Marvel: I am Iron Man

Just as Tony predicted.

In the original MCU movie, the Chitauri came for the Tesseract.

The Rubik's Cube is actually the Space Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones, and is an important part of the family planning project that Mr. Mie, the director of the Cosmic Family Planning Commission, has been planning for ten years.

That's why Mr. Thanos sent the Chitauri to Earth, asking Loki to lead a team to retrieve the Space Stone.

Back then, Loki was so eloquent that he not only convinced Thanos of his lies, but also gave him the Mind Stone, the only Infinity Stone he possessed at the time, so that he could lead his army to Earth to retrieve the Tesseract.

This battle was probably a double loss for Thanos. Not only did he fail to obtain the Mind Stone, but he also lost the Tesseract, and his entire army was wiped out.

Thanos was probably numb at the time, which is why he finally decided to take matters into his own hands.

Now that the timeline has shifted and Loki is gone, Thanos has likely sent the Chitauri to Earth to scout the situation. But his goal should remain unchanged: the Space Stone.

"The Cosmic Cube!"

Thor, who followed Tony in, exclaimed in surprise.

He strode forward, carefully examined the pale blue cube projection inside the ship, and then said with certainty, "There's no mistake, it's the Cosmic Cube. I saw it a long time ago, in my father's treasury."

At this moment, several Asgardian warriors also entered.

"I remember that too," recalled the hulking Vostagg. "But I remember His Majesty the God-King took the Rubik's Cube away from the vault in the end..."

"It brought Midgard," Thor said. "That was a long time ago, so long ago that I hardly remember it. But my father decided to hide the Tesseract in Midgard, to be kept by mortals."

Tony also remembered this background setting, which is the original origin of the Rubik's Cube in the MCU movies.

The Tesseract was originally in Odin's vault in Asgard, but was later left by Odin in Tunschberg, Norway, on Earth, where it is kept by a local sect that follows Norse mythology.

In 1942, Red Skull, the leader of Hydra, found it in a church in Tönniesberg, Norway, and attempted to use its energy to develop powerful weapons.

In 1945, Red Skull and Captain America engaged in a fierce battle. Red Skull was teleported to Vormir by the activated Tesseract, while the Tesseract itself crashed into the Arctic Ocean. Later, Howard Stark retrieved the Tesseract while searching for Captain America and handed it over to S.H.I.E.L.D. for safekeeping and research.

In the 1980s, Mar-Vell, a researcher from the Kree Empire, infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and launched Project Pegasus, using the power of the Tesseract to develop a faster-than-light engine.

In 1989, Mar-Will died, and the Rubik's Cube was secretly moved and hidden in a laboratory outside Earth's orbit.

In 1995, Captain Marvel Carol Danvers returned to Earth and, together with Nick Fury, retrieved the Tesseract. Since then, the Tesseract has returned to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Until the Battle of New York in 2012. The Avengers fought the Chitauri army, retrieved the Tesseract from the aliens, and after a century of twists and turns, Thor brought it back to Asgard.

"The Chitauri have come for the Cosmic Cube," Thor said solemnly. "The Cube is a divine object entrusted to mortals by our father. If aliens invade, we should fight for Midgard."

None of them objected. Sif said, "That was just a reconnaissance team. Their reconnaissance team was wiped out, so they certainly won't let it go. Perhaps soon, the Chitauri's regular army will arrive."

"We need to find the Rubik's Cube; it's the core of this war," Fandral said. "The God-King entrusted it to mortals for safekeeping."

As they spoke, their gazes all turned to the only "mortal" present, Tony.

Tony sighed, "What? You guys don't actually think all 'mortals' on Earth are one family, do you?"

If it were any other ordinary person here, they wouldn't even know what the Cosmic Cube is, let alone know how to find it.

However, none of Thor and his friends suggested taking the Tesseract back to Asgard.

The reason Thor takes the Tesseract in the movie is because he destroyed the Bifrost in Thor 1. Asgard lost their interstellar travel tool, so they naturally need the Tesseract.

On the other hand, it was also for security reasons. At that time, aliens had already set their sights on the Tesseract. As the saying goes, "possessing a treasure invites trouble," and everyone felt that Earth might not have the ability to protect the Tesseract, while Asgard should. That's why Thor was allowed to take the Tesseract away.

Of course, the events of Infinity War ten years later also proved that Asgard wasn't safe either. At least ten years later, Earth still existed, while Asgard had become cosmic dust, and Thanos still managed to steal the Tesseract, costing countless innocent Asgardian lives.

Looking at it this way, maybe it would have been better to leave the Rubik's Cube on Earth from the beginning.

Now that the timeline has shifted, the Rainbow Bridge wasn't destroyed by Thor. The decision to entrust the Tesseract to mortals was made by Odin himself, so Thor and the others naturally wouldn't take it upon themselves to bring the Tesseract back.

The key now is to find where this thing is and prepare in advance to fight the Chitauri.

In fact, Tony had been keeping track of the whereabouts of the Tesseract for a long time.

Having read the script, he knew that if the movie's plot followed the expected direction, the Tesseract should still be in Lu Dan's hands. Tony had already been secretly monitoring S.H.I.E.L.D. research facilities around the world, searching for clues.

A few days ago, when his scapegoat-one stealth armor was just completed, he even considered infiltrating the Aegis facility and stealing the Tesseract.

Unfortunately, he hasn't made any progress on the whereabouts of the Rubik's Cube so far.

As revealed in the Avengers movie, the Tesseract continuously emits strong gamma energy. In the film, after the Tesseract was lost, S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately located Bruce Banner, who used his expertise to track the gamma radiation and pinpoint the Tesseract's location.

Therefore, Tony had already established a global monitoring system based on this idea to monitor gamma radiation. However, so far, no trace of anything resembling the Tesseract has been found.

This shouldn't be the case.

No matter where Lu Dan hides the Cosmic Cube, there should still be some gamma radiation leaking out.

unless......

Tony slowly began to guess at a possibility, but he couldn't be sure yet.

He originally needed a little more time to verify his hypothesis. However, the appearance of the Chitauri, with their sights set on the Rubik's Cube, undoubtedly escalated the situation and made it more tense.

So Tony decided to lay his cards on the table.

He wants to talk to Nick Fury directly.

Tony thought for a moment: "Jarvis, we have dinner plans for tonight, right?"

"Yes, with Agent Natasha Romanoff, sir," Jarvis said. "If you have other important matters to attend to, would you like me to cancel the appointment?"

"No, no need," Tony said. "Perfect timing, we have more to talk about now."