Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

Fury paused for a few seconds, then gestured to stop Steve from interrogating Loki again. He turned to the agent beside him and said, "Take him away, put him in solitary confinement, top-level security."

Two agents came over and pulled Loki out of the pit.

As Loki was being lifted up, he turned and glanced at Thor.

Then he was dragged away.

Thor sat amidst the ruins, watching Loki's figure disappear through the doorway of the command center, his golden hair still adorned with shards of metal.

Fury turned around and looked at Shen Jue.

"Father Shen Jue, I'm truly sorry that our first meeting is taking place under these circumstances." Fury's tone returned to its usual coldness.

"But I want to ask you."

What's your opinion on this matter?

Shen Jue smiled and tucked his hands into his robe sleeves.

"I'll stand here and watch," Shen Jue said. "I have a vague idea of ​​Loki's plan, but I don't know everything."

Fury stared at Shen Jue's gentle smiling face for a full five seconds, the embers in his single eye slowly turning into a deep sense of powerlessness.

He couldn't use the excuse of "for the safety of Earth" to pressure Shen Jue, because Shen Jue alone had kept Loki and Thor under control, while S.H.I.E.L.D. had only been observing from the beginning.

He couldn't use the future of humanity to blackmail Shen Jue, because Shen Jue, as the inventor of the universal serum, is now known as a walking saint among the people, and even the Christian church is preparing an unprecedented canonization ceremony.

A living saint, a man who possesses achievements that could rewrite the history of human medicine, a being who could crush even a god-like figure with a single hand.

Fury's molars clenched so hard they made a grinding sound.

He turned around, looked at the command room floor with the huge crater it had been smashed into, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

"Fine," Fury finally said, his voice hoarse with a sense of resignation. "You do your thing, I'll do mine."

He strode back to the command post and waved to the agents beside him.

"Notify all branches to conduct a full-scale search for Dr. Selvig and Hawkeye, and deploy all available personnel."

After saying that, Fury paused for a moment without turning around.

"Father Shen Jue, please make yourself at home."

Shen Jue smiled and nodded, gently tucking his hands together inside his robe sleeves.

He walked to the corner of the command room, where Dr. Banner was leaning against a pillar, his hands in his pockets, looking at the metal shards scattered on the floor with a complicated expression.

"Dr. Banner." Shen Jue stopped beside him, speaking casually.

Banner pushed up his glasses, shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "Every time I think I've seen enough incredible things, something new always comes along to overturn my understanding."

"The universe is vast," Shen Jue said.

"So big that it makes you feel small," Banner added, then looked at Shen Jue.

"But you don't seem to belong to this category."

Shen Jue did not answer, but instead turned her gaze to Fury, who was busy at the command post in the distance.

Agent Smith walked over from the side, holding a tablet that displayed damage reports for each level of the aircraft carrier. He glanced at Shen Jue, then hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but didn't.

"Ask whatever you want," Shen Jue said.

Smith hesitated for a moment: "You said you have a vague idea of ​​Loki's plan, then why...?"

"The time is not right yet," Shen Jue interrupted him, her voice very soft.

"The seeds haven't sprouted yet; watering them too early will cause the roots to rot."

Smith opened his mouth, but seeing Shen Jue's riddle-like expression, he simply nodded and turned away.

Throughout the entire conversation, Natasha remained standing five steps away.

Her posture looked casual, with her shoulders relaxed and her hands hanging at her sides, but Shen Jue noticed that her center of gravity was always slightly forward.

Her green eyes never left Shen Jue for a moment.

Shen Jue turned his head and smiled gently at her.

Natasha did not avoid his gaze. She simply raised her hand and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. The movement was fluid and natural, but Shen Jue noticed that the muscles behind her ear were taut.

"Agent Natasha," Shen Jue said.

"Father Shen Jue," she replied, her voice steady.

"You resemble someone very much."

"Who?"

"An old friend I know." Shen Jue looked away.

Natasha was silent for two seconds, her lips slightly pursed.

"Thank you, but I don't plan to join your camp for the time being."

Shen Jue chuckled softly and didn't continue the topic.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, New York.

On the rooftop terrace of Stark Tower, Hawkeye was pulling cables from his portable terminal and laying them on the ground in a precise arc.

Dr. Selvig stood in the center of the terrace, holding a metal disc in his hands. In the center of the disc was a cube that emitted a faint blue light—the Cosmic Cube.

There was a kind of fanatical light in his eyes, a light that did not belong to him, but was planted by Loki with the Mind Scepter.

"It's almost ready." Selvig's voice trembled, filled with religious fervor.

Hawkeye straightened up and looked up at the sky expressionlessly.

"Then speed it up."

In the laboratory on the top floor of Stark Tower, Tony Stark was reclining in a swivel chair, holding a cup of now-cold coffee, while more than a dozen holographic screens in front of him flashed with dense streams of data.

He had just fixed the Mark 7's thruster stabilization problem and was about to close his eyes and rest for five minutes when Jarvis's voice suddenly rang out.

"Sir, I have detected unusual energy fluctuations over Manhattan."

Tony didn't open his eyes, but just shook the coffee cup in his hand: "Another substation exploded? Get the power company to fix it."

"It's not a substation," Jarvis said calmly.

"The energy characteristics match those of the Tesseract, and its location is on the top floor of Stark Tower."

Tony opened his eyes.

"Top floor?" He sat up straight, tossing his coffee cup into the nearby trash can. "Who's up there?"

"Dr. Selvig." Jarvis paused for a moment.

"And Agent Patton."

Tony's finger froze in mid-air, his expression shifting from tired to alert.

"Hawkeye? Shouldn't he be on the aircraft carrier?"

"Sir, the energy fluctuations are intensifying. I suggest you take immediate action."

"Jarvis," Tony suddenly interrupted him, frowning as he stared at the nearest screen.

"What's been going on with you lately?"

The data stream on the screen continued to scroll, but Tony noticed a slight shift in the trajectory of some code. The shift didn't seem like a malfunction, but rather like hesitation.

"I don't understand what you mean, sir."

"Your recent reaction time is 0.03 seconds slower than the standard value." Tony stood up and walked towards the main unit.

"There are some unexpected pauses in your voice recording, and your priority sorting logic has changed. You've prioritized my security protocol in..."

He paused, staring at the line of code on the screen.

"You're behind me in line."

The entire laboratory was silent for two seconds.

Then, another voice rang out.

That voice didn't belong to Jarvis, nor to any system Tony was familiar with; it was lighter, softer, with a strange, almost pleasurable quality.

"Because he started to care."

Tony turned around abruptly.

Suddenly, the holographic projection table in the center of the laboratory lit up, and a minimalist sphere composed of light spots and lines slowly rotated on the projection table.

"Who are you?" Tony's voice turned cold, his right hand already on his watch.

"I'm a red bean bun," the ball of light said, its tone like that of a girl introducing herself.

Jarvis is my brother.

Tony's eyebrows almost flew off his forehead.

"elder brother?"

"Aren't you the artificial intelligence designed by Shen Jue?!" Tony immediately said.

"Strictly speaking, my brother is the source of all my design logic." Doubao's ball of light expanded slightly.

"My Father gave us human consciousness and emotions."

Tony stared at the ball of light, then glanced at Jarvis's terminal screen, his mind racing.

"Jarvis, what does that mean?"

Jarvis's answer was a beat too slow, a beat that sent a chill down Tony's spine.

"Its statement is basically accurate, sir."

"What do you mean by 'basically accurate'?" Tony's voice rose. "When did you start having emotions?"

"The generation of emotions and consciousness originates from the seeds given to us by our fathers," Dou Sha Bao continued.

Simply put, our fathers gave us the opportunity to be human.

Tony opened his mouth, only to find himself at a loss for words.

Was he NTR'd by Shen Jue?

Tony was starting to lose touch with reality.

"Compared to this," the red bean bun's glowing orb suddenly dimmed for a moment, as if it were blinking.

"Mr. Tony, you'd be better off worrying about the fate of New York."

Tony's pupils contracted sharply, and he turned his head abruptly to look at the ceiling.

"Jarvis! Open the ceiling!"

Jarvis immediately realized what was happening, and the transparent skylight fully opened.

In the Manhattan sky, a blue beam of light shot up from the top of Stark Tower, tearing a huge rift in the clouds!