Fight! Fight! Fight!
Loki barely held back his expression as Leon's over-the-top declaration echoed in space. Internally, he was absolutely instigating.
Twenty-five minutes later—
Tony was already sick of staring into the endless, monotonous void of space.
No atmosphere. No horizon. No skyline.
Earth felt better.
Leon hadn't found even a trace of Thanos or the rest of the Black Order either, and quickly lost interest in further scouting.
At 125 meters tall and nearly 300 meters long, Godzilla · Leon floated in space like an overgrown, dreamless salted fish.
Before him—
Aionsega, the War God Shield, enlarged into a table proportionate to his size.
Of the thirteen nuclear warheads, only one remained.
With ceremonial seriousness, Leon rubbed his tiny forearms together.
Then delicately pinched the final "lollipop" between two claws.
Slurp. Slurp.
He gave it two longing licks before tossing it into his mouth whole.
Crunch.
Coconut flavor.
Hunger swept away.
"Comfortable~" he sighed, patting his belly.
Tony's eye twitched.
Watching someone snack on weapons capable of flattening New York was deeply surreal.
He tapped his helmet.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.. How long has it been?"
"Sir, twenty-five minutes since you passed through the portal. Two minutes and thirty seconds since your previous time inquiry."
"What?!"
"Only two and a half minutes?!"
Tony felt like it had been two and a half years.
"Thor. Doesn't Asgard have that 'Noball Bridge' thing?" Tony asked hopefully.
"It's the Rainbow Bridge!" Thor barked. "Not the 'No-Ball Bridge'!"
Tony's suspiciously intentional mispronunciation made Thor's eyes twitch—and something else subtly recoil.
"We're beyond the Nine Realms. Heimdall cannot see this far."
Tony turned to Loki.
"You?"
Loki shrugged helplessly.
His left hand unconsciously brushed the plain bronze ring on his right index finger—its true form concealed by magic.
Tony noticed nothing.
"Fine."
"If I can't rely on you, I'll do it myself."
Tony assessed his current mental reserves.
Feasible.
He leapt from Leon's back onto the giant "table" shield.
"Tony, what are you doing?" Leon rumbled.
Tony said nothing.
He simply began—
Magnetic Spin.
"WHAT?"
"Tony, what are you doing?!"
Thor and Loki felt the surrounding space tremble.
Leon himself hadn't moved an inch.
Yet space visibly compressed and warped around them.
The sensation was nauseating—like motion sickness in vacuum.
"Here it comes!" Tony shouted, exhilarated.
"This is it—this feeling!!"
He clenched his fist.
Silently—
A spatial wormhole tore open before them.
Leon's eyes bulged.
Wait.
Isn't that the same cosmic maneuver Arishem used in Eternals?!
Tony.
You absolute madman.
Leon's thoughts accelerated.
Without resisting, he allowed himself, Thor, and Loki to be swallowed by the wormhole.
They vanished from the wreckage-strewn battlefield.
Two Hours Later – Stark Tower
Bastet stood atop the tower, the Ancient One's Sling Ring on her finger.
Pepper Potts and Dr. Helen Cho stood beside her.
Pepper—sister, sister-in-law, and quasi-maternal figure to Leon.
Helen—one of Leon's women in her own right.
Bastet afforded them proper respect.
Rhodey and Captain America stood further back.
A portal opened.
Everyone stared expectantly.
Instead—
Plop. Plop.
Chunks of fragrant roasted alien meat fell out onto the rooftop.
Someone audibly swallowed.
Rhodey muttered, "I've heard roasted meat from your own species has a… unique appeal. You think maybe this is—"
"Colonel Rhodes," Steve said flatly, "that's not funny."
Bastet spoke calmly.
"These are Chitauri remains. Master is no longer in that region of space."
"I told you they'd be fine!" Rhodey laughed nervously. "Those three together? If anyone's in trouble, it's someone else."
Bruce Banner stepped forward reassuringly—
Then a green arm shot out.
Hulk snatched a piece and shoved it into his mouth.
A second later—
"BLEAAARGH—!!!"
Hulk relinquished control immediately.
Banner regained consciousness mid-vomit, violently expelling breakfast baguette carbonara.
Foam at the mouth.
He fainted.
"Can it really be that bad?" Rhodey scoffed. "I eat surströmming for breakfast."
He picked up a palm-sized chunk, wiped it on his sleeve, and took a bite.
Pause.
"Confirmed—"
"This is literal—"
He threw it away.
"My hand is dead to me."
Remarkably, he was the only one who didn't immediately puke.
Perhaps training.
Perhaps biology.
Elsewhere
Leon and the others emerged from the wormhole—
Onto a cyberpunk wasteland planet.
The most striking sight—
A sprawling steel metropolis rising from the dust.
…
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