Ethan Blake didn't have to wait long. About half a month later, his phone rang, and when he answered it, Phil Coulson's voice came through the line.
"Mr. Blake, the hammer you mentioned last time… it's appeared in New Mexico. May I ask what exactly this hammer is?"
Coulson had done him a favor by calling, so Ethan felt it would be a little rude to refuse to explain anything at all. He thought for a moment before answering.
"That hammer is called Mjolnir," Ethan said calmly. "It's the weapon of Thor."
"Thor?" Coulson repeated quickly. "You mean the Thor from Norse mythology?"
His tone carried clear urgency.
Coulson remembered the conversation Ethan had once had with Nick Fury inside Ethan's home. Ethan had mentioned that Asgard protected Earth from alien invasions. After that day, Coulson had gone out of his way to research Norse mythology. Among those legends, the thunder god Thor was one of the most famous figures.
"Yes," Ethan replied casually. "That Thor."
"Then why has it appeared on Earth?" Coulson asked immediately.
"Obviously it didn't come down here on its own," Ethan said, sounding unconcerned. "Anyway, I'll head to New Mexico later. See you there."
The moment he finished speaking, Ethan hung up the phone.
He knew perfectly well that if he stayed on the line any longer, Coulson would continue asking questions endlessly like a curious child. Ending the call early was simply the easiest solution.
Not long after, Ethan prepared to leave.
He had never been to New Mexico before, which meant he couldn't use teleportation to reach it directly. Flying on a commercial plane would take far too long, and he wasn't willing to waste that much time.
After a moment of thought, Ethan retrieved the Ghost Rider transformation gear.
Once he put it on, his body vanished from sight, slipping into complete invisibility.
Then he shot upward into the sky.
Since his telekinesis had been strengthened to the level of 1,500 tons, Ethan had never truly tested his maximum flight speed. Back when his telekinesis could only handle around 500 tons, his top speed had been roughly Mach 2.
Now, however, flying at Mach 2 felt completely effortless.
He continued accelerating.
Mach 2.5… Mach 3… Mach 3.5…
The speed kept climbing steadily.
It wasn't until he reached Mach 5 that the acceleration finally began to plateau.
Mach 5 meant traveling at over 6,000 kilometers per hour.
At that speed, the distance from New York to New Mexico became trivial. It took Ethan less than an hour to arrive at his destination.
By the time he descended toward the desert site, S.H.I.E.L.D. had already established a large quarantine camp surrounding the location where Mjolnir had landed.
The entire area was heavily guarded.
As soon as Ethan approached the perimeter, agents stepped forward and stopped him.
Breaking in would have been easy, but Ethan didn't bother with that approach. Just as he was about to take out his phone to call Coulson, the agent himself appeared from inside the camp.
"Mr. Blake," Coulson said as he approached, smiling apologetically. "I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly. Sorry about the inconvenience earlier."
"It's fine," Ethan replied casually. "Are you the one in charge here?"
Coulson shook his head.
"No. The director is personally overseeing the operation."
Ethan blinked in surprise.
"Wait… the one-eyed guy is here too?"
Coulson chuckled awkwardly at the nickname but didn't deny it.
Ethan didn't realize that after several of his previous predictions had proven accurate, Nick Fury had quietly elevated Ethan's information to the highest priority level.
This time, Ethan had mentioned a hammer connected to a god.
Naturally, Fury had taken the situation extremely seriously.
"Not just the director," Coulson added, sounding slightly excited. "There are others here as well."
"Others?" Ethan asked with curiosity.
For a brief moment, he wondered if Captain Marvel had somehow returned to Earth, but that possibility felt unlikely.
When Ethan followed Coulson into the command center, he immediately understood just how seriously Fury was taking the situation.
Inside the room stood several familiar figures.
Nick Fury.
Natasha Romanoff.
Clint Barton.
And another man whose casual clothes still couldn't hide his powerful build.
Ethan recognized him instantly.
Captain America—Steve Rogers.
Steve stepped forward and extended his hand.
"I heard from Fury that you told him I was still alive," Steve said sincerely. "That's the reason they were able to wake me up. Thank you."
Ethan shook Steve's hand with a relaxed smile.
"No big deal," he said. "Just helping out."
Steve hesitated slightly before continuing.
"Fury also told me something else," he said carefully. "He said HYDRA still exists. Is that really true? I thought I eliminated them completely during the war."
A hint of sadness crossed Steve's face.
"I already missed one important date because of that fight," he said quietly. "Fury says you know a lot of things about the future. Can you tell me the truth?"
Ethan could clearly hear the faint pleading in his voice.
Among all the heroes in this world, Ethan actually respected Steve Rogers quite a bit.
Tony Stark could become lost and conflicted.
Thor could fall into depression.
Spider-Man often struggled with uncertainty.
Even the famous Superman in another universe sometimes hesitated between choices.
But Captain America was different.
He possessed a firm sense of justice and followed it without wavering. No matter the circumstances, he rarely betrayed the beliefs in his own heart.
"Alright," Ethan said finally. "Then let's talk about it."
The moment he agreed, everyone in the room became attentive.
Steve Rogers.
Nick Fury.
Phil Coulson.
Natasha Romanoff.
Clint Barton.
All of them listened closely.
"What do you think HYDRA is?" Ethan asked Steve.
Steve looked slightly surprised by the question.
"HYDRA?" he replied after a moment. "It's Red Skull and the organization he built with the support of the Nazi regime."
Ethan slowly shook his head.
"The history of HYDRA goes back much further than that," he said calmly. "About fourteen hundred years ago, a powerful psychic appeared on Earth. His abilities were so overwhelming that he was eventually exiled to a distant planet."
"The purpose of HYDRA since that time has been to bring that psychic back."
Steve frowned, clearly processing the information.
"The HYDRA you fought during World War II," Ethan continued, "was only one branch of a much larger organization. In fact, it wasn't even the main branch."
"And even that branch… you didn't completely eliminate."
The room fell silent.
Then Ethan added the final piece.
"To put it simply," he said, glancing around the room, "S.H.I.E.L.D. should probably change its name."
He paused briefly before finishing the sentence.
"Snake S.H.I.E.L.D. would be more accurate. After all, a large portion of its agents are actually HYDRA."
Nick Fury's expression darkened immediately.
Over the past several weeks, he had already discovered multiple HYDRA agents hiding within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ranks. Unfortunately, every time he got close to uncovering something bigger, the trail suddenly went cold.
That was one of the reasons he had rushed to revive Steve Rogers so quickly.
If anyone could destroy HYDRA again, it would be the hero who had once defeated them.
But now Ethan was claiming that more than half of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents were secretly HYDRA.
If that was true, then destroying HYDRA might mean destroying S.H.I.E.L.D. itself.
And that was a thought Nick Fury absolutely did not enjoy.
....
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