The Female Agent Under the Bed

Coulson did not answer immediately this time.

He thought seriously for a few seconds. "I don't think there's any need to suppress Superman."

"And your reasons?" Nick Fury stared expressionlessly at Leon, who stood unscathed amid the raging sea of fire on the screen.

"Although Superman has only appeared once, and he forcefully destroyed the Eagle Nation's military base and ordered their troops to withdraw."

Coulson explained according to his own understanding. "But he did not harm any innocent people in the process!"

"His purpose was very clear. He even took the initiative to help disadvantaged groups being bullied."

"Every ordinary local person who has come into contact with him has had an excellent impression of him and been deeply grateful."

"So, taken as a whole, he is more like a benefactor, or perhaps a judge. He has relatively positive values and acts strictly according to them."

"When dealing with someone like that, suppressing him would instead easily provoke fierce resistance, create enormous conflict, and send the situation beyond our control."

Nick Fury nodded in agreement. This was also something he had been considering over the past few days.

When facing a Superman with moral boundaries, showing goodwill was the best choice.

It was simply that Nick Fury hated this feeling of being beyond his control most of all.

So even though he had already figured out the best way to deal with Superman.

He still could not help wanting to defeat or subdue him, bringing him completely under control.

"If, and I mean if, we had enough power to defeat him with ease, would you have any other suggestions?"

Nick Fury felt that if Captain Marvel took action, she would surely crush this so-called Superman.

Coulson fell into thought this time. After considering it carefully, he still shook his head. "I still don't think we should make a move."

"Why?" Nick Fury frowned, the flesh on his dark face bunching together.

"We still haven't figured out Superman's true abilities, Director. If he really is like Superman in the comics, growing stronger simply by basking in the sun."

Coulson took a breath. "Then once we act, unless we kill him, we will face an enemy who keeps growing stronger and whose future is impossible to predict."

"That's what you think?"

Nick Fury stared fixedly at Superman on the screen, as if he wanted to drill into it and see what kind of person he truly was.

The room fell silent for several seconds.

"...I have to admit, you're right, Coulson."

"Alright, your mission this time is over. Next, coordinate the personnel and continue monitoring Superman's whereabouts. Try to contact and recruit him once he appears."

Nick Fury finally spoke.

He put the pager back into the drawer and instructed Coulson.

"And! Remember to control public opinion online! It can't be one-sided, but there also can't be too much negative information that might provoke Superman's hostility!"

"Yes, Director!" Coulson conscientiously took the documents and tablet and left, without the slightest dissatisfaction at being assigned task after task.

Perhaps this was the legendary inborn workhorse physique.

Only after Coulson closed the door and left did Nick Fury lean back in his chair and turn to look out the window.

He pulled out a Superman comic from beside him, casually flipped through it a few times, then tossed it back where it had been.

"The world... is no longer peaceful. That plan needs to be accelerated. And as for agents, The Cavalry is the only Level Seven female agent. That's still not enough..."

"Beep beep!"

JARVIS gave a gentle reminder that it was time to end another invigorating sunbath.

Leon listlessly pressed a button inside the spacecraft, opened the hatch, then returned to Earth without much enthusiasm.

Recently, the pace at which his strength was growing had become faster and faster.

Whenever he basked in the sun, every cell in his body felt as though it were riding a rocket. The exhilarating sensation made Leon unable to stop.

Unfortunately, experiments to test his body's limits required controlled variables.

So for the past month, the amount of time he spent under direct sunlight in space each day had to remain fixed.

Otherwise, he felt he could simply live in the universe and never return. Wherever there was sunlight would be home.

After taking just over ten seconds to return to the mansion on the Los Angeles coast.

Leon pushed open the door and glanced at the time displayed on the electronic screen on the wall.

"It's only four in the afternoon. Tony probably won't be back until seven or eight."

"After finishing the strength test, I should just have dinner by myself first."

He muttered as he arranged his next plans.

Then he walked back toward his room, preparing to change into casual clothes.

However, after taking two steps, he stopped, his right foot still suspended in the air.

"Tony? You came back this early today?"

Leon's ears twitched. Just now, he seemed to have inadvertently heard a second heartbeat in the house.

He was always suppressing Super Hearing. Normally, he could hear only the sounds he wanted to hear.

Now that a heartbeat had suddenly entered his ears, it meant that person was already very close to him.

Close enough that even through his suppressed Super Hearing, he could clearly distinguish a strong, powerful heart slowly and steadily beating.

After waiting several seconds, as expected, there was no response from Tony.

Although Tony usually did not pay much attention to others when conducting experiments, this time felt different.

Because the heartbeat was in Tony's room, yet it did not have Tony's distinctly weak-kidneyed rhythm.

Leon narrowed his eyes. Instead of asking JARVIS, he directly activated X-Ray Vision.

The world rapidly became transparent, and layer after layer of obstruction gradually vanished.

Leon's viewpoint seemed to become a ghost, slipping into Tony's room, passing through the enormous, soft bed, and seeing—

"Natasha?" Leon's expression turned strange. "Why is she here? And hiding under Tony's bed..."

Beneath Tony's three-meter-wide bed, in a space less than thirty centimeters high, a shapely woman was hidden.

Her wine-red, shoulder-length short hair lay wet against the floor. Her eyes were shut, her hands rested at her sides, and her breathing was long and steady, making her look like a sleeping beauty.

But combined with the fact that she was lying on her back beneath the bed, it looked as though a vegetable had grown under Tony's bed.

Leon was a little unsettled.

The moment he got home, he found the famous Black Widow hiding beneath his older brother's bed. That was far too suffocating.

Why wasn't she hiding under his bed? It was truly enviable... ah, no, truly creepy!

Leon could not figure it out.

Even if Tony had blabbed everything and told the military, political circles, and business circles that he was Iron Man.

That should not have been enough for S.H.I.E.L.D. to directly send Natasha to hide beneath Tony's bed.

Was this an abduction attempt, or was she planning to climb onto Tony's bed and battle him when the night was at its darkest?

Leon did not remember S.H.I.E.L.D.'s female agents carrying out such low-level infiltration.

"JARVIS, after I left today, did anyone come to the house?" After thinking it over, Leon chose to ask JARVIS first.

"No, Master Leon. After you left, I sealed off all entrances."