[After Barton and Hill exchanged fire for a while, realizing they were at a stalemate, he simply holstered his weapon, floored the accelerator, forced Hill's vehicle aside, and sped toward the exit.]
[Hill continued driving in pursuit, refusing to give up.]
[At the same time, the portal in the underground laboratory collapsed momentarily before suddenly erupting. The powerful energy discharge completely destroyed the entire underground facility.]
[Fortunately, Nick Fury's helicopter had already lifted off and escaped the immediate blast zone.]
[From above, one could see the ground bulge upward before collapsing inward. The entire base imploded from the center, and within moments, most of the facility vanished into the earth.]
[Hill, still in the tunnel, had no time to worry about the destruction. She accelerated, racing to escape. On the surface, Coulson watched with a grave expression as the ground collapsed behind him. This time, S.H.I.E.L.D. had suffered severe losses.]
[Hill ultimately couldn't reach the exit as falling debris blocked her path. She collided with the rubble and cried out in pain. Fortunately, that was the extent of it—no additional debris fell, allowing her to survive.]
[Barton and his team successfully escaped the tunnel, but as soon as they emerged, they were spotted by a helicopter. Seeing the aircraft hovering in front of them, Barton immediately swerved.]
[The helicopter quickly repositioned itself in their path. Fury opened the side door and fired at them with his sidearm. Loki immediately retaliated with a blast from his scepter.]
[The helicopter lost control and tilted sideways. Fury had no choice but to jump clear. The aircraft spun before crashing into the ground, its rotors shattering on impact.]
[Fury, with no concern for the pilot's fate, continued firing at the escaping vehicle while crouched in a defensive position. Unfortunately, the distance was too great for his shots to be effective.]
[Loki glanced behind, confirmed no one was pursuing, and departed without concern.]
["Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" Coulson sat in a military vehicle, attempting to reach Fury via comm.]
["The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?"]
[Hill climbed out of her damaged vehicle and responded: "A lot of men still under. I don't know how many survivors."]
["Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase!" Given what was at stake with the Tesseract, Fury couldn't afford any delay.]
[Hill leaned against her vehicle, breathless: "Roger that."]
["Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven. As of right now, we are at war," Fury emphasized each word of the final sentence.]
[Coulson paused before asking: "What do we do?" Fury did not answer, but gazed ahead with grim determination.]
"Is this the beginning of the Battle of New York? Loki directly invaded the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility and stole the Tesseract. Apparently, the space wormhole we saw in Tony Stark's dream before was opened by the Tesseract!"
Tobey Spider-Man looked at the Sky Screen with great interest, analyzing the available information. Although he knew someone behind the Sky Screen would eventually reveal Loki's methods, he never tired of piecing together the puzzle himself.
"Infinity Stones? I wonder if such things exist in our universe! I'd love to study them. Exploring the unknown is every scientist's dream!"
Otto also envied artifacts like the Tesseract and the Mind Scepter, but unfortunately, these objects didn't seem to exist in their world—or if they did, they weren't on Earth.
What puzzled him, however, was how HYDRA had managed to use the Tesseract to develop energy weapons during World War II, yet S.H.I.E.L.D., despite possessing the Tesseract for decades, had made comparatively little progress in the 21st century.
Tobey Spider-Man couldn't understand the discrepancy. Were HYDRA scientists more capable than those at S.H.I.E.L.D.? They didn't know about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal corruption, nor that it had essentially been a vessel feeding resources to HYDRA all along.
[A train roared past on nearby tracks. In an adjacent warehouse, Natasha sat tied to a chair. A man approached and slapped her.]
[A gray-haired older man regarded her and said in Russian: "This is not how I wanted the evening to go."]
[Black Widow also replied in Russian: "I know how you wanted the evening to go. Believe me, this is better."]
["Who are you working for? Lermentov, yes?" He attempted to identify his potential adversary.]
[The man who had struck Black Widow earlier stepped forward and tilted her chair backward. If he released his grip, Natasha would fall through the open floor behind her.]
["Does he think we have to go through him to move our cargo?" the older man asked, believing he'd correctly identified her employer.]
[Natasha feigned fear: "I thought General Solohob was in charge of the export business." Seeing her apparent distress, the man righted her chair.]
["Solohob? A bagman, a front. Your outdated information betrays you. The famous Black Widow, and she turns out to be simply another pretty face."]
[The older man placed his hands in his pockets, regarding Natasha with smug confidence.]
[Natasha caught the word "pretty" and immediately looked at him: "You really think I'm pretty?"]
[The older man didn't answer her question, but smiled faintly and signaled to his subordinate. The henchman stepped forward and forcibly held Natasha's mouth open.]
["Tell Lermentov we don't need him to move the tanks. Tell him he is out. Well... you may have to write it down," he remarked.]
[He retrieved a pair of pliers from the table and smiled menacingly at Natasha.]
"I have a feeling he's going to be in for a surprise!" the first Uncle Ben said, smiling confidently at Aunt May.
"You're right! This female agent isn't someone to be trifled with. It's clear they're underestimating her. That's a mistake they'll deeply regret!"
Aunt May agreed with Uncle Ben's assessment. In her opinion, Natasha's abilities far exceeded those of ordinary individuals, and she had undergone specialized training.
From what they had seen in the vision created by Wanda, they understood the brutal process Natasha had endured to become the Black Widow.
"Call Peter and ask if he's coming home tonight," Aunt May instructed Uncle Ben as she contemplated what to prepare for dinner.
"I will. He's probably at Dr. Otto's lab again! He's been spending a lot of time there lately."
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