Ten minutes earlier, in the Director's office of the Triskelion, Nick Fury was on the phone, his brow furrowed in concentration.
"Coulson, put the Stark assignment on hold for now. Get yourself to New Mexico. We've detected an atmospheric anomaly—something extraterrestrial appears to have entered Earth's airspace."
Hanging up, he paused to consider his next move before dialing another number.
"Wolverine, what's the situation with Dr. Banner?"
"Just entered Grayburn College in Manhattan," a gruff, gravelly voice replied from the other end.
"But let's get one thing straight, Fury. If he turns into that big green guy and starts hurting innocent people, I'll step in. Otherwise, I'm not going to help you kidnap a kind-hearted doctor."
"That won't be necessary," Fury countered smoothly.
"SHIELD doesn't just go around abducting people. We'd much prefer it if he collaborated with us of his own free will."
Logan let out a cynical snort but didn't push the point.
"Fine. I'm at the gate. The security guard is giving me looks, so I've gotta stub out this cigar before I head in."
Hearing the line go dead, Fury set down his encrypted phone and leaned back in his chair. Life had been hectic lately.
Tony Stark was suffering from palladium poisoning due to his arc reactor; Fury had been forced to intervene personally to manage the fallout, leaving Coulson and Black Widow behind to keep an eye on him.
Now, with the New Mexico anomaly, he'd had to redirect Coulson and Hawkeye.
On top of that, Dr. Bruce Banner was in New York. If the Hulk made an appearance, the city was in for a nightmare.
To make matters worse, General Ross was breathing down their necks with a small army, obsessed with capturing Banner for research.
Fortunately, Logan—who was back to his stable self after receiving a specialized anti-toxin—was on-site to monitor Banner.
However, Wolverine wasn't a SHIELD agent; his temperament was loose and unpredictable. He wouldn't follow orders blindly.
Just as Fury was mapping out the logistics, an emergency line buzzed. It was Agent Hill.
"Director, the target—code name 'King Kong'—has been spotted near Stark Tower!"
"What!" Fury bolted upright like a coiled spring.
"Quick, get Black Widow to make contact! Tell her to hold him there at all costs!"
Natasha Romanoff was currently embedded at Stark Industries as Pepper Potts' secretary, keeping a close eye on Tony's health and Pepper's safety.
Since she was already familiar with the target, she was the fastest and most logical choice to intercept him without causing a scene.
"King Kong"—the high-level SHIELD code name for Goku. His file was under the strictest lock and key; aside from a handful of Level 7 agents and above, no one knew the details.
A year ago, after realizing that the "Seven Dragon Balls" weren't just a fairy tale but a potential reality for granting wishes, Fury had mobilized the entire organization to find Goku and the spheres.
The result?
Zero.
Goku had vanished as if he had never existed.
Fury had begun to suspect the boy had left Earth entirely.
In his eyes, Goku wasn't human; he was an extraterrestrial from another star system, and the Dragon Balls were likely a highly advanced form of alien technology.
Because they had previously scanned a Dragon Ball and recorded its unique energy signature, SHIELD had developed a specialized detector.
It could pinpoint a Dragon Ball within a one-kilometer radius. However, since the spheres had scattered globally, finding them remained a needle-in-a-haystack operation.
In a year of searching, they had only found one. And that was only because it happened to land right in New York.
"Director, we're too late," Hill's voice crackled over the speaker, dampening his excitement.
"The target took off on a cloud immediately after appearing."
"A cloud? Hill, tell me you're joking."
A cloud?
Scientifically speaking, a cloud is a visible mass of condensed water vapor or ice crystals floating in the atmosphere.
It looks solid but can't support even an ounce of weight. Any person trying to sit on one would fall right through. Every elementary schooler knew that.
"Director, it's real. We have surveillance footage, and dozens of civilians caught it on their phones. It's already trending online," Hill replied, sounding equally frustrated.
"Moreover, that cloud's velocity exceeded Mach 2.5—faster than an F-22 Raptor. We couldn't maintain a lock. We've lost him."
Flying on a cloud was vastly different from a jet or even Iron Man's suit. Machines have heat signatures and metal bodies that reflect radar waves.
When Tony Stark flew to the Middle East to hit the Ten Rings, the military's radar picked him up on the return flight.
But a boy on a cloud?
To a radar, that was no different from a slightly large bird. Tracking him at those speeds was nearly impossible with current tech.
"Faster than a Raptor..."
Fury's eye twitched. He was convinced that the cloud was some form of hyper-advanced stealth craft—tech so far beyond Earth's comprehension that their sensors couldn't even register it as a machine.
"Divert satellite coverage. Alert agents in every major city. If he's spotted, report it immediately. But—" Fury's voice turned icy.
"No one makes contact without my express command."
Goku wasn't a typical alien. He was an entity capable of transforming into a "Great Ape" that could level an army with ease. If handled poorly, he was more dangerous than the Hulk.
Most importantly, Fury's understanding of Goku was based largely on conjecture.
Why was he here?
Was it an accidental landing or a deliberate probe by an interstellar civilization?
Were his stories true, or was the "Wish-Granting Dragon" a cover for something more calculated?
He was excited, but deeply wary. Contact had to be handled with surgical precision.
As Fury sat back to refine his plan, the shrill, piercing scream of the base-wide alarm shattered his thoughts.
"An intruder? In the Triskelion?"
A look of genuine surprise crossed his face. What idiot spy would be bold enough—or stupid enough—to infiltrate SHIELD headquarters? It was a death wish.
He pressed a button on his desk, pulling up the live security feed. When the image of the intruder appeared on his screen, the Director of SHIELD froze.
His face went pale, his single eye widening in disbelief as he stared at the small boy in the orange gi walking calmly through the 33rd floor.