Chapter 269: A Vicious Plot to Kill Two Birds with One Stone
Lu Chen's hand holding the teacup paused mid-air.
"Have you found out who did this?"
"There were no biological traces or identification marks left at the scene," Simone said in a heavy tone.
"But I pulled up the satellite surveillance and street access records nearby, combined with the abnormal deployment of The Pentagon and those high-ranking Military officials recently, I suspect it was people sent by the Military.
They must be desperate, trying to pry open our technicians' mouths through this method to get the original formula of Compound V."
Lu Chen leaned against the wooden chair, listening with a hint of amusement.
"So daring? Are those wearing Military uniforms carrying mush in their brains?
Don't they know who the boss of Vought Tower is?"
"The value demonstrated by Compound V is too tempting, Boss," Simone sighed helplessly.
"Once capital and the Military are driven to desperation, taking risks is the norm.
In their eyes, as long as they can get the power to break the balance, even if they face your wrath afterwards, they will have the bargaining chips."
Speaking of this, Simone paused hesitatingly and added in a low voice:
"This matter is my fault for not arranging the security level properly.
That genetic biologist hasn't been in the company for long, hasn't even shown her ability yet, and hasn't even started formal experimental projects, yet..."
"But Boss, you can rest assured!" Simone quickly promised,
"I have completely locked down all R&D areas in the company, replaced all field security with Agents who have been injected with the serum, and Yuheng has also taken over all monitoring permissions on the bottom floor. This situation will definitely not happen again."
After listening, Lu Chen's expression remained calm.
Things like kidnapping were common place in the secret wars between major factions.
As long as the core production line of Vought Tower and Yuheng's data center had no problems, losing one or two peripheral R&D personnel was not a major issue that would hurt the bones and muscles.
"Being prepared against unpreparedness is like this, you don't need to blame yourself too much," Lu Chen pacified.
"Those old guys want to play dirty, and I will naturally go to them to settle the accounts."
Simone on the other end of the phone obviously breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you for understanding, Boss."
Lu Chen picked up the tea and took a sip casually, asking a casual question out of curiosity:
"By the way, what is the name of that kidnapped genetic biologist? Is she very powerful? Worth two parties fighting over her."
Simone quickly glanced at the file on the table and blurted out:
"Rosa Dalton."
"Rosa Dalton?"
Rosa Dalton
Lu Chen muttered the name in his mouth, and the memories in his brain quickly searched through.
There were quite a few famous biologists in the Marvel Universe, such as Banner, Helen Cho, the Lizard, Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, and even Killian and Maya Hansen, all of which were prominent signboards.
But the name Rosa Dalton really couldn't be considered a conspicuous character.
Lu Chen checked down along the keywords of genes and human enhancement.
A few seconds later, a plot suppressed in the corner of his memory suddenly popped out.
"Secret Invasion."
That core scientist behind the scenes who worked under the villain Gravik, collected the DNA of all Avengers superheroes, and finally concocted the Super-Skrulls!
It turned out to be this woman.
Lu Chen pinched the phone in his hand and raised his eyebrows slightly.
Simone cast her net too wide when recruiting people. As long as they were top global biology Professors, regardless of their background, she smashed them into Vought Tower with U.S. dollars.
Who would have thought that with this net cast, this big fish was accidentally caught in.
If the missing person was an ordinary researcher, Lu Chen would at most think that those old guys in Military uniforms from The Pentagon were red-eyed and anxious, planning to catch someone back to reverse-engineer Compound V.
But the missing person was Rosa Dalton, and the nature of the whole matter completely changed flavor.
Could it be that group of green-skinned lizards hiding in the sewers did it?
Skrulls
Back then, Captain Marvel threw this group of stray dogs on Earth, relying on Nick Fury, that traitor, to make fake identities for them and secretly work for S.H.I.E.L.D..
On the surface, they pretended to be as pitiful as victims, but behind the scenes, quite a few people had always been eyeing Earth.
"Boss? Are you listening?" Simone on the other end of the earpiece saw no movement for a long time and asked cautiously.
"I'm listening." Lu Chen withdrew his divergent thinking, his tone returning to calm, "Organize all the clues found on hand, and I will return to New York immediately."
"Understood, I have already prepared the dossier."
Lu Chen hung up the phone casually and tucked it back into the inner pocket of his black coat.
"Are you going back?"
A soft voice came from beside.
Wanda pinched the corners of her apron with both hands, her originally shining big eyes suddenly dimmed a lot, staring straight at the standing Lu Chen, her small face full of reluctance.
Although she had been practicing hard meditation every day in Kamar-Taj these past few days, as long as she raised her eyes, she could see Lu Chen leaning on that broken wooden chair drinking tea and scrolling through his phone, and she felt immensely secure in her heart.
Once Lu Chen left, the whole sanctum would only have those stern-faced monks and Sorcerer Ancient One who always smiled at her, which was extremely boring.
"The company has a small problem, I have to go back and deal with it," Lu Chen explained casually.
Wanda pressed her lips tightly, nodded hard, and looked at him seriously: "Then be careful. I will definitely practice twice as hard, and next time I will protect you."
The little girl's posture of eager desperation to risk her life for him amused Lu Chen.
At the corner of the corridor, Wong, who was pretending to hold a feather duster to wipe the scroll rack, had his ears perked up high.
Upon hearing that Lu Chen was leaving, Wong's fat face, which had been tense for several days, almost split open with a smile on the spot.
Heavens have opened their eyes!
This plague god was finally going to move away!
Goodness knows how he survived these past few days.
Every day, watching Lu Chen connect to WiFi in the sacred library to watch funny videos, pumping the energy of the dimensional demon gods like free gasoline, and even bringing Wanda to set up afternoon tea in the main hall.
Wong felt that his worldview was being rubbed on the ground every day, yet Sorcerer Ancient One played hands-off and didn't care at all.
Now this plague god was finally leaving!
Wong quickly dropped the feather duster in his hand, trotted up, and piled an extremely enthusiastic and even somewhat flattering smile on his face: "Mr. Lu is going back? Ah, the sanctuary is austere and busy with affairs, so we won't see you off afar. Walk slowly on your way, don't rush back, really don't rush back at all!"
Lu Chen looked at Wong's expression, which looked eager to beat drums and gongs to send guests away, and couldn't help but sneer.
He raised his right hand and casually drew a half-circle in front of him.
With a swish!
Golden sparks exploded in the air, and a rotating portal formed in the blink of an eye.
Chapter 270: Settling Accounts
Lu Chen lifted his leg and was just about to step across when his body suddenly stopped. He turned his head and glanced at Wong with a half-smile.
"Old Wong."
The flesh on Wong's face stiffened. "Ah? Does Mr. Lu still need something?"
"The wireless network in the Library of Tibetan Classics is quite fast." Lu Chen reached out and tapped Wong's nose, saying leisurely, "If I come back next time and find that the WiFi password has been changed, I'll move those few shelves of your ancient books to the streets of Manhattan and sell them by weight as old newspapers."
The muscles at the corners of Wong's mouth twitched a few times, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He didn't dare to talk back, and nodded repeatedly with a bitter face: "...Rest assured, the password will definitely not change, I swear on the reputation of a sorcerer!"
Lu Chen ignored him and stepped across the portal of light.
The next second, the golden sparks contracted and closed, and the space calmed down again.
Vought Tower, President's Office.
"Boss."
Simone had been waiting aside for a long time. She stepped forward quickly in her high heels and handed over a black encrypted tablet.
"The incident happened three days ago. Rosa Dalton suddenly lost contact on her way back to her apartment after leaving work. We retrieved the surveillance footage from seven intersections along the way and found a Chevrolet with special federal government license plates tailing her all the way."
Lu Chen's fingers slid across the screen, looking at those surveillance snapshots and on-site forensics photos.
"The opponent's methods were very professional, using high-concentration Military anesthetics. It took less than five seconds from start to finish," Simone reported at a rapid pace. "But the weird part is what happened afterwards. When we followed the clues to an abandoned air-raid shelter in Queens, only a corpse was left at the scene."
A high-definition autopsy photo popped up on the screen.
A middle-aged Caucasian wearing combat uniform lay in a pool of blood, with a thumb-sized piercing bullet hole right between his eyebrows.
"This is the person who kidnapped Rosa, shot dead at close range by a third party," Simone pointed at the photo and said. "All the experimental equipment at the scene and the encrypted mobile hard drive Rosa carried with her were taken away. The murderer even used a thermite bomb to burn the surrounding surveillance cameras and wires into scrap iron, leaving no fingerprints or DNA behind."
Lu Chen narrowed his eyes, examining the calluses and bone characteristics at the web of the corpse's hands.
He was indeed a veteran from regular special forces.
"From the overt clues, it looks like it was done by the radical faction of the Military," Simone said with a solemn expression. "After the release of the Compound V documentary, those generals in the Military repeatedly pressured us to demand the formula. Our initial judgment was that the Military sent people to kidnap Rosa to extort the formula, but they were intercepted halfway by another mysterious force."
Lu Chen leaned against the edge of the desk and let out a cold sneer.
"If it were an ordinary case, this deduction would indeed be reasonable and logical," Lu Chen threw the tablet back onto the desk with a crisp snap. "But if we factor in the Skrulls, this entire logic is completely overturned."
Simone was stunned for a moment. "Skrulls? What... kind of creatures are they?"
"A group of green-skinned lizards wandering in the Universe."
Lu Chen's eyelids drooped slightly, his tone revealing a chilling coldness: "Aside from having slightly better physical fitness and a longer lifespan than ordinary humans, the most disgusting thing about these scum is their racial talent."
Simone subconsciously held her breath.
"They can one hundred percent Copy the appearance of anyone they have seen."
Lu Chen said leisurely: "Appearance, body shape, skin color, and even the voice, cornea, and fingerprints can be made completely identical, and even the gender can be switched at will. If they are willing, they can even read part of the target's surface memories and living habits in a short time."
Simone felt a chill run down her back as she listened, her fingers involuntarily tightening around the folder.
One hundred percent Copy? Even the fingerprints and corneas are the same?
Doesn't that mean that the colleagues working alongside her, or even the person lying beside her on the pillow, could possibly be transformed by alien monsters?
If this kind of creature infiltrates the national center or the high-levels of the Military...
Simone simply didn't dare to think any further.
"Boss, you mean..." Simone's brain spun rapidly, fine sweat beads popping up on her forehead, "That so-called special forces soldier wasn't sent by the Military at all?"
"But why did they insist on snatching Rosa Dalton?"
Lu Chen's eyes turned cold, his brain rapidly deducing the entire line of clues.
"Why did they kidnap Rosa? Because although Compound V is powerful, Skrulls have alien genes. The medicine humans can use might not be perfectly tolerated by them. They need a top-tier genetic engineering expert to help them improve the serum, and even fuse the DNA of various superheroes on Earth to create their own ultimate weapon."
"As for disguising themselves as the government and Military to make a move... Heh, killing two birds with one stone."
A grim smile twitched at the corners of Lu Chen's mouth: "Not only can they snatch people away without anyone knowing, but they can also conveniently splash all the dirty water onto the Military. If I were a hot-tempered brute, I'm afraid I would have already rushed into The Pentagon and torn those old generals to pieces. With the world in chaos, they can just hide in the shadows and make a fortune quietly."
Simone only felt a chill shoot straight from the soles of her feet to her crown.
What a vicious scheme! What a hidden knife!
If the Boss didn't hold intelligence that ordinary people could simply never know, Vought Company would probably really be used as a pawn.
"Boss, what should we do now? Go and screen all the high-ranking officials of the Military?" Simone asked, gritting her teeth.
"Screen the Military? That would take forever."
Lu Chen straightened his body and patted the wrinkles on his coat.
Wanting to ferret out a group of lizards that can transform at will on Earth with a population of billions is no different from looking for a needle in a haystack. But coincidentally, Lu Chen knew who the leader of this group of lizards was.
Nick Fury.
Back then, Captain Marvel brought this group of stray dogs to Earth and entrusted them to Nick Fury. That one-eyed dragon utilized the Skrulls' transformation ability to establish a top-secret espionage network exclusively belonging to him globally, helping him spy on intelligence and eliminate dissidents.
With these lizards rooting so deeply on Earth, they definitely couldn't bypass the shadow of this traitor to the planet.
When Lu Chen severely tortured Nick Fury with the Nightmare Cage on the Helicarrier previously, he clearly sensed Fury's mental fluctuations—pure human consciousness without a shred of alien impurities. That old fellow was most likely not replaced yet, and was still that Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. who liked to let all secrets rot in his stomach.
"Making trouble on my territory, digging up people from my company, and daring to scheme against me in return?"
Lu Chen said no more. He raised his right hand and slashed fiercely into the void.
Golden sparks burst forth again, and space was torn open with a wide fissure.
Stepping out in one stride, beneath his feet was the headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Triskelion building.
Chapter 271: Super Skrulls
The radar alarms on the roof of the Triskelion flashed wildly.
Almost the exact second the golden aperture in the sky tore open, a piercing buzzing sound exploded within the building's internal alarm network.
"Warning, an unauthorized high-energy flying object has breached the airspace, three hundred meters away from the helipad... Descending rapidly!"
Inside a sealed conference room on the thirty-seventh floor, the heavy alloy door was tightly shut.
Steve Rogers was wearing dark casual clothes, his arms braced against the conference table, his expression even heavier than the dark clouds outside.
Opposite the table, Natasha was lowering her head and toying with a black tactical pen, the tip tapping lightly on the glass tabletop one stroke after another.
Barton was leaning in the shadows near the window, holding a heavily worn arrowhead in his hand, his gaze drifting off to who knows where.
All three of them bore the marks brought by the batch of Compound V given by Lu Chen.
Originally thinking it was merely a physical enhancement, after the medicine's potency completely dissolved, all sorts of bizarre superhuman powers began to sprout within their bodies.
Natasha could easily leap and shuttle between shadows, covering dozens of meters in just a single step.
Barton could even force beating electric sparks and volatile energy directly into the arrowhead; as long as the alloy material of the arrowhead could hold up, shooting through a light armored vehicle with a single arrow was child's play.
As for Steve, he could open an invisible force field circle around his body, forcibly stripping away the enemy's strength and then distributing this power to the comrades around him.
Their strength had grown, but everyone's hearts felt increasingly uneasy.
"You've all seen Vought Company's public statement." Steve broke the silence, his voice deep and heavy, "No threshold, civilians can take it as long as they pass a physical examination. What does this mean? It means street punks, bank robbers, and extreme gang members could possess bodies capable of withstanding rifle bullets tomorrow."
"Sounds like a disaster." Barton twitched the corner of his mouth, a hint of self-mockery in his tone, "Natasha and I spent half our lives practicing killing techniques, and in the future catching a thief on the streets of New York might require us to empty half a quiver of arrows."
"The ordinary people lining up outside Vought Tower have already blocked three main roads." Natasha stopped what she was doing and looked up at Steve, "But Steve, do you think we can stop him? What do we use to stop him? Go talk to Lu Chen about the Constitution, or talk to him about order?"
"We can't let this chaos spread." Steve gritted his teeth, "We must talk to him, at least to define eligibility requirements for the serum..."
Before he could finish his sentence,
the air in the entire conference room suddenly grew as heavy as if filled with lead.
An indescribably massive will, without any warning, aggressively crashed into everyone's central nervous system.
Hum!
Steve's eyelids twitched violently, and just as he wanted to reach out to grab the round shield on the table, his entire arm completely lost sensation.
The neural signals were forcibly cut off.
His brain was still frantically issuing action commands, but his muscles didn't provide even a millimeter of feedback.
Opposite her, Natasha froze completely in her chair, her tactical pen dropping onto the tabletop with a clack, rolling twice toward the floor, yet appearing as if in slow motion mid-air.
She tried to slip into the shadows, but the power inside her was pinned firmly in place by that vast mental net, unable to move a single fraction of an inch.
Barton's fingers were hooked onto the end of the arrow, his eyes bulging, and cold sweat instantly streamed down his neck into his collar.
Unable to move.
Let alone the three of them, the entire Triskelion, over a thousand working civilian personnel, tactical squads patrolling the corridors, and researchers in the bottom-layer laboratories, were all frozen into sculptures in this single instant.
Lu Chen hovered above the Triskelion, the hem of his black windbreaker snapping fiercely in the wind.
His mental power, like a pervasive tide, forcibly drilled into the cerebral cortex of every single person in the building.
He wasn't here to be a guest, nor did he have any interest in playing cat-and-mouse games with Fury and his subordinates.
Since he wanted to investigate the Skrulls, the fastest method was to flip through the brains of the entire building.
No matter how powerful a Skrull's physical disguise was, even if they could mimic fingerprints, corneas, or even DNA segments, and even read part of the host's surface memories,
in the face of deep, foundational memories, those disguises simply couldn't stand up.
Thousands of consciousness wavelengths slid past at lightning speed in Lu Chen's brain.
One, two, three...
Most people's heads were filled with either the trivial official documents of S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA's see-no-light secret codes, or the messy affairs of their own personal lives.
A few seconds later, Lu Chen withdrew most of his mental pressure.
His expression didn't improve; instead, it grew even colder.
Inside the entire Triskelion, there were unexpectedly only four Skrulls left.
Furthermore, all of them were older, conservative veterans who had long been marginalized by Nick Fury, idling away their days in the logistics warehouse and archives room, unable to even touch the fringe of the building's core secrets.
The remaining lizards lurking in key positions of S.H.I.E.L.D. had actually all fled.
They left completely cleanly, without leaving behind a single trace.
Lu Chen slowly descended from mid-air, his feet landing on the helipad with a muffled thump.
With his hands buried in his windbreaker pockets, he strode through the automatic sensor doors and walked directly into the S.H.I.E.L.D. building.
The Agents along the way were still collapsed on the ground, crushed by the lingering mental might, panting heavily one by one, watching in sheer terror as this leisurely walking man passed by them, yet lacking even the strength to raise their gun muzzles.
Lu Chen didn't even glance at them.
He was pondering.
When did the Skrulls get so bold?
Daring to kidnap the core scientists of Vought Company in New York, and daring to completely evacuate their people from inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
This was definitely not the confidence that a group of alien refugees living under someone else's roof should have.
Even if that radical leader Gravik had already secretly created a prototype machine for the Super Skrull project, so what?
Without enough perverted superpower genes injected, that machine was at best a large-scale genetic blender.
In the original plot, they waited until Thanos invaded and the Avengers fully assembled, before relying on the residual DNA collected by Nick Fury to create a patchwork monster that fused the abilities of Hulk, Gamora, Abomination, Mantis, Groot, and even Captain Marvel.
The Avengers currently hadn't even fought a civil war, Captain Marvel was still drifting deep in the Universe, and the Guardians of the Galaxy couldn't even be seen as a ghost.
What decent blood samples could they possibly have in their hands?
Surely they couldn't expect to fuse the genes of a few street Agents and dare to jump out and challenge him, Lu Chen?
A thought suddenly flashed through Lu Chen's mind.
Wait.
The Avengers members hadn't experienced the blip event, but not a single recent major event had been missing.
Lu Chen stopped in his tracks, turned around, and walked straight toward the intensive care medical zone on the third underground level.
Chapter 272: Harvest Plan
Outside the heavy sterile isolation ward, two guarding Agents slumped limply by the door. With a casual wave from Lu Chen, the alloy door shattered on the spot.
Inside the ward, the instruments emitted a monotonous ticking sound.
Nick Fury, covered in tubes and wearing an oxygen mask on his face, remained in a deep coma.
Lu Chen walked up to the hospital bed and looked at the one-eyed spymaster.
The powerful psychic force unceremoniously smashed through the mental firewall in Fury's subconscious, brutally searching through the old fox's deepest top-secret memories.
A massive torrent of information rushed backward.
The spy warfare of the Cold War era, the departure of Captain Marvel, the inception of the Avengers initiative...
Suddenly, Lu Chen's gaze stopped on a multi-encrypted memory fragment.
That was before the outbreak of the Battle of New York.
Nick Fury stood in a dim secret room, giving instructions to several Skrulls whose figures gradually transformed from green-skinned to human Agent appearances:
"The Harvest Plan is initiated. Any battlefield involving non-human powers, whether it is the minced meat crushed by Hulk or the blood shed by gods, put all of it into vacuum test tubes for me. This is humanity's last trump card; no one is allowed to touch it except me."
Lu Chen retracted his fingers, his mouth twitching involuntarily.
What an old schemer.
Sure enough, from the very beginning, Nick Fury had been using the Skrulls to scavenge everywhere and collect blood samples of superheroes!
Even the bloodstains on the battlefield of the Battle of New York had been quietly drained and packaged by this group of lizards under the banner of S.H.I.E.L.D. cleaning up the scene.
Lu Chen turned and walked out of the ward, following the coordinate guidance in Fury's mind all the way down to the depths of the Cold War nuclear bunker at the very bottom of the building.
Before a titanium alloy secret door requiring triple biometric identification.
The door had long been forcibly broken open.
Scorched black traces of high-temperature cutting still remained at the cut edges.
Lu Chen stepped over the deformed door frame and walked into this underground storage facility code-named "Harvest".
It was completely empty inside.
The cryogenic storage boxes originally fixed on the shockproof racks had all vanished without a trace, and the backup power supply on the wall was destroyed.
In the entire room, not even a single drop of excess cryogenic fluid was left.
Sure enough, it had all been emptied out.
Lu Chen raised his left hand and tapped the tactical watch on his wrist: "Yuheng, time to work."
On the metal case of the watch, tiny silver nanoparticles quickly fell off, landed on the data interface of the main control computer, and transformed into a complexly structured access terminal.
A light blue data stream instantly lit up in mid-air.
"Scanning underlying residual magnetic media..."
Yuheng's steady electronic voice sounded in the empty room, "Physical damage area bypassed, restructuring deleted underlying data fragments... Data reconstruction progress 30%... 70%... Complete."
In mid-air, a translucent optical projection instantly unfolded.
That was a completely restored top-secret blood sample inventory list.
Lu Chen leaned against the cryogenic rack and lowered his gaze to glance at the entry at the top of the list.
First line: Bruce Banner (Hulk tissue sample, recovered from the Harlem battlefield in New York).
Second line: Bronski (Abomination spinal fluid, extracted during cryogenic hibernation).
Third line: Steve Rogers (Super Soldier blood sample, sealed backup from the Battle of New York).
Fourth line: Thor Odinson (Asgard divine blood, leftover from the Battle of New York).
Lu Chen's fingers slid across the light screen.
Loki's divine bodily fluids, tissue fragments of Chitauri elite warriors, and even "Eternal" samples were impressively listed!
And in the last few lines of the list, two names made Lu Chen's eyes narrow slightly.
Pietro Maximoff.
Wanda Maximoff.
Lu Chen sneered.
Nick Fury, that one-eyed dragon, really treated all the superhuman powers of the World as his personal blood bank.
But when Lu Chen's gaze fell on the very end of the list, at the code name that had just been entered not long ago, his eyes completely froze.
That line was written clearly:
Code name: Tianshu (Lu Chen).
Lu Chen stared at the screen and couldn't help laughing.
How interesting. No wonder Gravik and those radical lizards dared to snatch people directly in New York.
They held Hulk's flesh, gods' blood, Super Soldier's genes, and even Wanda and Pietro's backups, and now coupled with a sample library that might contain his Lu Chen genes, anyone would get carried away. If they really fused all this messy stuff into their bodies, wouldn't that be gods fighting each other?
However, those alien lizards were obviously rejoicing too early.
Since these idiots wanted to court death so much, Lu Chen didn't mind sending them off at all.
He raised his hand to turn off the projection, turned around, and strode toward the outside of the bunker.
"Yuheng, seal and package all the data of this list, and send it to my private database," Lu Chen instructed casually.
"Instruction confirmed, data transfer completed, underlying traces completely erased." The watch's nanoparticles retracted, and Yuheng's electronic voice subsided.
Since he had seen through Fury's bottom line, there was no value in staying here any longer.
Walking out of the underground bunker, with a thought from Lu Chen, the psychic net shrouding the sky above the Triskelion released its restriction with a snap.
The crowd that had been suppressed throughout the building gasped heavily for breath, and the entire building was filled with messy coughing and falling sounds.
Lu Chen's psychic power swept across the entire Base like flowing water.
In the conference room on the thirty-seventh floor, Steve Rogers had just regained his mobility, snatched the alloy shield on the table, and his eyes were solemn.
Natasha was half-crouched on the ground, holding micro-shock emitters in both hands, her face pale.
Barton leaned against the corner, the battle bow in his hand already drawn into a full moon, with the arrowhead aimed at potential enemies outside the door.
Inside the top-floor office, Alexander Pierce was supporting himself against the desk, panting heavily, his suit crumpled into a ball, his eyes deeply concealing unhideable terror and panic.
Lu Chen's mouth twitched with a trace of mockery in his eyes.
What a bunch of pitiful creatures kept in the dark. Every day they fought bloody battles for so-called national security and World peace, yet they didn't even know that their own lair had been hollowed out by alien lizards.
However, before leaving, the interest that should be collected had to be collected first.
Chapter 273: Fury Stripped Bare
In the corners of the underground warehouse and archives, four old men wearing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s blue overalls were huddled behind storage racks, shivering. They were abandoned pawns left behind by the radical faction.
Lu Chen raised his hand and grabbed at the empty air.
The majestic psychokinetic power transformed into several invisible giant hands mid-air, aggressively piercing through the concrete floor and steel reinforcement structure.
Boom!
The storage racks were blown away by the psychokinetic gale, and before the four Skrulls could react, invisible, intangible forces tightly pinched their necks, lifting them up into the air like little chicks.
"Ah! Let me go!"
"Help! Enemy attack!"
The screams had just been squeezed out of their throats when they were forcibly choked back by Lu Chen's spiritual power.
The psychokinetic power reeled in, and the four green-skinned aliens were bound together like an invisible rope, dragging all the way through the corridor and stairwell straight behind Lu Chen, completely unable to move a fraction of an inch.
Since you Skrulls love capturing scientists to study other people's DNA so much, don't blame me for taking you back to be sliced up as well.
Dragging the four Skrulls who were severely injured and unable to maintain their mimicry, Lu Chen walked unhurriedly onto the suspended corridor of the building's atrium.
The surrounding Agents finally reacted.
"Drop your weapons!"
"Stay where you are and don't move!"
The infrared laser sights of dozens of assault rifles fell upon him in unison, but not a single person dared to actually pull the trigger. Everyone's fingers were trembling. That terrifying force from earlier that had simultaneously pinned everyone in the entire building in place had long since scared the wits out of them.
Steve, Natasha, and Barton also rushed quickly to the other side of the corridor.
Seeing four bizarre-looking green humanoid creatures floating behind Lu Chen, Steve's gaze shrank abruptly: "Lu Chen! What on earth are you doing? Who are they?"
"Who are they?" Lu Chen stopped in his tracks, looked back at the righteous Captain America, and found it somewhat amusing, "Steve, you might as well ask that good Director of yours lying in the hospital bed what kind of pets he has been raising in S.H.I.E.L.D. all these years."
Looking at the gathering Agents all around, and at Pierce pretending to be calm at the corner of the stairs, a flash of playful light crossed Lu Chen's eyes.
Weren't these people all self-proclaimed champions of justice, willing to risk their lives for the greater good of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
Then let them see with their own eyes what kind of creature the one-eyed Director they swore allegiance to really was.
Hum!
A deep, faint glow lit up in Lu Chen's eyes.
The massive mental power erupted once again, but this time without the crude physical oppression; instead, it transformed into countless delicate mental tentacles, forcibly piercing into the consciousness core of everyone present.
Everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D., including Steve, Natasha, Barton, and even Pierce hidden in the dark and that group of HYDRA core members, were all dragged by Lu Chen into a shared mental illusion.
The surrounding real scenery rapidly peeled away, replaced by a cold and dim underground interrogation room.
That was Nick Fury's deepest, top-secret memory.
Fury's gloomy, one-eyed face appeared before everyone's eyes.
In the scene, Fury gave a low command to the green-skinned alien beside him: "Initiate the Harvesting Project. Seal all tissue samples of super-humans into the top-secret vault. Do not let anyone know, especially Rogers and Stark."
Immediately afterwards, the scene shifted rapidly.
Using the Skrulls' shapeshifting and mimicry abilities, Fury replaced council members globally and planted spy puppets in intelligence agencies across various countries. Under Fury's tacit approval, those alien lizards step by step infiltrated the highest echelons of human society.
The illusion completely shattered a few seconds later.
Everyone abruptly snapped back to their senses, drenched in cold sweat, as if they had been soaking in ice water for centuries.
The entire hall was dead silent; no one spoke. Steve stood frozen in place, that resolute face filled with bewilderment and disbelief.
Natasha bit her lower lip hard, her complexion turning ashen to the extreme. As an Agent originating from the Red Room, she was long used to double-dealing and deceit, but seeing Fury meticulously calculate all the details and fallback plans of the Avengers—whom she regarded as family—she still felt a wave of nausea in her heart.
Barton angrily smashed his battle bow heavily against the metal railing nearby, producing a loud, explosive clang.
However, what was even more ironic was on the other side.
Those die-hard HYDRA loyalists hidden within S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as the HYDRA leader Alexander Pierce standing atop the stairs, wore expressions that were actually more furious than those ordinary Agents.
Pierce's entire old face turned the color of pig liver with rage, the veins on his forehead bulging one by one.
Well done, Nick Fury!
We in HYDRA have painstakingly lurked for decades and painstakingly established the Insight Project, all just to rule the World. And yet you, a one-eyed dragon, secretly raised an entire nest of alien monsters that could change their faces at will? You even let them replace government officials of various countries? You even secretly got yourself a Harvesting Project that encompassed global superpower genes?
Compared to Fury's grand deception, the dirty deeds done by HYDRA looked practically as pure as an elementary schooler!
Looking at the colorful, shifting expressions on the faces of the Agents filling the hall and the HYDRA core members, Lu Chen couldn't help laughing out loud.
This situation was truly ironic.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had become a breeding ground for alien lizards, while HYDRA was reverse-penetrated by the one-eyed dragon without even realizing it, and two sets of self-important schemers were being played around in circles.
"Put in some effort to break free from the Nightmare Cage, Nick Fury." Lu Chen lowered his head to glance in the direction of the intensive care unit, a smile hanging on the corner of his mouth, "I'd really love to see what kind of expression you'll have when you wake up and face this bunch of subordinates."
The truth had already been tossed to them; as for whether S.H.I.E.L.D. would fall into civil war or tear off their masks next, Lu Chen didn't care in the least.
Lu Chen didn't stay any longer.
He raised his right hand and casually made a slashing motion in front of him.
Golden sparks spun rapidly in the air, a spacious spatial portal tearing open in the center of the hall, with the opposite side revealing the top-floor office of Vought Tower.
The long cord made of psychokinetic power dragged those four pale, lifeless Skrulls and threw them directly onto the carpet on the other side of the light door.
Lu Chen strode forward, stepping right into it in one stride.
The golden light door behind him rapidly shrank, closing into a small spark in the blink of an eye, and finally completely dissipated in the air, leaving behind only the dazed S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents filling the hall and the gloomy-faced HYDRA members.
Returning to the office.
The four Skrulls collapsed on the ground shivering; Lu Chen didn't even spare them a second glance, casually flicking out a psychokinetic barrier to lock them completely in the corner.
"Yuheng."
"I am here, Sir."
"Help me contact Dr. Banner." Lu Chen walked over to the liquor cabinet to pour a glass of whiskey, "Tell him I need his help."
Chapter 274: I Need Banner's Help
Three beeps sounded in the earpiece.
Then came the sound of the wind, along with the crisp splashing of waves hitting the shore rocks.
"Lu?" Bruce Banner's voice was laced with surprise, his tone retaining its habitual gentleness.
"It's me."
Lu Chen leaned against the edge of the desk, spinning the unfinished glass of whiskey in his hand.
The ice cubes clinked against the glass wall.
Finding Banner was not a spur-of-the-moment idea.
In the fields of genetics and radiation, very few people could steadily suppress Banner.
"Is there something you need from me?" Banner asked tentatively.
Lu Chen smiled, his tone candid: "To be honest with you, I do need a little help from you."
The other end of the phone fell silent for two seconds.
Then came Banner's long sigh.
"It seems my break is over." Banner's voice carried a helpless smile.
"Send someone to pick me up. You should know where I am."
"However, you'd better hurry. The bait I just cast all went to the fish at the bottom of the water; it's annoying to look at."
"Rest assured, it won't waste too much of your time."
The phone hung up.
Lu Chen put the phone on the desk and looked at his wrist.
Yuheng automatically pulled up Banner's real-time location.
The coordinates showed a remote lake in northern Canada.
He really knew how to pick a place.
Lu Chen put down the wine glass, raised his right hand, and drew a circle in front of his chest.
Kamar-Taj's mystic portal required precise spatial awareness.
He had neither visited nor seen this lake; in his mind were only the latitude, longitude, and satellite topographic map provided by Yuheng.
Golden sparks rubbed and jumped in the air, spinning slightly sluggishly.
Two seconds later.
The golden aperture completely stabilized, and a cool breeze carrying water vapor blew from the opposite side.
On the lake shore, Banner had just closed the latch of his tackle box, picked up his folding stool, and turned around.
The suddenly bursting golden sparks almost made him throw away the fishing gear in his hand.
The fire ring rotated steadily.
Standing in the modern office on the other side of the light door, Lu Chen raised an eyebrow at him.
Banner smiled and shook his head, holding his fishing rod and stepping across in large strides.
"I've never seen you capable of this kind of ability before."
Banner looked around the luxurious office furnishings, then turned back to look at the shrinking light door, his tone astonished.
"If Stark sees this, he'll probably lock himself in the Underground Room for three months to study it, and he'll definitely try to bootleg one out using an arc pulse."
Lu Chen waved his hand casually, and the golden firelight closed and dissipated.
"Want to learn?" Lu Chen pulled out a chair and sat down, "If you want to learn, I can just teach you how to take out a loan."
Banner chuckled twice, treating Lu Chen's words as a joke.
Take out a loan from whom? Surely not Citibank.
He placed the folding chair in his hand on the carpet, preparing to find a sofa to sit on.
But his gaze swept to the shadow in the corner of the office.
Four green figures, pressed tightly to the ground by invisible telekinesis, were shivering and curled up into a ball.
Shriveled, wrinkled pointed ears, chins covered with scale patterns, and gray-green skin.
This was definitely not an Earth species.
The smile on Banner's face slowly faded, and his brows knitted together.
He pointed at the four monsters and looked at Lu Chen.
"Is this the reason you asked me for help? They don't look very strong."
Banner unbuttoned the first button of his shirt collar, his face tightening and his breathing becoming heavy.
"Do you need me to transform now?"
"If Hulk comes out, the load-bearing pillars of this building might not be able to withstand a few hits, but taking care of these little guys won't take half a minute."
Looking at the gamma energy faintly rioting inside Banner, Lu Chen raised his hand and pressed down virtually.
"Relax, Dr. Banner, put the big guy away."
Lu Chen pointed to his own temple.
"This time what I need is Bruce Banner's brain, not Hulk's fists."
Banner's chest heaved as he massaged his temples, forcefully pressing the surging irritability back into the bottom of his heart.
Banner pulled out the swivel chair and sat down, his gaze still fixed on the four alien creatures in the corner.
"What are these things? Aliens? Distant relatives of the Chitauri?"
"Skrulls, wandering refugees in the Universe."
Lu Chen leaned against the back of the chair, his tone flat.
"Their home planet was invaded by the Kree Empire, and the remaining people drive broken spaceships wandering everywhere in the interstellar space."
"Decades ago, these vagrants were secretly brought back to Earth by Nick Fury."
Banner's eyes changed slightly: "Director Fury? S.H.I.E.L.D. is harboring alien refugees?"
"Harboring?"
Lu Chen twitched the corner of his mouth, his eyes turning cold.
"Fury treats this bunch of lizards as free suicide squads, and Skrulls also rely on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources to linger on Earth."
"But this bunch of alien scum has stayed on Earth for decades, and their guts have gradually grown fat."
Lu Chen picked up the wine glass and shook it, the ice cubes hitting the glass and making a crisp sound.
"These things have a natural racial talent."
"As long as they take a glance, they can one hundred percent mimic anyone's appearance, body shape, fingerprints, and corneas."
"Even read part of the memories and living habits on the target's brain surface."
Banner's pupils constricted, and he abruptly stood up from the chair.
"One hundred percent mimicry?"
As a top biologist, Banner knew all too well what this ability meant when thrown into human society.
"Once this ability infiltrates the core of human society, it is simply a guillotine hanging over everyone's neck!"
"That's right." Lu Chen looked at him.
"Relying on this skill, these lizards have secretly replaced many national political figures, intelligence chiefs, and chaebol executives."
"Now, their radical faction thinks Earth is very suitable to be their new home."
Lu Chen sneered.
"Not only do they want to usurp the nest, a couple of days ago they even reached into Vought Company and kidnapped a core scientist in charge of genetic engineering under me."
Banner stood in place, his chest heaving.
He took off his glasses to wipe them, and when he put them back on, the casualness in his eyes vanished completely.
"If it's an alien race with perfect mimicry capabilities, and they have already begun to infiltrate the core command... This is indeed a devastating disaster."
Banner turned his gaze to the four Skrulls on the ground.
"Ordinary infrared scanning, bone comparison, or even routine blood tests probably can't tell the real from the fake at all."
"That's why I need you."
Lu Chen straightened his body, crossing his hands and placing them on the desktop.
"You have seven doctoral degrees; no one in the World understands the underlying logic of extreme mutant cells better than you."
"No matter how much these lizards transform, their essence is still alien genes driving the body to change its structure."
"I need you to use these four living samples to develop a detector capable of one hundred percent identifying Skrulls."
Banner looked down at his own hands.
Lu Chen opposite him didn't_ask Hulk to charge into battle, but instead sought help from Bruce Banner's brain.
"A detector..."
Banner's brain spun rapidly.
"It needs to start from the telomerase structure inside the cell nucleus. When alien genes mimic human DNA, there must be subtle energy resonance defects."
"It might be necessary to use high-frequency gamma spectrum scanning, combined with a nanoscale flow cytometer..."
He muttered professional terminology and walked to the corner.
Squatting down, Banner pinched open the chin of one of the Skrulls, observing the discoloration reaction of its gums and tongue coating.
The Skrull was shaking all over with fright, whimpering in its throat, but was firmly welded in place by Lu Chen's telekinesis, unable to even bite its tongue to commit suicide.
"Give me a top-tier laboratory."
"Within three days, I can produce a preliminary data model."
Chapter 275: Of Different Stock
Banner stood up and turned to look at Lu Chen.
His expression turned extremely serious.
"However, before we make a move, there is a question I must figure out first."
Banner looked straight into Lu Chen's eyes.
"If this device is successfully developed and after screening all these lizards, what do you want to do?"
Lu Chen leaned back against the chair.
"Of different stock, their hearts must be different."
Lu Chen's voice was calm, yet the words he uttered exuded an unquestionable murderous intent.
"I want to completely drive them off this Planet."
Banner stood in place, staring at Lu Chen for a full five seconds.
He did not refute, nor did he say any nonsense about boundless love.
Having experienced the Military encirclement and betrayal, Banner was long no longer that naive bookworm.
"Good."
Meanwhile, inside S.H.I.E.L.D., it was a completely different scene.
Pierce raised his hand and swept all the folders on the desk onto the floor.
The paper pages scattered all over the ground with a rustling sound.
"Absurd! Simply sheer absurdity!"
Pierce pointed at Maria Hill standing at the office door, trembling with anger.
"Aliens! A bunch of green-skinned monsters who can casually turn into anyone's appearance! Right under our noses, lurking in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s core departments for over a decade!"
Hill stood straight by the door, not daring to speak while Pierce was in a fit of rage.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Director
She took the scolding aggrievedly, feeling extremely wronged inside, yet she could not refute a single word.
The memory images that Lu Chen had forcefully crammed into everyone's brains earlier were still crashing back and forth across her nerves until now.
Those lizards with green wrinkled skin not only freely entered and exited various confidential archives, but even under Nick Fury's instigation, carried out assassinations and body swaps worldwide.
Pierce pressed both hands on the edge of the desk, his chest heaving irregularly, his forehead covered with bulging blue veins.
On the surface, he was venting an old leader's Fury, but deep down, he had already cursed Fury's entire family to high heaven.
"Damn that one-eyed dragon!"
HYDRA had painstakingly lurked for decades, with generation after generation enduring humiliation and plotting, finally managing to infiltrate to this extent today.
As a result, that bastard Nick Fury was even more extreme, directly leading a nest of alien monsters back from outer space as a private army!
If Lu Chen hadn't come knocking today to tear open this layer of rotten meat, even if HYDRA truly took over S.H.I.E.L.D. according to plan in the future, what they got might just be an empty shell crawling with alien lizards.
The more Pierce thought about it, the more scared he became; he picked up the coffee cup at hand and smashed it fiercely against the corner of the wall.
With a crisp snap, fragments shattered everywhere.
"He is betraying the agency, no! That's treason! No! Fucking hell, this is betraying Earth!"
Pierce breathed heavily, staring fiercely at Hill.
"Under the pretext of protecting humanity, he used alien creatures to consolidate his personal power, and S.H.I.E.L.D. has become his personal guard!"
Hill lowered her head, her voice very dry: "Director Fury is currently still in the intensive care unit, in a deep coma, sir."
"It makes no difference whether he wakes up or not!"
Pierce sneered, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.
"Five minutes ago, I officially reported to the World Security Council. The council unanimously passed a resolution confirming that Nick Fury has lost the capacity to fulfill his duties, formally revoking his position as Director, with me, the former Director, temporarily taking full charge!"
Hill's eyelids twitched, and she didn't dare utter a sound.
Pierce walked around the desk, strode up to Hill, and raised his hand to poke Hill's shoulder.
"From now on, you take over frontline command."
Pierce's tone was as cold as iron: "I have only two requirements. First, immediately think of an effective method to distinguish who is a Skrull and who is a true human. Second, dig out all those scum who escaped from the Triskelion for me across the World!"
Hill's mouth tasted bitter, and she couldn't help speaking: "Mr. Pierce, Mr. Lu should have taken away all four remaining Skrulls in the building just now. We don't have living samples in our hands, not even tissue slices, so we simply don't have any data for reference..."
"That is your problem, Deputy Director!"
Pierce interrupted her on the spot, his eyes ferocious: "I don't want to hear excuses. If you can't find a way, who knows if Vought Company will leak the news of S.H.I.E.L.D. being hollowed out by aliens to the media tomorrow! By that time, no one can protect you!"
"Understood, Officer."
Hill took a deep breath and straightened her back.
She turned and walked out of the Director's office.
The heavy bulletproof door closed behind her, and the seriousness on Hill's face instantly collapsed, leaving only a piece of exhausted fatigue.
How to find them? Where to find them?
Lu Chen patted his butt and left cleanly and neatly, cutting off all clues completely.
Now everyone in the entire Triskelion felt imperiled; meeting acquaintances in the corridor and greeting them, their eyes were full of suspicion and guard, and even shaking hands made them guess whether the other party was transformed from a green-skinned monster.
This battle simply cannot be fought.
Hill walked back quickly to her office and locked the door behind her.
She slumped into the leather chair, raising her hand to massage her swollen temples, her brain as messy as a ball of hemp thread.
Since there were no samples or laboratory reports, the only breakthrough could only be Fury's deep memories previously shared by Lu Chen.
Hill closed her eyes, forcing herself to go through those messy images again.
Fury gave orders to the Skrulls in the dark Underground Room.
The Skrulls changed their faces in front of him.
The writhing of muscle fibers, the contraction and reorganization of bones...
Suddenly, Hill's eyelids trembled violently.
In a certain corner of the memory, a Skrull Agent had once cut his finger at Fury's request before executing an infiltration mission.
What flowed out was red blood.
That mimicry was extremely sophisticated, able to forge even human blood in the superficial capillaries.
But in another memory image, it was not like that.
That was a secret firefight.
An unlucky Skrull Agent had their chest pierced by a large-caliber rifle bullet.
Spouting out from deep within the wound was a large mass of green bodily fluid!
Hill abruptly opened her eyes.
Found it!
For minor superficial scratches, Skrulls could control capillaries to release human blood through mimicry.
But as long as they encountered penetrating wounds, deep punctures, or internal organ damage, their mimicry would be disrupted by the body's stress mechanism, revealing their original green blood!
Hill grabbed the confidential phone on the desk, but her fingers hovered above the keys, hesitating to press down.
This weakness was indeed useful, but S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't go around stabbing everyone in the World with knives.
Furthermore, whether the current headquarters internal network was still safe was something no one could say for sure.
She must find someone completely detached from the headquarters system.
An absolute confidant who was completely clean and absolutely impossible to be replaced by an alien.
Chapter 276: Coulson Strikes!
A face always wearing a gentle smile surfaced in Hill's mind.
Phil Coulson.
During the Battle of New York, Coulson's chest was pierced by Loki with a scepter, and theoretically, he should have been dead long ago.
But to save this capable subordinate, Nick Fury activated a top-secret project codenamed GH-325.
Hill had seen that top-secret file with her own eyes.
That was the corpse of an ancient Kree stored in a secret Base, having been dead for who knows how many years.
The researchers extracted a highly concentrated alien fluid from the corpse's tissue and injected it into Coulson's body, literally dragging the dead man back from hell.
The resurrection surgery was as cruel as a torture, and Coulson suffered mental breakdowns on the operating table several times.
To allow him to live normally, Fury ordered all his memories of Death and resurrection to be wiped, implanting only a false subconsciousness of recuperating on a vacation in Tahiti.
After waking up, Coulson was let out by Fury to form an independent mobile team, running all over the World in a modified transport plane codenamed "The Bus," specifically responsible for investigating alien remnant technology and unknown Superpower events.
This squad had just been put together not long ago and hadn't even fully connected to the headquarters' intranet.
He should be the cleanest blade at present.
Hill picked up the red top-secret hotline on the desk and dialed a hidden channel.
A gentle and steady male voice came from the earpiece: "I am Coulson."
Novice Village Chief
"Phil, it's me."
Hill lowered her voice: "Find an absolutely safe place and turn on the highest-level anti-eavesdropping mode."
The earpiece went quiet for a few seconds, followed by the dull sound of a metal cabin door closing.
"Hill? What happened at headquarters?"
Coulson's voice carried doubt: "I just looked at the internal briefing, and the defense system of the Triskelion was once completely locked down."
"Something big has happened, a matter of heaven-shaking proportions."
Hill rubbed the space between her eyebrows, her voice revealing an unshakeable exhaustion.
"Nick has fallen, and Pierce is now acting as Director."
Coulson's voice suddenly sank: "What happened to the Director? Is the injury severe?"
"That guy Lu Chen did it. The Director is currently in deep coma in the intensive care unit, with severe cranial nerve damage."
Hill interrupted his inquiry: "That's not the point. The point is... Lu Chen exposed a secret at the Triskelion. Nick raised a group of alien creatures inside S.H.I.E.L.D. who can transform into anyone, called Skrulls."
The other end of the earpiece fell into a long silence, leaving only the low roar of the transport plane's engine.
"... Aliens?"
Coulson's tone was full of disbelief: "Nick? How is this possible?"
"I saw the memories in Nick's brain with my own eyes, this is a fact, Phil."
Hill spoke extremely fast: "Right now, the whole S.H.I.E.L.D. is in utter chaos, the lurking Skrulls backbone have all fled, and Lu Chen took away four captives. I need you to launch an investigation immediately."
"Investigate what?"
"Investigate why Lu Chen suddenly came into conflict with the Skrulls."
Hill's eyes turned fierce: "Also, use the resources at your hand to track down those Skrulls that evacuated from headquarters. Since they have escaped, they will definitely establish new Bases."
Coulson sighed on the other end of the phone, a heavy sigh that Hill rarely got to hear.
"I understand, Deputy Director."
Coulson said softly: "We will do our best."
"The confidentiality agreement is raised to level ten. Except for the people in your squad, do not disclose it to anyone. Hanging up."
The phone's dial tone sounded, and the communication was cut off.
Inside the command cabin of the large modified transport plane.
Holding the hung-up microphone, Coulson stood in place for half a minute.
He raised his hand to rub his sore bridge of the nose, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
The sunshine and beaches of Tahiti seemed to still be swaying before his eyes, but the bit of peace in his heart was torn to pieces after this phone call.
He turned around, stepped down the spiral staircase, walked through the corridor, and came to the lower active area of the transport plane.
The door of the cockpit was open, and Melinda May, with a capable bun, was staring intently at the instrument panel.
Mei
This Asian woman codenamed "The Cavalry" had once been S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top field Agent.
And in front of the central console, a young girl wearing a leather jacket and messy curly hair had her feet propped up on the table, her fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboards of two modified laptops.
She was Skye, a hacker genius wandering among the people, who had been fished out of a broken van by Coulson not long ago.
Shockwave
In the mobile laboratory not far away, two young men and women wearing white lab coats were arguing fiercely over the ratio of a certain chemical reagent.
Leo Fitz
Jemma Simmons
Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, the youngest graduates in S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy history, were a pair of geniuses gifted in mechanical engineering and biochemistry.
Near the pull-up bar by the door, the tall and stern-looking Grant Ward was doing one-armed pull-ups, his camouflage vest more than half soaked with sweat.
He was a tactical expert specially poached by Coulson from the Field Operations Department.
Hearing Coulson's footsteps, several people stopped their actions completely.
Skye put her feet down from the table and twirled the carbon pen in her hand: "Officer, your complexion doesn't look too good."
Ward let go of the pull-up bar and landed steadily, grabbed a towel to wipe his sweat, and looked over with vigilant eyes.
Fitz and Simmons also put down the test tubes in their hands and pushed up their glasses somewhat nervously.
Coulson glanced around at these team members he had painstakingly handpicked.
The team had just finished forming, and even the first round of integration training hadn't been completed yet.
He adjusted his suit tie, putting on his signature amiable smile once again, but his voice was exceptionally solemn.
"Guys, stop whatever you have on hand."
Coulson clapped his hands, his voice echoing through the cabin.
"Headquarters just issued the highest-level transfer order. A big case has arrived, a big case concerning the safety of the entire World."
Skye raised an eyebrow, Ward's eyes narrowed slightly, and Mei poked her head out from the cockpit.
Coulson stroded toward the main screen, took a deep breath, and turned back to look at the crowd with their varied expressions.
"This is also our squad's first official mission."
Coulson reached out and slammed his hand heavily onto the reddish-brown start button on the console, his gaze sweeping across every single face.
"Let's go, guys, time to work."