Earth, Avengers secret research base.
The laboratory was so quiet that only the low hum of machinery remained.
Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had not slept for dozens of hours. Before them stood a sealed experimental chamber behind layers of protection, containing a minute sample of "black mist" painstakingly retrieved from the edge of the quarantine zone.
Every operation was performed by robotic arms, but the results were unsettling.
"The energy readings are off the charts, but its structure... cannot be analyzed at all." Banner stared at the chaotic data cascading down the screen, his voice hoarse. "It doesn't resemble any known form of energy, not even dimensional energy. It is practically... alive."
Tony stood beside him, his usual relaxed expression long replaced by grimness. "It is corroding the inner walls of the chamber. The composite armor reinforced with vibranium is being slowly 'digested.'" He pointed to the magnified image—the chamber walls were covered in strange patterns of decay intertwined with crystallization, with some dark substance flowing through them. "It transforms whatever it touches into itself."
"That's not all." Banner pulled up another set of data: the final scan of laboratory mice exposed to trace amounts of black mist. Their biological tissue had undergone indescribable distortions—swelling, twisting, and finally collapsing. "Its effects on living beings are completely different. It amplifies and distorts deep desires or obsessions, fundamentally changing the nature of their existence. Wanda being able to temporarily withstand and use it is probably an extreme exception."
"So we don't even know what we're dealing with, much less have a countermeasure." Tony rubbed his throbbing temples. "What is the situation in the quarantine zone?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s temporary research base and isolation walls have been completed." Banner switched the display to show a militarized area surrounded by multilayered energy barriers and high