"Captain, I hate to pour cold water on the plan," Ethan said calmly, "but that approach isn't ideal. Loki now has the help of the Chitauri—an interstellar civilization. Not every alien race is like Asgard. Many of them don't even need portals to travel between worlds. They have fleets of spaceships."
He paused briefly, letting the implication sink in.
"So even if we stop Loki from opening a portal, the most we accomplish is delaying their arrival."
Nick Fury looked directly at him. "Then what do you suggest we do?"
"It's simple," Ethan replied. "Let Loki open the portal, allow the enemy forces to come through, and then defeat them."
As soon as Ethan finished speaking, Tony immediately chimed in.
"I agree," Tony said. "If we just wait around for alien warships to show up above our heads, we're giving them the advantage. If Loki opens a portal instead, their forces will have to pour through a narrow gateway. That makes them a lot easier to deal with."
Captain America nodded slowly.
"I agree as well. If this war can't be avoided, then we should take the initiative."
"I support the Captain," Coulson added.
Natasha folded her arms and shrugged slightly. "Compared to our other options, at least it's a workable plan."
"I'm ready to fight," Hawkeye said simply.
Banner glanced around the table and lifted his shoulders in a helpless shrug. "At this point, I'm guessing my opinion doesn't matter much."
Everyone's attention turned toward Nick Fury.
They all understood the situation perfectly. No matter how much discussion happened here, their opinions were only recommendations. The final decision belonged to Fury.
Fury leaned back slightly, deep in thought.
It wasn't an easy choice to make.
At that moment, Tony suddenly turned toward Ethan.
"Hey, Ethan," Tony said thoughtfully. "Your powers let you see the future, right? So what did you see?"
Tony leaned forward, curiosity flashing in his eyes as he continued asking questions.
"Does the portal open? Where does the battle happen? Do we win? If we lose, how do we lose?"
The rapid stream of questions caused several people in the room to look toward Ethan.
Most of them weren't surprised anymore. After everything that happened during the Thor incident, they had already accepted that Ethan possessed abilities beyond normal understanding.
Only Banner still looked a little confused.
Ethan sighed slightly.
"To be honest, this is the part that's giving me the biggest headache," he said.
"In the future I saw, we did win the battle eventually. But it wasn't easy. We paid a heavy price to win."
Tony nodded slowly. "Well… that's at least good news."
"However," Ethan continued.
The room immediately became quiet again.
"Some things happening right now don't match the future I saw."
Nick Fury leaned forward slightly. "What's different?"
"For example, in the future I saw, Loki arrived on Earth alone through the portal," Ethan said. "And Loki controlled several people after arriving. Besides Dr. Selvig, Hawkeye was also under his control."
Ethan glanced toward Clint.
"But Hawkeye is standing right here with us."
Clint immediately raised both hands defensively.
"I swear I'm not under anyone's control," he said quickly. "If I was, I wouldn't still be inside the Helicarrier."
Seeing that Hawkeye appeared completely normal, the others relaxed slightly.
Tony frowned.
"Why would that change?" he asked. "Does that mean the future you saw wasn't accurate?"
Ethan shrugged casually.
"I have no idea. When it comes to time, nothing is ever completely predictable."
In truth, Ethan simply pushed the explanation onto the mysterious nature of time itself. After all, time was complicated enough that nobody in the room could argue with that answer.
Nick Fury didn't dwell on the issue.
Instead, he turned toward Banner.
"Dr. Banner, I need you to locate the Tesseract as quickly as possible. Once we know where it is, we'll know where this war will begin."
Banner nodded immediately.
"I'll write a tracking algorithm," he said. "But I'll need access to a lot of spectrometers. How many do you have?"
"As many as you need," Fury replied.
"Have them place spectrometers on the rooftop and calibrate them to scan for gamma radiation," Banner said. "Leave the rest to me."
Nick Fury turned toward Coulson.
"Coulson, make sure that happens."
"Yes, Director."
Fury's gaze swept across the room.
"The rest of you," he said, "prepare for battle."
It was clear that Fury had made his decision. He was accepting the challenge.
After saying that, he turned and left the room.
With Banner's expertise in gamma radiation detection, combined with Tony Stark—the so-called overnight thermonuclear astrophysics expert—the approximate location of the Tesseract would be determined within a day.
The result came far sooner than anyone expected.
"The Tesseract's location has been confirmed," Coulson announced.
Everyone in the room immediately turned toward him.
"It's in New York."
The expressions around the table instantly became complicated.
"So New York is going to be the battlefield," Natasha said quietly. "Even though we've located the Tesseract, that's not exactly good news."
"New York versus aliens," Hawkeye muttered with a crooked grin. "That's going to be one hell of a headline."
Captain America's expression remained serious.
"If the war starts in New York, the casualties could be enormous. We need to find the exact location of the Tesseract. If we can't stop the war entirely, then at least we should try to prevent it from happening inside the city."
"I think we might already be too late," Ethan said suddenly.
Everyone immediately looked at him.
Instead of explaining, Ethan simply pointed toward the window.
In the distance, far beyond the ocean, the direction of New York was clearly visible.
A massive blue beam of light shot straight into the sky.
At the end of the beam, the blue energy began swirling violently as space itself tore open.
A massive hole formed in the sky.
"…Shit!"
Tony suddenly cursed loudly.
"That's Stark Tower!" he said in shock. "Damn it! I forgot something important!"
He clenched his fists as realization struck him.
"To activate the Tesseract, it has to be heated to around one hundred twenty million Kelvin first. Reaching that temperature requires a stable high-energy power source."
Ethan glanced at him calmly.
"Your new arc reactor fits that requirement perfectly."
Tony grimaced. "Yeah… you're right."
While they were speaking, small figures had already begun emerging from the portal.
Chitauri soldiers were pouring out.
"Guys," Captain America said firmly, "this isn't the time to talk anymore. We have a battle to fight."
"Alright!" Tony said immediately. "I'll fly there as fast as possible!"
Before anyone else could react, Ethan moved first.
The moment his voice fell, he disappeared from everyone's sight.
Tony glanced around briefly.
"I have a spare Iron Man suit," he said quickly. "But there's only one."
After saying that, he rushed off to prepare his armor.
Captain America turned toward Natasha.
"Natasha, I think you should pilot it."
"Obviously," Natasha replied.
"Alright then," Steve said firmly. "Let's move."
"…Um."
Banner suddenly spoke up, his voice hesitant.
"Could someone take me along too? If things get really bad… I might be able to help."
Meanwhile, far above New York, Ethan looked toward the sky.
Chitauri soldiers were pouring out of the portal like a swarm of locusts.
Instead of feeling fear, Ethan felt excitement.
In his eyes, those alien soldiers were nothing more than a massive supply of summoning energy.
Without the slightest hesitation, his telekinesis erupted at full power, forming an enormous invisible hand in the sky.
....
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