Afraid of Thanos? You Should Be Afraid of Me

An eerie silence fell over the room.

Tony, Banner, Steve, Wanda—everyone's eyes almost unanimously avoided Stephen Fang's scrutinizing gaze with indescribable awkwardness, shifting instead toward an inconspicuous surveillance camera in the corner of the room.

"Uh, about that..." Banner's voice was dry, his eyes darting about as his fingers unconsciously pushed up his thick glasses.

Tony cleared his throat, trying to break the awkwardness. He tapped a few times in the air. "Friday, pull it up."

"Yes, Boss," the AI replied.

A pale blue Holographic Projection beam shone down from the ceiling, clearly outlining a surveillance recording beside the medical bed Stephen Fang was lying on:

The footage showed this very medical center.

Stephen Fang, dressed casually with an excited grin like victory was already within reach, was gesturing toward the camera. His lips seemed to be saying something like, "Ready? This time, I'll definitely pull him over!"

He looked relaxed, with a touch of eager anticipation, just like a more powerful version of that idiot Star-Lord.

Whoosh—

At the very instant that smile froze at its brightest, the Stephen Fang in the footage was erased as though by an invisible eraser, like a television screen with a bad signal suddenly losing a crucial frame.

There was no sound, no dazzling visual effect.

The person vanished.

In the previous frame, there had been a living, smiling face. In the next, nothing but air remained where he had stood.

It was as if he had never existed.

Only that frozen, expectant smile lingering on the screen served as proof that he had once been there, making the scene especially abrupt and eerie.

The projection ended, and the light dimmed.

Everyone's gazes refocused on Stephen Fang lying in the hospital bed, battered all over and freshly returned from another hell.

The air