As Max sat on a boulder, Sara and a few other survivors came hesitantly toward him.
"Sir... what now?" one of them asked.
Max leaned back with a small smile.
"What else? We won," he said.
They looked at him in a stunned silence, a sense of awe growing among them. A few even reached out to touch him, some overcome with emotion and beginning to cry.
Some cheered as Sara looked at smiling Max as she smiled too
Max looked toward the rising sun, as if a new era was dawning.
***
Late at night, as Sara lay next to Max, naked under the stars, she traced his chest gently with her finger.
"Are you leaving?" she asked softly.
Max looked at her. "Why do you ask?"
"I don't know... I just have a feeling you are," she said, resting her head on his chest.
Max exhaled. "I am."
She clenched her fist and whispered, "You were never from our world, were you?"
Max nodded slowly.
"No, I never was. I was just a traveler in this world. But now, I can't stay any longer. If I do, things might get... dangerous."
She looked up at him, eyes searching.
"What about the world? What about me? Will you leave us behind?"
Max reached out and gently cupped her face.
"I can take you with me—if you want to come."
She was silent for a moment.
"But you clearly don't want that,"he said, as tears welled up in her eyes.
Max lowered his gaze as she cried quietly into his chest.
"I want to go," she whispered, "but... I want to help the people here. They need me."
Max nodded, understanding. But then she gently placed her hand on his and slowly climbed over him, the moonlight casting a soft glow across her bare body.
She leaned close, her lips just above his.
"But I'll make sure... that you leave a part of yourself with me," she whispered.
Then she kissed him deeply, lovingly—her movements slow, intimate, filled with emotion. That night, as their bodies entwined, she made love to him with a quiet intensity, as if trying to hold on to every second, to carve his presence into her soul.
****
Back in his Marvel-world home, Max opened his eyes slowly as he fully returned to his body.
"Well... that was really a hard goodbye," he muttered, the words barely above a whisper.
Sara's image flashed in his mind—her touch, her voice, the warmth of that final night. A bittersweet ache settled in his chest.
Max stood up from the couch, the lingering echo of Sara's voice still whispering in the back of his mind. He took a deep breath, steadying himself.
"Alright... back to work," he said, brushing his fingers through his hair.
He moved through the sleek halls of his Marvel-universe base—his sanctuary and command center. The AI system, Mary, chimed in immediately.
"Welcome back, Max. You were offline for approximately six hours. Would you like a status update?"
"Yeah," Max said, his voice firmer now. "Give me everything—global events, system updates, intel from the surveillance drones. Start with anything involving metahuman activity."
"Understood. There are currently three high-priority items in the queue. Shall I display them on the main screen?"
Max opned his laptop, which was already lighting up with data feeds, news reports, and tactical overlays. He cracked his neck and leaned forward.
"So, nothing major happened," Max mumbled as he closed the laptop and then laid down on the bed.
"Hm. Now, let's go and see another world—after a break, though," he said as he closed his eyes.
Waking up after some time, Max sat up and looked at the Apocalypse Gacha once again. With a small grin, he pressed the spin button.
The gachapon machine materialized before him with a mechanical hum. It rattled for a moment before spitting out a capsule. Max caught it mid-air, cracking it open with practiced ease.
Inside, a card shimmered to life.
"New Marvel World: Thanos' Invasion – Timeline Divergence."
His eyes narrowed as he read the details. In this version of Marvel, Thanos had already won—snapping his fingers and wiping out half the population. The world was fractured, desperate, and left to rebuild... much like the time between Infinity War and Endgame.
Max stood up, the weight of the new scenario sinking in.
"A post-snap world, huh?" he muttered. "Looks like I'll get to fight Thanos sooner than expected."
He smirked, confidence flickering in his eyes.
"Though… he'll be a lot weaker against my current powers. After all, even a fraction of what I used was enough to kill an Ultron powered by Infinity Stones and other high-tier resources."
He muttered the thought aloud as he pressed the Travel button, the capsule dissolving into particles around him.
The air shimmered, warping with a low hum as space itself twisted.
In an instant, Max vanished from the spot—drawn once again across dimensions.
When he opened his eyes, the world was quiet... too quiet.
Ashes danced on the wind. Empty cars lined the streets. Buildings stood hollow and forgotten, like monuments to a better past. The sky was overcast, mirroring the grief that hung in the air like a suffocating fog.
He had arrived in the universe of Avengers: Endgame, sometime after the Snap.
Max stepped forward slowly, his boots crunching over dead leaves and dust. Half the world was gone.
"Yeah," he muttered, surveying the broken skyline. "This place definitely needs a little... correction."
"Though, let's go and see the Avengers for now," he mumbled, glancing to the side. His eyes landed on a car nearby, its door slightly ajar.
Max approached and tried the lock.
"Busted," he said with a smirk as the door popped open.
He climbed in and started the engine. I wonder if Cops will chase me now?
The engine roared to life, and the sleek vehicle sped away down the empty streets, kicking up dust behind it.
Max eased the car down the cracked, empty streets. Buildings loomed silent and hollow, their windows shattered or boarded up. The world felt frozen in time — a ghost town caught between what was and what could be.
Street signs were bent and faded. Storefronts stood empty, some with their doors ripped off, others with graffiti shouting forgotten warnings. The occasional abandoned belongings littered the sidewalks—forgotten toys, a tipped-over shopping cart, a worn-out sneaker.
***
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