Last night, Coulson and Melinda had a huge misunderstanding! Because of it, and because they were sulking at each other, they each wrote a completely different report and submitted it separately to Director Nick Fury.
Their standoff continued until the next morning. It was only while eating breakfast that Annie casually revealed the truth about what had happened last night, finally allowing the two cold-faced agents to clear the air.
Only then did they learn that a group from the Mutant Brotherhood had been behind it! Their leaders were an old man who could fly while wearing an iron helmet, and a blue-skinned, scale-covered mutant who could transform into anyone!
Coulson and Melinda knew about the Mutant Brotherhood. The two people Annie described were also prominently listed in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files: the infamous Magneto and Mystique! How could they possibly not know them?
These mutant terrorists, devoted to armed struggle, had always been at odds with the military and had fought them on many occasions! Yet they had always kept out of each other's way when it came to S.H.I.E.L.D. Why had they acted now?
But they had actually attacked S.H.I.E.L.D. this time. Did they have some kind of scheme? Realizing the severity of the situation, the two sought the director's approval and brought Annie to the director's office at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters.
Director Nick Fury had always been curious about Annie. After learning about last night's incident, he specifically arranged this meeting for today. First, he wanted to meet this little alien girl in person. Second, he believed it was necessary to win her over.
Although the little girl had caused S.H.I.E.L.D. no shortage of trouble since appearing, Nick Fury felt he could practically slap a "troublemaker" label on Annie! Still, he had use for her now. At the very least, she held an indispensable position in his Avengers plan!
However, Director Nick Fury's first meeting with Annie was not particularly pleasant...
Right now, Nick Fury and Annie were glaring each other down! Annie had angered him the moment they met. Since he could neither hit nor punish her, Nick Fury could only resort to the art of glaring! Annie's response was simple: What are you looking at? If you glare at me, I'll glare right back! I'll glare you to death!
Thus, the two of them locked horns!
The reason things had turned out this way was that when Annie entered the director's office, her first words had been: "Wow~! So this one-eyed charcoal-head is your director?"
Well, that one sentence had thoroughly offended Director Nick Fury! He could already imagine people spreading the new nickname the little girl had given him behind his back: One-Eye Charcoal-Head!
The mighty director of S.H.I.E.L.D. might soon become a laughingstock. Even if they did not dare laugh in front of him, he could easily imagine their private whispers and snickering.
Coulson and Melinda stood off to the side, desperately suppressing their laughter as they watched the two living comedians, one big and one small, their lips twitching.
"Director, is there a mission? Why did you ask us to bring Annie here?" Coulson thought for a moment before stepping in to interrupt their standoff. Someone had to break the awkward atmosphere and give the director a way out. Otherwise, they might get caught in the crossfire and earn the director's grudge!
Nick Fury ignored Coulson and continued staring at Annie, trying to force the little girl to give in and apologize first. However, after a while, Annie still showed no sign of backing down. Realizing that this could not go on, he pretended to cough and ended the standoff.
"Cough, cough. So you're that troublesome little brat, Annie?" Then he saw the toy bear Annie was holding in her arms. "And this is Tibbers? Can I take a look?" Nick Fury was very interested in Tibbers, who could grow larger and smaller, take on two Hulks at once, and beat them into submission!
"I'm Annie! But I'm not troublesome!" Annie retorted angrily. "I can let you look at Little Bear, but aren't you afraid he'll bite your head off?"
As she spoke, Annie raised Little Bear with both hands and held Tibbers out toward Nick Fury. Her meaning was obvious: if he dared touch him, Tibbers would definitely bite his head off. He was welcome to try!
"Cough, cough~! Then forget it." Remembering Tibbers' record, Nick Fury decided it was best not to humiliate himself.
There were actually two serious reasons Nick Fury had summoned Annie here today. The first was to get to know her and build some rapport, though that clearly had not gone very smoothly. Still, at least they now knew each other!
The second matter was more important. Recently, S.H.I.E.L.D. had encountered a mysterious incident that had left even many experts completely baffled! Helpless, Nick Fury suddenly thought of Annie because of her identity as a mage!
Although Annie was a little young, and he had no idea whether she was reliable, he still had Coulson invite her to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters on the slimmest chance that this little girl might be able to see something they could not. If she could, it would be an enormous help to S.H.I.E.L.D.!
"All right, Annie. Take a look at this first."
Nick Fury handed Annie a photograph and motioned for the little girl to come over and look. Seeing that the director did not object, Coulson and Melinda also leaned in curiously.
"Huh? Is it something fun?" Seeing the charcoal-head director asking her to look at a photograph, Annie assumed it showed something interesting. She quickly stepped closer and took it.
Annie looked at the photo. Oh, it was a hammer. Not fun at all! She tossed the photograph to Uncle Coulson and Aunt Melinda beside her.
"An ugly hammer! What's fun about that? Why did you make me look at it?" Annie curled her lips in disdain. They had actually made her skip school and come all the way to S.H.I.E.L.D. just to look at a photo of a hammer? She would rather go back to school and bully that fatty for fun!
"This hammer is far from ordinary! First, no one can move it, not even lifting equipment! Then, it can release lightning! So far, our people have been completely unable to do anything with it!" Nick Fury handed Annie another photo, this one showing the hammer discharging lightning.
"Oh... then it's a magical hammer with an owner! Of course you can't move it. But it really is ugly!" Annie tossed the photo aside, her face full of contempt. It was short and ugly—such an ugly hammer was probably only useful to a blacksmith, right?
Well then, Annie had just placed Thor on the same level as a blacksmith!
"Are you sure?" Nick Fury frowned at Annie. She had only glanced at it twice before drawing a conclusion. Was the little girl just talking nonsense?
"Of course! Only magical weapons can release lightning, flames, frost, and things like that! And only magical weapons can have soul-binding or owner-recognition functions! Under those circumstances, no one but its owner can take it away!"
A gleam flashed through Annie's eyes!
A soul-bound magical weapon that released lightning! Its power probably was not weak, and it even rejected outsiders trying to move it... Then it had to be at least an artifact-level weapon, right? An artifact! Annie suddenly wanted it badly. Should she steal it?
But after thinking it over, she gave up!
Although an artifact left out in the wild was tempting, this hammer was simply too ugly. Annie did not like it. She was not a blacksmith! What would she do with a stolen hammer? Smash people with it in a fight? She absolutely did not want to do that! Besides, stealing an artifact that already had an owner would definitely anger its owner. Better forget it.
Annie knew quite a lot about magical weapons. After all, she had an excellent upbringing and the entire Gray Order behind her. Her knowledge was not lacking, especially since Annie herself was a powerful genius mage! Anyone who could be called a powerful mage was never ordinary! Talent alone was not enough; they also needed a vast amount of knowledge.
If you thought Annie did nothing but play around in the Voodoo Lands, then you were completely mistaken! A little girl who could use magic at the age of two to tame a powerful Shadow Bear and turn him into a toy—could she have reached that level through talent alone? Could talent alone have allowed her to attain Hero Rank in Valoran at the age of five? What were we doing at five? Playing with mud?
As Annie's mother, the Shadow Witch Amoline could responsibly tell you this: by the age of seven, Annie had already read every book in the Gray Order's entire library! Although Annie spent most of her time playing, how did she play? She played with fire magic as toys! She played with Shadow Bears! She played by roasting old dragons! She had practically ruined the entire Voodoo Lands, hadn't she?
"Is there any way to take it away?"
After learning the hammer's true nature, Director Nick Fury's first thought was naturally to secure it. S.H.I.E.L.D. had specialized in collecting strange objects for a long time! The items in its storage rooms were far stranger than this hammer. Such bizarre things posed enormous threats to Earth. To preserve Earth's peace, they should be stored in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s vaults—no one else's vaults would do!
"Either let me refine it with fire and melt it into a lump of iron, then you can take it away! Or wait for its owner to show up!"
Annie was confident her flames could melt this hammer. It was just an unattended artifact! What was so impressive about that?
Of course, doing so would inevitably offend the hammer's owner. But Annie did not care about that! If she could not beat them later, she would just say, "That charcoal-head director made me do it!" Hehe~!
"Melt it and take it away? That might work... Wait, you're saying it has an owner?" Nick Fury caught the key point and was slightly startled.
"Of course it does! You didn't seriously think it just fell from the sky, did you?" Annie gave Nick Fury a contemptuous look.
It really had fallen from the sky! The satellites had captured it! Director Nick Fury added that silently in his heart, but did not say it aloud. There was no need to argue with a little girl over something like that. Getting down to business was more important.
"All right, then what kind of person is its owner?" Nick Fury asked one final question.
"How would I know? Maybe it belongs to some god! Maybe to some legendary warrior! Or maybe it belongs to some magical blacksmith!" Annie replied irritably. How could she possibly know who owned it from a photograph of a hammer? There was no name written on it!
Before you continue