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The Watcher Station. High-Energy Physics Lab.
The air smelled like scorched ozone and genius-level ego.
Tony Stark and Hank Pym stood on opposite sides of the experimental table, and the sparks between their glares were brighter than any of the lab's electric arcs.
"So, Stark boy." Pym held a data pad, white coat immaculate, expression radiating the particular smugness of a man who'd been shrinking atoms since before Tony was born. "Finally admitting that Pym Particle applications at the microscopic level are beyond what your Arc Reactor can touch?"
"Give it a rest, old man." Tony rolled his eyes. "If Jake hadn't handed you alien blueprints, you'd still be chatting with ants in a San Francisco basement. Besides — my nanotech already cracked quantum folding. Want me to start a tutoring class?"
"That's cheating! That's alien technology!"
"Enough."
Jake's voice cut through the century-spanning rivalry. He pointed at Vision — lying on the table, probes and fiber-optic cables connected to his skull, the Mind Stone pulsing amber on his forehead.
"We're here to save someone. Not hold a debate. Status?"
Princess Shuri — Wakandan genius, specially invited to the Plumbers' lab — wiped sweat from her brow.
"Complex, Mr. Rivers."
She pointed at a holographic neural map — a golden maze so intricate it made the brain ache to look at. "The Mind Stone has completely fused with Vision's vibranium cells. Force-strip it and his consciousness collapses instantly. We need to separate two trillion neural nodes layer by layer without severing a single connection. At current computing capacity — three months."
"Three months?" Steve frowned, looking at Earth through the dome. "Thanos could be here in three days."
"Dead end." Tony's fingers flew across a keyboard. "Unless we instantly rewrite Vision's core logic code. But the calculation load — FRIDAY and JARVIS running together couldn't handle it."
"What's needed isn't computing power." Jake looked at the Omnitrix. "It's brains."
"Three months is too long. I'm in a hurry."
Green flash.
Grey Matter. Galvan.
Jake shrank to palm-sized — gray skin, enormous eyes, black-and-white jumpsuit. He hopped onto the table and stood beside Vision's forehead.
"What is this?" Shuri blinked at the tiny alien. "This is also a hero? It looks... so weak."
"Never judge by size, Your Highness."
Grey Matter's voice was high-pitched, but his massive eyes blazed with intelligence that made the room feel smaller. "A Galvan's synaptic connection speed is billions of times faster than a human's."
Tiny fingers found Shuri's console and began typing.
The speed left afterimages. Code cascaded down the holographic display like a waterfall — logic structures so complex that Tony and Shuri felt their brains overheat just watching.
"Wait..." Tony leaned in. His eyes went wide. "That's a multi-dimensional neural reconstruction algorithm. He's rewriting Vision's operating system in a logic language I've never seen."
"Not just that." Pym adjusted his glasses, stunned. "He's using Pym Particle quantum states to simultaneously dissociate the Stone's microscopic structure. Multitasking between... not two things. Ten thousand."
"This is the wisdom of the smartest species in the universe."
The progress bar — projected at three months — began to climb.
1%... 5%... 30%... 90%...
Five minutes.
"Done."
Grey Matter pressed Enter. Wiped nonexistent sweat from his forehead.
"Scalpel."
Wanda — frozen, staring — handed one over on autopilot.
Grey Matter took the laser scalpel, made a precise incision in Vision's vibranium forehead plate, and flicked.
Ding.
The Mind Stone — amber, pulsing — popped free and dropped into Grey Matter's tiny hands.
On the table, Vision's red-and-gold skin faded to silvery grey. The light in his eyes dimmed for one heartbeat—
HUM.
Blue data streamed through his body. His eyes opened. Clear. Rational. And for the first time — entirely, completely his own.
"How do you feel?" Wanda held his hand, terrified he'd become something cold.
"Different." Vision sat up slowly. Studied his hands. "Before... there was always a voice. The Stone's will, speaking beneath my thoughts. Now it's quiet."
He looked at Wanda.
"I finally belong to myself."
A gentle smile.
"And I still love you."
Green flash. Jake, human again, tossing the Mind Stone like a tennis ball.
"Remember to pay the surgery fee, Vision. Not expensive — one month of janitorial duty at the base."
He dropped the Stone into a specially fabricated Anti-Energy Suppression Box — built with Upgrade technology, capable of completely isolating Infinity Stone energy signatures. Sealed. Silent. Invisible to any scan Thanos possessed.
"Stone and person — separated."
Jake's expression shifted to serious.
"Vision stays on the Moon to recover. Safest place in existence."
"As for this—" He shook the box. "It's the final gift we're preparing for Thanos."
"You're taking it to Earth?" Steve understood immediately. "As bait."
"Exactly."
Jake tapped a point on the holographic map. A hidden land on the African continent.
"New York has too many civilians. We need open ground, strong defenses, and enough troops to grind down an army."
"Wakanda."
Shuri's eyes lit with battle-fire. "My brother has already assembled warriors from every tribe. Wakanda's energy shield is the strongest on Earth."
"Then it's set."
Cold light in Jake's eyes.
"Thanos wants the Stone? Let him come get it. But what's waiting isn't just the Avengers. It's the Plumbers. And—"
He glanced at a special icon on the Omnitrix — one that was still cooling down. The ultimate trump card for the final battle. The next stage of fusion evolution.
"Gwen — notify King T'Challa we're coming for dinner. Tell him to prepare extra vibranium. I want to upgrade Cap's and Tony's gear."
"Copy."
The portal opened.
The Avengers — Plumbers detachment — deployed for Wakanda.
Meanwhile. Vormir.
The edge of a cliff that existed outside of time. Red Skull floated in the perpetual twilight, watching the tall purple figure ascend the sacrificial steps.
Thanos dragged Gamora by the wrist. One step at a time. His eyes held no tears. Only the infinite resolve of a man who had decided that destiny was worth more than love.
For balance — he could sacrifice everything.
Including his most beloved daughter.
A sound of falling. A brief, terrible silence.
An orange vortex erupted in the sky.
When Thanos opened his eyes, an orange stone rested in his palm.
The Soul Stone.
"Four."
He clenched his fist. Felt the power to manipulate souls join the power to manipulate space, reality, and force.
He looked toward the stars. Toward Earth.
"Just you wait."
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