"So, an billionaire, a witch, a prince from Asgard, and a guy who can shrink and grow. Who among them is most likely to be on Air Force One?"
Black Widow looked around at everyone present, picking up where Iron Man left off.
This question made everyone at the scene fall into thought.
Air Force One was known as the "White House in the sky," and aside from the President's staff and specific personnel from relevant departments, no one else could possibly get on.
Looking at the four options, none of them seemed to have any qualifications to be on Air Force One.
"All four options are superheroes, all of whom possess extraordinary strength that far surpasses ordinary people!" Nick Fury said slowly. "The President and the Government would never allow these enhanced individuals to board Air Force One, unless... that superhero has official recognition!"
Everyone agreed; it made perfect sense.
The threat posed by superheroes was simply too great. Unless they were absolutely trusted, there was no way they'd be allowed on the same plane as the President.
"So... of the four options, who's most likely to get official approval?" Captain America pondered for a moment, glancing at Iron Man. "Tony, it seems you're the most officially recognized right now."
Captain America had been catching up on contemporary knowledge lately, and he'd specifically researched Iron Man, as they had answered questions together.
He knew that after Iron Man revealed his superhero identity, the military had held hearings, attempting to seize the Iron Man armor.
But Iron Man had thoroughly humiliated them, and the matter was dropped.
The Government and the military tacitly accepted this situation, allowing Tony Stark to keep the dangerous and powerful weapon that was the Iron Man armor.
"Captain, that's just the current situation, and even that level of recognition isn't enough to get Stark on Air Force One."
"And we don't know if others will receive official recognition in the future," Coulson said, shaking his head in disagreement.
"No, I think it should be me in the future too," Iron Man suddenly interjected. "Have you all forgotten about that… protocol! The protocol that led to the hero Civil War!"
Iron Man's words caused everyone present to react.
They had analyzed it before: that protocol was very likely the Sokovia Accords. Although the specifics were unknown, it was definitely a protocol restricting superheroes.
Furthermore, after signing that protocol, Iron Man began taking orders from military generals!
In another sense, didn't that equate to gaining official recognition?
A deeper form of recognition!
"The only person we can confirm signed that protocol is Stark!" Black Widow stated heavily.
"Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man were on Captain America's side during the Civil War, so they likely didn't sign the Sokovia Accords."
"And Thor... we already ruled him out! Gentlemen, we've figured this out."
"That's only based on the third hypothesis Coulson proposed," Thor interjected. "We haven't analyzed the second one yet."
"What if the four individuals in the options knew in advance about the attack on Air Force One and went to help?"
"In that scenario, who from the options would be the most likely?"
"Thor, it's three people in the options, regardless of the situation, you're out," Iron Man said to Thor, "ruthlessly."
Thor: "..."
He felt an urge to punch Iron Man; what should he do? The scene then fell silent, everyone quickly racking their brains, thinking and analyzing. But no one could come up with any constructive theories or viewpoints.
"If that's really the case, there's just too little information."
"How did the heroes find out about the attack on Air Force One? How did they get there to help? When did they arrive?"
"And how did the armed militants attack Air Force One, and so on and so forth."
"In short, we know nothing about the entire attack. We have absolutely nothing to go on."
After a moment of silence, Nick Fury finally spoke to everyone.
As the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and usually the action commander, Nick Fury was quite adept at analyzing intelligence.
But in Coulson's second scenario, all they knew was that Air Force One was bombed, and they really couldn't figure anything out.
Not just Nick Fury, but everyone else was also at a loss.
"So, we've only analyzed one of the two possibilities Coulson proposed," Iron Man said, stepping forward. "But that's enough!"
For the sake of answering the question, it really was enough.
Even though the other possibility couldn't be analyzed at all, based on the current analysis, the probability of choosing Iron Man was higher.
That was sufficient.
"Now it's my turn to answer, right? I choose C, Iron Man, Tony Stark!" Iron Man then turned towards the big screen and gave his answer.
[Correct Answer!]
[Congratulations to the answerer Tony Stark for receiving a reward: A T-1000 liquid robot.]
[The reward has been issued, please check!]
With the system's prompt, a pool of silvery, viscous liquid immediately appeared in front of Iron Man, looking like someone had poured mercury onto the ground.
"Stark, is this the liquid robot? It's certainly liquid, but is this thing really a robot?" Black Widow asked, looking at the pool of liquid on the ground with some surprise.
Gurgle!
At this moment, Iron Man, with a mischievous thought, gave T-1000 a command, and everyone saw that the metallic liquid on the ground actually moved.
It solidified into a human form and stood up from the ground.
Then, its color surged, and a Black Widow appeared before everyone.
"Yes, Agent," T-1000, in the form of Black Widow, said to Black Widow, even her voice was exactly the same.
"Cool! This thing is amazing, so cool!"
Thor was like a child seeing a new magic trick, shouting in admiration.
Gurgle!
The T-1000's form shifted, transforming from Black Widow into another Thor. It stared at Thor and said, "Hey, action movie protagonist, you want to go one-on-one?"
"Cool, so cool! It's just like Loki's magic!" Thor clapped his hands and laughed. "But... action movie protagonist, what's that?"
(End of this chapter)