Chapter 69 Taking Stock of the Gains
"She's an agent?"
Tony was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Natasha, who didn't refute him. His face looked as if he'd eaten shit—worse than swallowing a fly. He continued,
"Very well, you're fired!"
Natasha shrugged, looking indifferent. Actually, her missions these past few days had been quite easy. No fighting, just simple intelligence gathering, reporting on Tony's behavior, and doing a personality analysis.
Pepper, on the other hand, looked incredulous, covering her mouth with her hand, and asked Natasha,
"Natasha, you really…"
"I'm sorry, Miss Pepper!" Natasha still had a very good impression of Pepper and didn't want their relationship to deteriorate, so she explained, "I was just responsible for evaluating Tony Stark; there was nothing else to it."
Even so, Pepper was still furious. The person she'd promoted to be her closest confidante was an agent; it made her feel like a fool.
Therefore, she had no objection to Tony's decision, after all, she was Natasha's true boss.
Rhodes, standing to the side, stared blankly at the scene. He knew the least information, but his excellent observation skills allowed him to roughly understand the situation. However, his position made it inappropriate for him to get involved, so he changed the subject, saying,
"So, what should we do next?"
This question immediately silenced the room. The horrific battlefield around them was shocking, and countless wounded were awaiting rescue.
"Leave it to us,"
Natasha stepped forward and said. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s duty was to maintain world stability behind the scenes; these matters were their responsibility to handle.
Natasha then went to the side and called Nick Fury again, reporting Finney's answer and explaining the surrounding situation.
"I understand. Someone will be there to take over soon,"
Nick Fury replied calmly over the phone. Finney's willingness to make contact relieved him somewhat, but he still couldn't rest easy until he truly assessed the extent of Finney's threat.
While Natasha was making the call, Finney was also secretly assessing the gains from the battle, and the results were somewhat disappointing.
That previous 'Explosion Magic' had destroyed at least four or five hundred robots, if not six hundred, and he had immediately checked his experience bar with excitement.
But he discovered that it only amounted to about ten Mordos, which meant that fifty robots were roughly equivalent to one Mordo!?
Garbage, inferior stuff!
Later, when he preemptively attacked Ivan, he hadn't been without the thought of testing whether Ivan's death would grant him more experience.
Since Ivan was rescued by Hydra, Finney no longer considered him the simple old man seeking revenge on Tony. Hydra wasn't some charitable organization.
Would they help him create so many robots without a price?!
So, Finney didn't have many thoughts about killing Ivan. Unfortunately, the guy's vitality was too tenacious, and he even self-destructed in the end. Moreover, the key point was that the experience gained from the battle afterward wasn't much.
Only about five Mordos, far less than Obadiah had.
Was it because Ivan's death was mainly due to his own actions?
Finney couldn't understand. In the end, he still didn't understand the system's experience calculation algorithm, which made him sigh. He had been busy for half a day, but the gains were not much, and he had more doubts, which was really annoying.
However, no matter what, he still gained fifteen Mordos' worth of experience, which was still something to be happy about, especially since Mordo had started avoiding him recently and even secretly asked others to bring him fried chicken wraps.
That was outrageous!
As the absolute owner of Kamar-Taj, Finney felt it was necessary to stop this bad trend. If you want to eat, you should say it out loud. What kind of proper mage would do it sneakily?
While Finney was thinking about the Mordo problem, Natasha also finished her phone call and returned, informing them that someone would be coming to handle things soon.
"Alright, I'll head back to report on the mission then."
With the battle over, Rhodey, as 'War Machine,' although his armor was a gift from Tony, was nominally still under military control.
Therefore, he had to report and register every operation.
"Let's chat again sometime!"
Finney greeted Rhodey. He had originally wanted to treat Rhodey to some of his 'Violet Chicken Wraps,' but with Natasha present, he dared not reveal it.
This was the only place in Manhattan's Upper East Side, or even in the entire universe; even without knowing his name, anyone who saw it would immediately guess his identity.
Afterwards, Rhodey drove War Machine away, leaving four people on the field.
"I'm leaving too."
Because his name had been revealed, and the experience gained wasn't satisfactory, Finney wasn't in the mood to linger. Besides, he hadn't even explained why he'd left Skye in Kamar-Taj; given her temper, if he didn't quickly explain, she would definitely throw a tantrum.
"Our boss said he'll come see you as soon as possible,"
Natasha said to him before leaving. It seemed today's battle had quite a shock on the director.
Actually, Finney didn't know that it wasn't just Nick Fury; his actions had a significant impact on the entire world. The Ancient One's words seemed to be slowly taking effect.
…
Kamar-Taj.
When Finney dispelled the 'possession' and arrived at Kamar-Taj, it didn't cause much of a stir, as it was still 2 AM, and almost no sorcerers would be online or out at that time.
However, just because sorcerers wouldn't be online didn't mean Skye wouldn't.
When Finney returned to his room, he immediately saw Skye watching the battle on her computer. The unofficial version had a poor camera angle, but it was still quite impressive.
Finney was curious about what the scene looked like from other people's perspectives, so he remained silent and quietly stood behind Skye, watching along.
In the video, he stood in mid-air, outstretched his hand, his white cloak billowing in the wind, his silver 'Demon Possessed' armor gleaming in the sunlight. Even Finney herself was almost stunned by his handsomeness!
The video continued until the robot self-destructed, the explosion like a firecracker making the danger palpable even through the screen.
"Alright, stop watching, let's go back!"
Finney finally spoke up as Skye prepared to find the next video, startling her.
However, Skye seemed used to being frightened, her heart resilient, and she recovered instantly.
She immediately turned around and hugged Finney tightly, then carefully checked her over to make sure she was alright, before seemingly letting out a sigh of relief. Then, huffing, she said, "If you dare do that again, I'll...I'll..."
She hesitated for a long time, unable to come up with an effective threat, which made Finney chuckle.
"Alright!" Finney patted Skye's head, smiling as he assured her, "It was my fault. I should have explained it to you. The situation was a bit urgent this time. It won't happen again."
Although he said that, Finney knew in his heart that if New York were still in great danger next time, he would still open a portal to send Skye away immediately.
Meow meow meow~ Please join p4treon?
Read 50+ advanced chapters at p4treon...
[email protected]/Horizons685
(End of this chapter)