Changes Over Six Months

"Lin?"

"Stark, listen to me first. I still have my shares, right?"

"You've been missing for less than two years, and no one issued you a death certificate. Besides, I'm still here. Who could take your shares?"

He hadn't been seen for six months, and that was what he asked about on his first call? Tony was speechless. Wasn't he underestimating him a little too much?

"Oh, then it's fine. That scared me to death!"

Through the phone, Tony could tell that Lin Xu had genuinely been scared, so he asked, "Where have you been these past six months?"

"Lots of places. First I went to Kathmandu, then New York, and finally BC." On the other end of the phone, Lin Xu "told the truth."

Those were indeed the places, just not in the same universe.

"BC? What's that?"

"Hahaha, shows how little you know. It's short for British Columbia, Canda."

"...Is that something to be proud of? What did you go there for?"

"Never mind that. All right, I'm hanging up. I've got things to do."

"Wait. Just now, Adrian officially joined the Avengers as Male Hawkman! Just letting you know."

Beep~

Hmph, he thought he could hang up on him?

Tony looked at the suit he hadn't finished making and thought for a moment. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., pull up North America... Pull up the abbreviations for every province and city in the world."

"Yes, sir!"

Meanwhile, Lin Xu looked at the disconnected call, a little speechless. Tony still had that unlikeable personality, all right.

But what the hell was Male Hawkman?

He knew that, with a different life from the original and even a different universe, Adrian's personality would differ from his counterpart on the main timeline. But he hadn't expected such a big difference: he'd gone straight from a criminal to a superhero.

Beep~ Beep~

"Adrian, it's me!"

"Boss? You... I... It's been six months. I finally got in touch with you."

"Ha, tell me what's been happening lately~"

"Yes, boss~"

On the other end of the phone, Adrian made an effort to calm himself down, followed by the rustling sound of pages turning.

"In the first month you were missing, the drone bill was forced to be put on hold, and a lot of imitations appeared on the market. Fortunately, headquarters responded in time. The president, Ms. Potts, came to Houston to renegotiate and push the drone bill forward."

Lin Xu remembered. He'd even made an appointment to play golf with the governor back then...

"What else?"

"In the second month, your assistant Daisy Johnson submitted her resignation, but Ms. Potts refused it. She thought very highly of Daisy's abilities and promoted her to temporary head of the drone research center. Unfortunately, Daisy died in a car accident while she was out..."

A standard agent's trick: if she couldn't leave normally, she'd fake her death.

"Go on..."

"In the third month, the Dallas 1677 Incident occurred. Several police officers died. After deliberations, the board decided that the situation in Texas was currently unstable, and the Houston drone research center began evacuating. The move was completed two months ago! My family moved to New York with it~"

"Tell me more about this Dallas incident!"

"An African American army veteran planned and carried out the killing of white police officers. It was a typical case of racial retaliation..."

As he spoke, Adrian's voice grew somewhat complicated and subdued.

That made sense. Texas, a gathering place for rednecks, was where racial hatred was worst in America, and Adrian had an African American wife. Neither side welcomed them, and they might be attacked one day. That was also the main reason he'd moved.

Lin Xu picked up on that too, so he changed the subject. "Tony Stark just told me you joined the Avengers as Male Hawkman?"

"Huh? When? How come I didn't know..."

After some explanation, Lin Xu got the full story.

Development of the armor had reached the third model, but Adrian still couldn't get in touch with his boss. After moving, he saw how chaotic New York was and remembered how his boss had always teased him about being Batman.

He couldn't be Batman, since he didn't have that kind of money, but he could still be a superhero who fought criminals.

He just hadn't expected Iron Man to see through his identity after only a few days.

Lin Xu said, "No kidding. That adjustable rotor between the wings, not to mention the Arc Reactor the two of us pocketed—who else could it be but you..."

After hanging up, Lin Xu chose not to contact his assistant. He could just have Potts send him another one when he got back. As for which faction had planted the assistant, he didn't care.

He then opened the album and went to the library. He intended to compare the mystic arts of this universe with those of the three-Spider universe to see if there were any differences.

As soon as he arrived at the library, he saw Wong explaining the library's rules to Strange, such as which books were suitable for him to read now and which were for later.

"Wong!"

"Lin!"

"Wong! I missed you so much!!"

Lin Xu stepped forward and threw his arms around Wong's broad frame, slapping him hard on the back with one hand.

Master Hamir, I did what I promised you!

"Cough, cough, cough... Ow... Lin, easy~" Wong shoved Lin Xu away and tried to rub the spot on his back where he'd been slapped, but after reaching around for a long time, he still couldn't reach it.

"Need a hand?" Lin Xu asked, fighting back a laugh.

"No... I... don't!" Wong shot Lin Xu a glare and opened a portal in front of himself that led to his back, the kind he could reach into from the front and have his hand come out behind him.

Lin Xu fell silent as he looked at the portal.

All right, he admitted he had a dirty mind~

Watching the two who were so familiar with each other, Strange silently walked aside and began reading a Sanskrit-English dictionary.

Strange, who had lost his lover, was indeed more withdrawn than the Strange who had lost the use of his hands.

After rubbing his back for a while, Wong suddenly remembered something. He abruptly closed the portal and grabbed Lin Xu's left hand.

"Where's my Sling Ring?"

"Aha, isn't it on your hand?" His switch had been discovered, and Lin Xu felt a little guilty. He turned to look at Strange, who was reading.

"Hey, you're new here, right? If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me. I love helping people, but I've got something to do right now. Bye!"

With that, Lin Xu stopped worrying about the differences between the mystic arts of the two worlds. He ran straight out of the library and opened a portal to the villa in Houston.

See ya!

"Lin!!!! What the fuck happened to your promise to treat me to a meal?"

New Jersey

"Director, we've detected the Prophet's signal connecting!"

"Where is he?"

"We can't locate him... And we tried calling, but he's outside the service area..."

"So, apart from Wakanda, there's another place on Earth with a one-way network connection, and until now, S.H.I.E.L.D. was completely unaware of it. Is that right?"

"...Yes, Director."

"Motherfucker!"

Nick Fury rubbed the space between his brows and waved her out. He knew that if even Daisy, a top-tier hacker, couldn't find the place, no one else had a better chance.

"I heard Wakanda's new king went to Smecta yesterday?"