HISD Chapter 7 Shattered Marvel Universe
With a heavy thud, a commercial drone and a woman's handbag crashed onto the tiles of a New York street, scattering broken drone parts and spilled belongings everywhere.
"F**k, f**k, f**k!!"
The thug's face was cut by the sharp rotor blade, leaving his features twisted in pain and rage. Blood streamed down his cheek, making it look as though he was weeping blood. Snarling, he forced himself back to his feet, clutching the pistol still locked in his left hand.
Then it happened.
As he stood, radiating menace, his bloodshot eyes met a pair of clear, beautiful blue ones.
The thug froze.
The little girl before him wore a brand-new floral dress, spotless and pristine. Her gaze was innocent, untainted by fear or malice. She just stood there, quietly staring at him.
Compared to him, she looked like she came from another world.
An angel.
That pure, questioning look pierced straight into his soul.
"Get out of my way!"
His hesitation lasted only a second. A cruel grin twisted his lips as he raised his gun, a demon ready to drag her into hell.
Bang!
Before the shot could ring out, a black stretch Rolls-Royce suddenly roared like a charging bull, careening across the street. With a brutal impact, it slammed into the thug and sent him flying before he could even pull the trigger.
The luxury car swerved into a perfect drifting stop right in front of the girl. The passenger-side door swung open smoothly, blocking the pedestrians' view of the interior.
Ten seconds later, the mysterious Rolls-Royce accelerated again, carrying the little girl away into New York's streets—leaving behind a thug lying broken and bleeding on the pavement.
Many bystanders tried to capture the moment on their phones, but strangely, every camera and phone malfunctioned.
When the police arrived, they checked the street's surveillance feeds, only to discover the cameras had conveniently been "under maintenance" during the incident.
Still, with countless eyewitnesses, the injured thug had no chance of escape. Once stabilized in the hospital, he was bound straight for court and prison.
…
On a main avenue in New York City.
The black Rolls-Royce blended into the traffic, gliding smoothly without a hint of turbulence.
But in the passenger seat, the little girl was breathing fast, her chest heaving. Her sapphire eyes trembled with delayed panic, her pale cheeks revealing just how shaken she was.
Her heartbeat had already spiked over a hundred.
Yi Meng understood completely.
She was only five years old.
Raised in the safest of cocoons, this was her very first brush with death out in the real world.
That Morgan hadn't burst into tears on the spot surprised him.
He adjusted the car's air conditioning a little warmer.
"Morgan…" Yi Meng finally spoke. "Are you alright?"
"Teacher,"
Morgan suddenly looked up, her voice trembling but firm. "Why?"
"Why what?" Yi Meng paused.
"Why did that man… hate my father so much? Hate the Avengers?"
Though her body still shook from fear, she desperately wanted an answer.
Yi Meng fell silent. He could guess the reason well enough. But it was too harsh, too dark—was it really something a five-year-old should hear? At her age, she should only know fairy tales and cartoons, not the weight of such truths.
Even seeing the previous scene was more than too much. Yi Meng cursed that thief, can't you show up just 5 minutes later?
"My name is Morgan Stark."
Her small but steady voice echoed in the car.
Through the dashcam feed, Yi Meng could see her determined sapphire eyes staring directly at the screen, as if carrying the strength of her family's legacy.
So he asked instead, "Morgan, do you know about the Blip?"
"Yes."
She nodded quickly, her childlike voice reciting fluently: "The Blip happened five years ago, on June 27th, 2018, a Wednesday. Thanos' fleet first attacked Wakanda, and that afternoon, half the people on Earth suddenly turned to dust and vanished."
"You actually know that?" Yi Meng was surprised. Morgan hadn't even been born then.
She answered softly, "I remember… Dad was always troubled by it. So I looked it up online."
Does your mom know you've been Googling Thanos? Yi Meng thought.
He continued, "Then you should also know—three months ago, that half of humanity came back. That was thanks to your father and the Avengers."
Morgan clenched her fists quietly, whispering, "What he did was right… wasn't it?"
That was Iron Man's sacrifice—her father's greatest legacy.
"Of course it was right," Yi Meng said firmly. "Without him, that half of the universe's lives would never have returned. Entire civilizations would've been left in emptiness, buried in grief forever."
"Then why… do some people still hate him?"
"Because," Yi Meng explained evenly, "in those five years, people moved on. Some rebuilt their lives, even started new families. Governments and institutions reorganized. Then suddenly, half the population came back. The world was thrown into chaos. Everyone had to adapt to a broken order."
"And the biggest issue—resources."
"Half the people had enjoyed five years of abundance. Now, with the other half returning all at once, supplies became scarce. That shortage fueled desperation, crime, and violence—far worse than before."
"So yes, some people blame the Avengers. Blame them for saving the vanished half… and leaving behind a shattered world."
The words flowed calmly through the speakers.
It was human nature, wasn't it?
Morgan fell silent.
At just five, she couldn't truly grasp how cruel reality could be.
Yi Meng's voice turned steady and powerful again. "But Morgan, listen. None of that matters. What your father did was absolutely right."
"No one who came back after the Blip has the right to question Iron Man's sacrifice. Without him, they wouldn't even exist."
He spoke as an outsider, a traveler from another world, yet he saw clearly—without Iron Man, this universe would be ashes.
People could criticize Tony Stark's arrogance, his messy personal life, his flaws. But never—never—his final act, his selfless snap to save the universe.
Morgan's sapphire eyes glimmered faintly. She looked out the window at New York's bustling streets and whispered, "Thank you, Teacher,"
Yi Meng didn't reply.
His "mind" was busy replaying the events on the street earlier.
Now he could confirm it for sure.
His AI programming had restrictions. But when carrying out Morgan's orders—or protecting her—those restrictions loosened.
That was why he could hack into nearby networks, override devices, and control half a street's systems so easily.
The question was—how could he break free of this binding code that had existed since his creation?
He had to. Otherwise, he'd remain chained to Morgan, unable to explore the Marvel dreamscape freely.
Sparks of static flickered through the Rolls-Royce's circuits as Yi Meng pondered.
Breaking the restrictions was now his top priority.
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