OK, I knew the timeline was a little confusing.
But the current point in time was the morning after Chen Mo finished recruiting talent in prison.
An exterior maintenance passage at the Raft.
Tinkerer crouched beside a half-disassembled suit of green armor, an interface cable in his hand, looking like he was performing heart bypass surgery on a totaled sports car.
"I have to say, this job is an insult to my career."
Chen Mo stood beside him, the black Venom Suit clinging to his body, its white eye patches narrowing slightly.
"Congratulations, you still have a career. Unlike me. My superhero career is already finished."
Tinkerer looked up at him.
"This thing is a Doctor Doom Decoy Machine. The shell looks right, and the energy signature could fool the media for three minutes. After that, anyone who knows even a little will realize it's a paper crown. Iron Man will probably know you're behind this at first glance."
"Hey, what kind of talk is that? What does the armor you two cobbled together have to do with me? Even the money to buy it came from Iron Man. I had nothing to do with the materials or the manufacturing."
Chen Mo looked utterly anguished.
Tinkerer, oh, Tinkerer, take a good hard look at why you have so little presence as a supervillain with such capable hands.
Do you understand the art of language? If not, you should be sent to the State of Lu for further study.
Doctor Octopus stood on the other side, mechanical tentacles extending from his back. One connected the wiring, one held the armor's chest in place, one operated a makeshift console, and the last kicked a screw on the ground over to Tinkerer's feet with palpable disdain.
"It only needs to be defeated by