New Mexico.
Three words hung in mid-air, the red numbers jumping around like an electrocardiogram.
Signal interrupted.
Tony stared at the small print, a vein throbbing in his temple.
Just as he was about to speak, a golden spark exploded out of thin air behind him—a spinning portal tore through the air in the conference hall, and the orange-yellow arc of light scorched Scott, who was closest to it, so much so that he almost slipped off his chair.
A man in a white coat stepped out.
Stephen Strange.
His hair was neatly combed, and he wore surgical scrubs under his white coat. A stethoscope hung around his neck, and the dark circles under his eyes made him look like he had been punched.
He glanced around the conference room and looked directly at Tony.
" Stark, you'd better really have something to say."
Strange pulled the stethoscope off his neck and tossed it onto the table.
"I just turned down two surgeries. One was for a meningioma at the base of the skull, and the other for a spinal cord glioma—one afternoon, and over ten thousand dollars gone."
Tony didn't even look up, his fingers swiping across the holographic panel.
I'll give you double.
Strange opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again.
He paused for half a second, and the resentment on his face visibly subsided. He pulled up a chair, sat down, and stretched out his legs.
"What's up?"
In the corner, the four girls reacted in different ways.
Mary Jane's notebook was already open, the pen tip hovering above the paper, her eyes fixed on the golden door frame that hadn't completely faded away.
Gwen Stacy's back bounced two centimeters off the chair, her hands unconsciously resting on her knees. Felicia's lollipop stick tilted, and she leaned forward.
Jessica Drew turned to look at Peter, her voice low, but everyone in the quiet meeting room could hear her.
"Is that... is that magic?"
Peter scratched the back of his head and muttered, "Hmm... yes, there really is magic in this world."
Jessica's mouth opened into an "O" shape again.
Today's visit to Avengers Tower was a huge amount of information for her.
Tony ignored the commotion in the corner. He turned around and stared at Hank Pym without even lifting his eyelids.
"Tell me, Hank. How was the Quantum Tunnel opened? What were the energy fluctuation parameters? Are the safety protocols in your lousy lab just for show?"
Hank's jaw tightened.
" Stark, the collapse threshold in the Quantum Realm itself has a theoretical blind spot—"
"Theoretical blind spot." Tony repeated, emphasizing each word. " Ultron was a theoretical blind spot last time, and Kang the Conqueror is a theoretical blind spot this time. Are you planning to have 'theoretical blind spot' engraved on your Tombstone?"
Hank clenched his fist and then relaxed it, clenched it and then relaxed it again.
Scott, sitting next to him, wished he could shrink to the size of an ant and disappear into the crack of the table.
Hank didn't lash out; his face turned bright red, but his mouth remained tightly shut.
He has indeed made a huge mess again.
Everyone present was aware of this.
Seeing that he was silent, Tony turned around and drew a line in the air with his finger.
The holographic panel lit up.
All known intelligence about Kang the Conqueror poured out in a waterfall-like fashion—biological data, Warframe parameters, capability assessments, and threat levels.
The 3D model of the purple-green armor rotated and hovered above the conference table, coldly overlooking everyone.
"I've already shown you all this information before, so I won't waste any more time."
Tony's finger touched the model of the armor, the image was magnified, and the structural disassembly diagram was peeled away layer by layer.
"Focus on the abilities. This hippie is a descendant of Valeria's father—all his abilities are contained in this armor."
I poked the purplish-green outer shell with my finger.
"Take off his armor, and he's just an ordinary person."
Banner looked up slightly.
Tony continued scrolling down.
"Based on the movies Thor showed us before, the known information is as follows: the armor can levitate, traverse space, and generate a gravitational field for defense, with a maximum capacity to withstand a nuclear explosion. It possesses telekinesis, and the armor itself can also launch energy attacks."
He paused for a moment.
"If that's all, then it's easy. We can just grab a few people from this room and take him down."
"But."
The moment those two words were uttered, the air in the conference room grew even heavier.
"The problem lies with the data Valeria provided."
Tony tapped the panel hard with his finger, and a new set of data popped up—highest threat level, marked in red.
" The Avengers in her universe fought this guy. His armor has a time core that allows him to travel through time at will. What's even more disgusting is that—after being killed, he can reset and rewind time."
The conference room fell completely silent.
"I'm not sure if the company we're dealing with has that capability," Tony said, moving his finger away from the data. "But we must prepare for the worst-case scenario."
Before the words had even finished, a gust of wind swept through the conference room.
The papers on the table rustled and flipped around, Scott's hair was blown to one side.
Pietro Maximoff had somehow returned; he was standing at the door with a sandwich in his mouth, still chewing something, when he spoke.
"Go find Thor."
He swallowed a bite of his sandwich, shrugged, and looked completely nonchalant.
"Time reversal? Isn't that my sister and Thor's specialty? Let them handle it, won't that solve the problem?"
Tony glanced at him and shook his head.
"Unable to contact him. Valeria said he and Wanda are in a Zombie Universe."
"We can only do this ourselves."
Tony tapped his fingers twice on the table.
"And—this is our universe."
Pietro paused, his sandwich hovering near his mouth, then hesitated for a moment.
" Zombie Universe?"
His eyebrows rose, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
"Wow, that's cool. Are they like the zombies in the movies? The kind that swarm around eating people's brains?"
Tony rolled his eyes.
How would I know?
Steve Rogers was not involved in this conversation.
He stood by the table, arms crossed, staring at the purple-green armor model for a long time.
He spoke.
" Banner, Jane."
Banner and Jane Foster looked up at the same time.
"Can you two take down this guy in a second?"
Jane Foster gripped the pink Mjolnir in her hand, not rushing to answer, but first looking at Banner.
Banner rubbed his temples and thought for a few seconds.
"Captain, if the enemy really does have the ability to rewind time—even if we kill him first, he can use this ability to rewind and avoid our attack route in advance."
He stood up, walked to the holographic panel, and swiped his finger across the data at the time core.
"But time rewinding can't be Infinity. There must be a limit to the number of times it can be done, or there must be a physical device supporting this capability. We need to find that thing and then destroy it."
He paused for a moment.
"Furthermore, we are not certain whether Kang truly possesses this ability. Everything is still just—"
Before the words were finished, a blue light suddenly tore open in the center of the conference hall.
A rift in space, icy blue in color, opened, and a sixteen-year-old girl stepped out.
A ponytail, a white lab coat, and a personal terminal on her left wrist that constantly flashes holographic data.
Valeria.
She didn't even glance at anyone else, her gaze fixed directly on the holographic model of the purple-green armor, a slight smirk playing on her lips.
" Dr. Banner, you don't need to say the rest of your sentence."
She raised her left wrist, and her personal terminal projected a dense matrix of data directly onto Tony's holographic panel.
"Anyone who can travel through the multiverse will have the ability to rewind time."
She swiped her finger across the data stream, and a set of red numbers was singled out.
The only unknown is how many times he can use it.