As a boss who put people to work at the drop of a hat, John had been dragged back to work by his own assistant.
He especially couldn't understand Hattie's insistence on working even on Christmas, but he was deeply shocked.
On this day, everyone was a working stiff.
The fallout from the Mandarin and the fake Ten Rings was far from over.
As a major shareholder in A.I.M., the Wick family had also been affected.
Not by much, though. The incident could be treated as one man's actions.
As the second-largest shareholder and the man in charge, Killian's activities weren't easy to uncover.
At least, most people who heard that explanation found nothing wrong with it.
But the families who had lost loved ones didn't agree.
They wanted A.I.M. to pay. They couldn't let the people behind it carry on openly as though nothing had happened.
John, who had been labeled one of those people, was also cornered by a crowd of reporters.
Sometimes, he felt pretty helpless.
John really missed some of the little gadgets his uncle used to send him.
Seeing this, Maya Hansen promptly holed up in the Medical Department and picked up the pace on developing the Healing Capsule.
Meanwhile, sharks that had caught the scent of blood began circling too.
They wanted the research results on the Extremis Virus.
Among them were government agencies, along with people from the Department of Defense who righteously insisted that those things had to be nipped in the bud.
It sounded noble, but didn't they just want to continue research along the lines of the Super Soldier Serum?
Even after decades of research, they still couldn't reproduce the Super Soldier Serum Steve had been injected with.
Their greatest success had been Banner.
But even Banner had only produced