The man had no hair at all, anywhere on his body. His eyes were perfectly calm. His skin was purple, his cape gold, and the most striking thing about him was a faint indentation on his forehead, as if the gem that ought to have been there had never existed.
Thea knew him. This was Vision, the original holder of the Mind Stone. Now the stone was gone and he was still standing here, which meant there was a hell of a backstory she hadn't been given.
Even though the Mind Stone was gone, she could still sense an unusual energy. Mind Stone Residue. The residue had fused with Vision's living essence, and as Thea probed, it actively resisted, radiating invisible ripples that tried to scramble her line of sight.
She gave a small smile and looked away.
The woman walking beside Vision wore a red trench coat over shoulder-length hair, with delicate features. But the energy inside her body was wild and primal, edged with the taste of destruction, like a vast volcano. Unmistakable. Scarlet Witch.
Both were capable. Vision struck Thea as roughly on par with Martian Manhunter. Scarlet Witch's current strength was around Zatanna's level, but her ceiling was very high. With steady growth, multiversal-tier was achievable.
"That residue inside Vision was one of the Infinity Stones kept by your Elders of the Universe, wasn't it?" she asked the Grandmaster mentally.
"Yes. Didn't expect to find the Mind Stone's signature here. Wait. How do you know so much? Have you been to our universe before?" He answered offhand, then frowned.
"Remember the time we got teleported by mistake? I saw a lot on the timeline." She brushed him off easily, planting a seed of future "prophetic" knowledge for later.
Her probing of the room stayed light. Neither Scarlet Witch nor Iron Man noticed anything. Only Vision looked around, puzzled.
"I don't mean any offense," Superman said, "but is this all of you? Just the three?"
The words had barely left him when a muscle-bound man came flying in from across the room, hammer in hand, red cape flowing behind him.
He called out as he approached. "Tony, what's the call about? Huh? The Grandmaster?" He raised the hammer, ready to come straight at the old man.
A pile of people, mostly Avengers, jumped in to hold the always-impulsive, still-not-very-clever Thor back.
One good thing about righteous heroes: they didn't hold grudges. Especially when they were about to face a shared enemy.
Thor let go of what he'd suffered back in the arena and shifted his glare off his old acquaintance. Then he spotted Thea standing next to the Grandmaster.
Her casual outfit stuck out in a crowd of costumed heroes. She was the second person he registered.
He didn't recognize her at first. The second look did it. Yes, the second look, because the first had cost him an eye...
"You! What are you doing here?" He gripped his new hammer tight, terrified she'd reach out and grab him again.
"Ha! Long time no see. How are you finding the lightning techniques I gave you? Looks like you've made the style your own." Thea waved at him like an old friend.
Thor flashed back to the lightning he'd come to understand while Hela was beating him into the dirt. He grumbled something and let the matter drop.
"Forged another hammer, did you? Are you the God of Hammers now?" Thea asked, genuinely curious.
"...Yeah. The Dwarves made it." Thor gave her a strange look. Why are we talking like we're close?
A faint tap interrupted the conversation. They all turned toward the sound.
A figure in red-and-blue spandex with a spider emblem on his chest was clinging to the outside of a window, peering in with bright, careful curiosity.
"Uh, you let heroes this young into the fight?" Superman asked, half-confused.
Iron Man's face did something complicated. "He goes by Spider-Man. Probably just passing by. Let me handle this..." He produced what he believed was a dignified smile and zipped over to talk to the kid.
When a teenage menace decides he's interested in something, there's no stopping him. Spider-Man was exactly that kind of kid; nothing Tony said had any effect. He gave up and brought Peter inside, introducing him to everyone.
The little crowd in the lobby was starting to attract stares; Avengers staff were whispering in clusters. Tony, comfortable now that his backup was here, peeled out of his armor and sent the suit flying off with a voice command.
In the costumed crowd, he and Thea were the only ones dressed normally.
As they moved into the conference room, more Avengers kept arriving.
Hawkeye. Black Widow. Hulk. Ant-Man. War Machine. Black Panther.
A golden swirl of energy opened, and Doctor Strange stepped through. Lean-faced, austere. He glanced first at the Grandmaster, then at Thea's group.
The last to arrive was a middle-aged man with a tired face, scruffy beard, black combat suit, a single star on the chest. His power level read unimpressive, but the Avengers all carried themselves with deference toward him. Even Tony, who had massive personal beef with him, didn't air any of it in front of outsiders. This was Captain America.
As the soul of the Avengers, Captain America's reputation and moral standing carried weight even from his current semi-retired position.
Like Tony, he kept their disagreement off the table in front of guests. The two of them stepped aside for a brief, quiet exchange.
On the other side of the room, Thea's group was conferring as well. They agreed she'd present the situation. Their resident face of justice took a step back.
After brief introductions, Thea spoke, her voice clear.
"Krona is a scientist from an ancient race in our world. His curiosity is bottomless. Right now he's working to crack the mystery of how the world was created."
Most of them were giving her blank looks. She realized she was being too vague. With a sweep of her hand, the air filled with countless golden lines that resolved into two illusory universes.
She was dressed like she'd come in from shopping, but the brief display of power stunned the Avengers.
The Avengers turned in unison to look at Doctor Strange. His thin, austere face showed real surprise. "Why are you using the Kamar-Taj method? Were you once a sorcerer as well?"
Thea laughed it off. "A sorcerer? I haven't been one for a long, long time. I just borrowed your technique. Honestly, the magic in your universe behaves oddly. It feels like something is actively suppressing it. Anyway. Back to the matter at hand."
"Krona is trying to fuse our two universes. Your world should already be seeing significant anomalies. Based on my assessment, our two universes operate on completely different rules. Forcing them together has an extremely high chance of causing an explosion. That's why we came. To find Krona. To pool all our strength and stop him."
"A mad scientist?" Captain America hadn't quite tracked the cosmic-explosion business, but a scientist about to do something disastrous, that he understood.