Nick Fury’s Invitation

As the young man’s eyes widened in terror and Natasha’s sparkled with delight, Joss casually recited a portion of the conversation that the Hydra members had held earlier. This unexpected development brought a mix of expressions to everyone in the room.

For the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, their mission was as good as complete—if Joss could already repeat what was said, what was the point of further interrogation? For the young man, however, it was nothing short of a catastrophe. The only reason they had gritted their teeth and refused to divulge any information was to maintain their value and thus, their lives. But if Joss had already heard everything, what use could they possibly have left?

“I never imagined you had another trick up your sleeve,” Natasha said, her eyes gleaming. “So what exactly were they plotting?”

“How would I know?! I don’t even speak German!” Joss shot her a baffled look, wondering why this woman always asked such inexplicable questions.

Natasha’s smile instantly froze. After a moment, she managed to stammer, “But you just—”

“Yes, I can repeat what they said, but that doesn’t mean I understand it! Is that a problem?” Joss replied, utterly confident.

“So if you don’t know German, how did you manage to say it all?” she pressed.

“Because at heart, humans are just tape recorders! There’s no crime in repeating things! Admiration leads to—no, wrong script. Anyway, I’ll repeat everything they said, and you can interpret it yourselves.”

Natasha and the others were left speechless by his explanation, yet having something was better than nothing, so she nodded in agreement.

…

After bringing everyone back to Stark Tower, Joss now sat in the conference room with the other Avengers. The silver-haired girl was there as well; Joss didn’t trust leaving her with S.H.I.E.L.D., and Nick Fury and his team weren’t comfortable letting her go elsewhere, so in the end, she was simply brought along. To prevent information leaks, she currently wore a small device developed by Tony Stark, so no one worried about her overhearing their discussion.

As for the girl herself, she showed no reaction—she was always cold and indifferent to everything, so there was no disturbance caused by this arrangement. However, as Joss recited the German lines, his face expressionless, yet his tone shifting between softness and gravity, madness and calm, his voice alternating seamlessly between male and female, Natasha felt her own expression must have looked quite bizarre.

Regardless, thanks to Joss’s mysterious echoing ability, they managed to glean quite a bit of useful information. Nick Fury, holding one of the documents, said, “From the information we’ve gathered, that base was just a decoy. Still, the Hydra agents inside were genuine, so we’ll need to consider how to handle them.”

Natasha picked up another report. “And here’s the list of S.H.I.E.L.D. moles. There aren’t many names, but even these few are trouble enough, aren’t they?”

Steve, who had been frowning the whole time, finally spoke once the others fell silent. “More than any of this, I’m starting to doubt whether ‘remnants’ is even the right word for Hydra. Their influence might be far greater than we ever imagined.”

His concern was justified. To infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D., to establish such a massive base in New York as bait, to be able to mass-produce super soldier serum—none of these could have been accomplished by just a handful of people.

Nick Fury shot Steve a thoughtful look before responding, “You’re right, Captain. It seems we have more than a few problems on our hands lately. I’ll break these matters down and assign them as separate tasks later. For now, let’s move on to another topic.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Fury extended his right hand to Joss, who had unconsciously begun tapping his foot in time with the conversation. “Joss, I’d like to invite you to join the Avengers.”

No one in the room was surprised by this. After all, Joss’s achievements over the past two days had been plain for all to see, and with his ever-expanding array of strange abilities, he clearly wasn’t suited to be just another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

“Wait, before that, I have a question.” Joss looked at Fury’s outstretched hand but didn’t immediately accept it, instead frowning slightly.

This took Fury off guard. He’d assumed Joss would be thrilled—after all, just days ago, Joss had been trying to pass his S.H.I.E.L.D. entrance exams, and now he was being offered a spot in a far more prestigious group. Anyone would be overjoyed.

Yet Joss’s demeanor was calm and indifferent, as if he were the one evaluating the Avengers, not the other way around.

Still, Fury had encountered this sort of hesitation before. When he first recruited Iron Man and Captain America to form the Avengers, they too had their reservations. He had nothing to fear from Joss’s questions—for their cause was just and noble, unwavering under any scrutiny.

“Do you provide health insurance and a retirement plan? Is food included? Do you assign housing? How many days of annual leave do we get? Is there a year-end bonus? We’re not expected to work as superheroes for free, are we? After all, we need to eat, don’t we?”

Fury was completely flummoxed by Joss’s barrage of questions.

…

In the end, after Tony Stark promised Joss a monthly salary that would take an average person a decade to earn, the matter of Joss joining the Avengers was finally settled.

“So, is this really all there is to the Avengers?” Joss asked, already referring to the group as “us.”

Steve seemed just as puzzled by the question. “The Avengers have been just a handful of us since we formed two years ago—me, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick. That’s public knowledge.”

“Ah, I just thought there might be some hidden powerhouses or something.” Caught off guard by the answer, Joss could only laugh it off. He certainly couldn’t just come out and ask where Thor or Hulk were—that would probably have the whole team pinning him down for questioning in the next second.