"Look around you, Patchy. The Allspark is the only thing the enemy covets here. Even with my advance notice, your men couldn't defend it. Do you want this to happen again?" Tony's voice became noticeably sharper at the end of his words, cutting through the tense air.
Nick Fury's already dark face seemed to grow even darker, a shadow passing over his features that no one could see.
"The immediate matter has been resolved. Let's go," Tony declared, turning his attention away from the fuming S.H.I.E.L.D. Director. "I have a large experimental site outside of New York. It should be a good place for you Autobots to stay and study the Allspark." He made the suggestion to Optimus Prime, his desire to study the artifact that had brought JARVIS to life now a burning priority.
Optimus Prime nodded, agreeing with Tony's suggestion. "We also need a secure place to store the Allspark, to prevent it from being taken by the Decepticons."
As a group, they ignored Nick Fury. The Director felt his blood pressure soaring, but he could only suppress his seething anger. He was now a lone commander, his base in ruins, and he had no idea whether his agents had been killed or had managed to escape during the attack.
Leaving the S.H.I.E.L.D. base that had been reduced to a smoldering ruin, they found Bumblebee, Ironhide, and several American soldiers pinning two Decepticon soldiers to the ground. They had been caught by Bumblebee and his men before they could evacuate.
Rhodey came over, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that Tony was not injured. "Tony, you're so brave, fighting aliens all by yourself. Are those the Autobots you mentioned behind you?"
Tony hugged Rhodey and introduced Optimus Prime and the others. Rhodey nodded to the Autobots and said, "I'm Colonel Rhodes, Tony's friend and an officer in the US Army."
After the brief greeting, Rhodey pulled Tony aside and asked in a low, urgent voice, "Tony, what do you plan to do with these aliens? Many people know what's happened here, and it will be impossible to hide it. Taking them away will only cause endless trouble."
Tony waved his hand nonchalantly. "Hide it? Why should we hide it? This will be the first time in history that humans have established diplomatic relations with an alien race. Everyone in the world should know about it!"
"Tony, you..." Rhodey was interrupted by Tony before he could finish his words.
"Rhodey, thanks for your support this time. Otherwise, I might have had to spend a lot more effort to break through those Decepticons and get inside the base." After saying this, Tony thought of something and spoke again. "By the way, get me a transport plane. We need to get back to New York."
"You... hey, forget it. Just do whatever you want." Rhodey wanted to persuade Tony, but he gave up. Knowing his good friend, he knew Tony wouldn't listen to anything he said.
Watching Tony and the Autobots leave, Nick Fury looked at the American soldiers beside him, then at the scrapped S.H.I.E.L.D. base, and suddenly felt a profound weariness settle deep within him. The idea of forming the Avengers became stronger and more urgent in his mind. Touching his reflective bald head, Nick Fury muttered under his breath, "Who the hell knocked me out?"
At this time, the roar of a fighter jet sounded again. It was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quinjet. The hatch opened, and Coulson and Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, walked out.
"Sir, there's something very strange happening," Coulson reported. "We've spotted many of our personnel a few kilometers from here. They all seem to be from this base. After being attacked, they are now somehow outside the base, for reasons unknown."
After dropping the Autobots off, Natasha had flown the Quinjet away from the main battlefield because she was concerned that it was not equipped with powerful enough attack weapons to be effective. However, what the two of them hadn't expected was that they would find so many S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel less than five kilometers away from the base, many of whom were agents they knew personally.
"Did they escape?" Fury demanded. "Where are they? I want to find out what happened."
"I don't think they escaped," Natasha explained. "There were too many people, and the situation was complicated, so we didn't bring them here. They are still at that location."
Soon, Nick Fury followed the two to the place they had mentioned. It was a spot by the side of the road where nearly a hundred people were standing, looking dazed and confused.
Nick Fury got out of the jeep and asked the agent closest to him, "Agent Buck, why are you here?"
The tall man who was stopped by Nick Fury straightened his posture and answered his question. "Sir, we don't know the exact reason. We just felt like someone tapped our shoulders, and then we were here. I and some of the other agents thought we saw the man's face. He was wearing a monocle, but we didn't notice any other details."
"A monocle?" Nick Fury pondered this for a while, a strange sense of unease washing over him. He had the distinct feeling that there had been a lot of people wearing monocles in the base recently, and they often seemed to be wandering around in front of him. But he shook his head, dismissing it as his own imagination, a trick of the light in the chaos. He didn't know that anything related to Amon was subject to a certain degree of misdirection and deception, an effect caused by Amon's own unique authority over mistakes and foolery.
Nick Fury instructed Coulson and Natasha, "Coulson, Natasha, the two of you take everyone here back and question them one by one. I want to know exactly what happened. And compile a list of all remaining and missing personnel for me."
Coulson looked at the huge group of people in front of him, and his scalp began to sweat. He had a feeling that after completing the Director's mission, his already receding hairline would become even higher. He swallowed hard and thought about asking Nick Fury for a few days off, as his vacation hadn't officially started yet. But just as he was about to speak, he heard Nick Fury give him another mission.
"By the way, Coulson, you should be familiar with those alien robots by now. Please organize their information into a comprehensive report and send it to me."
"Yes, sir." Coulson still didn't say anything. He felt that it was a bit unreasonable for him to ask for leave and run away when S.H.I.E.L.D. had just experienced such a serious and devastating incident.
At this time, a convoy came from the distance and stopped in front of Nick Fury. A heroic female agent, Maria Hill, stepped out of one of the vehicles.
"Sorry, sir, we're late!" Maria Hill said apologetically.
Nick Fury's face darkened even more, and he cursed, "You came here after the house was already demolished. Are you here to work as construction workers?" After a tense pause, he instructed Hill, "Go and get all of our equipment out of the ruins, and don't let those American soldiers take any of it away. Also, find me a plane. I want to go to New York and have a good, long talk with Tony and his new alien friends. And ask Hawkeye to come with me."
"Okay, sir," Hill replied, her expression grim.
At Tony's private experimental site outside of New York, Tony had arranged for all the non-essential personnel to leave, leaving only himself, JARVIS, and the group of Autobots.
Optimus Prime placed the shrunken Allspark into a transparent glass containment box and then asked Ratchet, who was standing beside him, "Ratchet, do you feel that there is something wrong with the Allspark?"
Ratchet pinched his metallic chin and said, "What's wrong? Isn't the Allspark always like this?"