Phoenix

"What did we do? What we did was simple. When someone wanted to beat us up, we picked up our shields and defended ourselves."

Faced with Iron Man’s question, Tony sneered. "Banner, legally speaking, are we guilty of anything?"

"Probably not, because it was self-defense."

Dr. Banner spoke with complete seriousness—before they came out, Wang Bert had set up mental protection for them.

Future Tony thought to himself, The Blood God clearly knows far more than we imagined.

"Go to hell!"

Tony and Banner’s back-and-forth enraged Wolverine. Raising his blades, he charged viciously at Tony. Tony snorted and raised a hand at Wolverine. Seeing this, Cyclops adjusted his glasses, preparing to fire his lasers.

Future Steve immediately hurled his shield at Cyclops. Cyclops hastily dodged, and Tony’s Pulse Cannon blasted Wolverine into the wall, leaving a huge crater where he slammed into it.

"Your body is a little off."

Tony was somewhat astonished. Just then, Jarvis warned him of danger. He hurriedly formed a shield from nanobots, blocking the energy blast fired by Iron Man.

Seeing that his attack had failed, Iron Man snorted. A large number of Drone Armors flew to the floor-to-ceiling windows and raised their energy weapons at the people inside.

Iron Man said, "Surrender, or don’t blame us for being rough."

"What a joke."

Tony sneered and ordered through the comm channel, "Thor, the Drone Armors are yours. Hulk, tear this tower down for me. Don’t worry, there are no ordinary people left inside."

"Leave it to me."

Stormbreaker appeared out of thin air in Thor’s hand. Then lightning flashed, and his armor automatically covered his body.

"Thor has arrived!"

Thor shouted, his bulky body smashing through the floor-to-ceiling window as he drew down a barrage of lightning upon the Drone Armors.

"I’ve wanted to smash Stark Tower for a long time."

Banner transformed into Hulk and stomped excitedly. The floor shattered with a boom, and the mutants all fell downward. Jean hurriedly protected everyone with telekinesis.

Spider-Man clung to the wall and shouted anxiously, "Everyone, we can talk this out. Don’t fight."

"Spider-Man, this concerns the safety of the whole world. We can’t be softhearted."

Iron Man flew in the air and said coldly, "Don’t think you’re the only ones with a Hulk."

As Iron Man spoke, a massive green figure crashed through the wall and pounced on Hulk like a beast. It was this world’s Hulk.

Rather than being frightened, Hulk was delighted. He leaped up, grabbed the other world’s Hulk, and fell with him to the floor below. Then he punched the other Hulk flying and shouted excitedly, "I hope you won’t disappoint me like that other Hulk did."

"Hulk invincible!"

The other world’s Hulk roared and pounced on Hulk. The two wrestled savagely, smashing walls and floors apart as if they were a demolition crew.

"You idiots, take it outside! The streets have already been cleared!"

Iron Man roared. Did he still want his tower or not?

The two Hulks exchanged a glance and grinned at the same time, then fought even more enthusiastically inside the building. They had wanted to tear this tower down for ages.

At this moment, five figures appeared in the corridor: the Avengers. Leading them was a heavily bearded Captain America. He looked at Future Steve and smiled. "You don’t have a beard."

"I had one before, but I shaved it off. Everyone said it looked bad."

Future Steve said, "Why did you agree to Iron Man’s plan?"

"I didn’t agree, but S.H.I.E.L.D. gave the order. I had to carry it out."

Captain America raised his shield. "Whatever you have to say can wait until I take you down."

"You won’t take us down so easily."

Future Steve wasted no more words and hurled his shield at his opponent. Captain America did the same. The two shields struck each other with a clang and flew away at the same time.

The two Captain Americas leaped at each other simultaneously. Then their fists struck each other’s faces at the exact same moment, and they fell together to the floor below.

Captain America got up from the ground and recalled his shield with a device. Smiling, he said, "I can keep this up with you all day."

"I know, I know. Actually, I’m nothing special. The Steve from the other world is the truly impressive one. Not only did he become Director of S.W.O.R.D., he married Carter, and he can take on three of me by himself."

Future Steve sighed. "Don’t laugh at me for saying this, but I’ve considered killing him and taking his place."

Captain America smiled. "Hearing you say that makes me want to kill him too."

The two exchanged looks, then charged at each other together. The battle began again.

Meanwhile, a chaotic battle broke out upstairs. Iron Man led Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Barton, and the others in attacking the two Tonys. All kinds of energy attacks burst forth continuously, blasting office desks and documents into fragments that flew everywhere.

The two Tonys were not weak, but there were simply too many opponents. They were gradually starting to lose ground.

"Use the Drone Armors!"

Tony shouted irritably. Future Steve and Future Tony immediately threw out five miniature Drone Armors, which opened fire fiercely on Iron Man and the others.

The Drone Armors’ firepower was too intense. Iron Man and the others hurriedly dodged. Wolverine tried to charge through it, only to be blasted away by an energy cannon.

While the Drone Armors were showing their might, four clusters of nanobots flew off Tony’s body and turned into little spiders. They quietly crawled onto Hawkeye, Black Widow, and the others’ feet. Then the spiders suddenly enlarged and tightly restrained them.

"Don’t struggle, Barton, Natasha. My spiders will explode."

Tony shouted, "Stay where you are."

"Damn it."

Hawkeye and the others cursed loudly. Black Widow shouted, "Iron Man, the you from the other world is much stronger than you."

"Isn’t that obvious?"

Tony said smugly, "In fact, I’m not even using my full strength. Otherwise, I’d have beaten that black-hearted Iron Man flat already."

"That’s your skill? That’s Dr. Pym’s skill. By the way, how did you get so many Pym Particles? I asked Dr. Pym for some several times, and he didn’t give me a damn thing."

As Iron Man cursed, he gestured for Storm to go outside and hold Thor back so the Drone Armors could fly in and provide support.

Storm nodded and flew outside wrapped in a gust of wind. Then she spread her hands, her eyes turning white as the sky suddenly darkened.

After that, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky and struck Fat Thor.

"You dared to attack Thor with lightning?"

Fat Thor flew into a rage and controlled the lightning to blast Storm. Storm nimbly dodged and fled to the right. Fat Thor foolishly took the bait and pursued her relentlessly.

With Fat Thor lured away, the Drone Armors immediately returned to the battlefield and began fighting Tony’s Drone Armors.

Without the Drone Armors holding them back, Wolverine, Iron Man, and the others immediately charged out. Barton and the others could not move because of the spiders.

Just as Wolverine was about to pounce on Tony, a massive green ball came crashing up from below like a meteorite. Wolverine failed to dodge in time and was carried through three walls by the green ball, flying far away.

Then Hulk jumped up from below and said with disappointment, "The Hulk from this world isn’t much either. Tony, you don’t mind if I tear your Iron Man apart, right?"

Tony said unhappily, "Could you not be so cruel? Tearing off an arm is enough."

"Why, thank you."

Iron Man cursed and obediently retreated to the back. To be honest, he was deeply shocked—these people were so strong. They had made so many preparations, yet they still could not do anything to them.

That only proves my idea was right. If these people run wild in this world, they could cause a disaster at any moment.

Iron Man thought, We have to drive them away.

At that moment, a Space Gate lit up. Then Dr. Strange, his temples streaked with gray, arrived with the Fantastic Four.

Dr. Strange seemed to know what had happened earlier. He waved a hand and opened another portal, through which Wolverine and Hulk walked over angrily.

Both Wolverine and Hulk were injured, especially Wolverine, whose chest had caved in. However, they did not care, because their injuries were recovering at a visible rate.

Tony asked unhappily, "Strange, don’t tell me you think the same way as Iron Man?"

Strange said matter-of-factly, "Of course I do. People from other worlds should not come to our world."

"I knew from the beginning that this guy wasn’t a good person."

Future Tony said. Everyone else felt the same. Tony looked at the large group of Super Heroes around them and sighed. "Call for backup."

"What backup? These useless trash are nothing. I can handle all of them by myself."

Hulk said unhappily, "You just watch from the side. I’ll go all out and let them see the might of the God of Anger."

"They’re Super Heroes too. Are we really going to kill them? Besides, if we really fight, we might hurt civilians."

Tony said irritably. Future Tony added, "That’s right. A small lesson is fine, but we can’t start an all-out fight."

Hulk said unhappily, "I should’ve hit harder earlier. Fine, call the reinforcements."

"You really are Super Heroes."

Captain America stopped fighting and said somewhat ashamedly, "While we haven’t exactly acted honorably."

Future Steve sighed. "We just don’t want anyone else to die. Too many people have already died."

"You have reinforcements? Hmph, so what if you do? Today, you must stay and let us erase your memories."

Iron Man said coldly, "The Super Collider must also be destroyed."

"Mr. Stark, you don’t seem like a villain at all right now."

Spider-Man said somewhat unhappily. In his view, the other two Mr. Starks seemed much more like Iron Man.

"You don’t understand."

Iron Man snorted. Spider-Man shook his head. "No, you don’t understand. You’re about to be in trouble."

"Who can put Tony Stark in trouble?"

Iron Man said disdainfully. At that moment, a portal appeared out of nowhere, and Wang Bert walked out looking displeased.

Wang Bert asked unhappily, "What’s going on? I just found out where the Infinity Stones are, and you people started causing trouble."

"You found the Infinity Stones?"

Future Tony was overjoyed. Tony, meanwhile, said, "It has nothing to do with me. The Super Heroes in this world want to erase our memories and destroy our Super Collider."

"People really are selfish. Super Heroes are no exception."

Wang Bert’s eyes flickered. He glanced at the hostile Super Heroes around them and said, "Fine. The Infinity Stones aren’t on Earth anyway. Since these Super Heroes don’t welcome us, we’ll leave."

Everyone looked at each other and was about to nod when Iron Man said, "That won’t do. Leave your memories and the Super Collider behind."

Strange also said, "As the Sorcerer Supreme, I will not allow you to remain in this universe."

Wang Bert laughed in anger. "Why does someone always mistake kindness for weakness? Since you want to play, I’ll play with you."

Spider-Man cried out in terror, "Mr. Wang, don’t."

Iron Man shouted disdainfully, "Like we’re afraid of you?"

"You should be afraid of me. Only ignorant people aren’t afraid of me. Spider-Man, I’ll give you face this time. It’ll be a small punishment and a warning, but there won’t be a next time."

As Wang Bert spoke, he looked toward Jean Grey, who was tending to Professor X.

The moment Jean was looked at by Wang Bert, something seemed to explode inside her mind. Then an incomparably violent power surged from her body, lifting everything and everyone around her—including Professor X—into the air.

Then Jean’s eyes rapidly turned blood-red, filled with brutality, madness, and destruction.

Professor X was greatly alarmed. He hurriedly used Mind Power to seal Jean’s second personality and shouted, "Jean, that isn’t you. Control yourself."

Jean Grey, Phoenix, had the Phoenix Force sealed within her body. Because that power was too strong, Professor X had sealed her powers when she was young. As a result, Jean developed a second personality.

Tony asked in surprise, "Wow, Bert, what did you do? How did a perfectly good beautiful woman suddenly become a world-destroying Demon King?"

"Don’t you keep saying you want to protect the world?"

Wang Bert snorted. "Jean Grey has the Phoenix Force sealed inside her, enough to destroy the world. Worse still, her second personality is filled with negative emotions and has always wanted to destroy the world."

"What? Enough to destroy the world?"

Everyone could not help being shocked. Dr. Strange and Iron Man’s gazes flickered even more. They could not ignore such a dangerous existence.

Jean sensed Dr. Strange and Iron Man’s thoughts. The red light in her eyes flared as the pressure around them suddenly surged.

Wolverine glared at Dr. Strange and Iron Man, then shouted, "Jean, control yourself."

Wang Bert smiled contemptuously and led everyone, the Drone Armors, and the Fat Thor who had just returned through the portal.

"Wait, you can’t leave."

Iron Man shouted. Wang Bert reached back with one hand, and Stark Tower rapidly shrank and landed in his palm. Naturally, everyone inside the tower fell downward. Storm, who had just returned, hurriedly used a violent wind to support them.

Then Wang Bert hurled the shrunken Stark Tower at Iron Man. Iron Man’s expression changed drastically. He hurriedly tried to dodge, but the space around him suddenly froze. No matter how he struggled, he could not move. He could only watch helplessly as Stark Tower came closer and grew larger.

"What powerful Space Magic."

Dr. Strange was startled and hurriedly cast a spell, opening a portal to the desert in front of Tony.

The tower flew straight into the portal, then suddenly enlarged and crashed onto the ground with a thunderous boom, kicking up countless clouds of sand.

Iron Man sighed in relief and looked up at Wang Bert and the others, only to find that they had already disappeared.