American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 156 Fury: That's right, I'm still alive.

Chapter 156 Fury: That's right, I'm still alive.

Following the encrypted signal on her pager, Captain Marvel arrived at the coordinates indicated: an abandoned outpost on the edge of the Arctic Circle. A blizzard howled outside the steel structure, but the interior was eerily quiet, with only the pale blue glow of old emergency lights.

Carol clenched her fist, cosmic energy flowing between her fingers, and she warily scanned her surroundings.

"Furry, come out here! I want to see what tricks you're playing!" Her voice echoed in the empty corridor. Then, she saw him—Nick Fury, the man she had witnessed die on the Helicarrier—sitting in front of the control panel, his one eye fixed on the screen, toying with an old-fashioned pager, exactly the same as the one in her hand.

Carol's pupils suddenly contracted, and energy erupted instantly, with golden flame-like light enveloping her entire body.

"You're dead. I watched you breathe your last." Her voice was icy cold, and anyone who knew her would feel a chill run down their spine. This woman could destroy an entire space fleet on her own, and it was hard to imagine what a terrible scene would unfold when her rage was unleashed on a specific person.

However, Fury simply raised her head slowly, a familiar, mocking smile playing on her lips.

"Yes, that 'me' is indeed dead." He stood up, spreading his hands to indicate he was unarmed. "But have you ever wondered—why was the other 'me' so eager to destroy the body?"

Carol clenched her fists tighter, energy surging beneath her skin. Because Fury's last remaining eye held a look of utter disdain, a mixture of pity and amusement that fueled Captain Marvel's anger even more.

Fury sighed and pressed a button on the table. The monitor screen flickered, showing footage of the Helicarrier from that day. The dead "Fury" lay in a pool of blood, but as his shattered body was put into a bag, the blood faintly tinged with an eerie blue.

"Skrugs?" Carol understood instantly, slightly reducing her energy, then looked at Fury helplessly: "What incredible offer did you make to them this time?"

Fury didn't answer the somewhat pointed question, a cunning glint in his single eye: "Of course I know Hydra has moles within S.H.I.E.L.D., so we staged a scene when Thunderbolts started their operation."

Carol stared intently at him, her memory flashing back to that night not long ago—when anger tore through her reason, and if it weren't for the old pager relaying the message, she would have actually dismantled that priceless sky carrier. And now? This guy was standing right in front of her, as if it were all just a cruel joke.

"You're a madman! Fury, you're not just mad, you're a shameless beast!" Her voice was low, suppressing her anger. "For a fleeting moment, I really felt like I had let you down, Fury, you really know how to fucking fool me!"

Fury's expression softened for a rare moment.

"I have to make everyone—including you—believe that I'm really dead." He pointed to the screen, which switched to Rune's live stream, where the boy had just executed the American president—who was actually a Hydra spy—at the request of the viewers.

"Look, our country really does have an inexplicable connection with Britain," Fury laughed. "Even our president is just as clueless as Louis XVI."

"—But if I remember correctly, the president is the highest leader of the United States, right?" Captain Marvel looked at Fury, who nodded to confirm that she was right.

"I know what you're trying to say, but the current US president has become a Hydra agent." Fury stared coldly at the headless corpse on the screen: "As the leader of the world's most powerful nation, if he continues to live, the entire world will be thrown into chaos by Hydra. So he must die, even if it plunges the United States into turmoil."

He then looked at the hero: "S.H.I.E.L.D. has never belonged to the United States; it belongs to the entire United Nations, and its responsibility is to maintain the stability of the entire planet. Even if I am white and have not experienced the discrimination that Fury, a black man in other universes, has suffered, that does not mean I will give special treatment to my so-called homeland."

Captain Marvel nodded. "But won't Hydra use this as an excuse?" Fury continued with a smile, "This boy is smart, Carol, he's very smart. He's neither a member of the Avengers, nor a member of the X-Men, nor one of those recently criticized illegal heroes. In other words, Hydra can't even hold a grudge against other groups because of his personal actions—oh, actually, they can."

"He's a mutant, so Hydra can only take their anger out on mutants." Fury winked playfully. "But mutants are used to being persecuted, aren't they?"

At this point, he was unaware that several other heroes had gone to directly slaughter Hydra spies; Fury's main attention was focused on Rune.

Carol took a deep breath, and the cosmic energy finally subsided.

"So you're hiding here, like a rat in a burrow, watching that little boy do such dangerous things for you, and then you clap your hands in delight?" Captain Marvel sneered, looking at Fury as if he were a scumbag or a coward.

"No, my friend. He's not just any ordinary little boy. In fact, if you see his record—" Fury pulled out the remote and pressed it again. The screen showed a scene of Rune clashing with Shadowcat, Li Qianhuan, and Rakshasa. The man continued, "If you really have to call him a little boy, then I think he's more like the little boy who was thrown over Japan back then."

"And who said I'm just standing here watching?" Fury smiled, pulling a data chip from his pocket. "No! I'm waiting for the right moment to destroy Hydra, and for someone who can single-handedly kill thousands of Hydra soldiers."

He placed the chip in her hand.

"Welcome back, Captain. It's time to settle the score."

Fury pressed the remote control again, and the screen switched to a map showing the distribution of Hydra bases around the world—dense red dots covering the entire globe—except for a certain mysterious Eastern superpower.

Carol took the chip, a smile finally appearing on her lips: "Don't fake your death this time, Fury. Otherwise, I'll personally go to hell and drag you back."

Fury snorted and turned to walk towards the control panel.

"Don't worry, don't worry, this time the plan—" He pressed a button, and a holographic projection unfolded, displaying a long-lurking Skrull special agent team and several superhumans on standby. "We're going to win."

After saying that, he joked, "Unless we have to face Thanos, Berserker, or a similar super-powerful enemy with all six Infinity Stones gathered again."