Digging Under Each Other's Walls, It's a Race to Be Quick!

At S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Director Nick Fury had finally been able to relax and take it easy for the past couple of days. Right now, he was lounging in his seat, taking a short nap.

Lately, one thing after another had been happening, emergency calls never stopped, and his heart was nearly jumping out of his chest from the shock! He was terrified that if he suddenly dropped dead one day, this prime seat of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director would fall into the hands of an outsider—what a waste that would be!

So, Nick Fury felt it was necessary to take advantage of this rare quiet period to rest well and recover his state! As for work, just let the secretary handle it. Wasn't there a saying that made perfect sense: "When there's work, the secretary does it!" What was the second half again? Ahem, forget it, never mind! First, close his eyes and rest a bit, hoping no clueless idiot would come to bother him.

Nick Fury felt that, recently, almost all the trouble was related to that little girl named Annie. But thankfully, she had started going to school normally now, giving him a rare two days of peace. According to reports from Coulson and Melinda, at least she hadn't caused any major disasters—that was good! He was very satisfied!

As for that illegal organization called Kamar-Taj... those lawless bastard mages gave Director Nick Fury a headache, feeling like he had no way to handle them.

He had sent people to investigate thoroughly, but found nothing! S.H.I.E.L.D.'s available satellites had also scanned the entire globe carefully. Aside from discovering a few illegal smuggling bases that let S.H.I.E.L.D.'s field agents make a small fortune, there was still no gain.

Those incompetent subordinates even reported: "This organization called Kamar-Taj simply doesn't exist! We've checked all of New York, and there's no Sanctum at all!" If Nick Fury hadn't personally met that bald woman named Ancient One, he might have almost believed it!

It seemed that ordinary agents couldn't be relied on to deal with these abnormal humans! So, Nick Fury decided he needed to start preparing to create a new special task force—a special team dedicated to handling abnormal incidents!

As for the name of this special task force, why not call it: the Avengers! Great! This name sounded high-end, classy, low-key, luxurious, and full of substance—abbreviated as: A-Team!

As for the team members, Director Nick Fury had a few suitable candidates in mind: first was the little girl—Annie, the alien mage!

After two or three days of observation, Nick Fury found that this little girl was quite reliable! Not only was she powerful, but she was also easy to fool! After all, she was just a little girl—if he coaxed her well and brainwashed her properly at school for a while, letting her fully integrate into Earth, maybe he could safely use her for his own purposes! She was worth cultivating heavily—a super trump card in his hand!

Another was that green giant Hulk, Bruce Banner! A couple of days ago, after getting beaten up by that Flame Giant Bear Tibbers, he was caught by the military! But according to his agents, he had successfully escaped again!

For this big green guy from head to toe, Nick Fury was quite optimistic. He had immense strength, could take a beating, and could serve as a meat shield and cannon fodder in the special team! And he was the kind of cannon fodder you could feel at ease about, because he wasn't easy to kill!

The only problem was that this Hulk didn't seem to like being controlled. If this brute was willing to be disciplined, he might have already had a decent military rank by now, right? Since the green guy didn't belong to the military yet, Nick Fury could safely try to poach him!

Although the Hulk was famously undisciplined and unruly, no problem! Nick Fury believed that the Hulk would eventually choose S.H.I.E.L.D., because S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't the military! The military existed for war, but S.H.I.E.L.D. never participated in war! Instead, it was to prevent the world from being destroyed, to protect world peace, and to uphold love and true justice! That's right, exactly that.

See? How about that? The slogan was loud enough, right? The Director believed that Bruce Banner—that idiot who only did research, with high IQ but low EQ—would definitely take the bait! Just send someone to sweet-talk him a bit, and he'd come running to report in. Once he joined, they'd teach him the importance of discipline! If he dared to disobey, ahem, where was Annie's little bear? There was a green bun here that missed it!

Mm! Great! Perfect! If they added Natasha and Hawkeye, who were already in S.H.I.E.L.D., then the Avengers would have four members! Although the latter two were relatively weaker in strength, their loyalty was rock-solid! Putting them in the Avengers would help Director Nick Fury control the team! That was very important!

"Oh! Look who's here! General Ross? What a surprise!"

Just as Nick Fury was planning his grand scheme, he suddenly noticed someone barging in without being announced, which made the Director furious! Which clueless bastard was that? This was outright rebellion! When he opened his eyes to look carefully, he realized it was his old rival—that old bastard General Ross!

"Come in! So, what brings you here?"

"Hey~! Nick, your words are so hurtful! Can't I just visit an old friend?" General Ross stepped forward for a fake hug with Nick Fury, then sat down on the sofa.

Walking to his desk, Nick Fury took out a cigar and lit it. He turned to look at his old rival Ross on the sofa, not even asking if he wanted one, nor did he have the secretary pour tea or coffee. Nick Fury didn't believe for a second that this bastard was here to visit an old friend. Friend, my ass! Who was friends with him?

"Spit it out, what's the matter?" Taking a couple of puffs of his cigar and flicking off a bit of ash, Nick Fury looked at the other man leisurely. "That 'visiting an old friend' excuse isn't convincing!"

"..." Staring at Nick Fury for a moment, Ross felt that this Black Charcoal Head probably wouldn't make his visit go smoothly.

"Fine, I'll be direct: That little girl is one of yours, right? You know who I mean!" Staring at the one-eyed man, Ross asked cautiously.

"What little girl? I don't know what you're talking about." Nick Fury turned away, playing dumb, and continued puffing on his cigar, even blowing a big smoke ring.

Ross barely held back the urge to shoot that black head off. He decided to get straight to the point! If he kept bickering with this Black Charcoal Head, his high blood pressure might flare up again.

"Stop pretending, Nick Fury! My men found out that your people are living with that little girl! Let me think, oh! Right! Seaside Villa? Julia Academy? Annie Hastur? See? I'm not wrong, am I?"

"So what? I don't think S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to report to the military for its operations, does it?" Nick Fury stared coldly at Ross. This bastard had his eyes on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s things more than once! He had never let him succeed, and now he dared to come again?

"Fine! Let's set aside the little girl for now. Let's talk about that Flame Giant Bear!" Ross stood up, walked up to Nick Fury, and stared at his black face. "That Flame Giant Bear isn't one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s things, is it?"

"And then?" Nick Fury suddenly realized—so this guy was here for the bear?

Tsk, tsk! So that was it. The military had the Hulk but wasn't satisfied, and now they had their eyes on the Flame Bear Tibbers! Now that he knew the intention, Nick Fury had already figured out how to deal with this old man.

How interesting! He had just been thinking about poaching his Hulk, and now this bastard wanted to poach his Flame Giant Bear? Had they even investigated the Flame Giant Bear's intel? Did they know its name was Tibbers? That was Annie's little bear! And they dared to reach for it?

"We believe that bear is a huge safety hazard, extremely dangerous! This kind of monster should be under military control." That was Ross's purpose today. The military had been drooling over that Flame Bear, which could take on two Hulks and win!

After gathering enough intel through investigation, General Ross finally came to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters to lay his cards on the table. Not only was he directly pressuring Nick Fury, but there were also other aspects of maneuvering. In short! The military had to get that bear, or rather, the manufacturing process for that bear!

Up to now, they still believed that bear was likely a product of some special method, just like their Hulk! And that was what the military wanted.

"What did I just hear? Is it April Fools' Day? The safety hazard is your Hulk, isn't it? Let me count—how many times has it broken out and caused trouble? Twice? Three times?"

Nick Fury looked at General Ross with disdain, even rudely blowing a big puff of smoke into his face while smoking his cigar. At this moment, he even maliciously thought about whether he should just take this bastard to Annie to ask for the little bear himself, and see if little Annie would throw a face-sized fireball at this bastard.

"All I know is: It was your military's Hulk that started the massive destruction! Slaughtering civilians! Then... our people cleaned up your mess! And now, the two Hulks locked up in your lab—we helped you catch them, didn't we? Who's the real safety hazard? Oh! Sorry, I almost forgot again—there's only one left in your lab now! That Hulk ran away again, didn't it?"

Here, Nick Fury subtly twisted the concept, making Ross think that Annie and the bear belonged to S.H.I.E.L.D., when in fact they didn't. Annie was at most a guest of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Of course, Nick Fury wasn't going to tell him that—let him keep misunderstanding!

"So you're saying S.H.I.E.L.D. won't cooperate?" General Ross's face darkened. It looked like today was another wasted trip. Although he had known in his heart that he might come away empty-handed, he still couldn't stomach this anger when it came down to it!

"Hill, show the guest out!"

Agent Hill, who had been waiting outside the door, walked in at the right moment and made a "please" gesture to General Ross.