Avengers Assemble

So Loki’s weapon—the one that looked incredibly cool, could fire electricity, and control people—was made in China?

Nick Fury felt like he had a breath stuck in his chest that he had to let out.

Damn it, since when had Made in China become this awesome?

Even Loki from Asgard had come to steal their stuff?

Did he really think Nick Fury would believe that?

Unless Loki admitted it himself!

Therefore, Nick Fury did not believe Chen Mu’s explanation at all and merely took it as Chen Mu making excuses.

Chen Mu must have seen Loki’s weapon and copied someone else’s spear.

Wasn’t China like that? At first, it could only plagiarize and imitate—though it had long since surpassed its peers.

Forget it. It looked like his plan to get some benefits from Chen Mu had fallen through once again.

"Come on, Dr. Banner. We need your help to build a device that can locate the Tesseract and retrieve it."

Seeing that there was no way to keep arguing with Chen Mu, Nick Fury prepared to change the subject and looked toward Bruce Banner beside him.

"Mm, no problem. But what I care more about is what you just said—that someone should be held responsible for this incident."

Bruce Banner was completely on Chen Mu’s side now. Seeing Nick Fury trying to evade responsibility, he naturally could not let him have his way.

"…"

Nick Fury’s face turned black as charcoal. Did none of these people know how to give him any face?

"By the way, Tony, I heard you joined the Avengers? Avengers for what? Revenge over stolen stuff?"

Chen Mu looked at Tony Stark with a curious expression.

"What? Who said that? I didn’t join some boy band."

Tony blinked and asked in bewilderment.

"…"

Nick Fury was speechless again. They really were not giving him even the slightest bit of face.

"Before everything has been settled, there is no need to talk about assigning responsibility."

Nick Fury could only respond to Bruce Banner like this. "Besides, our most urgent task now is to find the Tesseract and Loki."

Other than changing the subject, Nick Fury truly had no way to deal with these people.

In his heart, Nick Fury wanted nothing more than to slap himself twice. What the hell was I doing? Wouldn’t it have been enough to send someone else? Why did I come here to suffer this crap myself?

"Fine, then let’s go to your base first."

Chen Mu clapped his hands and said, "I heard S.H.I.E.L.D. has a Helicarrier too? Bring it out for a spin and let us see what your carrier is like."

"…"

Nick Fury said nothing. He issued orders to his subordinates over the phone, then sat down on a sofa, closed his eyes, and did not want to speak.

A moment later, a Quinjet flew onto the landing pad of Stark Tower. Nick Fury led the three of them inside without saying a word.

"Quinjet, analyzing. 1%, 20%… 100%. Analysis complete."

The Quinjet was considered a highly advanced aircraft within S.H.I.E.L.D. It was a product of Project Pegasus and possessed formidable capabilities. It came in many variants: a transport version, a heavy-weapons version, later even a stealth version, and in the future, there would even be a spatial-jump version…

In short, its vertical takeoff and landing capability was quite good.

"This aircraft is pretty good. Coat it in stealth material and it can become invisible; equip it with heavy firepower and it gains powerful offensive capabilities. With its vertical takeoff and landing function, it would be suitable as a carrier-based aircraft for a Helicarrier."

After Chen Mu and the others entered the transport plane’s cabin, Chen Mu gave his assessment.

"It’s just okay."

Tony said disdainfully, "Armor is still stronger."

Of course it was. A single Mark Armor could easily shoot down countless Quinjets.

Even if a Quinjet, with plot armor, could kill Quicksilver.

"By the way, Tony, weren’t you planning to build an army of robots? Didn’t S.H.I.E.L.D. do that years ago?"

Back when they faced Asgard’s Destroyer, that group of robots had been wiped out immediately. Still, S.H.I.E.L.D. had indeed created a robot army.

"Tch, made by Ivan Vanko? They’re nothing but a pile of industrial trash."

Proud and arrogant as ever, Tony looked down on the junk Ivan Vanko had made and spoke with utter contempt.

"…"

Nick Fury said nothing from the side, but his face was covered in dark lines.

How did Tony know about Ivan Vanko?

That should not have been possible.

Hadn’t he hidden the information extremely well?

"…"

Time passed amid everyone’s idle chatter. After more than an hour of flight, the Quinjet brought them over the sea and onto a massive aircraft carrier with two levels of deck.

"Is this your carrier? It uses an anti-gravity device too, right?"

After arriving on the deck and looking at the busy crowds, Chen Mu turned to Nick Fury with interest.

"Not exactly. There’s no need to waste energy on something like that."

Nick Fury fell silent for a moment before replying.

Could he say that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier did not have an anti-gravity device at all? Its energy core simply could not support the immense energy consumption of an anti-gravity device!

Thinking of this, Nick Fury looked at Tony Stark with a resentful expression. Why was this guy so unwilling to license his Arc Reactor Technology to S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Fortunately, S.H.I.E.L.D. had Ivan Vanko now, so it had a chance to develop such a device. It would just be troublesome if there were intellectual property disputes later.

Tony found Nick Fury’s look utterly baffling.

"Coulson and the others will be here soon. There are some more people coming as well."

Nick Fury checked the time and continued, "We’ll gather at the bridge later. We need to discuss how to deal with Loki."

"More people? Who are they?"

Chen Mu asked curiously. He remembered that Nick Fury had shown him an Avengers list before. Good lord, every candidate on it had been from Hydra. He wondered whether, after two or three years, those Hydra infiltrators had truly managed to join the Avengers.

No, if those people joined, then calling the Avengers Hydra Alliance would probably be more appropriate.

"Who else could they be?"

Tony looked disdainful as he listed them off. "Ivan Vanko, Abomination, then a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents: Hawkeye Barton, Black Widow Natasha, and Crossbones Rumlow."

Good lord, it really was Hydra Alliance.

Chen Mu rubbed his nose, his expression strange.

"Not just them. There’s one more." Nick Fury looked calm, but his eyes were filled with pride.

"Captain America, Rogers!"

Captain America was America’s undisputed pride. In any case, Nick Fury was extremely pleased that Captain America could join the Avengers.

"…"

However, the atmosphere went cold. When Tony heard that name, his face darkened.