Relocating the Hammer

"Alright, it was your choice, and I respected it. I also wished for you to get what you wanted. I would keep what happened in the past to myself. That was my promise. You could rest assured."

"Mm..."

Jack walked out with a cigarette between his lips. His plan to play both sides had ultimately fallen through, because Marian did not like that kind of arrangement.

So there was no argument, no hysterics, no tears.

Only after they realized each other's true thoughts did they discover that they could never walk the same path.

In the end, with emotion suppressing reason and reason locking down emotion, they chose to handle the matter as if nothing had ever happened.

Jack left and got into his car, heading back to his home in Flushing.

Marian took out her phone and called Fury.

"Agent 51 has confirmed that Jack Wilson is a Hydra agent, but... Director... I know I shouldn't report this, but his allegiance is wavering. We can... Alright... I understand. I'll continue watching him. Everything will proceed according to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s standard procedures."

After hanging up, Marian slipped her phone back into her pocket. Just as she was about to leave the office and go home to sleep, she suddenly stopped.

Something the size of a button on the black desk caught Marian's attention. She walked over and picked up the obvious listening device.

After confirming that it was a bug, Marian's expression shifted uncertainly. After several seconds of silence, she murmured to it, "Jack, defect. Defect from Hydra. That way, you might still have a chance to live..."

Jack, on the other end of the bug, grinned broadly. He disconnected his phone, then stuck his head out the car window and let the fierce wind batter his face.

When he pulled his head back inside, the smile had vanished, leaving only a frightening calm.

The next day, Jack arrived at headquarters full of energy. Before he could enter the elevator, Black Widow came out with a group of people. Seeing him, she said calmly, "We're moving that hammer today. You're coming with us."

After getting into the car, Jack and Black Widow sat together. There seemed to be nothing for them to talk about, so they merely watched the scenery outside in silence.

Once the car left New York City, they arrived at the small secret base where Jack and the others had stored the hammer last time.

Several weeks later, Jack finally saw the hammer again.

"Compared to last time, it doesn't seem any different..."

Black Widow, walking beside Jack, heard that and snapped back, "What change were you hoping to see? Did you want it to turn into an axe?"

Jack glanced at Black Widow. "Uh... you're not usually like this."

"Never heard of a period?"

Jack said, "Nice?"

The S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists, who had long prepared for the transfer, brought out instruments and fitted them onto Jack. They hoped to record every bit of data from the moment he picked up the hammer.

Jack had no objections. Over the past few days, he had guessed that it was probably the system's existence that allowed him to ignore whatever magic the hammer possessed and pick it up.

If you wanted to waste time recording something impossible, then go ahead.

Jack walked over to the hammer and casually lifted it as if he were picking up a slice of pizza. To everyone else, it was an impossible-to-lift hammer, but he raised it with ease.

Seeing this, Black Widow recalled the conversation she had had in Fury's office before encountering Jack at the elevator.

"Agent Romanoff, we've run into a very troublesome problem. You need to find out the connection between Jack and that hammer. This USB drive... contains all the information on the New Mexico incident. It all has to do with a hammer, and... a god."

"A god? Gods still exist in this world?"

"It wouldn't be excessive to call them gods, but they are gods who can be killed. There's no need to hold them in too much awe."

Black Widow touched the USB drive in her pocket. She had not yet had the chance to examine its contents on the way here, but Jack had now lifted the hammer that even she could not move.

She felt that she needed to review the information as soon as possible.

After Jack picked up the hammer, S.H.I.E.L.D. wasted no time. There was no hammer-lifting ceremony or anything of the sort. Once the instruments were removed from Jack, everyone boarded the Quinjet that had been waiting outside the base.

The Quinjet, which always appeared in the movies whenever S.H.I.E.L.D. deployed in force or carried out some mission, was actually a new fighter jet that had only been built this year.

In this Marvel era, when the iPhone 4 had yet to be released, Jack found it almost surreal that he could ride in a perfect aircraft capable of vertical flight, stealth, and carrying all kinds of weapons.

Then there were all the enhanced serums constantly appearing one after another.

It showed just how many scientists in this Marvel world, whose technological level far surpassed Earth's, were frantically going down the wrong paths and randomly dumping points into scientific research.

Take Whiplash from last time, for example. He was also a beast who could build armor by hand. Though his style was rough and distinctly Russian, everyone knew Russian design meant massive quantities, reliable performance, and simple durability.

With just those two qualities, if he truly wanted revenge on Tony Stark, he could have worked with Hammer Industries or gone across the ocean to form some powerful alliance.

As long as he got his mass-produced armor ready, he could have sent a whole group charging for him—for example, crushing Stark Industries and forcing the company into bankruptcy.

Strip Tony of everything and see whether he still had the money to play with those precise high-tech toys that cost hundreds of millions to build!

Instead, that bastard... that guy insisted on building a suit himself and having a man-to-man duel with Tony...

Even Jack could not help sighing over it.

A perfectly good armor-development talent could now only be locked up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison...

Yes, although Whiplash was defeated in the movie and put on some kind of suicide act at the end, that was all for dramatic effect.

He failed to defeat Tony, so he just blew himself up and died?

What kind of idiot would do that?

Oh~ I couldn't defeat my enemy~ so I decided to kill myself~ while my enemy continued living in this world and laughed at my useless suicide?

Bullshit. After Whiplash was defeated, S.H.I.E.L.D. simply captured him.

He was currently in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. prison.

Maybe before long, he would be transferred to the R&D department under some pretext.

By then, S.H.I.E.L.D. might even roll out a batch of mass-produced armor.

Of course, that was not Jack's concern. The only thing he needed to worry about right now was how to earn Evil Points. As long as he had those, he could do whatever he wanted. With individual power strong enough to be ridiculous, only an idiot would climb the tech tree.