In Nick Fury's view, Batman—possessing immense power and operating entirely outside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s monitoring and the judicial system—might be an even greater danger than the likes of the Lizard, Professor, and Hulk themselves.
Batman had unilaterally dealt with America's superhuman assets—or rather, threats—without any authorization.
Nick Fury had to figure out what Batman's objectives were and where he'd taken those people.
As the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury should have been stationed at the helicarrier headquarters out at sea, coordinating threats on a global scale.
But while tracking the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, and following clues to the Ravencroft Institute, he discovered that another group had already taken Osborn away first.
There was no need to explain all this to Tony Stark, so Nick Fury simply pinned the Green Goblin's disappearance on Batman.
Even so, with the Hulk, the Lizard, and Doctor Octopus—three super-criminals—vanishing in New York, especially after S.H.I.E.L.D. had already laid plans to gradually cooperate with Doctor Octopus, aka Otto Octavius, only for him to go missing too, Nick Fury felt that S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to accelerate their investigation into Batman.
In extreme cases, they might even need to prepare to declare war on Batman.
And right at that moment, Tony Stark, fresh back from the Middle East, announced the shutdown of his weapons division, cutting off S.H.I.E.L.D.'s supply of high-end weaponry overnight.
Last time, after Tony Stark's return, Agent Phil Coulson had scheduled a meeting with Tony's assistant, Pepper Potts, at the press conference, but Tony Stark kept brushing off Coulson with excuses of being too busy.
The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. himself, a Level 10 agent, Nick Fury, had no choice but to come here in person, detached from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s standard communication channels, handling the matter in the most confidential way possible.
But Nick Fury had underestimated Tony Stark's resolve—or rather, his stubbornness.
No matter how Nick Fury laid out the facts and evidence one by one, Tony Stark showed no inclination whatsoever to restart the weapons division or continue developing arms for S.H.I.E.L.D.
"If there's nothing else, Director Nick Fury," Tony Stark prompted, "head back and get some rest early. You're not getting any younger—you need more sleep."
Never mind that closing the weapons division was a decision Tony Stark had made in his heart countless times while in the Middle East.
The fact that Tony Stark had made it back from the Middle East owed not just to Yinsen's help, his own suit, and the map secretly transmitted by Peter Parker, but also in no small part to the Silver Sable rescue team that Peter Parker had connected him with through Batman.
For this indirect lifesaver, Tony Stark completely ignored all of Nick Fury's various threats, letting them go in one ear and out the other.
Compared to supplying S.H.I.E.L.D. with weapons to take on Batman, what Tony Stark wanted most right now was to head to his workshop, fix the flaws exposed in Mark II's maiden flight—one by one—and upgrade it to Mark III.
Nick Fury narrowed his one eye, staring at Tony Stark in silence for a long moment, a cigar clamped in his mouth sending up wisps of white smoke that obscured his expressionless face.
"Very well, Tony Stark." Nick Fury stood up and headed toward the outside of the living room.
Tony Stark stared straight at Nick Fury's back, only for the guy to turn his head just as he was about to push the door open:
"Before coming here, I looked into this villa. It has a helipad, but you, Tony Stark, haven't equipped it with a private plane."
"What was that noise just now?"
Tony Stark's landing on the villa's helipad in the Mark II suit hadn't gone smoothly—the armor had smashed right through the ground, plummeting all the way into the garage.
The racket hadn't escaped Nick Fury, but Tony Stark had no intention of explaining further:
"Really? I didn't hear anything."
Nick Fury shook his head, too lazy to waste another word on this guy, and left the villa, heading for Manhattan in New York.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had safe houses all over the world, each hidden under different disguises, providing support for agents on missions.
They came with standalone high-level servers, fiber optics and cables, and ample food and water.
Nick Fury's residence in New York was just such a place: tucked near an unremarkable office building in Manhattan, inside what looked like an abandoned warehouse.
"Before rashly heading to the suspected Hydra base in Wyoming, I can use another method to get information on the place."
In the Batcave in Manhattan, Batman had tried several approaches but couldn't locate the base hidden in the Wyoming desert—it seemed completely cut off from the outside world, preventing him from hacking in remotely.
This wasn't a problem for Batman.
During the time when Norman Osborn had gone on a slaughter spree on the third underground level of Oscorp, transforming into the Green Goblin, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Phil Coulson, had once tried to use the Bat-Signal to lure Batman for a meeting.
But at the time, Batman had decided that meeting Agent Coulson wouldn't yield more intelligence, and that hacking S.H.I.E.L.D. directly was a better way to gather information.
Ever since then, Batman had been monitoring the logs that Agent Coulson sent to S.H.I.E.L.D. daily, knowing he hadn't left and was still in New York, waiting for the right opportunity to meet Batman face-to-face.
Now, Batman planned to give him that opportunity, trying to extract information about the Cube prison from this Level 8 agent who had considerable clearance within S.H.I.E.L.D.
Habitually hacking into the S.H.I.E.L.D. system, Batman intended to find Agent Phil Coulson's contact information right there and, while he was at it, check if S.H.I.E.L.D. had any research records on vibranium.
Batman remembered that when he'd previously searched the CIA's systems for this world's extraordinary powers, he'd obtained some information on Captain America, including his vibranium shield.
This meant that vibranium, a metal that seemed indestructible, could be processed.
Rather than experimenting bit by bit himself, Batman didn't mind directly utilizing existing information.
But before he could find the vibranium files, Batman keenly picked up on another anomaly in the S.H.I.E.L.D. system.
He discovered that a usually very active high-level encrypted channel had briefly vanished in the helicarrier area, and almost at the same time, fluctuations from that channel appeared in Manhattan.
This indicated that a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative with extremely high clearance had used physical isolation measures to enter New York—possibly a vehicle that could block electronic surveillance, or maybe an aircraft.
"Barbara, hack into New York's power grid network. Filter out normal power usage and network facilities, and extract any new network nodes and power terminals added in New York over the last twenty-four hours."
Batman's voice was low and grave as he spoke, then rapidly searched through the massive data provided by the Oracle AI. After locking onto an area, he issued another order:
"Barbara, observe abnormal flight paths of birds in that area, and simulate the range of any laser or microwave motion sensors there."
"Hack into New York's surveillance system—not to query footage, but to locate all cameras that were covered, altered, or destroyed in the last twenty-four hours."
"Barbara..."
An hour later, in the safe house in Manhattan disguised as an abandoned warehouse, Nick Fury passed through several layers of defenses to enter. His gaze cautiously scanned the floor and walls, even using the dim light to observe the trajectories of dust particles floating in the air.
One second, two seconds...
The instant Nick Fury realized the safe house had been infiltrated by an unknown party and prepared to evacuate, a batarang flew from the shadows, grazing his ear and embedding heavily into the door behind him, slamming it shut with a bang.
Whoosh!
Nick Fury quickly crouched down, his right hand flashing to his waist to draw his pistol, while his left hand swiftly flipped up his eyepatch, pinching a bomb hidden in his eye socket between his fingers.
"Who are you?" Nick Fury asked in a steady voice, his mind ringing with alarm bells—he knew he'd encountered the greatest opponent of his life.
The intruder had somehow bypassed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s layers of defenses without a sound, found this place, entered the safe house without triggering any security systems, and waited for him to walk right into the trap.
Nick Fury quickly forced himself to stay calm, pressing his body against the closed door, ready at any moment to hurl the bomb.
Tap, tap.
In the darkness, a pitch-black figure gradually emerged with faint outlines. Nick Fury strained to look and could only make out a pair of sharply pointed, upright ears.
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