"Even I, having lived for thousands of years and possessing divine power, cannot do it."
"But at least I can protect a few more people." Tony turned around, his expression firm.
"At least I can protect the people I care about. For that, I need Stark Industries to be more than just a money-maker; it needs to become a true fortress, a true power."
Mavuika nodded without saying anything more; she knew this was the path Tony had chosen, and everyone had their own road they must travel.
Meanwhile, in the shadows of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury was waging a lonely and dangerous war.
The Skrull prisoner handed over by Howard was held in a secret prison established by Fury; Fury would go there personally every two weeks to interrogate the green-skinned alien.
But progress was minimal.
The Skrulls were clearly strictly trained and highly skilled in resisting interrogation.
He rarely spoke, and when he did, it was mostly misleading or lies.
Fury had tried various methods: gentle persuasion, harsh threats, and even some less-than-legal means, but the results were limited.
From the fragmented information, Fury had barely pieced together some outlines: the Skrull Empire was a vast civilization spanning multiple galaxies, skilled in mimicry and infiltration.
Why did they come to Earth? Some kind of resource? A specific goal? Fury was not sure. The prisoner kept his mouth shut about this.
What was more unsettling was that ever since this Skrull was captured, his accomplices seemed to have Vaporized, showing no signs of activity.
Fury mobilized all the resources he could, satellite surveillance, communication monitoring, and analysis of anomalous event reports, but found nothing.
Compared to the complete lack of clues regarding the Skrulls, the investigation into HYDRA actually had some progress.
Fury had established a completely independent database that only recorded information related to HYDRA.
He carefully combed through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s historical archives, analyzed personnel promotion patterns, and reviewed the flow of project funds.
Like a detective, he looked for those unnatural details.
He discovered some patterns: the funding for certain projects was abnormally high, but the progress reports were very vague; some Agents promoted too quickly and always received key appointments at critical moments.
Access records for certain classified documents showed strange patterns, always being accessed by the same group of people outside of working hours.
Fury marked these clues, established connections, and gradually outlined a vague network.
HYDRA's infiltration within S.H.I.E.L.D. was deeper and more extensive than he had imagined.
But whenever he thought he was close to a key figure, the leads would suddenly be cut off.
Documents disappeared, witnesses died accidentally, surveillance footage was erased... HYDRA clearly had counter-intelligence awareness, and their actions were clean and efficient.
"They are growing like cancer," Fury wrote in his encrypted log.
"It has already Swirled through the whole body, but it still looks healthy on the surface. To excise them, one needs to know all the locations of the malignancy, needs a scalpel sharp enough, needs a surgical environment that won't be infected... but I don't have any of those."
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