The Man of Steel in Marvel

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New York Sanctum

Jiro silently landed on the rooftop of the Sanctum. The Time Stone hovered over his palm, glowing with a faint green light.

He gently pushed open the skylight and leapt inside.

The Ancient One was standing in the center of the main hall, her back to him, as if she'd known he was coming.

"You kept your word," she said, her voice calm and serene.

Jiro walked up and handed her the Time Stone. "Returning it to its rightful owner."

She accepted it, lightly touching the Eye of Agamotto. The green glow flared as the Stone floated up and slowly embedded itself back in.

She looked up at him, eyes curious."You've changed their future."

"Just gave 'em a little help," Jiro shrugged. "Thanos is gone now."

The Ancient One raised her eyebrows slightly."You killed him?"

"Took one snap of the fingers." His tone was light, casual.

She was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled."Interesting. The timeline shifted because of you, but the balance of the universe wasn't affected."

She paused. "Maybe that's why the other me chose to trust you."

"But don't get too comfortable—this is just the beginning. You've got a lot ahead of you."

Jiro didn't respond to that. Instead, he asked,"Where's Strange right now?"

"Still a surgeon," she said, glancing out the window."He's got a long road ahead before becoming Sorcerer Supreme."

"That's good." Jiro nodded. "At least this time, he won't have to go through all that suffering."

The Ancient One looked back at him."What are you planning to do now?"

Jiro gave a small smile. "Go home."

He raised his hand, golden energy swirling at his fingertips as a portal slowly opened in front of him.

On the other side was a familiar sight: New York's skyline—his New York, his own universe.

"Ancient One," he said, turning back just before stepping through, "if you ever get the chance, come visit my side."

She gave him a small smile."I will."

The portal closed behind him, and Jiro was gone.

The Ancient One stood there, her fingers lightly brushing over the Eye of Agamotto as she murmured to herself:"Maybe... we really do need a Superman."

Earth-169278 Universe

New York City

Jiro appeared in the lab of Stark Tower.

Tony Stark was buried in tuning his nanotech suit when he heard the sound and jerked his head up so fast he nearly dropped his tools again.

"Damn it! How many times is this now? Xiao, can you please stop showing up like a ghost?!" Tony's eyes widened.

"You've been gone three days—I thought you ran off with some cover model."

Jiro chuckled. "Just went to hang out in another universe, handled a little situation while I was at it."

Tony looked at him suspiciously. "What kind of situation?"

"Thanos."

Tony's expression got even more confused. "Right... I didn't understand a word of that."

Jiro walked over to the workstation and picked up a mug of coffee. It was cold, but he took a sip anyway. "Details don't matter. What about you? How's the suit coming along?"

Tony opened his mouth like he wanted to unload a million questions, but in the end just rubbed his temples. "Forget it. You're always like this. The nano suit's mostly done, but the energy core still needs tweaking."

Jiro put the mug down and pulled a chunk of raw vibranium out of his system inventory, tossing it to Tony. "Here, take a look at this."

Tony caught it and glanced down—his eyes immediately lit up. "Vibranium?! Where the hell did you get this?"

"Wakanda," Jiro said casually. "Borrowed a bit."

Tony's mouth twitched. "Borrowed? You sure you didn't steal it?"

Jiro spread his hands innocently. "They weren't using all of it."

Tony rolled his eyes but quickly got absorbed by the vibranium's properties. He started fiddling with it, clearly excited. "With this, yeah, I can definitely upgrade the suit. But it's not much… Still, let me take a closer look."

Jiro watched Tony dive into his tech obsession and smiled faintly before walking over to the floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside, the night sky over New York was full of stars, the city lights flowing like a river of stardust.

His super hearing picked up sirens in the distance, people talking, even the faint rumble of subway trains underground.

Everything was so familiar—and yet, full of endless possibilities.

[System Notification: Host currently has 15,000 Growth Points. Would you like to open the System Shop and redeem rewards?]

With a thought, Jiro brought up the system interface. He skimmed through the endless list of items, finally stopping on something labeled [Doomsday Cells].

"800,000 points… still a long way off," he muttered.

But that was fine. He had plenty of time.

Turning back, he walked toward the workbench.

Tony was completely focused on adjusting the nano structures in the holographic projection, his fingers flying across the data streams.

Suddenly, a thick stack of heavy metal documents slammed onto the worktable with a loud thud, making his coffee cup wobble.

"What the hell is this?" Tony frowned, looking up to see Jiro standing there with a sly grin.

"Your new toy," Jiro said, tapping the stack. "Way more fun than vibranium."

Tony shot him a suspicious look and opened the first page, scanning the dense formulas and 3D schematics.

His finger froze. His pupils contracted slightly.

"Wait… this is…" His voice had a rare note of shock.

The hologram automatically scanned the documents and projected a complex energy model next to them.

A miniature star was held inside a magnetic field matrix, hot plasma burning steadily inside the containment field, releasing pure, immense energy.

"A synthetic sun?"

Tony's head snapped up, eyes sharp. "There's no way this tech exists on Earth! A year ago, Spider-Man fought some guy messing with something like this."

"But this…" He pointed at the projection. "Holy crap—this is an actual star inside a reactor?!"

Jiro shrugged. "Alien tech. Bit more powerful than your little lightbulb."

Tony grabbed the documents, flipping through them frantically and muttering to himself. "Magnetic confinement parameters… plasma turbulence suppression… this energy density…"

He suddenly looked up, eyes burning with intensity. "Where the hell did you get this? Don't tell me you built it."

"Looted it from another universe," Jiro cut in.

"Doesn't matter where exactly. What matters is…" He pointed to a line of equations at the end of the stack.

"This thing can actually be built."

Tony took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He put the papers down and leaned over the table, silent for a few seconds—then suddenly grinned wide.

"Jarvis, clear my schedule for tonight."

"Sir, you have dinner plans with Miss Potts."

"Postpone it. No—cancel it." Tony didn't even look up, his fingers already dancing over the holographic keyboard.

"Tell her… uh… tell her it's the end of the world again. I have to save the planet."

Jiro raised an eyebrow. "That excuse still works?"

"Every damn time," Tony muttered, fully focused as he pulled up Stark Industries' energy database.

"Wait a sec," Tony narrowed his eyes. "You're not planning to use this synthetic sun…"

"To replace your arc reactor?" Jiro grinned.

"No, even better." He tapped his chest.

"It'll keep me powered even if I'm a million miles away from any real star. And for you…"

Tony finished the sentence, his eyes gleaming like a madman's. "Unlimited energy. Real, clean, infinite power."

He suddenly jumped to his feet. "Jarvis! Get in touch with Rhodey. Tell him I want to rent the old nuclear test site in Alamogordo for a week!"

Jiro crossed his arms. "You're not doing a small-scale test first?"

"Small-scale?" Tony scoffed and traced a 10-meter-wide spherical structure in the projection.

"This is the small-scale. First-gen prototype. Powerful enough to light up all of Manhattan." He paused and frowned.

"But the confinement field is still an issue. If the plasma leaks…"

"It won't light up Manhattan," Jiro finished calmly. "It'll vaporize it."

Tony glared at him. "That's not funny."

"I'm not joking," Jiro said as he walked over, drawing a few golden lines into the projection with his fingers.

"That's why we need to upgrade the magnetic generator. Use vibranium as a base and fuse it with Uru metal's magical properties."

"Give the force field self-repair capabilities!" Tony shouted, slamming the table.

"Genius! I'm starting to really like you, Jiro! Seriously, what are you? Are all aliens this insane?"

"....."