Ch. 6. Where can you find everything.
Carol opened her eyes. She might’ve though that she had gone blind if it wasn’t for her powers. Around her was total and complete darkness. There was nothing. The only thing visible in the pitch-black surroundings was her own glowing aura.
“Thor? Rocket? Nebula?”
Her communication devices were dead. Carol decided to start moving, see if she could find something near. But as she tried to fly, she noticed something odd. She wasn’t sure whether or not she was actually moving. Everything around her looked like the same black emptiness. And flying here didn’t have the same feeling as flying in space usually did.
Unless…
Carol remembered their attempts on trying to find the space stone. And Nebula’s analogy on the nature of space and space stone. What if their experiment had changed the setting dramatically? What if…
“This” Carol said to herself. “This is not space anymore, is it? I am…nowhere.”
She took another glance at the emptiness.
“I am outside of space itself.”
Well this was new. How exactly was she going to find her way back to anywhere, when she wasn’t anywhere to begin with.
Avengers compound. Two and half years after the snap.
Bruce was staring at Tony. He was sincerely hoping to have misheard his friend.
“Tony, please tell me I didn’t just hear you right.”
“I can’t be sure what you heard, Bruster. But I am pretty sure your jumping into conclusions.”
Tony, you just stated that Ultron is the key. And considering our history with that project, I think I’m allowed to be a bit alarmed.”
“Yeah, I’m not reviving Ultron here. But Ultron consciousness was created by mind stone. Looking back on how that happened is our best lead on finding the stone’s essence.”
“But Ultron was destroyed.”
“Think wider, my dear Dr. Banner. During his short reign, where did Ultron exist, besides his robotic forms?”
“…the internet. You want to, what, google Ultron?”
“Ultron moved in the structures of the online web. He was working behind the scenes. If we can access there as well, we might find traces of Ultron’s consciousness, which in turn might help us locate the essence of the mind stone.”
“But how would we even go about doing that, Tony?”
“We need to build our own device. One that can access the web, looking specifically the Ultron traces. Mind stones signature can’t be noticed by any existing instruments.”
“If there even is anything to find.” Bruce noted.
Tony turned to look at Bruce.
“We have to start looking from somewhere. If you have any better ideas, I’m all ears.”
Bruce sighted. He knew that Tony was right. They didn’t have room to turn the idea down. Every possibility had to be considered.
Mexico, about 200 miles from the border.
Natasha busted throw the building’s window. She took a quick scan of the room…and saw the bodies. Bodies of the notorious cartel members. Natasha had been tracking Clint for months and when ever it seemed like she might catch up to him, he vanished again. This time Natasha had been sure she’d reach Clint before he’d get away again.
But as she looked around, it became obvious Clint couldn’t be far. The wound was fresh. Blood hadn’t dried out yet on the floor. As Natasha continued to look around, she noticed one of the bodies moving. The man was still alive. Natasha crouched down.
“When did he leave?” The man was bleeding from his neck and was obviously about to die any moment. But he understood Natasha’s question.
“Just…a few minutes ago…” The man groaned and his eyes fell backwards. He was dead.
Natasha stood up. A few minutes only? Clint might’ve noticed her.
“Barton! Barton!” No answer came.
“Clint?”
Dead silence.