I fell in Marvel with Essence Gacha but I’ve never heard of Marvel

After Lex asked Natasha if she was willing to accompany him to another timeline to look for clues about Ultron, dimensional travel, and anything else that might prove useful, she agreed without much hesitation. However, considering she had only just arrived and was still adjusting to the rather unusual circumstances of her new life, Lex decided to give her a couple of days to settle in before they departed.

He spent those two days dealing with a few matters he had been putting off. First on the list was meeting Dr. Helen Cho and the other members of U-GIN, followed by introducing them to the management team of the pharmaceutical company he had recently acquired. The meetings themselves were hardly exciting, consisting mostly of discussions about production capacity, distribution, pricing, and the practical difficulties of bringing a revolutionary medical product to market. Fortunately, Lex didn't need to involve himself in every little detail. The actual management teams handled most of the discussions, while Raphael quietly oversaw the proceedings and made sure nobody overlooked anything important.

By the end of it, they had reached an agreement regarding the Regeneration Serum. It would initially be sold at an extremely high price before gradually becoming more affordable, with the eventual target being a price only twenty percent above the cost of production. Lex had made his preference for widespread availability perfectly clear, but releasing something capable of healing otherwise permanent injuries at a negligible price overnight could create problems of its own. If recovering from a serious injury suddenly became as affordable as buying groceries, it would change far more than the medical industry. Insurance, employment, healthcare, and even the way people approached dangerous activities could all be affected, while demand would almost certainly exceed the initial production capacity.

The price reductions would therefore be gradual, with Raphael managing the adjustments. To everyone else involved, it would simply appear that Lex was making the final decisions, which wasn't entirely inaccurate, considering Raphael was effectively acting on his behalf. The production facilities and distribution networks would fall under the pharmaceutical company, which Lex had already rebranded as Titan Pharmaceuticals, placing it beneath the growing Titan Foundation.

The Foundation was becoming a rather enormous enterprise, largely because Raphael had developed a habit of purchasing promising companies whenever she identified an opportunity. Hotels, media companies, pharmaceutical businesses, and various other acquisitions had joined its growing portfolio, sometimes before Lex had even given the matter more than a passing thought. He wasn't particularly interested in managing a corporate empire himself, and as long as the businesses remained profitable and served a useful purpose, he was perfectly happy to let Raphael handle the details.

The following day, Lex turned his attention to a rather different problem: the Space Mall's quest to give Peter a decent life.

He had no idea what the quest considered a decent life, but improving Peter's financial circumstances seemed like a reasonable place to start. Lex already knew May Parker through the charitable work he had been involved with before Raphael took over most of the day-to-day arrangements. He still supported charities, of course; he had simply delegated the administrative work to someone who could ensure that his money actually reached the people who needed it instead of disappearing into the pockets of opportunists.

His first step was to establish another charitable organization under the Titan Foundation and begin recruiting staff. Once the initial arrangements were underway, he contacted May and asked if she would be willing to help give the organization some direction. She had the kind of experience and genuine concern for people that he wanted in someone overseeing its work, and after a little persuasion—and a few promises regarding the resources available to her—May agreed to join.

The position came with a very generous salary, naturally. Lex wasn't going to ask someone to devote her time and experience to a major charitable initiative without compensating her properly, especially when the entire point was to make her life easier rather than add another financial burden.

With May's circumstances improving, Peter would benefit as well. She wouldn't have to worry quite so much about household expenses, and Peter could devote more of his time to his studies instead of constantly scrambling to make ends meet. It was a straightforward solution, even if Lex couldn't be certain it would satisfy whatever the Space Mall considered a decent life. At least he was doing something useful rather than sitting around trying to decipher the wording of a vague quest.

There was also a convenient side benefit. If Peter eventually stopped working as a freelancer for the Daily Bugle, Donna might have an opportunity to reclaim the job he had taken from her. Lex hadn't made the charity for that reason, but he certainly wasn't going to complain if things worked out that way.

---

Two days after Natasha's arrival, Lex stood in the mansion's garden with Natasha, Gwen, Kara, and Grayfia. The afternoon sun warmed the grass, and a gentle breeze stirred the leaves overhead while Fluffy lounged somewhere nearby, apparently unconcerned with the preparations taking place around him.

There was a simple reason for each person's presence. Lex had to accompany the group because he was the one activating the World Travel Card and would be responsible for getting everyone back. Natasha was coming along to investigate and, if necessary, infiltrate whatever organizations they encountered. Kara was their emergency response option in case something went wrong and subtlety stopped being useful. Grayfia had asked to accompany Lex, and he hadn't found any reason to refuse. Gwen, meanwhile, was the primary reason for the entire expedition in the first place, given her interest in dimensional travel and the information they hoped to find.

Once everyone was ready, Lex activated the card.

For an instant, the familiar sensation of travelling between worlds swept over them. Their surroundings blurred, the garden vanished, and reality seemed to fold around the five of them before settling into something entirely different. The transition was smooth enough that nobody stumbled or felt particularly disoriented, but the change in their surroundings was immediate.

They stood on a stretch of dry, sandy ground beneath a wide, cloudless sky. The sun beat down on the open landscape, and the wind carried the faint smell of dust across the otherwise quiet terrain. Low hills rose in the distance, their slopes broken by scattered patches of scrub, while a settlement lay several kilometres to the southeast. From where they stood, Lex could make out buildings clustered together beneath the glare, with a road cutting through the surrounding desert.

It wasn't exactly the sort of place he had expected to find himself, though he couldn't say he had expected anything in particular.

Raphael was already at work. The moment they arrived, she connected herself to the local internet and began gathering information, searching news sites, public records, and whatever other sources she could access. Lex had barely finished surveying the landscape when an image appeared in his mind: a familiar-looking woman with dark hair, dressed in an expensive suit, beneath a headline about the head of Stark Industries.

<This appears to be a gender-reversed world,> Raphael informed him.

Lex studied the image of Antonia Stark for a moment, then looked at the others with a slowly growing grin. He had to wonder what else had changed in this universe. If Tony Stark had become Antonia, then what about everyone else? Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Thor, Loki, and all the other people he knew? And given that the reversal extended beyond appearances to the world's gender norms, he suspected the differences could be considerably more entertaining than a collection of alternate names and faces.

“Guys, have you ever wondered what everyone would look like if they were the opposite gender?” he asked, unable to resist sharing the thought.

Kara closed her eyes briefly, as though asking the universe for patience. “Oh, God. It's the reverse-gender timeline, isn't it?”

“Yup,” Lex confirmed, looking far too pleased with himself.

Natasha, who had spent enough of her life dealing with strange situations to avoid getting distracted by the novelty, folded her arms and brought them back to the reason they were here. “So, what's the plan?”

“Well, the timeline here is actually behind ours, so we probably can't get much useful future information. That rules out one of the easier ways of figuring out what's going to happen back home.” Lex glanced toward the distant settlement, then back at the group. “I suppose we focus on dimensional knowledge, ways to travel between universes, and anything else that might help us understand how all of this works.”

“I can look for sorcerers,” Gwen offered. She was already considering the possibilities, her gaze drifting toward the surrounding landscape as she mentally organized the places she might investigate. “Or magical cults, hidden libraries, that sort of thing. If this world has its own magical community, there might be records about other dimensions or supernatural entities that we haven't encountered yet.”

“Good idea.” Lex turned to Natasha. “How about you look into the underworld? I'm pretty sure vampires and other supernatural stuff exists in a world like this, and who knows what kind of information they might have?”

Natasha gave the suggestion some thought before nodding. “Sure. But infiltrating an organization like that could take a while, especially if I have to build a cover identity and work my way in.”

“Don't worry about getting back. Once I've been here, I can return whenever I want, so you don't have to rush just because the rest of us might be ready to leave.”

“That's reassuring,” Natasha replied, looking considerably less concerned about the prospect.

“Grayfia...” Lex began, turning toward the silver-haired maid, but she answered before he could finish.

“I'll stay with you, Master.”

“Sure, then.” Lex accepted the decision without making an issue of it. “I'm thinking of going to Asgard after this. If anyone's going to have useful knowledge about other worlds and dimensional travel, it's probably the gods. At the very least, it'll be worth asking them.”

Kara raised an eyebrow. “And what about me?”

“You're our emergency backup,” Lex explained. “If anyone runs into trouble they can't handle, respond to their call. Especially Natasha, since she's not exactly at the same level as the rest of us when it comes to dealing with supernatural threats.”

“Right, so I'm the designated person who gets to punch something when everything goes wrong,” Kara said, sounding more amused than offended.

“Pretty much.”

Gwen shook her head with a faint smile before stepping away with Natasha. The two had already discussed their respective destinations, and Gwen would drop Natasha off in Madripoor before continuing to Nepal herself. It was a practical arrangement: Natasha could begin investigating the criminal underworld while Gwen pursued the magical leads she had been interested in since their previous visit.

A moment later, both women disappeared, leaving Lex, Kara, and Grayfia alone in the desert.

Lex turned his attention toward the sky. Somewhere in this world was a hammer that had recently attracted the attention of SHIELD, along with a woman who called herself Thora—or Tora, or something along those lines. He couldn't quite remember the exact pronunciation, but Raphael had already accessed SHIELD's databases and communications, so there was no uncertainty about the object itself.

Mjolnir.

The timing was almost too convenient. In his own universe, the hammer belonged to Thor, and trying to lift it would have meant dealing with the god himself before Lex could even attempt the feat. Here, however, the hammer had been found sitting in the middle of nowhere, and its owner wasn't currently holding it. That didn't mean Lex would be able to lift it, of course, but at least he could try without having to ask Thor for permission or explain why he wanted to test himself against an Asgardian weapon.

It was an opportunity worth taking, especially with the Space Mall's quest hanging over him.

The three of them rose into the air and headed toward the location Raphael had identified. The desert passed beneath them in a blur of ochre earth and rocky ridges, the distant settlement gradually receding behind them as they flew toward the increasingly visible cluster of vehicles and temporary structures surrounding the hammer's landing site.

As they arrived they found, the area had already become a heavily guarded military installation. Floodlights, communications equipment, and rows of vehicles surrounded the central site, while soldiers and agents moved between the various stations. A tall fence marked the perimeter, and the moment Lex and his companions descended outside it, several dozen weapons turned toward them.

“Stop! This is a restricted—” one of the agents began, stepping forward with a hand raised.

Another agent in a suit intervened before he could finish. She gave the first agent a brief look that made it clear she intended to handle the visitors herself, then approached the newcomers with a measured stride. Her expression was professional, her posture relaxed without being careless, and she showed none of the alarm that might have been expected from someone watching three strangers descend out of the sky.

She produced an identification card and held it where they could see it. “Hi, I'm Agent Coulson from Homeland Security. Who might you three be?”

Lex stared at her for a moment, taking in the familiar face and the distinctly unfamiliar presentation. Even Coulson had been gender-swapped. He couldn't help muttering, “Damn, even Coulson.”

Grayfia stepped forward before he could say anything more questionable. “We heard about the hammer that no one has been able to lift, and we wanted to try.”

Her explanation was mostly true, which made it considerably easier to deliver with a straight face.

Agent Coulson studied them, apparently trying to decide how seriously to take the statement. Her eyes moved from Lex to Kara and then to Grayfia, pausing briefly on each of them. “Ah, of course. And are you three perhaps mutants?”

“I'm a mutant, she's an alien, and she's a demon,” Lex answered casually, gesturing toward his companions as though he were introducing them at a social gathering.

Coulson gave him a polite smile. “I see you're quite humorous.”

“Sometimes,” Lex replied, then started walking toward the installation. “Anyway, let's talk later. We've got a hammer to test.”

For a moment, Coulson seemed uncertain whether she should stop him. Then she gestured to the nearby agents, allowing the trio to proceed while making sure they remained under observation. A few soldiers followed at a distance, their weapons lowered but not put away. Whatever they thought of Lex's explanation, they clearly weren't prepared to let three unknown superpowered individuals wander around the site without supervision.

The hammer itself rested in a shallow depression in the ground, its short handle angled slightly upward and its heavy head lying against the dirt. It looked almost disappointingly ordinary for an artifact that had drawn this much attention. There were no dramatic flashes of lightning or visible currents of magic surrounding it, only the dark metal, the leather-wrapped handle, and the quiet sense that something about it was fundamentally different from an ordinary weapon.

Lex activated Milim's Eye and several of his other analytical abilities, studying the hammer from a short distance before deciding whether to touch it.

<The hammer is enchanted with powerful magic, likely of Asgardian origin. However, an ancient and powerful Force appears to be sustaining the enchantment. Removing the enchantment without destroying the hammer would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.>

Lex absorbed the information, his attention lingering on the distinction between the enchantment and the Force powering it. The explanation didn't tell him whether he could lift the hammer, but it did confirm that whatever made Mjolnir special wasn't something he could simply dismantle with a clever application of his abilities.

He glanced toward Kara and Grayfia, his curiosity overcoming any desire to be cautious. “You girls wanna try?”

“Why not?” Grayfia replied.

She approached the hammer with the same composed expression she wore when handling household chores, crouched beside it, and wrapped both hands around the handle. With a controlled pull, she attempted to raise it from the ground. Nothing happened. She adjusted her grip, tightened her hands, and tried again, putting considerably more effort into the movement, but the hammer remained exactly where it was.

Grayfia eventually straightened, brushed the dust from her hands, and stepped aside without showing any particular frustration. “It appears I am not worthy.”

“Or whatever rules this thing follows,” Lex said, not entirely convinced that the word worthy explained everything about the enchantment.

Kara moved forward next. She began with one hand, as though she expected the hammer to yield with little effort, but the moment she pulled, the earth beneath her feet cracked. Fine fractures spread through the dirt and stone, threatening to deepen as she increased the force. Recognizing the problem, Kara rose a few inches into the air so that her strength wouldn't be transferred directly into the ground, then wrapped her hand around the handle with renewed determination.

Her eyes glowed red as she exerted enough force to make the air around her tremble. The ground beneath the hammer shifted slightly from the pressure, dust lifting in a thin ring, but Mjolnir itself didn't move by so much as a fraction of an inch. Kara tried for another moment before finally releasing the handle, the red light fading from her eyes.

“Damn, this thing is tough,” she admitted, floating back from the hammer.

Lex looked down at the weapon, then at his own hand. He had no idea whether his strength would be enough, and the fact that Kara had failed wasn't exactly encouraging. Still, he had come all this way, and he wasn't about to leave without trying.

“Well, now I'm worried whether I'll be able to lift it either,” he said, stepping closer.

He crouched beside Mjolnir and reached out, wrapping his fingers around the handle. For a moment, he simply held it, feeling the texture of the leather beneath his palm while the agents watched from behind their perimeter. Then Lex tightened his grip, preparing to pull.