Chapter 255: Iron Monger Obadiah Sweats Bullets
Coulson and Melinda took their leave.
Left alone in the room, Fury remained seated in his chair. He glanced at the frozen image on the projection screen, feeling a rare sense of relief wash over him.
It had been far too difficult.
Fury had never imagined that something like this would happen in Washington today.
It had almost started a war between humans and mutants.
Ordinary people might not know, but as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., how could he not have investigated Magneto, Professor X, and the X-Men?
It could be said that in the data files, all their information had long since been thoroughly investigated.
Especially when John, the FBI director of Washington D.C., showed that attitude.
Nick Fury immediately sensed danger. Inwardly, he cursed those idiots for suddenly becoming so hardline. Their brains must have been flooded.
From beginning to end, there had always been a clear red line between humans and mutants. Behind the scenes, all kinds of methods could be used to persecute mutants, but as long as that line remained uncrossed, Magneto and the X-Men would continue rescuing mutants and resisting within those unspoken rules.
Neither side was willing to break that tacit understanding.
The reason was simple: everyone feared Magneto and Professor X.
Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X were like two nuclear bombs. Once that delicate balance was broken, the resulting disaster would be unprecedented.
After all, their power was beyond question. Back in the eighties and nineties, Magneto had already shown the world the full extent of his strength and the deterrence it carried.
That was why humanity never dared push mutants into complete despair. Instead, they tested that red line again and again, probing the limits of both Magneto and Professor X.
But today, that red line had finally been shattered.
No one knew what went through Nick Fury's mind when Magneto switched the broadcast to the image of the floating nuclear bomb.
He had nearly cursed out loud.
He hadn't even dealt with HYDRA yet, and now a war was on the verge of breaking out.
At that critical juncture, Nick Fury had already picked up the interstellar pager. If the situation took a turn for the worse, he would immediately press the button and call back his old friend, who hadn't returned to Earth in countless years.
When Phoenix Jean Grey erupted with energy and almost blew up Washington, he had already entered the distress code and was only waiting to confirm it.
Fortunately, in the end, that mysterious Emperor of Terra appeared and resolved the crisis.
Now the situation was both chaotic and stable.
The chaotic part was that HYDRA, mutants, the President's assassination, and other matters had all erupted at this point in time.
The stable part was that Emperor of Terra.
Nick Fury felt somewhat lucky that someone like the Emperor of Terra actually existed in this world.
Fury's moral bottom line was very flexible.
No matter how strong his desire for control was, or how serious his paranoia was, in the end, he was not a pure power-hungry schemer.
At his core, he hoped Earth could remain peaceful.
It would be best if Earth also possessed the strength to resist outside threats.
And it would be best if he himself was the one maintaining stability.
But since there was already the Terra Empire and the Emperor of Terra, Nick Fury's own thoughts had shifted. At least, having them was better than not having them.
Earth had a force that belonged to itself.
Fury knew very well that because of Terra and the Emperor's existence, Earth was temporarily peaceful and did not need to suffer outside threats.
The role of maintaining stability and controlling the overall situation had shifted, and Fury accepted it very honestly.
His current top priority was to solve HYDRA first.
This was Fury's greatest worry.
No matter what plans he had for the future, they all had to be built on one premise: S.H.I.E.L.D. had to be clean.
"Pierce…"
A cold light flashed in Fury's one eye.
The breakthrough lay with that old bastard.
…
There was no doubt that the Washington incident once again sent shockwaves around the world.
The President's assassination had nearly triggered an all-out war with the mutants.
Whether it was the U.S. government's hardline stance or the mutant threat theory, both became the subject of heated debate, splitting public opinion into two camps.
One side believed the White House's response was justified.
After all, Magneto had demonstrated that he could launch nuclear bombs at any time. His threat level had clearly risen once again.
Professor X was a different matter.
Although many people knew of his abilities, most ordinary people did not. Many had only heard of someone called Professor X and never regarded him as much of a threat, let alone one even more dangerous than Magneto.
Instead, all eyes turned to Jean Grey of the X-Men.
The power she displayed was simply too terrifying. Combined with Magneto's display, the threat posed by mutants was branded into humanity's mind from that moment on.
Humans would always fear those with the power to destroy them—especially when the button that could launch nuclear bombs was in the hands of mutants.
Who wouldn't be afraid?
Who could say with certainty that Magneto, long branded as a terrorist, would never press that button?
What if that old bastard went mad one day?
After all, plenty of elderly people did irrational things as they grew older.
That was why this group believed mutants had to be eliminated.
The opposing camp, however, argued that mutants themselves were innocent. It was the environment and the government's deliberate promotion of the mutant threat theory that had made their living conditions worse and worse.
In their view, the responsibility lay with the government. It needed to reflect on its actions and change course, because they did not want war to break out.
The two camps argued endlessly.
Only when it came to the Terra Empire and the Emperor did they reach a rare consensus. Two worldwide crises—the Manhattan demon invasion and the Washington incident—had completely cemented the Emperor's and the Terra Empire's reputations as the guardians of order and humanity.
What more was there to say?
Of course, no one questioned them anymore.
To countless people, the Emperor was nothing less than a living god.
No one knew how many years he had lived or how long he had led the Astartes, Raven, and the Grey Knights in silently protecting Earth.
The unknown had always been fertile ground for the imagination.
As a result, Terra's reputation soared.
In people's eyes, neither Terra nor the Emperor posed any threat. On the contrary, they were seen as mighty guardians who had protected both humanity and Earth from threats beyond the stars.
What was there to question?
Should they have spared those demons?
Only cultists who worshiped demons would regard the Terra Empire and the Emperor as enemies.
One man, however, saw things differently.
It was Obadiah Stane, the CEO of Stark Industries.
The billionaire was sweating bullets inside his villa.
Others might not know, but he knew exactly what he had done.
For years, Sokovia had been ravaged by war. Somehow, a country of impoverished nobodies had managed to acquire the world's most advanced weapons and turn them against one another.
Obadiah had been one of the driving forces behind it, together with the military-industrial interest group he had brought together.
To him, Sokovia had always been nothing more than a cash cow. He had never cared in the slightest about the civilians of that small country.
...
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