Nick Fury no longer had time to worry about being impeached for abusing his authority and handing out public property willy-nilly. S.H.I.E.L.D. might look impressive on the surface, but its personnel situation had already become downright dire.
Just how bad was it? If someone wanted to overthrow S.H.I.E.L.D., all they had to do was replace the eagle emblem on the headquarters' front gate with a Hydra emblem. There'd be no need to do anything else!
Given how thoroughly Hydra had infiltrated the organization, all it would take then was suppressing a small group of hardline S.H.I.E.L.D. loyalists to ensure a smooth transfer of power. The fence-sitters wouldn't pose any threat! Of course, that was assuming the world's major powers didn't object.
So Nick Fury no longer cared that Annie had blackmailed him into giving her a plane. There was no telling whether any of this would even belong to S.H.I.E.L.D. by then! If Annie wanted the Helicarrier, he might even dare to give it to her.
And to cover for Hill's transfer, he'd made a big show of ordering the ground crew and designers to work overtime on Annie's new ride. He wanted to make it look as if the bumbling director was abusing his power, drawing the attention of the less-than-well-intentioned people in S.H.I.E.L.D. toward himself.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s efficiency was beyond question—especially when Director Nick Fury gave the order to abuse his power. Normally, converting a fighter jet into a civilian aircraft took quite some time. They had to remove the combat equipment and weapons, then install more comfortable furnishings and civilian amenities in the cabin, like a living room and a small bathroom. All of that took time.
But under Director Nick Fury's relentless pressure, the ground crew and engineers—officially S.H.I.E.L.D. employees, but actually Hydra members—managed to cram half a month's worth of work into just three days.
So, to Annie's cheers, Coulson and Melinda watched a bright-red Quinjet slowly touch down on the lawn outside the mansion. It had only taken three days! Neither of them could understand why S.H.I.E.L.D.'s efficiency had suddenly become so impressive.
Was the director really going all out just to please little Annie? Coulson thought something was off. After all, Annie's new nickname for the director had caught on around S.H.I.E.L.D. Given his petty nature, shouldn't he have dragged the refit out another month or two?
"Honestly, Annie, I still can't believe the director actually gave you a Quinjet..." Coulson said with a sigh as he stood in the newly renovated cabin.
As a senior S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, he knew just how valuable a Quinjet was. It was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own combat aircraft, built using technology unique to the organization. It could turn invisible and fly underwater or in the stratosphere.
The director had really just given away such an important piece of S.H.I.E.L.D. equipment? And look what they'd done to it! There was a sofa in the living room, a bar with a liquor cabinet, and even a little room with a shower. They'd probably removed most of the weapons systems, too. There was no way this plane could ever be converted back into a military aircraft.
The military had been coveting this kind of aircraft for years, but they'd never managed to get their hands on one!
It took more than a day to freeze three feet of ice. Why was General Ross always at odds with Nick Fury? Because the military wanted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s technology, and Director Nick Fury never gave them anything! When it came to the military, Nick Fury was a featherless iron rooster—there wasn't even a feather to pluck!
Now the Quinjet had been painted bright red, and most of its military equipment had been stripped from the cabin and replaced with the luxurious furnishings Annie liked.
The plane had only one weapon left: a retractable Vulcan Cannon mounted beneath the fuselage. But they'd converted its ammunition bay into a toilet, so it couldn't fire anymore. Still, if someone needed to use the bathroom, maybe they could manage a little "poop from the sky"—a special kind of bombing?
The workers who'd been forced to rush the job hadn't even installed a proper waste-recovery system! The entire plumbing system led to one tiny holding tank. Once the waste reached a certain level, a small hatch would open automatically and dump it straight into the sky! Who it landed on wasn't their problem. In their eyes, birds pooped too, so what was wrong with a plane dumping a little wastewater? As long as it flew high enough, the upper-atmosphere currents would break it all down! But if it wasn't flying high enough... Ahem!
Watching Melinda test the controls in the cockpit while Annie eagerly learned to fly beside her, Coulson sighed again. Power really was a wonderful thing. Turning a fighter into a civilian aircraft had taken just one word from the director! Maybe he should keep his head down, build up his credentials, and work his way up the ranks before worrying about anything else.
"Okay! Uncle Coulson, buckle up! We're taking off!"
Annie sat excitedly in the co-pilot's seat, gripping the controls as she had Aunt Melinda start up the Quinjet's two jet engines. The turbine assemblies began to warm up. She'd more or less learned how to fly the plane. Annie was a genius, after all! And even if something went wrong, Aunt Melinda was right there in the pilot's seat, wasn't she?
"Th-this... Melinda! Are you sure?" Coulson asked, alarmed. He hurried over to a plush sofa and strapped himself into the seat belt attached to the cabin wall.
She'd had less than an hour of lessons, and now they were letting a little girl pilot such an advanced, precision military aircraft? Coulson wanted to ask the two crazy women, one big and one small, "Could you wait a minute and open the hatch so I can get off first?"
"Princess Annie, taking off!"
Annie pulled back on the controls. Blue flames burst from the two turbine engines as the red Quinjet wobbled up a few dozen meters, then shot toward the sea. It looked like the plane was about to dive straight under the water!
"Hey!! Careful!"
Melinda quickly pressed a button on the instrument panel, took control away from Annie, and yanked hard on the pilot's controls. She barely managed to level the plane out just above the surface of the sea. The Quinjet might theoretically be able to fly underwater, but that didn't mean they should just crash straight into the water! Who knew if there were reefs below?
That had been far too dangerous! Melinda decided she'd better get the plane up high before letting Annie have another go. There were no obstacles in the sky, and if anything went wrong, she'd have plenty of time to correct Annie's mistakes.
"Come on, come on! Aunt Melinda, give me back the controls!"
Melinda had leveled out the plane and started climbing, but Annie didn't seem bothered at all by her dangerous maneuver. She hurriedly urged Melinda to give her control back! Annie thought the plane was awesome. It was so fast and powerful! She was starting to love her new toy!
"Yay~!!"
"Woo-hoo~!!"
As Annie laughed gleefully, the red Quinjet shot around above the stratosphere, suddenly climbing at a ninety-degree angle in a cobra maneuver, then making a sharp dive, then rolling sideways through a full three hundred and sixty degrees, then cutting its engines and restarting them before spinning into a high-speed tailspin and pulling out.
Annie's series of maneuvers left Melinda, in the pilot's seat beside her, stunned. If they hadn't been high above the stratosphere with plenty of altitude, she would have seized control already. This was just too reckless!
"Jarvis! What was that red thing just now? Was it a plane?"
Tony Stark had just returned alive from his adventure in the Middle East. After escaping with his life, he'd redesigned and refined the armor. Not long ago, he'd also revealed that he was Iron Man.
He'd gone on to build the Iron Man Suits Mark II and Mark III, adding the AI Jarvis to help manage them. He was now wearing the Mark III, testing out his new suit in the stratosphere when he happened to spot Annie joyriding in the Quinjet in the distance.
"Based on its appearance, it is a Quinjet belonging to S.H.I.E.L.D.," Jarvis replied, uploading a photo of the aircraft. Its analysis had reached the conclusion immediately.
"A S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet? Why is it here? And why is it painted such an eye-catching red?"
Tony Stark couldn't understand why a combat aircraft would be painted such a conspicuous color. It wasn't a show plane. Were they painting it like that because they wanted the enemy to spot it?
"Jarvis, why don't we go take a look?"
The more Tony thought about it, the more curious he became. Iron Man decided to check it out and see what the red plane was up to. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been getting more and more useless lately. When he'd been captured, they hadn't even come to rescue him! The nerve! His father had been one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Founders, after all!
"Of course, sir."
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