Earth, 199999-F-2.
Malrick stepped out of the portal, appearing in the sky at ten thousand meters above ground. His super vision swept across the entire Earth, instantly locking onto a lone figure atop a pyramid in Egypt. Pharaoh Kang surveyed the desert below like a king overlooking his domain.
Malrick deliberately avoided appearing directly in front of Kang. As long as the opponent wasn't capable of precognition, his light-speed reflexes would let him strike before Pharaoh Kang could react.
In a blur, Malrick vanished from view, traversing the Earth without using spatial powers. He reappeared behind Pharaoh Kang, moving purely with unmatched speed. The pharaoh, clad in ancient Egyptian regalia, remained focused on the desert, likely waiting for Thanos to return with intelligence. None of Thanos's schemes mattered to Malrick now.
Enveloping himself in a bio-field, Malrick moved fluidly, striking Pharaoh Kang with a thunderous punch. Simultaneously, the TVA's temporal control collar snapped onto the pharaoh's neck. Time itself seemed to halt around them, technology and magic combining to restrain Kang completely. Malrick's hand gripped Kang's neck, checking carefully until every cell was still.
He stood slowly, half-crouched over the restrained pharaoh. "It seems… it's resolved."
A faint, unpleasant odor made Malrick frown. "These Kangs must smell like a jar of fermenting pickles when they gather." He silently grimaced, then opened his temporal pad, preparing to return to the TVA.
The operation had gone smoothly, perhaps too smoothly. Kang variants were dangerous only when their time technology was active. Otherwise, they were ordinary people, too slow to counter a speedster like Malrick.
The temporal gate opened. Malrick lifted Pharaoh Kang's headdress and prepared to transport him to the TVA. He remained cautious, keeping time frozen across the planet.
Then, unexpectedly, a blue light illuminated the pyramid below. A spherical, high-tech spacecraft module activated, seemingly unaffected by Malrick's temporal freeze.
Three rings, etched with runes reminiscent of the Ten Rings, rotated at its center. Malrick's hand passed through empty air.
"Another time-manipulating force," he muttered.
Suddenly, Pharaoh Kang in his grip became a mere afterimage. Time-slipping? Super vision confirmed it: inside the spacecraft, the pharaoh was alive, collar intact but deactivated as the rings rotated rapidly. Pharaoh Kang shivered, resuming temporal operation.
"F*ck! It's the TVA from Sunny Beach!" he shouted. "I need to get out! What just happened?"
Kang had never been frozen like this. He scrambled over the instrument panel, preparing the craft for inter-world travel. Malrick frowned. "Not just time slipping… more like a temporal rewind, like loading a save. His tech rivals the TVA's. But he's still a little short of escape velocity."
Channeling the power of the Infinity Stones within his inner World, Malrick released a torrent of energy through his body. "Freeze."
The six Stones erupted simultaneously, halting time and space across the Universe. Previously, Malrick had frozen only Earth; now, with all six Stones, he froze the entire Universe. Unless it was Kang the Conqueror, no variant should escape.
Malrick reached for the pyramid. The spacecraft appeared before him, locked in place by his spatial control. "Come back to the TVA with me."
But suddenly, a massive, colorful energy blast struck him.
"Infinity Stones!" Malrick's pupils narrowed. The attacker also wielded six Stones. Energy collided, threatening to obliterate the Solar System. Malrick was prepared to absorb the Solar System into his inner World, but the opponent's dispersed energy allowed the attack to reach him.
The strike freed Pharaoh Kang from Malrick's temporal lock. Only a fragment of a ring remained; the pharaoh and his spacecraft vanished into time.
"As expected of Kang. Many contingencies, very powerful technology," Malrick murmured. Pharaoh Kang's strength wasn't remarkable, but his temporal tech rivaled the Stones.
Malrick activated full Stone energy, scanning for temporal afterimages. Escape trails left by time travel were like contrails in clouds or gravitational waves of a warp ship. Using these traces, Malrick tracked Pharaoh Kang across multiple Universes.
It became clear: two Kangs worked together. "Run, hide in your council's headquarters. I'll find all your variants."
Tearing open a rift, Malrick exited the Universe, pursuing Pharaoh Kang's temporal trail through countless afterimages, Universe after Universe. He finally stopped outside a doomed Universe, a tactic reminiscent of Sylvie from the TV series Loki. Hiding here prevented new time branches from forming, making detection nearly impossible.
Peering inside, Malrick saw only Pharaoh Kang and another cloaked figure. "Not the council gathering, but it doesn't matter. I'll capture them all. Deadpool can handle the interrogation."
He entered the Universe, appearing in the Egyptian desert before the two Kangs.
"Kang! You can't escape! Not just you, but everyone with you…" Malrick announced, stopping abruptly.
Pharaoh Kang lay dead, his neck slumped and only underwear remaining.
"Infighting?" Malrick muttered, turning to the other Kang. Clad in a green robe, back turned, six Infinity Stones in hand, the figure also held Pharaoh Kang's belongings, including the spacecraft.
"You're Doctor Doom?" Malrick realized aloud. "So this was a double-cross."
The attacker wasn't Kang. It was Doctor Doom. How had he entered this universe, and why was he hunting Kang? He was clearly after Kang's technology. Malrick's focus sharpened.
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