Marvel's Venom, starting with a Hydra undercover agent.

"It's okay, you go take a shower first, I'll clean up in a bit." Gwen said as she went to find a broom.

Upon hearing her words and seeing her appearance, George Stacy was momentarily stunned.

He hadn't seen Gwen smile much since what happened with Peter Parker, but just now he thought he saw a slight smile on her face, and she seemed to be in a good mood.

Chapter 115, The Helicarrier, Tony Stark's Help

At the base, Holm was conducting combat training with Daisy, two or three days after the Sandman incident.

In the past two or three days, S.H.I.E.L.D. has sifted through all the dust involved in the last incident, finding nothing unusual and no trace of William Baker.

That guy did escape, but he hasn't shown up in the last few days. I wonder if he's brewing some bigger plan.

S.H.I.E.L.D. has been very busy these past few days. According to Coulson, who has only returned to the base once, the entire research staff of S.H.I.E.L.D. is racking their brains on how to deal with William Baker, this sand-transforming monster, and has been working overtime for several days in a row.

After another set of boxing exercises, Daisy sat down to the side, panting, and sipped her water. She said to Holm next to her, "Although a lot of people at S.H.I.E.L.D. are working overtime, it seems like we don't have much to do. How about we go to Chinatown tomorrow?"

After Daisy finished speaking, she waited for Holm's response, but after waiting for a long time, she did not hear a sound.

When she turned her head with some confusion, she found Holm sitting back in his chair, lost in thought.

"What are you thinking about?" Daisy asked, waving her hand in front of the man's eyes to bring him back to his senses.

"Sorry, I was a little distracted. What did you just say?" Holm said, rubbing his face as he snapped out of his reverie.

He's been feeling a bit off about his body these past few days, but he can't quite put his finger on what's wrong.

Just in case, he even used the equipment at the base to test his physical condition, but the results showed nothing abnormal.

He was completely baffled by this, and after much thought, he could only explain it as a psychological reason.

But he still has no idea what psychological reason caused his current situation, so he was just thinking about whether to see a psychologist.

“I was saying, we haven’t had much to do these past few days, so how about we go to Chinatown tomorrow?” Daisy said, puffing out her chest to make the pendant on her chest more noticeable.

Holm understood Daisy's meaning, so he looked at the pendant that had flicked against Daisy's chest, nodded, and said, "It's not impossible, anyway, neither of us..."

Before he could finish speaking, the phone on the table rang.

Looking at the words "Commander Coulson" displayed on the caller ID, Holm pursed his lips, shook his head helplessly, and smiled, "We can't say things like 'I have nothing to do' anymore."

"I hadn't even finished speaking when this happened, sigh."

Seeing this, Daisy scratched her head and shrank her neck, looking a little guilty, because she remembered that she was the one who had been saying that she had nothing to do.

Despite the complaints, the calls still had to be answered.

So before the phone rang a few more times, Holm had already pressed the call button.

Before Holm could even say hello, Coulson on the other end of the line said bluntly, "You and Daisy should be at the base right now, go to the hangar immediately, I'll be waiting for you on the space carrier."

Upon hearing Coulson's direct instruction, Holm swallowed his greeting and simply nodded, replying in a deep voice, "Understood. We'll set off immediately."

After hanging up the phone, Holm stood up, took off his boxing gloves, and walked outside while stretching his body. He said to Daisy, "Put your things down and come with me. We need to go to the space carrier."

"You might not have time to shower, but you can use a towel to wipe your sweat."

Upon hearing this, Daisy could only take off her boxing gloves, pick up the towel beside her, and follow Holm toward the hangar.

If she had known she would suddenly receive a mission, she should have taken a shower right away. Unfortunately, now she can only wipe her sweat with a towel.

The Quinjet was very fast; less than 20 minutes after the call ended, they had already begun landing on the space carrier.

After they got off the plane, they saw Coulson already waiting for them at the gate.

“It’s fast. I thought I’d have to wait a while,” Coulson said, watching Holm and Daisy remove their oxygen masks, mainly looking at Daisy, of course.

Daisy, of course, noticed Coulson's gaze, and tossed him the oxygen mask in an annoyed tone, saying with dissatisfaction, "Just talk, why are you looking at me like that? I've never been late before, okay?"

“You’ve never been late, but you always arrive right on time,” Coulson said, placing his oxygen mask aside before turning and leading them inside.

Holm watched Coulson and Daisy's interaction with a quiet, unassuming smile, without saying a word. After all, he didn't have such a good relationship with his superior.

“The reason I suddenly called you here is still because of the Sandman William Baker matter. Didn’t you mention in your report that you wanted to develop a special weapon? There has been some progress, so I wanted you to observe it in person and see if there is anything that needs improvement,” Coulson said as he led them inside.

"Besides Spider-Woman, only the two of you have faced him head-on and fought him, so you know him better than those researchers, and you can spot any oversights in time."

Holm nodded in agreement with Coulson's words, while Daisy asked with some confusion, "I remember when you came back last time, didn't you say that the R&D team had no clue what to do? How come it's already built all of a sudden?"

In response to the concerns and questions, Coulson smiled and explained, "That's because with the help of one person, we quickly finalized the idea and manufactured it."

“You should be familiar with him, after all, we met not long ago.”

Upon hearing Coulson's answer, Holm reacted instantly and tentatively asked, "Is it Tony Stark?"

Coulson nodded in agreement and continued, "It seems that the director mentioned this matter when he met with him, and then he put forward some of his own ideas and suggestions."

"After testing and calculation, our researchers also felt that the feasibility was relatively high, so we manufactured a sample."

"You'll find out the details in a bit. Tony Stark is in the conference room right now."

"By the way, speaking of which, he seems to have a pretty good impression of you, which is quite rare, considering that he doesn't even have a nice attitude towards the bureau chief. I even heard them arguing when I came out just now."

Chapter 116, To deal with the Sandmen, you need an hourglass.

As Coulson spoke, they quickly made their way to the conference room.

However, as soon as they stood at the door, Holm and the others heard a commotion coming from the conference room.

"Enough with the nonsense, esteemed Director. I'm not your subordinate, nor am I paid by you, so there's no need for me to listen to your inflammatory remarks..."

"I don't agree with your plan, so I won't join your ridiculous team. As for your suggestions... they're good, but I won't listen, so don't mention them again..."

"Alright, the thing's almost finished. It only has so-so functions, so you can figure out what to do with it yourselves. I'm leaving now..."

Before Coulson could knock, the voices grew closer and closer.

The next second, the conference room door was opened, and Tony Stark was opening the door with one hand and straightening his clothes with the other, seemingly ready to leave.

However, he hadn't expected to see Holm and the others after opening the door, so he was taken aback for a moment before laughing and saying, "Eavesdropping isn't a good habit, you know. Although I don't really care, your director doesn't seem to be a very magnanimous person."

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Agent Clint, and this beautiful lady, and... this gentleman who always has a smile on his face.” Tony greeted Holm casually, then gave Daisy and Coulson a perfunctory reply.

After saying that, he ignored Nick Fury's increasingly sour expression and Coulson's somewhat stiff smile, raised his hand to look at his watch, and then continued walking outside while speaking: "I have some business to attend to at the company, so I'll take my leave first. Goodbye, everyone."

Watching Tony Stark leave under the escort of the agents, Holm shook his head helplessly.

Tony had a good impression of him and even remembered his name, which should have been a cause for celebration, since it's not easy for an adult male to make a lasting impression on Tony.

But if all of this has to be expressed in this way, then he'd rather Tony just forget about him.

Didn't you see how dark the black-faced man inside had become, and Coulson at the door, whose signature smile now looked ugly?

Blackie was purely angry, while Coulson was somewhat hurt. After all, he had contacted Tony many times, although Pepper usually conducted more in-depth and detailed exchanges with him. But Tony shouldn't have forgotten his name.

Fortunately, Daisy never cared about these things and was quite stubborn, so she strode into the meeting room, which prevented the awkward atmosphere from lasting long.

After exchanging greetings and taking their seats, everyone seemed to forget the unpleasantness from just moments before and began the serious meeting.

“I suppose Coulson has already explained why I called you all here today, so let’s get straight to the point and have the head of the research department introduce you to this set of weapons specifically designed to deal with the Sandmen.” Nick Fury raised his hand and pointed to the middle-aged man wearing glasses sitting in the lower right corner of the large screen in front of him.

After the pleasantries, Nick Fury's complexion had improved considerably; he no longer looked as gloomy as before, and his expression brightened again.

After he finished speaking, the middle-aged man wearing glasses stood up, greeted him, and then began operating the large screen in front of him to introduce the new weapon they had developed.

He manipulated the controller to flip through a few pages of the PowerPoint presentation, and then a slightly oddly shaped device appeared on the big screen.

The main body of the device looks like a van, and it also has four wheels underneath, presumably for easy movement.

In front of the main body of the device, there is a thick and long pipe connected to a suction port that looks like a vacuum cleaner magnified several times.

The back of the device can be opened, revealing a huge hourglass that flips upside down after a period of time.

After further illustrative demonstrations and explanations from the research director, Holm and his team understood the purpose of the device.

The front suction port was used to draw all the sand and dust into the pipe, while the main body of the device was used to filter the sand and dust.

Finally, the useless and harmless dust will be expelled by the main body of the van, which is the door.

The part that belonged to William Baker's body was sucked into the huge hourglass at the back, and then turned upside down every now and then, keeping him constantly busy and giving him no time to condense his own body.

Six, that's amazing! So the way to deal with the sand people is with an hourglass! How come he didn't think of that? His imagination isn't wild enough.

"...These are the main new devices. In addition, we have modified some aircraft and vehicles to better enable them to use water to contain the Sandmen... The main concept and some of the technology of the new devices were supported by the Stark Industries..."

As the research director spoke, he flipped to the last slide of the PowerPoint presentation and began the final wrap-up and summary.

After he finished speaking, Nick Fury looked at Holm and Daisy and asked, "Do you think there's anything else that needs improvement?"

Upon hearing Nick Fury's question, Holm and Daisy exchanged a glance, then shook their heads and replied, "It seems there are no problems so far. If the new device can indeed operate as demonstrated, then dealing with the Sandmen will not be a problem. It's just that we don't know how many there will be, or whether the scale can be expanded."

"Given the scale of the last William Baker attack, if the quantity isn't guaranteed, then a new device that's only the size shown in the demonstration video might not be very effective."

In response to Holm's question, the research director adjusted his glasses and replied, "We've also considered this issue, so we're currently modifying a large fighter jet at the base to mount a new, larger, and more powerful device on it."

"Once the modification is successful, it will be no problem to handle sandstorms of the same scale as last time, and it will even be more than enough."

Upon hearing the research director's addition, Holm nodded: "In that case, there's no problem. We just need to wait for William Baker to appear next time."

Daisy had no objections, and seeing Holm nod, she nodded as well.

Seeing this, Nick Fury said a few more words and then ended the meeting.

Holm, Daisy, and Coulson also walked out of the conference room together, preparing to head to the hangar to catch a plane back to base.

Chapter 117, My Uncle, the Bureau Chief

"With the new equipment, dealing with that Sandman shouldn't be as difficult as last time," Daisy said leisurely, leaning back in the pilot's seat aboard the Quinjet.

"All we need to do is park that modified plane where that guy appears, and then ramp up the power and pump it up."

"Hehe, I'm actually quite curious about what would happen if William Baker were really put into an hourglass. Would he break down after just two days? Since he would have no chance to solidify and would just remain a pile of loose sand."

Listening to Daisy's whimsical ideas, Holm couldn't help but picture William Baker trapped in an hourglass, howling and cursing – perhaps the most unusual hourglass in the world.

“Things aren’t as simple as you think,” Coulson, sitting in the back, bluntly shattered Daisy’s illusions.

"Do you really think William Baker is some kind of immobile mob? You saw his condition last time; he could erode buildings and throw cars into the air all over the streets."

"The next time he shows up, he'll be even more outrageous than last time. Who knows what kind of trouble he'll cause then? Even if we have the new device, we can't just stupidly drive it over there."

"Pressing the start button and then waiting for it to be obediently sucked away and put into the hourglass is just wishful thinking. In reality, we need to use a series of methods to break it up and tire it out beforehand, creating an opportunity for the new device to perform."