Marvel's Master of Heavenly Magic

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"Bucky!"

Steve's heart nearly stopped as he saw Bucky wrapped in the metallic tail of the Nine-Tailed Fox. He was so shocked that he dropped his shield to the ground, then immediately rushed forward.

Seeing this, George waved his hand, signaling the metallic Nine-Tailed Fox to set Bucky down.

"Bucky, you're alive. This is... unbelievable... ah!"

Steve hurriedly approached and lifted Bucky into a tight embrace, his emotions running high.

The two of them were like brothers. Besides his beloved Peggy, Bucky was the most important person to Steve.

He had believed Bucky had died in the line of duty all those years ago, but now, after over sixty years of being frozen, he had found him again. How could Steve not be ecstatic?

Unfortunately, Bucky, having been brainwashed and his memories erased, no longer recognized Steve. Instead, he used his mechanical arm to land a powerful punch to Steve's jaw.

If it weren't for Steve's enhanced physique, a normal person would have had their jaw shattered by the blow.

After knocking Steve back, Bucky quickly turned and made a beeline for the school's exit.

Despite being brainwashed and having his memories erased, Bucky's intelligence remained intact. He knew he wasn't a match for Steve and, without hesitation, decided to make his escape.

"George!"

As Bucky's figure grew smaller and smaller, and the metallic statues didn't seem to be pursuing him, Coulson and the others began to panic.

George, however, merely waved his hand dismissively.

"It's fine. He won't get away."

"You think you're leaving? You'd better check with me, the gatekeeper first!"

Before George could finish, a loud roar echoed from the guard booth at the school gates.

It was Colonel Bronson, the former villain, now transformed, who strode out from within.

As he saw Bucky attempting to leap over the school gates, Colonel Bronson raised his hand, grabbing Bucky mid-air, and quickly returned, dragging him along.

"Didn't expect it to be him!"

Coulson immediately recognized the figure of the former villain, who had once fought alongside the Hulk and George in the Broadway incident. This had all been well-documented by SHIELD.

SHIELD had assumed that the villain had been killed by George, but it turned out he was now working as the school's gatekeeper.

Due to that incident, General Ross had caused quite a bit of trouble for Nick Fury, demanding that he contact George to hand over the Hulk and the former villain.

In the end, Nick Fury had to release some compromising information about General Ross—illegal experiments, among other things—to get him to quiet down.

"He must have been brainwashed by Hydra using some kind of machine," George said, turning to Professor X. "Professor, can you help him restore his mind?"

George greeted Professor X before walking over to Westville, who was standing nearby.

Westville was a high-ranking Hydra agent, and most of SHIELD's counter-espionage operations had been carried out by him. He was privy to many of Hydra's darkest secrets.

"Mind Probe!"

Placing his hand on Westville's head, George activated the Mind Probe spell in conjunction with his telepathic abilities.

Garrett, who had been a SHIELD agent before being turned by Hydra, wasn't fully trusted by them and didn't know all of their secrets. For instance, he didn't have knowledge of the location where Hydra was using the Cosmic Cube to create energy weapons.

"I found it," George said with a satisfied grin after a few moments, pulling his hand away.

He had found the location of the Cosmic Cube from Westville's memories.

But more than Hydra's plans or their Insight Program, George was more concerned about one of the six Infinity Stones—the Space Stone.

His thinking was that, since Hydra could use a machine to extract the Space Stone's energy to make weapons, perhaps he could also use such a machine to harness that energy for his own purposes.

If successful, it would essentially give him an infinite source of energy—like a magical crystal.

If it doesn't work out, the extracted energy could still be used for the construction of the school, or even for building a floating city in the future. It could serve as an energy source, converted into electricity to power the entire floating city.

Moreover, with the Space Stone in his hands, it would be much safer.

Even if Loki were to escape from the Asgardian prison again and team up with Thanos to search for the Cosmic Cube on Earth, he would first have to get past George.

Without the Cosmic Cube, Thanos couldn't bring the Chitauri army to Earth.

"How's it looking?"

As George finished reviewing Westville's memories, Natasha and Coulson quickly approached him.

George replied calmly:

"According to Westville's memories, the three space carriers will launch in about an hour."

"Only an hour left, we must leave immediately!"

Black Widow, Coulson, Hill, and Hawkeye, the remaining senior agents, immediately grew serious.

It would take about an hour by plane from New York to Washington. If they didn't act now, once the three space carriers were airborne, everything would be over.

Each space carrier wasn't just equipped with the world's most advanced weaponry; it also had stealth and counter-detection capabilities. Once they were airborne, finding their locations would be nearly impossible.

At that point, they would be sitting ducks, completely defenseless.

"Professor, what's the update?"

George didn't respond immediately. Instead, he turned to look at Professor X.

Professor X withdrew his hand from Bucky's forehead and gave George a thumbs-up.

"Good, then let Steve lead the team, along with the now-recovered Bucky, Banner, and Logan. You can take the X-Jet, and you should be able to reach Washington in about half an hour."

He turned to Natasha and Coulson:

"I might have overused my abilities earlier, so I need some rest. I won't be helping with the mission."

The overuse of abilities was just an excuse. George planned to take the opportunity to head to Hydra's energy weapon facility to retrieve the Cosmic Cube and the machine that could extract energy from it.

"You don't look like someone who overused their powers," Coulson muttered under his breath, eyeing George, who appeared alert and full of energy.

Coulson wasn't unfamiliar with enhanced individuals. After overusing their abilities, they typically couldn't even stand.

But George clearly didn't seem to be in that state. In fact, after using such a vast amount of power, he looked perfectly fine, which seemed strange.

Though Coulson was suspicious, he didn't voice his doubts.

After all, with Captain America leading the charge, along with the famous Wolverine, the Hulk who could demolish General Ross's entire army, and the Winter Soldier who knew Hydra's inner workings, they had a solid chance of success.

George had already contributed significantly. Hydra's elite team had been wiped out, and it was likely that there weren't many defenses left at the Tri-Fold Wing Building either.

"Thanks then. If SHIELD still exists after this, and there's anything we can do to help, we'll be there!"

Before Nick Fury died, he handed over the cube containing all of SHIELD's classified base information to Coulson, effectively passing the mantle of Director of SHIELD to him.

After this mission, if SHIELD survived, Coulson would become the new director.

(End of Chapter)