After Harry Osborn left, Stark Tower fell silent.
Tony had originally expected Ben to show up for their meeting tonight. As a genius he recognized, Tony took Ben's reminder seriously.
However, he hadn't expected Harry Osborn to be the one to arrive, and even more surprisingly, Ben had left him a Disk Symbol.
He recognized the symbol, of course.
"Galactic Plumbers..."
"Could Ben Parker have a connection to the Galactic Plumbers?"
Tony pondered, stroking his chin.
He could say that on this Earth, he was the first to know of the Galactic Plumbers' existence, and the first Super Hero to engage with Ben's alien heroes.
Except, the Galactic Plumbers didn't even exist back then.
"Jarvis, disconnect from the external network, then pull up the file, 'Alien'." Tony followed Ben's instructions, cut off the external network, and then opened Jarvis's local files.
"Yes, sir."
Jarvis calmly opened a folder, and virtual images were projected into the air, showing several alien monsters captured from different angles.
First was XLR8, then Heatblast...
Tony's photography skills were quite good; the shot of Heatblast descending from the sky looked incredibly cool.
Besides these two that Tony had seen himself, there were also Four Arms and Diamondhead. These two were from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal data.
Tony had hacked it himself.
Nick Fury, that guy whose heart was darker than his face, had said he would share intelligence with Tony, but behind his back, he'd kept the matter of encountering Four Arms and Diamondhead in New Mexico completely secret.
That Egghead Fury was truly devious!
However, what Tony was concerned about now was the connection between Ben and this alien organization.
Guessing was useless, so he decided to immediately check the USB drive Ben had given him.
After plugging it into the computer, the data was instantly read.
An image appeared.
"Video surveillance?"
Tony was stunned, then his pupils contracted.
The surveillance footage showed the date December 16, 1991. That year, Harry Potter had just started at Hogwarts... No, that was the day his parents were murdered.
A...
premeditated murder!
He saw the masked man coldly strangle Howard Stark, then emotionlessly fire several shots into his mother in the car.
Finally, the killer looked up, facing the camera from a *bird's-eye view*. Those eyes, filled with icy hostility, seemed to look through the machine, through nearly twenty years of time, and meet Tony's gaze at that moment.
The dark muzzle of the gun also aimed at Tony's heart.
Bang!
The screen instantly shattered.
Tony felt as if he'd been shot, his body shaking violently. He leaned on the table, his face pale.
"Sir?"
"I'm fine."
Tony felt his breathing becoming rapid and heavy.
He felt dizzy, as if he'd lost too much blood, his legs weak, and he slumped back into his chair.
At that moment, he didn't care at all about those so-called aliens or what secret objectives that so-called organization might have. He just wanted to find the killer who murdered his parents right now and blow the guy's head off with the Repulsor Ray from his Battle Armor!
"Immediately," he took a deep breath, "Call Ben Parker immediately!"
"Sir, Harry Osborn advised you not to call Mr. Parker at this time." Jarvis did not immediately follow Tony's order but raised an objection.
This made Tony calm down a little.
The key issue was whether S.H.I.E.L.D. could be trusted.
Harry Osborn had specifically told him when he left that Ben was currently with S.H.I.E.L.D., and that he shouldn't call him right away.
This meant that Ben, at least, didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D. that much.
So Tony sat in his chair, his legs shaking with anxiety. After a while, he stood up again and poured himself a new bottle of wine.
Meanwhile, at S.H.I.E.L.D.
Ben and Nick Fury finished their bickering, and then Ben asked to tour the aircraft carrier.
"I've never even been on a cruise ship in my life, I can't believe I'll get to tour an aircraft carrier one day," Ben said. "Can we have a look around?"
"Certainly," Nick agreed readily, but he also added, "However, I must clarify that not all areas are open for tours. Many parts of the carrier are classified."
"Understood."
Ben nodded immediately at this and said, "Just like my company, not every floor is open to the public."
Nick was surprised, finding that Ben had suddenly become much more understanding.
Ben's explanation for this was:
"Come on, I'm already being good. If I hadn't knocked and bypassed all the security systems to sit in your office, would you dare say you wouldn't have all your agents greet me with weapons?"
"Besides, if I really wanted to kill you, I could wring your head off right here."
Nick Fury thought about it and felt it made sense.
Then he remembered Ben's previous mention of wanting to research the Cosmic Cube.
Since he had secretly restarted the Cube and planned to build weapons, the research progress had been very slow. If Ben could join the research team, perhaps some unexpected breakthroughs could be made.
But he just thought about it; he couldn't actually invite Ben to participate in the research.
As an agent, Nick Fury wasn't foolish enough to reveal his entire hand to someone he couldn't fully trust yet.
In his opinion, there were two problems with Ben Parker: one was that he couldn't fully trust him, and the other was that he couldn't fully control him.
Since the Avengers was an alliance, it didn't have much actual binding power.
He wasn't Ben's direct superior, nor could he afford to hire an employee worth hundreds of billions.
"Let Captain show you around. It just so happens that he will also be the leader of the Avengers in the future," Nick Fury said.
He was handing over the matter of Super Heroes to Super Heroes, which suited Ben perfectly.
If there was anyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. that Ben wanted to win over, Steve Rogers would naturally be one of them.
This was exactly what he had told Peter—
A banner!
He was from a righteous background!
Not only that, but Captain America was also a powerful combat unit.
Setting aside the forced "equal footing" attribute, with Thor currently only able to swing a big hammer at construction sites, and the real Hammer of Thor not being in New Mexico, it must have been confiscated by S.H.I.E.L.D.
Winning over Captain America would be equivalent to winning over Thor.
Under the guise of joining the Avengers, Ben worked both sides. He had Harry find Tony Stark, an unofficial member of the Avengers, while he prepared to win over Captain America.
Originally, Peter could have handled this himself, just like Harry was contacting Tony.
However, the problem was that Peter was too naive and innocent. He wasn't even good at lying. If he were left alone in the den of agents, he'd likely be bitten by those vipers until there was nothing left of him.
Nick letting them act alone was exactly what Ben wanted.
But in reality, the situation wasn't as rosy as Ben had imagined.
Although Nick Fury had said he would let Captain America show them around, in reality, no matter where Ben and the others went, they would occasionally run into one or two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
Clearly, they were being monitored.
But Ben couldn't be sure who had sent them to monitor them.
It could be Nick Fury, it could be Hydra, or it could be spies from other organizations.
Many people would be interested in Spider-Man's identity.
Seeing this, Ben had to put away the things he had prepared to show Captain America and instead started a conversation with him about other topics.
"You know, Captain, when I heard Spider-Man tell me you were alive, I thought he was dreaming."
Hearing this, Captain America smiled and said, "Sometimes I feel like I'm dreaming too."
"It's hard to adjust, isn't it?"
"Yeah, the world has changed too fast. Before, my enemies were just some soldiers. Now I have to face all sorts of monsters and robots... And this way of life, you know, the beds they arranged for me are so soft. Sometimes I feel like I'm lying on cotton, sinking into it. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think I'm in the clouds."
Perhaps because Steve knew that Ben and Peter were both quite young, he relaxed his guard a bit and didn't hold back when communicating with them.
"Post-war psychological syndrome?"
"Not really. I feel more like an old man who has stumbled into an era that doesn't belong to him, feeling lost."
Steve chuckled self-deprecatingly.
Ben could relate to this.
It was like Li Hongzhang from the late Qing Dynasty arriving in America and being shocked by the modern city.
An old man from a bygone era, who could barely use a mobile phone, could only record everything new and strange by hand, suddenly thrust into a dazzling city.
"You look very young, Captain. Don't say that. I'm your fan."
Ben said.
Meanwhile, Nick Fury, who was constantly monitoring their conversation, let out a cold laugh and said:
"That's a lie!"
"In the past decade or so, Ben Parker's phone browsing history has only a few entries related to Captain America. However, there have been quite a few searches for America's shapely butt."
After hearing his words, Natasha expressionlessly turned off her communicator, then rolled her eyes and said:
"Boss, sometimes there's a reason why people don't like you."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm doing this for the safety of humanity," Nick Fury immediately replied. "Didn't you hear him trying to get close to Captain?"
"Maybe he just wanted to make small talk. Otherwise, saying 'Old man, I'm not interested in your business at all' directly is a bit rude," Barton chuckled. "Captain will be their leader from now on, so trying to get close is no big deal."
Returning to Ben and Captain America.
Ben could clearly feel that Steve was very lost in this new world.
He was bewildered, and also felt a bit lonely and panicked.
The people he knew were long gone, and this prosperous world might not even need Captain America anymore.
Therefore, when Nick Fury first mentioned that Hydra still had some remnants, besides anger, he even felt a little bit of relief.
It meant he was still useful.
It meant this old body, frozen for seventy years, still had a place to be used.
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