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Ch. 256 Nick Fury Demands the Cosmic Cube
🕑 Added 2024-01-07 16:01:01 +0000 UTCWhen Russell first arrived in front of her, the Invisible Woman, Susan, thought he would directly eliminate the attacking Chitauri warriors and Outriders soldiers, just like he had helped Thing and Mr. Fantastic earlier.
However, she never expected that Russell didn't come to help her eliminate the enemies; instead, he simply picked her up and left the battlefield.
While carrying her away, Russell didn't forget to use his heat vision to clear some of the enemies in front of him.
But it was clear that his main goal at the moment was not to kill the enemies but to take Susan away from the streets filled with Chitauri warriors and Outriders soldiers.
Russell lifted Susan off her feet and flew towards a nearby skyscraper, a sight witnessed by Mr. Fantastic and Thing.
Though they instinctively found Russell's actions somewhat strange, they didn't dwell on it. Russell's willingness to help them was already a gesture of goodwill.
As the ones being helped, they couldn't demand that Russell help them in a specific way. In this regard, Mr. Fantastic and Thing were much better than some citizens who were completely clueless about the situation and arrogantly self-righteous.
"Thank you!" Susan immediately spoke up after Russell put her down.
"You're welcome!" Russell replied with a smile.
Susan's fair and delicate face was covered in sweat. Although the energy force field had protected her life, using it extensively still placed a significant burden on her.
What's more, her signature ability, invisibility through energy field manipulation, was utterly ineffective against the Outriders soldiers who possessed keen senses.
While Susan bore the title of the Invisible Woman, her invisibility was achieved by folding and distorting light through energy field manipulation. For Outriders soldiers with a keen sense of smell, even if they couldn't see her, they could easily detect her position through scent.
Otherwise, Susan wouldn't have found herself surrounded by Chitauri warriors and Outriders soldiers with her visual invisibility ability.
After thanking Russell, Susan quickly moved to the edge of the rooftop and anxiously looked at Mr. Fantastic and Thing, who were still on the streets.
Although Russell had helped Mr. Fantastic and Thing deal with some of the enemies, it took only a few seconds for another group of Chitauri warriors and Outriders soldiers to quickly rush towards them.
As Susan contemplated whether to ask Russell to continue helping Mr. Fantastic and Thing, Johnny, the Human Torch, who had been pursued by Chitauri flying vehicles for a while, appeared in Russell and Susan's field of view.
As the only member of the Fantastic Four with the ability to fly, Johnny willingly took on the responsibility of dealing with the airborne units.
However, when Johnny, wrapped in orange-red flames like a human torch, flew towards the Chitauri flying vehicles, he realized that dealing with the flying vehicles was much more challenging than the Chitauri soldiers on the ground.
With anti-gravity technology and unconventional aerodynamics, the Chitauri flying vehicles displayed agility and speed that exceeded their appearance.
Even within the steel jungle formed by skyscrapers, the Chitauri flying vehicles demonstrated impressive performance.
Johnny initially believed he could easily take care of the flying vehicles following him. However, the outcome was entirely different from what he had imagined.
After circling around the city with these flying vehicles for a while, he barely managed to take down three of them.
In terms of efficiency, Johnny was not even close to the White Zetsu warriors under Russell's command.
Although the White Zetsu warriors in their White Zetsu form couldn't fly, their efficiency in dealing with the flying vehicles far surpassed Johnny's.
Despite their somewhat crude methods, which involved leaping into the air and actively colliding with the vehicles, the flying vehicles eliminated by the White Zetsu warriors far outnumbered those taken down by Johnny.
What was even more frustrating was that Johnny had to put in a lot of effort to eliminate just three flying vehicles. As a result, he brought even more flying vehicles into the city by flying around.
Now, behind Johnny, nearly twenty Chitauri flying vehicles, large and small, fired energy beams at him recklessly, as if they were free.
Seeing his younger brother being chased by alien invaders and running around, Susan anxiously asked Russell, "Can you help Johnny?"
"Of course!" Russell agreed without hesitation.
Though he didn't particularly like Johnny, he understood that, regardless, Johnny was still a member of Fantastic Four and Earthling.
After saying that, Russell flew directly towards the flying vehicles behind Johnny.
Unlike Johnny, who had to constantly dodge energy beams, Russell was not threatened by the energy guns of the Chitauri soldiers and the energy cannons on the flying vehicles.
Even if he were hit, for Russell, it was no different from a gentle breeze brushing against him.
In just an instant, he arrived in front of those flying vehicles.
Without any hesitation, his eyes began to emit a red glow.
Heat vision!
Two laser-like high-temperature heat rays shot from his eyes, instantly hitting several flying vehicles that were coming straight at him.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The flying vehicles hit by the heat rays exploded like fireworks, bursting into a dazzling orange-red light.
After dealing with these flying vehicles, Russell didn't deactivate his heat vision. Instead, he started moving his neck continuously.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The laser-like red heat rays continued to sweep through, destroying one flying vehicle after another.
In just five or six seconds, all the flying vehicles following Johnny were eliminated by Russell.
While destroying these flying vehicles, the heat rays caused some collateral damage to nearby tall buildings, but at this moment, nobody cared about such minor issues.
After helping Johnny, Russell didn't plan to return to the rooftop of the building. Instead, he flew towards other areas of the city.
In just an instant, he disappeared from Susan and Johnny's sight.
"Did Russell bring you up here?" After watching Russell leave, Johnny asked Susan.
"Yes," Susan replied without hesitation.
"He's quite the gentleman!" Johnny said with a smile after hearing Susan's answer.
"He's a good person; you just don't like him," Susan replied, looking at Johnny.
"It's not that I don't like him; he just insists on stealing my spotlight!" Johnny protested with a dissatisfied expression.
Having helped the Fantastic Four for a moment, Russell continued his reputation-building activities.
The invasion of the Chitauri and Outriders soldiers was destined to fail the moment the portal closed.
While the situation was still ongoing, Russell didn't mind boosting his reputation a bit more. After all, he now bore the title of a superhero.
Time passed little by little.
When only a small portion of the Chitauri soldiers and Outriders soldiers remained in New York City, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier finally appeared in the skies above New York.
Although they arrived a bit late, Nick Fury didn't miss the opportunity to bolster his reputation.
Squadrons of Quinjets took off from the helicarrier's deck.
Captain America, Natasha, and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. special forces joined the battle against the alien invasion, which was about to come to an end.
When the helicarrier arrived in the skies above New York, Russell used the "Absolute Command" of the King's Serum to issue new orders to Grendel and the White Zetsu warriors, instructing them to withdraw from New York.
As for Diana and Kara, they continued the final mop-up operation.
With S.H.I.E.L.D. joining the battle, the remaining Chitauri soldiers and Outriders soldiers didn't last long and were all eliminated.
When Diana beheaded the last Outriders soldier with the Sword of Athena, the battle in New York, which was supposed to be a defining moment for the Avengers, officially came to a close.
Although all the Chitauri soldiers and Outriders soldiers were eliminated, Russell didn't immediately instruct Diana and Kara to return to Justice League Headquarters.
The battle in New York may have ended, but their reputation-building activities were far from over.
In addition to helping injured New York citizens and handling some post-battle tasks, Diana and Kara were also subjected to on-site interviews by various media outlets.
While being interviewed, it wasn't just them; Tony Stark and Mr. Fantastic, among others, who were in their battle suits, were also targets of the reporters' attention.
Although the Avengers were not physically present in this New York battle, Tony Stark finally appeared before the public as Iron Man.
It wasn't until nightfall, leaving the remaining post-battle work to the New York police and firefighters, that Russell and the others left the city and returned to Justice League Headquarters.
After changing out of their battle attire and freshening up, Russell and Diana arrived in the living room in casual clothing.
Before their arrival, Kara, Gwen, and the others had already changed into regular clothes and were sitting on the living room couch, waiting for them.
Normally, Russell and Diana wouldn't be late like this.
However, while freshening up, they had indulged in some romantic activities, which had delayed them a bit.
Two hours later.
Octopus's Monster headquarters.
Chairman's office.
Russell, seated in the boss's chair, watched the news reports projected by Number 3 and gave instructions for Diana's news conference.
During yesterday's on-site interviews with the reporters, Diana had not concealed her true identity.
Although she possessed the means to hide her true identity, she chose not to.
Since she had decided to appear as Wonder Woman, she was prepared for her identity to be fully exposed.
Moreover, even if her identity were to be completely revealed, others would, at most, know her as the mysterious swordswoman who had captured Rhino-Man earlier.
She wasn't worried about S.H.I.E.L.D. revealing the fact that she came from another world.
As for Hydra... Hydra would soon become Russell's private force.
After instructing Number 3, Russell received a call from Nick Fury.
While S.H.I.E.L.D. had arrived late yesterday, they had confirmed the whereabouts of the Cosmic Cube after a night of investigation.
"Mr. Bradley, good afternoon. I apologize for the intrusion, but when would it be convenient for you to return the Cosmic Cube to us?"
Nick Fury's tone was polite, a far cry from his usual style.
"The Cosmic Cube? The Cosmic Cube is not in my possession anymore. When we closed the portal yesterday, the Cosmic Cube was destroyed," Russell replied seriously.
"Mr. Bradley, please don't joke. We are well aware of the capabilities of the Cosmic Cube."
Nick Fury's tone began to change.
"I'm not joking with you. Since you can say that the Cosmic Cube is in my possession, then you must not have forgotten to have it searched for on Liberty Island."
"If I'm not mistaken, the fragments of the Cosmic Cube are already in the S.H.I.E.L.D. laboratory."
Russell calmly stated.
When he crushed the Cosmic Cube yesterday, he had already considered how to handle this issue.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have left the fragments of the Cosmic Cube's outer shell on Liberty Island.
Although he could have simply refused to hand it over, S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't dare to forcibly take it. However, he didn't mind giving S.H.I.E.L.D. a golden staircase to descend.
