The subway was darker than Henri expected.
Not the kind of darkness that made you squint — the kind that made you feel like something was watching, waiting.
The faint glow of his wristband HUD was the only thing cutting through the gloom.
[Active Quest: Shadow Protocol]
> Track hidden tech clusters
Progress: 0/3
Reward: +2 Upgrade Points + Prototype Module
A SHIELD drone hovered above him, buzzing faintly. Behind him, Agent Ryler checked a map projected from her own wristband — SHIELD's, of course. Sleek, military, polished.
Henri's was still an awkward mass of semi-finished Stark scraps and rewired garbage.
> I should really design something sleeker soon. Once I don't feel like dying.
"You sure this is the right place?" Ryler asked, shining her tactical flashlight into the dusty corridor ahead.
Henri's wristband pulsed.
---
📡 SIGNAL DETECTED
> Distance: 132 meters
Signature: UNKNOWN
Classification: NOT STARK / NOT CHITAURI / NOT SHIELD
Signal Strength: 68%
Frequency: Oscillating Subharmonic
---
"I'm sure," Henri said.
She didn't argue.
The tunnel opened into an abandoned station — rusted benches, collapsed beams, the skeletal remains of an old vending machine.
Henri knelt, placing his hand on the dusty tile.
> Come on, system… give me something useful.
The Upgrade System scanned the environment.
---
🔍 Environmental Analysis
> Composition: 78% Concrete, 13% Rebar, 5% Bio-Material
Hidden Structure Detected: Beneath Platform – Depth 12ft
Signal Source: Encrypted Beacon Core
[Side Quest Unlocked: The Beacon Below]
> Objective: Retrieve and Analyze Encrypted Beacon
Time Limit: 3 hours
Reward: +1 Upgrade Point + New Blueprint Slot
---
"There's something under the platform," Henri said. "Twelve feet down."
Ryler raised a brow. "You want to dig?"
Henri pulled a small device from his pack — a portable arc drill. A prototype he'd whipped up the night before by modifying a heat coil from a stolen SHIELD energy blade.
> "I'm prepared for upgrades," he said with a grin.
Ryler grunted. "Show-off."
Henri activated the drill. The tiles hissed, then cracked. The scent of melting stone filled the air as the machine cut through like butter.
After a minute, he hit something solid.
Metal.
Round.
Glowing.
---
It was a sphere, embedded in the ground — six inches wide, metallic black, with pulsing violet lines etched across its surface.
Even before he touched it, his system flared.
---
🚨 WARNING: External Data Spike Detected
> This object is broadcasting a quantum signal
Energy Signature: Interdimensional
Encryption: Unbreakable (without core module)
Recommendation: Isolate and shield ASAP
---
Henri picked it up with shaking fingers.
It was warm, humming like it was alive.
Ryler took a step closer. "That's not human-made. That's… alien."
"No," Henri said slowly. "It's something else."
Suddenly, the beacon pulsed — and Henri's wristband spiked.
A shockwave of data surged through him.
He fell to his knees as a flood of images filled his vision:
A crumbling city of steel towers under a blood-red sky
Mechanical titans locked in endless war
A glowing figure with no face, draped in cables
Portals swallowing entire planets
---
Then it was gone.
---
Henri gasped, coughing.
Ryler grabbed his arm. "What just happened?"
"I saw... something. I think… it came from another universe. Not just alien — otherworldly. Like dimensional."
Ryler's face went cold.
"This might be above SHIELD's paygrade."
---
🧠 System Alert: CODE TAG – OBSERVER
> You have come into contact with an Origin Beacon
Hidden Objective Updated:
"Uncover the Source of the Upgrade System"
Progress: 4%
---
Henri blinked.
> Wait. You mean the system didn't come from this world either? Then where—
Before he could process the thought, the ground shook.
Metal groaned.
The subway ceiling cracked.
Ryler drew her weapon. "Incoming."
A screech echoed through the tunnel — high-pitched, shrill.
Then they saw it.
---
A drone — but not SHIELD.
Black as oil, shaped like a spider with six mechanical legs and a glowing red sensor eye. It skittered across the wall, then jumped.
Henri rolled, barely avoiding the pounce.
Ryler opened fire — BLAM-BLAM-BLAM.
Sparks exploded from its chassis, but it kept moving.
"EMP pulse now!" she shouted.
Henri grabbed the Sonic Disruption Device v0.1 from his belt and activated a high-frequency burst.
The drone seized, limbs twitching — then collapsed.
---
🛠️ Scavenge Opportunity: Unknown Drone Chassis
> Components: Nano-circuitry | Sensor Core | Stabilizer Nodes
New Blueprint Unlocked: Tactical Recon Lens
---
Henri's wristband pinged again.
> Another attacker. That drone wasn't just here — it was watching us.
He turned to Ryler. "We're being monitored. And that beacon didn't just activate. It called someone."
Ryler pulled him to his feet.
"We're leaving. Now."
---
🔻 Elsewhere…
At a high-rise hidden deep in New York's financial district, a screen blinked to life.
A man in a white lab coat turned.
He was tall, lanky, and elegant in the way a scalpel is elegant — deadly, clinical, precise.
Dr. Adrian Toomes.
Beside him, Dr. Octavius reviewed the intercepted signal.
> "The beacon's been touched," Otto said.
"To whom did it connect?" Toomes asked.
"Not to us. To something beyond. Possibly its creator. Or another user."
"Then we must act," Toomes said. "We find the boy. We take the system. We become the masters of this world's next evolution."
In the shadows behind them, two more figures waited:
One with a long black coat and glowing eyes
Another with silver claws twitching with anticipation
The Sinister Network was beginning to wake.
---
✅ End of Chapter 4