"What just happened? What did you do?" Rubbing his sore eyes, Coulson walked over and picked up the Tesseract.
He then tucked it into a small pouch on his person. What relieved him a little was that Tohka's actions hadn't triggered any new unexpected incidents.
At the same time, he was a bit puzzled because, even now, he still didn't know what the Tesseract was actually used for.
"I don't know. I just felt like this thing was absorbing my energy, and that was it."
As she spoke, Tohka looked a bit lost.
Back then, she had this strong feeling—like if she didn't let go, something would definitely come.
As for what would come, she had no idea.
"Whatever. The mission's complete, so let's head out."
Giving a brief word to Tohka, Coulson turned and took the lead to leave.
"Hmm? You're just leaving this aircraft behind? You do know that with Hydra tech, it's probably still useful for S.H.I.E.L.D., right?"
Watching Coulson leave, Tohka asked in confusion.
After all, who knew if there were any advanced tech left on this plane? Even though Marvel's world had tons of high-tech gadgets, Hydra was still one of the strongest in that regard.
"No need. That's not our concern. Someone else will handle it. My job was just to retrieve the Cube."
Hearing Tohka's words, Coulson shook his head, indicating he had no interest in this stuff.
Eventually, some scientists would come take it apart anyway.
"Alright then… Got any food?"
Hearing Coulson's words, Tohka realized there wasn't much for her to do now.
After using so much energy earlier, she felt that if Coulson didn't provide some food soon, she might just…
"Got it. There's food in the car."
Before she could finish her thought, Coulson interrupted. It seemed like he had noticed Tohka was on the verge of going berserk, so he quickly reassured her, afraid she might do something reckless.
"Mmm."
She had to admit, this car was quite useful, no matter how big the snowstorm outside was.
Inside, Tohka didn't feel a thing.
At this moment, she was munching on some food taken from a few people's supplies, while Coulson was reporting today's events to Nick Fury.
When Fury heard Tohka's name, his face immediately darkened.
If Coulson hadn't explained why she'd shown up, Fury might've already gone to have words with Tony Stark.
After all, Fury had no doubt whatsoever that Tony could hack into his system.
And if anyone else had given such a ridiculous explanation, he would've slapped them on the spot.
"You seriously think I'm an idiot?"
But since it was Tohka…
Sigh.
Fine. He actually believed it might be true.
"Alright, I'm full. I'll head out first."
Patting her stomach in satisfaction, Tohka noted that even though it was just some fast food, it was enough to fill her up. She then opened the car door and flew away.
As for what the others were going to eat?
Tohka didn't care in the slightest.
Whatever those guys were gnawing on in the freezing wind—it was their problem, not hers.
"Um, boss… we're out of food."
Right after Tohka left, a few agents suddenly felt something was off and went to check inside the vehicle.
A moment later, all of them let out a collective scream.
In this freezing, snow-covered wasteland, being hungry was basically torture—no one wanted that.
"Mmm~ so comfy."
This time, Tohka wasn't flying around aimlessly.
She had Jarvis activate the navigation system, so she didn't get lost again or fly into another country.
She was now heading straight toward New York.
"Hmm… What a strange day."
Tohka was speechless about everything that had happened today.
She never expected that just flying around for fun would lead to all this. But more importantly, she had actually come into contact with the Tesseract.
And even more surprising, she could actually use that thing. "Hmm… still got plenty of time. Whatever, I'll just go home and sleep. I'm full anyway, time to embrace my shut-in life."
But that night, Tohka was once again disturbed by something outside.
She opened the window and looked down, only to see a few green-skinned lizards attacking outside.
"What's up with that damn lizard? Osborne shouldn't have gotten his hands on those things so quickly."
Tohka wasn't just making stuff up. Osborne's company had its own advanced technology.
It wouldn't be as easy to break into as in the movies. But it had happened nonetheless. Since the fight had already broken out below, Tohka simply jumped down.
"Are you kidding me? If a random car ends up flying through the air and smashing into my house, what am I supposed to do?"
As for whether those things could affect her?
Tohka didn't even give it a thought.
Her powers were built with internal stabilizers—there was no way she'd end up mutating like them.
"These guys are all just slaves to their primal instincts. Not even as composed as that other guy."
As Tohka landed, all the green creatures around her turned to look at her.
As Tohka landed, the surrounding green mutants all turned their bloodthirsty eyes toward her.
Unlike the sinister, cunning transformation of Dr. Connors, these creatures were purely savage and feral.
But honestly, they were also way easier to deal with.
Tohka immediately summoned her armor and took off into the air.
"Jarvis, target these things for me. I want this over quickly."
She issued the command, wanting to avoid waking up to a city overrun by green lizards.
From the air, Jarvis had a clear shot for precision targeting.
The mutants below weren't exactly tactical.
Seeing Tohka glowing with radiant purple light in the sky, almost all of them grabbed whatever vehicles they could find and hurled them at her.
Too bad.
Unfortunately for them, their attacks couldn't even scratch Tohka's defenses.
"As expected, these guys are easy to beat. If it were that big lizard instead, it would probably just run away."
Seeing all sorts of debris smashing against her barrier, Tohka remained completely unfazed.
Her shield had an extremely high resistance to physical attacks. So far, there wasn't even a crack on it, meaning she didn't even need to replenish her energy.
"Targeting complete. Let's end this."
Seeing that J.A.R.V.I.S. had locked onto all the lizards, Tohka unleashed her firepower, instantly knocking every single one of them down.
But—she didn't kill them.
These poor guys had only inhaled that stuff and temporarily turned into lizard beasts.
The condition wasn't permanent.
They'd eventually return to normal.
So Tohka only knocked them unconscious.
After all, their mutated bodies had far greater durability—there was no risk of death from a few energy blasts.
At most, they'd wake up in a hospital bed, get checked out, and recover.
Nothing a few days of rest couldn't fix.