Chapter 51: SHIELD's Request for Help
Long Island, New York, was the most renowned region among the world's eight great bay areas—a residence for local wealthy elites and Tony Stark's birthplace.
Friday morning, in a Long Island mansion, Tony Stark sat groggily on an oversized sofa. Without even washing up, he first grabbed a drink, staring blearily at his unexpected visitor.
"Sorry, could you repeat what you just said?"
Tony yawned, then gulped down his drink.
Agent Phil Coulson smiled at this seemingly unreliable guy before him, patiently repeating his earlier words.
"Mr. Stark, I'm—"
"Quick interruption—can you just get to the point?" Stark cut off Coulson's self-introduction.
Coulson maintained his smile.
"The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division your father founded needs a security firewall upgrade. We hope you can provide technical support."
If the Director hadn't ordered Coulson to personally visit this playboy, Coulson wouldn't want any association with this wastrel drowning in wine and women.
But there was no choice—the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division had suffered Batman's brazen network intrusion two nights ago, stealing massive amounts of Tesseract data.
Though the organization was established by multiple nations jointly, that didn't mean everyone inside possessed world-class standards—like network technicians.
They needed someone like Tony Stark at technology's cutting edge to upgrade the organization's network systems, avoiding another incident of Coulson waiting bitterly on a rooftop while Batman infiltrated systems inside the precinct.
"I never handle business matters. You should contact my secretary Pepper, not wake me from sleep." Tony said.
This time Coulson said nothing, still maintaining his smile while silently watching Tony until the playboy grew uncomfortable.
"Give me two days." Tony finally said. He could tell if he didn't agree, this Agent Coulson would probably keep smiling and waiting him out indefinitely.
"This is a one-time security access token SHIELD asked me to give you. After connecting to the server, you can begin your work." Coulson handed over a small chip.
"Your organization finally decided to change its name?" Tony asked without even glancing at the chip.
"The name was too long. I just put together the initials of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." Coulson chuckled.
"Tell your boss when you get back—the name's not bad."
Tony waved Coulson away, escorting him from this Long Island mansion.
Casually holding the one-time token Coulson gave him, Tony had zero intention of personally upgrading their network firewall.
He planned to dump this on Peter. With that guy's technical ability to produce a mature semi-finished AI model, the firewall upgrade should be child's play.
Meanwhile, Peter —currently Batman—was busy at "Parker Industries."
Parker Industries' equipment couldn't manufacture the cape material Batman needed—that required multiple materials mixed through special techniques—but making secondary-grade material worked perfectly.
He was currently making samples. These things just needed to attract potential clients' interest. Future orders for Parker Industries would flow endlessly.
"Mr. Parker, the motorcycle you asked me to purchase has been delivered to the factory entrance."
Emerging from the production workshop, Batman handed dozens of samples to his assistant, then heard this young woman—Alice, just her second day on the job, still somewhat unfamiliar and nervous—speak.
"Mail out these samples. I've already listed the client addresses on the desk in the CEO's office." Batman said.
Every employee remaining at Parker Industries, Batman had verified their identities by hacking New York's police systems. Alice was among them the one who most needed work with the cleanest background.
Batman wouldn't remain at Parker Industries constantly. He needed personnel to execute business operations in his place. Currently, no one at Parker Industries was more suitable than Alice.
Watching Alice jog toward Parker Industries' CEO office, Batman turned toward the entrance.
A Harley-Davidson V-Rod he'd instructed Alice to buy was parked there.
Just the Batmobile wasn't enough. Batman had quickly added the Batcycle to his schedule, planning to modify it when time allowed.
He might not ride this motorcycle around New York revving the engine, but he absolutely wouldn't allow himself to lack a Batmobile alternative.
However, before modifying it, this motorcycle would also serve as Batman's decent transportation. He mounted the vehicle, revving the engine as he headed straight for Oscorp.
Oscorp Tower had been sealed by police following the sublevel three murders and sublevel two human experimentation.
But such a massive multinational corporation's headquarters couldn't remain sealed indefinitely. Currently, besides sublevels one through three plus the underground parking being sealed, the above-ground building sections maintained their former state.
Oscorp Tower totaled sixty floors. From the fifty-third floor up were the Osborn family's private areas.
Actually, during Batman's several investigations, half these private area floors remained unfinished bare spaces. Norman only used the top floor as his office—other floors saw pitifully little use.
The fiftieth floor consisted almost entirely of meeting rooms of various sizes. The largest conference room now sat full of Oscorp's directors.
These included Oscorp executives, Wall Street elites, even a scientist director.
Almost everyone except Norman Osborn had arrived.
As a multinational biotech enterprise, Oscorp needed scientist directors with deep scientific and technical backgrounds—even Norman himself filled that role.
But sitting here now wasn't him, but another guy with graying hair and a somewhat stern expression. The nameplate before his seat read Curtis "Curt" Connors.
He wore a black suit, one sleeve hanging empty—clearly missing an arm.
Beside Connors, Oscorp shareholder Valentin sat somewhat awkwardly in his seat, occasionally glancing toward the conference room entrance.
Besides him, several others similarly kept looking around.
"We received notice that someone has acquired thirty percent controlling interest in Oscorp and issued us an offer to purchase all or part of our shares."
"Valentin, do you know who it is?" Connors asked.
Gulp!
Valentin swallowed without speaking. He still couldn't forget that knife tip pressed against his ear hole, even waking from nightmares these past nights, fearing that blade would pierce through his ear into his brain.
Hearing Connors' words, Valentin couldn't help shuddering.
Creak!
The conference room door opened. Wearing a white suit, leaning on a cane, built so wide he needed to turn sideways to enter—Kingpin slowly walked into the room.
Valentin practically reflexively stood, facing confused looks from board members, steeling himself to approach Kingpin.
"According to company bylaws, we welcome the new major shareholder, Mr. Wilson Fisk, to join the board of directors."