Marvel: Starting as a Time Criminal, Stealing Powers

The invisible pressure vanished.

The plain fell silent. One by one, the rebel fighters slowly rose from the ground, their eyes filled with awe. None of them even dared to speak.

Cassie looked around, and for the first time, she began to understand why her father's fellow Avengers always wore that same stunned, reverent expression whenever they spoke of this great being.

There had to have been an even more shocking moment—one so intense that it had been burned into their memories forever.

Russell, uninterested in wasting any more time, turned to the female rebel leader.

"Don't thank me. Just take me to the Conqueror's base."

"Conqueror? Who's that?" Scott asked curiously.

The woman's face darkened with a trace of fear.

"He's not from this world. No one knows exactly where he came from, but his technological power is unmatched."

"He invaded our lands, captured natives, and turned them into twisted creations. Wherever he goes—if you don't surrender, you're annihilated."

Scott felt a chill run down his spine.

But after sneaking a glance at Russell, his fear was replaced by confidence.

It's fine!

Thanos was obliterated in seconds—how hard could some evil tech guy be?

The female leader hesitated for a moment, then asked:

"Are you going alone?"

She carefully suggested:

"Perhaps... we rebels could be of some assistance?"

After all, this powerful being had killed the Conqueror's hounds in a single move. He was clearly their enemy.

Russell glanced at the rebels surrounding him—each of them brimming with nervous energy.

He didn't sugarcoat it.

"The only thing you'd do is slow me down."

The rebel leader looked embarrassed.

She had assumed that if this mysterious figure intended to take the fight to the Conqueror, the 660th Rebellion Army could help by engaging some of the transformed soldiers to ease his burden.

Clearly, she had been overestimating herself.

"I spoke out of turn."

She quickly apologized and then asked how they'd travel.

The rebels did possess flying machines, but they were clunky and outdated.

Maybe it would be better to buy something faster from the trading market.

Russell shook his head.

"No need. I have a faster way."

"Just show me the direction."

Then he turned to Cassie.

"Shrink down and land on my shoulder. It's going to get very windy."

Cassie didn't fully understand, but being so close to her idol was irresistible.

She shrank to insect size and landed on his shoulder, gripping two strange handles that had sprouted from his clothing just for her.

Scott, meanwhile, began to feel uneasy.

Why was the wind going to be so strong?

He frowned and asked cautiously:

"Uh... should I be wearing a helmet? Yeah—I need a helmet—wait, wait, wait—"

"WAAAAHHHHHH!"

That's when he realized why Russell mentioned the wind.

Russell used telekinesis to carry all three of them—

—flying at ten times the speed of sound!

The environment blurred into streaks of color, racing past at incomprehensible speed.

Scott's mouth couldn't even stay shut—it was instantly filled with howling wind.

He glanced over at the female leader, who was clinging to the ride with all her muscular strength. If she hadn't been built like a tank, she might've flown off long ago!

And this was Russell slowing down for their sake.

A few minutes later...

Russell paused mid-air to let them rest and reorient themselves. Once the direction was confirmed, they resumed flying.

The journey lasted three hours.

Flying and stopping, flying and stopping—passing through bizarre landscapes, alien atmospheres, and strange dimensional distortions.

By the time they arrived at the destination, Scott had puked at least three times.

Standing atop a rocky hill, Scott and Cassie finally caught sight of it:

A futuristic, sci-fi base in the distance.

They shivered at the sight.

It looked like a city of the future, as if ripped straight out of a civilization 2,000 years ahead of their time. Even just looking at it gave them goosebumps.

But Russell wasn't staring at the base.

His eyes were fixed on the massive spherical object in front of it.

A magnified Temporal Energy Core.

Surrounded by beam-stabilizing devices, it pulsed with a storm of time-based energy—wild, chaotic, unstable.

And because of the energy's amplification, it had created a "possibility field."

Meaning: once you stepped inside, every single possibility—every thought, choice, or outcome—would simultaneously exist.

Like Schrödinger's Cat—you'd be both alive and dead at the same time.

A normal person would begin splitting endlessly once they entered.

Every thought would create another self.

Every decision would branch off into another reality.

And every possibility...

Would become real.

But because of the instability of the Temporal Energy, all possibilities would eventually become tangled and meaningless—like "noodles"—just as seen during the timeline collapse in Loki.

And the most difficult part?

To restore this energy core, someone must enter its center and install a shrinking device directly into the energy stream to initiate stabilization. Only then can the core be restored.

That's exactly why Russell brought Scott Lang here.

Though Scott was a bit cowardly and relatively weak, he was someone capable of pulling this off.

Of course, he'd need the Wasp's help.

Russell himself had no intention of taking that risk.

When it comes to the power of time, you can never be too cautious.

But before dealing with the core, there was another matter to handle—an oversized ant blocking his path.

Might as well see what's so special about this variant, and experience firsthand the strength of advanced technology.

"Time is merciless."

"You look much older than before."

From atop his time-traveling ship, Kang the Conqueror slowly descended, his every step shielded by a shimmering blue energy barrier.

Inside the ship's main hall:

Janet Van Dyne stood frozen like a statue, immobilized.

Kang hovered down toward her, gently running a hand across her face as though petting a prized animal.

Then, with curiosity in his eyes, he asked:

"What did you see back then?"

"Is that why you betrayed me and chose to run?"

Back then, his ship had been connected to his nervous system and shrouded in Temporal Energy. Anyone who peeked too deeply into its systems might accidentally witness incomplete fragments of time—past or future.

That's why he was so curious.

He willed his ship to release its restraints.

The technology obeyed.

Janet felt as though she were being freed from amber. She collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily. It took her over ten seconds to recover.

She didn't answer right away.

Instead, she looked up at the strange man in front of her and said clearly:

"You were exiled to the Quantum Realm."

"But did you ever wonder why I followed you here?"

That caught him off guard.

Kang furrowed his brow, trying to recall.

"You told me back then that it was because you couldn't reach a tight spot to disarm a nuclear bomb, so you kept shrinking—until you fell into the subatomic realm."

Janet nodded.

"That's what I said. And on the surface... it's true."

"On the surface," Kang repeated, narrowing his eyes. "So there's a deeper reason?"

"Hah... I didn't see it back then. You really played your part well, Janet."

His expression darkened. He grabbed Janet's chin, eyes fierce.

"Speak. I want the real reason!"

But Janet didn't flinch. Instead, she laughed.

"The real reason? It's because of you, Kang."

Kang's expression shifted wildly. He shoved Janet down with force and roared:

"Who are you?!"

"A lackey of the Scarlet Centurion? A follower of Rama-Tut? A puppet of the Immortus?!"

His fury was genuine—he looked ready to kill her if she admitted to any of it.

But Janet calmly stood up, shook her head, and smiled.

"No need to get so worked up. I don't know any of the people you just mentioned."

"It was a bald woman... someone who has lived a very long time. She came to me."

"Everything I've done since was under her instruction and guidance."

Then she added with a smirk:

"There was a huge hole in my original story. Since I could shrink myself, why didn't I just shrink the bomb? Why risk myself?"

"I wouldn't care how many creatures in the Quantum Realm it harmed."

Kang visibly relaxed.

As long as it wasn't one of the Kang variants from the Council—he didn't care. The Avengers, the Guardians, the Kree Empire—even Thanos—he'd killed them all.

But now, he was curious.

After all, he'd never even met this woman before. What was her true motive?

"So what is your goal?" he asked.

"You afraid I'll fix my time ship and leave—go back to your world and destroy it?"

Janet smirked.

"Destroy my world? Please. You're not nearly qualified enough for that."

"But you're right about one thing: stopping you from repairing that time ship was one of my goals."

Kang raised an eyebrow.

"And the second?"

Janet took a step back. Her expression turned solemn.

"The second... is for this moment."

"Sorcerer Supreme, it's your turn."

Kang froze, eyes narrowing.

But before he could react further—

A fire ignited in the hall.

From the heart of the flames, someone stepped out.

Russell.

He glanced at Janet. For a brief moment, he was genuinely impressed by the elegance of time's design.

So this was all planned by the Supreme Alliance?

Even Scott Lang's appearance beside him hadn't been coincidence.

Kang's mind spun.

He stared at Russell, trying to recall if he'd met him before.

"Tch… who are you? A variant of Doctor Strange? Baron Mordo? The King?"

"Maybe I've already killed you."

Russell didn't answer. Instead, he looked him up and down and calmly said:

"Have you met... He Who Remains?"

Kang's expression instantly changed.

Far more violently than when Janet had first said his name.

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