#1817 - The Prophet Enoch

Natasha Romanoff hadn't seen Agent Coulson and Agent Melinda May in a long time.

To be precise, she has not been seen since the Battle of New York in 2012. She is one of the few people in the Avengers who knows that Agent Coulson is still alive. It is not difficult to keep this secret from other members of the Avengers. After all, the missions of the Avengers and Agent Coulson's team do not overlap.

"You're getting old, Coulson."

Natasha Romanoff waved her hand and greeted Melinda May, completely ignoring the guns pointed at her. Ever since Dinah drove the extended Bentley into the base, the security personnel of the SHIELD base surrounded them. If it wasn't for the order from the director, they would have shot at the car long ago. After all, this is a military base, and forcibly rushing through the checkpoint is a federal felony.

"You looked very young when you were at the Lighthouse Base. It's only been a few months. What have you been through?" Natasha asked. She waved her hand back, signaling the maid who had entered combat mode to be less nervous. "Relax, Dinah. I don't think your master wants innocent blood to drip on the ground."

Natasha carefully looked at Agent Coulson and Melinda May standing opposite her.

They looked like they had experienced severe malnutrition and hard fighting. Their skin condition looked very bad, and Agent Coulson had a few wrinkles and shallow scars on his face after healing.

The same was true for other agents, including Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons from the research team. If there were no obvious signs of sunburn or frostbite, Natasha would have reason to suspect that they were on a long-term mission in the Middle East or the Arctic.

"You should ask him!"

However, everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. also admitted that the things that Salomon did not take away, such as the crystal goblet with gold on the rim, were of great help. After all, there was nothing that could serve as wedding tableware at the Lighthouse Base. Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons, who returned from the future to the present and saw their offspring, got married at the Lighthouse Base. They also brought their grandson with them, an overly lively and overly enthusiastic young man, whose mother is now conceived in Jemma Simmons' womb.

I have to say, this is a very wonderful experience.

The La Marzocco coffee machine did not extinguish the anger of Coulson's team. As a rich girl, Jemma Simmons keenly discovered that this pair of Cartier sapphire cufflinks may be worth $400,000. While all of them were struggling to survive, Salomon was enjoying a luxurious life, which made her furious.

"Are we going to discuss the details of the mission here?"

"We suffered because of your mission." Daisy Johnson, AKA Shockwave, couldn't help but raise her voice. If Daisy Johnson saw Black Widow before the mission, she would only blush and be too shy to speak, because her entire impression of Black Widow came from her and Black Widow's fan fiction.

But now she won't get flustered by such little things, she is a mature agent.

Although she already knew that this mission was necessary, it did not prevent her from wanting to punch the culprit in the head. This feeling became even more intense after Jemma Simmons quietly revealed to her the price of Salomon's clothes and jewelry - why could someone wear a custom suit and Oxford shoes and enjoy Michelin food service while they were digging mines and eating cockroach nutrients.

This isn't fair! Why doesn't he do this task himself!

Facing Daisy's question, Salomon gave a calm answer. "We have different missions, Daisy. SHIELD is not the only one who is sacrificing in this world."

"We need to discuss the mission."

Just as Daisy Johnson was about to continue, Agent Coulson interrupted her. He was obviously rational and not overwhelmed by anger.

He looked at Salomon, whom he had known for many years, but he felt strange. He was still wearing the same expensive suit and low-key luxury goods, but he had a completely different temperament. The thoughts revealed in his black eyes almost froze him. He felt that he was just a stranger with the same appearance.

Coulson tried to put this feeling behind him. He hadn't had contact with Salomon in a long time, and preconditioning would only lead to wrong intelligence.

He also knew that the mission was necessary, and he was dissatisfied with Salomon's methods, but Coulson also felt that if Salomon had not done so, they would definitely not have carried out such an outrageous mission. This kind of thing is indeed not suitable for public discussion, but Daisy's anger is understandable.

Among the task force selected by Salomon and the Immortal Enoch, she suffered the most torture.

In the eyes of the Kree, the Inhumans are completely assets, with no personal rights at all, not even the right to privacy, and even going to the toilet is monitored. If her abilities were not too strong and difficult to control, and if the Kree Empire faction that led the Inhuman experiments did not have political dominance, the Kree who controlled her at the time would have likely used her as a mother body to restart the Inhuman slave soldier program.

"Enoch is still in the base and he will also attend the meeting." Agent Coulson said.

"Very good." Salomon nodded and walked straight through the crowd. "I look forward to seeing the Prophet again."

Natasha Romanoff was curious about this meeting.

She had no idea why Agent Coulson's team had moved from the Lighthouse base to Los Angeles. This meeting - and more importantly, the mysterious mission that Agent Coulson's team was carrying out - was likely to solve the mystery. Surrounded by security agents, the group walked into the base's conference room.

There, Natasha Romanov saw the so-called immortal.

A middle-aged man with an expressionless face and no hair on his head had been waiting here.

"Prophet." This time Salomon was polite. "Long time no see."

He spoke in ancient Greek, and the pronunciation was completely different from modern Greek, so the people present could not understand him at all.

"Three thousand years have passed since the daughter of Helios led us to meet." Enoch nodded, this was his most intense expression of emotion. He knew that Salomon in front of him had traveled through time. Before Salomon set off, he controlled the Lighthouse Base and arranged a time travel for Agent Coulson's team.

Strictly speaking, the meeting thousands of years ago was the first time Enoch (the past) met Salomon (the future).

The time that Salomon experienced at that time was not linear. When he controlled the Lighthouse Base, (future) Enoch already knew what Salomon (past) wanted to do. This matter was agreed upon by the two of them thousands of years ago - Salomon went to the past, and Agent Coulson's team went to the future - Salomon wanted to maintain history and cut off the events that caused human extinction by modifying time in the outer dimension, and Agent Coulson's team wanted to determine the cause of human destruction in the future. The best result is to completely eliminate interference from the outer dimension.

"Helios' daughter is still alive," Enoch said expressionlessly, inviting Salomon to sit at the other end of the long table. "She has lived on the east coast of the United States for many years."

"I know she's in America. We fought together in the French Revolution, and she came to Massachusetts by ship when Robespierre was guillotined."

"Circe lost her memory due to magic." Enoch's tone was still so calm.

Salomon suspected more than once that Enoch had turned off the facial expression function on his own initiative. As a bionic man who came to Earth from Cygnus 30,000 years ago, Enoch had been with the human race longer than he had. Perhaps turning off this function would help reduce the pressure on data storage.

"She will remember it sooner or later." The prophet took out a small box and opened it. On the dark black velvet lay a lion-headed dagger carved from white bones. "I would like you to hand over this treasure of Helios to her, awaken her, and help her get rid of the magic."

"Why do you think I would interfere in the affairs of the Eternals?"

"She once gave birth to your offspring. She is very important to you."

Salomon looked Enoch up and down. "You have become human. Before, you would not take the initiative to talk about things other than the mission."

"Fitz is a good man, he's fine now." Enoch nodded, "My performance has not been affected."

"I am glad to see your transformation, Prophet. Compared to your kind, you are more human, which is much more important than such a trivial matter as performance." Salomon and Enoch were talking, and no one else could interrupt them at all, after all, they did not understand this language. Perhaps there would be a recording of this process, but it was not important, he just did not want SHIELD to know the content of the conversation now.

At the other end of the long table, former SHIELD agents gathered. Agent Coulson brought a cup of coffee to each of them and explained to Natasha Romanoff, who was still confused. At least before the meeting began, they had to synchronize their information. Facing the famous former colleague Black Widow, Agent Coulson knew that he couldn't hide much information. The other party did not take the initiative to ask about the current secrets of SHIELD, and he didn't mind revealing some information about Salomon.

Natasha Romanoff listened to Agent Coulson tell this bizarre story.

After Salomon imprisoned them at the Lighthouse Base, he left, and Enoch followed the plan and controlled them using a device invented by Howard Stark. Then Enoch brought in a white boulder with three red stripes.

SHIELD once possessed a similar black monolith.

The liquefied boulder was a portal to a planet where the Inhuman King Hive was exiled (Natasha said she had no idea about this, and the SHIELD files she released did not mention this 084 item at all). The boulder that Enoch moved now is a time-space door with almost exactly the same features.

Before they regained consciousness, the white boulder was triggered, and the liquefied white boulder immediately engulfed them.

"Then, we are in the future Earth." Agent Coulson sighed, "To be precise, it is outer space, and humans live like cockroaches in alien space stations. I am talking about the cockroaches of today. The creatures referred to by this term in 2091 have changed significantly. I am not surprised that this creature survives until the end of the world."

It was an extremely difficult time.

The Earth was torn apart by a huge force, the core of the Earth cooled, and a large amount of debris floated in orbit. Before the disaster, an alien fleet came to Earth under the guidance of a human traitor and took away a large group of humans. In the era when Agent Coulson traveled through time, the remaining humans were forced to break stones in the space station to find valuable ores for the Kree.

Compared to those humans in 2091, Coulson's team was not much better off.

Jemma Simmons was captured by the Kree, implanted with a hearing-blocking device, and became a high-level servant to entertain Kree guests; Daisy Johnson and other Inhumans who developed superpowers through Terrigen Mist were even more miserable. They were captured by the Kree and used as goods and sold to various forces in the universe; Fitz was even more unlucky. The liquefied white boulder just failed to swallow him, and he had to lie in the stasis cabin with the help of Enoch, waiting to be awakened by Enoch decades later.

As for the immortal Enoch, Natasha did not ask, and Coulson assumed that she had already learned a lot of information from Salomon.

"The Kree installed a controller for me, embedded in my nerves." Daisy pointed behind her ear and stared at Salomon not far away angrily. "When it was taken out, there was no anesthesia, not even disinfection."

Natasha easily noticed that they were hiding a lot of things, such as the atmosphere between Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons. She had no intention of digging into the details. Although Agent Coulson had always advocated a different information communication mechanism from the former SHIELD, some secrets were better not to be made public.

"I got a lot of information, which may be useful to you." She glanced at Salomon who was talking to the side. Noticing her gaze, Salomon nodded - he revealed a lot of information to Natasha just to avoid wasting time explaining it to Coulson and the others. Nodding meant that she could disclose it at her discretion.

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"We found the human traitor who had ties to the Kree."

Melinda May crossed her arms and asked, "Who?"

"That's not information I can disclose. All I can tell you is that the individual has been arrested."

"That's good news." Coulson nodded. "Anything else?"

"There is a faction within the Kree Empire that led the Inhuman experiments. The Kree leader, Cassius, whom you mentioned should be a descendant of this faction. According to investigations, this faction is extremely weak in the Kree Empire, and currently only one family is left. If nothing unexpected happens, Cassius's direct relatives are now on their way to Earth."

"We know this," Coulson said. "It's to be expected if the Kree lifespans weren't so ridiculously long."

Natasha said with a little bit of subtle pride, "This time it's different. The Kree is no longer a plunderer. He came to Earth as a captive. Salomon started a war at the edge of the solar system. That war wiped out the Kree outposts and captured a giant space station and many ships."

This news is indeed shocking. SHIELD could never have guessed that a war had broken out at the edge of the solar system, or that humans had taken the initiative to attack aliens. All along, in the conflict between humans and aliens, humans were forced to take on the responsibility of defense. No country in the world had the ability or idea to take the initiative to attack.

"You mean, the future is different?" Daisy Johnson crossed her arms. "Cassias doesn't exist?"

"I don't know. The information I know is not that detailed." Natasha spread her hands. "Perhaps the mother of Cassius is already pregnant. My information is not that detailed."

"What will this lead to?" Coulson sat up straight, put his hands on the table, and seemed to want to take a pen to record these explosive news. "If Cassias is gone, will other Kree people target the Earth?"

"Whatever this war at the edge of the solar system leads to, it won't be worse than Earth being torn apart."

Natasha noticed that the agents' expressions had changed.

Daisy Johnson moved her lips to say something, but Melinda May stopped her with her eyes. But it was too late, Natasha Romanoff had already set her sights on her, and the Black Widow's sensitivity to intelligence was far greater than that of Daisy Johnson, an agent who had not received professional training.

"You found out who destroyed the world, right?"

"That information is not very credible." Coulson knocked on the table to prevent Daisy or other young agents from letting the secret slip. He did not want to reveal such important information before understanding Salomon's attitude. "We will continue to investigate. Now we need to know something more important."

"Don't worry, he's not a supporter of Project Insight."

"I don't know what you mean, Natasha."

Although he said this, Agent Coulson secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and his heart was finally at ease.

Since Black Widow said so, it means that Salomon will not kill people for such vague information as "Daisy Johnson may destroy the world". Nick Fury thinks that Salomon is the same kind of person as him, and they definitely don't mind killing the threat in the cradle. Now Coulson thinks that his boss's idea may be wrong, and Salomon is not a thorough utilitarian.

If Salomon really wanted to do this, all the people and weapons in this base combined would not be able to stop him.

All the information on Salomon is outdated now, Coulson thought.

Nick Fury once believed that Solomon's thoughts were far more dangerous than his power. When Coulson first felt the threat of Solomon's power, he thought that Nick Fury could say such a thing because he could always escape to a place where no one could find him in time, and Solomon's gun could not be pointed at him.

"He is hostile to the Inhumans, Nat." Coulson changed to a more intimate address. "His friendship with Daisy cannot change his attitude."

"I can guarantee that he won't fight SHIELD here." Natasha Romanoff smiled and pointed to the coffee machine beside her. She used to be wealthy, but she had never drunk the coffee made by the $8,000 coffee machine. "Can he have a cup of SHIELD coffee now?"

Looking at Natasha Romanoff's back, Melinda May whispered, "There's something different about her, Coulson."

"You mean, she wasn't wearing combat clothes?" Coulson shrugged. "Nat wore casual clothes, too."

"I thought the same thing as May. Maybe you know more about Black Widow, but you're not a woman."

Jemma Simmons also came over and took a closer look at the famous Black Widow's outfit.

Natasha wore a tight white skirt and high-heeled sandals, with her long red curly hair falling casually, looking very charming. Facing Simmons's gaze, Natasha responded with a beautiful smile. As the only SHIELD agent present who knew about luxury goods, Jemma Simmons counted the prices of these clothes.

The 100% couture designed by John Galliano is something you can’t buy even if you have money. There are also high heels, which cost more than $14,000. In addition, there are diamond earrings, Cartier bracelets, and pearl and platinum tassel necklaces, which together cost a quarter of the price of Salomon’s cuff.

Although it doesn't sound like a lot, these clothes and jewelry are obviously not jewels like cufflinks that can be passed down for hundreds of years. Even if they are high-end couture, they will not be put into the washing machine or dry cleaner. The only fate of these clothes is the incinerator or covered with dust-proof plastic film and placed in the walk-in closet.

"More importantly, she's in love." Simmons sighed. Perhaps because of her pregnancy, Jemma Simmons was very sensitive to emotional expressions. She saw Natasha Romanoff handing over the coffee cup and gently stroking Salomon's arm with her fingers, which was an extremely intimate gesture. And her eyes were so sticky that they could almost be drawn.

"How long has this been going on, sir? There's more than a 10 year age difference between them..."

"You should listen to what Enoch said. Salomon is now several thousand years old." Melinda May added, "When he was still a minor, Nick Fury thought he was an old wizard who was eternally young. Now this conjecture has come true."

Agent Coulson took a breath, looked suddenly at Natasha's back, and made a guess.

However, this conjecture concerns Natasha's privacy and he cannot reveal it to others.

"I don't know. I haven't had contact with her for a long time."

"Then the authenticity of the information she provided is questionable." Melinda May said coldly, "The meeting should not last too long. I still have a mission to complete. Do we need to tell them that the Lighthouse Base is haunted?"

"He's a magician. I guess he already knew it. If he didn't, Enoch would have told him."

Coulson picked up the cup and took a sip of the long-cooled coffee. It tasted great, the milk foam from the steam was dense, and the coffee beans had a mellow taste, worthy of the expensive price.

"Compared to the Vatican's exorcism rituals, he is a professional in this area. Wait for him to bring it up." He raised his cup. "And he also gave us such delicious coffee. I think we should forgive him, right?"