"At the beginning of the cosmos, a chaos, boom, the cosmos was born."
"Among them, six singularities emerged, giving birth to six Infinity Gemstones as the cosmic explosion collapsed."
"These six Infinity Gemstones, each can control a particular domain of the cosmos."
"Space!"
"Reality!"
"Power!"
"Soul!"
"Mind!"
"And..."
Drawing Tony Stark into the New York Hall, Doctor Strange unfolds the tale of the origin of the Infinity Gemstones. He turns to Hawk sitting on the chair, lowers his eyes, pinches a Dharma Seal, and reveals the Eye of Agamotto hanging around his neck. From it, a dazzling, radiant Time Gemstone shines: "Time!"
Tony, seated on the chair, frowns slightly as he watches Doctor Strange demonstrate the six Infinity Gemstones.
"Repeat that guy's name again."
"Thanos!"
Before Doctor Strange can speak, Bruce Banner, standing nearby, impatiently speaks: "Tony, he's too terrifying. He invades other planets recklessly, destroys life, and is utterly ruthless. He already has the Power Gemstone and Space Gemstone now, he..."
Tony watches Bruce Banner, who talks while approaching him, and quickly gestures for Bruce Banner not to come closer.
Bruce looks at Tony's expression and hesitates slightly at Tony's rejection.
"Tony, it's me, I'm Bruce."
"I know it's you."
Tony interrupts Bruce's words, looking at Bruce: "You are already dead."
Bruce hesitates slightly.
"What nonsense are you talking about? When we destroyed Hydra, I just..."
"You died in 2013, dead in African Wakanda."
"What?"
Bruce stares blankly at Tony, whose expression seemingly didn't lie.
Tony also feels confused at the resurrection of Bruce before him and turns to Doctor Strange: "What is happening here."
He briefly thought about whether Hawk secretly resurrected Bruce Banner.
But...
This notion quickly vanished from his mind before he even turned it around.
Because it's impossible.
Hawk's personality is like an easy-going mule, rarely interfering with things unrelated to himself, and his greatest pleasure is being cozy with Gwen.
But once someone touches his bottom line?
Hehe.
Genocide is just the start; extermination is the peak.
Thus, Hawk might resurrect a stranger passing by but would never resurrect an enemy he killed by his own hand.
Most importantly.
They attacked the Hydra Base together?
Before Hydra was exposed, Bruce Banner was already gone; surely it wasn't his soul accompanying them, was it?
Doctor Strange first glanced at Bruce Banner, then looked at Tony.
"He indeed is not Bruce Banner."
"Wh..."
"From our Banner, but indeed he is Bruce Banner, from a multiverse Bruce Banner."
Doctor Strange quickly adds before Bruce Banner can interrupt, looking at Tony: "Clearly, in his universe, he was not killed by Hawk Phoenix."
Bruce Banner hears the name Doctor Strange mentions and can't help but frown: "Who is Hawk Phoenix? Thor also mentioned this name to me."
Tony hears this, looking at Bruce.
"Wait, Thor told you."
"Yes, but I thought he was joking."
"..."
Tony watches Bruce's face full of 'I thought he really meant that', sinking into silence.
Doctor Strange also watches Bruce's expression, extending his right hand, beginning to draw circles, and then presenting the destiny of this world's Bruce Banner to the Bruce Banner who appeared out of nowhere.
After a while.
Bruce opens his mouth, recalling the Hawk Phoenix who killed him twice.
"I don't know this Hawk Phoenix."
"The multiverse is different from parallel worlds; it might exist in another us. Likewise, what we have here, may not exist there."
Doctor Strange explains.
Tony hears this, thoughtfully nods, and speaks a factual statement to Bruce.
"You should be grateful your universe doesn't have Hawk."
"Why?"
Bruce hears this, frowning, looking at Tony, who says so: "Is he scary?"
Tony doesn't reply, directly watching Doctor Strange: "You said this Thanos wants to collect all six Infinity Gemstones?"
Doctor Strange nods.
"Yes."
"Then he has no chance."
"What?"
"Reality!"
"Mind!"
Tony raises his head, points to the two gemstones simulated by Mage Wang using magic, and laughs: "These two gemstones are with Hawk, so the Thanos you mentioned has no chance to collect them all."
Unless he can kill Hawk, but that's almost impossible.
Don't forget.
Hawk once told Tony, if Tony needed, he could study his Black Phoenix Nether Armor for a week.
Tony researched Hawk's Black Phoenix Nether Armor.
To put it this way.
He detected energy far beyond Thor's hammer on that armor.
A hundredfold at least!
Bruce listened to Tony's emphatic words, froze for a moment, then looked at Tony, and instinctively said, "Where's this Hawk now."
Tony shrugged, "I don't know, he... left Earth half a month ago, and we don't know when he'll be back. Pepper has gone to find Gwen to see if she has any urgent means to contact Hawk."
Doctor Strange didn't speak.
Bruce Banner heard yet another new name, looking bewildered again.
"Who's this Gwen?"
"I'm now sure he's not our Bruce."
Tony glanced at Bruce and said this to Doctor Strange.
Just then.
The phone rang.
Pepper's.
"Tony!"
"Gwen has disappeared."
"What do you mean Gwen has disappeared?"
"It's not just Gwen."
Just arrived at Palm Street No. 521A, getting off the car, seeing the anxious Sharon coming out from inside, after a brief exchange of intel, Pepper quickly called Tony, speaking in a tone of disbelief: "Gwen's entire family suddenly vanished without a trace."
Tony's expression froze.
In the next second.
He pictured West View Town in his mind.
"What about West View Town?"
"..."
Pepper didn't speak.
Just as Tony's heart sank, Sharon, having taken the phone from Pepper, spoke up, "West View Town is normal, we were about to head to the west..."
Before the words finished.
Sharon's pupils constricted as she saw the spark teleportation gate spinning and whirling then birthed before her.
Tony, Doctor Strange, and Wang.
And...
"Dr. Banner?"
Sharon's eyes widened as she saw Bruce following them and instinctively said, "Hawk pardoned you, brought you back to life?"
Bruce, about to speak, lost interest in talking and curiously asked, "Why would Hawk Phoenix want to kill me?"
"It's complicated."
"Don't ask."
"Can't explain in a short time."
"You fought with Abomination and accidentally injured Hawk's sister."
"..."
After much chatter, Doctor Strange finally revealed the root cause.
Bruce nodded thoughtfully.
Tony redirected back to the main topic.
"How did Gwen suddenly disappear?"
"This morning, the agent responsible for secretly protecting Gwen found something was wrong. Since yesterday noon, after Gwen returned home, she hadn't left till this morning, so the agent urgently contacted me."
"Taken by Hawk for cosmic travel?"
"No way."
Sharon shook her head, "The S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite didn't detect Hawk entering the atmosphere, and if it were for travel, Gwen would have called me. I'm ready to head to West View Town now, see if anyone there knows anything."
Upon hearing this, Doctor Strange immediately drew another teleportation gate connecting West View Town.
Only then did Sharon notice Doctor Strange and Wang in their bizarre attire, watch Doctor Strange, seemingly thought of something.
"Supreme Mage?"
"No."
Doctor Strange smiled slightly, "Doctor Strange."
Sharon made an 'oh' sound and stopped talking.
To her, at this stage, nothing was more important than Gwen's sudden disappearance.
Because if Gwen vanished without reason, Earth's destruction might follow in an instant.
So...
Sharon hoped West View Town might have some information.
And they did!
"Gwen's disappeared?" Wanda, preparing some snacks for Billy and Tommy at home, was startled seeing the sudden arrival of many people at her door. Listening to the familiar Sharon's intention, she froze momentarily before seemingly recalling something: "The laboratory, Gwen mentioned she might be very busy in days to come, might not be home, asked me to help tidy up the house weekly."
Pepper shook her head, "I've asked the laboratory, haven't seen Gwen."
Sharon immediately asked, "Are you sure Gwen told you she might disappear for some time?"
Wanda shook her head, invited everyone inside, then looked at Sharon, "Didn't say she'd disappear, Gwen just said she might be busy at the lab for a long time, unable to be home."
While speaking, Wanda briefly mentioned how Gwen had often brought her to her home recently to learn cooking and asked her to clean the house and cook for Hawk when she worked overtime.
"Hiss!"
"Did Gwen know she'd disappear early?"
"Where did she go?"
"Wouldn't have been captured by Thanos."
Bruce Banner, who had come along, abruptly spoke up, drawing everyone's attention and speculated: "You mention Hawk has two Infinity Gemstones. Could it be, Thanos has found him and..."
Before he finished speaking.
Just avoided two flights of stairs hiding the arrival of so many in the house, Jean ran down, loudly declaring, "Daddy wouldn't be harmed."
Wanda seemed to realize something, looking at her daughter Jean who had burst in.
"Can you sense where your daddy is?"
"I can."
Jean nodded without hesitation!
...