The Savior of American Comics? I'm the Subspace Evil God!

Chapters 580, 1076, and 1077: The Sweet Date That Was Interrupted (Part 1)

"Ahhhh...!!!"

A piercing, desperate scream escaped through the holes in the fuselage, carried by the airflow, and then vanished instantly in the howling wind.

Inside the cabin, all unsecured objects—whether food carts, luggage, blankets, or magazines—were instantly sucked out of the cabin as if grabbed by an invisible hand.

Among them were passengers who were not wearing seatbelts.

Under the terrifying force of the pressure difference between the inside and outside and the turbulent airflow, even a fat man weighing over 200 pounds had no power to resist.

They were thrown into the air, one by one, like fruit being poured out of a basket, like dumplings being dropped into a pot, through the hole and into the sky a thousand meters high.

In just over ten seconds, twenty or thirty figures scattered across the azure sky and plummeted downwards.

The scene was so horrific it was suffocating.

Ultron hovered high in the sky, coldly observing the human tragedy it had created, and cast a malicious taunt down at Tony Stark below, "Good luck, humanity's... 'Guardian'?!"

He then stopped and the thrusters under his feet and on his back burst into intense light again. He changed direction and flew rapidly in the direction where the carriage had disappeared, quickly disappearing at the edge of the horizon.

"That damn bastard!!"

Tony Stark cursed angrily, his anger rising at Ultron's despicable tactics and utterly shameless behavior.

But now is clearly not the time to think about these things, because right in front of us are dozens of lives rapidly heading towards death.

So he flew at full speed toward the passengers falling from the sky, and instructed Friday, "Friday, scan how many people fell out of that plane?"

Sensors on the exterior of the armor quickly locked onto the heat source signal of each falling object.

"Sir, we have detected and locked 29 life signals so far." [Friday] The woman's voice, which was originally gentle, sounded incredibly cold at this moment.

"29? Damn it, how could there be so many?!"

Tony Stark's heart sank upon hearing this, and his face instantly turned ashen. This number far exceeded his expectations.

"How many people can I safely land at once?" he hurriedly asked, while frantically calculating all the possibilities in his mind.

"Under the premise of ensuring full buffer power and not causing serious physical damage to the rescued person, the additional carrying capacity of the [Mark45 Armor] is approximately the weight of 9 adults."

Friday's answer was swift and precise, but what followed sent a chill down Tony Stark's spine.

"Sir, based on their current initial altitude and falling acceleration, there are less than 30 seconds left before they hit the ground."

"Therefore, even if you conduct multiple round trips for rescue at maximum efficiency, the number of passengers who ultimately cannot be rescued in time will still exceed 20..."

Σ(⊙▽⊙“a???

The death toll exceeds 20?
This cold, hard number struck Tony Stark like a hammer blow to the chest.

He could almost imagine the barrage of criticism they would face from the major news media and online forums tomorrow—no, at most a few hours later.

[Iron Man's suit malfunctions, causing disaster! He watches helplessly as dozens of civilians fall to their deaths...]

Incompetence or cold-bloodedness? A crisis of trust among superheroes...

Do we need this kind of 'protection'? On the necessity of disbanding the Avengers...

Following the storm of online criticism, the government's public accountability, and the public's panic and accusations... it's possible that all members of the Avengers could be forced to become "wanted criminals" who cannot see the light of day, just like Captain America.

Tony Stark wasn't afraid to take responsibility, but he knew it would be devastating to the Avengers and everything he had worked so hard to protect.

However, what puzzled him even more was the 'trolley problem' that was right in front of him.

Even if he went all out, he simply couldn't save everyone at the same time.

So...who should we save? Who should we abandon?
How can you make a life-or-death decision for dozens of people in just a few dozen seconds?

Is it the person closest to the rescue?

Who looks the youngest?
Or should we use a random algorithm?
No matter which choice he makes, it means he will have to personally 'judge' the deaths of more than twenty other people.

This moral dilemma brought him a sense of powerlessness and heavy pressure that almost suffocated him.

"Believe me, [Friday], if the captain were here, he certainly wouldn't want to hear this despairing answer."

Tony Stark's voice was filled with bitterness and helplessness, but just as he was under immense psychological pressure, controlling the Mark 45 armor to rush towards the nearest group of falling people, thinking that he could save as many as possible, a sudden change occurred!
Without any warning, streaks of scarlet, magical light, like flowing energy, spread across the sky like living tentacles, extending at a speed beyond the laws of physics, precisely entangling each passenger who was in freefall.

The fall came to an abrupt end.

All passengers, regardless of age or gender, were as if a pause button had been pressed, and they were eerily suspended in mid-air.

The expressions of terror and distortion on their faces had not yet faded, but their bodies were no longer being pulled by gravity.

This scene greatly violated their familiar common sense of physics and was full of supernatural eeriness.

But the excitement continues...

Immediately afterwards, almost simultaneously, directly beneath each passenger suspended in mid-air, the air rippled like water, rapidly unfolding into circular portals, each just the right size to accommodate an adult, with edges flashing with azure arcs of electricity.

The portal shimmered with a strange, swirling light, like the starry sky.

Then, the hovering state suddenly ended.

The passengers gasped as they fell into the portal below, their figures instantly swallowed by the azure light.

At almost the same moment, in a spacious plaza on a commercial street in downtown Seoul.

Ripples spread through the air as a series of azure portals opened out of thin air.

One by one, the passengers who had just fallen from a thousand meters in the air emerged unharmed from the portal, which was only half a meter above the ground, and staggered onto the solid ground.

"Ouch!"

"Ah!" "Huh???"

"Ah this?!"

After a brief period of chaos and shock, a mixture of elation at surviving the ordeal and profound bewilderment swept over everyone.

"I...I'm not dead? But I was clearly in mid-air just now..." A man in a business suit slumped to the ground, touching his face and body in disbelief, his voice trembling.

"Thank goodness! I'm saved! God bless me! Buddha bless me!" A middle-aged woman cried tears of joy, her hands tightly clasped together, repeatedly thanking the non-existent gods and Buddhas in the sky, tears streaming down her face.

"Waaaaah... Mommy, I'm scared..." A little girl sat on the ground and cried loudly. Her mother was not 'sucked' out of the cabin with her.

"What's going on? Is it the Avengers? Did Iron Man's new technology save us?" Someone looked up at the sky, searching for that golden-red figure, but found nothing.

"What was that red light just now? And that blue circle... Was I hallucinating?" A young man rubbed his eyes, looking around at the equally bewildered crowd with a confused expression.

Some people knelt down to thank God, some hugged each other to celebrate their new life, and some were so shocked and excited that they collapsed on the ground, unable to move, just panting heavily.

The scene was a bit chaotic for a while.

But the air was filled with a strong sense of joy in survival.

The passersby who were walking normally were also stunned by this sudden scene. They stopped to watch, pointing and whispering, or taking out their phones to take pictures. Their faces were full of disbelief, and they had no idea what had just happened.

Tony Stark was equally bewildered. He hovered in mid-air, his brows furrowed beneath his visor. His face showed no joy at the successful resolution of a crisis that could have severely damaged the reputation of the Avengers; instead, it was filled with deeper doubt and shock.

He clearly noticed the anomaly immediately.

The energy fluctuations of those azure portals that just appeared in the sky were exactly the same as those of the giant portal that opened in New York.

To verify his guess, he asked Friday, "Friday, analyze the energy fluctuations that just occurred!"

"Sir, we have recorded and analyzed... The energy signature of those hovering passengers is some kind of unknown energy, which seems to have a powerful ability to distort reality."

"The results of the portal's energy spectrum analysis show a 100% match with the energy characteristics of the [Cosmic Cube] previously recorded in the database."

A Cosmic Cube?!

Just as I guessed!

The problem is, wasn't that thing taken back to Asgard by Thor a long time ago?

How would it appear here?

And yet it was used so skillfully by someone?

And Tony Stark was certain that the person who had just made the move was definitely not Thor.

Otherwise, that show-off big oaf would have already stepped forward to enjoy the worship of the 'Midgardeners' right away, wouldn't he?
So the question is, who did it?

Who has now acquired the Cosmic Cube?
One problem after another made him feel uneasy, but he had no clue what to do.

For some reason, a name that was both strange and familiar popped into Tony Stark's mind—Karl Mara!
That mysterious, powerful, and unpredictable man, who has countless connections with the [Subspace Group]!
But he quickly shook his head, banishing the uneasy thought, and kept repeating to himself, "Please, please don't let it be him..."

If the person who just made the move was indeed Karl Mara, it means that the Tesseract has fallen into the hands of an entity that neither the Avengers nor S.H.I.E.L.D. can predict or control.

The potential threat it poses may be ten thousand times more terrifying than Ultron!
"Stark, we've successfully arrived at Hawkeye's farm. How's the situation on your end?"

Just then, Captain America's call suddenly came through the communicator. Tony Stark took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and temporarily suppress the turmoil in his heart. He replied in as calm a tone as possible, half-jokingly:

"Everything is normal here. Ultron has most likely been fooled by us. He'll probably be furious when he finds out the Cradle of Life is gone, right?"

"That's good..." Captain America paused, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back, "Stark, hurry back, we have something important to discuss."

He was clearly referring to how to deal with the newly acquired Cradle of Life, and the troublesome 'Vibranium Body' inside.

"Okay, wait for me." Seeing that the crisis had passed, Tony Stark no longer hesitated.

Regardless of who saves people or who gets the Tesseract, the most pressing threat remains Ultron and its plan to destroy the world.

He took one last look at the passengers in the plaza below who had survived the ordeal and were gradually returning to order, as well as the passersby around him who were still discussing the matter. Then he controlled the [Mark45 Armor] to turn around, the thrusters spewing out dazzling trails of flame, and flew rapidly toward [Hawkeye's] farm.

Meanwhile, on a bustling pedestrian street not far from that noisy square, crowds thronged.

A strikingly good-looking young couple strolled leisurely, seemingly detached from the surrounding noise by an invisible barrier.

The man was tall and straight, dressed in a well-tailored, expensive casual suit. His demeanor was languid yet exuded an undeniable air of authority; it was Karl.

The woman beside him wore an elegant red dress that accentuated her graceful figure. Her chestnut hair was slightly curled, her skin was as white as snow, and her face was stunningly beautiful. In particular, her large eyes were clear yet held a hint of lively charm. It was none other than Wanda Nara.

To alleviate the monotonous training life of Wanda, who was learning magic from the bald-headed villain Ancient One in Kamar-Taj, Karl had actually started regularly inviting Wanda out for shopping and relaxation a long time ago.

The two of them would go on dates to tourist attractions around the world almost every now and then, just like they are doing now.

Wanda was naturally overjoyed, so she would dress up carefully before going out, just to show her best side to her beloved.

The saying "A woman dresses up for the one she loves" perfectly describes Wanda's state of mind at this moment.

Just minutes earlier, the two had walked out of a nicely decorated movie theater on the street corner.

Today they watched a recently popular romantic movie, filled with sweet confessions, fateful encounters, and happy endings.

The movie was naturally chosen by Wanda. For her, being able to snuggle up with Carl in the dark theater like an ordinary couple, sharing popcorn and experiencing the fictional romance on the screen was the greatest happiness.

Carl naturally accepted it all. For him, the content was not important; what mattered was the time he spent with Wanda.

However, the two had barely stepped out of the movie theater and hadn't even had a chance to breathe in the fresh air when an explosion and subsequent screams shattered the tranquility.

The two looked up at the same time and saw the billowing black smoke coming from the tail of the passenger plane, as well as the tiny figures that were like pearls falling from a broken string across the sky.

So, the beautiful and kind-hearted Wanda naturally stepped in to rescue her without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)