Wanda's words struck a chord with nearly every superhero present.
For starters, most of them had turned to ash five years ago. They'd never exchanged a single word with Captain Marvel.
Second, they all harbored a lingering dread about the fact that they had died once already.
And when they learned it was Heisenberg who snapped his fingers and brought them back...
Gratitude for being alive came first, and that had already planted a favorable seed for Heisenberg in their minds.
Then there was the way Heisenberg had utterly dominated Thanos on the battlefield. That alone had let every resurrected hero breathe a deep sigh of vengeful satisfaction.
Add to that the sheer presence he'd shown while turning the tide of battle.
So even though Heisenberg, much like Captain Marvel, hadn't spoken to most of them personally...
They still felt a growing sense of goodwill toward him.
And when that goodwill was measured against their impressions of Captain Marvel...
In the span of a few heartbeats, Carol went from feeling like she was standing before a hostile crowd...
To actually standing before one.
And Wanda wasn't finished yet.
Mysterious crimson light flickered around Wanda's hands as she raised her right palm toward Captain Marvel.
"Answer me!"
She screamed, then gasped for breath, chest heaving. Veins bulged along her forehead. She looked seconds away from losing control.
When is a person drowning in pain and hatred at their most vulnerable?
Right after they've achieved their revenge and realized it changes nothing.
Hadn't Thor chopped off Thanos's head to claim his vengeance, only to devolve into a reclusive mess haunted by the past?
Wanda was no different.
Her enemy lay dead at her feet, but the love of her life was still gone.
Only now did the true weight of loneliness and loss crash down upon her.
Wanda's state grew more erratic by the second, and Carol's lips pressed into a thin, angry line after those piercing accusations.
Captain America frowned and stepped between them, physically separating the two women before things could escalate into real violence.
"Wanda, get ahold of yourself!" he barked.
Steve's voice jolted Wanda back to earlier days. Days when she'd first joined the Avengers and he had been her mentor.
She shook her head painfully, letting the chaos energy around her hands dissolve into nothing.
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye.
"Sorry..."
Her voice cracked. She turned away without looking back.
"I'm not in a good place right now. I need some air."
Chaos magic surged around her, and she shot into the sky, vanishing within seconds.
Back at the crater...
The gathered heroes stood in awkward silence for a long dozen seconds before Carol finally shook her head and sighed.
"I admit it. When Thanos attacked Earth five years ago, I never got word. I was deep in the Outer Galaxies hunting down Deathbird. So for failing to be here for all of you back then, I apologize."
She inclined her head slightly. The gesture softened a few of the sterner expressions around her.
But once the apology was out of the way, her tone hardened again.
She lifted her chin and continued.
"I accept that I didn't do much for Earth during the war with Thanos. But that doesn't mean Earth can just ignore the fact that half of all life in the universe is still gone. The cosmos has always been balanced and unified. That unity is crumbling, and it started right here on Earth. When word spreads to the other empires that Earth has emerged from Thanos's shadow..."
Carol's face darkened with genuine worry. Her voice dropped to a harsh whisper.
"If they learn Earth got its hands on the power of Infinity and only used it to bring back its own people... jealousy and hatred will paint a target on this entire planet."
She thrust the Infinity Gauntlet into the air.
"That's why I need the full set. I need to restore every lost soul across the universe. I need to give them the same fairness you all received. Only that kind of equality can keep Earth off their hit list. I hope there are enough smart people here to understand what I'm saying."
This time, she found nods of agreement.
"That... actually makes sense. I'm young, so maybe I don't get all of it. But if I were in that situation, and everyone else got their family back while mine stayed dust... I'd go crazy. I'd track down whoever did it and demand to know how they pulled it off."
The chatty Spider-Man muttered to himself, and his words sparked thoughtful looks across the crowd.
Following that line of reasoning, they reached a consensus fast.
Carol was right.
Even if they still felt uneasy about letting her handle the Snap.
Even if her high-and-mighty attitude still rubbed them the wrong way.
She was right.
"Alright."
Tony Stark nodded from off to the side.
"I'm not exactly invested in the daily lives of a bunch of aliens, but you've got a point. Earth can't afford another war. So I'll do what I can to borrow the last two stones for you."
"Borrow?"
Carol blinked at Tony's choice of words, then tilted her head in sudden realization.
"You're talking about the Superman figure. You said he's the one who brought the Mind and Time Stones to the fight, so..."
She whipped her head toward the horizon where Heisenberg had disappeared.
A frown creased her brow. She muttered under her breath.
"Should I have stopped him before he left?"
...
Meanwhile, Heisenberg was lounging on a bed of clouds, lazily admiring the sun's brilliance.
He was actually floating through the sky on his back, doing a casual backstroke through the sea of white fluff.
Maybe taking down Thanos had put him in a good mood. Or maybe the upgrade to his bloodline and the boost to his physical form had left him riding a high.
Either way, the smile still hadn't faded from his face by the time he touched down in downtown Washington, D.C.
He glanced around. The capital was eerily empty.
Looking further out, he could spot endless lines of cars and panicked crowds all streaming away from the direction of New York.
Clearly, the citizens of D.C. had been spooked by the sight of Thanos's warship and the battle raging a few hundred miles away.
Typical. In the Marvel universe, only New Yorkers had nerves of steel.
Chuckling at his own dark humor, Heisenberg followed a trail he'd logged earlier into a small wooded area of a local park.
He'd come to retrieve his spoils of war.
Namely, Thanos's double-edged greatsword, which he'd hurled aside earlier.
The massive blade had buried itself over twenty meters deep into the earth.
Heisenberg reached out toward the chaotic crash site. Fallen trees and tangled roots floated obediently aside.
The double-bladed greatsword shot up from the ground and landed firmly in his grip.
"Huh. The handle really is thick. Fitting for Thanos."
He paused.
"Wait... did I just say something wildly inappropriate?"
He snorted at his own joke and gave his new prize a proper once-over.
The hilt was so thick he needed both hands just to wrap his fingers around it.
Makes sense. Thanos was enormous. The distance from his palm to the tip of his middle finger had to be at least forty-five centimeters. Probably more.
Bottom line, this weapon wasn't exactly ergonomic for Heisenberg.
Not that he needed it.
Hefting the greatsword, Heisenberg launched himself back into the air and began a leisurely flight toward New York.
As he flew, he realized he was carrying a bit too much gear.
The Time Stone hung around his neck. The Mind Scepter was tucked diagonally through his belt. And now he was lugging around Thanos's Celestial-grade weapon.
Enough was enough.
"System," Heisenberg muttered.
"Give me a spatial storage device. As convenient as possible. You know what I'm after."
[Recommended: Klein Dimension Embedding Apparatus. Cost: 260 million Origin Substance.]
"Hold on."
Heisenberg blinked, then asked a pointed question.
"Is that recommendation based on how much Origin Substance I actually have?"
[Within the range of your available Origin Substance, the Klein Dimension Apparatus is one of the most suitable options. Functionally equivalent to a four-dimensional pocket. With the dimensional embedding modification installed, the Klein rift can be anchored to any pocket of your choosing, allowing you to...]
"Stop."
Heisenberg cut the system off with a grand wave of his hand.
"Buy it. You know me."
[Confirmed. Binding Klein Dimension Embedding Apparatus. Please designate initial anchoring location.]
The system's voice faded, and Heisenberg immediately sensed a faint, dark space hovering beside him.
He understood what it was. A fold between dimensions. A passageway connecting the third dimension to the fourth.
But he also knew that no matter how impressive the Klein Dimension Apparatus was on a cosmic scale, for him it was just a really fancy pocket.
He patted the left pocket of his slacks.
Instantly, he felt the fabric lose a tiny bit of weight.
He slipped his hand inside. The usual cloth lining was gone. Instead, his fingers brushed against...
Well, not his family jewels. It was a vast, empty void.
Heisenberg realized he had absolute control over this void.
He glanced down, spotted a massive billboard over eight square meters in size, and swooped toward it.
He grabbed the billboard and, with no regard for logic whatsoever, shoved it toward his left pants pocket.
And just like that, as scientifically sound as Doraemon's four-dimensional pocket, the Klein Dimension Embedding Apparatus swallowed the enormous sign whole.
He could feel the object now resting inside that pocket dimension.
"Test complete. Definitely won't lose my loot now."
He pulled the billboard back out, tossed it carelessly to the roadside, then deposited the two Infinity Stones and the double-bladed greatsword into his new pocket.
"User experience: excellent. Nice work, System."
[Always a pleasure to provide satisfactory service to the Arbiter.]
His business with the system concluded, Heisenberg felt light as a feather. He altered course and headed straight for Los Angeles.
He wasn't going back to New York. Not yet. He wanted a comfortable spot to relax before Tony finished rebuilding that quantum tunnel.
A crater-ridden warzone wasn't exactly his idea of R&R.
...
An hour and a half later, when the final cleanup operation at the New York crater officially wrapped up, Carol Danvers's patience was wearing dangerously thin.
She finished off the last two wounded giant gorillas and flew straight to Tony Stark, her expression dark.
"Why hasn't Heisenberg shown his face since then? What exactly is he doing?"
Tony didn't appreciate her tone. She always came off as if she were speaking down to everyone.
He didn't even look up from the calculations he was running. He just shot her a sideways glance.
"The guy just fought a war. He's taking a break. And even if you're in a hurry to save your alien buddies, do you really need to count every second?"
"I have my reasons. I'll go talk to him myself. You at least know where he went, right?"
"Mmhm. Hollywood Boulevard area in L.A."
"I'm going to find him. Unbelievable."
Carol gritted her teeth and rocketed into the sky, disappearing without another word.
/-\
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