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When Kevin told Annie to travel with him to another world, Annie was so excited she practically jumped for joy.
She was like a child in elementary school who knew she was going on a spring outing, and she started packing her bags and getting ready overnight.
"Daily necessities, survival equipment... Should I wear my hero costume? Would it be weird if I just wore my hero costume there? By the way, where will we appear directly? Space? The universe? Or a spaceship...?"
Annie excitedly chattered as she prepared.
Kevin helplessly stopped her:
"Don't do anything. You can take your uniform, but there probably won't be any place to use it. That side is the same as this side; it's all modern society. At most, the technology is a bit more advanced in some areas, so..."
Kevin picked up the emergency food and water Annie had prepared and tossed them aside:
"These won't be needed."
This wasn't an unknown world; there was no need to prepare survival tools.
"I... I only need to bring one uniform?"
Annie was still a little disbelieving.
She had thought the other world would be in dire straits, otherwise why would Kevin, an outsider, need to save it.
"Don't even bring the uniform. You're just going for a three-day trip. If it's longer, I can't afford the 'cost' of the trip."
Kevin rolled his eyes, somewhat impatiently stuffing her uniform into her backpack, throwing it into her arms, and then grabbing her shoulders.
Before Annie could speak, Kevin paid the skill points and took the two of them from the The Boys world to the Marvel Universe.
Upon arriving in the Marvel Universe, the first person they saw was the Ancient One.
Every time he crossed into the Marvel World, the first person Kevin saw was the Ancient One; he was already used to this.
Without time to say much to the Ancient One, he simply introduced her to Annie, then asked the Ancient One to temporarily look after Annie. Kevin then drew a portal directly to Stark Tower, bringing several samples of Compound V, to meet the smartest person on Earth here.
But to Kevin's surprise, the smartest person on Earth was not at Stark Tower right now.
"Where is he now?"
Kevin, who had come up empty, asked Pepper, who was at Stark Tower handling affairs on behalf of Tony.
Pepper politely prepared tea for Kevin as a welcome, and at the same time answered Kevin's question:
"He's at the Avengers Compound. The Secretary of State is meeting with all the Avengers today. It seems something has happened."
"Earth should be safe now. Ultron is gone."
Kevin was very curious.
Ultron, Thanos, Ego—these villains who could threaten Earth had all been directly or indirectly killed by Kevin.
Now in this Marvel Universe, at least there wouldn't be world-level disasters, and logically, there shouldn't be incidents requiring the Avengers to mobilize collectively.
Especially Tony; if he didn't encounter a world-level major event, he generally wouldn't choose to appear.
But now they were gathered together.
Had some villain Kevin missed appeared?
Had Kang the Conqueror appeared early??
"It's not about Ultron... No, maybe that's not entirely accurate."
Pepper explained:
"It's the aftermath of the Ultron incident. I'm not entirely clear on the details, but perhaps you can go and ask them yourself."
"They're meeting with the Secretary of State. It seems a bit inappropriate for me to go, doesn't it?"
"It's fine. To us, you are the savior of Earth, and... perhaps the rules on Earth don't apply to you."
Pepper said with a smile, very subtly.
From the perspective of the Avengers, Kevin was an alien, and Pepper thought so too.
An alien, not belonging to Earth, naturally didn't need to abide by too many of Earth's rules.
Not to mention Kevin had saved Earth, so he naturally deserved some special privileges.
Since Iron Man's future wife said so, Kevin couldn't decline. Besides, he really had something to discuss with Tony, so he simply got up:
"Alright, it was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Potts."
After bidding farewell to Pepper, Kevin drew another portal to the Avengers' newly built compound.
However, this time Kevin was more polite; he didn't teleport directly inside but to the lawn outside.
Kevin arrived at a fortunate time; as soon as he reached the lawn, he saw an old man in a suit walking out with bodyguards.
Kevin found him somewhat familiar. After thinking about it, it should be 'General Ross,' who once tried to capture the Hulk. But since this guy had nothing to do with Kevin, Kevin didn't pay much attention.
The old man in the suit glanced at Kevin, didn't say hello, but merely smiled politely at Kevin, then left.
He might have thought Kevin was also a member of the Avengers.
Looking at Ross's retreating figure, Kevin pondered briefly, then pushed open the door and walked into the Avengers Compound.
He found the Avengers in the compound's conference room, but Kevin felt it was a bit of an inconvenient time. The atmosphere in the conference room was unexpectedly tense.
"Uh, did I come to the wrong place? Is this not the Avengers Compound, but some hero's memorial center?"
Kevin pretended to look at the sign outside the conference room and joked with everyone, trying to lighten the mood inside.
And Kevin's arrival did indeed alleviate the tense atmosphere to some extent. Tony, who was leaning back in his chair, lost in thought, teased upon seeing Kevin:
"Oh, our world's alien hero has arrived. Is there something you need here? We don't have any world-saving work for you right now."
"Tony!"
Tony's words carried a sting. Captain America, Steve, frowned and called out to him, then apologized to Kevin:
"Sorry, we just... had a rather unpleasant meeting. We'll be discussing this matter for a while, so I'm afraid we don't have time to entertain you..."
"It's fine."
Kevin shook his head indifferently. His gaze lingered on a thick agreement document on the table; the words "Sokovia Accords" on it were extremely eye-catching.
Instantly understanding what stage they were in, Kevin said directly:
"I won't get involved in your affairs. I just want to find one person. Dr. Banner... doesn't seem to be here?"
"What a coincidence, we're also looking for Banner right now."
In the conference room, War Machine, Rhodey, raised an eyebrow.
Kevin paused, his gaze sweeping over Rhodey and finally resting on Black Widow, Natasha:
"...Dr. Banner is gone?"
Natasha didn't speak; she merely pursed her lips and nodded.
Kevin exhaled.
It seemed Banner, after the Ultron incident, still chose self-exile, just like in the original timeline, and disappeared to who knows where.
However, if everything remained unchanged, perhaps he could try looking for him on Sakaar.
Provided that Tony also had no solution for Compound V.
Thinking of this, Kevin said to everyone:
"Banner is gone, Mr. Stark will do too. But before that, I'm more curious about the topic you're discussing right now. If you don't mind, how about I listen in?"
When Kevin saw the Sokovia Accords document on the Avengers' conference room table, he guessed that this might be the beginning of "Captain America 3: Civil War."
This made him feel as if he saw countless skill points beckoning to him.
...
But unfortunately, the Avengers didn't seem to have any intention of involving Kevin.
They asked Scarlet Witch, Wanda, to entertain Kevin, while they closed the conference room door and began discussing the matter.
"Oh, this is truly heartbreaking."
Kevin looked at the closed conference room door and sighed dramatically.
Wanda, still a good child, apologized profusely:
"Sorry... We've recently... indeed been through a lot."
"What happened?"
Kevin asked cooperatively.
But Wanda fell silent.
What happened... the answer to that question was simply too vast.
The Secretary of State coming to the Avengers to discuss signing the agreement wasn't a sudden whim.
They had collected 'evidence' of the Avengers' battles in various cities and today presented a proposal to restrict the Avengers team.
The Avengers were divided into two factions: one supported signing the agreement and accepting United Nations oversight.
The other did not support signing the agreement, believing that if they truly accepted United Nations oversight, the Avengers would be no different from the special forces under the United Nations.
Both sides had ample reasons, neither could convince the other, and the atmosphere was very tense.
And precisely at this moment, Kevin intruded, interrupting their conversation.
That's why Tony's tone seemed off; after all, they had been arguing before.
Wanda thought about these things, unsure whether to tell Kevin. A moment later, she looked at Kevin, and perhaps remembering something, sighed and said to Kevin:
"It's just... some issues on Earth. We... a government, wants us to be under their jurisdiction."
"The Sokovia Accords?"
"You know?"
Wanda stopped, asking in surprise.
Kevin smiled and said:
"There's such a large, obvious document on the table; I couldn't pretend not to see it even if I wanted to."
Although in this what if universe, Ultron almost succeeded and didn't turn Sokovia into an artificial meteor, Ultron and the Avengers did have a major battle in Sokovia, causing significant casualties and impact.
Therefore, this agreement signing was still named after Sokovia, just like in the original plot.
Wanda nodded:
"Yes, it's this agreement. The United Nations... wants us to be under their management."
"Then do you think you should be under their management?"
Kevin took two steps forward, creating distance from Wanda, and turned back to ask.
Wanda's eyes flickered. She stood still, pondering for a long time, not directly answering Kevin's question, but instead said:
"I... I made a mistake before, in... a city in Nigeria. I... accidentally threw a human bomb into the air."
"The bomb exploded in the air, affecting the nearby high-rise building. Three entire floors, the residents on those three floors on that side, were harmed..."
"And just now, in those video recordings, I saw someone's body. I felt like she was looking at me, questioning why I killed her, so I..."
Wanda stopped there, hugging her shoulders.
Her eyes were slightly red, and she couldn't continue speaking.
Wanda was still very green now; she wasn't the Scarlet Witch who would later dominate everything. Currently, she was just a rookie hero who had debuted not long ago.
Wanda was truly trying her best at her job, but unfortunately, her efforts only led to terrible results.
Although given Wanda's situation at the time, if she hadn't dealt with that human bomb, and the bomb had exploded on the ground, even more people would have died or been injured.
But when it comes to life... it's never a multiple-choice question.
To cause a group of innocent people to lose their lives because of oneself is an extremely painful thing for someone with a moral compass.
Regardless of whether she was at fault.
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