"You're..."
"Tony Stark?"
"What happened to you?"
Thor stared, instantly understanding what was going on with Tony Stark. He was already surprised that the bustling city of New York had become a lifeless ice sculpture, and now Tony Stark had appeared before him as a spiritual form.
He no longer wondered why S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't shown up to handle things. Maybe the entire force had been wiped out, leaving only Tony Stark.
"Well, how can I put this? I'm pretty much dead now. A wizard named Stephen Strange used some magic to let my soul temporarily separate from my body..." Stark gave Thor a brief rundown of what had happened on Earth recently.
Thor listened in a daze. How long had he been on Sakaar? Earth had gone through such a huge change...
"Wait, you said Loki isn't dead?" Thor's eyes suddenly went wide.
"Not only is he not dead, it looks like he's become a collaborator for another universe. Stephen Strange said the invasion was likely your brother's doing." When he mentioned Loki, Stark's face soured.
Compared to Lothar, Loki's actions were far more repulsive. At least Lothar's fight with Asgard, or rather with Odin, was for the sake of rescuing Hela. But what Loki had done... a traitor was despicable in any universe.
"..." Thor's mind, fresh from Sakaar, was in a muddle, and he couldn't quite accept that his dear brother had become a traitor.
He knew Loki too well. He loved to betray, to deceive, and to play pranks. But Thor believed he was fundamentally a good person. At the very least, he was a good person who could still be saved. That was why Thor had gone to Earth specifically to take Loki with him.
"Okay, I know you need time to process this, but unfortunately, time is what we have the least of right now," Stark said. "First question, Thor. Can you fix this city? Or rather, can you restore the people in it?"
Though he hated to admit it, Tony had no choice but to pin his hopes on the returning Thor. He was just a powerless soul, unable to lift a brick without the spellbook Strange had given him. He was truly helpless.
"Maybe. I can try." Thor, who had reclaimed his status as the God of Thunder, nodded. He put his worries about Loki out of his mind and let lightning crackle through his fingers.
While his mastery of magic wasn't as deep as Loki's, Thor, as the crown prince of Asgard, wasn't completely in the dark.
"Wait, Thor!"
Just as Thor was about to use his abilities to unfreeze New York, a sudden voice interrupted him.
"Who's there?!" Thor and Stark grew instantly wary.
"Relax, it's me." Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, descended from the sky, her golden cosmic trail fading as she landed.
"You're... that woman Nick Fury called?" Stark had a vague memory of the woman he had only met once. It wasn't because she was beautiful or had a great figure; it was because Carol Danvers was the only woman he had ever met who could, apparently, fly through space on her own. A woman!
"Carol, you're not dead?!" Thor was more excited than confused. He had gone to Vormir with Carol to look for the Soul Stone, but they had run into Lothar who had descended from the sky. He hadn't seen Carol since and had even thought Lothar had killed her.
"I was trapped in the Black Quadrant and only escaped after making a deal with Thanos's daughter," Carol said, shaking her head. "When that Asgardian named Loki showed up, I was observing them from the shadows. The powers of some of his people were weird, especially that guy named Clark, I am no match for him. So I didn't get involved. Instead, I collected some of their energy signatures, went back to my ship, and developed this."
As a "cosmic police officer" dedicated to maintaining peace in the universe, Carol Danvers had amassed her own fleet of ships and labs over the years. "With an energy sample, it wasn't hard to create something that would counter it."
She held up a small energy crystal and crushed it right in front of Thor and Stark. The energy radiated out from Carol, and the ice that Mera had released began to melt as it came into contact with the energy wave.
Steam rose, and the city, which had no business being so wet, now looked as if it had just been pulled from the bottom of the sea. Every street and alley was filled with water.
"Wait, this...?!" Thor stared in shock, looking at the figures around him who were all beginning to stir. The painful moans of the people in the city became the main melody of this wet city.
"Time was limited, so I could only create something to unfreeze them," Carol said. She couldn't do anything for all the people now that they were unfrozen. If she had waited any longer, the entire city would have become a graveyard, and the frozen statues would have become corpses.
"I'll have my people handle that," Tony Stark, the richest man on Earth, said, taking the responsibility. He had already evolved into Iron Man and shouldered the responsibility for society, for this city, and for the world.
"But, Ms. Danvers," he said. "I hope what you're about to say is good news, or I'll be in a very bad mood."
Seeing Carol hesitate, Tony's expression turned grim. Taking on the medical care for the entire city would be a challenge, even for the wealthy Stark corporation. Not just financially, but in terms of manpower and connections.
"Nick Fury once gave me some files about Lothar," she said. "I uploaded that information to my ship's AI and had it track the history and traces of that mysterious cult. Now, I've found it."
Carol held out her hand, and a figure appeared from her wrist device, showing it to Thor and Stark.
"The man's name is Menes. According to the file Nick Fury gave me, he was the first pharaoh of ancient Egypt."
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