Inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
At the special ground facility where the Tesseract was being stored.
Nick Fury arrived with the accompanying agents, with Agent Hill half a step behind him.
"How's the progress on the weapon research?" Nick asked.
"It's going very slowly. The energy inside the cube is enormous, but it's highly inert. It still hasn't been fully activated," Hill replied after confirming all the data reports.
Then she asked, "Do we really need to carry out this research?"
Hill looked worriedly at the cube embedded within the instrument and said, "We're keeping this from the Captain, from everyone. We've secretly assembled a team and poured in huge amounts of manpower and money, only to possibly end up forging a blade that will wound ourselves."
"Of course it's necessary!"
Nick Fury answered without even thinking.
"We need stronger weapons to deal with our enemies!"
"Where are the enemies?"
Hearing that question, Nick Fury stopped walking and fixed Hill with his one eye. Only after several dozen seconds did he finally speak.
"In the sky..."
Or perhaps, right beside us.
Nick didn't say the second half out loud. He simply continued explaining, "Threats from beyond Earth... those aliens who call themselves gods, with their overwhelming power and weapons. Are we supposed to fight them with bullets?"
"And then there are the Tiangong Association's alien sheriffs, interfering in Earth's affairs whenever they please. Who do they think they are? The space police?!"
Nick Fury let out a sneer.
America had played the role of the police for so long that it could hardly tolerate anyone else playing the same part.
"We need power if we're going to face the threats ahead of us, and the Tesseract will be the key that brings hope, limitless energy, and..."
He closed his mouth.
Nick Fury thought of Project Pegasus. He thought of the woman with planet-level combat power. That was the kind of strength he wanted.
Compared to that, what did Steve Rogers even amount to?
Right now, his Avengers Initiative could be said to be hitting walls everywhere. After one supernatural incident after another, the Security Council had finally started to loosen its stance, but if no superheroes were willing to join, then it was all still useless.
He couldn't exactly shout, "Avengers, assemble!" himself, then charge forward with a pitiful handful of people.
Nick Fury was a spy, not a berserker.
Just as he was sighing, his phone suddenly rang.
Nick slipped a hand into the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out an old-fashioned keypad phone.
In truth, with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s budget, every agent had long since been issued a Primus phone.
That thing really was too good.
The technology inside it was incredibly advanced. Carrying one phone around could save you from lugging a whole pile of bulky equipment.
But as highly classified agents, there was no way they would use a Primus phone to transmit important information.
In fact, every time he had to go somewhere important, Nick Fury would avoid bringing too many electronic devices.
Other than a pager, this old relic was all he had left.
He glanced at the screen. The caller ID said Steve Rogers.
"Captain?"
Nick Fury was puzzled. He hadn't expected Steve to actually call him.
After all, that old soldier still wasn't quite used to modern life. The communication tool he was most familiar with was the telegraph, with letter-writing coming right after that.
Still, no matter what, Nick Fury answered the call.
Author: I'm Really Not Cao Aman
"Hello, Captain. It couldn't have been easy making this call, right?" Nick Fury joked lightly.
"It really wasn't easy."
On the other end, Steve said, "The buttons on this thing are way too small. My eyes are practically going blurry. If it weren't for something important, I wouldn't have called you."
"What is it?" Nick asked.
He really was curious about what kind of matter Captain America would call "important."
"Spider-Man agreed to join the Avengers."
Captain America's words were nothing short of explosive.
"What did you say?" Nick Fury froze, and the corners of his mouth instantly began to curl upward.
Finally. Finally, he'd closed the deal!
"Not just Peter. Benet Parker agreed too. Both of them did. And not only that, they even found the helicarrier..."
Steve's words almost turned Nick's joy into alarm.
At present, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier still wasn't flying in the sky. It was disguised as a normal aircraft carrier and parked at sea. On one hand, that was to conceal S.H.I.E.L.D.'s existence. On the other hand, keeping it airborne all the time burned through a lot of fuel...
"How did they find it?"
"Benet Parker found it. He said he's a hacker."
On the deck, Captain America shrugged. He was just a soldier who had slept for over seventy years. How was he supposed to know what that meant?
"I'll be there immediately!"
Half an hour later, Benet and Peter, both wearing Spider-Man suits, met Nick Fury aboard the helicarrier.
Nick Fury didn't look the least bit travel-worn. Sitting in his chair, he asked, "Spider-Man, can you tell me why you changed your mind?"
"Well..."
Peter hesitated for a moment. He looked a little nervous.
Benet, on the other hand, was relaxed as if he'd returned to his own home. And in a way, wasn't it practically his own home already? This carrier was bound to become his property sooner or later. He casually pulled out a chair, sat down across from Nick Fury, and said,
"The reason Peter didn't agree to you right away before was because he had to talk it over with me before making a decision. You know, I'm the one who calls the shots."
Benet said it matter-of-factly.
Fury wasn't surprised at all. He simply nodded and motioned for Benet to continue.
So Benet went on, "Since Hydra killed Peter's parents, then obviously we have a common enemy."
For the time being, Benet had no intention of telling Nick Fury the truth directly.
That black man's little schemes were far too many. Even if they had a common enemy, that didn't mean they could truly work together.
Poor Nick Fury not only had subordinates under him who were all Hydra, but even Benet and Peter, who had just agreed to join up, had their own hidden motives.
Nick Fury: Damn it, I'm surrounded by traitors!
"Nick Fury, even though there was a tiny little bit of unpleasantness between us before, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. As long as you're willing to fight Hydra alongside us, then we're good friends."
"That little bit of friction doesn't amount to anything," Nick said generously.
With two new members joining at once, the Avengers roster had instantly doubled in size. Fury was in a very good mood.
Still, he was a little greedy and couldn't help asking, "Just the two of you? What about Harry Osborn? We know he's the Green Goblin!"
"Harry has nothing to do with this," Peter said immediately.
Benet nodded as well and added, "Actually, it's because he doesn't really want to use the name Green Goblin. He still hasn't figured out a codename, so for now he's planning not to do it. After all, you can't seriously expect an idle rich second-generation heir like that to work himself to the bone for you, right?"
"Words of wisdom!"
Thinking about how badly things had gone for him with Tony, Nick Fury found Benet's words more and more piercingly accurate.
"You see human nature very clearly?"
"More or less. I read stuff like The Weakness of Human Nature and Wolf's Way once in a while. Chinese books. I suggest every one of your agents gets a copy. Way more useful than The FBI Teaches You Facial Recognition."
Benet spouted nonsense with a straight face.
"Are those books expensive?"
"Just a few dollars."
"That cheap? Then forget it." Nick Fury shook his head in disappointment, and Benet quickly cut in.
"What's the rush? I've got internal channels. I guarantee the expensive version!"
Hearing that, Nick tilted his head toward Hill and said, "You heard him, right? Go place the order immediately, then prepare the invoice so the Council can reimburse it!"
Then he turned back to Benet and said, "Seventy-thirty split."
"I'm only getting thirty?"
"The seventy is mine!" Nick Fury snapped irritably.
"Wrong. Seventy is mine. As for your thirty, whether you get it depends on my mood!" Benet refused to back down.
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
Harry Osborn, who had just been mentioned by Nick Fury, quietly arrived at the top of Stark Tower.
There, Tony, encased in his armor, sat with one leg crossed over the other, both hands resting on the sofa as he watched Harry step in on his glider through the entrance Tony normally used when landing.
Tony frowned slightly.
"Benet Parker said he wanted to meet with me, but he never said he wasn't coming himself and was sending an Osborn brat in his place."
Everyone knew Tony didn't like the Osborns.
"He's busy today," Harry said without caring in the least.
Among rich second-generation heirs, Harry was actually one of the better-tempered ones. He didn't smoke, didn't drink himself senseless, and didn't fool around with women. He barely indulged in that flashy world at all. All he had ever wanted was Norman's approval.
Of course, now he had long since gotten his wish.
"He said he wants to work with me, and that he's got something I'll be interested in..."
Tony stared at Harry. He noticed Harry wasn't carrying anything, and only when Harry pulled out a tiny USB drive did Tony's expression become a little unnatural.
"Don't tell me he discovered some new element again, or invented something else..."
Tony felt a little shaken.
He hadn't even had the arc reactor in his chest for that long. Could it be that kid had really come up with something new again and was planning to show off?
"Of course not." Harry looked somewhat strange. He didn't know why Tony would say something like that, but he didn't think too much of it. He just handed the USB drive over to Tony.
"Put it on the table. I don't like taking things directly from other people."
Harry rolled his eyes, thinking, Funny, your hand moved pretty fast when Little Ben handed you that new element!
Of course, the matter of the new element had only been a deal.
In exchange, Tony had paid a huge amount of cash to help Benet buy Hammer Industries, to the point that his plan to build a new tower had to be postponed.
"So what's the specific content of this cooperation?" Tony asked.
Harry spread his hands. "He said you'll know after you watch it. I'm just here to pass on the message."
After saying that, Harry prepared to leave.
But he had only taken half a step before turning back to remind him, "Right, when you watch it, you'd better disconnect from the internet. Don't let anyone know, and don't contact Little Ben for now either. He's probably at S.H.I.E.L.D. right now."
"And this too..."
Harry took out a circular device with a black-and-green hourglass symbol on it.
Tony recognized it at a glance.
"The Tiangong Association?!"
/-\
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