The Blankverse
"It's good to see you too, Lady Death."
Lady Death stood in the void with a cold smile playing across her impossibly beautiful features, her form shifting between states that hurt to perceive directly. She was beautiful and terrible simultaneously.
She looked at Jay's battered cosmic form, at FURY's destroyed body floating nearby, and her expression carried something both amusement and genuine irritation.
"Well," she said, her voice like silk wrapped around broken glass, "you certainly haven't made it difficult, have you? Stealing from my realm even after my warning." Her smile sharpened. "You've been naughty, haven't you, little outsider?"
Jay's cosmic form flickered, threatening to collapse entirely. His adaptation was gone, burned into FURY's core and inverted, leaving him vulnerable in ways he hadn't been since before the invasion. Every wound he'd taken during the fight screamed for attention, his reality warping stretched thin just maintaining his transformed state.
He couldn't waste power healing himself. Not here. Especially not in front of her.
So instead, Jay made a grabbing motion with one cosmic hand, reaching not through space but through the conceptual layer where souls resided after death.
Jim Jaspers' soul materialized before him, still grey and monotone from Jay's inverted adaptability, stripped of its mechanical prison and reduced to its most fundamental human form. The soul that should have ascended to Death's realm moments ago but had been trapped in FURY's digital consciousness.
Lady Death's expression shifted instantly from amusement to cold fury as her dark eyes blazed with power that made the Blankverse itself recoil.
"What do you think you're doing, outsider?!" Her voice carried weight that would have crushed normal matter. The void cracked around them as non-reality itself flinched from her rage.
Jay smiled through the pain, his cosmic form bleeding starlight, and his breathing labored. "Oh, I'm just claiming my powers from a lost soul." He grabbed Jaspers' grey spirit, feeling the inverted adaptation still woven through it. "Since you abandoned him and all."
His hands moved with practiced movement despite exhaustion. Polarity activated, yin and yang symbols manifesting around the grey soul, black and white swirling as he filtered out the inverted adaptation, separated it from Jaspers' essence, and began drawing it back into his own cosmic form.
The grey turned to multicolored brilliance as polarity reversed the inversion, and Darwin's perfect adaptation flowed back into Jay's cells, into his biology, merging with his cosmic transformation and stabilizing the wounds that had threatened to kill him.
Lady Death was not about to let a mortal disrespect her. Not after that same mortal had foiled her carefully laid plans.
She moved.
A scythe materialized in her hands, formed from bones that resonated with impossible age. Celestial bones, Jay's Comic Nerd perk screamed at him, taken from beings that predated most of reality itself. The blade was pure concept, Death's own essence given cutting edge, the same weapon Oblivion wielded when he sought to end existence.
Jay's danger sense exploded with warnings that nearly overloaded his nervous system.
He burned through every drop of power dodging, his cosmic form moving faster than thought, but he was exhausted, wounded, and Lady Death was a multiversal abstract concept given form. His reality warping was universal level at best, nothing compared to the being before him.
The scythe's edge caught his chest.
Just a graze. A flesh wound that split cosmic skin and drew blood that looked like starlight.
But this was Death's own weapon.
The wound metastasized immediately, spreading like cancer through his cosmic form, his cells trying to die, his biology fighting itself as Death's essence invaded his fundamental structure. The pain was unlike anything he'd experienced, like every cell screaming its own death simultaneously.
Jay gasped, his cosmic transformation flickering as he poured Tommy's healing aura into the wound, golden light fighting black decay, barely maintaining status quo and preventing it from spreading further, but unable to actually heal the damage.
"You should have stayed silent the first time I gave you mercy," Lady Death said, her scythe spinning with casual grace. "But mortals never learn, do they?"
Jay backpedalled through the void, his mind racing through every contingency he'd prepared, every backup plan, every desperate gambit.
He couldn't call on the Ancient One. That would just put her in danger, and Master had done enough for him already.
He couldn't rely on his powers to escape, much less defeat an abstract entity.
So Jay fell back on the one thing that had kept him alive through every impossible situation: Comic Book Nerd Perk- All knowledge of these multiverses fit into his brain.
While dodging another scythe slash that would have bisected him, Jay began muttering under his breath.
"Companionship plus..." His cosmic form blurred, barely avoiding Death's blade. "... times success..."
Lady Death's scythe carved through where he'd been a microsecond before. "Running calculations won't save you, little thief."
"...times innocence..." Jay's voice grew stronger, more focused, even as blood ran from his nose and wounds peppered his cosmic body. "...where y equals despair..."
Something shifted.
Lady Death's next attack slowed fractionally, her essence pulling back from the wound on Jay's chest, the metastasizing death retreating inch by agonizing inch.
Both of them froze, surprised.
The scythe wounds on Jay's body began to close, not healing but simply ceasing to exist, as if Death herself was being denied permission to claim him.
"What..." Lady Death stared at Jay, her dark eyes wide with rarely experienced shock. "What are you doing?"
Jay saw the hint of success and felt Death's domain receding from his body like water off glass, and he pushed everything he had into the moment.
Tether pulsed on his finger, the Uru band forged in Nidavellir responding to his desperation. He fused it with his reality warping, burning through reserves he didn't have, forcing the Space Stone to function beyond its native universe, to reach across the multiversal barrier itself.
then non-space inverted.
Jay felt the dimensional walls between universes, thinner here in the Blankverse than anywhere else, and he punched through with Tether serving as an anchor, pulling himself through the breach.
He tumbled through the space between realities, through the void that existed outside normal existence, and Jay aimed for a specific vibrational frequency, a universe where he could see glimpses of victory.
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Lady Death, still playing with her prey, still not using her full power for reasons Jay couldn't fathom, chased after him with her scythe trailing darkness.
"Let's see how far you can run, little thief!" Her laugh echoed across dimensions.
Jay crashed through multiple universal barriers, each jump burning more power he didn't have, his cosmic form cracking further with each transition. Atlantis flashed past, a universe where it never fell. New York, where the Avengers had disbanded. Delhi, where Mugals had never invaded.
Each universe blurred together as Jay searched for his target, for the one place his desperate plan might actually work.
Then he felt it, a universe where two cosmologies overlapped, existed simultaneously in impossible harmony.
Earth-9602
Jay materialized in a dark alley, his cosmic transformation finally collapsing as exhaustion overtook him. He returned to merely human, bleeding from a dozen wounds, his clothes torn and burnt, his body screaming for rest.
But at least he was alive.
He looked up at the skyline, saw the Gothic architecture mixed with modern skyscrapers, and relief flooded through him despite the pain.
Wayne Industries logos gleamed on several buildings. A newspaper stand advertised the Daily Planet.
This was it.
Jay tried to heal himself and gather his footing, but his reserves were gone, adaptation working overtime just to keep him conscious.
Then Death materialized ten feet away.
She looked around, ignoring their universe with no interest. "Run out of breath, little thief?" Her scythe materialized in her hand, bone and essence gleaming in the streetlight. "Guess I'll finish it quickly and claim you after all."
Jay's back hit the alley wall, trapped, exhausted and barely able to stand. But he wasn't done yet. Not while he could still talk, still stall, still buy himself seconds to implement his desperate plan.
"Why?" Jay's voice came out hoarse, rough with pain. "Why do you target me specifically? What crime did I commit for you to be hunting me with such passion?"
Lady Death tilted her head, genuinely curious about the question. She spun her scythe with casual grace, the blade humming with deadly purpose. "You are seriously not getting it?" She said with a laugh, cold and beautiful. "I have been telling you all this time. You were given a warning, and despite that, you resurrected someone again."
"So what?" Jay's frustration bled through his exhaustion. "It was just one person, and he was dead again in seconds!!"
Lady Death's expression grew almost playful, like a cat explaining to a mouse why it must die. "That did happen, yes. But the person you resurrected was Jim Jaspers, second only to Franklin Richards in the sheer scale of power you've stolen." She leaned on her scythe. "It's not about quantity, little outsider. It's about quality. You brought back a being who could have unmade your entire universe, just to steal his power. Without sanction from those who would matter, form ME."
Her voice took on an edge, something deeper than anger. "Do you know what your little arrangement with Gaea has cost me? That precious Adaptive Heroism World you convinced her would maintain the Balance?" Death's eyes blazed brighter. "Souls that should have been mine decades before their natural ends will be snatched away again and again. Heroes preventing the mass-casualty events that once filled my realm with the harvest I was due."
Jay laughed despite the pain, despite everything. "So that's it? You're just being petty? That's what this is all about?" His voice rose. "THEN WHY NOT KILL ME DIRECTLY? After all, you're Death itself! You're a multiversal abstract! I'm just a human with stolen powers! Why all this pageantry?"
Lady Death's playful expression vanished, replaced by something colder. She was silent for a long moment, considering whether explaining herself to a mortal was beneath her.
Then she spoke, and her voice carried weight that made the alley walls crack.
"It's my foundation." Each word was chosen carefully. "As powerful as we concepts are, we are still bound by order. And most importantly..." Her dark eyes fixed on Jay with laser focus. "We are bound by His will."
Jay's breath caught. "You mean..."
"The One Above All, yes." Lady Death's grip on her scythe tightened. "You outsider, have His mark. Just like they all do." Bitterness crept into her voice. "You come into this multiverse and break the natural order, play with it like it's your given birthright. And the first thing each and every one of you do is deny Me by saving your precious hero's families. You turned fixed fate into infinite possibility with your very presence."
She took a step forward, scythe raised. Death approaching with inexorable certainty.
"Since I can't claim you directly without violating His edicts without punching down at an Outsider in a way that would be synonymous with attempting to change the very nature of my world itself, I thought Jaspers would be a good tool." Her smile was razor-sharp, carrying satisfaction and disappointment in equal measure. "A reality warper consumed by hatred, given mechanical immortality and a copy of high-order adaptability, made a hundred times more intelligent, blessed with mastery that made FURY one of the most powerful villains in this entire universe."
Her expression flickered, something almost like amusement crossing her features. "Unfortunately, he was a disappointment in the end. Though watching him nearly breach the Fourth Wall was... entertaining. Inbetweener might say dangerously so."
Jay's mind raced, pieces clicking together. His Comic Nerd perk was screaming at him now, showing him the cosmic chessboard and the rules Death was dancing around.
"You're playing a dangerous game," Jay said slowly. "Creating an unsanctioned threat to the universe's functioning. The Living Tribunal put Oblivion in a coma for less."
Death's smile turned predatory. "Perhaps I've grown bored enough to dance on that line. Perhaps I want the excuse to clip an Outsider before he grows strong enough to interfere at the Top-of-Cosmic Tier." She paused, and for just a moment, something else flickered in her eyes- was it genuine challenge? Assessment? "After all, truly immortal Cosmic Entities don't remain in power by being stupid."
Jay began laughing, the sound echoing through the alley. Not nervous laughter but exhaustion-fueled understanding mixed with hysteria.
"Well," he said, still chuckling, "thanks for the talk. It really was eye-opening." His hands moved behind his back. "And as thanks, I've prepared something for you."
Death's eyes widened fractionally.
Jay took a deep breath, gathering every scrap of knowledge from his Perk.
This had to work. Because if it didn't, he was dead. Simple as that.
And then Jay spoke at the top of his voice, his words carrying power that made Lady Death's eyes widen in recognition and growing horror.
"COMPANIONSHIP PLUS UNDERSTANDING PLUS ASSURANCE PLUS JOY PLUS ALTRUISM..."
Lady Death screamed in rage as she felt her power diminishing, felt something fundamental being challenged at the conceptual level.
"STOP!" She lunged forward with her scythe, but Jay kept speaking, kept calculating, kept building the equation.
"...DIVIDED BY RESPECT..." The words came harder now. Forced through pain. "DIVIDED BY COMMENDATION..." His voice cracked but held. "DIVIDED BY SYMPATHY..."
Her pride kept her from retreating, from fleeing from a mere mortal, from an outsider who should be easy prey. But each word Jay spoke, each variable he added, her power kept diminishing, kept being pushed back by something equally fundamental.
Life itself.
The opposite of everything she represented.
"...TIMES INNOCENCE..." Jay gasped the words out. "TIMES DIGNITY..." Blood ran from his nose. "TIMES SUCCESS..." His legs gave out. He collapsed against the wall. "TIMES ACCEPTANCE..."
Lady Death's form flickered, her scythe dissolving, her essence being counter-balanced by forces she couldn't simply overwhelm.
Her absolute authority over death itself being contested by the mathematical proof that life was worth living.
"NO!" She tried to cut him off, but the equation was already building momentum, already taking on its own conceptual weight.
"...WHERE Y EQUALS DESPAIR…" Jay's vision blurred. He forced the words out anyway.
"AND N EQUALS CAUTION..."
The alley filled with light, white and pure, pushing back the darkness that clung to Death's presence.
"...LOVE EQUALS TRUTH..."
Lady Death stumbled back, her form destabilizing, genuine fear crossing her features for the first time in eons. Fear not of the equation itself, but of what using it here, in front of witnesses in an Amalgam Universe, might mean for her carefully balanced defiance of cosmic law.
"...DEATH EQUALS REBIRTH..."
Jay's wounds began to close, not through healing but through fundamental restructuring, as if the concept of his death was being rewritten at the source code level.
"...AND SELF EQUALS LIGHT!"
The equation completed.
White light exploded from Jay's body, so bright it turned the alley into day, so pure it burned away shadows that had existed since the alley's construction. His wounds sealed completely, flesh knitting together as the Life Equation restructured reality around him.
His torn clothes transformed, becoming a pristine white overcoat and pants, fabric gleaming as if freshly made. His hair turned pure white, every strand the color of fresh snow. Even his eyes shifted, irises becoming white, glowing with inner light.
Jay stood there, transformed, the living embodiment of the Life Equation, the antithesis of everything Lady Death represented.
The mathematical proof that life was worth living. That existence had meaning, and free will mattered.
Lady Death stared at him, her usual confidence shattered, genuine fear of the unknown radiating from her form. Because she'd never encountered this before. Never faced the Life Equation in the flesh. In all her eons of existence, across all the universes she'd claimed, she'd never seen a mortal wield this power.
"How?" Her voice came out barely above a whisper. "How do you know the Life Equation? That shouldn't exist in this Multiverse!"
Jay's grin was predatory, carrying relief and exhaustion and triumph in equal measure.
"Welcome," he said, his voice echoing with harmonics that resonated with Life itself, "to the ."