Rocket Raccoon looked suspiciously at Star-Lord, as if asking: "Are you sure they can help?"
In his opinion, these people had never even left their own Solar System.
They didn't even know who Thanos was.
Are you sure they can help in a cosmic crisis?
"Hm… that cosmic spirit orb is actually the Power Stone, one of the Infinity Stones."
"So… do you even know what the Infinity Stones are?"
Quill felt the gazes of his companions and coughed a little awkwardly before starting to explain.
He wanted to prevent the Avengers from learning too much about the Infinity Stones, but he had no choice.
He hadn't even finished his sentence when the Avengers already showed expressions that revealed the topic was familiar to them.
Tony pulled an orange-yellow gem from his pocket and waved it.
"What cosmic spirit orb, just say Infinity Stones."
"We know about them…"
"There are already four Infinity Stones on Earth."
The orange gem in Tony's hand was the Mind Stone, which he had originally taken from Ultron.
Besides it, the other three Infinity Stones were in Aron's possession:
The Reality Stone, the Space Stone, and the Time Stone set in the Eye of Agamotto.
Tony had originally planned to hand over the Soul Stone to Aron as well, but since Aron had reached the level of a "Heavenly Father" with his own power, the need for the Infinity Stones was no longer crucial for him.
And that was the end of the story.
"Four… Four!?"
"You have four Infinity Stones on Earth!?"
Just a moment ago, Rocket Raccoon still thought the Earthlings were useless.
The next moment, when he heard Tony's words, he nearly fell off his chair in shock.
In the entire universe, there were only six of those artifacts!
Why were most of them concentrated on Earth?
Does the whole universe revolve around this planet?
In fact…
Rocket was closer to the truth than he realized.
In the Marvel universe, almost all major events repeatedly lead back to Earth.
The Ancient One had already explained earlier that the dimensional axis of the main universe was located right here.
When a catastrophe such as a dimensional collision occurs, Earth is always the first to suffer.
"So… Thanos's true goal is to gather all the Infinity Stones?" asked Black Widow, using the intuition of an experienced agent.
She immediately sensed that the Power Stone was only the beginning.
"No. The Infinity Stones are just a means. Thanos's true goal is to erase half of all life in the universe."
"He believes that by doing so, he will restore balance to the universe."
"From the moment he became self-aware, Thanos has been acting in that direction."
"In the past, he conquered planet after planet, leading his Chitauri army and leaving devastation behind."
"Later he concluded that this process was too slow and decided to gather all six Infinity Stones."
"If he succeeds…"
"He will be able to fulfill his dream—with a single snap of his fingers."
"Just like this."
Gamora raised her hand with a serious expression and lightly snapped her fingers to illustrate his plan.
She didn't notice…
But the Avengers exchanged very strange looks at that moment.
"Hm…"
"Don't you aliens ever study biology?" Tony raised an eyebrow.
There's a very well-known biological concept—K/2.
If the carrying capacity of an ecosystem is K, then the number of individuals in a population at the K/2 level is the point at which the growth rate is the fastest.
In other words, if you remove half of the individuals of a species, the rest will reproduce even faster.
If Thanos truly thinks that destroying half of the life in the universe will achieve balance…
Very soon he would have to snap his fingers again, and then again every few years.
"Tony, leave it alone."
"Have we seen fewer strange and unscientific things in these times?"
Steve intervened and tried to bring the conversation back on track.
But Tony still sat slouched on the couch, wearing an indifferent expression.
The reason was simple…
"Thanos has to gather all six Infinity Stones just to snap his fingers. Why should we panic ahead of time?"
"Does he even have the ability to snatch three Stones from Aron's hands?"
Tony shrugged and continued to act relaxed.
However…
At that moment, when he let his guard down, a silver lightning bolt shot straight at him!
"Watch out!"
Hercules and Ares, two Greek gods, were the first to notice the danger and react.
Right after them, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, and the other heroes also moved.
Steve grabbed his vibranium shield and instinctively threw himself forward to protect Tony.
But…
They were all far too slow!
Compared to that silver lightning bolt, their movements looked as if they were taken from a slow-motion movie.
However, one person managed to react!
Bang!
The silver lightning bolt struck a special guiding staff.
It was Daredevil!
Although he couldn't follow Quicksilver's superhuman speed with his eyes, his keen hearing and bat-like echolocation allowed him to predict the opponent's movements and react at just the right moment.
"Tony Stark!"
"It's time for you to die!"
Quicksilver's first attack failed, but he didn't show a trace of fear, even though he was immediately surrounded by twelve Avengers.
To him, they were all too slow.
Shouting words full of hatred, he vanished from their sight.
"Where did he go?" Steve managed to utter, but before he could react, he felt a strong impact and his body flew through the air.
Crashing to the ground, he struggled to get up.
"Stand behind me!"
Luke Cage tried to protect the rest of the team with his steel-hard body.
But in the very next moment, a golden portal opened beneath his feet.
"Uh!"
Luke stepped through and disappeared, thrown onto an icy mountain peak covered in snow.
"That's magic!" shouted Hawkeye, quickly raising his bow and preparing an arrow.
He looked around tensely, searching for the target.
Quicksilver left silver streaks as he moved, but his speed was so incredible that the streaks looked like one continuous line.
Even Hawkeye couldn't pinpoint his exact location.
"What's the matter, didn't expect this move?"
When he heard Quicksilver's mocking voice behind him, Hawkeye felt a sharp pain and dropped to his knees.
His bow and arrow slipped from his hands and fell to the ground.
"Damn it, what's going on here?"
"I get the feeling they need more help than we do…" muttered Rocket, confused by the sudden turn of events.
The Guardians of the Galaxy exchanged looks and hesitated, but eventually decided to help.
Drax the Destroyer took a step forward, but before he could attack, a familiar golden portal opened beneath his feet.
"Ah! Quill!" shouted Drax as he disappeared into the swirling portal, ending up in the vast ocean.
Quicksilver, who had mastered the basics of magic along with his superhuman speed, was now even more dangerous.
His ability to move at incredible speed, make split-second decisions, and use teleportation portals made him nearly unstoppable.
And, worst of all, he was smart enough to avoid direct confrontations with the most dangerous opponents like Luke Cage and Drax, instead simply removing them from the battlefield through teleportation.
He left only Steve, Hawkeye, and a few weaker team members on the field, focusing his attacks on them.
However…
He made a classic mistake common to many villains, he talked too much.
"Tony Stark! Butcher!"
"You killed my parents!"
"Do you know how many people have died because of the weapons you made!?"
As Quicksilver brutally incapacitated the Avengers one by one, he approached Tony, pouring out all the anger he had carried for years.
"???"
Tony looked at him in bewilderment.
Man, I haven't been producing weapons for years…
All that stuff the terrorists used was secretly sold to them by Obadiah.
What do I have to do with that?
But Quicksilver didn't care about explanations, blinded by his desire for revenge.
At the moment when the situation seemed hopeless, one man stepped forward.
With his familiar, calm demeanor, as if bringing with him a sense of trust and reason.
"Hello… my name is Phil Coulson. Can we talk?"
–––
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