Chương 14: The Power of Space

Regardless of the final outcome, the fact that Nick Fury was willing to communicate with Miss Stark was already a very good start.

Her ultimate goal was only one thing—the Tesseract, the Cosmic Cube, also known as the Space Stone, which was currently sealed by S.H.I.E.L.D.

Because of Captain Rogers, Nick Fury postponed his meeting with Miss Stark to tonight. No one knew where he had taken Captain Rogers, but Miss Stark speculated it was related to Steve Rogers.

To attend the meeting tonight, Miss Stark had to travel with Maria Hill from New York to Washington.

After all, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, the Triskelion, was located in Washington, D.C., on Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River.

It wasn't far from the White House, and the official name for the island was Theodore Roosevelt Island, which was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s territory.

Fortunately, the distance between New York and Washington was only a two- to three-hour direct trip.

In the afternoon, Miss Stark arrived at Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington.

The island was densely forested, with winding paths through the woods, and among the trees, she could see a few tall buildings.

For example, the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters on the edge of the island, or the Washington Monument and the White House further away.

Miss Stark wasn't particularly interested in the Washington Monument or the President's office. Although she hadn't visited before, these buildings had been blown up hundreds of times in various movies.

No matter how you looked at it, nothing was more attention-grabbing than S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters—though she had to admit, the environment here was decent.

The massive S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters occupied the northeastern part of the island, with a building that seemed to stretch for three or four hundred meters.

"Welcome to the Triskelion. This is the first time you've come here on your own," Maria Hill said with a slight smile as she noticed the thoughtful expression on Miss Stark's face.

The Triskelion was a circular building with large rings enclosing smaller rings, connected by circular corridors. This design made the three curved towers look separate yet interconnected, appearing very grand.

In reality, S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't a completely secretive organization; on the surface, it was an intelligence agency affiliated with the World Security Council.

It inherited the legacy of the Strategic Scientific Reserve formed during World War II and was a military intelligence agency dedicated to protecting world peace.

This semi-clandestine existence meant that those serving S.H.I.E.L.D. weren't just agents; many ordinary people also worked there.

In fact, the number of regular staff members far outnumbered trained S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

Most of the time, they resembled white-collar employees of a large corporation, each busy with their own tasks.

Fortunately, Miss Stark's arrival didn't attract much attention, as she typically kept a low profile.

Maria Hill had been assigned by Nick Fury to assist in receiving her.

Throughout the afternoon, Miss Stark was shown around the inner workings of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Maria Hill.

However, she wasn't particularly interested in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal structure; her thoughts were on how to approach tonight's meeting.

How should she phrase her words to extract the Tesseract from Nick Fury?

A trade is a trade because both parties have something the other wants.

Miss Stark wanted the Tesseract in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession, but what did Nick Fury want?

Weapons, technology, or something else—what did she have that was worth trading for?

As the sun set and after dinner, she was led by Maria Hill to the Director's office.

Inside, Nick Fury and Captain Steve Rogers were already there, with Captain Rogers having changed into a new set of clothes.

Miss Stark didn't know what the two had done that afternoon, but she figured it probably involved catching up Captain Rogers on the current era.

After all, being cryogenically frozen for over seventy years, the recently awakened Captain Rogers would need some time to adjust.

Maria Hill didn't stay; after bringing Miss Stark to Nick Fury's office, she left.

Miss Stark joined Nick Fury and Captain Rogers in their conversation, which lasted through the night.

There was simply too much that Captain Rogers had missed during his seventy-year slumber, far more than a few hours could cover.

In the latter half of the night, Captain Rogers left first, while Miss Stark and Nick Fury continued their discussion throughout the night.

No one knew exactly what they talked about in the office, but some things were evident.

Early the next morning, Phil Coulson led a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents away from headquarters.

The Tesseract wasn't stored at the headquarters, and Coulson was leading a team to retrieve it for Miss Stark.

When the metal cryogenic containment box holding the Tesseract was loaded onto Miss Stark's private Quinjet, she nodded in satisfaction and left, leaving Coulson with a note.

As for Steve Rogers, she didn't care at this point—he could stay under Nick Fury's watch for now.

The most important thing now was to go home and rest, then begin her research on the Space Stone.

For this, she returned to her Malibu villa because, at the moment, it was the only place that truly belonged to her.

The next day, Miss Stark brought the case containing the Tesseract to her underground laboratory in her Malibu villa.

The metal case from S.H.I.E.L.D. was black, with a silver eagle emblem etched onto it via electroplating.

There was no combination lock—just simple clasps securing the case—so she easily opened it.

Inside, lying quietly on a foam pad, was a perfectly transparent cube, constantly emitting a bluish glow.

This was the embodiment of the concept of space, the Space Stone contained within the Cosmic Cube, known as the Tesseract.

"I didn't expect to get my hands on this thing so easily. How amusing," Miss Stark remarked, a cunning smile appearing on her face as she looked at the Tesseract resting on the foam.

Nick Fury had no idea of the true value of the Tesseract; S.H.I.E.L.D. merely regarded it as an inexhaustible energy source.

After a night of negotiations, Miss Stark and Nick Fury signed an unequal agreement, extremely unequal.

In exchange for research rights to the Tesseract, Miss Stark agreed not to sell her advanced combat suits to anyone other than S.H.I.E.L.D.

Nick Fury was a visionary leader and was well aware of the value of Miss Stark's advanced combat suits.

The optical camouflage technology alone was a groundbreaking innovation, allowing its wearer to infiltrate anywhere undetected.

At this stage, the value of such technology, at least in Nick Fury's eyes, far surpassed that of the Tesseract, which S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't fully utilize.

Although Nick Fury didn't understand why Miss Stark was so insistent on obtaining the research rights to the Tesseract, he knew that the previous research on it had been conducted by Howard Stark.

Since it was originally a Stark family matter, trading it to Miss Stark as a goodwill gesture seemed like a good choice.

So, Miss Stark managed to acquire the Tesseract through this extremely unequal trade.

But no, it wasn't entirely deceit—after all, the transaction was consensual, so how could it be called a deception?

Only Miss Stark and a few others in the world truly understood what the Tesseract represented.

The Space Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones, embodied the concept of space, one of the six fundamental elements that make up the universe.

Its power was far beyond merely opening portals or providing endless energy to external devices.

To conduct her research on the Tesseract, Miss Stark needed to transfer it to her workstation.

As much as she admired the Red Skull's audacity in handling it directly, she didn't dare attempt the same.

Reluctantly, she used a pair of tongs to extract the Tesseract from the metal case.

But as soon as the tongs clamped onto the Tesseract, something unexpected happened—

The tongs gripped the Tesseract on two sides, trying to lift it out of the case, but before she could exert any force, the entire cube shattered instantly, like a piece of glass breaking.

"What? How could—damn it, what's going on?!"

The Tesseract was no longer in the case; only a pile of shattered fragments lay on the foam pad.

Oh, and there was also the glowing gem encased within the Tesseract's shards.

The sudden turn of events left even Miss Stark struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

As she tried to approach the Space Stone, the gem's glow began to intensify.

The entire underground laboratory was soon bathed in the light emanating from the Space Stone.

Before Miss Stark could react, the gem transformed into a beam of light and shot directly into her brain.

When she woke up, she found herself lying on the cold metal floor of the lab, her clothes soaked in sweat and the air conditioning making her feel chilly.

Miss Stark's face was filled with confusion as she slowly stood up, leaning against the table for support.

On the table, the metal case that had once held the Tesseract was now empty.

Not only was the Space Stone gone, but even the Tesseract's fragments had vanished without a trace.

"Damn it, what the hell just happened...?" she muttered, suddenly struggling to recall what had occurred.

Her left foot instinctively stepped back but found no ground to land on.

Her foot slipped—Miss Stark lost her balance and fell backward, unable to react in time.

At that moment, a circular portal with edges crackling with blue electricity had somehow appeared on the floor.

She fell through the portal without any protective gear, landing on a soft patch of grass.

Staring up at the portal above her, Miss Stark was momentarily stunned, her brilliant mind struggling to keep up with what had just happened.

Not everyone could immediately accept such a situation, not even Miss Stark herself.

Looking around at her surroundings, she suddenly realized that she was on the lawn in front of her villa.

Through the portal hovering in the air, she could see the metallic ceiling of her laboratory.

This result pointed to only one conclusion—the Space Stone had torn open a portal?!

Why did this happen? How did I do it? Where is the Space Stone? What just happened?

As questions flooded her mind, she suddenly remembered what had happened before she lost consciousness.

That Space Stone—it seemed to have flown up, then transformed into a beam of light that shot directly into her brain?

Though it still didn't make much sense, it seemed she had somehow merged with the Space Stone?

After eliminating all the impossible, no matter how improbable the remaining explanation, it must be the truth.

Her brain, already developed far beyond that of ordinary people, quickly allowed Miss Stark to notice the changes within herself.

She suddenly realized that she could perceive things around her that couldn't be described or articulated in any language.

What exactly is space? It's a concept that defies linguistic explanation.

But even if language couldn't describe it, Miss Stark could still sense something inexplicable.

It was like the omnipresent air—air is everywhere, enveloping everything on Earth.

Air was like the clothing of space, changing with the shifts in space.

At the same time, it was like the sunlight that blanketed the earth, also filling every inch of space.

As she felt the flow of air around her, she could perceive the trajectory of space's operation.

As she felt the warmth of the sun on her skin, she could sense the power brought by space.

"So—this is the power of the Space Stone? How fascinating," she mused.

With just a thought, Miss Stark had traveled thousands of kilometers in an instant.

Her body appeared on the plains of southern Greenland, where the fresh wind carried the scent of grass into her lungs.

With another thought, Miss Stark found herself on the terrace of Stark Tower, high above the center of Manhattan.

The sun shone brightly over New York, but the city's hustle and bustle made her feel uncomfortable. In the next moment, the world shifted again.

Now on the sands of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, it was nearly dusk. The streetlights along the beach lit up the shore, and the sound of waves came from afar.

Deep within her, she felt as though she had suddenly gained the entire world—this was simply too incredible.

Miss Stark even had the sense that if she wished, she could appear at the ends of the earth at any moment.