A green portal opened in Kraft's laboratory, and Kraft and The Ancient One stepped out after their long absence.
"Are we... back?"
Looking at the familiar scene before him, Kraft turned to The Ancient One and tapped the Nano Earpiece behind his ear.
The Ancient One closed her eyes to sense their surroundings, then smiled and nodded. Angela's voice also came through his earpiece. "Yes, big brother. Welcome back."
"Phew..."
With confirmation from both of them, Kraft breathed a sigh of relief and headed out of the laboratory, asking Angela, "Nothing major happened while I was away, right?"
"I don't think so?"
Angela answered uncertainly, "Director Zheng Xian from S.P.E.A.R. came looking for you. He wanted to teach other people the technology you gave them. I figured it wasn't anything important, so I agreed on your behalf."
"Yeah, that's no big deal."
Kraft didn't think that technology was particularly important either. In fact, when he gave it to S.P.E.A.R., he had already left them free to do whatever they wanted with it.
He hadn't expected S.P.E.A.R. to actually ask him first. His compatriots really were more reliable than Nick Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Anything else?"
"S.P.E.A.R. also asked you to help fight a bad guy, so Arale and I went to help."
"S.P.E.A.R. sure is useless, needing you and Ara... Huh?! What did you say?!"
Angela sounded so casual that Kraft hadn't paid close attention. He only realized something was wrong halfway through his offhand joke.
What kind of bad guy needed Arale to deal with him?!
"It was Thanos, the one you kept talking about. He suddenly led a massive invasion of Earth. Director Zheng Xian somehow found out about the Death Vanguard and came looking for your help. Since you took Thanos so seriously, I brought Arale and the Shadow