Afghanistan.
The desert.
Endless yellow sand rolled beneath the blazing sun, the heat warping the air.
The figures of Tony Stark and Stephen Strange shimmered into existence over the sand. Green light enveloped their phantom forms as they gradually solidified and appeared in the desert.
Their feet sank into the sand up to their ankles.
Tony Stark was still wearing his battered Iron Man armor. Much heavier than an ordinary person, he had already sunk past his ankles into the yellow sand.
Tony Stark's face was bruised. The scorching sun beat down on him, making his skin burn and the bruised areas sting. He raised his head to look at the sun, its intense radiance piercing his eyes.
Tony Stark narrowed his eyes and gazed toward the horizon, where the blazing heat warped the air over the yellow sands. "This... is the beginning?"
Deep memories surged through his mind once more.
Tony Stark still remembered how utterly stunned he had been when he first saw He-El after emerging from the cave.
Amid the explosion of thick black smoke and fireballs, a tall, powerfully built man with beautifully defined, rhythmic contours walked out through the distorted air in the distance. A strip of white cloth was tied around his waist, barely covering his private parts. Ammunition belts hung over his muscles, and he held an automatic sniper rifle manufactured by Stark Industries.
Tony Stark would never forget that scene.
It was in this very desert that he had met He-El and been saved by him.
Of course, Tony Stark had not forgotten how He-El later threw him back into the desert because he had said the wrong thing.
"We've returned to the past." Stephen Strange's hands, which had been forming seals, came to a halt. The Eye of Agamotto before his