Chapter 148: Infiltrating the SHIELD Director's Safe House
In Nick Fury's assessment, Batman—possessing tremendous power while operating completely outside SHIELD's monitoring and the judicial system—presented a danger potentially greater than the Lizard Professor or the Hulk themselves.
Batman had unilaterally disposed of America's super-human assets—or threats—without authorization.
Nick Fury needed to determine Batman's objectives and where he'd taken these individuals.
As SHIELD's director, Nick Fury should have been stationed aboard the offshore Helicarrier headquarters, coordinating global threats.
But while tracking Green Goblin Norman Osborn's whereabouts, following clues to Ravencroft Institute, Fury had discovered another party had extracted Osborn first.
No need to explain all this to Tony Stark. Nick Fury had directly blamed Batman for the Green Goblin's disappearance.
Similarly, the Hulk, Lizard Professor, and Doctor Octopus—three super-criminals who'd vanished in New York, especially Doctor Octavius whom SHIELD had already begun planning gradual cooperation with—prompted Nick Fury to believe SHIELD must accelerate investigating Batman.
Under necessary circumstances, they needed to prepare for confrontation with Batman.
Precisely at this moment, Tony Stark returning from the Middle East announced closing his weapons division, immediately cutting off SHIELD's high-end weapons supply.
Based on Agent Phil Coulson's meeting scheduled with Tony's assistant Pepper at Tony Stark's press conference following his return, Tony had continuously refused seeing Coulson, citing busy schedules.
The mighty SHIELD director, Level Ten Agent Nick Fury, could only come here personally, departing SHIELD's regular communication channels, handling this matter in the most secretive manner possible.
However, Nick Fury underestimated Tony Stark's determination—or rather, his stubbornness.
Despite Nick Fury presenting facts and evidence, Tony Stark showed absolutely no intention of restarting the weapons division or continuing weapons development for SHIELD.
"If there's nothing else, Director Fury," Tony Stark said dismissively, "head home and rest. You're getting older. Need more sleep."
Setting aside that closing the weapons division represented a decision Tony Stark had made countless times while in the Middle East—
Tony Stark's escape from the Middle East succeeded thanks to Yinsen's help, his own armor, Peter Parker's secretly transmitted map data, and Peter Parker's online dog execution information providing crucial assistance.
Regarding this indirect lifesaver, Tony Stark completely ignored Nick Fury's various threats, in one ear and out the other.
Compared to supplying weapons to SHIELD for use against Batman, Tony Stark's current priority was returning to his workshop to address Mark II's first flight deficiencies one by one, upgrading it to Mark III.
Nick Fury stared at Tony Stark with his single eye, remaining silent for half a minute. The cigar in his mouth produced wisps of white smoke, concealing his expressionless face.
"Very well, Tony Stark." Nick Fury stood, heading toward the sitting room exit.
Tony Stark watched Nick Fury's retreating back intently. Just as the man reached the door preparing to leave, he turned back.
"Before coming, I investigated this villa. Although equipped with a helipad, you Tony Stark haven't stationed a private aircraft here."
"What was that noise earlier?"
Tony Stark's Mark II armor landing on the villa helipad hadn't gone smoothly. The armor had crashed directly into the ground, tumbling all the way into the garage.
That commotion hadn't escaped Nick Fury's notice. But Tony Stark had no intention of explaining further.
"Really? I didn't hear anything."
Nick Fury shook his head, unwilling to waste another word on this man. He departed, heading toward Manhattan, New York.
SHIELD maintained safe houses worldwide, each hidden beneath different cover identities, providing assistance for SHIELD agents executing missions.
These locations contained dedicated advanced servers, fiber optics and cables, sufficient food and water supplies.
Nick Fury's New York residence was precisely such a place—near an utterly ordinary-looking office building in Manhattan, concealed inside what appeared to be a dilapidated warehouse.
"Before rashly traveling to Wyoming, to what appears to be a Hydra stronghold, I can use another method to obtain information about that location."
Inside the Manhattan Batcave, Batman had attempted multiple methods without locating the base hidden in Wyoming's desert. That location seemed completely isolated from the outside world. Even Batman couldn't hack in remotely.
This posed no problem for Batman.
During Norman Osborn's rampage transforming into the Green Goblin beneath Oscorp Tower's third sublevel, SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson had attempted using the Bat-Signal to attract Batman for a meeting.
But Batman's conclusion at that time—meeting with Agent Coulson wouldn't provide additional intelligence. Compared to meeting him directly, hacking SHIELD offered superior information gathering.
Since then, Batman had continuously monitored daily logs Coulson transmitted to SHIELD, knowing Coulson had never left New York, constantly waiting for the right opportunity to meet Batman.
Now Batman intended to give him that opportunity, attempting to extract information about the Cube prison from this Level Eight agent possessing considerable SHIELD clearance.
Habitually hacking SHIELD's systems, Batman planned to directly locate Agent Phil Coulson's contact information while checking whether SHIELD possessed any vibranium research records.
Batman recalled previously searching CIA systems for this world's extraordinary powers, obtaining partial information about Captain America, including his vibranium shield.
This indicated vibranium—this seemingly indestructible metal—possessed processing potential.
Rather than experimenting point by point himself, Batman didn't mind directly utilizing existing information.
But before finding vibranium data, another SHIELD system anomaly caught Batman's keen attention.
Batman discovered a normally highly active encrypted channel in the Helicarrier region had briefly disappeared. Almost simultaneously, this high-level encrypted channel's activity appeared in Manhattan.
This indicated someone possessing extremely high SHIELD clearance had used physical isolation measures entering New York—possibly an armored vehicle capable of blocking electronic reconnaissance, possibly an aircraft.
"Barbara, hack New York's power authority network. Exclude normal electrical usage and network infrastructure. Extract network nodes and power terminals added to New York within twenty-four hours."
Batman's voice rumbled low. Then, rapidly searching through the massive information Oracle AI provided, after locking onto one area he issued another command.
"Barbara, observe abnormal bird flight patterns in that region. Simultaneously simulate infrared or microwave motion sensor ranges at this location."
"Hack New York's surveillance system. Don't query monitoring footage—instead locate all cameras covered, modified, or destroyed within twenty-four hours."
One hour later, inside the Manhattan safe house disguised as an abandoned warehouse, Nick Fury passed through multiple defensive perimeters entering. His gaze scrutinized the floor and ceiling cautiously, even utilizing dim light to observe dust particle suspension trajectories in the air.
One second, two seconds.
Just as Nick Fury discovered the safe house had been penetrated by an unknown party and prepared to evacuate, a batarang flew from shadow, grazing his ear before embedding heavily in the door behind him with a sharp thunk, slamming it shut.
WHOOSH!
Nick Fury instantly crouched, right hand grabbing the pistol at his waist while his left hand rapidly flipped up his eyepatch, palming a small explosive concealed in his eye socket.
"Who are you?" Nick Fury asked in a steady voice, every alarm bell ringing in his mind. He knew he'd encountered the greatest adversary of his entire life.
The opponent had somehow bypassed SHIELD's multiple defensive layers locating this place, entering the safe house without triggering any security systems, waiting for him to walk into the trap.
Nick Fury rapidly forced himself to remain calm, pressing his body against the closed door, prepared to throw that explosive at any moment.
Rustle. Whisper.
From the darkness, a pitch-black figure slowly materialized in vague outline. Nick Fury strained his vision, able only to discern the opponent possessed a pair of sharp, pointed ears.