43: Leaving the Prison.

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—— Bryan's P.O.V ——

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"Finally done" I muttered, and cracked my neck.

It had been 2 weeks since Captain along with the Secret Avengers broke into the Prison.

In the first week I only absorbed the unique energy of the Negative zone, and speed up the time of my body during the second week to assimilate the Negative energy into my Void Core.

It's good that the time moves faster in this Dimension because if it did not, I would have already run out of time I gave Wanda.

It's time for me to exit this prison, and it's also a perfect time to do that.

The regular casual sweep of telepathy I did during this week informed me of the current situation of the ongoing battle going on between the S.H.I.E.L.D and the Secret Avengers.

As the final battle begins Cloak teleports the combatants to New York City, where Namor and an army of Atlanteans arrive to fight alongside the Secret Avengers, while the Champions, the Thor clone, and Captain Marvel reinforce Stark's team. Mister Fantastic saves Invisible Woman from a bullet launched by Taskmaster, and Hercules destroys the Thor clone.

The Thing returns to protect the citizens from harm. As Captain was about to deliver a final blow to Iron Man, policemen, EMTs, and firefighters try to restrain him. Realizing how much damage the fight has already inflicted upon the very people he wishes to protect, Captain America surrenders and orders his team to stand down.

Currently, they are holding Captain inside their headquarters, but I know that he will be assassinated before they could present him to the court.

But that's the last of Tony's and Reed's Worries.

They should be more worried about the approaching ship of Hulk, and his people from Sakaar.

*Crack* *SHATTER* The glass window shattered with just a light tap.

*Crash* *BOOM* but that's not the only thing that got destroyed, the whole newly rebuilt corridor was also destroyed by the air pressure.

"~Sigh~" Now I have to rebuild my control all over again. That's the side effect of becoming strong too fast.

If Superman described himself as living in a world made up of cardboard, then for me it's like living in a world made up of wet paper on a windy day at that.

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—— 3rd Person's P.O.V ——

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Tony and Reed were having a conference meeting with World Security Council when alarms went off.

They quickly ended the call and checked the reason behind the alarm.

"Who's invading Prison 42 now, Captain and his Secret Avengers are already behind the bars," Tony questioned Reed, as later opened the video feed.

"It's not an invasion, but an escape, well if you can call this an escape that is," Reed replied and pointed at the screen where Bryan can be seen walking out of his cell. The outerverse projector that Tony was so proud of, popped like a balloon before it could even detect what was happening.

Tony immediately sent the newly rebuilt Thor's clone and Captain Marvel to stop Bryan, and then went to get his suit alongside Reed who also went to his lab to get a weapon he made just to deal with Bryan.

They also contacted Atlantis and Attilan for reinforcements.

But unfortunately for them, when they reached Bryan's cell, they only found badly beaten and unconscious bodies of both Captain Marvel and Thor's clone.

Bryan quickly left after dealing with Captain Marvel and Thor's clone. He didn't want to unintentionally injure the weaker members of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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After exiting the Negative Zone Bryan flew towards the Shield headquarters to save Captain America.

Reaching the location, Bryan silently floated over the building while observing the Brainwashed Sharon Carter who was making her way towards Captain's cell.

That's another difference in this Universe, unlike Universe 616 where Captain died outside the Court.

Bryan couldn't imagine how Captain will feel after knowing the woman he loved, will be the one to kill him.

Normally it's almost impossible for a normal human like her to kill Captain America, but Captain let his guard down against the woman he once loved, not knowing the said woman has changed.

Bryan suddenly frowned, not on Shanon and Captain's situation no, but on his own.

He had already felt something wrong with Wanda and used his [Existence Appraisal] on her multiple times, but found nothing strange. And even if she was brainwashed like Shanon Carter which he believes is almost impossible with her mental defence, there were no signs of mind-tempering abnormalities in her Existence.

Her Existence is just as beautiful as the day he first saw.

But changes in her personality are too big to happen in the span of a month, and that's not the only thing, there are a few physical changes he had noticed, like she was more sensitive to his touches, and her body shape returning back to what it looked like before Bryan started training her.

Bryan can accept her body shape changing because Wanda has a normal human body, and could lose her shape after not working out for a month, but her sensitivity increasing is not something he can overlook.

*Bam* Bryan's thoughts abruptly stopped by a gunshot.

The world lost its colour for Bryan as he moved faster than light towards Captain and Shanon.

Bryan watched Captain's shocked face frozen in time as he changed Captain with a clone he created before coming here.

"Wha-what happened" Captain uttered in a shocked tone after finding himself floating beside Bryan.

"Well for starters you're dead, and I captured your soul before it could enter the afterlife," Bryan said with a poker face.

To say Captain's expression was priceless was an understatement. But after thinking about his "last" moments, Captain accepted his death pretty easily which surprised Bryan.

"So this is how death feels like, huh." Bryan's face turned speechless after hearing Captain's words, he doesn't know if Captain was also trying to mess with him.

"It feels like…like I normally do, just a bit more sweaty." Captain continued speaking without minding Bryan's expression.

"How am I feeling sweaty while being just a soul." Captain questioned Bryan with a genuine curiosity, but Bryan can easily detect the slightest hint of sarcasm underneath his genuine tone.

"Okay, that's enough!" Bryan finally couldn't take it and stopped Captain from further bullsh*ting.

Steve smiled at Bryan's reaction but stopped when he saw Shannon leaving the building from the corner of his eyes.

"She's brainwashed," Bryan spoke seeing Captain go silent.

"I know…" Bryan raised an eyebrow at Captain's words.

"Don't give me that look, I am not stupid enough to think Shanon will assassinate me for no reason." Captain chuckled seeing Bryan's reaction. Bryan fell in deep thought and only came out when Captain started speaking again.

"Anyway, I think we didn't get the opportunity to exchange names. I'm Steve, Steve Rogers. Not that you don't know it already." Captain, or Steve continued and introduced himself.

Bryan chuckled at Steve's introduction, but still replied "Bryan, Bryan Fury." Bryan introduced himself in the same manner and shook Steve's raised hand.

Bryan honestly liked this Steve more than the goody two-shoe version from his Universe, though his Universe's Steve has also matured quite a lot from the first time he met him during World War II, he still loses to this version of Captain because this version has seen and been through too much shit compared to his Steve.

"Now tell me all about this mastermind you were talking about in our previous meeting," Steve asked with his face donning a serious expression.

Bryan didn't hide much and decided to tell Steve everything about the future, and the mastermind behind all this: The Beyonder.

Bryan wasn't too worried after thinking about the situation in these few weeks. He believes that this is the Post-retcon Beyonder because if he wasn't, no one other than The One Above All could have stopped him from entering this Universe.

So he wasn't that worried about facing the Post-retcon Beyonder because most of the Beyonder's power like Power stealing, copying, sealing, and erasing will be useless against him. The only way the Beyonder can kill and Capture Bryan is to send an attack strong enough to bypass his defence.

But the said attack will also destroy the Beyonder's chess, or play-board which he wouldn't want. And as long as the Beyonder stopped paying attention to him for even a tenth of a second, Bryan is confident enough to escape him, and if he didn't, then Bryan just has to hide inside his Dimension till Franklyn Richards grew up and deal with the Beyonder.

"Then why did you save me," Steve asked calmly, not even questioning Bryan's sanity for uttering such crazy things. The old soldier has just seen too much already, if next day someone came and says there are more than two genders, he will probably believe that too.

"No particular reason really, I saved you just because I felt like it," Bryan replied with a nonchalant shrug.

Steve stared at Bryan suspiciously but shrugged as well after seeing him not saying anything else.

"So, what do we do now?" Steve questioned Bryan, making him ponder, originally he was going to work on rebuilding his control, but now he wasn't feeling like doing it.

"How about we go get some coffee for now, and watch the whole thing unfold." Bryan offered.

"Yeah about that how sure are you that Sue and Reeds's child will be the saviour." Steve's question made Bryan ponder on how he should explain this, he can't say that he saw Franklyn's Existence which has already taken a unique shape while him being still a fetus, right?.

"I felt a tremendous amount of energy from the fetus growing inside Sue's pregnant belly, and it made me curious, so I looked into its future." Not knowing what to answer, Bryan simply lied with a straight face.

Steve didn't buy Bryan's lie but eventually relented after Bryan reassured him a few more times.

"Fine, but let's go to a bar instead of a coffee shop, I need something hard to digest all this shit," Steve suggested to Bryan.

"Drink, huh? Sure, I could also use one." Bryan agreed with Steve's suggestion.

"Great! I know an old bar nearby called Earl's Inn." Steve's words made Bryan smile in melancholy.

"That place exists in this Universe too?" Bryan questioned Steve, making him raise an eyebrow at his expression.

Bryan saw the questioning look on Steve's face and explained. "That's the same bar I used to go to with my old War buddies," Bryan said and smile in nostalgia.

"Well, you can consider me a War buddy too," Steve said, his own face showing a nostalgic expression as well, remembering his own time with Howling Commandos.

Ohh how he missed Bucky's flirting with every girl they came across in the bar, and how James always easily picked the girl Bucky flirted with.

"Yeah, I never got the opportunity to drink with my Universe's Steve as well," Bryan said Breaking Steve out of his thoughts.

After talking some more, Bryan and Steve went to the bar and spent the whole night drinking and talking in the old bar. With Bryan making the alcohol's toxicity match perfectly with their tolerance, they easily got drunk. And while drunk they did some really wild things.

Bryan even challenged Steve to get a girl's number after mocking him for being single in every Universe.

Steve accepted the challenge and approached a blonde bombshell, but unfortunately for the old soldier, his pickup lines were just as old as himself making him sound cringe. Normally with his looks and physique, he would still have gotten the woman's number, but poor Steve didn't know that Bryan has secretly cast an illusion on him and made him look like a normal average man.

After a crestfallen Cap returned to their table, Bryan stood up and approached the same blonde woman, and easily acquired her number along with a wet kiss on his cheek.

Off course the woman was going for the lip but Bryan turned his face away at the last moment.

After Bryan returned back to their table, he teased Steve while showing him the number, and continued to do so for the whole night.

Bryan enjoyed like this after a really long time, even though he and Yao did some crazy things when she was alive, it was different with Steve. After all, there are a few things that only two guys can do.

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{AN: Go to my patr*on for extra 12 unedited chapter and 2 extra weakly updates on every Friday and Saturday.

Patr*n/41_Claws}

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