From the golden rectangular portal, several people wearing black helmets and black uniforms, holding black batons, emerged. They moved with clear coordination, ignoring Samuel and the others, which felt eerie.
"Hey, you guys— Whoa, relax, don't be nervous," Spider-Man said, raising his hands to show he meant no harm.
He only wanted to ask who they were, but the group swiftly raised their black batons, aiming at him.
"You better not mess around!" Bucky and the others raised their palm cannons.
The standoff grew tense.
"Swish!"
Another golden portal opened, and a woman in the same uniform stepped out.
"Looks like a standard temporal violation. The slope of the time branch development speed is stable," C-20 said, holding a Time Controller. She eyed Samuel, then the Infinity Gauntlet in his hand.
"It should be you, the time traveler who doesn't belong to this timeline. Representing the Time Variance Authority, I arrest you for violating the sacred timeline. Raise your hands and come with us."
Time traveler? Time Variance Authority? Sacred timeline? The terms baffled everyone.
They didn't know who these Time Variance Authority people were, but taking Samuel and the Infinity Gauntlet? Unacceptable.
"Stop!" Bucky and Sharon stepped in front of Samuel, palm cannons aimed at C-20.
C-20 twisted her black baton, its tip glowing. "Last warning, get out of the way!"
"You better explain what's going on! This is our last warning!" Sharon retorted.
"Boom!"
A golden energy blast from a Timekeeper's baton hit Sharon. She glanced down, stunned, as golden light engulfed her body, annihilating her in moments. Sharon vanished.
"Sharon!" the group cried out, readying to fire.
"Crack!"
A sharp snap rang out. The Timekeeper who pruned Sharon collapsed, neck broken, dead.
C-20 reacted fast, realizing only the time criminal—Samuel—could've done this. She charged, her baton glowing purple to slow his time.
Timekeepers relied on this: golden batons pruned targets from the timeline; purple slowed their time, neutralizing threats. Then, an electronic collar ensured control. Their first move was always to activate the pruning device to reset the timeline. If capture failed, they'd protect the device to ensure the reset.
"Buzz!"
Samuel's invisible Mind Manipulation Ability froze everyone—Timekeepers and Survivor Squad alike.
Their batons, Time Controllers, and collars floated to Samuel. He grabbed a golden baton and approached Bucky.
A voice echoed in Bucky's mind: "Tell them you and Sharon are my people. I'll find you later."
Bucky, immobilized, couldn't react, but his eyes showed confusion. Tell who? Find them where?
Ignoring the questions, Samuel pointed the golden baton at Bucky. Golden light flashed, and Bucky vanished.
"You killed Bucky? Why?" the Survivor Squad and Timekeepers thought, unable to speak, their shock clear to Samuel.
He ignored them, examining the baton with interest. This was the Time Variance Authority tech he wanted—point and teleport. He'd planned to use the Infinity Stones to restore this world, hoping to lure the Time Variance Authority. It worked.
Their arrival confirmed he could save this doomsday timeline with the Stones. It also revealed the idealistic mechanism of time branches: a firm thought alone triggered them, alerting the sacred timeline. No action needed.
This mechanism felt unreasonable, but time held no meaning here. A thought's birth predicted its outcome. Like Captain Marvel's faction in the comics' second Civil War, it preempted disasters via a mutant's foresight.
Whether this was good depended on perspective.
Samuel checked the Time Controller. The timeline's red branch line was shrinking. "Because I changed my mind?" he mused. Curious, he reaffirmed his intent to restore the world. The red line spiked, and the Time Controller blared. He reversed his thought, and the line dropped.
One thought creates, another erases. Every choice spawns a parallel universe. Indecision—jumping between them?
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