Just as Peter and his group received the news and prepared to leave the multiverse to head home, a certain Beyonder was navigating the multiverse with absolute impunity.
Aside from the fragments of Earth-2149, he had also collected pieces of a certain wasteland universe. Unlike the wasteland universe Peter and his companions had visited, this one had been completely powerless to resist Galactus's assault and was ultimately destroyed, but the Beyonder had preserved a single fragment of it.
There were many other similar planets. He intended to gather all these diverse, tragedy-stricken universes together to forge a brand-new universe specifically to host his grand contest. This universe would be called Battleworld. When the time came, all the heroes and villains he invited—heroes who seemed like villains, villains who seemed like heroes, and all sorts of chaotic individuals whose alignments were hard to pinpoint—would gather under one roof.
As for creatures like the zombies from 2149 or the monsters from the wasteland universe, they could serve as minor grunt NPCs in Battleworld, giving the contestants something to farm for fun.
"Let's see... Earth-295. Apocalypse and Magneto from the Age of Apocalypse each get a slot and can form their own teams. Earth-712, the world of the Supreme Squadron... whew, they really look like the Justice League. They get a slot... Earth-928, hmm, the 2099 universe. I haven't been to that one yet; might be worth a look."
Floating in the cosmos, the Beyonder crossed off name after name. These names represented world after world. Most universes were largely identical to their counterparts, not worth the Beyonder personally visiting to invite them to this great war. Other worlds had become nothing more than playgrounds for the Beyonder's explorations. For instance, in a universe that had been completely slaughtered by Deadpool, the Beyonder had eaten the Infinity Stones like candy.
They tasted pretty good.
"Earth-982, where the heroic age arrived early in the 1980s... Oh, it's that second-generation universe. Pitting second-generation heroes against the variants of their parents seems a bit unfair..."
Looking at the long list, the Beyonder fell into thought—or at least, he appeared to be thinking. He wanted to find some chaotic, highly distinctive universes to participate.
To that end, he had specially prepared some cross-universal organizations to join the fray, such as the Inheritors, the Spider-Army, Ultimate Spider-Man's team, or the Multiverse Sinister Six... Huh, why are there so many Spider-characters?
Next, Earth-1011, a universe where all the X-Men mechanically ascended into Sentinels. A bit boring, skip the invitation.
Soon, more and more universes were added to the Secret Wars roster. Some had already received invitations, while many more had not. The Beyonder scrolled through the list in his hand, sensing each name upon it, and began to imagine the brilliant, terrifying battles that would unfold once they joined Secret Wars:
There was a Doctor Strange who had defied the laws of nature and reversed time to save his lover, ultimately causing his entire reality to collapse.
There was Maestro Hulk, who had awakened anew in a wasteland era and conquered the entire world.
There was King Thor, who had slain all the Avengers and ruled the entire world.
Name after name was written down, filling the Beyonder with excitement and anticipation. He could almost see a massive, chaotic battlefield and all kinds of thrilling, heart-pounding combat.
Awesome!
Then, he noticed a major issue: it seemed some characters' universes were so broken that they couldn't even scrape together a team of six. In fact, in some places, only a single person remained in the entire universe.
"Whatever, the people from these universes are exceptional entities anyway. Even on their own, they can probably tear up the battlefield. Speaking of which, some individuals seem overpowered, and others are practically using cheat codes. Come to think of it, do I need to leave some 'cheats' for the contestants to deal with these exceptionally high-tier enemies..."
As the Beyonder spoke, he glanced at the Infinity Stones in his hand, then shrugged.
"Oh, and 1610, can't forget them. 199999... actually, never mind. Hmm? The Spider-Man of Earth-616 is planning to return to his universe?"
A smile spread across the Beyonder's face. Perfect. He could hitch a ride to that 616 universe, see what kind of world it was, and deliver invitations to the heroes and villains there.
Earth-616, ruins of Avengers Tower.
Earlier, the arc reactor on the middle floors of Avengers Tower had exploded, compromising the entire building's structural integrity and necessitating a controlled demolition. Just moments ago, the demolition of Avengers Tower had been completed, leaving a pile of rubble and bricks within the designated perimeter.
Tony and Cap stood not far away, looking over the site as Tony lamented, "On the bright side, the Avengers Compound in New Jersey is fully built. Everyone gets their own room. We have an absurdly large living space, training grounds, and I designed it to comfortably house over three hundred Avengers."
"You do know we only have eight people, right?"
Tony nodded dismissively. "Yeah, which means we need to hurry up and recruit new members. Preferably some rich ones, so I don't end up having to cover everyone's rent."
"I can always go back to living in my apartment in Brooklyn."
"Really?" Tony turned to look at Cap. "How much of a stipend does the Pentagon give you every month anyway?"
"Uh..."
"Never mind, just kidding. Let's go."
Before leaving, Cap took one last look at Avengers Tower, a place that had only stood for a little over a year, now reduced to a heap of debris. "Are you sure nothing important was left behind?"
"Nothing. Anything useful, I moved out completely. There might be some fiber optic cables left in the basement for data transmission, but no, my calculations were precise. The explosives should have vaporized all of that. I'll send two suits to check it out in a bit."
Just a few minutes later, New Yorkers spotted two Iron Man suits appearing over the ruins of Avengers Tower, digging through the rubble to check if anything remained underground. As they searched, they unexpectedly uncovered a data storage drive that was not part of their programming—and no one knew when it had arrived there.
It was the flash drive left behind when the Wrecking Crew had previously broken into Avengers Tower.
Jarvis, controlling one of the Iron Man suits, picked up the drive. For a brief second, the armor lagged—the exact same brief lag Jarvis had experienced when Tony Stark originally scanned that flash drive.
Following that, the eyes of the Iron Man suit glowed a sinister red as it scanned its surroundings. Then, the lights reverted back to their normal bright white. The suit destroyed the flash drive and resumed its work.