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Clark in the American Comic WorldChapter 236: Meeting"Alright, looks like I'm just the delivery guy."
Hearing JARVIS's words, Tony let out a self-mocking laugh.
"JARVIS, put me through to Nick Fury," Clark said again. The moment he heard that Nick Fury was looking for him, Clark knew something serious had happened. If it weren't a big deal, the one contacting him would probably have been Coulson—not Fury himself.
"Understood, Mr. Kent. Connecting you to Director Nick Fury now."
Clark didn't wait long before Fury's voice came through the line.
"Tony—"
"It's me, Clark," Clark cut in bluntly. "Why are you looking for me?"
However, Nick Fury didn't explain anything over the phone. Instead, he said, "You and Tony need to come to the Triskelion. There are some things I need to discuss with both of you."
"The Triskelion?" Clark was slightly surprised. Fury was asking them to go directly to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
Since the Battle of New York, the Avengers had essentially been on the verge of disbandment. After learning that Fury had secretly been using the Tesseract to develop weapons, everyone except Natasha, Barton, and Clark—Captain America included—had developed a very poor impression of S.H.I.E.L.D.
As a result, Tony and Thor had barely set foot in S.H.I.E.L.D. again. In fact, they had hardly returned at all, and that resistance only became stronger after the New York incident.
Captain America, on the other hand, was still in a period of confusion, unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. So he continued to live at S.H.I.E.L.D., carrying out missions as an Avenger.
But Clark could tell that Steve was actually dissatisfied with the way S.H.I.E.L.D. operated. As an intelligence agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. always put the mission above everything else—something that deeply conflicted with Steve's inner belief in truth, goodness, and justice.
Still, there was no real alternative. Despite being called Captain America, Steve had been nothing more than an ordinary soldier up until the night before he was frozen. Obeying orders was ingrained in him—especially after waking up decades later in a completely unfamiliar era.
So even though he couldn't accept S.H.I.E.L.D.'s methods, whenever a mission came, he would still be the first to carry it out.
Strictly speaking, if Steve hadn't still been searching for his purpose and future direction, he might have left S.H.I.E.L.D. long ago.
Nick Fury, being as perceptive as he was, understood all of this. That was why, after the Battle of New York, he had rarely summoned the Avengers as a group the way he once did. There simply hadn't been any crises serious enough to justify it. That was also why Clark found Fury's sudden request for them to come to headquarters so unexpected.
Sensing Clark's surprise, Fury continued over the phone, "The Captain and the others are already here. I've notified Thor as well. You and Tony are the only ones left."
"Alright. I'll be there shortly," Clark replied. Though he didn't know what had happened, Fury's words made it clear this was no small matter.
After hanging up, Clark turned to Tony. "You coming?"
"Go ahead and announce the completion of the Avengers base," Tony said casually. "A base with only four Avengers is pretty lifeless anyway."
In truth, despite Tony calling it a four-man Avengers base, he had begun recruiting personnel for it long ago. Cleaners, chefs, patrol teams—every kind of support staff imaginable.
Aside from the limited number of Avengers themselves, the Avengers base on Skull Island was fully operational. For now, it only functioned locally. Although the global teleportation network had already been built, officially activating those portals still required approval from various governments and the World Security Council.
Without that authorization, their global deployment plan would technically be illegal.
As for securing those permissions, Tony had been working on it for quite some time. So far, aside from a few major powers that hadn't agreed yet, most smaller nations had already approved local Avengers branches after Stark Industries promised economic investment.
The larger countries, however, were more cautious. From their perspective, recognizing the legality of Avengers branches could introduce instability. After all, every Avenger was essentially American.
For those nations, allowing someone from another country to freely establish teleportation points within their borders was unacceptable.
In reality, those governments had no idea that Clark and his teleportation devices were already in place—and could be used regardless of approval. But using them without permission, if discovered, could cause serious diplomatic problems later.
That was why Tony still planned to secure formal authorization from the World Security Council and other nations.
Of course, those were long-term plans. For now, Tony felt this was the perfect opportunity to gather everyone and officially announce the establishment of his new Avengers base—and, if possible, reunite the rest of the team.
From Tony's point of view, Nick Fury's invitation had come at exactly the right time.
After Tony agreed to go, Clark immediately raised his hand and opened a portal leading directly to the Triskelion.
When they arrived in the conference room, almost everyone was already there—except Thor. Banner was also absent.
Perhaps due to the trauma of the Battle of New York, General Ross had given up on hunting Banner. After all, when Banner's two closest allies were Superman and Iron Man, even Ross had to consider whether he could handle the consequences.
As a result, Banner had been living a very comfortable life lately. The Hulk hadn't appeared in a long time.
Believing that this meant he could finally live in peace, Banner hadn't gone looking for Clark to help control the Hulk anymore. As long as the Hulk didn't show up, whether he could control it or not no longer seemed to matter.