Chapter 27
Security was invincible in SHIELD headquarters, the moment the Quinjets returned at 3 in the morning, carrying the mysterious ship with them, still covered with the electromagnetic net.
Under Maria Hill’s supervision, the ship was transported to a special room, built specifically for the ship, made so that its machines could never work inside it.
Or any other electronic machines.
So, the experts that surrounded the ship, used only manual tools, as they removed the foam carefully from around it, then started to check its outside body.
At 5:30 in the morning, their first report came out. Announcing that the ship’s body was made of titanium. Its general form was close to a project SHIELD was working on for space warships.
Which probably wasn’t a coincidence.
In his office, Fury sat at his desk, checking those reports with deep attention.
“Can’t we watch what the experts are doing as they check the ship?” Fury asked curiously, looking up at Maria, who stood before him, while Rhodey was sitting tiredly on a chair in front of Fury’s desk.
“Not for the moment,” Maria shook her head, “The Examination room was isolated completely, to stop any machine from working inside it, so the ship would never work and put us all in danger.”
“Then when can we see it?” Rhodey was the one to ask, rubbing his eyes as he fought to stay awake.
“Right now, they are trying to find the ship’s door,” Maria answered dropping her own tired body on the closest chair she could find. It was a very long week for her and her body was starting to shut down. “When they find it, they will open the ship and enter it, so they can manually shut down the ship’s energy source from the inside it, then after they make sure there is no secondary energy source, only then they will start checking it electronically.”
“So, you are saying another two hours then?” Fury muttered with a displeased frown.
“At least,” Maria confirmed with a tired sigh.
“All right, since we have time, there are a few things that I noticed while I fought that ship that concerned me a lot.” Rhodey straightened up in his seat, facing the two of them with a worried, conflicted look on his face.
“What things?” Fury asked him curiously, looking at him, giving him his full attention.
“I could be wrong though, but I kinda find that ship’s form and design very familiar to Sydney Hunter’s ship.” Rhodey started, rubbing his chin as he tried to arrange his thoughts and fears logically to not sound stupid. Tony would have been better at this; he saw Sydney’s ship himself and had been inside it and used it. “According to those thoughts, I questioned one of your experts and figured out that you guys are already working on a prototype of your very own Time Ship. I checked those designs and noticed that they looked exactly like that mysterious ship. It is even made of the same material.”
“Wait, really?” Maria and Fury blinked at him, startled by his words.
“The resemblance is hard to ignore.” Rhodey pointed out, trailing his eyes between them both. “You know that Tony already built his very own Time Ship, but it looks nothing like this one. Not even resembled Sydney’s ship. However, the one you guys are working on is another story. The size, the design, your calculated research of what the Time Ship you are building will look like, it all matches so weirdly well, that I thought that-uhm, that maybe, just maybe-“
“It’s a Time Ship.” Fury finished the thought that Rhodey was hesitant to finish.
Rhodey sighed and nodded, confirming the words.
Fury and Maria exchanged a long look, and were silent for a few, long seconds, before Fury leaned forward in his chair, placing his elbows on the desk to rest his chin on his interlocked hands, looking to be in deep thought, then finally looked at the both of them.
“There is a way to confirm this,” he stated firmly, deciding to follow through that theory.
“How?” Maria asked with a confused tilt of her head.
“We at least know where the door is in our ship’s design, right?”
“Oh, right!” Maria eye’s glinted as she understood what Fury was hinting at. She wasted no time to press a button in her watch and say in a firm voice. “Send me the blueprints for the Time Ship.”
A few minutes later, the blueprints were spread out on Fury’s desk, the three of them hunched over it, checking it carefully.
Rhodey pointed at the ship’s door in the blueprints, looking at Maria meaningfully. “Let them try.”
Impressively quickly, the order was sent relatively fast, as someone was sent inside the isolated examination room. When the experts inside got the order, they wasted no time going to the place that matched the blueprint exactly.
It took them three minutes until the experts announced that they did find the door, in the same place they were told to check.
“Oh God, it is really one of our ships!” Maria exclaimed with wide eyes, stunned to find that Rhodey was right in his observation.
“You mean it will be.” Fury corrected grimly; his eye looked far away. “In the future.”
“That should allow your men to work faster and more efficiently now, right?” Rhodey asked, trailing his eyes between them both, studying their reactions.
“Of course! That will shorten a lot of time!” Maria confirmed excitedly, already sending the orders.
“Tell them to work as hard as they can to get results and fast, because what we discovered just now doesn’t answer any questions, it just adds more complicated ones. Specifically, a very important question.” Fury muttered with a frown, turning to look towards the window absentmindedly. “Why our future is trying to destroy us? Why?”
Neither Maria nor Rhodey could give him an answer. They just exchanged a silent look, sharing a mutual fear of the answer when they found it.
***
“Are you ready, Tony?”
Charles asked carefully, as he sat in front of Tony, ready to infiltrate his mind.
That will be the first time in many years since he last used his powers on Tony. Since they were nine, when his powers appeared for the first time, he and Tony made a promise. That Charles will never enter Tony’s mind unless Tony himself accepts it. Tony was very sensitive about the privacy of his brain, and Charles always respected that. Not even letting any loud thoughts in Tony’s mind be caught accidentally by his powers.
For years and years, that promise remained. Charles had no idea what was going on in Tony’s mind and Tony never asked him to look. Until now.
“Yeah. I am. Are you?” Tony nodded with a long exhale, not really looking forward to this, but knowing that everyone was counting on him now.
“I am sorry to ask this, but can I know what’s going on here?” Dr. Johnson, who was sitting on his desk next to them asked in frustration, trailing his eyes between them both. Alex was standing next to him, watching silently with a very excited gleam in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, sir, I will just be using my powers to enter Tony’s mind, to get the combination of that antidote substance that will allow everyone to wake up,” Charles answered him with a smile, trying to put the frustrated man at ease.
“I am going to see Charles Xavier as he used his telepathy!” Alex couldn’t keep her excitement inside anymore, as she almost burst from how enthusiastic she was. “Best day ever!”
“Then why is this happening in my office of all places?” Dr. Johnson muttered, ignoring the energetic excitement that was hitting him in the face from where Alex was standing.
“Because this is the last place anyone will think of looking for us in, sir.” Bruce was the one to answer from his place by the door, watching everything carefully and nervously, worried something would go wrong at any moment.
Dr. Johnson looked uncomfortable for a few seconds, before sighing with a shake of his head. “Fine, but this room contains a lot of important papers and private reports, so I can’t leave you alone in here, no matter your reasons.”
“No need to worry, Doctor. we won’t even be moving from our chairs to do what we need to do.” Tony reassured him, as he rubbed his hands against his knees a little nervously.
“I am just wondering though,” Alex looked over at Charles, a serious look on her face. “Mr. Stark-“
“Tony. You can call me Tony now after all this.” Tony interjected, giving her a tired smile.
“Oh, uh, really? All right then.” Alex’s face flushed, unable to believe that she was allowed to be on a first-name basis with Tony Stark. If she had time she would have freaked out, but held back her excitement. “T-Tony only glanced at those reports about that substance briefly, will that be enough for you to find the components from his mind?”
“A human’s brain could never forget anything that their senses experienced,” Charles answered her patiently with a smile, admiring her logical question. “They can never forget something they saw, smelled, heard, said or even touched. It is just that the memories aren’t all kept in the same place, but in fact, get divided into groups. There is the main memory that we use for our daily life, that holds the memories of walking, talking, hearing, and all that. With that, we can talk and recognize the things from our surrounding area. Then there is the general memory, which contains all our experiences and everything we learn and study in our lives. Then there is the Backup memory, which stores everything we go through without lingering on it too long or everything that is not used regularly. That one is what we need right now.”
“You can enter that memory with your powers?” Dr. Johnson asked with wide awed eyes, “I thought telepathy was just hearing random thoughts from people around you, that’s it.”
“Professor Xavier is way more powerful than that!” Alex looked personally offended by her boss’ words, even more than Charles himself. “He can do way more than just hear random people's thoughts!”
“Thank you for your confidence, that’s very sweet of you.” Charles chuckled in appreciation, making Alex flush red. She looked like a strawberry now, while Tony rolled his eyes. “To answer your question, sir, yes, I can do that easily enough. I can awaken any sleeping memory, light up any dark places in the mind, and make it remember everything it saw, touched, or heard, in every single moment of its life. Tony saw the reports before they were destroyed, which means, I can easily retrieve what he saw from his mind.”
“You really like to hear yourself talk and show off, aren’t you?” Tony smirked at his childhood friend, as Dr. Johnson and Alex stared at the telepath with wide awed eyes.
“Look who is talking,” Charles smirked back at him, raising a pointed eyebrow at him.
“Touché.” Tony shook his head with a chuckle, before sighing and looking at him with a determined look. “You can start now, Charles.”
“All right, then.” Charles smiled at him reassuringly, raising his hands to place his fingers against Tony’s temples, as everyone watched with held breaths from excitement. “Try to relax. Let all your limbs be loose and let the tension leave your body. Clear your mind completely and-“
“No! Not again! Not now! No!” Bruce’s frantic, panicked shout pulled them out of their relaxed moment, just as a new Fireball crashed through the windows suddenly, making everyone flinch in panic.
The Fireball arched sharply, making its way to its new target.
Towards Tony.
“Tony! Careful!” Bruce and Alex screamed together at the same time, as Dr. Johnson absolutely freaked out.
Tony had only time long enough for him to push the frozen Charles away from him, just as the Fireball descended on its new target.
The explosion echoed through the entire building, then absolute silence followed that explosion.
Indicating that the Fireball had successfully hit its new, and last target.