Chapter 93: Tesseract

Chapter 93: Chapter 93: Tesseract

As they made their way down the corridor, Talos bent over and picked up a baseball. He stared at it for a long moment before quickening his pace. The moment they entered the main chamber, everyone’s eyes were drawn to the object sitting in the center.

The Tesseract.

"Buy one, get one free!"

Daniel’s face lit up with delight. He hadn’t expected to find the Tesseract here! He hadn’t seen it back at S.H.I.E.L.D., only to stumble across it now.

Once he figured out how to use it, wouldn’t he be able to go anywhere he wanted? Just imagining the scene made him grin. He briefly pictured himself throwing restraint aside and loudly declaring that he could go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, it was a truly moving image.

"It’s mine! It’s all mine!"

Before anyone else could even react, Daniel rushed over, snatched the glowing cube off its stand, and immediately hid it. Nick opened his mouth as if to protest, then wisely decided against it.

"Meow."

Goose leaped out of Nick’s arms, trotted over to Daniel, grabbed onto his pant leg with both front paws, and stretched her neck toward the Tesseract in his hand, clearly intending to lick it.

"What are you trying to do?" Daniel asked suspiciously.

"Meow."

Goose simply blinked at him with her huge innocent eyes.

"Get lost! This is mine!"

Daniel hurried to the other side of the room, hoping to shake her off. Goose immediately followed him.

Inside, Nick silently gave Goose a thumbs-up. Good cat! If you can get the Tesseract back, you can scratch out my other eye for all I care.

As for custody of it, S.H.I.E.L.D. would secure it, and once something was in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s possession, it stayed under his oversight.

Daniel was effectively taking it in plain sight. Nick compared their combat abilities and wisely chose not to say a word, but Goose was just a cat. Surely Daniel wouldn’t stoop to arguing with a little kitten.

What Nick didn’t know was that the last one who tried to take something from Daniel, had long since regretted it.

"Why are there children’s toys here?"

Carol rummaged through Dr. Lawson’s workbench and held up a few colorful toys.

"Maybe the doctor was just young at heart," Nick replied with a chuckle.

Talos remained silent. His eyes slowly swept across every corner of the room, anticipation filling his heart, as though he was desperately hoping to find something.

"Talos!"

A woman’s voice suddenly rang out and a Skrull woman rushed towards him and threw herself into his arms. The two embraced each other tightly, unable to hide their excitement. After whispering to each other for a while, Talos turned to Carol.

"This..." He paused before speaking solemnly. "This is what war does."

"War forced my people from our homes. War tore my wife and me apart. Many of my people are still scattered across the galaxy and every bit of that is because of the Kree."

As he spoke those final words, Talos pointed directly at Yon-Rogg, who had been standing off to the side quietly pretending he wasn’t involved.

Yon-Rogg awkwardly cleared his throat.

"I’ve... actually never personally attacked any Skrulls."

"Within the Empire, I’m well known for being one of the doves."

"It’s all Ronan’s fault."

By the time he finished, he almost believed his own lie.

"I’ve heard you’re actually pretty close to Ronan," Carol said calmly.

"It’s all baseless rumors."

Yon-Rogg answered without the slightest hint of embarrassment. At this point, whatever dignity or image he’d once had was long gone.

[While in the movie, he had even shamelessly challenged Carol to a fair fight, only to get blasted away by a single energy blast.]

Daniel listened with great interest as Talos recounted story after story about how the Kree had hunted down and crushed the Skrulls.

He found the stories surprisingly engaging, not because he took everything at face value and not because he felt personally invested.

It was simply another Chapter in the endless history of interstellar conflict. Who knew how much of Talos’ account was true?

Even if every word was, it was a tragedy, but it wasn’t one Daniel had any power to change. He wasn’t a Skrull, nor was he a Kree. Their war had begun long before he ever entered this universe. Besides, looking at the Skrulls, Daniel was fairly certain there was isolation between their species.

The Skrulls had lost to the Kree. Whether they truly were as peaceful and kind-hearted as Talos claimed hardly changed the outcome.

In Daniel’s view, the universe had always operated according to a harsh but consistent rule: the strong always ruled over the weak. It wasn’t a law he admired, merely one he had seen repeated often enough to accept as reality.

If you were weak, you paid the price.

Daniel understood that better than most. In his previous life, he had been ordinary powerless in all the ways that mattered. He had learned, more than once, that the world wasn’t always fair, and good intentions alone rarely changed anything.

But this life was different. He was Superman. The future before him held possibilities he could never have imagined.

He intended to make the most of them, to choose his own path, go where he wished, and never again be at the mercy of forces beyond his control.

Even if he wanted ten girlfriends... actually, absolutely not. Just dealing with Susan was already exhausting enough.

Ten? His brain would practically explode. Daniel silently swore to himself that in this lifetime, he’d only ever have one girlfriend. Right here, right now, if he ever broke that promise, may lightning strike him where he stood.

While Daniel’s thoughts continued wandering off in increasingly ridiculous directions, Goose suddenly made her move. Under Fury’s utterly stunned gaze, four slim tentacles shot out of Goose’s mouth.

In one swift motion, she swallowed the Tesseract whole.

"You stupid cat! What did you just do?"

Feeling the sudden emptiness in his hand, Daniel shouted in disbelief.

"Meow."

Goose let out a satisfied little cry before casually trotting back into Nick’s arms.

"She’s just a little kitty," Nick said with an innocent expression.

He had seen everything perfectly. Goose had swallowed the Tesseract. Now he intended to quietly keep it for himself. The Tesseract was far too important.

Daniel wasn’t about to show mercy just because the thief happened to look fluffy. He snatched Goose out of Nick’s arms. Holding the cat in front of him, he narrowed his eyes.

"Are you going to spit it out?"

"Meow."

Goose looked completely uncooperative.

"Fine, I won’t worry about animal cruelty anymore."

Daniel grabbed Goose by both hind legs, flipped her upside down, and began shaking her violently.

"Spit it out!"

"Are you going to spit it out or not?"

Goose stubbornly refused to respond. Daniel increased the speed.

Ten shakes per second, a hundred, then a thousand. Soon, his arm became nothing but a blur. The air inside the ship even began to smell faintly of something burning from the sheer speed.

Clang!

The Tesseract finally shot out of Goose’s mouth, bounced across the floor, and landed with a metallic thud. Daniel casually tossed Goose back toward Nick before quickly picking up the cube.

Nick hurriedly caught Goose and carefully checked her over. Then he glared at Daniel.

"You’re absolutely heartless."

Daniel couldn’t be bothered to answer. Nick was just a typical cat owner.

Besides, that thing might not even be a cat. His hand had just reached over ten thousand shakes per second.

An ordinary cat would’ve died a long time ago. Yet Goose looked perfectly fine. A little dizzy, maybe slightly listless, but otherwise completely unharmed.

The Tesseract was simply too valuable to Daniel. It wasn’t just a convenient means of transportation.

As long as the Tesseract stayed in his possession, Thanos would never be able to collect all six Infinity Stones without dealing with him first and if Thanos couldn’t gather all six, Daniel was confident he could beat him with one hand tied behind his back. But once Thanos obtained every Infinity Stone, that was an entirely different story.

Daniel had absolute confidence in his own power, but he had no intention of underestimating the Infinity Stones. At least he knew that, with his current strength, he wouldn’t be able to wipe out half the population of the universe.

But Thanos with the Gauntlet, could do it with a single snap. So, it was much safer for the Infinity Stone to remain in his hands.

As for giving it to Fury? Please, even if Fury eventually became Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., that organization might as well have been called H.Y.D.R.A.

Its current secretary, Alexander Pierce, was already a member of Hydra. And in the future, a huge portion of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s agents would secretly belong to Hydra as well.

Thinking of that, Daniel couldn’t help giving Nick a sympathetic look. Poor guy, you’ll spend decades building up S.H.I.E.L.D., only to end up doing all the heavy lifting for someone else.

"Alright, everything’s been cleared up. Let’s all head home."

Seeing Talos still pouring his heart out to Carol, Daniel worried that she’d actually fall for it. Judging from the moved expression on Carol’s face, Talos had already succeeded by at least eighty percent.

As the leader of an entire race, Talos was obviously no fool. He kept playing the victim because he’d recognized something. Carol was compassionate, easy to persuade and absurdly powerful.

If he succeeded, he’d gain a bodyguard capable of taking on armies, for free. Unfortunately, Daniel spoke a second too late. Carol looked at Talos with genuine sympathy.

"I’ll help you find your people."

"And I’ll help you rebuild your home."

Hearing that, Daniel could only cover his face. She’s hopeless, way too gullible. She was about to spend who knew how long working for Talos for free.

She’d been talked into becoming a galactic saint, worrying about the safety of alien races across the universe, while completely forgetting about her own home planet.

"Heh..."

Daniel couldn’t help laughing.