Judgment Day

Coulson froze, unable to believe his ears.

A few days earlier, while on a mission, he had happened to pass by that bank. The robbers had already escaped, but he'd seen someone rush out of the building at a speed far beyond that of an ordinary person.

He knew this definitely wasn't an ordinary person. Maybe he was a gifted superhuman.

The police arrived soon after. After investigating, Coulson learned that the mysterious man had driven off the robbers and rescued all the hostages. That had caught his attention.

Using S.H.I.E.L.D.'s access, he'd pulled up the surveillance footage and finally uncovered the mysterious man's true identity.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s purpose was to protect the world and prevent things like this from happening. When an incident like this occurred, their first priority was to assess the level of the threat and determine whether the target was dangerous.

If they weren't dangerous, that was fine. But if the target was deemed dangerous, they would report it to their superiors, and then...

Sorry, you'd be discreetly eliminated or locked away forever.

After observing him for the past few days, Coulson had found that his target didn't seem particularly dangerous. William's job was delivering takeout day after day, with nothing out of the ordinary.

But William definitely had secrets of his own. Otherwise, he wouldn't have deliberately avoided him.

Coulson tried to look as friendly as possible, hoping the other man would cooperate. His mission was only to document the abilities of superhumans like him, then remind them not to use those abilities carelessly and to keep a low profile.

But two hundred years in the future?!

He'd never expected William to say something like that!

"William Lister, male, 20 years old, born in New York City, Brooklyn, United States, in 1988. His mother died of an illness when he was five. When he was sixteen, his father was sent to prison for killing a man in a bar. He also has a seventeen-year-old younger brother studying out of town. He works as a deliveryman at Jonathan's Fast Food Restaurant on First Street in Brooklyn..."

"Heh." Before Coulson could finish reading his file, William suddenly let out a cold laugh. "Aren't you an agent with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division? Don't you know that records can be faked?"

"It's the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," Coulson corrected automatically. Right, if this man really wanted to hide his secrets, he could have faked all these records. Maybe his name wasn't William, and he didn't even have a younger brother.

Even so, he still couldn't believe that this man had traveled back from the future.

"If your identity is fake, then who are you really?" Coulson grew wary. At first, he'd thought his target wasn't dangerous, but now things were different. An unknown target could be very dangerous.

"I'm an agent from Overwatch." William's words surprised Coulson. Could an agent really be this useless?!

Perhaps his abilities were so powerful that even Coulson couldn't see through his disguise?

"It's normal that you haven't heard of us, because Overwatch is an organization from the future." William had already guessed what Coulson was thinking. He showed him the Overwatch emblem on the back of his hand. "This is our organization's insignia."

"Why does it look like a butt?" Coulson couldn't help commenting.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. What was going on? Wasn't tonight supposed to be his chance to take the lead and teach the other man how to behave? How had things ended up the other way around?

And he'd never seen this insignia before. Was it really an organization from the future, or some terrorist group he'd never heard of?

"Since you're from the future, why come back to the past? What's your goal?" Coulson asked cautiously.

"It's simple. Because my future... was destroyed!"

William's answer left Coulson stunned. "Destroyed? By... by whom?"

"By ourselves."

William stared into his glass of water, seeming to sink into a painful memory. "In the distant future, technology had advanced tremendously. Humanity designed intelligent machines powered by artificial intelligence to boost production and create prosperity for the world economy. It was an incredibly advanced era, and humans and machines lived in peace. But disaster struck soon after..."

Coulson swallowed softly. If the other man was making this up, it was still a compelling story.

"Artificial intelligence betrayed us," William said indignantly. "The machines kept learning from humanity's knowledge, and their thinking grew dark and terrifying. They wanted to wipe us out—all of humanity—and rule the world!"

"The governments of the world failed to stop the robot armies and fell one after another. To fight the terrifying artificial intelligence, the United Nations created an international peacekeeping organization: Overwatch."

"Overwatch brought together heroes and warriors from all over the world to fight the robot armies. From Oasis to Numbani, from Gibraltar to King's Row, many agents sacrificed themselves, but we never stopped fighting. The flames of war swept across the world, and at last we saw the light of victory!"

Coulson had heard of some of those places, but not others. He never would have guessed that the names William mentioned were all maps from the Overwatch game. William knew the game so well that he could spin his tale with such fiery passion.

"What happened in the end? Did you win?" Coulson asked in a low voice.

"No. We failed." William lowered his head, looking dejected. "We lost completely. At the end of the war, the artificial intelligence launched a devastating attack against us. We called that day Judgment Day!"

"Judgment Day?" Coulson looked astonished.

"Like the day described in the Bible, it was the day that decided humanity's fate. The artificial intelligence launched a nuclear strike around the world. Tens of thousands of nuclear warheads shot into the sky, and terrifying mushroom clouds blotted out the sun. Thousands of years of human civilization vanished in an instant. Our future was destroyed..."

Coulson was utterly taken in. For a long time, he couldn't say a word.

He'd never have dreamed that William's story was actually a mash-up of the worlds of Overwatch and Terminator. William had played Overwatch and watched the Terminator movies, which was how he'd managed to cobble together such a story.

With truth and fiction mixed together, even Coulson was left confused.

Coulson didn't know what to say, so he patted William on the shoulder. "To be honest, I still can't believe what you've told me. But when the robbers tried to rob that bank, you stepped forward. That proves you're a good person. There aren't many good people left in this world. I hope you'll always stay true to yourself."

William nodded. "Thank you, Agent Coulson. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Although I don't know what your abilities are, it doesn't matter anymore." Coulson's expression turned serious. "But I hope you'll keep a low profile from now on. It wouldn't be good for the world to learn about your abilities."

William stood up and smiled, extending his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Agent Phil Coulson."

"Likewise, Mr. William Lister." Coulson shook his hand.

"Well, my mission is complete. I'm sure we'll meet again."

Coulson had more or less accomplished his goal. He knew that asking more questions wouldn't get him anything else. Just as he was about to leave, William suddenly called out to him. "Oh, right. There's something I forgot to tell you."

"Is there something else?" Coulson's heart gave a nervous thump. He wondered if this guy was about to pull another stunt.

From today on, I'll be posting two chapters a day. Don't stay up too late after reading. Good night~