All for Nothing

"How is Tony doing?"

"Director, there's new information. Tony Stark canceled his birthday party and locked himself in the laboratory. His current condition is unknown."

"What? Did he figure out a way to fix the problem himself?"

Nick Fury looked surprised. Although Black Widow was gone, he had still sent another beautiful female agent to infiltrate Stark Industries and become Tony's personal assistant.

Don't doubt it. When it came to the number of beautiful female agents, S.H.I.E.L.D. had never been lacking.

According to Nick Fury's plan, he would first wait until Tony Stark was at the end of his rope, then appear like a savior and resolve the crisis of Palladium Poisoning.

That way, even with Tony Stark's difficult personality, he would still be grateful to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Even if Tony ultimately refused to join S.H.I.E.L.D., he could still become an external consultant or something similar. In that case, Nick Fury would have won over a general—and one with the power to print money, at that.

However, all of this depended on Tony Stark being unable to solve his Palladium Poisoning on his own. The current situation was looking rather bad.

"Has Tony met anyone unusual recently?"

"Just one day ago, Wang Khan, the head of Umbrella Corporation, visited Stark's new CEO. Immediately afterward, Pepper Potts angrily went to see Tony Stark. She clearly discovered something, and the entire matter is related to Wang Khan."

"Wang Khan! Umbrella!!"

Nick Fury gritted his teeth. He still didn't know what Tony had obtained from Wang Khan, but anything that could make a self-destructive Tony return to the laboratory meant the problem had definitely been solved. That was extremely disadvantageous to his grand plan.

"Director, should we still meet with Tony Stark?"

"Meet my ass~~ Fine, keep undercover beside him."

Nick Fury hung up the phone with a dark expression. He then turned toward a corner of the office, where a large box sat. Written on the outside were the words: "Property of Howard Stark."

"Why has everything been going wrong lately? Coulson, have you found any trace of Natasha?"

Coulson, his most loyal subordinate, was summoned. His receding hairline, which he could barely maintain, shook his head.

"Director, there's still no clue about Natasha's whereabouts. Also, Barton's condition isn't very good. Should we..."

"Don't worry about him for now. Besides, abducting someone from inside S.H.I.E.L.D. is unusual in the first place. Assigning this to Barton is appropriate enough. Just keep an eye on him."

"Understood."

The scheme targeting Tony Stark had been ruined by Wang Khan. Meanwhile, with Red Queen's assistance, Wang Khan had already completed construction of the Arc Reactor.

Pale-white energy gradually formed inside the reactor, then grew stronger until it created a stable energy field.

"Guardian, the reactor's energy index has stabilized. We succeeded!"

Looking at the enormous Arc Reactor, two meters in diameter, Wang Khan was extremely satisfied.

"Red Queen, calculate this reactor's energy output. Can it support us on a trip to the moon?"

"Absolutely, Guardian. However, its cost is still too high. According to my calculations, this single reactor costs one hundred million USD, and it only provides enough energy for one trip to the moon."

"So one trip to the moon costs at least a hundred million, right? No wonder NASA hasn't gone to the moon in decades. Our technology costs a hundred million, while theirs must cost at least ten times that, perhaps even dozens of times more. It really burns money."

Although there were many reasons the United States had stopped going to the moon, along with plenty of conspiracy theories claiming that the Americans had never reached the moon at all,

Wang Khan knew that the United States in this Marvel world had definitely reached the moon. It had even developed faster-than-light aircraft, though an accident later caused them to explode. (See the Captain Marvel storyline for details.)

Thinking of Captain Marvel, Wang Khan immediately thought of the Space Stone, as well as the evolved version of the Arc Reactor—the new-generation Arc Reactor made using Space Stone Isotope.

"Let's leave it alone for now. In any case, Loki will put the Space Stone on the roof of Stark Tower in two years. We can take it then."

"By the way, Red Queen, use the satellites to monitor New Mexico recently. If you discover any celestial phenomenon resembling Einstein-Rosen Bridge characteristics, notify me immediately."

"Understood, Guardian."

Over the next few days, Wang Khan continued testing the Arc Reactor inside Laboratory Zero. He also further improved the Quinjet, enlarging its cabin so it could transport heavier loads.

Most importantly, once testing was complete, he directly installed the Arc Reactor onto the Quinjet and made it the aircraft's power source, completely abandoning the fuel engine.

"Small excavators, transport vehicles—in short, none of the mining tools can be left behind. Oh, and your mainframe. Bring the backup one instead. The one you're using now is too large; there's no room to fit it."

"Guardian, the backup mainframe can only operate at thirty percent of my full capacity."

"That's enough. We're going to the moon to mine, not fight a war. Once everything is ready, we'll depart immediately. After we synthesize Vibranium, the problem of your oversized mainframe can be solved."

Wakanda possessed the most advanced technology in the world, including artificial intelligence. In other words, Vibranium could also be used to make computer mainframes.

Once Red Queen had a Vibranium mainframe, not only would her capabilities improve further, her size could also be drastically reduced. She might even become portable. At that point, she would truly be unstoppable.

Once everything was ready, Wang Khan departed without hesitation.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark, who had not contacted Nick Fury, found a skilled surgeon. He had the tested Metal Embrittlement Liquid injected near his heart, directly softening the shrapnel in his body. His bodily functions eventually metabolized it and expelled it.

With that, Tony no longer needed to wear an Arc Reactor on his chest every day.

As for the Iron Man suit, its external Arc Reactor could completely prevent palladium toxins from leaking into his body. There was therefore no longer any risk of poisoning while using the Iron Man suit.

After learning about this through the undercover agent, Nick Fury smashed his phone.

His plan to win over Tony Stark had failed, and Nick Fury was extremely irritated. Yet only a few days later, something even more infuriating happened.

Anton Vanko caused a disturbance at the Stark Expo, resulting in massive personnel and property losses.

But that wasn't what irritated Nick Fury the most. What he least wanted to see was the military cooperating with Tony.

Watching the surveillance footage, he saw Iron Man and War Machine work together to destroy all the Hammer Drones, along with the culprit, Anton Vanko.

As a result, Tony, whose relationship with the military had originally been somewhat tense, gained the military's support once again. That made it even less necessary for him to seek refuge with S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Guardian, we've detected a celestial phenomenon resembling Einstein-Rosen Bridge characteristics. Just as you said, it's in New Mexico."

"It's already here? Looks like we're running short on time. Return to Laboratory Zero at full speed. Red Queen, we're going to have to work overtime."

With that, Wang Khan glanced into the cabin. All the mining tools that had previously filled it were gone, replaced by several tons of rocks and soil.

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