Chapter 157: Knocking on the Outside of the Plane

"Everything in New York is normal."

Skye hung up the phone and spoke to Orion Cross.

"So you’re saying only S.H.I.E.L.D. was attacked?"

Orion Cross stroked his chin thoughtfully.

So Nick Fury’s talk about a crisis for the entire Earth had just been a way to scare him?

Was Loki once again emerging from the Tesseract and attacking S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Tesseract research team?

At that moment, Nick Fury’s exhausted voice came through the phone again.

"Orion Cross, I need your help. I’ve temporarily authorized you to access the location data of my equipment..."

From his voice, it sounded as though the battle had already ended.

As for which side had won, Nick Fury’s words and tone made that obvious.

He had probably suffered a serious loss this time.

"If you really think Earth is in danger, I suggest pressing your pager."

Orion Cross sat on the laboratory table with his phone in hand.

"She told you about it?"

Nick Fury’s voice clearly faltered before he realized what Orion Cross meant.

"Carol has her own responsibilities. Before she left, she told me that I was only allowed to press the pager if ’we’ had all lost."

"She’ll only come back after everyone has lost? Then I’m afraid she’ll never come back."

Orion Cross recalled the original events, and that was indeed how things had happened.

Otherwise, if an Earth-threatening crisis alone were enough to summon Captain Marvel back, the Avengers could have simply called her during the Battle of New York.

After all, the pressure Earth faced from the Chitauri invasion was not much different from what Ronan’s forces had posed.

But if Carol would only return after everyone on Earth had been defeated and there was absolutely nothing anyone could do, then she genuinely had no reason to come back.

With Orion Cross on Earth, Carol was no longer the final trump card.

And if even Orion Cross failed, calling Carol back would be pointless anyway.

Of course, when Carol had said those words to Nick Fury back then, she had not known that Orion Cross would eventually escape his seal.

From Carol’s calculations, "Earth losing everything" did not include Orion Cross, who at the time was still sealed away.

"If you’re willing to intervene, then she really won’t be coming back."

Nick Fury lowered his attitude and agreed with Orion Cross.

"Have you contacted the others?"

"Not yet. You should be able to tell that I just finished a battle."

Nick Fury glanced at the several severely injured agents behind him and took a deep breath.

"We have to make the enemy pay."

"All right. I’ll come over shortly."

Orion Cross also wanted to know exactly what had happened, so he agreed without hesitation.

After hanging up, Orion Cross looked toward Zhao Hailun and Skye.

"Are you two staying here for a while longer, or are you heading back to New York? I need to leave first."

"I’ll work hard on my training."

Skye looked at Orion Cross seriously.

She guessed that the "major disturbance" Orion Cross had mentioned earlier had now begun.

She only hoped that when the time came, even if she could not stop the disturbance, she would at least be able to stay in New York and face it alongside Orion Cross without becoming a burden.

"There’s no need to put so much pressure on yourself."

Orion Cross nodded reassuringly before turning toward Zhao Hailun.

"The phone number of the person in charge of the company is the same one you used to contact ’me’ before."

"What?"

Zhao Hailun froze.

With her exceptional intelligence, she immediately understood.

"Wait. The person I used to talk to wasn’t you?"

"Go ask her. She’ll tell you."

Orion Cross did not explain any further.

He was leaving the matter for Raven to clarify.

It was more than just the person she had been talking to not being Orion Cross.

Even the flirting had been handled by Mystique as his stand-in.

"Wait! I’ll find you a pilot!"

Zhao Hailun suddenly remembered something and called after Orion Cross’s departing figure.

"No need."

Skye grabbed Zhao Hailun and shook her head.

The next moment, a sparkling portal appeared in front of Orion Cross.

Beyond it was a bustling city filled with traffic.

New York.

After returning to New York, Orion Cross took out his phone and checked Nick Fury’s location.

"Why does this guy keep moving?"

Looking at the slowly moving marker on the map, Orion Cross frowned.

"Is he in a car? On a plane?"

What made Orion Cross even more puzzled was that Nick Fury was moving away from New York.

He had suffered such a major defeat, yet instead of returning to headquarters to recover, he was heading toward another branch?

Orion Cross did not bother speculating too much.

He could simply ask Nick Fury directly when he arrived.

However, Orion Cross did not have the coordinates of the vehicle Nick Fury was currently traveling in, so he could not teleport directly to it.

He had two options.

The first was to wait there for a few minutes until Nick Fury reached his destination, then teleport to the nearest location and walk over.

The second was...

On the S.H.I.E.L.D. transport aircraft, Nick Fury hung up the phone and looked at several of his severely injured agents.

"He agreed to come."

"Perfect. I have a business proposition for him."

Coulson was lying on the operating table. Looking at his empty right arm, he gave Nick Fury a smile.

"Our entire team was wiped out this time. We don’t even know who the enemy actually was..."

Nick Fury spoke with a heavy expression when several muffled knocks suddenly came from nearby.

"Boss, stop reminiscing. Someone’s knocking."

Coulson closed his eyes, feeling the sensation of the surgical knife cutting through him beneath the anesthesia.

"Knocking... knocking?"

Nick Fury instinctively stood up, preparing to open the door.

Then he suddenly remembered.

They were on an aircraft flying at an altitude of ten thousand meters.

Who could possibly be knocking from outside the plane?

Nick Fury’s first thought was that the invaders had found them again.

He cautiously drew the pistol from his waist.

"Don’t make a sound!"

Nick Fury gestured to the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

The entire cabin immediately fell silent.

The knocking continued for thirty seconds.

After thirty seconds, it stopped.

Just as Nick Fury was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a spark appeared on the door.

Were the enemies cutting through the door?

Nick Fury’s hair stood on end.

"What are you doing?"

Orion Cross stepped into the cabin and found several wounded agents pointing pistols at him.

They had called him over, refused to open the door, and then pointed guns at him?

"Orion, it’s you?"

Nick Fury hurriedly lowered his weapon and looked behind Orion Cross.

Only then did he realize that the sparks had not come from someone cutting through the metal door.

They were the sparks from a sorcerer’s portal from Kamar-Taj.

"Damn. What happened to you guys?"

Orion Cross ignored Nick Fury and instead looked toward the operating tables inside the cabin.

Several of the people lying there were familiar faces.

And now, one by one, they were barely recognizable.