Preparing for a Rainy Day

In a matter of moments, Lin Xu came up with three plans.

First: use Christine's biological cells, the combined technology of Stark Industries, Dr. Helen Cho, and Wakanda, plus the Time Stone and the Mind Stone, to recreate Christine.

Second: use Pym Technologies to travel through the Quantum Realm to a parallel universe and kidnap a Christine. Of course, it would have to be a universe where Doctor Strange didn't love Christine quite so much.

Third: launch part of Hydra's Project Insight and kill Stephen ahead of time, creating a new timeline branch.

He set the third plan aside for now. That old geezer Ancient One would never allow it.

As for the first two, he currently had little influence, and those people weren't about to listen to his nonsense.

"Sigh, I'll take it one step at a time. What if they're easy to fool?"

Actually, Lin Xu had a fourth plan in mind. For that one, he would have to wait until Doctor Strange "persuaded" Dormammu to leave, then go and make his case in person.

In fact, he would be able to tell whether the plan had succeeded within the next two days!

Knowing full well how dangerous mad scientists in the Marvel Universe could be, Lin Xu hadn't placed the Houston Stark Research Center in an office building.

Never mind the disaster-prone Stark headquarters in New York. Just look at Osborn Tower: every major event in the Spider-Verse involved it somehow, and it was constantly being destroyed and rebuilt. How dangerous was that?

Half an hour later, Lin Xu arrived at Hermann Park. Once a gathering place for drug addicts as notorious as MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, it now had a completely new look.

The park had officially been renamed Stark Drone Park the previous year. Drones were the Houston research center's main project.

After a rigorous security screening, Lin Xu soon arrived at the research center's core area.

"Batman, I'm here to pick you up from work." Arms folded, Lin Xu stood outside the window of a private lab, looking at the white man inside, who was in his forties and had a buzz cut.

His name was posted outside the lab door: Adrian Toomes.

Adrian looked up and chuckled. "Ha, I'm from New York, not Gotham. Besides, I'm not as rich as young master Wayne."

"What, are you complaining that I'm not paying you enough?"

"No, boss, this is the highest salary I've ever had in my life. Probably in my next life too." Adrian put down the model wing in his hands and said with utmost seriousness, "If it weren't for you, I might still be collecting scrap in New York."

As he spoke, he got up and gathered his things. Although he nominally worked for Stark Industries, everyone, including Stark himself, knew very well that Adrian worked only for Lin Xu.

Having calmed down a little, Lin Xu finally noticed what Adrian had been holding: a titanium-alloy frame, with a thin, high-strength fiber membrane connecting the sections so the frame could open and close. Its overall shape was identical to the tip of a raptor's wing!

"Ad, did you successfully improve the second model?"

"Yes, boss. The first model was finished, but its wings weren't designed to open and close. It relied entirely on the tilting rotor in the middle of the wings for propulsion and balance, so it was very rigid."

The moment Adrian started talking about his field of expertise, a confident smile appeared on his face. "For the second model, I drew on the Falcon Program and Iron Man's Mark Armor, while keeping the first model's advantages. Then I built it all over again."

Lin Xu immediately became interested. "Tell me more."

Throughout the Marvel Universe, the poor relied on mutation, while the rich relied on technology. He counted as a rich man now, one way or another. Was he finally going to take the technology route?

"The Falcon Program's glider wings and jetpack give the wearer great maneuverability, but they have an obvious weakness: they can't hover, and their range is too short. So I kept the first model's tilting rotor and scaled it down, making it just a hovering device instead of a propulsion system. For the second model's propulsion, I'm planning to use jets."

"Huh? Didn't you say jets had a short range?"

"Heh heh, after the Sokovia Incident last year, all the Iron Man robots were destroyed, and headquarters stopped further development. All the Miniature Arc Reactors that had already been produced were put aside, and the Houston drone center applied for twenty of them!"

"Have they arrived?"

"They arrived yesterday's yesterday!"

Lin Xu: "..."

Poor American. He couldn't even say "the day before yesterday."

"Ahem, are you sure there were twenty?"

"...Ahem, how about eighteen?"

"What about the other two?"

"Lost in transit?"

"No, that's too blatant."

"Then how about experimental losses?"

"You're the researcher, and you're asking me? Ahem... How many were lost?"

"Two...?"

"Hmm~?"

"Five... ten?"

"Mm-hmm~!"

At that, the two men exchanged knowing smiles.

"Come on, come on, bring your stuff. We're going to your place. Today I'm going to be a space man!"

"Boss, NASA's requirements for astronauts are pretty strict."

"I said a space man, not an astronaut!"

"Huh? Aren't they the same word?"

"Didn't you hear the pause? It's 'space man,' not 'spaceman.' Besides, the space station was divided along national lines a few years ago, and astronauts got renamed. American astronauts are called astronauts, and I'm of Chinese descent, so the word for an astronaut like me should be taikonaut. This damn English!"

North Atlantic Island Prison

"Stark, did he tell you anything about Rogers?"

"No. He told me to go to hell. I'd better head back to headquarters first. Call me if you need anything. I'll set it to do not disturb, so it'll just keep flashing like a call light."

Tony boarded the helicopter with a smile on his face. He had already learned the captain's whereabouts from Falcon, and now he was going to mend that bond between comrades.

The helicopter soon took off. Tony undid the bandage on his hand, flexed his wrist, and prepared to put on the Iron Man Armor.

F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice suddenly rang out. "Sir, Director Lin took the initiative to ask me something today."

"Hm?" Tony stopped with his finger hovering in midair. "What's going on? The Mark V has been with him for years. Why today...? Did JARVIS really offend him?"

F.R.I.D.A.Y.: "..."

"What did he ask?"

"About the car accident involving Stephen Strange, a neurosurgeon at Presbyterian Hospital." As she spoke, she projected the entire office.

"Stephen Strange. That name sounds familiar."

"Sir, he once refused to remove the shrapnel from your chest, stating frankly that his specialty was neurosurgery, not general surgery. He was also originally scheduled to be Mr. Rhodey's lead surgeon, but another doctor replaced him because of the car accident."

"Neurosurgery?" Tony didn't care about the past. He only wanted to know why Lin Xu had suddenly taken an interest in this doctor. Based on past experience, this man was definitely not that simple!

The projection continued~

"He's an ignoramus who doesn't know the first thing about biology. What does he want the man's biological cells for? And he only went to a junior assistant—what could she possibly do for him...? Shit! That bastard Nick Fury! A dog can't change its ways. That really is his style."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., create new files: Skrulls, and Nick Fury's pager."