After parting ways with Tony, the bald black egghead opened the door of his black sedan, but did not get in right away. With one hand gripping the car door, he said, "Looks like we need to have a talk with that Mr. Parker."
"We already did," Natasha replied, tilting her head as if to say, Boss, are you alright?
But Nick Fury shook his head. "I mean a frank, face-to-face talk."
Of course, calling it frank and open was a joke. With Bant's understanding of him, it would already be impressive if one or two lines out of every ten were true. At best, you could call it frank, but only a little.
Still, once Nick Fury made a decision, he had never cared much about what other people thought.
So when midnight came, Eunice informed Bant that there was an intruder at Plamos. By the time he hurried over, he just so happened to catch this guy using his all-black outfit to blend into the darkness.
"Bant Parker."
Nick Fury noticed the displeasure on Bant's face, to the point that it could even be called anger, but he did not care in the least.
Just some young punk.
If he could not even handle a sixteen-year-old high schooler, then what kind of King of Spies was he?
He might as well resign in shame and hand the director's seat over to Hill.
So, seeing Bant's unfriendly expression, Nick Fury paid it no mind. He believed that as long as he explained why he was here, and let this so-called genius glimpse the true underworld of the hidden world, this tiny bit of irritation would disappear on its own.
He had even deliberately mobilized the hackers of all S.H.I.E.L.D. to break Eunice, purely to show off S.H.I.E.L.D.'s power.
He had long understood that when dealing with so-called geniuses, the more you had to show your hand, the better. Otherwise, they would not even spare you a proper glance.
But he had clearly misjudged Bant.
At this moment, the bald black egghead was sitting on the sofa in Plamos's lounge area with his legs spread, mouthing off to Bant.
"I have to say, your AI is pretty good. Almost on Tony Stark's level. Still a little worse, though."
After saying that, he narrowed his eyes and observed Bant's reaction.
He thought Bant would definitely reveal the same unconvinced look as Tony, while at the same time starting to develop an interest in S.H.I.E.L.D.
That would have been a very nice beginning.
But very soon, his expression changed, because things developed in a way that was completely beyond his imagination.
"Motherfucker?"
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Not long after Nick Fury finished speaking, Bant let out a cold laugh, then pulled out a big toy from inside his coat.
A dark barrel was pointed squarely at his forehead from across the room.
Holy shit, this young man...?
For an instant, Nick was dumbfounded. His whole life nearly flashed before his eyes.
But he did not move.
On one hand, he was worried that any motion on his part would provoke Bant.
On the other, he was gambling, gambling that Bant would not dare fire.
But the next second...
Boom!
A blue beam of energy shot from the barrel in an instant!
In the blink of an eye, the sofa that took the blast was blown open with a huge hole.
At the end of the day, Nick Fury was still the King of Spies. Out of the corner of his eye, he had been staring at Bant's finger the whole time. The moment he saw Bant pull the trigger, he rolled away, narrowly dodging the shot and avoiding ending up like a certain president named Kennedy with his head blown open.
No.
Nick broke out in a cold sweat and turned to look at what remained of the ruined sofa.
If that had hit him, it would not have been a matter of getting a hole in his head. There might not have been a head left to find.
Having brushed past death itself, Nick Fury instantly exploded. Half-kneeling on the ground, one hand braced against the floor, his face full of fury, he shouted:
"You point a laser weapon at my head and fire, and you call me crazy?!"
Bant looked at him coldly. "You force your way through my firewall, hack my system, break into my company, and the fact that I didn't blow your head off in one shot is already me being polite, black bastard!"
"What do you mean, not blowing my head off was polite? You just missed!" Nick snapped. "If I hadn't moved fast enough, I'd already be dead."
"If you'd learned to knock like your subordinate, I wouldn't have shot at you," Bant sneered.
Breaking into private property and still acting righteous about it?
This black egghead really thought he was something.
If this weren't the twenty-first century, Bant would have dragged him straight off to pick cotton already.
Of course, Bant understood perfectly well that the bald black egghead just wanted to give him a show of force. There probably was not much actual malice behind it.
But the problem was, Bant was not his plantation owner, so why the hell should he indulge him?
A show of force, was it?
Then let's see who gives who a proper warning.
Watching Bant open his mouth with one "black bastard" after another, while still holding a laser gun that could open somebody's chest and mind at any second, Nick Fury honestly wanted to strangle Natasha right then and there.
Fuck!
This is what you meant by low risk?
If Natasha could hear his thoughts, she would definitely cry foul.
I said Bant Parker was low risk. I never told you to storm into his company, force your way in, and sit in his office acting cool!
At the end of the day, the bald black egghead had been director of S.H.I.E.L.D. for two years now. He had forgotten who he was.
After giving Nick Fury a proper warning, Bant lowered the laser gun in his hand.
He still was not planning to create trouble for himself. Behind S.H.I.E.L.D. stood the World Security Council. Completely falling out with them would not do him any good.
"Enough, Nick Fury. If you've got a reason for coming here, then spit it out."
Bant sat down in another chair, crossed one leg over the other, and spoke.
Nick froze for a moment.
"You've heard of me?"
"The black-hearted S.H.I.E.L.D. director who's darker inside than his face? That's not exactly some great secret." Bant leaned back and said, "I know more than you think. I even know your trump card."
"Is that so?"
Nick gave an indifferent little smile, but just as he was about to dismiss Bant as a frog in a well, he realized Bant's gaze seemed to linger meaningfully on his belt.
His final weapon was hidden there.
This kid... he can't really know, can he?
Nick panicked.
At the same time, his body unconsciously shifted a little to one side, trying to block Bant's line of sight.
Putting on a calm front, he said, "Since you already know a bit about us, I'll be direct."
Nick had determined that Bant would not attack him again, so he found another chair, sat down, looked Bant in the eye, and said:
"I have an idea. To bring together a group of remarkable people and see what we can become. So that when the world needs us... we can fight the battles no one else can win."
After saying that, Nick looked at Bant.
First he had been attacked by Bant. Then Bant had exposed his biggest secret.
The whole rhythm of Nick's original plan had been completely thrown into chaos.
Still, he had understood one thing.
Someone who could casually produce a laser weapon that advanced probably was not going to be tempted by Tony's armor.
Not to mention Nick did not even have the armor in his hands right now.
After turning it over in his mind again and again, Nick Fury ultimately chose to speak the Avengers plan directly.
Bant's reaction to that was simple.
"Interesting. And then?"
"I want to invite you to be one of them."
"I refuse."
Bant: Nice idea, brother, but no.
To be honest, the Avengers concept itself was not bad.
But Bant had no need to join.
Instead of becoming an Avenger and standing under S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Security Council, swallowing their nonsense as their punching bag, why shouldn't he just directly establish an Earth branch of the Tiangong Society?
Anything the Avengers could do, he could do too. So why should he go work for them for free?
Of course, Nick Fury did not need to know that.
Bant shrugged and said, "Sorry, Nick Fury, but I don't have time to play superhero make-believe games with you."
"You've seen it yourself. I'm the boss of a company now. Plamos makes several small goals a day, and it'll make even more in the future. I'm too busy counting money. Why the hell would I go be a superhero? How much money does being a superhero even pay?"
Nick Fury had probably never expected Bant's reason for refusing to be this practical, and for a moment, he was left speechless.
So Nick fell silent.
Once you start talking about money, what was he supposed to do?
He could not exactly offer Bant a salary, could he?
He wanted to, but the problem was exactly what Bant had said. If you averaged out Plamos's profits, it was making hundreds of millions a day. Who the hell could afford to pay him?
Besides...
I'm here to get money, not give it away!
Even so, Nick still wanted to try.
He immediately said, "The things you gain by working with S.H.I.E.L.D. can't always be measured in money alone."
That part was actually true.
Even a giant like Stark Industries would still face restrictions in this country of capital control when it came to certain matters.
Not long ago, the senator who had tried to trip Tony up at the hearing was a perfect example.
But once Tony officially reached an arrangement with S.H.I.E.L.D., that guy had not been able to fart out another word.
Of course, part of that was also because Tony had compromised and let Rhodey take away the Mark III.
Still, no matter how you looked at it, cooperating with S.H.I.E.L.D. really could save you some unnecessary trouble.
But the problem was that S.H.I.E.L.D. itself was the biggest trouble of all.
Rather than work with them, Bant would be better off going right up to Alexander Pierce's ear and whispering, Hail Hydra.
Then he could just go undercover in Hydra and avoid ninety-nine percent of all his problems in one move.
How wonderful.
So, in the face of the bargaining chip Nick Fury had offered, Bant still shook his head.
Seeing Bant refuse to budge no matter what, Nick Fury felt deeply frustrated. But for the sake of building safer safe houses, he steeled himself and pushed on.
"Then what do you want?"
What do I want?
Bant smiled faintly.
At first, he had wanted to ask for Skrull genes.
But after thinking it over, he changed his mind.
There were probably quite a few Skrulls on Earth. Getting their genes would not be difficult. If he asked for them directly, it would only make the other side suspicious.
So he thought of something else instead.
"I want the Tesseract."
"Impossible!" Nick rejected it without even taking a second to think.
He did not even ask how Bant knew the Cube was in his possession, because that did not matter.
The only thing that mattered was keeping the Cube in his own hands.
/-\
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