TW: Thank you.

Ellie Bishop: Hank's issues with Tony are really a projection about his issues with Howard that Hank passes onto Tony. Although, to be fair to Hank, Tony has proved himself to be very much Howard's son. It's been a while since I rewatched Ant-Man, so I really can't say whether it was Hydra or Howard who betrayed Hank. As T'Challa grows closer to M'Baku, W'Kabi will definitely resent it, feel like his influence over T'Challa is waning and it will unfortunately drive him to do some things he can't take back. I've never actually read that comic but heard enough about to be pleased. Indeed. Oh yeah, Carol's about to get a big taste of humble pie.

SadAce: Yes.

Gallifrey 22.3: Using the exact same argument twice doesn't somehow make it more valid than it did the first time.

Guest 1: The MCU can whitewash Talos all they want, that doesn't mean I have to buy it. Not to mention I established a long time ago that this Talos is evil and tricked Carol into thinking he was good.

Guest 2: You'll see on W'Kabi. Because it was. Captain Marvel went out of its way to avoid having Carol struggle, either physically, emotionally or morally. It made for a poorly written movie about a poorly written character.

Skrull ship

In a command room, Carol Danvers was silent, having arrived an hour ago after receiving Talos's call. Then, she spoke.

"Tell me his name again."

"Thor Odinson. He is the price, I suppose now the king, of a planet called Asgard. We Skrulls had…encounters with the Asgardians centuries ago," Talos said, the way he said 'encounters' saying everything to Carol about how those meetings with Thor had went. "Thor was always the worst. He's a killer, the closest thing we Skrulls have to a boogie man. A few years ago, he nearly started a war with the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. Now, his father Odin has allegedly passed away, making him king of Asgard. He just killed hundreds of Skrulls, taking out a third of our weapons. If he declares war against us, we will be helpless against Asgard. I need your help Carol."

"You need me to kill Thor," Carol realized and Talos nodded. "If he's as bad as you say he is, I can't let someone like that be king of a planet as powerful as Asgard, wreaking havoc across the universe. I'll kill him, not just for you and the Skrulls, but the entire universe."

Talos watched silently as Carol walked out of the room before a smirk crossed his face. For someone so powerful, Carol Danvers was surprisingly easy to manipulate. She wanted to be the big hero, and so Talos usually just needed to point her in the right direction and she took care of his problems for him when she wasn't off giving the Kree trouble.

If anyone could possibly defeat Thor, Talos had a feeling it was Carol. Hopefully, this would be just another time where Carol took care of his problem for him.

Avengers Compound

Morning

"So Pym finally agreed, huh?" Tony asked as he, Steve, Natasha and Bruce sat in the briefing room.

"A man as stubborn as Hank Pym was never going to listen without proof," Natasha pointed out and Tony had to be begrudgingly agree.

"According to Scott, they'll be here in a few days," Steve explained.

"What exactly do we need from them?" Bruce inquired.

"For starters, we need Pym's help constructing a Quantum Tunnel," Tony explained.

"No one knows more about the Quantum Realm than him. And we need a tunnel to get access to the Negative Zone," Steve explained.

"What is the Negative Zone?" Bruce asked curiously.

"Fitz called it an endless void of space charged with negative energy. If we put Hela there, the negative energy should theoretically drain her power," Tony explained.

"Theoretically," Bruce echoed.

"A theory based on input from Thor, Pym and Fitz. It's the only option we have besides blowing up Asgard. And Thor would prefer not to do that this time around," Tony argued and Bruce sighed.

"Time travel, Thor's evil sister, these Accords, Thanos. It's all insane," Bruce grumbled. "Why don't you just ask that Doctor Strange guy for help?"

"He's currently training to be a Master of the Mystic Arts. He won't be Sorcerer Supreme for several months," Steve explained and Bruce nodded. "In the meantime, we have more threats to deal with besides Hela and The Accords."

"Zemo," Natasha noted and Steve nodded.

"I've had FRIDAY running facial recognition with his picture, nothing so far," Tony said.

"Zemo was part of the Sokovian Special Forces before Ultron, he's used to staying off the grid," Natasha pointed out.

"Worst comes to worst, we know where he's going and where he'll stay. We have time to prepare," Steve added.

"So until we have something on Zemo, all we can do is wait and plan," Natasha said before checking her watch. "Which I guess we'll have to do when I get back, I need to head out in a few hours, take Wanda to the farm."

"Where is she anyway? Her bag was on her bed when I passed on the way but she wasn't there or in the kitchen," Bruce wondered.

"She's…saying goodbye," Steve said evasively after a moment.


In the med bay, Wanda sat down next to Bucky's cryo-chamber, red mist surrounding both of them.


Inside Bucky's mind, he and Wanda were sitting on a grassy field, sitting on a blanket as they talked.

"So you're going to this farm?" Bucky inquired and Wanda nodded.

"It's Clint's home; no one knows where it is except the Avengers. And I guess Fury and Hill. Steve and Natasha think it'll be a good idea for me not to be here when Ross comes," Wanda explained and Bucky nodded.

"Makes sense. How long are you gonna be gone?" Bucky asked, understanding although disappointed.

And it wasn't just because she was able to take him away from the painful memories and nightmares of his past. He genuinely liked her. It was a rare thing in this life that he could find someone he could relate to about his past. Hydra hadn't used her in the same way, but Wanda had still been manipulated into being a tool of Hydra.

"I don't know. At least a month, maybe longer. Steve and Clint want to keep me out of the line of fire of The Accords. I heard him and Natasha talking in the kitchen the other day," Wanda explained at Bucky's look.

"Right," Bucky said with a nod. "As much as I'll miss you, it makes sense. Even as the Winter Soldier, I heard the chatter about Ross. I think you should be as far away from him as possible. He's got a pretty hard stance on Enhanced. Either they work for him or they're a public menace."

"He'd fit right in with Hydra," Wanda muttered and Bucky smiled tightly, not disagreeing. "And I'll miss you too."

"Well hopefully by the time you come back, I'll be ready to come out of this thing," Bucky muttered before pausing. "I'm gonna do something, something that I haven't done in a while."

Wanda nodded; looking at him confused before, to her shock, he leaned down and lightly kissed her on the lips.

"Sorry," Bucky said as he pulled back. "I've just…been wanting to do that for a while."

"You shouldn't have done that," Wanda said once she found her voice. "Not while we're in here."

"Why?" Bucky asked, realizing she didn't seem to mind that he'd kissed her so much as he'd kissed her in his mind.

"You're trapped in here; you haven't been talking to anyone else. I don't want to take advantage of you, the way I've felt taken advantage of," Wanda clarified, remembering how she had basically imprinted on Vision before their trip to the future.

"So you don't feel like I'm using you to fill some kind of void or anything like that," Bucky noted, understanding. "I get it. And after I get out of here?"

"Then we'll see," Wanda said, not really able to promise anything more than that.


New York

Afternoon

Gwen was walking home from school, passing by a dark alley on her way when suddenly, something grabbed her. She tried to cry out but something covered her mouth. She almost gagged at the taste of what she realized was sand before she was pulled into the alley.

Gwen was slammed against the alley wall and saw who her assailant was. It was Marko, although one of his arms had expanded to cover her upper body and seemed to be made entirely of sand.

"Bet you thought you'd gotten away from me," Marko said with a vicious grin that made Gwen's blood ran cold. "But no one ever gets away from me."

"You sure about that?"

Marko whipped his head around just before Spider-Man swung in, planting his feet on Marko's chest. To his disbelief, he went right through Marko as the former serial killer's body turned to sand.

"Talk about getting sand it your shoes," Peter mutter muttered.

Before Marko could reform, Peter shot out two streams of webbing and snatched Gwen away from Marko.

"You okay?" Peter asked, recognizing her as the girl he saved from Marko before as Gwen nodded. "Run."

Gwen took off running as Marko reformed.

"You're gonna regret that," Marko sneered, both his hands turning into sand and growing until they were the size of bowling balls.

"We'll see about that, Sandy," Peter quipped.

With a roar, Marko's arms turned to sand as well and they shot out towards Peter. Peter jumped into the air and, seeing a nearby dumpster, shot out two streams of webbing towards it. With a pull, Peter sent the dumpster flying towards Marko. It crashed into him and sent the serial killer flying out of the alley, crashing into a nearby building and appearing to flatten him.

The bystanders all stopped, staring at the dumpster as Peter jumped out, landing on the street. After a few moments, sand rose out from behind the dumpster and reformed into Marko.

"Had a feeling that wouldn't work," Peter said and Marko chuckled.

"Big bad superheroes have always been making life hard for guys like me. But now things are different. Now, the playing field is finally fair!" Marko shouted insanely.

Marko raised his left arm, which turned to sand and enlarged before shooting out towards Peter. Peter once more jumped into the air but this time, Marko's hand grabbed him by the leg and threw him down the street. Peter yelped as he went flying before crashing into a fire hydrant. Peter laid there for a moment, dazed as water began flying into the air, sprinkling around him.

"Like I said, things are different now," Marko said smugly as he approached Peter, getting wet. "Sayonara, Web-Head."

Marko tried to enlarge his hands once again, however, when they turned to sand, he started having a hard time as the sand became wet.

"Science 101: water and sand don't mix," Peter cracked as he saw Marko's predicament.

Marko growled before they heard police sirens approaching.

"Saved by the cops. Stay out of my way, or next time you don't be so lucky," Marko snapped.

Seeing a nearby sever drain, Marko rushed toward it, doing his best to turn into sand and fleeing down it. Peter got to his feet before running, shooting off webbing and using it to propel him up the side of a nearby building. He crawled up the side before pulling himself onto the roof, looking down to the cops had arrived with seconds to spare. Peter looked down at them for a second longer before turning and running, shooting off webbing and using to swing up into the air, fleeing the scene.

Marko was still out there, and now he had powers. Things just got so much worse.

Now Carol's been put onto Thor's trail, so she'll start making her way towards Asgard.

Not entirely proud of the Wanda/Bucky scene. But hope you all enjoyed it.

And Peter has had his first encounter with Sandman. Peter's storyline is about to finally take off.