Tony's Three Thousand Naughty Questions

The military soon sent a transport plane to take Tony back at his insistence.

Lu Qi took the same flight.

"Hey, Lu Qi, when did you find me?" Tony was sitting in a wheelchair now, something Rhodey had insisted on.

After everything that had happened, he trusted very few people. Lu Qi's appearance held too many suspicious points, forcing Tony to pay attention.

"Hm? Right before you came out. I was just about to ask the military for help, but then you ran out on your own." Lu Qi had found a piece of cloth and had two Shadow Ninjas hold it up, using it as a hammock.

"Mm." Tony nodded thoughtfully. Lu Qi had appeared at far too convenient a time, right when Tony had fought his way out. It made Tony suspect that Lu Qi had orchestrated the whole thing.

Moreover, Lu Qi had shown up around him several times before the kidnapping, making him even more suspicious. Yet afterward, everyone seemed to know that Lu Qi belonged to some kind of agency. Tony had never heard of it, but after searching online, he found quite a bit of information about S.H.I.E.L.D.

Why had he never heard a thing about this agency? As one of the United States' wealthiest men and a super genius, he had dealt with nearly every department in the country. So why had he never crossed paths with this one?

"Was your department only established recently? I don't recall any department in the United States having people with superpowers." Tony wore a faintly mocking expression, but Lu Qi still understood what he meant.

"You suspect me? You think I planned all this and kidnapped you?" Lu Qi put down his handheld console.

Tony's expression gradually turned solemn.

"Fine, let me answer your question." Lu Qi spread his hands.

"The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division was a cutting-edge technological organization formed after World War II, led by the United States' top scientists and built from some German scientists and resources." Lu Qi revealed part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s history. "After World War II. What a convenient point in time, isn't it?"

At that time, nearly every top scientist in the United States joined the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Back then, however, it was called the Strategic Scientific Reserve.

"Now it's my turn to ask. Who were the top scientists in the United States during World War II? Name the one you know best, the one who left the deepest impression on you." Lu Qi jumped down from the hammock and walked over to Tony.

Tony looked utterly shocked.

"The greatest scientist of World War II... Howard Stark. My father."

Lu Qi nodded. "The Strategic Scientific Reserve was founded by your father and a group of people active on the battlefields of World War II, including Miss Carter."

Watching Tony fall into thought, Lu Qi continued, "You're Howard's son. That's why, after you were captured, S.H.I.E.L.D. fully mobilized. Even me, a security consultant who had only just joined S.H.I.E.L.D., sent nearly four hundred ninjas to find you."

As he spoke, countless ninjas appeared behind Lu Qi.

Rhodey was arranging matters in the forward cabin of the transport plane. When he saw the scene on the monitor, he hurried out.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Lu Qi turned and called out, "Nothing. Tony wanted to see my ninjas. Since they were the ones who rescued him from there, I figured he wanted to invite them to a big party."

Rhodey was somewhat suspicious, but he did not make a big fuss. He was not terribly shocked by the ninjas. When Lu Qi had arrived at the base earlier, he had released more than a hundred of them, so Rhodey had already gotten his shock out of the way. Now, he simply treated Lu Qi as a Mutant.

"Okay, keep it low-key. Don't get too wild. We're at thirty-three thousand feet. If we fall, we probably won't even be able to separate our body tissue."

Lu Qi gave him a thumbs-up and sent the Shadow Ninjas back.

"Alright, genius, about your suspicion of me."

Lu Qi paused. "You can think of me as a traveler who had just left his homeland and come here, then got recruited as a security consultant by the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Then, while having fun at the annual top figures awards ceremony, I ran into a certain asshole. Because of that certain asshole, I spent half a month in the desert and rescued an asshole. My timing was coincidental, but it was only that coincidental. I can't explain it. It depends on who you choose to believe. Maybe God arranged it."

"Are you satisfied now?" Lu Qi said bluntly before jumping back onto the hammock.

Tony's face turned green. He had suddenly learned too much, and on top of that, he had been called an asshole.

He usually only heard that nickname in bed. He had never expected to be called it by another man, but the most annoying part was that he was the one in the wrong.

Tony was not someone who argued without reason. You could say he was arrogant and sharp-tongued, but he was an extremely reasonable man.

After remaining silent for a long time, Tony glanced at Lu Qi and said something very softly.

"Sorry."

Lu Qi could not believe his ears. Tony actually said sorry?

"Uh, alright. Then it's fine. Considering you gave me thirty million dollars, I forgive you."

Lu Qi spoke awkwardly. In the end, he bore some responsibility for all this too, since he had not saved Tony. It was a bit of a stretch to say so, but he really had been there, watching Tony get taken away.

Neither of them knew what to say next, and the atmosphere became a little awkward.

Lu Qi felt somewhat uncomfortable as well. After thinking for a moment, he said,

"Want to lie down for a while?"

Lu Qi patted the hammock.

"I don't get into men's beds." Tony said with a disgusted expression.

"Just like how you supposedly never take things handed to you, yet earlier you took a cheeseburger straight from my hand instead of making me toss it onto the ground for you to pick up."

Seeing Tony's expression turn awkward again, Lu Qi spread his hands.

"Come on, it's not like I only have these two poles."

With a wave of his hand, two more Shadow Ninjas appeared and knowingly found a piece of cloth to make another hammock.

"Want me to carry you over?" Lu Qi asked Tony, who was still in his wheelchair.

"Sure." Tony tried, but failed.

A Shadow Ninja appeared and scooped Tony up in a bridal carry, placing him on the hammock.

"Thanks, brother. It would've been better if you hadn't carried me like that."

Tony spoke to the Shadow Ninja, but it vanished without giving any response.

"He's pretty cold. Say, where do they stay?"

Tony assumed Lu Qi's power had something to do with space, and that these guys were his subordinates.

"The Shadow World. It's a dimension formed from my abilities. They aren't human either. They can't speak."

Lu Qi explained. He did not doubt that Tony would understand.

"Another dimension. Amazing. Are these ninjas native inhabitants of that dimension? How did you tame them?"

"That dimension is mine, so naturally they are mine as well. As far as I'm concerned, they are condensed energy, formed from my deepest memories of that energy."

"So if your impression of that energy had been different, they might not look like this?"

"Right. In a sense, they count as memories from my childhood."

Lu Qi played with his handheld console as he spoke to Tony.

Tony gave Lu Qi a skeptical look.

"You're from the Celestial Empire, right? Why would these ninjas be childhood memories? I mean... you know."

"They were the villain's henchmen in that anime, but anyone with that kind of Command Spell could command them."

Seeing the curiosity in Tony's eyes, Lu Qi continued. "At one point, the protagonists also gained the power to command them, and that changed the impression those ninjas left on us. Back then, we thought they could do anything."

Tony nodded. "They could do anything... yeah, I understand. When I was little, I thought my father could do anything too..."

Perhaps because they had somehow started talking about his father, Tony paused before changing the subject. "Don't they need to move around? Won't they get tired holding that pose all the time?"

Lu Qi glanced at Tony. Tony still did not understand his father very well, but he would someday.

"They don't need rest. They don't need food. They don't need to breathe. Their stamina is infinite, and they cannot die."

Tony displayed his shock at the appropriate time, and the two gradually began chatting throughout the journey.