Nick Fury pointed at the timestamp on the surveillance footage and gave an order.
"Yes, sir."
Rewind. Pause.
There was no movement. The hammer was still there.
"Play it immediately, then pause."
This time, the soldier had learned his lesson. Without waiting even a second, he quickly hit the play/pause button twice.
Yet, nothing was captured on camera.
But the hammer was already gone.
Nick Fury frowned. "Rewind, again."
"Yes, sir!"
What followed was a nerve-wracking loop.
With the footage slowed down to the maximum, Nick Fury and Natasha kept instructing the poor officer to rewind, play, pause.
Rewind, play, pause.
Rewind, play, pause.
Rewind, play, pause.
The officer lost count of how many times he had done it. Time became a blur. His spirit was close to breaking. He seriously suspected that Nick Fury and Natasha were just messing with him.
After all, he wasn't trained like Natasha since childhood.
'I'm just a regular soldier occasionally assigned to sensitive operations. Why are you doing this to me?'
Amid all this inner grumbling, Nick Fury finally decided to relieve the poor guy and take over with Natasha personally.
Both Nick Fury and Natasha were Level 10 agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
When it came to endurance and patience, they were unparalleled. Both had hidden in sewage pits during missions—managing a playback console was nothing to them.
Even so, it still took them three full hours...
Before they caught a faint clue.
"Stop!"
Natasha seemed to notice something and spoke up immediately.
Nick Fury hit the pause button.
"Look here!" Natasha pointed at the general's shadow.
At a glance, nothing seemed off. But both of them were elite agents. After carefully analyzing it several times, they finally spotted something.
In the general's shadow, there was a small bulge—gray with a silver edge—its material looked like "fabric."
On its own, the bulge might be dismissed as nothing.
But the two of them already had a strong suspicion about who had stolen the hammer.
Now, seeing this fabric-like bulge and merging it with the image in their minds—
"That looks like a hat brim," Natasha murmured.
"It's him after all," Nick Fury said, rubbing his temples with both hands and slowly exhaling, suddenly feeling a headache coming on.
If Blaine were present, he could probably read Nick Fury's thoughts:
[Fury: Oh shit, Motherf—!]
After a brief moment, Nick Fury shook his head. "I didn't expect this Bounty Hunter, Blaine, to also have the ability to control people."
"But what's the point of stealing this alien hammer?"
Natasha replied without hesitation, "He probably received a mission from someone."
"Can we find out who?" Nick Fury asked.
They might not be able to deal with Blaine directly, but the person who gave him the mission was a different story.
Bounty Hunters have no obligation to protect their clients. Once payment is made, the connection ends.
By then, Nick Fury wouldn't hesitate to give that mission-giver a "lesson."
And while he's at it—reclaim Thor's hammer.
"Yes."
Natasha nodded.
Recently, Blaine had disabled several of his protective barriers. Even Harold Meachum—who had faked his death but was actually being held prisoner—knew where Blaine lived. Naturally, so did S.H.I.E.L.D.
They hadn't bothered him before because there was no mission requiring his help.
As for identifying who issued the mission, that was relatively easy—unless they used some extremely unusual method of communication. Otherwise, S.H.I.E.L.D. could definitely track it down.
"Natasha, this Blaine is becoming more and more mysterious," Nick Fury muttered. "A hammer that countless people can't even lift, and he just walks off with it... all because of a mission."
Natasha nodded in agreement.
She couldn't understand him either.
With such immense power, he could easily rob the rich and earn far more than from any mission. Based on what he showed today, he could even control a billionaire and have wealth rolling in. So why go around taking on missions?
Could it be that he doesn't want to do illegal things? That's impossible—he's clearly killed many people. The law means nothing to someone like him.
Say he's greedy… but he has better ways to make money.
Say he's not… but he pinches every penny, like he'll destroy you if you short him by a dollar.
[Blaine (internal monologue): I want to rob people, damn it! If stolen money actually counted for me, I'd rob the whole world. Trillions! Tens of trillions! Wouldn't that be sweet? I could crush Living Tribunal in seconds!!]
In short—
Nick Fury's wariness of Blaine rose yet another level.
With power like that, he was a terrifying threat to anyone. What if he got angry one day and controlled someone to launch a nuke? Earth's gone. GG. Game over.
So, Nick Fury's plan for the Avengers Initiative was now burning brighter than ever.
Before, it was just a consideration.
Now, it was urgent.
So far, they'd only brought in Tony, Natasha, and Hawkeye.
But Tony had been acting weird.
Especially after receiving the inheritance from his father, Howard—he'd been in a sour mood constantly.
Nick Fury didn't worry too much about that. Forming the Avengers was now his top priority.
Loki hadn't even shown up to steal the Tesseract yet, but the Avengers Initiative had already been fast-tracked—all because of Blaine.
However, before implementing this secret plan—
They needed to retrieve the alien hammer.
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