Tony turned to address the group, his armor gleaming despite the intense battle they'd just survived. His HUD showed his vitals—heart rate elevated but manageable, adrenaline still pumping, endorphins flooding his system. The rush of victory, of survival, of pushing boundaries he hadn't known existed.
"Okay, everyone—and I mean EVERYONE—group assessment time. Now with our newest soap-portal arrival and our full roster. JARVIS?"
"Sir, I've compiled battle statistics. Would you like the good news or the terrifying news?"
"Give me both."
"Good news: We won. We defeated a cosmic entity that, by all rights, should have erased us from existence. Our coordination improved by 847% over the course of the battle. The Galectors' synchronized strikes were 99.8% efficient. Alien X's reality manipulation was flawless. Energy efficiency increased despite power output rising exponentially. And you only made three calculation errors, all of which you corrected in real-time."
"And the terrifying news?"
"That was only a test. The God said this was merely a trial. Whatever comes next will presumably be worse."
"Define 'worse.'"
"I'm an AI, sir. I don't have nightmares. But if I did, they'd involve what we just fought being considered 'easy mode.'"
Tony was quiet for a moment, processing this. Then he laughed—a genuine, slightly manic laugh that echoed across the arena.
"This is insane. We just leveled up across universes. We're operating on god-tier understanding of physics now. We can bend reality, manipulate probability, tear open dimensions..."
He looked around at his assembled team—a Norse god, a trickster, an Egyptian champion, a Kryptonian who'd arrived via the most embarrassing method possible, towering alien warriors made of star-metal, a reality-warper with three arguing personalities, a gravity-manipulating dog, and several others who'd proven themselves in cosmic combat.
"We just became something unprecedented. We're not just heroes anymore. We're not even just super-heroes. We're..."
"Cosmic Champions," Loki finished, testing the words. "The God called us Cosmic Champions."
"Cosmic Champions," Thor repeated, grinning. "I like the sound of that. It's dramatic. Asgardian."
"It's absurd," Black Adam said. "But accurate."
"It is a worthy title," the Galector leader agreed, its voice rumbling with approval.
"We have transcended our original purposes," Alien X added, its three voices speaking in rare harmony. "From instructors to allies to... champions. An unexpected evolution."
"It's definitely something," Superman added, smiling slightly. "Though I still think my entrance could have been more... dignified."
"NEVER," Tony said emphatically. "That entrance was perfect. JARVIS still has all twenty-three backup copies, right?"
"Indeed, sir. Would you like me to begin compiling the blooper reel?"
"YES."
"I really do hate you," Superman said, but he was grinning.
Tony's visor reflected the slowly stabilizing stars around them, each one a sun to some solar system, each system possibly containing life that had no idea their reality had almost been collapsed into a singularity moments ago.
"We just saved... what? Multiple universes? Dimensions? Reality itself maybe?"
"Technically just this arena," Loki corrected. "But the singularity would have eventually consumed everything if left unchecked, so... yes. Multiversal salvation. Put it on your resume."
"'Saved the multiverse before lunch,'" Tony mused. "'Also recruited Superman via soap portal.' Yeah, that's going on the resume."
Superman shook his head, but he was still smiling. Despite the absurdity of his arrival, despite the cosmic horror of what they'd just faced, he felt... good. This team, as ridiculous as they were, had welcomed him immediately. They'd briefed him, enhanced him, and accepted him—soap incident and all.
The Galector leader approached Tony, its massive form casting shadows that seemed to exist in multiple dimensions. "Stark. We have fought as instructors. We have trained you in cosmic warfare. But this battle... this was different. We fought as equals. As allies."
"Damn right you did," Tony said, looking up at the towering warrior. "That synchronized strike pattern when we were creating the feedback loop? That was pure military genius. You guys ARE the team now, not just trainers."
"Then we accept," the Galector leader said, and the other Galectors behind it stood at attention. "We are Cosmic Champions."
Alien X floated closer, its form rippling with contained power. "Our purpose was to instruct in reality manipulation. To teach the theoretical limits of existence. But you have shown us something unexpected."
"What's that?" Superman asked.
"That limits are negotiable," Alien X's three voices said, a hint of what might have been amusement coloring the words. "You improvise beyond instruction. You create solutions we did not anticipate. This is... fascinating. We wish to continue observing. And participating."
"Translation: You want to stay on the team," Loki said with a smirk.
"...Yes."
"Welcome aboard!" Tony spread his arms wide. "Everyone's welcome! We're building a cosmic super-team here! The Avengers were Earth's Mightiest Heroes. We're the Multiverse's Most Ridiculous Champions!"
"That's not inspirational," Black Adam said.
"It's accurate."
Thor slumped onto a floating platform, exhausted but exhilarated. "By Odin... this is going to be a long, long day. If the test was this hard, what will the real challenges be like?"
"Probably impossible," Tony said cheerfully.
"Wonderful."
"But hey," Tony continued, "we just made 'impossible' our plaything. We beat a living singularity by outsmarting it. We turned its own power against it. We created a feedback loop across dimensions. We did things that shouldn't be possible, and we did them because we understood how they worked."
He paused, his voice becoming more serious.
"That's what the God was testing, I think. Not our power—power is easy. The God could give us infinite power if it wanted. No, it was testing whether we could think at this level. Whether we could understand cosmic forces and still maintain our creativity, our individuality, our ability to improvise and adapt."
"And we passed," Black Adam said.
"We aced it," Tony corrected. "There's a difference."
Superman floated up to join them, his new cape flowing in non-existent cosmic winds. "So what happens now? What's our roster?"
Tony brought up a holographic display, showing glowing icons for each team member:
"THE COSMIC CHAMPIONS - OFFICIAL ROSTER:
- Thor Odinson - Dimensional Rift Master, God of Thunder
- Loki Laufeyson - Probability Manipulator, God of Mischief
- Black Adam - Sentient Lightning Wielder, Champion of Shazam
- Tony Stark / Iron Man - Energy Field Conductor, Genius Coordinator
- Clark Kent / Superman - Cosmic Kryptonian, Heavy Hitter (Soap Portal Division)
- The Galectors (Squad of 7) - Synchronized Combat Specialists, Star-Metal Warriors
- Alien X - Reality Warper, Three-Minded Anomaly
- Doremano - Cosmic God-Dog, Gravity Chaos Agent, Goodest Boy
STATUS: Cosmically Enhanced. Reality-Bending Capable. Probably Insane."
"I love how my division is 'Soap Portal,'" Superman said dryly.
"It's your defining characteristic now," Loki said cheerfully.
"I hate all of you."
"We know," the Galector leader said, and if a star-metal warrior could sound amused, it did.
Alien X's form rippled. "The team composition is... adequate. Diverse power sets. Complementary abilities. Acceptable chaos-to-order ratio."
"'Acceptable chaos-to-order ratio' is my new favorite phrase," Tony said.
Doremano barked and did a little spin, his tail creating a spiral of gravitational distortion that looked like a cosmic exclamation point.
"Even the dog approves," Thor said, laughing.
Tony grinned beneath his helmet. "Alright, Cosmic Champions. We've got our roster. We've got our powers. We've got our team unity—and our team dog. The God said the real challenges are waiting."
He looked out into the infinite void, where stars twinkled like distant possibilities, where reality bent and flexed, where the laws of physics were more like gentle suggestions than hard rules.
"So let's show this multiverse what we can do. Together."
Thor raised Mjolnir high. "FOR COSMIC CHAMPIONING!"
"That's STILL not a word!" Loki protested.
"It is now!"
The Galectors raised their weapons in synchronized salute.
Alien X blinked, which somehow felt ceremonial.
Superman chuckled, shaking his head at his new team's antics. "This is going to be interesting."
"Interesting is one word for it," Tony agreed. "Insane, ridiculous, and cosmically dangerous are three other words. But yes, interesting works too."
Black Adam allowed himself a rare smile. "Perhaps... this is adequate."
"HIGH PRAISE from Black Adam!" Tony shouted. "Mark this moment, JARVIS!"
"Marked, sir. Filed under 'Miracles and Other Impossibilities.'"
Doremano's bark echoed across dimensions, a sound of pure joy and slightly unhinged excitement. Gravity waves rippled outward like applause, and the entire team felt it—a sense of unity, of purpose, of readiness.
They were different species, different powers, different philosophies. But they were united.
They were Cosmic Champions.
And somewhere in the infinite void, in dimensions beyond counting, in realities that existed in states between real and imaginary...
The next challenge stirred.
But the Cosmic Champions—Thor, Loki, Black Adam, Superman, Tony, the Galectors, Alien X, and Doremano—standing among reconstructed stars, powered by divine forces and genius innovation, guided by a god-approved cosmic dog and led by a billionaire in a can, were ready.
Whatever came next, they'd face it together.
As a complete team.
With genius, teamwork, soap-portal jokes, synchronized military tactics, reality warping, and an absolutely unhealthy amount of cosmic power.
What could possibly go wrong?
(Everything. Everything could go wrong. But that was tomorrow's problem.)
For now, they basked in their victory, in their unity, in the knowledge that they had become something greater than the sum of their parts.
They were Cosmic Champions.
All of them.
And reality itself would have to deal with that.
***
CHAPTER 7: The Multiversal Gauntlet - Allies vs. Corrupted Counterparts
The arena had expanded.
Not just grown—expanded, in ways that made normal three-dimensional thinking look quaint and adorable. Nebulae that should have been light-years apart now bent sideways, meeting at impossible angles. Gravity waves didn't just ripple—they collided, crashing into each other like ocean storms made of pure spacetime distortion.
Tony floated at the center of this cosmic chaos, his visor displaying calculations that would have made Einstein weep and then ask for a drink. His enhanced perception was working overtime, analyzing trillions of possible outcomes per second, mapping probability trees that branched into infinity.
"JARVIS, you seeing this?"
"Sir, my sensors have detected approximately seventeen different violations of causality, thirty-two instances of temporal paradox, and what appears to be a star that's somehow rotating in four dimensions simultaneously."
"Normal Tuesday, then."
"If by 'normal' you mean 'physics has officially given up and gone home,' then yes, sir."
The God's voice echoed across the impossible distances, somehow originating from every point in space at once:
"Your next challenge is the Multiversal Gauntlet."
Thor groaned, adjusting his grip on Mjolnir. "Oh good. It has a name. When cosmic challenges have dramatic names, they're always fun."
"Adapt, improvise, survive," the God continued, ignoring Thor's sarcasm. "Show me that your previous victory was not mere luck. But this time... you face a unique threat."
"Unique how?" Superman asked, floating forward.
"You will face yourselves," the God said ominously. "Or rather... versions of yourselves. From universes where choices were different. Where power corrupted. Where chaos won."
Loki's eyes widened. "Alternate universe versions? Oh, this is going to be problematic."
"And not just you," the God continued. "Your allies as well."
The Galector leader's armor plates shifted with sudden tension. "You mean..."
"Yes. Corrupted Galectors from universes where honor failed. Alien X clones from realities where consensus was never reached, creating beings of pure destructive chaos. Versions of all of you... but wrong."
Alien X's three voices spoke in rare unified concern: "This is... deeply troubling. Fighting our corrupted selves requires understanding what we could become if we failed."
"So basically," Tony said, "we're fighting evil versions of ourselves and our teammates. Great. I've always wondered what Evil Tony would be like."
"Probably the same but with a goatee," Loki quipped.
"I already have a goatee."
"Evil goatee. There's a difference."
Reality tore.
Not metaphorically, not gradually—it just tore, like paper in the hands of an impatient god. Dozens of rifts opened simultaneously, each one a wound in spacetime that bled impossibility into the arena.
From the first rift emerged Corrupted Galector variants—not their disciplined allies, but twisted versions from universes where honor had been abandoned for pure conquest. Their star-metal armor was darker, corrupted, pulsing with stolen energies from consumed worlds.
The original Galector leader stepped forward, its voice resonating with barely controlled anger. "Abominations. They wear our armor but have lost our code."
"We will handle our corrupted kin," another Galector said, weapons charging. "This is our burden."
From the second rift came Alien X's evil clones—but these weren't just copies. They were versions where the three arguing personalities had failed to reach any agreement ever, fracturing into beings of pure chaos. They blinked into existence randomly, their reality-warping powers completely uncontrolled, rewriting physics in their immediate vicinity with every movement.
The original Alien X's form rippled with something that might have been sadness. "These are us... if we had never learned to cooperate. If our three minds had torn each other apart."
"Can you fight them?" Superman asked.
"We must. They are what we could become. What we refuse to become."
From other rifts came more horrors:
- Cosmic predators that had evolved beyond their previous forms
- Dark Thor from a universe where Asgard fell to darkness
- Chaos Loki who had embraced madness completely
- Corrupt Black Adam who used divine power for tyranny
- Evil Superman from a universe where he'd decided humanity needed to be controlled
- Soulless Iron Man from a timeline where Tony lost his humanity entirely
And worst of all... Anti-Doremano, a cosmic dog that had somehow become a creature of entropy rather than chaos, its gravity manipulation turned to destructive ends, its tail wagging creating black holes that consumed rather than redirected.
The real Doremano growled—a sound no one had heard before. It was protective, angry, sad all at once.
"Okay," Tony said, his voice hard. "This just got personal. Nobody threatens our dog. JARVIS, battle stations."
"Already there, sir."
"Alright, Cosmic Champions," Tony continued, addressing the full team. "We're not just fighting enemies—we're fighting what we could become if we fail. Our corrupted counterparts. Our worst selves."
Thor spun Mjolnir, electricity crackling. "Then we show them why we chose differently!"
"We fight as one," the Galector leader declared. "Original and ally against corruption!"
"We prove that unity triumphs over chaos," Alien X said, its three voices harmonizing perfectly.
Superman clenched his fists, energy crackling around him. "That evil version of me... I've had nightmares about becoming that. Time to prove nightmares wrong."
Black Adam's eyes glowed with divine fire. "The corrupt version dishonors the gods. I will end it."
Loki grinned, but it was a hard grin. "Fighting myself? Finally, a worthy opponent."
And Doremano barked—not his usual happy bark, but a battle bark, a promise that he would protect his pack from any threat, even a twisted version of himself.
The corrupted versions charged.
The battle for identity itself began.