To be perfectly honest, Arthur knew he wasn't ready to send his mind plunging into the core of the Space Stone, there to endure the violent, infinite energies of space.
After all, he hadn't made nearly enough progress in his purely mental cultivation.
The method taught to him by the Ancient One in Kamar-Taj was fundamentally different from any conventional technique he knew.
One approach involved using the mind to influence the outer, material world; the other was purely about exploring and reinforcing the inner self.
Arthur possessed innate talent and a deep foundation in the former, but in the latter, a slight misstep could easily lead to disaster or permanent mental damage.
This was a professional consensus shared by Arthur, the Ancient One, and even Odin and the Heavenly Empress!
So this adventurous, exploratory idea had to, for the time being, remain one of Arthur's many conceptual notes, rather than an imminent practice.
Life aboard the spaceship was often so calm it was chilling. Fortunately, everyone present, with the notable exception of Mordo, had extensive experience with space travel. The long journey didn't breed restlessness; instead, each person found a way to occupy themselves and enjoy the time from their own perspective.
Banner maintained his research, even contacting Tony Stark at fixed times every day. They communicated via the secure platform managed by Natasha, which nearly drove the former spy to distraction.
But the exchanges were not fruitless.
First, the lunar excavation project had officially begun, and the daily progress was gratifying. According to Tony's early calculations, at the current pace, the Moon could be hollowed out in roughly seventy-two years.
However, if artificial intelligence development made significant breakthroughs, that lengthy time could be drastically shortened to just one or two years…
Arthur merely shook his head when he heard the update. He had expressed more than once that in this area, he trusted Tony's self-control and management, and was willing to let him experiment freely.
Tony, satisfied, pointed out that his current preparations were mostly theoretical and had not entered the actual, risky operational phase. The substantive development would only begin once Arthur and the others returned safely.
This gave Arthur a measure of relief.
And Banner's frequent suggestions were always gladly accepted by Tony, which, for some reason, gave Arthur the strange sense that his own child had finally grown up.
In truth, Arthur would never admit that he was nearly a hundred years old, except on the rarest of occasions.
He preferred to believe that the Disassembly space had frozen his aging, and therefore the seventy-year gap didn't truly count toward his actual age.
But that convenient interpretation didn't convince everyone.
In his free time, Arthur would also chat with little Spider-Man.
Peter's greatest worry was that not working for such a prolonged period might cause him to lose his position altogether.
Fortunately, Camp Lehigh paid a regular salary; otherwise, Spider-Man wouldn't know how he could survive.
Chatting with the young man always unearthed some small joys hidden in the ordinary things of life… yet Spider-Man himself was anything but ordinary.
The extraordinary hidden beneath his ordinary disguise, and the glimpses of ordinary humanity within his extraordinary nature, always gave Arthur a strange sense of fascination.
He was very curious about how Peter balanced the boundary between the two extremes.
For Arthur, Lily represented his own tangible thread, a line that allowed him to easily find his balance between the two opposing worlds he lived in.
Everyone on the spaceship was finding their own source of stability and enjoyment. Even Mordo, after the initial shock and a period of boredom, began learning to find things he wanted to do, just like the others.
For example, gathering a few companions, including Loki or Thor, to study questions about magic together.
But obviously, "Big Hammer" (Thor) wasn't particularly interested in the arcane. Loki and Mordo, conversely, sometimes displayed an unexpected level of tacit understanding when debating the practical application of mystic arts.
This made Arthur ponder… Was Mordo's eventual dark turn purely due to the Ancient One's actions, or was it a fatal flaw in his own nature?
The spaceship continued its slow journey through the void, while back on Earth, Camp Lehigh remained quiet, developing along its original trajectory.
Then, one day, a young man carrying a small, worn package, windblown and dust-streaked, entered Camp Lehigh's surveillance area. He dropped the package on the ground and let out a soft sigh: "I'm back!"
At the same moment, Tony examined the piece of information Natasha had just brought him, commenting critically: "Several SHIELD units have been reorganized; some even returned to their original teams. The information on the Avengers has been thoroughly scrubbed. Probably, besides Steve and me, the rest of the world no longer knows much about us."
"You're ignoring Steve and me," Natasha corrected. "Even Hawkeye has high recognition. Hulk's form obviously doesn't immediately make people think of Banner, but Thor's image is still very distinctive…"
Natasha kept pouring cold water on Tony's assumptions, forcing him to face reality.
Tony, completely deflated, threw his hands up. "Alright, alright… then, why?"
Although the information was fragmented, all signs indicated that SHIELD was now actively dismantling itself.
Why had it come to this?
Natasha was silent for a moment before articulating the stakes. "This is likely a kind of silent, internal struggle."
Tony fell silent as well.
All the previous signs pointed to something strange, yet no one had imagined that she would actually take such decisive action.
He shrugged. "I thought, given her careful personality, she'd try to change things from the inside first."
"She must have already realized that the rot goes too deep to be simply covered up," Natasha said, her voice grim. "Don't underestimate her determination."
The sheer determination and painful experience that person possessed were not to be taken lightly by anyone.
Then Natasha added, "And if I'm not mistaken, the intelligence network he provided us earlier will probably soon come into play."
"You mean he plans to use that shadow network to transmit some information from within SHIELD?" Tony frowned. "It's possible, but I need you to be extra cautious. We don't know how much of this is a Hydra smoke screen. And if SHIELD completely disappears, that other dark existence should be erased from this world as well!"
"Hydra?" Natasha nodded and rose to her feet. "I'll start the related work. Checking and filtering the information is definitely not an easy task."
As she stood to leave, she added lightly, "By the way, Hawkeye might be out of a job, right?"
"I don't think the old man will let the youngster rest for long…" Tony smiled wryly, looking forward to the inevitable chaos.
And just at that moment, the Šumer alarm blared!
(End of chapter)
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