Ownership of the Scepter

"Of course! What do you think, Captain?"

Natasha glanced at Clear Wade, recalling the instructions she had received during her phone call with Nick Fury earlier, and steered the topic toward Captain America.

"I have no objections. If we encounter something like this again in the future, something that affects everyone, I believe all of us will step forward without hesitation."

Captain America himself did not notice anything unusual.

He possessed a certain degree of leadership ability. His strong spirit could inspire morale, and at critical moments, he could often move others through his actions and his most sincere words.

But that did not mean he was usually a particularly shrewd or gifted leader—

If he had been, there would not have been so many universes where the Avengers ended up in civil war.

"A team? To be honest, I remember that a thousand years ago, Loki’s dream was to join the Valkyrie Legion under Father King. Legend said it was Asgard’s most battle-ready team, and everyone who entered the Valkyrie Legion was the strongest and bravest of warriors."

Thor raised the Water of Life high as he spoke.

"My foolish brother, there’s no need to pin your dream on me just because you’re worried about embarrassing yourself. After all, being the most battle-ready, strongest, and bravest doesn’t seem to have much to do with my ambitions."

Loki spat out the chicken bone in his mouth and gave Thor a cold, mocking chuckle with that wickedly charming face of his.

Noticing everyone’s gazes, Thor’s face reddened. He hurriedly activated the brain he rarely used and changed the subject.

"By the way, what should our legion be called?"

"Anything but Valkyrie. Natasha’s the only woman among us."

Hawkeye said this with a toothpick in his mouth and one leg crossed over the other.

"I propose Justice League!"

"Very good, Wade. I hereby strip you of all naming rights within the team. A name from the comic company next door sounds incredibly lame."

"How about Male Valkyrie?"

"Dr. Banner, your naming rights have been stripped too."

"Captain?"

"How about the Avengers Nick mentioned before?"

"Still kind of lame, like some superhero boys’ team from a cartoon, but at least it’s much better than Male Valkyrie."

The next day, in a garden not far from Stark Tower.

Happy, dressed in a suit and sunglasses, worked with Stark Group security personnel to disperse the surrounding crowd.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Thor and Loki each held one side of a jar-shaped device.

Through the transparent glass, the shape of the Tesseract could vaguely be seen—completely intact.

The missing piece had been specially 3D-printed out of glass by Clear Wade the night before, before he handed it to Thor, then glued into place with industrial-strength adhesive.

He had even altered the internal lens structure of the glass so that after transmitting the light emitted by the Space Stone, it looked no different from the rest of the cube.

"Once Father King and Heimdall use the Tesseract to repair the Bifrost, I’ll come by often to drink with you all."

Thor smiled at Clear Wade and the others, then twisted the teleportation device and connected to Asgard’s Bifrost.

A seven-colored beam descended from the sky, enveloping Thor and Loki before ultimately leaving behind a mysterious symbol on the ground.

"Now that the Tesseract has been taken back to Asgard by Thor, then the scepter… Sorry, I’m on your side. I’m only asking on Fury’s behalf because I’m worried they’ll use the scepter to develop weapons, just like they did with the Tesseract."

Steve Rogers, wearing a vintage brown leather jacket and leaning against his motorcycle, asked Clear Wade.

"Tell Fury to find out who was behind the Nuclear Bomb first. I don’t want some scapegoat. There must be a huge problem inside S.H.I.E.L.D.; I’m certain of it. So there’s no way the scepter is being handed over to you. Besides, Thor said yesterday that this counts as my spoils of war—personally certified by the heir to Asgard’s throne."

Black Widow rubbed her forehead with a headache.

"I understand, but you have to give us something to report, right? At least something we can use to brush Fury off. We put in a lot of effort too, you know."

Hawkeye helplessly spread his hands as well.

Don’t make things hard for humble employees, okay?

Clear Wade and Tony immediately exchanged a look.

"Then let’s set down the rules now. If anyone comes to bother us again, we’ll handle it according to those rules. And if anyone gets ideas they shouldn’t have, I won’t be polite."

Clear Wade said to Black Widow.

"Do whatever you want. I’m just passing your conditions on to Fury."

When faced with trouble, Black Widow proactively placed herself in the position with the least pressure.

One side was S.H.I.E.L.D., while the other two were far more than ordinary super-rich men.

Stark and Osborn represented America’s most important military-industrial complex, medical capital, and energy capital, both past and present.

Even the military and the White House could not afford to underestimate such forces. If they were determined to protect that scepter, then no one in the world could easily obtain it through conventional means.

As for unconventional means, these two were no pushovers either.

"I don’t think anyone would deny that I played the most important role in defeating Loki and stopping the alien invasion of Earth, right? Don’t tell me how much S.H.I.E.L.D. contributed. This whole mess was caused by you people fooling around with the Tesseract in the first place. So, my personal proposal is this.

"Eighty percent ownership of the scepter belongs to me, Clear Wade. The remaining twenty percent will be jointly held by the Avengers. Its day-to-day usage rights still belong to me, though after receiving my authorization, other Avengers members may use it when necessary."

Clear Wade pulled out a contract he had prepared long ago from his pocket. It even already bore his personal seal.

"Nick definitely won’t agree to that."

Natasha seemed strangely at peace with it.

She could already foresee how Nick Fury would pester her next.

"That’s his problem. I’ve already made a major concession. You should tell him to investigate S.H.I.E.L.D. as soon as possible. If the scepter falls into the hands of someone it shouldn’t, that one-eyed bastard will regret it too late."

"Are you really sure there’s a problem on our side? Did you find something?"

Barton looked at Clear Wade.

"Tony and I have the strongest communications network technology in the world, yet we still hit a wall investigating this matter."

"You hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s network? And we didn’t even notice?"

"If the unknown Artificial Intelligence that stopped Watos from infiltrating wasn’t S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Artificial Intelligence, then I believe I did."

Black Widow turned her gaze toward Tony.

Tony gave a slight nod, confirming Clear Wade’s technical capabilities.

"So an enemy has appeared within our own ranks, inside S.H.I.E.L.D., right?"

The ninety-year-old young man in a strong body sighed.

"It seems that whether it was seventy years ago or now, many things have not changed."