Half a month flew by after the unrest in Manhattan ended. With two major financial conglomerates in his grasp, Tony naturally faced no trouble whatsoever. Nick had not even reported him to his superiors, knowing it would do no good.
But that left Nick and S.H.I.E.L.D. in a rather unfortunate position.
An incident this serious had taken place in Manhattan, the economic center of the United States. Naturally, someone had to be held accountable.
Powerful as S.H.I.E.L.D. was, its two consecutive failures made it the obvious scapegoat. The punishment it received dealt even S.H.I.E.L.D. a crippling blow.
Never mind anything else-the loss of a third of its funding alone nearly made Nick cough up blood.
More importantly, the battle had damaged the property of many civilians. As the scapegoat, S.H.I.E.L.D. naturally had to cover those losses.
As for getting the United States government to foot the bill, that was out of the question. In the president's words, whoever caused the mess had to clean it up.
So S.H.I.E.L.D. also had to come up with the money to compensate the citizens.
But there was an awkward problem: S.H.I.E.L.D. was broke.
For a behemoth like S.H.I.E.L.D. to run out of money sounded utterly ridiculous.
But that was the reality. As an organization with a presence across the globe, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s budget had always been stretched thin. It relied on funding from the United States government to keep going.
Now that a third of its funding had been cut in one fell swoop, S.H.I.E.L.D. could not even cover its own expenses. Where was it supposed to find the money to compensate the affected civilians?
So, ridiculous as it sounded, S.H.I.E.L.D. really was broke.
When Nick heard his subordinate's report, even he was stunned.
"Fuck, what did you say?"
"We're out of money?!"
Nick roared.