Soon after Clark appeared amidst the anomaly, he heard the roar of airplane propellers coming from the distance. Hearing this, Clark couldn't help but feel a little puzzled. He didn't know whether the changes in this sea area were caused by himself, or by some kind of human interference. If it was the former, it was fine. But if it was the latter, it meant they might have already mastered a way to control this place.
But whatever the reason, he would find out when someone came in to ask questions. Clark then looked up in the direction of the sound of the propellers and saw, far away on the shore, a black aircraft bearing the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo.
"Why are they here?" Clark recognized it at a glance — this was the Airbus aerial command plane that Coulson and the others used to take.
If it had been someone else, Clark might have suspected that they had found a way to control this sea area. But if it was Coulson and his people, he was certain this was just a coincidence.
After all, in the entire Marvel world, only a handful of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were truly strong or highly capable. In Clark's eyes, Coulson's small team was nowhere near the level of the mastermind behind this.
So upon seeing that it was Coulson and his group, Clark relaxed a little. Still, he would wait and ask later, because he was surprised they had shown up at this exact time. With his own senses, Clark would have known if they had been tracking him.
When Clark noticed Coulson and his group, they hadn't noticed Clark and Diana in the distance — they weren't Superman, and their eyesight wasn't that sharp.
The reason Coulson appeared here at this moment wasn't because they knew Clark and Diana were on the island, but because they had been waiting outside the island for changes in the surrounding mists.
Because of the heavy losses the "Monarch" program suffered at the hands of the female MUTOs, they had to make some form of compensation to outside parties. And since S.H.I.E.L.D. was affiliated with the Avengers, they received most of that compensation. Who could have guessed that the last MUTO would be killed by Superman?
S.H.I.E.L.D. demanded Skull Island intel as their reward. Their stated reason was concern that the island's abnormal ecosystem could pose a threat to Earth. Having witnessed the destructive power of monsters after the MUTO incident, the World Security Council agreed to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s request, and Monarch — under pressure from various sides — handed over information on Skull Island. This was the true reason for Coulson's team's current mission.
However, their goal wasn't to occupy the island, but simply to confirm that it was the Skull Island Nick Fury had been searching for. Follow-up actions would be handled by others.
As for why the director was determined to obtain leads on Skull Island from Monarch, it was because since 197_ (year unclear in source), Nick Fury had been trying to locate this mysterious island. The subterranean space beneath it had convinced him that there were many more secrets hidden on Earth — secrets that could bring tremendous danger to the human world.
Therefore, no matter what, Fury needed to uncover the island's truth and ensure it wouldn't endanger human society. After all, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s focus now was on control — control over all unknown or potentially dangerous elements. For example, S.H.I.E.L.D. maintained a superpowered individual registry for those with special abilities appearing in society.
So for a place as unusual as Skull Island, how could S.H.I.E.L.D. not investigate its threat? And if they learned the island posed a major danger to humanity, sinking an island would not be a particularly difficult task for them.
However, while S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to determine whether Skull Island was real, their biggest problem was that they couldn't find it. Since Nick Fury had not piloted ships himself before, he didn't know the island's exact location. Even when he managed to narrow the area down from memory, Skull Island was only accessible at specific times, making it impossible to reach without perfect timing.
This was also why, though the legend of Skull Island circulated widely, almost no one could actually find it. Without arriving during the right period, even Fury couldn't find the massive storm and thick mist that almost connected sea and sky.
Fury didn't know the exact location, but Monarch did. And since Monarch considered the island its private property, it had rejected Fury's earlier request for the island's coordinates.
But no one had expected Monarch to have such a large security gap, allowing Fury to obtain some Skull Island intel. The information was limited, but it included the exact location and a method of entry. After some calculations, they determined the island would be "open" today.
When they reached the coordinates in the files, however, they found only empty ocean. So Coulson's group decided to probe the area first. But since not everyone could see through the mist like Clark could, once they entered this uncharted sea, they became lost.
Because of the sea's special conditions, ordinary people who entered the fog would lose their sense of direction and never reach the island no matter how they traveled. Coulson's team had already tried this upon first arrival, circling for half a day before retreating under the influence of the mist.
Only now did they believe that the Monarch intel was accurate — there was indeed a naturally formed treacherous labyrinth outside the island, and with all electronic devices blocked, the mist was unsolvable for ordinary people.
Fortunately, the sea behaved exactly as they had predicted: at the specific time, it opened. After passing through the outer storms and mist, Coulson's team entered this magical area and beheld Skull Island.
"It's beautiful!" Simmons, standing beside Fitz, couldn't help but exclaim as the plane entered range of the island.
"Yes, it's beautiful — but who would think that beneath this beauty lies so much danger? By the way, Fitz, have you prepared the weapons I asked for?" Coulson turned to look at Fitz.
Since their possible enemies this time might not be human, Coulson abandoned his usual principle of sticking to the I.C.E.R. (non-lethal) guns, and instead asked Fitz to modify a weapon with significant firepower.
After all, their usual small handguns might not be effective in killing the island's monsters. So whether for the mission or for his team's safety, Coulson needed high-powered firearms to ensure their survival.
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