The satellite blinked.
Floating just beyond Earth's orbital line, the ancient array—once dormant for millennia—activated for the first time since the Chitauri breach. Its metal husk was adorned with worn etchings that glowed faint violet as energy surged from its core. Plates shifted along its spine, rotating like puzzle pieces locking into place, revealing a central lens that flickered to life.
A low hum began, pulsing across space.
Not just a broadcast.
A reply.
Deep in the void, something stirred. A shape in the dark. Watching. Listening. The void itself seemed to react—stars flickered out briefly, then reignited. An ancient awareness turned toward the source.
Back on Earth, Alexander stood atop a warehouse roof in Vienna, eyes scanning the morning sky. The distant clouds glowed faintly with sunrise, but his gaze wasn't on the light. His cloak fluttered in the chilled breeze. The last vestiges of the previous night's storm still clung to the air, making the tiles beneath his boots slick. The world was waking up, unaware that something beyond it had already stirred.
Noctis hovered beside him, his form half-phased, cloak merging with the dim light of dawn. His gaze, however, was far from human. He didn't blink, didn't breathe. He simply observed the sky.
"It's not just Earth that heard that pulse," Noctis said, his voice low, reverberating with unease.
Alexander remained silent, but his mind raced. The shadows beneath his feet twitched restlessly, reacting to the lingering echo of the blast from the facility. He could feel something in the air—a static that wasn't natural, a whisper in frequencies only he could hear. His instincts, honed by countless battles, were screaming.
"It wasn't a bomb," he muttered. "It was a key."
Below, Vasili paced inside the safehouse, his wounded arm now bound tightly with clean gauze. The room was dimly lit by a desk lamp powered from an off-grid generator. A set of intercepted transmissions replayed on a portable tablet, the language encoded in layered HYDRA ciphers. A map of recent signal disruptions flickered on a second screen.
"Multiple bursts," he said. "Tunisia, Berlin, now Vienna. The pulses aren't just triggering hardware. They're sending coordinates."
Alexander stepped down from the rooftop, landing silently near the open window.
"To what?" he asked.
"To him," Noctis replied. "Whoever is on the other side."
"To something that remembers," Vasili added grimly. "Something that's been listening longer than we've existed."
At SHIELD's command center, Nick Fury stood before a holographic display showing orbital surveillance. The satellite in question had been identified. It wasn't Chitauri. It wasn't even Terran.
Hill stepped forward. "Its origin predates our earliest deep-space records. We're talking ancient, Director."
Fury's eye narrowed. "How ancient?"
"Thousands of years. Possibly older than recorded human civilization."
He turned to the technician. "How is it linked to the artifact?"
"We believe the artifact's pulse was part of an ancient pairing protocol," the technician explained. "The satellite's now fully awake. And it's scanning."
"Scanning for what?"
The room fell into brief silence. Then the tech replied, "Lifeforms. Or weapons. Or both."
Fury rubbed his eye. "Get Stark. I want eyes on that thing now. And get someone on the line with the European Space Agency. If anyone else notices it, we'll have panic before lunchtime."
He glanced toward the secure monitor displaying Alexander's last known position. The footage showed his shadow dissolving over a Viennese skyline.
"And keep monitoring him. Quietly."
Hill gave a brief nod. "Understood."
Somewhere in North Africa, under the cover of desert sands, a hidden facility roared to life. Long-abandoned corridors lit up one by one. Ancient machinery spun and clicked. Dust that hadn't moved in centuries blew into the air. Panels hissed open, revealing cold chambers of ancient steel and stone.
Deep within, machines older than any known tech hummed again. Walls shifted, revealing long-sealed vaults. Containers, each etched with symbols no modern civilization could translate, unlocked with a hiss. The hum became a pulse—slow, deep, and rhythmic, like a heartbeat from before history.
Two figures in cloaks moved through the halls. One held a cane, walking with a slow but confident pace. The other, younger, held a datapad displaying the satellite's pulse frequency.
"It's begun," the elder one rasped, voice dry as sand.
"Should we inform the others?" the younger asked, nerves apparent.
"Not yet. Let the world believe it has survived. Let them think the danger passed."
As they entered the final chamber, a light ignited along the walls—twelve columns, each bearing a name. One flickered.
And then another.
The older figure reached out, brushing his fingers across one of the glowing columns.
"Soon," he whispered. "Soon the keys will turn."
Back in Vienna, Alexander traced his fingers across the shattered monitor from the ambush site. Despite the explosion, something had survived. Embedded in the corrupted feed was code—layered, encrypted, but decipherable. Noctis had already begun isolating the fragments.
A location.
Tunisia.
Noctis leaned in. "He wants you to follow him."
Vasili shook his head. "It's bait. Obvious bait."
Alexander stood. "It's also a trail. And we don't have the luxury of hesitation."
He walked toward the corner of the room where his weapons lay neatly arranged. As he rearmed himself, his tone remained steady.
"Prepare the jet. We go to Tunisia."
Vasili exchanged a look with Noctis but gave a nod. "I'll have it ready in thirty minutes."
Noctis added, "And I'll cloak our flight path. SHIELD is already watching."
As they turned to leave, a faint tremor passed through the floor. The lights flickered once… twice… then stabilized.
Alexander froze.
Above, in the vastness of space, a second satellite—identical in design, yet dormant until now—shuddered and powered on. Its exterior shifted, casting faint ripples through the stars.
Its lens rotated.
Locked onto Earth.
And this time, it wasn't scanning.
It was targeting.
End of Chapter 87
_________________________________________________________________________
🔥 Hey legends! Quick updates! 🔥
💥 Can't wait for the next chapter? Good news—ALL advance chapters are available on Patreon for just $5! No more waiting, just pure binge-reading goodness! 🚀
👉 patreon.com/cyci07
✨ Power Stone Challenge! ✨
If we hit 100 power stones, I'll drop 2 bonus chapters! Let's see if you guys can make me suffer! 😂
💬 Enjoying the story? Leave a review and let me know your favorite moment so far! It helps the novel grow and reach more readers!
Thanks for all your support—you guys are awesome! ❤️