The moment they heard Tony's words, Banner was completely dumbfounded.
He looked left and right, then muttered helplessly, "Honestly, I feel a little offended here. Are you sure he only needed three punches?"
The instant he finished speaking, Tony directly removed his time-travel combat suit and tossed the watch on his wrist onto the tea table.
"See for yourself!"
He activated the holographic projection function inside the watch, and an incredibly vivid image instantly appeared.
Here, Tony had practically dug up Heisenberg's entire past.
From the moment he fell to Earth like a meteor, to his first negotiation with Fury at S.H.I.E.L.D.
There was also his Earth-splitting center-part punch, the part where he knocked out Hulk, and all kinds of other achievements.
And after all those videos were played...
Every single one of them, including Captain America, fell silent.
Fortunately, the Ancient One did not seem to care. She simply smiled and said, "Very detailed. There were even some things in there that I hadn't paid attention to, so by now, you should know who he is."
After speaking, the Ancient One stood up and asked the group, "Now that you understand his situation, you should also understand how irritable he is. So, are you still going with me to meet him?"
"Of course we are!"
Captain America stood up with a solemn expression.
After him, Iron Man, Banner, and Scott also rose one after another.
Then Rogers turned to his companions and said, "The world we've arrived in is no longer the same as the past we knew, but we still have to collect the Infinity Stones, because they carry the hope of half the people on Earth.
And in the final video, I noticed that when he crushed Thor's hammer, Loki's scepter was in his hand!
No matter what, we're bound to cross paths with him sooner or later.
So if we go now, we can use this chance to try and borrow the Mind Stone from him!
If Heisenberg gets angry because of our request, then we deserve to bear that anger, because we're the ones trying to take his treasure.
But we still have something even more important to do!
So if that happens, I hope you'll be willing to help us a little, Ancient One. Please.
Even if we have to die, we can't die here in this past, because the future is resting on our shoulders!"
There was no way Captain America could stay calm.
They could all tell that the Heisenberg they were about to meet was nothing like Thor or Carol.
Thor might be a little arrogant, but he was actually very down-to-earth.
Especially that future version of him they had met in the universe later on, all fat rolls and beer belly...
Fat Thor?
You could still fly like that?
That was almost too down-to-earth!
As for Carol, even though her expression was always cold, she was still a decent person, and there was a great deal of justice in her heart!
But Heisenberg...
Heisenberg killed like it was second nature, and carried himself like some future galactic godfather, a younger version of a dark emperor...
That was a real problem!
And on top of that, they were going to ask him for the Mind Stone...
"Damn it, are you sure we're really going to ask someone like that for an Infinity Stone? We're going to die, right?!!"
At last, Scott could not help blurting it out.
But then he thought of the Wasp.
Before anyone else could encourage him, he straightened himself up on his own.
He slapped his thigh hard and growled, "Then so be it. If we die, we die. Let's go!"
"That's right. Let's move."
Captain America nodded, then turned and gave the Ancient One a slight bow.
"Sorry to trouble you, Ancient One."
"It's no trouble. It's been a while since I last saw him anyway."
The Ancient One smiled lightly as she spoke. Then her right hand turned, and green light instantly wrapped around her body.
A moment later, Tony and the other three stared in shock as long black hair grew from the Ancient One's head.
At that moment, her skin was fair and smooth, her face beautiful, her bearing exceptional, and her figure absolutely model-perfect, with an elegant aristocratic grace in the way she carried herself.
She actually looked almost like a Bond girl from Skyfall.
"Th this this...?!"
"How did you...?!"
"My God, what kind of skincare product is that? Can I get a whole set for my wife?
No, wait, my wife hasn't even been brought back yet. Damn it!"
"My God, if I were still the old Banner, I probably would've scared Hulk right out of my body!"
The four of them were truly stunned by the Ancient One's transformation, while she only gave a faint smile.
"There's no need to be surprised. To people like us, time is little more than a toy.
As for why I've chosen to take on my younger appearance..."
She paused in thought, as though explaining it to Captain America and the others, yet also persuading herself.
"The occasion he's attending happens to be lacking a female companion. If I go like this, he won't be embarrassed."
...
Meanwhile, at the hillside villa in Los Angeles.
Heisenberg landed with a whoosh, and the lawn in Tony's yard instantly exploded into a dirt crater two meters wide.
Even from far away, Tony, dressed in a black formal suit, saw it happen.
Even on such a joyous day, he still came strolling over in annoyance, cursing as he walked.
"Damn it, you did that on purpose, didn't you? You had to have done it on purpose. Don't think I don't know you can control your landing force perfectly!"
"Heh. Take it as the second wedding gift I'm giving you."
Heisenberg teased, then gave Tony a light hug.
After they separated, Heisenberg naturally followed Tony as they walked.
As they headed toward the elevator connected to the sea, Tony said to Heisenberg, "You came at just the right time. I actually need your help with something. I want to give Pepper a more special wedding, so..."
He leaned closer to Heisenberg and lowered his voice.
"I told Pepper we'd hold the celebration on the yacht, but what I really want is to hold it on the sea itself. On a vast, wide-open sea!
Can your freeze breath freeze this stretch of ocean?"
"Freeze my ass. Get lost."
Heisenberg smacked Tony lightly on the head.
Tony did not mind in the slightest and just curled his lip.
"Come on, help me out, all right? I'm begging you. I want this to be a surprise for her.
During the wedding later, I'll fly her up into the sky in an Iron Man suit, and then you freeze the sea. After that, I'll bring Pepper down onto it while she's still in shock!
So? What do you think?"
What else was there to say? It was just one breath.
This was the first wedding Heisenberg had ever attended in the Marvel world. There was no way he could not grant the newlyweds one tiny little request.
"You win. Give me some shares later, and I'll hand over a few stakes in my companies too. Shame about the fish in this coastal stretch, though."
"Are you kidding me, Heisenberg? You don't even care about human lives, and you're worried about marine life?"
Tony looked utterly incredulous, while Heisenberg merely shook his head in disdain.
"Heh. There are too many bastards among humans who aren't even worth as much as animals. Don't you think?"
"Too many people deserve to die. You can't kill them all. You have to solve the problem at the source!
Still, aside from the whole murdering-people part, which I really hate, you're more or less an okay friend.
Though your temper is a little awful too."
"Fuck you."
Chatting as they went, the two made their way to the private beach Tony had carved out for himself. His lavender yacht was docked beside the pier.
"Pepper likes this kind of color, something between purple and blue.
I can remember every variation formula of every chemical element, but I can never remember the name of this color.
Is it called indigo something?
Whatever."
"Indigo," Heisenberg supplied.
It was obvious Tony was nervous. He was talking far more than usual, and even a little incoherently.
"You actually know that? I thought recognizing colors was some kind of racial talent women were born with.
But I just remembered, you said that damned crater back there was your second gift. So what's the first one?"
"That gift..."
At Tony's question, Heisenberg smiled toward the sea and answered softly, "You will never want to know."
"Damn it, you shouldn't pull that kind of stunt. It makes my curiosity want to leap right out of my chest.
But I don't have time to press you today. I can't wait to take her hand and walk into the future!"
As Tony spoke, it looked as though his eyes held the entire world.
Noticing Tony's expression, Heisenberg could not help teasing him.
"Mm-hm. You're a womanizer, sentimental, you hit nightclubs, you play around with cover girls, but barely, just barely, you count as a good man."
"Damn it, don't say something that kills the mood today. Pepper definitely doesn't want to hear that!
She should be putting on the wedding dress right now, right? I hired a whole batch of top wedding dress designers before I finally got that gown made. I really can't wait to see what she looks like in it!"
"Yeah. I can imagine it."
Heisenberg nodded, and at the same time, he and Tony both looked ahead.
Right by the yacht cabin door, Hill, Captain America, and a young woman were standing there waiting.
From a distance, Tony curled his lip at them.
"You definitely know them. S.H.I.E.L.D. people, an old friend of my dad's, and the last one is Aunt Peggy's niece.
Tsk. She doesn't really look like her. Aunt Peggy was way prettier when she was young!"
"You're all the same. Your dad was a lot more handsome than you when he was young too."
While speaking, the two of them walked up to Hill and the others, shaking hands in turn.
When Peggy's niece shook hands with Heisenberg, the woman softly said, "I'm Sharon. It's so wonderful to meet you. You're my idol!"
"Idol?
Me, or Superman from the comics?"
Heisenberg asked, and the question made the woman break into a cheerful smile.
"Of course I mean you, Mr. Heisenberg!"
"Oh. Then your luck isn't very good. Go home and reread the comics a couple more times. Clark is more suitable for agents like you, because he's simple enough, and kind too."
"Uh..."
Stung by that jab, Sharon could only force a smile.
Seeing the mood turn awkward, Tony quickly brought Heisenberg onto the yacht.
Once there, Tony went off with Happy to get busy with the various matters of the wedding.
Meanwhile, Heisenberg sat on the sofa and chatted with the mere seventeen guests Tony had invited.
Other than the three people from S.H.I.E.L.D., the rest were mostly elders who had watched Tony grow up.
They had all once been Howard's old friends, and more or less, their conduct was worthy of the title of elder.
Of course, there had been one man who had never deserved that kind of respect.
Obadiah Stane.
He had no chance of seeing Tony's wedding now, and naturally, no one felt even the slightest regret over his absence.
They chatted idly about nothing of importance as time passed in a blur.
At last, the wedding officially began.
Without question, Captain America served as the officiant. He was...
Well, fairly witty, but the old jokes from the 1930s spilling from his mouth clearly failed to hit anyone's sense of humor.
To the point that Heisenberg actually began looking forward to the little surprise Tony had mentioned.
In his view, the only remotely interesting part of this wedding was probably going to be freezing the sea.
As the ceremony continued, Tony and Pepper exchanged rings and kissed before their relatives and their tiny handful of friends.
Then, two massive pieces of advanced machinery rose up on the wedding platform.
Immediately after, the armor dressing platform Tony had prepared in advance began equipping the two of them with suits.
Although Tony's development of the armor had hit a bottleneck, simply modifying his existing armors was still very easy for him.
The two of them were suited up in no time, and then blasted into the sky together.
At the same time, more than three hundred tiny armored robots, each only around ten centimeters tall, shot out from beneath the dressing platform and flew up after them.
In mere moments, those miniature armored toys released a dazzling sea of fireworks. And after the fireworks faded, they gathered together and projected an enormous palace onto the surface of the distant sea.
A long pathway extended from directly in front of that palace projection, and both sides of the path were decorated with countless violets, Pepper's favorites.
At once, Heisenberg knew exactly what he was supposed to do!
Tony clearly planned to bring Pepper through that palace on the frozen sea after the ocean had been sealed solid!
So Heisenberg shot upward and reached the sea in the blink of an eye.
Then he drew in a deep breath...
Wait, what was that sound behind him?
"Where is this?"
"Damn it, we're in the air!"
"The time-travel suits don't have flight functions, damn it!"
"This came out of nowhere!!!"
/-\
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