ALL NOVEL Chapter 37: Chapter: 37
Chapter 37:
"Hey, Tony, you wanna buy a sword?" I asked him as Natasha and I entered the meeting room in 'Fury's secret bunker.' It wasn't so secret anymore now that I arrived here while conscious. It was in the middle of the Swiss Alps though, so kudos to him for going with the classic super villain location. Inside the room were fewer people than last time. It was only Fury, Clint, and Tony. Coulson and Steve must be out on other missions.
"A sword?" Tony asked. I pulled the solid gold sword from my inventory and presented it to him. He looked it over, and I could tell that he was intrigued.
"Solid gold, huh? Well, I do like gold…"
Tony walked up to me and inspected the blade. "This looks like something you'd see in a cosplay convention. Are you sure it's real?"
I nodded. "Yep, it's genuine 100% solid gold. No other metals or imperfections at all."
"That's not possible. 100% gold is virtually impossible to achieve..." Tony explained.
I smirked at him. "Not with magic it's not." That made him look even more intrigued.
"Did you steal that from the Goblins, Layla?" Natasha asked me. She had not seen the sword earlier.
"Yes," I lied, not wanting to explain the system. "They were rude anyway, not giving us any kind of reward for freeing them..." Maybe I'd explain the gamer system to Natasha someday. That would be a long way away, though, and our relationship would have to be a lot more serious.
"They actually gave SHIELD a bunch of goblin silver weapons as thanks," Natasha stated. "Goblins apparently don't like being in anyone's debts for long. I think you had already left the alley at that point though."
Fury made a noise to get everyone's attention. "I don't have all day to sit here while you two over there play shop," he said.
"Fine," I whined as I placed the sword back into my inventory. "So why exactly are we even here?"
Fury raised an eyebrow before turning to Natasha. "You didn't tell her why we were having this meeting?" He asked.
"It… um… must have slipped my mind," Natasha explained as she was not quite meeting her boss's eye.
"It's not like you to be so forgetful, Nat. What had you so distracted yesterday that you forgot your orders?" Clint asked Natasha. The answer to that question was me, of course. Natasha and I had 'distracted' each other quite a bit. In the future, I'm hoping we can distract each other again.
To my surprise, Natasha managed to keep her cool. She smoothly lied that she was just tired from the fight and went to sleep early. Everyone in the room bought her excuse. Except for Tony. I could tell that he knew something was up as he was looking back and forth between me and her. I sent him a wink that confirmed his thoughts. He smirked and gave me a thumbs up in response.
"Alright then. The reason we're here is because we have a few things to discuss," Fury turned to me. "You've been holding out on us, Layla." He stated plainly.
"I have?" I asked him.
"The Great Sundering. I read the reports from my other agents. It seemed like whatever it was basically sent an advanced space-faring organization like the Goblins back into the Bronze Age. You then went and claimed that it would be something that could completely destabilize people's faith. That's not an easy claim to make, and I want to know why.
I looked around the room at everyone with a bit of a grimace on my face. "Are you all sure? It's… world-changing information."
"Don't go holding out on us, Layla. We're all grown-ups," Tony joked. "We can handle it." I did not actually believe that to be the case, but since they were asking I would tell them.
…And so I told them. I told them how the world used to be twice as large. I told them how this universe had numerous incredibly dangerous beings. I told them that, in order to essentially save their own skins, my father along with the other pantheon leaders split the world completely in two. I then went on to explain 'my' original world and how numerous supernatural beings still existed there and pretty much secretly ran the place. Finally, I told them the information I knew they would not like. The spell that held the two worlds separate was now failing, and soon they would once again become one.
"The gods all just ran away… because of stronger space gods?" Clint mumbled out in disbelief. Natasha had no words either. This was one of the few times I had seen her completely lose her stoic facade.
"Mother fucker!" Fury exclaimed. "Do you know how insane that's going to be? Two Earths merging together!? There will be absolute chaos! World War Three is pretty much guaranteed! And that's not to mention all the supernatural beings that have been preying on your side's humanity for the past 1000 years. They'll probably try and do the same to us!" He yelled out angrily. I also did not disagree with him as I had similar thoughts. That was one of the reasons I wanted to get stronger quickly. The last thing we needed were some arrogant snot nosed devil brats trying to recruit someone like the hulk into their peerages.
Tony had a contemplative look on his face before he spoke to Fury. "I don't think the supernaturals will even have to bother with us…" Tony said cryptically.
"And why is that?" Fury replied.
Tony answered him before turning and giving a solemn look to everyone in the room. "Because we'll all be dead…" They all looked alarmed at his statement.
I've been informed by the Ancient One that the merge should be smooth. No cataclysmic events like massive earthquakes, tsunamis, or cities appearing on top of each other will occur," I explained, and everyone's expressions calmed a bit. Except for Tony's. He still looked like it was the end of days.
"That's good to hear, layla, but that's not what I meant. What I was talking about was gravity. If the Earth's mass is going to instantaneously double… then the planet's gravity will double as well."
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