A full month had passed since the fog incident that devastated the town of Basel.
Inside his expansive Stark Tower lab, Tony Stark slowly climbed the sleek staircase from the subterranean workshop into the main lounge. His normally pristine appearance had dulled—he wore a plain black T-shirt and matching slacks, his face showing signs of long, sleepless nights.
Waiting at the top of the stairs, Pepper Potts stood with a steaming cup of coffee in hand and a sharp look on her face.
She handed him the cup before raising an eyebrow. "Tony, do you know how many things I've had to deal with in the past two weeks alone?"
Tony accepted the drink without a word.
"There are over thirteen hundred documents waiting for your signature," she continued, following him into the hall. "You've locked yourself in that lab ever since you woke up from your coma. What happened?"
Tony sighed and gave a helpless smile. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk—it was just hard to put it into words.
He'd been in a coma for fifteen days after the explosion near the barrier. Upon waking up, he immediately pulled every byte of recorded data from J.A.R.V.I.S. to understand what had happened.
The truth was sobering.
He had been inches from death. According to S.H.I.E.L.D. and follow-up investigations by demon hunters and church exorcists, the explosion had wiped out an altar that was being used to summon a demon lord—by sacrificing over 80,000 lives.
The fog, the undead, the demons... they were all symptoms of a forced dimensional breach. Someone had tried to tear open a rift between Earth and Hell, and nearly succeeded.
If it weren't for the Goddess of Judgment unleashing all her magic to destroy the barrier and obliterate the altar at the cost of her strength, the outcome would've been far worse.
Tony shuddered at the thought.
Since then, she hadn't been seen. Not once in an entire month.
Crime in New York had spiked sharply in her absence. With the Goddess of Judgment gone, the streets lost their most terrifying deterrent. Not even the other superheroes had been spared—many were still recovering from the lingering effects of mental corruption caused by the mist.
And the worst part?
Even after all that destruction, the rift had only been sealed temporarily.
This time, they were lucky. Bella had been there to stop it.
But what about next time?
Tony had begun thinking in darker terms. If another catastrophe like this hit and Bella wasn't around, what would happen? Who would step up? Could anyone?
The anxiety clawed at his mind constantly, only made worse by another urgent issue—his blood palladium levels.
The arc reactor in his chest was slowly poisoning him. His body was being corroded by the very element keeping him alive. Hungarian-purified palladium was the only thing that sustained him, but it was no longer enough.
And yet... looking at Pepper's concerned face, Tony decided to keep all this to himself.
He forced a grin and changed the subject.
"Pepper," he said, dropping onto the sofa with the coffee in hand, "I think you're better suited to being the CEO of Stark Industries."
Pepper blinked. "You..."
She had come to scold him back into action but was left speechless.
Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface of Texas, at a remote S.H.I.E.L.D. distribution base, the investigation continued.
Fifty meters underground, a massive chamber had been carved out. The floor was covered in ancient stone slabs inscribed with arcane runes. Scattered across the space were the corpses of demons—twisted, grotesque things that had been dragged from the fog's aftermath.
Teams of scientists, archaeologists, and exorcists moved about in protective suits, scanning the remains and collecting data with specialized machines.
From a platform above the chamber, Director Nick Fury stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his one eye reflecting a storm of thoughts. The scene below was busy and chaotic, but he remained unmoving, deep in contemplation.
"Sir, you do remember that she warned us, right?"
Fury turned slightly at the sound of Barton's voice.
The agent walked up beside him, dressed in a black S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical suit, his body language casual but alert.
Fury raised a brow. "You're looking better."
"Month off. My bones finally stopped screaming." Barton chuckled, rolling his shoulders. Then he looked down at the eerie stone slabs below. "But this stuff... it's not sitting right with me."
Fury nodded grimly. "We're dealing with objects of legend. Some of these stone materials share the same signature as the Holy Light Stone. If it were up to me, I'd call in a missile strike and bury it all."
Barton gave him a sidelong glance. "And yet, we're studying it."
Fury's eye narrowed.
"The World Security Council got involved. Even the President's office wants answers. To them, it doesn't matter how many people died or what risks we're poking. They just want results. Data. Power."
Barton sighed. "Same old story."
He didn't press further. Fury's hands were tied. This was out of his control now.
So he pivoted to a lighter topic.
"Any news on her?" he asked. "The Goddess of Judgment, I mean. I still want to buy her a drink someday."
Fury didn't flinch. "Nothing."
"Didn't expect anything less," Barton said with a smile. "She's... well, she's like a shadow. Mysterious to the end."
Fury didn't answer. He simply stared ahead.
Bella had disappeared after the explosion. No sightings, no signals, no whispers in the network. It was like she'd never existed—until you looked at the crater she left behind.
She hadn't just saved the world.
She had impressed it.
Fury never thought he'd see someone like that shake even his most seasoned agents. And now... even he wasn't sure whether they should be grateful or afraid.
His thoughts were interrupted by a new report.
"A hammer fell from the sky," Fury said suddenly.
Barton blinked. "A hammer?"
"In Mexico. Coulson's already en route. I want you to join him."
"Got it," Barton said, intrigued. "Hammer from the sky. That's... new."
Without another word, he turned and headed out.
Fury remained at the railing, watching the workers below with a heavy gaze. The world had changed.
And somewhere in the back of his mind, Bella's warning echoed.
"Don't pry into things beyond your reach. Overestimate yourself, and you'll invite death."
Fury muttered under his breath.
"I won't clean up the mess of people who think they're gods."
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