A Bookstore in New York.
"Clark, did you bring me here to read books?" Looking at the bookstore in front of her, Diana hadn't expected that the "interesting place" Clark mentioned would turn out to be this.
Yes, after nearly half an hour on the road, Clark had driven Diana to the entrance of a bookstore.
Clark planned to show Diana some comics from the "C" series. Compared to lengthy TV shows, Clark felt that simply flipping through comics and getting a general idea would be better—he only wanted Diana to have a basic understanding, after all.
"That's right, you guessed it. Let's go." With that, Clark led Diana into the store and headed straight for the comics section.
Diana didn't know what Clark was up to. At first, she thought he brought her here to look up some information. But when she saw Clark taking her into the comic section, she began to feel she might be overthinking things.
Completely confused, Diana followed Clark. She then saw him stop in front of a shelf marked with the letter "C" and pull out a comic book, handing it to her.
"This is why I initially thought you were just a fictional character."
Diana took the book Clark handed her and looked at it. On the cover was a woman holding a sword, and the title was Wonder Woman #1.
"This!" Seeing the cover, something clicked in Diana's mind.
"This book tells your story. But I don't know if what's in here matches your actual experiences. After all, the company that makes these comics has countless parallel universes. I have no idea which one is specifically yours."
Looking at Diana silently staring at the comic, Clark started wondering if he'd gone too far—showing her something like this right after she arrived. But he figured, if it were him, he'd probably want to know too.
"But don't take it too seriously. I'm just showing you this to help you understand your situation. To people in this world, Wonder Woman might be just a fictional comic book character. But in your world, you're real. Your friends and family are real."
"I think, for some special reason, our worlds collided. Then, because of the Tesseract's influence, a portal was opened in our world that connected to yours."
After hearing Clark's explanation, Diana understood his point. In fact, she realized Clark had said all this just to make her understand that the "C world" and this one were entirely different. Even if they could use the Tesseract to find a way back to the C world, there was no guarantee they'd reach her original world.
In simple terms, her chances of going home were very low.
"But it's still too early to say. Let's wait until we can make contact with the Tesseract before discussing it further."
While Clark and Diana were reading comics, Nick Fury was meeting with Dr. Erik Selvig, who had just arrived from New Mexico.
"Hello, Dr. Erik Selvig. S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury." Upon seeing Erik, Fury waved at the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents behind him, signaling them to leave.
"Is this how S.H.I.E.L.D. invites people? I thought I was being kidnapped!" Hearing Fury's introduction, Erik finally relaxed. No matter how he felt about S.H.I.E.L.D., it was still a government agency, so his safety was probably guaranteed.
"That's embarrassing. They might've misunderstood my instructions. I did ask them to invite you here, but I'll definitely give them a proper lesson later." Fury chatted casually with Erik for a while before getting to the point.
"I invited you here because I want you to lead a research project. I've read your previous work—very professional, left a deep impression on many."
"What research? I already have a lot of work to do!" Erik found Fury's request strange. After all, he'd always been a rather obscure scholar.
Most people didn't take his research seriously. Only his student, Jane, had continued his work, and so, based on an email from her, he had traveled from Los Angeles to New Mexico. He hadn't expected that, after Thor appeared, even S.H.I.E.L.D. would take him seriously—ha!
"It's this." Fury stepped aside, revealing the Tesseract behind him.
"What's that?" Erik stared at the cube behind Fury. Though he didn't know what it was, he could see the translucent blue cube pulsing with energy.
It was energy approaching solid form—a phenomenon caused by the accumulation of massive amounts of power. Erik, who had long studied the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, was very familiar with this kind of thing.
"We call it the Tesseract. It holds near-infinite energy and can open portals through space on its own. I think, for you, it could speed up your transition from theory to application."
Looking at the cube before him, Erik felt torn. Now he had a real dilemma—S.H.I.E.L.D. had this treasure that could directly replicate the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.
Jane was doing well, especially now that Thor had returned. Erik had learned a lot of useful information from Thor.
Now, faced with choosing between staying with Jane or joining S.H.I.E.L.D., Erik was conflicted. He wished he could clone himself and do both.
But after some thought, he decided to go with S.H.I.E.L.D.—after all, he could study S.H.I.E.L.D.'s treasure, but he didn't dare even mention studying Jane's treasure, especially with Thor around.
Because of Clark, Thor hadn't destroyed the Bifrost in his attempt to save Jotunheim. So after staying in Asgard for a while, Thor secretly returned to Earth.
With Thor's help, Jane's research on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge had advanced significantly, but due to equipment limitations, it remained purely theoretical—they couldn't figure out how to make it practical.
After all, opening a Rosen Bridge artificially would require an astronomical amount of energy—perhaps more than the entire solar system could supply.
The Tesseract's appearance made Erik feel that maybe, just maybe, he had found the breakthrough he'd been looking for.
So he abandoned Thor and Jane and threw in his lot with S.H.I.E.L.D.
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