S.H.I.E.L.D., Dark Energy Research Base.
Three hundred meters underground.
The shrill alarms nearly blasted the heavy blast doors off their hinges.
The massive centrifuge had stopped spinning, but the blue cube inside its central vacuum chamber shone too brightly to look at.
Dr. Erik Selvig stared fixedly at the screen, his fingers hammering the keyboard, cold sweat seeping beneath his nails.
"Cut the power! Cut it now!"
"Doctor, we cut the power three minutes ago!" an agent shouted, his voice distorted by the violent shaking.
"It's powering itself! The energy level is still spiking! We can't control it!"
On the elevated circular walkway, Clint Barton wasn't looking at the screens. His gaze remained locked on the Tesseract.
Behind his tactical sunglasses, his eyes were as sharp as a hawk's. He reached back, drew a high-explosive arrow, and nocked it.
It was too quiet.
Beyond the roar of the machinery, the air around the Tesseract was undergoing some bizarre distortion.
Like the irregular bubbles rising from the bottom of a pot just before the water boiled.
"Sir, this thing isn't throwing a tantrum." Barton pressed his earpiece. "It's opening a door."
The words had barely left his mouth.
Hummm!
A column of eerie blue light shot upward, punching straight through the vacuum chamber's bulletproof glass. The shards never hit the floor. Some invisible force held them suspended in midair.
At the center of the beam, space was torn apart as though by a pair of enormous hands, revealing a bottomless black rift.
A bitterly cold wind, carrying the deathly breath of the vacuum, swept into the underground chamber.
A tall, thin gray figure stepped out of the rift.
Ebony Maw.
He wore a fitted dark robe and held a golden scepter with a long blade.
At its tip, a blue crystal