"Another one come to die?"
General Corvus Glaive, son of one of the Black Order, retracted the glaive that had nearly sliced Stephen's throat. Nearby, his beloved, Proxima Midnight, was locked in combat with Wong.
Or rather, it was less a battle and more Proxima Midnight delivering a one-sided beatdown.
Stephen, struggling to sit up, said, "I knew you'd come."
"Don't give me that 'I knew it all along' look. If it weren't a threat to my family, I wouldn't have bothered."
"I know." Stephen wiped the sweat and dust from his face, offering a small smile. He gestured to his chest. "Anyway, our goals align for now, so... want to take over?"
If he hadn't seen the one perfect outcome among countless possibilities, Stephen wouldn't have handed over the Time Stone to anyone, even if it meant his death.
At this point, Saiki Kusuo wasn't going to bother with excuses about avoiding trouble. He'd already intervened; what was the point of being coy?
The instant Saiki touched the Time Stone, it emitted a brilliant white light, just like the previous two stones, and then burrowed into Saiki's body.
"What did you do?!" Corvus Glaive demanded, his voice sharp with fury as he watched the Time Stone disappear.
He pressed his question, raising his glaive in a clear threat of attack.
Saiki, too lazy to deal with Corvus Glaive, used teleportation to transfer both him and Proxima Midnight directly to Thanos's ship.
Having rescued Stephen and Wong, he addressed them: "You two go to SHIELD and assist Hulk."
"What about you?" Wong asked.
He didn't entirely trust the young Saiki. If it weren't for Stephen's repeated assurances, he wouldn't have agreed to let Stephen give the Time Stone to a teenager.
Saiki stated matter-of-factly, "I'll do what I need to do, naturally."
Without waiting for Wong's response, he activated his time-travel ability.
His intention was to travel back six months, to the day before Thanos acquired the Infinity Gauntlet.
However, when he landed, he found himself in a desolate, overgrown forest.
Saiki Kusuo: "..."
Something feels a little off about this place.
Just as Saiki was about to use his clairvoyance to locate Thanos, a hand suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.
In an instant, Saiki created distance between himself and the person. If he hadn't activated his telepathy at the same moment and gleaned some information, he might have already teleported away.
The Mind Stone's shielding ability was a double-edged sword. Without being able to hear others' thoughts, his guard was lowered.
The person who'd tapped his shoulder was Japanese. After hearing English for so long, it was a little jarring to be spoken to in Japanese.
"Saiki, we're on the clock. What are you daydreaming about?"
Saiki was scolded harshly by the other man, but after hearing his inner thoughts, he knew the man was kind-hearted beneath a stern exterior.
[That idiot. Doesn't he know Colonel Stryker is still here? If he's seen, it'll be more than just an apology.]
[Tsk, my tone was a bit harsh just now. Will he think I'm too mean, not a good team leader?]
[Should I say something to lighten the mood? No, that'll make it seem like I'm sucking up to him. It'll undermine my authority as leader.]
(You don't have any authority now, team leader. And please, stop overthinking so much, okay?)
Saiki briefly wondered if he'd traveled to the wrong time. The man clearly seemed to know him, and his attire was definitely not that of an ordinary person. Saiki didn't think he'd know someone like that, let alone join their group.
He needed to find an opportunity to confirm the time he'd traveled to. Just then, the man beside him finally concluded his internal monologue. He kept a straight face, striving to make his tone sound authoritative.
"Colonel Stryker wants us to gather. Let's head back."
Unsure of the situation, Saiki decided to play it safe and follow the man.
The man's agile form moved swiftly through the forest, demonstrating his exceptional skill and training.
Combined with the two weapons at his waist, Saiki felt a growing sense of unease.
(I should just go back and try traveling again.)
Seeing the approaching group of people, each one looking like trouble, Saiki began to have second thoughts.
However, he suddenly discovered that he couldn't use his time-travel ability.
(What's going on? My power is failing? That shouldn't be happening. All my other powers are working; it's just the time travel that's not.)
He tried to activate it several times, even removing the limiter on his head, but nothing happened.
Although he hated to admit it, he seemed to be trapped in this place.
This was the first time in Saiki Kusuo's eighteen years of life that his powers had failed. The sudden shock, coupled with removing his limiter, caused him to lose control, instantly destroying a nearby base. A deafening "BOOM" echoed as the entire ground sank.
The violent shaking made it impossible for anyone to stand. Wade, who had been eating, nearly shoved his entire face into his bowl. He managed to steady himself, looking up in bewilderment, two pieces of wild vegetables dangling from his mouth, a truly comical sight.
"What was that?"
Stryker, leaning against a tree for support, grabbed the binoculars hanging around his neck and looked towards their target base.
The sunken ground revealed no trace of the base. Seeing three months of hard work destroyed in an instant, Stryker felt a wave of darkness and almost fainted.
To make matters worse, some insensitive idiot added fuel to the fire by asking, "Our goal was to eliminate everyone in this base. Now that the base is gone, are we done, Colonel Stryker?"
"Of course not!" Stryker snapped, furious. The purpose of destroying the base was to get the research inside. If the research results were destroyed along with the base, how could that be considered a successful mission?
Stryker clenched his fist in frustration and slammed it against the tree trunk. He hadn't controlled his strength, and the tree was as hard as steel. The punch sent a jolt of pain through his hand, causing him to grimace and shake it.
A few of his less obedient subordinates snickered, but a glare from Agent Zero quickly made them turn away.
After a long while, Stryker finally calmed down. He gritted his teeth and ordered his men, "Search! If you don't find anything useful, don't even think about coming back!"
The group searched all afternoon, but they found nothing of value. The base, the people inside, even the experimental equipment, had vanished into thin air.
However, Stryker had given a direct order, and as Stryker's number one lackey, Agent Zero naturally wouldn't disobey. He kept a close watch on his subordinates who were tempted to slack off.
This prompted complaints from Wade, who was tired and thirsty after a long afternoon of work.
"What's the point of searching like this? Are we going to take some sand back to eat? Can't Colonel Stryker just face reality?"
Agent Zero gave him a cold glare. "If Colonel Stryker is doing this, he has his reasons. You just need to follow orders."
"Come on, what kind of plan could this be? Investigating the reason why the base vanished into thin air?"
Wade, fearless, continued to argue with Agent Zero. He was the only one who would bicker with him, and Agent Zero was the only one who would bother responding.
The others either just rolled their eyes at him or bared their teeth. This almost drove the talkative Wade to madness.
But soon, his incessant chatter exhausted Agent Zero's patience.
"Shut up, Wade," Agent Zero said, drawing his weapons. "If you don't want me to beat you senseless, get to work."
"You're so grumpy, Zero," Wade said, still wearing a playful grin. "But I understand being in a bad mood in this heat. How about we go over there, take a break, and have some water?"
Agent Zero was on the verge of exploding, but John stepped in to play peacemaker.
"Calm down, Zero. You know he's more talkative than a middle-aged woman. Why do you even bother with him?"
Agent Zero took a deep breath, trying to calm his emotions. He let out a cold snort and walked in the opposite direction.
"Pathetic," Wade muttered with a sneer. After Agent Zero left, he sat down, pulled out his water bottle, and started gulping it down.
Logan and Victor, the two brothers, also sat down to rest. It seemed that, deprived of a good fight, Victor was becoming agitated. His sharp teeth left bite marks on the water bottle. If Logan hadn't been there to remind him to calm down, he probably would have bitten off the metal bottle's spout.
Saiki Kusuo found this group of people increasingly strange, and he couldn't understand how he'd come to know them.
Honestly, Saiki had originally planned to restore the base. But from Colonel Stryker's thoughts, he learned that everyone in the base was scum, conducting inhumane experiments on people. He felt that letting them disappear directly was too easy a punishment for these scumbags.
Moreover, that experimental result couldn't fall into Stryker's hands. The man seemed to want to conduct the same experiments and use them on his team.
It seemed like it was best for him to leave this group.
Saiki used the excuse of needing to relieve himself to teleport away. He then wandered for two days, finally understanding why his time-travel ability had failed.
It was likely that the Time Stone he'd absorbed had enhanced his time-travel power. Because the situation was so urgent, he'd rashly used the ability before fully understanding how it had been strengthened.
The power amplified by the Time Stone was too strong, causing his ability to temporarily go out of control, sending him to the wrong point in time. No, rather than the wrong time, it was more likely that he'd arrived in another world—a parallel world where another version of him existed.
This explained why he couldn't use his time-travel ability. Perhaps his counterpart in this world didn't have that power, or perhaps the laws of this world prevented him from using it.
Neither speculation was good news for Saiki Kusuo.
This world was not friendly to people with superpowers, and he needed to find a way to leave as soon as possible.
Even more frightening, Stryker seemed to have noticed his escape and had sent people to hunt him down.
Fortunately, his other powers were still functional, and Saiki unceremoniously brainwashed all of them, eliminating any future trouble.
After dealing with the pursuers, Saiki felt lost again. The all-powerful psychic was, at his core, still a schooler who relied on his parents for food, clothing, and shelter. Losing his family in a strange place left him feeling somewhat panicked.
But soon, someone came looking for him. A kind-faced man in a wheelchair appeared before him.