"I'm Iron Man... Did you think you were the only superhero?"
That evening, Tony Stark returned to his seaside villa, only to be stopped outside by a one-eyed bald man so dark he practically did not reflect light.
"Mr. Stark, there are actually many others like you. You simply don't know about them."
"Who are you? A rabid superhero fan?"
Stark raised an eyebrow and mocked him.
He had seen plenty of inexplicable troublemakers like this. Normally, security handled such matters, and few people could break through the perimeter to reach him.
As for what this charcoal head said about people like him...
Stark thought of that rat puppet that had pinned his Mark II down and beaten it up, and his mood immediately soured.
"Did my security slack off, or did you use some special method?"
The one-eyed bald man before him wore a black leather jacket and cut an imposing figure. He did not look like an ordinary person, and since he had mentioned superheroes, perhaps he really did know something.
Faced with Tony Stark's flippant attitude, Nick Fury could not help twitching his lips. He had not wanted to stand at the door and stop Tony Stark like some hater either, but he had no choice. S.H.I.E.L.D. could not breach the defense system in Tony Stark's home.
Although that made the agency's programmers look rather incompetent, it also made Nick Fury even more determined to recruit Tony Stark into his Avengers Initiative.
Stark's home defense system had not originally been so strict. But after Kraft had hacked in, he upgraded J.A.R.V.I.S. several times. Then Obadiah Stane had secretly infiltrated his home and nearly killed him, so he had tightened the screening of everyone entering and leaving. As a result, Nick Fury could not sneak into Stark's home and make a flashy entrance as he had planned.
Without the impressive entrance of silently appearing inside Stark's house, Stark did not take Nick Fury nearly as seriously as he otherwise might have.
"Nick Fury, head of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Unable to intimidate Tony Stark as planned, Director Fury chose to get straight to the point and introduced himself.
"S.H.I.E.L.D.? That agent... um..."
"Coulson."
"Right, I was just about to say that."
Stark snapped his fingers and shamelessly covered for himself. His attitude improved slightly as well, since Coulson had helped quite a bit during the Obadiah incident.
"Come in and have a seat."
Stark tipped his head toward Fury, then opened the villa's door.
"J.A.R.V.I.S."
"Welcome home, sir."
J.A.R.V.I.S. turned on the lights in the hall, and Stark casually gestured inside.
"Sit wherever you like. Want something to drink?"
"No."
Nick Fury shook his head. As a seasoned veteran agent, he basically never consumed food or drink outside his control, even in Tony Stark's home.
"So, what did you come to see me about?"
Stark poured himself a drink, dropped onto the middle of the sofa, and lounged against it.
"I want to talk to you about forming the Avengers."
"The Avengers? What's that? The name of a rock band? Sounds pretty good."
Stark swirled his glass, producing a crisp clink as the ice struck the glass.
"No. It is an organization—or rather, a team—that brings together people with special abilities like yours."
Nick Fury ignored Stark's teasing and explained.
"Wow, not a bad idea." Stark took a sip of his drink, then curled his lips into a smile and asked Nick Fury, "So, how much salary are you planning to pay me?"
That was his way of refusing. With Tony Stark's net worth, S.H.I.E.L.D. could never afford his salary no matter how much funding it had.
Nick Fury understood the implication. He gave Stark a long look, then stood to take his leave.
"I'll come back to find you."
"Make an appointment next time."
Stark raised his glass in farewell.
Kraft, who had been cooped up in the laboratory lately, finally paid a visit to the FEAST homeless shelter built by Martin Lee.
This was actually related to Tony Stark. Because of his battle with Obadiah, New York City had gained quite a few injured people. As a charity organization, the FEAST shelter not only took in homeless vagrants, but occasionally served as a temporary hospital for poor people who could not afford hospitalization.
Although Stark Industries had stepped forward to pay compensation this time, hospitals in America—especially New York—were not places where money alone guaranteed admission. So the shelter still received quite a few patients.
Normally, this had little to do with Kraft. But Alice, that softhearted robot, could not bear to watch others suffer. After learning about it, she often went over voluntarily to help. Since the shelter had been short-handed lately, she ran to the laboratory and dragged Kraft, who had been fooling around with a wrench, along with her.
"Brother! The patient in bed five needs their medicine changed! Quinn, help me throw these things into the trash!"
When helping patients, Alice seemed like a completely different person. Her personality became incredibly forceful. Not only did she order Kraft around, she even had Quinn the dog helping as an assistant.
"I'm coming, I'm coming..."
After exchanging a look with Quinn, who was carrying a bag of trash toward the garbage can, Kraft helplessly took the bandages and medicine over to bed five.
Could it be that the personality I adjusted for Alice only showed itself at times like this?
Kraft sighed as he skillfully changed the wounded patient's medicine. He had become thoroughly practiced at this sort of thing from a very young age. During the days just after he and Martin escaped from the Maggia, the father and son had been injured nearly every day.
"Hey! Kraft! Your little sister is way cuter than you! You should learn from her!"
While he was busy, Peter Parker popped up from somewhere. He reached out, patted Kraft on the shoulder, and teased him.
Kraft turned and gave him a sidelong glance.
Was he asking to be taught a lesson?
This was the first time Peter Parker had taken the initiative to provoke Kraft, which surprised Kraft a little.
Unfortunately, Peter's boldness did not last long. After Kraft glanced at him, he seemed to remember his previous miserable experiences and immediately shrank back again.
"By the way, how did you train Quinn? He's so well-behaved."
Peter decisively changed the subject.
However, Kraft did not answer. Instead, he frowned and looked Peter up and down.
"W-what is it...?"
Peter Parker quietly shifted half a step back, watching Kraft warily. Given Kraft's long record of misdeeds, he could not help being cautious.
Kraft continued staring silently at Peter Parker, his gaze repeatedly sweeping over Peter's face until Peter's scalp began to tingle.
Just as Peter Parker could no longer resist the urge to run away, Kraft finally spoke.
"Where are your glasses?"
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