Had Rory really shaken off Steve?
Not quite.
Steve Rogers had no idea where Rory had gone, and even if he did, he wouldn't be able to handle him alone.
So he did the only thing he could.
He returned to his original timeline.
2023 , in front of the quantum tunnel machine, Bruce Banner stood with his right arm still in a sling, counting down the return sequence.
"Returning in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1, "
Click.
He pressed the activation button. A pulse of white light flickered, and in the blink of an eye, Steve Rogers reappeared on the platform.
To the others, he'd been gone only a few seconds.
"Hey, Cap!" Sam Wilson greeted him with a grin. "Trip go okay?"
Steve removed the time-travel suit. His face was grim.
"No," he said. "Not even close. We've got a serious problem."
"Define 'serious,'" Bruce asked as he and Bucky Barnes stepped closer.
Steve took a deep breath. Then he told them everything.
Everything that had happened.
"The guy's name is Rory. He managed to create a serum using Thanos's blood, and it made him stronger than me. And now… I have no idea where or when he is."
Steve bowed his head. "This is my fault. I let him go."
But even in his self-reproach, Steve still believed he was right to act. After all, Thanos had once wiped out half the universe. If Rory became another version of him…
The consequences were unthinkable.
Bucky stepped forward, gripping Steve's arm. "You're my brother. That means your problems are mine."
Sam nodded. "We're Avengers, Cap. We deal with threats together, same as always."
To them, Rory didn't sound like a real threat. They'd faced Thanos, after all. One rogue scientist? Piece of cake.
But Bruce Banner had a different take.
"Guys… Rory's not the problem."
They turned to look at him.
"The real problem," Bruce said slowly, "is how the hell we're supposed to find him."
No one knew what time period Rory had jumped to. And even with time-travel tech, that made tracking him nearly impossible.
Steve rubbed his temple, visibly stressed. Then an idea hit him.
"Scott Lang. And Hank Pym. They're our best bet."
"Alright," Sam said, already taking charge. "I'll reach out to the rest of the team. We need a meeting, soon."
Meanwhile, in 2008…
Rory was busy constructing a brand-new laboratory.
Thanks to Wilson Fisk, everything had moved lightning fast. By the very next day, Rory had been given the keys to a prime location, perfectly suited for his experiments and hidden away from prying eyes.
The lab was nestled in the penthouse of a luxury apartment building on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Safe, high-end, and full of other wealthy tenants who wouldn't ask questions. It even had a private elevator and enough room for both lab work and a comfortable personal living space.
In other words: the perfect cover.
A few days later.
Rory stood in the center of the newly finished lab, visibly satisfied.
"You know," he said, glancing over at Fisk, "you may not be the brightest, but damn, your efficiency is top-tier. I'm impressed."
Fisk gave a polite smile. "I'm glad you're happy. If you need anything else, you can always call."
But inside, he was seething. The moment I get what I want from you… you're dead.
Rory, of course, had no idea what Fisk was thinking. Not that it would've mattered to him anyway.
"Well, if there's nothing else, you can leave. Try not to come by unless absolutely necessary. I'll let you know once the experiment's done."
Once Fisk left, Rory carefully opened the metal case he had smuggled from 1970, pulling out several rare blood samples and placing them into cold storage.
His next goal: produce more blood and serum samples.
Although he had already injected himself with the Thanos-based serum, his powers were nowhere near what he wanted. Something about the formula still felt incomplete.
He worked late into the night, finally finishing the cultivation process. Three glowing glass tubes now sat on the workstation, each containing a different blood sample: Thanos, Steve Rogers, and Jessica Jones.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Rory stripped off his lab coat and climbed up to the second-floor living quarters.
After a quick shower, he prepared a feast for himself, settling into the cozy circular window with a view of Manhattan's glittering skyline.
That's when the news broke.
[DING] Breaking News: Billionaire industrialist Tony Stark has been confirmed missing...
Rory paused, blinking at the screen. Then he laughed softly.
"So… nothing I did in 1970 affected the present?"
He couldn't say for sure whether time travel had changed anything, but one thing was obvious: this timeline wasn't a parallel universe. It was the same one.
Because if it had been a parallel world, then the older Steve Rogers would never have appeared in the "main" timeline to pass the shield on to Sam.
Which, theoretically, meant… that at certain points in New York's history, there could be three different Captain Americas walking around?
Rory shook his head.
Three? Hell, make it a hundred. Not my problem.
What mattered now was perfecting the experiment.
For the next few weeks, Rory threw himself fully into his research. With modern computing power on his side, he quickly recreated the 1970 research benchmarks.
But still, he couldn't replicate that one miraculous version of the Thanos serum.
Hundreds of materials.
Billions of combinations.
Even fifty more years wouldn't be enough to test them all.
"Damn it," he muttered. "Time to try something else."
Shedding his lab gear, Rory picked up his phone and dialed Fisk.
Ring… Ring… Ring…
"Hey Rory," Fisk answered. "Did the experiment work?"
"What do you think this is, cooking dinner?" Rory said flatly. "I need a rare synthetic chemical compound. I'll text you the name. Find it, and fast."
"No problem. I'm on it."
Fisk agreed readily, but deep down, his resentment only grew stronger.
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