Tony's Dinner

Beep beep! Beep beep!

Soft, warm light filled the top-floor hall of Stark Tower. A dining table covered with a white cloth stood in the center, with a man and a woman seated across from each other.

The champagne flutes they were about to clink froze in midair, as did the smiles on their faces, when Jarvis's alert sounded.

"You have a call, sir." Jarvis's voice sounded so human that you could mistake it for a real person's if you weren't listening closely.

Tony could reproduce Jarvis's voice perfectly, but that wasn't a good idea. It would keep him immersed in memories.

The smile slowly faded from Tony's face. He glanced at the unknown caller notification on the holographic screen to his side, then looked at the lovely woman across from him.

Pepper Potts, the current CEO of Stark Industries and Tony's girlfriend, wore an amused smile. She said nothing, simply watching Tony in silence.

"You're such a buzzkill. Tell them I'm on vacation, enjoying a meal with a beautiful woman!" Tony caught the meaning behind Pepper's subtle smile and decisively rejected the call. Turning back to her, he raised his champagne flute again. "Whatever it is, this dinner is going to end perfectly. Cheers!"

"You know what I'm thinking."

Pepper finally laughed. She only wanted Tony to show where he stood. If something really happened, she wasn't the kind of woman who couldn't tell right from wrong.

Clink!

Their champagne flutes met in midair, and they each took a sip.

The intelligent butler Jarvis truly lived up to his name. He used a simulation of Tony's voice to convey his message to the caller. After hearing what the person on the other end had to say, he interrupted Tony's dinner again, judging the matter to be urgent.

"Sir, this is a call from Steve Rogers. He says it's fairly urgent."

Jarvis was much better than the idiotic Red Queen, who was little more than an oversized intelligent program.

In the end, Tony took the call.

At the farm, after a long discussion, Steve and Natasha finally accepted Duncan's suggestion and decided to seek Tony's help.

"Oh, come on! You had to bother me while I'm on vacation? I'm enjoying a wonderful dinner! Couldn't this wait until I'm done eating?"

Faced with Tony's disgruntled voice, Steve replied solemnly, "There's no time to waste. We need your help. Let Natasha explain."

Staring at the phone being held out to her, Natasha rolled her eyes. "Why do I always have to explain?"

"It's too complicated. You're better at explaining things, so you do it," Steve encouraged her.

"Oh, right!" Natasha teasingly wiped her lips while looking at Steve, then put the phone to her ear and greeted the person on the other end. "It's me, Tony. How have you been?"

Up on the top floor of Stark Tower, Tony cut into his steak as he replied, "Not bad. It'd be even better if dinner weren't being interrupted! How about you?"

"Not so good..." Natasha rubbed her brow. She had finished sorting through the tangled information and began explaining. "A lot has happened. Remember Hydra? They didn't fall apart after World War II. The Hydra remnants infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and turned Project Insight into a horrible scheme to slaughter more than two million people they considered a threat. When they discovered Hydra's conspiracy, they killed Fury!"

Tony's hand stopped as he speared a piece of beef. The relaxed look on his face vanished, replaced by astonishment.

How had Fury died so suddenly?

Tony hadn't been remotely prepared.

Pepper's smile faded, too. She could tell this was serious, and it looked like dinner was going to be ruined.

"Yeah. The last few days have been awful for us."

Being hunted by Hydra, running into a visitor from another world, and surviving one near-death experience after another—she wanted nothing to do with such a tense, thrilling ordeal.

"We have ten hours left to stop Hydra's Project Insight. A man from another world suggested we ask you for help. If we hadn't taken his advice, we were actually planning to handle it ourselves. Hydra agents have infiltrated every walk of life, and Stark Industries might be among them. There could even be Hydra agents around you."

"What? I have parasites in my company stealing their paychecks? Why didn't I know?" Tony's expression was a sight to behold. He hated traitors more than anything, especially those who took his money while selling his information. "Wait there. I'm coming over."

Once his anger subsided, he decided to deal with those Hydra agents himself.

"Wait!" Natasha quickly stopped the impulsive Tony and tried to calm him down. "You just had surgery. I don't recommend coming here in person. Just provide us with some technical support. We may need a hacker to break into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal network."

Tony sat back down. Once he had calmed down, he suddenly realized something was off. "Wait, didn't you just say something strange? Another world? Aliens?"

"Uh..." Natasha looked toward Duncan, who was sleeping in the vehicle, then at the two Umbrella squads nearby as they sorted their equipment. "It's a more complicated story, but I think you'll be interested in him. You can meet later. For now, stopping Hydra's plan is more important."

Tony, still at Stark Tower, didn't waste time. He immediately began giving Jarvis instructions. "OK! Jarvis, clear out any unnecessary processing power and prepare some gear for our Captain. The equipment can be delivered within ten minutes. Let us know now if you need anything."

The members of the two squads guarding Duncan watched in silence as Steve and the others called for help, hearing every word of their conversation.

Natasha turned back and asked if they needed any equipment. They exchanged glances, then all shook their heads.

They had brought nearly everything they needed. They wouldn't have time to get used to any new equipment, and they might not be able to handle it anyway. They were better off sticking with Umbrella's standard issue gear.

Fifteen minutes later, a small unmanned aircraft descended from the sky. Its body gave off no light or sound at all. Steve and the others might not have noticed it if it hadn't fired up its engines at the last moment to slow its descent just before landing.

When the three saw the cargo arrive, they immediately left the barn to go loot it.

The Umbrella members, who had never seen such advanced flying technology, stared in awe. The exquisite, precise craftsmanship alone was beyond anything their world could easily imitate.

The small unmanned aircraft wasn't all that small. It had a sleek, shuttle-shaped body about three meters long and 1.6 meters tall, with plenty of space inside.

When the hatch opened, three boxes sat neatly arranged within.

One held the suit Steve had specifically requested. Another held the stealth gear Natasha needed. The last contained Falcon's equipment, along with the connection and communications devices needed to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal network.

Seeing Marvel's science-fiction technology, James turned with difficulty to look at Duncan, who was still sprawled in the vehicle, his face somewhat pale.

It was real. Traveling between worlds was real.

After seeing this unprecedented piece of high technology, the last trace of doubt vanished from the mind of a fellow squad member. He looked silently toward his captain.