The movie screen in front of everyone continued to play.
From Sokovia reduced to ruins, to Tony and Steve's hand-to-hand combat in the Siberia base, from Titan Thanos his the Snap on Titan, to Tony, a mere mortal, taking on six Infinity Stones in Endgame, and then to the Skrulls' sneaky infiltration and the boisterous debut of Ironheart...
Thor slapped all future possibilities right in everyone's faces with the Law of Reality.
The final frame freezes on the Darkhold Temple collapsing into a pile of ashes.
The lights on the top floor of Avengers Tower came on, the force binding everyone dissipated, and the custom-made chairs beneath them were gone.
All that remained were snack wrappers scattered on the ground and the heavy breathing of a group of people.
Tony was the first to move.
He rubbed his temples, pushed his sunglasses up to his head, and forced a smile that looked more like a grimace, his voice trembling:
"Fine. So, my whole life has been either defusing bombs or on my way to building them?"
He took two steps forward, pointing his finger in the air as if poking at those trivial matters:
"In the future, I might suddenly create Ultron, and artificial intelligence will wipe out humanity; a purple sweet potato spirit floats in the universe, snapping its the Snap and destroying half the universe; and a baby Celestial is hidden in the Earth's core, destined to blow up the planet from birth?"
"The mess Nick Fury and Auntie Marvel made! The Skrulls have fucking infiltrated the White House and replaced Rhodey!"
He became increasingly angry as he spoke.
"Fuck you! What broke me the most? I risked my life to snap my the Snap, and my successor wasn't Rhodey, wasn't Peter, but some random black girl who appeared out of nowhere? And she's a criminal!"
Tony stared intently at the image of Ironheart on the screen, his gaze so intense he seemed to want to rip the little girl out of the screen.
" Tony," Steve frowned and stepped forward, "These are all possibilities for the future; we still have time to change them. It's inappropriate for you to berate a girl you've never even met."
Those words were like setting off a firecracker.
Tony whirled around, staring at Steve, even dropping the " Old Popsicle " nickname; each word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
" Steve? I considered you a friend, a comrade-in-arms, and yet you knew perfectly well that my parents' deaths weren't accidental, knew it was your good brother Bucky who did it, and you kept it from me for decades?"
Steve's face paled slightly, and he instinctively reached out to explain:
"From Dr. Zola's files back then, I only knew that Howard and Maria's deaths weren't a car accident, but I didn't know that the person who did it was Bucky Tony, who was under Hydra's control at the time—"
"Control?" Tony interrupted him abruptly. "So when he pulled the trigger, wasn't his hand his? When my parents were lying in a pool of blood, weren't they watching him?"
He pointed to Loki, who was watching the scene unfold with amusement.
"You're not even as good as Bambi, who's always trying to stab his brother in the back. In the end, Bambi risked his life for the multiverse. And you? Just because you made one selfless sacrifice, do you have the right to hide your selfishness for the rest of your life?"
Steve lowered his head, his shoulders slumped. "It's my fault, Tony. Even if this hadn't happened yet, I should still apologize to you."
"I don't want your apology! Nor do I want you to kill your hitman friend right now!" Tony pointed to the elevator entrance. "Three days, Steve. I'm giving you three days to bring him to me. I want to hear with my own ears how he did it."
Before Steve could say anything more, Tony turned his back and gestured for him to stop.
"Stop talking nonsense, now, get out of my sight immediately."
Carter stepped forward, patted Steve on the shoulder, and followed him silently toward the elevator.
The Black Widow exchanged a glance, then followed with Hawkeye and Iron Fist.
The top floor was instantly mostly empty.
The remaining characters are Thor, Tony, Banner, Wanda, Pietro, Thor, Jane, Loki from the Prime Universe, and the Classic Loki always carries a thermos.
The Classic Loki slowly took a sip of tea, looked up at Thor, and smiled:
"So, that's why you said those things to Loki in the Knowhere?"
Thor raised an eyebrow, nodded, and glanced at Loki, who stood stiffly beside him from the Prime Universe:
"Yes. Some people need to know that they can live happily because someone is supporting them."
"Besides, his actions deserve to be remembered by everyone, don't they?"
Classic Loki chuckled softly, took another sip of tea, and rubbed his fingertips against the thermos:
"Perhaps you are right, Thor Loki's throne has never been in Asgard."
As soon as he finished speaking, Loki, who was standing next to him, looked up abruptly, his eyes filled with shock.
He spent his entire life vying with Thor for the throne of Asgard, and his entire life proving himself to be stronger than Odin's own son.
What shocked him most was the discovery of two versions of himself in multiple universes.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something sarcastic, but found his throat felt blocked. In the end, he just turned his face away, pretending to look at the New York skyline outside the window, but his fingertips were trembling.
Thor, Prime Universe nearby, seemed to have lost his soul, his hands gripping the pink Mjolnir tightly.
In the movie, he saw Hela crush his hammer with one hand, saw Asgard destroyed by Surtur, saw him lose his mother, his father, his brother, and half of his people, and finally become a drunkard with a beer belly.
Jane stood beside him, her face showing no less shock.
She saw herself diagnosed with cancer, took up Mjolnir and became Mighty Thor, ultimately sacrificing her life to save Asgard.
She looked down at her hands, then at the hammer in Thor's hand, overwhelmed with emotion.
Banner completely ignored the argument, pushed up his glasses, and his eyes gleamed:
" Jennifer... became She-Hulk because she received my blood? So, the Hulk's gamma rays can propagate stably?"
Pietro transformed into a streak of silver light and instantly appeared beside Thor, leaning against the wall, his tone full of eager anticipation:
"So there are so many powerful figures in the future? Thanos, Ultron, the Celestials... they sound much more interesting than Hydra's grunts."
Thor rolled his eyes inwardly.
Don't worry, with your strength, even after I buffed you, you'd still be nothing but a nobody on the street.
But she didn't say it aloud; she just patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't rush, you'll have plenty of opportunities to run your legs off."
Wanda leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window, looking completely drained of energy, her eyes filled with confusion.
In the movie, she saw her brother's death, her love with Vision, Vision die twice, and she saw herself become the Scarlet Witch for the sake of two children she created with magic, Carnage countless lives across the multiverse before finally being buried in the collapsed Darkhold Temple.
She raised her hand to look at her palm; the unsettling Chaos Magic danced at her fingertips, and her voice trembled.
"Is this really me? This power... has brought me so much misfortune?"
Thor walked over, his voice much softer:
" Wanda, power is neither good nor bad. What determines whether it is used to save or kill is never the power itself, but the person who wields it. You became like that simply because you lost all your support and were seduced by the Darkhold."
"With me here, and the Ancient One of Kamar-Taj, she's lived for hundreds of years and has seen more magic than you've ever eaten. She won't let you get to that point."
Wanda looked up at him, her eyes still moist, and nodded slightly, her voice hoarse:
"Thank you, Thor. I'd like to be alone."
After saying that, she pushed open the emergency exit door next to her and walked out.
Pietro didn't say much, nodded to Thor, and transformed into a streak of silver light to follow him.
The top floor was finally quiet.
Tony leaned against the bar, poured himself a full glass of whiskey, downed it in one gulp, and the anger on his face finally subsided by more than half.
He looked up at Thor: "You said before that these things happened in your universe, right?"
Thor raised an eyebrow, walked to the bar, and grabbed himself a bottle of soda. "Yeah, what's up?"
"So, are you showing us this so we can figure things out on our own, or are you planning to personally lend a hand?" Tony swirled his glass.
Thor waved his hand without even thinking:
"Of course you'll have to figure that out yourselves. I've given you the whole script, and I've pointed out all the pitfalls. If you still run into trouble, that would be really unfair."
He paused, then added with a smile:
"Of course, unless you encounter a problem that you truly cannot solve—like Dormammu bringing the Dark Dimension over, or the Celestials directly attacking Earth. In those cases, I might consider intervening."
"And to be honest, you guys now have Banner, who can take down the Hulk with one punch, and you, who's been injected with the improved Super Soldier Serum. Your combat power ceiling is already set; you can't be weak."
Tony chuckled self-deprecatingly and swirled his wine glass:
"The Ivan Vanko incident taught me a lot of lessons, Extremis Virus opened up a new avenue for me, so I simply modified the Super Soldier Serum. And I discovered something great—my body became stronger, but my brain actually worked faster. This is a huge boon for my research, isn't it?"
Thor looked at him, then suddenly spoke in a serious tone:
" Tony, you owe me a nanotech suit."
Tony almost dropped the wine glass in his hand:
"What the hell? Nano armor? I haven't even finished the blueprints for that yet, how could I owe you a set?"
Thor counted on his fingers:
"I've spoiled all the crises for the next decade or so for you, avoided countless fatal pitfalls, and even went to the trouble of creating a 3D movie using the Law of Reality. I've even prepared your favorite snacks for you. Doesn't all this deserve a set of nanotech armor that hasn't even been developed yet?"
He raised an eyebrow and added:
"To be honest, that brat Valeria could conjure up nanotech armor with a flick of her wrist. But I think it would be more meaningful if it were developed by you Tony Stark, yourself."
Tony stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly laughed, downed the rest of his whiskey in one gulp, and shook his head.
"You have much better taste than our protagonist from 'Point of Shock,' who only knows how to swing a hammer."
"Alright, it's just a set of nanotech armor, right? Once I develop it, I'll save the first one for you."