The moment they stepped off the aircraft at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, Jay could already hear the commotion building outside the terminal. Even through the thick walls, the sound was unmistakable: a crowd forming, voices chanting his name like he was some Bollywood star or cricket player.

  "Jay! Jay! Jay!" The rhythmic chanting grew louder.

  Jay sighed, running a hand through his hair. Someone must have leaked their flight plan. Great. Just great.

  Politicians in crisp white kurtas were already positioning themselves in front of news cameras. Here was Jay, the Indian-American hero who'd healed an entire nation on live television. In a country where celebrities were worshipped like literal deities, he represented the ultimate prize.

  "They want something from you," Domino observed, her mismatched eyes scanning the crowd. The enhanced mental processing from her new danger sense was still settling in. "Either your healing touch or just the chance to say they met the famous Power Broker."

  Jay nodded grimly. "Indians have a long tradition of worshipping their heroes. Doesn't matter if you're an actor, athlete, politician, or apparently, a mutant healer."

  "And considering their past of worshipping mutants as God's avatars, this seems about right."

  Jay bent light around them both, transforming his features into those of an average Indian man in his mid-twenties. Domino now appeared as a typical Delhi girl with warm brown skin and long black hair. They moved through the dispersing crowd unnoticed, just another young couple among millions.

  When the crowd realized their celebrity wasn't coming, the disappointment on their faces was almost comical.

  "Weird seeing you with green eyes," Domino said as they caught a taxi. "Your brown eyes were one of the first things I noticed about you."

  Jay glanced at her. "And I noticed you checking out my ass during that first meeting."

  "I was being professional," she protested, then smirked. "Besides, it's a nice ass."

  Their first stop was the Red Fort. Standing before the massive red sandstone walls, Jay felt that familiar itch to explain everything he knew.

  "This is where Shah Jahan held court," Jay said, pointing out the intricate inlay work in the Diwan-i-Khas. "The same emperor who built the Taj Mahal for his wife. Every August 15th, the Prime Minister addresses the nation from those ramparts."

  A small commotion near the children's area caught Jay's attention. A young boy, maybe seven, was crying while his grandmother spoke rapidly in Hindi about his burned hand from a hot chai vendor's stall. Jay's eyes met Domino's, and she gave an almost imperceptible nod.

  Minutes later, the boy's tears had stopped, his hand completely healed. The grandmother pressed her palms together in grateful prayer, whispering "Bhagwan ka ashirwad" as Jay disappeared back into the crowd. His technomorphing had already erased the incident from nearby security cameras.

  They spent days exploring Delhi's treasures. The lotus-shaped Bahá?í House of Worship left them both speechless. In Old Delhi's Chandni Chowk, they navigated the chaotic maze of narrow lanes filled with spice vendors and jewellery merchants.

  The food made Domino understand why Jay had been so particular about restaurants back home. At a small dhaba near Jama Masjid, she discovered what real spice meant.

  "Christ, no wonder you were never impressed with that Thai place Bobby loves," she said around a bite of kulfi. "If I'd known real Indian food could taste like this, I would have dragged you to more ethnic restaurants instead of picking pizza every time."

  Jay watched her navigate the unfamiliar flavors. "Wait until we get to Rajasthan. Their Thali recipes will make this seem mild."

  That night in their hotel, Jay pulled out a lottery ticket he'd bought from a street vendor.

  "Time to practice," he said, focusing on the transparent dice that floated in his mind's eye. Domino's probability manipulation felt like trying to tune a radio station that kept drifting.

  The ticket was a small winner. Nothing dramatic, but enough to confirm the power was responding. "It's working, but barely," Jay admitted, frowning at the modest results. "Your power is like trying to conduct an orchestra where every musician is playing jazz improv."

  "Welcome to my world," Domino said, settling against his chest. "Powers like that have a mind of their own. I should know."

  The next two weeks took them across India's diverse landscape.

  In Rajasthan's golden desert, they rode camels across sand dunes. The Jaisalmer Fort rose from the desert, its honeyed sandstone walls seeming to glow as the setting sun painted everything amber.

  In a small village outside Jaisalmer, they encountered children suffering from severe dehydration after their well had been contaminated. Jay worked quietly in the pre-dawn hours, his healing touch restoring their health while Domino kept watch. By morning, the "miraculous recovery" was attributed to prayers and traditional medicine.

  "It's called the Golden City for a reason," Jay explained as they watched the sunset from their camel's back, one arm around her waist. "During the day, the entire city looks like it's made of precious gold."

  In Kerala's backwaters, they drifted on a traditional houseboat through emerald waterways. Domino sat cross-legged on the deck, cleaning her knives with meditative focus, while Jay tried again with probability manipulation, this time on a local lottery.

  "Better," he murmured later, studying the results. "Still frustrating, but there's definitely progress."

  The breakthrough came unexpectedly in Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India where three oceans meet. They were sharing fish curry on the beach, watching the waves crash against the rocks where a massive statue of Thiruvalluvar stood sentinel.

  "The danger sense you gave me," Domino said suddenly, watching the complex patterns of water movement. "It's like seeing the world in slow motion sometimes. Every ripple, every bird's flight path, it all makes sense now."

  Jay smiled. "Wait until you get used to the enhanced memory. You'll start remembering conversations from years ago like they happened yesterday."

  Domino had been absent-mindedly testing her tachyon field manipulation, applying it to a toothpick while Jay rambled about the confluence of waters. "This is what happens when I get bored during lectures," she said.

  The enhanced toothpick slipped from her fingers.

  Time seemed to slow as Jay watched it fly straight toward his face with enough speed to punch through steel. Without his danger sense active, his reflexes were a split second too slow.

  But something else intervened.

  The probability manipulation responded instinctively. Reality subtly shifted as a seagull dove down at precisely the right moment, deflecting the toothpick's trajectory by millimeters. It shot harmlessly past Jay's ear and embedded itself six inches deep in the stone nearby.

  "Shit." Domino's face went pale as she stared at the perfectly round hole in the ancient rock. "I could have killed you."

  "Dom, I got it." Jay's voice was steady, but she could see the adrenaline in the tightness around his eyes. "We know your power responds automatically when I'm in real danger. So we can start making progress now."

  "Don't you dare turn my fuck-up into a training exercise," she snapped, but her hands were shaking.

  Jay caught her hands, stilling their tremor. "Hey. I'm okay."

  From that moment forward, the probability manipulation became increasingly responsive. Not dramatically—Jay wasn't guaranteeing lottery jackpots or anything—but enough to nudge odds in his favor. A lucky find of exact change, a taxi appearing just when needed, a hotel room becoming available at the last minute.

  Jay spent most of his free time testing the limits with scratch-offs and online betting.

  "You're getting that look again," Domino warned as they boarded their flight to the Philippines. "The same one you get when you're planning something that's going to give me a headache."

  "What look?"

  "The one where you think you can beat the house." She tugged his ear. "Don't turn into one of those assholes."

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  "Says the woman who convinced me to bet on three different horse races in Mumbai," Jay countered.

  "That was field testing," she said primly. "This looks like you're enjoying it too much."

  Throughout their travels, they heard whispers of Indian heroes that made Jay's mind itch with curiosity. Stories of , the flying hero who protected Mumbai., the guardian. , the mechanical protector. And most intriguingly, , apparently powered by Goddess Durga herself.

  "This world is bigger than I thought," Jay mused as they watched a news report about HERO stopping a bank robbery.

  'The Marvel universe I remembered definitely doesn't have these heroes,' Jay thought, jaw tightening as he processed too much information.

  Domino noticed. "You're not planning to investigate, are you? We're supposed to be on vacation."

  "No," Jay said after a moment, his hand finding hers. "Some rabbit holes are better left unexplored. We have our own story to write."

  "Good," she said, squeezing his fingers. "Because I'm not ready to share you with another crusade just yet."

  The Philippines welcomed them with pristine beaches and people who smiled as easily as they breathed.

  In Palawan's underground river, they marveled at limestone formations sculpted by millions of years of patient water. In a Manila hospital, Jay quietly healed a ward full of children with dengue fever, his technomorphic abilities erasing all traces from the facility's systems.

  The balut that Jay dared Domino to try resulted in a face-off between her stubbornness and her gag reflex.

  "This is biological warfare disguised as a snack," she accused between careful bites, though she refused to back down.

  "You've eaten military rations that were probably worse," Jay pointed out.

  "At least those didn't have visible veins."

  That evening, back in their hotel room, Jay teleported them to their private warehouse in New York. The space was already filling with carefully catalogued souvenirs and artifacts from their journey.

  "Still weird seeing you do that," Domino commented, watching him store their purchases. "Makes packing a lot easier though."

  "Wait until you see what we've collected by the end," Jay replied, organizing traditional Indian textiles next to Filipino prints. "This warehouse is going to tell the story of our entire journey."

  Malaysia offered a fascinating blend of cultures. In Kuala Lumpur, they climbed the Petronas Towers and wandered through street markets where Tamil, Malay, and Mandarin languages created a symphony of sounds.

  "The linguistic patterns," Domino observed, her enhanced processing allowing her to pick up structural similarities faster than ever, "they're more connected than I expected."

  The satay they shared at Jalan Alor night market came with a side of Jay testing every vendor's gambling games and walking away with their prize money.

  "You're showing off," Domino observed as she pocketed winnings from a ring toss game.

  "I'm subsidizing our vacation," Jay corrected. "Besides, these games are rigged anyway. I'm just evening the odds."

  Indonesia's diversity amazed them both. From Bali's rice terraces that cascaded down mountainsides, to Java's volcanic peaks that pierced morning clouds, every island seemed to offer a different world. The temples at Borobudur left them both quiet, the massive Buddhist monument rising from the jungle making their usual banter seem inappropriate.

  In a small village in Central Java, they encountered children suffering from malnutrition. Jay's healing work continued quietly, while Domino used her enhanced tactical thinking to coordinate with local aid workers, ensuring sustainable food supplies reached the community.

  "Makes you feel small," Domino said as they watched the sunrise paint the ancient stones, Jay's jacket draped over her shoulders.

  "In a good way or a bad way?" Jay asked.

  She considered this, leaning against his shoulder. "Good, I think. Like maybe all the shit we worry about doesn't matter as much as we think it does."

  "Optimistic as always," Jay said, but his arm tightened around her.

  Africa welcomed them with red earth that stained their shoes and endless skies.

  They skipped Egypt because Jay muttered something about "trauma from moon-worshipping vigilante" and Wakanda because it would be "diplomatically complicated."

  Kenya became their unexpected favorite. The Maasai Mara during the great migration was a spectacle that television could never capture. Millions of wildebeest and zebras moving in ancient patterns across the savanna, predators following, the whole ecosystem playing out its eternal drama under African stars.

  "Jambo, mzungu," called a Maasai elder as they visited a traditional village. "You have the eyes of a healer."

  Jay smiled, grateful for the recognition. That evening, he quietly treated several villagers for malaria and infections, his work dismissed as the result of traditional herbal remedies and strong constitutions.

  Nyama choma and ugali became their go-to meal—simple grilled meat and cornmeal that tasted better than anything they'd eaten at five-star restaurants. They sat around fires with locals who taught them Swahili phrases and shared stories that stretched back generations.

  "Jambo, rafiki," Jay would say to vendors, his pronunciation improving daily.

  "Mzungu anajua Kiswahili!" an elderly woman said to Domino at a Nairobi market, laughing at Jay's careful attempts.

  "He's showing off for me," Domino replied in English, which made the woman laugh harder.

  "Smart man. The ones who try to learn, those ones are keepers."

  Their evening training sessions continued even in the African wilderness. "Let's play Russian roulette," Domino suggested, loading the revolver as lions roared in the distance.

  "You're completely insane," Jay laughed, but he was getting addicted to the rush of pushing his abilities to their limits.

  Australia's coastline offered a different kind of beauty. The Great Barrier Reef was an underwater wonderland of colors that seemed impossible in nature. Sydney's harbor provided the perfect backdrop for the first real fight they'd had in weeks.

  China challenged them with its sheer scale and complexity. The Great Wall stretched beyond the horizon, while the Forbidden City in Beijing overwhelmed them with the weight of imperial history. In Sichuan, the spicy hot pot they shared had Domino gasping for water while Jay calmly continued eating.

  "Lightweight," Jay observed as she fanned her mouth.

  "My tongue is literally on fire."

  "Should have listened when I said to start with the mild broth."

  Russia's vastness was humbling. Red Square in Moscow, with St. Basil's colorful onion domes, felt like stepping into a fairy tale. The Trans-Siberian Railway carried them across landscapes so enormous they seemed to belong to another planet. In St. Petersburg, they spent hours in the Hermitage until Domino finally complained that her feet hurt and dragged Jay away from a medieval weapons display.

  By the time they reached Europe, they had been traveling for nearly two months. Their warehouse in New York was filling steadily with carefully catalogued artifacts, artwork, and cultural treasures from their journey around the world.

  They learned to move together, finishing each other's sentences and anticipating needs without discussion.

  "Where to first in Europe?" Domino asked as their plane descended toward Paris, her head resting on Jay's shoulder.

  "Definitely not Britain," Jay said firmly.

  "Why not? What's wrong with the UK?"

  Jay's expression grew cautious. "Let's just say dealing with reality warpers, multiversal police forces, and legendary magicians sounds like too much of a headache for a romantic vacation."

  Domino raised an eyebrow but didn't push. She'd learned to pick her battles.

  Paris greeted them with springtime beauty.

  The Louvre's glass pyramid reflected the afternoon sun as they approached, but Jay's focus was elsewhere.

  "There's something I need to acquire," Jay told Domino as they settled into their hotel room overlooking the Seine. "An African pendant in their private collection. It's not on public display."

  Domino's entire demeanor shifted, professional interest replacing tourist curiosity. "Finally, something I can actually help with." Her smile carried a sharp edge. "What kind of security are we talking about?"

  While Jay spread building schematics across their bed, Domino disappeared into the Parisian night.

  Hours passed. Jay had every guard rotation, camera angle, and entry point memorized by the time she returned through their hotel room window with silent grace.

  "Looking for this?" she asked, holding up an ornate pendant shaped like a claw.

  Jay stared at her, then at the artifact, then back at her. "How did you..."

  Domino's smile was pure satisfaction. "Trade secrets. Though I will say, your danger sense made it almost too easy. I could feel every guard's position, every camera's blind spot. It was like the building was telling me exactly how to move through it."

  Jay pulled her close, tasting adrenaline and night air on her lips when he kissed her. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."

  "Too late for that," she murmured against his mouth.

  "Is this a magical artifact?" Domino asked, studying the pendant's intricate design.

  "Not exactly," Jay said, taking the pendant and focusing his light manipulation to remove decades of accumulated rust and dirt. Slowly, the tarnished metal began to gleam, revealing purple lines that seemed to pulse with absorbed kinetic energy. "This is made from one of the most expensive materials on Earth. Vibranium."

  Domino's eyes widened. "Like Captain America's shield?"

  "Exactly. Very few pieces exist outside Wakanda's borders. Most of the world doesn't even know it exists." Jay's voice took on that tone he used when explaining historical sites. "Finding artifacts like this in European museums is like discovering pieces of a forgotten treasure that most people don't even know exists."

  Jay added the claw-shaped pendant to his necklace carefully, where it joined the crooked adamantium bullet and Domino's lucky quarter.

  "That thing's going to give you neck problems eventually," Domino pointed out, but her fingers traced the collection gently.

  "I'll worry about that when the time comes," Jay said, catching her hand and pressing it flat against his chest.

  "Promises, promises," she murmured, but her eyes were soft.

  Their European tour continued with the same pattern.

  Rome's ancient grandeur fed Jay's need for historical context, while Venice's romantic canals provided perfect backdrops for quiet conversations they'd never had time for before. In Barcelona, Gaudí's impossible architecture made them both question reality in uncomfortable ways. Amsterdam's museums and canals offered cultural richness that satisfied their shared need to understand the world they were protecting.

  "The memory enhancement is really kicking in now," Domino observed as they walked through the Rijksmuseum. "I can remember every painting we've seen on this entire trip, down to the smallest details. It's like having a photographic gallery in my head."

  By the time they reached Berlin, spring was giving way to early summer. They had been traveling together for exactly two months. The city's mix of heavy history and determined optimism felt appropriate for two people learning to build something new from complicated pasts.

  Standing on the observation deck of the Reichstag building, looking out over a city that had been divided and reunited, Jay found himself thinking about permanence and change.

  "No regrets about the dangerous training methods?" Jay asked.

  "Are you kidding?" Domino grinned. "Watching you master my powers through sheer determination and stupidly dangerous games? It's just so sexy."

  "No regrets about skipping Britain?" Domino asked, following his gaze across Berlin's skyline.

  "None whatsoever," Jay said firmly. "Some sleeping dragons are better left undisturbed."

  Domino nodded, having learned to trust his instincts about potential complications.

  "So where to now?" she asked, slipping her arms around his waist as they watched the sun set over the city.

  That's when Domino's phone buzzed insistently. Wade's contact photo filled the screen, his mask somehow managing to look both excited and manic even in a still image.

  "Heya Domino, tell Boss Man we caught the big fish."

  They got their answer.