Chapter Thirty-Four: The Avenger's Declaration

Tony Stark arrived swiftly.

Just as Nick Fury finished gathering the agents and altering their memories, Tony descended from the sky in his Iron Man suit.

“Wow, so this is Asgard’s interstellar mothership battle fleet. Worth leaving those twin sisters in my bed for. Shouldn’t you be hiding these already?” Tony said hurriedly.

“Invisibility,” Nick Fury ordered.

Instantly, nine out of the ten groups of interstellar motherships hovering in the air vanished, leaving only one in plain sight.

Yang Xin understood—the remaining group was the decoy, meant for S.H.I.E.L.D. to negotiate with the Security Council and the US military. Something this massive couldn’t happen without a trace, so they might as well put one fleet on display and muddy the waters.

“They’re invisible?” Tony began scanning the vanished ships but found nothing. “Looks like my suit needs another upgrade. I have to figure out the principle behind this cloaking tech.”

While speaking, Tony hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s firewall, slipping into their control center. Carefully, he erased all data related to Yang Xin and the nine interstellar mothership groups Fury had obtained, but he purposely left some flaws and set dozens of cyber traps to lure other forces.

No matter how deep others dug, they would only find that S.H.I.E.L.D. under Nick Fury had one Asgardian interstellar battle fleet. The other nine, along with Yang Xin’s gains tonight, had been wiped clean by Tony.

After handling everything, Tony grabbed Yang Xin’s arm, his eyes scanning the bracelet on Yang Xin’s wrist. “This is my latest Mark VII armor. It breaks through the traditional laser-guided tracking systems and allows for rapid deployment—no more old assembly rigs. Want to try it?”

Yang Xin immediately realized this was the auto-assembling suit Tony used in Avengers 1, when Loki threw him from Stark Tower. It seemed the suit had come out early in this world. Alchemy was clearly a perfect fit for Tony, accelerating his research and development immensely.

Yang Xin shed the Mark V suit and stored it, along with the suits from Hill and the others, into the dimensional pocket. Then, with a silent command, “Activate.”

Five minutes later, a meteor streaked across the sky—the Mark VII armor arrived before Yang Xin, scanned his bracelet, and began the suit-up sequence. In just three seconds, Yang Xin was armored in the new Mark VII.

This was the first Iron Man suit in the truest sense—not requiring external machines to assemble.

“Amazing!” Yang Xin shouted in excitement. The Mark VII perfectly covered his weaknesses. Inside, he had the most advanced Iron Man armor; outside, the Asgardian interstellar battle fleet. Only now did he feel he truly had a foothold in this world.

“Interested in a race? First one to Stark Tower wins,” Tony invited with enthusiasm.

Yang Xin was tempted, but ultimately shook his head. This world was best with only one Iron Man—Tony Stark. If another appeared, all the powers would start digging into his background, and that would be far too troublesome.

Perhaps when Tony developed more remotely operated suits, Yang Xin could soar through the sky disguised as one.

“I remember someone promised to give Pepper and me a few alien toys,” Tony said, his eyes gleaming at Yang Xin.

“Of course. When I say I’ll deliver, I mean it. An equivalent exchange… But you sure you want it here?” Yang Xin replied.

“Absolutely. I don’t want word getting out that Stark Industries has alien warships,” Tony nodded vigorously. Aside from the secrecy here, he couldn’t be sure there weren’t spies elsewhere.

Yang Xin promptly took out a set of interstellar motherships from his dimensional pocket and transferred highest-level access to Tony. The moment Tony received control, he cloaked the fleet and sent them silently to one of Stark’s secret bases.

“Tony, study the cloaking systems well. I expect to see your own invisible suits soon,” Yang Xin said suddenly.

“What’s mine is yours, you know. You’re the one who wants stealth armor,” Tony rolled his eyes, then added, “But you’re right, it’s worth researching. The next suit will be stealth and counter-stealth.”

With that, Tony powered up his suit. As he prepared to take off, Nick Fury called after him with a cool tone, “Tony, be at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier tomorrow morning at nine. You can find the coordinates yourself.”

“Sure, the Helicarrier’s just a sitting duck to me. Whether I show up depends on my mood. If I’m not in the mood, I’ll stick to a bed party with the twins…” Tony replied with exaggerated bravado, making clear he had no desire to get too involved with S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Oh, I’m certain you’ll be in a great mood tomorrow,” Nick Fury called back. “If not, news that Stark Industries holds an Asgardian battle fleet will become the hottest topic in America.”

“Damn it! Nothing good ever comes from dealing with you, baldy,” Tony cursed.

“Nine o’clock tomorrow. Helicarrier. See you there.” Fury waved him off.

Tony shot him a middle finger, then blasted away into the sky.

“Natasha’s back from India?” Yang Xin guessed Fury was about to formally assemble the Avengers.

“In fact, not just Agent Natasha. Dr. Bruce Banner is with her,” Fury replied without hesitation. By now, there was little S.H.I.E.L.D. would hide from Yang Xin; their fates had become closely entwined since his arrival.

“You really trust Banner on the Helicarrier? Aren’t you afraid he’ll lose it, turn into the Hulk, and tear the whole thing apart?”

“Not at all.”

“Why not?” Yang Xin was genuinely curious about Fury’s mysterious confidence.

Fury pointed at Yang Xin. When he saw Yang Xin’s speechless expression, he shrugged, touched his left eye, and said with a strange and affectionate tone, “The more I use the Sharingan, the more I sense its power…”

“It’s because of the Mangekyō Sharingan that I’m not afraid of the Hulk. Hulk’s raw strength is formidable—stronger than Captain America—but his mind is weak. I believe under this eye’s gaze, the Hulk will become Banner again. Even if it can’t stop the Helicarrier from being torn apart, I’m not worried, because…”

“Because you’ve got new warships?” Yang Xin finished for him, though he posed it as a question, his tone was certain. He had noticed Fury’s gaze lingering hungrily on the Asgardian fleet.

“There was once an idea—to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if we could become something more…” Fury spread his arms wide, looking up at the hovering ships with shining eyes, as if embracing the void, or perhaps the whole world.

“When they need us, to fight the battles they never could…” Yang Xin completed the thought.

“That’s the Avengers’ pledge. I believe you’ll make an excellent Avenger.” Fury patted Yang Xin on the shoulder before turning away. From a distance, his voice drifted back, “Natasha’s waiting for you in your room…”

“I’d actually rather meet Dr. Bruce Banner first. There’s something I want to confirm…” Yang Xin murmured to himself, watching Fury’s figure recede into the night.