Ethan Blake chose Nick Fury because he also knew Fury's other identity—the identity of a Tower Guard. The Tower Guards represented Earth's first line of defense when the planet faced invasions from aliens, dimensional demons, or other catastrophic threats. At the same time, they were also the last line of defense. If everything else failed, if every government and organization collapsed, the Tower Guards would still stand alone.
They didn't belong to any nation or agency. They answered to no government, carried no flag, and followed no political agenda. Their only mission was simple and absolute: protect Earth.
The only requirement for someone chosen to become a Tower Guard was equally simple. They had to be willing to protect Earth no matter the cost, even if that meant sacrificing principles, alliances, or their own lives.
Twenty years earlier, Nick Fury had personally witnessed the terrifying reality of interstellar civilizations. Compared to those advanced forces, Earth had been as helpless as an unarmed child standing in the middle of a battlefield.
Because of that memory, Fury now had only two choices in front of him.
The first option was to activate the Roar device and summon Captain Marvel back to Earth. The second option was to agree to Ethan's request.
Ethan didn't believe Fury would seriously consider the first option. In the original timeline, even when Thanos eventually came to Earth, Fury hadn't immediately used the Roar device. He had only pressed it after disaster had already struck.
Nick Fury remained silent for a long time before finally speaking. His voice was low and controlled when he said, "Once everything is over, you'll get what you want."
As he spoke, he placed a card on the coffee table in front of Ethan and added, "This is the address. Be there at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon."
After saying that, Fury turned and left without another word.
Ethan picked up the card from the table and examined it. There was no text printed on it, only a string of coordinates precise to five decimal places. Judging from the numbers, the location appeared to be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, relatively close to New York.
Just yesterday he had been wondering when the Battle of New York would begin. He hadn't expected things to move this quickly.
After thinking about it for a moment, Ethan took out his phone and made a call.
"Chu—uh, Ethan. Something wrong?" the voice on the other end asked.
The man on the line was one of Ethan's few trusted friends—Wilson Fisk.
"Wilson, what do you think about Hawaii?" Ethan asked casually.
There was a brief pause on the other end before Fisk replied, sounding slightly confused. "If you're talking about a vacation, it's a pretty good choice."
"Tomorrow morning, Wanda and Pietro will fly to Hawaii on my private jet," Ethan said calmly. "Wilson, why don't you take Vanessa and Richard and go on vacation too?"
Fisk fell silent for a moment before asking, "Do you need me to stay and help you?"
"No. I can handle it," Ethan replied with a relaxed smile.
"…Thank you, Ethan."
"Come on. Aren't we friends, Wilson?" Ethan said.
After ending the call with Fisk, Ethan returned to the table where Pietro and Wanda were sitting.
"You heard it," he said. "The flight to Hawaii leaves early tomorrow morning."
Pietro frowned and spoke immediately. "Ethan, I want to stay and help you."
Both Pietro and Wanda had heard not only Ethan's phone conversation with Wilson Fisk, but also the earlier discussion between Ethan and Nick Fury. Even though they didn't fully understand what was happening, they could clearly sense that Ethan was about to face something extremely dangerous.
"I'm staying too," Wanda said firmly.
Over the past two years, both siblings had improved tremendously.
Pietro's cognitive processing speed had reached three thousand times that of a normal human. Due to the limitations of his physical body, however, his movement speed could only reach about one thousand times normal human speed. Even so, that translated to nearly eight thousand meters per second—still an absolutely terrifying velocity.
Wanda's magical abilities had advanced just as rapidly.
At Kamar-Taj, aside from the Ancient One, there was practically no one who could defeat her. Compared to Wanda's immense magical power, the spells of ordinary sorcerers were like comparing a small lake to the Pacific Ocean.
"You two should just go to Hawaii and relax," Ethan said with a calm smile. "You're worried about leaving me behind, but remember—I can teleport instantly. If something goes wrong, I can leave in a second. But if you two stay here, I'll have to divide my attention to protect you."
"I can open portals too," Wanda said stubbornly.
Ethan looked at her and replied without mercy, "By the time you finish opening a portal, Pietro could already be killed ten times."
Although Kamar-Taj's portal technique was incredibly convenient, it had one significant flaw. Even for highly skilled sorcerers, opening a portal usually required three to four seconds. Ethan's teleportation ability, on the other hand, happened instantly with a single thought.
"…Fine," Wanda said reluctantly after a moment. Her voice softened slightly as she added, "But Ethan, promise me that if you're in danger, you'll run immediately."
Wanda didn't really care about Earth's safety. For her, Ethan's life mattered far more than the fate of the planet.
"Don't worry," Ethan replied with a reassuring smile.
Early the next morning, Ethan personally escorted Wanda, Pietro, and the Fisk family out of New York.
Afterward, he returned to organize his Golden Space.
Since a major battle was about to take place, he needed to restock weapons and ammunition.
Over the past two years, Ethan had also completed the third superpower perspective training inside the Superpower Training Box. Using his X-ray-like vision ability, he had once slipped into the underground vault of the Federal Reserve and quietly collected a large amount of gold.
That gold had allowed him to expand the Golden Space significantly.
The current dimensions of the space had grown to roughly five meters by five meters by five meters, totaling about 125 cubic meters.
The unique property of Golden Space was simple: the more gold stored inside it, the larger the space became. Every additional unit of gold expanded the space by an equal volume.
At exactly three o'clock in the afternoon, Ethan arrived at the meeting location.
The coordinates led him to an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean.
To be more precise, it was an aircraft carrier capable of transforming into an airborne carrier.
As soon as Ethan stepped onto the massive sky carrier, his pupils suddenly shrank.
Because he saw someone who absolutely should not have been here at this point in time.
Clint Barton—Hawkeye.
What the hell was going on?
Why wasn't Hawkeye under Loki's control?
As Natasha Romanoff walked toward him, Ethan asked directly, "Has Loki been captured?"
Natasha paused for a moment, clearly surprised by the question before replying, "Of course not."
Hearing her answer, Ethan's expression immediately became more serious.
Something was wrong.
Originally, he had planned to simply watch the chaos from the sidelines, collect a wave of summoning energy during the battle, and then return home to study the Infinite Formula he had recently obtained. Now, however, it seemed the situation might not be that simple.
At that moment, a loud mechanical hum filled the air as a red-and-gold armored figure descended from the sky.
Tony Stark landed smoothly on the deck, the armor plates shifting as he came to a stop.
"Hey, Ethan," Tony said casually. "Didn't expect the braised egg to gather all of us here."
Ever since Tony heard Ethan refer to Nick Fury as a "braised egg," he had grown extremely fond of the nickname and had started using it himself whenever possible.
"Tony, where's Pepper right now?" Ethan asked.
Even though he didn't fully understand what had changed, Ethan had already confirmed through his compass that the Tesseract was still located in New York. That meant the battlefield would most likely still be there.
"Whoa there," Tony said immediately, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Ethan, what are you planning? Pepper is mine."
"Relax," Ethan replied with a dismissive roll of his eyes. "I'm not into older women."
To be honest, he sometimes questioned Tony's taste. Pepper had a good personality, but her appearance was… average at best.
"Yeah, I know," Tony replied with a smirk. "You like Wanda. You've been obsessed with her since she was ten years old—"
"Shut up, Tony," Ethan snapped, his face darkening instantly. "Believe it or not, I'll rip that armor off you and throw you straight into the Atlantic Ocean."
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