Kamar-Taj.
A bald woman in an orange sorcerer's robe sat cross-legged on the floor, her eyes closed, and her hands placed in front of her chest, making a gesture that no one else could understand.
In front of the bald woman's chest, a gem embedded in a "pendant" was flickering with a faint green light.
It gave off an eerie feeling.
A moment later, the green light on the gem began to dissipate, and the related components on the pendant started to rotate and close, sealing the gem inside.
The bald woman then opened her eyes, a hint of surprise and confusion on her face.
"Captain America has been discovered. This should have happened two years from now," the bald woman said slowly, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Why is it so much earlier?"
"Has someone interfered with the timeline, Ancient One?" a black man in a sorcerer's robe asked, his face also grave, looking at the bald woman.
His expression was extremely serious.
The timeline being interfered with was an extremely serious matter.
—Indeed, the bald woman was none other than the Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme, who had shaken the entire universe and single-handedly fended off the dimensional demon Dormammu.
The Ancient One had just used the Eye of Agamotto, leveraging the power of the Time Stone, to observe the timeline.
But she discovered that Captain America, who should have been found two years later, had been discovered prematurely.
And the black sorcerer was the Ancient One's disciple, Baron Mordo.
Next to Baron Mordo stood a plump Asian sorcerer, who was none other than Wong.
"Someone, or some entity, has interfered with the timeline, but I can't find any clues," the Ancient One said, her face extremely solemn.
"Even you, Ancient One..." Both Baron Mordo and Wong showed looks of shock.
Someone could completely block the Ancient One's observation while interfering with the timeline?
How could such a thing happen!
"Who exactly is behind this, and what is their purpose?"
After a moment of contemplation, the Ancient One again extended her hands and made a gesture, and a magical seal appeared.
The Eye of Agamotto, hanging on the Ancient One's chest, once again began to glow, then started to automatically open.
The Ancient One immediately began to use the Eye of Agamotto to observe the future.
But very quickly, the Ancient One was shocked to find that certain futures had begun to blur.
She could no longer observe the futures of Captain America, Iron Man, Nick Fury, and others.
"How can this be?"
The Ancient One's brows furrowed tightly. She had guarded Earth for so long, and she was very familiar with some of the powerful beings in the universe.
But no matter how much she thought, she couldn't imagine who could possess such incredible power.
Could it be... an unknown, terrifying enemy that even she couldn't observe?
The Ancient One couldn't help but show deep worry.
Captain America and Iron Man were important figures in this world. What did the other party want by interfering with their futures?
"Ancient One, what did you see?"
Wong saw the Ancient One's somewhat grim expression and couldn't help but ask in a deep voice.
"The problem is precisely there... I can't see!" the Ancient One murmured... In the next few months, Iron Man was in an unprecedentedly busy state.
On one hand, he had to invest a lot of energy into synthesizing the new element called Zirconium, striving to solve the palladium poisoning crisis.
—Indeed, after learning that his parallel universe self had solved the palladium poisoning problem by synthesizing a new element, Iron Man decisively abandoned experiments with existing elements.
He directly skipped this step and proceeded with the synthesis of the new element.
Since his other self chose to synthesize a new element, it meant that all other existing elements were unusable.
But how easy was it to synthesize a new element?
Iron Man had made almost no progress so far.
In addition, Iron Man had also reached an agreement with Nick Fury, and during this time, he was also taking time to help design a new security system for the Dark Energy Joint Base.
It was also a considerable project.
Poor Tony Stark was so busy he didn't even have time for a sip of water, and this was even after handing over all Stark Industries matters to Pepper to handle.
"Tony, my goodness, you didn't sleep again last night?"
Iron Man, who was in the middle of elemental analysis, was interrupted by Pepper's startled voice. Pepper quickly walked up to Iron Man, her face full of worry.
Iron Man's condition at the moment was truly terrible: his face was sallow, his hair was messy, and his pupils were bloodshot.
Two proud dark circles hung on his face, turning Iron Man's eyes into panda eyes.
"Tony, what's been wrong with you lately? You're busy day and night, what exactly are you busy with?" Pepper exclaimed, both worried and confused. "You need to rest!"
"No, what I need is time," Iron Man said meaningfully.
Glancing over, Iron Man noticed a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and an extremely hot figure standing behind Pepper.
"Pepper, who is she?" Iron Man turned his head and stared at Pepper, asking.
"Oh, right, she's an enforcement officer from the police department," Pepper also just remembered the hot woman beside her and quickly introduced her to Iron Man.
"Enforcement officer?" Iron Man looked at Pepper with a questioning gaze.
At the same time, he couldn't help but eye the female officer up and down a few times. Are police officers this hot nowadays?
"Mr. Stark, I'm here to serve you a subpoena," the hot woman said, walking up to Iron Man and handing him a subpoena.
However, Iron Man spread his hands: "Sorry, I have a strange habit, I don't like people handing me things."
"You can give it to me." Pepper quickly ran over and took the subpoena.
"Mr. Stark, you are ordered to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The time is tomorrow morning at nine o'clock." After the policewoman finished speaking to Iron Man, she left Stark Tower.
"Tony." After seeing the policewoman off, Pepper handed the subpoena to Iron Man.
Iron Man wouldn't take things handed to him by others, but things handed to him by Pepper were an exception. He took it, glanced at it, and casually placed it on the table.
"What a waste of my time. Can I not go?" Iron Man said very reluctantly.
"Tony, you know you have to go," Pepper said to Iron Man. "Hurry up and get some rest, take a shower, change your clothes. You can't keep going like this."
Under Pepper's insistence, Iron Man finally put down his work. After so many days of high-intensity, non-stop work, he really needed a rest.