Heroes at Rest

"Wow! What's going on?"

"What happened? Please tell me no one kissed me just now!"

Tony, startled awake by Hulk's roar, looked at the concerned faces of Cap and the others around him. Still shaken, he joked to lighten the mood.

Seeing that Tony still had the energy to crack jokes, Captain America finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "We won."

"Alright, well done, guys! Hey! Anyone up for shawarma?"

"There's a place two blocks from here. I haven't tried it, but I think it's worth a shot," Stark said, as though a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Thor smiled at Tony's suggestion but quickly glanced up at the top of Stark Tower and said, "Our business isn't finished yet."

As soon as Thor said that, the rest of the Avengers knew what he was referring to and immediately became serious. "Alright, we'll save it for later."

Meanwhile, Loki was just recovering from Hulk's beating and the heavy blow dealt by Ned. Struggling to get up, he suddenly sensed something. Slowly turning his head, he found the Avengers standing right behind him, staring at him with blank expressions. Hawkeye, in particular, had an arrow notched, looking like he was ready to shoot him in the eye at any moment.

Although Loki felt that with Thor around, he wouldn't be subjected to inhumane torture, the sight before him still startled him.

Swallowing nervously, Loki forced a smile and said, "If you don't mind, I'd like to have that drink first."

"Alright, let him up. We'll have plenty of chances to look cool in the future."

After posing for a while and asking JARVIS to take a photo for the record, Tony told the others, "And remember to clean up the mess for me..."

"Whoa!"

Tony's words were suddenly interrupted by an exclamation from Ned.

"Hey! You kidd with the magic! I haven't even held you accountable for smashing my window yet!"

Being interrupted, Tony Stark, of course, wasn't pleased. He pointed at Ned with an air of arrogance and said, "No, no, no. I was saving you," Ned replied casually, waving a hand.

Then he turned to Captain America and said, "Hey, Cap, was it you who accidentally bumped into me just now?"

"Uh…" Captain America hadn't expected such a strong reaction to a small bump. Just as he was about to apologize, Ned continued, "To be honest, Cap, your uniform really doesn't do much for your butt."

Before anyone could process what he meant, JARVIS suddenly interjected, "The Sorcerer is correct, though I think it's just fine. It's the classic American buttocks, Mr. Rogers."

"…"

"Ahahahaha!"

After a brief silence, Tony Stark was the first to burst into laughter. "Hey, JARVIS, buddy, you really are my most considerate partner!"

"And you, magic-kiddo, considering the year's worth of laughter you just gave me, I'll let the window incident slide."

Hearing JARVIS's remark, Cap instantly understood why Ned had exclaimed earlier. His face darkened further as Tony's unabashed laughter rang out. Turning, he saw the "Spider-kid" in the hoodie desperately trying to stifle his laughter, and Black Widow and Hawkeye similarly struggling to keep straight faces.

When Cap looked over, Black Widow calmly said, "Relax, Cap. We've been professionally trained—we don't laugh easily."

"Snrk!"

Cap turned to Hawkeye.

"Unless we can't help it," Hawkeye said, face red with suppressed laughter.

Cap shrugged helplessly and turned toward the elevator. As he walked, he said, "Can't deal with you guys. I'm going to oversee the rescue operation."

"Who should take this scepter, then?"

Black Widow held up Loki's scepter and looked at the others.

She then turned to Thor, as it seemed natural to her that since the scepter belonged to Loki, Thor might want to take it back to Asgard.

Thor raised the briefcase in his hand and said, "As Asgard needs the Tesseract to repair the Bifröst, I'll be taking it. As for the scepter, treat it as a war trophy."

In other words, if the Bifröst weren't destroyed, even the Tesseract wouldn't have interested Thor.

The Avengers weren't surprised. After so much time together, they had grown used to Thor's personality.

Just as the others were about to speak, Ned chimed in first: "Give it to me. I can put it to better use."

Ned spoke up with a plan in mind. While the magic of Kamar-Taj was powerful, it might not be enough to stand against Thanos. The situation with Strange was proof of that.

The Ancient One, though nearly omnipotent, had honed her craft over centuries of continuous practice.

While Ned was exceptionally talented, reaching the Ancient One's level would take a long time, something he couldn't afford with Thanos looming.

Thus, Ned decided to take a different route: harnessing the power of the Infinity Stones to counter Thanos. After all, magic counters magic, and stones counter stones.

If Ned could wield multiple Infinity Stones effectively, there would be no need to fear Thanos.

This resolve had been strengthened during his time at Kamar-Taj. In addition to learning standard magic, Ned studied every spell related to using Infinity Stones. The Ancient One seemed to understand his intentions and didn't stop him, allowing him to pursue his path freely.

If not for Asgard needing the Tesseract, Ned would have wanted that as well.

"Well."

After the intense battle, the group had built a foundation of trust and camaraderie.

Given Ned's abilities, which seemed well-suited to managing the obviously magical scepter, Black Widow had no objections and handed it over with a simple "Alright."

The rest of the Avengers felt the same. After all, if they kept the unsettling scepter, they'd just have to figure out how to deal with it, and they trusted their teammate more than anyone else.

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