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Homelander spread his hands dismissively.
"A bunch of Nazi remnants who only know how to hide in the gutters, carrying out assassinations and infiltrations."
"What can they do? Blow up a few buildings? Kill a few congressmen? Or create a few super soldiers like the Winter Soldier?"
"To me, these are like cockroaches in a kitchen. I can crush them under my boot at any time."
"On the contrary, it's you, Fury." Homelander's gaze sharpened.
"You keep claiming it's to protect the Earth."
"But look, of the doomsday crises Earth has faced these past few years, how many were unrelated to your damn S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers?"
"If you hadn't been blindly researching that Tesseract, the Battle of New York would never have happened."
"...You even gathered a group of gifted children and turned them into experimental subjects for HYDRA."
Homelander slammed the table and growled.
"On this Planet, the greatest threat isn't HYDRA, nor is it some aliens."
"It's you, Nick Fury."
Fury's expression changed. He clenched his fists, wanting to retort, but found himself speechless.
Because from a consequentialist perspective, every word Homelander said was a fact.
"That was to deal with a higher level of war!" Fury argued through gritted teeth. "We must possess weapons to counter advanced civilizations! In this process, sacrifice and risk are inevitable!"
"Risk?"
Homelander sneered.
"I heard you've recently brought in a new batch of 'risks'?"
He picked up a file from the table and flipped through it casually.
"A group of shapeshifting, camouflaging alien refugees."
"You brought them back to Earth. What do you want, Fury? Do you want to give them Earth as their new home?"
"Those are the Skrullss," Fury said in a low voice. "They are my allies. They wouldn't dare act out of line without my orders."
"Everything is under my control."
"Control?"
"Hahahaha—!"
Homelander laughed loudly, his laughter echoing in the empty office, filled with irony.
"Come on, Fury. You don't even know how many of your own men are HYDRA, and you're talking to me about control?"
"You don't even have the ability to distinguish them!"
"If I told you right now that the person sitting across from you isn't me, but a Skrulls who turned into me, could you tell the difference?"
Fury fell silent. He indeed couldn't tell, which had always been a thorn in his side.
"I have a trump card," Fury was still struggling; it was his last shred of dignity. "I have a trump card that ensures they would never dare to betray me."
"If the situation really gets out of hand, I have a way to solve it..."
"I know," Homelander interrupted him. "Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel."
As soon as the name was mentioned, Fury could no longer sit still.
He stood up abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor with a harsh sound.
"How do you know her name?! This is..."
"Is what? Level 10 clearance? Or your biggest secret?"
Homelander walked around the desk, came up to Fury, and patted his stiff shoulder.
"Fury, don't measure me with your frog-in-the-well perspective."
"I know much more than you imagine."
"Don't mistake your paranoia for clarity, Fury."
"I'm giving those words back to you now... This World is much more complex and dangerous than you imagine."
"Your so-called trump card is nothing in the face of a real crisis!"
Fury's breathing became rapid.
"Carol can handle everything!" he still insisted. "She is the strongest warrior in the Universe! Once she returns..."
"Before that, you'll screw everything up first!"
Homelander interrupted him again, slamming a thick file onto the table.
"Bang!"
The file slid in front of Fury and fanned out.
It was densely packed with photos, names, and positions.
"Do you know how many humans those aliens have replaced now?" Homelander asked coldly.
Fury glanced at the file and instinctively retorted, "They wouldn't dare without my orders. And there are only about a hundred Skrullss on Earth; Talos guaranteed that to me..."
"A hundred?"
Homelander laughed, a laugh that sent chills down one's spine.
"Have you actually investigated? Or do you enjoy that feeling of giving orders so much that you've forgotten the most basic suspicion of a spy?"
"Take a look."
With trembling hands, Fury picked up the list.
Page one: Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.
Page two: Director of MI6 in Britain.
Page three: Senior CIA Agent.
Page four: Key European government officials... The list was long, despairingly long.
"This... this is impossible..."
Fury flipped through the pages, cold sweat trickling down his forehead.
There were at least thousands of names in there, covering political, military, and economic fields.
"Talos promised me... they wouldn't..."
"Impossible?"
Homelander raised an eyebrow and tapped his finger on the list in front of him.
"The real number will only be higher than this!"
"I don't believe that with your brain, you wouldn't have thought of these outcomes."
"They have the ability to shapeshift, technology far beyond Earth's; they can help you infiltrate any organization, obtain any intelligence, capture any enemy, and complete all kinds of impossible missions."
"It was thanks to them that you climbed all the way from a lowly Level 3 Agent to become the so-called King of Spies, the... Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."
"You enjoy this feeling of controlling everything, so you selectively ignored the risks."
"But you must know, Fury."
Homelander pressed down on Fury's shoulder, his fingers exerting slight pressure, nearly crushing the bone.
"When your ability doesn't match your power, you will be consumed by that power."
"Your current situation is the best proof of that!"
"S.H.I.E.L.D. has collapsed, HYDRA has struck back, and those alien 'allies' of yours are quietly taking over the World in this manner right under your nose."
Fury's face turned pale, the color of a self-collapsing World.
He had always thought he was using the Skrullss.
Little did he know, he was the springboard being used.
"How dare they..." Fury muttered to himself, his voice hollow. "Don't they fear..."
"Fear what?" Homelander took over. "Fear Carol?"
Fury didn't speak, but the flicker of hope in his eyes betrayed him.
"Fury, you've spent your whole life pinning your hopes on others."
Homelander shook his head, his tone filled with pity.
"Especially on aliens."
"No! Carol isn't an alien!" Fury retorted. "She's an Earthling! She's our..."
"She's a cosmic being!"
Homelander mercilessly punctured his fantasy.
"Wake up, Fury."
"You think that crappy Pager is your exclusive hotline?"
"She's distributed hundreds of those Pagers wholesale throughout the Universe! To every civilization she deems in need of 'protection'!"
"Kree, Skrullss, Xandarians... even primitive Planets in unknown corners; as long as she passes by, she leaves one."
"You think you're a VIP? In reality, you're just one in a thousand in her contacts list."
Homelander turned around, cruelly revealing the truth.
"I can guarantee that if you press that crappy Pager and manage to get in her queue within five years, it would already be a miracle from god!"
"In her eyes, Earth is no different from the countless other civilizations in the Universe waiting to be saved."