Prepare For Evolution

Nick Fury did not quite understand what Fanny meant, and he still had doubts about Fanny's motives. Fanny had a clear distaste for SHIELD, and as far as Nick Fury knew, Fanny shouldn't be such a nosy person. Why would Fanny suddenly meddle in this matter?

"You might be flirting with death, but you have a good starting point."

Fanny looked at Nick Fury calmly. This was probably the only gap in Nick Fury's armor that he could ever find.

"I don't wish the Earth to be messed up, so I'm reminding you to be prepared," Fanny continued as if reading Nick Fury's suspicion of his motive. He then finished with a deceptive compromise, "But if you ask me, you should just give that thing up. That thing would bring no good to anyone!"

Fanny carefully crafted an illusion of a threat from Asgard to retake the Tesseract, but the real problem that Fanny referred to was the continued research into the Tesseract itself. He already knew it would be impossible to make Nick Fury give up on the Tesseract if he had told the truth as it was.

In the original plot, Nick Fury only realized how dangerous the Tesseract was after Loki used it to open a portal and bring the Chitauri army to Earth. The bald director then decided to let Thor take the Tesseract to Asgard, thinking that its continued presence on Earth would only bring further problems.

But nothing of the sort had happened yet. Nick Fury would not give up the Tesseract just because Fanny said that the original owner of the object wanted to take it back.

"That thing is the property of SHIELD!" As expected, that was Nick Fury's response. "Is it possible to defend the Tesseract with you and Hulk?"

Fanny secretly cheered in triumph. Nick Fury had taken the bait. Fanny shook his head, keeping his calm. "It would depend on how many and how strong the opponents are."

Afraid that he had pushed Nick Fury's danger response too far, Fanny quickly added. "Considering Bifrost's condition, you should still be safe for now—but I must ask, why would I help you defend that thing? It will do no good for the Earth and me if the Tesseract stays on Earth."

Nick Fury's offer would bring Fanny to his goal of accessing the Space Stone, but he still had to put on an act of refusal to stem Nick Fury's suspicion.

Nick Fury frowned. After hesitating, he finally spoke again, "When will they come to get it?

"How am I supposed to know?" Fanny feigned disinterest. It was all to maintain the nebulous nature of the threat. He added, "You should ask Asgard, not me."

"Thank you for your reminder. I will prepare accordingly," Nick Fury thanked Fanny after silently thinking for a while. He then asked, "Do you need me to send you back?"

"No, I'll just find an empty place and open a portal." Fanny shook his head. Nick Fury didn't end up enlisting his help, but he believed that the bald director would call him again soon.

Not long after parting ways with Fanny, Nick Fury boarded a helicopter straight to the joint NASA and SHIELD base. It was the location for Tesseract's research project; it also contained various other projects besides Tesseract, but it was undeniably a high priority among them.

Nick Fury took an elevator all the way to the bottom-most level and found the person in charge of the Tesseract research project. It was a man with an inexplicable relationship with Thor, Erik Selvig.

"How is the status of the Tesseract energy research?" Nick Fury asked.

"Director, this is a very complicated problem," Erik Selvig replied while shaking his head. "The Tesseract contained close to an infinite amount of energy. It is very difficult to tap into it, and it can cause unimaginable damage if we're not careful."

"So you haven't got any progress?" Nick Fury frowned. Well, if the Tesseract was easy to understand, they would've finished the research long ago, but the director's already sour mood was worsened by the lack of progress.

"Yes!" Erik Selvig replied without any care. He hadn't made any definite progress, but he had gathered a venerable amount of research material. He felt that he was a little forgetful recently anyway, so if he was fired, he might finally be able to get some rest.

Nick Fury sent Erik Selvig back to work and proceeded to find Hawkeye, a.k.a. Clint Barton, who had been assigned to monitor the facility.

"Is there anything wrong with him?"

Barton lazily shook his head and reported, "He's just gathering data and doing experiments every day, like usual. I hadn't seen him contacting any outsider."

"Alright!" Nick Fury trusted Barton. The director recalled Fanny's words and continued, "Increase the security for the next few days. Watch the Tesseract closely, and report any problem immediately."

"Are we expecting an attack?" Barton turned vigilant, a sharp glint in his eyes.

"Just a possibility!" Nick Fury didn't elaborate any further. He went for another round of inspection on the Tesseract and then left the base.

Fanny was quietly waiting for Nick Fury's next move, but he wasn't sitting idly either. He didn't want to put all his eggs in one basket, so he needed to consider other ways to help Blue-Eyes White Dragon Evolve.

For example, Tony Stark's Arc Reactor and his new element.

However, as precious and important as they were to Tony, they wouldn't be easy to obtain either. It might be possible to feed one or two to Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but feeding it every day would be too tall an ask.

Fanny had not thought about how to broach the subject with Tony, but now that access to the Space Stone was almost assured, he would like to proceed with asking Tony for an Arc Reactor as well.

Fanny went to Tony's villa in the evening. Pepper was also there; they were an official couple, so it wasn't strange that they were together.

"Good evening, Fanny. Is Skye not coming with you?" Pepper greeted Fanny and asked about Skye at the same time. Pepper and Skye had become good friends since their first meeting, and they had been keeping in contact. Pepper even offered Skye a position in the company to help her.

Unfortunately, Skye had been infected by chronic laziness. She had no desire to enter the workforce, just like Fanny.

"She's been spending her time eating at home!" Fanny shrugged helplessly. The shock-wave ability had worsened Skye's laziness since it let her keep her body figure no matter how much she ate.

"Is that so?" Pepper's face was filled with envy. She had obviously known that Skye's ability could help control the body shape. "Tony is in the studio. You can go down and find him yourself."

Fanny nodded and excused himself to Tony's studio, entering his password. Tony was studiously focused on his work there.

"Mark VII?" Fanny asked casually while looking at the holographic model.

"You're here." Fanny had told him that he was coming, so Tony wasn't surprised. The billionaire kept his attention on the design. "Which do you think would be better, HEAT or HESH missiles?"

"I think you should put both of them in," Fanny replied indifferently, seating himself on a random chair.

"You're right!" Tony agreed with Fanny. He tweaked the design and then finally turned his attention to Fanny, "Why are you looking for me?"