{ With this treasure, I summon Readers Attendance...}
The Next Day: May 4th, 2012
Inside the Helicarrier's specialized laboratory, Bruce Banner and Tony Stark were deep in conversation when Director Nick Fury marched in, his expression unreadable but his intent clear.
"What exactly are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury asked. He had just been alerted to a foreign virus infiltrating the secure SHIELD mainframe, and he didn't need a debriefing to know the source.
"I was just wondering the same thing about you," Tony replied, not even bothered to look up from his translucent screens.
"You are supposed to be focused on locating the Tesseract," Fury stated firmly, closing the distance between them.
"We are. The tracking algorithm is locked, and we are currently sweeping the globe for the signature. When we get a hit, we will have the location narrowed down to within half a mile," Banner interjected, gesturing toward the primary computer frame.
"And you will get your precious cube back, no muss, no fuss," Tony added. Just then, a decrypted window bypassed the SHIELD firewall, flashing a heading: PHASE 2. Tony squinted. "What is Phase 2?"
Fury didn't have a chance to offer a cover story. Captain Rogers suddenly walked into the lab, his face a mask of disappointment, and slammed a heavy Phase 2 prototype weapon onto the table.
"Phase 2 is SHIELD using the Cube to manufacture weapons," Steve said. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little too slow for me."
Fury tried to counter. "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, but that does not mean—" He was cut off.
Tony turned his monitor around to face the Director. "I'm sorry, Nick, what were you saying about lying?"
At that moment, Thor and Natasha Romanoff entered the room. The atmosphere turned suffocating.
Steve continued, "I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed one bit."
Banner turned his attention to Natasha. "Did you know about this?"
Natasha ignored the question, her eyes fixed on the doctor. "Do you want to consider removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" She was clearly trying to de-escalate before the Hulk took notice.
"Oh, I was doing just fine being removed. I was in Kolkata," Banner countered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Loki is manipulating you," Natasha argued. She had just left the interrogation; she knew Loki's true play was to trigger the Hulk.
"And you aren't?" Banner questioned, leaning over the console.
"You didn't come here because I batted my eyelashes at you," she affirmed, her hand moving subtly toward her belt.
"Yeah... and I'm not leaving just because you've suddenly grown twitchy. I would like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
Banner pointed aggressively at the digital blueprints on the screen.
"Because of him," Fury declared, pointing a finger directly at Thor.
"Me?" Thor asked, genuinely bewildered by the accusation.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet whose personal grudge leveled a small town," Fury said, stepping toward Thor to back up his words. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are also hopelessly, hilariously outgunned."
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor affirmed, his voice booming with sincerity.
"But you're not the only ones out there, are you?" Fury questioned sharply. "And you're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people like Park—beings who can't be matched and, more importantly, can't be controlled."
"Like you 'control' the Cube?" Captain Rogers added, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki and his allies to this world," Thor concluded grimly. "It is a signal to the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?" the Captain questioned.
"You forced our hand," Fury countered. "We had to come up with some way to—"
"A nuclear deterrent," Stark interrupted.
"Because that always calms everything right down."
Fury turned on him. "Remind me again, Stark, how exactly did you make your fortune?"
"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep in this," Captain Rogers argued, looking at Tony with disdain.
"Wait a second, how did this become about me?" Tony questioned, offended.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" the Captain shot back.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor muttered, clearly having had enough of the petty bickering.
"Excuse me? Do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury countered, rounding on the Asgardian.
The room devolved into a chaotic mess of voices as they all started bickering at once. Nearby, the Mind Stone inside the scepter began to glow with an ominous, sickly blue light, feeding on their aggression or perhaps fueling it.
Finally, Banner spoke, his voice cutting through the noise.
"I mean, this is his M.O., isn't it? What are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that breeds chaos. We're a time bomb."
Seeing Banner's growing agitation, Fury took a cautious step forward. "You need to step away, Doctor."
Tony tried to defend him. "Why shouldn't a guy let off a little steam?" He placed a mocking hand on the Captain's shoulder.
Rogers swatted the hand away instantly.
"You know damn well why! Stay in line!"
Tony looked Rogers dead in the eye. "Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."
The Captain walked a slow circle around Tony. "Yeah... big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, and what are you?"
Tony didn't miss a beat. "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Rogers asserted. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play—to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
"I think I'd just cut the wire," Tony answered simply.
"Always a way out, huh? You might not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Captain added.
"A hero? Like you?" Tony countered. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
"Put on the suit," Captain challenged. "Let's go a few rounds."
"Hahaha... you people are so petty... and tiny," Thor interjected, speaking the last part as a detached observation rather than a direct insult.
Fury tried to usher Banner out of the volatile situation, but Banner finally lashed out.
"The cell was in case you needed to kill me! But you can't. I know, because I tried! I asked Park to kill me... when he refused, I got alone and put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy just spat it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping people until you dragged me back here and put everyone in danger. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff. You want to know how I stay calm?"
Fury and Romanoff instinctively reached for their sidearms.
"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter," the Captain intervened, noticing Bruce had grabbed the weapon without realizing it.
Just then, the alarm for the tracking algorithm shrieked. Banner left the weapon and walked over to the monitor, he turned to check the monitor and saw the Tesseract's location was manifesting right on the Helicarrier. He didn't have time to warn anyone before the explosion ripped through the hull.
BOOM!!
Today marks the fourth year since Ethan mastered the Ten Shadows Technique.
Within the last year, Ethan had finally finished his high school studies. He had navigated the curriculum once before in his previous life, where he had been nearly finished with college.
Throughout these last four years, he had exclusively accepted only Special Grade subjugation requests issued by Kamar-Taj.
Ethan remembered Battle of New York, he has been preparing for it.
Though he didn't remember the exact date when, he was sure it was during early May.
Far Away in the Red Sea: Sholan Island
Ethan had originally visited this island earlier this year—back in January, when it seemed to form out of nowhere.
Sholan Island emerged in the Southern Red Sea in late 2011/early 2012 as the direct result of a submarine volcanic eruption within the Zubair Archipelago, a territory owned by Yemen.
Ethan had suspected the involvement of a certain volcano-headed cursed spirit, and upon his arrival, his suspicions were proven right. The cursed energy signature was unmistakable: a Special Grade. And the island itself was odd.
However, at the time, he had found no active curses remaining on the island.
So He had one hundred of his Shikigami, the Raiju, stationed across the island, as they were capable of sharing their sight with him. He kept them there in case something unusual happened—and finally, it had.
On the morning of May 4th, 2012, all of his Raiju Shikigami were suddenly dead in an instant.
Each Raiju was individually a Grade 2 threat, but to be capable of slaughtering hundreds of them simultaneously... Ethan realized it for what it was: an invitation and a trap.
It was timed perfectly with the onset of Loki's invasion.
Coincidence? Unlikely.
Tora manifested his hands from the depths of his shadow and opened a Sling Ring portal within the island. Stepping through, he immediately sensed the familiar, searing cursed energy of the Disaster Grade spirit, Jogo.
"That was a hell of an invitation," Ethan announced to the seemingly empty air. "Come out. You aren't going to hide now, are you?"
"Hayaaaa!" Jogo descended from above, cratering the earth meters away from where Ethan stood. Upon impact, every rock within a thirty-meter radius turned to liquid from the sheer, oppressive heat radiating from the volcano-headed spirit.
Following their encounter four years ago, Jogo had realized he was far too weak. But Unlike Mahito, he lacked the patience for a decades-long scheme. Knowing he couldn't defeat Ethan as he was, he had entered into a Binding Vow:
In exchange for restricting himself to a 10% Cursed Energy output for the remainder of the day, Jogo could boost his output to a staggering 1000% for a window of exactly 24 minutes.
The base Jogo—already comparable to a thirteen-finger Sukuna—could manifest temperatures of 5,000°C at 100% output. Under the effects of the Vow, his flames now reached a terrifying 50,000°C.
But that wasn't all. Even with this astronomical output, Jogo's body would normally suffer Cursed Energy burnout within ten minutes of this state.
To bypass this, he had spent the last four years storing his energy into a suitable vessel specifically to use against Ethan Park.
Sholan Island was that vessel.
Within the boundaries of this island, the Disaster Curse Jogo would never run out of Cursed energy.
And The moment Ethan Park stepped through the portal, those twenty-four minutes began to tick away.
"What? You been juicing or something?" Ethan asked, feeling the air around him begin to combust.
To his left, right, and rear, volcanic vents erupted from the trees.
Pillars of flame reaching upto 50,000°C converged on him instantly.
His offensive power has taken a massive leap, but his total pool of cursed energy remains the same, Ethan analyzed. A time-based pact perhaps? Haha...Marvelous
Using the cover of the blinding heat as a screen, Jogo closed the distance in a blur of speed.
As the vent attacks subsided, he caught sight of Ethan's shadowy silhouette through the haze. Jogo lunged,his hand covered in cursed energy. Upon impact his cursed energy Flashed Black and space distorted.
BLACK FLASH!!
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