Unwilling as she was, Reze had to admit that on this point, she rarely found herself in agreement with Tony Stark.
"Even though you're usually pretty annoying, Stark," Reze shrugged, "I have to say, you're not wrong this time. Sorry, Captain, but never blindly trust the system, even in times of war."
"Who knows what those people high up would trade your lives for behind your backs."
Regarding other matters, it might be different, but on this subject, as a Soviet Humanoid Weapon, Reze truly had the right to speak...
After speaking, Reze naturally reached out her hand toward Tony.
Tony raised an eyebrow, the corners of his mouth curling up. He felt a strange sense of camaraderie, like a man at a bar thinking, 'The kid gets me, say no more, cheers.'
With a flick of his wrist, a half-bag of dried blueberries drew a precise parabola through the air.
Reze caught them easily and began chewing them on her own.
Truth be told, they were sweet and sour, quite tasty.
Watching this scene, Tony felt a surge of extreme smugness in his heart.
See! I knew it!
Truly my own flesh and blood!
Even if the devil daughter was in her rebellious phase and ignored her old father, when it came to major issues of right and wrong, she was definitely on the same side as him!
If Reze could hear his inner thoughts at this moment, she would probably spit the blueberries in his face on the spot and defect to Captain America's side instead.
Why is this old geezer so shameless?
But for now, Steve was left speechless by the coordinated rebuttal from these two anti-establishment figures, one big and one small.
He took a deep breath, knowing that arguing with them here was just a waste of time.
"I'll find the answers myself."
Steve dropped those words and turned to stride out of the laboratory.
With his departure, a brief moment of peace fell over the laboratory.
On the other side, Makima and Su Modie's thoughts were far from over.
Su Modie was rapidly reviewing the current situation in her mind.
In the original plot, Loki dared to cause a massive stir in Germany and even used himself as bait to be captured because he was confident that the brainwashed Hawkeye would provide support from the outside and launch a heavy assault on the mothership to rescue him.
But now? Hawkeye was sitting perfectly fine inside the mothership drinking coffee.
Without a top-tier tactical master planning a prison break from the outside, once Loki was locked in, he wouldn't be able to escape even if he had wings.
So, he hadn't intended to board this Helicarrier personally at all.
Moreover, with the Avengers assembling early, Loki had not only lost the most threatening Mind Stone but had also been seriously injured by Thor.
With all his cards gone and no chance of winning... yet Su Modie still felt that Loki was scheming something wicked.
Would that God of Mischief really push himself into such a desperate situation?
Unless...
Just as Su Modie was about to touch upon that terrifying truth, a burst of arguing suddenly erupted in the laboratory.
When Makima pushed open the laboratory doors, the atmospheric pressure inside had already dropped to freezing point.
A few minutes ago, Fury had already detected Tony's unauthorized intrusion into the S.H.I.E.L.D. systems.
He was quite speechless; after all, this wasn't the first time Tony had done this, but this time... it was a bit too much!
But when Fury came to the laboratory to demand an explanation, Tony and Banner had no intention of hiding anything; instead, they turned the spearhead toward him.
"What on Earth is Phase 2?" Tony questioned.
"Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. using the Tesseract to manufacture weapons. Sorry, I couldn't wait for the computer."
Steve, who had returned, strode in and picked up Tony's question, slamming a high-energy weapon prototype bearing the HYDRA logo onto the lab table.
"Rogers, we gather everything related to the Tesseract, but that doesn't mean we..."
Just as Fury was about to argue, Tony, having successfully pulled up the Phase 2 classified files, cut in after Steve: "Interrupting for a second, Nick?"
Tony turned the holographic screen around, the data regarding the weapons clearly visible: "How else are you going to spin this?"
The Iron-Shield Duo's tag-teaming left Fury stunned; his already dark face turned even darker, and for a moment, he didn't know where to start his excuses, making Reze, who was watching the show, almost laugh out loud.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had lied to them, constantly claiming that the Tesseract was being used to create clean energy, but the reality was obviously not so.
S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't an environmental organization, after all.
But this posture of using the Tesseract to manufacture weapons was, in the eyes of the Iron-Shield Duo, no different from the HYDRA of old.
Steve even felt a bit of regret for giving Fury that ten dollars; the World hadn't changed at all, and the ambitions of those in power remained the same.
To this, Su Modie had to comment.
The pair of rivals, Tony and Steve, though they currently found each other distasteful, were unexpectedly in sync upon meeting.
No wonder they get married in some parallel Universe...
As the confrontation escalated, others who heard the commotion also walked into the laboratory.
Facing the ironclad evidence of being caught red-handed, Fury narrowed his single eye.
The cunning spymaster knew that offense was the best defense; he spun around suddenly, pointing his finger directly at the newly entered Thor, and switched to scapegoating mode.
"Because of him!"
Fury said sharply, "Last year, an alien visitor graced Earth, and as a result of a family dispute, leveled a small town in New Mexico! This made us realize profoundly that we are not only not alone in the Universe, but we are insignificant!"
Thor, who had just come in to join the fun, was suddenly blasted. He was stunned for a moment, then tilted his chin up arrogantly: "We Asgardians do possess power that you cannot hope to reach, but our intention was only to coexist in peace!"
"Coexist in peace? Your brother is currently somewhere with the Tesseract, preparing an army!"
Fury retorted mercilessly, and then immediately shifted the focus, pointing the spearhead directly at Reze, who was eating blueberries in the corner.
"It's not just you, there are other beings—like her!"
Fury pointed at Reze, "A true devil, a non-human monster born from humanity's fear of the Bomb! If Earth doesn't have an equivalent deterrent, how are we to deal with these threats that could crush us at any time?!"
Reze, who was stuffing a blueberry into her mouth, paused her movements.
Why me again?
What did I ever do to you guys?
No, really, you Avengers are having an internal fight, why do you keep shifting the fire to me?
"Stark, don't forget the history of how you made your fortune."
Fury was truly of the older generation, immediately checking backgrounds and pinning labels, trying to drag Tony, who used to manufacture munitions, down with him. His point was that no one was clean, so why single him out for criticism?
Steve frowned; although he didn't like Tony, he was even more repulsed by Fury's tactic of changing the subject: "If Stark were still making munitions, he would have surely..."
Makima, watching coldly from the side, raised an eyebrow slightly.
She could hear that this upright old soldier was actually using a very clumsy method, belittling the past Stark Industries to defend the now-transformed Tony.
However, a self-centered and hypersensitive genius like Tony could never hear it that way.
His reaction to Steve's words was almost a knee-jerk stress response.
Without even waiting for the Captain to finish, he bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Wait! What? How did this conversation suddenly turn on me?!"
Tony pointed at Steve's nose and asked back, "What do you mean by that?"
Seeing the two of them about to argue again, Hawkeye helplessly covered his face and let out a long sigh.
Dr. Banner closed his eyes in pain, breathing deeply in an attempt to suppress the Beast within that was becoming restless due to the surrounding malice.
"These men are laughably childish, aren't they?" Natasha commented coldly from the side.
"Agreed, they're just like a bunch of elementary schoolers," Reze rolled her eyes.
As it turned out, the moment she said this, it immediately provoked the already angry Fury.
"Don't you start making a scene here, little girl!"
Fury glared at her with his single eye and barked.
"You're not even willing to join us! To get you onto this mothership, how much of your mess have we cleaned up? We settled the mess of you bombing an entire street in Harlem! In what capacity do you think you're standing here talking right now?!"
The moment these words came out, Banner, who was desperately rubbing his temples, suddenly froze in his tracks.
Wait... Harlem?
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