Mario watched the green-haired figure approach with narrowed eyes. This felt different from his previous encounters. Even Hydra hadn't pulled this kind of stunt.
Hydra only wanted him dead. But this here was provocation.
"Hahaha... Your abilities are even more impressive than I imagined. Come on, kill me."
The Joker stopped right in front of him, eyes closed, arms spread wide like he was embracing death itself.
Mario pulled out his staff, leveled it at the Joker's skull and spoke, "Mind Control."
The Joker's eyes snapped open, but the manic gleam was gone. He turned and stood at Mario's side.
The spell was powerful, but it had a time limit. Mario didn't waste a second.
"Where is the real Joker?"
The controlled Joker's response came slowly, "We are all Jokers."
So that's how it works. Mario had suspected as much. The Joker wasn't a person, it was an ideology. These people believed they were the Clown Prince of Crime.
Mario glanced at the fuel tanker sitting in the street. "Has the tanker been rigged?"
"Yes. I have a special device. When I die, the tanker will explode. Everything within fifty meters will be caught in the blast."
"Remove the bomb and detonator."
The Joker's unbuttoned his green coat and carefully dismantled several devices hidden in the lining. Finally, near his heart, he peeled away a black adhesive patch. He dropped it on the pavement and walked toward the tanker truck.
Mario waved his staff again, refreshing the mind control spell.
The prison guards, the inmates, even innocent bystanders nearby... he cared about them in his own way. Not whether they lived or died in the cosmic sense, but whether they died because of him. There was a difference, even if most people wouldn't understand it.
As for the real Joker's location? He didn't bother asking. This expendable pawn wouldn't know anything useful.
Minutes later, the Joker returned carrying the disarmed explosives. Mario didn't kill him immediately. Instead, he waited patiently for the spell duration to expire.
... 28. 29. 30.
When the Joker's eyes regained their manic light, he looked down at the bomb in his hands with surprise.
"Oh. Your abilities are even more impressive than expected."
"Is that your final statement? Pretty brief."
The necromancy staff absorbed the Joker's soul – evil and insane, but a soul nonetheless.
[EVIL AND INSANE SOUL +1]
Only a dead Joker is a good Joker.
He opened his inventory and pulled out a bucket of lava. He dumped the corpse, bomb, and detonator directly into the molten rock. They didn't burn so much as simply cease to exist.
Lava is seriously overpowered.
---
Mario contacted Gordon to handle the cleanup, warning him to watch his back for the next few days. After giving instructions, he stepped through a portal back to Endstar.
He found Rocket in the laboratory, surrounded by half-assembled weapons and ammunition, tinkering with what looked like a plasma rifle. Groot stood nearby, his primary duty being emotional support and babysitting the potted sapling clone swaying on the workbench.
"I am Groot!" The tree creature waved as Mario entered.
Mario nodded back, though his mind was already elsewhere. Find the Joker, kill him properly, and take his soul to Mephisto for some quality torture time.
"Rocket, I've got a job."
Rocket set down his tools and pushed the magnifying visor up from his face. "I'm kind of in the middle of something here."
"It won't take long. I need you to come with me, examine a device, and help me miniaturize it into something portable."
Mario pulled out both his phone and communicator, settling onto a stool beside Rocket's workstation.
"Ivan, I need you."
Then he dialed Tony.
"Hey, Mario. What made you think of calling me?"
Hearing Tony's slightly lazy voice, he was probably just waking up, he smiled and spoke, "Interested in helping me research a device?"
Tony's lazy tone vanished instantly. "Where are you? I'll head over right now."
"Stay at Stark Tower. I'll arrange transportation."
Rocket watched Mario's rapid-fire coordination. "Oh, this is gonna be a challenging job, isn't it?"
"Get your gear ready. I'll call you when it's time to move."
"I am Groot."
"No, Groot. You stay home this time. Don't worry, sticking with Mario is safe."
Mario briefly considered calling Thanos. The Mad Titan was, after all, a brilliant scientist. But he dismissed the idea quickly. They didn't need that level of firepower for a simple brainwave control device. Better to let Thanos keep managing the farming operations on Sanctuary.
He contacted one of Kaecilius's apprentices through the communicator, asking them to open a portal and fetch Tony. Having mages for transportation was ridiculously convenient.
Twenty minutes later, Tony stepped through a glowing portal into Mario's workshop.
"What exactly is going on?" His gaze landed on Rocket. "And since when did you recruit him?"
He might not respect most people, but he respected Rocket. Watching someone become a top-tier galactic scientist in just a few years was impressive, even for someone with his ego. Hell, it had taken him nearly a decade just to fully absorb his father's accumulated knowledge.
"Help me study a device. Right now it's way too big and impractical. I need you guys to redesign it into something portable. You'll understand when you see the real thing."
Ivan arrived from Sakaar via portal a few minutes later.
Mario smiled. "Let's go."
---
Through a waystone , Mario's team materialized at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
The FBI agents who'd been hassling the place before were absent. Mario wondered briefly if they were enjoying their new "fulfilling" lives, courtesy of some well-placed mind control.
Xavier was waiting for them, having been alerted to their arrival. He led the group deeper into the mansion's lower levels until they reached the objective.
Cerebro.
The massive chamber held what looked like a mad scientist's fever dream. It was a spherical room with a platform at its center, surrounded by thousands of data cables and processing units that filled every available surface.
"Wow... seriously?" Rocket's eyes went wide. "Did you build this thing out of parts from a junkyard?"
Xavier finally noticed the talking raccoon at his feet. His expression shifted from surprise to wonder. "This raccoon can speak!"
Rocket rolled his eyes. "If an upright monkey like you can have intelligence, what's so strange about me having it?"
BEEP BEEP BEEP...
Rocket's personal scanner started chirping. Without hesitation, he yanked a rifle from his back harness and aimed it directly at Xavier's head.
"Hey, you want me to send you on your way? Get your telepathic abilities out of my head right the fuck now."
Xavier's face flushed. "I'm sorry... I couldn't control myself. You're just so fascinating, I've never encountered anything like you before..."
"This is the last time, Professor."
Nobody liked having their privacy violated, not even by someone with good intentions. It was a line that couldn't be crossed without consequences.
"Rocket, lower the weapon and study the device."
Mario pointed at the massive brainwave amplifier. The thing occupied the entire room, incredibly bulky for what it did. Still, for technology developed in 1965, it was impressive. McCoy really was a genius.
"This device greatly enhances telepathic abilities. In its advanced stages, it could allow Professor Xavier to instantly scan every mutant on the entire planet."
Everyone glanced at Xavier, who still looked somewhat embarrassed.
Ivan said nothing, simply walked over and began inspecting the equipment. Tony frowned thoughtfully. Professional matters needed professional attention. Mario understood almost nothing about the technical aspects, so he pulled Xavier aside.
"I need your help finding someone. He's not a mutant, just an ordinary human. Can you do it with the brainwave amplifier?"
Xavier looked uncomfortable. "I probably can't cover the entire Earth. My abilities aren't that strong yet."
At his current level, he couldn't even cover all of America, let alone the entire planet.
Mario smiled. "Nothing that difficult. I just need you to scan a city roughly the size of New York. I can provide you with information about his appearance. Just do what you can, don't push yourself."
He clapped Xavier on the shoulder.
Xavier nodded, agreeing to help.
Mario left the Cerebro chamber and walked to the third-floor corridor. The student population had grown significantly since his last visit, more than a dozen visible from this vantage point, most of whom he'd never seen in any comic storyline. Watching them laugh and play in the afternoon sun, he smiled.
Inside the equipment room, the research team was making rapid progress. For scientists of their caliber, the work was almost insultingly simple. Replace bulky vintage components with modern equivalents, and the entire system could be shrunk by a factor of twenty or more. With three brilliant minds working together, plus McCoy explaining the underlying principles, they dissected Cerebro's functionality in record time.
---
Xavier stared up at the sky. The massive mothership blotted out the sun, surrounded by dozens of smaller transport craft.
In that moment, he finally understood what Raven had been trying to tell him about Mario's resources. Those cannons extending from the ship's hull were definitely not for show.
"This... uh..."
Mario chuckled at Xavier's expression. "This is pretty basic stuff. No need to get so worked up."
Thanos, Infinity Stones, quantum armor... that's the real heavyweight arsenal.
But Xavier didn't know that. Mario's casual dismissal of such overwhelming military power left him speechless. His brain and eyes simply couldn't process everything he was seeing. Everything around him felt like something straight out of science fiction.
One person was even more excited than Xavier. If Ivan hadn't caught him in time, he might have fainted from sheer excitement.
McCoy. As the X-Men's resident scientist and intellectual backbone, he finally understood why Mario could so produce a gene-suppression serum. Given access to technology from the same era as those spacecraft, he could do it too.
That wasn't arrogance, just fact.
"Professor, take McCoy with you and join the others in the lab," Mario said. "You can also check if there's anything that needs improvement with the new equipment. After all, you'll be the one using it."
"Rocket, Ivan, Tony, I'm leaving this in your hands. Please get the device finished as soon as possible. I'm getting impatient to find the guy I'm looking for."
Rocket held up a tablet displaying test simulations and data projections. "Don't worry. We've got this."
Xavier nodded and departed with McCoy, following the science team.
Watching their backs disappear into the laboratory building, Mario turned and walked toward the waystone. He'd just thought of Harley Quinn. Sure, the Joker could abandon her at any moment. But that didn't mean she was worthless as leverage.
"Guess I really am better suited to playing the villain," he muttered.
He stepped through the portal back to the DC universe. Dark clouds gathered overhead.
RING RING...
His phone, the one he'd specifically asked Gordon to buy for easy contact, buzzed in his pocket.
Seeing the number, he answered. "What's up, Commissioner Gordon?"
But instead of Gordon's voice, manic laughter exploded from the speaker.
"Mr. Argento, Commissioner Gordon is in my hands now. I'd like to play a little game with you. Of course, you can refuse... but he'll have to say goodbye to this world."
Mario's expression didn't change. Even after enhancement, he still got himself kidnapped...
"Get to the point."
More insane laughter, followed by an address. Mario hung up without waiting for the rest of the monologue.
He found one of only two numbers saved in his phone and pressed dial.
Ring... ring...
"Batman, Commissioner Gordon's been kidnapped by the Joker."