New York, a golden district where every inch of land is precious, is home to the recently completed Stark Industries headquarters.
With its futuristic, upward-spiraling, cool architectural design, a top-floor outdoor platform large enough for fighter jets to land, and the unique "Stark" logo, this building still stands out brilliantly even among the towering skyscrapers of downtown New York.
At this moment, inside the luxurious hall built into the outdoor platform on the top floor of the Stark headquarters.
"How is it here?"
The gentleman in a well-fitted black suit swirled his red wine glass, his hands proudly and unreservedly spread outwards, the faint blue light emanating from the center of his chest shining through his shirt, giving the impression of embracing half the city outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Behind him.
A man wearing a long gray shirt, cargo pants, and Martin boots, with messy, fluffy hair, walked forward, looking extremely out of place in the sophisticated environment.
"How should I put it?" The scruffy man pushed up his glasses, pondered for a moment, and then commented, "It's certainly your style and characteristic."
"In the future, this will also be the headquarters of our alliance," Stark said with a smile.
"Couldn't be better. This immediately elevates our as-yet-unseen alliance by several notches," the scruffy man shrugged, "I don't have money; at most, I can only contribute my strength."
"It's more than just strength," Stark gently shook his head, looking at him sincerely, "Banner, I also need your wisdom and knowledge. With your help, I believe many of my technological concepts and ideas will be realized in the future."
The scruffy man named Banner remained noncommittal. Faced with Stark's praise, which could be considered exaggerated even within the industry, his expression remained surprisingly calm.
Because, in the field of technology, he indeed had the capital for it.
Banner.
Full name, "Robert Bruce Banner." As a world-renowned physicist with seven doctoral degrees, if he hadn't been living under the radar for the past few years, he would be a scientist frequently in the news!
Additionally, he had another unknown identity, which was also the biggest reason he had been hidden from the world for the past few years—the Hulk!
The Abomination that appeared in Washington not long ago was a product he indirectly caused.
"Banner."
Stark was about to say something, but just then, a beeping warning sound came from somewhere on the top floor.
"Jarvis, what happened?" Stark asked with a slight frown.
Immediately, from above a table in the luxurious top-floor hall, hundreds of light rays intertwined in the air, quickly forming a three-dimensional virtual projection image.
The artificial intelligence responded in a gentle and concise male voice: "Sir. Just now, an extraordinary incident occurred in Queens. This is the live footage."
Upon hearing this, Banner also looked curiously at the virtual projection.
"Ah ah ah ah!!"
The video played on the virtual projection began with screams. On a main road next to a bustling modern street, a specially modified muscle car roared and sped at maximum horsepower!
Red light, intersection!
Boom boom boom!
Sparks flew!
The muscle car directly crashed through several vehicles blocking its way, as if in a panic, continuing to accelerate and drive against traffic into the main road on the opposite side!
Just as the muscle car was about to crash into a parked group of cars, the next scene made Stark and Banner's pupils contract violently—
The rapidly moving muscle car suddenly stopped, a shadow like a black cat flashed past, and the next moment, the front of the car suddenly and strangely caved inwards, and then the entire car body split into two and exploded! It was as if it had been forcefully torn apart by some terrifying power!
Then, an even more terrifying scene appeared.
From inside the exploding muscle car, several severed human male remains fell out, scattering in different directions onto the streets around the intersection!
Two of the body parts happened to fall into the stunned crowd standing on the pedestrian street!
Terror and gore descended!
"Ah ah! What jumped out!?"
"Run!!"
Screams erupted again, a black flash darted across the intersection and chased into one of the streets... The virtual projection footage ended here.
"What just happened?"
Stark looked at Banner with a shocked expression, and Banner also shook his head, indicating that he hadn't seen it clearly either.
"Jarvis, rewind the footage," Stark instructed, deep in thought.
"Yes, Sir."
Under the guidance of the artificial intelligence.
In the virtual projection, the previously played footage continuously rewound, all the way back to before the muscle car was destroyed.
"Right here, magnify the footage in front of the car's hood and play it in slow motion," Stark said in a deep voice.
The footage began to play.
Under the slow-motion magnified view, it was clearly visible that a small black shadow of a beast passed through the middle of the parked cars on the road, hitting the front of the muscle car like a cannonball!
"Play frame by frame," Stark said.
At this point, all the footage seemed to freeze. The mysterious object that couldn't be seen at normal playback speed was now revealed.
Banner's eyes widened in shock.
The black shadow was actually a cat!
Yes, it had no fur, like a black cat entirely covered in a layer of smooth, tough black clothing.
The moment the black cat violently crashed into the muscle car, the muscle car, which had been traveling at full speed, stopped its forward momentum. Then, the black cat's body suddenly expanded several times, its limbs swelled with huge and tough sinews and muscles, and a pair of ferocious front claws violently tore the muscle car's body in two!
This was the source of the muscle car's explosion.
The moment it exerted its strength to tear apart the muscle car, the strange and terrifying black monster transformed back into its previous black cat form and chased one of the remains at an extremely high speed.
"What kind of creature is that?" Stark's face grew increasingly solemn, and what scared him even more was—Dr. Banner, standing next to him, suddenly turned pale, breathing somewhat difficultly and twitching slightly!
"Jarvis!" Stark instinctively took a few steps back, entering a specific spot in the luxurious hall.
The artificial intelligence Jarvis quickly understood Master's meaning. A metal lift platform rose from the floor beneath Stark's feet, and as a series of robotic arms and parts operated, pieces of gold and red metal casing were fastened onto his body.
In less than five seconds.
Stark was fully armed and covered by the Iron suit, his chest energy arc reactor and metal eye sockets glowing white like an Iron God.
"Calm down, Banner!" Stark, transformed into Iron Man, raised his hand to comfort the pale-faced Banner.
"I, I'm fine!" Banner clenched his hands into fists, breathing rapidly and shallowly to calm his agitated emotions.
His face alternated between green and white.
Finally, Banner slumped against the table in exasperation, the bulging veins on his neck all receding.
Seeing this, Stark breathed a sigh of relief and arranged, "You stay here and don't move. I'll handle things outside!"
"Wait, Tony!" Banner, somewhat exhausted, leaned on a chair and called out to Stark. He pointed at the black shadow on the virtual screen and said uneasily, "That monster is extremely dangerous! Seeing it is like I'm pulling the trigger of a pistol to my own mouth; my body instinctively reacts, wanting to transform into the Hulk!"