Violent windblown sand struck the faceplate with a dense patter of sharp clicks.
The moment Tony stepped through the portal, the metal soles of his boots sank half an inch into the loose, parched gray-brown sand.
The armor's built-in pressure and environmental sensors instantly flashed amber warnings. Gravity here was slightly stronger than Earth's, the air was unusually dry, and the oxygen partial pressure was entirely different. Every breath brought a faint sting, like sandpaper scraping his throat.
The ghostly blue ionization field surrounding Chen Xiao silently spread several meters outward. Like an invisible air valve, it instantly kept the oncoming, acrid acid mist and poisonous dust half a foot away.
Steve held the Vibranium Shield steady with one hand to block the gale, while his other hand clamped firmly onto Coulson's shoulder armor. A fluorescent gel swiftly sprang from the wrist of Tony's armor, coating Coulson's and Nick Fury's faces with a microscopic respiratory nanofilm. The miniature motor in Coulson's chest gave a rapid, strained whine. Under the harsh changes in air pressure, every rise and fall of his wounded mortal chest came with a heavy, wet rasp.
In this world of eternal night, bereft of a star's favor, the faint cold light filtering from a dying dwarf star far away mingled with the dim red fluorescence of geothermal rock beneath fissures in the ground, barely tracing the wasteland's rugged contours in the darkness.
Nick Fury was the last to step through.
The wasteland's freezing wind plastered his black coat against his chest, and his lone eye narrowed to a thin slit against the gale.
Not far away, collapsed temple pillars jutted at angles deep into the dunes, like the broken ribs of some enormous beast.
Hive's body, a mass composed of hundreds of millions of black particles, abruptly