The Avengers Who Planned to Stay

Seeing the tall, 1.8-meter-tall Smurfette looking at him with adoring eyes, Basil's heart fluttered again.

Skillfully suppressing the beating heart, and silently reciting the mantra of a virtuous person, wisdom regained its footing.

"Your metallic body, Thanos's painstakingly designed, still exists; it has simply collapsed into another possibility of you. You can still awaken it as a combat mode."

This transformation is similar to quantum superposition, a reapplication of Basil's understanding of his quantum state body.

The metal body is digitized, understood, and then the backdoor is removed and the body is rebuilt. The remaining part of the brain is used to derive a flesh-and-blood body.

Then, it is possible for two bodies to exist simultaneously, with the former collapsing into the latter.

Of course, Basil didn't expend so much effort to please Nebula.

In reality, it was more about getting a glimpse of Thanos's technology and realizing one's own ideas.

It must be said that the technology and effort used to transform a carbon-based life form into a silicon-based life form are unparalleled.

These metals, in particular, exhibit exceptional biocompatibility.

It can be said that every inch of Nebula's body embodies Thanos's twisted love for his adopted daughter.

Of course, no one wants this kind of love except for perverts who like to modify bodies.

The same is true for Nebula.

So after hearing that Basil could turn back, she had no intention of trying it.

After he had almost finished enjoying the sensations of flesh and blood, his mind returned to saving the half of the lives that had been Blip his the Snap.

So he tentatively asked, "Could you continue and tell me about the original future?"

"Yes," Basil stepped forward, "But it would be better to change the environment."

Nebula blinked, somewhat incredulous.

One second they were in the forest, and the next they found themselves in a room with animated pictures on the walls and a feast of food and drinks that appeared out of nowhere on the table.

"Great," Thor said, grabbing a beer. "I was thirsty."

He wasn't surprised by anything; in his mind, all mages on Earth were like that.

When he first met Strange casually teleported Loki high into the sky and conjured up beer for him, the kind that automatically refills.

Rocket Raccoon, Scott, had already picked up his knife and fork and was enjoying his meal.

Black Widow and Hawkeye, out of habit as agents, did not join in.

"Is this magic?" Tony skillfully tried to summon the [Friday] detection. "Damn, I almost forgot that most of my armor's functions are malfunctioning because of this damn magnetic field."

"I feel like I've suddenly returned to the moment I woke up from the ice." Parallel Captain America felt like he had become an old relic who knew nothing again. Captain America next to him nodded understandingly, "Don't worry, Peggy and I were about the same as you when we first got here."

"Peggy?" Parallel Captain America's pupils dilated. "She also—"

Remembering how Peggy's departure seemed to create a pink bubble, Captain America didn't notice his other self's lapse in composure. "It's not just Peggy, Bucky— " He glanced at Tony, "He's here too."

Tony frowned. He roughly understood that in this parallel universe, his own parents had not escaped the fate of being killed by the Winter Soldier.

"They and I are the game rangers. We're there to prevent those strange creatures from accidentally wandering into the school, and to guard against potential poachers and Gryffindor students sneaking into the Forbidden Forest," Captain America said.

"How could this be—" Parallel Captain America was completely flustered. "She is—I mean, Peggy in this world may still be healthy because of magic, but at her age—I mean, she should at least be doing an office job."

Captain America raised an eyebrow. "What she hates most is people mentioning her age and the idea that women should do clerical work. Of course, you're me too, so you shouldn't be judged by her gender."

"Yes." Parallel Captain America's eyes sparkled with reminiscence, and a smile unconsciously appeared on her face. "She's just that strong-willed."

"Knock, knock." Tony gestured for a knock. "You two soldiers will have plenty of time to see Ms. Carter later. Our priority is to learn about the flaws in our plan from this..." He carefully chose his words, but didn't blurt out the magic trick, "..."

"Sorry!" The two Captain Americas quickly apologized.

All eyes in the room turned to Basil.

Basil raised his glass and downed it in one gulp. "Let's get back to the topic. Nebula has appeared on Planet Morag. She's connected to another Nebula, but it's a one-way connection. Thanos has learned of his success and your plans to sabotage his grand scheme."

"So he captured Nebula, had Nebula of his time execute his future traitorous daughter, and obtained the Pym Particles from her."

"The result is that you finally sacrificed Natasha, the Hulk's right arm, to revive the life of the half of the universe that Blip, only to run into Thanos, who wanted to shatter the universe to the last atom and then use the six Thanos Stones to create a new universe."

"Wait a minute," Tony sensed something was wrong, "Natasha sacrificed herself?"

Hawkeye quickly grasped Black Widow's hand.

Everyone except Black Widow herself became tense.

The Hulk's body instantly swelled, almost turning into Hulk.

"The Soul Stone of Planet Vormir has a very special mechanism," Basil said. "To obtain it, one must offer the soul of a loved one in exchange for a soul. For this purpose, it even has a guide."

"Why not me?" Hawkeye asked.

Natasha shrugged casually, "Obviously I'm better, you're no match for me."

Basil glanced at the two of them and continued, "This guide will identify the visitor's father and explain the mechanism to them."

"What paternity testing center?" Tony tried to lighten the mood. "I mean, is it possible for this mechanism to be—"

Black Widow interrupted Tony, "Thanos brought back the Infinity Stones, but not his daughter. This is no coincidence."

Basil nodded. "Natasha is right. Even though her guide is Red Skull, he wasn't lying. Even Thanos had to succumb to this mechanism. Of course, our world's Thanos is smarter; he found a loving couple to act as his substitute—"

"Yes! We can do that!" Hawkeye pumped his fist. "There are too many people in this world who deserve to die. We can find a criminal, change the execution location to Planet Vormir, and have his family push him down there."

The two Captain Americas relaxed, and so did the others.

They didn't dwell on whether it was humane or not.

Compared to Natasha, the lives of death row inmates are insignificant.

They all started to pay attention to other questions, and Basil began to answer them.

"What's with the Red Skull?" x2

"The gems are connected. He was transported to Vormir by the Tesseract, which is the Space Stone."

"Does Thanos's ability to come to our universe mean that he is actually from the past and we are from the future?"

"Of course, what you created was indeed a time machine. Most universes' Infinity Stones can only be used within their own universe. Your arrival in a parallel universe was just an accident."

The obese Thor suddenly thought of a question, "Why wasn't it me the Snap?"

"Because I'm better suited for it; the radiation is mainly gamma rays, and that's what I was born for," the Hulk said.

"Because you can't right now." Tony looked at Thor and said bluntly, "That gauntlet has enough energy to ignite an entire continent."

"What do you think flows in my veins right now?" the obese Thor asked excitedly.

"Vizz cheese sauce?" Rhodey interjected.

"It's lightning!" The obese Thor broke down.

"Why not Danvers?" Rocket Raccoon said. "Could it be that she hasn't come back by the time we've collected all the gems?"

"Because she has the universe in her heart," Basil said sarcastically. "Life on other planets is far more important to her than her home planet Earth. In fact, she is the most suitable, since her power comes from the gems. If it were her, she wouldn't have suffered an arm injury like Doctor Banner."

"But she did come in the end, when Thanos was about to be torn apart by Wanda and he launched a saturation attack on you with his warships, almost causing heavy casualties."

"But the bad thing is that after she got the glove, instead of the Snap to kill Thanos and his army, she was full of confidence and flew towards Thanos with one hand while holding the glove."

Rhodey wanted to say something in defense of the woman he had feelings for, but he was speechless. This was indeed Captain Marvel —her combat thinking and ideas were amazing.

"The result was that Thanos the gauntlet. During the battle, he didn't even think about taking the stone, only Tony did, and in the end he snapped his the Snap and sacrificed himself."

"Me?" Tony's expression was complicated. He could accept sacrificing himself, but he couldn't accept that the reason for his sacrifice was so ridiculous. "Is what the magician said true? We really only have a one in fourteen million chance of winning?"

Victory was initially in their hands, possessing all six gems, but due to various delays, they were ultimately forced to sacrifice themselves.

"I'm not here?" Thor raised his axe, gesturing for him to chop Thanos's head off with it.

Basil shrugged. "You are. But you're no longer the Thor who wielded the energy of Neutron Star to forge Stormbreaker."

"And your problem remains the same: most of your combat power is in your weapons."

"You are not as good as your father. You know too little about magic and you did not apply magic to Thor's Hammer that was not suitable for anyone to lift."

"Thanos is very adaptable. He noticed this and immediately took your axe."

Thor's smile froze, and he muttered, "Looks like I really should learn some magic."

"Where's Wanda?" Parallel Captain America asked. "Didn't you say she almost killed Thanos?"

"Yes." Basil nodded. "But she was still made of flesh and blood. At that time, she had no teammates to defend her, so she could safely tear Thanos apart. You, Tony, Thor were alright; you knew to fight Thanos together."

"The others, especially Captain Marvel, prefer one-on-one combat and are arrogant. They don't use their strongest Binary form and always want to fight Thanos in their normal state."

Thanos, who had one of the Power Stones taken from him, was blasted away.

"Actually, you don't need to bring so many troops; it will only hinder your efforts. One of the main offensive forces, Strange, will focus most of his energy on defending against the breached flood."

"Wanda, who has the strongest attack power, was completely denied a safe environment to unleash her attacks."

"In other words," Tony, somewhat speechless, "Our odds of winning are definitely not just one in fourteen million."

"That's true." Basil nodded. "Strange only saw fourteen million futures. This led him to reject many 'failed' plans and focus on the only winning timeline."

Then, he pretended to be troubled, saying, "If only Thanos in our world were as easy to deal with as Thanos in yours."

"I am also my mother's son." Thor said doubtfully, "With your skills: you can create physical bodies with ease and foresee the future of other universes across one universe. Thanos should not be your match."

"I am Dimensional Demon God, and this identity prevents me from reaching Earth," Basil said. "It is an agreement that we righteous Dimensional Demon God must abide by, so that those who are neutral will remain neutral. Otherwise, a group of Dimensional Demon God would be far more terrifying than Thanos."

This is a lie; Basil was worried about being targeted by beings from the possible Multiverse who coveted him.

He did not sign a contract with the Ancient One, which allowed him to travel to reality—a fact that even Strange and Thanos were unaware of.

"Thanos in our universe is a master magician, and very cautious, and seems to be able to foresee the future."

"What?" Tony exclaimed in surprise. "The Time Stone is still in Kamar-Taj, isn't it?"

"The Heavenly Eye, or the ability to foresee the future, is not uncommon," Basil said. "We even have Divination at Hogwarts. And the power of time is not something that only the Time Stone can access."

Captain America nodded. "Wizards are proficient in time magic, and they even created alchemical tools like Time-Turner that can take you back in time for students to use in class."

"Students, in class?" No one could connect these two words with a time-travel device.

Scott was even more shocked. When he awakened his magic, he learned about the mechanics of the Duel Arena. "Your time magic is so rampant? Now I finally know how Thanos foresaw the future."

In his view, Thanos must have been defeated by someone who happened to have time magic among his opponents, and he just happened to be the one who got the chance.

"You're going to ask us for help?" Stark asked.

Basil nodded and then shook his head. "You, from a parallel universe, are new variables. With the magic I've imbued you with, Thanos won't be able to foresee you. All you need to do is exist and communicate with Tony and the others."

"Another me?" Tony blinked with interest. "Perfect timing, it will take me time to crack and replicate the Pym Particles."

"This is also good for us," Captain America readily agreed.

The obese Thor nodded, "I happen to want to learn some magic."

"Quill and Groot would definitely agree if they were here," Rocket Raccoon said.

Rhodey pointed to his leg. "The wizard probably has a way to heal it."

"Of course," Basil nodded.

He was very glad that Rhodey had not been replaced by the Skrulls; that was great.

Otherwise, in the original future, if the one who developed a romantic relationship with Captain Marvel and attended Tony Stark's funeral was Skrull, how ironic and disgusting that would be.

It's surprising that Captain Marvel, who has killed so many Skrulls, doesn't recognize her. That's really amazing.

"Besides treating Rhodey's leg, I also need a laboratory, one free from Magic Fields," Tony said. "Of course, in return, I will contribute my brilliant mind to you and your school."