As the light of the Bifrost faded, Arthur glanced around his surroundings... well, he had no idea where he was.
Heimdall was becoming increasingly unreliable; he used to make a point of dropping Arthur off in specific places, like Kamar-Taj.
But now, it was just a toss, and wherever it landed, it landed.
"What the hell..."
Arthur smirked, "If you need something done right, then you've gotta do it by yourself."
He took out the Pen of Thoth and drew a teleportation circle on the ground. Stepping into it, he reappeared in a room in New York. He pushed open the door, and the house was empty; Lily had clearly gone off to do her own thing.
Arthur wandered around the house a couple of times, opening everything that could be opened, and gradually, the place started to feel warm.
It was just so empty, a bit boring...
He grabbed the take action device, and as soon as the signal connected, the notification sound erupted. After a moment of calm, Arthur waited for it to stop beeping before picking it up to check the messages.
Most of them were from Lily, two messages every day, without fail, one in the morning and one at night.
Besides reporting on her school situation, she also updated Arthur on what she ate each day... occasionally, she would ask him what he was eating, where he was, and when he would be back... and so on.
Arthur chuckled as he read through them, just as he was thinking of replying, he noticed a message from Spider-Man, along with two messages from Gwen.
The first one asked where Arthur was. The second one had three exclamation marks!
Though there were no colors, Arthur inexplicably felt that those three exclamation marks carried a bloody vibe.
Arthur shivered and opened Spider-Man's message.
The content was simple: "When you get back, run!"
"..."
Arthur was speechless. He activated The Eye of Horus to scan the street outside but was puzzled: "There's no one waiting at the door to ambush me."
Shaking his head, he was about to retract The Eye of Horus when he suddenly noticed something odd about the window across from him. A quick glance revealed that a window in the room directly facing his bedroom was open, and there was a telescope set up.
Peering through The Eye of Horus, he saw Spider-Man sitting on the bed, and leaning against the opposite wall was none other than Gwen!
"...Are they really going this far?"
Arthur was shocked. Wasn't this a bit obsessive?
"Is there really such a deep grudge?" He scratched his head, feeling this was a bit tricky.
Gwen was coming in hot; if it were a different opponent, Arthur's recent power boost would allow him to beat her to a pulp, but Gwen...
She was someone he couldn't afford to fight or insult, after all, Spider-Man's reputation was at stake.
"I can't provoke her; I might as well avoid her."
Arthur sighed, changed into another outfit, and returned to his room, leaning against the window for a peek. The window across was perfectly aligned with his.
However, it was clear that Gwen was too preoccupied with something else; otherwise, she would have been focused on him the moment he returned.
Arthur shook his head and stepped onto the teleportation circle, reappearing in Tony's house.
Not wanting to activate The Eye of Horus for fear of seeing something blinding, he searched Tony's workshop for a couple of bottles of alcohol. After pouring himself a drink and sipping for a moment, he suddenly slapped his forehead: "Right, even if Tony is on Earth, he's at Camp Lehigh."
So he stepped onto the teleportation circle once more, heading to Camp Lehigh.
As he exited the room, he immediately spotted a familiar face.
A black-haired girl, quite attractive, Darcy Louise.
"Hi." The girl greeted Arthur, and he nodded, asking, "Have you seen Tony and Banner?"
"In the lounge." Compared to earlier, Darcy was noticeably colder towards Arthur.
After the last time he had been overly friendly and received a cold shoulder, she had her pride, too.
Arthur nodded, not thinking much of it, and vanished in a flash.
Darcy huffed, stomped her foot, and walked away...
...
Arthur's appearance was quite abrupt, as he directly materialized behind Tony and Banner, who were so engrossed in their discussion that they didn't notice him.
After listening for a while, he didn't understand most of it, but he grasped the overall concept. Just as it seemed they were reaching a critical point, with ideas sparking off each other, Arthur pondered for a moment and quietly disappeared...
He suddenly felt a bit superfluous; if he greeted them, he would likely interrupt their flow.
With nothing to do, he wandered around the Camp Lehigh base and unexpectedly ran into another familiar face... this time, it was someone he truly knew well.
Natasha!
Natasha looked at Arthur in surprise: "When did you get back?"
"Just now..." Arthur blinked, glancing at the documents in Natasha's hands: "What's that?"
"A project proposal." Natasha replied, "You're just in time; I was about to discuss this with you."
Arthur raised an eyebrow as Natasha continued: "I believe establishing an information hub is crucial. However, if we completely hide it within Camp Lehigh, it might turn out to be a mistake."
"Go on," Arthur interjected, not wanting to interrupt her.
Natasha elaborated: "I think we should consider forming an information department in collaboration with SHIELD, the CIA... and even any international intelligence organizations we can partner with."
Arthur stroked his chin: "What's the specific intent?"
"Information control!"
Natasha explained: "If we collaborate with intelligence agencies worldwide, we will have access to a vast global information network! While SHIELD is willing to listen to our directives now, fully controlling it is clearly impossible! Currently, the real official power within the U.S. still relies on those Congressmen absorbed through Hydra's brainwashing plan, which remains weak..."
She paused, looking directly at Arthur: "We can't truly control SHIELD, but within a limited scope, we can use them as a springboard. By leveraging their current influence, we can establish our own intelligence department, ostensibly for information gathering and global monitoring, while actually overseeing the universe's information hub. Balancing both roles could provide us with first-hand intelligence that would be truly beneficial!"
(End of Chapter)
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