The Intruders

"United Construction? A shell company?" Luca repeated the keywords Shamira had mentioned.

"Yes. This company, called United Construction, recently struck a deal with the city government to handle post-disaster reconstruction in Hell's Kitchen."

"However... according to the private detective's findings, the company was only established less than a year ago. Before that, it had never done any real estate business at all."

"So he suspects someone is using the shell company's name to bribe officials and obtain construction permits."

In the back seat, Luca furrowed his brow and fell silent.

If the name "United Construction" only sounded vaguely familiar, adding "Hell's Kitchen" made it hard not to think of a notorious villain who was supposedly ninety percent muscle.

The underground emperor of New York, Kingpin.

Well, in truth, Kingpin probably hadn't become quite so infamous yet.

Setting aside the criminal underworld, there wasn't yet any "kindly" giant named Wilson Fisk among the respectable philanthropists in public life.

Based on the MCU timeline, Kingpin probably hadn't started going legitimate yet, and his criminal empire hadn't reached its peak.

As for whether he'd used real estate deals after the Battle of New York to successfully clean up his image, Luca had no idea.

"But why would Kingpin suddenly set his sights on me?"

The thought had barely surfaced before Luca shook his head helplessly.

Right now, he was undeniably like a child carrying gold through a crowded marketplace. An innocent man could still be guilty of possessing a treasure.

He had a huge company and all kinds of assets, but his father was dead, his mother was unconscious, and he hadn't truly inherited the estate yet. He also had no resources he could readily call upon.

All it took was a slight spark of greed for someone to actually take action. And the other party was Kingpin, a villain with absolutely no scruples.

Luca was practically grateful that the two other small shareholders who'd died in the Battle of New York had slowed down the rest of the board from making a move against him.

"Still, I shouldn't lock onto a target right away. With so little information, Kingpin might not be behind this at all. I should find my so-called uncle first and decide what to do after that."

After all, based on what he knew right now, it was all just speculation.

If he got the target wrong and needlessly provoked someone as troublesome as Kingpin, it would do him no good.

Even if he used his "ultimate trump card" and called Tony Stark to swoop in like reinforcements, Tony couldn't just fly over in his Mark Armor and kill Kingpin without any real evidence. Nor could he stay by Luca's side constantly to protect him.

In the end, he could only rely on himself.

"Aunt Shamira, this private detective seems pretty capable. He managed to dig up a lot of information in such a short time. Have him find out where Dragan is as soon as possible. We can pay extra!"

"Understood."

The rest of the ride passed in silence.

Before long, Luca and Shamira were back home.

After a quick dinner, Luca hurried down to the basement lab.

The 3D-printed Baymax armor was now complete. Luca carefully inspected it, then smoothed out some of the rougher areas. Only then, satisfied, did he call Baymax over and fit the armor onto him piece by piece for a test.

"Hmm, not bad. Maybe I'll spray it gold and red later, so you can pass for Iron Man~"

Baymax stood there in his armor, staring blankly as his camera eyes blinked. He didn't look intimidating in the slightest.

"This doesn't seem to help with medical care at all." (●-●)

"Do you remember what I said?"

"The best medical care is to prevent every possible danger before the patient gets hurt?" (●-●)

"That's right. Now you're better at preventing danger~"

As he spoke, Luca patted Baymax's noticeably sturdier new armor.

"Too bad the arm materials haven't arrived yet. Otherwise, I could've assembled those too. When the tactical team Shamira mentioned gets here tomorrow, we could go look for a new Core Component."

Right now, Luca couldn't do anything himself to uncover the mastermind or track down Dragan. He could only leave it to his people.

It seemed all he could do was expand his collection of equipment while passively waiting.

"If I'd had Tracking Glasses when I saw Dragan at the funeral, I wouldn't have all this to worry about now."

As Luca was thinking this, a sudden, urgent knock sounded from the door at the bottom of the basement stairs.

"Young Master Luca! Are you in there?"

Hearing Shamira's slightly anxious call, Luca was puzzled, but he still pressed a button beside the computer desk to open the lab door.

"Come in."

Shamira immediately pushed the door open and entered. Luca noticed that she already had a pistol in her hand.

"Young Master, there seem to be intruders outside the villa!"

Just moments ago, Shamira had been on the third floor, speaking with the Orange Family's family fund. She'd been trying to arrange a time to discuss Luca using some of his funds to hire people to develop targeted medication.

But from the open window on the third floor, she'd spotted two suspicious vans in the distance, speeding toward the villa.

The Orange Family's seaside villa in Connecticut was in a fairly secluded location, chosen specifically for vacations.

Most of the time, it sat empty and was periodically cleaned by a professional villa management company. Most of the surrounding villas were in similar situations.

As far as Shamira knew, none of the neighbors who lived relatively close to the Orange Family's villa had been staying there recently.

The moment she saw those two vans heading straight for the villa, she'd grown suspicious.

When Shamira saw the vans stop in a clearing some distance away and more than a dozen people pour out, she immediately reached a conclusion.

Though night had fallen and they were too far away for her to tell whether the people were armed, she had no doubt about their intentions.

They were after Young Master Luca. They'd stopped far from the villa simply to avoid drawing attention with the sound of their cars.

Faced with the situation, Shamira had immediately grabbed her gun and rushed downstairs to find Luca.

But when Luca heard Shamira say there were intruders, he wasn't particularly nervous. He simply reached out and quickly tapped the desk several times.

The wall beside him, which had seemed completely bare, slid open sideways to reveal an entire rack of weapons, lined with guns of all kinds.

Luca shrugged slightly and gestured.

"Try not to use the ones on the right. Those aren't licensed."