Different from the cool air of New York, Washington felt even more stuffy.
But that kind of stuffiness was eased a little near the water.
After nearly nine hours of flight, Corin finally arrived at the location of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters.
At this moment, Corin was dressed head to toe in a crimson suit, wearing a mask.
Although Nick Fury knew who he was, the thing he was about to do was probably not something they would welcome.
To be safe, it was better to keep a low profile.
Looking at the magnificent building standing in the sunset before him, a thought flashed through Corin's mind, 'So this is the Triskelion?'
'Why does the more I look at it, the more it feels like a bunker?'
He shook his head slightly, clearing away the messy thoughts, and felt a bit torn, 'Steal… or grab?'
'The box Howard Stark left behind should be here, but finding an ordinary box in an entire building would probably be pretty hard.'
'The box might be in the archives or some kind of storage room, but I have never been inside before, let alone searched for anything.'
Corin felt that his current situation was strangely familiar.
In an instant, he recalled how this was no different from hesitating back and forth outside Stark Tower back then.
"Forget it, no more overthinking!"
Corin pushed off hard with both feet, locked onto a platform near the top of the building, and leaped up.
After his physical enhancement, Corin could easily jump two or three hundred meters high. A few floors were nothing.
"I'll get inside first and talk later."
———
"Hawkeye" Clint Barton had been in a pretty good mood lately. After a period of hard work, he had more or less become one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top agents.
He had just taught a lesson to some lawbreaking scum and was planning to head back to headquarters to tune his compound bow, suddenly, a jarring streak of red appeared in his dynamic vision.
Hawkeye focused his gaze. He saw a black-haired man in a crimson formal outfit, wearing a pure silver mask, charging toward the direction of the director's office at extreme speed.
"It's him?"
Instinctively drawing his bow and aiming an arrow, Clint did not know whether Corin had come as a friend or a foe, but judging from the way he was about to force his way into the building from the outside, he was clearly an uninvited guest.
Ever since Corin had been exposed live by the media during the night the Lizard attacked the Osborn Building, very few people failed to recognize that classic outfit of his.
"He really is flashy."
Hawkeye Clint naturally saw Corin clearly. He could not understand why someone who was already good-looking had to dress up so extravagantly. Like a monkey dressed up for a circus.
But if you say he was high-profile, he was still wearing a mask, refusing to show his real face.
'Really a complicated guy.'
While his thoughts wandered, the movements in his hands showed no mercy at all.
Whoosh~
The arrow fitted with an alloy steel arrowhead turned into a streak of light and shot straight toward Corin's chest.
"I'll give you a warning first. This isn't how you enter headquarters."
———
Just as he was about to land on the spacious balcony, Corin's spider-sense suddenly issued a warning.
"An arrow?"
The arrow, carrying a sharp whistle as it came, suddenly slowed down in his vision.
He lightly raised his arm, placing his palm at the point where the arrowhead would land. From far away, it looked like he was waving hello.
Clang!
The alloy steel arrowhead instantly twisted and deformed in his palm, and the shaft bent and bounced off to the side.
Tap!
He landed steadily on the wide balcony and looked down.
'Yo~ isn't this Hawkeye?'
Short blond hair, slightly messy, with a clean and capable agent's aura. Light blue eyes, sharp gaze, fitting the focused traits of a top-tier marksman.
Medium build, lean muscles, not to mention the compound bow in his hand. At a glance, he was clearly an agility-type hero.
Realization dawned on Corin. The arrow he had casually blocked just now had been shot by Hawkeye below.
"So is this supposed to be a greeting?"
He casually waved at Hawkeye, then turned to walk into the building, preparing to continue looking for the target box.
Down below, Hawkeye clearly saw that his powerful shot had been casually blocked by the other man's palm.
He froze on the spot.
"what the f**k!"
'It clearly hit, didn't it?'
'How could it have no effect?'
He had never heard of the guy having an invisible shield.
Clint's eyesight was excellent. He had seen the entire process clearly, but his brain could not process the information his eyes were sending him.
Seeing that the other party actually ignored him and even waved in a provocative way, Hawkeye stubbornly nocked another arrow and fired again.
"You still dare to go inside? Stop right there!"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
This time, the arrows were fitted with a smoke bomb arrowhead and a micro-explosive arrowhead.
Although Hawkeye was an archer, he could change his attack effects by swapping out arrowheads. This was also why his combat style was so flexible and varied.
Hiss! Boom!
The smoke bomb released a large amount of choking smoke, and the micro-explosion that followed pushed the smoke outward in all directions.
"You really have to suffer a bit before you learn what manners are."
Clint believed that the combination of his smoke bomb and explosive arrowhead would not cause too much damage to the other party, but as long as he tasted the sting of the smoke bomb, his goal of giving a light punishment would be achieved.
Corin, on the other hand, was getting a bit annoyed by Hawkeye.
He was holding two arrows in his hands. One was still hissing with smoke, and the other had gone completely silent after exploding.
Corin took a deep breath.
"Hoo," He forcefully blew out the air he had built up in his chest, creating a strong gust of wind.
The remaining smoke on the platform was instantly blown away.
Looking at his palm, blackened by the explosion, Corin decided to go down and have a talk with Hawkeye.
'What is this about?'
Arrow after arrow coming at him…
"Isn't this annoying?"
When Corin's figure dropped straight down beside Clint like a cannonball, Hawkeye was stunned.
'The balcony outside the director's office is at least more than ten floors above the ground, and this guy just jumped straight down like that?'
And you should know, the place Clint was standing was on the other side of the artificial lake.
'Ten floors, an artificial lake…'
'You crossed over here in one step?'
'Did I just shoot arrows at him?'
'Twice?'
'What am I doing?'
'Am I going to die?'
Corin looked at the stunned Hawkeye, raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder, casually wiping the gunpowder residue off his hand at the same time.
"Hello!"
"You're Hawkeye, right?"
"I've got something important to do inside. Don't mess around, okay?"
Just as Hawkeye had not yet recovered from the shock, the phone rang.
Clint subconsciously pressed the call button on his earpiece.
["Hey~ Agent Barton, thanks for bringing my guest over."]
Clint looked around, not understanding.
"Who? What guest?"
In the office, Nick Fury stood in front of the massive floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the red figure below with a pleased smile.
["Of course it's the Crimson Silver Duke beside you."]
———
Nick Fury had been sitting peacefully in his office when a sudden explosion above his head gave him quite a scare.
'Good grief, who dared to stir up trouble right on my turf?'
He got up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, only to see a figure whooshing straight down.
Old Nick focused his remaining one eye and immediately felt surprised.
"Isn't that Corin? Mr. Crimson Silver Duke?"
He watched as Corin made a huge jump and landed on the opposite shore of the artificial lake from right above his head.
Nick Fury's face was full of disbelief.
"Motherf*cker!"
"How did he do that?"
"What other abilities does this Corin still have that I don't know about?"
He recalled the plan General Ross had discussed with him earlier.
Nick Fury's eyes lit up as he pulled out his phone and dialed Clint.
Before the call connected, Nick Fury thought to himself, 'Clint is a rare genius. He has not been at S.H.I.E.L.D. for long, yet he has already displayed extraordinary abilities.'
'His ability to adapt on the fly is outstanding, always managing to achieve objectives precisely in complex missions.'
He had gradually become one of the agents Nick valued most under his command.
The other one was Natasha Romanoff. He wondered how her investigation on Tony Stark's side was going.
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