"Try this."
Noah Vale brought his fist down.
The Power Stone answered.
A blinding surge of violet light erupted from his hand, swallowing the horizon in an instant. It didn't just illuminate the planet. It claimed it.
Then the impact hit.
The ground shuddered as if reality itself had been struck. Every living thing still standing felt it. A deep, bone-rattling tremor that came from everywhere at once.
At the center of it—
Hulk. Thor. Scott.
Gone.
Not thrown. Not shattered.
Erased.
What followed wasn't an explosion so much as a tide of destruction. A vast, expanding wave of violet energy surged outward, devouring everything in its path. Buildings, streets, bodies—anything it touched broke apart at the most fundamental level, reduced to drifting particles before being swept along.
At Noah's feet, nothing remained.
No debris. No dust.
Just emptiness.
He stood at the center of a growing vacuum, his body wrapped in the Power Stone's glow. The energy clung to him like armor, locking every particle of his being into perfect stability.
Nothing could move him.
Not gravity. Not radiation. Not the collapse of matter itself.
Even the worst forces the universe could offer would break before he did.
His hair drifted behind him, tinged violet, as the destruction rolled outward like a silent storm.
Noah watched it all without expression.
This was the plan.
He hadn't come here to fight.
He had come here to end it.
At this rate, Virginia would be gone in under a minute. The rest of the continent wouldn't last much longer. Within the hour, the entire planet would tear itself apart.
And even that might not be enough.
Zombies didn't need much to keep going.
A fragment could still be dangerous.
So he intended to finish it properly.
Erase everything.
Then he remembered.
"New York."
Tony's request.
Noah opened a portal and stepped through.
Inside a villa near Wall Street, Pepper Potts held her daughter close.
Outside, the world had turned into something unrecognizable. The distant roar of the infected carried through the streets, low and constant, like a tide waiting to break.
"Mom… when is Dad coming back?" Morgan asked, voice small.
Pepper tightened her grip. "Soon. He's out there making sure we're safe."
Even as she said it, she moved to the window, pulling the curtain back just a fraction.
And froze.
Far in the distance, a massive column of violet light rose into the sky, expanding rapidly, devouring everything in its path.
Pepper's legs nearly gave out.
She caught herself against the wall, heart racing.
Behind her—
A voice.
"Pepper. Morgan."
She spun around with a sharp gasp.
A man stood in the room.
Clean. Calm. Entirely out of place in a world like this.
A faint purple glow lingered around him.
"Who are you?" Pepper asked, instinctively pulling Morgan closer.
"Noah Vale," he said. "Tony asked me to find you."
He glanced toward the window.
"As you've probably noticed, this planet isn't going to last much longer. He's in another universe. I'm here to take you out before this one collapses."
Pepper blinked. "Tony… sent you?"
"Yes."
No hesitation.
No doubt.
"Then we're leaving," she said immediately.
Noah gave a small nod.
With a subtle motion of his hand, space folded.
Pepper and Morgan vanished into a contained pocket of space, safely held beyond the chaos.
Noah lingered for a moment, glancing out at the streets below.
A few infected wandered aimlessly, drawn by instinct, by hunger.
They looked up at him.
He looked back.
Then turned away, uninterested.
Elsewhere, panic was spreading.
In what had once been a grotesque feeding ground, Rocket stood frozen, staring at the horizon.
The violet wave was coming.
Fast.
"What is that?!" he snapped, voice sharp with something dangerously close to fear.
Around him, others turned, equally shaken.
No one had an answer.
Rocket didn't wait for one.
"Move! Now! We get to the ship and get off this rock before that thing reaches us!"
That was enough.
They ran.
Moments later, engines roared to life as the ship blasted skyward, flames tearing through the air as it climbed.
Faster.
Higher.
Within seconds, they cleared the atmosphere.
Space opened up before them.
Freedom.
Ahead, a wormhole shimmered into existence.
Rocket pushed the controls.
"Come on… come on—"
The ship didn't accelerate.
It slowed.
Then—
It started drifting backward.
Rocket's grip tightened. "What the hell? I'm pushing full output!"
The engines screamed, output climbing higher and higher.
Nothing changed.
Behind them—
"Rocket…"
The voice came from the back of the ship.
Uneasy.
He turned.
And saw it.
A sphere of darkness expanding through space.
A black hole.
Not a natural one.
Something new.
Something growing.
Its edge swallowed light itself, bending everything around it as it expanded, faster and faster.
And behind it—
What remained of Earth.
Already caught.
Already being pulled in.
The ship shuddered as the invisible pull tightened around it.
"No," Rocket breathed.
The wormhole ahead flickered, just out of reach.
The ship dragged backward, inch by inch.
"No, no, no—!"
It didn't matter how much power he poured into the engines.
It didn't matter how close escape was.
They were already caught.
Already falling.
Into the dark.