposite end of the spectrum on the other hand turned the effect more inwards. More internal.

Ash had no idea what to expect from this. But to him, the choice was clear. He needed a stronger body to survive better, not a new skill he wouldn't achieve control of for some time.

Ash mentally pressed on the first option, specialization and immediately felt the difference in his Quirk. It had worked a little as he had thought. However, instead of simply enhancing his Quirk's physical and durability aspect, it eliminated his biggest weakness. Ash's flesh and muscle could now be turned into the same hard and durable material that covered his skin.

It was completely uniscientific. Organs were not supposed to work like that. He hadn't activated his Quirk but he was already being weirded out by the knowledge granted by it. How would his heart function? The stretchy muscles helped in pumping blood. Not to mention would his brain undergo the same process?

Apart from that, Ash was happy with the new effect of his quirk. He was a true tank now and it opened up more avenues for his strength development.

He had made the right choice. Besides, with the Soul of Ascension reward, maybe branching out was something already taken care of. He just had to learn Kido on his own (sigh) and maybe a few more soul skills and he would be golden.

Wait, did that mean he actually had access to his Reiryoku now? He pulled up the description on the Soul of Ascension and read through it.

Then he thought back to how his trusty Plasma Knife had been changing lengths. He had wondered when the charge on the device would run out but instead of decreasing in size it had seemed to increase. As if pulling energy from somewhere. He surreptitiously reached towards...his neck?

Ash blinked. The Plasma Knife was always placed inside his pants pocket but his first instinct was to actually reach out towards the necklace on his neck. He looked down, raising the pendant at the end. A small purple crystal in the shape of a green eyed snake head appeared before his eyes.

"Nice pendant."

Coulson complimented.

Ash looked up at him and was about to answer when the Quinjet rocked. Something had crashed onto it's sides, jolting Fury awake and making the rest reach for their guns in wide alert.

"Hold on!"

The pilot ordered as he and his partner tried to bring the spinning Quinjet back under control. It was crazy how things had taken a sudden turn.

"Status report!"

Fury shouted.

"Damage in the hull. And we lost the left engine!"

Came the shout.

"Diverting all power to the..."

The Pilot's words were cut off when an explosion drowned out the left side of the cockpit, Killing him and damaging the Quinjet more than it was repairable.

Something huge stepped into the descending craft. Something huge and metallic.

"Nick fury, any last words?"

The voice that came out of the robot was very familiar to Ash.

"Ultron."

The teen muttered lowly, with wide eyes.

Then, before the robot could begin spraying bullets around the Cabin, Ash activated his Quirk.

All hell broke loose.