"Of course! What do you think, Cap?"
Natasha glanced at Qingshui, recalling the instructions she'd received during her call with Nick Fury just now, and redirected the conversation to Captain America.
"I have no objections. If something like this, that affects everyone, happens again in the future, I believe all of us would step forward without hesitation."
Captain America himself didn't seem to notice anything.
He was a person with a certain leadership ability, whose powerful spirit could greatly boost morale. He often moved others with his actions and most sincere words at critical moments.
But this didn't mean he was usually a very shrewd or talented leader—
If that were the case, there wouldn't have been so many civil wars among the Avengers across different universes.
"A team? To be honest, I remember a thousand years ago, Loki's dream was to join the Valkyrie Corps under the All-Father, because legend has it that they were Asgard's most skilled warriors, and only the strongest and bravest warriors could join the Valkyrie Corps."
Thor said, holding up the Water of Life.
"My foolish brother, you don't need to put your dreams on me just because you're afraid of losing face. After all, 'most skilled, strongest, bravest' doesn't really suit my aspirations."
Loki spat out a chicken bone, sneering at Thor with his charmingly evil face.
Thor noticed everyone's gazes, his old face reddening. He quickly engaged his usually dormant brain and changed the subject:
"What should we call our corps, anyway?"
"Just not Valkyries, at least. Little Na is the only lady among us."
Hawkeye said, toothpick in mouth, legs crossed.
"I propose the Justice League!"
"Alright, Watt, I officially declare that from now on, all your naming rights within this team are revoked. That name sounds so lame, straight out of a rival comic company."
"How about Male Valkyries?"
"Dr. Banner, your naming rights are also revoked."
"Captain?"
"How about the Avengers, like Nick mentioned earlier?"
"While it's still a bit cheesy, like some super-boy team from a cartoon, at least it's much better than Male Valkyries or anything like that."
...
...
The next day, in a garden not far from Stark Tower.
Happy, dressed in a suit and wearing sunglasses, worked with Stark Group security personnel to disperse the surrounding crowd.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Thor and Loki each held a can-shaped device.
Through the transparent glass, the Tesseract was faintly visible—intact.
The missing piece was something Qingshui had 3D-printed from glass and glued on with strong adhesive before giving it to Thor last night.
He had also specially altered the internal lens structure of the glass so that after transmitting the light from the Space Stone, it looked no different from the other parts.
"Once the All-Father and Heimdall repair the Rainbow Bridge with the Tesseract, I'll come visit you for drinks often."
Thor smiled at Qingshui and the others, then twisted the teleportation device, connecting it to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge.
A beam of colorful light descended from the sky, enveloping Thor and Loki, finally leaving behind a mysterious symbol on the ground.
"Now that the Tesseract has been given to Thor to take back to Asgard, what about the Scepter… Sorry, I'm on your side. I'm just worried they might develop weapons from the Scepter, just like they did with the Tesseract before. I'm just asking for Fury."
Steve Rogers, wearing a vintage brown leather jacket, leaned against a motorcycle beside him and asked Qingshui.
"You tell Fury to find out who made that nuclear bomb first. I'm not looking for a scapegoat. There must be big problems within S.H.I.E.L.D., I'm certain of it. So there's no way I'm giving you the Scepter. Besides, Thor said yesterday that it's my spoils of war, certified by the Crown Prince of Asgard himself."
Black Widow clutched her forehead, a headache coming on.
"I understand, but you have to give us some kind of explanation, right? Even just something to placate Fury. We put in a lot of effort too, you know."
Hawkeye also spread his hands helplessly.
Don't make it hard on us humble working stiffs.
Qingshui and Tony immediately exchanged glances.
"Then let's set the rules now. If anyone else bothers us, we'll follow these rules. If anyone has any inappropriate ideas, I won't be polite."
Qingshui said to Black Widow.
"Whatever you say. I'm just relaying your conditions to Fury."
In the face of trouble, Black Widow proactively placed herself in the position of least pressure.
One was S.H.I.E.L.D., and the other two weren't just simple super-rich individuals.
Stark, combined with Osborn, represented the most important military-industrial complexes, medical capital, and energy capital of America's past and present.
These were significant forces that even the military and the White House couldn't lightly dismiss. If they were determined to protect that Scepter, then no one in the world could easily obtain it through conventional means.
But as for unconventional means, these two were no pushovers either.
"I don't think anyone would deny that I played the most crucial role in defeating Loki and preventing the alien invasion of Earth, right? Don't even talk about how much S.H.I.E.L.D. contributed; this whole mess was caused by your meddling with the Tesseract in the first place. So, my personal proposal is this."
"I, Clearwater, own 80% of the Scepter, with the remaining 20% jointly held by the Avengers. I retain daily usage rights, and other Avengers members may use it when needed, provided they have my personal authorization."
Clearwater pulled a pre-prepared contract from his pocket; it even had his personal seal already affixed.
"Nick definitely won't agree," Natasha said, sounding somewhat resigned.
She could already predict how much Nick Fury would bother her later.
"That's his problem. I've already made a huge concession. You should tell him to quickly conduct an internal investigation of S.H.I.E.L.D. If the Scepter falls into the wrong hands, that cyclops will regret it too late."
"Are you really sure there's a problem on our end? Did you find something?" Barton asked, looking at Clearwater.
"Tony and I have the strongest communication network technology in the world, but we hit a wall investigating this."
"You hacked S.H.I.E.L.D.'s network? And we didn't even notice?"
"If the unknown AI that blocked Watos's intrusion isn't your S.H.I.E.L.D. AI, then I suppose so."
Black Widow's gaze shifted to Tony.
Tony nodded slightly, confirming Clearwater's assessment of the technology.
"So, there's an enemy within our own team, inside S.H.I.E.L.D., right?" the ninety-year-old young man sighed.
"It seems that whether it was seventy years ago or now, many things haven't changed."
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