chsdbacks Chapter 122 Thor, You Are My Ally
Chapter 122 Thor, You Are My Ally
Chapter 122 Thor, You Are My Ally
When Lee arrived at the temporary research base set up by S.H.I.E.L.D., he stopped at the perimeter of the base.
He glanced back at the darkness behind him.
In the legendary Witcher's perception field of vision, red dots densely covered the entire desert, numbering well over five thousand.
He looked away and continued walking forward.
These dark creatures from remote areas have probably all come here, hoping to gamble on the tube of demon blood hanging around his neck.
For them, this is indeed an incredible opportunity; they might just be able to evolve and ascend to immortality by licking a single drop.
Similarly, the quality of this batch is significantly higher than the previous batches.
They all hid in the darkness, not rushing forward to their deaths, but instead surrounding the entire base from the outside and remaining still.
Li En passed through the outer security checkpoint and went straight into the monitoring room at the back.
Hawkeye, Natasha, and Coulson were standing in front of the surveillance wall, their brows furrowed.
No one greeted them.
He walked over to the three of them, glanced at the screen, and instantly understood why they had those expressions.
In one of the surveillance videos, the blond giant handcuffed to a chair is roaring at thin air, seemingly arguing fiercely with someone he can't see.
The other dozen or so images are all of various bizarre dark creatures, captured clearly from every angle, from infrared thermal imaging to optical zoom.
Everyone now knows they are surrounded.
Hawkeye glanced at Lee En out of the corner of his eye, and after a moment of silence, he spoke: "You bastard—you're really something else."
Li En turned around and casually extended his right hand towards him: "Li En, Manhattan Precinct, NYPD."
"Clinton Francis Barton, Senior Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., codename Hawkeye."
Patton reached out and gave him a firm shake.
After exchanging greetings, Coulson looked away from the monitor screen, his face contorted with an expression of utter misery: "Even after all these years as a secret agent, I've never encountered anything like this before."
Natasha chimed in from the side, her voice low but her tone blunt, as if she was too lazy to beat around the bush: "Don't even mention it's you."
She turned around, tilted her head, and looked at Li En. "Did you send that big guy over to help?"
The "big guy" she was referring to was, of course, Bruce Banner.
In her mind, only Hulk could single-handedly clear out all the thousands of dark creatures on the periphery.
Li En shook his head slightly.
However, he also confirmed one thing: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence gathering speed was slower than he had anticipated.
Frank's transformation into Ghost Rider, coupled with the fact that he had already cleared out thousands of dark creatures on the way here, was clearly unknown to the people present.
But he believed that these movements must have been detected by satellites, and Tony Stark must know about them too.
Since Coulson and the others didn't know, there's only one explanation.
Tony has severed some of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s data access.
Thinking of this, the corners of his mouth curled up: "Isn't this just right?"
"9
The three of them turned to look at him at the same time, completely failing to understand how this could be considered just right.
"Coulson." Lee's tone suddenly dropped from a hint of amusement, switching to a more serious tone.
"The full name of S.H.I.E.L.D.—do you remember it?"
Coulson's eyes widened, and without thinking, he blurted out: "Homeland Strategic Defense, Attack and Logistics Agency."
He had never forgotten that name since his first day at the company.
"In that case," Li Enchai said, tilting his chin towards the dense cluster of red dots on the monitor screen.
"Now that thousands of dark creatures have appeared outside, shouldn't S.H.I.E.L.D. be responsible for handling them, according to their roles?"
"So, is there a problem with urgently requesting backup and having SHIELD headquarters send everyone to help?"
Coulson was stunned.
Natasha immediately grasped Lee's logic and spoke rapidly: "You mean—to use this opportunity to completely separate the truly deceived people in S.H.I.E.L.D. from the Hydra members?"
She spoke in a low voice, her eyes scanning her surroundings to make sure the other staff members working in the corridor weren't too close.
Li En nodded: "That's right, Hydra members wouldn't really be willing to throw their lives into this kind of certain death battlefield."
"They want to control the world, but only if they survive."
"But the agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. who are driven by a sense of justice are completely different."
His gaze moved from Coulson's face to Barton, and finally landed on Natasha.
"The three of you have been with S.H.I.E.L.D. for so many years, you know it better than I do."
"How many of your colleagues are truly doing this job with the belief of protecting the Earth and safeguarding humanity?"
"For them, it's a choice between certain death and someone else dying if they don't go—which would they choose?"
Coulson remained silent for a long time before speaking, his voice low: "We've long since put life and death aside, since the first day we became S.H.I.E.L.D. agents."
Patton didn't speak; his face was extremely tense.
In fact, he had just made a phone call to his wife not long ago.
I didn't say much, just listened to her talk about her daily life, and then told her that I would probably be home a few days later.
He didn't want that conversation to become a farewell, but in case things went wrong, at least he would hear her voice one last time.
Natasha looked at the monitor screen and spoke, her tone flatter than usual: "You're right, there are some people in S.H.I.E.L.D. who are truly living up to their belief in protecting the Earth."
"Faced with certain death, they will actually advance."
"Hydra members don't. On the surface, they all look the same: taking on missions, running fieldwork, writing reports, but their underlying motivations are completely different."
"One side is about protection, the other is about control; they're completely different."
Upon hearing this, Coulson's Adam's apple bobbed as he pulled his communication terminal from his pocket.
He didn't try to hide anything; he shouted it out loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Everyone, immediately contact your superiors and request emergency support."
"You've all seen the situation here on the surveillance cameras. There are over five thousand dark creatures on the outskirts, and their numbers are still increasing."
"If we don't keep them all out of the base tonight, the number will double in any city tomorrow."
Responses from various action groups came through the communication terminals one after another.
Some hesitated, while others were trying to confirm that "this is not a drill."
After a long silence, someone finally replied with "Understood" in the channel.
Coulson then dialed another line to contact the director's office directly.
However, the communication request was automatically forwarded to another number.
When the call connected, it wasn't Nick Fury's voice coming through the receiver.
"What's wrong?" The voice of former director Alexander Pierce came through the communication terminal, his tone casual.
Coulson's brow furrowed sharply.
Without pausing, he gave a brief report on the situation at the same pace as before: "This is the temporary research base in New Mexico. The town of Albuquerque has been completely surrounded. There are more than five thousand dark creatures, and we currently have less than one hundred troops."
"Request headquarters to immediately dispatch all available personnel to provide support."
"If these dark creatures break through the defenses, the consequences won't just be the death of all of us here."
"The entire state behind it was completely undefended."
He didn't question why Fury wasn't the one who answered the phone, nor did he show any unusual tone.
But the moment Pierce spoke, countless guesses exploded in Coulson's mind.
None of them pointed in a good direction.
Pierce sighed softly on the other end of the communicator, his tone carrying a heavy, businesslike quality: "Agent Coulson, I have some bad news to share with you."
"Captain America Steve Rogers, along with senior agent Melinda, kidnapped Director Nick Fury; the two have betrayed the cause."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters is currently under the highest level of emergency, and all internal order is being restored."
"I have temporarily taken over command in my capacity as acting director, but there are indeed no extra personnel available at headquarters at the moment."
"We can't send reinforcements right now; you'll have to rely on yourselves."
Coulson paused for a moment, then probed again: "There are thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of dark creatures here."
"I know, I will immediately contact the heads of state of various countries to request military support."
"But troop movements take time, and we really can't make it in time tonight."
"Agent Coulson, in my capacity as acting director of S.H.I.E.L.D., I order all of you to hold the base to the death, without retreating an inch."
The communication was disconnected.
Click.
Coulson remained expressionless, but his right hand gripped the communication terminal, and with a snap, several fine cracks appeared on the casing at the seam.
The entire conversation just now was not encrypted; Coulson spoke directly through the speakerphone.
Everyone in the monitoring room, including the security guards on duty in the corridor, heard it.
Several security agents looked at each other.
A moment later, some people were already secretly moving towards the outer perimeter, intending to leave before a fight broke out.
Li En spoke softly, his tone showing no signs of being disrupted by the unexpected event: "It seems the situation is worse than expected."
His original deduction was that after receiving the distress call, the fake Fury would issue a support order in the name of the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., thereby filtering out the truly righteous agents from Hydra's disguise.
But now it seems that Hydra's reaction speed is significantly faster.
Alexander Pierce has skipped all the transition steps and gone straight back to his chair.
It seems that things have changed for Captain America and Melinda as well.
However, with Frank, Banner, and Tony at the school, there shouldn't be any major problems.
Natasha placed the communication terminal on the table, faced Li En, and spoke in a flat tone: "What do we do now? You couldn't have been completely unprepared."
Li En gave Natasha, Coulson, and Hawkeye a faint smile: "Let me go see this person first."
He pushed open the door to the next room and went inside.
Thor is handcuffed to a chair, with chains wrapping around his wrists from the back of the chair and securing them to anchor points on the ground.
His blond hair was scattered messily on the sides of his face, his shoulders were slumped forward, and his whole body looked like it had been crushed by something.
Li En walked up to him and greeted him in an extremely casual tone: "Hello, Thor."
Thor's spirits lifted, and he looked up at Li En, his voice carrying an urgent need to prove something: "You know me? I'm from Asgard! I'm the guardian of the Nine Realms—"
He seemed to suddenly remember something, and his entire demeanor collapsed.
His shoulders slumped again, and his voice was so low it was almost inaudible: "I am no longer Thor. I have been banished from Asgard by my father and can never go back."
Li En reached out and pinched his arm muscles.
His body was indeed as hard as a rock; even when chained to a chair for a long time without moving, his muscle density far exceeded that of a normal person.
With a flick of his wrist, a huge syringe appeared in his palm, its needle made of gold-titanium alloy, much thicker than a regular medical needle.
He patted Thor's arm twice, and before the other could react, he inserted the needle into the vein and drew out a tube of blood.
He put away the needle, turned around and called out towards the door, "Coulson, come and press the injection site for him."
Coulson walked in, tore a piece of cotton wool from the first aid kit, and pressed it against the small needle hole on Thor's arm that was still slightly bleeding.
Throughout the entire process, Thor offered no resistance and didn't even raise his head.
He just kept his eyes downcast, his expression filled with ashes.
Looking at him like this, Li En said, "I know you are from Asgard, and I also know you are Thor."
"Now go pick up your hammer."
Thor raised his eyes, his voice hoarse: "I have lost my right. Mjolnir no longer acknowledges me as its master."
"You are Thor, the God of Thunder, not Thor, the God of Hammers." Li En shook his head. "The proof is right here."
He flipped his hand and took out a portable experimental terminal, injecting the freshly drawn blood into the inlet.
A moment later, a dense stream of data appeared on the screen.
Li En couldn't understand this data himself, but at the same moment, it was synchronized to the three core workstations in the Umbrella School Laboratory.
A moment later, the phone rang.
Tony's voice boomed from the receiver, carrying the excitement of a scientist whose understanding has been overturned by data: "Li En, is this really the blood of that alien over there?"
"Its cell strength and density are hundreds of times that of an adult human—is this even a living organism?"
"Vampires and werewolves are practically made of paper compared to this data."
"Some indicators are even comparable to the blood of a demon king. Are you sure you didn't get the wrong sample?"
Li En didn't answer Tony's question, but quickly said, "Something went wrong at S.H.I.E.L.D., so Jarvis has to control all external communications. You and Banner are in charge of the school, and I'll take care of things here."
Before Tony could say anything more, Banner's voice came through the receiver: "Should we send Hulk over? We've seen what's going on your end."
"No need," Li En said calmly. "I'm very strong right now."
He hung up the phone, closed the experimental terminal and returned it to the space warehouse, then looked at Thor, who was standing in front of him with his head down and eyes lowered.
"The data we just analyzed in your blood shows that your body contains an extremely large amount of power."
He reached out and tapped the handcuffs binding Thor's wrists with his fingertips.
"This kind of material should theoretically be able to be shaken into pieces with just a light squeeze."
Thor seemed to be provoked by those words.
He gritted his teeth, his arm muscles bulged, the chains were stretched to their limit, and the metal rings left obvious marks on his skin.
But nothing happened.
The handcuffs didn't budge, not even a little.
Coulson frowned. "Could the data be wrong?"
Li En shook his head: "This data was provided by Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Connors."
"The world's three most brilliant minds are analyzing the same blood sample simultaneously, making the probability of error extremely small."
Coulson nodded, but his gaze toward Thor became very complicated.
Barton stood in the doorway, arms crossed, and said bluntly, "A physical ability a hundred times greater than that of an average person—you're not kidding, are you? I'm the one who brought him back."
"I fought him before, and to be honest, in that fight, his fighting skills were very rough, and his strength and reaction speed were not particularly outstanding, unlike what I expected."
Thor looked up at Barton, then at his own handcuffed wrists, said nothing, and lowered his head again.
"Something must have gone wrong, but—I'm not very interested in other people's family matters."
Li En walked up to Thor, crouched down slightly, and brought his eyes level with Thor's.
He looked into Thor's eyes and spoke softly, "Thor, are you a friend, ally, or enemy of humanity?"
Thor raised his eyes without hesitation; the answer to this question required no thought.
"Asgard has always been an ally of Midgard."
"From my grandfather to my father, and then to me—we have always protected the Nine Realms."
"Very good." Li En stood up, nodded to Coulson, and said, "Untie him."
Coulson stepped forward to unlock the ring.
With a few clicks, the chains came off his wrists and ankles and piled on the floor.
Thor's first reaction upon regaining his freedom was not to rub his wrists.
He stood there, like a lost person who didn't know where to go.
Li En walked up to a security guard and took a short-handled hand axe from the guard's waist.
Standard melee equipment, the grip is worn shiny.
He handed the axe to Thor.
"There are thousands of dark creatures surrounding this place, so allies, fight together."
He reached out and patted Thor on the shoulder, not hard, and didn't immediately remove his hand after it landed.
"It doesn't matter whether you are Thor or not."
"Now you are my ally."
"Thor".
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