"So..."
Evenson rubbed his forehead.
"If this initiative is called Phase Two..."
"...what stage has Phase Two currently reached?"
The sentence nearly tied his tongue in knots.
Nick Fury answered with complete seriousness.
"Our progress is excellent."
He paused.
"We finalized the project’s name yesterday."
Evenson stared.
He blinked once.
Twice.
Then quietly said,
"I just remembered..."
"I haven’t been home in a while."
"I should probably go check if it’s still there."
He turned and started for the door.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
You just described a project that could dramatically accelerate Earth’s technological development...
You want my help...
And the entire project’s progress amounts to picking a name?
I thought I was supposed to be the irresponsible one.
"Don’t be in such a hurry."
Fury didn’t look the least bit embarrassed.
Instead, he smiled with quiet confidence.
"Don’t you want to see the project’s cornerstone?"
"I have a feeling it’ll interest you."
Evenson stopped.
The cornerstone?
So Phase Two wasn’t just an idea.
It was built around a specific object.
Then something clicked.
Phase Two...
Why does that name sound familiar?
He turned around.
"What object?"
Fury tapped the surface of his desk.
The holographic projector activated.
A glowing blue cube slowly rotated in the air, radiating an ethereal light.
"The Tesseract."
He looked at Evenson.
"Given your background, you’ve probably heard the old name."
"Yggdrasil’s Jewel."
"...I’ve heard of it."
Evenson’s answer came almost absentmindedly.
His mind was racing.
The Space Stone...
How exactly am I supposed to deal with one of the Infinity Stones?
Fury noticed his subdued reaction.
Frankly, it disappointed him.
He’d expected the Warlock to leap out of his chair at the sight of one of history’s greatest relics.
Instead...
Almost nothing.
Was Evenson simply unimpressed?
Or did he know too much already?
Fury continued his explanation.
"After the Red Skull discovered the Tesseract beneath Tonsberg in Norway, he betrayed the Nazis, revealed Hydra to the world, and launched his campaign for global conquest."
"That should tell you how much confidence the Tesseract gave him."
"But he still lost."
Evenson finally looked away from the projection.
"He did."
"And humanity paid for that victory with one of its greatest heroes."
His voice softened.
"Captain America."
"A righteous man."
Fury inclined his head.
"Even so..."
"We have to acknowledge that the weapons Hydra developed using the Tesseract were terrifying."
"So now S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to develop weapons with it too?"
Evenson’s lips curled into a faint smile.
"Sounds like you’re carrying on Hydra’s legacy."
"This time..."
Fury’s expression hardened.
"I’ll assume that was a joke."
Comparing S.H.I.E.L.D. to Hydra...
Or comparing him to the Red Skull...
Wasn’t something he appreciated.
Evenson only chuckled before changing the subject.
"Then why do you need me?"
"I don’t remember the Red Skull hiring a sorcerer."
"At least, not in any history book I’ve read."
Fury folded his hands.
"Why do you think the Tesseract sat untouched for sixty years before we finally decided to use it again?"
Evenson answered immediately.
"Because you couldn’t control it."
There wasn’t even a hint of sympathy in his voice.
"If the Red Skull could see that from the grave..."
"He’d laugh himself to death all over again."
He refused to believe S.H.I.E.L.D. had shelved the Tesseract purely out of humanitarian concern.
There had to be another reason.
Hydra had managed to build weapons with it during World War II.
Sixty years later...
S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn’t.
That gap spoke for itself.
"Hydra succeeded because they were insane."
Fury’s face darkened.
"After Howard Stark recovered the Tesseract from the ocean, we conducted every test imaginable."
"The results were... alarming."
"The cube contains what appears to be virtually limitless energy."
"But if that energy is stimulated incorrectly..."
He paused.
"The minimum estimated outcome is the destruction of the North American continent."
"We weren’t willing to take that risk."
"So we locked it away."
"Hydra never cared about consequences."
Evenson slowly nodded.
That explanation made sense.
Whatever S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flaws...
Its standards still exceeded Hydra’s.
At least they had.
"So you think I know how to control it?"
"I’m not certain."
Fury shook his head.
"But it’s a legendary artifact."
"Someone who practices magic might understand aspects of it we’ve never discovered."
Evenson laughed quietly.
"I do know a few things."
He walked back to the sofa and sat down.
Then his expression turned unexpectedly serious.
"But first..."
"I need to make one thing perfectly clear."
He looked directly at Fury.
"What Hydra did."
"And what S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to do now."
"They’re essentially the same."
"Extracting its energy to build weapons..."
He shook his head.
"...is an unimaginative, primitive, almost childish way of using the Tesseract."
Fury’s eyebrow twitched.
Primitive?
The Red Skull nearly conquered Europe with it.
And somehow that’s childish?
This kid really has a talent for insulting people without blinking.
"The Tesseract."
"Yggdrasil’s Jewel."
"They’re both legitimate names."
Evenson watched the blue cube revolve through the hologram.
"But I prefer another."
"The Key to the Worlds."
Fury frowned.
"The Key to the Worlds?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means exactly what it sounds like."
"The Tesseract’s true purpose isn’t serving as an infinite battery."
"It’s a key."
"A key capable of opening pathways between worlds."
"It folds space."
"It makes distance meaningless."
Evenson couldn’t help making a private comparison.
I wonder which is superior...
The Tesseract...
Or Sargeras’ Keystone?
Aloud, he continued,
"So you don’t actually need to worry about detonating North America."
"If you trigger it incorrectly..."
"It won’t explode."
"It’ll simply tear open a spatial gateway..."
"...and throw the continent into outer space."
Fury stared at him.
"...Is there a meaningful distinction?"
"Either way, everyone’s dead."
"There is one thing, though."
"You admit energy can be extracted from it."
"Yes."
"It can."
Evenson nodded.
"But everything I’ve learned concerns using it correctly."
"Unfortunately..."
"That doesn’t help you."
"No."
Fury smiled.
"It helps us more than you think."
Evenson looked puzzled.
"If you can teach us the correct way to use it..."
"Then you can also teach us what not to do."
"We only want the energy."
"Space travel can wait a few decades."
Evenson stared at him for a long moment.
"...I have to admit."
"That’s an impressively creative loophole."
He sighed dramatically.
"Fine."
"I’ll advise your researchers."
It’s not like I wanted to get involved with the Space Stone.
I was perfectly happy staying as far away from it as possible.
You’re the ones dragging me into this.
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