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*****
"What is that?"
Seeing Nick Fury carefully place a metal box the size of a human head in the back seat, Bruce couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.
Nick Fury replied seriously, "Dr. Banner, that's something very important. It concerns the safety of the world, so you must not speak of it to anyone."
Thinking of the strength Mike and his son possessed, Bruce's heart trembled slightly. He quickly said, "I absolutely won't say a word!"
Nick Fury nodded. "Let's head back. I'll arrange a place for you to stay."
"A place to stay…" Bruce glanced around the area near Mike's house, then suddenly said, "This neighborhood seems good. How about I stay here?"
"Here?"
"Yes," Bruce said thoughtfully. "If I ever lose control and transform, Mike and the others would be able to stop me in time."
"Also, since Steve and Tony are nearby, if any missions come up, it would be easier to move together."
Nick Fury lowered his voice. "Steve is staying here, but Tony doesn't live here—this is his mom's place."
"That's not important."
Bruce pointed at Mike's house. "They live here."
"There's no lab here."
"They live here."
"This is just a regular residential area. It's not secure."
"They live here."
"There's… Fine, I'll see what I can do."
Nick Fury sighed and drove off.
If this keeps up, the entire area is going to become the Avengers' headquarters.
Wait a minute...
That might actually work!
A sudden thought flashed through Nick Fury's mind—he decided he'd find a time to talk to Tony, who had more money than he knew what to do with.
After settling Bruce down in New York, he rushed back overnight to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newly completed headquarters.
Once he closed the office door behind him, Nick Fury sat down at his desk, rubbed his forehead, looked at the box in front of him, and let out a long sigh of relief with a smile.
He opened the box, reached inside, and pulled out a bear-shaped cookie. Just as he was about to pop it into his mouth…
Snap!
The little bear's head fell off.
Nick Fury's eyes narrowed.
That… was not a good sign.
He tossed the cookie into the tin and casually pulled out another. Upon seeing that it, too, was headless, his expression changed. He quickly picked up the tin and shook it.
All the adorable bear cookies had been broken in half. A strip of paper lay stark naked on top of them.
Nick Fury picked it up.
"Next time, stand where there's some light. You scared Gwen."
Crack, crack!
Nick Fury crumpled the note and shoved it into his pocket.
So the cookies had been broken in half on purpose? Mike did this to get back at him for unintentionally scaring Gwen?
"Heh!" Fury chuckled. "So childish."
He paused, then slammed his palm hard against the desk. "If you've got a problem, come at me directly, damn it!"
How was he supposed to eat cookies that were broken in two? They had no soul left!
Fk! F**k!
He trembled with rage.
Still… he couldn't bring himself to throw them away.
Sighing, he carried the tin over to the office's hidden safe.
Ah yes, speaking of safes…
This was a new one.
The previous one had been destroyed—along with the building—during a battle.
Standing before the safe, he passed fingerprint, retinal, and password verification. Then, Nick Fury placed the cookie tin inside. Just as he was about to shut the door, someone knocked on his office door.
"Come in!"
He responded while slowly closing the safe.
John Garrett stepped inside. Seeing Fury close the hidden safe, his eyes gleamed with subtle excitement and a sly smile tugged at his lips.
This was the second time he'd seen Fury's secret safe.
He would bet his life that whatever was inside must be extremely important!
"What is it?"
Nick Fury asked coolly.
It was this late, and someone still came to bother him.
"Director," Garrett said grimly, "The giants' corpses have been taken away by the military."
"They refused to let us intervene. They were even willing to confront us over it."
"Not even one?"
Nick Fury was genuinely surprised. By all previous experience, with so many corpses on the field, they would have been able to recover at least one body.
Yet this time, the other side flatly refused—even at the risk of a direct confrontation.
What's so important about those giants' bodies?
Or could there be some deeper connection between them and these giants?
Fury paused thoughtfully, then said, "Trace the origins of those giants. And what about that red giant—have we located him?"
John Garrett replied, "After he left the battlefield, he vanished almost immediately. From what we observed, that red giant never lost his composure the way Hulk did."
Fury nodded. "And Hulk? Any sign of him?"
Garrett's expression grew dour. "No. After Superman and that mysterious figure took him away, he simply disappeared. He may have… been neutralized."
Fury leaned back and made a firm decision. "All right. Drop the Hulk search for now. Focus on that red giant. I'm beat—get on it and let me rest."
"Understood, Director." Garrett saluted crisply and departed.
As he reached the office door, Garrett cast a lingering glance at the hidden safe. Whatever Fury kept in there had to be of utmost importance—he'd stake his life on it. He decided he'd have to brief headquarters immediately and raise the alert level.
Sokovia, in Hydra's Secret Research Facility
"Aaahhh!"
A man strapped upright into a bizarre energy-transfer apparatus screamed in agony as streams of crackling power coursed into his body—simultaneously destroying and merging with his flesh.
Several lab technicians stood by, tense as they awaited the results. But all eyes really belonged to a stern-faced man wearing a single-lensed monocle, who stared intently at the ornate staff mounted in the center of the chamber.
The others worried over whether the subject would survive. They didn't realize that the entire experiment hinged on the power of that staff.
Every joule of energy being forced into the human vessel was drawn from the staff itself. Without it, the procedure would have no purpose—though they had no shortage of test subjects.
A cold thought flickered through Johann Strucker's mind.
The subject's screams abruptly cut off. He had succumbed to the experiment and now lay lifeless.
Dr. List approached, exhaustion etched on his face. He bowed his head. "My apologies, sir… we've failed again."
Strucker—now the unquestioned leader of Hydra—remained impassive. "Today's schedule included one final trial, correct?"
List nodded. "Yes, sir. The subjects were local—actually a pair of twins."
(End of Chapter)