“Handling something like this shouldn’t be difficult for the brilliant and mighty Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Wade looked at Fury with a perfectly serious expression.
“Besides, shouldn’t you be used to this by now?”
Fury’s chest rose and fell as he silently repeated to himself, I can’t get angry.
I can’t get angry.
Just like he said, I’ve already gotten used to it.
A few seconds later, Fury took a deep breath.
“This time, are you preparing another new material for Stark?”
“Yep.”
Wade nodded.
“It’s all Stark’s fault.
If he didn’t have such a huge appetite for materials, I’d have a much easier time too.”
“What exactly are you two trying to make?
A Meteor-Iron Iron Man?”
Fury was getting a headache.
Originally, obtaining rare materials through this method of summoning meteors would have been fine if it happened occasionally.
But over the past few years, as Tony and Wade’s research progressed, these incidents had become increasingly frequent.
“Lately, the mutants have been rather unstable.”
Fury said, “I think the long-silent mutant organizations will soon return to the public eye.”
Speaking of mutants—the X-Men—the timeline actually had two branches.
Wade was currently living through the original timeline, whose eventual outcome was the Sentinels nearly wiping out mutants carrying the X-gene.
That was a future Wade absolutely didn’t want to see.
But it was also something they would have to face sooner or later.
“I’m not the one who will truly bring mutants onto the world stage.”
Wade’s voice was soft.
“You should know that too.
No matter how low-profile we try to be, there’s still an unruly Magneto out there.”
Wade actually supported Magneto’s ideology.
Every living being had value simply by existing.
Fighting for the rights necessary for one’s own survival was only natural.
Unfortunately, Magneto’s thinking was too extreme.
He wanted to fight violence with violence.
But Magneto couldn’t suppress everything.
He couldn’t solve every problem through force, and eventually that left him in the awkward position of being labeled an “agitator.”
“Magneto.”
Fury gritted his teeth.
“You know what?
That guy really has been stirring up trouble again lately.
If this keeps up, something will eventually go wrong, and the stable environment Charles and I worked so hard to establish will be destroyed.”
In an era when superheroes had yet to truly emerge, the power possessed by mutants seemed overwhelmingly formidable.
And for most mutants, what they wanted was actually quite simple. This story is hosted at g.com.
They merely wanted to live like ordinary people.
Yet they were constantly treated as outsiders by the general population.
Ordinary humans and mutants.
To maintain peaceful relations between these two groups of the same species despite their different ideas, Charles and Fury had truly gone to great lengths.
“Let’s put that aside for now.”
Wade smoothly changed the subject.
“You asked me to come here.
Don’t tell me you just wanted to give me a lecture?”
“If I really wanted to lecture you, I’d have had a heart attack from anger by now.”
Fury also decided to temporarily set aside the serious issue concerning the two groups.
“There’s something I need you to handle.”
For once, Fury didn’t use his usual commanding tone, nor did he call it a “mission.”
After all, the people under him in S.H.I.E.L.D.
were merely highly trained elite humans.
When dealing with someone like Wade, he had no choice but to use a different approach.
“The year has barely started, and you’re already asking me to do something for you.
That’s pretty inhumane.”
This was part of the agreement Wade and Fury had reached, as well as compensation for the destruction Wade had caused in New York back then.
Five years ago, after Wade killed the Abomination, several streets across New York had been almost completely destroyed.
Although the Abomination had been a mess created by the military in the first place, and Wade had only acted to save his grandmother, Wade still couldn’t get over the fact that so many families had been destroyed because of him whenever he thought about it.
And the actual death toll had been far higher than Wade initially imagined.
Both the military and the government had been placed under tremendous pressure because of the incident.
It was only through the joint efforts of Charles and Fury that the matter had been suppressed.
Wade never talked about it, but he had always remembered this favor from Fury.
Otherwise, he might have ended up being held in a special prison on murder charges and other offenses.
Of course, Fury wasn’t exactly being kind either.
He simply didn’t want the still-inexperienced Wade to become a potential threat in the future.
So, after going back and forth, Wade and Fury had reached an agreement.
Whenever S.H.I.E.L.D.
encountered an incident beyond the scope of normal handling, Wade could help Fury.
Of course, there were two conditions:
He would be paid, and he couldn’t be forced.
“I originally wasn’t planning to trouble you, but this matter is different.”
As he spoke, Fury walked over to the projection screen and lightly waved his hand.
An image appeared in front of Wade.
“This is…
the western desert?”
Wade slightly furrowed his brows.
The scene in the image was relatively clear.
The dry, desolate desert environment was highly recognizable.
“That’s right.”
When Wade saw the new image, his pupils contracted slightly.
“Th-That’s Thor’s hammer, isn’t it?
Did Thor come down too?”
The image showed a small mound of earth with a crater more than five meters in diameter at its center.
A short, square hammer lay quietly inside.
Fury had no idea what Wade was thinking.
He explained, “Don’t underestimate this thing.
According to our investigation, its material and craftsmanship are definitely not from Earth.
There’s also a magnetic field surrounding it that we can’t understand.”
“It is indeed quite strange.”
Wade remained expressionless.
“But couldn’t you just send your most trusted agent to investigate it?”
“No.”
Fury pressed a button on the remote.
The room where he and Wade were standing immediately became completely sealed off.
“My instincts tell me this matter definitely isn’t that simple.”
Fury looked extremely serious.
“According to the audiovisual data, it fell from the sky, so it isn’t some historical relic.”
“But unlike a meteorite from outer space, this thing was clearly manufactured.
It isn’t something that naturally formed in the universe.”
“Think about it.
A weapon possessing clear signs of craftsmanship and processing has fallen onto Earth, and it was made using technology we can’t even begin to understand.”
Fury’s expression grew increasingly solemn.
“I can boldly assume that this is the product of an extraterrestrial civilization.”
“Then what it represents becomes extremely complicated.”
Fury swallowed.
“Are they provoking us?
Or declaring war?”
“If what I suspect is true, then Earth may already have been exposed to other civilizations in the universe.
You should know what that means.”
Hearing this, Wade couldn’t help but give Fury some credit in his mind.
This was essentially the so-called Dark Forest Theory.
If Earth were truly exposed to other civilizations, it would be like a lone light appearing in a dark forest.
It would attract the attention of every other civilization and might even cause them to swarm toward it.
Earth, without adequate preparation, couldn’t afford to take that risk.
That was also why humanity had always regarded the search for extraterrestrial civilizations with both fascination and fear.
“The Dark Forest Theory?”
Wade responded softly.
“What do you need me to do?”
Fury stared at Wade.
“Investigate it.
If possible, I want to know who it belongs to.”