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Chapter 172
🕑 Added 2025-06-28 12:37:12 +0000 UTCFar from the medieval streets of Camelot, the over-the-top wealth displayed in ancient castles, and the stylish luxuries of high-end hotels, beyond the ocean, within the New World, was a hidden and advanced laboratory.
This laboratory wasn’t on any official lists; it was as secret as it was advanced. A ghost facility. The kind even most of SHIELD didn’t know existed. It was the current workplace of some of the world's greatest minds — and a few from beyond.
Today, Nick Fury paid the place a visit to get some answers. He had been busy, too busy. With so much in motion, even reaching out to trusted allies felt dangerous. Too many eyes. Too many agendas.
“It’s good to see you again, Talos,” he said, offering a tired smile as he took a seat opposite the Skrull general-turned-adviser.
Talos, in his usual human guise, gave a small nod. “Wish I could say the same, but you only call when the sky’s falling.”
“It’s been falling a lot lately,” Fury replied. “Thought I’d ask someone who might actually know what’s going on up there.”
Talos leaned back slightly, arms folded. “You want to talk about Asgard.”
Fury nodded. “I have talked with every expert I could find on Norse legends, I have traced even the tesseract back to Odin, I have had every trinket gotten from Loki, so-called Regent of the Nine Realms looked over, but I still don’t have answers.”
Fury had indeed been very busy since the appearance of Camelot and the chaos that followed that.
He had ordered SHIELD to gather information not just on Arthurian legends, but also all kinds of other legends. He had them find potential assets, such as professors and people knowledgeable about such things, should more legends surface.
Back then, the council said he was wasting resources, but now he has proven them wrong once more, showing that he knew what he was doing.
Because what he feared had indeed happened, first, by magic being fully revealed to be real when Morgana Le Fey appeared at Camelot, though that wasn’t that surprising at that point.
No, next came the legendary hammer Mjolnir and the promised power of a God. If that power was anything like the power of the so-called Goddess Rhongomyniad, Arthuria Pendragon wielded, then it wasn’t something he wanted in the hands of others.
But SHIELD had fully lost the ability to act within Albion, so at most, he could send a few agents in and try their luck, though so far, none had moved the hammer.
Still, even without a new God, the fact that more of them were around was troubling enough, just Arthuria alone had proven how powerful a god was, and how weak humanity was in front of such beings.
So the idea that all the Norse Gods were real wasn’t reassuring at all.
Then, Loki appeared.
He hadn’t arrived with fire and fury; he didn’t demand surrender or wage war. Instead, he just politely informed the forces of Earth that he was apparently their boss as the current Lord of the Nine Realms, of which Earth was one.
Now, this was unacceptable. Earth belonged to humanity, not some strange alien Gods. Because most people, including himself, saw the Asgadians as powerful aliens.
Yet, one thing he mentioned kept people from saying that to his face.
Firstly, he had a powerful alien army behind him, and secondly, apparently as part of the Nine Realms, Asgard was protecting Earth from other Aliens.
While most people knew nothing of aliens, Fury knew a lot. He had, after all, fought against both Skrull and Kree.
He had seen firsthand what war between species looked like. Earth almost gets destroyed after getting caught in the conflict.
So, after a few more careful probing questions, he and the world leaders realized that Asgard was a powerful civilization that protected Earth from lesser but still far superior to humanity-level civilizations and space pirates. All in return for nothing. Apparently, Odin didn’t care for Earth, which meant that all they had to do was give Loki some empty words, and they would continue to enjoy this protection.
Not a permanent solution, but he would rather not risk losing Asgard’s protection, he might not know what it meant, or how well it protects Earth, but why risk it?
“Well, I honestly don’t know much more about Asgard than I told you last time. They are, however, well-respected and powerful, making an enemy out of them is unwise.” Talos said.
“What about their tech?” Fury had managed to get his hands on a few trinkets from Loki, and the scientists they had been given to, were left scratching their heads. Apparently, they couldn’t understand the technology at all.
It wasn’t the first time Fury had run into this problem. Long ago, when Talos returned to Earth, he had asked if he could help improve their level of technology. But while the Skrull was once highly advanced, they struggled with using human technology.
Without the advanced materials and tools they were used to, they couldn’t really do much, like a computer scientist sent back in time before computers. They might be super ahead of the times, but without the right tools, their skills were useless.
“Well, I had a few people look at it, and I’m afraid I can’t help you there. Asgard’s technology is quite different from what we are accustomed to. They mostly use rare materials, which have special properties. It’s a mix of magic and material science.” Talos explained.
“Magic,” Fury muttered.
Talos gave a small nod. “Magic, yes. But disciplined. Integrated. Their machines aren’t just tools — they’re artifacts. They have turned magic into a science, so while we can crack science, we can’t do the same with magic.”
Fury grimaced. “So basically, we’re cavemen trying to learn not just magic, not just technology, but a super advanced merge of the two.”
Talos shrugged. “That’s not far from the truth, no.”
That made Fury uncomfortable. He’d spent his life building systems that ran on precision and threat assessment. But Arthuria had blown a hole through every model they had. And Loki… Loki was a snake wearing a crown, hard to read, harder to pin down.
“The real issue,” Talos said slowly, “isn't that you don’t understand their tech. It’s that they don’t need yours. Asgard doesn’t want anything from Earth. Not resources. Not tribute. Not culture. They already think they’re better.”
What Talos left unsaid, but both understood, is that Asgard didn’t just think themselves better, they were better; that was an undeniable fact. Asgard, as a universal power, was far beyond Earth, or even the Skrull, even at their peak.
Fury nodded. “And what about Arthuria? She feels like the opposite — involved, public, human-friendly… but maybe that’s just good optics.”
Talos didn’t immediately respond.
“I don’t know much about Gods, we Skrull stopped praying to ours long ago, but Gods want belief, at least some do, so it could be that, or well, she could just be kind.”
Fury didn’t buy it, he didn’t buy the idea that some powerful being was doing this for no reason.
Nor did he think this was about belief, because she didn’t let people worship her, the only official Church in Albion was the renamed Church of England, a Christian Church.
If she wanted to be worshipped, she would surely have made herself the state religion, rather than banning other worship.
No, this wasn’t about being seen as a God… there had to be something more to it, and it gnawed at him that he couldn’t figure it out.
The two continued their little meeting, with mostly Fury asking questions about the ever-changing situation, in particular seeking information about Gods, because while they did learn from Loki’s off-handed comments that almost all known Gods were real, they knew little else.
Why were they known on Earth? Why weren’t the other known Gods on Earth? What were they doing, just what was Gods? Just powerful aliens or something else? Something more?
Sadly, Talos didn’t know much about Gods, having not been highly ranked within the Skrull empire before its fall, and after that, they had little time to spare on such things.
He just knew that Gods were real, but they weren’t some all-powerful beings; how powerful they were? He didn’t know. Their history with Earth? He didn’t know.
Fury was left with just as many questions when he felt as when he arrived, but he didn’t blame Talos, he knew the man was harmless, a kind man who wanted to help, but couldn’t.
After that, Fury made his way towards a secure lab, this one staffed by some of humanity's best and brightest, because, while he trusted Talos, he wasn’t about to leave humanity's fate in the hands of an alien.
No, humanity's response to the growing threats would have to come from within, and it wasn’t magic that would be the answer, but technology.
And the exposure of Wakanda had given him hope that they would be able to catch up with at least some lesser forces in the universe soon, and grow less dependent on the mysterious protection from Asgard.
Because he knew it wasn’t perfect, he had once seen Earth almost end, where was Asgard then?
Even if they had avenged humanity, what use would that be? No, Earth needed its own way to protect itself, and while he still believed a team of unique individuals might be the key, he still wanted to increase Earth's overall strength.
“Doctor Reed, I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” he asked one of his best and most troublesome scientists as he stepped inside the man’s assigned area.
