Ben: Watering a Certain Vegetative Stark

"Cosmic Cube? Space Stone?"

Felicia came over and asked doubtfully, "What is the use of this thing?"

She knew the Space Stone had Infinity power, but how could it turn Steve Rogers into Captain Hydra?

"It's not Tesseract, it's the Cube."

Just then, Tony Stark's voice rang out. Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw a semi-transparent projection of Tony, radiating blue light, walking towards them, complaining, "Any refrigerant? We're going to die of heat if we can't fix that damn air conditioner!"

"Besides..."

He pointed, his fingertip finally lingering on Ben's face. "Who is this person?"

"I don't know why, but the moment I saw him, I felt really annoyed and wanted to rush up and punch him."

Ben shrugged. "This symptom is clearly conjunctivitis; you can't stand someone being smarter than you."

"What!"

Tony immediately lost his temper and shouted, "Then you fix the air conditioner!"

"I never imagined that someone as great as Tony Stark would stoop so low as to not even be able to fix an air conditioner." T'Challa expressed his sympathy for his colleague with whom he had worked to destroy five planets.

"Tony, this is Ben Parker and Ms. Looma. They are both from Earth in another universe," Natasha introduced them briefly.

"Him too?"

Nick pointed at [Steve]: "Can I kick his ass?"

"As long as you can stand up," Natasha joked, then explained, "He's Tony's AI."

"Ai? And what about him personally?"

He's lying in a "coffin," beaten into a semi-paralyzed, vegetative state by some woman; now only his brain can still move.

She was referring to Captain Marvel.

T'Challa:...

"I don't even know who's worse off, you or Tony from our world."

Ben interrupted the conversation, "Now that you know why your captain defected to Hydra, what are you planning to do? I can help you, but you don't have much time. Even if you destroy Hydra, it's useless if you don't have time to get these people off Earth."

Tony said, "Perhaps it's to deceive you. Steve is indeed gathering the people. As long as we defeat them, the ship can still be launched to take these people away. Or, we can simply hijack their ship and take these people away."

He meant to leave Hydra alone and let them fend for themselves.

The informant who had finally managed to bring over the clue Rick Jones had found was furious. He yelled at him, "You're giving up?! Rick Jones went through so much trouble to steal this, we had a chance to win! And you don't even care about it?!"

Tony wasn't angry; he simply said calmly, "No one can prove that everything on this USB drive is true. Maybe it's just a plan to lure us out and then wipe us all out."

Listen up, kid.

"We once thought Steve Rogers had been replaced and tried to expose him, but the plan failed, 89 people died, and the answer we got was: he was Steve Rogers. Later we thought he might have been brainwashed by Hydra, and that operation killed more than a hundred people... We made so many sacrifices, but we got nothing."

The informant was furious. "Do you really think Rick Jones would lie to you?"

"Who knows? He used to be that guy's henchman," Tony said. "Maybe he's already switched sides with Hydra and is deliberately leaking false information to us."

Upon hearing about the sacrifices, the informant fell silent.

Ultimately, how much did he really know about Rick Jones?

But then, [Steve] broke his usual silence and spoke up, "No matter what, we have to try." As he spoke, a flame of hope seemed to flicker in his eyes.

He had personally experienced the power of the Cosmic Cube.

It was merely a failed experiment that enabled their race to achieve a tremendous leap forward.

What if it were a true the Cube?

What if it's a complete the Cube?

Does reaching the end of their evolutionary path mean the problem will be completely solved?

Seeing his enthusiasm, Ben knew that the other person probably had something to do with the Cosmic Cube.

"How about we split up?" he said. "According to our information, the known fragments of the Cosmic Cube are scattered across Wakanda, Atlantis, the Mutant Nation, and Ultron Domain. Collecting them one by one is simply too late."

"Benny is right!"

[Steve] nodded in agreement, becoming more talkative, his desire for the Cosmic Cube clearly visible.

"Wakanda has always been T'Challa's territory. Go and negotiate with Black Panther in this world. Benny, how about you go to Ultron Domain? Those robots are helpless against your Upgrade. Leave the Mutant Nation to..."

His gaze swept across the room and landed on Looma, whose appearance was unusual.

"Leave it to Looma. Felicia can go with Looma, or stay and help them try to see if they can seize Hydra's ship or activate the star shield."

"And Atlantis is in my hands." He made the arrangements for everyone crystal clear.

The people who seized the Cosmic Cube were all from Ben's team, so even if Natasha and the others had doubts, they couldn't say anything.

As for his true thoughts...

"Atlantis is close to Wakanda, yet relatively far from other places. Once I obtain the Atlantis Cube Fragment, I'll immediately attack T'Challa, steal the fragment from him, and then slowly figure out how to get the others."

The Highbreed already had a perfect plan in mind.

However,

"Your idea is good, but I think we still need to make some minor changes."

How could Ben possibly let him have his way?

Whatever the enemy supports, we must oppose!

The Highbreed just want to access the Cosmic Cube, right? So let's send them on a mission without the Cube.

"The mission to infiltrate Hydra is assigned to you. Felicia will assist Looma."

"But what about Atlantis?"

The Highbreed panicked.

"We'll send people to Atlantis. We can't expect you to do all the work," Hawkeye suddenly said.

He didn't know what Ben was planning, but he also felt that this arrangement was more reasonable.

"You're Steve Rogers from another universe. Making good use of your face will be more advantageous for our infiltration operation."

The Highbreed could only remain silent.

Now is not the time to tear off the mask of civility. Even after being strengthened, the Highbreed do not believe they are a match for Ben.

We still need to find a way to get the Cube first!

"My disguise is perfect. It's not too late to take it over after they've gotten all the fragments."

The Highbreed are indulging in wishful thinking again.

"Okay, let's do it that way. But we need to hurry, time is running out."

"Then let's get started. Take me to your lab."

Ben beckoned to AI Tony, Tony immediately became alert.

What do you want to do?

"Of course, it's fixing the air conditioner that's baffling Tony Stark, and also, while we're at it, watering that vegetable person."

"Or is it that taking a piss is more nutritious?"

"Roll!"