Joining the Time Heist Team

"That's what happened. Five years passed out here, but I was only in the Quantum Realm for five hours!"

Tony picked up where he left off. "From that, we can deduce that time flows differently in the Quantum Realm. He broke the Planck Scale and triggered the Deutsch Effect. As long as we can control the Aiboluo Paradox, we can..."

Tony went on for a while, then paused when he saw the others staring at him blankly. "Scott, right? It's one thing if those two don't understand, but you've actually been to the Quantum Universe. You don't get it either?"

"Uh... I majored in electrical engineering..."

"All right, can one of you find me an assistant? Am I supposed to do this all by myself?"

Natasha immediately snapped back to attention. "Does it have to be a person? What about a raccoon or something?"

Captain America glanced at Natasha and saw her eyes dart away. "I'll go find Banner..."

Scott said, "Uh, what... what do I do?"

"Tell everyone who comes here about your experience. Oh, and you, what's-your-name, come to the garage with me first." Tony teased Scott, then pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms, imitating Captain America.

Captain America watched Tony, then uncrossed his arms and put his hands on his hips with a helpless smile.

"Okay~"

The two made their way to the garage in total silence.

"Tony~" "What's-your-name~"

"You first~" they both said.

"If Scott came back by accident, he should have come to me. He doesn't know you that well. Did you get him out?"

"You ask too many questions. I refuse to answer." He had no intention of telling anyone about Strange's prophecy until they succeeded. Secrecy made for success; the more people who knew, the more variables there would be.

Ignoring Captain America's probing gaze, he opened the trunk and took out a shield, a freshly painted Vibranium Shield.

"I think you were right. A team needs to work together, so let's make up..."

Captain America gazed at the shield, lost in thought. "Tony?"

"Take it. And don't make a big deal out of it. I didn't bring gifts for anyone else~"

Two days later

Doc Green and Rocket rode into New Asgard in a pickup truck.

"Hey, Valkyrie!"

"I think both your other forms were better than this one."

"This is Rocket~"

"If you'd come a few days earlier, I wouldn't have recommended seeing him, but now..."

Valkyrie thought of the man who had suddenly appeared a few days ago, the one Thor called uncle, and couldn't keep the smile off her face.

"You can go take a look at the hill behind town. Try not to be too surprised."

Rocket and Doc Green exchanged a glance, said goodbye to Valkyrie, and headed for the hill.

Before they got close to the top, they heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Faster! Move it! Didn't you eat? The old lady selling popsicles in Kathmandu can run faster than you!"

Doc Green scooped Rocket up onto his shoulder and sped forward, running a few steps before climbing to the top.

The summit was a platform paved with boulders, about the size of a soccer field. Thor was stark naked and sweating buckets.

A thick iron chain was slung over his shoulder, the other end attached to a three-meter cube of granite. A man lay on top of the stone, playing with a cat.

And so Thor ran around the platform, dragging the boulder behind him~

Doc Green did the math in his head. A cubic meter of granite weighed 2.7 tons. Without even counting the chain or the man, that block weighed at least seventy tons!

"What's Thor doing?" Rocket was a little confused.

"Probably... losing weight~" Doc Green took off his glasses and rubbed his somewhat contaminated eyes. He could hardly imagine how Thor had spent the past five years.

Only after Doc Green pointed it out did Rocket notice Thor's figure. He could barely stand to look at it. "Shit!"

Lin Xu saw Doc Green and Rocket in the distance. They're finally here!

He had to take part in this battle. If nothing else, Tony was a genius who couldn't be allowed to die.

The conversion of his divine power would probably take another two years, but that didn't mean he would be able to travel freely through the multiverse like the Ancient One once it was complete.

Not everyone was as much of a genius as Strange, but even a genius like him had to be careful, careful, and more careful when casting mystic arts involving the multiverse. One mistake could cause chaos like the three Spiders appearing together.

So if he wanted to find a way back in the shortest possible time, he still had to rely on the genius Tony Stark.

Tony's locator could even reach a universe where the TVA existed, so it might well be able to reach the Dark Strange Universe.

"Thor, aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

Hearing Lin Xu's words, Thor stopped and turned around. When he saw Rocket and Doc Green, he immediately smiled!

"Hey, Ban... Hul... Hey, Rocket, what brings you here?" Thor held out a hand, unsure for a moment what to call Banner. As he remembered it, Banner hated Hulk and Hulk hated Banner, so it wouldn't do to get the name wrong.

"Just call me Banner~"

"Hey, I knew it was you. I still like you better. All Hulk does is smash, smash, smash~"

Hearing that, Banner remembered their conversation on Sakaar. With their memories merged, he also remembered Thor saying something similar to Hulk.

In the past, he might have suddenly blurted out, "Hulk."

But now, all he wanted was to beat Thanos once and bring everyone back!

"This is my uncle, Fengxian Borsen. Uncle, this is Banner, and this is Rocket. They're both my friends."

Lin Xu smiled at the two of them. "Hello~"

"Hello, sir~" they both said.

Rocket and Doc Green quickly bowed in greeting, out of respect for their friend's elder.

But Rocket was a little puzzled. He went up to Thor and asked quietly, "Didn't you say last time that your family were all..."

Thor replied in a low voice, "My father banished him. We only reunited a couple of days ago."

Rocket opened his mouth. "You nobles are a mess..."

Doc Green stepped forward and looked at Thor. "We've found a way to bring them all back, Thor. We need you!"

Thor fell silent. He knew what Banner meant, and he knew the limitations. The only people they could bring back were probably those who had been made to disappear by the Infinity Stones. Neither Heimdall nor Loki was among them.

And of the people who had disappeared on Earth, he wasn't close to any of them except Nick, Little Witch, and the sorcerer who had helped him find his father.

But there was one person he had to save: the little tree man who had used his arm to make a handle for Thor's axe!

Thor looked at Rocket, wanting to make sure.

Rocket nodded. "Yes, Thor, we need you!"

Then Thor turned his gaze to Lin Xu.

"It's only right to help your friends. I'll go with you. They should be busy, so there'll be no one to make sure you work out."