The intellectual duel was settled. Tony Stark was now obsessed, pursuing the ghost of the Shadow Man while unwittingly beginning to process the life-saving RUNE Calculation. For Alex, the brief, exhilarating victory was over. He was no longer playing games; the time for technical necessity had arrived.
The next phase was the most dangerous: integrating the Infinity Key into the Model Zero suit. The Key was a conduit of cosmic defense, but the suit had to become the stabilized delivery mechanism. The margin for error was less than a quantum flicker.
In the sterile silence of the sub-level lab, Alex and Anya prepared the delicate procedure. The Infinity Key, secured in its containment cradle, pulsed with a faint, warm light, its metallic surface humming with latent energy. It was a fragment of a lost cosmic science, beautiful and terrifying.
"The Key is a filter, not a generator," Alex explained, his voice low, magnified by the suit's comms, even though the armor was currently dismantled. "It's designed to interface with the Cosmic Matrix—the Tesseract's energy output—and manage its raw, chaotic signature. If we connect it directly to the Arc Core, the Core will try to absorb it, and we'll have a localized singularity in the middle of Manhattan."
Anya, her face pale, checked the primary isolation unit. "The solution isn't to power the Key with the Core; it's to power the Core with the Key. We have to create a feedback loop where the Key acts as the final stage of energy filtration, shunting excess cosmic energy away from your body and into the suit's structure."
The Cosmic Shielding Protocol
The solution was complex and required a total overhaul of the Model Zero's internal wiring. Alex had to design a Cosmic Shielding Protocol—an energy lattice within the suit's Liquid Mesh that could handle the Tesseract's unique frequency.
"The Liquid Mesh is the key," Alex detailed, running his Nano-Tech scanner over the black armor plating. "The alloy itself is a perfect non-decaying capacitor. We use the nanites to weave a tertiary energy conduit through the structure of the armor. When the suit detects Tesseract frequency, the nanites reroute the energy around the Arc Core and out through the armor's surface."
The work became a multi-hour, highly detailed meditation. Alex wasn't just connecting wires; he was weaving a new, digital circulatory system. He used microscopic welders and focused kinetic pulses to embed microscopic vibranium filaments (salvaged and purified from the initial desert finds) into the main power lines. These filaments would act as the only reliable conduit for the raw cosmic energy.
Anya watched the diagnostics, monitoring the stability of the Arc Core as it remained disconnected from its primary power source. "The margin for error is $10^{-9}$," she warned. "If any stray cosmic energy interacts with the kinetic stabilizers, the suit will be violently shredded."
Alex ignored the warning, his mind focused entirely on the physics. He was translating the theoretical RUNE Calculation he had sent to Tony into tangible hardware. Tony, the builder of spectacular weapons, would have dismissed this as tedious defensive work. Alex, the RUNE Host, knew it was the difference between saving the world and its spontaneous obliteration.
The Moment of Connection
The physical integration of the Infinity Key was a moment of terrifying finality. Alex held the Key, its metallic surface humming, and aligned its primary interface with the newly built Cosmic Shielding Protocol port on the suit's chest plate.
Anya initiated the power sequence from the remote console, sending a controlled, low-frequency pulse into the system.
The moment the Key connected, the lab was filled with a soft, ethereal chime. The Key didn't violently react; it breathed. The Model Zero armor glowed faintly, not with the amber light of the Arc Core, but with a deep, unsettling blue, briefly adopting the spectral color of the Tesseract itself.
[System Alert: Infinity Key Protocol Integrated. Cosmic Energy Management Active. Suit Structural Integrity: Optimal.]
Alex felt the change immediately. The constant, anxious hum of the Arc Core vanished, replaced by a deep, comforting stillness. The Key was working, acting as a profound shock absorber for the chaotic energy his body constantly produced. He was more stable than he had been since the Nano-Tech was first deployed. The suit was now capable of existing near the Tesseract's energy without instantly collapsing.
"It works," Anya breathed, tears of relief pricking her eyes. "The Model Zero is now a Level 1 Cosmic Shield."
The Irony of Safety
The success, however, was bittersweet. They had solved the problem of surviving the cosmic environment, but they had not solved the problem of fighting a cosmic threat.
"We have a great shield, but no weapon," Alex observed, running a diagnostics scan. "If I hit Loki with a kinetic punch, it will barely register. If I push the Core past the safety limit, the Cosmic Shielding Protocol will shunt the energy away, saving the suit but leaving me exhausted and useless."
The integration of the Key, while necessary for survival, had actually limited the suit's raw offensive output. Alex was more stable, but less powerful.
This irony—that the ultimate defense must also be the ultimate offense—forced Alex to confront the second major technical challenge: transforming the remnants of the H.Y.D.R.A./Stane conflict into an anti-god weapon.
His eyes fell on the heavily shielded container holding the captured Gravimetric Oscillator—the stolen, amplified SHIELD prototype designed to create miniature gravity wells.
"The Key makes us safe," Alex stated, his mind beginning to race with a dangerous new solution. "Now, we use the stolen tech to make us dangerous. We take the Gravimetric Oscillator and turn it into the ultimate punch."
The thought of integrating the violent, unstable prototype into the stable, life-saving Model Zero suit sent a sharp pang of anxiety through Anya, but she recognized the cold, logical necessity of the genius's choice. The next phase of the upgrade, the creation of the Gravimetric Punch, would begin immediately.
This chapter successfully completed Pillar II, Chapter 32 of the expanded plan, setting the stage for the creation of the anti-god weapon in the next chapter.
Thank you for reading! We hope you've enjoyed this deep technical dive into the Cosmic Shielding Protocol and the Infinity Key's integration. The suit is now stable, but the next step is far more dangerous. If you're enjoying the story, please consider supporting it with Power Stones to help us continue creating more for you. Also please add the story to your library and please leave a comment which will boost engagement.