Rhodes found himself caught in a painful dilemma.
On one hand, he loved the Decepticon armor's overwhelming firepower.
On the other, Tony Stark's new suit was ridiculously appealing too.
Couldn't he just have both?
"Tony," Rhodes asked suddenly, "does your armor have microspatial storage?"
Tony blinked.
"…My what?"
"Microspatial storage," Rhodes repeated matter-of-factly. "Every Decepticon unit has it. Stores around three hundred kilograms of ammunition and reloads automatically during combat."
Tony's expression changed instantly.
Rhodes clearly had no idea what that actually implied.
But Tony did.
Spatial technology.
Functional. Stable. Applied engineering-grade spatial technology.
And Drex Valen had apparently already integrated it into military hardware.
Tony immediately abandoned the conversation and contacted Drex directly.
"So the microspatial storage is real?" Tony asked without preamble.
"It's a mature form of spatial technology," Drex replied calmly.
For someone capable of manipulating free-floating dimensional energy and electromagnetic forces, creating a stable microspace wasn't especially difficult. More importantly, Drex had already reproduced the entire process through technology alone.
Tony's pulse quickened.
"How?"
Even if using something this revolutionary to carry ammunition felt almost offensively wasteful, the scientist inside him couldn't ignore it.
Drex didn't hide anything.
Tony asked, so he answered.
"Space is generated through energy," Drex said. "And governed through time. Length, width, and height form the three fundamental dimensions of the world humanity inhabits."
Tony's expression sharpened slightly.
Whenever Einstein entered a conversation, even Tony Stark paid attention.
"Einstein was one of the greatest scientific minds in human history," Drex continued. "Relativity revealed another layer of existence hidden beneath time itself. Under the right conditions, velocity can theoretically allow movement toward either the past or the future."
"That's the fourth component of existence."
"Compared to conventional three-dimensional space, four-dimensional structures possess far greater variability. But time isn't the only thing capable of transcending three-dimensional limitations."
"Energy can do it too."
Tony stayed silent.
"Energy expresses itself spatially in many forms," Drex said. "The most familiar example is explosive expansion."
"Every explosion creates a temporary energy domain. Violent. Chaotic. Deadly."
"But if you can overcome the unstable nature of energy without triggering destruction…"
"Then you discover something else entirely."
"A quiet world."
Years ago, Drex had theorized that sufficiently powerful energy could tear open space itself.
It hadn't been baseless speculation.
According to his later research, even something as simple as airflow generated by human movement represented a primitive form of spatial-energy conversion.
When kinetic force overpowered still air, the displaced atmosphere transformed into wind.
And in the process, the microscopic energy-space structures embedded within it changed as well.
The scale was so small humans never noticed it.
But the principle remained.
"By using energy to rupture space and compress static energy into a singularity-like depression," Drex explained, "you can create a domain entirely your own."
"A space its creator can enter or leave freely, regardless of location."
"It overlaps completely with our reality."
"The only difference is the addition of energy as a foundational dimensional component."
"The universe itself is the most fundamental example of an energy-space structure."
"It was born from an explosion."
"And one day, it may end in another."
Without energy, there could be no creation event at all.
Earth itself was merely another condensed spatial structure formed through cosmic violence.
"Myths across human civilization reflect this idea," Drex continued. "Worlds born from chaos. Realms carved from darkness. Creation through rupture."
"Pangu separating heaven and earth."
"God creating the world."
"Brahma shaping existence."
"Different cultures. Same underlying concept."
Tony suddenly interrupted him.
"Wait. Are you saying those myths were real?"
Drex's answer came without hesitation.
"Asgard exists, Tony."
That alone was enough to make the conversation deeply uncomfortable.
"Most creation myths follow the same pattern," Drex continued. "A higher being tears apart darkness or emptiness and forms reality itself."
"Humanity simply emerges as a secondary product within that space."
"To entities powerful enough to shape worlds, humans are microscopic by comparison."
"Like insects."
Tony leaned back slowly, processing every word.
"Once a new spatial domain is formed," Drex said, "it contains foundational energy capable of being arranged freely."
"It's an extremely delicate state. Something between atomic and molecular structures."
"Highly reactive."
"Even tiny fluctuations from external energy sources can alter it."
"And during the instant a space is born, those unstable foundational energies become fixed according to the electromagnetic patterns of the creator's consciousness."
Tony's scalp prickled.
"In simpler terms," Drex said, "when a god creates a world, the structure of that world solidifies according to what the creator perceives."
"The world they imagine becomes reality."
Silence filled the line.
Even Tony Stark struggled to respond immediately.
Eventually, Drex spoke again.
"I developed this theory years ago. But without experimental proof, I refused to publish it."
"Science only becomes truth when supported by data."
The call ended shortly afterward.
Tony remained motionless for a long time.
Powerful enough energy could tear open space…
No.
This wasn't just spatial engineering anymore.
Drex hadn't invented space technology.
He'd discovered an entirely hidden layer of existence.
Tony himself had researched cosmological theory extensively.
The universe, in his view, was likely composed of parallel but relatively isolated systems.
Humanity's observable universe could be considered Universe One.
If velocity reached sufficient extremes, perhaps it became possible to approach the edge of that universe and transition into another.
It was impossible to prove with modern technology.
Humanity simply lacked the means to travel that far.
Still, certain calculations based on stellar behavior and cosmic expansion provided faint support for the theory.
And if the universe itself originated from explosive energy…
Then perhaps the universe itself was merely another form of energy-space structure.
Energy, at least, wasn't a problem for Tony Stark.
His enlarged Arc Reactor systems could provide absurd levels of output.
For the first time in years, genuine excitement ignited inside him.
He wanted to test Drex's theory immediately.
Of course, experiments like this probably only worked in a universe as absurd as Marvel's.
Even Drex suspected this kind of thing would be almost impossible to reproduce in a normal reality.