Ringing from the Past

"Everyone, come back..."

"Arrrghhh!!!!!"

When Hulk began trying to bring his thumb and middle finger together to snap and save everyone, the six Infinity Stones on the Iron Infinity Gauntlet, which had already settled down, immediately flared to life. The multicolored energy of the Infinity Stones once again surged against Hulk, a human attempting to wield their forbidden power.

"Banner, can you still do it?" Tony asked worriedly, holding the energy shield before him.

"I-I'm fine. It's no different from before!" Hulk roared in reply, his voice distorted by the unbearable pain.

Then—

He raised his left arm high and forcefully pinched his thumb and middle finger together.

At last...

With a crisp snap!

The entire world suddenly fell silent.

There was no imagined impact, nor any fantastical spectacle.

It was as though nothing had changed, yet as though everything had.

Having completed the snap, Hulk remained standing silently, his head tilted back toward the sky.

Tony, Steve Rogers, and the others did not even dare breathe.

Only when the ruined Iron Infinity Gauntlet, now no more than a lump of scrap metal, slipped from Hulk's hand and fell to the floor—and Hulk himself collapsed with a crash—did everyone react.

They hurried over to check on Hulk:

"Bruce!"

"Did they forget everything?"

On the aircraft launch platform of the Avengers Compound, Wanda carefully licked the pale-white ice cream cone in her hand with the tip of her pink tongue.

Before her floated a translucent projected image, showing the Avengers in the laboratory watching Hulk make that snap.

She turned to Leon, who was beside her with his chin pinched in thought, and asked curiously.

"Is this what you and Pietro went out to buy?"

Leon did not immediately answer Wanda's question. Instead, he licked the cream ice cream cone