The space near Cassandra suddenly tore open, and a crimson passage appeared.
From it stepped Wanda, shrouded in scarlet energy, and Tony Stark, clad in his gleaming nanotech armor.
"Malrick, it's my turn to save you this time!" Tony shouted as soon as he emerged.
Hours earlier, Wanda had exhausted every method she knew but still couldn't find Malrick. Desperate, she called Tony and Mordo from Kamar-Taj for help. Determined not to give up, she even pushed herself to learn Wong's portal techniques. With her Chaos Magic, she took it a step further, developing a way to open multiverse portals in record time.
When Peter Parker returned with information, she reverse-traced the space portal through the Time-Pad. Unfortunately, Malrick had already been dragged into the TVA—a place whose anti-magic field made it impossible for her to track him.
Even so, Wanda never stopped searching.
So when Cassandra activated the Time-Pad again, Wanda immediately locked onto its signal and opened a portal, stepping through without hesitation. Tony followed, partly for the thrill, partly because he couldn't resist poking fun at Wanda's concern for Malrick.
The truth was, Tony wasn't worried about Malrick in the slightest. Malrick's ability to move across dimensions was so absurd that real danger felt nearly impossible. What intrigued Tony more was Wanda's behavior—her panic, her urgency.
Wasn't this the same woman Malrick had threatened the first time they met? How could that have turned into… whatever this was?
The thought amused him enough to ask Wanda outright why she cared so much. To his surprise, she had no real answer. Wanda herself didn't fully understand. Somewhere along the line—maybe after the Dormammu invasion—her feelings toward Malrick had shifted.
She remembered that day well. After the battle, Stark had created an Avengers group chat for the team. Malrick rarely spoke, but his profile picture lingered in Wanda's memory. He wasn't the social, flashy type she imagined him to be.
His last post was a year ago: a photo of him in a spacesuit, flashing a peace sign from inside a spacecraft. The caption read: "Off to sunbathe in the universe for the next two and a half years. If you miss me, just look up at the sky."
The comments underneath made her smile. Banner teased him about disappearing. Tony spammed jokes about him getting a tan, insisting Pepper missed him. Even Sherry had chimed in to tease Tony about secretly caring.
That amused Wanda, but what struck her even more was Sherry's constant posts of Malrick's daily routine. Morning, noon, and night, there he was—sunbathing on the balcony in different poses. It seemed ridiculous, but Wanda found herself checking Sherry's updates every day, curious about what Malrick would do next.
The public knew him as Superman, but to Wanda, those glimpses made him seem oddly human—someone who basked in the sun instead of living the reckless, playboy lifestyle she expected. The more she thought about it, the stranger it felt. He didn't match the image in her head, and the dissonance stirred something inside her.
Sometimes she imagined Malrick not as a world-saving hero, but as a man living quietly with her on a simple farm. She would prepare dinner while he chopped wood outside, and when the world called, he'd rip open his shirt and soar into the sky. When he returned, he'd hold her close, and she'd bury her face against his chest…
Wanda always caught herself blushing at these daydreams, rolling around on her bed like a teenager. Still, she couldn't deny the truth: her feelings for him were changing.
Her growing strength also gave her the courage to stand on more equal footing. Once, Malrick's piercing gaze had terrified her. Now, she no longer felt afraid. In fact, she wanted to challenge him, to see who was stronger.
But for now, her priority was finding him.
Tony, of course, found her flustered behavior endlessly entertaining. For him, tagging along was about watching the sparks between them as much as it was about seeing the Spider-Men Peter kept talking about.
However, when they stepped through the portal, the sight before them wasn't at all what they expected.
"Wait—this doesn't look like Hell's Kitchen. Where are the buildings? And what's with those cowboys living in what look like giant corpses? Don't tell me we just crashed a cannibal neighborhood." Tony scanned the area skeptically.
"Jarvis, run a scan," he ordered.
"Yes, sir. Beginning scan…"
Meanwhile, Wanda floated above the ground, Chaos Magic radiating from her fingertips as she stretched out her senses. After a few seconds, her expression darkened.
"Malrick isn't here."
Tony arched a brow. "So you opened the wrong portal?"
"No mistake," Wanda said sharply. "I tracked it to that device."
A crimson tether of energy extended from her hand, latching onto the Time-Pad clutched by Cassandra. Wanda's gaze locked on her opponent's, unflinching.
"Well, well," Cassandra smirked, her tone dripping with mockery. "The Scarlet Witch and Iron Man—what rare prizes to stumble upon in the Void."
"Rare prizes? What is this, an auction?" Tony quipped. "If you're trying to sell us off, at least buy me dinner first."
But Wanda ignored him, her focus unshakable. "Where did you get that Time-Pad? Have you seen Malrick Stark?" Her voice carried both demand and threat.
Cassandra only smiled wider. "Oh? And if I don't tell you?"
In a flash, a crushing wave of telekinetic force slammed down, threatening to tear them apart. Tony's nanotech shifted rapidly to shield him, but the armor began to buckle under the immense pressure.
Then, scarlet magic exploded outward from Wanda, dispersing the attack and staining the sky red as if the heavens themselves bled.
Tony steadied himself. "Damn. Strong and rude. Thanks for the save, Wanda."
The clash had lasted less than a second, but Wanda had already assessed her foe.
"Her telekinesis is powerful," she muttered, eyes narrowing, "but it's nowhere near Malrick's level. That pad probably wasn't hers to begin with."
Cassandra laughed, clapping slowly. "Marvelous. You're the first to survive my telekinetic strike. Even that Sorcerer with the red cape—he claimed to be the Sorcerer Supreme—couldn't withstand me. I wore his skin for four days."
Her smile twisted with bloody delight, though her poise remained disturbingly graceful. "As expected of the Scarlet Witch. I think I'll peel you apart inch by inch."
Wanda's response was wordless. Scarlet energy surged as her attire shifted into its battle form. A crimson crown flickered into existence above her head, and her eyes glowed with the light of a god of chaos.
The wind howled. The clouds trembled.
At that moment, even the sky seemed to bow before her.
_____
Advanced chapters are available on Patreon.
Become a patron to gain access.
Patreon.com/Zphyr