Hearing Thor's explanation, Tony and Dr. Banner exchanged looks, their expressions growing a few degrees more solemn.
"It seems we need to step it up!"
"By the way, where's Spider-Sister?"
"She should still be resting. After all those tests last night, it wasn't easy on her."
As the two of them dove back into work, Luca fell into deep thought.
The Nine Realms in chaos? This seems like the plot from the original movies.
In Luca's memory, the Bifrost's destruction in the original canon led to rebellions across the realms. After all, Asgard's rule was essentially maintained through overwhelming force. In the original timeline, Thor retrieved the Tesseract after the first Avengers movie, and the Bifrost was repaired a few months later. With the Bifrost restored, Thor personally led his troops and easily crushed the rebellions.
Looking at it this way, this is just the established plot playing out. It shouldn't affect Earth yet.
Thinking of this, Luca breathed a sigh of relief. Although Asgard's war might last longer without the Tesseract this time, it just meant more aliens dying—nothing to do with him.
Besides, since Thor couldn't return to the God Realm, he'd have more time to spend with his girlfriend, Jane Foster.
He's not exactly losing out~
As Luca's mind wandered through these messy thoughts, Tony Stark noticed him dazing and called out:
"Hey, Skywalker! Don't just stand there daydreaming! Come help!"
Luca pointed to himself in confusion, but then looked at his mechanical right arm and immediately realized why this bastard had given him another nickname. He walked over, his head full of black lines.
"Just you wait. One of these days I'll build a lightsaber to show you what a real Luke Skywalker is!"
"Pfft, lightsabers are only strong if you have the Force. Your Uncle Tony could build a standard version of a lightsaber in his sleep!"
Ten minutes later.
"Go, go, go! You meddling brat, stop causing trouble here! You really should go back to school and relearn quantum physics and astrophysics!"
Having had his train of thought derailed by Luca once again, Tony shooed him away from the holographic projection with a face full of disgust.
Indignant, Luca muttered under his breath:
"I'm only just starting ninth grade this year! I only have a middle school diploma!"
There was no helping it. The world of Gundam 00 didn't deal with spatial teleportation, so Haro's database had zero info on the subject. Relying only on publicly available internet knowledge to participate in the work of these two titans, Luca wasn't even a useful assistant.
Unable to help, Luca could only go back obediently to continue manufacturing his mechanical warrior.
---
Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, three more days passed.
During these three days, the "big event" that had seemed imminent inexplicably vanished. S.H.I.E.L.D., as Luca expected, worked fruitlessly for days without finding a single clue. Even the spatial sensing equipment that Tony and Banner were constantly upgrading seemed to have broken; it didn't detect a single fluctuation.
It was as if everything had returned to normal. World peace. Everyone could go back to work happily.
However, the more eerie the silence, the more oppressive the atmosphere felt. Tony, who had slept less than three hours a day for four consecutive days, had deep-set eyes and dark circles as heavy as a vampire on Halloween.
The only good news was that through various testing methods, Tony and Banner finally detected the spatial-temporal fluctuations on Gwen's body.
The bad news, however, was that these fluctuations seemed "unique." Or rather, the fluctuations on people from different worlds were unique.
Just a day ago, based on these fluctuations, S.H.I.E.L.D. captured an interdimensional villain nicknamed "The Rhino" in New Jersey. Gwen confirmed that the Rhino came from her world. However, under interrogation, the villain claimed he had arrived two days ago.
This meant that even though the detected spatial fluctuations had stopped, the "interdimensional invasion" had not. Tony and Banner simply couldn't detect them anymore. During this period, an unknown number of visitors from other worlds might have arrived and hidden among the population.
Another piece of news—uncertain if it counted as "good"—was that over the past three days, Gwen showed no signs of being rejected by this world. This meant she could potentially stay here forever without dying from dimensional rejection. While this was okay news for Gwen, it wasn't quite so pleasant for the inhabitants of this world.
---
It was noon again. Tony and Banner were still searching for a solution. Having lost her status as a "research subject," the idle Gwen was helping Luca refine his robot. The even more idle Thor could only pace back and forth in the room, getting on everyone's nerves.
But just then, the roar of an engine suddenly came from outside the roof. Everyone looked out as something invisible rapidly approached in the sky. Simultaneously, JARVIS's voice rang out:
"Sir, a cloaked Quinjet is approaching. The pilot has requested landing guidance."
Hearing this, the image of a certain "Black Marinated Egg" immediately appeared in Tony's mind. Sure enough, as the plane landed on the building's top platform, Nick Fury walked out, followed by Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow.
Tony ignored the other Avengers, staring only at Nick Fury.
"I don't recall inviting you to my tower!"
Ignoring Tony's sour face, Nick Fury gestured behind him and said loudly:
"I brought you two people. They might be able to help with your progress."
"I don't need them! In this world—"
Just as Tony was about to refuse, an old man with a receding hairline walked quickly off the plane, followed by a beautiful young woman.
"Erik? Jane!"
Before Tony could finish his sentence, Thor had already rushed past him and grabbed the woman in a tight hug. The old man with the receding hairline awkwardly retracted his own open arms.
Nick Fury shrugged at the others.
"These two are excellent astrophysicists. Regarding the spatial aspect, they should be able to—"
He was only halfway through when Dr. Banner, looking pained, stepped forward to interrupt.
"While I appreciate you bringing them here..."
"But, everyone... don't you feel that the weather is getting a bit cold?!"
As he spoke, Dr. Banner looked up. Even though it was currently summer, a few stray snowflakes were slowly drifting down from the sky.