"Three years?"
Hearing Nick Fury say they still had at least three years to completely eliminate Hydra, Tony blurted out:
"You still want to wait three more years? Come on, that's Hydra we're talking about."
"Sure, I've never fought them directly, but I've heard from my dad how cruel and ambitious they were."
"Now that we know they're hiding inside S.H.I.E.L.D., you still want to wait three years?"
"When we didn't have the spoiler system, you knew nothing, so you fought Hydra three years later."
"But now that we do have a spoiler system, we know about Hydra ahead of time, and you still want to wait three years? Doesn't that make the spoiler system useless?"
Hearing Tony's indignant tone, Nick Fury replied calmly:
"Tony, Hydra is not as simple as you think."
"You only saw a few Hydra members, but I suspect Hydra has spread across all S.H.I.E.L.D. departments."
"If we strike now, it will cause massive instability."
"At that point, the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. might collapse."
Nick Fury let out a rare sigh.
"In fact, I've already had Hill secretly investigate some people."
"And it turns out… the ones who most want S.H.I.E.L.D. to grow stronger… are actually those Hydra agents."
"They're willing to sacrifice their lives without hesitation if it benefits S.H.I.E.L.D."
Shaking his head in self-mockery, Fury leaned back in his chair.
"At some moments, their 'loyalty' to S.H.I.E.L.D. is even greater than mine, and I'm the Director."
Hearing this, Steve — who had been silently thinking about Bucky — suddenly spoke:
"No compromises."
"It might not be a good idea to act rashly right now, but we must never compromise with Hydra."
"Seventy years ago, I fought Hydra under Red Skull. I know their true nature."
"So even if S.H.I.E.L.D. collapses, we must not compromise."
"I agree with Steve."
Tony immediately raised his hand.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded by my father and Aunt Peggy."
"I may not inherit it, but I won't allow Hydra to keep developing inside it."
"Fury, if you have no better plan, then Steve and I will take action — even if it's just the two of us."
"Who said I don't have a plan?"
Looking at Tony — whose voice was playful but eyes were deadly serious — and Steve, who looked determined, Fury continued:
"I've already made arrangements. The target is Alexander Pierce."
"I can't tell you the details yet, but you will witness a completely different Alexander Pierce soon."
"I promise — before the Insight Program launches, I will capture all Hydra agents inside S.H.I.E.L.D. without causing major damage."
Steve nodded.
At the very least, he still trusted Fury's ability.
"Wow, so it's three against one? Okay, minority follows majority."
Tony shrugged.
"I miss Thor so much right now. That reckless guy would definitely support my plan."
"Since we're not touching Hydra yet, I'll go to that base in Tennessee and destroy it myself."
"I don't believe Zola's digital ghost is stronger than JARVIS."
"No!"
Nick Fury immediately shut him down.
"If you go after Arnim Zola now, Hydra will know instantly."
"You'll alert the enemy, Tony. You cannot do that."
"This isn't allowed, and that isn't allowed either. Damn it—where's that reckless Thor? Someone stop him from fighting his brother and drag him back here from Asgard!"
Tony looked ready to throw a tantrum.
Fury ignored him and turned toward Natasha, who had been unusually quiet.
"Natasha, what are you thinking?"
Natasha took a breath.
"I'm thinking… this matches the video again."
"In that video, five years after billions of people died, I told Linen that I thought leaving the Red Room and joining S.H.I.E.L.D. was the right choice."
"In the end, it turned out I just walked into another mud pit."
"And the video said Linen and I destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. together. Now everything makes sense."
She paused.
"But I've been thinking about something… All the videos came from the original timeline—the one where we didn't have the spoiler system."
"So what happens now that we do know the future?"
"Maybe things will be better."
"But it's also possible that because we only know the results, not the process, we might act the wrong way and turn a good future into a bad one."
Looking at the group, Natasha continued seriously:
"For example, Falcon said in the video that half the Avengers showed up and asked if Hulk came."
"Steve might not know Hulk well, but Fury and I do. And Tony probably knows something too — Hulk's fight with Abomination years ago left a mark."
Tony opened his mouth to speak, but Natasha didn't give him the chance:
"Hulk is dangerous and unpredictable, but he eventually becomes an Avenger."
"If we don't know how the original timeline convinced Dr. Banner to join, how we built trust with Hulk, how we controlled him when he went berserk…"
"…and we just go looking for him because he's on the Avengers 'list'…"
"…then things could go horribly wrong. That's what I mean by turning good intentions into disaster."
Natasha folded her arms.
"Also, Fury was assassinated in 2014. And in the video, I said I didn't want to involve all the superheroes who won the Battle of New York."
"That means… the Battle of New York might be right around the corner."
"I just don't know what kind of war requires all of us to win."
"I'm guessing it might be related to Loki — the version of him we saw captured earlier."
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