As Heisenberg took off, he glanced at his right hand.
There was no wound left at all.
As long as he could bask in the sun, even if he turned into a dried corpse, he could still crawl out of the grave and start partying!
After putting his restored hand behind his back, Heisenberg flew through the hole he had smashed into Avengers Tower.
The moment Captain America saw him appear, he instantly raised his shield and glared at him fiercely.
Ant-Man also activated his suit at once, shrinking to the size of an ant in the blink of an eye.
But before either of them could do anything, Natasha and Barton stepped in and stopped them.
Right after that, Natasha turned back to glance at Heisenberg and gave him a charming wink.
Barton, meanwhile, spoke to Captain America from the side.
"I didn't expect you guys to invite Lord Heisenberg too. This is fantastic!
I was just worrying about how I could properly thank Lord Heisenberg. He saved my life!"
The moment Barton finished speaking, Natasha turned around and refuted him.
"Barton, to be precise, he saved my life, because I had a way to jump down before you did!"
"Impossible. There's no way I'd let a comrade die in front of me, Natasha!"
"Same here, Barton!"
The two of them actually stared at each other for a brief moment just like that...
A moment later, they smiled at each other, and that touching atmosphere of competing to die for the other finally faded away.
At that moment, Iron Man and the Hulk also returned to the tower with the injured.
Seeing Captain America still on guard, Iron Man waved his hand.
"It was all some damn ridiculous misunderstanding. I'll explain the details to you later.
Get everyone together first. Have all the Stones been collected or not?"
After he said that, the Avengers finally lowered their guard a little and gathered toward Iron Man.
Meanwhile, Heisenberg carried the scepter and necklace over, found himself a chair, and sat down leisurely with a grin.
Iron Man swept his gaze across the group.
"Cap and I brought back the Time Stone, the Space Stone, and the Mind Stone!"
"Thor and I brought back the Reality Stone. Good thing the Stone's on me!"
"Nebula and I also brought back the Power Stone. Nebula, why do you look a little off...?"
The weakened Rhodey forced out a shout toward Nebula, while she nervously glanced at Heisenberg and took the Orb out of her pack.
At this point, the only one missing was the Soul Stone.
Barton and Natasha both looked at Heisenberg. Then Natasha smiled and took out the Soul Stone.
"You have no idea!" she said. "The way to obtain the Soul Stone is actually to sacrifice someone you share an incredibly deep bond with.
That bond can be family, it can be love, and it can also be friendship!"
As she spoke, she bowed solemnly to Heisenberg.
After straightening up, she said seriously to the others,
"When I thought that one of Barton and I had to die, when I thought we were destined never to return together like this again...
Mr. Heisenberg appeared, and he even brought along two people I never expected to see!"
As she spoke, Natasha could not help recalling what happened back then.
...
In 2014, on Morag, Nebula piloted the spaceship Rocket Raccoon had lent them and landed on the abyss-like surface of the planet.
Nebula and Rhodey stepped off the ship according to plan.
After saying goodbye to them, Natasha and Barton piloted the ship all the way to Vormir.
The altar that held the Soul Stone was there.
After arriving on Vormir, they climbed over mountain after mountain, finally making their way to the altar.
At that moment, both of them were still in surprisingly relaxed moods.
As Natasha panted heavily, stretching her legs that were completely exhausted from climbing, she said,
"I bet Rocket and the others definitely didn't have to climb a mountain!"
Hearing her tease, Barton let out a long breath and very straightforwardly reminded her,
"Strictly speaking, he's not actually a raccoon!"
"Whatever. They all eat trash anyway."
After saying that, Natasha chuckled softly first.
Using a bad joke to ease the fatigue, the two of them continued climbing the mountain that held the Soul Stone. But after only a few steps, they heard a deep and eerie voice.
"Welcome."
The instant that voice appeared, Natasha immediately drew her pistol, and Barton pulled out his broadsword with a sharp metallic sound.
The two of them looked toward the source of the voice with full vigilance, and from that direction, a figure draped in a black cloak like the Grim Reaper slowly floated out.
The figure looked at them and said calmly and indifferently,
"Natasha, daughter of Ivan.
Clint, son of Edith."
"Who are you?"
Natasha asked softly, and the black-clad figure answered as he walked toward them.
"I am the guide who leads travelers to the Soul Stone."
"Mm-hmm. Then just tell us where it is," Natasha asked warily.
Hearing Natasha's words, the shadow gave a faint sneer, then let out a long sigh.
"If only things were really that simple."
After that, the man in black led Natasha and Barton to the edge of the cliff. There, he explained the only way to obtain the Soul Stone.
The realization that one of them was bound to die immediately filled both of them with grief.
But just as they were about to make their decision...
A dim shadow suddenly streaked across the sky of Vormir!
Carrying a violent rushing force, it smashed down right in front of Natasha and Barton.
The two instantly raised their weapons in guard, but the figure, clad in layered black armor and carrying two people in his hands, showed no intention of harming them.
He first tossed the two people onto the ground, then planted his foot firmly on the ropes binding them.
After that, his helmet seemed to melt away, gradually turning into blazing lava and flowing from the top of his head into the gaps between the plates of his armor.
Under that helmet, Natasha saw a face that looked strikingly like Keanu Reeves.
And the owner of that face was smiling at them as he said,
"Friends from the future, sorry to interrupt your farewell."
"Who are you?!"
"Heh, a Kryptonian living on Earth. You can call me Heisenberg!"
At that point, Heisenberg lifted his foot and nudged the two people at his side, then said to them,
"As agreed, I will release the one among you who retrieves the Soul Stone for me. Go on!"
The moment he finished speaking, the ropes around those two instantly melted away, turning into magma just like his earlier helmet and flowing back into the gaps of the greaves on his legs.
At that moment, every gap in Heisenberg's extravagant though slightly damaged suit of armor began to glow with a mysterious lava-like radiance.
The beautiful design of the armor made Natasha glance at it a few more times despite herself.
Noticing her curiosity, Heisenberg smiled at the two of them.
"Good taste. This armor is called Abyss Walker. You could say it's one of my favorite designs."
"Uh..."
Barton froze for a moment.
"I don't care about your armor. I just want to know who you...?!"
Before Barton could finish, Natasha lightly patted him twice.
Then she pointed at the two figures already running toward the cliff.
"Holy hell, those two are Thanos's subordinates!"
"What?!"
Barton grew even more tense, but Heisenberg merely waved a hand at them.
"Relax, you two. Instead of wasting your energy being on guard against me, why not sit down and enjoy a good show with me?"
As Heisenberg spoke, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, that married couple, were desperately rushing toward the damned cliff.
Right under Heisenberg's watch, Proxima Midnight ultimately won and successfully jumped off the cliff before Corvus Glaive could!
After that, accompanied by Corvus Glaive's howl of grief over losing his beloved wife, the Soul Stone quietly appeared in his hand.
But before Corvus Glaive could even admire the treasure bought with his lover's life, Heisenberg casually snatched the Stone away.
Holding the Soul Stone in his hand, Heisenberg gently shook his head at Corvus Glaive.
"What a pity. In the end, it was still your wife who gave her life to fetch the Soul Stone for me.
So, as agreed, I will release your wife's soul, but I will also kill you, who accomplished nothing at all!"
The moment he finished speaking, Heisenberg directly pulled the weapon from his back.
It was the double-bladed war spear that had originally belonged to Corvus Glaive and housed his soul.
Before Corvus Glaive could even try to resist, Heisenberg snapped the spear in half.
And the instant the spear broke, Corvus Glaive also turned into a cloud of black mist and completely vanished.
"Tsk tsk, what a pitiful couple. They depended on each other for thousands of years, yet in the end, they still failed to stay together forever."
Heisenberg first let out an amused sigh, then casually tossed the Soul Stone into Natasha's hand.
Natasha had never imagined he would simply hand the Stone to her, so she froze on the spot.
Heisenberg, meanwhile, said in a bored tone,
"Alright, that means I've fulfilled one of my old little wishes, hehe!
Also, let me give you a piece of advice, Natasha. Your current hairstyle and hair color are the most beautiful. Trust me!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he reached out and rubbed Natasha's wine-red hair while she stared at him in shock.
Then Heisenberg shot into the sky and disappeared without a trace.
...
Back at Avengers Headquarters, the more Natasha recalled those memories, the gentler her gaze toward Heisenberg became.
And after hearing her explanation, the resentment the Avengers felt toward Heisenberg faded by quite a bit.
Only Heisenberg himself silently pondered Natasha's words.
It seemed that the future him had not only completed his plans against Asgard, but had also casually struck at Thanos's subordinate forces along the way.
No wonder the Nebula from the past had looked at him with such hatred just now. She had clearly recognized who he was.
But so what?
Heisenberg lay back expressionlessly in the chair and called out to everyone in a bored voice,
"You people are seriously slow. Is saving your universe really less important than standing around chatting here?"
After saying that, he casually tossed the scepter and necklace over to Iron Man.
Completely ignoring Iron Man's excitement at finally obtaining all six Stones, Heisenberg sat there in his chair and paid no attention at all to the process of setting the six Infinity Stones into place.
At the same time, he did not care in the slightest about the fear in Nebula's eyes when she looked at him, or whatever scheme she might be preparing for him.
And so, after basking in the sun for a full three hours, Iron Man finally finished making the gauntlet designed to hold the Infinity Stones.
In the blink of an eye, the six Stones were fitted into the gauntlet one by one.
What came next was the utterly boring struggle over who would wear it, as if every single person believed they had a reason to be the one to snap their fingers.
But right then, Nebula's eyes shifted slightly, and she suddenly made a suggestion to everyone.
"Since everyone is fighting over who should make the snap, then shouldn't controlling the Infinity Stones belong to the strongest person on Earth?"
She directly pushed the topic onto Heisenberg!
Heisenberg had no choice but to open his eyes. Looking out at the sky beyond the window, he answered Nebula without even turning his head.
"First, I am a guest in your universe. Asking me to bear the price of that snap does not seem like proper hospitality.
Second, I have no emotional attachment to your universe, so can you really trust me to make that snap?
And finally..."
He sat upright in the armchair, calmly gazing at the sky.
At that moment, Nebula seemed to see a trace of her father Thanos in Heisenberg's figure.
And at that moment, Heisenberg slowly opened his mouth and continued,
"Finally, I am waiting for an opponent worthy of a battle, so I must remain in top condition!"
/-\
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