The young S.H.I.E.L.D. duo was filled with fear at this moment.
Not only did they have to report to Fury, but they also might be used as test subjects. Besides, it sounded like over ten thousand people had unfortunately perished before.
Darkness, the legendary Supreme Mage was so dark.
The two were scientists who never believed in the existence of magic or anything like that until they encountered the Evil Spirit Knight and realized the existence of magic and demons. Seeing this, Coulson had no choice but to disclose some information that was beyond their security clearance.
As Level 5 Agents, they weren't supposed to know about the Magic Realm affairs, like Warlocks or the Hell Demon King, but Daisy had a very high security clearance, and she never cared about confidentiality rules. Telling her was like telling the entire squad, so Coulson had to adapt flexibly.
This time, their time travel immediately got them involved with someone they'd absolutely want to avoid in the Magic Realm.
Even though they never faced him directly before, Deathstroke, in his black and yellow armor, had always been spread across the United States in the form of horror stories.
Jemma and Fitz, even in childhood, were often scared by their families with tales like 'If you don't eat properly, Deathstroke will take you away,' or 'If you don't sleep, Deathstroke will come to eat you,' serving to stop children from crying at night.
The result was that within a few years, when they were about ten, all their family members perished, as if cursed.
They could only complete their studies at Shield Academy as orphans and joined Coulson's squad upon graduation.
Childhood nightmares don't just dissipate but might resurface at any unexpected time. It was likely at this moment, in the underground tunnels of history, that they encountered Deathstroke.
"No! We beg you, please don't use her for magic experiments!"
Hearing that Jemma might be dissected, Fitz immediately surrendered. He could not accept such a terrifying possibility as they depended on each other for life.
"Heh heh..." Su Ming patted Fitz's arm and suddenly stuffed a spicy bar into his mouth: "See, isn't it better now that you've figured it out? I'm not a bad guy; I'm just here to ensure Earth's timeline runs smoothly."
"Fitz?" Jemma looked worriedly at Fitz. What if this caused a change in the timeline?
Fitz chewed the spicy bar instinctively and gave her a covert look, which Jemma Simmons instantly understood. She stood quietly by his side and didn't say another word.
"We're here in search of Gravitonium. It can serve as an anti-gravity device for our spaceship, reducing various costs of cosmic travel. But in our time, all known Gravitonium got absorbed into the body of the 'King of Ten Thousand Powers,' and then Daisy sent him into the cosmos... hissing, we could only return to earlier history to reacquire Gravitonium, so the spaceship could travel into the cosmos to investigate the clues behind the 'Longevity People,' hissing... so spicy, do you have water?"
Fitz turned his head toward Jemma, with his tongue hanging out of his lips, already somewhat swollen.
Due to the hellishly spicy bar, Fitz spoke as if rapping, faster than most Black people with racial talent, but now his face was flushed, almost becoming a 'Red Man,' which wasn't exactly a victory for White people.
Seeing Fitz squirming like that, Jemma sympathetically blinked. They didn't carry water bottles, as the Shield Squad and those superheroes never carried such items for appearance's sake. Instead, they opted for smaller water purification tablets.
However, where could they find water in such a cave?
Su Ming, like performing magic, pulled out a soda bottle and opened it as they watched the little bubbles quickly rising and bursting in the orange liquid.
"Continue talking; once you're done, I'll give you this soda. It's very satisfying to have a carbonated drink after some chili, but... haven't you destroyed the three gigantic stones yet? If you have, how did you manage time travel?"
"Let me answer; you give him the water first." Simmons stepped forward as Fitz kept gasping like a goldfish, clutching his neck as if he was having trouble breathing.
Su Ming sighed and handed the soda to Jemma: "Don't you usually eat anything spicy? Mexican hot sauce? Mustard?"
"No, we're vegetarians. Such spicy things aren't good for health." Jemma quickly placed the soda bottle to Fitz's mouth, watching Fitz's visibly relieved expression, she rolled her eyes before continuing: "We got entangled with those three stones. The time paradox ensures they exist forever, and even if destroyed, they reappear in some S.H.I.E.L.D. base after a few days. However, this time, we didn't use the stones to come here; we used Pym Particles, which are more controllable."
"The Quantum Realm, huh? Alright, did any Avengers come over this time?" Su Ming nodded, not rushing to speak, instead asking all the questions.
"This is a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation; the Avengers can't participate. The Director always valued secrecy. Honestly, I wish Captain Marvel were here; we wouldn't be suffering, trapped by this dark warlock..." Jemma's voice grew smaller as she spoke, finally pressing her lips together.
Su Ming handed her another soda, signaling her to refill Fitz's, saying lightly: "Bringing Captain Marvel wouldn't help. She has plenty of weaknesses—her defenses against mind control are almost zero, her thinking is still very soldier-like, and her magic resistance is close to nothing. She's not my match, and besides, I know her mother."
"What?!" Even Fitz forgot to drink, exclaiming in unison with Jemma.
Su Ming tilted his head and looked at them. These two young ones were indeed naïve, but their tacit understanding seemed rather lovely: "Alright, I'll come clean. Actually, I'm her father."
"What?!" Fitz was so shocked he dropped the bottle, and Simmons was also in complete disbelief.
"Does it feel unbelievable? Hard to understand?" Su Ming calmly put his hands behind his back, took a few steps in front of the pair, reminiscing as he saw their dumbfounded nodding: "You find it unbelievable... that's exactly right. If you believed that, I'd question how you graduated from Shield Academy."
Seeing the two of them staring at him with dead fish eyes, Su Ming felt much better. It's the feeling of helplessness towards him that makes things interesting.
"Who's injured?" After savoring their expressions of despair, he finally remembered that he came here following the trail of blood.
"Fitz has an external wound on his left calf from a beast's sharp claw attack. To prevent infection, I stayed to give him emergency treatment, but the underground tunnel is too chaotic. We got separated from the others while evading more beasts and decided to wait here until they returned from the mission."
Simmons spoke rapidly without taking a breath, afraid that Deathstroke might interrupt them again.
"Wang, go check on him. If it's serious, use acupuncture to recover his mobility. We need to take them with us and keep moving forward." Su Ming instructed the butler, and Xiaowang immediately pulled out a silver needle longer than his palm from his waist pouch.
As someone relatively trustworthy from Kama Taiji, he naturally received several silk pouches from Su Ming. In front of his fellow young men, he had to show off a bit. He not only took out the needle but also medical alcohol and cotton to slowly wipe them.
"He was running so fast just now; his bones and tendon should be fine. I can give him pain relief to at least allow him to move freely."
"Hmm, do it like that. Coincidentally, while Wang is applying the needle, I have something to tell you." Su Ming nodded, folding his arms as he stood in the center of the tunnel: "First, you might not gain anything coming here to find Gravityium because this is the place where Element Zero is found. Regardless of the source of your information, Dark Energy may have already dragged Gravityium into Dormammu's Dimension."
"No, we investigated records in history where Longevity People supposedly appeared, then specifically chose to jump to today. If history is not wrong, they will soon emerge from the underground carrying Gravityium."
Fitz explained the reason for their presence here, turning his head away, not watching as Wang thrust that long needle into his calf. He realized today that he actually has a phobia of sharp points.
"Don't take entities like Longevity People too seriously. They're just a group of aliens whose technology tree branched off incorrectly. They're not 'Observers,' just people claiming to be Observers." Su Ming shook his head, correcting their viewpoint: "Secondly, you know you must never fall alive into Leviathan's hands, right? Will you act with me to see Coulson, or should I give you an honorable grenade to self-destruct upon encountering Leviathan?"
"Honorable grenade?" Fitz was a bit puzzled, not understanding the term.
"It's a grenade for suicide. Do future Special Agents no longer carry cyanide?" Su Ming actually pulled out a grenade, writing the words 'honor' on it with a pen.
Jemma and Fitz exchanged a glance, both shaking their heads, "Our squad doesn't use poisons. S.H.I.E.L.D. regulations don't include suicide upon capture; that's something Hydra would do."
Su Ming feigned a yawn, patting his mask's mouth area, and nodded perfunctorily.
Their words were just a joke to listen to; Level 5 Agents don't handle truly confidential missions anyway, whether they commit suicide or not doesn't really matter. Fury experienced WWII and the Cold War, and if he didn't equip his confidential subordinates with cyanide, it just means he has something even more poisonous.
"What's your decision? Join me in moving forward, or stay here to test your luck?"
Su Ming tossed the grenade to Jemma, watching her fumble to catch it, holding it carefully, then said:
"Oh, by the way, Element Zero underneath is constantly attracting mutated beasts from outside. Even if you die, the next wave of beasts will eat your broken corpses. You could pray to be eaten by the same one for the achievement of 'dying in the same grave.'"
"Enough, we'll go with you."
Fitz raised his hands in a head dance, causing Wang, who was disrupted in his work, to press down on his shoulder well, making his arms limp down softly.
"But we don't have money. I know you charge a fee." Simmons cautiously tested.
Su Ming shrugged nonchalantly, slowly walking into deeper darkness: "That's a condition I need to discuss with Coulson. You two scientists just need to tag along, coming or not?"
After Fitz finished his treatment, he got up, and the man and woman silently exchanged glances again: "We'll go with you, Fury once said you're a good person."
"Don't lie. When you said that, your blinking speed increased, your eyes shifted to the upper right, and you rubbed your palms three times. You're not a qualified Special Agent, you know that yourself, right?" Su Ming turned his head, staring at Fitz's face with his red single eye: "If I wasn't completely certain of your identities, just hearing you say Fury praised me like that, I might have judged you as fakes and chopped off your heads."
"Uh..."
Screwing up a task probably looks like this. Fitz was embarrassed, Fury indeed didn't say it that way; he said Deathstroke is the world's most dangerous, darkest, and most brutal mercenary.
No 'good guy card'; it doesn't exist.
"We'll go, just going."
Jemma showed a cute, fake smile and quickly supported Fitz as they carefully crossed Su Ming's position, gritting their teeth as they quickly descended, only hearing Deathstroke talking to his accomplice:
"If they cause trouble, directly teleport the examination table here. I'll handle them myself. I've always wanted to study Future People's brain and organs."
"Yes, Master."