Michael floated above them all, his arms still crossed, dawnlight flickering across his shoulders like a living cloak. His eyes glowed faintly as his voice entered their minds again—calm, steady, unmistakably confident.
"Thor is now exhausted. So why don't you all co fight now?"
The challenge wasn't shouted. It didn't need to be. It echoed inside them, resonating with sothing primal. Not a threat—an invitation.
Thor, still crackling with stormlight, hovered back, breathing heavily. His gaze locked with Michael's, frustration and fire in his eyes—but also respect. Michael had pushed him to awaken sothing deeper. And he knew it.
Steve narrowed his eyes. "He's taunting us. Trying to bait the team."
"More than that," Bruce said. "He's evaluating us. Gauging how we'd respond under pressure—even before the fight starts. That's what scares ."
Natasha stepped forward. "So what do we do? Stand down? Walk away?"
Tony exhaled through his helt. "We don't strike first. Not until we understand what this is."
Michael slowly lowered himself, now only a few dozen ters from the Avengers—just out of striking range, but close enough to let the tension build like a stormcloud.
"You ca all this way," Michael said aloud now, voice carrying over the wind. "You suited up, hovered in the clouds, whispered in the dark… Now here I am. No tricks. No surprises. Just ."
He extended his arms slightly. The dawnlight pulsed again, wrapping around him like armor, flickering through symbols ancient and unreadable.
"Co on, Avengers. Show what Earth's mightiest can do."
The team hovered in silence, each waiting for the other to make a call. Finally, Steve spoke.
"Tony?"
Tony didn't respond right away. His HUD continued streaming data—readings jumping between known classifications and sothing else entirely. Michael's power was still growing… slowly. Like a dam holding back sothing far larger.
"Alright," Tony said finally, voice sharp. "No kill shots. No over-commitnts. We engage cautiously and pull back if it escalates beyond our limits."
He looked to each of them. "He wants a test? Let's give him one."
Clint cracked his neck. "Round two, then."
Natasha tightened her grip on her batons, now glowing with shock energy. "Let's see what this dawnlight really does up close."
Bruce stayed quiet, but his pupils dilated. "I'll hold back… unless I shouldn't."
Steve raised his shield. "Let's move. Flank him—draw his attention, disrupt his focus."
The Avengers surged forward in formation.
Michael just smiled.
'Finally, I can get more gacha tickets,' Michael thought. It hadn't been his intention to fight the Avengers—but after defeating Thor, he'd unexpectedly received another Silver Gacha Ticket.
How could he possibly pass up the chance to earn more?
Now, he had no choice.
He will defeat them and then earn more tickets.
As the Avengers closed in, Michael's smile widened slightly—but it wasn't arrogance. It was anticipation. The dawn-colored aura around him thickened, like smoke given purpose, curling into his hands and forming twin blades—graceful and curved, humming with quiet energy.
Tony was first. He shot forward in a spiraling burst of repulsor fire, beams aid directly at Michael's flanks.
Michael didn't move.
Instead, his aura blades twisted, spinning once—and the repulsor blasts bent around him like they'd hit a gravitational lens, veering off into the distance harmlessly.
Tony's eyes widened. "He's warping energy flow with his own energy blade!?."
Steve ca in from the left, shield drawn, a precision strike aid at Michael's ribs.
This ti Michael moved—barely. A subtle pivot, a graceful redirection of Steve's montum, and the Captain was thrown sideways mid-air, though he recovered quickly.
Natasha and Clint followed. One from above, twin batons glowing with charge—Clint from below, firing a cluster of flashbang arrows ant to blind and distract.
The dawnlight pulsed.
Michael extended a single hand, and ti around him slowed—just enough to step out of sync with the arrows, letting them pass through his afterimage. Natasha's attack ca down fast—but Michael's aura flickered again, catching her batons with one of his blades in a perfect cross-guard.
"You move well," he said quietly to her, before flicking his wrist and sending her tumbling backward in a controlled arc.
Bruce, still holding back, circled the periter. "He's not trying to kill us," he said into the comms. "He's parrying. Testing us like he did with Thor"
"Then maybe we stop holding back too," Tony snapped.
With a roar, Steve regrouped with Clint and Natasha for a second wave. Tony unleashed a barrage of micro-missiles, forcing Michael to stay midair as the Avengers dove in from all sides. Steve's shield struck true this ti—just barely—scraping against Michael's shoulder and disrupting his aura for the first ti.
Michael faltered midair—just for a second.
And Clint noticed.
"Now!" he yelled.
Bruce leapt upward, eyes glowing green—half-Hulk, just enough to amplify his strike as he collided with Michael in midair with a thunderous blow.
BOOM.
A shockwave tore through the sky, sending clouds scattering and cracking windows miles below, As Bruce now fully turned Hulk looked at the place Michael have sent flying and roared.
Michael was hit. Knocked back through the sky in a flash of golden streaks.
The Avengers hovered, weapons drawn, watching closely.
Then, from the scattering dawnlight, Michael erged—no longer smiling, but… laughing.
He was enjoying it.
His aura burned brighter now, and his voice echoed again—not into their minds, but into the very air:
"Well done. You landed a hit."
"Though It was weaker than I thought, or maybe I am too strong now" he said as he brushed his hair back and looked at them " now, its my turn"
His hands ca together, and the sky above him darkened slightly—not with storm clouds, but with shifting constellations. Runes traced through the air behind him, ancient and incomprehensible.
Tony's HUD lit up with danger signals.
"Okay, now he's powering up."
Michael raised a single hand.
"Let's see how far this ga can go."
As the ancient energy poured from above, it didn't flash or explode. It breathed—a soft, eerie hum that vibrated through the bones of every Avenger midair. The stars behind Michael pulsed like living eyes, their light weaving into his aura, changing its color from dawn-gold to a deep, cosmic indigo, laced with silver veins.
Tony's HUD short-circuited for a second before rebooting with a scream of unreadable values.
"Bruce, tell I'm not the only one seeing a celestial fusion event happening in front of us," he said.
*******
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