Chapter 28: Remember to Call Me When You're Looting Things

After dinner, Coulson was hunched over a small desk, biting the end of a pencil and scratching his head in frustration as he rushed to finish Annie's homework. At this hour, Annie had long since gone to bed after her bath; she wanted to sleep early today, so she had entrusted the monumental task of homework to her Uncle Coulson, who had lost the bet. Surely, this high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agent wouldn't let her down.

In truth, the homework wasn't difficult for Coulson; the hard part was that he had to write it while simulating Annie's thought process! This required him to reference her previous assignments while simultaneously mimicking her handwriting, making it quite a tedious process. He had to write a draft first, and then carefully copy it again to imitate her script. All in all, it was quite time-consuming.

Mimicking handwriting was basic training for an agent. No matter how poor Coulson's technique was, he could certainly manage to fake her handwriting well enough to fool a stiff character like Mr. Maine!

While writing homework for Annie was a bit... questionable, it wasn't the first time, right? As the saying goes, "the first time is a stranger, the second time is an acquaintance!" Regardless, Coulson did not want Annie to fail to turn in her homework and cause him to be summoned to school by Mr. Maine for a third time. That experience had been truly terrible!

Besides, Coulson was an agent, and the most fundamental code of an agent was to do one's utmost to complete the mission! And his current mission was to write Annie's homework! What? You say Coulson is making a fundamental error in principle? That it's bad? Heh, talking about principles to an agent? What even is a "principle"? Is it edible?

While Coulson was buried in his work, determinedly completing the mission Annie had assigned him, Melinda walked up to his desk with a serious expression. She tapped the tabletop impatiently, signaling him to stop what he was doing.

"Melinda? Is something wrong?" Coulson asked irritably.

Couldn't she see he was busy with important business? Why did she have to interrupt him right now? He had just lost his train of thought. Now, where was he? Ah, right! Grammar and sentence construction!

"Enough, stop writing! There's a new mission. A call from HQ! Loki has been spotted in Germany. The Director orders us to depart immediately. No delays!" As Melinda spoke, she walked to the wall and flipped open a large oil painting, revealing a small armory behind it. She then began selecting her weapons and ammunition.

"Finally found him? Great!" Upon hearing news of Loki, Coulson abandoned the homework entirely. He dropped his pen and stepped forward to check the gear with Melinda. "By the way, have the other Avengers been notified?"

To deal with a god like Loki and the minions he had abducted, ordinary agents wouldn't be of much use. Without the Avengers stepping in, any number of agents would merely be delivering themselves to their deaths. "N-killing a god" was no joke! Therefore, Coulson had to ask clearly; he had no desire to go on a suicide mission.

"Captain and Natasha have already left HQ. They say Tony Stark is also on his way. We're the only ones left!" With a *click*, Melinda slid two pistols into her back holsters and grabbed several extra magazines.

"Oh! That's good. Wait, what about Thor and the Hulk?" Coulson felt something was off. Weren't there two more members of the Avengers? Or had Melinda simply forgotten to mention them?

"Thor can't be reached for the moment, but agents have been sent to look for his girlfriend, Jane Foster. Once they find her, I believe they'll find Thor!" Melinda harbored some resentment toward Thor. Seriously, would it kill him to carry a phone? Do you Asgardians communicate solely by shouting?

"As for the Hulk? Forget it. We can't count on him for now."

That made sense. Coulson thought about it and agreed that the Hulk was somewhat unreliable; S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't even been able to track his location. The guy was not only a master of prison breaks but also excellent at hide-and-seek; otherwise, he wouldn't have caused so much trouble for the military back then.

He was probably hiding in some unmonitored slum or a mountain cave right now. The guy was always unorganized, undisciplined, and uncontrollable. Even if they actually found him, they certainly wouldn't have time to bring him to Germany.

"Alright, enough of that. Let's move. The plane is here." Melinda heard the roar of engines outside; it seemed the New York branch had sent a Quinjet to pick them up.

"Wait a second, this still isn't right! Where's Annie? Aren't we calling her?" Seeing Melinda pulling him away, Coulson was bewildered. There was a super ace of the Avengers upstairs; he didn't believe Melinda had simply forgotten!

"But Annie is already asleep! It wouldn't be appropriate to wake her now, would it? Besides, isn't the Captain and Tony Stark enough? They should have no problem handling Loki," Melinda said, somewhat reluctant to wake the girl. She had seen that the little girl was already sound asleep before receiving the mission, and it felt wrong to wake her.

"That makes sense. In that case, let's go!" Coulson thought it was reasonable and was about to leave, but he stopped after a few steps. "No! I still think it's safer to wake Annie and bring her along."

With that, Coulson turned and headed upstairs. In his view, while the Captain was strong, he hadn't seen exactly *how* strong he was and didn't want to jump to conclusions. His strength was likely limited.

As for Tony Stark? Whether that playboy could arrive in time was another matter! And they were up against Loki, who held the title of a god. Was someone with "god" in their title really that easy to deal with?

Therefore, Coulson felt that if they didn't bring Annie, he would be uneasy. In Coulson's eyes, Annie—with her one girl and one bear—was essentially a Hulk-level heavy hitter equivalent to an entire reinforced company. How could they not bring such a powerful teammate? Even if they messed up, Annie could carry the whole field and lead them to victory. How awesome would that be!

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

In her sleep, Annie seemed to hear the sound of someone knocking on her door. Thinking it was a dream, she didn't even open her eyes. She mumbled some nonsensical words, turned over, pulled the blanket over her head, and continued sleeping while hugging her little bear.

She felt so tired tonight that she had gone to bed early! Perhaps she had just misheard something—an auditory hallucination. There was no knocking! She would never believe Uncle Coulson would come to knock on her door and disturb her sleep at this hour! The person outside must be a fake, an impostor! So, she didn't need to worry about it.

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

"Annie? Are you asleep?" After waiting a moment, Coulson knocked again and asked softly, but there was still no response from the room. It seemed the little girl was indeed fast asleep.

"My God! Forget it, Coulson! Let's just get moving, we're running out of time!" Melinda shouted from downstairs. She certainly didn't recommend waking Annie; weren't the Captain and Iron Man already there? She felt that should be enough.

"Sigh! Fine! It has to be this way then." Since he couldn't wake her, Coulson had to abandon his insistence. What else could he do? Was he supposed to break down the door? If he did, Tibers the bear would surely tear him apart!

Unable to wake Annie and pressured by Melinda downstairs, Coulson could only nod and obediently head back downstairs. Although he still felt a bit uneasy, there was nothing else to do. At most, he could try to urge Tony Stark once they were on the plane.

*Annie's master~! Lady Annie! My little ancestor! Are you really not going? Is this really okay?*

Tibers had heard the conversation downstairs from the very beginning, so it had to remind her through their mental link!

*Shut up, Tibers.*

*Fine. But if you don't go, don't blame me for not warning you: I heard their whole conversation. It seems they found that guy named Loki. The one called a god is currently appearing in a place called Germany.*

Seeing that Annie still didn't react, Tibers had no choice but to continue

*Oh, right! I also remember he has a treasure in his hand called the Space Stone. They say it can open some kind of space portal? Tsk tsk! I wonder if it's true! If we can grab it, maybe we could open a portal to the Shadow Realm? This bear really misses home in the Shadow Realm right now~* Tibers dragged out the word "home."

*Loki the God is stealing things... Stealing the Space Stone! A space portal? Going home!!!*

Hearing this, the groggy Annie's eyes snapped wide open. Then, with a *whoosh*, she kicked off the covers, jumped out of bed, and pulled back the curtains at lightning speed. She leaned halfway out the window, standing on her tiptoes, and shouted toward the two people preparing to board the plane outside: "Uncle Coulson! Auntie Melinda! Wait for me! I'll change my clothes in just three minutes! No, two minutes! I'm coming down right now!"