"Pietro. Pietro! He's the only one who still has a chance of reaching Wanda."
Renzo's eyes lit up.
He thought of his somewhat unreliable brother-in-law. Until recently, he'd assumed the Wanda and Pietro of this universe were the X-Men versions and not actually siblings. But after talking with Bob, he'd realized this Pietro wasn't the mutant from the X-Men universe at all. He looked like the Pietro from the Avengers.
As Wanda's only remaining family, Pietro was someone she might hesitate to kill. Maybe he could still get through to her.
"If it were that simple, we'd have done it already." Charles sighed helplessly. "The moment we learned Wanda was responsible for the crimson mist, we started searching for Pietro. Neither the tracker implanted beneath his skin nor Cerebro has been able to locate him. It's as if he vanished into thin air."
Charles was deeply concerned.
He knew Pietro was fast, but Reed's tracking system had originally been designed to support the Superhuman Registration Act and was connected to a global network. As long as Pietro remained on Earth, it should have been able to pinpoint his location.
Even Charles couldn't sense Pietro's mind.
There were only two possibilities.
Either Pietro was dead...
Or he had somehow found a way to shield himself from telepathic detection.
Neither possibility was reassuring.
"Have you tried using magic to find him?" Renzo refused to give up. His own system was also connected to the global network. If Pietro had used any electronic device, Renzo would have detected him immediately.
But there had been nothing.
"Tracking magic has strict requirements." Mordo answered coldly. "I need a strand of his hair, a clipping of his nails, or a blood relative. These spells aren't something you cast carelessly. One mistake can have catastrophic, irreversible consequences."
He frowned, clearly irritated by Renzo's habit of offering suggestions without understanding magic.
"Bring me Pietro's hair. Or Wanda's. Otherwise..." Mordo spread his hands. "There's nothing I can do."
He wasn't exaggerating.
Even seemingly simple spells could spiral out of control if mishandled. The memory spell used by Peter Parker's Strange had nearly fractured the Multiverse itself.
As the newly appointed Sorcerer Supreme, Mordo had no intention of gambling with reality.
Renzo slapped the table.
A loud crack echoed through the conference room as fractures spread across the round tabletop.
Then he simply collapsed onto it, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Everyone looked at him strangely.
It was the first time most of them had seen Renzo in his true human form.
"Did the Infinity Stones give him that ability?" Reed stared at him with burning curiosity, as though studying an irreplaceable treasure.
Eventually, everyone filed out of the conference room.
There was nothing left to discuss.
Hours of debate had produced no viable solution.
Ding.
The elevator doors slid open.
Reed and Renzo entered together.
Neither spoke.
They stood in silence, watching their reflections in the mirrored walls.
Renzo noticed another button beneath their current floor.
"What's on the lowest level?"
"The prison," Reed replied. "It's where we keep transferred prisoners and infected subjects."
"Prisoners?" Renzo raised an eyebrow. "You're locking ordinary criminals together with infected people?"
Reed chuckled.
"Do you think there are any ordinary criminals down there?"
He began counting on his fingers.
"Electro. Abomination. Sabretooth. Doctor Pym..."
The list continued.
Some names Renzo recognized immediately.
Others were obscure villains who barely appeared in the comics.
Hearing them all gathered in one place, Renzo couldn't help admiring Reed's confidence.
That took some nerve.
"They won't escape," Reed said proudly. "Every cell was built to Hulk-level containment standards. Ultron monitors the prison twenty-four hours a day. If anything goes wrong, he'll trigger an immediate lockdown."
He folded his arms.
"And we're at the North Pole. Completely isolated from satellites. The base only operates on a closed internal network."
He smiled confidently.
"Only I have full administrative authority over the entire facility. Without my authorization, no one can access it from the outside."
Reed trusted his own security.
And he trusted the silent giant sleeping beneath the sea even more.
The enormous being beneath their feet wasn't native to Earth.
It didn't belong to any known civilization.
Years ago, Maria Hill had proposed the most frightening theory of all.
It might be one of the Cosmic Entities.
During her years protecting Earth, Maria had heard countless legends about beings older than galaxies themselves—entities born shortly after the Big Bang, capable of creating or destroying planets with ease.
She had never expected one to be buried beneath the Arctic Ocean.
What kind of enemy could force such an existence to flee to Earth, sink into the endless frozen sea, and remain trapped inside a mountain of black ice?
The location had been classified at the highest level of secrecy since 2009.
Coincidentally, it was the same year S.H.I.E.L.D. recovered Captain Carter's frozen body.
The giant had been discovered during that same operation.
With both Nick Fury and Reed Richards concealing the truth, neither the government nor the military ever learned what lay beneath the ice.
Hydra had once obtained the coordinates while infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D., but every relevant file was destroyed during Hydra's downfall.
When S.H.I.E.L.D. was eventually rebuilt, its leadership had changed almost entirely.
The secret survived.
For now.
Still, Reed knew it couldn't remain hidden forever.
More and more scientific expeditions had begun exploring the Arctic in recent years.
One nation after another was turning its attention northward, drawn by the promise of unknown discoveries.
Sooner or later, someone would find it.
The Arctic belonged to no one.
It was a barren wilderness.
But even barren land became priceless once something extraordinary was buried beneath it.
"You'll be safe here," Reed said quietly. "At least until we find a way to stop Wanda."
"And if we never find one?" Renzo asked.
"..."
Reed fell silent.
Were they supposed to spend the rest of their lives hiding beneath the ice?
Like they had at the Baxter base in Mississippi?
One threat from Wanda had been enough to force Earth's greatest heroes to abandon everything overnight.
Heroes weren't supposed to hide forever.
Their duty was to confront evil.
Instead, they had been driven from their own homes by the most terrifying enemy they'd ever faced.
Like wolves stripped of their pride, they could only wander aimlessly and wait for death.
Renzo already knew the answer.
He took a slow breath.
"There has to be another way..."
"There has to be."
Reed could only nod.
...
Meanwhile, at the Giant Observation Deck.
Frank and Mark sat side by side, gazing into the endless Arctic night.
A curtain of green aurora stretched across the heavens like a blade cutting through time itself.
"You look different," Mark said, glancing sideways.
Frank had finally abandoned his worn black skull shirt in favor of a brown leather jacket.
A string of prayer beads hung around his neck.
The hard edges of his face had softened slightly.
An old photograph rested quietly in his hand.
Its edges were worn enough that Reed would probably need to restore it.
"Your family?"
"My wife and kids."
Frank's expression grew unexpectedly gentle.
Those memories were among the few bright moments in his life.
Short-lived.
Irreplaceable.
The day they died...
Frank Castle died with them.
The man who survived was the Punisher.
A ruthless vigilante who answered every crime with execution.
"I used to work with Robbie," Mark said, looking back at the dancing aurora. "Back when we were with the Midnight Sons in Chicago."
A faint smile crossed his face.
"He's a good guy."
"Made a deal with the Devil, though."
"So... maybe not entirely."
Frank snorted.
"He hits hard."
"My throat got burned. My eyebrows were scorched into curls. Then he tied me up with chains, wrapped one around my neck, and dragged me behind a helicopter."
Mark blinked.
"...That sounds awful."
"I should probably apologize for him."
"No need."
Frank tucked away the photograph.
"I get along with the Spirit of Vengeance pretty well."
He smirked.
"Becoming a Ghost Rider isn't exactly a bad deal."
Hellfire flickered briefly across his body.
The sudden burst of flame startled Mark into jumping.
"Wow."
"You're already getting good with it."
"A soldier's first job is mastering his weapon."
Frank had always been a weapons expert.
Guns were as familiar to him as old friends.
Even after becoming a Ghost Rider, that habit hadn't changed.
Mark understood perfectly.
As a former mercenary, he'd trusted his weapons more than most teammates.
Bullets and grenades had saved his life countless times.
"Oh... here we go."
Mark sighed.
"The chatterbox wants to talk to you."
He rubbed the back of his neck apologetically.
"He and Robbie are really close."
The next second, his eyes rolled back.
His posture changed completely.
"Uh... h-hi."
Steven smiled awkwardly.
"This is... technically our first meeting."
"I mean... you've probably seen me before."
"But that wasn't really me."
"That was Mark."
"I was... well... inside."
"Oh, sorry, I'm rambling again."
It was the same face.
Yet it felt like a completely different person.
"I really wanted to meet him."
"Or... it."
"Well... anyway."
"Robbie's my best friend."
Steven spoke almost pleadingly.
Boom!
Hellfire suddenly erupted.
The flames curled Steven's hair and scorched his eyebrows into tight spirals, leaving him looking remarkably ridiculous.
"That's it!"
Steven shouted excitedly.
Tears welled in his eyes.
"That's exactly what it feels like!"
Every time he spent time with Robbie, he ended up getting singed by hellfire somehow.
The familiar warmth made him unexpectedly emotional.
He hadn't even gotten the chance to say goodbye.
"I want to find someone to take over, too." Steven sniffled. "Khonshu is the worst kind of boss."
"I'd rather plan weddings..."
"Or go back to my old museum job."
"I almost returned to Cairo to become an ordinary museum guide again."
He wiped away his tears.
"It wasn't glamorous..."
"But honestly..."
"I miss that life."
Unlike Mark, Steven had never wanted to be a hero.
He didn't dream about saving the world.
He simply wanted an ordinary life.
"The Illuminati aren't reliable," Frank said quietly. "Neither is the Guardian of the Infinity Stones."
"He couldn't even stop one projection of the Scarlet Witch."
"My Spirit of Vengeance saw countless blessings and curses wrapped around him."
"It also sensed dark magic with the same origin as Wanda's."
"My Penance Stare couldn't affect him at all."
"His existence has already surpassed ordinary humans."
"Even many gods."
Frank was grateful to Renzo for saving his life.
But he still couldn't fully trust him.
Sometimes he felt more and more like Nick Fury.
"The Spirit of Vengeance tells me not to trust anyone."
Frank looked toward the horizon.
"But I'll trust my own judgment."
Steven burst out laughing.
"You?"
"Having a conscience?"
"That's hard to believe."
"I'd believe Mark before I'd believe the Punisher."
"A man who casually executes gangsters having a conscience?"
"That's a new one."
Suddenly, Steven's entire body stiffened.
A wave of overwhelming malice crashed into him.
It came from the direction of Egypt.
Khonshu!
Something had happened to Khonshu.
The Moon God was calling his avatar.
Calling both Steven and Mark.
The pressure was immense.
Like a meteor crashing into Earth.
It knocked Steven unconscious almost instantly.
"Mark?!"
Steven jerked awake.
He found himself staring at an identical face.
"W-Why are you here?"
"No..."
"Why can you be here?"
He looked around in confusion.
This wasn't the Arctic.
Just moments ago he'd been watching the aurora with Frank.
Now he stood inside a subway station.
"Idiot!" Mark snapped. "This is the Mindscape!"
"It's too late."
"Khonshu's in serious trouble."
He turned anxiously toward the darkness at the end of the platform.
"She's coming."
"She's almost here."
"She?" Steven asked nervously.
"Who?"
At the far end of the tunnel...
The pale face of a ghostly woman slowly emerged from the darkness.
__________________________________________
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