Chương 46: Volume 3 Chapter 22.1

After the Avengers dealt with Thor's brother, Loki, their group went straight for the Shawarma Palace. Stark waltzed into the place like he owns it and ordered everything that he sets his eyes on. He said everything's on him so we also ordered without restrictions.

The Avengers settled in one large round table while we sat in another. Two groups ate in silence until Stark spoke.

"Nothing beats a good joint snack after an alien invasion, am I right?" He jokingly said.

No one replied to him.

Instead, it was Thor who turned to me as he asked. "The Tesseract. Where is it?"

"It's with me, don't worry."

"Return it. It's our ticket back home." He replied in a deep voice.

"What if I don't? I need it too, you see. It's not like it said it belongs to anyone. In fact, I don't see any brand somewhere that said 'Property of Asgard'."

Thor suddenly stood up and grabbed his hammer. By my side, Morgana also stood up and readied a magic circle in her hand. They both stared at each other, one move and the other will take action.

"That's enough!" Steve went in the middle of them and prevented the fight. "We need to talk this out peacefully. This city can't take another blow."

"Peacefully? I'm not the one who threatened first using a hammer."

"Alright, how about this." Stark interjected. "Thor, put down the hammer. Magician girl over there too, drop the magic. Then let me handle the Tesseract for a while, and you two talk it out. Everybody good?"

"What are you planning with it?" Natasha immediately noticed the underlying motives in his proposal and asked. She looked suspiciously at Stark.

"What? Oh, come on. Fury has been fiddling with this thing without me knowing. And it can possibly supply unlimited power? Imagine what that can do to the whole world."

"I'm pretty sure we just saw it." Bruce Banner, the man behind the Hulk, spoke while glancing outside. There was the carcass of a flying colossal just a few blocks from here.

They went quiet for a moment before Thor broke the silence.

"In any case, give the Tesseract back. Or we can't go home."

'Can't' go home? Not 'won't' go home? Wait, let me clarify something.

"What do you mean you can't go home? Can't you just contact that guy?"

"That guy? Who?"

"You know, the one who 'sees all, hears all'. If I'm not wrong, he should be able to sense you no matter where you are right?"

"The Gatekeeper? You know Heimdall?" Thor asked, bewildered.

Gatekeeper? Oh, so he's also the one responsible for teleporting Thor and his friends. He guards the 'gate' to the other worlds.

"Heimdall... Ah, right. Actually, we're friends."

If you can call someone who tries to block you away as 'friends', then yeah. It looks like Thor confirmed with Heimdall as he went quiet for a moment.

"It looks like it's true. Heimdall does know you."

"See? Why not just make him create another teleportation storm then?"

"That's the problem. The Bifrost used for teleporting us anywhere in the nine realms is currently destroyed. We need the Tesseract to go home and to also reconstruct the Bifrost."

'That is indeed a problem. But I couldn't care less'— is what I was about to say, when I remembered that I'm dealing with the Asgardians here. In terms of military power, I have none while they have an army. In terms of magical power, they have Gods while I have myself and Morgana only. It looks like give and take is the only solution here.

"Alright, I'll help you rebuild this Bifrost thing."

"No mortal man can understand the principle behind the Bifrost."

"Even with magic?" As I said that, I forcefully teleported all of us from the Shawarma Palace back to Stark's tower using the Tesseract. Thor went quiet for a moment. He's conversing with Heimdall again.

I lifted up the interference barrier for a moment to join their conversation.

[I sensed you doing that.] Heimdall said.

'Yeah, whatever. It's worth a try, right?'

[Heimdall, what do you think?] It was Thor's voice.

[I suppose so, yes.]

After that, we discussed for a moment before I casted the barrier again. I really don't like being peeped inside my mind. The cosmic being on the moon was an exception, so he'll have to wait for later. He's too powerful for me to take on right now.

"That's decided then." I said as I turned around with the intention to leave. I can't wait to conduct an experiment on the Tesseract and see what it got. I also have the scepter, which I deem as the same as the Tesseract.

"Wait, wait wait. You guys teleported us back here, stood there for ten whole minutes, and suddenly said it's decided? What is? Care to explain what just happened?" Stark asked.

"The Tesseract will stay with him. For now. As for me and my brother; until he created new teleportation magic out of the Tesseract to help us get home, we will stay in his place."

It's basically what Thor said. He and his brother would stay in my place until I figured out how to fully operate the Tesseract and deliver them to Asgard. Right now, I can only teleport anywhere inside this planet and the moon. I'm still slowly studying the theory behind the Tesseract, so I might need some time. After that, I will help in reconstructing the Bifrost and at the same time, study it.

I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little excited to study a new branch of magic that is different than the magic I and Morgana are currently using. It might also help me in my future plans as well.

"Huh. Well, alright. It's your call." Stark shrugged his shoulders as he gave up. "I'm not one to... overstep my boundaries."

Just then, the quiet Agent Barton suddenly spoke. "Director Fury requests to meet us. He's on his way."

"Speak of the devil." Stark quipped.

.....

After a few minutes, a copter landed on top of Stark's tower. Nick Fury and a woman who I don't know walked out of the helicopter. After they got down, they immediately headed towards us. The Avengers have already dispersed, each of them has various reasons. My party (Morgana, Karla, and Lynn) is the only group left in the lobby.

"It's so nice to finally meet you." Fury said as he sat down opposite us. "I'm the current director of S.H.I.E.L.D., an international peacekeeping agency tasked to deal with your 'not-so-normal' situations. This is Agent Maria Hill."

Agent Hill silently stood by the side. Her eyes shuffled between my party members. A twitch of a muscle will cause her to instantly look at that direction. It's quite obvious that she's very wary of us.

I turned back to Fury as I replied. "You probably know about us, right? No need to introduce myself then."

"Although I indeed know some certain information about you, it is still the basic manners to introduce yourself to someone personally." Fury said while pouring himself a glass of vodka that came from Stark's collection.

"Whatever." I shrugged and introduced myself and my party. "Now, can we get straight to the topic? If it's about the Tesseract, I and Thor have already come to an agreement. There's no way I'll simply give it back. I'm also taking Loki's scepter with me."

"It's not about those things, no. I believe it is something of much more importance." Lifting the wine glass, Fury emptied it in one go.

"Say it."

"Basically, your group is a threat."

"So you wanted to put a leash on us?"

"I wanted to come into an agreement." Fury said with a serious look on his face. An agreement, huh.

I finally realized what he's getting at. If that is so, then there's not really a problem for me. I'm not planning to destroy the world anyway. I'm just trying to have a good life with my Mom and the others.

"Fine. You have my word." After I said that, I stood up. It is not only bothersome to make another enemy especially with these guys, but it is also unnecessary. If I can proceed with my plans smoothly, I'll gladly take his offer. Besides, their job is protecting Earth. If I want to live peacefully later, I better let them do their jobs properly.

Following me, Morgana, Lynn, and Karla also stood up. Before Fury could say anything, I continued speaking.

"However, if you guys obstruct my plans, know that I'm a little forgetful of things. Who knows, I might just forget our conversation right now."

"Care to tell me this plan of yours then?" Fury stood up and offered his hand. "There are a lot of people who very much like to stir some troubles for us, you see."

"Hmmm..." I thought a fitting name for a moment before shaking his hand. "It's called operation [Find the 6 Gummy Bears]."

------

(Fury's POV)

I watched as Finn, his party, Thor and Loki entered a portal that leads to a room of some sorts. The portal doesn't look dissimilar at all to the portal which the Chitauri came out of an hour ago. In just a matter of seconds, they teleported to another location. Worse yet, I've seen Finn creating that portal without a sweat.

When they're completely out of sight, I can see Agent Hill's shoulders relaxing a little bit. It's good that she maintained a high amount of caution around a dangerous guy like that.

"Sir, why didn't you..."

"Recruit them? Not a damn chance." I took something out of my pocket. "I've seen guys like him. He's not like Stark, he's not like Rogers either. A normal guy like that who still retains his cool even around Thor and the Hulk. Not cautious, not afraid, and certainly not even threatened."

I looked at the old-fashioned pager in my hands. It's for the 'worst case' scenario.

"Tell me, Agent Hill. Would you make an enemy out of a guy like that?"

"No, sir." Agent Hill replied almost instantly.

"That's right." I pocketed the pager before turning around. "Now then, as a sign of my seriousness, I should probably take care of these old fools regarding the Tesseract and the scepter. Come on, we got a job to do."