"That's not my concern," Nick Fury said. "This isn't the time for you to be playing director. If you truly believe there's a problem, report it to the Council. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to." He hung up without another word, completely ignoring Pierce.
He knew perfectly well that despite Alexander Pierce's furious demeanor, he wouldn't dare make a move against him at this time. Pierce wasn't prepared for a confrontation. At worst, he'd try to retaliate later, but Fury might just strike first.
Hydra couldn't afford to reveal itself to the world. If they did, it would be the end of them.
Though Hydra's power seemed formidable, capable of easily overthrowing small nations, that only applied to ordinary organizations. Against the five great powers, or even the military might of a single one of them, they stood no chance.
The elite agent teams Pierce had cultivated over decades would be no match for a regular army.
Engaging in a full-scale war would only lead to their utter destruction.
This was the fundamental difference between regular armies and irregular forces.
It was also why Hydra had been so quiet in recent years, focusing primarily on infiltration. The last Hydra leader who dared to act so boldly—Red Skull himself, who even sought to break away from Hitler and establish his own independent power—what became of him?
Everyone knew!
Under the iron fist of the Allied Forces, they learned what it meant to be an egg striking a stone.
Alexander Pierce was livid, but utterly powerless. Nick Fury was too strong, now the de facto and nominal leader of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Even the Council struggled to constrain him in this regard.
The Council merely represented the interests of the five major powers. Nick Fury could directly contact the leaders of these nations, making it impossible to undermine him through ordinary means.
Especially when acting under the banner of human salvation, who could find fault?
Even if they could, it would involve a lengthy procedural process, making it impossible to alter Nick Fury's decisions in the short term.
To resolve this matter and return S.H.I.E.L.D. to Hydra's control, only one method remained: completely eliminate Nick Fury.
Only by doing so could S.H.I.E.L.D. be restored to the path he envisioned.
Nick Fury remained unaware that Alexander Pierce had already developed a murderous intent toward him, but that mattered little to him.
After all, he was planning to eliminate Hydra anyway. It was just a matter of who struck first.
Meanwhile, in the factory beneath Stark Tower, robot soldiers began to emerge in waves, immediately engaging the Chitauri in battle.
Simultaneously, more sophisticated Mark Armors joined the fray.
The Extremis Soldiers were also deployed to the front lines.
In short, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s preparations this time were far more thorough than before, and they were no longer lacking in resources.
Even many Hydra agent teams, who had initially planned to hold back, found their strategies countered by Nick Fury. He had devised a plan to use the Chitauri to wear them down. On one hand, he issued orders for them to mobilize; on the other, he secretly instructed Tony Stark to have the Extremis Virus soldiers or robot soldiers lure the Chitauri toward those Hydra agents marked for elimination.
The Hydra agents, who had been ordered by Alexander Pierce to slack off and avoid suicidal missions, were furious when they saw the Chitauri swarming toward them.
Now that they were on the battlefield, their fate was no longer in their own hands.
Though it might seem that Tony Stark, Thor, and Hulk could single-handedly take down the Leviathan Ships, making them appear ordinary, the truth was far from it. These whale-like alien vessels were formidable, and ordinary humans without special equipment or exceptional strength stood no chance against them.
Nearby, a contingent of the Robot Legion stood on standby. Any Hydra agents who managed to escape would be dealt with by the mechanical soldiers.
Tony Stark had no intention of letting them off the hook.
"Time to collect some interest, Hydra," Tony snarled through gritted teeth. He hated Hydra far more than Winter Soldier Bucky.
After all, Bucky was merely a weapon; the true mastermind behind it all remained Hydra.
Especially when he learned that Hydra had used his father to research the Super Soldier Serum, and then murdered him once the research was complete.
As a son, this nearly shattered his sanity.
Near the rift above Stark Tower, the sky was overcast with dark clouds, and countless lightning bolts materialized out of thin air, forming serpentine bolts of lightning. These bolts struck down, each one obliterating a Chitauri aircraft. Even the Leviathan Ships could only endure slightly longer before being destroyed.
"Thor has grown much stronger," Tony Stark remarked with awe.
Thor had always been outmatched by Lin Feng, and later, after reading his diary, Tony had seen him get pummeled by Thanos and Hela, the Goddess of Death. He'd seemed utterly pathetic.
But in reality, that was because he'd faced enemies of overwhelming power. The overwhelming dominance he now displayed over ordinary Chitauri and Leviathan Ships was his true strength.
This demonstration of power explained how magical civilizations could rely on a few individuals to deter the entire universe.
Thor was still a long way from Celestial Father-level, yet by merely tapping into his innate thunderous power for the first time, he could already project the might of a thousand armies single-handedly.
This begged the question: just how terrifyingly powerful must Odin, who stood behind him, be?
"Jarvis, update Thor's intelligence dossier completely and upload it to the Anti-Thor Armor's database," Tony Stark said calmly.
He didn't distrust Thor, not exactly. He simply didn't trust anyone.
While he had been profiling Lin Feng for years, and all data suggested he wasn't the type to cause trouble, Lin Feng suffered from severe paranoid delusions that were incurable.
Therefore, the surveillance on Lin Feng had never ceased, just as the intelligence gathering on Thor continued unabated.
Though Tony believed in Thor now, he wasn't so sure about the Thor of the future. The current Thor was manageable and reliable, but what about in a hundred, two hundred, or three hundred years?
After all, they were immortal beings!
Relative to his lifespan, Thor's current age might still be considered infancy.
It's common for people to think differently as children than they do as adults, which is why it's necessary to prepare for the future.
He even created files for every person worth keeping track of.
Of course, this didn't include Hawkeye and Black Widow.
Hawkeye and Black Widow: *Who do you think you're looking down on?!*
A thought had always lingered in his mind: *Those who are not of my kind will always have different intentions.*
No matter how human-like Thor looked, he wasn't human. Though Lin Feng was human, he came from another universe and wasn't one of them.
Therefore, Tony Stark had been continuously updating the Anti-Homelander Armor, pushing himself to maximize its capabilities to counter any future outbursts from Lin Feng.
The Anti-Thor Armor was also constantly being upgraded.
Tony Stark knew this idea would hurt his good friend, but he didn't care. If there had to be a crime, let the blame fall on him.
He didn't mind bearing the weight of his sins. *Let history judge me as it will.*
Unbeknownst to Thor, Tony Stark was having Jarvis gather information on him and perfect the Anti-Thor Armor. Right now, Thor was having a blast, having spent the past few years frantically developing his strength, even resorting to secret techniques to dramatically enhance his power.
Despite being thoroughly trounced by Lin Feng, Thor's strength had long since surpassed its former state. This was the perfect moment to fully unleash his power.
The war had reached its climax. The Avengers, supported by the Robot Legion, Hydra's elite squads, and the Extremis Soldiers, were desperately holding back the Chitauri army, preventing them from spreading further.
Even Spider-Woman Gwen, who hadn't yet joined the Avengers, was roaming the city, joining the fight against the invading aliens.
"It's time for my grand entrance!" Lin Feng said. After deploying his own Extremis Soldiers and Robot Legion into the battle and transferring command authority to the Red Queen, he finally made his move.
But when he arrived on the battlefield, he was stunned. He saw legions of machine soldiers that clearly didn't belong to his company, along with Extremis Soldiers, and he was momentarily dumbfounded.
*What the hell is going on here?*
He recognized the logos: one was Stark Industries, the other was S.H.I.E.L.D.
*But neither of them should be here at this point in time!*
He quickly dismissed the thought. He was used to it by now. In recent years, he had witnessed too many timelines and plotlines collapse. One more anomaly didn't seem strange at all.
Clad in the Homelander Armor, Lin Feng soared into the battlefield.
He casually shot down several Leviathan Ships with his heat vision—his heat vision was far more destructive than Thor's lightning.
Though he hadn't yet reached the Celestial Father-level, his effectiveness against the Chitauri was the same as if he had.
*What's the difference between an ant being crushed by an adult or a child?*
In the end, it was still just death.
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