"Something doesn't seem right."
The flames at Baxter Building had been extinguished, and the Fire Department and doctors had taken over the disaster on the streets. Only then did Tony finally get some peace and notice a problem.
Some things didn't add up.
New York was absolutely under long-term military satellite surveillance. If Bruce Banner or Hulk had appeared here, then based on past events, the military should have arrived even earlier than Steve and the others.
Thunderbolt Ross hadn't earned that name for nothing. He and his rapid-response forces had always been famous for their blitzkrieg tactics.
What's more, after entering the new century, the military had recruited plenty of scientific talent and developed quite a few high-tech products.
They might not have matched the aerospace warships Tony had built for S.H.I.E.L.D., but the military had money. And where there was money, people were willing to risk their lives.
Trask Industries, the maker of Sentinel Robots, ostensibly sold fitness equipment and smart appliances. But Tony knew it was practically a military company wearing a shell, and Bolivar Trask might have been called the chairman, but he was nothing more than a shield pushed out front.
Even so, Tony had to admit that while that dwarf was a twisted lunatic, he was also a genius engineer in the truest sense of the word. When it came to giant autonomous robots, he had gone further than Tony himself.
Then there was Tony's old classmate, Justin Hammer, whose underwear had often been pulled over his head in college. The Hammer Industries he inherited had always been a military contractor, with the military holding a large stake in it. Many of Justin's inventions might have been half-baked, but he did have some capable people under him, constantly supplying the military with high-tech equipment.