Inside the temporary Avengers base, the atmosphere in the conference room was tense.
All the remaining heroes had gathered.
Steve Rogers stepped forward and activated the holographic display.
"Right now, we only know his name, Rory. Asian descent. He's the person Tony and I brought back from the 1970s."
"Why would you bring someone like that back?" Clint Barton voiced the question everyone was thinking.
Steve explained, "He got to the Tesseract and the Pym Particles before we did. And somehow, he knew Tony and I were from the future."
"In his own words, he's also from the future, exact year unknown. He was accidentally transported to 1970 and wanted our help to return to his original timeline."
Rhodey, War Machine, crossed the room, skeptical. "I think you and Tony got played."
He plugged a device into the table's console, linking it to the holo-screen.
The image shifted. It was Tony Stark, snapping his fingers, the very moment Thanos was dusted.
"This footage was recorded from my War Machine HUD," Rhodey said, rotating the view and pressing play again.
Bang!
It showed Rory, firing a pistol directly at Thanos.
Steve narrowed his eyes. "How was he even there? Did anyone see him during the battle?"
The room was filled with shaking heads.
"He's just a regular person. No powers. Logically, he should've been running the other way."
Rhodey fast-forwarded again. The footage showed the aftermath, everyone gathered around Tony.
Everyone… except Rory.
"Here. Look," Rhodey said, enlarging the frame several times. "He picks something up from the ground."
"What is that? A bullet casing?" someone asked.
"No," Rhodey said. "Based on its shape… it's something sharp."
Bruce Banner stood. "I know what it is."
Everyone turned to him.
"It's a needle," Banner explained. "Made from vibranium."
Surprised murmurs rippled through the room.
"I gave him a tiny bit of scrap vibranium," Banner admitted with a shrug. "Just leftovers from the storage lab. Probably not even a gram. I never thought he'd make that out of it."
Then he froze, expression shifting into realization. "He was after Thanos's blood!"
A chill went through the room.
Bruce had seen this before. Dr. Samuel Sterns had once cloned Banner's blood. That experiment gave birth to the Abomination.
Everyone knew that story.
Rhodey muttered, "Great. We just erased one Thanos… and now we've got a scientist Thanos in the making."
Steve slammed a fist onto the table. "Then we have to find Rory, immediately. Destroy that blood sample and send him back to his original timeline."
"But how?" someone asked. "No one's seen him since the battle ended. He just… vanished."
"Then search everything," Steve ordered. "Satellite imaging, city surveillance, smartphone and computer cams, everything. If it has a lens or signal, I want it watching. Find him, before it's too late."
21:33. Log Entry.
"Subject: Trial #65. Specimen Designation: No. 13. Fourth-generation Thanos blood sample. Compression level: 1/27. Commencing experiment."
Rory injected a fresh sample of his own plasma into a petri dish.
He removed a vial from the centrifuge, freshly separated Thanos serum, and carefully added a few drops.
The two fluids intertwined instantly, faintly glowing as they mixed.
Within seconds, the solution turned a deep purple.
Rory immediately used a pipette to transfer a sample onto a slide and rushed to the microscope.
What he saw stunned him.
His blood cells were mutating.
Faster division. Enhanced activity. His DNA strands were unraveling, breaking down, then reassembling. Somewhere along the strand, a segment had been replaced by Thanos's genetic code.
He noted the changes, then slid the sample into the chromosome scanner.
Returning to the camera, he recorded:
"Trial not a failure… but not a success either. New findings indicate the fusion is possible, but the serum is still too strong. Further compression required."
He powered off the camera.
From a shelf, he grabbed a can of soup, dumped it into a bowl, and set it on a heating pad on the lab bench.
Two minutes later, he was eating, casually stirring with a spoon while fiddling with the time-travel wristband on the table.
He'd spent weeks trying to understand its inner workings. Still a mystery.
Underneath the workstation sat a small box.
Inside: half a vial of Pym Particles.
When Tony had taken the rest, this one had been left, probably by accident.
Tony and Steve's trip had consumed one full dose each. Rory had only traveled once, so a half-dose remained.
But a wristband and half-dose weren't enough. A time machine was still required to trigger a jump, and he didn't have the equipment to build one.
Still chewing, Rory tossed the empty can in a garbage bag and carried it outside.
As he dumped the bag in a nearby bin, a trio of teenagers brushed past him.
One shoved Rory.
"Outta the way, punk."
Rory glanced at the guy but said nothing.
He was just a civilian, and these were three street kids. No point picking a fight.
"Kid," said an old man at the fruit stall nearby, "this is Hell's Kitchen. You'd better get used to how things work around here."
The old man handed Rory a shiny green apple.
"…Thanks," Rory muttered.
He handed the old man two bucks and pulled his hat low, disappearing down the street without another word.
He didn't know the Avengers were already looking for him. He just knew he didn't want to be found.
Later that evening, after buying groceries and chemical supplies, Rory returned to his underground lab.
Just moments after he turned off the main road, a motorcycle pulled up near the convenience store he'd passed earlier.
Beep.
"Clint, I'm here. Where are you?"
Steve Rogers stepped off the bike and pulled out his phone.
"Behind you."
Hawkeye stepped out of the store, holding a USB drive.
"I checked the nearby grocery store's surveillance. The guy's face wasn't clear, but his posture and movements match your guy, Rory."
Steve watched the footage and nodded. "That's him. He left carrying supplies on foot, which means… he's still nearby."
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter