Hidden Danger

"I disagree."

In the living quarters on the top floor of Avengers Tower, Steve Rogers clasped his hands beneath his chin and decisively rejected Tony Stark's proposal. "We can't let Spider-Man join the Avengers."

"You were the one who approved this proposal in the first place, Captain." Tony tapped the tabletop with his knuckles. "You said he was well-trained and strong-willed—"

"I only said he had training. But I didn't know there was an underage kid beneath that mask." Steve immediately shot back at Tony Stark. "Tony, we're facing a war. We can't let children take part in a war."

Tony lowered his head to look at the table, but quickly raised it again to argue. "Will war spare a child? Captain, you've been through war. You know what kind of war we're facing. We need an army, not a squad. That kid can be useful."

"I know even better that a soldier without conviction is a ticking time bomb on the battlefield, Tony. We're talking about a child—a teenager who only gained his abilities a few months ago. Does he really know what he's fighting for? Maybe he just wants to punish evil and uphold justice out of his own kind instincts, but what the Avengers have to face? He's nowhere near ready."

The New Avengers Initiative—Tony's post-Battle of New York expansion plan—was intended to build a line of defense capable of resisting the next interstellar invasion. After all, this time the Chitauri army had only invaded through a portal. But what if, next time, their fleet arrived directly in the outer reaches of the solar system? Could five Avengers stop an overwhelming extraterrestrial army?

It wasn't just the Avengers. Nick Fury also knew that the five of them couldn't stop another large-scale alien invasion. After the Avengers left S.H.I.E.L.D. and became an independent organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. formed a superpowered team called the Thunderbolts, led by "Hawkeye" Clint Barton, as a backup plan for the Avengers. Both Tony and the Captain knew that very well. Tony and Steve also tacitly avoided working with Nick Fury, that one-eyed man who hid far too many secrets.

But now, the argument over whether to recruit Spider-Man into the Avengers had filled the meeting room with the smell of gunpowder.

Bruce Banner crunched away at a bag of chips. As the Avengers' "nuclear deterrent," he only needed to remain stationed in the lab most of the time. Unlike the movie universe, where everyone was more focused on their own affairs, the Avengers in this world were more like a tightly coordinated combat unit, though Thor was always absent. At the moment, he watched the argument unfold while thanking Wasp Janet, who had brought over a fruit platter.

"What are Tony and the Captain arguing about?"

"Uh, whether they should let a high school kid join the Avengers." Banner, his mouth dry from eating chips, speared an apple slice with a toothpick and ate it. "Honestly, I think the idea is pretty ridiculous too."

Wasp was full of question marks after hearing that.

"A high school student? My God, you're considering recruiting a high school student, but not me?"

Janet van Dyne, Ant-Man Hank Pym's girlfriend and Wasp, was merely the Avengers' manager, not an Avenger.

"Yeah, he's just a little brat. Young, doesn't know anything." Tony picked up a mandarin segment from the fruit platter and stuffed it into his mouth. "But at least he wants to be a good person, and he's acted on it, right? We can train him and guide him into becoming a qualified hero. Captain, if you think it's unsuitable, we can just ask whether he wants to join first."

"I don't think that kid would refuse." Tony revealed a sly smile.

But that was exactly what worried the Captain.

"That kid will admire us, imitate us, then rush to the front to prove himself." The Captain pushed away the fruit platter, his knuckles leaving white marks against the tabletop. "He'll collapse in your arms or mine and ask whether he did what he was supposed to do. Because we gave him expectations beyond what he could bear, he'll die right in front of us."

"We can protect him. Have him operate behind us—"

The Captain bluntly cut Tony off again.

"How are we supposed to protect that child in a war where we might die ourselves?"

Janet twirled a cherry stem in confusion, while Banner rubbed his temples, thinking that this was giving him a headache. Then he finally offered his first suggestion. "The aliens aren't going to attack anytime soon anyway. How about we discuss this again in a few years?"

"Thanks, Bruce." Tony pointed at Banner. "Can you calculate exactly what day the alien invaders will arrive? So I can arrange my schedule."

"Forget I said anything."

Banner rubbed his cheek like someone nursing a toothache and asked Janet, "What's Hank doing?"

"He's been holed up in the lab studying the Vibranium sample you brought back. He hasn't slept in two days." Janet rolled her eyes. "I even have to bring his meals in."

"Maybe you're underestimating that kid, Captain." Tony was still trying to persuade the Captain—or rather, trying to prove his own point—but Steve was equally stubborn. "No matter how highly you rate him, he's still only fifteen, Tony."

"I had my doctorate by sixteen. How old were you when you got your first doctorate, Bruce?"

"Uh, sixteen. My first doctorate was in experimental physics."

"Hey, guys, you won't believe what I found..." Hank Pym emerged from the lab with messy hair and deep dark circles beneath his eyes, holding the confiscated Scarecrow launcher. Before he could finish, Tony interrupted him. "When did you get your first doctorate, Hank?"

"Seventeen? Why are you asking?"

Tony wore a smug smile. "Aha, I was a year younger than you."

"You studied engineering. I studied theoretical physics and quantum mechanics. Of course you could get yours done at sixteen."

"Anyway." Tony wisely chose to return to the subject and continued speaking to the Captain. "Fifteen isn't that young."

"We aren't discussing age. We're discussing psychological resilience..."

"Guys!" Hank forcefully cut into their conversation. "You need to hear this. You won't believe what I found in the lab."

"We'll listen to your scientific breakthrough later, Hank."

"This isn't a scientific breakthrough, Tony." Hank's expression turned serious. "It concerns our operations."

A few minutes later, a schematic of the completely dismantled Scarecrow launcher appeared on the projection screen. The Avengers sat gathered around it, staring at the structural diagram as they waited for Hank Pym's explanation.

"This thing is extremely primitive and crude. At first, I thought it had to rely on Chitauri technology to function." As Hank spoke, he operated the projection and replaced every Chitauri component in the diagram with parts currently available on Earth. "But look at this, guys. Whoever invented this was an excellent engineer. It can be manufactured entirely with Earth technology."

That obviously wasn't the point, but after spending so much time together, the others understood Hank Pym's personality. They patiently waited for him to finish explaining how incredible the device was and how much fun he had gotten out of studying it before he finally got to the point.

"The problem is that this system has a fatal flaw. As usage time increases, its energy efficiency will continue rising—yes, you heard that right, higher and higher. That means the device originally meant to regulate the firing intensity will gradually fail, causing the output power to rise uncontrollably. Higher and higher."

Everyone thought of the final result: an explosion.

"Can't it be improved?" Tony leaned back in his chair, propping up his chin as he stared at the blueprint. He wanted to offer a solution from the perspective of a fellow engineer and inventor, but even he had to admit that the system's flaw lay in its underlying logic. It was beyond saving.

"It's a problem with the underlying logic. To design a system this simplified and efficient, that's the necessary price. We need to warn the police about this technology's shortcomings and stop them from using it as a riot-control weapon..."

"What's the blast radius?"

Poor Hank Pym was interrupted again, but he still answered Tony honestly. "If it uses Chitauri components, the yield is greater. It can reach a diameter of two to three kilometers. Earth technology produces a smaller and more predictable blast, with a diameter of roughly one kilometer."

"J.A.R.V.I.S., what was that guy's name again..."

"Herman Schultz." The Captain remembered clearly. Hank still hadn't realized what the issue was, but Tony and the Captain exchanged a look, both recognizing that things were bad.

"How long has he been out of prison, Captain?"

"Almost a week."

"But we don't know how many of these defective weapons he could make in a week." Tony let out a long sigh. "That's the biggest problem."

After Spider-Man died in the old Ultimate Universe, Captain America had truly blamed himself for not guiding Peter properly.