In the end, Leon gave the unfortunate ninja a swift death.
After all, he wasn't a cruel person.
**The Hand.**
That was the name of the organization Leon got out of the red-clad ninja's mouth.
The Hand wasn't just one person, but an organization, and Leon had some vague recollection of it, mostly from his knowledge of Daredevil.
Something about it being formed by traitors from K'un-Lun, who were seeking immortality or something, and were expelled as a result.
This group seemed to always be after things like the "Black Sky" or "Dragon Bones," and they had deep ties with Kingpin...
"Oh! Kingpin!"
Leon snapped out of it. He remembered from watching the Daredevil series that The Hand and Kingpin were involved in drug trafficking and child smuggling!
No wonder...
It looked like he had caused The Hand a lot of damage.
Now that he had a direction, things would be much easier to handle. The only question left was...
Where the hell do the members of The Hand live?!
...
While Leon was pondering The Hand, Tony Stark was in a completely different situation.
After returning home, free from the cave, and back to his original identity, Tony began working on his armor design.
After correcting power miscalculations and solving the freezing issue at high altitudes, the new Mark 3 armor was finally completed!
Wearing the freshly painted red suit, Tony was overjoyed. He immediately went back to the place where he had been kidnapped to conduct a full combat test.
The results of the test left Tony very satisfied.
Tony's bold and open actions brought the armor into the spotlight.
When he returned to his office, Pepper Potts was waiting for him in his workshop.
Pepper was Tony's personal assistant, and in Stark Industries, she held the title of secretary. Compared to the executives of Stark Industries, Pepper's job was more about taking care of the big kid that was Tony Stark.
Ironically, Tony, the CEO of Stark Industries, often knew and cared less about the company than Pepper did as his secretary.
This time, when Tony came back, Pepper noticed something had changed in him, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. He was still indifferent toward the company and still enjoyed tinkering with lasers, gears, and parts in his workshop.
Oh, right!
He even set up a cat bed in his mansion. Yesterday, he was mysteriously asking JARVIS if he knew how to take care of a cat...
As she entered the workshop, Tony was fiddling with his big toy, probably a robot or something—Pepper didn't understand.
"I need you to do me a favor."
As soon as she walked up to him, Tony placed a USB drive in her hand. "There's shady business going on in the company. This is the password to the main control room. I need you to hack into it and pull up all the transaction details…"
Pepper looked at the device in her hand, puzzled. "And then what? What are you planning to do?"
"Same as last time," Tony replied. "Find my weapons and destroy them."
"I can't help you, Tony."
Pepper looked at him. "You'll get yourself killed! I don't want to be a part of this."
She tossed the USB back onto the table and turned to leave.
Tony stood there, watching her walk away. "All these years, you've supported me, even when I was making money by destroying things. Now, when I want to protect something, you're leaving me, aren't you?"
Pepper paused, turning back to look at him. "You're going to die, Tony. You're going to die!"
Slumping into a chair, Tony's voice grew somber. "Maybe I was never meant to live."
He hesitated for a moment. "Unless... there's another reason."
"I only now understand what I'm supposed to do." He looked deeply at Pepper, the only person he could trust. "In my heart, I feel like what I'm doing now is the right thing!"
Pepper looked at him, this man who seemed to have suddenly grown up. Hadn't she been waiting for this moment for years? So why, now that she was seeing it, did she feel...
Relieved? She sighed softly. After all, someone still had to take care of him~
Stepping forward, she picked up the USB and said, "You know, you're all I have too."
...
Pepper entered the control room. Though she was the CEO's assistant and could access any department office, it required Tony's authorization.
But this time, Tony had secretly sent her to do this.
After dismissing the assistant at the office door, Pepper sat in the chair and turned on the computer.
...
Meanwhile, Leon wasn't having as much luck.
Even though he knew a bit about The Hand, it was like being a fan chasing a celebrity. You know a lot of information, but it's still not enough to find them.
The red ninja was just a low-level grunt, someone who simply followed orders without much knowledge of the organization's inner workings. He couldn't get anything valuable out of him.
After checking out the hideout that the red ninja had mentioned, Leon managed to rescue a dozen or so kidnapped children, but the trail went cold after that. The people left behind were more red ninjas of the same rank, unlikely to reveal anything useful, so he decided to send them off to join the others.
Mephisto, no need to be polite!
In the past, Leon had always acted without thinking. This was the first time he had ever rescued hostages, and it left him scrambling.
He knew how to eliminate hostiles, but taking care of hostages...
In the end, he gave Coulson a call. He could've called the police, but he wasn't familiar with them. Coulson, though—he could be trusted!
Good ol' Coulson.
When Coulson answered the phone, his voice was trembling, afraid Leon was going to tell him he'd wiped out another building or something.
Luckily, only seven or eight people had died, and Leon had saved a dozen or so kids, none of whom knew where they were from, when they had been kidnapped, or how to speak English. They were all about four or five years old.
Heh heh heh...
Dumping the mess on S.H.I.E.L.D. If they didn't like it, what could they do? Just ignore the kids?
Leon watched from a lamppost as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Chevy pulled up. With a sense of relief, he left the scene.
He had experienced the same joy as Hawkeye.
Just do your job and let someone else clean up the mess~
Awesome!
As he flew through the air, Leon was quickly reminded of his current dilemma—he had no idea where to find The Hand.
He couldn't just wait for them to come to him; there's no way to guard against thieves forever!
Wandering aimlessly, occasionally coming down to beat up some thugs in alleys, Leon roamed for quite a while before a sudden flash of insight hit him.
"Right! Why do I know about The Hand?"
Because of Daredevil!
I may not know The Hand's intel, but Matt does!
(End of Chapter)