New Element

Chapter 153: New Element

"What happened to Carter? She was doing well, right?" Kyle asked.

Ever since Steve had crashed alone and gone missing—after that belated party—he had never seen Carter again. Nearly a year had passed since then.

"You’re asking me? I don’t know the specifics either." Fury spread his hands and said slowly, "I only know that during the Normandy Landings, she stayed at the Training Base for just half a month. Later, apparently because of some family matters, she applied to General Chester for resignation and returned to her residence in New York."

"She retired even earlier than I did." Kyle’s eyes were complicated. After a moment of silence, he asked hesitantly, "Did she get married?"

Natasha looked up in slight surprise. This was the first time she had seen the Patriarch show personal feelings toward a woman outside the Karl family.

In truth, Kyle had not asked that question for himself.

"Probably not. But she’s not young anymore, so it wouldn’t be strange if she got married," Fury said matter-of-factly.

"It wouldn’t be strange indeed." Kyle nodded calmly, raised his head, and drained the red wine in his glass in one gulp.

Although Carter was an elite American agent, she was ultimately still an ordinary person—a remarkable woman who was merely more agile and skilled than most.

Steve’s fate was still unknown. What right did anyone have to make her keep waiting, until her beauty faded, her body weakened, and she endured decade after decade of lonely suffering?

Carter was not Lucy, after all. Rather than ask her to wait on without hope, it would be better to help her live out a happy life…

"Kyle." Fury broke through Kyle’s thoughts and said gravely, "You’re about to risk your life leaving Earth. Are you sure you don’t want to see her once? To put it bluntly, this might be your last meeting—you asked to meet me for this reason too, didn’t you?"

Those words stirred Kyle slightly. He set down his glass and decided, "All right. Before I leave, I’ll go see her."

Emotionally and logically, he had no reason to leave without saying goodbye.

And now that he had sufficient wealth and ability, he could give Carter everything she wanted. If Carter was determined to wait for Steve’s return, he could even grant her the youth and lifespan to live for centuries.

"Isn’t that better?" A trace of a triumphant smile appeared on Fury’s fierce, imposing face. He deftly reached into the pocket of his black trench coat and pulled out a black-and-white photograph of a house between his fingers. "Carter still lives with her parents. This is her home address. Pick a time within the next three days to visit her and say a proper goodbye."

"You were plotting this from the start?" Kyle’s expression cooled slightly as he looked at Fury with a half-smile.

"That doesn’t count as… well, it’s about time. I should head back to the bureau and properly carry out the trap plan." Fury gave an awkward laugh, placed the photograph on the table before the sofa, then quickly rose and waved for Natasha to leave with him.

"That old fox." Kyle laughed speechlessly. He put away the photograph and remained seated on the sofa, merely speaking toward the door with his back turned. "Farewell, you two. May we meet again."

Hearing his words, Fury and Natasha, who were about to reach the door, paused. Fury clenched his fists, suppressed the emotions in his heart, drew a deep breath, and replied steadily, "Be careful on your journey. And please, you must come back."

After bidding Natasha and Fury farewell, Kyle opened a portal and returned to the island base. The moment he returned to the first underground floor of the fortress, several young card disciples rushed toward him in panic.

"Patriarch, something’s wrong! The Great Inventor has gone mad!"

"Howard has gone mad? Explain clearly."

Kyle was stunned as well. He had only been gone for less than half an hour. What had happened to Howard now?

One of the card disciples reported, "We saw the Great Inventor in the research room on the second underground floor. His body was trembling, his expression was manic, and he was jumping and rolling around while making strange noises."

"I understand. You can go." Kyle nodded. Rather than take the elevator, he opened a portal with magic to save time.

The portal formed in about three seconds. As soon as it connected to the main research room below, Howard’s cheerful laughter and the noisy clatter of instruments being struck came from the other side.

Kyle frowned and stepped into the research room, sweeping his gaze across it.

The originally spacious floor of the main research room was filled with laser-emitting instruments, acceleration tubes, triangular frames, and more. They had been arranged and secured together in a complex yet orderly configuration, while excess tools and parts lay scattered on the floor nearby.

Howard, dressed in a white protective suit and filthy from head to toe, sat amid a pile of acceleration tubes. He excitedly struck metal pipes with a pair of iron pliers, laughing without pause.

"Howard?" Kyle called out. Howard suddenly turned around, raised his arms, and cheered, "Kyle! I succeeded! I finally succeeded!"

"What succeeded? Don’t tell me…" Kyle’s eyes widened.

As if confirming his guess, Howard picked up a glass cube-shaped storage container. Inside rested an unknown small piece of energy material, flashing with a dazzling blue-white radiance.

Kyle’s gaze was drawn to that familiar light. He stepped forward, took the storage box containing the energy material, and the corresponding card information came into view.

New Element Crystal Block: An as-yet-unnamed new element crystal block. Blue Item Card.

An efficient energy element, an isotope similar to the Cosmic Stone, produced only through high technology and the continuous artificial acceleration and collision of particles.

This element was extremely stable, reliable, and pollution-free, and contained an unimaginably vast amount of energy. Even a small energy crystal of the element could supply the Iron Man Armor for half a day of continuous combat.

"Howard, you really did it…" Kyle clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked at the brand-new element crystal block in his hand, something that did not exist in this era and had been created fifty or sixty years ahead of time.

This was the core energy source of the future Iron Man Armor, far surpassing the Infinite Energy created by Hydra using the Tesseract.

"With so many resources at hand, along with the support of Wakanda’s technology department, if I still couldn’t make it, I’d be letting down your expectations." Howard smiled and looked eagerly at the result in Kyle’s hand. "Kyle, hurry up and give this element a name!"

"Me, name it?" Kyle pointed at his nose. "You designed this new element with your own hands and worked so hard to create it."

"This is all thanks to you. The element blueprint was developed from the Tesseract you brought back, and the manufacturing resources came from the cooperation with Wakanda that you made possible." Howard said it without the slightest regret.

"Then I’ll name it." Kyle pondered. Blue light from the element crystal filled his eyes. After thinking for a while, he finally made up his mind and said:

"Let’s call it ‘Krypton Gold.’"