On the highway.
Nick Fury sat inside his black armored car, riding high these days.
The Avengers had been successfully assembled and had already scored major achievements right out of the gate.
Over the past few days, Captain America and Peter had wiped out several Hydra bases one after another, and every single one of those victories added to his political record.
Inside the Security Council, Nick Fury's voice now carried far more weight. When he asked for funding, he could speak with real confidence.
He just could not figure out why his old partner Alexander Pierce had been giving him strange looks lately.
Nick did not think much of it.
He assumed it was because he had been asking for too much money and Pierce was getting annoyed.
Well, too bad.
Not asking for money was impossible.
Even if he ignored the fact that his safe houses were still not fully built, the shady research projects under his command alone devoured massive amounts of cash.
Take the Cosmic Cube, for example. Its energy had recently begun to fluctuate slightly, and the gamma radiation it released was a little higher than usual.
That tiny change had already let him develop a batch of incredibly powerful energy weapons.
With results like that right in front of him, how could Nick Fury possibly stop?
This was only the beginning.
A few guns would never satisfy him. What he wanted was another Captain.
Not Captain America. Captain Marvel.
That was the kind of overwhelming combat power the new-generation Avengers desperately needed.
"Of course, a few extra hammers would work just as well." He gripped the steering wheel, happily daydreaming.
Then everything changed in an instant.
BOOM!!
A bomb slammed into the rear of Nick Fury's car and detonated. The violent shockwave made the vehicle sway wildly.
The black one-eyed man instinctively tightened his grip on the wheel. When he looked up, several cars had already boxed him in from three sides.
He did not need to think twice. Someone had him marked.
'Someone wants me dead?'
"Who is it?"
Dozens of faces flashed through his mind. As director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he had made far too many enemies.
But right now, the people who wanted him dead the most were obviously Hydra.
The real question was how they had found his exact location.
Nick Fury immediately realized there was a traitor inside the organization.
And that traitor had to be high-ranking with serious influence. Otherwise his movements would not have been leaked so easily, and the enemy would never have dared launch such a blatant attack in the middle of the street.
Nick Fury slammed the accelerator, trying to shake off the assassins chasing him.
But the other side was not playing around. Several cars closed in from every direction. These guys did not care about causing chaos. Machine guns and explosives raked his vehicle nonstop, leaving him no room to maneuver.
Rat-tat-tat—
Machine-gun fire spat flames.
The car's alarm system screamed nonstop.
"Vehicle damage at ten percent."
"Motherfucker!"
Before Nick Fury could finish cursing, one car whipped around and blocked the road ahead.
The black one-eyed man swore loudly, slammed on the brakes, and swerved. He barely managed to stop in time.
In an instant the entire traffic system ground to a halt.
Nick Fury was trapped in the middle of the road, completely surrounded.
Car windows rolled down one after another. Black gun barrels aimed straight at his head through the glass.
Rat-tat-tat—
"Vehicle armor integrity at twenty percent… thirty-seven percent…"
The alarms kept blaring.
Under the hail of bullets the once-clear windows instantly spiderwebbed with cracks. Shattered fragments completely blocked his view outside, but he did not need to look. Sticking his head out meant death.
Cold sweat covered Nick Fury's body, yet he stayed calm.
"Propulsion system offline…"
"Then reboot it!"
"Side-window defense at seventy-eight percent. Please take immediate protective measures."
Without hesitation Nick Fury slammed the button beside him. A heavy machine gun rose from between the driver and passenger seats.
He grabbed the weapon, aimed at his own window, and opened fire from the inside.
Rat-tat-tat!
The already-shattered window exploded outward. Nick Fury's counterattack was even fiercer than the assassins'.
He put a round straight into an enemy fuel tank.
BOOM!!!
The explosion flipped the car on the side and momentarily silenced the attackers.
At the same time the propulsion system restarted. Nick Fury floored the accelerator and shot forward like a rocket.
"Good thing I had that kid Bant modify my car ahead of time!"
Nick Fury could not help pumping his fist at his own foresight.
Truth be told, after seeing Bant's hover technology at the expo, he had been planning to install the same system in his own vehicle.
"Prepare for vertical takeoff!"
He was full of confidence.
"I've got wings now. Let's see how you bastards chase me!"
"Flight system damaged."
He glanced in the rearview mirror. The cars that had boxed him in had already recovered and were closing in again.
The situation was critical. Nick Fury swallowed his pride and prepared to call for help.
"Connect to Agent Hill. No, connect to Tony Stark. He flies faster."
"Communications damaged."
"Then open the rear weapons!"
"Weapons systems damaged."
"Damn it! What the hell is still working?"
"Air-conditioning system normal."
Nick Fury: ???
"Then turn it on already!"
He snapped irritably. He knew the only way out now was to lose the assassins by himself.
His driving instantly turned savage.
The black armored vehicle charged like a tank, smashing everything in its path until it finally shook off the killers.
Nick Fury took a sharp turn onto another road.
Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, he looked up and saw a man in black standing at the end of the street.
The Winter Soldier.
Right now the brainwashed Bucky held a custom weapon and aimed it at Nick Fury's car from afar.
The next second a circular disc shot forward and latched onto the underside of the vehicle.
BOOM!!!
Another explosion rang out.
This blast flipped Nick Fury's car completely, but what surprised everyone was that even after taking such a direct hit the vehicle had not been blown to pieces.
Just imagine how much of the budget he had swallowed to build a single car like this.
Watching the Winter Soldier draw closer, Nick Fury's blood-covered face darkened.
This was bad.
At this point in time Nick Fury had not yet picked up his lightsaber and become the "Digger Knight." The escape lightsaber he would need had not even been invented yet.
He had nowhere to run.
He could only struggle out through the broken window.
The Winter Soldier's expression was blank.
To him this was just another routine assassination. Actually, he did not even understand the concept. He was a machine running a single program, and that program's only objective was to kill Nick Fury. Anything else was irrelevant.
Right now he walked toward Nick Fury like the Grim Reaper.
But at that moment he suddenly sensed danger.
Whoosh!
Something flew at him from behind at high speed.
The Winter Soldier detected it early and instantly reached out with his ruthless metal arm.
Clang!
A crisp metallic ring sounded as he caught the spherical object perfectly.
It was a yellow, pumpkin-shaped sphere.
Lights in the center blinked faintly while it emitted a soft ticking sound.
A bomb!
Even the brainwashed Winter Soldier was not stupid enough to pose with an explosive.
The instant he recognized it he flung the pumpkin bomb away.
BOOM!!
Flames and scorching air rushed toward him. The Winter Soldier rolled across the ground, dodging the blast wave.
Then another sharp whistle cut through the air.
A green glider tore through the fire like a returning boomerang.
The Winter Soldier bent backward at the waist, narrowly avoiding the fate of being cut in half, then kicked upward with his right foot. He struck the center of the glider and sent it flying, using the momentum to roll back to his feet and finally look at the enemy who had interrupted his mission.
The spinning glider completed a circle in the air and landed neatly at Harry's feet.
Wearing his upgraded armor, Harry frowned as he stared at the man who had turned New York into a battlefield.
"Green Goblin!"
Nick Fury let out a breath of relief and looked at Harry with gratitude before issuing orders in his usual commanding tone.
"I'm with Spider-Man and the Hacker. This guy tried to assassinate me. Best to take him alive."
"You don't have to tell me. And call me Plumber Green Goblin."
Harry had still not come up with a new alias. Thinking up a fresh nickname was too hard.
Green Goblin it was.
Just add Plumber in front.
Plumber?
You here to fix the pipes or something?
Nick Fury had no idea what Harry was talking about, but he had no time to worry about it right now.
The Green Goblin and the Winter Soldier clashed immediately.
As a super-soldier, the Winter Soldier was extremely powerful. His hand-to-hand combat style came from the same school as Steve's, and the metal arm gave him even greater versatility in battle.
Harry, protected by his armor, also possessed considerable fighting strength.
Not to mention that Bant had personally upgraded the suit with plenty of deadly weapons.
"Let's try this then."
Harry rode the glider like a surfer slicing across the ocean, charging straight at the Winter Soldier with fluid grace.
Seeing Harry rush him, the Winter Soldier assumed the other man wanted close-quarters combat.
He immediately drew the knife from his thigh sheath, ready for a fight to the death.
But Harry simply brushed his fingers across his waist. Several small silver-blue discs dropped into his palm.
Neurotoxin.
He flicked his wrist. The discs shot out and latched onto the Winter Soldier's body.
At the same time the Winter Soldier's metal arm grabbed Harry's glider and hurled him away with terrifying force.
The next instant the airborne Harry swiped a finger across his wrist, activating the neurotoxin device.
"Ah!"
The emotionless Winter Soldier let out a heart-wrenching scream.
His entire body convulsed and collapsed to the ground.
Harry dusted himself off, stood up, pressed a finger to his earpiece, and spoke in a low voice.
"Winter Soldier, capture successful."
/-\
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