Tony's portal closed in the center of the bridge, and the orange sparks dissipated in the airflow of the Helicarrier. Banner stood there, looking at the three faces in front of him— Fury, Natasha, and Coulson— each with a different expression, and then at Ivan Vanko beside him, who was examining the bridge equipment with the same look he would give a laboratory specimen. A gentle smile, tinged with a hint of embarrassment, appeared on his lips.
"So... where's the studio? I can start working now." He said, reaching out to tug at Ivan's sleeve. The white parrot on Ivan's shoulder tilted its head and glanced at him, while Ivan himself maintained his arrogant expression, chin slightly raised, corners of his mouth turned down, arms crossed, clearly acting as if to say, "I'm only here to give you face." Banner didn't let go, pulling him along to follow Natasha towards the studio.
In the ground floor laboratory of Stark Tower, a portal opened under the cool white light, and Tony and Lynn emerged one after the other. Tony went straight to the central holographic workbench, his fingers rapidly swiping across the projection interface. " JARVIS, activate the gamma-ray tracking device on the near-Earth orbit satellite. Fully activate all bands, perform a global scan, focusing on the mid-to-high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere... When the Tesseract is activated, the characteristic energy spectrum will concentrate in the gamma-ray band and areas of spatial radiation anomalies. Use a process of elimination to filter out all known natural radiation sources and artificial nuclear facilities."
"Initiated, sir. The first global scan is expected to be completed within twenty-eight minutes." JARVIS's voice fell smoothly. Tony pushed the holographic projection aside, turned, and went upstairs.
Lynn slumped on the sofa for a while, counting the leaves of the small potted plant on the coffee table one by one, then picked up his phone and browsed the news for a bit. He was so bored that he put his phone on the coffee table and was about to go to the kitchen to see if there were any leftover snacks from last night in the Fridge when the elevator doors slid open.
Tony walked in, stood opposite the sofa, hands in his pockets, and looked completely serious. "You know where the Tesseract is, right?"
Lynn was silent for a moment. The New York nightscape unfolded quietly outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the lights of barges on the Hudson River moving slowly. "I know the general area. I also know what he's planning." He pulled his hand from the potted plant and looked up at Tony. "But I suggest—since the overall trend can't be stopped, we shouldn't change these minor details. Let it follow its original trajectory. We can prepare in advance now. If we intervene and change the original trajectory, I can't guarantee that things won't get worse."
Tony leaned against the wall opposite the sofa, tapping his fingers lightly on his arm, and paused for a moment. "You're right. Following the original trajectory, at least we can predict what will happen next. The satellite tracking devices and evacuation plans we prepared in advance weren't for nothing." He straightened up from the wall, took two steps forward, and sat down on the single sofa opposite Lynn. His expression shifted from "seriously discussing business" to a more subtle one, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, a curve somewhere between teasing and disdain.
"Let's talk about something else entirely. Can you please stop acting like a dog seeing rice... like a dog seeing a bone, lunging at Natasha with eyes shining? It was like that on the plane, it was like that in the Monaco suite, and just now on the bridge. It's embarrassing."
Lynn's expression instantly shifted from "I can control the situation" to "I really can't control this." He slumped back on the sofa, rubbed his face with both hands, then lowered them, revealing a standard Lynn- style embarrassed grin. "Well, I'll be more careful next time. I was just really too excited to see her. Hehe."
Tony snorted at his silly grin. He stood up, dusted off imaginary dust from his pants, shook his head, and walked toward the elevator. As he passed Lynn, he tossed out a dismissive "hopeless," his tone 70% disdain and 30% a deep-seated sense of helplessness.
The search continued into the night. JARVIS's gamma-ray tracing device had completed its third round of global scanning, filtering out more than a dozen known radiation sources, but it still hadn't pinpointed the exact location of the Tesseract. Lynn spent some time in the lab with Tony, reviewing the data, but eventually couldn't stay awake any longer and went upstairs to collapse on the sofa, closing her eyes for a moment. When his phone vibrated on the coffee table, Fury's name appeared on the screen. Tony answered the phone, listened to a brief report from the other end, hung up, and walked to the sofa.
" Loki is at the Stuttgart Opera House, at the dinner party. Fury didn't say exactly what was going on, only that Captain America and Natasha had already gone there. Fury told us to go too."
"Go by yourself." Lynn lifted his face from the cushions, his tone as languid as if discussing whether to go downstairs to pick up takeout. "There's nothing serious in Stuttgart. Captain America and Natasha can handle it. If they can't, then you can go. I can't be bothered to shorten my sleep just to show my face." He propped himself up on the sofa, slipped on his slippers, and headed towards the elevator, yawning as he passed Tony. "Call me if there are any problems. My portal is always open."
The elevator doors closed, and Lynn slowly descended to her apartment below.
There will be another chapter in half an hour.