… Aidan Quinn
You know that moment when you realize you're in the middle of a goddamn alien war and still somehow manage to flirt with one of the most dangerous girls in the universe?
Yeah. I was living that moment.
New York was still chaos — ships crashing down, Chitauri leaping off buildings like space-tech cockroaches. The kind you stomp and still get zapped for it. But even with all that, my brain was focused on something else.
Well… two things. Raven and Jean Grey.
One was dark, cold, and sharp as a blade. The other was pure light with eyes that could dismantle any excuse I could ever make.
And me? I was right in the middle of them.
Literally.
Raven was on my left, summoning shadows with the grace of an underworld goddess who was just tired of it all. Jean was on my right, lifting cars and soldiers with her mind, red hair blowing in the wind like she just walked out of a 2000s music video. And me? I was basically trying not to look too turned on in the middle of a war.
The fight raged on, and we were actually forming a pretty decent trio.
The sync was natural. Raven covered the rear with dark magic and sarcasm. Jean was the rational link, controlling the battlefield with precision. And me? I was the guy the Chitauri thought they could touch — until they learned what happens when you enter my personal space.
Spoiler: they stopped. Literally.
Infinity.
I was keeping it simple — no Blue, no Purple, no Reverse-Cursed spam for now. Just good ol' Infinity: Lite Edition.
Bullets? Stop midair. Lasers? Disintegrate before contact. Alien tentacles?
Not today, space Cthulhu.
But like everything in my life, the peace didn't last.
We'd just cleared a block when I felt that vibe. The classic "testosterone bruised male inbound" kind of vibe.
Scott Summers.
The guy stared at me like I'd broken into his garage, touched his car, and flirted with his girlfriend — or maybe future girlfriend. There are so many versions of the story, it gets hard to keep track.
"Quinn", he said, like he was calling roll in chemistry class.
"What's up, Cyclops?" I replied, just to poke the bear.
He ignored it.
"You appeared out of nowhere. You're fighting effectively, but no one knows you. You say you're local, but your name doesn't show up on the Institute's security records."
Right. Mutants have Google now too.
"Maybe because I'm not a registered mutant. I'm just a Midtown High student, Scott. Or… I was."
I lifted my hand and spun my wrist. A gentle ripple distorted the air around me.
"Now I'm… different. Long story. But I promise I'm not a disguised villain, a Chitauri spy, or some psychotic Magneto clone."
Scott frowned.
"And this girl? Raven. She's not in the database either."
Raven appeared behind me like a solid shadow, floating a few inches off the ground with her cloak brushing against the ruined asphalt.
"Maybe that's because you only know what you're ready to understand", she said, blinking slowly. "Or maybe… I just don't want to be in anyone's database."
Damn, girl. That was cold.
Scott bit down on whatever he was gonna say. Jean, coming up behind, stepped between us like some emotional shock absorber.
"What matters now is that they're helping. And they're making a difference." She looked directly at me. "Even if he talks too much."
"You keep complimenting me like that, I'm gonna start thinking it's love", I murmured.
She laughed. Just a little. But I saw it.
Partial victory.
The group started moving again, but right then I felt it. That sensation.
It was subtle. A shift in the air. Like something was… tugging. A mind trying to reach mine.
Jean. She tried to read me again.
But — even though she was talented, powerful, incredibly redheaded, and very much the type to break my heart with a polite sentence — she couldn't get through.
Nothing. No reading. No invasion. My mind was a sealed vault wrapped in defenses the X-Men had never seen.
She looked away, but I caught it in her eyes.
Curiosity. Fascination. Annoyance. All mixed.
And that? Oh yeah.
That made me even more into her.
She could try to figure me out. Try to break through. But in the end, there was only one way to truly know me.
Talking. Or sleeping with me.
Preferably the second.
But for now, I just smiled. Because the world was still exploding, I still had aliens to deal with, and Raven was already floating ahead with that whole "let me know when this is over" vibe.
I followed her.
But before I walked away, I tossed Jean one last line:
"You will want to understand me. And when that time comes… call me. We can talk. Over coffee. Or wine. Or sheets."
She folded her arms.
"Raven's right. You are an idiot."
"And as I've said, that's been unanimously agreed upon~"
Then I ran.
Because the next block was on fire, and I had a war to win.
...
We split from the X-Men when the resistance on the other side of the city started to fall. Jean stayed behind to help evacuate a civilian zone. Scott did what Scott does — barked orders no one followed. And Raven? Raven followed me up to a rooftop without saying a word, like always. Silent, focused, with that whole aura of "if you fall, I'm not catching you."
She stopped at the edge and just stared out. I walked to the opposite side, activated the Six Eyes, and let the world show me its ugliness — amplified.
Every strand of energy lit up for me. Every pattern, every beam twisted by magic or tech became a readable map. I could see portals, Chitauri, collapsing buildings, and heroes in action miles away.
And there they were.
Captain America. Fighting like the world depended on 1940s moral values.
Thor, God of Hammers. Blonde lightning bolt cutting through the sky, throwing his hammer at anything breathing alien air.
Tony Stark. A man who made a glowing chest-reactor an excuse to be arrogantly stylish.
And at the center of it all… Stark Tower.
Specifically, the top — where the Tesseract pulsed with pure blue light. Space Stone energy radiating through the open dimensional portal.
And somewhere up there was Loki's scepter — with the Mind Stone hidden inside.
Two Infinity Stones, a short sprint apart. One in each pocket, and I could rewrite reality before dinner.
I stared for a moment — long enough to confirm: yup, it was real. This world mostly followed the movies. The Avengers were here. The Tesseract was key. The scepter was present. And Thanos… well, he'd show up eventually.
Half the universe was literally on the line.
And you know what I did?
Nothing.
Didn't move. Didn't rush. Didn't start plotting how to steal the Mind Stone, undo the future, and become the new "Time Daddy."
Because… screw it.
This wasn't my war.
I wasn't a hero. I wasn't here to save the universe. I didn't get some divine mission or cosmic invite. I was a contractor. An adventurer with a paid-in-full character sheet. My goal was to live. Enjoy. And, if possible, eat well, sleep in beds that don't explode, and have fantastic sex.
Save the world? Maybe.
Save a beautiful redhead with trust issues? Probably.
Fight a cosmic titan with a fetish for colorful stones and mass murder? I don't get paid enough for that.
"You saw it?" Raven asked, as if reading my thoughts.
"Yeah", I said, eyes still on the tower.
"You gonna do anything?"
I turned to face her — those violet eyes, dark and tired, like they'd already seen ten planets fall and couldn't be bothered anymore.
"Not my war", I said. "They've got the Avengers for that. Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Mr. Star-Spangled Banner… they'll handle it."
She nodded, emotionless.
"Then why are you staring so hard?"
"Curiosity", I shrugged. "It's not every day you witness potential extinction. I like to understand the chaos before I say 'not my problem' with more conviction."
Raven turned back to the burning horizon.
"You don't care about anything?"
"I care about good food, stable Wi-Fi, and emotionally damaged waifus. The rest is a bonus."
She made a sound — almost a laugh. Too quiet to be sure.
I didn't question it. Just sat down on the edge, legs swinging over the burning city.
The sky was blowing up. Heroes were dying for a world that'd forget them by next week.
And me?
I had more important things to do than save the universe.
Like winning over Jean.
And maybe making Raven smile.
Maybe.
"You know you can go all out, right?"
The words just came out — like most things I say.
I noticed it when we fought.
Raven seemed… held back. Not scared. Not nervous. Just caged, like a beast with the key outside the gate — no one willing to use it.
"What?" she asked without looking at me.
"If you wanna let loose, make buildings shake, flood the streets with shadows, swallow half the aliens in an interdimensional pit — go for it. I don't care. I'm not trying to look like the strongest guy here. You don't have to hold back to spare my ego. Go wild."
Yeah, I have the Gojo template. But I'm not Gojo.
Being "The Strongest"? Not my vibe.
She went quiet. Smoke from the battlefield danced between us.
"You don't understand."
Her voice was different this time. Almost fragile. Almost.
"If I open up… he wakes up. He senses me. Every time I use my soul as a weapon, he hears it. My father wants me to give in. He shaped me for that. To be the key. The portal." She turned to me — eyes violet and deep, deeper than any black hole. "I can't afford to be seen."
He, of course, was Trigon.
The demon. The monster. The cosmic dad with world-ending plans that start with his daughter.
Everything she believed about herself revolved around that: if I let go, I invite the end.
And it hit me like a silent punch.
She… didn't know.
She really believed she was still chained.
And I realized — no one had ever told her.
That expression — of someone who has had an invisible collar around their neck for so longo that they don't even try to take it off anymore. Of someone who was born with fear and learned to live as if it were part of their body.
But she wasn't part of it anymore.
I moved, facing her, as serious as someone like me can be.
"Raven… listen."
She raised an eyebrow, suspicious. But she listened.
"You were bought. Literally. In the Company system. I know that sounds weird — maybe a little offensive — but hear me out. That contract, that stamp that brought you here, it did more than teleport you. It cut everything off."
Her brow furrowed.
"Cut off what?"
"The link. The bond. All the dependency you had on Trigon. His power, his influence, the invisible chains he tied around you… none of it came through."
Silence.
The city moaned below. Heroes came and went. Chitauri screamed.
But here, between us, the world just… paused.
"You're in another world, Raven. A whole multiverse away. And more importantly… you don't carry his weight anymore. You can use your soul, your shadow, your anger, your strength — and he won't feel a thing. Because he's not here. He has no access. You're not anyone's key anymore."
Her eyes trembled. Not in rage. Not disbelief.
In doubt. Hope wrapped in fear.
"That… that can't be true."
"It is. And you know how I know?"
I reached out and gently touched her fingers.
"Because if he did still have any connection to you… he'd have erased me from existence just for looking at you the way I do."
She looked at my hand. But didn't pull away.
"You're saying I'm… free?"
"I'm not saying it. I'm showing you. The only thing holding you back now… is you."
She closed her eyes.
And I swear… in that moment, the air around her changed. Like something — old, bitter, invisible — lifted from her body and scattered into the night.
The shadows around her expanded. Still dark. Still hers. But now… only hers.
She opened her eyes again. Calm. But for the first time — fearless.
"So I can…"
"You can anything, Raven. Just try not to swallow the whole city. I still wanna take you to a diner later."
She didn't answer.
But for the first time since I saw her…
She smiled.
Small. Almost invisible.
But I saw it.
And it was worth more than any Infinity Stone.
… Peter Parker
Peter Parker was getting used to flying.
Well — swinging, technically. But from the perspective of a nerd from Queens wearing a red and blue suit that still smelled like fresh neoprene, it may as well have been flying.
The Manhattan sky looked like a chaotic painting — ships, lasers, and portals spitting out aliens like a broken printer barfing paper. And him? The brand-new Spider-Man? He was doing the best he could.
"Excuse me! Out of the street! Ma'am, that Chitauri is not your dog! Sir, hit the brakes!" he shouted while swinging from building to building, firing webs with more hope than accuracy.
It was hard not to feel small.
There were the Avengers — gods and legends with muscles, magic hammers, billion-dollar armor, and egos the size of the Empire State Building.
And then there was him, a high school kid just trying not to die with style.
But Peter had his own personal mission: save whoever he could. Stop what he could. And if there was time, maybe get a halfway decent selfie in the middle of the chaos without smashing his phone.
He fired a web at an overturned bus, pulling a trapped kid to safety. Took out two Chitauri with a joke about intergalactic cosplay. Almost got flattened by a flying Leviathan.
Typical Tuesday stuff in New York.
It was only when he stopped on a rooftop for a quick breather — not to panic, obviously — that something caught his eye.
Two floors up, on a half-destroyed penthouse… two figures.
One of them was sitting casually, like watching the city get wrecked was just another event on the weekly planner. The other was floating. Her body surrounded by living shadows, like the night itself had collapsed and wrapped around her.
Peter squinted through his mask lenses.
"Wait, is that…?"
Took him half a second to recognize the guy. Not from a costume — he wasn't wearing one. But from the face, the posture, the way he just stood there like everything was one big inside joke.
Aidan Quinn.
Chemistry class. Back row. Always late. Always smiling.
Peter had never really talked to him. Aidan was the kind of guy who seemed like he operated on a totally different wavelength — more charisma than presence. But there he was, in the middle of an intergalactic battle, acting like it was just another Tuesday.
And then… the girl changed.
Peter felt it before he saw it. The wind stopped. Sounds dulled. The air felt heavy.
The girl — he didn't know her name, but he just knew it would be something dark and dramatic — opened her eyes.
And the world shook.
The shadows around her expanded like a black ocean spilling out from a crack in the sky. They poured over the building, slithered up the walls, curled into the sky, swallowed the light.
The whole area went dark.
Not nighttime dark. Nothing exists here anymore dark.
Peter dropped to his knees, instinctively.
Up above, the building looked wrapped in something alive, made of shadow, pulsing, silent… and free.
Peter swallowed hard.
"What… what was that?"
Most of the Chitauri nearby just stopped moving. Some backed away. One of them exploded midair, pulled apart by inky tendrils that came out of nowhere.
And right in the middle of it all… Aidan was still standing there.
Untouched.
Like that ocean of darkness knew exactly who not to touch.
Peter stayed frozen, heart pounding, trying to make sense of it.
It wasn't tech. It wasn't something he could explain with science — not even after ten thousand hours of documentaries and wild theories on YouTube.
It was something ancient. Something sad. Something free for the very first time.
And even with all the fear it stirred up… Peter couldn't stop thinking:
"Does he know what she is?"
Because if he did… and he was still standing there beside her, smiling like that—
Maybe Aidan Quinn was way more dangerous than he looked.
Or worse…Maybe he liked it.