"Hello, Miss Tohka. Please come with me."
Just as Tohka landed in front of the inconspicuous building, a black-suited agent was already waiting at the door.
He led her inside, and to her surprise, despite the plain appearance of the house, there was a massive elevator inside. They descended into an underground facility.
"Dr. Connors, you're here too?"
As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, Tohka saw a man in a discolored lab coat, missing one arm, discussing something with several people.
It was none other than Dr. Connors—the same one from that night. What surprised Tohka was that he appeared here instead of being in prison.
"Hello, Miss Tohka. I didn't expect to see you here. And I'm truly sorry for what happened that night—I never thought things would get so out of hand."
Just as Tohka saw him, he also noticed her and immediately put down his work to greet her.
"Alright, Miss Tohka. We can talk later when we have time. The Director is still waiting."
Just as Tohka was about to respond, the agent who brought her spoke up to hurry her along.
"Ah, let's talk more some other time then, Miss Tohka. The Director is still waiting."
Dr. Connors didn't insist, instead signaling her to go ahead. It had to be said—when he was in his normal state, Dr. Connors was very refined and polite. That might be why Nick Fury didn't throw him into prison.
Even so, Tohka noticed that quite a few people were still watching him closely. His work area wasn't far from the entrance, clearly meaning he still didn't have clearance to enter the inner facilities.
But even under those restrictions, he harbored no resentment and continued working calmly.
"This way, Miss Tohka. The Director is just ahead."
As they went deeper in, Tohka could feel the defenses becoming tighter and more elaborate. But even so, she wasn't nervous at all.
What might seem like an inescapable fortress to others was really nothing to Tohka.
When she passed through the final door, Tohka finally saw the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.—Nick Fury. He was standing behind a large pane of glass, and through it, Tohka saw the purpose of her visit: the Space Stone, the 'Tesseract.'
"What's going on? Are you having me test this thing today?"
Looking at the crowd of busy people inside the lab, Tohka glanced at Nick Fury in confusion. Even if she didn't know the exact equipment, she could tell from the flurry of activity that they weren't ready.
As for data collection or whatever, she didn't care. The most likely outcome was that she'd accidentally blow the place up. The last guy who did that was Tony, who had been blasted away by the explosion.
"No, as you can see, we're not ready yet. The Tesseract is far too mysterious. omeone once tried to study it using leftover HYDRA tech. Unfortunately, that person didn't get very far."
Hearing Tohka's question, Nick Fury glanced at her and replied in his usual vague tone. As for who that someone was, Tohka didn't know, but she guessed it was probably Tony's father.
"Then why did you call me here?"
Tohka was more concerned about the reason she was summoned. This was a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility—not a place people could just waltz into.
Judging by the guards' gear, this was the kind of place where even a fly couldn't escape. That wasn't a joke. In a society full of high-tech gadgets, tiny insect drones were very real.
"Right. The reason I called you is to test a piece of equipment Tony gave us. You should know that he's the only one in this world who can create something compatible with your powers."
Glancing at Tohka, Nick Fury's expression darkened. From the looks of it, he'd probably gotten ripped off by Tony.
But then again, Tony was a businessman, and he'd long disliked Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. This was the perfect opportunity to mess with them, and he definitely wasn't going to pass it up.
"Alright then, what do I need to do?"
"One moment. Everyone, clear the room."
Hearing Tohka's question, Nick Fury spoke into the microphone, and the people inside quickly stopped what they were doing and exited. What was left behind was a half-assembled machine.
"Alright, this is the device. We've previously detected that the Tesseract contains massive energy. If it leaks, it would cause catastrophic disaster."
"So, the purpose is simple—install a failsafe. If something goes wrong, we can immediately cut off the power supply. Human reaction time is still a bit slow, after all."
"Be specific." Tohka had no idea what this old fox was scheming, so she could only press him to explain clearly—what exactly did he want her to do?
"I remember you can directly charge the Tesseract. But this time, we want you to channel your power through this device. That way, we can be fully prepared in case something unexpected happens."
'Tch, got it. You just want to collect my data too, right?'
Tohka rolled her eyes—she couldn't be bothered to say it out loud. But thinking about it, it made sense.
S.H.I.E.L.D., as a special agency, had files on every superpowered individual. Even Magneto and Professor Charles had specific containment protocols prepared by S.H.I.E.L.D.—though whether they'd work was another matter.
Tohka had zero faith in these so-called preparations. Look at the equipment people designed to deal with Spirits in Date A Live—besides a few rare exceptions, most of it was a joke to any Spirit. And even those "successful" cases relied on reverse-engineered Angel tech.
Using only human understanding, they'd never come up with anything that could truly keep her in check.
"Everyone, power up the device. And Tohka, don't use your full power. I don't think this thing can handle your energy output."
Hearing her reply, Nick Fury nodded in satisfaction and gave instructions to the rest of the team.