Forward to Marvel Cinematic Universe

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***

- You got your suit on? - I looked over at Steve as he came out, "You look great.

- I don't think these suits are right for us," Rogers shook his head, "I mean, two guys who are so athletic and in business suits....

- It's okay, the girls will like it. And right after the presentation, you can take your jacket off.

- Are you sure they won't recognise me by sight? - Rogers was interested, - well, I mean....

- I don't think so," I adjusted my tie, "seventy years have passed. The fans, of course, probably know you by sight, but they're mostly Americans.

Steve nodded and continued looking for his shoes. Just then a small crawler drone pulled up, carrying two pairs of boots. It spoke in a squeaky voice:

- Shined, gentlemen! Here you go.

We put on our shoes and walked out of the main hall. I looked at myself in the reflection of the glass that lined the large corridor from the hangar to the base. Waiting for us was a luxury Rolls-Royce type car, registered to all the rules in China. Steve recognised it:

- Royce?

- How did he know that?

- The grille.

Yeah. The Rolls-Royce was made by me. Steven had already seen the wreckage when he woke up. The car was loaded into the shuttle, and then we went in afterwards. It was quite cramped inside. I sat in the pilot's seat and quickly typed in the coordinates I needed - China, Shanghai, the outskirts of the city.

The shuttle lifted off, swaying slightly, artificial gravity switched on. We took off gently from the moon. The view was gorgeous - Steve wasn't quite sure we were on the moon yet. First of all, the horizon was much smaller than on the ground - it looked like the moon just dropped off after some distance. The fact that it was spherical was obvious to the naked eye. And the entire surface was littered with craters. Our base was at the bottom of one of the large craters, covered by the dome of the invisibility field. It was a cargo shuttle, designed for orbital and interplanetary travel - it took longer than a normal ship - twenty minutes - but it was reliable and economical. Steve coughed:

- It's beautiful here.

- Yeah, it is. But I'm not in the mood...

- What's wrong?

- Yeah," I dismissed it, "I don't like public speaking. And right now, I have to make a public appearance. And in front of a crowd of professionals... I'm going to have a hard time with them.

Rogers just shrugged:

- Not enough experience? It'll pass.

We travelled the rest of the way in silence. The shuttle flew to the ground, familiar contours of continents and oceans appeared... like a geographical map. We were descending into the Eurasia region, or rather, China. The city of Shanghai.

* * *

There were a lot of people at the exhibition, mostly Chinese, but there were also Europeans and even Russians. I rented a small stand in the area with smartphones and tablets. Attracting attention was one of the main tasks of marketing, so I made my stand very conspicuous - a large Abstergo logo, around the stand - three-dimensional projectors on the floor, which projected three-dimensional images - Abstergo pyramids, each face of which looked like the logo and consisted of three longitudinal elements. The company does not knit brooms - after all, three-dimensional images are still a trend. The stand projectors were controlled by Bersi, displaying images of our products - an advertising film about our technologies.

The lawsuits against the world's leading media outlets and the feud between Mr Jobs and me, which had already been aired, were playing into our hands. The exhibition was still half an hour away.

In general, the whole exhibition was like a giant shopping centre, like the same Gorbushka, only there were few sellers, large companies had well-equipped exhibition halls, and small ones - huddled in the corners, attracting attention with bright signs.

My tablet should be a surprise - on it I launched the Crysis game, which was present here, in the emulator. The game ran well, the battery charge should have been enough for twelve hours of Crysis play - that's not it! A tablet with a full-sized game, with complex, not cartoonish graphics - it was something with something.

- Bersey, are you ready? - I put in my headset to communicate with the seeker and Rogers by voice.

- Aye, Captain. All systems are functioning normally.

- Release the droid.

A natural robot has emerged from the side of the booth. Not like the Japanese, but a full-sized one, with a rather cute look, human-like, but at the same time, not too much - remained a robot. The robot picked up the exhibition specimen and spoke in Bersih's voice:

- I'm here now.

- Yes, good for you... now let's get the show on the road.

* * *

The level of service at the show was more than decent. There were several restaurants and cafeterias for the guests and organisers, all amenities were in place, even the famous McDonald's was present. That's where we went. Me and Steve, with Abstergo badges, went into the McDonald's. We got hamburgers, Big Macs and all sorts of junk food. Everyone usually says McDonald's is harmful - wholeheartedly confirmed. However, it is difficult to find harmful elements in food - otherwise it would be closed. McDonald's is harmful from a psychological point of view. It is oriented on adults and children - that is, there are a lot of bright colours in the design. Children like it, they remember it all, and they want to go there again and again. And then this attachment is transferred into adulthood, they bring their children there as adults and the marketing machine starts a new cycle. Plus there are some tricks - for example, if you don't say the portion size, they give you the biggest one by default, all the drinks are iced. And ice - acts on the stomach receptors, drinking food with ice cola, for example, you will never feel full. That's why you just eat and it seems that you want to eat again, as if you were not full... Such marketing tricks lead to psychological dependence and, as a consequence, to obesity. Not hamburgers and cheeseburgers. Although it is hard to call these semi-finished products useful, because if a person does not have time to eat normal food, he will not have time for sports.

I briefly told Stephen that thanks to the growth of wealth on military orders of the Second World War, the US economy has become much stronger. And now America leads the world in the number of obese people. Stephen was horrified:

- What about sports?

- Sports... there are sports, but fast food is for people who don't have a lot of time on their hands. Which means you don't have a few hours a day for sports. And this situation is observed all over the world - the more prosperous the state, the more obese people there are.

- That makes sense," Steve looked at his hamburger, "but I don't like it. It used to be different.

- Yeah. I'll think about it, maybe we can find a solution.

* * *

We went back to our booth. There were a lot of people gathered around it - journalists, people with cameras. There were a dozen tablets on the stand, on which people could play Crisis and Battlefield. Bersi, using a robot, was telling people about the advantages of our technology. I'd already given my presentation, but the people weren't getting any smaller. And the droid was answering their questions. He could do that. As expected - three-dimensional projections, a droid consultant and the introduction of a super-powered tablet technology to the market - did their job. The excitement was set at about the level of presentations of large companies.

Everyone could try to break a smartphone with a hammer - whoever succeeded would get a smartphone as a gift. Since mine withstood even very strong blows, so far there were no winners. Separately stood glass flasks, inside which floated switched on and working smartphones. You could take them out, look at them - there was no protection on them.

All those who wanted to buy a licence or even a patent, Bersi tactfully sent them to hell. And rightly so, you don't want to get your hands on other people's stuff. As soon as I approached, I was swarmed by journalists - Steve prudently kept behind me. The torture began - they were asking me about the technology, one after another. I had to slow down the journalists and walk to the stand. I took off my jacket and stood in the centre of my stand.

- One at a time! Otherwise we'll never get to talk to you. You, lady," I poked at a beautiful girl.

- How did you manage to make a smartphone with such mechanical strength?

- Composite materials, lady. The technology is patented, patents aren't for sale, licences aren't for sale. And I've already checked - their use for other purposes is unprofitable, or planned, but by me. Sealed case made of titanium alloy, plus the filler inside the case - guarantee full moisture resistance. The smartphone's insides are hermetically sealed in a titanium capsule. Next, you," I poked a reporter with a microphone. From some channel. He beckoned to the cameraman, who squeezed through the crowd for a few seconds.

- Aren't you afraid of competition from Apple?

- The sales strategy of our competitors is to constantly update the lineup in small increments, so that the middle class people pontificating to each other would buy and buy new smartphones. To this end, they have no usb port, no removable battery, no flash cards. Last year's models are already obsolete. My strategy is a reliable phone that can only be replaced when the buyer himself wants it. Its battery uses a nanotech ionistor with twenty thousand microamps. This is about fifteen times more than our competitor. Such an ionistor, unlike a classical battery, does not discharge in the cold, and has a recharge cycle of about a million. It has no memory effect. Strength, durability, reliability, allow me to guarantee that my smartphone will work for twenty years. At the same time it can be upgraded - the smartphone has three memory card slots to increase the readable memory up to three hundred and eighty gigabytes. The camera uses special composites based on optical graphene, which allows you to get high-quality images that are head and shoulders above all existing models. In addition, it can shoot video at 60 frames per second, and a resolution of four thousand pixels. I think our competitors will not be able to give an adequate answer to this for a very, very long time. Next?

The long-awaited tablet question has arrived:

- You didn't say you would also introduce a tablet computer. What is this beast? Its specifications are somewhat... unrealistic.

- You can go and play on it yourself, and I will note that it allows you to play "Crisis" for twelve hours on a single charge. When we designed the phone, I thought, what the hell, why not make a tablet too? In the end, I enlarged the phone, significantly expanding its functionality. A tablet PC already has the performance of a computer with a good processor and a good graphics card. Unlike ordinary tablets, it has a powerful system based on the light source we developed - a film projector, with the same 4k resolution.

* * * *

No matter what any Steven Rogers says, the beginning of my commercial empire was laid. And it started by humiliating my competitors. Despite the rarity of the samples of my smartphones and tablets produced so far, the halo of elitism surrounding the bitten apple began to fade. Now their products are not ahead of the planet, now they themselves have fallen into the lagging place, and I also dispersed their marketing policy - also did not go unnoticed by Apple fans. Or rather, their cash cows. The competitors' position was still very strong, and ours was weak, but in this game we declared ourselves as a queen, not a pawn - that's when it was time for them to think about it. They won't be able to replicate my patented optics and processors. Or rather, they will be able to create an analogue, but it will heat up like hell - my processors use molecular transistors. One molecule, one transistor. And the architecture is appropriate, completely individual, without standard elements - it could take years to analyse it.

This was much more important than, say, building up the military potential, because the world is ruled by money, not weapons. The military are only executors of commercial interests, and all the enmity in this world takes place on the economic field, sometimes spilling out in the form of military confrontation. I declared myself as a participant in the Big Game. And everyone got problems - for Russians I am an American, Americans are not satisfied with the fact that my production is in Russia. That's how I played the game, teasing both sides. After all, if anything, I could easily leave one of the parties - the Russians would not go to a political conflict with America because of me, and if the Americans pressed me - I would ask for political asylum and become a local, Russian businessman. And that's it, they won't find me. That's the way it is.

Steve didn't fully understand why these pocket computers were so important to me - he was from another world. Neither was I. Should I explain to him that this was just the beginning of my journey? That technology changes the world, and technology makes companies? I haven't yet. We just went back to the moon and I showed him the main bomb I was going to plant on the geo-economy.

We entered a hall separated from the main base by a durasteel bulkhead, armoured with durasteel. The heavy double doors slowly pulled aside. An impressive sight. Once we arrived at the base, we got to talking to Steve and I decided to fill him in on my plans.

- Steve, you said this wasn't a big deal... you're wrong. According to my information, our competitors, Apple, are the biggest company in the world. It's capitalisation is bigger than the budget of the United States. That's a fantastic amount of money, trillions of dollars.

- That's fucking amazing," Steve even lost his step.

- Yeah. Money rules the world. And technology.

We entered the reactor hall, where one of the reactors I'd brought was standing. It was a containerised version.

- What's that? - Steven stared at a humming parallelogram with many cables connected to it.

- This? It's a fusion reactor. Oil is the basis of the world economy now. Producing it, selling it. Oil-bearing regions are zones of constant conflict. Oil is the source of plastics, fuel for two billion cars, aircraft and navies. Oil is the most energy-intensive source of energy yet. But along with the burning of oil and coal, huge amounts of carbon monoxide are released into the atmosphere. This has already led to slight climate change, and, in theory, should significantly worsen the situation on the planet.

- So, this reactor is supposed to make a big difference? - steven guessed.

I nodded:

- Yes. The biggest businessmen, politicians, build their financial empires on the basis of the extraction and sale of oil, gas and coal. I have a technology that will completely transform the planet. What's more - this technology is a scary dream for most billionaires and politicians.

Steve nodded:

- Yeah, if their product is cheaper than dirt... that's going to hurt.

Bersey answered instead:

- It will be very painful for them. This reactor produces twenty-six gigawatts of power. That's about equal to the consumption of an average sized country. This reactor is mobile, a compact low-power model. It could be the centre of an industrial region, powering dozens of metal fabrication and processing plants. And it requires very little fuel, producing almost zero fuel. Nuclear power plants leave behind a lot of nuclear waste, which is buried in the ground but still remains dangerous for many years. Plus, nuclear power plants are dangerous - the effects of radiation contamination of an area are worse than a gas attack.

Stephen gets the idea:

- You mean this reactor is completely safe?

Bercy answered him:

- Safe, economical, reliable. And requires almost no maintenance. Almost a perfect source of electricity. The only downside is that switching to it will be accompanied by the collapse of the entire economic system around oil production. The oil-producing countries - primarily OPEC, Russia and the US - have already shown their willingness to start wars to get oil. There's no doubt that if we just announced the creation of this reactor, we'd be labelled charlatans and the press would just shut up.

Steve understood. He got it all, and he smirked:

- You'll get your way, won't you? So how did you decide to switch to this energy source?

- For starters," I cut in, deciding to reveal half of my plans at once, "we're going to do some outreach. We'll also build a private power plant that will supply some backward region with free electricity - "on the house," as they say. This will lead to the fact that around such a power plant, like mushrooms after the rain, will be built industrial facilities that require a large amount of electricity. Then - we will build a fleet of large-tonnage reactor-powered container ships. The first fusion reactors will be simple. Then - we will offer our electricity for export, increase the number of electrical appliances. Heating in houses, heating water in boiler houses, electric kitchen cookers... lowering the price of electricity will reduce the cost of production and transport. All this will happen together with the promotion of environmentally friendly electric engines instead of smoky petrol engines that pollute the atmosphere. Of course, the big players in the market will notice this... but they won't be able to react. The world will change, that's when I will give people thermonuclear technology, along with electric cars, first with ionistors, and then with their own reactors. But own reactors will be in about thirty years, now only batteries. By the way, all this will be done by the iskin of the Director, who runs my company. I won't even have to lift a finger.

Stephen grinned:

- The plans are Napoleonic, let's put it that way. And in doing so, who's going to make the money?

- Whoever makes the reactors. That would be me. Yes, it will be less than that of the oilmen, but thanks to it transport, products of industry, will be cheaper than now. Now I'm thinking of talking to the leadership of some country to pilot an industrial zone based on a fusion reactor. Like this one," I nodded at the humming container.

Steve shrugged:

- I'll back you up, Hyarty. Ecology is not the least important thing, and if some bigwigs are making money on spoiling our planet, it's logical that sooner or later their happy time will come to an end. The only question is, if artificial intelligence is going to do all this, what are you going to do?

- Me? I'll create and promote the new business. The director is needed only to manage a well-established mechanism, where all the people have worked together, all the positions have been distributed and everything is already working. Plus, I would like to have more influence on the planet than an average businessman...

- Isn't that," Steven waved at the reactor, "enough?

- It's not influence. It's just revolutionary technology. I mean, the earth, at the moment, isn't doing so well. Told you about obesity? The cold war? Alien problems? The tessaract, it's one of the most powerful objects, which means someone brought it to earth. And Earthlings are far from the only intelligent beings in the galaxy. Contact with aliens brought the tessaract to earth, and in the wrong hands it was very dangerous. There's bound to be more evidence of aliens on earth. And it won't always be safe. And they wouldn't always fall into the right hands.....

Stephen nodded:

- Yeah, that stuff is best kept off the ground. However, I take it you've decided to be an intermediary between earthlings and space civilisation?

- 'No,' I shook my head, 'earth is already in the area of interest of a highly advanced civilisation. Asgard. Simply put - the earth is already a part of the galaxy, just a closed to visitors outskirts. What I'm saying is that we need to create an organisation like the S.H.I.T., only supranational. Outside of politics, an organisation that acts in the interests of the community, not any particular country, or group of countries. And is not subordinate to any country in the world.

- Why duplicate the functions of Shield? - Stephen arched an eyebrow expressively.

- Shield operates primarily on the territory of the United States. They can't even go near Russia and China. Besides, Shield is a purely Earth-based organisation. If they encounter an alien threat, they might not recognise it or know how to deal with it. Shields, as far as I know, has been actively experimenting with a tessaract. They don't know what it is, where it comes from, or how to use it.

- And you do? - Stephen asked sarcastically.

- The Tessaract is one of the infinity stones. Part of the infinity gauntlet, an artefact that, according to legend, was created by the creator of the universe. But it's only a legend - these stones existed long before the written history of the galaxy began. There are five stones in total, each with unique properties and a colossal amount of energy. Neither humans, nor even Asgardians, can touch a stone - they will be immediately incinerated by its power. I have a theory about the nature of the Tessaract Force, but it needs to be tested. The energy of the tessaract is enough to destroy the entire planet, so it is desirable that it be in the hands of someone who knows of its true power and away from the earth. Like Asgard. Or me.

- You want to get your hands on the Tessaract? - Rogers was surprised," he said, "that's quite a bid.

- As you can see," I grinned, "I have everything the Tessaract could theoretically give me. Except one thing - I want to explore its power. I need to test my theory. After that, it would be advisable to take the tessaract to Asgard, to our patrons. The Asgardians at least know what it is and how dangerous it is.

That's why I think, based on my abilities and having an iskin, a base, to create an organisation. Consider me inviting you to join its ranks.

Rogers thought for a moment:

- An organisation even more secretive than the Shield... what are your goals, can you tell me?

I hesitated. Briefly.

- For starters, just to protect the earth from alien and internal threats. For example, Hydra is an internal threat. According to my findings, Erskine's serum is based on alien biomaterial, which means that if that material falls into the wrong hands, then....

Steve shuddered:

- This could be a disaster. I agree. What should be done?