Chapter 45: Adjacent Events

"You should learn some of her tricks, Tony. The weapon industry has to pay quite a lot of taxes." Obadiah remarked.

"Who are you kidding, Mr. Stane? What is it that I can teach him which you can't yourself? You are quite a sly fox, yourself." Serena rolled her eyes.

"True..., but he doesn't listen to this old man's advice." Obadiah laughed.

"Anyways, when do you plan to host stark expo this year?" Serena turned to Tony, who lost another bet.

"Probably a month after I return from my Afghanistan trip," Tony replied carelessly.

"Hm? Are you going alone?" Serena asked in return.

"And suffer alone in that dessert? I will be taking Rhode with me." Tony smiled at Rhode before once again focusing on the game.

"I see. I am thinking of introducing some new gadgets at the expo like last year. The application will reach your office in the coming days." 

Serena collected all the money she won before pushing them to Tony.

"What? Going already? You cheated somehow." Tony looked at the coins in surprise.

"Yeah, Unlike you, who has Mr. stane to take care of your company while you foul around, I have to deal with all the stuff by myself. It's quite late as it is. Tomorrow is a busy day." Serena nodded at James and Obadiah before turning to Pepper.

"Come on, Pepper. Let me drop you on the way." Serena proposed. Pepper looked at the men goofing and gambling around before nodding to her.

They all walked away halfway before Serena stopped and turned around, "Hey, tony." Tony looked up.

"Good luck with your trip, by the way. I'm sure it will be a Nobel experience." She casually glanced at Obadiah standing beside him.

***An warehouse, New York city outskirts.

"Let's see what we have here," Kar-el muttered to himself with a notebook and pencil in hand as he walked inside.

He roamed around and kept crossing the names of materials in his notebook that were already available in the warehouse.

"Hmm, it should be enough to make an empty shell, right?" Kar-el removed the clothing covering several blocks of titanium.

"After all, they will only find pieces of it." Kar-el looked to the left

 where there was a blueprint of a Kryptonian space pod that he drew.

He put aside his notebook before he started to replicate the blueprint utilizing his super strength and super speed.

If someone were to look at him now, they would only see a human-shaped blur circling in the warehouse, moving items from here to there.

First, the titanium blocks were melted by laser beams and then quickly shaped into a hollow shell that looked exactly like the space pod shown in the blueprint.

***Outside El enterprise headquarters

"Thanks." Jane got out of the taxi and paid the driver. He saluted halfheartedly in response before driving off.

Jane watched the vehicle disappear away before she finally faced the giant building behind her.

She instantly got overwhelmed seeing its size. After a few seconds, she got her act together as she shook her head and faced the main gate instead of the entire building.

"Come on, Jane. There is nothing to worry about." She used her hands to slap her cheeks and straightened her back before walking inside.

She walked inside and asked the receptionist," Hello, I'm jane foster." Her smile showed her nervous nature.

"Yes, Miss foster. You are right on time. Miss Serena's assistant just called me to ask about you." The receptionist professionally greeted her before passing her to the location of Serena's office.

"Thank you." Jane took the ID card given to her with the location and entered the elevator.

"Come in." Jane nodded to Emily and entered the office.

The first thing she noticed was the drawing canvas placed on the left side of the office. It looked so out of place that you couldn't stop your eyes from falling on it. On it was a half-completed painting of some futuristic city. "Like it?" Said a smug voice. Jane was so focused that she got surprised by the voice that it made her body jerk.

She followed the voice's source to find a big glass table behind which Serena was sitting, looking at her with wonder in her eyes. Her face still had some colors on it.

"Yes!~, it's beautiful. You can draw very well, Miss." Jane honestly remarked as she took her seat opposite her.

"Why, thank you. You are quite a piece of art yourself, miss jane. I wonder if you let me paint you?" Serena leaned a bit forward while making a cameralike figure with her fingers observing Jane.

Jane blushed a fraction as Serena's action of leaning forward with one eye closed made her look quite a sight to see. Especially with some paint still on her face.

"The pleasure would be mine," Jane replied with her signature sweet smile.

"Perfect, maybe some other day. Let's talk about why I summoned you today." Serena clapped before her demeanor suddenly turned serious.

"Ahh..., yes." Jane quickly nodded.

"I read some of your recent papers. I must say, you stand out in your field. Kar-el also praised you when asked. We did agree to provide funds for your research, but I think there need to be some changes on that."

The more Serena spoke, the more dread Jane felt. She was not unfamiliar with this kind of speech. She repeatedly experienced it last year from multiple people.

First, they start by praising her work and how valuable they find it to be. And then they make some reason to make cuts or outright cancel the funds she would be receiving from their organization.

She wondered what excuse Serena would make.

"How about we double the amount you will receive?" Serena proposed.

"But that's too low. I ca_, wait WHAT!" Jane thought she heard it wrong.

Double the amount.

She could do so much with that extra money. She wouldn't have to cut corners when buying equipment or traveling.

"Yes, Double the amount, but I have a few conditions." Serena smiled.

"What conditions?" Jane excitedly asked.

"First of all, you will be spearheading, the project on your own. I have some other projects for Karl. The most he can help you with would be as a manager. You can report to us if you ever had any issues you want us as in El enterprise to deal with."

That didn't sound like a condition. It sounded like another reward to Jane. While she quite liked and respected Karl as a fellow scientist and person. She was uncertain about sharing leadership with him in her project as astrophysics was not his main subject.

"Second, as a researcher myself. I know how important freedom is to a scientist and I will give you that, but at the same time, I need results too in return."

"Third and last, when you will receive the Nobel prize, I know you will in a few years. Please don't forget us." Serena extended her hand toward jane, causing Jane to take deep breaths to calm her excitement down before she returned the gesture.

***At a later time that day, Kar-el P.O.V.

"One big meal please" After giving my order, I turned around and looked for a place to sit. But, I couldn't find a single table to sit at and eat my meal.

Just as I was debating on whether to pack my order and eat it at the warehouse instead. One worker noticed me.

"You can sit outside, sir. There are tables arranged with proper shade from the sun. We will deliver the order to you as soon as it is complete." He politely motioned toward the few tables outside the shop.

I nodded and followed his advice. I have already completed the model and thought, why not treat myself to a meal at a nearby restaurant before I begin the show.

While I was waiting. I received a call from Serena.

"Hello?"

(It's done. Foster agreed with the arrangements. It seems like even she didn't want too much of your company if it is possible. She looked happy

when I told her about it.)

"Is that so?" I smiled wryly.

(Yeah, anyway. I don't care about what is going on in your mind. But make sure to keep me out of it. If you want to reveal your presence to shield, then go for it but don't you dare involve me in it, Kar-el.)

"It appears you grew quite fond of being among humans." It felt good to hear that she is enjoying herself. After coming to this universe.

She is the only person that has any connection to my family.

(Yeah..., if you reveal a connection between us, I will find it much harder to navigate my business empire. If these greedy politicians that right now dance at my fingertips. Learned about my identity, they will try to rebel.)

"Fine, I will keep it in mind.", We talked a bit more before she hung up on me.

I shook my head before focusing on eating, unaware that someone was watching me.

*** 2 days later, at 1 am.

Sheild Headquarters. New York branch.

*beep* *beep*

"What the -?" John had a wonderful day today. First, he finally got a reply to the confession he made to the girl he liked, and she even agreed to go on a date with him.

Technically speaking, John should have slept during the day because he had a night job, but instead, he enjoyed the whole day with the girl. He thought he could sleep during his job as nothing ever happens.

It had been 7 months since he was assigned to monitor any usual activities in the air space with the help of the brand-new satellite. But not once had it reacted to anything.

Who knew that it would start beeping today of all the days?

He quickly composed himself and looked at the screen to find out more.

"This-?" His eyes widened, looking at the data shown on the screen.

He quickly picked up the telephone beside him and dialed his immediate superior.

"Yes?" A rough voice asked.

"Sir, the satellite picked up an activity that might require your immediate attention" John quickly removed the saliva from his face with the help of a handkerchief. He didn't want his superior to realize that he was sleeping during duty hours.

"Really? What is it?" The voice finally got a bit attentive.

"Yes, sir. An unidentified object suddenly appeared in the American airspace near the Canadian border."

"Are you sure it is not just the military trying some new gadget?" The voice asked in return.

"Sir, I think it's something else."

"Why do you think so?" The voice asked seriously.

"Because I don't think the military has a device that can travel at Mach 50 and above while maintaining invisibility. The only reason the satellite was able to pick it up is that the unidentified object disturbed the air around it while it was traveling faster than sound."

"Okay, wait there. I'm coming."

***Hellicarrier

"Sir." Maria entered the cabin and saluted the director of the shield.

"What is it, agent hill?" Nick fury turned around and looked at her.

"Just 18 minutes ago, our New York branch surveillance team detected an unknown activity near the Canadian border." She passed him the file.

"What is the current situation?" Nick opened the file, separated them into two, and put one horizontally onto another. The horizontal part turned on and started showing holographic pictures.

"The object appears to be capable of traveling at the speed that we have never seen until now..., except for that time. It was invisible while it was flying in the airspace."

"It didn't stay on the air for long. After suddenly appearing under our radar, it traveled the distance of 5 states before crashing 20km outside a border town near Canada."

On the digital file that was in fury's hands. Pictures of a burning airship came up.

"Who else is aware of this?" Nick softly asked.

"Except us, most probably the military and the Canadian military must have detected the device with their instruments." Maria quickly reported.

"Hmm. Since it crashed within our borders, we don't have to worry about Canadian forces for now. As for the military, inform them that we are taking jurisdiction over this." Fury looked at the pictures. The Ship in the picture looked, somewhat similar to the Ship he saw when he met Danvers and her fellow space friends.

"As your command, sir." Maria nodded and started giving orders from her earpiece.

"Send Coulson to the site as soon as possible. I want someone skilled like him leading the team on the ground." Nick added further.

(Edited by: AzuraD)