"My two eye sockets under my eyebrows… I… wuwuwu!"
After repeating the words in a dazed panic, the female clerk suddenly burst into tears and ran out of the command center.
Watching her flee while sobbing, Axel slammed his hand on the table again, clearly losing patience.
"What the hell are you all waiting for?
Clothes, damn it, clothes! Are you idiots planning to stand there until you get yourselves killed?"
He inhaled deeply, then spat toward the massive observation window at the front of the command center.
Pah!
Crash!
The reinforced glass, almost two meters thick and designed to withstand anti aircraft bombardment, shattered instantly when Axel's spit struck it.
Fragments rained across the floor.
Only then did two men with builds similar to Axel finally step out from the terrified crowd of clerks.
"You… wait a second, I'll take off my jacket."
"I have new underwear in my room, I'll grab it right now!"
Within seconds, one agent stripped down to his underwear while the other sprinted away and quickly returned with a clean set of white underwear and a fitted uniform.
Axel accepted the clothes casually.
He stood up, removed the jacket that had been tied around his waist, and pulled on the underwear.
Around him, most of the clerks instantly turned their backs in embarrassment.
A few bolder women peeked through their fingers, unable to stop themselves from watching.
Axel ignored them.
Once he finished dressing, he examined himself with satisfaction, then turned to the two agents who had brought him the clothes.
"Well? How do I look? Do I look like a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent?"
"Uh…"
The two men exchanged glances, then nodded together.
Of course he looked like one. He was literally wearing the Helicarrier uniform.
What else would he look like, a Hydra soldier?
The thought itself felt ridiculous.
While Axel continued joking around, the Helicarrier's field agents finally rushed into the command center.
Almost eighty guns immediately pointed at him.
The clerks sighed with relief when the agents arrived.
Although a few clerks possessed combat training, most of them had combat ability roughly equal to Fitz and Simmons.
In other words, almost none.
Seeing the weapons aimed at him, Axel paused briefly.
Then he slowly raised both hands.
"Whoa, easy there, buddies. Don't shoot. I just got these damn clothes and I'd rather not ruin them.
Trust me, guns don't work on me. If you don't believe me, I'll happily prove it."
The moment he finished speaking, Axel stepped forward.
A shallow footprint formed beneath his foot.
Then he vanished.
In less than a blink, he had crossed nearly forty meters and stopped directly in front of an agent holding an oversized weapon.
Axel grinned.
Before anyone could react, he snatched the weapon from the agent's hands.
He looked at it curiously and tapped the side.
"What the hell kind of gun is this? Never seen one before."
Then he flipped the weapon upside down and placed the barrel against his own head.
"Well, whatever it is, let's test it. Go on, watch closely.
You people seriously can't kill me. I'm begging you, stop trying so hard. People who try this hard usually die early."
Without hesitation, Axel pulled the trigger.
Blue energy rapidly gathered inside the weapon.
A moment later it fired.
Boom!
The dull blast echoed through the room.
Axel's head disappeared instantly.
For a moment, the command center fell completely silent.
Agents and clerks stared at the headless body standing in front of them.
"What just happened?"
"Did he underestimate the weapon's power?"
"This gun was designed using energy from the Tesseract. Coulson wanted to use it against Loki."
"So… the threat is gone? Just like that?"
While they whispered in confusion, flames suddenly erupted from Axel's neck.
A few seconds later his head regenerated completely.
Axel blinked, looked at the weapon in his hands, and spoke in disbelief.
"What the hell is this thing? That wasn't a laser.
This thing doesn't kill people with energy. It teleports parts of the body somewhere else."
He rubbed his neck.
"Seriously, my head just took a damn trip through space."
Axel tossed the weapon aside with clear annoyance.
Now he remembered.
This was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s experimental weapons created from research on the Tesseract.
Back in World War II, Red Skull had used a similar energy device and ended up teleported across the universe.
That weapon had transported the entire body.
This one apparently only teleported pieces.
Realizing that, Axel shrugged.
He stepped toward another agent and grabbed the handgun from his grip.
Then he placed the barrel against his own forehead.
Bang!
The gun fired.
The bullet flattened harmlessly against Axel's skin.
He smiled with satisfaction.
"Now that's more like it. The other thing was just weird."
He crushed the handgun into a small metal ball and tossed it back.
The stunned agent caught it, then instantly dropped it.
"Hot! Hot!"
Axel laughed.
"Well yeah, genius. I just crushed solid metal with my hands. Of course it's hot."
He slapped the man on the shoulder and turned toward everyone in the command center.
"Alright, playtime's over. I want to see what New York looks like right now.
When Hill finishes fixing her finger, remind her to move the Helicarrier closer to the city.
After I'm done having fun, I still need to come back and rest on my Helicarrier."
Before anyone could respond, flames erupted around Axel's body.
He vanished instantly.
Silence filled the command center.
A few seconds later, several people gulped loudly.
The agent who had dropped the metal ball suddenly spoke.
"Wait… what did he say?
His Helicarrier?"
Everyone looked at each other.
"…Is it too late to resign?" one agent muttered.
Then the room erupted in chaos.
Meanwhile, above the ocean near New York.
Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff stood on a captured Chitauri skiff, staring at the distant sky.
A small mushroom cloud rose on the horizon.
Natasha frowned.
"That looks like a nuclear detonation."
Steve nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Someone intercepted it before it reached the city."
Relief appeared on his face.
But Natasha's expression grew more complicated.
"Do you think Axel stopped it?"
She folded her arms.
"Who exactly is he? And what does he want?
I've never met someone whose motives are this impossible to read. I can't predict his next move at all."
Steve glanced toward the city.
"But does it matter?"
He spoke calmly, though there was clear frustration in his voice.
"Honestly, I don't understand what's wrong with everyone lately. Maybe the world really has changed."
His voice carried through the Avengers communication channel.
"Compared to Axel, I'd rather know why S.H.I.E.L.D., the organization that claims to protect the planet, decided to launch a nuclear missile at us."
Steve's tone hardened.
"If Axel hadn't stopped that missile, the destruction from it would have been worse than the Chitauri invasion so far.
So what exactly was Nick Fury thinking?"
He paused, then continued.
"As for Axel, I haven't even met him yet. I've heard plenty of complaints about him from all of you.
But looking at the results, he closed the Chitauri portal.
He intercepted the nuclear missile that our own side fired.
Compared to that, I'd rather question Fury than immediately treat Axel as our next enemy."
Steve turned the skiff around.
He and Natasha began flying back toward New York.
A moment later Tony Stark's voice came through the channel.
"Maybe you don't have a reason to hate him, Rogers. I do.
He destroyed six of my suits and stole one of them. That guy…"
"Stark."
Steve cut him off immediately.
"Honestly, if I had his abilities, I'd probably want to rip that armor off you too.
You're incredibly annoying when you're wearing it.
You remind me of your father. I used to want to punch Howard sometimes too."
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