"Barton, you're back?"
Natasha greeted Hawkeye warmly when she saw him arrive.
"Hey, Natasha. I heard you ran into trouble?"
"I'm fine. Nothing happened."
Barton noticed Yan Shuangying in the training room.
"Who's this?"
Natasha introduced him to Yan Shuangying. "This is Barton."
"And this is Mr. Yan Shuangying."
"Hello."
"Hello."
The two shook hands very "harmoniously" and "amicably."
Then, as if by mutual agreement, they withdrew their hands.
Another expert, Yan Shuangying thought.
"Care for a spar?"
Seeing such a formidable stranger made Hawkeye itch for a fight, and he instinctively issued a challenge.
Ring-
All three looked up toward the ringing alarm.
"All combat personnel in the base, assemble immediately!"
"I repeat, all combat personnel in the base, assemble immediately!"
Hawkeye looked at Yan Shuangying and shrugged. "Looks like we won't get our chance this time."
Then he headed to the assembly point with Natasha.
On the streets of New York.
Boom-
Explosions and the crash of collapsing structures erupted somewhere neither particularly close to nor far from Jiang Xiang's home.
Immediately afterward, people scattered in all directions amid panicked screams.
Clearly, something had happened.
With so many people fleeing in panic, it obviously wasn't anything simple.
A car had just stopped by the roadside.
"Natasha." Nick Fury's low voice came through her earpiece.
"I'm on the scene. What are your orders?" Natasha looked every inch the serious, elite agent.
"Our preliminary assessment points to the military. The explosions started at their research facility just outside New York." Nick Fury was still ordering his subordinates to try negotiating with the military while covertly hacking their systems. "Since you're there, evacuate the crowd first and wait for further orders."
"Yes, sir."
Under Natasha and Barton's direction, the agents began working together to evacuate the crowd.
Drawing her gaze back, Natasha remained at her position, waiting for further orders.
Elsewhere.
Faced with this unexpected incident, Nick Fury screamed inwardly, Motherfucker!
Logically speaking, whatever happened in a major metropolis like New York, S.H.I.E.L.D. should have been nowhere near first in line to handle it.
But as the saying went, everyone had their own side of the story.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s primary responsibility was handling unusual incidents.
Explosions and the sounds of buildings being torn apart had been ringing through New York's streets for so long. How was that not an unusual incident?
Besides, it had happened not far from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York base.
Their intervention was entirely justified!
No one could stop them!
Motherfucker said so!
A video call from the World Security Council came through shortly afterward.
Well, only one council member had called.
"Nick Fury, I need you to explain why Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are operating on the streets of New York."
"Sir, I believe our priority right now is saving lives and finding out exactly what the military did, not answering pointless questions."
After saying his piece, Nick Fury handed the microphone to his former superior, Pierce.
"All right, please remain calm..."
"What happened over there?"
Yan Shuangying, who was still at the base, Old Man and Frank at the Antique Shop, and Jiang Xiang and Tony at Tony Stark's villa all had the same question.
"Natasha, what do you think happened?"
Barton and Natasha chatted while keeping their guard up.
After all, they hadn't received their assignments yet.
"No idea, but here in New York, it shouldn't be anything too serious, right?" Natasha seemed quite confident in America's security measures.
Thud-
Crash-
No sooner had she spoken than a car twisted into a pretzel smashed down not far from them.
A green figure flickered into view.
"All right." Natasha raised her pistol and amended her statement. "It's pretty serious."
"What is that?" Natasha asked Barton incredulously.
"I bet he's no sweet-tempered little bunny." Barton still had the presence of mind to crack a dry joke.
"Let's pull back first."
Beep-Nick Fury's voice came through their earpieces again. "Natasha, Barton, the source of this incident is a..."
"Big green guy?"
Natasha continued, "Unfortunately, he seems to be pretty close to us."
"He has very little self-control. Get out of there, fast!"
At Nick Fury's grave warning,
Natasha and Hawkeye saw that most of the people nearby had been evacuated and decided to hurry out of this godforsaken place.
Whoosh-
A battered iron rod embedded itself in the ground.
"Natasha, has he spotted us?"
"If we stand still, will he leave us alone?"
"Aah-"
Hulk began roaring as bullets poured in from nearby.
"What the fuck!!"
Natasha and Barton hurried into cover.
"Do these soldiers really have no restraint?"
A full-scale gunfight had erupted on a busy street.
Unless he stood to gain something enormous, the commanding officer's career was as good as over.
A massacre!
One-sided casualties!
Those soldiers could do absolutely nothing against Hulk.
"Aah-"
Just as Hulk's roar faded, a figure quietly appeared on the roof of a nearby restaurant.
He was a masked, muscular man with his hair tied up.
His muscles were exaggeratedly large. He held a spear-like weapon in his left hand and seemed to have something strapped to his back.
Seeing the situation spiral out of control, Nick Fury had been about to contact Tony Stark, but he paused before making the call.
"Could you be one of my kind?"
The words left his mouth in perfectly pronounced Chinese.
The furious Hulk, of course, couldn't understand him.
He simply took it as a provocation from the muscular man.
Hulk clapped his hands together, sending waves of air surging toward the man.
On the rooftop, the muscular man swung his weapon, slicing through the blast.
Suddenly,
He clutched his chest, and veins began bulging across his face.
"The sleeping beast... has awakened!"
As he spoke, his face gradually took on the appearance of a gorilla.
His body grew larger, swelling up.
"Roar-"
A blast of air unleashed by his long roar surged toward Hulk.
Hulk shielded his face with his hands, letting out angry roars every so often.
Before Hulk stood a fiery-red gorilla wearing all sorts of strange equipment.
His contemptuous gaze and mocking roars seemed to tell Hulk, You pathetic scrub! Come let your grandpa poke eighteen holes clean through you!
Refusing to back down, Hulk roared in return, as though saying, Come at me!
Hidden off to one side and watching the show, the clone Jiang Xiang had created with the Clone Technique recognized him. This was the Character Card-Zhang Fei.
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