Chapter 1414: Mutual Consent and Unmoved Fans
If a certain unreliable “Avengers consultant” could learn from Batman and share some armor with his teammates, that would be great! He could even learn from that “bigshot who sold everything” and give them some low-grade stuff.
Thinking that, Nick Fury couldn’t help but be buoyed a little.
In an instant, however, the director pulled himself out of this unrealistic fantasy.
Dream on! That guy didn’t let anyone touch his armor, and the only exception he had made was for this friend, Colonel Rhodes.
After Tony refused Congress’s request for him to hand over the technology, Colonel Rhodes, who had connections to the Department of Defense, the military, and the president, obtained the only suit.
The implication was clear.
The only reason Congress and the rest had come out of being embarra.s.sed by Tony relatively unscathed was Colonel Rhodes.
However, this also meant that it was basically impossible for s.h.i.+ELD to get the armor.
No matter how powerful s.h.i.+ELD was, it was only a secret organization. On the surface, it wasn’t as helpful to Tony as the joint support of those three parties.
Nick Fury’s thoughts had already changed.
The director was very tempted by the news from Phil of a bigshot who sold everything, as well as the samples he had obtained.
Mechanical gloves, special bullets, and electric-powered exoskeletons couldn’t compare with metal armor, but they could be bought in bulk, and weren’t too expensive.
Moreover, s.h.i.+ELD had its own research department, which was pretty good. They could buy the equipment themselves and make copies.
As for the Light Dagger and Life 1, which had even stranger abilities, they were definitely life-saving weapons.
As long as a person wasn’t too unlucky and hadn’t been shot or blown to pieces, they had a chance of survival.
Also, Phil’s supply of goods was clearly only enough for three to five people. This was clearly a personal gift for Nick Fury.
This att.i.tude was much better than that of the tyc.o.o.n who wouldn’t concede even in a critical moment.
So, the news from Natasha a few days ago didn’t surprise Nick Fury. Instead, he was quite satisfied.
Otherwise, if Batman and the American government were on the same wavelength, what would Nick Fury do?
Outright cooperation might not be possible, but with some negotiation, they could use Batman every now and then.
Rules were for exploiting loopholes. As the king of secret organizations, Nick Fury wasn’t a stickler for the rules, provided the benefits were good enough and they didn’t touch a bottom line.
Thinking about the news from Batman about Hydra, Nick Fury hesitated, but in the end didn’t mention it to Steve.
A secret investigation inside s.h.i.+ELD was now underway, and only Phil was looking into it for the time being.
Steve, on the other hand, was a fighter, not an agent.
Only when they knew exactly where the enemy was would they be able to destroy them.
An investigation involved more work with files, and Steve might not be able to compare with an ordinary s.h.i.+ELD clerk in this regard; at least, a clerk was skilled at using computers and office equipment.
Then, Luke would go to New York first. He might even get to know Batman in advance.
He wasn’t worried that Batman would rope in the Avengers.
Steve’s “name” meant that he had to work for America, not just anyone.
Even though Tony had always been close to Batman, his father was the founder of s.h.i.+ELD, and he wasn’t one to yield to others, not even Batman.
Also, Nick Fury would know if Batman pulled Black Widow and Hawkeye over to his side.
As he pondered, Nick Fury stood with his hands behind his back on the top floor of the Triskelion building. He watched Steve ride away on his motorcycle, and fell into deep thought.
…
New York was restless and noisy in July.
The media situation was getting out of hand, and Tony couldn’t help but send Luke another text to ask about it. Luke just told him to do his own thing.
Tony had already set up the foundation and it had already started to operate. All that was needed now was an official announcement.
Luke looked at the people who were jumping around and secretly rejoiced that he had never been the real Batman.
If the real Batman watched TV, he would probably go crazy! Luke sneered.
Looking at the current programs on TV now, even if real haters showed up, it would be useless, to say nothing of the real Batman showing up.
That was because haters couldn’t control the media, and any sort of outcry they made would be cut.
The press had freedom in this country, so TV stations naturally had the right to cut out clips. It was inevitable that some “redundant” remarks would be cut out.
The Internet was where real public opinion was.
There was no hiding from the multifaceted system.
Apart from the large number of posts by paid online trolls and brainless sheep, 60 to 70% of comments were still occupied by supporters of Batman and superheroes.
Based on the theory of the silent majority, the truth was that the people in society who expressed strong dissatisfaction with Batman and the superheroes probably amounted to less than 5%.
Luke sweated a little when he saw the real statistics. It seemed he had underestimated his fans’ combat ability.
He had thought that there would be more brainless sheep.
From the looks of it, the popularity Batman had built up really was a little terrifying.
With his momentum, plus how the media liked to twist facts, most people were still neutral.
Of course, it was also because Batman had too few bad points.
Just because of his “no killing” rule, most people didn’t believe that Batman would ignore the lives of ordinary people.
Even the criminals he caught were only injured, so how could Batman deliberately cause unnecessary casualties?
This was also one of the reasons why the fans who were firmly on Batman’s side didn’t collapse no matter what the paid online trolls threw at them.
Most online users who supported Batman were young and rebellious.
They might have just thought that Batman was cool at first, but now that someone was stepping on their favorite idol and saying he was trash, didn’t that imply that they were trash too?
For the sake of their dignity, these youngsters had to give back as good as they got.
If they were fans of a celebrity, they might be worried about the trolls exposing some scandal or other, but Batman had never had any sort of scandal. They had nothing to fear.
Some of the trending posts even amused Luke.
Troll: Batman and the others don’t care about the lives of the people.
Fan A: Batman only saves people, not kill them.
Troll: Batman and the others didn’t do good enough.
Fan B: Batman only saves people, not kill them.
Troll: Batman is fine, but there’s a problem with his comrades, and he has to take responsibility.
Fan C: Batman only saves people, not kill them.
Troll: Motherf*cker! All of you are lunatics!
No matter what the trolls stirred up, they couldn’t withstand this counterattack.
Apart from cursing the fans in front of their screens, there was nothing else they could do..