Arc Eleven. Chapter Three-Hundred Eleven. Pandora’s Box

A month ago, Bolivar Trask Jr sat staring at his computer. He had the missives sent by the government, the subpoena that he had ignored, and now he had one final email, from Parker Industries. They had figured out his connection to the original attack on the president and were coming for him. It had all fallen apart as Gideon Malik took his life's work and destroyed it by moving too fast.

Bolivar knew the sneer was faulty, in fact, most of the Sentinels sent out were old mothballed units produced during the '70s by his father. The newer Nimrod models were much smaller, had faster processors, and a more adaptive learning algorithm. But the idiot Malik had used the clunky, barely functioning models, and now, Trask Industries was in the toilet, and Bolivar was heading to jail.

As he had watched in horror as they attacked and barked orders like mechanical monsters he knew it was all over. He laughed, at least Hammer was killed by his own creation, no such luck. He had no choice, and like his father, he took the loaded pistol out of the bottom drawer and made his peace with God.

Liv had watched the security footage, made sure there was no foul play and then deleted it. She hated someone who could build such a machine, but even the dead deserved privacy.

During the hack, Liv had specifically targeted Trask industries, and while it seemed that Bolivar Trask had killed himself, the files they got from his computers led them to Hoover Dam.

She was working to find out as much as possible, as frustratingly there was no sign of Nimrod. Either he was powered by something else, or he had stealth capabilities. Either way, the satellites they had borrowed from Stark found no sign of him.

With Peter seemingly on good terms with Coulson once more, and the proof they had that alien technology was being used to create the Sentinels, Peter had managed to persuade Coulson to let him visit the facility.

Stark might have been the biggest tech giant on the planet, but he was recovering from the Ultron scandal and the damage Venom had inflicted on him. Peter had kindly volunteered to showcase one of Stark's creations, unaffected by the hack that claimed the other two were Ultron's creations, a cruel joke they might never recover from.

Peter's publicist was doing a great job, and Coulson wondered if she had superhuman powers. Friday was being shown off, with MJ Watson, and they were on TV almost all the time, doing interviews and talk shows about how Ultron had no part in their creation. She was the talk of the town and nobody cared about Ultron anymore. They cared about her origins, they cared about her relationships, and they cared about the synthetic skin she was showing off at Parker's request. He had turned a disaster into a media frenzy and Friday was at its centre.

Every possible angle was being exploited and like most tragedies, with a new shiny to stare at the general population had forgotten about the Sentinels already. Nobody cared about politics when androids were real, nobody cared except New Yorkers, the ones that suffered the tragedy.

Helen Cho, the scientist in Korea was enjoying a massive boost in her funding as the synthezoid craze hit not just the US but every continent on the planet. Her attempts to recreate the machines were futile though, as Peter knew without the Mind Stone and a fully mapped neural network to copy, they would never be anything other than expensive dummies. Not that anyone cared. It had been proven three times it worked, and money was flooding the market to make more.

Even the military was spared, as the Gamma troopers had left the civilians alone. Part of Parker's deal was to get access to not just Cheyenne mountain but Hoover dam as well. Coulson had no idea how he knew about either, but he just put it down to something else he didn't know about Parker.

As not just the leader in alien symbiotic technology, part of AIM and the up and coming contender for Stark's crown, Coulson had no choice but to let him visit the facility. He had argued though, that all of AIM going was too much of a security risk, and that while Olivia might be a slightly better choice, he was more confident in Parker's ability to keep his mouth shut about what he saw there.

He was a Shield agent, a probationary Sword agent, and while he had quit both agencies, they could, if they wanted, issue a recall order and drag him back. Cousin knew better, as it would be kicking and screaming plus, nobody wanted to work with him. He had been mixed up in too many scandals, and the victim of too many plots. Parker was black listed in the government, not just for his show at the Senatorial hearing but his refusal to play ball with anyone.

Added in he had Pepper Potts in his corner, and even seeing her name on paperwork now brought federal agents to tears. She was a shark, emboldened by a competent and mature boss, that AIM was becoming a global power, even if Wakanda stayed away.

She had cast an eagle eye over the NDA they were making Peter sign. He might be tight-lipped but this was much bigger than any of that. They hadn't told the Asgardians and had no intention to. Being burned by Thor's refusal to hand over the Space Stone was now coming back on them. The standing order on Earth was to acquire, not share. Asgard had proven, even with their basic troops, that Earth was outmatched and outgunned.

There were too many reasons for Coulson to refuse Parker's request to visit the dam, but a lot more to let him. Maybe Paker would solve the mystery of just what was there, and maybe they would get something that actually worked for a change, and didn't just try and kill everyone.

Peter's trip to the dam was quiet and boring, and for once he was glad. Coulson had warned him that there was an active soldier regiment there, and as they approached he saw, that, unlike Cheyenne Mountain, there wasn't a bloodbath waiting for him.

The square-jawed army commander stared at Peter as he disembarked the jeep. He was unimpressed with this so-called genius tech expert, but he was under orders so he put on his best fake smile and walked forwards,

Peter stretched and surveyed the dam. Nobody would have guessed that in 1945, just as the dam was nearing completion they would add in several storage facilities for a large alien robot they had found in the arctic while looking for Steve Rogers. Peter even wondered if while he had the Mind Stone and was being shown around various agencies and government buildings to find out the truth about Men in Black, maybe even Area 51.

As he held out his hand for Parker to shake he nodded, "Captain Lennox, Nice to meet you Mister Parker, but as this isn't a social visit, let's get this inspection done, and then you can leave."

Peter raised an eyebrow at the man and ignored his bruskness. He shrugged, "Then show me." as the Captain motioned to a side entrance, Peter felt for any strange presence within the dam, and was surprised to find none. The only strangeness he got was from Captain Lennox, and he wondered if he had been part of Ross's gamma project before being assigned here. What better way to contain a giant machine than with a Gamma Enhanced.

Keeping a straight face Peter resisted the urge to simply barge in and find the source of the alien metal, but as this was still a military base, and he was here officially, under the orders of General Ross, he felt discretion was better than action.

"We keep the facility a little colder than normal. We know you have clearance but I'm still not going to divulge national secrets to a civilian. Ice Man is kept behind a secure facility, and you will only be allowed to see him if you receive presidential permission, All I can show you is the device." and lifting his arm ushered Peter down several long corridors.

"Look, I know you won't say, but I know it's alien. We have the analysis of the Sentinels, and more. I'm only here to make sure you aren't keeping a sentient lifeform in inhuman conditions, and that your experiments are above board." Peter explained,

"Oh, that's easy. The creature is dead. Zero emissions from any part of it. No electrical activity, minor radiation, but only slightly higher than background. It's dead, and we're keeping it that way."

"Keeping it?" Peter asked as he was shown into a small room, with a strange pyramid in the centre, pointing down from the ceiling into a plexiglass box, with standard rubber glove holes in the side.

"A large part was removed a few years ago, and it regenerated. Not alive as you'd call it, but very dangerous. It's still dead. This is what you're being shown. The Box, which Trask used to create his machines." as Captain Lennox motioned a soldier slid his arms into the box and lifted out an old mobile phone,

"We use obsolete technology, it's just as dangerous but easier to handle. Anything with circuitry can be used to hold the energy, anything vacuum tube and older won't work."

"Energy?"

Lennox shrugged, "I leave that to the eggheads, it's just a small spark, and then bam, one hell of a show." he motioned to another soldier who handed out dark glasses, but Peter refused,

"I don't need them, just show me," and as Lennox shrugged he mentioned to a third soldier who began to flick switches.

"Process begins, in Five, Four, Three. Two and One." as the tip of the pyramid extended down, Peter could see the flash of orange light as it sparked to the phone, who to his surprise began to jump around in the box.

As it twirled, it suddenly, with a strange mechanical noise, became a small robot that peered around the box and then creamed in an amusing high pitched squeal and began to attack the side of its prison.

"Yeah, Nokia are always like that, Japanese huh, way of the warrior and all that shit." Peter shook his head, Nokia was Swedish. He was more interested in the orange spark and as the sudden realisation struck him, he shook his head, fearing the worst.

"I want to see the source," and Lennox frowned but nodded

"Shut it down," Lennox ordered.

Horrified, Peter watched as the soldier flicked another switch and the box was filled with a bright flash, and the phone was reduced to ash.

"You kill them?" and Lennox shrugged,

"It's just a phone." but Peter shook his head, "Machine's this way, too big to fit anywhere else."

The room above was massive. In its centre sat a cube on its side, and Peter realised the pyramid below wasn't a pyramid, it was the corner of the giant cube. It was at least 100 metres in each direction and covered in strange symbols.

"It was taken out of the arctic with Ice Man. The survey team looking for Rogers found it thinking it was his crashed plane. We have no idea what it is, and how it works, it was only used after a technician was attacked and killed by a hoover in the '70s. Until then, it sat in storage."

Half-listening Peter, fearing the worst but still needing to put his suspicions to rest, approached the cube.

Uncaring if Peter killed himself Lennox failed to mention the cube radiation. It was unshielded as it was only surface contact, but he had been shown the videos of lab rats being pressed against it before shuddering and falling dead, their bodies turning a strange lifeless grey colour.

Peter looked at the cube and the strange markings all over it. It was definitely a language and using the Mind Stone he searched to see if he could decipher it. A single piece of knowledge flashed into his mind, ancient and forgotten by all but the Stone and now Peter.

Peter lifted a hand and pressed it against one of the symbols and Lennox stared slack-jawed as the large cube began to fold in on itself. Slowly clicking down in size towards the floor.

"It was an ancient race of machines. It says it is a gift of the first. And it's not radiation, it's life."

Peter watched as the cube shrink further, becoming a small ten-centimetre cube, and he lifted it from the floor. As he sighed he touched another symbol and the box split and became a rectangle, revealing its contents. A small orange gem.

"It's also not a device, that's just the box. This is what's making your machines come to life,"

Peter, after being warned by Stephen and Wanda, allowed one of the vibranium tendrils to hold the box while another lifted the gem from inside.

"It's called the Soul Stone."