The rescue team had been so caught up in testing this world's strange phenomena that they almost forgot about their actual objective—rescuing Billy Butcher.
In fairness, they hadn't wasted that much time. The real issue was that this mission world was too bizarre: not only did time flow differently here, it kept looping within the same single day.
On top of that, as outsiders, they couldn't interact with or affect anything in this world at all. Whether they could successfully complete the mission was very much in doubt.
With Jarvis' earlier intel turning out to be wrong, they had no choice but to rely on themselves. The only upside? They no longer needed to bother hiding their identities.
Tony handed out a few nano-drones, and the group of three took to the skies to travel faster.
By sheer coincidence, they ended up having a mid-air "run-in" with Homelander.
Annie and Queen Maeve couldn't resist giving chase, swinging their fists in the air. Of course, they couldn't actually hit him, but it still felt good to vent some long-held frustration.
As night began to fall, they finally spotted Billy Butcher near the home of Vought's Vice President, Madelyn Stillwell.
That's when something unexpected happened—Billy Butcher saw them too.
"Annie, Maeve… you shouldn't be here!"
Billy was strapped head-to-toe with explosives, a detonator clutched in his hand, his eyes narrowing in confusion as he looked at Annie, Maeve, Tony, and Dr. Banner.
"Easy, Butcher," Annie said, raising her hands.
"We're not here to hurt you."
From all their earlier experiments, they already knew they couldn't affect this world physically—and it couldn't affect them either.
If Billy accidentally blew himself up, they wouldn't lose a single hair… but Billy would be very dead.
Annie took a deep breath, glancing around. Encouraged by Maeve, Tony, and Banner's nods, she stepped forward slowly, hands raised, wearing her warmest smile.
"Butcher, do you remember me? We met before, back when—"
"Save it! We were in that quiz game together—just a few days ago. Let me think… for me, it's been about five days. You're stuck here too, aren't you?"
Annie let out a sigh of relief. If he was a player, then he was indeed their rescue target.
"You've been here for five days?" she asked curiously.
"Almost six," Billy said with a shrug. "Now stand back, I don't want you getting blood all over you."
Before they could react, he suddenly sprinted toward the villa's front door.
At that exact moment, Homelander dropped from the sky. The instant his boots hit the ground, Billy pressed the detonator.
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted, flesh and debris scattering in all directions.
Flames roared skyward. Tony waved his hand dismissively. "Wow. Nice to meet you too, buddy."
The others just stared—until the world around them began to twist and ripple, colors and lights flashing in a dizzying display.
When everything settled, the four of them were standing back on the riverside lawn—right where they'd first entered this world.
"Time reset again," Banner muttered, scratching his head. "Looks like all this weirdness is directly tied to Butcher. The moment he dies, the day resets."
"I've seen a movie like this," Tony mused. "Pretty sure it was a horror flick."
Annie frowned. "Butcher asked if we were trapped here too… I think he sees himself as a prisoner in some kind of time cage."
Maeve nodded. "Yeah, this world does feel like one giant prison."
After a brief discussion, they decided to stake out the same spot and wait for Billy to appear.
But plans rarely survive first contact with reality—before they even got there, Billy pulled up in a car and shouted, "Get in. I'm short on time."
"Sorry, we can't," Annie said, shrugging. She mimed pulling the door handle—only for her hand to pass straight through the car door.
Billy's eyes widened. "You're all dead, aren't you?"
Maeve rolled her eyes. "Of course not. Just… a bit of a technical glitch."
After hearing their explanation, Billy frowned.
"Well, if you can't get in, I still have to run. Vought's people are hunting me all over the city."
"That's fine," Tony grinned. "You drive, we'll follow."
The four of them used their drones to keep pace with his car, easily avoiding other vehicles, pedestrians, and buildings. Honestly, the whole "ghost mode" thing was a little fun.
After a while, Tony cut to the chase. "So, Billy—what's your mission?"
Banner added, "We're here to rescue you. Annie can vouch for that."
Billy glanced at them. "You're from the Multiverse Defenders, right? My mission's simple—kill Homelander. I've got twelve hours to do it. If I fail, the clock resets. You've already seen it happen."
Annie's eyes widened. "Twelve hours? Kill Homelander?"
Maeve shook her head immediately. "That's impossible."
"Not necessarily," Tony said, raising a brow. "With our help, it's doable. The problem is… we can't touch anything here. You've been stuck six days now, right? That means you've tried six times and failed every time?"
"Three, actually," Billy corrected.
"The first time, I didn't believe the reset would happen. Twelve hours later, I believed.
The second time, I skipped Homelander entirely and went to see my… wife. The third time, I tried a real plan, but got unlucky—ran into Homelander on the way. He killed me outright. The other three attempts failed too."
"He killed you?" Annie asked in shock. "But in the future vision, didn't he not kill you?"
"This is the same day from that vision—me strapped with explosives, facing him at Madelyn's place. But this isn't exactly a future node or even a parallel world. Feels more like a giant illusion built just for me. In here, he's less… reasonable. The moment he spots me, he attacks. No talking, no hesitation."
From the way Billy told it, it was clear—he'd already gone to extreme lengths to try and finish this mission.
_____
T/N:
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