Hum!
The Quinjet flew toward the other side of the Earth under the cover of night.
From darkness, driving toward the dawn.
Inside the aircraft, wearing the Iron Spider Armor Mark I made Peter look much bulkier than before.
The other crew members inside the aircraft also cast sidelong glances at him one after another.
"Is your armor the same as Tony Stark's? Driven by an energy source?" Crossbones asked curiously.
"It does not use an energy source. Why would it need an energy source?" Peter asked in confusion.
"If it isn't driven by an energy source, then how does it move?"
Hearing this, Peter became even more confused. He said, "It moves however I move. Have none of you ever worn clothes before?"
"Clothes are not this heavy."
"Heavy?"
Peter raised his arm. "It is not heavy at all."
The weight of this light and thin armor was not even a ton. With his physique, wearing it on his body barely felt like anything.
Heavy? For Spider-Man, this word was simply too niche.
"That is enough chatting for now."
Captain America unfastened his seatbelt. At this moment, the Quinjet was already hovering in the sky above their destination. He opened the cabin door, and in an instant, howling winds swept in.
Seeing this, Peter also hurriedly unfastened his seatbelt. Under the howling winds where an ordinary person could not even stand steady, he walked as if on flat ground.
Captain America glanced back and said, "I will take Spider-Man and infiltrate the base first. The rest of you stand guard outside. Do not let a single Hydra soldier escape!"
Hearing this, the soldiers of the STRIKE team naturally had no objections. On the contrary, it was Peter who was a bit surprised. "Wait, Captain, is it just you and me?"
"This is an infiltration mission. The fewer people, the better."
After all, the location of this Hydra base was not on American soil. Although the Polish government could not do anything about America, it was still not good to be too conspicuous.
"If Hacker were here, things might be much easier," Captain America remarked.
Even though he had only announced hours ago: Avengers, assemble.
They had assembled indeed, but not completely assembled.
Because Bant had been called to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters by the black bald egg, while the mission to destroy the Hydra base was handed over to Peter and Captain America.
Inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. ground base.
Nick Fury led Bant through various twists and turns, soon arriving at a massive underground base.
"A little worried about your cousin?"
Nick Fury, seeing Bant looking a bit distracted, said, "Rest assured, they will be fine. And our mission is much more arduous than theirs."
He walked to the edge of the suspended bridge. As soon as he turned around, all the lights in the entire underground base were turned on. In an instant, a Helicarrier as massive as an island was revealed before Bant's eyes.
"Please allow me to formally introduce you to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying Helicarrier. There are two here, and another one has already been launched."
As he spoke, he took small steps downward.
And Bant was indeed slightly shocked by the scene before him.
It was not because the technological level of the Helicarrier was exceptionally high. It was just that when facing a colossal object, people would always genuinely feel their own insignificance from the depths of their hearts.
Just like seeing a massive whale in the deep sea, gazing at the boundless starry sky in the universe, or when Bant stared at Mary Jane's massive bosom, or vice versa.
Bigger is better!
This was the truth of the universe!
"The more important mission is repairing the Helicarrier?"
Bant caught up to Nick Fury's footsteps and asked in return.
No matter how he looked at it, this black bald egg seemed to have selfish motives.
Nick Fury said without changing his expression, "A tiny Hydra base cannot possibly be all that you see, right?"
He put on a deliberately profound look.
As if this mission to attack the Hydra base was nothing more than a minor arrangement within his expectations.
Bant pretended to be completely ignorant of everything and said, "Of course I do not think so. Hydra is like cockroaches. When you spot one, it is enough proof that a whole swarm has already bred in the dark."
Hearing this, Nick Fury nodded in approval.
"You understand Hydra quite well!"
"But what does this have to do with the Helicarrier?"
"With this Helicarrier, we can launch a comprehensive strike against Hydra!" Nick Fury blurted out effortlessly.
Although he indeed held Project Insight in his hands, in reality, even he was unclear about the specific details of those listed as dangerous targets in the project.
It was not because Nick Fury did not want to eliminate Hydra. The problem was that he simply could not find them.
The root of the Project Insight algorithm came from Dr. Zola. Since he himself was Hydra, how could he possibly point the spearhead at his own people?
On the contrary, the superheroes were the ones classified as threats.
Nick Fury thought he had a thorough grasp of everything. Little did he know, he himself was a thorn in Hydra's side, and his name was exactly on the kill list of Project Insight.
Bant arrived beneath the Helicarrier, inspected it for a moment, then frowned and said, "Merely upgrading the levitation system is not difficult. However, after the power source is altered, other details will also require some modifications. The workload is simply too massive."
Hearing that there were no difficulties on the technical level, Nick Fury did not care much anymore. As for the workload?
S.H.I.E.L.D. had plenty of agents who could work twenty-five hours of overtime a day.
Whether they were genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. employees or undercover Hydra members, they all believed that once these three Helicarriers completed their upgrades, ownership would belong to their respective sides. Therefore, they were all working exceptionally hard at this moment.
"It is best to be quick about it."
Nick Fury thought for a moment, then whispered into Bant's ear:
"Actually, I suspect that there are very likely Hydra spies inside S.H.I.E.L.D."
Bant: ???
Wrong!
It was a massive amount of Hydra mixed with a tiny bit of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"How did you discover that?"
Nick Fury said, "Right after we decided to deal with Hydra, which was last night, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system was hacked once."
He continued.
"Although our agents quickly tracked down the signal location, the timing of the opponent's attack was far too coincidental."
Nick Fury wore a gloomy expression on his face.
"It happened right before we were about to deal with them, and the guy responsible for guarding the firewall inside S.H.I.E.L.D. just happened to be neglecting his duties..."
"Was he playing Battle City?" Bant raised an eyebrow and asked.
"No, he was watching soccer."
"He did not watch a game earlier, nor did he watch one later. He just had to watch it at that exact moment. Do you not think it looks like he deliberately exposed a flaw to Hydra? I suspect he is one of the spies, but he refuses to admit it."
"Are you sure?"
Bant looked at Nick Fury, feeling somewhat speechless.
This black bald egg seemed to have some misunderstandings about Hydra. One had to realize that the true members of Hydra were all fanatics with deep convictions. How could they possibly slack off on the job?
As long as one checked the personnel files and saw agents who worked year-round without rest, had fully booked mission records, and completed most of them perfectly, there was no need to even think about it. They were guaranteed to be Hydra.
That unlucky bastard who stayed up late to secretly watch a soccer game was clearly one of the very few genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
"Of course. Could it be that our highly trained S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would actually slack off?" Nick Fury asked in disbelief.
Bant said, "At the very least, the highly trained spy boss is quite good at scamming budget funds."
"What kind of talk is that!"
"Since that is the case, I suggest finding me a helper. Things might go much faster that way."
"A helper?" Nick Fury was taken aback for a moment, then realized who Bant was talking about. "Tony Stark?"
Several hours later.
Tony landed in his armor. The faceplate flipped open, revealing an arrogant, sour expression.
"I heard someone needed my help?"
"Just need a subordinate assistant."
Bant instantly retorted tit for tat.
Seeing these two so at odds with each other put Nick Fury at ease. Or rather, it was the genuine Hydra members who were put at ease.
Even though the two of them had already formulated their plan in secret long ago, on the surface, they absolutely could not let Hydra see any traces of it.
Otherwise, it would be too easy to expose flaws.
Therefore, after Coulson called to request his help, Tony did not even think about it and directly rejected him first, acting as if whatever happened with S.H.I.E.L.D. was none of his damn business.
Then, Coulson pleaded with him repeatedly, taking an indirect approach to save the situation by getting Pepper to help persuade him as well.
Tony still did not agree.
Until the very end, Coulson vaguely revealed that it was Bant Parker who wanted his help.
Then Tony put on a facade of specifically coming to mock him and impatiently agreed to the request.
Because his past experiences were enough to prove that he was just this unlikable, no one suspected Tony of having impure motives.
The two men's eyes met, and Tony immediately said with disgust, "Why bother swapping the levitation system? It is outdated!"
He looked at Nick Fury, adopting a posture of trying to outdo Bant.
"If we are going to replace it, let's replace it with true anti-gravity!"
"True anti-gravity? Even your father couldn't create that. You think you can?"
Bant immediately mocked back.
Tony instantly became furious and sneered, "You think I am inferior to him?"
"I think you are inferior to me. You couldn't even discover the new element. Seriously, I have never seen how you can be considered a genius."
"Then I am telling you right now, I only need ten days to create a true anti-gravity system." Tony glared at Bant, taking a furious step forward.
He was genuinely getting angry.
"I only need seven days!"
"Five days for me."
"..."
Watching these two completely incompatible geniuses, Nick Fury was blooming with joy.
Just keep trying to outdo each other!
At the end of this competition, he would still be the one reaping the benefits!
He thought to himself happily.
At the same time, Bant and Tony sneered at each other and began to work.
Tony directly snapped his armor's faceplate shut, looking absolutely determined not to communicate with Bant. Bant also kept wearing his Spider-Suit, tinkering with his own things alone at the experimental table.
But in reality...
On the virtual screen inside Tony's helmet, a message box remained steadily present.
Tony: How exactly do we do this? Are we really going to upgrade his system to anti-gravity?
Bant: Of course we upgrade it. If we do not upgrade the system, how can we tamper with the Helicarrier's main control system?
The main control system was their true target. As long as they could tamper with the main control system, even if Hydra stood inside the main control room when the time came, they would not be able to control the Helicarriers.
/-\
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