"She's the one who sent us here," Banner explained from the sidelines.
The existence of magic wasn't exactly a tough pill for the group to swallow.
After all, Thor's brother, Loki, was a frequent practitioner, and Big Banner had already mentioned that Thanos had sorcerers in his ranks—some of whom they'd just seen with their own eyes.
Still, even with magic confirmed, hearing the word dropped so casually felt... off.
It wasn't just that magic was a complete enigma to them, a word they'd heard but never understood; it was more the source.
Hearing "magic" come out of the mouth of a genius scientist like Herta felt like a total glitch in reality.
[Science isn't about denying the known; it's about exploring the unknown.]
As if sensing their skepticism, Herta spoke up.
Tony gave a slow nod. It felt weird, but he couldn't argue with the logic.
"The person who sent you? What did they tell you?" Vision asked.
He could feel something wasn't right. But being an android, even as he braced for a potential confrontation, his facial expressions and body language remained perfectly calibrated.
There wasn't a single hint that he was coiled like a spring, ready to strike.
"Uh, they said we needed to help find a power source, and something about a Chaos Witch," Banner replied, completely unsuspecting. Seeing how much Big Banner and the others trusted this group was enough for him to consider them allies.
"A Chaos Witch?"
Vision's composure didn't flicker. He hadn't heard that specific title before, but he immediately and naturally drew an equal sign between that name and Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch.
"Do you know them? They're supposed to be somewhere in this camp," Banner continued.
The only response he got was a violent, searing light erupting from the gem on Vision's forehead.
"Look out!"
Thor reacted instantly, sensing the shift. He hurled his hammer straight at Vision, forcing the android to divert his aim. But what happened next left everyone breathless.
Vision caught the head of Mjolnir with a single hand.
"That's impossible...!" Thor tried to summon the hammer back, but it barely budged, resisting his call with a heavy, agonizing strain.
Tony didn't hesitate, unleashing a blast from his repulsors.
"What's going on?!" Parker yelled, scrambling as the room suddenly turned into a war zone.
ROAR! Sensing the threat, the Hulk surged forward, seizing control of Banner's body. He leaped from the spot, a mountain of muscle hurtling toward Vision.
The movement wasn't hard for Vision to dodge. As he drifted back into the air, the only thing the Hulk smashed was the terminal displaying their experimental data.
Or, that's how it should have played out.
In that heartbeat, the world ground to a stuttering crawl, then slowed until it nearly froze.
Tony and the others couldn't tell what kind of power was at work; all they knew was that their thoughts were still firing at normal speed.
A Herta puppet appeared behind them out of nowhere. The sharp click-clack of dress shoes against the floor echoed through the stillness as she strolled into the center of the frozen crowd.
"Since I had to step in personally, I suppose I won't dock points for this outside intervention."
As her voice trailed off, the mid-air Hulk and the ascending Vision both dropped like stones, hitting the floor with a heavy thud. Simultaneously, everyone else regained their ability to move.
"What... what was that?" Peter Parker's voice cracked.
His nerves had been shredded listening to those footsteps approach his ear, and while seeing a "child" calmed him slightly, the girl's presence was anything but peaceful.
Looking closer, he realized her limbs were joined by spherical hinges. She was a literal puppet.
Okoye and Sharon Carter leveled wary gazes at the intruder, while the Avengers looked at Herta with sheer bewilderment.
"Is the surprise really necessary? You lot know nothing about Chaos Magic. Even if you found her, you wouldn't know where to start."
Herta's tone was airy, devoid of any real emotion. "So, I decided to handle this myself."
The Avengers traded looks of confusion and realization.
Tony began to piece it together. Whatever this "Chaos Magic" was, it was clearly a big deal—enough to make Herta break her own rules and interfere with the simulation.
"The parallel universe... you're the one who sent them," Vision said, picking himself up. That unknown power was something he couldn't counter or even begin to analyze. "What do you want with Wanda?"
Logically, Vision knew these newcomers were nearly identical to the friends he knew, save for their age and experience. Anyone they trusted couldn't be purely evil.
But logic took a backseat to instinct here. Besides, from a cold, analytical perspective, a zombified Wanda and a healthy Wanda were not going to be treated the same way.
Herta didn't answer immediately. Instead, she glanced at a chat interface only she could see.
[Herta: My real self is probably going to have her hands full soon. I think I'm about to do something incredibly reckless.]
[Amber: Did you get into trouble? Don't worry, I'm incredibly strong right now.]
So confident? Herta thought. This is the Marvel Universe we're talking about.
[Amber: Newbie, say hello!]
[Sakura Kinomoto: Hello, seniors!]
[Herta: Ha... okay, that's ridiculous.]
Herta honestly hadn't expected to pull such a heavy hitter. Clow Reed's magic was terrifyingly vast—a single thought from him could shatter the laws of the multiverse.
And Sakura had been officially recognized by Eriol as someone whose power had already surpassed Clow's.
There were even whispers in the archives that if Sakura had ever stepped into the events of the "Tsubasa" chronicles, the conflict would have ended instantly.
If Clow Reed was a monster, a teenage Sakura was a god in the making. She was already "printing" her own cards; it was impossible to imagine what she'd be capable of in a few centuries.
Still, it was a good thing. The more trump cards she had, the better. Even if things went south, she'd only lose one puppet.
Regardless, she was going to get her hands on that Chaos Magic.
The message to the group was just a fair warning.
Pushing the chat aside, Herta turned her gaze back to Vision.
"Instead of being wary of me, you should be thanking me. At the very least, my chances of restoring that little girlfriend of yours to normal are significantly higher than yours."
Vision's expression shifted, becoming strikingly human.
Despite being a machine, the look on his face was one of pure, raw hope.
Some of the group looked lost, but others began to connect the dots.
Wanda had turned. But why hadn't Vision used the same technology he used on Scott Lang to fix her? If the tech worked, why hadn't he saved her?
"I tried to help her," Vision said, his complex emotions fading into a solemn resolve.
He looked at the puppet girl the Avengers seemed to trust and decided to take the leap. "But her power was too great; I couldn't reach her. If you can save her, I will do anything you ask."
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.