"Aaaaaah!!! It's finally done!!! My very own Crossbone Vanguard!!!"
After fitting the final component into the Crossbone Vanguard, Kraft jumped down from the SCV, looked at the ship before him, and threw his head back with a triumphant howl.
It really hadn't been easy. This was his first time making something so complicated, and even the enlarging and shrinking flashlight hadn't been much help.
He had to personally build and install much of the equipment inside, so there was no way to slack off or take shortcuts. Kraft had spent all this time holed up in his lab, with no time to pay attention to what was happening outside.
That idiot Peter had come by a while ago to ask him a whole bunch of random questions, but Kraft had absentmindedly brushed him off with whatever answers came to mind.
"Come to think of it, what did we talk about?"
With the work finally done, Kraft slumped onto the sofa and began thinking back to their conversation.
They seemed to have talked about Arale's and Alice's identities, and what the coins he had given Peter could do...
"Oh, right! I think he mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra too!"
His earlier plan to give them something to do had gone smoothly. Neither Hydra nor S.H.I.E.L.D. had come looking for Kraft or Martin Lee lately. They were all busy scheming against each other.
Director Fury didn't seem to want the Avengers involved in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal investigation either. At least, neither Peter nor Harry had received any word from Nick Fury.
If Peter hadn't already learned the truth from Kraft, he wouldn't even have noticed that something was off with S.H.I.E.L.D. lately.
But Peter also knew Kraft had no love for S.H.I.E.L.D., so he hadn't asked him for help. Peter himself didn't seem to