At the Baxter Building, Peter was surprised to see Jessica Drew. Looking a bit closer, he discovered she had actually secured an internship certificate for the building.
Peter Parker was certain that, given his senior's level of scientific research, she shouldn't have been able to get into the Baxter Building on merit. So, how did she get that internship? It wasn't hard to guess.
Nick Fury truly loved collecting powered minors and pulling them into his team. First it was Cindy, now it was Flash and Jessica; he had even heard that Fury had contacted Cloak and Dagger.
However, Peter didn't dwell on that point too much. He was at the Baxter Building to gather intelligence sent back by Deadpool. In Ancient Egypt, Apocalypse had already chosen to join the X-Men to oppose Kang. Meanwhile, Deadpool was set to head into the deep past to find the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards would undoubtedly attempt to save himself; even if he couldn't develop a device to travel back, he would likely try to build a signal transmitter so that rescuers could pinpoint his location.
Furthermore, Peter and Franklin were gradually narrowing down the eras where the Fantastic Four might have been sent, constantly calculating the specific time nodes where Kang would likely discard them to allow Deadpool to search more efficiently. Theoretically, Deadpool's search time was infinite—as long as he didn't die, he could spend his endless lifespan looking for them.
"Once we find a way to time travel, we'll gather a group to go to the 31st century to face Kang. The X-Men are fighting him in Ancient Egypt, but as for the present... I'm not sure if the other Avengers are prepared for the situation, but they certainly won't truly believe Kang is their boss."
As for the likes of Doom, Magneto, Hydra, and Mister Sinister, there was no doubt they were all prepared to give Kang a beating. They had all, by coincidence, received word that Kang was attacking Kamar-Taj, and they realized this was the best and final chance to oppose Kang the Conqueror.
All of them would launch their attacks against Kang within these 72 hours.
In New Delhi, India, Mister Sinister wore a satisfied smile. Within the vast sea of the mutant gene bank, he had finally found what he was looking for. The genes of a mutant codenamed "Timeslip" granted her the ability to freely control time, providing Sinister with an unprecedented advantage.
"With this, I can act under Kang's time-control abilities... No, more than that, I can create an entire army that can move freely within Kang's frozen time!"
There was also another mutant gene—one Sinister had nearly forgotten and wouldn't have found without a desperate, exhaustive search—that would become his key to victory.
ForgetMeNot. This mutant's power was to be forgotten; a meme-level oblivion where everyone would involuntarily forget his existence. This was the ultimate hope for victory.
If Mister Sinister transplanted ForgetMeNot's genes into himself, he could steal the Cosmic Cube while everyone else was locked in a life-and-death struggle with Kang!
When that happened, he would become the new master of the world!
Sinister wasn't the only one with such thoughts; Doom had the same idea. In fact, Doom was even more aggressive. To secure the Cosmic Cube, he went to a place where Kang could not yet influence: the past.
He returned to the era of King Arthur. This was a timeline Kang had not yet managed to conquer. Here, he once again found the witch who had taught him magic, Morgan le Fay, seeking her aid to obtain magic capable of countering reality warping.
For the sake of Latveria, and to realize the grand vision of a "World Led by Doom," Doom decided to sell his soul—or rather, his body—leveraging his charms to gain Morgan's assistance.
And once he secured the Cosmic Cube, he would kick Morgan aside.
Unlike them, Hydra had an additional plan.
"A.I.M.'s data is relatively complete. We've reconstructed a hollow shell based on the foundations of the Cosmic Cube... but it is just a hollow shell."
Arnim Zola, maneuvering his mechanical body, handed a hollow cube shell to Zemo. Zemo held the empty shell, sinking into thought.
"Kang is Mr. Gryphon. Once he obtained this shell, he was able to create a Cosmic Cube. Why can't we?"
"Perhaps he succeeded because he used 31st-century technology, Baron. We do not possess such technology."
Zemo held the object in silence, suddenly sensing that something wasn't quite right.
"Kang's modification of reality was very crude. This is something we can all deduce. It proves that he was dealing with a specific threat at the time—a threat so powerful that he didn't dare waste time, even while holding the Cosmic Cube."
"The Gods? He banished the Gods, preventing them from entering our world..."
"That's something that could be settled with a single sentence, isn't it? For Kang, that wouldn't cause much interference."
After thinking for a moment, Zemo proposed a conclusion.
"The only thing that can counter a Cosmic Cube is necessarily another Cosmic Cube. In other words, what Kang wanted to eliminate at that time was the only person in the world capable of creating a Cosmic Cube."
"How?" Zola was perplexed. "According to A.I.M.'s original theory, to manufacture a Cosmic Cube, one needs to tear a rift in reality, opening a gateway to a hyper-dimension known as the Beyond-Realm. One must then use this shell to constrain the rift itself and use the powerful energy leaking from it to rewrite reality."
Zola reached a conclusion: "There is no known technology in this world capable of tearing such a powerful rift. It must require future technology to achieve this."
"...Perhaps there truly is no technology that can do it."
After a silence, Zemo acknowledged Zola's answer. "But what if it isn't technology?"
Zola: ???
"What if there is a person who can use their own super-powers to tear the rifts between realities, directly opening a door to the Beyond-Realm? Wouldn't that mean he also possesses the ability to create a Cosmic Cube?"
Zola was shocked by this bold idea, but if it were true...
"Find him. If he was killed in the present, then go to the past to find him. Everyone else might be thinking about how to snatch the Cosmic Cube from Kang's hands, but we of Hydra are different."
Zemo held the hollow shell of the Cosmic Cube high, as if seeing it filled with powerful cosmic energy: "We shall create another Cosmic Cube. Or perhaps, even more."