Ten Days Later — The Tesseract in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New Facility
Dozens of people bustled around a machine, and when the experiment succeeded, everyone couldn't help but cheer.
Through his research, Erik had basically figured out how to use external power sources to activate and deactivate the Tesseract.
The progress of this experiment made Nick Fury sigh inwardly—how could the gap between people be so vast? His previous team of scientists had spent over twenty years just learning how to passively harness the cube's energy, yet they couldn't even figure out how to turn it on or off.
Now that S.H.I.E.L.D. had gained initial control over the Tesseract, Nick Fury started considering whether to bring Diana in.
He had two main reasons.
First, Diana herself wanted to return to her world. If he insisted on keeping her away from the Tesseract, Fury wasn't sure how she would react.
According to the C-universe comics, this Wonder Woman—Diana—was like Thor, a true goddess. Although she and Thor came from different pantheons, their divine essence was essentially the same.
So, just for the sake of maintaining emotional stability, Fury ultimately decided it was better to let Diana come into contact with the Tesseract—the very thing responsible for bringing her here in the first place.
Second, Fury wanted to find out why the Tesseract had suddenly activated. He had possessed it for over twenty years, and this kind of reaction had never occurred before.
So now that Erik could control the cube's power switch, Fury wanted Diana to touch it again—to see if something special might happen.
Fury reasoned that as long as they could control the Tesseract's activation, even if something did go wrong, they could just shut it down immediately.
The Next Day – At Clark's Flower Shop
Coulson arrived at Clark's flower shop and found Diana, who was working part-time.
Yes, because she didn't know when she'd be able to return home, Diana wanted to keep herself busy. So Clark had her help out at his flower shop.
"Coulson, you mean the request has been approved?" Clark looked at the documents in Coulson's hands. He hadn't expected Nick Fury to actually allow them to interact with the Tesseract.
After all, if Clark or Diana decided to act against the Tesseract—a priceless cosmic artifact—S.H.I.E.L.D. probably wouldn't be able to stop them.
"Yes, it's been approved. I'm here to take you there."
Coulson didn't know what Clark was thinking, but per Fury's instructions, he planned to bring Clark along. From Fury's perspective, Clark was at least someone who could be reasoned with—more than most other superheroes.
For example: Tony Stark was too arrogant, Bruce Banner didn't want to be involved and was emotionally unstable, and Thor… well, Thor didn't have the best attitude toward S.H.I.E.L.D. either.
So Fury figured bringing Clark along would help keep Diana grounded. And if things turned violent, Clark's presence would give them a better chance—after all, Clark still aligned with a lawful good kind of behavior, as far as S.H.I.E.L.D. could tell.
The Journey to the Base
Coulson drove Clark and Diana out of New York. At a military base, they switched to a helicopter, and after over an hour of travel, they finally arrived at a hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. base deep in the mountains.
As they stepped off the helicopter, they saw Nick Fury already waiting on the landing pad.
Fury looked the same as always: black clothing, black trench coat. Clark wondered if the man ever wore anything else. Maybe he only buys one outfit... Clark thought to himself, If I turned off the lights at night, he'd basically be invisible.
"Clark. Long time no see." Fury greeted him first, then turned to the woman walking behind Clark.
Diana looked different from what Fury had seen in the videos. Today, she wasn't in her iconic armor, but dressed casually.
"Hello. You must be Ms. Diana Prince."
"I'd like to see your Tesseract first, if that's okay?" Diana said with a hint of anxiety. With the threat of her world's destruction looming, she was eager to go home. She hadn't shown it before, but she knew this cube might be her only chance—it was the only object she knew of that could cross space and time.
"Of course," Fury said, leading the way inside.
They descended a massive spiral staircase, entering an underground laboratory.
"Did you hollow out the whole mountain?" Clark gauged the distance above them, estimating they were several hundred meters underground.
"This place looks different from last time," Diana noted.
"The last facility was old and outdated, so we moved. Oh, Clark—there's someone here you'll recognize," Coulson said casually, changing the topic. He didn't mention that the real reason for the move was because Diana had torn the old base apart during her last visit. For safety's sake, they had switched locations.
"Someone I know?" Clark ran through a list of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel in his mind—but then thought, Wait, if it's just S.H.I.E.L.D. people, that wouldn't be worth mentioning.
And truth be told, he couldn't think of many people who would be working with S.H.I.E.L.D.
A Familiar Face
Just as Clark turned the corner, he saw someone he recognized immediately—a man who often hung out with Jane.
"Erik! What are you doing here? Is Thor with you?"
Seeing Erik made Clark think of Jane and Darcy, and of Thor, who now stayed on Earth and hadn't returned to Asgard.
Clark suddenly wondered: Is Thor here to retrieve the Tesseract? But the Bifrost isn't broken anymore. Why would Asgard need it?
"No, I'm here alone. I'm helping S.H.I.E.L.D. study this thing." Erik pointed at a circular machine, within which the glowing blue cube pulsed.
"This is the Tesseract?" Clark looked at the beautiful cube, and suddenly a thought struck him: If I smash the Tesseract right now, maybe the plot of Avengers 1 will never happen.
And if that movie doesn't happen, a lot of things might never happen either.
But then Clark thought it through. While Avengers 3 did have some links to earlier events, the previous storylines didn't actually affect its core plot that much.
After all, Thanos had planned to invade Earth and take the two Infinity Stones as soon as Odin died. That meant, regardless of earlier events, once Odin passed away—Thanos' journey was destined to begin.
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