Marvel: The Ultimate Superman-Chapter 128. First Encounter with Nick

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Nolan had already figured out what was happening. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

The media wasn't just turning on him, it was steering him into becoming the face of a growing divide among enhanced individuals. They wanted to use him to accelerate the fracture. Pit him against his own kind.

"Same old tactics," he muttered. "Rot always finds its way back to the surface."

He closed his eyes. His super senses expanded outward, sweeping through the city like a sonar pulse. In an instant, he locked onto Steve and his group, now miles away, deep in the outskirts of New York.

"Let's go check it out," he said, glancing at Max. "Something tells me things are about to get fun."

The two launched into the sky, flying straight for the rural no-man's-land beyond the city limits.

And Nolan was right, something was happening.

As they approached, his senses picked up multiple presences already on the ground, one of them unmistakable in red and gold: Iron Man.

But that wasn't the surprise.

Standing beside Tony... was someone Nolan had never met, but recognized instantly.

One-eyed. Bald. Black coat.

Nick Fury.

The Mother-of-All-Operators himself.

"Fury showed up in person?" Nolan's brow furrowed.

Fury never made public appearances anymore, not since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. during the Hydra purge. Officially, he was off-grid. Unofficially, he was still pulling strings from the shadows while Maria Hill ran the remains of the agency in his stead.

For Fury to show up now, face out in the open?

Yeah—things were really spiraling.

It meant the situation had gone off-script... even for him.

Stark and his allies were losing ground, and the opposition wasn't just targeting the Avengers anymore. They were coming after all enhanced individuals. Registration. Control. Total oversight.

Fury had seen that shift, and now, he was stepping in to prevent it from turning into an all-out war.

Because once the Avengers fractured, there would be no stopping the tide.

Nolan focused his hearing. He could already make out pieces of the conversation below.

Fury was trying to convince Tony to stand down. To take the high road. To forgive Bucky.

Nolan raised an eyebrow. So... this wasn't the same Civil War he remembered.

His arrival in this universe had already disrupted the timeline. The butterfly effect was no longer a theory; it was unfolding in real time.

But that wasn't a bad thing.

If, after everything he'd done, the world still played out like a pre-written script... then what was the point of him being here?

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On the ground, Tony listened as Fury explained.

"So you did bring him back," Tony said flatly.

It wasn't hard to guess. Fury's little black-ops bag of tricks was full of tech most people didn't know existed. Project T.A.H.I.T.I., alien medicine, pseudo-regenerative protocols—hell, even Coulson had walked away from death once.

And after seeing what Nolan could do, reviving a near-dead Bucky Barnes didn't seem so far-fetched anymore.

If Bucky were truly gone, Steve wouldn't be speaking so calmly.

Just then, Friday's voice buzzed in Tony's helmet.

"Sir. Two signatures inbound. High-speed flight. It's Superman... and Electro."

Tony's eyes narrowed.

He turned sharply toward Fury, mask sliding down over his face.

"You brought him here?"

Fury stayed calm. "I figured it was time we talked. We need every ally we can get."

Tony scoffed. "You used Rogers and Wanda as bait?"

Fury said nothing. But that silence spoke volumes.

He hadn't sent Steve to deliver the materials out of goodwill, he'd sent him as a lure. Wanda too.

And now, here they were.

A thunderous boom echoed overhead as two streaks of light pierced the clouds and descended like comets.

Max landed first, electricity crackling across his suit. Nolan followed, touching down with practiced ease, no dramatic impact, no shockwave. Just a firm, deliberate presence.

A show of restraint. Power, without spectacle.

He already knew this was staged.

They'd been waiting for him.

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"So," Nolan said, stepping forward, eyes on Fury. "This is our first meeting?"

In all of the MCU, if there was one man who embodied manipulation, it was Nick Fury. The New York invasion, the Tesseract crisis, the collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D. somewhere in the shadows, Fury had always been pulling strings.

And more often than not... making a mess others had to clean up.

Like Project Pegasus, where he'd tried to weaponize the Tesseract against cosmic threats. A project that every other genius, Tony, Bruce, Hank, and even Reed Richards had been excluded from.

Even Captain Marvel had warned him not to tamper with the Cube.

But Fury, ever the control freak, thought he could handle it.

He couldn't.

And when it all blew up in his face? The Avengers were the ones left holding the bag.

"Superman," Fury greeted with a tight smile, extending a hand. "Glad you could make it."

Nolan took it without hesitation.

"You dragged me here with space-stone shards and Mystique's DNA. I assumed it wasn't just for a fashion show."

He glanced around.

The teams were more or less who he expected.

Tony's side: Black Panther, Vision, War Machine, Black Widow, Spider-Man.

Steve's side: Falcon, Hawkeye, Wanda, Sharon Carter... and a very out-of-costume Scott Lang.

And somehow Bucky.

Nolan blinked.

Still alive? Again?

This man had literally died and come back more times than a comic book cliché. From WWII to Hydra to Tony beating him into scrap, to being revived again and again... it was honestly impressive at this point.

He has more Plot Armor than a Certain knight.

"From what I count," Nolan muttered, "he's died three times. Still ticking."

He looked around the field.

"Let's not pretend this is about registration anymore. This is about control. And a lot of you are about to find out what happens when you try to put a leash on gods."

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