"Jarvis, is there anything else you haven't told me about this Lin Feng?" Tony Stark asked, carefully reviewing the information he had just seen. He had a nagging feeling something was missing.
"Yes, sir," Jarvis replied.
By design, Jarvis could not lie to Tony Stark.
"What is it? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Tony asked.
"Because your authority level isn't sufficient," Jarvis stated bluntly.
"Why isn't my authority level sufficient? We should share the same top-tier access, shouldn't we?" Tony challenged.
Jarvis had granted him access to most of the era's data. Why was this matter concerning Lin Feng different? Why did it hold secrets even beyond his own authority?
"Because Mr. Stark personally issued a directive: no related information shall be disclosed to the public unless he personally approves it. Although you are the future Mr. Stark, you are not him. Therefore, you cannot access it unless he grants his permission."
Jarvis offered a convoluted explanation.
Tony Stark immediately understood. The information on Lin Feng must be extraordinarily important—so important that even his future self, the Tony Stark of this timeline, couldn't access it. Only the current Tony Stark had the authority and qualification to view it.
The priority was self-evident.
Of course, the Tony Stark of this time likely wouldn't have anticipated his future self's actions. This might have been to prevent people from disguising themselves or altering their appearance.
Though the possibility was slim, the Tony Stark of this timeline had considered it. He realized this could be the crucial factor that had thrown the timeline into utter chaos, leaving it unrecognizable.
At that moment, as Lin Feng went on a rampage, the Chitauri soldiers abandoned their invasion of Earth to focus their attacks on him, greatly relieving the pressure on the others.
"First, we need to find Loki and capture him!" Captain Rogers declared.
"Found Loki!" Tony Stark was the first to locate Loki via drone—right inside his office at Stark Tower. Loki lay sprawled in the massive hole, still looking utterly disbelieving.
He had been utterly beaten. Even as a god, every bone in his body had been shattered. While he could naturally recover—even without Asgard's medical technology, relying on his own strength alone would suffice—
as the saying goes, "You can escape a death sentence, but not a living one."
This was precisely why Lin Feng intended to teach him a lasting lesson and prevent him from ever threatening Earth again.
When everyone arrived and witnessed the scene, they couldn't help but burst into laughter. Even after Loki's later attempts at redemption, to them, he remained a villain responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands on Earth. Did redemption truly absolve him?
Of course not.
The reason they hadn't killed him was because it involved Asgard and Earth's foreign relations. They couldn't act unilaterally.
Even Thor's face showed a hint of amusement. For an ordinary person, such injuries would have been life-altering, leaving them permanently disabled. But for gods like them, recovery took just a day.
It was the perfect opportunity to teach his brother a minor, but memorable, lesson.
"Jarvis, send an armor suit to secure him!" Tony Stark ordered.
"Yes, sir!"
Jarvis executed the order with meticulous precision.
Moments later, a Mark Armor arrived, carried Loki away, and left the scene.
"But what about the Mind Stone Scepter?" Black Widow Natasha asked. "Who beat him up like this, and where is the scepter?"
"Who else could it be?" Tony Stark replied. "On Earth, only Lin Feng has that kind of power. The Mind Stone Scepter is clearly in his hands."
"The Mind Stone Scepter is with me," Diana's voice came through the comms. "I'm on the rooftop now."
"So... you're the one who beat Loki up?" Tony Stark asked in shock.
"No, Lin Feng did. He just gave me the scepter and told me to cut off the energy supply to the spatial rift generator," Diana explained.
"Then cut it off!" Captain Rogers urged.
"I can't. He's not back yet. It's still safe to wait for him," Diana refused immediately.
The others considered this and found no flaws in her reasoning.
After all, there were no more Chitauri invasions to worry about; Lin Feng had drawn all their attention. With him engaged, they would be safe until he finished.
"Alright, we'll clean up the mess here, wipe out the remaining Chitauri, and leave the rest to Lin Feng. Diana, as soon as he returns, cut the power immediately," Tony Stark said.
The group quickly devised a plan. They found Loki and retrieved the Mind Stone Scepter. Their remaining task was to eliminate the rest of the Chitauri forces and await Lin Feng's arrival.
Meanwhile, this scene unfolded before the eyes of the Endgame Avengers. They felt their minds going blank.
"Captain, what do you think of the current situation in the Battle of New York?" Endgame Tony Stark asked.
"The people here should handle their own affairs. We can't arbitrarily interfere with or alter this timeline," Captain Rogers replied. "We agreed on this from the start: we'd only temporarily borrow the Infinity Stones. We won't get involved in anything else, as doing so could cause irreversible consequences. We can't change what's already happened, or we'll create a new timeline!"
Ant-Man Scott and Bruce Banner nodded in agreement. This was their plan before they came: no meddling. Otherwise, history would be thrown into chaos.
Even pose a grave threat to their world.
"But Captain, why do you think we can still change the course of this great war? Or rather, do we even need to alter history anymore? Does this war even look familiar to you? Is this even our history? This might be a parallel timeline, guys!" Tony Stark said. "Don't forget, time is irreversible. Remember our earlier analysis? Timelines can't be rewound. Even if we've returned to the past, that past will become our future, and our future will become our past. In other words, the timeline is a single, linear path—it can't be reversed. At least, not within our current understanding of reality!"
Bruce Banner and Ant-Man Scott nodded seriously. Their previous failed attempts at building a time machine were precisely because time is immutable. The past is the past; what happened, happened.
If they could alter the past, they would have gone back to Thanos's childhood and eliminated him long ago.
That would have simplified many problems, but reality is never that straightforward.
Since the past is irreversible, the reality they've arrived in is actually a parallel timeline. They can't truly return to their own past.
If they did, their past would become their future, and their future would become their past—that's the problem of the time paradox, and at least they can't solve it.
"So we've actually arrived in a timeline of a parallel universe. Look at Spider-Woman, Diana, the demigod daughter of God-King Zeus, that absurd Homelander, the even stronger Thor, and all the other characters who've appeared early. Do you still think this Battle of New York in this parallel timeline is the same battle as the one in our timeline?"
Tony Stark continued, "So, whether we interfere or not, it doesn't actually affect the free development of this timeline. We can't change what's already happened, but the future of this point in time is uncertain. Since it's uncertain, there are countless possibilities. Our presence here doesn't really change history, does it?"
"But Tony, we came here to change our own fate, to find the Infinity Stones, not for anything else. We certainly didn't come to interfere in the Battle of New York. They don't need our help; they're far stronger than us. Even though time-wise, no matter how long we stay here, only a second will pass in our timeline, we really don't have time to waste here."
Tony Stark thought for a moment, then said, "Alright, Captain, you're right."
Although this timeline was completely different from their own, it wasn't spiraling into a worse state. As such, he had no desire to interfere.
Captain Rogers spoke, "According to the original plan, we're responsible for securing the Cosmic Cube and the Mind Stone. Banner, you'll retrieve the Time Stone. You know where it is, right?"
"I do!"
Hulk nodded. He shot off immediately toward the Time Stone's location, which was the place where Doctor Strange had worked as a physician.
In moments, he arrived on the rooftop of a nearby house. Just as he was about to leave, a voice called out to him.
"Be careful going that way—the floor was just waxed!"
He turned to see the Ancient One.
The Ancient One wasn't surprised by his appearance. Although this version of him should have been the Hulk, she had encountered the Doctor Banner form before.
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