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*****
Five days passed, and Pietro and Wanda's progress once again faintly astonished him. After all, they had only acquired their abilities a dozen or so days ago.
"Not bad, not bad. Looks like you guys haven't been slacking off these past few days!"
Deactivating the Mirror Dimension, Fini looked at Wanda and Pietro in front of him and couldn't help but voice a few words of praise. At this rate, they would be completely free to move around in another week at most.
Exhausted to the point of not wanting to move, Pietro and Wanda remained silent. Though they could also feel their own progress, they still couldn't see even a glimmer of hope for victory when facing Fini.
This naturally caused a great deal of frustration to well up in their hearts.
Observing their expressions, Fini figured out what they were thinking with a moment's thought. He said speechlessly, "Alright, alright, don't look so depressed. There's no shame in losing to me. Even in the entire Nine Realms, there are at most three or four people who can beat me."
Hearing Fini's words, Pietro and Wanda exchanged a glance. Although their mood improved slightly, they were still very frustrated. After all, how strong their opponent was was their opponent's business, but how weak they were was their own.
Fini wasn't one to enjoy comforting others, and letting them take a bit of a blow could also motivate them to improve. Thus, he didn't say much more and prepared to leave.
"That's it for today. The next session will still be five days from now. Be prepared!"
After saying that, Fini left the ward, gave Helen Cho a quick notice, opened a portal, and returned home.
However, the instant he stepped out of the portal, he immediately sensed that something was wrong because he smelled a thick, pungent scent of blood.
"Incursio!"
Fini didn't hesitate for a second. He immediately summoned and equipped 'Incursio,' then followed the scent to the living room, only to find a person lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
"The poached egg!?"
Looking at the figure staining the floor red, Fini's expression beneath the visor was extremely shocked. He had never expected this kind of situation.
Not staying shocked for long, Fini quickly rushed to Nick Fury's side to check his injuries. He found several fist-sized holes in his body, which were slowly healing.
As if sensing Fini's movements, Nick Fury regained consciousness. Seeing it was Fini dressed in 'Incursio,' the tension in his eyes instantly relaxed.
"That potion is indeed quite effective. Got any more?"
Hearing Nick Fury's words, Fini couldn't help but roll his eyes, but he still took out a bottle of healing potion from his space, uncorked it, poured it down Fury's throat, and said, "That bottle before was a gift. This bottle is going to cost you."
"Can I place a wholesale order!?"
Looking at Nick Fury, who was still in the mood to chat, Fini felt that these injuries were clearly still not severe enough.
After feeding him the potion, Fini helped him sit up on the sofa. As he went to look for the medical kit, he asked, "What happened to you?"
Hearing Fini's question, Nick Fury's face turned ashen, and he replied, "I was assassinated!"
"Hydra!?"
Fini was stunned, clearly not expecting things to still develop according to the original plot line. He couldn't help but ask again, "By a guy with a metal arm?"
This time, it was Nick Fury's turn to be stunned. He gave Fini a somewhat surprised look and replied, "No. It was a woman who can walk through walls, turn invisible, stick her hand inside your stomach, and grab your intestines!"
"So it's her!"
Based on Nick Fury's description, Fini instantly knew who the opponent was.
This girl's father used to be one of the colleagues of Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man. He was also a top talent researching the Quantum Realm, but a failed experiment ended up blowing his entire family up.
The only surviving daughter, Ava Starr, suffered some bodily issues because of the experimental explosion. She was later taken in by SHIELD--or rather, Hydra--and trained into an agent.
But Fini certainly hadn't expected Ghost to come and assassinate Nick Fury. This development was truly a bit out of his expectations.
Nick Fury had long grown accustomed to Fini's sources of information. Watching Fini deactivate 'Incursio' and walk over with the medical kit, he spoke up to warn him, "She knows I'm not dead. She might find her way here. Be careful!"
"So you just exposed me like that!?"
Hearing this, Fini gave Nick Fury an annoyed glare. Although he no longer cared that much about his identity being exposed, less trouble was obviously always better.
With the magical potion from Asgard, even such severe injuries didn't claim Nick Fury's life. After briefly helping him bandage up, Fini began to usher him out.
"Alright, where do you want to go next? I can give you a free ride."
"Fu..."
Covered in blood, Nick Fury heard Fini's words and instinctively wanted to drop his catchphrase. But under that threatening gaze, he forced it back down and asked with a face full of disbelief, "In my condition, you're kicking me out!?"
"How can you call it kicking out? I'm doing this so you can hurry back and get your revenge!" Fini corrected him with a completely straight face.
"SHIELD is almost completely infiltrated!"
Nick Fury clearly intended to overstay his welcome. His backside remained firmly planted on the sofa as he said, "Right now, besides you, I don't know who else I can trust."
"No problem, I can recommend a few people for you to trust!"
Fini wasn't buying his act at all and said immediately, "Your deputy, Hill, can be trusted. Hawkeye Barton and Natasha can also be trusted. Oh, right, and Coulson, he's trustworthy too."
"See? That's plenty of people. Speak up, whose house do you want to go to?"
Regarding the few people Fini mentioned, Nick Fury first silently committed them to memory, and then rejected the idea out of hand once more, "They are all out on missions. I don't know their locations!"
"..."
Fini looked speechlessly at Nick Fury, who clearly intended to crash at his place. He sighed with a headache and asked, "So, what exactly do you want?"
Hearing Fini's words, Nick Fury's expression turned grave. He said seriously, "They have made their move. I'm out of time. Help me!"
"Sigh!"
Fini let out a sigh. Honestly, he hadn't expected Hydra to strike first either. The present situation was completely different from the original plot line. Back then, Hydra had already planned to step onto the public stage, which was why they moved against Nick Fury.
But what was the situation now? Zola was gone, the Winter Soldier corps was almost gone, and Whitehall's faction was completely wiped out. Logically speaking, it should have been too late for them to hide, so how did they still dare to be this arrogant!?
Thinking of this, Fini couldn't help but look at Nick Fury.
If he wasn't guessing wrong, some of Nick Fury's actions must have provoked Hydra, forcing them to make a move. Otherwise, given their current situation, they wouldn't risk such a massive gamble to expose themselves.
While Fini was getting a headache over the issue with Nick Fury...
On the other side, having failed the assassination, Hydra was also mobilizing all its forces to frantically search for Nick Fury's location. Just as Fini thought, the risk of their operation this time was immense, so they had to succeed.
"Found him!"
At SHIELD headquarters, the effect of utilizing all available resources and power was terrifyingly formidable. Even though Nick Fury had tried his absolute best to hide, some traces of him were still discovered.
"Go to this location immediately!"
After confirming the spot, Sitwell sent the coordinates to Ava Starr at the very first moment, terrified that Nick Fury might escape again. But just as he finished sending the message and checked the data on this house, he couldn't help but freeze.